Locoss nodded silently as the boy's magic coalesced into a stable spell.  She moved on to the next person the bench. 

At another row, Ereli was being detained by a nagging old man, but her pleading glances towards Locoss went unanswered. 

The room was mostly full of children and young men and women.  Seated on benches in rows, they focused on their little balls of magic as Locoss and Ereli taught them to make.  Rather than trying to learn it from the book, it was far better to learn under those who knew their craft.  Even Ereli could so some small amount of alchemy enchantment now, if still slow and inefficient. 

"What else can we do if the baron decides to raise the tax again?" the old farmer complained for what sounded like the twentieth time now, "With more than half the wind eyes taken from us each harvest, we can barely even survive.  "

Ereli nodded stiffly, hoping that the man would let her go now. 

"And don't let me get started on my grandson," he added, "paying a Rime a month in interest on that loan he was forced to take.  "

You've already started talking about him, Ereli thought to herself.  She suppressed her irritation and nodded politely again.  Morey had told them to keep on the good side of the common people. 

"That's why we are here," the merchant on the row in front of them turned around, "so that this system can end.  "

The old man nodded, "without a Baron to oppress us, we can be free to live our lives.  "

"There can't not be a Baron though," the merchant said, "who's going to pay the knights?"

"Why do we need knights?" the old man scoffed. 

Seeing them begin to argue, Ereli took the chance to sneak off. 

Or not.  The big burly blacksmith at the corner of the bench took her attention with a wave.  "Am I doing it correctly?" he asked, holding out a simple iron rod less than a hand long. 

Ereli took it and examined the magic in it.  The blacksmith of this village was one of the faster learners of magic, having already started making inroads into alchemy. 

"Hmm, I can't tell," she turned around to find Locoss right behind her.  "Whoa!"  Since when did she...

"Show me," the girl demanded, taking the rod from Ereli's hands. 

Ereli patted down her hair nervously, the taciturn alchemist made her jumpy when Morey wasn't there.  She never knew what the girl was thinking about. 

The enchantment on the rod burst into little pieces that dissolved into the air.  "Circuit weak.  Binding incorrect," Locoss spun a complex magic in her hands and in a few seconds, handed back the rod with a new enchantment.  She left him with one word as an explanation, "firebolt. "

The blacksmith nodded and went back to studying the rod as Locoss wandered off. 

Ereli sighed.  Perhaps she wasn't cut out to be a teacher. 

She had showed another row of young children how to create the ball of magic again when there was a clattering outside.  The metal clappers tied to the gates on the village perimeter were ringing.  That meant there were knights coming, according to the pre-arranged signal with the lookouts. 

"The knights are here!" "We have to run!"

Immediately, the room filled with cries.  Before Ereli could react, the blacksmith and the old man were already herding the children out the backdoor, where whoever was in the main road wouldn't see them leave.  The mayor's house where they were gathering was not defensible, like any of the other buildings in this village. 

"Get the wands!" the mayor hurried the older adults, "Ereli, if you would?"

"Yes?!" she jumped a little as the mayor suddenly turned to her.  But it was obvious what she needed to do. 

While everyone else was cracking open the shielded wooden crates of charged wands stacked at the far wall, Ereli was to go stall the knights.  She clutched the three bangles on her right arm and ran out of the building.  The stones on the metal rings clicked noisily as they rattled against each other. 

"Hey!" A shout came from the street outside as Ereli burst out into the bright sunlight.  "Stop right there!"

She looked up and found herself facing down ten knights still sitting on their Rekis.  Drawn swords and bows glinted under the afternoon sun and the scattering of chainmail winked at her.  The Rekis were looking very big and menacing now. 

"Where are the rebels!  Give up now and we will spare your life!" the battlemage at the front of the group shouted. 

Calm down, Ereli, pretend they're like those practice targets back home.  She tried her best to imagine the knights were those large balls of rock the Iris used as target practice and sent her magic down her arm to the second bangle. 

Just like she had practiced thousands of times, the first panel of the bladewall sprang out in front of her nearly instantly. 

"A summoner?!" the battlemage gave a strangled cry and shouted at the rest of his group, "attack!  Now!"

He needn't have said that.  By the time the first blade was ready and the second blade started forming, the knights were already beginning to build their disruption bolts.  The panel absorbed the bolts with contemptuous ease. 

Ereli looked left and right.  Just like Morey had told her to do, a single panel might protect her from the front but curved bolts could still kill her.  And if the knights couldn't batter their way through the shield, which she strongly doubted they could, the only chance they had was to attack Ereli before the wall was full formed. 

The second panel swiveled away, half completed, to block a firebolt one of the battlemages sent in from the side.  Unlike normal disruption shields, the cloudy panels of bladewall shielded her from even the heat.  Morey had told her that it was due to the panel scattering light rays, which gave it the characteristic solid mist look shared by shieldwall. 

All around her, for more than ten strides, the reaction field twitched and jumped as the knights' bolts swept their way through the thin clouds of magic.  Without even having to do anything, Ereli's bladewall snapped forwards to intercept any bolts that would pass through the defended zone.  She tweaked the stone and the third panel broke away to move independently.  No need to charge them so strongly when the knights had no alchemists or spellstorms. 

It was getting too late for the knights to get past her now, with two salvoes intercepted flawlessly.  After her fourth or fifth panel, Ereli could start attacking. 

Or Locoss could do that. 

While shouting another order to break the group to flank her, the leader's head simply exploded.  Ereli had seen it enough times to know what was happening, but it didn't make the sight any less gruesome.  She swallowed the bile rising in her throat as the second battlemage's Reki turned into so much shredded meat, along with the woman's leg. 

Morey would not like her to be so squeamish.  After all, Etani, Nal and Locoss didn't have any trouble killing people.  Why was she the only one so naive?  The slaves were the same too, despite Locoss's support for the cause, Ereli could tell that only she was the one so disturbed by the thought that she still had nightmares about the whipped boy. 

Ereli wished she could get used to the world outside Iris a bit faster, even if she wasn't sure she really wanted to.  But every time she balked at killing someone, Morey would be disappointed. 

The building beside her suddenly sprouted a dozen magical sources.  Bundles of sources.  The wands appeared at every window and door, held by angry villagers.  Locoss and the gun was still unseen and unfelt.  She looked at the knight group dissolving into chaos and gulped again. 

This was much harder than aiming for a single person Ritual summon.  Why couldn't the world be simple and nice?

----------------------------------------

"What do you think?"

Morey put down the letter gingerly and nodded. 

"Good.  It's good," he breathed, "I had a hunch when your investigations into the slave caravan raids were suspiciously incompetent.  It looks like we share some ideals.  "

The Lawi nodded.  "My grandmother was a slave," he said, causing eyebrows to raise among Morey's group, "before my father seduced the then Lawi's daughter.  "

The roguish grin on the man's handsome face made some of the ex-slave girls blush but Morey just sighed.  The ruler of the town continued, "ever since I was five, my grandmother would always tell me stories about her time in the plantation.  It's why I never employ slaves.  "

"You still allow slaveholders on your territory," Morey pointed out. 

"I have to," the man rubbed the stubble on his chin irritably and shrugged, "I've done my best to lift the system of oppressive debt in this town of Lila, but my power as a Lawi is limited.  If the Alawi is persuaded to remove me by one too many irritated businessmen, my work stops.  This is all I can give you. " He pointed at the paper. 

"It is more than enough," Morey said, "with information as to where your inspections and patrols will occur, staying unfound will be simple.  You're even offering to be deliberately incompetent in investigations of raided slave caravans.  The only thing more I could ask of you is to contribute funds or troops when the revolution starts.  "

"My Wiis will complain, even if most of them are family now.  It's too much risk if the Rawi squashes the rebellion," the man nodded, "I don't think you'll fail but I hope you understand if the tradeoff is not in my favour.  "

"The Rawi is what they call the king," Harlos clarified for Morey. 

So he was looking for some kind of reward?  Morey sighed.  Well, he needed all the help he could get and a major noble like this man Bini would be a great help.  "You could take over as this region's Alawi afterwards," Morey said, "he was not going to stop the slavery.  At least not until I made him last week.  "

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"I heard about that one," Bini grinned, "I heard you defeated three entire parties of knights!"

"It's only because I have Nal and Etani with me," Morey said, "they're the best knights of Inath after all.  "

High profile raids like those on the compounds of major nobles and the best guarded caravans was talked about in every corner of Illastein now.  No matter how the nobles tried to suppress it, the anti-slave uprising was gaining notoriety rapidly.  And the more desperately the nobles tried to guard their slaves, the bigger the impact when Morey finally freed them. 

After all, the hit team of Morey, Nal and Etani was nigh unstoppable.  Of course, that was mainly due to the dozen or so slaves armed with the best magical guns money could make.  Those ex-hunters were turning into a very deadly sniper team.  With Locoss and Ereli off training the peasantry and canvassing grassroots support from the common people, it fell to the Hero to use his name to convince the nobles to switch sides. 

"In any case, if you can guarantee a place as Alawi, I might be willing to lend some support at the final conflict," Bini smiled, "I have no doubts that after the dust is settled, the sands of Illastein will be yours to distribute as you see fit.  "

The greed was all too obvious and Harlos bristled beside Morey, her tail fluffing up.  "You-"

He cut her off with a wave.  To the Lawi, Morey only had a warning, "I can agree to that.  Though I intend to give representation to the common people, you may be asked to take on a panel of advisors.  "

Bini shrugged, "a game simple enough to play.  I accept.  When you are ready, my swords and Rekis march with you.  "

When they were out of the compound, Morey sighed and turned to Harlos.  "Your enthusiasm for our cause is good," he said, "but you have to accept that not everyone is an idealistic revolutionary.  Most people just want to live their lives.  "

"What about them?" she pointed at Nal and Etani, trailing behind Morey silently.  They looked at each other then back at her blankly. 

"What about them?" Morey asked back. 

"Why are they following you around?!" Harlos asked acidly, "even if they come back to you, you can't just trust them so easily.  "

"I would trust them with my life," Morey explained.  Although that didn't mean trusting them with the rebellion.  "For reasons unrelated," he added. 

Harlos grumbled but Morey was the leader after all.  He nodded at Omal, now one of the leading figures of the revolution, to lead them away. 

To revolutionaries like Harlos, Nal and Etani were Morey's bodyguards, and the three of them made up the hit team of the revolution.  The main fighting force of the armed rebels.  Officially, Nal and Etani had been captured by Morey after the battle back at Zain's town. 

Of course, after that fight back at Zain's town, Morey couldn't trust them to act independently like Locoss and Ereli. 

----------------------------------------

"What are you thinking about?" Nal asked. 

Morey looked down from the sky.  Sitting on the roof at night was a little cold but he needed to stay awake to think. 

"I'm considering what to do next," Morey replied, "peasants and shopkeepers may be invisible but they don't hear much.  We need more information on Alawi Zain's movements.  "

"You need a spy, you mean," Nal said. 

Morey nodded.  A plant in the noble society of Illastein.  The relative of one of the pro-slavery nobles would be perfect, provided they could be trusted.  Or just someone ambitious enough to be bribed with promises of power after the revolution. 

"Do you not need to rest?" Nal crawled over the tiles and sat next to him, sharing his view of the stars, "you've been staying up late almost every day.  "

"On Earth, no one really went to sleep when the sun set," Morey explained, "this much is fine, I don't need ten hours of sleep.  Not when your hours are longer than mine.  I used to stay up until midnight at times.  "

"What can you even do?" Nal asked, "how do you see anything when there's no sun?  I thought your world didn't have magic.  "

Morey smiled.  "We didn't have magic to light our rooms yes," he nodded, "but we did have electric bulbs.  They lit up entire rooms and buildings.  Light more stable than the little wisps you use.  "

"We put them everywhere, so much so that the light from our cities at night blocks out the stars and tricks animals into thinking that our buildings are the moon. " He created a small dribble of liquid Light on the tiles, a pale flickering imitation of the halogen and fluorescent lamps.  "Imagine a candle with liquid Light, only more diffuse and even.  A bulb could make your room as bright as day and many rooms we built did not even have windows.  "

Nal looked around the city, clearly imagining what the streets and buildings could look like during the night.  "You must find it hard to sleep," she said finally, "if you can turn night into day, how will anyone be able to rest?"

Morey laughed a little.  "The bulbs can be turned off," he explained, "they're also not as bright as the sun of course, if you turn off the lights in your room at night, the city lights aren't bright enough to read by.  "

"Impressive, to have so much control.  "

Morey nodded.  It was impressive.  He had thought of trying to reinvent things, like that man Cato was doing up north, but the task was far harder than it looked.  Inath lacked so much of the understanding and organization that made Earth's production reliable and scaled.  The only way to get there was to do what Cato was doing, build an entire industrial infrastructure and tradition. 

Everywhere Morey looked in Inath was a reminder of how far Earth had come in understanding the sciences and engineering.  Not for the first time, Morey wished he had bothered to learn a bit more detail. 

"I wonder," Nal began, "if you find the Sword.  Will I get to see Earth?"

He looked at her skeptically.  "You would leave Inath?"

"When the war is over, I think I might want to.  Earth sounds like a nice place.  "

There was no guarantee that the Sword would be able to send Morey back though.  He refrained from saying anything about that.  "There are so many problems with that I don't even know where to start," Morey said, "for one thing, we don't know how much time has passed on Earth.  If I return to when and where I was summoned from, that would be simple.  But if this quest takes the years I think it will, and the same time passes on Earth, I would be considered missing and dead.  And you don't have an identity.  I can't possibly explain how you appeared.  "

Nal looked confused, "identity?  I'm Nal, right?"

"Not in that sense," Morey sighed.  How did one explain the concept of national census and identity registers to a native of a world where the queen only had a vague idea of how many people existed in her domain.  "The government in my world has files on every person born, lived and died in their countries.  In any of the First world countries at least.  If someone like you turned up without any identity, I don't even know what kind of trouble we might get into.  "

"I think there would be no point in asking how your government even manages to maintain that many records," Nal sighed, "can you not find a way?  Or are your governments so all-seeing that nothing escapes their gaze?"

Morey sighed, "it's not like fake identities can't be gotten through less than legal means.  Not that I know how of course.  "

Nal chuckled, "good to know that some things stay the same, even in a world as wondrous as yours.  "

Crime was part of the human condition after all. 

They sat there for a long while, on the slowly cooling tiles in the night wind. 

Morey was about to get back to his bed when Nal suddenly pressed against his back.  Her two small hands and forehead huddled against him, a source of warmth from behind to contrast the chilly night air. 

"Sorry for fighting you when you freed Zain's slaves," she whispered. 

Eh.  Morey tried to glance over his shoulder but she was right behind him.  "It was the right thing for you to do," he said gently, "you have your loyalties to your queen after all.  "

"I might reconsider that. " That last sentence was so soft that if not for her forehead transmitting her words by vibration, Morey might have simply missed that she was talking at all. 

With that, Nal stood up suddenly and ran off the roof, swinging her way down to the ledge below, not looking at him. 

Morey looked up at the foreign stars again and sighed.  Perhaps he should stay out a little longer. 

Nal hadn't stopped trying to seduce him.  Now that Locoss had pointed it out, Morey could only see the attempts to get him to share some private time and conversation as aiming for his heart.  In fact, while she did not hound him too blatantly, Nal's attempts at trying to understand Earth and Morey's culture and share some of her more private thoughts with him was too obvious if one was looking out for it. 

Morey was sure Amarante was behind that.  That meant that she was still trying to get him to complete his quest and stay in her control through one of the girls.  That also meant that Amarante wasn't about to kill Morey or even punish him at all for the problems he was causing in Illastein.  So he could be fairly sure that Amarante must be gambling on Morey being able to pull it off. 

On the other hand, having a cute girl to talk with intimately didn't feel too bad.  No, to be honest, Morey did enjoy it.  Even if Nal looked like a mid-teen despite being around Morey's age.  And Nal's little night talks grounded Morey.  It let him talk about Earth and his life, let him remember who he was despite being caught up in a war in a foreign world.  So perhaps he should just enjoy it a while longer.