Late into the fourth day it was thirty minutes until dark and we still hadn't stopped when a mounted guard rode up to the carriage, “Your highness, we have arrived.” “Arrived where?” I ask Kat. “The most beautiful place in all of Magarna. Come.” She grabs my hand as the carriage stops and we run toward the biggest waterfall I have ever seen. So tall and wide and even from this distance loud. A river nearly a mile wide having a waterfall that drops over a thousand feet is incomparable to anything I have ever seen. The large red sun was setting and reflecting through the waterfall. “Tom, is it not the most beautiful thing?” “Not as beautiful as you.” I say it naturally. Why did I say that? She gave me a warm smile before turning her eyes back to the waterfall. On the other side of the river I noticed there is some sort of mechanical rigging and manmade structures. “What's across the river?” “That is how boats get down the waterfall.” Pem, Tal, and half the soldiers joined us at the waterfall.

After we ate, Kat had me join her in her tent to learn a new spell, “Detect is the most versatile spell I know. You can detect thoughts, poison, magic, disease, life, and anything else you can think of needing to detect. It is limited by distance.” Her tent door is open because it would be inappropriate if it wasn't. She pointed outside to the carriage about fifty feet away. “That is close to the distance detect will work unless you know Enhance.” I nodded. “Of course you do.” She said, almost sounding annoyed. “Enhance Detect obviously increases the range but at great cost. Now Tom, look at me and imagine my thoughts then cast Detect.”

For some reason I imagine a brain sending electrical signals. “Detect.” “You need to say what you are detecting. “Oh..Detect thoughts.” after a few seconds “Um I don't think it worked” She smiled “Well I was clearly thinking. Try a different way to imagine.” I imagined Chat bubbles inside her head. “Detect thoughts.” “See Tom, I am clearly thinking.” She said but her lips didn't move. “Woe that is trippy.” “Trippy? Trippy?” I hear her echo. “Um, something that isn't normal I guess.” “How How…” “Don’t speak.” I chuckle at the weirdness of it. “Light” I cast a small ball of light on my finger tip to guarantee we both know I'm no longer detecting thoughts. “I hate this man!” My head shot up to her. Her eyes widened. “Why?” “Oh goddess what do I say?” “Look before you say anything help me turn this thing off, by thinking not speaking please.” “So sorry. You sit and listen to the waterfall while I walk away.” she gets up and starts walking away thinking words in Elvish I haven't been taught yet and some words like stupid I have learned.

I focus on the sound of the waterfall and imagine it in my head. After a few minutes, “Well it clearly stopped.” “Why did it not turn off when I lost concentration on it?” “Detect is like Enhance. It often is combined with spells and it does not need concentration.” “So you hate me?” She sighed, “No I do not hate you…I am jealous of you. I live for magic and it is almost like magic lives for you.” I stood up and took her hands in mine, “It shows how good of a person you are, to teach the very person you are jealous of, the thing causing that jealousy.” She looked at our hands and almost whispered, “Curiosity.” She then pulled her hands free from mine, “It really is jealousy not hate. I hope you know that.” “Hey I understand. Here I am just some random dude who is blessed by the gods. Everything is coming easy to me. Money, fame,..beauty.” She smiled at that. “But I am missing what's most important to me. I would trade it all to be at home with my very pregnant wife.” “You love her that much?” Thinking about how to word this. “Okay this will sound chees…nevermind. In a place without magic, love can feel very magical.” “I understand and Tom, What is a dude?” I laughed ignoring the question. “So it is normal to..” “No Tom. Multicasting takes years to learn. I think light is second nature to you now. Try to imagine casting light then imagine saying the words as well. I did and it worked.

“Now try Detect magic Tom.” I remember staring off into the sky as a kid and focusing on how my eyes can see. I remembered seeing tiny faint miniature TV like pixel static. That's what I imagined magic was like. “Detect magic.” Everything around me glowed faintly green. Kat was much brighter than everywhere else. “Hey Kat, have you ever used this on me?” “Are you speaking of the brightness?” “Yes.” “It is not your tier but your magical ability that the glow represents. The tier is the limit. You are at the base of a mountain while I am nearing the peak of a hill. Now it is getting late and we have a long carriage ride tomorrow. We will arrive at Three Peaks late into the night.” “Good night Kat and thank you.” I went back to my tent and cast detect magic until I passed out.

We got up and had breakfast and admired the waterfall a bit more before the long boring carriage ride of learning Elvish. After dark Pem finally talked Tal into telling us the story of how he dined with a king. “After the war about one hundred years ago I was traveling and saw a group being attacked by a troll. I helped them slay the beast as it was the honorable thing to do. He told me he was a king and we went to a castle and dined and he gave me coin.” “Which king and Kingdom?” Kat asked. “His name was Stapp and he was the king of a small kingdom in the southern tundra.” “Why were you there?” “Don't remember.” Tal started to sound annoyed. At that moment I realized everyone I'm traveling with in the entire escort is over one hundred years old.

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Three Peaks was a very spread out town. A small sturdy looking stone wall maybe ten feet tall surrounded the entire area and the town was bordering the great river. Basic well built wooden homes were scattered throughout with lots of smaller fields surrounding them. The heart of town had a mixture of stone and wooden buildings. Some had both like the inn we arrived at.

It was late so we cleaned up and headed for bed. Pem tapped me on the shoulder, “Can I sleep with you tonight Tom?” “Of course Pem.” While we were not roughing it, a real bed was so nice to sink into.

I wake up to a sweet nature smell. It was Pems hair in my face. Her back to my chest with my arm draped over her. The length of time not being intimate combined with this intimate act while it being morning was too much. I removed my arm from her firm belly and cleared my throat. “Hey Pem, it's time to get up.” She answered very awake sounding, “I know.” “How long have you been awake?” “A while, I am sorry. I was so comfy and I did not want to wake you.” “It’s ok but I'm human and it's uh well we shouldn't do this again.” We got up and met everyone downstairs and had some meat and vegetables before doing a small royal parade through the town. By early afternoon we had hit the Wysafir Desert. It would take three days and two nights to get to Nardurothil where most of the desert elves lived. It is also where many of the remaining Dratoric have decided to stay according to Tal.

The Wysafir Desert quickly became dry and flat. It was more high desert than sandy desert. Shrubby trees and heat started becoming prominent. The first night in the flat land of shrubs and heat I practiced more detect magic. By the end of the second day Kat had told me I was now a novice at Elvish. I had officially learned all the basics.

That night after some more detect magic training I was contemplating on if I should do a few more casts or scry Maria when I heard something wrestle a bit in the scrubs near my tent. I grab my bowie and head outside.

As I step outside something to my right moves and I evade on instinct but I feel a pain in my right shoulder. I can make out a lean being in black armor and clothes from head to toe. As I yell, “We're under attack!” I'm already charging the being clad in black. I must have been too fast because they put no defense up as my knife punched through their armor and buried into their stomach. I wrenched my knife up and out. They reached for their guts and slumped to the ground. I felt more pangs of pain in my back. Starting to get light headed I reached around and pulled a throwing knife out of my back while getting to cover. They must be poisoned. I get out of cover and run towards the knife throwers evading the best I can. They are just outside the camp in the shrubs. The camp now behind me starts erupting with activity but my goal is in front of me. I ran and dodged many knives but one hit me square in the shoulder as I struck down another foe with my knife to the neck. “What are you?” I heard from the three remaining. I charged at them. Many knives dodged but more hit me. As I got to them they started panicking and retreating but it was too late. I was there now. After killing the first one a male voice said “How?” in Elvish as he and the others retreated. Back to camp or chase them? Just then I heard Kat yell, “Lightning!” and a lightning bolt lit up the cloudless night sky and struck in the camp. Boom! A single thunderclap sounds.

Information is what my mind comes to and so I run after them. A few moments later I caught up to them and stabbed the slower one in the thigh, hitting bone who instantly fell over in pain. By the grunts and speaking in pain I assumed a female. The last one had stopped to plead, I guessed. “Why!?” I Yelled. The last one sighed before he spoke. “It was a job.” “Objective?” “To capture the princess and her betrothed.” “For who?” “Can't say.” he sighed again, prepared to die. “You Tamsa?” He nodded. Pem had told me about a dark underground group that dealt with everything illegal from simple thefts to kidnappings and assassinations. They also hated mages. I turned to the woman who was bleeding out, “I can heal you if you tell me who hired you?” “It…It was Blu….” Dozens of knives struck me and the woman. Instant drowsiness took hold but before I lost consciousness I remember charging and stabbing the male.