Carol shivers next to me. Quickly wrapping her arms around herself. “Wow, Ami, did you feel that?”

I give my friend a quick nod. “Yes… I take it that was their court mage.”

“How powerful is this mage exactly?”

“She is one of the most powerful mages in service of the realm.” The guard says. “Many say she will soon be moved up to the Royal palace itself as she is the most prominent person in line to lead the ministry of magic.”

“Damn…”

The door of the bailiffs office proceeds to swing open after which the two guards who led us here quickly run up to us and get on their knees in front of us.

“Please forgive us! We didn’t know!” They both bow down so hard their face almost touches the ground.

“It’s really not that big of a deal. Please get up.” I tell them. “We got our goal completed as well.”

The guards look up at me but before any of them can speak another voice speaks up from inside of the doorway. “Ah, so you are the Goddess we have heard so much about. I have to say, I expected you to be a lot more… intimidating.” A tall woman with pitch black hair and purple irises looks at us. Her large red witch hat barely fits through the already big doors. She steps towards us with her dark brown leather boots fitting the decorated leather chestpiece that is strapped over her red tunic. It was certainly an aesthetic that drew my attention. The two guards quickly scurry away as she draws closer and closer.

The lady stops uncomfortably close to me. As she leans in she’s still easily towering over me. Her inspecting gaze is now giving me shivers as well. But as much as I want to pull back, I just find myself unable to break eye contact with her. It’s like she’s staring directly into my soul. However, it does allow me to get an even better look at her eyes myself. The beautiful purple color of her eyes, now that I can see it from this close, seems to be occasionally broken up by pinkish streaks of lightning shooting from the outside into her pupil.

-I guess it’s appropriate to say it’s bewitching…-

Sam steps in and pulls me back away from the mage. “Ami doesn’t like that.” She states curtly.

I shake my head and quickly rub my eyes to regain my focus.

“Ah, and you must be Sam, her loyal arcane ranger.” The woman grins. “It might indeed not be obvious to most, but it’s clear you two hold considerable power within you. Especially you, Amicia.” She continues. “A divine presence of magical energy… how unfathomably intriguing.” She then looks around and rests her gaze on Max and Carol. “Are your other party members around here too?”

“Rude.” Max comments.

“They are otherwise engaged.” Sam says, she’s started to frown quite a lot at the mage.

“We are just adventuring with our friends for now.” I attempt to diffuse the situation just a little. To be fair, I also thought the mage would be a little bit more respectful after what the guards did.

“Hmm.” She looks back over to Max and Carol. “I suppose there’s potential, and when you hang around a divine for a while who knows what happens… Are we allowed to research the two of you?”

“Most definitely not.” Max crosses her arms and stares at the mage, it might be wise for the mage to stop poking the bear.

“That’s a shame. But we will keep an eye on you with great interest nonetheless.” She doesn’t seem bothered at all by the hostile attitude of our friends and just continues being herself. Kudos for that I suppose. “In any case, where are my manners…”

“I’m pretty sure those got drowned in the bathtub quite a while ago.” I could hear my girlfriend whisper.

“My name is Cynthia Blackrose, Mage of the Court. As a way of apologizing for our guard’s rude interruption of your quest, we would like to offer you accommodation in the diplomatic residence. A meal will also be prepared for you shortly.”

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Both Max, Carol and Sam look rather cynical of that offer. “It will be Sergeant Nightheart escorting you.”

“It would be an honor miladies.” The respectful guard from earlier puts her hand on her chest and gives us a slight bow. This at least seems to put the party at ease.

“I suppose we do need to have a place to sleep for the evening. Would our wolves be able to join us?” I decide to take the word.

“Of course.”

“Then we will take the offer.” I reply.

Cynthia grins and gives us a nod. “I hope we will meet again someday. Please stay safe out there. Even though you have considerable power, danger could be anywhere.”

The rest of the party stays dead quiet.

“Uh… Thank you for the warning.”

And with that, the mage turns around and heads back inside of the building. The doors closing behind her by themselves. I somehow get the feeling this isn’t the last time we are going to encounter her… And I really don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Her warning was already really ominous. But I guess it does not hurt being cautious.

“Would you like to head over to the residence now?” Sergeant Nightheart asks. “Or would you like to visit someplace else first?”

“No, please get us out of here as fast as possible.” Sam sighs. “I really expected that meeting to go slightly differently.” She then takes the map that we got from the bandit camp out of her pocket and hands it over to the Sergeant. “You can just hand this to us tomorrow.”

Sergeant Nightheart nods, takes the map and starts walking, we follow her along. “I understand that, the court mage does have a rather… interesting… personality. But she got chosen for her function because of her expertise in magecraft, not because of her bright charisma.”

“Clearly.” Sam comments.

“It is safe to say though that there are few people in this realm who are more competent at their jobs than her.”

“At least you can’t blame them for doing popularity politics.” Max says.

“That’s true.” The Sergeant agrees. “Although sometimes lady Blackrose is quite agreeable. But that’s relatively rare.”

While Max and Carol keep talking about the mage with the Sergeant, Sam slows down a little to walk right next to me.

“I was surprised she wasn’t called Señora Muerte or something like that.” She whispers into my ear. It makes me chuckle a little.

“I can see why that name would fit her.” I chuckle softly. “But speaking about which… it’s been quite a while ago since you talked to me in Spanish. I used to really like it when you did that.”

“Ah, sorry mi Amor, my heart continuously serenades you in Spanish so that I sometimes forget to say it out loud. ¿Me perdonarías, cariño?”

“Pff, you unforgivable flirt.” I bump into her with my shoulder.

“Does that mean I won’t be forgiven?”

“I’ll think about it.” I stick out my tongue.

Sam just grins widely in return.

We walk for a couple more minutes through the streets that are right outside of the city’s inner wall until we reach a neighborhood where a lot of houses seem to have very decorated facades. Heck, there’s even some actual street lighting here that seems to be operated by some kind of magic. Quite intriguing.

“Is this entire part of the city for diplomats?” Carol asks.

“No, a lot of the rich merchant families live here.” Sergeant Nightheart replies. “While they can fulfill diplomatic roles at times, those are still reserved for the nobility. The house in question we are heading to now is one that is reserved for foreign diplomats and is in direct control of the Royal family.”

“You are definitely building up the hype for it. Is it still far away?”

“Five more minutes.” The Sergeant replies.

So we walk on, admiring the interesting architecture of the buildings along the way. It does make me wonder why Crystal’s guild isn’t situated over here if they are that important, but then again, the value of plots must be crazy high and the guild can probably do a lot more good in areas of the cities that didn’t have much commerce to begin with.

Then, when we just round the wide corner made by the inner wall, we see a building guarded by three guards, clad in way fancier gear than what the Sergeant is wearing. Although while it’s fancier, it does seem less functional.

The three guards all greet us at the same time as we walk up to the building.

“It seems we are expected already.” Sam comments, looking up at the high building in front of us, it has at least three stories. With gold leaf decorations plastered against some parts of the stone facade.

“The mage probably can send magical messages.” I reply.

“Exactly.” The Sergeant nods. “It’s very practical unless you need to send a message back immediately. That still happens in the non-magical way. And it’s reach isn’t that high too unfortunately.”

-That does put our modern communication devices into stark contrast, doesn’t it? Makes things a lot easier…-