Galen Vesa

To my surprise, Halik did found me a pair of leather pants, a linen shirt, a vest, boots with a cute half inch heel and a cape. All new and never worn. They were ment for his wife, a huntress and were one of the reasons for their journey. Fenira never been known for low prices. Even in the shabbier districts, goods on the market were not that much cheaper. Many of the residents and temporary workers did their shopping in the nearby villages where difference in price justified such travels.

Alas, it did not justify me taking their stuff. Sure, I did chase off the thugs and all but… Even though the snow was gone it look like the spring did not get the memo to visit these parts. We may need to wait a bit more. I’m sure his wife will miss having this cape or the shoes. The girl huddled against her father too looked like she would use some more clothing.

“Here,”

I folded my maid apron and handed it to them.

“It’s made of silk; quite good workmanship and it has a charm to keep the stains off. If you find a proper buyer, you may get some gold for it. Do not sell it for less than ten gold. That’s the minimum price enchanted items go for…”

Now I did it. His eyes bulged out to the point they may just pop out.

“I… I cannot… cannot accept such treasure!”

“Consider it a payment for getting me to the city. I had travelled a while and my feet need rest.”

Much to his apparent terror, I climbed onto their wagon and wiggled myself in between a pile of some junk covered by a tarp and a bag of taters. To avoid any further squabble, I also pulled my hood tightly around my head and faked falling asleep.

Perhaps it was for the better? Like this I could avoid all the drama associated with walking up to the gate among terrified or angry people. Sure, it would take much longer but apart from few nobles hoping to get some powerful spirit blessings out of me, the rest of humanity saw me as a disaster class monstrosity. It says something when even a child thinks an elf may slaughter them and their family. Eh, not something I can fix myself. Maybe I should just ask Water to trim my ears to that of a human? Or better yet, make me a full blown ferru by getting a set of fluffy ears like Altina has? It would have the added benefit of justifying why my eyes looked the way they did. Something sure worth considering in the future. Right now, I just focused on practicing my mana sensing prowess.

One of the first few days or maybe even weeks, hard to judge during a perpetual night, I spent with Rooth working on my ability to detect mana and magic users. Turns out I had a fairly good antenna and quite terrible receiver. My mind had no clue what to do with all the sensations I was getting hence, it dumped everything into the pain bucket. I had to convince my own body that using mana or standing near someone using mana does not equal unbearable pain. Like tickling one's soles, depending on how well you can focus, it is quite pleasant instead of ticklish. Or so I heard. I cannot feel that much but still I spent a lot of time rewiring all that under Rooth’s guidance. The result? Well, I don’t think I can match a child of this world with my abilities, but I do think I have a formidable range. I’m pretty sure that blob of mana up ahead that I'm sensing is Altina. Most likely screaming at someone, given the ripples. Aside from her what do we have there, a disgusting serpent trying to mask her presence and… odd, it feels familiar. There seems to be someone there, near the gate that I knew. Someone whose mana I felt before…

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Long bloody snot dripped out of my nose when the presence I watched, flared with power. Not the most subtle way to announce her presence but… What on earth is she doing here?!

I jumped out of the wagon and run as fast as the blessings let me, skipping between people and animals frozen in time. And I made it a hair’s width away from disaster.

Landing in the middle of a crowd of guards, I let my back absorb whatever spell Carlila managed to shout out, at the same time pinning down several spears under my foot and fishing out of the air a crossbow bolt that went flying towards the terrified elf.

“What the in name of the emperor is the meaning of this!”

I bellowed, using the momentary pause my arrival caused.

“Who of you idiots is in charge here?!”

Altina would be proud of the way I delivered this line into the frozen face of the nearest guard. And it worked. The ages old click – vroom thinking made the guard straighten up and salute me. The others, followed his example. Because why not? A person appeared out of nowhere, can stop a spear with her foot and is barking out orders with a tone of an upset general… click- she is trouble, how do we deal with trouble? Push it on someone higher in hierarchy - vroom.

“What the hell is…”

Someone that looked like a sergeant’s material, came running towards us and froze the moment he saw my face. To keep the ball rolling, I intercepted the newcomer.

“Your men just tried to push the empire into another war by attacking a peaceful envoy! I’m sure lord magister will be thrilled to hear about this! His guests being attacked by imperial guards!”

I let that sink in. The man paled, he did some quick math and decided to push the blame even higher in the hierarchy. Apparently Garbannel’s name and my person were too much for him to handle.

“Apologies M-mam! I will personally inform…”

“Yes, you better do that while I’ll try to undo the mess you and your men made. I’ll be taking the honorable guests to the guild and make sure they will receive a proper treatment, befitting their status.”

Such a relief fell on the man than somebody volunteered to take the trouble off his shoulder that without any more questions the guards made way for us.

“You two, come. Now.”

I seethed through a forced smile and added a customary greeting bow. Thankfully the elven language sounded pleasing regardless of what one said. For all the humans knew, I might be praising the weather.

Were it my glowing eye of the fact that my back still smoked a bit where her spell burned my cape, the elves followed without any complains.