It happened mid-morning, and I just so happened to be more or less in the middle of town. I'd been by Heglid's shop--I wasn't so much hovering and asking everyone for work; he'd made a passing reference that he would look into something, so I asked, but today he had nothing--and was walking down the street. Carli was with me; so far, she was more or less acting like a very young child, observing things without even really knowing what questions to ask, yet. Heglid had been nice about her, though I could see a certain caution in his eyes that I, as a person who had already had to clean up goat shit the night before, easily understood.

In the middle of the street, I felt a deep sense of foreboding, and then a snap, and turned to find that hanging in the air in the middle of the street was a large magical hologram of Jess, our wizard, made entirely of amethyst-colored light. She was perhaps twice living size, plus or minus; Jess was a little shorter than me, but the hologram was also floating about two feet off the floor, which messed with my sense of proportions severely, and her head ended up above the rooftops. When she spoke, her voice came out thunderous, rattling the buildings around and hurting my ears for a moment, before the bracers adapted and dimmed the effect for me and, I would later assume, also for Carli.

"Colin Asheron," she said, looking around as though she didn't immediately see me, "We have need of you."

I slammed my hands against my ears, feeling a deep and infuriating swell of humiliation build up in my chest. Because I had dug ditches and smacked rocks with a hammer in order to fit in, and it had all been undone in five seconds, tops.

"Zeus' zombie butthole, Jess," I snapped, "do you not have any way of communicating that's even in the least bit discrete?"

The projection looked down, in confusion, and then resized to be my height, which only made the hologram twice as bright--like she was still using the same amount of magic. But why had she not realized she was too big when she looked around and saw rooftops? I flinched back, but the bracers again quickly helped me adapt, which is the only reason that I saw, as though in slow motion, her mouth open, and realized with shock that the same was almost certainly going to be true of her voice.

I slammed a bunch of energy into my bracers and did my best to dispel Jess' projection, even as her voice--saying something I paid not the slightest bit of attention to--shook the windows and boards of every building in town. Fortunately, I succeeded.

I blinked away the spots in my eyes that the projection had left, and immediately grimaced, looking around, certain that people were going to already be gawking. Nobody had been looking at that exact moment, but the sound drew people over the next few seconds, all rushing to their doors and windows--some windows newly cracked--to see what the hell the disturbance was. I looked back towards where the projection was, noting that the mere appearance of it had left a spot of scorched ground--no doubt because of the ridiculously intense purple light.

Shit, if it was violet light, was it also putting out UV? I hated to think that I was going to get sunburned from that brief encounter, but the mark on the ground left little hope that her projection had been harmless. I made a mental note that any experiments I did with my power henceforth would have extra safety margins built in, to avoid me being responsible for such a monumental screw-up.

On a related note, the sleeves of my shirt had burned away from my bracers, leaving me with charred bits of cloth around my wrists and elbows, and nothing in between, though my arms themselves felt fine. Clearly, channeling a lot of power through the jade artifacts was every bit as dangerous as channeling whatever spell Jess used, and I should not attempt it with--for example--a goat in my arms.

Jerk! For her part, Carli stomped over to the burned circle and bounced up and down a little bit, trying to be assertive, I guess. Bright lights hurt! Loud sounds hurt!

"Come on, Carli," I growled, "lets get the hell away from here in case she decides to call back."

The goat bounced another time or two before immediately following me, as I stalked immediately out of town and away from anyone else. It wasn't hard to get away from things--it would definitely have been hard to get to a place where nobody could see or hear another incident like that one, but when fifteen minutes passed and nothing made of light and thunder appeared overhead, I found a convenient place out of the way, sat down, and tried to meditate on my bracers.

Any of the three of us with magic should have been able to communicate in some way or another, and I figured that as the one of us with a more psychic, will-based magic, I'd be able to do something telepathy-ish, though the distance might be a problem. It occurred to me that the distance might have also been why Jessica put too much energy into her spell, and I very carefully calmed myself down and reset my expectations to zero before pulling on the Bracer's power.

The impressions I got were very vague, but I didn't have to spend a whole lot of power to get them. Jess, I found, was being tended to by Alice, looking like she had a mighty headache. I was... not sympathetic, though I had a moment of fear that I'd done some permanent damage to her, or something. But if merely dispelling her had hurt her... I cleared that thought from my mind and tried to touch both their minds, as gently as I could.

[ Hello, ] I tried, and the two of them both immediately looked up. I got the impression that they said something out loud, but I didn't hear it. [ It's a psychic link, guys. Try thinking at me. ]

[ Colin! ] Jess seemed surprised. [ What the hell was that for? ]

[ First of all, I was trying not to reveal to everyone that I was a Summoned Hero, and second of all, your projection was loud enough to break windows and eardrums for hundreds of feet. ] I sneered, feeling a little holier-than-thou about this, and I got the impression that that came through. Either way, Jessica seemed suitably chagrined.

[ We had no idea how to contact you, ] Alice broke in, diplomatically. [ Your role as the Hero of the Jade Will means that you're supposed to do some things for us, and we need your help with one of those things right now. ]

I sighed. [ What sort of thing? ]

[ Armor, ] replied Jessica. [ Especially for the two of us. The kingdom can provide heavy metal armor, but nothing light and flexible enough for us to wear that's suitable for enchantment... ]

[ I get it, ] I snapped at them. [ I don't mind, but I'm not exactly close enough to take your measurements, and I'm not eager to run back to the kingdom, not after what I did to the Vizier. How did that turn out, by the way? ]

[ He's not dead, ] replied Jessica, smoothly. [ And you're very much a wanted criminal here, so we're not asking you to meet us here. Maybe we can meet in the middle somewhere? ]

I considered that, but frowned. [ As a wizard, can you not teleport? ]

[ To a marked location, sure, ] Jess replied. [ You would have to engrave a mark over there, and if you do, another wizard--say, someone who is an old, mystical asshole who has a grudge against you--can use it just as easily as I can. ]

That figured. [ Can I, say, lock the mark so that I have to be there for someone to use it? ]

Jessica thought about that for a moment, no doubt conferring with the massive library of magical knowledge that being the Hero of the Diamond Mind provided her. [ Yes, ] she said. [ It's a very complex engraving, though. ]

I sighed. [ Give me a couple days to prepare a site, and we'll link up again. You tell me how to make the engraving, and I'll bring you guys in, set you up with some armor, and send you home again. ] I paused. [ Or, you can send yourself home again, assuming that they let you set up a return mark somewhere in the castle, or wherever. ]

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[ Right, ] Jess replied. [ That would be easier with your help, of course. ]

[ Pity I can't go there. ]

[ Because you attacked the king's right-hand man. ]

[ Stop it. ] Alice's voice in the link was backed by a firm but gentle will, of the sort that only the Hero of Purifying Light could throw around on a moment's notice. [ What's done is done. Colin, if you'll help us, we'll also do whatever we can to help you. You understand that, right? ]

I forced myself to calm down, which was much easier with Alice's soothing voice over the link. [ Yes, I know. I'm sorry. ] To be fair, I'd never even considered not helping, though I was still more than happy to force them to work for my help. [ Jess... one other thing. If you can think of any spell that just, you know gets my attention without doing whatever it is you did to me, I'll happily open this kind of link, as long as I can. But also... maybe practice things like that somewhere that you can see the result. ]

[ I get it! I'm sorry I screwed up. Sheesh. ] Jessica seemed upset rather than taking it in stride, which I found irritating. I had only intended it to be feedback, not another reminder of her failure, but I wasn't sure how to phrase that in a way that didn't continue to make it sound like she was the one being unreasonable. Which... she was, I guess. [ I did look at several options for trying to reach you. This one just seemed like it would be the most reliable. I'll try something different next time. ]

[ Something more discrete, please. ]

I got the definite impression that she made a nasty face at nothing, but I ignored it and closed the link. I opened my eyes to find that Carli had decided that it was her job to protect me, and was patrolling the area doing the goat equivalent of a child putting on a "serious face," twitching at anything that moved or made a sound. I smiled, and she sensed me awakening through our link at about the same time, immediately turning to look and quickly bounding over, looking pleased. Colin!

"Hey, Carli. Thanks for standing guard." I stood up, immediately gritting my teeth as started thinking about what came next. If I was going to carve a big screw-off teleport marker, it would be in a place I could secure, and that meant immediately moving my plans forward and claiming a spot, probably that space by the cliff. I wasn't the sort of person to just do that without talking to people, though, which overlapped with the other half of what was coming next: facing the music about the bullshit I'd just been through.

So I firmed up my balls and just marched back towards town, taking just enough of a detour to make sure that nobody had decided to march on my temporary home and demand answers from me there. I considered demanding that Carli wait for me there, but decided that was probably both pointless and not necessarily a great idea in the first place, and just headed back to town.

The group that had gathered around the spot where Jessica's projection had appeared was... well, it was basically all of the town, or at least everyone who was close enough to town to have heard it or received news of the event in the past twenty minutes. The ones on the outside didn't seem to know that I was a part of it, since they turned to look at me but didn't immediately get out of my way when I started pushing my way forwards. Nobody resisted me either, though, and it wasn't long before I found the elders in a circle around the scorched spot of earth, whispering to each other with worried looks on their faces.

"I suppose you'd like some answers," I said, and I was surprised when the group of faces that turned to look at me all seemed baffled by my presence.

"What?" asked one of them, as though my presence only confused matters rather than simplified them.

"Are you serious?" I scowled. "You're going to say nobody heard what the damn projection said, or saw me standing right next to it?"

"It was speaking a foreign language," said Heglid, stepping up to my side. "I saw that you did something to get rid of it, but I had no idea..."

Foreign language? Shit. I shook my head, realizing that I'd just stepped into something that might not have been associated with me at all if I hadn't. After all, they knew I was some kind of mage, just not what kind. "Right, well, it was trying to communicate with me. Ineptly, and I stopped it. It won't happen again."

"What did it want with you?" The elderly woman who spoke put enough scorn and doubt in her voice that it was clear that she couldn't conceive of a person who just recently entered the town having contacts outside of it--that she was, in other words, a complete idiot.

"That's my business," I said, mentally trying to backpedal from discussing the Hero thing. "And to keep my business from affecting the town in the future, I'm thinking I'm going to claim a place for myself a little ways--"

The woman turned away, shaking her head, and started talking, and it was only because I stopped to find out what she was saying that I realized she still didn't believe me. "...still say it's that Naishi woman. Can't trust the southern folk; if anyone was consorting with devils, it would be that one. Disgusting creatures, Naishi--"

"Excuse me," I flexed my will to put extra emphasis on my voice, and everyone involuntarily took a step back, including the whispering elder. "I won't tell you my business, but it was no devil. Just a powerful magician who doesn't yet know how to control her powers. I'm sorry for the trouble and I'll repair any damages, but I'm going to start getting insulted if you ignore me when I'm trying to explain what happened."

Another elder stepped in between the two of us, which was probably wise since the old crone had gotten an insanely nasty look on her face like she wanted to walk up and punch me. "And we appreciate your trying to help, son," he said, clearly just trying to keep the peace. "Perhaps we can talk more in private?"

"Sure," I said. "I just want to make clear--again--that I'll repair anything that's damaged, no charge and no trouble. I'm sorry for the disturbance."

"Broke my mirror," said a voice nearby. "Not even glass, is the strange thing..."

The elder stepped forward and took my upper arm, smiling. "Come along, then," he said, loudly, and gestured somewhere. "Heglid, do you mind...?"

"Oh, sure," drawled the shop owner, making a vague go-ahead gesture.

And so, a few minutes later, eight elders, a foreigner, and a goat were crowded into a sundries shop, and nobody there was happy in the slightest. The only one who seemed actively upset was the crone who'd been eager to blame this on--I assumed, from context--Miun. Thinking of Miun, I could only recall that she had suggested that everyone would be interested in protecting the town above all other interests. And, well, I couldn't argue with that.

"Well," said the elder who had taken it upon himself to mediate, "go ahead, son."

I wished I had a countertop to lean back on, I guess as a defensive thing, but could only straighten my back and try to appear in charge. "I am one of five heroes summoned by the gods and given divine artifacts," I tapped my bracers, which I still hadn't repaired my shirt to cover. "But I'm not one that's meant to go around slaying demons or causing mischief. I just want a place to stay, and occasionally, the others may drop in to get my help with things." I frowned. "The... incident was caused by one of the other heroes, who created an... an image," I simplified, "to try to reach me. She didn't control the power correctly, and I had to disrupt her spell. Then I left and contacted her a different way. She won't try that again, and nothing terrible happened."

The circle of six old men and two old women stared at me. They weren't so much unable to comprehend what I was saying, I quickly realized, but rather didn't believe me.

"I see," said one of the old men that I hadn't met, in a tone that carried enough sarcasm to paint a small house. "Just two heroes talking to one another, mhm, quite understandable."

So I gestured, and picked myself up off the ground with only a minor flex of the bracers' power. The others immediately took a step back, except for Carli, who bleated at me. Haha, flying!

"I don't throw the word around because I want to," I said. "I'm not calling myself a heroic sort of person or saying that I'm somehow superior. But the artifact is the real thing, and that's why I want to live a quiet life where nothing terrible happens." Well, I realized after I stopped talking, that wasn't quite following my logic, but they were both true, at least.

I lowered myself back to the floor, and Carli, for reasons I can't actually put a finger on, suddenly leaped six feet in the air and landed, forefeet on my head and rear feet on my shoulder. The move shocked me, but I just reached up and patted her protectively, since she wasn't nearly heavy enough to hurt me. I couldn't quite see, but I could imagine the little goat glaring around the room, or maybe fixing one of the nastier elders with a goaty little glare for daring to doubt me.

Either way, nobody said anything for a minute.

"Which brings me to my next bit," I said. "I plan to make myself a house, and I'm thinking I'm going to take the sheltered cove by the plateau. Does anyone object?"

"That place?" One of the few elders I'd actually talked to frowned. "That place is haunted. The whole plateau is. Kids go there once a generation to spend a night, but nobody in their right mind wants to stay there."

That sounded perfect, and I smiled grimly at him. "Then I trust nobody has any objections."

That, more than anything that I'd said or done since I'd found them worrying over the burned spot in the middle of town, seemed to genuinely frighten the old folks. When nobody spoke up, I started towards the door. "If you do, you know where I'll be. But you'd better hurry, because once I get started, I'm going to make permanent changes pretty damn quickly."

"What are you planning to do?" The crone who had been snippy earlier now looked somewhere between terrified, confused, and furious.

"I told you," I said as I opened the door. "I'm planning on making myself a home."