Before heading to bed Gilliam took a solid round of the cleaning magic. Cera seemed to hesitate a bit when he moved the magic her way, not something he blamed her for. He expected it to take some time before she would trust him properly if she even stuck around that long.
The spell handled the dirt, mud and smaller stuff, but the twigs and stuff in her tail didn’t come out just through this spell.
Gilliam manifested a hairbrush from his ring, it was made entirely of bone, looking like it was made out of the skeleton of what looked like a bone centipede mixed with the ribs of a small animal. He didn’t consider how this might look as he just blankly handed it to her. She returned a confused and judgemental look.
“Oh. eh... No. This is a hairbrush, see?” To prove his statement he pulled it through his ponytail a few times. “I thought it might work well on your tail.” He handed it to her.
Brushing her tail might mean something to a beastfolk, so he didn’t want to intrude into the unknown.
She hesitantly took it and looked over it, smelling it and looking back at Gilliam with even more judgy eyes than before.
“Ok.. you know... I spent the last few years... very elsewhere. I needed a comb and this is what she made for me. If you don’t want it, give it back.” He reached for it slightly miffed.
Something he didn’t share was that this was made for him by Petal, someone very close and dear to him. He needed a hairbrush in that environment and, though it looked weird or metal depending on who you asked, it worked very well.
“N... no... I.. I’m fine...” She pulled her hand back, not wanting to give it back to him. “T... Thank... you..” The thanks felt extremely forced, but Gilliam took it regardless.
“You’re welcome. Now... That brush means something to me so I want it back when you’re done.” He didn’t look overly worried, but at least he sounded honest.
Gilliam lay down after eating, and Cera sat down and started brushing her tail, picking out twigs, leaves and other debris the spell didn’t pick out. In the end, the tail looked very well maintained and fluffy... it was even fluffy enough to mostly hide the patches lacking fur from previous wounds.
Gilliam fell asleep before she could return the brush, and woke the next day. Opening his eyes he felt surprisingly well rested even though he was sleeping on a traveling bed, which was not even a real maddass.
Sitting up as he stretched, he saw Cera sitting in her bed awake, holding the brush.
Turning towards him as he moved she was quick to get on her feet and reach the brush over to him with both her hands, not saying anything but looking almost apologetic.
“Ah, thanks.” Gilliam commented passively as he put it back in the ring. “Did you get any sleep?”
She didn’t reply but nodded twice. “I slept, and woke.”
Turning around she went back to her bed, but before climbing into it she turned back, as if she realised something, as she seemed to struggle to find words her gaze drifted to the floor.
“Thank you...”
Gilliam didn’t know specifically what she was thanking him for, but that wasn’t important.
“You’re welcome.” He smiled back, liking the progress from just the two days since her release, though she had a long way left.
Completing his stretch he put the cooking stuff, as well as the remaining sticks and logs into the ring, picked the still-sleeping Savia up from his pillow and held her in his hand. He returned his bed to the ring as well, and since Cera seemed to realize what he was doing she left the hut, letting him take the last object. Soon the inside of the hut was empty, joining Cera outside Gilliam demolished the building like before, at least somewhat returning the resources to nature.
Gilliam gently shook Savia in his hand. “Hey, Savia. Wake up. We’d like to teleport.”
She looked in his general direction with barely open eyes. “Mmnh, Savia Teleport?”
“Yes... but I think you should wake up first...” Gilliam didn’t exactly want to end up somewhere random or weird or inside something...
Turning to Cera he realised that she might not know how teleportation works. “Have you been teleported before?”
Cera looked at him with uncertain eyes as she shook her head.
“When Savia wakes up properly, you’ll need to take my hand. You will see a very bright light and be blinded for a few seconds. That’s normal. Then as you can see again we’ll be somewhere very different... If it’s your first time you might feel a bit nauseous...” He remember not feeling anything the first time he was teleported, but after rapid teleporting, he felt it hard.
It was also a warning from Aeris, and she might be the closest to a master he knew of on the topic.
Cera looked incredibly hesitant but reached out her hand once Gilliam offered his to her. By this time Savia had woken up more as well.
“Savia teleport now?” She was much more coherent this round, so Gilliam didn’t feel like their life might be in danger.
“Yes, take us as close to the water, that way, as you can.” He nodded in the direction this time as both his hands were taken.
As soon as Gilliam confirmed it, Savia began to concentrate energy.
“Teleport!” She shouted out as she was nearing the peak of what she needed.
The mana within the tiny creature reached the peak and pulsed outwards, in the very same instant the group could feel the air and temperature shift. The wind was different, other smells were in the air. The bright light that blinded them as soon as the energy pulsed, affected their eyes even if they were closed, and it lasted for several seconds.
“Motherfucker!” A male voice shouted out in surprise beside them. A few seconds later once Gilliam could again see, he took in the scenario. The first thing he noticed was a man with a large backpack walking along the road they had landed on. He was most likely startled at how they just appeared from nowhere. Cera seemed to have jumped away from the startled man, which in turn startled her, so she had lost her footing and tumbled over in the movement.
Gilliam could hear a negative-toned whisper from the man, seeming to speak to himself after the event.
Turning towards him made his expression change a lot. Teleportation was not an unknown fact in the world, and most likely even random farmers knew it existed. So there was little doubt that this man shouldn’t be aware that at least one of them was a mage. Given the status of mages in V’ida he was staring down a noble.
“Ah... I’m sorry for startling you-” Gilliam didn’t consider himself above people in common courtesy, and this was their fault. “-I didn't expect that we’d land on the road...”
The man seemed taken aback, probably from the apparent teleporting mage taking the blame. “Oh, no worries. I just got startled, is all.” His expression had softened considerably as he continued walking down the road, taking a larger circle around them.
Gilliam walked over to Cera and squatted down to her. “You ok?”
She had gotten back on her feet and was looking fine. “Y... yes... I just didn’t expect... people...”
Gilliam smiled and got back up to take a proper gander around. There were indeed a lot more people, Carts, and mini-caravans with guards. A medieval highway of sorts.
This was the road connecting the main dock city to the capital, so it made a lot of sense that it would be heavily populated. A good thing was that this also meant that it should be relatively safe.
Gilliam started walking East, remembering roughly where the sun was in the sky before the teleport it shouldn’t be too different at this distance, so it wasn’t hard figuring out which way to go.
“So... Cera... I realised something dumb...”
Hearing her name had her walk up the two extra steps to end up next to Gilliam, looking at him with curious eyes.
“I never actually introduced myself...” His facial expression seemed to show how dumb he felt from this. Ending it with a sigh he faced Cera.
“My name is Gilliam Gibson, Gilliam is fine.”
“G... Gilliam...” Cera stuttered out. “It... feels weird using a name...” Turning back to face the ground she didn’t look comfortable with this.
“Well, I’m fine with you calling me Master or something, that’s what Savia does. At least as long as we’re keeping the master-slave dynamic. But you might want to consider using names if you want to converse with others.” He tried to word this as nicely as he could, but right after he completed the statement he realised that it didn’t feel like a hint and more like an order.
“I... I’ll try...” She didn't lift her gaze from the ground as they walked, but the tone of her voice at least made it seem like she’d consider it.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Now, to change the subject a little. When we get to Aestu, as I explained I plan on registering as an adventurer with the Order of Steel. What do you want to do? Can you fight? Do you have some special skills I don’t know about? You can register as a teammate or as my plus-one if that makes it better?” Again he tried to word this as a positive thing. He thought that though giving her a lot of options might overwhelm her, it could perhaps get her mind into the ‘pick what you want’ mindset.
She used a few solid seconds of thinking before she turned to face him with a complex expression. “I... Can I decide later?”
Gilliam smiled and nodded. She was only recently given any semblance of freedom, so this might have been a bit much. “That is fine, take the time you need. But I need to ask... Though you are free-” He put heavy pressure on ‘are’, to pre-set that the following part of his explanation didn’t change that. “-if it makes it easier for you I can treat you as a servant, guide you and tell you what to do. And you can choose if you want to listen or do something else. The only thing I need is for you to let me know if you choose to do something else.”
He kept his smile, though it went from a slightly forced expression to a truly honest one. “Just so I don’t plan on something happening and you changing your mind later.”
She nodded as she turned her face back to the road. “I think that’s for the best.” Her voice had a surprising lack of emotion.
Gilliam decided that at this point he’d just treat her as a servant and friend at the same time, giving her small freedoms of choice from smaller things, but him making the large decisions was probably the best thing for her at the moment. Slowly weaning her off being controlled felt like a good way of handling this, though there were a lot of things he didn’t know about her, he was getting a decent grasp of her mentality. In modern life on Earth, it wasn’t an uncommon thing that prisoners who had been confined for long enough and gotten too used to the rigid set of rules and control within the walls had problems readjusting to freedom. Being a slave was not only worse than this in some regards, but if she had grown up a slave she might never had the taste of freedom from the start, so she had even less of an idea of what to do.
“Then that’s decided. But for me to consider things I need to know what you can do, what skills you have or something like that. Just anything.” He tried to word this positively but it seemed to have the opposite effect.
Her voice had a sadder undertone as she replied. “I don’t have any skills. All I have been doing are small tasks like getting things, delivering things or carrying things. Always do my best to not be in the way of anyone.”
“Perhaps you’re good at hiding, then?” Gilliam broke in, forcing positivity into the discussion. “That’s a talent. You’re small and just by the sounds you’re making as we walk, they are much more silent than me.” He pointed at the ground, specifically at her feat.
She seemed to focus her ears down on the road, looking at her and Gilliam’s feet for a few seconds.
“Sure, I’m wearing shoes but I’ll always be wearing shoes, being quiet is a good skill to have! You also seem to have very good hearing, so perhaps you can be a good scout?” Gilliam didn’t know any of this for a fact, but based on the one interaction they had with her hearing in the Inn, and the fact that her ears were about 10 times the size of his... and that’s without considering her animal side, it seemed likely?
“We can start with that, having someone listen and just keep me informed of things will do wonders to avoid being ambushed or getting into a fight.” He smiled, making this sound like the greatest thing ever.
Gilliam was incredibly happy to see that it seemed to work, though she quickly stopped herself there was a hint of a smile growing on her lips for a brief moment. Internal victory for Gilliam!
“I think in the start we can just consider you my aide, I’ll tell them that you’re my slave to keep shit off your back, as we spoke about earlier, In reality, you’re free but it might be easier for them to accept everything.” He smiled.
He didn’t explain that he was kind of doing this in his best attempt to slowly guide her to freedom but being told what to do at times was probably a good idea.
“However, a few things... If you do get into combat at some point, the best is to run off course but if you come to the point where you need to defend yourself, you think you can use any weapons?”
He didn’t know how to tone this, but he intended to take combat jobs from the Guild, as he wasn’t that suited for social things. He had powerful magic but that was mostly it.
She seemed conflicted in what to reply with, several times opening her mouth to comment but stopping herself.
Gilliam gave her the time she needed.
“I... Haven’t fought anyone... I don’t know how to...” Almost sounding depressed she was at least honest about it.
“That’s no worries, we all start that way.” Taking a simple dagger out of his ring he handed it to her. “I hope you’ll never have to use it, but this feels like something you can handle. Just swing it at them or stab at them. Or throw it at them. Anything to create an opening for you to escape.”
She incredibly hesitantly took the dagger, almost looking scared to just touch it.
“Also, I think it’s a good idea if I cast a barrier on you.” Gilliam added, realizing that he should have done that as soon as they got into the Inn. He was feeling sloppy already.
“Do you remember when Lysander’s knight attacked me, and it didn’t hit me, but hit something invisible around me?” He wanted to at least briefly explain what it was before he cast spells on her, given her reaction to the cleaning spell.
She pondered for a moment before nodding.
“I can cast that on you as well, it’s like an invisible armour that’s around your body, it should keep you safe from many things.” He stated it in a matter-of-factly tone.
She didn’t look up at him but nodded rapidly.
Gilliam took out his staff from the ring. It was a staff reaching up to around Gilliam’s shoulder if standing on the ground, its handle had a black colour but also looked like some metal with a rough pattern to it. The bottom end had a silver-like metal band before it terminated in a similarly silver-like-coloured metal cone. The top was much more special: It had what looked like a faceted sphere, almost like it was of a lower polygon make. It was held in place by a silver-like metal which had a band going around it horizontally as well as four bands over it that returned into the handle. The four intersection points of the bands had another small, almost black gem. All of the silver metal parts were nicely engraved with patterns and lines.
He seemed to channel energy into the staff as the crystal on its head started to glow a collection of colours almost as if the light itself was refracted within the crystal, he then pointed this energy at Cera. A yellow spell circle with hints of blues and whites flashed into existence, it had a single rune within it reading Barrier. It collapsed into energy just as fast as it appeared, this energy enveloped Cera like a glowing smoke for half a second before seemingly fading into nothing. Cera had her eyes closed and was standing almost stiff as a board during the process, seeming surprisingly scared of it.
Once the spell was cast he returned the staff into the ring. “You can open your eyes now, I’m done.” He couldn’t help himself smiling, though it must have been scary for her, as it was harmless it was kind of funny.
“I... don’t feel different...” She looked at her hand-paws, around her arms and body, almost as if trying to find the change to her body.
“There’s not supposed to be anything different. The barrier is perfectly transparent so it shouldn’t affect your sight, and the way it’s made it shouldn’t affect your hearing or smell either. Just be aware that since it lets certain amounts of air through, it might not help too much against gasses.” This was something that luckily wasn’t a problem during his time in the Fractured Lands, but it was just based on logic. If you could still breathe the outside air and smell things around, then something made it through. It worked like this by design.
“So... I’m protected now?” Not seeming to believe that this ‘nothing’ around her was working, she had to clarify.
“Oh, absolutely.” He looked around a moment and picked up a small stone the size of a fist. Realizing that this might trigger some defensive action in her mind due to the abuse she has suffered, he felt the need to explain. “Now, I will throw this rock at you, I promise you it won’t do anything, just so you’re aware.”
She hesitantly nodded.
As promised he tossed the rock at her, though he did so in a non-attacking way, more like lobbing it at her. As he promised the rock hit something invisible around her and bounced off, almost like she was walking around in a glass sphere.
“See?” He smiled in an almost I-told-you-so tone. “Though enough damage will accumulate over time will pop it. As will a powerful enough attack, but it should increase your survivability drastically if you get to a point where you get hit.”
Gilliam got a sense of positivity from her, but she was holding back any emotion so it was a bit hard to make sure.
“Well, let’s hope you never need to test it.” He commented and changed the subject. “Let’s keep moving, I don’t think it should be too long before we’re there.” He smiled a bit excited.