I tightened the blanket around myself, absently. I had barely realised I was cold until it had been put around me, but now it was pleasant and comfortable. Myself and the mage in the camo were seated on hard plastic chairs in front of a trio of officers.

There were two additional soldiers, one with a handheld computer of some sort, while the other stood guard. I tried not to look at the flaws too closely. There were… more than a few. Unguarded throats were ‘ephemeral’ flaws, apparently, and it was horribly distracting to know how I could kill everyone around me with a finger.

Of course, I was pretty sure that even I somehow managed, at least Kendra had some sort of contingency. It was a half-formed spell that hung around her like a cloak, and I’m pretty sure it would burn me before I could unpick it…

“Sir!” I jerked to attention, looking at the officer who had barked at me. “Your name?” He asked, in the tone of someone not used to repeating himself. “Simon Peterson.”

“Thank you” He said, sounding exasperated. “Now then, please can you go through everything that happened on the other side of the gate, so we can get on to the actually important part of the report.”

“Ah… I was kidnapped by a dwarven necromancer, who was murdered by a lord of the Third Sky, who was sent by the Devil? And then I killed some skeletons, came through the gate… and I guess I lost my clothes somewhere. Do you have paper or something? Talismania just came off cooldown, and I need some defensive options.”

The woman facepalmed, audibly. “Of course he’s a fucking Spell-Slinger” She muttered. The officers looked on in polite confusion, and the woman sighed. “He literally needs to make the talisman before he’ll be in any state to tell us anything. It’s part of the trade-off for being able to spam spells. Also, we need one of those archivist people to introduce him to the System properly, do you think you could requisition one?”

It was annoying that these people were talking instead of just getting me some paper. I could already envisage the final product. Something much more… complex than the scalpel and even the plate.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

It would make countermagic a lot easier, and prevent some of the more… dangerous side effects of the fire-nihility beams if I could incorporate it properly.

Not dangerous to me, of course, but there were other people who existed that I now had to account for.

They talked about nonsense stuff, but someone finally put paper in front me except… “This is too low quality” I declared. “It will never take the runes, never mind the resulting glyph.”

There was an awkward silence. “Perhaps a tougher material?” The mage offered. “Leather perhaps?” I shook my head. “To difficult to anoint. Raw hide would work better, but it would need to be from something supernatural.”

“Could we get back to the planning please?” One of the officers said, gesturing at a map that had been spread out on the table…

“Or that.” I said, pointing at the map. “That would actually be perfect.”

“We are using it!” The officer who had started off sitting in the middle shouted. He seemed to be in charge.

… There was an awkward silence, which reminded me a bit of the dark maze I had been in earlier. None of that.

“I can see that… Shouldn’t those parties be a bit further west? There was someone dropping those ten meter bone spikes over that area when we on our way back.”

Damn. More awkward silence. The woman grabbed my arm by the wrist from where I had been inching it closer to the near corner of the map.

“God… Damn.” She muttered, and began dragging me. Or well. Trying to. “Come on, let’s find you something else so these guys can do their planning in peace.” She said, like a mother to a stubborn child.

Was I being a child? Possibly, but it was secondary to getting a new talisman.

“Why do you want paper, anyway?” She grumbled. “I could have understood like… metal for defence, or stone, but paper?”

I took offence to that. “Paper is good for sacred magic, which is what I need if I want to…” I trailed off. “Why do I want sacred magic?” I asked the woman.

She shrugged. “Dunno, proper mages don’t get access… Priests don’t either, I think, at least not for a while. It's mostly… Paladins I think? Defenders who get lucky enough to pick up magic as well.”

I wrung my hands. “I know that - why do I want it though?”

“Oh. That’s the memories poisoning you” She said, cheerfully. “You probably overdrew them when you were in the dark, and they’re slowly turning you into a monster unless you ‘detox’. By which I mean, not use skills or powers for a while. Which would be fine, if we weren’t surrounded by a slowly closing net of necromanic terrorists. You’d just go to a spa resort for a week on the government budget, and that’d be it.”

I stared at her. “Have I done something to upset you?”

She responded with laughter that had a slightly manic edge.