Given all that’s happened I’m inclined to believe that these poor people are suffering from either one of the most persistent streaks of bad luck I’ve ever seen, or that their steps are being dogged by some very determined enemies. Either way, staying cautious is the safest choice, so even though this place is pretty nice, I should stay as observant as I can.
I glanced around the Emperor’s rest with my awareness cranked up to the limit, but there wasn’t anyone or anything else here. Unless you counted the ambient magic formations maintaining this place or the pile of ash and trash that sat in a fenced off area just outside the treeline.
I muttered. “Looks clear to me.” and the elder ranger stopped fiddling with the slightly spooked pack horses and also took a look around before silently nodding his agreement to Carmella and the knights.
But where is everybody? Isn’t this a rest stop? I gave the lingering traces of where people had once been another look, namely the impressions on the grass and the char filled firepits, and then realized. Oh, right! Traveling on foot takes a long time so they probably left at the break of dawn to get the most out of the day, which means there won’t be anyone here since it’s nearing noon.
I inspected the cart and horses to ensure there wasn’t anything wrong with either, and once Uriel assured me all was well, I smiled.
And that also means that if we start now and go till the end of the day we won’t be sharing a camp with anyone, which means we’ll be noticed less, and won’t need to guard against people inside the perimeter! Plus people shouldn’t take as much notice of us or learn any details about us which means that anyone trying to track us down will have an even harder time figuring out where we went.
I spun on my heel and waved in the direction of the road. “Alright! Everyone ready? Let’s get going then!”
The rest of the group followed me over to the road, and since I no longer had any idea which way to go I gestured for them to take the lead before assuming the position of rearguard and tailing behind the slowly trundling cart that positioned itself in the slight ruts to the right side of the well worn dirt road.
At the head of the party was our ranger, one hand on the side of a horse’s neck while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious or dangerous. After him were the two knights poised at either side of the carriage’s driver’s seat, which was coincidentally occupied by Carmella and the kids.
Surprisingly, Calden held the reins while Carmella and Ysdra sat to either side, hands free, likely for the purposes of casting spells.
Which is smart, and kinda impressive too, given that they were all pretty relaxed a second ago and are now all focused and ready for action. That said… Magic probably isn’t such a bad idea, especially since I’ve gotten new spells that could be really useful here.
I focused a little and thought Spirit summon.
Instantly, a bright white translucent butterfly sprang into existence right before my eyes. It had little aroras for antennae and I could feel it and move it around at will, kinda like a new finger I felt I’d always had. If I wanted to I could see what it could, but I could also command it to operate on its own to perform whatever task I wanted, so I sent it off to monitor our surroundings for any dangerous creatures and to come fluttering back if it found anything.
I then repeated the spell many, many, times. So many, in fact, that I never bothered to count, partly so that I could test the limits of my casting speed and so that their great numbers could effectively double the range of my awareness, but mostly because the novelty of popping a new pretty thing into the world never got old.
Carmella seemed to notice that I was doing something, but since I’d instinctively realized that I could make the spirits invisible, and did so each time, I doubted she knew exactly what, even with her near maxed out mana sense.
With that done, I turned to Awakened ear. And suddenly I could clearly hear the beat of every heart all around me and even the more subtle sounds like the breath of a distant field mouse or the flutter of a moth’s wings.
I stopped myself from whistling in amusement. And those little critters are outside my usual awareness bubble. Not to mention it’s not amplifying already loud things and I’m not being overwhelmed by all the new noises! Now for strain sight.
As I thought of the spell, I blinked rapidly as my vision blurred and changed. Unlike the previously practiced far sight spell my eyes adjusted to be able to see through other things. Kinda like an x-ray and an ultrasound image put together in all of their grayscale glory.
Which is weird.
Especially since I also retained my normal sight in tandem to this spell’s effects, likely because of my detection and awareness abilities. And I don’t mean I could switch between the two, no, I had both at the same time, like looking at the same image on two different monitors with different filters applied but through the same two eyes.
Confused yet?
Good. Me too.
Couple all that with the awakened ear spell and you’d think I’d be suffering from sensory overload, but I wasn’t, so I decided to push my limits even further and give Bretta’s spell of choice another go.
Far sight.
All it did before was make me all fish eyed, but since I had only ever tried it when I first started fiddling with magic I assumed that I just misunderstood how it was supposed to work and that it’d be better this time around.
And lo I was right!
Or at least partly.
Since it only ended up adding yet another new layer to my already jumbled up sight. Anyway, the big difference was that this sucker offered me extreme distance and focus rather than an expanded or altered area of effect, which effectively meant that I could now zoom in on interesting things, or scope out areas that my fluttering friends noticed in one window while still keeping tabs on everything else in the other two.
And yet I felt that I still hadn’t reached my limit for this sorta thing.
So further I shall go!
Eagle eyes.
The spell channeled into my peepers and I felt, and watched, through my detection field, as my own eyes changed to those of an eagle’s. Naturally I expected this to just sharpen the range and clarity of my long distance vision window, and it did, but it also added a second one.
I blinked a few times to adjust to the rather uncomfortable sensation that zooming in and out on two different places at the same time created. I know it was a stupid idea to do that in the first place, but I adjusted surprisingly fast, so there was only one thing left to do.
Add another of course! Tender touch!
I honestly didn’t know what would happen if I intensified my tactile senses, given that the only things I was touching were my clothes, staff, bag, and boots, but since it was the last awareness affecting spell I had I figured it wouldn’t hurt.
And I wasn’t wrong, though it wasn’t exactly pleasant either.
Because once the spell activated I got a little more than I was expecting, as I could now feel everything in my general area. I’m talking every particle of air, every vibration in and on the earth; like worms burrowing and bugs crawling through grass, every footstep, heartbeat, and breath on top of the finer textures of everything I was wearing and holding–which aligned more closely with what I initially expected to feel.
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To think Calden endures this every time he wants to help someone. Yuck!
And as the spell settled into place and I stopped cringing, something unexpected happened.
My layered and varied levels of awareness sorta melded together with my abilities and resulted in an expanded field that offered me the ability to zoom in and focus on anything within it without limit on how many targets I could select.
Which was, once again, nauseating, but I apparently hadn’t learned my lesson.
However, I also found that I could focus and push my awareness bubble in a specific direction allowing me to change the circle so that it had a line or cone protruding whichever way I wanted, even underground! Obviously, I retained my normal senses, just as before, so it’s not like I’d become oblivious to the things immediately around me, however I found that once stretched thin, I could rotate the field really fast around me which effectively quadrupled the already massive range. Sorta like a radar with the details of my surroundings being updated every second or so instead of having a constant feed.
And yet I still couldn’t see our destination… Oh well, it’s probably a few days away from here so that’s kinda not surprising, but hoo boy I better stop, I’m giving myself vertigo.
I breathed slowly and forced back down the burst of bile that bubbled up from my belly, and took a moment to appraise myself of all I’d seen, felt, and heard.
All around me there was the usual greener grass and purple leaved trees, but there were also some stark white poplars, dusty gray ash with screwed up faces in the leaves, as well as some of those totally black oaks and twisted cedars that I’d seen before outside Kormath.
Crawling and skittering about within the fantastical foliage were an eclectic assortment of insects; the most interesting of which were iridescent hercules beetles latched onto a tree, a colony of bright pink ants each the size of my thumb, and a hive of bees that for some reason had the heads of tiny bears.
Additionally, there were some small woodland beasts like the donkey eared and monkey tailed squirrels I’d seen elsewhere, but also some bunnies with dandelion puff tails, a couple groundhogs with webbed shovel-like paws, a mole or two with spinning narwhal horns, and to my surprise a mink with glittering gold and silver fur.
It took a few hours of walking, but we also started to encounter some people too. Some were solitary messengers coming up at top speed to pass us by from behind, while others were travelers, like us, carrying their belongings in carts and wagons pulled by a veritable menagerie of beasts of burden.
There were horses, mules, donkeys, and oxen like you’d expect, but their colors were… vibrant? Some were neon green, yellow, or orange, while others were more standard colors like ours, only they had extra legs, heads, eyes and in the case of a heavily armored knight looking guy, what appeared to be a bicorn with flashing police lights in the horns and eyes.
I stared at the last one through my awareness bubble as he trotted past. Clearly this world has a lot more for me to see than what I’ve witnessed so far. Then I smirked. Sounds like a good time though.
As the day wore on and evening approached we started to encounter more and more people setting up camp at the more regular campsites cleared out on the side of the road. Carmella sent a questioning gaze my way a few times, but since I didn’t detect any danger I just shook my head and we kept going.
I just hope she wasn’t looking for my approval to stop. That would be silly! And defeat the purpose of doing what we did… . Though, I do understand if they aren’t thinking about things like I do.
Once the sides of the roads were clear for a good way and the sun’s light was about to abandon us I used illuminate to brighten the growing gloom and lead everyone’s weary bodies over to the safe clearing near the trees that I’d scouted out with my newly expanded powers of perception.
Given their grumbling I’m gonna assume they wanted to stop sooner, especially given how impromptu our departure was and the fact that I have no idea if teleporting tired them out at all. I should’ve checked, but hindsight is twenty twenty.
“Alright, I think we made some good progress today, and since you all seem a little worn out, I’ll take care of setting up camp and making dinner.”
A wave of Witness was all it took to usher the undergrowth into unpacking the cart and putting up the tents, four in total, while various crates were placed around the firepit they opened in the ground to be used as seats. After that the long grass kindly moved aside to make the area more comfortable, and I cracked my knuckles.
It’s been a while since I’ve cooked anything. This’ll be fun!
I hummed a happy tune as I used spark to ignite the fire and wind ward to control the temperature. Then I got out the iron skillet and cooking pot along with the cutting board, utensils, plates, mugs, and kitchenware that they’d packed and got to work cooking up a generous portion of pan fried bread with a side of a thick and meaty stew.
Honestly, I don’t really have the cooking ability or anything so I really hope that doesn’t affect the taste, because I do, in fact, remember how to do this. Which is interesting, because I’ve thought about cooking a few times and only now did it come to me.
Anyway, the others just watched me work like a bunch of sleepy little kids who’d just stumbled into wonderland, and I can’t really blame them, because I never stopped using the vegetation to move things around, and with all the fairy sized lights I had slowly dancing through the air so that I could see better it probably looked extra phantasmal.
Ysdra was the first in line once I started dishing out the food, and eagerly took the plate and bowl from me before the drool leaking from her lips could reach her shirt. “It smells so good! Anon, it smells so good!”
I chuckled as I divvied out the rest, and patted her head as I plopped down on the lone untaken box around the warm fire. “I’m glad to hear you like it, but we’ve got a long way to go yet and we’ll be leaving early this time, so once you all finish eating, you should probably go get some rest.”
The hunter cleared his throat. “Then, are you to take first watch?”
I smiled back. “I don’t need to sleep so I was planning to cover the whole night, every night, until we reach our destination.”
Carmella had been gently blowing on a spoonful of stew to cool it, but after I said that her breath came out as a half sigh.
Calden, however, nearly dropped his spoon. “No! We can’t make you do all the work, you’re–!”
I cocked my head at him. “But who’s making me do anything? I thought I was volunteering?”
He hesitated, then recovered his utensil and lowered his head. “I understand. Thank you.”
The others muttered their thanks as well, and after that dinner passed quickly and quietly, with them going to sleep in the tents while I kept vigil right where I sat. Yes, there was a tent for me too, but I didn’t plan to use it as it would make intercepting any threats more difficult.
And the night passed in peace.
That was… surprisingly painless. I mean, it’s what I was aiming for with the whole teleport half-way thing, but I really thought someone was going to pull something. I mean, it’s possible with all the magic and stuff, but to think there weren’t even any bandits!
Anyway, the next two days were equally quiet, with our final night out on the road interrupted only by a pack of forest green wolves, who, after meekly entering the camp and eating the scraps I gave them, thoroughly enjoyed some much needed pets before going on their way with no one else being any wiser.
Which means that the system wasn’t lying when it said animals will obey me.
Our final day began, in much the same way as the others. I loaded everyone up with a hearty and generous breakfast of bacon and porridge, and then we set out under the rosy hues of early morning.
I noticed we were passing more travelers today, and that there were other roads stemming off and joining up with ours as we got closer and closer to our destination.
The forest that had provided us with such exquisite scenery along the way also gave way to hills and fields covered not with flowers, but farms and farm steads, and lots of them.
Based on Uriel’s timely input I knew they were growing all sorts of beans, wheat, corn, leafy greens, root vegetables, and to my surprise, mushrooms. And when I say assortment, I mean assortment as there were apparently different varieties of wheat for different products.
For instance, there was specifically wheat that was best used to make flower, wheat specifically rich in nutrients but tough in texture for livestock, and wheat to be made into pasta, just to name a few. It was also much the same for the corn.
And a little later I finally saw the place we were headed. The place called… .
Ya’know, I don’t think I ever asked where we were going, did I? Oops.
Anyway, it was significantly larger than Ariadholme, with even higher and thicker walls. Walls that were pierced by the large roads at two massive gates at the southeast and southwest as the entire rest of the place was blocked by a serene and enormous lake.
There were even boats!
Anyway, the place looked packed with a disorganized collection of houses and other buildings all crammed this way and that, but towering over it all was a fairly impressive castle right on the cliffside overlooking the glistening waters of the lake.
My companions let out sighs of relief once the place came into their view, but I was preoccupied with what to do next.
There are some pretty hefty lines to get into town, so do we just wait? Pull the authority card and try to cut the line? Or do we send a message to whoever’s in charge to let them know that we’re here and hope they’ll send guards to meet us? It’d be nice to just fly over, but I haven’t learned a spell that works for a group yet, and that’s assuming there even is one.