Under a mountain, at the edge of the Beastgate Trial Trail, I met with a massive tortoise.

“It is good to see you back on your feet,” Edgar said. “Your partner charged the array?”

Dusk made a wet leaf patter, saying that she’d done some of it herself, and Edgar simply nodded.

“Edgar,” I said seriously. “Can I trust you to keep a secret? You’re a beastmage, and there aren’t many of us, but… I think I’m going to have to leave soon. Before I’m fully healed.”

Edgar shifted uncomfortably, his massive shell settling down.

“I do not think that is the best idea,” Edgar said. “I think it would be best to heal completely, then experiment with the beastmark here, before you go.”

“I agree completely,” I said, and Dusk chimed in, agreeing as well.

“Then you won’t go?” the tortoise asked.

“I…”

I closed my eyes.

“Swear to me that you will keep what I have to show you secret from everyone, and I can explain why. You helped save my life, which is the only reason why I’m willing to show you this at all.”

“Now you’re making me worried,” Edgar rumbled. “But… I do so swear on my mana, that so long as what you show me will not hurt yourself or others, I will keep it a secret.”

There wasn’t any true power in that, but most people were still loath to break an oath sworn on their own mana. It had never been proven, but many said it would weaken the density of your mana over time.

“Alright,” I said, nodding to Dusk. She waved her hand, and a massive portal, sized large enough for Edgar to enter, spun itself out.

“Oh!” I said, startling both of my companions. Edgar jerked, and Dusk’s portal snapped shut. “I forgot. Why are some portals see through, while others aren’t?”

Edgar paused to sip some water from the magical spring in the center of his lab, and I took a sip as well.

I was already stuffed to the gills with every spiritually healing pill, potion, herb, and tincture I could handle, but this power was gentle and stable. It might not help much, but it wouldn’t hurt.

“It is a matter of skill and clarity,” Edgar said. “I have met arcanists who’s portals are far clearer than my own. I am not a specialist in the field – the mana of a portal ant is too close to pure spatial for me to have ever truly become a master of their spells – but those who are can prevent any mana leakage.”

Dusk poked my cheek and asked me if that was really necessary.

“It was,” I said, and she asked why.

“I was curious!” I defended myself.

Dusk rolled her tiny eyes at me, then clapped, and her portal spun back to life. It revealed the treasury, complete with the armored, ghost-fueled construct that Dusk had assembled as its protector, but that wasn’t the real draw.

Dusk had opened the space to the magma estragon eggs, and even through the portal, I could feel the heat radiating from the room. In the center, the natural magma core that Dusk had stolen from the Sage’s trial sat, spinning gently, keeping the eggs safe and healthy.

The eggs themselves shone like shimmering orange, yellow, and brown jewels, and inside each of them, I could see small shapes. The estragon took on a surprising array of different forms. Some resembled the slug-dragon mix that most estragon I had seen were, but others had hardened magma around them to wear more like a shell, while others looked like scales. Others still diverged into thinner, sleeker shapes.

And the shapes were beginning to stir, poking at their shells.

I didn’t need Analyze Life or access to my mana senses to know that meant they were getting close to hatching.

“Magma estragon,” Edgar said, his voice filled with reverence. “Where did you find them? It… How did you find them?”

“That’s a long story, and one that I probably shouldn’t tell,” I said. “It could get a lot of people in trouble. I need a way to get to the Delitone Dragon Sanctuary, so they can hatch, without reporting it to customs.”

“Of course,” Edgar said, and his colorless gray mana began to flow around him. “May I lay some protection on the eggs?”

I glanced at Dusk, then back at him. If Edgar was going to steal the eggs, neither of us could stop him, and I’d chosen to tell him for a reason.

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Dusk crow-cawed, and Edgar’s mana began to shift into rivers of amber, green, purple, and gray light, enveloping them in a soft cushion of power, while gentle, chiming notes sang out, barely audible. I wished I could use my mana senses, because I’d love to take a peek at this working – it looked different from most that I’d seen.

The magic slowed, then stopped, and Edgar inclined his head.

“That was the song of the Hiisi,” he told us. “It will protect them.”

“The fact you think they need protection means that you can’t portal us right to Delitone, true?”

“True,” Edgar said. “I have never been there, and as I have already told you, my skill with portals is… Lacking. I can’t send you there. This is the limit of what I can do to help you.”

“I appreciate it regardless,” I said, and Dusk emphatically agreed. I smiled and patted the tiny spirit’s head, then glanced at Edgar.

“So, do I have your permission to leave?” I asked.

“You do,” Edgar said, then paused. “Wait.”

He shifted through his research table, before withdrawing a device that looked like half of an hourglass fused to a smooth disc covered in spellwork.

“This is a communication device,” Edgar said. “Like one of those mirrors I keep meaning to get. When your spirit is healed, and you are prepared to tap into your spirit, send me an update.”

I nodded as I passed the hourglass into the alchemy lab in Dusk’s realm.

“I can do that. And… Thank you for the help.”

Edgar snorted.

“The help of almost killing you?”

“Still, thank you anyways. Is there anything else?”

“You should load a few gallon jugs with the water of the healing springs,” Edgar said. “It makes for a potent alchemical base, and is beneficial on its own. It won’t help you advance, nor do much to hasten your healing, not with everything else, but it should help smooth the path some.”

I thanked him and began to remove jars from Dusk’s realm.

It took me a few hours after Dusk charged the portal up and we returned to Puinen for me to track down Kene’s grandmother, but I eventually found her sitting on a bench, watching a group of temporal tortoises meander past.

“I wanted to talk about something.”

“Is it the recipe you used to make the codfish stew?” the witch asked, looking up at me. “I’ll trade you my recipe for a hair-regrowth elixir for it.”

I wasn’t sure I needed a hair-regrowth elixir, but I was also strangely tempted. I glanced at Dusk, who just let out a ringing chime of amusement.

“I might take you up on that later,” I said. “But I wanted to ask if you know anything about the location of the assassin.”

At the thought, my tail lashed in irritation again. She had been the other thing that had been bugging me while I rested.

I’d spoken to Ed several times about it, and while both the lightwatch of Mossford and their local equivalent in Dragontooth had been on the lookout for her, there hadn’t been any news. Either her bracelet had more configurations that allowed her to hide with more identities – very possible, it was a growth item – or she was simply good at hiding.

Which was why I’d asked the witch to see if she could do it, as well as used a communication mirror to reach out to Azalea and update her on the fact I would be heading to the sanctuary soon.

She owed me a big favor for the transportation of the eggs, and while she wasn’t willing to do much until the estragon were safe and sound, she’d agreed to at least keep half an eye out. With the senses of a true arcanist, she was capable of sensing a much larger area than an average person, so if the assassin entered Teffordshire, there was a decent chance Azalea could catch her.

I was hoping that the witch would have more useful information.

“Nothing,” the witch said. “I cannot travel between countries so easily, you know, even if they do share a border. I had to burn a small fortune’s worth of my enchanting and alchemy skills to arrive within a day of when my grandchild summoned me to tend to you. And what do I find, hmm? Nothing! You’re fine, at least mostly, and the rest I can’t fix, I couldn’t hear with my ears. Besides, that damage is tasty, tasty potato salad, pasta salad, not egg salad, and not fruit salad.”

I stared at her, then squinted.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” the witch said. “No. My skills in divining the future have told me, however.”

She spun and stared at me, and I felt the winds of fortune kick up in my spirit, then blinked. Were they… Reacting to the witch?

“You two will meet again, one way or another. I can promise you that. It might be by chance, it might be her hunting you down, or you might seek her out yourself, but you will meet. I cannot say when. I cannot say how it will go. But be wary.”

I nodded gravely, and the witch patted my shoulder, then blinked, her eyes fuzzing.

“Oh, grandchild-in-law. Did you know that if you mix pasta water with cream cheese, you can make a delicious treat?”

I was thrown off by the sudden shift, but I scratched my chin as I thought about it. It wasn’t a totally terrible idea. Pasta water was starchy, and if you added some other cheese in, the cream cheese could make a decent substitute for cream…

“Huh,” I said, and the witch nodded sagely before erupting into a flock of ravens. I glanced at her.

“You don’t have to do that every time, you know,” I informed her.

“Yes I do,” she said. “Caw. Caw.”

It wasn’t the cawing of a bird. She said it like a person.

“The conversation isn’t over,” I told her. “We’re going to be leaving soon. You’re welcome to join us, if you want to head to Delitone as well.”

“I’m a bird, I can’t hear you,” the flock of ravens said, before turning and winging off into the sky.

I rolled my eyes and went to find Kene, who I’d shown the estragon eggs to already. The witch could make her own choices – she was immortal, or close to it, and she seemed to have recovered from the backlash of… whatever it was… when she helped Kene.

We packed up that night, not that there was much to pack up, since we were mostly living out of Dusk’s realm, and said our good byes to the people in the village – the butcher I’d worked with, Agnes the healer, the innkeeper we’d stayed at for a while, and most of all, Edgar. He had made an appearance to wave us off.

I hadn’t thought a tortoise could wave, but Edgar did an admirable job of it, and I actually felt my eyes grow a little bit wet as we headed down and into the tunnel of wind spells that allowed for the transport between cities. I had to wear a child’s ward bracelet, since I couldn’t afford to let the tunnel drain my mana.

I had grown in Puinen as both a mage and a person, and I’d made connections and friendships here. I hadn’t expected to spend as much time there as I had, but… It had been nice.

“When I get stronger, and can open portals across countries with ease, I’m definitely setting one up in Puinen,” I told Kene. I expected them to make some joke, but they just intertwined their fingers with mine, and nodded.

“That would be nice.”