The next day was a fair bit more exciting than the last. It started out with an actual magical breakfast, served by Ruvyn himself.
Though magical, I could not say it tasted very good. Laura agreed but did give him some points for effort.
The real excitement came when I was actually allowed to walk with Laura into the neighboring village to pick up supplies.
We started off by applying the same disguise Laura and Ruvyn would use when they went around town.
The application itself felt very peculiar. I was first welcomed by a sensation not so different from taking a shower, if water felt like blue.
This was supposedly what it felt like for mana to settle around my body to change my looks.
I went from a cute blond boy with slightly pointy ears to a brunette with normal ears in the same brown pants and lighter brown tunic.
Before Laura donned her disguise, the fact that my body took after her in the face department stood out even more with our now similar hair.
I also noticed the silly coincidence that with both our covers applied, Laura and I were basically switching hair colors.
Laura giggled a bit when I vocalised this finding and added in playfully that Ruvyn was not too creative with his hair color choices, but could be creative in other areas.
We walked side by side down into the settlement, which meant I had to struggle just a tiny bit to keep up with Laura’s much longer gait.
The village came into focus after a few minutes of walking.
Just like what I saw yesterday when I went out of the house, children were all running around playing a game of what I thought was tag.
The game has naturally advanced to the point where the fattest kid was caught and is now struggling to tag someone else to free himself.
Things slowed down when we walked by and one of the kids, the fattest kid actually, spoke up.
“Hey Miss Laura. Who’s that with you?”
“Oh. That’s my son.”
All of the kids gave her their best skeptical look and the fat kid continued.
“Really. Where was he before then? We never saw you with one the last time you were here.”
“He was just a little sick so he couldn’t come out. He’s all better now. Why don’t you introduce yourself to him,” spoke Laura as she sent a sly look my way, clearly looking to frazzle me with the attention of children.
“Really,” the kid turned to me, ”I’m Will. What’s your name?”
“Um. I’m Brandon. Nice to meet you, I guess.”
“You too. Wanna join us.”
“No. Thank you. But I have something to do with,” I steeled my resolve, “mom. So Maybe next time.”
Laura looked mighty pleased when I said this.
“Ok. see you later. See you later too miss Laura.”
Laura waved the kids goodbye and we continued to the market.
I was a little disappointed with what I saw when we arrived.
My whole expectation of an interesting looking bazaar with weird and unique items was crushed mercilessly.
The place just looked like a typical illustration of a medieval farmer’s market with a meager six stalls selling either vegetables or some normal looking meats.
It was a quaint looking establishment and, now that I reconsidered the size of the village and the rarity of magic in normal people’s lives, fit naturally into its surroundings.
As I stood there feeling a bit disillusioned, Laura had already arrived at a stall and was looking through a selection of vegetables.
I caught up to her and tried to tiptoe for a better view of the produce. I had little success with that until I found a small wooden crate that I could use to stand on.
Laura was talking to the old woman that owned the stall when I finally got a good view.
“Hey Lezlie, what do you have for me today?”
“Oh, Just the usual dear, can’t really change the crop around too much. What got you looking so happy today? At least more than usual.”
“Really? Well I guess I have a bit of company today,” she pointed over towards me, “Isn’t he cute?”
“Oh my. Where have you been hiding the little one?”
“He’s just been really sick, We can’t really take him out. But he is all better now and I can finally take him out.”
“Aww. A fighter he is,” the lady turned to me, “And what would be your name?”
“My name’s Brandon. It’s nice to meet you.”
“And he is polite too. You sure know how to make them Laura.”
The two giggled together and continued to chat on about the happenings within the village, who did what and all of that.
I got bored of that and looked around at other stalls until Laura finished her selection and pulled out some coins to pay.
Seeing the coins, I realised there were still things I forgot to ask the two about their world, currency being a prime example. No time better than now, I spoke up.
“Hey Laura. Can we continue the whole question and answer session from yesterday? I’m really curious about certain things right now.”
“Sure. Ask away. You sure earned them through putting up with being treated as a kid.”
“Right, I knew it was on purpose. Anyways, could you tell me more about the currencies used in your world?”
“Oh, you saw me hand old Lezlie those coins right?”
I nodded.
“Ok. So what I used there were tokens, the most common form of currency here. There are three types of them, bronze, silver and gold. Each is worth ten of the one that was before it. Then there are the exclusive Crowns within the Mennes empire that is worth about five silver tokens each and the elven Credits worth seven silver tokens.”
“Alright. How about the calendar here then, how do you guys even keep track of dates?”
“You seem extra curious today, but teacher Laura always deliver.”
She cheerfully declared before clearing her throat and adopting an exaggerated lecturing tone.
“Our world doesn’t really have a really complicated system for that. We have four seasons. The first is Wake, for the slowly rising life within that period, I just call it wake because I wake sooner around then. Then the second season, Day, for its, you can probably guess, bright daylight that burns far more than it should. Reaping might be a bit of a scary name for you, but it just means the time of harvest, but teens do like that month the most so the name could be a bit dangerous sounding. What comes last would be Slumber, a season where things entered a sleep before Wake and when we all sleep the longest too. Are you following so far?”
I nodded again.
“Good. each of the seasons is made up of three months, start, middle and end. A month is made up of thirty-two days. We are right now at the seventeenth of Day middle and you first came here on the sixth of Dayend.”
“But what about the years?”
“Oh, we just count them, this year is 1970. And you were born in 1966.”
“Ok. Now can you tell me about-”
Before I could continue, Laura pushed me aside and swiped her right hand quickly to the side. The limb impacted something.
I got my bearings back from the sudden shove and looked out to see Laura holding a still trembling arrow in her right hand and groceries still in her left.
“Alright Charlotte, I’ll forgive you this one time for trying that if you’ll just come out so we can. TALK.”
If I was a little calmer and less close to sudden death again, I would have commented on how that never works.
But as it was, I just stood there as a figure slowly emerged from the woods before us.
My expectations were once again broken.
The professional assassin in tight leather and large foreboding cowl that the arrow should have came from was nowhere to be found. In their place, was a budget robin hood cosplay, with the old and worn moss green cloak, a just as worn set of brown leather armor and boots.
Her face meant business, however, scrunched up in silent judgement and contempt.
Her slightly squared jaw was clenched tightly, the rigid muscles and pixie cut allowing even more visibility to the angles.
The stern look was added on by the high cheekbones and defined eyebrows, both set deep in a frown.
Her chocolate brown eyes brought a bit of normalcy to the color pallets I have seen around. I could still recall the odd silver that was that Will kid’s. Though the shade was of sweet milk chocolate, the eyes themselves were clearly pointing towards bitter with how intensely they were narrowing on Laura.
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My judgement seemed to be flawed. The glare was for me, as evident when she moved her eyes a bit upward and changed her expression.
She weirdly adopted one of resignation that I myself have worn many times back when Tim did something stupid. Her next words were also in line with what I used to say to him.
“You actually went and did it, Laura. I can’t believe you. How could you just follow that pathetic deserter into committing such a taboo?”
“What do you mean such a taboo? And Ruvyn is not a pathetic deserter.”
Charlotte pointed a finger contemptuously in my direction.
“You know full well what I meant. I thought you sticking with him was just to earn his trust and complete your mission. Then you went and disappeared and now I found you like this. Did you even think of the consequences? The failed mission was fine, I could just write down a report on how elusive he was to find and you would be fine. But now? You went and pulled this one.”
“So what do you want me to do about it then? Kill them both?”
“Yes, at least the freak, It’s supposed to die. They all do. It’s against nature to keep one alive. And without any evidence, others in our organization won’t have anything to accuse you with.”
“No. I am not about to abandon my child to save my own hide that was not in danger in the first place.”
“Do you really believe yourself to be safe? The elves are already trying to track your Ruvyn down. It’s only a matter of time. His worthless disguises can be seen through by anyone with [heightened senses: lesser] on them. Don’t let your misguided love blind you and listen to me.”
“No, I know you mean well, but I will not return to the SSC.”
“Do you listen to yourself. Here I am, offering to cover this whole mess up and potentially breaking numerous rules that I have sworn to, and you still want to follow him in his defiling of the natural order.”
“No. They are not natural orders when Ruvyn has handily proven them wrong.”
“And how did he prove that, by making this? Just look at him, is that the face of a child to you. There is clearly something wrong with that.”
I was already thinking of how much salt this woman seems to have before Laura could retort.
“Yes. But he is still a person. And we will fix things the next time.”
“WHAT? Next time? Once is not enough for you? Have you not registered my words at all?”
Words were not going to settle things at this point and Charlotte shot first.
The arrow was not caught this time, though the scene created with a deflection involving a carrot was still impressive.
Charlotte let loose three consecutive arrows and all were aim at me to, presumably, impede Laura’s movements.
Too many projectiles to block, Laura had to dodge to the right and grabbed me along with her. The vertigo was very real and I had a hard time focusing on the supposed fight that was life or death for me.
I regained enough of my bearings to notice that Charlotte had somehow gained a bit of distance from us and is charging up an attack that glowed just a tad bit too much for my liking.
I blinked, the shot went out, and my vision was filled with a double helix of flaming doom.
The spinning arrow dodge scene replayed itself and I was once again in a new position and very disorientated.
I could only hope this does not repeat when Laura let out an audible growl and charged forth.
In three quick strides, she closed the roughly ten-meter distance and leveled a haymaker in Charlotte’s direction.
It didn’t connect when she jumped back from the point of impact. I doubted she ever wanted to hit anything though. The punch had a wind-up that was far too long and telegraphed.
An explosion of dirt and debris followed and Laura’s scheme was made real.
Smoke cloud in place, Laura resumed Brandon rugby and made a mad dash to the house.
A few moments later and the house was in view, but Laura did not slow down.
We went past the main house and entered the back tower. Laura did something once we entered and the whole rustic and calm ambience within the tower replaced with alarm as red runes started to blink all around me.
Completing the infiltrated base atmosphere, Ruvyn came rushing down to say the finishing line.
“What’s the situation?”
“I was found today.”
Ruvyn let out a resigned sigh.
“I knew the disguises were a little too flimsy. I assumed no one would look for us all the way here and the farming folks would not notice anything. I should have planned better and hide us deeper. I could have even-”
“That’s enough of that now. We tried our best and it didn’t work out. It’s fine. Now we just need to get out of here. You have something set up already, right.”
“Well, yes. But there were still things I could have done with magic had I tried harder. I could have hidden us or make some sort of weapon as deterrent.”
“No. we both know your specialisation is not in infiltration nor mass destruction, it is in aether and its enchantments that you excel,” she gestured to the whole interior of the tower, “You moved all of this from your own laboratory within elven territory into the free border of Cytengord. And I know for certain you can do that again.”
“Of course. I-”
“There. See. Does it matter if you could not prevent this mess, if you can just pull us out of it.”
“Ok. You’re right. Could you two go upstairs, I need some time right now to relocate us.”
“You heard him Brandon, come on. Let’s go and give him some privacy to do his business.”
“Coming. And a late thank you for saving my butt earlier.”
Laura just smiled and walked up the stairs.
I followed a bit slower and took my time to look around at the glowing red enchantments slowly turning into an intense shade of purplish blue.
“Mesmerising, isn’t it?” came Laura from above.
“Yeah it is,” I finished my climb up, “Is it that aether stuff you talked about before?”
“Yup. wondering why it isn’t blue like all of the other times we used mana?”
“Not really. It’s a different element and should look different. But what does it do?”
“It’s used mostly to move things through space. Like teleportation ports for goods in main cities. Ruvyn have worked on plenty of them for the elves actually.”
“Wait. so when you said he moved everything with the whole grand hand gesture, you actually meant it,” I said incredulously. Laura looked equally incredulous when she replied.
“Of course. What else could I mean? It’s Ruvyn.”
“O..K,” I was still a bit doubtful, before I recalled what they spoke about earlier, ”Wait. You said he was going to do it again.”
“Yes. What about that?”
“We are in the tower.”
“So?”
“You said it was for goods. I am not goods.”
Confusion gave way to recognition.
“Technically, goods also includes farm animals and we are animals. So technically, you are goods,” Laura smiled winningly at her joke.
I was not impressed and showed exactly that.
“Alright. Alright. We can be transported. Ruvyn just has to make the right calibrations to make sure of that.”
“O...K,” I was still not completely sure of my safety, but did not want to sound too rude, “I trust you guys.”
“I don’t think you have a choice in that, but thanks. I think Ruvyn should be nearly ready now.”
With that, I looked around and realised that the purplish blue runes have already spread to encompass most of our floor.
I was already bracing myself when Ruvyn came rushing up the stairs panting and wide-eyed.
“Honey, why didn’t you tell me?”
Confusion was back.
“Huh?”
“I had to get a total of lifeforms to be transported, I found four with the fourth being really tiny and within another.”
“Are you telling me what I think you are?”
“I think, You are pregnant again.”
That was apparently the trigger needed as Laura leapt off of the floor and glomped Ruvyn.
Their foreheads together and Laura on top, they were about to start the very famous make out scene right on a tense moment.
I could not really let this happen with the chance that Charlotte could be aiming those arrows in my direction again and broke the atmosphere.
“Ahem. Guys, not to be rude here or anything. But the one that found us is still out there and aren’t we supposed to be moving or sth.”
Laura turned around and I was just a tad bit afraid of her glare. Ruvyn seemed much more flustered and blubbered out a reply.
“Things were u-under control, everything was ready and I did not need to do any more adjustments. And the tower’s barrier should hold against any sort of attacks from a single person.”
“Ok. And congratulations on the baby, just celebrate it privately, please.”
The room was quiet after that remark with Ruvyn going downstairs again to finalise matters and Laura idly rubbing at her belly. I, with nothing else to do, picked up the books left on the desk from my study yesterday.
I skimmed over things quickly to find the aether entry.
Before I could even start reading anything though, there was a dramatic shift in my surroundings. The same sensation of donning the disguise was back again, but this time much heavier and a bit more smothering, going so far as running up my nose and into my mouth.
It ended after a few seconds and was replaced with an immense sense of vertigo. I nearly fell off of my chair before catching the side of the table for stability.
To assure myself that we all made it in one piece, I called out for the two.
“Hey. Laura. Ruvyn. Is everything Ok?”
Laura responded first from the other side of the table in a chipper tone.
“Yes. Wouldn’t they be.”
“Everything seems to be in order. No major deviations in coordinates of destination. No explosions either so I can assume that everything is good,” came Ruvyn as he ascended the stairs.
A sigh escaped me and I voiced the concerns that were at the bottom of my list back then.
“So where did we arrive at?”
“We arrived at the southwestern border of the beastmen colonies. A place far from both the Elven Republic and the Mennes empire, and still have contact to civilization.”
“That sounds great. But we don’t have the house or any of its conveniences. Where are we going to live.”
Laura was the one to assuage my fears with a wide smile on her face.
“Oh, don’t worry too much about that. The tower is plenty enough shelter. My own ranger and scouting training can keep both of you alive indefinitely too. And as for supplies that cannot be gathered, Ruvyn has a few contacts and arrangements he can teleport things in from.”
Ruvyn also chipped in and listed the things that he could request from his contacts.
I liked the sound of basic amenities like a bath and toilet, but other things he mentioned were a bit beyond the language skills transferred to me.
So with a new note to ask for a more complete lesson on language, I moved downstairs so the clearly ecstatic couple celebrate their actual parenthood.
Down there, I tried to pass my time by finally reading the notes on aether that I already turned to.
That got boring quickly after I found out how many technical details was in the book and how many terms I still have no grasp over.
I tried to move over to other elements, but the descent into simpler magics still did not help make reading them any less tedious.
I dropped the book and decided to simply walk out and enjoy whatever view I can get when there were certain noises sounding out upstairs.
I wished I had gone outside a bit sooner.
The old view from atop the hill looking down onto a quiet village kinda showed either Ruvyn’s or Laura’s inclination towards the high grounds, but this simply confirmed it.
My first steps out onto our new front yard deposited me on top of a very tall cliff overlooking a sea of trees.
The conclusion that it will suck to try and go down was the first thing on my mind.
My fears for our self-imprisonment up here on this cliff was alleviated when I started to walk forward and look around the tower.
There was a much more accessible incline from behind and even a clear trail down through the forest.
I was content to simply chill out in the nice weather until lunch came around and the couple was done with their business before I caught something out of the corner of my eyes.
There was a ghostly glowing orb of blue looking at the tower intently within one of the shaded areas of the forest. I could only see it thanks to the contrast it had against that darkened patch of the forest.
It noticed me too and, with the movement of a large lumbering body, sunk back into the shade and out of my sight.
The rather unnerving experience prompted me to scoot a little closer to the tower and keep a closer eye on the forest. The eyes never returned though and I was left looking like an idiot expecting a great abomination to jump me.
The couple came down eventually and Laura went about preparing a fire to cook some preserved foods.
Over the meal, I contemplated telling them about my little encounter. An internal debate was had between telling them about the possible threat and keeping thing stable after such a big move.
Eventually, I settled upon not telling, assuming that they must have had some sort of security against that. Plus with the happiness bubbling between the two as they talked about possible baby names in the meal it just didn’t feel right to disturb them with a possible minor problem. The glowing orb might just be a harmless spirit for all I knew.
Quiet kept, the day went by without any more major happenings.
The next day looked to be continuing that calm before I walked out for some air after breakfast and found some claw marks in the dirt behind the house that roughly spelled out “iy” in English.