Outside, the knights are back and surrounding the building now.

They all salute the eldest brother, High Judge Henry bows to him, "Count Norstrom sir." he states, unsure what else to say as it's been a long strange day.

The Count, feeling refreshed and in good spirits now that he is free and apparently Healthy, "That heavy set fellow is amazing. Who does he answer to ?"

"No one sir. He only arrived here a couple hours ago. And in this world yesterday. He is trouble though sir. It comes looking for him." Henry tells him.

Youngest, coming from the baracks, "Well Lost ones always attract trouble. Part of their nature and all. Though from my reading, depending on how they are treated can affect whether they come out a hero or a villain. At this point he is friendly and helpful, push him away though and well."

Henry nods, knowing well the stories himself. Lost ones make great hero's or terrible villains. Most of those are oddly powerful to start to, just like this one. Which is one reason he wanted to get away from him. SO does not want to get pulled in to that ones Destiny, though now he fears it is to late. He is likely doomed to being a side character in someone elses story.

The Count listens to everyone talk. Listening carefully then ask, "Did anyone think to even ask the man his name ?"

Gabrael grunts, "It is polite to give your name first when meeting your betters."

The Count sighs, "That is not always the custom even in this world Little Brother. Besides, as he is a traveler and someone you used the Yo-tan stone on, you should have asked his name or title then. I don't mean his adventuring titles either. But whether he had such from where he came from."

GreyMantle starts to chuckle, "Henry's aura worked against that. Henry introduced himself, told him about the aura, and after that he talked about many things, but avoided giving a name, occupation or anything except about the magic and his occupation HERE. The man is a genius, in the god range. He also serves Tymor, and She sent an avatar at one point, who fixed our Yo-Tan stone so it works properly now. Which is nice as the one we had was old and well you understand." The Count nods, "She seemed intent on keeping him in a good place. Doing all kinds of minor but good things for him. So not a normal reaction from any god really. So he must be special beyond just the magic. His Special is why I stayed behind, and one reason Sir Gabriel is scared of him I think.

Ah we are out here because an artifact was stolen from the temple of St Michael. But it was destroyed, by accident, by that young man in there."

The Counts face goes dark, "IT was the Priest of Michael that helped in our capture. Their Highest One told me he could not allow me to make an allience with the Franks. Which was news to me. We were just going to our summer villa, which is no where near the Cursed Franks and their Warlock Kings. So no idea where he got that strange idea."

Henry sighs, "It came out today, from the Goddess that the God of St. Micheal is trying to take over the role of King amoungst the gods and is doing everything in his power to undermine all the other gods in order to do it. We also learned why we have not had any gifted children in the last 200 years, that were not of Micheals faith. That blasted Artifact used their souls to power itself. We have other evidence that they may be turning people in to animals and then Selling them. Lovely work around on the anti-slavery laws."

Blond Knight, "That grey horse over there was a person, at least according to the mage. He can talk to animals, amongst his other gifts. Seems gifted with the ability to learn languages at an accellerated rate to. Took him a few hours to learn Thessian, so we have been very careful to Only speak to him in Thessian."

GreyMantle is smiling, "But talking amoungst yourselves in Pell, close enough for him to listen in. So I imagine his mind has already started translating our language."

The surprised looks on all these peoples faces as they realize that.

Count Nostrom ask, "Why is it bad that he learns our language ?"

"He serves Tymor, the God of Luck. He could bring great misfortune to our lands." they say, almost in unison.

He nods, "True, if you anger him or treat him poorly I can see that happening. Of course he could also bring great fortune to the lands as well."

Again the thousand yard stare as that never occured to any of them before either.

The Count he understands. All these knights were trained by his brother after all. The man is brave but scared of angering the Gods, though mostly of Tymor, so he tends to tell tales of the things that can happen if you anger them, so his people tend to look for That instead of the Good things such people can do. The Other thing the Count realizes, these are the new granduates. They are likely on thier first assigments and they get stuck with High Judge Henry. While he is a good judge and all, being constantly exposed to him can make the average person a bit nervous, all that forced Honesty and all. It's hard on the normal sorts. But it's not something Henry can turn off. Best he has been able to do is pull it in to a smaller radius. It is as much a curse as a blessing for one in his work. Though his drive for fair and honest justice is true and honorable. He is a staunch protector of the Laws of the land and very much a man of action. He tends to ride out with his knights, and see to it that everyone is treated fairly and with a good amount of kindness. Though he can be harsh with criminals, he is harder on those who are supposed to stand against the criminals but instead become them. It's not so ironic that he carries his own court with him where ever he goes.

The only thing the Count is sad about is the Kings Court tends to give him the bottom of the barrel in gear and personel. Not that the knights are bad people, it's just they have his brother as their superior and while a good soldier and honorable man. The fears that drive him tend to infect those in his command.

To be prepared when the new mage awakens, he looked over the read out of the Improved Yo-Tan, it's impressive, list not only title and stats but skills to.

*Fishing (small boat handling, swimming, small net handling, fishing pole, lurers)

*Scribe - Read / Write: Own language - Common (merchants language

* Story Telling (Writting)

* Weather Sense

*Cooking (including camp cooking)

* Blind Fighting / Spacial Awareness - 1 to hit

- Disguise (costuming)

- Reading Lips

- Spell Craft

- Runic Lore (runes and such used in magical items and similar, also in some ancient languages)

-Etiquette : British Royalty - U.S. Military

- Trivia: Stories, ghost and spirit Identification, Random bits on religion, monster lore - assorted - (this is all trivia as he does not know enough in any of these fields to count as being studied in them all)

- Animal Training - dogs and cats primarily

- Limited appraisal of weapons and armor from being a collector of such. Understands the Quality of such items but not their value

- Artistic Ability (Stories - clay modeling - some limited on painting or drawing)

- First Aid (Bandages and cleaning wounds etc - not full healing skills, basic end stuff mostly ).

He noted the various lines and new symbols. But also there are notes on some of these. One of which intrigues him. Etiquette, British Royalty and Military. But is he a servant to such or a royal himself. Not allot of the things shown here point for or against that. Much points to a man of learning though. Does note the combat training skill but nothing listed for what weapons he is trained in. Though most mages tend toward simple weapons, this man has actual warrior training. So many questions he will need to ask when the mage wakes up.

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In the Mystics dreams, he was taken as a slave, his belongings stolen, his freedom forfiet. But he still had his mind and his skills, and his Magic.

In the dream they have him gagged and hands bound so he can't work any spells against them. But they don't know of his Other gifts.

In the wagon next to him is a girl, she is praying to Tymor, asking for aid of the chance to escape, or at least a quick end before they get to the village they are being sent to for their Training as slaves. Where they specialize in breaking a person and making them obiediant.

He is very calm about it though, once the shock wore off. He knows his skills and things these people can not imagine. He has always had special gifts and some of those are proving most helpful. In that, in this dream, he is telepathically speaking to the local spirits and They are telling him what new gifts he has been given. What he is Really capable of doing of Becoming. Though many of these spirits advise him to become a villain, to teach these fool mortals the error of their ways. To call hell on to earth with his new gifts.

He has heard all this before, it's pretty common practice for such spirits and he just smiles and nods and lets them blow smoke.

When they get to the village of the damned, as the other prisoners call it, he just does not move, or help his captors. But they are skilled and know this trick, so large strong men just man handle him before the ones who inform him he will soon be a horse and there is Nothing he can do about it.

He nods, then through his gag, speaks the words of Power, Calling upon the Gods of His Understanding, speaking cause of Years of study in doing so while basically paralysized as he used to suffer from siezures.

His spell, strange and otherworldly works just the same and the laughing evil people slowly shrink down in to tiny little wingless and legless insects. The local wildlifes favorite food. Easy pickings.

His second spell causes all the bindings to come loose, fall off, or just break, as needed.

His 3rd spell changes all the slaves in to free people, strong and healthy and frisky cause it's been a long time and his waking body is horny.

Unfortunetly, nature interrupts his dream as it turned from a fun romp to so many toilets, and needing to find one that was not occupied or worked.

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

I wake and looks around, right the barraks. Damn it. Was really hoping that was part of the dream and I would wake in my own room back home (though still healthy as well, favorite fantasy and all).

I can hear a soft arguement, in the local language, just outside the door. Seems they put a guard on the door and someone, girls voice, is telling them to let her in and she being told No. Not with out her uncles orders.

I go to the door and find it is locked, from the outside no less. I guess Sir Prickly Pants decided I needed to be contained. But there is no privy in here, nor even a pot or bucket to piss in. Not much of anything in here but beds and the trunks belonging to the soldiers really. Means the privy is else where.

Really needing to go, so I just shrink the fucking door. Much to the surprise to the youngest daughter and the men stationed outside of it. I look at them, "Where is the privie ? I really need to pee."

One, still in shock points over to the side of the road, just along the wall. Neither think to try and stop me as I hobble over there to take care of business.

The girl, "Ah sir I would not use that privy, it has a bad infestation of very nasty bugs. The newer ones are over on the other side, near the brown and grey horses."

I look at her and nod, "Thank you miss." I turn and head in that direction. I know why the knights would send me to such a privy. They don't like me, or the Goddess who has helped me on a couple occaisons. They are fun most of the time. Loved the group 'giant step backwards' yesterday. No command given but unified reaction. Well trained at least. Though my picking on Gaby is probably going to get me in trouble, well more trouble with him. What I have seen of the rest of his family. They seem nice, though I admit I was a bit punch drunk last night.

As I come out of the privy I am met by the horses.

Brown grouses, "Could you Please take this saddle off of me. I so need a rub down."

I sigh, "I can but then what I don't have any brushes and really don't know much about horse maintenance."

Grey, "I just want to know if you are awake enough to turn me back in to a person again. As it stands I can't do it cause well, human words can't come out of a horses mouth."

Grinning, "Actually back home there were a few horses who worked out how to speak human and did so. They were pretty famous for it. Though none of their children were able to do so. It was a shame as having bilingual animals was very helpful to the military."

I watch them take that in. I am ready to pull up images of Mr Ed and that mule from the movies, Francis.

Grey sighs, "Sounds like they had special gifts. Normal horses can't do that." I shrug and don't push it.

I look around then well I work, with their guidence, in getting the saddle off of Brown. "Do you two have prefered names ?" I ask as I get the belt undone.

Brown nods, "Richard. Was what I used to be called before, from my knight."

I nod, good name.

Grey, "In life, I was Keen Sight, I was a mage before I became a Nag. I don't mind being a horse really, I get treated a little better. But I miss my clothing and my magic."

Richard nods, "Fancy pants type."

Grey nods, "Yep, and proud of it. I was 80 till the young sir here fixed me."

I sigh, "Can I just call you Keen for now ?"

He nods, "Sure. Say you may want to think of a Mage name. Don't need some slime or government type to bind you using your Real name. It's an easy spell to do to someone, which is why mages all have such unusual names."

I nod, "I have heard that before, but the problem is coming up with something original that is not lame or a bad joke waiting to happen."

"Any special teachers in your past ?" Richard ask me.

I nod, "Had a spirit teacher who was a prism dragon. He went by the name Lokis Heart. Which I have used myself on well that is hard to explain as the words are not in any language I know locally and trying to explain them gives me a head ache. But I also used Shadow Prism and 41 of 3, which really is a math joke as it's Pi backwards. Well the first part of Pi at anyrate."

Keen nods, "I see what Richard was getting at and really Shadow Prism is a good name for you. Being the student or shadow of your former teacher who is a prism dragon."

I sigh, something else I need to think on. "So any idea where I can find food, I really don't have much left from what I got in Thessnia."

I look at it in my inventory, 3 slices of corn bread and 1/4th pot of stew. It's not a very good stew either but it's litterally the only food I got.

I put Richards saddle in my storage place and look around, where I find the girl, who is watching me in wonder. "What ?" I ask her.

"You really do talk to them and think they talk back."

I sigh and stand up, then pop my back.

Looking at them, I start and stop the spell a couple times then sigh. I am to hungry to work magic right now. Well anything complex at any rate. I look at the horses, "Richard, Keen any idea's where I can find humanish food around here ?"

Richard snorts and shakes his head in horsey laughter at my Humanish comment. Keen just sighs and walks past the girl, "The Royals were using the kitchen here this morning, you may be able to get something from them." I follow Keen, while Richard follows me. The girl tags along to.

At the cook house, which is just inside the western gate I find the kitchen (bunk house is on the eastern side), I also find Peter and the servant girl. She is cooking something and Peter is having a couple eggs and toast.

"Good morning Peter." I state, "Can I get something to eat here to ?"

He nods, "Sure but it's limited fair, just stuff the guards had."

"That is fine, I am down to 3 pieces of cornbread in my supplies. So Not a good breakfast." He chuckles and nods.

Betsy the servant quietly makes me some scrambled eggs and lets me slice my own bread. As she is cooking I look through the remaining food stuffs. There is a great deal of preserved foods here as well as a cool room with eggs and cheeses in it. I dig around in the kitchen till I find a grater and a large bowl, then I grate some chedder smelling cheese I found and add that to my eggs. "Gives them a little better flavor" I explain. Peter is impressed, "I don't even know how to cook."

"My mother made sure I knew how to cook. Grandmother was a Gormet chief, well amoung many other things really. She was a remarkable individual. Compeletly deaf from a childhood illness, but she went on to work on peace treaties and helped countries recover from a great war." I am stumbling on the words here, shifting between the 'trade language', Thessian and what ever he calls his language. I sigh and give it up. I don't know the words, so I can't really tell the story properly.

I go back to searching the pantry and find a bag of pears. I take a couple out and walk outside, "Hey Richard, want a pear ?" he trots over and happily takes it.

I look at Peter, "I asked them their names this morning. Don't know why I did not ask before now." I sigh.

"Good point. What is your name ?"

"Rob. Well that is my nick name at anyrate. Full name is something of a mouthful and does not mean much in this world so no point in using it." I state as I recall about Mage names and Why they are important. Binding spells are a bitch - that being the biggest one.

"So Rob, ok short and definitely has the feel of a family kind of name." I nod to his assesment as I take over and make myself a proper breakfast. There is more than enough food in here to feed Everyone here for a week.

Well there was before I got here. I quietly put a few choice items in to my magical storage bag. My Light spell covering for the glow of the transference. Eggs, Cheese, some bread that looked close to 'experation' and some of the preserved food stuffs and some odds and ends I found including these locked boxes that were hidden behind all these bags of turnips and potatoes. I took a couple large bags of potatoes to (which is how I found the boxes really). One such box I bring out with me. It is lighter than the other ones, so I am taking a chance with it.

"Hey Peter, look what I found. It was behind the turnips." I show him the box, but we don't have the key.

"Have to wait for GreyMantle to get up. He has all the keys they took from those guards."

I shrug, point a finger, speak a phrase about unlocking things while miming turning a key, the small bolt lock pops open. "Cantrip." I tell him with a grin. He shakes his head as we open the box.

It's is about a quarter full of seasonings. Raw ones from what I can tell. He whistles, "This is a good find. These are expensive items."

I stare as I have no idea what any of them are. "Spices ?" He nods.

"I have no clue what any of these are. They don't look like anything from my home." I explain.

He slowly nods, it makes some sense to him, my being a foriegner, another world and all, that some things would be different.

As we are eating, and the quiet servant is cleaning, I pull out and boot up my phone. I watch the locals eyes all follow my strange device.

Peter in quiet tones, "what is that ?"

"My spell book at present, otherwise its a data storage device called a Cell Phone. Has some good features in it but unfortunetly at present it is limited in what it can do as I can't recharge it here. So when it's power runs out, I am out of luck."

I am looking through my list of names. Many of them foriegn, for something to use as a Mages name. I come across 2 possibles.

Maou, which means Demon King in Japanese, or Cat in Chinese - the other is Maoyu which means either Archenemy or Hero, depending on how the word is used, it's also the name of a demon king in an anime I liked. I consider that as the other Royals come out from where ever they were hiding. Ok I know they weren't hiding, but this vibe the eldest if giving off makes me feel a bit jumpy for some reason.

They look over the kitchen and the Middle one, Charles I think "Is there enough food to feed us here ?"

I look over, "There is enough food to feed you, the knights, and possibly a few others for a week in here. "Though the selection is not all that great."

Rafeal nods, "Anything that is not potatoes. They fed us nothing but potatoe soup for the last month, sometimes with turnips in it."

"That explains all the bags of potatoes and turnips in here. But we got eggs, cheese, some other vegitables. Um, I am not totally sure as some things I have never seen before."

They nod, "Can you make an omlet ?" Rafeal ask. I look at the servant, "There is no milk sir, so no. We can make eggs and there is bread for toasting and cheese. The sir here found a box of seasonings to." she nods to it.

"Is there any butter ?" I ask her, she goes over to this box I missed before and looks inside, "A little bit." pulls out a wax paper round of butter. I go over and look. There are 2 more in there and one partial. "Ok we got enough for a little bit, but have to go easy on it."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I look through the rest of the stuff in the box. Some reason someone left an empty pail with milk residue in it. No magic in the pail, so it's not going to produce milk on it's own. I pull it out, "Some people" I mutter about stupid, the girl grins.

I put that to one side, "If anyone see's a cow around here, I found the milk pail. It was in the cold box over there."

Peter and Charles shake their heads. Rafeal looks confused. I think Rafeal thinks that is where it belongs. Makes me wonder about this family.

Charles sighs, "My wife gets on me if I leave an empty container in the cold box at home."

I nod, "I would to. That and people who drink out of the containers that are meant for everyone to use. That is just nasty."

Peter stares at his brother with a knowing grin. Charles does not deign to answer to that.

"Anyway if any are interested I can make grill cheese sandwiches to go with the eggs." I volenteer.

Marcella pulling her eldest daughter with her comes up, "That sounds wonderful actually." She looks at Peter, "I had a nanny when I was a girl who made the most wonderful grilled cheese sandwiches which she served at tea time."

I grin and set about making the sandwiches while Betsy handles the eggs.

Peter nods at me, "Oh I learned his family nick name. It's Rob. Say's his given name is a mouthful and him not being here a bit pointless so he is not mentioning it."

Rose the youngest, she sighs, "No, he knows better than to tell you all his True name after all."

I grin at her, she blushes.

I nod, "Keen warned me about that."

Peter, looking confused, "Keen ?"

"The horses, I finally remembered to ask them their names. The brown one is Richard the grey is Keen Sight, and HE is a mage." Slow nods all around to that.

As they eat and talk amongst themselves, I search my phone for idea's and finally decide on one of the two japanese names. Though I will ask first if anyone knows of the language.

Then I set down to work out the spell I need in order to turn the horses back in to men.

As we are there a large merchant caravan arrives. So seeing as I need supplies, I walk out and see if anyone is willing to trade.

The merchants, seeing all the knights and such are nervous. I being the paranoid and suspicious person I am, use my aura sight to look around.

I notice several of the wagons have what look like bodies stuffed in the bottoms of them.

I walk over to a yawning Henry, "I got a question for you."

He about jumps out of his skin as I came up behind him. Holding his hand over his heart, "What do you need to know ?"

"Laws on slavery. I ask cause several of the wagons over there seem to have humaniod aura's in hidden compartments in the bottom of them."

He grabs his robe, staff and a dozen knights and heads over there, telling me, "Slavery was outlawed, save for prisoners of war, who all work for the state. So if they are smuggling people then they are breaking the law."

I nod, "Some of the lead merchants have some kind of blocking magic, or they are undead. I have a hard time telling cause both the undead and blocking magics leave a person with no visible aura." I tell him conversationally.

He looks at me and shakes his head, "Anything else you want to volenteer ?"

"My family nick name is Rob, my Mage name is Maou." I grin at him.

He shakes his head, "What does Maou mean ?"

"Depends on the language used. It's a nice multiple meaning word really. I know of 4 meanings for the word."

He shakes his head as he pulls on his official robes.

He extends his Aura as we get in range. I watch as all these people suddenly and slowly turn in our direction. I note several looks of fear spread amoung the guards and lesser merchants. The presence of a High Judge makes them nervous. So smugglers at the least.

I stand back and watch how it unfolds. Henry is good, he does not rely purely on his aura. He knows his business and catches them in a dozen lies before he orders the wagons searched, Especially the hidden compartments in the ones the Mage points out (me).

I grin and point out the ones I can see struggling forms inside of.

A minute later there is a couple loud screams from with in one of those wagons. Their mages tried to curse me, but my defenses caused the spells to bounce and well, lots of now cursed mages and a few others rolling out of this large covered wagon, covered in boils and being attacked by small black creatures, creatures with tiny spears.

That triggered the merchants to try and escape with their guards leaping forward to take out who ever they can. I point at them, make a turning 'Devils' hand sign and as the knights watch, every single guard and merchant shrinks down to faery sized persons. Their clothing and weapons falling harmlessly to the ground. My second spell pulls them all together and holds them in a yellow ball of force (supposed to be Golden, but in this light it looks more yellow).

I smile at Henry he nods and sighs, "You are one handy person."

The Count and his family see all this drama and I see Peter explaining something to Rafeal who looks a bit pale. I can't hear them and it's hard to read lips from this distance. But I think certain people are getting a clue why I am not a good person to be on the wrong side of.

As for the wagons, they found Lots of people, men, women and children trussed up in them. All high level sorts from merchants to minor nobles. All being shipped to Thessnia and all grabbed by the church of St Micheal cause they opposed some things the church has been up to lately.

I see that church being out lawed at this rate.

It comes out, after I threatened to see how small I can shrink someone, that they were here to collect the count and his family. Then they were to drop off their payment to the guards and move on down the road. They don't know why the knights, who are viewed as a joke by the criminal element, are suddenly effective and have such great luck.

One of the knights points at me, "Chosen of Tymor." he states with a straight face.

The smugger / slavers all groan as that would do it. Bringing in someone who has the Luck of the Gods would certainly help in turning around their numbers.

Henry is looking at me in a way that I find unpleasant. So I go hide in the kitchen.

Its a couple hours later when the royals all come looking for me. I on the other hand have been looking for secret doors, passages, hiding places and such. Found some of the guards payments (lots of conterfiet coins, at least according to the magic bags identifier - all stamped with Church of St Micheal's psychic signature on them.)

A few minor gems with charms on them to make them look like they are worth more and so on.

I Am so going to gloat to those idiot guards.

The few things they had that were not conterfiet were boxes of spices. But then they could have just stolen those. Also found a hidden room full of religious artifacts from all kinds of faiths. Several made of gold or platinum, one gilt skull that still has a spirit attached to it. I been talking to him. He told me 'St Michael' is actually a fallen angel who is trying to seize power but is incompetent about it. Unfortunetly he has some good and compentent priest who are better at this stuff.

I am carrying him when I finally emerge from the hidden store rooms (which are shy most of the good stuff as I stored it all.) The skull did not get 'stored' as it registers to the magic as being a living thing. Go figure.

The skull introduced himself as Herman Muller, he was a lost adventurer who ended up being confused for some famous holy man. So they killed him so he could return to heaven. Then they did all this dark magic to his skeleton and well now he is a holy relic to a bunch of morons who refuse to believe their elders murdered a man in a case of mistaken identity. They call themselves the Church of Cro-Nan.

The Only people who worship Cro-Nan are in Thessnia, I am so not surprised by this.

As I am looking this stuff over, trying to work out the angle on this all it hits me. The Church of Micheal is undermining this country, likely in a bid to take it over and make it a State run by Their religion. It all fits. Very Sith of them really. Then in comes me, someone who has lived through others who tried something similar. Sometimes it works (China) and sometimes it fails (Communist Russia). But it always causes lots of unnessisary problems. Granted those are not religions, but their tactics are much the same. (Cold War)

I finally crawl out of the crawl space, covered in dust and drop down behind a nervous little man I have not met. I think he is one of the now ex prisoners. He jumps, screams and runs out of the building, yelling "MONSTERS!"

Smiling evilly, and with Hermen's permission, I levitate the gold skull out in front of me. He can speak aloud quite nicely, but I added an Echo to his voice so he floats out, screaming for the blood of Cro-Nan the Incompetent. I let him have his fun, he deserves it.

Cro-Nan is supposed to be one of those gods who removes obsticals from peoples lives. Problem is he seems to get self entitled people who think they should have all been born to rich and powerful families but weren't. He is no help there but these morons just refuse to believe it.

I step out of the store house, quietly moving the 'flying skull' all over the place and really chasing anyone who screams.

GreyMantle looks at the skull, then around and see's me, smiling and chuckling to myself.

He comes over, "Your doing ?" nodding to the skull.

"Only partly. His name is Herman Mullar. A bunch of Cro-Nan priest murdered him then tried to turn his skull in to a holy relic. Ended up binding his spirit to it. He was mistaken as the reincarnation of Cro-Nan. No clue why, he does not know either really. He was just an adventurer traveling to a new place when they grabbed him."

He sighs, "I have heard such stories before. Rarely find one of those artifacts though. Where did you find him ?"

"Hidden set of storage rooms in the crawl space. I got lots of nice items now." Huge grin aimed at him.

He stares, "You found where the guards hid all their misgotten gains eh ?"

I nod, "As well as the monies paid to them for thier work here. Of note. Does your country use nickle plated maganese coins as currancy ?"

Narrow eyed look, "No, pure silver for the pence pieces, copper and bronze for the pennies, Silver and pure copper for the Elems. Why ?"

"Then every coin they have been given is counterfit. Oh and they all have a magical signature that says 'made by St Michael' to my detection spells."

He groans, "They are being more and more a pain."

"They are trying to undermine your governments authority, probably hoping to take over and turn your country in to a Theocracy run by them."

He drags me over to the Royals and Henry and has me tell them Everything I have worked out. What all the clues lead me to suspect.

Most of the minor types don't want to believe it. But the few higher ranked ones agree it is plausable.

As I am talking, Henry is setting up his portable Judge and Jury 'court'. In this country it's completely legal. He is something of a district judge, like my people had in the old west. Travels around to area's dispensing justice as needed. Being a High Judge means that there are only 2 courts in the land that can over ride him. The Kings Court and the Emperor himself. The Kings Court, even though they don't like the man, do support his judgements and have never overturned anything he sent in. I learn all that while listening to the locals speak as they realize WHO it is that came to their rescue.

He pulls out this massive ledger and records a bunch of stuff, then calls me over as he wants help spelling my mage name. "M-A-O-U" then I pronounce it for him. I restate there are different meanings to the word from different lands, though all are in the same part of the world.

Of Note, I am carrying Hermen around with me now and I told Him what the 4 meanings are. He was tickled by them and gave me other options for the name meanings.

We even worked out a story about how the name could have come about.

Henry explains this is his official record for my entering their country. Something he should have done yesterday but all the strangeness and knight drama and all. I nod and let him quietly vent. He admits my being here turned out to be a good thing as it not only caught the very corrupted gate guards but then I found the Count and his family which meant they had to stay the night. Which allowed them to catch the merchant caravan who were smuggling all these low nobles to Thessnia to be turned in to traitors or slaves or even spies for them.

I point out that another trick they could do is turn people in to animals and then back in to people if they wanted to go that route.

This is when I learn they Don't know how to reverse such a transformation. He and the others tell me that once a person is turned in to an animal there is no coming back from it.

I stare open mouthed at them. "That is so not true. Sure it's a difficult spell but it's not impossible. I could do it right now if I was of a mind to."

Henry believes that I believe that, but still does not believe it's possible. Same goes for the knights and the Royals.

Keen who is nearby listening, gives me the phrase that has been eluding me. Points out that is the Middle of the spell. I look at him then at GreyMantle, who is in the Juror section. He shrugs as he is not allowed to speak while being a Juror.

I pull out my phone, turn it on and put that line in the spell I was working on. Henry tells me to focus, we have other things to do now.

I look at him, "How many people in this world have been turned in to animals as a way to get around the anti-slavery laws ?"

He looks blank, he has no answer.

I open a new page in my phone, put in '8th level spells'. Then start working out how to do a Wish spell. I give it some thought, then pull out my keys and hold them, as they sat on top of that ring everyday since I found it. That is a long shot, but I am hoping it picked up enough vibrations so as to give me a clue.

(Diff 9: 10,9,9,8,7 - 4 success) What I find surprises me. Apparently it was not a surge of one shot magic but a slow build up as the ring recharged itself from all the magic it could find. Also the Ring had a noticable signature - Lady Luck - (10,9,9,7,7). I stand there stunned.

That is why she has been so helpful, her ring granted my wish, by accident. A ring lost in a battle a century ago, through a series of happenstance and strange luck popped through a small dimensional rupture in to my world. Then spent 6 months building up the power to grant my wish. But when it was doing that, everything of mine that touched it got part of the puzzle on How it worked, How the Goddess could grant a wish.

"Shit" I stare at my keys. "Ok now a bunch of things make sense. I know how I came to be here. A magic item, that was never supposed to be in my world fell through a tiny rupture in space time only to land in front of me as I was out for a walk. A one in an infinite chance. Even Tymor could not have predicted that."

I look at Henry, "Mystic training unlocks certain psychic abilities. My keys rested against that device every night for the last 6 months and picked up the psychic residue, which, because of my training, I am sensitive to."

I walk away from Henry and over to the horses, "Ok Keen, I think I know how to cast a wish spell now. How should I word it to free you from the Horsey state ?"

He rest his forhead on my shoulder, "you are wierd sir."

"It was a ring of Wishing, 1 wish of Godly power, that brought me here. One I made that I never thought would come true."

Both horses look at me with wide eyes, but they get it. A fantasy wish, something I probably wished for in one form or another allot but my world had not the magic for it to happen. Keen nods, "In order for the ring to grant your wish you had to be in a world with the right kind of magic and the god who made it is worshipped in."

"The ring was from This world originally and lost in some epic battle a long time ago." I inform them.

Keen nods, "Ok, well I will think on the wording. Not a good idea for you to work any high magics in your present state of mind though, screw ups are not healthy."

I sigh and nod, "Good point." I walk back to the Judge and stare in to space.

Henry takes in a deep breath, "Ok who does 'Brown' belong to, before you got him ?"

"Thessnia messenger and spy service. Oh I got all their missives to." I hold out a hand and ALL the missives appear on his table. He stares at them then has another knight gather them up. "That magic bag is nice but can get you in trouble if your not careful."

I shrug, "No living things can go in and anything I kill gets sucked in to the bag, so the dead merchant, the thessian guards, the remains of one mage Fernjan, all his stuff, the money of mine he took from me. The money he had on him. He was a money lender so it's a goodly amount. Some cursed magic items of his, and so on."

I look at Henry and he stares at me, "There are times I wonder about why I have this cursed aura, then I meet someone like you and realize my curse is minor. You don't get a choice in what gets pulled in to that bag."

"I can pull in or pull out other things to. It's all data though. I Know how it works but I can't explain it as I lack the words."

He nods, "Yeah I can see someone accusing you of stealing and using that bag as evidence."

"The bag is not a physical thing. You can't sieze it or search it, so any such claim becomes heresay. No way to really prove it unless I do something like take stuff out in your presence. Even then ..."

He nods, "Even then proving you stole it would be hard."

"On the other hand it identifies Everything that goes in to it. Magic items, coinage, personal items, everything. Also tells me who made what items. So all the counterfiet coins I got from the guards stashings, well I know who made them."

Henry's head drops to his desk. "Rob ?"

"Sir ?"

"Please place all such items to the left side of the desk."

I shrug, hold out my hand and 5 long lean chest digitize in to existance. All have the seal of St Micheal on them. Not that I know that seal, till someone blurts out that information.

Takes GreyMantle a bit to find the right keys to open the chest (proving the chest came from here) but when opened they look to be full of Elem - I point out the coins are counterfiet and that gets proven when they cut one in half (kind of Bolt Cutters were used). They are made of low grade magnesium and brass, worth about 1/5th a copper each, with a thin layer of nickel coating them.

The guards, who are on trial for their treasonous behavior all drop to their knees when they learn that they had been paid in glass 'gems' and fake coins.

It gets worse when they learn that the penalty for Treason is death. They argue they have not commited treason.

My laugh boils forth, Everyone stares at me, "MUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEehehehehehehahh" I take a breath, "You raped a nobles wife and daughters. You were trying to hand over a COUNT to Thessnia, and you can state you have not been doing treason. You people are morons. Huge Effing Morons. The only reason you were even caught is not one of you thought to look behind you when the Army of Knights was riding up behind you and your moronic leader there stole my glasses in front of them. Gods you all are incredibly stupid."

I look at the other lords, "It's not like all 200 some horses and such are quiet or stealthy. These idiots were so focused on me that they ignored everything else.

Oh and they did not want to let me in to the country because an idiot mage blew himself up. They heard the boom and stated I had to have caused it cause I was the next person who came up the road after they heard it." I sigh, "huge freaking morons." shaking my head.

The Count looks at his brothers, "He makes a good point about them. They had important work to do and they shirked it on get rich quick schemes and blatantly criminal behavior."

Moron Leader opens his mouth, "Oh Important work, stuck out in the middle of no where taking in or out groups of travelers."

"Looking for spy's, contraband, disidents, people fleeing the law." I add in, even I can understand why someone with His skill set would be here, "Now if your wisdom score was not under 6 you may have understood that."

He looks offended, "My Wisdom is 8."

I sigh, "8 is Below the average level, which is 10. Who ever assigned you here never looked at your stats I take it."

Henry looks over a book with that listing and sighs, "Follower of Micheal actually. Damn. They got people in possitions to cause all sorts of problems."

I nod, "I so want to go on a nice little cleansing of this Michael and his forces right now." I sigh, "Sounds like this demon from back home. Mach-Hallic Dos - tried to overthrow the gods and got kicked out of the universe for it. Used to be an angel before he decided he could run things better than the upper level gods. But he used political manuverings and well everything going on here reminds me of the tactics he used before getting caught."

The only thing is, this is a story I read as a fiction. A what if Lucifer was someone elses Lt., and instead of using armies they used politics. Well written but boring unless you liked political thrillers. I don't but read it anyway, as the author was a friend of mine.

Several people nod about that kind of story. Always seems to be someone in the ranks who think they can do better than everyone else and causes problems because of it. Thier history is Full of people like that, villains, archvillains, Demon Kings, and so on. So while the tactics are different the feeling of what is going on is not.

After that I go sit in the witness waiting box (its a group of folding saw horses with folding chairs in it) and work on my spell wordings and such.

I gave my testimony on the guard who stole my enchanted self repairing glasses, Officially with out all the extra commentary about his moronic attitude. How he threatened me with bodily harm, how I threatened to shrink them down to faery sized person, to which they laughed and told me they out numbered me. Then the army of knights and High Judge walking Truth Curse showed up and arrested them all. I did not have to say anything more, so back in to the box I went till I was needed to tell about my Aura Sight abilities and how I used them to see the life aura's in the cells inside the guard house. Where we found the bound and beaten people. GreyMantle went out and summoned back the knights, who were all running from me cause Tymor showed up and was nice to everyone, but she came cause of ME, she made that very evident. They got me off my rant and back in the box after I got around to the bit with Gaby Sparkly Pants and his desire to poke me with his sword. How he lost interest in that after I dropped him in the cell with the men and he recognized them.

Every single one of the Knights stares at him, some with their mouths open as I suspect that is not the story he told Them about what happened in there. I think everyone there (well not the Royals) but the knights and all, understand I did not start with the stupid nick names on Gaby till after that incident. Now they have some idea why I been calling him strange names.

After I used my spells to heal everyone I went to bed in the baracks.

Next bit was seeing the merchants and noticing all these humaniod aura's in the base of the larger wagons. And how their mages tried to curse me as a distraction so they could get cut down by the knights instead of arrested and awaiting trial.

I think the Judge likes how I describe things as he keeps hiding smiles when I get colorful.