The two went their separate ways after that. Making his way back to the camp, Jasper showed up late to the morning exercises. The men had started without him, but he joined in, huffing and puffing from the race back from the city. Feeling a bit guilty about having missed most of the exercise, Jasper decided to check in on the morning patrol as well.

The patrol had already left for the day. Their assigned course took them through the closest third of the camp, looking for any sign of suspicious activity. From there, the men ventured out into the countryside where, as a favor done for the local lords, the troops marched between the small villages and hamlets that surrounded Nūr-S̆ams̆a.

Riding on Dapplegrim, it didn’t take Jasper long to catch up with the patrol on foot. With a few hundred men under his command, he hadn’t the time yet to learn the names and faces of everyone, but as Jasper scanned the faces amongst the patrol he was surprised to realize he recognized quite a few of them. But one face in particular caught his attention, that of his fellow summoned. Reigning in Dapplegrim, Jasper settled into a trot beside him.

“How’s it hanging?”

Erin, who’d been marching along with his head hanging down, jumped at the unexpected greeting. “What the hell-“ His eyes widened as he noticed Jasper. “Hey, man, err-” he froze, and then quickly hastened to add, “my lord…commander? I’m not sure how we’re supposed to address you,” he admitted.

As much as Jasper wanted to tell the man to just call him by his name, he knew that protocol wasn’t entirely meaningless in the army.. “How about commander,” he offered. “I’m not too fond of ‘my lord.’ So was my uncle able to help you?”

The scout hesitated a moment. “He tried. Lord S̆arrābī brought a number of specialists in to look at me, but no one’s fixed me yet. There was one guy, though, some dude from the Empire, who thought he could help, so maybe?”

“I hope he can figure it out. Did the mage say what was wrong?”

“I don’t remember the explanation exactly. Something about how my essence wasn’t actually essence - it was mana. I don’t really get why that matters but,” he shrugged, “he seemed to think it would make a difference.”

Barbartu flitted through Jasper’s mind. “You know, I’ve run into one other person from Earth recently.”

“Really?” Erin glanced up in surprise. “Can I meet her?”

“Nah, she went home already.”

“She went HOME?!” The guy’s eyes widened. “That’s an option? How the hell do I sign up for that? Why didn’t you tell me-?”

“Stop, stop,” Jasper chuckled as the scout barraged him with questions. “Yes, she went home and, no, I didn’t exactly have a way to contact you at the time.” And, truthfully, it didn’t even occur to me, he thought with a touch of guilt. “But she went home on her own power, so it’s not an option for you. I mentioned her because she had a problem that was a bit similar to you.”

Erin frowned. “That’s nice and all, but if going home is an option, screw magic.”

“Unless you can afford an extremely expensive and hard-to-find portal that the S̆addu’â control, it isn’t an option,” Jasper sighed. “Now try to focus.”

“Shortly before she left, Barbartu told me how she ended up here, and one of the things she said was the magic here was different than it was on Earth. In fact, she said she’d been severely weakened when she first arrived, so this imperial mage you met may be right.”

Erin shot him a funny look. “Are you saying she had magic before she arrived? That’s absurd. Everyone knows there’s no magic on Earth, unless you count David Copperfield or that goth knock-off.”

Jasper shrugged. “I mean, I used to think that too, but Barbartu isn’t the only person to tell me there’s magic on Earth. I’ve heard it from the Children of St. Martin who claimed to have migrated from there, from Djinn who’ve apparently visited, and even Kas̆dael herself. I may not have seen any magic on Earth, but I’m pretty sure it’s not all an elaborate prank to trick me.”

“So she was, what, a witch?”

“Not exactly. She wasn’t even human, in fact, but something called a Lamas̆tu.”

“You mean we’re not alone?”

“Nope….what’s that?” A row of reeds stuck their wizened heads above the dirty snow, bobbing and shaking in the chill breeze that swept down from the distant mountains, but the drabness of the environment was broken up by a small flicker of bright blue hiding in the reeds. Nudging Dapplegrim forward, the two rode through the reeds until they reached the spot of color.

A small child, clad in a dirty blue tunic, lay in the ditch. Her skin was pale and clammy, smeared with daubs of the frozen mud, and his heart skipped a beat as he feared the worst. Sliding off his horse, Jasper bent down low over her. Her eyes fluttered open and, with a screech, she wriggled backward through the snow and reeds.

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“It’s okay - I’m not going to hurt you.” He spoke gently, moving slowly and deliberately so as not to spook her. The frantic backpedaling stopped and she looked up at him with suspicion. “What are you doing out here? You must be very cold.” Reaching up to Dapplegrim’s saddle, he pulled out his mount’s blanket and held it out to her. “Here, why don’t you wrap up in this.”

The djinn child snatched the blanket out of his hand and pulled it tight around her, smearing it with snow and mud.

“Where’s your parents,” he asked.

“The woods,” the girl replied. He glanced up and looked behind her. A few young saplings peaked their head above the reeds, but the bulk of the trees had been pushed back about fifty feet on either side of the road, no doubt to deprive would-be bandits of potential shelter. But beyond that stretch of cleared space rose a forest whose thick trunks and towering heights reminded him of the rare old-growth forest he’d visited once back home.

“What are they doing in the woods?”

“They went to buy something.”

“To buy something?” Jasper wrinkled his brow. What the hell can you buy in the middle of a forest?

A few of the soldiers had gathered around them, and one of them cleared his throat. “Did they go to see a qas̆pa?”

The little girl nodded solemnly.

“What’s a qas̆pa, soldier?”

The man scratched his head. “While I suppose you wouldn’t have much cause to go to one, my lord, but they’re kind of like a hermit. They sell potions and stuff.” He coughed and his cheeks colored. “Love potions and liquor are their real sellers though.”

So a witch crossed with a moonshiner. Turning his attention back to the little girl, he rifled through his bag and pulled out a hard roll which he offered her. “When did they go into the woods?”

She tore into the roll like a starved hyena, ripping the tough bread to shreds. “Two…nights…,” she replied in-between bites.

Anger roiled in his heart. Picking up the girl, he gently placed her in Dapplegrim’s saddle and turned to the man. “Would a few of you be willing to go look for this girl’s parents?”

A few hands were raised, including the hand of the soldier who’d spoken up and, somewhat to his surprise, Erin’s hand also went up. “Alright, check out the woods, and we’ll see about getting this girl back to her village.”

----------------------------------------

Erin watched as the rest of the patrol continued down the road toward the nearest settlement, a little village by the name of Norma which Jasper hoped the little girl was from.

“You’re a scout, aren’t you?” His attention was broken as a voice echoed behind him. Spinning around, he found the soldier who had spoken up about the qas̆pa was standing right beside him.

“Yeah, I am. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Erin,” he said, reflexively sticking out his hand. Stupid, he cringed almost immediately.

The soldier stared down at the hand in confusion; then, with a shrug, he stuck his own hand out in front of him, though neither hand was touching. “That’s an odd greeting. You from one of those tiny mountain villages,” he asked pleasantly.

“Something like that,” Erin glossed over his past. “And you are?”

“Dannu,” the man replied. “Infantry.” He paused and stared into the foreboding woods. “Didn’t want to tell the commander this, but looking for those parents is a waste of time.”

Erin agreed. No one left a child alone for two days by accident. They were either dead or had abandoned her. “You’re probably right, but Jasper is trying to help.” He started walking toward the woods, with the soldier in tow.

“Jasper?” Erin could hear the note of surprise in the soldier's voice and hastily corrected himself.

“Sorry, the commander.”

“I take it you know him, then?”

“Not well, but we’ve met. He saved me and my squad from a bunch of S̆addu’â.”

“You mean that story’s true?”

“Yeah? Why would you think it wasn’t?”

The man grunted. “Huh, go figure. None of us had ever heard of Commander Yas̆peh before, so we kind of assumed he was just another rich brat. We’ve heard a few stories about him saving some scouts, and fighting some cultists, but honestly they sounded so ridiculous we didn’t believe him.”

“I can’t say anything about cultists,” Erin hedged, “but he definitely saved us.” He filled the soldier in on what had happened as they tromped through the forest, but he paused as he came across a set of tracks.

“That look like two sets of prints to you?” He asked, pointing at the ground.

Dannu shrugged. “You’re the scout.”

Bending down, Erin examined the tracks closer. Unfortunately, he had no skills from the system to aid his analysis but what he had learned from the scout corps stood him in good stead. A pair of smaller footprints nestled inside a larger pair, almost hidden from sight, but he was quite certain there were two of them. “This could be her parents.”

They fell silent as the two trudged deeper into the woods. The set of tracks were not perfectly preserved; here and there the wind had brushed away nearly all sign of them and when they reached a river, whose waters had frozen into a solid surface scoured clean of any snow, he nearly lost the trail. He picked it up nearly a hundred years up the river, and the two continued their trek.

And then, through the shroud of thick trees, Erin caught a glimpse of something too straight and rectangular to be natural. “I think there’s a house up ahead,” he whispered to the soldier.

“Maybe,” Dannu grunted after a minute’s pause. “I can barely make it out, but I’m sure your vision’s better than mine.”

Erin stood up and started to head toward the building, but the man grabbed his wrist. “Hey, we should be careful.”

“Why?”

A look of disbelief flitted across the man’s face. “Selene’s grace, man. I understand the lord not knowing about qas̆pa; doubt a royal has even brushed shoulders with one, but you ain’t no royal.”

“Let’s just say they didn’t exist where I grew up,” Erin replied slowly. “Are they dangerous?”

“Yeah, most of them are. Some of them are nice enough, but there’s a reason they usually live in the middle of nowhere and not in a village. Best take it slow and easy.”

A few months earlier, Erin might have dismissed the soldier’s words as simple prejudice. Everyone knew that witches weren’t real, and were just poor, mistreated women who’d been scapegoated by angry villagers - on Earth that is. But his disastrous attempt at rescuing the S̆addu’â woman had taught him the value of caution. And if Jasper is to be believed, there really is magic on Earth, so who knows? Maybe there really were evil witches. He pondered the idea for a moment, then dismissed it with a snort. There weren't no witches at Salem.

Still, he decided that the soldier was right about one thing: a little bit of caution would hurt nothing. “Alright,” he agreed. “I’ll circle round to the other side and we’ll make sure there’s no nasty surprises.