.
A fairy knight entered through the inn’s front door, making the diners taking their supper somewhat nervous. Her amethyst-hued hair pulled at the eyes and her minimalist armor used less metal than her sword, but that sword was long and likely made of an exotic magic metal that held a particularly deadly edge, as fairy blades always were. Male eyes around the room struggled not to ogle the ample flesh her armor was revealing, in fear of what that pleasure might cost them.
She paused there, holding the door as she surveyed the room, and that long pause caused additional consternation, but after she held the pose for perhaps five seconds, she shut the door behind her and moved across the room to the stairway leading to the rented rooms on the second floor.
Had someone been close enough, they might have heard a whispered voice stating, “I’m clear” before she shut the door. If the sound of the diners quietly resuming their speech had not covered it, they might have also noticed the double footsteps on the staircase as she ascended.
As it worked out, however, nobody heard. Thus, thanks to my [Vampire Cloak], nobody noticed as I walked across the room and up the stairs behind Dilorè while carrying the still-sleeping bird girl.
We were going through this effort for one reason only. This girl’s anxiety over being seen in this town had been very clear. Considering that the people she didn’t want to be seen by were the very same tribe that probably had Amelia, this fact made her a potential asset, using the reasoning, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. That’s not a very safe assumption, though, so we needed a better understanding of who she was and why they had been chasing her.
To obtain that understanding, we needed to become her ally for the time being, so we were protecting her.
Dilorè stopped at a door and placed her hand upon it. I recognized the magic instantly. Arken always casts an identity ward on the rooms we stay in, a similar magic to the anti-theft ward he had cast on the travel wagon.
“I may not be able to bring her into the room,” I told her. “The spell bars entry to all except the individuals identified as fellow travelers.”
She thought for a moment, then nodded and walked two doors down and knocked.
In a short while, Uncle Arken joined us and temporarily suspended the spell. I carried the girl into a normal hotel room with two beds, then dropped my [Cloak].
Arken made a low ‘hm’ noise when he saw the winged girl.
“She’s injured?” he asked.
“Yes. Can you get Melione?” I asked him. “I need to ask her something.”
Naturally, I could heal the girl myself. I needed Melione’s expertise for another reason. But it was not only Melione who came. Everyone except Graham and Bruna appeared in short order.
“We’re about to head into enemy territory and you’re taking prisoners?” Allia blustered.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but I was still worried about eavesdroppers. After frowning at her, I looked at Arken. “Can you please make this room private, Uncle?”
Allia frowned, but she held any retort. She was smart enough to understand my concern.
Nobody present knew [Realm of Silence], but Arken has an alternative that works provided he has four walls, a floor and a ceiling to cast it on. He held up his hand like a priest giving a blessing, and it glowed slightly as he chanted.
“The walls have ears and the doors have eyes / Enshroud the discourse of all within / From the senses of all who lurk without / [Secret Chamber]!”
Elves are experts at using the hand as a magic focus. I understand it is actually an innate racial skill. Given how sloppy and crude the magic that I cast without a focus can be, I’m kind of jealous. I felt the Light mana coat the floor, ceiling and four walls, cutting off all information from flowing in or out of the room.
The rooms of the Palace in Atius and Mother’s estate have permanent enchantments using this magic, but a travelers’ inn in rural Arelia is not the sort of place where one would usually see it. Nevertheless, until Arken’s magic wore off, this room would be secure from snooping.
Once Arken nodded to me, I told Allia, “I don’t intend for her to be a prisoner. I have good reason to believe she will be a source of information and possibly an ally.”
Dilorè pursed her lips, “This girl has been following us at least since yesterday at lunch, while concealing herself with invisibility magic. For her kind, it is difficult to travel as slowly as we’re traveling, but she was taking deliberate steps to stay with us. That doesn’t sound like an ally, My Lady.”
“But it might sound like someone who was trying to use us as cover while she was traveling solo. She was unarmed, and without any confederates. It’s doubtful she’s a bandit. She could surely see we were a large, well-armed party, and yet she stuck to us. So, I just kept an eye on her. The reason she was concealing herself became clear after we reached this town.”
I quickly described what had happened, including what I had overheard.
“Speaking of which,” I said, looking at Melione, “I think she’s injured. I cast [Sleep] on her. Can you diagnose her without healing her or waking her?”
I hadn’t healed her myself only out of fear my overheated healing would wake her; I had an additional reason for delaying.
“Yes, My Lady,” she said with a quick bow of the head. “I can do that, but why?”
“I want her cooperation before we heal her.”
Allia nodded. “I agree. We need know why she was following us, and it might be useful to know what she knows about the Berado Tribe. Heal anything life-threatening, but don’t heal sprains or breaks until she answers our questions.”
I told Melione, “She definitely hurt her left wing, but there could be other injuries. She hit the ground fairly hard.”
Melione went to the girl and I felt the Healing mana begin flowing, as light as a feather touch, as her hands moved along the girl’s body, starting with the wing I had mentioned.
“She has a fractured bone here,” she noted, touching the second joint of her wing. I don’t know bird anatomy, except I know a chicken wing has two bones in that joint. Melione continued on, identifying various bruises, a slight concussion, and a sprain in her leg.
“I knocked her out pretty hard, I guess,” I said. “Is there an easy way to undo a [Sleep] casting?”
“Yes, My Lady,” she bobbed her head again. “Shall I wake her?”
In the back of my head, a part of me was excited that I was about to pick up a new magic. I forced it to wait, pursed my lips and looked to Allia, who was, after all, the leader.
She nodded. “Do it.”
Melione placed her hand on the girl’s forehead and I felt a gentle flow of Healing begin. She softly chanted, “[Restoration].”
Magic spells have a specific shape. The simple ones can be recalled with a single word, while the more complex, higher level shapes require entire phrases, usually with four-section geometries, or even more complex shapes requiring the interwoven geometries of a magic circle and its attended spell. The mechanics of the spell are bound up in that intangible shape, which cannot be drawn or described, but only held within the memory of an intelligent being.
I had never heard of [Restoration] before, but the shape of the spell came through to me, perfect and clear, and etched itself into my mind in one go. The specific form I now knew depended upon the Ostish word. If I wanted to use Dorian or Fairy to cast the spell, I would have to learn a different shape. But from now on, I knew the Ostish version.
Presumably it was my Elder biology that allowed me to learn the spell in one shot like that. Or perhaps I was channeling the knowledge straight out of Melione’s mind. I honestly didn’t know how this link worked, and that particular information was not a part of the random trivia I had retained from my time as Senhion.
The girl’s eyes opened, and after a few moments of awareness phasing in, her eyes grew wide and she hissed in a breath.
Melione immediately put her hands on the girl’s chest, perfectly timed to stop an attempt to rise. “Stay still! You’re injured!”
The girl winced as she became conscious of the pain in her wing and leg. She looked around the room at the various people surrounding her.
“Who are you people?”
Allia’s lip curled slightly, then she said, “You would think if you followed us as long as you did, that you might recognize some of us.”
“You’re that adventurer group? I remember there was a really big guy with them though…”
“He’s doing maintenance on his ax, down the hall,” Allia told her. “Why were you following us?”
She shrank a little, but answered with hesitation. “It was dangerous to travel by myself.”
“Then why hide from us?”
“So I wouldn’t put you in danger. This is Berado territory.”
“The Berado are a tribe in the Tabad,” Allia countered. “We haven’t reached the Tabad yet. We’re still in the Marquessate of Lisrau, in Arelia.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter to them. They control everything here.”
“Why would it put us in danger if they saw you?”
She pressed her lips together, looking around at us again. Clearly, she didn’t want to answer.
I sighed and told Allia, “My Lady, perhaps I should question her.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you going to use your powers on her?”
“If it becomes necessary,” I said, keeping the annoyance off my face. Contrary to what she was implying, it wasn’t my vampire side I was planning to draw on.
Turning back to Melione, I noted, “Will that [Restoration] spell ease the pain for her?”
She nodded. “[Restoration] can eliminate fatigue, lower fever and support well-being, My Lady. That’s why it undoes [Sleep]. It helps a little for pain as well, but there’s another casting that works better.”
Melione moved over to the bed and laid her hand gently on the injured wing. As I felt the Healing mana again flow within me, and felt that idiot obsessed with magic dwelling in the back of my mind become excited again, she chanted, “[Soothe].”
I saw the lines of stress disappear in the girl’s face almost instantly. Melione asked her. “Is there anywhere else that hurts?”
“My head still hurts, and my leg.”
Melione repeated the [Soothe] casting in those spots, as the new spell firmly seated itself in my memory. Then she gave me a nod and withdrew.
The girl watched me with wary eyes as I sat on the edge of the bed near her pillow and gave her a friendly smile. As I leaned closer, I did my best to project a warm attitude. I reached out and began stroking her cheek and jaw. I’m sure it looked a little sketchy to the others watching, but I did my best to ignore that issue. It was time to become a fairy again.
