We all stayed the night at a nearby inn and cleaned up, then we met the next morning to discuss our movement plans. There wasn't going to be another town for quite some time, much to both Kara's and Jessica's disappointment.
I tried not to laugh at their unnecessarily sad faces. “I'm sure something is going to come up and we will have to meet up again before then.”
“I hope so.” Jessica said before she could stop herself, and a few people chuckled.
“Why don't you tell us how you really feel.” Steven said with a smirk.
“Oh, shut up.” Jessica said with a red face and he laughed.
“If we keep at it, we can get through all of this in no time at all.” I said and waved at the map.
“I don't think six more months is 'no time at all'.” Viri said with a laugh.
“In the grand scheme of things...” I started to say.
“Don't start talking about how long the universe has been around.” Kara said with a shake of her head.
“Even long lived races like us are only brief spots in comparison.” I said with a smile. “What's six months compared to all of time?”
“What matters most is that it's happening right now.” Maylia said. “Us. Here. Now.”
I looked at everyone's faces and saw several nods. “All right, then.” I looked back at the map and started to change the route we just picked. “Let's make most of it.”
Jessica smiled as the new routes had us crossing paths at least once every two weeks. We could handle clearing vampires out of villages easily, so I had us meet up at practically every large town. There weren't that many large cities left, and since they were pretty far away from the crack that the vampires had left from, I wasn't expecting to encounter a lot more of them. It didn't hurt to have everyone gathered together in case I was wrong, though. Everyone was happy with the reworked plans, so after surprising handshakes from Josh and Steven and a hug from Jessica, we parted ways and went our separate and still intertwined routes.
Both of our groups moved on and worked their way across the countryside. Each village, town, and city, had less and less vampires in them. Jessica had even managed to combine the crack detection spell with locating vampires, and we saw where the remaining clumps of them were within the kingdom. We kept going and fought creatures, closed cracks, healed up, and cleared out the vampires.
We even took occasional breaks of several days, sometimes together and sometimes apart. It stretched the six month estimate out to over eight months; but, none of us were upset by that. We were doing a lot of hard work and a lot of continuous travelling. None of us wanted to suffer burnout before the task was done and we needed time to rest and relax.
The last town my group visited was the first town Maylia and I had encountered and killed those armored armadillo things called brocchulas. We were greeted like returning heroes and the town threw a party in our honor. We took the opportunity to check if everyone was a vampire and I was relieved that they were all human. Even Hoquan and his wife and son showed up to greet us.
“You will be stopping by the farm for supper tomorrow.” His wife Margaret said. It wasn't a request.
“We'd be happy to.” I said and accepted on everyone's behalf. She smiled and nodded as her family moved on to enjoy the festivities, then the first guard we had seen came over to us.
“There you are!” Gill said. “How has my old bag of holding been?”
“It's had all kinds of creatures in it.” I said and leaned in close. “Even a garglemacer.”
Gill gasped. “Truly?” He asked and I nodded. “I knew giving it to you was the right thing to do!” He laughed and slapped my shoulder. “You've put it to good use, my friend.”
“I have something for you.” I said and took out the bag of holding I had bought a long time ago. “It's brand new and never been used.”
“Aw.” Gill held it and looked at it, slightly disappointed. “You couldn't stuff a few creatures in it, could you?”
I laughed. “Sure, why not?”
I gave him a few of the miscellaneous creatures we had fought and he tossed them into the bag. His eyes had widened at the variety and then he tied the bag to his hip. He was stroking the bag and the bounty inside like it was a cat, and I laughed.
“If you like that, you're going to love this.” I said and pulled out a tooth and a scale from the very first garglemacer I had fought. “I want you to have these.”
“Wh-what... no, I... Hunter, you can't...” Gill looked pale at the sight of them. “H-how big was it?”
“These are the smallest teeth and scales.” I said and handed them to him. “Thanks for the bag of holding you gave me. It had to stretch out over twenty feet to fit the whole thing in.”
Gill's face was white from shock. “These... you could sell them for... you could even buy...”
“They're yours, so you can do what you want with them.” I said and didn't tell him that I had two more of each stored away. “Keep them. Sell them. Toss them in the river...”
“Throw them away?!?” Gill exclaimed and hugged them close. “Bite your tongue, young man!”
I laughed, and after a moment, he laughed, too. The festivities continued as the day turned into night. We soon found out that we couldn't stay at the inn, because all of the rooms were taken. There were several shouts and protests, along with offers by people to give up their rooms for us, and I politely declined. We left the inn and moved out to the edge of town and found a nice place to set up camp and rest for the night.
With nothing pressing during the next day, Maylia and the others took it upon themselves to help Afyne continue her training. I thought about joining in, then Afyne reminded me that I needed to meditate. She had been making me take time to do that each day, even while riding the horses. I nodded and she gave me a kiss on the cheek, then she moved a short distance away and started training with Maylia's sword. I sat in the lotus position and took a deep breath, then used several mental techniques to calm myself down, cut off external sounds, and concentrated on my body.
I usually only managed an hour here, or two hours there, each day, after teaching techniques to Afyne and Maylia. This time I spent the entire day in meditation. I could feel the slight difference in my Presence and mana as the two energy states within me came closer and closer together. I was going to need more time to integrate them, considering I had been trying for the last eight months, and if I knew my body as well as I know I did, I was only about halfway to getting the two energies to coalesce together and combine into one.
I finished meditating and Afyne finished training. After a short rest, we travelled to Hoquan's farm. We had a great supper, good conversation, and their son stared at all of us like we were the best thing in the world. When supper was over, I took Hoquan aside and gave him thirteen silver coins.
“No. I'm not taking your charity.” Hoquan said, slightly angry.
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“It's not charity.” I said. “It's your cut of the bounty on the brocchulas.”
Hoquan huffed. “I didn't kill any of them.”
“Only because I showed up too quickly.” I said with a smile. “I'm sure you would have killed at least one of them on your own. Plus, they were on your land.”
“That doesn't make them mine.” Hoquan said without a trace of anger in his voice.
“They were as much yours as they were mine.” I said and held out the coins.
Hoquan sighed, because he knew he was going to lose this argument, and took the coins. “Why thirteen coins?”
“One for each of them.” I said and his eyes widened. “It's okay. At the time, I got ten each for them.”
“T-t-ten?!?” Hoquan almost dropped the coins.
“I couldn't come back and give you your cut, because I had spent most of it.” I said.
“What did you buy?!?” Hoquan asked, surprised.
“Pretty much everything.” I said. We stared at each other for a moment, then we both laughed.
We stayed for another hour so that their son could hear some of the stories we had experienced, and he was held spellbound. When it was time for him to go to bed, we said our goodbyes and left the quaint little farm behind.
It wasn't until we reached the end of First Sothen Kingdom and our task to clear the vampires was done, that I had Viri use her skill to locate the one person that I needed to talk to, in order for me to understand my skills and abilities. The enchanter at the shop in the capital had given me the person's name and their location, so it was easy for Viri to use her skill to locate them. When she used the neutral mana crystal I gave her, a small six inch wide crystal ball appeared above it.
“May I?” I asked, and she nodded. I put my hand on hers and added my mana, and the crystal ball expanded out to the five foot wide size we had seen before. “Much better.”
Viri stared at the thing. “How can you do that?” She asked as the planet rotated inside the orb.
“I think it's just the sheer size of my mana reserve.” I said. “Can you concentrate and find this person?”
Viri nodded and read the name again, then the crystal ball zoomed into a place I didn't expect. It was surrounded by an energy barrier. The crystal zoomed in again and showed a huge tree-city, then zoomed into a small house. We watched as a little old elven woman puttered around her kitchen, then she stopped, put her bowl of soup down, and turned around to look up at us through the crystal orb.
“A powerful blind seer.” The old woman said and cackled a little. “Normally, I would be very upset that someone was snooping in on me.”
“Please forgive the intrusion.” I said and ducked my head briefly. “I was given your name and told you could help me.”
The old woman squinted her eyes at me for nearly a full minute without saying anything. “Huh. Well, if you can get yourself here, I'll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” I said.
“Don't thank me yet.” The old woman cackled. “You're never getting in here! Hahaha!”
“You'll be surprised.” I said and she heard the confidence in my voice.
“A man coming through the barrier?” She cackled. “You will be killed on sight!”
“We'll see.” I said. “When can I come by?”
“I'll expect your ghost to visit me at any time!” The old lady cackled loudly and waved her hand, and the crystal ball dissolved.
“Well, that was pleasant.” Viri said and shivered. “How can someone dismiss a remote spell like that?”
“That's probably my fault.” I said. “She might not have noticed if I wasn't helping.”
“So, we've come full circle.” Maylia said and I turned to her.
“It seems so.” I said. “We'll travel to the barrier, set up camp, then I'll...”
“You are not just going to go inside and hope for the best!” Maylia exclaimed.
I stepped close to her and took her into my arms. “I was going to say I'll contact the queen.”
“Oh.” Maylia said. “That's okay then.”
I chuckled and kissed her. She stiffened up slightly, especially since everyone was around us, so I stopped. “I might just relax for a day or two first.”
Maylia's eyebrows went up and I leaned in to whisper in her ear.
“Perhaps one more lesson before we have to part?”
Maylia's face flushed red as she blushed.
“I'll take that as a yes.” I whispered and kissed her cheek, then stepped back. “Okay, people. Gather around.” I said and everyone came over to me. “I've got something I've been meaning to do for a while now, and it apparently involves going back inside the magical barrier that the elves have around their lands.”
“NO!” Afyne yelled and grabbed onto me. “You can't go back in there!”
I knelt and took her into my arms. “Don't worry. I'm going in a different way than the last time and I'll be going in with permission this time.”
“H-Hunter, please.” Afyne's eyes were flooded with tears. “You'll be hurt.”
“I'm hurt already by having to leave you and Maylia behind.” I said. “I can't take the chance that they will twist their promise.”
“But... but...”
“I need to know what I can do to rid myself of this weakness.” I said and touched my forehead.
“How long...”
“I could be gone for a day, a week, or for a month.” I said. “I'll find out when I get there.”
“I'll tell Jessica where to meet us.” Diofra said.
“Let the queen know as well.” I said and looked back at Afyne. “Don't worry, all right? I promised that I will always come back to you, remember?” I said and brought a touch of Presence and mana to my fingertip as I held it in front of her.
Afyne put her own finger up, then she squinted her eyes and concentrated. I could sense the mana and Presence inside of her as it tried to respond to her commands. I touched my fingertip to hers to give her some help and she gasped as her mana and Presence eagerly rushed to meet mine. Afyne's eyes almost glowed as she leaned in and gave me a very brief and feather-light kiss on the lips.
I smiled because she had made my lips tingle with both Presence and mana. “It seems our lessons on Presence are starting to take hold.”
Afyne nodded and gave me a huge smile. She had made great strides in learning to harness both energies, especially in so short a time.
“Let's get everything loaded up and we can head to the barrier at the edge of the kingdom.” I said, and everyone packed up. Diofra said that Kara and the others would meet us there in three days. I checked the map and saw that the emissaries had one more crack to take care of and I nodded. We mounted our horses and travelled for a day to get back to the same spot that I had left through nearly a year ago. We set up camp off to the side and we all settled in to relax for the next two days.
On the last day before I was going to leave, I had Diofra and Evus watch Afyne for me and then I created a small Mana Presence dome for privacy. Maylia was quite receptive to what was going to be our last private lesson for a while. When I tried to go a little bit further than foreplay, she didn't relax or go passive. I rolled her over and she stared at me with wide eyes. She was just as surprised as I was.
“It's finally time.” I said with a huge smile. “Happy birthday to me.” I said and then kissed her before I very slowly joined with her.
Maylia cried out in both pain and pleasure as she fought her body's ingrained reactions and I went slow for our first time together. She yelled and hollered in frustration and joy as her body convulsed and she tried to hold on to me and push me away at the same time, then we stared into each other's eyes as we made love. We both felt every movement, every bit of pleasure, and I didn't stop moving until she finished. She let out an inarticulate scream when it happened and I kissed her to quiet her. She ate at my lips as if she would never get enough and kept moaning as she did.
“I love you.” Maylia whispered. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” I whispered back and kissed her again, then I figured this was a good time to start moving again. Since her body was already primed from going once, she went again almost immediately and kissed me hungrily as she screamed into my mouth. She had her arms and legs wrapped around me at this point and we kept having sex. With the way both she and her body held onto me, it didn't take me long to finish as well. We both collapsed onto the bedroll and were slightly out of breath.
“Oh... oh, Hunter.” Maylia panted and stared at me. “Is... is it always...”
“No.” I said and her face started to turn sad. “Sometimes it's better.” I said with a laugh.
Maylia swatted my chest. “Don't tease.” She said and her hand found the scars over my heart and she traced them with her fingers. “Hunter...”
“Yes.” I said and she looked at my face. “I'd make more if anything happened to you.”
Maylia closed her eyes for a moment and nodded, then she leaned over and kissed them. She rested her head on my chest and hugged me tightly.
“Are you two done yet?” Viri asked. “I don't know how much longer I can take listening to you.”
Maylia and I sat bolt upright.
“Dammit!” I said loudly and there was a smattering of laughter and snorts from nearby. “I forgot to make the barrier soundproof.”
“We tried to say something earlier...” Imiryl said and stopped talking.
“Yeah, thanks.” I said and rubbed my face. “Maylia, I'm sorry that I embarrassed you like this.”
“I'm not embarrassed.” Maylia said and I turned to look at her face when the Presence didn't waver. “They know we love each other.”
“But... they just... the sounds...”
“I didn't know I could make those kinds of sounds, either.” Maylia said with a pleased expression. “It was a great lesson.”
I opened my mouth to say that I hadn't intended to teach her how to make those sounds, then leaned over and kissed her instead. I made the Presence barrier push the sound down and away like I should have the first time.
“Round two?” I asked.
Maylia nodded as she laid down. “This is nothing like what the teachers said making babies was like.”
“I've worked with you for almost a year to teach you that.” I said and positioned myself over her, then I rolled her over onto her belly. “You don't know how happy I am that you learned it.”
Maylia looked back at me over her shoulder. Her face showed confusion when I picked up her hips to expose her. “What are you doing?”
“You didn't think there was only one way to do it, did you?” I asked and slipped inside of her.
Maylia gasped and then moaned loudly as I showed her a much different way to make a baby than she had been previously taught. She liked it just as much as she liked the other way.
I had so much more to teach her.