“A village can be anything from 10 people to 10.000. All that matters is the feeling of those that lie there.”~Innkeeper Garron Ol’man Goas, settler of Rock and a Hard Place
The village wasn’t large. As they rode in, she could see some small houses. They were small, but study, built from the plentiful woods. The town was built close together, with some of the more remote houses connected to farmland. The most important part for her was something different however. In the centre of the town stood a large tower, easily dwarfing the remaining buildings.
Made entirely from stone, the tower was easily 3 stories tall. In Bernin’s opinion that was generally the normal size for a tower, what was impressive was that this tower was built way into the wilds. Haspal must have put in quite the effort to grow the tower. She saw some vines snaking up the walls as well, in some spots even forming supports for the balcony on the second floor. It wasn’t the most magnificent tower she had seen in a while, but it was extremely impressive this far from civilization.
Valia drove forward into town and got her attention.
“The inn is the building over there. The one with the stable. I will be staying for a couple days, you?”
“I will likely stay longer, thank you for the ride over.”
“It was my pleasure, truly. Normally I would have been accosted by wild goblins at least twice. Your magical presence was enough to scare them off however. That saved me plenty of money in bolts.”
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“Bolts? I don’t remember seeing a crossbow?”
Valia smiled and lifted her coat to show a crossbow sown into the lining, along with a few bolts. She even had a few speciality bolts close to the larger collection. Bernin felt extremely validated by this. She knew the woman was more than she appeared. It was a bit worrying that she hadn’t noticed an outline or difference in posture. She just hoped that was all she missed. Valias would be leaving soon enough, but Bernin would keep an eye on her all the same.
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The inn would do, she supposed. It wasn’t large by any means, but she secured her room for the next couple weeks without much difficulty. The price was even more reasonable, Bernin was used to getting at least a small discount due to her general duration of stay and the fact that it was generally a bad idea to try and fleece a mage, but the few silvers she lost was a lot less than she had originally counted on. Sitting on the small bed she calmed herself down and tried to feel the surrounding magic.
When they first entered the field she had postponed an inspection of the field until she could get somewhere calm. It was difficult to explain, but the closest she got was that magic simply flowed on another axis here. Perpendicular to the normal axis, or at least close to it. It would take time to find the right angle of the field and then more time to tilt her spells. If she could do it, she could cast normally here. Not an easy task, but definitely possible.
She decided to speak to Halsin tomorrow, the auditing process generally took a full month. Bernin was faster, but she would take her time with this one. She had to be ready if Halsin was hiding something. Detection spells were easily adjusted, but in combat instinct might take over and that could cause her spells to simply fizzle in this new field.