After I’d accepted Eilian’s offer of some magical pointers, she’d decided to follow us for a portion of our journey. She apparently had a ship to catch in Norishin, the furthest city up the river that ocean going ships could visit, so she only had a few days with us.
Lord Dinveria’s lands were some of the last before we entered the nation that Lord Fennimore called home, and as such it would be nice to have the added magical muscle to deal with any of his goons. We’d be crossing through the nation for only a day or so, this area being a very thin strip of owned land, so we were just hoping to dash across without being noticed.
“Sorry for the staring,” I told Eilian as we walked down the road towards the unguarded border. “We’ve just never seen an Obrec before.”
“Aye, I know. I’ve heard that about you lot, you’re ah… new,” she nodded with a cheeky, twinkle eyed smile. “Heard you wounded that peacock Fennimore too, if the armour is anything to go by, which is why I’m offering my assistance. Aren’t that many who’d call him an enemy these days, so it’s best to make sure the ones that exist live long enough to cause him trouble.”
“You don’t like him?” I asked curiously.
“Of course not!” she exclaimed, throwing a hand in the air for emphasis. “The man killed my mage father after all, lovely old man who took me in after… well, a lot of shit went down back home. Anyway, point is, the man is plain evil and he has very little regard for the word no, so there’s that too.”
That was good to know. She was at least a potential ally as far as Fennimore went. It was also good to know that there were still people around here who didn’t like him. Made me feel a little less alone in this, so to speak.
“He attacked my mage mother too, I don’t even know if she’s still alive,” I sighed, trying not to let thoughts of Esra’s fate haunt me.
“Oh, who was she?” Eilian asked with a raised eyebrow. Dang it, did her eyes have to dance like that all the time? It was distracting the way she seemed to be coming on to me with a simple question.
“Esra Rihm,” I told her quietly, as if my lower volume might keep her from having a bad reaction to the name.
“Oh! Esra!” she exclaimed, watching me with a new light in her eyes. “You’re her new apprentice? Damn, that’s some luck! I saw her in someone else’s grove a few nights back. Wasn’t looking the greatest, but she was alive, so don’t worry about that.”
My heart leapt at her words and a smile bounced into place on my face. Esra was alive! She was alive! I already felt like I could breathe easy again, one of many worries put at ease.
“Really?” I asked, and continued into a delighted ramble, “Oh thank you! I was worried. She was nice to me, even if she was like really grumpy about it. It’s crazy that someone can be both a huge grump and also really nice, it seems like they should be mutually exclusive, but somehow she managed it. So yeah… I’ve um, been… worrying. Yup.”
“No problem,” she smiled, again with that little sparkle in her eye. Was it just the golden colour of her eyes?
“What are you talking about?” Grace asked from my other side, and I turned to look at her. She’d been a little off since the fight and I couldn’t figure out why. She certainly wasn’t saying.
“She just told me that she saw my mentor alive a few days ago in someone else’s grove,” I replied, giving Grace a smile that I hoped might cheer her up.
“Oh nice, that’s good news,” she said, her eyes flicking from my face to Eilian’s and back. “Is she helping with the magic stuff too?”
“Not yet,” I shook my head, and Grace made a humming sound that was almost disapproval.
Why was she so agitated right now? Surely she didn’t distrust Eilian that much. She was acting like she had to be near me at all times or I’d find myself impaled by the smiling obrec or something. I know I’d said I enjoyed her being protective, but this was a little much.
“Your friend doesn’t seem to like me,” the Obrec mage remarked dryly.
“She’s just protective of me,” I said placatingly in Anve. Sure, I might be a little critical of Grace in my head, but I was definitely going to defend her if someone else even hinted at badmouthing her. “She thought I was dead until like five days ago and she’s worried I might disappear on her again. She was asking about magic stuff anyway.”
“Ah yes, magic stuff,” she chuckled, a finger straying to the pommel of her sword. “I guess we should get to it shouldn’t we? Tell me, what spells do you currently have?”
“Uh, none that are very useful,” I blushed with embarrassment. Some mage I was.
“Not even a shield?” she asked, looking genuinely surprised.
“Ah, no… I have a disguise flower and a flower to track my friends through our rings,” I murmured.
Gosh, I really should have spent more time on combat spells. Still, I felt like any attempt to make anything complex would end up with it being torn from the soil by the winds of my grove.
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“Well that’s not the greatest,” she said with a straight face. “It would be easiest just to get you to make the plant in your grove, but I’m assuming that I haven’t gained enough trust for that yet, so I’ll have to explain a few basic components for you.”
Well, that confirmed the idea that you weren’t supposed to just invite any old random into your grove. Guess I should start screening people or something.
“Oh we can’t go into my grove anyway,” I smiled. “There’s a magic storm crashing over it right now, place is uninhabitable.”
“A… what?” she asked, her eyebrows rising into her hairline.
“A huge magical storm!” I said, waving my arms around in an attempt to indicate size. “It looked like a normal big storm inside my grove, but when I went outside it was like this huge cloud of boiling magical energy! It was nuts, we ran away as soon as we saw it!”
“That is… not something I have heard of before,” she said, looking slightly baffled now. “But regardless, here’s a few components you can use to make some useful combat spells…”
From here on the conversation turned very technical, and it was strange to see this sweet talking swashbuckler suddenly get nitty gritty with magical details. It seemed that even though she liked her women and her drink, she was still a magic nerd like the rest of us.
She explained about the different types of shields. Shields geared towards fending off certain elements with high efficiency, shields geared towards blocking magic in general with less efficiency, and shields geared towards mundane attacks like crossbows and the like.
“How did our bullets hit Fennimore if he probably had a mundane shield up then?” I asked with a frown.
“The man is a stickler for energy conservation. Knowing him, he probably only had a shield strong enough to stop a heavy crossbow bolt or two. Those weapons you’re toting look like they pack a considerably stronger punch than that, if that fight back there was anything to go by,” she said with a roll of her eyes directed at the absent asshole.
Further questions revealed that Eilian wasn’t sure how Fennimore had survived the hole in his chest, but that the idea that he’d gained some extra protection was worrying. Mages were apparently supposed to die pretty easily to that kind of thing, just like normal humans, and she promised to spread the word that something was up.
From there the conversation moved on. She began to explain how the different types shield could be given form via the plants of a grove. It was interesting, the different techniques she was describing. I thought I had seen a few plants like that when Grace and I had been out observing the wild ones, and now that I knew what to look for, I might be able to discover some fun alternatives.
She also explained her own style of combat a little. Telling me how she liked to imbue her sword with properties and powers rather than just flinging magic around like other people tended to do, and I honestly thought it was pretty cool. Not my style, but still it was inarguably effective, not to mention impressive to observe, which I suspected might have been the point of it all.
I decided, after the quick little combat magic introduction from Eilian, that it was about time I started teaching my friends how to speak Anve. They were rough with it currently, but seemed eager to learn. Especially Grace, who had been constantly asking me what Eilian was saying during lulls in the conversation.
When the day wore on into the evening and we agreed to stop for the night, it was at an inn rather than some random copse of trees. We figured with Eilian around and Fennimore supposedly still wounded, we’d be able to avoid any problems. Plus, that lord from back at the battle with the steel one was not a fan of the magical dickhead, and the lord of this place swore fealty to him.
The village was a bustling one as far as villages went. This was because of its status as the last town before Fennimore’s nation, Anverleik, and it saw a lot of traders come through. There were even a few slightly more specialty shops that would cater to traders and travellers, such as a shoemaker and a saddlemaker. It was honestly quite a nice little town, with its protective castle on a hill half a mile or so away.
The inn was similarly bustling, with a large common room and plenty of happy travellers settling in for a night of drinking. They even had music, which was something I hadn’t heard in a long time. We approached the innkeeper as he was finishing up with another customer and the man almost immediately plastered a smile on his face.
“Hello! What can I do for you and your party lady mages?” he asked with a kindly smile, his eyes on me and Eilian.
Right, I wasn’t wearing my disguise, and I don’t think Eilian knew the meaning of the word. It made sense that he’d assume we were the leaders of the little party, given the culture around our kind.
“Two rooms, three men in one, two women in other,” Troy said in his halting Anve, gesturing to our party and earning a surprised look from the innkeep. Yup, he definitely hadn’t been expecting one of the ‘guards’ to speak up.
“Ah… yes. Good good,” he said, a little taken aback.
“A single room for me thanks, my good man,” Eilian said with a pleasant smile. “Make it the nicest you have available.”
“Yes, of course,” he nodded, turning to look at a ledger he had behind his bar. He frowned as he stared at it, then glanced back up.
“We have the room for you, my lady,” he said, looking at Eilian, but then his eyes shifted to my friends and I. “However, I am afraid I have no more double rooms available. Only the triple and a four man room.”
“Ah, problem,” Troy frowned, then turned and glanced a question at Grace and I.
“Well, I’m sure the three of us cou—“ Eilian began to say, but Grace cut in over her. “Single room, big bed?”
Wait, was she suggesting that she and I sleep in the same bed? Oh no, I couldn’t… that would be even harder to deal with than normal! I could already feel my cheeks heating at the thought of what might happen. Or rather, what my wandering mind wanted to happen, even if I knew it wouldn’t. Wait damn, did I really want something to happen between Grace and I? No, I was just… it was the embarrassment. Stupid attraction, why couldn’t it leave me alone?
The innkeep frowned as he tried to parse what Grace was talking about, but eventually he checked the ledger again and nodded, “Yes, we have a… couple’s room available.”
Couple’s room. My cheeks heated even further and I had to stare at my feet to avoid seeing anyone notice how embarrassed I was getting. Eilian would totally catch on to my reaction. Grace and I… in a couple’s room. My thoughts jumped to cheesy love hotels with big heart shaped beds and mood lighting and… oh gosh. Still, there wasn’t really an alternative was there, and it’s not like I wouldn’t… enjoy it, just a little though. She was a good friend, so of course I’d enjoy being close to her like that. Yup. Definitely.
“We’ll take that one,” I murmured, just loud enough for him to hear.
“Very good, I’ll see about having them all freshened up for you,” the innkeep said happily, and I further melted into the floor as everyone else ordered food.
My excitable mind was already conjuring up thoughts of accidental touches and soft skin, lips placing gasping kisses down my neck as I… oh my word. Just like that I was further exploding into a mind-numb mess of embarrassment. I was so screwed. Also there was some evapotranspiration happening in a particular area due to those thoughts and it was making things difficult. Someone please send help!