Chapter 42: Bronze, not Silver

Having a conversation in your head is odd, but it just feels like talking with someone else, just with more emotional bleed through instead of body language to read. There were a few, fairly limited, telepathy spells that mean many have experienced this without having another personality in their head. As a result, I have gotten fairly used to conversing with Bella as if she were another person, when she was not too angry that was.

That said, talking with Bella was no longer like that. Where the previous Nalk barriers had kept us separated and let us converse and plan as mostly independent intelligences, we were now different from anything I knew of. Even with the advanced medical knowledge that the Nalks had gifted me I had no way to know how Bella and I were maintaining our half-merged state.

It was not a bad thing, but there was a very noticeable difference from before, chiefly in how we did not need to ‘vocalize’ our inner thoughts to each other.

Bella knew what I was about to do and at first thought it was foolish, but then realized exactly what led me to my current plan and grudgingly accepted it. I knew this without her having said anything to me, just like I knew the exact line of thought she took to reach her conclusions of both my being foolish and the acknowledgement of my experience.

This whole potential argument and its explanation would have taken around 30 seconds before our ‘merge’ and a couple of minutes at the minimum if we could not share our thoughts. In our current state though, the argument happened before my eyes finished adjusting to the slight difference in light between the inside of the library and the outside.

We also both realized that we had totally ignored the magic lights that had lit up the inside of the library and gave each other a light mental slap for failing to see them. The things would have been fun to study, given how few we had seen thus far, to see if they operated any differently here in comparison to my previous world.

Not that we did not have other things to occupy our mind right now.

I surveyed the guards outside the Histone library as they reacted to our exit with revealing confusion. “Given what you just said Asat, are you going to answer in yes or no fashion or just explicitly state the bland truth if asked?” I did not bother glancing back at the man to confirm he was listening, I could both feel and see his privacy ward, a reddish purple bubble connected to the library’s wards, move with him and engulf me as I stopped at the door to the library.

“I usually prefer the latter or keeping my mouth shut, but in this case, I will go with the former, if it comes up, so good luck.” Asat’s voice seemed slightly different from before, with a slight quiver in the way he spoke. Perhaps he expected something amazing to happen, but I somehow doubted it. Anyone who wrote down actual events like the Histones were supposed to would know that it long, boring, and people just dealing with the events that interacted with their lives.

Not looking back at the Histone, I grunted understanding as he actually dismissed the ward this time, I saw it unravel and dissipate, seeming to dissolve into the air from my third eye’s point of view, though I could feel it return to the library’s wards.

I reached up and casually rubbed my face, as if splashing it with water. The motion hid some light magical work that I did on my bone structure, just enough to add some years to my age. Making myself taller would be dangerous at this point so I settled for simply looking like a young man who had just accepted that he would never be tall.

I also quietly thanks Asat as he stilled the wards when they started reacting to my magic.

One of the many, many, advantages that a properly anchored ward provided, was the ability to match practically any mage in a one on one fight if you were alert and aware when it started. That was the whole reason that I had been caught and arrested in the first place, the wards that caught me off guard made resisting impossible.

Most wards were also far more efficient with magic. A normal mage lost whatever mana he used to instruct the natural mana around him. If too many spells were used in his vicinity, than he would be powering the whole spell himself and that was went the real dangers of magic came in, powering it completely by yourself burned through you fast.

While waiting for the guards to sort themselves out, I took note that each carrying an iron pike, with a short sword at their waist, and wearing iron chainmail covering their chests. Given how expensive iron was in this area, I had been surprised that this seemed to be the standard equipment for the city guard. Individuals should not have been able to easily afford it, which suggested that it might have been issued or sold to them whenever they joined.

I asked Bella if she saw anything worth paying attention to, without really expecting anything, but to my surprise, she pointed out a thin layer of magic that seemed to cover the guard’s clothing. I started asking her if they were wards, but realized that I could just follow her logic instead.

Surprisingly the guard’s clothes had a slightly similar magical aura to my own, though mine was far more suppressed. That suggested runes, but when I actually started examining the auras, I noticed that there were a pair of guards standing off to the side who had a different feeling to them.

The magic auras that Bella noticed around the average guards could be explained by runes, which would be why they felt similar to the aura surrounding me. I had suppressed my own mana ruthlessly and runes sucked in the natural mana around them to function. The runes were invisible, but their effects on mana were not… though they were still hard to see under the best of circumstances.

My third eye could see farther than you could shoot a bow, but sensing mana was different and feeling something like runes. My own concealment and distraction runes hid the runes I burned into my robe, making the resulting aura nearly invisible, but the guards did not have the same preparations. Why they bothered putting runes in their clothing at all was a bit of a mystery, but it was one that I did not have time to solve at the moment.

Several guards finally finished forming up and trotted up to the library’s slightly raised base. I had yet to finish eyeing the two oddball guards who hung back, but I decided to assume that they were supposed to be hidden mages there to back up the guard.

Ignoring the urge to stare at them in favor of the disappointing show before me was hard, but Bella helped by focusing on our magical senses, looking out for any other surprises. The guards had spread out just enough to form a semblance of a semi-circle around the Histones and myself. Though, if the effect was to intimidate, it was slightly ruined by the extra height that the few steps leading up to the library’s entrance gave us.

A mage, whose large body and badly leaking mana identified him as an official, sauntered his way over and stood just below us in the center of the little circle of men. He wore one of the city’s sashes identifying some rank that I could not place at the moment, while he wore no obvious iron, instead having gold decorations all over his person, including his sword. They might have held minor wards and enchantments, but nothing major.

All in all, he had magic, carried an unimpressive sword, looked in his late twenties, carried himself well enough, had not earned total distain from his men, and looked to be at a practical weight for a magic user. Thus I came to the conclusion that he was likely someone of at least middling talent and decided that his voice was the only thing I found impressive, as the man was a natural baritone. “I am Commander Memo, what do you need Histones? The city is still locked down so that we can find the escaped prisoner.”

Asat spoke calmly, the previous waver in his tone gone, “Good day Commander. I would like to send my recorder here to House Los to get some information from them. Given their recent arrival and the fact that many others are now coming out onto the streets, it seemed an appropriate time.”

“You have permission to send out one recorder, per agreement Histone, but I do not see anything to write with in this one’s possession.” He glanced at me, “nor, now that I look closer, does he look like one of you at all. Who is he?” The so-called commander rested his hand on a decorative pommel.

I had to resist the urge to sigh, I was having trouble deciding how competent this one was, he was not as polite as he could be, but did not seem interested in simply throwing around his authority. Of course, he might just have been taught to respect the Histones and never really saw a reason why, which was a fairly common theme, so that was up in the air.

“Ah, well I will let my friend here introduce himself.” I saw Asat smile out of the corner of my eye and silently thanked him. Introducing me as a friend was not exactly neutral, but it was likely as close as the man would get to taking my side. After all, my being his personal ‘friend’ had nothing to do with the Histones as a whole.

Taking that as my cue, I stepped down to the last step to make the height difference less obvious. Thankfully, this put us at eye level and I started by simply asking a question, “I am Morte, I have been staying with my friends here while you have the city locked down, but that was always just going to be until I could reasonably leave.” I smiled politely. “When we saw the other people start emptying out into the streets, I figured that it was about time.”

The officer regarded me coolly, but not with outright hostility, before looking over at Asat. “I do not recall you saying that you had visitors when the city was locked down.” When Asat said nothing he turned his attentions back to me. “What was your purpose here? Be advised, since we are looking for a criminal mage, you will be obligated to provide proof to your identity or submit to a magic test. If you have magic and no way to verify your identity then you will be obligated to call for someone else who can. In that case you will be detained.”

I wanted to clap, this man could have the word ‘bureaucrat’ carved into his skull and it would not surprise me in the slightest. It might well have been the most boring delivery of a threat I had heard from anyone under the age of 80.

“I am a mage.” I admitted, which got his attention, but it did not seem to be impressed, just more alert. “I just came here to ply my trade.” That got a couple odd looks that moved from me to Asat and back, prompting an elaboration, “Have any of you heard of the instant portrait?”

Interestingly, most of the guards seemed confused by that while the Commander and one guard standing behind him seemed to know what it was. Oddly that particular guard’s face went particularly stiff and a blush started creeping into his cheeks. Something both Bella and I found odd.

The commander’s face in comparison grew more focused. “That would explain the accent, but what are you trying to sell those gimmicks for? I thought that they were large, unwieldy, expensive, and inaccurate.” He gave me a look that said none of which applied to me and the tiny amount of mana I had did not change that.

I had lived my previous life with such little mana that I was used to such looks, though the fact that he assumed my mana amount from my plain robe and lack of leaking mana annoyed me. It would be a plain robe to him too, as if he had seen through the runes that I had burned into the inside of the robe, than I doubted that he would have kept from reacting by now.

“I know the inventor and helped him with marketing the invention to the Histones in Zootriofi, I wanted to check if it had spread out here yet, but unfortunately he intends on keeping the manor of creations as secret as possible, thus the large cases.” I grimaced, “honestly the spell itself is all you need, but he thinks that there is more money to be made with the magical devices than what they make portraits of. Thus he needs to secure it in a stoning trap box.

“Though I want to state unequivocally that they can be quite accurate, even at distance, if one has the proper spells or magical devices.” I turned back to Asat briefly, “which is partly why I had to stay here, as someone decided to play a game of interrogation.” I turned back to the Commander and grimaced, “at least I do not smell like I have not left in days.”

The Commander nodded understanding, even as he casually leaned away from me, cueing his own men to do the same. “Well then, all you need to do is show me your merchant association papers or other identification papers and we can get you moving along. You will need to declare where you will be staying too, so we can find you later, if necessary.”

Now came the hard part, “do you mind if I make our conversation private?” I kept my voice as polite as possible, not wanting to push too hard, but needing him to understand that this was important to me.

His eyes narrow, “you want the Histones to record that we had a private conversation over a simple procedure?”

I nodded, “the Histones have agreed to keep my full name sealed for the next few decades because of some enemies that I have made over the years. I would prefer to have as few people know about my being here as possible.”

The Commander looked like he was sucking on something sour for a moment before he nodded slowly. “Fine.”

I gave a polite smile and stepped off the last step of the library, officially exiting both the library’s area of protection in both the magical and legal senses.

As I did, I allowed a spell that I had constructed in my mind to take form and let my mana flow out to follow my preordered instructions. After so many years of such spells I did not have to spell out every instruction word for word, instead simply putting the idea of what type of spell I wanted to use into my mana and using what was basically shorthand to create the spell.

The mana flowed out of my hands and quickly formed a ward around the two of us. Normally a near invisible barrier, I had created this one to help prevent lip reading. It created a disjointed view of the world outside the ward, while also blocking anyone from listening in and creating a constant background noise that would make any recording spells useless.

I anchored the ward to the ground around us so I would not have to constantly watch where its edges were.

“What is that infernal racket?” The commander seemed to be fairly annoyed by the noise, but did not smash the ward to make his own so I took that as a plus.

“Precaution against recording devices, they are becoming more common, so I went ahead and used this version of the ward. Please do ignore it.” It was currently like having a conversation in a crowded market, not impossible, but unpleasant to suddenly walk into. I reached up one of my sleeves and pulled out the pouch that I had obtained from the Histones, along with my bone armor.

“You should know that the last thing I need is some fool attempting to bribe me. I am from the Hinnus family and our honor means more than-” he broke off his speech as I pulled out the coin from within the pouch and held it up.

The silver-white metal showed a burning tree on the side facing me, identifying where it was mined, while the side I showed the Commander was blank. Of course a blank disk would not have been very impressive, were it not made from Mithril.

The exotic metal was special for more than its rarity, just possessing it was illegal in many kingdoms without proof of nobility. Partly to avoid showing that sort of proof, I had taken to keeping it inside the pouch, which was full of iron fillings to stop any spell from being able to see inside.

It was one of the very few pieces of physical proof that linked me to Bella. Even blood spells that used DNA – albeit unknowingly – to target others would not affect me through Bella’s family, or vice versa.

Palming the coin without showing the burning tree to the Commander, I poured my mana directly into it and cast an illusionary spell.

Normally each noble family or house was too proud of their name to let it go. To that extent, each house had a family proof that was supposed to be nearly impossible to fake. With Royal Seals being the most famous example.

Ignoring all the ways I had aided in doing just such things in the past, I now had to convince the guard that the coin in my hand was my proof despite it not being any such thing. “You will not recognize the seal, but I once had a small House to call my own.”

I held out my palm and showed him the previously blank coin, which now had a three headed snake. The symbol was my previous life’s personal standard, as well as the symbol that symbolized who I was.

The commander was not amused “An illusion spell does not count as a Proof and furthermore, trying to pass it off as proof of nobility is illegal.” I felt his magic coil around him. He had around 7 circles worth, a healthy amount, but not enough to attract any aristocrats beyond the most basic ranks.

I closed my hand and dispersed the spell, changing mental direction. Proofs had varying levels of complexity and I honestly had no idea what standards they used here. Sometimes the Proofs were intricate spells that behaved in a specific way, while other times they were magical devices. “I never said that was my proof, just my family crest.”

“You think that an illusion of a mutated animal makes a difference?” He was not quite angry, but aggravated. Time to switch directions then.

“Yes, I do. Specifically because it suggest that you are not too friendly with House Varken.”

For my comment I won a furrowed brow and pensive face. “What in the name of the gods do they have to do with it?”

“Everything. You already noted that the snake was mutated, but the reason it is relates to my House specialty.” I spun the tale with as much truthful horseshit as I could shovel to keep it from stinking. “I am a biomancer you see and my specialty revolves around manipulating the body. Though I mostly just use magic to make sure animals pass down their best traits and not their worst.”

“A magic breeder…” his voice was flat, not good, but at least his mana was not boiling all around him. It had settled around him instead. “So you expect me to believe that your House somehow bred a three headed snake?”

I shrugged, “There was a time where custom creatures gave people a feeling of true mastery over nature. It did not last long under the light of the Conbra church, but it made us a small fortune while it did.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Right.” He eyed me up and down, but did not pay enough attention to penetrate the runes’ effects. “So how does that relate House Varken?”

It does not in the slightest, I admitted inwardly, House Varken were just a slightly infamous House that I had never had contact with. “They hired me a while back and were… dissatisfied with my work.”

“Three headed snakes did not interest them? Shocker.” Thankfully, the last part was spoken quietly to himself, without a trace of sarcasm. If he did not like them, all the better.

“No… Larger animals did. Pigs, cows, and horses especially. Unfortunately, one of the younger member of the House did not appreciate my work and we got into an argument.”

“You did something to his favorite horse?”

“No, but after the argument there were several births, his child and a group of piglets, of which…” I grimaced and scratched the back of my head, “someone suggested that I made look like the newborn.”

The Commander’s eyes widened and I saw a slight twitch in his cheek. “Did you?”

“I did not have to, the child was not blessed with his mother’s looks.” Another twitch. “That said, the family made sure to ruin my name and business. They even started targeting my friends, which is why I wanted to speak privately. A few loose lipped guards could be dangerous as I am almost out of funds.”

“What about your family?”

There. We are off the original topic, he is personally interested, and I got him to at least consider me a less annoying and more entertaining person. Now then… I took a deep breath and licked my lips. My family was never a comfortable subject. “Gone.”

“Ah, my apologies.” His voice was quiet, withdrawing from what he saw as a sore point. Sympathy was the enemy of all guards.

“Do not worry, I miss my wife, but my brats were more than handfuls.”

That was where my personal flourish came in. Usually simple was best, but the real art was where you mixed fiction with reality. The Commander was back to being slightly confused, off-guard, but the sympathy was still there. “You cannot be that old, I doubt if you have even left your teens.”

“Magic.” I said honestly, smiling despite the memories of how I would likely never see my Maria again, even after death. I thought of using magic to make myself look even older too, but no, that was not necessary it seemed.

My memories showed in my smile, I could tell by the look in his eyes when he nodded. Pity could easily affect you and influence your judgment if you let it. Bella herself had mixed feelings about my little show as she felt that I was using tragedy for personal gain, despite the fact that she knew just how real my emotions were.

“I see… Well, we seem to have gotten off track. Your House name, please.”

“Gyrfalcon.” It was an old name, one that was supposed to be my House name when I became a King in my previous world. The name of the old man who picked me up all that time ago.

“That sounds more like a name from the Collection than from Zootriofi,” His voice was quieter, but still inquisitive. He was probably required to ask that if he did not know the House name by memory.

“I never said that I always lived there. Morte Gyrfalcon once had a nice little life for himself out in a relatively peaceful area, but there were arguments, a war, and a few sons too stupid for their own good.” I shrugged obviously pretending not to mind. The truth was that remembering all those stupid, greedy, graveborns of mine only furthered my depression, which would age me further in his eyes.

Even if I had a penis I would have made myself even more sterile than I currently was.

As for the allied cities of the Collection… He could assume whatever he liked. They were on the eastern most part of the continent and the likelihood of meeting anyone directly from there was slim to none outside a port. All I knew about them was from the Histones and generally just talked about how they were independent, stubborn, and had the richest adamantium mines in the world.

“You do know that I am supposed to record your sigil, correct? Since you are unknown to the nobility?” He paused slightly before adding “It is tradition.”

I gave him a soft smile, you should never justify, explain yes, but not justify. “You have to? The last thing I want is those lot finding and causing more trouble, for anyone.”

He hesitated and opened his mouth for a second before closing it and slowly shaking his head.

Bella practically jumped up and down in our head at that point. She had been watching our surroundings and felt something very similar to Nalk energy again. It was so faint that Bella had to concentrate entirely on our surroundings to find it, but she thought that she sensed the energy interacting with the commander.

That might make the difference in the future, I quietly congratulated Bella, but did not have time to warn her off assumptions. Partly because she literally already knew the thought as it entered my head and partly because the Commander finally caved. “No, your sigil looks legitimate and I know that there will be nothing to compare it to, meaning it is pointless to try. Trying to prove that you are a noble to anyone would just be a long process with extra paperwork.

“Though I will be obligated to report your name and where you will be staying, I do not see a need to make a big deal of it. You are on record with the Histones and I can ask them for more information if I need to.” He gave me a look that clearly came across as ‘do not push me farther than this.’

I tilted my head and gave him a hurt look. ‘Like I would do such a thing?’

A small sigh and an eye roll signaled the end of our brief foray into non-verbal conversation. “Why are you going to Baron Los anyway, if you do not want to attract attention, why not go to an inn?”

“With respect Commander, how much gold am I wearing?” The guard had shut down the gates first and only let people out on a case by case basis – if they let anyone out at all – so all traders, travelers, and farmers who had been inside the city had been herded into the inns. It did not take a genius to figure out that the rates for a room were now horrendous.

That earned something of smirk, it disappeared quickly, but I still saw it. The Commander cleared his throat before nodding. “Alright, I suppose that I can let you two go, as long as you take an escort with you to House Los. I can spare someone, but he will be obligated to escort you back should the Los family refuse to let you stay. At that point, you will obligated to stay under our observation until the city lock down is lifted.”

I bowed my head slightly in thanks, “I would appreciate it, Commander. Ah,” then I added in a lower voice, “anyone but the sharp toothed one behind you please, he has been giving me an odd look for a while now.” I shifted my eyes quickly to the guard from earlier who had blushed at the mention of the instant portrait. The commander gave me a slightly confused look, but shrugged and waved a hand at my ward.

I nodded and let it dissolve so that the commander could start giving orders in a calm, rather boring, manner.

For my own part, I felt fairly good. I never claimed to have a silver tongue, but mine was at least bronze, in my own opinion. I would never have lasted long enough to become crowned king.

Bella, naturally, decided that I was stroking my ego too much and started pointing out the flaws in that thought. She started by bring the fact that the Commander did not seem to take much convincing at all and then proceeded to try remind me of every time in our lives where running my mouth had gotten the both of us in trouble.

She even brought up the book I had been writing near my death, proceeding to point out several sections full of flaws, based off my own memories of my editing attempts.

It was mostly in good spirit though, so I did not mind Bella’s nagging… too much.

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

Baron Los was the obvious son of a merchant. He had papers stacked on his desk to an impressive height, a rather impressive map tracking a variety of things, and he basically ordered me to tell him why I he should not throw me out then and there.

My response had been simple, I told him to ask his stable master about my talents.

That had nearly gotten me thrown out, but when the story of my arrival finally got reported in full, the Baron had instead allowed me to talk with him privately.

Now, I sat there and cursed the knowledge that the gods had no interest in me. It would have been nice to bury myself in a prayer for fortune, but I knew these days exactly how much that would help. Not even the chief deity of my previous life, Gorith, the god of the underworld, could help me here… not that I wanted that stoning graveborns help anyway.

“With respect Baron, how long are you going to stare at me? It is getting late and I would be deeply honored if you would put me up for the night.” I was trying to be patient, but when I had arrived there was an accident that had afforded the opportunity for me to mend the leg of one of the lord’s horses.

It was an excellent introduction, a way to show off my skills in a natural way that had Bella in hunting mode while she tried to play her new favorite game of ‘spot the Nalk.’ Still, the miserly Baron had yet to even offer me some wine for my effort

Unlike the guard commander, this would be a quick matter to settle, especially after the Baron let me stew for a few hours outside his study. Also unlike the Commander, he seemed to see through my runes the moment he saw me.

“What is a mage doing in such a disgraceful state?”

“No, but I can eat it.” I stated coldly.

“If you are that desperate, than my offer should seem all the better.

“And if I should just remove you by force and deny any such thing happened?”

I smiled and lied, “I will just smile and accept it without saying a word.”

The next few seconds were only marked by an expensive wooden framed clock, whose glass façade revealed a beautiful series of cogs and gears, driven by a pendulum that swayed back and forth hypnotically.

“Alright.” He smiled and leaned forward, taking a different approach. “What exactly do you want Morte. The guard and Histone have already explained some of it, but I assume that you chose to come to my House for a specific reason.”

At least this noble was straight forward. I could only imagine how much dancing around someone else would do, but I had an advantage from my time with the Hohen Sisterhood, gossip. “You are one of the city’s newest additions, yet your business interests were established, according to the Histones, concurrently with your arrival. I assumed that was because you did not plan the event in advance.”

I paused to let him correct me, but the silence was defining. “Given the lack of anything except the crossroads and the Sisterhood of Hoh, who are some of the best Healers in the east. That would suggest a medical condition. Not something life threatening, or the Sisterhood would help you immediately, which means something noticeable and either embarrassing or at least frowned upon.

“You seem to be in good health, but the helpers around this place are all older and more experienced hands. The type who most think of as less likely to gossip… Well, beyond that I heard a rumor that you had a daughter, but that is really where my guesswork ends. I can heal human injuries as well, but I am not a Healer, still, if you need someone to help…”

I left the statement hanging and went back to waiting. If this went on any longer though Bella would have to start meditating.

“You make an interesting offer, but I must say that I find your offer rather suspect. Even ignoring your state of dress, you seem rather… androgynous. If you happened to be the one that the guards are searching for, you would be putting me in quite the predicament.”

I raised an eyebrow and held a smile back. That pause… the stoning man was bargaining. I ideliy wondered how much the Sisters were asking him to ‘donate’ to move her daughter up the list for care. They were quite bad about that for what they called ‘cosmetic’ injures. “You mean that after I came here escorted by those same city guard who are supposed to be searching for me? You mean after I helped fix your horse’s broken leg? No I will not- I cannot believe that you are such a person. No, I think I know what you are really concerned about though.”

“Really now?”

“Yes, I understand what you are really worried about my lord,” I gave him my friendliest smile. “You are worried about putting your, or your loved one’s health in the hands of a stranger.” He tried to interject, but I kept going. “Your concern for them is a heart-warming thing that I think I should mention my friend Recorder Corus, but I will leave that for later.

“For the sake of argument though, I will point out that I have given you no reason not to trust me and that you have seen proof that not one, but two well-known groups believe that I am who I say I am. If anyone ever gives you reason to regret allowing me to treat your daughter, than I suggest that you refer them to the other two groups first.”

His face was neutral, but we both knew that he had made up his mind when he invited me in. If he had really realized that I was the escapee, then he knew he could return me to the Sisterhood at any time using his wards to trap me. Plus, it was well known that I was a former member of the Sisterhood, if he thought I could help because of their teachings and well… I felt more comfortable relying on his selfishness than his honor.

“You might not know this, even a rumor, the slightest whisper of scandal, can damage one’s reputation and my House is built on reputation. You are, as I have said, a rather androgynous figure despite your jawline and if someone does not think you a women than they could easily think you a young man. A young man that I took in and introduced to my daughter, a young man who shared a night at the least, under my roof. I trust my servants to keep their silence, but as you have said, everyone only thinks that the older servants will not gossip.”

I nodded, “If that is so than you should just refer to me as a passing specialist plying his trade by looking after some of your steeds. In fact, I could sleep out in or at least near, the stables to reinforce this.” I looked him dead in the eyes and asked Bella if she felt any energy stirring, Nalk or otherwise.

Nothing. I was used to gambling, but I would have to go over my actions with Bella later. I was either making good, logical decisions, or the fact that the Nalks seemed to be helping sort out the mess they made was making me reckless. Right now though, I did not see many options and was happy to take the rope I could.

“The stables and some food, for tonight. We can discuss more tomorrow.” He stood up and as I copied him, he surprised me by holding out his hand.

I looked at the outstretched hand and hesitated. No mage liked touching another mage, not unless there was a significant level of trust. Primarily because the human body conducted mana so well and no magic would save you from a death spell cast directly into your body.

Of course, he likely assumed that said trust was present because we were in his wards. Wards were powerful enough defenses that it was a common misconception, but I had killed plenty of people in spite of those defenses. If anyone knew never to trust someone just because you were in your wards, it was me.

Baron Los no doubt noticed my hesitation, but said nothing as I slowly and reluctantly extended my hand. The handshake was short, polite, and earth-shatteringly uncomfortable. I could feel the Baron’s magic, just slightly dwarfing my own.

I had enough mana to fully power 12 concentric circles of mana, which effectively made me a rank 12 mage, the same as the Baron. However, I could feel that he was close to breaking through to the next circle. Given how most people meditated here to expand or concentrate their mana, I gave him less than a year of daily meditation before he reached the 13th rank.

As our hands separated I took a deep breath and asked him a question, “You are close to your third I assume?” Mages typically only expand our mana 3 circles in our lifetime, if they were active in their daily lives to any serious degree. It was not impossible to expand to a fourth,

The Lord smiled politely and ignored my question, walking around his desk, “This way, if you please, ah and of course,” He paused at the door and turned to face me fully. The sudden pressure that filled the room, caused me to blink in surprise at the killing intent that suddenly came off of him. “Since my reputation is so important to me, you can understand how distraught I would be if anything disruptive were to happen, as I would likely jump to rude conclusions…” His face was neutral, but there was no way that he did not know what effect he would have on others.

Killing intent was a mana effect that resulted when you decided to kill someone and your mana responded to that act of will.

The fight or flight response was instinctive even for someone like me and I could slow my heartbeat down to a deathly low rate if needed. Most would experience shaking, fearfulness, and an all-around sense of being hunted. Of course, if you learned to use it as a weapon then it was possible to treat it like something approaching a spell all on its own. At a high enough level it could interrupt someone else’s spells, force people to talk against their will, and sometimes even cause heart attacks.

Part of me, the part Bella approved of, suddenly found a new level of respect for him. The man really was willing to go the distance for what he cared for. The rest of me however, was struggling not to laugh. I could summon triple his killing intent in a heartbeat and it would be far more focused than the uneven thing that he was likely struggling to produce.

I put on a serious face and told him what he wanted to hear though. “I promise to be as quiet as a church mouse, sir, you have my word.” Though I honestly had no idea what he was worried about, did he think I was going to have a wild orgy or something?

He stared at me for another moment before nodding and leading the way out.

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

The stables were nice and comfortable compared to living on the streets, thought I suspected that the previous occupant was enjoying his new time in the servant’s quarters.

I hardly cared myself, I was just happy that the Baron had been arrogant or desperate enough to buy a mansion large enough to have one. It was actually rather sickening if you thought about it too much. There was hardly enough room for the stable on the manor grounds, but the same area in the slums would have housed roughly 10 times the number of people, just in the buildings.

I shook my head quietly and quickly got back to work carving some magic dispersal runes into the horse stall. In addition to generally being a good idea around animals, the runes would keep the currently unconscious horse from making any more noise when it woke up.

The accused thing was started reacting badly to the few basic alert and concealment spells that I cast following my first nice meal in over a week and forced me to knock it out with a spell.

Many animals could sense magic to one degree or another, but it was rarer for domesticated animals because animals that could feel magic were more likely to develop it for themselves.

Meow.

I reached over and let a cat smell my hand. After a few moments of waiting patiently, it rubbed against my hand, giving me permission to stroke its back.

Cats were the only notable exception among domesticated animals. They seemed able to feel magic fairly easily, but were never seen using it. The closest anyone I knew of explaining this were some men of questionable mental fortitude, who I had known in my previous life, who thought that cats could use some sort of precognition magic.

I personally thought they were just good hunters and decent enough pets, but the way they avoided those men (and their associates,) spoke to their good instincts at the least.

After I finished casting my concealment spells and let the cat go off and to be a cat somewhere else, I contemplated casting Gorith’s Shroud.

The stables were technically under the control of the house wards so I could not do too much, but a few spells for privacy were to be expected. The problem was if the wards determined Gorith’s Shroud to be a threat. At a minimum the spell would likely summon the attention of the owner, who would want to see if it was a threat, but if things really went wrong than the ward could smite me for it.

The big problem was that, technically I was still female and I only had a good two more days before the Nalks would lock me into this body with the terror known as a woman’s period. I would prefer to avoid that if at all possible and that meant doing research.

I had no plans on being the same as in my past life. I had been a King, a father (Bella coughed,) and everything from a bandit to a general when it came to fighting. I did not feel the need to become anything like that again, no matter how much I wanted to screw over the Nalks.

We would dedicate this new life to something else and to that end, along with the fact that it was a compromise with Bella, we had decided to forgo the idea of being one sex or another. Outwardly we would be sexless, and inwardly we would be both male and female.

…Assuming that such a thing was possible of course. I had work to do tomorrow so I asked Bella to keep watch while I read the Pervert’s notes.

Despite the low opinion Bella had of the man, I had no intentions of letting his knowledge go to waste and he had been one of the few mages who could perform sex changes.

…Urgh. Looking back, maybe that particular blindside had actually been a good thing. That I was able to come to an agreement with Bella later was not a result of it, but it hardly hurt.

I opened the book and mumbled “One day at a time” as I started reading by a ball of light that I created with magic. The sun had already set, but I had a spell to compress my sleep and I needed to work on this thing.

One thing at a time.

*     *     *

 Penial holding area:

Drasiedi did not know what he hated more, that he could be executed for something he had nothing to do with, or that it was only once he was arrested that he realized he actually had motive.

Stella. Bella.

They looked different, they talked different, but ever since he had been locked up, he had grown increasingly convinced that they were the same.

Bella had practically rebuilt his body, even after she left the village he kept growing stronger and faster, to the point where he had long since bested anyone who he was allowed to challenge.

Then he even started to notice things in the air. At first he thought that he might be going crazy, but no, he quickly learned that he was seeing magic. It was a revelation that shocked him to his very core, especially because he was a burnout.

“Burnouts,” were people with magic so weak that their mana paths were said to overload, to burnout, because of the amount of natural mana around them was too much for them to handle.

The Sisterhood of Hoh had been astounded too when they found out, but that impressed attitude had quickly turned into something else. Drasiedi was a man in his own right and should have been able to take care of himself, but now he was just stuck in a cell.

His sword and prize money for the successful duels had been confiscated and all of it was because Bella/Stella’s escape happened the day after he had been ASKED to visit her by the Sisterhood.

Of course he said nothing about his idea that Stella and Bella were the same, but now they were even threatening to kill him! He had done nothing wrong!

Hearing one of the cell doors rattle open he sighed to himself. The Sisters had come to check on him every day and ask more questions. Apparently his body was behaving differently now or some such nonsense. He did not know or care about that at the moment though, because he was angrier that he was somehow guilty by an association that no one actually knew of!

Still seething, he barely pulled back a rather rude statement when he realized that his visitors were not Sisters.

“Hello there Drasiedi. We would like to make a deal with you.”

The smile the figure said those words with sent shivers down Drasiedi’s spine, still, he concentrated. Anger would not help anyone, years of babysitting John had taught him that. “I am listening…”