139, 2/2

Ezekiel took a moment.

Everyone took a moment. Paul chuckled. Tiffany sighed, and smiled. Julia just stared ahead.

And Ezekiel breathed deep the mountain air. It smelled great.

And then Tadashi began ugly-crying into Julia’s mane, still holding onto her for dear life, saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Julia glanced backward, she said, “Help him off, Tiffany. Time to fly outta here!”

Tadashi was still crying, but he startled and sat up straight. “Oh bright gods.” Tiffany’s hands went around Tadashi. “Right. I’m on top of a person…” Tiffany helped him off of Julia, returning Julia’s black fur back to brilliant white. She set the alchemist upon the ground and he lifted his head to face the sun as tears rolled down his cheeks. He bowed to Julia. “Thank you for the ride, my good lady.” He said to Ezekiel, “Respected… Scion? To what Clan do I owe my rescue? Who are you?”

Julia flickered with [Polymorph], her orcol-sized unicorn form transforming into a five-meter tall snow-white owl; a full person taller than Tiffany. She fluffed her wings out, spreading them wide.

Odins were positively entranced by the large bird that had appeared in their midst. They responded in kind, fluffing themselves up. One chirped loud and instantly sat down upon Julia’s head, then transformed itself to look exactly like her, but miniature. Julia angled her head a bit, turning it all the way upside down, kicking the playful Odin off of his perch as she chirped in her own laughter.

Tadashi looked up at her, with more awe than before.

Ezekiel fluttered his Odin into the sky, and all around, assigning each of them to work their Sight to look for any approaching danger, or other possible issues. They were on a mountain in the Tribulations, after all.

There were no immediate problems.

While he did that, he turned to Tadashi and gestured around to his people, drawing the man’s attention back to himself. Ezekiel said, “Tiffany, Paul, and Julia. I am Ezekiel. We are of Clan Phoenix, and we came to Eralis to ask around about Songstress magic. This is only our first real day in the city, though, and we needed money, thus we came out here to hunt. We were not prepared to find you, but we did hear about the Quest regarding you. So. Let’s get you back home, and get some points for ourselves. And if you happen to know of any good methods to approaching the Songstresses to learn of their magic then I would love to hear it. Or, we could just talk to the people we turn you in to? I suspect we will have to do some of that, anyway. Do you have specific people to which you would like to be returned?”

Tadashi listened intently, and when he heard ‘Quest’, he faltered. “I overheard from my captors… And then you said—” He winced. “It was truly 5 points?”

“Yes.” Ezekiel looked at the alchemist, and said, “This distresses you.” He added, “I am unaware of how they do this Questing down here in the Highlands, so if I need to know something tactical, please let me know.”

“I would prefer to not accidentally die in the crossfire between High Clan Scions and their lessers.” He flicked his eyes toward the mountain-covered horizon. “Or to the dangers of the Tribulations. Where are we, exactly?”

Ezekiel produced a wardlight map of the general area. “This might be minimally incorrect since I have not been in Eralis for long, but my scouting capabilities are well developed. You are here. We are about 300 kilometers north of the direct east-west line of Eralis, which means roughly 1400 kilometers to Eralis, which means it will be half a day to get you back home, and that is without detours, of which there will be some… But… I might have that wrong. What is your fastest speed, Julia? I never asked, and I fear my own is much slower.”

Outside of lightstepping, of course.

Julia spoke using [Prestidigitation], “500-ish kilometers per hour with [Super Quick Flight]. I should be able to keep that up the whole way, but likely not with a dampener in my claws, for multiple reasons.” Julia raised a massive down-covered paw with huge talons, half a meter long. “And he won’t be able to survive that without cushioning and me dropping to half-speed. Maybe lower.”

Ezekiel quickly calculated. “A hundred kilometers per hour seems reasonable, which means 3 hours to get out of the Tribulation Mountains, and then 11 more hours to get to Eralis. We can stop halfway through if needed, but I would prefer not to.” To confirm what he already suspected, and to make sure he wasn’t making this more complicated than it needed to be, he asked Tadashi, “Should we contact someone for you? For them to come get you?”

Tadashi seemed to have gotten hold of more of his senses in the last several minutes. He said, “Absolutely not, good Scion. It would be best if we saved any contact for when we reach a border city where I am already safe, and someone aside from you can contact my clan for you. We might not have to go the whole way in— It would be for the best if we did not go the whole way into Eralis. But we must get out from the danger of actually being caught in crossfire between multiple Scions, out here in the Tribulations. You might not know this, but they will have grudges that they will enact upon each other without care for completion of any Quest, if it means a hated rival is thus ended. I would prefer to avoid that.”

“That’s exactly what I feared.” Ezekiel said, “Very well—

Tadashi shivered in the sunlight, though he tried not to show it.

“Right. Sorry,” Ezekiel said, full of knowing. “You have no clothes. We have no extras. We have no supplies for this, at all. We were not expecting you. Uh. Should we slow this down? I can make you food and clothes if I have some time. We’ve only been exposed for ten minutes, so far, and we are several kilometers away from the bandits’ hideout. And a few higher, too.” He looked around. “Opinions?”

Paul said, “I will go along with whatever you desire, Scion, but that Red Man was not happy to see us escape. He is likely searching for us right now.”

Julia asked, “Should we counter-ambush?” She said, “I feel that we should counter-ambush. Best not to leave a threat like him lying around.”

Tadashi shivered, almost uncontrollably, as he suddenly muttered, “I would prefer to escape. Please.”

Tiffany said, “Let’s not tempt the dragon. Let’s move, with purpose, and out of the Tribulation mountains.” She looked to Julia, and smirked. “Make him a spider silk robe.”

Julia chirped, “Bah!”

“Can you do that? With spider silk?” Ezekiel asked. “I mean. I know it can be done, but I’ve never seen you weave clothes before.”

“Clothes?” Tiffany laughed. “Hardly.”

“I have tried several times and failed twice as often.” Julia gazed down at Tadashi with giant, blue eyes. “I can wrap you in mundane threads and strap you to my legs. This is no problem.” She flexed her talons, and her voice trailed off, “Let’s see…”

She lifted a feathered foot into the air, and the feathers receded. White unicorn fur appeared over bright white chicken-skin a moment later, and then the tops of her toes, just above the talons, bulged. Her other foot similarly transformed.

Julia eyed the mountain slope below the party. A moment later, stone flowed into a large bird perch, and several short pillars that resembled a miniature Stonehenge. With a flow of lightform, Julia moved onto the perch.

Controlled threads flowed out from her talons a moment later. They spun in the air, controlled to land and stick to the pillars. More and more threads moved at her command to spin around the center of that spider web base. It thickened, layer upon layer.

Ezekiel walked closer. He looked up at his daughter, asking, “[Fabricate]?”

“… Don’t have it.”

Cheerfully, Ezekiel said, “I think I found your problem.”

Julia cackled a tiny laugh. “I don’t have it, yet. I am working on Remaking that spell and not spending the point, but it’s been difficult.”

“Oh!” Ezekiel said, in realization. “For all your lessons, you never took any sewing instruction, did you? Or learned fabric weaving.”

Another laugh. “Nope! But I have [Thread Control] now, so it might go easier.” She asked, “Do you want to try to [Fabricate] some robes? I can spit out a whole roll of non-sticky thread, if you want it.”

“Yes. But not right now.” Ezekiel glanced backward, at the shivering Tadashi. He turned back to his daughter, whispering, “He’s in a bad way. We need to get to civilization.” The layers of silk, which Ezekiel could tell alternated between sticky and not, were already as thick as a heavy winter comforter.

Julia swiveled her head toward Tadashi, then turned back, saying, “We do.”

“Oh. And—” Ezekiel asked, “Could you carry a carriage? So you don’t have to carry him? I don’t think he could survive that.”

Julia chirped. “Try not to make it too heavy. This is going to take a minute more. I need to make it thick but not too sticky and I think I failed in a few spots already. He can wear this, but I’ll fill in whatever basket you make with softer threads.”

Ezekiel nodded. And then he went to work, while the pale pink alchemist came over to watch Julia’s crafting.

First, he had an Odin find an unattended, small tree. The nearest, easiest to reach specimen was a mountain over to the west. A few casts of [Treeshape] and some heavy intent-filled growth later, and that Odin blipped in with his prize.

It was essentially a large, specialty-made wicker basket large enough for a person to comfortably rest within. On the outside, though, it was like a spiked ball, with those spikes turning into plenty of hand-holds a few meters away from the central seat, so that anyone would be able to carry the thing if it was necessary. Finally, a door was attached that would close the whole thing, to ensure Tadashi would not fall out, no matter how much he might accidentally be tumbled through the air. The alchemist should even be able to stick his head up and look out through several small windows, if he wanted.

… He would probably be fine. The basket certainly wasn’t up to any possible ‘flying carriage’ code, if such codes actually existed, anywhere, but it was light enough, and it would get the job done.

By the time Ezekiel deposited the basket beside Julia, Tadashi was sitting on the ground, surrounded by a rather crude, yet fluffy blanket made of white spider silk. [Warming Ward]s spewed heat at him, for they couldn’t actually warm him directly. He was already looking better.

Julia began to fill in the carriage with enough spider silk to make it like padding. When that was done, Tadashi tried to get up to go test it, but his comforter was stuck to the ground and itself; but not to him! Another helping hand from Tiffany pulled open the comforter and released its temporary prisoner. Tiffany began to pick at the comforter to get rid of most of the large stones, for Tadashi would still use it inside the basket, while Tadashi tested his new ride and found it adequate.

Julia fixed up the comforter, too, ensuring that it had no sticky exterior, at all.

When everything was ready, but before anyone was locked into any baskets with some spider silk, Ezekiel asked, “Anyone need to use the privy before we go? Or need water, or something?”

Tadashi blushed, and then paled, and then almost lost all of the small composure that he had managed to regain.

Ezekiel spoke before a terrible sadness overtook the man, “It’s not embarrassing. It’s just how it is for now, and this is why I asked. Don’t have a crisis about life before we’re out of danger. Have your existential crisis after you are back home.”

Tadashi pulled himself back from the brink. With uncertainty in his voice, he said, “I… I would like water, and… if… you could provide… facilities—” He rapidly said, “I apologize for this disgusting—”

“I might as well take a shit, too,” Tiffany said, lightening the mood. Or, at least, trying to.

Tadashi just looked that much more mortified.

A [Stoneshape] to the side provided privacy. An Odin [Watershape]ing mists into liquid provided the water for Tadashi, both for drinking and for a wash basin. Tiffany cleaned herself out of sight of Tadashi with a quick [Cleanse]. Ezekiel was glad for that, and Tiffany gave a knowing nod; no need to rub in the fact that Tadashi would never be able to [Cleanse] himself ever again. The man was already mumbling about [Cleanse] and he couldn’t even wear conjured clothes…

But there were some untended clothes not too far away, weren’t there?

A quick check-in at the bandit’s hideout, from afar at first, and then from inside, revealed that the Red Man and his accomplices were gone, the lead smoke had either dissipated or sunk out of the air, and the hideout itself had been turned from a ramshackle set of buildings and an open square, into a scraped-out canyon full of mist. The walls appeared as though they were clay, and someone had dug their fingers through the entire space, hollowing it out into a near-sphere with furrows everywhere, all going the same way.

Ezekiel still checked the place over, hoping for some clothes to give to Tadashi, but that fate wasn’t in the cards.

While that was happening, Tadashi cleaned himself with provided warm water then re-donned his spider-‘cotton’ blanket, then he loaded himself into the spiky wicker basket.

Nothing had bothered the five of them in the half hour it took to get to this point.

Odin had been scouting the eastern mountains while everything else had been going on, in preparation for the forward flight. Odin even turned solid as he scouted a little bit of the ways ahead, but nothing came out to greet him. He was only in the air for a short while, though. The journey to the barest bit of safety would take a few hours, at least, and across some of the most dangerous skies in the world.

With Tadashi in the basket, Ezekiel unveiled his next best idea.

A magenta Odin latched onto Paul, Tiffany, and Ezekiel’s backs. Those Odin expanded, becoming multiple pairs of giant wings extending over the shoulders of each of his people and himself. Since Julia was literally flying on wings out of the mountains, why not everyone?

A few Odin also latched onto the extra handholds of Tadashi’s basket, to support it if Julia needed to do something else. There were multiple redundancies in the plan to carry the Alchemist out of the mountains, and in the plans to combat the known monsters they would likely encounter. Hopefully those redundancies would be enough. For now, Julia, as a Primal Frost Owl, sat atop the basket like a parrot on a perch, waiting to fly away with that perch.

Tiffany tilted her head backward to see her new set of wings. Odin fluffed at the attention, a few small eyes appearing here and there, to look back at Tiffany. She smiled, and poked the feathers near an extra eyeball, eliciting guitar thrums from her new ‘wings’.

Paul reached back and touched his ‘right wing’, including everyone in the conversation as he sent, ‘This is different.’

‘Just for show, of course.’ Ezekiel smiled.

‘Too angelic, dad.’ Julia sent, ‘But I like it.’ She added, ‘Odin’s gonna have to provide some wind shear protection, yeah?’

‘Yes, and also help reduce weight and strain for you. They’re all in sunforms. And— Here.’

The Odins each cast small [Prismatic Ward]s either upon the clothes of their person, or upon their perch, and Julia’s perch, too. The Restful air would provide much needed stamina for the long journey.

‘I like it.’ Tiffany touched the solid light braced against her chest and torso, and the light that came up under her feet as she lifted her leg. She stepped onto the light, half a meter into the air. ‘Feels secure, but still loose enough to move.’

‘Hopefully!’ Ezekiel sent, ‘Let me know if it’s uncomfortable. Or. Actually. Let Odin know?’

Paul sent, ‘Let’s not experiment with telepathically contacting your [Familiar] and risk all that False Damage, please. We all have our own flight spells, anyway. If we fall, just don’t leave us behind.’

Tadashi watched, with rapt attention, from the tiny portholes of his basket.

‘Of course not. So!’ Ezekiel said aloud, “Here we go!”

Tadashi gasped, big, as he held onto the grab bars in his basket.

With a trill of violins, Odins raised into the sky, taking their cargo with them, giving Julia an easy way to take off, fast, from a bit higher than ‘ground level’. Julia cackled a little, obviously happy, as she unfolded her massive wings and her entire snow-white body glimmered with dark blue magics. She beat her wings, and they moved—

Tadashi screamed a little.

Julia slowed down; slowly, easily. In a moment, she simply hovered in the air, supported by her own light, as she peered down into the basket. “You okay, Tadashi?”

“I’m fine!” came the strangled cry of the alchemist. He righted himself, bracing his arms against the basket, saying, “My hand slipped from the handle! Sorry!”

“Then we go again!” Julia said, “Let me know if something is wrong!” She opened her wings and took off from midair, increasing her speed slower than the first time. “You okay?”

Ezekiel, Paul, and Tiffany followed on magenta wings. They were all fine. Tadashi, though?

Tadashi called out, “I’m good!”

Julia chirped in happy owl sounds, as she flapped her silent wings and gained speed. Unoccupied Odins happily repeated her noises as they chased after her. For a brief moment, Ezekiel was simply along for the ride.

The dark tunnel was behind them. The deadly Red Man was out of sight. And they were flying over some of the most beautiful land Ezekiel had ever seen, with his daughter up ahead, and his people beside him.

And also: Flying never got old.

The full weight of the moment seemed to hit him as the world rushed under their feet, the mist ocean dropping away, the mountain-top islands becoming smaller, and smaller. This was dangerous, sure, monsters everywhere and all that, but it was also exhilarating. Yesterday had been Hunters. Today had been bandits and then a rescue from a swarm of monsters, and yet, the day had barely even begun.

They were still in danger, right at this moment.

Ezekiel was still running [Hunter’s Instincts].

And yet…

Julia raced forward. Odin raced to catch her with all of his bodies, but she was faster than them by far, and wasn’t that a sight to see! Ezekiel had known that she would be better at flying than him, just as she was better at fighting, but to actually see his daughter surpass him never got old. She barely beat her wings, and the heavens flowed over her snow-white feathers faster than the light could move, for the light was being rather buffeting, at the moment. No real aerodynamics for this light. Not when they had a Tadashi to protect from the elements but without touching him.

Ezekiel smiled wide as they ascended, high into the sky, the wind barely touching them, the cold barely seeping into their armor. This was fun. And look at that land below! Majestic.

Julia flew faster and faster, into the eastern sky. Odin tried to keep up, but it was rather apparent that he could not. Julia kept pouring on the speed—

Tadashi appeared through the holes in the basket. He called out, his voice failing on the wind, but still heard because of [Hunter’s Instincts], “We are going too fast!”

Ezekiel spoke through the Odin on the basket, “Are you injured?”

“I am taking injury, yes! That’s a hundred Health so far!”

At that, the party slowed, greatly. Julia relaxed her flight. She hadn’t been jumbling him around, but without a way to heal except for naturally, every point of Health was a precious defense that didn’t need to be wasted needlessly.

“Ach! Sorry about that, Tadashi,” Julia said through the light, near to Tadashi.

“Quite alright! Thanks for the rescue!”

Odins caught up to Julia. Tadashi relaxed into his basket.

A sudden bubble of blue light expanded from the mountaintop on the left—

And here came the expected attack from the expected Thunder Bird.

“Nope-nope-nope!” Ezekiel said, as he reacted.

The rest of the party followed, preparing for what was to come. They had been briefed on how Ezekiel wanted to handle this, and they agreed with his assessment.

The party stopped, midair.

Tadashi poked his head up, confusion writ large on his face, and then came dawning realization, and horror, as he saw the blue bubble growing on the mountaintop below.

Ezekiel set up his seven-part reaction because he wasn’t sure what, exactly, would be the best defense against the sound-based attacks of the Thunder Birds; the main predator one needed to watch for when flying through the Tribulation Mountains.

Unoccupied Odin lightstepped into the air between the mountain and Tadashi and the party. The intervening space was a good five kilometers away, and though the Thunder Bird was nesting down there, the species also hunted and mated and lived high above; it was an even chance to get attacked from above or below, when traveling these skies.

[Airshape] took control of a section of air, making it Odin’s own, while a [Prismatic Ward] of 6000 points of defense took control of another airy space. [Quick Wall]s covered another part of the sky, layered like the scales of a dragon. A [Normalize Aura] took control of another layer, behind all the rest, for Ezekiel had no idea if that would actually work against a large-scale sound-based attack. It probably would, but better safe than sorry. A [Discord Aura] took hold of the air beyond the [Normalize Aura], for that would surely work against the sound-based attack. The final line of defense was Ezekiel himself, lightstepping into the space between the attack and Tadashi, prepared to unleash a full sunform of his own. His [Animadversion] likely wouldn’t do much, since the attack of a Thunder Bird was spoken of as wholly physical, but he still had that silver shield strapped to his wrist. Hopefully, the bird’s shockwave spell wouldn’t get that far—

Tiffany stepped right in front of Ezekiel. With a massive forward shield held in both of her hands, she cheerfully chided, “Let the tank tank, please! Mages always out of position, I swear.”

The bubble of blue light around the entire mountaintop island—

Super Large Area. Thunder Birds go big, it appears.

—rippled, all across its surface, building in power, in waves. The entire space became like an ocean’s surface, that then peaked in only one direction; the direction of the party. The cresting wave of the blue dome shifted like an eye moving in its socket as it took aim directly at Ezekiel and his people.

This was why the party had stopped flying forward; Unless they were going at speeds too fast for Tadashi to handle then the heavy ordnance of the Thunder Bird would have tracked them, anyway.

The entire blue eye blinked, the pupil tracking them as it sent out waves of concentrated power, cascading in the party’s direction.

Thunder roared.

[Airshape] was the closest spell to the shockwave, and that was utterly useless. The shockwave tore right through that flimsy excuse of a spell, and then continued right through the 6000 points of defense that was the [Prismatic Ward], popping that dense air like the shattering of a glass ornament. [Quick Wall]s held, but the shockwaves merely flowed around them, their power barely reduced by that defense.

As he watched the power of the Thunder Bird, Ezekiel was reminded of watching the Aerie explode, back in Ar’Kendrithyst, during Shadow’s Feast, except smaller, and more concentrated.

[Normalize Aura] turned shockwaves into something smaller, but still present.

Shockwaves struck the chaotic layer of [Discord Aura] from a nearby Odin, and died, completely.

The shockwaves never reached Tiffany, the party, [Animadversion], or a to-be-deployed sunform.

A few more seconds passed to the great shock of everyone present, as the spell continued on past the party.

Tiffany laughed a little, as she said, “Look at the size of that magic! Never seen anything like it!”

Ezekiel gave a good chuckle at that joke, while Julia gave a single, loud caw.

The blue bubble on the mountain island flickered and died.

Paul brought everyone back to the moment, shouting, “Let’s get going again before it recharges!”

Ezekiel laughed as the party resumed racing through the sky. “I can negate the Thunder Birds just fine!”

Tadashi’s head appeared in the portholes. “You didn’t know if you could?!”

“Don’t worry, good alchemist!” Ezekiel deployed his [Physical Aura] into the sky, but only as the barest bit of [Discord] about half a kilometer out, saying, “I made a new spell recently and it works better than I thought it would against Thunder. I’m always making new spells, though probably not as much as I could. Gotta study how they all work, first!”

Tadashi’s eyes went wide, and then he disappeared back into the basket. “Always new magics…”

“Ah. Shit,” Ezekiel whispered, understanding that he had just made the man rather sad. Tadashi’s magic days were over, weren’t they? Ezekiel raced forward and called to Tadashi, “Sorry!”

A half-hearted wave came out of the basket.

Ezekiel tried, “Hey! You heard about that new Particular Magic, right? Maybe antirhine is a particular that you can extricate from the body! With alchemy! There’s a good lifelong goal for you.”

“… Yeah,” came Tadashi’s sad voice that tore on the wind.

Paul sent, ‘Really.’

‘What! I was circumspect.’

Paul mm’hmm’d at him.

Tiffany flew beside Ezekiel and shook her head a little, though she was still smiling from the thunder bird ‘fight’ and her joke of only a minute ago.

Julia’s head rotated all the way around to stare straight at her father, as she sent, ‘Particular Magic. Eh?’

Ezekiel smirked, as he sent to all of them, ‘This whole incognito-thing is just to be able to see the world as it actually is. We might have seen enough of the Highlands at this point, so I’m willing to give up this facade if necessary if it means helping someone. I don’t want to actually announce myself, though.’

Julia turned her eyes forward, and beat her wings, sending, ‘Ah. The ‘old wise man handing out swords in caves,’ shtick.’

‘Oh?’ Tiffany sent, ‘Is that a story from Earth? We have a similar one, but it’s about an old woman in a grotto handing out swords.’

‘I’m not that old!’ Ezekiel sent.

Julia ignored her father’s rejoinder, and exclaimed, ‘Ha! You tell yours first, then I’ll go next. We got a long ride and I could use a story.’ She looked down, then returned her eyes forward. ‘Looks like Tadashi trying to sort out something amongst himself, anyway. He’s shaking his hands at the air and mumbling to himself.’

A cause for concern?

“Tadashi?” Ezekiel flew closer, cheerfully asking, “Are you okay in there?”

“… How would you remove antirhine from the body?”

With a sudden seriousness in his voice, Ezekiel said, “I have no idea, but I would start with blood treatments. Maybe there’s a way to gradually weaken the amount of Antirhine in a person—”

The sky above and to the left, three-ish kilometers away, erupted in a kilometer-wide blue bubble. Waves crested on that surface, forming an eye that aimed at the party, releasing shockwaves in a torrent of physical power as the blue bubble collapsed inward, onto the sparking blue bird at the center. This time, the attack consolidated and came much faster, and the party never stopped moving forward. Just like he had been told, the Thunder Bird’s attack tracked them through the sky, spilling shockwaves across the moving party like it was was directing a laminar flow of breaking sound.

[Discord Aura] completely negated the attack.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

They were a calm 500 meter center to a kilometers-wide flow of vibrating power.

What didn’t hit them kept on flowing, to the mountains below. Mist exploded. Rocks shook. But the attack had been mostly dissipated by then.

Ah. Hmm.

Ezekiel decided to extend his aura out even more and completely block the next attack, should something like this occur again. No need to accidentally send an attack at whoever might be below them. He sent an Odin back to where the bird’s attack struck to search for people—

Tadashi had poked his head up just in time to see the negation of the attack. “We’re too close and that one is hunting. It will attack us.”

Ezekiel had been prepared to ignore the bird, since the mountain-bound one had not giving chase, but—

This flying blue bird was sized to Julia; easily five meters tall, and twice that wide. It was shaped like an eagle. Lightning crackled across its feathers as it let out an ear-piercing screech, dive-bombing the party. The screech was completely negated, just as the shockwaves had been, but Ezekiel could tell what the bird had tried to do; it had tried to hit Julia, for whatever reason.

Maybe it didn’t like other birds?

When the bird was close enough and not seeming to want to change course, and with Tadashi screaming in the background that they were all dead, Ezekiel intercepted the bird with a lightstepping Odin that blasted the bird with a thousand mana [Slowing Bolt]. Not Ezekiel’s thousand mana; he needed his mana for the full escort. Odin’s thousand mana was more than enough.

A pink cloud-puff inexorably struck the speeding bird well before the bird could get anywhere near Julia and her wicker basket cargo.

Julia wordlessly adjusted her position with a silent flap of giant wings.

The Stopped thunder bird zipped right past the party.

It recovered itself into a Slow when it was well past the point of being a problem. With a single caw and a small blast of power aimed at the party, which was dissipated by the [Discord Aura], the thunder bird flew on. They weren’t monsters, after all, and animals tended to react to danger smarter than monsters. They knew when a meal was too big to be trifled with.

Tadashi had watched the Stopped bird fly past. He had stood in his basket, his face pressed to the port hole, watching the bird fly away in search of easier prey. And now, he sat back down, out of direct sight, but not out of lightsight.

Ezekiel flew next to the basket, but not too close, as he said, “As I was saying: Blood treatments to cure the Antirhine Elixir could—”

“Doesn’t work.” Tadashi spoke while out of direct view, “The Antirhine Elixir is not a simple case of Antirhine poisoning. The Elixir bonds to bone unless you get it out of a person before they’ve had time to digest and… I’ve had time to digest.”

Ezekiel listened, and then he tried, “How about blood treatments to get rid of all non-bonded antirhine, and then when all you got is what is in your bones, you might be able to cast through the aura over your stomach, for instance, since that might be far enough away from your bones.”

Tadashi shook his head, exasperated. “But… Eh.” And yet, there was something there in the glints of his eyes. “Eh. No. I mean… Maybe that would work… A little.” He shook his head. “No. The aura poisoning of Antirhine is very thorough.”

“Does it actually poison the aura? Does it make you have an Antirhine aura?”

“… No. That’s just what the effect is called.”

Ezekiel said, “You won’t know until you try, and it might not work, but maybe it could work at least a little. You won’t be able to [Cleanse], or take in healing magics, but you can still cast. Maybe.” Ezekiel said, “During any possible blood treatment you would have to pay special attention to infections. One of those would likely kill you well before you got anywhere close to being able to cast from your belly.”

Tadashi laughed, a sick sound, and said, “And I’d have to eat enough to regain a stomach, too!” He lamented, “Bright gods, but I am terrible at aura work.”

“Another thing to learn!” Ezekiel said, “I’m not that great at it myself, but there’s time.”

“That’s right…” He stepped up in the basket, saying, “You said you were here to learn from the Songstresses… but your spellwork seems to easily negate the Thunder Birds. Are you really here to learn from them?”

Ezekiel gave a genuine smile, as he said, “I know a few tricks and some of my magic resembles some of what I heard that they do, but I never had reason to come to the Highlands until events recently conspired to bring me and my retainers to Eralis. My hope is to return home, triumphant, with more than a few new insights into what I can already do.”

“… Yeah. That makes… Sense.” Tadashi glanced around, then sat down. He instantly stood right back up, and with strong eyes, he looked at Ezekiel, as he said, “I wish you good luck in your endeavors, and I thank you deeply for the rescue. Clan Diligent Scribe will most assuredly offer great recompense and I can even introduce you to some…” He paled. Softer, he said, “I could have introduced you at the Void Temple. But… I cannot go there anymore. Apologies. I… I don’t know what I’m good for, anymore.”

“We’ll get you home, Tadashi.” Ezekiel said, “Everything beyond that will happen when it happens.”

“… Thank you, Scion Ezekiel.”

Ezekiel asked, “Do you have a preference who you’re returned to? There are three names on the Quest: Elder Mirizo Star Song, Enforcer Sikali Song, and Elder Doniro Diligent Scribe.”

Tadashi’s eyes went wide. He sat down in his basket, saying, “Ah… Can I think for a while?”

“… Of course. I didn’t think it would be a big question, but by your reaction, I can tell that it is. Take your time.”

Tadashi gave no response. He just curled up into his spider silk comforter, wrapping himself tighter in his white-walled basket.

After a few minutes of flying at a relatively quick, but non-damaging pace, and every visible and known crisis seemingly dealt with, for now, Julia sent to the four of them, ‘What was the story you were going to say, Tiffany? About the person giving out swords?’

Tiffany’s thoughts took on the tone of a practiced bard, ‘We call her the Woman Of The Grotto, though that is but one of her many names. Sometimes she lives in a small hut in the lee of a large tree, or down a deep well. Other times she is the woman who is everyone’s aunt, who lives past a specific bend in the summer home’s game trails. Sometimes, she is not a woman at all. She is the one you go to for potions of fertility, or to find out where the monster lives…’

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