As the old merchant went away Piper could finally enjoy cooking.

“Can’t you even peel a potato properly? It looks like a brick!”

It was difficult to live with a bounty on one's head, but Piper kept those thoughts away. Enjoy the small things in life. He kept demonizing Fritz’s inept cooking skills.

“Peel a few more like that and I will only need some mortar to build a proper house." 

“Potato is a potato, there’s no point in you crying about it.”

“You will destroy my perfect dish!”

“No. I’m sure it will be just as bad as it always is.”

Piper took another brick shaped potato Fritz gave him. He weighed it in his large hand.

“Potatoes are good for dinners.”

“Ehe.”

Fritz didn’t care to look at Piper. He was busy cutting his next potato victim. Large chunks of the vegetables were cut away together with its skin.

“Do you know what bricks are good for Fritz?”

Fritz looked at the cook just in time to dodge the brick potato he threw at his face.

“Bricks are good for your teeth. Break them just right.”

Fritz was about to say something, but the sudden appearance of Gob and Viper calmed his anger.

“Don’t waste the food.”

Gob threw the potato back to Piper. He was smiling brightly. Meanwhile a small leather pouch filled with money landed in Fritz’s hands. It was all that Viper did before leaving the kitchen.

“It’s great your back Gob! This mongrel nearly killed himself with this knife.”

Gob washed his hands in a bucket and then took the knife Fritz was using from his hands. Fritz used this opportunity to ask the goblin a little question.

“So? Did he talk?”

Gob looked at Fritz furious.

“I don’t know! Did Peter say something when I was gone? I was forced to fight the boar because of those morons you so gladly left me with! What do you think? Maybe next time I will deposit your life to random nobodies?”

Fritz shook his shoulders.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

With this he just smiled at Gob. It was a face that simultaneously screamed “See. I know you can do it alone.” and “Punch me!”. Gob wasn’t sure which face he liked more. Fritz knew that he would be safe on his trip. Was he supposed to feel reassured by this?

He used the potatoes as a little knife training. He was peeling them as fast as he could without cutting himself. The talk with Viper still lingered in his mind. Fritz lowered his face and asked him once more.

“So. Did you hear Viper talk?”

Gob glared at him with clear bloodlust.

“No. I did this little trick of yours myself.”

Fritz heard everything he wanted to hear and left Gob alone with Miko. Whoever could help Piper in the kitchen was deemed worthy of everlasting friendship. It was, but a week since Piper made Gob help him, yet they already worked in unison.

Fritz didn’t like to cook, but his pride received a little blow when Piper publicly announced that Gob was to replace him whenever he could. He at the very least could still enter the kitchen. Neither Peter nor Curan had such privileges.

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He went back to his tent to count the money they earned. He looked through his notes and sighed. There was enough money to travel to Car’deNival or even further south, but Curan announced nothing. What was he waiting for?

Fritz looked at the pile of money he gathered for this man today. He trusted him, but it would reassure to know if he was to travel with them as well…

Before the night he went to Gob to read his picture book with him. It wasn’t as easy for Gob to pick up reading as other human activities. The goblin never attempted to decipher human writing before, but it didn’t take much convincing to make him want to learn. The sheer motivation of surpassing both Curan and Peter in a field other than fighting made the goblin work twice as hard.

Fritz enjoyed those sessions with Gob. It made him remember how he learned this weird language himself.

~

Gob exited his cage. It was remade to house him properly. The mountains of cloth and other materials he used to make it into a decent sleeping place was a little extreme. In fact it was impossible to recognize that it even was a cage to begin with.

The stars were visible as he left the camp. It was getting cold, so he wore a new coat he chose himself. Four daggers hid in his pouches underneath it. He could unsheathe them at any time with no problems.

The goblin walked silently to the place where the magic was meant to happen. Viper was already waiting at him there. She felt like they should move even further from the camp. Gob could already conjure fire. She probably shouldn’t push him to new elements and it was important to keep the light in check. Peter should be the only one to know of their little magic course.

“This should be enough. Show me what can you do.”

Gob conjured the flame in his hand. It was impressive in its own right, but nothing special for a mage. Viper checked Gob’s concentration. He responded by focusing more. She poked him and talked about random things she came up with, but the goblin kept his flame in check. She even pushed him down on the ground, but the flame didn’t extinguish.

“You can stop now. I can tell that the girl taught you well. Did you try to practise it?”

Gob stood up and calmed his breathing. It wasn’t as easy to keep the flame lit when she bothered him around.

“I tried, but it didn’t change much.”

“It’s because you cast it within limitations.”

“Limitations?”

“Do you know of the three basic casting techniques?”

As Gob shook his head Viper continued.

“First is the symbol casting. You either carve, paint or visualize the symbols to create an effect. It is a basic way of keeping your mana in check, but it also requires a lot of knowledge and focus. Also the effects are limited to the symbols you know and there are more symbols which affect mana in such an obscure way that it truly is pointless to learn them all.”

“If anything they are used to permanently affect weapons in a form of a rune or are carved as a glyph to temporary create a magic effect in a desired place. Those symbols are what allows you to cast right now. They also keep us both from any burns as the fire isn’t truly real, just some of its basic components.”

Gob nodded his head. He visualized the symbols he learned from Hestia each time he cast a spell.

“The second way of casting is with words. It’s what most mages use in battle and what you are probably most interested in… but I will not teach you this method at all. There are few reasons. First the words of magic are not something I could just tell you, to gain them you need to study magic as a proper sorcerer and frankly I’m not a legitimate wizard with years of training.”

“This isn’t even something I could properly use and so I won’t try to teach you those words. Just note that they are more direct than symbols and require less thinking. Therefore to win against a proper wizard you need to silence them as soon as you can no matter how. And now to what I can and will teach you.”

“Have you ever noticed Curan using magic?”

Gob thought back to all things Curan did. He didn’t recall him ever smelling Ether near Curan. Viper continued with a smile.

“You never realized because he never cast a spell. He instead used his mana. You see when you cast a spell you are using your mana only to either maintain or activate it. You don’t actually use your mana to its full potential, because the spell itself guides the desired effect. What do you think would happen if you were to force your mana out of your body with no words or limitations?”

As Viper raised her hand in gesture a small flame appeared in her palm. She moved her hand around and it followed, but after she winked at Gob, the flame stood in place when she took her hand away. She then expanded her mana and mold the flame into shapes. It was a beautiful sight. She had the power in her hands as she manipulated it around in spirals.

“Mold it. Control it. It is your own mana forced upon the world with no restrains.”

Viper’s flame changed it shapes even more. It became a fiery dagger, then a horse made of light happily jumping in the surrounding air. Viper was smiling with joy visible in her eyes.

“Turn it into a weapon, sharpen your existing one, use it to rekindle the campfire or make a show for a kid, it's that simple!”

Gob was amazed. As Viper finished her little show, he instantly asked.

“Why doesn’t everyone use it instead of symbols and words?”

“Oh it's even simpler.”

Viper laughed.

“If you mess up you are dead.”

~

It was late at night when Peter notified both Curan and Viper that their guest had finally arrived. He was sitting atop a nearby tree. As they walked outside to greet the archer clad in the common Empire scout attire, he turned to face them. Two shining green pupils followed their every move.

Emerald the man tasked to kill the Saintess of the North spoke first.