“Is there any discomfort?”
“No, my Lord. It just feels… itchy on the places it grows.”
Nearly all people have now Mana burn. The blue glowing scars are looking ominous, but have no negative effects on them. Rather they feel fine and are full of energy. Well, figuratively and literally it seems. If they have too much Mana they get dizzy spells or feel sleepy, but afterwards they are fine again.
I can not find any dangerous parts as of now about being filled with mana, except the glowing scars being a small hindrance in sleeping peacefully. Why is it so stigmatized? Maybe it is more superstition than real fear.
“And there is nothing you thought would happen?”
“Well nothing I always thought. It is called burn. I thought the scars would burn like fire, but they are not.”
“It is scar tissue, so you need to wrap them up in high sunshine. Otherwise nothing should be problematic. For the itching I can give you a salve to numb the place a bit. Use a small rag to put it on, as your Fingers will get numb if it soaks into them.”
“Thank you, my Lord!”
Understanding the whole burn thing, it seems more like a over saturation of the Body. Nothing dangerous with too much as of yet. What it entails I do not know. Everyone has the small blue glowing scars on different parts of their body. While they are small right now they are growing longer like splitting the skin.
A bit of fear is still there in them about it, but they are more thankful to be here, as they have shelter, food, teaching and even free time, as the farms grow rather fast and they are not obliged to use all the farm plot as they first feared.
…
I am now out with Robert, going back to Telk. He has volunteered to go with me as a familiar farmer to try to convince others to come with us. While at the same time with him, I can bring more supplies for the travel. He is the father of his one and only daughter, and lost everything else. Even the bandits ignored him, as they thought they already had everything he possessed.
To be honest he is the most shrewd one, as he had a hidden cellar right below the stone in the fireplace, where his wife and him hid their beloved daughter. Not much food could be put inside with her, but is was enough for them to ration. A place, where the bandits would not find his daughter was the most precious offer he heard, so he came with us.
The travel was slower than alone, as I had to stop multiple times to let him rest. Maybe I should try to rest my Avatars more, as I do not know if I work them to destruction right now.
…
Looking at Halk shows finally open entrances. It seems the curfew is over. While pondering if it would be a good idea to go inside, I should at least try to get new information and maybe see if the Peddler King inside this Town survived.
“Name and reason for visit?”
“Ava and this is Robert, was going through to sell my spoils at Kilt, but see the town is open now. Is the Peddler King still available?”
“Who would dare to mess with them? Yeah they are here. Two Copper for Entry.”
“One question, who owns the town now?”
“Blue Ice.”
The caste of Blue Ice, huh? Not much I know about them. They are also a small fry caste and had maybe a Village to govern. Many castes are roaming or paying rent to higher castes to stay in their Cities. To get this town is their boon or crux, as it is the lowest grossing outpost for having the lowest part of the forest to explore.
As Robert looks like a Farmer he is just ignored and seen as a baggage carrier. The best would be going to the Peddler King right away. But maybe we should do this tomorrow morning, to flee right away. The event last time makes me a bit more careful.
“We will first rest. Afterwards we go to the Peddler King and sell all our baggage and buy more Food quickly after. We need to go right away, when we have sold the Radishes and Rice.”
“As you wish, my Lord.”
Nodding, I go through the streets. A slight bloody smell is still here, so there might been a few killings, but has abated right now. Going to rest in the Inn I leave Robert behind, and go to the Information Center.
There is no real way he would flee, as his daughter is still inside our Lost Village, and would never leave her alone. The Farmers are tight knitted and help each other well. Everyone had suffered similar fates and now they are rather happy. That was the reason Belk has asked to send someone to get some of their acquaintances to maybe settle with them.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
The only problem is the Mana burn. As they are still fearing some sort of horrible curse, they see my noting of the effects of Mana as medical treatments and are thankful for my experiments. Lucky for me, so I can keep them happy.
…
“What do you wanna know and how much?”
“The obvious and the full silver. I want to be sure I am not in danger anymore.”
“Yeah, understandable. You can relax, the takeover is nearly complete. Let me get the copies.”
Walking to the back he takes the already finished bundle and gets back. They make a killing right now.
“The basics are Blue Ice, Alton and the Crimson Skulls got into a fight. Alton was smart enough to save his strength and pulled out as he calculated the chances. Crimson Skulls are now a side Note in history, while their apprentices search for new Circles to join. The whole chaos was more incensed because of the stashes of the Green Flames. While Seldars stash was the most profitable the one from Beryl the Cursed Witch was paid of to become silent.”
Bought silence. Unlike ‘speaking is silver, silence is golden’ being just a phrase in my original World, here it is fact. Albeit Silence is a big Gold, and often Information is put into sub categories. To pay to not tell anything about place, opening, dangers and loot would have definitely cost quite a lot.
“It took months to scour the whole city and to find every single secret, so right now they are counting their findings.
The next aspect is the illegal happenings around the City. Bandits banded together to raze all the Farms from every valuable, right now some have died, vanished or currently starving. Blue Ice is trying to help, but do not give much of the food to the Farmers, as they would likely be changed to their own trusted Farmers early Spring.
Some Farmers saw a poacher searching for the Farmers, and might be a Mage, as corpses of a group of bandits were found, mutilated in different ways. His or her alignment is unknown, but as Lightning magic was the cause of it, Letric was suspected until found out he and his group were relocated already to the western reaches, so other lightning oriented Castes are all suspect. A Rogue Mage would be possible, too. The Guards were informed not to interfere, as the less Farmers there are, the less will be have thrown out, so you have to be careful, as you will likely not get any backup from the Guards, when they see you fighting someone with lightning powers.”
Good Information! I am seen in a positive way right now. I do not care about it for now, but could be good to have in the back of the mind.
“City Arcana was already sending an envoy to hurry up the takeover, as they got annoyed by the high banditry. As now the Guards search for the Bandits, but they smelled the danger and disbanded back into their smaller groupings, while some stayed together to form roaming bands of bandits, as they liked their feeling of power.”
Can imagine. Have to be careful about that.
“You have to be careful on the streets for they are still not secure enough. But in a few weeks the Mages will go themselves to eradicate any Group, who is dumb enough to still be around here. That is all the News. Any questions?”
“There was need for healing Moss to create salves and bandages. Anything to do with the happenings here?”
“Yeah, Guards fought each other, as they thought the Green Fire would come back. Many got killed and the ones who were on the side of Blue Ice were treated right away in a rather generous way. Even Potions were given freely, so they had quickly the majority of the rough troop on their side. Beleken, the prior Guard Captain was killed as an example, while the other Guards on his side were exiled after treatment.”
Keeping a good image by treating not only allies but the enemies. Rather clever.
“Something else to know?”
“Fungal outbreaks are at minimum, as it is Winter. Forest is rather quiet. Some Orphans vanished, but not as much as when the Cursed Witch was still here, so nothing particular. Kilt requested all Information about any knowings about the Lightning Mage, but their offering is way too low for Information about a Mage, so better not trying to find something, as the danger is too high for the paltry silver you get.”
“Noted. What about the Farms? What do the farmers now, that the help is sparse?”
“Huh, one minute.”
Going back he searched the notes and finds something.
“Ah, here it is. Normally people do not care about that. They huddled together in the south to be in one place to get the food and be ready to get exiled. Bandits tried to attack them once, but were repelled by the guards after only a dozen Farmers deaths. Some Farmers had not been robbed, which seemed at first odd, but they were either accidentally overlooked or clever enough to play dead with whatever they had thought out in their heads.”
So, some have their Family and valuables intact. Interesting to know. They even might have better tricks than Robert, who hid his daughter. It might be possible to recruit more Farmers with daughters and Wives, then they could reproduce… No, not needed, as I want to not stay too many years here.
“Any happenings of the Mercenary camp, which was here?”
“You work me right to the bone for the Silver, eh? Well, no hard feelings were made about this small outpost. It was disbanded and the place is now a small camping ground for Mercs, who have no Money for an Inn, as it is now free but also not secure anymore. We will see how long it will stay, as it is winter, and after the first Mercenary froze to death and gets stripped to his underwear, it will vanish, like all the other tries before.”
Well that is true. Albeit Mercenaries have a high solidarity, when someone dies they go over his belongings like vultures taking apart a carcass. At the end, there will be no one who would want to rest there in fear of natural or supernatural things, and just pay their Inn inside the cities.
…
Rested and with new vigor, Robert and I in Ava go to the Peddler King. As we go early the store is mostly empty.
“Welcome to the Peddler King. What can we do for you?”
“Wholesale some rare ingredients. Worth will be high.”
“I see. If that is the case, please come this way.”
Bringing us into the private chamber I put the produce in front of the female clerk. Her hair was brown in a kind of bob cut. By seeing the produce first she has a disappointed anger in her eyes, before noticing them being rather different than she first thought.
Testing them with a runic disk shows Mana and she studies the produce thoroughly.
“It is rather particular, and I can not directly say a price. I need to ask a specialist. Could you give me a minute to get him?”
“Before you go, I have to mention the last time I sold this produce I was hunted down by the hounds of Kindek. If you promise me no danger this time, I allow it, but otherwise I will go.”
This made her stop for a second. She was rather perturbed, as this would be problematic if she just told something but still happens.
“I understand, so no direct member of the current towns caste. We have our own appraisal specialists, but will take a bit longer to call one over. Is this alright with you?”
With a nod, she bows to me and I tell Robert to sit down. This will take a while, and we should relax for that time.