The warriors in dragon armor brandished their weapons at Isabelle and her companions as they loomed over them from the edge of the lowering airship.

"Brace yourselves!" Isabelle shouted to her party.

"How?" said Stelas. "I'm a fucking severed head in a burlap sack, if you've forgotten already."

"And I'm forcibly tied to your horse!" said the false prince of Sharithlond.

"I wasn't talking to you two, I was talking to Tahsi Junior and Lugano," said Isabelle. "Duh."

"Aw, thanks for the consideration, Isabelle," said Tahsi Junior. "You don't want any more bread, do you?"

"Silence!" bellowed the warrior holding a longsword. "You will answer me!"

"I am sorry, but what would I be answering you about?" asked Isabelle. "It seems that I don't really know what's going on right now, other than the fact that you've shut off my ability to use my mana and that you and your two friends seem incredibly rude."

"SILENCE!!" bellowed the warrior again, raising his sword over his head.

Isabelle sighed, then closed her eyes for a moment. It was time to fuck shit up.

"Um, hello?" said the second warrior, who was holding a bow and arrows. "Why did you close your eyes? That's very rude! We expect you to take us seriously, miss mage of shadows!"

"Because it's easier," said Isabelle.

"Easier?" asked the first warrior. He lowered his sword a little in confusion.

"Easier than looking at you ugly motherfuckers." Isabelle smirked.

"Ugly?!" said the warrior holding a firebomb. "Lady, you can't even see our bodies or faces under this dragon scale armor we're wearing! Our bodies are perfect! We're in peak physical condition! The OverQueens of the Red Serpent demand nothing less! And as far as our faces go, they're all very handsome!"

"Wow, you sound pretty defensive," said Tahsi Junior. "Don't they sound defensive, Isabelle? I think they sound defensive."

"Shut the hell up, kid!" shouted the warrior holding a sword. "Don't talk to us about defensive until you learn a thing or two about discipline!"

Tahsi Junior blew a raspberry in response to this.

"That's it, we're attacking now!" said the warrior with a bow. He drew an arrow and aimed it at Isabelle.

"Wait a second," said Isabelle. She raised out a finger.

"What?!" said the warrior, lowering his bow a little. "What the fuck is it now?"

[Speechcraft attempt: persuade]

"If your faces are so handsome, why don't you prove it?" asked Isabelle. "Go ahead, take off those helmet and show us what you got."

[Speechcraft succeeded]

"Very well," said the first warrior. He sheathed his sword and took off his helmet. He had long, shaggy red hair, thick eyebrows over bright blue eyes, and a wide, open jawline.

"Not bad," said Isabelle. "Now the other guy."

The second warrior lifted his helmet as well. He had short brown hair and a face that was very symmetrical. His eyebrows were also long and bushy, but they didn't match the rest of his features.

"That's... not so great," said Isabelle.

The second warrior bristled, and then hung his head in shame.

"What about number three over there? Firebomb man, what do you have going on?" asked Isabelle.

The third warrior took off his helmet, revealing an attractive face that seemed to belong to someone much younger than either of the other warriors. His hair was cut into a crew cut with a slight widow's peak at the front. The skin tone of his face was quite fair. He had a thin chin and lips. The most unusual thing about his face were his eyes—they looked like they were made from the same translucent blue material as the dragon scale armor the trio was wearing. They were almost see-through.

Isabelle was silent for a few moments as she looked over the three warriors in turn. The other two warriors didn't look nearly as good as their companion now.

"Well?" asked the third warrior. "What do you think of me?"

[Speechcraft attempt: persuade]

"...I'm still not sure," said Isabelle, though there was a waver in her voice. "How about this. Why don't you three now show us your bodies, too?"

[Speechcraft had mixed results]

"What?!" bellowed the first warrior. He was red with rage at the prospect of having to display his naked body in front of Isabelle.

[Speechcraft attempt: persuade]

"You know, to prove that you're in... peak physical condition," said Isabelle.

[Speechcraft succeeded]

The first warrior shook himself a little as he noticed his two companions snickering at him. "You know what?" he said. "Fine!" The warrior stripped off his armor, revealing a lean frame covered in thick, vascular muscles.

"Wow!" said Isabelle. She whistled appreciatively as her eyes wandered down the warrior's chest to his abs, and then further down to his legs where his muscles bunched into shapely calves and thighs. "Okay, your turn, number two."

"Hah, number two," said the third warrior to the second. "Almost like you're a piece of shit or something."

The second warrior flushed with anger. "Shut up!" he yelled back. He removed his own armor as well, revealing a lithe figure that was just as ripped as the first warrior.

Isabelle whistled again.

"I feel a bit like a whore or something," said the first warrior.

"It's no matter," said Isabelle. "Alright, number three. Show me what you've got going on, now."

This time, the third warrior did nothing more than pull at his shirt before removing it and tossing it aside. His body was thinner and

lankier compared to the other two warriors. His stomach muscles weren't very pronounced,though Isabelle could see the faint shadow of a six-pack. His arms and legs didn't look particularly muscular, and his shoulders seemed narrow, though it was hard to tell for sure because of his figurative lack of a neck.

"Well?" said the third warrior. "Where's my whistle, then?"

Isabelle wasn't going to whistle for this asshole, or for either of these two warriors again. Instead, she opened her mouth and thought, 'Use Gust of Wind.'

[Stamina 74%]

A huge torrent of wind rushed from Isabelle's esophagus and thrust outwards from her throat, hitting all three warriors in a brilliant flurry that sent them soaring off the edge of their airship and out towards the horizon.

Isabelle smirked as she watched them fly further and further away in the distance, hearing the three warriors' screams fading to nothing.

[10925 damage dealt]

[11002 damage dealt]

[10899 damage dealt]

Isabelle was irritated that the warriors weren't dead, but she was glad that they were far away from her for now. She stepped back and watched the airship further lower itself. Clearly whoever was steering it was still there, and that was probably why Isabelle was still locked in combat mode.

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"Holy shit," said Tahsi Junior. "What did you do? Is there some spell like this in the books?"

"Not exactly," said Isabelle. "Remember, I can't use my mana right now. It was a breath weapon."

"Oh," said Tahsi Junior. "You know, I think I have one of those! Being half-dragon and all. But mine is called 'Healing Breath' and it gives you hp and stuff. Maybe I should try to use that..."

"Well, I think we're all fine on hp right now," said Isabelle. "But, yes, in general, that tool sounds great. Especially considering all these enemies we keep running into are suppressing magic and mana. Speaking of which, what's up with all that?"

"Beats me," said Tahsi Junior.

"You might want to actually read that scroll I gave you, Isabelle," said the false prince of Sharithlond. "I think it will explain what's going on."

Isabelle took a second to glance over at the tied-up false prince, who seemed to be looking out into the distance again. It was odd, as though he were lost in thought, or perhaps even asleep. Then, she realized it was more likely that the ropes she had around his neck were impeding his air supply, and that was probably the cause of his slight delirium.

Either way, she had other things to worry about right now. The airship landed on the ground with a loud creak and a big puff of dirt and dust. Isabelle cracked her neck, prepared to use a breath weapon again.

"Please! Oh gods, please don't kill me!" cried a feeble voice from beyond the smoke and fog of the ship. "I submit! Oh, mage of shadows, I submit!"

Isabelle rolled her eyes. Whoever this was, was annoying as hell.

"Look, I'd love to not have to waste any energy fighting you," said Isabelle. "Whoever the hell you are. But I'm still in combat mode, and unless you can somehow get me out of it, I'm going to treat you as an enemy the second I see you."

"Fair enough, fair enough!" cried the voice. "I'm going to throw out all my weapons! Stand back!"

Isabelle raised an eyebrow and stepped away from the airship. With clangs, bangs, and clunkers, numerous blades, daggers, bombs, whips, chains, and hatchets clattered across the ground.

"Are you out of combat mode yet?" cried the voice. "No," said Isabelle.

"Shit. Sorry," said the voice.

A huge axe flew through the air and slammed into the ground right by Lugano's hooves, startling the beautiful horse into a flurry of disgruntled whinnies.

[Combat mode deactivated]

"Okay, you're good," said Isabelle. "Watch it, though. You scared Lugano."

"Lugano?" asked the voice.

"My beautiful horse," said Isabelle. "Oh," said the voice.

A small man, perhaps a halfling, jumped down from the top of the airship. He looked up at Isabelle and Tahsi Junior with his tiny face, which had an enormous mole on it that seemed to be trying to swallow it whole.

"Well," he said. "I am very happy to see that you two are alive and well. I can't tell you how sorry I am that you were attacked, but please

know that we never intended for this to happen. Or, at least, that I didn't. I mean, hell, you vanquished the Overlord! Just because the OverQueens want to capture you doesn't mean everyone working for them approves."

Tahsi Junior smiled at the man, but Isabelle just rolled her eyes. "So what do you want with us?" asked Isabelle.

"Well, I mean, I don't necessarily want anything with you. Really, I just want to make sure that I'm okay, and you seem a lot more powerful than the warriors that ordered me to drive this airship out to catch you, so I'm deferring to you," said the halfling. "I'm an engineer, and I'm a lover, not a fighter."

"They why did you have so many weapons?" asked Isabelle. "Like, seriously, that was a metric shit ton of weaponry. Do you really expect us to believe that you're an engineer who likes to fuck things and build things instead of some sort of murderous, lying snake?"

The little halfling looked at Isabelle, as though he wanted to cry. Then, he turned back to Isabelle's group.

"Yes, I'm definitely an engineer who builds things and, no, I'm not lying to you!" cried the little man. "It's true. Look, I'm a very meek individual who prefers peace over all else. But if a bunch of scary people are bossing me around, well, hell, I'm going to horde as much weaponry as I can get away with. I'd even go so far to say that I'm a weapons hoarder. And that, right there, is a terrible thing. It's a terrible way to live, Isabelle. Always looking at weapons, trying yet failing again and again to divine what kind of power the tool might hold, hoping against hope that one day you will have a system that might just tell you in a numerical format the stats of any item you obtain... oh, it's a terrible, sad life I've lived. But I won't apologize for it! Why should I? What I'm doing is necessary. I need these weapons. And they need me. Yes, oh, they need me terribly."

"This is getting a little... weird," said Isabelle. She had a hard time imagining how an individual's love of weapon hoarding would qualify as "necessary."

But then again, maybe it didn't seem like such a strange obsession when she looked at it from another perspective. She loved weapons herself. If anything, her weapons were too good. Too powerful. The fact that this tiny little creature, this halfling who couldn't even reach four feet tall, was so passionate about weapon hoarding just made her realize that, yeah, maybe weapon hoarding wasn't that weird of an obsessive hobby after all. Especially considering it was taking every inch of her willpower to not immediately focus on all the weapons and add them to her inventory.

Maybe she shouldn't judge others' hobbies so quickly.

Isabelle decided to give the little halfling another chance. She walked toward him. The little man seemed nervous, but Isabelle knew what her weapons wanted. She wanted more weapons.

The halfling's tiny eyes grew wide with fear and delight as Isabelle reached down and picked him up by the scruff of his shirt.

[Speechcraft attempt: intimidate]

"Why in the fucking fuck should I fucking listen to you, asshole?" Isabelle shouted angrily into his ear. "Because you aren't attacking us at this very moment? For all I know, you're a horrible, vile, evil, piece of shit!"

She felt the rage bubbling up inside her again, threatening to explode out of her chest and burn the little man alive from the inside out. It would be easy enough to kill him. He probably wouldn't even put up much of a fight before she was done with him. But something in Isabelle felt the urge to stop herself.

"Now why the fuck can't I use my mana, how did you do it to me, and how can I get it back?" asked Isabelle.

[Speechcraft succeeded]

"Hey!" said the halfling. "Please, please let me go! I promise I'll tell you everything! Let me tell you how to use your mana! I've never seen a human like you, but I have to assume you're pretty damn powerful considering you knocked all those warriors away in a half-second without any mana. Trust me, I'll be happy to help!"

"Fine," said Isabelle. She dropped the halfling on the ground, watching his squirm like a cockroach on his back for a moment. "Now tell me what's going on!"

"Well," he started, looking up at Isabelle. "As I'm sure you know by now, there is an entire magical race in this world that doesn't believe anyone should have magic."

"I... had absolutely no idea of that," said Isabelle.

"Because you didn't read the scroll!" said the false prince.

"Shut up!" said Isabelle.

"Please don't tie me to your horse like that," said the halfling as he looked at the imprisoned elf.

"Don't worry," said Isabelle. "I'd never dream of it. Unless you crossed me, that is."

"I won't! I wouldn't! Please believe me!" the halfling scarmbled to his feet, then quickly dropped to his knees. He blubbered at Isabelle's feet like a fearful urchin.

Isabelle looked down at him curiously. "Okay. Tell me about this... race of anti-mages, then."

"Okay," said the halfling. "They're called the Order of the Unconquered Sun."

"Oh fuck yes," said Isabelle. "You got yourself one hell of a good organizational name if you can throw the the word 'sun' in it."

"Thank you, miss human. That's often what people say," said the halfling. "Now here is everything we know about the Order of the Unconquered Sun." The halfling began his tale. "The Unconquered Sun are an ancient group who live out in the deserts of Imahmah. They live underground, but they have access to a wide variety of mana that they use not only for magical practice but actually to feed off of for sustenance. It is because of this that their power has surpassed that of many other living beings in Beaubinte. But for all of their powers and all of their knowledge, these mages are extremely paranoid, as you can see, and because of that they don't think anyone else deserves the magical power that they do."

Isabelle snorted. "Paranoid mages? That just sounds absurd. Why would anybody be a paranoid mage?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, player," said the halfling. "Some say it has something to do with being shut in underground for so long. Other still say they're just plain assholes."

"I can tell you that I think the latter explanation sounds like a lot more fun," said Isabelle. She turned to the others in the group. "So there's this whole race of anti-magic people, huh? What happens to them when they come up out of the ground?"

"It's been a few centuries since any of these creatures have stepped foot above ground," said the halfling. "Along with that, for the longest time, the Red Serpent essentially treated their demands like the ravings of madmen. But now the the OverQueens are in control and there's a player--the player being you, of course--that could very well be the mage of shadows, well, the Order has been threatening to cecede from the Red Serpent's power. In a bid to stay in their favor through diplomacy, the Red Serpent has essentially established a directive to find the mage of shadows--i. e. you--and take all your powers away from you."

"Ah, shit," said Isabelle. "I guess I really should have read that scroll after all. What a fucking shitshow." She sighed as she considered the situation. "How the hell am I supposed to stop this?" She looked to the group as if seeking their aid, but they all looked back at her, wide- eyed. She rolled her eyes at them. "Oh for fuck's sake."

"Wait, did you mean how do you stop your mana block?" asked the halfling. "Because if so, I have a gizmo on the ship that could do that."

"Oh, okay," said Isabelle. "Sounds good to me."

Isabelle followed the halfling up the ramp and onto the airship. It was massive, and the entire craft was blackened. There were burn marks everywhere, and a few spots looked as though some of the wooden panels had simply melted or been burned off altogether. As far as Isabelle could tell, the vessel hadn't taken a single battle during its lifetime, yet the ship looked as though it had been in many fights.

"Wow. I have to say, this wasn't necessarily what I was expecting," said Isabelle. "I mean, don't get me wrong, the size of the ship is impressive and all, but considering the budget the Red Serpent usually throws around on gilded costumes and sculptures and so on I really didn't expect for the thing to look like total--"

"Shit!" said the halfling. "It's gotten out!"

"It?" asked Isabelle.

[Combat mode activated]

"Oh, damn it," said Isabelle. "What am I fighting now? Is this an ambush?"

"No, no at an ambush, just a--"

Before the halfling could finish his sentence, a blast of flame and power illuminated his shocked face as a humanoid figure leaped from the shadows and sliced off his right arm with a shimmering, talon-like claw that was consumed entirely in blistering flames.

"Fucking hell," said Isabelle.

"Hello there, player," said the strange flame-person. "Let's see how good of a fighter you really are, eh?"

Isabelle rolled her eyes. This guy seemed like a total knob.