By the clock on our slates, we’d probably slept for two and a half hours.

I woke up first. She was shivering in my arms. Voices called through the trees.

They were looking for us.

I shook her awake as gently as I could. She licked her dry lips and looked as if she was going to say something. I put my finger up to silence her. Her eyes narrowed.

Then, another shout echoed through the forest. It was a quick search, not a quiet one. Bernadette nodded. She stood. She was a tiny, shivering mess, but after doing a couple exploratory stretches she nodded to me again, indicating she was ready.

We worked our way through the forest as silently as we could. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than our crashing flight from before.

Our slates led us to the road. We started jogging once we hit the dirt.

The town was twelve miles away. We made it with only one stop. After the last stop I remembered putting her on my back halfway through. She was heavier than my pack, but not too hard to carry at first. Toward the end, I was sucking air pretty hard.

I don’t even remember getting back to the Squirrel.

When we next woke, it was morning. We were in that bed, and Bernie was still in my arms. She crawled off me sheepishly.

I didn’t say anything.

She left. I fell back asleep.

When she returned, I could see she’d taken a bath.

“You look awful,” she said.

I just shrugged.

“Baths are probably lukewarm now, but you should go scrub up,” she continued.

“Alright,” I said.

“I ah,” she sheepishly pointed to a stack of clothes by the bed, “I purchased us some new clothes. Hope I got your waist right.”

“I’m sure it’s perfect.”

“Oh, shut up. I’m gonna take a nap.”

I grabbed the clothes, but before heading down stairs. I grabbed some coins from Bernie’s satchel. Luckily, we still had plenty of cash. We’d split our gold into two bags, so the fact that I left my pack back — well, that wasn’t as devastating to our finances as it could have been.

In her satchel was a peculiar dagger, more of a short sword really. It had the same enamel flowers on the hilt as…

I quickly closed the satchel and hid it under my side of the bed. I don’t know why.

The baths were cold, which sucked. But that meant I had more privacy than I would have. I shrugged out of my clothes, but checked the spells on my character sheet as I did, moving the slate from one hand to the other as needed. Here was my spell list:

At-Will Spells—

Mend Item

Tiny Tricks

First level spells—

Charm Person

Curse, Minor

Heal Light Wounds

Healing Phrase

I could probably ask Mark how magic worked in this world, but I didn’t want to bother him if I didn’t have to. Besides, my magic probably worked differently than his.

I looked at the Tiny Tricks spell and stepped into the bath, ignoring the shiver that ran up my leg. I was caked in blood. Already the color of the water began to change.

Apparently Tiny Tricks was my most versatile spell. It couldn’t cause damage or otherwise hinder an opponent in a fight, at least not directly, but it was able to do a wide range of small, nearly harmless magical effects.

Some of the effects listed were: instantly clean a small object, light a candle or torch, warm a glass of water, make your eyes glow, shoot sparks from your hands, replicate a faint sound, change the color of a small object, summon an intangible illusory trinket no larger than your hand, cause a flower to bloom, rattle a closed shutter, dry your hands, and — this was the most interesting part — ‘other things you may discover through experimentation.’

I settled into the water and tried to relax despite the cold. I briefly considered what would happen if I dropped my slate in the water. Probably nothing. It wasn’t a phone anymore, it was a magical translucent pane of crystal.

Swiping on my character sheet, I found my spell primer. This page listed all my activation phrases for my spells, but also had tooltips explaining how my spellcasting worked. Apparently, it was like my Adrenaline Rush ability, in that I needed to focus and intend to use the spell first, but additionally I needed to then add a flourish of music and hand movements to activate it. Healing Phrase was different than other spells in that I just needed the phrase, and healed more when sung but a simple shout worked in a pinch. Crucially, this let me heal with my hands full in pitched combat.

Okay. This water was too cold. I was determined to make it warmer.

Let’s try a Tiny Trick.

I waved my hands over the water and hummed a song I knew about taking your clothes off in the summer… and then something happened! It got warmer. Not a lot warmer, but a little. I made a little warm spot!

I waved my hands and hummed the song again. More warm water.

Four or five castings of the spell later, and the water went from startlingly cold, to bearable. I smiled a smug smile to myself and settled into the water.

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A bit later, I had scrubbed the blood and muck from myself and dried off.

The clothes Bernadette had got me fit well. The shift was a little baggy, but that was sort of how it was supposed to fit. The pants were also loose by a centimeter or two, but I’m sure I could get it altered. Or maybe I could do it myself? Maybe with the Mend Item spell?

I could experiment later.

In the common room of the tavern was an elven man in head-to-toe plate armor, embellished with enamel flowers. His hair was blonde — not dark like the man I had killed. So that was good. He was talking to Dalara.

I approached the bar, hoping to hear what they were talking about, and because to do anything else may arouse suspicion.

They were talking in another language. I assumed elven. But a couple words slipped into english. One was ‘the King,’ Another was ‘Knight of Flowers.’

I wondered why the titles were in english?

I scooped my monocle, which I had thought to snag before coming down, and placed it over my eye. His name appeared readily enough.

Aquilan -- Knight of Flowers. With two skull-and-crossbones.

We had just barely beaten the last Knight of Flowers, I assumed some kind of elite fighting force for the King in the Wood, so I didn’t want to get in a tussle with him.

Darlara got me a bowl of wine, mostly juice really, and a cheese muffin. I asked for a second bowl and stepped in front of the knight before he could leave.

“Leaving so soon?” I asked. Yeah, I knew this was a supremely stupid play but I did have proficiency in Social Drinking. “I just ordered some wine for you.’

“It is early still,” he replied, looking me up and down skeptically.

“Yeah, it’s breakfast wine.”

“I suppose I can have one sip. Your name, good sir?”

“Zach,” I said. “From Dandelion.” This was a place in the Evil Queen’s kingdom (often called Throne territory) but bordered the Kingswood.

“Well met. Aquilan.”

I shook his hand and he sat across from me at the bench. He took a sip but eyed me all the while.

“You’re looking for criminals?” I asked as innocently as I could.

“Assassins, actually. There was a murder last night.”

“Horrible. Here in the Kingswood? Surely not.”

“Outsiders and traitors abound, it seems. We will catch them soon. I have my men searching the tavern.”

“I can’t imagine Darlara would harbor traitors.”

Aquilan drained the rest of his wine.

“Well, that is the difference between Kingsmen and the common folk. It is my job to imagine traitors anywhere they may be hiding.”

He stood, and dismissed me, “Good day sir.”

A contingent of elven soldiers walked down from the second floor. They exited together.

Since I was not under arrest, I figured they did not find that sword in our room. I brought the empty wine bowls, mazers, and sat down at the bar

Having waited long enough, she spoke.

“I don’t want to know why the Woodguard is after you. You and your girl have been good customers to me so far. But I suggest you move on, and soon.”

“That’s good advice,” I said.

“Oh, and your rent cost just doubled.”

“Fair enough,” I said with a smile.

I climbed the stairs back to our room.

I didn’t want to pack just yet, they’d obviously be watching the roads for a bit. I was also exhausted, both by the game’s rules and by real life.

When I got back to the room, I immediately noticed that something was off. Bernadette was pale, and her brow shone with sweat. I felt her head. She was burning up.

Damnit. Our little nap outside had got her sick. I made sure she drank from a waterskin. I lay in bed next to her. She put her forehead against my arm.

I tried a Healing Phrase, but it didn’t seem to help.

Figured I’d stay here a bit till I knew what to do. I texted Mark.

Breznik: Hey, man, Bernie is sick. What should I do?

Ailmer: find an apothecary. Or a cleric. Or a paladin, but those are rare.

Breznik: I think there is an apothecary here

Ailmer: good. They can’t cure it, but it should make the illness pass quicker.

I put my slate down, and thought for a bit. I ran down stairs, walked out into the street and searched around for an apothecary. A helpful stranger, a gnome, told me where the apothecary was, and my slate buzzed.

A notification. I checked my quest tab on the slate. I had a new side quest that read ‘get poultice for sick party member.’ It gave a bunch of experience points. The map had a blue dot a couple miles away.

I didn’t really want to go alone, so I dipped back into the bar to talk to Darlara.

“Hey, so you know the apothecary? It’s not a difficult trip is it?”

Darlara sighed, tucked her bar rag into her apron.

“It didn’t use to be. But we’ve been losing goats on that path. Could be wolves. Could be something else.”

“Well,” I said, “Shade is sick. So I should probably go anyway?”

I didn’t want to directly ask her what I needed, but she picked it up right away.

“Look, take G’nash. He’s bored here anyway. But he’s my best man. I need him back with all his feet and hands, so don’t do anything reckless.”

I hadn’t really been paying attention, but I made a wild guess.

“Nash is the guy up front?”

“You haven’t talked to him?”

“He’s kinda scary.”

Her face softened in a way that seemed a little condescending.

“He’s a sweetheart. Now go get him, so you two can be back before nightfall.”

I went up front to go talk to the large orc. I explained why I needed him, and offered to pay him. He refused, said it was just the right thing to do. He grabbed his massive war axe, and we were on our way.

Out on the road through the forest, more of a game trail really, we settled into a comfortable rhythm immediately. Despite having me beat by sixty or seventy pounds, his legs weren’t actually much longer. He led, but I didn’t fall much behind him.

“So, what do you think is out here?” I asked.

“Probably a wolf. Maybe a sick bear. Predators try to give this place a wide berth, but they’ll come close if desperate.”

“That makes sense,” I said.

Was this what it was like for Bernadette? I was traveling with someone, but I wasn’t sure I could trust him. I wasn’t sure if he had my back like she did.

He seemed brave and strong. But what if when things get tough he runs?

How had Bernadette gotten that burn on her back?

And Sofia. How long had she waited, thinking that someone was coming for her? And then they never showed.

Shit. I hadn’t even told Bernie where I was going. If I died out here, would she ever know why? Or would she think I had just abandoned her?

I tried to think of something else. We had a long walk ahead of us.