“I’d rather you not use that sort of language around me. I am rather fond of the people here.” Acting as if the word had been known to me the whole time, I lightly rebuffed her. Oouei didn’t seem to be part of the common lexicon and likely had been invented as jargon among the magic users. How unfortunate for them that I come from a future that understands how words are made. You think smooshing things together like that will make them unrecognizable? Unless they expected people to understand, which they used as a decoy to understand their code phrases at certain points while maintaining a deeper, more arbitrary level of encryption…

My thoughts wandering off again, I awaited her reaction.

“Hrm, wizards rarely pay mind to the dangers before them. Just because you’ve escaped the snare doesn’t mean you’ve escaped the hunter.” With a harrumph, she glared down at me, folding her arms. A slight clink resounded from beneath her blouse. My nose may be worthless, but my ears were not.

“If it is so dangerous, then why would a chikan attack the hunter?” Chikans were linguistically a signifier of bullheadedness, especially in the face of futility. While they did usually run from predators, they were more well known for occasionally charging back at their attacker; jumping straight into the mouth of the tiger. Therese did not look happy at the statement.

“You...it’s better than being eaten.”

“The vast majority of chikans aren’t eaten though.” The contents of my Inventory disagreed, but she couldn’t see that.

“So just because you’re content you’ll let the others suffer?”

“You’re breaking the analogy sister.” I smiled as she momentarily lost control. “Why are you in such a rush? Take some time off, and kick back here for a while. The villagers don’t mind a little flash, so long as you don’t go overboard.”

Inviting her to stay, I hoped to gain more formal knowledge on magic. While she may have been a wizard in hiding, having a second view on magic would help my theories. As noted in the past, the sensation magic gives are not like the ones a non-magical person feels and can only be roughly transcribed. Another magic user would be a great help on what was interpretation and what was not.

“You can’t trust the oouei—” With a flick of the wrist, made an uncomfortable adjustment to her hidden armor, poking it into her sides. I cut her off verbally in addition. 

“Ah, watch what you say. Your words become your actions. I’m sure everyone will welcome you, but kindness is reciprocal.” Kindness isn’t really reciprocal, but it sometimes worked like that, and it sounded good in the context.

“I am still free, there’s no need for me to submit; I will show them no deference. There are things that must be done, and no Oouei—eiyy!” Letting out a soft and shrill shriek, I accidentally showed a bit of my frustration towards her in the form of Fear Aura. It wasn’t much, but her face lost a bit of color and her eyes widened. I didn’t say anything and returned the stare, hands in my lap, but facially showing I was a little bit displeased. A ruffian wasn’t any good, but I still wanted to learn magic from someone else, so I let her continue. “You...A disgrace to the pride of wizards, acting like...they are something worth defending! Persecution ever since birth, how can you go back to those...people?” Psh, pride; I wasn’t even born here; and Stockholm Syndrome.

Smarmy internal retorts aside, it looked like that prideful wizard archetype was more accurate than I first thought; I guess I really wasn’t like a wizard. That sort of pride was the most dangerous to suppress; that which would rather die than never do anything about their chains. I wondered what Khtraal and Iyrkraal would make of the situation.

“You are most definitely staying for a while. Come; speak of these affairs in more detail.” Looking more dire than anticipated, I acted more forcefully than usual. Her fuming may have been general malcontence, but the line about ‘things that must be done’ sounded a few warning sirens.

Standing up, and using to clean away the dirt and grass, I gestured towards the seating stones. The villagers had started to avoid the place; not to a large degree, but they generally avoided the riverbank near it. Politely, I asked Simon who was still in range to hear less quiet moments of discussion to move upriver some. Explaining I needed to have a private chat, he acquiesced, and I foisted one of the better chikans on him for his trouble. 

Therese hadn’t moved at first, but the invisible hand on her shoulder encouraged her along. Her steps were hesitant, so I walked over and sat down on the stones with confidence, dragging her into the pace set. Like how speaking totally unrelated things, ignoring the other person in a conversation is one of the most irksome things, with practice it is quite easy to take advantage of the social nature of humans. Going against the grain is difficult for most, even outcasts and radicals usually only diverge slightly. Setting the grain is a useful skill in life.

So despite her reluctance to do so, Therese ended up sitting down on a stone near mine. She carefully set her long braid so it would not be in the way of her movements, and casually had set her two daggers down beside her in an easy spot to reach. Since I was an unarmed mage and looked so skinny, despite my size she probably felt her chances were better in a fight if up close.

Haa~ so naive. At least this might imply body strengthening magic had telltale signs, or was recognizable. Or she really was naive.

“Thank you for playing along with me.” I smiled, trying to lower her hostility at least some. There were no delusions of friendship, but it should at least be known that this was the act of someone who merely sought information, and not an interrogation. “Let’s begin with our introductions then. I am Alric, a wizard as you say, from the outskirts of Braan near the interstitial states. I arrived here about six weeks ago, and recieved my *haramaki* a little under four back in Glaucen. My favorite spell is .”

I included my favorite spell to make it more like an awkward first day of class where you meet everybody. Uncomfortable, but very low stakes, and you couldn’t really not do it. At least, not without getting in trouble.

With her eyes moving back and forth, checking if there was anyone around, she steeled herself before deciding to speak.

“I am Therese, a free wizard. I was raised in Munos, I Awakened at 12, and began practicing at 15. I specialize in Reiaest.” Instead of saying it normally, she phrased as though she manipulated the soul of water. A nice and haughty naming schema for the discipline; perhaps the same pattern was used for all magical schools. However its dependence on elements seemed uncertain, what did the Flow of Life that Disciples used, and my Necromancy fall under? I had heard of keiy(light soul), but that still didn’t seem to fit, and those were only linguistic tracks. Were they the words of the enlightened ancients, or superstitious cavedwellers? Not to mention possible cultural drift over the years; even if they had been relatively anchored in their beliefs, with so many isolated societies, pronunciation had to have drifted.

I had no control over water, so I activated , hoping it would help some.

“Would you mind demonstrating?”

“Preposterous! Having me cast spells to display my abilities, I am not so foolish as to weaken myself before you. Even if you are a wizard, I certainly won’t.”

“Weaken yourself?” I echoed curiously.

Perhaps...perhaps I was OP after all? Tell me more!

“Can your magic be cast so few times per day? You don’t have to be casting anything grand, just a simple spell would do.” I cast the bait with some false concessions on the end. If things were as I hoped, then even her minor spells would be draining to her. “Let me start then.”

Pushing forward, a hot shot forward before arcing to the ground. It reached the temperature to severely singe wood with brief contact, but still had trouble igniting anything more than twigs with the girth of a pencil. Also in contrast to my first attempt, I was starting to get the hang of projecting it forward; a modification that needed to be done while the spell shape was forming, somewhat like drawing the string of a bow. 

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

She didn’t look particularly impressed at the feat, but readjusted her armor as I did so. It didn’t look like I could get her to change her mind just yet. Not what I wished for, but neither was it the main reason I had her stay.

“Hm. Well if you are going to be stubborn on that, we’ll move onto why I am delaying you. Tell me, what are the magic users of this country up to? What is the task you are so eager to embark on? It’s not hard to see how much you resent the church, and you are not dressed as a mere traveler.” I saw the price tags on armor as I walked through the streets. Whatever she was wearing, from the metallic sounds, there was no way she was doing this alone, unless she happened to be very independently wealthy. Given her poor attitude towards non-mages, I had my doubts about that line of thinking.

“I am traveling to repay a favor from a friend.”

“Yes, but what kind of favor is requiring you to move armed like that? I take it you aren’t merely picking up a few *scones* from their favorite shop.”

“I don’t see why I have to explain myself.” Therese glowered. Dahling, you’ve already sat down with me, what else would you be here for. You aren’t even making a move to stand up.

“Despite how monolithic and overbearing the church may appear; civil uprisings are not something unheard of.” I stitched together two unrelated sentences to paint a picture. They might not have been unrelated for long though. “Many things suffer under such a messy affair. I’m not in this village permanently, and need to know what malevolent tides are to pass over this land. You are part of the ones making waves, and I am asking you when and what is about to happen.”

I tried my best to retain my upbeat expression, and more or less succeeded. Mean business, but don’t be mean to your business. I didn’t have a problem with her or the wizard revolution anyhow, they just needed to keep their destructive wake off the village.

Therese thought about speaking several times, biting her tongue when it came to starting. She seemed to have wised up a bit about her phrasing.

“These people should not be worth your concern, except, perhaps the boy, of course. For whatever reason you do, there’s no need to worry about them. This is only a favor to a friend; anything larger is nothing but a distant dream.” The depression on her face seemed honest enough, but one must be ever skeptical. Keeping in mind it could be a falsehood, I urged her to continue.

“And just how much will this favor muddy the waters?”

“If the Patriarch blesses us, I and my charge will escape unnoticed. It is not enough to rile the church up for long, it will subside before long.”

“I see, things have become much clearer now.” I nodded, figuring out what the situation was. My worries of a full-scale wizard revolution were unfounded; or at least unrelated to the matter at hand. This had the looks of a simple jailbreak operation. “I should have been able to tell from the length of your hair. It may be unsolicited, but my advice is to trim your hair a little more. A braid that long is eyecatching. Make it long, then afterwards crop your hair short; it’s a bit more noticeable, but if it takes place after getting away people will be even less likely to associate you to the scene. You’d look just as attractive with short hair, so any attention you do gain will be on the positive side as well.

“In addition, think about removing your armor for the rescue. It may be good to have a backup plan, but sometimes you have to go all in. Evading notice should be your first priority. Does your charge have light or dark hair?”

“W-what…”That may have been a bit too much of a 180 for her to handle. “How?”

“Light or dark hair?” I smiled enigmatically. 

“Dark…”

Still slightly in shock, Therese murmured the answer. Dark would be a bit trickier than if the target had light hair, but I could whip something up regardless. I may not have been able to grind my alchemy skill, however I didn’t forget to make two or three health potions every few days, just for practice. The wide variety of alternative recipes meant I had become familiar with a range of reagents in a more hands-on manner.

From my Inventory, several ingredients appeared, and I ground them against my rocky seat. I formed three piles of powder, orange, black, and brown. Already fairly competent with both hands, with practice, and training from controlling many Skeletal Laborers at once, I processed all three at the same time; one for each hand, including naturally. The black powder was naturally the catalyst and needed to be mixed with water to not react.

Well, time to make full use of my abilities. Strictly speaking, I did know of something common that would be able to hold many types of alchemical products. It was just a massive pain and not worth the effort.

Therese watched as I leaned over to another nearby stone, and placed the side of my hand against in. After a quick dark glow, I brought out goblin dagger and scratched at it, chipping away at the rock. Repeating the process, the wizard looked on in awe as I alternated between using negative energy to weaken the stone and cut into it.

A lump the size of a large grapefruit was eventually removed, and then was burrowed in through a small hole in the top. It was fairly difficult to widen the inside, and was quite time consuming as eventually I needed to put in more Negative Energy so the interior could be scratched away with my nails. Nevertheless, Therese patiently waited.

The black and red powders combined with the air as I waited, lowering its potency as planned. Pouring them into the stone gourd, they were followed by water. Weakening a different, smaller stone to the point where it started to give way, I jammed it into the hole at the top. A one use cork, the dust was probably negligible to the ointment, at least in this case. Shaking it up, I sewed together a small pouch from the goblin rags(they were clean) for the brown powder.

I handed them over.

“Put the liquid through their hair and let it sit for some time, but do your best not to let it rest on the skin too long. It should leech out all the color, turning it paler, possibly white. If it does turn white, mix the powder with a small amount of water to dye their hair. Other than perhaps a dry or itchy scalp, it shouldn’t have any negative consequences. The bleach will be permanent until the hair grows, but the powder will fade over time; say, around two weeks of brown, and three more until it returns to white.”

My magnum opus in the realm of alchemy(though there weren’t exactly many contenders in the field):hair dye.

“I...thank you for your aid.” She had just watched and waited for around an hour, but her gratitude looked undiminished. Her expression of it wasn’t very practiced though, maybe I was just hoping for someone to kowtow to me in gratitude.

“No, it’s my fault for keeping you here. If you’re in a hurry, you should be on your way. And if there’s no one on your tail, I’m sure this place would be quite welcoming.”

My final words put a slight crimp in her happy moment. Well, people don’t change their ways after one favor; at least she seemed slightly less dismissive of the idea now. In the time it took to go and return from Glaucen, I would likely have already left; it seemed I would have to wait a little longer until finding a contemporary magician.

I wasn’t about to hold her up though, she was on a rescue mission. I wished her and her charge the best; hoping they would be able to return to a safe haven.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!