ã€ŠBKR: Bandit King Rebornã€‹


 Chapter 1: After Life Comeséˆ¥?

    Year 31 of the rule of the Bandit King.

    Chapter One: After life Comes¡­?

    Stoning Poison!

    I watched from my knees as my graveborn-son-of-a-slave known as Regus stumble away with my dagger still stuck, hilt deep, in his left lung.

    My dagger, my graveborn, my life.

    Granted, at 57 years old this was one of the better ways to go, however I still was not ready, especially by poison! Despite that though, I knew I was done.

    I had killed enough to know that I was done for, especially once I realized that the poison was well into my blood. Even before I let him chop off my left arm, regardless of my lack of wounds, I was nothing more than a walking corpse. Not that the mana implosion technique that Regus employed had not done its damage. Still, I used some of my ever dwindling mana to creating enough of a flame to flash-burn my stub. It would slow the bleeding, even if I nearly blacked out from the pain.

    Pain though was something I was all too used to.

    Under normal conditions I would have tried my best to accept my loss. I was old and a fighting death would be preferable to old age. However, the poison changed it for me on a personal level. I normally prided myself on my cold, detached, intellect, however right now the best I could do was a cold rage. I wanted my revenge against my killer, I wanted death for this stoning graveborn of a coward. So I ended up sacrificing my left arm to stab him once with my off-hand.

    Regrettably, the lung wound was not fatal. A collapsed lung hurt like¡­ well, like a collapsed lung, but it could be healed given enough time. Which was why I took the liberty of casting my favorite spell, snip, inside Regus¡¯ leg, as I embedded my dagger in his rib cage.

    The young fool did not know the human body well enough to know that the growing numbness in his leg meant that he had just lost a major blood path. Even if he was, repairing such damage was even more difficult than repairing his lung could be. If he somehow survived the next few minutes, there was almost no one good enough to completely repair his blood path, the best of the near-by healers would only be able to tie off the path and risk waiting for a more experienced healer to arrive before the leg  died.

    As Regus finally pulled the dagger out and desperately tried to cast healing magic on his lung I guessed that he would die eight or nine times out of ten if the situation was repeated. Still, that meant that in all probability my graveborn was already being dragged to the god of the underworld. Albeit a slow drag, I would still have to survive a little while longer it seemed. Which gave me just enough time to end the life of yet another one of my children.

    Praise be to Gorith, oh great ruler of the underworld, I will be commending two souls to you soon, one of them your faithful servant.

    I coughed up green blooded foam and finally realized what the brat had poisoned me with. As the blood loss raced with the teclao poison to kill me I found my thoughts wandering. I idly wondered about what would happen to my people after I died and how Regus had managed to slip the poison to me, mostly because the stuff is one of the most bitter substances in the world. It is also very rare and highly prized as it takes almost exactly three alpha days to start to take effect.

    I wonder why the fool did not just kill a servant and let me die from the teclao¡­ Ah! Was it because he thought he could kill me and claim the throne if the poison weakened me? No, wait that did not make sense, teclao works fast once it starts showing itself. Furthermore there was a standing rule that all preexisting abnormalities, including poison, were allowed, albeit frowned upon as a cheap win.

    Cheap wins, while allowed, were often even more dangerous than loses, especially, when you were challenging for something important. In this case, if he managed to win, his kingship would have been challenged almost on the spot, especially with the teclao so obvious from my now green blood.

    Maybe he thought that the poison would only weaken me for the fight? By the ovals, if someone switched his poison or fooled him he might not even know that I was dead going into the arena.

    Someone used him, that idiot!

    Ah, I moved my face to the ground in a sudden urge to give thanks to the earth goddesses.

    Stones I love the earth, it was always willing to help cover you, telling you which way was down, and even helping me cover up the fact that I was almost crying from the pain now surging through my body as the poison ate my innards.

    I picked myself up enough to cough violently into the dirt and someone, most likely a ranger given the distances, saw my green blood, causing a cry of ¡®poison¡¯ to go up and getting my people¡¯s full attention.

    My people, my family, my kingdom...

    Some ran around trying to get into the cage that the fight was taking place in to help, but it was too late. It was also against the rules, I thought with a smile, maybe I was a better king than I thought? No, they were just loyal.

    I forced myself up as best I could and concentrated. I knew how wrong this fight was and I was determined to pass on one last thing before I died. After all, I was still king until I actually lost the fight.

    Focusing my relatively tiny amount of mana into my voice ¨C wishing, as I had since I was born, that I had been blessed with more mana ¨C I tried to speak what would likely be my last words with as much strength as I could, however it came out broken anyway.

    ¡°Combat¡­ invalid. Osiris succeeds.¡± I coughed out, my mana making my words clear and loud enough that they were heard even above the ruckus.

    As the crowd, including those who had run to help stopped moving, shocked, according to the rules, my rules, once combat was entered all methods were allowed, with the exception outside help.  I almost laughed despite the pain. I could still shock and surprise them after all these years?

    Regus, of course, had no intentions of letting this last command of mine stand. He probably thought that he could prove himself worthy for once in his life... I never did figured out who he was trying to prove himself to, but that brat definitely had problems.

    I sighed inwardly, my anger dropping back into the back of my head, replacing it with cold logic as I tried to figure out how to kill him.

    -I could try and take another wound (little chance I would survive it though)

    -If I talked to him I could try and trick him (given his state of mind though... no, just no.)

    -Theatrics? After growing up in the dirt of society, begging was easy (again, with his state of mind that was not likely)

    -Maybe if I countered-

    Screaming, Regus rushed at me with his sword raised, only to have his leg give out and fall in front of me, the point of his blade barely a hand¡¯s length from my leg.

    Casually, I quickly grabbed his blade with my only remaining hand and pulled it out of his grasp before throwing it behind me. I loved theatrics for tricking the enemy, but sometimes there was just no need... Or was there?

    Regus looked up at me and pulled himself over with a look of fury that could only be compared to the Alpha, the older, larger, of the two light givers in the heavens.

    He could see weakness, he could see the man who had ripped his mother away from her soft and decadent noble surroundings and impregnated her. He could see a chance to prove himself (again, however, the who was lost on me) and stumbling almost upright for a moment he pulled out a dagger to do just that.

    Then he saw my blood. Green blood was something that even this fool, especially this fool, with his healing talent, recognized. The shock overcame even his rage for a moment and Regus forgot himself, letting his legs give out again he fell next to me, his dagger falling into the ground next to us as he tried to steady himself.

    I knew that he was conflicted so I took advantage of the situation without a second thought.

    There could be no confusion, Osiris must succeed without challenge. So I reached forward, slowly, so very slowly, with my only remaining hand to touch my son¡¯s cheek. A sad and painful expression on my face, combined with my rapidly paling complexion, must have given the impression of a ghost, reaching out in regret. An outsider would have called it a touching moment, one that Regus should have known not to believe.

    The touch is sacred between mages because of our power and it was a sign of how shocked he was that he did not stop me before it was too late. Just before actually making contact with him, he realized what I was doing and tried to jerk away, but I leaned forward enough that my finger tip brushed his throat, my touch making his magic armor irrelevant.

    I cast the snip spell twice.

    The first time severed the soft area between his neck bones to paralyze him. The second one, severed the major blood path in his neck, making sure that he would die before healing his neck. Self-healing mages were always troublesome in that way.

    Regus collapsed into the dirt beside me as he tried to save himself with his mana, I watched dispassionately as he fell, dying even more quickly than I was. "Fool." I grunted. I always told the others, my brats included, to keep their heads. Almost all who came here were bandits or outlaws in one form or another, there was no need for pride or dignity in our tactics, only survival mattered.

    Still, my blood in particular seemed to have trouble with the idea. I had lost almost a dozen sons in challenges, I was honestly surprised that they kept trying, but when you had over a hundred children that sort of thing was bound to happen¡­ or at least that was what my advisors told me.

    I sighed pulling myself back from Regus and reflected on my fate. I was finally going to die. I felt... unfinished. My book was not complete, the self-righteous mercenaries were said to be preparing for another assassination attempt, and I had about a dozen minor problems to mediate...

    I, the feared Bandit King of the Gods¡¯ Spearpoint, had taken up the usual single combat challenge for control and had been betrayed, again. However, this time I was not going to survive.

    As I felt my life leaving me I realized that for the first time I might not feel the Guilt because of a murder. Sleep sounded good and I had become really tired after using most of my tiny store of mana so, despite all the yelling from those around me, I lazily closed my eyes on my adopted people finally managed to open the cage and start rushed towards me and, for the last time, I felt the pain start to disappear.

    In spite of it all I felt relaxed and a bit amused as I died, I caused so much pain and yet there were people crying my name. As my body came apart and became nothingness, my mind slowly dissipating, I wondered what Oval Gorith would send me to, probably a harsh one, no one outside this place would morn for me... well, stone them all.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    Then I felt pain.

    *Shock*

    @#&$! I blurted incoherently.  I was going to rip the arrogant graveborn who cast that sell a new relief hole! I looked around and tried to see where I was.

    There was nothing.

    For the record I did not meant just darkness, I meant nothingness. There were no stars, no distant lights, the direction I decided to label as up was no brighter or darker than the direction I labeled as down¡­ In fact, my labeling of directions was fairly arbitrary as I was not standing on anything as there was no tug which would make me fall in any particular direction.

    Laughter came out of the nothingness from a fair distance away. I noted with alarm that I could not tell the distance, a talent that I was somewhat a specialist at after living in the mountains for so long. I tried to use my mana, but could not reach it. My mana was gone, which could only mean... I was dead.

    ¡°You call him an ¡®arrogant graveborn¡¯ young one? You presume that you can fight gods?¡± The voice was high and feminine, but in a way that screamed ¡®trap!¡¯ That thought preceded a giggle from the same source.

    Okay, a mind reading trap, I noted. Come to think of it what happened next? The priests always told me that I would be brought before a judge with no eyes who would see, weigh, and determine what my life''s actions deserved. They were supposed to determine what Oval I was sent to... So my judge was a trap?

    I did not get to hear the mind reader¡¯s response as another *Shock* hit me.

    This time I refrained from cursing, but I did bite my lip to keep from crying out because of the pain.

    My battle sense surged and I tried in vain to get a better idea on what was happening and where I was, as random shock spells were definitely not said to be part of being Judged.

    ¡°Ah. He is still manifesting himself in an organic form! He cannot hear or see anyone who is not directly aiming their thoughts at him, or broadcasting them like I am.¡± A helpful voice chimed in.

    ¡°Ah, good catch Leo, I suppose the last shock was unnecessary than. However if he cannot see us it will work out better in my opinion.¡± Another new voice, this one seeming directly in front of me, despite his lack of physical presence, announced itself. The voice had a booming quality that reminded me of quite a few nominally talented and very haughty nobles I had met before. Usually before I killed them and took their wives and daughters for myself¡­ probably not the best time to reflect on those memories though.

    Wait a second, that mind reader from before spoke just fine.

    There was also a multitude of voices who now sounded off in both agreement and disagreement with his comment.

    The chorus of noise was especially surprising to me since there was still nothing around me.

    ¡°Well now, down to business then?¡± The booming voice asked to what must have been the general audience, as my opinion really did not seem to matter at the moment. The voices quieted. ¡°Mortal soul, you disturbed our Game in your world, a grave, if impressive, sin. Indeed your bandit kingdom, which should not exist, will turn into the center of one of the most sprawling and successful empires of your world¡¯s history as a center for commerce, scientific, and militaristic leadership.¡± The voice announced this with what sounded like a mixture of respect and annoyance. While I just blinked in surprise.

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.Honestly, I figured that they would implode my little ¡®kingdom¡¯ within the next generation. I mostly left Osiris in charge to try and keep them from killing each other for a few more years, more in hope, than expectation.

    Ignoring my internal pondering, the voice continued to speak. ¡°Normally we would not care in the slightest about what actions you took during your life; however after you completely upset the Game in such a spectacular way we felt that we had to do something.¡± I decided that the voice was a he at this point and he continued to elaborate. ¡°Explaining in a way that you would understand, we are gods who live between worlds and travel between them, playing the Game. Usually by selecting our players and then giving them various advantages while throwing challenges and curses at other players until one alliance declares victory or until only one player, be they human or otherwise, remains alive.¡±

    He paused at this point and did not speak further so I guessed that he was fielding complaints and comments from the other gods who were clearly more like the nobles of my past experiences than anything else that I could compare them to¡­ although if all gods could be like this and I would be none the wiser. Suddenly I felt a chill, if this game of theirs was more to resolve conflicts and form alliances, without actually going for blood, than would my upsetting this game lead to a god war?

    Oh. Not good¡­ wait, if I am already dead, why would I care?

    ¡°¡­Anyway.¡± The voice began again. ¡°We were at an impasse as to what to do with you when you died, particularly since you would not die when one of us tried to arrange it. So we have decided to use this opportunity to restart the Game in a new world. Of course you must wonder what this has to do with you.¡±

    So these gods had tried and failed to kill me before? I held up my hands at this point (probably a pointless gesture, but I tried anyway) and tried to politely interrupt, however the voice ignored my attempts to insert a question and continued on regardless, confirming that my both my opinion and gesture did not matter. In fact, I was starting to wonder if this was not all just a formality of some sort for them.

    Regardless, it seemed that one did not simply interrupt a god¡­ or did they?

    ¡°We have decided to use you as a new addition to the Game, an unaligned player that all of us can bless or curse as we will, albeit more indirectly than in our usual Game. The Game will begin around the time you would turn seventeen in your new life and continue until the Game has a winner. Now mortal, any questions?¡± The voice finished his monologue with a grand flourish that had me picturing a grand duke delivering his crowning political compromise and personal triumph¡­ Something I could almost pity him for.

    Regardless, I gathered my thoughts as quickly as I could and tried to organize them. The idea of being reborn was nice, however, I somehow doubted that I would get an option to refuse anyway. ¡°Yes, many, starting with how I managed to interrupt the ¡®game¡¯ of beings that are powerful enough that they can travel between worlds at will.¡± If my opinion did not matter there was no point being polite, especially as it was not my strongest skill in any case. I also tried to both speak normally and broadcast my question, hopefully somewhat like what Leo described. He did make it sound like I should be able to do that already and that I was still using my more familiar methods of communication.

    There was no answer for a moment before the voice came back sounding strained and much more annoyed than before. ¡°Keep your voice down human, you are broadcasting your normal thoughts just fine, haughty duke indeed,¡± the voice seemed to snort. ¡°You cannot even understand our shorter names, much less our identities. Now, to answer your question it would go into the rules of the Game, which you are not worthy of knowing, but you may know the short version: You were blessed by your Gorith and rejected as a stillborn to counter our influence in your world. It was so subtle and unexpected that we did not notice until you faced the Arrician army and we realized that we could not manipulate you in any way, which was the most direct result of Gorith¡¯s blessing. A fine Game move, even if it was extremely annoying.¡± The voice declared.

    Chewing that over, I reflected that Gorith, god of the world of death and everything else underground, had always been my patron god and the one I offered thanks to, even if he was said not to play favorites when you went to the inner ovals of the realm of the dead. I wondered if his ¡®blessing¡¯ had anything to do with that.

    Even if it did not though I still had to deal with these gods and the fact that I was clearly not going to be sent to Gorith''s realm.

    This time I did not broadcast my thoughts and tried to just announce my question in my head.

    How exactly did you try to manipulate us? I asked.

    ¡°Much better, you are a fast learner.¡± The voiced approved heartily to my broadcasting method of questioning. ¡°Once again as you are not worthy of the actual Game rules, even if you could understand them, so I will attempt to interpret this issue for you. We view your lifespan as so tiny and insignificant that we can let our minds wonder and find you and your grandchildren dead of old age. To counter this we usually set up events years and even decades or centuries ahead to try and win. We try and make sure that individuals or groups are feeling irritated, calm, or content at certain times while other events happen around them. Be it by weather, gambling, sex or any number of other factors, we can change people and the factors around them to our whims."

    Unless they are bless by a god I take it?

    "Even then, mortal, we can manipulate them to an extent. We just have to stick to the certain rules. Which, incidentally, is why you are being allowed any explanation at all. You, mortal, were not supposed to gain any sort of power over the Jaws of Coret area, however after you managed to be random enough that things like the red ant storm a few of your decades ago, which was supposed to keep your bandits out of the hills for a while, ended up useless. Our possible interference was limited when at the time so you caused a larger and larger rift between what we expected and what happened.

    ¡°In summary, you were so annoyingly different and abnormal, especially compared to any of the other bandits, at precisely the correct time and place to throw off everything else.¡± He elaborated in annoyance. "From your point of view it was like badly weighted dice were suddenly mixed into our dice cups and we only found out near the end of the game."

    Interesting. I thought. So gods can be fooled.

    ¡°We can only be misled by what we do not see child,  so be careful of such thoughts, for we see you now.¡± The voice growled.

    I tried to direct my thoughts onto a less dangerous path and left how to blind gods for another day. Still, what this god had said got me curious about one thing in particular. What else did we, as humans, not know when alive? Some people said that all gods were omnipotent and they were clearly wrong. Specifically, what was supposed to happen to me after I died? Did the soul really gain weight for each sin committed?  Redirecting my attention outwards I waited for the answer of the gods.

    The voice responded blandly, as if disappointed by my question. ¡°There is no such thing as a natural good or evil. Even nature¡¯s ¡®balance¡¯ is subjective to the area that you are speaking of. Similarly, the standards of good and evil are completely subjective to history, society, and the god you give your soul to after you die. For each god, for each world, and for each individual at a particular time period in history there is a different standard. Depending on the place and time both the gods and the individual¡¯s ideals determine if someone is good or evil. Slavery, for example, is considered evil in many worlds after a certain point in cultural growth. Still, it originates on most worlds as a simple choice: ¡®die here or live in my service,¡¯ if not so politely phrased, and evolves from there. Does that make them ¡®evil''?

    ¡°Regardless, you literally built a nation out of a bandit camp, there was no way to do that without being labeled ''evil'' by the standards of others in the short period that you could live your life.¡± He explained all of this while sounding rather dismissive. ¡°If you feel guilty it could also affect what response you would normally find after death. So find a god to take your soul and they will explain what happens afterwards.¡±

    The voice sharpened a little as he came back to a subject that seemed more important to him. ¡°Not, that is should be noted, that we either approved or disapproved. The greatest arrogance of you mortals is to think that everything can be neatly divided up into abstract groups like good or evil. If you kill ten thousand children and rape your way into half the world¡¯s heritage, it makes no difference to us or to your world. Good and evil are artificial constructs. Your gods might care, your society might care, you might even care, but we do not.¡±

    By the time the voice finished speaking I felt fully aware for the first time since I died and was able to start really understanding just how different these voices were from humans. Even without the Guilt that plagued me I would I knew what I was doing was ¡®wrong¡¯ by almost every standard that existed. I did what I needed to in order to survive and thrive in my own way. Granted there were periods when I got carried away and became arrogant, however it was never to the extent that I simply dismissed the pain and suffering that I caused so many.

    As a result, it came as a surprise, even to me, to hear such cold, detached, and almost impressed attitude of these foreign gods about what they thought of my selfish, sometimes cruel, actions as irrelevant to them. Which brought up the subject of what and how other gods thought.

    The quiet stretched as I took in what the voice had said up till this point. Although I had not asked directly I was more than sure that these gods were only even talking to me out of a sense of bureaucratic sportsmanship, otherwise they simply would have reincarnated me without warning and let me play their game just by surviving.

    Apparently my silence pensiveness meant that the question and answer period of our conversation was at an end.

    ¡°Well then Leo it seems that it is finally time to begin.¡± The voice said cheerfully.

    The bookish voice from before reappeared. ¡°I will-

    A thought jumped to the front of my head.

    What did you mean ¡®give my soul¡¯ to a god after death? Why should I have to give my soul to anyone if I have a choice? I broadcast.

    ¡°Shouting again.¡± The voice noted. ¡°How disappointing, I had thought that you had gotten over that. Now, you will be reincarnated by Leo so do remember that killing yourself or dying too early will not leave you in friendly hands afterwards. Now then, goodbye.¡±

    The next thing I knew, it felt like I was being swept far away by a rapid moving current of strange energy.

    I shouted and struggled, still having far too many unanswered questions, but then I remembered, I never mattered to begin with.

    Stoning gods!

    * * *

    In the Public Game Room between dimensions:

    Leonardo sensed the former Bandit King¡¯s anger and felt a flash of guilt, even as he knew that this was a second chance for the human. The Game that he had set up was going to be one of the most dangerous and complex ever with hundreds of problems coming to a boiling point all at once. Now he was also supposed to watch over a reincarnated human? There would be no way to both monitor the whole Game for rule violators and keep part of his mind on this human.

    Despite what they might have said, the truth was that no one looked forward to the human surviving for very long once the Game Play actually began. He would be alone, fighting off others who were blessed beyond any abilities the mortal could possibly be reborn with.

    That was not even considering what happened the last time they had reincarnated anyone. Remus died before he knew the real reason behind his brother¡¯s betrayal.

    Regardless, Leonardo was proud of his Game set up and looked forward to the start. However, his status as an officially neutral party obligated him to keep an eye on anything that could hurt the balance of the Game too much before Game Start. Now there was a new element to balance along with everything else. Not that he would end up as the human¡¯s backer, but he would be the one responsible for making sure that the Bandit King at least had a chance to win.

    The Bandit King would not win of course, but he was owed at least the opportunity to dream.

    As the existence, known to many energy and matter based being simply as Leo, allowed himself a moment of mixed pride and concern he took note of the plays some of the Backers were making, now that the official set up had begun.

    One official player, one formal backer, one endless Game, The Game.

    Or that was the way it used to be...

    For the next two decades before the Game began in earnest they would make plays that would begin to affect the chosen world. Despite the occasional flood these were usually small changes as their deal of neutrality with the resident gods would not allow too many meteor strikes, mass revolts, and nation toppling earthquakes.

    The others would also notice more obvious moves and move to counter them. The number of different possible moves and schemes was how the Game kept Leo¡¯s people, these energy based gods, preoccupied in eternity.

    ¡®More complicated than 7 dimensional Kogu¡¯ Leo thought proudly to himself.

    Then, some of the others formed a conclave, individuals who agreed with the proposed play rapidly loaned their energy as a sign of interest and approval to the new change to the Game.

    ¡­Leonardo immediately began processing the possibilities and did not like them at all. Gathering himself and his energies he broadcast a message to the others. While he could not actually stop the play with it having this much support he could use his position to modify the scenario.

    If he did a good job, everyone would be slightly annoyed and very intrigued.

    Of course, that would leave the former ¡®Bandit King¡¯ as a female, but that could be dealt with later¡­

    Maybe.

 Chapter 2: Plans, Memories, and Rules

    Cycle 3069 AF (After Freedom)

    Chapter Two: Plans, Memories, and Rules

    Honey-foot gods...

    When I finally stopped it felt like it had been an eternity since the conversation and I was just hoping that I would finally be able to do something besides studying the energy moving me to such a faraway place.

    Although that was fascinating in a variety of ways¡­

    Trying to look around, I wondered what the squeezing sensation I felt just before stopping was. It felt like I was being forced into some small hole in a wall and was very uncomfortable. It was quite warm too, not too warm, but warm in a comforting way. There was also a definitive sense of which way was down. Then an annoying thump that shook my entire body.

    ¡­Wait. Was that a heartbeat?!

    As a former, albeit self-appointed, general and infamous ¡®bandit king¡¯ there were many things that I could handle, even finding out that I had been poisoned was not something that could shake me up for more than a moment. This however, was so far beyond anything that should be experienced by any grown man.

    No¡­ No! NoNoNo. NO!

    I became increasingly alarmed, even as I tried to calm myself the thought that I had heard a heart was firmly lodged in my head.

    There is no way I am hearing my mother¡¯s heartbeat as an unborn baby right now!!!

    ¡°Of course you are not. Do not be silly.¡± A confused, and slightly familiar, bookish voice drifted out to me in the¡­ void.

    It is a void, not a womb!

    Also: more stoning voices! Still disembodied voices at that! I hate not knowing what is happening!

    ¡°Ah, I am sorry about that.¡± Someone clapped and suddenly light filled the room that I was sitting in¡­ And I was sitting also sitting in a real chair, clothed! How did I manage not to notice that? The room was rather strange, the walls were perfectly flat and a strange butternut color, lit by glowing orbs on the ceiling. Oddly, I was having trouble focusing on them.

    As my toes sank into the room covering rug I noted that clothes did not include boots apparently.

    ¡°It is called a carpet.¡± The new voice interrupted my thoughts again and I looked up from the ¡®carpet¡¯ to find a desk and a scholar of some type had appeared out of nowhere. The desk looked like a basic hardwood desk, but it was intricately carved to a shocking degree. The man himself was unremarkable; with dark green eyes, a bookish nose, and an otherwise extremely plain face that would have passed unnoticed in almost any country you cared to mention.

    ¡°Really now, you were surprised more by the carpet and a lack of boots than the light bulbs?¡± The figure gestured and a pair of standard soldier¡¯s boots appeared at my feet.

    ¡­ Oh, were those the glowing things on the ceiling? They worked better than candles, but magic light orbs were not that uncommon back in my kingdom so I did not pay much attention them. I grabbed the boots and pulled them on almost without thinking.

    Suddenly the room became incredibly clear, as if I could not really see it before. In fact it was only now that I noticed a few very full bookcases on either side of the strange man.

    ¡°The carpet has an enchantment to help me moderate what you can notice. I apologize for not disabling it completely, but some of these books are best left where they are.¡± The man stated, studying me for a moment before he¡­ attempted to smile. The expression looked like it needed to be dusted off and practiced some more. Very quickly he seemed to adjust and smile more naturally as he introduced himself as Leo.

    Quietly I nodded and listened, still not eager to tick off anyone until I knew more information. Of course this bit of conversation told me two important things already. First, this Leo was apparently associated with the group of thought reading gods from before, he might even be the same Leo who got them to stop shocking me. Second, based off his actions and the fact that he actually appeared in front of me in a form I could see, I could safely guess that he was more familiar to directly interacting with humans.

    At least I somewhat knew what was going on now, my official ''mortal you will obey'' command had been given and now the quieter, closed door discussion was going to occur. To compare it to negotiations with kings back in my lands, they would act imperial and unbending in front of others and bend more quietly when separated. Although I doubted how much a god, or even a godly agent, would bend. Between that metaphor and the boots though I finally managed to really calm down and control myself. This I could at least attempt to deal with.

    If this Leo was more human than his kin I could also risk talking more plainly than I had with them. Gods could be dangerous, especially if angered, but this one seemed different.

    When Leo did not comment I went ahead and spoke out loud, figuring that was the only thing I could really do in this situation. ¡°So what are you exactly and where are we?¡± Pausing I heard something odd, it was an incredibly loud ¡®bum¡¯ sound that seemed to shake the very room and I added ¡°and what was that sound?¡± I paused as Leo seemed to consider my question and I could not help, but remember what questions had gotten me from our last little chat.

    Leo smiled wider than before as he explained. ¡°We are energy beings that formed as what you would call gods. You may call us the Nalks. The problem, you see, was that our home worlds, and the rest of the worlds near us, were destroyed by accident.¡± I tried very hard not to think about a multiple world destroying ¡®accident¡¯ that would cause energy gods to start world hopping. ¡°Anyway, we were stuck in the void between worlds and got very bored while we tried to locate a new home.

    ¡°As it turns out, the gods of most worlds only wanted us as temporary visitors at best or to eat us at worse. So we developed the Game to keep ourselves occupied and entertained during our wanderings, especially after we discovered how to feed off of entropy, but that is a different story entirely. So we set up the rules, arrived on a planet, played the Game, and left, usually in peace.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± I took a chance and interrupted Leo¡¯s story. ¡°How did you avoid problems with the local gods like Gorith?¡± I was curious about how Leo would react as well as honestly curious about how they did it. I was especially curious after that reference to gods eating each other as food.

    ¡°Ah well¡­¡± Leo, too my surprise, looked a bit troubled and even a bit embarrassed for a moment. ¡°We decided that while we could never manage to get along well enough to wage a full scale war on another world¡¯s gods, nor would we want the casualties, we could make deals with them. The local gods could not know that we were as fractured, as a group, to the extent that we still are now. So, the first version of the current Game was played with the local gods ignoring us until we had finished before cleaning up our mess.¡± Leo shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ¡°The first games were especially messy too, which led a few groups of gods to interrupt or interfere in the Game.¡±

    ¡°Can you blame them?¡± I could not help the sarcastic jab as I listened to a god admitting to wondering through entire worlds, pushing around the very powerful locals, before making a mess of things and leaving.

    Leo apparently understood exactly what I meant, although if that was because of his understanding of human logic or because he was still reading my mind I was unsure. Regardless, he bowed his head briefly before continuing.

    ¡°It was precisely because of those events that the first Architect and the Builders appeared. The Architects specialized in locating and preparing a world for the Game to take place while the Builders just constructed whole worlds from scratch.¡±

    I noted that it sounded like there was a hint of pride in his voice when he spoke of the Architects, but not the builders. I quietly wondered if he was faking it or if the Nalks were more understandable than I originally thought. I also wondered about why the Nalks had gone wandering before their Game was formalized when they could just build a new world.

    ¡°It took too much time, effort, and energy. Especially for intelligent life.¡± Leo explained quickly ¡°Given that energy is literally food for us it was almost too much to ask. Anyway, as a result of different preferences most of us went to help find new worlds and shift the Game between various appropriate worlds with differing levels of development and even different universal laws. Thankfully though we have moved away from some of the longer Games, which would last centuries, or even millenniums, on worlds with weak or nonexistent gods.¡±

    I nodded, it made sense that the games of immortals would be limited by how long they could stay on the world they were ¡®playing¡¯ on. Although I had no idea why different worlds would have different ''universal laws'' ¡°So, are you one of these Builders? Or are you an Architect? In fact, why did you not only assume human form, but also seem to be the only one of your kind that has a name?¡± It was a bit of a stretch, however the surprised look on Leo¡¯s face told me that I had not only guessed correctly, but also confirmed for me the fact that Leo had been in human form a lot more than that Duke like god who spoke before.

    Leo blinked and then made a (normal/human) smile and spoke with pride. ¡°I am an Architect and as such I am one of the few charged with finding worlds both good for a round of the Game as well as adding special rules when appropriate. In my travels I have to change myself into human frequently to try to understand and predict human reactions in order to help set up the Game. This is also the reason that I have a name in human tongue in addition to my true name.¡± Leo paused a beat before continuing in a more serious voice. ¡°My human name is Leonardo however the short-name ¡®Leo¡¯ was much simpler so the others adopted it far more quickly than they would have usually.

    ¡°Our true names are complete sensations describing us, rather like very detailed pictures or other pieces of art. If you projected that piece of artwork as a memory, complete with sounds and smells, directly onto someone¡¯s brain. For example the one you first labeled ¡®mind reader¡¯ has a name like this.¡± Leo gestured to the wall where a large box appeared on the wall before suddenly becoming a painting.

    The painting had a group of monkeys wearing many different odd, and very colorful, helmets of some sort (¡°hats¡± Leo provided) all gathered in different trees watching a variety of animals below as they fought, frolicked, and¡­ was that a bear drinking mead with some sort of lion-goat hybrid?

    ¡°True names also change gradually¡± Leo added as I turned back to look at him. ¡°I chose a basic human name because humans cannot transmit an accurate descriptor like that ''computer image'' ¨C  Do not ask about computers, it would take too long to explain ¨C That image though is only about one tenth of full her full name, not including sounds, smells, or tastes. Also, do not ask about how we taste names, I cannot explain it to you in human terms. Regardless, you humans gain false names, nicknames, given names, and finally true names. Almost all of which seem to change with the seasons for most of your lives.¡± Leo snorted, ¡°most of you humans do not even know what your true name is, which results in the oddity of blood magic.

    ¡°Which reminds me, I never answered your question about the sound. That beating is a unique object that I found and is basically a giant heart. You can only hear it here, but you can see it later, when you go outside.¡±

    I blinked. So it really was a heart I heard before? I could still hear it if I concentrated, how big was that thing!? Leo also said that I could only hear it here?

    Leo nodded and added that he used it to tell time, which cued a loud ¡®-bump¡¯ before he moved on. ¡°Which brings us to your situation and how we can give you a second chance at life.¡±

    "So, just to clarify, I am still dead then?" I still did not have the ability to manipulate - or even feel - mana, so I assumed I was.

    "Yes, technically you are currently a spirit, which means you cannot manipulate mana." Leo grimaced and continued "I cannot explain the exact reasons why, but you humans need a body to manipulate mana. My people are partly made of mana and can create bodies if we need to, but we always have the ability to control mana from the moment we are spawned. Humans have to use their physical bodies to channel mana into their spirit." He smirked before adding "It always seems to astonish the ghosts as they face the results of the actions they took in their lives. Although I seem to be off topic, so let me explain how this will work..."

    I leaned forward as Leo was talking, listening even more intently than before and concentrating on memorizing the information I was being giving me instead of analyzing it.

    Leo also took the time to start explaining about something he called the Gwainian Circle. This circle was basically a system of categorizing different worlds based on the rules that govern them. There were four main points on the circle located where the cardinal directions would be on a compass, placing math at the northern most position, followed by logic in east, magic in the south, and chaos to the west.

    As most worlds in the chaos half of the circle were dangerous and unpredictable, even to gods, the Game rounds were located almost always located in the logical half of the circle. Leo also explained how, in chaos worlds, anything could happen, you could even be reborn as a baby squid one day and become a water god the next. The day after that you could become a gnat and die from a random micro black hole. (Leo just shook his head when I looked at him wondering how a hole of any type could kill a flying creature.)

    In addition, since worlds with little to no magic could (somehow) starve his people to death, the Nalks tended to stay in world with more magic as opposed to math. Apparently, in these latter world, you could solve equations or measure things perfectly to grain a variety of powers.

    All of that explained, Leo also emphasized two things in particular about the circle. First, he explained that the circle was actually a sphere with near infinite dimensions and facets. However, since I still had to have words such as ¡®infinite,¡¯ ¡®dimension,¡¯ and ¡®facet¡¯ defined for me Leo decided to give me the scaled down version of a circle. The second thing was a small tirade about how he did not come up with the circle/sphere and did not want anyone complaining about him taking someone else¡¯s idea. I noticed that this part did not seem to be directly aimed at me and Leo seemed to be lecturing the air in general.

    After he finished I decided to ignore whatever had caused Leo¡¯s reaction and asked how the circle affected my being reborn Leo seemed to swell up until he almost burst with pride.

    Since the world the newest Game was fairly typical of the Nalks¡¯ Game worlds, it had a strong tendency towards logic and magic. Which while it would make it fairly easy for me to adapt, as it would be like my old world, it would also make it hard to reincarnate with my memories intact.

    Leo tried to explain all of the specifics behind what he would be doing, however after multiple requests to explain the words that he used to explain the basic concepts behind what he planned on doing we were both struggling.

    I summarized it as following: My spirit, whose bare form I was currently in, could record my new memories and help me keep my old ones until I had a new body. When I obtained a new body my spirit would automatically try and fit the memories into my new brain. This was a fairly regular occurrence on some worlds, but there was a problem with the developing brain. While it was actually simple for Leo to place me into a new body I would lose all of my memories and not know that I needed to play the Game (knowledge that the Nalks wanted me to keep to¡­ encourage me to more actively play their ¡®Game¡¯). In the end, my new world simply did not have enough chaos in it to try and allow for reincarnation with memories, even with magic, as it simply defied what a newborn¡¯s brain could handle. Even if my child form could remember some it, the developing brain would promptly rewrite the memories as it grew.

    When I asked about other ways Leo just shook his head. Reincarnating into an adult body was out because the brain needed to have something called ¡®neural pathways¡¯ already in place as a result of growing up. That was not even going into languages, regional dialects, religious norms, local market values, and ethical values that would be common knowledge to everyone except me. The only other practical solution was to place my spirit, or my memories at the minimum, into a vessel of some sort and then send it through into the new world. This however would cause literally dozens of problems from where it (my conscious) landed to who picked it (me!) up.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Such problems were one of the reasons the Nalks did not try to reuse their players across multiple Games.

    Therefore the solution was for me to exist in two places at once. Specifically, my consciousness would stay with my spirit in a different universe than my body and slowly fuse with it over time. As a result I would gain nominal conscious control of my body when it was seven years old, majority control by age ten or so, and would totally merge by twenty five. All while keeping my memories intact.

    Of course this meant that my body would have only a slight knowledge of my presence and memories as it aged. At age seven, from my point of view, I would gain a lot of control over my body and would gain even more control as time went on, with my pre-age-seven relation with my body completely reversed by age sixteen with total fusion coming shortly thereafter.

    It was as good a plan as any available¡­ well, technically, it was the only plan. In fact, Leo made it very clear that this was the only real option by describing to me just what could go wrong otherwise. I was not comfortable with having to give up control of my body for years, but it would beat having to relearn things like language and how to use the chamber pot. Not to mention the ability to keep my memories.

    As Leo started talking about what I would be doing until I was reborn I realized something important.

    I could remember everything.

    Not just from the conversation, every single stoning moment of my life, death, and my current afterlife.

    I remembered it all perfectly.

    I remembered that after the blurs of my early life I was abandoned in the gutters. I remembered growing up without anyone else, distrusted by almost all the city gangs for being a literal graveborn, I ended up living in memory-yards, gutters, sewers, and other places that made my skin crawl remembering them. I remembered killing my first person when I was eight for a few copper coins. I remembered the result of that first kill and what it did to me. I remembered fleeing that city at age eleven to avoid a noble whose fancy I aroused. I remembered the old man, Thane, who fed me while I worked on his farm and who taught me the basic soldier¡¯s forms. I remembered how he died when I was thirteen and how his neighbors took his land for themselves and chased me out. I also remembered how I spent the next year hunting them, stealing from their supplies, and making sure that they paid for the land with their blood. I remembered how I learned to kill and how I spent the next forty years refining how I killed in the mountain ranges in the center of the continent. I remembered the group I built up around me. I remembered how I learned and taught them to move and fight with discipline. I remembered falling and giving up my pride to survive. I remember the butchery I caused to regain a measure of that pride. I remembered rising again, bringing a rain of blood. I remembered all the lives I took, all the ones I spared, and all the women I slept with. So many women, which had resulted in so many children. Some of whom would die at my hands. Only one of whom I could ever say I truly loved.

    I remembered how I rose, how I became a king!

    I remembered every single second of my life with perfect clarity, perfect detail, and perfect horror.

    I also remembered the Guilt. All the horrors that I had seen in my life, all the tragedy, paled in comparison with reliving all the accumulated Guilt of my life.

    For only the second time in my existence, not including my death, I blacked out¡­

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

    When I came to I was no longer in the odd room I had woken up in and Leo was nearby, arguing with someone. We were outside now and the red sky pulsed eerily, while the ground was coarse and rocky, with mountains not far away.

    Groaning I tried to collect myself. My head did not hurt, so much as it throbbed like iron under the smith¡¯s hammer, my heart on the other hand¡­

    It appears that time heals all wounds, until the moment you die.

    As it was I felt the Guilt try to return again. It was so odd, I always felt the Guilt after I killed someone, never when planning to kill them, never while killing them, and never for anything other than killing. That was the thing about the Guilt, no matter how justified the death, or even the manner of death, it would always come. The pain from being hit with the whole of my accumulated memories was similar in pain to having every piece of skin removed before being lit on fire.

    I fought it down like I always did, gritting my teeth, and waiting for it to pass.

    Leo seemed to finish his conversation right as I finally regained control over myself enough to stand up.

    ¡°I was unsure if Gorith¡¯s blessing would even hold after you died, but the memories must still be potent for you. In order for you to keep it onto your next life it would almost have to be engraved on your soul.¡± Leo commented, waiting for me to walk over. ¡°Or deep in your spirit at the bare minimum, most gods cannot touch a being¡¯s soul, but your soul did reside in his realm briefly, so it was technically possible.¡±

    That was where it came from?!? I though, shocked. That was Gorith¡¯s blessing? The Guilt was the worst part of my life, constantly haunting me and making me second guess myself before and after every single battle, judgment, or revenge killing. Stoning graveborn yellow-eyed honey-foot!

    While Leo winced from my mental tirade, I tried to calm myself somewhat and looked over the new guy. He was not thin, but he lacked the body development that would show as a result of any type of martial training. Any type that I knew of that was. He also did not give off the sense of power that I could sense coming off of Leo. Besides that he was very old, at least sixty by my guess, with a gaze that spoke of a harsh history. I could tell from experience. In total he looked fairly ordinary with those odd ¡®glasses¡¯ that I knew some nobles used for reading, and incredibly deep eyes that hinted at wisdom. He was also wearing a long white coat with what looked like a black wheel with red spokes on his arm.

    ¡°Good of you to let me know,¡± I said, barely above a whisper, my throat felt raw, perhaps I was crying in my previous state, there was no way I was going to try and remember. Stones, I was going to try and stay away from those memories as long as possible! I nodded towards the new comer in greeting and tried to project some semblance of strength and dominance, even in my weakened state. He seemed unimpressed and did nothing to hide it. Glancing at Leo I asked the obvious question. ¡°Will you be introducing us?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes.¡± Leo¡¯s feeling of power intensified as his face grew serious. ¡°However, before I introduce you I need to explain the general rules of the Game that you will be playing.¡± I blinked in surprise and gave him my full attention.

    Not that I was complaining, but was it okay to be explaining to a mere mortal the Nalks¡¯ precious Game Rules? ¡°I will only be telling you the basics as they apply to you in order to save some time.¡± Leo supplied. I wondered if he would teach me how to keep others out of my mind, but he continued to speak and ignored my thought this time.

    ¡°When we play the Game the specific rules vary depending on the situation, but the basics are simple enough. One or more of the Nalks, the ¡®backers,¡¯ choose a sentient being, a ¡®player,¡¯ and give them various, small, blessings like improved memory, good looks, or visions to try and guide them. According to the old rules each backer has one player, however that is more of a tradition than anything else. The backers, as a result, usually choose players that can aid a central player and spread their energy between them, creating additional blessings. However, more recently, some of the backers have taken to backing a player with no chance of winning and devoting all of their energies towards a central player. They do this by forming groups called conclaves to give one particular player with multiple blessings. These individuals often become great heroes or mercenary captains who can then align themselves or be aligned as the backer sees fit.¡±

    I kept silent on my opinion of the backers aligning someone else according to their own will. Some would say that that was the whole purpose of politics, which no one, not even myself was totally immune to. Stone me, politics was something that was still disrupting my life! Or, afterlife I suppose.

    ¡°The purpose of the blessings vary based on the backers, but it is usually to try and make our players first rise within their own society before the Game actually starts. While doing this the backers try and make their players strong enough to support the backer¡¯s position against opposing backers and their players.

    ¡°As the players grow the Backers start playing larger and more complex moves, like encouraging a monster group to attack an area, waking up ancient beings, and causing other disasters to influence the world. Backers can also declare temporary or permanent alliances and try to have their respective players work together.¡±

    ¡°Wait a second,¡± I felt like I had to interject here. ¡°What is stopping some ¡®backer¡¯ from simply sending a twister through my parent¡¯s front door before I am born? Or just after? In fact what is protecting me from nature itself just deciding to kill me?¡± It was unnerving, by the sounds of it I would have absolutely no control, and might just be struck dead by a lightning strike at any given moment.

    ¡°Honestly that is not all that different from your usual situation as a weak material creature without advanced technology or copious amounts of magic to protect you.¡± Leo stated, frowning at my concern. ¡°However the Backers are only allowed to cease larger disasters when there is a large faction in favor of the action. Since we find it so hard to agree on anything it rarely happens and the even if something happened you could not be simply killed, by lightning for example, as the rules protect you from such assassination moves.¡± Leo sighed. ¡°Going beyond that, we have to declare large scale events or visions before the Game actually starts, meaning that they are effectively set in stone once the Game actually starts. We can only lightly play on emotions and memories or encourage natural abilities once the Game starts.¡±

    ¡°So you mean that all I have to worry about is if they have decide to send a plague through a town that I am going to staying in after you game starts.¡± I confirmed, still unsure.

    ¡°Yes, in addition, I will be acting like your backer before then,¡± Leo responded simply. ¡°That means that I will be protecting you from the other¡¯s plays and intervene directly, if necessary, until the game officially starts.¡±

    I blinked, a guardian god was good news, but did that mean that he would be playing the Game with me as his piece?

    Leo almost seem to explode at the thought, before I could brace myself a feeling of absolute negativity slammed into me. It was not like Leo just said the phrase ¡®no¡¯ it was like he took every possible way to say it, verbally, physically, even with smell and taste. It was like he was saying that he would be far, far, too busy to help, much less manipulate me on a regular basis. There was something else too, an undertone of wrongness that he would even consider to help as it would make him¡­ corrupt? Bias?

    As soon as I could blink the feeling was gone and Leo regained control of himself. He then proceeded to apologize profusely, saying something about ¡®spirit speak¡¯ and the impact it could have on some.

    Outwardly I just nodded, but underneath I felt far too passive in this whole exchange, even if I had no choice or power right now I needed to change something. At the minimum I would need to make sure and get these Nalks back later, utilizing their precious Game of course. In this world I was powerless, however as long as they were going to play by the same rules as in my previous life, I knew I should be able to win. After all, I did mess with them in my previous life and that was without even knowing that they existed.

    Leo seemed to relax before steeling himself for something. ¡°There is something else, before you were told that the others will be acting both on your behalf and against it, however the reality is different. To keep it fair for you I will only let each curse come with a blessing, but that was all I could do impartially. That will not stop them from trying to curse you with useless or harmful ¡®blessings¡¯ of course. The blessing of ¡®obedience¡¯ being an annoying example, but there are other blessings that can prove even more disadvantageous.¡±

    I felt a chill, as an ill omen was revealed. I was going to have to bow my head again. I tried not to flinch as a memory of depravity passed through my mind. I would survive, I always did.

    I spoke into Leo¡¯s pause as he studied my reactions and asked him as straightforwardly as possible: ¡°Did they already start placing curses on me?¡± I tried to keep my voice neutral, but there was still an edge there.

    Leo nodded slowly, ¡°In order to keep everything fair I have a veto power as the Game Architect, however blanket changes bypass that, especially if there is a majority agreement.¡± Leo sighed and continued in a depressed tone. ¡°In fact, all I can do is adjust the Game in order to keep the balance good. In this particular case there were two major changes placed on the Game which pushed it back at least thirty years total.

    ¡°To summarize these blanket changes: first, everyone in the Game world will be more¡­ prolific.¡± I snorted, despite the situation, wondering exactly how that had been done. ¡°That blessing will last for 20 years before and after the Game. Second, the gender of all unborn player shall be changed. Which means that not only will you have to wait to be even longer to be reincarnated, but both your gender and your natural skill inclination will be changed.¡±

    I froze. ¡°My gender?¡± I asked, wondering if that word meant, or more accurately, hoping against hope that it did not mean what I thought it meant.

    Leo killed the hope immediately and with only the mercy of a clean kill:

    ¡°You will be reborn as a female.¡±

    *     *     *

    In Leo''s Playground:

    Ahtoh, or Anton, by his western name, watched with detached amusement as this raider Czar confronted the individual who was, for all intents and purposes, the god who had just emasculated him.

    Leo had asked Ahtoh to be patient with the man though, so he had overlooked the territorial show of strength earlier. That said, he could not help, but enjoyed the look on the ridiculously muscular man¡¯s face.

    Ahtoh was born what would come to be called a ¡®geek¡¯ in the cold predawn of the most terrible war in his world¡¯s history. He survived the prison camps, the seemingly impossibly cold winters, and he was even one of the lucky few to escape.

    He even did the one thing he thought would be truly impossible and became a doctor, just like he dreamed he would, albeit in the Red Cross. After all that, Ahtoh felt no need to assert any type of dominance and honestly would have thought that the bandit was overcompensating if he had not made the joke to Leo, who had corrected him in the most straight forward way possible.

    As it was, Ahtoh honestly thought that this was all a mistake, how much would a raider, much less one that tried to become a czar, ever be able to become a healer? A healer took an oath and understood the responsibilities of ''do no harm''

    Leo had given him a small peek at what would happen in the next Nalks¡¯ next ¡®Game¡¯ ¨C a concept that still made Ahtoh shiver as if he was back home ¨C and there was no way that this man would make a good doctor, much less a good healer.

    What are you thinking Leo?

    Ahtoh sighed.

 Chapter 3: Learning Curve

    Author¡¯s note: To Whom It May Concern: I hope you take no offense from my story and continue to read as I will make no promises except for growth and a lack of intent to offend.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter Three: Learning curve

    ¡°Graveborn stoning fool!¡± I shouted, not caring that I was mouthing off to a god. ¡°Stone you and all of your kind! Why in Gorith¡¯s ovals would I ever want to be born as someone¡¯s women?! I would rather be sent to the Ovals of Judgement right now than become some frail little creature that is lucky if it can do anything by itself! You tail-whip! Why should I even play in your little stoning game in the first place?¡±

    I continued to rage at Leo as he stared at me impassively, clearly waiting for me to calm down, just like all my old advisors learned to do. It made me all the more angry as it let me know that I was being manipulated.

    While one did not simply talk rudely to a god, right now this one simply did not care.

    I hated not being in control. Honestly, I knew from the beginning that if these beings had a desire to they could have simply shredded my soul instead of giving me even a semblance of a chance to fight back. I had no choice and no other option than to comply with their whims and play their game. The fact that I wanted to live again was also a factor, but less so than the knowledge that, even if not stated, I had no choice.

    I really hated the idea of some random old man <del>marrying</del> selling me off the second he could afford it.

    Just as I started calming down again though I realized that the so called ¡®first¡¯ change Leo had talked about had probably been made after the second, meaning that should I get¡­ should I get v-violated (I shivered inside) there would be an even higher chance of pregnancy.

    If the thought had not been so chilling I would have exploded anew.

    Finally venting enough that I no longer saw red I realized that this was getting me nowhere I waited for Leo to explain whatever possible blessing he could give me to balance out this curse.

    After a long while Leo finally took a deep breath and began speaking ¡°I think that you are too smart not to know what could happen should you try not to play, however I will tell you anyway.¡± Leo paused to look me directly in the eye. "You will be reincarnated, you cannot stop that, if you chose to live your new life then everything you do will be apart of the game. If you chose to die than that means that you lost the Game, even if you die at your own hand."

    Letting me take that in he then turned to the new comer. ¡°Allow me to introduce you to Anton, who will be your teacher. You see those changes were not actually curses-¡± holding up his hands to forestall my quickly rebuilding anger he continued. ¡°They were, however, impactful enough to merit balancing actions, which,¡± He smiled, ¡°I control.¡±

    Feeling a small bit of hope try and fight back the anger I forced myself to listen.

    Leo continued. ¡°As a balancing effort, I said that you would need a personal edge for the Game in balance for the memories and skills from your male body having to adapt to such a drastic change. Therefore your actual abilities have already been determined and you were given an advantage, he,¡± Leo nodded towards Anton. ¡°¡­is your advantage. He will teach you about your new body and more importantly, about your new specialty before you are reborn.¡±

    Leo looked briefly at something off in the distance. ¡°Now,¡± Leo clapped his hands and grinned like a fiend. ¡°You might have noticed that you can remember your previous life perfectly?¡±

    I flinched and my anger disappeared completely as the Guilt threatened to come back. Leo, on the other hand, gracefully ignored my suffering and carried on.

    ¡°This is because your life is imprinted on your spirit, preserving the memories as they happened. Of course your earliest memories will just be blurs as your eyesight developed so I do not suggest-¡± As he was talking I felt myself instinctively check those earliest memories, lots of blurs and some arguments that seemed to be about me, but they were not completely understandable. ¡°-looking back at them too often. I also say that because some younger memories are best forgotten altogether.¡± His eyes took on a distant look again before his grin turned a little feral. The sight of which made me feel a little on edge. I was not scared; I was just suddenly more aware of the fact that he was a god and I was a very fragile¡­ shade.

    Leo, however, seemed to be enjoying whatever he saw in the distance though as when he continuing speaking it was a little bit faster than before, getting more excited as time went on. ¡°You have an almost unprecedented opportunity to learn and mix technologically learned knowledge with the power and capability that magic grants. Anton will teach you for 25 days, during which, time will move much faster for your body than you, 100 times faster, to be precise. As a result, your lessons will stop just before you make the connection to your body. During this time you, in your spirit form, will not need sleep and will be able to remember everything perfectly. Even when you go to your new body you should be able to remember everything you have learned here, perfectly.

    ¡°This means that you will be able to learn centuries of advanced knowledge in a few weeks, although what you do with this knowledge is your decision. Now I need to go beat some fools who are trying to kill your birth mother. Do you have any questions?¡± Leo finished, looking like he was about to have a lot of fun.

    My birth mother? I thought. I might get to have a mom? Trying not to panic and miss an opportunity for more information I held up my hand, stalling Leo from leaving. ¡°How urgent is her situation?¡± I asked, deliberately keeping my voice level.

    ¡°She has another two or three minutes before she will be in eminent danger and I will be forced to leave, however I have not had such a blatant excuse to fight in eons.¡± Leo said, seeming to practically quiver with desire to go and punish the offenders.

    In that case I have about a minute to ask questions. ¡°What is my family¡¯s finance and social status right now?¡± I asked, trying to concentrate on what else might be relevant and ignore what it would mean if I took too long thinking about it. The idea of growing up with a mother was¡­ odd. My stomach seemed to be churning in unease.

    ¡°Above starvation level, your new family practices the newer farming methods fairly regularly so they can support themselves easily enough. Socially speaking they are commoners, freedmen more specifically, although they do own enough property to start rank climbing into the lower nobility.¡± Leo did not even have to think about his response and simply stated it, giving me less time to think.

    ¡°How big is the family? How many kids and what are their sexes?¡±

    If he was surprised that I was asking about the family, especially given my past, Leo did not show it. ¡°Currently your parents are both alive and health with a total of five children so far, one boy and three girls who live with them and a boy who was apprenticed to a traveling mage in the past year, no other family beyond the immediate household.¡±

    Probably only time for one more question for now. However my mind was having trouble coming up with more important questions than the ones about this new family. Thinking about it, my family really was not important in comparison to the questions I could be asking about the Game instead. Still, my head was filled with questions about a group who I was only going to know for a few years. Why should I care that the mother is in danger? When did I become so weak? I deliberately brought back the vision of teclao poison and my graveborn with a knife in his lung.

    Cold rage began to flow through my body and I finally began to concentrate on the Game again.

    Something stood out immediately. ¡°Last question Leo, how does learning medical knowledge help balance out me being born a woman?¡±

    ¡°That depends on how you use it. Your talents will develop towards healing as you grow up, however you can learn to specialize in anything. In theory the knowledge you will be taught could even allow you to become a male again in your next life. If you do not ask someone else to do it for you.¡± Leo¡¯s grin widened to inhumanly wide proportions at my surprise and he stopped moving altogether.

    I had seen corpses move more than Leo did for the half of a second before he seemed to turn sideways, becoming thinner and thinner, as if he was a piece of parchment being turned sideways, until he disappeared entirely.

    Still trying to figure out what Leo had just done I turn to my new teacher, Anton, who was walking towards me with a thick book under his arm.

    I raised my left hand for him in greeting and started to introduce myself before around a thousand pages of writing was casually tossed in my direction.

    I caught the tome and blinked before I Looked at my teacher and saw an unsympathetic face. His voice was also ice cold.

    ¡°Call me Anton, it is not precisely my name, but that is what I am used to. I will be preparing your practice area over the hill there.¡± He gestured to a mountain nearby. ¡°You will read this from start to finish and then find me as fast as you can. It is called a dictionary.¡± Tapping the book he continued. ¡°Please remember that you do not need sleep or food or breaks. Also please note that you only have a limited timeframe to learn these so you should try to finish it within the next few hours¡­¡± He paused and began floating up into the air.

    Instinctively I reached out to try and grab onto him and prevent the cold little man from leaving, but I could not get a grip and felt my fingers slipping on some odd invisible armor of some sort.

    Confused I ended up calling out to him as Anton reached around two meters off the ground and kept going. ¡°Hold there! I have many questions that need answering, starting with the language are these books in.¡±

    Anton stopped floating off for a moment to answer me. ¡°Do not worry about the language it is spirit speak, you can touch the words and learn the meaning. Just like how you and I can keep talking now despite our different languages.

    Now find me after you are done!¡± He shouted just before literally flying off to the other side of the ¡®hill¡¯ he mentioned before.

    I blinked before replaying the conversation in my head. I belatedly realized that his mouth did not match up to his words as I heard them. He had been speaking an entirely different language and I had not noticed until just now. Checking my memory again I ran back through part of my conversation with Leo and realized that he had been speaking the same language as me.

    A Nalk talks to me in my own tongue and the human who was supposed to teach me talked to me in a different one. It made sense in my head, however it still felt so odd.

    I took a breath and sat down with the book on my lap. Questions would have to wait, there was a lot for me to learn and I could not help but wonder just how much I could learn in twenty five days. Even with this new ¡®perfect¡¯ memory of mine.

    The memories of the Guilt came back for a moment before I shoved them down again and took several deep breaths. I needed to concentrate.

    Opening the book I looked down at the foreign writing. It was an oddly surreal experience. After all that I had gone through, mind reading gods, carpets, reincarnation (to be enacted soon enough), and that icy teacher of mine, this book confused me the most.

    All the writing, all the pages, were the same size, shape, and completely impersonal. The pages for example were the same size and did not stick out from the other pages in the slightest. The words also ended on an invisible line a set distance from the page¡¯s edge. I knew some very good scribes, however this level of precision, over so many pages, was almost inhuman.

    In fact, I wondered if it was indeed an inhuman creation. Perhaps one of the gods created it? No, they would not need to write anything down, they may might not even have a written language. Why else would you need to develop writing than to remember things in the past? An immortal with a condition even remotely close to my own would have no such troubles.

    Hesitantly I flipped through the oddity and wondered which way to read it. My so called ¡®kingdom¡¯ had been a diverse center of humanity by the time of my death and I knew that the direction to read in depended on the language. Ovals, maybe it did not matter, flipping to one end I looked for a corner to begin reading.

    Finding the black symbols I reached out and touched it.

    Suddenly I understood what the text meant. It was as if I had been suddenly shown a drawing, given a detailed explanation, and been shown a real example at the same time. It was unnerving, but interesting in its own way.

    Slowly at first, but with my curiosity pushing me faster and faster, I ran my fingers over the odd words and began learning in earnest.

    During this time I noticed two things, first, that many of the words were not explained. For example, I knew that the word magnetic referred to the tendency of certain things to attract certain metals like iron. What I could not understand was how this MRI thing used it to help understand the human body. It simply was not explained, despite the fact that there were other words which referenced it and even gave me a mental picture of what it might look like, which did not help at all given its enigmatic appearance.

    Second, I noticed that the entirety of the beginning of the book I read was nothing except complicated rules on how to string the words in the book together properly to make sense. Which was also an oddity since I thought dictionaries were only supposed to contain the definitions of words (the book itself even agreed with me) and yet here I was obviously learning a new language instead of just being taught in that spirit speak language.

    Regardless, I continued to ¡®read¡¯ the book through my fingers as quickly as I could.

    When I was almost done, I noticed a now familiar presence approaching. I looked up at Leo who came gliding down from the red sky.

    He looked content so I guessed it all went over well. I resisted a surprisingly strong temptation to ask about the woman he saved and ran my fingers over some more words.

    As I turned one of the last few pages Leo spoke. ¡°That was always one of your greatest strengths, you should not deny it.¡±

    I blinked and looked up. ¡°Deny what?¡±

    ¡°Your curiosity. The one thing that made the biggest difference in your previous life, even more so than Gorith¡¯s blessing.¡±

    I just barely managed not to flinch at the mentioning of the Guilt and concentrated on the current conversation, replying nonchalantly as I looked Leo in the eyes. ¡°I do not see how being a curious person affected my life all that much. Besides I have a book of new knowledge to indulge myself in. What should I be curious about?¡±

    Leo stared back at me with impassive eyes for a moment before speaking. ¡°Perhaps I should rephrase that, instead of being curious you seem to have a never ending desire for more information. Gorith¡¯s blessing kept you from forgetting the value of the lives you were ending while your¡­¡± He paused seeming to search his mind for something, at which point I checked and realized that he was still speaking in my own language. ¡°¡­voracious appetite for knowledge is what kept you ahead of others, no matter the field. Between the two, you could attract and keep your followers, which is what made you different and¡­¡± Leo paused again to emphasize the next point. ¡°¡­Given that and your past there should be no way that you do not want to know more about your mother. The only mother you will know from either of you lives at that.¡±

    I stared into Leo¡¯s eyes resolutely, however they seemed to be trying to drill a hole to my soul. ¡°I never had a mother Leo, I was a literal graveborn, someone who seemed to come out of the ground without family or origin.¡± I took his gaze and returned it three fold. ¡°I have no interest in this birthmother of mine beyond how her life will affect mine.¡±

    Leo blinked and his eyes took on an almost pitying look which annoyed me. ¡°If you actually believe that then you might not survive this next Game. Even if you are flexible for an older human you have to be able to adapt or you will die.¡± Leo shook his head, breaking eye contact and started floating backwards and up into the sky. ¡°You only have twenty-five days here, you should try learning to fly, it will help you accept that your old limits do not exist here. Once the heart reaches the midpoint in the sky you can count one less day you have before you leave.¡±

    The heart? I blinked and Leo pointed behind me, causing me to turn around. Rising up just over the horizon was a giant heart. So that was what I heard in Leo¡¯s study? I turned back around to ask about it, but Leo was gone.

    I wondered what he meant, but that warning of his left my blood just a bit colder.

    Finishing the book quickly I stood up and checked the heart, which was about a quarter of the way into the sky, before looking at the mountain that my new ¡®teacher¡¯ was supposed to be on the opposite side of.

    Holding the book tightly I closed my eyes and imagined floating off the ground. After a moment I felt an uneasy feeling in my stomach and my heels seemed to start rising off the ground. As I felt this I inhaled sharply and opened my eyes to see how I was doing.

    It was hard to tell if I was just standing on my toes or actually floating somehow, although the fact that most of my weight was off my toes was a good indicator. In the end however I fell back to the ground on my heels without leaving the ground.

    Annoyed, I tried again. I spent some time standing there almost, but not quite, levitating in place.

    Eventually I tried a different approach. Picking up the book and protecting it as best I could in my arms I started to run. The idea was simple and relied on the old adage of walking before running, with flight added in after running.

    Concentrating on how everyone except me seem to be able to fly I jumped up as high as I could, only to reach a large stone¡¯s height before coming back down. I kept running as I landed, trying to keep up my momentum and I jumped again, to similar results.

    Cursing under my breath I realized how old I had gotten before my death. Although everyone said that I acted like someone much younger than my years, my body had still gotten older ¨C yet another curse from my lack of mana ¨C so I had become weaker.

    Now though, I was dead, which meant that I did not need to breath. I did not need to tire. I did not need to be bound to the dirt.

    Pressing one foot deep into the dirt I imagined myself launching up into the air.

    For a moment it even seemed to work as I rose up into the air at least twice my height.

    As I fell back to the ground however I lost my balance and went sprawling into the dirt, making sure to land on my back to protect the book.

    It might not have been my book, but all books were rare and sacred things to be treated with respect.

    I stood up and spat dirt out of my mouth while checking on the book to make sure that it had not taken any damage. After I saw it was fine I felt anger well up in me. There were many things in my life that I could not change. Even back when I was alive there was only so much that I, or anyone else, could do or change, my accursed lack of mana being the most obvious of these.

    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Now however, I could fly, I knew I could because of the examples the other two had given me of their own flight, yet I was having trouble. If I had the ability to fly, the capability to do something, I wanted to be able to do it. Being physically (or spiritually?) able to do something and yet not actually being able to do it reminded me of politics. There were few things I hated more than playing mediator for the selfish, egotistical, tail-whipped individuals who managed to even exist in a mountain society ruled by bandits!

    I started running again, calling up more memories to push myself harder, (still protecting the book naturally) before I leapt up into the air again. This time I rose up to around four times my height. Not enough. When I landed I absorbed the entirety of the impact with my legs instead of rolling, simply because I knew I would be able to. Not pausing however I barely finished my landing before I launched myself back up into the air again.

    My anger abated somewhat over the sheer exhilaration of rising higher into the air with each jump, although I still was not flying.

    I also managed to minimize my impact when I came back down, crouching alone should have killed me given how high I was dropping from, but I landed the same every time. Launch, fall, absorb the landing, and relaunch. Each time aiming a little higher and jumping a little farther. In shockingly little time I was scaling the mountain that my new grump of a teacher, Anton, was supposed to be on the other side of.

    Due to the nature of the mountains surrounding god¡¯s spear, my old home, I was used to climbing mountain slopes. In fact those slopes, cliffs, and valleys were so familiar to my people and I that a mountain like this was already familiar to my feet. I heard that sailors who had their sea feet would understand the feeling, but I would not know, having never even seen a sea in my life or after-life.

    Still, climbing this mountain was different than anything I had ever experience in life, not because the mountain was different, but because I was different. I bounded up the mountain in incredible leaps, ignoring most of the tough terrain as I launched myself higher and higher until I was in sight of the peak.

    Ignoring everything else I pushed myself and launched once more, aiming for more height than ever before, I wanted to reach the top with this next jump.

    I did.

    Part of me wanted to howl, I had not felt so young and alive in years and I was actually dead! The rest of me however immediately asked two fairly important questions. First: why did I go over the mountain when there was a now, fairly easy to see path around it? This mountain did not even have clouds or large amounts of snow near the top so I could not blame my decision on poor visibility. By the Ovals, the other side of the mountain had been barren, even if this side was green, I really had no excuse.

    Arrogance is weakness I reminded myself.

    My Second question this reasserted itself as I crested my jump. As I had managed to jump clear over the peak I now had to ask myself an obvious question: Where exactly was I going to land?

    After clearing the peak I kept going and overshot by quite a bit. Naturally I was not nervous at first as I had been surviving insane falls for the past little while, however as my momentum kept increasing from my freefall I started to worry. From what I knew and understood of this world I could do whatever I imagined, however I was having as much trouble imagining my surviving this fall now as I had earlier with flying. I was not even sure if I could die right now, but I did not want to test it. From the peak of my jump I had been falling for around ten seconds and still had a way to go. Fortunately I was actually coming up on the tree-line fairly quickly and could more easily imagine surviving a fall like this with some tree help.

    In normal situations of course this would have been absurd, but given that I was falling from hundreds of meters above the peak of a mountain, I felt that belief was important.

    As I fell I reached out my right hand to try and catch some of the branches speeding past to surprising results. Specifically, instead of my shoulder popping out I actually slowed down noticeably before the branch broke. Belief is power I thought grinning.

    Of course, this thought was immediately followed by the reminder that arrogance is weakness. As I reached out to grab another branch I neglected my hold on the book and it was almost torn out of my hand before the branch broke again and let me land, hard enough to make my knees buckle, on the ground.

    Dusting myself off I decided to take a more relaxed approach to finding my teacher. I jogged a good bit of the way down the mountain, only occasionally jumping down some cliff faces to save time.

    It did not take me long to clear the woods.

    ¡°Stones.¡± I groaned as I reached the edge. There, on the border between where the mountain ended and sprawling plains began, was an army waiting for me. Thousands, upon thousands in neat and tidy rows could not be anything else except an army. It did not matter why they were there, even if they were waiting for me, as meeting an army, in any of my lives, would usually result in the Guilt coming to pay me a visit at some point. Never a good thing.

    Of course, I did not even get an opportunity to regret my luck for the book I was carrying suddenly flew out from under my arm and towards the mass of men standing in formation. I could cast far-sight from this distance, but I too far away to get any real information for the duration that my mana would last. I would have to get closer if I wanted to use less mana.

    Suddenly my options were very limited. It was possible that my teacher was over there with the army and I was simply <del>scared</del> concerned over nothing. However I could not help, but be paranoid about the situation. I had been jumping all over without a care and that was foolish. I was king only yesterday, what happened to my self-preservation instincts? Then again, besides Regus, no one had challenged me for a few years now¡­

    Regardless, I only had a few options now as I estimated a distance of just over a thousand meters from me to the army downhill:

    -Run and hide (high likelihood of failure, curtesy of the book and their numbers)

    -Run and wait for that teacher of mine to show (relatively high likelihood of failure)

    -Charge in swinging (stupid)

    -Walk in and hope everyone is friendly and this was the practice area Anton mentioned (¡­)

    -Walk out like I own the land and bluff (?)

    ¡­I crouched low and jumped hundreds of meters into the air, managing to somehow arc gracefully midway through, before coming down and landing in a crouch a few hundred meters away from the first ranks. I was surprised how well I had managed it, but I hid it as best I could. Standing up straight I walked with my best, ¡®I am the king,¡¯ stride.

    I quickly realized that it was both well performed and pointless, the lines of people did not move in the slightest. As I strode forward I cast far-sight and could also make out other details, like how only some of them had weapons and armor. Most of them were also just standing about with no particular military stance. In fact, as I got closer they began to look more and more like puppets. Odd, adult sized, fully clothed, and disturbingly detailed puppets. Not only did each seem to have their own unique, if fake, face there were a blinding array of different ethnicities. Some of the figures were also vary clearly women.

    I had barely closed to a hundred meters or so when my teacher decided to make his appearance. Flying in rather quickly while holding the book that had flown off earlier under one arm. I paused and waited for him to arrive while I scanned the crowd of lifelike dolls, trying to determine if they were based off anyone I knew, to no avail. Even with my far-sight spell, I could not see all of them, the ranks went on for quite a while.

    ¡°I had actually hoped that you would fly in,¡± Anton announced, coming down a few steps in front of me. I checked in my head a confirmed that he was speaking in the language from the book, not spirit speak. ¡°Though I am impressed that you made yourself younger, so I will admit that you might have a chance at surviving.¡±

    I tried not to show any of the surprise I was feeling as I checked my memory and realized that my body had changed around the time I reached the peak of the mountain. I was supposed to by over fifty years old and my magic had not been strong enough to slow my aging much. As a result I looked all of my years and then some when I died. Now however, my body looked like it had back in my prime. It might have had something to do with how young and foolish I had been acting, but I just shrugged. ¡°I always loved learning, flying is just tricky, but I will figure it out before I leave.¡±

    ¡°Ha!¡± Anton barked a laugh, ¡°you will not have time once we start. In fact, I need you to test something before we really get going.¡± Anton checked his wrist for what I thought I recognized as a watch, however that had been one of the non-readable words in the book. Which made me curious.

    ¡°Do you want to tell me why I had to learn your language?¡± I asked, torn between acting imperiously and asking like a normal student would his teacher.

    Looking up he snapped his fingers and the world spun as a single male puppet appeared, standing relaxed, with a face and clothes that would have gone unnoticed back home. There was also a table filled with a variety of bladed weapons and maces that appeared off to the side. ¡°It was not my language, spirt speak conveys intentions and emotions. I could tell you a lot more than I should or even show you memories if I used it too often.¡± Anton then nodded towards his puppet. ¡°I want you to kill this ¡®dummy¡¯ as many different ways as you can as fast as you can.¡± Anton declared. ¡°It will regenerate every time it dies so do not hold back. You have five minutes.¡± As Anton stepped away from his ¡®dummy¡¯ I blinked.

    "Just non-magical methods I take it?" I asked, indirectly trying to confirm if he had used magic just now. I had not seen anything with my third eye, but he had stoning flown earlier and I have not seen anything then either. Perhaps my third eye was not functioning?

    Anton blinked. "Oh right, well..." he shifted and then pulled out a device of some sort. He did something to it with his hands that caused part of it to light up before he spoke into it, but he was not speaking English so I had no idea what he was saying. After a moment he looked back up at me. "Non magical methods first please, I will set up the wards to let you use magic."

    I did not move for a moment and just stared at Anton. "Wards to let me use magic..." I stated blandly, staring.

    "Certainly. You know that wards are only magic spells anchored to an object or location correct?" I nodded. "Well, it is not like only humans can manipulate mana, so I will set up an area where you will be able to use some mana. Although there will likely be a limit of 5 circles or so."

    I could not believe what I was hearing, but he had no reason to lie to me... at least no reason I knew of. "Mana needs food to fuel it. How am I supposed to fuel it as a spirit?"

    "Mana needs some energy, when you were alive you- ah!" The world seemed to spin again and 6 spears of a metal I could not identify appeared. Anton picked up one at a time and made a rough circle of around 7 meters across, with the dummy in the center. He continued to speak while he did so. "Mana is an energy that interacts with the existing state of the universe and its 4 fundamental forces. I cannot explain it all to you because you would be able to adapt that knowledge to become far stronger than Leo or the others would accept, but let us just say that Leo let me barrow some technology adapted to manipulating mana.

    "For the record though, do not attempt to make these. They have a massive support system to help you use mana as a spirit, you just cannot see it." Anton pulled out his odd device again and spoke in the other language for a bit and then turned back to me, "go ahead and start, it will take a few minutes to charge the area."

    Looking at him in disbelief I tried to accept his words as best as I possibly could before I took a longsword and decapitated Anton¡¯s dummy in a single stroke. The head fell off the dummy and instead of hitting the ground, disappeared and regrew back on the dummy, which glowed as it healed. I glanced over at Anton who looked at his watch and then back at me. I understood and turned my attentions back towards the odd devise.

    Deciding to go along with Anton¡¯s plan I visited a half-century¡¯s worth of murder and violence on the dummy. Beatings with the maces, vicious thrusts from the daggers, slashes from the variety of swords, and precise magic attacks on the innards of the dummy all caused the glow that I had begun associating with a fatal blow. To my deep and sincere surprise however, by the time Anton called a stop to his little test, I was having trouble coming up with more techniques that would cause instant death. In the end I was even using my hands and feet to find other ways to cause a fatality.

    After I was done with that, I reached out and finally felt mana flow into me for the first time since I died. It was a strange sensation to be able to feel and manipulate it again after so long. It was also strange because I was directly manipulating the mana around me instead of using my own supply, but I made it work as best as I could.

    I used snip spells, explosive spells, death spells, not suffocation spells because those would take to long, spells that had no official name, but exploded the dummy''s head, and more to take out all of the frustrations I had built up dealing with the Nalks in general.

    Eventually though, Anton called the fun to a stop.

    I looked over at Anton him at that point and noted his pensive expression as he stared at me. For a small while he did not speak and it was only his watch beeping at him which interrupted his thoughts. Which was just as well, because by that time I was tired of waiting and starting to wonder exactly what he was thinking about while staring at me for so long.

    ¡°What do you want me to call you?¡± The question caught me by surprise and I gave my name without thinking.

    ¡°DeMorte¡±

    The reaction I got was odd, Anton looked at me like I was trying to fool him. ¡°DeMorte Tyrentus, technically, but if you want me to call you by your first name that is fine. Although I thought that your people preferred last names.¡±

    I blinked and groaned, Tyrentus was a title that became a person¡¯s final name if they died as a ruler without passing their lands onto their blood descendants. To think that I would become a Tyrentus. Stones. ¡°Yes, DeMorte will be fine.¡± I rubbed my temples and sighed.

    ¡°Well DeMorte, let me reintroduce myself, I am Anton, and this-¡± He gestured towards the huge mass of puppets. ¡°-Will be your subject of study for the next 24 days.¡± My expression must have given away my confusion as pointed skyward.

    The heart was just reaching its zenith in the sky when it seemed to beat silently. At that moment I notice that it was suddenly difficult to breathe and I grabbed at my collar trying to get more room to breathe.

    Turning back to Anton I saw that he had a look of mixed pity and something else. He only said one thing that I could understand before my legs started giving out: ¡°Happy birthday DeMorte.¡±

    *     *     *

    Cycle 3070 AF: 13th cycle of the rule of King Mis''les

    In a nameless village''s birthing hut:

    Elizabeth joked that she could always tell when one of her children was born because the midwives stopped paying any attention to her.

    ¡°Done.¡± The simple statement was punctuated by a baby¡¯s cry in the small shine.

    The old midwife quickly and expertly blessed the girl under Hoh, the goddess of water, before passing her to Elizabeth.

    Taking her new daughter carefully Elizabeth smiled, she knew it would be a girl, although her husband had been skeptical. "Bella." She whispered quietly. "My beautiful Bella."

    She had insisted on the water blessing as the water goddess always protected newborns best.

    ¡°Bella.¡± she repeated, louder to the midwife, her smiling growing even larger.

    The old midwife simply nodded and called for one of her youngers to take the news to the father who was waiting in the village tavern with his friends.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Back at their home, Bella was crying. While in a newborn this was not surprising, the strength of the crying and the unnatural paleness of the child had her parents worried.

    Death was not unusual when it came to newborns, but this child seemed to go from peacefully sleeping to screaming for no reason. Given that Elizabeth was very familiar with children, having undergone more than a few births, the sudden changes were even more confusing. It was not food, warmth, feces, fever, or clothing. Even one of the neighboring village elders, known for his wisdom, could not understand.

    In the end Elizabeth ended up sleeping with the child in the barn as that was the only place where it seemed to act normal.

    While she had grown up sleeping, as most peasants had, with the family animals, times had changed. For her it happened after her marriage, but it had occurred for others too over the cycles. Still, she had grown used to having a barn to separate the livestock from her family. As a result, it was discomforting to have to once again sleep with animals instead of her husband. Although, she was more than prepared to live with it for as long as necessary on behalf of the child¡¯s sake.

    Fortunately though it did not take too much longer to figure out the problem. After a few days Elizabeth realized that Bella was only crying around the house and when they were standing downwind of her father. Wondering if it was a smell, a quick test found the cause. Pipe smoke. One of the most profitable crops the family grew was a plant, called traxico, which greatly relaxed those who burned and inhaled its smoke. The father was an avid enough smoker that the house and his clothes smelt badly of the smoke and would cause Bella to react horribly.

    When they realized this, there was a mixed reaction as the father was saddened by his new daughter''s clearly weak constitution, but happy that the problem had been found. He offered to sit with the child and blow the smoke in the newborn''s face until she built up a tolerance for it, however, Elizabeth, who hated the smoke herself, overruled him.

    She did not ask him for much, he was a good man and a good husband, but when it came to their children, she would not give.

    Official standards of society said that a woman should listen to her father and husband and always obey, however most people only did that in public. In private however, any husband foolish enough to ignore his wife''s opinions would pay for the mistake eventually.

    The father stopped smoking in the house immediately and then stopped altogether over the next few years. Although it still seemed that it was not enough from his new daughter''s view as she seemed to hide from him as she grew up. Even when Bella started speaking, she would never call him father, but instead call him ''sir,'' ''stinky man,'' or by even by his first name.

    It was the first, but not the last of the eventful years that would surround the young girl named Bella.

 Chapter 4: Making the Connection

    Cycle 3077 AF

    Chapter Four: Making the Connection

    "By the 13 pearls of Julack that is still an odd sight." I stared at the heart floating the sky with no small amount of confusion and interest.

    24 days and nights of pure learning, never repeating a lesson, writing notes, or being given tests. 576 hours of almost pure lecturing, with barely any breaks. The only exception had been these last few hours as things wound down and I had time to learn things like Anton¡¯s version of cursing.

    ¡°I see that you learned to fly. Are you ready to go?¡± I paused my thoughts and turned back to Leo. We were both floating thousands of meters up in the air, although I was actually parallel to the ground, while he was perpendicular. The difference meant that I looked like I was lying on my back in mid-air while Leo was floating as if he was standing on invisible ground.

    ¡°Yeah, but where did you find that thing anyway?¡± I asked, pointing at the giant heart that I had tried flying to earlier. I had been stopped a few meters above where I was currently relaxing by an invisible barrier that I had been unable to get past.

    Leo looked at the heart for a moment with an unreadable expression, ¡°I will tell you on the way.¡± Then he turned and flew away towards the ground, leaving me to follow behind.

    We flew towards the place where Anton had trained me the past few weeks, but now there was no sign of any remains of my hard work. Anton or Leo must have cleared it out earlier, I thought. Speaking of whom, Anton, was on the ground staring at something, but what it was I did not know. There was nothing to stare at as far as I could tell, but then again, I had flown into an invisible barrier in the air not too long ago, so maybe he was staring at something invisible.

    It turned out I was right.

    As we flew downward Leo took out a small object of some kind and something resembling a giant metal fish appeared in front of Anton. It looked completely closed off except for the small, extended drawbridge that was placed near Anton.

    Leo landed before me and told Anton that we would be leaving in a minute and that he should say good-bye before rushing up the drawbridge.

    As I landed I looked over at my teacher. Where I had seen a cold, distant, and bitter man before I saw a curious, knowledgeable, and respectful man now. It had taken over a week of constantly asking and answering questions before he had realized that my thirst for knowledge could not be quenched, not because of my desire for more ways to kill others, but because of my sincere desire to learn. When he realized that, Anton finally seemed to fully accept me as his student and we had spent the next two weeks without brake as he explained everything from mitochondria to which parts of the human brain controlled what.

    I had even managed to teach him something when it came to the use of magic and its effects on the body. Apparently, his whole world had lived and advanced without magic, so identifying some of the effects of magic use on the human body had actually turned into brief experiments together. Unfortunately we had all too quickly hit both the time limit and the limit of what Anton was allowed to teach me, so I had spent the last few hours exchanging curses with him before I tried to fly up to the heart.

    Now I looked over at him and honestly wondered what to say. I hated long goodbyes and he, I had learned, was not very sentimental himself. Anton saw my look and walked over. ¡°I had hoped that I could at least make you take the healer¡¯s oath before you went.¡± He grumbled, looking me in the eyes. ¡°However you are too much of a fighter not to try and figure out a way out of this.¡± He paused, continuing to look me in the eyes for a moment before looking away, towards the drawbridge, before continuing. ¡°Leo is a good Nalk, but never forget that he is a Nalk. You might be balanced now, before you start his ¡®Game,¡¯ but he will do his best later to ensure ¡®interesting times¡¯ for the Nalks first and only think of you afterwards, if he thinks of you at all. He created monsters DeMorte.¡± Looking me in the eyes again Anton stressed the words that came out of his mouth next, even as he extended his right hand. ¡°He is an architect because he created things the even the Nalks were scared of, be careful.¡± Already familiar with his ¡®hand-shaking¡¯ ritual, I obliged, shaking his hand as my teacher told me one of the most terrifying things that I had ever heard. ¡°Good luck.¡±

    I nodded thanks and turned to walk up the drawbridge, there was nothing more to be said.

    As I entered the giant metal fish the drawbridge pulled itself in and with a hiss sealed itself into the wall behind me. At which point the metal monster rumbled and I felt a strange sensation of movement that was hard to describe, it was like being squeezed and then pulled off in a direction that I could not clearly identify.

    Trying to ignore it as best I could, I explored the metal halls that spread out into the innards of the odd thing. It did seem rather dull though, the metal halls all looked the same, lightbulbs being the only source of light as I wondered around. There were metal doors, however they did not have any type of handle on the outside so I could not get them open. I thought that the squares next to the doors might do something, but they did not react to my touch or magic so I left them alone. Eventually I came to an open door with what appeared to be a ¡®cafeteria,¡¯ as Anton¡¯s book would label it.

    ¡°There you are.¡± Leo called from inside, near another open door that quickly closed behind him. He was carrying something rectangular in his hand that might have been a small book. Waving me over to a table he sat down and smiled, clearly vary happy about something. Anton¡¯s words of warning came to mind as I sat down and waited for Leo to explain.

    Grinning, Leo spoke quickly, ¡°We only have a few minutes, I needed this ship to take you some place that the others will view as to troublesome to try and reach, but the trip itself is fast and easy with this ship.¡±

    ¡°This is a ship?¡± How in the Ovals was this a ship? It was made out of metal, not wood!

    ¡°A ship to travel between worlds.¡± Leo confirmed, however he did not let me question him further about the ship and talked on. ¡°We will be going very close to the center of the Gwainian circle that I told you about before, a place where you spirit will reside until it totally fuses into your new body. It is not far away from where I found the heart you asked about earlier. Since I cannot watch you all the time and the place you connect your consciousness at will be where your spirit remains, so this is the solution.¡±

    I blinked, ¡°Wait, so are you saying that if I were to make contact with my other consciousness, from my point of view my spirit body would disappear, but it would actually be stuck where my spirit was when I made contact?¡± It was confusing, but I thought I understood the basics of it.

    Leo nodded an affirmative. ¡°Almost perfect. However your spirit would not be stuck, if your consciousness transferred to your new body while this ship was still traveling, you would be stuck as an immobile feature and would fly out the back of the ship as it continued on.¡± He then added, ¡°That was the reason why I wanted to get you out of the pervious world quickly, time moved so much slower there I was worried that your consciousness would start to fuse before you were ready. As it is right now you will have just over twenty days to get used to your new body, however you were losing much more time there than here.¡±

    I frowned. My math skills were never the best, however something seemed off about the twenty days, then I remembered how Leo had talked about the world being 100 times faster.

    Seeming to anticipate my problem, although Anton had taught me how to guard my thoughts from mind-reading, Leo explained. ¡°Unlike your previous world the ¡®years¡¯ on your new world are more easily defined and noticeable.¡± I had trouble understanding how the seven Alpha-Beta seasons were anything except clear, however I let it go as Leo kept talking. ¡°There are 360 days in a year and a ¡®Day of the Gods¡¯ once every ten years to make up for the tenth of a day in each solar cycle. These days would be the rough equivalent of your alpha days however this new world will only have one star to orbit. Your new mind will explain it fully though so I would rather show you the mixed bag of blessings and curses that you managed to accrue so far.¡±

    My skin seemed to crawl as I remember the fact that I would be reborn a little girl who would normally only grow up to become a healer or wife (or worse, both.) I nodded understanding and forced my internal confusion to the back of my mind. Years as I understood them were much longer than a mere 360 days, however Anton had explained how his home world had 365 day years so it was not too surprising. It did however mean that, as Leo gave me the rectangular object that he had holding since he enter the room, I realized that I would have less time than I thought before the ¡®Game¡¯ started.

    Looking at the odd rectangular device I wondered who had created it. Along with the rest of the ship and even Anton¡¯s book, from what seemed so long ago, it was another foreign device that I could not tell how it was made. If I had to describe it I would call it a magic plate or tablet with the middle of it glowing with a strange and eccentric list written in Anton¡¯s English language.

    - Distributed Changes:

    1) Change in unborn gender

    2) Increased fertility

    - Advantage to counter Distributed Changes:

    1 and 2) Tutorage under an expert.

    Curse and

    Blessing list:

    1) Elemental Rejection ¨C Elemental spirits and their equivalent spells dislike you because you are from a different world, all such elemental contracts and spells will be harder to perform and cost more mana.

    Healer¡¯s Talent ¨C Your mana is naturally connective and can heal others more easily, all healing and non-malicious spells are easier to cast and cost less mana

    2) Weak Constitution ¨C Your body is weak and hard to train.

    Strong Mana ¨C Your mind and mana capacity are strong.

    3) Acute Senses ¨C Both a blessing and a curse as while you will be harder to sneak up on and faster to react, your sense of pain will be much sharper.

    4) Small Build ¨C Both a blessing and a curse because you will move faster at the cost of being injured more easily.

    5) Non-Threatening to Animals ¨C Both a blessing and a curse. Animals will find you interesting and want to investigate you. Some may befriend you while others will view you as food. If they believe that you are hiding they will investigate and may help you if you are attacked. (this does not include insects)

    I looked up at Leo as I finished reading, but before I could say a word he spoke. ¡°Put your finger on the center of the device and move it up, there is more for you to read.¡± As he said this there was a small ¡®ding¡¯ sound like a small bell and Leo smiled. ¡°We have arrived, you keep reading and leave the way you came in when you are done, I will set everything up.¡± He stood as he talked and walked out the door I came in, calling out something about following the lights when I was done.

    I shook my head and concentrated on the screen, I touched my finger gingerly to the glowing middle and slid it up. This caused the list to move down and revealed the next few numbers. I read the new numbers and repeated my actions as the list went on and on¡­

    When I was finally done reading I found out that Leo had shut off all the lights outside the room I was in and the path to the drawbr- to the ramp that had let me enter the odd metal ship. As if chasing me out, the lights behind me went out as I moved through the ship with Leo¡¯s list of stoning curses in my hand.

    As I disembarked I looked around at my spirit¡¯s sanctuary for the next few years. It was plain, simple, and completely insane. We were in a stone dome of absolutely awe-inspiring proportions. Concentric rings, various geometric figures, and weird fractured figures were placed all around the inside of the dome, some in haphazard fashion, others perfectly fitting shapes into shapes with connections to other, usually chaotic, symbols. All of which gave off a reddish-purple glow. Only the dead center seemed calm, with Leo standing inside a plain circle with no other marking inside it. Leo himself was alternating between examining the circle on the ground and looking up at the dark ceiling.

    ¡°I am going to ignore the fact that your people turned me into Cook¡¯s wife for a moment and ask how this place is supposed to protect me from your people when I start massacring other players.¡± I growled at Leo, tossing his little magic tablet at him while I was at it.

    Leo caught it without looking and pointed at the dark ceiling above him. ¡°That is a shield to keep the madness outside this place, once I remove it no one outside this circle will be able to survive in this place long. Only a ship like the one I brought you in here with would be able to enter and only my wife and I would use material technology.¡±

    Still angry I ended up letting my mouth run a bit more than I meant to. ¡°Does she happen to be a flat chested, short, thin-boned, nymphomaniac of an animal magnet?¡± I could have gone on though, some of the other minor or random curses too, purple eyes, pointed ears, being able to move said ears, but not role my tongue. It was crazy.

    Leo gave me a hard look for a moment that completely stopped me and I once again remembered Anton¡¯s warning as I realized that I might have gone too far. Luckily it seemed that Leo had his own problems with his wife. ¡°She is not my wife by choice.¡± He grumbled, before adding ¡°Cook¡¯s wife was a good human as far as the standards go, even if she had the oddest tastes in other humans. Given how happy the two were however I would not think that you would object too much to be like her. Especially since you have considerably more choices than she did, Cook was her unique out in a situation filled with bad choices. Did you know that for all his oddity he was not even a player?¡± Leo concluded his statements with a question that seemed to speak volumes for who the Nalks chose as players. Especially given that Cook had been the oddest <del>human</del>¡­ <del>humanoid</del>¡­ sentient¡­ individual I had ever met.

    Stepping out of the circle Leo gestured to it and told me to get comfortable. Telling myself that I had not been exaggerating my planned massacre, I walked over and settled into what I had been told in my previous life was a meditative pose.

    Looking up I mentally prepared myself as best I could and called out to Leo. ¡°Any last pieces of advice?¡±

    Leo gave me a friendly smile, ¡°We have a few minutes, but I would suggest that you close your eyes for when the connection happens. That and not trying to move your new body for the first few days after you make the connection¡±

    I nodded and closed my eyes, taking the opportunity to ask a few last minute questions. ¡°By the way, when will the ¡®Game¡¯ actually start?¡±

    ¡°You will have around a decade, then an even will signal the start, though I cannot tell you more than that.¡±

    I was nodding understanding when a thought struck me. ¡°I already assumed that it would stay with me, but is there really no way to get rid of the Guilt?¡±

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡°If a way exists I am not aware of it, but since you are merging your spirit with another version of yourself there is a possibility that the effect of your ¡®Guilt¡¯ could be weakened.¡±

    I sighed, it was worth the question, even if it turned out to be noting, but false hope. ¡°Do you know how long the ¡®Game¡¯ will last?¡±

    ¡°No, but it will not be for more than a century after it starts.¡±

    100 cursed years! ¡°How am I supposed to live that long?¡± Even with the good habits Anton had taught me about it would be a stretch for me to live that long.

    My question produced a laugh. ¡°How many curses did you read on the list I gave you? Almost every one of them where the blessing and curse were the same added some mana to your new body as compensation. Your mana is large enough now to start slowing your aging once you reach adulthood. If you maintain your own body, as Anton should have taught you to do, than you should live for a good 180 years ¨C give or take a decade for injuries.¡±

    I did not speak. All the refuse I had to go through because the Nalks were poor losers was almost worth it just to live, regardless of the amount of time, with a good supply of mana. Cycling internal energies to gain strength and power was time consuming and only truly made a difference if your opponent was of equal or lesser mana than you. Or if you manage to snip his throat in the night. A shadow of the Guilt flashed through my mind, making me close my mouth with a click of my teeth.

    Instinctively trying to cover the fact that I had been gaping, I quickly continued my questioning. ¡°Are any of the locals are going to interfere like Gorith did?¡±

    ¡°No, everyone is afraid of something so these gods are happy to bow to threats as long as we promise something entertaining and worthwhile in exchange.¡± Leo¡¯s tone was cold, calculating, and a bit proud. I took note of it for future negotiations as I tried not to grimace at his mention of entertaining the locals. I especially did not want to visualize how that would be done, or if I would be part of the entertainment, my stomach was already tugging at the thought.

    I contented myself to ask a simpler question. ¡°Even gods have something they fear?¡±

    ¡°Everything sentient has some version of fear, I am scared of failing to entertain my kin with my game for example.¡± I must have given an outward reaction to that, despite my attempts to the contrary, because Leo continued in a much lighter voice. ¡°I am also vaguely afraid of my wife, although I would never say that to her presence and¡­¡± Leo paused dramatically, ¡°Nalk lawyers.¡±

    That brought a smile to my face, although the odd pulling sensation did not leave as I joked with Leo. ¡°I suppose that a divorce would be apocalyptic for you than.¡±

    I heard a groan from Leo as the odd sensation seemed to spread making me feel like I was going to fly off any second. Leo did not seem to notice and kept talking. ¡°You have no idea how horrible it can be dealing with our lawyers, even with spirit speak summarizing whole arguments it can still take centuries or millennia to get a case settled. I have not played a Game as a Backer in over 12 millennia and yet I am still being called to validate Game moves I made back then. I was-¡±

    I was pulled away at that moment, the connection having been made.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ¡°Wake up Bella!¡± A hand shook my shoulder, eliciting a groan from me.

    One of the many mixed blessings/curses the Nalks gave me was that my new body was a night hunter type. ¡°Too early.¡± I replied, my voice an odd, high pitched squeak.

    ¡°I am gonna put down the ramp for the dodies if you no get up!¡± The one talking was annoying, their voice squeaky and irritating, must be Carly.

    Wait, who was that? Oh, Carly was Carly of course! Real name Carlatus, I called him Carly to annoy him, he was my younger brother and the one of the only two living relatives younger than me. He also had a bad nut allergy that I was the only one who knew about. The results of my time with Anton! Wait, when was that? I was here on the farm the last few cycles how could I¡­

    I pulled myself back from the kid-me, her young mind, providing the answers when I asked for them, but pulling me into their current thinking habits while doing so. In response she yelped and rolled out of her hay stack bed onto the wooden floor, where I could have sworn I heard her say ¡®stones¡¯ however I was still trying to figure out what was going on.

    As she mentally prepared for the day and tried to wake up I tried to create a mental image to try and help understand how kid me and adult me were separated and how we were connected. In magic of any type, mental magic especially, it was important to visualize connections and relations.

    Mentally creating a separate body I imagined that there was a pair of open doorways which showed the world as my new body saw it. Doorways which I could go through, either way, at will. Once those two things were created I realized that the image was not acceptable in the long run. I would be merging with this body and if I were to guess, based on what Leo said before I left, I would have minor control of the body that would grow over the next few months and years. I had acknowledge that.

    As my kid-self dealt with a small pack of four legged ¨C overly friendly ¨C balls of fur that seemed intent on licking every inch of her body, I changed my image.

    The doorway sank and transformed into a pond. Experimenting, I reached over and dipped my hand into the water.

    ¡°Down! Down doggies! Down!¡± I called repeatedly. The dogs finally settled at my feet, tongues hanging out of their mouths, panting happily. I shot a glare at Carly¡¯s back as the five year old wisely fled the barn, brat. I clapped my hands twice and gave the ¡°Prep!¡± order to the dogs who promptly ran down the ramp which led up to my second floor of the barn. The stinky man, my biological father, had built the second floor and the ramp when the farm building had been constructed, but added a removable section for me after I kept running out of his stinky house to sleep in the barn.

    Backing out of my kid-self¡¯s thoughts for a moment I mentally pulled my hand back until it was almost out of the pond. I used the mental image of leaving only a fingertip in the pool that was my other self to search her memories.

    I started with her family and the local area.

    Her ¨C my ¨C mother¡¯s name was Elizabeth and she was a good mother, although she was getting on in years. She had given birth over a dozen time based on the comments my new body had overheard over the years. Of them, only six, including myself, were still alive. Two of my older brothers, Hoplis and Xiphos, still lived, although I had never met Xiphos because he was traveling and learning magic. Hoplis was a born and bred farmer who was moving off to a corner of the family farm next year to prove that he could provide for the young lady he planed to marry. My older sister, Florence, was thirteen years old and while she was growing up into the local beauty she was of the age where she did not want to be associated with me if she could avoid it. Besides myself there was also Carly and little Carol, who was just a babe.

    I ignored the father for now as the child-me seemed to have a fairly low opinion of him.

    Locally, we were fairly isolated, there was a single dirt path that out to the closest town to our south, but there were two villages, one to the south-east and one to the west, which did not even have cart paths. Our land had been officially gifted to us for some ancestor¡¯s former war service. It was only in the last thirty years however that it became much more profitable, especially with the introduction of the newest crop rotations. To the north and northeast of us was nothing but thick, dangerous, forest for quite some way. The northwest skirted the forest and eventually ran into the next kingdom, Atlratus.

    Searching the memories further, I discovered that the family currently lived in Zootrof¨ª and were the closest thing to nobility outside the town, whose name was hard for my childhood self to remember, something that started with an ¡®e.¡¯ Otherwise we were on the north-eastern continent, which received its orientation from the ¡®holy unifying continent¡¯ that was said to touch every other land and contained something called the wizard¡¯s tower desert. However before I could look for more information my other self yelped in pain.

    Pushing my mental concentration deeper I realized that the girl, that I, had gotten a splinter in my finger. That caused an internal sigh from the adult me as she sucked on her finger and tried not to cry. Without thinking I used a little mana to pull out the splinter and numb out the pain. The child-me quickly stopped crying and after examining her finger, went back to work.

    I mentally shook my head. The spell I used was a combination of two of the most basic spells that were used by magicians when they had to deal with kids. Of course, like snip they had other application that I¡­

    Wait. Had I just used mana? As a spirit I had the same amount of mana as my previous life, but now I realized that I could actually feel some of the mana my new body had. Even if I only had a access to a fraction of the total amount it was nearly half of my previous life¡¯s!

    I grinned like a madman and even felt the grin effecting my child-self. If Leo did not mean for this to happen than he was going to seriously regret his sloppiness.

    *     *     *

    Inside Leo''s ship in the Nalk''s old PDC (prison of dimensional confinement):

    As his ship prepared to leave Leo quietly disengaged the shield protecting the room where he left the late Bandit King. Outside the ship chaotic energy came through the open stone iris that was formally covered by the shield. The energies were unpalatable to his kind and would ensure that no Nalk got within several dimensional degrees of the prison Leo had stored the Bandit King into.

    Having entered the necessary information into the ship¡¯s navigational computer Leo ignored the fact that he had just ensured the destruction of the Bandit King¡¯s soul should he die before fusing into the new body. As interesting as humans were, Leo was still an evolved energy being and Nalk, who would give anything to ensure that his game was better than average.

    Mentally organizing his to-do list Leo realized that all he had to do now was manage the rest of the plays as they were recorded, insure no one cheated, and make sure the put Anton¡¯s soul in a good new body as per their agreement.

    The thought made him smile and as his ship arrived in the unique dimension that made up Leonardo¡¯s Game Room he thought that nothing could bring his spirits down.

    As it turned out, tempting Fate, even as a Nalk, was a bad idea.

    After Leo teleported out of his ship and into what he called his special Play room, although he did not make plays anymore, Leo found a nervious looking Anton, a beautiful, if aged, woman named Maria, and his wife.

    She was blue skinned this time, with a voluptuous figure that suited her preference for poising as a sex goddess on so many worlds. Of course beauty changed with culture, however Anton¡¯s discomfort from the woman¡¯s near nakedness gave his away his opinion on the subject. His wife never wore any cloths except for the Cloak of Shadow Matter that he had gifted her.

    They were the only two known Nalks who used such material objects, regardless of their forms, for the power they offered. Her Cloak and his Heart.

    ¡°Hello dear.¡± Leo offered. However instead of a verbal answer she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his head and kissing as deeply as their human forms would allow. The move was so surprising (especially when she wrapped a leg around his hip) that he almost did not catch the snip spell in time.

    A human would not have survived, as DeMorte himself had repeatedly proven, but Nalks were different. Most gods were energy beings of one type of another, so they could not be killed by average magic.

    Leo had just enough time to wonder why she used such a weak, average, spell when she broke off the kiss and used her superhuman strength to snap his neck.

    As Leo¡¯s human body died he converted himself back to energy and was about to chastise her when she tossed up a device creating some type of magnetic containment field and dissolved her own body.

    Realizing what she was planning Leo groaned to himself and engulfed the anti-matter container.

    As the containment field failed two energy beings became one and glowed brightly for the next few minutes, pulsing and mixing as they sent energy surges through each other. It created quite the interesting lightshow for the two nearby humans and climaxed with what seemed to them like a series of miniature explosions. In the energy cloud before the two beings slowly rematerialized.

    Leo¡¯s wife was the first to speak, although it was more a long string of contented moan than words. It informed the mortals of far more than they needed to know about what had just happened.

    Leo just replied with a deadpan ¡°Nice to see you too. Selaugh.¡±

    Her smile was one that would have made the two humans blush and shiver, despite their own experiences with both the Nalks and the opposite sex. If they had been able to see it from their angle, that was.

    Leo continued. ¡°Is there any particular reason you almost annihilated my favorite room?¡± Looking around he made sure that the countless large globes that represented numerous Game worlds of the past millennia, the room had no end either as it was a pocket dimension that Leo himself had created. Back before Selaugh had tricked him with the whole ¡®till the final Game do they part.¡¯

    She pouted, but Leo would have been unaffected even if she was in her energy form. Her two favorite forms were a sex goddess and the trickster goddess after all, he was at least somewhat used to her unique brand of insanity. Although she did not usually try and kill him with her hands.

    Sniffing disdainfully, Selaugh covered herself up with her cloak and let her skin turn into a bright pink. ¡°I made a promise that I decided to keep.¡±

    Leo gave no outward reactions in his human form, but his energy could not help churning. That was a surprise for him and her surprises were dangerous.

    Leo was one of the most adaptive players in Nalk history, however he was only the fourth best player. His wife on the other hand, was the preverbal queen of long-term/long-odd plays and the second best player, ever.

    Looking over at the Maria Leo asked the obvious. ¡°Does this have something to do with DeMorte¡¯s wife?¡±

    ¡°Yep, I promised to reincarnate her with her husband if she managed to kill him¡± Selaugh laughed happily. ¡°So I brought her to you.¡±

    Leo saw Anton¡¯s face stiffen and did not have to read his mind to know what the human thought. The games never ended with the Nalks.

 Chapter 5: Whole(?) New World

    Chapter 5: Whole(?) New World

    Forewarning:

    There are several things that I dislike seeing in other stories so here a brief list of what things you are unlikely to see in my stories:

    -Babies with superpowers (IE: super/already developed eyes or inherited skills) ¨C with the exception of the Gulit or the various levels of inherited mana

    -Universal ¡®goddess¡¯ beauties, especially ones that just suddenly fall for the MC ¨C the concept of beauty may change several times in this story simply because beauty is based on the culture surrounding someone

    -Uber OP characters (This does not include technology, just do not count on non-god characters who can level mountains or create continents because they are that OP) - THAT SAID, there will be fiarly OP characters from the point of a normal person, just not in comparison to the others in the story.

    -Race. It is an artificial construct and if you read about skin color in my stories they are references to the character¡¯s medical state. There will still be various levels of discrimination, but even if I include racism, I do not feel the need to specify white on grey or green on purple... cuz I am the author and I can get away with that :P

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ¡°Heno!¡± I quietly took note of a new curse to add to my repertoire and let my child-self continue to watch little Carol play with her newly discovered toes.

    ¡°Nathan! Apologies to the gods for mixing their names!¡± One of the many things that I had learned in the past week was that a popular way of swearing was to mix the names of various gods so that you did not directly use their names as curses.

    Part of Nathan¡¯s anger was actually my fault as neither versions of myself saw him as a good father figure. He was perhaps better than I had been, but that was not setting the standard very high. Even so, my child-self still called thought of as the stinky-man despite the fact that he did not smell any worse than the rest of the family after a day of work. That type of casual disrespect had made him try and discipline the child-me a few times, however, it did not go over well for him.

    My new body was simply too fragile to take a good beating without serious consequences and he had broken bones on accident more than once. This meant that he got to take me to visit a healer in one of the near-by villages and pay them for second-rate potions to heal someone too young to do much work even when I was healthy. My new body was simply too young, thin, and fragile to be of much help out in the field so I ended playing or occasionally working with the animals. I still worked my share of course, but such incidents ended up training Nathan far better than it did the child-me.

    Still, I did not want to push him to far so after I learned of his temper so I tried to push my child-self to be more careful. Thankfully, while thin bones meant it was easier to hurt me, my body also had less to heal so the child-me got better faster than she would have otherwise and could get back to work faster. This minimized some of the damage the family took as a whole. The pain of the beating also pushed child-me even farther away from Nathan. Now, my child-self would call him ¡®Nathan¡¯ behind his back or ¡®sir¡¯ to his face and nothing else aloud. The ¡®stinky-man¡¯ himself never seemed to be prepared to kill the child-me however so she continued to, at least, let him keep the somewhat more affectionate nickname in her head.

    As Nathan prayed for forgiveness I reflected that the memories of my child-self were very enlightening in some ways about how I might have treated my own children differently. In other ways, however, it had not helped at all as there was a big difference because of the amount of time I used to spend with my brats in my old life and how often my current parents were around. How was I even supposed to have the time to spread my time between my numerous spawns and rule a small, later rather large, kingdom primarily comprised of individualistic law-breakers. Anton had even spoken briefly on the subject while he covered a very short lecture on psychology. I made my decision without thinking of my propagations however and had to acknowledge that incidents like Regus¡¯ challenge might have been a direct result of that choice.

    Still, in life or in death, I never stopped learning. This also included my newest start into life as I discovered that the principle applied to my new life as well. I had already learned many things in the last few days in my new body. Primarily I learned that I was going to be bored out of my mind if something did not change soon.

    While I had a new body, my rest patterns were the oddest I could conceive of. I had no body, yet I needed even more rest than the child-me did. Where she slept for 9 hours the other night I had slept for 14. That was not all, after applying what Anton told me I managed to confirm some basic theories about magic before I realized that there was almost nothing for me to actually do.

    Now there are the basic rules of magic that everyone knows about however I actually managed to explain the why for some of these rules. For example, it is an accepted fact that using magic makes you hungry. Powerful mages on my previous world ate truly terrifying quantities that would kill people like Nathan and still had a hard time gaining weight. That was because using magic was like using any other muscle in the body, it used your body¡¯s energy, calories or fat, as fuel. Unfortunately my new body, even when she stuck extra food, was tiny. I kept trying to practice my energy cultivation methods, but I had to limit it in the extreme to keep from overworking my new body. This led to my second discovery about magic.

    While everyone back on my previous world knew that energy cultivation, as it was called, drew in surrounding energy to help develop the body and that you could only draw in as much energy as you had mana, they did not know how exactly it worked. After I gained my new body I tried analyzing what energy cultivation actually was. Essentially it was the mana user claiming energy from the air around them and processing it in their own body. Traditionally this resulted in various benefits, including benefits on an incredibly tiny, maybe even elemental, level. Anton though had dodged telling me too much about the different ¡®elements¡¯ and how they each effected the body, with the exception of elements like oxygen, calcium, and iron. Thus, the art of energy cultivation allowed the body to collect some of the nutrients that most people of my old world had not realized they existed, much less were needed. Stones, Anton¡¯s teachings were the only reason I could explain any part of the base level reasons for the typical longevity and good health (and height) that went along with being a powerful mage. Of course, these effects were subtle and hard to directly attribute to cultivation as they benefits were usually associated with magical strength instead of the energy gathered with said strength. As a result, people like myself in my previous life, individuals with less than three mana circles, in particular, did not have more than a few extra years in comparison to normal individuals.

    Which was another thing I needed to check on eventually, however, it would have to wait for now. My previous world set up specific concentric circles usually using the foot size of the individual to measure the distance between each circle. The one taking the test would then stand in the center and fill as many of the circles as they could with their mana. When I was tested in my previous world I had enough mana to fill the first two circles. It was especially unfortunate for me as the third, seventh, and tenth circles differentiated mages. Individuals below the third circle were labeled ¡®sensitives¡¯ as if we could not preform magic, just sense it. Between the third and seventh circles you found ¡®magic workers¡¯ who frequently made a living producing cheap magical devices. Those who could power the seventh circle and above were the ones who considered themselves the ¡®real¡¯ mages and could massacre even a large mob of non-mages relatively easily. Those above the tenth circle tended to call themselves ¡®grand mages¡¯ or ¡®magus¡¯ or something similar and typically were a part of the nobility or royalty. My new body probably had around eight or nine circles worth of magic, but it was hard to tell with my current level of control.

    Although that was all based on my old knowledge, not my knowledge of this world¡¯s magic system. Though, from what I could see and feel, the natural laws of this world were very similar to my old one regarding magic and energy cultivation. Maybe if I got a chance to speak to my magician brother when he came to visit I could¡­

    My ruminations were interrupted as Nathan finally got back to the topic at hand, my future. Typically, from what I could gather, a child in the borderlands or any smaller village would begin their more informal learning at age seven and buy a more formal apprenticeship in their teens, if they did not follow their parent¡¯s craft. However there were two major problems, my parent¡¯s position and myself.

    My family were personal farmers and minor landlords. We owned more land than we could reasonably farm so others were allowed to farm a piece of the land in exchange for a share of the crops they grew. Unfortunately, while my family were rich and even of a high social standing for the area they still had the mentality of farmers as they were relatively new to renting land. Their land and standing had both only expanded after a combination of family deaths led to a large inheritance and the new farming techniques were implemented. As a result, I got stuck between the ranks while Nathan, who seemed to dream of having titled grandchildren, had tried to find me a position in the mayor¡¯s house in the town of Entrials to the south, (child-me kept calling it entrails,) no doubt in hopes that I would meet some visiting official. He was stalled by the mayor wanted to finish negotiations for an engagement meeting for between my sister Florence and his son before considered finding me a position.

    I was the other problem. My body was part of the problem as not only was the child-me¡¯s body obviously supposed to be weak and frail the rest of my life, but I also had a naturally irreverent attitude towards others. While I was not sure if this was more my fault or the child¡¯s ¨C Leo¡¯s list of curses had not included it ¨C it would cause problems if they ever tried to apprentice me. As it was I should have been able to go to a magic academy, with my potential it might even be mandated by some law, yet the first thing that any academy would teach me would be what not to do with magic. It was the same no matter the world, after all, magic was far more dangerous than a sword, especially while in the hands of a child. ¡®Do not¡¯ use magic spells without thought, ¡®do not¡¯ end a spell without telling your magic that is supposed to stop, ¡®do not¡¯ use magic until you have a good understanding of the basics. Of course, while they would feed me well, the academy would also recognize that no child my age could have my level of wisdom and would likely come to the conclusion that forbidden magic was involved, resulting in death, if I was lucky.

    Thus, I was stuck helping with the animals or sewing, which was looking more and more like my formal skill. I sewed for myself in my previous life after I managed to kill a man by using a cursed needle that I slipped past his tailor. It was an absurd way to die and the skill itself was useful so I made it a habit to take care of my own clothes. In fact my new body¡¯s smaller and more dexterous hands let me sew much more quickly and precisely, even if Nathan did not see much chance in it attracting a husband as all women sewed.

    ¡°Florence, how would you feel about meeting the lord mayor¡¯s son?¡± Nathan asked, making sure that sure that she was still given the option of saying no. For all his other failings Nathan did recognize the fact that children had veto power when it came to marriages, regardless of social standing (with the only exception being the royalty.)

    Florence, to her credit, nodded and acquiesced to her father¡¯s request with grace, leaving me to wonder if I was going to be forced to go along too.

    Nathan immediately went to the back of the house to get his parchment and quill to compose a message for the mayor.

    I tried not to roll my eyes and after quietly encouraging the child-me, slipped away to the basement where we kept the last remnants of our food before the Metal harvest began.

    The years here were called cycles and were divided into five elemental periods with the exception of the day of the gods, wood, fire, metal, water, and earth. Wood was the beginning of the cycle and signified the growth of trees and nature. Fire signified when our sun (I was still having trouble with only having one in the sky) warmed the world the most. Metal was the period of harvest and the time of wealth. Water was the cooling period when the gods were said to celebrate the turning of cycles by showering the world with ice. While Earth was divided into five cycles and served as the days of transition between the other four periods.

    AN: wood(72) > earth(18) > fire(72) > earth(18) > metal(72) > earth(18) > water(72) > earth(18) > cycle/year end - with ''days of the gods'' being leap days

    The Day of the Gods was a particular day that occurred every three cycles at the end of the Metal phase and represented an extra day for prayer and reverence.

    As it was, this was the only time of cycle that no one paid much attention to the amount of food in storage. It was the last few days before harvest officially began and coincidentally a few days after my new body was born seven cycles ago. Both individually would mean that I would not get yelled at too much if I was discovered. Combined, these two facts meant that I did not even have to sneak in, although I did encourage my child-self to sneak in for the sake of practice.

    Energy cultivation was good for three things besides making you use calories. They were called mana expansion, compression, and internal energy storage in my old world.

    Mana expansion and compression were very popular with the aristocracy, who were almost always the ones with excess mana. The reasons were quite clear when one thought about it too, as it was namely about blood. Aristocrats were obsessed with blood and marrying individuals with high amounts of mana would always ¨C in their minds ¨C strengthen the family blood. The idea was even partly true as magic ability was a recessive trait, however mana expansion was both a boon and a curse to this pursuit. Mana expansion filtered the world¡¯s natural energy, which could be some natural or wild form of mana, no one knew for sure, into the human body for the purpose of increasing total mana capacity. This made individuals more powerful and more attractive to aristocrats despite the fact that the increased mana did not pass down genetically.

    The average mage could increase his natural power by two full circles if he meditated an hour a day, however three circle increases were rare and the primary reason that mages under three circles were looked down on in my previous world. No matter how hard they trained a three circle mage would almost never reach the seventh circle of power. Only a very powerful mage who dedicated almost every day to expanding his circles would even have the chance to live long enough to try at a fourth circle expansion. This was because each mana circle was ten times harder to expand than the last and would eventually take more time than cultivators had to live their lives.

    Mana compression was similar, but much more popular with non-aristocrats, as it involved using the natural energy around the individual to make their mana ¡®thicker,¡¯ meaning that they could use less mana to accomplish the same task. This method was more popular with mages who had excellent control over how much magic they used as it could both increase the power of their spells and the decrease the amount of energy (mana & calories) they would use. This was jokingly called the workman¡¯s cultivation in my previous world as lower ranked noble families and working mages would frequently make use of compression to produce more magical devises without eating themselves out of house and home with the amount of mana used. Privately, some of the great houses also practiced it, however they would hide the fact for fear that it made them look too poor to afford the ridiculous amount of calories they consumed daily when using magic.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    The final method was usually only regularly practiced in war time. Internal energy storage used the cultivated energy to enhance and protect the individual¡¯s body in times of need. All mages kept a little energy stored in their bodies for emergencies, however outside of the nights before a battle, most would never actively store energy when they could practice expansion or compression. It was a method typically used by only the weakest mages who had no intention of expanding or compressing their mana. It was also my favorite method in my previous world, giving me enough strength and speed to ambush more powerful enemies.

    In my new body I was mixing which method I used because of the lack of calories my child-self was consuming. When I could, like I was now, I would encouraged her to sneak food so that I could keep practicing, however until I gain more control over my new body, encouraging was all I could do.

    Fortunately, for now, I had an opportunity to eat more than I would normally, however I was going to have to use my new body to hunt for extra food after the Metal harvest festival was over. Otherwise I would be stuck in the barn or the house all winter long with no access to food that was not measured out for every meal.

    My child-self shivered as she went down to the cold cellar and tried to ignore the chilling effects of the enchanted bricks. The cold would keep most of the food safe to eat for longer periods of time than it would under different circumstances. There were only a couple avotatos left, namely because they had to be stored in their own, specially constructed, box. The avotatos were unique plants that grew underground in groups and provided an amazing amount of calories, protean, and even some vitamin A, meaning they were my preferred food in this world. Unfortunately, even with magic to help them keep better, they were only good for so long.

    Looking at one of the avotatos that was about to spoil I sighed with my child-self and we grabbed it along with a handful of cheese from a different area in the cellar before my we went back up the stairs. A while ago, right after I realized how much food I would need, I thought about deliberately encouraging my child-self to eat rotten food so that I could purify it while making our stomach stronger. The suggestion was not well received.

    Though in my mind it would still be better than going hungry or not training.

    What if we could absorb energy through the air? Did we not already do something similar with energy cultivation?

    No, there was not enough nutrients just in the air, much less calories.

    Then how do plants get their energy?

    Something to do with sunlight and their roots.

    Then why not copy them?

    Different body design, our cells are not built for it.

    That is for sunlight, how about roots?

    We are still not designed for it, or did we have roots growing somewhere strange?

    No, but why can we not do it with mana? Like we do with the air, but with just the avotatos?

    We cannot¡­ wait¡­ maybe¡­

    We looked at the avotato and took off its skin with the snip spell before digging a finger into the vegetable.

    After a minute to careful compose the spell I wanted to cast I gathered my mana. Sending out a probe of mana I tried to drink in the nutrients, but that did not work. Pausing a moment to rework my spell I tried braking down the vegetable and letting it travel into my body. It was not efficient, but it worked, causing a small amount of the fruit to break down and be absorbed into my blood.

    Quickly getting excited, I tried analyzing how much energy I retrieved from the fruit in comparison to how much I had to use to break it down and absorb it. The results were disappointing, while it worked we barely took in more calories than I burned. Although the nutritional benefits were enough to make up for it under other conditions, right now we needed calories so the spell was filed away in the back of our mind for further research.

    Sighing, my child-self snuck off back to the barn and enjoyed the avotato and bit of goat¡¯s cheese while I pulled myself back from my new body.

    As the sights and sounds of my new world faded I opened my eyes to my mental connection construct.

    Since I had first connected to my new body I had redone my connection construct again, keeping the pool of consciousness that represented the child-me I was now sitting on a white throne of ice that would slowly melt as I merged with my new body. As it was now I only had my bottom of my feet in the pool and not even my ankles were submerged.

    I thought about my new spell and wondered if I could use eventually use it like a plant would roots. I was quite surprised that it actually worked at all, the idea was so off the wall and normally unnecessary that most people would not have thought of it.

    In fact I should not have thought of it. Even if I could fly in Leo¡¯s world I knew that my mind should not be flexible enough to come up with that sort of idea, even if all you had to do was ask the right questions to¡­

    Questions? Why did I ask myself those questions earlier? I knew the answers, so why ask the questions unless¡­

    I asked myself the questions because my child-self knew of my problem and tried to find a solution.

    Looking down at the pool I tried to pick my feet up out of the water of consciousness only to have the water rise with my foot. I was partially fused to my new mind and the fusion would only grow with time. So, who would be left at the end?

    Asking childish questions does not guarantee childish answers I thought grimly before closing my eyes and resting my half of ¡®our¡¯ being.

    *     *     *

    The day before the Lord''s Party.

    South of Entrials:

    Healer Kal''rek shook his head quietly. How under the gods did such petty politics manage to even reach out here?

    He had spent twelve years learning, mastering, and finally practicing his abilities in the capital only to sent out to the northern most backwater because of his cousin''s connection to the cousin of Guthan, the Mayor of Entrials.

    Of course, the official reason was that he was supposed to visit the outer edge of the kingdom as part of his duty as  a Healer, but no one riding along actually believed that. Everyone here knew that the real reason for this little expedition was the complete and utter failure of the opposition in the capital to stop the rising star of Administer Wolsey.

    The political dominance of the Barons and Counts who had been in power for decades had been supplanted in recent years by both various deaths within their ranks and the talented commoner known as Wolsey. Now no longer as powerful in the court, their rivals had eagerly pushed Wolsey forward as a competent man who the King could trust and found a new monster to dominate the court.

    That had been several years ago, but now most nobles hated Wolsey''s meritocratic administration and were desperate to undermine it. However, as fruitless years of warmongering were a major reason for the loss of noble power and prestige, the Kingdom as a whole had yet to recover. Wolsey''s reforms were also well received by the King and the newer nobles and mages who had come to prominence during the years of war, giving him enough support to make him untouchable.

    So it was that certain nobles of the opposition to Wolsey had advocated sending an inspector to look into the possible expansion of the northern border into the forests. Since this area happened to be controlled by a distant relative of Wolsey though, they chose an "impartial" inspector by the name of Belherd to investigate.

    Normally this would all be irrelevant, however, such an investigator, also had the power to seize control of an area if he deemed the lord of an area irresponsible. Such proceedings were extremely rare, but did occur and the removal of a lord proceeded based on the rank of the lord in question. As Guthan was only a mayor, he could be deposed in a moment and Wolsey would be injured by association... Or that was the plan as best as Kal''rek could figure.

    Kal''rek''s cousin was in one of Wolsey''s few avid supporters among the nobles. When the proposal to investigate the northern most region of the kingdom caught Wolsey off guard, Kal''rek had become an impromptu addition to the small group, officially as part of his duty to the kingdom to act as a magic tester looking for talent and unofficially as Belherd''s watchdog.

    Kal''rek and his two guards had joined Belherd and his guard and begun a boring journey as a result. Now, after weeks of travel over turnpikes that should have embarrassed the local gentry, they were only half a day away from their destination and they had run into trouble.

    A few people with their faces covered had jumped out and demanded money. Kal''rek could have dispersed them with a show of magic, but Belherd had taken the challenge personally and immediately drawn his sword, warning Kal''rek to not interfere. Now he was arguing with the bandits, demanding that they surrender.

    Kal''rek was not impressed and watched, annoyed, as Belherd and the bandit leader were all but screaming their demands at each other, completely disinterested in everyone else. Why do swordsmen always feel the need to show off in front of mages? The fool knows I could end this, but he seems so intent on showing off and getting a scar that-

    At that moment, a crossbow bolt flew out from the brush on the left and hit Belherd''s horse in the flank. As his horse made an awful sound, the bandits in front of us jerked in shock. This was followed by four more bandits jumping up on, two on both the left and right sides. They were cursing and pulling out slings while another bolt flew from the right and glanced off Belherd''s armor.

    Belherd fought with his horse as his guards proved their training and charged the sling wielding bandits as best they could, ignoring the few bandits with their swords out. Slings that used iron balls were some of the most dangerous weapons available to bandits. The iron would tear through magic barriers and the weight behind it would dent armor or break bones. Even if the slings only had stones in them they would be dangerous given that most of the guards only had on an iron chest piece.

    Kal''rek, for hist part, pulled his horse back and took some distance once the fighting started. His guards also followed him, either remembering that they were just there to protect him or wanting to stick near the only mage in the group.

    Belherd''s four guards scattered the bandits who had been hiding within a few moments of the fighting starting, however they had not actually managed to kill any of them. The bandits, like the vermin usually would, scattered in the face of real resistance, diving out of the way of the guards while slinging their projectiles wherever possible before putting more distance between them and the dangerous men hunting them.

    Soon enough, gaining distance became running for their lives and they quickly charged to various pockets of thicker brush that dotted this part of the country. The two hidden bandits with the crossbows also came out of hiding and ran for their lives. On horseback it would be easy enough to hunt then down, but Belherd had been attacked by the bandit''s leader while his guard had been busy.

    A reckless charge had earned the leader a quick deflection and a cut along his face. At first, Belherd fought defensively, but as the guards started dispersing the other bandits, he attacked the bandit leader more aggressively. As the leader''s original lackeys had also run off at this point it rapidly became clear that the Leader would not escape.

    Seeing the fighting come to such a rapid close, Kal''rek relaxed significantly. Besides the horse, it looked like no one had been hurt. I know bandits are stupid, but why in the name of Nabcor would they hide the majority of their force if they meant to shake us down for money.?

    Sighing Kal''rek had his guards stay close as they approached the showboating swordsman, who was now just toying with his opponent while his guards returned.

    Belherd finally decide to end the farce of a fight and knocked the sword out of the bandit''s hands. Desperate, the bandit leader frantically backed away and grabbed at what Kel''rek though might be a dagger. Belherd however, had no intention of waiting and promptly stepped forward to end his foe, while the guards quickly surrounded them.

    As if suddenly realizing that he had no future, the condemned bandit leader froze for a moment and simply watched as Belherd swung at his sword, going for the kill.

    Then, with strength that only the suicidal or newly awakened undead would know, the bandit pulled out a dagger with his right hand and leaped at Belherd, only raising his left arm to block the sword. Caught off guard, Belherd tried to adjust his blow and succeeded in slicing through the bandit''s left arm, but his sword was caught in the bandit''s bone. The bandit though, had no such trouble as, despite his new wound, he thrust his dagger through one of Belherd''s eyes and into the man''s brain before jerking the hilt around in a blind rage.

    Moments later the bandit was cut down by the guards, but it was too late for Belherd.

    What in the world? Kal''rek stared in wonder at the oddest turn of events he had ever seen. One of the guards tried calling for him, but Kal''rek knew it was too late.  A dagger to the eye from a man with nothing to lose. There was no way to stage that, but few will truly believe that such an insane thing actually occurred, everyone will say that Wolsey somehow had it set up... I feel sorry for those guards Kal''rek rode forward and coldly instructed them to strip the bodies of valuables.

    It was not the first time Kal''rek had seen someone die and he knew it would not be the last. After the guards could confirm what they witnessed to others he would let them keep whatever they could find.

    There was only one thing left to do:

    In accordance with the laws of the church, Kal''rek cast the ''fleshfire'' spell and waited for the bodies to be burned down to ash. It was an old law from before the Soul Wars to prevent Soul Mages from raising the dead.

    It had been centuries since the last Soul Mage appeared, but no one let their guard down when it came to enforcing that particular law.

    The group collected themselves and continued their journey, only stopping at a near-by village to briefly tell them what happened before continuing towards Entrials.

    Unknown to the travelers, more than a few gods had been watching the exchange with great interest. From the viewpoint of the gods such trivial fights happened everyday, but this fight was the first of many such little events that had to be guided into place, by those unseen hands.

 Chapter 6: The Lords Party.

    Chapter 6: The Lord¡¯s Party

    2 Warnings: 1- DeMorte started saying ¡®we¡¯ last chapter when he and his child-self were in agreement/synchronization and will continue to use ¡®we¡¯ on occasion to refer to both himself and his child-self ¡­ 2- Slight bullsh*t justification near the end of the first part.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Inside the palisade of Entrials.

    A few days before the Water Phase begins, cycle 3070 AF

    ¡°@%#$*&-¡±

    Nathan threw a glare over at the speaker, not realizing that I was desperately trying to memorize the new profanity.

    Curses were like alcohol, they each had their own distinctive history and flavor that were unique despite the common undertones that each carried. Although I was the only person I knew who actively tried to collect and memorize them.

    Regardless, I was having trouble understanding why he seemed so hostile over a little foul language, I learned to curse in three different languages by the time I was five in my previous life. It was also an impossible to keep me or the others from hearing such language as the town had swollen to the point of bursting and as happy as people were about the harvest, it was still too crowded.

    Nathan, Florence, Carly, and I were currently trying to fight that crowd ourselves as Nathan tried to get us to the mayor¨Cno, the lord mayor¡¯s mansion. As if any mayor really deserved to be called lord so grandiosely. In this world, the title only meant that you were the highest ranked individual in a specific area of administration. In this case, as we were in the outer edge of our country¡¯s civilized lands, there was no one above the mayor was anywhere nearby. This turned him into the preverbal big fish and officially he could not be overruled remotely by anyone except the crown, even if nobility in the area could seize control.

    It also meant that any visiting officials, researchers, and nobles would visit him if they ever had to come out this way, which put him at the top of Nathan¡¯s ¡°Stay Close With¡± list. Although I had yet to hear of an explanation of why Nathan was so important to the mayor as to try and tie his family to mine. It was one of the things to look forward to at the biggest celebration of the cycle, the lord¡¯s party. Another being the abundance of cheap food.

    Held amidst the last harvest festival in the metal phase of the cycle the lord¡¯s party was basically just another excuse to spend money and help people relieve stress. That said, it appeared to also be a good excuse for political negotiations, like marriage arrangements. Personally, I was more concerned about collecting information about the world at large and the main roads in the local area.

    After all, I would have to get far away from this backwater in order to become a male again.

    According to Anton¡¯s teachings about my own body and Leo¡¯s list of curses I would hit puberty on my sixteenth anniversary of my birth, or birthday, as Anton had called it. Until I hit sixteen, according to Anton, I had two different ways to turn myself back into a man. First, I could find a mage to transform my body. That was both dangerous and expensive, as such mages would have to be both stronger than my new body and trustworthy as I would literally be placing myself, body and soul, in their care. Of course, complete and purely magical changes like that frequently worked on levels that most people simply did not understand, the cellular level for instance. Although, if I did that at least it would give me a clear path to pursue, as the only mages with that level of power and talent would be in the larger cities and capitals; least the kings lose track of them. The second way I could try was creating some magical device or otherwise deliberately rebuilding my body. The problem was with the second way lay in how I could change my body, just removing an ¡°X¡± and adding a ¡°Y¡± would not do it. I would have to deliberately deconstruct my female sex organs and then systematically rebuild them as male organs before reworking my hormonal, neural, and circular systems to compensate for my newly grown manhood. Although I would be in total control the whole time, the construction would have to take place on the cellular level and if there were complications I would have to deal with them over the cycle or two it would take to self-operate. Or I could try and create a device that would use magic to instantly change my body. The advantages to building a magical device being the speed of change while the downsides included a lack of preparation for anything that went wrong.

    I had around seven cycles to prepare and choose my path though, so I was trying not to worry about it too much. Especially since I was almost helpless in my new body without more control over myself. As it was I could only take full control for about thirty second intervals a few times a day, not including magic.

    Interestingly, in the little time I had to grow accustomed to my new body¡¯s mana supply, I had gone from two circles worth of controllable mana to four circles. I had anticipated a much slower acquisition of mana control so, the jump in power threw up some fascinating possibilities about how the amount of an individual¡¯s mana available to that person might somehow be related to how acclimated their body was to using magic. It might even be tied into a person¡¯s subconscious somehow!

    While I mentally explored the mysteries and possibilities of mana, Nathan finally managed to navigate his way through the crowds to the mayor¡¯s mansion. A mansion it was too, despite being out on the outer edge of nowhere the mayor had not skimped on expense when building the thing. The building itself was made of stone and was large enough I had to wonder if the town had been built around it. Obviously having at least three stories above ground, I estimated another two below ground, with numerous rooms and a nice sized entrance hall visible on the ground floor alone. The two floors above ground level would probably be divided between private and public use. Of the floors I thought existed below ground, I attributed one layer for storage and another for the hidden ward keystone that would anchor the house wards. Although this world could have different habits when it came to architecture, my old world certainly preferred circular structures while this liked to build on right angles.

    Nathan was waved past the guards without them even checking the wagon, which both impressed and concerned me. It impressed because it could be a statement that Nathan was more important than I originally thought and concerned me because I had come up with a plan to sack the town within a few minutes of seeing it. Suddenly my original estimates of around three or four hundred men dropped to less than fifty if I could get enough deep sleep potions. Lax security was unforgivable because it led to death, even the fool nobles rarely relied just on wards. The wards were too easy to fool, making vigilant guards the key defense to overcome when attacking someone. I mentally make a note to check all the food I consumed, least I end up getting killed in an attack that I would have been perpetrating in my past life.

    After prodding her, my child-self turned to ask Florence if her father was that important, but Florence was clearly lost in her own fantasies as hummed to herself. Even before we stitched her torn dress up with a white sunwatcher, a flower that turned and followed the sun all day, Florence had been in lost in her own head. We sighed and decided to stick close to Nathan for a while to see if we could not solve the mystery ourselves.

    Surprisingly, it was a short lived investigation. As one of the manor servants came over to take care of the wagon another went inside and quickly returned with a large man following him. Fat was the sign of non-magical nobility for a reason, this man clearly had no magic, but plenty of money to spend on food. The large man was dressed in green tunic, brown trousers, and was clearly wearing a white haired wig to cover the fact that he was beginning to bald. Although he did not ware any sign of office, he looked like a stereotypical mayor.

    ¡°Nathan!¡± the mayor yelled, his voice booming out to fill the area between us, as he rushed over with speed defying his weight. ¡°It has been far too long for my old friend and savior to stay away from town! How are you?¡± The last part was spoken as he pulled Nathan into such a large hug that I started to wonder if I was going to have to heal him afterwards.

    ¡°I am fine as long as I can breathe.¡± Nathan wheezed, which only brought a louder laugh and a bigger squeeze before they separated. ¡°I greet you lord mayor.¡± Nathan said formally, adding a steep bow, which was promptly ignored by the mayor who moved on to greet the children.

    ¡°Posh with the formalities Nathan. I believe this flower is Florence.¡± He smiled at the young woman as she gave a small curtsy and looked her over briefly. ¡°I do believe my boy will have his work set to be worthy of you, my lady.¡± He gave her a small bow before turning to me and looking me in the eyes. I did not flinch and tried not to show the distain that I usually had for such men, especially when I was robbing them.

    For a moment no one spoke. Then Nathan politely coughed and did the introductions. ¡°Lord Mayor Guthan, this is my daughter Bella. Bella greet the Lord Mayor.¡± Nathan¡¯s voice carried an undertone that emphasized the man¡¯s titles.

    ¡°Greetings.¡± I stated simply, continuing to meet the man in the eyes until he broke eye contact, shaking his head slightly.

    ¡°Greetings violet, Bella, I mean. I apologize for staring, but you do have such very interesting eyes. I suppose with how frugal Nathan here is you have never seen them?¡± Mayor Guthan offered.

    I blinked in surprise, I knew from my curse list that my eyes were supposed to be a variant of purple, but were they really that different? I wondered how he would react to my ears, which were very well covered up by my hair. Maybe I should have paid more attention to it? Out laud however I only told the mayor no, mirrors were expensive so, frugal or not, I did not blame Nathan for not purchasing one. By the ovals, mirrors were so expensive in my old world that it would take a farmer like one of our tenants seven cycles of good harvests to buy one, if the famer did not pay his rent.

    ¡°Well do not worry about that, someone managed to leak the secrets to making mirrors to several individuals so the price in dropping fast. Even Nathan will buy one soon.¡± The mayor spoke modestly for once smiling with his face, but not his eyes, before booming out again. ¡°Maybe I will send one home with him this cycle as a gift, ha! Now this must be Carlatus! How are you enjoying our humble town little man?¡± The mayor moved onto Carly and I ignored Nathan¡¯s look of annoyance.

    Carly, unlike me apparently, had the excuse of being too young to know better and could be blatantly rude. ¡°It stinks, the people were throwing poop into the streets!¡±

    That earned a pair of nervous laughs from both the mayor and Nathan as they both knew the boy was right. Public facilities however were expensive things for such a small town, even if it could double in size on occasions such as tonight¡¯s festival. Farms had outhouses, but towns and some cities were without any form of waste disposal besides emptying the chamber pot into the street.

    I had cringed, repeatedly, when Anton had described just how much of a health hazard the city night soil was. After entering the city (we had the wind at our backs while approaching it) I had even been compelled to cast a small spell inside of my nose to keep the offensive odor to a minimum. Even someone like me who had literally lived in the gutter at one point did not like the smell.

    Privately, I wondered if the mayor had someone cast a spell on him to dampen his own sense of smell. As long as no one with magic, like a healer, tried to examine the individual, magic spells cast inside the body were impossible to detect. Of course, when the magic was inside your body even people with no talent could feel it and therefore know when it was disturbed or touched by another individual; as a result, I had no intention of investigating the state of the mayor¡¯s nostrils, no matter how curious my child-self or I were at that moment.

    Leaning back the mayor looked over at Nathan and gave him a grand smile. ¡°Your children are wonderful Nathan, if you are alright with it I will have Cedrick here show them to their rooms.¡±

    As Nathan gave the mayor an affirmative nod I quietly took note of how the man had not asked after my mother, but a logical possibility was that he had received forewarning about who would be coming into town to visit. Cedrick, the servant who seemed to originally inform the mayor of our arrival, quickly ushered the kids off into the mansion as Nathan began asking the mayor something about a mine.

    It was almost enough for me to accuse Leo of trying to create intrigue in my daily life. Although, in all seriousness, Leo would know better than to do that given my record of wandering feet.

    Previous record, I amended, as the kids were shown into the main hall of the mansion, which was a hive of activity. Cedrick however easily dodged the other servants and led us through the hall to the main stairway. Looking at how wide and expensive it was I could not escape the feeling that there was way more to this town than I knew. There was simply no point to have such a grandiose house that it needed a central stairway wide enough for twelve people to descend side-by-side.

    I put my suspicions aside however as we made our way up the stairway to the second floor and off to a set of guest rooms. Rooms, being plural, surprised me as I was sure that Florence would not be needing her private room for anything besides sleep (child-me had been privately tasked by mother to ensure that). The rooms themselves were very nice with a feather¡¯s mattress for sleeping, a dresser with a chair what appeared to be a built-in mirror, and a small glass window to let in the sunlight. The fact that this place had a history was so obvious I almost threw up my hands in defeat. Clear glass windows in the guest rooms! Maybe it was just a technological difference between worlds? If they had a way to make clear glass cheaply enough to use so freely this would definitely have things for me to learn.

    My child-self and Carly were given the room next to Florance, who still seemed to be floating around instead of walking, while we were told that Nathan could share the room with us if we wished. I rejected that out of hand, but Carly was less decisive so the discussion was delayed until later.

    Speaking of which, I decided to take the opportunity to finally get a good look at myself in a real mirror. It was a slightly unnerving idea as mirror always seemed unnatural to me, but my child-self was more flexible so she walked over to the dresser and pulled out the chair before standing on it. The dresser had two wooden door covering where I thought the mirror was so I opened them and blinked in surprise.

    ¡­I¨C we were cute.

    Partly disgusted, partly fascinated, we stared at ourself, together reaching up and touching our cheek. We had bright blond hair that covered our ears and the back of our neck in a thick mat, though our bangs were short. Our face was slim, with a slightly pointed chin and a small nose. It held a childish attractiveness that hinted at future growth into, while not a full beauty like Florence, a sly, intelligent, beauty. Our eyes were a piercing violet that some would describe as flashing and when we pushed our hair out of the way and looked at ourself with our pointed ears, we were truly an odd sight. Although, an odd sight to some would be an otherworldly beauty to others.

    We heard a small gasp from the doorway and turned to find a young boy, around our body¡¯s age standing at the doorway. Carly, was looking at him oddly and trying to figure out why the boy was staring at us¨C at child-me.

    The boy promptly ran off, clearly smitten. I shook my head mentally, I had slept with another man twice before, back in my previous life. Both times I ended up every well paid as The Guilt worked me over for the crime of what I did to them before I took my payment. I did not speak about it and Anton had tried to say something about mental trauma before I accidentally blasted him with spirit speak.

    It turned out that I could show others just what The Guilt felt like.

    Moving on, I pushed child-me to go collect some festival spending money from Florence. I had seen Nathan pass it to her as Cedrick led us inside and knew that he had talked about giving us some spending money on the way to the town. One plus one equaled¡­

    20 copper coins apparently. I quickly ducked out of the house and went in search of cheap food, only stopping to tell one of the guards who I was so that they would let me back in. We had a few hours until the sun started to set and people really started celebrating so I quietly ran off and encouraged my child-self to play up the ¡®cute kid¡¯ act for more food.

    By the time she was done we had around 22 coins worth of food in our stomach and another 3 coins worth in my hands. The best part about being a part of this festival was turning out to be the way I could buy from multiple vendors and almost none of their competition noticed me. As a result no one questioned a hungry, energetic little girl who just happened to eat more food than 4 grown men. Energy cultivation used my nutritional intake very efficiently.

    The thing about energy cultivation though, was that it both took total concentration and made one want to move around. This meant that most people could not cultivate while moving and could not stay still for for more than thirty minutes of cultivation every few hours. Since my child-self was moving around all the time and I was totally concentrated manipulating our mana, this meant that in the few hours that I was wondering around I managed almost non-stop cultivation.

    In fact, the amount of cultivation I did almost made up for the fact that I had been limited for the last few weeks. Although I did have to occasionally take breaks to rebuild my muscles, which were small, especially for a farm child.

    As the festivities starting to bring the people out into the streets in a slightly tipsy mood however, I took total control of my new body. I needed more calories and asking for more money or taking lots of free food would be suspicious.

    Working the spell in my mind I changed my hair and eye color and threw some more dirt on my generic farmer¡¯s robe. It was not enough to really hide my identity, however I already found out that there was a well in the back of the mayor¡¯s mansion so I decided that a haircut and bath would have to satisfy for throwing others off any idea that this little girl was about to become the best purse thief in the city. Nathan and mother would be less angry with a little hair trim than they would if they learned I was a thief. Not to mention how many people I might have to kill making an escape into the countryside.

    ¡­Then again, given enough time, calories, and nutrients I could grow parts of my body back even if the guards did something like chopping off a hand for theft.

    Regardless, I used a brief illusion spell to see what I looked like and confirmed that most people would not recognize me at a glance. Just another farmer¡¯s daughter playing around.

    Drifting out into the streets I then spent the next twenty minutes being pushed around by the crowd, swapping control with my child-self for most of the time, while guiding her hands. Before we finally found an alley that was being used for the storage of empty crates. We slid our way into the small maze of crates and quietly removed first one pouch, than another, and then around 20 more.

    A good night¡¯s work I thought. Although I preferred the more honest approach of just hitting someone over the head and taking their money, my body was currently built much more for nimble finger action right now instead of brute force. It still left a slightly bad taste in my mouth though.

    Spreading out the small piece of cloth that I had cut from the inner layers of my robe, which also let me store these pouches without incident, I began emptying them onto the cloth one by one. The one truly universal trade commodity, salt.

    Too many people kept an eye on their coin purse and an observant person would notice the weight missing fairly quickly, as compared to their salt, which, while equally important to carry around, was light enough to not be notice for a while. People also tended to avoid enchanted salt pouches with anti-theft magic as it was expensive.

    Quickly dumping the salt into the cloth I sealed it all together into a small salt block with my mana. My child-self would be able to trade it for coin and buy more food before the lord¡¯s party officially started.

    Slightly tired, I left my child-self to sell the salt herself and started creating the mental framework for the spell that I was going to use for our haircut. Although odd, I felt no need to hide my pointed ears and would personally enjoy Nathan¡¯s shocked expression when he saw us.

    The couple of coins worth of food that I did not eat while cultivating earlier had been eaten and quickly digested when I used my illusion spell and the snip spells I had cast to steal the salt pouches. As we once again consumed an insane amount of food I reflected how nice it was to finally have 4 circles worth of mana.

    Being a successful bandit in my previous life with three circles of mana had not only been hard, but it had been dangerous. I had to trick others into thinking that I was fighting ¡®fairly¡¯ while trying to hide my real plans. I also had to be paranoid and unsure about who would betray me next in order to survive. In fact it became easier for me to encourage the betrayals than worry about who was going to try and kill me that particular week.

    One of the first people who earned my highest level of trust was Horus, who later fathered Osiris, my successor. When he learned about my method of thinking he jokingly suggested announcing it as the ¡°Bandit¡¯s Creed,¡± which, after some key alterations, I did.

    I thought my creed was fairly simple:

    A Bandit was someone who tried to take the possessions of others by force, whether to survive or for greed. A Bandit was someone who accepted that life was a war, one in which the strong enforced their views on the weak as best they could. A Bandit was someone who knew that, if caught, they had broken the rules of the enemy and would be punished. A Bandit was someone who lived their life their own way because of their own choices. A Bandit knew that there were no rules in war, that all laws were only enforced by the power of their instigators. A Bandit knew that he would die. A Bandit knew that while he could not always choose his death, the Bandit could always choose how to live their life. A Bandit was a choice, a choice of violence and living day to day instead of being one of the sheep they fed on.

    ¡­Maybe it was a bit self-righteous, but it got me more followers and helped keep them following my rules, so, as time went on, I never felt the need to change it. Especially as part of it turned out to be true for The Guilt as telling my subordinates to offer the sanctimoniousness mercenaries (who came for my head by the droves in the latter half of my life) the choice of living for three cycles as slaves or dying on the spot. Even not choosing one of those options was an allowed choice, but usually resulted in death by fire instead of decapitation. As long as I let them chose their path however I would not have to deal with The Guilt when my subordinates did the deed.

    Personally executing someone or ordering their death directly however would activate The Guilt regardless of their choice. It was a small loophole that allowed me some relief in the face of an otherwise unavoidable conclusion.

    As my child-self moved back into an alleyway I removed the illusion spell that had changed her hair and eye color before having her lean over by a barrel. Someone made a bad joke about giving kids too much cider, however the individual left quickly and no one else was around so I took the chance and cast the clip spell. Similar to snip, clip was a specialized spell which cast a snip like spell on your hair, cutting it into the exact pattern you wanted.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    Leaning up and brushing the stray pieces to hair off my neck and blasted the hair on the ground with a spell that would make it impossible to use for blood (DNA) based magic before going back to the mayor¡¯s mansion.

    It was time to have some fun.

    *     *     *

    Just north of Entrials (brief flashback):

    Florence was beautiful.

    Everyone acknowledged her natural curves and blossoming bust with their eyes when they looked at her.

    Everyone smiled at her when she laughed or when a smile lit up her perfectly rounded face.

    Everyone commented on her strong legs and well-shaped arms, balancing the plumpness and height of a good upbringing with the muscles of a woman familiar enough with the field.

    Yes, Florence was the most beautiful young woman in the area and she knew it. What she did not know until recently however was that a good dress could magnify even her beauty.

    As she, Carlatus, and the normally rude little Bella sat in the front of the wagon, the two smaller children taking in the sight of Entrials for the first time while their father talked to the guards. Carlatus with unabashed fear and amazement and Bella with an interested, evaluating, look. Bella was probably thinking of ways to steal food, Florence thought annoyed, the little girl was as natural a thief at the table as she was with a needle.

    A thought which brought Florence back to her dress. Bella had been an annoyance to Florence for most of the girl¡¯s young life, but for once the brash little girl proved helpful. As they were on the way into town Florence had accidentally caught the hem of her dress and ripped it horribly. Bella ended up fixing the dress with some white thread that Florence had been sure would clash horribly with the blue dress. It did not however, as Bella somehow managed to turn a small tear into a beautiful white flower in record time. Florence, her father, and even Carlatus were astounded. It would be a beautiful dress to wear when she met the lord mayor¡¯s son.

    Walking back her father told the two younger ones to get in the back before they entered the town. Normally only a few thousand people, the town swelled with people as the Metal cycle ended and the fourth Earth cycle began as everyone feasted on the newly harvested food.

    The lord mayor, who was the highest ranked official this far out from the capital, would be hosting the lord¡¯s party, where she would meet his son.

    Florence was excited, between her dress and her natural beauty she was only worried about what type of a person he might be. The thought of having to reject the son of a powerful man who was smitten by her beauty was annoying in the extreme.

    With such thoughts in her head Florence anxiously flitted away her time, eventually giving her spending money to Bella to get her out of the way until the lord¡¯s party began.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    When people began arriving, her father came up to fetch her from the second floor. He was also trying to locate Bella as Carlatus had apparently managed to make himself useful to the servants and completely lost track of his sister.

    Only with Bella is the younger sibling supposed to keep track of the older, Florence thought viciously. Of course she kept her outer demeanor calm, as Mrs. Ealba had instructed, while she spoke with an even tone. ¡°I gave her my share of spending money father, I am afraid that she might still be out there enjoying the town.¡±

    He shook his head, ¡°It is not your fault Florence. It is mine.¡± He sighed.

    ¡°Father?¡± Florence gently probed.

    ¡°Get ready, it turns out there is a special visitor who was meant to be here yesterday afternoon, but was delayed. He should arrive tonight though.¡± Her father said something else under her breath that Florence was sure should not be said in good company.

    ¡°Who is arriving?¡± Florence asked worriedly. She almost asked if it had something to do with the mine, but managed not to. No one in their family was not supposed to talk about the iron mine that most people thought had run dry cycles ago. Especially since she knew that her father regularly sent some of his tenants out to mine it.

    Her father hesitated a brief moment before speaking. ¡°A pair of Healers who want to examine the mana flow of the forest. Now get ready and I will walk you down in a few minutes.¡± He then walked out and closed the door behind himself.

    Why did he hesitate? Florence wondered, as she was getting undressed. There was no need to, a pair of Healers coming to visit was interesting news, but nothing to keep secret about.

    He also sounded like he was not going to look for Bella. Then again, he might just be asking a servant to inform him of her arrival and how much trouble could she get into anyway? Almost half the people in town were children anyway, if something serious happened someone would notice.

    Yes, it will probably be better to just concentrate on my possible husband. The thought of her future (possible) husband brought a smile to her face as she finished putting on the relatively simple dress. She had, of course, been told about his hobbies and interests so that they would be able to talk easier, however she still had no idea if they would actually get along or not.

    Checking her appearance in the mirror Florence smiled widely, her dress was just her color.

    While admiring her appearance there was a knock at the door and her father called in asking if she was ready yet.

    Checking herself meticulously, Florence wished that her father had given her permission to buy a beauty enhancer potion, even if he insisted that they were wastes of money. She was worth a bit of expense, especially tonight.

    As she finished checking herself a final time she heard another knock at the door, but before her father could say anything Florence called out ¡°I am decent.¡± Which cued the door to open.

    Her father was in a clean robe and had made an effort to control his incredibly curly hair. Florence smiled and bobbed a curtsy of familial respect, feeling proud that her family could afford a spare set of clothes to change into for tonight.

    Her father nodded approval and extended his arm. Even if they were in the outer reaches of the kingdom there was no reason to forget proper decorum. Florence took his arm was as led respectfully out into the hall and down the stairs.

    While not a massive gathering, those inside the mayor¡¯s home represented the largest land owners under the control of the lord mayor or a good day¡¯s ride in any direction. In all honesty it could be said that the mayor held enough territory that a minor noble should actually replace him, however the mayor had some connection in the capital that meant he remained where he was. Around thirty families were in attendance so the party was quite spread out in the northern wing of the house, fortunately Florence only need to know three of them:

    The Smiths from town, the Millers from just west of her father¡¯s lands, and the River Stalker clan from the southern county border.

    The first two were important business partners for her father and the last group was an annoyance. Apparently when her father saved the mayor, one of their clan had died tragically and they blamed her father for the death. Normally that would mean dealing with a few snide comments and insults, but when they heard about Florence¡¯s formal introduction to the mayor¡¯s son there would be trouble.

    As Florence was led through the crowd by her father it took all of her willpower to not start looking around frantically for where the mayor was. She needed to remain calm though, or, at the least, appear calm.

    Then the swarm of faces broke and she saw the mayor and his son. Handsome, she thought, not too large, but athletic, around 15 cycles old with a sharp, well defined, manly face. Father did say he practiced the sword. He has been in grammar school recently though so I was unsure how well he would be able to keep up his practice.

    They made their way over at a deliberate pace and Florence prayed that no one else could hear how the way her heart was pounding so loudly. Her father made the introductions very naturally and Florence quietly thanked Ealba again as she greeted the mayor and his oldest son despite the fact that she was too nervous to think straight. Ealba had drilled Florence in how to behave as well as if she had been studying under a spellmaster.

    The mayor was smiling grandly as he introduced his son as Robert and joked to Florence¡¯s father about how they were just speaking of his habit of hard work and wondering why he had not rented out the land he had harvested. Her father simply shrugged nonchalantly and gave his usual explanation of not wanting to be dependent on others. Adding that he had brought some food for the party, grown by his own hands, on his wagon when he arrived and they seemed to be enjoying it.

    Looking at the mayor¡¯s table off to the side of the room, anyone could see the half eaten remains of some avotatos. Florence let a giggle slip despite herself as the mayor looked a little chagrined. ¡°I never said you were not a good farmer Nathan, just that you could turn your attentions elsewhere if you took on more renters.¡± Returning to his more jolly self again the mayor quickly added ¡°Unless you plan on giving more of that land to your son? Even then you cannot be a true gentleman if you work Nathan.¡± The mayor also made sure to say his last part in both in jest and as a serious enough manner to show that he wanted an answer.

    Florence had never met the man before today, however, her father had mentioned the man¡¯s tendency to act like a happy fool and then ask difficult questions. It caught her off-guard to see it in action, but apparently her father was either expecting it, or was used to the mayor¡¯s personality. He happily redirected the mayor, taking him by the arm and leading the way back to the mayor¡¯s table as he spoke, ¡°I was meaning to talk to you about such things, but especially about Bella¡¯s future with¡­¡± The conversation trailed off as they moved away, leaving Florence and Robert together in the crowd.

    Nervous, Florence tried to control her features and make conversation. ¡°I was told that you were going to grammar school to study the great thinkers and governors?¡±

    Robert smiled and Florence felt her heart flutter a little. ¡°Correct, we just finished studying the Morgutz SoulWar and how it helped shape the current countries. He had a deep voice and spoke as if at ease with the world.

    Florence nodded, ¡°I have some petty school teachings regarding that, although history was not a large part of my learnings. A SoulWar is just a war with Soul Mages correct?¡±

    Robert laughed a little and Florence blushed. ¡°That would be like saying that adventures and mercenaries were the same. No, a true SoulWar involves the undead and the churches declaring a war of faith.¡±

    Florence nodded and continued to question him about various things, eventually answering his questions about her family and her dress, which led to her very carefully trying not to insult Bella while describing her. ¡°She is a frail little thing who manages to be full of energy and with a great appetite for the finer things in this world.¡±

    That really got Robert laughing as he pointed out that, leaving out the frail and little parts he would describe his father in the same way.

    As Florence enjoyed his laughter and the conversation however, they attracted unwanted attention.

    ¡°Florence, daughter of Nathan the coward correct?¡±

    The voice was ice water on the warm atmosphere she and Robert had cultivated.

    Whipping around, Florence did not need to see the small scar on the women¡¯s cheek to have an idea of who she was. Only the River Stalkers would dare call her father a coward. The women was Robert¡¯s age and lithe, with muscles consistent of a hunter, a thin, gaunt, face, and raven black hair. She also had piercing, dark, eyes that bespoke of hatred. Her most distinguishing feature however was the small wavy scar on her cheek which denoted her clan.

    ¡°Incorrect.¡± Florence said coldly eyeing the women. ¡°I am Florence, the daughter of Nathan, chief gentry among the northernmost county of Zootrof¨ª.¡± Florence used her father¡¯s full title, despite the fact that being chief gentry in such a small county was almost useless.

    ¡°A useless title for a useless man.¡± The women stated without regard. ¡°So I did find the right one. I thought so after I saw the way you were whoring yourself to the Lord¡¯s son here.¡±

    She turned and gave him a friendly, inviting, smile while Florence blushed furiously before retaliating. ¡°I think you are mistaking who the whore is here.¡±

    ¡°Now, now, thinking is not the specialty of that vocation.¡± The woman dismissed, her eyes never leaving Robert ¡°I am Janeen, daughter of Mathalaous, chief of the river stalkers.¡± She inclined her head briefly before continuing. ¡°Might I ask why you are spending time with such a bore? I understand that a young man might need practice, but really now.¡± She pouted a little.

    Robert, to his credit only started flush a little before he spoke coldly. ¡°A friendly demeanor for starters.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± she said nodding, ¡°but you know others can be just as friendly.¡± She smiled even more invitingly before Florence spoke in anger.

    ¡°I am sure you get all sorts of ¡®friendly¡¯ practice with the rest of your clan, but please do not inflict your lack of morals on others.¡±

    The words drained all the humor and friendliness out of Janeen¡¯s face while she turned back to Florence in a rage, but she was cut off by a harsh voice. ¡°Janeen.¡± Looking over, together the three were surprised to see the mayor, Florence¡¯s father, and another, older, man, clearly from the river stalker clan as his scar stood out on his otherwise hair-free head. ¡°If you throw such crude insults around they will eventually be returned in kind.¡± His gravelly voice matched his appearance, which seemed to be carved from stone.

    ¡°I apologize Clan Master.¡± Janeen immediately bowed and apologized to the stone man. Janeen did not explain herself or try to make excuses, but she held her bow instead, waiting for permission to straighten up.

    The Clan Master stared at Janeen for a moment before turning back to Florence and her father, who had moved to her side. ¡°I only heard part of what she said, but I know her mouth. She will be punished later.¡±

    Nathan nodded stiffly. ¡°Florence let me introduce you to Rhome of the River Stalker clan. Rhome, this is my daughter Florence and you already met Carlatus.¡± He never took his eyes off Rhome, ¡°My other daughter will be down stairs in a few moments.¡±

    Florence, having lost her anger, felt nervous and jerked at she realized that Carlatus was trying not to hide behind their father¡¯s leg next to her.

    Rhome did not look impressed, but then, his face was so blank that Florence was starting to wonder if he was not some stone creature that a mage had brought to life.

    ¡°As much as I would like to wait and meet her, the matter I told you about will be obvious in a few minutes.¡± Rhome looked Florence¡¯s father in the eyes as he spoke and then looked meaningfully towards a hallway that would take them to the mayor¡¯s personal office.

    Her father nodded. ¡°Florence, take care of your siblings and tell Bella that we will be retiring for the night when the mayor and I get done speaking with Rhome and the others.¡±

    Florence panicked. The night was barely getting started, she only had about an hour or two to talk with Robert and she was not tired yet! Not to mention that a nice evening was about to ruined by Bella¡¯s reappearance. She looked at her father and opened her mouth to complain, but a sharp look from him made her shut her mouth for a moment. ¡°Yes, father,¡± was all she could say.

    At that point, the adults all left to go talk, taking both Robert and, to Florence¡¯s humiliation, Janeen to the side room to speak. She was so embarrassed she did not even notice the surprised gasps and murmurs that erupted around the room until Carlatus gave a loud ¡®whoa.¡¯

    Turning to look she could not see what was happening because of the crowd of people, but it did not matter to her, her embarrassment had rapidly turned into anger and she pulled Carlatus over to the side where her father and the mayor¡¯s table was still half-full of food.

    Sitting down in anger, she fumed at her memory of Janeen¡¯s interruption while Carlatus proceeded to climb up onto the chair next to her while looking at all the food on the table. ¡°Ah, sister Florence is that stuff made of nuts?¡± He pointed to a lumpy mass of nutbutter.

    ¡°Yes.¡± Florence said tersely, trying to invent new, witty, insults in her head to be used when she and Janeen met again.

    Carlatus gasped, ¡°but, but, but, Bella said they were poisonous and I should never eat any.¡±

    Florence looked into the boy¡¯s young and confused eyes and sighed. Bella had always been a glutton, it had just gotten worse recently, but that was going too far for some extra food. ¡°Carlatus, there is a reason Bella keeps calling you Carly, it is because you are too easy to order around. She only told you that to keep more food for herself.¡± She looked at her little brother with pity, as he looked nervously at the nutbutter. ¡°Oh, you are a boy Carlatus, act like one.¡±

    Grabbing a spoon she took a gob of nutbutter and ate it. It was too rich and chunky for her tastes though so she washed it down with some nearby mead. ¡°See, I am fine.¡± She smiled briefly before planting the spoon into the nutbutter again, ¡°If you want some, then eat, if not, then do not, just do not be such a baby about it.¡±

    Carlatus scrunched up his face in anger and grabbed the spoon. Stuffing most of a large glob of nutbutter around his mouth as well as inside of it.

    Florence shook her head and passed him the mead she grabbed earlier. Her father would object, mead was usually viewed as too strong for kids, but Florence did not have energy to care. ¡°Where is that brat Bella?¡± She grumbled.

    To her surprise, Carlatus pointed to a crowd of people before drinking some of the mead.

    Florence glared at him for a moment. ¡°Why did you not tell me earlier?¡±

    Carlatus grimaced and coughed while looking at the mead like it was the poison now. ¡°I tried, but you pulled me over here and I lost track of her. Everyone was talking because she cut her hair though so I think she is over there.¡±

    Cut her hair? Florence felt cold, ¡°stay here,¡± she ordered.

    Standing, Florence navigated her way through the crowd. Although Carlatus might be a push-over, he was right about the crowd, if Bella had cut her hair short enough, everyone would notice.

    After a minute of pushing through the crowd she found Bella, wearing a casual grey robe, albeit a clean one, as if showing off her new shortened hair while casually devouring a large piece of chicken. ¡°Firegrass.¡± Florence moaned. Bella¡¯s hair was now short and very practical, although it was short to the point where most young farm girls would choose to grow it out a little longer. On the farm it would be more practical so no one would care, but here in the village most girls grew their hair out by choice. More importantly, though, Bella¡¯s ears were showing.

    Bella turned at her voice and smiled at Florence. ¡°I never heard that one before.¡± She joked.

    Florence quickly strode forward and grabbed at Bella¡¯s arm, but the little curse dodged easily and took another bite of chicken while looking amused. ¡°What do you think you are doing?¡± Florence hissed.

    Bella swallowed before speaking. ¡°Eating. What are you doing sister?¡±

    Florence could feel the eyes on her, identifying her and connecting them. Florence wanted to grab the little fool and drag her off to beat some sense into her, but she knew, better than most, how agile and dexterous Bella was. Florence had once chased her up the outside wall of the barn and the little monster did not even slow down!

    Florence took a deep breath, ¡°I am trying to figure out why you suddenly decided to cut your hair little sister.¡±

    ¡°Is there something wrong with it?¡±

    The reply was so innocent that Florence stopped for a moment in shock. How could she explain that her family wanted to hide those darn elf ears?

    As fortune would have it though, she never had to. A guard ran inside ahead of a large group of people. ¡°Where is the mayor?¡± He spoke quickly and someone must have pointed, because the man suddenly nodded and the guard took off towards the mayor¡¯s office.

    Quickly, as the others arrived behind him the crowd understood the basics. There was a group with a Healer that had been attacked coming up from the south by bandits.

    Florence swept Bella out of the group and tried to pull her back to the table where Carlatus was at. Bella, naturally, made a nascence of herself asking why the bandits were such a big deal. Florence promised to explain later and then stopped abruptly as she saw Carlatus¡¯ face.

    It was swollen up, with his lips, face, throat, and hands far too large to be normal.

    ¡°CARLY!!!¡± shrieked Bella, who sprinted forward to her brother. ¡°I told you not to eat nuts stupid!¡±

    Florence almost stopped breathing, her brother was allergic to nuts? How had Bella known? Did her father know and just not tell her? Had she just killed her own brother!?

    The room seemed to spin for Florence as she watched Bella cry over her brother, screeching for help.

    Again though, a savior appeared with a shout. ¡°Make way for the Healer!¡± Suddenly Florence felt like she could breathe again and she immediately identified the Healer by his priestly robes and the way he was shoving his way to her brother.

    Following his example, Florence pushed through the crowd and pulled a wailing Bella off of her brother just as the Healer arrived.

    Although Florence had no magic, even she knew to give the priest his room to practice the holy art. It was illegal to falsely claim to be a Healer for a reason, only a priest could hold that blessed title, only a person of devotion could learn such a vital magic line.

    As she let the man work his magic, Bella collapsed into her chest sobbing. Florence tried to console Bella while the little girl kept saying things like there was no reason for her to be crying and she should stop already. Florence just kept stroking her head and telling her that it was okay.

    A minute later the Healer stood up as Carlatus¡¯ face had returned to normal. Florence prodded Bella and told her to look just as their father arrived, white faced and seeking an explanation.

    When Bella finally turned and saw that Carlatus was okay, she leaped over to him and immediately started yelling at him for eating nuts.

    That got the attention of the Healer. ¡°Little one,¡± he asked ¡°how did you know what he was allergic to when his father here clearly did not?¡±

    Bella jerked and turned to look at the Healer. ¡°Allergic? I have never heard the word before now. I¡­¡± Bella blinked, with the remains of tears still in her eyes she stopped and looked up at the Healer confused. ¡°I just knew. I knew it was poison to just him. How did I know that?¡±

    Pausing a moment the Healer studied her and then did something with his hands that caused Bella to give a yip and jump high enough that Bella could almost jump over Florence before coming down in a crouch.

    Before either she or Bella could object, their father stepped between them and the Healer. ¡°Thank you for saving my son, but if I might ask, was that you who made my daughter jump so and if it was you, what purpose it served?¡±

    ¡°It was me, your child likely has a healing talent, which was how she knew about the allergy, I just need to test to see if she had magical capability as well. That was why I tested her just now, although, I will admit that the amount of mana she has is surprising.¡± The Healer, along with the rest of the crowd including a shocked Nathan, Rhome, and the mayor, stared at Bella, clearly wondering how she would shape their futures.

    Though, for the first time that night, Florence was truly ready to retire for the evening and get some sleep.

 Chapter 7: Growth and Experiments

    Second Earth Phase of cycle 3078 AF (cycle and a half after the previous chapter)

    Chapter 7: Growth and Experiments

    ¡°Firegrass! Blighted Firegrass.¡± Came an oath.

    ¡°Firegrass.¡± Came a chorus of confirmations from the other men present.

    I just stood back studying everything and wondered how I could safely experiment on the firegrass when everyone agreed that it had to be destroyed as fast as possible wherever it appeared.

    A large flash of blue fire signaled the death of the top layer of firegrass, but everyone kept fairly far back to let the heat die down before they began digging up the firebulb that grew the firegrass.

    Firegrass, as its name would suggest is grass that can use fire. Specifically, the grass was some sort of underground plant that let some animals graze on it while it tied their feet down and then roasted them with its fire.

    Normally, an 8 and a half cycle old girl would not be allowed to accompany a group who had set out to fight something like firegrass, but Healer Kal¡¯rek, who had visited during the Lord¡¯s party a cycle and a half ago, had insisted that I get exposed to injuries and the local menders. That turned into both a blessing and a curse as the menders were the local villagers who treated the injured when a Healer was not around. This meant that I both gained practical knowledge and that I had to listen to their horribly inaccurate ideas of how the human body worked.

    The Healer himself had stayed at the town through the Water phase of the yearly cycle (winter) and had patiently answered almost all of my questions about the magic of this world. It was so odd to have differences in some of the things that I took for granted in rules of magic. For example, in my old world a person¡¯s magic could be felt developing, but it would not manifest itself as a ¡®talent¡¯ like it would in this world. This made a huge difference in my daily life as I could eat more, work less, and occasionally tell others what was unhealthy. I say occasionally because despite my good record for predicting the genders of future children, there was almost no one was willing to believe a child¡¯s ¡®talent¡¯ when it came to some of their favorite vices, like smoking. However, most people were willing to follow my advice when sick¨C provided the menders did not contradict it.

    Besides the way someone¡¯s talent could manifest itself, there was only one other noticeable difference in the magic systems I had experienced. Here, the mages believed that they could only cultivate energy for one hour a day. I had to witness the Healer¡¯s cultivation for myself before I realized that, while the people here used the same system, they went into a deeper state of cultivation than I did. As a result, they could do three hours of my cultivation in one hour, but they would need to spend the rest of the day absorbing the energy they cultivated, while I would just absorb at the same rate that I collected the energy. Since most people had to concentrate completely on energy cultivation, to the point where they had to stand still, this meant that the world I was in actually let their mages use their time more efficiently, at the cost of some of the strength they could have gained from energy cultivation.

    Outside of the magical system, although I never told him as much, Kal¡¯rek also taught me that I would never be a true ''Healer.'' The reason was simple, all Healers were priests and I had killed more priests and religious warriors in my past life than I had found people worthy of respect in both my lives combined. The title of Healer was like the title of knight. According to Kal¡¯rek, the title was earned through service and could not be passed down to the next generation. Both were also titles that everyone was supposed to recognize as important and know that they were protected by the King¡¯s Law.

    In particular, the title of Healer mandated ten cycles of religious dedication to any of the churches, which only sometimes included your actually training as a Healer. Nonreligious Healers and Healer who left their church were either grouped with the menders or joined the Medic''s guild as a way to distinguish themselves from the common menders.

    Currently, I was lucky enough to be spending time with mender and alchemist Loco who was educating me on some of the different potions that you could make in our area. There was another mender, who I just called Slaver, that Nathan said I was obligated to spend time with. Unfortunately, that fool thought that I was her apprentice and even tried to make me do all of her prep work. I refused and ended up teaching my child-self how to hunt after Slaver refused to feed me. Loco, in comparison, was both sane and fun. Especially since he had a habit of spending days on end searching deep in the wilderness for herbs and potion ingredients.

    Unfortunately for some of the local patients, Loco and I got along like a house on fire. We loved experimenting with new potions and sometimes the patients became the experiments. Anton would be appalled, but that was the nature of alchemy, trial and error. Naturally, very few experimenting alchemists stayed alive for long without other people to test on. Although my child-self was partly horrified at our experiments, I could at least guess what the potions did and therefor try to prevent permanent damage. In a few rare cases I had to take direct action with my magic, but I just passed it off as my talent interacting with whatever potion I gave the individual. Of course Loco likely knew I was lying, but he did not have any magic so I could help him know what potions to test. Although unofficial, as a benefit of helping him test different potions, Loco would keep his mouth shut when it came to his suspicions about my magic. All in all, I quite liked him.

    As the group finally dug up the firebulb I just watched on the side with Loco, ready to mend what I could and bandage what I could not. Menders dealt with all small injuries, basic diseases, broken bones, burns, and the occasional pitchfork accident. A few chops of an ax later however and everyone was satisfied that they could go home.

    ¡°Do you think we will be lucky enough to avoid injuries on the way back to the village too?¡± I asked, looking over at Loco. He was a wiry man, around 28 cycles old, who stood around 160cm tall with no hair ¨C eyebrows or otherwise ¨C on his face and 7 bright white teeth that actually glowed when he smiled.

    [Author¡¯s Note: I decided to formally avoid changing the time or distance measurements too much for convenience sake ¨C no promise on weight as of yet]

    ¡°Perhaps, but why ask when you already knew the answer?¡± Loco, answered absently, he himself was too busy examining a piece of bark from a nearby tree to care much.

    ¡°I am just making small talk, I am bored and I still have not figured out how to make the magical device I told you about.¡± I replied simply.

    ¡°You have plenty of cycles to think of something.¡± Loco dismissed, continuing his study of the bark.

    I sighed internally as the fact was that I had less time than any other human could know. I estimated 7 cycles or so before puberty and the devices I needed to make would take at least 3 cycles to gather information before that. As it was right now, I only had a few wild rabbits to experiment on.

    Originally I was only going to eat the rabbit who came up to me one day, but my child-self thought it was ¡°cute¡± ¨C of all things. I argued and debated with her for days until I realized that it was pointless and decided to experiment with genetic modification on them instead. The problem was, although I figured out the magic to modify the rabbits¡¯ genetic information easily enough there were side effects and mutations that I was forced to combat as I refined the alterations I was making.

    Since Kal¡¯rek had answered my questions about magic in this world I had to switch my exploration of knowledge to biological manipulation and experimentation. Nathan could be a surprisingly useful source of information on politics ¨C for a small-time landlord he took great interest in the wider world ¨C however, I needed to learn biologically based magic on my own.

    A little girl with a talent that could tell a pregnant woman what gender the baby was, is different from a little girl who was making animals grow extra limbs or even one who is somehow curing dangerous diseases without any formal training. Both of those possibilities would draw attention, the churches, and possibly Soul Mage Hunters ¨C those few specialist hunters good enough to hunt down the mages who sacrificed other mages for power.

    In the meantime, wild bunnies were nice stop-gaps, however I needed more complex organisms to test out my genetic modifications. I was already starting to implement some changes in my own body, but I already had to deconstruct my modifications multiple times to avoid fatal mutations. Even Anton¡¯s lessons on the different parts of the human genome were of limited use, namely because even he could not completely identify all parts of even a non-magical person. Anton even admitted, in his lessons, that magic, if it existed in DNA at all, was a complete mystery to him.

    Currently, I barely managed an improvement in my protein uptake and red blood cell efficiency. The one time I tried to mess with my bone structure I interfered with my Haversian canals, which allowed the passage of blood through bone. I was not about to start messing around with my bone structure again, much less my heart or brain, without much more experimentation.

    Unfortunately even doing something as simple as removing the gene that produces thrombospondin was made harder when my pets/experiments were eaten.

    It was enough to drive anyone crazy, but I decided to create a magical device to record genetic information and the results of my modifications. Ideally this device would be able to transmit the information collected to me periodically, however I would settle for just a recording device that I could track down and recover. In theory, this would give me much more information about what modifications improved the body¡¯s functions and what destroyed them.

    I also had to find good test subjects for such changes, however I actually had a good idea about where to look for that so I did not worry too much.

    I naturally dropped to the back of the group as we started back to the village. Since we had started before dawn we should be able to get back there just after dusk.

    I had picked up a couple new hobbies in recent cycles, one I of which I could actually practice publicly. At the back of the group I quietly started singing, practicing as both my child-self and my older-self as we took turns hitting the high notes. While others might think that I was just a little girl who wanted to sing there was actually a fairly important purpose that hid beneath my new, genuine, enjoyment of singing. Specifically, I was practicing non-mana bodily control.

    It was not just singing either. I also deliberately chose my steps, putting my feet exactly where they should be in my mental construction. Footwork could make the difference in any fight, but especially one that took place over rough terrain. Privately, I also took up the practice of moving one muscle at a time, to practice and memorize what exactly my body was capable of.

    All of this had two grand purposes in my mind. First, things like singing made me actively practice controlling my inner body. This was to try and minimize incidents like the lord¡¯s party that I was not invited to a second time, where I had lost control and cried without the Guilt[i/] actually being involved. It was humiliating at the time and still made me burn in shame when I remembered it. Just because my body was that of a little girl, it did not mean that I actually had to act like one. Using mana would be easy enough, but I wanted to be the master of my own body and controlling such basic things as my voice was a good start. (I could also create what I thought were convincing tears on demand now, but somehow Florence and my Mother were able to see right through them)

    The second grand purpose of this was more even practical. I wanted to know more about the very core of martial fighting techniques. Specifically I wanted to develop a calculation based technique which took into account all muscles and how to optimize their strength for maximum impact. Both fortunately and unfortunately this proved to encompass every formal way of fighting that I had faced in my previous life. (Although Leo previously gave me perfect recall for my previous life, I was still working on it for my new body.) Indeed I had found that every formal martial attack I had learned had been created to use the body efficiently. In the end, I was just mixing techniques and teaching my body to react based on my current situation, whatever that situation may be.

    So I sang quietly, following the group without letting my feet make any noise for a period before making sure that it sounded like I was stomping. Of course I was also deliberately traveling behind them for one final reason. Bone.

    Both Human and animal bone conducted mana splendidly, though I had no idea why. One of the reasons that humans could use magic better than animals or plants was that our bodies naturally conducted magic better than other creatures. It was also the main reason why all mages shrouded themselves in wards or wore magic armor into battle. Despite the fact that any iron arrows or swords would go through such protections relatively unhindered, magic would go through the human body completely unstopped.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    In the last fight of my previous life, Regus, graveborn that he was, had damaged my organs fairly badly because he managed to graze my stomach with his mana implosion technique. While some animals had magic resistance they gave up their ability to freely use mana as the cost, while humans were the opposite, with all of our magical ability and no resistance. According to legend, there were ancient creatures called dragons which had both, but no one knew if they were myth or real.

    Regardless, in the few hours it took to get back to the village I managed to sing my throat sore, gather the charred of a dead sheep that was killed by the firegrass we removed the day before, and finally perfect my bone manipulation spell. Although I had it functioning just fine previously, I finally managed to make the bones that I had collected and hid in my bag into an almost pure liquid with my magic. After managing that I used my mana to make the bone flow under my robe before solidifying it to create a very sturdy armor of sorts.

    As the dark descended I even got to practice modifying my eyes to improve my night vision a little. It looked like I could go to sleep and call it a very productive day.

    Just as we were getting back to the village however I felt something that set me on edge. Something that I had not felt for very long time.

    Telling Loco that I would be taking a walk ¨C which was fairly pointless, as he was still thinking about tree bark ¨C I went over to the inn.

    Like in my previous life, Inns were for travelers and taverns were for the locals. No one would mix the two up unless they were trying to start a fight or were merchants, who were a special exception to the rule.

    I felt the perversion that was bloodlust from outside. In my previous life I had to deal with bloodlust far too often, especially as it was the sign of an unhinged bandit who could not be trusted. It showed the person for who they truly were, someone who could and would enjoy torturing small children to death before violating them and feeding them to their own parents.

    I hated creatures like that, fools with bloodlust leaking out of them were only good for distractions. Bloodlust was also special because it could only leak out with magic. If you had no magic, or kept your emotions under control, no one would notice, it was a purely magical phenomenon.

    I weighed my options outside the inn.

    -I could ignore them (Which might kill someone else, but that would be their choice, not mine)

    -Stalk and kill them after they left the village (The [i]Guilt made that seem like an unappealing choice)

    -Maybe warn someone (Although, I would have to be careful how I did, given that I was still a kid)

    -Get more information (Always a good choice, but how...)

    -Lure them (Not my favorite choice, but Bloodlust+little girl usually equals the back alley)

    In the end, I choice a combination of 2 of my options. The owner of the inn was a relatively observant man who had been a mercenary back in the day. Although he refused to tell me any of his war stories until I could handle his non-stop smoking.

    I walked into the inn and looked around. The Bloodlust was emanating from the corner where a small group of 4 individuals sat, smoking and talking energetically about something. Even with my excellent hearing though I could barely hear them arguing about when to leave as someone had put up a simple ward to dampen noise. The ward was very basic and left me wondering if sone of the group was an apprentice mage or something. A more experienced one would have used something more effective if they wanted to keep a conversation secret.

    Quietly ignoring them, along with the smell of that stoning smoke they were creating, I walked over to the owner and smiled as best I could. The elderly man had been standing on the opposite side of the room, idly relaxing with his accursed traxico pipe. Of course, the owner knew my dislike of all non-wood based smoke and raised an eyebrow at my presence, while still letting some more stoning smoke escape his pipe.

    ¡°May I talk to you outside?¡± I asked politely, trying not to breathe in.

    The old man took another long drag on his pipe and then snorted smoke as he smiled. ¡°You really need to get used to it, Bella, everyone smokes.¡±

    Still trying not to breathe, I went outside and took a breath of relatively clean air while I waited for the owner.

    Eventually he wondered out and looked at me, still smoking, without saying a word. So I began the conversation. ¡°What do you know about the strangers leaking bloodlust?¡±

    The old man froze, his stare intensifying and reminding me of many comrades from my previous life. ¡°Do you even know what word means little girl?¡±

    ¡°It means that your guests want to kill people and play with their corpses.¡± I responded, making sure that I sounded slightly nervous. ¡°I can tell that they are suppressing it a bit, but I could feel their perverseness from the street.¡±

    The old man continued to stare at me before breaking eye contact and sighing. ¡°They just came in from the west, from the Atlratian border.  They have a dagger that they found in some ruins that they were bragging about. It is sealed in a box, but I will ask them to add another seal later, two of them are adventurers who have obviously never found a cursed item before.¡±

    That would explain it, stoning self-righteous mercenaries. ¡°To add a seal would require a mage¡± I pointed out, fishing for more details.

    ¡°Hah!¡± The owner smiled. ¡°They have two, a master and his student.¡± I mentally took that news with a laugh, if that was their idea of ¡®sealed¡¯ then they were talentless fools. That, or the master was lazy enough to let his apprentice take care of the sealing spell. Then I noticed that the old man¡¯s smile had gotten wider, ¡°You might be interested to know that one of them happens to be named Xiphos.¡±

    My jaw almost dropped despite myself, were the Nalks actively trying to mess with my life or did fate just deal me an odd life? I leaned my head back and looked at the stars that had started coming out of the night sky. Stone me, I thought grimly, big brother Xiphos is back to visit and he brought a fool.

    *     *     *

    On the western part of the forgotten 5th continent:

    The drums beat. Always the drums beat. No important matter could be announced without drums, no moves conducted in the field, and no family announced without drums.

    The Thunder Runners were owed drums.

    The Lightning Hammers were owed drums.

    The Soul Cleavers were owed drums.

    The Blood Blades were owed drums.

    The Snow Walkers were owed drums.

    The Ice Wolves were owed drums.

    Even lacking as they were, his clan of Steel Claws were owed drums.

    They had lost their lands, their animals, and even their gold, but by the gods they were owed the drums.

    There were the remnants of dozens of clans and countries in the room, all announced to the drums.

    Jagged Claw hated the drums. They had woken him as a child when the Soul War began and never seemed to stop. Somewhere the Soul Mages would be attacking, somewhere the drums would beat. Always the drums, the never ending drums, they were always beating, always announcing.

    Jagged would give almost anything to live without the drums. To wake up without worrying that the Soul Mages had broken through the pass, or dug a new tunnel through the mountains, or walked their undead legions across the ocean floor to attack one of the ports. Just a day without drums would heal a part of his soul.

    The oldest blood-son of Chief Claw, Jagged had bled in 7 major battles and 4 campaigns under his amalgamated clan of the claw. Drawn from the broken clans, the beaten countries, and even the relatives of the yellow-blooded Soul Mages. Jagged had only seen 21 full cycles, but 15 of those cycles had been war. The Soul War that had broken so many and fused together the will of the whole world, was all he knew.

    Now they were all gathered, the representatives of the few million people still alive. They were losing the war though and they all knew it, so this council had been called with an air of desperation to it. What would the priests of Boiling Waters tell them that would reverse the situation? Surly no one was going to try and summon demons again.

    The Head-Priest himself entered to the drums and Jagged prayed that there were no drums in the next life. For all that they were broken, the Claws were the most powerful military force not under the Soul Mage¡¯s control, whatever the priest planned to try Jagged would volunteer, and hope to find the quiet he longed for, in this or the next life.

    When the drums fell silent the priest surveyed the room silently before speaking. ¡°I was given a vision by the gods of what will happen to our home.¡± That statement alone gained no reply as everyone already knew what would happen to their home. ¡°The gods themselves have decided to intervene in our plight.¡±

    The room practically exploded in sounds as everyone started their own drums to demand the floor and started bellowing questions.

    After a few minutes the noise had calmed down and the priest began speaking again. ¡°They have sent me a vision of both their mighty force that will cleanse this place and that the after effects will not allow many of our people to survive.¡± No one spoke or beat their drums this time. Jagged silently noted that if the priest would stop talking it would even be peaceful for once. ¡°In order to destroy the Soul Mages the gods have thrown a great mountain high into the air and when it lands, all else will be destroyed.¡± The murmurings started again, but the priest held his hands up for silence.

    ¡°They have informed me that the only way for us to survive we will have to build great ships that they will bless to cross the Boiling Waters. We must-¡±

    The room exploded in sounds again, this time Jagged himself joined in, shouting that there was neither time, nor wood, to build such a fleet of ships that it would require to transport even one in ten of the people who lived there. Not to say anything of trying to cross the Boiling Waters that consumed the Great Lord Heh¡¯s fireball to signal the end of the day.

    This time, even after a full minute of the priest holding up his hands there was no quiet. Finally, the priest dropped his hands and said something to one of his aides, the man nodded and disappeared. A few moments later, the formal drums beat and the same aide led in a small precession that carried a large map on an animal skin that Jagged did not know.

    The map was one familiar to all of the clan chiefs although they still hated the sight of it. It was a reminder of the world they once knew, so vast and free, that had been taken away from them by the mad Soul Mages. It showed all of the land that had been lost in the east to the Soul Mages and the crowded little peninsula that formed the remains of all of their people. There was one crucial difference, however, between the map that all of them knew and the map in front of them now. The map currently presented showed a large amount of ships to both the north and south of their little peninsula of safety.

    There were several gasps and choking sounds that were suddenly filling an otherwise dead silence. Even Jagged found it hard to enjoy the silence in the face of such grim knowledge, assuming that it was correct of course.

    Not daring to give such a question words, Jagged turned his attention back to the priest who now filled the silence. ¡°The scouts have confirmed what the gods showed me in my vision. These thousands of large ships will be built in both our north and south for the purpose of attacking us. These ships are currently under construction to be used against us, but we will not give them the opportunity, while we build our own ships for our great journey we will also prepare to attack. When these fleets are close to completion we will attack from the sea and steal them for ourselves. Then we will sail just ahead of the great mountain¡¯s decent across the Boiling Waters to the great land of plenty that the god have shown me. A land where the Soul Mages were beaten back and where they have grown soft from the peace.¡± The priest finished his little speech with a thanks to the various gods that showed him the vision before opening the floor up for discussion on how they were to accomplish such attacks.

    Of course the chiefs immediately tried to take the moment to make their own speeches, however that only dissolved into chaos.

    So the drums beat. So the drums always beat.

 Chapter 8: The Cloak called Pride

    Chapter 8: Our Cloak

    ¡°Smeg! Get off us!¡± We growled, pushing at the heavy weight with my feet, leveraging my back to get the figure back.

    ¡°We have visitors Bella, you need to wake up.¡± The voice was female, slightly annoyed. Loco¡¯s wife, Luna. Good person. Morning person. More sleep needed. Sleep experiment failure.

    ¡°Tell my brother that we are sleeping then.¡± Who else would be here so early?

    ¡°Your brother is not the only one here, your father and even your older brother is here, with his master! Are you not excited to see the other mage in your family?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± We said coldly, settling back into our comfortable sleeping position. There had not been a serious need for me to wake up early for over a decade, including my previous life. I liked sleeping in and my child-self agreed. Especially my room was actually apart of the laboratory and only a madman would smoke near an alchemist¡¯s lab, making this place the cleanest smelling in the whole smoky village.

    ¡°Bella, what did I tell you about respecting your father? I will toss out your candle experiment results if you do not get moving.¡± Luna threatened.

    We stood quickly, ¡°We are- I am up!¡± I needed those results so I gave my child-self a little hormonal boost to clear her head and I tried to analyze what went wrong with the sleep compression spell. The theory was more accurate than anything that had existed in my previous world, so there was no obvious reason for it not to work.

    While I pondered how to correct my spell and cut my sleep time in half, my child-self got dressed into her more casual protective outfit. I had 4 whole sets of clothes with me now, my regular robe, my field mender uniform, my light protective outfit, and my total protective suit. The first two were basic robes, with the only difference being the extra fabric and the red circle on the front of the mender¡¯s outfit, which were for emergency bandages and distinction respectively. The second two were just chemical protection, one for known potions and the heavier suit for experimental potions. So far my favorite set was the one my child-self was currently wearing, namely because it gave me an excuse to wear a mask over my nose.

    It was bad enough that my reaction to traxico smoke was borderline allergic, but when I actually analyzed what the stuff did to a person I was so astounded that I had to confirm the results 3 times before I managed to believe it. I barely managed to convince the pregnant woman to stop after my child-self screamed at one women while crying non-stop.

    Regardless, when I walked around the village and wore my mask, I reminded the villagers of what I thought of their habits while keeping myself safe from the side effects of such habits.

    As my child-self finished preparing we quickly snuck over to the journal that Luna had used to record the test results. I was fascinated by the gaps Anton had left in my knowledge, so after I confirmed the state and tendencies of mana in this world and began practicing control over my own body, I naturally started investigating other things. My latest experiment had come up after I managed to bisect a candle¡¯s flame with some enchanted glass and realize that it was hollow. I had done it on a whim, but the effect was very interesting. It meant that something was coming into contact with the outside of the fire and somehow sustaining it.

    While Loco had been impressed he also pointed out that everyone knew that in a way as everyone knew to smother a fire with dirt or water. Officially, this was because the god of fire, Heh, was the brother of Hoh, the goddess of water, and fought with her whenever they met. Co-kar-fe, Hoh¡¯s husband and the god of the earth, always took her side and smothered Heh as well. It was also said that Heh was in love with Nefon, the formless goddess of wind, so chased her wherever she went and felt saddened without her and lost energy.

    I ignored the whole religious explanation based explanation because my home world had a similar, but still fairly different, explanation where the water god was fire¡¯s lover who, unable to control her desires, tried to become one with fire wherever she found him. Instead, I put a nearly spent candle inside an upside-down glass cup that Loco usually used. The candle quickly went out. After repeating this a few more times I determined that the fire must be drawing a specific part of the air in to fuel itself like the human lungs took in oxygen and expelled carbon dioxide. However, before I could explore exactly how long the candle would last under different sized containers, Loco told me about the firegrass and we had to get ready for the morning journey.

    Luna had been kind enough to take the measurements herself, even adding in different objects with the candle to see how they affected the results. I had however been distracted by the bloodlust I sensed last night and the subsequent discovery of my older, magical, brother.

    Luna and my mother had also taken the time to, between the two of them, expand my vocabulary immensely, although I still had trouble telling people how I knew that something was wrong. Telling a sick man that he needed to stop fertilizing his land with human excrement was fine, explaining how I knew it was making him sick usually involved me making up tales of little demons trying to kill him. The important thing though was that in both verbal and written form, my comprehension of the local language was good.

    Although, I had yet to solve the mysteries of the lord-mayor¡¯s mansion or get anyone in my family to tell me why my mother could read. Luna made sense since, as an alchemist¡¯s wife, she would need to know what ingredients and potions were mixed into certain potions. However, no one explained why my mother, who was born as poor as any other villager could read fluently, even without many books in our house.

    Leaving the mysteries of my new life until another time though, I concentrated for a moment on the results. It looked like the candle with a rock went fastest and the candle with a leaf lasted longer. Although I would have to look more into it myself, it would be something interesting to think about while dealing with my brother and his obviously incompetent teacher.

    I heard Luna calling me as I closed the book and went out of the house, making sure that my mask was tied on. Even if my brother¡¯s teacher was a fool, a magician of any level could tell a complete spell and experienced mages could tell the ability of the magic castor by their spells. Therefore I did not cast my spell to keep the traxico smoke away from my nose like I had gotten into the habit of doing. Contrary to popular opinion, there were old fool mages and I was not going to be tripped up and chased out of the village because of my older brother¡¯s teacher decided that I was less than normal.

    I was barely lucky enough with the Healer on the evening of the lord¡¯s party. Until I was old enough to protect myself, with my new body¡¯s full power, I had to be more careful.

    Remember your cloak, I thought at my child-self, if the mage acts up I will have to pull myself back and let you just react

    I will carry our so very fine cloak, she responded, he will not learn of our secret.

    I believe in you, our so very fine cloak is in your hands, I confirmed.

    We were talking more recently, dialogs of thought usually, but occasionally we spoke to ourselves when no one else was around. We were a part of the same, but separate, it was strange and fascinating.

    I walked outside and saw Luna and Loco standing with Nathan, a rapidly growing Carlatus (who I had started calling by his real name after the lord¡¯s party), and two other men. One of them was enthusiastically speaking to Nathan and looking at them beside each other I could see the family resemblance. Both were fairly tall at what I guessed was somewhere around 175cm, with dark hair, well-defined faces, and jovial expressions that said volumes of how close they were. The two biggest differences were age and the fact that the younger man was clearly a magician of the 5th circle or so, unable to hold his power in check enough to hide it.

    He is our brother I thought to my child-self clearly not at the point of experience to be called a full mage, (at least by my standards,) but still a noticeable magician in his own right. I tried briefly to remember if I had been like that with any of my sons, but Regus had been one of my closest and even he tried to kill me in the end. In fact, he succeeded, with the help of whoever manipulated him, though I did escape Gorith¡¯s judgment in the end.

    The other man was clearly an outright mage. He was older, in his late thirties if I were to guess, with light hair, an average face, and a lean look that I had learned to equate to a traveling mage, but he was hiding his power. He was also smoking like a chimney while he was speaking to Loco.

    If I had met him in my previous life I would have ambushed him with iron bolts and then run away while he tried to heal himself. Traveling mages were odd like that, in well-provisioned groups they were the most dangerous threat on a road, for bandits like myself. Without provisions however, one or two ambushes would have them on the verge of starvation, assuming they could heal themselves at all. That said, his presence had already taught me one thing, I should learn to hide my own power. It was as much a matter of talent as of practice and I did not have enough mana to bother with practice in my previous life. It would however, be something to work on in the future.

    Carlatus was the first to notice me and ran over to give me a hug while asking me a variety of questions. I tried to placate him as I went over to the group and studiously ignored the look that Luna was trying to discretely give me. She had insisted that behaving in public was necessary to keep Nathan¡¯s reputation intact. She even briefly explained why my sudden haircut before the lord¡¯s party had seriously hurt his local reputation and his business by extension. I could care less about Nathan¡¯s reputation, but the idea of hurting my food source ¨C his income ¨C did not appeal to me in the slightest.

    The old man and my brother both stopped and stared at me and my ears when they saw me, although I was sure that at least part of their surprise was that I was obviously a 6th circle magician at the least. Given the fact that I was still growing and mostly alternated between storing energy and expanding my mana when I cultivated. It turned out that compressing my mana had less effect when I was will developing it, so I postponed compressing my mana for the moment.

    ¡°Greetings sir.¡± I intoned to Nathan for the sake of my food supply. Avotatos were calorically packed, but I still needed quite a few to cultivate for most of the day. Not that I was going to bring up the amount that I ate with a mage, who would start asking annoying questions about what I was doing using that amount of mana. I could try and pass it off as my talent helping others heal whenever I was nearby, but if the question did not come up I was certainly not going to volunteer that information.

    Nathan nodded to me, clearly trying to keep a neutral face in spite of the nervousness he must have felt internally. Then he spoke ¡°Xiphos, this is your sister Bella, she is quite talented at mending. Bella, greet your older brother.¡±

    I nodded my head politely and greeted Xiphos. It was  much harder to keep myself in check when Nathan announced my specialty like that with no reciprocating statement for Xiphos. Since we were supposed to be blood it would be fine, but if he had been anyone else I would have been plotting more escape routes than the 2 I already had mapped out in my head. Although between the fact that his master was a stranger and the that everyone in the area already knew I had a healing talent, I was still left with mixed feelings.

    At this point, before Xiphos could say anything, Carlatus piped up and declared ¡°Bella, you are acting weird!¡±

    Since he was right, in a way, I pulled him closer with one hand and rubbed my knuckles across the top of his head for a bit. ¡°I am trying to be polite Carlatus, now hush.¡± Carlatus yelped and then jumped away as I let him go to rub his slightly sore scalp.

    I turned to the older man and inclined my head politely before introducing myself. He, to my surprise, seemed very annoyed with me. I checked and made sure that my favorite cloak had not slipped on while I was not looking, but I had behaved appropriately.

    The old man however, did not respond and merely looked me over, poisoning himself with traxico some in silence. Xiphos ended up stepping in to fill the void of silence, ¡°Bella, this is my master, Jalon. Master, it appears that this ¨C¡±

    Jalon cut him off, ¡°I heard your father boy. I was just wondering if this was the young one who thought that my barrier was less than perfect on the dagger we recovered.¡±

    I spoke up directly ¡°I felt a disgusting and perverse feeling after I got back yesterday and complained to the inn owner, nothing more, Master Jalon.¡± I finished smoothly, giving him the title of Master, although he did not deserve it if he could not even notice the bloodlust leaking.

    Jalon scowled slightly less, ¡°I have yet to earn the title of Master in the eyes of the church courts girl, you may call me mage Jalon, but not Master. Now, what is this about you feeling such a thing when I did not?¡±

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Typical mid level mage, I thought, powerful enough to be arrogant, but not strong enough to be truly important.

    I again answered as smoothly as possible, although diplomacy and reverence had never been my strongest talents, I could at least not say belligerent things when I put my mind to it. My child-self was actually better at it than me, which helped out quite a bit in this case. ¡°I can only tell you about what I felt mage Jalon and that I do not feel it anymore.¡± I almost added an insult concerning his intelligence, however my child-self resisted. Our cloak, I thought, not just mine. Our cloak of pride.

    Pride is the finest cloak a person can wear, they can wear it anywhere they please and at any time they please. It is the cloak they can use to stand out, even in the night soil of the city gutters. It was also a dangerous hazard. Something that could get caught in mud, branches, and carriage wheels of life. A brilliant cloak that could weigh you down and make you suffer or elevate you above those around you. The key was to know when to take it off.

    ¡°Of course. Now girl, take off that mask and come over here, I want to measure your total mana, if that is alright with you Nathan.¡± Jalon still seemed annoying and rude, but calmer now, so after Nathan nodded I walked forward and held my breath while taking off my mask. With the amount of smoke that he seemed to be giving off, I was worried about suffocating to death.

    Jalon grabbed my wrist and tried to push his mana through me. It was unpleasant and I did not need to show my child-self how to fight back as it was instinctive and near impossible for someone of her age anyway. Humans conducted mana, it was the reason I loved the snip spell so much, the only effective way to stop someone from pushing mana through your body was a protective spell that blocked spells. Physical contract however, allowed someone to ignore most defensive spells, with only very specific spells blocking attack spells. Non attack spells like snip or mana implosion ¨C which was more mana than spell ¨C tended to slip by.

    My teacher Anton was taught to shake hands when greeting someone, but mages tended not to touch each other, especially if they were strangers. More than a few women had tried to kill me like that in the past too. A kiss or touch were far more deadly when a person was so used to them that they started concentrating on other things.

    Jalon grunted, ¡°Around 10th or 11th rank in pure mana power. Though I do not think she will be able to use elemental spells easily, she might make a good combat mage in the future. If she can gain some weight.¡± He looked me over carefully and noticed that I was not breathing, which made him laugh slightly disdainfully. ¡°Scratch that, she would not survive long as a combat mage if a few days smell from the woods bothers the girl.¡±

    At this point Luna stepped up behind me and gave me an excuse to pull my mask back up as I stepped behind her. Loco had not said anything, but he gave Nathan a quick look that cued Nathan to clear his throat. ¡°She reacts badly to smoke Jalon, rather like Carlatus does to nuts, but not as extreme.¡±

    Jalon¡¯s head jerked as he looked from Nathan before looking back at me. ¡°Really now? I have never heard of an allergy to a smoke. The Histones will want her name.¡±

    ¡°Histones?¡± I asked, wondering what they were. Anton had told me about the proteins by the same name, but they probably had nothing to do with each other.

    Old Jalon smiled at me, ¡°You do not know the Histones girl? I might have to get you some of their books. The Histones are the one and only cult of history.¡± I blinked, a cult of history? The old man smiled even wider, to the point where he seemed to be showing off his rotting teeth instead of actually smiling, perhaps enjoying his ability to lord my lack of knowledge over me. ¡°Yes, they are obsessive about recording everything from market prices to criminal trials to great battles. As a result, even Kings and Queens respect them and a pair of them will be here in the next few days with your lord-mayor to survey the area on behalf of the king of Zootrof¨ª.¡±

    Oh joy, I thought internally, more people to watch out for.

    Suddenly Jalon jerked as he remembered something. I wondered for a moment if he suddenly realized that he seemed to be trying to talk down to an 8 and a half cycle old little girl, but apparently not. Jalon turned back to Nathan and spoke quickly. ¡°I apologize, Nathan, I seem to have gotten distracted from our original conversation. Do we still have time to look at it?¡±

    Nathan also jerked and he glanced at the sky before nodding and speaking. ¡°It is still early enough, as long as we take the horses we can be back by nightfall. I assume Xiphos can stay and teach Bella some things?¡±

    Jalon waved his hand dismissively, ¡°of course, but let us get moving already.¡±

    Together they gave a brief goodbye and practically ran off, leaving me wondering just how heavy their own cloaks weighed on their shoulders.

    *     *     *

    Inside tower 447 in the Wizard''s Tower Desert:

    Being in the Tower Desert was both exciting and incredibly boring at the same time.

    On one hand, no one interfered with any experiments that the inhabitants wanted to test. Indeed, the Towers themselves were ancient and so strongly warded that the priests from the nearby holy capital insisted that the god had built them, though, not even the Histones knew for sure. On the other hand, if you were experimenting in the Tower Desert, your experiments were too dangerous for other people to be around, so there was no one else there!

    As it was, the man was trying everything to create a stable BOTI chest for merchants and mages alike. He should have been heralded as a genius for the advances that he had already made in time preservation spells, which already had a large impact on the holy mega city of Kenosis. Instead, he had been banished here for a few minor mistakes that had not even caused more than the destruction of his previous tower.

    It had been his tower originally, so why should he have to be sent out here? Granted, if the experiment had gone wrong with more mana invested in it the city might have taken some damage, but really now, the priests were overreacting. Even with all of his mana fed back into the spell¡¯s mana storage again there would only be a few thousand deaths. By the gods, that should be even more incentive for them to hail him as a hero!

    It was called a mega city for a good reason too. Only basic food preservation spells could ensure that inhabitants in the sprawling place survived. The tops of parts of the city were just large stone covers that did nothing except grow food for the masses who moved under them.

    Originally 8 different cities that were dedicated to the 8 gods of the land, they had merged into the megacity itself only a few centuries ago.

    The man himself had been born in the city¡¯s nobility quarter and originally planned to be given over to the church service, but after his magic manifested, the man had fought for his own path, practicing and expanding magical theory at his own pace while trying to keep his own independence. In a way, he even succeeded beyond his original intentions. The Tower Desert had granted him virtually complete independence, however it has also restricted his last decade of work to purely magical pursuits.

    Only with live subjects could he finish his research into a magical bounding contract. Oh sure, there were contracts currently in use, but they were based on the incomplete versions that he designed just before he was sent here! The ones currently used depended on the contract creator¡¯s strength being able to bind the individual to their word. In other words, a 12th circle mage¡¯s contract would bind anyone of lesser magical strength. If they managed to bind, the person¡¯s own mind would decide if they had broken the terms of the contract and activate the contractual curse. They were wonderful and had broken the minds of thousands of vagrants, thieves, and slaves in their development. Not to mention that it was incomplete! If someone could self-justify that their contract had been broken, even when the contract itself said otherwise, they would be free from all effects of the contract.

    Just remembering was painful for the man, but now his BOTI spell seemed to be almost complete. BOTI stood for ¡°bigger on the inside¡± and if it worked, it would be his greatest accomplishment to date, much larger than things like the gender switching spell or the incomplete contracts that he had previously designed.

    Finishing the long process of inscribing his exact spell, the man left his record in the nearly indestructible stone record room and sealed it off. A large magical beacon and a coat of blue paint made sure that others could find the wall. With no other humans around and the nearest tower at least 2km in any direction, there was a reason that all of the most dangerous spells were restricted to the Tower Desert.

    Again though, the man did not understand why he himself had been forced into the desert. After his last experiment failed so spectacularly and destroyed his tower he was prepared to restructure the spells to be less dangerous. By the guiding light of the gods, he even followed proper safety steps to ensure that others could meticulously retrace his work if he died from organ failure or starvation if the food supplier died. He had made it safe soon enough afterwards, yet he was still stuck out with the mad experimenters.

    Entering the experiment room he found himself in annoyed and forced himself to stop and take a few deep breaths. Calm down, he thought, you need a calm mind for magic.

    Then, concentrating on his spell, he systematically worked through all the steps of magic. First, the magic circle to contain mana, second the instructions for what you wanted the mana to do while within the circle. In this spell, the man was forcing the space within the circle into a chest and trying to instruct the mana to trick the chest into believing that having that much space inside of it was fine and that it did not need to expand or change or explode because of it. This part lasted for quite a long time as the man slowly and carefully built up his system of inner wards in the spell to ensure that the chest would last for some time.

    Finally, he terminated his spell casting by dissolving the mana circle. As soon as he did that, the spell casting was finished and the spell activated, following his precise instructions, his mana executed his will and the air in the room shimmered as his spell worked.

    Then everything stopped as the spell finished. The man blinked and slowly approached the chest, which appeared to have his wards still intact. Opening it up slowly he looked inside and saw a vast, open, area that was barely lit by the torches and magic based light orbs that were mixed throughout the room. The man backed away from the chest and quickly wrote the words ¡°Limited success, now testing.¡± On a piece of parchment before going back to his record room and performed the unsealing process before leaving the piece of parchment with the rest of his notes and resealing the room.

    A researching magician¡¯s 2 greatest assets were fear and paranoia. Fear of explosions and paranoia that his notes might be lost. This man, in particular, had one of those traits in abundance.

    Returning to the chest, he started filling it with sand that he had collected from outside. This sand was not magical either, unlike in some other areas of the Tower Desert, so he hoped that it would make a good testing material. After several buckets full were emptied into the chest, he lowered an empty bucket and collected sand from the chest¡¯s bottom before bringing it back up. Already shaking in excitement, he closed the opened the chest a few times before removing more sand and finally losing it.

    After 8 cycles of research, he was finally done. Letting out a shout of joy and casting the notification spell that would bring others to see his discovery, the man smiled and wrote his final confirmation of success into his notes, explaining what materials he had used to test it and stating that the materials neither disappeared when the chest closed, nor became stuck in the chest and become unable to be retrieved.

    The man happily wondered what to test next when a thought jumped to the front of his mind, namely, to check the weight. Writing the idea down, he quickly went back to his experimenting room.

    At first, the man carefully tried to move the chest, but discovered that it indeed weighed more than it had originally. Using a bit of his internally stored energy, the man tried to pick up the chest. Unfortunately, when he did, the wards destabilized and failed, causing the chest to expand rapidly and explode.

    The man named Leonardo died with a smile on his face, unaware that an entity with a similar name watched from nearby, after having planted the idea that killed the man in his head.

 Chapter 9: Time with Xiphos

    Please comment on the chapter, thanks for reading, B_S

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter 9: Time with Xiphos

    ¡°Shithead.¡± We muttered to ourself as the pair disappeared.

    If the others had heard or could understand the word they might ask who we were referring to, but the truth was that it was not worth the effort to distinguish a target.

    Putting back on our metaphorical cloak, I turned to Xiphos. ¡°Do you smoke Xiphos?¡±

    He seemed slightly surprised at my sudden question, but answered regardless. ¡°Occasionally, however I was never overly fond of it myself.¡±

    I nodded before pulling off my breathing mask and smiled. I could speak loud enough to be heard and understood with the thing on, but that was a little annoying and as long as I did not get too close, his smell should not bother me too much. ¡°That does seem to run in the family, regrettably. Have you eaten this morning?¡±

    He shook his head no and Luna spoke up with the barest hints of nervousness. ¡°Kitchen experiment?¡± She asked me and I shook my own head reluctantly. For some reason, although I could tell a nutritionally balanced meal intently, I was an even worse cook in my new life than I was in my old one. Luna laughed, ¡°Bella got up near dawn, was polite, and is not using us to experiment with cooking, what a wonderful day.¡±

    I rolled my eyes dramatically and played along ¡°I can dance, sew, sing, and tell men which potions will give them lasting vigor or forever take it away. I have to drive the boys off somehow, otherwise the village girls would never get married.¡±

    That comment got everyone laughing, or at least smiling. Everyone except Carlatus, who immediately starting looking around, as if boys were going to try and mob me any second. I felt a brief flash of pity for him as, if a mob ever actually came for me in this village, it would be with shouts of ¡®burn the elf¡¯ or ¡®kill the witch.¡¯

    Ushering everyone inside, Luna told us that the broth had been simmering I took a moment to tell Loco, Carlatus, and Xiphos about the fire experiment. I was curious about it especially because I had to find a way to prove that air was not just one element, but many. I could say that I could feel my lungs only using one part of the air, but proving it in such experiments was not only fun, it would also help me justify going deeper into the woods. Specifically I wanted to go to the river that ran through the forest and catch some fish while I looked for my special test subjects beyond the river.

    That river flowed west to east and existed almost exclusively in the untamed forests to the village¡¯s north. It was said to terminate in Lake Ketchdown to the northeast, but that was in another country. Apparently, the lake had a variety of dangerous creatures that could use limited amounts of magic to attack any humans who tried to sail out onto the lake. It was said to one of the remnants of the ancient Elves, who used to own this continent near the beginning of history.

    After the reactions at the lord¡¯s party, I had taken it upon myself to investigate why my family had never mentioned my ears to me or explained why they might be a big deal to the townsfolk, but not to the villagers. It turned out that creatures called Elves existed long ago and enslaved humanity. These Elves were known for their great magical power, arrogance, and sharply pointed ears.

    The short story was that, while their society had been more advanced than ours, the elven elite became more and more extreme in their various pastimes. Where previously they would make humans fight or fornicate for their entertainment, now the Elven elite made their lower class cousins join in with the human. This, along with many other factors, eventually led to a revolt and then a series of civil wars.

    During this time, escaped human slaves and their decedents started butchering the elven villages and burning the forest cities where the elves lived. With the rise of Soul Eaters that could literally eat the souls of the Elves to gain their immense magical power, the humans rose up and ended the Elven species. Normally, some quarter might have been given instead of an outright purge, however the Soul Eaters had been using dead elves as both undead solders and a source of magic power since the beginning. While they did free human slaves in the beginning, they quickly stopped caring about human or Elvish life as they hunted down every living creature capable of magic.

    According to legend, there were humans who found out about poison which would take years to fully take effect and they poisoned the Soul Eaters. Leaving the more moderate group of Soul Mages to take their place and finish off the Elves, who had apparently contracted a plague of some sort from the undead Elven army that had fought them.

    The stories disagreed about many things, but the endings were all the same. Groups called hunter-killer teams formed and spent the next few decades hunting down rouge Soul Mages, the few Soul Eaters who survived, and the Elves. Over time, the Elves were driven to extinction and then the Soul Mages began to lose out to the lure of Soul magic and absorb other souls. Eventually all those who used Soul based magic were hunted into near extinction and the development of soul magic was forbidden afterwards, leading to the rise and fall of numerous kings and rulers over the years.

    From what I could gather, based off the stories, the Soul Mages only went insane because they absorbed the souls of others for their mana. This also absorbed a part of the personality of the sacrificed victim, the person never survived as a by-product of the ritual, which twisting the mage over time while also making them more powerful. H-K groups hunted these Soul Mages down and eventually there was no distinction between ¡®rouge¡¯ Soul Mages and normal ones.

    Oddly, Elven magic experiments, cursed objects, ruins, and even the occasional text are still discovered fairly regularly, despite there had not been an elf sighting in over 3000 cycles. Sometimes rumors about Elven descendants and half-human hybrids came out, but they were always just rumors. Despite this, there were a good thousand years of history where humans with even the slightest hint of pointed ears were either killed at birth or persecuted for the rest of their lives. Around 300 cycles ago, however, the churches gathered and declared that certain curses could make humans look like elves and that this was a remnant from the ancient Elven-Soul wars. At this statement, plus a couple hundred years of religious pressure, the majority of cities and towns in the world did not discriminate too heavily based on someone¡¯s ears.

    As a legacy however, pointed ears came to symbolize bad luck and a sign that someone had been meddling with elven artifacts or had otherwise been cursed. For someone as young as me it was a shock and suggested that Nathan had been doing something secret. The villagers were a tight-knit group so they knew about my ears the second I was born from my mother¡¯s midwife and quickly got used to it. The townsfolk however, with the exception of the smiths and millers, simply did not interact with the various villagers that often.

    Nathan also acted as something of an intermediary for the villagers from time to time. Since he was closer to the town, they would ask him to look out for merchants if they needed something specific and he would buy it for them. Since he did this without asking for much in return, the villagers were less likely to talk badly about anything he or his children did. Likewise, the merchants and townsfolk would tend to let Nathan buy from them at slightly lower prices because they knew he could direct extra harvest to or away from their business with reputation alone.

    This all combined to mean that anyone else except me would have a hard time with my elf-ears. Although it would be different when I left the village and be obligated to deal with people who considered me and all that I touched, bad luck.

    The more obvious legacy on the villages though was the forest to the north. As Xiphos was now recounting, in overly dramatic fashion, there were ruins of human slave settlements from before the Elven-Soul wars that he had, bravely, investigated with his master. According to him, only humans left ruins and with both the age of the ruins and the evil Elven dagger he found, his master had determined that the Elves must have used the forest as a city of some type in the past.

    It turned out that Elves had used their magic to grow their cities from trees. The size of the forest itself, combined with the numerous dangerous creatures and general feeling of discomfort the prevailed beyond the river seemed to suggest a large forest city of the elves was once been present. It had also ensured that, even with the population booming at it was, no one was eager to settle too close to the forest.

    As Xiphos talked about the possibility that the forest might actually be the Elven capital, Luna brought out 5 bowls of thick chicken broth and a baked avotato for Xiphos. Since her hands were full I assumed that mine was still outside by the fire pit and sure enough, Luna came back with a warm, but otherwise raw, avotato.

    Cooking avotatos took out some of their nutrients, so I had taken to eating them uncooked on occasion. Unfortunately, they were also a pain to eat raw, to the point where most people, if they actually managed to chew through the tough food, would get upset stomachs. Naturally, once Luna figured out that I actually preferred them raw, she became incredibly confused and ended up declaring that I had a stomach of iron and teeth of steel. Ever since, she had taken to baking avotatos on one day and letting me eat them raw the next. It became a private game of ours to seem how long it would take guests to notice the crunch my food was making, if they ever did.

    In any case, I tried my best to ignore Xiphos¡¯ boastings and filter out useful information from him. Regrettably, the only time he stopped talking was when he was eating or when Carlatus asked a question about some danger Xiphos claimed to have faced.

    No matter what world it seems that young men liked to boast to pretty girls and kids, I thought ruefully. Although I had been no different back when I was young, except for the fact that I was training other young ones to be my loyal bandit family of course.

    Seeing an opening, I broke free of my memories and interjected a question. ¡°Brother Xiphos, did you happen to see any Satchquatee?¡± It was a bit of a gamble given how much he seemed to like bragging, but I had some hope regardless.

    Xiphos jerked in surprise before chuckling quietly. ¡°I am sorry Bella, but seeing you act so mature and then go and ask something like that with such bright eyes makes for quiet the contrast.¡± He gave me a friendly smile and continued gently. ¡°The Satchquatee are just legend, nothing more.¡±

    I ignored his patronizing voice and took a bite of my avotato while mentally confirming that, if they did exist, they would probably be beyond the river like I thought.

    ¡°Oh! I forgot to tell you Bella!¡± Carlatus¡¯ voice suddenly popped up next to us. ¡°This past cycle, while you were mending here, we went to the lord¡¯s party again and everyone was wearing enchanted salt pouches! Do you know why?¡± He stared at me expectantly, brimming with the energy of youth while I tried very hard not to give any, unexpected, reaction.

    ¡°No, Carlatus, have the salt pouches been tearing a lot lately?¡± I asked curiously.

    ¡°Nope!¡± Carlatus declared. ¡°It was the Salt Girl!¡±

    ¡°Salt Girl?¡± I did not have to foreign confusion at the name, although I had a good idea of where this was going. Loco, Luna, and Xiphos were all watching us with interest as Carlatus continued, clearly excited to be the one telling us about the Salt Girl.

    ¡°Yes, back in the party before this last one, the one where I ate those horrible nuts.¡± He stopped briefly at this point to make gaging sounds before continuing. ¡°Some people said that there was a village girl who stole the salt pouches of a lot of people before selling them off, but now we knew the truth!¡±

    ¡°The truth?¡± I had to ask, although my child-self was feeling nervous, I helped her smooth over our features and relax our muscles. Carlatus would not be this excited if he knew the real truth.

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    ¡°Yup, she was a ghost! A daughter of the old tanner, Calicoes, who died after she got salt in her eye and then fell backwards and hit her head. Now, people are more heavily warding their salt pouches with anti-ghost and anti-theft runes to keep the Salt Girl away!¡±

    ¡°Oh no, she is only haunting the town right? Do we need Xiphos to draw runes on our pouches?¡± My child-self asked him in a mock panic, while I withdrew my consciousness a little to keep from laughing.

    Carlatus gasped and turned to his older brother, ¡°Big brother Xiphos what do you think? Can you do that?¡±

    Even though I knew it was a biological impossibility without magic, which I knew he did not have, I could have sworn that Carlatus¡¯ eyes were actually shining for a moment.

    Xiphos looked uncomfortable for a moment. ¡°Anyone can make runes, but my master has forbidden me from doing so unless under his supervision. They are too much like alchemy.¡± Xiphos nodded respectfully to Loco who smiled and nodded himself.

    Carlatus however, was still confused so, as he finished off his chicken broth, Xiphos explained that runes were simply symbols that absorbed mana from the air and channeled it through the rune to perform a specific function. Each rune had a separate and distinct function that could not be changed unless the rune was physically changed or combined with other runes.

    Like alchemy, it could be practiced by anyone who knew the basics, but was also dangerous to those who had no idea what they were doing. There were so many allegorical tales of rune magic or alchemy going wrong that anyone could honestly say, that there were too many stories to count.

    While eating his own avotato, Xiphos alternated with Loco, telling different stories about average people who had brought about their own ruin.

    This went on until Carlatus started panicking and asked if the townsfolk were safe and if the runes would drive them crazy like the people in the stories.

    After that, Loco and Luna had their hands full entertaining Carlatus and trying to get him to calm down. It was still early in the morning though so I asked Xiphos to teach me about the world.

    At first he misunderstood me as wanting to learn more about magic from him and tried to teach me the basics. Before I could stop him, he started lecturing me about never casting spells until you had completely built them in your head. I ended up politely interrupting him and asking about the actual world beyond the town and forest.

    A normal little girl with magic would not care about international politics, however, if I started acting like a normal little girl to that extent, Luna or Carlatus might comment and then Xiphos would start paying more attention to me. Being the odd village girl with elf-ears and magical talent, who only acted normal from time to time, fit me perfectly. It was just odd enough to make others notice me, before they ¡®figured me out¡¯ and then ignored me.

    People did it all the time, if someone acted strange they might be labeled as a ¡®character,¡¯ or something else that seemed to fit for that person¡¯s image. Human nature liked to put names and labels on everything, even if the induvial in question did not know it. Bella was an odd little girl with her own eccentricities, but that was just Bella being ¡®Bella.¡¯

    Xiphos¡¯ attention however could change everything a bit too much. Back when the Healer Kal¡¯rek had tested me, it had been a simple reaction test that made you jump higher based on the amount of mana you had. Even if I had spent a few years in a child¡¯s body, old reactions were still imbedded in me and had I not been distracted (and my child-self distressed) by Carlatus¡¯ condition, I might have sniped the Healer¡¯s spinal cord when I noticed him casting a spell at me.

    Although Xiphos could just be playing around, a prank spell at the wrong time could leave him paralyzed and me with a great deal of running to do. Explanations would be tricky and threats would be inconclusive unless I bound my brother to silence on the matter.

    There was an old saying: It was a fool of a mage that did unannounced magic of any type when a king was near.

    In fact, since any noble passing by was likely to be a mage or guarded by mages, casting magic of any type at them was frequently a crime, irrespective of what world you were in, or what the law actually said on such matters.

    Once Xiphos realized that I seriously wanted to learn more about the world and not just magic. He started quizzing me about what exactly I did know, which did not take long to figure out. Although Luna and my mother had been kind enough to actually teach me the basics about the 4 continents, the 8 gods, and, after enough digging, the legend of the Elven-Soul War, they simply did not know much more. The name of our kingdom and our neighboring kingdoms as well as who the current King was were all up for debate, depending on who you talked to in the villages.

    Xiphos eventually explained that most of the world was at peace. The open plains of the southern continent, Magnus, had experienced less fires than usual, letting the tribes live a few years without needed to raid each other (not that it stopped them altogether). The jungles of the western continent, Japtem (¡­what?), were seeing years trade flourish like never before. Our own continent was the eastern lands of silver, Assize, and had managed to solve our last official war just a few months ago. Finally, the holy continent, Temenos, had called a religious conclave under the Caliphate that ruled most of the continent and had effectively stopped most of their own wars by doing so.

    Xiphos also confirmed that Temenos really did connect to the other three had even conquered most of the world at one point. Their come up with several new spells and some new explosive magic powder that they were now using in their gold mines. Unfortunately, though he did not know anything else about the explosive powder, to the disappointment of Loco and myself.

    Other than that, we continued talking about the history of whatever Xiphos could remember well into the day. In the afternoon I showed also showed him the lab and talked about some of the experiments Loco and I had run.

    Eventually I even told him about my problem with trying to figure out a method to gather information from a distance. Xiphos had laughed at first, joking that if I managed to figure that out I would either be killed or employed by the monarchy. However, after I changed the question and asked him how I could create a recording device of some sort in the future, he started to act differently.

    After thinking about it for a while, Xiphos declared that he would show me how to create a spell and went to collect some parchment. After he returned, he took out a quill that must have been enchanted, as he did not need an inkwell, and began to speak as he wrote.

    It was the basics again, but I told my child-self to pay attention, least I start refraining from casing spells when others would find it more ¡®normal¡¯ for me to do so. According to Healer Kal¡¯rek, it would be normal for me to start throwing things with my mana around age 12 or 13, but there were exceptions and he thought that I would likely be one.

    In any case, Xiphos explained how to set up a spell, preferably written down, and make sure that the mana would execute every single step. Mana, as he joked, was stupid, the first step in constructing a new spell, was not gathering mana, but planning to gather mana. Then you had to instruct it through a series of steps that would determine what the mana would do.

    This created the 3 different ways to construct spells. The first of which was systematic. This method dominated almost all spells, in which all the spells were planned out and created one step at a time. These spells were the oldest, most developed, and most reliable when properly created. However, they also failed if even one of their steps was inaccurate or improperly constructed, making practicing them of paramount importance for battle mages.

    The second type was the pun of many jokes, but was generally called the splash method. It relied on very general instructions that told mana what the end result was supposed to be and how it should generally occur. The technique was considered advanced and relied on strong mental ideas of what was supposed to occur. It was also faster to cast if you knew what you wanted to happen. This let people who did not know how something worked to still cast spells that, for example, healed a cut or injury. They gave the body the mana and instructions to heal, which resulted in inefficient, but mostly effective healing spells. Attack spells usually followed this method as well, since they were less defined and therefore harder to block with defensive wards.

    The final method, which Xiphos never even mentioned, was free-form. If the systematic was like a rock, hard and well defined, and the splash method like water, liquid and flowing, then this last form was like the air itself. Free-form spells were dangerous as they disobeyed the first rule of spell casting, planning before action. Free-formed spells are the only type of spell that directly instructed mana. Even desperate men about to die would hesitate before using such a spell because of what happened if they failed.

    A normal spell that failed was simply a waste of mana, but a free-form spell could backfire and burn a person¡¯s mind, if they were lucky.

    In any case, it took hours to construct the full sound recording spell that Xiphos had in mind, with options to go back and listen as many times as we wanted too.

    After I was done, subtly correcting his mistakes, he insisted on waiting for his master to get back before they actually tested it out.

    *     *     *

    Just outside the village:

    Jalon was hungry.

    He had eaten a reasonable amount before this little trip with Nathan, but now he was really hungry.

    Jalon grumbled to himself, along with his stomach at Nathan''s use of the law to ensure that his little mine would remain untouched. The material was valuable enough that any mage who discovered it was required to place wards around the area to deter theft, which meant him.

    All he wanted now was to get back to the town and eat before his body started to devour his muscles, again.

    He would also have to report to the histone tomorrow that it was Nathan who discovered the mine and it was he who would claim the reward from the king.

    The man himself was riding in front of Jalon, ''leading'' him back to the village as dark descended. As if a traveling mage, even if he was starving, would let himself get lost.

    When they arrived back at the village, just as the sun set, they immediately dropped off the horses and Jalon abandoned Nathan to go collect his apprentice. The boy would know to have food ready.

    As he arrived, there was indeed food ready and Jalon almost ignored his apprentice''s request to review his spell in favor of food. However, the spell was just complicated enough for him to slow himself down and actually look it over.

    Granted, he did look fairly quickly, however there were no obvious errors and if it failed it would only drain a bit of mana.

    Giving his permission, his apprentice immediately cast the spell and nervously began talking while Jalon himself sat down to eat.

    First the boy introduced himself and then proceeded to explain the recording spell to the other people, including Nathan.

    After a little bit, the spell automatically activated its instructions to play back the sounds it had recorded. It was grainy and hard to understand, but it indeed worked.

    Jalon mentally reminded himself to brag to the Histones about his apprentice tomorrow, when the boy could not hear him of course. it would not be a good idea to let him get a big head.

    As his belly growled for more attention, Jalon ignored what the little Bella girl was talking about and concentrated on eating.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Officially 100 pages in my word doc and 50,000 words! W00T

 Chapter 10: The Histones

    Chapter 10: The Histones

    Damnation, I groaned inwardly.

    My modified spell had succeeded in storing tonal singing as notches on a piece of wood and replicating it later, but words were more difficult.

    I was a curious person by nature, as either Bella or DeMorte, so it was so annoying to get caught up in trying to learn one thing and therefore missing out on other things that I could be learning.

    For example, I could be doing more experiments with fire and finding out things like: do magic fires need the same gas as a regular fire to keep burning? Is that same gas oxygen, carbon dioxide, or something else? How could I prove my results without magic?

    I also had the dissection spell that I had begun designing a while ago. It was designed, in theory, to let me know the exact status of what I targeted, regardless of what it was. There were just two, rather large, problems. First, the length of the spell was ridiculous. Since I could not write it down, the construction steps just went on and on inside my head. By now I was fairly sure that, if I wrote it down and placed it next to a written copy of my DNA pairs, the resulting tomes would be of comparable size.

    Second, I was having trouble storing or communicating the information. If written out in words, there would be too much information to easily understand. If I tried to give myself a general ¡®impression¡¯ of what my spell discovered, I would run the risk of burning out a part of my brain. The only way that I had found so far that might work was to literally store the information in my soul and then withdraw it with the connection that Leo had established.

    This connection, which also allowed me to perfectly remember Anton¡¯s teachings, might give me a practically unlimited second brain of sorts to store my memories. The only worry was the cost.

    One of the things that Anton had accidentally confirmed for me was something a heretic, who I took in during my previous life, called the Law of Tides. Simply speaking, for every tidal push, there would be a pull and for every action done, a cost incurred. The stronger the action, the higher the cost; with the relation of magic usage to calorie consumption being a prime example.

    Back to the problem at hand, if I could not even find a way to record my singing, than I would not be able to leave the area of my test subjects. This would mean either running away from home or somehow creating an opportunity that would let me leave for months at a time.

    I could postpone my research, but I did not like that idea in the slightest. I needed to cross the forest river and find out if my test subjects existed too, least I put the cart before the horse.

    In the end there was so much to do that I had to revise my goals. Where I had originally intended to gather as much information as possible about the world while waiting for an opportunity to cross the river, I now decided to create my own opportunity.

    To do that, I would need more hours in the day to work so I would do three things. First, I would take the next few days to learn how to concentrate my sleep schedule as much as possible. Second, I would lower my profile as much as practical, over the next few weeks. Finally, I would expand my body control practices to include martial movements.

    By concentrating my sleep into four hours or less I would gain that much more time to work and practice while almost no one else would be awake. That said, last night had been an eye opening experience for me. For starters, I realized, with Xiphos bragging about our work on his original recording spell, that I would be making a far larger impact on this world than I intended to. The larger the impact that spell¡¯s creation had, the more people would mentally try and remember ¡®Bella from near Entrials.¡¯ Not to mention that the locals almost all knew, regardless of their opinions of me, that I would significantly improve their odds of recovery, so my presence would be missed rather quickly if I tried to sneak off.

    I had been far too lax in training my body too. Although I could catch a glass tube between my toes before it hit the ground, I was not to the point I wanted to be. Being flexible and precise with my movements was a good start, but I also needed to start developing lean, dense, muscle. Not like in my previous life either, I needed abnormally dense muscles to try and minimize any physical change until I was away from anyone who could recognize me.

    My child-self had accused me of being paranoid and pointed out that, after all the work I did to blend in as ¡®odd little Bella,¡¯ that it was pointless to try and hide myself away at this point. However, I knew just how easy it was for people to turn on others and betray each other. I had even encountered the equivalent of a hunter-killer group in my previous life because someone close to me spread lie about me being a soul mage. I had lost too many people bringing them down, even if others underestimated me as a child and I had access to more mana in this life, there was no way I could easily handle someone hunting me down right now.

    It was easier to expect betrayal everywhere than face it from an unexpected place.

    Specifically, though, I had realized all of this thanks to Jalon¡¯s return last night When Jalon returned from his excursion, he could barely think of anything except food, meaning that he had been recently preforming a sizable amount of magic. That made me realized how sloppy I had been in examining Healer Kal¡¯rek¡¯s attack a year and a half ago. The day after Kal¡¯rek arrived in the town I asked Nathan about how the meeting between the Healer and Mayor had gone. I was eventually told that 2 of the 6 people traveling to Entrials had died, however, even after healing Carlatus, the Healer only ate a single, albeit large, plate of food.

    I had originally assumed that his lack of magical expenditure had to do with easily scaring off his attackers, but that made no sense given that 2 people died. As a Healer, he would have used his spells to try and save them, meaning that he would have used a fair amount of mana. I had even spoken to the Healer around the time and ended up asking if he had brought any books along. However, he stated that his whole company had traveled light, not even bringing along extra food. Primarily I blamed it on armature bandits, figuring that they had perhaps gotten in one or two lethal blows before realizing that they were in a fight against a mage and running away.

    The problem lay with the Healer¡¯s company and their accounts of the attack. Too few people failed to realize that there were actually 3 types of bandits. The first and most common were just desperate people, staring starvation in the face and willing to do anything to avoid it. The second were bloodthirsty scum who hurt for the enjoyment and relative ease of preying on travelers, instead of working the land or plying a trade. The final ones were like me, those who only cared about money, or who wanted something specific, like getting revenge.

    The attack on Kal¡¯rek¡¯s group, had originally sounded like the first group, until you realized that the metal phase¡¯s harvest cycle in that area had been fairly good and everyone was more than willing to celebrate and share food. The second group would make no sense either as a group of bloodthirsty men would not target a random bunch on the road when neighbors would be too busy harvesting to notice an outer farm¡¯s occupants suddenly disappearing. Especially when said farm would be more likely to have young women. Which left only the third group, who either needed good riding horses, not farm or cart horses, or the bandits were supposed to assassinate someone.

    Either reason was plausible, but the fact that I had not even picked up on the possibility was disturbing to say the least.

    So I resolved myself to change my approach and become more serious about preparing myself and my surroundings for whatever life or this ¡®game¡¯ would throw at me.

    ¡°Bella!¡± It was Carlatus. At least children could be trusted to be children.

    It was currently nearing mid-day and he had alternated between playing with Xiphos and annoying me while we awaited the Histones¡¯ arrival. I had politely excused myself to run my experiments.

    There is too much to do, I sighed to myself.

    ¡°Bella!¡± I sighed again and went over to the door to unbolt it, casting a dispersion spell while I did so. It was hard to sense a spell after it had been cast, but you could still tell that magic had been used in an enclosed area within a certain period of time. Dispersion spells were usually a waste of mana unless you were deliberately trying to hide the fact that you had been working magic.

    Unbolting and opening the door I stepped out and gave Carlatus a brief glare as he knew better than to interrupt an alchemist ¨C even a basic one ¨C at work. It was the reason I could bolt the door and not have to worry about Xiphos or anyone else bothering me.

    ¡°Dad spotted the Histoon! They are riding up now.¡± Carlatus squeaked, clearly more than a little excited.

    ¡°Histone, Carlatus, Histone.¡± I corrected gently, letting my child-self deal with Carlatus as I drew back into my own world.

    The water level that represented our merging consciousnesses was around my knees. Below where my leg touched the water no longer existed unless I deliberately created the form. It represented the point where my consciousness had already merged into my new form. Although, even if I recreated my legs in this world, I would not be able to separate myself from my new body.

    Suddenly I found myself wondering if there was any more purpose in creating or visiting this space in my mind again, other than to check how much I had fused with my child-self.

    Letting myself fall back into the physical world, I noticed that Carlatus and I had gone to meet Nathan, Jalon, Xiphos, and Loco by the edge of the village. Not far away 5 riders were leisurely approaching.

    To my surprise, there were only 2 adults among them. The other 3 were all teenagers at the oldest. The two older ones were carrying swords, but the youngest of them looked barely 2 or 3 years older than me and looked familiar. The last one clearly recognized me as his face immediately took on a thunderstruck look, letting me remember where I saw him last. He was the boy saw me while I was looking at myself in the mirror, back before the lord¡¯s party.

    I wonder if he is going to run away again I thought grimly. Although the look on his face was not one that I would usually associate with fear.

    Sure enough, he spurred his horse a bit and raced ahead of his group, charging towards us.

    Everyone instinctively took a few steps to the side as his charge ended in a dramatic last second slow down and dismount.

    I almost applauded his little show of skill, however, from the way he was staring at me I knew that at least part of my plan for laying low was up in smoke.

    He spoke directly to me in a deep voice for someone so young. ¡°I am the Lord¡¯s second son, John, may I have the honor of knowing your name?¡±

    I blinked, ignoring Nathan and all protocol to introduce himself to me would normally make him somewhat endearing, but his motives were not only transparent, they were made accompanied by the trace amounts of mana that he was leaking.

    Since my child-self was confused, I took direct control as the rest of the group quickly rode to catch up to John. Turning towards Nathan I simply ignored and insulted John at the same time. ¡°Sir, it appears that the lord mayor could not be present.¡±

    A bowing John jerked in surprise, but could not say anything before the rest of his group caught up. One of them, the oldest teen there, immediately began chastising John as politely as possible.

    A guard then, I thought amused. I also gave control back to my child-self as the adults started asserting themselves.

    Nathan, naturally, took the lead. ¡°I was expecting the mayor himself, did something happen to him?¡±

    One of the riders, an older man, replied. ¡°He managed to catch dysentery. When we left he could walk, but riding after he took his potion was out of the question.¡± The older man dismounted and continued speaking. ¡°It has been more than a few years since I was here, but if I remember correctly, you are Nathan correct?¡± He smiled as he asked.

    Nathan nodded and gave a brief bow. ¡°Correct. It is good to see you Newsman Asat.¡±

    Asat smiled more widely and I stepped around John, who tried to get my attention by blocking my view. ¡°I always have mixed feelings about being remembered. However I did have to thoroughly document your little excursion with the current mayor, so I suppose it was unavoidable.¡±

    Nathan nodded knowingly and I batted away John¡¯s unwelcomed hand just before he got into a shouting match with Carlatus.

    The man who was chastising John before immediately broke it up while the other teenager told the young guard to let John do as he wished. I absently noted that I had overestimated his age because of the teen¡¯s height and that he was actually closer to John¡¯s age.

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    Nathan, spared a brief glance at the John and the others, which they noticed just before they decided to try and behave themselves.

    John stepped forward quickly, ¡°I greet you Nathan on behalf of my father who could not be here.¡± He bowed and Nathan reciprocated.

    ¡°It is good to see you again John, although I thought that you and Carlatus would have started to get along better by now.

    ¡°Newsman Asat, John, these are the traveling mage, Jalon, our local mender, Loco, and my son, Jalon¡¯s apprentice, Xiphos.¡± Nathan paused and turned towards Carlatus (who was now glued to my side) and I. ¡°These 2 are also my children, Carlatus and Bella.¡± I nodded and lightly tapped Carlatus¡¯ head to get him acknowledge Nathan.

    The other three did not nod, but actually bowed briefly to the Newsman, leaving him bobbed acknowledgements before turning to the only visitor still on their horse. This last one was a young women that had a small notebook out in her hands that she was making notations in. She was unremarkable except for the fact that she was writing without an inkwell in sight, which made me curious about the quill.

    Asat introduced her. ¡°This is my newest apprentice, Recorder Zana, please excuse her diligence, but it is required when such claims need to be investigated. I believe John has already introduced himself, but the other 2 are his friends, Drasiedi and Anghenfil.¡±

    Mentally abbreviating their names to Dras and Ang I noticed that although Dras, the one I mistook for a guard, was supposed to be regarded as a friend, he seemed to be acting more like a caretaker.

    Asat, did not dwell on them though and turned back to face Nathan. He then asked both Nathan and, with a brief glance, Jalon pointedly ¡°Is it true?¡±

    Both nodded at the same time, clearly unoffended and eager about something.

    Asat did not say anything for a moment, but instead seemed to soak in the knowledge, allowing me to politely demand that someone explain. ¡°Excuse me, but what are you talking about? Is this about the place Jalon was shown yesterday?¡±

    Asat, Nathan, Jalon, and Xiphos all turned to look at me, but I said nothing. Loco, who was quietly hiding in the background smiled and I realized that, once again, I was standing out more than I should.

    Instead, John spoke up to help me. ¡°In fact, I do not know what you are here to record either Histone. Did Sir Nathan actually find something of such note that you need to keep it a secret?¡±

    I almost guffawed at the way John suddenly called Nathan a ¡®Sir,¡¯ but I kept my face straight regardless. I did not know if he was trying to make up for disrespecting him earlier or if he was trying to copy when I called him sir, but either way, it seemed funny for some reason.

    Nathan, did not laugh and gave a simple look back at the large crowd that had started gathering behind us since John¡¯s boisterous entrance a moment ago. Nearly the whole village was there by now, with most staring at the Newsman.

    Asat walked up to Nathan and quietly asked him something about taking care of the crowd. Nathan did not reply and instead stepped forward to address the crowd himself. ¡°I have asked the Newsman Asat of the Histones to be here today to confirm something that I found in the hills recently.¡± He paused as a general murmur broke out among the villagers, they sounded excited. Nathan continued speaking after the chatter died down a little. ¡°I am sure that he will be willing to take down the village log to take back to his fellows, but please know that he is not here for a ¡®recording.¡¯¡±

    The villagers immediately started scattering, going to collect old memories to ensure that no one was forgotten. Although I had no clue what a ¡®recording¡¯ was, I knew the village log was supposed to be kept up for tax purposes and was meant to record births, deaths, and family unities.

    Nathan quickly waved to Asat and the rest, cueing them to take their horses to the inn. On the way, Nathan explained that it would be better to show the Newsman where the location was tomorrow so that they did not have to travel in the dark as long.

    By the time we had arrived at the inn there had been at least a dozen requests for stories, tales, and other requests from the villagers, mostly children, but adults also wanted to talk to the Newsman.

    As we tied up the horses and went inside however, the inn keeper chased off the majority before they could swarm in. With the remainder only staying under the excuse of buying a meal.

    John, seemingly suck on the idea of impressing me, noticed how quickly I put on my working mask to block the smell of smoke and asked why. It was not a secret, so he found out quickly, even without me telling him and promptly informed everyone in the inn that, under his father¡¯s authority, the inn would be smoke free until he said otherwise.

    Dras, Jalon, and the innkeeper did not like the blatant use of authority, but almost everyone else seemed to be more entertained than angry. Nathan was the only exception, looking conflicted and clearly thinking, to my great annoyance, that my sister already had a match with his brother and was likely to join the two families.

    It was one of the remnants of the enslavement of mankind by the Elves. The depravity practiced in those days meant that a human might rape and be raped by anyone, including one¡¯s own family. The abominations that were described to children as the results of incest were fanciful nonsense, but they made their point. Incest was, along with the practice of slavery, considered the greatest of non-magical crimes.

    Of course, knowing Nathan, he would have already recognized the ¡®double union¡¯ ceremony as a distinct option and was probably wondering how to bring the option up with Florence and the mayor. Not that I was going to let him, but I could not say anything at the moment.

    After we sat at the back of the inn, I carefully made sure that I was between the Recorder and Carlatus. I wanted to study the first and let the second fight off John¡¯s annoying questions.

    Loco, to my surprise, started off the conversation by telling them about my fire experiments and asking if they had heard of similar tests.

    I told you it was pointless to try and blend in. ¨C My child-self addressed me directly. ¨C We will be fine though. Who would want to hurt a child? Much less one talented at healing?

    There are always those who do would do anything for what they believe. You know that little girl.

    Yes, but even they will till only see a little girl. Which is our greatest defense.

    ¡­

    That, and if you start suddenly trying to change our behavior, we will stand out even more.

    I mentally blinked, my child-self was right, but that was the first time she had questioned a decision of mine.

    Asat brought my attention back to the present as he looked at me curiously. ¡°No, I do not believe I have heard of anything like that. Or at least, I do not think anyone actually thought to make an experiment of it.¡± He smiled. ¡°Do you mind if I ask why you did that?¡±

    I smiled back as best I could. ¡°I would be happy to, but do you mind answering my questions as well? No one has told me what exactly a Newsman is yet.¡± Nathan jerked at this and turned towards Loco, who just shrugged.

    Asat clearly noticed the exchange, but said nothing to them and instead answered my question without losing his smile. ¡°A Newsman is a rank within the Histone organization. It is our duty to travel around and record various events. Although,¡± he chuckled of a moment. ¡°We are not a part of any organized church, despite our moniker of a ¡®cult of history.¡¯¡±

    His smile turned sad for a moment and he paused before continuing. ¡°Humanity lost all we knew before the time of Enslavement and very few people at the time understood the importance of preserving stories of the past. Too many people back then wanted to burn any reminders of the Elves and forget what happened. Our group was created around that time to preserve the past and record the present.

    ¡°Of course nowadays we are fairly established and our members are now welcome in most places as wondering storytellers and the ones who teach others about the past. We also, manage to get invited to observe most parties and coronations and such, but it took many years to get to that point. In the early years we were closed off enough to be called a cult, but that would be a bit too far off topic.¡± Asat sad smile remained after he finished recounted the past.

    As he paused, I decided to answer his original question about my fire test. ¡°I was curious.¡± Asat¡¯s sad smile disappeared for a moment as he became confused, but he quickly understood. ¡°My talent has helped me learn about both my own and about other people¡¯s bodies. However, I was curious about why I felt my lungs were not using all the air I breathed in. Since everyone told me that fire needed to breathe as well I wanted to learn how long it could breathe without air. Although I am still trying to find a way to prove that it is only using a part of the air and is not just burning out because of air becoming stale.¡±

    It was a lie, but one with enough truth to be taken at its face value. I knew that air was made up of different parts, but the churches might not appreciate something without proof. Anton and Leo had dismissed spontaneous generation for me, but my old Kingdom would have been surprised that the old ¡®rat recipes¡¯ were not actually creating new rats.

    Asat laughed in delight and took out his own small booklet from what appeared to be a hidden pocket on his coat and took his Recorder Zana¡¯s quill to write down something before looking up at me again and smiling. ¡°Bella, daughter of Nathan, interesting person with pointed ears that move and a desire to learn.¡± He blew gently on the booklet¡¯s pages and passed the odd quill back to Zana. ¡°I promise to remember you for future reference.¡±

    I blinked and ignored an echo of ''pointless'' from my child-self as I noticed that my ears were twitching just slightly.

    *     *     *

    Royal Bedchamber in the western empire of Etror:

    What have I done? The Queen looked on her 2 slaves, who had exhausted themselves for her pleasure and were now sleeping.

    She stood by the bedside table, a lonely candle all that illuminated her nude form and the sleeping forms of the 2 in her bed. The cup of warm wine in her hand not clearing her head of the guilt and fear that gripped her.

    No one would question me ordering their deaths, I am the queen after all, but it would look too suspicious. She drained the wine all at once and played with the empty cup.

    As she looked at their sleeping forms though, another surge of desire started to build up in her, slowly pushing back her fears and guilt. She had taken the contraceptive potion after the fact so he chances of conceiving were slim. Her husband would also be back from crushing the slave revolt in another few days, obviously eager to have his songs sung and his needs tended. Even if she enjoyed the 2 a few more times no one would notice and certainly no one would suspect the parentage of any of her children.

    I might have to kill them if the girl gets pregnant, but she might have another lover who could claim her child¡­ assuming that the old stories of monstrous offspring were just stories¡­ No, no chances could be taken, if she became pregnant with her own brother''s spawn. If¡­

    The Queen squirmed as the heat in her body grew and the girl started to stir. Of course, the young women and her twin brother would face even worse punishment than the Queen if it was discovered that they had all shared in ecstasy together. Which they had, repeatedly, even while the Queen herself not involved.

    The western continent was the only one still strong enough to hold slaves, but even they held certain taboos from the far past, incest being one of the highest taboos.

    The girl slowly sat up, clearly looking for the Queen, and in doing so let her covering slip off. Even with only the bedside candle lit, the Queen¡¯ desire was stoked by the naked young women¡¯s form. Where previously it was just a warm glow, now a fire truly started to roar.

    The Queen could not know though, that most of this desire was due to simple hormones that had been ¡®encouraged¡¯ by entities intent on pushing her majesty down the path they wanted.

    Such was the nature of the Game.

 Chapter 11: Fated Meeting by Moonlight.

    Chapter 11: Fated Meeting by Moonlight.

    Damn Nathan, you finally managed to impress me.

    I made this quiet admission to myself while staring at the roof of my room.

    Formerly an extra shed for Loco¡¯s chemicals, I had taken the room back when I moved in with them. Loco and Luna had offered me a place to sleep in their own home, but it had few enough rooms that I preferred this one. Although I did move to the other room that they had set up for guests when I knew that experiments were going to be lasting into the night.

    Luna liked to joke that I was like a cat because of my habit of changing my sleeping spot regularly. I had grown fond of the analogy recently, especially as I realized that cats were missing some of the genetic markers that Anton had claimed were signs of domesticated animals.

    Stop trying to escape the problem DeMorte¡­ I sighed, not sure if that voice was my own or from my child-self the truth was annoying and I kept trying to concentrate on what I would do. The problem was that I had very few good choices.

    It was so annoying that I actually considered using everyone in the village for experiments, regardless of what would happen to them afterward, before disappearing into the forest and just dealing with the Guilt when it came.

    Earlier, before the Histones had finished eating and gone into storytelling mode for the villagers, I finally managed to get enough information from them get a vague idea what was going on behind the scenes with Nathan and the mayor.

    Although they would not tell me exactly what they found, there told me enough to make a fairly educated guess. Specifically, since I had wondered around the area beyond the village, I knew that there were no large ruins, rare organisms, or illusion spells covering any combination of the two. That meant that, for the Histone and Jalon to be reacting like they were, they had likely found something underground. It could have been relics of some sort, but relics that did not give off magical power or bloodlust would not necessitate a mage and formal history coming to investigate.

    This left me with several possibilities, including a mage¡¯s cache, however, judging by the way they reacted and after asking some tangent questions, I figured out that the visit was mandated for something like what Nathan found.

    Although I could not be sure, based on the information I had, I thought that Nathan had found a special metal pocket somewhere in the area.

    According to my previous world¡¯s knowledge, there were 3 basic types of metals that interacted well with mana. These 3 metals were iron, silver, and gold. Iron was erroneously known as the ¡®magic killer¡¯ both here and in my previous world because most iron would naturally suck up and ¡®filter¡¯ mana. By rapidly processing mana through it, iron eliminating the instructions that made up spells and wards, disintegrating them. Silver and gold, on the other hand, could be infused with mana and would hold on to the mana fairly well, making the metals very valuable for enchantment purposes.

    What I did not know, however, was that there were 3 unique metals in this world which also interacted with mana. Specifically, these metals were adamantine, mithril, and zugoran. Adamantine was a metal that had somehow absorbed and layered mana into a super dense, heavy, metal that could withstand both spells and physical damage. Adamantine was the metal that allowed the republic of Albatross to stay independent as armor made from it allowed regular men to more easily fight mages. Mithril could absorb mana to become lighter and stronger for as long as someone fed it mana, but unlike adamantine, mithril could charge and discharge its mana amount, making it ideal for a mage¡¯s battle armor. Zugoran was the final of the three unique metals and had a history all its own.

    The Elves had known of the other 2 metals, but they hated adamantine for making even non-magical humans dangerous. While they viewed mithril was considered the metal of the elite and even touching it was considered a crime. Then they discovered zugoran sometime during the Enslavement and it quickly became their favorite metal. This was because zugoran could process mana into wild and random spells. Unlike both adamantine and mithril, zugoran could be easily remolded and cast into pitch black weapons that would cast spells that would sometimes destroy their wielders and at other times, amplify their powers several fold.

    Zurgoran, as it turned out, while random in its raw form, would seal its nature when processed, making some extremely powerful and extremely deadly weapons. To the present date, however, no one, human or Elf, had managed to figure out why zurgoran worked like it did, or learn of a way to figure out its nature without testing the finished weapon. Naturally, the Elven elite forced humans and lesser elves to take the risk of trying out each of the weapons cast in fights to the death. This was done both for Elven entertainment and to find out what weapons were more prone towards positive enchantments.

    As humans rose and fought back against the Elves to end the Enslavement, though, zurgoran became the personification of the cruelty of the Elven elite. Although the Histones had managed to record that the story only started near the end of the Enslavement, those who knew of the 3 metals typically called them the trinity metals.

    The metal of mana, gifted by the gods long ago, was mithril. The metal of the body, or of the ¡®earth¡¯ as some said, was adamantine, forged in the creation of the world by accident. Finally, the metal of darkness and evil, of chaos and corruption, Zugoran, that grew from the corpse of the old god of creation, Zug, who was killed for his cruelty to his fellow gods over their attempts to create life on their own.

    There was even a theory arose that Elves themselves were a result of random zugoran spells, discharging in the wilderness of ancient times, but that did not matter.

    What mattered was that Nathan had likely found one of these not far from the village. It was also probably protected by distraction runes, which would be why neither the villagers nor I were unable to find it. Instead, it all but guaranteed that Nathan could only have found it by accident. The problem would show up when someone asked questions like ''where it was?'' or ''when did Nathan find it?'' That was the area where Nathan and firmly confused me and earned my grudging respect.

    I knew, roughly, how far away the site was because of how far Nathan and Jalon. If they could have traveled to there and back on horseback in only a day, off road, I could at, least place, the distance. Assuming they took an hour to explore I could narrow that range down even further, however, that brought up another question: when did he find it?

    Nathan had only been in the area a few times in the last year. Given the communication lag and how regularly he tried to correspond with Xiphos, it could have only been recently that Nathan discovered anything rare enough to bring Jalon and the Histone to the village. Of course, he should have come back injured or at least shown some type of noticeable reaction if he found something rare nearby, but I saw no such reaction. He did not even visit the area frequently, only exploring beyond the village once in the last few phases. He might have found it a few years ago, but as far as my child-self could remember, the only times he had really come out here for more than a day or two were after he sent me to Loco. This meant that I should have seen him at some time after his discovery acting differently, but that never happened.

    As anyone who held an unsecure position of power would know, I was just a bit too paranoid to let something like that slip by me. As an orphan, a bandit, a bandit leader, and especially as a king, I noticed when people started acting differently.

    The only explanations that I could come up with at first were that Nathan was either a sociopathic liar who could fool even me (and I had experience with that) or he deliberately did not tell me he was in the area when he found it. However, my child-self also pointed out that my oldest brother, Hoplis, and Florence had come out here several times before too, which could have meant that Nathan had lied and just taken credit for it. Still, they had not wondered around the area and went straight home soon enough, leaving me with another (much more likely) option¡­ Nathan had known about his ¡®new discovery¡¯ for much longer than what others knew about.

    A secret like this could only be kept if people were willing to bury bodies though, which brought up the name ¡®Nathan the Coward,¡¯ as the river stalker clan called him, and Nathan, the savior of the mayor. It was so very easy for me to put that event into the story, the narrative, which I was painting in my head for Nathan.

    I could almost see him either rescuing the mayor like in the story and just happening to find a small cave (or whatever), that they decided to keep a secret on their own. Or, if they just made up the whole story as he and the mayor found whatever secret was hiding in the area and killed the river stalker to keep it a secret. If it was something like that¡­

    No, there were too many possibilities. The bottom line was that Nathan was playing some type of game and had his daughter aligned to take advantage of whatever the mayor¡¯s son ended up doing with his life. With some hints from the Histones that the mysterious discovery would be rewarded handsomely, I found myself realizing that Nathan might just succeed in making sure that his grandchild were ennobled.

    Unfortunately for me, that left me with few good options if I wanted to escape the village life without too much resistance. Originally, I had planned to disappear around age 13 or 14 to find and change the spell that could change my gender. If I failed to do so in the time it would take me to hit puberty ¨C which would happen sometime when I was 16 ¨C I would manually change my body as much as possible.

    Sewing up and removing the vaginal cavity would cause some problems biologically, but I had a good idea how to stop the menstrual cycle and breasts would not be an issue. Few female mages ever developed significantly in that area. Other issues could be dealt with when they arose. After I ¡­

    I stood up and threw on a cloak. I might know more than any other human being in this new world about the human body, but that did not mean that I was perfect. Even with my ever increasing level of control over my own body, I still let my mind wander from the problem at hand.

    Stepping out of my shed/home I took a walk around the village while trying to concentrate. Everyone else had gone to sleep hours ago, even with the 2 Histones happily telling everyone stories until late in the evening.

    If Nathan got noticed, which he would, then his family would get noticed and affected as well. I was still too young to just disappear into the night without causing trouble, both here and wherever I went to, a child traveling alone would garner attention. I could try and stay as I was until I would get recruited by magic talent recruits and then disappear. However, depending on Nathan¡¯s discovery and its impact, it would not be too unlikely that some high noble would try and sponsor my education, making disappearing both difficult and potentially dangerous.

    In this world, nobles were not supposed to make war on one another anymore, so instead they became hyper sensitive about their names and reputations. Where insulting a noble in my previous world might result in economic damage or outright warfare, here even the slightest insult was supposed to be settled by magical contests and duels. If such duels were refused, it was usually an invitation to a shadow duel that, if I read between the lines of common knowledge, seemed to involve dispatching assassins and arsonists in the dead of night.

    I could run, I could kill, I could hide, and most importantly, I could die if I was not careful. I lived one life watching for self-righteous mercenary assassins. Back then, after discovery, they would not hesitate to not only try and kill me but give me a sermon during the fight of how I was an evil blight upon the world that have to be removed.

    I snorted, maybe I should become a self-righteous mercenary in this world. It would solve most of my problems as ¡®adventurers¡¯ were usually given special rights and allowances that most people could not dream of. Not that they were any different from other mercenaries, except the sermoning, they all moved for job requests in exchange for money.

    Osiris might break out of the Ovals and come hunt me down himself if I did that though. I smiled to myself, I missed my old group, Cook, Wong, Sera, Long-Paul, and Osiris were good people at heart. They just liked to hide that fact away from the world outside our little group, or they did back when it was just a few of us. Especially Osiris, I thought to myself, He was a good man, I hope he made a better king than I did.

    I stopped walking for a moment and stretched, I still felt old on occasion, despite the young body I was currently controlling. My child-self had actually fallen asleep in my head somehow, leaving me in control of our body. How that had worked was still a mystery to me, but I had more pressing matters to look into. Including a sound that I was picking up from the edge of the village.

    If I was not mistaken, the *swish* sound of the air was sword practice. At this time of night though¡­

    Curious, I walked over to the village palisade. Although it could more easily be called a tall fence than a true palisade, especially as no one guarded it at night. All villages apparently had an ancient custom to always keep some protection between human groups and the outside. Although if this was a remnant from the Elven-Soul wars or just an instinct to feel safe, I was not sure.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    When I reached the edge of the village where the palisade stood I saw him. Since my eyes were better than an average person¡¯s, especially in the dark, it was easy to identify Dras patiently working through the different sword stances.

    Automatically evaluating him despite myself, I gave him a 9th circle for effort, but a 3rd circle for form. The boy needed more practice in the ways of martial movements, he was wasting energy with every swing. Based on his moves and the fact that he did occasionally get the forms correct, his slips were more likely from not paying attention. He probably had a teacher that personally watched him train until recently.

    I mentally corrected his stances and noticed that the sword technique he was using was similar to a pair of dueling techniques I knew from my previous world. It made me wonder if other techniques would be similar to me, but since all martial movements were based on the human body, it would be more surprising if they were not familiar to me.

    After a few minutes, Dras apparently decided that he needed a rest and saw me. I was not too far away so I waved politely and resisted the temptation to laugh as he tried to hide his embarrassment. Under a clear night with the moon (something I still found odd ¨C a ¡®moon¡¯ instead of a second sun was just weird) I could easily see his flushed face, but he probably had a hard time seeing more than my general features.

    Dras walked towards me and tried to pretend that he was not embarrassed in the slightest. ¡°Miss Bella? What are you doing out and about at this time of night?¡±

    I made sure that my smile was polite and not teasing when I replied. ¡°I had trouble sleeping so I decided to take a walk. I did not expect to find John¡¯s guard practicing late into the night.¡±

    He shifted uncomfortably ¡°I do not sleep like most people.¡±

    I blinked, ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I mean that I only need to sleep around half the amount of time that my friends do.¡± He sighed. ¡°I do not know why, but it has just always been that way for me.¡±

    I looked blankly at him and quietly wondered what the odds were that I would run into someone like him. ¡°Come here,¡± I told him, extending a hand towards his face.

    Surprisingly, he stepped back. ¡°Why?¡±

    I felt my sarcastic side try to interject, but I kept my quip about pinching his cheeks to myself and explained. ¡°I have a talent for healing and I want to see what it thinks of your little condition.¡±

    Hesitantly, the brat came over and let me grab his head. Instantly, my talent started screaming as Dras exhaled in pain. The poor brat¡¯s mana channels had been overloaded beyond their capabilities and were useless.

    Mana channels were like veins or arteries, except instead of carrying blood to and from the heart to the rest of the body, they spread mana throughout a mage¡¯s body and allowed them to absorb mana through energy cultivation. Dras, though, looked like he had flooded his channels with more mana than they could handle, meaning that, while he had mana channels like I or any other mage did, he was magically castrated. It should have been impossible because of how flexible mana channels were, but I clearly had to rethink what I termed impossible.

    Oh and I also noticed that he was telling the truth about his sleeping patterns. I could not tell exactly what mutation was causing it, not at the quick glance my talent was giving me, but I could tell that he was not lying at the least.

    ¡°Heno!¡± Dras cursed and broke away from me and stumbled backward until he fell on the ground and started groaning.

    ¡°What in the Ovals happened to you?¡± I asked, staring at him.

    ¡°Ovals? What in the name of the gods did you do to me?¡± he groaned.

    After staring at him for a moment, I walked around him while explaining. ¡°Your mana channels were destroyed, overloaded with mana, years ago. You are just reacting to your talent trying to react when it cannot.¡±

    Looking up from the ground at me, he looking both confused and in pain. ¡°I am a burnout?¡±

    They have a name for something like this? I thought, slightly scared, exactly how often does this happen? ¡°A what?¡±

    ¡°Most mages- argh¡± he stopped speaking as the branch that he was trying to prop himself up with broke under his weight. Likely once been some child¡¯s plaything, he growled at the remains and tossed it away before pushing himself upright. I made no move to help him as he took a deep breath and continued. ¡°Most mages under 4 circles burn themselves out as children. I did not realize that I was one of them.¡±

    I frowned, as far as I could tell there were no major differences in biology between the humans of my previous world and this one. Maybe it was environmental? Or some type of mutation? ¡°I never heard of it. It only affects the mages below 3 magic circles worth of power?¡±

    Dras nodded, taking deep breaths, ¡°It is common enough that I do not know of anyone who tested below the 4th circle in the last 200 years.¡± I stared at him horrified. ¡°Of course, the Histones might know someone, but they are rare.¡± He nodded to me and started to back away. ¡°Regardless, do not worry about me Miss Bella, I hope you get some sleep.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure you¨C¡± I began to ask him before being cut off.

    ¡°I am fine¡± He stated, half turning back towards me. ¡°Perfectly fine-ah!¡± What happened next could have been the oddest way to die that I had ever heard of or seen. As he waved to me, Dras seemed to trip over his own feet and, as he fell, naturally put out his hand to brake his fall. Only to hit the crooked branch that he broke earlier and have it stick up as he fell.

    [Author: If anyone is curious, this actually happened to me once, but the branch only left a slight scrape because of the angle. Made for an interesting scene though]

    I could only stare in wonder as Dras managed so accidentally stab himself in the throat with the branch. I suddenly remember the day I met Cook and how he managed to kill a guard with only a fart that made the man fall to his death.

    As Dras rolled around on the ground, clutching at his throat as it bled splendidly -horribly I mean- I let a little laugh slip. It really was one of the oddest things I had ever seen. Dras, however, did not think so as he rolled over and began gagging at me ¨C obviously wanting me to go get help.

    ¡°I am sorry for laughing Dras-¡± He blinked at that name. ¡°-however that was the single most ridiculous thing that I have ever seen.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Seriously now. That hole of yours is too big for a potion to fix too.¡± I looked at the sky and grunted. The Nalks did that, I could not think of any other explanation.

    I looked back down at Dras and shook my head again. ¡°I can save you,¡± I told him, ¡°But the catch is that you cannot tell anyone that I did. Agreed?¡± He nodded frantically as more blood slipped through his fingers.

    I walked over, preparing 2 spells, the first of which I activated with a touch to his forehead, making him pass out. The second though was a forbidden spell that I preferred. It was called ¡®Gorith¡¯s shroud¡¯ back on my previous world and it had one purpose: To claim the area around the caster as part of them. It was actually a derivative of soul magic and therefore forbidden, but it had one very distinct advantage over every other magic I knew.

    As I claimed the area around Dras and myself, a black miasma representing my mana enveloped the area and shielded us from all prying eyes, including, according to legend, the gods themselves.

    If the Nalks or someone else did influence Dras¡¯ little stumble, for whatever twisted reasons, I did not want them seeing me actually healing him. Right now no one would be able to see us or sense any spell was being used.

    ¡°You would not know what I am talking about,¡± I grunted, as I started healing the unconscious Dras. ¡°However, the Guilt would have made me suffer for leaving you to die when I could have saved you.¡± Casting another spell to gather up some of the blood he lost, I made sure that it was clean of foreign material before quickly giving it back to him with a make-shift transfusion spell. Hopefully, there would be no resulting infection as I could not risk trying the antibiotic spell on him. I needed there to be no marks or traces of my mana remaining, just in case he decided to tell Jalon about how I saved him.

    After 10 minutes or so, his throat was completely healed without a scar and to the best of my ability, I could not find any traces of my mana around the wound or in his body. I made sure to get rid of the remaining blood stains too, from everything except the branch that caused the wound in the first place.

    I dispelled the shroud and made sure that no one else was around before I woke Dras up, least I save him only to have him wake up inside an evil looking black dome. There was no way that could end badly¡­

    After a moment, Dras came around and I stood back with the stick in my hands. His blood would be a valuable sample and it would serve as a good reminder for Dras. After seeing me and the bloodstained branch he quickly grabbed at his throat, but I just put my finger to my lips to indicate his silence.

    ¡°You will say nothing.¡± I said simply and after he nodded, I simply turned and walked away, back to my bed. I used more mana than I originally intended to heal him so I was fairly well drained. My stomach attested to the fact as it growled, demanding food.

    I had a bad avotato in my room that, while inedible by now, could be absorbed for some calories, in addition to another one that I had snuck from the pantry.

    Looking at the bloodstained branch, I wondered if I could create a fake body using it. Not to give intelligence to or raise, but to try and help me simulate human genetic reaction to my tampering. Still a lot of materials would be required to make a full human body with¡­ Could I use an illusion spell to¡­?

    I stopped and looked up into the night sky. Leo caused that meeting like it was fated, probably to get me to think along this precise line of thought. ¡°Stoning Nalks¡± I repeated, this time with a grin. They just solved my problem.

    If I could connect 2 magical devices together and make one of them project an illusion of the test subject that would contain the other then I could remotely monitor the subject for obvious mutations or changes in behavior. It was only the base idea of what I needed, but it would, at the very least, give me a starting point.

    Although I had to admit, if I found a way to transmit messages like I had an idea to do with images, I would revolutionize warfare in this world¡­ assuming the Nalks had not already given a similar idea to someone else of course.

    *     *     *

    A couple of days later:

    On the road south to the capital:

    Newsman Asat had waited until he and his apprentice were several days away from Entrials and out of range of anyone else who could hear them before he started asking Zana what she thought of their special visit.

    A lesser known duty of every Histone was to keep a personal journal in addition to their factual one. Saying that someone won a battle on a certain day was important, but saying who you thought was going to win the battle ahead of time and why was equally important. A recorder, the lowest traveling rank among the Histones, was duty bound to record the official record of event separate from her personal journal and now that it was only the 2 of them, Asat took the opportunity to test her.

    He knew what the official record would say, but he wanted Zana to tell him what she thought of the people involved in the record.

    ¡°I think he staged it,¡± Zana stated bluntly, ¡°That mine had been excavated sometime in the past few decades and I would guess that Nathan has a small stockpile of Mithril somewhere because of it.¡±

    Asat did not comment, despite the fact that he personally agreed, but instead continued to ask questions. He ended up agreeing with most of what she said, but noticed that she still missed a few details that would have influenced her opinion. One detail, however, she noticed and he missed.

    ¡°What do you think of Bella, Zana?¡± Asat asked.

    Here, Zana hesitated for the first time before replying. ¡°I thought she was a strong headed little girl at first, but she asked very sharp questions.¡± Zana paused and Asat waited for her to continue. ¡°I think she scared me.¡±

    Asat blinked in surprise at that. The little girl was entertaining and a cute, if odd, little thing, but scary? ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Her ears,¡± Zana replied looking slightly pale. Asat sighed and was about to give her a lecture about appearances, but she continued to speak. ¡°Her ears were twitching all the time when we first arrived, even when she kept a straight face, but by the time we left they had stopped.¡±

    Asat looked over at Zana and stopped asking questions as they continued south. Wondering just what would become of Nathan and his family, the Histones traveled to the capital and silently swore to do their duty and keep the records of humanity safe.

    In the past or the future, the Histones would record what would happen for the ages.

    --------------------------------------------

    PS: random question: is the title to long?

 Chapter 12: Love and magical devices

    Late Metal Phase: Cycle 3079 AF

    Chapter 12: Love and magical devices

    Blight. I groaned to myself.

    Stop complaining.

    I did not bother responding. Hiding my thoughts from the Nalks was now infinitely easier than hiding them from Bella was. Stones, was not even allowed the think of her as my ¡°Child-self¡± anymore as she insisted on being called Bella.

    It started a only a few weeks ago, my soul must have reached an important point in my merge with Bella because she and I each went from having a general idea of what the other was thinking to being able to see inside their mind and send mental pictures to each other. It was unnerving to say the least.

    Since then, we had been trying to adapt to the various things that would go through our shared consciousness. For example, she demanded that I call her Bella and I demanded that she stop appraising men as possible mates. So far, despite my infamous past as the Bandit King, I had lost or tied every argument.

    Stop dwelling already, you sound like a kid. Besides, I am only arguing the points that make sense so it is natural for you to always lose!

    Said the nine cycle old! Besides, I have no intention of staying a woman so why would you resist my request to stop eying men?

    What is your point? I might not have the experience you do, but the memories I can see have already made me way more mature than I would normally be. Oh and you already got the whole ¡®you are bisexual¡¯ talk, twice, from both Anton and me. Get over it already!

    I started grumbling again and received a mental image of a grumpy old man.

    The little girl inside my head was trying to convince me to open my mind to the possibility of loving a man and then calling me a grump when I refused. This is so wrong, I thought to myself.

    Right now we were resting after finishing up the harvest for the Metal Phase. It would be time for the Lord¡¯s party again soon enough and only my strongest objections, as well as very liberal use of Loco¡¯s <del>standing requests</del> orders to collect supplies, kept me from being obligated to go.

    Almost the whole family now relaxed on the newly built front portch of the house Nathan, Hoplis, Hoplis¡¯ now pregnant wife, a slightly vindictive Florence, and Carlatus were all relaxing in one sprawling group. Most were just talking, but Florence was getting ready to attend the Lord¡¯s party by trying to come up with new ways to insult Janeen, who had apparently become something of a rival for her recently. Mother was still undecided on whether or not she should go and wondered in and out of the house to check on Carol. Little Carol and Carlatus would be staying wherever Mother was so they were trying to behave while she decided ¨C having already annoyed her greatly on the subject. Xiphos and his master Jalon were the only ones not present as they had already left for some eastern kingdom that they neglected to tell me the name of. I was left to simply nod and smile at the appropriate times when I was wrapped up into a conversation.

    Usually, Bella would be taking care of the familial conversations, however, since our little breakthrough she was having a harder time distinguishing between her natural responses and my, usually more jaded, opinions, so we had decided to avoid talking.

    In the meanwhile I wondered if this was what it was like to grow up with a normal family. It felt warm somehow and if I was anyone else I would have let myself get lost in the moment. As it was however, I was still in the middle of collecting my experiment results.

    I still cannot believe that you used little Carol for an experiment!

    It was fine. We both know the chances of her dying were less than 1 in 10,000 or so attempts.

    That is not the point and you know it.

    Bah. What is wrong with a little testing? Besides we had to know if the magical device would work and watching her recover from the infection was the best opportunity.

    First the cute little bunnies and now cute little Carol. I hope your super apes are ugly, because I am not going to forgive you if you end up hurting another cutie.

    Right when you start earning my respect you go back to being 9 again. At least we know it works.

    For the past week I had been testing out my new magical device on Carol while she recovered from an infection of some type. Her fever had already broken, but the device was only meant to monitor her anyway so it was fine in my opinion. Honestly, I had wanted to do more than just implant the monitoring device, but Bella actively resisted me and repeatedly disrupted my concentration when I was trying to form my spells.

    The original device was an organically based magical relay that I implanted on Carol¡¯s brainstem. I could activate once a day for a brief period before it had to reabsorb mana from its surroundings. During the time it was active I could receive a sort of ghost image in the back of my mind which I could monitor.

    Though, since the initial version, I had refined the design to last longer when transmitting and consume much less calories from who I implanted it in. Carol had a big appetite when recovering anyway, but the transition was using more of her energy than it should so I corrected it. Besides that Carol did not seem to notice the device, although the nature of the device itself was somewhat to blame for that so I was careful not to jump to conclusions. Magical devices were odd like that, the most basic ones were simple and easy to make, but this one had taken me over a years to fully design.

    Generally speaking, a magical device was anything that held prearranged spells that could be activated at a time different from when they were cast. Usually, people used wood and stone to create magical devices as they could hold spells fairly well and were easy to acquire, but I needed something that would survive in the human body. I had a few prototypes made of bone, but in the end I decided to use a small bundle of nervous tissue that I had embedded spells into instead because of its increased versatility and the fact that it would break down more easily on command. It was also much less likely to damage the test subject.

    Now she does not even get a name? Seriously DeMorte!?

    Magical devices could be anything from a model bird that would flap its wings to enchanted equipment or rings that could be used to cast spells. That said, all magical devices had to be recharged with magic, meaning that anyone stupid enough to disrespect mages because of a few good pieces of equipment would find themselves in dire straits. Small devices like mine could naturally absorb mana to recharge themselves, but it was like a 1 circle mage trying to cultivate energy, embarrassingly slow.

    All ruling families married mages for a reason, even with the best magical devices as equipment, no non-mage could beat a real mage. Adamantine was the only equipment that came close and even that would only help so much. As the old saying went, there were many magic swords and many mage swordsmen, but there were no swordsmen mages. Not that they were impossible, it just made no sense to fight with a sword when you could store a half dozen different death spells in a fairly basic staff.

    Which reminded me, I needed to try and manipulate bone that had spells embedded in it to see if it would disrupt the spells. If not, it would make both good weapons and armor. No one tended to turn the human body into a magical device, but it was possible to embed your limbs with small emergency spells if you wanted to. If you could deal with the pain and the fact that your mana channels might be damaged by the process, it was an effective method of creating a hidden weapon. The fact that it could damage mana channels though meant that trying to place it anywhere except your limbs would risk magical paralysis, as all mana channels flowed from the brain.

    The poor fools without magic that volunteered to be turned into walking magical devices were too unpleasant to think about¡­

    ¡°Bella.¡± The voice belonged to Mother so I banished thoughts of future experiments and test subjects to concentrate on her. ¡°Would you and Florence mind helping me with the cooking for a little bit?¡±

    We nodded and followed her to the fire pit at the back of the house. Recently, Nathan decided on a major expansion to the previously small house so soon there would be a fully functional, yet separate, kitchen. However, he still needed their neighbor to return after the man¡¯s own harvest and finish building the stove. Until then, the official cooking location was out the back of the house.

    Nathan himself was somewhat embarrassed that the job was not done, but he had been assured that it would be done before winter and that was all that mattered in his eyes. Well, that and the fact that the kitchen extended out over the basement, making retrieving stored food easier in the winter. No one liked retrieving food in the snow.

    Walking out to the cooking fire, however, I noticed that almost all the preparations were already done and that the food was already cooking, although I did not pay too much attention to what was cooking as I instinctively started looking for an ambush. Bella, for once did not say anything, although I could tell what she thought the real ambush was a different one from what I had in mind. She was right of course, but paranoia was my oldest friend.

    ¡°Now, I want both of you to listen for a bit.¡± Mother announced, turning to look at us both. ¡°Florence, everyone knows that Robert has been courting you, but you need to remember to take him seriously and be ready for his marriage proposal. You will be 16 soon enough and everyone will be wondering how you and Robert plan to support yourselves.¡± Florence jerked straight at the mention of her name and paid strict attention to Mother while she was talking. An incredibly serious, if slightly confused, look on her face.

    In the meanwhile I looked at Elizabeth with alarm. Florence was confused for a good reason, everyone knew that there was no such thing as ¡®casual courtship¡¯ you only courted to marry, period. There were no exceptions in any kingdom I knew of in this world¡­ Although my own Kingdom did have a serious commitment issue.

    For this to be brought up meant a trap!

    She is our Mother, stop being so paranoid around family. By the way, why were you thinking of fish when you thought that?

    Family is the most dangerous bait for a trap. Also, I just remembered that we still need to study fish gills.

    Oh, that is right! Anton never told you how they breathe underwater did he? Yet he did let slip that they breathed oxygen¡­ Wait, you do not seriously believe that Mother would ever betray us do you?

    You know that I do. Under the right conditions it would not be a verbal flank attack like this one, but with a dagger in the night. I have seen it almost as much as I helped it happen.

    ¡­A verbal flank attack? Your dramatic side really comes out when you are nervous

    Who is nervous? Besides, it appropriate for the occasion, watch she will use Florence¡¯s relationship to start asking us about-

    ¡°Bella, now that Florence and you understand how serious Robert is, maybe you can tell us about you and John? Especially as your relationship will effect hers.¡±

    I sighed, both inside my mind and outside. It had been a long time since I had seen her, but that line of questioning seemed forced even by my lower standards¡­ Then again though, it was exactly how I would have broached the subject if I decided not to ask directly.

    ¡°I have told him repeatedly to go away, honestly he is just annoying.¡± Bella and I did not need to discuss that particular answer as we had already agreed that John¡¯s advances were unwelcome. Dras on the other hand was becoming a problem for us as he keep coming to visit on John¡¯s behalf and letting Bella all, but drool over him when he was not looking, which was uncomfortably rare.

    Hey, I did not drool!

    Not able to hear the argument in my head, Elizabeth just frowned. ¡°Did you clearly tell him that his advances were unwanted? Or did you just avoid him?¡±

    I threatened to cut off certain parts of his body and reattach them in unpleasant places, but the brat keep trying. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am, I was very clear.¡± Which I also said with a straight face and without blinking or letting my ears twitch.

    She stared at me for a moment before sighing herself and turning back to Florence. ¡°In that case, perhaps Robert would be willing to talk to his younger brother. Either way he should know about Bella¡¯s feelings so that he does not accidentally delay any of his plans for a false reason.¡±

    Florence nodded, understanding, ¡°Yes Mother.¡±

    Elizabeth nodded and then glanced at me before nodding for Florence to go back inside. After Florence left, Elizabeth sighed again and glared at me, turning back into Mother. ¡°You know your sister always takes me more seriously when I talk like that, but you just got defensive, which means several things that I am not sure how to describe.¡± She paused before grumbling, ¡°And that is far too many sighs that I have made in far too short a time period.¡± She waved me over to the food and told me to help here with the last bit that needed to be done.

    After a few minutes of silent work we were done and Mother looked over at me. I bowed politely and tried to excuse myself before she could speak, but it did not work. ¡°Bella. Come sit over here.¡±

    Mother was patting the ground right beside her as she sat down a few steps away from the food.

    I wanted to refuse, but ¡®Bella¡¯ would not have a good reason to ignore her own Mother so we ended up sitting down.

    Smiling Mother put her arm around me and I flinched at the contact as my mana instinctively ran through her, my talent telling me things I did not want or need to know. For example, I realized that had breast cancer, which promptly made Bella start yelling at me to fix her.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    After a moment of my head spinning we managed to concentrate on Mother¡¯s slightly confused face. ¡°Was that your talent just now?¡± We nodded, still struggling with what to do. Bella knew that I could not just heal her, especially right before the Lord¡¯s party, as she might let it slip that I was doing magic, but Bella insisted that we should take care of her. ¡°Are you alright Bella?¡± Mother gently prodded.

    ¡°Yes, I am fine, what did you want to talk about?¡± I took actual control of our body to talk, gently removing Mother¡¯s hand from my shoulder while I was at it.

    She frowned and stared at me. ¡°I am worried about you Bella, you have always been unique, but lately it seems like you only care about experiments with Loco. He is a nice man, but Luna told me that you almost never play with any other children.¡±

    Wait a moment, was this supposed to be one of those ¡®opera moments¡¯ when I tell her my ¡®feelings¡¯ and such? Bella, this conversation is all yours.

    Externally we only blinked before Bella was back in control of our body. ¡°Experiments are both more fun and more important. Besides my talent activates whenever I touch someone so it is easier to just ignore them.¡± Excellent answer Bella, I thought happily.

    ¡°Bella, that is not right at all.¡± We blinked and stared seriously at Mother, who looked back at us with pity. ¡°Interacting with others is how we grow and how you get better at socializing. It is how you learn to make friends.¡±

    We kept staring at her.

    Mother is an odd person.

    Indeed.

    I knew how children were treated in this world and no one would sit down to talk to them like this. It was more of a system of ordering the children around and giving them a good beating if they refused¡­ Maybe it was because I was a mage? That would be much smarter I thought, using logic instead of violence would lessen the likelihood of a magical child lashing out.

    ¡°Mother,¡± we started carefully, ¡°I do not know what you mean. I talk to others all the time, just not kids- other children.¡± We remembered our current situation and adjusted the tone we used near the end.

    ¡°Exactly, are you not even the slightest bit interested in what other kids say and do in their free time?¡±

    Unless we are running an experiment? ¡°No, why would I be?¡± We really did not understand where this line of questioning was going? Unless she was worried about¡­ ¡°Is this conversation going to be about boys?¡±

    Mother closed her eyes for a moment. ¡°Only partly Bella, I am more worried about how you will get along with others.¡± She looked us straight in the eye, as if seeking some sort of truth in them. We matched her look and ignored the old superstitions about the eyes being the doorway to a person¡¯s soul. ¡°I know what will happen after the capital finally finishes arguing about the mine Nathan found, some noble faction or factions will try to send someone to recruit you. Maybe they will use a boy, maybe money, or maybe they will try and offer you the chance to experiment to your heart¡¯s content.¡±

    I found myself impressed, offering me a chance to experiment to my heart¡¯s content would be both a dangerous and effective offer. Dangerous to everyone that was, when I finally got around to permanent changes to other people¡¯s DNA the whole world should know to fear what I will unleash. I had even thought about creating weaponized diseases that could cause a mass extermination wherever they were released and selling them to whoever would pay the most.

    The best part was that the Guilt would not even react to something like that because I was only effected by people I killed directly. My reasoning for why was simple, if I did not order it and I only supplied the weapon, the people who had it were the ones with the choice of how it was used. As far as the Guilt was concerned, that choice made all the difference in the world.

    Well¡­ not that those plans would work out. Nobles and their darn reputations would restrict me to dealing from shadows and being hunted down by whoever was effected by my diseases. Plus, refusing to save someone in front of me when I could have would also trigger the Guilt.

    Mother must have seen something my reaction to her words because she nodded and continued speaking. ¡°You might not be interested in boys now, but when you grow older that will be a concern too. Most village girls know that they can pressure a marriage if they get pregnant, but the cities and noble houses are totally different if-¡±

    We held up our hands and interrupted her. ¡°Mother, you do not need to worry about me getting pregnant.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I know that you can probably make a contraceptive potion by now dear, but you have to remember that-¡±

    ¡°I am barren.¡±

    That made her recoil like she had been physically struck ¡°What did you say?¡± She stared at me briefly before leaning forward and hugging me tightly, despite my flinching away. ¡°Oh no, I am so sorry Bella. Since when? How did that happen? Was it an alchemic accident? I am so sorry.¡±

    We froze and tried to deal with the excess contact as best we could. Once I was older I would have better control over my mana and be able to limit such exposure, but until then Bella and I had to deal with our mana trying to invade and fix whoever we touched.

    As Mother tried to comfort us (?) it became too much and I sent a pulse of mana that knocked her out and left me supporting her weight.

    Quickly glancing at the house to make sure that no one else was going to wander out, I took stock of Mother¡¯s physical health and came to the conclusion that, despite being in her 40¡¯s she was in relatively good condition. I thought about various spells that would remove the breast cancer, but they would take a while and someone would likely interrupt before I was finished.

    Sighing to myself I made sure Bella was in firm control of our body before I used my mana. If I let her die there would be no one to control Nathan and she would die in a few years if left untreated. Until then I would be annoyed by both my talent and by Bella to heal her, so the sooner that I healed her, the better. I would also diffidently be afflicted with the Guilt if she died because of it¡­

    And in the end, she was the only Mother that I had in either of my lives. I was not sure if I could actually learn to love her as her other children would already do, but I still did not want her to die.

    Taking a chance, I used formless casting to manipulate my mana directly. If I messed up, it would be bad, but with Bella watching over our main body the chances were minimal. I methodically identified the cancerous cells and mentally separated them from the healthy cells before sending a pulse of mana through the cancerous cells. It worked and I managed to kill off the cancer cells fairly quickly. Fortunately, the body¡¯s natural processes would take care of the dead cells so I did not have to worry about that, Mother¡¯s immune system was already responding to destroy the remains of the dead cells.

    It only took about a minute total, but for anyone else that would have been impossible. Free form or otherwise, unless you understood why cancer cells were dangerous and what made them different, no normal spell would help you. Not that spreading a methodically created version of the spell would help either, Healers like Kal¡¯rek would be ignorant, not stupid and start asking questions about how I knew enough to create my spell.

    I only messed with priests twice in my previous life for a good reason, they held too much political power to push too far. Killing a few corrupt priests and stealing their money had been pushing it, but after I got my formal recognition as a king from then on I only crossed them when it came to their ¡®burn all heretics¡¯ phase.

    I love her and all, but Mother is still a bit heavy.

    What? It seems like our muscles are handling the strain fine.

    Yes, but it is still annoying and I have to stay at this angle in case someone sees us so will you please wake her up?

    Fine, get ready.

    ¡°Mom!¡± We shook her as a pulse of mana helped her wake up. Now that our talent was not bothering us, we should be able to calm her down more easily.

    ¡°What?¡± She blinked rapidly and concentrated on our face.

    ¡°I am sorry, I never liked boys so I thought that it was not a big deal if my body was not able to have kids.¡± I lied smoothly enough as it was true that Bella only seemed to eye older boys and young men. It disgusted me, but neither of us thought about children in that way so it was not too much of a lie, if it was one at all. ¡°I did not think that you would faint.¡± Mother looked alarmed for a moment, but calmed down quickly enough

    ¡°So your talent told you that you were¡­?¡± She left the question unfinished and I just nodded. ¡°When?¡±

    ¡°I was never going to have children.¡± I answered honestly, while still dodging the question.

    Mother took a deep breath and gave me another hug while I silently checked the real reason I was barren.

    Certain female organs were useful for more than just childbirth and I had decided to make use of them for the single most complicated magical device that I had ever heard of, much less created.

    My genetic rebuilder, however, was years away from being finished. Decades if I did not get some more genetically complex test subjects.

    Hush, I am trying to enjoy the moment

    Ah, in that case, do you want me to be the one to remind her about the food? We did not use that many calories, but it may burn at this rate.

    ¡±Ah!¡±

    *     *     *

    On a world very different to DeMorte¡¯s:

    Abukara Yoshitake was tired of everything.

    He had been bullied at school, beaten at home, and attacked by everything in-between. Even the internet anons seemed to hate him.

    Despite his life seeming worthless though, Abukara never gave up. He wanted to live and make his own life better, even if only in some small, virtually worthless way.

    That was the only reason he was even in the library every day. He only scored slightly above average on his latest tests and he wanted to be better than that. His parents would never pay for a cram school so he taught himself.

    Naturally, today was different though. Today, after he left school he had run into the same group that always bullied him. It was annoying and clich¨¦d by now. To the point where he did not feel angry or afraid, just tired. That part was the same as usual: get accosted, get dragged out of sight of other, and let the beating commence.

    Then, they stopped. Abukara was unsure about the why at first, but it was painfully obvious when he looked. Literally, his back of his hand was shining so brightly that it hurt his eyes. Then the burning sensation started behind his eyes and traveled around his head before corkscrewing down his spine. It took a moment to rap around his heart and then broke apart to spread in all directions, filling his limbs with pain.

    Then the world started to grow bigger and bigger as Abukara shrank and passed out from the pain as his disappeared.

    He would never know this, but the amount of painful screaming he did, along with his lightshow, and subsequent disappearance would ensure a radical change in the behavior of his bullies as they ran screaming in fear to the police, who never believed them.

    In a secret location under the city of Palos:

    Abukara groaned and jerked as he woke up, his body still feeling like it was on fire.

    A few lights illuminated the stone room, showing an incredibly complex system of different geometric shapes that had been carved into the stone floor. They also illuminated a series of closely robbed figures that truly scared Abukara, mostly because the feeling of power that they gave off ¨C although he had no idea how or why he felt that they gave off any feeling of power at all.

    Looking around rapidly and trying to get his bearings Abukara noticed a small gold chain of some sort chaffing his wrist. When he grabbed at it, however, one of the figures spoke. ¡°The bracelet is a translator, please do not take it off just yet Lord Hero.¡±

    Abukara stopped and looked up at who he thought had spoken. Lord Hero? ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°A translator device that we invented for your use Lord Hero.¡± The man stepped forward and pulled back his cloak, revealing an bald head, an old and wrinkled, but still hopeful, face and slightly pointed ears. ¡°We summoned you to try and save our people.¡±

    ¡°W-w-wait a second. I do not know anything about fighting demons, making super weapons, or leading others, and I am sure that I do not know magic so, how am I supposed to save anyone?¡± Abukara stuttered.

    ¡°I believe that you fainted from the pain of your mana pathways coming to life just now Lord Hero, but believe me when I say that you can save us.¡± The old man¡¯s smile widened ¡°I could feel your mana from the next room when you arrived. Still, it must not have been a pleasant experience so please follow this young one-¡± an attractive, if slightly large, women, with the same slightly pointed ears, stepped from behind the old man and smiled. ¡°-we will get you something to eat and a place to rest.¡±

    Abukara nodded and stood up on shaky legs as best he could before the mysterious man moved aside to let him pass. Abukara also could have sworn he heard a quiet order being given as he was led away. He was not completely sure, but he could have sworn that he heard someone giving orders concerning ¡°pleasurable company.¡±

    Weird. Is this going to be Heaven or Hell? He thought to himself.

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    Thank you for reading!

 Chapter 13: First adventure, second life

    Chapter 13: First adventure, second life

    ¡°CygnasDammit!¡±

    I froze as the curse reached my ears. I could have sworn that was English, but that language should not exist here.

    I suppressed my mana as much as possible as I estimated the distance that the shout came from. Right now I was in a sparely wooded area that would allow the sound to carry farther than it normally would so it took a moment.

    Taking out one of the few iron knives I had managed to collect over the last 2 years, I rushed towards where I thought the sound originated from. Although, since I had been using my internal energy, I had actually been quite far away from the clearing where I thought the curse came from.

    Internal energy, after being cultivated and stored in the human body, could boost any individual sense to its maximum or increase the body¡¯s overall power. It also increased reaction time based on the amount of energy used. Oddly enough, the caloric increase was only a fraction of what it should have been for me to use all of the power that my internal energy gave me. For example, if a mage was helping a blacksmith and used a hammer both with and without internal energy, the caloric usage only differed by about 3-5% of what it should, depending on skill.

    As I reached the clearing where I thought that the curse originated from, I found nothing. Quietly moving around and checking for tracks or traces I, again, found nothing. Then I resorted to magic and found a few different versions from normal spells before I tried a custom made one. Specifically, this last spell was one I designed just after I met the Nalks, while I was flying through a void with nothing else to do except study the energy they used to throw me away.

    This spell did not find that specific energy, but since I had been unable to use mana in that void, my spell was general enough to catch the remains of a different kind of energy. All the strange energy was gathered around a single point in the clearing, into what was once might have been a door, but that was now rapidly dissolving and the energy dispersing.

    As far as I could tell the energy was not mana, or at least not any type of mana that I recognized, but it did not seem like the Nalk¡¯s doing either. Odd.

    I moved away from the clearing and set up in a more secluded area with a good line of sight into the clearing. I also tried to ignore the extra fat that I had built up just prior to my journey here and the giggling from inside my head.

    Yesterday morning my family, including Mother, left for Entrials and the Lord¡¯s party, thinking that I would leave a little later to run errands for Loco. My Mother did not seem to like the idea of leaving me, but she seem resolute on something. Bella thought that she wanted to warn off John, but I was not sure. Still, even if she went and did something like announce that I was barren, it could only serve to ward off male attention and give me a reasonable justification to avoid others.

    Since they asked their neighbors to watch over the livestock and since the harvest had just come in, they thought that the house was safe to leave alone with only a lock on the pantry¡­ Really, it was almost endearing, but that was what happened got when you lived with little to no bandits in the area, complacency.

    Not that it was a bad thing, just remarkably innocent, from my point of view.

    In any case, it made it all the easier for me to grab a small sack of avotatos and spend the rest of the day preparing. Of course, when any mage prepares for an expedition or adventure, it is a disgusting sight, sometimes even to people long used to it.

    The reason is simple, to use magic, you need to use calories along with your mana. If you run low on either it is dangerous, but your mana can recharge on its own. Running low on calories, running low on fat, had always been the single biggest weakness for powerful mages. So, before a big fight or a long adventure, it was customary to binge eat and sleep without using mana to gain fat.

    Of course, binge eating also means processing the food and getting rid of it to eat more¡­ I was once spying a noble who had 12 circles of magic and I saw him eat dozens of plates full of food, enough to fill me up 4 times, in preparation for a battle. The stench from the piled up contents of his chamber pots was almost terror inducing. (Naturally, I ended up poisoning his food)

    I spent the whole day alternately between eating, walking to the outhouse, and practicing my newest sleep spells. As dusk started to close in, I absorbed a few more avotatos with the ¡®mana root¡¯ spell that Bella helped me discover a while back, leaving only a half dozen left for the my little trip. The spell worked much better on dead animals and meat than it did on vegetables¡­ or whatever the avotato was ¨C it grew underground, but each had a large seed in the center, making it a fruit botanically speaking (part of my nutritional intake lessons, curtesy of Anton)¡­

    Leaving such musing to later though, I discovered that Bella had played a little prank on me. Somehow, maybe by interacting with my subconscious when we were sleeping, she had managed to concentrate a great deal of the fat I built up in our breasts.

    Seriously?

    Teehee

    This will throw our balance off you know.

    Sure, that is the problem you have, our balance.

    I was about to retort when Bella sent me a grand mental painting. It held a mighty city in the background that was burning, while men wrapped in iron paraded prisoners in front of a lone figure on a nearby hill. The figure was monumentous, at least 2 meters tall, subtly bulging with muscles that showed even with the intricately crafted, gold inlayed, iron armor, a cold, yet earthy aura surrounding him. His hair cut short, you could clearly see the hard edged handsome face of my previous life. At his feet were several beautiful naked women, trying to attract his attention by any and all means possible.

    It would have been a magnificent painting if not for the fact that is did not actually exist and the figure in the painting ¨C who was so not me, regardless of his face ¨C had breasts larger than any of the women at his feet!

    Despite it all I was actually impressed, it was a very impressive picture, even if it was just in my head.

    When did you do that?

    When you were sleeping of course.

    Hum. Are the women based off my previous life¡¯s slaves?

    Partly, I did some work on them though.

    Very nicely done, minus those ridiculous things on the focal character¡¯s chest. Were you trying to mix the past and the present or do you actually think I am going to go down that path again?

    ¡­I know how much of a burden you thought being the king was, but-

    Thought? Now I wonder why being King would be bothersome. Besides sleeping with both eyes open every night, listening to complaints day in and day out, and having to deal with the fact that even breathing wrong will make new enemies, being King was fun.

    -but do you really think that you would be comfortable under anyone else? Under the command of some noble? You might not like the idea, but you were an effective King and I cannot help wondering if you¨C if we ¨Care going to be one again someday.

    ¡­

    The point was that I stored up some calories, took some rations, and moved out just after sunset to prevent anyone from noticing me and asking questions. Between my naturally sharp eyesight and some selective magical modifications, I could see by the moonlight fairly easily. When I was sure that even the night owls were asleep I also started using my internal energy reserves, which helped me both move faster and see even better.

    When I heard the foreign curse the sun was just starting to rise and I had made it all the way to area less than a half day¡¯s walk south of the river that was my final destination.

    I spent around half the morning in hiding, watching the area where the strange energy had originally gathered, but it was no good. I would have actually stalked the location longer, but after the 4th rabbit decided that I was a good human to sleep next to, I gave up.

    Fortunately one of the rabbits was a test rabbit that I had modified before, so at least I was able to get some test results from the whole affair. Although results might be overstating it, I already stopped experimenting on rabbits for the most part. They were useful to test genetic modification spells, but any and all serious investigations into how I could make the genetic improvements would need to be on creatures genetically closer to humans.

    Resulting in today¡¯s adventure. The legends stated that there were large, humanoid, creatures, covered in fur that lived on the other side of the oh-so-creepy river. Ever since hearing about the legend I thought that I might be able to find some type of ape or at the least a creature with a closer genetic base to humans than a dog or cat.

    Drawing on my internal energy again I sprinted off towards the river and took the opportunity to really test the limits of my bodily control.

    Singing, dancing, and embroidery were good methods to practice non-mana based control of individual muscles, but I still needed to exercise control over my body as a whole to keep myself at least somewhat dangerous. Even if I used my new and improved muscles to the maximum, my currently tiny size somewhat limited me. Although the unexpected success last phase in making my bones 8 times more dense without effecting their functions would be a wonderful aid.

    I sprinted faster than a horse could run and I only gained speed as the area grew more wooded. I twisted my body, kicked and destroyed the ground underneath me, and ran through the forest for a few minutes. Towards the end of my spontaneous bout of exercise, after I nearly died via running into a few trees, I slowed down to a less foolish standard.

    I did not stop until I felt the dark premonitions of fear flow into my mind. It was not strong at first, a mere bad feeling that made me want to turn back, but the feeling quickly grew into an unnerving feeling of being watched. I stopped at that point and controlled my breathing.

    Someone, one of my female slaves probably, had once carved fear and paranoia runes into both my bed and makeshift throne. They were much less strong than this feeling, but they were more subtle and played on my already justified paranoia, making them much more dangerous. The feeling I currently had though was simply one that screamed danger.

    Walking forward as carefully as I could, I concentrated on listening and easily heard the sounds of water. Although it seemed a bit further away than what I heard from other people who had traveled the area previously.

    It is odd that the fear runes affected me out here though, I thought to myself. I still cannot see the river, which means the runes might be failing at other parts. I pushed through several small bushes and found a river that suddenly boomed to life in the unnatural silence likely caused by fear runes¡­

    Are you sure it was just the fear runes? This river sounded much farther away.

    You are probably right, but stop whispering, no one else can hear our thought and even the Nalks would probably have trouble, if they cared at all.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Obvious fear runes combined with subtle runes of a different sort that messed with the senses. No wonder no one had explored the area before now, even trained mages with runes tattooed onto their skin would have problems staying in the area long enough to find the fear runes.

    They got under your skin, it was what they did, especially ones this strong.

    Both fortunately and unfortunately, I had suffered worse at the hands of the Guilt.

    It was something most people did not appreciate, if you get hurt every time you stick your hands too close to the fire, eventually you either learn not to go near fires or how far away to keep your hands. For myself, I learned how to minimize the pain of the Guilt, however, I still killed and I still had to deal with the Guilt after I took a life. So, I decided to embrace the Guilt as best I could, hence my so called ¡®Bandit¡¯s Creed.¡¯

    I once asked¡­ someone else what they would do in my situation and they told me that they would have join some distant, peaceful, priesthood. That was not my way though, so I resolved to endure my suffering without hurting myself, or lashing out at others who tried to help me in those times. Very few people understood how much willpower that took in and of itself.

    Shaking my head and forcing myself to concentrate, I tapped my stored energy and tried to estimate the river¡¯s width. It was harder than normal with the hidden runes affecting my senses. I wanted to take extra care not to fall into the river though, for two important reasons. First, the fear runes would make swimming much more dangerous and second, mountain bandits tended not to swim well.

    In the end, I jumped farther than I needed to on purpose so the river was not a problem. The trees and thorn bushes on the other side of the river, however, were an annoyance afterwards. If it was not Bella¡¯s body too, she probably would have laughed, instead we just concentrated on moving through the rune affected area.

    As we walked, carefully, I noticed that the feelings of dread only grew. It got so bad that I was actually worried about traumatizing Bella somehow. It was an idea which suddenly transformed into a large, shadowy specter waiting in the back of my head. Eventually however, the feeling started to reverse and instead of walking into the fear runes, I was walking away from them.

    It was a welcome relief and the feeling of fear rapidly receded and I started to hear animal noises for the first time in quite a while. I had not even realized they were gone until I realized how quite it was near the river, so hearing the occasional birdcall was surprisingly relaxing.

    Not even animals would want to be near those runes I thought grimly. Who made them anyway? Was this really former Elven land?

    Although it did not matter for my purposes, I started feeling curious and kept an eye out for any old structures while searching for tracks. If there was another source of water away from the river, which would probably be the best place to look.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    Hours later I finally found a stream as the day started to end. Mentally marking the location I took my canteen off my belt and filled it up while also pulling a pair of avotato from my traveling pack. As I absorbed them with magic, I walked upstream, figuring that I would be less likely to attract animals if I was closer to the fear runes. Assuming that the stream was an offshoot of the river that is.

    So I moved upstream at a fast jog and to my surprise it did not lead me back to the river of fear runes, but instead to an odd clearing. The source of the stream seemed to be an old weathered stone. The water was gently pouring out of a horizontal cut mid-way up the stone. Perhaps it used to be an underground aqueduct of some sort?

    Walking around I also saw that there were signs of previous buildings that had stood a very long time ago. The foundations were usually all that remained, with a few odd walls here and there. Still, from what I could tell the buildings were placing in some sort of odd pattern. Not that I was an ancient hunter, I was a bandit, but it still seemed strange.

    Looking around I decided that this would be as good a place as any to stop. Especially since it was shaping up to be a cloudy night and even my eyes would have trouble seeing soon enough.

    Setting up alarm and small burn wards, I made sure that no animal was likely to approach me and set up camp.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    The next morning, I woke up well rested and decided to take a look around the ruins again before I went back to tracking down my newest test subjects.

    Looking around, I found a tree that offered a good view of the ruins and half climbed, half jumped, to the top. Looking down I tried to figure out what the design of these buildings was supposed to be. After a few minutes however, it was not me, but Bella who figured it out.

    She did not say a word to me, but instead sent me a mental picture of a rune. ¡®Obey¡¯

    I swallowed and quickly climbed down to move my camp to outside to ruins.

    Okay, so thankfully the rune is not still active, we would have felt something from that obvious of a rune. The question seems to have become ¡®what have the Elves left us?¡¯ rather than ¡®were the Elves here?¡¯

    Are you sure it was not humans that built this?

    Oh I am sure humans built it. The stonework marks are from old methods of carving ¨C with other stones. Can you see my old capital from my memories? It was very much similar in age and design. Plus, according to the legends, Elves did not like working or living on stone.

    It is harder for me to see some memories¡­ Anyway you said earlier that you were no ancient hunter and yet now you are an expert. More importantly, we only came here because of stories and legends so tell me: why are you so eager to chase legends.

    Legends all have some basis. That was how I found my capital, hidden away in a land populated by cut throats¡­ Anyway judging by the age of the foundations and the fact that this place is surrounded by extremely creepy woods, I think Elves are a safe bet ¨C if safe is the right word ¨C besides, those self-righteous mercenaries and Jalon found the cursed dagger not more than a few days travel from here.

    There is something else too.

    ¡­Yeah, the shear horrid feeling of living by that rune would cause anyone to leave¡­ unless something scarier is near-by and forcing the occupants to stay.

    Getting to higher ground again I found something interesting, in the center of the ruins a stone had been turned sideways. That was the reason the rune was no longer active. Someone got smart, I thought grimly, thanks, whoever you were.

    Looking around I did not notice anything of major interest, but there was one odd thing. Outside the creepy ruins was a small hill. I would not have noticed, but the hill had an area that had obviously been dug up recently. I thought about ignoring it, but considering I slept in the middle of a giant rune and did not know it, I had a feeling that being a little extra cautious and checking it out would be a better idea.

    When I got to the area Bella pointed out that, based on our experience killing fireweed, this looked a few months old, which meant that someone or something had buried something here recently. I would like to say someone is more likely though because of the rectangular nature of the dig marks.

    Just in case, I set up alarm wards and took out my ever present former bone supply. Although I could technically call it a big ball of calcium when it was not wrapped around my torso. Reshaping it into a spade, I started digging.

    It was not the most exciting job in the world and regrettably I do not know any digging spells. Those that existed tended to be closely guarded¡­ so closely guarded that they were almost a legend onto themselves.

    After a few minutes of digging, I hit something hard and I used a spell to blow off some of the dirt. It looked like bones, but it was hard to tell. I wondered what type of animal would bury most of its food, but as long as my wards were up (and I double checked at this point) there was no animal that was going to sneak up on me. After a few more scoops of dirt I stood back and used my spell again, only to find something I never expected.

    Who in the bloody stoning ovals would be insane enough to bury a human corpse!?

    The human bones were fairly decayed, but between the fact that the tissues were still decaying and fact that the dig site was relatively new, I now knew that there were other humans in the area.

    DeMorte.

    Bella did not have to finish, I read her thoughts just as she tried to get my attention. There was a dim outline of a rough rectangle next to where I was digging. Then another and another. If there were more I could not tell, the outlines were hard to distinguish.

    I forgot the other thing that terrorized people thousands of years ago, Soul Mages.

    *     *     *

    A place not far from DeMorte

    Leo the player of the Nalks had been a subtly, thorough, and terrifying player, but Leo the architect had been as thorough as the player had been., taking into account all the numerous ripple effects of each backer¡¯s proposed course of action and evaluating even the smallest changes.

    The only thing that had, thus far, managed to surprise him was DeMore¡¯s increased interaction with Bella and that darn world key.

    DeMorte had obviously memorized the energy associated with it too, which made Leo¡¯s job all the harder.

    The worst part was how that darn golem seemed so eager to annoy someone. He thought to himself. There was no point in getting upset over that type of person, they enjoyed the attention too much.

    Still, the fact that this game had so many players from different dimensions annoyed him. Leo had spent centuries redirecting and influencing this world to make sure that everything was the perfect balance of predictable events and chance to allow for an enjoyable Game and still the others wanted people from different worlds.

    The summonings were reasonable at least because he had allowed for a few, but calling in people who needed ¡®game mechanics¡¯ was just annoying.

    Not to mention that DeMorte had managed to find one of the optimal paths to make him stronger, leaving Leo to make sure that the others recognized that even spell resistance would not make him a guaranteed win, not with all the new discovered spells, technologies, and weapons that the other players were slowly amassing.

    Still, if DeMorte was prepared for them, there were few opponents who could ever hope to face him and win. He was just that experienced when it came to identifying how to win.

    Leo made the energy equivalent of a sigh and got back to work, it was a labor of love for him, but once the Game actually began, there was nothing else like it in the multiverse.

 Chapter 14: Best or Worst Case?

    There might be some minor discontinuations in the text from where I was editing ¨C a cookie for you if you can point them out for me!

    Chapter 14: Best or Worst Case?

    Shit.

    I quickly added another layer of protection to the area by using a spell called ¡®mana mist¡¯ to spread out my mana and grant me a general view of whatever it touched. It was mana intensive, but nearly impossible to see, even for sensitive mages, and gave me a mana dome that could sense intrusions.

    Soul Mages were the most feared thing in the world, even the wrath of the gods would sometimes be viewed as a lesser cataclysm than a Soul Mage appearing.

    There were 3 things about Soul Mages that made everyone relentlessly seek their deaths. The first 2 things were the same, but the third varied depending on whether you were a mage or not. First, Soul Magic could raise the dead. While the Histones had told me that it had been centuries since an undead army had attacked any known city, everyone feared such a reoccurrence that in some kingdoms it was a capital crime to bury anyone. Mages were paid or drafted into public service to use a spell called ¡®flesh fire¡¯ to burn away corpses to ashes.

    The second thing that made Soul Mages so terrifying was simple, power. The strongest opponent I had ever faced in my previous life had 14 circles worth of mana and the most powerful person in my old world was said to have 16. The most powerful Soul Mage that I knew had been estimated at 28 circles. Of course, since magic circles did not increase at geometric intervals, that meant the Soul Mage would have more than 30 times the mana than the strongest person I had ever fought.

    A second circle took 5 time more energy than the primary circle to fill and the third took 5 time more mana than the second. However, the fourth mana circle only took 4 time more energy per circle. That pattern continued until the seventh circle, which took 3 time more energy than the sixth circle to fill and continued on to an unknown point.

    That was what led to the third and most terrifying thing about Soul Mages. While non-mages were taught that the most terrifying thing was their insanity, the truth was much different. The single biggest weakness of any mage was the limitations that calorie usage caused by using mana. I estimated that the human body would be unable to both walk and contain enough fat to drain a mage of 15 circles worth of magic without using internal energy to strengthen their legs. This weakness has endured through millenniums of the most ingenious human mages trying to find a way around it, but there was only 1 way ever devised.

    Soul Mages could absorb energy from each of their individual undead in a way that seemed to combine my ¡®mana roots¡¯ spell with ¡®Gorith¡¯s shroud.¡¯ It was not a specifically designed spell, but it still managed to suck the ¡®life force¡¯ out of the lands the undead marched over, turning it into blighted land that would not see life again for centuries at the least.

    In fact, this capability tends to make mages glad that Soul Mages are insane and therefore never use their power to its full potential. Soul Mage hunter killer squads took advantage of their insanity to kill them in any number of usually indirect ways. After all, it did not matter how powerful you were if an attractive person distracted you from the bit of poison. Ovals, that was how I would have died without my little graveborn¡¯s challenge.

    Please concentrate on the corpses! The buried, giant, corpses!

    I am concentrating. I am trying to remember everything I can about Soul Mages to try and figure out a way to kill them.

    Any mage, no matter how powerful, could be killed by another if they were caught off-guard, with iron weapons and poison being the most common ways. Usually, I would use my favorite little mage killer, but I did not have it with me. My personal favorite weapon was a thin iron pike, used with an atlatl and a good deal of internal energy. The high velocity iron would rip apart any magical shields and usually pierce out the opposite side of the target it hit. I swore that I made a thunder crack with it once, back when I killed an 11 circle mage.

    Wait, why would a Soul Mage bother burying the bodies? If he wanted to store them for later, a preservation spell would be a better idea and digging a hole for each body would be an annoyance, even with magic. Even if he used servants to get rid of them and save himself the physical effort, why bury a body instead of just dumping it? Plus, why would anyone bury a body here, near an old settlement, but nothing else?

    Granted, no one accused Soul Mages of being sane, but if one had set up here with a human population he would either be very young or very, very old. A young one would be easier to kill and a Soul Mage old enough to be not to be widely spoken of, especially in a place as close as Loco¡¯s village, would be either very stable (not likely) or powerful enough to slow his mental and physical degradation over a long period of time.

    ¡­Or he could be very, very, very, old and have been stuck in some elvish time prison until recently.

    Oh, thank the gods you are acting like a little kid, it makes the whole situation seem more normal.

    I can see in your head! I know it is possible!

    Possible and probable are two different things little one. The only way to keep paranoia in check is to know the difference.

    Said the old man currently connecting that distortion from the other day to our current situation

    I told you to know the difference, I did not say ¡®do not worry¡¯ or ¡®do not prepare for the unlikely¡¯

    Anyway, fear runes or no, if the kingdoms thought a Soul Mage was here, they would have burned the forest down and boiled the river and its terminating lake to track the mage down.

    Standing up I quietly I surveyed the surrounding area again, but there was still no sign of any activity. Even when I used an optical enhancement spell there was nothing bigger than a few squirrels.

    Turning back to the corpse, I did the second most disgusting thing of my new life (Looking at guys had better not be the ¡®most¡¯ disgusting thing DeMorte!) and touched the decomposing body. Letting my mana flow into it I analyzed its DNA as best I could considering that I was in a hurry and it was a still decaying corpse.

    Thank the gods we did not make our nose any better

    Later. Concentrate. Strange.

    At a glance I could tell several things about the genetics of the body in front of me, the fact that is was human was not one of the first things I noticed though. It did have 23 pairs of chromosomes, but the genetic information was off. It was not surprising given the likelihood of the humans here being hemmed in by the fear runes, but there was more to it than just that.

    Not only was the skeleton obviously larger than most people at nearly 3 meters, its arms were elongated to be nearly the same length as its legs. From what I could tell, the person who was buried here had something Anton had referred to as ¡°the werewolf gene¡± active, meaning that they were covered in hair, as well as other extensive modifications in their genetic code. Not new modifications, thankfully, but hereditary, making my ¡®ancient testing ground¡¯ theory more plausible.

    However, if they were old enough to be the results of Elven testing, the genetic makeup and limited variability should have limited them severely. A few hundred years should have wiped them out through inbreeding.

    Sighing, we checked our surroundings again and I got to work on excavating the next body. The burial site was fresh enough to signal sometime in recent cycles, but I had no idea beyond that, I just counted myself lucky that I noticed it at all.

    What-

    Keep watch.

    I cut her off because I knew that she was just going to complain about my observational skills. I noticed people and threats before small details, while Bella tended to glance over people and then study everything else. Since she was actually ¡®keeping watch¡¯ through my mana, I would feel it if she did notice something.

    After a few minutes of digging I confirmed my theory. The buried body next to the first corpse was genetically similar without being identical. That meant that the genetics were close enough to be of concern in the long run, but different enough to confirm that the two bodies were not direct family.

    More mysteries, I grunted to myself.

    Shaking my head I decided to prepare as best I could and pushed my mana into the remains of the bones. After my quick ¡®fluidity¡¯ spells (Bella insisted on naming it) I had two well stocked bone deposits forming an armor under my mender¡¯s robes.

    The armor was also dense enough to stop anyone not using internal energy, even if they had a sword. A mace or hard hit from iron shot might cause some serious damage, but slashing and stabbing weapons would find it hard to do any real damage.

    By this time it was noon and I wanted to make sure that I was nowhere near this place before dark fell again. Despite my hurry though, I still burrowed into where I thought the next body was. I did not need to excavate this one as much for its genetic information as I thought of its bones as auxiliary weapons¡­ Not that I could really count my little iron knives as primary weapons, but I would need to save them to kill any magically able creature or other danger.

    ALARM

    Just as I thought I made contact with the remains of the third body, Bella screamed in my head, directing me towards the southeast woods, where a portion of my mana had simply disappeared.

    Jumping up out of the hole, I prepared my internal energy as well as reshaping my bone spade into a large hammer. My mana should not have just disappeared, that kind of thing usually only happened if someone was approaching in full-

    A pair of large, hairy, but otherwise naked, creatures slipped out of the woods and stopped, staring at me.

    -full iron plate?

    What in the world? I stared at the creatures, standing on their legs nearly 150 meters away and realized that they were both the humans and the legends that prevailed about this area. Large, hairy, creatures with the ability to run on two feet.

    After a moment of shock, I realized that two living samples of genetically altered humans had just all but wandered up to me for experimentation.

    As if able to read my thoughts, the creatures turned and fled back into the woods, prompting me to use my internal energy to power my new challenge.

    I ran just fast enough to kick up small clumps of earth in my wake and dove into the forest after them. I almost lost them from the beginning too as they split up and one started using trees for a road.

    Fortunately for me I managed to find that one fairly quickly as it had concentrated on putting height and not distance between us. Unfortunately, when I started shooting stunning spells at it, the thing started dodging!

    That was the major problem I had with stun spells, although they were safe to use, the magic was easily trackable by anyone with a magical talent and flew at a speed just under an average bowshot, making them easy enough to dodge. Most other spells were just faster than a bowshot and mages had various ways to make their spells go even faster. Although, complex spells were often slower than simple spells, making a basic death spell was much faster than a more complex stun spell.

    After a minute though it became unnecessary to throw more spells as test subject 1 missed its landing and fell several meters through various branches to land face first on the ground.

    I quickly ran over and bound its hands and feet before gaging it with restraints made of bone.

    Afterwards, I pondered the difficult task of catching up to the other one before it brought back more, but test subject 2 knew this forest better than me so the likelihood of that happening was decreasing by the moment. I decided after a moment, first I would examine test subject 1 in a secure location, then I would figure out if there were Elves or Soul Mages or just more test subjects hiding out in this forest.

    Picking up subject 1 I moved back to my camp as quickly as I could. I wanted to get that third corpse sample before I evacuated to a better location.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------

    By the time I had secured another camp for myself, this time in a cave with good lines of sight for possible approaches, subject 1 had come to her senses. Right before she started screaming into her gag. In fact, she had come to her senses before I even got a chance to finish excavating the third corpse and she seemed quite emotional about my digging.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Since then, I had been too busy looking for a good camp to set myself up at to do anything more than a brief inspection of the subject. It had been fairly easy to confirm gender once I got a chance to look, but what really surprised me was that, despite her height of nearly two and a half meters, subject 1 appeared to be a teenager.

    It worked out better for me though as she seemed more curious than scared of me now that I had stopped chasing her and digging up her ancestors. Since I was not nearly as tall as her at 152cm, it helped that I could convince her to walk (once I changed her bindings to chains) instead of making me carry her.

    There was also something else that had completely terrified me that I could finally investigate now that my new campsite was secured by various noise dampening and obscurity runes.

    Are you sure that her friends will not be able to follow your trail?

    You can see inside my head right? I am fairly sure that those track erasing spells and mana dispersal spells that I set made it impossible to track us. Given the fact that we were not immediately chased, the mana should have dispersed to a natural level by now.

    You did that so subconsciously though. I was trying to track what spells you were using, but you were barely even finishing them in your mind before casting them.

    The benefits of practice, my mind remembers all of the little calculations required for the spell to work and my subconscious can work them out. You might be able to see that far into my mind in the future so do not worry too much about it right now.

    You mean concentrate on hairy here instead?

    Exactly.

    Concentrated on the currently sitting test subject Hairy, I decided to be extra thorough before I just started hurling spells at her.

    ¡°Can you understand me?¡± I asked her in the clearest language I could muster.

    ¡°Dal¡¯tal yea.¡± Hairy responded in her rough sounding voice.

    Did that mean yes?

    ¡°I am going to rape you with the bones of your ancestors, cut you up, and eat you.¡± I told Hairy, still pronouncing each word as cleanly as I could.

    ¡°Dal¡¯tal yea.¡± Hairy responded, pointing to herself.

    With the bones of her ancestors? That was way worse than any mental picture of me with any of the men from the villages you know!?

    No, trust me, it was not. Especially when you thought about those carpenter brothers together.

    I notice that you never complain about my mental pictures with the women.

    Of course not, that is probably my perverted memories influencing your young mind. Besides, if worst came to worst I could help you grow a phallus, now back to the subject at hand.

    Alright, I established that she is sentient, seems to have a name, has had too limited contact with our language to understand even a small amount. It helped that there were very few languages too as it showed that she also did not likely have contact with anyone to the north of the forest.

    Alright then I suppose that it is time to move on to the more important test. Mentally preparing myself, I cast the stunning spell on her from point blank range and watched her flinch as the spell dissolved against her skin.

    Creatures with mana resistance should not be able to see spells. In fact, if these were the relatives of the human corpses, I had a hard time figuring out how their bones would be mana conductive after death. It did not make sense. Confused, I decided to up the ante and cast a death spell on her.

    This time, Hairy flinched back both before and after she was hit by the spell. The spell itself, seemed to burn on her skin for a moment before petering out like the spell before it. Leaving Hairy whimpering a little.

    It looked like her spell resistance was indeed just resistance and not immunity, which made me feel slightly better.

    Deciding to take a chance, I walked over to her side and paused, looking at her all too normal eyes. If I was wrong, this might kill me. Taking a deep breathe, I quickly let my hand flick out and touch Hairy¡¯s arm briefly. Sensation and magic flared briefly as my talent tried and failed to understand what I had touched.

    It could recognize hair, but when it touched Hairy¡¯s skin, my talent¡¯s ability was broken.

    While I was still trying to wrap my head around this, I heard something vaguely reminiscent of a human¡¯s voice, crossed with a howl in the distance. It must have been close and very loud to be heard through my silencing runes.

    Regrettably, it seemed I was not the only one who heard it as Hairy took the opportunity to try to attack me. I quickly managed to deflect her using a bit of internal energy, but she immediately started screeching as loudly as she could.

    Reflexively, I bit back a curse and flinched in the face of the sudden loud noise that bounced off the walls of the cave and echoed in my ears. Momentarily forgetting myself I even cast another stun spell, which, to my surprise, hit her inside her mouth and immediately nocked her unconscious.

    I stared at her limp form for a moment as I repaired the light damage done to my ears and leaned down to confirm that magic could indeed flow through the inside of her body. Her skin just acted like it was an iron sheath somehow to protect her.

    Letting my talent flow through where my fingers touched the inside of her cheek, I confirmed that Hairy here was indeed a fairly normal human. Minus the arms, height, and skin that was.

    I wanted to investigate more, but I heard another screech, this time, from just outside the cave. I froze, listening at I hear breathing and some rough words exchanged before the voices suddenly became much louder. They were past the runes I used to dampen sounds.

    Could they ignore basic runes as well as spells? Was that why the fear runes surrounding this place were so darn powerful? I heard something that sounded like an order being given a few moments before a new racket erupted outside the cave and I realized that I might have made a mistake in choosing my new camp location. YOU THINK? However, there was a second, albeit much smaller, exit to the cave I was currently in¡­ if I chose not to fight that was.

    If? DeMorte? You are not going to¡­

    Best case: The modified humans are the only danger here and I can beat them into submission.

    Worst case: The modified humans obey a Soul Mage or Elven descendent and the master finds out where I am.

    I smiled to myself and heard Bella just sigh in the back of my head. I was only a true master rank in 2 areas, controlling internal energy and finding ways to win fights that I should lose. Both of these areas seemed about to be tested, but I was still reasonably confident of my chances to win.

    Please be careful DeMorte, these modified humans are still humans.

    Shadows and memories of the Guilt washed over me and suddenly I felt less sure of myself.

    *     *     *

    Off the southern coast of the eastern continent onboard the Bedlam

    ¡°Watch out for the Heho!¡±

    The scream came just in time to save 4 men from the horrible fate of the one who did not hear. The liquid fire, named after the gods of fire and water, sprayed across the side of the boat and engulfed the 5th man.

    The screams of a man engulfed by flame are too damaging to a decent soul to hear, to it was a mercy when the man willingly dove into the sea.

    The pump that sprayed the liquid fire let up briefly so that the eternally cursed pirate captain could repeat his demands. What type of fool pirate tries to burn up the ship he wants to capture?! The Capitan of the Bedlam cast an eye out to the trails of fire that still burned on the water¡¯s surface.

    Barely a bowshot off his the Bedlam¡¯s aft port, between the Bedlam and the inviting safety of the eastern continent¡¯s coast, was an older warship that had been clearly stripped of its iron for the sake of speed. The accursed thing even had a bow pump, enchanted to spray its liquid fire even at such distances.

    There were pirates all over the smaller islands between the continents that no one had yet managed to put down and in all likelihood, no one ever would. No one liked traveling near one of those confounded ¡®fear forests¡¯ on the interior of the continent Eastern continent, but on days like this one it was hard not to wish that he had stuck to trading on land.

    At least they did not have a mage he thought grimly, a mage could make a large profit in the pirate business, provided his target did not have a stronger mage on board. After all, while he could and would fight off this fool, a mage could have just threatened to burn his ship from a distance.

    Still, despite the situation, the Capitan found himself smiling. He had gone to sea to find fortune and found adventure instead. Thank the gods for fools like this he thought as he brought the ship about, curving to starboard, away from the larger ship. I would die of boredom if they did not exist.

    His adversary quickly fired up his fire pump again and tried to burn the Capitan¡¯s beloved Bedlam, but the smaller ship was made for quick movements and even weighted down with cargo, it was still much faster in a turn than other ships. Even as they started to turn into the wind, the Capitan was still more excited than worried. They would be not able to outrun the bigger ship and her empty haul in a straight race, so why try?

    Turning to the 4 men from earlier, he confirmed that his most valuable merchandise was now loaded on and turning to face the pirate vessel.

    Now I will be honestly able to tell the buyer that they were tested in combat and they work. The Capitan chuckled to himself as he watched the larger ship try and turn with him, but fail.

    As the turn became tighter and tighter, the bronze dragons slowly moved closer to lining up with the other ship. Then, his enemy decided to help by reversing their turn, obviously trying to realign with his ship.

    ¡°You ready men?¡± He called out to his crew and received a broken series of replies that told him everything he needed to know.

    Having completed his turn, the Capitan now steered the ship to port and aligned the dragons as best he could. His crew had seen them work and knew what to do without being told. Smoldering pieces of string were touched to the ends of the dragons and they roared their mighty thunder of darkness and flame.

    A series of small bronze balls, each one carrying a basic fire enchantments in their small silver core, flew the length of the bowshot¡¯s distance between the two ships and at least 2 crashed into the aft section of the pirate ship.

    As the pirate ship and the Bedlam once again matched directions, the Capitan saw smoke begin to poor out of the pirate ship and smiled widely. The worst enemy on the seas was fire, the pirates, even insane ones wielding heho like that one, would not ignore a fire.

    Keeping his back to the wind as best he could, the Capitan took a chance and cut across the bow of the now panicking pirates. No heho was pumped.

    The crew still kept their guard up until it became obvious that the pirates were still turning, now into the wind, as opposed to the Bedlam¡¯s path, which its Capitan leveled out into a straight sprint away from the burning enemy. Then the celebrations began.

    Those dragons will change the future of the sea, the Capitan thought triumphantly,  too bad everything about them is so darn expensive

    As the moment of celebration ended within the Capitan, he nodded to his executive officer and the old seaman started knocking heads together and got everyone back to work.

    Sometime later, there was an explosion that rung out over the waves, signaling a large heho container¡¯s combustion.

 Chapter 15: Zugoran

    Did I mention that the cave had a second exit before? If not that is on the change list for this week.

    Also, if you were expecting a large battle chapter¡­ I am sorry, it was so badly written that I ended up scrapping it to rewrite everything, which meant that, while the quality is better, there is a bit of a disconnect between this chapter and the previous one. I tried to address it as best I could and smooth it over, but it does seem a bit disjointed to me if I read straight from the previous chapter.

    Write to practice and practice to learn I suppose¡­ All I can promise is to continue to write into the future with the intent of becoming a better author, please continue to stay with me. ^^

    --------------------------------------------------------

    Chapter 15: Zugoran

    ¡°Bulshak?!¡±

    They can curse too?

    I am not sure if that was a curse. Incidentally, I think this one is male.

    Funny.

    The creature in front of us was identical, aside from a slight increase in bulk, to the others we had observed, but it had a rather noticeable difference between the legs. It was naked too, which left me with the question of whether these test subjects could create clothes or if their hair was grown out enough to count as clothing. This one seemed to have a loincloth of hair that almost made him decent.

    As I finished my once over of the creature it also eyed me. Making sure not to make any external movements, I cast a stun spell at his mouth. Surprisingly, this one flinched just like the last one and closed both its mouth while turning away. I did not think about it before, but the flinch might actually be a survival instinct, given the fact that their skin was obviously their best defense against magic.

    Speaking of which, both of my test subjects obviously had magic as they were able to track the magic I cast. Even when I did not move, this one had proven able to react to my spell.

    As the stun spell hit and broke against his skin I used more internal energy to propel myself forward and kick the modified human in the stomach before he could react. Generally speaking, flinching away from a blow did not help you much, especially when you took your eyes off an opponent. My kick was not hard enough to kill or break bones ¨C had I hit any ¨C however, it was enough to knock the wind out of my target and let me hit its now open mouth with a stun spell.

    Afterwards, I quickly ran outside to the one making the annoying racket for the last few moments. The creature was also male and immediately stopped making noise to stare at me in confusion.

    Fortunately, nothing and no one had showed up to help it yet, so I had a very brief opportunity to experiment. Taking out my iron knife, I decided to see if I could cast a spell through a wound. The creature, seeing my knife, hissed aggressively, but when I sprinted at it, the thing actually tried to dodge. Fortunately, internal energy makes it almost impossible to escape from a more powerful mage and I was likely the second most powerful individual in this forest, at the minimum.

    I just had to switch my knife to my other hand as I ran past him and slash at him, managing to make a small cut on his leg. Seeing the wound, it quickly focused my internal energy into my brain to speed up my mental processing capabilities. Most just tapped their energies in emergencies and applied it to their whole body, but by focusing it, I could gain more time to aim my spells more precisely.

    Most mages never reached the point of mastery required to selectively slow down time, but since I almost never had the calories to achieve a circle expansion through mana expansion, I spent most of my previous life counting on my internal energy stores. Although I was only able to get 2 circle expansions before I died, I managed to dominate even 14 circle mages when it came to internal energy control.

    Any non-mage that killed a mage was lucky. Any mage that killed a more powerful mage was good. I was considered one of the best.

    Firing the stun spell as best I could, I aimed for the small cut. Just in case I missed however, I also prepared to fire a twisting stun spell. A modified version of the stun spell that would twist in mid-air and seek out the spot I aimed it at, but it cost around 5 times as much mana. Plus, I was used to using lower mana spells like stun, a 5 circle, what I was when I died in my previous life, could not afford to waste his mana like my new body would be able to. In fact, I would need to research some more costly mana spells just to make sure that I was not limiting my new body¡¯s magical strength.

    The stun spell managed to hit the wound, but it lost almost half its energy as it entered the modified human¡¯s body, causing partial paralysis instead of a total knockout.

    I let my perception of time return to normal and instead focused on my energies into my legs to stop my forward momentum. When I managed to do that, I noticed that the modified human was lying on the ground, yipping like it was in pain. I ignored the sounds and walked forward to blast another stun spell through its eye, rendering it unconscious.

    So, small wounds work to a lesser degree, while the mouth and eyes are effective week points in its armor.

    Your ability to ignore pain is scary DeMorte. You would be a complete psychopath without the Guilt.

    Thank you, Bella, but for the record, a stun spell does not hurt, even if you get hit in the eye with one. I know from personal experience.

    That was not a compliment, but you already knew that, right? The lack of memories ¡®we¡¯ share about your past is also scary, especially compared to the amount of access you have to mine.

    Believe me Bella, you are lucky to have so little, but instead of complaining, why not come up with a good name for these things? We keep bouncing from test subject to modified humans to who knows what else.

    Ending our internal conversation there, I collected a small amount of the creature¡¯s blood in an impromptu bone tube before sealing it off and attaching it to my armor. Then I confirmed a lingering though I had about their skin by summoning a flame to cauterize the wound I made on its leg. This confirmed two things for me. First, it proved that these creatures were only resistant to direct mana attacks on their skin. If I summoned fire it would still burn them because the spell that I cast turned into fire before it hit. Rather like magic armor would intercept and stop mana, but nothing else.

    Which prompted me to add magic armor to the list of things I needed to practice later.

    The second thing that it confirmed was that the Nalks had rearranged my mana paths more than I realized. Kal¡¯rek and Jalon had commented on it, but there had been no need to test elemental spells until now so I had naturally conserved my mana to conduct other experiments.

    All mana pathways formed natural patterns in the body that corresponded to certain spell types and therefore made it easier to cast certain spells and harder to cast others. My pattern had lent itself to healing, but fire spells, the most common attacking spells, were harder for me to cast. I could shoot mana out of my toes if I wanted to, but cauterizing the wound had taken far more mana, calories, and effort than it should have.

    For now, I picked up the- ¡®Wolfman¡¯- and hurried inside the cave again. This time though, I scratched out the runes that prevented the cave from being noticed and replaced them with the illusion of a collapsed cave. If passive runes that effected vision did not work, but the sound dampening runes did, I could safely assume that these wolfmen¡¯s defenses also filtered out magic meant to work on their brains. Illusions that were created with magic and fixed in place should, therefore, still work on them.

    After my cover was in place I quickly drew some blood from the other two unconscious wolf- wait, one was a female, is she still a wolfman?

    You are the one who wanted a specific name, DeMorte, if you want something else, how about Werewolf? Although I think Leo said they mean the same thing.

    Bah, never mind.

    -after I finished drawing blood, I quickly checked the other entrance to the cave, although it was only an entrance for someone as small as me. The wolfmen would have a very hard time fitting, which left me with a few options:

    -I could try and barrel my way out the front, depending on my internal energy (Normally I would not even consider this, but if all that was out there were more wolfmen, I could blast through them fairly easily)

    -I could also squeeze out this secondary exit and try to evacuate the area before the other wolfmen arrived (Reasonable, but a bit dependent on luck and my ability to erase my tracks at speed. Especially since they would be more familiar with the area)

    -I could settle in and hope that they did not find my illusion. (I was used to creating rock illusions, but I really did not like the idea of depending on luck)

    -Finally, I could create some sort of distraction and then disappear. (This had the highest odds of success, but would cost me most of my food/caloric reserves)

    Not that I am advocating violence, but you sounded very eager for a fight just a little while ago, but now you like the idea of running away?

    Remember our cloak Bella? Besides, only fools think that battles or wars end. They have different arcs, different pauses, and different fights, but wars never end. The time between fights that we call ¡®peace¡¯ is just another preparation phase for the next fight, making running away another form of preparation and that preparation a part of the fight.

    That seems so¡­ Wait, then why you always like to sing about honor? Why do you know all those poems about it? I could have sworn that you had memories of commissioning at least a few of them.

    Honor is one of the most absurd ideas that humans ever came up with, but it still helps me win battles, so I help encourage it. If that meant spending money to commission a few songs or poems to glorify ¡®honor¡¯ then so be it. Besides, those songs were catchy.

    I shook my head and felt thankful that our conversations were getting faster, that one had taken only a moment, far shorter than actually talking would have taken.

    Deciding to try and hoof it before I was swamped in wolfmen, I only stopped to check two things on my captured wolfmen before I grabbed my supplies.

    Taking some bone from my supply and made it into the sharpest knife I could manage, I picked up the arm of the first male wolfman I met and cut off some of the hair that covered his arm. It was fairly thick, but it cut easily enough and I confirmed that even though the hair could carry mana, it was almost completely blocked our once my mana tried to follow the hair to its root.

    ¡®Almost¡¯ being the key word, as some mana did get through. If it was a powerful enough spell, the residual mana would likely force its way through, which was how they had mana resistance, instead of mana immunity. Well, that and the fact that their skin, which I could now finally see, had a dark grey tone that I had not noticed before. After scraping his skin lightly with my knife, I tried pushing mana into it and found that I could, although the cells seemed to resist as I cast a spell to figure out what made this thing¡¯s skin so different. I found the answer to be borderline insane, but it did explain things.

    Iron, the thing had its skin bolstered with iron. Enough of the iron was fused into the skin to actually function as iron armor.

    Of all the crazy things I had thought of during and after Anton¡¯s training, infusing enough iron into my skin had never even crossed my mind. Stones, I did not have time to think of that back then, Anton gave me a huge lecture on keeping a balance of iron and how trying to bolster or remove the amount of iron in my blood could have a variety of consequences.

    Yet someone had managed to not only do it, but balanced it well enough to keep their subjects alive.

    More to think about when I am far away from here, I thought to myself. Since I noticed the wolfman making noise outside of this place, it had been long enough for some to gather and start searching the area, but I was reasonably confident that the numbers would be fairly low.

    Just in case though, I decided on a distraction that would help and scratched out enough of the silencing runes to cancel them, without making more noise than I had to. Then I cast an illusion destruction spell that would soon make my cave explode before disappearing.

    Afterwards, I quickly and silently retreated, taking note of the new animalistic cries that resounded in the distance, before I passed by the three wolfmen, still stunned unconscious.

    The first key to winning a battle was identifying the objectives, both your own and your opponent¡¯s. I wanted to leave and come back to find these creatures again after I had more information about them. Information that I could hopefully gain from both their blood and watching how they behaved.

    Their objective, however, was something of a blank to me as it could be to find their intruder or to recover their lost people or something else entirely. They could even want to find me thinking I was a lost soul who just needed a friend, but I had no way to know for sure.

    Ovals, I did not even know how long they had been here, I would guess centuries based on the fact that I had not heard much about them, though I doubted it was all 3000 years or so since the Enslavement ended. Not unless they have been taking in new genetic material somehow. Given the history of the rumors of them, as best as I had been able to track, went back a few hundred years. So maybe they were deposited with enough genetic variability to last a few centuries? It would take a few thousand people, but that gene pool would be ever shrinking.

    In the end though, I was guessing, at their history and intent until I could communicate with them. I sighed and mentally cursed the infernal fear of the woods that humanity had in this world. If they could have spread out into the wooded interior of the continents more quickly, this discovery might be someone else¡¯s problem and I might actually know why these creatures were here. Or more accurately, if they wanted to be here or if the fear runes kept them here.

    Making sure that the three were still knocked out I took my bone restraints off the female and snuck back to the rear of the cave, where the small crevice twisted out to the side. I had not paid too much attention to the area before, but I now realized that this cave was odd. I knew the cave was man-made, but I did not notice that just beyond my escape crevice was just beyond a cave in.

    Well, I noticed it before, but I did not notice how that part of the cave had signs of tool usage. Old tool usage that I was surprised to have missed as I was used to haunting caves.

    Why would anyone be mining in this area? Or was this some ancient home for the weremen, like the village had been? There was certainly no other reason that I could tell for mining in this area, I knew dirt and rock as well as most miners and there was no obvious signs of any metal or gems that I knew of. Ovals, I did not even know why I kept finding these random outcrops of rock everywhere since I had crossed the river, they looked natural enough, just random.

    I did not have any more time to explore my theory though as I realized that my illusion spell was about to provide a 4 distractions in the form of 1 fake explosion (minus the noise, since that would take more mana) and 3 unconscious weremen.

    Squeezing through the crevice that made up my back exit, I once again used my internal energy stores and thanked myself for building up such a large reserve. This time, I concentrated on my ears and tried to minimize any and all noise as I snaked through a small opening and heard cries of alarm that echoed down the cave.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    I nodded to myself and quickly cast a silencing ward behind me. It was faster and easier than carving a rune and I designed it so that it would dissolve itself once I was far enough away. After that, I just waited, making sure that there were no noises to indicate a near-by wolfman.

    After a few moments of lack of obvious noise, I applied my inner energy to my whole body and quietly peaked out of the crevice.

    It was narrow enough that I had to turn sideways, making for some frantic glancing as I confirmed that I was alone, before I slipped out and powered off into the north, with the setting sun lighting the east.

    As I ran, I also periodically cast spells to erase my tracks like before, but this time I was going for distance instead of convenience, so I did not pay too much attention to dispersing my mana until I was at least 2 miles away.

    By the time night had fallen though, I was set up in a tree, with a new illusion spell and hidden magic trip lines that would alert me based on if they were crossed or dissolved. I also had 3 avotatoes digesting in a happy little girl¡¯s stomach, as I analyzed the blood samples I had taken, and mentally argued with Bella about how inaccurate the term ¡®wolfmen¡¯ was for these odd humans.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    The next morning, after dealing with the consequences of sleeping in a tree, I managed to hunt an ugly rodent of unusual size. Fun fact, our ¡®mana roots¡¯ spell actually absorbs meat faster than anything else. In fact, if I could practice the spell to the degree that I had practiced my breakdown silence ward, I could almost absorb a body as fast as I could spend the energy. In the meantime, it gave me quite a few calories and some extra bone mass without having to light a fire.

    Depsite wonderful absorption of calories, however, I still had to chew on some carrots to give my stomach something to digest as I carefully began making my way back to the cave from yesterday. It was unlikely that any of the wolfmen (Bella¡¯s insisted that it was the best name for now) would be near that location now, but I was redundantly careful just in case. Even taking half of the morning to get to the place I had ran away from in less than a third of that time.

    As expected, there was no one around the area except for the occasional bird, but I continued to be careful, today¡¯s objective was to try and retrace the exodus that should have taken place once the wolfmen discovered their injured companions.

    I also quickly checked the cave and found it empty except for a few crude traps near the entrance. As long as no one was hiding there or in the woods, I could continue follow their path back to wherever their nest was based. Maybe I could find some answers after that, or at the least decide if I could use these wolfmen for experimentation. Right now, their magic blocking skin was making my little hunt for experimental creatures look like it was going to fail, as my current design of magical device would be useless. However, I had to get more data before I wrote this whole adventure off as a failure, there might be something I was missing and going back through the fear runes would be annoying to say the least.

    Now, I was not the best tracker, but I knew that at least one of the wolfmen would have a hard time swinging through the trees and I soon got confirmation of my theory as I saw a large group of tracks that, while they quickly thinned all seemed to point in the same direction.

    At this point I had to balance speed and silence as I moved forward. It was fun to stalk something again, but the wolfmen had already proven to be able to lay down traps so I also had to watch for more of those as well as any sentries.

    Fortunately, there was a useful spell that let me see the heat given off by any warm blooded animals, so I had that to help. Unfortunately, that same spell could be beaten by a bit of mud so I kept both eyes open and not get complacent.

    It was almost evening before I spotted a pair of wolfman, thankfully, despite Bella¡¯s name, their senses of hearing and smell were about average for humans, making it much safer and easier to follow on back this one around for a small period.

    They did not directly lead me back to its camp at first, but instead spent some time foraging, collecting fruits to put in a very roughly made sack. As the sun began to set however, they started to quickly move through the brush off into the distance, occasionally checking around them to see if any predators were nearby.

    Which was another question to annoy me, these woods held plenty of birds in parts of it, but the rodent I killed and absorbed this morning was one of the biggest creatures I had seen at the size of a large dog. In fact, these wolfmen were likely the largest things around, so what were they looking for? Me?

    Fear the little girl of doom, for she has two mind and steals your salt and bones!

    Board Bella?

    That was another point to think about though, why bury the bodies? No known humans had done that in several millennia, yet I had yet to feel any hint of- Magic!

    A wave of energy passed over me and made me shiver, that was magic alright, but not a specific spell, more like a mass of mana. A large mass of mana at that.

    Frowning, I started tapping my internal energy and move forward even more carefully. There were no animal sounds around me, but there was a beating sound like drums from somewhere in front of me

    I stalked forward in the twilight and mentally marked out a map both back to the cave and to where I thought the village remains should be. I wanted options if I had to run for my life.

    Soon, my eyes picked up large masses of heat that represented a mass of heat that I could barely identify as a tribe or pack of wolfmen around a large heat source, maybe a bonfire. After I canceled the spell, the glow from a fire of some type became obvious as I got closer.

    To my surprise, it was indeed a bonfire. Despite their hairy bodies, these wolfmen were still human enough to work with fire. In fact this whole area was different, there was no plants or forest like before, but instead a large stone building of some kind, whose purpose, even with my improved eye sight was mostly shrouded in darkness (literally, as the bonfire was making it much harder for me to see in the dimming light).

    Other than that, there were also a couple hundred wolfmen who were dancing, eating, beating their drums, and generally celebrating something. A few minutes later, that something was revealed as the drums all ceased.

    From the stone building, a single male wolfman emerged, covered in pitch black jewels and carrying a staff made from similar material. The material not only glittered sinisterly in the firelight, but it was also sucking in the mana around it and blowing it outward.

    There was only one substance I could think of that might be capable of that. Assuming the rumors were true, the figure was likely wearing processed Zugoran.

    Well then, no elves or Soul Mages here, I thought to myself. Any elves still alive would not be likely to let human, even modified ones, get their hands on such annoying things. Even as different as the stories involving the Enslavement could be, they all agreed that the Elves loved Zugoran and only gave it to humans for brief tests or to torture them. Soul Mages on the other hand, were human themselves and not likely to want to touch a metal that could bypass their magic armor to kill them instantly.

    As I was analyzing the Zugoran wearing leader though, a human was brought out, a young man by the looks of it. Given the silence of the crowd, besides the fire, I was surprised that I did not hear the man scream earlier, but he turned out to be gaged.

    As his gag was removed the man started begging and while I did not recognize the ascent, I recognized and understood the language. His begging did not help though, as the wolfman leader simply lowered his Zugoran staff and touched the man¡¯s head.

    After that point, the man did nothing except scream for a little while, as the magical energies tore him apart and rebuilt him.

    As I was watching and trying to track the spell¡¯s work it also hit me that this was how they took in new genetic material for their tribe and¡­

    They were workers, not soldiers! Their bodies were naturally resistant to mana so that they could work with Zugoran! It was equal parts terrible and brilliant as I doubted that the original workers were given much of a choice in becoming these wolfmen.

    That also explained why it took so long for me to find any of them, the tribe had probably been getting ready to hold this ceremony when I kidnapped one of their members, meaning, with their lost members returned, they had been more interested in living peacefully than finding me.

    It was rather entertaining, the man who refused to commit violence would almost always lose and yet they did not even seem to be looking for me. Maybe they thought that they could put it off until tomorrow or something?

    Still, if there was no choice in joining this little tribe I could try and pick out a weak link or dissatisfied member, someone who could speak my language - or at least write out if the transformation had adversely affected their vocal cords - and get answers to some of my questions.

    In return, if I phrased it right, I could make returning them to normal via my experiments seem both reasonable and desirable. After all, assuming they were transformed against their will, I could sell it as a chance to become truly human again. Especially with some suggestions about adventurers who might view them as monsters to be hunted down.

    I smiled, I was horrible at being polite and reasonable when it came to politics, but threats and coercion were something I was much more used to.

    *     *     *

    Capital of Istor¨ªa, Arch¨ª, in a back room away from the annual coronation celebration:

    Istar was home at last, yet his first visit could not be to old flames or distant relatives to celebrate, no he had to get rid of this blighted dagger first.

    It had taken longer than anticipated to get the dagger to its new rightful owner and Istar was sure that the man would try and skimp on his payment somehow.

    Looking back to his comrade, Elysium, who was keeping watch as discretely as such a large man could, Istar mentally prepared himself again. He had done his share of dirty deals in back alleyways, but he had never been set up in such a room for his dealings.

    It was brightly lit by light orbs and so spacious that, had he been in the slums, dozens of people would be sleeping in here. It was also filled with fine decorations and shows of wealth that indicated a sizable bonus for his discretion, if the noble did not have him killed that was.

    It was the major disadvantage to working in the dark, no one is count on if the deal went wrong and you were double crossed.

    As it the thought had summoned him, the front door opened and revealed their masked employer. He was tall, wide bodied, and completely covered in a dark cloak. Only the brightly painted mask was visible, with every millimeter of skin being covered and only the employer¡¯s size earning him a masculine label in Istar¡¯s head.

    Well, technically, this one was the intermediary, but since the masked man was the one who made all the requests and was going to be the one paying them, he might as well be the actual employer.

    ¡°Do you have it?¡± The deep, warped voice annoyed Istar, but he kept his cool, magical masks that changed one¡¯s voice were common and getting straight to business was only sometimes a bad sign so he had to pay attention.

    He turned towards the employer, his full iron chainmail making little noise because of the silencing runes sown into his cloths. It would not protect him from the physical dominance that mages could invoke at their will, but it would give him an element of surprise if a mage tried to us a spell on him. ¡°In the container, sealed to prevent its bloodlust from leaking out.¡±

    Mentally, Istar found himself sighing in relief at the fact his voice had not shaken, but he kept a neutral face as best he could. Projecting calm was the key, even if it was a fake calm, it would put others at ease.

    The employer stepped forward and made a gesture in the air that obviously changed something, although Istar had no idea what exactly, before he gestured at the container. Suddenly, Istar found himself filled with a perverse, disgusted, feeling that he could feel flowing from the container. Despite himself, Istar found iron throwing knives in both of his hands, ready to kill whoever crossed him.

    Yet the employer ignored Istar and his new weapons to open the box and see the dagger. 30cm of sharp, pitch black, pure evil, metal lay inside, practically oozing a desire to kill something. Istar had no idea what the hilt was made off, he could not see it past the evil Zugoran dagger.

    Istar still shivered at the mere sight of the blade. Some priestly orders said that Zugoran could devour souls and looking at it, Istar found it hard to disagree.

    The employer, however, seemed to shiver for a different reason. His body language seeming to say that he was fighting off the desire to grab it. For a brief moment, Istar found himself wondering if his time had finally come to an end.

    The moment passed though and the employer closed the container before making another gesture that seemed to seal off the unnatural feeling that had permeated the room. Able to breathe again, Istar noticed that Elysium had drawn both his iron sword and his normally hidden crossbow. After exchanging a brief glance with each other, they both lowered, but did not put their weapons away.

    The employer took a deep breath and nodded. ¡°Perfect.¡± At a snap of his fingers, a chest placed along the wall, that Istar had checked earlier and found to be magically sealed, opened, revealing several thick pouches, each with a marking of ¡®40G¡¯ on the side. ¡°I believe that is your entire price due, with a small bonus to ¡®encourage¡¯ you to travel far away from here before you start getting drunk.¡± The employer¡¯s warped voice sounded slightly annoyed, as if it would rather test the dagger on them instead of paying, but he was only the intermediary in reality, so it likely was not up to him.

    Istar bowed briefly, ¡°I hope you contact us again for future jobs.¡± He stated professionally, already choosing which of his planned escape routes to take out of the city.

    Although his birthplace, Istar had no problems with leaving it again. He could get more money, respect, and female companionship by simply running around as an adventurer.

    Quickly, moving over, Istar confirmed that the pouches were filled with gold and had half of the gold on his person by the time the employer had left the room.

    He then quickly changed positions with Elysium and stood watch while his partner took his share. Soon afterwards, they slipped out the back of the obscenely large mansion and mixed with the teeming crowds.

    This was one of the largest cities on the eastern continent and it seemed like all of its 750,000 people had taken to the streets for the festival.

    As Elysium led the way and pushed the crowds apart, Istar wondered if any of them thought about the King¡¯s careful plan to crown himself days after the largest harvest of the year.

    I will be back here eventually, Istar swore to himself, watching the throngs of people ebb and flow through the streets. One day, when I can actually stay.

 Chapter 16: Mages Eyes

    Change list:

    -Added in an explanation about wards via Anton, with it being: ¡°Any spell linked to a specific area. They are typically anchored into stone or wood to keep the spells from fading away, with stone holding spells better than wood. The stone walls that protect large cities are the most powerful examples of wards, specifically because the wards only have to be recharged with mana after they are first constructed.¡±

    -I had a nobility ranking list in one of my chapters, but I believe that I removed it. Just remember that it is alphabetical in importance, starting with ¡®Altrueman¡¯ and ending with ¡®king¡¯ (hint: that applies to more than just nobility titles)

    Chapter 16: Mage¡¯s Eyes

    By Gorith¡¯s chalcula that was disgusting.

    Yet you watched it till the end.

    Sometimes the most disgusting things are also the most fascinating.

    I know, but if I could not see the magic too, I would be extremely creeped out right about now.

    As the newly minted wolfman finally stopped screaming from having his body violently reshaped, I reflected on what Bella had said.

    A fair point, I admitted to myself, watching magic being worked was a unique perk of having magic. Each pulsing command of a magician working with mana to enforce his will on the world was an almost hypnotizing affair. This was partly because of the mage¡¯s ability to see magic as a complicated series of interweaving lights, with each new command forming a new light to interact with the existing form, creating something like a sculpture of light that only other mages could see.

    The zugoran wrought magic was different, but no less hypnotizing. The patterns, like most advanced magic, were hard to follow and incredibly complex, meaning that duplicating it would take a lot of time and effort. To make it even more difficult, however, there were two other problems, color and distance.

    All mages naturally colored their mana commands when creating spells and could only change them with a great deal of concentration. This was also a common method to confirm a known confidant¡¯s identity, as deliberately changing your spell color was both pointless and labor intensive unless you were a spy of some sort.

    My own color was a series of naturally dark, earth based, colors, making it naturally harder to understand or duplicate my spells as the lights/commands blended together. Of course, I had little experience with anything more complicated than a stun spell, but my natural color made observing other spells easier by comparison.

    The spells coming from the wolfman leader¡¯s zugoran were even darker than my own, with multiple different spell layering on top of each other, sometimes in light beams of pure darkness, making it even harder to study the spell properly.

    A common misunderstanding among non-mages about spells is that they give off light. Spells are just mana being commanded into various patterns that mages can ¡®see¡¯ with their magical ability. As a result, we can ¡®see¡¯ multiple layers of a spell, even if those layers are made of a black colored light. Sometimes called the mage¡¯s third eye, this magical talent actually manifested on my old world as the proof of a mage gaining their first circle of magic, or becoming magically sensitive, as it was called.

    The third eye let mages see magic being worked, even if the person is blind. That said, while a mage¡¯s normal eyes might dilate because of the light of a spell, it would not illuminate the surrounding area, even in the total darkness of a cave. In fact, the third eye would work even when a mage had closed his eyes and went to sleep. The third eye was limited in several ways though, partly by the spell type used, but the primary when it came to distance.

    The most basic spells, the ones that beginners learned, were systematic spells. They were easy enough to follow and let young mages learn more about both their own third eyes and about magic beyond shoving mana in a general direction and hoping something happened. Free-form spells were similarly easy enough to follow as they were just systematic spells that were built on the spot, but splash spells were the problem. Of course, fate would never let zugoran use anything else except splash spells, making it even harder to study than it would otherwise be at the edge of my sensitivity.

    Sensitivity was what I learned to call someone¡¯s mental eye strength. The more sensitive someone was to magic, the farther their third eye could see and the more easily it could distinguish spell patterns. This sensitivity was a natural talent and had nothing to do with a mage being near or far sighted. There were no known spells to increase the third eye¡¯s ability, unlike someone¡¯s normal eyes. Also, it could only be trained so much, especially as it was usually inversely related to the amount of mana circles a mage could naturally use.

    An average 3 circle mage from my previous world would be able to ¡®see¡¯ around 1000 meters without too much difficulty, while a 13 circle mage would be considered average if they could see 13 meters. Of course they would be able to see magic spells headed towards them before that and recognize them as magic, but they would only be able to guess at what the spell would be designed to do. Mages could still feel the power behind a spell and figure out the spell at longer distances, if they were familiar enough with the spell in question, but the third eye was usually viewed as more of a limiter than a boon.

    Of course, various exceptions to this occurred, with both Bella and myself being able to easily ¡®see¡¯ around 1200 meters at the moment, despite currently having 7 circles worth of mana. At our current distance of some 1500 meters or so, seeing the spells of the zugoran was difficult to say the least. It had not helped that the third eye could not see spells that were created and cast within someone¡¯s body.

    That was one of the oh-so-many reasons for mage battles being very quick events. If someone cast a spell to protect their mouth from fire and then cast a spell to create and shoot a fireball out of their mouth, they might be totally unnoticed until they started breathing fire.

    Though it should be noted that sensitivity to bloodlust and killing intent were different from the magical sensitivity of the third eye as even non magical individuals could feel extremes of either. Sensitivity also did not refer to the general awareness of mana that all mages had to one extent or another. When we felt the large wave of mana before finding the wolfmen, it was not because of our third eye(s), but because of our generalized awareness of mana itself.

    Your mind is wandering DeMorte.

    I grunted a mental affirmative and refocused my attention on the newly created wolfman, who was being carried away gingerly, to the sounds of celebration. He was carried into the large stone building though so, even with my magically enhanced vision, I could not see where exactly he was being taken.

    This will be annoying, I thought grimly, the celebrations below would likely continue into the night and I had not considered it before, but the only individual that I knew could understand me, might now be too tired or traumatized to help me find a translator.

    I could write out a message and leave it in the open, but they might just try and turn me into one of them¡­ Not that I could not handle it, now that I knew there were no Soul Mages, I was much less worried about what these things would be able to do.

    I took the opportunity to back away from the camp and left a magic trail that would lead me back to this spot in the dark. Of course, I could only do this because of third eye¡¯s limitation of spotting spells before they were activated, or ¡®executed¡¯ in the formal terminology. While another mage might recognize that I had cast a spell, they would not know what spell it was because it had already been cast.

    Any mage could spot a spell traveling through the air, but since the third eye could not identify a spell that had already been executed, it was rather like a suit of iron armor, or the wolfmen¡¯s skin. Spells like the stun spell, which did not execute until contact, were different from a fireball, because the mana in a fireball had already been turned into fire. Iron would stop a stun spell and melt before a large enough fireball, cooking whoever was wearing it.

    Although I would have to test the limits of adamantine at a later date, I assumed that it had much of the same issue, but with a more solid base metal than iron. I really needed some iron to augment my bone defenses though, that zugoran would kill me, if I was not careful.

    Deliberately going past the area I wanted to sleep in, I left my tracking trail at the edge of a particularly large tree and tested my trail. This particular spell happened to be something like a trail of paint, except that it would light up for me if I used the correct spell. Following it back to a small clearing, I set up some very subtle wards and cast an illusion spell that seemed to turn me into a moss covered bolder.

    It was already dark enough that I was not too worried about being found, but I had several hours to burn while whatever celebrations the wolfmen had planned calmed down.. A good four hours of sleep and I can start trying to find a peaceful way to make them my experiments, I thought to myself.

    De-DeMorte?

    I know why you are scared child, but it would happen sooner or later and I need to keep my options open.

    Even so, there are hundreds of people down there!

    Yes, which is why we will need to be careful and hope that it does not come to that.

    Then why are you already making plans to kill them all!? We might not even have to fight!

    The first rule of winning a fight is to know the objectives, the second rule is to know how far both sides are willing to go. I am willing and able to kill them all if it becomes necessary.

    but, but-

    Mages have the power, which is why we rule the world. I will not let these wolfmen continue to transform other humans until others finally find this place and burn it to ashes. I have the power, the opportunity, and the means to both protect others and obtain a large amount of experimental subjects. Even it is just their corpses, I will learn something.

    ¡­If I stop you now, you will just return later, when I cannot stop you. I can see it in your head, but what I cannot see is what is more important to you. Are you doing this to actually protect others, or do you just want more experiment subjects?

    Why do you think it has to be one or the other Bella? The only reason you cannot see that I want both is your own bias that those goals cannot be in alinement.

    After a moment of no response I put an end to our little mental chat with a sleep spell that would wake me up in 4 hours, after I was fully rested and ready to do some late night snooping.

    -----------------------------------------

    When I woke up, Bella was silent in the back of my head. I could feel her worry, but she knew that I would avoid killing if at all possible.

    I also noticed a few possums, raccoons, and even an owl quickly run away as I stood up and broke the boulder illusion. I made a mental note to set up animal wards in the future, though, with the frequency that these wolfmen had been able to see my magic, it would not be near them.

    Maybe the creatures had their own third eye¡­ in fact, that was a likely explanation, but I did not have any proof and I could not experiment without a test subject.

    I mentally shook my head and took out one of my last avotatos and concentrated on following my now flowing trail back to the wolfmen¡¯s encampment as I chewed at the raw piece of substance.

    The sky was cloudy, making my trail a fairly bright path through the dark woods. It was times like these that I could appreciate the cultural fear of the woods though, the brief glow that my trail gave off in response to my spell only served to deepen the shadows around me.

    Even with my new body¡¯s magical strength, I felt myself getting more on edge as I watched the shadows. I had spent a lifetime being one of the weaker forces in the world, I was not going to let myself get overconfident just because I had a little magical power now.

    At least it is cool, I thought to both myself and Bella, it could defiantly be a worse night for sneaking around. Neither the trees, nor Bella answered my quiet musings though, so I walked on.

    When I got there, the smell actually elevated my hopes for a peaceful agreement as it was horrible. Alcohol, I smiled, the odor was offensive to my new body¡¯s sensitive nose, but it also told me that their society still had that particular human element. I had gotten slightly worried again after last night¡¯s little conversion process, but I might be able to add ¡®trade¡¯ to my list of possible peace deals.

    Though I did wonder where they got it from¡­ maybe they brewed their own, or they stole it¡­ or someone already struck some sort of deal with them, although I doubted it.

    I did not pay as much attention to it the last time I was here, but there were rough homes built out of a variety of materials, clay being the most common from what I could see. Another reason that I did not notice them however, was the fact that they blended in with the landscape fairly well, with some seeming to grow out of the ground.

    They did not copy the village design that they should have already been exposed too? Does that mean there is some sort of cultural reason? Distancing themselves from their ancestors or something? Or was it related to some predator in the area?

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    More questions, I thought to myself, before casting every concealment spell I knew of, including one to hide my smell. After that was done, I left the hiding spot I had used before and descended on the sleeping group.

    Stepping from shadow to shadow where possible I moved along an obtuse path that took me around the edge of the drunken mass of altered humanity. My steps had gone from silent to non-existent with the help of my magic, but I still moved fairly quickly. I did not see anything dangerous, but I did take note of several groups that had gone to sleep together in a way that stirred very old, very debased, memories.

    There were also some baskets and rope scattered about randomly that proved some level of crafting ability, despite a distinct lack of clothing. No obvious weapons, despite the left over bones near a few large pots.

    No zugoran either, which meant that the one I saw earlier was definitely some sort of a leader, maybe a priest of some sort. Though I did not really need to confirm that part, all I needed was someone to negotiate with and see how things were going to progress from there.

    If the worst came to pass, I would use my internal energy to make a dash for the fear runes. After that I could come back in a few months, after I had developed a poison gas or figured out how to cause the radiation poisoning Anton taught me about.

    Arriving in front of the stone building, I realized that it was much larger than I had originally realized, not height wise, but in depth, as the entrance led almost directly to stairs that descended into the earth.

    The grand design and age of the inside of the building, which had been kept immaculate for some reason, reminded me of tales of the supposed entrance into Gorith¡¯s realm. Minus, the three headed, feathered serpent, that was the alleged gatekeeper

    Come to think of it, there were no guards, sentries, or pickets to challenge me up to this point. I was not sure if that was a good thing or not. It was never a good idea to count on the enemy¡¯s negligence, but I still started down the stairs.

    They are the ¡®enemy¡¯ now?

    So she speaks! I meant that as a general statement, but then again, you already knew that.

    You were thinking about gassing them earlier. What was I supposed to say to that?

    Anything you want, you might see something that I miss.

    You mean like those runes?

    I stopped and let Bella direct our head towards a wall that had something that looked like a fear rune inscribed on it. Of course, close does not count when it comes to runes, so there was no obvious fear or magic that I could notice. Not that the third eye could see runes or their effects anyway.

    Unlike the upper area, the stairs where the runes were had not been cleaned very well, resulting in dust covering and further obscuring an already ignorable symbol in my mind.

    That is exactly like what I meant Bella, good job.

    ¡­

    I continued down the stairs so silently that I could not even hear my own breathing and arrived at the bottom of the stairs, about ten meters or so below ground.

    Here, the architecture changed drastically and became what looked like a giant tree that had been hollowed out. The walls were obviously a bark of some sort of tree, but despite its symmetry, it did not seemed to be processed in any way and had rough looking swirls to prove it. There were no planks or nails, just a very large, rounded, tunnel like structure through wood. It was also around 3 meters in both height and width and curved gently

    Pausing for a moment, I went over and touched the wooden wall, confirming that it was indeed alive, although I had no idea how such a thing could be a part of any living tree.

    Just as I was marveling at it though, I barely heard a distant scream. I began trotting through the winding wooden passage, making no sounds as I quickly drew out some bone surplus that I had and shaped it into a sharp short sword. I had practiced enough with it over the last few years to make a dense, extremely sharp weapon that, while a better thrusting sword, could chop as well.

    Normally I would have used an iron knife and shield, but I had originally planned on capturing large apes of legend, not trying to figure out the ¡®why and how¡¯ behind a group of magically resistance, modified humans.

    If that scream was the sound of someone being tortured, the Guilt would not be far behind. It never liked me ignoring people I could have helped.

    Rounding a gentle corner, I saw two guards, both armed with what looked like iron spears and very rusty iron chest plates.

    I almost stopped in shock, but they were busy playing some game with their fingers so I decided to act while they were distracted instead.

    Since bone was magically conductive, unlike their skin, I quickly lunged at one of the guards, who noticed me out of the corner of his eye. He twisted just enough in surprise to receive a minor scratch, but that was enough for me to push a stun spell into him through the blade.

    His friend only had enough time to give a surprised yelp and try to swing his spear at me. Not thrust, the idiot actually swung his spear like a staff. I ducked and gave his leg a long scratch as I repeated my new stunning method.

    As the second guard fell, I continued on like before, but with a feeling of anxiety clawing at the back of my head.

    I took 3 of these wolf-Lets call them people DeMorte, not experiments, or test subjects, or wolfmen, just different people.

    Fine, whatever you want to call them is fine Bella, the point is that I arguably kidnapped three of them and stunned 2 more of what may be their religious guards for all I know. The point is that a peaceful solution is-

    I stopped and stared at what was happening in front of me.

    There was a fairly large group in a very large spherical earthen room. The tree passage that I had been traveling in up until now ended opening up into the room like the path had been bitten by a large creature to make a doorway. The passage itself twisted off to the side of the room, tapering rapidly, to the point where only a small animal would fit through before it curved again out of my view. The room itself was several hundred meters wide and had buildings that were literally one with the landscape as they bulged out of the ground.

    In the room, there were nearly 40 creatures that were reverently bowing on their knees and touching their heads to the ground as the leader who had turned the human into a ¨C I felt a glare inside my head ¨C modified human.

    Said modified human was also present, being slightly smaller and with less hair than the rest he was easier to spot. Of course, it helped that he was on a large stone alter near the leader figure that had changed him. The leader was currently shaking, giving off a massive wave of mana that would normally have me very worried.

    Both fortunately and unfortunately, this wave of mana was caused by his zugoran jewelry. On one hand, this meant that I had nothing to fear concerning mages, their own skin would still block any spells, unless they had learned to spit fireballs (which personal experience said was highly impractical). On the other hand, zugoran was also very powerful and fairly mysterious from my point of view. It was said to provide amazing benefits if it was found to be helpful after being refined, but what those benefits were tended to be a mystery until they were used.

    It was at this time that I noticed a group of a dozen or so females that had been waiting near-by the leader. Out of arm¡¯s length, but closer than the other below were. Then one of the females stepped forward and pointed at me, crying something in a language I did not understand. For a brief moment, everything seemed to slow down as I felt like I heard that particular voice before and the whole room turned their entire attention to me.

    At that point, the same female who pointed me out grabbed at the leader¡¯s belt. With my enhanced eyes, I could easily see the shock on the leader¡¯s face as the female took a black dagger and suddenly became a blur, even to me, and stabbed him in the chest.

    Did I arrive just in time to witness a coup?

    *     *     *

    Royal Court of Zootrof¨ª:

    (Flashback) A few weeks after the Histones had presented a copy of their report to the court¡­

    Adviser Woolsey had a unique battle to be fought today. He had been the most competent, able bodied, administrator of the realm in 3 generations at the least, but today was special.

    Today, he needed to lose.

    There were a variety of justifications and explanations that he could give to others to explain why he needed to lose, but there were two main reasons that made it more dangerous to win this fight.

    First, he had too many offices shorn up under his command. Normally, filling important positions with people who owed you favors was considered good politics as it would allow you to deliberately starve the political opposition and secure your powerbase. Now however, Woolsey had a unique problem where his position was so strong as to start obligating his opposition to take drastic measures.

    Measures like attacking his distant cousin in Entrials. The place was so new and distant as to be practically built with nothing except the local timber! Yet they had grown despite enough to try and attack even there¡­ No, he needed to appear just weak enough, just human enough, to keep his opponents trying to fight him in the legal arena. After all, noble houses had centuries of back alley deals to call upon, meaning that they were far too advantaged when it came to playing that game.

    The second reason though, would make a cynical man question Woolsey¡¯s aversion to illegal activities. No one here knew all of the facts that Woolsey had at his disposal and he was going to manipulate them to his complete advantage.

    Drums and horns blasted, annoying Woolsey as they called the room to attention. As always, King Miles ¨C or Gink Slime as he was known on the streets ¨C strolled into the room in a way that both proved his reputation of self-importance was deserved and justified the ¡®slime¡¯ nickname with the disgusting way he seemed to ooze across the floor.

    Despite their universal disgust however, everyone paid proper attention. The King was a 14th ranked mage with the very walls around them filled with layer upon layer of his ancestor¡¯s ingenious wards, all prepared to answer his call.

    It was enough to make the 7th ranked adviser glad that no one called him ¡®administrator¡¯ in the King¡¯s presence. Especially since, in this place, no one person, with only the possible exception of a Soul Mage, could fight the King with any chance of winning. Someone as weak as Woolsey would be torn apart instantly if the King got mad enough.

    Now they had to wait for him to make his way through his minor reports before they could hear his will on the matter that he must have decided on a few nights ago, concerning the minor mithril mine found outside of Entrials.

    It was already known that a small detachment of solders would be sent there as a result of the recent banditry activity, but the law dictated that a noble must be declared the owner of such a mine. Since his cousin had been the lord and mayor for so long he had been obligated to offer his support of elevating his cousin to noble rank.

    Naturally his opponents had countered by trying to push for anyone except him, leading to his strategically requested favor.

    ¡°Now, then.¡± The King¡¯s deep voice echoed through the hall, summoning a deathly silence. ¡°It has been decided who shall attend to the mithril mins that were discovered in our northern lands.¡± He paused, clearly drinking in the power that let his nobles hang on his every word. ¡°Despite adviser Woolsey¡¯s arguments for the elevation of the area¡¯s current lord, it will not be so.¡± A collective fury of whispers flew through the chamber for a moment before the King continued. ¡°That said, his arguments that there should be an elevation to peerage to take over the mine have great merit. Therefore, according to the old tradition, the one who discovered the mine shall be the one elevated in this place on the ¡®day of the gods¡¯ following the final Earth Phase of the cycle.¡±

    The whispers started and Woolsey nearly passed out from relief as he felt the judgmental and fickle eyes fall upon him. The second reason he needed to ¡®lose¡¯ today was to help weed out some of his less steadfast followers. After a few political defections, he would reveal his true plan and proceed to destroy those who doubted him.

    As all of the others would be trying to investigate this powerful healing talent, this Bella girl that the Histones had mentioned in passing, Woolsey would confirm his cousin¡¯s son¡¯s marriage plans while he convinced the King to send a recruitment offer to Bella. Even if she said no, the bare presence of an offer would send the others scrambling.

    The best part though, was that no one would suspect that some of the political defectors that would soon begin distancing themselves from Woolsey, were actually his trusted spies. Fools, Woolsey thought vindictively, as he fought to keep his real emotions hidden, knowledge is power too and power rules absolutely.

 Chapter 17: Negotiations

    Last week¡¯s chapter seemed to slow my pace, but DeMorte/Bella¡¯s sendoff will be coming up soon. If I have my schedule worked out correctly, chapter 22 should be the last chapter in the area as DeMorte vacates the area to go west. His/her age is currently 9, but between chapter 18/19 there will be another time skip to get him/her (gender benders hurt my sense of pronouns) to 13 years old, which will be the age he/she will be when they leave to get their <del>pronouns</del> gender issue resolved.

    By the way, I hope it was clear to everyone here, but my friend recommend that I explain one specific bit about the third eye more clearly: It allows mages to copy spells that are within their range, but they can still tell a spell is coming at them from outside that range. Plus, it is not like it is instant memorization.

    For example, if two mages were fighting each other from a distance of 700 meters and they both had third eyes that could see 50 meters away: They would know that spells were being thrown at them the second their opponent cast them, but until the spells were visible to their third eye, they would not know what the spell was. This means that the more powerful mages all fight at a distance, their extra mana means extra dense magic armor, countering their usually more limited third eye.

    Weaker mages, like DeMorte was, would still able to kill them, but they would have to get much closer, or try and hit the other mage with iron (hence DeMorte¡¯s favorite weapon)

    Chapter 17: Negotiations

    Honor above, I groaned to myself. Why did things have to get complicated?

    The modified human with the dagger had taken the opportunity to stab the one I had identified as the leader a few more times to a mixed reaction from those around her.

    Some of the others seemed transfixed, as if they could not believe their eyes, while others ¨C mostly the other females ¨C were howling their approval. A very few charged forward and tried to attack her, but they were sent flying with a single hit each. I was fairly sure that two of them were killed instantly too, one because of his landing position ¨C head first ¨C and the other because his neck was twisted at an impossible angle.

    Unless they had some weapons hiding in the surrounding buildings, further attempts at fighting this¡­ usurper, would likely end badly for them.

    I personally found her actions inefficient and redundant, but they gave me time to adapt. Bella just shivered inside my head, which made me snort. She was comfortable with the idea of testing experimental potions on people, but she found violence of our current situation discomforting. Maybe it was understandable if I viewed her as a little girl, but she shared at least part of my mind and should get used to such scenes already.

    This room was odd, this situation was annoying, and my options were wonderfully limited, meaning I had to fall back on my keys for victory. The first key was objective and it had just changed as my opponent did. Where a traditional leader would be determined to keep power, a new leader, a usurper like this one, would be more concerned with securing it. The second key, motivation, had changed as well, for the same reasons. Although, the now dead leader had likely ruled through fear (I was guessing based on the actions of the others when he died) the new one might want to identify a common enemy. I could not know for sure though.

    This led me to the third and fourth keys. The third key was simple, know when to take action. It was harder than it sounded of course, but it was still a good principle to work off of. It also led into the fourth key, always adapt.

    I started walking forward silently, my bone sword by my side. I did not know much about the zugoran dagger, but it appeared in increase the wielder¡¯s natural abilities somehow. I was going to assume that by sword would not hold up to zugoran, much less any magic the metal held, but it would make for an effective prop. Mages tended to dismiss weapons in my experience, while non-mages or individuals who were unfamiliar with magic would consider it a primary danger.

    Until then, I needed to get closer and see how the newest modified human, or whatever he was at the moment, was doing. If I was lucky, he would still be in the process of transforming and I could gather important information before he was completely turned into one of them. His appearance suggested that he needed another treatment or two, but I was trying to keep my guesses to a minimum. Besides, he was likely the scream that I heard earlier, as I did not expect that any secondary processes were painless.

    I felt some confusion from Bella as I methodically planed, discarded, and reformed a dozen different options to deal with the crowd and escape if or when necessary.

    Wait, why did all of that sound so¡­ thought out? Are you taking those keys of yours straight out of a book or something?

    Partly, I was writing the book near the end of my previous life and had to explain a lot of things that I did not think about previously.

    A book? About what? How you became a bandit leader? Who would read something like that?

    It was a story about blood, sex, death, and triumph. With the new batch presses making it cheaply, who would not want to read it?

    I received a mental picture of a mob of people holding their hands up, which I ignored.

    The female usurper with the dagger had been making some sort of speech to the others and receiving an obviously divided audience. Half of the males and about a fifth of the females looked uncomfortable, while the rest were making some kind of shouting noise. Whether in approval or disapproval, I did not know, but their minds were clearly made up on the matter.

    This went on while I just walked forward calmly, giving them plenty of time to argue or whatever they were doing. The room was so big that it took me a few minutes anyway, that as long as I was

    I was just over halfway to the stone alter before anyone seriously started to take notice of me. It should not have surprised me as much as it did, but given that I was a small girl in a large room, filled with dozens of giant, hairy, very confused, modified humans, I had actually expected to go unnoticed for much longer.

    What ended up calling attention to me was not one of them suddenly remembering my presence, but a crying sound from within some of the ¡®buildings¡¯ that grew out of the ground here.

    Obviously this was where at least some of their young were kept, which added a pair of new dynamics. First, the crying made a few of the group turn around and notice me again. Second, it added children to the situation, which made the likelihood of rational behavior decrease dramatically.

    It sounds hungry.

    Who cares Bella? The darn thing should have kept its mouth shut.

    Have you ever met my father? I swear you 2 are related or something.

    Like you even know how to swear, brat! We will talk about this later.

    A larger member of the group, one closer to me, bellowed a war like cry and came bounding at me. I carefully kept the same pace as several others like him started towards me while I prepared myself. I was only going to stun them if I could, but if they pushed me they would not enjoy it.

    One veteran mage versus a couple dozen modified humans? Even with zugoran on their side, this would be a one sided bloodbath if I wanted it to be. It was the only reason that I did not fight them at the cave was that I was still worried about Soul Mages. However, if their skin blocked magic from going in, it would likely block it from coming out either. That meant that, even if some of them were mages, they would not be familiar with casting spells, which would let me stun or kill them as needed.

    Mages killed mages, everyone and everything else in a battle were mere distractions. They could get lucky, or tricky ones could tip the favor at the right moment, but non-mages were seen as servants for much of the history in my previous world. If it was not for the ever increasing number of ¡®sensitives,¡¯ who were viewed as barley having any magic at all, the world would likely have been even worse for them.

    These modified humans actually reminded me of the sensitives in my previous life, able to see magic, but hardly able to use it¡­ Not that I had confirmed that they were all able to see magic anyway, but seemed prudent to assume they could.

    The larger one changed directions slightly and dove off to my side, positioning himself between me and the building that I heard the crying from. The ones who followed him quickly dashed into positions around me, making sure that I was surrounded. I just cast a light ward that would let me know if they tried to attack me from behind.

    Stones, I grimaced, as I suddenly felt a wave of pity and a bit of empathy wash over me. Others would have purged them without a second thought and burnt the remains with fleshfire, leaving only a note in the Histones books. In the end, their fate might actually be in my hands.

    I did not break stride as I shook my head and walked through up to the main crowd. I was not scared, I had spent decades in the dirt, rocky hills, and even on the battlefield learning to survive. I maybe have had to lay low for the past 2 years, but I never gave up my power, I never gave up who I am.

    Bella was right, I am not a man who bows willingly and there was no reason to be afraid right now, meaning that there was no way I was going to be intimidated. This was the time to wear my cloak, when I had a good idea of the odds and the knowledge of how I could win.

    ¡­Of course if even a single one of them had somehow developed magic, my experience should give me just enough of an edge to escape. Even with magic weapons of zugoran to take into account, the odds of me dying were extremely low.

    As I approached the alter like construct one of the modified humans stepped out directly in front of me and tried to physically stop me.

    The female with the dagger said something to him, but I ignored her and channeled my internal energy into my whole body. If she decided to attack I would need to recognize the threat, so I prepared myself for an annoying task and sped up my perception of time a bit.

    It burned through more internal energy reserves than I liked, but ever since my new family had learned about my magical talent I had been dividing my time equally between storing internal energy and expanding my mana. Where I had originally intended to compress my mana as much as possible to hide my magic usage, I had enough food because of my ¡®healing talent¡¯ to concentrate more on storing internal energy for emergencies.

    Expanding my mana this early in my life would yield¡­ other effects, but they were not important at the moment.

    I had to fight my instinct to not touch anyone and extended my empty hand towards the male blocking my way. He tried to grab it, but I instinctively dodged his hand before remembering that what I planned on doing.

    Bare contact martial movements did exist, but I had never practiced them, as a result I could not flip the male or do anything fancy like that, but I could use my strength to remove such an obstacle.

    Using my slowed perception of time I grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm across his body. Doing so might have dislocated his arm, but I did not hear or feel a pop, so I simply stepped out of the way as he went sprawling and walked up to the edge of the alter. Deciding to continue my dramatic entrance, I pretended to ignore the usurper while keeping her in my peripheral vision. The speed she showed earlier had not been natural.

    The previously normal person, who I had witnessed being modified a few hours ago, was currently passed out on the alter. His limbs were chained up in old, slightly rusty, iron shackles.

    At least they are not made of zugoran, I thought to myself. I carefully walked to the opposite side of the alter, not comfortable with the usurper or her dagger so close to me. After I had gotten closer, I had managed to confirm that the dagger had some sort of magic based ability, but since it was directly affecting her, I had a hard time telling what exactly it was.

    I could tell that the dagger was sucking in mana from the area around it, but the third eye could not see spells created or cast inside of a person or directly into someone. I could also see the very small amount of blood that was dripping down the dagger, which told me how the female was letting the dagger affect her. Although her skin would resist magic, her blood would still carry it in a manner similar to what I did earlier with my sword and the stun spell.

    It also meant that Gorith¡¯s shroud might be able to stop the dagger¡¯s ability as using the spell would take control of all the mana in an area around me, starving the dagger.

    Feeling a bit more secure on the opposite side of the alter, I let my perception of time slow a bit. If the usurper started to attack me I would have enough time to speed it up again, as long as I was careful.

    I reached out and touched the newly modified human (on his arm ¨C to Bella¡¯s slight disappointment) and felt almost no resistance as my talent entered him. His body was currently in overdrive as it tried to draw on the limited nutrients it had access to in order to transform his body. He had some food in his stomach that was being very thoroughly digested, but that would not be enough.

    I kept an eye on the usurper, who also kept a close eye on me, while I sent a spell into the man. Specifically, I used the spell that Bella occasionally needed in order to wake up. It might be uncomfortable for him, but I needed to make sure I had at least one person I could speak to.

    Plus, if I made it seem like I was here for him, the others might misunderstand it as a search for kin, which was more likely to be understood and accepted than a search for test subjects.

    The man woke up fairly quickly, the spell I used creating a unique wake up mix of chemicals and hormones that would work better than most hangover remedies for clearing the mind. He started moving soon afterwards, testing his bonds. I used a spell to lessen any pain and another to let him focus faster.

    I was burning through my internal energy reserves more quickly than I would have liked and I needed him to concentrate. There was no way he would be able to translate for me right now, but in the future he might be very useful¡­ Plus, I was taking the time that I was in physical contact with him to study his body as closely as possible with my talent.

    I will help!

    Funny, Bella, not now.

    They seem friendly enough given how personable you are, besides that was not a joke-

    I said not now.

    I felt a flicker of a sense of hurt from her, but I pushed it down, I had no time for childish dribble at the moment.

    The man tried to jerk up, but remembered, or rediscovered, his chains and instead started looking around. He glanced at me and then at the usurper, who still held the dagger. It was not raised, but it commanded the man¡¯s attention for a moment as he noticed it and then the body lying next to its wielder.

    ¡°Can you hear me?¡± I tried enunciating as cleanly as possible, I needed this man focused on me for a moment so that I could ask him some questions and evaluate my options.

    If I needed to wait for him to develop the ability to translate, I might actually gain more information by simply forcibly implanting everyone here with my newest version of my magical device. Which I should probably come up with a name for at some point.

    You mean the ones that work surprisingly similar to zugoran?

    Stop pouting and explain that statement please.

    What? You want my help now? Oh I am sorry my liege, I would have thought that it would be obvious.

    Bella¡­

    ¡­Their skin would block any magic signals. If you could even get that booster in the back of your head designed to let us monitor them from back home.

    That¡­ is very helpful Bella, thank you. I will have to encase the ¡®monitor¡¯ device in bone and attach it to something important. Maybe their brainstem, that way it could stick out the back of their neck¡­

    Wait you cannot-

    ¡°Run.¡± A wheezing voice cut off Bella¡¯s response. Is it raw from screaming? I wondered to myself. ¡°Run, please get away, go.¡± He almost sounded like he was begging me. It was especially annoying as I heard his speech through my sped up perception, which meant that I had to concentrate for a moment to understand him.

    Replying was also annoying, but I kept my perception speed high just to be one the safe side. I was familiar enough with this type of status that I could talk slowly from my perspective and he would hear it fine. ¡°So you can speak, good.¡± I replied simply. ¡°Do you have a name?¡±

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    I heard the usurper call out something at that point and I looked up to find her watching us both with interest. The man just tried to tell me to run a few more times. He might have also insulted me while trying to get my attention, but I concentrated on the usurper for a moment.

    ¡°Dal¡¯tal?¡± I asked the her, trying to remember the words the first female I met used.

    ¡°Dal¡¯tal yea.¡± She pointed at herself with her free hand before opening her palm and extending it towards me.

    ¡°DeMorte.¡± I responded, pointing at myself.

    She nodded and repeated my name. Then, she turned to look off to the side, where another female, one who looked very pregnant, was being very carefully guided by a mob of males to the alter. A few of them were sending nervous looks to Dal¡¯tal every few moments.

    Why is she being brought out here? Surly they remember me throwing the male earlier. If they want to be protective of her, why bring her anywhere near me? I checked my wards and expanded them for a moment to make sure that no one was trying to sneak up behind me.

    ¡°Mage.¡± The man on the alter gasped. ¡°Please, get help. Please little DeMorte, they are dangerous.¡±

    ¡°If I did that you would be stuck like this forever.¡± I replied simply, looking down at him. ¡°Now are you going to tell me your name?¡±

    ¡°What does that matter? Do you really think you can save me from all of them? One little girl?¡± He replied, looking confused.

    ¡°I am a 7 circle mage who remembers their previous life, so yes, I do. Name.¡±

    ¡°Sabert.¡± He stated, still looking confused, but now looking slightly hopeful as well.

    ¡°Well Sabert,¡± I began patiently, ¡°any idea why they are bringing a pregnant lady up here?¡± I nodded towards the female in question

    Sabert leaned up, rattling his chains for a moment while he tried to get a good look at the female I was talking about. ¡°She speaks rough human. We spoke before¡­¡± He paused and laid back, with a pained look on his face. ¡°Before they turned me into this.¡±

    I nodded to myself, impressed that Dal¡¯tal had already known what to do. I had many questions to ask, but as long as I could get my initial offer across, the rest could wait. If my previous discoveries were any indication, these modified humans might have already noticed that their children were growing rarer, meaning I had even more to offer them than I originally expected.

    The pregnant woman talked to Dal¡¯tal for a moment before turning to me. ¡°Can you understand?¡± Her ability to speak the language Bella had grown up with, which I had never bothered to ask the name of, was rough, but passable.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    She nodded and studied me for a moment. ¡°Is he kin? Where your parents?¡±

    ¡°That is unimportant.¡± I said coldly. ¡°I came here to see how Sabert was doing,¡± I gestured at him, ¡°and to ask for a trade.¡±

    She narrowed her eyes and spoke to Dal¡¯tal for a little while. They seemed to be arguing for a moment before she turned back to me. ¡°What would you trade little one? You trapped here, why no parents? Why you no join us?¡±

    ¡°I can move through the fear runes if I want to.¡± I smiled as the woman looked at me in disbelief. ¡°My parents can be here, they do not know that I was blessed by the gods.¡± It was a stretch of the truth, but they would not know that and more importantly: they could not tell anyone even if they believed me. ¡°I will trade knowledge with you, as you will need it soon enough.¡±

    At that point, after the pregnant woman finished translating, Dal¡¯tal started giving orders, sending most of the others back into the various buildings that were merged into the ground throughout this place. A few stayed as she carefully removed the zugoran jewelry from the corpse of the previous leader before they carried it away.

    Dal¡¯tal only put on the neckless that her predecessor had been wearing, leaving the rest of the zugoran off to the side in a small pile off to the side. After a moment of talking to the woman ¨C whose routine of overly protective males had been the ones to carry off the corpse ¨C she continued our talk.

    ¡°Why we believe you? Just child, cannot see gods or god gifts.¡±

    I smiled calmly, ignoring the fact that my internal energy stores were now below half and still dropping. ¡°I am the daughter of a man who found a mine to the south, beyond the runes. His discovery will draw attention and eventually someone will push through the runes like I did.¡±

    The translator waved her hand in the air and spoke without consulting Dal¡¯tal. ¡°Same problem, no proof, only little girl.¡±

    I raised an eyebrow and stopped smiling. ¡°If that is how you feel then I will just have to leave. Of course I will be taking Sabert here with me.¡± I gestured at said man and tried not to enjoy her reaction too much.

    ¡°No, no, no. We need him.¡± She said vehemently, ¡°Little girl magic cannot take him either. We get both you to stay¡±

    ¡°No.¡± I replied, holding up my sword. ¡°You cannot stop me if you tried.¡± I reformed it in front of them into an oval shaped mound that extended over my hand. The end result looked slightly like an egg, with a rounded tip extending outwards like it was a part of my arm.

    Dal¡¯tal reacted to this by rapidly putting herself between me and her translator while raising her own weapon. She also started talking quickly to her translator, obviously trying to figure out what was going on.

    In the meantime, I noticed that I had been able to track Dal¡¯tal movement fairly well and I smiled happily before I grabbed Sabert¡¯s chained arm. Barely taking my eyes off Dal¡¯tal I pulled Sabert¡¯s arm to tighten the chain and smashed down with my new weapon. I could have made it perfectly rounded or with a sharp point, but I was unsure how strong the rusted iron was, especially in comparison to my bone weapon, so I compromised.

    With a small serge of my internal energy I broke the iron chain and then held it up for the other 2 to see. ¡°I could kill you, but I do not want to. I want to help you.¡± I lowered both the broken chain and my arm, making it clear that I meant no harm. ¡°You need Sabert¡¯s blood because you are too isolated, but I want to help you because the mine will draw more people here.¡±

    I looked Dal¡¯tal straight in the eyes, barely noticing that a few others had come rushing out at the noise of me breaking the chain. Dal¡¯tal herself yelled at them without breaking eye contact with my and grudgingly lowered her weapon. I continued to talk to her, knowing that she would understand after the translator explained, but wanting Dal¡¯tal to feel like I was talking directly to her. ¡°More will come. They will think the fear runes hide something dangerous and eventually they will send ones stronger than me. They will fear you and they will kill when they get here. I do not know when it will happen, but it will occur eventually.¡±

    I paused and then emphasized my final statement. ¡°You cannot stop me if I want to leave and you will never be able to stop fully trained soilders if you could not even stop one little girl. Besides, you look like you have already realized just how rare children are becoming for your people, do you really think kidnapping others is a permanent solution? That will just draw others here faster.¡±

    The two exchanged a flurry of words and Dal¡¯tal reluctantly lowered her dagger

    ¡°How can you help?¡± The woman finally asked.

    ¡°I know blood.¡± I explained. ¡°I will try to figure out how to reverse the process that your staff,¡± I pointed at it off to the side, ¡°did to make people like Sabert here. That way you have a better chance of living peacefully when the other humans finally discover you.¡±

    They talked and nodded for a few moments and I knew I had them. ¡°You said trade.¡± The woman stated hesitantly, ¡°what will cost be?¡±

    ¡°You are human,¡± I stated honestly, ¡°I want to know more about human blood, so the knowledge I get from you will be its own reward.¡±

    ¡°What about Sabert?¡±

    ¡°I can help him, but I do not want to feed him, it would be better if he remained here, unless we cannot come to an agreement. After all, I need to be able to visit him if I want to help him.¡± Sabert, who was endlessly confused and now clearly a bit panicked at being a bargaining chip. ¡°They really are human,¡± I added, glancing at Sabert, ¡°changed, but human.¡±

    After another moment of talking between then Dal¡¯tal finally sheathed her zugoran blade, letting me relax my internal energy a little. ¡°We will need time to talk. New leader different, want opinions.¡± The woman grated out. I simply nodded my understanding in response. ¡°You stay here? More questions?¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°I will be watching, but I will not be sleeping here.¡±

    The woman raised an eyebrow. ¡°Found Dal¡¯tal yea in mine. Dangerous to stay in for you, old zugoran energies. Large forest tree snakes too. They sleep now, as the cold comes, but wake with warmth.¡±

    I felt a mixed chill and annoyance flow through me. Had I been sleeping barely safe places ever since I passed those stoning runes?

    Bella-

    I forgive you, the benefit of living with you in my mind is at least knowing why you think what you do¡­ Let us just agree to be much more careful about where we sleep in the future.

    Agreed. Hopefully this will not become some sort of running Nalk gag.

    Oh, I can see it now: hey can we make him sleep in that flood valley? How about under that nest of killer bees?

    I mentally groaned and drew myself back to the conversation at hand

    ¡°I will be fine. Thank you for your concern.¡± The woman nodded and turned to Dal¡¯tal to say something. I thought that she would leave now and I would be able slip away into the night, but just as she started walking away I was struck by a stray thought. ¡°What are your people called? Or do you have a name for yourselves?¡±

    She turned back and replied without hesitation. ¡°We are called the V¨¹f¡¯an¡±

    I just stared blankly. Veufan? Wolfman? Seriously?

    Just at the edge of my range of hearing I could have sworn that I heard the chuckle of a certain bookish energy being and found myself wondering if I was ever in any danger in the first place.

    *     *     *

    Entrials, the Lord Mayor¡¯s house: (Flashback: The other evening)

    John sputtered in anger while looking at his brother, his words refusing to form a coherent question or statement as his mind spun.

    He did not deserve this. He had followed all the standard rules of pre-courtship prior to meeting and formally asking her parents for permission to court Bella, yet he was now being rejected.

    Was it that he had yet to do in order to pursue her?

    Finally taking several deep breaths, John¡¯s strangled voice managed to squeak out a question. ¡°Why?¡±

    It was such a simple question, but it held the weight of the world for the young, heart broken, boy. John was often cavalier when nervous, but right now he stood before the one person he respected the most in the world, his brother, with tears rolling down his face.

    He had just learned that he would not be allowed to pursue his feelings towards Bella and he could not believe it.

    Robert looked at his brother with a resolute, but understanding look. ¡°She is not interested in you little brother.¡± His deep voice only added to the sense of immovability that his words seemed to carry.

    John had looked for Bella since her family had arrived, but could not find her and instead hoped to formally ask her parents for their permission to court her tonight. Instead, his brother had blocked him and gently pulled him away before he could talk to them.

    Pulled him away to tell him that¡­

    ¡°That¡­¡± John¡¯s voice cracked and he felt like something burning in his chest. ¡°That is not fair! You just want to hurry up and marry Florance now that we know her father will be elevated!¡± His high pitched voice grated on his Robert¡¯s nerves, but he understood how upset his little brother was. John had never been denied anything before, yet the one thing ¨C the one person ¨C Robert mentally admonished himself, that John truly wanted had been forbidden to him.

    ¡°You know that is not true John, now stop being a baby about it.¡± Robert was the one who scolded him because they both knew exactly how much John looked up to his brother. Their father¡¯s scolding would just be a swift beating while he berated the boy for not figuring out what not to do himself.

    ¡°I am not BEING A BABY!¡± He all but screamed and accidentally released a wave of pressure that knocked a picture off the wall and a chair behind him over.

    ¡°JOHN!¡± Robert barked. He was suddenly glad that he took John into one of the quiet rooms. The runes carved onto the interior of the walls would dampen the noise to the point where no one outside would be able to hear it over the ongoing festivities.

    John looked down, feeling ashamed at losing control of his young magic, yet again. When healer Kal¡¯rek had been there, he explained that John¡¯s magic would come to him in the next few years and he needed to learn to keep it under control, even when emotional, or he would have a very hard time casting spells.

    Sometime later, the door opened and Anghenfil came into the room. John¡¯s tears had long since dried, but he still did not move from his position, curled up on the floor. He did not look up, but he knew his friend¡¯s presence by the way mana reacted to him. It was John¡¯s talent and one of the reasons that he found Bella so endlessly fascinating.

    Where mana tried to avoid Anghenfil, it seemed to revolve around Bella like she was the center of the world. When he first seen Bella he noticed the mana dancing around her, swirling and spinning as if trying to get her attention or make her to play with it.

    John had found it awe-inspiring and now¡­

    Anghenfil closed the door softly behind him and looked upon his friend as a sorry, and somewhat scary sight, as an uncomfortable feeling was rolling off of John, not that the boy himself had noticed it.

    The silence stretched on as Anghenfil tried to gather the courage, the words, to tell his friend what he needed to hear. The whole building and indeed the whole town was aware of Nathan¡¯s elevation to the lowest rank of the nobility. It meant that, after he attended the ceremony in the capital, he would be the highest ranking individual in the area.

    Nathan was going to be the lord upon his return.

    Robert and Florence had already been an obvious match so it would not affect his standing too much, but John and especially Anghenfil, would get away with less now than they did before.

    It would be especially annoying for Anghenfil as he leveraged John¡¯s position more than John did, much less that knightly fool Drasidedi did too. Still, he did consider himself John¡¯s friend so it pained him to see John like this. Just before he could start bumbling assurances though, John spoke up. ¡°She hates me.¡±

    Anghenfil noticed the tremor in John¡¯s voice and could only wonder at its source. Was it John¡¯s anger or sadness? Surely it was a mixture, but which was stronger?

    ¡°She stayed away to let her family reject me.¡± John continued, grounding out each word, not looking up. Had he, he might have noticed Anghenfil¡¯s small smile or his more relaxed posture. Anghenfil knew how to deal with John when he was like this, as long as Drasiedi did not interfere.

    Approaching slowly, Anghenfil spoke slowly and carefully, letting silence fill his pauses to add a greater weight to his words. ¡°John¡­ she is cute, but you are looking at this wrong¡­ You are not losing her¡­ she is losing the one person who would truly understand her.¡±

    John looked up and blinked rapidly at his friend. His red eyes clearly revealing how much he had been crying. Anghenfil continued, speaking slowly, but passionately, ¡°You are my best friend, but I have always known that you were destined for great things, even before you learned of your magic¡­ You will be someone who gets fame and recognition in the future, you do not need to worry about someone who even thinks things like smoking traxico is bad for you.¡± Anghenfil snorted in distain before continuing. ¡°You have to get it together though, you need to show her that it is her loss. You need to make her regret this, but¡­ you cannot do that crying on the floor.¡±

    John nodded. He was right, John needed to get it together so that he could make Bella see the error of her ways, to make sure that she regretted rejecting him, absolutely.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------

    List of things to do: add a formal definition for ¡®talent¡¯

    If you have anything to suggest I concentrate on please feel free to comment on the chapter, message me, or review the story*

    Thank you all for reading, sincerely,

    Bob_Sagit.

    *please.

 Chapter 18: Past and Future

    Chapter 18: Past and Future

    Blighted fear runes.

    Agreed.

    We sat, partly resting and partly drying, just outside of the influence of the fear runes on Entrial¡¯s side of the river. I had accidentally used too little internal energy when crossing the river and we ended up soaked. I had been trying to ration the limited amount of internal energy I had remaining, barely enough to defend myself in an emergency, which caused me to use the bare minimum energy needed to cross the river¡­ only to slip on the opposite bank.

    We also realized where at least some of the fear runes must be hiding as that water scared us more than¡­ actually there was nothing to make an accurate comparison, the water was just liquid fear, suggesting that at least some of the runes were in the river itself.

    How they had not eroded away over the centuries, I had no idea, but we had been in no mood to try and find out why.

    Also, since Bella had let me have uncontested control of the body for over a week it was currently under her complete control and would likely continue to be for a while. I was taking the time to mentally check our magical ¡®monitor¡¯ devices and make sure I could check them even on the opposite side of the fear runes.

    It worked, but the strength had weakened noticeably, making the response I received feel disjointed. I could still connect to the monitors, but it was annoying.

    I will have to work on the booster in the future. That way I might actually be able to create a way to send specific messages. Even if this world has an equivalent already developed, it should give me a unique form of long distance communication.

    I still cannot believe they were so stubborn after all that arguing.

    Well, most of them were naturally born that way, not changed. Plus, we were asking them to put their future into our ¡®young¡¯ hands.

    Still, most of them did let us put the monitors in so why not let us take it further? Why did they admit that they needed our help to only start hesitating when we actually tried to help?!

    Perhaps the difference between watching and interfering is to be blamed? I was just glad that we got the information from the translator¡¯s childbirth. It will be very interesting to find out if it burns out like Dras.

    ¡¯She¡¯ DeMorte, not ¡®it¡¯ but ¡®she.¡¯

    ¡®She¡¯ is a valuable experiment in and of herself, not the ¡®adorable thing¡¯ that you seemed to be getting so attached to.

    Do not lie to me DeMorte, you thought that she was cute too!

    I never said that she was not cute. All children are cute, they have to be in order to keep their parents from killing them after weeks of sleep deprivation.

    Not funny.

    The point, Bella, is that you seem to go from objecting to condoning experiments that would likely have Anton calling his equivalent of the guard on us.

    I agree with some of them, but I dislike it when you hurt cute things. You already made that one rabbit family super strong and got them called demon bunnies, is that not enough for you?

    To prove that I can create hereditary modifications? Yes. To provide me with enough data to justify stopping my experimentation? No.

    I stopped our conversation there and let Bella whine and complain to herself for a bit. I wanted to finish mentally organizing what we had learned in our time with the modified humans before I started replenishing our internal energy stores.

    Since their bodies were created by complex magical energies through the zugoran staff, I had to be very careful when I messed with their genetics. The staff had instantly modified their bodies, down to the genetic level, before allowing their bodies to naturally rebuild themselves. These changes were hereditary as well, making their children larger than normal, with iron infused skin. I had still not discovered exactly how they prevented iron overload, but their bodies seemed to know exactly how to regulate the extreme amounts of iron in their blood.

    The locals had also figured out that they needed a diet of mushrooms to counter what they called ¡®the body ache.¡¯ I called it vitamin D deficiency and had made sure that the first thing I did, to anyone who agreed to the monitor at least, was to turn off the ¡®werewolf gene¡¯ that had covered them with hair. Even if I would be obligated to help them make cloths for themselves, at least their future lack of a full body of hair would help if they met other people¡­ that and the fact that Sabert would teach them the local language.

    Sabert himself had been less than pleased that he was going to be stuck in their little village, but his visible skin had already grayed to the point where he might be locked up under suspicion of being cursed¡­ The fact that the females had perfectly functioning sex organs and were practically crawling all over him, likely had nothing to do with his decision to accept his fate.

    I also learned that they did not, in fact, bury all of their dead. It was actually a punishment reserved for the worst offenders, like anyone who made their previous leader sufficiently angry. Dal¡¯tal¡¯s mother was among them, which was the reason why I ran into her when I was there.

    I learned a bit about their culture and way of living too, but the most important things I learned were that the Elves did exist there, thousands of years ago and the remnant humans were the descendants of those the Elves had played with. Although no one could confirm that the Elves had created them to work zugoran, they did tell me stories of the Elves¡¯ cruelty.

    I almost asked them if they were sure the creatures of their tales were Elves. The stories were fairly close to things that I had heard about some of the more depraved human nobles of my previous world. Minus the parts where they turned the humans hairy to make fun of the apes.

    They also showed me the remnants of the Elvish buildings. Mostly wooded grooves of an above ground equivalent to the room with the stone alter. Said room was apparently safer when the Quin, giant flying snakes, started to move around, as they would attack people out in the open.

    I had found and killed one of the Quin while I was there and it was no snake. For starters, snakes have scales, not fur, but this was some kind of monstrous amalgamation of creatures that happened to be able to fertilize its own eggs. I had promised them to hunt down as many as I could (to get more samples) as the Quin likely seemed another remnant of the Elves.

    It seemed that they were very fond of biological based weapons and structures, which did not bode well for me. Between my ears and my specialty concerning the human body, there was no way that I was not going to attract trouble later.

    Sighing, I mentally checked on a few more of my monitor devices before we stood up and stretched in the cold morning air. The third earth phase of the cycle was ending, meaning that the water phase, winter, would soon begin.

    If I ever come into a position of power, I will look into that 5 phase business, I vowed to myself, why they did not just divide the solar year into 10 periods of 36 days each I could not understand. The people here did not even have 2 ¡®suns¡¯ to keep track of.

    We concentrated on the sounds of nature around us and took a moment to enjoy the more peaceful noises of the forest. This close to the fear runes, animals were few and it was actually quite nice.

    After a moment we started moving through the forest at a more sedated pace, aiming towards Leo¡¯s home as Bella searched the surroundings for useful materials. I decided to regain some of my internal energy reserves while I could and started cultivating the mana around us, absorbing it into my body through my mana.

    While I did so I also found Bella trying to observe and study the process. I was about to tell her to keep a lookout for alchemy materials when she asked me an interesting question.

    How is this different from that shroud?

    Energy cultivation involves taking the mana in the air around you and processing it with your body to use it for your own purposes. Gorit¡¯s shroud just claims the mana around you, meaning you are controlling the world¡¯s natural mana directly, instead of turning into your personal mana.

    Wait if that is true then-

    Bella did not get to finish her question as we both felt a pulse of mana approaching us. A disadvantage of having a relaxed conversation between us was that the speed of our mental communication slowed down to a normal conversation.

    The pulse of mana was not hostile or unnaturally fast, so I resisted the urge to cast a disruption spell. Both my personal experience and my third eye quickly identified the mana pulse as a scouting spell. The spell had been similar to the most basic of scout spells that I knew of, meaning a new scout.

    Veteran scout mages were dangerous, observant, and some of the most annoyingly realistic people you had ever met. The ones I had known in the past, who I called ¡®rangers,¡¯ acted like they had the overconfidence bled out of them after the years in the wild. They were also incredibly hard to lie to or barter with as they tended to watch others like birds of prey. Oh, and they designed their own scouting spells, making them harder to detect with wards.

    Bella kept an eye out while I quietly formed a few bone daggers and hid them away. I used to always have at least 2 hidden knives on my person at all times, however, knives of any type discovered on a little girl would be problematic. That said, if the scouts were sharp enough to notice my bone armor, much less my daggers, it would be better for them to die here

    I felt Bella shiver, but she kept her silence. I wondered if she had finally realized how reluctant I was to kill. She acted as if the previous years of memories and the flashbacks of the Guilt were not enough to convince her, only scare her more.

    The fear runes were the worst thing in my life, but your memories¡­ do you even understand how horrible you are?

    I am pragmatic.

    Not caring that someone is being tortured in front of you is pragmatic?

    Since they are not likely to die, yes, very.

    That is just¡­ so wrong though!

    Here, think about it like this¡­

    While Bella was processing my logic ¨C which I unceremoniously dumped in her mind ¨C we got within sight of the scout. While I was not exactly surprised to find him alone, I was certainly not expecting his company.

    Janeen was the first person I saw, but she was followed by two men dressed in blood red uniforms that I could not help stare at.

    What kind of scout wears red?! It was absurd and I suddenly found myself wondering just how safe this country was.

    I walked forward and greeted Janeen politely. The few times I had met her after that first lord¡¯s party had been terse, polite exchanges, but I felt that she did not resent me.

    ¡°Going for a walk with friends Janeen?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Bella, I am surprised to see you here. These men are with the army and they were sent ahead to take a look around.¡± Janeen, typically, kept her speech polite and to the point, only hinting that she wanted to know why I was out here, instead of demanding the explanation.

    ¡°I was looking for alchemic ingredients.¡± I stated simply, observing the two sad excuses for scouts. One was old and barely in shape, he was clearly recovering from the hike through the woods. Imagine if it was summer, I thought dismissively.

    The other was much younger, but seemed did not seem to be doing much scouting as he was too busy staring at Janeen¡­ Not that I blamed him too much, she was attractive, in a lean, fit, way. I also noticed that he had a bit of magic leaking out, but if I had to guess, he did not even have as much mana as john did. In fact, I was somewhat more worried about the looks he was giving Janeen as they reminded me more of an almost rabid dog than a beta.

    Wait, what?

    My old world had 2 light giving suns, Alpha and Beta. Beta was smaller so we joked that love struck fools were betas, always circling their affection.

    ¡°So, what brings the pride of the King¡¯s army out here?¡± I asked, deadpan.

    Janeen, to my slight surprise, did not laugh or even smile and instead looked confused. ¡°How long had you been out here that you do not know?¡±

    I blinked and explained, ¡°I left after my family left for the Lord¡¯s party. Since then I have been experimenting in the woods and occasionally exchanging supplies at Leo¡¯s place. Did something happen?¡±

    Janeen sighed, ¡°That explains it, crazy Loco might not have noticed. Your father was brought news at the party by the scouts,¡± I noticed that she acted like the word left a bad taste in her mouth. ¡°He has been elevated as a reward for finding the mithril mine.¡±

    ¡°Wait, does that make me nobility?¡± I tried not to gag at the idea. Ripping the title of ruler of a land away for yourself was totally different to becoming ¡®nobility.¡¯

    Janeen did not notice my disgust and shook her head, ¡°Not until your father is formally elevated by the king.¡± She paused and then looked at me confused again. ¡°How did you knew we were here?¡±

    ¡°Someone used a spell.¡± I answered numbly, still trying to reboot my brain. Thank Gorith that Osiris is not here, he would never let me live this down, I thought in wonder.

    ¡°Ah, my apologies. I will leave you to your business then.¡± Janeen bowed and motioned for the other two to follow her. I watched them walk away and wondered if anything would happen to her, but it was not my business, as long she did not die because of my inactivity, I was fine.

    Anyway, did you have time to understand what we were talking about earlier?

    In a manner of speaking, but your logic is so heartless¡­ are you sure you are human?

    Humans are always the worst people.

    That is¡­ argh! Do you really not feel anything when someone you care for is hurt? As long as they survive? As long as you can avoid the Guilt

    Of course I do, I would feel angry if someone attacked me for no reason.

    Our conversation continued as I returned to Leo¡¯s lab for the evening. The next day I spent traveling back to the family farm to make a request from Nathan.

    --------------------------------------------------

    Not using a horse or my internal energy and stopping on occasion to check in on <del>test sub</del> patients, it was late evening when I got back ¡®home.¡¯

    I found Nathan talking to an older woman near the barn when I arrived, with a good smell signifying that food would be ready soon.

    ¡°Bella!¡± Nathan called out in surprise when he saw me. ¡°We were not expecting you, this is Ealba.¡±

    I looked over at the old woman and remembered the quiet curses that Florence had muttered because of that name. ¡°I heard about you from Florence,¡± I bowed politely, ¡°it is nice to put a name to the face.¡±

    The old woman clicked her tongue. ¡°She is not as bad as I was worried about. She even has good posture.¡±

    I felt my face twitch and I turned to Nathan, ¡°I would like a moment alone,¡± I intoned politely. It would not do me any good to disrespect him in front of others, but I wanted to know what was going on.

    Old Ealba clicked her tongue again, ¡°There do seem to be some rough spots though, we can work with that though.¡±

    ¡°Please.¡± I tried to burn a hole in Nathan¡¯s head without using anything other than my eyes.

    Nathan sighed and told Ealba that we would see her inside. Which was just as well, because if my staring had gone on any longer I might have started using my mana too.

    After she left I kept a polite tone as best as I could. ¡°Is there a particular reason that Florence¡¯s manners teacher is here?¡±

    Nathan walked over to a splitting stump and sat down before answering while watching the sunset east. ¡°Apparently you said something to your mother that made her think Ealba could help you.¡±

    ¡°Help me?¡± I tried to process that, but I would have to ask mother later. ¡°Actually, it does not matter. I have a request.¡±

    Nathan looked over at me in surprise, I never asked him for anything, except more food at the table. ¡°What do you want Bella?¡± He tried to keep his voice neutral, but I could hear suspicious undertones in his question.

    ¡°I want information,¡± I explained, ¡°About the various religious orders and how I can become a Healer in time.¡±

    Nathan looked at me and gave me a small smile ¡°Of course, Bella, but you know that your mother would prefer you joining one of the water goddesses¡¯ orders. Although¡­¡± he paused and let his eyes take on a distant look. ¡°When you were born, the mid-wife said that her blessed water seemed to roll off you quickly, meaning that you might be blessed by a god already.¡±

    ¡®Blessed¡¯ I thought bitterly, I still thought of the Guilt as a curse, no matter what Leo said. ¡°I would prefer information on orders that have unique magic, or orders that forbid relationships.¡±

    Nathan froze at that and I could see his brain processing what I could mean by that. ¡°I would not make you marry someone Bella, even if your power earns you lots of courtiers I would not-¡±

    ¡°It has nothing to do with you.¡± I cut him off coldly. ¡°It has to do with what I told mother before. Besides,¡± I let my voice warm slightly, ¡°I just asked you for the information so that I can make a decision later.¡±

    I heard that you should feel bad about lying.

    I do not know about that, but I do not know why you would be. We will walk our own path, no matter what, but this will make it easier for us to leave later.

    Nathan shifted, clearly uncomfortable, but accepting my words. ¡°Alright, I will ask around, but I am serious Bella, you know that I would never do anything like forcing you into a union right?

    ¡°Power changes everyone.¡± I said quietly, trying not to let my emotions bleed into my voice too much. ¡°Even the prospect of power always makes people different Nathan. You will be different, as the lord, eventually.¡±

    Nathan looked surprised again. ¡°Who told you that?¡±

    ¡°I am right and that is all that matters.¡±

    Nathan shifted again, ¡°The words of a child,¡± he said softly, clearly trying to convince himself while he turned to stare into the distance.

    I felt anger boiling up from the depths of my memories and I said nothing. I wanted to lecture him on what power did to people, about how he would change. I wanted to tell him that he was a fool for seeking for more power. I wanted to explain that power, if you truly deserved it would find its way to you in other ways, but I just grit my teeth and kept quiet.

    As we stayed there in silence and watched the sunset, a memory stalked forward from the darkest recesses of my mind, my anger causing a slip in control. A slip that, despite being a mere momentary lapse, allowing the monster to crawl back out and scar my soul yet again.

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    ---------------------------------------------------

    I was in my new house. It was the remnants of a once great palace that had been built long before my time, its outward appearance of pure size was impressive, but as you got closer it became even more magnificent.

    Intricate stone artwork barely visible through the ravages of time still managed, even in a shadow of its former glory the works had left me impressed. I was not a man of the arts, but I knew how to appreciate the level of effort that would have went into such detail. Where parts of the stone had been sheltered from the sands and winds of time, I could barely see the outlines of details on figures that were smaller than any of my fingers.

    The insides, once they were cleaned, proved even more well-preserved.

    Right that instant however, I could not see the intricate artwork, nor the piles of beautiful silks that I had added, and not even my piles of gold and silver could distract me. I had a woman, sleeping peacefully, in my bed. It was hardly a rare sight, my men had jokingly begun calling me a bandit king because of my successes and declared that my slave routine had long since been my harem.

    They were right too. I was no king of course, some merchant had started that rumor after we extorted them, but I did have my own harem. I had over 20 female slaves who had agreed to sleep with me at my whim and if they were not beautiful they were not my slaves. They received my protection and a reduced term of servitude and I received their companionship for as long as they remained slaves.

    None of them were allowed to stay the night of course, but this one had him confused. Any man or woman who had gotten drunk with people of the opposite sex knew the power of alcohol and how it made others appear more attractive. The problem was that I was looking at this woman and she was continuously becoming more attractive, despite my being completely sober.

    It was also the third night in a row that she had slept in my bed! She was a mage, a mage whose mother had been my first slave! She was also younger than any other woman I had taken to my bed, so why was I acting like some young, beta struck fool? Ovals below I even took her 4 times last night and I still had not had enough!

    Tearing my eyes away from her sleeping form I tried to ignore the fact that the pain actually felt physical and stormed out of the room¡­ Well, stormed out in a way that made no noise, least I wake her¡­

    Stone me, I was doing it again!

    Walking out to an open aired courtyard, I found the fountain that we managed to clear. Its water was from the snowmelt one of nearby mountains, God¡¯s Spear. No one knew which god needed a mountain for a spear, but I appreciated the cool water and I splashed it on my face, trying to clear my head.

    The child I had sent back to her family had been abused and run back to the mountains she thought held her real father. I was not her father, but apparently the fool noble who was had remarried and decided that she was a hindrance when she refused to choose a ¡®suitable¡¯ husband. She escaped to one of my camps and eventually to me, so long ago¡­

    I had eventually allowed her to stay and treat me as her real father for a short time, but our relationship was never truly like that. Slowly, gradually, she became my closest confidant and then, not long ago, she kissed me. It only took her 2 stoning days after that to break me down enough that I took her to my bed and now, I felt like she already had/ me broken in.

    I knew it had been a bad idea at the time, sex between mages was always different and there was a persistent lie that no one could rape a mage because of the physical contact that would let any mage pour their man into the other. In our case, we seemed to spark and I found myself unable to stay away long¡­ to the point of barely leaving my new home.

    I sighed in confused exhaustion, last night she had called me her husband and I liked it. I had an annoying feeling of being fenced in like some wild boar ¨C fed each day with more fences going up whenever I was not looking. That was not who I was¡­ yet it seemed to be who I was turning into.

    ¡°Father (DeMorte!)¡± I turned around and saw my firstborn, Alrasus, looking at me in a confused and disbelieving fashion that I imagined resembled my own face the night she kissed me. ¡°Father, I heard rumors that sister is staying here.¡±

    I nodded, with anyone else I would ask who he was talking about, as I had an ever increasing number of children running around, but he was special. His mother had been my first slave and had died giving birth to his sibling. I had thought about sending him back with the girl, but he had been my blood and she had not. ¡°I asked her to leave a few nights ago, but she keeps managing to stay.¡± I replied. I had meant it to sound bitter, but instead, it sounded neutral, as if I was discussing the weather.

    He visibly relaxed and I knew he had misinterpreted it, not that I could blame him, it was my fault. For a brief moment part of me even wondered if I could not keep it all hidden away, these bi-cursed feeling that told me to possess the woman in question. To keep her hidden from everyone and all to myself, but I did not need the hesitating words that came from his mouth next to know how impossible that was.

    ¡°Father¡­ you should really go down into the rest of the city. They are whispering that you have been having orgies in here for the past few days.¡± He smiled, apprehensively before continuing ¡°They even suggested that you have been sharing some of your slaves with her.¡±

    I knew what that meant, he was saying that people knew what I had done, that he knew, but did not want to believe, what happened. I studied him for a moment, seeing a face similar to the one I saw in my first mirror so long ago. ¡°You worry about her too much Alrasus. You should be worried about rumors about that instead.¡±

    His smile faltered for a moment. ¡°If I want to be your equal father, I will have to learn to deal with such nonsense. Especially if I want to succeed you.¡±

    I smiled, ¡°Succeed? You do not actually believe all that ¡®king¡¯ nonsense they have been spouting lately do you? Whoever succeeds me as the leader of our little group will the strongest, even if that is not you.¡± I looked at him and made sure he understood that I was serious.

    Alrasus frowned and shook his head. ¡°You have over 1500 bandits under your control and we have around double that in slaves alone, not including those weird one who stay after they are freed. Between them, the fact that we now trade and patrol our trade routes and especially your taxes-¡± I grimaced at his use of the word, my cut as the chief of my bandit group had turned into a tax long before they started calling me a ¡®king.¡¯ ¡°-we are almost a kingdom on our own. Ovals below, we have a symbol and we could actually call this a royal palace!¡± He gestured to our surroundings and I found myself reluctantly agreeing with him. My symbol was actually emblazoned on his sleeve, the 3 headed, winged serpent.

    ¡°I built it up so I know, but¡­¡± I felt myself go cold as my rational side pushed aside all other emotions, it happened less often of late, but it still occurred. ¡°They will not survive. I won them over, but there is a reason bandits do not just go around forming countries. It is the same reason I keep the challenge for the right of leadership open.¡± I turned back to the fountain and splashed water on my face again before running my hands through my closely cut hair. ¡°We are too independent to follow someone based off blood and not strength.¡±

    Alrasus shook his head and turned a moment to pace, causing a slight noise that I identified as chainmail. ¡°You made a system which we can all live by. If the system can endure and we can grow more, there will be someone who gets enough loyal people to pass on the rule. That is the key father, the first only has to conquer it and get everyone ready, the second ruler is the one who solidifies rule as kingship.¡±

    I watched the water as he talked, it felt very relaxing. ¡°hah, that would assume that I have ¡®conquered¡¯ the people here Alrasus. I turned back to him and looked my son in the eye, you might be the strongest mage here, but I am in charge and I know that I cannot kill the pragmatic for the loyal.¡±

    Alrasus took a deep breath and returned my look resolutely. ¡°You are wrong father, after finding this place, there is no one who does not owe you their loyalty. My younger brothers and sisters have even been asking me if I am a prince now.¡±

    Before I could reply, I noticed Alrasus¡¯ face seem to freeze and his eyes widened as I heard a small gasp from behind me. I turned to see the woman we had been discussing earlier, frantically covering up her body.

    Her flushed face looked good too, I thought appreciatively, especially in those silks. "Wake up, DeMorte!"

    Before I had time to wonder who said that, I felt killing intent leak from behind me and heard the soft jingling of iron chainmail. My feeling of relaxation fled as I instinctively tapped the monumental reserves of internal energy that I spent every day painstakingly cultivating and ducked out of the way.

    I used the fountain to brace some of my weight as an iron sword pierced the air where I had been. I did not hesitate and flooded my body with my reserves before flinging myself at the enemy. I heard a loud crack as I tackled my opponent and we went sprawling on the floor. The crack was likely the fountain, but I paid it no head at the moment.

    His iron chainmail actually protected me better than him for the moments that we were in contact. I quickly leveraged my right arm to separate us though, getting just out of reach.

    As we separated, I thought I felt my right shoulder pop, but I was too set on my current situation. The assassin was not someone I could let live and I pulled a hidden dagger out and threw it. "DEMORTE!" There was no technique behind the throw, but I managed to concentrate my surging energy in my left arm to make the throw. The result was an improperly thrown, pure iron, missile of death, which did not even have to cross 2 meters before it found its mark.

    I saw the face of my first son as he threw a thick layer of mana armor up and forgot that my mana was too weak for me to even think about fighting with magic. The habit killed him- no, I killed him. The dagger flew fast and straight enough, that it hit him in the chest and went right through his chainmail.

    It was not a clean hit though, he would die, but not because my blade pierced his vitals. No, my blade hit him hard enough to make his chest collapse. Our crossed for a split second, but I did not know what was in them.

    I would later find out that he had been repeating that phrase a lot: ¡°the first conquers and the second rules.¡± Although, I eventually accepted that I would never know during my life, the beings that I met after that life ended gave me new suspicion about the real reason for my son¡¯s choice that day.

    I thought I felt tears running down my face as I dealt with a surge of guilt and my ¡®wife,¡¯ whose scream practically spit my head as her brother died. Then, as I stared at my boy, rapidly becoming a corpse in front of my eyes, the Guilt started to circle too.

    Stone you DeMorte! Why did make me see that? Why would you want me to become you?

    ----------------------------------------

    I jerked out of my memories and herd Nathan calling for me, however I was too preoccupied with the small annoyances that were rolling down my face. I instinctively reached up and furiously brushed my left sleeve across my face.

    ¡°Are you crying? Bella?¡± Nathan¡¯s voice practically screamed disbelief.

    ¡°No, I am not!¡± My voice sounded horrible, pathetic, stone it all!

    ¡°Oh Bella.¡± Nathan came over and gave me a hug. As a result, I had to deal with both my talent and to fight off the desire to beat him senseless. At least my eyes finally stopped leaking water as he spoke again. ¡°I will do my best to not let this change me, I promise.¡±

    I wanted to snap at him, to tell him to stop touching me, to tell him that power changed everyone, but something unexpected came from Bella instead. ¡°That is what I am afraid of. How long have you been chasing power? At what point do you have enough?¡±

    Her voice was wavering, but I got the feeling of a growing resolve from her.

    Was she talking to him or me though? I asked myself. Regardless, since she had a better hold on the situation than I did, I retreated back into my own mind to collect myself.

    It had been a while since I used the room in my head to visualize my soul¡¯s merge into my new body. Last time, the water level that represented my merging consciousness had been just above my knees while I sat at an angle on the chair of my own design. Now, everything from my waist down had already merged with the water.

    (AN: If you need a visual, think the ancients¡¯ control chair of the stargate tv series, but with rising water levels and a more gradual recline level)

    For better or worse, my entire essence would be merged into Bella¡¯s head soon enough.

    The next few years would be odd, but I would work it out eventually. I would have to as the Nalk¡¯s stoning game would actually start and blood would be shed by my blade yet again.

    *     *     *

    South of Entrials: The road to the capital

    A few days later¡­

    As he rode south, Nathan felt a cold lump sit in the pit of his stomach.

    Bella had always been an odd girl, mature in odd ways. She had killed her first chicken without blinking, but cried when she saw a dead rabbit. A few phases ago he even hear that she had seen a person¡¯s broken arm sticking out of his skin and had not blinked twice.

    Yet she still cried for me. he thought to himself, she thought I was losing myself and cried for me.

    He had imagined for the longest time that Bella hated him, or at least did not see him as her father. In fact, after learning Bella had such a strong healing talent, Nathen had sent her to the local menders because he thought that she might not actually be his daughter. In his mind it explained her distance and seemingly instinctual resistance to calling him ¡®dad,¡¯ but his wife had corrected his thought on that possibility.

    Still, Nathan had not thought about it from another point of view: What if she was trying to copy him? He had given her some attention when she was younger, but ever since those two died he had his mind on other matters.

    No, it was the mine, the mine changed everything for me. Nathan sighed and remembered Bella words, that she ¡®was scared that he would not change.¡¯ After I get back, Nathan swore to himself, I will use the profits from the mithril to turn the house into a manor and secure Bella, Carlatus, and Carol¡¯s futures. Hoplis and Xiphos are old enough to take care of themselves and Florence has Robert, but I still need to make sure that they have a good inheritance.

    Mayor Guthan will still be helping me out so it should not be too bad as lord, I should be able to still spend time with the young ones.

    While he continued to plan his future, Nathan almost did not see his first 2 guards die. They were actually his tenants from his farm, but they had agreed to protect him on his way to the capital. Of his four primary tenants, all of whom were fit from both working I their fields and in Nathan¡¯s mine over the last decade, 3 of them were here guarding him.

    The guards who died were riding just ahead of Nathan and barely had time to react to the half dozen bolts that flew out of the brush surrounding the narrow ¨C what some called a chokepoint ¨C on the road to the capital.

    A giant of a man came running at his third guard a moment later and pulled him off his horse. The guard was dead a few moments later and only Nathan was left alive.

    Nathan dismounted slowly and stared at the giant cloaked figure and frowned at the looming figure that others might have called ¡®death.¡¯ ¡°I thought you were supposed to ambush us at the next narrowing Mathalaous.¡±

    The figure drew back its cloak and revealed its face, wearing a blank look that matched his chiseled-from-stone appearance quite appropriately. ¡°I thought you might get nervous so I changed the spot.¡± He ground out his word as if bitter about something, ¡°this way you were as surprised as they were.¡±

    Nathan nodded ¡°well, thank you for completing such a distasteful task, I was starting to worry that I would have to kill these blighted creatures myself.¡±

    Mathalaous grunted as his clansmen removed the bodies and mixed the blood into the dirt. They prided themselves on leaving no traces and today was no exception. ¡°You already sound like a noble Nathan, be careful of that.¡±

    ¡°I just hate blackmailers.¡± Nathan defended honestly, ¡°They were likely hiding away some mithril from the mine, I could overlook that, but demanding part of our store was just greedy. I even offered the fools the land they were working as my tenants and they still wanted the mithril.¡± Nathan¡¯s mouth curled in disgust, ¡°They knew I am the only one of us who could legally sell it too, meaning they were going to sell it in the back alleys and endanger our families.¡±

    Mathalaous just nodded with the same stony look on his face. The four corpses would soon be cut up and scattered for the animals to claim. His family, his tribe, knew the value of keeping secrets.

    At that point 4 riders came from the woods, only one of whom Nathan knew by sight. ¡°Janeen,¡± he greeted, ¡°I never got to properly thank you for taking care of Florence when she met Robert.¡± Nathan bowed politely, ¡°nothing gets rid of the butterflies like a healthy dose of anger.¡±

    Janeen looked at him with something resembling her father¡¯s stony look. ¡°If you really want to thank me, help stop that annoying habit of hers to find and insult me every year.¡±

    Nathan smiled, entertained. ¡°Why would I do that, when everyone looks forward to your quick witted responses? Anyway, who are these men?¡± He nodded to the other 3 riders behind her.

    ¡°Your new guards,¡± she explained, ¡°you left with 3 men guarding you and you will arrive with 3.¡±

    ¡°Ah, but I have to ask, about the last one, back on the farm¡­¡± Nathan sent a meaningful look to Mathalaous, which was received and understood.

    ¡°He will slip and fall while you are away. An accident.¡±

    Nathan nodded gravely, ¡°Thank you again my friend.¡±

    A grunt greeted him in reply. ¡°It is just common sense, they touched our income and endangered our deal. You just make sure to get sell it at a good price from that thrice cursed smiths¡¯ guild.¡±

    Nathan flashed a brief smile and was off without saying a word in reply. His 3 new guards forming up around him easily enough, but staying quiet, so that Nathan could be alone with his thoughts.

 Chapter 19: Distant Rumbling

    Some notes/reminders:

    -One day = 24 hours with hours being the same unit of measurement and 360.33 days a year¡­ leap days are between years and is called the ¡®day of the gods¡¯

    -I am not done developing the magic system yet (yes, I know how long it is taking) and the first third of this chapter will be dedicated to more lore

    -If you notice any discontinuity please message me immediately, I have this week off to tinker (IE: mana channels or mana pathways)

    -Chapters will start varying in length soon and I hope to increase the average from the 5k words or so it is now to 7500 or so, but it will depend on my schedule.

    Remember I will be doing a poll for an extra chapter or side story at 250 followers so please follow if you have not done so ¨C Thank you!

    One last note for you before we get to the story itself: I actually started the whole ¡®each chapter starts with a curse¡¯ in chapter 3 as a joke, but I think it actually does say something about DeMorte¡¯s character, meaning it will still until¡­ Chapter 40/41

    Late Wood Phase Cycle 3083 A.F.

    Chapter 19: Distant Rumbling

    Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

    We lay naked on a nice sized bolder, while trying to concentrate through the ever building energy pulsing through our body. The cool, but not cold, air making a noticeable contrast to the warm of the sunlight that shown into the small clearing. It had also heated up the bolder we were laying on to make our nakedness less distracting.

    Bella had almost given up trying to help me in this matter, but the buzzing energy felt incredible and she instinctively tried to keep it going. It was pressing us both as we metaphorically pushed against our outer limits, edging closer and closer to our first breakthrough.

    Personally, I had not expected this to be so much different as a woman so I was having a hard time concentrating. As a man in my previous life, approaching and achieving breakthrough had felt like a very comfortable ball of warmth and energy radiating out though my body from a single point. It would grow more powerful as you came closer to the breakthrough point though, until it felt like you were holding a firestorm, sealed inside a ball. A storm whose winds were pleasure and whose fire seemed to be power that burned its way inside your very soul.

    As a woman it seemed to be spread out into every fiber and nerve of my body. Instead of a storm that I held, it now felt like I was in the middle of a vortex of power while every part of my being was infused with a buzzing and very enjoyable energy. It was like the energy was flooding my entire existence in an all-encompassing desire for more: more energy, more mana, and more life.

    Although, I had to admit that I did not truly know if this was a gender difference or another difference of this world compared to my previous. All I knew was that the wondrous feeling of approaching breakthrough was as addictive and terrifying as ever. This was especially true as the actual breakthrough would be on another oval all together.

    There were hundreds of stories of mages that tried to keep a hold on the pleasures of mana expansion and found themselves hopelessly addicted. The sensations felt too good already and I had no interest of spending the rest of my existence addicted to the act of cultivating more mana, so I was egger to achieve breakthrough already.

    In fact, I had spent the last 2 days away from everyone to try and do just that, but today, as I felt myself closing to within half a day of breakthrough, I heard an ever so familiar voice calling out.

    ¡°Bella!¡± Carlatus! The voice was distant enough to be of some comfort, but close enough to be heard, even though the forest.

    We both abandoned, as much as we lost control over, our cultivation and dove towards our clothes. There was a very real danger of various types of fluid discharge, even orgasm, during breakthrough, so clothes were not recommended.

    Fortunately enough, Carlatus could not see us and was still wandering around shouting our name, by the time we were fully dressed. He had managed to wonder in the right direction, but was still fairly far away from the clearing. I grabbed a nearby ball of grey-white bone material that I had separated before we had started cultivating.

    Bella and I separated our active minds so that I could rework our bone armor while she started walking towards Carlatus¡¯ voice. We had recently discovered that we could separate or recombine our consciousnesses at will. This meant that, while separate, I could cultivate and let Bella walk around like normal (like I had previously,) or we could work together to make the process much easier than normal.

    That discover in particular had been made during the last water phase, when Bella finally became able to manipulate mana enough that I could teach her how to cultivate. It was also the fact factor I needed to justify my leaving the Entrial area. Using cultivated energy for mana expansion had made it harder to guess when Bella¡¯s ability would fully develop, but she had still learned to manipulate before our body¡¯s 13th year had passed so I was satisfied.

    When someone used energy cultivation for mana expansion it was typically a straightforward process, but that was assuming that they had already grown into their mana. Trying to teach someone who had not done so was forbidden in my previous life. Not that it stopped nobles with magically weak children from trying to push for it.

    The simple explanation was that the one being taught could fall too deeply into meditation while their powers were still developing and accidentally fuse with the energy around them instead of absorbing it ¨C killing them. A more complex explanation would involve the immature mana paths interacting with a young person¡¯s undisciplined mind, but the danger only decrease as one grew older, it did not disappear.

    Out of a few thousand youths, maybe 5 or so would have the natural ability that would allow them to cultivate before they fully came into their mana. Of course, the only way I knew that was because there was enough of a reward for people to still try it. If someone expanded their mana pool while their mana channels were still developing they could achieve multiple circle expansions before they even had to work through a breakthrough point. The less power you naturally had, the more could be gained before your mana channels finished adapting, letting a single circle mage jump up perhaps a fourth or fifth circle before his additional breakthroughs.

    When if someone was naturally more mature or somehow already knew how to cultivate (like me) could ignore a large majority the risk involved. Bella had been a natural 10 circle mage, but I had expanded that ability almost 2 circles, meaning that she was now an 11 circle mage almost ready for her first breakthrough to 12.

    Although it made her even more powerful than I was used to, which meant that both Bella and I had to learn and practice with larger spells. It was especially annoying as magical fights rarely lasted long. In that sense, the Nalks had put me at a major disadvantage, I was familiar with using mana sparingly, when the most optimal solution was to sometimes just push forward with pure magical strength.

    In my previous life, I had only used spells as distractions or spells like ¡®snip¡¯ to sneak through wards not designed to catch them. Death spells, while available and easy enough to use would use more mana than I ever felt comfortable with in the past. That was one of the reasons I ended up killing the stoning fool Regus with multiple ¡®snip¡¯ spells instead of one clean death spell.

    As I finished recreating my bone armor and retrieving a pair of hidden iron daggers, we marched out to meet Carlatus. I tried to use the time to concentrate on why he would be out here. I had told Loco and Luna where I was going, but I also asked them not to bother me with anything less than an imminent death, meaning they either did not take me seriously or¡­

    I found myself caught on which option to hope for. Interrupting someone approaching breakthrough was like dumping cold water on a couple about to finish. Not only rude, but typically resulting in a fury that extended from the frustration of being interrupted.

    ¡°Carlatus!¡± I stormed through the forest and Bella deliberately let him hear our full weight as we approached. Over the last few years our bones, muscles, and tendons had grown much denser. We still looked normal, or even lithe, in our mender¡¯s uniform, but underneath we were noticeably more muscular and heavily set than other girls Bella¡¯s age.

    In fact, one of the few people with a similar body build was with Carlatus. ¡°Janeen.¡± I greeted her as she and my brother came into view, not quite capable of keeping the edge out of my voice. I actually liked Janeed a fair bit, she was practically built, with nicely developed hips, and a quick wit that left me missing both my manhood and the fact that our families did not get along well.

    That said, we were still frustrated at being interrupted and before either of them could speak we snapped. ¡°What in bloody damnation are you 2 doing here? Did someone die?¡± Calling them stoning fools would just confuse them, so I also slid in one of my newer oaths.

    Carlatus looked stunned at his dear sister¡¯s language, but Janeen just smirked. ¡°Fortunately no, but I would have thought that you were done by now as the sounds I hear earlier suggested that we should wait ¨C which we did.¡± She raised an eyebrow ¡°Unless you want me to keep Carlatus company while you finish up?¡±

    It took me only a moment to figure out what she meant, but Bella had to look into my head to understand. I sighed and took a deep breath to calm down while Bella mentally blushed and tried to dig through more of my memories. Lately we had set up mental walls for a sense of privacy, but I had rarely enforced my side of it.

    As far as Janeen¡¯s comment went, I had only set up a few wards and Janeen knew this are better than the army scouts and surveyors in the area as her clan hunted various animals in the area for their fur. If she wanted to stalk me for a few days, wards or no wards, it would not be likely that I would know unless she wanted me to. ¡°Breakthrough can take days, there is no point in delaying a few moments.¡± I explained simply.

    Janeen¡¯s expression turned thoughtful as she digested that bit of news. Breakthroughs were not generally talked about, but some did know what they were. Janeen seemed to have an idea, but Carlatus, seeing that I had calmed down, quickly reasserted his presence. ¡°What is a breakthrough?¡±

    I resisted the temptation to sigh again and walked towards him, not bothering with the theatrical stomping this time. ¡°A breakthrough is what mages call adding a new circle to their mana capacity. It is supposed to feel like breaking through a wall when you finally expand your abilities.¡±

    Carlatus, seeing that he was apparently forgiven, charged me and tackled my stomach in a big hug, I did not even need to exhale, but I did so anyway and messed with his hair. ¡°That does hurt you know, you little galfop¡± I joked.

    Janeen smiled sincerely at my nickname for Carlatus, ¡°Appropriately named, Bella, small, friendly, and annoyingly energetic does describe him fairly well.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± Carlatus objected.

    I rolled my eyes and brought the situation back on topic. ¡°So why are you here anyway? If no one died ¨C and I am currently assuming that no one is about to die ¨C why did you come up to talk?¡± I gestured around ¡°It is not as if I am close to the villages.¡±

    Indeed, right now I was to the west Entrials and its surroundings, far enough away from others to ensure my own privacy and just close enough to be able to rush back home if someone fell ill enough to warrant my attention.

    Janeen¡¯s expression seemed to vanish beneath a stone like fa?ade. ¡°The tester this time is from the royal magicians¡¯ corps and she heard about you and insisted on my going out to find you.¡±

    ¡°I told her about how talented you are!¡± Carlatus¡­

    I looked from Janeen to Carlatus and back, silently asking the question. ¡°He wanted to tag along.¡± Janeen stated flatly.

    We rolled my eyes and Carlatus¡¯ hair found itself messed with again ¡°Silly galfop.¡±

    Carlatus objected again, but I ignored him and deliberately sent my mana though him. Another bonus of finally developing Bella¡¯s mana pathways was that her ¡®talent¡¯ had finally stopped going to work on its own and I could now control it. Carlatus was healthy and I could tell that he had been following the eating advice I gave him. I also noticed a distinct decrease in his lice count, which told me he had been bathing more often too.

    The more balanced diet would actually make him a few extra inches taller than others, but for now the benefits merely included him more energy and healthier constitution. Bella and I followed a somewhat similar diet, but we gained a large amount of our daily vitamins and minerals with the ¡®mana roots¡¯ spell. Bella was already much taller than most girls her age were expected to be, but that was offset by the fact that I was deliberately manipulating her growth.

    Neither of us wanted to go through a ¡®gangly¡¯ phase, but girls tended to grow more quickly than guys did. Even though I wanted to the slow rate that Bella was growing, I ended up speeding it up more than anything. The average height of people in this world seemed to be between 170 and 175 cm, with women being slightly shorter, but Bella and I were already towering over others at 165 and were likely to grow even taller into the future.

    Smiling, I told Carlatus that he had done a good job staying healthy like I told him to and then turned my attention back to Janeen again. ¡°What do I need to know?

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In the past few years, the villages around Entrials had gained two very odd names. There was Ring to the northwest and G¨¦fyra to the northeast. Neither of these villages had felt the need to officially name their small communities before the mithril mine and subsequent army unit setting up camp in a newly cleared area between them.

    Since the initial scouts and surveyors had been shown around by Janeen, just over 100 people had moved in and made a fort of the area. It was a small presence from a military standpoint and it only held two mages in normal conditions. In total, I had quickly decided that I could kill the whole ¡®fort¡¯ by myself in either life.

    That said, the military presence had brought important benefits to the surrounding area, starting with in increased local population. Both the villages experienced small population booms as the already large population of children gained a few more infants and many more ¡®business¡¯ minded people.

    I heard some of the village elders complain about it, but they tended to attribute the newborns to the increased number of ¡®business women.¡¯ Luna and I had quietly joked that those particular individuals seemed to be the only ones who did not get pregnant. Not that the ¡®boom¡¯ was more than a few dozen people per village anyway, but it did chaff some of the traditionalist.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Personally, I knew that Loco¡¯s business had been definitely gotten more business as I had already been called on multiple time to help make more potions on a moment¡¯s notice. As the best local mender ¨C curtesy of my healing talent ¨C I was also called into the fort fairly often to take care of injuries. They had their own mender, but he did not have magic, so I ended up lecturing him based on what I had ¡®discovered with my talent¡¯ as far as good health habits went.

    All in all, being summoned to the fort by a member of the royal magician corps was not intimidating to me, but did give me a grim sense of what this tester thought of me.

    As Janeen had explained to me on the way back, the woman had been put in charge of this area¡¯s testing for mages had been doing her duty fairly normally, despite her ridiculous over qualifications for such a basic task. After meeting with Nathan she had firmly requested that I be brought to her for testing and then worked her way through the town¡¯s population, looking for mages while she waited on me. When Nathan found out that I had secluded myself he was hesitant to interrupt me and apparently told the tester the reason why.

    From what I could tell, Janeen was busy arguing with Florence at the time and, apparently tired from her argument with Florence, made the mistake of asserting that I would not be found quickly without a professional scout. She was thus drafted into recovering me and brining me to the fort.

    With that in mind, I made sure to send Carlatus home before going to the fort with Janeen.

    There were several different ways that a hostile tester could make my life annoying. One of the less annoying possibilities involved the fact that the tester was in charge of declaring which mages needed mandatory education to help control their powers. Of course if someone in the royal magicians¡¯ corps made that statement, it would be almost beyond contestation.

    The fort itself was small and basic inside. A barracks, supply building, mess hall, training area, and administration building divided it up unevenly and left me wondering why they bothered with such a small garrison. Barely 100 fighting men would not even stop a small cavalry detachment and everyone knew how worthless cavalry were in a fight!

    They also had a major deficiency when it came to their water supply. Officially they could draw water from the near-by river, but the fear runes meant that anyone who tried found themselves regretting it. I even had to treat one of the few men who actually drank some as he was acting poisoned. Fortunately for them, the truth about boiling water was unknown, making mead, ale, and (really bad) wine basic provisions.

    That may have also been the one health tip that I was keeping away from the camp mender at the moment, as I understood how some people might get aggravated at that particular discovery.

    Janeen identified the tester for me as ¡®Lady Rapier.¡¯ She was easy enough to find once we entered, ignoring the symbol of a staff on a royal purple background that adorned her sleave, she was the only woman in the fort beside Janeen and myself. She was also had a notably muscular build even through her clothing, I could tell that her arms and upper body had been developed through swordsmanship.  She was also giving instruction to both someone she was sparring with and the soldiers ¨C who had gathered around the training area to watch.

    As Rapier was in the middle of her instructive duel I decided to be patient and observe her for a little while. Or at least, that was my original intention, but there was a very familiar and very annoying individual that distracted me. ¡°Dras,¡± I muttered. Despite his lack of direct advances in recent years, John had still sent Dras to brag about his accomplishments and skills. I was sure that Dras was just using it as an excuse to keep an eye on me too.

    Janeen spoke quietly beside me. ¡°Just what did you do to make him watch you so closely?¡±

    No one with any sense accused Janeen of being a fool. ¡°I showed off a little and he is still trying to decide if I am a genius or a demon in disguise.¡± If you ever wanted to trip up someone clever, convincing them you too are clever and then telling the truth is always fun.

    Janeen immediately glanced over at me and I can tell her mind was racing to try and figure out exactly what I meant. After a moment her eyes widened. ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Maybe.¡± I replied and stepped forward as the tester noticed us and finished her lecture quickly.

    She made her way through the crowd of men as if unafraid of being touched, which was odd to me, but she knew who the mages in this area were, so maybe she just felt that secure. She certainly did not have any wards up that would make it uncomfortable for people to get near her.

    Rapier also held her magic in so well I wanted to applaud, for bandits with magic is was absolutely necessary to hide their magical presence, but most nobles and their guard preferred to leak their power in order to show off. That either meant she was expected to be able to hide in the field or the royal magicians¡¯ corps included spy training¡­ Or both.

    ¡°This is Bella?¡± The sharpness of her voice did not surprise me, it actually fit my mental expectations perfectly, but the fact that she ignored me to address Janeen was slightly offensive.

    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± I stated flatly, ¡°If you are Rapier, maybe you can address why you called me back when I was going to return soon enough?¡±

    The women in question gave me a look of obvious distain and tone of her voice only reinforced it. ¡°Who gave you leave to speak?¡±

    ¡°Who told you I needed permission?¡± I replied calmly. Something was wrong here. Maybe it was the Nalks, maybe Nathan said something to someone at the capital when he was elevated and got involved in the politics, or maybe¡­ maybe it was an act.

    The woman seemed to swell, as if she was about explode, before I continued. ¡°You can feel free to stop acting any time you want by the way.¡±

    Rapier froze, before letting out a whisper sharp enough to cut iron ¡°What did you say?¡±

    ¡°If this is your natural personality, than you are a piss stain on the honor of the royal house.¡± Everyone seemed to stop breathing when I said that. ¡°The royal magicians¡¯ corps, which I have heard you are a part of, would represent our kingdom both on the field of battle and off. The idea that one of its members could have so little self-control as to be this arrogant and angry at someone who had yet to see 13 cycles is insane.¡± I deliberately used that particular word knowing its impact.

    Soul Mages were insane and every other insane person suffered from the association. Asking if someone had gone insane was literally one of the worst insults possible.

    I continued, ¡°If you somehow managed to stay in such a group with a personality like that

    Here I embellished <del>a little</del> and added some purely nonsensical lies to build her back up. ¡°I have faith in our sovereign and his forces. I have faith in you Lady Rapier and I refuse to believe that you are really such a horrible person to have so much distain for someone you have never met before.¡±

    I paused here and, after pretending to remember the crowd of people staring at us, bowed my head in false embarrassment while making myself blush a little. It was easy enough after years of practicing control of my body. ¡°Plus everyone looked really surprised when you started talking to me like that, so I thought it might be part of the test.¡± I spoke that last part increasingly quietly and reflected that my acting skills had expanded quite nicely.

    ¡­Though I did almost take it too far as I wanted to add it ¡®and you did not try to interrupt me when I started my little monolog,¡¯ but the key to making people like you was a weakness. No one questioned a man who had no vices except a small weakness for dice, but a seemingly perfect man always made others look twice. I tried to apply the same concept here.

    A logical young woman who could manipulate the crowd and situation was creepy, at least to me, but a na?ve little girl who did not believe that she could be wrapped up in politics? Someone who was just observant enough to recognize when something was wrong? She might be interesting or odd, but not suspicious¡­ or at least that I was the look I was going for.

    Rapier sighted and relaxed herself before speaking slowly. ¡°7 out of 10 for your logic, but I really was angry at your lie about achieving breakthrough already. That takes nearly 2 years after you come into your mana, not including the time it takes to learn to meditate.¡±

    Do they call it meditation instead of cultivation here? I silently wondered if I needed to thank ¡®nalk armor¡¯ for making sure I had been correct, but as Rapier could be faking her current forgiveness I decided to test her a little. ¡°Your ability to comprehend something does not change what it is.¡±

    She grunted. If she was faking, she was now too in control to let me know it. ¡°It is about time to start your testing, if you are ready?¡±

    I nodded and followed her back into the clearing where she had been sparring with Dras. I had checked and the ¡®testing¡¯ procedure and made sure that Bella would be able to handle it so that we would still look like a novice mage. A novice who had received some help, but a novice none the less.

    ¡°For starters, we will be testing how many circles of mana you have, try filling the circles I draw with as much mana as possible.¡± Rapier cast an impressive earth movement spell and created a dozen perfect circles radiating out from the center of the training ground.

    I stepped back to allow Bella total control and let the test begin.

    *     *     *

    The forgotten continent: Just outside a certain harbor

    The water was silence for the longest time. There were noises, but no drums. It was peaceful to Jagged.

    Then, as his men pulled themselves along the bottom and approached their target, he heard it. Thunder, loud enough to be heard by his men, even underwater. The drums of the gods were beating!

    It was a great blessing for moral, as every one of his troop, besides himself, would love the idea of thunder to bless their drumless mission. For himself, Jagged Claw would suffer the drums as he always had, but they might hold the blessing of rain, which would truly make the difference.

    After years of spoiling raids and planning, it had been his Claws that would tear open the enemy¡¯s throat at this harbor. With the water breathing spell to ware off soon, Jagged was all the more eager to arrive at the shore already.

    Their pure iron covering was taxing to pull through the water, but it was the only way to guarantee surprise and allow them to enter the heavily defended port unnoticed. To attempt any other method would multiply the potential loss of life far too much to allow him to fail.

    He had set out with 250 Claw warriors and could only pray to the gods that they had not gone in the wrong direction. The spells protecting them from the pressure of the depths would start wear off just before the breathing spell did, meaning they had low expectations for survivor¡¯s who did not make it to the port. If they felt the pressure start to get to them, the Claws were to shed their iron and make for the surface before they drowned, but many of them would prefer drowning to putting the other Claws in danger.

    The idea was to sneak into the harbor, using their iron coverings to negate any magical wards, and steal both the ships and the workers who had built them. They were being held as slaves (of all things!) inside the harbor to manage the building, and eventually the piloting of the ships to break the stalemate of recent years.

    What the Soul Mages did not know was that his people had been ground down by the decades of war against an enemy that used their dead comrades against them. In fact, if it were not for the fractious nature of the Soul Mages themselves, all the clans would have long since perished. This continent belonged to the dead and only escape would leave them with their lives. Until then, they had to survive as best they could.

    Jagged finally saw what he thought was the entrance to the harbor. Its name was once well known, but Jagged had long since learned that only two locations mattered, the land of the undead and the land of the living. Names meant nothing when death was everywhere.

    Jagged forced himself against the drag of the water to take the lead of the men around him. He pushed through, relying in part on the strength runes branded into his flesh so keep him going.

    It seemed to take so long to find the first few anchors of the already completed ships that Jagged wondered if even his mighty strength would soon fail him. Still, the Steel Claws had nothing left if not their strength of body, so he pushed on.

    Eventually, as he swore he could feel his protection spell fade, he finally found the spot. It had been marked by some brave man or women with iron spikes for his Claws to find purchase on. Turning to make sure that the others had followed him, Jagged saw a half-dozen of his men trailing close-by with dozens of shadows hinting at the rest of his men.

    It was too dark for even his potion enhanced vision to try to see them all, but he would have to have faith that they were all within sight of each other.

    Turning back, Jagged slowly climbed the iron spikes up to the edge of the pier that it no doubt led to. His enchantments had been the first to be made, so his would be the first to wear off, making him very aware of how much time he had to get the rest of his men up here safely.

    Barely able to see the surface, Jagged was not surprised to find himself in the middle of a driving rain storm. It would help hide him for now, but he found himself wondering if he had not been to fanciful in his planning.

    As he fought to the full weight of his iron, Jagged made sure no one was waiting for him before slowly pulling himself up. He was dead tired, but the dead knew no rest in this land and neither did he.

    Looking around in the rain, Jagged decided to chance the fact that the rain would make wards nearly impossible to rely on and took a pair of potions out and mixed them. He then quickly dropped the bottle into the raging sea behind him, the blackness swallowing the small red glow it had started to give off.

    His men would know to come up without their armor now and Jagged shed his own armor as best he could before moving on. They had an important mission and tiredness was no excuse to push it off any longer.

 Chapter 20: Gathering Energies

    Why is it that when you go to edit 1 small mistake you end up finding 2? Then, if I come back to it later, I find 2 more! I am almost willing to call this an edit war =.=

    wolfmen = wolfpeople from this chapter on

    Also: I have not got around to elaborating on it yet, but the Elvish trauma will be coming out in full force soon enough, so please be aware that the people of this world were defined by the Enslavement period.

    Chapter 20: Gathering Energies

    Damnation, tricked! We groaned together as Bella and I bounced idea off each other for recovering the situation.

    We were taking the test like normal until Rapier decided to test us in a different way.

    Rapier, knowing that we had magic was I the process of formally testing if we had a specialty. Simply put, a specialty means that your mana pathways allow for the manipulation of one type of spell more easily than another. Leo had already informed me of that particular change, but Rapier confirmed that non bodily-manipulation based spells would be harder for us to use. Which would basically ensure that Bella would not be ¡®encouraged¡¯ by the royal magician to become a combat mage.

    We might greatly benefit from the complex training involved in raising a combat mage, but it would take years and most important lessons would be redundant for someone with memories from decades of war.

    Up until that point, everything had been going great, but then Rapier had Bella try and copy some of her most basic stun spells. One of the variants had been identical to the one I used on the wolfpeople so Bella began on that spell and was getting how to cast it too quickly.

    I was trying to stay away from the test to keep Bella from cheating too much and drawing more attention than necessary when Rapier hit us with a wave of killing intent.

    Unlike bloodlust, killing intent was just a show of force and will, not a maniacal desire for blood. Any mage could give off killing intent with a pulse of mana, even in public, as all it signified was one¡¯s preparation to kill. It was also one of, if not the, most common of methods that mages used to disperse non-mages.

    Between mages it could be accidental, if someone was angry enough, challenging, or even a weapon to interrupt someone¡¯s mental focus. Rapier used it for the latter, but also drew my interference because of this tradition where someone dies whenever they use it around me.

    I doubt that we could have stopped Rapier if she had actually decided to try and kill us here, but I still stepped in. In doing so, I did not let Bella freeze in place or react naturally to Rapier like I should have, but instead I hit her with twice as much killing intent as she had used.

    Also, as killing intent was based off of willpower more than mana, I hit her much more precisely than she had done. Where several people around her were staring at her in fear and confusion, I only hit her and it showed¡­ The fact that I followed that arrow of killing intent with a half dozen ¡®snip¡¯ spells within a fraction of a second had also not endeared myself to our tester. Despite the fact that she effortlessly blocked my attacks with

    Needless to say, the test ended almost on the spot. We only waited long enough to officially show her that we could use the stun spell. After that, Rapier declared that we were in control of our magic enough to not mandate schooling and she disappeared into the administration building.

    I was currently staying in a hastily set up shack that was disgusting enough that I ended up using my newly created disinfection spell twice to keep it at my standards of livable. The shack was one of a handful for ¡®more private individuals¡¯ instead of the ¡®conveniently located¡¯ inn just outside the military¡¯s location.

    The conveniently located part was doing a steady business simply because it was within walking distance of the base and no one bothered making sure the troops were bedded down the whole night ¨C as long as they were back by morning.

    The shacks were for officers, visitors, homosexuals, or anyone with else who was not interested in sleeping in a place where you were watched and charged based on who you took to your bed.

    Although I had two things that were keeping my mind occupied. First: what Rapier would think of my little counter attack? She had not accused me of attacking a royal emissary, which would have been treason, but I was still concerned. The best idea I had so far was to write a formal, if very generally worded, letter of apology to try and dodge another face to face meeting.

    The second thing was the shack itself, although it did involve the tester. For the last few cycles, I had been able to ward my room without worrying about people discovering how gifted I was with magic. This prevented people like Luna from waking me up in the morning without my foreknowledge as well as let me sleep much easier, knowing that no one was likely to kill me in the middle of the night¡­ paranoia is a virtue of the hunted and I only had so long before god backed hunters came for me, so I made sure to start redeveloping my safety precautions.

    Unfortunately, I could not be sure that the tester was not going to come back and check on me while I slept so I had to keep to an extremely simplistic set of wards that would just make noises if activated. They were enough for a novice, but I wanted my usual spider¡¯s web of stun and death spells for anyone who tried to force them.

    Deciding to take a walk and check in on the wolfpeople¡¯s conditions I slipped out of the shack and took a walk into the woods. It was a sign of cultural differences that the soldiers in the military base hated the woods. The villagers had grown used to it, but most the soldiers, used to cities, seemed scared that elves were going to jump out and attack them if they went into the woods.

    Even the shacks, set aside for privacy, were still a good 50 meters away from the trees at the closest point. They had been closer, but keeping over 100 bodies warm was a challenge and the closest trees had been gleefully removed for firewood.

    I asked them how they kept warm in the city, but apparently there were ¡®tree farms¡¯ well outside the city that were systematically harvested for their wood. There were also magical warming devices, but they were apparently too expensive for many to own.

    As I moved deeper into the woods my traveling cloak tried to catch on the increasing number of bushes, but I had already woven a series of runes into it to try and ignore such annoyances. I took the time to let my unnaturally sharp eyesight help me pick out a path in the darkness.

    After years of experimenting, our body had become a terrifying weapon, even in my own, very experienced, view. Our eyes were sharp enough to pick out a path in anything except the darkest of cloudy nights. Our steps had also become so deathly silent that I had to remind myself to make noise at times. Our muscles were layered and strengthened to the point where we had to relearn how careful to be with everyday objects, least we break them. Our bones were also hard enough to prevent fracturing in all, but the most dangerous of environments.

    We were one of the most dangerous 12 cyclers in the world, yet, for all of our experimenting, all of our progress meant nothing if a combat mage decided to attack us. Non-mages tended to underestimate the power of mages, but there was a reason that the most powerful mages ruled. I could decimate that little military presence myself with their two, second rate, mages by myself, but a combat mage could kill an unprepared me three times over.

    Of course, the best magical combat mages would be expected to join the royal magicians¡¯ corps in any kingdom where the king held total power, which made Rapier a very dangerous enemy indeed. Hopefully I would not have to deal with her as an actual enemy, but if she did manage to follow me into these woods I would at least have a chance at killing her.

    After all, there were said to only be three ways to win a mage battle, power, tricks, and equipment. Even if I was stronger in this body than I was in my old one (magically speaking) I did not know how to use that power, meaning I would only be able to rely on tricks and iron.

    Taking that thought into account, I made sure that I was not being followed. Janeen would be able to track me during the day, but almost no one would be able to see me by the night stars. The other runes I had sown into my cloak would help with this kind of thing into the future as well. The runes of stealth were combined with runes to make the eyes of others slide off of me and runes to help others forget my passing.

    I was not a rune-master, but my cloak was an example of why they were so feared, runes could directly interact with and interfere with your mind. The runes for lust, fear, and obedience were usually forbidden, but they were other examples of how easy it was to manipulate people. One of the only defenses was a rune of clarity, which I had engraved directly into my sternum with my mana.

    After moving around in the shadows of the woods enough that I knew no one was following me I went ahead and set up some perimeter wards before accessing my improved monitor device. As the fourth iteration of the device, it was vastly improved and let me keep an eye on the isolated population of modified humans/wolfpeople with minimal mana.

    I spent a good while using the device to methodically check all of the modified humans, checking them for any signs of mutation. The ability to access that information at a distance had been an incredible boon and I found myself rushing back across the fear rune barrier dozens, if not hundreds, of times in the last few cycles as I sometimes barely made it to prevent mutations from killing them.

    I was not sure how long it took ¨C much less how many lives it cost ¨C for the Elves (or whoever) to modify them so completely, but changing them back to regular humans had been dangerous. It was easier to change them back to more regular humans then changing humans into the modified humans would be, but there were still rampant mutations and accidents waiting to happen while I was messing with their genetic code.

    In the end I had given up on completely returning them to their original body structure and concentrated on making them look as human as possible. Once I managed to take care of their ridiculous hair growth and modified their melanocytes to change their skin color a little they were at least presentable to other humans as humans. Abnormally tall humans who were still learning how to build standing houses, but they were at least recognizable and less likely to be killed.

    I also regulated some of their iron filtering, decreasing their magic resistance, but increasing their energy as ¨C before I arrived ¨C bloodletting was a common practice and necessity to prevent the iron from building up too much in their blood.

    Incidentally, the soldiers was nervous enough about being this close to the ¡®wild¡¯ and they were almost paralyzed by the fear runes. Standing offers of rewards for exploring the area beyond the runes kept increasing, but no one had successfully claimed the reward. (Not to say that a few did not try, but either I or someone else was usually able to pointed out the obvious flaws¡­ after I finished fighting off the urge to laugh at their usually absurd stories)

    In the end, I closed the monitor device and decided that the modified humans were stable enough to be left alone. If I did any more experiments on them in the future, it would be much more specific and targeted genetics work to aid in my magical device keep hidden in my lower half.

    My genetic manipulation magical device that was ensuring our sterility would need at least another 4 more cycles of work to work flawlessly, but I had used the modified humans as a basis for a prototype. It would work to a lesser extent than the final version would, but I would still need to test the prototype out on someone. After all, the final version was also my back-up plan to turn myself male again without days upon days of self surgery in an effort to attach an artificially created phallus¡­ Not that it would not work that last way, but the thought of manually performing a sex change option on myself, with only a minimal amount of pain-killing spells to keep my head clear was¡­ distressing.

    As I wandered back to the shack, I tried to think of possible candidates for experimenting with my prototype, but my mind kept coming back to the one person I had no doubt Leo pushed in my direction. After all, if there was a genetic code that granted magicians powers, might there be a genetic combination that would allow people to become stronger mages. In that sense, turning a ¡®burn-out¡¯ into a mage would certainly be an interesting- oh look who it is.

    Said burn-out was conveniently in my returning path, talking with Janeen for some reason.

    Either Leo or one of the other Nalks really liked Dras, the problem was that I could not tell if they were trying to give me an opportunity to experiment, or trying to get me to turn him into a better game piece. Either way, I was tempted to use him as a testing material after I threw him to the other side of the fear runes.

    Until then, I decided to try and see what was going on with these two. I would normally eavesdrop and figure out what they were talking about, but I had been so lost in my thoughts that I had already come close enough for Janeen to notice something was off.

    I really needed to reacquire my old habits for survival. Too many years of little to no enemies was not good for my instincts¡­ not that being a little girl helped in that matter.

    After standing still for a moment to see if Janeen could actually see me, I noticed her eyes trying to concentrate on the area I was standing. It spoke more to her skill than the lack of effectiveness of my rune covered cloak, but I was still disappointed in myself.

    Stepping forward the final few steps I uncovered my head and let my cloak stop impeding Janeen¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Bella! I was looking for you earlier. Why are you out here?¡± Janeen seemed worried about something.

    ¡°I wanted to go for a walk. Why are you 2 in the woods at this time of night? The shacks are designed for fairly discrete meetings you know.¡± I dismissed her question and decided to try teasing them a bit. Janeen did not bite, but she did snort while Dras outright blushed and started practicing different sword stances.

    ¡°This one was practicing and I was looking for you.¡± Janeen stated simply, before her expression grew more serious. ¡°Bella what did you do when you were taking that test?¡±

    I blinked in surprise, but my voice was deliberately more curious than surprised. ¡°Would you care to elaborate on that question Janeen?¡±

    She shifted uncomfortably and I out of the corner of my eye I saw Dras¡¯ sword nearly drop out of his hand before Janeen started speaking. ¡°I heard Lady Rapier speaking as she was talking to one of the camp mages. She was talking about sponsoring you for combat medic training.¡±

    My jaw actually dropped at that point. There were 3 basic types of mages who specialized in fighting. Siege mages, who were all power and helped create massive shields or attack spells to try and break the enemy¡¯s shield. Combat mages, who were more individual fighters and assault experts.

    Combat medics, were the last group and the smallest one. Their job was to followed assault squads and assist the wounded wherever they were on the battlefield. They were also regarded as some of the bravest fighters in the world because of the fact that they were expected to patch up others in the middle of a battle where hundreds of death spells could be hurled at them in an instant ¨C while they would be concentrating more on healing than protecting themselves.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I was honestly honored, I took calculated risks fairly frequently in my previous life, but being recommended to become a combat healer was a separate honor entirely.

    ¡°I reacted.¡± I told Janeen honestly, ¡°Although I am surprised that she offered to sponsor me, even if I did impress her.¡± She would know how rich the ¨C relatively small ¨C mithril deposit had made my father, so she knew that there was no reason to accept the sponsorship.

    ¡®Sponsoring¡¯ someone was a unique idea to me when I heard about it from Nathan. It was like barrowing money, but you agreed to pay it back with favors instead of the money. To me it sounded like bribery, just years in advance, but the people here seemed to consider it common place among those common-born mages who could not normally afford to go to one of the few mage training centers.

    I saw Dras flexing his hand again as he nearly dropped his sword again. It was odd. ¡°Thank you for telling me Janeen, however, I feel like you might be lying about why you are out here.¡± I made a show of looking at her ever present satchel. ¡°Unless you already had a chance to use that potion I sold you before I went off to train?¡± I raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Why do I get the feeling you just want to be alone with Dras?¡± Janeen shot back, before she started retreating of her own accord, only taking the time to give me some parting lip.  ¡°Oh well, that is your business I suppose, have a nice evening and try not to cultivate more mana around him will you Bella?¡±

    Dras jerked his head at that and stared at Janeen¡¯s retreating figure. Not wanting to be overheard, I also enjoyed Janeen¡¯s figure for a few moments before turning my attentions to Dras. ¡°What is wrong with your hand?¡± I demanded quietly.

    Dras visibly flinched before muttering that it was annoying him, nothing more. I heard him, but only with my enhanced hearing. I sighed, ¡°Feel free to stop whispering and let me take a look.¡±

    Dras flinched again and visibly hesitated. I was about to ask him why when I remembered that, being a burn-out, he had not experienced what most people called a ¡®tingling sensation,¡¯ but had instead felt pain.

    I decided on a slightly softer approach and added: ¡°Dras, I have gotten better, I do not think this will hurt and besides, you will need to know if there is extensive damage.¡±

    He relented after a moment, his worry about his sword arm clearly outweighing his fear of pain. I touched his hand gently and held back my talent for a moment so he could relax a bit. Trying to distract him while I worked, I started talking to him as my talent, slowly began searching his body for the problem.

    He grimaced slightly at the start, but concentrated on my questions. He was the only son of the captain of the Entrials¡¯ guard who picked up the sword to become something better than his drunk father. His ethic for hard work, honesty, and loyalty had both endeared him to John and earned him the jealousy of other students who mostly just wanted to standout and impress some girl in the town. John had wanted to be serious, but no one had intended to seriously try and teach him until the military presence was established. After that, he had become a regular visitor, trying to practice with the soldiers whenever he could get away with it.

    While he was talking I confirmed that his muscles would not be getting any better. He had some genetic disease, one that Anton had told me the name of, but its name did not matter at the moment. The point was this: Dras had both the bad luck of getting the recessive trait from both his parents and the good luck of finding me right as I was thinking about testing out a device that could cure that very thing.

    He was so obvious that I actually found myself wondering if the Nalks were really manipulating him. It just seemed too obvious.

    ¡°Why do you want to practice the sword anyway? To join the army?¡± I asked, pondering what to do with him.

    ¡°I just want to help others. If that means that I join the army, then that is fine, but if being an adventurer or mercenary would let me help more people, then I will become of those instead.¡± He stared straight into my eyes as he responded, seeming to mean every word.

    Bella joked to me that her heart almost jumped, but I just rolled my eyes. It was an annoying, clich¨¦, response from someone who thought a sword would let him right the wrongs of the world. That said, it was his reason so I was not about to cut him down for it. Stones, my sword had certainly ended many people who both helped and hurt others on a regular basis, in my previous, ever more distant, life.

    I looked at his hand and quietly weighed my options, worrying about the possible consequences of my helping Dras before deciding that I should just try and then make sure to record the results.

    Although, curing Dras of his ¡®burn out¡¯ would likely be too much effort when I would still need to refrain from giving Lady Rapier a new reason to stay, as well as declining her offer.

    Fortunately, that had been one of the few areas were Nathan had pleasantly surprised me over the years, he actually knew that I had no interest in dealing with nobles or possible marriages. As far as he was concerned, I wanted to help the church of Hoh and become one of the goddess of water¡¯s Healers.

    As Lord of these lands, Nathan could politely ask her to leave now that her assignment was done and she would oblige, a fact that I planned to take advantage of.

    ¡°Okay Dras, I can help, but it will be the same deal as last time, agreed?¡± I asked, looking him in the eyes to make sure he understood.

    He hesitated for a moment before nodding, resolutely.

    I smiled and walked past him. Telling him to find me after Lady Rapier was gone and I finally achieved breakthrough.

    -----------------------------------------------------------

    A few days later, the Lady Rapier was gone and I used my newly constructed prototype magical device on Dras with no exciting results at first. It took over the entire First Earth phase to start making a difference, proving to me that I needed to put more active magic into my magical devices.

    So far I had been taking it very slowly and methodically building up the series of spells to safely change someone over time. The process was slow, painless, and I could precisely undo any and all changes. For both Dras and the modified humans beyond the fear runes, this was a very good thing as it let me track and modify any and all mistakes I made.

    Now, however, I was feeling fairly secure in making the final model more active. A faster adaptive system might be more dangerous and require more nutrients from the host, but it would give me faster results not that I felt like I knew what I was doing. Though as I might not be able to catch any harmful changes or unintended mutations before they did lasting harm.

    It would also help if I stopped using the step-by-step method of spell creation, but this was someone DNA and I needed to know exactly what went wrong to fix it. I was also hesitant to actually go ahead with more dangerous or widespread experiments in such an underdeveloped place like the area around Entrials. Leo and I testing a new potion was one thing, but I needed a more serious motivator before people would accept me messing with their blood.

    As for what motivation I was thinking of¡­ Capital crimes were too rare and the population too small for me to try and bribe people for more test subjects, so I came to the only logical conclusion. If I wanted to continue (much less expand) my experiments, Bella and I would need to relocate.

    I decided at that point that it was time for me make good on my plans to leave Entrials. Bella¡¯s family had already gotten used to the idea that Bella would leave them before she ¡®grew up,¡¯ so I was not too worried. However, Elizabeth and Carlatus were of some concern as they seemed to have some idea about me coming back to visit.

    Bella herself was nervous too, both about leaving and about our future experiments, but she agreed with me on the basis that distance would lessen the likelihood of Nalk interference with her family. Together, we tried to make them understand that we had a ¡®calling¡¯ that we were going to answer. Granted, for that ¡®calling¡¯ might involve a gender change and becoming a secluded magician who experimented on humans who were not exactly volunteers, but it was a ¡®calling¡¯ of sorts.

    Elba¡¯s training would actually be useful here as the old woman had eventually hammered into our combined heads how ¡®young ladies¡¯ were supposed to act. I had resisted it until Bella pointed out that it was just another acting method for the theater of drama and lies that I tended to use as weapons. Now I would be able to act out that part of a ¡®young lady¡¯ for whatever purpose I needed.

    Granted, a ¡®young lady¡¯ with 12 circles worth of magic was a very dangerous person even without my memories or our enhanced body to aid her, but sometimes a peaceful solution was dependent on not seeming like a danger.

    We had been preparing this for over a year and even the wolfpeople were aware of our intended departure, so it was easy enough to use Lady Rapier¡¯s recommendation as an excuse to start preparing. Elizabeth and Carlatus were as annoying as expected, but we were prepared to leave at the beginning of the metal phase (AN: late July, about 50-60 days before her 13th birthday) when, as I was making final checks on both Dras and the modified humans for mutations or side effects, I was called to do my work as a mender.

    I would like to blame what happened next on the Nalks, but the truth always shown through with the Guilt. I had a choice. Everyone did. If someone held a knife to your throat and ordered you to do something, you always had the choice of letting that someone cut your throat. If you were too poor to buy food in the city you had the choice to steal, to starve, to beg, or to find another choice, but you always had a choice.

    I chose to end the lives of 3 men before I left the Entrials area. No one said a word about it when I left, but it was a sparely populated area and everyone knew the truth.

    Did they hold it against me? I doubt it¡­ ¡°Justice¡± is a useful shield to hide behind.

    *     *     *

    Leo¡¯s personal study:

    Leonardo sighed to himself. The former Bandit King had so much potential that memories and calculations constantly distracted the Nalk as he tried to predict DeMorte¡¯s possible futures.

    Ironically, despite his impressive logic and mental capacity, DeMorte¡¯s own personality was his greatest impediment. Leo had run mental calculations and Bella was actually a much greater danger to the rest of the Game¡¯s players then DeMorte.

    DeMorte could ¨C and likely would ¨C rise rapidly again as he killed anyone who made him angry enough. However, he was in a much more lawful world than his previous one. He would find it nearly impossible to carve out a serious claim unless he either played by the rules or actually gained control of an already existing nation¡­ or¡­

    While Leo realized that there was another path for DeMorte to gain power, his guest had arrived.

    Leo opened the door with a thought and greeted the Nalk with a pulse of energy that was his full name. Nominally called ¡®Duke¡¯ since he had taken the lead in informing DeMorte of his fate, the Nalk was already angry enough that his opposition was using the nickname, so Leo had decided to be more formal.

    ¡°Leo, has your brain been scattered by a singularity?¡± Duke barked, not bothering to sit down or move his lips. It was a minor rule that Leo could dictate that they talk in human form, but Duke was too angry to extend Leo any curtsies like actually using that body correctly. Instead, Duke was using it as a mask and only bothering to make up for not using Leo¡¯s full name.

    I wonder if he even remembers it Leo thought grimly. ¡°My wife has tried a few times, she swears that it makes me mate better, why?¡± Leo asked dryly.

    ¡°Your little mortal is becoming a large possible interruption Leo. He was meant to be a minor annoyance, but I have looked into his possibilities and they are not within acceptable bounds.¡±

    ¡°I always calculate the best possible paths and even at his most impressive, DeMorte will never beat out all of our talented players.¡± Leo leaned back into his chair and looked beyond the fleshy puppet to Duke¡¯s real body before speaking again. ¡°He is just one man and his is out of his element, the odds of him recruiting another bandit army are barely worth mentioning and the fact is that the nobles are not likely to follow him without a puppet or public face ¨C something that would be completely at odds with DeMorte¡¯s character.¡±

    The flesh mask of Duke¡¯s sneered. ¡°Not given the fact that you gave him enough basic tools to recreate those precious ¡®nids¡¯ monstrosities that got you banned from playing the Game in the first place¡±

    Leo stared at Duke¡¯s real body, unwilling to let either his real or human body give away how disturbing that idea was. Shit. DeMorte might actually be able to do it too. ¡°I thought about that, but in a different direction. The odds that either Bella or DeMorte will want to create something like the nid species is actually incalculable in how exceedingly unlikely it is. The route that leaves them with the most impressive forces would involve Bella¡¯s absorption of DeMorte and her subsequent modification of her own children or clones in artificial wombs to create armies.¡±

    Leo then made sure to punctuate his next statement with an air of finality, even adding a bit of his energy to the words so that they carried through into spirit speak. ¡°The odds of Bella absorbing DeMorte however are laughable as best I can tell. So now that I have heard your complaint and explained it, I trust we are done here.¡±

    Duke¡¯s body shivered and evaporated. Before he sent a pulse of energy that signified a cold rage and left. Duke had overstepped in his anger, but he was supposed to be one of the best of the Nalks at the Game and he was worried.

    Leo tried to blame it on youthful exuberance, but Duke had a point. DeMorte was almost maximizing his time before the Game started and it was effecting the Game predictions. Even as far away as he was from Jagged Claws, DeMorte was a significant danger. In fact, that distance was part of the reason he was a danger, as the Steel Claws would only lose their initial power after they made landfall for the first time. There was just no way for them to keep it as they raided across three continents.

    That was assuming, of course, that no one makes a play that stops them, Leo thought to himself. There were 4 cycles and a few phases before ¡®Game Start¡¯ hit and Leo was caught between looking forward to it and wishing he had more time.

 Chapter 21: Rising Winds

    This one was over 9000 words before I decided to split it into 2 different chapters

    Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone for reading this story and state that chapters like this one really make me feel how hard writing can be. I hope to have a fairly ¡®realistic¡¯ story ¨C even though it involves magic ¨C by the time I finish it, but I never gave as much thought to DeMorte¡¯s growth phase as I did to the rampage phase that now seems so far into the future. This chapter and the next few are some of the more important ones, but I do feel that I will need a hell of a lot more practice before I do them justice.

    I hope you enjoy regardless though

    Chapter 21: Rising Winds

    Bloody¡­

    We decided not to finish the thought, much less voice it, and went to work.

    Rushing over to her side we closed our eyes and let our talent to both identify all of her injuries and to figure out just how she had survived despite them.

    Judging by the way many of her bones and wounds had closed and healed, her attackers must have given her healing potions. Although the debate was open for whether or not that was a good thing: it had saved her life, but death might be a mercy in comparison to when she wakes up.

    One of the first things to deal with was her partially collapsed lung and the blood loss. Fortunately for her, she was an AB blood type, letting us drain some of our own blood without having to call in someone else and convince them that giving blood was harmless.

    Even non-mages believed in the power of blood and how giving it away was a bad idea. Children and young teen women received endless warnings about what to do with bloody rags or clothes. Namely: they were to burn them if at all possible.

    There are 206 bones in the adult human body. Of those, we had to manually set most of the 17 broken bones. The amount of trauma we had to work through did not stop there, however, as whoever had administered the healing potions had obviously not bother making sure that the bones were set correctly.

    We were not sure if there would be long term side effects from it, but we used the same spell to fix her bones that we used to create our bone armor. It would require less mana, potions, and pain than re-breaking her bones would¡­ not that she was awake for any of this.

    Once all her bones were at least solid where they were supposed to be, I moved on to her fairly numerous internal injuries. I could have healed them completely, but I just concentrated on the most severe ones at first, before I moved on to the ones that would leave scars.

    I had done my best to ignore the semen residue up until now, but with her life no longer in danger from her injuries, I felt it was time to address what would happen afterwards. For starters though, I just used my mana to try and collect the residue for analysis. If I was lucky there might be enough to cast a blood (DNA technically) tracking spell.

    After a moment I gave up on one of the samples, but the other two has left enough residue for me to use the spell. Instead of using the spell directly, I used some wood carvings from the corner of the room and used them to create MDs (magical devices).

    Some people make the mistake that MDs were incredibly complicated, but they were very similar to wards. In fact, where wards were spells anchored to a location, the most basic MDs involved anchoring spells into objects. The major differences beyond that involved how MDs usually use their object¡¯s shape or material to interact with the spell and were usually created to allow non-mages to operate them too.

    My monitors were made of biological components to keep a separate, but not disruptive MD that would keep track of those they were implanted in. This time though, I just needed something to keep the blood tracking spell inside of, so even a broken arrow would do, as long as there was no iron to mess with the spell.

    The two wood carvings were actually a pair of story blocks, with each side dedicated to one scene of a story. Typically they were used for grand epics or give people some sort of visual representation of the 12 gods. In this case I think they were meant to show the creation story, but I did not pay it much attention.

    After I got the wood carvings, I walked back over to her and used the samples to create to MDs, with each one tuned to one of the perpetrators. Blood spells were very specific, but they were usually very dangerous. While a blood tracking spell was fairly safe, trying to fuse a death curse with a blood spell might end up exterminating the target and their extended families if it was performed incorrectly. It was the reason why royal hostages were seen as the true garreteers of peace.

    For this spell, I simply tied the blocks to the DNA of each man and set up a spell that would let me feed the blocks mana to make them glow in the direction of each person. Given time, the spells would fade, but for now, those two men could run to the end of the world and I could still be able to find them.

    I felt Bella become briefly confused before she realized that it was easier to connect the DNA to a MD now than to cast a spell right now and have to continuously maintain it until I found the person. I had already known this and it should have been obvious to Bella, but we had been slightly off in our communications since we heard what happened and seemed to only be synchronizing for brief periods before separating again.

    I stored the MDs inside my healer¡¯s outfit and turned back to the woman. We felt no small amount of pity and I even felt a bit of empathy for her situation, but I was still wondering what we should do about it. Bella wanted to go after the culprits, but I was unsure, I was not the ultimate judge and jury anymore.

    We would keep the MDs to ourselves in order to keep our options open, but right now the most reasonable response would be to hand the MDs over to Nathan and let him investigate as the Lord of the area¡­ That said, I was finding Bella¡¯s determination hard to ignore. Especially after she pointed out that whoever had done this to our patient had not expected her to survive, meaning they might run away when they learned that she had.

    On the off chance that the semen and torture were unrelated, the 3 men who were involved would still need to answer some questions.

    As if the situation needed to be more complicated, she was also pregnant. That said, unless she had also been raped 13 days ago as well, the father was not likely to be a suspect. Although I wondered how many would believe the child¡¯s origins, even if I swore an oath in public. A mage could do a blood test after the child was born, but that would only work if the father was both alive and nearby.

    The River Stalker clan in the area had already come out in force and would not be satisfied until someone was made to pay, so I hoped that the possible father had been discreet for both of their sakes.

    I could not tell for sure, given the scarce amount of the third man¡¯s semen, but it did not appear that one of them was the same as the man responsible for the child.

    For the first time since I entered started treatment, I looked closely at Janeen¡¯s swollen face. It was less swollen then it had been when I first arrived, but I had only taken the opportunity to make sure that she would not carry any physical scars. I had not needed to look at her face for that as my mana was doing the work, but it did not help much.

    It was not fair or polite to her, but I also took the opportunity to give her a simple kiss on the forehead. It was without any lust and instead filled with sympathy, which she would have hated even more than lust, under normal circumstances.

    She was the type of women I would have actively pursued in my previous life and ¡­ well, Bella might have a small crush on her.

    I am the one with a crush?

    Hush, frisky girl, you have too many crushes to count.

    I am only 13, if I am like that whose fault its it?

    Technically this body is not 13 yet, but you can blame the Nalks.

    I brought my attention back to Janeen. I had been told that an athletic women, familiar with the ways of the wild, was a fascinating sight to any city man, but I did not know if that was true. I was born in filth and raised on a farm. All I knew was that Janeen was a good woman in my mind and she was strong, but the last time I had seen someone like her experience something like this¡­ it broke her¡­

    How would Janeen react when she woke up? Would she ever be able to accept those memories? I knew some of what she would go through, but I had chosen that particular fate for myself and it made a large difference.

    Of course, I was making too many assumptions. Janeen was a bit wild herself and I knew from Loco¡¯s records how often she bought the pregnancy prevention potions, but I could not imagine the internal scaring coming from a voluntary¡­ experiment. That and the feeling that she was not that type of person.

    Both my personal experience with her and the fact that the health potions had been repeatedly administered without allowing her bones to properly set, would completely discount masochism as well. Those stone-heads were always looking for crazy methods to stone themselves, but even they were careful to avoid any lasting damage¡­ That meant she had been tortured at the least.

    If she had not gotten help, if I had not been the one here to work on her, she would have died or have spent the rest of her life crippled¡­ I felt Bella¡¯s anger at that thought.

    In the end, I would have to wake her up before I would know if they had given her a choice. Anton had taught me that rape was a crime of power and had explained some of the psychological aspects of it, but that knowledge did not help me at the moment.

    It also did not help me when Mathalaus stormed in and almost earned a pain spell to the groin.

    He visibly went through more emotions in that brief moment after he entered the room then I had seen from him previously in the entirety of my life. Anger to fear to surprise to horror to pain and regret before settling onto a mask of rage that might as well have been carved from granite.

    He motioned a couple of his clansmen out the door, only letting one older woman stay, before he shut the door and turned back to me.

    ¡°Who?¡± He ground out.

    Before I answered I took the liberty of casing a spell that would prevent sound from traveling. It would only work inside a closed room, but for situations like this it was perfect to keep others from listening in on Janeen¡¯s private medical information. I wondered briefly about the woman, as I thought Janeen¡¯s mother was dead, but if Mathalaus let her stay, then who was I to argue?

    ¡°It is reasonable to assume that there were at least 3 of them, but I do not know who they are.¡± I said coldly. The most obvious proof for my statement was the 3 different samples of sperm that I had found inside of her, although I still had to wake her up to be sure.

    ¡°Three.¡± He repeated flatly, his face unmoving.

    ¡°Which is why I want you to make sure to wait here until she wakes up. You and your kin.¡± I focused on the last part the most. ¡°Rumors will already be floating around, but I would like you to make sure everyone waits before taking action.¡±

    Nathan would be on his way from Entrials itself, but he would be responsible for any judiciary action, both for and against the river stalkers. For Janeen¡¯s attackers and against any fools who tried to guess at the culprits before Nathan made a decision.

    Mathalaus grunted and fell silent for a moment, looking at Janeen for a long moment before looking away, towards the wall. ¡°How did you know their number?¡±

    I hesitated before speaking, but he did have some right to know. ¡°Seed is derived from blood and is therefore unique.¡±

    ¡°Rape.¡± I swore that my enhanced hearing heard his teeth crack as he growled.

    ¡°It is possible.¡± I stated simply.

    ¡°Possible?¡± His voice had a dangerous edge of cold fury to it as he turned towards me.

    ¡°I try not to judge the habits of others and I know how much potion your daughter bought.¡± I explained, ¡°I also know that she was tortured.¡± I looked Mathalaus in the eyes, ¡°She was given health potions at different times to heal different injuries, which means that they did not to heal an accident, but¡­¡± I made sure to keep my voice level, but I was internally prepared to tap my internal energy if he reacted badly. ¡°I do not know for sure if that was connected to the sex.¡±

    I could guess. I was almost certain myself, but there had been¡­ exceptions in my previous life. Women who I had thought were attacked by groups of men, were not always unwilling¡­ Just most of the time.

    Mathalaus obviously ¡®knew¡¯ I was wrong, but he carefully controlled himself and turned back to Janeen. ¡°When will she wake up?¡±

    ¡°I do not know,¡± I admitted, she was exhausted and had crawled all night to reach a near-by farm. The owners who found her had quickly given her yet another health potion and taken her to Loco¡¯s. From there, he had moved her out to her current location, where I had been sleeping, and sent for me. ¡°We should wait for her to wake up naturally, but I can make her wake up for a little while if you want.¡±

    He seemed ready to demand that I wake Janeen up for a moment, but the older woman turned her head from Janeen for the first time to glare at him and he shook his head. ¡°Let her rest.¡±

    I nodded, as understanding as I could be in the situation. ¡°When she wakes up I suggest that you be careful about questioning her, the memories-¡±

    I was cut off by the women, ¡°I do not need your advice for her mind, child.¡± I kept my face still to avoid scowling. No one would be in a forgiving or logical mood right now. ¡°Now then, what about pregnancy and her face, I assume that you gave her potions?¡± Her voice was slightly shrill and annoying, but I managed not to snap at her.

    ¡°Timing has prevented the possibility of her getting pregnant from last night¡¯s incident.¡± I stated vaguely. If they knew about the father, they would likely catch it, but they said nothing so I continued. ¡°Her life is not in danger right now though so I will not be doing any more healing.¡± The woman snapped her head in my direction, but I cut off her still forming words. ¡°She was given too many of them when she was tortured, meaning that her body might reject any potions that we give her¡­ A rejection that could prove fatal.¡± My words shut her up.

    Relaxing very marginally, Mathalaus spoke instead, ¡°She is fine?¡± I nodded affirmative ¡°You only used magic?¡± Judging by his tone, he knew how impressive that actually was.

    I nodded again, finally remembering the feeling of hunger that had grown throughout the operation. I was not as hungry as a Healer would be as I only needed to apply the smallest amounts of mana to precisely heal her. It was the most obvious benefit of Anton¡¯s training as a Healer of this world would not risk a precise fix unless they had a talent like mine. It would be safer to cast a general healing spell or give them a potion. The spells that most healers in my previous world used were also mana costly and inefficient. It was one of the reasons combat healers and self-healing warriors almost always had double digit circles under their control.

    Regardless, I was hungry and only had 2 avotatos that I had eaten on my way here. Considering that I had used some of my internal energy to sprint here from the woods where I had been testing Dras¡¯ reflexes and then operate on Janeen in a relative hurry, it was vaguely surprising that I was not hungrier.

    Mathalaus walked over to the door and opened it, cancelling the spell I cast earlier, and letting the crowd¡¯s noise enter the room from outside. The village had all come out to see what happened apparently.

    They fell quiet when Mathalaus came out though and stared at him. ¡°She will live.¡± He called out, before turning to one of his clansmen and told him something. It was too hard to hear over the fact that everyone took that announcement as their cue to start talking to each other.

    The benefit and cost of village life: everyone knew everyone else and was obligated to know their business, as that was part of being a good neighbor.

    After a moment of talking, Mathalaus was finished talking and the stalker quickly disappeared into the crowd. He turned back to me and thanked me again, before adding that his clansmen would be back with food soon. He then moved back into the room with his daughter.

    I sighed and moved over into Loco¡¯s actual home. Some people tried to get me to talk about what happened, but I felt no reason to talk to them. Between my plans to leave and this, I would be gone in the next few days.

    ----------------------------------------------------------

    Nathan arrived a little while later and I told him almost everything. Only Loco and Luna knew that Janeen had already been pregnant and I only told them because I needed to make sure that no one tried to administrate a pregnancy termination potion until I had a chance to talk with Janeen in private.

    Nathan had been worried and slightly unnerved when I told him about the MDs, but he still asked me to use them immediately. The devices both glowed in the same direction, towards the fort. Though, since I did not spend any time adding distance proportions to the MD, we could only guess that it was actually the fort and not just in the general area.

    Nathan was not happy about that. He told me that military troops had to be judged by their commanders and my MDs might not be enough to convince them.

    In the end, we decided that only Janeen could name them. I could confirm it with my MDs, but a child with no formal training would not convince the military leaders.

    After learning this, we went to explain our plan to Mathalaus. He took it surprisingly well, but I still had to act for a time when Nathan reviled my MDs.

    ¡°You are important to Janeen.¡± I explained, ¡°If you went charging off to find the culprits, you would more likely be taken down by the military as a madman than anything else.¡±

    Ignoring the human volcano after that, I moved over to Janeen¡¯s side and made sure that the door was shut before applying the silencing spell again. Only Nathan, Mathalaus, the woman, and I, would need to hear this.

    Only at that point did I wake up Janeen.

    The spell was basically just a magical equivalent of a reverse stun spell, although I took the liberty of adding a small magic command to stop her from getting hungry for a couple hours as she still needed rest.

    She slowly woke up and looked around at us. I could almost see her mind ¨C actually, as I was letting my talent work, I could see her mind ¨C as she started to remember what happened to her. She jerked for a moment, epinephrine and what I called my ¡®battle sense¡¯ in my previous life flooded her system as she tried to process her memories. Her face also noticeably paled.

    I just held her hand and waited for her to calm down, but the woman decided to lecture her instead. ¡°Your safe you foolish child, so calm yourself already. You should already be aware of where you are by now.¡±

    Astonishingly, this actually managed to help calm her down, which made me suspect that they might be very familiar with one another.

    After a moment of staring at the woman, Janeen actually focus on each of us in turn. She flinched for a moment when she saw I was holding her hand, but she did not pull away completely.

    ¡°Janeen,¡± Nathan spoke first, grabbing her attention. ¡°I am sorry that we woke you up, but we need to know what happened.¡±

    She did not answer, her complexion looking so pale as to be mistaken for a sickness by the ignorant. If it were only that simple, I would be much happier.

    Nathan wanted to be gentle with her, but he was having trouble, he opened his mouth again to ask her when the woman snapped at Janeen. ¡°Where you attacked girl?¡±

    Janeen flinched again, although not as pronouncedly this time, before she jerked her head affirmative.

    The human volcano rumbled at this point, clearly annoyed at the woman¡¯s tone.

    The woman seemed to take note of this, but continued regardless, doing the dirty job of asking the questions no one wanted to. ¡°Did you tempt them?¡±

    Janeen¡¯s face twisted in disgust and revulsion, giving a look that clearly asked if the woman was sane. The woman did not let her stay quiet though, ¡°Did you girl?¡±

    ¡°N¡­ No!¡± The first time she tried to talk, Janeen¡¯s voice seemed strangled, but the second attempt was practically a scream. ¡°Who would want that sack of puss Terrick¡­¡± Her voice trailed off.

    Nathan almost jumped. ¡°Terrick? You are sure Janeen? Could you see anyone else?¡± His voice was almost desperate, perhaps wanting to get the culprits before they got away¡­ perhaps not wanted to mess up his first serious case of injustice as lord.

    Janeen barely managed to keep from flinching and found both the focus and strength to sit upright, pulling her hand from mine while she was at it. She also took the liberty to examine herself for a moment, clearly taking note of her lack of injuries where she thought there should be. Her eyes also lingered on the generic robe that Luna had changed her into before I arrived. ¡°Yes, him and his two friends. O¡¯bal and¡­¡± she shook her head after a moment, ¡°I do not remember the other¡¯s name, the silent one, who always follows them around.¡±

    ¡°Good, that is plenty.¡± Nathan assured her before looking to Mathalaus, ¡°I ran over here without the Lord¡¯s seal. We will go in the morning.¡± The last part was not a question and I realized that it would indeed be dusk outside of the small room.

    Volcano Mathalaus rumbled, but did not erupt, as he turned to his daughter. ¡°You are safe.¡± He said simply, before turning and leading Nathan from the room.

    I blinked and noted, as Nathan shut the door behind them, that Mathalaus had been even more laconic than usual. I turned back to find Janeen lightly touching her still swollen face. ¡°Grave injuries and scars only.¡± I explained. ¡°I felt the rest should heal with you.¡± I paused for a moment as Janeen looked over at me and nodded before I turned to the woman whose name I still did not know. ¡°I need to speak to Janeen privately¡±

    ¡°So what is stopping you?¡± This old woman is worse than you

    I turned to Janeen, who was still touching her face and I took pity on her for a moment, reaching over and casting a simple spell to reduce swelling before repeating my statement to her directly.

    Janeen touched her face lightly and smiled at the feeling before she, to my surprise, shook her head. ¡°She is a rude old bat, but she also raised me after my mother died, you can tell her anything.¡± She paused before adding ¡°Thank you as well, I know that I must not have been easy to heal.

    Stolen story; please report.

    I raised an eyebrow, but decided that Janeen seemed to be fully awake and alert, so I cut directly to the point. ¡°Who did you lay with 13 or 14 days ago?¡±

    She seemed to stop breathing for a moment as her mind caught up to what I meant instead of what I said. ¡°I am pregnant?¡±

    I resisted the urge to smile, she was quick as ever. ¡°You were asleep for around a day, I am asking about some time ago, but yes you are pregnant.¡±

    This time the other woman spoke up as Janeen absorbed that knowledge, ¡°You lying little dim-soul! I¨C¡± I hit her with a stun spell and let her slump over unconscious.

    ¡°I will wake her up in a second.¡± I told Janeen, who snorted softly. ¡°Is she always like that?¡±

    ¡°You have no idea.¡± Janeen said softly, a lonely smile on her face. ¡°Do you remember the young scout I was showing the area near the fear barrier?¡±

    We did remember, ¡°The one who looked like a hungry wolf?¡± As soon as the words left our mouth we regretted them, fearing that they might trigger memories.

    They did, but not the unpleasant ones apparently, ¡°That is Stark.¡±

    ¡°And that smile explains why you needed so many potions.¡± I countered, not jealously, but knowingly.

    ¡°You will understand when you are older.¡± Janeen said, the same small smile on her face.

    It was my turn to snort quietly. I still remembered that feeling and I was glad she did as well, it might save her some pain in the future. I hesitated at her smile for a moment, but as it started to fade I knew I had to ask her the question. ¡°Are you going to be alright Janeen?¡±

    Some might call it a stupid question given what happened, but that was why I asked it. She had to think about her future and not her past.

    Good advice

    I sensed the underlying question in Bella¡¯s comment, but I did not reply. Our past shaped who we were and like us, Janeen should have a long future ahead.

    I ignored Bella¡¯s interruption as Janeen¡¯s face drained of some color and she forced herself to answer. ¡°Yes.¡± It was a whisper though and she seemed to realize it herself. ¡°Yes.¡± She repeated louder, making sure that both of us heard her resolve I suppose.

    Now I smiled, the proud smile of the old man I was, before I let a secret slip without thinking. ¡°You are stronger than I was.¡± That got Janeen¡¯s attention alright, but before she could say anything I cut her off. ¡°You need to tell me if you want to keep the child. You can always have another if you stay with him, but the timing for this one might be off for your clan, even if I vouch for his parentage,¡±

    She hesitated, looking over at the unconscious women for a moment, which surprised me, but before I could offer to wake her up, Janeen spoke. ¡°We will not stay. Not after this, my father would not allow it and yet I think I love him.¡± A hand floated to her belly almost unconsciously. ¡°The military will want to keep him for a few more years¡± She smiled again, a larger, more mature smile than before. ¡°However, it would be nice to have an incentive for him to come find me.¡± Her smile widened and turned slightly more predatory. ¡°Two incentives.¡±

    I was tempted to tell her that she would only have the one child, but then I realized that the second incentive was something else. Young people.

    I nodded and then gestured to the older woman. ¡°About time to wake her up?¡± I asked.

    Janeen¡¯s face turned pensive and she stared at the unconscious woman for a second. ¡°I am not sure,¡± she mused. ¡°This is the quietest she has been in years.¡± We shared a quiet laugh before I politely pointed out that Janeen would need rest, so I needed to know if they should both be awake at the same time.

    Janeen agreed to let me wake her up right before I left them both alone to talk. I agreed, but told her to only talk for a few minutes before she went back to sleep.

    As we left her, Bella and I could not help thinking about what happened to Janeen, an action that only facilitated making both of us angry.

    After that I went and did something a bit reckless, I took the MD blood trackers and slipped out of the village¡­

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It was not honor that drove me. Nor was it a distinct sense of right and wrong. It was just a sense of personal desire.

    I no longer possessed the ability to make that kind of absolute decision on a moral basis. Bella did, though. She knew that she would regret the anger soon enough, but she was too angry. I just let that anger drive us both as I felt the cold certainty of my path underneath it.

    I had always given women a choice in my previous life, if they were willing to do anything to live I would tell them what would happen. If I picked out a women she had to choice if she wanted to become my slave ¨C which everyone naturally understood would mean sexual service as well ¨C or become one of my men¡¯s slaves.

    I had rules back then, rules that protected the slaves to an extent, but they were usually only enforced by fear of me. As a result, an attractive women¡¯s life was usually horrible in our camps. No one was allowed to knock out some poor girl¡¯s teeth because she refused to use her mouth, but they were allowed to starve her.

    From another point of view, the women I picked out had 3 options: be taken by me, be taken by someone else, or die. They still had the choice, but I had removed all of their good options. They had a stark choice, but most of them decided to be slaves and try to survive.

    Not to mention that some of these women had children depending on them.

    That choice broke some of them too, some could not chose while others became self-destructive because of it.

    ¡­That choice was everything to me, it was what defined me.

    There was an old story that told of 4 kings in my previous world. They went to god¡¯s spear, where I would later rule, and agreed to an amazing peace treaty of some sort that stopped the grand wars that they had been fighting for decades. The gods were so impressed with the treaty that they sent a messenger to inform the kings of a treasure in the mountains that was to be split between them to help rebuild their kingdoms.

    According to the story they also received a warning to not open one chest in particular, but like any good story, someone opens it. A minor god, trapped for ages before then comes out and thanks them for releasing it before offering the kings a wish each. The only catch seems to be that it will only grant them wishes involving their kingdoms as a whole.

    The first wishes for a secure kingdom where no one is in danger from war or crime. The second wishes for a powerful and uncontested throne. The third wishes for a thriving economy and the fourth declined to make a wish. Naturally, when they left and parted ways the wishes were fulfilled in the worst ways.

    The first king was forced to use his army on his own cities, making them peaceful at the cost of soldiers on every corner. As long as his army remained, theft, murder, and assault all disappeared and the treaty guarantied peace at the borders. He used his entire fortune to maintain his army until his death.

    The second found that his nobles had run amok while he was at front and deliberately misused their power for their own gain. While nothing new, this last round of greed was on too large of a scale to forgive and the king summoned them all to a celebratory feast. Telling them that he would be distributing land and money for their loyalty during the wars, he lured and slaughtered most of them. The problem arose when a kingdom who had not been involved in the war suddenly attacked them. As decimating the noble houses had eliminated the kingdom¡¯s most powerful mages, they lost a sizable part of their lands in the subsequent war before the king was killed in battle and the whole kingdom collapsed.

    The third never made it home as his people, tired of war and the abuse of nobles had been attacking and poisoning the nobility for a decade already. After peace was established, the king was assassinated on his way back. The result was almost a collapse of the kingdom before the surviving nobles reached a compromise with the peasants and forfeited some of their power and almost all taxes. The kingdom would remain safe because of the treaty for a few decades, but their weak military and the populations¡¯ refusal to accept new taxes eventually led to bloody invasion.

    Even the fourth was not safe as, though he had chosen the best option, his people still saw what happened to the other kingdoms. As their king used his portion of the treasure to pay the army and rebuild his kingdom, people grew nervous. Even though he had done nothing wrong, people started to whisper about evil rites and forbidden deals that had been performed to inflict these catastrophes on the other kingdoms. Relatives flamed these rumors and it got so bad that, when one of the king¡¯s daughters died, many assumed that he had sacrificed her.

    Depending on the story¡¯s teller, this last king either dies of natural causes to remain infamous for generations to come, or he pleads for the god¡¯s help and is eventually given divine help to earn back the trust of his people.

    Everyone seemed to have a different idea about what the story meant and what lessons could be learned from it and I was no different. Some stated that the lesson was to ¡®be careful what you wish for¡¯ while others said it was to always ¡®listen to and obey the gods,¡¯ but I always saw advice on how to rule. In all of the stories, perception drove decisions that eventually led to a disaster of one form or another, so I decided that the lesson was ¡®perception is more important than truth.¡¯

    Of course, that story was not my first or only introduction to the power of perception, but I felt that the story illustrated the lesson more appropriately than any other I knew of.

    Even if you are a good king, it is possible for others think that you are evil under the right circumstances. So I made sure that I knew and controlled how others saw me. Bandits would never accept the idea of someone making them obey laws, but if I made myself the cruel leader who forces others to follow his rules with his fists, I became acceptable.

    It was the same reason I paid others to glorify honor and the like, I wanted the people who hear the stories to be easier to manipulate. The one on one challenges for leadership were also to manipulate others. If they respected strength, I would just make sure that the normal back-stabbers and poisoners had to face me head on if they wanted to take my position for themselves.

    All of this came back to choices. I would feel the Guilt if I killed someone by my own choice, or ordered someone to do it for me. If they chose death though? If they thought that death was preferable, I would be able to have them effectively kill themselves.

    I once chased someone off into a small valley filled with a highly territorial species called yalgig ¨C which means big claws in some ancient language ¨C and I did not feel the Guilt because I had yelled at him repeatedly to stop running or he was going to be killed¡­ The fact that he was more scared of me and did not believe my promises not to kill him was the key, that his perception of me helped him make bad choices.

    It had been his choice and he could have chosen differently at any time, but he did not. Perception dictated choice and choice dictated the Guilt¡­

    Though why ordering someone dead was just as bad as killing them myself, I might never know. The person I ordered would certainly have the option of disobeying me. Maybe we were supposed to share the blame, I did not know.

    The truth was that, in my previous life, I only wanted to carve out a fair place to live. If someone broke one of my rules and I caught them, they were punished. I told them that I did not punish them because my rules were absolute and those who broke them were evil, but because they were my rules. I punished, even executing other despite the Guilt, as the human who made the rules and the one who wanted others to see that my rules were enforced.

    So I was an individualist at heart and on the throne. If my rules were broken, there would be punishment, but I would always acknowledge that someone had the right to break ¨C even my own rules ¨C as long as they were prepared to face the consequences.

    So I decided that I would find the rapists myself and present them to the others. If Nathan or the military leaders did not believe me, then I would kill the culprits myself, not as a ruler this time, but as a simple human.

    I would give them a chance to use the laws, but if they failed¡­ well, it would be better for Bella to feel the Guilt herself, although I tried to keep that particular thought far away from her angry mind as we sped towards the fort.

    You should always be prepared for the consequences, I reminded myself.

    *     *     *

    Nearby, but out of sight

    How many phases do I have to keep this up Rapier? The girl is just a girl, Rapier. By the gods I was a fool. Zotra shook his head in regret.

    When Rapier had asked him to keep an eye on a little girl out near the edge of the kingdom, Zotra had been annoyed. When Rapier finally admitted that the assignment was a personal one though, Zotra felt like he was about jumped out of his skin at the opportunity.

    Zotra had been a member of the royal magicians¡¯ corps for a few cycles now and he was technically not under the command of Lady Rapier he was a lower ranked mage. Within the few actual ranks in the royal magicians¡¯ corps, she was only one rank above himself, but she had both more power and more experience, meaning that she should have been able to force him onto this mission.

    Only 2 factors, both of which were dictated by birth, left him able to even question the legitimacy of the mission she wanted him for. Those same 2 factors, his gender and his highly noble blood meant that he found out about the mission being unofficial fairly quickly.

    While such a thing was not unusual for the corps to handle, he also learned that is was not even an official mission within the corps and confronted Rapier about it. Rapier knew how far she could fall for such an action as she had her fair share of enemies within certain families. After she confessed that the assignment was personal, she tried to convince him to take it anyway, but they both knew the truth.

    Zotra had many good traits that made him fairly well suited for this assignment. He was one of the best trackers and stalkers in the world, for instance, and he could easily enough follow even this girl, with her heavily runed cloak. He was also of noble enough blood to simply state that some personal matter had arisen and others would assume that was code for a secret duty. However, what qualified Zotra the most for Rapier¡¯s request was his personal feelings for her.

    Zotra had been hinting at being more than professional with her for over a cycle, only to be refused on a number of different grounds.

    Since Rapier had now asked asked him for a favor, however, Zotra had worked it for his benefit and gotten what he thought of as quite a deal. One recommendation for promotion and two evenings out with her once he had been promoted. He did have to let her chose the location for the first meeting, but acting like that was a concession had only been a part of the bargaining.

    Rapier likely thought Zotra was only interested in her for her looks and her power, but she was so much more than just those things. A polite first evening and a passionate second once might lead to his real goal of courting her in the long run¡­ or she might refuse to see him again and he would know to give up.

    She was the most beautiful woman Zotra had ever met and he wanted her too badly to let this opportunity slip away. In truth, Zotra had likely gotten a bad deal as he was one of the only royal mages that Rapier could ask a favor of, but it was a measure of his desire for her that he chose not to argue the deal.

    Now though, his easy looking path to romance ¨C even if it was a boring one ¨C had slowly become something else entirely.

    It started when the girl did something that he himself could not do and crossed a set of abnormally powerful fear runes. Even with numerous ¡®clarity¡¯ runes on his clothes to help him, Zotra was sweating and jumping at every shadow by the time he was stopped by a river that girl herself easily jumped.

    That was another shock for him too, the girl had an absolutely amazing level of control over her G¨ªa! The energy that she cultivated from the world around her seemed to bend to her will in a way that defied her years.

    When Zotra saw this, he instantly wanted to applaud his dear Rapier for identifying such a major talent, but her mental resistance to fear runes did make him slightly nervous.

    No normal child should have had that level of mental strength. Over the course of the phase though, Zotra noticed little else of remiss. The girl was talented in almost everything she did, but her only other outstanding talent was a lesser form of cultivation that she could use while walking around.

    She was amazing and definitely qualified for sponsorship or political marriage, although her elf ears might pose a problem for some families. Zotra was even writing a private letter to his youngest brother to try and ¡®accidentally¡¯ met the girl when events sped up.

    After the girl had just finishing a ¡®medical checkup¡¯ of some sort ¨C away from most prying eyes with a young man, Zotra quietly noted ¨C she was found and asked to attend to an injured person of some sort. Zotra¡¯s assignment was observation without notice though, so he was too far away to hear the details as they started to walk away.

    Soon after though, the girl shot out like a bolt of lightning and was gone. Zotra could track her, but he used his own G¨ªa too rarely to maintain his stealth at speed.

    After he tracked her down again to one of the local villages he got close enough to hear some of the rumors of a local girl being ravaged by demons or some such nonsense.

    He had not been impressed with lack of knowledge of the peasants, but that was their lot in life. Demons only existed in the lowest floors of a dungeon or in the service of Elves in ancient stories.

    After some time, it grew dark and Zotra decided to forgo sleep to make sure the girl did not do something rash. It was the correct choice as the girl indeed shot out of the village later that night.

    Again, Zotra marveled at her speed as he tracked her through the woods. Even with his own G¨ªa active and a fairly clear path to follow, Zotra took most of the night to track her to the small fort. Young mages are always dangerous, Zotra thought to himself, not to other mages, unless we have to rely on them, but to the lesser souled.

    Curious to exactly what the girl was planning to do, Zotra waited outside the fort, wondering how long she¨C

    The girl was already leaving. Specifically though, she was jumping down from one of the walls with a person over each shoulder. It happened so quickly, while the guards were investigating something he could not see, that Zotra found himself revaluating the letter he had been writing earlier.

    Even with magic to enhance their eyesight, Zotra knew that most mages would have difficulty pulling two men out of a guarded fort in the middle of the night without being noticed. The fact that he knew there were two mages in the fort who would have noticed any magic being cast only made it harder to believe, not to mention the wards.

    The girl was either an unparalleled genius, had received special training of some sort, or there was something more sinister at work.

    Zotra thought it was the first option, but his training suggested the third. It would not be the first time some mage had tried to make themselves immortal, but unless they somehow grafted their soul onto someone¡­ Zotra¡¯s blood had been running cool before, but now it was enough to make him worry about frostbite.

    Every mage and most of the lesser souled peasants, were trained to look out for the traditional signs for Soul Mages, but only combat trained mages knew the specifics. For example, a Soul Mage who absorbed only one soul would still be in control of their body and might actually contain the influence of the misfortunate soul that they sacrificed. Those freshly made Soul Mages could actually go whole cycles seeming sane and normal, before they decided to absorb another person¡¯s soul. If someone did not absorb a soul, but instead transferred it somehow¡­ it would be one possible explanation among many.

    No matter what though, Zotra now needed to be much closer to this little girl ¨C this possible Soul Mage ¨C to determine what fate awaited the two men she grabbed. If she was indeed a Soul Mage¡­ Then Zotra would have to determine if he could eliminate her or make his report first and let Rapier decide how to proceed.

    Steeling his resolve, Zotra trailed the girl much more easily now that she was weighed down with two bodies.

    His mind now fully professional, he analyzed how much G¨ªa she had used during the day and tried to figure out exactly how large of a reserve she could have. Her actions certainly seemed emotional enough to suggest that she had not rationed it, but Zotra was still uncertain and carefully followed the girl into the northern wood.

    Part of him started worrying about the possibility of her passing that barrier of fear runes again, but she stopped and set up wards before then.

    Zotra crept closer than he had ever been to her before, while carefully trying to keeping himself concealed despite the shrinking distances. However, a new worry soon appeared as she set up wards.

    Complex and professional, Zotra grimaced, studying the wards carefully. Each of the individual layer were simple and efficient wards, but layered on each other like this, they could collapse on anyone who tried to untangle them and kill anyone who tried to ignore them. this is not looking good for her

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Almost made the time change -.-

 Chapter 22: Storm DeMorte

    Chapter 22: Storm DeMorte

    Sticks and Stones! I was more than just a little frustrated with myself for actually grabbing these two¡­ individuals on a whim.

    I was not going to suffer the Gult for some crime that they were very likely to be convicted of anyway. Still, it was a good opportunity for a verity of reasons, primarily because I could finish my nerve research¡­ That and put my back up plan in place, in case Nathan or the military decided to not proceed¡­ ¡®appropriately.¡¯

    I sighed to myself and made sure that I put some of my better wards up. After making sure to anchor them appropriately I even interlinked them. This accomplished 2 very important things: first it made an expansive protective system that would be hard for anyone to navigate through without warning me. I doubted anyone would actually follow me, but it seemed prudent given what I was about to do.

    Second, it quickly built up a powerful barrier very quickly. In the time it took me to eat a piece of fruit on a nearby tree, I had finished setting up a very good barrier.

    Looking at my wards also reminded me of some of the places that I visited in my previous life. Wards like the ones I just created were typical of small towns with two or three very low powered mages, but the big cities had protective wards that could destroy 15 circle fireballs for days at a time. Unlike mine, those wards had been created as part of one giant spell that multiple mages ¨C sometimes numbering in their thousands ¨C would be asked to participate in created a giant city ward. Wards like mine were only good for stalling others in comparison

    Layering wards was the cheapest and most efficient way to build up a powerful barrier. I neither had a large amount of food on me nor the knowledge on how to set up large, powerful wards without this method. Fortunately, I could be reasonably certain that no one would realize I was here. A 4 circle mage could disassemble my wards with brute force ¨C knocking one layer off at a time ¨C while a 10 circle mage would have almost the same amount of trouble as he would waste too much energy trying to break through in one try.

    City wards, in comparison, were massive things that could absorb the huge chunks of iron thrown by siege weapons. If a city was big or rich enough, those same wards could be layered over time and reinvigorated with mana every year to keep them functioning for millennia after millennia. The end result was stalemate and annual raids that made war a sport for the powerful, city, dwelling nobility of my old world.

    I was sure that it would be the same here, although there seemed to be peace right now, when the wars came, cities would only ever fall by one of the three traditional method. Besieged into starvation, taken by trickery, or negotiated. No one took a large city by storm as the monstrous wards, layered atop other monstrous wards, made it functionally impossible. Sieges were also a rare evens as almost no one would be able to maintain the sieges for long enough to actually take a city. Food was always a worry when it came to magic, but the amount of time it would take to starve out even one city was enough to muster 2 more armies to break the siege entirely.

    I had caused plenty of havoc using other¡¯s dependencies on those wards, but taking a major city had been something that eluded even the great ¡®Bandit King.¡¯ Minor cities, sure, but there was a simple definition for major cities that made them impossible obstacles. If the city¡¯s wards would summon winds strong enough to block iron that weighed as much as 5 grown men from reaching the wards, they were considered unbreakable.

    I was stalling though, enough reminiscing, there was torture to do.

    I set up each man opposite of the other, one against a tree and another against a rock. They were both under a modified stun spell that would keep them unconscious for more than a day if I did not choose to wake them up. That said, I had less than a tenth of that time to actually question them before I had to get them back to the base.

    We are leaving them ali¨C wait¡­ oh that is why we¡­ I have a recommendation.

    No, we are going to go with the plan in my head unless¡­ okay we can add in that last part, but we are not posing them, it might actually help their defense instead of hurt it.

    Can we at least shove a stick up their-

    NO!

    Memories flashed through my mind and I felt Bella flinch back and whimper apologies.

    I would sooner crush their stones, but that would be a good defense for them as well.

    I understand, I am sorry.

    We are sorry, you mean.

    We sighed together before I took the lead and pulled out some of my stored bone mass. I used it to wrap both of their wrists and ankles. After hardening it into a makeshift set of irons, I turned towards the one I had braced against the tree.

    It is said that there are a few basic rules of interrogating that most people seem to forget. That was not a problem for me of course, as I did not know any of them, so I never forgot. I also never got around to writing that part of my book, so I had never thought much about interrogating people. In my part life my name and face had been enough to make most people talk¡­ that and they all seemed to think that I had a terrifying smile. I still do not know that that was about however, as I would just smile and do something casual like clean my nails with my knife and they would freak out and start talking all on their own.

    Did you try giving them that same smile while taking off your pants?

    On occasion, but you should know that.

    ¡­You sure your smile was more ¡®scary¡¯ than ¡®perverted?¡¯

    ¡­You do not stay sorry for long do you?

    It is not in our nature, besides I can see your thoughts, which lets me know that you have already gotten over it.

    Fair enough.

    In my current state however, it would be a bit more difficult to intimidate anyone else. The local mender and daughter of the lord would still be seen as a child and thus nowhere near as in scary as an adult mage would be¡­ I could turn into my old self or Janeen¡¯s ¡®friend,¡¯ but there was no guarantee that one of them might not see through the illusion magic.

    Though, a grown man would still be more likely to intimidate them than anything else I could think of.

    Actually, I disagree. What would be more terrifying: A grown man with a creepy smile and no pants or a little girl who is casually breaking your bones and cutting off important bits?

    ¡­I am going to ignore that.

    That is okay, the moment it left my half of our brain I realized that both were on the borderline of perverted

    Yes and someday we must relocated you to the ¡®decent¡¯ side of that border.

    I received a picture of a politely dressed little girl blushing furiously. I sent her back a mental image of that same girl, still blushing, as she held a pair of beautiful, naked, women by their collars. What she sent back¡­ was not suitable for further exploration.

    Nonsense! That last one was from idle thoughts in your brain. Or did you conveniently forget the whole ¡®we¡¯ thing again? I mean an obedience collar with-

    Hush little Bella, it is almost time for pain and we are on a time limit.

    True.

    Concentrating on the man near the tree again, I walked behind him and carved a rune of ¡®truth¡¯ into the tree on the opposite side. After that, I tried to think of anything else that might help me ¡®convince¡¯ the man to cooperate. It took a minute, but I decided that leaving no trace I was here was preferable so I used illusion magic for the first time since the Lord¡¯s Party 6 long cycles ago.

    It took 3 tries before the illusion took. It would have been 2, but I did not cast a reflection spell to look at my appearance before I tried the first time. I foolishly thought I could accurately turn into my old self without it, but after the first attempt failed I thought better of it. After all, how many people need to cast an illusion spell to turn into themselves?

    The third try was the key, but I had to add another experiment for these unfortunate ¨C no, these ¡®idiotic fools¡¯ ¨C to test out. This was because the failed magic had actually consumed the same amount of calories as the regular spell would, but it still failed.

    Resisting the urge to sigh as I looked at my old form again. I went ahead and added a dark hood for menacing effect as much as deception. I had created the illusion based on what I should have looked like around age 40, meaning that, while I still had most of my muscles, I had far more lines on my face that in my youth. It should be far more intimidating than my little girl look, but I briefly wondered if another form would be better before deciding that I was overthinking it.

    Fear is a powerful weapon, but it is completely dependent on perception. Even if resistance was pointless, the other person had to realize that before the fear could really take hold.

    I shook my head and made sure that the illusion spell was moving with my real body correctly, especially for my facial expressions. Just before I dismissed the reflection spell I also noticed that my teeth were wrong. I could keep my teeth fairly health now, but in my previous life, that had been one of the few areas that the nobles had honestly beaten me ¨C hands down. Only true nobility had enough money to hire or train mages to work on their teeth.

    After thinking it over for a minute, I decided not to waste the mana and left my pearly white where they were and decided to wake up the tree fool¡­ who I then decided to call Ratface, partly because I wanted a more solid label for him, partly because his face reminded me of a rat.

    As Ratface started waking up, I called forth the spell I created accidentally a while back. I had been trying to gain a better control over my nervous system, to let myself react faster, even without using my internal energy. Instead, I managed to learn how to send a pain message through to my brain from every nerve I touched. I never managed to use mana to improve my nervous system too much, but I did manage to create a base for a pain spell.

    Not that anyone outside of the academic part of magic sensitive portion of humanity would fully appreciate this, but the act of building a basic pain spell was something that had eluded humanity since¡­ the beginning, as far as I knew. Almost anyone knew how to cause pain or cast a spell to create pain and some people could even cast a splash spell that directly created pain, but no one had a systematic spell to cause pain without an injury.

    I did. Although, Ratface did not appreciate it in the slightest. Fortunately, I remembered to create a sound dampening ward at the last moment so that I did not have to listen to the full volume of his screams. ¡°You have a good heart.¡± I announced, as the spell wore off and left him gasping for air. I had enough control over my vocal cords to deliberately deepen and mask my own voice without magic. ¡°Not a pure one mind you, but one healthy enough to take a few days of this without giving out.¡±

    Actually I was lying, but it was not a time for a lecture on the harmful effects of traxico smoke. He exercised regularly enough as part of basic army training, but they still had a very poor diet and the smoke had compounded that issue to make them weaker than they could be. Still, it was a little fun to see Ratface squirm as his mind caught up to the situation.

    ¡°Who in the 12 are you? How did-?¡± I was surprised by the power in his voice, Ratface here was clearly very important, in his own mind, at least. He was not very fast on the uptake either as he belatedly discovered his makeshift irons as he tried to stand up and fell flat on his face. He stared at them for a few moments afterwards too, clearly refusing to believe his fate.

    So I decided to help him with another pain spell. His screaming was shorter this time, as I went with a less powerful version of the spell, but it seemed to make my wards vibrate all around. I noticed and briefly wondered if he did not have some hidden magical talent, but that was impossible. No one could reach his age and not have manifested some form of magical control.

    Plus, I had checked with my own talent and his mana pathways were not nearly developed enough to signal a mage ¨C nor were either of them burn outs.

    For now I ignored it and concentrated on the creature writhing on the ground. ¡°You hurt someone last night.¡± I told him. ¡°You will tell me everything about what you did and why.¡±

    Open ended questions were better for information, they would let his brain start catching up to his situation and give me more time to analyze his answers, instead of thinking of more questions.

    ¡°Did that Blue-born lesser-souled¡¯s father send you?¡± I kept watching him with a blank expression and said nothing, but my mind was twisting in confusion. Blue said to be the symbolic color of the deceiver, so I at least understood that, but lesser-souled? How was it that some magicless fool had the spine to say that? Even John, for all of his faults, had not been arrogant to suggest that his soul was somehow superior and he at least had magic.

    Of course, I was assuming that the insult had the same origins as my previous world, but I could work that out later.

    I sent another pain spell into him and let it work on Ratface¡¯s nerves for a little while before it dissipated and I let his underdeveloped mind come back from the land of pain. ¡°You should know that no one ¡®sends¡¯ me anywhere,¡± I said coldly. ¡°Now answer the question: what did you do last evening? Make sure that you leave nothing out.¡±

    ¡°Go multiply with yourself!¡±

    I only barely kept myself from twitching and showing a smile. Who would expected humor in a situation like this? A sadist.

    There was an uncomfortable amount of underlying rage in that comment which surprised me. We would have to talk about that later.

    ¡°Do you see where you are?¡± I asked him. ¡°We are in the middle of the woods, where I can kill you and no one will find your remains for whole cycles.¡± I was going to say more, but apparently the idea of not being cremated was what actually kicked his mind.

    His eyes widened as I stopped speaking and a look of mixed horror and revulsion came over him. ¡°Y-y-you cannot do that! I-I am a noble you ignorant-¡±

    That was as far as he got before I let my killing intent wash over him. I knew how it would feel to be in the presence of someone so much stronger than you, to feel helpless, but this one was actually being somewhat protected by his ignorance.

    His family had likely made some bad financial decisions and had been forced to intermarry into a non-magical merchant family. It would explain the sense of entitlement, as well as the lack of magical ability. This, unfortunately (not really), meant that I had to make his situation even more abundantly clear.

    ¡°Clearly you misunderstood,¡± I said, let my voice change from cold to deepest winter I could manage. ¡°You will die right here and now if I so desire, but before that becomes a possibility you will answer my questions or¡­¡± I leaned forward, ¡°You will spend the last few days of your miserable existence in pain so great that you will wish I merely cut you up and left you to rot instead.¡± While the fool processed that for a moment, I leaned back and created a knife out of bone behind my back.

    ¡°Do try to think quickly,¡± I told him nonchalantly as possible, ¡°I do prefer to carve bones in the dark.¡± I held up the knife, higher than normal because of the illusion spell, which I had deliberately made longer and rougher looking than I had to. I did not add tool markings or any specific level of detail because of the low amount of light, but he still got the message and began telling me everything.

    Ratface¡¯s real name was O¡¯bal and his friend behind me was Cam. They, according to Ratface, had been in a drinking contest with Janeen¡¯s Stark. It was not a friendly contest and after the threat of another blast of pain, Ratface revealed that they had lost badly.

    Ratface had tried to bluster and lie about the contest, but I quickly reminded him that I did not want to hear his nonsense. The truth was that Terrick had asked them to make sure he was too drunk to do anything with Janeen. After they both were beaten in said contest, they staggered out in shame and met up with their leader, who directed them to the back of the facility.

    Ratface then began another round of justifying around this time about how he and O¡¯bal had been too drunk to recognize what they were doing until they had already gone too far. I only resisted the urge to kick him because of my illusion spell.

    According to him, their friend and leader, Terrick, had them carry a rolled up object through the forest at night and they, being such good ¨C drunk ¨C friends, had obliged him for a little while before the object started moving and screaming.

    They, clearly knowing nothing about this previously, had dropped the now very angry ¨C very naked ¨C Janeen on the ground, who promptly swore to have them all castrated. Afterwards, they had gotten into a fight and Terrick, who had just planned to dump her naked somewhere, went insane and beat her to death. Ratface and O¡¯bal had tried to stop him, but Janeen had kicked O¡¯bal in his ¡°O¡¯bals¡± and left Ratface to try and deal with an insanity fueled Terrick.

    As far as made up on-the-spot lies go, Ratface was quite accomplished. So I left him to scream in agony for some time while I watched my wards ripple in response. I found myself wondering if I was affecting them with my anger, or Bella was as her anger had abated just enough to make her feel guilty when hearing screams.

    It was a slightly unnerving effect ¨C like someone was trying to pick at my wards ¨C however, that was pushing my paranoia a bit far¡­ Still, I took the liberty of rearranging parts of my wards and adding a few more lethal deterrents. Someone once told me there was a word called overkill, but I disagreed.

    After grinding on Ratface for a little while longer and getting different versions each time I asked, I hit him with another stun spell and make him unconscious again.

    Why are we bothering with this again? It is good stress relief, but I did push us here because I was angry¡­ which also brings up the question of: ¡°Why did you not stop me?¡±

    I know how this is going to end Bella and I wanted both of us to remember what happens when we lose to our emotions. You have to remember that we chose this, no one else.

    ¡­What do you mean? DeMorte?

    I mean that hearing from others that someone is guilty is different from hearing it from them. We will be traveling around for an unknown length of time after this Bella ¨C in fact I would prefer leaving within the next few days, if not sooner ¨C and someday soon, we will have to kill someone. You need to be prepared and willing to face the Guilt when that happens.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.Are you going to kill them just to make sure that happens?

    Why so quiet Bella? The anger finally run dry? Do not worry, I would not want for us to go through the [i[Guilt[/i] unless other methods had failed first.

    ¡­That was why you encouraged me, it was not to get payback, but to make sure that I was prepared to take a life in cold-blood. To make a failsafe.

    Yes, but pain and the other experiment are awaiting too, so lets continue.

    Wait, how did you hide that? These days we share most of our thoughts and I only have trouble when you start thinking about memories from before I was born.

    Here.

    I visualized the memory of Anton explaining how to hide my thoughts from the Nalks and let Bella digest that as I turned towards¡­ No-Balls.

    I also pulled out a spoiled avotato from my robes. I had snatched it from a small pile in the fort and wrapped it inside a fold in my robes that I had subsequently tied off. It was disgusting, but I used more mana than I originally intended to. I still had large reserves of mana remaining, but I had never managed to put on enough calories to use it continuously. Thankfully, our mana roots spell did not give us any idea of what it tasted like.

    I really needed to gain some weight, but this body was just not ready for it yet. Lilith seemed to be the order of the day, phase, and cycle for Bella¡¯s body build and it was partly because of my own modifications. Thicker bones, muscles, and the everyday calorie consumption that came with my various experiments and modifications meant that I ate almost as much as a full grown man on any given day.

    No-Balls was not Ratface. Where Ratface had been overly talkative, No-Balls was only a little more talkative than Mathalaus himself. Maybe he talked more with friends, but trying to get him to answer questions could be compared to pulling healthy teeth.

    He was also less self-righteous and justifying about what happened, especially about the why.

    ¡°Beautiful wild woman. Always wild, thought she would be hurt. Hurt, not broken, not killed. Hated her tongue, always insulting, I just wanted to make her hurt because of it.¡±

    His speech was annoying, but was slightly less offending than Ratface, who clearly did not care for anyone other than himself. No-Balls here actually looked ill when he talked about seeing what Terrick had done, admitting that he had taken a potion to sleep tonight. After confirming that the potion was still trying to do its work on him, I put him back to sleep.

    I had once heard of a kingdom where the criminal intention was considered with the same weight as the victim, but I was not that type of person. I got the feeling that No-Balls was the type who bottled up rage and let it explode out later, understandable, but I did not feel inclined to let him go.

    Everyone has a story, everyone has a life that matters. In an ideal world, no one would get hurt or hurt others, but that ideal world would never be created because of human nature. That knowledge had led me to a simple truth about talking human lives: We all have the right to end a human life, along with a responsibility to just how serious that act is.

    That said, I could and would change how someone met their end if I felt it appropriate. In No-Balls¡¯ case, I just made sure that his ¡®fail-safe¡¯ was less painful.

    I knocked No-Balls out again with the stun spell and ignored the feeling of unease that Bella was emanating. She had many adult mannerisms and thoughts because of her slow merge with me, but she was still a child in the end. Part of her thought of what we were doing as a justice against an evil, but killing someone was nothing more or less than killing them.

    The storm is not evil because it floods the fields and we would have to be more like a storm in the future. We would be more of a force of nature than a normal person.

    We are human though, why do we have to become something else?

    Because of the Guilt and the Nalks and who we are!

    I thought the purpose of learning to fly in that previous place was to learn to be flexible, to CHANGE who WE are!

    We will change, we will change into something that they cannot stop, something they cannot control or predict. We will become the storm that destroys their best laid plans.

    I touched No-Balls¡¯ head and created the first failsafe. He would feel next to no pain, but he would suffer in his own way if they did not hang him first.

    No mercy Bella. You have to always be ready to go directly through the fire if you need to.

    First a storm, now a fire, WE ARE PEOPLE! HUMANS!

    I did not say we were a fire Bella.

    I moved over to Ratface and touched his chest.

    The past few cycles with the modified humans to the north and the more resent experiment with Dras had shown me how easy it was

    Th-This is not right- you know it is not right!

    I heard from some gods that there is no right or wrong. Life is war, it just shows us who remains Bella¡­ Besides, we will still need to find Terrick so please do not try to back out now. We are the same person you know?

    No, I can choose not to be you I-

    No you cannot Bella, a few isolated memories are not the same as actual experience, you will understand soon enough though.

    I sent my memories and experiences through Bella as I tried to concentrate enough to perform my last experiment in the Entrials area.

    First, I touched Ratface¡¯s arm and tried to use the mana roots spell. The spell went in fine, but stopped for a moment at the surface as I tried to pull out nutrients from his body. I grimaced and concentrated, but the flow was not only blocked, but he seemed to be resisting it somehow.

    Gripping a little tighter, I dug my nails into his skin until he bled, at which point my mana roots became much more effective. Of course, I was still having trouble for some reason, but I chalked it up to trying to absorb a living creature. Dead animals were no problem, but the live ones obviously felt pain when I tried to test it on them, so I decided to limit that type of experimentation for Bella¡¯s sake.

    Standing up I realized that Bella was almost done dealing with those memories and would be giving me a mind-full soon, so I quickly moved onto the second stage of the experiment.

    I stood up and created my mana roots while I was not touching him. The ¡®roots¡¯ themselves actually came out looking like evil little black snakes to my third eye. The fact that came out of my fingertips was also creepy, but the results of casting this spell were completely unexpected.

    I sensed a huge burst of magic to my side and felt a flurry of spells rip apart the inner layers of wards. I barely had time to warn Bella and summon my internal energy before a random man rushed out of the nearby woods, giving off a monstrous amount of mana and killing intent.

    *     *     *

    Undisclosed location near the royal capital of Zootrofi:

    A few minutes later:

    ¡°You failed.¡± He stated coldly. Staring down from his deliberately set chair, Rapier could feel his condescending judgement overriding his perverted desires.

    Not for the first time, Rapier thanked the gods for her mother¡¯s patient training on how to deal with such men. Most of the Royal Magician¡¯s Corps were male and expected to father children in between missions so she had expected more than the few gazes that tended to follow her, but there were 2 obvious reasons they did not. The first was because of a professionalism that surprised her, they knew that their lives might be in her hands one day and treated her like such.

    The second reason, however, was Rapier herself. Most of the men here were nobility and expected their women to be both powerful magical and pleasantly plump. For someone like her, whose family was neither a poor peasant working the dirt nor a rich merchant, it was an odd idea.

    The ideal noble woman was apparently a few sizes bigger and a few stones heavier than Rapier ¨C whose name had actually been changed upon joining the Corps to better fit her ¨C and only some males in the Corps were polite enough to not state it. With only some like the implacable Zotra actually taking an interest in her.

    The current fool she was speaking with was Kraus, an outright fat man who seemed to have forgotten how to exercise. His bloated mass would be useful on an actual battlefield, but if he gained a few more stones in weight, the Corps would have to transport him there in a wheelbarrow.

    The fact that he seemed to prefer more ¡®compact¡¯ women like Rapier had only made the man that much more disgusting to her. He was also a fool in every area except rumor mongering as he would frequently berate her over small mistakes she made, just loud enough for the few servants to hear before spending time talking more quietly about her mistakes and what she should have done instead. If his advice was ever helpful, or the mistakes easily avoidable, she would not have cared, but it quickly became obvious why he changed his volume.

    She once overheard a new servant asking ¡°How is she still here?¡± and realized how quickly it would become ¡°What is she doing with him when the room goes quiet?¡± and although the more experienced servants knew this routine well enough to ignore it, the rumors were still spreading.

    It was the one time she seriously wondered about whether or not binding servants with magic to keep them loyal was the way to go after all.

    Since then, she had suggested and negotiated a second reviewer to always be present when she was presenting a report.

    ¡°I made her the offer and she has to consider it herself. The initial contact, evaluation, and presentation of the offer after I found her a good match was my mission and I succeeded in all of those accomplishments.¡±

    ¡°Before you were all but thrown out the next day, by some newly titled Lord of a backwoods area too!¡± Kraus announced, his face twitching unpleasantly as it seemed to be on the edge of changing colors ¨C from his raging red to his blue outrage. ¡°You failed in your ever-present duty of making sure that the Royal name does not look weak! Besides, your real mission was supposed to be there to impress one little girl, that was it! By your own report the girl is a genius and we know that she was already considering joining one of the churches, a fact that you might have made irreversible! What would you like to say about this my Lady?¡±

    I would like to ask you to get a little angrier so that your heart would give out Rapier thought viciously, resisting the urge to shiver at his ¡®MY Lady.¡¯ It had taken more time than expected to find and ask Zotra for her favor so Kraus had already cleared his time, waiting specially for her report. Otherwise she might have well been out on another mission before he noticed.

    The politics in court had begun to move more quickly than anyone had apparently prepared for and the Corps was the King¡¯s loyal tool if nothing else. There was a flood of spying missions that the women of the Corps would be expected to ¡®help¡¯ with at any cost. Such assignments were disgusting, but were both expected and less disgusting than dealing with Kraus.

    The other reviewer, who was sitting behind her, did not seem to be friendly either, Druse was someone above her in rank, but she had no idea who he was otherwise, making him a very dangerous variable indeed. The man seemed to have a distaste for Kraus, but Rapier could only guess that from the reflection of him off a well-polished (and rarely used) sword behind Kraus¡¯ head. Druse was not speaking up to cut the fool to size though, so he remained a mystery as far as Rapier was concerned.

    ¡°I performed my mission as instructed and I-¡°

    She was cut off as the door opened. She knew the door would be warded and only someone of importance could get in so she stopped speaking to look in the reflection again.

    It was Zeke. Her blood ran cold and Rapier had a horrible feeling rush through her. Zeke was one of the two watchers.

    Watcher were the ones who were said to hold the map of the entire world and continuously update it with the positions of every army and royal agent. They were recluses who were allowed every measure of luxury at the cost of their freedom. They could only be visited by the King or his personally approved retinue and could only leave their secret rooms for war, sex, and death.

    Only the first of which they were supposed to do unsupervised.

    The silent shock only lasted a brief moment before Zeke spoke. ¡°Number 0694 is dead.¡±

    Rapier felt the room start to spin. Number 0694 was Zotra, she got Zotra killed.

    She felt sick as the realization that the little girl that she tested might be so much more dangerous than they realized hit her in full force. No, you do not know that for sure, Rapier thought to herself.

    For one of the second time in her life, Rapier heard Druse¡¯s voice as he spoke up. ¡°I take it you 2 were familiar with each other Rapier?¡±

    Her voice seemed distant as she answered. ¡°He was always trying to court me.¡± I always turned him away, but he did seem genuine when I asked him for my favor. I thought he would just ask me to spend the night, but he seemed to want an actual night out first.

    She dimly noted that Kraus¡¯s look of jealousy showed that he thought Zotra had already succeeded where he failed. ¡°Wait outside until we are done and collect yourself my Lady.¡±

    Rapier left without saying a word, they would be calling her back in any second anyway. She tried to mentally prepare herself and her personal suicide spell in case Kraus tried to declare her a traitor. Traitors had no life in the hours before their execution and there was no way that Kraus would not use the opportunity to thoroughly familiarize himself with her body.

    She could already hear the sentencing being passed, stating that she had seduced Zotra to investigate her own failure and had gotten him killed in the process. It would be embellished of course, as no one would doubt that the sentence was harsher than the actual crime, but that would not stop Kraus from doing whatever he wanted until ¨C IF ¨C the charge was reduced.

    She was a loyal soldier to the crown and had never hidden a detail or personal failure from her reports despite Kraus¡¯ distasteful actions in reviewing those failures, now though, none of that would matter in the slightest.

    It took less time than she thought before the door opened of its own accord and Kraus bellowed for her to enter. She felt like she was in a dream as she entered the room and the door swung shut behind her.

    All three of them were behind the desk, with only Kraus sitting, while they had a map of the northern most sections of the kingdom laid out on the desk. ¡°You will not reveal what you see or hear in this room today, do you understand?¡± Kraus questioned her with, to her shock, a completely serious face.

    Rapier blinked and nodded before he snapped at her again. ¡°Aloud woman! I want your oath on this.¡±

    ¡°You have my oath, I will not disclose what I see or hear here.¡± Likely because I will have killed myself to avoid your perversions.

    Kraus took a deep breath, ¡°You were late returning, was that because you went to see 0694?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± She double checked her spell, vowing only to tell them to investigate Bella before she used it.

    ¡°Did, in the course of your meeting with him, he tell you where he was heading next?¡± Kraus stared intently into her own eyes and as the words registered her mood rapidly changed.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Concentrate!¡± Druse ordered ¡°Did he tell you where he was going? Did he give you any hints as to when he would return? Anything?¡±

    ¡°He¡­¡± Rapier was at a loss for words, part of being in the Corps was a soul-bound crystal that shattered upon death and sent the information back to the watchers. ¡°He said that he would be back by the end of the earth phase.¡± Are they testing me? Or did something happen to his crystal?

    ¡°Nothing else?¡± Druse pushed.

    ¡°No.¡± I told him where to go, not the opposite way around.

    Kraus spoke up ¡°Think very, very, carefully my dear, are you sure that there were no other clues on where he was going? Do you have any ideas, even if it is just a guess?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± She lied, before pressing on with a question. ¡°Sirs why are you even asking, did something go wrong with his crystal?¡±

    Kraus grimaced ¡°That is none of your concern dear, I think you should leave this to us.¡±

    Druse countered him though. ¡°That is it? Just a few questions and you let it go? We can at least use truth magic on her.¡±

    Rapier¡¯s mind almost stopped working at that comment. It was illegal to use truth magic on the King¡¯s servants unless used directly by the king¡¯s investigators ¨C an action that was rare to say the least.

    ¡°Rapier¡¯s greatest fault is that she never lies to us.¡± Kraus dismissed, waving away Druse¡¯s objection. ¡°You can read her reports if you want to, she writes down everything except what position she prefers.¡±

    Rapier made a neutral face and quietly left as quickly as she could. Her life could have been on the line so she did not feel guilty about lying, she was actually trained to do just that, but now she had the problem of how to direct the investigation to the proper area and the proper person without risk to herself¡­

    As she walked back to her private room, Rapier felt her mind start to catch up to just how dangerous of a game she would be playing. She had only been in the Corps for 3 cycles and she had made it through the training thinking that nothing and no one would be able to touch her. The missions that she had been given after she arrived had been difficult, but they had not shaken her faith in herself or her training. Now though, she was just starting to realize how many people could actually hurt her and just how wrong she was.

    She would also have to face the reality that the person she looked forward to seeing in the most in the Corps was now dead.

    ¡­She made it to her private room before the first tears fell.

    ---------------------------------------------------------

    Thank you for reading,

    Sir B_S.

 Chapter 23: Eye of The Guilt

    This chapter was freaking hard to write and it is one of the very few that I found myself wondering how much to write/edit/remove and especially where to stop, so I hope I did it justice, but I am not sure¡­ Regardless: if you are not prepared for darkness and borderline cannibalism in that darkness, I am sorry in advance.

    Chapter 23: Eye of The Guilt

    Bastard!

    The stranger rushed us while firing off a variety of both death and stun spells. The shear mass of spells was impressive, but the fact that they were all aimed almost directly at me was nearly terrifying. Some of the spells were also deliberately aimed wide and were curving around our back to hit us from behind.

    I had Bella concentrate on our third eye to warn me of any homing spells as I used my internal energy to push us off to the side to try and avoid the majority of spells. I did not kick off so hard that I flew into the air though, I pushed just hard enough to glide just above the ground.

    Too many young fools thought that using internal energy was just about accessing the energy you stored to make you stronger. While it was an understandable use of the energy, the power, that you could use, but there were other ways to use it. An average mage who cultivated for a few days could use his internal energy to causally throw large rocks or chunks of iron that even 10 men would find hard to lift off the ground. It was impressive to see, but few realized that in a fight that type of use of the energy would be a complete waste.

    A master did not use large amounts of his internal energy if he could avoid it, he used only the precise amount required. The only reason I qualified as a master of manipulating it was the precise control I had gotten familiar with as I used it in my everyday life. No one had taught me how to use my internal energy and I had too little mana to gather it quickly, so I had learned to ration it.

    Being able to leap tall trees in a single bound was fun, but only when no one was trying to kill you, as you would be almost helpless in the air.

    Following that same logic, if you were fighting in a forest and you made large leaps you would likely be blinded by the branches and leaves hitting your face if you jumped too high. Or, in my case, I might have jumped to the side and heard Bella say ¡®watch out for that-¡¯ right before I managed to hit a tree.

    So instead, I kicked off the ground, just lightly enough to distance me from the charging stranger. He followed me, each step seeming to cause a small crater as he used his internal energy in a more conventional way, namely, to make him faster and let him try to close the distance.

    I had a little trouble keeping my distance from him as I had to move in almost random directions to try and keep him from catching me, while he only had to rush forward, slinging spells. I also had the trees to deal with as they could be very annoying obstacles ¨C especially as I occasionally had to dodge my opponent without looking at the direction I was jumping.

    Sparing half of a thought to it, I was more skipping or dancing than actually jumping, with my internal energy being concentrated on my feet, brain, and nervous system. I was very familiar with this type of fighting from my previous life and it was almost instinctual to dodge his attacks while I tried to gain distance efficiently.

    After about 7 of my smaller skips, I managed to land next to a particularly large tree and I spotted a small trail that had been warn away just behind it. As the stranger lunged at me yet again, firing several variants of death spells I decided to put some serious distance between us.

    I like up close fighting against a stronger opponent, but I needed time to think and analyze first. Right now I was just reacting to his movements and trying to stay alive. I had won fights like that before, but it was almost always a close thing and I disliked even the idea of an ¡®equal¡¯ or ¡®fair¡¯ fight.

    As he charged towards me I concentrated my internal energy into my lower body and braced myself before turning my whole body off at an angle towards the trail and really let loose.

    In the briefest of moments later, I was planting both of my heels into the ground as I tried to bleed off momentum. Next to the tree I had jumped from was the, now very surprised looking, young man who had been trying to kill me.

    Or at least he now seemed very young to me, in his mid-twenties, as he was not directing a massive amount of killing intent.

    Not normally one to take unnecessary chances, I took this advantage of his confusion to push off the part of the trail I had landed by and shot back into the woods. This time I did not aim at the ground though and took aim at the base of a large tree instead.

    A moment later, my body, despite the upgrades I made over the past few years, was being pushed to its limits to as I barely managed to turn it around in time to brace against the tree. I heard a loud crack at my landing and I barely noted that it was the tree. I did push a little more internal energy into my limbs to compensate, but the landing was still brutal and I was not done yet.

    The tree ¨C if it could feel pain ¨C would have screamed at me for the landing alone, but the loud crack that I made on impact was made even more evident after I change directions and launch again, blowing away a large part of its bark.

    I shot off again, this time landing on some large tree roots before I used them to gain more traction and launch again. Bella told me that a few homing spells had just disappeared and I realized that our opponent had changed tactics to tracking me instead of attacking.

    I kept up the pace to get some more distance between us, but I knew that I could spare more time to actually processing my surroundings now.

    Any mage who uses combat orientated spells falls typically into two strategic categories in single combat.

    The more common of these two methods was to identify who was stronger, magically speaking. After you discovered that, the stronger mage usually tried to push through the weaker mage¡¯s spells and make them back down or force a confrontation early. The weaker mage then tried to trick the more powerful mage into making a mistake so that they could take advantage in the heat of the moment. This type of fighting allowed everyone to avoid the protracted fight that could literally continue until using magic started to cannibalize someone¡¯s body before their eyes.

    The second method ¨C naturally frowned upon by the nobility ¨C was to keep your distance and try and trick you opponent into making a grave mistake. I preferred this method because I liked the idea and the practice of using iron javelins and throwing knives to kill without magic. It also had the occasional effect of driving the practitioners of the other method into rages as they tried to close and finish the fight as soon as possible.

    The major reason the second method was less popular though was not the short sightedness of the nobility, but instead the tendency of the winner to be determined by the person who cultivated the most. With either internal energy or mana compression, the person who kept their distance could use their cultivation time to change how much mana they used in the fight.

    My opponent had rushed me and kept up the attack to try and finish me quickly, for whatever reason he attacked me, he had judged me as an enemy that would be more easily defeated with a surprise attack than a drawn out conflict. He was correct of course, but I had to wonder how he knew that.

    I stopped moving and scanned my surroundings before I dispelled my illusion and suppressed any trace of my mana. I then doubled back to one of my previous launch points. If he knew that I could not risk the other two being discovered in the woods, he would likely wake them up and use them to trap me. He could also put up a magic lighthouse spell, which would create a beacon to call the fort mages out here to investigate.

    Although given the lack of a beacon so far I was inclined to believe that he was more interested in the two I was questioning than¡­

    I was only halfway back to the point where I thought he would be when saw movement in the distance. After hiding in a small group of bushes just out of sight, I closed my eyes to concentrate on both my ears and my magical senses.

    I realized that he was following me. Not a terribly shocking conclusion, but given the distances I covered, I was honestly surprised how close he was. In order to cover that much distance he would have had to completely ignore the two I left behind and come straight after me as fast as he could.

    Also, he was leaking next to no mana, which meant he was trained and he made almost no sound, which suggested that he was familiar with hunting, but what I could not believe was the idea that my luck was that good.

    Did he have a helper watching from a distance? Or was there some reason that he felt that I needed to be eliminated before someone else discovered us? Or was he just trying to press an advantage without realizing that he had already lost it? Why was he targeting me? No wait¡­

    The correct question would be: Why was he chasing a random man through the woods?

    Illusion spells gave off next to no mana, it was the nature of the spell to be hard to detect, but this one was targeting me

    ¡­Or did he think we were too dangerous to let go? We had seen his face, but that would assume that someone had sent him directly after us and yet¡­

    I quietly monitored what little mana he gave off and waited for him to start searching in a direction opposite to where I was hiding before risking trying to see him.

    At just over 100 meters away he would have been impossible to see by normal eyes and I thought that he might only be giving off any sense of mana because he was clearly using a small amount of magic to sense my tracks in the dark.

    We also took the time to examine him as best we could at a distance, although even with magically enhanced eyesight it was difficult to see through some of the thicker foliage. Our opponent was a young enough man, although perhaps more into his years than we originally thought, he would not likely be older than thirty and was well fed.

    Too well fed, he was clearly a man who practiced a fairly rigorous lifestyle, yet his body had a thin layer of what was likely well-maintained fat. Given the sheer number of spells he had cast at me, it seemed to suggest that he had deliberately built up his gut in spite of his regular activity. That usually meant money and when combined with training, it suggested a combat mage.

    Which was a painful realization to make as now we had to determine why he was coming after us.

    We watched him examine some of the less noticeable signs of our passage, an area where a group of tree roots had served as our launch point, and we felt both impressed and confused. Our ears were sharp and our magical sense was even sharper in quite a few ways, yet we had to strain to catch any sign of the strange mage existing.

    Quietly withdrawing from sight, we tried to figure out why this one was attacking us.

    Maybe it had something to do with your little torture session?

    I doubt it, if interrogating those nobodies bothered anyone it might be a naive ¡®adventurer¡¯ who did not know the way of the world, or Mathalaus himself, if he wanted to take care of them personally.

    Not everyone is as okay with causing pain as you are DeMorte.

    No, but they would try call attention to our actions before demanding an answer from us. They would not slowly infiltrate my wards and then attack us out of nowhere.

    His actions after his poorly conceived ambush made less sense than the ambush itself.

    Trying to hunt someone after a failed ambush was odd in the extreme from my point of view. Especially given how I had not cast any spells of my own other than erecting my wards, casting my illusion spell and mana roots.

    Someone who had just used magic would find it incredibly hard to hide their presence afterwards. I was of course, but if it was not for the fact that I spent a couple decades doing just that, I would not be. I was also used to looking for people suppressing their magical abilities as too many of them had tried coming for my head.

    Of course, his initial attack was also poorly conceived as his follow through. Pressing the attack was one thing, but now he was just being foolish, despite what seemed to be a high amount of training too.

    Why was this one so determined? It almost felt like I was being hunted again by royal assassins or those self-righteous mercenaries¡­

    Wait¡­ this could not possibly be related to Lady Rapier could it? My pursuer certainly had the skills to be a royal combat mage, but they were supposed to be a patient, supremely competent, representative of the crown itself.

    Someone like that would not carry out some half-baked ambush unless¡­

    Unless he thought I might be a Soul Mage.

    Suddenly it made much more sense, I was near the fear runes and the crown would have a vested interest in such an unnatural formation.

    Over 3000 years after the Elves had been declared exterminated and the whole world still had to deal with the terrors of leftovers from that horrible memory. If they knew the age of the runes it would likely provoke a strong reaction from the churches, but if they were still investigating the area it was actually more likely that they thought a Soul Mage was responsible.

    Rapier could have been sent up here for an informal investigation, but had been delayed in reporting back because of her duty to test me.

    That would explain why he was out here in the middle of nowhere trying to hunt me down as fast as possible. He clearly believed that I was a powerful danger that would only grow with time and had likely only known that my mana roots spell had been designed to suck out something unidentified from some military soldiers.

    Attaining military information prior to rushing back over towards the fear runes and into an area very few people could follow me? I could actually understand why he was after me then, he had likely thought that I would be rushing to get back to my tower after being discovered prematurely.

    With ¡®prematurely¡¯ referring to whatever evil plans he thought I might have in mind.

    ¡­It made as much sense as any other explanation I could think of, including Nalks, I was just a little girl in this world and there would be little to no reason for a full combat mage to chase me.

    So, once he realized that I had doubled back to hunt him, the mage would likely set off a lighthouse spell and deal with the consequences of ruining his quiet investigation at some later date. Ironically, the only 2 good solutions I could think of were to talk it out, or to rush him before he realized the truth.

    Iron knives and distance would not work in this case, it would have to be up close work¡­

    How are you going to talk to someone who thinks that we are a Soul Mage?

    I thought about it, keeping track of the stranger as I felt him locate another of my jump locations. He only had a few more to go before he reached where I turned back.

    DeMorte? Could we just head back to the other two and then return them? Once he realizes that we have doubled back we will likely have a few minutes where he is trying to look for an ambush.

    No, he would have had time to study the faces of those 2 fools while he was between my wards. He will find them back at the fort or track them down once word starts to spread about their trial. He might even recognize our magic through our wards and the mana root spell.

    I felt him move towards my next jump spot and I quietly slipped out to follow him. Given that the only tracks for him to follow being the spots where I jumped from, he was showing a remarkable pace.

    How do you know that he saw their faces? He managed to sneak up on us, which means that he might not have been using mana at all!

    Not quite Bella, he could have cast a spell to adapt his eyes at the beginning of the night. That would give him enough time to reseal and suppress any mana that would otherwise give him away. Besides, internally or directly cast spells are both harder to sense and invisible to the third eye.

    I had already reached the conclusion that Bella seemed to be increasingly desperate to avoid. A conclusion that reminded me how we were still two separate entities with only occasional overlaps in knowledge and thoughts.

    We were being hunted though, hunted by a trained killer who I would take a big risk trying to talk to. Especially as the only logical reason that I could come up with for that hunt was so dangerous that we could end up with a massive following out to kill us. While I was sure that I could change our body ¨C and perhaps even our blood ¨C enough to prevent anyone from recognizing us, the results of the hunt for ¡®Bella¡¯ would not just inconvenience us, but everyone around or related to us.

    Janeen was the one who would most affected at first as she and her clan would be forced to leave the area before they were able to let the law pass judgment. A judgment that would not be in Nathan¡¯s hands as he would likely be stripped of his power, rank, and property. His only hope would be to publically abandon me and ask one of the churches to hide them. Loco and Luna would be investigated and ostracized.

    You do not know that. We are talking about killing someone! Someone who MAY or MAY NOT be a royal mage! How is it not at least worth trying to talk it out? Especially when you still do not know if he has friends waiting out there for us.

    Everyone is someone¡¯s child. I let you and your anger drive us to action, but our actions have led us here. You were ready to kill the other 2 ¨C the rapists ¨C in righteous anger, but you are hesitating when it comes to someone who actually attacked us? You are right Bella, we do not even know if this one would do any of the things I am worried about, but I do not think that we can take that chance.

    Please¡­ Please¡­ There has to be another way.

    I went through all the possible plans I could think of to try and avoid conflict, but they all took chances or assumptions that I could not reasonably risk because of the considerable blowback that could affect everyone in the Entrials area.

    Our decisions had brought us here and honestly, I thought as I matched pace with the stranger, I had killed for less.

    I was guessing and making judgments based off of partial information and extrapolation, but it all fit in my head. We did not live in a world of absolutes and people could only react based on what was in front of them at the time. If the Nalks had somehow set this up, I would likely regret my actions, but they would still be my actions.

    In case he had a friend in the area who, for whatever reason, had not charged in to support him, I would just cast another illusion spell and pretend to be¡­ someone else.

    After I killed this one, I would need to deal with the Guilt before taking the other 2 back to the fort.

    I already had an iron knife in each hand when I focused my internal energy on my legs again. I could go for speed or stealth, so I opted for stealth.

    I prepared the one spell that would guarantee his silence, but did not actually cast it. I then kicked off the ground perfectly in time with his steps and closed to just a few meters away when, just before I landed I threw one of my knives at his back.

    Not that it would have made a difference, but the iron knife would have shredded or ¡®purified¡¯ any wards that he had created. Unfortunately, Bella was still freaking out and shook my concentration as I threw the knife.

    I was still on target, but when I got distracted, the mana that I had been holding in like a great breathe slipped just a little. If there was any doubt about his training, the stranger dispelled it by instantly rolling to the side.

    I only just managed to speed up my perception enough to throw my second dagger at his now slowly tumbling body. He was just coming upright and was doubtlessly about to send a spell my way when the iron pierced his back.

    There were only a handful of methods to get a mage to stop or refrain from casting magic. The first 2 methods are obvious, either convince them not to of their own free will, or make sure that their survival depends on them not doing so. Imprisoned mages were often starved on a diet of water and bread to make sure that any magic they could cast would be limited. If they were thinned out enough, it would be physically impossible for them to use magic.

    The other methods were less polite and somewhat less convenient. In this case, I primarily used one of the more direct ways to interfere with my opponent. The first was iron, or more specifically, an iron weapon actually piercing the body. In the almost unheard of cases of a Soul Mage being captured by poison, their bodies had iron spikes driven through each of their hands and into their backs.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Not even the most powerful and dangerous mages in history could cast a spell while there were in such a position and I gave the stranger around 4 cm of iron to help him out.

    Then I used one of the more indirect methods as well ¨C disrupting a mage¡¯s concentration ¨C by casting Gorith¡¯s Shroud. It was a risk as I did not know if it was classified under the same category of magic here as it was back home, but if it was, then any nearby friends of this one would soon be on their way.

    Ironically, Gorith¡¯s Shroud was not a combat technique, but a research one. It was used in the far past by a researcher whose notes I more or less discovered in my previous life. Still, while the shroud was meant to simply control an area, it was known in legend as the death god¡¯s shroud. The few combat uses of it included disrupting someone¡¯s senses, cutting someone off from the mana around them, and, if the shroud was large enough, it could bend or catch spells in its area of influence.

    The color of the miasma varied based on the mage, (according to certain notes at least, no one wanted to be caught using it) but the shroud still interfered with someone¡¯s sight, as well as dampening sounds, and cutting off everyone except the caster from feeling mana.

    Most, if not all, mages naturally drew on the mana around them to one extent or another. We could control it to some extent, but most of our power came from within us. Still, to be cut off from mana apparently felt like suddenly losing your sense of direction to the point where you forget which way is down. It was unnatural and disturbed someone¡¯s state of mind, making it much harder to cast spells.

    Not impossible, but hard enough that I was surprised when the stranger managed to pull up his mana into mana armor. The thick layer of mana would stop any less powerful spell, but not another iron knife though so I was not too worried.

    I did not bother with a full landing and simply kicked the ground hard to change directions while still mostly in midair. It would have been impossible if not for two reasons, first, was my internal energy flowing exactly as I needed it to and second was the original benefit of the shroud.

    It was named for a specific reason, but the main function of the shroud, according to the notes I found was to completely claim and control the area. While the notes I found indicated that it had been created to disprove non-magical spontaneous generation and combustion, the shroud let me know exactly what was inside of my area of control.

    I knew and could feel every root, tree, branch, the one very confused bird, the army of ants currently devouring what felt like a dead squirrel, and my opponent as he tried to use his internal energy to speed up his perception of time. He was not a master though, I could speed up my perception selectively after decades of practice, but this youngling did not have a chance.

    I did not even have to keep my perception sped up to this level to finish him at this point. During the whole night of running around and carrying off rapist in the middle of the night, I had barely used a quarter of my stored internal energy, but I did so anyways to try and minimize the chance of being surprised.

    Fool.

    I threw my second dagger into his leg and felt his scream reverberate in the shroud. With my internal energy pulsing through me, the dagger had likely pierced the bone.

    Arrogant.

    I allowed the shroud to let his screams escape and echoed in the forest. I was not a nice person, I was a king. Any king weak enough to be called nice, kind, or pious, was the type I fed on.

    Weaklings!

    If he had a friend out there, they would try and rush in soon. I buried him deeper into my shroud and walked around him. I was right next to him, but he could not tell. He pulled the dagger out of his leg so I took out one of my last daggers and slashed his Achilles tendon on his uninjured leg.

    As he yelled again he sent a pulse of mana into the shroud around him. I was already out of the way though and his mind was so full of disruptions that I doubted he could even manage a suicide spell.

    Of course I still watched for any magical device that would have the same effect, but there seemed to be nothing.

    Monster.

    He had chosen to investigate me¡­ chosen to do so, it appeared, without any help, as no one had yet to enter my shroud. No mana had impacted it either, meaning that no one had attacked it or directly tried to analyze it ¨C like illusion spells, the nature of the shroud made it almost impossible to distinguish with the third eye.

    I sneered at him from the safety of the shroud, now I was going to kill someone, someone who might not even deserve to die, just for me to make sure I was safe.

    He likely did not even know who I was¡­

    His breath was rattling too.

    For non-mages, mana was even in the air they breathed, meaning I could even deliberately suffocate them if I wanted, but unless I was fighting one person at a time, they could just run in one direction and eventually get out. My maximum range for the shroud in my previous life was 30 meters or so, but I should be able to make it much larger in this life, if I chose¡­

    Another experiment for the future ¨C stop trying to distract me Bella, it could get us killed.

    I was about to speed up our perception of time again when I felt the shroud quiver. ¡°How can¡­ Soul Mage be¡­ G¨ªa master?¡± He was wheezing, looking out into the darkness of the shroud  for a moment before I decided it was time.

    He had come here alone and he would die alone. I ignored a scream as my dagger stabbed into the back of his head. I twisted it to thoroughly destroy his brainstem and then left it there while I reshaped part of my bone armor into a small sword, which I used to decapitate him.

    I felt a brief pulse of mana leave his body and impact the shroud, but I smothered it. The pulse had been similar to a lighthouse spell so I presumed that he had some magical device I did not know about.

    Bell had frozen in mute silence and horror as I did this. She thought she knew what was coming, but no one else in either world I had lived in could truly know. She also seemed even more horrified that I was already planning my next experiment using his corpse.

    I felt the Guilt flare up in my soul. Its call reaching out to call the soul of my dead foe to me. It did not have to search hard, Gorith¡¯s Shroud was called a ¡®Soul¡¯ technique in my previous world because it claimed the area around me as totally mine to the point of heresy. Nothing nonphysical that I did not allow out could get through, even a person¡¯s soul, or the eyes of the gods.

    I returned my bone sword to my armor and created a helmet that would somewhat protect me if I lost control. It had been a long time since I felt the Guilt and I knew that it would be somewhat worse because of Bella. It would be nowhere near as bad as after a big battle, but the last one of those I had been in I managed to pass out.

    Regrettably, I could not put myself to sleep or deliberately knock myself out, or the Guilt would wait. It would wait on the edge of my conscious for me to wake up before it made me pay. The Guilt always seemed to have a mind of its own like that, even waiting until I was physically safe from possible attack before affecting me.

    I swallowed. I chose my actions, he chose his, and now I would deal with the consequences. I felt Bella¡¯s anger and fear burn silently in the back of my head. She knew that she was partially to blame too, but I could distantly sense how much she was blaming me.

    We would find out if she was right to in a moment.

    The Guilt, having apparently determined it was safe, hit me.

    His name was Zotra. He had been born into a distant branch of the royal family itself and had grown up knowing that he would be strictly watched for signs of disloyalty.

    This was made all the more clear to him when the current king, Miles, decided to discreetly discredit and disinherit the branch families. He was king and he had only become king after killing dozens of other people with stronger claims to the throne than his.

    Zotra grew up being told to be thankful that he had not been forcibly sterilized ¨C only by the grace of the King¡¯s mercy.

    He had been an averaged aristocratic boy in his youth and had gotten in the average amount of trouble. When he hit puberty a few of his friends introduced him to a high class madam and her scantily clad professionals. After a few trips he ¡®graduated¡¯ their ¡®training¡¯ and was left to try and crack the walls that made up a young noblewoman¡¯s sensibilities.

    He even had some successes in that area until he came into his magic. He was a late bloomer like that, knowing he would have magic, but without a specific talent or ability to manipulate his mana before then.

    He was promptly swept away from his life in court to be tested much more thoroughly than I ever was. Being forced to train in iron cages for days at a time, fighting a verity of animals and monsters while learning the hunger of being a mage.

    Where his life up until his magic was spend learning the rules of society ¨C and how much he loved breaking them ¨C the months after he came into his magic were spent learning that his talents were geared towards fighting.

    Eventually, a mage from the Royal Magician¡¯s Corps came to take a look at him. They dropped him in the woods and told him to survive ¨C which he did and very well at that.

    He had been taken in by them after that, taken in and initiated into the Royal Magician¡¯s Corps as the lowest of probationary candidates until he had both proven his own skill as well as his family influence.

    Then he met Rapier. She was only a brief fascination to Zotra at first and he had tried to express his interest ¨C only to be rejected. What was shocking to him was the reason though, sincerity.

    She gave him a different reason of course, but he found out the truth and felt vaguely insulted. She certainly did not have the reputation of caring about sincerity. Elves, the rumors around her suggested that she did not even care if her partner was competent!

    Then he realized that the rumors were baseless and asked to work with her for a time.

    He did not regret a single second until they had to part and even then he did not leave her alone, making sure that her ¡®suggestion¡¯ for the removal of ¡®private¡¯ debriefings was pushed through.

    Eventually she started to change the way she talked to him, gradually seeming to start believing that he was serious. Then she asked him for something that seemed like a simple favor and he jumped at it, pressing her for the opportunity to prove that he was indeed completely serious about her in return.

    Part of him even thought that she was just using the favor as an excuse to finally give him a chance, but he did not care.

    All he had to do was to watch a little girl named Bella.

    ¡­

    That was the Guilt, it was knowing the weight of the life that you had just removed from the world. Knowing their parents, their children, their loves, and feeling all of it for yourself for the briefest of moments.

    The Guilt was 100% perfect empathy and it made you understand who and what your victim was before it ripped itself from your memory and left you with nothing, except a sense of loss.

    Bella screamed and I wrestled with her to try and keep us from hurting ourselves as the memories passed and the sense of loss, of guilt, caused by our actions left us to grieve for the fallen.

    Tears were shed, a child died, and I felt the pain of killing again.

    DeMorte meant ¡®from death¡¯ and I sometimes felt that some unknown prophet had named me.

    We cried.

    ¡­

    Eventually there were no more tears to shed. The hangover was more or less over and I only felt the occasional tremble.

    Bella was too shaken to talk to me and simple hid away.

    In the meantime, I still felt no interference with the shroud, meaning no one else was interacting with it.

    I wondered if he had any friends in the area and felt an instinctual no. I could not remember what I felt when the Guilt was passing through me, but I did have ¡®instinctual¡¯ remnants that could give me an idea of what the person knew.

    I turned to the corpse, sensing it with the shroud instead of seeing it, and cast mana roots again. This time, the spell ripped apart his body fairly easily and I confirmed that living humans could somehow resist the spell. I also realized the dead humans were a most convenient source of nutrients¡­ once I mentally accepted that the act was dangerously close to cannibalism that was.

    It did cost a surprising high amount of mana to absorb him through the air though, so I quickly canceled the spell to try a different experiment.

    I felt a flicker of disgust from the back of my mind, but I paid it no heed as I tapped my bone helmet with my finger. Using my mana I reformed it into a stinger like shape, which I slowly extended from my finger as I pulled my hand away from my head. After it was fully formed I used it to pierce the corpse¡¯s chest and used it with the mana roots spell.

    I tried a few more experiments as I used absorbed what I could from his corpse. I did not touch his head though, the thought of using mana roots on his brain reminded me too much of a Soul absorption technique that I had the great misfortune to witness.

    After I was done I searched his body and ¨C after I found nothing ¨C kicked the head over near the corpse. There was no point in showing respect to something that was about to burn, the soul was the only thing worth respecting and that was likely long gone ¨C having slipped away when after the Guilt made it pass through me.

    I cast the flesh fire spell and pulled out my trackers. The spell created a magical fire that was a standard spell designed to only burn corpses and reduce them to ashes. After reorienting myself, I cast a cloaking spell and waited a moment for the fire to burn away.

    The sure sign of magical fire was the lack of smell and I felt nothing save for a cold emptiness where a once happy Bella had provided some source of light and constant entertainment for the past few years.

    ¡­She would get over it.

    I reallocated a small amount of my internal energy, G¨ªa, as the mage seemed to call it, and set off at a deliberate pace.

    The fight with my opponent had taken next to no time, but I only had so much to start with, so I went ahead and sped myself up a small amount.

    I needed to return those 2 to their fort and then get back ho- get back to the village.

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    I got back just before dawn and was treated to an already awake and angry Mathalaus, who was at the head of a small group of very well armed river stalkers.

    They seemed to be ready to snap at the first sign of an excuse and cause physical violence.

    Nathan was there, trying to calm them down, but he stopped talking when he saw me. They all stopped talking.

    I handed them the trackers without a word and went to small area to wash up.

    Loco had it built next to the house to make sure that he did not accidently ingest any chemicals or remnants of alchemic potions.

    As I heard the others gather up a few horses, I thought about what I would do next¡­

    First, I would sleep for a bit and see what happened with the trial.

    If those 3 were not found guilty and dealt with properly, I would end the matter myself. Since the last of the 3 was this Terrick person and did not have my ¡®failsafe¡¯ in him, I would end him at a different point.

    In the back of my head I felt the hollow Bella shiver. She had not done well in the face of the Guilt, but she would grow used to it. The Guilt was a wondrous deterrent, but once I decided to kill someone, it was nothing more than a hangover afterwards.

    One of the few priests I told about the Guilt in my previous life had declared it a spiritual cleansing after I killed someone, but I never thought of it as anything except a burden. Some people needed to die and it was annoying that I would hesitate as much as I did.

    Now, for the first time, I knew for a fact that someone ¨C that Bella ¨C could truly empathize with the feelings that came with the Guilt and yet¡­

    Bella was just a different version of me, she was not even a shadow that would follow my existence with the light.

    In the end I was alone with my thought, my life, and my Guilt.

    [The third person POV messes with the mood of this chapter a bit so I am actually going to keep it shorter than I originally intended, the main take away is still that John is growing up a bit as he is now training to understand his own magic ¨C It is also meant to contrast with Zotra¡¯s upbringing, ¨C but I am freaking tired so I am going to leave it at its current length.

    I promise that DeMorte will be heading this way soon enough though, so I might revisit it]

    *     *     *

    Inside the Zootrofian dungeon of Tartarus:

    John moved along with the class, a group of 11 other moderately strong mages like himself.

    They were all ranks 5 to 9, with each rank representing a complete circle of magic that they could establish on their own. John himself was actually a rank 8, but he was more infamous than anyone here, including the 9th rankers because of his actions.

    The ranks established both their power and an easily noticeable hierarchy as no mage wanted to oppose someone of a higher rank. John was one of the few exceptions as someone had heard him talking about Bella once and informed the 9th rankers.

    They had called him an ¡®elf lover¡¯ and tried to harass him until he managed to fight back.

    He had used something that the instructors called G¨ªa ¨C the life energy of the world ¨C to throw himself at the people harassing him while they threw petrification spells at him.

    Since they were more experienced at magical pranks, he decided to use their favorite spells against them by letting them turn time to stone after he had already jumped at them.

    The instructors had been furious, claiming that he could have killed them, or have been broken into hundreds of shards, effectively killing him. He was ashamed that he tried something so stupid, but looking at the state of the ones he hit, who were forced to have their ribs mended, left him feeling slightly better.

    Right now however, they were exploring a rare dungeon. John and most of the others here would likely become adventurers, so being able to actually walk around the first few floors had been incredibly exciting ¨C until they realized that only the senior students would actually get to go down to the ¡®monster floors.¡¯

    So John instead spent the time talking to a nice young woman named Aran while they waited for the instructor to finally tell them where they were going.

    So far he had explained the adventurer ranking systems, which was basically the same as the aristocratic ranks ¨C A being the lowest and K being the highest ¨C and that the dungeon was over 80 floors in depth, although no one had gotten past the 80th floor.

    It was said that the 80th floor seemed to drain the mana from the your very soul and that no one who went down there came back alive, although, John had joked to Aran, that was probably just the senior adventurers too tired to walk back up 80 floors worth of stairs.

    ¡°Can anyone tell me what the importance of a dungeon is?¡± It was their teacher.

    Obediently, one of the others replied. ¡°They give us a place to practice our magic on magic resistant creatures?¡±

    The teacher shook his head and looked around.

    John took the opportunity to speak up. ¡°They provide a steady supply of otherwise rare potion ingredients.¡±

    The teacher nodded, ¡°Although I would not use the word ¡®provide¡¯ as we must take the ingredients from deep inside the dungeon or from the creatures themselves, that is indeed correct.¡±

    He kept speaking, but John toned him out for a moment, as he smiled to himself and found himself admitting that, despite knowing that they would not actually be fighting anything, he was enjoying the trip.

    Though he did find himself wondering what was happening back in Entrials.

 Chapter 24: Storm Wall Bella

    Chapter 24: Storm Wall Bella

    ¡°By Conbra¡¯s womb, Bella.¡± Janeen groaned, while rubbing her temples, ¡°Who told you that story?¡±

    I grinned shamelessly, enjoying her reaction. Everyone reacted that way when they heard the story for the first time, which was what made the retelling even better. ¡°Conbra¡¯s what Janeen? Do you think the goddess of life would enjoy you talking about her private parts?¡± I teased her a little, not wanting to push it too far, but not wanting to let such a chance go.

    Nathan and Mathalaus would be back soon, so I was all too eager to help keep Janeen¡¯s mind elsewhere.

    It was late afternoon and we likely had a bit of a wait before they returned though. Unlike my little excursion the previous night, the others had taken horses and would be quite delayed because of it.

    Not delayed enough to spend the night though, the horses they rode out on were mostly communal work horses, but they had been ridden hard. Once at the fort, they would likely demand the use of the commander¡¯s personal horses to ride back on, while their horses pulled a prison wagon¡­

    Or we could all get lucky and Mathalaus might just kill them all in a rage, I had no faith in that though.

    So I had put myself into a compressed sleep cycle and then came to distract Janeen for a bit. That distraction had quickly taken the form of my favorite story ¨C which always confused people when they heard the ending.

    Janeen waved a hand at me, ¡°I am too confused to worry about that now. Why did you tell the story like that if that was how it ended?¡±

    My shameless grin faded a bit as I considered her question. ¡°To teach you.¡±

    Janeen almost glared at me, ¡°You wanted to teach me something with that story? What?¡±

    I lost my shamelessness and my smile felt sadder than I meant it to be. ¡°There are too many lessons to learn from that story, every time I tell it I seem to learn another one.¡±

    Janeen raised an eyebrow ¡°And yet I have never heard of that story before.¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°I am selective in when I tell it.¡±

    Not that selective.

    Hello there Bella. You better now?

    I do not think I will ever be ¡®better,¡¯ but I think I can learn to understand why you keep doing¡­ that.

    Janeen huffed and sat back to digest the story. Everyone¡¯s take on it was different and telling that story was one of the ways I liked to break the ice¡­ that and discovering new curses and oaths ¨C people could get so creative when it came to saying the same basic thing!

    I want to try an experiment.

    You know I have trouble resisting a good experiment, but right now? Right before she gives us her take on it?

    We can do the experiment here. I just want to check something.

    I mentally shrugged and let Bella get to work. Her experiment was simple enough, but I had never thought about trying it.

    After concentrating for a moment, Bella had me check her spell instructions before casting a basic light orb spell. There were only two differences from this spell and the spell that almost every young mage first learned: First, the spell would be a type of light that the human eye could not see. Second, as this was going to be the first time Bella cast a spell without any interference from me, she put a delay command into the spell.

    Even a 1 circle mage would be able to cast the spell, but that was only when it came to pure power. Actually casting the basic spell, on purpose, (with the systematic method) was considered the first step to any mage¡¯s path.

    Bella¡¯s experiment was simple: cast a spell that only we could see and observe the color of her spell with our third eye.

    To our mutual surprise, the spell was a nice golden yellow in color. It was quite the contrast to my own dark greens, browns, and blacks.

    Interesting, I thought to myself, wondering how we could exploit this change in color to our own advantage. When looking for magical criminals, the color of one¡¯s spells was typically one of the first things looked at, and it would be useful to finally figure out what caused color to be perceived with our third eye.

    ¡­DeMorte?

    Hm? Yes Bella?

    Did the Nalks ever tell you why we were raised separately?

    Raised separately? Bella what are you talking about? I was born and ¡®raised¡¯ before Nathan was ¨C or as far as I can tell I was ¨C if you are asking why I did not directly interact with you before I did, it was as much biological as magical. Our soul is in two places at once and is only slowly coming over into this world and merging with you.

    ¡­Why did you not tell me that before?

    I honestly thought it did not matter, but the line between our memories keeps changing and I figured that, if it did matter, you would learn it eventually.

    When I was younger, before I felt you in the back of my head, before we could actually talk, I thought you were my father¡­ It was why I never called Nathan ¡®Dad¡¯

    I had mixed feeling about that, but I could tell that Bella was trying to put words to something that she was having trouble communicating. I wanted to just have her dump the thoughts into my mind and let me sort them out, but apparently she wanted to actually organize them herself.

    However, you are not him and you are not me

    Actually, I am you Bella, I am¨C

    No. We are the sum of our experiences and I have not experienced what you have. I was not sure until just now, but the reason that the Guilt felt so different from your memories was that I can only watch your memories ¨C not experience them for myself ¨C I can only see your logic and your pain like I was watching from  just behind your eyes.

    I did not respond. Hopefully Bella could get to the point quickly, before Janeen came up with her answer. Our mental conversation was going quickly, but Bella seemed in the mood for a speech.

    I was trying and trying to figure out why that was. Why you thought that we were the same person, just separated by our memories, our past. That was the reason I asked you to try out that experiment ¨C I wanted to see if my magic was a different color than yours.

    We might not know how magic is related to the soul, or where our own mana comes from, or even where it is stored, but we do know that the person who uses magic affects the color we see. I am not sure if all mages even see that color as the same, but it has to be considered. The fact remains, however, that my magic is different from your ¨C in at least one way and possibly more.

    I might not be able to say for sure, but I think that we are not the same person and we might now have ever been the same person. That our ¡®souls¡¯ are meant to be ¡®fusing¡¯ is a good indicator of this.

    The Nalks did not give you a new body and put a piece of your soul in it DeMorte ¨C they put you in a new body and trusted that your soul would merge and overwrite my own to give you a new body.

    ¡­I think they want you to kill me DeMorte.

    I was about to respond when Janeen finally settled on a lesson for the story and spoke up. Her choice was surprisingly in reminiscent of what Bella was talking about. ¡°The story is obviously supposed to teach you about perspective, that much is not hard to figure out, elves, it is hard to miss. The more obvious lesson to learn is that your perspective is not the only one out there, that you cannot judge the worth of someone from one voice alone.¡±

    Janeen paused, looking at me as if I had thought out exactly what this was supposed to be teaching her. Which was nonsense, almost everything I did was done with an off-the-cuff quick planning ¨C adaptation ¨C rather than intricately planned, but many people did not see it like that.

    She continued though, looking pensive, ¡°If you were to try and look a little deeper you could actually say the story is meant to represent your choices, that no matter what you do there will always be someone else, some other event that makes up half of your story ¨C the half that you frequently do not know.¡±

    Her mouth twisted in distaste and her voice changed, becoming harsher and more demanding. ¡°This is about the trial is it? You want me to try and understand their perspective or something Bella? Who put you up to such nonsense?¡±

    I stared at her for a moment and shook my head sadly. ¡°There are dozens of lessons to take from that story. You could take the view that the ignorant peasants, defying orders and managing to survive because of ¡®luck¡¯ was like the world around us. That ¡®lucky¡¯ peasants could only survive when there was another behind them, a ¡®noble¡¯ force that worked to make their ¡®luck¡¯ possible.¡±

    It was my turn to show my distaste, that particular view had been expressed by a man with a particularly large chip on his shoulder. He had thought that I was trying to make myself the ¡®mountain noble of the bandits¡¯ as he called it. He had not survived to see me crowned, but he had survived long enough for the self-righteous mercenaries to hunt him down.

    ¡°You could also ¡®learn¡¯ that everyone is human and that, just because you see someone as an ¡®evil¡¯ or something that needs to be removed, that they have no purpose in their actions. That they have not end goal or reason for moving them.¡± I sighed to myself and looked up at the roof of the little shack.

    I would not see it again for some time¡­ if ever. I looked back at Janeen, who seemed just slightly hesitant. She was likely trying to figure out how such a ¡®little girl¡¯ was talking about such things as if she were an old man.

    I stood up from where I was sitting, a simple chair across from a rapidly recovering Janeen, and stretched, ¡°You.¡± I yawned, ¡°You can take what you will from the story Janeen. That is the best part of telling it in my opinion.¡± I stopped stretching and gave her a sincere smile before I walked out the door.

    I was outside in an instant and had warded the door again without thinking twice about the magical steps. I did, however, pause and take not of the green color that pulsed in my wards. My colors were always dark, they had been that way for as long as I could remember and I did not think that they ever really changed.

    I walked away, back around to the back Loco¡¯s laboratory and showed my plan to Bella. She said nothing, but I got the feeling of acceptance from her and we concentrated together.

    Casting the same spell she did alone earlier, we let our minds control it together and created another delayed spell. The color was something to behold as its inner layers of magical instruction seemed to be a changing torrent of dark green and black, while it seemed to be sheathed in a yellow-gold light. It was oddly beautiful and creepy at the same time.

    The yellow-gold light itself though, was not a part of the instructions in the spell.

    I was sorry for Bella, but, this test suggested that, even if she was originally her own person, it seemed that my own personality, my soul, would overwrite hers, even if we worked together. In the end, she would become part of me and live on in that sense, but she would forever be a part of my mind once that happened. It would not be the other way around.

    Honestly, part of me was a little glad, but I did feel a small pang of guilt over the fact that she might have grown up quite differently, maybe even more happily, if she had not been chosen by those foreign gods called the Nalks.

    I will not give up DeMorte.

    That is okay Bella, but I do not think that would be a fight you could ever win.

    I am not sure it is a fight I can afford to lose.

    Give it time and think about it on your own, but when the day comes that my soul finishes fusing into our body, we will have to readdress this. I do not think you recognize that neither of us has to be a ¡®loser¡¯ when it comes to who we become in the future. Please think about that, okay?

    Bella hesitated, but gave her assent. She did not like it, but she could except that we were stuck together and would have to work it out eventually. Maybe she understood that trying to force the issue would result in my absorbing her completely through force of will, or maybe she just did not want to argue about it, either way was fine with me.

    I believed in manipulating perception to the maximum, but some truths were just impossible to ignore. They were rare, but sometimes, when someone thought there was no escape, they became desperate and found a way. The last thing I wanted was for Bella to think that I was going to ¡®kill¡¯ her as, she could cause some significant damage to me if she wanted.

    Desperate people could come up with some truly odd ways of getting ¡®revenge¡¯ if they thought they were dead men (or women) walking.

    Regardless, I brought my mind back to the present and cast a spell that would show me how far away my trackers were and I was surprised to find that they were getting quite close.

    Deciding to prepare my effects for travel, I walked over to Loco¡¯s laboratory and quietly entered.

    The borderline mad collection of glasses, tubes, potions, and endless potion ingredients ¨C horded in a variety of chests, cabinets, and chests ¨C was a welcome sight. If I had nothing else to thank Nathan for, letting us stay with Loco and Luna was enough for me to appreciate him regardless.

    Especially given that Loco was the only person in the area who shared my desire for knowledge ¨C even if he was much more relaxed in his approach.

    The man himself was also there, mixing up some of the standard potions as well as referencing numerous notes that seemed to be scattered all over the place. There was a system that he used, but I had only been able to guess where about half of the materials in the room would be at any given time, even after years of trying to learn it.

    If a stranger were in here, they would have trouble identifying anything and, assuming they had any sense, they would be scared to move off of the cleared areas that made a winding path through the mass of bottles, potion ingredients, and the occasional spilled potions that occupied the floor.

    Alchemy was a messy art and Anton had commented that it truly deserved to be called an art rather than a science.

    In what Anton had called ¡®regular science¡¯ the direction that you ground the leaves did not affect the efficiency of the potion and substituting snails for snake venom made no sense. Which was a reasonable statement as alchemy was such a combination of ¡®daring trial and error¡¯ and the ¡®borderline¡¯ insanity that would normally get someone executed.

    Insanity (¡°borderline¡± or not) was not a prerequisite, but most alchemist either lasted a very long time or an incredibly short period. It took dedication, daring, practice, and endless notes to make a truly great alchemist and Loco could have had all of them had he not been so relaxed. Honestly, it was a bit odd to even think about someone of his skill being in such a backwater location, but that could be because of individual choice or Nalk interference, I was not sure.

    I relaxed and waited for Loco to finish. None of the potions he was brewing would explode or poison if I interrupted him¡­ as far as I knew. That said, even after everything I had been through, I considered myself a mostly sane man and as such I subscribed to the old saying that sane men feared 4 things: an angry women, the displeasure of the gods, a Soul Mage, and alchemy.

    I still feared 3 of the 4.

    If it was not for my encounter with the Nalks I would be completely sane, but I was having trouble imagining the displeasure of the gods after actually meeting a group of them. Plus, no one had actually seen the gods or their ¡®displeasure¡¯ in my previous world. Priests had blamed plagues, earthquakes, and floods on the gods, but Anton had just laughed at that.

    He might not have made me an ¡®atheist,¡¯ but Anton had been the one to explain diseases and their actual causes, while hinting that the other ¡®acts of godly displeasure¡¯ had similar explanations. Of course, being a mostly sane man who wanted to appear completely sane, I had already pounded into my head exactly how much respect I should show the local gods¡­ even if I wondered about how much they would actually do while the Nalks used their world for a few decades.

    Gorith had already shown me exactly what a god was capable of if they actually wanted to interfere with us mortals, as well as just how rare it was that they would interfere at all.

    The church, on the other hand, was a different story all together, but I would hopefully stay out of their sight for quite a while longer.

    I cleared my throat and my thoughts at the same time as I noticed Loco finish with his potion and set down his tools. ¡°Bleeding potion?¡± I asked politely, knowing full well that it was.

    ¡°Bella! When did you get in here? Oh and you should know that potion without asking, really now.¡± Loco immediately started talking about a half dozen different things and I just nodded and tried to keep up. Very few people were as interesting as Loco¡­ Chef had been, but he had been the chief oddity among my old bandit group.

    I smiled as Loco keeps talking about this and that. I doubted that I would see him again. ¡°I am going to leave after the trial.¡± I told him, cutting in as he paused to take a breath.

    Loco blinked and slowly nodded. ¡°I was wondering when you would tell me about that.¡± I raised an eyebrow and silently prompted him to keep talking. ¡°Your mother was asking about how much bleeding potions would cost to make. I figured that one she was trying to plan for a young lady¡¯s travel and we all know that Florence is not going anywhere.¡± There was a mixed smile about that from both of us.

    Hoplis, my oldest brother, had died during the last cycle from a virus. I had been too late to help him and a ¡®small illness¡¯ that he had asked his wife to keep quiet about had turned into a fatal mistake.

    Florence had gotten formally engaged the day before and was considered ¡®wed¡¯ even if she and her husband had been required to delay any official ceremony. Partly because of Hoplis¡¯ death and partly because of Xiphos¡¯ sudden need for a business partner (our recording spell was turning into a surprisingly big deal). Robert had been obligated to travel to Xiphos and help him sort out the details of that particular venture. It had not helped that Xiphos was stuck doing research to the west and still working hard to gain his master, Jalon¡¯s, final approval, which would make him a full mage in the eyes of the magical community.

    The whole situation had resulted in the rather well known secret that Florence had become rather impatient to get pregnant. It was a source of endless amusement to many, as well as slight embarrassment to me after she actually came to find me and asked for a something to calm down her desires.

    I did not view her as a sister, which almost led to me volunteering to help out, but Bella had risen to the situation in astounding perverseness. Bella actually had me help her to make devices to keep Florence entertained¡­

    The vibrating massagers that Bella came up with ¨C actually they were based off of something Anton had said regarding past treatments for female ¡®hysteria¡¯ ¨C had very, very, quietly spread to a couple teens in Entrials and I had received enough requests to fill even my stomach for months on end¡­ Then the devices needed a recharge as well, making me more money.

    Then Robert had come home and¡­ found out about the devices. Two days later, a frustrated Florence was once again locked away in her personal room as her husband rode off to capitalize on the idea.

    To the few who knew the whole story, it was almost shameful, however, to everyone else is was just extremely funny.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°I do seem to cause a bit of a stir whenever I let others know about my experiments or magical devices do I not?¡± I resisted the urge to laugh outright at the memories of all the shy faces that came around regularly to pick up bleeding potions while I quietly charged them a little extra for a ¡®recharge.¡¯

    Not that all of them were quiet of course, the whores also contributed to my wealth as I kept checking them for diseases and building an ever expanding ¡®toy¡¯ set for them and their customers to enjoy.

    ¡°I suppose it is time to bring that out then¡± Loco sighed. He then bent down to open one of his cabinets along the floor. Since only a fool would go digging through an alchemist¡¯s lab, I had hidden away a fairly sizable amount of my gains there for when I would leave.

    Loco took out 3 sizable pouches and 1 smaller pouch. They all jingled as he put them down on the floor next to him. 2 pouches of copper coins, 1 of old bronze coins that were sometimes exchanged, and 1 small pouch of silver. It would be enough to get me started and I would have honestly had more if not for the iron spears that I had made over the years.

    Loco straightened up and looked over at me, ¡°You know I have my own system and I keep a close eye on it Bella, but I have never caught you sneaking any.¡± He crossed his arms and looked at me. ¡°Not for bleeding potions, growth potions, or even those few charm potions. Does that have something to do with this whispering Luna does with your mother? About how you ¡®do not need to worry¡¯ about children?¡±

    I blinked. I could not help looking at Loco as if wondering if he was sane. He was the last person I expected to get the ¡®talk¡¯ from. ¡°I can manage my own body well enough not to need potions Loco.¡± I kept my voice even as I spoke. Loco was not stating that he expected me to steal potions, but rather he was commenting on the fact that I had shown no interest in using those potions for myself.

    Loco seemed to talk and give off a sense of anger despite not moving. ¡°You were always a genius in that area Bella and I tried not to judge or question where your knowledge came from, but I do think that your mother, that Elizabeth, deserves more of a goodbye and certainly more of an explanation than what you gave her.¡±

    I stared at Loco before setting up a privacy ward. Fortunately Loco almost never had magically reactive ingredients around as those would usually only come from those weird ¡®dungeons¡¯ he occasionally spoke about. ¡°What if¡­¡± I began slowly ¡°I was using my body¡¯s reproductive organs for something¡­ else. Something that mother, something that almost no one, would be able to understand?¡± I looked Loco dead in the eye. He was a member of quite possibly the only profession in the world who could not criticize someone for putting my own body on the line for an experiment.

    ¡°I would tell her that you chose not to let yourself have children at the moment.¡± Leo stated firmly, meeting my stare and returning it.

    ¡°Even if I have no interest in being a women?¡±

    That shook him a little, but not much. ¡°I do not know of any potion or spell that would allow you to change into a man Bella, but even if it existed, do you need to lie to her like that? She has been asking if she could have somehow damaged you for the past few cycles and, in my opinion, she thinks that you blame her for it.¡±

    I stared at him, while trying to contain my laughter, such nonsense was almost enough to wonder about her sanity. In the past few years, Elizabeth had gotten me extensive training with Ealba, tried to set me up on no less than 3 different occasions with young men, and had all around been a pain since I had told her about my being ¡®barren.¡¯ I had tried to ignore it or let Bella talk to her, but it seemed that the problem had grown while I was not looking.

    Loco also added something that shocked me completely. ¡°I am not one of those people who believes that women without a desire for men are insane Bella, but even that would be a kinder truth than making her think that you were born barren.¡±

    As I stood, there trying not to look like I had just been slapped with a fish, I suddenly felt a whole set of unasked questions suddenly get answered. ¡°You and your wife never had children.¡± I probed.

    Loco nodded. ¡°We had an agreement that we were happy with each other¡¯s company, even if we were not interested in each other. Although it was quite the surprise when I walked in on the girl I was only publicly courting and found her with another women.¡± Loco chuckled ¡°You have met Ealba I believe?¡±

    I nodded, dumfounded, ¡°I always wondered how a potions master like yourself would be without a child, given that you can influence the odds.¡±

    Loco shifted uncomfortably, breaking his own serious stare. ¡°I never told you about those types of potions.¡±

    ¡°No, you did not¡­¡± I sighed and dismantled my wards. ¡°We will talk to mother on my way out, we are sorry for any trouble that we caused you over the years.¡±

    Loco smiled and reached down into the same cabinet that he had stored my money in to withdraw a fairly sizable pack. It looked like thick and strong. ¡°You should really stop that habit of speaking with ¡®we¡¯ Bella, although it does let me know you mean it.¡± He put the bags of money in the pack and walked over to me. ¡°You were the closest thing to a child that either Luna or myself ever had and you never cause us too much trouble.¡± He gave us a very kind and sincere smile, ¡°But we are not your parents so please remember to leave on good terms with them, understood?¡±

    I did not know how to react, but Bella pushed us forward and hugged him while my mind was preoccupied with different thoughts.

    Did we have a habit of saying ¡®we¡¯ instead of ¡®I¡¯ when in agreement? We had not noticed it previously¡­

    There was a knock at the door and Luna¡¯s voice called out. ¡°People can see ridders in the distance, it looks like the Lord is back!¡±

    Mentally checking the distances and the trails that they must have taken to get back so early, I found myself feeling sorry for the unfortunate horses as Loco and Bella released their hug.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    I had once gotten Anton to talk about what his old world was like without magic. Some parts of what he told me were awe-inspiring, while others things seemed absurd to me. Of course, he had been careful about what exactly he told me, but he was happy to complain about how slow and cumbersome his new home¡¯s justice system had become.

    I could not and did not understand why it would take phases or even whole cycles to bring someone to trial. A couple of days I might understand, if the investigation dragged on, but not phases. Anton had explained it as a price for sending less innocents to jail, but I found the idea to foreign to comprehend.

    As it was, there were 3 people who stood accused, who were standing in the middle of the village, with Janeen and myself standing together off to the side of a small area that had been set up to serve as the public hearing area. They would be represented by the military leader of the area, who also happened to be one of the fort mages.

    Mathalaus loomed like a volcano over the proceeding, but he did not interfere. I just satisfied myself by quietly slipping away to make sure that my plan was on track. The winds could not be trusted too much so I had to give them a little push.

    Sure enough, Ratface had already started to react and would only get worse as time went on. It was not just him of course, but everyone noticed what I did in a way, after all, I nearly tripled the amount of pollen in the area around the village.

    Ratface¡¯s failsafe was his lungs and I needed everyone to know just how sick he was before I could use it as an excuse to examine the last one King- no, Prince Shite.

    The trial was straightforward, the accusers went first, told their story and then the accused came forward to tell their story. As lord, Nathan would decide who he believed and pass judgement that would be carried out at first light ¨C regardless if that judgement was a hanging or a release.

    The only detail that worried anyone was that, under military law, their commanding officer could demand a transfer to the capital on the grounds of ¡®emotionally impartial¡¯ decision making.

    The details of the trial and the stories told on both sides were¡­ unpleasant for Bella, so we spent the time contemplating our routes after we left the village tomorrow. I was used to blood and guts in general and I had made Ratface and No-Balls tell me the truth the previous night, so I was more tolerant. However, even I had a hard time keeping a straight face when they started lying to the crowd about Janeen¡¯s constant teasing and her luring the other 3 out into the wood despite their reluctance.

    Fortunately, Ratface could not hold it together and started coughing madly at this point. The coughing itself would not annoy anyone too much, but the fact that he coughed up blood caught everyone¡¯s attention.

    I quickly rushed forward, but was stopped by the military mage. However, after some persuading and a loud declaration that I wanted to see him hang, not die at the trial, I was allowed, despite my obvious desire to see him dead, to tend to him.

    He was disgusting and reeked of traxico, which made my job all that much easier. His lungs were degraded by my magical acceleration of the traxico¡¯s work to the point where they would stop working within the next few days. The announcement that he was terminal because of traxico smoke damage was not well received, but I had a reputation for hating the stuff, so no one questioned me.

    After I dropped a few hints about the effects of being near someone who smoked so much I got my true goal, both No-Balls and Prince Shite asked me to examine them.

    First was No-Balls ¡°You need a better diet, your blood paths are week, but overall healthy.¡± I reported briefly before moving onto the final piece of my failsafe plan: Prince Shite.

    Prince Shite was surprisingly healthy, but that was only by the standards of the people around us, he clearly ate better than most though and that was what I decided to use for his failsafe. Shamelessly tapping his chest once I announced that his heart and diet could use work, but he was otherwise healthy.

    Since the magic was cast directly through physical contact, there was nothing that could be seen with someone¡¯s third eye, and I suppressed the general feeling of magic that was not trying to leak out as a result of casting my spell.

    The trial proceeded exactly as I was worried about. Although it was not until I heard Prince Shite call the other mage ¡®uncle¡¯ that I understood why he was willing to risk an angry population of locals while he and his sliver of a force was so far away from any other friends.

    The mage stood watch as the 3 rapist occupied someone¡¯s home for the evening and made sure that everyone knew his power. They were officially under arrest until first light, when they would immediately be escorted back to ¡®civilization.¡¯

    Even if the whole village turned on that house, the mage alone would be enough to kill them and he thought that no one would be able to get past him.

    That evening I told Janeen and Mathalaus that if they prayed hard enough, the gods might take revenge. They dismissed me and I snuck out of the house to pass my own judgment, but Bella spoke up.

    No

    Bella are you going to try and¡­

    No, I think I need to be the one who does this¡­

    What? Why?

    ¡­here

    I received her thought and feeling, about how she needed to know what she was doing and her confused, but slightly more understanding feelings about my own resolution when it came to killing. Basically, she thought that she needed to kill them to learn more about me and to ¡®save herself¡¯ ¨C even if not in so many words.

    I did not like the idea, but I thought it over for a moment and I noticed that her resolve was practically a tangible presence in the back of my mind.

    So in the end, I let her do the deed and we retreated to outside of the village when it was all done. The timing was slightly off, but we were far enough away that no one heard our cries as the Guilt visited us 3 times that night.

    *     *     *

    In a certain church of Conbra, in the northern kingdom of Niflheim, on the eastern continent:

    High priest Bob was annoyed.

    He was annoyed for 3 reasons, with the first and foremost being frustration.

    The church of life was one of the largest and most popular because their priests were expected to celebrate life in all its aspects, including sexually, and he had been doing just that when he had been called to this meeting. The lower class girl that he had been enjoying was likely already preparing to bare a new infant for the glory of Conbra and he wanted to enjoy her as much as he could before she was officially declared pregnant and switched ¨C the girl before her had been a hideous thing with half her body burned and Bob was not sure what the next one would look like.

    The second reason Bob was annoyed was the way everyone said his name. Since he was new to the area his reputation had not spread as much as he would have liked. Everyone seemed to say his name with surprise, as if expecting more and he had more than enough of such impudence. Yes, his name was Bob, but why everyone seemed so disappointed with its length was beyond him. There was nothing wrong with his length!

    The third and final reason, was the reason his messengers had interrupted him: yet another Soul Mage scare. There had been no true Soul Mages in the past millennia and yet this blighted northern kingdom executed dozens a year while calling them Soul Mages.

    If someone got so old their memories started to go, Soul Mage! If some boy came into his magic at the wrong time, Soul Mage! If a blight struck, a horde of Soul Mages was likely behind it!

    Bob hated that they were so superstitious and had been sent from the holy continent itself to pacify the inhabitants of this blasted land. They were an embarrassment to Conbra and practically the whole kingdom were said to be worshipers!

    Right now they were in a large room that would have qualified as a throne room anywhere else on the continent. Bob was seated in his ceremonial robes on the special chair of the high priest. From it he could directly manipulate the wards and kill or save any person within the confines of the church.

    Right now there were two people kneeling in front of him, the head of the church warriors of the region, someone who was more responsible for maintaining civil order than the guard were. The other was the previous lord priest who had been in charge of the kingdom¡¯s clergy before Bob¡¯s arrival.

    ¡°I understand that people are scared.¡± He stated slowly, ¡°I understand that this land and its people were the last ones to feel the touch of the monsters that were Soul Mages. However, I want it urged you all to act conservatively in such accusations. In the future, the local region¡¯s administrators will be trained in how to spot actual Soul Mage activity in comparison to the results of a ¡®disturbed soul,¡¯ which this clearly sound like.¡±

    High priest Bob ensured that his voice was as kind and docile, yet resolute, as he could make it. He was getting on in years and he had to balance a kind hand with a firm one. ¡°There will be inquisitorial squads that will be sent from the holy continent arriving in a few days. I have conferred with the King and he has readily agreed to give these men the authority to operate with impunity.¡±

    That statement made both them jerk in surprise, and likely, worry.

    No one had gotten the King to admit that his country was almost out of his control and that he would be allowing such men into the kingdom, with full power to do as they willed, was almost such an admission itself.

    While both men spoke with adorations of their high priest¡¯s actions and ability to get the king to allow them, they were also trying to figure out just how dangerous Bob was.

    Blasted fools in a blasted land, filled with burnt and blasted women! Bob thought, containing himself so that there were no signs of his inner distain for the men in front of him.

    Responding to their adorations though, Bob contained his distain and merely showed his teeth. ¡°It was easy enough to convince the king when he realized that proper ¡®education¡¯ of the correct individuals would solve both his population¡¯s zeal for executing young mages as well as his supply of future mages.¡±

    The words sent shivers down the spines of all 3 men in the room. Only 2 of them were because of fear though.

    ¡°Might I ask-?¡± The former lord priest began.

    ¡°Conbra is the giver of life.¡± Bob replied simply, ¡°To worship her is to enjoy and help to create life in the world. I showed the King that men such as he, men with great magical power that is, owe it to their kingdom to¡­ energetically worship Conbra as often as possible. Since we are also responsible for taking care of orphans and raising them to be good followers of Conbra, we would be happy to provide him with faithful women who would gladly receive his or his nobles seed in the name of Conbra and Niflheim.¡±

    Both men broke protocol and looked up directly at their new high priest, shocked. Bob knew why, but he pretended not to and continued to speak. ¡°There were many volunteers, once I explained the service that they would be showing to Conbra, 2 of them though were so nervous when they volunteered, however, that I felt it necessary to make sure they went first. Are either of you familiar with a Kendra?¡± Bob watched with a small amount of satisfaction as the lord priest inhaled sharply and the head of the warriors tensed up. ¡°The King took a liking to her, especially after I assured him that our ¡®blood rites of life¡¯ would remove any blood connections between his child and him. The other one was apparently too young for him, a girl name Yeldra?¡± Now the warrior breathed easy, clearly relaxing as he thought that she was safe.

    Bob shook his head, ¡°Regardless, the report that you have brought me tonight is not a Soul Mage, of that much I am certain. I hope that you will remind the outer towns and villages of our new policy of ¡®blessing¡¯ several of their women for each person that they mistakenly kill.¡±

    The men nodded vigorously, with the priest looking a little ill. Only the truly radical of the church would approve of such measure, but that was why they had sent Bob, he was just zealous enough to convince people that faith was his motivation, while he was more than practical enough to know when to use it as a punishment. ¡°Good,¡± Bob announced, ¡°You are dismissed children of Conbra, go fourth and celebrate life.¡±

    After they gave the traditional reply, Bob snorted as his watched the cowards retreat out of the room. At least they know the names of their extra-marital daughters. He sneered to himself.

    Lazily, Bob used the wards to call his newest toy to him. With the spells woven into her body would call her directly to this spot and to him. He also used the wards to warm the air around himself as he felt Yeldra through the wards. She was running down the stairs to try and avoid the pain that would come from arriving too late.

    Bob felt his loins come alive and thanked Conbra that he was not that old. After all, girls like Yeldra were best enjoyed at the peak of their youth ¨C before their 15th cycle was over.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Thank you for reading [:]/

 Chapter 25: Receding Storm

    Important notes ¨C please read:

    <b>Spoiler</b> : <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>I¡¯d like to officially declare that I will be creating a rewrite of the first ¡®book¡¯ of BKR, however, after thinking about it, I will not be doing so before I finish writing to where I want the first ¡®book¡¯ to end.

    This will let me keep writing while I set up my next project and then do a massive rewrite of BKR ¨C preferably at the same time that I am doing a much lighter project. This will likely take place in November as I plan for the first ¡®book¡¯ to end around chapter 40 ¨C leaving me with 17 weeks for 15 or so chapters (including epilogue for the first ¡®book¡¯)

    The purpose of the rewrite will not be to change the world itself or the character, but instead to let it flow so much smoother and make small changes to eliminate all the little clues and pieces for events and actions that I ended up removing from the story. I also hope that everyone will be able both to enjoy the story more as well as follow it more easily.

    To further explain:

    Current story: chapters 1-3 are explanation and introductions chapters while 4-25 are Bella/DeMorte setting up themselves and the world in which they live. Chapters 26-29 or so will revolve around the ¡®Capital¡¯ and the workings of it while chapters 30-35 will likely visit the dungeon. The remaining chapters will take place after Bella/DeMorte turn 15 and the Nalks decide to royally screw with them both.

    Rewrite: chapters 1-3 are the same. Chapter 4 starts with Bella being 10 and already dealing with the modified humans across the fear runes/northern Ketchdown River. Chapters up through 15 or so would deal with the villages, the histones/Xiphos arriving, Nathan becoming a noble, Janeen¡¯s fate, John¡¯s rejection, Dras¡¯ ¡®modification,¡¯ etc.

    After that, it would be up in the air and based off of what I write in the current story.

    The reason I am not rewriting it immediately is that I want to continue this fiction page as an ¡®over-arching¡¯ story line ¨C which will allow me to make more mistakes in a ¡®story¡¯ setting and see where everything goes on a week-by-week basis.

    If you have any questions, comments, or concerns PLEASE comment or PM me so that I can get your feedback. Even if you think I am an idiot for doing ¡®X¡¯ or not doing ¡®Y¡¯ I will try my best to receive your feedback as neutrally as possible and use it to make the story better.

    There is this wonderful new review that I recently received that is a prime example of excellent feedback, but even basic comments qualify as feedback and are appreciated

    Oh, on a slightly related topic, I rewrote the part with DeMorte/Bella and their mom so many times that I cannot see straight. So I will apologize in advance if you find any discontinuities ¨C I swear I do look and try to remove them but I feel like I am going text blind right now.

    All in all I sincerely hope you enjoy the chapter,

    B_S

    Chapter 25: Receding Storm

    ¡°Heh¡¯s arsehole!¡± The army mage was furiously cursing in ways that only a veteran solider could and by the how raw his voice sounded, he had doubtlessly been at it for a while.

    Was it just me or were the people here slightly obsessed with their god¡¯s not-usually-mentioned areas?

    ¡­I am¡­ inclined to agree.

    I almost asked Bella if she was okay, but I thought better of it. She had chosen to actually cast the spell that killed the 3 individuals inside the home ¨C so there was no way for her to be totally okay, but this time was easier.

    I wonder what we saw¡­ that I felt so¡­ vindicated after it was over?

    Some people think differently than others and choose not to control themselves. People like that, people who act out of bottled up rage or even a sense of entitlement, can be objects of pity or disgust.

    I see¡­

    I did not intrude on Bella¡¯s thoughts, although I had little doubt that she would come to the same conclusion that I had: Everyone deserved the chance to live, but some people needed to die.

    I walked forward quietly, gracefully sliding between people, waiting for the inevitable to occur.

    Dawn had only just broken and the crowd that was watching the mage vent were what I would call the less intelligent members of the village. The more intelligent individuals were making sure that the children were far away. Although I was unsure if they were doing that because of the angry mage or the reason the mage was angry.

    News traveled fast in small villages and bad news traveled faster, but it was still very early. Nathan was likely awake, but only just hearing about the commotion.

    Quickly, the army mage saw me and stormed in my direction. He was angry and not thinking straight, but I was only going to extend so much lenience for that type of excuse.

    He reached the end of that leniency when he pushed some of the people in the small crowd aside to grab at me.

    I was about to remove a finger when, both fortunately and unfortunately, Mathalaus ¨C the currently dormant volcano ¨C loomed up abruptly next to the mage and grabbed his outstretched arm just below the wrist.

    Non-mages did not stand up to mages, of any level of strength, however, this mage was apparently too distressed to concentrate his magic within the few moments between their exchange of glares and my speaking up.

    ¡°What is wrong? What happened?¡± I tried to put a bit of honest concern into my voice, but Mathalaus might have seen through he gave me a very curious look.

    The mage glanced from the looming volcano to me and back. After taking a ragged breath, he ripped his arm out of Mathalaus¡¯ grip and composed himself. ¡°Come with me.¡± He ordered shortly, only glancing at me long enough to confirm that he was talking to me, before marching off towards the house.

    I said nothing as the army mage walked me through the front door, although I did take note of the ward that he had cast to keep bugs and flies at bay. There were also 3 smaller wards inside to catch the smell coming from the bodies and contain it.

    As the army mage took me into the house I had to admit that I was vaguely impressed with the way he kept himself contained and seemingly disconnected during the whole process of showing me the bodies. I asked him a few questions as I went through and systematically destroyed any and all evidence that a specialist mage might manage to pick up on.

    Assuming that he would even preserve the bodies that was, no one liked keeping corpses and it would take a seriously determined man, with strong evidence or connections, to convince his superiors to allow a body to be preserved for any investigation.

    I approached the bodies, trying to show some hesitation, but I needed to have direct contact with them so I could not draw out my hesitation too much.

    Direct contact with the bodies, although disgusting, was something that I could easily stomach for the benefits. Specifically, when I cast the spells that would remove any lingering proof of my interference. The mage could only tell I was using magic and had no idea exactly what magic I was using. He likely attributed it to my youth and inability to use much magic beyond my ¡®talent¡¯ and assumed that I was simply trying to identify what had killed them.

    I would not have chanced such a thing if not for the fact that I was in a young women¡¯s¡¯ body at the moment. I already knew what killed them and normally I would have waited for witnesses to hear what the mage had found, but a double cross would make no sense when the other party was a young woman. Still, I needed to confirm that my ¡®fail safes¡¯ had activated as planned.

    They all had, with the only exception of one, but no-balls¡¯ brain hemorrhage had taken longer than it should have to ensure his death. He also suffered a more painful death than I originally intended because he accidentally fell on an exposed nail¡­ The location of said nail in his body was something I avoided discussing, but the end result was the same: a screaming mage.

    ¡°What Elven magic could be at work to convince you that THESE YOUNG MEN ALL DIED OF DIFFERENT NATURAL CAUSES ON THE SAME NIGHT!?¡±

    I watched carefully as his magic boiled around him, responding to his emotions in a way that was supposed to be trained out of anyone with magical talent before they could even be called ¡®mages¡¯ in the first place. Of course, that was the official statement that they kept repeating in my previous life. I certainly took it seriously enough when training myself, but I always ended up wondering if it was true.

    ¡°I mean that all three of them died as a result of certain key parts of their body naturally failing. These failures also have no observable signs of being magically triggered. You can check them yourself if you want, but only my magic has touched them and only after they were dead.¡±

    The mage was fuming and I found myself idly wondering if he was not about to start foaming at the mouth. I then heard a commotion from outside, but before I could investigate the mage continued talking in a much more quiet and focused voice. ¡°I checked all of the bodies myself before I called you and could not find anything wrong with them that seemed to be magically based, but you bring up a good point.¡± He stepped closer, with his magic boiling around him dangerously. ¡°You are the only one who used magic on them in the last few days and you are friends with that whore. Plus this type of thing is your specialty is it not? It is not like you hesitated when it came to touching dead bodies either.¡±

    DeMorte, put those thoughts of turning him into an overly sensitive woman into the back of your mind please.

    It would be a good experiment. Besides, you added the overly sensitive part. It would already be hard enough to transform him into a woman, not to mention turning him into a nymphomaniac on top of that.

    Did not. Besides, that would be more you getting vindictive over him calling Janeen a whore, than it would be a good experiment.

    No, that would be a bonus, but overall it would mostly just be a good experiment.

    I opened my mouth to remind this fool of who called me into the building when a loud sneeze announced Nathan¡¯s arrival at the door. He pushed the door open and staggered inside with bloodshot eyes and a handkerchief held over his mouth and nose.

    I suppose that was just a bonus as well?

    Naturally.

    I stepped around the mage, openly cladding myself in thick mana armor, to stand next to Nathan. Who then asked me something that sounded close enough to ¡°Bella is that you? Would you mind?¡± that I went ahead and touched his hand, sending a specially made anti-allergy spell through him.

    His allergy was a new discovery as it was caused by a very specific plant from the Northern most area inside the fear rune area. It took a while after I picked a few up of them for experiments before I realized that he would react on occasions when he visited Loco and I, but I eventually identified the cause.

    Instantly he stood up a little straighter and his eye stopped watering as much. He thanked me through a stuffed nose and I quietly put some distance between myself and the small crowd that had followed Nathan in. The crowd included Mathalaus, Loco, a River Stalker who I was unfamiliar with, and a murderous looking Stark.

    Stark had a pair of empty sheaths, one for a sword and another for a working knife, where someone had clearly disarmed him, but he was occasionally reaching for his side where I would bet a blade was hidden. I spared a moment to wonder how he got permission to be here, but then realized that, based on what I knew about Janeen¡¯s choice in men, he had likely not asked.

    I barely spent a moment longer to wonder if Janeen had told him about the parentage of her unborn child ¨C something she had decided to carry to term ¨C before I turned my attention to the others in general.

    The mood in the room was one of angry confusion, but I felt that the least I could do was stick around long enough to help settle things. It was unlikely that I would ever meet any of them again. Everyone¡¯s body language suggested that they would be happy to ¡®help¡¯ out any injured in a way likely to cause more injuries, or perhaps a fatality or two.

    ¡°Darn allergies.¡± Nathan spoke, much more clearly now, after he blew his nose clear. His annoyed, slightly pathetic, and somewhat distracted voice helping to suppress some of the tension in the room. ¡°Never know when they might hit me. Now, ah.¡± He turned to the mage who had managed to put on an outward face of composure, but was still unable to control his mana completely. ¡°I heard that there was a death?¡±

    The question was so innocent I found myself caught between the desire to laugh and take notes.

    ¡°All of my soilders died and according to her,¡± the mage jerked his head in my direction, his voice was clearly angry, but in control, ¡°it was completely natural.¡±

    Everyone turned towards me, expectantly, I noticed that Mathalaus¡¯ eye seemed to be focused more on the wall behind me though and¡­ if I did not know better I would say that they were watering. Stark, who had clearly been looking for an opportunity to slip away and slit some throats, looked astounded and confused. While both Nathan and Loco, merely looked at me curiously.

    ¡°That is at least partly true, as far as I can tell they all died of natural causes. Skipping the particular details, one¡¯s heart gave out, one¡¯s lungs stopped working, and the final one¡¯s brain suffered a major injury. I did not say that it was completely natural however.¡± I explained it all coldly, not letting anyone speak up to interrupt or ask questions. I likely should have been more compassionate or at least hesitant in my explanation of what happened, but everyone here should have known my opinion on what those individuals deserved.

    ¡°What?¡± The mage ground, doing a passible imitation of Mathalaus with boiling mana.

    So much feeling in one word¡­ is he angry because of his kin being killed or because it happened when he was supposed to be protecting them?

    Probably both.

    ¡°I cannot think of how these individuals could have been killed on purpose by magic as they DID all die of natural causes, however, I think the timing of all three of them happening in the same night is too suspicious. So, if we can confirm that the guard was present all night-¡±

    ¡°Of course I was!¡±

    ¡°Within range of your third eye?¡± I asked. That got an odd reaction from the crowd as they looked at the mage oddly. I realized that non-mages would have a hard time figuring out what I meant, but it was odd to me that even Nathan seemed confused. Quickly racking my brain, I remembered what Xiphos called it, ¡°mage sight.¡±

    There was suddenly collective understanding as I rolled my eyes and looked over at the mage to see that even HE had been a bit confused. He did nod however, before commenting that his range easily encompassed the house from outside. It was not a large house, but I had to be sure before I finished explaining.

    ¡°Since you were here the entire night and did not feel magic, despite the fact that they likely all died within a brief period of time ¨C otherwise the others would have noticed the smell and alerted you ¨C I can only think of one explanation.¡± I took a deep breath and prepared to contain any outbursts of magical anger from the mage. ¡°Devine action.¡±

    The room seemed to stop moving for a moment. Only the buzzing of flies from outside the wards was audible.

    Mathalaus spoke first, grounding out his approval. ¡°That is the only thing that makes sense. Nathan?¡±

    ¡°Given the facts that we know, I agree.¡± Nathan said quietly, not looking away from me. ¡°Unless someone else has a theory?¡±

    After a moment of silence, the strangled voice of the mage let out something that sounded like a squeak of mixed disbelief and outrage. ¡°You ¨CYou cannot be serious! I-¡±

    Now Nathan turned around. ¡°Mage Piolet! You, admitted that no one seemed to use magic on them the moment you asked my daughter to investigate their corpses! You also admitted that you were watching over them the whole time and know that they were untouched by any magic that you could see. Now, would you like to confess to killing them yourself? Or are you going to be foolish enough to try and accuse one of the local menders, MY daughter, of killing them? Because unless they managed to eat the same food and then get affected by three different poisons, those are your only other options.¡± He stepped up, much closer than he should have, to the mage. ¡°Now do you REALLY want to state that the gods had nothing to do with this?¡±

    Mage Piolet tried to come up with a response, but he was rapidly losing energy and giving in to our logic. Mages were human too and the argument that he would have to make ¨C to an angry Lord of the area he was garrisoned in ¨C would be too much effort over someone whose body had already cooled.

    Although I was still standing ready with my magic to blast the emotional mage off his feet if necessary.

    Wow. Angry Nathan is angry.

    I suddenly wish I had not fixed his allergies.

    What are you talking about?

    The way he phrased that will be misinterpreted. The people outside will hear from the other side of the village and they might assume that I helped the ¡®gods¡¯ with their justice. People outside the village will certainly assume that if they even hear the possibility.

    They would rather assume that some young women was responsible than the gods?

    For the religious, the gods move in everything and they would see their work here even if we claimed responsibility. For everyone else, they will likely be wondering how much of the stories they hear are the truth¡­ It is just as well that it is time for us to go.

    Mage Piolet had given up by this point and lost his energy completely. The mana that had been boiling earlier had receded into him and he just looked exhausted, which he likely was as he had stayed up the whole night. He barely managed to ask Nathan to have someone to check for poisons and Nathan only agreed after the mage promise to burn the bodies himself if there was no poison.

    Loco, already there, immediately went to go get his supplies, giving me a smile and a nod on the way out.

    I slipped out the door soon after and was followed by Mathalaus, a confused looking Stark, and a pair of River Stalker clansmen.

    In a small village like this one, everyone knew what happened already and was keeping their distance. Unlike the events with Janeen, everyone knew that there were dead bodies and so were trying to stay as far away as possible.

    Wait, there was only one stalker earlier, where did the second one¡­

    He was probably stalking around outside, just in case the rumors that must be circling about those 3 being dead were exaggerated.

    You mean that if we had left it to them¡­?

    They would have run into the army mage. Iron arrows or balls can only do so much to minimize damage against a trained mage, even in an ambush, even if this one is weaker than John is and has emotional problems. It would likely have ended with the mage dead and plenty of river stalkers dead with the others. Not to mention we have been hurting for rain recently and using fire is the most common method of attacks among mages.

    Mathalaus spoke quickly and quietly to the others and I saw their eyes widen before they immediately set off in the direction of Loco¡¯s lab. Both because of the low volume and because of my inner conversation with Bella I missed what they were talking about.

    Mathalaus turned back to me with his typical stony face. ¡°Shape ears?¡± He asked, looking at me with a look that I could not quite place.

    ¡°I did not listen in if that is what you are asking, although my ears are good enough that I could have.¡±

    He nodded. ¡°I heard things and assumed that you made,¡± His eyes wondered over me, but not in a perverted way, ¡°changes.¡±

    I kept up my own face perfectly still, ¡°I wondered how much of Janeen¡¯s intelligence was from her mother.¡±

    His face changed, growing softer and full of regret as his fingers reached up to touch his throat. I did not see any scar, but I suddenly wondered if his reluctance to speak did not have some physical motivation, rather than psychological. (When I thought about it we had never treated him as a patient) ¡°Her tongue yes, her mind¡­¡± he shrugged. ¡°Old enemies took her mother.¡± He glanced over at the home where Nathan was just exiting from. ¡°Time to find them.¡±

    Mathalaus turned to me and reached down to grab my hand. I was curious to see if he actually had some damage to his throat so I sent my talent into him as we touched. I nearly stopped breathing as I realized the extent of some of his injuries. He had next to no scars somehow, but his bodies had signs of damage from magical torture sometime in his past

    Not my version of torture either, which was purposeful and mental. It looked like someone had played with the man¡¯s vocal cords as if they were strings on an instrument.

    I belatedly realized that he had pressed something into my hand and was looking me dead in the eye. ¡°We will meet again, little Bella.¡±

    He turned around, leaving me to try and comprehend how anyone could have so many old wounds, improperly set bones, and barely covered bruises. The daily pain must be mind bending.

    I agreed with Bella about the pain, but I knew how the human body could adapt one day at a time to small pains.

    ¡°Nathan.¡± Mathalaus spoke in a louder voice, letting it easily carry past me. ¡°My people are leaving and I want no mistakes made.¡± He loomed over Nathan, who was doing a very good job of keeping his version of Mathalaus¡¯ stone face, despite the known feelings of discontent between our families. ¡°All our debts are settled.¡±

    Nathan looked like he had been slapped, but Mathalaus just turned and walked away, leaving Nathan standing alone with his mouth open.

    I turned my attention to the disk that Mathalaus gave me. It was a round disk of some white-silver metal that sparkled oddly. If not for its lack of inscription I might even think that is was some coin, given the size, but I did not know the metal as it certainly was not silver.

    Walking over to Nathan, I saw that he had turned and was now staring at my coin. I raised an eyebrow at his reaction and slipped the coin into my bone armor, which I morphed around it. ¡°Care to explain?¡± I asked, deliberately leaving the question vague.

    Nathan glanced at the house behind him and shook his head. It did not matter to me, there were more mysteries in this small community than secrets in the old halls of Abukir.

    ¡°I told you I was leaving.¡± I said simply. ¡°Now seems good to me.¡±

    Nathan flinched and looked at me with a complicated expression. I was honestly a little more than surprised that he was hesitating, but he might just have stronger parental bonds than I thought.

    Anything you want to say Bella?

    Promise not to stop me this time?

    ¡­Alright.

    Nathan spoke before Bella though. ¡°I have something for you in my office in Entrials. I hope that you will let me give it to you before you go.¡± He looked conflicted, as if about to say something else, but Bella cut him off with a quick hug.

    ¡°Thank you for everything, but I want to go without drawing this out too much. I still need to say goodbye to mother.¡± I felt her hesitation and gave her a small push. ¡°Goodbye dad.¡±

    Nathan made a strangled sound before he simply hugged Bella as tighter than we thought possible. ¡°Goodbye Bella, please¡­¡± His voice was cracking up and I felt tears. ¡°Please take care of yourself. You will always have a home here.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. All of you are important to us, so please take care of yourselves.¡±

    ¡°I will.¡±

    Bella broke the hug and walked away quickly, brushing at the tears trying to form, as I just tried to let her sort herself out.

    Done?

    Yes.

    Good, because getting used to all of this touching is a bad idea. Now, why do we not give Mathalaus a parting gift before take our stuff and go take care of the plants?

    Sounds good¡­ I still cannot believe that we killed 3 people with pollen.

    Technically, the pollen was just the trigger, but you knew that. Now, where did he go? I would like to be past Entrials and on the road to the capital before noon¡­

    I redirected us from the village perimeter towards the travel bag we left with Janeen. We would say goodbye while we did.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.Sorry.

    It is fine.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    We had grabbed our travel bag as Janeen was in the middle of almost being carried off by her father and tapped his back as we ran past him, letting our healing spells spread throughout his body. We left immediately afterwards without pausing or answering Janeen¡¯s questioning calls and used a bit of internal energy ¨C of G¨ªa ¨C to put some distance between us and the village.

    Now it was midmorning and we were at the place we had called home for the last few years to say the final goodbye.

    Elizabeth ¨C Mother ¨C had already finished with her morning chores and was talking to Hoplis¡¯ (eldest brother¡¯s) widow. Seeing me she sent the young mother back inside carrying my nephew.

    Life always goes on, I thought, more to myself than Bella. Everything changes and yet it stays the same.

    Mother watched us as we took our time walking to her in front of the house. Given the time of the cycle, I was tempted to go inside with her to get out of the sun, but instead I ended up asking what Carlatus was doing.

    The question was abrupt and awkward, but Mother handled it well, telling us that he was currently visiting with some of the tenants and would be back soon. The previous tenants had left when Nathan had gone to the capital to be formally declared the Lord of the area surrounding Entrials. The new ones were not locals, but they were thankful for the jobs because it saved their various body parts from being removed by the city justice system. The perks of working for a Lord.

    After we heard that, we asked to talk in the barn ¨C where we slept for the first few years to dodge the pervasive smell of traxico smoke that used to stalk the house ¨C we did not want to be overheard or interrupted by our nephew or his mother.

    ¡­In the barn, the awkwardness continued and we ended up feeding one of the older horses briefly before I managed to separate from Bella for a moment.

    We are dragging this out.

    I know but¡­

    No ¡®but¡¯ Bella, it is time.

    I let Bella concentrate for a moment before I took the lead. ¡°It is time for me to go.¡±

    Mother, who had been patiently watching us for a while now, just breathed deeply.

    ¡°I will not be back for a long time, if¡­¡± Our voice drifted a little and it became harder to say ¡®if ever.¡¯

    What got me was the fact that Bella¡¯s emotions were bleeding through rather badly, just like they had when she said goodbye to Nathan.

    Mother spoke up for the first time at that point. ¡°Why do you feel that you have to go now? You are 13 Bella!¡± She sighed and walked up to us from behind. Out of an instinct that I was retraining into us, we turned and sidestepped a hand that she tried to put on our shoulder. She looked hurt by that and her voice confirmed it. ¡°Why are you always so eager to get away from me?¡±

    We both flinched at that question. ¡°It is not you¡­¡± We spoke together in a quiet voice, feeling very young for a moment before I managed to remove myself again.

    I might have to leave this talk to you Bella, I keep getting too caught up in it.

    ¡°Please do not.¡±

    ¡°Do not what?¡± Mother asked, trying not to press too much for one reason or another.

    Deliberately concentrating, I tried to direct the conversation in a different direction. ¡°I lied.¡±

    That got her to blink. ¡°Bella what are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°I told you that I was barren, that I had always been that way, but that is not true. I made myself like that.¡±

    Mother looked like she had been slapped across the face and her tone changed dramatically. ¡°Why in the name of the gods would you do such a thing?!¡±

    I looked Mother in the eyes and told her a version of the truth, that I had not wanted to disappoint her, but I hated the idea of being with a man like that ¨C and I made sure she understood that I knew EXACTLY what that would entail ¨C before I dropped a few vague lines about having an idea of what it would felt like too.

    Mother was upset, but she eventually accepted that we *cough* were more fond of women, like Janeen, than what we knew was ¡®normal.¡¯

    Around that point however the conversation started to drift back towards why we made ourselves barren. Since we could not explain the magical device that was currently lodged in the same location as our sex organs would like to finish developing into, we went with the idea that it removed consequences from any possible ¡®unwanted intrusions.¡¯ A possibility that made Mother furious and brought her back to why we were leaving while we were so young.

    I gave her a few reasonable explanations of how mages needed to leave earlier than others (before they learned how to pull magical pranks on siblings usually) and how I needed to get started early if I wanted to proceed in any church¡¯s hierarchy. Neither of which seemed to help the situation.

    Do you have any experience with mothers? At all?

    Of course, I just tended to leave them to their children until I wanted them back in my bed. So, with a few exceptions, my experience is minimal.

    It shows.

    Logic should work regardless, it is not like they are a different species!

    As Mother digested everything that I had told her so far I felt some dark memories come back. They had been prompted throughout the conversation and I could only push them so far away when the conversation was going like this. They were the memories of how desperate I was at one point. Memories of how I let myself be sold as a slave to a noble couple of a truly infamous reputation¡­ back then I was half convinced that they would just have me doing something disgusting like plowing animals and I had actually prepared myself for that.

    Being made the ¡®women¡¯ by both of them as they forced various potions into me, was not what I was prepared for. I hated nobles before that night, but after I slipped out and razed their land to the ground, I truly hated them.

    It took my wife to finally make me let some of that hate go¡­

    Yet, here I was. Once again I had become a ¡®noble¡¯ through deed (albeit not mine this time) and that was a bit of a laugh, sick and twisted though it was.

    DeMorte? Come back to the present.

    The past makes the present, how can you leave either? That is why I chose that symbol ¨C sure it was my ¡®mage spirit,¡¯ but it was also the most appropriate.

    But your symbol only kept a single eye on the past DeMorte, I remember that. Where were the others?

    2 were blind, 2 were on the present, and the final one was¡­ on the future, you are right again little Bella.

    Speaking of which, how long are we going to hold back my growth? No one will believe that we are 13 at this¨C

    ¡°Bella?¡± Mother queried, sounding like she was finished trying to reign in her frustration and was now trying to accept out decision.

    We concentrated on her for a moment. ¡°The future.¡±

    ¡°What about it?¡±

    ¡°You asked why I was so eager to leave.¡± Bella provided, ¡°The truth is that, in the end, I am worried about the future.¡±

    ¡°What exactly are you worried about?¡± Mother asked attentively.

    ¡°We know that we could be great in it.¡± We spoke together, absolutely certain and absolutely clueless about what would truly come. ¡°We know that we could shape the world into something new if we wanted. It might not be better than the current world, but with our power, with what we know and can find out, everything could change.¡±

    ¡°Bella, please stop speaking like that, you are starting to worry your mother.¡± Her voice becoming somewhat jovial for a moment, maybe trying to make us say it was a joke or something, but her voice was also shaking a little.

    Bella spoke for us. ¡°I am sorry, you are our only mother, but the question must be answered regarding our future. What should be done when someone knows that they will change everything they touch?¡±

    Mother still looked worried, but she did try to answer as she saw that we were serious. ¡°Bella, I am not sure what you are talking about, but everyone changes everything around them simply by¡­ living. Everyone and everything is connected and you can only do what you feel is best.¡±

    We nodded, it was good enough, as far as advice went, but were we unsure if we were capable of doing that. We had decided not to keep our knowledge to ourselves and would spread our accumulated knowledge at some point in the future as best as we could.

    It might be hard to explain concepts like DNA, so that would be left out until some way to explain it to at least a reasonable level. All our other knowledge, the knowledge that Anton had taught us, could be passed on at the appropriate time ¨C preferably near our deaths.

    Still, knowledge was power, and power would cause changes in society ¨C especially as we would need some level of mass education to truly help others on a large scale. The Histones might be able to help, but either way it would represent a large change from any known pattern of how people treated the low classes.

    This plan was partly to make up for how much death and misery we would bring to those who followed our opponents and partly because we both hated the ¡®Bandit King¡¯ and the death ¡®he¡¯ caused¡­ though we both also respected the good that occasionally came of it.

    Not that you have been very good at it so far.

    I am out of practice. It is easier to just be selfish or ignore others for the ¡®good¡¯ of your own people, but on the whole we have helped quite a few people.

    ¡­and killed a few as well.

    I killed over a dozen people by your age, we are doing much better than we might otherwise be.

    Maybe.

    While we were having our mental conversation, Mother and I let the talk slip into silence as we had naturally drifted over to the barn¡¯s entrance and were staring off into the distance. She was standing just behind me and was likely trying to figure out what to make of our conversation so far, but I had a different problem. I did not know what to tell her, what to say in this situation.

    Not just because my brain was fractured enough trying to keep track of when she and Bella were talking, but also because I was starting through old memories again. Overall though, I just did not know how I was supposed to explain my mind to either of them, even if Bella could follow them, it was almost impossible for me to figure out how to explain.

    ¡­ Back then I had been an effective ruler, but I had never thought that I deserved a good life. I earned a better life on my own, but with the amount of people I killed¡­ Well, with every moment that I spent lamenting those deaths with the Guilt I became more certain that I was underserving of a ¡®good¡¯ life. A life where I had a family and was happy? In peace? It was so wrong to me that I could not express it.

    I was actually comforted by the idea that Gorith would never allow me into the lesser ellipticals. I should have gone to the lower ovals, so stretched that I would never even dream of being sent to Core, the alleged site of saints and the circle of paradise.

    Well, that was how it worked in my previous world, Gorith got all the souls and sent them to the various ovals if they were anything less than perfect. Those souls would then work through the decreasing ellipticals until they reached Core, which was supposed to be a perfect place, with a perfect place for everyone to be happy in, which was why it was in the perfect form, a circle.

    Here, according to Mother and the few priests in the area, if you stayed faithful to the god that you worshiped and acted well on their behalf they would take you into their unique realms after you died. With the unworthy ones being condemned as spirits until ¡®Noes,¡¯ the death god of this world, saw fit to collect them and let Conbra, the goddess of life, give them another chance at life.

    I had no idea what would happen to me though, especially given my ¡®blessing¡¯ from Gorith¡­ The best guess I had at this time was what the ¡®haughty duke¡¯ Nalk talked about, with us mortals ¡®giving our souls¡¯ away, but even that was up in the air when I was on a different world. Could my soul make it back to Gorith if I wanted it to? Was this Noes just another face of Gorith''s?

    That was all without going into the traditions of your soul¡¯s weight: If you were reincarnated, did you carry the weight of your previous life¡¯s sins? The Nalks said that no one outside of the gods we gave our souls to would care, but if I gave my soul to Noes, would he see any sins from my previous life? Could I make up for the lives I took by trying to heal more than hurt? Would Gorith still receive my soul after I died or would one of the local gods receive it instead? What about the Nalks? What if they decide that I had not performed up to their expectations, or that I had exceeded it so much that they wanted to play with me a third time?

    Whenever I thought about the future, especially about what would happen after I died, my head spun.

    The only goal I had right now was that I first wanted to change my body back to being male and merge with Bella, but all I could come up with after that was a few sex experiments. I had once been a king and that was always going to be a part of who I was, so should I try again? I created something greater than myself once, but did I want to go down that road of blood and suffering again?

    Life is probably a big question for everyone DeMorte. Just because we have a little more information than some others does not mean that we can figure it out all at once.

    Even so, I would prefer to have an overarching goal, even if it was something absurd like¡­

    NO! Please do not even think that one too loudly! We already have enough foreign gods watching us without the local ones thinking that we want to¡­ you know!

    Bella was correct, again, so I sighed and resolved myself to concentrating on just working towards my current goal, a new, male, body¡­ We could address the other plans at some point in the future.

    No.

    Would immortality be so bad?

    With you? With the level of power you are thinking of? With what you would have to do to try and obtain it? YES!

    Bah.

    I cleared my mind and turned to look at Elizabeth ¨C at my Mother. She was looking at me with a worried expression, no doubt at least partly caused by our silence, but what I saw underlying that worry was discomforting. It looked like fear¡­

    Not fear of me, but fear for me. It was an odd sight, especially as I was someone who did not even have a mother until after I died.

    We smiled at her together, trying to placate her worry and failing utterly. ¡°Do you remember what the old mid-wife said? About me being blessed?¡± Mother nodded, clearly wondering where this was going. ¡°She was right Mother, I can feel that I was touched by the gods in some way, that I will change things around me¡­ It actually scares me a little.¡± That particular admission was painful, but true.

    Mother¡¯s eyes widened as she took that in and I reflected on who I was going to become. ¡°Was that why you asked Nathan about the churches?¡±

    I let Bella talk to her and I pulled myself back for some more self-examining.

    Right now I felt nothing when torturing others, I only felt slightly worried when I thought about being targeted by assassins, and I had no desire for a family of any type like the one I had in my previous life. Yet, when I stopped to think about what I had done with only a few circles worth of power in my previous life and what I could do with the knowledge that Anton had taught me, I wondered just where my limits were.

    I had felt tens of thousands die and pass through me because of the Guilt and now I was in a position to become even more powerful¡­ however, I did not set out to become a king back then. Now, with the chance to change even more, I found myself trying not to go over how I became a ¡®king¡¯ in the first place.

    The only natural laws of the worlds that I knew existed were that: everything dies eventually and that everything except death changes.

    Mother leaned over at that thought and I found myself brought into a tight hug. ¡°You always worried too much Bella. You can only be yourself and I promise that I will love you unconditionally, now and forever. You are still a child, do not think that you have to answer all of the world¡¯s problems all at once, and just take it one step at a time.¡±

    I had tensed up with the hug, but it did feel good, so we were a little disappointed when Mother pulled back to look us in the eyes, unshed tears making own shine. ¡°You are always going to be my little girl, regardless of where you go or what you do.¡± She gave us a large, loving, smile ¡°Even if the churches try and say you are a prophet come to save us all, you will still be my child, first and foremost.¡±

    We tried to speak, but something was caught in our throat. We would need to look into tighter bodily control while we were¡­ another tight hug.

    Bella helped me suppress my instinctual reaction to try and push her away, reminding me that I was safe, and helped me simply enjoy the moment of peace and love. It would not last. It could not last¡­ but we would leave soon enough, so for now, we simply enjoyed the moment¡­ until Carlatus showed up.

    *     *    *

    In Leo¡¯s private observation room:

    Selaugh was having a mental conflict that had now been drawn out for what mortals would a week now. For her, it was barely a blink, but her mind had still been racing during this week, battling her own desires as she came to the inevitable conclusion.

    Finally moving, she sighed in disappointment. Her human body had gotten weak from the lack of nutrition.

    She absorbed some moisture from the air and ignored her body¡¯s hunger.

    This was much more important.

    The being in front of her was angry, very angry. He wanted to make changes, to interfere, to PLAY the Game. He was not allowed to do so however, he was banned for another 17,000 Games.

    My poor husband, you were holding out so well too. She walked up behind his human form and looked over his shoulder at the former ¡°Bandit King¡± as he cast one last look at his newest home before turning away.

    Having been keeping track of the events surrounding this particular human, she took particular note of what he was wearing, or more specifically, what he was not wearing.

    She nodded to herself, understanding her husband¡¯s distress. The reincarnated human had a chance to accept a small mithril chest plate and had declined. The results of that choice, of not accepting Nathan¡¯s gift would affect the entirety of his life and the Game itself.

    It was a ripple, a ripple that could disrupt empires if she helped it, or doom him to an early grave if no one played off of his decision.

    That was the true calling of the Game though, the chance. The best players did not need to see the future, or have spies in every camp, they were the best predictors, the best calculators, in the multiverse.

    Of them all, her husband had been the best at setting up flexibility, giving his players untold chances and paths to take to change their fate. It was one of the reasons that she had so much trouble against him as a player, back then¡­

    Of course, when the flexibility of your Player was so great that it adapts the ability to devour 4 galaxies and almost jump into another universe, it had gone too far. His creations were still playing the Game too, constantly seeking out new life, with the express purpose of devouring it. Even after 20 millennia, his original creature was still directing the entirety of its species to try and slate its endless hunger.

    This love of flexibility was the reason that he liked the reincarnated human too and was feeding into his anger. The human¡¯s options had been changed and his likelihood of winning decreased¡­ Although most Nalks were not calculating his odds correctly in the first place, so many would likely miss the possible disaster that this human could unleash on their plans.

    Her husband, however, had been one of the few Nalks who changed the Game AFTER the formal rules had been settled and he could see the possibilities as well as her.

    Disaster and death were a part of the Game, but he wanted to play the Game and direct the human on a less dangerous path, one in which he would provide the best Game experience for the others and she loved him for it.

    She could still not allow it to happen though.

    Taking a bit of her energy, Selaugh called out to her husband using his true name for the first time in over 600 Games¡­ Like all Nalks, it was a complete descriptor, instead of a human name.

    A human male¡¯s body, with a lion¡¯s head, floating in a scientist¡¯s labcoat and protective gear in the center of an endless tesseract-like dimension, with endless clockwork computers in every direction. All of the gears were spinning, clicking, and rotating in an endless calculation of possibilities. The sounds of the clicks echoed into the eternities and the clockwork filled his name with a metallic taste and smell while giving the feeling of being warm to the touch.

    It was a beautiful and complex name that deserved to be sent more in conversation, but everyone, including herself, had gotten too used to simply calling him ¡®Leo¡¯ or ¡®Leonardo¡¯ while he stayed in his more corporeal form.

    Hearing his name, he jerked and turned to see his wife staring at his half-energy half-corporial form. Clearly knowing that he had been getting too caught up in the latest moves of the Game, his energy changed from feeling angry to embarrassed, to humbled before he returned his energy to his human body, recovering himself and becoming ¡®Leo¡¯ once more.

    Seeing that her husband was back in to the humanoid form that he had been staying in recently, she smiled. ¡°You should give me another child for that my dear, you were losing control.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Leo acknowledged. ¡°Although I do not know how you turned that into a desire for another child, our first is still after my mana for making a ruling against him.¡±

    Selaugh just laughed, happy to have the Leo she had grown to care for back again. I might not lust for this one as much, but I must admit that he is ever more lovable¡­ thinking of which. ¡°Then do not tell this one who its parents are! That is not our way anyway.¡± She smiled at him hungrily, ¡°Besides, it is the process of creating one that is the most fun.¡±

    Leo just rolled his eyes and turned back to the glass orb that displayed the human. ¡°He has so much potential Selaugh. Still, he is going to leave without uncovering the secrets of the Lord¡¯s mansion, without realizing that his last ¡®edit¡¯ to Drasidedi was mutated by a Player, and even without the smallest shred of the power that tools of the Zugoran to the north could represent.¡± His voice was on edge, not quiet angry, but still upset. ¡°He will barely reach 81% of his possible strength at this rate and that is assuming that he learns to ignore all of these existential questions that suddenly are filling his mind.¡±

    ¡°You have not been reviewing my plays have you?¡± Selaugh pouted.

    ¡°What?¡± He quickly focused on another glass orb across the room and summoned it closer. ¡°You gave him the mithril disk? Why did you¡­¡± Selaugh giggled as his brain caught up to hers, it was adorable.

    ¡°That is twice I helped you now my dear husband, I expect my reward to be delicious.¡± Selaugh licked her lips and stored her precious cloak away in a dimension that would not be affected by their energies.

    Leo then groaned as she dissolved her human form and sent him the Nalk equivalent of lord summoning a slave with their finger. As Leo reluctantly shed his human body, she reflected that she really did not jump at him nearly as much as she did in the past. As long as he is thinking about that past though, I might as well think about it too.

    A giggling filled the room and spilled out into the next few dimensions.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    So much work to do before I can call my work as good as it is in my mind¡­ Anyway, long road, but I look forward to it :-)

    As always, opinion, questions, comments, and concerns are welcome, I just ask that you please keep reading my story as I try to become a better author, sincerely,

    B_S.

 Chapter 26: SRM

    2 small warning below:

    1)DeMorte has his own issues.

    2) Kids: do not think that just because adults use words that you should copy them.

    Adults: Be careful of what you say around kids

    Adults who do not care about the line above: Be careful of the other adults when you announce that no fucks are given¡­

    Chapter 26: SRM

    ¡°Harno¡¯s harpies, an elf!¡±

    Oops, forgot to watch that particular part of brush. I almost flinched in regret as I released the tiny fish I had been holding. We finally got a chance to study a few live ones and yet we were constantly being interrupted.

    I am a bit more aggravated that it is our ears that everyone sees first!

    I am not, anyone who stares at a naked young girl in lust needs to be castrated.

    It doesn¡¯t have to be in lust, but would it be too much to ask for a little acknowledgement? Besides, we were a ¡®young woman¡¯ a few days ago.

    That was when everyone knew that we had magic and knew how old we are.

    I absently cast a spell to dry us as we jumped out of the river and collected our clothes.

    The road, if you wanted to call it that, to the capital was long and of questionable quality at times, with large pits in various parts of the dirt paths. Over all it was not the worst ¡®road¡¯ that I had experience and it did get better as we progressed, but certain parts of our path would have been outright dangerous to negotiate with a wagon.

    How hard was it to build a paved road with runes of durability carved into them? I did it in the stoning mountains!

    With how many slaves?

    A few thousand. It was not that hard once they got used to the safe paths though and the areas that we have been passing through have only had hills, not rock mountain paths.

    I pulled on some of my generic traveling clothes, in this case a plain and shapeless brown robe, as I ignored a few gawkers. There were a surprisingly high number of travelers considering winter was not yet here, I would have assumed that, this far out from the major trade hubs, the numbers on the road would be negligible. I had no idea why currently, but I was wrong. Still, I concentrated my ears on the surrounding and listened in on several conversations.

    My bone armor was stored in an exceptionally dense cube beside me, least it scare someone enough to cry ¡®Soul Mage.¡¯ The armor itself was mostly animal bone, but there was a bit of human bone in it. After I pulled on the robe and gave a glare mixed with a small amount of killing intent I was afforded a little privacy again and I reformed my armor under my robe.

    It was a nice, flexible weapon to have as a backup, but I had a plan to get an iron chainmail that would fit over it soon enough. I would have warn it into the river, but I was worried about how dense it was. Bathing was a side benefit of going in for the small fish that were occasionally visible and I had not thought that anyone would care about a random girl in the river.

    Apparently I was wrong. While I had never been particularly shy before and I was not going to be overly embarrassed so just because I was in a female body now, I still needed to at least pretend to care to attract less attention¡­ Also, the key word in the phrase of ¡®overly embarrassed¡¯ was ¡®overly.¡¯

    I could care less if someone was stupid or perverted enough to stare at me, however, as some rude individuals had already suggested, I was ¡°too young to be trying to attract attention.¡±

    It was one of the very noticeable differences between this world and my previous one.

    Granted, some of these differences were simply connected to food, or how people thought that they should prey, (personal sacrifices and prayers seemed to be preferred here over music or art) while other areas were the very similar to what I was used to.

    For example, the pantheon of gods was similar, even if the actual gods were not, but the numbers of gods and what they represented did not make as much sense to me. This world had only 12 gods and, while the 4 elements were logical enough (even if their naming sense was odd to me), all of them were off to me. This was partly because, all 12 gods had their own subsections of nature or human activity, that they were supposed to control. Harno, for instance, was the god of both winds and safe travel. He was both an elemental and practically the chief god of trade? It was so¡­ wrong.

    In addition, there were hints that there had been 13 or 14 gods in the past, but it was nearly considered heresy to actually ask about them. Which was suspicious to an incredible degree.

    Though, the single most annoying difference had to do with such people: no one assumed that I had magic.

    In my previous life, there had been at least a few mages in even the most isolated villages. Granted, they would all likely be of the first 1 or 2 circles, but they would be there. In this world, or at least in this kingdom, the people seemed to believe that they would never meet a mage in their lifetimes. In fact, a few days ago, when I had suggested to someone making¡­ inappropriate advances that I was safe because I had magic he had looked at me like I was the most adorable thing in the world.

    That individual will not be breeding ever again, but he was quite enlightening on that subject. Plus, he taught me a few new curses!

    Regardless, I would soon be faced with the fascinating and unfortunate business of finally going through a minor city. Between the memories of what cities in my previous life could be like and the lack of mages in the population, it was not an experience that I was totally looked forward to.

    Magic sewage systems and magically regulated farms had grown the cities of my old world to truly awesome proportions, but this world had very little of the magical workforce that my old world did.

    This led me to a basic idea, take a slight detour and investigate something that would be both enlightening and allow me to bathe. So here I was, studying fish gills and trying not to castrate anyone else.

    In the area I was in however, the only small stream that gave me both relative privacy and let me catch fish was still fairly crowded!

    In the 3000+ cycles that these people had been away from the Elves, they all still feared the forest and gathering in small numbers. Honestly I was not sure if they did not have a rule about couples needing guards to copulate. There seemed to be no place that I could go that did not have someone a stone¡¯s throw away!

    Stop being so dramatic about it, there are still large areas where you were having fun stalking people without being seen.

    I enjoyed that because it was difficult to move both silently and completely unseen, but at this rate the capital will be a major hazard.

    A hazard or a chance to practice more pickpocketing? How much did we earn yesterday?

    Not enough to keep us from starving if we start using magic regularly. Besides that is exactly part of the problem, if we go into a major city, where people are practically living on top of one another, everyone will be prepared and expecting thieves and will likely have runes on their belongings. Not to mention that we will be targeted ourselves the instant that we step foot there.

    Which will require either copious amounts of magic stored invested into a set of personal wards, or a lot of sewing to fix. We can take a day to sew some more runes into our clothes and belongings you know?

    I was about to retort when I had to catch a rock instead. I casually grabbed two more out of the air afterwards and then casually threw all 3 back with a little internal en- with a little ¡®G¨ªa¡¯ infused into my wrist.

    I was rewarded with the cowardly yips of two young boys as they received direct hits to the forehead. Unfortunately for their last comrade, he had already started to run, so his stone bounced off of shoulder and clipped his ear, giving me a much less satisfying sound.

    I gave a little smirk as they ran off, brats. They had likely been about to start shouting ¡®go away elf¡¯ or some such nonsense.

    Now, where were we? Ah, I was about to explain why us pickpocketing at the lord¡¯s party or what we were doing a little while ago would be different in a big city:

    Besides the citizenry having more awareness of their belongings, capital cities are always well-guarded magically to look out for spies and potential assassins. Given our level of magical strength, we will have at least one watcher the moment that we enter the capital.

    Wait, why are you worried about being watched? Did you not say that we actually needed to be noticed as ¡®Bella¡¯ to get more information for your annoying belief that a male body would be better?

    I swear that you have been getting flippant lately

    We were picking up our bag and preparing to move when I heard a bratty voice say something he really should not have. Turning around, I marched through the bits of shrubbery and found myself next to the road again in moments. Beyond it was a farm and a pair of circular towns off to both east and west. The road ran between them and right past the tree farm that I had been on the edge of.

    The scenery changes far too fast around here I thought curiously. Especially as the area seemed to go from tree farm to farm to town right before my eyes. It made sense in a limited way because, despite the cultural fear of nature that seemed to be pounded into the head of each new generation, they still needed some way to keep warm in the winter. However, the locals also seemed reluctant to settle directly on a river for some reason, which made no sense to me at all.

    Why not just carve heating runes during the winter? That would let them indulge in their fears all they liked.

    Likely because most of the population does not even know how to read, much less how to create runes. There is also the large danger of fires being started from improperly carved heat runes¡­ Or maybe they just view runes as a part of nature and thus associated with the elves.

    ¡°Excuse me miss.¡± We turned to address the idiot whose friends were currently hiding the brats. ¡°These young men seemed to believe that you attacked them. Would you mind explaining what happened?¡± The man speaking was surprisingly well armed with outer leather armor, a short sword, a mace, and a long sword of some type that was strapped to his back. He also gave off a decent amount of magic, although most of what I could feel was actually leaking out from his exposed skin, suggesting iron armor underneath his leather.

    He was accompanied by a woman in church robes, a bear of a man that had what I could only call a bastard sword and a bastardized mace that was far too large to be for use against humans, and another female equipped similarly to the leader. The church woman had a bit of magical power leaking from her, but not the other 2. They all had runes adorning their equipment too, mostly the runes were copies a variant on the durability rune.

    The brats were sniffling while they hid behind the church woman, the 3 young boys were going to pay for such a degrading comment.

    ¡°I would like the brats, they attacked me and just now had the audacity to call me an ¡®elf slut.¡¯¡± I felt my ears twitch. ¡°Now, if you would kindly move out of the way, I would enjoy educating them, merc.¡±

    All humans had selective hearing, but mine was on another level when I wanted it to be and after my fish examination had been interrupted, I had chosen to keep part of my attentions on what people were talking about. Of course, I heard them speaking about me much more easily than I heard why in the ovals they were all traveling too. The SRM (self-righteous mercenaries) in front of me through, and they were so easy to identity, only heard the word ¡®merc.¡¯

    ¡°Miss, you seem to have us mistaken, we are from the adventurers guild.¡± The man explained in carefully controlled voice ¡°and we are just trying to help settle this situation without trouble. Now, perhaps your parents are somewhere around?¡±

    I sneered, ignoring Bella¡¯s warning, ¡°You may address me as ¡®ladyship¡¯ or, preferably ¡®mage¡¯ merc. However, you are not being paid so why do you not just leave? Keeping my body young does not mean that I need parental guidance and I certainly do not need your assistance here.¡±

    To my surprise, the SRM actually bowed, respectfully, before speaking with firmness in his voice. ¡°I am honored to meet such a talented young mage, I too am of the nobility and of magical blood, however, I do find myself in the position of requesting leniency against these young boys as they are nothing more than children.¡±

    No self-righteousness from an SRM? It must be because I dropped the ¡®ladyship¡¯ thing that denotes a generic noble rank.

    Or maybe not all adventurers are so bad?

    Do not be silly Bella, of course they are not all bad, I know a great many dead adventurers from my previous life.

    After thinking it over I nodded and acknowledged his request. ¡°You are correct, children such as they do not deserve having their tongues removed, despite their transgresses.¡± I heard a collective gasp from the brats and the church woman. ¡°I will lower it to the weakest torture spell I know.¡±

    Remove their tongues? I thought you were going to just hang them upside down for a little while. Plus, that spell is hardly torture.

    Like they need to know that? This is far more fun.

    Will it still be fun when we have to deal with the Guilt?

    No, but I will not let it get that far, if necessary I can put an iron knife in each of them and then knock them out with magic. Afterwords we can heal them and make sure they wake up immediately after we leave, I have done this sort of thing before Bella.

    ¡°NO!¡± ¡°Mommy!¡± ¡°Evilest-est-est elf! My brother will¡­¡± I ignored the brat¡¯s outcries, which were not only loud, but grated on my ears. Two started running as fast as they could and one remained behind church robes that would not protect him from my ire, despite the glares from the church woman.

    Her friends, the bear-man and the other woman were caught between glaring and trying to let it go. Nobility of any rank could cause problems and while they likely did not believe my statement about being a full mage already, they would at least pretend to respect the title.

    Their leader seemed to currently be trying to reign in what would likely be a very rude comment about my state of mind, but I decided that I had overall wasted enough time talking with them.

    I cast a set of 3 of the basic prank spell, ¡®endless itch¡¯ and directed them around the church girl. It would not harm the brats unless they scratched too much over the short duration that the spell would be active, but it would make a notable memory on why they should be careful about who they insulted.

    It was also far more entertaining than my previous thought of tying them upside-down as ''endless itch'' make clothes unbearably rough against your skin and aggravates the itching until you either got the idea that you needed to stop moving, or you took off your clothes.

    I saw with my third eye (Mage sight I suppose would be the correct local name) that the spells were about to hit, but at the last second the church woman reacted and blocked the brat next to her. She even made an attempt to block the other two as well, but reacted too late. Instead, she cast the counter spells to cancel my spells immediately afterwards. That was one of the problems with ''prank spells'' they were actually very easy to get rid of past a certain level of competency.

    ¡°Are you insane?¡± I hissed, letting everyone recoil from the insult.

    ¡°I do not believe in punishing children for the foolish actions of another!¡± The church girl barked at me. ¡°I am a Healer of Conbra and I do not approve you trying to harm such young lives. I do not care what rank noble or mage you claim to be, I will not allow this to-

    I tapped into my G¨ªa and watched the world slow down. I carefully shifted my right foot and felt myself float a few feet off to the side. I did this to get some personal distance from the leader, who was likely the most dangerous, and to get behind the Healer once I gave a second push.

    Although, since my G¨ªa had slowed down both of our perceptions of time, I felt Bella¡¯s disapproval come out in full force while we had no one else to deal with for the moment.

    You do realize that this is your fault correct?

    What are you talking about? These fools stuck their noses in and now I am going to get intimate with her inner organs, non-lethally of course.

    You could have chosen to walk away at any time though.

    Yes, but why would I let the SRM off without punishing them for their interference?

    I landed with my left foot and gave a small push as my foot dug up the ground a bit. This second push would let me land right behind her. In slow motion, the leader was starting to react to my movement by accessing his own G¨ªa stores, but at a snail¡¯s pace compared to me.

    Maybe because all they see is an aggressive young women, claiming adulthood, trying to attack small children with her magic? A young woman who is now wasting an excessively large amount of G¨ªa?

    Then they should have ignored it as a childish quibble, or just have listened to me when I first told them why. I can still test your theory through, it has been a while since we pulled out our cloak.

    I landed behind the Healer, two arm lengths away and took the time to shoot 2 homing prank spells at the 2 boys still running away before decreasing the amount of G¨ªa I was using. The leader, who had jumped at my original landing spot now found himself landing at fairly high speeds and digging up a large amount of dirt as he tried to slow down.

    Clearly more used to practicing on hard surfaces, he failed to properly reinforce his body with G¨ªa and rolled his ankle, which I thought I might have heard give a pop. Ignoring him for the time being, I concentrated on the Healer, who had moved the boy behind her and was likely calling up her own reserves of G¨ªa.

    ¡°Stoning self-righteous mercenaries.¡± I sneered. ¡°Why do your kind always think that they have the right to judge everyone else? I was trying to let those fools off with the lightest of punishments for daring to throw stones at me, a noble. If I wanted to, I could have had them executed, but I decided to return their stones to their foreheads instead. Then, when I hear these little pieces of filth,¡± I let a little amount of killing intent leak, ¡°dare to associate my noble person with a pair of such vulgar words, I came looking for them.

    ¡°Now, are you really going to continue to obstruct me in my education of these pathetic little brats? Or would you rather see to your friend?¡± I finished my speech with every bit of disdain that I saved especially for SRM, dawning my cloak of pride and showing it off magnificently.

    She hesitated, clearly caught between wanted to help her leader, who was already receiving help from the other 2 minions, and wanting to attack me. Idly I wondered if she fancied him, as Conbra worshipers were fairly well known for their joyous celebrations of life and the process which created it. ¡°I will give you my word to make sure that he is punish for his thoughtless words.¡±

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    ¡°What exactly do you think your word is worth to me?¡± I asked, making sure that I sounded annoyed.

    She hesitated again, ¡°I think that it is worth enough to remember for a later date.¡±

    I blinked and grimaced. She was actually offering a favor for a brat who was just going to be given a bad itch? I had forgotten that I was dealing with a Healer first and a SRM second, Bella was getting to be right more often these days. ¡°Fine,¡± I sighed, withdrawing my killing intent, ¡°but do not fix the other 2 until the spells have run their course.¡±

    She jerked her head in surprise and looked over at the 2 brats who ran away and I could still hear yowling at they tried to find the source of their itch. That made me frown though, she must have very little magical talent indeed if she had missed me casting those spells. I originally thought that she was hiding her power, but she might have just been a mage with little power to begin with.

    Though the most logical explanation that I could come up with was that she had been concentrating so much on her own leader and I that she simply forgot. ¡°Go.¡± I dismissed her, waving at her leader.

    I watched her move off to investigate him while keeping an eye on me the whole time. She also kept herself between the boy and me at all times. I took the opportunity to disappear into the tree farm, jumping over the small stream and its even smaller fish I quickly let made sure that I was going in the correct direction before I continued into the poor excuse for ¡®nature¡¯ that surrounded this area. I would likely be out of the other side by nightfall even if I did not use any G¨ªa.

    As I moved though I processed what I had learned today and I came to several conclusions, starting with the fact that growing fish gills would be too difficult and time consuming. Though one rather large fish had given me an idea to make my lungs a little more efficient. I also realized that I was going to retain my beliefs regarding SRMs into the future as I realized that someone was following me.

    Really, now, do you see Bella? If a SRM ever had an original thought outside of combat, it would be in solitary confinement.

    Enough, stop stealing jokes. Whoever that is might just have been antagonized by our actions.

    Bandits, we steal everything!

    Do you really want me to throw your creed back at you?

    Definitely more flippant.

    Why do you keep saying that? I do not think that word means what you think that word means.

    Inconceivable. Flippant means that you keep asking questions, coming from the word flip: to turn around.

    No it means¡­ OH! You are one being flippant! You are doing it right now to distract me from your actions earlier!

    Oh, look, more trees.

    I tapped into my G¨ªa a little and let my legs start pumping as I moved through the wood. Given how much practice I had neat my home, it was an easy endeavor, especially as these areas were labeled ¡®tree farms¡¯ for a reason, they were large and relatively empty besides the trees.

    Do not think that you can just- Bunny!

    You know, rabbit makes for good¨C No. ¨Cnever mind

    Do not think the cuteness totally distracted me either DeMorte, you were way more aggressive with them than you usually are with anyone else.

    Do you really want to know why? It has something to do with the one following us.

    You cannot seriously expect them to¡­ by the gods tell me that he is not¡­

    SRM ¨C my problem is not with the ¡®M¡¯ it is with the ¡®SR¡¯ ¨C They act better than the mercenaries because they are frequently called on to kill beasts who can use magic, but they pretend that only mercenaries accept things like assassination missions.

    I leisurely came to a stop and took out my iron daggers to wait for the shadow to come on out. This far into a tree farm was likely the most quiet and isolated spot that we were going to find.

    The shadow landed like a 300 kilo bear, which was what he looked like, clad in a fur cloak of some sort despite the heat. He stopped around 30 meters away, with just enough mana rolling off of him to let me estimate 7 or 8 circles worth of magic on him. ¡°Do you enjoy stalking little girls, guild enforcer?¡± I taunted.

    ¡°I am no one but a concerned individual, who found your antics to be rude.¡± He responded, in a surprisingly clear voice, despite his hulking, fur covered appearance.

    ¡°Ah, well, I would not want to be rude would I now? I might get an assassin sent after me.¡±

    ¡°I doubt that you would qualify for such a distressing thing, however you are right in that there might be¡­ embarrassing accidents that you might get blamed for.¡±

    I grinned, there it was, the ¡°adventurers¡± always protected their trade and their reputation through any means necessary, although I could only blame the Nalks for letting me run into a guild enforcer before I even had a chance to go by another name. ¡°You can tell your masters that my name is DeMorte and I will likely be having fun with other self-righteous mercenaries in the future.¡±

    ¡°What makes you assume that I have ¡®masters¡¯ DeMorte? I told you that I am just a concerned individual.¡±

    ¡°The fact that you asked that question and the fact that you did not come here alone.¡± From what little I could see of his face, as most of it was covered, he did not seem to react to my accusation, but I figured that was enough of a confirmation. Unlike the Royal Magicians Corps, this lot, wherever the others were hiding, were too weak to ever move alone.

    After a pause, he just gave a small bow and held it. I nodded my head in response and wished him a nice day before tapping into my G¨ªa again.

    ¡­I cannot believe that just happened.

    It might not have, I just assumed that he was a SRM enforcer, but he could have been the king for all we know. Stones, I was guessing that he had someone who specialized in hiding nearby too, life is guesswork like that. That said, there is no use dwelling on it, we can change our appearance soon enough if we need to, but right now I just want some food and a chance to restore our spent G¨ªa.

    Bella said nothing, but kept concentrating on using our senses to find any hint that we were still being followed.

    *     *     *

    Back on the forgotten continent:

    Jagged Claw had 3 names now. His first name, which included his clan name, plus two others ¡®public names¡¯ that had been forced upon him.

    The first was one he actually enjoyed, but was meant as an insult: ¡®Drumless.¡¯ To hear himself called such a thing made Jagged smile, but it was also an annoyance as it reminded him, yet again, of the never-ending drums.

    The other name was spoken in respect, but was more annoying to him: Jagged Shadow-claw. It was meant to declare his prowess in killing in an intelligent way, from the shadows, but it suggested that he liked to fight in the dark and would wilt under the great fire of another warrior.

    Jagged was determined to fight both hard and smart, so neither of these names suited him, yet he kept hearing them.

    His sneak attack from underwater had allowed the ship-building slaves and captained straight out of the harbor, with only a dying rain and a growing fire to reveal that they had ever been there. His men did not even have to deal with the undead patrols in the harbor, instead smashing down walls and raising curtains that the undead would ignore in their clueless wanderings. It had been a quiet tale of necessity instead of a loud epic battle.

    Unfortunately for him, no one wanted to hide in the shadows. Well, the Thunder Hammers clan had rallied behind the tale of the storm providing his drums, but there were too few of them to make a large difference in the politics.

    The elder had extoled his work as necessary and an absolute success, but the younger generations had been raised with battle in their souls and drums in their ears. They had nothing to say to the ¡®Drumless.¡¯

    The fact that his counterpart, had only succeeded after taking a horrible 60% loss of his forces was testimony for his ways, but the disgusted hisses of ¡®Drumless¡¯ followed his every step.

    Now he was being forced to prove them wrong on the Wall.

    The Wall spanned such a distance that it had taken 10 cycles and far too many of the last mages to build before the undead hoards had reached it. Ever since it had held off millions of undead, scores of Soul Mage monstrosities made from the dead animals and monsters that once roamed free, and the seemingly endless barrage of magic from the Soul Mages themselves.

    It had enough power to stop a mage capable of powering 30 circles of magic and it had been breached no less than 4 times. Those breaches had always been resealed, but the danger still remained very real. The undead hordes would ebb and flow with the cycles, occasionally coordinating their attacks with huge hordes that would wonder through the treacherous mountain paths that protected the flanks of the Wall.

    The first battles had been terrifying to the point where men and women had been driven into mad despair by the sheer size of their foe, but now the hordes were not just thrown against their defenses in attempts to force a way through. The Wall had and still held, for now.

    After the first few massive clashes, both sides had settled into a routine of trying to watch for weaknesses and strike what few blows they could. A few Soul Mages had been assassinated in the beginning, but now deceit was associated with the Soul Mages as they tried to tunnel under it, send disease over it, and most recently, sail around it, but they held.

    Jagged mission had helped stop their ships and even stolen dozens of the massive things for his people¡¯s planned evacuation across the great sea, even rescuing enslaved shipmen, who had been kept in expectation of delivering undead hoards to the unprotected shores of the coast. Such a force would have only needed a few Soul Mages to convert the smallest portion of the millions upon millions of people forced to survive in such cramped conditions and end the whole war.

    Now, with their latest scheme in ruins, the Soul Mages had come to the Wall again to try and force their way through yet again. It was almost no different from the previous attempt, according to the reports, but there was a single difference that made many a person¡¯s blood run cold, the undead were being directly controlled by a visible Soul Mage.

    Erected on a massive wooden stand in the rear of the hoard, the figure was only a shadow to even the best of eyes, but it was so powerful that all could see the air distort around it just by existing.

    The horde itself also enjoyed a massive coordination boost as the Soul Mage directed them to set up massive siege engines along this part of the Wall. Jagged, in command of this portion, had received a few reports that elsewhere along the Wall other Soul Mages were there as well.

    Although, given the fact that there had once been a siege ramp of human corpses the feed hundreds of undead onto the wall during the last breach, even the increased coordination would not let them break through the Wall. Even so, Jagged had been one the first to strike up the drums for a major invasion force and had already requested help.

    Yet I am still Drumless Jagged sighed to himself. Even when he thought about it, the fact that there was a major political force behind that name was still surreal to him.

    They had no official name, but were known as the Defenders collectively and they held the belief that, by holding ground, they were actually gaining ever more of an advantage ¨C all the time!

    It was an understandable fantasy, after all, Soul Mages could not possibly remain united in one coherent group much longer than it had been. Surly, they were killing each other even now and weakening themselves until their madness left them unable to control their armies.

    When it was pointed out that the current war had been going on at the wall for nearly a decade, it was frequently argued that the current Soul Mages must have been disciples of the previous ones.

    If they were the disciples back then, Jagged though ruefully, they will be at least somewhat unfamiliar with the idea of facing the magical power of the Wall.

    Looking over to his standard bearer, Jagged indicated that he should change the heraldry. The man went to work quickly, but respectfully, not letting either standard touch the ground. His other soldiers, housed in the manipulation towers, were well trained enough that they would be watching for the red and orange standard, knowing how hard it would be to hear drum instructions over the racket of the motivation drums.

    Sure enough, the manipulation towers started accessing the deep reserves of magic that the Wall naturally collected in its periods of relative peace.

    Using prearranged magic spells, the Wall would use magic to power its own magic and leave the non-magician users free to wield its might as the near unbreakable mass of magical defenses as their own.

    First, as per usual, they formed scores of giant fireballs, each a dozen meters across their centers and flung them across the kilometers of empty space and into the bases of where the various siege engines lay.

    The Soul Mage did nothing and merely watched as hundreds of human and amalgamated animal corpses were turned into flaming biomass. Hundreds of undead were cremated with each fireball that landed, but the undead hoards simply reformed without making a sound.

    It was the ONE area where Jagged actually appreciated the drums: humans were noisy, energetic, and temperamental, but only the undead could be so silent.

    Jagged cursed inwardly regretting, like so many others, that the usual corpse disposal methods were warded against by the Soul Mages. If we could find a way around those accursed wards, one good ¡®cleansing fire¡¯ spell could spread to most of the enemy forces whenever they formed up together like this.

    However Jagged shook his head, remembering the old ¡°if ¡®if¡¯s and ¡®but¡¯s were brandy and grunts, oh what a party we would bring.¡±

    Suddenly, the Soul Mage decided to move.

    Jagged had no magic himself, but his father¡¯s pendant glowed as it felt the disgusting magic start to slither through the air. It was an heirloom that had been given to him upon his return from his successful mission, as congratulations. It had been in his family for generations, but had recently been enchanted so that it would not react to the Wall, but still glow in the presence of powerful magic.

    The giant fireballs that had been incinerating large portions of undead and their varieties of siege engines were extinguished seemingly without effort. The spells were continuously launched and a few even made it through, but Jagged ordered his standard changed again.

    No one would outlast a Soul Mage in pure magical power, even if they had the Wall to help. The battle would come down to the sword, as it always did.

    Jagged impassively watched as burning undead willingly walked forward and let out hideous moans. They were walking funeral pyres, reminders of what the fate of so many was under the bondage of the Soul Mages¡¯ madness. Their moans, just a feeble attempt to demoralize the defenders on the Wall using already spent troops.

    How the Soul Mages even kept their undead from rotting away was unknown, but at times like this is was hard to ignore the reports of those isolated settlements who live in servitude to the Soul Mages. Those comparatively few living people under their command were sometimes even more pitiable than the animated dead or the consumed souls. They were rarely heard from or talked about in public and none of them were allowed past the Wall. Least they turn out to be more broken puppets of the enemy.

    Then the masses of undead moved and to everyone¡¯s surprise disassembled the many of the siege engines that had been at the front. Feeling alarm creep up his spine, Jagged dove into his standard bearer¡¯s bag and ripped out a sky blue banner.

    Where he had been standing at an opening on the Wall created by his men¡¯s deference to their leader, he now stalked to the rear and whistled as sharply as he could before waving the banner around.

    A few noticed him from far below on the ground, but not enough. As he heard the marching of undead feet moving in rhythm, he turned and shoved the banner at one of his runners and told him to make sure it was delivered to the bottom of the Wall.

    Ignoring the worried look on the messenger¡¯s face, he went back to the wall and confirmed what he was scared of. New siege engines of a noticeably larger size had come out hiding and were now pulling up to the rear of the hoard.

    The ones that Jagged was most worried about were the giant leaver systems now being quickly assembled. They would be used to fling iron covered undead clear over the wall, where they would likely explode in a toxic cloud of Soul Poison that would seek to turn some of the weak or injured into undead.

    They had seen it before, but there were a great many more of the giant leavers this time. They might be insane, but you can never guarantee that Soul Mages are stupid. Jagged thought vengefully.

    If those undead missiles actually managed to hit a few buildings or people, then that might been a fairly efficient usage of the enemy¡¯s force too! After all, the undead hardly needed iron armor when they had the numbers to absorb any magical spell thrown at them.

    At least the banner will get there and warn them to watch the skies ¨C the ONE thing that those fools do now have a drum call for!

    Soon after, before the majority of leavers were even set up, the undead hoard silently started pushing a variety of catapults, siege towers, and even battering rams ¨C despite the lack of a functioning gate on the Wall ¨C while the vast majority of the hoard simply walked forward.

    They used no drums, or organization, and next to no supply lines. All these monsters needed was their masters at their back and the living to their front.

    The undead attacked the Wall again and the drums of the humans beat ever louder, as if saying that their sound alone was proof that they would not fall.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    My friend is a ¡®Whovian¡¯ and accused Jagged of being the Master, but that would actually be his Nalk player, who DeMorte called the haughty duke, who may or may not be related to Leo :P

    Thank you for reading!

    B_S

 Chapter 27: Adaptation, Arrival, and Adaptation

    The chatting between Bella and DeMorte changed this chapter, so please tell me if I need to do something like start and end the internal conversations with asterisks or something (*) to keep things clear.

    Quick explanations/reminders to all: DeMorte cannot perform the extensive magical surgery and reconstruction that are required to turn him into a man again by himself. He needs someone who knows a working spell or to create a magical device that can transform him back into a man instantaneously¡­ Of course he would have to trust someone a fair amount to let them perform such a spell so he is rather¡­ eager to find someone who he can then research before bribing/trading/blackmailing their assistance ¨C although he is desperate enough to just take a leap of faith if it becomes an ¡®acceptable risk¡¯

    Also, I did not state Bella¡¯s formal house name until now, despite the fact that she has been technically apart of the nobility for a while¡­ It simply was not mentioned in the villages as no one really thought of her or Nathan as full nobility, even years/cycles after they officially became them. The town, more so, but DeMorte tried to stick to less populated areas.

    Nathan and the family had a meeting beforehand and decided on a house name, but it did not seem relevant as I did not include the ¡®raising ceremony¡¯ that showed Nathan making the informal request of what he wanted his new house to be named (King can raise you as the house of Shite if he wants)

    Random info dump over, please enjoy :P

    Chapter 27: Adaptation, Arrival, and Adaptation

    ¡°Motherfucking asshole.¡± I groaned ¡°Why am I here Leo?¡±

    My head was pounding as hard as it could, trying to make me wake up from whatever dream I was in. A dream which included a familiar bookish-looking Nalk and a red sky with a giant heart on the horizon.

    ¡°I would really appreciate you watching your language DeMorte, even if you revel in the way that your cursing makes others react.¡± Leo said disappointed. ¡°Although I will give you points for realizing that this was a dream.¡±

    ¡°Fuck off.¡± I groaned again in response as my head felt like it had an ax imbedded in it. I was also deliberately using Anton¡¯s language to let him know how annoyed I was. Bella and I were going to be within sight of the capital before noon and he was interrupting my dear sleep. The fact that I had found a farming couple nice enough to let me stay with them for free had been a bonus.

    Which brought up an idea: was there a way to set up wards to detect Nalks? They used that odd energy instead of mana, but I got the feeling that mana manipulation was not impossible for them. While my mind was working in that direction I tried reaching for my mana, but found it blocked. That surprised me a little as the previous time I had been here it had simply not been there, as I was a spirit at the time, but now it was blocked.

    So getting rid of this headache with mana was out of the question? Headaches were tricky, but not impossible to remove magically.

    Sighing out loud as I rubbed my temples I spoke again. ¡°If it was that easy to move me you would have just thrown me into your new ¡®game¡¯ and let me start making noise. Now, what do you want and does my head feeling like it is being bisected have anything to do with our location?¡±

    ¡°Ah, well your questions have more than a few answers, but the main reason is that I am pulling on the small amount of your spirit that has not fused into your new body to delay things a bit.¡±

    I glared, deciding to keep my responses to a minimum as talking seemed to make the headache a little worse.

    ¡°Well,¡± Leo continued, ¡°you know that you will merge with Bella soon enough, but there are a few things that need to be¡­ corrected. Starting with the timing of everything, as some Backers have complained about your deliberate manipulation of your new biology. Specifically, they want you to merge with your other-self completely right around the time that you decide on your gender as it will affect the course of the Game.¡±

    I ground my teeth ¡°and playing tug-the-spirit with me helps how?¡±

    ¡°A couple of different ways, first of which is that it will solidify the time in which your spirit will merge into your new body: precisely 185 days before your 16th birthday.¡± I raised an aggravated eyebrow at the precise nature of his statement.

    ¡°Is that including the ¡®day or the gods¡¯ or not?¡± I growled, before lightly regretting it as my head throbbed.

    Leo gave a friendly smile, which only made me want to growl more. ¡°Just count backwards from the day you would mark as your birthday, or ¡®naming day¡¯ as I believe it was called on your previous world.¡±

    ¡°185 day? At dawn, noon, or dusk?¡±

    Leo¡¯s smile grew, ¡°Just before dawn, it will likely wake you. The reason for the precise timing however is that precisely 180 days, or half of a cycle, before your 16th birthday on the 66th day of the Metal phase, you will have your first period.¡±

    I froze and stared at Leo for a moment as my mind suddenly shoved the headache into a metaphorical box. That would be¡­ 61 days into the new cycle, into the Wood phase, that I would fuse? 5 days after that I would be¡­ I needed to move up my plans, I was approaching my 14th ¡®birthday¡¯ already.

    Leo smile seemed to flash from sadistic to manic to slightly embarrassed in of a fraction of a moment. ¡°I have corrected your biology to have a more dramatic and compressed puberty at this time and if you have not changed into a male again you will be stuck in your new body as your mana and spirit semi-permanently fix themselves into your post-pubescent body.

    ¡°Of course, you could still systematically defeminize yourself to the point where no one would mistake you for one with your clothes on, but it would still be in an extremely limited form in comparison to what you would be if you change before that date. Plus¡­¡± Leo¡¯s smile turned regretful, ¡°If you force the change through after that point, with either the spell or that thing that you are growing inside of you, then the rebuilding of your body will likely cause significant damage to your magic capabilities.

    ¡°Side effects include, but are not limited to: vomiting ¨C with or without blood, ¨C loss of mana holding capabilities, reduction in the ability to manipulate mana with your current skill, hives, spontaneous desire to break into song, complete failure and collapse of mana pathways, death, and hemorrhoids.¡±

    I took a deep breath¡­ Then I took another.

    ¡°Alright then, is there anything else?¡± I asked evenly.

    If Leo was disappointed in my reaction, he kept it to himself. ¡°One more thing: To make your transition that much smoother, I have established a small barrier between you and Bella. It will not stop you from communicating, but it will keep your minds from fusing any further until you have absorbed the last remnants of your spirit ¨C at which point it will collapse.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°To make it interesting, of course.¡±

    I rubbed my temples again as I felt the headache return. Absently I tried grabbing at the energy that the Nalks seemed to use all the time and tried to throw it at him. The energy was just floating in the air around us and I figured that my inability to use mana might now translate into being able to manipulate it as well¡­ although I did get it to respond to my touch, though it did not feel or act like mana, so using it was impossible.

    Keeping his exact same smile in place, Leo dismissed me with an arrogance that I could only imagine coming from a god. ¡°Goodbye DeMorte.¡±

    The energy that I had been trying to manipulate and throw into Leo¡¯s face was instantly ripped from my mental grasp and threw me back, away from Leo and into a shadowy passage that might have otherwise led to the abyss.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    We groaned, sitting up and instinctively checking our wards, which were intact and had not had to activate to keep others away.

    Apparently being closer to the major cities raised the population density considerably as the only open space anywhere seemed to be owned by nobles. As a result, I had set up my wards to specifically discourage or stun people who got too close.

    When I reached out to Bella though something was¡­ different, like there was this distance that had not been there before.

    Bella?

    DeMorte? Did that Nalk talk to you too?

    Yes, I presume that you were informed of our new standing?

    An¡­ interesting way to put it, but yes, I know that I have until half a cycle before the day we turn 16 to convince you that being a woman is not so bad.

    You have that long to bang your head against a wall, yes. Now, I suppose that we will have to move a little faster as we will have just over a cycle and a half to find a mage to perform the gender changing spell¡­ Which also means that my back up will be useless as it needs at least at least another full cycle of hard experimentation to rewrite the body that completely.

    I still do not understand why you are so against changing that to be used on other people, think of the potential!

    I snorted to myself and did not bothering arguing with her. We had both had our say over this particular subject and come to the same conclusion and impasse every time: Bella wanted to turn other people into our loyal followers by using the genetic recoder in our body to create people with enhanced physical abilities. I always countered with the same problem, until we had made a few of them it would be impossible to create the recoders on a large enough scale to matter, leaving us dependent on whoever we modified for data.

    That person, whoever they would be, would have to like us enough to deliberately let us recover the results of the HIGHLY experimental procedure over the course of whole cycles. After that, we would also have to do the same experiment again and recover those results over another few cycles before perhaps doing it a third time. That was all assuming that no one betrayed us, disagreed with the changes and demanded to be changed back, and stayed alive.

    After that, we could think of producing a magical device that somehow produced the recoder in higher numbers. Oh and if we were correct about our changes to the DNA of the wolfpeople, they would be living longer lives than any other human ¨C something that would also draw greedy people to my experiment. People who might want to keep the secrets for a longer life to very select groups of people.

    No, overall, letting someone else become the ¡®super human¡¯ that my recoder would likely enable them to become was going to be far too dangerous for me¡­ Especially if there was a specific combination of genetic code that led to increasing the power of mages. In theory, that type of discovery could actually turn normal people into mages! Or even make mages more powerful, so that there were no mages who could not power at least 10 circles worth of magic.

    Overall, it was dangerous, with an enormous potential impact, and dependent on the actions of others: meaning that I was firmly against it. Bella might still believe that other people can be trusted, but I knew better by now.

    Disassembling our wards, we stretched and I let Bella practice cultivating the mana around us to restore our G¨ªa to the level it was before our encounter with the SRMs. In the meantime, I stretched and felt the couple who owned the home start to wake up. It was slightly odd, but there was just a sort of unspoken agreement in the farms I was used to: everyone had a specific time to wake up.

    The tacit agreement seemed to be in effect here too as, just before the sun started to create the morning twilight, the couple had already awaken and started to prepare for the day ahead.

    I was honestly conflicted as part of me admired them for letting a stranger like me sleep in their home without worry, but the rest of me wanted to berate them. I mean, on one hand I do look like a relatively harmless little girl, but on the other hand, I was a complete stranger. I found myself hoping that they had some lethal trap set up on the other side of their home, to ensure that anyone who violated their personal space would pay for it with blood.

    After all, if it was your space and someone tried to sneak in without your knowledge, it was their life and their decision, even if you happened to have a lethal trap or 4 set up waiting for them.

    Moving on though, the lives of the local farmers were not that different from the ways Bella had grown up before I could talk to her so it was¡­ pleasant to feel that there were not that many differences between the farmers closer to the capital and the ones farther away. It left us feeling somewhat more familiar with the surroundings.

    Though there were definitely some differences. Most notably, the locals also did not seem to know how to farm like the ones from the Entrials area, which was very odd to me. While Nathan had been farming in an efficient rotating system based on which phase of the cycle it was, these lot seemed to leave roughly a quarter of their lands fallow each year. From what I knew of farmers, it was likely justified as ¡®it has worked for a long time and we have no reason to change.¡¯

    Or, more succinctly, ¡®if it is not broke, then do not fix it.¡¯

    On one hand I could understand as their livelihoods depended on growing enough food to feed themselves, pay their taxes, and maybe a little more to sell for some small personal income. On the other hand, it was hard to accept their decision in my head when I had seen firsthand that the methods I had told them about did work.

    Nathan had either been given a little push by the Nalks or had honestly gambled on trying out his new system and helped to prove it to the people around Entrials. It was one of the reasons that he had been so popular before his ascension to ¡®lord.¡¯ These people, as nice as they had been to me, made me want to bang their heads into a wall and drag them north to prove that they did not have to go hungry nearly as often as they did.

    As it was, all I could do was give them advice and thank them for their hospitality before I left to get back on the main road, which had become paved with stones at some point along the way: likely at a city, but I had deliberately decided to avoid them as much as possible.

    I felt my stomach growl and decided to find one of the larger estates and ¡®obtain¡¯ something to eat before I would go ahead and use some G¨ªa to arrive at the capital a bit sooner.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1 sheep and a burst of G¨ªa later and we were within sight of the capital, Thysia, before noon. I had deviated from the road briefly and was currently standing on a rare hill to the northwest of the capital. It gave me quite a view.

    It was not the biggest city I had ever seen, containing a few hundred thousand people if I had to guess, but it did look fairly clean¡­ in the more upscale parts of the city. In the center was a large, slightly elliptical, stone fortification of some sort, which gave off enough magic that I was surprised I could feel the outer walls at all. It was surrounded by rather large mansions in a section closer to me while I could see more business like buildings on the other side, extending out of my view.

    Surrounding that were surprisingly ordered streets in a grid pattern that were clearly separated into a large market, a living quarter, and a walled off portion with what appeared to be a sizable military presence. Naturally these areas were much cleaner than the surrounding areas, even from a distance. Outside of this clean area, was what I surmised was the lesser slums, which extended to the outer wall.

    Beyond the outer wall, which were heavily warded, there was a cleared space where it was clearly forbidden to settle before it transformed into the city outskirts and extreme poverty. This area seemed like it should have salesmen outside every possible entrance selling cheap boots, nose plugs, and directions to any bathhouses inside the city walls. It was not a place that I wanted to just walk into and I found myself wondering how much a carriage ride through the area would cost me.

    In addition, like so many other towns and cities in this nature fearing world, the city was built with a river nearby, but not running through it. The river ran from the southwest up to the capital and then into the distant southeast. It was also the site of more than a few small barges and large smokestacks that were clearly some type of foundry. Carts and wagons were traveling between the buildings along the river and the city walls.

    Idly I found myself analyzing possible ingress and egress points into the outskirts of the capital that would likely be less watched. It would take a great deal of drink to supply this place with drinkable fluid ¨C the river itself turned a nasty color downstream that told me where the human waste was being dumped ¨C that would be the key if I wanted to hold it hostage or cause panic: dump something rotten into the water and spread rumors of poison.

    You were just thinking of something evil, correct?

    You have to ask? This wall thing might be more annoying than I originally thought¡­

    I grunted in annoyance to myself and ignored some old man yelling for me to get off his hill.

    The city would be crowded. More so than I originally planned for too, as a city this big would normally take up much more space than it currently did. Clearly, the people here were even more comfortable with the idea of living with close neighbors than those in the surround countryside were.

    Silence runes must be in high demand, I thought wearily, or maybe people around here just pay their whores to be a little more vocal. After all, if someone is likely to overhear you anyway, you might as well make sure that people were impressed by what they heard.

    Regardless of what people said, advertising was the oldest profession in existence as it was practiced by many different animals, humans included.

    I dodged the grumpy old man and descended to the road again, I wanted to walk straight in as normally as possible given the fact that I was a little girl traveling all alone¡­ with a dozen sharp knives of iron that would come out if anyone got too close. I also had Bella practice making wards on our way here so she was more than happy to show off her ¡®ice queen¡¯ ward that would drop the temperature anytime someone got too close.

    We had also taken the liberty of having our hair grow out enough to hide our ears after the incident with the SRM. Bella had argued that not making enemies was the best path and I reluctantly agreed with her. I might be able to slaughter the entire ¡°Adventure¡¯s Guild¡± given enough time, but dealing with the Guilt would make it annoying at best and debilitatingly painful at worst, not to mention how long it would take.

    Checking our knives and travel pack as we walked the last few kilometers along the road I also added a few wards to Bella¡¯ own as I wanted to make sure that no night soil would stick to our robes or sandals. We both talked for a while, but could not think of anything other preparations that might help us.

    Since the walk in took some time we also observed the area surrounding the city, which appeared to be grazing land for a verity of animals. It was all fenced off and there were quite a few (well-armed) people on horseback, patrolling along the fences. As I drew closer I even felt some mana from the fences, indicating that they were warded in some magical way as well.

    I started to worry about my earlier sheep acquisition as I noticed just how well protected these animals were, but these were likely better protected due to their proximity to the outer slums.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Surprisingly there was almost no one else currently on the road despite how busy it had been during almost my entire journey here. The only group that I saw since the morning was a pair of wagons that had been filled with produce, it was slightly eerie.

    Still, I entered the outer slums easily enough and ignored the beggars who started tracking me with their eyes. It seemed that children were either afforded some measure of protection or they were suspicious enough to question why I was not worried despite traveling alone.

    Though, as we moved further into the outer slums I felt myself deliberately placing my steps more carefully. On one hand, the occasional children running around and people moving from here to there was comforting, but the increase in people made it harder to navigate without touching anyone.

    The road also became smaller as the occasional stall on the side of the way or small groups of people gathered around some type of gambling event. To my surprise though, there seemed to be a fairly efficient series of wagons that had large, mostly sealed, cauldrons that naturally cleared their own paths through smell alone. The wagon had a plank of wood on the side where people would occasionally come stand on to dump a chamber pot into the unsealed cauldrons.

    I could appreciate the method, if not the smell that haunted it on its slow path. I also tried not to think about where they would end up putting all of that stuff.

    To my slight surprise and disappointment, no one tried to rob me or gave me an excuse to cut off their arms and reattach them backwards. Not that it was a bad thing, but the walk to the wall did seem a little boring because of it.

    There I was forced to wait a little while for a pair of wagons in front of me to be checked before they moved through. ¡°Name, group, and business.¡± The guard asked me mechanically, barley seeming to register my age.

    ¡°Bella, corpus callosum, location.¡± I did not want to reveal myself like this, but since no one had started a fight or otherwise given me an excuse to attract attention, I would have to hope that Nathan¡¯s official business (which we naturally helped name) would turn heads instead.

    It did not. ¡°Location?¡± The guard asked, looking down at me as if I had just declared my intention to marry the king.

    I kept my face in perfect control and resisted the temptation to drop Lady Rapier¡¯s name as, for some reason, I felt like it would result in something bad happening. I could not be sure why, but I did know that this sort of feeling resulted from something that I forgot because of the Guilt.

    Instead of answering him directly I took out the white-silver disk from my robe and quietly showed it to him. He stared at it for a moment before tensing up completely as he recognized it. Before either of us said anything else I put the mithril disk away.

    It took me a half day to testing and prodding on the road before I suspected what it was and put my mana into the disk. Sure enough, the disk became lighter and so hard that when I put a bit of G¨ªa behind my swing, it easily left a deep gash in the large tree. It also held the mana I put into it for a little while, making it an interesting throwing weapon as, although it was affected by mana, the disk could be thrown at extremely high speeds with minimal amounts of G¨ªa and mana, even penetrating through some test wards with pure force.

    ¡°I need to check your name and group young lady.¡± The guard explained regretfully, but now both very attentively and politely. ¡°That metal is important to keep track of and only certain individuals are allowed to be in possession of it. I assume that you are nobility?¡± he briefly turned and gestured behind him and one of the other guards jumped in shock before moving towards the gate¡¯s guardhouse.

    ¡°I would prefer not to advertise it, but yes I am Bella of house Corpus.¡± I sighed inwardly, hopefully this would only earn me the attentions of the people I actually wanted to talk to and did not simply get passed into the rumors of the nobility.

    The guard nodded, ¡°and may I ask what both what exactly you are looking for and to the amount of metal on your person?¡±

    I gave him an obvious once over with my eyes and had Bella give him a ¡®slightly more than polite¡¯ smile. ¡°Who is going to hear about it if I tell you? Besides it would take too long to count all of my knives so if you do not want to search me for every scrap of iron, we should just say one disk worth.¡±

    The guard, noticeably more discomfortable than a moment before, just nodded affirmative before realizing that one of my questions could not be answered with a yes or no. ¡°Your response would be passed through my captain to the head of the guard before it was given to the appropriate governing officials.¡±

    I rolled my eyes and decided to ignore this one to look at someone who I thought might be the guard captain come stumbling out of the guard house. I did not need an enhanced nose or a pair of magically enhanced eyes to spot the signs of a hangover, much less the smell of booze.

    I checked and confirmed that the sun was only just reaching noon and tried not to breathe too much as he approached. ¡°Greetings your ladyship, I am Capitan Tulip and I would like to welcome you to Thysia. May I see your house proof?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± I replied, annoyed that such a simple meet and greet had turned into a running question and answer session. This would attract all the wrong types of attention for me.

    The Capitan almost said thank you before his ears finished their tea break. ¡°Pardon my ladyship? I need to see your proof in order to let you pass- Miss!¡±

    I turned around and walked back towards the outer slums, too much attention would be paid to my sudden departure, but I was already mentally planning out which cities were big enough to have my the necessary information network to find the mage that I needed.

    A proof was a magical device used to confirm who I was and was magically bound to certain individuals or a group. Typically, new noble houses just used their patriarch¡¯s blood to make sure that everyone who was related to him could use the proof without worry, but naturally I had a couple major problems with this: starting with the fact that I did not have the Corpus family proof, or even a lesser version called a seal, on my person.

    As I understood it, Nathan¡¯s little present that I declined was to be a proof or seal to connect me to him. However I could not use it because I had modified my DNA, my blood, enough that any blood spell that tried to use me to target Nathan or anyone related to him by blood, it would fail. The reverse was also true, meaning that no one from the Corpus house could be used to cast blood curses on me. It also meant that I would have to specially add myself to the magical ¡®approved¡¯ list of the proof in order to use it.

    The last major reason was less practical though, I had killed more nobles than anyone in this world likely had, so the idea of carrying around something that bound me to some king was disgusting in the extreme. I was not above throwing my own power around, but proofs were like dog chains to me, they reeked of servitude.

    Capitan Tulip tried calling after me, but there was only a 5 meter clearance between the outer slums and the wall so I was into the crowd and disappeared from their view by ducking between the run-down buildings/shacks that made up the slums.

    A few twists and turns later and I was forced to duck out of the way of a small group of charging children as they wound their way through the maze that was these buildings. In fact, I found myself incredibly thankful that I had kept track of the sun on its eastward track through the sky as it was one of my only reference points in making my way south.

    I had chosen my direction on a whim, but as I continued to move south I remembered all of the carts and wagons that were traveling between the buildings on the river and the city proper. With my mind now racing I suddenly found myself with 3 option:

    -Go to another city, or even another capital, to try and connect with someone who could help me, (Although I would have even less influence and more barriers to finding information if I left the kingdom and if they have some ward that can detect mithril¡­)

    -Walk through one of the other gates after hiding the mithril, just in case, as Bella of house Corpus (Which was a fairly good option, but would definitely grab attention from an official)

    -Let the city get a acquainted with me as DeMorte and pretend that my mistake at that gate was intentional (Dangerous if they discover me, especially as there are spells to see what you looked like previously, but it does have the opportunity to sell it like an audition to see if anyone can make the connection between us¡­ and all the possible trouble that could bring.)

    After analyzing it for all of a few moments, I decided to do take the third route, but not as DeMorte. Back in the days when I was still a small time, but somewhat notorious bandit, I had to use fake names on occasion, so I just drew on the times from back then.

    As I weaved my way through the slums without bumping into others I had Bella pull our wards closer in and started to rework my bones and cartilage

    A let of lower cheekbones, a squarer jaw, something that appeared to be an Adam¡¯s apple, and several other small modifications later, I was once again ¡®Set,¡¯ my old alias.

    Not that the name mattered as much as the memories that I attached to it. Very old memories that I used to reminisce about with Osiris, memories of how we did truly stupid things that somehow did not get us hung or butchered in the streets.

    Shaking my head free of the past though, Bella helped us navigate as I quickly rolled up the sleeves on my robe while creating and pushing small needles of bone through them to pin them in place.

    Overall it was not much of a change, my face was different enough not to spot quickly, but anyone who stared too long and knew what I usually looked like might spot the similarities. There was also the matter of my ears, which, for some reason, were much more difficult to change. Although I did manage to make them less pointed in the end, they felt wrong and made my hearing feel off. In the end I blamed it, once again, on the Nalks.

    You know we cannot blame everything on them right?

    True, but I do have a good reason to suspect them this time ¨C our ears were a special ¡®edit¡¯ that the Nalks performed... Which reminds me, I wonder if these things will change with our body?

    Bella did not respond and I ducked from one alley to another before stopping briefly to check my reflection with a small spell. I felt a bit conflicted given that the changes only made people more likely to instinctively call me male and I was still wearing the same clothes. My plain robes were still noticeable and if anyone knew to pay attention, it would not be impossible to notice that it had runes stitched into it. Even with most of the runes on stitched on the inside, it was a legitimate concern. Overall I had mitigated my known risks and concerns, but I could feel Bella¡¯s unease that it might blow back on Nathan¡¯s family.

    I accepted her concern and tried to respect it, but I could pull some truly terrifying tricks out of my survival bag when I needed to and I felt that it was worth the possible risk to try and contact someone here. Any contact that could be used here would be useful into the future too, so I decided to chance it.

    Still, I felt slightly uneasy as I got moving again, my voice could be made androgynous, but I was still conscious of the fact that I was biologically still a woman. That feeling somewhat disappeared though when some teenage brats tried to accost me.

    They said something about the area being in their territory, but I just hit them with a light mesmerizing spell and moved on quickly. The spell would make their memories hazy for the next few moments as I quickly moved past them.

    I was almost at the southern gate before I remembered the sources of all my troubles, the mithril disk that I accidentally allowed to complicate my life. Unfortunately, there was no way to be sure that there were not wards to track mithril specifically, so I hid it as best I could: inside me.

    It took a bit of internal manipulation, a couple of snip spells, a shove, a spell to close the wound and a spell to get rid of the blood, but I had hidden my dangerous disk. Of course, the human body conducted mana too well to hide it from an active search, even inside of me, but I could wrap it in my own mana and at least obscure what it was made of from passive wards.

    While I had briefly considered just swallowing it, I would either have to wait for it to pass out or perform a bowel operation on myself to recover it. Bella had reminded me that ¡°women have more hiding places then men,¡± however that would have impractical as I would have had to focus on that particular area of my body while I was walking to make sure it did not fall out or something. Bella tried to tempt me by calling it an experiment, but I declined to partake.

    Regardless, this time it was a simple trip through the gate. After waving a pair of wagons through in a rush he had only looked me over barely paused long enough to ask me his standard questions before collecting a few coins as a toll and waving me through.

    As I passed through the south gate into the city I felt a small pulse of mana from the wall¡¯s wards, but nothing else happened. I mentally sharpened my focus and tried to identify if there was anyone watching me, but after a few minutes of walking through the streets of the city itself and ducking into the occasional alleyway I felt safe enough to start to look for where the temples would be.

    Since I had not seen a religious area from the north west of the capital, they could be scattered or near the south east area of that absurdly warded inner fortification. I could ask for directions if I needed to though, as no one would question that.

    A small reminder, most devout followers do not approve of cursing too much.

    Stones, thanks for the reminder. Not that they would even know why ¡®stones¡¯ was a curse anyway, but if I let ¡®graveborn¡¯ slip they might get really confused.

    I sill do not get graveborn as a curse but why does a mountain bandit curse ¡®stones¡¯ anyway?

    What? Oh, old habit from when I was a flatlander, I picked it up from my adopted father and I accidentally reinforced it whenever I raided from the mountains.

    I started searching for the temples, feeling Bella deep in thought over something else, but leaving her to it ¨C as we would both know if it was of any major importance.

    *     *     *

    Pluto¡¯s Cave:

    Bella watched DeMorte¡¯s actions with a surprising variety of feelings.

    Anger, sympathy, annoyance, and fear.

    The fear part was growing, but the annoyance was dominant right now: He does not even see the potential in half the things that he has been doing!

    One of the few areas where Bella felt fervently thankful for DeMorte¡¯s influence was his inquisitive mind, which she could feel drinking in its surroundings and analyzing them at a speed that amazed her. He had been raised with alternating amounts of generously provided information and a total lack of it, which left him with a hunger for it.

    Still, as powerful as his underlying desire for knowledge was, he was blocked by his own ingrained values and beliefs! She saw the potential in things that he dismissed so easily as either impossible or too likely to rebound back on himself in a bad way. Still, why not go for that knowledge? He even had what almost amounted to a fear of learning certain thing, like what it was like to have a real family!

    From what she could tell, Leo and the Nalks had given him an opportunity to completely relive his life in a new way and he seemed to be simple interested in improving his previous path and avoiding others. Even with the few ¡®goals¡¯ in his mind, he was restricting himself, not accepting that he could metaphorically ¡®fly¡¯ in this new world with the power that he had been given.

    Of course, it was not like she could not understand him, in fact she could not avoid understanding him on a variety of levels and it showed whenever he made her mad. Anytime she peered at his logic, she seemed to be sucked into it, like it was the only thing that made sense and arguing was unthinkable.

    Then the Nalk came this morning and changed something. Suddenly she felt like she could separate herself from DeMorte more completely than ever and could actually analyze his thoughts more easily now, without getting swept up in them.

    It also made a difference when it came to spellwork. DeMorte had helped her learn how to use their magic on her own in case he did not see a threat that she did, but he had not let her practice too much beyond cultivated while they walked around or the occasional ward system. It had also not helped that she had to deal with his mind ¡®instinctively¡¯ knowing how to work spells.

    It was like she was trying to study and replicate an emotion behind a face that she had briefly seen someone else make. Now it seemed like she could dissect the spells that he used in her own mind and understand them, it was wonderful!

    It also showed her just how much DeMorte must have practiced over the decades to get so used to his spells, some of them were incredibly complex, despite the fact that he was mentally creating them in mere moments. She would go so far as to accuse him of just using the ¡®splash¡¯ method of spellcasting if she could not break down every single part of the spell that he was currently using.

    Instead, DeMorte only used certain ¡®splash¡¯ commands in his spells, which felt more like simple feelings of what should be done than explicit instructions on how everything should be done. That said, she did feel a little cheated because of those commands as they turned an incredibly complex magical equations into a mixed series of explicit commands and what amounted to ¡®insert minor miracle here¡¯ instructions with a general idea of what should happen.

    [AN: basically: computer programming plus random bits of ¡®make it work¡¯ to compensate for things that the magic user does not know, like the laws of physics or fluid dynamics]

    It was both fascinating and infuriating.

    The mesmerizing spell that he had used earlier, for example, had dozens of separate commands that made up the spell, with almost everything was laid out in detail in his head, except for things like how the spell actually affected the brain.

    The contradiction in logic and the fact that it clearly worked bothered her to no end. She would still need to check some of his other spells, but anything beyond his favorite ¡®snip¡¯ spell seemed to have at least some elements of ¡®just do this¡¯ in the spell construction and it make her annoyed.

    That aggravation, that annoyance, clouded her judgement and made her do something she would not have tried otherwise¡­ She lied to DeMorte.

    It was a small thing, pretending to not know the origins of a certain curse, but it was a revelation for her. Despite the fact that he should have been able to instantly see through the statement immediately, as DeMorte was a technical ¡®graveborn,¡¯ he said nothing.

    When she checked his mind, she realized that he had paid it no mind and she was able to confirm that he did not know she had lied.

    She spent quite a while afterwards trying to sort out what this meant and making sure that her feelings of shock could not be felt by DeMorte.

    That Nalk had done this deliberately, but why had she?

 Chapter 28: A Bit of Theater

    Small change as someone pointed out to me that DeMorte is already the male gender, but not the male sex ¨C I do not really care, but he is supposed to be trained in such medical knowledge and would likely recognize the difference. That said, while I am quite happy to include that in the rewrite, it seems a bit annoying to go back and correct that kind of thing in very chapter.

    Feel free to message me about any mistakes that you are aware of, as I will be going through all of the chapters anyway. Even if you just say something like: ¡°chapter 14: near the end¡± it will help me out ^^

    One last thing: I am not sure if I wrote this into the story yet, but wards and magical devices can manipulate the mana around them because, like runes, they have preset patterns and ¡®programming¡¯ that allows someone to manipulate the engraved magic without occurring any major caloric cost. Spells involve active manipulation, which has a high cost. (This leads to a conflict regarding armor that DeMorte will more or less explaining shortly.)

    One last thing before the chapter start: a few important things were set up in this chapter, but it is kinda hard to spot so I will apologize in advance for the extra world-building that this chapter seems to be about :(

    Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter regardless and thank you everyone for 200+ followers!!!

    Chapter 28: A Bit of Theater

    ¡°Eclipse, you cannot be serious boy.¡± The old priest looked at me with shock, horror, and a bit of disgust.

    You are lucky that killing priests is considered an especially heinous act old man, I thought to myself, or even the Guilt might not keep you safe. Outside of the confines of my own mind though, I kept a sad face and a fairly even tone.  ¡°I regret that I am very serious Senior Brother Tilt.¡±

    Brother Tilt looked away and took a deep breath, obviously trying to gather his thoughts. Tilt was a member of the church of Tophon, god of light, truth, justice, and according to some, humanity itself. His rank of ¡®Brother¡¯ was one of the most common ranks within the various churches¡¯ ranking systems, but the fact that he was a ¡®Senior Brother¡¯ and the Tophonist representative for the kingdom made him a very, very, knowledgeable man, as evidenced by the wonderful map on the opposing side of the room.

    It was the most complete map that I had seen in either of my lives, showing not just the surrounding area, but the areas beyond the kingdom¡¯s borders. Although the map was out of date in some areas, marking Entrials as a small village, it still showed what was apparently called the ¡°Last forest¡± ¨C at least part of which was, of course, the area fenced in by fear runes to the north of Entrials.

    This was not exactly new information for me, but it did show me something very important: the wooded area that I was familiar with was a small part of a large forested area that covered the center of the continent. Apparently, people tended towards two groups when it came to settlement, the first said that there was safety in numbers and perpetuated the fear of the dark forests that were said to cover most of the world during the times of the Elves, which they said even reached into what was now the sea.

    Before we had started talking in earnest, Brother Tilt had been kind enough to explain that this group had all but crawled out onto the eastern continent over the past few millennia, giving this kingdom, and the others on this particular continent, a rather distinctive outlook on the world. Specifically, they were rather terrified and reluctant to push too far into the old forested areas and saw the outlying villages and the people born there as things to be distrusted.

    Ironically though, that very distrust was why Brother Tilt had agreed to talk to me in private. When I had arrived at the church and told them I was seeking spiritual guidance after my visit to the northern forest, the less senior brothers had been at odds on whether to throw me out of the spot of try to perform a spiritual cleansing of some sort. Senior Brother Tilt, who had been born in what they called ¡®The Holy City,¡¯ had apparently been raised to find this type of reaction as superstitious nonsense and redirected me to his personal office.

    I had been tempted to make an emergency exit at this point, however Brother Tilt¡¯s intentions seemed completely platonic and he did not give any signs of abusing his power for any perverse intentions. The door remained unwarded, he had not offered me any strong alcohol, and he sat while giving me generous personal space.

    It was around that point where I got sidetracked by the map and found myself split between looking at the Brother and trying to blatantly memorize the map. There were only 2 dozen or so major kingdoms on our continent, with our own being one of only a handful that was landlocked, and I wanted to memorize as much as possible before I left the office. Still, I had another purpose and the old priest called my attention back to it soon enough.

    Both fortunately and unfortunately, this particular church had a fetish for the ¡®truth¡¯ and their priests were rather well known for having offshoots of overly zealous groups that would call for various things ¨C like the ¡®great leveling truth¡¯ which was infamous in a kingdom on the western edge of our continent for calling for the removal of all noble titles.

    I tried to use this tendency to my own advantage by telling him that I had traveled from the ¡®last forest¡¯ where a girl I had been fond of had been assaulted. I told him of how the perpetrators had been caught, but had been ¡®punished by the gods¡¯ before anyone could actually sentence them. I also threw in some lines that Nathan had taught me about ¡®the light of truth cutting through the shadows of lies¡¯ to impress the priest.

    After I explained all of this to him, acting up my part to the hilt, we finally got around to the meat of the situation where I introduced him, as gently as possible, to the idea of a transgender individual. I did so in the most obtuse manner I could though, referring to the concept as a feeling that my body, my sex, was a lie and that I was confused as to how to let the ¡®truth¡¯ stand out.

    It was not going well though, as the old priest was now trying to keep his head and refrain from shouting at me. Instead, he started lecturing me that he was sure that Conbra would not have placed me in the wrong body while assuring me that I was quite male and that was the end of that. When I revealed the fact that I was born female it really seemed to bend his mind.

    After some time had passed and I confirmed that he would not be helping me locate an individual to change my sex, I evacuated as smoothly as possible. The churches in the capital, all 12 of them were represented although about half of them shared one large building, all had powerful wards that assured me of their power. Even if they were smaller than the ones in the walls or that disturbing castle.

    Seriously, who would need wards that powerful? Was there a civil war where the nobles threw open the gates and the king needed another location to fall back to? Or did the humans here inherit that tendency from the Elves.

    As I left in silence, I realized that there was one thing I never asked him about: how did he know what an ellipse was? Well, more accurately, the curse he used referred to an ominous shadow that blocked out the light giving sun, but that sounded a lot like an eclipse to me. The problem was that I only knew of the word from Anton¡¯s English language, as neither this world, nor my previous one, had one of these ¡®moon¡¯ things.

    It sparked an idea that I should go and talk to the Histones again as they were rather conspicuous in the city for a very simple reason. They ran a public library. A stoning PUBLIC library, where most anyone could walk in and just ask for their help to find a book and read it!

    That was so¡­ off, even if it was not the first time I had heard of such an idea ¨C both from Anton and in my previous world ¨C it still struck me as odd. This world did not have the easiest script either as its writing seemed to lean itself to a system reminiscent of the runes themselves. Although it would be possible to create various woodblock carvings of the runes, the grammar of the system was driven more by position, with longer sentences and books being near code cyphers when it came to reading them. As a result, this world had a few problems printing books at any decent rate of production.

    Part of me was tempted to start introducing the block like characters of the English language, but the grammar and rules governing the language itself was almost beyond me when I had a perfect memory and I really did not want to be responsible for that particular container of buzdags getting lose.

    Stepping back out onto the public streets I began the taxing process of slipping between other people as fast as I could. Thankfully, a small child running around in the streets, dodging between other people attracted very little attention. Unfortunately the attention that I did attract was not good as, unlike I originally expected, people did not seem to be fond of runes here.

    I had yet to make sense of why, but the people here tried to keep one hand on their purses instead of simply having an anti-theft rune stitched into it. As a result, small groups of children, or sometimes even individuals such myself, were almost a guaranteed sign of pickpockets or purse snatchers nearby, although they were only sometimes connected.

    I had 3 attempts to snatch my coin purse already, one of which was by some guard that said I stole the purse itself, which had resulted in 3 very confused individuals who found that my purse was rather hard to remove. In the case of the guard, I had to run away yelling at him to get his own purse, but the other 2 found themselves with a cracked rib or two for their troubles.

    I ran towards the public library, a rather tall building that was almost as heavily warded as the walls themselves. It was an interesting place and completely owned and run by the histones, with a theater next to it where occasionally mass plays would be put on to educate and entertain anyone who wanted to come.

    In the past 6 days since I arrived, I had discovered that the Histones were more important and useful than I originally understood. While I recognized the power of being the unofficial arbiters on what was accepted as history, what I did not realize was that the Histones also acted as deal negotiators and information experts in all sorts of other things, including details of both public and private trades and arrangements. There was even a few know instances of traitors and invaders going to the histones in order to tell them the details of their plans because of a standing promise to only relay compromising details after a certain amount of time had passed.

    If any insanity could be called beautiful though, it was the goals and dreams of the histones: To record as much of history as possible and ensure its preservation for the dissemination of information to the future generations.

    Crazy stoning graveborns that they were, I actually found their eagerness to help both endearing and terrifying. On one hand, they had a goal that had led them to fighting off entire kingdoms in the past, all for the singular purpose of being able to teach others at some future point. That said, if those people thought a secret needed to be preserved, you might never know the massive amount of trouble that they cause your descendants.

    On a more day to day basis though, the Histones had helped me by explaining where all the major city facilities were, where each temple or shine was located, where some of the cheaper inns were, and even how the waste disposal system worked, simply because I asked. Although they could not tell me where the mage I sought was, nor who the best ¨C private ¨C information brokers were. Anyone known to the Histones would likely be too public for my request¡­

    Although Bella did have a point when she asked why I was even trying to keep the request private. My response and reasoning was simple: the last thing either of us wanted was a connection back to Nathan and the rest of the family, especially when the Nalks started moving and playing their ¡®game¡¯ in earnest.

    Was it possible that any actions that I took would get back to them anyway? Yes, but I was not going to facilitate any damage by association with me. My wife suffered enough in my previous life for me to learn that lesson¡­ even if I found it an interesting tactic against the paranoid or hypervigilant.

    Arriving at the public library ¨C a concept that I might never get used to ¨C I found a lovely bit of trouble awaiting me. Out on the front steps was a group of rather loud individuals, all of which were clearly ¨C well, clearly to me ¨C wearing iron armor under their clothes. They appeared to all be men, but the fact that their faces were hidden made it quite difficult to be positive.

    Now if there were 3 clear signs that someone was going to cause a scene it was the presence of full iron armor, hidden faces, and the reluctance to enter a warded building. No one who wanted to cause trouble would do it near a warded building as even non-mages could hang you upside down if you ticked them off inside their wards. One of the few things that I respected the SRMs for was their tendency to have each and every guild building, especially the bars, warded to avoid trouble.

    The full iron suits were also a good indicator of trouble. If someone directed stun or itch spells your way, the iron would negate the majority of spells better than it would stop an arrow. It would help someone survive a blast or 2 of direct magic, but more importantly, it guaranteed that any escalation would be severe as a few fireball creation spells tied into the wards would boil the iron covered men.

    In a war such men would either be considered sacrificial pawns or elite soldiers based on what they had on underneath: magically protected clothes that would keep them safe from even melting iron or basic padding to help deflect blows. I was betting that this lot was no group of specialists though.

    Now the question became, who was paying or threatening them into causing such a scene? I honestly could not care less, but it would be hard to get into the library without getting past this loud bunch.

    Of course, they would likely not want to move either and given the lack of guard presence, it was safe to say that someone with money wanted to cause this scene for one reason or another.

    I ducked to the side of the road and begged a piece of fruit from a passing woman. She gave it to me, paused, and promptly took the idea and ran with it, suddenly starting to sell her basket of food to some people in surrounding crowd as they stopped to watch the group of strange men hurl insults and rude comments at a rather board looking Histone Minder. (The Histone system of ranks was as annoying as it was self-explanatory as their hierarchy was extremely loose outside the upper-most level)

    I also took the opportunity to look around and see if I could spot whoever had started this annoyance. To my surprise it was ridiculously easy as I saw someone looking uncomfortable in a cloak, clearly trying to hold in his annoyance or anger at being delayed. I would not have noticed him if not for the cloak though, not only was it drawn tightly around him, it weigh especially heavy on his shoulder, causing him to alternate between slouching slightly and forcing himself to stand straight. It likely had some iron worked into it, perhaps with some silencing runes or something on the inside.

    He was obviously a mage who was uncomfortable in this crowd, yet could not afford to be seen traveling to his destination, or he would have taken a carriage. In short, he was a good target, which let me look around and spot who was only half paying attention to the scene in front of us and keeping an eye on the cloaked person.

    It took me a bit, but I found him, an average looking man that was hanging back just far enough to watch both the idiots and the cloak at the same time, quickly shooting glances at his target before looking back at the commotion, which seemed to be nearing its end.

    In fact, just after I found the man who likely caused all of this annoyance, the distraction seemed to draw itself to a close. Theater and misdirection was once my bread and butter, so this was slightly embarrassing to watch, but that might have been the point, to see if the idiot in the cloak would notice.

    Shaking my head to myself, I finished the last of my fruit, even eating the seeds, and hit the cloaked fool with a brief flash of killing intent as I stepped out of his line of sight. If that person did not figure out that he was a perfect target for murder after that, he did not deserve to walk the streets at all.

    I mean really, unless he had his mana constantly running through some mithril armor underneath that cloak, someone could easily stab him in the crowd and walk away before anyone noticed. I knew from personal experience.

    As the crowd started to disperse with the end of the show I made my way up the few steps that lead to the library. The steps were lightly carved with water repellent runes so I had asked one of the Histones here and apparently all of their libraries were built like this, regardless of whether or not they were in an area that flooded. They were all also built at least a meter above the average road level, with fire suppression wards, earthshaking countermeasures, and even a reinforced roof that could bounce a small boulder¡¯s worth of iron off the roof without much more than cosmetic damage.

    I nodded to the Histone Minder, who was still keeping an eye on the retreating actors, and I was starting to walk past him when the screaming started. I turned, expecting to find the cloaked figure bleeding out on the ground, but I saw the average looking man instead, kneeling as blood spread from a vicious gash to his side, below the ribs. What really surprised me though was that he was already in a fit of convulsions that quickly stopped as he fell over dead.

    It happened so fast that I almost applauded in spite of myself. Honestly, I had not considered the fact that I had the power to save the man, so choosing not to act might have caused the Guilt to come visit me, but thankfully he died too quickly for it to matter. I wondered if the cloaked figure had the poisoned blade on him or if he had used the man¡¯s own blade to kill him.

    Either way, I looked around and found the cloaked figure scanning the crowd from where I had been standing earlier, back when I sent my brief flash of killing intent. I smiled to myself briefly as I admitted to myself that it was impressive he could even identify the direction that of where I had been from such a brief flash of energy. It was even more impressive to be given what I suspected his cloak¡¯s composition to be. Still, I chose to ignore him though as, whoever the cloaked figure was, it was not important to me at the moment.

    I turned back to the Minder, who had clearly figured out that the bad acting job was just smoke to distract everyone else for a little while. ¡°The whole world is nothing else if not a stage for people to act the fool,¡± he muttered before sighing and glancing at me. ¡°Anything in particular you are looking for today Set? More poetry to shamelessly spout for the ladies?¡± The last part was said with a sly grin.

    ¡°Bah, you said that last bit as if you were not copiously taking notes while I was helping out your friend.¡± I gave him a more subdued grin showing only a bit of my prideful cloak.

    ¡°It is part of my job to take notes you know.¡±

    ¡°Notes, yes, flowery dictation on how the girl¡¯s eyes sparkled and her face so gradually became more flushed as her ears were slowly taken on a ride of-¡±

    The Minder stepped to the side and ushered me inside, cutting me off with a hiss of admonishment, he was quite the romantic and liked to write pages upon pages worth of detailed, often exaggerated, prose about anything even remotely suggestive of romantic interaction or intrigue. I had read some over his shoulder and criticized the lack of completion in his writing as he took 2 paragraphs to write what amounted to ¡®he recited the girl some poetry and she enjoyed it greatly.¡¯

    I briefly stole his writing and noted that they were all completely platonic too! I told him off a little after that for using his access to large amounts of paper for such drivel. He had been quite offended until I started reciting some poetry from my previous world. Even the Histone, he had immediately latched on to the language and asked for a translation. Naturally, I was not familiar with much of the cleaner poetry in my previous life and I howled at his red face as he dutifully wrote down every word.

    That had been the first day I arrived and told everyone that I was a messenger boy of the poetic sort. Since then I had earned my lodging with a few edited poems that I barrowed from my previous world. (Leo was stuck dreaming of copyright lawyers because of this.) I had also teased the library Minder about his writing as much as possible and despite the fact that I still did not know his name, we had become friends of a sort.

    His ¡®friendship¡¯ had helped me locate more traditional, but equally shameless, poetry as well as getting some quiet help in finding out facts and knowledge that I never knew before. Although, I suddenly felt the lack of a public map section.

    Once we were inside and I finished my usual gawking at the floor after floor of books above us, I actually asked that question too. ¡°Incidentally, why do you not have a map section? I was dealing with someone today and their map was amazing.¡±

    The Minder grimaced, ¡°Maps can be qualified under a military asset, especially if we have some detailed ones of the Kingdom on hand. It would be far too easy for someone to copy our work in preparation for an invasion of any type or scale. As such, all of our maps or written records of military worth are stored separately and usually sealed away from the public¡¯s eyes, under advisement from both the King and the Grand Master.¡±

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Ah.¡± I nodded, but only partly understood, I had built my little Kingdom up from the ground in a natural fortress, so there were plenty of things that I simply did not understand when it came to ruling one. If someone wanted to use your maps, let them, all you had to do was make a few key edits and leave out things like ¡®this forest is a natural swamp further in¡¯ to make any invaders think that they actually knew where they were going.

    Moving on though: ¡°Another thing, what is an Eclipse?¡±

    The Minder jumped a bit when I asked that question, which surprised me, if the priest let a hint to something important slip because he used it in a curse I might have to change my face again. Before the Minder could answer though, a deep voice answered from the entrance behind me.

    ¡°Why would a child be interested in that prophecy?¡± The cloaked figure from before had just walked into the library. The deep voice of its was clearly male and likely fake given the fact that the figure was so completely covered.

    ¡°What prophecy?¡± I did not have to fake confusion here as I had no idea what the figure was talking about. ¡°I just heard it from a Tophon brother and was curious.¡±

    After a moment the cloaked figure gave a brief laugh. ¡°You must have really aggravated someone, brat.¡± The figure¡¯s cloak suddenly stared bulging and it seemed to reached out in an attempt touch me and I stepped back instinctively out of reach, despite the fact that its hand had not left the inside of the cloak.

    That cloak seems spellbound to completely hide its wearer, I thought to myself, no matter how foolish they may be. ¡°What is this prophecy anyway and what is an Eclipse?¡± I asked, only letting my curiosity show as I wondered why exactly the Minder here had reacted so badly.

    The cloak retracted what I imagined was its hand and spoke as if board. ¡°Curiosity can be a sin if you overindulge it brat, but I will give you the short answer: A few hundred cycles ago several highly regarded religious figures and Kings received a vision from the gods that a great stone would come and herald a time of great change by blocking out the sun like the Elven stone of old was said to.¡± I looked directly at the figure¡¯s hood while it spoke, confirming that its identity was hidden by magic, as its face was completely covered by shadows. ¡°It is impolite to stare brat.¡±

    It is impolite and foolish to call me a brat, I thought vindictively. Of course, since I was an actor who needed to play up his role, I decided to see how foolish this one was. ¡°That cannot be your real voice.¡±

    ¡°Oh and how would you know my real voice, brat?¡±

    ¡°I would not, but you hide everything else so it would be rather silly if your voice was real.¡±

    ¡°Well, brat, since you are clearly enjoying trying to figure out who I am, did you figure out anything else?¡±

    ¡°Sure, you are obviously the Mysterious Lady Valorous.¡± The Minder went into a coughing fit when I said that. I just gave my biggest grin, showing off the fact that one of my few remaining child¡¯s teeth had been removed the other day to make me look younger.

    ¡°Who?¡±

    ¡°She is someone who-¡± I began.

    ¡°That is quite enough Set, if you go to the far end of shelve 4 you will find a book titled the study of the Elven Cycle which will answer your questions about an eclipse more thoroughly.¡± The Minder cut me off and gave me a serious glare.

    I somewhat ruined it by adding ¡°you were already thinking about it,¡± before I ran off towards the sections he mentioned. It was so fun to be known for having a slightly dirt mind, especially when it let me suggest that strangers were like the people in my¡­ unique poetry.

    Lady Valorous, for example, who was a (supposedly) fictional lower class women who charmed most of the aristocracy in a particular city by refusing to talk about her past in anything other than vague hints. She also hid everything below her collar in a modified outfit that looked like a cloak with sleeves, which led to gloved hands. What no one except the odd servant knew, however, was that the Lady Valorous never wore anything underneath her odd garb.

    It was a rather rude tale that Osiris and I used to tell all the time in conjuncture with copious amounts of alcohol to get information out of whoever we were talking to at the time. Naturally, the Minder had been obligated to record it as his a derivative of his duty as a Histone, so he was trying to avoid any more trouble in the day.

    Putting the cloaked fool aside in my mind, I found the book he referenced easily enough and started reading.

    To sum up about 100 pages of religiously fervent hatred and supposition, of which I ended up skipping large sections, this planet used to have a moon. A moon which disappeared over 3000 cycles ago near the end of the Enslavement. It was allegedly a green thing that served as the Elven final resting place or final respite, depending on which part of the book I was skimming.

    After it disappeared the whole world started to go through centuries of cycles at a time where the phases would disappear and eventually reverse entirely: leaving periods where it was significantly warmer all cycle long, for cycle after cycle before the seasons slowly started reasserting themselves, in reverse of what they previously were. The fire phase became cold and the water phase became hot. In the end this was called the Elven cycle and it affected the world for around 300 cycles at a time before it stated to reverse.

    According to the book this was the result of unholy Elven curses that had been cast in the death spasms of their demon-gods after humanity and the 12 had overthrown them. The time of the greatest danger therefore, would come when an eclipse like ancient times blocked out the sun¡¯s light and summoned a time of great evil. After all, clearly the Elven demon-gods would only have blocked out the light giver itself in the past to perform the greatest of evil rites and rituals.

    Ignoring the author¡¯s supposition and guesses though it did explain one thing that I had been wondering about for a while now, the wildlife. There had been so many different animals and species in my previous world that I only assumed that the lack of variety, even in the woods that made up the ¡®last forest¡¯ was due to the inherent fear or hatred of nature that people here had. If some climate change was added on top of that then I doubted that any non-migratory species would have an easy time surviving¡­ Though those weird fling snake things inside the fear runes gave my thoughts pause as I closed the book.

    After I carefully replaced the book in its previous spot, I made sure to thank the Minder for his help before I left. I noticed that the cloaked one was nowhere to be seen as I did so, but I paid it very little attention beyond that. It was already nearing sundown by now and I wanted to deal with a shopkeeper who had a business arrangement with me that should profit us both.

    It hardly took me any time to get to my destination since the streets in the city dramatically quieted down after the daily rush to get home in the evening. Naturally, I avoided this rush period as no one actually seemed to be rushing anywhere. The store that I was looking was easy to find even during the crowded rush period it stood out. Although I was one of the few people who knew why it stood out to everyone.

    It had originally caught my attention because of the brightly colored sign on top of it, which created a nice enough contrast, with its bright golden symbol on a cool green backdrop, that you could spot it even in the dim twilight. That alone gathered attention, but it was the subtle runes that had been carved around the edge of the store symbol that really caught my attention.

    Runes to generate heat, cool something off, or make something more durable were easy enough for me to understand memorizing. They took quite a bit of time to study, but were worth it if you could remember them when you needed them. That said, it would take a runic master to use runes in a combination that would not only attract your attention subtly, but also make sure that you would normally never notice them.

    Misdirection I could do, but I was no master of runes and the bare thought of trying to fight one of those again made me shiver. Those who could use a handful of runes correctly could misdirect armies, but masters could over their bodies in runic scars or tattoos to dangerous effect. Ovals below, I still did not know exactly how that fight went, only that I ended up burning the rune covered corpse afterwards, after my body had cannibalized itself to the point where it took me from fall till late winter to recover.

    Whether by a twist of fate, or just bad luck, Bella had been watching my mind and saw the affects that the subtle runes had before pointing them out to me. Even with the clarity runes carved into my bone armor underneath my robe to counter such a thing, they had still affected me. When I asked around, I learned that it was illegal for anyone to use runes to affect their customers. However, while using runes to attract attention was frowned upon, it was not illegal.

    I investigated the shop and asked the owner who carved his runes, causing him to get a little confused as apparently they had even made him forget that they were there. In any case, once I convinced him that I was not about to go around announcing their presence, the owner and I got along fairly well. He had even told me about an interesting new magical device that he had promised to let me test out in exchange for me telling him about its limitations ¨C since I told him I was familiar with magic curtesy of my brother ¨C which was a fairly good deal.

    As I arrived though, there were a few unfriendly people at the shop, trying to cause trouble, however the power of the shop¡¯s wards made sure that they were instantly rendered unconscious.

    ¡°Ah, Set, good timing, would you mind helping me with this lot before uncle Dioxin gets here?¡±

    ¡°Happy to help.¡± I responded.

    *     *     *

    Inside the Royal Castle

    ¡°You are dismissed to your duties Lady Rapier.¡± Administrator Woolsey stated coolly.

    The Lady Rapier gave the quickest acknowledgment she could before turning and almost storming out of the room.

    Woolsey shook his head quietly, he already had too many temperamental people to deal with as it was without having to worry about one of the royal magicians suddenly trying to beg off her orders. She had been supposed to leave almost a week ago, but had suddenly tried to dodge the mission.

    The last thing I need is more people making my job harder than it has been lately. Especially now that those idiots have finally organized into a sensible opposition instead of trying to assassinate my distant relatives again. Woolsey refused to sigh though and continued his work. Thankfully he had managed to put at least a few competent individuals in charge of the most important positions, therefore his job was mostly just him signing off on a few papers with the Royal Seal and trying to avoid the temptation to pour himself a glass of wine before his work was done.

    He really should have known that something would happen.

    The door flung open and only a ward made it stop short of slamming into the wall before a short man stomped in. ¡°They did it again!¡±

    Again, Woolsey refused to sigh and simply looked up at the fuming Monty. ¡°Monty, where have you been these days?¡±

    ¡°You know where I was! Down at the Adventure¡¯s Guild, shopping apparently, as they told me that I was being too picky about an alchemy ingredient! Honestly, do they not realized how absurd that very notion is?! Alchemy is far to precise not to be picky! If I used the ingredients they gave me I would kill half the castle with the resulting gas!¡±

    Knowing the short alchemist was exaggerating, barely, Woolsey kept speaking in a calm tone. ¡°Oh? What exactly did you buy?¡±

    ¡°Pistoleus Enginoritor¡± Monty said, helping himself to something in a flask of his.

    That flask better not be filled with your own version of alcohol Monty, I swear that stuff will kill a normal person far faster than most poisons you come up with. ¡°I am unfamiliar with that ingredient, how do you cook it?¡±

    Monty threw a look of disgust Woolsey¡¯s way, despite going alone with the usual joke. ¡°You do not cook it!¡±

    ¡°Well, I cannot say that eating it raw sounds like a good idea.¡±

    Monty rolled his eye dramatically and gestured with his flask. ¡°You know that eating my ingredients would be a bad idea, cooked or raw!¡±

    ¡°Yes well what do you want me to do about it Monty? You know that, like your ingredients, it does not matter if you complain to me as I only have so much influence over the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Glorified mercenaries or not, no one can tell them what to do, they are simply too powerful for that, though they seem to be rather eager to remind us of that fact in recent cycles... No, it might even go back to when I managed to secure our borders.

    ¡°Yes, well,¡± Monty spoke hesitantly, which was never a good sign, ¡°I was hoping that you might hire someone¡­ else to retrieve the proper ingredient, as the Adventurer¡¯s Guild seems to think that the one they are retrieving are the correct ones.¡± Monty snorted. ¡°As if I did not specify the even spotted blue and purple mushrooms from the 29th floor of the dungeon! Alchemy is extremely precise Woolsey and if I want to complete the potion I need that ingredient.¡±

    Woolsey nodded slowly, both understanding the problem and lack of an obvious solution. Lady Rapier was one of the few people who he might have trusted with ensuring the retrieval of something like this, but she and almost all of the Royal Magician¡¯s Corps were out trying to find a hint of how one of their own vanished without a trace. The few that remained were regarded as the minimal amount required to protect the King and his family.

    ¡°We have two options as far as I can see, we can go to an independent and try to make sure that the Adventurer¡¯s Guild either does not connect it to us or we can wait for the next Earth phase, when some of the royal mages will be able to personally see to it.¡± The potion that Monty was trying to make was important, but they had time so it could wait¡­ if Monty had the patience.

    The door, which had closed itself automatically, was flung open again, this time by Woolsey¡¯s single biggest headache in the kingdom. This time, Woolsey did sigh as he stood up and gave a bow to the King¡¯s 3rd daughter, her royal lady, Amelia. ¡°Hello Wooly, Monly, can either of you explain who the ¡®Mysterious Lady Valorous¡¯ is?¡± She plopped herself down on a chair to the side and lounged in the most undignified way possible.

    As always, her guard, George, took position behind her, seemingly invisible in comparison to the loud and obnoxious young teenager. Had there been anyone else here she might have tried to appear dignified, but that was too much effort for just the two of them. While Monty was eccentric enough that not even the King actually expected him to observe correct social protocol, the King¡¯s daughter was different and just liked to mess with others.

    The fact that she was as beautiful and as she was an annoyance did not help Woolsey as the girl tended to use those looks to torment young noble men.

    12 marriage suggestions from both her father and I, but all of the would be suitors ran away as fast they could when they understood her personality ¨C an act that I cannot even blame them for. Woolsey felt his eye twitch oh so slightly. He could run the entire realm from this room, but even the gods could no control this teen.

    Monty responded to her first. ¡°Where in the blue-souled places have you been little girl? I did not even think the servants know that name yet.¡±

    ¡°I heard it from some cheeky brat. Why?¡±

    ¡°Hah! Cheeky indeed, I take it you were out in the cloak of yours?¡±

    Woolsey directed a glare at Amelia. She was not supposed to leave the inner grounds.

    She shrugged off Woolsey¡¯s glare and looked only at Monty, waiting for him to explain.

    Trying to keep from laughing, he obliged, ¡°She is was some common girl who, according to the story, charmed people by only showing them her face and hiding everything else underneath her cloak. Of course, since this is the type of tale told in cheap bars, she was naked the whole time and only the servants noticed!¡± At that point Monty lost control and started laughing hysterically.

    Amelia however, just looked thoughtful.

    ¡°Do not even think about it Amelia.¡± Woolsey said, trying to keep the pleading out of his tone. Knowing her, she would both show up to some party naked and find some way to brush past him to ensure that he would know about it.

    ¡°Think about what?¡± The fake innocence in that voice curled Woolsey¡¯s toes and he was silently thankful that he was too old for her interests. After she was gone, the wine would come out. ¡°Which reminds me,¡± Amelia sat straight and smoothed out her latest outfit ¨C another expense to account for ¨C before looking Woolsey in the eye, ¡°we need to talk.¡±

    Great, her being serious is even worse than her normal self. Woolsey turned to the still giggling Monty. ¡°I think that our business is concluded, Royal Alchemist, if you want to wait for the Corp to be free to assist, feel free. If you feel that waiting would be too troublesome I would suggest that you call upon the merchant named Dioxin ¨C with your own funds of course ¨C he should be back in city already and will likely stay until the end of the next Earth phase at the least.¡±

    Monty stiffened and sniffed. ¡°No need to be so formal Administrator, we all like you better when you stop being so stingy.¡± He took another swig of his flask and left without another word.

    Taking a deep breath, Woolsey turned back to address whatever latest problem Amelia had managed to bring to his doorstep.

    ¡°I was on my way to the Histone¡¯s library to reference a specific book of their and found a truly embarrassing bit of theater going on when I got there. To make it more insulting, as it was ending someone had the nerve to try and stab me.¡± She sniffed. ¡°Which reminds me, that cloak is incredibly impractical for fighting in, I had to leave it all to George.¡±

    Woolsey took that in and tried to keep a straight face. ¡°George, if you saw and were shadowing her, how was it that she got off the grounds in the first place?¡±

    George stopped using whatever shadow magic he preferred to let his face show. Thank the gods he only enjoys the company of men. Woolsey silently acknowledged, Amelia had eagerly taken him for her personal guard for his looks, tall, muscular body, and winning smile, just as planned, but had been unable to return him when she realized that their tastes in men were similar.

    ¡°Apologies Administrator, she sent me to retrieve a book and from our own library and when I got back she was gone. I tracked her down afterwards and was ordered to be quiet, so I instead decided to just protect her while she was out.¡±

    Another reason to be thankful for the company he keeps, Amelia has him running around enough as it is without sex complicating things. ¡°So someone actually tried to kill her?¡±

    ¡°Regretfully sir, I did manage to kill him with ease though.¡± Amelia gave a mock cry, as if she was shocked that he had to confirm her story.

    Woolsey rubbed his temples and tried to decide what the odds were that Amelia had hired the assassin herself to stir up trouble. In her enchanted cloak no one would know for sure who she was unless she had been deliberately targeted.

    ¡°Easy for me that was,¡± George announced, no doubt eager to go into details of his glorious struggle, before Woolsey cut him off.

    ¡°George, you took an arrow to the knee and did not care. Elves man, you lost an arm and called it a flesh wound! Do not try and exaggerate or downplay this.¡±

    George visibly deflated. ¡°There was one assassin, who I killed when he tried to move in on her Royal Ladyship, he was carrying a poisoned dagger that killed him quite quickly. Though her Ladyship insists that there was someone else, despite the lack of any magical presence beyond her Ladyship.¡±

    Which meant she imagined it, was lying about it, or someone was enough of an expert in hiding their presence to avoid one of their best guards¡­

    The wine would have to wait until later then, Woolsey indulged himself in another sigh.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Heh god of fire, Hoh goddess of water, Conbra the goddess of life, Tophon the god of light¡­ should I stop that trend or keep going? Cookie for the first person to post the explanation to the names.

    Hope I got my physics right, the moon mentioned in this world was not as big as Luna herself, but the absence of an anchor has led to some minor tilt wandering¡­ though I am not sure if a 300 year pattern like I described is feasible so¡­ ¡°it is fiction¡± defense?

    Regardless, thank you for reading,

    B_S.

 Chapter 29: Just Business

    A special thanks to whoever pushed the favorite count up to 50 ¨C this chapter is thus dedicated to my anon readers ¨C whoever you are, I hope you continue to read as I try and write a better story for all to enjoy!

    Chapter 29: Just Business

    ¡°Elven fathered curs.¡± Nitrox announced, rolling the last of his unconscious young men out into the backstreet. ¡°Thank you for the help Set, I swear that my store is an initiation ritual or something.¡±

    ¡°I would not know anything about that, but I am happy enough to help out.¡± I replied politely, though, unlike him, I was hardly stressed by the physical exertion.

    ¡°Does that mean that you are going to help me out for free more often? I must say that this is unexpected, but I will gladly accept your help-¡±

    ¡°Nitrox.¡±

    ¡°Now if we can get started over here and just move towards-¡±

    ¡°Nitrox!¡± I gave him a look that said I was not going to take much more and he finally backed off his joke. I could not tell if he liked to prank people, or just had a personality that was naturally good at higher pressure marketing, but either way I knew he would not stop unless I forced him too.

    ¡°Oh fine!¡± He grinned, not sorry in the slightest, before he walked past me back into the shop. ¡°Now, I have the details of the device over here, but I hope that you will not forget the deal that you promised me.¡±

    I walked through a small maze of various magical devices that occupied the store, following Nitrox as best I could. His shop was an interesting mix of magical technology and fake ¨C slight of hand based ¨C magical devices. His most popular items seemed to be a set of bound tablets that copied whatever was written on one over to the other. It was quite the impressive work of magic and I had quickly found myself comparing it to my own Monitor devices when I first saw it.

    Of course Nitrox was completely aware that I was capable of using mana because of an intrusive little device that he had subtly hidden next to the door to his store. I only noticed it when I saw it from an angle as a noble walked in. Thankfully it could only sense the weakest of magical abilities from me and only activated because the device was next to impossible not to pass close to as you entered the store.

    I got over the personal intrusion though and told Nitrox that I would not mention the little thing to anyone else for the ability to openly study the magical devices and a promise that he would not mention my magical talents to anyone. He actually refused and I had to destroy his wards to get him to fully understand and respect my power.

    For some reason people here considered wards infallible, but I had destroyed a dozen wards in my previous life and Nitrox made the mistake of openly showing me his anchor ¨C where all the spells were actually tied to, to make them last longer ¨C while he was trying to extort me for keeping his silence about my magical abilities.

    Overall, we got along very well after I rebuilt his wards and made him swear to never make the mistake of showing someone the anchor point again.

    He passed me a large poster showing a detailed drawing of a pair of upstanding gentlemen and a man with a large box. The large box was then shown in the next panel, directed towards the gentlemen before the next panel showed the third man removing something from the box. The final panel showed the two gentlemen looking at very detailed miniature portrait of themselves, which the box was clearly meant to have created.

    ¡°Interesting, but not what I had in mind when I asked for the details.¡± I admitted. The poster did give me a good idea of what the device could do, but not how or its limitations.

    ¡°Well, I am sure uncle Dioxin will be plenty happy to help you out with that, he should be around any minute and I am sure that you can ask him to help you locate your specialist.¡±

    ¡°Only if he is half as spread out as you claim he is.¡± I grumbled. As interesting as Nitrox and his shop was, he was usually longer on words than deeds.

    Nitrox¡¯s uncle, according to him, was an epic worth legend of a merchant that had traveled from beyond the mega holy city in the center of the world to the adamantium mines of the city-states in the east and even across the vast plains of the southern continent.

    I was more than a bit skeptical, but the risk was minimal to nonexistent as best as I could tell. Plus, although Nitrox did not seem to know this, it was customary to make sure that wards could not attack their builders and would in fact obey them before anyone else. With larger wards this was impossible, but it was better for smaller wards to ensure that they were not used against their creator, before payment was rendered.

    Therefore meeting anyone here was actually something of a safe move for me, regardless of who they were¡­ Not that I actually expected Nitrox to suddenly turn around and try to kill me, but it was better to think someone was going to betray you and live than trust them an die.

    Bella had a slightly different opinion on the subject of course, but she seemed to have her own opinion on everything these days.

    We kept chatting while waiting, but it did not take long for Dioxin to arrive and it took me even less time to understand why he chose to meet so near sunset. Dioxin walked in like he owned the shop and I saw magical sensor light up as he did so, although I hardly needed that to feel his that his power was near mind when I died in my previous life ¨C around 6 circles worth.

    He was older than Nitrox, around 40 if I had to guess, with a martial build that suggested a fair bit of sword practice, which was supported by a short sword on his hip. He was also currently bald, but it looked more like a shaved head than early hair loss. He was also followed in by a pair of whores and a man who looked closer to Nitrox in age, in his early 30s, who was carrying an exact replica as the box from the poster.

    After puzzling over the whores for a moment I realized that if you were going to test an instant portrait maker, then you should at least bring along someone to use it on. Fortunately, these two did not look familiar and they hardly seemed to recognize me, least they might make an unfavorable impression. Still, I found myself like Dioxin¡¯s plan. The two relatively young women, in their working clothes, would certainly be more effective for selling the device to a merchant, even if they would be less affective to sell it to upper class gentlemen like in the poster¡­

    Which actually set off a few alarm bells in my head as I tried to figure out why Dioxin would sell it more to his nephew than to the nobles. Was it just good familial relations or was there something I was missing?

    As the family reunion quickly unfolded I was surprised to see Dioxin touching his nephew so freely. Perhaps I was just holding onto a habit from my time as a bandit, but that seemed wrong to me. Of course, there was also the option that he simply did not care because his nephew did not have any magical talent of his own.

    Which is much more likely than your opinion Bella. She answered me with silence.

    Ignoring the little sapper in my head, I turned my attention to the two family members as they finally finished their hugging and he introduced the porter and the whores, whose names I disregarded, before it was my turn.

    ¡°This,¡± Nitrox announced, gesturing to me while already trained to not to actually touch me, ¡°is a wonderful lad named Set. He is quite talented and has an eye for-¡± I cast a temporary privacy ward to make sure that the porter and whores did not hear what was said. ¡°-magical devices- Set, did you cast one of those ward things again?¡±

    Dioxin¡¯s hand was already on his sword, but he kept it sheathed. He was eyeing my spellwork. ¡°This is far better work than any 10 cycler I have seen, but as strong as you are, you are no Soul Mage, though some might make that mistake.¡± He looked me in the eye and removed his hand from his sword, ¡°There are stories of them trying to take the bodies of children to prolong their lives.¡±

    ¡°I will explain everything if you would allow me to do so at a later point in the evening.¡± He nodded and then blinked a few times when I added ¡°I am nearly 14 by the way,¡± before breaking the ward.

    ¡°So you are a mage?¡± I asked, putting a little awe into my voice. ¡°Did you make this thing? The instant portrait?¡±

    Dioxin proved to be a sharp man and quickly adapted to my act, unlike Nitrox, who had nearly told the whores that I was a mage. ¡°A friend of mine did and I think that I can help him make some money off of it. Calling it an instant portrait is a good idea too, I actually thought of it more as a time box, but that might help it sell better.¡± He clapped his hands together, ¡°which reminds me of our lovely ladies here, who will be the subjects of their very own instant portrait!¡±

    The whores smiled politely and seemed to lean back a little by habit, showing off their lovely ladies. The porter also smiled, certainly enjoying his job at the moment.

    Dioxin quickly took control and organized a little portrait demonstration inside the shop, using his device 3 times before I felt it run out of stored mana and he had to refill it. The portraits he created during that time were certainly impressive, but I quickly spotted some problems. Starting with the lighting, as Dioxin had to use his own magic to produce a pair of magical lights to compensate.

    I also found myself wondering how much of an influence the Nalks had in this device. It was brilliant and would likely change more that I could currently predict, but more importantly it was a symbol that the lives of everyone would be changed immeasurably one the ''game'' began in earnest.

    After a little while Nitrox asked me my opinion and I had him take some more portraits, specifically, ones that measured the differences in light levels, how the distance between objects affects the portrait, and how many little details were making it into the portrait.

    All in all it did not take me long to figure out that this device was going to make waves. ¡°Wow.¡± I admitted. ¡°It is truly an incredible invention,¡± I paused as Dioxin beamed for the moment before I continued, ¡°for an incomplete device.¡±

    I expected that to cause some spluttering and grandstanding, but Dioxin just told me to explain. ¡°As far as I can tell this thing will be a top seller if the Histone, particularly their Newsmen, take a liking to it, but for others,¡± I shook my head. ¡°If it was a bit smaller you could actually sell it as a scouting tool ¨C something to let commanders see exactly what their scouts do ¨C however, this model is not only too bulky to be affective, but it has a fairly specific range that it can capture. If your inventor starting putting things like a-¡± I realized that I did not know the local name for the spell. ¡°Like a spell that you would use to see far away, or at least a physical addition to the device that would allow you to control how far away you want it to focus.¡±

    ¡°A good thought, but how would that affect how it sold to, say, an Altruman family who lives in the city?¡±

    ¡°Yes and why the Histones? The military I suppose I understand but¡­¡±  Nitrox spoke slowly, trying to listen to what I was telling him, but failing to fully grasp it just yet.

    I took a deep breath, ¡°I do not know anything about how you would sell the product to someone, but I do know what type of things people do with something new¨C they find imaginative uses for them. I suppose that any traveling young man or apprentice might want an instant portrait of him just outside of a city that he traveled to, or an instant portrait of his family back home. Altruman families would certainly appreciate the expediency of it, since they are usually too poor to avoid active work.

    ¡°Oh and the Histones would love this if they could get the lighting correct as it make a fast copy of a book to be transcribed later, although something like a stand to put it on might help. Not to mention that most any celebration, disaster, war, speech, new building, or everyday activity interest the Histones, so they would likely want to take instant portraits of everything with it, especially as they would not have to worry about artist interpretation or intimidation. Anything from the crowning of a king to a dueling match would be fair game for them.¡±

    Then there was the darker parts of course, but they could figure that out for themselves. I could only guess how many teenagers would buy a small booklet of those 2 whores in various states of dress, especially if they were too young or too closely watched to be allowed to actually hire one. Nobles were also quite sensitive to their pride, which would make any instant portraits of them in compromising positions would make them remarkably less credible in mere moments of its appearance in the hands of any other noble.

    To be honest though, the darker aspects of this device were not nearly as apparent to me as the militarily dangers of it. If maps of the kingdom were dangerous, how would the monarchy feel about instant ¨C reliable ¨C portraits of any city or fortification that can be studied at a later date? Plus, there was anyways some way to use a new magical device that its inventors and introducers missed, always.

    Dioxin looked at me and nodded evenly, refusing to let me know what he was thinking, while Nitrox finally seemed to understand and seemed deep in thought. Dioxin spoke first: ¡°Anything else?¡±

    I looked him in the eyes and wondered how much to say, but I decided to drop back to a more immediately impactful reason. ¡°How much would it average in cost, per portrait?¡±

    I swore that, for the first time, I saw Nitrox turn into something that reminded me of a predator. Had he been a mage, there might have been something akin to bloodlust leaking from him. ¡°Uncle?¡±

    Dioxin tried not to show it, but I could not help seeing him stiffen up a bit as he turned to his nephew. What followed was a quiet, but extremely rapid exchange of words that quickly became a conversation behind a privacy ward.

    In the meantime I went ahead and played around a bit, asking the whores if they had seen the new vibrating back rub. They did not get what was so interesting about it until one of them accidentally dropped it in her friend¡¯s lap. It was quite entertaining.

    Soon enough, Dioxin and Nitrox emerged from their private talk and Dioxin announced that the whores were free for the evening. The porter, who had almost never taken his eyes off of them looked disappointed and only became more so as Dioxin announced that he and Nitrox would be retrieving the other 2 devices from his storage house in the morning. Though he did recover remarkably quickly when he was tossed a silver and told to take the night off.

    Dioxin then took the opportunity to ask Nitrox for privacy and had him to go upstairs, where he lived above the shop.

    I took a few seconds, as Nitrox left and concentrated. It was harder to work this spell because, while I was familiar with privacy wards, I felt that the odds of this particular man having one of Xiphos¡¯ recording devices to be much higher than normal.

    Casting the spell, I let the ward set into the air in a large, but fairly flat oval, slanted to reach from my height to Dioxin¡¯s. It was designed to encompass both of our heads and our throats, hopefully keeping even the slightest whisper from escaping. Normally, someone would just encapsulate the individuals that they wanted to talk with, but a recording device could be stored in a pocket or pouch and I would not be able to see it.

    I even briefly considered using Gorith¡¯s shroud, but that miasma of claimed mana was actually visible to normal eyes too, making it a risk with Nitrox just up the stairs.

    Dioxin studied the odd privacy ward for a moment without speaking as I stepped into my half of it. It felt weird to see the ward with my third eye as wrapping around my head, while my normal eyes saw nothing, but it was not unbearable.

    Finally Dioxin stepped into his half of the ward. ¡°I do not know any child, teenager or otherwise, who acts as you do.¡±

    ¡°I have a special source of knowledge that helps me with such spells.¡± I responded, waving my hand at the mana filled space in front of me.

    ¡°That I could accept, but your attitude, your thoughts, and the way you could ignore a pair of attractive whore to analyze possible the military applications of a new magical device were beyond your years.¡± His eyes narrowed ¡°even considering your supposed age.¡±

    I stared at him and tried to measure how much to say. In this ward, in this place, I could easily overestimate myself by accident and become overconfident, like so many that I killed before, but that was why I put up the privacy ward¡­

    Deciding to take the risk and immediately starting to plan possible escape routes from the city came easily enough, but I was still unsure on whether or not he would actually believe me so I started slowly. ¡°Have you ever heard of someone¡¯s soul being put into a new body by the gods?¡±

    He blinked and lost his neutral face for a moment as he hear that question, but the man was nothing if not adaptable. ¡°You are trying to say that you are one of those reincarnated ones? Someone with a destiny chosen by the gods to fulfill?¡±

    I snorted and gave him a small grin. ¡°I remember my previous life, but I was not reborn to fulfill some destiny, I was reborn because I disrupted the machinations of the gods and they were less than happy about it.¡±

    ¡°So you are cursed?¡±

    ¡°That might be one way to look at it, but only if you count my memories.¡± I felt my smile change a little. ¡°I sometimes wish that they had been taken, but that would not have been as satisfying I guess.¡±

    I shook off the memories of the past before I could go too deep into them and concentrated on the present again. ¡°Your nephew cannot seem to stop bragging about you, about how far you have traveled and what you have seen. I need help to find a mage able to use a specific spell. A spell to change what I was born as.¡±

    ¡°You were a female in your previous life?¡± He asked, likely fishing for more information, though I could hardly blame him. That said, the sarcasm was uncalled for. ¡°Have you considered a sharp knife instead?¡±

    I rolled my eyes, ¡°a knife would only help if I wanted to cut my hair again.¡±

    It only took him a moment to understand. ¡°Ah, so you want to be a real boy and you want me to godfather you a new body?¡±

    ¡°I have no idea what that means, I just want you to help me find someone who can change my body back to the way it is supposed to be.¡±

    ¡°Supposed to be? The gods put you in this new body girly, are you sure that they will allow you to change it?¡± His voice was still even, but I felt like he was likely weighing the difficulty of my request in his mind

    That was a legitimate question: what if the local gods decided that such a spell was taboo? Leo and his lot would probably list that as ¡°DeMorte¡¯s problem¡± and let me chose what to do. That said, I had already thought about it because of something Bella had said and decided not to care about the gods or their opinions, unless they took direct action.

    If they decided that I was meant to remain female, but would not actually do anything about it, I would not care. However, if they were prepared to act on it, than I would have to smile, accept it, and spend the rest of my life burning every temple I could. After that, I could introduce this world to Gorith and some of the other gods from my previous world. I had no idea what would happen afterwards, but even the Nalks likely did not expect events to go that far¡­

    That or maybe I would just create a few plagues and let them loose on the world right before I killed myself. Either way, lots of people would die.

    ¡°They told me that it was a choice for me to make. To try and became a man again simply because I was one in my past or stay a woman and try to move on in a new life.¡± I gave a weak smile, ¡°They might have a good understanding of humanity, but I tend to think things through differently.¡±

    After I said that there was a silence for a little while before he spoke again. ¡°Who were you then? In your previous life?¡±

    I shook my head ¡°It was farther away than you can look up. I was an outlaw who lived and died in some mountains far away. I only have my spellwork and skills to prove it.¡± I silently found myself preying to Gorith for the first time in quite a while, but I stopped it, he could not help me here.

    A sigh answered me from Dioxin as he stepped back out of the privacy ward and I followed his lead. ¡°I assume that my nephew knows how to find you?¡± I nodded. ¡°Good, I will send for you sometime in the next 3 days, we will talk then.¡± He announced, sighing again as he walked towards the stairs. I felt my blood run cold for a moment as I wondered if he was not planning some trap before he gave me a little more hope. ¡°Be sure to be prepared to pay for the information too!¡±

    I smiled a little to myself, if I had to guess, I would say that Dioxin was someone like me, more of a mercenary with only his own set of rules to follow, rather than someone who would take a moral stance on principle. Even if he believed I was insane, as long as we could come to an agreement, there would be no problem¡­

    Of course, I would also need to take appropriate steps to ensure my own safety¡­

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    It was mid-afternoon on the second day after meeting him that Dioxin sent his invitation. To my surprise, it found me at the Histone¡¯s library reviewing some of their lists of prophecies. I took a wild guess that the Nalks would be responsible for at least a few of them and would likely use a few ¡°prophecies¡± to annoy me during their game.

    I left the library after that and traveled to the inn where I had been staying to collect my full gear before slowly walking to the destination, a storage house outside the walls, near the river. It was a decent place for an ambush, but anything short of a full hunter-killer squad was going to have a hard time taking me.

    Just to make sure, I checked the surrounding area and found no signs of hidden mages, but it was possible that they were spread out and would converge later.

    I silently checked my equipment. Since arriving in the city I had decided to fully prepare and spent every copper and silver I could beg, steal, or earn on getting my weapons up to par. So far I had an under armor of bone that I had reworked into an incredibly dense series of overlapping plates and chainmail like protection that would have been impossible if not for my ability to freely manipulate it.

    It weighted around 8 or 9 kilos and if I had not enhanced my muscles, the weight would have been completely impractical. Especially as I had another 8 kilos of iron chainmail covering it, I had to use my G¨ªa to let myself move without too much effort, but I had been practicing over the last few days and I was more or less used to moving in the armor.

    I also had some cloth padding with cooling runes, nearly a dozen iron knives, 4 iron javelins, 2 different iron swords, and my now very-filled-out robe covering most of the armor up.

    No one had spoken to me when I left, likely wondering if I was some noble child going out to play at war or some nonsense. In any case, the sight of a hooded figure ¨C because I was not going to let them see my face while that well-armed ¨C armed with that much iron weaponry screamed mage or mage hunter, regardless of my height. Besides, guards were there to keep the unwanted out, not in.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Which meant it was just as well that I took my traveling pack with me. Even if this was a legitimate meeting, I would not need to stay in the city if he had the information I needed and would be able to carry the iron back in as long as it looked like a delivery and no one asked to see how heavy it was. The iron weapons would be more problematic, but I would find a way if it came to that, I would not be unprepared though.

    After I finished looking around I noticed that I still had some time before I should be at the meeting so I also took the liberty of removing my mithril disk from my body. It had been an uncomfortable addition over the past week and I had been forced to continuously watch both it and my body to ensure that there were no adverse results.

    As it turned out, mithril could poison the body like any other metal, especially in large quantities, but since I did not want to risk removing it within the walls I was in a bit of a fix. It was possible that I was completely overestimating the level of security or the scarcity of mithril, but it was such an important metal that the King made commoners nobility for discovering it.

    In the end I was able to keep it fairly isolated by effectively wrapping it in a skin like cover, infused with so much iron that my own mana found it annoying. It was a bit disgusting, but effective as far as I could tell, even if someone directly pushed their mana through my body they would have a hard time identifying the mithril¡­ granted, if that happened, I had bigger problems to worry about.

    If the disk could pay for my information though, I would not have to worry about it in the future and I could get on with my goal. The religious institutions here could provide good cover for ¡°Bella¡± to disappear and a fully male ¡°DeMorte¡± could find something to do.

    Bella was silent about that, but I was starting to wonder if her increasing levels of silence was because of me or whatever the Nalks did to our head, regardless, I put that aside for the moment.

    It was almost time for the meeting and since it always better to arrive early, I was right on time.

    I knocked on the storage house door and felt the wards respond to a brief flick that I gave them with my mana. They had some power and could likely restrain intruders, but they did not seem as powerful as some other wards I had broken. Still, I asked Bella to keep an eye on them and received a general confirmation from her as the doors opened.

    Apparently she was only talking to me when she felt like it.

    Inside was not what I expected, the storage house was only around 40 meters long and 30 meters wide, but there were no crates or animals that might have been stored here, instead there was a large table set off to the side that was filled with food, a small rack of weapons off to the side, and two men standing near the center of the storage house. One was Dioxin, but I was unfamiliar with the other man, who appeared to be a mage, though his power was hard to determine as he was hiding it like I was.

    Dioxin spoke up as he saw me armed for war. ¡°I hope that you come to all meeting dressed like that, or else I might be offended.¡±

    ¡°Actually I used to do just that.¡± I called out, while I scanned the area with all of my senses, magical and otherwise, looking for traps and other surprises. ¡°Who is your friend?¡±

    Dioxin looked over at the other man, who was taller than him and rail thin ¡°This is a friend of mine. I will introduce you two later, but first I wanted to confirm your story. My friend here knows that you claim not to be in your correct body and has offered to spar in order to prove your experience. As, while you clearly have a few cycles of spell casting knowledge, sword or weapon techniques would be better proofs.¡±

    That could explain the food too. ¡°I will have a quick bite first if you do not mind?¡± It was not really a question, but I asked it anyway.

    Dioxin shook his head, seeming to understand the implied question. ¡°Go ahead, none of the food is poisoned.¡±

    I walked over and casually picked off a few pieces of fruit and a single rib of some sort, checking them all with magic before eating them. I was very practiced at that sort of thing, which was slightly ironic, given I had been done in by poison somehow.

    After my sampling I took my time to set up some of my javelins around the room. Neither man spoke as I did so, except to answer my questions. ¡°Why do you want proof anyway? Why not just make the trade with me?¡±

    ¡°Because how you do determines what we trade.¡± Dioxin explained.

    ¡°You do not just want some coin?¡± That would be annoying, especially if he wanted an assassin or something.

    ¡°I have a small job, a quest that I need someone to do quietly, or at least not let it get back to the people who requested it. My friend here is unable and if I want to make it worth my time I need to hire cheap or accept a favor as payment and that would not be to my liking¡­¡±

    My mind raced at that as I finished placing the iron javelins around the room. If anyone or anything changed that was not to my liking, I could have a nice long piece of iron in my hands within moments. ¡°So my request is cheap? Does that mean that you only plan to give me general information?¡±

    Dioxin must have had a mind just as suspicious as mine or truly top notch acting skills as he still gave no obvious response that would suggest offense at my words. ¡°I do not feel the need to take a chance that helping you directly will anger the gods, but the person who made the request has access to a truly extensive information network and has agreed to help find your specialist. I will just be the middleman in this deal, assuming that you are strong enough that you can actually complete the task.¡±

    I had a feeling that he had other motivations, but accepted the story. So far I had yet to find any traps and I should be able to pass his test easily enough. Best of all, if he really did need my help to retrieve something, without connections that might be revealed when hiring mercenaries (SR or otherwise,) than he would be less likely to betray me now, instead of when I got back.

    It had been a long time since I entered such a deal, where I was unsure if my partner was going to double cross me, it felt both nostalgic and annoying. I disliked negotiating at a disadvantage.

    Finally finished setting up my emergence perimeter, I walked over to the weapons rack and compared them to my swords. They were all thicker and blunted, so I picked out a pair of swords of similar length and tossed one to the man who would be my sparring partner.

    He caught it easily and we both moved to the center of the storage house. ¡°Exactly what do I have to do to pass this test of your anyways?¡± I called.

    ¡°As long as my friend says you are capable, the job is yours and we can deal.¡± Dioxin responded, casually taking a seat at the table. ¡°Oh and do not worry about making noise, he is quite skilled using G¨ªa so the clashes of iron might get loud, but the wards will dampen them automatically.

    Suddenly I found myself wondering if this was some fighting house of some sort for people to come and watch others be beaten to death. ¡°No other extra charges afterwards, right? I do not think I need to insult you with threats about what I will do if you suddenly change our deal or try to betray me.¡±

    ¡°You appear quite ready for it regardless, but I understand, you may begin whenever you like¡±

    I turned my full focus to the man standing a few meters away and lifted the blunted sword at the man standing around 4 meters away. He raised an eyebrow at my two swords on my hip and looked over my armor, clearly wondering if I would be able to fight with it. Still, he raised his own sword in readiness.

    I tapped a little G¨ªa and took a small leap towards him. It was partly to close the distance and partly to make sure that I was compensating for my extra 10+ kilos of iron equipment that I had added recently. The jump was almost perfect as it landed me where I thought it would, about a meter away from him, but I had not compensated correctly for the force of my landing and my momentum.

    I took an additional step into his range, deciding to use the force instead of fighting it and our swords met in a deafening clash. His sword did not move so I used a bit more G¨ªa and tried to slide my sword off his, just to watch him move the sword with mine. At that point I took the smallest of floating jumps back, just out of range of him.

    To my surprise, my opponent took the initiative and attacked me in that moment. I figured that he would let me continue to attack until he knew my strength, but that was apparently not how it would go. I met the first few swings head on, keeping my third eye on the lookout for any spells that he could try and use.

    The sparring was straightforward for a while, I would attack him and he would attack me, with both of us increasing the pace each time we switched. The clash of iron had my ears ringing, but besides that there was nothing surprising, we were just test each other¡¯s limits.

    Then I realized that we were both sparing at a level that would put many experienced mages to shame, so I decided to start leveling out. I stopped pushing as hard as I could and started to pretend that the spar was taking its toll. More blows started coming closer to hitting and I spent more time dodging the attacks instead of meeting them.

    I did not trust Dioxin enough to show him my full strength and the resulting struggle became more and more one sided as my opponent continued to push me. I almost pulled out one of my hidden daggers at one point as, he increased his speed yet again. The fake struggle had become a real one as I limited my own G¨ªa usage and concentrated on using the sword I had to the best of my ability.

    The biggest problem I had at this point though was my lack of experience with drawn out, especially one-weapon-restricted, fights. I wanted to throw sand in the man¡¯s eyes, to cast a barrage of spells and toss my sword in his face before throwing one of my daggers hard enough that it ripped out his heart! Fighting with just one sword, fighting just one enemy by myself, was annoying. I liked uneven fights, where I could massacre the enemy from an ambush or rely on my opponent¡¯s overwhelming force to dictate their actions.

    A straightforward duel like this one was not only embarrassing for me, but it was a weakness in my fighting style. Even the challenges for leadership in my previous life had not been true duels, we could use magic, hidden weapons, even the crowd under certain circumstances. In a situation where I had to stick to my restrictions for my own good, it was horrible and I found myself wondering if my opponent might kill me by simple accident ¨C especially as I ducked a slice that would have likely given me a concussion.

    Suddenly though, my opponent pulled back and dropped his sword. I had to keep myself from charging him at the show of an opening, but as he dropped his sword I realized that this test was over. ¡°I do not know whether to be insulted or honored to fight someone of your skill despite the fact that you are clearly holding back. I hope that we can spar again in the future without such inhibitions.¡± He bowed deeply and without thinking I returned it. I might have hated that fight, but his comment proved that I had not fooled him for a second. The man was a master and I realized that, even knowing nothing else about him, that was enough to respect him.

    ¡°That means you pass,¡± Dioxin called. The man nodded and held out a hand as he scooped up the dull blade at his feet. I tossed him back its brother and watched him go to put them away.

    ¡°Now then¡± I almost yelled, before realizing that my ears were still ringing from the match, ¡°I assume that we are going to discuss your little ¡®quest¡¯ while we eat?¡± I walked over to the table as I asked, keeping one eye of the man who still had not been introduced to me yet.

    ¡°Of course and on that subject,¡± Dioxin sat back and casually asked me: ¡°What do you know about dungeons?¡±

    *     *     *

    The city of Palos on the eastern edge of the western continent:

    Abukara Yoshitake both loved and hated the life he had built over the last few years.

    On one hand, he was incredibly popular and had become the hero of a repressed group that was all too eager to ensure his success in helping them. He had a goal, to help end their oppression, the power of magic wielding companions to help him, and (to his shock) a seemingly endless line of beautiful elf-like, although definitively non-elven, women who were eager to get to know him on every level.

    On the other hand, he hated his new life for the incredible hardships that came with training with swords, shield, and spears. There was also the lack of a wash toilet, but they had worked on that. He knew that he was being manipulated too, as despite his initial expectations, it was proven that he had no ¡®mana channels¡¯ after all and was therefore just an ordinary human. The first few days of disappointment had been buried under weeks of alcohol, beautiful non-elven women, and a man who tried to systematically draw every idea that could possibly help these not-elves, out of Abukara¡¯s head.

    He thought that reality had already sunk in after the first few days, but then the not-elves showed him, in the most brutal fashion, the discriminations that they could face. Their mages were outright killed the second they were detected and the non-mages were subject to discrimination so bitter that it sometimes made America¡¯s infamous KKK look tame. Rape and butchery happened in the streets when the crowds got worked up. The crowds also got worked up whenever there was a shortage of food, a disease going around, or just a general lack of jobs.

    He had been more than willing, if somewhat scared, to help them fight back, but the level that they were willing to manipulate him was fairly clear when the pregnancies started to show up. At that point he was in the middle of hard training, both physical and mental, and was happily told about how the women looked forward to telling their children about their people savior, who was also the child¡¯s father.

    So he helped them all as much as he could, which turned out to be far more than he originally thought possible. Just the idea of a gun was enough for them to start training their hidden mages on direct acceleration, high speed missiles. A few even added an explosion function that made the small stones that they shot that much more deadly.

    Ironically, this show of force had actually both reminded and scared Abukara as he remembered that magnetism and rail guns had somehow managed to slip through the ¡®talks¡¯ he had with them. He had sworn to keep at least that much to himself. The non-elves had already been far too interested in trying to create a nuclear or neutron bomb.

    Instead, he has accidentally introduced them to the concept of terrorism. A concept that some, if they could learn to hide their ears better, were far to prepared to investigate. Thankfully that particular idea had been shot down by the elders of the community as they had pointed out that any disasters were already blamed on their people and attacking random people in such as way would only make everything worse.

    There were barely enough cool heads among the nobility to keep them around as it was.

    Peaceful protest of any kind was also an impossibility as the guard frequently joined the orgies of violence and would have no problem methodically killing anyone trying to march or sit in. Although the economic warfare of their series of boycotts had done wonders. Right now there were only a handful of stores in the city that dealt fairly with the so called ¡°elven decedents¡± and they were doing an incredible trade at the moment.

    Right now though, much was about to change. As Abukara stood there a large party of nobles and merchants were busy eating at a series of large tables before him. He was dressed, at his own insistence, as a servant instead of a visiting merchant or a noble.

    Those who make peaceful protest impossible make- He quickly broke off the quote and wordlessly received a nobles¡¯ now empty goblet and instantly refilled it with the last from his jug of wine. Abukara took this as the opportunity he had been waiting for and moved back along the wall to avoid walking through the center of the room.

    His senses were heightened and he seemed to be able to hear every laugh, or loud noise, every scrape of a knife, and more. Abukara had helped with this plan ¨C to his endless shame ¨C however it would not be the last time such an occurrence would take place. A few servants nodded to him and a young lady even gave him a shy smile as he passed them.

    There were hundreds of servants across dozens of noble houses and almost all of them hated their masters for one reason or another. The ones here would have to flee the city tonight, before anyone realized the full magnitude of what was currently occurring.

    Just before Abukara reached the kitchen he hear the first rolling cough as a beautiful young noblewoman tried and failed to suppress it. She had been one of the thinner nobles here so that was likely why she was the first to go down. Thankful there were next to no children at the party as the people here were unofficially meeting to organize the next bout of violence.

    Abukara quickly slipped into the kitchens and navigated around nearly a dozen servants before tapping Abu on his shoulder. The young chief had normal ears, but he was definitively of elven decent curtesy of his mother. They were fast friends, partly because of their names, and had worked together with several other servants to pull this night together. ¡°Time to go.¡± Abukara whispered, not entirely used to the local language, but still familiar enough with it to not need his translation bracelet tonight.

    Abu, to Abukara¡¯s shock, nodded, but then turned around and told one of the other servants to come with him. The servant in question was a short women with piercing blue eyes. Abukara wanted to yell at the man that there were no time, but instead settled on moving towards one of the servant¡¯s entrances without comment.

    The entrance was designed to allow servants to come and go without offending the nobility with their presence and led straight out to the street next to the noble manor. In a world where cities were drastically overbuilt, despite not knowing a thing about sanitation, the nobles seemed rich enough to make sure that no one came near their manors without first crossing a moat, a yard, and a ditch.

    Abukara quickly moved along through the servant¡¯s entrance underneath the manor¡¯s yard it was nearly 50 meters long and had some of those strange ¡®runes¡¯ to make sure that the smell of the kitchens was blown outward instead of the smells of the street blown inward. The entrance door itself was large, thick, and shut, but the wards recognized the bit of blood that Abukara had smeared on his hand and opened for him.

    Checking behind himself for the first time Abukara confirmed that Abu and the woman were following, although they were a bit farther behind than he would have liked. Hurry up.

    They made it without problems, although the woman looked thoroughly confused, as Abukara watched them run up to him before stepping out himself. The wards soon shut the door behind them, but not like they should have, it slammed close, signaling that either the nobles had initiated a lockdown, or the noblewoman had died and the wards had locked down everything automatically.

    Abukara sighed in relief, but they still needed to get out of range of the manor for when the guard arrived.

    This was not the first time he killed, but it was the first time he had done it so cold-bloodedly. Abukara let Abu and his girl argue about what was going on for a moment as he crossed the street ahead of them, winding through a variety of parked carriages and found a friendly face waiting for him.

    Karibis was an exotic beauty by almost anyone¡¯s standard, but it was the absence of her usual courtesan outfit that got Abukara¡¯s attention as she was dressed in a coachman¡¯s black uniform. Unlike some other women Karibis had remained without child no matter how many time they slept together, which made her one of his longest female partners since he had been summoned to this world. She was also a powerful mage, some 9th rank or so.

    Waving him over quickly, she tapped his head and he felt the connection between him and the noble house¡¯s wards be broken. Normally it would not be so easy, but they had made preparations beforehand. Abu almost dragged his friend over, still arguing with her that they needed to run and run now.

    In the meantime, Karibis asked Abukara to grab some food from a coach she gestured to and waved Abu over for the same treatment Abukara received. He had also been prepared ahead of time, but the woman had not and would apparently warrant food.

    It always astonished Abukara how much a mage could eat after they cast magic, it was like they had a second dimension in their stomach! Taking out a sandwich, something he helped them come up with, he passed it over to her as Abu and his friend were finally seeming to finish up their argument.

    Karibis got to work on the woman and Abukara climbed into the coach while he waited. No commoners were allowed to take coaches, so naturally they would not be stopped until they were- There was a scream.

    Jumping out, Abukara found both Karibis and the woman down on the ground. Abu was freaking out, calling something out over and over, maybe the woman¡¯s name. Abukara checked the Karibis¡¯ vitals ¨C something he was all to accomplished at lately ¨C and confirmed that she was alive.

    Cursing, Abukara had Abu help load them both into the coach and unceremoniously started stripping Karibis of her uniform. It might get them caught given the woman¡¯s slighter build, but he would have to take that chance unless; Karibis groaned.

    Not wanted to chance it, Abukara called her name a few time to see if she was actually coming around or was just groaning in general pain. He had thankfully only removed her coachman¡¯s jacket so far as he had very little talent to anything horse driven and an improperly driven coach would be another major warning sign.

    ¡°Soulless little¡± she grumbled, sitting up, she paused as if her head was spinning and Abukara asked if she was okay.

    Karibis shook her head grimly, but grabbed her jacket back and told him to get out of her way. A few minutes later they were riding uncomfortably out of the area past a swarm of guards.

    They would all later find out that the noble who owned the house had a kill command in his wards. Specifically, he used it near death to kill any and all servants who were tied to the wards ¨C the people who had most likely poisoned him. The Karibis and the girl had survived by luck and timing, but almost everyone inside the manor that evening, whether they were poisoned or not, died.

 Chapter 30: Gate to Tartarus

    It occurred to me that the ¡®repressed growth rate¡¯ that I have been mentioning has not precisely matched up to what I wrote in the past¡­ some other minor things also do not match up and I am trying to correct those errors wherever I find them.

    I credit this to the speed at which I am writing and releasing BKR ¨C it has taken me just over 7 months to reach this point for example and I think that the pace of the story could have been better¡­ I look forward to correcting that though, writing BKR has been more fun than I expected and while rewriting it will be slightly annoying I still look forward to the results :P

    Speaking of which, I would like to officially report that my plan is to finish the first major story arc (before October) and then switch to biweekly releases after DeMorte/Bella settle accounts. That should be up through November, but there might be a delay because of certain plans of mine, but December should be a weekly release schedule again.

    Small, but important, change in that I have been addressing the seasons as the summer/fall/winter/spring set, but I will be changing that to the first through fourth Earth quarters whenever it comes up. This is because of the 18 day earth phase after all the other phases ¨C which also breaks the year up into 4 quarters of 90 days a piece.

    ¡­there may or may not be a calendar change eventually, but the phases do have a purpose within the magical community.

    Also: when I say SRM or MIT that is just for you the reader and me the author, so we do not have to read/write those particular phrases over and over. DeMorte is still happily saying the full phrases ¨C especially when he gets annoyed.

    Thank you for your time, please enjoy.

    Chapter 30: Gate to Tartarus

    Early Water Phase of cycle 3084 AF

    ¡°Frotizon, it keeps getting colder.¡± I mumbled to myself, testing out the new curse I had picked up. Apparently Frotizon was the place of lost or consumed souls, I was surprised to learn that it was supposedly a cold place, in comparison to Anton¡¯s ¡®Hell¡¯ or my own lesser circles. It was also, curiously, said to be a lawless plain of existence either ignored or shunned by the gods, depending on who you asked.

    I looked around the entrance to the dungeon and saw what I had seen from a distance, a big pit, with some stairs build into its descending slope as it tunneled into the ground, surrounded by 18 large stone pillars with powerful interlocking wards.

    There was also an old mercenary off to the side. He had lost one leg halfway up his thigh and it looked like a hand had been amputated at the wrist, but it was hard to tell if it was medical or just an injury from a sharp blade. His job was apparently to sit around and warn off children from entering the dungeon before they were ready.

    Right now he was sitting on a bench under a large wooden roof that provided some shade as he spoke to a small crowd of children. I was listening in as best I could, but I stood off to the side, barely in the shade as I looked at the wards in the stone pillars in front of us.

    The wards were anchored very efficiently into the stone pillars and the way that they interlocked with each other left me in awe. They were more completely interlinked and dependent on each other than anything that I would have created. In fact, they were far beyond anything that I could have created, even if I had their ward constructions memorized and had time to try, they were just too complicated. Even with the majority of their construction hidden beneath layer after layer of wards I could only guess at what type of genius had constructed those ward.

    The old mercenary ¨C who I liked too much to call a former SRM ¨C was telling the children about his various adventures and the friends he had fought alongside of during his glory days. I could spin some tales myself, but no one would believe me so I felt conflicted. Part of me had a strong desire to share a drink with the old merc and see who could tell the better tale, but that was not who I was right now.

    I grimaced, looking briefly to the sky, which was bringing in what looked like one monster of a storm. It suited both my purposes and my attitude right now, as I felt surrounded by the enemy and cut off from any reasonable expectation of friendly forces.

    The dungeon town was called Gate, despite being one of the most foolishly named cities I had ever heard of, stood in stark contrast to almost every other city I had visited in either life time for a simple and depressing reason. Gate was, despite the relative importance of being very close to a key crossroads, almost completely under the control of the so-called ¡°Adventurers¡¯ Guild.¡±

    I could pick fights with a handful of self-righteous idiots any day of the cycle, but there were thousands of them in this city. It was already accepted practice here to call other adventurers when someone got drunk and the guards willing stayed away from any and all self-righteous mercenaries when they were worked up. I was almost never against the idea a good fight, even in my current state, but that would be pushing it even for me¡­

    Of course if I was about 6 cycles older, with a fully developed body and some preparations, I could permanently retire most of them and probably cause mass panic as the mercenaries became more and more heavy handed trying to find me. Slipping out of the city without being in a large deal of danger would be difficult unless I got in a mass of people all trying to leave together, but it would certainly be interesting.

    Of course that would be only be possible under conditions that simply were not reasonable at the current time, but it was fun to plan it out regardless. Though the sense of anger and concern coming from the back of my mind made me move on to other thoughts before Bella tried to give me a lecture.

    I turned back to the old man, who was fielding questions at this point and slid in to chat him up about some basic things. As I had put the majority of my iron equipment in my bag and stored it at a nearby inn, I actually blended in with the talkative little ones who were busy being conditioned.

    By conditioned I mean that the kids were asking him questions like: what keeps the monsters from coming out of the dungeon? They were answered with lines: the noble adventurers are keeping their numbers down and protecting us all.

    I had to exercise my (not inconsiderable) acting abilities to keep an up the appearance that I was interested in what was being said, but more important topics were all deflected and turned into more mental conditioning. Thus I was stuck asking basic questions like what the average adventurer¡¯s group was composed of, how deep was the dungeon went, and how it was formed.

    It was all valuable information, but not exactly enlightening in any major way. Before I could question him much further there was also clap of thunder that scared some of the very little ones, causing him to send them home. I stayed just long enough to ask if there would be a problem for the people inside of the dungeon in the event of large amounts of rain, but it apparently got absorbed somehow and never flooded.

    I left afterwards for the Adventurers¡¯ Guild guildhall to see if anyone had taken my job offering. Part of Dioxin¡¯s advice concerning this job had been to ask for someone to take me down to the 29th floor, where the thing I was looking was, he even supplied a small amount of silver to pay for it. I could ¨C and would, if necessary, ¨C force my way down to the lower floors, but the SRMs would likely defend their territory and livelihoods violently, especially down in the dungeon, which was only owned by the kingdom on paper. In reality, the strong would rule down there and if I had to incapacitate anyone it was better that I had someone the guild would trust to back up my story¡­ otherwise the safest course of action would be to face the Guilt.

    The guildhall itself was weird as it was combination of a coordinating headquarters, inn, and an alchemic trading post as people came to both hand in collected materials from the dungeon and relax while the guild paid them, minus room and board, before it resold the ingredients. It somehow managed to accomplish all of this and cater to hundreds of its guild members and the people who wanted to hire them at any given time during the day.

    It was both impressive and depressing. The majority of mercenaries were average people, individuals with no magic, but I had to grudgingly admit that the so-called ¡®adventurers¡¯ were a bit different. While each of the larger mercenary companies tended to have at least a handful of mages scattered throughout their ranks, the adventurers tended to have more mages by a factor of 10. In both of my lives this was partly to do with reputation as no commoner found out they were a mage and decided to become a mercenary, they all became adventurers.

    In the beginning there was probably a large amount of differences between occupations, regular mercenaries followed money and tended to end up tied to the nobility, who tried to only call them up in times of war or revolt. While adventurers were the ones who went into dangerous areas hunting grounds (at least in my previous world) to hunt down magical beasts to capture or harvest for alchemic materials.

    Mercenary therefore became something of a dirty word, a sword that killed whoever it was paid to, while adventurer became a word for a defender. It was just too bad that these differences tend to fade after nature is pushed back further and further. If adventurers cannot chase down monsters in the forest, they chased down bandits, then thieves, then guard jobs, then odd jobs, and finally, they start chasing whatever pays.

    Of course Mercenaries frequently did all of those same jobs, just without feeling the need to justify the smaller jobs with the same vigor that hunting magical creatures invoked. They also tended to complete the job without everyone in a city hearing about it. I never met an experienced mercenary who berated me for being a bandit, but I almost never met an adventurer who did not, despite the fact that they both moved for the sake of money. In the end, it was a job, but only one group had the decency to admit it.

    Between that and the casual way that adventurers seem to publicize that they were heroes, I had been disgusted with them back in my previous life, but in this one it was actually worse. Despite the adventures not having a large presence on the wild frontier in this world, they were apparently gathered around the few dungeons that existed in large numbers. This turned a large group of hunters into a fairly major political force. After all, they were effectively an instantly available army with combat experienced mages and a large amount of public opinion behind them.

    I almost could not help it, whenever I came into this building, I shivered. It was their hub of power and even without the powerful wards woven throughout the building, it would be ill advisable to be rude here¡­ as I had to keep reminding myself.

    Thankfully they were at least very efficient, technically I could have waited in my room at the inn and wait to be notified of the acceptance of my offer. In the time it took me to eat dinner someone could accept my notice and a runner would show up at my room to notify me of that acceptance. That said, as someone who had been out exploring the town recently, it would have been harder to find me, so I just walked to the application desk to check if someone had accepted it.

    There were a series of window that each had a person standing there with either adventurers or people like me moving up to and away from the open windows at a fairly decent rate. It barely took any time to get up to the young woman tending to the counter, but then I remembers some key facts, like my repressed growth. I looked far younger than my 14 cycles and the fact that I had to jump up to reach the counter and then hang off of it, with my feet dangling off the floor, did not help matters any.

    ¡°Hello, I am here to look into my request to see if anyone has accepted it yet. This should be on the request form.¡± I pushed forward a coin like piece of bone that I had reshaped into my old banner¡¯s symbol ¨C the three headed winged snake with 2 blind eyes. I had given the Guild one infused with a bit of my mana to serve as proof of the job¡¯s completion. That way I could just give my escorts another coin and the guild could match it up to confirm the job was complete without me actually being present to tell them so.

    Between the material, the design, and my mana, it would be nearly impossible to duplicate or fake without the consent and assistance of the Guild itself. Which I had not discounted, but it would make my own task functionally impossible without bloodshed.

    The young woman, who was of a good stout weight and appeared to be in her late-20s, gave me a polite smile and started digging through a bunch of papers off to the side. I was still surprised at how much paper existed here that they could use it for everyday activities like this, or that almost all SRMs seemed literate. It might have been a cultural difference, or they could have mages that could produce more paper and more books than in my previous world, I did not know.

    After a small period of alternating between searching and looking at my coin, I figured out that she was looking through search request forms and I politely told her that it was an escort request. This let her find my request, but lead to a different problem. ¡°Why in the name of the gods would you want to go that deeply into the dungeon? You are only a child.¡±

    ¡°That is my business.¡± I replied evenly.

    ¡°Come now, you can tell me, I am sure that whatever you are looking for on that particular floor is-¡°

    ¡°My business.¡± I replied again, cutting her off, before giving her my biggest grin to try and soften the blow. ¡°I take it that it has not been accepted then?¡±

    The young woman stuttered for a moment before launching back into her protective tone. ¡°I-I should say not, most adventurers would dislike the idea of taking anyone down that low as they would have to camp in the dungeon, but if they knew the poster was a child! How under the heavens did you even apply for such a thing?!¡±

    ¡°With paper and quill.¡± I replied dryly. ¡°If that is all then I will be leaving now miss, thank you for your help and have a nice day.¡±

    I dropped to the floor and retreated back to my inn. Outside the rain was just starting to pour as I got in.

    This might end up taking more time than I originally thought, I grimaced, before putting on a childish grin of joy as one of the inn¡¯s owners, a nice matronly woman made sure I had a warm bowl of some type of broth in my hands. It was free for me apparently, but I still made sure to ask for a full meal and to test the soup for poison after she turned away. There did not seem to anything else to do, but enjoy the meal and wait until someone accepted.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I stared at the aging, and balding, man behind the desk with barely contained rage. ¡°To make sure that I understand correctly.¡± I spoke slowly, very slowly. I wanted to tear him apart and put him back together in new and different shapes where his ears were with his brain ¨C up his rectum ¨C and his arm was where his testicles had been so many years ago. ¡°You are removing my request because of your concern for my safety and in your generosity giving me this nice little ticket worth the full amount of the money I paid ahead. Minus the holding costs and delivery of cancellation fee that is.¡± Plus the small deduction for slamming the delivery man into the ground in anger, but who was counting that when it was smaller than the delivery cost!?

    The man nodded, the thin layer of accumulating fat showing that he had only recently decided to take this position. ¡°You are much too young to be risking your life in the dungeon like that young Set, no, this is for your own good.¡±

    I nearly killed the aging fool on the spot, but I was very aware of his blighted wards that would likely catch me before I could spike the ward-stone that they were anchored in. ¡°I know of the dangers and I have told you that I accept them. That is my life and my responsibility and why I came here to hire the guard escorts.¡±

    ¡°Which is why I feel the need to turn you away. I cannot convince of a reason to let someone so young go into that place. Take my word for it, it is incredibly dangerous and you will be able to do whatever you need to when you are older.¡±

    ¡°I am 14 cycles this last metal phase and-¡± I carefully pulled out a proof that the sparring partner Dioxin had set me up against had given me. It was now bound to me as proof of recognition of my skill. ¡°I understand that this is proof of one Master Krampus that I can more than take care of myself.¡± I had not wanted to use this thing as it could be used to trace me, but it was given to me just in case something like this happened.

    That got the aging man¡¯s attention once again and he reassessed me for a moment before making a rolling gesture with his hand. It took me a moment before I understood that he wanted me to activate it, which I did and caused a small crane appeared with a number 6 on its head. The old man looked impressed, apparently 6 was a good thing?

    He spoke slowly, ¡°That is quite impressive, Master Krampus is known as something of a taskmaster and would not give you a 6 without making you work for it¡­ Which is all the more reason not to let you go.¡±

    I wanted to throw the proof at him. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Someone as talented as you will grow into someone great and I would look forward to seeing you alive and healthy in the future to-¡±

    He kept talking as I quietly put the proof away, with the Guilt unable to deter me any longer by this point, if I could kill him and get away, I would.

    DeMorte¡­

    I know, my last resort for dealing with wards really does have to be a last resort.

    Correct. Now, tell me why wards need an anchor, it might help distract you.

    Wards¡­ Wards need to be anchored somewhere physical¡­

    I took a deep breath and released, concentrating on thinking and trying to let some of my anger go.

    ¡­because the world has natural mana that would interfere with and decay the ward instructions if they were not put some place solid, some place tangible. Usually stone because that is what lasts the longest.

    Though it makes them vulnerable, right?

    Yes, anyone who breaks the ward-stone shatters the wards, which is why short term wards for things like field battles or nightly encampments are not anchored into something definitive.

    I concentrated again on the present and sent a thanks to Bella. The man had stopped talking and was looking at me expectantly, so I gave him one more chance. ¡°I respect and appreciate that you are trying to look after my well-being, but that is my business and no one else¡¯s. It is my life sir and honestly you have no right or responsibility to tell me what I can or cannot do with it.¡±

    I met the fool¡¯s eyes with all the strength and false respect that I could, but it was no use. ¡°That may be, but it is my responsibility to determine who and what goes down into that dungeon and I do not think that you should be going down there without at least waiting a few cycles first. I am sorry if you feel that is unfair, but that is the way it is.¡±

    I sighed and looked out the window into the rain. It did not look like it would be stopping any time soon. ¡°I hope that you will reconsider as I will be stuck here until the rain passes and I cannot risk going down there without an escort.¡± I looked back at him, resisting the urge to prey that he would fold, as I was speaking in more hope than expectation.

    ¡°I am afraid that that will not happen, but I know that when you do go down there you will appreciate what I say now when I tell you that it is a bad idea. We lose fully prepared individuals who go in there and they train for cycles before they go in.¡±

    At least with my parting line I made it sound like I would wait a few days¡­ that should at least lessen the likelihood of him sticking a follow on my tail.

    I stood up and declined to shake his hand. Apparently that was the newest fashion among mages in powerful wards, as a sign of trust of complete trust. Naturally, my killing intent, while diminished, would be transmitted through any physical contact and tip the fool to what I was planning.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    It was still early and I had time to get back and get some magically enforced sleep before I disregarded the fool and took matters into my own hands.

    Bella did not say anything more as I walked out the Guild room that I had been brought to. I saw the annoying woman I had talked to earlier looking relieved and had to fight the urge to shoot her a large amount of killing intent. I was angry enough now that, even if I had forced that anger back under control, my killing intent might cause her to collapse in fear.

    If her heart was weak I might have even killed her by accident.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It was still raining after my rest, but had it not been, not even twilight would have lit the sky. It would still be dark as Gorith¡¯s shroud and the rain was actually better for concealment than a night without clouds.

    I quickly got geared up and prepared in my full armor set. Bone armor on the inside, padding, iron chainmail, and finally a thick cloak that would double as a blanket if I wanted it to. I also had my two swords along with some extra equipment that I had picked up on my way to the dungeon.

    I had wanted another layer of leather armor over the top of my chainmail, but both the weight and bulk was already annoying, even for me and my enhanced muscles. Instead I picked up a set of 6 iron spikes, thick enough to survive being embedded in the wall by a G¨ªa enhanced throw. As I had already asked around, I knew that my regular javelins were more useful against human targets as certain magical beasts had thick skin so I only took 2 of them with me.

    The spikes and javelins were annoying to carry, but they might be worth it, so I tied them together like tent posts and carried them over my shoulder along with a good supply of food and a spare pouch for my target on the 29th floor, which apparently needed to be harvested and stored away from all sunlight¡­

    Overall I was really overloaded, but I wanted to make sure that I had everything I could need. My G¨ªa reserves were fairly high as well, meaning I could fight at super human levels for a few days before I would run low. I had even managed to spend some time expanding my mana instead of just storing more G¨ªa, although I was still a good 5 or 6 cycles away from another circle expansion.

    I left the inn through the back door after quietly making my way down the stairs and though the building. There was still one person up, but I dodged him and let the rain cover what loud clunking and clinking that I could not help making.

    If I had not half expected trouble outside the front door, I would have simply covered up all of my supplies and carried them through the rain to lessen the sound I made, but I was not sure that the guild official that I talked to had not tried to stick a tail on me.

    Of course, in this rain, any tail would stick out with a basic night vision spell and the only place that they could head me off was the dungeon itself, so I just concentrated on being ready for a confrontation. If I could get out of this without one that would be best ¨C disappointing, but best ¨C however, what I really did not want was anyone going in after me.

    Still, I moved through the rain alone and tried to watch out for any followers without using magic. Naturally, in the pouring rain it was an unreasonable expectation, but I still tried to minimize any possible mana signature except when necessary to see where I was going when it got too dark, even for my eyes.

    Eventually I arrived at the entrance to Tartarus, which seemed even more of a pit in the pouring rain. If the old man from earlier was right it should not matter how much water there was, but the steps descending to the entrance were flooding from the rain. Walking down those steps was tricky, but I took it slowly and managed to avoid being swept off my feet. Though I did do a rather creative dance at one point to keep from falling down.

    As I approached the bottom of the stairs though, the small river that was flowing quite rapidly past my ankles, was suddenly sucked into the ground. It was an eerie effect to watch, but the torrent of water simply hit a certain point in the ground and lost a great deal of its speed, with the water that managed to move beyond that point quickly sinking into the ground.

    After a small jump I went from almost being washed off my feet to standing on dry land while the rain poured behind me. It appeared that I was formally in the dungeon.

    Although I had to work for the information I knew that the magical beasts and monsters which inhabited the dungeon would only start to appear after the first 3 floors of the dungeon so I moved along as quickly as possible, eager to get this over with.

    I only paused to cast an illusion spell on me to make me look like I had in my previous life. Both Set and Bella were distinctive for their size, but my illusion spell made sure that anyone who saw me would first remember a grown man, instead of a compact child. In the event anyone had not seen me getting here, but was still waiting for me inside, it would be extremely convenient.

    Surprisingly there was no one waiting for me inside either, the caverns were fairly big, but empty, simply open formations of some type of stone. The room that I was in was at least 5 meters wide at the entrance, but that varied, while the 4 meter height seemed fairly uniform. I could not see the end of the room as it curved out of sight.

    The ground was not perfectly even, but it was smooth enough for the most part and I was not particularly worried about anything hiding in the occasional crack. It did not look completely natural, but there were no drill marks or anything like that. It was wrong in some way that I could not put my finger on, although that might have just been the red light that seemed to permeate the dungeon, removing my need for a magic based light or torch.

    Something about the dungeon did seem familiar though¡­

    Wait DeMorte, something is wrong¡­

    What do you mean Bella? I can feel something is off, but unless you have a specific idea of what is it¡­

    Actually I might, it feels like something is different about the mana and¡­ actually it reminds me of a specific memory of yours: The one where you got Osiris to copy Gorith¡¯s shroud.

    I inhaled sharply, that was a particularly scary thought. If the mana around us was like Gorith¡¯s shroud than it would mean that the air itself was already claimed. Perhaps by the dungeon itself, which was a particularly scary thought.

    How did you notice that?

    I was board and decided to compress our mana a little through cultivation, but the mana around us actually resisted me, try it yourself!

    I reached out with my mana and tried to cultivate the natural mana around me, but it was just like Bella said, the mana resisted. Though I noticed that, instead of trying to pull away from me in whatever direction it could, it pulled towards one end of the hall, deeper into the dungeon.

    Curious, I added it on my list of things to keep an eye on while in here.

    As I walked I tried several experiments to see how the mana around me reacted. The results were mostly negligible, but there were 2 definite surprises. First, most of the mana naturally went in one direction, down deeper into the dungeon, with the rest of the mana disappearing into the walls. This was interesting, but the real surprise came when I reached the second floor and I realized that the mana seemed to be becoming thicker as well. Which meant that, despite the fact that some mana was being lost into the walls, more mana was coming from somewhere else.

    The second surprise nearly scared my senseless. I was hallway through the second floor and had confirmed that there seemed to be no one near me (So far I had only passed one group who was heading out, but we only exchanged a brief greeting) I used Gorith¡¯s Shroud.

    Not only did I have to rip the mana in the air away from whatever had laid claim to it, the mana around me shook and reacted¡­ violently. I had never heard of or seen mana acting like it did at that time. It reminded me of my old graveborn, Regus, and how he used MIT (mana implosion technique) to cause havoc in someone¡¯s body, but much worse.

    For natural mana to attack someone like that, was unheard of and I would have called it impossible if it had not happened to me. Of course, it was not truly ¡®natural¡¯ mana as it seemed to be under the control of the dungeon itself, but the fact that is was surrounding us on all sides and lacked anywhere near the oppressive atmosphere of Gorith¡¯s shroud made it different.

    Anyway, when I successfully created the shroud, the mana around it that I did not claim shook and then began to pick at my shroud, pulling at it in different directions. Then, after I refused to let the shroud be picked apart, the mana seemed to snap against it. To me it felt like a hammer of a spell coming down on one of my wards, but it did not stop. After a few more hammer blows it actually got worse and I had to deliberately start watching where the large concentrations of mana were to help brace against the blows.

    It took me a while of being beaten around with mana before I finally realized that the mana was being directed from one specific point in the wall. I marked it in my mind and slowly let the shroud disperse. Fortunately, whatever had caused the violent reaction to my shroud also abated at this time, otherwise it would have been a very unpleasant trip to the top ¨C iron only filters mana instructions, so raw mana like that could easily slam me into a wall or two if I was not careful¡­ assuming that it did not work like MIT and tries to destroy my organs.

    After that I investigated the area that seemed to have been controlling the mana, but there was nothing visible. It was the oddest thing I had ever experienced.

    I was still thinking about what in the world that could mean when I ran into a checkpoint right before the sloped decent to the third floor. (Another mystery to figure out as the sloped decent seemed flawlessly added into the otherwise flat tunnels)

    It turned out that adventurers had a proof with their combat ranking on it and would deliberately block anyone from going into the dungeon without this proof or an escort who had the requisite combat ranking.

    When I tried to tell them that I was in a hurry and left it at the Guild they refused to let me pass. Even when I tried to tell them that I needed something from a specific monster on the fifth floor, they still would not bend. (The particular monster I named was well know because parts of it made a powerful variant of the pregnancy termination potion)

    We were just arguing until I heard them say ¡°this is for your own protection,¡± at which point I found myself standing over someone who was crying on the ground, holding a broken wrist.

    ¡°I would appreciate it,¡± I said coldly, ¡°if you never assume to know what is best for my health. I am just trying to be polite and not force my way past, despite the fact that none of you lesser-souled could stop me.¡± I looked around and made sure that the half dozen men there understood that they were dealing with a mage, even though using the ¡®lesser-souled¡¯ insult made me feel sick.

    One of them tried to stammer something about the Guild not standing for such action, but I calmly ignored him for a moment and constructed a healing spell for the crying wimp. I used it on him and turned to the stutterer ¡°I think that my abilities should be evidence enough of my combat rank, but if you would like to report me, you are right the Guild will take action.¡± I stepped up closer to him. ¡°I will be punished and then, you and all of your friends will run into a string of bad luck and regret having ever seem me. Or¡­¡± I smiled and stepped back, giving them room to breathe, ¡°You can let me pass this one time and I promise to bring my proof next time.¡±

    They let me pass. Though I had no confidence that they would refrain from reporting me to someone ¨C that was what the illusion spell was for though.

    I walked through most of the third floor without spotting anything of note before I started walking through a maze. It was creepy, all the passages of the maze were around an even meter wide and went up to the ceiling so that I could not jump over it. It also looked incredibly precise, with each wall and pathway looking the exact same despite the fact that they seemed to grow out of the ground.

    Fortunately, it was easy enough to fallow the mana through the maze without issue, but right after I got out of the maze I came to the first of the Dungeon¡¯s famed residents.

    In this case, it looked like a giant rat¡­ with an armor like shell. I tried to cast a stun spell on it and move on, but it partly resisted, reminding me of the modified humans inside the fear runes. The poor thing never knew that was a mistake and thought it could attack me.

    One of the few unbroken rules that I had found in all my cycles on any world, was that anything that could resist mana could not use it. There was even a type of ¡®bad iron¡¯ out there that did not filter magic instructions, but nothing that resisted mana used it to attack. That was no exception this time, but my rat like specimen did manage to surprise me by spitting something I thought might be poison.

    At that point it had my full attention. I stepped out of the way as it tried to bite me and kicked it as hard as I could, sending it sailing through the air into a wall.

    I kicked the rat like thing around a few more times before it tried to run away. I took out one of my short swords and quickly gave the creature one last kick before gutting its more lightly armored underside. I did not even need to use any G¨ªa.

    Since I had never seem anything like the rat before and I was also curious on how it survived down here so I decided to dissect it.

    I could feel curiosity radiating out from Bella and for the first time in a while we were in complete agreement. This is going to be ¡°fascinating,¡± I finished quietly.

    We smiled.

    [Quick author¡¯s question here, do I need to start putting parentheses around mental conversations or is it still easy enough to follow? Just curious]

    *     *     *

    City of Spina, on the western edge of the Eastern continent, in the slums:

    5 weeks prior

    Diogenes smiled on the outside, but inside his heart wept for the horrors around him. Tophon¡¯s mighty beacon of light seemed to be unable to reach this dark place.

    Diogenes could reach it though, he could reach it and he could change it, he knew he could. The aid work was going so well and the children seemed bright and full of energy. He tried to never judge them, but they were so used to being distrusted that seeing them relax and play because of his work made it worthwhile.

    It was all the horrors beyond that haunted him though. He tried not to judge the whores for their trade, nor the prowling men looking for rich individuals to rob, but he did judge them on some level and despite his trust in Tophon¡¯s holy light, he felt like he was fighting a battle up hill, on all sides when it came to distributing food to those in need.

    The nobles and merchants were happy to take his coin, drawn from collections that they themselves had given, but they were not happy to have less of the lower classes surviving the fourth earth quarter. The cities were all populous enough and the sewer systems were backed up ¨C or so they claimed.

    When Diogenes had lead 200 people out to where there was supposedly an overflow, there was very little work to be done.

    The problems in the slums also presented him with another issue as vicious gangs occasionally attacked him, wanting to claim the food he was going to distribute for themselves.

    Others in the priesthood also disagreed with Diogenes, stating that the money would be better spent on preparing for the various visions that they had been receiving about the coming of a time of great change.

    Still, they persisted and week after week, Diogenes shown the light of Tophon in the slums and made sure that the children had some place safe to rest after they took their fill.

    Now though, a new problem was gathering outside of the building they were in, a building that had once been a temple dedicated to the great glory of Tophon¡¯s light, a building that he had wanted to re-consecrate as a new temple. The guard were here, in force.

    They were here to take him into custody for an old crime, one that he had committed before his eyes were opened to the glory that was Tophon¡¯s light! That they were here, instead of waiting for him at his home or his formal church, spoke volumes of what they thought of him.

    The children had not noticed, but a friend of Diogenes¡¯ a good man in the corrupt guard, had come ahead to tell him ¨C the guard were going to read the charges in public before they arrested him too, adding insult and stupidity to the already strong possibility of injury.

    No, it is not my place to judge them, I am nothing more than a humble servant of the true judge, Tophon. Diogenes said a silent prayer and told one of his followers to look after the children, before making his way outside.

    Even if the holy consecration was complete, he would not allow those wards to be used against the guard.

    Walking out onto the front steps, Diogenes bathed himself in the light of the world. Even as his insides churned with anger and resentment at the sound of the guard¡¯s boots, the light gave him a brief peace.

    He walked forward, down the steps and to the guard captain, who was stepping forward and had just unfurled a scroll, his bright yellow cloak indicating his rank as one of Tophon¡¯s chosen, a noble mage.

    Diogenes reached out and placed a weathered hand on the scroll as the captain lifted it up. ¡°There are children here.¡± Diogenes said simply, hoping that the man would understand.

    The captain sneered and shifted the scroll for a moment to backhand Diogenes. The blow sent him spinning and landed him several paces away. On of Tophon¡¯s chosen indeed, Diogenes thought ruefully to himself.

    The guard captain then unfurled the scroll again and announced to the whole world that Diogenes was under arrest for ¡®crimes against nature¡¯ ¨C the formal charge for the acts of buggery that Diogenes had committed so many years ago to stay alive on these same streets.

    He felt many eyes upon him, but Diogenes had already confessed these sins under the light of Tophon and had never felt any guilt for his actions, he stayed alive when others died and had lived to feel the glory of Tophon¡¯s light, which was what mattered.

    By the time Diogenes had risen, a crowd had gathered and the guard had their weapons ready. There could be no violence though, so Diogenes simply walked up to the captain again and put his smile back on his face.

    Shaking his head, the captain called him a cowardly creature of the lowest order. Diogenes however, walked past him, only pausing to look back and ask if they were going to the castle holding system or the local one.

    The captain¡¯s face seemed to turn colors and Diogenes felt an inner satisfaction despite himself before he turned away and slowly began walking towards the castle. The guard formed up around him naturally and they acted for a moment as if he was the actual caption.

    The crowd grew while this happened.

    Then the captain came up behind Diogenes and forced him to walk faster, pushing him as the guard formed a protective barrier around him.

    Nearby, unseen, a Nalk was weighing the options and trying to determine how this should go, as it had yet to formally pick its player and was eager to see if his favorite stepped up like it hoped he would.

    This Nalk was new to the Game after all and wanted to make sure that it had calculated correctly.

 Chapter 31: Diving Difficulties

    It never ceases to amaze me how many view one advanced review can bring in. Thank you all for reading BKR ¨C this will be a chapter more typical of what my small-group fighting scenes should be like, but there is also some interesting stuff about the dungeon itself.

    2 cookies (and possibly a character named in their honor) for anyone who figures out the dungeon secret on their own ^.^

    please enjoy.

    Chapter 31: Diving Difficulties

    Conbra¡¯s whore that was fun, I chuckled quietly as I finished dissecting my 11th subject and happily absorbed the majority of it with mana roots. It was something like an armored pig when I first found it, but now it was just a lot of sliced pork and some odd organic shell.

    I had no idea what the shell was made of, but it was somehow resistant to mana. Of course I could only analyze it with mana, which made trying to figure out how it worked very annoying indeed.

    Normally I would blame it on my background by saying ¡°if I had not been denied access to information in my previous life than I would know more,¡± but only certain individuals would be able to investigate the shell further. Those individuals would be rare too, as people like an apothecary, a non-magical-potion alchemist, or a mana scholar, one who studied mana itself, are pursuing a vocation that requires a fair bit of financial support for no obvious gains.

    Still, this place was a great place to both study strange creatures and allow me to practice my more powerful magical techniques, I was having a lot of fun. Of course I still had to continue down the floors, but I was enjoying my time with each creature that jumped out.

    I had currently practiced numerous death spells, fire based spells, a few lightning based ones, and even tried using various direct mana manipulation techniques. The creatures on these upper floors were all fairly slow, small, and slightly magical resistant, making them excellent test creatures for some of my more¡­ exotic spells.

    Though I honestly hated the idea of practicing some of those particular spells outside of my shroud, the fact that this dungeon seemed to have something close to it covering the entire inside of it, made me feel a lot safe.

    In the meantime, I discovered a few things that were equal parts amazing, insane, and annoying

    The first surprise, which was rather amazing to me, was my discovery that mana recovered¡­ oddly while inside the dungeon. It likely had something to do with the shroud that covered this place, but my mana was recovering much more slowly than normal, even with the increased caloric intake from absorbing the variety of monsters I found here.

    It had once taken mana scholars decades of debate to decide, but the general consensus that they came to was that humans passively absorbed the mana around them when recovering our personal stores of mana. Anton had declined to confirm or deny this, but I could not come up with any reason to disagree with the scholars.

    The, somewhat insane, discovery was that the monsters I was fighting must be breeding somewhere in the dungeon. This was actually a well-known fact, but what I did not expect was that the dungeon was seemingly empty beyond the occasional maze, monster, or even a rare trap. This was no ecosystem, so what were the monsters eating? Since I had arrived, I had not run into a single spider¡¯s web, piece of shrubbery, or even a bat.

    Even if there was some location where monsters were breeding, there was no reason that some species would not spread out throughout the dungeon. There were no spiders, flies, rats, or plants of any type and as far as I could tell, there were no signs of their passing either. There was no guano, no skeletons of dead animals, nothing but the continuous rock.

    I had even spent time on my current floor trying to look for any signs of a balanced ecosystem, but there were none. There was a fine difference between monsters and magical beasts which might explain it under difference circumstances. Simply put, monsters could, at most, block magic, while magical beasts could not only use it, but occasionally survive on it.

    I had no idea how that worked, but I did know the biological signs of starvation versus simply being hungry and all of the creatures that I had dissected had eaten sometime within the last few days. Most of them still had some food left in their stomach to prove this, but where had they been eating?

    To top this off, I actually came up with an explanation that seemed to might cover all of the oddities, except that it was the type of theory I would rather not say aloud. Namely: that the dungeon was an elfin training center of some sort from back during the Enslavement.

    It was the only explanation I could come up with based on what I knew and even it had holes. If there were wards spread throughout the dungeon that would explain the constant drain on mana and the lack of explanation for both the ever thickening mana and the lack of a complex ecosystem. The wards could control the unseen parts of the dungeon that were still absorbing mana and pull various creatures for what effectively amounted to a giant training session.

    [AN: only someone as sensitive as DeMorte is so aware of the thickening of mana this early in the dungeon, it is not something that most people would take serious notice of before floor 15 or so]

    Where these wards might be, or why I could not see them, even with my magically sensitive body and powerful third eye, was unknown. How these theoretical wards had survived for millennium after millennium was also unknown, as I doubted that someone had come down and constantly replaced or repaired the old wards.

    The annoying part primarily involved what Leo had told me so long ago: that the Nalks had blessed and cursed me before I was reincarnated. He even gave me a long list of what exactly each blessing or curse entailed, but I had not thought about it lately because of all of the changes that I had made to my own body.

    Stones, I had negated the majority of those curses with my constant body modifications. By now my muscles were all denser and more efficient than others would be, while my bones were not only far denser, but could also be reshaped at my leisure: to the point where I could carve runes into them.

    Between all my experiments into modifying and investigating my own body and genetic material, I had not even considered how the Nalks had carried out their original curse of restricting my talents in areas outside of the realm of healing. I figured out early on that it had something to do with my mana channels, but I had not realized the full extent of the issue.

    I had¡­ almost no idea how they did it, but any spell I cast was significantly harder if it was non-medically based. Specifically: stun and incapacitation spells, death spells, and healing spells were fairly easy and natural for me, but fire spells other than the fleshfire spell, my lightning spell, and most other spells were mana inefficient and had a higher likelihood of failure while I was casting with splash method. With non-spell mana manipulation techniques seeming easier than in my previous life as well.

    The only possible explanation for the resistance of my mana to work on non-biological based spells that I could come up with was runic based. It was an old puzzle after all, why would a rune have to be flat in shape? If you made a rune out of gold it could be in the shape of a rune and still function. The remnants of village that I had found inside the fear runes had been arranged into the old ¡®obey¡¯ rune, but I had no idea if that had worked. I had a theory that the fear runes were made out of zugoran, but they were things that were instinctively hard to look at, so that was only a theory.

    As best as I could tell, there was no reason that undiscovered runes could not still exist, hiding because they did not exist outside of some abstract physical shape that would be hard to discover outside of an accident. (Perhaps reminiscent of the discovery of the memory interfering runes) If I thought about it that way, the Nalks might be one of the few groups that would know 3 dimensional runes as they would be able to find a world where they were common knowledge and learn.

    Regardless, the fact remained that most spells were harder for me to use, including fire spells, which have always been the main weapons of mages. Some of my exotic spells were effected and others were not, but with those spells I was trying to make nonthreatening, everyday things, into ward avoiding spells. As a result, there was too much experimentation needed to be able to tell for sure in that particular area.

    I only tried to change the mana channels in my body a few times and it was not a pleasant experience. Pain, paralysis, and temporary loss of my ability to manipulate mana persuaded me to stop such experiments quickly.

    In the end I was forced to simply accept that I was restricted using certain spells. I had known that for a while so it was not too much of a shock, though the extent of my restriction was still somewhat surprising. For example, I knew that being a combat mage would be difficult, but now I found myself wondering if that would even be a realistic goal in this body.

    As a tangent thought, I found myself briefly wondering what type of mage I actually could call myself. If I had to qualify myself as a type of mage when introducing myself to others I could not say I was a Healer (they would likely hang me) nor a combat mage¡­ In fact the only phrase that I could come up with to describe myself was something that had uncomfortable origins.

    Anton had called Soul Mages ¡®necromancers¡¯ or death manipulators, but if I was going to put a name on my talents it would be a ¡®biomancer¡¯ or life manipulator.

    Of course, I would not even be worrying about this if not for the tendency of people in power to ask you such basic questions while under truth spells, (which were of dubious effectiveness) with or without the threat of death if you lied. It was a popular trick with the nobility and a near certainty if I caused any trouble¡­ rather like I was about to do.

    I was currently on the 9th floor and if the barricade of SRM in my way was any indication, I was about to go down into floor number 10.

    There were around 2 dozen of them this time around with 3 mages that I could sense. With small facilities that made it look like a military outpost. There was also a small barricade that surrounded the whole area, using the walls of the dungeon as anchors on either end to present a row of sharp of what looked like iron tipped wooden spikes, which were braced against the ground.

    If I had to guess, this was both a resupply station and a fallback area, someplace where the SRMs could go if things became too difficult for them, or if they suffered casualties and would be unable to make it back out the dungeon without assistance. Stones, they might even be a reserve force to help those who ran into trouble in the dungeon.

    The guards on duty waved at me and asked about the rest of my team as I got closer. His friends helped him remove part of the barricade so that I could come inside. Since I was not eager to alert the mages, if possible, I simply made sure that my vocal cords were still changed and politely deflected as much as possible until they asked for my identification.

    ¡°Sir, we need you to show us your-¡±

    ¡°I do not have it.¡± I said, striding forward and slipping around a guard who stepped up to stop me. I stepped around him by spinning some of my ¨C as yet unused ¨C iron spikes to keep the guard at a distance without hurting him. The guard tried to grab at the side of my spikes, but I spun out of his grasp.

    He and a few others tried to run around my front at this point, but I simply took a G¨ªa powered skip and was several meters away from them. Around this point though one of the mages came out from inside of one building and started yelling, asking what the problem was.

    There was another mage that I could feel in a different building, but his mana was muted, like he was asleep. The last mage that I could sense was directly in front of me as he had been guarding the side of the base that lead further into the dungeon.

    I ignored the commotion as best as I could and continued to walk at a reasonably fast pace, one that was meant to for speed, but did not show fear. I kept track of the guards as the mage from the building finally realized what was going on and started yelling at me to stop.

    Since the base was not very large, I was already halfway through the base and was walking up to the very confused looking guards on the other side. These guards had spread out to surround me as I kept walking towards them, while their mage looked confused and stood his ground near a movable barrier directly in front of me.

    I took maybe 3 more steps before the first spell was thrown. In that instant, I felt the third mage¡¯s mana suddenly change and realized that that one was likely about to storm out and join the rapidly escalating fight. At which point, I decided to go ahead and take slightly more aggressive action.

    I leaded forward and charged, not bothering with G¨ªa just yet as I concentrated on getting past the few guards in front of me who already had their weapons out. A pair of guards on either side of me swung iron swords out into my path and tried to physically block me.

    It would have been easy enough to duck under their weapons, but I still had my illusion spell working and it had to copy my movements, so I slid under them as best I could and rolled a little in an attempt to conserve some of my speed.

    I saw several more spells come flying from behind me with my third eye ¨C or mage sight or whatever they called it here ¨C and I jumped a little off to the side. With the distances involved it was hard to tell if the spells changed direction, but I was willing to bet that they spells with tracking instructions.

    Concentrating on the lot in front of me though, I tried to slip between two guards and I did so, after I managed to push one away with some of my iron spikes. I almost drew a sword to emphasize that they would not stop me, but I chose not to.

    Having someone rush past and make you look the fool was much different than having someone fight their way past. These guards were more experienced than the ones a few floors above and I had to be prepared to kill them if I had to, but only if I had to and injuries would not help the situation.

    To my left I suddenly found a guard barreling down on me as fast as he could, he was almost completely covered in iron armor and had apparently decided that he would be safe even if he tackled me¡­ either that or he noticed that I was trying to avoid casualties and was trying to use that decision against me.

    I preferred to believe the latter, but there a surprising number of idiots out there who manage to survive through much more luck than skill or brains.

    He was certainly lucky that I was effectively a G¨ªa master and could make small movements with my G¨ªa. I turned my head and prepared to skip a small distance with my G¨ªa. Unlike more inexperienced mages tended to just blast their- WOAH!

    I rushed more G¨ªa to my feet and did something that I normally never approved of, I flipped into the air, narrowly dodging the mage who had been previously standing guard. He had used a huge amount of G¨ªa to try and rush me, only to overshoot because he could not react to my flip in time.

    I was still rising up into the air when the fool missile came at me and I barely twisted my body out of the way before the mage crashed into the ground not far from where I had been standing. He, regretfully, somehow managed to not break every bone in his body on the landing, but he was still off balance enough to go stumbling over the ground.

    I shot a stun spell at him in annoyance as I continued into the air, my jump taking me several meters up and forward. It looked like I would end up on the other side of the barricade, but it would be a near thing.

    I mentally sighed in regret as I temporarily lost my ability to dodge. The 2 most dangerous types of people in the world, when it came to using G¨ªa at least, were amateurs and masters. The difference was that an amateur would kill you on accident and plenty of murder-suicides had happened that way.

    I then saw that a few of the spells that had been fired earlier were tracking spells, interlaced with some rather cruel looking torture spells, coming in behind me. I found myself creating mana armor to defend against them, despite the fact that I still had my iron armor on and could have let some of the get absorbed by it.

    I did this because it seemed like the spells were made by a more experienced hand, which would explain the fool missile from earlier. The mage with the least experience had been assigned guard duty, while the other 2 were relaxing in the buildings. That also explained why the fool had turned himself into a missile instead of hurling a spell at me, he was likely too new to know anything other than lethal anti-monster spells and weak prank spells.

    It was one of the blessings of the SRM Guild¡¯s structure, the newer members actually believed the propaganda and thought that they would likely never fight against other people, just monsters.

    To compensate, the other mages were likely much more experienced with battle and if that was indeed the case, I did not want to chance that those spells were specifically tracking my face or other parts of my body that were not encased in iron.

    I used G¨ªa to speed up my perception of time and I saw the mage who had been firing spells previously was now using his own G¨ªa to propel him in my direction very quickly. Also, the mage who had been in a building up until now finally stepped out, not fully dressed, but looking fully awake and prepared to roast whatever was attacking them.

    I concentrated on my landing, using some of my iron spikes by swinging them around below me and touching them to the sides of the barricade as I came down within a hair¡¯s length of the iron tips.

    At that point I immediately rerouted my G¨ªa and used it to gain some distance from the barricade. A few moments later I paused about 30 meters away only to check what the mages were doing.

    The two who I thought were more veteran had stopped short of jumping their own barricade, obviously figuring out that I was waiting for just such an opportunity to throw some spells back at them. The half-dressed one was looking over the fool while the other was staring at me with rage filled eyes. Apparently any monsters they faced here were the type to ignore arrows, because not one guard was preparing to fire at me.

    I snorted and gave him a little nod of acknowledgement ¨C more for his attempt than his skill ¨C before I turned and started jogging deeper into the dungeon, purposefully conserving my G¨ªa for the dungeon itself.

    I heard a commotion start up behind me and tried to listen in for the brief period I was still in earshot and picked up on a rage filled voice¡¯s orders. ¡°-take Mark¡¯s squad and go after him while I send for someone from the Guild-¡± I sped up at that point, turning my well-paced jog into a slightly G¨ªa enhanced run, which focused on putting distance between me and my new would-be pursuers.

    I reached the entrance to the tenth floor and descended the long slope further into the dungeon while calculating how long it might take for the Guild to send reinforcements.

    It had likely been a day and a half since I had entered the dungeon, but that had been with my delays to dissect the various creatures. If they had no methods of instant communication ¨C something that I was not prepared to discount ¨C it would likely take a day to get up to the Guild and then another 2 days to coordinate and send down a team that they would think ¡®appropriate¡¯ or ¡®sufficient¡¯ to deal with me.

    Of course it was possible that the time could be greatly shortened if the original guards had defied my expectations and spoke up about my actions. Though I would have expected an adventurer¡¯s party to have caught up with me by now if that was the case. Though even if they were lazy enough to decide to try and wait for me to make my way back outside, the act of pushing past the second guard point would likely force them to come in after me.

    If they realized I was here to infringe upon their monopoly, then I might even have a fun fight awaiting me on the surface in addition to whatever forces they sent down.

    Bella raised an objection at my eagerness to fight, but I temporarily silenced her with a simple blast of resolution. If there was any type of magical device that the SRMs could use to track me, teleport near me, communicate instantaneously with others nearby, or even just make my nose itch, I would find it, study it, and make sure that it was a minimal threat to me in the future.

    Given the rate that magical devices like my recorder or the instant portrait were being created, I had no faith that one of, if not the most, widespread organizations ever created did not have some sort of secret weapon or device to use against me. Many SRMs were na?ve and self-righteous, but even I hesitated before labeling them as stupid¡­

    Not to mention that the Nalks seem to dislike me almost as much as I dislike the SRMs and I would not be surprised if a few of their players were highly ranked within the Guild.

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.Unlike kingdoms or other large merchant groups, the ¡°Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡± worked across multiple kingdoms with minimal interference or public objection, so if I needed to fight them, I would and could not hold back if I wanted to survive the encounter¡­ If that meant pounding a few iron spikes into those stone pillars outside and changing my appearance after the resulting magical explosion, then so be it.

    Why are you always so bloodthirsty when it comes to adventurers!?

    I am antagonistic at worst Bella, not bloodthirsty, and I am only like that because know their true faces. I have meet bandits, murderers, and thieves that I would trust more. Do you really think that they wanted to prevent us from coming down here for our own safety? Maybe a few people would think that about us specifically when they saw a small child, but those bases and rules were not put in place to keep others safe.

    You mean the fact that it was not on the first floor?

    Partly. Each of these floors is big enough that the sheer size alone would discourage children for the first few floor, but you do not need a half dozen guards to keep even a determined child out, you do that to keep the odd fool who thinks he is tuff from trying to earn money in your territory. If they force their way past the half dozen expendables, the Guild will have an excuse to hunt them down.

    Even if that is true, you always go way too far with them! I can still see your mind DeMorte and the blood and the fire, the plagues and the panic, that you are willing to use for such inconveniences is horrible.

    Inconveniences? Bella you know who I am and you hardly seem surprised, despite calling it horrible, besides I was not about to join the Adventurer¡¯s Guild or fight a duel just prove to them that I can handle myself. Blood, iron, and panic is never my first resort Bella, nor has it ever been, I am just very good at it. If I thought I could have convinced the man from the Guild with any type of bribe other than a favor, I would have.

    You only have bad points to make today DeMorte. I honestly do not know what is more frightening: that you have subdivided those plans into hundreds of different possibilities, just while you were walking around with nothing else to do, or that I am actually used to this type of thing by now.

    In the end it does not matter. I chose this path when the reasonable path was blocked to me and I was unable to remove that blockage peacefully. It is nothing more than action and reaction, Bella and nothing should bother you about that.

    I could feel her disagreement, but only for a brief moment. She was obviously not dealing with the fact that I was going this far ¡®just to become a male again¡¯ very well.

    I reached the 10th floor proper and almost stopped in shock. The room in front of me was split into a dozen different offshoots that headed off in almost every direction, including one that seemed to lead back under the sloping path that I had come from. If those guards were really going to try and chase me over rock, then most of these rooms were likely dead ends, meaning that they would likely be setting up a base here and wait for me to come back out of the wrong path.

    ¡°Stone it all.¡± I said quietly, looking around to see if I could find something to help me chose a path.

    Each path had a different statue carved out of the rock above it, there was a rat, a pig, a rabbit, and some others. I thought about it and decided that, if there was any meaning to this, it would lie in the creatures that I had found on the previous floors, or on what the personalities of each animal stood for.

    That meant that I would either have to guess or logic it all out as fast as possible. If I had spent more time searching through each floor or if I had continuous access to the dungeon like the SRMs did than this would be much less of a challenge, but as it was¡­ I had to either guess blindly or hope that each creature had meaning.

    As it was, I felt far more comfortable with the idea the idea that the clue lay in the dungeon¡¯s design. It seemed to be designed to either test someone or to allow continuous access to a limited number of monsters, like some sort of nature preservation area. If I thought of it like the former than these symbols could mean that I was supposed to choose the most challenging creature and take that path. If it was most like the latter, then I might be expected to¡­

    ¡®One guard only tells the truth, one guard only tells lies, and one guard stabs people who ask tricky questions.¡¯ I thought to myself, remembering an old joke.

    It might all just be a trap too, with all paths leading to the same destination and the statues themselves meaning nothing.

    I sighed and fell back on the old adage, ¡®travel by your spirit,¡¯ and chose to walk down the snake path.

    Wait, what is that spell? The one you thought of when you thought of the snake?

    Not mad at me anymore Bella? Well, it is an old, old, game where you use a simple spell that is meant to create an illusion of your spirit, a representation of who you are. Teenager mages who use the spell frequently do so in hope that they have some impressive spirit that they can show off. I learned to spell late in my life and ended up using it for base of my banner ¨C a 3 headed serpent.

    I am still mad at you, but there is no point in not talking to you when we live together. Anyway, I thought your banner had some winged snake on it.

    I modified my banner based on those ancient stories of the flying super-snakes. The ones who were said to be so in tune with the world¡¯s mana that they were immune to magic despite being able to use it themselves. Although my spirit is technically not a snake, it seemed appropriate.

    Wait, so what is your spirit creature then and what is mine?

    Mine is technically a king hydra, although no one likes to think about it like that as those things were legendary magical creatures that died out long ago¡­ Yours is likely a giant, fluffy rabbit named Wade.

    We would have kept talking, but the path behind us collapsed, sealing us into the snake path and putting me on high alert. I did not know if the SRMs behind us collapsed it, or it I somehow triggered a trap, but either way I would have to keep going forward for now and worry about it on my way back.

    Although that raised the question: was there a different way out of the dungeon? I assumed that the previous base might serve as a source of extra man-power as well as a resupply, but I might have been wrong.

    As I kept walking, looking around for any traps, but all I found was a long winding path that led me to a large open room¡­ with a giant snake.

    It was around 30 meters long, with a body a few meters thick, and earth colored scales with no easily discernable pattern. Its head was noticeable different to most snakes I knew, as it was wider. The monstrous creature was sleeping in front of a hole in the wall when I walked in, but it quickly woke up thanks to a tangible change in the mana.

    This is a test after all, I thought, each symbol likely had something that looked like the statue on the other side. Stones, it seems like the dungeon even woke it up for me¡­ how annoying.

    I dropped my set of iron spikes and shed some of my equipment while firing a basic death spell at the giant snake. The thing did not even flinch as the spell broke over it and instead simply started slithering forward, smelling with its tongue.

    After all the interesting things I dissected upstairs the dungeon only gave me a giant snake! I walked towards it while I pulled some of the bone that I had stored up in my bone armor into my hand.

    The room was over 100 meters long and around 80 meters wide and the snake was in no hurry to reach me, so I had time to leisurely reshape the bone into a sword.

    About that point though I realized that I might need all of my storage, so I poured my mana into the Not a normal sword of course, but an oversized, graveborn creating, sword that normally be impractical to the point of being laughed at. In fact it was so large that I had to stop and lower the sword point to the ground while I got used to its weight.

    I also made it sharp and dense as I could, making the middle a little wider than the rest of the blade, before carving runes of durability, sharpness, and momentum into the side. The hilt was uncomfortable, but I was not going to need this ridiculous thing for long.

    The snake was about 30 meters away at this point and it reared up before its head expanded, reminding me of a collapsible fan. It pulled its head back slightly and I tapped my G¨ªa reserves.

    To my slight entertainment the giant snake spat at me. I had no doubt that it was poisonous, otherwise it would be pointless attack, so I avoided it by rushing forward. There was no need to fear something like this, even the self-righteous mages were more dangerous.

    The giant snake did not have time to spit again before I was too close, so it lunged at me. I used more of my G¨ªa to watch the creature¡¯s movements in slow motion, but it did not try to eat me, instead ramming its head into the ground as I stepped out of the way.

    At least I will be able to harvest some of its poison, I thought grimly, before stabbing the sword into the monster through its fan-like neck. The blade stabbed fairly deep, but that was not enough vital damage to guarantee death, so as the monster reacted to my attack in slow motion, I channeled my mana through the bone sword and pumped 3 different death spells into it.

    Bone channeled mana too well for me to use bone weapons all the time, but for something like this, it was one of the best weapons I could ask for.

    How mediocre, I thought grimly, as the oversized corpse collapsed from its brainstem being destroyed, its heart giving out, and its internal organs deciding to stop functioning. Quickly checking the poison, I confirmed that it was nothing overly special and reformed my bone armor without collecting any as a sample.

    I quickly gathered my things, absorbed some of the snake with mana roots and moved on, hoping that the SRMs had not gotten past me already. I had not taken long to deal with the annoyance, but if each of the statues really did represent something like the snake, then they might have chosen the easiest path or simply had a way to bypass the fight altogether, I simply did not know.

    Moving to the exit at a reasonable pace, I only kept myself from running by the impulse to look around for traps. It would be rather anticlimactic if I activated a trap right after beating a giant snake and died¡­ although it would be interesting to see Leo¡¯s face if that happened¡­ not worth it at all, but interesting nonetheless.

    To my surprise, the exit was another long tunnel that led to another sloping decent to the next floor.

    ¡°That is it?¡± I asked aloud, it simply made no sense to me, one boring fight was all that I gained from the 10th floor?

    *Ding*

    I heard some sort of chime-like sound and felt the mana around me pulse gently, seeming to squeeze me briefly. Dropping to one knee, I looked around for traps or ambushes, but there was nothing.

    After a few moments had past and nothing else occurred, I swallowed apprehensively and slowly moved around the room, testing for any conceivable traps while my mind raced to try and figure out what just happened¡­ The closest thing I could think of was the giant heart in Leo¡¯s personal area, but if that was some periodic method off telling time, then why did the SRMs never talk about it outside of the dungeon?

    ¡­It did not matter in the end, the world was full of mysteries, and it was time to move.

    I descended into the 11th floor and moved through it easily enough, pausing only to dissect and absorb a large spider-like monster, one of a handful that I killed on the floor.

    Eventually though, as I neared the end of the floor, I realized that I had my epinephrine rush for the day and had long since started to tier. Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to get a full night¡¯s sleep in such a dangerous place and I still had no idea how far behind or ahead my pursuers were¡­ although they would likely have ambushed me by now if they had gotten ahead.

    Unfortunately, my normal solution of simply erecting wards and carving a few runes would not work as well in this place. If I tried to simply erect some wards like I would when camping, the dungeon¡¯s odd mana would affect the wards fairly quickly, eroding them away until they were useless. Even if I put the wards into an anchor of some sort they would likely last a very brief time ¨C less than a day. I knew this from both previous experiment (in both of my lives) and the lack of wards in either of the SRM bases.

    I could carve some runes around me to try and ward off monsters, but Gorith¡¯s shroud tended to interfere with the passive mana absorbing abilities of the runes, so it stood to reason that a similar effect would be at work here. Plus, fear runes, even if they worked, would draw others like a beacon.

    Most SRMs recognized how hard going into the dungeon solo was and went in groups, especially because of the lack of protection granted by the wards. Still, I could hardly count on anyone else to simply show up and offer me a place by their fire, so what was I supposed to do?

    Basically, I ended up finding a small section of the dungeon that had no monsters and I took out my iron spikes ¨C which I still had not stoning used ¨C and started to place them around where I planned to rest, which I marked by putting my remaining supplies down.

    Of course, the iron spikes did not naturally balance on their ends and the rock of the dungeon floor would likely create a lot of echoing noise if I forced the spike, so I held them up one at a time, in a circle around the spot where I placed some of my supplies. While I did this I made part of my bone armor fluid-like and wrapped it around the iron spike in my hand. Then I added another bit of my armor to the bottom of the spike.

    For the area by my hand, I simply attached it to the iron as securely as possible, but the bottom part was more directly functional. I added small extensions that radiated out and down from the spike to form stabilizers. These would keep the spike upright without making me try to dig it into the hard floor.

    I did this with all of my spikes, creating a protective circle around me, before I started to create my wards.

    Since the iron would naturally filter instructions from the wards, effectively destroying them, I anchored the wards into the upper bone disks that I had wrapped around each one instead. Doing so let my keep my wards anchored to something mana conductive and provided me with a circle of ready to use weapons in the event that someone or something attacked me.

    After making sure that the wards would last at least a reasonable amount of time and were structured to immediately wake me up if they started failing I sat down and prepared to use my most powerful sleep compression spell on myself.

    I would not get much rest, but I would get enough REM sleep to be able to continue into the dungeon in less than 1/5 the time I would sleep naturally.

    Sleep was, like so many other things, was necessary for my mental health, but I was happy to have it in the smallest doses possible and if I had time in the future, I would reduce even that.

    ¡°Fun place, is it not Bella?¡± I asked aloud, knowing that by now she was likely trying to think up ways to dodge confrontation and would not answer me ¨C although how she could still be so na?ve was beyond me.

    I sighed and closed my eyes to sleep.

    *     *     *

    ¡°Rebel¡± city of Spina

    Approximately 2 weeks ago

    Istar was conflicted. One part of him could not believe what was happening and the other part of him had known that it was going to happen.

    The king had called together the army and sent it into Spina as a show of force, but that had not calmed the locals down in the slightest. Instead it had gotten worse, with the guard being driven out of even some of the nicer areas. Now, things had escalated to the point where

    Istar and Elysium had come here looking for some mercenary work, but they had not found it with the army like they originally thought they might. Instead, the nobles were nervous and were hiring guards left and right to protect themselves.

    It was a very concerning move for Istar as almost every noble was a mage who could boil hundreds of regular people, or the lesser-souled as they seem to call us, with a wave of their hand. It would be even worse if a rebelling mob tried to force their way onto a noble¡¯s personal grounds, where powerful wards would effortlessly destroy them.

    In fact, there were times in the past where nobles had been able to run wild and decimate populations to the point where the kingdoms in question were destroyed. The nobles did not like the Histones talking about it, but all nobles were trained to control themselves and not kill the lesser-souled without purpose.

    Not that it really matters, Istar thought grimly, unless a noble got really out of line or they were on the bad side of the king, only the church was strong enough to judge them¡­ Which rather well summed up the current situation

    After some churchman ¨C apparently only popular with the public ¨C was arrested, the poor of the city had objected strongly, to the point of attacking the city guard whenever they tried to enter the slums. After a public lynching by the guards, under the protection of a mage, the crowd started throwing stones, chamber pots, and whatever else they could get their hands on at the rapidly retreating guard.

    No one knew who, but someone found some iron cooking pot and managed to hit the mage with it, knocking him out. The mob was said to have literally torn those poor unacknowledged guards to pieces. Naturally, the mage who was escorting the guards was from a lesser noble family.

    Then came the complete and utter nonsense that landed Istar his current job:

    While trying to find someone to blame for ¡®exciting the lesser-souled¡¯ someone had the bright idea to accuse the popular local sect of the Tophon church of being the source of the problem. They had tried to separate themselves from the incident, but that only served to heap more criticism on them and they were more or less forced into taking a side.

    The local churchmen were, unlike the masses, quite powerful. They had money, mages, and churches with wards just as powerful as the noble house wards. This meant that, instead of having a few of the lesser-souled trying to poison them, the nobles were now worried about a much more serious threat, the holy forces of Tophon.

    The main Tophon church had its own problems with this sect, who insisted that a time of change and judgment was approaching, and was said to be debating a formal excommunication of the whole sect unless they renounced their ways. However, that would hardly resolve itself soon and left them obligated to object to any movements made towards this sect.

    Now the local population was being bloodily pushed back by the king¡¯s men, after they executed the captured churchman (for some old crime that no one seemed to care about,) and left Istar standing on the city walls with his noble charge, watching the violence spread.

    Someone in the mob had gotten them more or less organized and had blocked off the roads. As the soldiers came and forced their way through the impromptu barricades, more and more barriers were created, followed by a hail of stones whenever they tried to climb over them.

    The original plan, to simply storm the slums and forcibly restore order, had clearly stagnated and now the combat mages had been called out. Thank the gods Elysium got sick, the unacknowledged fool would have wanted to help them.

    Instead of forcing their way through, the combat mages came to the fore and directly blasted the barricades with fireballs. Indirectly, they also started to lob fireballs into the slums, no longer caring about collateral damage.

    The king¡¯s men had gotten serious and no one would like what was coming next.

    The only blessing for Istar that night was that the noble Istar was guarding realized the amount of soot that was about to go into the air and decided to return to his manor ¨C upwind of the growing fire.

    The mages would eventually contain the fire, but the army would not care about what happened to the inhabitants. Istar felt slightly sick as he heard the noble talking about negotiating for property in the slums after it was ¡®cleansed¡¯ of its previous inhabitances.

    Some of the other mercenaries looked grim as well, but they all knew the score well enough: it was always better to be on the winning side, getting paid in coin, regardless of who was paying that coin, than to be on the losing side, getting paid in remembrances by the Histones.

 Chapter 32: Encounter

    Nearly 230 followers 0.0? Does that mean I can finally put up the next bonus poll? Or does everyone just want another bonus chapter? I feel like there has been a distinct lack of comments lately, but that might have something to do with the rapid scene changes? Or perhaps you readers feel that there is not much going on? Idk, this chapter was slower, but the next 2 are basically dialog, blood, the dungeon, and SRMs going nuts, so I do not feel bad about it. Hopefully, I can start closing some holes and start going for some reveals in those 2 chapters.

    Chapter 35 will be different than the others and may or may not be after a cycle long time skip, depending on the story.

    Change/Addition list:

    -DeMorte¡¯s original favorite weapon was the atlatl dart, but I am going to change that to just a simple javelin.

    -The whole scene with DeMorte body packing his mithril disk? That stays only because of the impromptu nature of the whole thing, but right now he simply has the disk in a cloth pouch with a lot of iron filings. This keeps all spells from finding it, though it does look extremely suspicious and as it is so valuable, so he took it down into the dungeon with him.

    -DeMorte¡¯s ¡®monitor¡¯ magical devices worked by using both the natural mana around them to charge and the person who had the ¡®monitor¡¯ device implanted in them ¨C DeMorte also removed them before leaving the Entrials area ¨C these devices used very little magic though, which is why they could more or less recharge on their own, unlike most MDs.

    -the rest areas occasionally get attacked from either side by the dungeon, but never by a boss, which is why they fortify on both sides despite the fact that areas between floors are meant to be rest areas.

    -The last few PoV changes to the city of Spina will be backdated a bit so that they occur as flashbacks, with this chapter¡¯s 3rd person PoV being concurrent with the story.

    Possible future changes:

    -I had a few points were DeMorte was going down a list in his head of possible actions to take and what he thought the consequences of those actions would be, but that might be removed soon. It was meant to show you how he thinks, but I have been looking at it lately and wondering if I should not change it to paragraph form ¨C please post if you have an opinion one way or another.

    Chapter 32: Encounter

    ¡°Wanker!¡±

    I felt a little piece of myself die as I watched the non-epic struggle of a group of adventurers against something that looked like an oversized cat with thin, moveable, fleshy tentacles that the adventurers called ¡®stingers¡¯ coming out of its back. I could not even revel in the new curse as the fight seemed to be completely unworthy of it.

    Why do none of them realize that this is about technique? I wondered, watching them dance around and miss opportunity after opportunity.

    Then I realized what they were waiting for, as the creature snapped at one of them, another stepped in and stabbed the side of its neck with his spear. The blow was not instantly fatal, which was what made me think of the answer, these people were hunting this particular creature for its body and were trying to preserve as much of the body, and their profit by extension, as possible.

    It was good, straightforward, mercenary work, and although I was tempted to remind them of that fact, I kept it to myself. Though the fact that I was stalking them from a fair distance back did help in that regard.

    The group had a mage with them, but between nature of the dungeon and my own skill at hiding my magical power, they had not noticed me. We were currently near the sloping entrance on the 15th floor and I was not going to wait forever, but the passage had yet to branch off into multiple paths, leaving me with this group in the way.

    I could backtrack a little by going back up to the 14th floor, but I had no idea how fast or slow my pursuers would be as they might be checking every possible hiding place, or just be racing through as fast as they could.

    They quickly switched to defense and played for time until their prey was dead, at which point the mage and one other member of the group of 6 stood guard (both looking away from me oddly) while 3 of the others got to work dismembering the corpse. The last one had a few minor injuries and took the time to rest while watching the 3 work quickly to get their materials.

    So I instead decided to wait just long enough for them to come down off of their battle high and start the dissection of the corpse before I calmly walked out.

    I was using a slightly different illusion, this time I was an older, uglier version of myself. Not ugly enough to be easily remembered of course, but enough to make me discomforting to the eyes. I also added around 80 kilos of fat to him, to make sure that once the mage felt my strength, he would assume that I was well prepared for my dive¡­ or at least rich and powerful enough to make their lives miserable if they decided to annoy me.

    Of course, there was one thing that I forgot, I was alone and that was an oddity.

    As a result, when I started walking up to the group, the first question out of their collective mouths concerned the location of the rest of my group. I ignored them and strolled past without a word.

    To my slight surprise, they only yelled a few insults at me and went back to work dissecting the corpse. Though it would make sense that they wanted to concentrate on the money¡­ Well, their reaction did not matter to me, as long as they were not going to make unnecessary drama.

    After I turned a corner and walked through a room with 3 of those same cat-like-things I decided to conserve my mana and cancelled my illusion spell. The 3 creatures had only taken a few stabs to kill with a quickly formed bone spear, but keeping up an illusion spell without anyone around was just a waste of mana.

    Of course, I kept my senses on the lookout for anyone else in the dungeon, but I was clear for now.

    I shifted the weight of my iron spikes and gave a quiet sigh of annoyance. There had still been no magical creatures that actually used magic, much less something that justified using the spikes. The giant snake was the best target I had found so far and even that was simply not work risking the iron for.

    In fact, very few of the creatures here were even worth making a bone javelin for, as a spear was much more effective for killing almost every creature I ran into. With or without G¨ªa, I could still make my way through these floors with minimal danger¡­ although it was at least a little more challenging without G¨ªa to speed me up.

    Naturally, I still stopped just long enough to check the creature¡¯s anatomy and see what its stingers could actually do, before quickly moving on.

    Even so, I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of powerful magical creatures that the SRMs liked to talk about up on the surface. So far, the majority of difficulty for any non-mage would be to find the weak spots in every creature¡¯s armor and to team up with a mage of any level to kill something like the snake.

    Stones, steel blades were sharper than iron and could ¨C to a limited extent ¨C channel mana, so one mage who used their G¨ªa correctly could easily kill everything up to this point by themselves. Non-mages would find it annoying, but if they worked together well enough, the dangers outside of some of the larger creatures would be practically non-existent.

    The cat-like monstrosities were the most dangerous creatures so far and that was mostly because their stingers possessed a fairly powerful numbing agent and their fur was magically resistant.

    In fact, with this large supply of magically resistant creatures, some of which were obviously quite big, why were there not more armor and cloaks made out of the creatures? Surely some of them could be used to make clothing or as an alternative to iron armor?

    I could not answer that question yet of course, but I added it to my list of things to find out at some point in the future.

    I continued into the dungeon and I found myself wondering how much money I could make as an adventurer. It had been laughably easy so far with my G¨ªa and even without it the dungeon did not seem all that dangerous or challenging yet. Of course, I would be more likely to destroy the dungeon than to use it as a working space with those SRMs... In fact¡­

    ¡­

    Wow, I did not know that you could project silence Bella, but relax that would cause too big of an effect on the local population. Assuming I could actually destroy the dungeon that is. This place is ridiculously big after all.

    The populous above had not just built up around the dungeon, it was dependent on the materials and the money that could be brought in from those materials. As it was, this place fueled the trade of the town above to the point where collapsing or destroying this dungeon would likely ruin thousands of livelihoods and drive the residences into already populous cities.

    Even back in my previous world, it had been tough to find people work with the sear number of them that existed. Although not as prevalent here, the masses of people that could be supported through the magic-enhanced farms was very well known. Even with the massive boost from the magical tool¡¯s portion of the market (something that was lacking here), there had been thousands upon thousands of people who became bandits or joined violent gangs every year in the hope that they could just survive.

    In fact, it was arguably worse here. Although things like the newer farming methods and implements were helping people move past subsistence farming, there simply was not enough jobs, much less coin, to go around. The slums outside of the capital were apparently extremely mild in comparison to some of the cities further west, with even small clippings of copper coins being nearly untradeable to the lowest members of the slums.

    I was not sure if it was true, but it was said that there were once 12 cities in the central continent that used to be dedicated to each of the 12 gods and that they had grown together into the ¡®holy city¡¯ that seemed to be the center of all religious affairs in the world. The level of poverty in that particular city was something that even the Histones could not comment on and they had lost many people just trying to research it.

    Though, as always, that was more for non-magic users than mages. Almost anyone born with some level of magical talent beyond a single circle was going to have a better life than most of the non-nobility. It would not be a life of pure luxury, but it would afford the mage in question an opportunity to become part of a unique class that was viewed as being above those outside of it.

    Single circle ¡®sensitives¡¯ were the only exception in my old world as trying to train them was just too time consuming to be practical.

    The ¡®burnout¡¯ epidemic of this world lowered the number of mages and increased the costs of recharging of magical devices and decreasing the number of devices created. There were a fair amount of jobs that could be opened up with the simple expansion of the number of mages if that one problem could be solved.

    Of course, it would only be on the most basic level, but the average person had much more contact with mages on my previous world than this one and they were seen as much more human. If I were to guess, I would say that a quarter of all mages were below 3 circles and their absence in this world clearly had its effects.

    Curing the cause of burnout could certainly make me famous, or infamous, depending on how the nobility received it, but who knew what the cause was? In fact, if the nobles felt that an increase in mages would dilute their power, then they could and would ignore the problem, as they may have been doing all along.

    Though I could not imagine the precise reaction to finding out that so many burnouts were actually supposed to be the weakest of mages, it would likely be¡­ apathetic. I would imagine that the reactions to that apathy though, would be worse if the burnouts discovered that the nobles had refused to help heal them or prevent their children from suffering the same fate.

    There had never been a successful popular uprising against a king by the masses. The nobles and their incredible levels of magical power were just too much of an obstacle to overcome. If a non-mage had control over powerful wards, it might be slightly different, but wards were anchored to a specific place or object.

    Of course, none of that was even a concern until someone both discovered the source and managed to get people to believe them, but it was still the powers that be who decided what would happen

    That was one of the few joys of being in this new world for me, so many things to explore and learn. Unlike my previous life, I might be able to get close to someone with a good library¡­ In fact, that could be my goal after I became male again¡­ maybe after some sex experiments.

    How about exploring what it is like to be a woman? Really now DeMorte, why are you even trying so hard to become male again?

    You likely would not even be able to convince me to masturbate in this body Bella, yet you want me to think about staying in one? I have lain with men before in my previous life and I prefer to be a man with one or more women than try that again as a female. Stones, even if I discounted the sex, I still would rather not stay a woman permanently, there are just too many disadvantages in society.

    I never objected to us spending time with Janeen, I would prefer you to keep an open mind, but I never said that I had zero interest in that area. Besides you are pretending to be a male now, through both physical changes and illusion spells.

    Janeen was, and hopefully still is, a good woman, but even you must have noticed her lack of interest in us, not just as a child, but women, in general, did not appeal to her. I would still prefer to be a male instead of fighting societal norms and foolish ideals of what women should be¡­ besides there are specifically designed spells to view what a person used to look like ¨C they just do not get used often.

    The internal debate continued until I had to step out of the way of a fireball.

    The first magic wielding creature I encountered was an oversized toad ¨C about 2 meters in any given direction ¨C that could belch fireballs¡­ It was barely 15 meters away, so I slowly walked towards it, firing off an extremely weak death spell to test its defenses. The pathetic thing had trouble blocking even that spell with its magical armor.

    I shrugged and took out an iron dagger and I dodged another fireball. This thing should have focused on dodging if its armor was that weak, but I did not bother trying to break down its mana armor. Instead, I threw my dagger into the thing¡¯s mouth as hard as I could without using G¨ªa, right as it started to belch another fireball.

    It died easily enough, but I had to put another dagger through the creature¡¯s eye to end it quickly.

    Floor 10 saw a large monster try to test me and now I find my first magic-using creature on the 15th floor, then what would be waiting for me on the 20th?

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    I met 3 more adventurer groups on my descent into the dungeon, but it was only when I reached the entrance to the 19th floor that I found one that I could not avoid. The design of the dungeon had turned the sloped descents between floors into rest havens and natural choke-points.

    While I was wondering if I should just walk past them, I hear a familiar voice who I really did not need to meet again, especially here¡­ although she did owe me that favor.

    There were 3 people standing near the back of a group, arguing about the safety of the group going forward. By the sounds of it, they had expected more out of the group, or something along those lines, with the Healer woman who owed me arguing that they should go back.

    ¡°-not ready for this. We should send them all back now.¡± That was the Healer¡¯s voice, although I couldn¡¯t remember if I had heard her name. Her magical power was still odd to me.

    ¡°We are one floor away from the rest area, Nina. Why should we have to stop just because they are not up to the usual level? They hired us to take them down there, but there is always danger in the dungeon, that is something that they have to learn to take into account of for themselves.¡± The person who responded had magic, but he was not the same adventurer as the person from before, the Healer was likely hired our through her church to travel with various groups.

    ¡°I am not so sure we can handle one more floor of ¡®training¡¯ them, Leroy.¡± The third member of the group, a fidgeting non-mage, spoke up, ¡°If we double back right now the dungeon will limit the number of monsters it sends at us and it will get easier as we go up, but-¡±

    ¡°¡¯But¡¯ nothing, we have a job to do and we know it well enough without you reminding us how the dungeon works. Besides we are lower on food supplies than I would like, we will be far better off rushing through this last floor and then resting. Besides, that was what the request was for, remember? To take them to the village.¡± Leroy responded, rather rudely cutting off a new piece of information, no one told me that the dungeon lets you retreat so easily. Was there someone controlling it after all? Or did the dungeon just have some sort of ¡®instinct¡¯ that was just trying to keep people out?

    Not that the idea that the dungeon was sentient made any sense to me, how could that possibly come about?

    ¡°They are too young and I have already had to heal them too many times, unless you forgot why are low on food in the first place?¡± Nina countered. ¡°I cannot keep healing them and you know what comes out on this floor.¡±

    ¡°For the love of- fine, we can compromise and take the lead for this last floor. With us at the front of the group, going directly through the floor, there should not be any problems. Okay?¡± He looked tired, or at least his body language said he was, it was fairly hard to stay out of sight.

    There was a general agreement and the trio returned to their group, which was about 9 other people and started to get them moving. It left me with the interesting task of following them quietly while I decided what to do.

    I was rather well caught by the situation, if they really did go the shortest route ¨C I assume by following the mana-flow ¨C then I would be stuck behind them until they finally reached the next floor. Of course, I could try and get around them, but that might lead to me getting lost and having to backtrack later.

    Forcing my way past them was possible, but then I would both lose the chance for more information and have a possibly confused and angry group behind me. I still had my would-be pursuers, who I had started to think of as a possible deception, to worry about too, despite their lack of presence.

    To made it even more annoying, the Healer might recognize my mana or killing intent. It would be extremely difficult to dissuade her as her mage sight would be able to see any spells and likely identify them because of our previous meeting.

    Or you could just ask to join the group? I know that you do not want to trust people DeMorte, but do you really think that the trouble their having would seem as significant if they had another mage along with them?

    The first thing they would do would be to ask to see my identification and my face, once they realized that I was using an illusion spell, which would be annoying. Plus I cannot trust them.

    You have to trust people DeMorte, or do you plan on testing your food for poison for the rest of your life?

    Absolutely, the one time I did not check, I died from my lack of caution. Although I almost want to applauded my dear for going so far as to fake her own death and conspiring with one of my sons to kill me.

    What?

    The only thing I consumed without testing it for poison was a private stash of alcohol for special purposes ¨C like mourning the death of my wife. Even if we were not on speaking terms by that point.

    ¡­you are more eager to believe that your own wife betrayed you than she was killed?

    I am surprised that you have to ask, of course I am. If she willingly betrayed me, again, then she might still be happy and alive somewhere. Besides everyone betrays you, which is why you need to get as much as possible out of them¡­ while you can¡­ oh, I see what you did Bella, fine, I might as well call in my favor with the Healer now and pump her for as much information as possible.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Bella fell silent while I created some distance between me and the group. Concentrating my mana into my ears I reshaped them into their old pointed shape, which seemed to make my ears pop for some reason. Despite there being no obvious biological advantage to have my ears shaped like this, the Nalks had obviously done something to affect my hearing when my ears were like this.

    I could feel only the smallest trace of that odd Nalk energy or mana or whatever it was affecting me, but I could not grasp, much less control it.

    Whatever the case, I concentrated on making sure that my ears were as ¡®elfish¡¯ as possible. When the adventurers asked me to remove my illusion spell, it would be an easy distraction and explanation, especially when combined with my current height. I then added a piece of manipulated bone as a fake tooth to replace the one I had lost at the capital and grew my hair out a little.

    I also changed my facial structure to look more feminine, as it had been back when I first met the Healer. There were 2 reasons for this, first was that I had already asked around at the capital and found that, as far as groups like the Histones knew, the only way to change someone¡¯s physical bone structure was to break their bones and let them heal in a different spot. There were healing potions and the like that could speed up the recovery, but no one would see my current face and connect DeMorte to Set.

    I then changed my illusion spell slightly to that of a large, slightly scared, woman. I wanted to avoid female illusions while descending this far because they would receive more interference and I would likely run into even more people who wanted to ¡®protect¡¯ me. The fact that I had avoided as many people as I could not withstanding, people seemed more likely to enjoy the company of a woman than a man and I would rather not run into the situation¡­ under normal circumstances.

    The odds that they would eventually figure out that I was the figure who broke in was much higher this way, but DeMorte was still a relatively unknown little girl to the SRMs. Set on the other hand, was a slightly more known figure, with a slight history in the capital. Between the two, I would rather be discovered as DeMorte than Set as I still had to return to the capital after I finished my little quest.

    With over a cycle before I rebuilt my body completely, even if the SRMs found out who DeMorte was and started trying to keep track of me, I could simply change my body to avoid them.

    If they were somehow able to not only find a link between Set and DeMorte, but went even farther to out about Nathan and his family¡­ then they should be at least smart enough not to test my familial relations too much. I might not like all of them, but I could appreciate the fact that they were family. If I heard that Mother or Carlatus were hurt¡­ Then I would just burn them all.

    It would not be the first time.

    Concentrating on the present though, I followed the mana flow and quickly caught up with the group. Sure enough, they were following the flow of mana and despite having gone through 2 different diverging paths and being just beyond a third, it was easy to catch up to them.

    They were currently fighting some type of giant magical turtle¡­ or at least that was what I thought it was, it was hard to know given my lack of exposure to most aquatic wildlife. The shell seemed to be acting like a giant shield, protecting from both physical and magic-based attacks, while the turtle itself would stick out its head to fire off a verity of spells. Of course, it seemed to have a layer of mana armor around the various holes that it poked its head out of, leaving the timing to counter attack surprisingly short.

    Right now the adventurers were taking turns dodging the spells while whoever was not being targeted lunged for the head as it popped out.

    I was not sure if they were moving at a fast pace, but I did notice that I encountered no magical creatures or monsters while I was catching up to them. They might be having a problem changing their attack habits though as if this was their best speed with this many mages¡­ even if they were supposed to train the¡­ oh.

    I realized that I had made an erroneous assumption: When I heard the Healer and her companions talking, I had assumed that they were taking junior mercenaries into the dungeon on a training run, but 8 of the 9 people who were observing the fight were mages. Even if one of the mages was the Healer herself, I was surprised to see so many in one place.

    Suddenly I started wondering if I should not simply stalk them instead and wait until they had entered the resupply area they talked about, the ¡®village¡¯ or whatever, before forcing my way past them. Although the fact that they were talking about a ¡®village¡¯ suggested that there might be a larger than normal population at this rest area and it would be nice to blend in.

    Still, having this many novice mages around was never a good thing as they were¡­ arrogant was a good word to start with, unless they had actually been broken in enough to know their place. Too many of novices thought that they should be treated better than those who could power fewer mana circles than them, even if such a person was a teacher.

    Since magical power was hereditary it could lead to dangerous situations if, for example, a powerful male student found his slightly less magically powerful female teacher attractive. It was not¡­ unheard of for such students to regret their actions only after they made a suggestion that the female should be ¡®happy to carry their child.¡¯ Permanent damage was not always avoided either.

    They were standing back to observe the fight quietly enough though, so they might not be too much of a problem, still, amateurs were dangerous.

    As I was revaluating my possibilities though something that looked like a 2 headed mountain goat crossed with a cow walked into view down the other path. The thing had the body of a cow and a goat head on both its neck and one on its back, making it quite the sight. Since I was trying to keep back from the group of mages, I was in its line of sight.

    The goat-cow started what became a slow charge in my direction and I just took a few steps back before setting down my pack and pulling out an iron spike. If this thing was going to use mana like some of the other creatures around here, then it might actually be worth using the spike.

    It charged faster and, sure enough, it started to use magic, wrapping the wind around it somehow and moving even faster while forming mana armor over its head. I was excited for a moment before realizing that this thing might not be worth risking my spike, as a bone spike or sword could do through its magic and keep me safe as long as I kept my distance. The iron spikes would be best for things that relied on more powerful armor and magical defenses.

    I sighed and stood at an angle to the charging hybrid and twisting my whole body, leveraging my muscles as best I could, while using only the slightest amount of G¨ªa to throw the spike exactly where I wanted it. The winds that the charging creature produced were not enough to knock the heavy spike aside and the creature could not turn in time at the speed it was going by this point.

    The spike penetrated deep into the creature¡¯s chest and it almost instantly died, with only momentum propelling it forward as it collapsed.

    I sighed to myself and went to retrieve my spike. Perhaps I should go with the group, if just to figure out why there would ever have trouble with this darn place. If Osiris, Cook, and a few others from my old life were here we could likely conquer the whole thing without any trouble beyond carrying out the spoils.

    Since the spike was rather well embedded I used my mana roots spell to both absorb some of the creature as well as free up my weapon. When I could retrieve my spike with relative ease I noted some damage as a result of crashing through the creature¡¯s body. As I took a moment to clean it, I realized that the damage was worse than I expected, but not unusable, likely more the result of fast work while creating the spike than my use of it.

    I turned around to find a pair of young mages staring at me. I ignored and walked past them while trying to think up what I was supposed to say. Fortunately or unfortunately, Healer Nina showed up and more or less ended up settling the issue for me. ¡°What are you two- wait, who are you and why are you alone? It is dangerous in here!¡±

    I suddenly felt the desire to give her a good knock upside the head, this woman was not the brightest candle in the chandelier. I made sure that my voice was the same as it had been when we first met and put up a simple ward so that only she would hear what I said before responding casually. ¡°Why would this place be dangerous? The creatures are easy enough to kill and I am happy enough to be alone if it means I do not have to look after a group of SRMs.¡±

    To my surprise, it only took her a moment to connect the dots and I reassessed my opinion of her intelligence as she spoke. ¡°A privacy- wait self-righteous¡­ DeMorte is that you? Illusion magic? What under the light of the gods are you doing down here you- what are you doing down here?¡± I smirked, wondering what curse she had barely cut off. Although not the smartest person, she was not the most foolish either¡­ maybe she just thought differently or something. ¡°I will not let you hurt these young ones, do you understand?¡± Or maybe she really was incompetent.

    I disliked unknowns for the possible damage they could cause, but I had very few choices at the moment. Did I go on without her or use my favor like I planned? ¡°Yes, it is me, but I will remind you that I only teach lessons to those who need them.¡± I changed my voice back to something that suited my current form better and let the ward dissolve. ¡°Although if you are teaching them to act like ¡®adventurers¡¯ then I might need to repeatedly discipline them just on principle.¡±

    ¡°You will not touch these-¡±

    ¡°What is going on back here?¡± One of the mage adventurers, Leroy, had come back after finishing the magic turtle and had brought along the rest of the class.

    Feeling uncomfortable at the sudden increase in people, I decided to give Nina one chance before simply deciding to move on. ¡°You owe me a favor miss Healer and I would have you pay it by answering some questions and preferably escorting me into the village.¡± I turned to look at her in the eyes, a favor could be called in at any time and for any purpose and I was calling in hers.

    She squirmed, realizing that she could limit herself or refuse to comply, but that would lead to problems. Technically a favor was not binding in any way, but declining to return a favor you owed, especially in front of others was typically unwise. She was also in quite the position as, if she accepted, she could reasonably assume that I would help protect her group, despite the fact that such a favor was totally out of balance with the favor she originally granted. ¡°Fine.¡±

    Given how she spat the word out, I wondered if she was someone who thought refusing to return favors somehow weighed on your soul. Some fools were like that though, they felt like favors had a physical or magical weight to be repaid no matter the cost. Fools like that could be given bread one day and be called into your bed the next. Smarter individuals would know to negotiate, preferably in private, before agreeing, but whatever worked was fine by me.

    ¡°DeMorte Tyrentus, nice to meet you all,¡± I announced.

    ¡°Leroy.¡± The SRM mage responded, ¡°However, I am not sure if we can help you, even if Nina owes you a favor, we already have this class to take to the village. May I at least see your adventuring license if we are going to be diving together?¡±

    Diving? Had this place once been filled with water or something? ¡°I am not an adventurer, I hired a group to take me in, but things happened.¡±

    ¡°And exactly what ¡®things¡¯ would you be talking about?¡± He was tense and the group that had been fighting the turtle was now surrounding me. I casually made sure that a sword and my G¨ªa were ready to be called on, while my ears could easily pick up the confused voiced of the novice mages.

    ¡°We had a disagreement about my ability to defend myself. I told them that I wanted them to move faster and started ending the monsters we found before they moved.¡± I made my voice grow darker as I tried to avoid telling any direct lies. ¡°I do not like people telling me that something is ¡®too dangerous¡¯ for me, especially when they are weaker than me.¡±

    Leroy simply looked at me. ¡°That was enough for you to separate from your group? How far behind you are they?¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°They are not in the dungeon anymore to my knowledge, but the last time I spoke to anyone else was on the 9th floor. After that, I just took care of things myself, but I would appreciate the help getting past the village without violence.¡±

    That brought a laugh from all the SRMs, except Nina who just paled, even some of the students chuckled. Leroy controlled himself quickly enough ¡°Do you actually expect us to believe that you made it up here by yourself? More importantly, do you actually think that you could force your way past 100 experienced adventurers?¡±

    Was that all? I was expecting several hundred, but if they were only of the level that would find this place difficult¡­ ¡°I would put the odds at 1-in-4¡±

    ¡°You would risk your life when you think that you would die 3 out of 4 times?¡±

    I smiled coldly. ¡°I have a 1-in-4 chance of dying if all of you here attacked me right now. I have not seen anything dangerous or challenging so far, so I cannot even guess at how strong or weak those people in the village are.¡±

    Leroy looked like he was about to say something rude before he saw Nina¡¯s face. The SRM then paused to look me in the face and seemed to realize that I was serious because he shivered, which was more than fine by me. Regardless of what caused it, his reaction was driven by fear and fear was something that I could use to my advantage.

    ¡°Shall we get going then?¡± I asked politely.

    ¡°Are you at least going to drop that illusion spell?¡±

    I relaxed a bit, keeping a hand on my sword, but making my voice calmer ¡°I find people take me more seriously and are more polite when I have it on, but Nina can tell you herself if she wishes.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± he shifted and the others seemed to relax as well, ¡°you are a combat mage then?¡±

    I gave him a friendly enough smile, ¡°Biomancer.¡±

    *     *     *

    City of Palos: noble manor of house Nova

    The lord of house Lux dined quietly as he waited for his host to get to the reason they were dining together tonight. The food was reasonable in his opinion, roasted duck, rich wine, fresh vegetables and ripe fruit, no doubt from the private house Nova gardens. There had already been a course of fish soup, a roasted chicken, and he expected a beef plate to follow out soon enough.

    It could have been worse though, the city had been in revolt just last week so the lord decided to overlook the lack of an appropriate spread. At least they had not seen fit to serve him the insult of avotatoes as a side. If house Nova had fallen that far, he might as well disassociate himself and his own house from them, revolt or no.

    The lord of house Lux was a Count after all, to be subjected to peasant food was an insult that would not be born unless a war was ongoing and even then it would be frowned upon as a sure sign of desperation on the part of the army commander.

    Finally, the lord of house Nova, Baron Nova, put down his silverware and leaned back. ¡°Count Lux, I do believe that you have close ties to the church of Tophon ¨C may his glorious light shine on us all.¡±

    Count Lux finished his wine and put the goblet on the table before turning towards the Baron. ¡°I do not detect a question in your voice Baron Nova, but surely you did not have me come all this way to ask me to expedite the argument in the central continent?¡± If he had, it would have guaranteed trouble, even if the food had been of a much higher quality.

    ¡°Of course not Count, I know that your time is valuable, especially given your impressive new acquisition.¡±

    The Count smiled and graciously nodded his head at the compliment. He had recently been able to lay claim to the Southern Gate, ironically located in the north of the Kingdom, which allowed him to control all of the trade that came overland from the holy continent. Although not as profitable as his trading ventures on the sea, it was still a very valuable location to be able to claim as occasionally the churches tried to send their Templars into the continent to enforce some holy edict and he controlled one of the only two land passages.

    ¡°No.¡± The Baron continued, ¡°What I would like to ask of you is to simply help ensure that a proper list of malcontents is drawn up. It will be easy for one such as you, with so numerous ties to the church to help sift the grain from the chaff.¡±

    The Count nodded understandingly, but this was unusually forward for the Baron or any other noble for that regard. He took a generous sip of his now full wine glass and tried to come up with an explanation for this meeting in his head.

    As someone who knew the Baron well, it did not take him long to figure it out. ¡°You want to personally lead the purge of these malcontents?¡± The Count asked, his massive second chin quaking as he shook his head, ¡°that is below you Baron, even if they did insult you with such a petty uprising.¡±

    ¡°I will delegate the drudgery of the deed to someone else Count Lux I assure you, I just wanted to ensure that my forces were the ones who were at the front of the line. If the city guard were to get a list of other troublesome individuals to round up during that time I would not pay any attention.¡±

    The Count turned and studied the Baron for a moment, reading between the lines. ¡°You know that the churches prefer to do such in-house cleaning themselves Baron, why not just send a request for a squad of Templars?¡±

    The Baron kept his face very neutral and seemed to choose his words especially carefully. ¡°The Templars are a fine force, but it seems to me that they would be preoccupied in discovering the extent on the rot before actually removing it ¨C something that would involve quite the force if some of the reports are to be believed.¡±

    ¡°How extensive is the rot ¨C according to these reports of yours?¡±

    There was a moment of silence before the Baron spoke. ¡°The reports suggest that the Histones have made plans to retrieve or copy every record in our kingdom as fast as they can manage to do so.¡±

    The Count froze at the information and heard a small gasp from nearby. Suddenly, the manor¡¯s wards activated and a silencing spell was quickly followed by an incineration spell, a cleaning spell, and a fragrance spell in quick succession.

    The Baron grimaced, ¡°It is so hard to find good help these days.¡±

    The Count nodded, glancing down at his new plate, ¡°The beef looks better than I remember, do you have a new cook?¡± His mind was racing as they took a moment to make small talk.

    Eventually, the Count decided to pay back the new information directly. ¡°The King ordered the army to be increased, without much explanation. I thought it had to do with their shameful performance putting down the rabble, but it might be more than that¡­ It looks like my friends within the church might want to prepare for a storm.¡±

    The Baron nodded, ¡°I had hoped that you might warn them as much as me. As for any other names, it is like I said, no one will notice the names if the commoners are going to make that much noise.¡±

    The Count and the Baron continued to talk for quite some time before they came to an agreement. If that much annoyance was actually coming, certain goods would be in short supply and they both agreed to ensure that the city of Palos, which was the closest city to the Southern Gate and not far away from a small port, should take special care to keep its land routes open and safe.

    If a few innocents lost their lives in the deal, no one would care, certainly not them and certainly not the Nalks¡­ who were nowhere nearby at any time during the deal.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Yes we know what the last chapter¡¯s title was, but DeMorte does not =P

    I hope you enjoyed the chapter, see you next week.

 Chapter 33: Personality

    Sorry for the delay, made more than a few cuts and edits to this chapter... including the title... and most everything below it.

    Change/add-on list:

    -Tina is now Nina¡­ it sounds better, but it is also because my hands keep typing N instead of T¡­ Just remember her as the Healer and it should be fine, I apologize for any confusion regarding this.

    IMPORTANT:

    -The more I think about G¨ªa the less I find it appropriate to the story. As a result, I may or may not remove it soon. If I decide to keep it around until the rewrite, that is one thing, but I do not think that it will last beyond that point. It will stay for now though, because the only thing I could do to replace it would be giving DeMorte a berserk spell that would tear apart his muscles, which DeMorte could then heal back to full health.

    Additional notes:

    -When I say something in mana resistant, I mean that it actively blocks the movement of mana. Iron filters spell instruction because it is extremely mana conductive, not because it is mana resistant. If you hit a ball of iron with pure mana it will barely move as the mana passes through it, but if you hit a ball something mana resistant with mana it might roll or be blown away based on weight.

    Chapter 33: Personality

    ¡°Pink-Souled, unacknowledged, ugly, old...¡±

    I did not stop walking as I called back. ¡°I understand what unacknowledged and the rest mean, but what is a ¡®Pink-soul?¡¯ Also,¡± I glanced back at the rude young fool who had been speaking, ¡°given the fact that I am using an illusion spell you really should not comment on my appearance.¡±

    The young mage blushed and tried to give a response, but his stammering was too annoying, so I ignored it instead of interpreting it and humiliating him further.

    You really do have a gift for making friends.

    I am not here to make friends Bella, but I do feel obligated to point out that he actually does need to learn to watch his mouth. Just because he cannot see a spell, does not mean one is not active and running his mouth like that, assuming that someone cannot hear you is extremely dangerous.

    That is your excuse?

    Who said I needed an excuse? You commented and I commented back.

    ¡°You really are rude you know that?¡± Healer Nina addressed me from beside me. We had been walking together near the front of the group so that she could keep an eye on me and I could ask her some questions about the dungeon.

    ¡°Apparently I am also a pink-soul, whatever that is, as well as ugly and old.¡± I retorted. Nina was determined to find fault in almost everything I did or said. So far the only thing that she had not admonished me on was the way I quickly killed anything that came within a certain distance of the group. Although that had not stopped some sarcastic comments about how good at it I was.

    Nina glanced back at the young man and shook her head. ¡°He was not right to say that, but you could have responded better.¡±

    ¡°I also could have castrated him. I chose to admonish him in my way and not yours because I feel no need for such diplomacy. All I did was give him some spellwork advice and now he is complaining instead of adapting to it. Not that it will matter for long, we should be at the village before long.¡±

    Healer Nina stepped closer, the woman had no sense of boundaries, ¡°and how do you know that? You seem to be completely unfamiliar with even the basics of the dungeon, yet you know its layout quite well. Gods, you even tried to eat a dungeon monster.¡± She shook her head.

    It turns out that monsters and creatures inside the dungeon eroded away or something, even if they were in your stomach at the time. I had not had any problems myself, but I had directly absorbed what I needed the monsters I killed instead of harvesting them. I could actually be preventing the dungeon from absorbing it back because of how suppress I was keeping my own mana, but that was just speculation, I would need time by myself to test it out.

    I stepped a little farther away from her. ¡°I am just tracking the mana it is absorbing, it is slowly getting thicker as we get closer to the next floor, where it will change again as we go down to the next floor.¡±

    She stared at me, in fact the SRMs also glanced back at me, but Nina was the only one who spoke, ¡°You can actually sense the increase in mana density as we are traveling through the floor?¡±

    I nodded, some people were sensitive to such things and I had been carefully tracking it since I entered the dungeon so it had become obvious to me. ¡°You could make a few spells to test it yourself if you like, but it is easy enough for me to feel it.¡±

    There was a lull in the conversation as we kept walking around this maze of a floor. Even if we were taking the shortest way out by this point we had still walked several kilometers and for some reason had run into a half-dozen different creatures that attacked us.

    It might have something to do with the alleged gestalt consciousness.

    Possibly, but I still have a hard time believing that the idea that the monsters are able to share their thought though.

    ¡°What would you do when we get to the village?¡± It was Nina again, stepping close enough that I could decapitate her without fully extending my arm. I tried not to let my hands drift to my swords, but her proximity was an aggravation I did not need.

    ¡°Sleep, eat, and rest before I continue to floor 23.¡± I lied easily, having changed my plans one I learned of the special path that was on each boss floor. The ¡®boss floors,¡¯ as the SRMs called them, had a special path that went parallel to the entrance you came in from and served as a fast way back to the 1st floor.

    Regretfully, this meant that I was almost guaranteed a rough exit from the dungeon, but it did mean that I would not have to force my way back through multiple layers of reinforced mercenary positions. The path was also only worked one way and apparently anyone who tried to take one of the paths down instead was never seen again.

    ¡°That is fine, but what will you do if one of the guards decides not to let you in without your adventurer¡¯s identification.¡±

    ¡°If he, assuming it is a male guard, tries to stop me and no one can convince him to let me pass without identification then¡­¡± I let an iron knife fall into my hand and smoothly put it against her throat before she could react. Of course, she gave a small squeak at the touch of the iron and jumped back quickly, drawing everyone attention. ¡°I would put one of my knives inside of him and force my way past.¡± I finished, hiding my knife up my sleeve again.

    I had to hold the knife up high, at an odd angle because of the difference in height between the illusion spell and my real height. Though some of the more observant people had likely guessed how tall I really was. It was annoying, but as far as I knew, Nina had not told anyone about what I really looked like, likely because of the reaction it would provoke. Someone as talented and young looking as I was in my current body, combined with my elf ears, would earn me even more animosity¡­

    Although as long as my identity as Set was safe I felt that it was a justifiable risk to have those ears again. Especially if the guards compromised and promise to let me into the village after I got rid of the spell. Elf ears and an all-to-youthful appearance would not appeal to their superstitious side, but it would let them understand why I might want to keep my appearance hidden.

    ¡°You crazy-¡±

    I whipped around and stared at Nina, daring her to finish that statement, standing still and focusing my attention completely on her. She flinched and shut up, so I did not let my killing intent leek out, despite the fact that I wanted too. This stoning woman had been continuously stepping on almost every pet peeve I had and I only had so much patience, adding that level of an insult was enough to make me wonder if it was worth the effort to even be this friendly.

    Bunnies.

    What?

    Bunnies and flowers and fish and candles and books.

    What are you stoning talking about Bella?

    If I told you to calm down, would it work?

    What are you¡­? Oh fine, fair enough, but we both heard that chime or whatever it was, neither of us are crazy and I do not appreciate any ideas to the contrary. Besides, we might really be in some trouble if what they said was true and the dungeon only does that for certain people.

    Look at the bright side, it is just something else to explore and research while we are in this place.

    The problem Bella, is that I do not think that we can investigate this place by ourselves. We would need at least a few reliable mages behind us and weeks of supplies to thoroughly investigate it.

    Then we should leave and come back with help to thoroughly investigate this place.

    We can¡­ after we get the fungi from the 29th floor, like I agreed to.

    I took a deep breath and let it out, concentrating on the current moment and the scared little leaf in front of me. ¡°I would really appreciate it if you watch your mouth.¡± I stated in the calmest voice I could manage. ¡°You have already demonstrated your low opinion of me that remained from the first time we met. I do not need to hear your insulting opinions simply because I answered a question a question in a way that you did not like.

    Though if you finally learn to give me an arm¡¯s length of space, feel free to insult me some more, I added mentally. I took this opportunity to glance at the mages in training around her. Most of them were scared of me by now, primarily because of my personality, but also for my skills.

    Not that I could blame them too much for that as I was easily killing the things that would give them a lot of trouble and then I yelled at them fairly aggressively for their ridiculously slow spells. What I could blame them for was dragging me down with their borderline incompetence.

    Stones, it took the fastest student here so long to cast a basic stun spell that I could have killed most of that student¡¯s friends with only an iron pipe before they finished the spell, which I would likely dodge before killing them. It was just one more thing to add to the long list of things that got on my nerves in this place and no one had taken it well when I accused their teachers of incompetence.

    Apparently, no one had the sense to tell either them or the SRMs that there were faster and easier ways to accomplish their tasks, so I had caught them completely off guard with my more aggressive fighting style. While the novice mages in this group were being ¡®taught¡¯ by being held in the rear and ordered to look for opening before attacking with their magic.

    ¡°Alright then, we better get moving again, almost there people!¡± I called, turning around and doing just that. The SRMs who were in front of me previously seemed happy enough to let me take the lead, knowing that I could protect them fairly well as long as they did not get in my way.

    When I attacked, I tried to close the distance by habit before using both my G¨ªa enhanced reactions and my various weapons to quickly kill any creature that got in our way. Though I did keep my use of G¨ªa as low as I could, I was more interested in getting to the village than I was in conserving myself. Even   I could use pure spells or brute force to break through any magical defenses instead, but that would have been a waste of calories in my opinion.

    The SRMs, in comparison, stuck with their system of carefully killing the creatures with minimal casualties and in the best way to ensure that they could harvest the corpse afterwards. It was a fairly safe method, but slow and even the mages among them tended not to use magic to kill, but to protect themselves, resulting in a totally defensive mindset.

    I honestly tried not to give them too much grief about that particular topic though as changing their way of fighting on the spot would be much more dangerous than staying with their current method. That said, I did enjoy lecturing them about practicing a more practical system for when they were not harvesting.

    I did not confirm it with them, but I got the idea that they had never gone past this Village place, so this was the first time that these SRMs had descended into the dungeon without collecting at least something from the corpses that they killed.

    The novice mages though were a bit annoying and completely absurd to me. They could cast spells while there was fighting going on, but they were fairly easily distracted unless they ignored the fight altogether. This created a problem when we fought a group of 3 goat-cows and I nearly got hit by a flurry of stun spells after I killed one of the creatures and moved onto another. The novices had not realized that I had already killed one and were trying to ¡®help¡¯ with the other.

    As some of the SRM escorts were mages too I tried to have them talk to the novices, but they seemed more interested in proving that they were better than me.

    It was all¡­ barely comprehensible to me. I had grown up in the wilderness of a completely different type of world, so I could only guess at the explanations. Their school had apparently been a place to raise battlefield mages and they were being trained to those standards. I had seen it in one form or another in my previous life, but that was only while I was an unknown or while I was underestimated.

    Apparently, because most battles in this world were between ¡®civilized people¡¯ they were decided at a distance. Large shields were formed to protect the armies and they hammered away at one another¡¯s shields until they were broken and the side that lost their shields quickly surrendered. Therefore the first thing that all magical students learned was to always cast a spell that worked, as using anything other than a perfectly understood, systematic based, spell could cause a massive failure if you joined with other mages to cast that spell.

    If I had been a bit more diplomatic when I realized that they had been trained for a joining instead of individual action, they might not dislike me so much right now. Instead, I had found it so absurd, that I had laughed in their faces at what I considered the most foolish thing imaginable. I had literally practiced singing, dancing, and sword moves while learning to cast spells in this body, so the idea that anyone would be better prepared to act with others than by themselves was almost insane to me.

    ¡®Joining¡¯ was, all sex jokes aside, something I was unfamiliar, but I knew some basic things from having seen it in action. Basically, in my opinion, it was a giant risk that put half of your most powerful mages in a position where one misstep would effectively remove them from the rest of the fight. The joining would leave the mages with the combined power of every mage who participated, while making them completely connected and dependent on each other, which was a powerful and useful weapon¡­ unless your opponent fought by throwing large pieces of iron ore at one or more of your mages.

    The fact that they were not trusted enough to even be taught how to participate in a joining was another thing to think about. While I could not fault that particular piece of ignorance, as I likely trusted them even less than their teachers did, I did find it strange that they sent anyone through the dungeon like this.

    Maybe this particular group of the students had insulted their teacher once too often, but even then it was a dangerous proposition. The most reasonable explanation that I could come up with was that their teachers had sent these brats in here to emphasize to them that they were not ready for the real world.

    Throwing that theory out to the novices had solidified me as their enemy. However, they did not truly fear me until after someone fired a small prank spell in the middle of a fight with some giant 6 legged bug. I showed them a bit of killing intent in retaliation and now most of them thought that I was going to go crazy soon and was barely holding myself back from tearing them apart¡­

    I had not helped things by educating them on the difference between bloodlust and killing intent, after one young lady ran her mouth a bit too much.

    In the end it came down to the fact that I was not going to be associating myself with them for very long. Even if we met in the future, it was more likely that we would meet as enemies and I preferred for them to fear me. Fear carried a recognition of danger and I would rather leave fear behind me than respect.

    Even before Anton taught me, I knew that memories changed over time and in my case, fear was much more easily perpetuated than respect.

    Out of the whole group there was only one person I had any real hope for and that Alfred was more curious than he was powerful, so I had to give him special advice about watching himself and being careful that his curiosity did not get him into more trouble. I think the advice fell on deaf ears, but I tried anyway.

    As we were more or less walking in silence I finally saw what looked like a freaking stone wall a few hundred meters in front of me. It was not a solid, well created thing, like a city wall was, but it looked fairly thick and had thick iron spikes, not unlike my own, sticking out of it. It was also fairly short, only about a meter and a half high, but that was enough apparently. There was a gate with half a dozen SRMs patrolling in front of it.

    Given how hard the walls of the dungeon were, I could only assume that they actually brought the stone in from the outside of the dungeon. ¡°Finally here,¡± I muttered, now it was up to Nina¡¯s sense of honor and should that fail, my brutality.

    I turned back to tell everyone when I heard a roar from behind us, several actually. Before I could ask the SRMs to identify it they all started shouting at once, with their voices merging into a one general meaning: ¡°Run!¡±

    I let the students get hurried by Nina and the pair of SRMs who lagged behind to motivate the novices along. The others had already sprinted ahead, shouting something at the stone wall.

    I had yet to see anything particularly impressive in the dungeon so I let them all pass and brought up the rear. I also took the opportunity to glace back periodically until the things chasing us came into view.

    There were several very large cats, bigger than an average human was, but not quite as tall, with snake headed tails that swung wildly behind them. The leader of the pack also had something that looked like a crown of fur behind his head. I counted nearly a dozen as I cast a stun spell at the front of the group and was vaguely surprised when it broke over their fur.

    A pack hunting creature that was resistant to mana? Interesting, but hardly a challenge that should be able to scare even slightly experienced mercenaries, much less ones that had mages with them. The problem remained the same after all, it did not matter how mana resistant a creature was, if you burned it with a fireball.

    I drained far more mana than I should have, but I formed a trio of fireballs about a meter in diameter if I lined them all up together and sent them at the rapidly gaining creatures. They dodged easily, except for one, who was hit when one of his pack members jumped out of the way late. Though the fireball did not seem to especially slow the creature as it burst across the hybrid monstrosity¡¯s side.

    Interesting, but annoying, I thought to myself, glancing back at the wall in the distance, the sprinters were halfway there already and the guard were currently in a buzz as they saw what was chasing us.

    I still did not get why they were so dangerous though, since I was trailing the group, I would find out soon enough.

    I dropped my personal equipment started to reshape my bone armor into a pair of thick sword and turned around, stopping to face the oncoming pack without complaint. It was part of our deal and I wanted to keep as many of them safe as possible.

    I crouched down and channeled my G¨ªa as the pack leader closed the distance. To my surprise though, the leader and the rest of the pack tried to run around me.

    It was not hard to stop them, especially with G¨ªa, but it still worried me as I launched into the pack leader¡¯s side and stabbed into his flank. The death spell ran down my sword easily enough and killed the pack leader, but I was already slashing at another creature with my other sword, even as I fought to withdraw my sword from the current leader.

    The second creature went down as I shot another death spell down my sword into its eye as I slashed the creature¡¯s face.

    Then, my illusion was destroyed by something, if took me a moment to figure it out, but the snake tails were spiting some sort of liquid at me.

    It was likely something venomous, which would finally explain why everyone was so worried. Fast, Mana resistant, hunts in packs, and spits venom from its tail, these things were quite dangerous to the unprepared.

    Knowing what to look out for made it easier to dodge the venom attack, so I was not too worried, but I still had to deal with 10 tails, all spiting what I was presuming to be venom. Even being careful as I ripped my first sword out of the former pack leader, I was not sure if I could avoid everything.

    As a result I made a snap decision and dove under one of the creatures that was trying to run around me, cutting into its belly and sending another death spell through my sword while I did so.

    I came back up on the outside of the pack and found a glob of liquid flying at at my face, as I dodged, 3 of the creatures started to stop relatively slowly. I launched myself at them as fast as I could, but their tails were spiting whenever they swung in my direction, so I had to dodge slightly off to the side before I could move forward.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    The 6 creatures that ignored me charged at the student who were lagging behind. I had barely slowed them down, which annoyed me a fair bit.

    I pushed myself off the hard dungeon floor and reformed one of my swords into a shield, while I slammed into the closest creature and killed it with another death spell. Instead of launching at the others though, I used mana roots on the corpse and absorbed some of it as I shot a few death spells at the snake tails that were trying to spit at me again.

    Only a single death spell hit the tail, but that one landed while the snake head was open and it killed the creature instantly. Fortunately, the last one felt the need to turn around and roar at me, giving me the perfect opportunity to kill it¡­ Though I swore I felt¡­ no, concentrate.

    I launched a death spell down its throat and killed the creature mid-roar, before cancelling mana roots and looking up at the rest of the pack. Unlike what I knew of other packs, these creatures had ignored their pack members being ripped apart.

    I wondered if that was because of the nature of the dungeon, or something else, while I gathered and managed my G¨ªa. It would be hard not to over shoot the landing if I went for pure speed and I needed to get a good stance to control my launch direction. They were a good two dozen meters away at least and I wanted to deal with those annoying snake-headed-tails as little as possible.

    The creatures were just reaching the stragglers when Nina, to my great surprise, stepped back to kick the closest creature with a fair bit of G¨ªa behind the blow. The kick caught one of the creatures in the chest and caused the chest to seemingly cave in before its momentum knocked her onto her back.

    As she started falling though, I knew that there was not much time and instinctively threw enough G¨ªa into my jump that I flew across the floor. I barely had time to make sure I had a death spell prepared before I stopped by slamming into the side of one of the creatures with my bone shield.

    Given the forces involved, I was happy when only my shoulder was dislocated, but the pain was something of a distraction as I experience it with my enhanced perception of time. I still managed to get sword into position though and sent my spell into the small wound in the creature¡¯s side.

    By that time another of the creatures had already leaped at Nina and was mauling her, while the other 4 had turned to look at me. Naturally there was a volley of venom that I managed to keep out of my eyes with my shield, but a few splashes landed on my robe, with a bit reaching my clavicle.

    I charged and slashed the snake tail of the nearest creature, barely missing as it turned around to try and lunge at me, but I simple gave its face a nice new scar instead, followed by another death spell.

    Nina, still alive apparently, managed to give off a pair of huge blasts of pure mana while I was doing this, killing at least the creature that was actively mauling her, although the other might have already been dead by this point.

    I felt a numbness trying to spread out from my clavicle as I took on the last 2 creatures, with both making the foolish choice to dive at me. I simply tilted my shield towards the creature nearest to it while ignoring my shoulder and slashed at the other with my sword. The creature I slashed at was just outside of my range so I lengthened the sword just enough to draw a thin line of blood across its face. I wanted to follow that up with another death spell, but the creature flinched and let its friend take the lead instead.

    My shield was knocked out of the way by a large paw and I ended up shooting a death spell down the creature¡¯s mouth as I took a small skip back and dodged the falling corpse.

    The last creature did not deserve much thought so I simply dodged a blast of venom and gave it a death spell in the eye as I went to check on Nina, who seemed to be trying to heal herself at the moment.

    Given the large blasts of mana she gave off earlier, I found myself wondering if my previous impression of her was incorrect. I thought that she might have been fairly weak, with perhaps 5 or 5 circles worth of magic, with bad mana control outside of healing, but now I found myself revising that.

    From what I could now feel it seemed like she was actually stronger, magically speaking, than myself, around 13 circles or so. Though I was partially correct about her mana control, as, judging by the massive amount of mana she seemed to be using, she was all or nothing person when it came to magic. They were rare, but occasionally there were people who simply could not control their magic well and they were more of a danger to themselves than anyone else.

    I walked over to her and rolled the dead creatures off of her while also taking the liberty of using mana roots to feed myself. I used my death spells fairly efficiently, but they still made me hungry. ¡°You okay?¡±

    Nina did not reply as the wounds on her face and arms seemed to slowly close up. I gave her a moment, but she still said nothing so I simply took my fill with mana roots and walked over to retrieve my equipment.

    The guard adventurers were almost here by this point, so I reapplied my illusion spell and yelled at them to be careful not to disturb the Healer too much. Good intentions can kill just as easily as a sword if timed incorrectly.

    Shouting that there is an injured woman they needed to care for also distracted them from me, meaning that I could more or less leave them to organize while I ran off to ¡®rejoin my group.¡¯ Of course there were a few who noticed and tried to call after me, but I was already shouting after the novices and pretending to be too busy to hear them.

    My clavicle was still numb, but it did not appear to be spreading, so I only spared it a few moments of my time to examine the toxin that was in my system. I had other things on my mind for the moment though, like getting through the gate and into the village before the guards got organized.

    I swept along behind some of the lagging students who were resisting the attempts to usher them into the village and told them that the Healer was fine, but we all needed to get into the village. After that, I more or less prodded them along as we enter the place that the SRMs called the village.

    In some way it was fairly appropriately named, but I would not have called it a village as much as a watering hole. There were a few, fairly sizeable, stone buildings that had a small crowd of fairly well-armed mercenaries in front of a few. Though given the glasses of ale in the hands of some of them, I understood while this place might be considered a village of sorts.

    Seeing that the buildings did not extend all the way to the walls of the dungeon I slipped away and quickly moved behind them. I was going to attract attention, but I tried to keep it minimal as I quickly moved behind the buildings in the direction of the opposite end of the village.

    It did not take long to reach that wall at the opposite end and I briefly glanced back to confirm that no one had followed me. Though there still were the guards to deal with, I was fairly sure that I could force my way past them with minimal issues.

    I came out from behind the building though and to my surprise the guards were only interested in what was happening at the other end of the village.

    ¡°Hey do you know what happened?¡±

    I shook my head as I approached, ¡°heard something about a pack of monsters chasing some Healer in, but that is it.¡±

    ¡°Shame,¡± the guard who called out before grunted, still staring at the crowd in the distance. ¡°Wonder if it was a couple chimeras, but they are seriously rare. Anything to declare before you head back up?¡±

    ¡°No, only came down for a favor and the exercise.¡± I lied simply.

    ¡°Hah! Exercise, right, good one.¡± He laughed dismissively and waved me past.

    I walked past without saying a word and heard them talking behind me: ¡°Why would you think a chimera pack would come down here? It takes at least a C rank to attract their attention and I have not heard of any big names who have come back from that new dungeon to the East.¡±

    I escaped quickly after that, trying to get to the 20th floor as fast as I could, while thinking about the energy I felt during the fight. It was odd, the mana around the both the creature and myself had suddenly changed, like I was being watched.

    Suddenly I had a feeling that I had not truly felt in the entirety of this new life, I felt a sense that I was in danger. Even when fighting off that assassin in the woods near Entrials, I had not felt that I was in any major degree of danger, but this dungeon suddenly felt a lot less passive to me.

    As I came to the sloping decent to the next floor I started jogging while my mind wandered.

    One of the things that popped into my head as I headed down was exactly how deep underground I was. There did not seem to be any noticeable increase in pressure yet, although I was unsure exactly how far I would need to go down before I noticed it. I had live in mountains for most of my previous life and Anton had been vague about the precise measurements, but I did wonder if I would need to worry about the bends coming back up.

    Regardless, I pressed on, deciding that any and all experiments from here on out could be done on the move and in that spirit I decided to try something that was close to a reverse of Gorith¡¯s shroud. Instead of claiming the mana in the area around me with my mana I took my mana and simply expanded it outward in a large bubble like area, forcing the mana in the air around me away.

    This allowed me some personal space where the dungeon mana that reminded me of Gorith¡¯s shroud was outside of my sphere of influence. This method was more mana intensive, but it did not seem to provoke the same reaction as using the regular shroud did and this method might actually be usable in public. Though it did create a thinner version of the black miasma that surrounded me when I used the normal shroud, it was more like a light mist.

    More tools for my belt, I thought to myself as I jogged into a room that was nearly identical to the 10th floor. Just like that one, it had paths leading every which way, including what I now knew to be the exit path that ran parallel to the way I entered. Unlike the paths on the 10th floor though these paths had strange symbols on the front of them that I could not make any sense of.

    Deciding not to dally I withdrew my¡­ reverse shroud? Gorith¡¯s mist? Whatever my new spell would be called, back into myself as I walked down a random path.

    After a walking for a while and scanning for traps, I came to an empty room with a podium and no exit.

    I walked around the edge and examined the walls, but there was nothing besides the podium, which I found had 2 handprints with some elongated fingers in the depressed surface.

    Deciding that I had no reason to trust such a thing, I turned around to go back the way I came in, only to hear the pathway start to collapse behind me.

    I took a deep breath and investigated how big the cave-in was, but I did not need long to see that trying to dig my way through it was not an option. I also had the same feeling of danger from earlier when I dug through a bit of the dirt.

    Either this dungeon really was intelligent, or someone was playing with me, because the dungeon walls were very solid and the only other area that I saw collapse was on the 10th floor.

    The question had therefore gone from, was I being watched? To ¡°What do you want?¡± I asked the air around me as I walked back into the room. ¡°What is the purpose of this place?¡± There was no response, so I walked over to the podium and slowly slid my hands into the depressions.

    After a moment I felt a magic spell shoot up my hands and into my brain. It felt like¡­

    [AN: cliffhanger? Nope.]

    I felt a great pressure, a fear, which pushed me, yelling and screaming for me to remove my hands. It grew every moment, as if I was going to be devoured if I did not remove my hands. My hands started to itch and burn, seeming to beg me to remove them.

    It was honestly quite boring.

    Mental spells like this one were all about noticing that the influence on your mind was foreign and then separating it from yourself.

    After a life of experiencing the ]Guilt the most dangerous mental challenge for me had been keeping my sanity. This spell did not even measure up to the fear runes north of Entrials.

    Concentrating on the spell, I tried following it back to its source and found that the source was actually a ward, one that kept going and going and going, until my mind could barely fathom how large it was.

    The best analogy I could make was that it was like sensing every crevice and crack that made up a mountain.

    Then I got a response. Not in words, but in feelings, like the time Leo became upset and talked to me like he would a Nalk, except finer and more clipped, like someone who either did not know how to speak, or had not done so in a long time.

    Interest. Judgment. Approval. Entertainment¡­ Age.

    I felt my connection break as the spell ended and I saw the back wall open up into another path.

    Then I heard it *ding* the soft chime-like sound appeared again, but this time I knew what it meant. The dungeon was congratulating me, acknowledging my effort in passing this stage of testing.

    What I did not know, was why this place was testing me. For its own amusement? Or was there something else in this place that I did not know about¡­ after all, it had apparently been here a very, very long time.

    *     *     *

    A few Km outside of Gate:

    3 days later.

    John ran through the steps as fast as he could in his head. Casting the spell while dodging the various posts and iron panels that swung around. They represented obstacles and would destroy his spell if it was caught up in them.

    The fact that John¡¯s Master was manipulating them to purposefully get in his way, or occasionally hit him, did not help John¡¯s concentration.

    Finishing the spell as fast as he could, John ducked under an iron panel and shot it his spell at the straw man that was set up as his target. He watched with pride as the spell flew as fast as an arrow and burst into flame just before contact with the strawman.

    The thing burned fairly well, despite being wet from the past few days of heavy wonderful rain. Rain that gave John and Aran an excuse to spend time warming each other up.

    His huge grin lasted just long enough for him to get hit on the shoulder with an iron panel.

    ¡°Keep moving!¡± His mentor shouted. ¡°This is not a field combat training school, in the dungeon you should always expect to be in close combat!¡±

    ¡°Black-souled old man.¡± John grumbled, before dodging through a few more obstacles.

    ¡°10 laps after we are done for that!¡± How did he hear that!? John kept his curses to himself for the rest of the course, finishing it in his best time yet.

    ¡°Better.¡± His mentor, old Kal¡¯da, admitted. ¡°You would be massacred if you tried to go too deep in Tartarus, but you might survive the first few floors.¡±

    ¡°Master, the first few floors are empty of monsters.¡± John pointed out respectfully.

    ¡°Exactly. Now, how is your blade-work coming along?¡±

    ¡°I have been training exactly as you instructed Master.¡± John responded not that I know why you keep insisting that we train with a sword, anything magically resistant can be burn easily enough.

    Kal¡¯da chuckled, ¡°Do you need another research assignment on the dungeon creatures Johnny-boy?¡±

    Taking a deep breath, John concentrated ¡°No master¡± and I am not a ¡®boy¡¯ I am 16 cycles old!

    Kal¡¯da shook his head, clearly reading John¡¯s mind through some trickery that John did not know. ¡°What has the body of a large cat and a tail with a snake¡¯s head?¡±

    ¡°Chimera.¡± Easy.

    Kal¡¯da nodded ¡°What would you say is special about the Chimera?¡±

    ¡°They are a minor boss Master, meaning they are noticeably more annoying to deal with and only come out on the floor before the boss.¡±

    ¡°What else?¡±

    ¡°They, as minor bosses, adjust their strength and numbers to deal with their opponents. Even using tactics to lure the more greedy adventurers on occasion as they are extremely valuable alchemic ingredients and they know seem to know it.¡±

    ¡°Almost acceptable,¡± Kal¡¯da sighed. ¡°However you forgot to mention the powerful toxin that their tail spits out. The one that can even incapacitate Healers in moments depending on where it hits. They are also both fire and mana resistant, making them very difficult to take down in pairs as they will sacrifice one of their own for the sole purpose of

    ¡°Also, they are not the intelligent, the dungeon simply modifies their behavior based on their prey. For example, if the dungeon thinks its prey wants a challenge, the creatures roar more often.¡±

    ¡°I thought the dungeon¡¯s intelligence was unconfirmed Master.¡± John stated hesitantly.

    ¡°Make that 15 laps,¡± Kal¡¯da responded. ¡°You should know by now that only a fool or a king would question the dungeon¡¯s intellect. If the churches could figure out how to, they would have removed all dungeons long ago.

    ¡°Now,¡± he continued, ¡°how strong would an adventurer¡¯s party have to be for them to draw out 6 chimeras?¡±

    ¡°Count rank sir, only a party of C ranks could draw out that many.¡±

    There was a pause in the conversation as Kal¡¯da looked John over. ¡°Then what would it take to bring out a dozen?¡±

    John¡¯s mind started to race, not wanting to hesitate and earn more laps, but also to not knowing the answer. ¡°I- I would imagine sir that it would take a well-known group, perhaps of entirely of D or even E rank.¡±

    John¡¯s master now spoke very quietly, ¡°What if was a large group of A rank mages with some B ranked guides?¡±

    John tried to figure out where this was going. ¡°Sir, that could not happen, the dungeon would know that a large number of unexperienced mages would be more likely to panic and run, letting them easily be killed- would it not Master?¡±

    Kal¡¯da nodded, ¡°So it would, which means someone quite dangerous must have been in the dungeon either hiding in, or near-by the group. Especially since a dozen of those things could get venom into even a fully armored combat mage.¡±

    ¡°Because they like to encircle or run past their prey and stun it with the snaketail¡¯s poison.¡± John stated as much as questioned his master, receiving a nod in return. ¡°If something like what you are talking about actually happened, then it could only be a high ranking noble¡¯s guard or a King ranked adventurer.¡±

    ¡°Or something else altogether.¡± Kal¡¯da mumbled before speaking up. ¡°Do you remember the story I told you about the spirit sword?¡±

    The one that no one actually believes? How could I forget when they make fun of me for my association with the spirit-seeker? ¡°Yes master, you found a special sword, one made of pure Zugoran, which contained the soul of a shapely young woman who claimed to be trapped inside the sword before trying to convince you to release her and-¡±

    ¡°I said she was beautiful and she was beautiful, but she was a young teenager at oldest, brat, stop inserting your fantasies into other people¡¯s stories.¡±

    John blushed, indeed Aran¡¯s shape had been running through his mind when he spoke. ¡°-and you refused despite her promising to save you from a group of monsters and managed to escape. Although you were chased for a few days so when you finally got some rest you were too lost to find your way back and you spent the next decade looking for her again.¡± John finished, ¡°but what does that have to do with the dungeon chimeras?¡±

    ¡°It is a reminder boy.¡± Kal¡¯da¡¯s eyes took on a cold look that banished Aran from John¡¯s thought momentarily, ¡°How many circles you can power is not how strong you are. The combat schools teach joining to their students only after they graduate because many people working alone cannot prevail against a small group who works smartly and in concert with each other. However smart enough individuals can destroy the group and dungeons are very good at testing how dangerous someone is, taking such things as intelligence into account, instead of just seeing how much mana they have. That is something for you to remember too boy."

    ¡°I will remember Master.¡±

    ¡°Good, now you owe me 17 laps Johnny-boy.¡±

    ¡°It was 15 master.¡± Darn old man, how long are you going to keep Aran and I apart today?

    ¡°You hesitated while answering my question because you were scared, get going, you have 18 laps before you can go see your girl.¡±

    ¡°¡­Yes sir.¡±

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    Btw while any fight scenes with G¨ªa would have to be rearranged after its removal, the results would remain more or less the same. In this chapter it would just be more along the lines of DeMorte running at inhuman speeds to catch up to the chimeras than him making an epic leap. He would also be more heavily injured in all of his fights, which is where is improved body and healing would come in ¨C especially if he convinced Bella to help heal him while he concentrated on a fight.

    All in all¡­ not my best chapter -.- apologies. I spent over half the day going back over and editing this, but it still seems to me that it needs work.

    On the bright side, the next chapter should be the last in the dungeon and soon after that DeMorte will finally get the chance to settle things with Bella.

    Regardless, thank you for reading,

    B_S

 Chapter 34: Feelings of guilt

    I¡¯m Late¡­ I hope that a 10k word chapter is worth it: I started writing BKR to become a better writer and I keep wondering how good I am doing. More important chapters like this bring that question up repeatedly.

    Anyway, I decided to keep G¨ªa until the rewrite, but it will disappear at that time and it will not be present in the next arc current working title = [Game Start]

    After reviewing, I realized that the ingredient was originally on the 39th floor, but I edited that as it was supposed to be the 29th ¨C which is the floor DeMorte starts the chapter on.

    I also added a single line in the 3rd person PoV in chapter 28 about the adventurers being slightly more confrontational in recent years, specifically, since the borders were finally secure.

    DeMorte has a very brief¡­ episode that is more or less explainable, but do remember that he is not ¨C by our definition ¨C a particularly sane man.

    Chapter 34: Feelings of guilt

    ¡°Bitch.¡± I grunted, looking down at the collapsed 3-headed spotted dog. The thing seemed to love breathing fire, so parts of my robe were burnt.

    The stoning creature was the 4th such one that had interrupted me during my search here on the 29th floor. It was truly annoying as the things were just powerful enough to cast strong magic, while they were also fast enough to dodge most of my throwing weapons. The ones I found were also all female, which suggested that there was an alpha around here somewhere.

    I resisted the urge to wipe the sweat from my forehead as I went back to carefully navigating through the plants, while looking for my final goal.

    Starting on the 21st floor there had been an ever increasing amount of wildlife, starting with small patches of dirt, with the occasional batches of mushrooms and growing each floor. Currently, I was in an area that could almost qualify as a small jungle that seemed determined to try everything to kill me, including sweating me to death apparently.

    With the poisonous spiders, snakes, and other smaller creatures in this place serving as part of a much more complex ecology than anywhere previous in the dungeon, this floor was the most interesting and annoying floor I had encountered thus far in the dungeon. It both produced more opportunities to research the dungeon¡¯s internal system and hid both my

    As if giving the variety of monsters and magical creatures more places to hide was not enough, the dungeon had started modifying the atmosphere of each floor. This floor¡¯s humidity for example, was the highest I had experienced in the entirety of both my lives and was drawing out every drop of sweat it could from me.

    Fortunately, this floor actually had a small stream, or else I might have been in real trouble as even with some newly applied cooling runes I was having difficulty keeping myself hydrated.

    As a rarity, I actually found myself empathizing with the SRMs who had sent down to this floor before, I had to somehow find an even-spotted blue and purple mushroom. Of course, since this was an alchemic ingredient I had to be very careful to only recover it from this specific floor. Not to mention that I also had to count the spots on every mushroom in the clusters they grew in to make sure I did not retrieve the wrong ingredient.

    I had already found two groups of the mushrooms, but they both had an odd number of spots on them. It was a pain, but I kept searching, taking some of the mushrooms that I did not need to use as studying material. The occasional attacks by various creatures, the now earth covered ground, and the hot, humid, air all combined to make finding the correct mushrooms a borderline nightmare.

    To complicate things further, Bella had stopped talking to me a while back and actually tried to sabotage me at one point by trying to make me look in the opposite direction of some mushrooms that she somehow noticed before me. The mushrooms were not even a blue and purple one, but she had become remarkably less happy with me as we descended to our current floor.

    I just sighed at the time as I realized that her rebellious cycles might be upon us. Still, children were children so I let it go.

    I needed to find those mushrooms soon though, it had been at least 4 days since I entered the dungeon. I cast mana roots to absorb as much of the creature as I reasonably could before I went to check on the latest batch of mushrooms that I found, right before I was attacked by the bitch.

    Counting all of the spots was annoying, but I was relieved as I came up with 20. I carefully reviewed my steps for confirming that I had the correct ingredient and recounted the number of spots, it was still 20.

    I had what I was looking for and carefully harvested it according to how I was told to do so, namely, very carefully. I could not cut any of the mushrooms and instead separate them from their cluster and wrap them in some special paper that I had been given. The paper in question felt like wax, but I did not care, I could finally get out of this stoning place.

    Even since that mental test on the 20th floor, I had been working under both the feeling and the assumption that I was being watched at all times and that I should exit the dungeon as soon as possible.

    I knew the sense of control over an area that Gorith¡¯s shroud gave and how easy it was to track someone within it. The idea that either the dungeon or something controlling the dungeon was in total control of my surroundings was discomforting at best and terrifying at worst.

    While my curiosity and desire to explore this place was fairly strong, my will to live was infinitely stronger and that will had been pushing at me to get out of here as soon as I could.

    I turned around and carefully started to scan the ground as I carefully made my way out of the jungle floor. There were many plants and animals down here in the dungeon that I had never seen before on the surface, but I only spared time for them if collecting small samples would not take too much time.

    Being in this dungeon was interesting to an extent, but as I was making my way through the jungle maze I took the time to privately rant about being obligated to go through with this just because the Nalks had made me female¡­

    That said, I realized that in some ways I was just avoiding what was really bothering me. So, while I could distract myself for a little while with thoughts of the interesting organism around me or by thinking about the Nalks, an idea kept creeping back into my head.

    The creatures here mostly seemed to be hybrids or variations of a variety of other animals and while they did have viable DNA as far as I could tell, they were also¡­ odd. This place, it was either keeping them somewhere where the creatures were breeding at a steady rate or it was somehow creating them.

    If this place was creating living creatures though¡­ gods that was a terrifying idea. Especially after I used some of what I called my ¡®exotic¡¯ spells. If the dungeon could control its creatures, much less make new ones, I might have given it some new weapons. Not only that, but any SRMs who discovered those spells would develop counters to them and inevitably spread them to others.

    The place where I felt safe enough to actually practice some new spells and have a relatively high chance of not being seen was now someplace where my secret stash of spells might be turned against me, even without Nalk interference.

    The subliminal spells would likely be of varying effectiveness, but that sound blast spell that I tested nearly blew out my eardrums and I could only imagine what a creature inside of the dungeon could do with the acoustics of a rocky cavern like the earlier floors were. The specialized nerve gas, bacteria cultivation spells, and that odd burning lance that was created when I concentrated a large amount of light into one spot were all strange, but possibly very effective spells that I wanted to hold in reserve for emergencies.

    The only spell that I tested that I did not worry about was the steps to create what Bella had taken to calling a ¡°biopuppet,¡± because that spell was basically useless to the dungeon. Especially if it was actually creating these creatures from scratch.

    I noticed that the foliage was finally thinning and realized that I could finally get out of this place and get back to the capital soon enough. After that, it would likely be a lot of walking and maybe the unpleasantness of a boat ride or something before I found the individual who could put me back into a male body. Ideally, I would have some sort of blackmail to combine with whatever financial incentive I could offer and¡­

    You have always at least made the attempt to listen to me, on anything we talk about except this, why are you going this far?

    I finally broke clear of the brush and walked down the long slope to the 30th floor and the express exit out of the dungeon. I took my time with my response to Bella as she seemed sincerely angry and although her control over our body had decrease significantly, she could still cause me a great deal of trouble if she wanted to.

    Think about it logically Bella. Biologically speaking, there are a very few differences between males and females, with most of those revolving around hormones or the obvious difference that of someone¡¯s sex organs. While we could manage this body like we have been and make sure that it develops in an appropriately powerful way, the fact would remain that this body would be female. We would have more management of our body for things like the menstrual cycle.

    Also, I spent decades building up my own kingdom Bella and even then I could not shake the established opinions too much. I do not doubt that, regardless of how powerful we become in the future, we will still face established biasness against woman. You might think that it would be fun to fight against the established beliefs that you know are wrong, but that would not be what it ends up being Bella.

    I know that I could also give you a lecture on endangering little Carlatus and the rest by having people connect the female us to them, but anything we do might find its way back to them. If we are known as a male individual instead, it will at least add one more degree of separation between ¡®Bella of house Corpus¡¯ and whatever our introduced name is.

    In the end, being male will be simpler, not just because I am more used to a male body, but also because society will have an easier time accepting a man. I am sorry Bella, but I honestly do not know of any reason why staying in a woman¡¯s body would ever be more beneficial to us. The closest thing to a benefit I can even come up with is the genetic recoder, but we can use the biopuppet creation spells as a starting point to build a magical device instead.

    In fact, I needed to start designing that in my head, so I left the shocked Bella to try and come up with a reason to not become a male instead of staying a female. Of course, I had already considered most of her possible arguments, so I let her know about those as well.

    The fact that I would have to put my body in someone else¡¯s hands was one of the strongest arguments that could be made against attempting the change, but the possible long term disadvantages of having to fight societal norms as a women were a good motivator. Not that I was completely without bias myself, I wanted to be a man because I used to be a man and that was important to me.

    I understood that Bella felt uncomfortable with the idea, but with both my personal convictions and logic on my side, I hoped that she could at least come to terms with the idea. The fact that we would eventually merge personalities notwithstanding, I wanted her to agree of her own free will.

    I reached the end of the descent and found 3 different paths going further into the dungeon. I instinctively started examining the paths and the symbols above them before realizing that it did not matter.

    I turned around and started walking through the 4th path, which traveled parallel to the way I walked in, the supposed express exit.

    Almost immediately, I felt the air around me, the mana technically, change. Where I had the feeling of just being watched before, I now had the feeling that I was walking against a strong wind. The dungeon¡¯s mana rolled around me and tried to blow against my body. Given how mana usually behaved, it was a rather surreal feeling that proved more interesting than annoying to me.

    I kept walking and I felt messages and feelings start to form in my mind. Ahead was danger, behind was an adventure, ahead was a mistake, but behind was an endless opportunity, just waiting to for me to explore.

    It was a strange feeling to know that the dungeon did not want me to leave, but if it was intelligent enough to figure out that I was now leaving and that it did not want that, I was in no mood to test how far it would go. I started running at a fairly decent pace, not willing to stay longer than I had to.

    The mental prods and attempts to push me back down into the dungeon grew stronger over time as I steadily ran uphill. I was more worried about speed than stamina, but I kept my pace reasonable, using a bit of G¨ªa to strength my muscles and ensure that I would not tire out anytime soon.

    After a while, I felt the mental pushes retract and to my astonishment I felt what could only be described as a mental connection being offered. I actually stopped running and hesitated while looking at the magic with my third eye. It was¡­ not wrong, per say, but it seemed off, like it was a half-done imitation of a different form of magic, one I did not recognize.

    I hesitated, observing the mana and trying to decide if I should accept the offer or not. It could be a trap, but I suspected that the dungeon itself was responsible for collapsing the path behind me on the 10th floor, which would mean that it could do that again if I did not accept. Also, there were a few more, possibly lethal, ways that it could try and keep me from leaving, with the violent mana interaction that using Gorith¡¯s shroud brought being one possibility.

    After weighing the option as best I could, I reached out with both my mind and my mana and made the connection.

    I felt anger, confusion, and a terse demand for an explanation.

    Remembering the time I spent as a spirit, I sent a simple message through the link stating that I had completed my job. While I sent this message, I also made sure that appropriate mental blocks were in place to keep whatever I was communicating with from reading more of my mind than I intended.

    Before I received another response, I felt the mana around me gravitate towards my bag and I used my improvised shroud to make sure that the dungeon could not touch the mushrooms. The wax like paper that they were wrapped in was supposed to keep them safe from such things, but I would rather not test it.

    More anger came through the connection. It had a job, a need, to fulfill that had not seen anyone worthy of using it to fulfill that roll in a very, very long time.

    I shook my head at this information, I had originally thought that the dungeon was man-made, but the more I learned about it the more I was caught between it being elven-made or somehow being an evolution of something natural.

    While traveling through the dungeon I briefly wondered if it was an ancient form of life that had somehow created this place, despite the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, mana did not work like that. Even Natural mana, when it gathered into lay lines, could rarely cause anything more than the odd spell to shoot off, usually just causing some random mutation to affect whoever was unlucky enough to be standing nearby.

    Curious, I sent a new message, asking what the dungeon was and what its job was.

    I heard a growl from behind me and turned to see a rather large 3-headed dog standing behind me, the alpha. Its 3 heads bit at the air as if they wanted to eat some imaginary bug that was flying just in front of them. ¡°Heel Spot.¡± I told it sarcastically, ¡°I am having a conversation with your master.¡±

    Unfortunately, said master sent its response at this point, a feeling of training, of growth, and the desire to see and recognize that growth. At which point, the connection was cut and the Alpha attacked by breathing fire from its central head.

    I dodged and struggled to pull out one of my iron spikes as the creature advanced. I dodged another breath of fire as best as I could, as I pulled one of my spikes and threw it with all of my normal strength, plus a small amount of G¨ªa assistance.

    The Alpha did not just dodge my spike, but instead did something more incredible, it turned sideways and dodged while its 2 outer heads snapped down and caught the spike mid-air. They the two heads seemed to start arguing over it like 2 separate dogs with a stick. It was so odd to see that I even forgot to take out another spike and simply paused to observe this odd behavior.

    I was only jolted out of it when the third head bent down and grabbed at my spike, trying to take it away from the other two. The action caused my spike to warp and bend until it broke in the mouth of the middle head, who yelped in pain. The right head then gave a low howl and I felt the creature use some sort of magic inside its body.

    When the middle head coughed out a bit of blood and then seemed to be fine, I more or less figured it out. Each head was likely responsible for one form of magic. I pulled out another iron spike and watch the creature carefully.

    I thought about putting down my items, but the dungeon might steal the mushrooms if I put them outside of my sphere of protection and I was not sure how far away I could be while still keeping my modified shroud intact. As it was I was worried that the dungeon might try to take them by force by simple ripping that shroud apart and making this whole trip meaningless.

    I also held some slight doubt about whether or not Bella was going to mess with my improvised shroud. She usually stayed quiet and watched my spellwork during a fight, but I had no guarantees that she would continue to do so and going back down to get hunt for more mushrooms was not my idea of an efficient use of time.

    I got ready to throw the spike again and watched the Alpha. If my theory was correct and each head had a specialty than the left head might be in physical control of the body. To test this I sent a small flurry of death spells at the creature. To my surprise, it jumped directly into the spells and the left head gave a loud bark, cuing a shield of mana to appear and block the death spells.

    As it charged me yet again I shook my head and focused my weight on my toes while seeming to prepare to throw my weapon again. At the last moment, the Alpha tried to go around me while it both started breathing fire and threw up a mana shield.

    I used most of my strength to jump back of the reach of the fire. The middle head turned to try and follow me, but it would not be able to correct its course in time, which was what I was aiming for.

    As I landed I threw the spike, this time with quite a bit more G¨ªa than my previous attempt. It flew directly into and through the fire, aimed just a below and off to the side of its source. I heard a yelp, but only saw the results a moments later as the flames went out.

    The large spike was now imbedded in the Alpha¡¯s lower neck and upper chest, as it cried out on the floor. I sent a death spell into it and ended the creature¡¯s life, just before I heard that same soft chime as I heard on both the 10th and 20th floors ¨C ding ¨C reverberate in the air.

    I scowled and looked down at my sleeve, which had received a slight burn when I turned away to shield my pack. Walking over to the dead Alpha, I used mana roots to absorb just enough to help make the spike easier to remove. I also noticed that I had accumulated a small reserve of excess fat on my chest while I was not paying attention.

    I paused for a brief moment and scowled at the things before deciding to ignore them, they would go away if I cast a few more spells.

    As I was removing and cleaning my spike off, I both felt and saw the mental connection from earlier being offered again.

    I ignored it this time and sent my mana at the area the spell seemed to be originating from. I wanted to know who was in charge of this accursed place and if they were paying attention to me, then I should be able to trace the spell back and at least get an idea of who they were.

    My attempt failed, however, as my mana met the wall and was completely stopped. It was like the walls of this place needed a special spell or spell instruction to be able to be bypassed! Cursing quietly, I formed the mental connection again and immediately sent my anger into it.

    I received back confusion and annoyance. I was supposed to be different, my actions showed someone who thirst for power or knowledge or to prove myself. The phrasing was so off to me that I had stop and try to sort out the statement before I could respond.

    This thing wanted me to test myself? To actually attack this place, not for money or some special alchemic ingredient, but to prove myself¡­ As I thought about it more I realized that I might have been misinterpreting this things actions. What if this place was sentient, but not intelligent? Like it had been given a mind to understand its purpose, to test and evaluate those who came in, but it did not really understand how to do that?

    If its purpose was to test me¡­ I sent a new message to the dungeon. It stated that I was not mature yet and I could not go as deeply as I wanted, but I promised to return soon enough and test myself against it once I was fully prepared.

    There was a moment of silence before a grudging assent was sent and the connection was broken. I blinked as the feeling of being watched left me and the mana went back to its previous state, moving deeper into the dungeon.

    I sighed and relaxed a bit, keeping my modified shroud up and around the mushrooms as I checked on them. After confirming that they were fine I started up the long slope to the first floor.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------

    I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally reached the first floor. The hike had been quite impressive and I actually had to pause and work on my muscles with mana periodically to make sure that they were rested. It was interesting, but most ¡®healing¡¯ spells could be called time spells, instead ordering the body to restore itself it its previous state.

    Since I actually knew how my muscles worked, I could deliberately manipulate them to prevent a simple restoration of my previous condition and instead make them actually heal. This could actually allow me to build muscles extremely rapidly as instead of waiting days between exercises I could just eat a meal and use my spells.

    Of course I did not have to do it often, but hiking this much, uphill, while in my full equipment was quite the task even for my muscles. I felt the comfortable burning sensation and my I allowed myself a little smile of triumph, before I came to a small podium that looked identical to the one on the 20th floor.

    Breathing deeply, I felt myself relax as I put my hand into the carved depression on the podium. The depression, like the one on the 20th floor, was a bit to off for me to think that it was made for human hands, but it did have 4 fingers and a thumb in the depression, so I could have been wrong.

    As the side of the cave rumbled and opened up I cast an illusion spell over myself again. This time I went with Osiris¡¯ face when he was in his teens. I stepped out into the dungeon wondering if I should cast a spell on my item too, but invisibility spells were incredibly mana intensive and-

    I ducked and rolled across the rocky floor of the dungeon to the wall, narrowly dodging a fireball that was thrown at me before coming up, ready to fire off a dozen death spells at whoever attacked me. I saw a large man that took me a very brief moment to place, as he was the guild enforcer I had met before.

    I saw a spell with my third eye come from both the enforcer in front of me and from someone behind me. I tried to dodge both, but the one from behind tracked me and the spell activated right as I tried to duck underneath it.

    The spell was a modified fireball spell, which exploded in a small, but bright and intensely hot ball of flame.

    If it was not for my illusion spell making me seem taller than I actually was, I would have been blinded in both of my eyes. It was not a commonly used method, but an intense and sudden heat in front of unprotected eyes could dry them out and cause temporary blindness.

    [AN: Wielding accident, not to me, but it did happen to someone I know.]

    Since the spell would typically explode outside of contact with someone¡¯s mana shield, I was vaguely familiar with a variant that I used in my previous life, but I had never been on the receiving end before. The exploding flame ended up blinding me in my left eye and shattering my illusion spell. My right eye was not the best, but it could still function, even if everything was blurry.

    ¡°Stones!¡± I tripped and went into a roll as I fell, before forcibly expanding my modified shroud into the area around me to compensate for my loss of vision in my left eye. Although not quite as effective as Gorith¡¯s shroud, my modified version still allowed me to feel the area around me and control it to a limited extent.

    I felt 2 people circling around me, but they did not attack. ¡°Is that you little DeMorte?¡± it was the enforcer I met before, ¡°I am disappointed in you. Now then, please come with us and we can take care of your eyes and talk about your foolish little escapade.¡±

    I could not construct a spell to ensure my eye healed properly in the time it would take for them to realize that I was stalling, so I focused on the spells I did know. Most of the spells I knew were not appropriate to this situation though, my shroud and third eye could give me an idea of what was going on, but not enough for me to safely use my G¨ªa as much as I liked.

    As it was, I decided to concentrate on my hearing to try and locate where the dead-man-walking was. I calmed my breathing and kept my senses on edge as much as possible before a smile appeared on my face. ¡°People always ask me what I have against adventurers, but it is this kind of specialized bull excrement that really ticks me off.¡±

    ¡°You only have yourself to blame.¡± I tracked the voice, also listening for his silent companion, who had moved outside of my shroud. That was remaining perfectly still as far as I could hear, unlike the one speaking.

    ¡°True, even though I knew you were all mercenaries, I suppose that I actually expected you to keep the fa?ade up a bit longer.¡±

    ¡°I have no association with the Adventurers Guild, if I recall correctly I told you that before.¡± He was pacing, the soft chink of armor already apparent was joined by the sound of a slightly runny nose.

    I shifted my bag and prepared my spells. I hated deciding things with magic because of how uneconomical it was, but I doubted that my iron knives would easily find their target. ¡°No official standing that is.¡± I corrected. ¡°You fools think that you can hold on to power here because of this place, but you are wrong. Even though you station guards at the exits and ensure that only your people can go down under the guise of ¡®protecting¡¯ others, you are nothing more than another group of corrupt fools.¡±

    Power corrupts everyone and everything. Even I was not immune to it, I just corrupted more slowly because of the Guilt. The famous ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Guild,¡¯ though was an old organization in both worlds I was familiar with. It specialized in training and equipping a private force that, although it almost never sallied as one, was considered an army. What is more, they had such a good reputation that their members were treated well and given discounts at many stores.

    A culture that believed in them, childhood stories that put them up on pedestals, a private army that believed it was always right, and no competition ¨C usually by royal decree¡­ Was it any wonder that I disliked them?

    The enforcer¡¯s voice, surprisingly, became softer, ¡°you are a brown-souled child, with a head as thick as granite. Do not throw your life away just for a foolish moment of rebellion against-¡±

    ¡°You have options,¡± I overrode him, deciding that it was time to end the discussion. ¡°Option 1 fight me and die.¡± I stood up and swayed a little despite myself. ¡°Option 2 apologize and walk away right now. Or option 3, do something stupid, like not accepting option 2, because you think you can win. Your choice.¡± I pulled out one of my iron spikes and rapidly pumped mana into my improvised shroud, rapidly expanding both it and my awareness.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    There was a sigh as he chose option 3, but I could not tell who made it, me or him.

    Either way, I felt a blast of mana that tried to blow my shroud apart from both the man who spoke and the individual who was silent. Instead of preparing a defense, I turned and charged at the silent one.

    I concentrated my shroud around and in front of me while the two of them started shooting spells at me. Taking my iron spike, I stabbed it at the spell from the silent mage and popped it like a bubble, with the iron eliminating the key instructions that made the spell work.

    I also dodged the spell from behind easily enough, although it tried to turn and chase me before I pulled out an iron knife and used it to intercept the spell. Luckily no one, including Anton, had ever figured out what exactly made the mage¡¯s third eye work and therefor there was no way to block it.

    As my shroud went sweeping past the silent mage, I realized that this particular corridor led deeper into the dungeon, which was perfect. The silent enforcer fired a few stun and pain spells at me as I rapidly approached, but nothing lethal. I dodged most of them, but let my iron chainmail take a few.

    Instead of getting into a fight while at a disadvantage, it would be better to fall back and see what pain I could cause while I did so. Hitting this enforcer with MIT (mana implosion technique) for instance, would do a lot of damage. So, as I got closer to him I threw the spike and wrapped myself in mana armor.

    He dodged out of the way of the spike, putting his back to the side of the dungeon and wrapping himself in his own mana armor. I was not the best at it, but I had at least been practicing on occasion in my new body, so I could protect myself easily enough. I had also had time to practice MIT and slammed a full 9 circles worth of mana into his armor as I ran past him.

    Unlike other techniques, MIT had an incredibly low calorie consumption rate, namely because there was very little manipulation of mana. MIT, for its long name only really involved vibrating mana so destroy your opponent¡¯s insides.

    That graveborn of mine, Regis, had used a much more refined version of the technique, but I was not nearly as polished and burned away a sizable portion of my caloric reserves simply smashing into, and through, the enforcer¡¯s own mana armor. I could not guarantee that it would kill him, but it would at least keep him from chasing me until I could restore my sight.

    Once I did that, I could kill them much more easily.

    I ran past the now gravely injured man and tossed a few death spells his way, but they hit iron and were negated.

    The other enforcer shouted something about my worthless elven-soul, but I was not paying too much attention to him, calling up some of my G¨ªa to make me rush at super-human speeds into the dungeon.

    The unfortunate part of this strategy was that my opponent could use G¨ªa as well and he could actually see where he was going without concentrating on ¡®feeling¡¯ it with a spell.

    I felt as much as heard him roar and charge after me far faster than I could safely run.

    I launched myself forward and pulled out as many knives as I could before turning just long enough to launch them as the charging man. I knew from experience how hard it was to dodge at that speed and I threw the daggers as hard as I could at the angle I was a.

    I felt some of them hit, but he was still coming so I charge forward as best I could. Fortunately, he started lagging back, even as he started shooting dozens of death spells at a time.

    I did not stop running though and as I finally pulled away I heard the unmistakable sound of a human death rattle. Instead of slowing to finish him however, I just sped up as I felt a turn come up. Afterward I turned around the hard corner, I quickly started to prepare the spell I would need to heal my eyes and finally slowed down as my shroud turned around the corner behind me.

    The healing spell did not take long as I had partly formed it before I started running away, but it did take long enough to throw me off.

    The man who had been talking earlier should had died by now, but I did not feel the Guilt waiting at the edge of my consciousness. Which likely meant that he had somehow been administered a healing potion. Thankfully, for that level of a wound, it would take a lot more than just a health potion to get him into fighting shape again.

    I opened my eyes and blinked as the annoying red light of the dungeon greeting my blurry vision. I had to blink a lot and cast another minor healing spell before my vision finally cleared. I was pleasantly surprised that I was given as much time as I was and immediately sent my shroud around the corner, probing for my pursuers, but there was nothing.

    Thinking that they had retreated to get help, I rounded the corner and started running after them, iron spike in hand, while spreading my shroud ahead of me to make sure that there were no more surprises in store for me.

    I ran down the path faster than I retreated earlier. Additional enemies were not what I needed right now, but if the enforcer who spoke to me before was being carried, then I could likely catch up to both of them before too long.

    Then I found the enforcer, he was laying on the ground where I left him, apparently pretending to be dead. I checked with my shroud and made sure that there was nothing else in the area around him and threw the spike ahead of me. It hit and stuck in the enforcer¡¯s body without him so much as twitching.

    I cast a death spell while running up and sent it into his body while the spike was supposed to interfere with his mana, but he still did not react.

    I slowed as I neared the body, picking up the telltale smell of death. The enforcer was already dead, obviously killed by his comrade if I did not have his soul circling me by now. All the better for me, I thought simply, happy that his death was not on my head. I just ripped the spike out of it and took a moment to retrieve my daggers.

    After that was done, I absorbed a bit of him with mana roots before casting flesh fire to consume the remains. It was a bit of a waste of mana, since the dungeon would absorb him anyway, but it never paid to leave corpuses laying around. Burning the dead was one of the few acts of ¡®common decency¡¯ that even the hardest of men tended to adhered to.

    Taking off after the silent enforcer, I came to a screeching halt when I found him, dead like his partner. I looked around and even sent my shroud out as far as I could, but there was no one else here.

    I had already cast a spell to confirm that this one was dead, so I knelt down and examined the body, curious how he died and hungry after expending all of that mana. It took me a few seconds, but I confirmed that he died from mana implosion technique. It made a rather distinctive mark on the inside of the individual, so it was easy to tell.

    Curious, I searched for any other signs that his death was caused by anything other than that technique, a poison pill for example, but there was nothing. I kept my shroud far enough away from me that it could tell me if anyone approached and started using mana roots to recover some calories.

    I would have simply stolen his food, but most of it looked half-rotten anyway and mana roots seemed to have a scarily high absorption rate if used on dead humans.

    While I did that, I tried to come up with a reason for why someone would use the same technique I did to kill this person. It would have been much easier to simply knife them in the back with some iron and it was not like they needed to worry about anyone else finding the bodies¡­

    Perhaps this was a message to me? Or maybe-

    By the gods! You killed him! Why is that so hard to understand? You killed them both!

    Bella the Guilt always finds me. Always. If I did kill them, we would both know it.

    Even if you, were standing in someone else¡¯s version of Gorith¡¯s shroud?

    I jerked and stopped moving when I heard those words, considering them carefully.

    The Guilt was, in the end, a form of soul magic. It might have been divinely imparted soul magic, but it was still soul magic that temporarily summoned a soul closer to me, just close enough to touch it and know that person absolutely¡­ Or at least that was the best theory I had come up with after years of dealing with it.

    For it not to activate¡­ for me to not even feel it on the distance, the dungeon would have had to claim the soul for itself.

    If the dungeon really could take someone¡¯s soul¡­ then it was suddenly fairly reasonable that the mercenaries were so careful about going into the dungeon. If they made it public that going into the dungeon actually risked your own soul, than far fewer people would want to become an ¡®adventurer.¡¯

    I grimaced and looked down at the corpse before using the flesh fire spell. To my surprise, it felt¡­ wrong to not feel the Guilt after killing someone and I was surprised that I felt another type of guilt, a more natural one seeming to originate in my gut.

    Of course I knew that was not correct, guilt would come from my mind and- No. Irrelevant. Why was I thinking such things? I started walking back to the exit while the odd feeling persisted.

    I knew the normal feeling involving the Guilt and this was not it. There were no visions of the person¡¯s life. There were also no feeling of being haunted, which would normally happen anytime I was still in danger, less I break down in visions of the past in the middle of a battle. I was just feeling¡­ like I had done something wrong for some reason.

    After all this time? After all the killing I had done, why in the name of the gods would I feel guilty?

    If anything, did I not deserve a break from the visions? From feeling the press the weight that a human life bore? I had suffered for decade upon decade, wearing my pain and sin like my stoning cloak ¨C like I was stoning proud to kill all of those fools! Why would I be? They chose to fight, to oppose me, and I always gave them a choice if I could, but they STILL chose to fight me! After all the time wasted living the life of the dead, why did I feel like this? They chose to die at my hand, but that was always their choice, even with those enforcers!

    Stones! I was the only one without a choice in his entire stoning life! I never had a choice to not feel the Guilt when I killed, so why in the stoning ovals was I feeling like this!?

    I am DeMorte, I am the man who broke whole kingdoms across his back! The man who broke the ¡®Game¡¯ of gods who dedicate their whole existence to it! For what stoning reason would I feel guilty just because I killed someone?

    These-these-these tears must be from my healing spell to rehydrate my eyes, I understood that, but what was with this infernal feeling that I had done something wrong?! I¡­ WAIT! I understand¡­ This is a trained response! Ah, I always feel the Guilt after I kill someone, so my subconscious is trying to apply the feeling that it ¡®knows¡¯ I should be feeling!

    ¡°Hahah.¡± So that was it, I was just applying what I was used to, which meant I was applying my own punishment and earning paying for the life I took with my self-imposed suffering. I was the only one making me feel this way and it would pass soon enough.

    You¡­ monster. I will never be you, not as long as I

    QUIET! WHAT YOU WANT IS IRRELIVENT, I AM THE KING! Now and forever I am the ruler, the general, and the commander¡­ anyway, I am in NO mood for your nonsense Bella, so be silent.

    I took a few deep breaths and collected myself. It took a few moments, but the feeling of guilt slowly passed and faded to nothing, it was just like I thought.

    I nodded to myself, I was still in control of myself, so long as I kept my emotions under control anyway. As the feeling of guilt was receding I took a few more deep breaths and realized that I had unfairly snapped at Bella.

    I apologize for raising my voice Bella, but that was a truly odd experience to me and I am afraid that I did not handle it well. I know that feeling the Guilt does not excuse my taking a human life, but it does help me understand and accept responsibility for the life I took.

    She did not respond, likely still angry with me, though I did not want to further antagonize her by pushing into her mind to check. I lost my head for a moment and that was my fault, but I could reconcile with her after we left the dungeon city.

    She was a part of me after all, so she would understand eventually.

    As we walked out, I remembered my current appearance and changed my ears back to nonpointed ¡®human¡¯ ears, though I kept the softer and more feminine face. I could completely turn back into Set after I changed clothes

    I followed the thinning mana trail out to where the exit of the dungeon was and found a small group set up around a campfire. I briefly wondered if I should cast another illusion spell, but one of them stood up and I knew I had been seen.

    The rest of the group soon stood up immediately afterwards, there were 5 in all. ¡°Excuse me sir, but there have been reports of an intruder in the dungeon, would you mind showing you identification?¡±

    I did not stop. ¡°You make it sound like you own the dungeon.¡± If there was any place where death was an option it was here¡­ In fact, should I bother holding back if the dungeon was actually keeping me from feeling the Guilt?

    The SRM who spoke before started blustering about something, but a man in iron armor who clearly had plenty of magic to spare, waved him off. ¡°Are you telling us that you are the intruder?¡± He asked glaring at me as I walked forward.

    My heart was starting to beat wildly. I had calmed down for a moment, but I had an opportunity to rid myself of more trash, Guilt free! It was an intoxicating temptation¡­ or it was until I realized that I would likely have to deal with my mind¡¯s instinctual reaction to expecting the Guilt regardless. I let out a sigh and I lost some of the bounce that I had apparently put in my stride without noticing.

    ¡°I mean that, unlike your 2 dead guild enforcers, I have no ties to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. I came here as a mercenary because your Guild was incompetent.¡± I kept walking forward, but more sedately now, as I took the time to talk to them. Of course, I was not especially hopeful that these fools would listen to reason, but I would at least give them the opportunity before I killed them all. Guilt or no, it was both an old habit and arguably the ¡®right¡¯ thing to do.

    All of them stiffened. ¡°So you admit to assaulting Guild personnel?¡± the man asked.

    ¡°That depend on the Guild¡¯s position, do they ever admit to employing assassins?¡± I stopped a few paces away from the adventurers.

    ¡°The Adventurer¡¯s Guild would never hire such individuals, but you admitted to not belonging to the Guild, which would mean that you are the one who assaulted Guild members and forced their way in here.¡±

    I snorted, ¡°Or there was an unnamed adventurer who forgot his identification and forced his way past, only to pay the price later. After all,¡± I paused, enjoying the look of confusion, ¡°that would mean that the adventurer¡¯s guild was competent.¡± I took a few steps forward and poured out as much killing intent as I could, while taking out one of my swords in one hand and slipping a dagger into the other.

    ¡°Of course, if that theory is not correct, than maybe everyone will hear about how incapable the Guild is, after all, you cannot even stop one little girl like-¡± the youngest looking adventurer fainted ¡°-me.¡± I finished, before retracting my killing intent. ¡°Think about it boy, think about what the odd are of you winning this fight and think about what will happen if word gets out about it.¡±

    I let my eyes bore into his for a moment as I concentrated on him and saw the uncertainty in his mind. ¡°You are the man on the spot and all of your friends here are waiting on your orders.¡± I gestured with my sword to the other, who were all in battle stances, but seemed to flinch back at my mere gesture. ¡°You decide what to do, but if you attack me than you will not live to regret it.¡±

    I started walking forward again, resting my sword on my shoulder and keeping my dagger held low. I walked at a very deliberate pace, my G¨ªa ready to surge at any moment.

    Everyone tensed up and I mentally marked the 3 mages in the group for immediate execution if they moved. Since 1 or the 3 non-mages was already down, it only left 2 normals, who looked like they would like they wanted to be anywhere else, but here.

    As I passed by the first few of them, none moved and I started to relax as I stepped around the fallen one and walked up to the leader, who was standing in the back so bravely.

    Pretending not to notice him, I stepped past him, right as he found his courage for a moment. He twisted, bringing up his sword to slash at me, but I merely met his eyes and hit him with a large blast of killing intent. The man instinctively jumped backwards and recovered his stance, but I just continued walking.

    My path out of the dungeon was clear and no matter how much I strained my ears, I could not hear them moving. I could hear them all breathing raggedly though.

    Hunting monsters and hunting humans was not the same thing.

    I would rather be lucky than good, I thought to myself as I exited the dungeon. Meeting cowards among the SRMs though¡­ should I even call that luck? For all of their self-righteous prattle and even their combat experience, they were used to fighting non-sentient creatures, not humans who were just as clever as them. From my experience, even the SRMs who hunted bandits tended to simply think of them as smart beasts, so maybe it was to be expected¡­ Or maybe the Nalks were at work again, but if they were I could not tell and likely did not matter anyway.

    I got out of the dungeon and soon I would get away from the fools in this city.

    It was just before morning twilight outside and the sky was just starting to light up beautifully. I quickly climbed to the edge of the pit and got out of range of the giants wards that were apparently not under the SRM¡¯s control ¨C or else they would have attacked me just outside of the dungeon.

    I turned back and briefly looked at the dungeon as a thought ran through my mind. What would happen if you gave a ward an endlessly complex system of repair and monitoring instruction? What if you gave it the ability to observe intelligent creatures and even interact with them to a limited extent?

    Could it fake intelligence? Could something as artificial as a ward actually gain sentience?

    More questions that I would have to wait to get answered, I had to change my clothes before the adventurers found their courage and called for reinforcements. Then I could turn back into Set and go back to the capital. After that¡­

    Well, I probably had quite a bit of walking ahead of me before I got to the ¡®after.¡¯

    *     *     *

    A fortnight later¡­

    Capital city of the Kingdom of Zootrofi, Thysia:

    Her beady little eyes stared into mine without so much as twitching. Rapier hated those eyes more than anything, even more than those thrice-cursed elf ears, and she was sure that they would appear in her dreams¡­ in her night terrors.

    Rapier stared at the device that Bella had placed on the table, it had instantly created a basic privacy ward and set Rapier even more on edge. They were in public right now and it was unlikely that she would try anything foolish against a member of the Royal Magician¡¯s Corps, but Rapier was all too aware that there were any number of ways to kill someone in public.

    As it was they were both staring at each other in a city tavern, with 2 mugs of cider sitting practically untouched on the table between them.

    Does she know? Is that why she waved to me in the streets? Rapier could not calm down, knowing that the person who had most likely killed-

    ¡°Is something bothering you Lady Rapier?¡±

    It was hard not to notice how white Bella¡¯s teeth were when she smiled. She still did not look the 14 cycles she must be by now, but it was primarily because of her height and the fact that she was growing a tooth that showed her youth. Her elf ears would earn her some enmity if she showed them, but they were hidden under hair just long enough to cover them.

    I cannot believe that this thing can look so innocent on the outside. Rapier forced her emotions down for now though, she hardly needed proof to kill this thing, but it would be best to gather the fact first. ¡°Someone I knew died recently¡±

    Rapier had only found her by chance and was not eager to let her go, but the fact that she was acting so relaxed confused the royal mage. Not that Rapier was likely to be wrong, why else would he have died?

    ¡°No one close I hope.¡± Bella stated sadly.

    Not as close as I wanted him to be, because of you. ¡°Actually, I was hoping that you could help me with that, he went missing near Entrials almost a cycle ago.¡±

    ¡°Near Entrials? Perhaps it had something to do with the fear runes? I could only imagine how easy it would be to drown if he was fighting them and fell into the river.¡± She is not lying, but she is hiding something.

    Rapier was trained to detect lies and a teenage girl would hardly be able to fool her, Rapier had been one herself and remembered how they thought.

    ¡°That is one possibility.¡± With the other being that you somehow killed him you poisonous little black-soul. ¡°However, everyone in my profession has a special device, like this little ward builder of yours, but much more complex.¡± React, give me an excuse, confirmation of what you did, something. I can figure out the how later.

    Bella blinked in what appeared to be honest surprise and curiosity. ¡°So he was a royal mage as well? What does this device do?¡±

    Rapier smiled viciously, ¡°It lets the capital know how and where someone like me dies as well as any last messages.¡±

    Surprise, but not fear painted Bella¡¯s face, could I have been wrong after all? ¡°What did his say?¡±

    ¡°Bella.¡± Show me a sign, give me the face I need to kill you without feeling guilty. Rapier had a hand on below the tavern¡¯s table on a hidden dagger, ready to pull it out and take the young woman¡¯s head off at a moment¡¯s notice.

    More surprise, a hint of confusion, and finally a bit of suspicion. ¡°With respect Lady Rapier, that makes no sense, why would your friend¡¯s last message be my name? Did his magical device get damaged somehow?¡±

    ¡°I do not know, but the device might also be called a spell that turns us into the magical device you see, because it is placed in our souls.¡±

    Fear, surprise, confusion, curiosity, and realization flitted across her face. The last of which, immediately caught Rapier¡¯s attention. ¡°Is that not¡­ you know, soul mage?¡±

    Rapier blinked in surprise, the girl was serious, ¡°no, it simply put the spell in our soul, like an extra piece of fabric being added to a robe. Anyway, do you know of anything that might have affected someone¡¯s soul to hurt the device? If not than I still need an explanation.¡±

    Bella hesitated and Rapier spoke sharply, ¡°only the truth Bella.¡±

    She spoke slowly, not lying as far as Rapier could tell, but recalling a specific memory. ¡°I was testing myself against the fear area one day and¡­¡± Rapier almost growled at the pause. ¡°I was the only one who saw it and given the nature of the area I could have been wrong, but¡­ I swear that I saw a rune¡­ made of zugoran.¡±

    Rapier inhaled sharply. She is telling the truth. Plus, zugoran could have drastic and unpredictable effects on people. Gods, I even heard a rumor that they found some ancient mine just across the border with zugoran in it¡­ and to top it all off, that evil metal is much more likely to kill a fully trained royal mage than some little girl¡­ gods above, was I really wrong?

    There was silence for a moment as Rapier collected her thoughts, before she grudgingly asked Bella for the details. It took quite some time, but eventually Rapier was at least mostly satisfied that she had a viable lead to look into, especially once she heard about the adventurers who found a dagger made of the stuff.

    ¡°I do hope that you will look after my family if you investigate the case yourself, I would not want anything happening to them like it did your friend.¡± Bella stood up from the table, but Rapier did not move.

    Was I really wrong? Can I chance letting her get away? ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I was thinking of making a pilgrimage to the holy city. I always planned on becoming a Healer, but my boat will leave out of the south soon so I will need to get there before nightfall.¡± Is it that late already? Darn it, she is right.

    Does that mean you are running away or just leaving temporarily? ¡°Someone as young as you should not leave their parents for too long Bella, make sure you come back and visit them.¡±

    ¡°I will, I do not like the idea of being away from them, but I need to settle my own life first.¡± That look¡­ she is telling the truth and even if she was lying¡­ I will find out soon enough and I can track those ears easily enough, no matter how well she hides them.

    ¡°I wish you well then.¡± Rapier forced a smile and let Bella walk away while she continued to vent internally. Why could she not have been the answer? It would make things so¡­ ah well, Rapier sighed quietly to herself, that is self-explanatory, nothing in life is ever simple.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    I thought about having DeMorte get captured and escorted to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall, but I was at 7.5k words already and I couldn¡¯t come up with a reasonable way for DeMorte to get out of that situation without causing WAY too much bloodshed ¨C to the point where it would have come back on Bella¡¯s family.

    Future changes:

    -RMC should be more secretive, so in the rewrite, Bella/DeMorte will not know who Rapier really is.

    -All mages should be more ¡®magically¡¯ talented and inclined to use those spells ¨C including DeMorte

    -Killing intent should be better explained as a powerful psychological weapon, especially against large crowds of normal people or a single opponent in a duel. It should essentially activated fight or flight response in a big way, with a strong push towards flight

    Time skip of 1 cycle will be initiated between now and the next chapter, where DeMorte may or may not end up in a convent¡­ it would be fun, but I¡¯m wondering if it would fit =P

    Again, I apologize for the delay and hope you continue to read BKR.

    Thank you, B_S

 Chapter 35: Sisterhood of Pugnax

    Announcements:

    Working on a map to show you locations, but the kingdom introduced in this chapter, Pugnax, is about 2 kingdoms west of where Bella was born and next to the kingdom where¡­ important stuff will happen.

    Also, I am currently juggling an odd RL schedule, so if we manage to pass 250 followers I will still need a few days before I get a bonus chapter out for everyone. This is also part of the reason why I have putting out late chapters the last few weeks.

    One of the things that I will be changing in the rewrite, is Anton¡¯s past and I will be giving him a bit of face time to argue with DeMorte in a conservative versus liberal sort of situation ¨C this will be to establish that DeMorte is still a conservative by many of our standards, even if he will be a radical by the standards of his current world.

    The churches will also be taking a larger role in the world as a whole from here on out and I will be adding some religious scenes to the rewrite¡­ although the pantheon is still not complete and this is how it currently stands:

    <b>Spoiler</b> : <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>

    Hoh - Water/healing

    Heh - Fire/smithing

    ??? - Earth/farming

    Harno - Air/travel

    Conbra - Life/fertility

    NoEs - Death/cycles

    Tophon - Justice/light

    ??? - Deceit/darkness

    ??? - Unity/peace/femininity(?)

    ??? - Division/war/manliness(?)

    Prometheus ¨C Humanity/technology(?)/???

    ??? - ???

    Opinions and suggestions are welcome for the parts with question marks.

    Reminders:

    -DeMorte is fairly paranoid about mages touching him, but non-mages, especially attractive women without a weapon, are safe enough ¨C so long as they do not actually sleep in his bed.

    -Bella is currently 15 and the merge occurs 5 days before DeMorte gets stuck in his current body.

    -Dras (full name Drasiedi) was John¡¯s old friend. Specifically, the more responsible one with burnout and the sleeping disorder that DeMorte copied to compress his own sleep. He also received some light genetic modifications a little while before DeMorte left for the capital.

    -I still need to work on introducing information over the long term

    -By many standards DeMorte is a horrible person, but even he has friends/people he cares for

    -Healer is an official title ¨C protected by the king¡¯s law like any noble title

    Chapter 35: Sisterhood of Pugnax

    Cycle 3086 AF, day 52 of the Wood phase (9 days before merge deadline)

    Hohen Healing Temple in the kingdom of Pugnax:

    ¡°Hoh¡¯s blessed waters!¡± The young woman collapsed against me gasping and I smirked as I enjoyed the way her brain was reacting in the afterglow. I had nothing better to do this early in the evening, while everyone else was awake, so sneaking away with one girl or another was entraining in more ways than one.

    Being able to keep an eye on each step of her mind¡¯s reaction to what I was doing was the major interest right now, but I did grudgingly experiment on my own body too. It took a long time to come to that particular decision, but I was very interested in keeping track of and regulating my own brain, so I practiced influencing it and discovered magical orgasms ¨C literally.

    I did know how to cause them before, in theory, but it was odd to actually design a systematic spell that could cause someone to reach orgasm. The spell should work on males too, but I was not going to test that particular application just yet.

    Furthermore, that spell was the precursor to one of my most impressive spells yet, a general pleasure spell. My current test subjects were helping me test some of the addictive qualities of the spell, as it did seem addictive to a certain extent. Combined with my pain spell, I could envision some truly effective combinations to use while interrogating prisoners.

    I had tried the spells on myself a few times, but while I did feel good the effects seemed to be severely diminished in comparison to how others reacted. I had a few ideas about why, including my initial reluctance to experience any pleasure or orgasm this close to my deadline to change my sex.

    I gave the young woman in her a moment of recovery before planting a kiss that left my tongue to run wild inside of her mouth. It had nothing to do with the experiment, but it was fun. She moaned softly into my mouth and I saw her brain go into a tailspin of hormones at the same time as I felt her body tensed up for a moment before relaxing. She seemed to melt into me and I managed to keep my discomfort at physical contact to a minimum.

    She was one of the 5 woman in the Hoh worshipping healing temple that I managed to confirm as very interested in other women. Of those, I had collected 2 of them for this experiment, one of whom was busy tonight, while I quietly suggested to the others that they should hide their actions better. The final woman was too young to attract my attentions, but that did not stop her from trying.

    Considering that a pair of my confirmations were a full Sister Healer and one of her senior pupils, I had gained a small safety net of people who were very motivated to keep me happy. Though they would not be able to help me once I actually took what I needed from this place.

    The Sisters here had mixed reactions to such meetings as they dirtied the so-called purity of their members, but they were much better about it than the church of Conbra. While followers of Hoh were taught some anatomically incorrect things about virginity, the church of Conbra had strict teachings when it came to what genders a person was supposed to be attracted to.

    Such ¡°crimes against nature¡± were typically viewed as signs of insanity where Conbraian followers held sway and were punished with either ¡°corrective¡± measures or execution.

    Given that this particular temple was largely made up of a cult dedicated to keeping women away from men, I was only vaguely surprised that a number of women were more interested in women. With just over 1200 Sisters and initiates who were only allowed outside for special reasons and a rather impressive wall to enforce the rule, I was actually surprised that I only managed to confirm 5 of the people other were attracted to other women¡­ Though if I was being honest a sizable part of my personal surprise was disappointment.

    Not that I actually believed in the rumors of midnight orgies, but I did wonder how they were started and if there was even a kernel of truth, it would be fun to discover.

    Regardless, I had an idea that it might have had something to do with the temple itself, as the temple was actually open to the public both as a place to honor Hoh and receive basic medical care. The full Sisters helped where they could and usually hired themselves out to local nobles as a fully trained Healer for whatever healing might be needed.

    I broke the kiss slowly and stroked the young woman¡¯s face, she was a few cycles older than me in my current body and decades younger than I was mentally, but she was good for a bit of fun. Though the way she looked at me made me slightly nervous.

    I only had one love, regardless of the life I lived in and while I enjoyed seeing her react to my attentions, I did not need her assuming love was a factor. I knew some people who had made such mistakes in the past and it never seemed to end well.

    I told her that I was using magic to manipulate her body to react more had not seemed to get through her head. That she ¡®knew¡¯ such manipulations were impossible was definitely an annoyance. Not only did she know that the overly-protective holy wards block most magic, but she was also an older initiate who the Healers had spent the last 10 cycles training on the limitations of magic into her head.

    Even the non-mage menders who were trained here needed to know how to help the actual Healers as well as what they could and could not do. This allowed both menders and Healers to prioritize wounded individuals appropriately and not waste mana on minor wounds.

    I stepped away from the woman and her look turned pleading. The fact that she almost seem to start begging when I turned to leave made me wonder how much of her current state I could attribute to my spell and how much was just an overly excited teen. ¡°W-wait, please.¡±

    I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, I barely remembered the woman¡¯s name and the last thing I needed was a clingy woman following me around, but I viewed myself as responsible for her current state so I turned back to her with a neutral look. Although it might have been slightly ruined when I ran my eyes over her delectable body, which was young, perky, and in a rather good health despite the questionable food they made here.

    She stuttered for a moment before blurting out something unexpected. ¡°I recommended that the novices be taken to the tournaments from now on to see what some of the Healers at work outside the walls. I also pointed out that it would let them see violence that caused those injuries in case they had to deal with that in the future.¡±

    I blinked and nodded thoughtfully. The novices here contained a fair number of upper class and they had varying degrees of exposure to violence and blood. The cleaning up of the treatment rooms had gotten most of them used to blood and even removing dead bodies, but some of them managed to dodge the duty religiously. ¡°What did the Sister Healers say to that?¡±

    Blushing and obviously wishing that she could have said how much she loved me or something along those lines, she explained how good of an idea they found it. Apparently their Healers were already on hand and used to do this for certain novice groups in the past, but it had fallen out of practice when the sword tournaments popularity waned.

    Since they had recently made a large return to the public¡¯s attention the Sister Healers had been hired for their healing expertise. Naturally, my name had come up as I had volunteered a lot for observing the Healers at work in the previous phases since I joined the order.

    If everything went well tonight, I would be able to leave in a few days without attracting too much attention, but if not it would give me something to do while I came up with another plan.

    I stepped forward and slipped my arms around her mostly naked body to pull her close for another kiss. Letting what robes she still wore, fall to the ground a few moments later.

    We had a little more time until curfew and I swore that this room in particular was left ignored, yet clean, explicitly for young woman to sneak away to. Regardless, I would happily use it for the moment, though I somehow doubted this young woman realized how serious I was when I said that this would be our last time together.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Later that evening, after a round of partly compressed sleep, I quickly and quietly moved from the shared dorm that represented my current sleeping arraignment. Luckily, not only were my bunkmates fairly deep sleepers, but had also learned the consequences of trying to pull pranks on me fair quickly.

    Between my reflexes and a few old memories of night assassination attempts, I tended to be a light sleeper unless I was compressing my own sleep cycle. The resulting lectures from the Sisters in charge had mostly been instructions on how to mend broken noses without magic.

    I snuck out of the room and down the hall that connected to dozens of rooms just like my own. It was regularly patrolled by some of the Sisters, but they were so consistent that they were easy to dodge.

    After the hallway ended at some stairs it became a little more annoying, but the wards were not set to detect people leaving the novice area, just people trying to force their way into sensitive areas or coming in from outside. As a result I was fairly safe so long as I avoided anyone coming up the stairs at the wrong time.

    In fact, it could have been much more dangerous for me if these particular stairs had been made out of wood, because of my weight, but thankfully wood seemed to cause mixed reactions in this city. Richer individuals and members of the aristocracy typically viewed it as a sign of wealth, especially when made into furniture, but for some it was a source of fear.

    It had something to do with one of the other cults in the city, one dedicated to the god of humanity, Prometheus. That cult in particular only believed in touching wood if separated by cloth and only cooking with iron instruments separating food from the fire. Food roasted over an open flame was only acceptable if it was a non-wood fire.

    The Sisters of the temple gave the novices strict instructions to avoid them if we ever went out, even though we hardly ever did so without a pair of strict Sisters watching our every move.

    The current ¡®temple¡¯ where I was residing was rather large and had apparently been built just after a large flood cleared the previous residents out. It had several different building on the temple ground, which were walled off from the outside world and protected by the so-called ¡°holy ward.¡±

    Given the power of the wards many people wondered just how they were created. When mentioned in concert with the flood prior to construction some even suggested that Hoh herself somehow marked the land for her followers.

    I disagreed, thinking that there was no way that the gods would do something so direct, but I might have been judging the local gods based on the how the Nalks acted.

    Though finding out how the wards worked was actually one of my end goals. When I joined the Hoh Sisterhood it was to steal either the cult secrets of the magic that the Sisterhood used, specifically, a set of ritual healing spells or the holy ward¡¯s method of construction. Either one would cover my payment for the sex changing spell, according to mage Jorgensen.

    I had met that particular graveborn just after my birthday at the end of the metal phase and had almost hated him from the start. Apparently, the most trustworthy person, once he was paid, that I could contact in regards to a sex change spell. Although I truly did not like my inability to walk away from this particular deal.

    Jorgensen had been able to drive up the price to the point where I knew that he was used to dealing almost exclusively with rich nobles. He demanded that I either pay a hundred gold pieces, as he had no desire for mithril, or¡­ well, the point was, the number of people who actually knew how to cast it was extremely low and he was my best option.

    There was also an annoying statement from the church of Conbra that he used to help justify a ¡®reluctance¡¯ to help me. Said statement talked about the ¡°questionable sanity¡± of anyone who sought to change their Conbra-given body. Especially when changing females to males, because it was seen as shirking the duty of having children.

    I was not sure where I what I was going to do after I managed to become a man again, but if I ended up in a position of power than I would likely have several interesting chats with the various churches.

    Even without my slightly changed world views from time with Anton, I did not like the level of power churches here had. It had been similar in my previous world, but they only had so much influence in an area ruled by outlaws.

    I sighed at the memory and check behind me for any followers before I started descending the stairs.

    Since the novices were placed on the top floor, allegedly to help keep us from causing trouble, I had to go down 4 flights of stairs without attracting attention. Luckily there was no one moving around in the hall lower floors, which housed the senior inductees and near Sisters, but I paused as I came to the bottom of the stairs.

    I had to confirm that the guards were, as per usual, taking their smoke break and my nose easily confirmed that they were. I had astounded when I first learned of their habit, but the 3 women who were supposed to watch over the novice¡¯s dorm left for a smoke break every night at a certain time. The fact that smoking traxico was unhealthy was actually a matter of debate within the Sisterhood so it was not forbidden, just frowned upon.

    Getting back into the building would be slightly trickier, but I had been doing this every few nights for the whole phase so I was used to the climbing.

    I walked out the front entrance to the initiate¡¯s building without fear, the whole temple awoke before dawn, so only the night guards were up at this late hour. The wards around the compound made it seem like there was nothing beyond the large walls of the compound either, despite being fairly closer to the center of the city.

    The other buildings besides the temple itself were a few supply buildings, a mess hall, and a residential building for the Sisters themselves.

    What I was after was in the library underneath the temple itself, in a back room where novices such as myself were not allowed and under multiple layers of magical protection.

    For a brief moment I wondered why in the world Jorgensen even wanted the information, as it was not like he could confirm it¡­ unless that fool thought that I was going to walk a copy of the rituals out the front gate.

    Given the ward¡¯s high level of security and the loyalty magic that full Sisters used when they gained the title, getting to the back library was almost impossible without some knowledge of borderline forbidden magic. Getting anything out would be impossible with anything short of an army or an iron spike through the ward¡¯s anchor point. Which was why I suspected that he suggested this robbery as a bluff to make me give up on purchasing his services without- anyway.

    Since such a large part of ritual magic was the belief that it would work, writing it down as ¡®this worked centuries ago¡¯ dramatically increased the likelihood of the ritual¡¯s success. This at least meant that the Sisters would likely have a physical copy of instructions for how to perform their rituals.

    Unlike almost every single other branch of magic, ritual spells were entirely illogical affairs. In fact, to best describe it I would have to quote an old friend: ¡°Ritual magic is 3 parts belief, 1 part magic, 1 part timing, and a lot of luck throughout.¡±

    In particular, this branch of the church of Hoh was known for their healing rituals which would cure some of the worst diseases and heal deadly of wounds without leaving a scar. Of course no one was allowed to witness such rituals and all of those healed were unconscious when it occurred, so it was still a fairly secret process.

    One of the few well known facts about the Sisters was that they had a requirement that all of their members keep themselves virginal. Though I wanted to slap some of the Sisters for their ideas of a virginal purity. For example, apparently you could only have your virginity if you had an intact hymen¡­ I wanted to give a detailed lecture on anatomy when I heard that, especially given that this place was where some of the better Hoh Healers were supposed to be trained, but I was supposed to be a novice.

    On that subject, I did ask them why men were not allowed in the order, but apparently only women can use virginity magic¡­ I asked them if the hymen had magical properties and earned an extra cleaning duty.

    According to them, it was all about purity, but to me it just showed that their famous ritual spells really did, at least in part, rely on belief to work. If nonsense was what was they thought was required to make their rituals work, than nonsense would be standing at attention somewhere nearby.

    I shook my head at the foolishness, the only ritual spell that made sense was a mana gathering ritual where a mage would pool their mana in a series of circles in preparation for a large spell. Though that was called only a ritual spell because it required a certain level of synchronization if more than a single mage used it at the same time, but it did not need someone to believe in it to work.

    I navigated between buildings, staying out of sight as much as possible as I went to one of the temple¡¯s side doors and pulled out my key weapon to break into the library. It was a magical device of a rather morbid nature as I had made it from a ball of a recently indisposed senior Sister¡¯s hair. If anyone found me with it they would accuse me of blood magic, but it was just me using DNA to replicate the ¡®feel¡¯ of the senior Sister, who was allowed in most every place under the temple¡¯s wards.

    The Sister in question was old enough that not even the other Sisters could aid her failing body, but while she was ill and alive, I could fool the wards into thinking I was her. Though the opposite was true as well, if she died, the wards would remove her ability to access the library, so I kept very close eye on how she was doing.

    I did not know how far I could go with this method of tricking the wards, but I had scouted out every major building¡¯s non-public areas over the last few days so I was at least sure that it worked for most places on the grounds. One of the last places to go was the library in the basement of the temple itself.

    It was not far away or watched by hulking guards clad in iron and ready to fight, but it did have the holy wards guarding it. In fact it had taken the majority of the time I spent after arriving here to just work my way through each different level of security that the ward provided. The very first layer only needed the cult¡¯s proof, which also allowed us into areas besides the temple without problems, but it got much more complicated after that.

    The side entrance of the temple branched off into a variety of different areas, including a critical treatment room and a ritual room. I took the stairs that were partially hidden behind a sharp curve between 2 adjoining passages and prepared myself.

    The wards washed over me and I made sure that my modified shroud extended all around me without covering up my key. Like it had last time, the wards left after they confirmed that I was allowed to be there.

    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    The modified shroud I created in the dungeon had been more useful than I originally thought it might because it was technically not a spell and therefor the wards would not see or react to it. It also shielded me from detection to a certain extent.

    Downstairs was the basement and the library that promptly opened itself to my presence.

    It was the area beyond the library though that held all of the most important written records. It was also an area that, until tonight, I had been unable to access.

    I had been coming down here for quite some time, but it was not until I got creative with some of my questioning that I managed to actually figure out how to enter. The back of the library was reserved for Sisters who had already become fully recognized members of the order and knew their craft well enough to solve a small riddle that was carved near the gate that kept others out.

    The darn thing had been a truly evil puzzle to beat because I kept trying to put in the correct answer, when the Sisters had deliberately made sure that only the wrong answer would let you in. Specifically, there was a carving of the human body with mana paths running through most of the body.

    I kept trying to complete the paths correctly only to have the puzzle reset after I was done. It turned out that I was expected to carve the symbol of the Sisterhood, a complicated series of lines that was supposed to represent purity somehow, over the carving¡¯s groin. The mana paths were technically wrong as a result, but that was what it took.

    The official motto of the Sisterhood was something about being the water to wash away wounds, but the unofficial saying was ¡®purity of within and without.¡¯

    I shook my head as the gate swung open silently and I wondered what other layers of protection I could expect. This much was already beyond what most noble houses used to protect their own personal area, only creating a wall that had to be directly removed by the ward owner was more secure.

    [AN: IDK if the terminology is correct but it should be similar to admin level access instead of having the correct permission and password]

    The back room automatically brightened with magically powered lights and I stepped in to look around only after I had checked for any more puzzles or hidden traps.

    The rear area seemed to be a dead-end, but it had a few shelves, which were mostly filled with scrolls instead of books. I carefully removed several of the smaller scrolls and started reading them, trying to confirm that if any described a ritual, any ritual. I also looked through a few of the books that where there and it was all interesting, but it also took time.

    I gave a small smile while mentally keeping track of how much time I had before the rest of the temple awoke. I found that several obvious ritual scrolls were kept in the same area and given time I could copy one of these by hand, but that would longer than I had remaining.

    Assuming that magical devices would not set off the wards here, I might be able to use one to create a fake copy but¡­ that was assuming that these minor scrolls counted as secret rituals. They were fairly well protected and it was obvious from the mana in them that they were tied to this place so they might be, but I had no way of knowing for sure.

    I also could not take them outside without dealing with whatever safety measure had been put in place. I could read and memorize it easily enough given the size, but I looked around for anything I missed earlier.

    The wards for example, which were centered on the temple, though there seemed to be something blocking me from figuring out where the wards were actually anchored at. It was usually the lowest point in any given building for security concerns, but I had not found the ward room yet.

    I put the scrolls away and started walking around the edge of the room, keeping my hand just barely out of direct contact with the wall. It worked and soon enough my hand felt a large amount of mana leaking out from behind a portion of the wall near a corner.

    I smiled and gently probed this hidden passage for a while as my smile quickly faded and replacing itself with a grimace.

    I growled to myself when I realized the extent of this layer of defense as it required directly manipulating the wards in a specific way to pass through, no exceptions.

    Stone the graveborns who designed this!

    I shook my head, if I was going to force my way past that I would have to do some fairly serious preparation work and it would likely be a loud exit. A full iron suit would help too, but my current identity as ¡®Stella¡¯ would be completely unusable afterwards.

    Plus, my iron and bone armor were currently being looked after by the local Histone chapter and it would be rather difficult to get them back because of the fairly strict over watch.

    I turned back and quickly, but quietly, exited the library. I could think of a few spells that would help, but all of them ended in one noticeable exit and I really could not afford to do that more than once.

    I would have to arrange a few things ahead of time, but it would not be too hard to make sure that Jorgensen was ready for me ahead of time. If he betrayed me though¡­

    Well, no matter how I tried to figure it out, I would be stuck as a woman unless I wanted to take the extreme measure of trying to use my genetic recoder before it was finished. It should make me male, but the mutations in my DNA would be¡­ unpredictable.

    Even with my perfect memory for the lessons I learned from Anton, there were still too many variables to guess what would happen. Even with the minimized changes I worked into the magical device, I would be better off making myself a gender neutral than a male.

    In the best case, everything went well and I would survive with minimal changes outside of a few noticeable growths between my legs¡­ if it did not, I could end up with multiple tumors, all of my improvements to my current body would be disrupted, and my unnaturally dense muscles or bones might decide expand.

    That was the consequence of rapidly trying to force genetic change though and anything that would slow it down enough to let me watch and correct it might end up taking months.

    Genetics could not simply be messed with without risk and even with whole cycles of experimentation on both myself and the modified humans I had no guarantee that it would work. Stones, even with all the advanced knowledge from Anton under my belt, that would still be one stoning monster of a gamble.

    Still, I had to keep emergency plans available¡­ despite the clear lack of options I had. Jorgensen was already taking me for all I was worth instead of simply accepting my bit of mithril as payment and now I had to put my trust in him near the last possible moment.

    I pushed down the rising urge to hurt someone as I snuck through the temple and back outside. Even if I was disguised as someone else, the wards would likely smite anyone who started leaking too much killing intent.

    I felt a slight burn in the back of my mind and ignored the youngling who had stopped speaking to me a few phases ago.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------

    A few days later I at the tournament, suffering through the indignity that was listening to someone who out ranks you try to teach you something you already know. I was allowed to watch some of the sword matches, which was entertaining, but after the first few participants were injured, the Sisters in charge called me back to watch them treat the wounded.

    I originally found interesting to learn from the Sisters as they had different ways of describing the things that Anton had taught me so many cycles ago. There were some things that they were mistaken on, but they had a good grasp on the basics like how urgent it was to treat what injures or how to set bones to let them heal properly.

    Healers had been rare in my previous life, with most people just taking care of their own wounds and the person next to them. Even as a ¡®king¡¯ I was treated similarly with the majority of healers only coming to my little kingdom only when forced to.

    I was still looking for a way to slip away into the crowd and send a message to Jorgensen to be ready for me. Fortunately, his personal tower was not far away from this fighting arena and once the last of the fighting was done the Sisters would be busy publically educating (arguing with) people about various points of personal health. I could slip away at that point and make a hurried visit.

    ¡°Are you listening Stella?¡±

    I nodded. ¡°Yes Sister, you were talking about-¡± I jerked my head to the side as I heard a familiar voice from the other side of the large room. Even with my sharp (although not currently pointed) ears it was not hard to hear his voice as he was arguing with someone, although they were not quite yelling.

    I started wondering about the odds of meeting him here, but decided that it was actually fairly good. Between his determination to become an expert swordsman and the odds of Nalk interference, fair odds went out the window. The fact that he might recognize me also popped into my head

    The Sister heard the yelling too, but tried to get me to ignore it by calling to me. I answered her question with less than half my attention as I concentrated on what Dras was saying. His voice was clearly upset and while I did not know why, I had a suspicion that I had or would have something to do with it before this was over.

    Since the only thing separating us was several curtains that divided up the room

    ¡°-I told you that I am fine, just give me a healing potion and let me get back to the competition.¡±

    ¡°Sir, please, there is something odd that we need to check, it will just take a moment-¡±

    ¡°I told you that I am fine and I do not want someone rooting around in my body with magic now, I-¡±

    The Sister I had been shadowing stepped past me and pushed through the curtain that gave the illusion of privacy aside. Located underneath the area when the actual tournament was fought before a sizable crowd, this area was meant to be where people could relax and receive treatment before they either fought again or left. Therefore anyone who disturbed the sanctity of that would deal with the Sisters, who had been placed in charge of it.

    The words spoken were very quiet, but I picked up phrases like ¡°ignorant sword ape¡± and ¡°inconsiderate masochist¡± before it was done.

    Dras was very quiet after that, but I heard him exit soon after. I gave him my sympathy, but remained out of sight the whole time.

    The Sister came back and promptly gave me a lecture on concentration before going back to work.

    Sometime later, the quarter finals to be precise, I was dismissed and told that I could go observe the fighting if I wanted to. I wanted to ask her why, but the Sister had a look on her face that said she knew that I really wanted to be upstairs watching the fighting.

    Naturally I was more interested in Dras and how his body was doing than anything else, so I immediately took the Sister¡¯s offer. Although I found myself wondering why exactly she thought I wanted to see the fights. In her mind I was just another newly joined novice who still had the right to remove myself from Sisterhood.

    Regardless, I took the time to find my way to the private boxes. Since most nobles dismissed the art of the sword because of their incredible magical talent they were currently empty.

    I heard from someone announce Dras was up in the next fight and I tried to smile, but my special brand of luck came into play.

    I saw a servant I recognized as belonging to a very specific annoyance. Knowing that person was here was a mixed blessing as it saved me the trouble of finding them, but I disliked the idea of being seen with them, even temporarily.

    I walked up to the servant and nodded towards the door. ¡°Alone?¡±

    The servant, who was quite quick on the uptake, realized that I did not care and knocked on the door in a specific patter before opening it for me.

    The tall man who was seated alone turned to look at me and gave me his most disgusting smile. ¡°Hello little Bella, or Stella, or whatever it was.¡±

    I quickly put up a ward for privacy before responding. ¡°NoEs¡¯ rot Jorgensen, why are you here?¡±

    [AN:

    -Time left until merge = 5 days plus the time before dawn on the 6th day

    -The person below is from chapter 10]

    *     *     *

    Just outside the Imperial Jade palace of Etror

    How much does a mother love her child? How far would a parent go to protect their post precious little one? If someone had to ask, then they were not a parent, or at least not one worthy of their child.

    Inhale, exhale.

    She withdrew the now hot stoker that she had been playing with in the fire.

    She did not want to do this and part of her begged not to, what she was about to do was against the rules and obeying the rules felt so good.

    Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

    I have to do this for him though. Her clothes, wonderful and expensive, were on the floor behind her. They were wonderful gifts from her owners, the heavenly Emperor and Empress themselves! She felt a shiver of shame at having dare let their precious gifts touch the ground outside of their bed chambers and felt a strong desire to go pick them up and clean them thoroughly!

    Anyone could walk in on her right and see her, naked beside a fire that should not be burning, with her child deliberately facing away from her as ordered. They would see her and then both of them would be in danger. Jie would be in danger!

    That thought cleared her head at last and she replaced the metal into the fire for a moment to prepare both it and herself. No more hesitating, if she did not concentrate they would both be dead.

    Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.

    She was hyperventilating by this time, though she did not know the word.

    Finally she took a deep breath in and held it for a moment as she pulled the hot metal out of the fire.

    Then she exhaled, emptying her body of air until it hurt and she pushed the heated metal into her flesh.

    Without any air in her lungs she could not scream from the pain as the rune of loyalty was seared and distorted. She did however take a full gasp of air and fumbled to stoker as she did so.

    Pain burned its way through her mind and part of her remembered the joy of obeying again, but she pushed it away. The smell of seared flesh made her want to throw up, but she concentrated. The world spun and she heard her son calling her name in concern, but she ordered him not to look.

    Then she grabbed the stoker and proceeded to remove both the ¡°obey¡± and the ¡°contentment¡± runes as well.

    Stand up, she groaned, stand up and get going! NOW!

    She stood.

    There was a commoner¡¯s outfit for both her and her son, although he was supposed to have put it on by now.

    She asked, but he responded something about it being stinky. She did not have the energy to laugh, so she put her outfit on and tried not to pass out as it rested on her new burns. She took Jia by the shoulders and turned him around to face her. ¡°Put. Them. On.¡±

    A while later they were walking out the back door of the building. It was supposed to be a guard position, but when the rebels sought to use her son against the Emperor, a friend had deliberately recalled all of the guard to the central palace.

    They would be back here any moment, so she pushed Jia along. He was young and did not understand what had occurred that night, so he was complaining, but he was her son and would listen to what she said. The only ones who could get him away safely were the history writers. They had likely known about the attempted rebellion ahead of time for they had already announced that they were pulling back from the capital after the Day of the Emperor.

    The emperor would threaten them, but the history writers were beloved by the people and they would vanish into the countryside now that their precious manuscripts were fully copied and removed. Her friend had told her that and she knew that his words could be trusted.

    It was a long walk to the last history writer¡¯s outpost, so she forced herself to take a rickshaw and put Jia in the back.

    Someone yelled at her to stop, but she just ran. Her body was weak, but she swore that her friend was there with her, pushing her on.

    She ran, kicking off the silk slippers that she forgot about while changing and forcing herself to keep moving.

    Her hands kept slipping and her feet were numb, but she kept going. She remembered the past while she ran, those cycles of time spent depending on her twin only after a decade of living without him. The days of hunger and how they ended with their enslavement during a war.

    What happened that day was awful, but she had survived. Both of them had survived and worked to stay alive in various places, eventually being seized by the Emperor for their master¡¯s disloyalty. The pain from those memories was fair greater than the occasional wet slap her feet made on the cobblestone.

    She saw the building that her friend had described in such detail and knew that Jia was safe.

    ¡°Mother your hands!¡±

    She gasped for air and ignored her son¡¯s cries, the wooden handles had finally stopped slipping from her hands.

    She saw a guard and slowly came to a halt, before giving a weak bow. He looked scared for some reason, but she could not accept that.

    Her feet were long past numb by this point and her throat felt horse from desperately breathing through her mouth to keep running. She stumbled forward and the guard took a half-step back. ¡°You. Will.¡± she gasped a few more times, ¡°Save. Him.¡±

    She stared the man in the eyes as other moved around them, Jia was next to her crying about her hands and someone she did not know was trying to get them both inside, but she could not go with him.

    She had leave, she had to be as far away as she could from him when the truth was discovered.

    The guard nodded and she turned to Jia.

    It was at that point when she finally noticed her hands were bloody. Wiping her hands as best she could on the peasant cloth, she knelt and tried to steady her breathing.

    Her son¡­ she cupped his face and took a moment to burn it once again into her mind. ¡°I love you.¡± She kissed his forehead, ¡°stay alive.¡±

    She turned her head to the man she previously assumed to be a guard as Jia hugged her fiercely, refusing to let go, and met his eyes. It broke tradition, but she wanted to burn her will into his soul. If he let her Jia die, than not even the gods would protect him from her wrath, nor death keep her from delivering it.

    Slowly, they took Jia away and tried to take her inside too, but she shook her head and slowly turned away.

    They started to call after her, but she ignored them and someone gave the some order that made them stop. She could hardly hear anything around her at that moment. I was not a good mother, please be safe Jia.

    Earlier that night Jia¡¯s blood had been used to kill his father, her twin brother, instead of the person who she had tricked everyone into thinking it was, the emperor himself. The lie would soon be discovered though and there was no way that Jia would be safe.

    Had all started when the empress had called on her and her brother all those cycles ago? Or did her path here start at birth, when she and her brother both survived despite their parent¡¯s death? Or was it when she started to fall into such hedonism that even looking back she still could scarcely believe it?

    The truth was that by the time the emperor finally called her to bed on a whim, she had been with so many that she half expected to be sent away or even killed simple because of how many preceded him, including his wife and her twin brother. Instead, he had her branded and had proceeded to chip away at her humanity.

    Ironically, it was his desire for a son that both saved her and doomed her. Even an unacknowledged son had his uses and the branding had ensured that she could be with no other than him. That the last one in her bed before him made her pregnant¡­ she suspected that her friend fooled him.

    Since the timing fit, everyone was happy.

    Now though, the history writers would be taking him, they would keep her Jia safe, even though her fate was already sealed.

    The runes were not the only layer of protection that ensured the emperor¡¯s safety and the death spells would be activating soon enough.

    She walked another hundred meters along the street, until she came to a small waterway and for a few moments she enjoyed the peacefulness of the night before she felt something grip her heart. As the pain followed, she directed her body¡¯s fall into the waterway and soon felt no more.

    With her duty complete, the last thing she heard was a quiet clapping from the empty air around her. Her friend, no doubt.

    ------------------------------------------------------

    Once upon a time I said that I would try to keep my ellipses use down¡­ I failed =P

    This chapter fought tooth and nail for something I already had planned out, but here it is, I apologize for being late again, I¡¯ll be on the spot next week, I promise.

 Chapter 36: Luck

    Luck, both good and bad, has existed long before the Nalks, but feel free to blame them if something goes wrong, I know I do ^^

    Me: Almost done with the chapter¡­

    Dad: I need your help

    Me: In a few?

    Dad: Now, it will not take long

    *2 hours later*

    Dad: Thanks for the assistance!

    Me: I love you, but your timing physically hurts T_T

    Chapter 36: Luck

    ¡°NoEs¡¯ rot Jorgensen, why are you here?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± He asked in a voice that said he was personally hurt by question. I barely kept from sneering at his tone as he continued. ¡°Am I not allowed to observe the latest type of entertainment to grace the city?¡±

    I kept my tone even as I stared him in the eyes. Technically I was lucky that he was here, but the fact that any lucky incidents could be Nalk interference left me on edge. Jorgensen¡¯s pudgy face stared at me over his shoulder and looked foolish, but it did nothing to hide the intellect I knew lurked behind his bright green eyes. ¡°It is a sword contest and you hardly seem the type.¡± I stated evenly.

    ¡°I might not bounce around swinging those barbarous instruments, but there is no reason I cannot enjoy watching others do it. Now, would you like to sit and enjoy some food with me or just stand there and be gloomy?¡± He finished with a little pout that sent a shiver of disgust through me.

    I took down the ward I had set up and went around the table of food to another empty seat. Jorgensen had already made decent headway into the food present and grabbed another handful of lychees while I looked on. I was not totally sure, but his stomach alone might contain more fat than my whole body combined, even with my new lumps of fat which made up my (grudgingly created) breasts.

    They were useful as storage and let me seem this body¡¯s actual age. ¡°We need to talk.¡±

    ¡°Of course we do, but it can wait until after this match, surly?¡± Jorgensen responded offhandedly, pulling a bowl over to put the rough skins from the lychees into. ¡°Help yourself to the food, I love these lychee things, though they are quite expensive if you cannot grow them yourself.¡±

    I looked over the table of food. He had quite the variety ranging from tropical fruit to what I recognized as maize, which was primarily grown close to the central continent. He even had a few baked avotatoes, which I quickly grabbed, before turning to the match and studiously ignoring the slurping sounds from the individual next to me.

    I used magic to check the food for poison while I briefly analyzed the match. Currently it was one of the semi-finals and had two fairly skilled young men going at each other. Dras was up in the next fight so I only paid half-hearted attention to them, critiquing their movements in my head.

    I might have been able to kill both of them together in a swordfight, but that was mostly because of experience. Those 2 were concentrating too much on their practiced forms and while they were accomplished in those, the few feints they attempted had tells that I could spot from up in the private boxes.

    Granted that partly because of the enchanted glass that covered the covered a large part of the wall. It only allowed one way sight and would automatically change based on where the individuals who wore the enchanted armor of the fighters. As a result, it would always show both participants and make the image seem to close in as they did.

    Most of the competitors were very young men or teenagers who wanted personal fame more than anything else. I knew that many viewed it as an outlet for over energetic young men, but learning the sword was not something the average blacksmith¡¯s son did. Many of the youths who wanted to enter this particular tournament were young officers who wanted to show off, but apparently a something happened in the city of Haereticus to the southwest.

    A few entered as something of a job exhibition as the 2 mercenary guilds (SRM and regular) sometimes sent scouts looking for talent, however in the end I saw fame seekers first and foremost¡­ Which brought up the question of why Dras was here, as he never struck me as that type.

    I shook my head as I ate the baked avotatoes, the Sisters served them every few days, but I never seemed to get tired of them. It was to the extent that I snuck a few at night and wondered how Moth- how Elizabeth and Carlatus were doing.

    The match finished up fairly quickly, with someone managing to maneuver his opponent into a corner and knock him across the head with his hilt. After that, the blunted sword stabbed into his opponent¡¯s gut, making the other wheeze and the enchanted armor glowed red to signal a defeat. Even with the armor and dull blade the loser was left groaning while holding where the stab connected.

    Applause and stomping feet erupted, but were greatly reduced in noise because of the wards around the room. ¡°Nicely done.¡± Jorgensen commented, ¡°Are you going to enter one of these later?¡±

    I shook my head, ¡°Besides the fact that I am a mage and that would draw too much attention, everyone would make a fuss over a girl fighting.¡± I gave Jorgensen a meaningful look, but he just gave me a knowing smile. I created a new privacy ward and added ¡°I hope that you did not give me this little assignment thinking that it was completely impossible.¡±

    ¡°I do find the way you make these wards interesting, especially the way you make them just around someone¡¯s head. It is to counter anyone using one of those new recording magical devices is it not?¡± Jorgensen kept that same smile on his face. ¡°Anyway, it would be so much easier to just give in you know, I promise that I will be quite gentle and you only have so long before your body sets into its current form.¡±

    I kept my killing intent from leaking partly out of habit and partly out of the fear that it would become bloodlust instead. ¡°That is not going to happen.¡±

    He pouted, ¡°You seem like the adventuresome sort, someone who likes to push new boundaries, so why are you so stubborn about one night in my bed?¡±

    I stared him in the eyes and willed his soul to burn. I had walked that path in my previous life for the sake of those I cared about, but I would not go there again if I could avoid it. ¡°Our deal was for the knowledge of how the rituals work so I assume that you do not actually need one of their physical scrolls?¡±

    That managed to wipe the smile off of his face as he finally turned professional. ¡°I would either need the actual scroll, if it is kept in such, or for you to memorize and confirm the ritual for me. I have to know it is real, or anything you hand me is worthless, do you understand?¡±

    I grimaced, that would make things more difficult, but not impossible. ¡°Would the magical device I told you about before work?¡±

    ¡°The instant picture device? No, from what I know of it, you could fake the scroll and make copies of that fake on the image. I need to know that it is real and will work. If you want me to produce a magically binding contract to that extent I am happy enough to do so, but if I recall correctly you were apprehensive about them.¡±

    I nodded and noticed out of the corner of my eye that Dras was preparing to go into his match. ¡°I will do what it takes, but I would rather not sign one of those if I could avoid it. How soon can you be ready?¡±

    ¡°The spell is already prepared and I have a spare contract that can be used if it comes to that.¡± He paused and put his annoying smile back on, as he clearly understood that the conversation was ending, ¡°They were both created by the same man, interestingly enough.¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°You might want to be prepared for my knock in the night sometime soon, although I am not sure when exactly. In fact,¡± I noticed that the match was about to begin, ¡°I might leave tonight if things go well.¡±

    ¡°I will look forward to your company then.¡±

    I ignored his comment and its underlying suggestion while I destroyed the ward. As the match actually started I observed Dras¡¯ technique as best as I could with the enchanted glass.

    Some people like to divide sword techniques up based on styles, but I never learned those beyond the basic techniques that my father taught me. I had given Dras some advice back in Entrials about the way the human body worked, but I never actually taught him to fight.

    Where I got lucky enough to train my body and instinctive reactions from scratch, Dras had already picked up some bad habits and I did not stick around Entrials to see if he removed them all. It turned out, however, that he made a darn good attempt.

    His opponent seemed to have a fast pace style that may have been tailored to duels like this, where just light contact could lead to victory, but Dras leveraged his body. As a result, the fight quickly seemed to turn into a typical clash of a large brawler versus a small fighter, where stamina would determine the winner.

    Not wanting to appear too invested in Dras as a person, I commented on the fight to the slug (apologies slugs) next to me. ¡°This is why I like some of the fights despite my healing talents, some people learn how to leverage their whole body and apply maximum force. I do not like that they have to fight each other to learn how to do it, but I can still appreciate it to some extent.¡±

    ¡°I am less familiar with the body myself, but is that larger man really putting his entire force behind his attacks? Neither appear to be straining themselves.¡±

    I hid the fact that I was impressed and nodded impassively. ¡°The smaller one is just trying to make contact hard enough to register a ¡®wound¡¯ while the other is using his body very efficiently. Neither is using their whole strength though, probably because they are worried about overextending or something.¡±

    ¡°You sound familiar with the subject. Though it looks like the larger one wants to end this sooner rather than later.¡±

    ¡°It is a matter of balance,¡± I commented absently, noticing that Dras was indeed starting to pick up speed. It was slow and steady, but noticeable. What drew my attention though was the lack of apparent effort that went into it.

    It might have been a result of simple training, but I had added some desecrate minor changes to Dras¡¯ body, so I watched him closely. Nothing I did should have majorly increased his physical ability, but I did enough minor improvements that I suddenly felt the urge to check up on him.

    Regrettably, I was known as Stella here and I did not need to give the Sisters a starting point when they started sending people to track me.

    Dras¡¯ sword was still getting faster at this point and he was almost moving like a twister. I was impressed that he was actually keeping in step with his various forms throughout, he must have practiced quite a bit to be able to do that.

    Then the real surprise came as his opponent tried repeatedly to deflect Dras¡¯ sword. He did not just fail, but actually seemed to be blown farther and farther away with each attempt. Eventually Dras managed to knock the man off balance and quickly struck him in the ribs.

    His opponent¡¯s armor turned red immediately and the person in question went down grabbing at his ribs in obvious pain and the ward automatically started to return to normal vision as it confirmed the end of the match.

    I gave a quiet whistle and nodded my approval. ¡°How long until the finally?¡± I asked absently.

    ¡°It depends on the last winner,¡± Jorgensen explained, helping himself to a plate of cheese, ¡°He can have up to 3 times the amount of time that match took to rest. Of course, he would normally get more, but since this is a one day tournament and there is only one area available,¡± He shrugged and called for that servant of his.

    I had not bothered learning the man¡¯s name, but Jorgensen clearly trusted the man to remain loyal so I only watched him enough to ensure he did not add anything to the food. I was distracted however, by the cheers of the crowd and I realized that Dras was remaining in the area in full gear.

    ¡°Oh! Now this is rare, most people do not go for a second round without break, even early on, but especially not into the finals. Maybe he has some sort of strategy? Or is he just that hungry for fame? I wonder.¡±

    I blinked a few times in shock and waved away the servant as he offered me a full jug. I kept track of him even as a part of my mind tried to come up with Dras¡¯ reason. I never got comfortable with the idea that servants should be invisible and deliberately kept track of him even as my mind raced to comprehend what Dras was doing.

    Then a thought popped into my head. ¡°Can we get a closer look at-¡± I almost said Dras by accident, but I changed it to ¡°-that man?¡± at the last second.

    ¡°Hum? I believe so,¡± Jorgensen reached out with his mana and manipulated the wards slightly before they magnified Dras¡¯ image.

    He was sweating quite a lot, but no more than I would expect given his match. In fact he seemed to be sweating less than normal. I watched his neck as closely as possible and tried to guess his heart rate, but it was difficult and if I had to guess, very low. He did seem to be bouncing on his heals though.

    ¡°He was stretching.¡± Despite my self-control, my voice gave away how surprised I was.

    Jorgensen said nothing, but the servant left the room as I looked the enlargement of Dras. It was only after the servant was gone that he spoke, ¡°that would be quite the feat. How sure are you?¡±

    ¡°Only vaguely, I confess, but what I do not understand is the how. His muscular build should not lend itself to being that fit.¡± I talked half to myself and half to Jorgensen, more just saying the concepts aloud than expecting feedback. ¡°I could be wrong of course, there are many different people in the world, but we all have the same basic muscular and bone structures.¡±

    ¡°Except for you.¡± Jorgensen said quietly.

    I answered his unspoken question with a temporary ward for privacy and a blatant lie. ¡°I never modified him. He might have received someone else¡¯s help, but it would be very limited in comparison to my own bodily changes.¡± I had to tell Jorgensen about my modified body in case it interfered with the gender changing spell.

    He offered me a special deal if I told him how it was done, but I could not explain the details of how I constructed the spell to someone else. Primarily because the spells I used to modify my own body were based off of information that should not be known to me, or anyone else in this world.

    In a society which was barely understanding that boiling water made it safe to drink, I created spells based off of organelles and DNA. Trying to explain how they worked would either get more than a few hard questions, or an outright branding as an insane person.

    I could eventually heal the branding, but it would still be extremely painful.

    Not that the modifications to my own body had helped me a great deal so far. After all, it had only increased my caloric intake and all my fights had been magic or G¨ªa based so far. So I kept that knowledge to myself as much as possible, but I still kept an eye out for more ways to improve my own body.

    ¡°Yet another reason that I find you so interesting.¡± Jorgensen commented.

    I turned to him and kept my face as neutral as possible. ¡°With respect Jorgensen, the only reason you are interested in me in the first place is the power trip you would get off of convincing me to give in to you.¡±

    His face took on an unpleasant look. ¡°I do enjoy that aspect of my conquests,¡± we both shivered slightly, only my shiver was one of disgust, ¡°but I do find you a unique challenge.¡±

    ¡°Keep living in your head Jorgensen, it will never happen otherwise. Anyway,¡± I deliberately sat down in my previous seat as he recovered from his fantasy enough to reset the ward. I also manipulated the privacy ward to track my movements. ¡°As long as you remember to keep up your end of the deal without any additional demands or attempted renegotiations. We will get along just fine.¡±

    Jorgensen scowled and turned to look at me so fast that his body seemed to ripple from the movement. ¡°I never break a deal once it is made, so long as both parties adhere to it, and I will thank you to never suggest otherwise. Besides you are the one who demanded that I take not just 1 or 2, but 4 different diseases prior to actually undergoing the spell.¡±

    ¡°Diseases that have no known cure and will cause a painful death that not even the Sisters can stop,¡± I reminded him.

    ¡°Oh course, how could I forget? Has anyone ever told you that you are just a bit paranoid little girl?¡±

    I smiled at him for the first time that day, ¡°Not as many lately, I regret.¡± I destroyed the ward and picked at some of the fruit as I waited for the final match to start.

    It did not take long for it to start, or for my theory to be proven correct. Dras moved his sword like a twister, always spinning and never seeming to stop his movements. The semi-finals had been a warm up for him and now that he had stretched, his blows seemed to come even faster and harder than before.

    This opponent was actually slightly bigger than Dras and much more mechanical in his various sword forms, but he was also solid enough in them to match Dras¡¯ strength. To several people¡¯s surprise, including Dras¡¯s opponent, Jorgensen, and my own, the fight seemed to be completely bias as Dras brought down his blows faster and harder as time went on.

    While I was watching, a memory came to the front of my mind, either by random access or Bella, it was hard to tell. I told Dras to not let other Healers examine his body too closely, that I was modifying his body slightly and it could lead to unpleasant questions. I especially remembered telling him not to use health potions for around a cycle if he could help it.

    I also emphasized that if his body was still changing to be careful because certain Healing magic would undo my changes and might even kill him. However, all the changes should have ended some time ago unless something went seriously wrong.

    I started sweating while thinking of Dras back in the Sister¡¯s healing area and stood up. ¡°I have a feeling that this is going to end badly.¡± I commented to Jorgensen and quickly left the box before he could respond.

    I was downstairs and just walking up to a side entrance into the area proper when the crowd erupted in cheers and foot thumping. Quietly stepping forward far enough to see Dras holding his sword up, I confirmed that he was the victor.

    Unlike what I let Jorgensen think, I was more interested in examining Dras than I actually thought that anyone might need my help. The entire way down here I tried to work out a feasible plan for getting near enough to him to check his body¡¯s condition. Maybe it was the Nalks, or fate, or just temporary insanity, but his opponent lost his mind for a moment as I was trying to work out my plan.

    Charging Dras from behind, his opponent screamed as he launched a sloppy overhead chop at Dras. Dras himself heard the scream and turned back to the man, naturally letting his sword lower, before recognizing the danger he was in and trying to dodge at the last possible moment. Dras also brought his hands up to presumably try and block the dulled sword with his own, but he only succeeded in getting both his wrist and his head hit.

    Someone finally activated the wards and restrained the fool, but Dras¡¯ head was already bleeding, along with his arms. He started stumbling in my direction, likely on either instinct to get to the nearest medical treatment area, or because he noticed me.

    Of course, I could be wrong as there was a Sister who was supposed to be ¡®on hand¡¯ to see to any major injuries on the opposite side of the arena. She seemed to be squawking something at Dras, but a few guards accidentally blocked her as they rushed to take care of Dras¡¯ former opponent.

    Having the wards use magic was probably more expensive than just risking the lives of a guard or 2, so as soon as Dras was out of the way, they stopped restraining the other one with wards.

    I thought about casting a small illusion spell to add another layer of deception to keep Dras from recognizing me, but then I remembered what I looked like currently. Not only did I have regular ears and brown eyes, but I had changed my facial structure a little to be wider. To top it all off, I was dressed in the cloths of a Sister in training, which were so covering that they reminded me of the winter gear I used to wear in the mountains.

    If Dras could recognize me off of anything it might be my posture or something about the way my magic felt. Consequently, I slouched as Dras made it to the side entrance and just out of sight of the crowd before I knocked him out with a simple stun spell.

    I immediately bent down and caught him before he hit the ground, letting my talent flow into him as I did so.

    The problem, beside the minor concussion and blood loss was the prototype version of my genetic recorder, which I originally used to take care of his annoying degenerative disease. Specifically, the improvised version of my genetic recoder was still active in his body, making sure that some of the various ¡®enhancements¡¯ were working effectively.

    In fact, in many ways his body was working too effectively as it was almost at my own level. At least I could explain most of that though, as magic was at least in part dictated by the mental expectations of the wielder. I joked about ritual spells being mostly belief, but splash spells were much of the same thing. Any vaguely phrased magical commands would work like that and the way Dras¡¯ body adapted was impressive, but not totally unexpected.

    It was the fact that my recoder was still active in his body that managed to confuse me. Not only was it a magical device that, while very efficient, still needed some level of mana intake to recharge the built in commands. Even without my deactivation command that should have turned it off after Dras¡¯ body adapted, the recoder should have run out of mana. Though the reason it was still active became very obvious once I considered it.

    Dras was a burnout and I created my genetic recoder to try and not only change the DNA sequence, but to also monitor critical failures and make smaller adjustments over the long term based on Dras¡¯ genetic code. Apparently I had not phrased the magical commands correctly though as it started to view the burnout as a disease or injury and slowly started to repair the damage done to Dras¡¯ mana channels.

    Since it takes more than a few days to make sure that the human body both completed and adapted to the changes to the genetic sequence. As a result I manually confirmed the large changes to Dras¡¯ body when I was at Entrials and I left the recoder to make sure that the changes stuck.

    As it was, Dras was currently strong enough to qualify as a 2 circle mage, though I doubted that he could actually work mana with his pathways so still so damaged from the burn out. Given enough time he might learn some basic spells, but at just a 2 circle he would seem almost powerless in front of a full mage¡­ I knew from personal experience.

    Well now Dras, you certainly keep me busy, I thought grimly. I could hear the raised voices of some of Sisters not far away so I quickly went to work. At the current level, Dras¡¯ body would likely heal to full health without worry, but this was a tournament and the Sisters would likely give him a small amount of healing potion just in case.

    Since the healing potion would likely do some degree of damage to his body I quickly sent a spell into his body to reduce the swelling and then another to make sure that the wounds closed.

    However, I still was left with the odd situation of how to explain the changes to Dras¡¯ body while not being anywhere near him when he actually woke up. First thing though, I fully deactivated and destroyed what remained of my genetic recoder. It would have been nice to study it fully and see what worked and what did not, but I had no time.

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    Then I sent one last, extremely specialized, spell into him as I heard the Sisters finally see me and start yelling at me.

    ¡°What did we tell you about using magic on others Stella?! If you do not know what you are doing then you will do far more harm than good and you are still a new initiate!¡± The Sister, whose name I did not bother remembering, yelled at me as she rushed forward.

    I stood and stepped aside to let the sister pass as I tried to figure out how in the ovals to explain how a burnout had been healed.

    I felt a bit of mana and grimaced internally as the Sister was likely discovering the remnants of old magic in his body, my magic. Fortunately, it would be nearly impossible for her to tell that the age of the remnants mana while they were mixed in with my newly cast spells.

    If I managed to expand this accident into a cure for burnout¡­ I was not sure how it would be received. The nobles would love the idea of more mages to use, but once they realized how specialized the weaker mages usually were it would likely draw the opposite reaction. After all, even a single circle sensitive could use a spell like snip and kill someone.

    It could upset the balance of power and I could get stuck with the blame if I was not careful. Fortunately, I could use the same excuse I gave to throw Lady Rapier off my trail and blame it on Zugoran. It would definitely hurt my reputation to even be remotely associated with that ¡®evil¡¯ metal, but I only needed a few more days so I doubted that it could upset my plans too much.

    ¡°Stella, leave us alone, understood?¡± the Sister abruptly asked.

    I blinked in surprise, but took the easy escape ¡°Yes Sister.¡±

    ¡°And do not say a word to anyone about this young man¡¯s condition, do you understand?¡±

    I repeated my answer and slipped away to let the Sister fuss over Dras while I collected my thoughts. This could get complicated very quickly.

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    Late that evening I was sneaking out of my room in the Hohen initiate¡¯s building for the last time.

    After we had gotten back to the temple, I had been pulled aside by one of the Sisters. She demanded to know what I was thinking in trying to treat Dras. I made up several excuses, but they were all viewed as in appropriate in one form or another. I also had to give my explanations to multiple Sisters, who all insisted on hearing the story from the top.

    In the end I was passed off to the Sister in charge of discipline to receive a brief canning (which failed to even leave bruises), a lecture that lasted quite a while, and was send to bed without dinner. The lecture would have been even longer, but we were interrupted. Of the whole incident I was most annoyed by the restriction on my food, which was quite a vicious punishment for someone who had been using magic. Still, I counted my blessings when I overheard the reason why I was dismissed early.

    The senior Sister¡¯s condition, the same Sister that I had been impersonating to fool the wards, had worsened greatly and was not expected to last till sunrise. That meant that I had one decent shot at getting to the rituals and somehow getting at least 1 of them out of the temple before the senior Sister died.

    It was an unpleasant time constraint, but I accepted it as best I could. Fortunately, I managed to retrieve my iron chainmail from the Histones and got to hide it just before they pulled me aside. My lump of bone would not help me with this theft so I left that, but I brought the bag which currently had an iron lined box inside of it, which I had been using to hide my mithril disk.

    Depending on how the wards were set up to defend the scrolls, simply putting a scroll in the box might be enough to prevent the wards from destroying the scroll.

    I was ready to steal the scroll, but I partly worried about Dras and if the Sisters would manage to connect him to me. It certainly did not help that both the Sisters and the initiates wanted to talk about the tournament winner. In fact he had become the subject of near open debate, but not for the same reasons as the Sisters were less interested in his incredible physique, or modified body. The fact that he was not a burnout however, seemed to prompt a minor inquisition that began the moment Dras woke up.

    According to the other initiates he was still at the tournament arena being questioned by the Sisters. I was slightly annoyed by this as I had got to great lengths to provide something of a safety net for explaining that physique as natural, but the full Sisters just ignored it. The Sisters in training noticed, but they were too busy blushing to actually ask medically relevant questions.

    Even my temporary companions seemed to notice, though they were much more interested in my reasons for breaking the rules to take care of him. I failed to tell them anything of interest and left them assuming that we would talk about it tomorrow.

    I even cast a spell that was usually reserved for death matches in my previous life. Specifically, it would mark his current body as healed to prevent health potions from having much effect. That I did not have to go that far left me slightly annoyed, but it was better to have too much paranoia in my actions than too little, so I let it go.

    I snuck out of the building in an unusual way though. Apparently the Sisters in charge had informed the guards that there would likely be a cremation my morning, so the guards were drinking a toast instead of taking their usual smoking break. As a result, I had been obligated to climb down the outside of the building to get out.

    Since it was usually the way I got in and much more dangerous going down, I ended up using a bit of my G¨ªa to simply absorb the shock of my fall. Of course I must have weighed around 65 kilos by now so even rolling with the landing I made a fair bit of noise and ran to avoid being seen.

    The track to the hidden library was easy enough, but what I saw there made me panic for a moment. A large group of Sisters was walking through the library into the back room and through an opening that had not been there previously.

    As they did so the gate closed behind them and the wall resealed itself, letting me move through the room unseen, but I was still worried about it.

    Quickly getting through the challenges while the wards still thought I was allowed to be there, I pulled out my stashed bag and chainmail. I had no intentions of wearing it down here for the noise, but there was no way I was not going to wear it out. Inside my bag was a few iron throwing knives and a change of clothes.

    After I changed, as quickly and quietly as I could, I redressed in the Sister initiate robes and checked the secret doorway. I found that the wards that bared it had been moved, although it was still behind layer after layer of security so they thought it safe enough not to replace it apparently.

    I snorted at their arrogance, but ignored the secret room for now, I was going to take a big enough chance on the scrolls without pushing my luck there too.

    I selected a few scrolls and quickly started experimenting. Security wards could be anything from simple alarms to incendiary and death spells that would activate at the drop of a hat. Given the likelihood of-

    I felt a large surge of pure mana from the hidden door and stopped thinking¡­

    There were very few things that could terrify me after all the things I had seen, but remnants of the Guilt rose up screaming at me and I felt honest, animalistic, fear for the first time in- in far too recent of a time to even think of it.

    This was not something that fear runes could cause, it was my mind screaming at me to be careful, that danger was near.

    The door seemed to radiate mana and I forced myself over to the stone door to open it. The remnants of the Guilt in the back of my mind slowly seemed to understand that I needed to confirm what was happening before I ran outside screaming my head off.

    The hidden passageway did not have a handle so I tried using my strength, but unless I used a lot of G¨ªa, it was not going to move. Feeling the mana flow grow stronger I pressed with my magic, but nothing happened, so I took out the magical device that I was using to trick the wards and pressed it to the stone.

    That did it, but what I saw next assaulted even my old eye. I did see itself, it was far down the hall, but it was not out of range of my third eye, my mage sight. That showed me more than I could ever forget.

    Soul Magic, not like Gorith¡¯s shroud, but real Soul Magic burned into my third eye. I could see it, colorless lances of magic stabbing into someone, with wave after wave of mana being given off as a result. I somehow knew that this was true Soul Magic and considered so forbidden that ironically the only fitting punishment was a spell called soul conflagration.

    Horrified, I watched as the mana that was intertwined with the soul shook and rolled off of it. That was one of the common misconceptions about souls, people thought that they stored mana, but they seemed instead to be made up of it¡­ or that was what it looked like to me at the moment.

    I watched the mana that they were taking from soul feed into the wards in mixed horror and fascination. I had felt so little scruples about anything anymore that I wash almost as shocked at my own revulsion as I was the act itself.

    This was blasphemy, it was pure madness on a level that sickened me.

    I backed up, closed the secret door, and retained just enough of my senses to collect my items before I ran. Jorgensen wanted to know the Sister¡¯s secrets? Well I would sign the magic contract and explain as much as I could, but this was beyond even me.

    This place needed to be purified and I half wished that I had a spell to create a large amount of nerve gas. It would be dangerous and the Guilt afterwards would be a truly horrendous retaliation, but it would wipe this retched place clean. Of course the wards would likely stop me or rip my own soul out, but that did not matter at the moment.

    I was inside a stoning Soul-Ward! I never even thought of phrase before, much less someone actually creating such heresy and I had once been declared the King of Heretics for my views! It was something that I found funny until now, how could they compare me to THAT?! Those honeyfooted churchmen thought that I should tolerate their interference with my Kingdom so they compared me to that?

    Stones. Stoning-unacknowledged-graveborn-harpies of Hoh! I could swear up and down about this nonsense until the cows came home.

    The talisman/magical device that I created burned out, its blood spell revealing that its human counterpart was dead. It happened as I was going up the stairs, but I paid it no attention at the moment. The wards were not tasked with keeping track of wayward initiates so it simply noted that I was exiting and ignored me.

    Outside, I started sprinting to the temple¡¯s side entrance. The side entrance/exit was always open, but guarded, to allow for emergency situations. My mind was racing as I tried to decide if I wanted to force my way through or bluff, but I could not come up with a reason why any initiate like me would be allowed outside this late in the evening.

    Then I remembered the one situation where I could not only be allowed to leave, but forced to and I quickly stopped.

    Not caring who saw me, I stripped on the spot and removed my chainmail, before I placed it in my bag and put on a simple robe instead. I picked up my initiate¡¯s robe and held it under my arm as I deliberately changed my complexion and made it look like I had been crying.

    My original plan was to simply force my way out, as I assumed that the whole temple would be chasing me, but the side entrance was also the place for the quiet exit of shame.

    I walked over to the side entrance, which was technically another building that was attached to the wall. There was no door, just a fairly large opening into the compound, but I could feel the monstrous wards wash over me as I walked through it.

    I shivered, now knowing just what powered the thing. Monstrous indeed, even the worst of bandits had trouble stomaching sacrificial magic, accepting even pedophiles sooner than them.

    There were a half-dozen guards saw me shiver and took in my appearance before coming to the same conclusion. A guard stood and walked over to me, wordlessly trying to accept my initiate¡¯s robe.

    I walked around him to a fireplace that had a small fire going and tossed it in myself before I added a fireball spell of my own to ensure it burned. There was a plaque on the wall that I could read, though I knew the guards could recite it by heart for me if I wished.

    I made sure that my voice croaked and cracked a little as I spoke, it was not hard. ¡°I am Stella and I fully accept that I am now choosing to leave the Holy Sisterhood of Hoh¡¯s Healers. I hereby renounce my right to enter this place as anything beside a worshiper and request that I be removed from the wards¡¯ memory immediately.¡± The wards heard and reacted to my words, shifting around me and creating a floating ball of light in front of me as confirmation that I had been removed.

    I turned at walked out a door that was open by a guard into the street and walked away from the temple. I immediately ducked into an ally and pulled out my throwing daggers out of my bag before hiding them in as many places as I could. Their weight was an additional comfort to me.

    I also cut my hair and almost made more changes until I remembered that the servants at Jorgensen would have to recognize me. After that was done I made sure that my hair burned quickly and I walked out of the ally calmly.

    Jorgensen¡¯s mansion would be nearby and I wanted to attract as little attention as possible, so I forced myself to walk at a very deliberate pace the whole way.

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    The mansion was not hard to find, partly because it was called a mansion for a good reason. The cursed man was a smart, talented, and business minded mage who had a reputation for never breaking his contracts. I might not like him as a person, but I respected the fact that, as a non-noble mage, he had done quite well for himself.

    The mansion stood out because it was slightly distanced from the actual noble district, with a 3 meter tall wall that ran around the perimeter. It was located between a section of the city that was specialized in the art of bootlicking the nobles and another that catered to the reasonably well off.

    He also had a couple side entrances installed for the discreet and easy entry into what amounted to a gate room for opening and closing his wards. It was a closed room that lay within the walls themselves and could not be seen from the outside. There were no guards, but there was a rope that I pulled on. It would summon someone to allow me into the mansion.

    I did not ask, but I knew that Jorgensen enjoyed a challenge so I had a sinking suspicion that many a woman, particularly the married ones, had been ¡®persuaded¡¯ to meet him in private. It was a complete guess of course, but it was the best guess I had given that the man did not seem to need to be involved in any kind of illegal work, just the frowned upon kind.

    The same servant from the tournament appeared soon enough and ushered me in without another word.

    We walked through the opulent halls silently, but the servant eventually led me to a waiting room and pointed to a door. He told me that I should wait for it to open and that would be the sign that his master was ready.

    Maybe it was because I was still shaken that I did not see the signs, but part of me would like to think that my opposite was just that good. To the point where I really wanted to applaud what happened next. Unlike the actors I had seen back in Thysia, this one played his part so well that I only realized what was going on after the doors opened and I walked into the room.

    Jorgensen was dead at his desk and the house wards instantly snapped me up and held me to the wall, restraining me before I could even realize what was happening. The door to the room swung close and locked itself as I was restrained by ward so strong that I would need another 3 circles of strength to break out with pure force.

    I moved my head as much as I could to look at the remains of Jorgensen and then back at the door behind me, which rattled as someone tried to open it. A moment later the lock clicked again and the door swung open to reveal a confused looking servant and a squad of guards.

    The servant, the timing, and the impressive acting skills required to pull this off. I might have to kill every one of them and then cut my way through the city to escape, but the level of execution in this trap floored me. They did not even know that I experience with this type of situation and yet whoever arranged this still managed to be thoroughly annoying.

    Now I would not only have to deal with whatever happened when the Sisters discovered that I left, but also with the guard who would clearly have been led to believe that I am the killer. Oh and then I would also need to figure out what I was supposed to do now that my gender change mage dead.

    Lucky me.

    *     *     *

    Countryside of Etror:

    Kwan Gan was a simple farmer on many levels, but not intellectually, so when he noted the pace of the Histone convoy, he knew that trouble would come behind them.

    Still, they were the most honorable and trustworthy group who he knew to exist. By the gods, even their traitors and those who leveraged their positions for personal power were still better than the nobility! Kwan expected that was because their initiates all started out writing the average farmer¡¯s daily life.

    They alone were regarded as the true neutrals of the world and so the Kwan family had taken an oath the shelter them whenever possible. Through the best and worst of times, that oath had endured for the last 6 centuries and he was ready when they showed up asking for help.

    What he did not expect was the loud mouthed brat who was ordering others around like he was nobility.

    Occasionally the head of the Histones, Historian Tal¡¯mek, went over and talked to the child, but otherwise the brat was impossible to deal with.

    Since he had an oath to keep and he had already trusted Tal¡¯mek with something much more important than his own life, Kwan said nothing about it, but he did observe. The brat¡¯s posture, the occasional feelings of anger and frustration the literally leaked out of him and saturated the air.

    A spoiled mage brat in the company of the Histones? Gods that cannot be good.

    Kwan asked his old friend about the child with a silent glance, but Tal¡¯mek shook his head, so he asked about his daughter instead.

    ¡°She is doing fine old friend, the visions are more controllable these days. I hear time magic is never easy to control, but she is doing very well.¡± Tal¡¯mek explained with a smile.

    Kwan let out a deep breath that he did not know he had been holding. His first wife had died giving birth and his second wife had assumed that his daughter insane when the visions started. If it was not for the interference of the histones, the town would have stoned his daughter to death that day.

    Even in a land where slavery was accepted, insanity was a crime that could only be met with death.

    The day that the town found out that the woman they thought insane was actually a prophet, they celebrated like never before, but that was only until the Histones requested to train her. A trained prophet could make or ruin whole empires with their words and the Emperor would either be furious or excited to hear such news.

    He was less than excited and only the Histone¡¯s relocation of the Kwan family had saved them at that time from more than unpleasant suggestions to convince the young woman to serve the emperor directly.

    ¡°How long can you stay?¡± Kwan asked, eager to have a drink with his old friend, even though he knew the answer already.

    ¡°It has been too long already my friend.¡± Tal¡¯mek smiled sorrowfully before he started barking orders to the rest of his small group. There were only 2 wagons, but both of them were filled with food and people who needed to leave the area as quickly as possible.

    Kwan sighed to himself, watching his friend order everyone back on the wagons to get ready to move. ¡°Take the southern route.¡± Kwan called, ¡°There was a dry spell until recently and the mud should be minimal.¡±

    Tal¡¯mek nodded and gave his old friend a wave as the light wagons started moving. Kwan and Tal¡¯mek knew each other well enough to know to take the northern path this time of year, but there would be pursuers and they would ask where the Histones had gone.

    Tal¡¯mek smiled as he remembered his own daughter¡¯s letter regarding how she and Kwan Biyu were getting along. That their daughter were now the best of friends, just like their fathers, despite Kwan Biyu¡¯s unique talent as a prophet, made him smile as the last wagons left.

    Tal¡¯mek and the rest of the Histones left without further ado, but as they did, Tal¡¯mek remembered the 2 latest prophecies that he had been informed of and his face darkened.

    First, that the unacknowledged son of sin would rise in the west to face a tide of blood from the end of the world. The bloody wolves that rose from the ocean and ate whole Kingdoms alive

    Second¡­ that the Bone King would soon walk the surface of the world unimpeded, ready to call inhuman legions to his aid as he bled all who would oppose him.

    Tal¡¯mek shivered at the second one especially as it did not give a hint of where this might occur. That it suggested a necromancer would soon rise to prominence terrified him, but he was a Historian and it was his duty to note the passing of history, not to interfere¡­ even if that beautiful woman¡¯s fierce eyes were pushing him to do now.

    The Emperor had blamed the Histones for not informing him of a rebellion, but they were now harboring someone who might have a claim to the throne, so they moved as fast as they could. Even if the boy was not the ¡®son of sin¡¯ that the prophecy spoke of, the Emperor would still want him and many others once he heard about it. It would be dangerous for everyone the boy was near.

    Still, those eyes haunted Tal¡¯mek and he had a feeling that there would be very little sleep

    A voice which Tal¡¯mek listened to without actually hearing urged him on, pleased with their escape thus far, but knowing that they had a few more days till true safety. Once that happened, his player would be ready to be molded.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    Maybe I should have called this the rise and fall of Jorgensen? Meh, Dras is important in more ways than one, even if he and the Sisterhood disappear midway through the next arc¡­

    Anyways, currently there are 4 days left until the merge, but it should begin at the very end of chapter 38 and cover all of 39. I am still working on how to write it to span the whole chapter, but I do know that it will take place as a metaphorical, not so one-sided, battle. Who ¡®wins¡¯ the confrontation at that point and what they do with the body is still up in the air, but Nalk money is ever on DeMorte.

    BTW: there are still 2 ways for DeMorte to turn back into a man, which will be explained in the next chapter¡­ just in case you wanted to jump to assumptions on how I am going to end the arc =P

    Thank you ALL for reading,

    B_S.

 Chapter 37: Visiting The Tower

    10k word chapter, delivered after 0100 local time¡­ again T_T

    I hate when chapters grow that much longer than intended.

    Small change:

    -DeMorte¡¯s mithril disk is in is a small ball of iron fillings inside his bone armor ¨C which is now a cube of solid bone that the Histones are still holding on to. (Under the name DeMorte)

    Note/Reminder:

    -I kind of glossed over it, but DeMorte really went to town on his own body over the years and has not really stopped, just slowed down. Against mages it hardly matters, but for this chapter and into the future it will get more important¡­ Also: although I have yet to have him figure out how to slow down aging, he is still taking notes on that type of thing.

    I am curious to what you readers will think of this chapter¡­ DeMorte spends most of it not learning people¡¯s names.

    Chapter 37: Visiting the Tower

    ¡°Maltiza! Not maltillta, maltiza!¡± the man insisted.

    ¡°Maltiza.¡± I repeated, trying to get the pronunciation right.

    ¡°Good, now with feeling: Mal-¡±

    The door to our rather nice cell bounded open and exposed the iron gates beyond. Technically we could open or close it for the sake of our privacy, but the iron bars outside were a reminder of our current standing. The privacy would not even exist if not for the normal occupants.

    The guard, one of many and with an unimportant name, started barking at us. ¡°What in the name of the gods is going on here?!¡±

    ¡°Oh I was teaching little Isabella a few choice words from the old lands.¡±

    ¡°Shut your hole you Whiro worshiping trash, or I will give you another beating.¡±

    Silence rained for a minute as both my cell-mate and I regarded the guard with unimpressed eyes. Whiro was the god of darkness, deceit, trickery and basically crime in general. There was rarely a temple dedicated to him and the temples dedicated to the whole pantheon typically tried to hide his statue away (luckily for them both the gods and his followers seemed to prefer this.)

    The guard sneered in response and walked over to me first. ¡°Does the killer whore have something to say? I heard you wanted a dick so bad you killed a man for NOT giving it to you.¡±

    I kept my face dead neutral and did not let him get the pleasure of seeing me react.

    He whipped around ¡°As for Captain Blowhard¡¯ over here I-¡± I stepped forward and knocked the guard on the head as hard as I could without killing him. Instantly the wards struck me and sent me to the floor as the wards ripped into me with electricity. I spent quite some time spasming on the floor before the pain finally stopped.

    I recovered quickly, but that just meant that I was aware when the kicking started. At least they were not stupid enough to try anything else, I told them that the first man to actually get inside me would find that his manhood would be broken, along with his nose before the wards could do anything.

    A small group tried last night, but in the space between my first blow and the wards striking, I do believe that I made 2 men infertile. The fact that they got shocked by the wards too meant that I could cast a small spell and shock them too. Between that and my abnormal physical strength I quickly caused a few broken¡­ bones.

    The rigorous shocking that the wards gave me were well worth such minor moment of domination, if only to teach everyone that the wards would not stop me if I wanted to kill them.

    That said, I was in quite the situation and it was only getting worse by the day. As the kicking finally stopped I noticed that there was a Sister in the room treating the still unconscious guard. I tried not to shiver when I saw her. The friend, who had been the first and last among a few to kick me, sneered and spit on my face.

    I made a neutral face, as if I was just walking down an average street and ignored the damp feeling on my cheek. The guard looked like he was about to start again before the Sister spoke up. ¡°He needs rest, but he will be fine soon enough, he is just knocked out.¡± She turned to face me, ¡°Her on the other hand¡­¡±

    ¡°Leave her Sister, the whore should keep the bruises as a reminder.¡± The guard who spat on me was doing all the talking as the others carried their companion out of the room. ¡°She will hang in a few days as long as you Sisters keep your noses out of it.¡±

    The Sister stood up to him and stared the guard straight in the eyes before speaking quietly enough that I had trouble hearing it when I was fairly close to them. ¡°She supposedly infiltrated the Sisters with the intention to steal our secrets and I would very much like her to survive long enough to answer some questions. If you broke her ribs it will be hard for her to talk to the visitors we have coming later.¡±

    I snorted and interrupted their whispering, ¡°Please do not joke about that, he is nowhere near strong enough to break my bones that easily.¡± I stood up and casually stretched to prove my point.

    The Sister and the guard stared at me before he ground out something about having to hit me harder next time. After that he simply left with the Sister, ordering us to: ¡°Behave and keep talking to a minimum or else you will get beaten again.¡±

    I watched the guards and the Sister depart and sneered, cleaning myself was functionally impossible in this place unless they allowed me to. Of course, I was not allowed such things as a second class magical criminal.

    Ironically, while I being kept in the same prison tower that local nobility would be, if they were caught committing a crime, I was treated like common scum. If I was considered nobility I would be afforded all sorts of small luxuries to keep me happy in case the charges were proven false or otherwise dismissed, but instead it was like any prison I stayed in before, just with more open space and some furniture.

    Naturally they knew nothing about me beyond what that traitorous servant told them and I used at least 4 different names while wandering around this city, none of which were Bella. I was Stella to them most of the time and occasionally Bastet when I was feeling board.

    ¡°Did that serve a purpose?¡± The man who I shared my confines with was a good enough scoundrel, for a pirate.

    ¡°It proved that the wards are tied into the individuals as much as anything else and they do not need to be ordered to attack if the individual is threatened.¡± That meant that if I was going to escape it would either have to be so quietly that they never noticed or when they moved me to be hung. The problem with the latter was the iron spikes that would be driven through my hands prior to removing me from the wards.

    I was stronger now than I had ever been in my previous life, but I had no subordinates on the outside to help me escape this time around. That meant that between the spikes and the escort of mages that would be provided for security, I was dead unless I could find some way to sneak out.

    All my spells were absolutely nullified if they lasted even the slightest bit of time. Attempting to heal my hands from being spiked with iron was a painful process and underlined the futility of it.

    If I was fast enough I might be able to create a few germs or a small batch of nerve gas, but the shock spells would hit me too fast to do anything more than that. Considering the nature of those spells however, I had not experimented with them enough to confirm what would happen. I might kill everyone including myself if things went wrong.

    I might be able to use a death spell, but only once since the wards would likely kill me in response. Other spells to escape would result in a good shock or, in case I did something serious, outright stun spells that would leave me incapacitated until one of the guards told the wards I could move again.

    Thankfully the guards were not allowed to misuse that aspect of the wards, and I could still cast spells in such a state, but I hated the idea of being so helpless.

    Stones, I could not even cultivate my mana in any form, including using G¨ªa. I was practically a normal human inside these wards.

    Even with my enhanced physical capabilities, I now confirmed that the option of knocking out the guards was impractical. With spells, G¨ªa, and violence in general out the window, which was around 20 meters up in the air over a 2 meter deep trench, I was left with trickery and whatever I could cobble together from the room.

    If I was forced to count the pirate as resource I unsure how he would help. I glanced over at him and opened my mouth, but he spoke up first. ¡°No one from my crew is going to come get little Bella, we are on our own here.¡±

    I did not blink at his correct use of my name, he had been trying to rhyme ¡®Stella¡¯ since he heard one of the guards call me it. I had introduced myself to a guard as ¡®Teller¡¯ a few moments before, but the pirate misheard it and made it into his own little game.

    ¡­I did not even remember what his stoning name was, but I might be forced to count on him.

    ¡°Never any honor among thieves,¡± I joked, ¡°Do you have any ideas on how to get us out?¡± I was running out of options fast and I would even accept help from a stoning Nalk at this point.

    The man stood up for the first time since he started teaching me his native curse, which apparently referenced a man who spent too much time with horses. The pirate was nearly 2 meters tall with muscles that attested to a mixed life of sailing and fighting that they would have impressed me even in my previous life. His bald head, unshaven beard, and piercing blue eyes only added to the appearance of someone who was a larger than life menace.

    The fact that he had 10 circles worth of mana just made him that much more dangerous, despite being trapped in here like I was.

    He walked over to the window and stared out of it. The fact that the so called window was around a third of a meter wide and barely larger than that in height, did not seem to bother him. It did offer a fairly good view of the city, but I could not see beyond the walls that surrounded the prison tower.

    Prison Towers, or as the guards liked to call it, The Tower, kept people like me or the pirate in and left the walls around them kept others out. They were specially designed to hold magic wielding individuals against their will, although there was a big difference between the usual residents and the 2 of us.

    A young noble sent to The Tower for a few days might get scared, but for someone who had broken out of such Prison Towers before, it was less intimidating for me¡­ although I did have to deal with the fact that I had never broken out of one alone before.

    ¡°I see you are the dramatic type.¡± I offered, ¡°Or do you just enjoy staring out windows while talking?¡±

    There was a chuckle, ¡°a bit of both, but I was thinking about the last time I was here.¡±

    This stoning pirate had been here before? We were quite some distance from Kampus, the nearest ocean, and captured pirates were rarely transported beyond the port before they were executed. ¡°You escaped?¡± I asked cautiously.

    ¡°I had help at that time, a good friend of mine stole the navigation charts from my crew, back when we had some¡­ special items to sell. We had to hide them for a bit and got ambushed while on land, trying to arrange their sale.¡± He gave a deep, throaty, laugh at that point. ¡°The maltizas managed to kill most everyone who knew how to navigate to the atoll, except me who they brought back here to torture.

    ¡°With the charts gone and most dead they got greedy and managed to break me out after a while. Got a new ship with my cut, but I do not have any big payday pulling those fools back for a second attempt.¡±

    I frowned as I listened to his story, a few things did not add up. The first thing that came to mind was the amount of effort the crew would need to break him out of this place. Outlaws were, as a general rule, not driven to make that amount of effort for anyone. If you had a payout big enough, maybe, but with the risk of being executed when found? Even if he could buy a nice boat with his share, that was still a bit much ¡°How?¡±

    Without turning around he explained, ¡°I took poison strong enough to nearly kill me and the Sister on duty here insisted on getting me to her temple,¡± I flinched, ¡°to save my life. The people I stole from ¡®encouraged¡¯ this and in their hurry to keep me alive, sent a minimal force to escort me.¡±

    ¡°At which point your crew returned the favor from the time you were captured.¡± I finished. ¡°How did you end up here a second time?¡±

    ¡°You know the port of Haereticus?¡± I nodded, the temple city was a byword for corruption and frequently changed hands based on who paid them best. It was also the center of a trade that sat on the mouth of one of the largest rivers on the Eastern continent. ¡°Well I went there to do business and this pretty young lady heard I was a wanted man and well¡­¡± He looked back at me with a nearly shameless grin, ¡°I thought the sparkles in her eyes were from an interest in me, not in my bounty.¡±

    I was not sure how to react to that. I understood the pull of the human sex drive just fine, but I stopped letting my guard (completely) down around women a long time ago. They could be just as cruel and manipulative as any man, plus could distract me more easily.

    I took a deep breath, ¡°then, regrettably, it seems that neither of us have reason to expect someone on the outside to help.¡±

    ¡°You sure about that? I heard them say something about a friend of yours.¡±

    I shook my head and grimaced, ¡°I have no friends. I have acquaintances, associates, tools, and occasionally comrades, but no friends.¡± I walked over to one of the nicer chairs in the room and sat down. There was some basic furniture here, but only things that could not readily be broken by a mage throwing a fit. Most of it was made of decorative iron that I had a suspicion were donated by nobles or the families of the nobles who had been obligated to spend some time here.

    ¡°That is an incredibly depressing statement, Kella, for more than a few reasons. What about family?¡±

    Friends made the best daggers to cut you from behind and family were like friends, except you tended to be more genetically predisposed not kill them. He was right though, I needed some tools by my side for cases like this.

    Stones, in some ¨Cno, in many ways, I was lucky to get this far without people I could call tools at the least. I would have to fix that after this was over.

    Between the Guilt and the fact that I was practically surrounded on all sides by possible Nalk players, including the pirate, I was hardly in a position to carve out another kingdom. There had been too many historical cases of inventive mages coming up with things like poisonous gas spells for me believe that I would last very long alone, regardless of my advantages. Sure I could unleash a few plagues and decimate society, but even if I survived the Guilt with my mind intact, I would still be alone¡­

    It was rather funny actually, the last half of my previous life was me hating that I had to watch and wait for even the best of comrades like Osiris and his brother, to make sure that they drank the mead first. That all of my food was tasted in advance for poison. I needed people following me to make me into the power I was, but I hated those same people for making me see threats from every direction.

    Heh.

    I let the smile linger on my face for a moment as I realized that it took me getting locked up and looking death in the face for me to remember something so basic. That a King without followers was just a regular man.

    ¡°Did I say something funny?¡±

    I shook my head and let the smile flee from my face as I spoke up and half lied. If there was anyone listening, I did not want them to know that particular truth¡­ though the only person I knew was listening seemed to be oddly proud for some reason, though the feeling vanished before I could pursue it. ¡°No and my family, unless they have been reincarnated and want to get revenge on me personally, will not be interfering.¡±

    The pirate did not respond and I took the moment to think about the wards and how they were interconnected to the building. Since people were naturally lazy, there would be some place which was left with minimal ward interference. If I had to somehow tunnel through the floor to find it, then so be it, but there had to be some way out. Where did the wards not touch?

    ¡°How old are you girl?¡± I met the confused looking pirate in the eye and raise an eyebrow. ¡°You go from being a friendly enough person to a brooding son of a caltrop-¡± my other eyebrow joined its twin ¡°-in the briefest of moments. You keep looking around and analyzing everything a dozen times over and you are obviously paranoid.¡± He shook his head while staring at me ¡°that is not what a teenage girl should be like.¡±

    I let my eyebrows relax and shook my head. ¡°Maybe I was a bandit chief in another life. The point is that we are on our own and I doubt that anyone is going to encourage them to let us out.¡±

    ¡°Nothing to bargain with?¡±

    ¡°I could only tell them one thing and they would not believe me if I did, so what would be the point? That is assuming that they would even be willing to negotiate.¡±

    ¡°That would depend on what you have I suppose.¡±

    I kept quiet for a moment thinking it over, before sighing and shaking my head. If I even dropped a hint of what I knew he might betray me for an extra few days of life and leave me to be tortured. He did not strike me as desperate, but people changed when they stared their mortality in the face.

    We stopped talking afterwards.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    Later that day I found out what the Sister was talking about when she said visitors were coming to speak to me.

    It was a pair of Sisters I recognized and Dras of all people.

    Seeing the Sisters made me think of what I saw under the temple and if I had not been mentally preparing myself, I would have shivered. Instead, I just raised a single eyebrow as they brought Dras in and asked why the tournament winner was here.

    Apparently expecting more of a reaction, the Sisters prompted Dras by asking him if he recognized me. It was a really sad way to interrogate someone, they did not even shock me, but instead just alternated between asking me and Dras different questions. Most of which were aimed at establishing a connection between us.

    Naturally, without my most noticeable feature, elf ears, Dras was especially confused as he could not place me. That I changed my face slightly was another bonus, although I spent less time on my vocal cords and he seemed to be recognizing something in me. Maybe it was my diction or attitude as he was frowning more and more as I kept talking.

    Finally, one of the Sisters just shook her head and directly asked me why I healed him after the tournament.

    I shook my head and explained, talking directly to Dras instead of the Sister who asked the question. ¡°Your muscles do not match your physical ability. When I saw you fighting that day I wanted to observe your body to see if there was anything special about you.¡± I nodded towards my cell mate, ¡°His muscles have developed differently because of his time at sea and I could list the differences if I wanted too, but your body just seemed a bit too strong for an average swordsman.¡±

    Dras stared at me, with disbelieving eyes that kept returning to my ears. He thought he recognized me, but he could not believe the differences between my old self and my current self. There would be no official connection linking me to Bella, besides our names and¡­ I stopped moving for a fraction of a moment. Even blood magic could not connect me to anyone from Entrials anymore, but Dras could.

    Dras¡¯ body had been changed by me based off of the changes to my own body and while we were not the exact same, I still had some changes in my body that I had not figured out how to improve on and they would be the same as Dras. That would be enough of a connection that any major accusations against me could travel back to the kingdom of Zootriofi and cause some damage.

    They were not my responsibility, but I did not want to be theirs either.

    I looked him in the eyes and silently willed him to leave, to get out of this stoning city as fast as he could, but no matter how much I wanted him to understand, Dras could not read minds. Not even magic could do that.

    ¡°I, I swear I have met you before, but I cannot place it. We could just be remembering when I saw you after the tournament thought. Is anything wrong with my body? A mender from my village told me not to talk about it, but to try and avoid healers because I was special, for some reason.¡± Stupid graveborn hardly saw the rest of the room watching our interactions, plus he did not listen to what I really said back then.

    Though there was something else that bothered me and I could not hiding my surprise at it so I used it to my advantage instead. ¡°You still have not realized it?¡±

    He blinked and shot a questioning glance at one of the sisters, ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Your mana pathways are healing. You will not even be a 3 circle mage, but you are not a no longer a burnout.¡±

    There was almost a tangible movement in the air as the room seemed to collectively breathe in sharply at that announcement. The pirate, Dras, and the guards in the room all stared at me in shock while the Sisters just exchanged a look. I shrugged before continuing, ¡°I am not sure if you will ever be able to call yourself a full mage, but it is obvious that your pathways are still in the process of healing and that means that your burnout is essentially cured, somehow.¡±

    ¡°You had nothing to do with this?¡± One of the Sisters probed, looking like she had just caught me in a lie. It took me a second to realize that she had not figured out how someone would know he was a burnout if his pathways were healing. I could not bother to explain though without looking like I was justifying.

    I turned to look her dead in the eye and made sure she knew how absurd I thought she was being. ¡°I have no idea what causes burnout so it would be rather hard for me to cure it. Being thrown down a zugoran mine would likely be to cure burnout that most anything I can do.¡±

    Dras looked uncomfortable with that idea and I took the opportunity to ask him if that actually happened, however, the Sisters suddenly exchanged looks and the one who kept quiet earlier spoke up. ¡°Sister Delos, would you kindly take Drasiedi back outside, I do not think that he will be able to help us with the rest of this conversation.

    Dras was escorted out of the room and I wondered if the real interrogation was about to begin.

    A skilled interrogator knows just how much pain and pressure to apply as well as how to apply it. The Sisters, though they might have practiced Soul Magic, the insane graveborns, were not used to doing what had to be done to get answers.

    Unfortunately, there was another pair who gave me the idea that they were much better interrogators. The pirate, who was watching my reactions like a grok, and one of the higher ranked guards, who had accompanied the Sisters up to my cell.

    I had a feeling that those 2 were experts in catching liars and the fact that they were watching me so closely was both annoying and unnerving to say the least. I could suppress my reactions to an extent, but I knew enough about questioning people to realize that suppressing your reactions was a different type of reaction.

    Neither of them actually said anything, but that could change at any moment.

    The questions however, turned to why I infiltrated the Sisters, or why I left on that night in particular. What they did not seem to realize was that I actually seceded, they all assumed that I failed and left that night because I feared my ¡°loss of purity¡± being discovered.

    I wanted to laugh at them so much that I actually started wondering if this was a different type of interrogation technique. Honestly the idea of them asking what amounted to idiotic questions and random probing to make me feel comfortable, while they watched my reactions, was more comforting than dealing with fools.

    As the ancient saying when: nothing was fool-proof because fools were so ingenious.

    In the end though, I started to wonder if this was less a planned interrogation than the Sisters pushing a pit too hard to be the ones to make me crack. They were Healers (and stoning Soul Magic practitioners) and not accustomed to such things, but the guards never said a word. That the questioning continued for the rest of the day without interruption by anyone else screamed politics more than anything.

    Eventually though, everything ends, and as the sun set outside the window the Sisters seem to give up for the night.

    Sister Defool, or whoever she was, regarded me with hate in her eyes and turned to the other one, shaking her head before looking back at me. ¡°We have more than a few more questions for you to answer and we have requested a stay of execution, but you only have an extra few days. I suggest you be prepared to answer our questions tomorrow.¡±

    So I had a few more days at least, but only a day and a half before my mind finished merging and only 5 days after that before I was stuck in this body.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    I did not sleep well that night.

    There were no outright nightmares, but I did have my old dream of shadows. It was always the same dream too, shadows of sorts that seemed to assault me from all sides, trying to control me and push me in one direction or another. It had literally been a lifetime since I had that dream in particular.

    I was never sure what the shadows were, but I knew that I could not kill them and that was enough to make me hate them. In the dream I commanded them to stop pushing me and the shadows just rippled before going back to attacking me. They all wanted to own me, I knew that much, to control who I was.

    Waking up from that particular dream was always a relief. Today though it woke me up a bit early and as a result I was fully awake well before dawn.

    I walked over to open up the single window to open up the shutters and it briefly occurred to me that this thing was a suicide hazard, before I realized that it was meant to be one.

    Only guilty people killed themselves and all that nonsense.

    I shook my head quietly as I opened the shutters and looked out onto the still sleeping city. The night air helped banish the old dream. Oddly enough, I recognized the time I woke up instinctually by the darkness of the night sky. It was the iron call, the period immediately preceding the blood call.

    It was easy to understand their names once you realized that they were named for their value in ambushing someone. Specifically, it was the perfect time to make a night attack as the night guards were near the ends of their shift and everyone else was still asleep. That the period following this was the blood call was no accident.

    Of course that was partly because I named the 2 back when I was trying to write that book on tactics, which, come to think, of it that was a rather odd endeavor. Particularly since I knew things like when to attack from experience and had never bothered to explain ¡®why¡¯ after the fact.

    Not that it mattered in the end, the books I wrote towards the end of my life were as much to keep myself busy as they were impulses that some of my advisors agreed with.

    I checked on my cell mate and confirmed that he was still asleep before turning towards the wooden door as I decided to annoy the night guards outside it. If I was not feeling the best and it would be good stress relief after having that dream again.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Although I did wonder how far I could go without pushing them too far. After all, if they actually managed to knocked me out there would be very little that I could do to defend myself.

    When I opened the wooden door out to the hall, I found that one of the guards had already in a bit of trouble. There were a pair of them, but only one looked at me after I opened the door. His friend was groaning face down on a card table.

    ¡°Good morning! What is wrong, too much liquor?¡± I asked, deliberately making my voice bright and cheerful. I was not particularly a morning or evening person, but I knew from experience the effect that acting like one had on others and took the opportunity to enjoy it.

    A louder groan greeted me as the guard whose face was down looked up and tried to glare at me despite his pale face. The other spoke up for him, ¡°It is too early in the morning for a whore, ask your booty plunderer.¡±

    I ignored him and looked at his friend, confirming that he was holding his stomach. I started making bubbling sounds and watched as he turned even paler than before. Walking over to the iron bars I leaned on them as I talked liked I had nothing to worry about, ¡°You people keep calling me a whore, but you could afford me if I was one. Is that why you keep pretending to be interested?¡±

    The healthier guard stood up and strode over to the iron bars that separated us, though he stayed out of reach. ¡°Are you actually admitting that you are ugly?¡±

    I smirked, ¡°I made sure that I am more hard muscle than soft flesh, that way I could make sure that no fools got too friendly.¡±

    ¡°Yet,¡± he stepped closer, ¡°you went and killed that mage for getting too friendly did you not? Or was it that you wanted him to get friendly and he refused?¡±

    I sighed, losing my smile for a minute, it was amazing how literally every single guard wanted to make a joke about that. There were usually some guards who only did the bare minimum according to the rules, but I could not seem to find them. Maybe they were all reserved for the snot-nosed noble kids.

    ¡°Why would you kill a mage inside their own wards, something that is almost always done with poison, only to sit around until the wards catch you? Plus, I still had business with the man and regardless of what you think of that business, you should still understand the stupidity of killing him

    He stepped within arm¡¯s reach and I had to resist the urge to pull him into the bars. Not only would the shock from the wards likely continue until I was nearly dead, but there was no point as it took both the guards to unlock the gate next to me. ¡°Who knows what goes through the mind of a murderess?¡±

    I gave him a disappointed look and made a long string of bubbling sounds that had his friend cursing and scrambling for the room¡¯s chamber pot.

    I chuckled as the healthier guard yelled at him, ¡°Gods above man, take it to the next room!¡± I actually laughed when he added ¡°already stank the place up before they emptied the last one,¡± under his breath. The other man quickly shuffled off, but

    ¡°Normally I would offer to help, but I am a bit tied up right now, even if you cannot see the rope, though¡± I paused with a curious look on my face, ¡°I did not notice the smell because you always smell that bad.¡±

    ¡°You vile little slut when-¡±

    I realized at that moment, that the word slut had a surprising history of making me do something I would normally call stupid. It had happened in my previous life too, but it never affected me like it did after I became female.

    Deliberately channeling my G¨ªa to allow me to grab his jaw. Naturally the wards objected to this a fair bit and delivered a nasty bolt of electricity that would definitely leave major burns if I let it continue too long.

    Keeping that in mind, I suffered it just long enough to make my point and stopped using my G¨ªa. The guard in question collapsed on the ground coughing and gasping for air. I was in better shape partly because of my G¨ªa and partly because I was being used to shock spell by now.

    That said, I still had to deal with the after effects of the electricity as my muscles continued to spasm and I found that both my hands were gripped fairly tightly. Fortunately for the guard, I did not break his jaw in doing so, but I still made quite the impact. After dislodging that hand I noticed that I made a major mistake in not dealing with the other hand first, as it was still gripping the iron when I lost my temper.

    I felt my flesh rip and tears as I slowly released my grip on the iron. My hands had been burned and then it cooled while it was gripped around the bars, so it was an extremely unpleasant experience.

    Surprisingly, the smell was worse than the pain as it reminded me of when I died. I also found myself suddenly appreciating how nice it had been to be able to heal my own wounds. The fact that I could not heal inside the wards annoyed me even more than the burn hurt.

    Then I saw the iron. The bars were not that thick and since they were made of iron they naturally could not be connected to the wards. While I was letting the fool get electrocuted and concentrating on not accidentally killing him with my G¨ªa enhanced strength, I used that same strength to bend the bars in my other hand.

    Between that and the guard being nearly knocked out by the wards themselves, no one noticed. The wards simply did what they were designed to do and did not care if the guard was hurt in the process. I could not even shake my head in disbelief as I knew this kind of thing happened all too often when specialized prisons only saw the fairly well-mannered or absolutely insane. No noble would risk such a method to try to escape, even if they could withstand the pain, they were safer bribing their way out of trouble.

    I on the other hand, had nothing to lose and quickly tore at my robe for some cloth to wrap my burned hand. It hurt horribly, but I was too ecstatic to care. If this worked I would have a very small window to run like Gorith himself was coming for my soul.

    I wrapped my arm around through as many bars as I could and flooded it with G¨ªa for just long enough to bend the bars.

    After I recovered from the shock, which was even more intense than the previous one, I realized that I only managed to bend about a 10cm hole. I only had to slip out sideways, but even then that was a bit small, so I repeated the process on the other side, taking the time to make sure that I was touching the guard again as I did so.

    He had been starting to wake up, but the shock put him back on the ground. It would not work for long, but all I needed was the wider opening to slip out. The wards registered attacks, they registered magic, but what I was doing slipped right by them.

    I strained and slowly slipped through the now bent bars. I thought briefly about the pirate as I did so, but what I needed right now was speed.

    There would only be around 30-40 guards in the building right now as it was almost empty of occupants. Of those I tried to remember the layout from what I saw when I was brought in. The pirate had explained some of it, but I only paid attention to the broad strokes.

    The first 2 floors were maned guard posts and storage areas, with the next 2 floors being sleeping arrangements for the guards, followed by the Tower¡¯s servants floor, 2 floors for nobles servants and the floors above that were for us magic wielding prisoners.

    I was on the 8th floor, so I could likely get down to the 5th without too much trouble, due to both the odd hour and the lack of inhabitants. However, once on the 5th floor the servants would be waking up soon enough, so it was anyone¡¯s guess if I was going to get caught there. If I got past that¡­ I knew that there were several floors with windows, maybe I could get down to the second or

    Oh and if I happened to use G¨ªa, or any other magic outside my cell, the wards would likely figure out who I was and shock me into either unconsciousness or death.

    For now though, I finished slipping through the bars and grabbed 1 of the 2 lit torches off the wall before I sprinted towards where I knew the stairs were. When I got there I found a closed door and realized, to my shock, that the door handle was made of brass and had mana from the wards running through it.

    I cursed and tried to look at the ward. I could not pick through it for a few reasons, starting with the fact that I was only mediocre at breaking into wards and ending with the fact that I would have to use magic to do that. That said, I could at least extend my mana towards it and try to test what I needed to pass it.

    The wards reacted to mana use, not its gathering, and not as I gently pressed it to the wards. I poked at it and quickly tried to find out if it was tied to an external item, like a magical device in the shape of a key, or¡­ an internal list, like those of a certain blood.

    I grimaced and turned back towards my cell, I needed the guard¡¯s hand. I quickly arrived and found the guard trying to come back around so I gently hugged his neck and cut off the flow of oxygen until he passed out again. After that I leveraged him over my shoulder and took off, vaguely remembering that accidentally burning him with the torch was a good way to wake up.

    I reached the door and watched with my mana like I had before as just placing the guard¡¯s hand on the handle removed the danger. Then came the stairs though¡­

    Not long after I was jogging down the hallway of the 6th floor as fast as I could, but this was testing my endurance. The graveborn on my back weighed more than me and I was hungry from the lack of good food recently. Not to mention that I had to be very careful on the stairs.

    If I ever build a prison, I thought, I will test it periodically to make it harder to escape. This place is far too dependent on wards, but for now, for me, that is a good thing.

    I went down the stairs and paused at the entrance to the fifth floor to listen for movement. Most servants got up at the blood call, but a few naturally woke up earlier and those were the ones I had to be careful about.

    I carefully started to make my way through the floor when I heard one of the doors ahead of me open. Not worrying about whose room they were I used the guard¡¯s hand to try several doors. One finally opened and I ducked inside for just long enough to let the sounds pass by. The room I was in was currently empty, but that was hardly surprising given how empty this entire place was.

    How many servants did they even have here? I certainly had not seen many.

    I went back out into the hallway after a moment and slipped further down the hall, but I heard what sounded like a half-drunk guard arguing with someone who sounded like a woman near the stairs and found myself pressed against a surprisingly warm room.

    Knowing that I would have to wait for the guard and whoever he was arguing with to leave and with vague images of food in my head I ducked into the room.

    I barely closed the door before I dumped the unconscious guard against it. Graveborn was making my shoulder stoning sore.

    It was not some kitchen area was in some type of cleaning room, with heating runes carved into the walls and a few empty buckets and I felt heavy amounts of magic coming from the walls near them. I did not have time to check them, but based on the sheets that were folded nearby, I would guess that the magic near the wall involved moving water.

    As for why this place was on the fifth floor and not the first, which would make it easier to move water¡­ I had no idea. People did not always make sense and it might have just been here because it was the servant¡¯s floor.

    In any case, I was running out of time fast. I had gotten here quickly enough, but I could not count on that guard¡¯s stomach keeping him near a chamber pot forever. That said, I saw the tiny window¡¯s outline and my mind instantly went to work.

    Sheets, window, and I needed a counter-weight ¨C the guard.

    First though, I opened the cover on the window and poked my head out to check for guards patrolling around the building. I was on the opposite side of the front gate though and the walls were, like the rest of this place, more dependent on the wards than the guards. It looked like there was a pair of guards at each corner of the wall, but I might have been wrong, all that mattered to me was how much time I had left.

    I tied one end around the guard¡¯s chest to distribute the weight and made sure that he was still out like a candle before I started to work towards the end of the sheet I used. At which point, I discovered that these were not sheets, but curtains.

    I did understand why these were here though, any nobles who were trapped in this place would likely try to cover the otherwise barren walls to forget their surroundings.

    As I tied the ends together I felt a brief flash of guilt that I had not brought the pirate along as a seaman would be a lot of help with knots, but it hardly mattered right now. I wanted out of here and if I had to jump out then so be it.

    More knots followed and I only paused to make sure that the torch was away from the window. The light would still attract attention, but a few curtains hanging out the side of the building would too, the key was to keep attention to a minimum for just long enough for me to get outside the wards.

    I checked outside again and confirmed that no guards could see me before I started shoving the curtains out the small window. It would not be a comfortable fit, but I confirmed that I could get my whole body through.

    That said, what I did next was more falling than climbing down. I only moved so fast though and I deliberately lowered myself further and further down.

    When I reached the third floor window though, I felt my knot slip and froze for a moment. I tied it in a hurry and now I was about to pay the price.

    The knot near the top of my makeshift rope gave out and I fell. I missed the 3rd floor window, but my arm caught the 2nd floor window and arrested my fall¡­ at the cost of dislocating my shoulder and slamming me into the side of the tower, knocking the wind out of me before my hand slipped off the ledge.

    I fell from the second floor and slammed into ground that sloped into the trench around the building. I somehow managed to keep from twisting my ankle or breaking my leg, but when I finally stopped moving I found my head spinning and my ribs bruised.

    The remainder of the curtains quickly fell over me and I tried to recover as quickly as possible, though that was not saying much.

    I ignored my shoulder as best I could and stumbled along swearing very quietly as I realized the amount of night soil I had fallen in. I really disliked that, but I moved on. Between the angle of the trench and fact that it was not even the twilight of blood call yet, I could move around completely unseen to the front gate.

    There I saw the final piece of my escape. They were loading up a night soil wagon. I had just planned to try rushing a wall or the gate itself if they were not looking, but that would do as well. I had no idea what defenses were placed to stop me from simply jumping over them with G¨ªa, but I had better odd of surviving that than a hanging.

    The guards were yelling at the night soil men to get out already because of the smell and were practically waving their torches in front of their faces, as if that would ward off the smell.

    I was beyond thinking at this stage, it was in the timing and my body knew it better than me. Smell was not an issue because of the wagon, even covered like it was the stench leaked out. I was barefoot so I only really had to worry about the sound my slightly wet robe could make and if the contents of the large copper ball in the back of the wagon sloshed when I got in.

    Thought was useless though, I moved by instinct. Between the time that the guards turned away from the night soil men, after the first one got in the driving area of the wagon to start yelling at the mules, I was out of the trench.

    When the second man started to get on the wagon I was quietly opening up the back as the 4 men nearby were all turned away.

    It had been a very long time since I was this desperate, but I could practically see the hangman so I did not hesitate to take a silent, but deep breath. The stench burned my lungs and made me want to gag, but I was just far enough away from the opening to keep from doing that.

    Then I slid in, burrowing into the night soil wagon without further thought. I also made sure to move as close to the wall of the container as possible, ignoring both my screaming lungs and my burning shoulder. It was still evening, but if someone looked too closely I could still get caught.

    I had both trained and modified my heart and lungs to be more efficient, but this was a disgustingly new experience so I tried to concentrated on making my air last as long as possible. To that extent even I covered my nose using the rags that covered my burned fingers. I had no plans to breath, but I would rather keep the smell out of my nose all the same.

    The wagon started moving forward and even if I could breathe in this filth, I would have held my breath. I was close, but this was all completely spur of the moment and I had no faith that I would not be caught. There were several calls and I felt the wagon stop.

    In my head I started planning for what I could do. If I was close enough to the gates I might be able to rush out before-

    Then someone got on the wagon and I saw the hatch open. Someone stuck a long pole in stirred up the contents in the center of the container of sludge. Were they checking for me? I tensed up and started reaching for my G¨ªa before someone complained about the stench and the person who must have been holding to pole shouted that is was free to go.

    I saw the hatch close and felt the wagon rock a moment later, along with the unmistakable rumble of the gates, I felt hope grip me for a fraction of a moment before I squashed it.

    I was not free yet.

    I did not move, did not breath, and did not ever pray as the wagon slowly moved. I would need to breathe soon, but I kept dead still until I heard the gate start to move again, this time on the other side of the wagon.

    The wagon rumbled on for a few moments and I really started to mentally celebrate before a nearby bell started to sound. I was not sure what it meant, but I guessed that it was the warning that I had escaped.

    Not wanting to stay anywhere near those infernal wards and knowing that I had next to no time before they would start calling out mages to track me down, I lunged at the back hatch of the container.

    A moment later I was using my G¨ªa and throwing myself out of the wagon to cleaner air. I ignored the shouts of surprise from the nigh soil men and started running at full speed, while casts a handful of decontamination and cleansing spells at the same time.

    By the time I was a block away and ducking into the first of many alleys, I was feeling much less disgusting, even if I did not feel clean just yet. In fact it would likely be several baths before I could even imagine such a thing.

    Half worried that I would be followed by smell alone, I modified a spell designed to throw off dogs and used it as liberally as I could afford to. I was hungry and now had next to no fat left on my body, meaning that too many spells would see my body start to cannibalize my muscles. That said, I did not stop while I was doing this and navigated through the alleys as best I could in the darkness.

    I did stop long enough to put my shoulder back in and kill a handful of rats before absorbing them with mana roots. I tried to keep the magic to a minimum as I knew that mages would already be trying to track me, but they would not be able to feel my G¨ªa, just my magic, so I simple ran a little more to get away.

    I was on the opposite side of the city before addressing what to do next.

    I needed food, a change of clothing, and access to Jorgensen¡¯s old home. Though not necessarily in that order as The Tower was currently sounding off all sorts of alarms, both magically and otherwise. I could already imagine the gates out of the city on high alert and the increased guard patrols that would be organized.

    No what I needed to do first was make sure no one I did not like, which encompassed almost everyone in the city, managed to find me. New cloths and a new face would help with that, while food would help me regain my strength.

    As for why I needed to get back to Jorgenson¡¯s home, even for a pervert of a mage like him there should still be notes on how to perform the sex change spell located somewhere close to where he lived. It was something drilled into the brain of any conventionally trained mage and even outlaw mages like I was ¨C like I am again ¨C understood to write spells down when first practicing them.

    As a result, the chance of Jorgensen keeping notes on how to perform the spell were relatively good and if I understood how the spell worked I might be able to modify it before using it on myself.

    Of course there were extensive dangers with such a plan, primarily because I would be essentially helpless to change the spell once it was cast. I could use the freeform method of spell casting, but that could backfire in so many ways that I would rather have entrusted my body to Jorgensen without any precautions.

    The twilight of the blood call broke through the horizon sometime while I was thinking and I realized that, because of my delays in The Tower, I only had until the tomorrow¡¯s sunrise to make sure I was prepared for my merge with Bella. Though she had been so quiet for so long that I would have assumed she was already a part of me if not for the Nalk mental wall that separated us.

    Some of my problems were solved easily enough with the generous application of stun spells on unsuspecting people who passed by and an illusion spell to keep others from seeing who I really was. This got me some easy money and let me buy some food and clothing without looking suspicious in my currently torn and toughly disgusting robe.

    Of course, the ever increasing number of guards and mages running around looking for me made it more difficult, but once I had something to eat and found a peaceful enough place to change my face I was ready to start my own search.

    *     *     *

    Leo¡¯s Office

    That is how you play a move, brat. Leo sent. The younger Nalks flinched as they received the message, causing Leo to sneer.

    The child had suppressed the temple guard¡¯s urge to call for a Sister to confirm DeMorte¡¯s departure from the cult, like he normally would, and it had resulted in DeMorte arriving too early, right after Jorgenson died and just in time for the servant to improvise his framing.

    This had led to DeMorte¡¯s arrest, Leo¡¯s humiliation, and the counter that gave DeMorte the opportunity to escape.

    It was a simple matter of a fly being pushed in one direction over the other, but it started a chain reaction that left the one key guard to prevent DeMorte¡¯s escape with a horrible case of the runs. After that, DeMorte¡¯s natural personality kicked in and after the guard stepped on the wrong landmine, the escape was set in motion.

    Pick your specialty and play it well young ones, but never forget that your elders had been observing our players for far longer than you. If you want to play the events, then play the events, if you want to play the individuals, then do that. However, never play other Backers, much less the Game Architect!

    Leo blasted the message into their energy clouds and then pushed them to leave immediately. They fled and Leo marked their respective players for penalties. They were minor things, making one come down with a cold and the other trip at a key moment, embarrassing himself badly, but both moves would affect the Game.

    The fact that their Backers managed to sneak a move past Leo was infuriating though. He had caught no less than 5 others around the same time, all in different areas of the biosphere that made up the game. They were all appropriately blocked and penalized, but if Leo had proof that they had coordinated that attempt, then it would be much more serious offense.

    [AN: I reserve the right to change ¡®biosphere¡¯ in the future, but no alien invasions are currently planned to take place¡­]

    Over all there had been very little that actually changed, but Leo was still furious that the other Backers had to nerve to even try such a move. Unlike Selaugh¡¯s move, which gave DeMorte his mithril disk and was officially registered as a ¡®move¡¯ in the Game, all the others had attempted to cheat. Still, all Leo could do was give them small penalties because of the way they did it.

    DeMorte himself was the one who gained the most from this debatable, realizing that he both needed others to help him reach his full potential and that he had a deeply embedded hatred of that particular word. He would have figured both out soon enough, but the advantage of figuring it out earlier than he should have caused his chance at winning to jump by nearly half a percent.

    Leo¡¯s energy rippled around him as he reconsidered the Game he had set up. A dozen players on the ¡®lost¡¯ continent, a few more than that in the southern one¡­ The majority of cannon fodder were in the central continent for political purposes, with a few dozen combat specialists and non-mage players scattered across both the eastern and western continents.

    The problem was that Leo knew the moves of everyone and everything in this biosphere and he knew that DeMorte had been given a new path to follow. The Bone King was coming and when that occurred, DeMorte could easily dominate in the chaos that followed¡­ assuming that he won the upcoming little fight with Bella that was.

    Leo put the odds that DeMorte would win at nearly 70 percent, but Selaugh was making it more difficult. She was still deciding between Bella and Maria for a Player, but regardless of what she did or who she chose as her player, it would undoubtedly throw even the best laid plans in chaos.

    No amount of skill could stand against her unique method of play and DeMorte still had his own demons to tend to.

    Not realizing he was doing it, Leo buzzed with energy, he was both excited and vengeful, but he could do nothing without violating the rules and¡­ for the first real time, Leo started hooping that DeMorte would actually win.

    ---------------------------------------------------------

    <del>Nalk ex Machina combined with DeMorte and a really badly run Prison Tower hopefully makes an acceptable escape, if it doesn¡¯t, please post and I will overhaul the entire chapter later.

    Either way thank you for reading, I dislike it when chapters get this long, but the only reasonable options that I could think to avoid the prison escape sequence were: someone showing up and setting DeMorte free because they figure out that he is not guilty of this particular crime, him bargaining for his freedom, or Dras deciding to break Bella out for some reason.

    If more than a few readers post that they prefer any of these to the current version I can update this at a future point, or just do it for the rewrite, until then I hope that you enjoyed this week¡¯s chapter.</del>

    Thank you all for the feedback and thank you very much for reading,

    Bob_Sagit.

 Chapter 38: Weight

    Reminder:

    -Spellwork is supposed to be like computer programming. This means that wards are literal firewalls and ¡®picking¡¯ those wards should be reminiscent of hacking¡­ Though since I know very little about hacking, I will gladly review any suggestions that are given.

    Announcement:

    Since the arc is wrapping up I would like to announce something you may have figured out already: my schedule has gone to hell lately. To that end I am going to have to delay any chapters after the end of the arc for quite some time. I originally planned to release biweekly until I was either finished with the rewrite or December, whichever came first, but that has looking increasingly impossible.

    Now it looks like BKR will need a hiatus after chapter 40. I can promise a chapter to celebrate a year since I first added a chapter, but the bonus chapter for 250 followers I kept promising will be on hold until then at least.

    I apologies for this, but my mental timeline for the rewrite was not just impractical, but na?ve and trying to add biweekly or (after year¡¯s end) weekly releases would likely mean that I would still be writing it into say¡­ June.

    Once my schedule gets sorted I hope to rewrite a chapter every 3 or 4 days, meaning I can get a good solid start into it before I come back with new chapters, but that is still up in the air.

    I can promise one thing though: neither BKR nor I are done yet.

    In any case, thank you for your attention thus far and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

    Chapter 38: Weight

    ¡°Gorith¡¯s judgement they are a busy lot.¡± I quietly observed.

    The guards were practically performing a grid search for me, kicking down doors and cordoning off areas as they went from house to house. Originally I planned to mix in with the crowds and just wait a few days, but my noon they had seemingly mobilized the entire city guard and even the nobles to look for me.

    It was not an efficient method, considering how large the city was, they would be lucky to cordon off already searched areas. That said, once they got the message to everyone that they needed to get back to their homes, the streets emptied out and thing became much for difficult for me.

    Fortunately, there were a few places that gave the guard trouble. Primarily the slums, but the nobility had something approaching a sewer system and the guard were obligated to search there too.

    With a few unfortunate souls being sent in there, many unfortunate guards fighting criminal elements in the slums, and groups like the nobles and Sisterhood insisting that there was no need to search them, I actually pitied the guard a little.

    The fact that the sewer actually led out of the city had made it tempting, but I had business to attend to still in the city. Specifically, I was standing near Jorgenson¡¯s mansion observing one of a handful of patrols wandering around the otherwise empty streets.

    The mansion was still protected by its powerful wards, but it had been placed in a stand-by mode instead of lockdown. The primary difference being permission, as when a ward was in lockdown, no one but the ward¡¯s recognized master, or someone with a special device, could open it. Of course, since said device had to be created by the ward master anyway, the mansion was effectively sealed off from the outside.

    How long I have inside before they thought to check it? Or more importantly, could I get inside?

    I had a few talents, but picking wards was not one of them. Instead, I preferred slipping in and then dodging the ward¡¯s magic and turning it against its masters instead. Since picking the wards apart and getting personal access required an exceptional level of mental ability, it was extremely specialized work.

    I grimaced and made sure that no one was in the immediate area who would sense my magic. It took me a while to walk the around the area, but I was reasonably sure that there were no mages who were going to notice my little break in.

    Only a single fool dared to bother me while I was walking the perimeter. Apparently he liked my new appearance a bit too much, so I helped him curb his desires.

    Said new appearance was partly because of the guards chasing me and partly because, like any other mages, I bulked up when I expected to get involved a magical battle. Magic needed fuel, calories to be precise, so I started by buying a pig.

    The single most useful idea that had ever entered Bella¡¯s mind was mana roots and its utility really showed itself here as I killed and absorbed the pig. Stopping to cook the whole thing would have taken far too long and attracted attention, so mana roots played a key part in helping me eat as the guards emptied the streets.

    Combined with some avotatoes and some rats I killed in an alley, I had enough to completely rebuild and refuel myself. As a result, I now looked like an actual young woman, with some rather discomforting curves as a result of my bodily manipulations. Though I was still fairly short as I did not want to go through a clumsy stage as I was trying to get away.

    My previous trend of always looking younger than my actual age was reversed and I now looked¡­ not ugly. I would not call myself a beauty, even if I modified myself into an absolute one, but I had a body that apparently attracted the idiot enough to make him attempt something stupid.

    I left him stripped naked in a side street and made sure that he was not going to wake up for a bit. It was a bit of a risk, but he had a flask which provided enough alcohol to ensure that he at least smelled drunk. I would have castrated him as well, but that would have involved time, mana, and calories that I simply could not spare.

    Especially as I was going to be taking fairly large risk simple by using a spell to make him stay unconscious for a while. If a mage found him and connected the residual spell to either me or the nearby mansion I would be in a bit of a fix. Regardless, I complete my walk and was reasonably certain that no mages would interrupt me, provided I finished reasonably quickly.

    I knew I could be wrong of course, but I needed to get inside and unlike the prison wards, I could fight these off as long as I was mentally ready for it, so I decided to chance it.

    I entered the outer layer of the wards the same way I did the evening I ran from the Sister¡¯s temple, by walking in. The wards had the side entrances as public areas and therefore ignored me, but after that came the hard part, actually picking them apart.

    Each layer of ward defense could be linked to another, connected like a house of cards. If any of the individual layer of defense were removed in the wrong way, the whole system would collapse and activate the defenses. It was actually not that difficult to parse out each layer of security, but then you had to remove or somehow bypass it.

    Each layer of the ward¡¯s defenses could be gently pushed aside if they were loosely founded, like a camp ward that I set up for personal protection. Lady Rapier¡¯s friend had snuck up on me back near Entrials by pushing my wards just enough to slip by them without letting me notice. What that man did was more mana manipulation than ward picking, but it was still a very hard thing to do unnoticed.

    The wards in front of me, but as I used my mana to lightly press through the outer defenses to try and map out as much as I could. Interlinked wards were more powerful and complex, but also more vulnerable to someone picking through them. Solid wards were more annoying to create and manipulate, but were harder to trap because they were simpler.

    As anyone who tried to pick a ward could see every spell interlinked into the layer they were testing, it was always an annoyance to find solid builds. Thankfully, the problems caused by using solid builds meant that they were horribly impractical for things like doors.

    This left me with a complex series of spells that made up the entrance wards. For right now I was just mapping out the security for the door, but then I would normally have to guess at the security behind it. Since I had been here before and watched the wards at work I had a slight advantage, but there were always traps in ward designs for security reasons.

    Since the wards were so powerful and interlinked, I only had 3 options, get permission, systematically pick my way in, or use free-form method. Naturally, wards were designed with defenses to prevent such things as simple convincing it that you were allowed everywhere so, baring someone actually showing up and giving permission, there was some picking involved in each method.

    The way I usually got in, whenever I had to pick or bypass any type of ward, was pretending I was someone else. It was something of a talent of mine and impersonating other people¡¯s existence was something that I somehow understood. Sometimes it was just a blood magic derivative, but the wards had to recognize someone¡¯s presence somehow and if they did not use a magical device, then I could try and copy a person¡¯s presence instead.

    Though in this particular case, I was already added to the ward¡¯s internal list as a ¡®guest¡¯ from the last time I was here. Given that the ward master had died at that time, I doubted anyone had time to change my status and the wards were incapable of learning such things unless special spells were added to them. I just needed to try and activate the command to let me in as a guest once again.

    That said, I still needed to make a big enough hole in the wards for me to access what the servants usually just pulled a rope for and that meant that I had to systematically map out and create my spell to pick the ward.

    Each part of the ward I told my picking spell to avoid or attack would change the ward itself as it reacted to the spell. Of course, since normal spells were all constructed in advance of actually casting the spell, it meant that I had to predict all of the chain reactions that would result because of my spell and counter them in advance.

    It was similar to the game baduk in my old world, where one had to ¡®read¡¯ the board and effectively the other player¡¯s mind to predict their moves. If I do ¡°X¡± then he will respond with ¡°Y¡± and I will push him at ¡°Q¡± and so on. The problem was that using regular spellwork, was doing that in increasingly complex situations.

    A half dozen basic moves and countermoves could be easy enough to plan out, but once the wards got big enough it could become not dozens, but hundreds of moves to plan out in your head. By the time a ward was large enough that it surrounded a city, it was labeled as unpickable because of their enormous and powerful defenses.

    ¡°Got you.¡± I found the spell permission that would deactivate the wards and unlock the door and started to trace how I would get to it.

    In my previous life I had been desperate enough to use free-form picking from time to time, but I would really, really, rather not do that right now. Free-form spellcasting could be useful, but it was always dangerous and I did not need to take that kind of risk at the current moment.

    It was¡­ different, now that I thought about it. I was used to fighting to survive and I was downright desensitized when it came to being chased, but I was not used to taking such risks on my own for luxuries¡­

    Wait, was that what my sex was, a luxury? I did not need to be a male in order to keep living, so technically it was, but it was also a part of my identity. I was a male in my head and not being a male in actuality was wrong. Fundamentally wrong on a level that startled me.

    I blinked as I lost track of the wards for a moment. Where did that line of thought come from? Stones, that felt like it was between 2 other people, neither of whom were me.

    Shaking my head I decided that is was likely Bella, trying to mess with my head again. Though I was a bit surprised that she even bothered, considering the weight of over 5 decades of jaded existence versus her less than 16.

    I dove into the interlocking spells of the ward and concentrated. I decided to use a rushing version of a pick spell, which counted on speed and surprise to deactivate the local ward security. It was a bad idea to try when the ward master was home, but it was useful when just dealing with wards.

    It took some time to set it up, but I when I finally cast the picking spell, it activated the ward¡¯s guest permission in moment and heard a click as the door into the mansion unlocked and swung in.

    It was had been an annoyance, but it was worth it as I could now close up the small hole in the wards that my picking spell had created when it entered. With any luck, that alone would turn away investigators who thought to look at the mansion as a possible hiding place.

    I would be the first to admit that this place was not the best place to stay, but how long I could stay here depended on how the guards decided to search. They had immediately sealed off the city and demanded an accounting at all of the inns while sending people back to their homes. This meant that I could only hid in areas where nobody would notice me, like the slums, or an abandoned building like this one.

    If the guards tried to keep the lockdown going for too long people would start getting violent, unless they planned to cart water to everyone in the poorer parts of the city. Given what I knew about the guards, I had an idea that no one expected that and I could already imagine where the contents of chamber pots were being dumped while the guard barged from house to house.

    If I could dodge the guards for a couple of days, I figured that the poorer areas of the city would be trying to stage a revolt while the nobility and outside traders would become restless. I was someone who murdered an extremely unpopular man and it would not take too long before they would grudgingly let people start moving through the city again.

    By that time I also planned to be a male, and so settled into my new body that even spells designed to figure out what you looked like in the past would not be able to figure out who I was.

    I walked into the mansion and mentally tested the wards to see how they were tied into the various ornaments. If I could steal some of them, it would help a fair bit with ensuring that I was well provided for without needed to steal from whoever I found wandering the streets.

    Unfortunately most of the gold and silver decorations carried magic in them and were tied to the wards securely with solid connections. Not that all the gold and silver, even if I melted the ornaments down and recast them myself, would fail to attract their own kind of attention.

    I took my time and went to the room that I had been waiting in previously. The guards would have already have trampled through the room and I was unlikely to active any traps, but I still hesitated before entering the room where Jorgenson died.

    The moment only lasted long enough to check for possible traps with my senses before I entered the room.

    It was suitably opulent, rather unlike the rest of the rather gaudy halls. A large hardwood desk to display Jorgenson¡¯s wealth, and some opulent chairs that I knew from experience were remarkably uncomfortable. It was a well planned meeting room, if you did not notice the large bloodstain on the stone floor.

    I shook my head and looked around. The room only had a single obvious entrance or exit, but Jorgenson had to get into the room somehow. If he was in the room before me, than the poison would have had to been extremely fast working. He had not killed the entire servant staff, which was not uncommon occurrence when a mage realized they were poisoned in their own wards.

    From what I overheard the guard talking about that night, Jorgenson¡¯s body had still been warm and there had been no sign of a food try of any type. The servant had said something about eating separately when Jorgenson had special guests, but that had been at the edge of my hearing.

    It was obviously poison because there were he had died in his own wards and it was simply regarded as a practical impossibility to kill a mage literally in the center of their power. Stones, I was the only person I knew who ever figured out how to kill someone in their own wards without poison or overwhelming force.

    Looking around and testing the wards it did not take me too long to find the hidden doorway, but getting through it was another matter entirely.

    The wards on the hidden door made the ones protecting the actual house look simple. Technically it would take less mana to break through, but the design was so much more intricate and complicated that I was worried if I would be able to get through.

    It took time, far too much time, to finally figure out how to beat the wards. In the end it was a combination of brute magical force and timing. Though that makes it sound simple, when I checked out a nearby glass panel, I realized that it took me far longer than intended.

    I entered close to noon, but now most of the day was gone and I did not have too long until the sun started to set.

    Then, as if to add insult to injury, I opened the door and found it ransacked already. There was even an unsealed stone box, sunk into the floor of the room, off to one side. Other than that, it looked remarkably similar to the office I just left. The only major give away that this room was special was the bed chamber that I saw connecting directly to it off on the side and the runes that wound around the room near the ceiling.

    They were almost all scratched out or outright destroyed, but many of the runes seemed to be focused on power or control. There were no ¡®obey¡¯ runes, but some of the rune remains showed combinations that came close. There was a wooden desk with a small ledger looking book that I noticed, but I made sure to look around my feet at the scattered papers too.

    All the various scattered papers had basic, if fairly valuable, information written in them. Things ranging from the prices of local goods to crop predictions and recent lawless activity. It was all interesting, but I did not see his research notes scattered around.

    Looking back up at the ledger, I walked over and to the desk and tested for magic or more wards in the area, but found nothing. Just as I started to reach for the ledger though, a voice called out and I felt like I could have jumped out of my skin.

    ¡°Looking for something?¡±

    I heard the wind whip as I turned around as fast as I could to face the relatively young woman who was standing at the doorway to the private office.

    3 paces away, with no obvious weapons in her hands, she was a mage, more powerful than me, 12 or 13 circles. No iron that I could tell. Her stance seemed arrogant and at ease. Her body was not developed like a fighter would be, the way she stood was straight, but there was something else, that seemed off to me.

    Then her breasts caught my eye. ¡°Should you really be here while breast feeding a child? Though, that level of power suggest a noble, which brings up the question of how much you actively encourage lactation in the first place.¡± I then took a closer look at her and clinically dissected her with my eyes, trying to guess how much of her generous curves were just bone and muscle build.

    The woman kept a completely-in-control face. ¡°You must be the little escapee that everyone is looking for. This is hardly the first time someone dissected me with their eyes, but it is the first time they were so medical about it. Well, since my time in the Sisterhood anyway.¡±

    I felt a shudder come up and I suppressed it. ¡°What makes you think that I am the escapee? Or that, if I am, I will just stand here and talk to you while you call reinforcements?¡±

    ¡°The twitch was something of a giveaway, but I have no interest in calling the guard on you. You are a loose end like that.¡± Her face was¡­ still a mask of indifference, but I got the feeling of sorrow behind it.

    Loose end? ¡°You make it sound like I did something to interrupt your plans.¡±

    That was when she grimaced, ¡°Partly. I do confess that I would rather you not have gotten dragged into this, but the servant got greedy.¡±

    I felt my mana pulse at that statement. Had she just admitted to arranging the killing of Jorgenson? Why? Then I reassessed her and realized that I likely knew why. The woman was dressed in an expensive dress, had lots of mana, and was fairly attractive. ¡°Oh? Greedy servants usually rank as major loose ends you know.¡± I asked casually, trying to get a better feel for her.

    I also carefully stepped forward, I could likely deflect her first strike, but a drawn out battle was not in my favor. She saw me move and stepped forward herself, before I felt the wards move. They closed behind her, forming a solid barrier for a moment before reopening. Stone-me-in-a-boat, she had the wards under her control.

    ¡°Yes he was, which was why he was found dead after a mugging.¡± She said it coldly, as if detached, but if that were the case, why bother telling me? Was she bragging? ¡°Just after he told me of the back-up ward control and the guard about how you were another victim of that thing that died in the other room.¡±

    Abruptly I stopped moving and concentrated, there was only a handful of ways to survive while in someone else¡¯s wards. Of course, most of those were impractical in the extreme, such as being mage powerful enough to take on both the mage and the wards at the same time. Other options included getting someone else to destroy the ward anchor, shielding yourself and running for your life, or poison.

    Again, nerve gas or anything like that would be highly impractical because of my lack of experience or experimentation with it. It looked like she could ward the room again if I tried to run and I was not strong enough to fight both her and the wards. Thankfully I did have one way to beat her, but I really did not want to do that.

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°So you came here all alone to what? Drag me back to The Tower?¡± I stalled. Using a trump card was a tricky thing and if I mistimed it or there was someone else here, my spell would be useless.

    The woman shook her head lightly and tisked lightly. ¡°Normally I would tell you to stop stalling, but the truth is that I do feel for your predicament. Besides,¡± she looked at me like she was trying to burrow into my head with just her eyes. ¡°I already told the guard that this place was clear, that way there would not be any other loose ends to tie up.¡±

    Assuming that she was telling the truth, I would have a fairly good chance of escaping. ¡°You keep saying loose ends, you could have just asked me to kill Jorgensen after I got what I needed from him instead of causing this much trouble, for both of us. Why did you even want him dead anyway?¡±

    The woman went very still at that. ¡°He was a disgusting perversion of the human species, something that I am sure both Conbra and Prometheus cursed in equal measure. Why do you assume that I even needed a reason to kill him beyond that?¡±

    ¡°Because, between your bearing and the way magic power flows out of you, it is obvious that you are a noble. For someone like you to actually go to such lengths like this is unlike nobility. Your kind always hates directly attacking others, it means too much personal work.¡±

    A small smile ghosted across her face for a moment. ¡°True¡­ Tell me young lady, what would you do for your honor? For your pride? I did what was necessary to protect my house, but that piece of filth pushed FAR beyond where he should have. FAR beyond where he had any RIGHT to.¡±

    There was so much emotion behind that statement that it took me some time to parse it out. In the meantime, I just prompted her to continue with a curious look. The spell I needed to have ready also needed a bit more time to finish.

    ¡°Oh do not give me that look child, you know what type of disgusting creature that thing was. Originally I just wanted his slime of a servant, his enabler, to kill him and then die conveniently, after all, he was not just about to stop. No, he already had his hooks in you too, I am sure.

    My spell was unique, but I was familiar enough with it that it was already prepared in the back of my mind by the time I responded. ¡°You are assuming a lot there miss, how would you know if something like that happened? Jorgenson and I were professionals about most of it.¡±

    ¡°Professional? Most of it?¡± She looked disgusted, no, revolted, at my statement. ¡°That thing was a sack of disgusting pus on this world only because someone forgot to pop that zit of a creature at birth. What part of it deserved to live? What part of it could you possibly have seen as anything worth its existence!?¡±

    ¡°All I had to do was give him a disease that caused impotence and hold the cure over him¡± I replied blandly. ¡°Besides, I understood him and that made him far safer to work with than many others. He tried to get me to give in to his advances of course, but I refused him every time.¡±

    That shut her up for a moment. Clearly she had at least partly expected to find a fellow victim of Jorgenson¡¯s. ¡°Were you actually going to cure him afterwards?¡± She asked quietly.

    ¡°Does it really matter? Why did you bother talking to me in the first place if you planned to kill me?¡± I asked because even after putting my brain to the task of trying to figure out why I was still alive, I could not figure it out. If it was me, I would have even opened my mouth and simply blasted her from behind. Although she seemed to have an explanation already prepared.

    ¡°I felt you deserved an explanation.¡± She took a deep breath. ¡°You got involved in this despite having nothing to do with it. In fact, if it were not for the servant insisting that you were the one who killed that bag of soulless refuse, it would have gone off with no victims.¡±

    Something clicked in my head and I realized why we were still talking instead of fighting. ¡°If I may enquire to the name of the random woman who plans to use me as her patsy?¡±

    ¡°Baroness Unda.¡± Her voice seemed¡­ an odd mix of pride and shame at the same time.

    ¡°Baroness,¡± I said simply, ¡°Before we go further I would like to establish that is you attempt to kill me, than you will die instead.¡± That ghost of a smile was back. ¡°It will be your own fault and no one else¡¯s as you will kill yourself simply by trying to kill me.¡±

    ¡°I am curious how you think that will work young lady, but please do go on.¡±

    ¡°As you wish. Baroness, it seems to me that you are not actually hesitating-¡± she rolled her eyes. ¡°-because you give even the slightest care for my life, but because you want vindication.¡±

    ¡°Vindication? For what, killing that filth?¡±

    I nodded, rapidly understanding just who this woman was and why I was still alive. ¡°You want me to tell you that he was the evil one, that he deserved to die and you deserved to be the one to kill him. Furthermore, I would say that you actually want permission to kill me.¡±

    Her body language changed and I noticed how her jaw tightened up. ¡°Pardon?¡±

    ¡°I cannot speak for everyone, but I find that normal people tend to have trouble taking a life.¡± I said simply. ¡°You are used to manipulating people, you are used to using others to get what you want, and you might even be used to killing people at a distance. However, that all changes when you think of me as someone worthy of empathy. As someone like you.

    ¡°You want me to tell you that you were not alone and that everything will be okay, but Baroness, I cannot and will not pretend that I can justify your actions for you.¡± I stepped forward once and made sure she understood what I meant. ¡°You are the only one who can determine such things, no one else. You will still be a murderer and no matter how much you try to dehumanize Jorgenson, which will never change.

    ¡°Let me give some advice for your next life Baroness.¡± I wanted to be cold, to shock her back to reality, but my word came out much more sincere than I intended. ¡°You see, everyone has an impact on those around them of some sort. Even loaners or hermits impact someone or something¡¯s life and will have their deaths mean the end of their influence on the world around them.¡± I stared Unda dead in the eyes. ¡°Everyone has a name and a life that they are entitled to live as they choose, but thinking about that too much when you kill will only lead to madness.¡±

    She scoffed, looking slightly uncomfortable with my sudden change in attitude. ¡°What are you talking about little girl? Entitled to live? Really now, I think you have it backwards, every person is only entitled to die and everything else is what we make for both ourselves and our children.¡±

    I shook my head, ¡°Some people forfeit their lives with stupidity, but that does not mean that they do not have that same right to live regardless. I have long since learned that what matters too many is simple the right to exercise the choice to how they want to live that life. It was why I had no moral problems with Jorgenson, despite the fact that he disgusted me personally.

    ¡°That man wanted you to give in so badly that he literally could not being himself to force you. For him everything revolved around that submission to his power and I could tell fairly soon after I met him that he was a slave in many ways. Physically raping a woman would be the antithesis of his satisfaction, so tell me Unda. What did he trade you that made you hate him so much?¡±

    The wards rippled and I prepared for Unda¡¯ suicide. ¡°You think that it was a trade? That I would ever willingly climb into that- that thing¡¯s bed if I had ANY choice!? For any price like some common whore?¡± She was losing control.

    I suddenly found myself regretting that my old prayers would have no worth here, but I said one of the older ones I knew anyway. ¡°A non-reasonable choice is still a choice. If you have a knife to your throat, you can still chose death and before you ask I have seen many, many, men and women do just that. You can still chose to turn around and walk away from this place too. You could choose to live and stay alive in peace with your family, ignoring my existence for the rest of your days.

    ¡°The problem Unda, is that you will not chose that, will you? You will chose to kill yourself by attacking me and after you realize what has happened, as a shade awaiting what comes after, everything will make a certain horrible sense.¡±

    ¡°You vile little-¡±

    ¡°-I was born from death Unda and I was both blessed and cursed by the god of death. I know what I am saying and what you are doing far better than you will ever comprehend until after your death.

    ¡°EVERYONE is sacred in one way or another Unda and I want you to walk away now, to choose not to kill yourself, but I have no faith in you right now. The look on your face says that you do not believe me and I cannot make you do anything you do not chose to. Though not choosing is a choice too.¡±

    ¡°You are insane.¡±  Her voice was shaking, but for a moment I thought I saw doubt in her face, like she was not sure if it was still from anger, or if something else was creeping in.

    I held my spell ready and could not bring myself to anything other than look at her sadly. ¡°I am still sane Unda, despite the feeling that sometimes life itself is trying its best to prove me wrong. I am Morte and I am no more or less of a person than you are.¡±

    ¡°I- I do not have a choice!¡±

    ¡°Yes, you do.¡±

    ¡°To simply trust you and let you go? How is that a choice?!¡± There was a bitter laugh as she shook her head, seeming to regain control of herself as she prepared to kill me. I took a slow step forward and double checked my preparations. ¡°No, you are just another loose end to be tied up and I should have done that from the start without saying anything.¡±

    ¡°Choosing to talk instead of killing me could still be the right idea depending on what you do right now Baroness Unda. I would not trust me, but I am a bit paranoid and you still have the ability to walk away. Please do not choose death, please walk away.¡± The spell was ready and waiting to come out in a flash.

    ¡°I choose to live,¡± the Baroness¡¯ face was a mask of cold rage and she raised her hand, ¡°by killing you,¡± and she send commands into the wards to do just that, at the same time I unleashed my spell.

    Gorith¡¯s shroud erupted from me and claimed all of the mana in the area as my own, wrapping us both in my black miasma. The wards than shot at me with what was clearly I fireball spell with enough power that I had no hope of stopping it. So instead, I redirected it.

    The Baroness barely had time to register surprise on her face before the spell slammed into her and I instinctively closed my eyes to shield them from the resulting fireball. She had tried to raise mana shields before it hit, but the spell simply ignited when it touched her shields. The Baroness effectively exploded and melted at nearly the same time.

    Wards had to determine who their master was somehow and if they were ordered to attack a specific target, who suddenly seemed to change places with the person commanding the wards, well¡­ wards were too stupid to question how I could possibly switch places with anyone else so suddenly.

    Gorith¡¯s shroud controlled the area, to the point where even a secret implant in a royal mage¡¯s body would not escape. If I used that feature to control the air around us, I could manipulate what the wards saw or ¡®felt¡¯ in an area, then I could mask who the master really was. Naturally it was extremely easy to counter, especially if someone was actively controlling the wards, but that was like using free-form spells to the controllers. It would also, like most techniques that involved Gorith¡¯s shroud, only really work when there was only one opponent, who was not expecting it.

    Regardless, the end result was the same, just like I told her repeatedly, the Baroness had died by her own choices and I would not feel the Guilt for her suicide.

    You stoning graveborn.

    I shook my head sadly. I could feel hatred overflowing from the Nalk divide in my mind, but I ignored it and went to grab the ledger. The ledger had several interesting notes inside it, but there were several parts which seemed to be written in symbols I did not recognize.

    It was likely a code of some sort, or at least a language I did not know, but as I was skimming I found the section about the spell and sighed in relief. It was written in the kingdom¡¯s common language, the eastern tongue.

    I turned back to the smoking ground where the Baroness had died. Both the remains and the heat had been fairly well contained by whatever spell she had used. I gently retracted Gorith¡¯s shroud and dispelled it, watching the wards to make sure that they did not do anything about their now dead master¡­

    Who I do not think told me how she had controlled the wards in the first place. Maybe the servant? Oh well, it was one less noble in the world. I felt a brief flash of emotion from Bella before she went silent again.

    Children could not understand. I knew how to humanize or dehumanize someone to the extent that I would feel nothing except a cold numbness when I needed to butcher my foes. Feeling any amount of non-Guilt imposed sadness for Baroness Unda was my way of paying my respects, but in the end I told her what would happen.

    I literally told her exactly what she was choosing and told her about her other choices. I always did that for such individuals, simply to give them one last chance to change their mind and to make a better choice. If they chose to die, than I would not prevent them from doing so and if they chose to live, than that was their choice too.

    Dying was easy, but living was hard and it frequently had a cost.

    That knowledge¡­ it was the weight that I had borne on my soul, along with the Guilt, for every moment that I had existed. Even if I were to erase my own existence and give that burden to Bella, it would not go away. No matter how much she denied it or hated me for passing it on, that was a truth that would turn anyone into someone else.

    In a way, the baroness was correct, we were all entitled to death and sometimes there were no choices given. I certainly had not been given any the moment after I walked into the room where Jorgenson¡¯s body. However, I firmly believed that not even the Nalks could completely control someone, everyone and everything still had a choice in what they did.

    Anton did tell me some things that made me wonder about how much choice we truly had. I could now cast a stoning orgasm spell for instance. In theory, I could even design and predispose someone to violence if I used magic on them in as they were still developing. Still, it would come down to their choice in the end and no matter how much the Nalks or I influenced their responses, I still believed that the choice was theirs and theirs alone.

    With the literally divinely sent Guilt, I could not imagine it any other way.

    I skimmed through the notes and walked out of the private room before a flickering on one of the glass panels caught my attention. There was a fire that was blazing as the sun closed in on the horizon.

    I escaped the Prison Tower, but according to the Guilt[ I was not responsible for any deaths in that fire. Even though that fire was likely the result of the search for me. ¡°Do you think I should feel guilty about that Bella?¡± My voice was quiet, but it still seemed to echo in the empty mansion. ¡°Some would argue that it is my fault and they will likely blame me or the guards or even the people who live in that area for the fire. I decided a very long time ago not to carry around such burdens if I did not have to.¡±

    I turned away from the window and started to move. I originally planned to change my sex before having to deal with her, but I had another 5 days for that, so I adjusted my plan accordingly. I would find a relatively safe place to get some sleep before dawn came and would then settle things with the voice in the back of my head.

    [AN: Next chapter will be Bella Vs DeMorte, but the ¡°winner¡± might not be clear until afterwards. At that point I plan to have Leo show up and talk a bit before wrapping everything up for the arc. Thank you for reading.]

    *     *     *

    In a nearby mansion:

    That is quite some fire Captain Solad observed out the window. I wonder if that odd one started it.

    ¡°If there was anyone who deserved the sea it is you brother.¡± A deep, if not quite as manly voice commented from behind him. ¡°Even now you cannot tear yourself away from a window.¡±

    ¡°You do know me well.¡± Solad smiled to himself, not turning away. ¡°I miss the freedom brother.¡±

    A snort answered him, ¡°Then do not go chasing after young bounty hunters with mouths between their legs. I swear, I am partly surprised that I do not get bitten more often.¡±

    That did make him turn around. ¡°Now why would you want to put such an awful idea in my head?¡± Solad shivered. ¡°You would have made a scary pirate yourself Wesley.¡±

    ¡°I thank you, but who would be afraid of the dashing captain Wesley?¡±

    Anyone with a half a working brain, brother. Turning back to the window and the fire beyond, he changed the subject. ¡°I do not suppose you brought any rum?¡±

    ¡°And how exactly would I do that? You friend is out there causing havoc by the looks of it.¡±

    There is never enough rum. ¡°That is not who he is. Also, he is not my friend, just someone I met recently.¡±

    ¡°Him? I thought that your ¡®not friend¡¯ was a young girl.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes, a her¡­ she is not causing that trouble, it is not her style.¡±

    ¡°Oh? How would you know after just a single night? I know what she looks like and I doubt that you bedded her. If you did, you 2 might have escaped together, instead of leaving me to pay some very hefty bribes.¡±

    ¡°I will pay you back brother, you are the only one from our family who ever treated me as if I was acknowledged, so do not worry too much. Besides, I do not think I could have helped her escape. She was just fast enough on her own and we did not really know each other.¡±

    He heard his brother pouring a drink and slowly walking towards him. They were nearly the same height, curtesy of their father, so Wesley had no trouble looking out the window, despite Solad¡¯s formidable height.

    ¡°You speak as if you know her quite well.¡±

    ¡°I know that look in her eyes. She had power, but lost it. The problem is that she did not lose the conviction that helped grant her that power. I have seen former captains like that, men who expected to be obeyed simply because they once were someone important. A ruler of dust.¡±

    ¡°Did I just hear you reference the ¡®Exiled King¡¯ brother? For a random girl you just met? I am starting to wonder if she was your type after all ¨C not that it matters to me, but you might want to know that my spies say the guard will be executing her accomplish soon. A swordsman named Drasiedi.¡±

    ¡°¡­If that is the case brother, I worry about the future of this city. If that young man is executed, than I can only guess what will happen next. She escaped without his help and did everything possible to hide her connections to him while being questioned. If she cares about him even in the slightest and he is killed¡­ I get the feeling blood will follow.¡±

    His brother did not answer and merely stood behind him, both watching the growing blaze as large amounts of water began to materialize in an attempt to fight the fires. The thatched roof homes and mud houses of the slums would not burn for too long, if it could be contained.

    With mages moving in to fight it, the fire would be out by morning at the latest, but that raised the question of what would happen when dawn broke.

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    One of the things I don¡¯t like about BKR (besides the fact that I made the MC <del>a bit of</del> an a$$hole) was the 3 types of spellwork/spellcasting ¨C suggestions and input on the subject of names has never come up, but since the rewrite is coming up, I¡¯m making a list of things that might get renamed.

    That way I can make a post with the whole list of name changes before I start posting the second arc¡­

    Oh and concerning the plot of the second arc:

    <b>Spoiler</b> : <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>(English needs more gender neutral pronouns)

    MC will be expanding their powerbase and starting to do a lot more work as a magic based mender as Game Start looms ever closer. MC will also gain the first major follower of their new life and finally determine how they will proceed in this new world.

    The tricky part will be if the Nalks will do about the MC and if they can surprise them, or will just end up dancing in the palm of the Nalks¡¯ ethereal hands?

    Anyway, thank you for reading, apologies for the late post,

    Bob_Sagit.

 Chapter 39: Bella Horrida Bella

    So close to 250 followers and I don¡¯t have the free time to write a bonus chapter T.T

    I keep trying to put some artwork in here, but I am having some trouble, so I apologies if DeMorte¡¯s spirit animal/image will not load ¨C Fan art by F(art) ¨C should be in the spoiler.

    <b>Spoiler</b> : <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>

    Note: The dungeon mental test that DeMorte took was not a deep mental assault like the one in this chapter, which actually takes place in his inner mind. If he had gone further down into the dungeon, he might have reached a boss that could launch such mental attacks, but who knows¡­

    By the way, this entire chapter will occur faster than the time it takes you to read it. The results will be in the next chapter and I hope that everyone appreciates how it ends¡­ that said, I actually felt a surprising lack of skill when writing this chapter. I am an amateur, but I still want to do better

    Oh and it should go without saying that: when I do my rewrite, I will be very annoyed at any spoilers. Especially as I hope to introduce a lot of hints and foreshadowing throughout the rewrite in reference to what happens at the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next.

    Chapter 39: Bella Horrida Bella

    Stoning soot, I thought to myself as I stared up at the sky. It was slowly lightening up as dawn was imminent, but some of the soot from the slum fire had covered me in my sleep.

    I would normally have just cast a simple spell to clean myself, but I did not want to chance someone seeing it with their mage sight. Between the guards at the inns, the wards on most places the guards were not allowed to search (Ie: the Sister¡¯s temple), and the regular patrols I did not have choice in where I slept.

    In the end I went to sleep in the corner of an alley with piece cloth covering my face. Had it not been for the combination of the handful of runes that I carved and the slum fire I imagine that I would have been forced to compress my sleep. In fact I was tempted to do just that, but with the possibility of being seen and with Bella agitated to the point of trying to interfere with the spell.

    I ended up waking 6 times in the night, 3 times for patrols that went past the alley where I was sleeping, 2 times for random noises, and once when some guards walked through the alley and were fooled by the runes I carved. I dropped back off to my light sleep each time and mostly ignored the thin layer of soot that grew during this period.

    Now that dawn was approaching though, I was trying to brush it off with annoyance. The fire itself had either gone out or had been put out during the night, but I was still going to be dealing with the aftereffects of that fire for the next few days at least.

    If I was lucky, people would blame the guards for what happened and make their jobs even harder, but if I was unlucky, they would blame me. Though, with my ability to change my face it would likely just lead to more pointless violence. If necessary, I was sure that I could dodge the guard for the next few days and then walk out the gates.

    There was were only 2 things I was worried about when it came to the search, beside the fact that I could be noticed by a random mage on patrol. First was that I would not be able to get access to water, which would severely hurt me over the next few days. Second, that my pursuers would realize that they only needed to check mages to catch me.

    Given that the population of mages in the city likely did not exceed a thousand, it would be far easier to simply make a list of mages currently in the city. Given the fact that inns were currently being watched and the nobles were incredibly proud of their blood, it would likely be very easy to smoke me out.

    In the event someone figured that out, I had a plan to impersonate someone else to escape, but it would be far more difficult to do that as I would have to identify and incapacitate the mage in question first.

    I could change my face, but not my magic and if they remembered how many circles of mana I had, it would make my life even harder as I searched for a non-noble mage of my level of power. Nobles would have Proofs of their lineage that the guards would recognize

    There was another plan I had as back-up, but I hardly wanted to trust the amount of people necessary to fake being foreign nobility. The Histones being a key component as they would have to collaborate to a certain extent in addition to letting my collecting the mithril disk and my bone armor.

    I quietly sighed to myself and got up to stretch for a moment. The runes around me discouraged looking in my direction and emphasized a forgetfulness that would ideally keep anyone from even remembering that this little corner of the alley existed. That said, I could not move around too much as, even knowing the runes were there, I still had to be aware of the effects they had on my own mind.

    Finally I sat down and took a few deep breaths before I turned my attention inward.

    -----------------------------------------------------

    Diving into a mentally constructed world was odd at the best of times, but diving into one where there was an unnatural barrier in it was even stranger. Though it did help me give some mental structure to the place that Bella and I were about to fight.

    Quite simply, mental world constructs were fake realities that mages built up throughout their lives. Non-mages could have strong mental defenses too, but those were usually specially trained individuals. Individual mental fortitude would vary from individual to individual, but actually having a mental defense prepared to receive magical intrusions was something that had to be specifically practiced.

    Namely, this was because all physical appearances were just elaborate metaphors for the individual in question.

    My personal mental defense was a massive stone castle carved from solid rock that thrust up out of a mountain chain, towering above everything near it. The outside had iron covering almost every centimeter and the cliffs around it were so shear that they would be impossible in real life. It was also protected by a magic ward so powerful that is was making the whole thing shimmer.

    This reflected the personality that I tried to show others in my previous life. It was tall, tough, imposing, and meant to be visibly intimidating. It also drew attention away from the surrounding mountains, which were filled with mental traps and mentally deployable forces. Oh, and my personal spirit manifestation.

    I learned about halfway through my previous life that mental attacks mostly a contest of will, but one of the common trappings of those mental attacks was forcing people to fight in this imaginary world. Mages who used mental attacks frequently sent giant mental armies, which could access certain secrets that naturally manifested themselves in someone¡¯s mental world.

    As for the Nalk barrier and its mental manifestation, it was a giant white oblong shape that reminded me of an egg. It was currently floating in the sky defying all physics as a few cracks started to spread out from the bottom. It looked like the cracks would soon spread to the rest of the structure and I would finally be able to deal with Bella.

    I blinked and shook my head for a moment, this world was all in my head and I had to remember that. It did not matter what the thing looked like, it only mattered when it broke and Bella came out. At that time she would face me on my terms and in my mental construct.

    When Bella came out of that egg like barrier of the Nalks, she would have to deal with the same mental defenses that destroyed the dozen or so attempts to mentally break me.

    As I saw the cracks expanding I smiled and closed my eyes to test the barrier with my mind. It was almost ready.

    The natural laws of the world would not apply here, mana could be infinite, my stone castle would float in the air if the mountain collapsed underneath it, and I knew every inch of the mountains surrounding my castle without looking. I was prepared for any mental attack and no trained mage that I had ever met would be able to fight through my defenses.

    That was my stupid mistake, I forgot that Bella was not trained and only learned by talking to me or reading bits and pieces of my mind.

    When the egg cracks finally expanded to their maximum, the egg shattered into a billion pieces and I found myself shielding my eyes.

    Bella¡¯s mental defense was a star. A stoning STAR!

    Instantly all the snow, the few trees, and the variety of mountain wildlife that naturally populated my mental construct burst into flame and the area surrounding the mountains rapidly turned into desert. There was also a large and continuous bombardment of radiation, just to annoy me.

    Amateurs always did the strangest things like that, they simply did not know better. As a result, they could sometimes pull off miracles simply by accident.

    I felt Bella¡¯s will rush at me all at once and I had to applaud her for bravery at the minimum. The light, heat, and radiation were manifestations of her will and they were thrown at me with all of her might behind them. There was no dialog or bantering to allow me to try and simply persuade her to give up, just a shear blast of will, determination, and a fair bit of hate.

    Of all of these, only the hate concerned me. Another aspect of the mental constructs, was to create a ¡®safe¡¯ zone to fight without simply blasting someone with your will directly.  No matter how irradiated this mental place became, my brain would not be fried as long as it was just effecting my mental construct.

    Unfortunately, if she simply blasted away with her will like she was now, it might spill over and actually cook our brain for a bit. This applied for any 2 or more people who attacked someone else mentally as anyone could try to fry another person¡¯s brain if they were connected. The problem was that we shared the brain that she was endangering!

    As long as 2 different people were both mentally connected, I could do the same to them so it was an effective threat when attacking someone else, but that hardly mattered when we were stuck with any damages afterwards.

    That was why most constructs were fortresses, they represented who we the owners were in a relatively safe area to fight from. Someone who wanted to resist a mental assault without frying their own brain had to compromise and create something that represented both their personality and their will to fight off mental attacks.

    If someone managed to conquer that construct¡­ well that clearly was not an issue right now.

    The issue was hate. Hate was even more dangerous than normal in such a situation where, if someone pushed too hard or attacked recklessly, they could damage your brain. That sort of thing was nothing more than a large unnecessary danger.

    Bella shared part of my brain and the last thing I needed was her self-destructing because she did not want to lose. If she did, than she could cause extensive mental damage.

    Though there were a few ways to counter such things, one of which I was already starting to call up, it was still worrying to have to deal with hate from Bella.

    Really now, did I deserve that?

    Adjusting my mental defenses, I filled the land with a familiar dark miasma, my mental rendition of Gorith¡¯s shroud. It covered everything and I made sure that it acted as a manifestation of my will to push back Bella¡¯s light before she could actually damage anything below the surface.

    ¡°You do realize that doing such things recklessly can cause brain damage, right Bella?¡± I called out casually to her, knowing that she would hear me if I wanted her to.

    The star was easily visible to me now as a massive glowing sphere. I felt the light intensify as Bella tried to push down on my mind, as she tried to stamp out my existence. I shook my head sadly and rethought my plan.

    I did not think that Bella was going to be this much trouble, she was a just a stoning child after all. I felt a pulse of anger at that thought and realized that she was still able to connect to me through our mental tug of war.

    I tried to mentally guard my thoughts and plan out what was going to happen. Bella obviously wanted to destroy me and take over our body for herself. If that happened, my memories would likely overtake her and she might not stay sane after the experience was over. I had my damage, but even if Bella could search through my memories, it would not be the same as suddenly having them as her own experiences.

    I knew I was paranoid, but I had decades of watching my back to prove that I should be! Trying to pour all of that, the memories of my life, into her in one go would be crazy. No, if she was smart, she would destroy as many of my memories as possible to keep her identity intact.

    I doubted that her few cycles would make any real impact on me if it was the opposite way around so I actually planned to absorb her completely, or at least I did until now.

    Her hate changed things, I would need to calm her down first and then set about proving that she had no way to win. Once that hopelessness sapped her will, I could absorb Bella with much less fuss. As I did that, I could eliminate things like her memories of hating me before I said my final goodbyes to Bella.

    ¡°Come now Bella, why are you so mad? Because I kill those who stand in my way?¡± I spread my shroud out so that it covered everything from my castle to the horizon. Right now it was only meant as a defensive buffer, but it would push Bella¡¯s light back soon enough. ¡°Everyone who ever lived has paid some post to survive and death is frequently such a cost.¡±

    There was a cry of anger and I felt the light intensify as Bella pushed at me harder. ¡°That is not going to work!¡± I called out, not meaning to taunt her, but to plant the idea of the inevitability of my victory. ¡°Even my spirit animal did not die from that, it just warmed itself a little.¡±

    The light shifted, concentrating directly at me and burning away a large portion of miasma the surrounded me. I took the opportunity as I mentally felt my shroud reach the edge of my mental construct, to have it start to climb the horizons.

    ¡°My physical body means nothing here Bella, I just manifest it for familiarity.¡±

    That particular bit of information seemed to get through to her and the light¡¯s intensity finally died down a bit. That said, my shroud¡¯s spread significantly slowed as it reached about a quarter the way to noon above the horizon.

    As it was, my shroud had spread across the entire land of my construct and I could feel under my control, but the air had become Bella¡¯s with her unusual method of attack. Now I was trying to reclaim it without concentrating too hard, so Bella had switched to a defensive mindset and was now slowing my progress greatly.

    ¡°It is not stopping.¡± I said simply, emphasizing it by expanding my shroud up into the air another meter on all fronts.

    I was not sure how big real stars were, since everything got smaller as distance increased, but Bella¡¯s star was only a few hundred meters across and it would be easy enough to extinguish once I reached high enough. In the meantime, Bella would somehow have to force her light down into my caverns and inner tunnels to really defeat me.

    It was possible of course, but as long as she saw herself as a being of pure light she would never be able to bend that much. If she started using her light like my shroud things might be different, but she was likely channeling one of, if not the strongest, spells I had created in this new body. It would concentrate light into an ultra-thin beam and burn its way through anything.

    Naturally, I had no plans to face such a threat from anyone else in the future, so I kept it very, VERY, well hidden. In fact, I would be surprised if anyone except Bella knew of it, Nalks included.

    Of course, this was not reality and my shroud could simply fight back the light that Bella hit me with. ¡°How long are you going to try and keep this up Bella?¡± I needed her tired, empty, and without hate, or hope if I could manage it before I pushed in on her true self.

    Then she caught me off guard again.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    ¡°Your highness?¡±

    I jerked. ¡°I told you not to call me that.¡±

    ¡°Ah, but it rouses you so well!¡± Osiris joked, causing a small ripple of chuckles to spread around the room. It was a familiar sound for some, but most of them thought I was odd.

    Granted, as long as I paid well, my bandits would put up with almost anything. Though I had been slowly training them out of that, namely by making them accustomed to following obscure orders that made sense only in hindsight.

    We were bandits and perpetuating the myth of always knowing what would happen next helped keep me at the head of the ever enlarging group.

    There were about a half dozen veterans from my earlier raids who were here and almost that many new people. Of particular interest were the 2 leaders who arrived most recently arrived. They had controlled several hundred men between the 2 of them, though their names currently escaped me.

    I shook my head and concentrated ¡°Was there anything else to discuss?¡± It was too darn hot in here, though it was about to get much hotter. There seemed to be a general agreement to not push the current situation. The lands around the God¡¯s Spearpoint were almost always at war, so the merchants were all too eager to accept my promise of protection.

    As a result, we had been discussing expanding to the South, which was very rocky and sparsely populated. If we could secure a path through one of the few workable roads, or simply make the slaves build one, than we could potentially charge merchants to travel that route too. The reason we decided not to however, was the new war to the south.

    That many army men might be a large opportunity for whores, but it would be a large risk for us, especially after our last raid claimed a few of their supply wagons.

    ¡°Alright then, off to whatever you do when you are not annoying me,¡± I joked, before adding, in an equally casual tone, ¡°Ah, Rhine, stay a while would you? I wanted to talk about your men.¡±

    ¡°Ah, well your lordship, I seem to be having some stomach issues, so I will take-¡±

    ¡°Sit.¡± The room paused for a moment and they all turned to me as they felt my killing intent spill over and fill up the room. ¡°The rest of you are free to go of course.¡± I added happily.

    We were quickly left alone. I noticed his face was red and the sweating was becoming much more pronounced. ¡°I noticed that you were bit by a Reslucian spider a few days ago, so I took the liberty of procuring the antidote.¡± I volunteered, pulling out a small vile and placing it on the table in front of me before standing up.

    ¡°I appreciate that, but why not say anything at the time chief?¡± Rhine eyed the bottle, but did not reach for it just yet.

    ¡°I am your chief now am I?¡± I reached out with my mana and made a simple adjustment to my personal ward. It was anchored to my gold neckless, but as weak as it was, it would turn aside a surprise attack or two, which was all it had to do. I turned my back to Rhine and walked over to the back wall, which had a very nice iron sword that was supposed to only be a decoration.

    Rhine always had more power than brains, or he would have attacked me at that moment and run for his life. He would have died to the guards waiting outside, but it would have been better odds for him. As it was, he let me retrieve the sword without protest, continuing to feign loyalty.

    ¡°I do not know what you mean, you have been my chief for at least ¨C actually it has been from winter, time really flies like that.¡±

    ¡°Winter?¡± I asked surprised, turning to face him while carefully keeping the sword balanced. Its sharp crescent shape glinted, almost evilly, as if the thing knew what was about to happen. ¡°You have been with me that long and yet you were still stupid enough to touch my wife?¡± I asked quietly.

    Before he could respond I activated the buildings subtle wards. They were tiny and weak, but when activated they were an excellent distraction. He instantly flexed his magic, he had around 7 circles worth of mana, and caught the wards before they actually ensnared him.

    They were only a distraction though and the iron blade through his diaphragm was enough to keep him from casing anything else. The sword had a nice curve on it that was meant to make it a slashing blade, but it was never designed with the intent to use it in battle anyway.

    It was only a trophy and most dismissed it as such, not realizing that a trophy could still disable you. In fact, because it was a trophy and I could swear I felt it break inside of Rhine, it was actually more useful. After all, he would have a much harder time pulling the fragments out and they would impede any attempt to cast a spell.

    ¡°I only have a single wife Rhine. I have plenty of slaves and whore I can and frequently do use for fun, but you touched my WIFE.¡± I backed away and grabbed the vile I put on the table earlier. He touched the sword, but did not try to remove it. ¡°Now let us review, you can either sit here and wonder what will kill you faster,¡± I cast snip twice, ruining his Achilles tendons,¡± the blood loss or the poison.¡± I paused and waited for the screams to subside. ¡°Or you can give me the names of those involved and I can let you go east with a small amount of gold, after receiving treatment, of course.¡±

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    He told me everything and I just shook my head before walking past him. Naturally, I tossed the vile into his hands as I did, as I was not a monster and he deserved the alcohol that was mixed into it.

    The last cohearent thing I heard him say before he popped the seal on the vile was something about going this far for some slut. I paused at the door to watch him gleefully down his last drink and wondered if he realized how close I came to turning my killing intent into bloodlust. His last comment also made me up his punishment to the worst version.

    When the poison in the vial would normally cause him extreme pain for a little while before destroying his sense of pain ¨C along with his internal organs ¨C his last words were poorly considered.

    I cast the fleshfire and walked out of the building to his screams.

    Osiris and his brother were waiting outside, I gave them the names and told them to make sure that those individuals were given ¡°the hard choice.¡± Their eyes twitched towards the building behind me as the screams were loud enough to interfere with my instructions. I merely activated some of the specialty commands in the wards and the sound was cut off.

    ¡°You 2 should remember that touching another man¡¯s wife is always a dangerous thing.¡± I shook my head slowly before wiping some of the sweat off my face. It really was unseasonably hot today. ¡°Make sure Rhine¡¯s men get the basic choice unless their names come up with from the others.¡±

    The brothers both nodded and left hurriedly, they were hard men, but fleshfire was the worst way to die. Only being brought back as an undead was seen as worse fate. I ignored the flashes of pure mana that likely signaled Rhine going insane from the pain.

    The fire was easy enough to put out, if you used the right spell. Between the iron and the pain, I would actually applaud if he managed that.

    At least he was isolated and unable to run around spreading the fleshfire spell. It would only burn him as things were currently.

    I would feel the Guilt soon enough, but it would be worth it. I failed to protect the woman I loved and let her get raped because of it. She would recover, she was strong like that, but I still decided to clean house.

    Being a bandit made ideas of love seem ridiculous and I was beyond lucky to have her. That she had been attacked, that she had been raped, and that I only had a stoning spider bite to help me figure out who did it, was unacceptable.

    I looked up to the sky and wondered what would happen into the future and cursing the 2 stars for this darn heat.

    Then I froze. There was only a single star in the sky.

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    I ripped myself free of the memory and felt the heat that was Bella¡¯s will.

    Bella must had pushed me into that memory and hoping to get me trapped in it long enough to do what she needed to, but I had experienced it much faster than it originally happened.

    Still, I realized that Bella had surprised me once again and the results were clear: most of my shroud had been pushed back and it only covered some of the mountains right now.

    I growled as I let my annoyance flow from me into my shroud. Instantly my shroud once again spread throughout that land and I even pushed it a fair bit back into the sky, shoving away Bella¡¯s determination with my own.

    ¡°That,¡± I announced as the shroud returned to the area it occupied before the flashback, ¡°was annoying, but nothing more.¡±

    I took a deep breathe to try and calm myself only to get thrown into another memory.

    -----------------------------------------------------

    We had done it.

    Thousands of men and women had died, but we actually managed to destroy the entire enemy army.

    We were bandits, but we actually managed to ambush and destroy a formally trained army. I could not believe it.

    I was the one who planned the whole thing and I still could not believe that it happened. Enemy incompetence, wonderful topography, a stoning rockslide that grew larger than I dared hope, and surprise had created a miracle¡­ though this miracle was certainly horrid to look at.

    I had already collapsed against a rock and left the looting to those who could still move. The bodies were spread out as far as I could see directly below me, stretching around a bend where a new group of large rocks were now positioned.

    They should know to wait for a fleshfire cleansing, but apparently they were determined to get to the valuables before anyone else.

    Greed was a wonder all of its own.

    I still could not believe it though. We stoning won.

    Then I realized that I had no choice, the Guilt had carefully taken count of every death that was my fault and was preparing them. I could feel the mass of shadows, of souls, moving at the edge of my senses and shuddered in fear.

    The others would survive, but would I?

    I pulled myself from the memory as the shadows of the Guilt dove at me.

    -----------------------------------------------------

    Stones, it had to be that memory. ¡°Honestly Bella, why are you still fighting?¡± I shouted, breaking free almost instantly. I had passed out that day, but the nightmares from the Guilt seized me for days afterwards and nearly drove me mad. Only Osiris had kept everyone together and away from me while that happened.

    It was certainly not a pleasant memory to suddenly be forced to relieve, even if only in part. Stoning Bella.

    I tried to calm myself and pushed my shroud out more forcibly. If I had to pound the lesson into her head, then so be it, but I was getting tired of this nonsense.

    I pushed my shroud out, forcing her light back and making her concentrate on defending star from the encroaching darkness that was my shroud.

    As she did, the world grew dimmer and my shroud swallowed the sky above her. My dark shroud now dominated the land, although it was growing increasingly hard to reach her star through only this level of willpower.

    Thankfully, I could still press harder, though it would be easier once she finally gave up.

    ¡°Would you give up?¡± The voice was melodic, a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, with a lovely chime that I did not think we had in the real world.

    ¡°I would negotiate after I realized that there was no way to win Bella, if you have been searching my memories that much you understand that I have done it before.¡±

    ¡°Negotiate? How could I? Do you know what it is like watching you DeMorte? It is horrible, especially when I know what you are thinking. Even when you have sex you are busy treating your partner as if they are a possible threat! I do not even want to go into how to think about how the defenses of every building you go into or how to sack each city we see.¡±

    I allowed myself a slight grimace, it was hard to see things from her point of view, but I suddenly felt like I could at least partly understand what she meant. ¡°I am paranoid Bella, I have known that for decades, but I have always had reason to be and each time I let my guard down something like that incident that got us arrested pops up.¡±

    ¡°You mean the incident that was completely by accident and which resulted in us hiding in a night soil cart!? The incident where you deliberately made that poor woman die because you refused to even try and talk her down? Just so that you could avoid feeling guilty?! THAT INCIDENT?¡±

    I felt the light intensify, and I sighed disappointedly. Bella still did not understand, though I did empathize with her to a certain extent. ¡°She made her choice Bella, even the Nalks cannot guarantee what someone will do. Besides, the Guilt¡¯s real impact relies more on reminding me that every life is precious in its own way. It was always the most powerful dissuader, but it never stopped me. It only made me that much more resolved when I decided to kill someone.¡±

    ¡°Do you honestly think that make me feel better?¡±

    ¡°I will still kill who I need to Bella. From now until the day I am finally free of the Guilt and even after that. In fact, I would say that you would come to the same conclusion Bella.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    I sighed and felt sadness creep into my heart. For the first time I stopped the encroachment of my shroud on her star, though I did not let her regain what I had taken. ¡°Bella, even if I suddenly gave up and you absorbed me, do you really think that you would turn out differently? It is our past that makes us who we are and you have only been looking through my past, not living it Bella.¡±

    ¡°That might be true DeMorte, but you cannot see yourself for the monster you became so long ago. I kept looking through your memories to find some key event that made you this way, but there was not just some moment that changed everything. There were moments, choices, and events that shaped who you are, but that was THEN.

    ¡°You have all the experience of your past life DeMorte, but you do not understand this one. You could be an anonymous mender and save more lives in this life than even you took in your previous one! You chose to keep being the ¡®Bandit King¡¯ though and it took you nearly getting executed to remember that you needed follower to BE a King.¡±

    I actually flinched at that. She was right. Coming here with all of my memories could have actually been some form of Nalk trap. I was a known quantity to them, someone they could rely on to be stuck in the past.

    I did try. Originally I indulged myself in a part of my personality that had practically been starved over the decades, my thirst for knowledge. However, after I left Entrials it had slowly fallen by the wayside and I found myself acting instinctively.

    Adventurers were self-righteous mercenaries out to kill me. Authority figures would always see me as a criminal, even if they did not know the full extent of my crimes. The ¡®holy¡¯ institutions were power hungry who would purge me if they knew who I was.

    I was not always wrong, but I had certainly not been completely right.

    I¡­ Wait, when did I think that again?

    I blinked and felt something push my emotions down. An old weight, whose return made me realize that there was something odd about the way Bella was talking, as if-

    ----------------------------------------------------------

    ¡°I cannot.¡± I said softly, it hurt. It hurt far, far more than any wound I had received before.

    Tears rolled down her perfect face. I made her cry and now I was telling her that I could not go with her. It hurt.

    ¡°This from the man,¡± a short, harsh, bark of a laugh escaped her, ¡°who always insists that people make their own choices? The man who insists that you cannot ¡®make¡¯ anyone do anything?¡±

    ¡°You know what will happen if I leave.¡± She had to understand. We had been together long enough that she had to.

    ¡°That is their choice to make. Besides, I am not worried about what happens if you leave, but if you stay.¡±

    ¡°Mort, Ra is challenging you tomorrow. Do you honestly was to fight-¡± I gave her a look which made her brake off the name before she said it. ¡°Do you want to fight Osiris¡¯ nephew?¡±

    ¡°It is his choice.¡± I said coldly, before I continued more warmly, ¡°I do not want to of course, but I will face whoever thinks that they can lead the other better than me.¡±

    ¡°In a duel?! Of all the things you have come up with that has to be the closest you have ever come to deliberately sending yourself to Gorith.¡±

    ¡°I can win Mar, you know I-¡±

    ¡°THAT IS THE PROBLEM!¡± I barely kept my jaw from dropping. Mar had not shouted in- ¡°You cannot always win! You keep fighting and some day you will die!¡± She reached forward and cupped my face in her hands. I felt the mana pulsing through them, but ignored it. ¡°How many are you going to kill before you have had enough?! Are you going to wait until more of our children challenge you? What, are you even going to wait until Regus is old enough to try and kill you?¡±

    I almost snorted at that, but I knew that I had to take her seriously¡­ Though, if Regus could ever hurt me with his mother hovering over him at all times, I would really be done for. I doubted I would ever understand why that woman did not go back to her comfortable living after I freed her. She was certainly shameless enough in the company she kept after me.

    I saw my wife take a deep breath and spoke quickly before she started shooting lightning out of her eyes (with or without magic.) ¡°My existence as the so called ¡®king¡¯ keeps the peace. As it is, I barely have the rest organized into those 4 factions. Even if I get them down to just 2 they still might implode.¡± I gently touched my hands to hers as I saw the lightning still dance behind her eyes. ¡°No matter how far we go, or how well we hide, I would still be haunted by what happened after and that is assuming that we live long enough to hear about it.¡±

    She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, while I felt her hands go slack. I did not like the way this was going.

    When she opened her eyes, the sadness she put into the look she gave was heartbreaking. ¡°We are both getting old Mort, do you really think that anyone will know who we are?¡± She pulled her hands down, but I refused to let them go.

    I nodded. ¡°There is always someone who will sell that sort of information and if we tried to stay we both know that I would get caught up in thing again. Besides,¡± I gave her my best grin, ¡°we are not that old.¡±

    She forcibly pulled her hands away and looked me in the eyes. ¡°I am serious.¡±

    I dropped the grin, but held her eyes. ¡°So am I.¡±

    She stared for a moment, testing me, before she sighed and seemed to age before my eyes. To me she was still perfect, but I suddenly found myself noticing the wrinkles around her eyes and the dark circles under them¡­ how long had they been there? ¡°I am tired, Mort. Tired of all the blood, all the pain, all the paranoia, all of it.¡±

    ¡°What are our choices? You know I cannot leave and I cannot stay, but I do want

    ¡°I made my choice Mort.¡± She walked around me and shrugged off my attempt to grab her by the shoulder, cracking her mana dangerously. ¡°Now you make your.¡±

    She was right, it was a choice and it was one I already made.

    ----------------------------------------------------------

    Rage. Dry tears. Hope. Anger. Heat. Hate. Blinding light. Rage. Desperation. Yearning. Pain. Rage. Nerviousness. The feeling of being melted. Love. Rage. Fear.

    RAGE.

    Glass shattered.

    My weight pushed.

    The light faded.

    A whimper floated.

    The Shadows came.

    No resisting.

    You cannot resist yourself¡­ can you?

    DeMorte.

    Not ¡°Demorte,¡± not ¡°deMorte,¡± but DeMorte.

    I was DeMorte¡­ but I was born something else. It was so similar, so close, but now the shadows called. The weight pressed, pushed me forward.

    The world moved for that weight. I only helped direct it.

    The shadows screamed. They flowed through my body, but I had lost my body.

    How did that happen?

    Ah yes, I was fighting that young girl. The bright little girl. The ignorant little girl.

    That old body did not fit me. I knew what did though, the one that had always been me.

    The hiss reverberated in existence itself.

    There was nothing. No mountains, no bandits, no castle. There was me.

    I felt the dull pain from the blinded left and right eyes. It still felt natural though, it felt like my previous form was just a lie.

    An eye on the future. An eye on the past. Two eyes on the present.

    My scales were falling off. Baked off in the heat, in the light, but the old scars were still visible. Scars from war, from death, betrayal, and life in general.

    I hissed and used the shadows, they poured out of my mouths, eager to drown the infernal light that was causing so much trouble.

    I was wrong.

    I was not DeMorte.

    I was the Bandit King.

    *     *     *

    I do not want to die. I do NOT want to DIE. I DO NOT WANT TO DIE! Bella screamed her defiance in her mind, but it did no good.

    For a moment, she had pushed back the darkness, pushed back DeMorte himself so far that his defenses, starting with the ward around his castle had started to collapse.

    She thought that she had won, that her final push of her own emotions into DeMorte, combined with the most important memory that she could reach, had pushed him over the edge.

    It had, just not in the way she intended.

    She even burned away his physical form, but now there was something so much more terrifying in his place.

    DeMorte¡¯s spirit and identity, given form as what he called a three headed king hydra, was now DeMorte himself.

    That was an odd twist, but she could deal with it, what terrified her though was what was coming out of the snake¡¯s heads.

    Shadows, screeching ghosts of the past came flying out and were blocking out her will and pushing her back. Not only that, but they also seemed to destroy the very area that they were fighting in. The mountains were stripped away, leaving hollow, empty remains of darkness. The sight of the hydra itself was wrong too.

    Where DeMorte¡¯s spirit usually had its share of wounds and scars, but now it was missing large parts of its body and instead of the innards she expected, Bella saw a whirling black mass. Not only that, but when she concentrated for a moment, she noticed that there were black lines covering the whole creature.

    It looked like all the nerves or mana pathways in it had been turned pitch black and then someone become visible on the surface of the creature.

    It felt¡­ wrong. Evil.

    The shadows only further reinforced that fact as Bella felt their anger and frustration ripple through her mind.

    Bella barely had time to wonder what was going on before it the shadows came at her. All of her will, her control was quickly pushed back.

    ¡°What is going on?! DeMorte! DeMorte, what did you do?¡±

    She screamed, fought, and raged, but there was no response.

    She was going to die.

    No¡­ No! NoNoNo. No! I am not going to die! Think, think, think you stupid brain!

    Why was this happening? That was the key, what was happening right now? Was this even DeMorte anymore? Did I kill him and not even realize it?!

    The darkness was getting closer.

    Darkness? Wait, it was just his shroud before.

    Now it was darkness though, darkness controlled by those shadows.

    Wait, could that¡­ be the Guilt?

    There was another hiss that shook the mental form of this world and Bella suddenly felt truly helpless. The thing she was facing was what made DeMorte into the creature she hated and feared in equal measure. Even if she kept the latter hidden away.

    She was going to die. Not to DeMorte, the person she had known for so long and the one she originally mistook for her ¡®real¡¯ father, but this abomination of a curse.

    The mental construct unraveled below her and all that remained was darkness. An endless sea of darkness.

    Is there any way to survive this?

    The darkness poured at her as her will faltered, it was so close. Would it hurt less if she just gave up?

    ¡­Fear struck again before she could decide. She wanted to live.

    Her light, her will pushed back the darkness again, but she realized that, without the mental construct, she was in danger of giving them both brain damage.

    Stone it, I will not die, even if I have to burn us both. I WILL NOT DIE!

    She concentrated her will and made the shadows burn. They were still pushing her, but she burned them away

    Then, as they were closing in on her star, draining it of its light and warmth, she gambled.

    Concentrating her will into a few points, she burned her way through the darkness. Not as a sphere of light, but as half a dozen beams of pure destructive will.

    DeMorte had told her the way to win without even realizing it, but now she had to hope that she was strong enough to actually pull it off.

    -------------------------------------------------------

    Will you hate me if I turn foreshadowing into a pun? :P

 Chapter 40: Rebirth

    Too much ¡®telling¡¯ for one chapter -.- I need to do better¡­ Also, this ending will likely not change while doing my rewrite. (Well, the diction and minor points might, but main points will not.)

    When I do the rewrite I will likely change some stuff about how I present DeMorte and his personality to better fit this ending, but I will put more about that at the end.

    Though I do regret that Leo¡¯s appearance near the end practically turning into a cameo, when I wrote it¡­ well, the characters actually say it all.

    2 Minor reminders:

    -If it starts in quotes and does not end in quotes, it is either a typo or the same person speaking for multiple paragraphs (apologies if this confuses or aggravates anyone)

    -I am not done with this story just yet!

    Apologies if you find any mistakes, please post if you see any.

    Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

    Chapter 40: Rebirth

    ¡°I have to admit, I did not expect that.¡± I heard the bookish voice just as I woke up, though I did not see him. I covered my eyes to block out the bright light that seems to be staring me directly in the face.

    ¡°Too bright.¡± I mumbled sitting up with an unpleasant headache. I was in some sort of sunken bowl of rock, but it was too perfectly smoothed around the edges for me to think that it was natural. It partly reminded me of that odd noble object¡­ a fish bowl? Either that or the arena where DeMorte used to fight his challengers.

    Wait, DeMorte¡­

    ¡°Not time to wake all the way up just yet.¡± A raspy voice made me turn to find a disgusting looking being that looked like it had just climbed out of a cauldron of acid. Where he came from, I had no idea, but he hardly looked threatening and even I could not feel any magic coming from him.

    ¡°If you want me to fix your face or something first, I will need a large feast first.¡± I half joked, wondering what in the world happened to him. I tried to ignore my headache and concentrate on what he said.  ¡°Wake up all the way? Where are we anyway?¡±

    ¡°A dream-like world between your mental construct and the real world.¡± He smiled and I nearly flinched despite myself, because of how fresh his wounds were he made a ghastly sight. ¡°Think of me as your convenient explainer, since that one is not much of a talker.¡±

    His head hardly moved, but I realized that the burn man had indicated behind me and I turned to find a young man. He was basically the opposite of the burned man in every way, with skin so pale and unscarred that I suddenly found myself wondering if he was even real, or had somehow been grown in a vat somewhere.

    Point in fact, the burned man had just suggested that none of this was real.

    I turned and took a few steps back, trying to keep both men in my peripheral vision. ¡°Oh and would you mind explaining who or what you 2 are?¡±

    A wheezing laugh answered me and both figures slowly moved towards each other, making it easier for me to track them. ¡°That would be too easy. We do have some time after all and we never get to chat like this. That said, it would be odd if you did not at least know our names.¡± He gave a small, slightly painful looking bow before continuing. ¡°I am De and my friend here is Morte.¡±

    I seriously wanted to knock them around a bit. De and Morte? Really?

    The burned man spoke around another wheezing laugh. ¡°It is true you know, although I know that you hate it more than anything else in the world, we are who we are.¡± The laughing stopped. ¡°3 heads, remember?¡±

    I felt slightly sick. This could be a Nalk trick, but if it was not¡­ ¡°I am not insane.¡± I said quietly.

    The burned man¡¯s face looked sad, but also wary. ¡°I would need a definition of insanity before I could comment on that.¡±

    The other figure just nodded silently, while my mind raced in every direction while trying to figure out what was going on.

    In the end I took a deep breath and decided to just concentrate on what was going on in front of me. I had 2 men who were claiming to be¡­ derivatives of me or something. Now, what currently mattered was not their identity, but why they were here. ¡°Alright then, why are you here De?¡±

    Another ghastly smile, I did not react this time though, I had seen worse. ¡°We wanted to talk with you about your choices, because you have quite a few and things are only going to get more complicated as time goes on. Starting with your name.¡±

    He paused and I found myself annoyed, why did he want me to prompt him? ¡°My name?¡±

    ¡°Yes, who are you right now?¡±

    The urge to hit him swelled again and I nearly followed through with it. ¡°Is that not obvious?¡±

    ¡°If it was, I would have called you by your name already.¡±

    I blinked and realized that he really had not called me by a name thus far. ¡°I am De-¡± my voice caught in my throat and I could not get the rest out.

    ¡°No, I thought we already settled this, I am De.¡± Stoning man! ¡°Now, who are you?¡±

    It felt like someone was steadily applying more and more pressure on a sword that was placed, edge down, the top of my head.

    I was in a fight. There was a weight, a massive amount of discontent, which used to be in the back of my mind, pushing me. Now it felt like I had lost that weight, the thing that had driven me forward was no longer pressing down on me.

    It felt both wonderfully liberating and terribly wrong at the same time. If I could compare it to anything it would be like shrugging off my armor after a long and vicious fight. It felt like I was shedding a burden and getting rid of something I was intimately familiar with at the same time.

    ¡°What?¡± I did not even realize that I actually asked the question aloud until De responded.

    ¡°It is alright to be confused, just give it some time. We just had quite the odd experience, though thankfully our burns are more metaphorical in nature than what my face and body would suggest.¡± He wheezed in what was likely a sigh, but could have been a brief laugh instead. ¡°That is what can happen when you give someone the determination and time to create a counter for someone else, luckily we were used to such things, but even so¡­¡±

    ¡°It was Bella and DeMorte who were fighting, but I only know I won¡­ so who am I? Should that not be really easy to answer?¡± I won, I knew that, but what did that mean? How exactly did I ¡®win¡¯ the fight?

    ¡°Well we are-¡± De stopped speaking and looked at Morte, who started talking for the first time since he appeared.

    ¡°Our mind is currently reforming and trying to decide how to organize itself. Technically it should be doing this automatically, in the subconscious, but the way the mental construct came unraveled near the end was counter-productive. When DeMorte¡¯s consciousness slipped and Bella attacked the remnants that resulted from that slip, we suffered limited brain damage to surprisingly specific areas.¡±

    I blinked, his voice was surprisingly youthful and I was, while not quite unnerved, certainly distracted by it. Especially since the voice finally kicked my memory into gear. It was a fun experiment I did a while back, I changed my vocal cords to match what my voice in my previous life sounded like and recorded it.

    Hearing it without my own body distorting the sound was odd at the time, but that recording was exactly what he sounded like and it was much stranger hearing it from someone else. Though De was too raspy to tell, I thought that there might be similarities there too.

    Wait, ¡°Remnants?¡±

    ¡°Remnants of the Guilt¡± De said simply.

    This time I flinched badly. ¡°Do you mean that¡­¡±

    This time Morte spoke. ¡°You kept shadows, imprints of the people who you killed. Each soul added to your memories and changed you, thus you became first a duality and eventually a tri-pronged existence. With your past, present, and future all separating their existences to keep some form of sanity. You would have become a Soul Mage by any other name, if the Remnants had been any stronger.¡±

    My mouth opened and closed uselessly a few times. I knew that I retained brief flashes, insights that came from knowing just who someone was, but I always thought that those were just memories. That I had the same thing that all other Soul Mages had, the same danger of madness and was completely unaware of it was¡­

    I felt sick. My head was felt like it was slowly being cut in 2, I seemed to be having an identity crisis, and I just learned that my entire understanding of my own sanity was questionable.

    Plus, I finally realized something important based off what these 2 were supposed to look like.

    Both of them had taken their ¡®metaphorical¡¯ forms. Morte was the young and unexperienced form of DeMorte, a clone that had not truly lived outside of a small and safe box. De on the other hand, looked like he had gone for a flight and gotten too close to a star.

    What was it that De had said? 3 heads?

    ¡°My symbol. You 2 are the outside heads, purely metaphorically though, because you are not actually separate beings. Unless you are a Nalk illusion of course, but even then, I would still be the middle head, the leader.¡± I ignored everything else for the moment and concentrated on that.

    They both nodded in unison. ¡°That is why we have these names.¡± De took the lead again. ¡°I represent the past and your motivations. As you can see by my body, Bella did do some damage to us, although that was actually quite helpful from my point of view.¡± He grimaced and I noted for the first time that I had a sense of who they were. It was not a complete understanding, but an awareness of them, which was slowly growing in the back of my mind.

    He continued. ¡°Those shadows, the Remnants, they became more stubborn as time went on and while they could not interfere with our actions directly, they could lean one direction or another and make life more complicated for us. You called them a weight without realizing just how apt that description actually was. They would interact with your subconscious and get behind your decisions, pushing you to stick to them.

    ¡°It took them decades to come together, but in the end it seems that it was literally the will of the dead that you make their deaths worth something. The fact that there was now a new body and a new world in front of them may have just confused them more, but I cannot say for certain.¡± He made a point of meeting my eyes, ¡°I am just a representation of the mental divides within your own mind. I am not your subconscious itself, so I do not know everything about the Remnants, just the broad strokes.¡±

    I felt the other 2 seem to get closer without seeing them move. It was very gradual, but I still took a step back to counter the feeling.

    ¡°So you represent my past and the other one my future.¡± All 3 of us nodded, it was questionable if I was still sane, but trying to determine if this was a Nalk plan or if it was a Nalk attempt to use reverse phycology would just confuse me even more. I already had too much nonsense to deal with as it was. ¡°What did you mean Bella¡¯s damage to you was helpful?¡±

    ¡°Ah that, she effectively burned away the spirits that were pushing you from behind. That was the major source of all the damage we suffered collectively. Fortunately, she basically spent the last few cycles poking around your brain and learning everything she could about you. If you think about it, the fact that your memories had to be carved into this new body would have made it fairly obvious to spot¡­ or at least that is my theory, but none of us know if we can use our spirit as a sort of extra memory space.

    ¡°She also paid an important price for that, which was why I asked you who you are.¡±  De pointed at his eyes with 2 fingers, ¡°You will notice that we are not blinded, like we should be, which obviously means that some change within you has taken place, but there is also the thing in your forehead to consider.¡±

    I blinked and started to reach up to my forehead when I noticed that my body was not the same as it had been. It was not scared like De¡¯s was, nor perfectly pure of scars like Morte¡¯s, but instead it was almost translucent. With faint black veins that ran through an odd greenish smoke and a golden outline that showed where my skin was supposed to be. My body was also different, taller and more muscular than Bella¡¯s body, but still slightly feminine.

    It was more nonsense in a day so full of the stuff that I felt tired despite the fact that the day, if I recalled correctly, should have only just started outside of this place. Regardless, I touched my forehead and felt that there was something there. It was cool and oval in shape, traveling lengthwise above and between my eyes.

    ¡°What is this?¡± I asked, the other 2, obviously unable to see it myself.

    ¡°It is a yellow stone of gem or some type.¡± De said simply. ¡°If I had to guess, I would say that-¡±

    ¡°SHHH!¡± Morte cut De off and shook his head. ¡°He still needs to decide who he is before you can tell him that. Although the fact that we have been addressing him as a male might have already effected the direction of his path.¡±

    I felt concern and a vague certainty growing in us. We were connected and we knew what happened, but it had to be reached naturally. ¡°Bella burned out many of the shadows,¡± I acknowledged, a vague memory coming back to me, ¡°but she also paid a price. She left herself open and DeMorte.¡± I frowned, there was something wrong, ¡°He did not kill her. He¡­¡±

    The headache made itself known again and I winced, but I thought about that memory hard. I somehow knew what both of them wanted and what they did. Bella wanted to live, but DeMorte thought that she meant to kill him.

    Though her actions that started growing a thought in his mind. In fact they both realized it at the very end of their fight.

    DeMorte realized, on some level, that he was being pushed. The Remnants thought of Bella as part of them and the thought that she could remain independent was impossible. She was a brief figure, someone that should just be subsumed into their collective consciousness and they pushed DeMorte down that path. With him thinking that Bella was never meant to exist and that it would be easy to absorb her, a fragment of his existence, he did not bother trying to coexist.

    Bella, for her part, realized that DeMorte had mistaken her. Her original thoughts about DeMorte were familial, but as she equated absorption with her death as an individual, Bella slowly realized that DeMorte was an enemy. She tried a few ingenious tricks that would likely not work on anyone else, in any other situation, before she finally thought that she own.

    Then she found out that DeMorte had taken care to account for her feelings and honestly thought that they were the same. That he was holding back the weight of the Remnants and trying to convince her with words as much as force. After all, the Remnants could not stop DeMorte¡¯s other driving force, something that even they likely feared, the Guilt.

    DeMorte had it practically engraved into his brain to try and avoid the guilt if at all possible, so he tried to avoid directly attacking and ¡®killing¡¯ Bella, even though he did not seem to recognize it at the time.

    In the drawn out fight that resulted, Bella finally figured out that she could never truly win, as long as DeMorte wanted to absorb her, he would in the end. So, she did the only thing she could do and removed his reason for wanting to absorb her instead.

    The Remnants, the shadows of the dead, had pushed DeMorte so hard that he had barely considered his own first rule. ¡®Know both your and the enemies¡¯ objective.¡¯ If he had, DeMorte would have realized that Bella could be extremely helpful for him in the long term, perhaps even casting spells alongside him in battle.

    Instead, they both fought unnecessarily¡­ though Bella did have more than a few problems with DeMorte¡¯s personality too¡­

    I shook my head and tried to concentrate on what happened after that. Bella attacked the shadows and DeMorte¡¯s memories, burning them away. However, in doing so she left herself open to attack by the remaining shadows then¡­

    Then DeMorte regained control. He ended the fighting, crushing everything with his will, with his anger. He had been controlled, manipulated, and had not noticed it at all.

    Looking back, the Guilt might have been a reason that the Nalks themselves had trouble with him. So from my point of view it was actually quite reasonable for him to not notice something that grew over a period of decades.

    Concentrate.

    DeMorte crushed the Remnants who were still attacking Bella into a sphere and burned it away before turning to Bella. He did not kill her though, I knew that, I just¡­ could not remember what he did.

    The headache pushed me away from those memories and I realized that the other 2 were now quite close. I tried to step back, but it felt like I was trapped.

    ¡°You have to choose who you are and who you become.¡± They spoke together. ¡°We will still be here, but you must make that decision before anything else can proceed.¡±

    I stared at them and realized that they were close enough to- before I could finish that thought, my body moved and I hit them both. Since I was more interested in just hitting them both than I was actually hurting them, I did not put my weight into either blow. ¡°I am who I am.¡± I stated forcibly. ¡°Both of you need to shut up about what my name is. I define my name, not the other way around.¡±

    They blinked in unison and smiled. It was freaking creepy, especially when they spoke together again. ¡°In that case, you should be ready to remember.¡±

    Then De spoke without Morte. ¡°I will still be your past, but how you interpret the past changes with every moment in the present and it can change what you see for the future, so please be careful.¡± He seemed to turn to dust at that point, disintegrating before my eyes.

    I felt a part of my mind settle as he did and my headache finally started to disappear in earnest.

    Morte remained and spoke up. ¡°The past creates the present and the present creates the future, but you never like the complicated stuff that I come up with anyway. A thousand plans for a thousand different options and possibilities in the world, yet you always keep me on my toes. Whether DeMorte or Bella or something else altogether, we will adapt to you and you to us.¡± He started to fade, not disappear like De did, but fade as if he were just a shadow himself. ¡°Though 3 heads might not be enough for what is coming in our future.¡±

    Even my ¡®other heads¡¯ were dramatic it seemed. I finally felt my headache disappear and I ignored the knowledge that I could ¡®regrow¡¯ those 2 on my shoulders at any time.

    I looked up at the opening above me and ignored the bright glare of the star in the sky while diving back into my memories.

    DeMorte¡­ he had crushed Bella down, reducing her without killing her so that he could deal with his own mind first. He could not ignore the damage that she had helped cause, but she had taken away the pressure to absorb her, so he instead¡­

    So I instead put her in here for safe keeping. I reached up to my forehead and touched the stone there. It was warm and if I pushed I could feel Bella in there. She had been hurt though, reduced by the Remnants who attacked her.

    As it stood I could absorb her, rebuild her into another part of my personality, or even use her as a receptacle for any and all future shadows. It was my decision and mine alone¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    I ripped Bella¡¯s concentrated essence from my head and concentrated on the star. It should not have been so bright, but Nalk tricks aside, I figured that it was my subconscious giving me a hint. I forced my eyes to ignore the brightness of the star and threw Bella¡¯s stone up into the air.

    She flew farther than the natural laws of the world would normally allow, but stone them all anyway, this was my world and my world needed 2 stars.

    A few moments later, Bella reached where I wanted her to be and seemed to explode. The yellow stone became a nice yellow star, albeit noticeably smaller than its partner.

    ¡°Wake up, Bella, we need to talk.¡±

    I rose up in the air with a thought and left the fishbowl of a cave, rising into the sky. On a whim I also produced wings on my back, since I was flying.

    I did not pay attention to the area around me, but concentrated on the star that represented Bella.

    ¡°I am still alive?¡± Her voice was weak, but it still carried so that I had no trouble hearing it.

    ¡°For now.¡± I kept my voice simple, not cold, but not warm either. ¡°We need to talk about the future Bella.¡±

    I heard, or felt, a sigh reverberate through the air. ¡°Fine, what do you want DeMorte?¡±

    ¡°A decently sized penis, 2 or 3 beautiful women, a large feast, and some Furutsu alcohol, but that is not important right now.¡± I would have made a deadpan face, but I did not currently have a face.

    There was a pause, before a slightly wary Bella responded. ¡°Oh is that all? Well, I am not sure what your definition of a ¡®decently sized¡¯ sex organ would be, but I categorically refuse to give you that monster you used to have. In any case, I suppose the question becomes: ¡®what do you need?¡¯ DeMorte.¡±

    ¡°What I need is to evolve.¡±

    ¡­

    Was it that hard to accept?

    ¡°DeMorte, even ignoring the fact that individuals cannot evolve, only populations, I still find that statement too off-balance, even for you.¡±

    I smiled, or tried to¡­ not having a face was odd, but I was vaguely sure that the smoke was responding correctly. ¡°Also, please stop that smile as it is creepy.¡± Ah, so it did work.

    I stopped smiling and refused to sigh, I wanted a more relaxed atmosphere, but I guess this was the best I was going to get. ¡°I want you to join with me Bella, specifically, as an extra set of eyes to watch over me and second guess my moves.¡±

    ¡°Pardon?¡±

    ¡°We are going to face the Nalk pawns that they call Players after this. If I understand their rules well enough, our biggest disadvantage will be that the Nalks can talk to or at least nudge others at any time. Therefore they can see what plans I have and counter them by simply having their Players go left or something similar. In order to counter this I would need someone to bounce ideas off in a way that the Nalks would not overhear.

    You defied me to the point where you were actually able to hurt me and even chose an imaginative option to beat me. Not only that, but you beat me to the extent where I feel obligated to congratulate you. I can count on a single hand how many people have gotten the best of me and I want you to know that you did that better than anyone else¡­ including my wife.¡±

    ¡°I am honored to have almost, but not quite, have beaten you while you held back.¡±

    ¡°Sarcasm help nothing right now Bella. The point is that I think you can make me stronger and to that extent I am willing to change. In fact, regardless of what you choose, I plan on working as a traveling mender as soon as we can escape from the city.¡±

    ¡°So you want me to be your mental sparring partner? Do you think that doing a little medical work will suddenly make you okay in my eyes? In your own eyes? You have more than a few issues DeMorte and I am not sure that I can deal with them for the rest of our natural life.¡±

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    I took a deep breath. ¡°That is part of why I want you to join with me. You should be able to stay just separate enough from me to see what I plan and try to comment on it from a slightly more impartial view. I want you to be my watcher.¡±

    She shook her head. ¡°A watcher like what I suspect that you are thinking of needs to have the power to stop something if it needs to be stopped and would I not need my own watcher? To keep you trusting that I am not just disagreeing with you.¡±

    I carefully weighed the words before I said them. Partly because I needed to be careful to say it correctly, but also partly because I did not want to cheapen the words. ¡°I want you to be someone I can trust to watch me while the rest of the people I plan to gather watch us both, plus¡­ I want to trust you Bella.¡±

    That got her, the star that represented her flickered and a ball of light detached from the mass to float down to me.

    Slowly it morphed into a shape that I knew fairly well. She was rather thin and frail, with distinctly pointed ears that were pointlessly elongated by the Nalks. Her other features were hard to see since she was made of light like I was of green smoke. She was however, noticeably smaller than me, leaving me towering over her like¡­ well, rather like a demon of legends would the protagonist.

    The yellow-orange orbs that represented Bella¡¯s eyes narrowed as they stared at me. ¡°Who are you and what have you done with DeMorte?¡±

    I opened my mouth to announce that I ate him, because he was crunchy and good with a side of tomato sauce, but I relented. ¡°I did nothing to him, but I did have to look through both of our minds while figuring out who I was supposed to be. It gave me a new perspective on what I planned to do before and what I could do instead.¡±

    ¡°What does that mean?¡±

    ¡°It means that burning holes in someone¡¯s brain does have a bit of an effect on their behavior, little girl.¡±

    ¡°What about our body?¡± Smooth subject change.

    Luckily, that particular question had become spectacularly easy to answer. ¡°I had far too many children, problem children and otherwise, in my previous life. To the point where I could die childless for 10 more lifetimes and not regret it. As a male I would have significantly more¡­ power in making sure that such things were impossible, but there is another way, which is partly why I used the word evolve.¡±

    ¡°Wait, so just like that you are going to give up on the thing that you have been pushing and fighting me over for the last 8 cycles?¡± Her eyes narrowed further, which was only practical because of her current form.

    I tried to raise an eyebrow in response, but had no idea how successful I was, darn smoke face. ¡°What part about someone burning holes in my brain did you not understand? Stones I am glad I only changed this much, you could have driven us insane if you had not spent so long traipsing through my memories before our little fight. Your aim was quite good. Anyway, why you are acting so surprised at the changes you caused?¡±

    I continued without letting her answer. ¡°Besides, I never said I was going to stay a woman.¡± I sent her a pulse of what I had in mind directly to her.

    Finally her orb eyes widened again. ¡°This is¡­ you want to become genderless? Does that not count as a literal dead-end in evolution? I mean, really DeMorte, just stop using the word if you do not know what it means.¡±

    That last part made me grimace, ¡°I know what the word means Bella, besides the idea that resulted in my current goal is from your head.¡±

    Bella got it almost immediately, ¡°The genetic recoder.¡± I nodded. It would have been ready by the time we were about to turn 16, but I chose to concentrate on becoming male another way because of the time constraints and danger of using it, so its creation fell behind. The magical device was supposed to transform someone based on the changes it made to their genetic code, but actually using it on myself would likely just get myself killed.

    If we used it on someone else though, well, Dras could be considered a preview of people to come.

    ¡°Why?¡± Bella had thought about it fairly hard for a moment and now she was concentrating on me again. ¡°What would be the purpose DeMorte? A private army? A personal force that you could use to conquer another kingdom for yourself?¡±

    I hissed. ¡°Is there anyone with more inclination to not kill others than me? Anyone at all Bella!?¡± I felt my form growing and changing, but I was not doing it to try an intimidate her. I wanted to show her the body of my spirit form in case she did not notice previously. Though I did not completely change, deciding to keep my limbs and wings while increasing their size.

    ¡°I have scars Bella, perhaps you did not see them because you have grown too used to them. I know that I certainly do my best to ignore them, but they even show up on my spirit form.¡± The smoke that represented my torso changed into reptilian scales and I felt my other 2 heads grow. The scars that covered my entire body were impossible not to see like this.

    Bella¡¯s response both impressed and infuriated me. ¡°Those do not matter, what matters is why you suddenly want to ¡®help¡¯ turn strangers into people as strong as our current body is.¡±

    I let out another hiss, this one so deep that it bordered on a growl. ¡°These scars are a part of who I am Bella, they are what helped make me who I am and I am sure that if you looked closely you would see a few fresh burn marks too. Oh, and I will ask you to remember that this is my spirit form, which means that only the meaningful scars show themselves, the ones that made me who I am.¡±

    That diverted her attention for a moment, but I knew what she was going to say next, so I went ahead and started talking.

    ¡°I should answer your question, though.¡± I took a breath. ¡°I know that my views on family were¡­ a little skewed based on my experiences and when I was sorting us out.¡± I sighed. ¡°I remembered and compared your experiences and beliefs to my own. I have no desire for more children, nor to fight another war, and I am still not particularly fond of trusting other, but¡­¡± Bella waited patiently as I tried to make sure the phrasing was right. ¡°¡­I want to live a different life from what I did previously.

    ¡°I want to see where I can go with this knowledge. I want to see how much we can learn about the world around us.¡± I shook my head. ¡°You know, the single most depressing thing I noticed about your memories Bella is how much you grew to hate me without thinking about the future. You used to dream about how we could change things and make the lives of others better, but then you concentrated only on me and how you disliked who I was.

    ¡°People are going to continue to be themselves no matter what I do, but I do not feel the need to be the King in charge of their idiocy. What I want is to give them more choices. I want to have a group that I can trust surround me and help me stay out of trouble after I ¨C after WE start improving the lives of others.

    ¡°That said, I am not going to run a charity Bella, I can see us ending up as some rich noble¡¯s personal mender, but I do feel that I have taken more than enough lives and if I can avoid that then almost anything would be preferable¡­ Though I do not think that the Nalks will let that happen, so I plan to make very, very close friends with the Histones for when we get sucked into the fighting.

    ¡°Then, no matter what happens in the Nalk¡¯s accursed game, we should be able to do some good in this life. Plus, who knows, maybe my soul will find its way back to Gorith after this is all over and he will take those actions into account when he weighs my soul¡­ assuming it is not destroyed first.¡± I gave a half-hearted laugh at that.

    All of my heads stared down at Bella¡¯s form of light, though I felt that the other heads felt different than usual, they were still reptilian. I deliberately kept my center head human, but I knew that hardly felt right. The wings and limbs, however, felt like something I should have obtained a long time ago.

    Although¡­ if this was to be my new spirit form, then it was a serious indicator of my mental state and how much I had changed today¡­ because of this little girl.

    Bella for her part had watched me as closely as possible without moving and I could practically feel her judging and weighing every word that I spoke. ¡°If I refuse?¡±

    I almost lied to her and simply told her that nothing would happen, but I thought better of it. ¡°I cannot have you as a risk in my head Bella. If you refuse, I will crush your existence down into a small fragment like I did previously and find a way to either place you in a stillborn or a clone of our current body.¡±

    She stared at me, ¡°That hardly seems like something you would have offered me previously.¡±

    ¡°It was not, but it should have been.¡± I admitted.

    Her voice was quiet. ¡°Do you actually think that you could do that?¡±

    ¡°For anyone else? No. For you? Maybe. For myself? No. I am not sure how many memories I can live with, much less pass on into another body, but for destroying the Remnants that were pushing me without my knowledge, I will try. We will have to experiment on that to find out for sure, though I admit that it would basically be practicing with Soul Magic¡­¡±

    Her face shifted at that, as if swallowing something bitter. ¡°I can change my mind later?¡±

    ¡°I do not think so, I need to be able to count on you Bella.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to keep being a stoning graveborn?¡±

    ¡°Most probably.¡±

    ¡°So you are still going to kill people?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but only as needed.¡±

    ¡°Your definition of ¡®needed¡¯ worries me.¡±

    ¡°So help me change.¡±

    ¡°Do you think you can?¡±

    ¡°¡­Life, by its simple act of being, changes everything around it. Everything and everyone changes little girl, stones, I have been changing just while in front of you, talking about the future. That said, I am just asking you to help me control what I change into. In the end it is your choice.¡±

    ¡°I do not like my choices.¡±

    ¡°Those who do are either fortunate or stupid.¡±

    ¡°¡­Old stone-soul.¡±

    That was a new one¡­ I liked it.

    I slowly held out my hand, though paw might have been more appropriate. Gigantic as I was in comparison to Bella¡¯s small form I felt surprisingly vulnerable and exposed. That said, I just had most of my beliefs about ¡®who I was¡¯ turned on their head and then get rolled up into an improvised weapon to metaphorically bash me over the head a few times¡­ I had been vulnerable for a lot longer than I originally thought.

    I had made too many mistakes to not want someone backing me up from now on, especially in my head. I lived a life based on luck, brutality, and risk.

    With my life as the Bandit King over, even in my head, I now wanted to live a different life. If I could avoid bloodshed, good, but if not, I would not hesitate.

    I was not the Bandit King anymore, but I might still think like him a bit. If there was a better way to remind myself than keeping Bella around, I could not think of it.

    Bella herself was hesitating, but when she came to her decision, it did not leave me disappointed.

    ¡°I do not like this and we are far from being friends DeMorte, but you need someone to keep an eye on you so¡­¡± There was the slightest pause between her words and when she extended her hand to mine, but I did not care.

    ¡°Thank you, Bella.¡± I smiled as her hand touched the tip of a claw I did not notice before. Did I tell my hand to grow claws? It still felt right.

    ¡°Still a creepy smile.¡± This time my smile grew wider and Bella¡¯s image shrunk down. Part of her dissipated into the air around us, into my mind, while the rest of her compressed into a small stone again, leaving me alone.

    She would be my binary partner, my Beta, into the future. Although, how much she would talk to me, or even if it was possible for her to talk to me like she used to, I had no clue. Still, it was over and now I could finally wake-

    I felt my body change. My head elongated and became more reptilian while my entire body grew scales and my wings became leathery as they grew even larger. My arms and legs also developed differently and I felt an extremely odd sensation which could only be described as growing a tail.

    Bella, in her yellow stone or gem or whatever form, also started hovering in midair before she flew up and directly impacted my forehead. She then proceeded to imbed herself there in the most painful way possible, with brute force. After a moment to collect myself from the pain I felt what seemed like a ¡®you got what you deserve¡¯ message pop into my head.

    I tried to hiss, but it came out as a more beastly snarl. Then I felt Bella¡¯s energy start radiating out to the other heads. I looked to my left and right as, shockingly, her energy congregated in their blind eyes. Quickly they started to glow and they seemed to have their sight restored, although it was not under my control, but Bella¡¯s.

    I also felt an incredibly itchy sensation coming from the gem/stone/Bella (who seemed amused that I was confused what she was) and mentally created a mirror to see what happened.

    Bella had turned into a third eye on my forehead¡­

    I think my personality wore off on her more than it should have, because while it felt oddly correct, it was far creepier than any shadow smile I could have created.

    So I was now a 3 headed winged reptile with 4 limbs and seven eyes¡­ why did that remind me of some old story¡­

    I felt some irritation and realized that Bella had taken offense to the creepy comment. Quickly deciding that it was time to go, I gave a parting glance at the binary stars.

    They felt¡­ balanced somehow. Ah, did they feel like home or something? A growing annoyance killed the thought.

    I willed myself to wake up from this mental world. It was time to have a talk with that familiar voice.

    ---------------------------------

    The familiar face of said voice was there to greet me when I opened my eyes. ¡°Leo,¡± I greeted in a slightly rough voice.

    ¡°I give you greetings, but I wonder what name I should call you by from now on?¡± Leo responded politely.

    ¡°Dragoon, King of the world.¡± I answered, deadpan.

    Leo blinked and copied me, ¡°How about Sill, princess of sand?¡±

    ¡°DeMorte will do fine.¡± I stood up.

    ¡°So the Bandit King yet lives?¡±

    ¡°Was there any doubt?¡±

    ¡°Yes, actually there was.¡± Leo sighed as I stretched. It was barely light out, only a bit brighter than when I say down, but I still felt the need to stretch. Leo stared at me, watching me through his glasses. ¡°You might be interested to know my people have only interfered in your new life a few times, before you were born, when I set up the barrier,¡± I happily did not feel the need to wince at that, ¡°when you escaped the Sister¡¯s temple, and when I gave your guard a stomach virus.¡± I froze at the last one.

    It was only a slight surprise that the Nalks had a hand in helping to get me arrested, but that Leo had helped me escape was a surprise. Maybe it was arrogance, but it never occurred to me.

    ¡®It was partly arrogance, but it was also partly how desperate you were to escape.¡¯ Bella whispered in my ear¡­ thankfully her voice more melodious than sultry. I felt a brief stab of pain in the back of my mind.

    ¡°Why are you telling me?¡± I asked, quietly adding ¡®and why should I believe you¡¯ in my head.

    Leo shrugged, ¡°I originally wanted to have a nice long talk with you about the future DeMorte, but I get the feeling that it would be wasted. So instead I figured that it would be best to confirm something that you have no doubt thought about: that my people are good enough at predictions that we have to forecast decades in advance to keep things fun.¡± He met my eyes and bored into me. ¡°You would have a very hard time predicting what events were or were not influence by us so just be yourself.¡±

    I snorted and reached over to scratch at the runes surrounding me. I did just enough damage to break their patterns and render them inert. ¡°If you wanted me to do that Leo, you never should have told me about your precious ¡®game¡¯ in the first place and just reincarnated me without saying a word.¡±

    ¡°We tried that once, it did not work out well.¡± Leo looked annoyed by the memory.

    I snorted. ¡°I take it that you have ¡®forecasted¡¯ my decision about this then.¡± I picked up the diary I spent so much trouble getting just yesterday.

    Leo nodded. ¡°It depended on how your merge went, but this was hardly likely to happen.¡±

    ¡°Happy to be unpredictable.¡± I grunted.

    ¡°I never said that it was unpredictable, just unlikely.¡±

    I stared Leo in the eyes, ¡°I was looking forward to talking with you, but there is not much to discuss is there?¡±

    ¡°Not particularly, though, I do have a question for you DeMorte, before I go.¡± I raised an eyebrow at Leo, obviously if he could forecast what I was going to do he would not need to ask. So was he actually asking anything, or was he telling me something? ¡°What will you do about Dras? He was blamed for your escape, since there was clearly no way you could have done it yourself.¡± He explained it so blandly that the words took a second to register.

    I grimaced. Dras¡­ ¡°We will see.¡±

    Leo stared at me for a moment before nodding, ¡°yes, yes we will,¡± then he vanished. ¡°I wish you luck, DeMorte-Bella, as you will soon witness what the Game is really like as it will begin in just under a full cycle. You will feel it through the ground when it does.¡±

    ¡­I really wanted to know how he did that. After Leo disappeared both his voice and that odd Nalk energy they used bounced everywhere around me and made it nearly impossible to tell where he was.

    As he stopped talking though, I felt the energy leave and quietly made sure to both collect my things and make sure that all of my runes were destroyed, before sneaking away.

    I would not be the Bandit King Reborn anymore, but I still had those abilities and I needed to sort

    First, I needed to talk to the Histones. Then I would see about helping Dras out and escaping the city. After that, I would see what I could do as a mender and start looking for a good test subject for the genetic recoder.

    After all that¡­ well I would have to deal with the Nalks, but I clearly had not noticed their hands at work before, so all I currently had planned was to react at the situation dictated. We would all see about what happened after that.

    *     *     *

    [u]Leo¡¯s personal study[u]:

    Leo entered his study doing mental calculations and projections so complex that he barely noticed his wife sitting in one of the chairs, naked except for her cloak. She was black as obsidian today, so she blended in.

    Leo only stopped and noticed her when he saw the folder in his seat. Selaugh was pouting when he looked up. ¡°Are you sure you like me better in a female form? You hardly seem to notice me like this and I swear that you were thinking of DeMorte when you walked in, again.¡±

    ¡°The former Bandit King has been ignored up until now because of convenience as much as dismissive arrogance. The fact that he took such an unlikely path with Bella means that things will change and others will no longer be able to ignore him. Not even you.¡± Leo stated seriously, picking up the folder, ¡°Your choice of a player I assume?¡±

    She nodded and spun around to lean forward. ¡°Are you sure that is it? I do not mind a little physical form reversal you know.¡± Her body quickly changed into DeMorte¡¯s form, his male form from his previous life, naturally not adding any clothes in doing so. ¡°You can even stay in that form if you prefer.¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Selaugh smirked and returned her form to its previous state, this time turning her skin a bright pink.

    She gave up fast. Leo turned his attentions away from the paper to her. ¡°Are you ever going to be perfectly serious with me?¡± Leo asked, half joking as he could never expect a serious answer from her.

    Selaugh pouted ¡°Oh of course dear, whenever one of us suffers some horrible tragedy or something, I will be serious and respectful then.¡± She giggled, ¡°Just not for too long after.¡±

    Leo blinked in surprise, ¡°Wait, you were serious the day we got married.¡±

    She broke off her giggling and stared at him, ¡°We have been married for how many millennia and you only just noticed that?¡± Then she let loose a laugh and launched across the table to kiss him deeply.

    Leo paused just long enough to look at his wife¡¯s paperwork before wishing DeMorte luck again. One of the best Nalk Backers had just chosen his wife for her player and even Leo had no idea how that would end.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    Arc 1 of BKR is now over, I plan to do a better job in arc 2 ¨C until then, thank you all for reading my story thus far, sincerely,

    Bob_Sagit.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    General notes:

    Original title for the chapter was ¡°Bandit King Reborn,¡± but that felt a bit corny and I would hate it if people read the title ahead of time and jumped a conclusion about Bella.

    So, DeMorte went through something that shattered his old mentality and let him accept Bella, I hope that everyone finds this an acceptable ending. DeMorte was so stubborn that I could not think of any other way to make him fall in line.

    As it stands Bella is about 15-20% of DeMorte, but she still has her own personality and will function as his watchdog into the future. Though she will be much more in the background than so far.

    DeMorte will have some personality changes, but I do not feel that he can do a complete 180 ¨C I hope that I represented Bella¡¯s understanding of this when she accepted DeMorte¡¯s deal, but if you feel that I could have done this better, please feel free to state so in the comments or send me a personal message.

    Announcements:

    -The BKR rewrite is going to take a fair bit of time and my schedule is already weird, therefore I will not be posting any new chapters, but instead building them up for a batch release.

    -I plan to release the rewrite under a different name as it will not include 3rd person PoV except for Bella¡¯s. I still need to talk with some people about it though as I plan to make this Fic the continuous version, and will post chapter 41 here in December.

    -In a week or 2 I will be posting one last chapter that serve as both a special list of what I have changed from this version of BKR when rewriting (i.e.: the removal of G¨ªa)

    -Thank you all for reading, if you want to chat or ask me anything, you will likely be able to find me at chatango the fastest, under the name ¡°MrBobSagit,¡± but I will also check my PMs periodically.

    Have a good one everyone. o/

 40.5: One Year Update

    Chapter 0: Necrosis

    I sat at my bench alone, quietly having given up sharpening my sword, much less trying to get any work done. Even the new weapon designs could hardly keep my focus, though I could already see how useful the exploding iron balls would be.

    My head was throbbing and my mind, which was usually sharper than any weapon, was desperately trying to find something to occupy it in the face of what happened a few days ago¡­ No, it would have happened a week ago at the least¡­

    Standing and deciding to stretch some more, so I started to slowly work through my sword forms.

    It had been over 50 years since that old man had picked me up and taught me how to stand, how to move, to pivot, and how to kill like he had been trained. Though I imagine that he would have preferred my fighting in an army to creating my own, I never had cause to think ill of him.

    He had been one of the few who never betrayed my trust.

    ¡­Well, it hardly mattered anymore, he and Mar were probably in a better place than I would end up. There was too much blood on my hands for the Circle of Eternity, I would be sent to the ovals of judgment¡­ probably the outer ellipticals at that.

    My blood, the blood of the dead, the blood of peasants, slaves, nobles, and those I once so foolishly called friends¡­ Stone me, I had the blood of whole kingdoms on my soul.

    I focused on my movements, pushing myself slightly harder than I should have for a stretch.

    My swordsmanship was important. The shadows danced around me, the ghosts of my past seeming to swirl in their hatred of the sword. They hated my magic too, but it was my sword that they fled from.

    I knew that they did not exist. I was not insane. However, the shadows seemed to retreat in the face of my sword. Memories of practice and the dead faded as fast as they came and I pushed everything except my movements out of my mind.

    Soon enough even those faded and time passed as I work up a good sweat until the bell rung.

    I slowed my movements, not stopping, but letting my body naturally calm down as the gong was hit for the first time.

    I quietly recited a prayer for the dead, as each opponent who had died fighting me in this place was honored with a single hit. I also took a few deep breaths to clear my head and relax a small amount.

    The fights never lasted long, which was a mixed blessing for my aging body. Even now my joints ached and the world seemed to spin slightly. Even if my lack of interest in my slave women was not a sure sign, there were other indicators. My lower alcohol tolerance in past years certainly was.

    I did not even drink that much last night, but my personal stash had apparently been enough to make me hung-over.

    Even if I had been totally wasted last night though, my body would have usually recovered by now, but age made everything change. I had even been obliged to avoid more injuries lately, something I never shied away from before, because of how long they took to heal now.

    Gorith¡¯s Death Imps had a hold on me and were slowly pulling me into his realm¡­ As the gong kept being struck, I reflected that they were the only enemies I could and would never defeat.

    Turning to my collection of weapons I pulled a few specialized throwing daggers and after hesitating a moment, I decided not to take my shield.

    Who your opponent was mattered a great deal and my opponent was arrogant, entitled, strong, and prideful. He must have sensed weakness in me after Mar¡¯s death and had chosen the same day I learned of it to issue his challenge.

    Almost like he expected it¡­ I felt the shadows grow, they wanted to whisper the truth to me, they were everywhere and heard everything, they knew. I could almost imagine their forked tongues whispering that he had killed my wife to make me weak, to press me in my time of grief, almost.

    I released a pulse of my resolve using magic and the shadows disappeared. They were weak things, literal shadows of my past and nothing more. I had command of my faculties and refused their presence, so they could do nothing.

    Even if the graveborn had managed to somehow kill my Mar, it changed nothing. He challenged me and he would die because of it, there was no need to think beyond how to kill him.

    Regus was a combat healer, the single most dangerous and respected position in any army, although he concentrated more on combat than healing. Still, he was prideful and instead of fighting with an iron shield and spear, like he usually did, he had already announced that he would face me with sword and magic.

    I moved over to the door and unbolted it, letting it swing open as I stood far enough back to make sure the path was clear.

    We were not honorable men here and if I walked into the arena with a few extra holes no one would ask for a halt to the match. Those were the rules, once inside the arena, all methods were allowed and failure to reach the arena was grounds for forfeit.

    The gong echoed louder though the seemingly empty hallway and I cast a simple spell to ensure I was truly alone.

    I took a deep breath and walked forward, burying some lingering hesitation and ignoring the aches that my body offered.

    I idly kept track of the number of gongs as I walked forward, they went on and on because of the sheer number of men and women who had thrown their lives away over time.

    The count was over 60 by the time I reached the entrance to the arena.

    The entrance was an iron gate that lead to an iron cage, about 20 meters in diameter, filled with rocks, some vegetation, and the occasional nonhuman skeleton for decoration. It was also covered by a powerful ward to keep others from getting involved. It was currently without snow as this particular arena was at a lower altitude than some of the others in the surrounding mountains.

    The twin stars, Alph and Bet were at an angle to cast shadows that stopped just before my feet and make me check behind myself one last time before giving up my ability to see in the dark.

    I did not met anyone on the way there, but on the other side of the iron gate that marked the entrance to the arena I could easily hear the dull roar of the crowd. Only the continuous sound of the gong kept them from being louder and I could easily picture final bets being placed.

    On the other side of the gate was a kingdom made by bandits, my kingdom, now that the churches had offered official recognition. I had been the de facto king for decades, but when they needed to crush a Soul Mage, they had bought cheap passage through my lands with the recognition.

    Silence fell outside and I spared just enough time to reflect on the fact that I would not have been crowned king if not for an army of undead. Then Osiris started speaking, announcing my challenger as the gate in front of my started to slowly rise.

    I ignored the introduction and stepped into the light to let my eyes adjust. I already knew what I needed to and being reminded of who he was would change nothing, the Guilt would do that well enough.

    I leisurely pulled out a dagger with my right hand and let my sword lightly swing in my dominant hand as the gate so slowly climbed above my balding head.

    I waited until it was completely above me before strolling out, annoyingly though, Regus did the exact same thing. The blasted graveborn looked just like I had when I was younger, but with a far larger ego. A cloak of arrogance that had to be ripped off, for he would not remove it willingly.

    Standing at nearly 170cm, Regus was wearing what I knew was iron plate over enchanted leather, with a similarly designed set of protective pants. I was wearing much the same thing, but Regus had added spikes and a purple and gold enchanted cloak that flowed behind him. He was also letting his magic roll out of his body.

    Stoning graveborn had over twice the number of magic circles to draw on that I had, 11 to my measly 5.

    Still, I had killed a man with thrice my magic when I was younger and weaker. I was hardly going to fall to this one, if I stayed vigilant.

    Regus smiled and started to great me, but I felt no need for pleasantries, the gong was the only introduction I allowed for myself. I threw the dagger in my hand at him as soon as Regus opened his mouth.

    Moving his sword up, Regus tried to deflect the blade only to have it explode the moment contact was made. Did the fool forget that we recently figured out how to seal a core into iron to make it explode? I started using these daggers nearly half a year ago.

    I strode forward, drawing out a different throwing dagger, without slowing. His enchanted equipment protected him from the flash and the explosion. Though I noticed that, since the spell I placed in the core of the dagger earlier was not strong enough, the dagger itself came out intact.

    Something to work on in my spare time then, but iron was called the magic killer for a reason and the amount of mana in these daggers was limited.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Regus had lost his smile by the time the air cleared a moment later and I felt a brief flash of satisfaction as I shot a half-dozen snip spells at him. Naturally, his protective wards were prepared and deflected my spells, which were caught by either the iron cage or the protective ward just outside it.

    I doubted that there was a single mage without a ward against that spell right now, I was arguably the most infamous non Soul Mage who ever lived and snip was my favorite spell.

    I did not slow as I got within sword¡¯s length of him and Regus surprised me by letting us close without using his own magic. Still, I dismissed this as arrogance instead of a calculated plan as I felt the strength behind his sword swings. He wanted to prove that he was my better, that he was worthy of succeeding me, and that he was not just another one of my many graveborn children.

    He was wrong.

    Magic is not restricted to being channeled down a staff or through one¡¯s hands, though many prefer that. Most mages used their hands and feet, but one of my specialties was that I practiced using every part of my body. This meant, while Regus deflected my sword and then thrust his hands forward to send a spell at me, I took the liberty of spitting a snip spell at his eyes as I used a much uglier spell that came from my knee.

    Regus flinched and summoned his mana armor. Unlike his protective enchantments, the armor would stop all spells, not just ones that it was told to. Though it had much, higher cost to maintain, meaning I knew what his next move would obviously be.

    I disengaged and quickly backed out of the fatal range Regus¡¯ implosion technique. Regus blasted a large part of his mana out of his hands. It would destroy the person from within and it was truly scary because iron would not stop it.

    Iron killed spells, not mana, and Regus¡¯ implosion technique was barely more than a large blast of mana. Mana armor would work, but I had far too little mana to try and get into a stamina contest with him. That all spells used your body¡¯s energy to fuel them hardly mattered since we weighed near the same.

    I circled around him for a moment, keeping myself out of range of Regus¡¯ move. At the distance I was at I felt the wave of energy pass through me and make me queasy, though it was not be fatal. The range for Regus¡¯ technique was 2 meters or so, at most, but the fatal area was a single meter away or less from the source.

    Despite that, I coughed into the back of my hand a few times. Regus¡¯ smile immediately came back at that. Quickly deciding to trying and push him, I swayed a little as I gained control over the coughing.

    Immediately Regus raised his sword and his smile fell away as his feet shifted. I stopped bothering to sway as his stance became defensive in an instant. It looked like he at least knew when I was acting.

    It would not be feasible for me to force past Regus¡¯ armor with my limited magical power, but it was an extremely common strategy so I was more than ready. Mana armor was completely ineffective against physical objects after all and if I could just touch him, I could cast my spells directly into his body.

    That said, he had at least a meter long extension to any limb that would likely kill me if he got to use it. If he had even the slightest bit of sense, or anything resembling a worthy subordinate, he would know more about me than just my fondness for the snip spell. For all of his ego, I doubted that Regus was stupid.

    I would say that he was foolish, prideful, and desperate to outshine me, but not stupid.

    What would he be hiding in reserve for me? His armor could not hold that many enchantments. Maybe he had another weapon, or that cloak was- Regus dropped his mana armor at that point.

    It was wiser to only use it when he had to, in order to conserve energy, but that gave me an opportunity.

    I mentally prepared the dozen snip spells and some variants of the spell that his enchantments might not react to.

    There were three possibilities in my head, with the first possibility being that that Regus had mastered a particularly difficult spell, like an acid mana attack. Though such spells were impractical in fights like this, unless you could cast them in moments, like I could do with my snip variations.

    I unleashed my spells and watched as they all circled out and surrounded Regus. Spells had different speeds and my version of snip was faster than any bowshot, not to mention that it could curve. Regus did not move and was kind enough to let his enchantments catch all of the spells.

    I smiled at that, it would have been better to summon another layer of mana armor instead. Even if it would have been a waste of mana, he had plenty to spare and his body was hardly to the point of eating itself to sustain his magic.

    The other two possibilities in my head involved hidden physical weapons, particularly if they were enchanted like my daggers were¡­ Or that he really was stupid and I just overestimated him.

    If he was hiding an enchantment, than he would not have let my spells hit his wards. They would be too annoying to recharge in the middle of a fight, not to mention that it would have been more efficient to just use his mana armor to block them all at once. No, if he let them go and hit his protections like that, I would say that Regus was fighting with a spell as his secret weapon.

    I could be wrong of course, but it would be hard to hide something like a spare sword and even if he had a dagger or throwing knife with a death spell enchantment added into it, I was used to stopping such things.

    That said¡­ what was Regus talented at beyond healing spells? I could not follow every one of my children¡¯s life, I had too many of the little graveborns running around for that, but I would remember any outstanding talents. Regus¡­ his mana implosion technique and healing talents were the only thing of any real note about him.

    Regus changed his stance, getting ready to attack and I started to wonder if the hand movements he made earlier might not have been necessary. If that was it, than I had to watch for his implosion technique from his whole body and not just his hands.

    Though I should have been looking out for that from the beginning: everyone wants to kill the King and they will go to great lengths to do just that.

    Blood, guts, and carnage all for the position as head, as the leader. Honestly, I could not understand why my children made up so many of my challengers. I told them, all of them, what a curse this cursed throne was and yet I still had challengers who wanted thing. I built it from the ground up, turning the title of king from a joke to a terrifying reality.

    Regus approached and I kept my distance, knocking his blade aside as best as I could and stepping around him for more room.

    He did not use the implosion technique for a second time just yet, but I kept watch. We were both being cautious at the moment, but that could change at any moment. In a way, it was reassuring to see Regus take a slightly more defensive attitude, it not only gave me time to think, but also lent credence to the idea that he had something in reserve.

    A counter of some sort¡­ unless that was what he wanted me to think.

    I even briefly wondered if he might have a second secret weapon to use against me before a small coughing fit struck. I managed to keep my mouth closed though, so only I knew about the blood.

    I was coughing blood?

    Without even worrying about Regus, I mentally started backtracking my movements. I had not been effected that badly, by his movement I was sure.

    Regus had mastered the implosion technique in the sense that he could cast it in a very brief moment, but he used large area bursts, limiting his range. I had the truly disturbing experience of once fighting a true master, who fought in the opposite manner.

    That day, I found myself memorizing just what the technique felt like when it liquidated some of your muscles.

    If not Regus¡¯ attack though, that could leave old age or¡­ poison, but when?

    I threw the dagger I was still holding at Regus to keep some more distance between us while I thought.

    All of my food was tasted. I cast 7 different poison detection spells before I ate and had that fat graveborn Cook both personally prepare the meal and shared it with me, eating twice as much as me to eliminate the odds of being poisoned over time.

    Could someone have gotten to Cook? No, the fat mage wanted nothing more than to keep being fat and happy these days. Maybe his wife though, she had been a slave once and he adored her¡­

    I abruptly stopped dodging and fired a few more snip spells in Regus¡¯ general direction. I was suddenly very dizzy and I did not need him to realize it before-

    I coughed again and several things happened immediately.

    While Regus finally charged, I saw that my blood had a green tinge to it and realized what I had been poisoned with. More importantly though, the poison told me when I was poisoned. My private bottle of Furutsu, which I was saving for Mar¡¯s next birthday, the same bottle that I drained the night of her death.

    He killed Mar?

    I concentrated for a moment surrounded myself with mana armor, concentrating on my front. My sword met his and I stopped Regus¡¯ swing only to have him explode his mana in all directions, managing to crack and even destroy the armor I concentrated on my left hand.

    He killed my Mar?

    My right hand was already in my belt when Regus swung. My now useless left arm was numb though and made a good shield.

    He murdered my Maria?

    One of my last daggers. In between the graveborn¡¯s ribs. Iron interfering with his spells, knife with his breathing.

    Maria, my Maria, dead¡­

    Useless arm, his sword got stuck, iron. Snip was simple, but he had to bleed.

    Dead.

    Used the blood splinter spell. The shadows howled. Direct touch ignored enchantments, his defenses. His leg¡¯s bloodpath was destroyed. Tried to run. Get distance. Fell.

    Mar.

    Hate in his eyes. Anger, like my own, but less. Did his mother do that? Did she help nurture that hate? Fool, I gave her choices.

    Mar¡­ I miss you.

    I half cough and half spit at Regus¡­ He looked confused at the green, at my face. Then fear, realization, and something else. ¡°I-I¡± He was wheezing. ¡°It was- not- that- it was- supposed- to- be- that-¡±

    I leaned forward, suddenly finding my body extremely sluggish. Regus¡¯ face started to blur and I hesitated, trying to figure out where he was. In the end it did not matter though, nothing did, and I touched his lips with my finger. No more talking.

    There might have been tears, but I could not see them if there were. The whole world was fuzzy.

    I cast snip. Once in his neck, between the bones, before I cast it in other places. He would try to heal, but it was too late.

    I looked up at the stars as best I could and cast my final spell. The mana armor had drawn too much and the poison was into my blood.

    Using magic to amplify my voice I called my oldest comrade¡¯s name. ¡°Osiris.¡± I opened my mouth for a moment, when the shadows, now dancing freely all around me started whispering. If Regus did not know what the poison was then someone put him up to it. Someone manipulated him. Who else would I chose to succeed me in this situation than Osiris? Who-

    The whispers started, but I banished them after a moment of concentration¡­ it was surprisingly quiet. No cheers for my victory, no crying for my defeat.

    I was dead. Mar was dead. It did not matter what happened after I was gone, so I did not have to worry anymore. My part on this land was done¡­ it was a little liberating to be honest.

    I smiled and forced my last order out. ¡°Osiris, I have won the match, but I am too far gone, so I am leaving you in charge.¡± A coughing fit almost overtook me, but I wanted to finish this. ¡°Good luck.¡± I wanted to say more, but my body started failing in earnest.

    I fell to my knees and then further. I could not see the faces, that came to me soon enough. I could feel their mana, their magic, but I was so overcome that even my mental third-eye was failing.

    Stone it all. Regardless of when this little ¡®kingdom¡¯ that we built imploded, it would be a result of the actions of their choices from here on out.

    I was done.

    ¡­Maria.

    <hr>

    DeMorte''s location is the star on the southern part of the continent (northwest of the ship)

    Most of the city symbols are capitals, but a few are temples. The cave like structures are dungeons and the symbols to the west in the mountains are fortresses/chokepoints. The building to the east of the compass and west of the mountains near the kracken (who is just for decoration) is a temple city. Other symbols are either for decoration or for my mental placement - IE: Entrials is the town symbol just south of the forest, but the distances are not scaled.

 Chapter 41: Historical Influence

    Chapter 41: Historical Influence

    Year 3086 A.F. (After Freedom)

    61<sup>st</sup> day of the Wood Phase (1<sup>st</sup> Earth Quarter)

    From what I could see, the city¡¯s structure had survived the fire quite admirably, but then again, with wood being so much more expensive here, most of the city seemed to be made of mud bricks. There was plenty of damage regardless, just not as much from the fire as there would have been if wood was a more common building material.

    No, it seemed that just enough had burned to cause a panic and what happened after that had caused the real damage.

    While not the tallest building, the top of the 3 floor building was high enough to let me get a general idea of how the poorer section of the city had faired. I would have preferred a taller building, but those were almost always reinforced by magic wards. Anything taller than 4 floors usually indicated someone rich enough to buy magic protection and buildings like the prison tower I escaped the other day even required it to be structurally sound.

    I quickly climbed down from the side of the building before someone saw me. I was pleasantly surprised that the building supported my weight without much groaning, but it was one of the nicer buildings, being made of some sort of brick.

    Although not in my best state because of a recent lack of food, I was still far heavier than most people would assume by my appearance. If someone saw me right then, they would likely say I was a 13 year old boy. That I was currently female was a fact I had both logical and emotional reasons to keep hidden.

    To that extent, my usual clothes hid most of my well defined muscles only added to the illusion¡­ not that I had those clothes on me, escaping from prison in the night soil cart meant I had to settle for whatever I for the short time that shops were still open.

    My current robe would attract the attention of anyone with sharp enough eyes as I practically had to sew it on the run. My fingers, like the rest of me, were far more capable than the average person, but even I had my limits.

    If someone saw me naked they would be shocked at the well-defined muscles that were now showing. Previously I had managed to cultivate a small amount of fat to make them less obvious, but not eating as well as I should have for a few days had quickly turned my unnaturally high metabolism against me.

    Something to work on when I was not hiding from guards, but for now I needed to find some place safe to hide.

    The guards had closed down the entire city when I escaped, but the odds of them keeping it locked down for much longer were between slim and none. In fact there was already the occasional runner moving through the streets was proof. The night soil men would undoubtedly be allowed back to work soon and after that it would only be a matter of time.

    I moved over to the next street and moved as quietly as possible as I watched out for any curious spectators. Before I got too far though I once again picked up the sound of boots marching in step from around the corner. It only took a moment to find an alley and duck into it as I waited for them to pass.

    Normally the guards would never go to such extremes to catch a criminal, but magic criminals always warranted a different response, even when they did not escape prisons specifically designed to make them harmless. Honestly, that was probably the main reason that they were chasing me, instead of some perverted blackmailer that they thought I killed¡­ though that would change if they realized that I killed that high lady as well.

    I shook my head, it was a sad waste of life that should have been easy to avoid, but I had told her as much at the time. Bella thought that I should have made a more sincere effort, however I viewed the Guilt as a much higher judge than her in such situations.

    If the Guilt did not affect me, than I was not responsible for the person¡¯s death¡­ with the possible exception of when I had killed in a dungeon, an event I still had not fully figured out.

    Bella was getting angry at that thought process though so I thought about something else. Specifically, about how I had just been thinking about going to try and help others for little to no personal gain. I appreciated the way Bella¡¯s influence had practically ripped open my thought processes to let me see more options, but I needed my more selfish and paranoid mindset right now and her oddly strong sense of righteousness could be dangerous.

    Angry Bella turned into annoyed Bella and I decided to prioritize my thoughts. Since we were still getting used to our current situation it could only help keep us moving. First, we had to survive and organize our escape from the city. Then I had to seriously consider what to do with the information I currently had.

    With the Pervert¡¯s notes on¡­ wait, what was his name? Pervert¡­ Perverted- Bella, did you burn his name out of my head when we were merging? I felt something like a shameless shrug from the other occupant of my head.

    While technically the youngest daughter from the newly elevated house of Corpus, I tried to avoid using the name Bella with others. Though it was technically our name, our identity was somewhat more complicated and even I would feel bad if our actions affected the rest of the House.

    Stella or even my ¡®real¡¯ name DeMorte were our more common aliases, but we could change our appearance fairly easily so I was less worried about that and more worried about people finding out that we were, more or less, two people in one body.

    On one hand, there was DeMorte, the murderous bandit who had somehow managed to create his own little kingdom while derailing the games of a group of traveling gods called the Nalks. He myself and I had been reincarnated in a new world at their whims to let them have a rematch after I ruined their last ¡®game.¡¯ The problem being that, seemingly just to screw with me, they dumped yours truly in the body of a little girl named Bella.

    For all practical purposes, I was that same DeMorte, the murdering, thieving graveborn, until this morning when Bella and I had, more or less, merged. Now¡­ well, I would still call myself DeMorte if asked, but that felt wrong.

    I had trouble thinking about why, but it was fairly reasonable to assume that it was related to my incomplete merge with Bella.

    Simply put, despite ¡®merging¡¯ our consciousness, we were still slightly separate from each other. This let us share our ideas without needing to think about it, but kept our minds from totally fusing. As it stood, keeping secrets appeared to be impossible so I was at least certain that she was not planning on betraying me and equally importantly, I had a feeling that there would be a specific benefit from being separated.

    Still, we would need more time to determine if the whole thing would work well in the long run. If it did not¡­ well I got the feeling that divorcing myself from Bella would be both painful and complex to say the least.

    Bella was also watching my actions and forming her own opinions, judging me and if she thought that I needed to be stopped, she would. I did not know exactly what she would, or could, do if she found my actions unforgivable, but it would likely kill us both and the fact that she was prepared for that, while I was not, was worrying.

    Point in fact, there were currently two very different memories of the same Pervert that jumped to mind when I thought of it.

    In one, he was a reasonable man who knew his fetishes and did not feel the need to hide them, instead allowing others to bargain knowing what he really wanted. That he was a blackmailer was a point that did matter as he was smart enough to know not to push things too far, again making him fairly reasonable and someone I could deal with.

    In the other, he was scum of the city, a hedonistic fool that enjoyed forcing others to submit to his will. He was also an insufferable, perverted, blackmailing, rapist who practically prided himself on his animalistic lusts that reduced other people to simple slabs of meat for his own pleasure. Scum of the human species.

    The difference between the two points of view made me dizzy for a moment. When in the ovals had she gotten that judgmental?

    A new memory assaulted my mind, this time of a cold, arrogant, voice calmly assessing and dismissing the worth of others around him. Especially those annoyingly self-righteous mercenaries called ¡®adventurers¡¯ who-

    I shook my head and quietly groaned. Those were going to take getting used to.

    In the meantime, I checked Bella¡¯s thoughts and confirmed that she at least understood why I always judged others. Bella did not like it, but people, as a rule, were dangerous unknowns and while most would not have a reason to harm me, such reasons were easy to create.

    That said, I had been far too arrogant lately. I always said that pride was like a fine cloak, one that you had to be able to cast away when it became inconvenient to your survival. For someone without any type of support, any allies to help them, I had been stupid enough to think that my previous life¡¯s experience would be enough to protect me.

    Working alone took away the danger of being betrayed, but that meant that I was that much more vulnerable¡­ In the end, I had a simple choice, chance being betrayed or chance that I could fight off large groups by myself. Given where trusting only myself had gotten me, it looked like I needed to find a few allies.

    Besides I was used to having those close to me try and kill me.

    Bella sent me the mental equivalent of a disappointed sigh and I ignored both her and a brief memory of dying at the hands of my own son.

    Regardless of the world or situation, the starting point for my plans never changed, survive and collect information.

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    I only allowed myself a slight sigh in response to Bella¡¯s newest demand before deciding not to waste any more time.

    Squatting, I touched both of the unconscious fools and used my ¡®mana roots¡¯ spell, as I briefly told Bella not to brag about her role in creating one of the most useful spells that I knew.

    The 2 fools on the ground looked like street toughs, or something along those lines, and had forfeited their lives when they attacked me, before I realized that they were not mages or guards and therefore not a threat. In fact, they were something far more useful to me and I decided to put the question of why they were here aside as I looked over my new rations.

    Since the Guilt would affect me anytime I actually killed or directly ordered the death of another I was just planning to take a limb and use it as mana roots to break them down. The spell worked disturbingly fast to break down and absorb essentials like fat in a raw form that the spell then helped me absorb directly through my skin. While I usually just did this through my hands I could also absorb things through my mouth, which was more efficient at the cost of being more disgusting. In the end just eating food was usually the best option, but mana roots was easily my most used spell.

    Although disgustingly close by societal standards, it was not cannibalism and made almost everything organic into a possible emergency food source. Although not as energy efficient as simply eating food normally the speed of mana root¡¯s absorption was fairly fast and could actually avoid the problem of spoiled or unpalatable food. In fact, I had been carefully killing and absorbing rats as I moved across the city to help maintain my body.

    I had been obligated to eat raw rat a few times in my previous life to survive and calling it was a stoning unpleasant experience was an understatement.

    As long as the animals were dead, or at least not a part of anything living, it was a quick process, but Bella had objected to the amputation. She had insisted that we not leave the fools crippled, despite their trespass against us. I disagreed with her reasoning that lacking any of their limbs would guarantee their death in the near future, but I realized that for the simple limitation of time, she was basically correct.

    If I cast a spell to clean or cauterize the wounds that my amputation would cause, any mage with a strong third eye would likely see it. While closing the wound with magic would take more energy than I would be able to absorb from them without endangering their lives.

    Since a mage¡¯s third eye, or mage sight as some called it, could see spells that were cast regardless of what direction they were looking, I had to use direct physical contact to hide the spell. Though able to even see through buildings, to a limited degree, the mages who were out looking for me would be unable to ¡®see¡¯ my magic as long as it did not pass through the open air.

    That said, all mages could also feel where magic had been manipulated, which meant that I was effectively leaving proof of where I had been. Though there was nothing to be done about that as I had knocked the fools out with a simple spell when they ambushed me, so the trail was already laid.

    I finished absorbing as much as I reasonably could from their bodies and hid my magic trail as best as I could, even using a memory interference spell to ensure that I had a decent chance of slipping away.

    Before I left though I paused long enough to give them both a small swell on the back of their heads and a raging headache that would wake them up soon. With any luck they would wake up, assume they had been ambushed and get moving to avoid the guards. Though they regrettably did not have anything worth stealing, which would take something away from the ¡®robbers who were robbed¡¯ narrative.

    Bella started to raise a question in the back of my head before she seemed to answer it herself. I focused on putting some distance between the fools and myself before I concentrated on what she was curious about.

    Her question and the answer were simple: how the stoning ovals did we use magic in a stationary manner for several minutes without attracting the attention of any of the roaming mages? The best answer either of us could come up with were that we were either lucky or the Nalk influence was at work.

    If it was the former, it did not matter, but the latter would mean that the Nalks had deliberately left us an opening. That was a mixed comfort as having a god looking after you was nice, but that also meant that one or more of the traveling gods had taken a direct interest in our current situation.

    Given that those same gods would be manipulating people and natural events to kill me within the next year or so, it was a somewhat chilling prologue of things to come. Not that the world-hopping Nalks were omniscient, I would never had gotten so far in my previous life if they could have seen me from the start, but I got the feeling they might be able to see anything they concentrated on.

    That I knew for a fact that they had at least basic mind reading powers only made everything more complicated.

    However, a better question was: did it matter right now?

    I moved quickly, changing direction and heading to the richest part of the city. Though there were more guards this way, I had to make it appear that I was running errands for nobles, or whoever would¡­ my robe would be an obstacle.

    I only had a small amount of thread, so I quickly gave up on the idea of sewing and burned a series of runes into the inside of my robes. Unfortunately, this immediately attracted the wrong type of attention and I felt magic flare nearby in response.

    I got back to running, though this time I had a series of runes helping me out along the way. Specifically, I burned a series of runes that would muffle sound, make my robe harder to pay attention to, and make me easier to ignore.

    Since runes were just passive, if complex, symbols that channeled ambient mana around me into their specific symbol¡¯s magic. If I burned a rune of strength into the robe, the robe would become stronger where that rune effected it, while a rune of silence muffled noise.

    It was a fair bit past noon by the time I managed to dodge all of the guards, mages, and dispel most of the burnt smell from my robes as I made my way, first to the noble quarter, and then to the Histone¡¯s library.

    At 4 floors tall and made of stone so well-worked that it was hard for even my eyes to spot where the stones came together, the place stood out to even non-mages.

    For mages, the subtle thumping of mana, as the building seemed to breathe it in and out was normally only a slight distraction. Now however, the wards around the library seemed to be fully active and the mana around it actively flowed in the building as if driven by a light, but sustained, wind.

    It would likely be an interesting effect to watch, if someone could actually see it, but even mages could not see mana itself as it was naturally invisible. We could feel it in the air and if someone or something touched that mana, if they manipulated it, we could see their touch as various colors with our third eye, but that was all. Runic magic was also invisible.

    For example, I had to refrain from using too much magic to change my appearance as it would leave a residue or sorts that would naturally need to fade over time. There were a few ways to hide or speed up the process, but not enough to make a reasonable difference as those processes usually involved using more magic, which naturally left its own imprint.

    Even illusion magic fell into this trap, though it left very few traces of being used. That said, when noticed it was also easily broken, so I did not want to chance it.

    To counter these disadvantages, I used a spell to change my physical appearance while traveling through the city. My hair, already cut fairly short, was now practically shaved and I went ahead and physically morphed my face, skin tone, and muscle build instead.

    I did not use illusion magic, I manipulated my body in a way that only specialist mages with decades of knowledge could do. Naturally I had some limited experience from my previous life, but everyone was looking for a resourceful little girl, maybe 15 years old, who would never have such abilities.

    Of course if they decided to stop me as ask for identification anyway¡­ well that was what the runes were for. That and the slightly hurried manner in which I trotted out from the noble quarter and towards the library.

    Cannibalizing myself or others just to survive the few more days in the back streets before slipping out of the city did not appeal to either Bella or myself.

    Despite the powerful wards of the library itself, which made it harder to feel individual mages, I found 2 mages nearby. They were either protecting or watching the Histone library, depending on who you asked.

    It was amazing how dangerous a group who impartially recorded history and shared basic knowledge freely could be. According to their own records, the Histones had caused the downfall of a kingdom no less than 4 times by the actions they took in defense of their allegedly impartial way of life.

    Currently, each official Histone library was treated like a religious temple. It was in effect, a sanctuary that only the truly greed or stupid would violate. As well as the first building to be surrounded when a criminal was on the run.

    If the Histones declared sanctuary, only the king or one of his direct governors could contest it, legally speaking. Though it seemed unlikely that the guards around the library would appreciate that unless the wards were used. A well warded building like the library could hold off a dozen mages for days.

    Naturally there was no reasonable way to sneak up into the building, but my body was not normal and I could stretch the definition of reasonable fairly far in a normal situation. If I was right about the Nalks watching over me than this would be easy¡­

    And surprisingly, I did not bring down any curses or bad luck on myself with my auspicious thought. I literally just ignored the guards and trotted up to the door to the library before knocking on it.

    While we were waiting though Bella and I agreed to never get in this type of situation again. Stones, even I was not usualy this baise about walking into a heavily guarded area ¨C ESPECIALLY when the guards were looking for me!

    Stones, maybe I was being manipulated by the Nalks too? No, better to push such thoughts off until later.

    A young man, an aide of some sort answered the door and quickly took listened to my mentally rehearsed message. His response caught me off guard though, after I mentioned that my statement would involve Soul Mages he instantly seemed to lose interest. ¡°One moment please, Newsman Asat, there is someone here to make a declaration. He says that is involves-¡±

    The sound was suddenly cut off and I realized that a ward was likely interfering.

    Asat though? What were the odd that it was the same one who visited Bella village north of Entrials all those years ago?

    Wait, given how today has been going- yup, it was him. The same Asat that I met all those years ago in another kingdom was here in front of me. Nalk Ex Spatico at work, I was sure now.

    The Histone Newsman was tall, but paler than I remembered, not from the news I was here to deliver though, he just looked like he had not gotten enough sun recently. His robes were much more formal than mine, but were still plain with no obvious runes that I could see. ¡°Please come in.¡± His smile was polite and much more restrained than it had been back when we first met.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    He guided me inside the absurd existence that was a public library. Four floors of books above us and likely one or two hidden below, with the beds, I assumed. There was also a pair of spiral staircases to travel between floors and a room set off to the side, which he immediately guided me to.

    ¡°No one will bother us in here, but I would like to dispense with pleasantries if you do not mind?¡± Asat talked fairly quickly, but did pause to let me answer.

    ¡°If I did, would it make a difference?¡± I refrained from using magic as I sat down in a nice looking chair. Fighting inside someone else¡¯s wards was usually the height of stupidity, unless you knew how to fool them.

    ¡°Yes, I would offer you something to drink and then listen to your story before shuffling you out without saying any more than I needed to. Which will likely make it look like I am not taking you seriously.¡± He gave me a look that clearly indicated this would indeed be the case.

    I blinked. That seemed a bit¡­ short. ¡°By all means then, please forget the pleasantries if it means we can speak in earnest.¡±

    ¡°Good and just so you know it is quite out of fashion to try and receive sanctuary from us. We have been very good at keeping our neutrality in this part of the world for many years now. If you are wanted for a crime you would be better off seeking at a church as the only thing we help you with is getting a fair trial.¡±

    I did not outwardly react, but my mind started racing. Was he just covering all possibilities or did he somehow recognize me? I felt a tried voice telling me not to mind it and Bella immediately start keeping her metaphysically pointed ears on alert.

    ¡°That is a bit of a pain to explain.¡± I took a deep breath to organize my thought and Asat waited patiently. ¡°I would like my following statement to be recorded in its entirety and made available five days from now.¡±

    Asat kept a blank look on his face as he nodded. ¡°Is it about the soul mages chasing you?¡±

    I felt an involuntary twitch and let my voice come out as cold as ice. ¡°Soul Magic is not something you joke about Newsman.¡± I leaned forward, ¡°I would like to make my statement now.¡±

    Asat pulled out a scroll and a type of magic pen I knew would not run out of ink anytime soon.

    The Histones... They were occasionally called history cultists by others because of their dedication that venerated the preservation of history. I could understand it to a certain extent, since I could literally see it from Bella''s perspective, but even she found them odd.

    Over 3000 years ago humanity had been Enslaved by powerful magic creatures called the Elves until they discover the dreadful power of the Soul Mages. The undead armies and willingly sacrificed human masses had driven the Elves back and won the freedom of the species. Although there were said to be part-Elven decedents, it was, as far as I could tell, only a stigma against the humans with pointed ears. In the centuries following Soul Mages showed the cost of their power as they went insane and tried to enslave humanity again, causing a age of division and striff, which lead to the creation of the Histones.

    After that, the Histones basically spent the next 2 millennium getting people to let them stay neutral while they tried to make sure some record of the past survived in records. I had a working relation with both some of the Histones here and the ones in Zootrofi, the Kingdom where Bella was born, though I did not see the boy I delt with a few days ago. That said, I still trusted them more than almost anyone in the city... with only the possible exception of the few girls who I had played around with while infiltrating the Sisterhood of Hoh.

    Young love was stupid and I would have considered going back to hide with some of them in the Sisterhood''s temple if not for the mistaken rumor that I had killed the ''Pervert'' after he pushed me for sexual favors... Well, the rumors said more than push, but that was something the Histones could help with too.

    After all, what good was recording history if you did not teach it to anyone? They hated rumor mongers who tried to use them, but for what I saw? As both a confession who I was and a chance to record my account of events? No, given who they were I was fairly safe.

    The chances that they would violate their version of neutrality? That they would betray me and capture me to hand me over to the ... well yesterday''s DeMorte would have lived off rats in the streets for a few more days. Today, I was taking a risk, but it was a fairly small one... Plus, if they did the surprising thing and captured me with their wards... I would wait for the right time and kill everyone who got in my way.

    I felt Bella shudder at that, but she did not object, she wanted to live too. So we tried telling our story and trusting the Histones to be who we thought they were.

    A half-an-hour later and Asat attitude had completely changed. He believed me and though I had left out several key details, it was now on record that the Sisterhood of Hoh who resided in the city scarified their dying members to power their all too powerful wards.

    Part of me had wanted to lead an army in that place and drive an iron spike into the ward anchor the moment I discovered that they were practicing Soul magic. Their practice was vile and I hated it all the more for the light dabbling I did while I was younger and because of the Guilt itself, my eternal curse, was a form of it. In the end though, both Bella and I came to the decision that this would be more effective and efficient, especially given my current reputation.

    One question of Asat''s in particular caught me off guard. ¡°What does Drasiedi have to do with this?¡±

    I did not have to fake a confused face, ¡°What does he have to do with anything? I saw the guy in a tournament and checked his wounds afterwards. They brought him in to see me at one point when I was in the tower.¡±

    ¡°He is also going to be executed as your accomplice the day after tomorrow

    ¡°That is a shame, I do not suppose you know any way to help him out? Besides turning myself in or something along those lines?¡±

    Asat hesitated, ¡°Would you mind if I disclosed part of your statement in advance?¡±

    I thought about it for a moment, ¡°Only on a person by person basis, some nobles can keep secrets, but they will have to believe it first. What they do when the statement become publicly assessable, I honestly do not care.¡±

    ¡°Very well, in that case we just need your magic signature, it will be confidential, but we will need it for our records.¡±

    ¡°Asat, there was something I meant to pick up while I am here. I believe you are holding it behind the front counter.¡± The histone looked confused for a moment, before I added ¡°It is a large greyish cube, which, if you use magic on it, will reveal a pair or iron daggers and a small iron ball in the center.¡±

    ¡°I was wondering why we had that. Here,¡± he passed me a separate piece of paper and his magic pen before leaving the room. I took the opportunity to study the pen and how it worked as I wrote out a request in common tongue. He lugged the cube back in a minute later, clearly annoyed, but not overly challenged by its weight.

    After he put the cube down on the table next to me, Asat raised an eyebrow at the paper when he saw what I had written on the paper. ¡°That was meant to be for your signature. Now why do you want to know of some noble with a serious injury in the city with arguably the most advanced healing magic in the western continent?¡±

    I smiled politely, ¡°I want to know of a minor family who does not want themselves indebted to the Sisterhood for their ritual spells. Trust me Asat, they hardly seemed to know a tenth of what I do about the human body.¡± Stones I almost knew more about than them even before I died, though most of that knowledge was related to how to kill others.

    ¡°You think the talents you have made you that special? That no one who came before you could know what you do?¡±

    I gave Asat a flat stare. ¡°No, I am sure that there are others with an idea of what I know. People who have spent decades or even continued the work of previous generations. They could even have found out how to change things to a far greater degree than my own talents allow me.¡± I spoke the last part more for my own benefit than his. The idea of ¡®super men¡¯ was as old as time itself and I had little doubt that I would have to deal with them in the future. ¡°The law of iron weighs all equally.¡±

    ¡°Pardon? What was that?¡±

    I blinked and Bella gave her equivalent of a slap on the back of the head. I had spoken my last comment in my old world¡¯s language. I waved Asat question away without worry, if anything it would just make me harder to identify. ¡°It is nothing important, an old saying that does not translate without a story that I do not have time for.¡±

    ¡°Could you at least tell me the language? I am unfamiliar¡­¡± There was a slightly hungry look as Asat commented on that, it seemed appropriate given his profession.

    I shook my head, I had relaxed too much since I started talking. The greatest danger was from something you were unprepared for and relaxing had a habit of undoing preparations. Bella quickly countered with the fact that we actually did need the moment of rest, but I ignored her. We could rest when we were out of the city. ¡°The point is that I have a talent that I wish to use and the Histones make a habit of making lists of all sorts of different people.¡±

    The histone tilted his head and studied me for a long moment. ¡°I cannot say we keep track of that particular list, but many some here for such reasons, so I can at least tell you who recently arrived, which should help a great deal.¡±

    A young man came up behind Asat and knocked on a metal bookshelf, before entering to stand beside him quietly. Asat gave him a quick glance before looking back at me. ¡°Was there anything else beyond the signing?¡±

    ¡°Will the wards react to unknown magic?¡± I asked, patting the bone cube.

    Asat did not physically, but I felt a pulse of magic come from him. I raised an eyebrow at that, I did not think he was a mage, which meant that he had been talking to be with a Ward Key in his pocket the whole time. I was supposed to be his guest, but he had been prepared to restrain me at a wrong word, ¡°You have a moment.¡± He said simply.

    I smiled and nodded respectfully at him before I let my magic flow into the cube. Wards had varying degrees of sensitivity, so it was better to be polite and safe than sorry.

    Bella also took the opportunity to object to me respecting the man more for his precautions than his knowledge, but I could feel her acceptance that it was the same thing either of us would have done.

    The cube liquefied and I stood up slowly as it flowed underneath my robe, reforming at even the most basic level as I used my mana to freely manipulate it. Of course the iron daggers I had hidden inside the cube interfered with my mana so I let the daggers and the pouch full of iron fillings fall out the bottom of the liquid bone.

    It had taken years to develop the armor and in some ways it was still not finished. Bone was not as simple as most thought it was and I had to modify it to make the current effective and easily reparable armor that I was reforming. Though it would not stop magic, the stuff actually conducted spells fairly well, if I wore some iron over it, I would be well protected from both blade and direct magic.

    Bella and I got sidetracked for a moment as we pondered if we could somehow finish that old plan of infusing the bone armor with iron.

    ¡°Interesting. Though if I did not know better I would say that you just wrapped yourself in a liquid version of human bone.¡± Asat the asshat ruined my musings as I finished recreating my bone armor.

    I glared at him. ¡°That comment will be off the written record I trust?¡± You had to use specific language with the history cult.

    I got an unabashed smile in response. ¡°All of our personal musings and observations are sealed for 50 years after our deaths, unless otherwise specified.¡±

    I kept glaring at him for a moment longer before I gave in, it might interfere with my movements a few years from now, but if someone ¨C if anyone ¨C could figure out that my armor from that tidbit, than it would more likely be because of Nalk than Histone influence.

    If they figured out that it was the first step towards the ¡®biopuppet¡¯ design in my head, than I was just going to give up and go find a small, out of the way, island to relax on for the next few decades.

    Asat finally turned to address the young man, while I quietly hid away my daggers and morphed a small amount of bone armor to hold the pouch, with its important mithril coin hidden inside. The young man, who I noticed was the same one who answered the door earlier, was reporting that there were many figures moving about on the streets ¨C many people who were definitely not guards.

    That got my attention, massacres were great distractions after all- owowow- Bella!? That hurts! Ow! Enough already! Do not go and get so stoning angry over things I think or you will never be calm again. Besides if you are attacking me, who is watching for possible Nalk influence? We need to use this opportunity to try and learn to recognize it if we can.

    Bella gave some mental grumbles, but kept on the lookout.

    I opened and closed my jaw a few times as I tried to pop my ears, I had no idea what exactly she did just now, but it built up the pressure in my head, fast.

    Asat, having seemingly forgotten about me, started following the young man, while not motioning me to do the same. Of course, since he had not told me to stay behind either, I followed.

    We quickly went up the stairs and made our way to the third floor, which had a few Histones scribbling away furiously on papers, with one eye covered by some type of lens. I heard Asat say something about all of them being taken as he went over to a window, which promptly came to life and focused on

    Unlike most others, it appeared that the histones had no shortage of magical devices, although why could only be guessed at. It may have been some noble tradition to try and bribe them quietly in the hopes of looking better in the future, but that was just speculation.

    What was not speculation was the enlarged image of guards arguing with an expanding crowd in the streets. Apparently people were getting tired of staying cooped up.

    More Nalk interference or natural human interaction? I asked Bella, who mentally shrugged. If I had to guess I would say the former, but the truth was that trying to spot the effects the Nalks had on the world was likely pointless. Even if I knew what to look for it would not change my reactions, just make me more wary of everything around me. Though that could help at times, it almost made me look even more paranoid when I saw through Bella¡¯s eyes.

    I waited a moment as they commented on how the crowd had been growing quickly for the last few minutes. ¡°So, where do you think this is going?¡± I asked, reminding Asat and the other of my presence.

    Asat looked back at me for a moment, ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    I blinked, seriously? The peasants were ignoring orders, most nobles only had 2 reactions to that: ignore it or destroy it and it did not look like this problem was about to go away. Still, I decided to answer his question with a response that seemed less eager for blood and more curious. ¡°Do you think this is going to lead to violence?¡±

    Nobles had this odd view that any disobedience was rebelling against their rule. Rebelling non-nobles, especially the peasant masses in this world, where their seemed to be a large surplus, needed to be put down as soon as possible. Even if you thought that your house was on fire and were going to be burned alive, that was no excuse to break the rules of a lock-down for something as trivial as one¡¯s life.

    Nobles were raised separately, told they were special, and almost always had a large amount of magic to show them how different, how superior, they were. It varied from kingdom to kingdom even in my old world, but it seemed to be even worse here as the stoning burnout epidemic took out so many of the normally lowest ranked mages.

    Oh, there were a few nobles that I met over the decades who knew what they were doing and how to compromise to prevent bloodshed. However, the majority saw any disobedience as a challenge, or potential revolt. Apparently the nobles in this city, or the ones in charge of the guard at least, leaned more to the former, but it did leave me wondering how far they would let themselves be pushed.

    Or I did until Asat rejected the idea. ¡°Some places might be over eager to shed such blood, but the king appointed the commander of the guard himself and that same man is publicly committed to sparing as many lives as possible.¡±

    ¡°Publicly?¡±

    ¡°There were a few problems with the previous, because the guard were basically escorting and extorting the citizenry for anything they could. They were stopped fairly quickly, but only after some young man was attacked by the guard.¡± I raised an eyebrow, that did not really explain it. ¡°He was a tax collector.¡± Ah. ¡°Then the guard were obligated to collect the taxes instead and there was quite the resistance.¡±

    I frowned. There must have been more to it than that, but I was more interested in getting out of the city than learning its history. What mattered most was that these guards seemed to have their hands full for the moment.

    ¡°That might be my cue to leave then.¡± I announced, taking note of how both the crowd and the guard were growing. ¡°If you would be so kind as to get me that House name I asked for that is.¡±

    ¡°Corus, get me the list of current noble Houses in the city.¡± The aide scampered off before Asat made a surprising offer, ¡°If you happened to stay until evening we would put you up for the night.¡± Asat offered. I was about to ask the catch when he revealed it himself, ¡°Of course we would need to spend that time talking about things that I can formally enter for our records¡­¡±

    I smiled and politely declined as we turned and walked back to the stairs.

    ¡°Not leaving in the night?¡± He asked quietly.

    ¡°That would look suspicious.¡± I pointed out.

    That got a small smile. ¡°Any last questions before you try and explain yourself to the guards?¡± He asked curiously.

    I thought about it as we walked down the stairs, but I had so many other things to deal with at the moment the only question that jumped out at me was something random that Bella and I talked about a long time ago. ¡°What do you know about avotatoes?¡±

    He blinked at that. ¡°They are a crop, are you looking for anything specific?¡± I gave him a polite smile and a silently prodding look. ¡°They are the staple crop of the majority of the people in the central and eastern continents. They taste fairly good, although the number of different ways to cook them is depressingly limited.¡± Both Bella and I nodded agreement at that, while Asat paused to think, ¡°beyond that they are rather unremarkable.¡±

    I kept my face blank at that as the aide from earlier brought Asat a small book before moving in front of us to the doorway. ¡°How about when we started farming them?¡±

    Asat stopped and furrowed his brow, keeping silent for a few moment before he started walking again, speaking slowly. ¡°Avotatoes have been farmed in one way or another since the oldest records, it is like asking when the cat or dog was domesticated.¡±

    I had hoped that the Histones had something to back up my theory that they were an artificial crop, but it looked like that was not the case. If anyone created the super crop it would likely have been the elves, thought if that was indeed the case, it would be impossible to confirm.

    ¡°You are clearly not a cat person.¡± I said stiffly as we arrived at the front door, ¡°or you would know that the word ¡®domesticated¡¯ need not apply.¡± The aide in front of us snorted as he started to open the door.

    ¡°Recorder Corus, since you understand our guest so well, you may take him to the Los manor.¡± Asat responded simply, cueing the same aide to start tripping over his own tongue for excuses as he opened the doors. ¡°By the way,¡± a privacy ward sprung up around us, ensuring that no one outside would be able hear us, ¡°I meant what I said before, whatever story you tell the guards is fine by me, but we will not lie for you. Regardless of what happens, we will remain neutral unless forced to be otherwise.¡± His face was deadly serious.

    So we just had to bluff our way past guards looking specifically for us, then convince a noble family to trust that we were medically competent, and then see if we could not save Dras while we were at it. Guess it is just that time of year, I joked to Bella, who was much less amused.

    ¡°Death is not the end Histone, just another headache to be put off as long as possible. Everything else, I will deal with as it comes.¡±

    Asat gave me a genuine smile, ¡°Good luck, Bella.¡±

    I blinked and gave him a questioning look. ¡°Did you just call me Bella? If you have forgotten, you might want to consult your notes Newsman, I could have sworn I told you my name before.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I must be confusing you with someone else, my pardon,¡± Asat actually bowed.

    ¡°Bella is a girl¡¯s name Ass-at, now I believe we have some explaining to do for the local guard?¡± Bella stopped doing mental somersaults and calmed down just enough to object to me calling him an asshat. In the meantime I mentally marked Asat as a possible Nalk player. I seriously needed to start gathering some allies, but first, I had guards to deal with.

    I started walking away, passing through the ward just as Asat began to call after me, ¡°What did you,-¡± but I was already walking out of the library. Misdirection and theatrics were my best friends at times and I had a tale to spin¡­

    Fun day ahead.

    * * *

    Manor on the outskirts of the Tower Desert of the central continent:

    Salos, cursed to himself and threw bad his fourth (or did those three he had earlier count too?) drink of the evening.

    It was a bad idea to mix alcohol and magic, but he did not care, he was officially one of the greatest genius in his noble House¡¯s long history and even he had no idea how to make this accursed spell practical!

    What was worse, was the way it seemed to be dancing just outside his vision, like there was something keeping him from that grand, final instruction, which would make everything work.

    ¡°Whiro take you with a spade and bury you uncle.¡± He mumbled. Years. It had been 3 years since he had been given access to his thrice cursed, twice removed, singularly ¨C eternally ¨C damnable uncle¡¯s notes. THREE years of being locked up in this accursed manor, sealed away from everything that mattered.

    Oh sure, if he wanted whores, food, art, everything was provided for him and would continue to be after he finished the spell, but it was utterly infuriating. He made progress, but it was like he was a blind baby trying to crawl its way out of Elven woods!

    In fact it was even more dangerous than that, as the spell he was working on could not only backfire and kill him like it did his uncle, but it was also so important to keep secret that the servants were all under magical contract enforcement!

    Salos looked over at one of said servants, waiting obediently to pour his drink. The disgusting creature was a slave in every way that mattered. The thing, he refused to call it a human, still bore the scratches on its face from where Salos had gone into a fit of rage and broken a wine jug over its head to get some sort of reaction. The thing just asked if he would prefer it to clean up the mess or get another jug first.

    He was alone, sealed away in a place so secretive that the slaves would kill the whores and burned the bodies within moments of Salos finishing.

    Naturally the final spell would be worth it, assuming his family even let HIM live after he completed it.

    ¡°I am done for the evening.¡± The slave bowed and spoke it is gratingly monotone voice.

    ¡°Will you be needing anything else this evening Master?¡±

    Salos opened his mouth to ask for a human with a soul, but they might bring him another whore and kill her after he told them no.

    Instead he ignored the slave and went back to his room, the plush design and beautifully worked marble architecture doing nothing to make him feel better about the gilded prison the manor had turned into, the moment the promise of the spell design wore off.

    His trip was a blur, partly because of the alcohol, but mostly because of how sick and tired he was of the place.

    His room, just as disgustingly plush and clean as the rest of the house was, had a half dozen scantly dress slaves in front of it, who all kneeled simultaneously at his approach. ¡°If there is anything you need master than-¡±

    ¡°SILENCE! I want silence you Whiro cursed slaves!¡± Salos screamed pointlessly at them, his patience having long since have run out for the evening. He stormed into his room and slammed the doors to the no doubt silently mouthed ¡®yes Master¡¯ from the slaves.

    He knew screaming made no difference, the magic used on the slaves had rendered them little more than intelligent meat, but he did not care. Sleep would refresh him to that realization and let him go back to making the small improvements towards finishing the spell.

    ¡­That spell. It would be a year at the most, he was sure, before it was complete. Even if every single change he made was a failure, he would finish the spell in a year.

    The applications, once he finally finished the compression dimensions and made the space clearly definable in the ether, would be nearly endless.

    Pocket dimensions would change everything and the Histones would record him as their creator¡­ provided he retained his sanity for another year that was.

    ¡°You have some security here Sal, it was a royal pain to get in.¡±

    Salos turned around to find his old friend. ¡°Jere.¡± He smiled for the first genuine time in a long while. ¡°You have no idea how- who is she? Actually, that does not matter, I am just glad I have someone to talk to. This place seems designed to drive men mad.¡±

    ¡°I guessed that from the screaming.¡± The solidly built, but not especially tall man was sitting in the corner, practically merged into the shadows, but another, female shaped, figure was just visible in the shadows next to him. ¡°How can you say something like that Sal?¡± His old mocking cadence brought back good memories. ¡°This is my fianc¨¦, the light of my life, and the most wonderful woman on the planet.¡±

    ¡°Keep going, you are still working off the stares you were giving those sluts outside.¡± A slightly chilly, but not outright cold, voice wafted from the female shape, still wrapped in darkness.

    ¡°Aww come on now dear, no need for that!¡± He pulled the shadow into his lap and to Salos¡¯ surprise, the shadow clung to her, making her impossible to accurately describe as Jere proceed to tickle her.

    ¡°A master assassin is tickling his fianc¨¦, who happens to be made of shadows, in my bedroom¡­ Maybe I went mad a while back after all and just did not notice.¡± Salos shook his head and went to pour himself another drink when he noticed the bottle of purple liquid next to his bed. ¡°You got it for me.¡±

    ¡°Yup,¡± Jere was behind him, ¡°it was almost as hard as getting in here was. Almost. Thankfully one of the new Conbran Cardinals likes them old, so it was not too difficult to barrow her essence to steal the final ingredient. Ah! Though I should mention that your younger servants were a bit tougher and so we did make a little bit of a mess when we tested exiting the manor earlier.¡±

    ¡°They were dead the moment they accepted the magical obedience contracts.¡± Solis dismissed. ¡°This will be my backup. When I finally finish that accursed spell-¡± He shut up before speaking of something he should not. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°What are friends for? Just remember that you can only use the thing once, after that it will kill you.¡±

    ¡°I will¡­ by the way, when did you two get together?¡±

    ¡°How do you not know that!? It was back before you went and secluded yourself-¡±

    As the two old friend started arguing, they completely ignored the other two being in the room. Neither particularly minded though, as one was letting her future husband enjoy his play time and the other was a being of pure energy that neither the humans nor the manor¡¯s extensive security systems could detect.

    From above Leonardo, the Nalk in charge of managing the current Game, silently nodded to himself and looked over to DeMorte¡¯s area to make sure those two young fools were helping him. They had gotten him arrested so they could deal his annoying manner of risk taking to get him out.

    Two personalities mixing, melding, and playing the game in one body¡­ DeMorte and Bella were actually becoming a decent wild-card in the Game, something to throw off players they came into contact with, while not likely to win the Game itself.

    Since the two brash Nalks were not just doing, but slightly overdoing their new task to protect DeMorte in the city, Leo turned his attention to the forgotten continent.

    Like the pocket dimension spell, it had to be properly managed so that it would not be fully ready until the proper time.

    Afterwards, those particular bombs would cause enough trouble to make the Game more interesting without breaking it entirely, meaning that it would be nearly perfect.

    The west would burn, the east would devour itself, the south would be marched over by countless different forces, and the central continent would practically implode as it tried to control and use the madness for its own gain.

    It all started in less than a year now, he could hardly wait.

 Chapter 42: Bronze, not Silver

    Chapter 42: Bronze, not Silver

    Having a conversation in your head is odd, but it just feels like talking with someone else, just with more emotional bleed through instead of body language to read. There were a few, fairly limited, telepathy spells that mean many have experienced this without having another personality in their head. As a result, I have gotten fairly used to conversing with Bella as if she were another person, when she was not too angry that was.

    That said, talking with Bella was no longer like that. Where the previous Nalk barriers had kept us separated and let us converse and plan as mostly independent intelligences, we were now different from anything I knew of. Even with the advanced medical knowledge that the Nalks had gifted me I had no way to know how Bella and I were maintaining our half-merged state.

    It was not a bad thing, but there was a very noticeable difference from before, chiefly in how we did not need to ¡®vocalize¡¯ our inner thoughts to each other.

    Bella knew what I was about to do and at first thought it was foolish, but then realized exactly what led me to my current plan and grudgingly accepted it. I knew this without her having said anything to me, just like I knew the exact line of thought she took to reach her conclusions of both my being foolish and the acknowledgement of my experience.

    This whole potential argument and its explanation would have taken around 30 seconds before our ¡®merge¡¯ and a couple of minutes at the minimum if we could not share our thoughts. In our current state though, the argument happened before my eyes finished adjusting to the slight difference in light between the inside of the library and the outside.

    We also both realized that we had totally ignored the magic lights that had lit up the inside of the library and gave each other a light mental slap for failing to see them. The things would have been fun to study, given how few we had seen thus far, to see if they operated any differently here in comparison to my previous world.

    Not that we did not have other things to occupy our mind right now.

    I surveyed the guards outside the Histone library as they reacted to our exit with revealing confusion. ¡°Given what you just said Asat, are you going to answer in yes or no fashion or just explicitly state the bland truth if asked?¡± I did not bother glancing back at the man to confirm he was listening, I could both feel and see his privacy ward, a reddish purple bubble connected to the library¡¯s wards, move with him and engulf me as I stopped at the door to the library.

    ¡°I usually prefer the latter or keeping my mouth shut, but in this case, I will go with the former, if it comes up, so good luck.¡± Asat¡¯s voice seemed slightly different from before, with a slight quiver in the way he spoke. Perhaps he expected something amazing to happen, but I somehow doubted it. Anyone who wrote down actual events like the Histones were supposed to would know that it long, boring, and people just dealing with the events that interacted with their lives.

    Not looking back at the Histone, I grunted understanding as he actually dismissed the ward this time, I saw it unravel and dissipate, seeming to dissolve into the air from my third eye¡¯s point of view, though I could feel it return to the library¡¯s wards.

    I reached up and casually rubbed my face, as if splashing it with water. The motion hid some light magical work that I did on my bone structure, just enough to add some years to my age. Making myself taller would be dangerous at this point so I settled for simply looking like a young man who had just accepted that he would never be tall.

    I also quietly thanks Asat as he stilled the wards when they started reacting to my magic.

    One of the many, many, advantages that a properly anchored ward provided, was the ability to match practically any mage in a one on one fight if you were alert and aware when it started. That was the whole reason that I had been caught and arrested in the first place, the wards that caught me off guard made resisting impossible.

    Most wards were also far more efficient with magic. A normal mage lost whatever mana he used to instruct the natural mana around him. If too many spells were used in his vicinity, than he would be powering the whole spell himself and that was went the real dangers of magic came in, powering it completely by yourself burned through you fast.

    While waiting for the guards to sort themselves out, I took note that each carrying an iron pike, with a short sword at their waist, and wearing iron chainmail covering their chests. Given how expensive iron was in this area, I had been surprised that this seemed to be the standard equipment for the city guard. Individuals should not have been able to easily afford it, which suggested that it might have been issued or sold to them whenever they joined.

    I asked Bella if she saw anything worth paying attention to, without really expecting anything, but to my surprise, she pointed out a thin layer of magic that seemed to cover the guard¡¯s clothing. I started asking her if they were wards, but realized that I could just follow her logic instead.

    Surprisingly the guard¡¯s clothes had a slightly similar magical aura to my own, though mine was far more suppressed. That suggested runes, but when I actually started examining the auras, I noticed that there were a pair of guards standing off to the side who had a different feeling to them.

    The magic auras that Bella noticed around the average guards could be explained by runes, which would be why they felt similar to the aura surrounding me. I had suppressed my own mana ruthlessly and runes sucked in the natural mana around them to function. The runes were invisible, but their effects on mana were not¡­ though they were still hard to see under the best of circumstances.

    My third eye could see farther than you could shoot a bow, but sensing mana was different and feeling something like runes. My own concealment and distraction runes hid the runes I burned into my robe, making the resulting aura nearly invisible, but the guards did not have the same preparations. Why they bothered putting runes in their clothing at all was a bit of a mystery, but it was one that I did not have time to solve at the moment.

    Several guards finally finished forming up and trotted up to the library¡¯s slightly raised base. I had yet to finish eyeing the two oddball guards who hung back, but I decided to assume that they were supposed to be hidden mages there to back up the guard.

    Ignoring the urge to stare at them in favor of the disappointing show before me was hard, but Bella helped by focusing on our magical senses, looking out for any other surprises. The guards had spread out just enough to form a semblance of a semi-circle around the Histones and myself. Though, if the effect was to intimidate, it was slightly ruined by the extra height that the few steps leading up to the library¡¯s entrance gave us.

    A mage, whose large body and badly leaking mana identified him as an official, sauntered his way over and stood just below us in the center of the little circle of men. He wore one of the city¡¯s sashes identifying some rank that I could not place at the moment, while he wore no obvious iron, instead having gold decorations all over his person, including his sword. They might have held minor wards and enchantments, but nothing major.

    All in all, he had magic, carried an unimpressive sword, looked in his late twenties, carried himself well enough, had not earned total distain from his men, and looked to be at a practical weight for a magic user. Thus I came to the conclusion that he was likely someone of at least middling talent and decided that his voice was the only thing I found impressive, as the man was a natural baritone. ¡°I am Commander Memo, what do you need Histones? The city is still locked down so that we can find the escaped prisoner.¡±

    Asat spoke calmly, the previous waver in his tone gone, ¡°Good day Commander. I would like to send my recorder here to House Los to get some information from them. Given their recent arrival and the fact that many others are now coming out onto the streets, it seemed an appropriate time.¡±

    ¡°You have permission to send out one recorder, per agreement Histone, but I do not see anything to write with in this one¡¯s possession.¡± He glanced at me, ¡°nor, now that I look closer, does he look like one of you at all. Who is he?¡± The so-called commander rested his hand on a decorative pommel.

    I had to resist the urge to sigh, I was having trouble deciding how competent this one was, he was not as polite as he could be, but did not seem interested in simply throwing around his authority. Of course, he might just have been taught to respect the Histones and never really saw a reason why, which was a fairly common theme, so that was up in the air.

    ¡°Ah, well I will let my friend here introduce himself.¡± I saw Asat smile out of the corner of my eye and silently thanked him. Introducing me as a friend was not exactly neutral, but it was likely as close as the man would get to taking my side. After all, my being his personal ¡®friend¡¯ had nothing to do with the Histones as a whole.

    Taking that as my cue, I stepped down to the last step to make the height difference less obvious. Thankfully, this put us at eye level and I started by simply asking a question, ¡°I am Morte, I have been staying with my friends here while you have the city locked down, but that was always just going to be until I could reasonably leave.¡± I smiled politely. ¡°When we saw the other people start emptying out into the streets, I figured that it was about time.¡±

    The officer regarded me coolly, but not with outright hostility, before looking over at Asat. ¡°I do not recall you saying that you had visitors when the city was locked down.¡± When Asat said nothing he turned his attentions back to me. ¡°What was your purpose here? Be advised, since we are looking for a criminal mage, you will be obligated to provide proof to your identity or submit to a magic test. If you have magic and no way to verify your identity then you will be obligated to call for someone else who can. In that case you will be detained.¡±

    I wanted to clap, this man could have the word ¡®bureaucrat¡¯ carved into his skull and it would not surprise me in the slightest. It might well have been the most boring delivery of a threat I had heard from anyone under the age of 80.

    ¡°I am a mage.¡± I admitted, which got his attention, but it did not seem to be impressed, just more alert. ¡°I just came here to ply my trade.¡± That got a couple odd looks that moved from me to Asat and back, prompting an elaboration, ¡°Have any of you heard of the instant portrait?¡±

    Interestingly, most of the guards seemed confused by that while the Commander and one guard standing behind him seemed to know what it was. Oddly that particular guard¡¯s face went particularly stiff and a blush started creeping into his cheeks. Something both Bella and I found odd.

    The commander¡¯s face in comparison grew more focused. ¡°That would explain the accent, but what are you trying to sell those gimmicks for? I thought that they were large, unwieldy, expensive, and inaccurate.¡± He gave me a look that said none of which applied to me and the tiny amount of mana I had did not change that.

    I had lived my previous life with such little mana that I was used to such looks, though the fact that he assumed my mana amount from my plain robe and lack of leaking mana annoyed me. It would be a plain robe to him too, as if he had seen through the runes that I had burned into the inside of the robe, than I doubted that he would have kept from reacting by now.

    ¡°I know the inventor and helped him with marketing the invention to the Histones in Zootriofi, I wanted to check if it had spread out here yet, but unfortunately he intends on keeping the manor of creations as secret as possible, thus the large cases.¡± I grimaced, ¡°honestly the spell itself is all you need, but he thinks that there is more money to be made with the magical devices than what they make portraits of. Thus he needs to secure it in a stoning trap box.

    ¡°Though I want to state unequivocally that they can be quite accurate, even at distance, if one has the proper spells or magical devices.¡± I turned back to Asat briefly, ¡°which is partly why I had to stay here, as someone decided to play a game of interrogation.¡± I turned back to the Commander and grimaced, ¡°at least I do not smell like I have not left in days.¡±

    The Commander nodded understanding, even as he casually leaned away from me, cueing his own men to do the same. ¡°Well then, all you need to do is show me your merchant association papers or other identification papers and we can get you moving along. You will need to declare where you will be staying too, so we can find you later, if necessary.¡±

    Now came the hard part, ¡°do you mind if I make our conversation private?¡± I kept my voice as polite as possible, not wanting to push too hard, but needing him to understand that this was important to me.

    His eyes narrow, ¡°you want the Histones to record that we had a private conversation over a simple procedure?¡±

    I nodded, ¡°the Histones have agreed to keep my full name sealed for the next few decades because of some enemies that I have made over the years. I would prefer to have as few people know about my being here as possible.¡±

    The Commander looked like he was sucking on something sour for a moment before he nodded slowly. ¡°Fine.¡±

    I gave a polite smile and stepped off the last step of the library, officially exiting both the library¡¯s area of protection in both the magical and legal senses.

    As I did, I allowed a spell that I had constructed in my mind to take form and let my mana flow out to follow my preordered instructions. After so many years of such spells I did not have to spell out every instruction word for word, instead simply putting the idea of what type of spell I wanted to use into my mana and using what was basically shorthand to create the spell.

    The mana flowed out of my hands and quickly formed a ward around the two of us. Normally a near invisible barrier, I had created this one to help prevent lip reading. It created a disjointed view of the world outside the ward, while also blocking anyone from listening in and creating a constant background noise that would make any recording spells useless.

    I anchored the ward to the ground around us so I would not have to constantly watch where its edges were.

    ¡°What is that infernal racket?¡± The commander seemed to be fairly annoyed by the noise, but did not smash the ward to make his own so I took that as a plus.

    ¡°Precaution against recording devices, they are becoming more common, so I went ahead and used this version of the ward. Please do ignore it.¡± It was currently like having a conversation in a crowded market, not impossible, but unpleasant to suddenly walk into. I reached up one of my sleeves and pulled out the pouch that I had obtained from the Histones, along with my bone armor.

    ¡°You should know that the last thing I need is some fool attempting to bribe me. I am from the Hinnus family and our honor means more than-¡± he broke off his speech as I pulled out the coin from within the pouch and held it up.

    The silver-white metal showed a burning tree on the side facing me, identifying where it was mined, while the side I showed the Commander was blank. Of course a blank disk would not have been very impressive, were it not made from Mithril.

    The exotic metal was special for more than its rarity, just possessing it was illegal in many kingdoms without proof of nobility. Partly to avoid showing that sort of proof, I had taken to keeping it inside the pouch, which was full of iron fillings to stop any spell from being able to see inside.

    It was one of the very few pieces of physical proof that linked me to Bella. Even blood spells that used DNA ¨C albeit unknowingly ¨C to target others would not affect me through Bella¡¯s family, or vice versa.

    Palming the coin without showing the burning tree to the Commander, I poured my mana directly into it and cast an illusionary spell.

    Normally each noble family or house was too proud of their name to let it go. To that extent, each house had a family proof that was supposed to be nearly impossible to fake. With Royal Seals being the most famous example.

    Ignoring all the ways I had aided in doing just such things in the past, I now had to convince the guard that the coin in my hand was my proof despite it not being any such thing. ¡°You will not recognize the seal, but I once had a small House to call my own.¡±

    I held out my palm and showed him the previously blank coin, which now had a three headed snake. The symbol was my previous life¡¯s personal standard, as well as the symbol that symbolized who I was.

    The commander was not amused ¡°An illusion spell does not count as a Proof and furthermore, trying to pass it off as proof of nobility is illegal.¡± I felt his magic coil around him. He had around 7 circles worth, a healthy amount, but not enough to attract any aristocrats beyond the most basic ranks.

    I closed my hand and dispersed the spell, changing mental direction. Proofs had varying levels of complexity and I honestly had no idea what standards they used here. Sometimes the Proofs were intricate spells that behaved in a specific way, while other times they were magical devices. ¡°I never said that was my proof, just my family crest.¡±

    ¡°You think that an illusion of a mutated animal makes a difference?¡± He was not quite angry, but aggravated. Time to switch directions then.

    ¡°Yes, I do. Specifically because it suggest that you are not too friendly with House Varken.¡±

    For my comment I won a furrowed brow and pensive face. ¡°What in the name of the gods do they have to do with it?¡±

    ¡°Everything. You already noted that the snake was mutated, but the reason it is relates to my House specialty.¡± I spun the tale with as much truthful horseshit as I could shovel to keep it from stinking. ¡°I am a biomancer you see and my specialty revolves around manipulating the body. Though I mostly just use magic to make sure animals pass down their best traits and not their worst.¡±

    ¡°A magic breeder¡­¡± his voice was flat, not good, but at least his mana was not boiling all around him. It had settled around him instead. ¡°So you expect me to believe that your House somehow bred a three headed snake?¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°There was a time where custom creatures gave people a feeling of true mastery over nature. It did not last long under the light of the Conbra church, but it made us a small fortune while it did.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Right.¡± He eyed me up and down, but did not pay enough attention to penetrate the runes¡¯ effects. ¡°So how does that relate House Varken?¡±

    It does not in the slightest, I admitted inwardly, House Varken were just a slightly infamous House that I had never had contact with. ¡°They hired me a while back and were¡­ dissatisfied with my work.¡±

    ¡°Three headed snakes did not interest them? Shocker.¡± Thankfully, the last part was spoken quietly to himself, without a trace of sarcasm. If he did not like them, all the better.

    ¡°No¡­ Larger animals did. Pigs, cows, and horses especially. Unfortunately, one of the younger member of the House did not appreciate my work and we got into an argument.¡±

    ¡°You did something to his favorite horse?¡±

    ¡°No, but after the argument there were several births, his child and a group of piglets, of which¡­¡± I grimaced and scratched the back of my head, ¡°someone suggested that I made look like the newborn.¡±

    The Commander¡¯s eyes widened and I saw a slight twitch in his cheek. ¡°Did you?¡±

    ¡°I did not have to, the child was not blessed with his mother¡¯s looks.¡± Another twitch. ¡°That said, the family made sure to ruin my name and business. They even started targeting my friends, which is why I wanted to speak privately. A few loose lipped guards could be dangerous as I am almost out of funds.¡±

    ¡°What about your family?¡±

    There. We are off the original topic, he is personally interested, and I got him to at least consider me a less annoying and more entertaining person. Now then¡­ I took a deep breath and licked my lips. My family was never a comfortable subject. ¡°Gone.¡±

    ¡°Ah, my apologies.¡± His voice was quiet, withdrawing from what he saw as a sore point. Sympathy was the enemy of all guards.

    ¡°Do not worry, I miss my wife, but my brats were more than handfuls.¡±

    That was where my personal flourish came in. Usually simple was best, but the real art was where you mixed fiction with reality. The Commander was back to being slightly confused, off-guard, but the sympathy was still there. ¡°You cannot be that old, I doubt if you have even left your teens.¡±

    ¡°Magic.¡± I said honestly, smiling despite the memories of how I would likely never see my Maria again, even after death. I thought of using magic to make myself look even older too, but no, that was not necessary it seemed.

    My memories showed in my smile, I could tell by the look in his eyes when he nodded. Pity could easily affect you and influence your judgment if you let it. Bella herself had mixed feelings about my little show as she felt that I was using tragedy for personal gain, despite the fact that she knew just how real my emotions were.

    ¡°I see¡­ Well, we seem to have gotten off track. Your House name, please.¡±

    ¡°Gyrfalcon.¡± It was an old name, one that was supposed to be my House name when I became a King in my previous world. The name of the old man who picked me up all that time ago.

    ¡°That sounds more like a name from the Collection than from Zootriofi,¡± His voice was quieter, but still inquisitive. He was probably required to ask that if he did not know the House name by memory.

    ¡°I never said that I always lived there. Morte Gyrfalcon once had a nice little life for himself out in a relatively peaceful area, but there were arguments, a war, and a few sons too stupid for their own good.¡± I shrugged obviously pretending not to mind. The truth was that remembering all those stupid, greedy, graveborns of mine only furthered my depression, which would age me further in his eyes.

    Even if I had a penis I would have made myself even more sterile than I currently was.

    As for the allied cities of the Collection¡­ He could assume whatever he liked. They were on the eastern most part of the continent and the likelihood of meeting anyone directly from there was slim to none outside a port. All I knew about them was from the Histones and generally just talked about how they were independent, stubborn, and had the richest adamantium mines in the world.

    ¡°You do know that I am supposed to record your sigil, correct? Since you are unknown to the nobility?¡± He paused slightly before adding ¡°It is tradition.¡±

    I gave him a soft smile, you should never justify, explain yes, but not justify. ¡°You have to? The last thing I want is those lot finding and causing more trouble, for anyone.¡±

    He hesitated and opened his mouth for a second before closing it and slowly shaking his head.

    Bella practically jumped up and down in our head at that point. She had been watching our surroundings and felt something very similar to Nalk energy again. It was so faint that Bella had to concentrate entirely on our surroundings to find it, but she thought that she sensed the energy interacting with the commander.

    That might make the difference in the future, I quietly congratulated Bella, but did not have time to warn her off assumptions. Partly because she literally already knew the thought as it entered my head and partly because the Commander finally caved. ¡°No, your sigil looks legitimate and I know that there will be nothing to compare it to, meaning it is pointless to try. Trying to prove that you are a noble to anyone would just be a long process with extra paperwork.

    ¡°Though I will be obligated to report your name and where you will be staying, I do not see a need to make a big deal of it. You are on record with the Histones and I can ask them for more information if I need to.¡± He gave me a look that clearly came across as ¡®do not push me farther than this.¡¯

    I tilted my head and gave him a hurt look. ¡®Like I would do such a thing?¡¯

    A small sigh and an eye roll signaled the end of our brief foray into non-verbal conversation. ¡°Why are you going to Baron Los anyway, if you do not want to attract attention, why not go to an inn?¡±

    ¡°With respect Commander, how much gold am I wearing?¡± The guard had shut down the gates first and only let people out on a case by case basis ¨C if they let anyone out at all ¨C so all traders, travelers, and farmers who had been inside the city had been herded into the inns. It did not take a genius to figure out that the rates for a room were now horrendous.

    That earned something of smirk, it disappeared quickly, but I still saw it. The Commander cleared his throat before nodding. ¡°Alright, I suppose that I can let you two go, as long as you take an escort with you to House Los. I can spare someone, but he will be obligated to escort you back should the Los family refuse to let you stay. At that point, you will obligated to stay under our observation until the city lock down is lifted.¡±

    I bowed my head slightly in thanks, ¡°I would appreciate it, Commander. Ah,¡± then I added in a lower voice, ¡°anyone but the sharp toothed one behind you please, he has been giving me an odd look for a while now.¡± I shifted my eyes quickly to the guard from earlier who had blushed at the mention of the instant portrait. The commander gave me a slightly confused look, but shrugged and waved a hand at my ward.

    I nodded and let it dissolve so that the commander could start giving orders in a calm, rather boring, manner.

    For my own part, I felt fairly good. I never claimed to have a silver tongue, but mine was at least bronze, in my own opinion. I would never have lasted long enough to become crowned king.

    Bella, naturally, decided that I was stroking my ego too much and started pointing out the flaws in that thought. She started by bring the fact that the Commander did not seem to take much convincing at all and then proceeded to try remind me of every time in our lives where running my mouth had gotten the both of us in trouble.

    She even brought up the book I had been writing near my death, proceeding to point out several sections full of flaws, based off my own memories of my editing attempts.

    It was mostly in good spirit though, so I did not mind Bella¡¯s nagging¡­ too much.

    -------------------------------------------------------

    Baron Los was the obvious son of a merchant. He had papers stacked on his desk to an impressive height, a rather impressive map tracking a variety of things, and he basically ordered me to tell him why I he should not throw me out then and there.

    My response had been simple, I told him to ask his stable master about my talents.

    That had nearly gotten me thrown out, but when the story of my arrival finally got reported in full, the Baron had instead allowed me to talk with him privately.

    Now, I sat there and cursed the knowledge that the gods had no interest in me. It would have been nice to bury myself in a prayer for fortune, but I knew these days exactly how much that would help. Not even the chief deity of my previous life, Gorith, the god of the underworld, could help me here¡­ not that I wanted that stoning graveborns help anyway.

    ¡°With respect Baron, how long are you going to stare at me? It is getting late and I would be deeply honored if you would put me up for the night.¡± I was trying to be patient, but when I had arrived there was an accident that had afforded the opportunity for me to mend the leg of one of the lord¡¯s horses.

    It was an excellent introduction, a way to show off my skills in a natural way that had Bella in hunting mode while she tried to play her new favorite game of ¡®spot the Nalk.¡¯ Still, the miserly Baron had yet to even offer me some wine for my effort

    Unlike the guard commander, this would be a quick matter to settle, especially after the Baron let me stew for a few hours outside his study. Also unlike the Commander, he seemed to see through my runes the moment he saw me.

    ¡°What is a mage doing in such a disgraceful state?¡±

    ¡°No, but I can eat it.¡± I stated coldly.

    ¡°If you are that desperate, than my offer should seem all the better.

    ¡°And if I should just remove you by force and deny any such thing happened?¡±

    I smiled and lied, ¡°I will just smile and accept it without saying a word.¡±

    The next few seconds were only marked by an expensive wooden framed clock, whose glass fa?ade revealed a beautiful series of cogs and gears, driven by a pendulum that swayed back and forth hypnotically.

    ¡°Alright.¡± He smiled and leaned forward, taking a different approach. ¡°What exactly do you want Morte. The guard and Histone have already explained some of it, but I assume that you chose to come to my House for a specific reason.¡±

    At least this noble was straight forward. I could only imagine how much dancing around someone else would do, but I had an advantage from my time with the Hohen Sisterhood, gossip. ¡°You are one of the city¡¯s newest additions, yet your business interests were established, according to the Histones, concurrently with your arrival. I assumed that was because you did not plan the event in advance.¡±

    I paused to let him correct me, but the silence was defining. ¡°Given the lack of anything except the crossroads and the Sisterhood of Hoh, who are some of the best Healers in the east. That would suggest a medical condition. Not something life threatening, or the Sisterhood would help you immediately, which means something noticeable and either embarrassing or at least frowned upon.

    ¡°You seem to be in good health, but the helpers around this place are all older and more experienced hands. The type who most think of as less likely to gossip¡­ Well, beyond that I heard a rumor that you had a daughter, but that is really where my guesswork ends. I can heal human injuries as well, but I am not a Healer, still, if you need someone to help¡­¡±

    I left the statement hanging and went back to waiting. If this went on any longer though Bella would have to start meditating.

    ¡°You make an interesting offer, but I must say that I find your offer rather suspect. Even ignoring your state of dress, you seem rather¡­ androgynous. If you happened to be the one that the guards are searching for, you would be putting me in quite the predicament.¡±

    I raised an eyebrow and held a smile back. That pause¡­ the stoning man was bargaining. I ideliy wondered how much the Sisters were asking him to ¡®donate¡¯ to move her daughter up the list for care. They were quite bad about that for what they called ¡®cosmetic¡¯ injures. ¡°You mean that after I came here escorted by those same city guard who are supposed to be searching for me? You mean after I helped fix your horse¡¯s broken leg? No I will not- I cannot believe that you are such a person. No, I think I know what you are really concerned about though.¡±

    ¡°Really now?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I understand what you are really worried about my lord,¡± I gave him my friendliest smile. ¡°You are worried about putting your, or your loved one¡¯s health in the hands of a stranger.¡± He tried to interject, but I kept going. ¡°Your concern for them is a heart-warming thing that I think I should mention my friend Recorder Corus, but I will leave that for later.

    ¡°For the sake of argument though, I will point out that I have given you no reason not to trust me and that you have seen proof that not one, but two well-known groups believe that I am who I say I am. If anyone ever gives you reason to regret allowing me to treat your daughter, than I suggest that you refer them to the other two groups first.¡±

    His face was neutral, but we both knew that he had made up his mind when he invited me in. If he had really realized that I was the escapee, then he knew he could return me to the Sisterhood at any time using his wards to trap me. Plus, it was well known that I was a former member of the Sisterhood, if he thought I could help because of their teachings and well¡­ I felt more comfortable relying on his selfishness than his honor.

    ¡°You might not know this, even a rumor, the slightest whisper of scandal, can damage one¡¯s reputation and my House is built on reputation. You are, as I have said, a rather androgynous figure despite your jawline and if someone does not think you a women than they could easily think you a young man. A young man that I took in and introduced to my daughter, a young man who shared a night at the least, under my roof. I trust my servants to keep their silence, but as you have said, everyone only thinks that the older servants will not gossip.¡±

    I nodded, ¡°If that is so than you should just refer to me as a passing specialist plying his trade by looking after some of your steeds. In fact, I could sleep out in or at least near, the stables to reinforce this.¡± I looked him dead in the eyes and asked Bella if she felt any energy stirring, Nalk or otherwise.

    Nothing. I was used to gambling, but I would have to go over my actions with Bella later. I was either making good, logical decisions, or the fact that the Nalks seemed to be helping sort out the mess they made was making me reckless. Right now though, I did not see many options and was happy to take the rope I could.

    ¡°The stables and some food, for tonight. We can discuss more tomorrow.¡± He stood up and as I copied him, he surprised me by holding out his hand.

    I looked at the outstretched hand and hesitated. No mage liked touching another mage, not unless there was a significant level of trust. Primarily because the human body conducted mana so well and no magic would save you from a death spell cast directly into your body.

    Of course, he likely assumed that said trust was present because we were in his wards. Wards were powerful enough defenses that it was a common misconception, but I had killed plenty of people in spite of those defenses. If anyone knew never to trust someone just because you were in your wards, it was me.

    Baron Los no doubt noticed my hesitation, but said nothing as I slowly and reluctantly extended my hand. The handshake was short, polite, and earth-shatteringly uncomfortable. I could feel the Baron¡¯s magic, just slightly dwarfing my own.

    I had enough mana to fully power 12 concentric circles of mana, which effectively made me a rank 12 mage, the same as the Baron. However, I could feel that he was close to breaking through to the next circle. Given how most people meditated here to expand or concentrate their mana, I gave him less than a year of daily meditation before he reached the 13<sup>th</sup> rank.

    As our hands separated I took a deep breath and asked him a question, ¡°You are close to your third I assume?¡± Mages typically only expand our mana 3 circles in our lifetime, if they were active in their daily lives to any serious degree. It was not impossible to expand to a fourth,

    The Lord smiled politely and ignored my question, walking around his desk, ¡°This way, if you please, ah and of course,¡± He paused at the door and turned to face me fully. The sudden pressure that filled the room, caused me to blink in surprise at the killing intent that suddenly came off of him. ¡°Since my reputation is so important to me, you can understand how distraught I would be if anything disruptive were to happen, as I would likely jump to rude conclusions¡­¡± His face was neutral, but there was no way that he did not know what effect he would have on others.

    Killing intent was a mana effect that resulted when you decided to kill someone and your mana responded to that act of will.

    The fight or flight response was instinctive even for someone like me and I could slow my heartbeat down to a deathly low rate if needed. Most would experience shaking, fearfulness, and an all-around sense of being hunted. Of course, if you learned to use it as a weapon then it was possible to treat it like something approaching a spell all on its own. At a high enough level it could interrupt someone else¡¯s spells, force people to talk against their will, and sometimes even cause heart attacks.

    Part of me, the part Bella approved of, suddenly found a new level of respect for him. The man really was willing to go the distance for what he cared for. The rest of me however, was struggling not to laugh. I could summon triple his killing intent in a heartbeat and it would be far more focused than the uneven thing that he was likely struggling to produce.

    I put on a serious face and told him what he wanted to hear though. ¡°I promise to be as quiet as a church mouse, sir, you have my word.¡± Though I honestly had no idea what he was worried about, did he think I was going to have a wild orgy or something?

    He stared at me for another moment before nodding and leading the way out.

    ------------------------------------------------------

    The stables were nice and comfortable compared to living on the streets, thought I suspected that the previous occupant was enjoying his new time in the servant¡¯s quarters.

    I hardly cared myself, I was just happy that the Baron had been arrogant or desperate enough to buy a mansion large enough to have one. It was actually rather sickening if you thought about it too much. There was hardly enough room for the stable on the manor grounds, but the same area in the slums would have housed roughly 10 times the number of people, just in the buildings.

    I shook my head quietly and quickly got back to work carving some magic dispersal runes into the horse stall. In addition to generally being a good idea around animals, the runes would keep the currently unconscious horse from making any more noise when it woke up.

    The accused thing was started reacting badly to the few basic alert and concealment spells that I cast following my first nice meal in over a week and forced me to knock it out with a spell.

    Many animals could sense magic to one degree or another, but it was rarer for domesticated animals because animals that could feel magic were more likely to develop it for themselves.

    Meow.

    I reached over and let a cat smell my hand. After a few moments of waiting patiently, it rubbed against my hand, giving me permission to stroke its back.

    Cats were the only notable exception among domesticated animals. They seemed able to feel magic fairly easily, but were never seen using it. The closest anyone I knew of explaining this were some men of questionable mental fortitude, who I had known in my previous life, who thought that cats could use some sort of precognition magic.

    I personally thought they were just good hunters and decent enough pets, but the way they avoided those men (and their associates,) spoke to their good instincts at the least.

    After I finished casting my concealment spells and let the cat go off and to be a cat somewhere else, I contemplated casting Gorith¡¯s Shroud.

    The stables were technically under the control of the house wards so I could not do too much, but a few spells for privacy were to be expected. The problem was if the wards determined Gorith¡¯s Shroud to be a threat. At a minimum the spell would likely summon the attention of the owner, who would want to see if it was a threat, but if things really went wrong than the ward could smite me for it.

    The big problem was that, technically I was still female and I only had a good two more days before the Nalks would lock me into this body with the terror known as a woman¡¯s period. I would prefer to avoid that if at all possible and that meant doing research.

    I had no plans on being the same as in my past life. I had been a King, a father (Bella coughed,) and everything from a bandit to a general when it came to fighting. I did not feel the need to become anything like that again, no matter how much I wanted to screw over the Nalks.

    We would dedicate this new life to something else and to that end, along with the fact that it was a compromise with Bella, we had decided to forgo the idea of being one sex or another. Outwardly we would be sexless, and inwardly we would be both male and female.

    ¡­Assuming that such a thing was possible of course. I had work to do tomorrow so I asked Bella to keep watch while I read the Pervert¡¯s notes.

    Despite the low opinion Bella had of the man, I had no intentions of letting his knowledge go to waste and he had been one of the few mages who could perform sex changes.

    ¡­Urgh. Looking back, maybe that particular blindside had actually been a good thing. That I was able to come to an agreement with Bella later was not a result of it, but it hardly hurt.

    I opened the book and mumbled ¡°One day at a time¡± as I started reading by a ball of light that I created with magic. The sun had already set, but I had a spell to compress my sleep and I needed to work on this thing.

    One thing at a time.

    * * *

    Penial holding area:

    Drasiedi did not know what he hated more, that he could be executed for something he had nothing to do with, or that it was only once he was arrested that he realized he actually had motive.

    Stella. Bella.

    They looked different, they talked different, but ever since he had been locked up, he had grown increasingly convinced that they were the same.

    Bella had practically rebuilt his body, even after she left the village he kept growing stronger and faster, to the point where he had long since bested anyone who he was allowed to challenge.

    Then he even started to notice things in the air. At first he thought that he might be going crazy, but no, he quickly learned that he was seeing magic. It was a revelation that shocked him to his very core, especially because he was a burnout.

    ¡°Burnouts,¡± were people with magic so weak that their mana paths were said to overload, to burnout, because of the amount of natural mana around them was too much for them to handle.

    The Sisterhood of Hoh had been astounded too when they found out, but that impressed attitude had quickly turned into something else. Drasiedi was a man in his own right and should have been able to take care of himself, but now he was just stuck in a cell.

    His sword and prize money for the successful duels had been confiscated and all of it was because Bella/Stella¡¯s escape happened the day after he had been ASKED to visit her by the Sisterhood.

    Of course he said nothing about his idea that Stella and Bella were the same, but now they were even threatening to kill him! He had done nothing wrong!

    Hearing one of the cell doors rattle open he sighed to himself. The Sisters had come to check on him every day and ask more questions. Apparently his body was behaving differently now or some such nonsense. He did not know or care about that at the moment though, because he was angrier that he was somehow guilty by an association that no one actually knew of!

    Still seething, he barely pulled back a rather rude statement when he realized that his visitors were not Sisters.

    ¡°Hello there Drasiedi. We would like to make a deal with you.¡±

    The smile the figure said those words with sent shivers down Drasiedi¡¯s spine, still, he concentrated. Anger would not help anyone, years of babysitting John had taught him that. ¡°I am listening¡­¡±

 Chapter 43: Biomancy

    Chapter 43: Biomancy

    ¡°Did you sleep well?¡± Baron Los first question was surprisingly polite. It worried me.

    Bella told me to stop being moody, but I felt like regurgitated shite. I went through all the trouble of infiltrating a cult of healers that happened to be stoning Soul Mages on the side and yet the grand spell that I was pursuing came down to stoning splash magic.

    We were currently back in his study, presumably awaiting his daughter, while I sat there trying to gauging if I was going to have to kill him.

    ¡°I slept fine, but I had some notes that I had to read up on and the big promised spell turned out to be splash magic of all things.¡± I sighed and added, ¡°That was a marvelous breakfast, by the way, thank you.¡± Freshly cooked meat, eggs, and an avotato were an impressive way to wake up. The ale was good quality too, though I disliked alcohol these days both because it all seemed to taste off to me and for health reasons

    On the bright side, though, he had also gotten me some decent clothes and even offered me a bath in the servant¡¯s quarter, which was such a blessing I almost forgave the poison. Though I had to do quite the rework to hide a knife in the relatively close fitting white robe.

    Baron Los looked confused for a moment. ¡°You disagree with mental image constructed magic? Surely you do not use instructional exclusively?¡±

    I shook my head, some people felt the need to put fancier names on that sort of thing. To me, there were only three types of magic casting that were effectively like the different states of water. Systematic, or ¡°instructional¡± as Baron Los called it, was solid and built one step at a time, which made it the most reliable.

    ¡°I always use it as my base. After I understand and can recast the spell predictably, then, I can start taking shortcuts and cutting out inefficiencies.¡± I snorted, ¡°Magic entirely created from a mental image is not only easier to ward against, but also next to impossible to pass on or record.¡±

    The fluid method of magic was sometimes called splash magic because itwas so general. The first spells that young mages cast were almost always splash spells and it was always one of the most dangerous spell that they would ever cast.

    Emotions and mental images were far too important in splash magic as it was about mental image. It had some loose rules, but too many inexperienced mages misgauged how much mana a spell would take to use. In the worst cases they died, but sometimes there were lesser consequences too. There were mages who did not pay attention and became dependent on things like hand gestures or words to perform their spells, which could prove fatal in a fight.

    Now Baron Los¡¯ eyes were narrowed. ¡°Yet you will you have to use a certain degree of mental imagery to heal, do you not?¡± I nodded that was a common idea and while it was not inaccurate, it was more because of a lack of scientific knowledge than the magical or religious reasons attributed to it.

    Note to Bella, we need to make sure we leave behind a couple thousand copies of a book to correct that. Perhaps we could ask the Histones to distribute it after our eventual death.

    ¡°To a certain extent, yes. I know more about the human body than most, but even I need to take certain unscripted steps.¡± I shrugged¡°Thankfully, I have yet to experience magical reflux, but I saw it happen to a lightning user once. I would rather not end up like that.¡±

    Now Los looked really confused ¡°Who in the Blighted Towers would use lightning? No, more importantly, assuming he actually managed to get that to work, how did it reflux? It does not sound like it was the first time that person did it.¡±

    ¡°Nope, he was well experienced using it to assassinate people, unfortunately for him, lightning strikes the highest metal surface first. Since he was fighting someone who had had a few iron javelins scattered around, well, he did not like that his lightning kept missing¡­¡±

    Magic could the nature of reality, but it was not without limits. When people misunderstood those limits and tried to force them, most of the time this would just cause a small amount of wasted energy to magic reflux. In extreme cases, the magic could rebound on you with unpredictable consequences.

    Even I, at the lowest and most desperate times in my previous life, had hesitated at the idea of being trapped as a sentient statue for the rest of eternity.

    ¡°What astounding stupidity, who would ever thing to try and control lightning of all things? Where did you say this was?¡±

    I opened my mouth and shut it again, hesitating, ¡°I am not sure where I would put it on a map,¡± I offered truthfully. How would someone put a different world on your map? Would you not have to put it on a completely separate map altogether?

    A knock at the door signaled an end to our conversation and I looked over to see a young woman in a nice, but fairly plain, white dress shuffle in. She was too skinny to be attractive by mage standards, but then again she did not seem to have any magic either. Otherwise, she was quite pretty. ¡°You call-ed for me S-Sir?¡± Her voice cracked badly and I noticed how pale she was, even ignoring the white dress.

    I said nothing, but my thoughts were racing as my eyes narrowed and I felt Bella shift uncomfortably as she followed my line of thought. This was supposed to be his daughter? She had opened the door herself instead of the Baron letting her in, but¡­

    Only one obvious entrance and exit, but wards could be horrid things given that their specialty was defense. This one seemed fairly standard from what I could feel, but it was not like I specialized in building them and taking one down only required surprise, a key to the ward¡¯s anchor point, an iron nail, and a hammer.

    Assuming the man did not have more than three battle mages and no one else save himself had access to the wards I could escape easily enough. Though the Guilt would definitely be haunting me afterward.

    The Baron¡¯s voice, however, was at ease. Was I overthinking it? Bella thought I was, but she too kept a look out. ¡°This man is a Healer and he is here to examine you.¡±

    ¡°Biomancer.¡± I corrected, experimentally releasing a bit of killing intent away from either of them. As the wards shifted and started to react I pulled my killing intent back for the time being. ¡°Come here.¡±

    She seemed slightly nervous, but the pain in her movements was real and I wondered how much energy she normally had to be even slightly nervous. I gestured to the seat next to me and after she half sat, half collapsed, into the seat next to me I offered my hand. After a quick glance at the Baron, she accepted and my gift went into action.

    My mana flowed through her, giving me an awareness of what she felt as well as what was wrong with her. Others with my gift, but not my knowledge, would only have a general idea of her injuries, however, I could see everything.

    Broken bones left remnants, signs of what happened in the past, scars that most could not see like I could with my gift. I saw the brakes, the fractures, the scars that told me at least a part of who this woman was and the story I read made me angry.

    Bella offered other solutions and I was not eager to jump to conclusions, so we decided to heal the girl. Our magic wove through her body, not following one path or any specific spell, but following our instruction as it moved through her.

    This was the product of our compromise. The gift that Bella had been blessed with, to instinctively understand the body of another with mana, was combined with my talent for the most dangerous form of spell casting.

    Unlike the unexplainable (even for us) gift that Bella had been blessed with from birth, my talent had been used under the most desperate circumstances. Free-form spell casting was forbidden for its dangers to the person casting it. This was because it did not involve finishing the spell construction in your head before it was used, instead letting the mage directly build it as the spell was cast.

    If mana reflux was a danger to your body, that was one thing, but if you were still connected to the magic, if you were free-forming, or Soul Casting as it was sometimes called, it could reflux directly into your mana control ability. Some went insane, some burned out their own magic systems, and many said that your very Soul took damage from such a thing.

    Systematic was solid, splash was liquid, and free-form was gas. Where the other two could adapt to a limited extent, the third form was both danger and adaptation incarnate.

    Naturally, it was only something used if you were in danger, or expected a trap to reveal itself any second.

    As our mana danced through her body, we kept a dim awareness of what was going on around us. The Baron was silent and the door was still closed, the only sound was a gasp as our mana reached deeper and deeper into her body. It had passed like a wave of fire through her lungs, burning away the infection there before moving on to her spine and reforming the two dangerously damaged vertebrae.

    She also had another infection, a disease more typical of whores, but the scarring in her vaginal tract and damage to her reproductive organs as a whole made it fairly clear that she had been assulted as a child.

    For anyone else, doing anything else to heal her, it would have taken a few minutes and a lot of mana. For me though, actively manipulating my mana as it flowed through her from problem spot to problem spot, it was difficult, but increadibly fast. It also let me prepare to pull my mana back and defend myself if nessisary.

    Nothing happened and when I was finally done I took a deep breath and sat back, relaxing almost involuntarily. ¡°That should be the majority of it.¡±

    There was a moment of silence again, punctuated only by the pendulum mechanics of the clock, which was actually starting to grate on my nerves. Why was that thing so loud- false passage? My epinephrine surged again and I tried to keep myself from lashing out and smashing the thing.

    ¡°That is it?¡± The Baron prodded.

    A deep, concentrating, breath found me looking back at him evenly. ¡°Yes, Baron. Why? Were you expecting some ritual nonsense?¡±

    His voice was tight. Odd considering there was no way this was his daughter. ¡°I was expecting more than a minute with someone you just met and to let you diagnose and treat her properly.¡±

    I waved a hand as casually as I could manage. ¡°There was nothing life threatening and I healed as much damage to her organs as was practical. Her lungs were disgusting and there was only so much that I could do ¨C stop smoking traxico.¡± We sent the young woman a harsh glare before continuing, this time speaking to her directly, though I kept my eyes on the Baron. ¡°Your back should feel better, but your sex organs will likely feel a little odd since the damage there was so old.¡±

    I actually looked at her at that point and paused to take in the wondrous look that was plastered on her face. She was not listening, probably enjoying a new lack of pain, which made us smile. I added that her ability to have children was still up in the air, but she was still coming back from the heavens.

    It took a moment, but her brain did catch up eventually. ¡°Wait, damage to my what? What are you talking about?¡± To my surprise, she looked shocked and alarmed, not embarrassed. Had she suppressed the memories, or just not realized how badly she had been hurt?

    ¡°You had extensive damage and scarring to your vaginal- right, look, your sex was damaged. The damage was old and so probably happened very early in your life, probably when you were a child. I healed a lot of it, but I cannot guarantee that you will be able to have children again. That said, I also took care of something else, so overall, sex should be more enjoyable.¡±

    She sat there like a gaping fish for a moment before suddenly yelling a variety of things while blushing. She switched from talking about the ¡°sheer audacity of the staggering insult that you, you insignificant-lying-fuck-nugget, have just perpetrated upon my person¡± to something about her bile balance and humors or something.

    It was loud, annoying, and served as perfect evidence that she was doing much better. Granted, since I was already on edge, the tirade almost earned her a broken nose. Bella, however, suggested that a slap would do just fine to make her shut up.

    It also earned me a light wave of killing intent as the Baron¡¯s wards rippled. ¡°Just who said that you could do that to her? This is my house and you are my guest here, what gives you the right to lay a hand on a member of my House?!¡±

    I turned to give him an even stare, trusting Bella to keep my disgust hidden. ¡°Why you did, the second you turned her into a test subject for my skills.¡± I looked him dead in the eyes. ¡°If she was your daughter, you would have introduced her as such, she would not have so many defensive scars on her body, scars like the several sets of bites that suggest she once lived on the street, and you would have stopped me before I shut her up.¡± I paused for just long enough to make sure he got the message before continuing. ¡°That said, I apologize for striking someone in your house.¡± I stood up and gave the Baron a respectful bow.

    After a moment there was a sigh and wards returned normal. ¡°You are dismissed Valyria, go fetch Locket.¡± I heard the women respectfully acknowledge his order, in a completely different accent than what she sounded like previously, and held my bow until the door closed. As I straightened he added, ¡°someone will test her outside, but she certainly seemed healthier to me.¡±

    ¡°She is Baron, though whoever you have ¡®testing¡¯ her might be in for a shock over just how much I fixed. Biomancer magic is rare and requires certain unpleasant steps to learn. Steps that have made sure that I will have a difficult time should I ever go to the Holy City.¡±

    His face revealed nothing. ¡°Nothing¡­ heretical I would hope.¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°not to my knowledge, but since becoming a competent Biomancer means having live targets to practice on, it does tend to step on the toes of a few Healers.¡± I hesitated at this point since I was likely the only Biomancer in the world, making this was all both true and complete garbage at the same time. ¡°Investigating the failures when said subjects die, prior to cremation, also makes the churches extremely uncomfortable.¡±

    That got me another nod, but not a verbal response and our conversation paused as I felt my stomach growl at me. I had reserves left from the morning, but those had been absorbed through mana roots. Magic sometimes made your digestion even extremely efficient and other times it used your body¡¯s reserves directly, no one knew why.

    Before I could ask, the Baron raised his hand and the door opened again, this time ushering in a pair of men with a small plate of food and a table. A baked avotato, fresh carrots, and chicken soon filled my stomach, though I did not let my guard down while eating. In fact, I absorbed a large portion of my food with mana roots as my stomach was not going to finish digesting it anytime soon.

    About halfway through my meal, I started speaking again, between bites. ¡°Is this a good time to discuss the poison you put in my breakfast?¡±

    ¡°A precaution and a test, you have my apologies, though you did justify it when you slapped her.¡±

    I swallowed and cut him off before he went further, he had responded too fast, earning respect and suspicion in equal measure. ¡°Where did you find her anyway? No, that does not matter, the rat bites suggest the streets and that is all that matters, though she did seem to give her heart to acting the part near the end.¡± I got a grunt, which was not where I wanted this conversation to go.

    He poisoned me, tricked me, and likely had a pair of mages hidden by the wards to kill me if I caused trouble and he did not activate the wards in time. Or at least that would be what I would do. If the Nalks really were protecting me than I was fine, but they might have deliberately let Bella sense them and- ¡°I want us to be friends, Baron.¡±

    ¡­Bella, even reading your thoughts and knowing where and why you said that I still do NOT stoning like the feeling of mixing control between us. ESPECIALLY without prior warning.

    There was a pause and as I tried not to let the crunch of the carrot echo as I grit my teeth in anger. That I was chewing as a by-product barely registered.

    I saw what she was doing and it might help, but the fact that she had gone ahead and spoken while I was still planning annoyed me¡­ even if I could see the increasing levels of paranoia from her point of view.

    The Baron, for his part, was obviously caught off guard and spoke slowly, processing what I had said. ¡°I am sure we can become such, in time.¡±

    ¡°Time,¡± I repeated back to him, equally slowly, pretending to let the word sink in as I calmed down. I also polished up the food as I gave him a moment to process Bella¡¯s statement. A knock came at the door as I finished and I silently cursed as I felt the mage¡¯s mana leak only after the Baron¡¯s wards opened the door.

    A younger Sister from the temple of Hoh, maybe thirty or so, entered and I felt my skin crawl. Soul Mages were the ultimate enemy of all life. The only time I ever wanted one within 100 leagues of me was if I was sure I could both use them against my enemies and kill them on a whim. Since neither were likely, given the eventual insanity they all succumbed too, I just preferred to get rid of them as soon as possible.

    Even if technically the Sisters were not full Soul Mags, but they were close enough to disgust me. I had dabbled in the soul arts, but nothing that involved human sacrifice or resurrecting the dead. That the Sisters sacrificed their older members to power their nigh impregnable wards disgusted me.

    ¡°Pardon Baron, I did as you requested and examined the girl. I do not know who this person is, but I would question his spellwork as, bluntly, I cannot find any.¡±

    I watched them both, ready to cast my berserker spell and Gorith¡¯s shroud at a moment¡¯s notice. The spell would let me throw my hidden knife through the Baron¡¯s throat and the shroud would let the Sister be burned by the wards in retaliation.

    ¡°Is she better?¡±

    The Sister hesitated, ¡°Yes, she seems completely healthy, but-¡±

    ¡°Then I thank you for your assistance.¡± I blinked at that. Come to think of it, how did he get a Sister to come visit and yet he could not get one of them to heal his real daughter? Was it really something that minor?

    ¡°Baron, I do not think you understand-¡±

    The Baron held up his hand ¡°Sister, I thank you for your assistance and I trust that you will keep this matter between us as I asked¡­¡±

    The Sister sputtered for a moment and her head seemed to jerk between the two of us, sending a few brief glares at me in rapid succession, before turning and storming out.

    I continued our conversation from before, temporarily ignoring the fact that the Baron had clearly meant for her to see me in person. ¡°You never have as much time as you think Baron and I want you to feel that you could put our friendship in writing without hesitation or regret.¡± I walked over to the large clock, watching its pendulum slowly swing.

    I said friendship, but we both knew that we would have to work out a sort of alliance before we could look into that. Even so, Bella¡¯s request had been the right one, by saying that I wanted to be ¡°friends¡± it would make it easier to gain an ally.

    As an old friend once told me, ¡°It was better to aim for the stars and settle for the sky.¡±

    I could see his face off the reflection of the glass. He was giving me a measuring look. ¡°That would be difficult, but your helping my daughter will go a long way. After that, we can discuss what would help us become allies.¡±

    I sighed loudly. ¡°That sounds suspiciously like an indefinite delay.¡±

    ¡°Something to discuss later at the least, but I would not say indefinite, just after my daughter leaves. She should be here any moment, but I confess that her problem revolves around her leg.¡±

    I nodded to myself, a limp or improperly healed injury would be seen as weakness by the other nobles. That it wasobviously not a natural condition, which I knew because even the Sisters could not fix those, would mean nothing.

    Still¡­ ¡°You did not poison me as a test.¡±

    ¡°Are you calling me a liar?¡± He sounded offended, but only slightly. Even Bella, who had been checking and rechecking my thoughts for this entire conversation, found his tone annoying.

    ¡°Yes.¡± I let some of my anger show, pretending I did not know that he would see in in the glass¡¯ reflection. ¡°You did it as insurance, something to ensure that, if I somehow got away from your wards, I would die without additional effort.

    ¡°Then you tested me, once with the actress, once with her illness, and once with the Sister.¡± I turned back to face him, back to a cool, considerate look. His body language said that he was alert, but not on edge. ¡°I do believe that you should be out of tests, but just in case, I want to ask you to stop doing such things. Especially as I do not know a test until I already react to it.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°Going further, I could say that we have been lucky that your tests were so benign.¡± I met his eyes and emphasized what I said next with my whole being. ¡°I am not good at making friends Baron, I am good at destroying my enemies, so I will make my proposal one more time before I heal your daughter. Can we be friends?¡±

    ¡°Are you threatening my daughter?¡± He was quiet, intense, and deadly serious.

    ¡°No.¡± I admitted, ¡°I will heal her to the best of my abilities for the food and shelter that you have given me. Regardless of your decision, I will not hold her to anything you say or do, but I wanted you to understand my desire and decide for yourself if we will be friends, enemies, or business associates ¨C of a sort.¡± Willing obedience always beat forced obedience.

    Threats would get me nothing, save perhaps another enemy, but making his choices clear and saying that I would respect them could get an ally.

    He somewhat relaxed. ¡°You know there does not seem to be a good incentive to be more than business associates.¡±

    Another knock came at the door and I smiled. ¡°Nothing is truly without risk, I just wanted you to know what was what.¡± After all, the moment after his daughter left, the moment he had no more need for me, then I would see his real hand.

    The door opened and the new young lady, who did indeed limp in, she wore an expertly tailored dress and had a neckless with the House symbol on it, a two-horned horse. Her dress also hid her legs easily, making it hard to know what was wrong without closer examination. She had magic, but not as much as the Baron.

    She gave us a brief bow, managing quite well despite whatever was wrong with her leg. ¡°You sent for me Baron?¡±

    Again my brain went to work. What if this one was another fake? Another test, this time by a better actress when my guard was down- Wait¡­ Even if it was all a lie, I just had to heal her and stop thinking about every little detail.

    ¡°This young man is going to try healing you.¡± His voice was gentle and he had a slightly more protective air about him.

    She looked me over and then back at the Baron, ¡°A Healer so young Father?¡± A poor looking stranger is what she meant, but that was hardly an inaccurate view.

    ¡°He is a¡­ specialist.¡± The Baron motioned for her to sit where the other girl had.

    I forced my own impatience down and waited for her to take a seat before I offered my hand. ¡°May I begin?¡± More hesitation, more slow movement, I almost tried to play a game of pinyin with Bella, but when my mana finally surged through her, I found something very interesting.

    I always wanted to be a researcher, but I only barely had the patience, much less the funds for such a thing, yet there were always new things to learn when examining the human body and I almost always enjoyed learning new things.

    Today I learned that a certain old wives¡¯ tale actually had some truth to it.

    ¡°Pardon me,¡± I stated, kneeling down before the girl, ¡°I will need to see this directly.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± The Baron¡¯s reply was sharp and preempted the girl¡¯s own by only the slimmest of margins.

    I smiled, ¡°because very few people survive allergic reactions to potions.¡± This was awesome.

    Ignoring the stunned silence I casually lifted up the girl¡¯s dress, ignoring her brief squeak of indignation and her attempt to maintain some form of modesty by making sure I could not see up her dress.

    I hardly cared, while the young lady had nice thighs, I was infinitely more interested in the gash on her leg.

    Sex was far less fun between mages as just touching someone was an example of high levels of confidence or trust. In any case, I had enough women over the decades that it hardly motivated me beyond a fun pastime when bored.

    No, the dreadful, bulbous, rash and the improperly set bone were much more interesting. Specifically, because it was magical in nature, meaning the thing was partly feeding off her mana to help maintain the nasty 15cm long gash on the outside of her calf.

    ¡°Wonderful.¡± We commented, a wonderful example of the observations that could come about from potions.

    Alchemy was as close to a science of madness as I had ever heard of. You could even honestly state that, if someone wanted the adventure of a lifetime, they only needed to try being a potions tester for a few days.

    ¡°I thank you sir, but if you would not mind?¡±

    ¡°Pardon?¡± We asked looking up, what had the girl wanted?

    Her face was slightly flushed, ¡°If you would not mind, I would prefer that heal me before complimenting my legs.¡±

    ¡°Ah.¡± Rather than argue, we nodded and got back to examining the rash. It would be a fairly easy fix under any other circumstances, but the magic aspect that the potion had contributed was somewhat more difficult.

    Fortunately for her and unfortunately for us, it was a fairly shallow growth, making it an uninteresting fix. ¡°You will want to be unconscious.¡± I let Bella concentrate on the injury while I talked to the girl.

    ¡°Will I?¡±

    ¡°That was not a question,¡± then Bella found something interesting, ¡°also, it appears that you reacted to an ingredient in the potion rather than the potion itself. Which would explain why it still healed you as much as it did. I assume you were pouring the potion directly on a wound?¡±

    She nodded and started to explain, but I did not care. The slightly cancerous and parasitic nature of her magic based rash had given me a few interesting ideas, but magic-based Ebola aside, we had already gotten most of what we needed. Anything further would take more time, and experimentation, than was reasonable.

    ¡°Sit back, relax, and count backward from ten.¡±

    She looked at me with distrust, but complied, ¡°Ten. Nine.¡±

    I turned to the Baron, ¡°I trust the wards are prepared?¡±

    ¡°Eight.¡± He nodded. ¡°Seven.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡±

    ¡°Six. Fi-¡± The blackout spell did its work.

    ¡°I am cutting it out,¡± I informed the Baron, ¡°afterwards, it will be easy enough to heal, though she might have a limp for another few weeks.¡±

    ¡°You cannot take care of that without knife-work? Or heal her to the point where she will not have the limp?¡±

    We pondered it for a moment but shook our head. ¡°No, cutting if off is for the best, even if it was a tiny amount, that thing is being affected by her mana. It is best to just get rid of it with minimal contact. Oh and even if we healed everything perfectly, besides the human mind can trick itself and would likely give her a phantom limp for a while. This way she can heal more naturally.¡±

    The Baron grimaced but nodded. Though we were slightly surprised that he did not react to my mentioning that it was being influenced by her magic. Had the Sisters told him but left the thing to fester anyway? Not that it would be a serious danger for a few more months, but still¡­

    ¡°You nodded, but just to confirm, the wards will deal with the blood and not react to my spells correct?¡±

    ¡°The blood will not be a problem unless there is too much of it.¡± I got a glare, ¡°If there is too much of hers on the ground, then yours will be joining it.¡± His glare softened into a frown, ¡°That said, they will not interfere, and they will clean the blood, but after what the Sister said, I will be having them record your spells.¡±

    That got my attention, wards could do that? Did that I mean I might have taught that dungeon some new spells after all? Stone me sideways, if I had known that I would never have used my concentration spells. The last thing I needed was to go back to Tartarus and find a bunch of giant spiders that could shoot concentrated streams of light or ear bleeding levels of noise.

    Changing my plans slightly, I cast a dozen snip spells, cutting off a large part of her skin, before adding a slightly more powerful version to separate her bone at the break.

    That would have been easy enough to realign with my spell, but since I did not want my bone manipulation spell spread, I cast one of the first healing spells that anyone learned, accelerated healing.

    Granted, mine was far more efficient, using the person¡¯s bodily stores and only targeted certain areas, making it much faster, but it was still a large step down compared to my usual spells. As a result, while the wound sealed fairly quickly, it still took several minutes for her leg to actually heal to the point where it looked fairly normal. Though the new skin was noticeable in comparison to the rest of her calf, it would finish healing on its own.

    Then, rather abruptly, I got the game of ¡°200 questions from a doting parent,¡± which covered everything and anything that might also be wrong with her, how long it would take her to heal, if her hymen was intact, (which Bella refused to even address) would there be any side effects, how did they test for other potion allergies, etc.

    When I finally woke her up though he was back to his normal, aloof self. She, however, was a bit confused that everything was already done, she even tried to finish her countdown, before she noticed her leg.

    That ended with a happy, off balance bow for both of us and a brief conversation with her father that finally got him back to a serious subject. ¡°I will be along to see you shortly dear, but for now I need to talk to him about our future dealings.¡±

    ¡°Of course, my lord,¡± She gave another off balance bow and quickly left as both the Baron and I sat back down. The wards had already finished their job of cleaning the room well before the door closed, burning away the dead skin and making sure that no smell remained.

    We just looked at each other in silence for a moment, which was really getting redundant. ¡°You know, that clock can get surprisingly annoying.¡±

    He smiled. ¡°I know.¡± More silence.

    I smiled back politely, stopping my hand from patting where I had my knife hidden.

    Bella mentally shook her head at the tension in the room. His daughter was healed and he had not tried to kill us yet, but that did not mean he might try the moment I let my guard down. That said, I got the feeling that his merchant roots were starting to come into full effect. I had helped him, he had something I wanted, and I had favors and a talent to trade.

    He would also be bargaining from a position of power since I was inside his wards. Of course, as long as I could eat another large meal or two I would be able to fight off a small army. Right now, it would be very difficult indeed, but if it were only him and a few others¡­

    Bella had so many mixed and interlinking thoughts about the plans that I spun out and my ¡°eagerness to fight,¡± as she saw it, that I could not concentrate on both the room and her mind simultaneously.

    That said, we both knew who I was and neither of us needed rationalization for my behavior, I was not the ¡°Bandit King¡± anymore, but we were still in a dangerous situation and I would survive. It would be ideal if no one got hurt, but if they did, they did.

    We would survive.

    ¡°I think it is time for that talk.¡±

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    After gaining permission, I erected my own wards around the stable. Los had offered me a room in the house, but I declined for privacy reasons.

    The evening meal had been large enough, especially after I asked for seconds, that I thought I could perform the spell safely. It had also given me enough time to establish a sort of make-shift alliance. He would not be giving me a written recommendation or anything, but information, housing, and some pocket change when I left would be enough for now.

    Especially the money, since I had to sell my old iron chainmail and weapons prior to my brief period in the Sisterhood. My bone armor was excellent for turning blades but did nothing against spells and my diet had consumed the majority of the money.

    All in all, the Baron had made out like I used to, back when I was raiding merchant warehouses. He had basically no risk, I owed him at least one sizable favor, and his daughter was healed, meaning maximum profit.

    In any case, as time was running out for the spell, both Bella and I agreed that it would be better to just risk it tonight¡­ Well, Bella actually told me that I should just suck it up and accept being a woman.

    The fact that I had pursued what ultimately turned out to be a simple spell for the last few years of our life, was not only embarrassing, but disappointing. In fact, it was possible that both the Nalks and the Remnants that Bella destroyed had deliberately stopped me from realizing the ultimate simplicity of the solution.

    Plainly speaking, the body knew how to manage itself. Most Healers, the Sisters included, just encouraged the body to fix itself and used magic to get the body to speed up the process. I worked with so much more knowledge than they had access to that I told the body how to heal or just used magic to take direct action myself.

    All I had to do was use the fact that my brain already knew the how and why my body functioned to build the basis for a new one. The pervert¡¯s notes had been clear that his greatest successes involved turning women into men because he could help guide the certain aspects of the spell as a man.

    In that sense, I was actually going to violate biology by not turning myself into a man like I originally planned to after being stuck in a female body, but instead throwing away gender as much as I could. No penis or vagina, but a small urinary tract on a compact, muscular body with its own system of regulated hormones. It would require special management and upkeep to make sure our body regulated itself properly, but we were willing to do that.

    We agreed on some basic concepts before, but tonight Bella and I truly would truly go to work. That said, there were a few things to get settled before then. Or more accurately, Bella was taking this time to nag about all the bad decisions I had made while not ¡®listening¡¯ to her.

    Naturally, she ignored the times she was wrong, but I never mentioned that. She could read my thoughts after all.

    Basically, though, what Bella really wanted from me, was to accept the results of my actions up to this point. Upsetting that stoning ¡°Adventurer¡¯s Guild,¡± cutting off Bella¡¯s familial ties, attracting the attention of what appeared to be a magically created sentience called a dungeon, and generally being my old self had earned me enemies. Enemies that I did not need.

    In short, I stoned myself. Not to the point where I could not recover, but the ¡°adventurers¡± would know the name ¡°DeMorte¡± and they would track me here. I had recovered a group of enemies from my previous life. Even if they gave up on me for whatever reason, I still had an enemy that I unnecessarily made for myself.

    From Bella¡¯s point of view, I wanted that to happen, for the familiarity of it. Enemies were easy to understand. Sometimes you could even stop being enemies for a while, but friends were much more difficult. They were dangerous and I had already spent one lifetime staring at shadows and what lurked within them.

    No, Bella had me there, enemies were easier to see coming.

    She had, however, also been telling the truth when she told Los that we wanted friends¡­ Or more accurately, I wanted people who I could count on in a pinch and Bella wanted friends. The idea seemed slightly far-fetched to me, but I admitted that it was not just a fantasy, though the Nalks would certainly make it more difficult.

    In any case, in order to make any lasting relations, I needed to make my own identity at the least. Avoiding both my enemies and keeping my friends aware of who I was, without keeping something obvious to identify myself, would be dangerous. I had already resorted to storing the mithril coin inside my body once, I would prefer to not do that again.

    To that end, I had a spell that would change me, that would make me so fundamentally different that even the few Sisterhood initiates that were intimately familiar with me, would not know who or what I was. Perhaps even Mother would not¡­

    At that point, I could become DeMorte, or Bella, or Stella, or Gyrfalcon, or anything else I wanted, or more accurately, I could claim to be anyone I wanted.

    I could use any name I wanted, they were cheap and most were meaningless to me after all¡­ However, as much as a part of me wanted to be Morte again, he had been destroyed a long time ago, probably before I even met my wife.

    The remnants of the Guilt ¨C the fragments that were left over after the life of those I killed passed before my eyes ¨C had swallowed him over time. They had helped create DeMorte little by little over the years and even after Bella burned them out of my head, they still had an effect on who I was.

    After Bella and I finished our talk, which was mostly her pointing out my flaws, we decided to be DeMorte Gyrfalcon the Biomancer. We also decided to let Bella be in control of our body from time to time (partly so she could make mistakes too, instead of just judging me) before we started to build an image from the inside out of just what that person looked like.

    Our image started with the heart and quickly spread out from there. Most of it, like the nervous system, was similar, if not outright the same as it currently was, but there were also some important differences.

    I imagined a largely male build, relying on both the knowledge the Nalks had given me and the experience of my past life. I left Bella to focus on a largely female bone structure and we both worked to make other small changes in our body. We both ensured the removal of our reproductive organs,

    Anything we thought might be useful and had experience experimenting with, except the magic resistant skin of the wolf people, was considered while we were at it.

    Overall we probably did a much more detailed job than we needed to, but this would be our new body, so some things had to be micromanaged.

    When it was done, we only had one more thing to do.

    We stripped naked and reshaping some bone into the sharpest knife we could manage before laying down. Following a reflection and pain numbing spell, we cut open our lower body and carefully removed the secret that we had created using the same organs that we were about to remove.

    The ball of organic matter was small enough to fit in your palm, but most would likely never want to hold it. The thing was disgusting, covered in blood it was arguably the single most hideous thing we had seen in this world, but it was also had a unique beauty from a mage¡¯s perspective. No one said that magical devices had to be made from dead creatures, but there was a reason they almost always were.

    I carefully wrapped the organic device in its own ward to protect it from contamination. Biological or magical in nature, I wanted nothing to touch my masterpiece, even if it was not complete yet.

    Bella and I briefly debated how to use it, but the device had been designed to transform human biology, so until we actually found someone to use it on, someone desperate, we would have to keep it safe.

    We did not bother closing up the wound, we decided to let the new Biomancy spell would take care of it instead.

    In fact, disregarding that there was no real definition of a ¡°Biomancy¡± spell, this spell was basically one of only two true Biomancy spells. The other being mana roots, it made both Bella and I excited, enough for us to temporarily forget the risk.

    I had the honors of finally triggered the modified spell and it was un- err- it was, fortunately, a very anticlimactic experience. There was a sizable amount of mana that was gathered and spinning vortex of mana lifting me up off the ground as it dissolved parts of my innards was dramatic, but it went so smoothly that it caught me off guard.

    In all, it had only taken a few minutes and most of the changes that took place were on the inside. From the outside, we were only slightly different. Our chest was slightly smaller, our muscles slightly more defined, but our face was still fairly effeminate and we were still the same person at the end of the spell.

    Granted there was one small area which had been purposely designed and created while we were mentally rebuilding out body. Where the womb previously was, there was now a protective chrysalis of bone, tissue, and fat that would protect my fleshy little magic device.

    Bella and I had several mental debates about it, but we decided to add it in the end. As, while arguably a needless security, given it would only protect against accidental hits, but the device was too valuable. Given that we had literally built it by modifying DNA one step at a time, it was far too complicated to want to reproduce from scratch.

    We had to reopen ourselves to put the device into the chrysalis, which felt like a rock in our lower stomach, but again nothing unexpected happened until we heard a voice drift out from the stables below.

    It was a snake hiss of a whisper, but we still heard it easily. ¡°You are safe now Bandit King, no more corrections will be made and you may leave tomorrow.¡±

    Naturally, there was no one on the ground floor and my wards were untouched, so we both agreed to modify our wards before sleeping. The new addition to my wards was exclusively designed with the hopes of shutting out the energy I associated with the Nalks. If it even slightly interfered with them, it would be would be worth going to sleep hungry.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    The next day at noon, a pulse of mana from the city¡¯s governing office heralded an announcement.

    I had been arguing with Los at the time, over the idea that what he called ¡®fish market haggling¡¯ could be applied to larger expeditions. To our mutual surprise, I was apparently far more knowledgeable on the subject.

    The pulse was harmless, just enough to be noticeable to a mage and about ten thousand times too weak to be harmful. Though I imagined that the light itch that I felt was dreadfully painful to the masses with burnout.

    Baron Los then manipulated his wards to allow the broadcasted magic to reach us.

    ¡°Attention! Attention! We are pleased to announce that the criminal mage who escaped from the prison tower not long ago was cornered and killed. Her confederate has also killed himself, proving his complicity in the matter. As such, all may now leave their homes as they see fit. Although, given recent developments, the gates will be heavily guarded and you should expect a long wait for exiting, regardless of your status or blood.¡±

    The speaker then repeated itself while Bella and I weighed the possibility of Dras actually being alive, despite what was said. When it was done, Los made a joke about having just caught up on his paperwork.

    As for us, we had come to conclusion that Dras was, in all likelihood dead and even if he was alive, he would be hidden away. For whatever reason, likely something to do with the ¡°missing¡± high lady, we were considered dead.

    ¡°Baron Los.¡± We said quietly. ¡°We would like to believe that we are friends, regardless of what has been discussed over the past few days, but we also have enemies here. So if you would remember that friendship, it will endeavor to come back to give you aid in the future.¡±

    A scene danced in our head. A fantasy that both Bella and I marveled in for its vindictive rage, even as we both knew that it would not happen.

    We imagined that perverted temple of Hoh in ruins, the Sisters massacred. Some were still alive some cried, a few laughed or silently watched their temple be destroyed. Many of the survivors were doing everything they could to survive, with some even stripping naked to try and prostitute themselves for my men. Their prized virginity, required for their ritual spells to work, meant nothing if they were dead and they oh-so-desperately wanted to live.

    As for our men, they were hulking monstrosities of darkness. A rare Sister would try one last time to resist, but their skin shrugged off magic. Their mighty forms were the current summit of what a human could become, but even they could be improved upon.

    We noted with pride that there was no rape, nor pillaging, just efficient death as they silently moved about their task.

    Beyond, the city burned and we could hear nothing above the roar of the flames.

    It was a fantasy, born out of the anger of the moment, but we enjoyed the imaginary feeling of vengeance it gave us. A feeling that would be both impractical and terrifying to pursue in reality.

    * * *

    <u>Forgotten Continent:</u>

    The observation shrine was for the purpose of observing one¡¯s own Soul without being observed yourself. It was a rare place of isolation that allowed Jagged Claw to sit in blissful, beautiful, silence and solitude.

    It had never failed to relax him, until today.

    The drums had followed him here today, refusing to leave his mind. He had not slept well, since it happened.

    The plagues in recent years had been contained before they could cause too much death, but this one had been different for two reasons. First, it had spread faster than anything they had previously dealt with. Second, though, was the Soul Mage who followed in its wake.

    Normally a suicidal task, the monstrosity that used to be human had used the dead, claiming the corpses for its own before the poor souls could be burned.

    So it was that the southern part of their last bastion was lost.

    The sick part though, was that Jagged was actually rather glad. Food supplies were hard to sustain ¨C to the point where the druids had practically invented a new logistics system to handle it ¨C however it was the water that was truly worrying.

    The same mountains that gave them their defenses also supplied most of the drinking water for the warriors, druids, chiefs, and priests. Other water had to be recycled through magic and yet there were not enough druids to do the work as most were needed on the farms.

    Add into that, the fact that they needed to store supplies away for the long trip and it was becoming truly disastrous. Then the plague came. Yes, it had killed so many that they could not burn the bodies fast enough. Yes, it brought the Soul Mages ¨C just one at first, but now there were more. Yes it had given him a horrible choice to make, but in the end it had also taken away a huge burden.

    The southerners were dependent on wells that were about to run dry and some had been migrating into the only slightly less populated areas to their north. Then the plague had come and in the face of a newly formed army of the undead, Jagged had made a decision.

    He had lead his clansmen south, carrying stone pillars called the Death Barriers and using the powerful devices to raise a massive spell. They burned all the corpses in a large area around each pillar, but at a terrible cost as each pillar feed off the nearby living to power it.

    He had stopped the enemy advance with the pillars, sacrificing his own father in the process.

    He was the head Claw now, but he did not want to be.

    More drums beat, pounding into his head with ever increasing sadism.

    How many people did he damn by putting up that new barrier? It had been the ¡°right¡± thing to do. The barrier had contained the undead and they had since begun pushing the abominations back, but he still wondered about the ¡°ifs¡± of what happened.

    What if he had warned those people that running towards the pillars would kill them? What if he had not been so stingy, prioritizing the lives of the soldiers above all else? What if he had consulted with someone, with anyone, about using the Death Barriers?

    Then, like so often recently, his mind turned to their long voyage. He had heard that the land they were going to from the seers. That the people of this land had not seen Soul Mages in millennia. That they had forgotten how to fight and lived in peace, growing fat and happy while Jagged¡¯s home had become a wasteland infested with undead.

    Jagged had told himself repeatedly that they should not expect help from people who lived on the wrong side of the world, walking sideways, but he still wondered if that was true. Had the Soul Monsters only cursed this land? How had these other lands gone untouched?

    How had they ignored the threat growing in these lands until the gods themselves had to interfere?

    The vision came to Jagged again. Again he was a mighty leader, who had pillaged and plundered thousands of cities, town, and villages. His army, numbering over 20 full legions, was breaking down the last gate. This would be his capital, this would be the place his children inherited, a city connecting two ports that were divided by a continent and surrounded by plains.

    Plains open enough for the cattle that Jagged¡¯s father once promised him, back before the Soul Mages came, before the drums began.

    He sat up and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the pounding drums even though he know it was impossible. The vision was an annoyance, it was not real, a fantasy escape. That is would not leave his mind was of no consequence. He knew what he needed to do now.

    He had to go, the drums were beating the call for blood and if he killed enough, then maybe they would finally go quiet and give him some rest.

 Chapter 44: Stretching

    Chapter 44: Stretching

    Cycle 3085 AF: 12<sup>th</sup> day of the Fire Phase

    Sometimes things do not go to plan. Sometimes things go so well that it shocks you. Sometimes Nalks just showed up and¡­ were themselves

    The last few weeks had been the oddest mix of the first two and I honestly had no idea if the Nalks had anything to do with it.

    Our original plan had been to work as a traveling medic, using our talent to pay for food as we made our way to the border. At first this did not sound like a bad idea and I was personally familiar with some people who had dedicated their lives to doing just that. Still, upon closer inspection, there were more than a few problems with this, most of which I should have expected, but two problems stood out from the rest.

    First off, the amount of food I needed to heal someone compared to how much the local peasantry could afford to pay. This was not an issue for the first few weeks because I had at least some pocket change from the Baron, but as I was traveling during planting season it was a bit more difficult.

    People were still willing to trade me, but the few winter crops had already been counted and harvested. Since only some of the new farming techniques, like crop rotation, were practiced here the resulting harvest was only a little above subsistence. Things were changing fairly quickly everywhere else, but the areas I had gone through had only recently starting to experiment.

    As a result, it was my runes that earned me the most food during this time. After all, runes did not need me to use magic and would last long after I was gone. That said, only smiths, millers, and the occasional trader could afford anything more complex than a few small heating runes ¨C which was not helped by the start of the Fire Phase.

    That said, I had a second problem, which was less problematic at first, but it quickly agitated the first.

    In large part due to the lack of mages that the burnout epidemic had produced, no one seemed used to mages wandering around. As a result, not many people believed that I was a Mage. In my previous life weak mages, derogatorily called ¡®sensitives,¡¯ were fairly common and made magic something people could accept more easily.

    In that world the lower classes were used to mages, if not strong ones, while the nobles were well aware of how even the strongest of them were still human. Here, people did not seem to understand the limitation of magic, or the mages who wielded it.

    After all, most mages were nobles and nobles would never admit to having trouble with money, always appearing rich, powerful, and untouchable. As a result, seeing one traveling on foot between cities, alone, was very odd. Those few who saw me and believed I was a mage were also extremely suspicious of my motivation: perhaps I was a criminal mage or the lover of a powerful man¡¯s wife or daughter.

    I wanted to laugh when I heard that kind of thing whispered behind my back, but it was leaving a damn clear trail of where I had been.

    As I approached the border of Istoria though, that problem completely reversed itself. As a result, of increased border tensions I was delayed a few times by some fairly unpleasant guards, demanding that I prove that I was not a spy.

    A combination of spells for their memories and painful kicks to the groin helped my case, but it was also a bit of a waste as the ¡®guards¡¯ I ran into hardly had any decent rations. Their iron was welcome, but that kind of thing was much harder to explain, given that I could not melt it or pay someone to remove the Kingdom¡¯s symbols.

    Then a trade caravan helped me out by hiring me as a guard and helped me get past the border.

    That had been a wonderful stroke of luck up to the incident a week ago, which was quickly making me suspect that the Nalks had decided to take a more active interest in my life.

    ¡­

    ¡°I have no interest in hunting bandits, thank you for the offer.¡± I tried to kept my voice polite, but the more the man asked questions the more annoyed I got.

    ¡°Come now, does hunting down bandits really sound so bad? You will not have to get you robe dirty and my lord, a Baron of House Ferrum, has personally guaranteed the terms.¡±

    ¡°No, I have just hunted enough of them the next few life times, thank you.¡± I tried to hand the map back to him.

    ¡°Oh really? Just how many would you have to hunt down to get tired of it? We could get you a captainship if you are really that experienced.¡±

    Just under nine thousand, excluding the ones I delegated, but I was more interested in moving away from the border than investigating bandits. Especially given the fact that these stoning fools sounded more like sponsored raiders than anything else, given what the man said about how close together these attacks were.

    I ignored the question for a moment and gave the map another look. It had a few markings indicating villages that had been attacked in the surrounding area. Given the spread, there was no way that it was just one group, unless they were literally running from village to village.

    No, reputation was important, control was important, staying alive was important. If a bandit killed too many, or looted too large of an area, they attracted attention, particularly from men who had the money to make their lives stoning difficult.

    I had survived in my previous life by staying in unoccupied lands that no army had been able to keep and then making my group dominant. If the kingdom you were raiding was busy or you removed yourself and the spoils quickly enough, I could see someone pulling a raid like this and scattering, but this¡­

    ¡°There was no purpose.¡± I stated flatly, shoving the map into the guard¡¯s chest who reflexively grabbed it. ¡°The most valuable things in those villages were the people, but there is no slave trade and the churches would come down on anyone who took them as bound servants. You can find these idiots on your own, just look for the mob of madmen.¡± I walked away at that point.

    When we had arrived in the town the man had immediately come over to ask if we had run into any trouble on our way there. After that, he quickly asked the leader to identify any mercenaries or guards.

    Apparently the merchant who headed the caravan had told the guard about me, because he already knew that I was a mage when he approached me. His terms were generous, good pay and food rations, but the map was why I did not want anything to do with this little adventure.

    I could come up with several reasons why, but the main reason was that the whole thing was wrong on more than a few levels. For example, why would anyone let someone as low level as this fool have a map of large scale banditry activity? It was basically a decree of local incompetence, a literal picture that scream: ¡°Hey, we have a problem and cannot handle it ourselves!¡± To anyone with even half a brain. That is was so close to the boarder only made it more suspicious.

    Istoria was one of the largest kingdoms on the eastern continent. Its borders were fairly well patrolled, from what I could tell, and yet this stupidity was going on. While we were several kilometers away and they had the majority of their forces to the south at Haereticus, it still sounded suspicious.

    Furthermore, the villages that were attacked were just that, small villages. What purpose could attacking them ever serve? Not that women and wine were not excuse enough for many, but on this scale? The last time I had even heard about something like that was¡­ Anubis.

    Ah, stone it all, I did not want to think of that creep, but he was a good example. If the raiders had a mage or two and wanted to take advantage of an area. A private war between nobles suddenly seemed likely and I made a mental not to not linger near manors for the near future.

    From a bandit¡¯s perspective they made little sense, but if they were trying to spread the guard out, or just embarrass the local powers?

    Regardless, I collected my pay for some quiet medical attention (the concept of regular cleaning had still not made much headway apparently) and we went north the same day. The southern branches and streams off of the Ketchdown River would mean fish and there were enough towns and border patrols to make it reasonable safe.

    ¡­

    One of the resulting discoveries of what I honestly expected to be the more peaceful rout, was a village that had just been lite on fire.

    Was it luck? Nalks? A phantom penis that sensed desperate women? (I gave Bella a mental chop for that) Did it matter?

    I was on a small ridge near a thousand meters to the south of the village, cutting through part of a forested area but what passed for the town¡¯s protection was just a loose pile of rocks that encircled the village, around a meter and a half high. The low level of protection let me see into the village and confirmed that the fires were relatively new, having yet to spread very far.

    That said, there were no mass of raiders or even their horses, no howling cries of pain and suffering, just the growing flames. Had a part of the raiding group stayed behind? There were no bodies that I could see¡­

    Technically it was none of my business, I could just stay out of it all and see about looting some provisions after the fires had died down without worry. That said, the Guilt would hunt me down if I could easily save someone and just let them die. Using the smallest amount of magic, I cast a ¡°far sight¡± spell.

    The spell quickly bent the light around one of my eyes and allowed me to see inside the village. It was not very big, room for a few dozen families at the most. I thought that it was already over for a moment after not seeing anyone move. Then a small group of women, clothes in taters, caught my eye. They were being dragged away from a thatched roof house that was clearly going to get caught up in the spreading fire.

    I shook my head and dismissed the spell. It was over after all, these lagers had obviously stayed for the women. Putting down our traveling pack, Bella and I both focused and we started jogging towards the village, slowly picking up speed.

    Bella did not need to look in my memories to know what I thought about rapists. Graveborns like those took power, took choices, away from the individual they assaulted. Bella made a few snide comments about the Pervert and myself being similar to such creatures in the past, but she was wrong.

    In our lives we only had the ability to choose our own path and even the stoning Nalks could not change that. Even with a knife at your throat you had a choice to make the other person use it. That said, I found that far too often rapists did not want to give you that choice.

    A gag to keep you from biting your tongue, a few iron nails to keep your magic at bay, and chains to bind your limbs made your choices very limited. It would get even worse if there were potions, the type of disgusting mixes that made your own body your enemy, while the ground away at your sanity.

    I pushed down the feeling of hate that started to boil up in me and instead focused on reshaping my facial structure. I did not need any survivors spreading rumors about what I looked like and while my current traveling robe was generic enough not to worry about it.

    It took us less than three minutes to cover the distance, during which time our face grew more angular and harsh. We also changed our eye to a bright yellow, shortened our hair, and Bella took special care to restore our pointed ears.

    I also altered our bone armor slightly. Where it was previously distributed just for travel, I changed it to form arm and leg guards, while reinforcing chest, especially around the heart. Part of the bone also formed up over my head as a type of helmet, but it did not actually cover much, mainly forming reinforced bands around my skull and more importantly protected the back of my neck.

    With the modifications to my bones I could likely take a hit directly to the head without too much damage, but my brain and spine were still very fragile things. Concussions were possible and if my attacker left iron in me than healing around it would be nearly impossible. Plus, I had no idea how to heal brain damage, so my best defense was flexibility and not getting hit.

    I had a couple of iron knives on me, which I had ready at my waist, and my only sword was in its sheath for the moment. If there were no mages with the other group than my excess bone mass could be shaped into a better weapon than the stolen weapon, but we would see.

    Leaping over the small wall was easy, but there was basically no way to hide my approach. Even though they were not looking for me, the small group of men seemed to have known that something was coming. By the time we found them on the opposite end of the village, the five men were already armed and waiting for me when I got there.

    There were also several bodies in front of the men, the women we had seen earlier. A quick life detection spell showed that two of them were alive, but only one of them was close enough to let me directly inspect.

    ¡°What is a blighted elf doing here?!¡±

    ¡°Hey, you think it is a man?¡±

    ¡°If it has an asshole does it matter?¡±

    ¡°Shut up you pig, you are the only one who likes that shit.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a freaking elf! Who cares it if has a vag or asshole, they both probably have teeth!¡±

    Most of it was whispers that I ignored as I quickly bent down and treated the injured women. Her throat had been cut sloppily, which was the only reason I could do anything. The other one was bleeding out too quickly, a similar, but deeper cut on her throat.

    Bella kept track of the other men as our magic sealed the wound and made sure the woman¡¯s was not about to die from blood loss.

    ¡°Did it just heal the slut!?¡±

    I took a slow breath at that, shaking off old memories. This women would recover soon enough, and I might even get to practice a plasma creation or transfusion spell. Breathe out, keep calm.

    ¡°Shite-pickle-biscuits, it is a mage.¡± I looked up at the brat who said that. He was just old enough to be called a man, but young enough to make you regret that choice of words¡­ In fact a better turn of phrase might be that he was old enough to rape, but not old enough to keep from pissing himself before a fight.

    I glanced from him back to the young woman¡¯s throat, where a pink mark was all that remained of the previous injury. The only reason she was alive now was that it had been a quick, panicked, cut. I recast my life detection spell looking at the other bodies, but it was already too late.

    That said, the spell also let me know that there was someone moving behind a small house. Modifying the spell, I found two more circling around me for a total of eight men.

    The oldest member among the one in front of me, clearly experienced with some sort of combat, was yelling at the fool troupe. ¡°Shut up the lot of you, and stop cursing Riles, you are shite at it. Surround the freak and nail it to the ground- THEN you can see if it has a dick for you to suck, or whatever the bloody twelve you are into!¡± Most of them responded to his words and started spreading out more, though they clearly took no joy from it.

    ¡°It is a mage!¡± Riles repeated, his whole body now shaking.

    ¡°Get your shite together Riles, Healers are piss-poor fighters and this one does not even have the church symbols on her.¡± Their leader was fairly calm, but his movements were still a little jerky as he started advancing. Had he ever seen what a mage could do when angered? If he had than he had not than he might be planning on running instead of fighting.

    I thought about just forming a couple pain spells and then interrogating them after, but that would be too easy. Instead I decided to go ahead and use it as an opportunity to stretch.

    Bella, rather noticeable, did not object.

    The majority of them had iron tipped spears and the leader was left wielding a longsword. That said, only the leader looked to have any sort of well-practiced stance. Naturally he was also the only one I could see that had iron chainmail on, though I saw a pair of the spear wielders had small bronze shields on their backs.

    So they were smart enough to know that running was likely pointless, that (normal) mages did not have eyes in the back of their heads, and that bronze shields were basically useless against magic, only able to slightly weaken a spell. They also disposed of witnesses the second they thought someone was coming and attempted to set up an ambush in response.

    Bella and I gave them a six out of ten for the response, but a two out of ten for not thinking their plan through. For instance, there was a distinct lack of horses nearby to get away quickly. Even if the beasts were expensive to take care of, the speed would be more than useful in this situation. After all, if a patrol was close enough to see the smoke they would be watching the roads closely as they called for assistance.

    Overall the fools were not dangerous enough to merit a serious danger so using them as test subjects was a reasonable idea. If things got serious, one berserker spell fueled jump would get me enough distance to heal or cast magic safely. Beside which, we had to test our new body some more.

    On the way here I had next to no time to set up any type of reasonable way to test us. Shadow training and practicing sword forms could only prove so much, even with Bella able to help me manipulate the mental opponents we trained against, it lacked the unpredictable aspect of a real battle.

    Every day at sunrise, noon, and sunset Bella and I went through and closely monitored our body, looking for defects, unexpected mutations, and problems arising from our current sexless state. Hormones, growth rate, etc. we measured and kept track of everything we could and since the change we had the unexpected challenge of height to also deal with.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Also, where I had previous suppressed our body¡¯s growth, now our balance, our abnormally dense muscles and bones, and muscle memory had to be reworked or retrained from my ongoing growth spurt. As a result, I had lost some of the previous level of bodily control that I had during my prison escape. Something these soon-to-be-eunuchs could help me fix.

    Still, I felt obligated to at least offer a way out. ¡°I will make you a deal.¡± I spoke slowly, giving my voice a soft feminine tone, before adding a small smile that showed off pure white teeth. ¡°Tell me about the group that did this and I will let you off mildly: with a curarized castration instead of letting you burn alive.¡±

    The leader of the men sneered at that. ¡°NOW!¡±

    My smile probably looked quite vicious for a moment, but I did not feel as excited as I thought I would. As they all started forward I had time to wonder if I just was not taking this seriously enough before Bella picked out a familiar sound that echoed from behind me. Not thinking, I dropped to the ground and rolled ungracefully to the side as an arrow passed through where I had been standing.

    I took the opportunity to pull one of my knives while Bella tracked the arrow back to the archer who had circled around behind us and shot a stun spell at him. The other two ambushers turned out to be swordsmen and they charged me as soon as they stepped out.

    Meanwhile, I had to deal with a dirty looking spear wielder, trying his hardest to stab me before I could get my bearings. I was already on my feet though and knocked the blade away with my bone-crafted guards, which took the blow quite well.

    As I stabbed at the man¡¯s thigh I made sure Bella was watching for anyone trying to flee. Getting some distance I heard the a few uninspired obscenities and I dodged a shield that someone threw at my head.

    I could have caught it easily, but the whole purpose of this was to remind my new body of my old martial movements. Normal mage martial movements involved dodging, getting distance, and never touching anything other than iron. My version had a slightly difference focus as I preferred to keep far closer than most mages were comfortable.

    I charged a spear wielder and rolled to the underneath his attempt to hit me, coming up much more smoothly this time. I almost killed him there, but a screech from the Riles brat behind me reminded me that I was dealing with bugs.

    I blocked the man in front of me as he attempted to hit me with the side of the spear, giving him a long cut on the arm. I also blasted the man with killing intent, causing him to freeze and giving me time to step just out of the way of a thrust of one of the sword armed men and near another spearman.

    Using my right hand, I stabbed up into the bottom of his mouth, his attempt to dodge spilling more blood as the stabbing movement turned into an impromptu slash as well. From my left hand I came a stun spell which dropped him to the ground.

    I turned around and reflexively bat away the spear point that I found aimed at my chest. I mentally cursed that I knocked it away with my arm and gave the man a deep stab near his knee to compensate.

    Touching anything that could be enchanted with anything other than iron was armature hour.

    After that I backed up quickly and noticed that the loud brat was still charging, though he was almost upon me. In response I threw my dagger so it bit fairly deep into his thigh, right before I slipped past a sword strike and attempted to move out of the encircling mob.

    Apparently the men who had been hiding were both somewhat competent swordsmen as they worked with the leader and all tried to slash or stab at me as I moved.

    Seeing three men with spears down and the bowman unconscious made the last spear wielder desperate enough to throw it at me right before he turned to run. Bella did the honors of hitting him in the back with a stun spell, rendering him unconscious mid step, creating a rather spectacular fall.

    All three of the remaining men were the sword wielders, but they did not waste time staring at their allies and quickly decided to rush me. For my part, I was satisfied with my performance. I used throwing knives a lot, but they were not my best weapon and using them as daggers was annoying, especially given their lack of reach.

    That said, even though I was clearly winning, something did feel wrong, like I was missing something important. That said I had no idea what it was, so I had Bella use another detection spell to look for more hidden enemies, while I drew my sword. She complied, but immediately after nothing turned up she turned her attention inward to see if she could not find the source.

    It was a nice thought, but even we could not see too what our sub conscious was picking up on. At least she was not wasting more energy though, the life detection spell was oddly mana heavy for its caloric cost.

    I fought off all three of the armature swordsmen easily enough, making sure to move around and doing my best to face them one at a time. My strength easily matched theirs and my swordsmanship was noticeably better than the two underlings. Still, had the shortest reach and was aiming for nonfatal blows, which made it harder.

    As we moved around a change in the wind blew a large amount of embers at us, heating up the air quickly. I took the opportunity when one of the men caught something in his eye to attack, kicking the leader in his chainmail to knock him away. The man who was rubbing at his eye quickly backed off and gave me enough alone time with the third man to remove his sword hand.

    Naturally, I also cast a spell to seal the wound, which sent the man to the ground screaming in pain as a mix of regular fire and healing magic briefly wrapped around his severed hand.

    Just because the Guilt never affected me during battle did not mean I took it lightly. Unless I had already killed someone, I would prefer to let someone else bear the guilt.

    I turned to face the other two when Bella did something. It took me a moment to realize that the thing that had been missing the entire fight had not been another opponent, but my adrenaline. From the beginning, my adrenal reflex had not kicked in like it was supposed to.

    While not exactly a magic combat potion, lacking an effective adrenal reactions was causing my body to underperform and I did not feel the usual rush when beating someone¡­ Though that might have been more connected to testosterone than adrenaline.

    Hormones were an odd grey area in my inherited knowledge, I knew lots of general information, but there was still a lot I did not know too. In any case, Bella temporarily fixed the issue by dumping a blast of adrenaline into my blood with a bit of magic. Interestingly, she used a bit too much and I was left with a racing heart and two very unlucky fools.

    In fact the fight had lasted all of a few seconds as I started to really move. I sidestepped the first man and emasculated him without pause. It was boring. I wanted more.

    How should I- no, too slow. Move¡­

    Then the leader was down with a broken collarbone and I was trying to calm down.

    I could not think about what I was going to do, or I would slow down. I could not plan my moves out, for everything was moving too fast. I moved faster than anything except pure reaction could keep up with.

    That said, catching the leader¡¯s sword barehanded, while he was in mid-swing, was a bit excessive, even by my standards.

    ¡°Stone it all.¡± This was the danger of messing around with the human body. Even after many decades of cutting others open and nearly another decade of research and study in the different methods of healing, it still was not enough. I needed test subjects, a place to conduct controlled experiments, and time in order to truly make myself, or anyone else, into something more than an abnormally muscular person. Blighted runes should be able to do that by themselves.

    Still, it seemed that I was years away from accomplishing anything meaningful. Stones, at this rate the biopuppet design might be complete before I was finished working out all the little kinks in my own body.

    Bella¡¯s response was typically opposite of me: ¡°then stop wasting time.¡±

    I walked around slowly, taking deep breaths and lowering my heart rate while checking on the idiots. No one¡¯s life was in immediate danger, despite their wounds and the growing fire. Though I had to use a few more stun spells.

    Riles, or whatever his name was, had managed to limp to nearly a hundred meters outside the village before my spell took him down. The other spearmen were still in the village, having tied very crude tourniquets over their wounds. One had even tried to ambush me after failing to wake the bowman. I knocked them all out as I systematically moved them outside the spreading fire.

    Ignoring the vaguely cannibalistic aspects of it, I also took the time to use mana roots on one of the dead women to increase my reserves, before casting flesh fire on them as a group.

    Unlike a normal fire, like the one growing behind me, it used mana from the air as fuel and would only burn animals. It was a common, easy to cast spell, which would destroy the dead flesh and leave behind all metals and usually even clothes untouched. Although the origin spell was said to only consume flesh, most modern versions of it would also weaken and crack the bones that remained.

    Given enough time, even those bones would simply blow away as dust in the wind.

    Both fortunately and unfortunately it was also incredibly easy to stop with magic. Making it both very controllable and very ineffective against the undead in control of a Soul Mage. It was also said to be the second worst way to die, only outdone by having your soul consumed by said Soul Mage.

    When we were all up wind and far enough away I quickly organized everything. Starting with making sure that the woman was covered up and that she did not need a blood transfusion. She was not going to wake up soon without one though, so I took the opportunity to practice.

    Afterwards, I made sure to remove anything and everything from the men responsible for the bonfire not too far away. If they got burned that would not be any of my concern. I also made sure that they would not be able to move their legs even if they woke up unexpectedly.

    Which actually did happen, just not with the men. I had just finished burning the disgusting rags that used to be the men¡¯s clothes, when I noticed her out of the corner of my eye. She did not scream, but sat up frantically grabbing at her throat as she tried to make sense of her situation. The robe that I had draped around her seemed to confuse, but help her as she noticed the conflagration.

    I used a spell on her to try and keep her calm before I spoke ¡°Over here.¡±

    Her reaction, even under my spell to the presence of what appeared to be an elf was obvious shaking.

    I shook my head, ¡°do you want to find out why they burned your village or not?¡±

    That got her attention as she quickly looked back from me to the naked men to the burning village. Eventually, she made her way over as I quietly looked for anything worth looting in the men¡¯s belongings. There was nothing, which greatly surprised me, had the first group carry off all the coin?

    ¡°Did they stash something when I was approaching the town?¡± I called, looking back at the women who had actually put on my spare traveling robe. Given that it was a bit too small, I found myself momentarily confused and we both ended up staring for a moment.

    The woman had a good enough body, a pretty face despite the dirt and soot, and the abnormally tight fitting outfit was quite nice too look at. Still, there was no warm feeling of enjoyment that used to come with looking at attractive women, no desire to wrap my arms around her and start letting them wander- yes, yes, yes, I am concentrating Bella.

    I sighed, closing my eyes and shaking my head. At least I was somewhat used to the feeling, I had it on occasion back before I died after all. Still, to not have some sort of reaction to what was an interesting new idea was odd. Something to get used.

    ¡°Y-yes, behind th-the wall where you¡­¡± Her voice was far too quiet, I was barely able to hear her, even with my sharp ears ¨C stop groaning Bella ¨C and she was still standing well outside of my reach, shaking as she adjusted her robe.

    I used a quick spell confirmed that the others were all going to be out for a while before I woke up the leader.

    There was some thrashing as instinctive fear told him to get away from me, but he was amazingly professional once he calmed down. Apparently realizing that his legs were not going to obey his commands he quickly understood his situation. Aside from the initial shout there was no screaming, threatening, or even begging for his life.

    It was the only pleasant surprise I got that day.

    ¡°You know what I want to know?¡± I asked, wondering if this was going to be easier than I thought.

    ¡°The main group that attacked the village right? What do I get in return, since you already took my legs?¡± By the gods this was refreshingly straightforward.

    ¡°I can give you back your legs and if you do not¡­¡± I produced one of my knives and tossed it to the woman, who squeaked and jumped back. It did not inspire confidence, or fear, and the leader did not look impressed until I finished my threat. ¡°Then I will restore you sense of feeling and let the amateur go to work on you. Before healing you, over and over.¡±

    Mentally, I had Bella go over our ¡®calming¡¯ spell to see if it had actually been effective. Then again, based on the semen traces she had in fact been raped, so her being that expressive at all was surprising. Still, the psychology of ¡®what women are supposed to act like when rescued after being raped¡¯ was not in my memory banks.

    I understood things like shock, Stockholm syndrome, and trauma to a certain extent, but I actually had a greater understanding of these things from afflicting them upon others than the Nalk granted knowledge in my head.

    So I decided to largely ignore her while the leader and I had a brief question and answer session that answered very little. Instead it raised one very large, alarming question.

    He and his troupe were just bandits who moved into the area given the instability they had seen a large group ride away at speed from the village and went in after they saw the ¡°cremation magic¡± (Bella and I both agreed it was a boring name) burning out.

    While gathering what they could, found a handful of survivors, and one of his idiots set fire to the place by accident.

    By the time he was finished the woman had finally gotten out of whatever state of shock she had been in and got angry.

    ¡°You blighted shite-stains killed my friends! Justin was only nine you bloody piece of the thirteenth!¡±

    ¡°Please be quiet.¡± I was trying to think up a good explanation for why he would have found a knife like that.

    ¡°Why in the blasted dungeons should I?! HE-¡±

    I held up a hand. ¡°Please.¡± I looked at her and she shrank back, still angry and defiant, but not looking me in the eye.

    Deep breath time again¡­

    I looked the leader in the eyes, ¡°you made me pry that out.¡±

    ¡°I answered your questions.¡± He hid his fear well.

    I considered burning out his eyes and healing them back to make that fear come out, but it would be largely pointless. ¡°So you did.¡± I hit him with another stun spell, leaving him unconscious.

    I was not really interesting in who was raiding the countryside, but that stoning knife he told me about could be traced directly to me.

    I shook my head, everyone knew that the group had gone west, but why would they ever raid a village like this? Mathalaus was definitely not the type of person to let his clan do something like that, no matter what type of drudge they had to settle here.

    Furthermore, the River Stalkers knew how to clean up behind themselves. Even if they used horses and left by the road, they would not leave as a group, nor would they be foolish enough to leave a knife lying around with the mark of their clan¡¯s personal smith.

    I turned back to the woman. ¡°Do not kill them. I am going to check on the things he mentioned.¡± I silently cursed and started jogging around the slowly calming fire that had consumed the village.

    Bella put their odds of survival at three in ten while I argued for one in four. Regardless, we had no incentive to keep them alive, besides not dealing with the Guilt and if what he said about the knife was correct¡­

    It was easy enough to find the general area, but the smoke was horrible. Behind the small pile of stones around the village, the bag of loot was basically untouched by the fire. It was easy to grab, but neither my lungs nor my eyes were happy with me running around in the smoke.

    The reward for my efforts? A small knife with the same stoning mark that was on the back of my mithril coin, a burning tree.

    I put a fair bit of mana into a small flame and made sure the symbol was unrecognizable before running back into smoke and ensuring the bag landed in a burning building this time. If I was lucky, the bandits would all be dead or not know what exactly the symbol on the dagger was. If not¡­ than I would have an interesting race on my hands.

    This was turning into a giant pain in multiple ways, but it was just as well that I got to the bag before anyone else did. Exiting out of the other side of the smoke I saw the movement in the distance and recognized it more from experience than ability to actually see the cause.

    Horsemen were coming. There were a couple dozen at the least, large enough group to be an annoyance by themselves, but worse, they likely had at least one mage with them.

    Mentally cursing I immediately started debating the idea of turning back into DeMorte or changing my look entirely. Looking like one of the mythic enslavers, the ¡°Elves¡± of legend, was good for messing with people¡¯s minds, but pushing to too far would only leave bad impressions.

    The problem was that I could hardly hide in the area and I needed the girl to prove that I had come into the village to help. The nearest tree farm would be searched the second those bandits started waking up and mentioned an elf.

    So, Bella naturally pointed out the irony of how my plan to change my face backfired¡­ I groaned.

    Turning back and moving quickly, I came back to find almost all of bandits alive, with around 4 of them having a large bloody spot where their manhood used to be. I almost winced in sympathy out of habit.

    The outer most ovals had yet to produce a flame to match a woman¡¯s hatred.

    I only spare a brief glance for the professional leader of fools, who had died after having the general area of his loins stabbed to the point where he bled out. I spared the man a quiet prayer to Gorith despite everything.

    The wind wrapped around me and the air chilled for a moment as I finished the prayer and looked on at the other newly minted eunuchs.

    After the leader, the woman had moved down the line. The Riles brat was about to join the group when I came back and I had to contain a sigh. ¡°That just made a lot of work for me.¡± If she had chosen to kill them I would have avoided the Guilt without risking the others talking about the knife. ¡°I hope you got it out of your system, there are horsemen coming.¡± I mentally congratulated myself for making such a strong spell that the men had basically been neutered under anesthesia.

    The woman jerked at the mention of horses and started looking around frantically, starting to breathe even faster. It was hard to tell, since all the stabbing had obviously tired her, but the movement of her nicely sized chest changed noticeably.

    ¡°They looked like guard, they probably saw the smoke.¡± I offered, looking from the eunuchs to the woman. ¡°I need to change my face, you forget about the ears I trust?¡± She nodded frantically, clutching the bloody knife to her chest.

    ¡°Y-y-yes lord e-e-e-elf¡±

    I shook my head I could not get a handle on this woman. Partly putting aside the matter started working on my facial structure. Hopefully I could minimize any ¡®elf¡¯ talk after the fact, but the last thing I needed was to be arrested. Being someone who had only just entered the kingdom and having a local for a witness would be a decent safety net.

    ¡°I am not a damn elf, they are extinct. My name is DeMorte.¡±

    * * *

    <u></u>

    <u>New Kingdom of Sokoku:</u>

    King Yoshitake looked at his new treasury, speechless.

    From all over the Western continent (whose name he still found odd) he had not only received praise and recognition, but treasure and exotic gifts. Everything from gold and beautiful jewels to weapons and armor to women, who¡¯s every move seemed calculated to test his self-control.

    He now had a treasury, a harem, a throne, no less than nine children, and an unofficial war with almost every church and kingdom from the central continent.

    After the massacre, the king had responded violently, specifically he had done a medieval version of ethnic cleansing. Unfortunately for him, many ¡®elves¡¯ had enchanted devices that let them pass as human for a while. Even more unfortunately for them, there was also a curse to make someone normal gain pointed ears.

    Once they had combined the spells with a few bastard children, the king, a highly religious man, had a few nobles killed and the civil war really started. In fact, said war was not yet over, but Yoshitake had the edge of being from a world far more advanced than this one.

    Apparently talking about the basic details of some FPS games had planted the ideas necessary for unique weapons that had turned everything in his favor. Rifled cannons with stabling legs, long distance communication, sealed orders, etcetera.

    Many things were not new, even in this world, but drawing out every seemingly minor detail had swung thing that much more in his favor.

    When the church of Prometheus, the god of Humanity, had tried to intervene, his ¡®advisors¡¯ ¨C who were the real power at that time ¨C had demanded that the defensive pass be taken and held, which was the real key to the current situation.

    Apparently they had been a large, controlling influence, which had been spreading uncomfortably quickly in recent years. As a result, the rich kingdoms of the west had seen his new kingship as an obstacle to be built up against the church.

    That the explosive cannonballs had torn a large hole in many of the new competing armies was just additional incentive.

    With the previous King¡¯s recent death and the invasion of the former Palos Kingdom by other kingdoms, Yoshitake had become the leader of a noticeable military power in a key location.

    Though the idea that his being a ¡®human puppet king¡¯ for the elves actually made him more attractive to the local ¡®nobility¡¯ still made him sick.

    Storming off away from the treasury, Abukara Yoshitake tried not to think about all the sycophants who constantly commented on how arrogant and rude the ¡®elves¡¯ were to him and how he should not have to take such disrespect.

    There were very few places that he could hide from them these days and one of the few was his current destination.

    Denying the obscenely big palace¡¯s attempt to keep from seeing them, Yoshitake made daily visits to his children and tried to keep track of them.

    Today though, before he made a big visit, he wanted to drop in to talk to one of his older daughters in particular, Maria.

    He found the little one painting by herself, ignored by even her supposed caretakers, who had already been replaced twice. So she has an imaginary friend, why is everyone so darn scared of that? She is what? Five?

    Said little girl was also adorably cute, with long golden-amber hair, slightly pointed ears, and a face made all the more innocent by the small splashes of pain on it. ¡°DADDY!¡± She ran over and did her best to swing on his neck as he bent down and hugged her. ¡°Come on, you have to see what I made! You have too!¡±

    She stopped hugging him and dragged him along instead, making him chuckle for a moment before he realized that the painting was another of the ones that scared the caretakers.

    ¡°See, I am getting better, I almost got him this time!¡± Indeed, the girl had a serious talent for brushwork, but she was still only five or so.

    ¡°Maria, we need to talk about him.¡± He tried to be gentle, but the girl instantly got defensive.

    ¡°NO! I AM NOT GIVING HIM UP! HE IS MY HUS-¡±

    Yoshitake had not been born a violent man and he certainly did not know how to handle children, but he almost gave the girl a spanking right then and there. ¡°MARIA!¡±

    The young girl shut up and sniffed a few times with tears welled up in her eyes. ¡°I am not.¡± She stubbornly grumbled. To her ignorance, her now platinum blond hair seemed to twist and react to her emotions.

    For her father¡¯s part he was astounded, she was manifesting magic. His little girl was only five, yet she had magic and perhaps¡­ Yoshitake looked up at the painting, perhaps even one of the ¡®talents¡¯ he heard about on occasion.

    Wondered about the rough man he turned back to her. ¡°Do you know his name?¡± Maria opened and closed her mouth a few times before shaking her head, causing al her hair to return to normal.

    Maybe he was real after all, but they had no way of knowing, ¡°I am sure you will learn it eventually, but we need to talk Sweetie.¡±

 Chapter 45: Companion Arc

    Chapter 45: Companion Arc

    ¡°S-Sir?¡±

    ¡°Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaattt iiiittttt?¡± Stones those colors were awesome~

    ¡°Wh-What in the name of the twelve happened here?¡±

    ¡°I got stoned, good¡­ Ah, not the sex kind.¡± I reached up at grabbed at the immaterial light above me. It floated just out of reach, dancing and glinting like the little tease is was.

    ¡°What?!¡±

    I could hear her blush, funny to hear a visual, even Bella giggled: could you hear a visual? Experiment idea~ though I did not know why she of all people would blush. ¡°I am fine Arc, hush and go.¡± It felt so good, why she did she have to be so loud? The light swayed and bobbed, breaking into dozen of different shades of earthen colors, each tinged with a golden aura.

    ¡°No! I-I mean, no sir, um, please pull yourself together!¡±

    Why did she act like that? Important experiment, going sooooo good~ Felt so good, almost over too, but I did not want the colors to go~

    A bell chimed around me and the pretty lights suddenly came together and grew larger. I grabbed at it, but the spell went right through my hands to hit me in the face.

    ¡°Gods!¡± I shouted, immediately regretting everything that happened in the last few minutes. I attempted to sit up before settling for rolling over instead. I felt stoning horrible, the painkilling chemicals that I had been experimenting with had only been a fairly small amount, but it had sent my mind places I never dreamed of.

    I swore to never use that on myself again and immediately made to note to inoculate myself to that effect. It was a good discovery, but without a way to produce it in large batches outside my body the snip spell would still be more effective.

    That said, it was a bit terrifying how good it actually felt. I did small experiements like that in the past, but never to that level. Despite everything I changed about myself, addiction was a danger I could never fully avoid, especially when the source of said addiction could come from my own body.

    ¡°Sir? What happened? Are you alright now?¡± She kept her distance like instructed, least I or my personal wards kill her by accident, but other than that the woman was nearly insufferable.

    I glanced over at Arc, the odd woman I rescued from the burning village. She was apparently some peddler¡¯s wife who had insisted they stop by her old home village. In her early twenties she was attractive, oddly without children, and now ¡®indebted¡¯ to me, to the extent that she had refused to leave myside after the patrol found us.

    Said patrol had arrive to investigate the smoke trail and found the two of us and a few newly minted eunuchs. Not being interested in calling a mage a liar, they had ¡®escorted¡¯ us back to town where other mages could start asking us more serious questions.

    Unfortunately for me, it turned out that the woman had no living family, surviving belongings, nor any talents beyond ¡®balancing books,¡¯ whatever that meant. As a result, I seemed to inherit the unfortunate obligation of taking care of her.

    Naturally I tried to object, but Bella surprised me by insisting that we take her along. At first she pointed out that, because of my little trick with my ears, we needed to keep an eye on her, which did make sense. However, that line of reasoning also sounded more like me than Bella.

    It was thus, to my astonishment, that Bella hid the reason why from me, instead asking me to trust her. While, technically, all she was doing was blocking me from seeing her one part of her mind, it still threw me because that I did not think we could hide anything from one another anymore.

    I could see that there was no malice coming from Bella, but it still made my skin crawl that she felt the need to hide anything, especially when I literally had my entire being open for her to investigate. That I was almost always the one in control of our body meant she was also free to poke around my thoughts as she pleased, while I would need her to take over in order to see her secret.

    That I had come to accept that Bella had her current level of access to my brain was already a large indicator of the level of trust I had in her. Bella was a part of me, regardless of my desirers and if she betrayed me, we would both likely die. So it was that the woman stayed, but I had a storm or curses come to mind when it happened. Still, the decision that had turned out to be surprisingly worthwhile in a few different ways.

    ¡°Sir?¡± I blinked and realized I had been staring.

    I sighed. ¡°I was experimenting on myself. The effects were quite odd, but nothing to worry about overall.¡± If I could create an aerosol version of that and put it inside an iron container, it would be a brilliant ay to immobilize large amounts of people with a low death rate.

    ¡°P-Please do not do that Lord Elf, what would I do if you died?¡±

    ¡°Your concern is touching, but it was only a pain numbing spell. Instead, I would suggest that you worry more about what would happen if someone heard you calling me ¡®Lord Elf¡¯ understood?¡± I shot her a glare as I was slowly sitting up straight. My head was pounding and I wished for the umpteenth time that I had something to take care of such things.

    After immediately seeing my looks she bowed her head and let out a stream of apologies.

    I had told her time and again over the time we spent together that I was not an Elf and she was certainly not obligated to stay by me. Still, she insisted and continued to tread on my nerves whenever we talked. Regardless though, she was good at something I greatly appreciated: talking with people.

    I was good enough at talking to individuals, changing to play to one person at a time, but she was good at talking with merchants, mothers, and whoever else was nearby, all at the same time. In a crowded market the woman was the single most helped person you could ask for when looking for information.

    Which was exactly what I had her doing the past few days. ¡°Did you hear anything about the River Stalkers?¡±

    ¡°Yes! Ah, I mean yes sir, I found out that they are not too far away to our north. Maybe half a days¡¯ hard ride.¡± She looked so stoning proud of herself I nearly broke out in laughter.

    ¡°Good job.¡± I turned away and moved to the bed where I had my traveling pack ready.

    The lodging had been provided along with a small reward for capturing the bandits alive. Or more specifically, the Lord Ferrum gave us a pass that basically meant we had free lodging in his lands. Unfortunately we were already at the edge, making the thing useless from here on out.

    That the bandits we captured indeed talked about the Stalker¡¯s knife made it necessary to rush a bit. Though the seal itself was unrecognizable after the fire, the connection had still been made, meaning I had to get moving, fast.

    As we left the town we were interrogated in Ferrum House, was already gathering up a ¡®small¡¯ force to go and talk to the River Stalkers. That this force seemed to consist of a fair number of mercenaries was worrying, but not unheard of given the nature of the raids and boiling tensions to the south. They were moving fairly fast as a result and would only be a few days behind.

    I planned to try and set things up with the Stalkers ahead of time so that everything could be settled as peacefully as possible, before things got too out of hand.

    Somewhat ironically, Bella actually asked if I was seriously prepared to kill for them. She, of all people, knew just how motivated I was not to kill anyone. She also knew what I had several plans in place to try and avoid just that.

    Would I suffer the Guilt because some group I had a slight connection to looked to be set up for murder on a fairly impressive scale? No. Would I suffer the Guilt because some group had a traceable connection to both me and some people I was concerned about? Yes, I would kill their whole clan if that was what it took.

    Men and women alike carried the same weight as far as the Guilt was concerned. That I knew and liked Janeen to the point where I killed her rapists in the past did not matter. I had killed my own family before, so compared to that Janeen was practically a stranger.

    On the subject, family stupidity was never an excuse to seek revenge to this degree. It was the one thing about the Stalkers that well and truly disgusted me as well as made me question if they were really unrelated to this madness. No matter who was in the wrong, or the situation they found themselves in, clan fought for clan.

    They even had a feud with Bella¡¯s father, Nathan, back in Entrials over the fact that he had apparently killed one of their clan after catching him trying to steal a horse. The way I heard it, only the clan leader Mathalaus, the fact that one of our brothers had magic, and the Lord-Mayor¡¯s personal efforts had kept the clan from killing Nathan in revenge.

    I did not know what happened in their past to make their ¡®clan¡¯ move to Entrials in the first place, but I did hear from Mathalaus himself that they were driven away.

    If that constituted a revenge that burned small villages than I would normally stay away, but I had a stoning mithril coin that, apparently, no smith would work without a duke¡¯s personal order! Furthermore, ¡®DeMorte¡¯ was already recorded as having the coin!

    I could not throw it away as a mage¡¯s magic imprint would lingered in the strange metal for months. I could not remake the thing, through a smith or on my own, because that would set off anyone who saw it. I could not hide it away from any real attempts to search me, because only iron could truly hide it and that would draw attention. AND to top it off the thing tied me to the River Stalkers and thus to Entrials, to mother¡­

    I shook my head, ¡°probably a stoning Nalk¡¯s fault.¡±

    ¡°Sir?¡±

    Moron, now you are cursing them out loud too. ¡°Nothing, just cursing the fact this became necessary.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ umm sir, do you really think someone is¡­ only making them look like the culprits?¡± She seemed to trust me when I said the Stalkers had not burned her town, but she also shut down whenever I started probing too closely.

    If she was not legitimately traumatized, than she was a spy, but I was still trying to decide which it was. Bella object to the idea for all of a fraction of a moment before I threw the word ¡®Nalks¡¯ at her and she shut up.

    I took a deep breath and looked over my new equipment. ¡°Yes, but I always prepare in case I am wrong.¡±

    Indeed I had few options so I prepared for the worst. I needed to meet up with the River Stalkers to create an excuse for why I still had the coin. I could spin a hundred stories about how honorable they used to be, or how their smith had simply worked the coin for Nathan¡¯s house and he had paid it to me.

    To that extent, I had somewhat abused the hospitality we received when in that town. After all, I had brought the local guards ¡®proof¡¯ of who was raiding the nearby lands and then was ¡®rudely¡¯ interrogated for all of the day and a half that it took the Lord to arrive. That was I given a meager monetary reward that ¡®did not properly reflect their gratitude¡¯ meant I got them to make it up in other ways.

    Though I never understood why wards put in weapons were called enchantments, it did not affect my work. As proof, thirty iron tipped arrows with small boom spells embedded in their shaft sat beside a bow with durability runes and a special ¡®enchantment¡¯ called line-up. I also had another group of ten arrows in my pack that I had enchanted with more viscous spells.

    My other equipment had also slightly changed as I took the opportunity to build up some personal wards. To those without ability, it looked like I was wearing a simple traveling robes, but to mages it practically glowed from all the new protection spells. They were incredibly valuable for to keeping me safe, though they made it almost impossible to walk down the street.

    Wards were usually too stupid to actively tell who was or was not a threat. Certain instructions could make them react to hostile intent, but if you (or whoever attacked you) were calm enough those were useless. Also, since they could not be activated or deactivated in a hurry it meant using them all the time was like walking around in armor covered in pointlessly sharp spikes.

    Not that nobles tended to care¡­

    Anyway to finish up my preparations, I also bought a rough piece of iron that I attached some bone material to in order to create a makeshift shield.

    I would rather have gotten a well fitted iron gauntlet and made some specially constructed throwing knives, ones that I could enchant, but I had neither the time nor the money. Not to mention that this body was still changing, making specialized equipment of limited use.

    While still fairly short, I was quickly nearing the average height of an adult peasant woman.

    Over all, it had drained the generosity of my hosts as I bought the equipment and ate enough to enchant it all in less than three days. After that, we had set off, trying to run down the River Stalker clan before anyone else could.

    Now we seemed to have caught up with them. ¡°Make sure you wear that riding dress the previous Lord gave you.¡± I called back, grabbing my things and preparing to leave.

    ¡°Y-yes sir, immediately.¡± I really wanted that stutter gone, but it was mental, not physical, and- and why did she say immediately?

    I turned back to find her stripping unceremoniously and starting to pull on the much nicer dress It had been a gift on the off chance that the Lord might want to meet us in person. Instead, he met me while she hid.

    ¡°As you do refer to me as in the masculine tone, should you really be so quick to change?¡±

    She was just about to done her nicer outfit when she froze. ¡°If your Lordship desires¡­¡±

    Gorith¡¯s tombstone her voice sounded dead, I wondered what sort of face she was making, but she was facing away from me. I wanted to sigh, but held it in. As someone who was a murderous, slaving, bandit in my previous life this was not my area. I had already given her the opportunity to take revenge and now she had to choose to move on.

    Not that I was expecting that choice to come anytime soon. Sometimes time had to work before you could close the door on such events¡­ Though they never could be fully closed. I was even prepared for most of what happened going in, but the rattling of chains had set me off for years after I violently ripped that particular noble family apart.

    Stones, the word ¡®slut¡¯ still set me on edge, but I had to concentrate on the present. ¡°No matter how attractive you are ¨C and you are attractive Arc ¨C I lack the anatomy for what you are thinking about.¡± I paused and briefly considered the slight fallacy of that statement before deciding to ignore it. My fingers were perfectly functional after all, but she seemed to be far too conservative to think of such things.

    ¡°Ah, that is right. Of course my lord. Hah, my apologies.¡± She resumed dressing and I refused to look away, trying to decide what that small ¡®hah¡¯ meant. She did not look at back at me though so all I had to go on was her stiff body language.

    ¡°No one has tried anything stupid have they?¡± I asked, looking over at the young woman¡¯s body for any new bruises or scars.

    ¡°No.¡± How short. ¡°Ah, I mean, no, Lord El-Sir ah, I¡­¡± She turned to face me and gave me what should have been a very nice view. My eyes moved down out of habit, but I quickly found that I was searching for injuries again without much thought, odd that.

    After I was done with my cursory inspections I waved a hand prompting her to turn back around. It had only taken a moment, but I still found it interesting that she actually let me have an eyeful, even if she was likely frozen in panic or something. ¡°That is fine, just remember that if you do not say, or do, anything, then nothing changes. If something happens, tell me.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir.¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    I shrugged to myself, as long as everything was fine she would likely heal in time. I had talked to her and tried to say the right things to help her recover, but I was still unsure about how it had gone over. Regardless, she knew that I could not do anything if she hid something that occurred. If she did, then it would be her own fault.

    She quickly finished dressing, never turning back until she was done.

    I might not like the woman¡¯s presence, but I did feel obligated to make sure no one touched her as long as she continued to be my servant. Both in the spirit of trying to heal instead of hurt and because it was simply my responsibility.

    Even if it was only temporary, she had become my follower and I took that seriously. To that extent I even taught her some self-defense basics, though most of them were difficult for her because of her build.

    I walked outside and was greeted by a man leading a horse, already loaded up for travel. I glanced back at her, ¡°Good job, the horse was not too much trouble to get I hope?¡±

    ¡°No, but the owner did not stop giving me suggestive looks when he asked if I had ¡®tried it yet,¡¯ which was unnerving.¡± She sent me a brief questioning glance, but did not ask the actual question.

    I took the rains and more or less dragged the horse over to her, the thing did not like me. Come to think of it, no animal had liked me since I went genderless¡­ something to look into later.

    Arc had told me before that she knew how to ride and this would give us two useful advantages. First, it means that I did not have to walk at her speed to bring her along, since I could be fully equipped and still outrun the horse for a time. Second, with my clothes and rough shield, I would be mistaken for a guard, which would give me a good idea of the River Stalker disposition.

    A young, lone woman riding around making her guard run along behind her would tempt a bandit or two, especially if those bandits had mages, which is what it looked like. If the Stalkers came out to greet us peacefully, which was what I hoped would happen, than it would be another indicator that they were being set up.

    If I was wrong for whatever reason ¨C I would have an iron shield on one side and a nice sized horse sporting a woman in a fine dress on the other.

    I passed her the rains and quietly mentioned the phrase ¡°bedroom problems¡± before stepping back to let her mount the beast. I studied her wooden face as she nodded and quickly calmed the horse down. She did not lie about having experience then.

    I made sure my wards recognized both her and the horse as comrades to protect as needed and we quickly set off. More rumors would be left in our wake, but I had given up on leaving anything besides an obvious trail, maybe when this was over¡­ I know, I know, but let me dream on occasion Bella.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------

    Arc¡¯s information was correct, though to preserve the horse we took a little longer than half a day. In fact we had left not too long after sunrise, so we arrived shortly before evening dinner, covered in sweat. I had sown a few cooling runes into our clothes, but it did not help that much, especially as we were wearing more layer than Arc and jogging most of the way.

    While our muscles were handling the abuse remarkably, Bella had almost completely dedicated herself to making we did not overheat. More flaws to work out, but this was a fairly natural one as I had not had to test my endurance like this. Denser muscle and bone mass was wonderful, but I still had a lot to work on, thing that I was only now managing to stress-test.

    I briefly tried in vain to find out why she wanted to keep Arc around, but she immediately turned her attention to blocking my efforts.

    As a result I was actually thinking about finding somewhere to sleep when I found the Stalkers. Or Stalker actually, singular, as despite my previous experience in lurking around mountains and actual forests, spotting more than one was a difficult task.

    Having spent over a decade guiding others in what to what people apparently called ¡®the last forest¡¯ meant that Stalkers had no need to stay in a town and cause trouble. That and they were called the ¡®River Stalkers,¡¯ in a land where fear of nature in any form seemed to be branded into people at birth. It was not a mental hardship to come up with the idea that they might follow rivers and streams.

    Thinking about some of the people I had met over the years, I was honestly a bit surprised that any wooded areas still existed at all. If it was not for the need for firewood, ship timber, and to demonstrate their control over nature, I honestly believed that the tree farms would be burned out of spite. Though the one I found the Stalkers in was not the first to make me start doubting if some of these areas were actually ¡®farms¡¯ at all, given their noticeably larger size.

    It would certainly be interesting if there were pliantly of forests left, but they were all called tree farms just to make the nature-phobic feel better. ¡°It seems that they are in there, Arc, I hope you do not have too much of a problem with the trees?¡±

    She glanced over at the trees though her vail, something I enchanted to make her look calm and distant no matter the situation. It serviced as a nice enough piece of misdirection. ¡°I do not like going too far in, but if I am with an- w-with you sir, I will be fine.¡±

    Was this infernal woman still stuck on the Elf thing? Gods above, at least she did not say it out loud, why do you want this woman here Bella?

    ¡°Good, just remember to remain silent and go along with what I say. I plan on telling some tales until we are invited in, since I would prefer they did not know I was a mage.¡±

    I did not hear if she responded, instead concentrating on the sole figure lurking near the edge of the woods in clothing that I had not seen outside of Entrials. I wondered how many were hidden as I directed Arc to turn towards the trees.

    Bella shifted in the back of my head as I used a brief gust of magic to cool and clean both Arc and myself. Now that she could relax Bella immediately started probing and mentally objecting to my plans.

    I wanted the Stalkers to be good people, getting wrapped up in something they did not ask for. If that was true and we could keep all parties calm and avoid unnecessary deaths, then the hurried trip would be worth it.

    That said, I had Arc on the horse, in her best outfit, for a reason. If they were responsible, if Janeen and her father Mathalaus had gone insane or been disposed of, then they might kill Arc out of paranoia. She did not have enough fat on her to be an epitome of magi beauty, but she would do.

    Despite a resent loss in weight the woman was still bigger than me and I was the actual mage. As long as I stayed within a certain distance of her, she would likely be mistaken as the mage. If the Stalkers were the same ones I remembered

    If they were not and they tried to kill Arc or myself for any reason, I would end the fight before it could truly begin.

    As we turned towards him the figure disappeared for a few minutes, but he was back before we made it halfway to the tree line, with two new friends. They both had spears in hand and bows slung behind them.

    My own bow was actually beside me on the horse, with the enchanted arrows right next to it, both easy for me to get to.

    What could we expect from them? A welcoming atmosphere and a nice dinner? Calm extortion? Violent ambush? Rabbit attack? -Hush Bella, I promise not to hurt any of the ¡®bunnies¡¯ if I can avoid it.

    As I got closer I realized that I could feel slight amounts of magic from them, but I could not place it before they started calling out. ¡°Far enough, who are you and what do you want?¡± The voice was strong, but not arrogant or smug, he was at the least taking his guard duties seriously.

    Words before violence, not necessarily a sign of friendliness, but a good start. ¡°The lady and I were requested to go and find the River Stalker clan on behalf of someone.¡±

    ¡°Who sent you?¡±

    ¡°Someone who does not want our help stopped by a few random men.¡± Subtle enough, you stoning graveborn? If I did not recognize them by their habits then I could confirm it by the small ritualist scar that they gave members of the clan when they came of age. A small crescent on their face, which was currently hidden from view.

    He glanced at one of the men beside him briefly and I did took the moment to do the same with Arc. She was keeping her head pointed straight ahead, but her eyes kept darting all around us, primarily leaping from tree to tree, but also occasionally sparing a glance at me.

    I mentally sighed and patted her horse, sending a light calming spell through them both. It was a bit of wasted mana, but if it could distract the Stalkers than all the better.

    That said I was disappointed in Arc. If the woman could not keep calm when only faced by a few guards I would have to seriously consider leaving her as soon as possible, least any guard worth his salt actually notice her. Odds were that I was breaking 4 or 5 laws in any given kingdom by simply carrying around this piece of accused Mithril or use human bones for armor and I did not want their attention.

    Yes, yes, Bella, I know you have some mysterious plans for Arc, however, if you are not going to tell them to me, than she at least needs to be useful in the short term. If I cannot use her to act out a part, than I will tell her to find her own path after all of this is done. No Bella, if it were anyone else

    Ignoring my internal probing as I once again tried and failed to discern Bella¡¯s plans for Arc, I looked back to the others as I heard the man start speaking again. ¡°We are from the River Stalker Clan. Who are you and why are you here?¡±

    ¡°We are friends of the clan with a message for Mathalaus, if he still lives, for his daughter if he does not.¡±

    ¡°You did not answer the question.¡± He growled.

    ¡°You did not prove your identity.¡± I replied. The men spread out and one even leveled his spear at me. ¡°A friend of the clan sent me,¡± I announced, ¡°I am supposed to see Janeen or her father for the purpose of confirming that I am delivering the message to the correct people. If you are just some murderous morons eager for death than please state so now so that my lady may rest in the shade as I slaughter you all.¡± I hit all three of them with a small amount of killing intent, causing them to stop moving.

    Not only had I now mentioned two of their clansmen by name, I had also relieved their relation to each other, and announced my determination to meet with them specifically. If they turned me away at this point, I was just going to find a tree and bury the blighted mithril coin, before leaving them to their fate.

    I released my killing intent and added one last tidbit, ¡°We are trying to warn your Clan in good faith, if the attempt fails because you turned us away, than you can deal with the Lord¡¯s wrath on your own.¡±

    After letting them think that through for a few moments I was about to turn around and give up when they finally relented. ¡°Fine, come along and behave yourself,¡± one of the other guard quickly came over a very brief exchange ended with: ¡°if you make any trouble, know that we have enough mages and iron to stop you quite quickly.¡±

    I turned to give Arc a reassuring smile, which she returned gratefully, before I turned back to the men. ¡°We have no intention to start trouble, if we need to wait for wards to be prepared, then so be it.¡±

    ¡°That will not be necessary, they are already prepared, please follow me.¡±

    As we walked I figured out where the magical presence around them originated from.

    It was their spears, specifically the wooden shafts. Come to think of it, while not an uncommon weapon where I was from, in this world enchanted spears were a rarity. Spears were still common enough in their various forms, but in some cases they could be more expensive than swords¡­ At least the basic iron swords anyway, as gold inlays were disturbingly practical when you could use magic.

    Was every one of their spears imbued with magic? The wood would channel it well enough, but I never saw the things back in Entrials¡­ The clan was much better prepared than I originally thought. Anyone going to face them would have a serious problem on their hands, I knew, I spend decades doing just that.

    Fun, I was likely walking into a heavily armed camp, near dusk, in a lightly forested area, with an otherwise useless burden that I felt at least partially obligated to protect. I smiled as we walked, the whole situation felt familiar and slightly nostalgic. A feeling that only got more powerful as we reached the outskirts of the encampment where the Stalkers were actually staying.

    A spread out affair, there were a few cooking fires and various tents spread out through the small forest. The Clan was more numerous than I remembered, with hundreds of clan members easily within sight despite the dimming light. Though one thing did strike a chord in me, although they were quickly herded away when the clansmen saw us, I also saw groups of children playing together.

    The feeling of nostalgia quickly receded and I instead felt a grim premonition. If they were attacked here¡­ gods above and below, blood would flow. An old oath, the feeling of inclusiveness attached to a clan, the children? If it was me, I would only risk a minor extortion fee and then stay far away, otherwise it had all the makings of a bloodbath.

    How smart was the Lord of this area? How ¡®honorable¡¯ were his intentions and what would it take to make him go away?

    Life seemed to be a series of never ending questions like that, though death was always the final answer.

    I looked over at Arc periodically, but she was more interesting in our surroundings than scared of them.

    Eventually we arrived at a larger tent that was set up between two rows of trees and had its own protection wards anchored inside it.

    I hardly took note though as I heard a familiar voice drift out from within the large tent. I had forgotten how fond I became of that young woman in the past and as we were led in I barely gave the guards in the room a cursory inspection (There were 6 of non-mages with enchanted spears, iron mail, back up iron weapons, two mages around 5 circles stood behind her) before focusing on her.

    I felt the hollow pang of my lack of a sex organ as I admired Janeen¡¯s curves, partly out of habit, partly because she was quite the beauty. Dressed in exceedingly practical and unrestrictive clothing, though now covered by a basic robe, I appreciated her for what she was, a fierce woman and hunter.

    I quietly allowed my eyes the briefest moment to reacquaint themselves with Janeen¡¯s figure and noted that her hips seemed to have grown even more appealing after giving birth.

    Inevitably though, my eyes came to rest on the clan¡¯s scar on her cheek for a moment and I felt a flicker of annoyance. It was a slight imperfection on arguably the most attractive women I had met in this world. Still, I nodded in satisfaction when seeing that familiarly fierce look of determination.

    ¡°You must been Janeen.¡± I bowed my head respectfully.

    ¡°You must be someone I do not know.¡± She responded coldly. ¡°Who are you and why are you looking for my father? Moreover, does the guard intend to do all the talking? Does your Lady¡¯s tongue not work?¡±

    ¡°My name is DeMorte and the lady is not a Lady in the titled sense, she was there to make sure the rumors were false. I was sent here to warn you that the Lord believes that you are responsible for the attacks that have been occurring recently.¡±

    Her face did not as much as twitch and I suppressed another nod. Janeen had grown up as well as I thought she would, despite her¡­ attack. Though if I looked for it, I could easily find reminders in her stiffness and the look of disgust towards me, a male outsider.

    Still, if there was anything I had a bad history of, it was seeing what I wanted to see, so I made an effort to check Bella¡¯s point of view. She saw it, but not as a scar, just as normal suspicion.

    ¡°An interesting statement. Why does it mandate you bringing along a fake Lady though? To make your words seem more like lies? Furthermore, what do we care of your rumors?¡± Well, maybe a bit more than ¡®normal¡¯ suspicion, depending on one¡¯s view.

    I reach behind me and took out the mithril coin that had caused me so much trouble and held it up slowly as I felt several in the room tense up. ¡°I was told to investigate the clan and try my best to settle thing peacefully, to which, I brought along a survivor of one of the most recent attacks.¡± I saw Janeen¡¯s twitch in more than just her eyes. Something about it made me think a memory of her own attack had just come to mind. ¡°Incidentally, this was given to me by a young woman, a cleric of Hoh with sharp ears, as payment since she could not investigate herself.¡±

    I produced the coin, ¡°She said that Mathalaus would recognize it.¡±

    The coin caught Janeen¡¯s eye and she visibly relaxed, letting some of the tension flow from her body for a moment. Then her cold and distant face was back, though the previous tension in her body did not return. ¡°I will see that my father hears of this, however he will not be free until to speak with you until tomorrow.¡± She reached out to take the coin, to which I responded by moving it just out of reach.

    ¡°It is meant to be both my payment and mark of safe passage, the young lady even made me fill it with my mana to mark it as such.¡± It stretched believability, but I gave that lie with a look of paranoia that should have communicated just how much I wanted to keep the mithril.

    Another, much smaller and more controlled, twitch ran through Janeen. ¡°I will give you my word of-

    Suddenly part of Bella¡¯s plan seemed to unfold itself in my head. ¡°Your word means nothing to me.¡± I let my cold voice freeze the room¡¯s occupants. ¡°Promise it to her,¡± I jerked my head at Arc who I saw jump out of my peripheral. ¡°Promise it to the woman who allowed herself to be ridden into a camp full of people that the Lord considers responsible for her rape and the death of everyone she loved.¡±

    I almost started a speech on the subject, but cut myself off instead, letting my anger at certain memories flow out physically instead.

    Janeen stared at for a moment, with no one else speaking, though Arc did stutter for a moment before falling into her own stony silence. After a deep breath Janeen spoke again: ¡°I will extend the Clan¡¯s hospitality to both of you and I give my word to you both that you will not be harmed while here.¡±

    I nodded, ¡°I thank you for your offer and accept it. I look forward to speaking with your father tomorrow.¡±

    * * *

    Not far to the South, at a temporary camp:

    Raanan Ferrum was not a fool, but he was greedy, which was dangerous.

    Leo looked through the multiple possible possibilities in the near future, using the Nalk method of peeking into other dimensions to confirm his estimates.

    As this Game¡¯s Architect and the functional ¡°GM¡± he knew just how badly this one event could go¡­ That none of the other Nalks had stepped in to stop it worried him.

    There were so many different ways that he could fail and the results of that failure would have long lasting effects, yet no one had stepped in to stop him or come to his aid.

    There were thousands of Nalks in any given Game and although many had started placing bets on the results, none had stepped in to stop or even delay the events.

    Raanan wanted to take the river Stalkers¡¯ mithril and use it for his house an attempt which would likely turn into a bloodbath under the best of circumstances. Under the worst, with DeMorte helping the Stalkers, even the collapse of the Kingdom was not totally out of the question. Granted, the odds of that specifically happening were roughly the same as Leo playing ¡®Global Thermonuclear War¡¯ anytime soon.

    Looking at Raanan Leo once again tried to follow the various predictions and pathways that events could take into the next few years. After taking various twists and turns he peeked into another dimension, looking for the ¡®worse possible result¡¯ just in case he missed something.

    Peeking was only meant to confirm a Nalk¡¯s suspicious after all, which was why it was frowned upon as a Game Move, but for Leo it was fine. Less than a full cycle remained before the Game Started and he was being overly redundant.

    Everything from the sun¡¯s output to the bird migrations had been checked twice at the minimum, least another little ¡®interference¡¯ take place, especially where DeMorte was involved. That stoning man could aggravate a rock and probably learn something new when it tried to kill him.

    Then Leo found it.

    ¡®You are the worst curse I have ever had to deal with DeMorte.¡¯ Leo inwardly cursed and immediately made an energy package that rippled outward to alert all Players of his change. Then he turned to Rannan and made the smallest of corrections.

    Not noticing that something was manipulating him, Rannan¡¯s eye swept past the maps and papers that appeared on his incredibly expensive magic display. A magic device created by his family to help sort the ungodly amount of paperwork that went with wartime events.

    By chance his eyes fell upon the small box, made out of the finest gold, crusted in gems, and infused with so much magic that even the untalented could feel its presence.

    On an impulse, Rannan walked over and withdrew his dagger. A quick cut and a small trail of blood collected into a single drop of blood that lingered for a few seconds, getting slowly heavier, before it fell onto the box.

    Instantly the first ten seals were released and Rannan cast the complicated spells to release the last few from memory. The resulting click informed him that it was unlocked and he opened the lid of the golden box.

    It had been decades since anyone in the family had cause to use it, but he did not know how much trouble the Stalkers were going to make. He might need it for the fight that was brewing in the south east.

    The black metal of the Zugoran neckless did not glint, it simply sat in its container, reflecting nothing in its passive black exterior. It did not need to glint menacingly, nor did it need to aggressively devour all the light around it. It simply existed in as a pitch black, raindrop shaped, piece of metal with some string running through its bronze housing, turning it into a neckless.

    It simply lay there¡­

    That was all it had to do to terrify the Lord Ferrum into slamming the lid back on the box.

    Leo confirmed the seed of fear was planted and peeked back into the infinite expanse of universes that held everything that could be. Naturally if he looked hard enough he would find that event again, but this time he settled for making it an infinitesimally tiny possibility.

    After all, compared to the fate of one or two kingdoms, the idea that a god would get involved was much more pressing. A continent or two falling to ruin was common and even expected to a certain degree, but a god interfering with the Game was not.

 Chapter 46: Clan Dissonance

    Chapter 46: Clan Dissonance

    ¡°Feed us Seymour.¡± I chanted out, causing a bouncing, slightly painful, chorus for food from all around me.

    Seymour, reportedly the clan¡¯s best cook, had sent me a small thing of gruel for my morning meal. Whether it was because he did not realize I was a mage, or he only meant to send food for Arc, I did not know. What I did know was that I needed more food and if he had shorted me on purpose, it was a particularly bad sign.

    Naturally, I assumed the worst and did my best to remember what little I heard about the man from when the River Stalkers lived around Entrials. After I did, I made sure to come prepared for battle.

    When Seymour turned to face me he was greeted by one oddly young looking mage carrying a squad of energetic children who were literally sitting on or hanging off of him. That we had, one and all, yet to eat their first meal of the day.

    ¡°What in the twelve are you doing?!¡± Seymour looked like he was caught between wanting to laugh and scold the children I was carrying. Truthfully, they were quite heavy and uncomfortable, but the light joint pain was worth making a good impression as the cook in question loved kids.

    With the sun only just rising I had not expected to find this many children running around, but it appeared that the clan¡¯s social standings had been disrupted. Specifically, while I was surrounded by clansmen, I could spot some groups with clan markings on their arms or foreheads, while others seemed to have no marking at all.

    I did not see them coming in, but it quickly dawned on me that there were more clansmen here than just the Entrials River Stalkers. A fact that I was both discomforting and reassuring at the same time.

    ¡°Alright, there you go, now off with you.¡± Seymour turned to me after he finished serving the last of the children, ¡°I thought you might be one of the old kin, but you are the newcomer right? Should you be walking around unescorted?¡±

    Old clan? People they left behind when they went east? ¡°It is against the law to keep a mage hungry, besides I have the mark of a friend of the clan.¡± I grabbed a bowl and held it out for him, ¡°please?¡±

    The man obliged me, taking the bowl to fill it, but did not stop asking questions while he did so. ¡°Those kids are good judges of character, but even with all the old clan coming and going they should not have trusted you that much.¡± He turned back and glared at me, keeping a healthy amount of some type of broth, with some bread on the side, out of my reach. ¡°How did you get them to play along?¡±

    ¡°I told them a story about the time I fought a group of killer plants.¡± Feed me Seymour!

    ¡°That is it?¡±

    ¡°That is it.¡±

    Seymour studied me for a moment before sighing and passing me the bowl with the bread balanced on top. I promptly traded this for another empty bowl and pointed out that I did not come here alone.

    While he was getting more two interesting things happened. First I realized that despite some rather nice spice growing islands to the south of the continent, spices were still a luxury. Though the broth was still better than anything I would have made. Second, my guide/guard found me.

    ¡°DeMorte was it?¡± I turned around and found three men standing behind me. Two were armed with those enchanted spears, but they were standing behind a mage who clearly bore the clan mark on his cheek. ¡°My name is Memnon, I was sent to make sure you had not gotten lost.¡±

    I looked at him and nodded, more interested in my fresh, downright fluffy, bread, which made up for my slight disappointment in the broth.

    He noticed. ¡°I was sure that someone was meant to send you a morning meal, perhaps they missed you?¡±

    I kept a neutral face. ¡°Someone might have sent some gruel by accident, forgetting that I am a mage and that I have someone else to watch out for.¡±

    His face did not twitch, which caused me to sharpen my look as he gave his apology. ¡°Ah, a shame, but these things do happen on occasion, you have my apologies.¡± The bow was somehow¡­ sarcastic.

    Seymour spoke up at that point, ¡°stop being a smart-arse Memnon and you, Mort was-?¡±

    ¡°DeMorte¡±

    ¡°-DeMorte, right, here is your companion¡¯s share and do not let Memnon both you. He is just one of the more overprotective types who sees all outsiders as a possible threat.¡± I accepted the second bowl in my free hand and thanked him before starting back to the tent.

    ¡°You know Memnon,¡± I did not look at him, but I could feel his mana close behind me, ¡°if you were just security prone I would not care, but disrespect is something else altogether.¡±

    ¡°Oh? I apologize if I seemed that way, but I assure you it is not the case.¡± He spoke lightly, not sounding annoyed from my slightly faster than usual pace. Interesting.

    ¡°Feel free to explain.¡± I called back.

    Nothing¡­

    Heh¡¯s relief-hole, one of those types was he? He was probably analyzing my movements and reactions and trying to figure me out. Gods above knew I loved tricking these types, but I rather not have to come up with an act on the spot. ¡°Good luck.¡± I called back.

    ¡°With what?¡±

    ¡°Trying to figure me out, my wife took half a decade.¡±

    ¡°Who said I was trying to figure you out?¡±

    We walked back to my tent in silence after that, only to have a slightly flustered looking man standing outside pacing.

    ¡°Hello, looking for someone?¡± I gave him a carefree smile.

    ¡°Sir DeMorte? Yes, you must be. Where did you go? Food? We could have brought that. Why did you not tell someone? Do you like sneaking around or- no never mind, I am to escort you to the Clan Heads once you are finished eating.¡±

    An analytic behind me and a panic prone gopher in front, lovely start to the day. ¡°Fine, after Arc and I are finished we will get moving.¡± Noticing the tent flap was oddly pinned shut ¨C something that would reseal the temporary wards I created ¨C I deactivated them and looked at the gopher. ¡°You mind?¡± I nodded towards the tent and held up the two bowls to show my hands were full.

    ¡°Of course,¡± He rushed forward and pinned one opening for me, before standing aside and holding the other. ¡°Though I do have to request that you finish quickly and do not go wandering around anymore, as it caused me quite a bit of trouble.¡±

    ¡°If that was the case then you should have posted someone as my escort and had him ready outside my tent before dawn.¡± I ignored the fact that there actually were a few guards outside my tent when I slipped out. They had been the ones to bring me that insultingly small snack they called a meal.

    We moved back into the tent proper and Arc went from a tense crouch to her feet in a moment. A smile flashed across her face as her whole body seemed to relax. I realized that leaving her in this place all alone was not the most observant move. ¡°Eat.¡± I cut off any possible response and handing her one of the bowls. ¡°They did not poison it, I checked.¡±

    She blinked and meekly accepted the bowl while glancing guiltily at the gruel. I originally told her to go ahead and eat it while I got a double serving for myself, but it would be better if she stayed healthy.

    ¡°Y-y-you have our hospitality, yet you check our food for poison!?¡±

    I turned back just enough to look at the man and spoke coldly, ¡°I came here to see if you were rapists and murderers like others claim.¡± I then put down my own bowl and turned back fully to face him. Taking a few steps forward I walked him to back up out of the tent. ¡°While I have decided that you and yours are not those people, I check all of my food for poison and would do so even if my own children had made it.¡± I stopped at the tent entrance as the man finally realized that he backed up out of the tent, ¡°I do hope that you do not take it personally.¡±

    I removed the pin, but did not reactivate the wards as I went back inside, as such temporary measures were hardly my real protection. I had my not removed my iron since I got into the camp, though I had not openly worn my sword while going for food.

    I turned and almost asked Arc if she was alright, but she was happily alternating between the bread and broth. I sighed internally before sitting down to eat as well, the woman would either become someone very helpful or a hindrance. Either way, she needed to work through her issues, but I was hardly one to talk about that. Right Bella?

    Later, I made sure that my iron weapons were more obviously secure and reactivated the wards before we were led across the camp. To a noticeably larger tent that was oddly without wards of its own.

    It caught me off guard and I started to worry if they did that to make me drop my guard as we were led in, only to find that things were slightly different than I expected.

    Mathalaus and Memnon were sitting together directly across from the entrance, but noticeably distant from the tent wall. At least a full spear¡¯s length distant, which was saying something given that, even if it was easily the largest tent I had seen in the camp, it was still a tent in an area with a fair amount of trees. That there were 5 distinct groups, each with their own mages around them as guards.

    Each group had a different clan mark, with one notable group even having theirs on their chests, which they left exposed. I felt Arc stiffen beside me and silently hoped that she would not do or say anything stupid. That said, my hopes reversed themselves as the group noticed her and sneered.

    Clobbering heads in ¡®polite¡¯ society would likely get you enemies, but in rougher places it was more likely to get you respect¡­ provided the clobbering was asked for in the correct way.

    I tried to project a calm demeanor and studied the room, which appeared to be returning the favor.

    Mathalaus had not changed since I last saw him, still every bit the small mountain in human form. He did have some small signs of aging, but I would guess that it was more stress than him actually getting old. Even sitting down the man was a wall of muscle and quiet intensity that I freely gave my respect to.

    The others, however, were unknown to me, with each group besides Mathalaus¡¯ having three people.

    One group in particular got my attention. They had their mark on their forehead and were led by a fat man who was either a non-mage merchant or someone like me, given his complete lack of any obvious magic. The friendly smile on his face as he nodded at me did not stop a calculated once-over when he saw me.

    The man¡¯s guards also had some interesting muscular builds, primarily because they were more or less hidden by a layer of cultivated fat. Combined with the obvious ease of their stances despite the tension in the room reminded me of some assassins I had met in the past, I immediately labeled them as ¡®Assassin Merchants¡¯ in my head¡­ before immediately shorting it.

    Another group, with their marks on their hands, were the exact opposite of the Ass Merch, at the center of a small storm of agitated mana. They were mages on my own level, but if they were this unpracticed at controlling their mana, then they were less of a danger than most¡­ or maybe they were trying to impress the others.

    Either was possible as their leader was a woman who actively leaking killing intent, mostly at the muscled morons who seemed at to be trying to decide whose presence they took most offence with. I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and call them the Fish, old slang for an unbloodied soldier.

    Then there was the Fodder. I really could not think of them as anything else, they were the idiots glaring at darn near everyone despite having only the smallest amount of magic as far as I could tell. They seemed especially offended at the two women in the tent.

    The last groups was much more forgettable, reminding me of some of the Histones, with no noticeable muscle builds and only a bit more magic than the fodder. The Bookworms also had a portable stand with some writing material set up behind their leader, which one of their number was already getting to work on.

    ¡°I am curious. I am CURIOUS¡­¡± I spoke into the small chaos and a few people stopped speaking to look at me, but it was only when I repeated myself that the conversation all died down. ¡°Who thought showing an outsider like me this shameful internal conflict was a good idea? Or perhaps the fact that three of the five of you look ready to kill is just an illusion?¡±

    I was half sure this was all an act. Why call me in on something like this unless I was meant to see this?

    Fodder and Sieve looked dismissive while Ass Merch seemed to turn just slightly at that and I noticed that his smile no longer reached his eyes. The Bookworm just looked confused and Mathalaus kept an admirable straight face.

    ¡°The rude sapling makes a point, who invited these vermin into the meeting of chiefs?¡± Fodder thumped the clan mark on his chest. ¡°An armed and armored sapling at that! The disrespect!¡±

    ¡°I did.¡± Mathalaus rumbled. ¡°Proof that even outsiders can see how childish we act.¡±

    ¡°You did or your daughter did? No, forget I asked. It hardly matters who moves your part of the clan as long as you do not damage the rest of us. Which brings up the obvious question: Why did you invite the sapling here?¡±

    Obviously he heard of my incredible skills regarding the human body and wanted to ask me to increase the amount of intelligence in the room. I rolled my eyes and ideally checked with Bella to see if any nearby Nalks had heard that and were laughing at my sarcasm.

    ¡°Perhaps he just wanted intelligent conversation for once, Ufuoma?¡± That was the Sieve, unknowingly following my thoughts.

    ¡°I am glad to hear you admit that you do not qualify, but please do remember to let the adults finish speaking Rawiya.¡±

    I noted that the newly identified Rawiya, the sieve, was indeed the youngest of the five who I had identified as heads. Not that it made the subsequent burst of killing intent any less annoying.

    Most of the group did nothing more than shift at it, but Arc and the Ass Merch did give me something slightly entertaining to watch. While she went from a tentative sitting position to a half-meter jump, the Merch just casually tapped, or turned, something in his sleeve.

    Moving past those two however, I had to admit that I was impressed by the Fodder. This guy made enemies so fast I started thinking about how I could hire him to work for my enemies¡­ then discarded the idea. Those self-righteous mercenaries who called themselves ¡®Adventurers¡¯ were my only open enemy at the moment and they were arrogant enough as it was.

    ¡°Perhaps it is something important that you do not want to delay with bickering?¡± Memnon sighed.

    ¡°In that case I propose that we simply ask the person in question and give them time to answer it.¡± Bookworm¡¯s voice surprised me for not sounding sarcastic in the slightest.

    ¡°Seconded.¡± The Ass Merch sounded happy enough, but the fact that he was currently more laconic than Mathalaus annoyed me a little.

    The mountain in question, rumbled, ¡°DeMorte, tell them.¡±

    I shook my head, this was a mess and the longer I stayed here the more I wanted to start bashing heads. Seeing my seeming refusal to speak the Fodder started to speak, but I cut him off. ¡°Silence, you should all be chiefs of some sort and this lack of self-control is either an act for my benefit or a declaration that this clan is doomed. For the sake of everyone here, especially the children outside, I hope that it is the former.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°Now, to put it simply: I was asked by someone who knows Mathalaus to investigate a series of attacks. These attacks seem to have had no overall point, but they were conducted smoothly enough to keep any evidence from being left behind, save for one of the most recent.

    ¡°That raid did leave one thing behind, a dagger that bore the mark of a burning tree. This mark was apparently partly melted in said fire, but witnesses saw the symbol and associated with the Clan.¡± There was a sir, but I talked over them. ¡°The Lord has since come to the conclusion that the River Stalker Clan has something to do with these attacks and is on his way with a noticeable force to investigate you as a threat¡±

    The small, but surprisingly contained, explosion of conversation that resulted was somewhat expected. Though I found the Sieve and Fodder chiefs¡¯ actions most interesting. The Fodders lost their scornful look and the lady reigned in both her killing intent and her magic all together. She still leaked a bit into the surrounding air, but the look on her face confirmed that she had been leaking her magic on purpose.

    I was about to tell them to be silent again when I heard someone behind me and Mathalaus shot to his feet. ¡°Elder.¡±

    I looked behind me to find an old woman being helped into the tent by Janeen. She was very old too, so much so that I was honestly unsure if she was not physically older than my mental age. She had her clan mark on her face like Mathalaus and Janeen, but I did not recognize her from Entrials.

    ¡°What are you brats doing?¡± The first words out of the crone¡¯s mouth had my respect already, though she did not stop there. ¡°Arguing amongst yourselves like this, shame on all of you. The clan might well be in danger again and you all want to squabble like Gathich in heat.¡±

    I watched as the room seemed to visibly shrink back at her statements, save only Mathalaus and Janeen, who just kept their heads bowed respectfully. Where had she been earlier? She was quickly taking control of the room with just a few words and all save Fodder did not even try to stop her. ¡°Elder, with the deepest respect, this is a meeting of heads and it is my understanding that you have forfeited your position to your son.¡± His eyes glanced at the small mountain of a human now glaring at him.

    Son? Mathalaus? Well now¡­

    ¡°No Ufuoma, this is supposed to be the reunion of our great clan, though I see most of your followers have yet to arrive. Regardless, I had to hear from my granddaughter that we had a visitor that claims to bring news of danger. Then I come here expecting to see preparations being made and instead what do I find?¡± She glared at Fodder ¡°panicking children.¡±

    ¡°We were in the middle of asking him about that when you arrived, but perhaps all those years of skulking about in the woods has-¡±

    ¡°Ufuoma!¡± Mathalaus¡¯ shout silenced the room.

    The elder shuffled forward until she stood in front of the muscular idiot. ¡°We have been together for only a small amount of time compared to how long we have been apart. However, we are one Clan all the same. We will face more obstacles in the future and we will not fare well if we falter at this stage.¡± She sighed, ¡°It does not sound like we will have time for the rest of your branch to arrive Ufuoma, they and their gifts will be worthless if we fall before then.¡±

    I blinked. This Fodder graveborn was acting like this when he had yet to even bring his own men to the encampment? Seriously? How many Stalkers were there anyway? I quietly shook my head and started pondering the anatomical possibility of Fodder¡¯s stones and brains being mixed up.

    Finally starting to realize that he was being a fool, Fodder scrambled. ¡°Yes well¡­ I- With respect Elder, we could hardly plan for three armies to suddenly decide that they wanted to move to their borders for a war. Or would you rather they lost both their lives and the weapons they bring?¡±

    ¡°I would rather that they had already arrived, but we will have to deal without them, regardless of how great their achievements have been. Now if you are done making unnecessary excuses, I have yet to introduce myself to the young ladies.¡±

    I coughed politely, cutting off any additional comments from Fodder, this was taking too long for my liking. ¡°I am DeMorte and I am neither young nor female.¡±

    She turned to face me and gave a nod, ¡°I am Fikriyya, Heartwood of the clan you know as the River Stalkers. My apologies for the confusion.¡±

    Heartwood? Clan I know as? I nodded back, ¡°It is fine, just a simple mistake I am sure.¡± Or was it? ¡°At least you introduced yourself, which is more than I can say for the rest of the room. Oh and please do not bother doing so now,¡± I added eyeing the heads one by one, ¡°I prefer the names I made up in my head.¡± I returned my gaze to Fikriyya and gestured at the woman beside me, ¡°This is Arc.¡±

    She gave Arc a long look and walked over to take her hand, ¡°my condolences. This world is a harsh one, but being involved in such events is always a tragedy.¡±

    ¡°¡­Thank you.¡±

    I refused to shake my head at how quiet Arc was being, I would also have to check her for curses later, regardless of the lack of mana I felt from the old woman. For the moment though, I decided to get back on topic. ¡°I was just about to answer questions about some possible trouble for your clan.¡±

    ¡°Like why we should even believe you?¡± Fodder was quickly starting to earn a new name in my head, ¡®ignorant fool,¡¯ but then again, there was always one in every group.

    ¡°Indeed.¡± Fikriyya shot Fodder a look, ¡°I would like to know that too, but first,¡± She continued talking as she hobbled away and took Mathalaus¡¯ seat, after he voluntarily evacuated it for her. ¡°Why you think our Clan is in danger, the short version, please.¡±

    ¡°I was asked to investigate some attacks, I subdued some unrelated bandits who took advantage of the chaos after an attack. Afterwards, when the local patrol arrived to investigate the area they talked about a dagger with a burning tree on it.¡±

    She narrowed her eyes and I observed the multiplying wrinkles with slight interest. Looking younger or older with my magic would be fairly easy, but I needed years of information to actually guarantee a longer long-span itself. ¡°The soldiers assumed that we were responsible just from that? That is not even our clan symbol.¡±

    ¡°No, the Lord got involved and after someone, somehow, made the connection he started looking for mercenaries.¡±

    Fikriyya latched onto the word and spoke up when I paused. ¡°Mercenaries? Not guard? How did you hear about that?¡±

    ¡°He tried to hire me. However, I found it alarming that he immediately went to start gathering mercenaries, especially after I asked around and found you way up here. I briefly wondered if it was one of your sub-groups, your ¡®branches¡¯ I believe, however that seems extremely unlikely.

    ¡°I try not to think that plans this obvious are true, but there were hardly any Histones consulted on the matter.¡±

    Fikriyya nodded gravely and aged before my eyes as she considered this. ¡°How long ago was this?¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°It was only a few days ago, but I would imagine that it would not take him long to put something together. The question is: how serious is he about you? I saw those spears of yours and if you have any other tricks then anything less than a full mage company would be useless.¡±

    ¡°Then why risk it?¡±

    ¡°He probably has no idea how many are here, or that people like her are on your side.¡± I nodded to sieve, who sat up slightly straighter in response. ¡°Also, if he thinks that there is more like the Mithril coin I was given then I would say that he is coming here to extort a payment.¡± I shrugged. It was what I would do, but I was a Tyrentus, a self-made king, not a multiple-generation entitled noble.

    ¡°If that is the case,¡± I added, starting to speculate ¡°then his word as a noble would be enough to at least push you out of this kingdom if you do not pay. Regardless of what you do however, he could say that you proved your innocence or betray you and march down south for reinforcements¡­¡± I paused and realized that I was starting to analyze the situation too much, as if I planned on staying for that. ¡°Though it would depend on the Lord in question and I only met him briefly so I am unsure myself.¡±

    She made a point of meeting my eyes. ¡°Then we at least have some time to decide on our next action and prepare. Now then, why should we trust you?¡±

    I returned her gaze with a hurt face. ¡°Beside the fact that I am a friend of someone you trust? Beside the fact that it would be very hard, if not impossible, for this information to hurt you if you handle it correctly?¡± Beside the fact that I could kill you all?

    ¡°Yes, because an unaligned group suddenly fortifying before a Lord came for a visit would certainly not affect their opinion.¡± I opened my mouth, but she overrode me. ¡°Also, I know Bella and not you. That girl is hardly the type to leave things alone, yet you are here and not her. You could have met her and stolen the coin for all I know. In fact, why did you ¡®investigate¡¯ these attacks if Bella was so interested that she gave you her proof of clan friendship?¡±

    I could not tell she was lying, did that mean she had met Bella as an infant or that she was that accomplished a liar? Probably the latter given how she talked about Bella, but it was not something I could remember. Well, it was not like I did not anticipate that kind of question. ¡°You have not heard about the accusations against the famous temple to Hoh?¡± After she shook her head I continued, ¡°I heard that someone left an accusation of Soul Magic being the key to their famous wards.¡±

    Fikriyya scoffed, ¡°There is always someone accusing someone else of Soul Magic from the shadows. There has not been an actual Mage around for centuries.¡±

    ¡°Regardless, Bella stayed there for a time, so when the accusation was given to the Histones, she went running back. Straight into one of the first attacked villages, where she found something concerning.¡± I paused for a moment, ¡°She danced around the issue somewhat, but she admitted that she was worried and asked me to look into it. She even gave me the coin, saying that she heard your clan was in the area and I should make sure you were okay while I looked into it.

    ¡°I read between the lines and decided to make sure that a young talent like Bella did not do something like cover up your involvement unjustly. She did seem rather certain that you might be in danger from such a group though.¡±

    Janeen, interestingly, gave a small, proud, smile at my story about Bella, but Fikriyya was watching me carefully. ¡°Oh? Yet you came here into our camp basically by yourself. Did you trust Bella that much? She did not seem to trust you enough to explicitly say her thoughts.¡±

    I leaned forward and looked the old woman straight in the eyes before reaching inside to draw out the old look that I had spent decades cultivating. It was subtle in most ways, a particular seriousness in my look and a resolution to kill in my eyes. On the whole though, this was me letting her see the Bandit King, the human monster who had butchered his way to a crown. The crone¡¯s eyes widened in response and I noticed the rest of the fools draw back, with the Ass Merch and his guards in particular tensing up noticeably.

    Ah, fear, finally. Did they finally get the message that I was not a normal person?

    ¡°Bella knew enough that she was not concerned over my safety and besides, I could still kill everyone in your clan if I so desired. I just chose not to since I have come to believe that you honestly have nothing to do with the raids.¡± I pulled back with my body and my old self. ¡°That and after you spend five decades killing others, it is not uncommon to wonder if you cannot save a few more lives instead.¡±

    I sighed, letting the tension in the room deflate. I swore I felt Bella patting me on the back for a moment, but I was obviously mistaken as, a moment later, I felt a barrage of insults accusing me of trying to start a fight.

    ¡°In any case,¡± I continued, ¡°I am curious about what you plan to do.¡± I let my eyes flick between Mathalaus and Janeen briefly before turning back to Fikriyya. ¡°As I would hate to have to tell Bella about how three generations of Stalkers were wiped out because of a bit of pride. Or would it be four?¡± I looked pointedly at Janeen¡¯s widened hips and raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°That would be none of your business if it was DeMorte.¡± Fikriyya¡¯s stated, both solemnly and defensively, to which I grimaced and nodded. Death was a common thing, that three of Bella¡¯s siblings had died before we even left Entrials was proof.

    ¡°Never easy losing a child. I remember how my wife reacted whenever I¡­¡± I left that sentence unfinished. It was hard to lose a child, but it was even harder to accept killing your own.

    That was one of the ironic benefits of being used to the Guilt ¨C everyone felt like a lifelong friend for that moment after I was finished killing, I knew them perfectly before the memories left my body. The only major difference between killing a stranger, only to suffer through the Guilt, and killing one of my own, was that the memories of those graveborns was my own and took longer to sink to the back of my mind.

    Fikriyya frowned, ¡°You sound far too experienced for your youth; how old are you boy?¡±

    I smiled lightly, pushing away the memories again, ¡°I stopped counting a while back, but I think I am a bit younger than you.¡±

    Fikriyya gave a brief smile of her own and shook her head. ¡°That is hardly an answer, you think that you are younger than me?¡±

    ¡°Indeed. Anyway, if you want answers to more questions about myself, I would like some of my own answered first. After all, if you do not want to tell me what you plan on doing, than please at least do me the decency of explaining why this.¡± I gestured to the room at large. ¡°As it seems like there is a story there and I am curious.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps another time then, I would like to discuss this matter with the Clan.¡± Drat, I went too far previously.

    ¡°You sure? I have a habit of making up stories if left alone. Why not tell me about this Clan while we are here? It seems you have been separated for a while and I doubt it would hurt to recount your origins.¡± It was also better than having them concentrate on me, also¡­ ¡°I honestly have no idea what a clan even is. An extended family system of some type?¡±

    ¡°Another time. I believe that it is time to discuss the response to this development,¡± she glared at me, ¡°privately.¡±

    ¡°Of course, though I will be staying in this camp a bit longer, unless you demand that I leave, so feel free to come ask me any questions you can think of.¡± I slowly stood up, ¡°I will just find something to do in the meantime.¡± I stood up to leave and felt Bella push a memory forward. Back when Fikriyya called us female there was something she said¡­ wait, no, it was not her, but Fodder.

    Yes, he said something about three armies? If they were diverted by three¡­ no I am jumping to conclusions¡­ Haereticus is an important port for its position between the three kingdoms, but there is no guarantee it is anything more than that¡­

    Still, they had a stash of mithril, why not its counterpart? The city states were always looking for fighters and if the Fodder were seamen they might have experience dealing with the constant pirate problem¡­ I would have to poke around later, adamantine was still a mystery to me.

    Well, I still had their permission to stay a few more days, but why put it off? It was not exactly late in the day.

    ¡°I will show you and Arc around.¡± Memnon volunteered, to my mixed interest and annoyance.

    Showing me and Arc around eh? Heh. ¡°Very well.¡±

    * * *

    Sunset that evening:

    Janeen quietly smiled as Memnon groaned, almost collapsing next to her, ¡°There are times I hate my life.¡±

    She rolled her eyed and gave her father an amused look. To anyone else he looked uninterested, but she could see the small lift that was his version of a smile. They had been eating dinner together wondering if the Clan could finally come together in the face of an outside threat when Memnon arrived. ¡°Which one caused the trouble?¡±

    ¡°Everyone caused trouble, although Arc was the only one blessed enough to try and stop it.¡± Memnon sighed. ¡°DeMorte just crushed the pride of our clan¡¯s youth instead.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Janeen looked over sharply at Memnon and he just shook his head, shoving a large serving of food down his gullet and coughing a few times before he answered.

    ¡°He found some of the young ones practicing rather energetically he started correcting them and a few called him,¡± Memnon paused, ¡°some unpleasant things. Which led to a few sparring matches.¡±

    ¡°Matches that he won I take it?¡± Janeen asked dryly, there had been more than enough pride in the head meeting, their clan did not need more of it.

    ¡°Matches that he made fools of them in, while fighting 4-on-1, with one of our special training spears, while ¨C as it turned out ¨C in armor, and all without breaking a sweat.¡± His voice was quiet as he replayed the match in his head.

    ¡°He was using one of our spears?¡± Janeen knew from personal experience that they were weighted differently on purpose to hide what the Clan¡¯s enchantment specialist had done to them.

    ¡°For the first time.¡± Memnon sighed and then added ¡°by the way, you owe him an apology. One of the young bucks was actually using an enchanted spear and fired the head at him.¡±

    Janeen saw her father freeze at that news, but the way Memnon was talking¡­ ¡°He dodged.¡±

    ¡°He caught the spearhead barehanded.¡± Memnon said deadpan. ¡°Then healed himself in moments.¡±

    Janeen just shook her head, ¡°please tell me you at least saw that one was punished.¡±

    ¡°I did not get a chance to, DeMorte dropped the bloody spearhead on his head and told him he was better than that¡­ Not that he was one of ours anyway.¡±

    ¡°Memnon.¡± Mathalaus warned.

    Memnon just raised his hands ¡°I know, we are one Clan, but it is hard to convince everyone else of that, which reminds me, how did the rest of that meeting go?¡±

    Janeen sneered ¡°The Elder was the only one speaking with a fully functioning brain.¡±

    ¡°That well? Lovely.¡±

    She snorted, ¡°how about you? Did you learn anything useful about DeMorte or did you just court his companion the whole time?¡±

    Memnon sent her a scathing look, ¡°I spoke to her as much as possible to find out more about DeMorte as the man seems to have decided not to talk to me if he can avoid it. The problem was that she only recently met him and¡­¡± he paused, looking unsure of himself, ¡°she treats him like he is something beyond human. It was a little much, even if he did save her.¡±

    Another snort, from Janeen as she resisted the urge to tease her cousin any more, instead turning to Mathalaus. ¡°What did you think of him Father?¡±

    Mathalaus stopped eating at that point and looked up at his daughter and took a few moments to think before replying. ¡°He reminded me of a few people I knew. Cold men. The type who had seen too much war and let it get in their bones. He saw us as unprepared and divided and looked down on us for it. Constantly looking for more information on who we were, while refusing to acknowledge that we were people, as if he had already accepted our deaths.

    ¡°While I will say that we hardly received him in the manner we would have for a true friend, he is certainly not a man whose trust or loyalty is easy to earn¡­ In fact he reminded me of how Bella was after you were attacked.¡± His eyes took on a hard look as he remembered the unpleasantness that happened just before they left the Entrials area behind them.

    Janeen froze in surprise, her father was normally not much of a talker, but that incident was taboo from his point of view. The Elder has said it was partly because of the damage done to him when he was younger. The memories and physical damage of which had made talking painful for most of his life. Even though Bella had, shockingly, healed a large portion of it, he still rarely talked this much.

    To Janeen it was an indicator of how worried he was about what would happen in the future.

    The memory of those days made Janeen once again swear that, should they ever met again, she would offer to induct Bella into the Clan. The girl had been closer to a younger sister to Janeen than any in her Clan and after that¡­ no.

    She pushed the memories away and concentrated. Her child was no longer in this world and thinking about him, his father, or those three dead fools would do her no good. ¡°Father¡­ I do not see it, how could you compare him to her of all people?¡±

    ¡°I did not say they were alike all the time Janeen, I am saying that he reminded me of Bella in that moment.¡± He took rumbling breath and Janeen almost flinched, Bella had helped him beyond words, but he was still not fully healed and likely never would be. ¡°Bella¡¯s rage was very focused that night, she had someone important to her hurt and nothing got in her way¡­ regardless of what should have been possible, I swear that girl did something and I do not blame her one bit.¡±

    Anger seemed to radiate from him as he spoke, but he quickly calmed down and continued. ¡°It was different from his causal spite of the world around him, but I could see that same look when it looked like Ufuoma was about to say something about Arc. I would say that he probably sees the world in terms of enemies, allies, and potential enemies.

    ¡°Beyond that I can only think of three things that would have his level of arrogance, but I doubt that he is either a Dragon or an Elf in disguise. No, DeMorte has the arrogance of nobility, but the honorable kind ¨C if they really exist. He led men before, led them and lost them. What I am still trying to decide is how he sees us and if he would be a boon or a danger.¡±

    There was silence for a minute before Memnon stirred, ¡°then what will we do if he is the latter? As much as I hate to admit it, his arrogance was completely justified in the physical sense and when he healed a wound someone said his mana reserves were even more terrifying.¡±

    There was silence again before Janeen said what they were all thinking. ¡°Then we will do what we must-¡± She paused and steeled her will.

    Then they spoke together. ¡°For the Clan.¡±

 Chapter 47: Long Memories

    Chapter 47: Long Memories

    ¡°So how do you think the news it going over?¡± I asked pleasantly, trying to ignore the energetic youth running around all of us. It was hard to ignore the constant running around and spirited yelling, but the small feast that Janeen had surprised me with this morning helped a lot.

    I did not mind the kids from yesterday, but that was partly because they were too young to have even start developing any magic abilities in earnest. That some of the teens that were giving me a wide birth was only a small comfort in the face of the sheer number of little ones.

    That was not including the fact that Bella¡¯s talent, to see inside other people¡¯s bodies with mana, was currently fighting to unleash itself on everyone who touched me. It would certainly not hurt them, but I was hardly prepared for the obligation the Guilt would give me if I saw something dangerous.

    ¡°I thought I told you? It will likely involve some violence before everything is settled, which is why I am over here with the young ones. Plus I get to apologize for what the young ones put you through yesterday.¡± Janeen spoke with a wide grin, not looking at me, but instead tickling a random young girl vigorously for attempting to drop some bugs down into Janeen¡¯s clothes.

    That said clothes were ¡®practical¡¯ enough to make my nonexistent genitals quake was likely not a coincidence¡­ God above there were some downsides to this genderless thing, even if I thought the lack sex would help me in the long run.

    ¡°I see.¡± Honestly, I would have enjoyed a chance to talk to Janeen alone, but that seemed unlikely, despite the absence of both her child and said child¡¯s father. I was a bit disappointed at that, but I was able to answer something that had idly popped into my head a while back. What type of mother would Janeen be? Judging by the look of her smile¡­ well I sympathized with the slight looks of disappointment when she let the child go.

    Seeing a red ball of mana starting to form behind me, I instantly shot out a simple dispel without looking and hear a light gasp from behind me. I rolled my eyes quietly, dispels were traditionally the second or third spell taught to those with the ability to use magic.

    Janeen looked over in confusion while I just ignored it. Young, magically talented, individuals liked testing their powers out on others, it was not something new and as long as they were a respectable distance away, it was not an issue.

    ¡°I notice that we are some of the only adults around here, even Memnon is absent.¡± I probed Janeen, slightly surprised by the distinct lack of mothers or other adults anywhere near us.

    She grimaced slightly, ¡°Father and the others decided that this was not a decision to be made by them alone, so they will be explaining the situation at the clan. Everyone will get a say, however,¡± she paused, looking around at our surroundings, ¡°everyone was just getting excited about going home, I do not think they can-¡± She broke off as a pair of children started yelling at each other just behind me.

    You do not think they can run away? I kept the question to myself, instead deciding that now was a good time to actually hear the story. ¡°What is your clan¡¯s story anyway? I was serious yesterday when I said that I was not even sure what clan meant.¡±

    ¡°Story!?¡±

    ¡°Oh stone me.¡± I quietly cursed, the kids were interested.

    ¡°What does that mean?¡± More kids, at least I was keeping most of them from hanging off me today.

    I kept my mouth shut for a moment as Janeen shot me a glare, as if they would not figure it out when they were older. ¡°When you understand the art of ¡®rock and roll¡¯ you will understand what I mean.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    I ignored the kid, ¡°Janeen?¡±

    She sighed and clapped her hands a few times, ¡°alright then, everyone gather around. How many of you have heard the story of our clan?¡± Most raised their hands, but there were some among the youngest who did not. ¡°Very well, but I find that stories are not always told the same way over time, so do remember that my story might not be the exact same as the ones you learned.¡± She made a point of looking over at one of the young men with a plunging neck line that would have left a clan mark visible on his chest, if he had one.

    After a pause, she started telling the story:

    ¡°Long ago, when the accursed Elves,¡± She paused to allow a collective ¡®boo¡¯ from the crowd, ¡°were driven from the world and the Elven-Soul war ended, the rise of humanity began. At the time there were many arguments over what they should do next. As the Soul Eaters-¡± a quiet hiss arose. ¡°Hush, as the Soul Eaters went berserk from their devoured Elven Souls and the Soul Mages rose to stop them many were lost. This became even worse when the Soul Mages tried to unite all the humans under one new kingdom they both fought with the Soul Eaters and with the naturally corrupting practice their own magic.

    ¡°Clans at this time were groups of familial generations, charged with certain areas of expertise like farming or fishing. We do not know for sure what happened back then as the combinations of wars and plagues that swept the lands. People disagree about how many died then, but most say that one in three died at that time.¡± Janeen paused to let that sink in, but I doubted that anyone except me fully understood just how terrifying that statement was. One in three people being killed¡­ gods above, I could hardly manage that the few times I sacked a city.

    ¡°Of those who survived, many were in much smaller clans and were closely related, causing them to look for- other places to belong.¡± I blinked at the skip, but just mentally marked it as we kept listening. ¡°All clans after all, no matter the size, stood by their members when the time came as they were far stronger together than alone.¡± Janeen looked around to make sure her point was being made, which it did seems to be, given the number of guilty looks. ¡°Some clans even linked together to form the first kingdoms as the Time of Strife had by them fully arrived and the Soul Mages started to lose the fight to retain their sanity.

    ¡°During this time, many scattered, fleeing the lands in the central continent, which even now bares great scars from the damage done during those times. Most of those who could scattered, with those who went west hiding amongst the trees-¡± There was another hiss and some quietly spoken words ¡°-those who went south deciding to use speed to hide on the plains, and those like us who when east, towards the setting sun.

    ¡°Where the westerners and southerners could accept and adapt to their lands, we in the east could not, for these were the lands of the most traitorous of Elves.¡± A slight gasp rippled through the crowd, but it quickly fell silent. ¡°The beasts here were far more dangerous than on any of the other continents and many settled in areas near the Eastern Pass, which shielded those travelers from the worst of the Soul Mages¡¯ fighting.

    ¡°Our clan was known by another name back then, but we swore to not talk of it after the Expulsion. Still, that had yet to occur and at the time we were one of a few groups willing to venture deep into the forests. We were responsible for clearing out the larger and more dangerious monsters who lived there and attempting to teach some of the settlers who followed.

    ¡°Of course, not all learned our teachings and before the tree farms were developed, many died from cold, disease, and the occasional beasts of darkness like the goblins.¡± Janeen shivered and the older kids started talking about the goblins, eager to show off how much they knew. As someone who knew next to nothing, I merely tisked and rolled my shoulder loosening up the small mountain of children as Bella just giggled.

    I listened to a lot of stories when Bella was still a child, but discounted most stories of goblins and the like as simple tales to make sure no one went too far into the wilderness. After all, Entrials was not that far away from what seemed to be the only true wilderness on the continent.

    Janeen held up her hands, ¡°The creatures of the dark were many and all of them posed their various dangers. Our clan helped push back that darkness and showed time and again that we had nothing to fear from the former home of the Elves.

    ¡°We continued this way for over a thousand years, traveling deeper and deeper into the wilderness to show the way for those who followed.¡± She paused and Janeen¡¯s voice took on an air of sadness that instantly dampened the swelling pride in her audience. ¡°Then we decided that it was time to let another take the roll and for the first time we laid claim to the lands we hunted.

    ¡°We grew in number and prospered to the point where some talked of us forming a new kingdom. However, there were two unexpected curses that fell upon us. One was a powerful mage family that wished us to swear fealty and another was awoken in the swamps to our east, a dungeon unlike the others that were discovered.

    ¡°Where most of these places of evil would only overflow on rare occasions, this dungeon actively sought out and attacked those who had settled near it and drove them back to our lands. We were forced to fight a long war and sent many warriors out to protect others, but the beasts took a terrible toll.¡±

    A deep hatred crawled it way from somewhere deep inside Janeen and manifested itself on her face. I quietly tensed and noticed, with some alarm, a similar look on some of the older children, though most of the ones surrounding me actually moved closer to me.

    I resisted the urge to shake my head, I had no known ancestors, so I never understood holding onto a grudge that did not directly affect you. Stones, after a while I barely held a grudge for thing that happened to my graveborn brats.

    ¡°After we fought, bled, and were almost wiped from the land, we finally managed to create a ward to help keep the dungeon spawn inside its depths, with the help of the Bulwark Priests. However¡­¡± She took a deep breath, steadying her breath as it became slightly ragged, leaving me to wonder who those priests were.

    ¡°That was when we were stabbed in the back. The mage family had arranged a large force and sent them in in the last days to help push back the monster and helped create the ward. Only, immediately after we were sure it would hold, we found ourselves surrounded.

    ¡°If not for the blessed earth priests, the Clan would have died that day, but they struck a horrible parley for our combined lives. We lost our lands and promised to return to wander as a Clan of a different name, while the priests would return and announce their combined success.¡± Her eyes looked like fires of hatred and her clan mark briefly twitched on her cheek, though I missed exactly what movement caused it to do so.

    Despite the goose bumps on my arms, I patted a few children on the head, reassuring them in the face of Janeen¡¯s new level of hatred. It was just as bad as the look her father had after she had been raped¡­ maybe there was some transference? Or Nalk interference? I glanced over at Arc very briefly and found her looking at Janeen with a mix of surprise and¡­ something else I had a hard time placing, admiration perhaps?

    I still wanted her to speak with Janeen about what happened to both of them, but that look was somewhat worrying.

    ¡°So we agreed and we abandoned our old Clan name to survive.¡± Janeen, seeing the reactions of those around her physically swallowed while her anger was replaced by sadness. ¡°We ran for our lives, leaving our worldly possessions, our dead, and our reputation to those cowards. Soon enough, we agreed to split up to prepare for the day we would reunite and return under our old name. To that extent we split into 5 groups with different directions and purposes to make sure we appeared beaten.¡±

    A slight smile graced her lips as Janeen looked over at one of the young girls next to me. ¡°The first group to splinter was the Dana. They were mostly our builders and chart makers, people who could work math into an understanding of the world around them. They went west to practice their trade by mapping cities, the seas, and the night sky.¡±

    The girl next to me straightened and immediately became excited as Janeen mentioned the Dana, barely containing herself until Janeen stopped before speaking a high pitched series of squeaks. ¡°My mommy is one of them, she is the best map maker in the whole-¡± she stuttered from kingdom, to continent, to world before we got her to settle down. Though it hardly bothered me as it helped the atmosphere a lot.

    Someone else started to interrupt by say something distinctly arrogant, but was hushed into silence. In the meantime I silently berated myself as I remembered that this girl in particular was from the Bookworms. Good maps were a blessing for more than a few occupations, but I had almost dismissed them entirely.

    I also felt my eye twitch as I let a hidden knife fall into my hand and casually reached back. A magic filled hand was reaching for my ribs, but a light tap from the iron made it retreat, causing a small yip before I hid the knife away again. Keeping the iron hidden inside my bone armor was hard on my mana, but it was worth it. Even if I did not mind the younger children, I felt it was already far too crowded and I nearing my limit of physical contact for the week.

    Janeen and the others did not notice, as she tried to continue. ¡°Then the Elah, our best warriors, went to the Southern Ocean, where pirates are rife and they could keep their swords sharp.¡± The Fodder really were the fodder then? Wow.

    ¡°Then the Farah,¡± I noted a few quiet snorts, ¡°went to the continent of origin beyond the East Gate to use the respect of our Clan¡¯s old name to gather allies while keeping their diplomatic and arcane knowledge strong.¡± I frowned at that, the Sieve did not strike me as the most diplomatic and with that type of a reaction¡­ Still, who knew how old this story was.

    ¡°Finally, there were the Karam who spread out to learn the art of trade and ensure that the clan can stand its own two feet when we return.¡±

    There was a brief pause and some quiet bragging started again right before a man¡¯s voice called over the crowd ¡°In my opinion you forgot the most important part.¡± Following this, some called out names to people I could not see, suggesting that the meeting had ended already. ¡°We swore to reunite under the main trunk, which was the only one allowed to retain the title of Clan and to follow them as they were the ones tasked with keeping our culture and history alive.¡±

    I did not even have time to do a countdown before someone yelled ¡°What do you mean follow them? We are equal members of the Clan!¡±

    People slowly parted and I saw the man who was speaking make his way in. ¡°No, our ancestors all swore an oath that the keepers of who we are would lead us back. Our current heads are a simply a sign of respect. Everyone,¡± the man held up his arms and put them together to make the clan¡¯s mark, ¡°should remember that while we are one people we have been apart a very long time.¡± He lowered his arms and looked directly at Janeen, ¡°It is an honor we should not forget.¡±

    Janeen bowed her head briefly, not saying anything while I let out the sigh I had been holding in for some time. Everyone started breaking up into smaller groups, spawning dozens of different topics of conversation.

    Through the crowd I watched some run over to parents who wore complicated faces. I sincerely hoped they had a good plan, otherwise I would, in all likelihood, never see any of them again.

    Gently starting to shake the small ones free I stood up and stretched, it was getting close to my departure time. I had warned them, enjoyed talking with Janeen again, and taught those idiot teens something, even if this young woman kept trying to hit me with her magic.

    I turned around and glared at her while blasting her newest spell with a dispel. What part of the all-around vision of a mage¡¯s third eye did she not understand? The teenage girl also had the nerve to smirk for the fraction of a moment I allowed the spell she shot into the ground to travel towards me.

    ¡°DeMorte?¡± I gave the teenager a smirk of my own, curtesy of her now slacked jaw look, before I turned to the man who addressed me. ¡°I am Dawn, of the Dana, I would appreciate it if you would come with me and not shoot any more spells from your crotch.¡±

    I found my eyes narrowing without conscious thought, this man was a mage? If he was than he was better at suppressing his power than I was. ¡°Why, does it bother you?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    I looked him over, the man was big, almost Mathalaus¡¯ size and he had some serious muscles, though they were more that of a stoneworker than a fighter. He also did not have any major sword scars, but he did have more than a few scars and scratches on his heavily calloused hands.

    The Dana were the ones I labeled the Bookworms, but they were become a more interesting group by the second. I wondered if they could also give me some maps of the area before I left. ¡°Very well, lead on.¡±

    Dawn started to turn around, but stopped. ¡°Just him.¡±

    I turned to find Arc standing behind me looking flighty, I glanced over at Janeen, who had looked up and was watching us. Without me having to say anything she stood up, ¡°I will keep an eye on her. I have been meaning to talk with her.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I inclined my head to her briefly before telling Arc that I would be back soon enough.

    It was only a short walk to the same tent I had met the clan heads yesterday, but it was certainly an odd one. My guide did not seem inclined to talk much and there were more than a few groups of clansmen who looked over at me with mixed looks. Most of them were hostile, or outright hateful, but a few were merely curious.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    No one liked it when the bearer of bad news came; all the better reason to leave soon.

    When we got to the tent though, I met someone who changed my mind.

    Walking in, we found Mathalaus, Memnon, the Sieve chief, and one very upset young man. They were not talking when we walked in, but the atmosphere was surprisingly tense. The man I did not know had two things that immediately caught my attention though, a small amount of leaking magic and, more importantly a belt that I helped design a copy of back in Entrials.

    Stoning alchemist.

    ¡°DeMorte.¡± The Sieve stood up gracefully, making sure to give me a beautiful smile, her clothes were noticeably more revealing than yesterday, but in a more elegant manner then Janeen. ¡°I apologize for our lack of introduction the other day, I am Legati, the leader of the Farah Branch of the- River Stalker Clan.¡± She bowed her head politely and then gestured to a cushion opposite where she had been sitting. ¡°Would you like to sit on a cushion or are you fine on the ground?¡±

    ¡°Neither.¡± I gave her another once-over and made a point to let my eyes linger on her now well defined breasts. ¡°So you really are a diplomat? Well now, and here I thought you were just an above average mage without discipline.¡±

    She raised a single eyebrow and said nothing, leaving the unspoken question dangling in the air.

    I ignored her and turned to the angry looking man, who I now noted was impeccably groomed, not having a single hair out of place. His clan marks were the same as Dawn¡¯s. ¡°Who are you then and please tell me the name is short as I am already struggling to remember the number of names I have been told these last few days.¡±

    ¡°I am Slaughter.¡±

    I stared at him for a moment, taking in his at his lack of muscles, mana, and even potions, but before I could say anything Dawn disagreed, rather succinctly. ¡°No.¡±

    The young man rolled his eyes, ¡°leave it to my brother to miss the joke. My name is Giovanni and I am the resident genius of the clan, your pleasure, I am sure.¡± His eyes flicked over me and he gave me a slight smile. ¡°You are a man, right?¡±

    ¡°No, are you? Ah wait, I think we all know the answer already.¡± I turned away from the prick to Mathalaus and Memnon, who had not moved since I entered the room. ¡°How can I be of assistance?¡±

    ¡°The coin.¡± Mathalaus stated simply.

    The Sieve cleared her throat and was a bit more circumspect, but she confirmed Mathalaus¡¯ words. ¡°I am afraid that, after the news you gave us we are much more eager to ensure no crimes can be attributed to us. Part of that is collecting any and all items that might be used to do such.¡±

    Interesting. ¡°I was given the coin as payment and, odd though it may be, I am reluctant to part with it. Partly as it seems to be keeping my mana inside it quite efficiently, something that leaves me with the same problem you have.¡±

    ¡°There are ways to remove mana and we are willing to pay you, as thanks for warning us and to show you that we wish to request your aid. Particularly as you are a neutral figure who has demonstrated considerable talents in direct combat and healing.¡±

    ¡°So you are fighting after all?¡± I nodded to myself in approval, I would have done the same thing¡­ granted I would have done it a lot closer to the actual wilderness so I could escape afterwards, but that hardly mattered. They were not actually bandits after all.

    ¡°We plan to make a strong position and force the Lord to back down and either bring his claims before the King and other nobles or accept a parley to let us leave this kingdom. Either way, we would appreciate all the help we can get including you.¡±

    I gave her a small frown, I would not put money on any noble backing down unless, for example, he had been punched in the face hard enough to break his nose, sometimes both metaphorically and literally. ¡°What if he accepts your offer and fabricates evidence against you? I will admit that I have a hard time imagining him doing that given his recent actions, but if he is willing to send for the other nobles? Have you considered the possibility that he honestly thinks that you are responsible for the attacks?¡±

    She bowed her head solemnly. ¡°We will make preparations for that possibility, however, should he choose to delay, the Karam branch will arrive in full force and we will move then.¡±

    The Fodder would be enough to swing things? ¡°Through what will be hostile territory with a Lord summoning you for a formal hearing? Which, yes, would have to be a formal hearing if things got that far. A formal hearing in which you would, if I recall correctly, bear the burden of presenting proof that none of the five groups of your people were involved in those attacks?¡±

    The Sieve had the nerve to give me a brilliant smile. ¡°I am honored that you are so worried about us, but fear not, we have planned for this, though we hoped that it would not become an issue.¡±

    ¡°Planned for this? When Dawn came to find me I was listening to a tale of betrayal and oaths of revenge, now I hear plans that seemed half-formed, but you tell me you are prepared for.¡± I shook my head, ¡°I am not sure I want anything to do with your little upcoming argument.¡±

    ¡°By chance, did you hear how long ago we were exiled?¡± I did not bother shaking my head and she did not bother waiting for me to respond. ¡°298 years and we have spent every single one preparing in our own ways, both for our reunion and what comes after. Believe me when I say that, while our reunion might not have been what you expected, we are hardly unprepared.¡±

    I raised an eyebrow, but she copied my response from earlier and said nothing. Bella might be a friend, but I was at most, something of an acquaintance.

    For the first time, I looked her in the eyes and weighed her. In response, she stood her ground, strong, but unchallenging and passive in front of my stare. This woman seemed to actually know what she was talking about, or she was at least confident enough to count on her best laid plans.

    It also showed that she understood me well enough to know I would not let this go under any other conditions¡­ it reminded me of when one of my advisors said something I disagreed with.

    I nodded to myself and allowed her a genuine smile. These brats might have a chance, assuming they were not just mad or over confident. ¡°Alright. Then let me go to the ultimate extension of diplomacy. What if he takes his merry band and uses it to declare war on you, after you do not balk at whatever offer he may or may not make? Further,¡± I let my curiosity show, ¡°what will you do if you win?¡±

    The Sieve, the Farah, chief¡¯s face took on a serious look. ¡°Dawn is here in case you accept a position to help fight, as he is in charge of building up our position.¡±

    I turned back to him briefly to hear him speak in a calm, absolutely certain voice. ¡°I will fortify this position, you have my word.¡± Rather than confidence, I saw absolute certainty in his face, he already had a very good idea of what he was going to do.

    ¡°With respect, fortifying in the woods over time is easy. How are you going to fortify against a small army that could just surround this little ¡®tree farm¡¯ and burn it down within a few weeks?¡± I had both the joy and the displeasure of seeing the effect of well-placed traps in a forest.

    ¡°By turning this from a tree farm into a death farm.¡±

    ¡°Right and how are you going to do that?¡±

    ¡°Traps.¡±

    ¡°¡­anything else?¡±

    ¡°Many deadly bits of metal, a few poisons, fire, and many traps.¡±

    I blinked at him and just stared a moment before deciding that this conversation was going to be like pulling teeth. ¡°Back to my other question, Legati, was it? What will you do if you fight and slaughter the Lord¡¯s troops? Especially if you kill the Lord himself.¡±

    I stared at Dawn for a fraction of a moment before I turned back to look at the Farah chief as she spoke. ¡°I regret that, should it come to that, we will have to decide if we will flee the kingdom or attend to the king¡¯s court to defend our actions. If we flee we might be able to receive passage at a later date, or go through the wilderness of the Great Forest if it come to that. Either way, we have sent for a Histone, who will as there will observe the whole affair.¡±

    ¡°Interesting¡­ however I think there is something else I am missing.¡± I watched the room at large, there were several things I wanted to ask about, but I was more curious about what direction they were going in.

    Memnon jumped in at this point. ¡°He is here should you wish to help medically, or if you have some talent with creating Magic Devices, then Giovanni is, regrettably, the best around.¡±

    I ignored Bella¡¯s mental applause me as my mind jumped in a dozen directions at once. One line of thought in particular annoying me while Giovanni spoke up loudly. ¡°You mean you would rather I work for the clan¡¯s enemies? Is that what you regret Mor-non?¡±

    I rolled my eyes. Really? How young was this Giovanni boy?

    ¡°Oi! I saw that look you Hideyoshi tsundere!¡± What the ovals did that little yellow-foot graveborn call me? ¡°I have no problem with you healing people, but I am not letting you near my experiments or my creations. If you want to help me then you should at least know what this can do.¡± He reached behind his back and I had my knives in my hands.

    Dawn intervened however, superimposing himself between us and grabbing something out of the boy¡¯s hands. ¡°This is dangerous brother, you should not have brought it.¡± Twisting the item in question away he turn to me and showed me a small clay pot, which he then rotated the top on. ¡°However, since it is here I am curious if you can tell what it can do, I have made it safe for your inspection.¡±

    I cautiously touched the top of it, knowing that he had no obvious reason to trick me in such a way, but still being careful. The clay pot certainly seemed harmless enough and there was no magic traveling along the outside. The inside was also relatively unimpressive, with what was clearly a general gust spell, to scatter¡­ whatever the powder was.

    Letting my magic slowly probe into the clay pot I pushed apart the few spells protecting the powder and started probing it directly. It was curious to say the least, giving me reason to look over Giovanni again. At least until my mana pushed past the pot into Dawn¡¯s hand.

    The big man grimaced as my mana touched a set of burned out mana channels. I apologized and actually took the pot out of his hands. That would explain how he could see my magic earlier, though I did not know that Burnouts could develop mage sight.

    After another minute of examining the pot¡¯s contents I decided that I should speak up. ¡°There is an irritant in here, the powder or dust inside the pot I mean.¡± I briefly flicked a smile at Giovanni. ¡°It is rather nasty, but nothing overly impressive unless it has some other property that I cannot feel.

    ¡°There are a few instructions in the spellwork that seem pointless, but I can feel that some are dedicated to keeping this sealed and others to scatter the contents when broken.¡± Taking a moment I turned the lid in the opposite way Dawn did. The whole tent tensed a little at this and I widened my eyes as I felt a very, very, small set of spell instructions go active. I turned the top back the other direction and deactivated.

    ¡°That is a conflagration pot, though I am not sure how well the irritant will burn. Incidentally, do you have anything else sealed inside this type of pot?¡± I did not look over at Giovanni, instead investigating the pot. ¡°This could be quite useful for containing some of my more dangerous experiments if I changed it to burn up what was inside if released by accident.¡±

    ¡°What the hell are you talking about? I mean, technically you are correct, but what could you possibly want to put in there that a little fire could destroy?¡±

    A disease or a nerve agent, I thought to myself, though I am not going to make any more progress on those until I get a serious place to settle down and keep them contained. ¡°An irritant I modified from the seed of a plant, the stuff lingers far too well, but if I could burn it out at the start, it would be far less annoying.¡± I stepped past to Dawn and offered the pot directly back to Giovanni. ¡°Though you should be careful, if it works effectively, then you opponent¡¯s mages will start developing countermeasures on the spot. That said, good job.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, well,¡± he took the pot back, ¡°you should see my other stuff, this is the simplest thing I have invented lately. They just do not want me showing off my best stuff.¡± He looked at Dawn and then jerked his chin at the rest of the room.¡±

    ¡°For good reason, once the idea is seen by others it will be copied and counters will be created.¡± That was why I had not used by concentrated light spell since I left Tartarus.

    The only lady in the room, no you do not count Bella, cleared her throat. ¡°In any case, these two will be touching lots of different areas so they can direct you to help, should you should choose to accept. You may, of course, take your time to think about our offer and how you can best help. You can also think of what you might ask of us in return, however we need an answer before you leave, so we can make our preparations with that in mind.¡±

    In other word you cannot afford to let me leave until you actually met with the Lord, least I turn out to be his spy and part of some convoluted plan to stone your whole clan¡­ not that I would throw shadows at that, right Bella?

    I mentally sighed and thought about it, on one hand, a good source of food, some fun experiments, one stoning noticeable reputation impact, Janeen, and perhaps the Guilt. On the other, I could hand over the coin, ensure no trace of my mana was left in it and disappear.

    Bella could not even laugh, she knew which choice I was leaning towards from the moment I heard the Lord was going after the River Stalker clan. In fact, I could feel her plans to rib me later over the fact that I would alternate from being paranoid about my safety to taking large risks, but that would be later.

    They were not my men and women, they were not my responsibility, and they would survive without me, but¡­ I wanted to be here.

    I steadfastly ignored the barely suppressed mental smirk from Bella as I spoke. ¡°Food and lodging should go without saying. I will be preparing for a mage battle, with all that it entails, so you should keep that in mind. I also want a sword, one-handed and made of mithril with any and all documentation needed to carry it without trouble from guards. The transition will be witnessed by the Histone you bring here whenever your scouts confirm the Lord¡¯s forces are nearby.¡±

    ¡°T-that is quite the expense, a full mithril sword, even a one-handed one is enough to let even the hungriest of mages eat well for a year. Perhaps a noticeable amount of silver, enough that it takes at least a strong horse to help carry it all?¡±

    I snorted, the Farah¡¯s fa?ade finally cracked for an instant. Her presentation yesterday must have really been an act, or she must have viewed that as a more familial meeting. ¡°If am going to help you prepare for a battle, then I might as well stay to see you win it. The sword, food, lodging, and right to loot the dead will pay for one of the best combat medics on this continent.¡± I glanced over at Giovanni and grinned, ¡°And I am no braggart.¡±

    He stiffened for a moment, but then surprised me by grinned back, ¡°challenge accepted, neither am I.¡±

    I blinked, did I issue a challenge? Oh well, it should be a bit of fun in any case, especially as I had not worked on anything besides that thing in my lower abdomen for a while.

    ¡°Even so, I do believe that using anything as precious as mithril should be something that is discussed. Furthermore, it is rather presumptuous to assume that even assume that we have enough of it go give away some so easily.¡±

    ¡°I will give you mine.¡± We all stopped and looked over at Mathalaus, who continued rumbling. ¡°Despite my dislike of it, I accepted the weapon for tradition¡¯s sake, but since I have no magic, it merely grates one me. All we need to do is remove our symbols and work in a bit more mithril.¡± He stood up, ¡°DeMorte will just have to prove that he is worth it.¡±

    I nodded and felt a relaxed smile try to rise to my face, before the cold logic of the situation caught up with me. ¡°One last thing, the clan will be fine.¡± I looked around the room and made sure they all understood. ¡°You asked for my aid and I shall give it, but I am sure, based on what you have shown me today that the clan would survive even without my help. So, I will endeavor to help as many of you survive as possible, up until the moment you betray me.¡±

    Memnon cleared his throat, ¡°We would never-¡±

    ¡°I have seen mothers discard their own children and children turn on their family. When your turn comes, I will not hold it against you, but I will make you regret it, so I hope you remember who I am when the time comes.

    ¡°I am DeMorte Gyrfalcon, the man who knows death better than any other mortal and for this fight I will be on your side.¡±

    * * *

    Janeen¡¯s private tent:

    Arc shifted nervously, although the Lord Elf always told her to not worry so much she could not help it. Though she thought of herself as a loyal companion who would obey him in all things.

    In fact, the Lord Elf told her not to even think of him as an Elf, but that was impossible for her. He had saved her and claimed her life as his own, weather he said so or not, so he was her Lord and Master. He was also eternally young looking, relatively thin despite the fact that he was almost pure muscle, and an incredible mage.

    He was an existence straight out of legend, though he was not cruel like those ancient Elves. Arc thought it was because of the people he occasionally talked about and how they were obviously long dead.

    Arc was something quite different. She was a normal, the former wife of a peddler who could not even give him a child. She could talk to people, but that was the extent of her skills and she knew it well.

    Which was part of the reason she was so nervous now.

    Janeen was everything Arc was not. She was strong, assertive, and unafraid of even the Lord Elf despite her lack of magic¡­ She was even fruitful, though Arc would never mention how jealous she was of that.

    Yes, yes, come now, you need to start the conversation already.

    ¡°Lady Janeen-¡±

    ¡°Just Janeen, please. I have never been a real lady and the only one I knew who could claim to be one, well, she was not the most pleasant person to be around.¡± She smiled. ¡°Her sister inherited all the fun in that family.¡±

    She want you to relax, so relax.

    ¡°Janeen. I wish to ask a question about umm, about the story you told earlier.¡± Janeen nodded and gestured to continue. ¡°Well, I am not really familiar with such stories outside of bard tales, but is it really possible to just go back and get your revenge? I-mean-no-disrespect, but I just cannot see a King letting you kill a local mage family.¡±

    Janeen chuckled, ¡°normally it would be a horrible idea. Especially since said family became nobles the moment they swore to follow the King.¡± Arc inhaled sharply. ¡°However, they fell out of favor a few decades ago and actually sold their barren land to the Church to move north.¡±

    ¡°Then how are you going to¡­ chase them down?¡±

    Janeen wore a smug smile and said nothing for a moment. ¡°Do you remember the priests from the story?¡±

    ¡°I think you called them the Bulwark priests?¡±

    She nodded, ¡°They are followers of Ticoni, the god of earth and farming. While the family in question were followers of Conbra.¡± Her smile grew. ¡°Earth priests are known for the patience for a reason and once the previous king announced that he was a follower of Ticoni, bad harvests became much more common for his opponents.¡±

    ¡°Then they bought the land and have started restoring it?¡± Arc¡¯s eyes were wide at this

    ¡°Exactly, but whose money do you think they used?¡±

    Good job, your master will be proud.

    Arc almost blushed as she remembered that he would enjoy hearing about things like. He seemed to have quite a bit of trouble talking to humans, unless they were drunk, probably since he was an Elf. ¡°Does that mean you are done? I mean if you bought the land back it should be yours right?¡±

    Janeen kept her smile, but it quickly lost its energy as she looked the other woman over. There was no one outside the tent who could hear them, it was warded even before¡­

    ¡°No, we want our reputation and name restored. The people in that area still celebrate the day the dungeon barrier was created. Plus, we will likely see them again, even if the northern kingdom clashes are smaller than those here in the south, they are no less frequent.¡±

    Arc studied Janeen¡¯s face, feeling that something was missing. ¡°Umm, is there something else? Janeen?¡±

    The waning smile lost all its energy and Janeen scratched her nose for a moment before speaking. ¡°Arc, I wanted to ask you about some things.¡± Janeen¡¯s mouth quickly dried out as she found herself wanting to talk about something she previously tried to forget.

    Arc¡¯s voice shocked Janeen whit how cold it became, ¡°I am not going to tell you anything new about him. He saved me and I have sworn to serve him.¡±

    ¡°No, not that, I mean¡­¡± Janeen uncharacteristically hesitated, ¡°Given what DeMorte said happened to you¡­ do you still ah¡­ do have night terrors?¡±

    Not the question you wanted to ask was it?

    Arc opened her mouth to deny it, but the memory suddenly surged and she found herself waking up, hidden away from the raid thinking she was safe. She heard an unnerving laugh and remembered how she saw her husband begging for his life. How he even tried to offer her in exchange before the armored boot broke his jaw.

    Arc closed her mouth without saying anything and tried to get herself under control, though it felt like there was something caught in her throat, making it hard to breath.

    Hahaha like a part of you did not enjoy watching your so called husband get beaten to death? Like your lack of children was helped by being stomped on?

    ¡°I¡­ I have been there.¡± Janeen¡¯s quiet voice, caused Arc¡¯s head to whip up. She had? ¡°This place is still warded in case they come back.¡± She gestured to the tent. ¡°I even threw myself at some virgin in a town we passed a few phases back, just to see if I could even enjoy it anymore.¡±

    ¡°How?¡± She asked without thinking before realizing she needed to explain. ¡°I mean you are, I was¡­ I was knocked out and when I came to everyone was dead. I would have thought that your clan would have¡­¡±

    ¡°I was a scout. I was used to going into the deepest wilderness by myself and I thought I was strong enough to not have to worry. I-I¡± Janeen took a few deep breaths of air and grabbed a nearby spear. It had taken her over a full year to trust herself with it again. ¡°I was over confident and thought they were drunk, that they were not dangerous and I was wrong.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    Silence rained as both women remembered terrible things.

    Almost¡­ Perfect, now.

    Arc opened and closed her mouth a few times before sound started coming out again. ¡°If, if you would not mind I wanted to-to ask you to show me how to use that.¡± She gestured to the spear, ¡°L-l-lord¡­ DeMorte keeps telling me that I am safe now, but¡­ I thought I was safe then too.¡±

    ¡°It will not keep you safe.¡± Janeen stated bluntly.

    ¡°O-oh.¡±

    ¡°¡­Though it might keep us both better occupied. Here, stand up.¡±

    They both stood and Janeen started working through several basic spear movements to distract them both.

    Well done, you might be useful to him yet.

 Chapter 48: Old Habits

    Chapter 48: Old Habits

    ¡°Holy fucking tits.¡± Giovanni¡¯s voice had a slight tremble to it as he looked out through the observation device we created in the last few days.

    Shaped like a giant eye the majority of the stand was made out of local wood, with a few bronze pipes extending from the two stands, making an oval. Inside that oval was a sphere of warped air which connected to a spell high above and gave us a bird¡¯s eye view of the approaching forces.

    The spell itself would be visible high up in the air for most mages, but determining its purpose would be a rough guess at best. It was quite a distance up, out of range of even my impressive mage sight. Still I hoped that it would explain how we knew the Lord¡¯s troops were coming without letting them realize that we actually had time to trap the forest.

    Experimentation with a new magical device was apparently a more common thing than I was aware of with non-noble mages, even being how the majority of the clan¡¯s mages made their money. They just did not get to sell too many of them because of the comparative lack of mages to my previous world made powering the things annoying.

    The device itself was crude and I had to remove a few splinters from both of our hands whenever we moved it, but overall it was satisfactory.

    As for the number of our opposition¡­ ¡°Two and a half thousand, maybe three, nothing to worry about Geo.¡±

    ¡°Nothing to worry about?! Even with us calling all the nearby clansmen together we barely have a thousand fighters, if that!¡± The brat¡¯s voice was getting flighty. ¡°You even admitted that most of the rest will not make a difference.

    ¡°We have more mages, much better motivation, and we prepared the ground for our defense.¡± I stared at the uneven lines and undisciplined march as it worked its way down the road in our direction. ¡°I doubt that the majority on our side will even get a chance to fight unless they brought some double digit mages.¡± I heard some movement behind us and knew who it was simply because of the wards on the tent. ¡°What do you think Dawn?¡±

    There was a pause as he no doubt took in the army that was displayed. ¡°The enemy mages will be a concern.¡± I nodded and looked over at the large man to discover that he was not already in his armor. Noticing my look he added, ¡°I was speaking to the others, we have come to the conclusion that he must make an overt action before we can.¡±

    I frowned, ¡°Why?¡± Knowing my luck the Nalks would have already pushed the idea of simply camping outside the tree line into the Lord¡¯s head, just to annoy me. Giovanni also repeated my question, to my aggravation, the young man was practically spastic when he got excited or worried.

    ¡°Our witnesses.¡± Dawn said simply, leaving me to roll my eyes.

    A few priest and a pair of histones had been requested to be present. They were supposed to serve as formally impartial witnesses. It was a good idea, to help keep the King from getting too involved afterwards, but it still annoyed me.

    Like most Kings, this one was the type to let his nobles hang themselves unless there was some major obligation or profit to be gained. Which, was why they would also be evacuating rather quickly after this was over, regardless of if the last part of the clan was here by then.

    ¡°How long until those Fodder of yours arrive?¡± I had been helping them to fortify here for two weeks, but I was honestly unsure who would benefit more if there was a delay.

    Dawn sighed, ¡°The Elah, will be here in a few days, but they have been forcing themselves. I would not them to arrive when things are tense and they are tired.¡± His face took on a slight grimace, ¡°Especially if they try to walk through that horror field you two set up.¡±

    ¡°You think that will be enough?¡± Giovanni asked eagerly.

    ¡°Enough to give them nightmares, but beyond their effect on moral?¡± Dawn shook his head.

    I shrugged, ¡°Moral will break them faster than anything else, especially when they will be fighting for money. The second they realize that victory is impossible they will bolt. The traps in that area are just designed to make that happen faster.¡±

    ¡°Between the fire and the screams, I am more worried about them panicking and trying to bold through our lines.¡±

    ¡°The runes should help with that, though you should see this.¡± I turned back to the observer and manipulated it to focus on the wagons that were dispersed throughout the groups. A few had a noticeably larger human riding along them, but the one I focused on in particular had some iron that sitting on top of the blanket covering the majority of the wagon.

    As I focused in, I swore the fat man looked up, directly into my face and scowled.

    ¡°Full iron¡­? No, total iron¡­ by the twelve, I am glad we have those bottles.¡±

    ¡°Cocktails.¡± Geo corrected.

    ¡°Is total iron the name of the mercenary group or just what you call people who wear iron from head to foot?¡± I readjusted the observer as I spoke taking a look at the other wagons.

    ¡°That is full iron, total iron might be the name of a group, but I am unfamiliar with it, no, it refers to someone who blankets themselves in iron to leave no openings for spells.¡±

    ¡°That seems stupid.¡± I turned to Giovanni, who continued slightly less sure of himself, ¡°like you both said, they will bake in the iron right? I mean a few fireballs can take their whole group out.¡±

    ¡°If we somehow light them on fire or keep them exposed to the flame, then yes, but they know that too, which is why they will be ready for it.¡± Enchanted shields, mage protection, and runes were the most common methods that I knew of and would make the men in question particularly annoying to deal with¡­ until they hit the oil trenches anyway.

    Dawn then added, ¡°Speaking of being prepared, you should go and collect your sword, Mathalaus left it with the Farah. Along with those particularly disgusting arms of yours.¡± I felt myself tense for a moment before I remembered the gas weapons.

    ¡°Oh right.¡± Giovanni piped up, now back on familiar ground, ¡°those gas grenades were brilliant work, there is no way iron will stop them. Between them and our other inventions we should have income for a few more years too.¡±

    ¡°Hardly, but remember that you owe me a share for anything you sell.¡± Not that I actually expected to get paid, but Giovanni, despite his arrogant introduction, really was a sort of sheltered genius that might do it.

    ¡°What do you mean? No one else can make those and they will fundamentally change warfare if handled- why are you smiling like that?!¡±

    I held up my hands, ¡°Apologies, Geo, but the toys we made will not change warfare in any major way. Their size and volatility mean they will make some city gang fighting much more dangerous and skirmishers will no doubt be thankful for the extra weapons, but war never truly changes. Sword, spear, crossbow, and magical devices can change parts of the fighting, but in the end war will always be war.¡±

    I cast a quick glance back at our observer, ¡°Furthermore, there is nothing too inventive about what we have done. It will be copied if someone else has not already thought of it and as fast as people can produce the weapons, there will also be countermeasures introduced to stop them.¡±

    ¡°It is a sad truth of war, brother, we will learn and teach our enemy while they do the same to us. Now, I will go inform the heads of this development. DeMorte, you know where you will be most effective, but if you want to listen in on the negotiations, the Farah have a device set up to do just that.¡±

    I blinked, but Dawn departed before I could ask what he meant, prompting me to turn back to Giovanni. ¡°What was he talking about?¡±

    ¡°I think he meant the two way crystal communicators I made a few years back. I used to use them to keep in touch with him while he was off measuring distances for our maps.¡±

    I stared at him, hard. ¡°What is the range on those things?¡±

    He blinked, ¡°Uh, a few kilometers, not too much farther or they get interference. Trees, hills, mountains and magic all interfere with it too.¡±

    I exhaled and relaxed. What could a commander do if he could get near instant feedback from other parts of the line? If he could give them orders from a hill and actually command a battle instead of spectating? Outer ovals, if that was combined with our observer¡­ thank the gods magic interfered with both or this little graveborn might have already changed warfare without me noticing!

    ¡°I am going to go to the Farah, please turn that thing off before we lose any more weight.¡±

    ¡°AH!¡± Giovanni, as if just remembering that Magical Devices generally had no way of storing energy, immediately powered the observer down. ¡°Sorry about that, um¡­ you meant it right? That we will win?¡±

    I smiled, prefight jitters were human no matter the world, ¡°Undoubtedly.¡±

    Ignoring my own, arguably concerning, lack of stress, I turned and strode out of the tent where I had spent the majority of these last few days, ensuring that our soon to arrive guests would find horrors straight from their worst nights-terrors.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    Achoo! I shook my head by habit and shivered as the layers of fat ripped across my body. Sneezes were an interesting biological reaction, but I still found them annoying.

    I had worked hard recently to both eat and absorb an impressive amount of fat, while allowing myself the slight vanity that my abilities afforded me to sculpt the idealized picture of a frontline mage of a pitched battle.

    Strolling along, I moved through the various mage group, who I had left in awe of my rapid fat cultivation. If any noble in the courts of my old world could see me, they would offer me both their sons and daughters at the sight of my body¡¯s current state of glory¡­

    Or rather everyone would be in awe if I had not gotten a larger chainmail suit and thick clothes to hide it away. As it was I only had my now slightly pudgy hands and my face exposed and I incredibly happy that I was in the shade. Runes were powerful tools, but even they could only do so much

    It was inconvenient in comparison to the lithe body that I had not too long ago. For example, wielding a sword effectively was infinitely more complicated when you spent hours practicing at one weight, only to find that my weight and center of balance would change as I used magic in a fight. Not to mention that I was still getting used to the idea of watching for such a large weight shift.

    I think I gained 12 kilos in total, mostly thanks to mana roots, and I would lose most of it before the end of the fight. Still, I could and would adapt quickly, especially as I had no real choice. I was not the best at staying in the rear.

    I strolled through the Farah¡¯s set up and straight up to Legati, who had also put on some weight, but not nearly as much as I had. Where she was slightly plump before, she had only slightly expanded. She might have overeaten though as she was looking slightly ill and was gripping the sides of barrel with white knuckles.

    She and her branch of the clan had the most mages of them all and they had been reluctant to accept that they would decide the war on the field, not at a table, but they were more or less ready.

    Around 30 mages, of the 60 in the camp, were from the Farah. They were almost all at rank 5 or 6, meaning they were about the level of the common army mage of my previous world¡­ at least in pure magic power.

    I had gone through and trained them in some basic tricks to make them much more dangerous. Too many though were still struggling with the idea that they were going to kill many, many people. They had previously been a rather thriving group of property owners in the holy lands so I did not blame them, but I had a fight to prepare them for.

    One of the few things they had done without complaint was making defensive preparations. Their personal wards were fully active when I arrived, humming with an energy that I could feel from halfway across the camp. There were also several statues with currently subdued wards that were strategically hidden to assist during the fight.

    My personal wards were ready to be activated at a moment¡¯s notice, though I had kept them deactivated since I transferred them to my current cloth.

    ¡°I hope you did not go testing those cocktails we designed, I would rather not waste any mana curing you if possible.¡±

    The Farah chief shook her head slowly, not enjoying life, and I noticed that a few others had similar looks. ¡°I believe this is the result of those pills of yours.¡±

    I sighed. ¡°I told you those were for emergencies.¡±

    ¡°We had to test them and it is just as well we did if they are going to make us all want to¡­¡± She grimaced and left her statement as it was.

    Hardly surprising, those pills had a large content of pure fat, sugar, and a few other things, wrapped in pig skin. ¡°I am just glad that you did not chew, or else you would not look as good as you do now.¡± I sighed. ¡°Open your wards to my spells and I will help.¡±

    A few minutes later they were all looking much better, though I how they would feel later was up in the air as the spell would only stop their digestion for so long. Still, it was not like the food had to be digested for magic to use it for energy.

    ¡°Anyway, I heard that you both have my payment and a means of listening to the negotiations?¡±

    Legati gave me a sidelong look at that. ¡°You still intend to take it then?¡±

    ¡°Why would I back down?¡± I leveled an uncaring stare at her.

    She kept a neutral face, ¡°because I saw you interacting with Janeen, and the children, during the last few days. In fact, you were quite energetic in the whole of the preparations and I would assert that you were more eager to help us than you said.

    I snorted, ¡°Your assertions are your own concern Legati, though I do want to ask if you are going somewhere with this¡­¡±

    ¡°I am just curious, after all you do seem like a ¡®rough¡¯ person.¡± I smirked. ¡°Which brings up the ideas that someone has either already paid you to come here or that you might not be as rough as you like others to think.¡±

    I chuckled, ¡°Both are possible, but you do not know how rough I ¡®want other to think I am¡¯ versus,¡± I lost my mirth, ¡°how I really am.¡±

    ¡°An interesting distinction, but as I am the type to wonder about what others would do in certain situations, it does make me think about the possibilities.¡± I raised an eyebrow, refusing to give her any more feedback. ¡°For example, I wonder what you would do if we were to refuse to pay you. Would you leave, attack us, or stay to help us regardless? Or would you try and stay, taking your pay in¡­ another way?¡±

    I then smiled and gave another light chuckle, shaking my head. ¡°I regret that I am no longer capable of taking non-metallic payment. Though I would encourage you to think about what would happen if I was not paid. Then, after you make your best guess, pay me anyway so we do not have to find out if you were wrong.¡±

    Legati gave me a measured look, before waving to someone I could only see barely see in my peripheral. He ran forward and presented a relatively small wooden box. Deciding that this was one of the times I needed to show some trust, I forced myself to open it without checking for traps.

    Nothing happened and I removed the short silver sword, not saying anything about its less than impressive size, which was barely enough to call it a sword. I preferred wielding an iron shield when it was appropriate, so it would do well enough as a companion to that, but I was hoping for a proper two handed blade.

    After all, what was the point of having a metal that could get lighter if you did not make an otherwise oversized blade with it?

    Regardless, I tested the silver blade¡¯s weight and balance both with and without my mana in it. Overall, it was fairly well made and would make a good impression, both on the battlefield and off. It also had a snake¡¯s head pommel, which made me snort, as I certainly did not tell them to add that in.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± I looked over at Legati and smiled ¡°You have not moved my chest have you?¡±

    She frowned, ¡°No, are you not even going to use the mithril?¡±

    ¡°No, it is too short for today¡¯s fighting. That is what the hammer is for.¡± I took the simple leather sheath out of the box and then sheathed my new blade as I walked back through the lines. With an iron warhammer swinging very slightly on my back.

    This was going to be a bloody battle, despite its size, and I hardly thought that I was going to get out of it without killing someone. I had a larger sword that I was originally going to use, but the warhammer would work better on those armored men. Plus, after the fight was finished and the Guilt hit, I did not want one of my blades disappearing while I was incapacitated.

    I may only experience the Guilt for a moment, but its effects would linger, which was part of the reason I had my chest set up.

    Not too far away, the chest was between the front lines and the center¡¯s fallback position, which would keep the non-combatants pent up during the fight. It was an old, worn, but still fairly sturdy chest that served my purposes well enough. Plus, the location was just out of the way enough to discourage anyone from trying to open it out of curiosity, while serving as bait for those who might backstab me.

    So far only a few brats had tried to open it, after they heard me forbid it, but they did not get far and itch spells had worn off after a few minutes with no lasting harm.

    Though happy to have the Mithril, I sighed to myself as I touched the chest. It had been fun, but I also had to destroy my little side project now that our enemy was actually here.

    Pausing to erect a shadow ward to hide my actions, I unlocked the wards to the wooded chest with a simple prick of my finger and drop of blood. Blood protection spells were absurdly secure and as long as no one managed to break the physical container they were considered the highest level protection.

    Naturally I had several traps to counter the fact that my chest was old, but it had served as a food test of intentions. No one had died or suffered from the obvious ill effects of trying to force it open, which made me feel far better about the clan.

    Inside the chest was a variety of unfinished horrors that I had shelved for time constraints. That said, the one that I knew I had to take care of before the fighting was a biopuppet arm. I instantly vast Flesh Fire on it and let the oh-so-slightly grotesque arm burn, never more glad that the magic removed the stench as it burned away.

    Made of pig carcasses, runes, horrors, alchemic preservation chemicals, and a slightly painful number of magic instructions, the arm was a large and unruly first physical make of what I hoped to eventually be a full biological suit of armor. I called it the Biopuppet in my head though, because wearing something like that would be more like acting as a puppeteer.

    I had hope for the design, but for now there were so many drawbacks that it was effectively useless for anything other than possibly turning the clan against me. Of course, that gave me a strong incentive to destroy it before, but I had never gotten such a good chance to actually build the thing since I got my original idea for it.

    Granted it was just an arm, but I had covered this particular arm with bone and leather on the outside as a replacement for skin, making it rather worrying to look at. Still, it would certainly not have elicited any reactions in my previous world, so I was rather disturbed when a local villager had accidentally seen me testing it and screamed ¡°Soul Mage!¡±

    I thought that was an extreme overreaction and used a simple memory spell on the person. After some introspective questions though, I realized that was technically an arm that I had made out of the dead before causing it to flip and flop around on the ground with my magic. In that sense, ignoring the fact that it was not an actual undead creature, I cringed at the time and allowed that it would be counterproductive to let other see it.

    ¡­Bella did not help the problem by not shutting up for the last week about how I let myself be seen testing it, because I was too caught up in making my arm fap around on the ground.

    I tested it while directly in contact and control of it, but that had not gone according to plan. Some of the muscles had degraded since its death and I just happened to have broken most of it and cracked a nearby cart¡¯s axle at the same time.

    Still, I never showed it to anyone else and I had gained some ideas for the future. So I could destroy it until I had another fairly quiet place to set up again.

    Regardless of spastic, cart destroying, accidents I had hope for future designs.

    As the flesh fire finally died down I emptied the ash and put the mithril sword into the compartment instead before closing the lid. I then smiled as the chest¡¯s spells created a few more illusionary boxed and rearranged them, putting a few fake boxes on top which would kill anyone who tried to open them.

    Part of me wanted to use the sword in this fight, but I told myself no simply based on the fact that I was unfamiliar with it. Trying to use something that required mana, without having a good idea of how it worked was suicide and the coin I had before had only given me so much to work with. The last thing I needed was the sword breaking in the middle of a fight because

    Now we only had to wait for the ¡®guests¡¯ to get things started.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    I fought many, many, many different types of people in the past, but there are a few different types who stood out. Not that I did not learn from all of my enemies, but some taught more distinctive lessons.

    Many of those people, luckily for me, were examples of what I hated and swore that I would never become. Bella even developed a theory that those particular individuals became a part of my ¡®cloak of pride¡¯ because I went out of my way to never make their mistakes¡­ even when reveling in my victories.

    The Lord of this region was apparently from a very old line of honorable warriors. When I met him I certainly did not get the feeling, but listening to what he said to Mathalaus and Legati was downright astounding.

    Instead of the competent, slightly arrogant, grounded individual I thought he was, the man was a greedy fool. To the extent that I had a hard time accepting that he really meant what he was saying. If he wanted an excuse to attack and thought arrogant behavior would give him one, I would applaud the effort, but I did not get that feeling at all.

    He had just came off as an arrogant moron to me.

    Right now his forces were resting, dawning their armor, and organizing themselves as the ¡®negotiations¡¯ were finishing up. Replaying it in my head, I cut out all the perfumery that one of the Histones nearby had scribbled down as fast as he could.

    ¡°Greetings Lord of this land (who thinks we do not know why you are here.)¡±

    ¡°Hello stupid peasants, (who clearly do not know why I am here.) I am here to accuse you of running around screaming ¡®raid, kill, burn!¡¯ and demand what I will tell everyone else is restitution for your criminal acts. Oh look, a Histone, how did you get there?¡±

    ¡°We did nothing and you cannot prove otherwise (you arsehole graveborn)¡±

    ¡°I have witnesses, lots of dead folk, and a dagger that (does not) clearly implicates you. I also have a title and therefor if I formally accuse you of doing it, you have to prove otherwise, not me.¡±

    ¡°We have thousands of witnesses to prove that we have never been to those areas and are polite people who pay for their food with coin.¡±

    ¡°You have witnesses who can prove you paid with coin, but who knows where that coin came from? Further, you just admitted to paying them. Come to think of it, how much do you have on you anyway? Can you account for how it was earned?¡±

    ¡°Why not go and get stuffed with your own gold coins? You obviously have plenty, why bother us?¡±

    ¡°I do not care about your money, I am here for the sake of the dead. This should be obvious since I am a Lord and even my gas does not stink. No, I have enough proof to legally destroy you and I am only talking because it is too much effort.

    ¡°Bullshit.¡±

    ¡°(Of course it is.) Anyway, destrenche my desire to kill you all in the name of justice, I know you have children too so I will make you a deal: surrender all your weapons and we can have a polite investigation that will likely find you not-guilty. Of course we will return all non-prohibited items to you afterwards.¡±

    ¡°Prohibited?¡±

    ¡°Oh just things like: either of the two holy metals, mithril or adamantine, or the metal of evil. If you have either of the holy metals, present the proper proof that you are allowed to carry them. (Anything not from this Kingdom is unacceptable and proof from this Kingdom is suspect.) I will personally guarantee your safety if you surrender though and should you be found not-guilty, I will personally escort you to the border and see you off with my best (bullshit) apologies for the inconvenience.¡±

    ¡°We were dishonored and wronged long ago, if you want to try this on us, then it will be by the King¡¯s direct will, under the direct watch of the Histones and the Churches.¡±

    ¡°I am the King¡¯s will by extension, you do not merit his direct will. Further, why should I let it go that far when I have the right to end you right now? You should cooperate, or I will consider you outlaws who are actively resisting the King¡¯s justice (and more importantly, my greed.) You have one hour to surrender or I will remove you.¡±

    ¡°We do not need an hour.¡±

    ¡°There is a war about to start to the south, most mercenaries and even local guard are down there. These lot are mostly mercenaries I gathered in a hurry because of the violence of the attacks. Think of the children I am sure you have with you, especially if we end up fighting as I will have difficulty protecting them from the most animalistic of the group.¡±

    ¡°Yet if we sent them away, you would find and use them against us.¡±

    ¡°Never. Here, you obviously have some magic, you have until this spell runs out.¡±

    ¡­

    That conversation took over an hour and over the next hour after it ended the enemy spread out and more or less prepared for a fight. I say more or less because it was already going into the afternoon and the humidity was near zero.

    I did not even know where to begin with how stupid and inept this seemed to me. Stones, I actually caught myself trying to come up with some grand scheme that explained it all, but the odds said that it was stupidity, pure and simple.

    I thanked whoever raised this fool for their mistakes would help me today.

    Although we had less fighters, we ended up dictating the battle because of his desire to end it quickly. While we were arranged in a rough and uneven curve facing the road, the majority of the mercenaries were in front of us. Though about 500 separated along the flanks, likely only there to keep us from running away.

    Even if they wanted to attack through the woods, the traps in that part of the woods were more complicated and vicious. The fact that those flankers seemed to be the regular guard and not mercenaries also eased my concerns.

    I stood about 60 meters into the woods, surveying both the defenses and the defenders. Several mages and those marked as leaders of their designated areas had been issued basic magic spyglasses to do the same. The most part any mage could, with a simple farsight spell, could see what the enemy had brought, though the trees did block most from the full view.

    I had a few of the better spots to survey both lines already picked out, but for now I was more worried about our works than the enemy¡¯s formations.

    About ten meters from the tree line were the first small trenches and caltrops. Then a small ditch, about two meters across, filled with dried leaves and sticks. Finally, there was a large ditch of 5 meters just in front of a small incline, where a line of spikes and many clansmen had already lined up.

    The majority of sword wielders would go where Dawn thought they were needed most as they were mostly experienced with using their blades for guard duty of one type or another. This included a few individuals who had and could use the mithril weapons and they would be valuable reinforcements if the line was pressed.

    Most of those who could fight also had the clan¡¯s special spears by now, though the sword wielders had given theirs up for the second line. Those at the front were carrying shields with runes of strength and durability carved into them and a single spear each. The lines behind them had a spear or two, ready to use the spear¡¯s hidden functions whenever needed.

    For their part, almost the entire portion of the clan from Entrials had bows and quivers full of arrows on their hips. They were used to hunting for their food and were more than willing to target any and all exposed flesh, especially with their new arrows.

    A few hundred were scattered in front of the ranks, with all of them being the older, calmer, minds who would remember how to pull back without falling prey to our traps.

    The arrow shafts were all enchanted to with a death spell that activated when they were out of the quiver and more than two meters from a bow. If those arrows touched you, if even enough of their splinters touched you, the death spells would end you.

    Then there were a scattering of other things including our grenades, which were in baskets next to people who knew how to use them. There were also with some rather powerful crossbow users, who had some interesting rope tricks to stay suspended in a tree while aiming.

    Finally, there was the clan mages, who were the real fighting force and the only reason this would actually be a fight. They would be in groups of three, scattered across the line when everything finally started¡­

    In fact, they should have already been in position, but they were taking their cues from the heads, who had decided to have one last meeting.

    The five clan heads, Janeen, myself, Dawn and one of the Histones had all come together briefly to tell each other that everything was ready, while we suffered one of the most difficult parts of the plan: waiting for them to attack.

    As the countdown ended there was another call for our surrender, but after a quick exchange of looks between the clan heads, they scattered to their separate areas.

    No one was thinking of surrender then. Good. I strode forward, moving through the line with a simple tap on the shoulders of those who stood in my way. I easily jumped over the first trench and got to a vantage point where I could see our opponents better, before I worked my last pre-battle obligation.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    I used a simple spell that carried my voice out to the thousands of men arrayed in front of me. They could not see me, but they would be able to hear me as if I was right in front of them. Though I did not expand the spell to encompass the clan members too.

    ¡°I wish for all here to hear my words.¡± I paused and waited for a moment to see if my spell would be canceled or would this idiot let me say my peace.

    ¡°Speak!¡± His voice echoed through a similar spell and I partly regretted not letting the clansmen behind me hear me. The last thing I wanted was for them to think I was betraying them.

    Still, I had to warn these poor fools and I just did not know the clansmen well enough to know that my words would help or hurt. Some of them would not hear it as they were circling around our back, but the majority of the enemy was in front of us and they would be the ones facing me.

    I made sure to keep my voice soft, but resolute when I spoke. ¡°To all those gathered here today I feel compelled to offer a warning. The people you face are not raiders, they are a clan of old, who are only trying to travel in peace.¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°If you think this fight will earn you honor, you are mistaken. If you think that we will break, you are mistaken. If you think that you will find anything other than a painful, ignominious, death that will be recorded by Histones and priests alike.

    ¡°Those who stand here will fight for their lives, their honor, and their children, who you now threaten. So if you want to come, know that we will treat you as the hoard of murderers you intend to be. We cannot run and we cannot hide, not in your master¡¯s lands. You have cornered us and we cannot trust your quarter, we will exterminate all who advance.

    ¡°So if you wish to die, feel free to come. If you do, know that you have my trenchy, for no god can favor you, if they have sent you to throw your lives away here. For what it is worth, know that I will administer to the dead as best I can, as a former servant of the god of death.¡± I finished my impromptu speech and shook my head.

    If the Nalks really hated me as much as I thought they did, I likely just made the situation worse, somehow, but I still had to give them one last warning, for my own sake. Though I did get the feeling that this was too small and lopsided a battle for their attentions¡­ especially given that the enemy actually let me finish speaking after realizing that I was not surrendering.

    Regardless, any experienced soldiers or mercenaries would understand the important parts: that this was being recorded for posterity, that there were churches interested in the battle, and that this was a last stand from our perspective. No mercenary I knew wanted a part of such a situation, too much work for too much trouble after the fact.

    Then the voice of the Lord boomed across, letting his anger bleed into his voice. ¡°I have offered you a chance to surrender, personally guaranteed by my most esteemed family, the honorable Ferrum. I have offered you an opportunity to appeal your case before the King¡¯s representative and you have spat back in my face. You are murderers, thieves and brigands who will now be in formal violation of the King¡¯s Law if you do not surrender your arms.

    ¡°Now do see any point in endangering your children further? Can you not see the wisdom in giving up? I promise that no harm will come to any of you should you do so now, the same promise I gave you earlier, but perhaps your mages did not inform you of it. Now, however, there can be no more delays, will you surrender peacefully or must we break your spirit with magic and iron first!?¡±

    A large fireball formed over his head and launched itself into the area. It flew rather ponderously through the air and I was tempted to let it hit the all too numerous trees, but I felt around ten mages try and throw up spells to stop it.

    I whipped around and yelled at the line behind me. ¡°STOP!¡±

    Only those nearest to me stopped, but they were confused and one was especially angry.

    ¡°You anger him and then you ask us not to defend ourselves!?¡±

    I jumped back over the mud trench and glared at the fool, who had briefly pushed to the front of the line. The man suddenly realize who he was yelling at and I shook my head as he quickly backed up into his group. ¡°I do not want him to know how many mages we have, much less how powerful you are.¡±

    The man nodded frantically, but I could see the spells that had been launched regardless of my warning.

    The dispels went flying up to meet the fireball, intent on undoing the magic which held it together. I was surprised when the fireball did not dodge, but then again, that was the point of igniting a fireball that far away. The things used at least twice the mana when burning.

    Real attack spells would have instructions to dodge dispels or even built in counters, which would counter such spells. Still, not everyone could see magic and understand magic, so that was a small comfort. The fireball lost a large portion of its strength when the first dispel hit it and the second one obliterated it entirely.

    The third naturally sailed through the air and continued on, unseen by most, over the heads of the mercenaries. A complete waste.

    Counting mages was basic strategy, but the question was: had the Lord had enough presence of mind to count destrenche seeming so angry? No, on second thought, did the Lord even throw that spell himself? I could easily feel that his magic, which rolled off of him like waves, ranked in the double digits, but he hardly looked large enough to use such magic carelessly.

    That little interaction would undo a large part of any hesitation my speech had caused in the mercenary mages. There was no discipline with our mages, meaning they were green and would exhaust themselves early, which was why mages always had fleshy shields in front of them.

    I sighed and moved back through the line.

    From off to the side I heard Legati calling my name and I turned to cut her off before she could say something stupid. ¡°That was a test, they now know that you are unfamiliar with mage battles. Remind everyone to husband their strength like I told them if they do not want to be killed.¡± She looked startled, but nodded. ¡°Oh and spread out some more, magic can be used at far longer ranges as long as you order the spells to dodge trees.¡±

    ¡°Actually, Dawn sent me with a message about that.¡± I gave her my full attention. ¡°He is staggering the line, two groups in the rear, one at the citadel, two per flank and another six in the center, while the last seven are reserves with his men.¡±

    I frowned, but nodded. I would have preferred something that used the flanks more, but trying to do that without a couple of people at my level would be foolish. The mages here might learn to link their spells together in the future, but trying to get inexperienced mages to link was just not worth the time¡­ or the effort to clean up the resulting mess.

    Stones, I never successfully linked with anyone and I spent a good year trying with a couple of my daughters. Shut up Bella, it did not sound dirty in the slightest, I mean, they were my daughters!

    I noticed that Legati opened her mouth to tell me something, but suddenly seemed to decide that whatever she was about to say was not important and clearly changed her question. ¡°What exactly did you say to them?¡± She nodded at the enemy.

    I raised an eyebrow, ¡°Is that really important right now?¡± She grimaced and I turned back to said enemy. As they advanced, this spot would let me see them fairly well. ¡°Tell the others to remember what I told taught them. The enemy will be here soon and they will need to be careful in case a battle mage appears.¡±

    One battle mage could and would tear our line apart, if they had any- a loud horn blew from the Lord¡¯s direction and thousands of men started to advance towards the tree line. I nodded and started preparing my spells.

    Glancing back at Legati, I also added my own question. ¡°Where is your own group? It was three mages for each unit correct?¡±

    She gave me a stiff look. ¡°I will return to them now.¡± Then she stormed off, leaving me to shrug, maybe she thought I dismissed her, but I was honestly curious as she was the third most powerful mage on the clan¡¯s side, after me and one of the ass-merch guards, whose mages did not attend my lessons.

    Turning back to the enemy, I noted that they were still very-much separated into a few groups, with a few brave, or stupid, souls running ahead as skirmishers. Behind them were three more lines forming up, with the majority of the troops who were behind the skirmishers wearing iron breastplates, but nothing else of note. Behind them were the ¡®total iron¡¯ troops.

    To my surprise, there was a fourth group after iron troops, full a motley mix of colors, armors, and weapons. This group also curled around the ends, but they seemed to be trying to They also had a pair of men behind them on carriers and a scattering of men who were noticeably given a wide berth.

    So it went idiots, regulars, heavies, trash, and mages¡­ Odd, but it was entirely possible that the iron clad men had upset the Lord in some way. If the trash were meant to be pushing them, I would need to break the trash and convince the heavies to flee or give up.

    The brave idiots who charged first entered my view well before the others and caused me to hope for a moment that they were actually going for a full charge. The momentum would have been deadly, especially once the oil, gas, and mud traps were revealed.

    Especially the last one as the moisture and water runes could only do so much. Even with a week to work with, a single dedicated spell could make the mud dry fairly easily. That we planned to light fires nearby certainly did not help, but Dawn said he had taken some precaution to help the mud from drying out.

    That was not my area though, so I was less familiar with it, what I was familiar with was men who fought for money.

    In fact, there were about 200 men of such men leading the way in leather armor. They were armed with bows, so maybe they hoped that the trees would protect them? I¡­ I honestly pitied them.

    Our own bowmen knew to stay hidden for a while longer to let the mages start things off. The enemy did not get close enough to them to even realize they were there as I quickly released a mass of snip spells. Signaled by my actions dozens of other similar spells erupted from the line, each spell was designed to chase down their castor¡¯s chosen target.

    Predictably there were no mages with this skirmish group and they quickly fell without even realizing that they had been targeted. Dozens upon dozens of snips spells flew out, invisible to them, hunting down and striking man after man. Only one in two groups were using the spells, but they were so simple that the only reason to hold back was to hide our numbers.

    The mana instructions that picked one target over another were the largest mana cost associated with the modified snip spells and even then, as the targets did not know they were coming, they were not taxing spells.

    That said, it would still be surprising for the enemy, who would not have brought such a small group to a mage fight, no matter how stupid. For my spells, I did not target them, but instead aimed for some wood carvings tied to some of the upper branches of the outer tree line.

    As planned, the modified snip spells that targeted the men flew out far faster than my own, spells. As other spells raced past my own, they deliberately curved up only at the last minute, to snip the stings holding the carvings in the upper trees.

    The carvings were something that I pretended to come up with after hearing some stories. They were fear runes, albeit relatively small and weak ones, which I had deliberately set up. Their effective range was only a dozen meters or so in any direction, but their effects tended to accumulate.

    It was also one of the very important reasons for the front line archers to be carefully selected. The older Stalkers from Entrials had practiced near the giant fear barrier, but it would still be hard to keep a clear head while fighting next to those runes.

    Some mercenaries would notice them dropping and wonder what they were, but they were quickly distracted by the growing number of panicked yells.

    Bella¡­ had not felt well when I taught the mages here the snip spell they were currently using. After all, I made sure they knew that it was not designed to kill. Given that the majority of the group were from the diplomats and did their best to avoid or settle fights. It had appealed to them at the time and they took to learning it far faster than they learned the version which just slit throats.

    That said, while I too preferred this version, they were much less enthusiastic after I was forced to explain that the reason those spells did not kill someone, was that they paralyzed them from the neck down.

    This left a large amount of young men, at least a hundred across the line, suddenly unable to move as an uncaring force of mercenaries approached behind them. If they were given health potions quickly then they might move again, but otherwise they were out of the fight.

    They were left fully capable of screaming though, desperate for someone, anyone to help them.

    The rest of the skirmishers quickly reversed and started to retreat back to their line, but more than a few were being chased by the spells.

    From their point of view it might have felt like they had angered the gods themselves. One moment they were running and the next, they or their friends dropped to the ground, unable to move or understand what happened. Then they were realize that this was a war and no one would waste a paralysis spell on an enemy foot solider.

    For the next wave there were more slightly armored men, this time with at least iron breastplates, who looked distinctly less eager than then they could have been. They mostly seemed to have pikes and there were around 500 in this wave. With the rest of the troops advancing noticeably slower.

    This second wave advanced in larger blocks of around 60 per rough formation, with most being eleven or twelve men long and five men deep. Though some were merging and deliberately trying to walk together. In doing so however they moved more slowly and allowed the more determined groups, like the one directly in front of me, to advance ahead of them.

    Clearly, someone only learned to use foot soldiers as mage fodder.

    At that moment the archers revealed themselves and started unleashing their arrows. Again, the object was not to kill as many as possible, it was to make them fear what they were advancing towards. As some of the arrows glanced off armor or the occasional shield, they would brush clothing, or anything slightly mana conductive, and deliver the death spell, causing soldiers to seemingly fall down dead without injury.

    I watched the some units get distracted for a moment as they thought the fallen were hit by more spells, before they understood that the fallen were dead by the arrows.

    I would have normally gotten the mages to target these large groups of soldiers, both as a more effective use of mana and to burn out some of the nervous first. However, there were two good reasons why I kept my mouth shut though and both of them manifested in the form of Dawn.

    ¡°DeMorte.¡± I turned back and found Dawn not far behind me, trotting towards me.

    ¡°What is wrong? I still have my personal wards up though, for the record.¡± He immediately stopped, well outside where my wards actually started.

    ¡°I wanted to know how effective a barrage of fireballs would be for lighting up the ground in front of them.¡± He pointed at the large blocks of men.

    I shook my head immediately, ¡°The mages are perfectly capable, but if you want to block them it would not work, the enemy mages would- you just gave me an idea.¡± Before I could explain it though her cut me off.

    ¡°Light up the area behind them?¡±

    I turned to Dawn, impressed, and nodded. One of the major problems we were going to have at the current rate, was identifying the enemy mages. We had a slight slope to give us a small advantage, but as the enemy got closer they would get more and more dangerous. In that sense, these woods were actually more dangerous than helpful. ¡°You were already trying to find them? Bravo, would you kindly give the order?¡±

    The man snorted, ¡°Only because you refused to take a command.¡±

    I gave him a polite smile. ¡°You have to settle this yourself, I am just an outsider, a mercenary.¡± Besides, the other major reason I did not order the mages to move, was the Guilt. Any order I gave, that resulted in the death of another, would hunt me down and my soul would feel their deaths.

    ¡°As you said before, despite all the ways you interfered with my original plans. Regardless, would you make my voice carry?¡± I cast the spell and motioned for him to continue. ¡°Attention mages, this is Dawn,¡± I winced as he spoke louder than necessary, ¡°I want a mage from each group in the front rank to attempt to set fire to the area behind this new advance of troops. If the enemy block you, do not push the attempt.¡± He nodded at me and I added an order to make sure they moved after sending the fireballs before ending the spell.

    The resulting barrage was fairly scattered, but the mages did as they were told. Around twenty spells shot into the air, far more than ordered, but they were at least the same basic spell.

    Unlike what the enemy mages did, these did not ignite until a few meters before they hit their targets. Though not as accurate as the snip spells, a few fireballs came crashing down behind the enemy line, igniting just above the heads of the next wave.

    I silently applauded all the mages, especially those who remembered to lead their targets. It had more of an impact when it was a near miss. That the fireballs were ignored annoyed me, but it did terrify the enemy, especially those who lagged behind the formation and ended up getting directly caught up in the flames.

    It did not flush out the mages like we hoped, but it help keep the other troops further back from their allies. It also distracted them and allowed a few more rounds of arrows to be shot before the archers started to move back to our line. They even made it back without any deaths from the traps, though a few slips did occur when they got to the trenches.

    That said, I only had a few seconds to enjoy it as, a few large blasts of mana emerged from the center of the line. It was the Lord¡¯s position and the spells raced out to snuff the flames. I even felt my face twitch slightly as another horn sounded, this time amplified by magic. The sound cued the rest of the troops to start advancing faster.

    There went the plan, I thought grimly¡­ ¡°They either have no mages or are keeping them hidden. Did you see anyone tracking the spells?¡± I turned and found I was talking to no one. Dawn had already moved on to another part of the line, still my question stood. Exactly how many mages did they have?

    I looked back at the troops in front of me. They had slowed significantly to try and allow the rest of their forces to catch up. I sneered at that, this was annoying me.

    I turned and started marching down the line, amplifying my voice all alone the line ¡°Archers get ready and make sure that you had the distance to the oil trench measured.¡±

    I summoned my modified shroud, unwilling to let anyone see the original spell. I worked it out as I walked, creating an ever larger shadow of thick black miasma.

    I wanted them here already, so I could break them and be done already. Then a loud blast of different horn came from our own lines and the mages started a rotating barrage of fireballs. Each would take their time and make the spell as efficient as possible before sending it towards the enemy.

    For the first few wave the enemy did nothing and hundreds burned under the fireballs. It was only a handful of groups using spells on non-mages, but it was enough to finally get some mages to respond.

    Counter spells and occasional outright shields either burst the fireballs early or directly braced against them. I heard dawn¡¯s voice in my ear as her called for the groups on the flanks to start moving towards the center to support the others. The handful of mages currently using spells suggested that we had the numbers, but that hardly meant anything since they were acting more defensively.

    As a result, the enemy was using their mages far more efficiently.

    As their mages protected them, the enemy soldiers, particularly those in front of me sped up, creating a bulge in the enemy left center. Though it still felt as though they were taking forever¡­

    Finally, they made it to the tree line and the collective effect of the fear runes was obvious. They instantly slowed and my magic-enhanced eyes could see some pale as they reached the trees and felt a feeling of fear grip them as they were pushed into them.

    In that moment, I saw the meaning of the trees-line change for many of them. Where it might have been their target, as well as a source of women and easy gold before, now it was the place of Elves and mythical monsters of old.

    I smiled and stopped by a basket to take out a pair of screaming grenades. At times like these I should have been an invaluable mass of destruction, capable of using mana-heavy, but calorie-light spells to warhammer down my opponents. That said, fighting like that took very specialized spells, which I was not familiar with.

    Thus, it was better for me to just stick with my older ways.

    ¡°S-Sir?¡±

    I turned to the young man who was obviously in charge of the basket. He shaking in awe or fear at the sight of my shroud. ¡°Just an illusion spell, I told you about it before.¡± I held up the grenades, ¡°I am taking these.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± His voice did not shake nearly as badly this time around, but I did note that my shroud had gotten quite large. I had told the others that I would be using it, but refused to show it beforehand, as I honestly had no idea if it would do the same thing Gorith¡¯s shroud did when I got excited.

    That said, I noticed that more and more mana poured out of me and realized that this was the first time I had really used the full weight of my mana.

    In fact, the snip storm that I helped start earlier was well within my capabilities from my last life, but it would have taken a more noticeable toll on my mana reserves. Now, I had a record breaking about of mana above me and this method was far less mana efficient than the original Gorith¡¯s shroud.

    The miasma had spread further and further, rising and expanding to form a giant cloud of billowing darkness. Bella¡¯s influence also affected it though, giving the cloud a sort of goldish glow that I felt somewhat ruined the dark, earthen colors, that naturally permeated my spellwork.

    Though a few terrified onlookers, seemed to be contesting that, turning to look at it, as if expecting demons to start popping out any second. I did not care about that at the moment though, as I had to hit this group in front of us, hard enough to shake them to their cores.

    I then noticed some of the nearby mages staring in wonder and realized that I was actually letting them feel my full power, an oversight.

    Deciding to get going I created a small echoing spell to carry my words to the line in front of me. ¡°Clear a path and I would STRONGLY suggest that you mages make sure you are ready to bake the idiots in iron ¨C at a moment¡¯s notice!¡±

    By this time but their comrades pushed them forward. The men in full iron had already pulled down their chainmail coverings to ensure that there were no gaps in their iron. Not that they were good of killing much of anything through those things, it was a purely defensive move and the reason those who could afford it preferred specially designed full helmets.

    It would work against things like snip or death spells though, meaning, if my cloak was a death-wave spell, or the equivalent thereof, it might have saved their life until they closed with us.

    Instead it just invited a vicious smile and a few chuckles as a few of them walked into trees. The truth was that neither their iron, nor the stumbling buffoonery, would save them from me. Though, odd as it was, their being nearly blind would help them a little.

    I had the shroud expand more and float up so the archers could keep their line of sight for a little while longer. As I did so, I felt old memories travel come back. Memories of the fallen. Bella had burned so many memories of them out of my head, but still remembered more faces from my past then enemies I could see from here and it manifested in my shroud.

    Magic was far to linked to the human sub-conscious in that way.

    I felt the faces start taking shape in the miasma as the enemy mages started lobbing spells. Some were directed at me, but many were aimed at the line of clansmen behind me. I threw out my own dispels and counter magic, but I was more focused on keeping the faces of my shroud directed at the enemy

    There were¡­ three or four serious mages by the feel of things. There might have been a few more mages who were scattered and hiding, but given the amount of mana I was putting out, I doubted that they were going to do anything just yet.

    That was a mistake, while mages won battles, it was the common soldier¡¯s job to keep the victory. Too many overlooked that, without the commoners standing in front of them, the mages could not fight their battle.

    Ah¡­ I smiled a bit, that might explained it. They must have expected only a few uneducated mages so they spread out their mages over a very small front. I was wondering why they were not flanking more, but figured the Lord just wanted to get this over with quickly and opted for a frontal assault.

    I walked up to the mud trench as the first fools were starting to attempt a charge. The oil trench had already started receiving fire arrows, but that was not an issue for me as I finally threw my shroud over the enemy.

    Hundreds of skulls and the various faces of those I killed crashed into those men and flowed around them. The two major benefits of the shroud immediately coming into play. First, it reduced visibility, even for a mage¡¯s third eye, and second, it let me feel and be aware of everything it was touching.

    Not that I could process of it all at once, but I did not need to, I only needed to know where the ¡®total iron¡¯ troops and mages were located.

    As I tossed the grenades up and into the thick of the enemy I felt Bella shudder. They were still trying to march forward, but their mages were too busy trying to figure out what my shroud was. A few would soon realize it was almost pure mana and only had a physical presence because of its mixing with the air.

    By then, however, it would be too late.

    Killing intent plus the shroud, which was almost an extension of my body, was a terrible combination and I focused myself to unleash my full resolution into and beyond the shroud. Again, I tried to make sure that it only hit those in front of me, but it was difficult. Still, I felt many freeze as they felt that, even the iron troops were not immune to it.

    I removed the warhammer from my back, using it to bash a solider in the chest plate when he accidentally stumbled too close. Then the real snip storm started as I cast five spells in rapid succession.

    The particular spell I used was actually called a continuous modified spell, according to some of the nobles I captured in my previous life. It was the same as a normal spell, but it was basically on repeat, causing the same spell to be cast over and over again. I cast five of these, all casting snip automatically.

    At the same time the grenades went off as the pots broke and released the spells within, causing the ear splitting screaming of each spell to activate. The sound each spell produced also fluctuated irregularly to add discomfort to the corkscrew shiver that it itself sent up your spine.

    The spells themselves were simple though and were only stored spells in the end. A good swipe of iron would filter the mana instructions and destroy them, though once the spells were active, they would react to movement to a certain extent. Specifically, they would dodge iron, but they were only good for a ten seconds or so, less if they had to move much. Beyond that there was chance the enemy would adapt to them very quickly and start launching dispels.

    Which was part of the reason I used the screamer grenades instead of the burning grenades or the cocktails that still awaited use.

    Honestly, I half-expected that they would be instantly removed by any mage worth his salt, once they knew what to do. That said, for a first time use, in my shroud, of all things? They rang and rang and rang until their spell went out.

    The mages had gone into a purely defensive posture as my snip storm started in earnest. One brave soul did almost manage to upset things with a large scale dispel, but he actually ended up blasting away a large portion of his ally¡¯s mana armor instead.

    As the enemy moved they started tripping over more and more of their fallen comrades as the oil trench behind me was becoming a small scale inferno. Even if they made it past me, until the fire was out it was actually a more dangerous place to be, not that they knew that.

    So I smiled and fully activated my wards.

    Those covered in my shroud effectively could not see or hear, and were now tripping over bodies as men throughout the ranks suddenly found themselves paralyzed. Some tried to shout encouragements, but only I knew they were trying to do so and I quickly removed their ability to fight.

    Oh and did I mention that most of these snip spells went towards the enemy mages first? So they were also dealing with the ear-splitting screams, spells that were blurry and hard to see because of the shroud, and a constant barrage of magic that may or may not hit them any moment.

    Now that I had activated my wards they would know where to find me though. Lifting my hammer I noted that I felt lighter and realized the shear amount of spells I was using at the moment. I silently cursed and pulled back the shroud, also cancelling the snip storm as the screaming grenade spells ended.

    In less than a minute, I incapacitated hundreds, made hundreds more panic enough to turn around and actively attack people to try and get away, and I did it alone.

    The men who were not already fleeing saw the mass of randomly located bodies around them, the hoard of smoking floating skulls above them, and me with my new backdrop of fire, smiling. Not my killing intent though, as I pulled that back with my shroud.

    There were also the fear runes, which were now mixed into their line¡­ though they might have been a bit redundant by now.

    Still, to my shock, one man almost turned it around for them. He was crying, looking down at another man who had part of his face hacked off by someone in the shroud. Maybe they were related or maybe lover, I did not care at first, but then the man screamed and charged me.

    At that moment the mages finally got themselves together I had to launch a half-dozen dispels before the crazy man reached me, which is disturbing since it took him mere seconds to reach me.

    Deciding to roll with it, I decided to route the rest of them on the spot and took a step forward. Since the man was hardly dressed in full, much less total, iron it would have been easy to paralyze him, but it was time.

    War is horrid, it was murder and I felt no need to dress it up, regardless of the victim, cause, or creed, all were equal before death and I was the man from death, ¡°De Morte.¡±

    I stepped to the side and bat away his pike thrust with one arm, while the other swung the warhammer across his face. Blood, teeth, spit, and probably brain matter went flying and I felt the Guilt trigger. His soul would be waiting for me and would visit the moment I was physically safe.

    I kept the smile on my face a moment longer as I unleashed my killing intent again. The majority turned and fled.

    Some, namely the mages and the few total iron troops, who had yet to turn around and see that they were being abandoned, tried to fight.

    I cast berserk on myself and picked up the corpse one handed before throwing it at a crowd that was standing in front of a mage. The body knocked several men over and did some damage to my arm, but I ignored it. The mages were the real threat.

    One of the other mages was already backing down, while another suddenly found a few fireballs from the clan mages aimed his way. I could not feel any others at the moment, but with my wards fully active it would not matter.

    Conveniently, a normal tried to attack me from behind and I felt a pain spell leave my wards and cause him to crash into the ground crying out briefly before quickly passing out. I barely spared him a mental nod that he had been brave enough to charge me without iron before I was moving.

    I charged the mage, with my ¡®berserk¡¯ enhanced speed dangerously stretching my muscles and making me bound over the fallen men. He tried to trigger a spell in his personal wards and shot a small bolt of lightning at me, but with all the iron around it was instantly redirected.

    He died from a combination of a warhammer hitting him in the chest at high speeds, and a random pike that I scooped up and threw right after the hammer. As I felt the Guilt trigger again I deliberately stayed away from the fallen mage, wary of his still active wards and tried to retrieve my hammer, which had bounced a few meters farther away.

    Another mage, who had been smart enough to suppress his mana, now tried to shoot a few death spells at me as I passed him, timing his efforts with some of the few who had yet to run away. There were maybe a hundred within 50 meters of me not running away, but many were making sure they did not come near me either, clearly waiting for a mage to do the work for them.

    Again though, these men could not see the magic battle that was going on right in front of them so unless they knew the mages by sight, they did not see anything except me charging around their formation at will.

    I threw one of the few throwing knives I had brought along as a backup at the mage. The mage dove to the side while his wards summoned a powerful gust of wind to blow the dagger further away. I then dodged a pike thrust from a man in full iron and pulled, making him stumble towards me. I then grabbed and swung him around at the mage.

    As he was off balance the man went stumbling along, accidentally adding distance and almost running into the mage. However, as the mage was still scrambling up from the ground, he apparently decided that it was more convenient to blast the man with a fireball.

    Not that iron burned very well, but it immediately stopped the man as he fell in the ground in pain. The mage, clearly not caring turned back to me and screamed in a rage ¡°This is not how we fight!¡±

    Then my other throwing knife hit him in the shoulder, being blown off course by his wards suddenly summoning another gale. With the knife in him, his magic was disrupted and my snip spell flew uninterrupted through his few wards and ended the problem. ¡°This is how I fight.¡± I sneered, turning around to enjoy the terror on those around me as they looked around for any other mages to fight me.

    When they saw nothing their final hope was dashed and this part of the line was done for.

    Most of those still close by immediately started scrambling in an effort to desperately get away from me though some just dropped to the ground on the spot, likely pissing themselves. I laughed, letting the sound chase after those who could still hear for a few seconds before I quickly went and recovered my warhammer while canceling the berserk spell.

    I sighed, now I needed to restock on my throwing knives, heal the damage done to my body, and get back to the fight. Bringing down the shroud, which had essentially just hung over me while I fought, I wrapped it around myself and let it flow out over the bodies to determine which were actually dead. Quickly finding one I went over and concentrated the shroud to keep others from seeing the effects of mana roots, which I used to heal by body and replenish some of my energy.

    While I did, I had enough time to idly wish that I could help roll up the enemy¡¯s flank, but I doubted that everyone would get organized to fight together for that. If they charged without a plan it might become individual fighting against a more experienced and numerous enemy. Plus, the other end of the line looked well into the tree line, though I was not at the best angle.

    Bella felt uneasy, but happy that we had helped so much. She at least understood that the fight was not over yet, but we had basically freed up a half-dozen mages and hundreds of men to go support others. Plus, I thought we managed to route a good 600 or so men and remove a few mages, a good start.

    As some of the men on either side of the route finally got their heads together, they tried to reform themselves, but they had been affect by what I did as well and were all too eager to stay away from me.

    One of the oh-so-numerous reasons that I preferred this type of fighting. Their terror meant that I was less likely to have to kill them. It was something I was all too familiar with from my time ambushing caravans, though I had a reputation by that time.

    Still, from Bella¡¯s point of view, which she generously threw into the back of my mind, I just loved power, specifically, taking power from others.

    In this way I was, from her point of view, no different from the Pervert that she hated so much she erased his name from my memory. According to her all I wanted was power over others and manipulating them was sport to me.

    It was almost enough to make me snap at her as I stood up and cast fleshfire on the body that I had cannibalized to heal myself. As it burned the corpse I absorbed most of my shroud back inside my body, recovering the mana and making my way to the burning oil trench.

    I told Bella time and again that I never took a choice from someone else, though they give in because of my actions. Even when in someone was terrified beyond the ability to think straight they had a choice. I just reduced these lot down to their most primal of choices: fight or flight.

    If they wanted to, they could have turned around when I warned them before the fight started, or made sure to drop their weapons when fleeing instead of starting to attack each other.

    I hated the Guilt, but it made one thing very clear to me, we are responsible for our own actions and choices, not other peoples. I might share the Guilt if I order someone killed, but if they did something stupid? That was on them and I felt nothing! Did you hear me Bella!? Nothing.

    I used a bit of my remaining shroud as a guide and jumped over the fire in the oil trench. A little singed, I shook myself clear of some of the smoke and look up at our line. They looked somewhere between awestruck and scared senseless, I smirked for a moment until I saw Janeen was there, staring at me¡­ pale-faced, sweating profusely, and looking absolutely terrified.

    I blinked at that, I was on her side, what was she scared of? My warhammer was covered in blood, sure, but besides that I was hardly¡­ I was covered in a darkness which ungulate with the remnants of the dead who had passed through my head.

    Sticks and stones¡­ No, Bella, it does not matter, we keep moving and destroy the enemy. The Guilt is already coming for us, so there is no need to hesitate.

    There was a resounding explosion from the dead center of the line and I immediately ran back through the lines. As I did so, I reabsorbed the last of my shroud just after I crossed the mud trench. The clansmen dove out of my way and Janeen, who had been distracted by the explosion, flinched.

    I met her eyes and fought down the urge to shake my head. The woman had survived being horribly raped and tortured, even keeping her spirit after they repeatedly healed with potions, only to be attacked again¡­ yet I scared her? Nothing to be done then, it was probably better this way too. ¡°Did your father tell you what I said when he hired me?¡± I did not wait for her response before I answered my own question. ¡°I told him that he would learn to never make me his enemy.¡±

    Bella started to get angry at me as I turned away from Janeen, but then I felt pity from her instead. Ignoring it, I raced down the interior of the line as another powerful boom echoed from the center. It hardly took any time to find out what was causing the racket.

    The Lord had taken his personal guard into the center and used earth magic to fill in the trenches. His men were now being pelted with arrows and various spells while some of the hidden wards had already been activated.

    * * *

    ¡°Hoh¡¯s piss, what is that?¡± Janeen whispered to herself.

    Above the flames, through the trees, she could see faces in an evil, murky black, smoke that was surrounded by a dim light. It looked like a hole into a land of the darkness.

    She made her way over to this side of the fighting after noticing the shadow coving part of the line, with her bow and her newly enchanted arrows, she planned to help out wherever she could. Especially now that DeMorte had given her an amazingly lightweight breastplate to help her with the problems her chest created when using a bow.

    ¡°It is some type of illusion spell that DeMorte made, the one he mentioned before.¡± One of the others helpfully answered. It had been hanging up there for the last few minutes without moving before it suddenly started getting sucked down towards the ground.

    Then there was nothing but the roar of the fire that had now engulfed the oil trench and the occasional twang of a bow as someone took a shot at a target of opportunity. Janeen grimaced as she realized that they had well and truly lit the trench far too early and waste all the oil soaked hay that the Karam had painstakingly collected for them.

    She also found herself lingering and fidgeting as she watched the area beyond the flames as best she could. What was taking so long? DeMorte should know the dangers of saying among the enemy for too long and she certainly could not hear any sounds of fighting.

    Then she thought she saw him, but the grin that started to appear died before it was fully formed.

    The figure that emerged beyond the fire was clad in darkness, ringed in a slight glow. The otherworldly hell had descended and turned itself into a human shaped monster. The shadowy faces that came and went seemed like madness itself come and manifested itself through the souls of the dead.

    A particularly large face formed a silent scream on the thing¡¯s chest for a few moments before vanishing, making Janeen¡¯s blood run cold.

    Then she took in the face. The pointed ears and crawling wisps of darkness surrounded and framed an insane smile. With her heart racing and her whole body shivering, their eyes met and to her surprise, the mad levity faltered, the manic desire for¡­ more, drained from his face. It was a face she knew and recognized, but instead of a man¡¯s name, a different one ran through her head.

    Elf.

    It came and went before she could stop it, but a loud boom demanded her attention as it came from the middle of the line, where her father was.

    That knowledge overrode any fear Janeen felt and she turned involuntarily to look over, searching for her father. It only stole her attention for a moment before she remembered to concentrate on the battle like she had been told, but she then turned back to find DeMorte leaving the shadows and stepping through a new hole in the line.

    The last vestiges of the otherworldly shadow were the pair of pointed ears that quickly disappeared. What had he been doing? He said something about an illusion spell that he might use to terrify the Lord¡¯s men, but was that really an illusion?

    ¡°Did your father tell you what I said when he hired me?¡± His question caught her off guard, but he spoke quickly and answered his own question before she could recover. ¡°I told him that he would learn to never make me his enemy.¡±

    Janeen felt her eyes widen at that and her heartbeat increased even more as he looked her in the eye before turning away, quickly rushing off to where another boom echoed.

    As she stared after his departing figure, Janeen found herself wondering if the Karam were right, perhaps it would be safer for the clan as a whole for DeMorte to die during the fight. Was he that dangerous though? She knew he felt like it, but his actions made it hard to tell.

    He was helping them, obstinately for pay, but he certainly did not play with the children for it. He helped wherever he could and now seemed to be going further than even Janeen felt comfortable to protect them¡­ was he really

    Bella¡¯s face came to mind and Janeen grimaced. If he¡­ if he really was an elf that might make him want to help her, but would he go that far just for Bella and a sword? She trusted Bella and Bella had trusted DeMorte, or so he said¡­ still, had he given them any reason to betray him?

    She turned back and tried to see the enemy through the smoke, but there were none. Was that because they had run or because that spell of his had killed them all?

    She knew the questions were spawned by fear, but¡­ they were important. Who was he?