Day 3 at the fortress, we got the merchant wagons turned around and are heading back up the road to Cobberston at least. Supposed to be a Judge and group of Law Knights there (not paladins as law Paladins make lousy police it turns out). Cobberton is a training ground for these knights and home to a rather infamous Judge. It's not that he is a bad person, he is just a walking Truth Compulsion. Someone cursed him with it as a child but something went sideways with the curse and now no one in a certain radius of him can lie. Ever. Good for a judge, bad for a politician, so they stuck him as far from the center of government as they could and still be inside the empire.

Cobberston is roughly 4 hours ride from the Border Gate. We got ALL the tiny people to. Teleported them in to the small animal cages we found. Got all the evidence of these evil guards to, so I can give them to the Judge and he can hang them or what ever they do to slaver scum around here.

Problems occure about an hour from Cobberston, in the form of an army coming up the road. 200 horsemen and 800 infantry, all under the banner of St Micheal (the evil).

I am in the back of a wagon, watching them surround us. We are informed we are now prisoners of the Holy Army of St Micheal, who now rule this country.

I pray on it and the Lady tells me they started their surprise attacks this morning. Every major city and military post has been hit. A couple of those post were already under their control, so their forces rallied from them to take the empire. It's a massive undertaking.

I sigh, and take a chance - in english with a prayer to the Goddess at the beginning and end, I try to cast a wish spell 'at my understanding' and using what I have been able to work out from the memories of that wish ring I had. - Since everything I owned originally was made from that ring, I have been 'scrying' the items and learning what I could about the magic that made me. I use that information to try and cast this Wish spell.

First time I got jostled as the guards tried to force us out of the wagon. Caused me to start the spell over. The second time I try it I get the set up done with only a little bit of a drain then state in a clear voice "I Wish! That all the Followers and Warriors of St Micheal were 6 centimeters tall - SO MOTE IT BE!"

Everyone around me heard the sound of dice being rolled over a wooden surface then the surprised Laughter of the Goddess.

Her Avatar pops in to existance next to me even as all these warriors suddenly shrink down to that size. She HUGS the stuffings out of me, "That was Wonderful!" she crows, "Your wierd luck crossed with that spell, in all effects, their army just got a Critical Fail on their saving throws, 20 Twenty sided dice all rolled 1 in your way of thinking.

All his followers in the Empire and Thessnia are now 6 centimeters tall." she lets me go, "Brilliant just brilliant." she is one happy goddess. "Lots of very confused persons out there now, but your quick thinking saved a lot of lives to. AH As per your normal shrink spell, Only their persons shrank not any of their gear. I tossed that bit in there as that is something of your signature spell after all."

She turns to the near by people, which includes the other mages "Maou here just cast a Level TEN World Wish spell. He is going to need a nap soon I think as it was a bit beyond even his normal skill levels. But he combined a very powerful prayer to me and the gods of my pantheon, who are all enemies of Micheal so you all understand, we gave him the boost, as that ass hat of a god was planning on outlawing worship of anyone but him. On pain of death. So we are all happy Gods now."

I sigh, "Need painkillers, not tired, but my head is now pounding." I sigh. Of all the odd things I brought with me, ibprofen was not one of them. Makes me wonder how things would have been different had I been in my car before coming here - I got both asprin and ibprofen in my car as well as a few other things.

She turns back to me, "Oh your spell the other day, against the slavers, cause of your boosted magical nature, Sir Reginald and all the guards in Kreelyn Hollow are also amoung the tiny. As are every other slaver with in 50 miles of you. You do tend toward over powered spells. You will need to work on that."

And she is gone. I had questions to, or a request for asprin or something. But I am the one who worked the spell, so I got to pay the price. OW ow ow ow.

They get me back in to the wagon. Selline gets me a cool cloth and has me lay down. The others gather up the gear, horses and such, occaisonally smacking around, or kicking the tiny ones who just tried to enslave them all again. They have no mercy to give to these evil people.

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

Statton - Captital City of Pellara Empire - Central Command - reports of the suddenly shrinking 'evil army' are coming in from all directions of the map, all at the same time. No one knows what happened to cause this.

The Emperor turns to his priest and they in turn ask the gods. It is ONE Priestess who is in the Palace who gives him the answer.

A super mage and Lost One, who answers to the Lady Tymor, cast a high level Wish that shrank every follower and soldier of St Micheal down to their present size. She also states the Goddess has never witnessed such a massive fail in spell resistance before in her career as the Goddess of Luck. Definitely a once in a life time event. The Priestess states the mage in question is somewhere in the southern part of the empire and was reacting to a large group of those same forces who attacked him and his people on the road. She has no other news or information though. Other than the mans mage name is Maou.

The Emperor, grandchild of a Lost One who founded this Empire during the Last Demon King invasion about loses it when he hears the name. His Grandsire loved a foriegn language called Japanese and taught it to his children and grandchildren. Thus he knows the name and really hopes it's meant as a joke and not a litteral translation. They really don't need another Demon King now, not on top of all the other mayhem they have going on.

He sends out a warning / watch for 'Maou' with word that he is to be treated well and sent on to the Capital if possible as he is a person of interest to the Emperor.

(They really should have put it better as that gets taken wrong by a Lot of people. - ie Dangerous and under suspicion of Something major.)

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

Cobberston - We finally arrive, with a Lot more gear and horses than we started with. Also with another couple dozen cages full of fools, morons, and evil doers.

The gate guard has had a couple hours to take in the sudden abscence of hostiles. They had breached the wall just a few minutes before they suddenly shrank down in front of the defenders. As such the Knight trainies and Judges are on door guardian duty. This is my first meeting with the 'Cursed' High Judge Henry. Man is a living Truth Compulsion Aura. I was warned by the Norstrom about him as one of their brothers works as a knight for him. Told me to avoid their brother if I can cause he has an unreasoning hate for Lost Ones and Tymor faithful. Combining the two is even worse and they can see him trying to lock me up for just existing.

On that note they ask I don't 'mini' him, or kill him as he is Family. Even if he is an ass.

Count Norstrom took the lead with dealing with the Judge, which is fine by me, I am happy being a face in the crowd at this point. Not sure how long that will last with Mr Truth Compulsion at the gate though.

There is a bit of an arguement about who owns the horses and gear we captured from the army we faced. The Count is using the reason that We captured it so we should be able to keep it. After all his people need the income.

The High Judge and His people are stating it belongs to the Empire as 'They' defeated the enemy army.

I get fed up and walk up to the pushy Judge, "You did not defeat them. They lost to a Master level Wish, and got Shrunk to their present size. You all had Nothing to do with That."

I thought my shields would protect me, I was SO wrong.

He turned and Focused his power on me. Went from a niggling 'tell the truth' to a sucker punch of 'THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH'. I actually grunted when hit by that, it is not helping my head ache either. Count Rafeal also grunts, "Level 3, really Henry?"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Henry looks at me, "What do you know about it ?" in a demanding tone.

"I cast the bloody spell and if you don't turn down this mental attack your going to be Tiny." I inform him, lighting playing across my fingers. That is more for effect and cause I am fighting the urge to light him up.

I think the shock stopped him more than the threat. It dropped down to niggling as he turns a wide eyed stare at Count Norstrom, "Is he serious ?"

"About which, his thing about shrinking people who annoy him or that he managed to cast a God Level wish spell. The answer is yes to both. We got cages full of crooked guards and slavers to prove he can do the shrinking part. The Border Fortress was set up to fall to Thessnia if they ever wanted it. No inside gate on their side. Also the guards were in league with these St Micheal people, that is what I and the rest of my family are doing here. They captured us and were shipping us to Thessnia to be turned in to slaves or worse. That is till he showed up and some fool of a guard tried to rob him. The entire fortress of guards was reduced to 6 inch tall persons. Eventually he found us while exploring the place, set us free and proved to us what he found there. They had payment from St Micheal for service rendered."

I grin, "In conterfiet coins and fake gems with small enchantments on them to make them look like real gems. All their counterfiet coins have their symbol stamped on the side. Looks tiny unless you enlarge the coin a bit." I pull out a fake Ellum and show it to him, "See, that is the mark. They are magnese covered in a thin layer of nickel."

Rafeal nods, "Charles cut one in half and checked. These coins are only worth half a penny each in the metal in them. We found hundreds of them and a ledger showing the guards at the border crossing were accepting them for selling prisoners as slaves to both the Temple of St Micheal and to Thessnia."

As a distraction from me, it works pretty well. Till a group of young knights tries to arrest me for being the one who saved them from 'glorious battle'. Well actually they said it was for trying to pass conterfeit coins. Henry jumped on them for that bit of stupidity. They whisper to him about the Capital sending a message that I was to be detained as a person of interest to the Empire.

I roll my head back and sigh. The Rumor mill is on over drive I think.

Henry looks at me, "What is your name sir ?"

"Rob." I tell him and he sighs, looking at the missive, "Someone told us the one who cast that spell was called Maou."

I snort, "I considered using that name for a day. Then decided that it was to much of a bad joke as the name translates to Cat in Chinese and Demon Lord in Japanese."

I can see Henry and the guards giving me a long stare. I shrug, "In my mind it translated as Demon Cat, but I could not figure out how to make that make sense as I am not fluent in either language. As for the spell, that was pure desperation on my part as that spell was way above my skill level and pretty much wiped me out for a while."

Selline chimes in, "All of 2 hours really. He has a formidable constitution."

"Not really. My head is pounding. What I got is a low frustration level." A few of 'my' people chuckle at that.

Henry looks at me, "Then how would you shrink me ?"

"It's not a hard spell. I can do it easily. Want a demonstration" I am now glaring at the two young knights who are trying to figure out a way to arrest me 'legally'.

Count Rafeal, "Oh yes, please make life harder for us." He is glaring at me. I sigh and go back to 'my' wagon and crawl in the back.

They hand over all our prisoners and with in Henry's Truth field get a full confession out of them on all their crimes including several counts of treason and then the slavers who are Just slavers and smugglers, have done smuggling of illegal goods as well as persons for extra money. They don't care that slavery is illegal as it makes them good money, normally. Under the influence Henry learns a lot and has enough evidence to completely shut down their operations inside the Empire.

Of the St Micheal people, their plans are pretty straight forward. Conquor the country then force everyone to worship the God of St Micheal or die. They intended to make this world have 1 god. The God of St Micheal (this is how I learn that St Micheal is not the God but the Lost One who brought them their holy doctrin). After hearing it I realize these idiots are using a fundalmentalist version of Christianity, one made for Only Humans as they hold that none of the other races have souls. Just Spirits, like animals.

I so so happy I shrank these racist persons, but now feel I should have said microns instead of centimeters. 60 microns would work.

(Authors Note:

A "micron" is an abbreviated term for "micrometer", or a millionth of a meter (1/1,000,000 meters). This is about .00004 inches. For Size comparison, a human red blood cell is about 5 microns across. A human hair is about 75 microns across. 50 microns is a small spec of dust and the smallest size the human eye can see. )

I think that and can kind of hear the Goddess laughing in the back of my mind.

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

Was in the middle of a nice nap in the back of the wagon when some of the moron patrol, aka Rookie Knights, broke in and dragged me out. Had me all trussed up, in chains, gags, and such to keep me from working spells, before I fully understood what was happening.

They then stuck me in a very small cage and sent me via teleporters to the capital. These pups road with me the whole way. Picturing the reward they were going to get for capturing such a dangerous criminal.

Even with Teleporters, it took 3 and a half days to reach the capital and another day before a tall man in vibrant green robes and a very chinese looking gold crown was brought down to the tiny standing room only cell I was in.

He was FURIOUS!

But thankfully not with ME, scary scary man. I don't know who he is, save someone high up in the government and scary, so scary!

He had me gentally removed from the cage while he tore in to the group of 'knights' who treated me, A NATIONAL HERO! so poorly.

I am guessing he heard about my shrinky wish then. This is also how I learn that someone used the wrong phrase when telling the law enforcers who to watch for. The clerk who sent out the missive did not understand that 'person of interest' translated as 'criminal' to them.

Chains removed, I fell forward as I had not had anything to eat or drink for 4 days and was barely conscious.

Every time I tried to escape, I got a punch to the face or head. By the time the government man found me I needed serious medical help. Fortunetly he has some excellent healers around and they put me back together. Still even with magic it took a week before I was well enough to move around on my own. Took longer than that for my mind to comprehend this city. The name is Statton, but it's huge with building designs that are a mix of european, indian, and oriental. I am told there are just over a million people in this city as it is the Center of the Empire and home of the Emperor himself.

I had some nice rooms but well mentally I was not exactly with it. Just to much happening for me to completely focus on it. And well strong urge to find those men and introduce them to my lightning.

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

Emperor Johnson, speaking to his head healers.

"So how is our guest ?"

Jasmin Fong, "He is better physically. But mentally the strain of being in a new world then everything that has happened to him including his imprisonment and beatings have left him something of a nervous wreck. He is jumpy and scared which given his innate abilities makes him very dangerous. We have already learned he can throw lightning with out using a spell or command. Startling him is unhealthy as a servant found out by just pushing in to his rooms and yelling at him. The poor man got blasted right back out the door."

The Emperor looks confused, "Why was he yelling ?"

Lesslie Mires, assistant to Fong, "He is one of those who thinks that if a person does not speak the local language, then you need to speak slower and Louder to get them to understand. He learned Louder can get you hurt. Besides he understands Pel pretty well considering he has only been exposed to it for a little over a week. The man has a head for languages as well as magic, but tends to drop in to the magic language if he lacks a word or phrase."

The Emperor takes a deep breath and sighs, his grandfather was the same way he was told by those who knew him back in the day. Native language and magic language being the same made him a powerful person, but he was a greater warrior than mage. This one sounds like a better mage than warrior. Definitely saved his Empire from those who wanted it for themselves. Still Lost Ones need careful handling, even the nice ones can be dangerous, though most don't mean to be. New powers, new world, new experiences and most were not adventurers Before being dropped in to their world.

He hopes this one will not be to hard to work with, once he calms down enough to talk to.

Lady Mires, "We warn you, his near memories maybe wrong. As he was severly beaten and starved it is possible he will not remember event's correctly as dreams overlap with reality."

The Emperor nods in understanding and plans on checking on that himself in the coming weeks.