After dealing with the real world for two days, being back in Mundus was an interesting sensation. The feeling of expansion, as my mind started to compute the information my Avatar’s senses could receive. Just the sensation of the Astral River following around me, the magic of this world, some of it at my fingertips it was a heady sensation.

“I’m back,” I mentally whispered to Lenore, letting my mind slowly mingle with her. For a few minutes, I experienced her memories of the last four days, watching what had happened to the others. Lenore had mostly stuck with Sigmir, sitting on her shoulder or remaining in her vicinity, acting as a mostly silent companion while Sigmir ran her errands. Because that was what Sigmir had done the last few days, wander around town, get some maintenance on her gear done and do some shopping.

If it had been anyone but Sigmir, I couldn’t have cared less about such things, but if it was about her, there was some interest.

“Did you see anything in town that might interest me?” I asked, after flitting through the shared memories.

“Maybe,” she allowed, before focusing on one part of the memories she had shared, a particular building. While it didn’t stick out on the physical level, on a magical level, it was akin to a beacon, radiating a lot of power and magic. Whoever was working there, they were a competent and powerful spell caster, with an incredible variety of magic at their disposal. From what I could see in Lenore’s memory, there were all common elements present in the casting and some power flows appeared in a manner I hadn’t seen before. Whoever they were, they had prepared their lair well. Breaking it would require me to go all-out and even if I did, it might not be enough if they had been intelligent enough to add some redundancy.

“What’s that?” I asked, my curiosity roused, “Who’s living there?”

“The Mages’ Guild.” was Lenore’s unexciting response. In that case, it made sense that there was a variety of magic around the building, not indicative of an incredibly versatile spellcaster. Individually, the flows she had seen weren’t that impressive, nothing I wouldn’t be confident to break with some effort.

“Do you want to check it out?” she asked, the suggestion obvious in her voice.

“Certainly,” I agreed, before focusing on our immediate surroundings. Lenore had been out with Sigmir, who had long since sensed my return, walking away from the crowded streets and into a small side alley, where we’d have some privacy.

Before I had fully materialised after leaving my Hallow, I was already swept up in an embrace and a greedy mouth tried to devour me. The sensation hit me like a brick and I realised just how much I had missed her. All my confusion, all the worries and questions were swept away, leaving only a glowing sensation in my chest. Enthusiastically returning the greeting, I wrapped my arms and legs around Sigmir, holding on and returning the kiss for all I was worth.

Ultimately, her higher Endurance- and Vitality-attributes allowed her to keep going for longer, she simply had more breath than me. Gasping for breath, my head swimming with the desire to just rip off her clothes and have my way with her in the secluded, slightly dirty back alley but sense prevailed. If nothing else, I wanted to keep her wonderful singing voice in the throes of ecstasy all to myself, away from the world. It was all mine, and I was not sharing it.

“I missed you,” she quietly murmured, still holding me against her chest.

“And I, you,” I mumbled back, rubbing my head against her leather-clad chest, her unique scent filling my nose, relaxing and arousing at the same time.

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For a minute, maybe two, we just stood there, basking in the other’s presence. There was no need for conversation, no more words exchanged, only the simple pleasure of holding the other.

Sadly, some beings simply couldn’t read the mood.

A small, idle part of my mind had remained vigilant, noticing the approaching steps but had ignored them as trivial. When Sigmir grumbled, a harsh vibration coming from her chest, I leaned back a little, so I could see what was going on.

There, from the other side of the alley she had moved into, came a group of four males, two beast-men, one orc, one human. While their races were different, their demeanour and dress were identical, the same grin, the same rough and simple clothes and the same cudgels held in their hands. They looked like some sort of dockworkers, common ruffians and rabble.

For a moment I considered how to react, but when the sensation of Observe swept over me, that uncomfortable and invasive feeling, I acted without thought and quashed it, extinguishing the faint traces of divination inherent to the skill and striking at their minds in response. I held back, not wanting to immediately kill them, but even a weak response was enough to send them staggering.

Suddenly, the alley was filled with clattering noise, as the cudgels they carried dropped to the road and the earlier, confident steps were replaced with a sudden rush, as they ran away as fast as their staggering legs could carry them.

Sigmir’s annoyed grumble turned into deep laughter, watching the idiots flee. Before we could decide whether to smack them down or not, more steps came from the other side, this time only two sets and when we turned around, another pair of ruffians rounded the corner, looking like they were a set with the earlier four.

When they looked into the alley and saw Sigmir and me, still standing there, with Sigmir laughing while I was somewhere between annoyance and amusement, they stopped as if someone had pressed the pause button. Watching as their faces morphed from amused anticipation, mixed with a touch of cruelty, to confusion before suddenly switching to fear gave me a certain grim pleasure.

Before I could decide on the most appropriate reaction, they suddenly stopped running, moving in a very calm and orderly fashion, trying to hide the cudgels behind their backs.

“Afternoon, ladies,” one of them greeted, as they were squeezing against the other side of the alley, trying to get past us while looking like nothing more than harmless passers-by. That they carefully tried to conceal their weapons gave the whole thing a truly surreal feeling, to the point that neither Sigmir nor I knew how to react. They were quite obvious no threat to us, simply by virtue of our superior power and before either of us had mustered up the will to strike them down on general principle, and for the crime of interrupting our reunion, they had managed to scurry out of the alley, moving at surprising alacrity without appearing to run. It was enough to make me wonder if they had some sort of power-walking skill that allowed them to do so.

Shaking my head, I looked up to Sigmir, who still held me close, but I could see that the lust and ardour we had felt was thoroughly extinguished, washed away by the interruption. For a moment, I considered finding and murdering the ruffians but decided against it. If that was needed to reignite my passion, I should do some deep introspection and reevaluate my mental state.

“Why don’t we go to the Inn? We have the whole day before we’ll ship out tomorrow…” Sigmir suggested, her intent obvious in her voice. For a moment, I considered following her lead, to see just what we could coax from the other’s body but an impish urge struck me and I shook my head, even while rubbing against Sigmir in just the right way.

“Later, love.” I told her, changing the angle of my rubbing a little, my grin deepening when I smelled a familiar scent in the air, “I want to check the Mages’ Guild, they might have something that interests me.” I explained, not stopping my movement.

“Oh…” she tried to form a coherent answer, while I pulled myself up a little so that my mouth was near her neck. There, I gently started to nibble, letting my teeth play against her skin and gently lapping and tasting her skin with my tongue. Her words were carried away by a moan and just when her muscles tensed around me, I slipped out of her embrace, landing next to her.

“Tonight…” I told her, my voice thick with desire, as in teasing her, had managed to tease myself as well. “Tonight…” I promised, slowly walking away from her, noticing a deep, animalistic growl behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, I could see her staring at me, her eyes alight with lust and her breath heaving.

Tonight would be incredibly fun…