Ugh! He’s no help at all. Focusing on my dumb strings again, I wave them over each other as I try to just let them float into a sort of net shape, and it mostly doesn’t work, but then all of a sudden, one of the strings attaches itself to another. Grabbing hold of the two strings, I try to pull them apart, but they’re just stuck together like they’ve been tied together.

Grabbing another one, I try waving it over the two pieces and it happens again. I think they want to be attached in a specific way. With the last four strings at the ready, I begin trying to add them to the rest of the mess. It takes some fidgeting, but they’re slowly falling into place.

With all the strings attached to each other, I start weaving them into a vaguely mesh-shaped form. I don’t know why, but they’re so much easier to work with now, and I’ve completed the mesh in very little time.

It feels pretty good. I think. Now for the moving it to my mind part. I assume that’s the back of my skull, so that's what I go with. It flows like a leaf on water inside me, and when it reaches the spot, I can feel where it should go, as if there’s a spot made for it. It attaches itself and gives me a headache. I think he tricked me!

Opening my eyes again, I’m ready to attack him, but I don’t recognize the world anymore... Looking at the sky, I can see the wind glowing with a teal color, growing more blue as the waves of air swirl around, it looks so forceful. The trees have a beautiful green color, shining bright with life, their magic looks like they could withstand anything.

And looking at the mage, I see his magic and his life. A mixture of deep blue magic floating in a pool of faded yellow, it feels soft like air, as if I could pass right through it. The shape keeps changing and pulsing, as if it is trying to be many things at the same time.

“… You’ve already mastered it?…”

The notion that I’ve already learned this spell seems to make him uneasy, but it’s not my problem that he underestimated how clever I am and how easy Kira’s magic is to work with. I should learn as much magic as I can and then tease her about it! I know she was annoyed when she was told that she wouldn’t be able to learn blessed people magic.

“Do mages see everything like this all the time? Watching the sky is making me dizzy…”

“You should only be able to see magic in other beings… What are you, little one?”

I don’t like that he’s calling me Little One, that’s Kira’s name for me. With the fiercest glare I can manage, I tell him to stop using that name. He’s a little startled, but he relents.

“I apologize, may I ask your name then?”

I don’t know why, but he’s smiling as he asks me my name, and it’s weird and makes me want to punch him.

“I’m Raya. What else can you teach me?”

"Hello, Raya. I’m Kanen. I’d be happy to teach you in exchange for my life.”

Looking around at the world with the magic sight, everything seems to be what it is. Trees always have the same magic stuff, the wind moves the same way. The same is true for everything I can see, except Kanen’s magic stuff.

“Why is your yellow magic stuff so weird? It won’t sit still.”

The question seems to make him unsure of what to do. He starts fidgeting with his hands and doesn’t seem to want to answer, but as far as I can tell, he can’t think of a way to get out of it. His reluctance makes me want to know even more.

“How about this, I will tell you my secret, but you have to promise me that you won’t kill me unless I threaten you first.”

I don’t think he’s being tricky, but I can never know with humans. It sounds reasonable, but he left something out that I’ll need to add to make him more trustworthy.

“Fine, I won’t kill you unless you threaten me or my people first! Now tell me your secret!”

With a sad smile, he points to a tree and chants a spell. In a shower of splinters, the tree explodes, leaving a small crater and shaking the surrounding forest.

“My magic is unstable. If I use it on myself, it works as I intend, but the spell I cast on that tree was to shake it. I’m sure it’s quite shaken now, but not quite in the way I had in mind.”

“So why didn’t you explode me? You could have easily won if you had just done that.”

“Sure, I can kill you without much effort, but unstable magic tends to react with and destabilize magic in whatever I cast it on as well. A tree’s magic is strong and resilient, so asking it to shake goes against its nature. It’s what a tree fights its entire life, so my magic made it violently change its nature. Now, what would happen if I cast a spell on you and it conflicted with your nature?”

“I don’t know. What happens if the nature is the same?”

“I can’t say that I know what would happen either, but if the nature aligns, it becomes amplified. If your magic’s nature is to bring life, life blooms around you. With the power you carry, you might even turn this entire forest magical if that were the case. But what if your magic’s nature is destruction, death, or some other… less fortunate… force? Think of the most powerful being you know and consider what would happen if all of their magic got released at once and their nature was death.”

That doesn’t sound nice. I’m not sure what Kira’s magical nature is, but she’s really good at breaking things, and she has so much magic. It does make me curious, and I want to learn more about this stuff.

“How come you don’t find someone with a good nature and use it to create a lot of good?”

“Very few people would trust the unstable magic, and fewer still would allow it to be cast on them. And you’d have to watch out for liars or those believing they’re good-natured, but aren’t. I’m not sure how the force of magic determines that, but it’s surprisingly specific. Now, we can discuss this all day and night, and in a better setting, I might be inclined to do exactly that, but let us not fuss about that. Now I’m curious, how come you’re out here hunting adventurers?”

I’m getting the impression he really doesn’t know anything about the stuff going on, which means Lauren didn’t get a chance to tell them before she got attacked. Starting slowly, I tell him about everything from Lauren’s first attack, bringing him up to speed on everything we know. I’m not sure why I’m being so honest with him, but there are still things I don’t tell him, like where Kira came from.

“That is a lot to take in and in our trade of knowledge, I believe I may have made the better deal. So perhaps some advice from an old fool: I can understand why you were so willing to kill us, and I understand that there’s a score to settle. But remember, little Raya, a price paid in blood is rarely paid in just the blood you spill.”

It’s true, but what else can we do? The adventurers will return and attack, so we’ll be forced to fight even if we want peace.

“I have another trade in mind, little Raya. I can offer you the location of the camp I stayed in, and in exchange, I would like to know how I can travel north without getting eaten by a Dragon. I realize that it goes contrary to what I said about spilled blood, but they have four goblins bound and I’m not sure what their intentions are.”

“You kept that a secret to bargain?! They could be dead by now! Adventurers kill us for fun! Where are they?!”

The urge to hunt flares up as I leap onto the mage’s chest. With rage flowing, I dig my fingers into the flesh of his shoulders as he screams in pain. He’s exactly like the rest!

“Please! Raya! If the goal was to kill them, they would have done it already! I believe they want to trade the goblins to the Dragon!”

That makes sense… It’s dumb, but it makes sense. They don’t know anything about what’s going on, and they’re just making everything worse. I’m starting to understand why Wreyn wants to trust Kira instead.

Taking my fingers out of his meat, I climb off him and throw a coin token at him, telling him that Kira won’t kill him if he carries that. I don’t know if it’s true, but it might be.

He starts telling me where to find their camp and which landmarks to look out for, such as a big stone shaped like half a skull. When I reach that, I should be able to hear the noise from the camp. So all I have to do is head west until I find a rock shaped like a skull. And then I’ll be near a clearing between some Sokofoan trees, where they’ll have a camp.

While he’s explaining, he pulls out a potion and pours the contents on his wounds. It smells like a strong healing potion, and I’m tempted to take his stuff if it’s that valuable.

“I am curious about what you are, Raya. I have never met anything with two sources of magic before. Could I ask you to cast another one of those fiery balls again?”

Forming a fire bolt in my hand, I look at it and see black and red magic fighting each other inside the ball, one consuming the other and multiplying, caught in a loop of feasting. Throwing it at a nearby tree, it burns deep into the trunk.

“Magnificent! The sight of your spell forming will be etched into my mind until the day I die. Oh, what I could do with power like that.”

As he mumbles about things he could do with Kira’s magic, he starts walking away as if it’s the most normal thing in the world... I’m not sure what to make of his explanation about his unstable magic, though. If I had the power to explode something like that, I would use it to defend Tuiran.

“You’re walking south, dummy!”

Turning around, looking at me, then the sky, he chuckles as he starts walking north.

“Right you are, Raya! Thank you, I guess I owe you a small debt for saving me from getting lost. If you find yourself in Arrenfret any time soon, visit the Barmaid’s Warmth and I’ll buy you a mug of ale.”

I’m not sure I’d ever visit that place, it sounds awful. Instead of lingering, I head toward the opposite direction of where he indicated. I’m sure he got turned around when he explained that too. With my first step, I almost trip as the ground doesn’t match what I’m seeing. The magic in the grass makes the ground look higher up than it is.

I need to take some time to learn how to move with my new magic sight. Everything is just glowing and weird. Wait, he didn’t tell me how to turn it off again! He tricked me! And everything is too wobbly for me to follow him…

Feeling around for it in my mind, I get a sense of where the mesh is, but when I try to move it, it just keeps sticking to that part of me. Instead of doing that, I’ll try to stop the flow of magic. Focusing on the stream, I feel the mesh lose power, and when I open my eyes, the world returns to normal.

I want to hunt him down for tricking me, but I need to help those goblins before they’re killed. If I chase him now, it’s possible that he’ll use his weird magic on me and neither of us knows what would happen…

It feels foolish to try, so I’ll need to get moving and find that camp. My impression is that he told me the truth about it, but for some reason, he didn’t seem to mind that I’m probably gonna end up killing them.

With my sight back to normal and the world less wobbly, I can finally start running toward the camp. Rushing through the trees, I run for quite some time before I reach the big stone he mentioned. Being as quiet as I can and steadying my heart, I listen for any voices nearby.

Folks underestimate how far a voice carries, even with a little wind making noise. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I can hear them. I’ll just need to get closer.

Sneaking between the trees, I spot something very useful, Heden’s Grasp. A climbing plant used for some of Joras’ weaker potions, but if I can find some Wallowing Shadow, I can make a very nasty little mixture. It’s annoying to extract, but mixing the crushed petals from the Shadow with the sap of the Grasp makes some goop that will burn and stick to skin.

Cutting a few lengths of Grasp and stowing them in my pocket, it’s time to find some Wallowing Shadow. They should be around here since the two plants always seem to grow together. It’s probably to help each other since an animal eating one and then the other would have a very bad time.

Rummaging through the underbrush, I find exactly what I’m looking for. A flower with black petals and deep roots. Heden’s Grasp grows up into the trees, and Wallowing Shadow grows wide around the roots, neither interfering with the other.

Cutting a few of them, I get the work crushing them in my hands along with a little spit. Working the flowers yields a nice ball of paste, and it’s ready for the sap. I can’t mix them in my hand, though, so pulling a sheet of Sokofoan bark, I drop the ball of paste onto it and grab the Heden’s Grasp vines.

Pulling another sheet of bark to have a workstation, I start placing the vines and crushing them with my knife, forcing the sticky sap out of them.

Picking up the sap with my knife, I add it to the paste and start mixing the two components together. The mixture immediately starts giving off a rancid smell, letting me know it’s working. I just need a handful of Sokofoan leaves and I’ll be ready to continue.

Sokofoan leaves are great for something like this because they're wide, and if you squeeze and roll them in your hand, they become malleable, so you can use them as wrapping. Picking up my knife again, I cut a small glob and put it in the middle of a squished leaf, wrapping the leaf around the glob to form a small green ball of suffering.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Repeating the process, I end up with twenty-five small balls of suffering, which should be plenty. Adding them to my pouch, I’ll have no problem reaching in and grabbing a few when I need to distract an enemy. The Sokofoan leaves will dry a little and become fragile, so as long as I don’t rush, they should be ready when I need them.

With my prep ready, it’s time to head out and have a look at this adventurer camp. Continuing east is easy, but getting the right path is more difficult. I know humans are bad at walking in forests, so they always follow animal trails, and I can smell some human scents along the one I’m on now. It’s faded, but it smells like the archer before he got bloody.

It doesn’t take much time following the path before I reach the skull rock. It takes some imagination to consider that a skull, but I guess it’s the one because I do hear talking. Sneaking closer, the voices get louder and they’re talking about what to do now.

From what I can understand, the group is split into three. The first faction wants to bargain for their safety, but that’s not going to work. The second group wants to flee south, which could work if they find safety before getting killed by something. And the third group, the dumbest group, wants to fight Kira.

Continuing to sneak closer, I spot the clearing and it looks like they’ve taken over an old bandit camp. I can see the roofs of at least two buildings, so there’s no way they’ve had time to build those and the wall in such a short amount of time. I’m not even sure how they’ve managed to get here in so few days.

They have a south-facing gate guarded by two dummies, and the walls are made of wooden logs three times as tall as me. I could climb the walls, but I think they’d see me.

I need to see into the camp to get a count of how many of them there are, so heading for a larger tree, I climb up to get a good view. From the looks of it, I can see fifteen adventurers standing in small groups, with the guards, that’s seventeen, and however many they have out gathering food. That’s a lot of adventurers... They’re gathered around a cooking pot as one of them stirs it while the rest argue about how dumb a decision they should make.

Listening to their arguing, I think the trade faction has three members present, the run faction has five, and the fight faction has seven. Most of them have already chosen to die.

Judging by their equipment, they have six mages, four archers, and seven fighters, including the two guards. That’s gonna be a tough fight... And with the mages, I won’t be able to hide... It won’t be long before nightfall, and that will improve my chances, and I’ll know if any other adventurers are out hunting since they should be coming back.

It looks like Kanen was right about the goblins being safe for now. They’re just bound to a post near the east wall. It appears they’ve been beaten, but I think they’ll be fine. I don’t recognize any of them, so they aren’t the scouting party. I’d imagine Kanen and the archer were looking for my people, and these are just some random goblins.

Sneaking around the outside of their little camp, I get a good idea of what I can and can’t do. They will be far more limited by those walls than I will. I’m not hearing anyone return from the woods, and there’s only one gate. That strikes me as foolish. They will have a hard time escaping.

Returning to the gate, I watch the guards for a moment, and they just stand around without watching the woods. Pulling one of my paste balls out, I crawl closer as quietly as I can, but some noise is unavoidable, and it draws the attention of one of the guards. Pulling some of Kira’s magic into me, I infuse my arm with it and throw the ball of paste as hard as I can at the guard who is looking my way.

Catching them in the face, the sokofoan leaf cracks and it sticks to their face, but it didn’t smear as much as I wanted, which means I made it too thick... I don’t have time to linger, they’ll know I’m here now, so rushing through the woods again, I reach a safe spot east of the camp. As far as I can tell, the guard just rubbed the paste onto other parts of their body. The screaming and complaints about burning are pretty good indications of that.

Perched in a tree, I watch as the adventurers inside the camp rush to the gate. That gives me an opportunity. The adventurers have begun searching the woods with a larger group defending the gate. Sneaking up to the wall, I use my sharp nails to climb up and over. On the other side, I land by the goblins, but they’ll need to wait a little longer.

They’re quick to ask if I’m there to save them, but they need to shut up and let me work. Keeping an eye on the gate’s new guards, I sneak closer to their cooking pot and, as I get to it, I hide behind it so they won’t spot me.

Reaching into my pouch, I pull out a handful of paste balls and dump them into the food. I should learn to share, so they can have another handful. Feeling around my pouch, I have three left. Whichever one of them takes the next bowl is gonna have a terrible time.

Sneaking back to the goblins, I cut their restraints and let them know we’ll be getting out of here. Putting a finger to my lips, I get a nod back from each of them showing that they’re listening to my instructions about stealth.

With a gentle hand, I grab hold of the nearest goblin’s arm. She’s a little apprehensive about my touch, but doesn’t protest as I wrap her arm around my neck and carry her like a pack up the wall. When we reach the top, she gets a seat between two points in the log and a quick rundown of what we’re gonna do now.

I’ll be getting the others up, and she will help them get over the wall. Jumping back down, I get to work helping the next one, a young boy this time. He follows along immediately, and the wall goblin helps him up when they can reach each other.

It’s all going according to plan. There are too many adventurers to fight, so helping the hostages is the best that I can do.

With the third goblin up and out, I tell them to find somewhere to hide in the forest. Listening over the wall, I can hear the two over there running off. Carrying the last one up, the one on the wall helps me get them up and we’re in the clear.

“Watch out!”

She shouts for me, but just as she does, an arrow pierces my leg, pinning me to the wall. Falling sideways, I find myself annoyingly stuck to the wooden palisade as some sort of trophy ornament. Chains of magic spring from the wall, binding my legs and torso to the wall, and I can’t seem to break them. They’re far too strong, so instead I focus on shouting for the goblins on the wall to run away and hide.

They’re doing a good job of following instructions, so at least they’ll get away from here.

“What in the hells are you…”

“I’m Raya, let me go, or you’ll all die!”

The archer who asked me what I am seems to find it funny, but there’s not a lot of laughter among the rest of the group. Especially the mages seem concerned.

“How are we the ones who will die? All I have to do is slit your throat and we'll be safe to figure out what to do.”

He’s right that I’m in a rough spot to threaten them, but I’m not about to let them kill me.

“You, mage, turn on your dumb mage sight and look at me. Keep looking at me.”

He does as I tell him, and when he nods at me, I form a fire bolt and throw it in the face of the laughing archer. His screams of pain are delightful.

The rest of the group scrambles to put out the flames, but by the time they manage to do so, his face is gone, and he has stopped moving.

“Now then, about letting me go, I’m inclined to retract my offer and go for the second option. Unless you have any other ideas.”

They’re quick to start bickering about primordial fire this, demon that, and what to do to survive. I’m gonna commit the faces of the ones wanting to kill me to memory so I can burn those faces away.

At least I have all the mages on the ‘Just fucking leave’ side. Deciding to make this easier to keep track of, I make a suggestion.

“Okay, since you’re all dumb adventurers, how about those who want to leave go over there as one group, and those who want to kill me and doom the world to be bathed in Dragonflame when she finds out her best friend is dead go over there.”

The 'Just Leave' side is definitely afraid, and they seem convinced that leaving me alone is the better choice. They’re right, but the other group wanting to kill me is louder. And they aren’t splitting up like I suggested.

While they’re bickering, the magic chains binding me disappear, and with the opportunity, I kick off the wall, feeling the fletching of the arrow pull through my leg in a painful reminder that I’m strong, not invincible. Landing on the ground, I’m quick to run as archers and fighters target me, arrows whizzing by. I’m a little stuck inside these walls.

Turning a corner behind the building gives me a moment of reprieve. I need to think of something… Forming a fire bolt, I throw it into the air. The adventurers already know where I am, so that part doesn’t matter, but it’s night, and Kira might see it from far away and come to help me before they get me.

Throwing a few more before relocating, I rush for the gate, hoping I can get out, but as soon as I leave the safety of the building’s shadow, arrows fly toward me as fighters charge. They’re closing in fast as I retreat. I don’t have a choice but to climb the wall. It’ll leave me vulnerable to attack, but so will staying here.

Jumping up and grabbing hold, my nails sink into the wood as I make some progress. But not enough, another arrow pins me to the palisade, halting my advance. And then another. And another from a different angle. I can’t pull my leg over them anymore, and I’m stuck…

The fighters surround me as the archers keep arrows nocked. At least they’re taking me seriously.

“Get the shackles, we are bringing this one with us.”

Keeping my nails dug into the wood, I use my arms to keep my weight off my legs. It hurts so much to have multiple arrows stuck in me… I don’t know how Kira just shrugs it off…

“Garrett, bind it before he gets back with the shackles, we need it on the ground.”

Magic chains form around me, and two of the fighters pull me from the wall. I think I might have lost too much blood because I’m getting tired.

The shackle-fetcher returns, and the other fighters are quick to hold me down as they put them on. I’m not sure how I’m gonna win this.

With the shackles on, they start taking away my stuff, pulling off most of my clothes as they talk about how I might be hiding weapons. As soon as I’m almost naked, they add ropes to the shackles, tying me up so I can barely move.

“Look at this, I think we found what Lorn got hit by.”

If Lorn is the guard I hit, then he’s right; that is what Lorn got hit by. He hands it off to one of the mages, who opens the wrapping carefully and inspects the paste. The smell hits him fast, making him recoil.

“Heden’s Grasp and Wallowing Shadow. It’s a simple mix, and the ratios aren’t great, but it’s been infused with magic. We need to get Lorn to a healer soon, otherwise, he won’t get his sight back at all.”

“How the fuck are we supposed to find a healer out here?!”

More bickering… They’re great at wasting time on dumb stuff like that instead of just having a clear leader make the decisions. With me thoroughly bound, they seem to calm down and gather around the campfire. I might be able to manage forming some fire bolts, but with my arms bound, I can’t really throw them.

They start filling bowls from the cauldron and handing them out, and I notice one of the mages nudging the others, followed by a small gesture. They’re quick to mumble something, and each of them takes on a worried expression as they look at the cauldron. They know, and they’re not saying anything… how interesting.

“You spellslingers don’t want any? It’s delicious.”

“No, the smell of that pellet ruined our appetite. Would you like to try a whiff? If not, dig in and enjoy. We’ll rest and wait for breakfast instead.”

“Suit yourselves.”

They could match Kira’s greed when it comes to food. They’re really going for it. There are loose comments about how delicious it is, and the adventurers don’t seem to be affected by the paste at all. Maybe it got too diluted and won’t do anything… That leaves me with no plan at all.

Since I have to do something, I begin scratching at the metal bindings. I’m able to make a groove with my nails, but this is gonna take a lot of time to get through the shackle.

I have no idea how their group dynamics work. As far as I knew, they were supposed to be small groups, but this seems like there’s clear strife between the people here. The mages made no effort to stop any of the archers or fighters from eating the poisoned food. And if their reaction is any indication, my poison is gonna work.

I’m not sure how it’s gonna work, though… I used a lot of it.

I am a little curious about what the mages are seeing, so turning my focus inward, I pull on some of Kira’s magic and start weaving that spell again. As soon as it works, I look around to see the mages with blue or purple, mostly solid magic, nowhere near what Kanen had. But looking at the others, there are three with Kanen’s gassy yellow magic. I don’t know what that means…

“Hey Ulla, did you know that some mages focus magic into their limbs to strengthen themselves?”

“No, why would they do that when they can just throw spells at their opponents?”

“Well, consider having a magical weapon you empower, but then, by creating a weave and binding it to your muscles or bones, you could strengthen those parts of you. It’s a subject studied in Immarderen, and the students of the discipline call themselves the True Battle Mages. I’ve heard that one guy even managed to make his finger strong enough to punch through a solid table.”

“Well, that’s fascinating, Jarna, but is it important right now?”

“I guess not... I was just making conversation…”

I’ll have to repay Jarna. Pulling more of Kira’s magic, I start weaving it into a mesh again, and feeling a little adventurous, I imagine it growing hot as well. It takes a while to get right, but when it starts becoming distinctly mesh-like, I imagine wrapping it around my nails. It latches into place, and every scratch against my shackles now carves away much larger pieces.

In a very short time, I feel the shackles loosening and falling away. The dead ones don’t seem to notice, and the mages are keeping a noise level loud enough to hide the little noise I make. I’m not sure what their plan is here, it’s obvious that the dead ones are going to die. Whether it’s my poison that kills them or my hand, I don’t know yet.

Since I still don’t know how to move with this mage sight, I pull away that magic, but I’m going to start empowering myself a lot going forward.

Neithro is in for such a surprise the next time we spar. But I’ll need to work on these ropes, too. Being tied up is getting annoying.

"Who is taking watch tonight?”

The mages are quick to volunteer, causing an eyebrow to rise on the yellow-magic archer’s dumb face.

“I don’t even feel like questioning that, my stomach isn’t feeling well…”

Everyone but the mages starts shuffling toward the building, leaving the mages to deal with me as I still lie bound on the floor.

As soon as we’re alone, Jarna approaches me with a question.

“How do you know Kanen’s sight spell?”

“He taught it to me in exchange for giving him a way to travel north.”

I’ve still been working on the ropes, and I’m almost through them. As soon as I cut the last bit, they fall away and I can finally stand up. My wounds have healed, but I’m still feeling a little weak from the blood loss. I’m small, so I don’t have a lot of that stuff.

It's clear that they aren't sure what to do with me, but Jarna isn't fleeing, so he must believe I'm not a beast. And since I haven’t attacked them yet, they seem fine with just watching me.

The night is very quiet, aside from the groaning from the sleeping building. Off in the distance, I hear a familiar sound. I know what to do now. Climbing the building, I form another fire bolt and launch it into the sky. It’s quite pretty as it flies, and I can’t help but smile as I hear a roar in response to my signal.

Firing another one, and the noise from her flight grows louder. She’s coming this way for sure. That means I still have time for a little score-settling.

Climbing back down the building, I open the door to the sleeping room, keeping an eye on the mages. They seem decidedly unsure of what to do, they really should get better at thinking on their feet. Though, Jarna’s idea of teaching me how to use this magic to make my nails even stronger was smart. For a dumb adventurer, he seems quite clever.

A stench of blood and vomit hits me as I enter the resting area. They all seem to be having a terrible time. Sneaking through the room, looking for the one who shot me the most, I’m interrupted by a loud noise all of a sudden. Kira’s here.

I’m gonna need to clear up any misunderstandings before we proceed, so I rush outside, leaving my score-settling unsettled.

“Kira! No! They helped me!”

She’s already eating one of the mages, and the others are running, so I don’t know which one it is. The distinct bump in her throat stops moving as she looks at me with defiance. She doesn’t appear to be that interested in giving up her prey.

“Kira, spit it out. I owe them a debt for helping me.”

With a growl, she spits out the mage and I notice that it’s Jarna. He’s looking mostly fine. Physically fine. I’m not sure how his mind will handle that, but he’ll survive.

“Good, thank you. The people inside here attacked me, you can play with those, but the mages were helpful.”

She gives me a nudge before ripping through the wall of the building, leading to screams from the people inside.

“You weren’t kidding about being the Dragon’s best friend…”

“No. Why would I? Thank you for the spell, Jarna.”

“Thank you for… I’d rather not think about it…”

I let him know that he can safely travel north, and as long as they don’t hunt any of the godless species like us, Kira won’t have a reason to hunt them.

“Don’t fuck with goblins, or they’ll summon a fucking Dragon… Got it... What in the fucking hells is going on with the world…”

“Oh, a bunch of bad people called Cultists tricked you adventurers into attacking Kira. So Kira attacked you and now she considers you mortal enemies and snacks. What she really wanted was to be friends with you, but you guys are being dummies, so you ruined it. And now that is out to get you.”

Emphasizing my point, I point to the thoroughly ruined building as Kira destroys another wall to get out of it, blood covering her muzzle and most of her face.

“It was rhetorical…”

“Hey Raya! Thank you for the cultist you sent my way! He was delicious!”