They arrived at the next village without incident and after a night of sleep, the two parties gathered in the tavern.
“So, here is what I propose.” Doren said while unrolling the map on the table. “As you can see, this village as well as our next stop are barely inside the search area.”
The map they’d received from the Guild had the rough location where Gerrit reported to have spotted the goblins marked with a small ‘X’. Based on the distance a hunting party would travel from the nest, a large circle had been drawn around it, displaying the zone in which the nest was expected to be located. The village they were in was slightly outside the circle’s line in the north-west, the next one just within the border further north.
“I figure that each party searches an area, so we take north to east, and you do east to south. Then we just search away from the village in a pattern as long as we can and return directly here when night falls. Any other ideas?”
There were none, as it was really the most sensible plan. Without further ado the groups parted, starting their search patterns. They were accompanied by a light drizzle, but that did nothing to slow them down. They were as focused as never before, expecting an army of goblins behind every hill and thicket, but the hours passed without anything happening. They kept going longer than they probably should have, and by the time they returned to the village, it was already dark. Doren’s party was waiting for them in the tavern, and they could immediately tell that they hadn’t found anything either. The newcomers shed their wet cloaks and pulled up chairs, joining the other adventurers at their table.
“Nothing.” Bordan said. “Neither goblins nor anything else of note.”
“Well, this is only one corner of the search area. We weren’t expecting to find anything. Also, Gerrit’s party came through here a week ago, they would’ve taken care of any monster sightings. It’s probably going to be a whole lot of nothing for a few days. Then again, we might stumble into the nest at any point. We just don’t know. Anyway, we searched a good distance out from the village today, I don’t think staying another day will do much good. Let’s move on tomorrow, we can follow the same method at the next place.”
--- ----- ---
An early start and a brisk pace delivered them to their next destination with plenty of sunlight to spare. Where the last village had been barely more than a rest stop with a few fields, this was a proper town. After checking in with the headman, the adventurers formed a quick huddle outside the town hall.
“What do you think we should do?” Doren asked. “Should we search for an hour or two? I don’t think we’ll get far in that time, and we’ll pass the same area tomorrow anyway.”
“We could head north for an hour, then return.” Bordan suggested. “On the map, this place is just inside the border, so technically the nest could be there as well. We could head northwest, you head northeast, and tomorrow we’ll only have to worry about anything south from here.”
The others agreed, and soon they’d left the palisade behind again. They didn’t get very far in the allotted time, nor did they see anything interesting, but having checked made everyone feel better. Over dinner, Salissa turned to Edwin.
“Would you mind practicing with me for a bit? It isn’t too late yet; I figure we can still get in an hour after dinner.”
“Sure.” agreed Edwin.
“Not a bad idea.” Doren said. “We could all do a short training session, if you don’t mind. Work off some of that tension.”
“You’re free to do that, of course.” Salissa replied. “But I was specifically asking Edwin to help me with practicing some magic.”
Doren’s group froze, all eyes focusing on the mage. Her smile became strained, and she looked over to her teammates, silently begging for help.
“Alright, stop gawking you lot.” Bordan grumbled into his food. “You knew she’s a mage, if you want to ask something, ask. She’s not going to bite.”
Doren’s party exchanged glances, then the leader cautiously addressed Salissa.
“Can we watch? I’ve never seen anyone fight with magic.”
“Sure.” She agreed easily. “But there won’t be much to see. I’m practicing conjuring a shield right now, so it will just be Edwin throwing things at me. I can give you a short demonstration of the things I use in combat, though, if you want.”
“Really?” asked Doren, his face lighting up.
“Wouldn’t be a bad idea.” Bordan agreed. “Can’t have you guys get startled if we fight together.”
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They finished their food and rose, heading towards the gate. The guard was surprised to see them but relaxed again when they told him they were just going out to train, and that they would be back soon. They walked to the edge of the forest where they had spotted a tree that had been cracked by a storm earlier, the top half resting on the ground beside it. Salissa turned around and met Edwin’s eyes, who gave her an encouraging nod. She cleared her throat and began.
“So, my simplest attack is with fire. It’s convenient because it doesn’t need anything else, and I can use it without any delay. Also, while it isn’t a particularly efficient use of my mana, most living things are scared of fire, so it can be quite effective. It looks like this.”
She turned around and raised her hand towards the tree, and for a moment Edwin considered warning them about the coming brightness in the dusk’s twilight. Grinning, he decided against it.
A leaf-shaped flame blossomed from Salissa’s hand, immediately connecting her to the trunk in a white line. She cut it off almost immediately, but Doren’s group erupted into shouts of pain and surprise regardless.
“Damn that was bright!” Moss cursed, rubbing his eyes.
“What the…“ Hetta started, a hand on her face. “I can still see it with my eyes closed!”
After a minute or two they had finally calmed down, and Borm was inspecting the tree.
“Wow.” he said, gingerly touching the blackened spot. “This was wet, but it got dried out and charred immediately. That fire must be incredibly hot. How often can you do that?”
“It consumes a lot of mana, so I can only convert fire for maybe ten seconds before I run out. It will gradually become less intense with time, too.”
“Really? Why?” Deld asked curiously.
“I mean, that’s just how it is.” Salissa said hesitantly. “Because of thaumic pressure.”
From the way she used the word, Edwin could tell that she didn’t really understand the underlying theory any better than the adventurers around her, whose faces were drawing into question marks. Edwin sighed. People who tried to kill curious inquiry by spouting badly understood technical terminology had been one of Walter’s pet peeves. He’d once read a quote by a great magister of old: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” He’d always tried following these words, although he had sometimes struggled mightily with their implementation. Ritualism could be really, really complicated, and sometimes it felt like the better he understood it, the harder it became to explain. It did mean that he had simplified explanations for a lot of magical concepts, though.
“Look at it like this.” Edwin said into the confused silence. “At the center of every mage is their core, which is the source of their power. It gathers mana out of their surroundings and stores it. Picture the core like a large barrel, and the mana like water, filling it.”
Doren’s group was surprised by his interjection, but they listened with rapt attention.
“Could it be ale instead?” Borm asked jokingly.
“Sure, if that helps you. Now, when Salissa converts fire, she opens a small hole in the bottom of the barrel. The more water, or ale, is in the barrel, the faster it will come shooting out, right?”
There were nods all around, and Edwin continued. “Well, it’s the same with mana. The core is always the same size, but it fills up with mana until it can’t hold any more. Salissa’s conversion allows it a path to escape, and it does so with pressure. As the mana gets used up and the pressure decreases, less of it will come out at a time, which means the flame gets weaker. If she just kept going, eventually she would run out entirely and the fire would stop on its own. Makes sense?”
Everyone nodded or grumbled in agreement, and Edwin signaled Salissa to continue. She cleared her throat again and started speaking, trying to regain her former confidence.
“The second skill I use is telekinesis, which simply means that I can move things from afar. I mostly use it to shoot arrows, but in one of our last fights I also impaled a direstag with a pitchfork.”
Seeing the question on the faces of the other party, she waved off their unspoken question. “Not important. Let me just show you.”
Without her moving, an arrow rose from the quiver at her belt, turned towards the tree trunk, then zipped towards it. A second joined it, then three arrows were sticking out of the soft bark side by side. Edwin noted with approval that she had limited the speed at which she had shot the arrows, probably to prevent them from breaking. Adjusting her pushes had been among her greatest struggles after she started using telekinesis in combat.
“Of course, it doesn’t have to be arrows. I can’t use it on anything that’s alive, but if one of you wants to point your sword at me…?”
Hetta was the first, her sword springing out of its sheath with a rasp – only to fly from her hand, turn around and hover in the air, pointed directly at her. Salissa made it fly around a little, then spun it in place for a second, and finally floated it towards its owner, who grabbed it out of the air. While the arrows hadn’t had as much of an impact on the other party as the fire had, the trick with the sword had certainly impressed them. An adventurer’s weapons were their life and seeing Hetta’s sword being turned on her was sobering.
“That’s it, really.” Salissa said. “Telekinesis is great because it can be used in a lot of different ways. Finally, right now I’m working on magic shielding, which will allow me to block attacks. I’m only starting with that, though.”
The adventurers had a few more questions, but eventually they settled down and paired up to get in some sparring. Edwin and Salissa worked on her shields. Instead of throwing things at her right away, most of the evening was spent repeatedly creating and dispelling shields without the pressure of time, as her skills in that regard were still lacking. Before long, they headed back to town to get some sleep.
Edwin walked in the back, watching Borm, Moss and Deld pelt Salissa with questions, which she responded to in her usual snooty manner, but he could tell that she was warming up to the other group. Before, they had been polite and professional, but had treated the young mage like something of an outsider.
After all their time together, Edwin saw Salissa and Leodin like the – much – younger siblings Walter had never had. Seeing her be included in something as normal as banter made him feel like he’d accomplished something. When planning his future lives, Walter had only considered himself, and the experiences he would gain. Being able to directly have a positive effect on the lives of others as well was a nice feeling.