The rest of the day’s ride was relatively uneventful and after another three hours on the road our group arrived at the mid-sized town, we would be spending the night. While nothing when compared to the amount of people I’d seen that morning, it amazed me that the guards at the entrance could keep any degree of order with the number of travelers they handled. With the royal crest invisible our group was now posing as an apprentice merchant caravan. It helped explain the carriages, expensive pack animals, and guards. Just in case Liza had official seeming identification documents that supported the claim. However, all that preparation seemed irrelevant to the guards who waived us through after a quick inspection.
During our ride Liza had seen and approved all the books I’d purchased, though she warned me to be careful basing anything off the theory books. After she finished looking through the puzzles, making sure I didn’t buy anything prohibited, Liza took out her new necklace. She had already tried it on at the store to make sure everything was correct but had decided to take the chain off so I could help her with it. The gesture was unexpectedly sentimental coming from Liza, and I completed my task happily, thinking back to when she had helped me a few months ago.
Our inn for the night was large and well furnished. While there weren’t many groups besides us, the one and a half gold per room we had to pay showed the business wasn’t hurting for coin. Checking in was simple; Liza reserved our rooms and ordered us dinner, what turned out to be a delicious stew along with a warm apple pie for dessert.
While most of the group was tired, the nap I’d gotten during the ride allowed me some extra energy and I wanted to use the time to explore our lodging for the night. It took a few minutes of riding the border between begging and annoying, but I managed to convinced Nicki to join me on my expedition. An hour of walking, running, and general exploration later, we returned to our rooms for the night. I took a quick shower before falling asleep almost the moment I laid my head on the pillow, all the new experiences of the day catching up to me at once.
***
We were back on the road early the next morning; the sun having barely risen as the Zema ate up the miles of empty road. Instead of midday our first break was nearly three hours before noon. The Speedstop we rested at was much smaller this time and while I didn’t buy anything I made sure to look around as we went to pick up food. Leaving the Speedstop I began to notice that the scenery had begun to change. Rather than the falling leaves that marked autumn, the new towns and villages we passed had already received their first snowfall. I’d seen snow before, my mother had sometimes made it in the cube, but it was amazing that such an event could occur naturally. While I sat staring in awe at the white covered trees we passed, neither the beasts nor carriage seemed to notice as we continued our high-speed ride through the country.
When I wasn’t admiring the scenery, I spent my time in the carriage reading or practicing Darvis’s Disk. The way Shale moved his books held similarities to the shaping exercise, and his method had given me an idea. Unlike the process Professor had taught me, Shale used force mana to manipulate objects. Force magic, as I understood it had low combat potential, but excelled in mana manipulation efficiency. The professor couldn’t use force magic, so he had shown me the universally viable method of coating an object with your mana then linking all your coated objects together. While I would be able to do the professor’s method eventually, my lack of progress showed I was a long way from there. If he knew of another way to work on the exercise that might allow for faster progress, I was sure he would’ve shown it to me. At least that’s what convinced myself to justify that I wasn’t modifying the spell, something I promised I wouldn't do. Plus, I figured if I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to Liza would be quick to stop me.
Unlike the original way I’d learned, when Shale had used his mana, he’d created strings, like those of the first shaping exercise, and used them to lift and move the books. Figuring there was nothing stopping me from doing the same, I began experimenting.
I quickly found out there were many things stopping me from doing the same. The root of my problem, the mana type used, I didn’t discover until about an hour after I started. Repeated failures and zero progress led to me scouring my notes for an answer. If I’d brought, The History and Practical Uses of Magic, 80th Edition, my go-to magic dictionary, finding the information would have been much easier, instead it took an endless amount of page flips to a short disappointing sentence.
“It is with the help of the purity of the healing mana that a force mage is able to tap into an object's natural energies making the manipulation of matter much easier than for an elemental mage, not including any variant mages, of similar standing.’
The quote had been something I’d copied directly and, due to the lack of context, I didn’t completely understand what was being said. One thing was clear however, it was the mana used in force magic that allowed for such easy manipulation. I felt kind of naive for thinking I’d found some secret method everyone had overlooked, but rather than stop, or go back to the original method, some combination of self-deception and stubbornness kept me going. For the professor’s version I failed mainly due to a lack of mana capacity, something that couldn’t be worked on in the epidermal stage. Control had a slight effect on it, and I believed that was what he wanted me to focus on when practicing, but I was pretty sure having more mana would be the only realistic way to properly do that version any time soon. At minimum this new option had something I could actively improve.
My decision made, I spent the last hour and a half on the road identifying problems and deciding the best methods of practice for my … slight adjustments to the disk. The passage from the book had put an emphasis on the interaction between a casters’ mana and the object so I decided to switch to earth mana, at least when working with the pebbles.
The first new issue I met was in the fragility of my strings. Due to the simplicity of the first level shaping exercise, my earth mana constructs were equal to those I normally made of wind mana. The problem was that neither of them would be good enough for the task ahead. I’d been working on strengthening them for the better part of two months, but they were still much too weak to stay attached to anything for a relevant amount of time. I’d managed to link a ring of five pebbles together once, and right as I smiled at the progress, a slight jolt from the carriage broke them apart. The second was linked to the first and would hopefully approve along with it. Even if I could form a stable link between the pebble and myself, my next issue would be manipulating the object. The strength, or lack thereof, of my strings would stop me from making anything budge through purely magical means.
The last thing was more a goal than current issue, though I had attempted it with little success. I would need to practice disconnecting mana from myself while still allowing it to remain active. Linking a string to a pebble while a strand was connected to my body was easy. Linking one pebble to another, without any physical connection to me caused mental strain I’d never felt before. Looking out the window at the near open road I smiled despite the ache in my brain. With an actual plan in place, I felt like I was finally getting somewhere; though progress would still be slower than I wanted.
At around three in the afternoon, we arrived at the second rest stop. On any other day that would have been it, but our route to Storia would take twenty-six hours by Zema, and we were scheduled to arrive by the end of the fourth day. That meant those two hours would need to be made up at some point and, based on some criteria I didn’t know, it was decided that would be today. Shivering, I exited the carriage and pulled my scarf a little tighter around me, my breath fogging at the same time. After spending all my life moving from enclosed space to enclosed space, I was excited to be in the outside world, I just wished it wasn’t so cold. My inspection of the small Speedstop only lasted fifteen minutes, choosing to spend the rest of the Zema’s respite in the carriage. I tried to go back to studying, but the headache from all the mana manipulation became too much and I found myself sleeping through the last two hours on the road in its entirety.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
If I thought I’d been cold when the day started, I was clearly wrong. What was considered cold in Vander paled in comparison to the sharp winds that seemed to ignore all the layers of clothing I wore. After fourteen hours on the road, we were nearly a thousand miles from Vander and the weather was a constant reminder of that. While not bundled up nearly as much as I was, even Liza had a light coat over her sweater, and scarf to cover her face, her nova core unable to fight off this level of cold. The guards however seemed to have no trouble, all of them only wearing their armor.
Vindil, the small town we found ourselves in, only had one inn, but so rarely received visitors that we had more trouble finding the owner than getting our rooms. The place was small but well-kept. They offered dinner, but Liza opted for us to eat the leftover food from the rest stops. After dinner, and a bit of convincing, Liza allowed me out into the small town with Nicki at my side. Since the guard never had to drive, she was one of the better rested by the day's end and I’d quickly come to enjoy her company. I felt like she, even more so than Liza, treated me like a regular person. It was due to how she’d been raised. In demi-human culture everyone was treated equally, even their version of nobility was often found in the streets doing menial tasks. She had been born and raised in Davion but spent enough time visiting and learning about Eunoian culture for it to influence how she viewed me, something I was grateful for.
Nicki was explaining why a town so close to the Speedway was so barren, when we heard a loud commotion in a nearby alley. The noise had scared me almost to the point of jumping but seemed to have the opposite effect to my white-haired guard. While my body had tensed in fear, Nicki’s smile had vanished arms falling to her side, posture relaxed. During our entire walk the streets had been sparsely populated, but now I couldn’t see anyone even with the help of the street lanterns. Making eye contact Nicki whispered to me in Eunoian.
“Stay close, we’re going back the way we came.”
Then, rather than moving, her eyes shot to the alley entrance and what I thought to be confusion marred her face. Not five seconds later two men walked out, arguing.
“Listen you old git, I told don’t care how much you offer me, I’m not going.”
“Please sir, you have to be at least C-class, more than enough to deal with some manaless bandits. They took my brother and his daughter; you have to help me get them back.”
I was quiet as I shuffled closer to Nicki, but my mind still formed several questions.
‘There were bandits, how far? And they had taken someone's brother and daughter. Why wasn’t anyone helping him?’
I had only spotted a single guard when we’d entered town but knew there had to be more. I looked over the pair as I considered speaking to Nicki about helping. The man who’d spoken first was rugged at best. He had a face full of the scruff, I’d seen many of the younger royal guard try to pass off as a beard. He looked middle-aged and had more scars on his face than I thought there was space for. His armor was mainly leather, likely from some mana beast, except for the metal pauldron and attached chest protector he wore. As much as I wanted to be impressed by seeing a real-life guilder the amount of dirt and grime that covered him tempered my excitement. His companion’s attire confused me. The man was easily older, somewhere in his late sixties by mortal standards, and he wore what I’d come to know as a farmer's shirt and trousers. He was equally if not dirtier than the adventurer, but what surprised me was the man’s lack of coat. If he was coreless like me, he’d need one, and if he wasn’t, he could have been something other than a farmer.
As I finished examining the two, the “farmer” seemed to notice us for the first time, voice frantic as he spoke.
“Oh! Are you from the group of merchants that came into town earlier? You all looked strong. Please, I need your help I’ll pay. They took my brother and his daughter.”
Both the men had stopped, and Nicki looked toward the farmer. In Aspen she asked, “Who, took your brother and niece?”
Surprise flashed across the man’s face, and I felt Nicki casually put her arm over my shoulder. Turning to the C-class the man spoke again.
“Ha! Who needs you. You sorry excuse for an adventurer.” Smiling as the armored man walked off, the older man turned back to us. I caught a few holes in his smile as it faded his tone becoming somber.
“Bandits, bandits took my family. I think they captured the whole town of Dundry. You see I’d moved in with my brother and his daughter after my wife died. We were gonna sell the last harvest in the town before the storms hit, then, with the supplies we traded for, we could make it through the winter no problem. But a storm came early.”
The man’s shoulders were slumped, as if just telling the story took all his energy.
“We had sold our stuff and purchased everything we’d require for the winter, then since the sun was still up figured we’d head back to the farm. The journey was only meant to be a bit over an hour, so we figured everything would be fine. Halfway back I got off the cart to release the faucet, when suddenly I heard voices, then screams.”
At this point the man was near tears, and his state made my heart ache. Wiping his eyes, he continued.
“I wanted to help, I really did, but there were just so many voices, so- so I turned and ran. The farm likely wasn’t safe so I kept going until I arrived here.”
I moved to walk toward the man, but Nicki’s grip on my shoulder tightened.
“And you said you can pay us. How much?”
I looked at my guard aghast, this poor man doesn’t know if his family is dead or alive, and she wanted to take his money too. Any words I’d considered speaking died as Nicki turned pitch black eyes my way. Not seeing, or ignoring, Nicki and my’s exchange, the man nodded his head furiously.
“Yes! Yes, I can pay. I was in the army, so I’ve had my stipend for the last few years, and what I don’t spend I save. I can give you almost six hundred gold.”
Nicki smiled, but compared to her earlier ones, this one looked almost predatory.
“I see, I have to talk to the rest of my group, but I think we might be able to help you.”
Immediately she turned, her strong grip dragging me along. Without hesitation, she began walking, and I had no choice but to follow. The inn was only three minutes from where we’d been talking, and while I wanted to speak, the lack of emotion on Nicki’s face warned me away from it. Passing through the doors of our lodging, we went straight up the steps, as Nicki knocked twice on every set of doors that held a member of our group. Only when we all sat in a locked room did any emotion return to her face.
The rest of the night passed rather uneventfully to my surprise. There were discussions, though I had only been there for the first retelling of the story before being sent to my room along with Taeho. I spent the next half an hour begging Taeho to tell me what was happening as he flipped through a book, until I finally wore myself out and fell asleep.
I awoke from my nightly dream disappointed. If anything happened, it had likely been while I slept. Instead, Taeho informed me that everyone had stayed in the inn, and we would be leaving in an hour. Now I was disappointed at how anticlimactic way everyone was acting. Some of that disappeared as I entered the common room to see Nicki, Liza, and the farmer talking.
The entire group was all beaming, even Liza held a kind smile as I caught her speaking.
“We couldn’t take your money, especially if we can’t complete the job, we’ll make sure to come back when they are rescued.”
My jaw dropped, who was this person that invaded my friend. Nudged in the other direction by Yoojin, she looked at me and shook her head. In what was becoming a too common occurrence for me, I swallowed my words, and shut my mouth. With the carriages all packed, and everyone ready to go, we left towards the town exit. Looking dubiously at what I was beginning to think was Lisa, in Liza’s clothes, I cautiously spoke.
“Are we really going to help him?” It wasn’t the most ridiculous scenario. But I knew they would never take me along if there was going to be any danger.
“No.” She chuckled slightly, and I was getting surer by the second that this was Lisa.
“So why are we headed away from the Speedway then?”
“Actually, we are going onto the Speedway, just east instead. We’re going to visit a nearby city, the issue with the bandits shouldn’t have gotten this far.”
That only led to more questions, all ones Liza was willing to answer. Liza, and everyone else, believed the man who acted as the farmer was actually one of the bandits, he claimed took his family. Apparently, Nicki had noticed it almost immediately and once she got me back safe, they began to formulate a plan to deal with the group. They had figured, even if the man turned out to be innocent, it would be better to leave town and get help, than do it themselves. While I was disappointed, we weren’t rushing in to take the fight to the bandits, that was mainly because I wouldn’t get to see everyone fight as I realized the thought of actual battle scared me.