156, 2/2

Erick stepped out of the light, followed by his people, and also Nirzir. All of them wore their preferred [Conjure Armor], but with slight differences. Poi wore his usual silver metal Spur-style guard armor, but he had conjured a shield which hung on his back; Erick didn’t know when he had made a shield spell, but it must have been created recently. Jane had switched her layered shell [Conjure Armor] for a warrior-cut dark blue robe, in the Songli style; it wasn’t as defensive as her normal armor, but it was more professional. Erick’s own [Conjure Armor] was in the same style, but white. Teressa had kitted herself out in grey full plate which was larger and more solid than her usual conjuring. A bit of mana sense revealed to Erick that Teressa’s new spell completely sealed her off from the outside world, but thick air spilled out from behind her neck, showing that there was clearly some sort of [Cleanse] effect going on, keeping her breathing good air. Erick rapidly caught on that her new armor kept her scentless, soundless, and in a comfortable temperature, too.

Erick probably needed to make himself an armor spell like that too. But not right now. Right now, they needed to have some scents upon them. That was why they were approaching Clan Pale Cow from the north, where the winds were sweeping their scents south, toward the clan.

Nirzir stepped forward, excitedly saying, “I have read that their cows should start to smell us within ten kilometers, but I don’t know how true that is.” She wore a pale violet short robe, with voluminous sleeves. It was conjured, so it would likely protect her more than it looked like it would. With a child-like glee, and probably because she was a child, she asked, “That’s why we’re coming in from the north, right?”

“Correct,” Erick said, taking the first steps forward, trampling down calf-high grasses as he went. “We’re five kilometers from Pale Cow, so it’s a bit of a walk, but I did not want to drop right inside of their defenses. The travel guide said that [Teleport] was a bit of a taboo, and Clan Pale Cow is an orthodox clan.”

“But you’re not using [Teleport],” Nirzir said.

“Yup.” Erick said, “But not many people can tell the difference, and so, appearances matter.”

“It’s been too long since we’ve been outside.” Teressa happily crunched forward, carving a path through the grass, as she said, “If only we’d get a wyrm attack, then it would be really fun!”

Nirzir readily took up the topic as they walked south, asking, “What is it like fighting a wyrm?”

“Like trying to fight a living mage tower that travels on its side and that only wants to eat you and every other living thing it can catch. Highly resilient. Never runs out of mana, but it can only cast one or two spells. The eyebeam wyrms and the [Dispel] wyrms are the most dangerous.” Teressa said, “Imagine a dragon with ten thousand eyes, and each of them targeting you with a [Force Beam]. Imagine a shadowy dragon that strips away all of your magic.”

Poi shuddered.

Jane just grinned.

Erick was glad that he never met a [Dispel] wyrm. Knowing what he now knew, that particular breed of wyrm could be very, very dangerous… Hmm. Erick asked, “Do the [Dispel] wyrms counterspell?”

“Oh yes.” Teressa said, “But they’re messy about it. It’s a dice roll if you get unlucky and they rip apart your conjured armor and weapons, or if they just lock down the mage, casting his small spells to distract the beast.”

Jane said, “They can’t do anything against already-cast [Polymorph], though.”

Nirzir didn’t seem to think that a [Dispel] wyrm was a big deal. She said, “I think my imagination is a weak imitation. All I have ever seen are dragon fights, and from far, far away.” Nirzir said, “I have heard that wyrms are uncontrollable, unconscious monsters. You have just said that the [Dispel] wyrms are a dice roll. Shouldn’t that make them easier to kill?”

“They’re nothing like dragons except for their shape; this is true. But don’t underestimate the removal of your weapon from your hand and the armor from your body, when you’re going up against a beast that will eat you whole.” She glanced back and looked down to Nirzir, asking, “What sort of dragon fights have you seen?”

“They’re all ended by Red before they can truly begin, but sometimes she is slow.” Nirzir said, “One time when I was 12, a fight happened a hundred kilometers from me and Red had yet to show after two minutes of battle. At the time I was with my brother, and he took me to see the fight. We [Teleport]ed in ten kilometers from the battle, and the sky…” She gazed out, saying, “The sky was black with dark rain, and every drop dissolved the world where it touched. Green lightning illuminated that dark sky… Two snake-like forms, one black, one green, both kilometers long, each twisted the clouds with their wrath. A mountain ripped from the ground, thrown by the black one, but then the green one vaporized the mountain with Void Lightning…” She pulled back from the story. “It was the most deadly thing I have ever seen. It only got worse and worse, with the dragons moving higher and higher in the sky… A few hundred people died in that fight but most were able to get away. Mother was furious with brother for taking me to see such a thing.”

For a moment, no one said anything. Probably because everyone was thinking of their own moments when they realized they were so very, very tiny.

Erick said, “I think we’ve all had some formative experiences like that.”

Nirzir nodded. “Mother was furious, but father and my brothers…” She stood a bit taller. “As they say: This is the world we live in, and the position we inhabit.” She asked, “What was your most terrifyi— Ah. Sorry. I have been told that question is inappropriate.”

Erick smiled a little. “My most terrifying moment was…” He paused. He hummed. He said, “I’ve had a lot of them, actually. The one I’m thinking of right now was that one time when we were out wyrm hunting and an eyebeam wyrm found us. We had to retreat, but then I went back to kill it on my own— This was before Ophiel, you understand. I appeared in the sky, which was a terrible mistake. The wyrm went right after me. I saw the jaws open and almost snap around me before I managed to get out of there.”

Teressa chuckled. Poi smirked. Jane frowned a little; she wasn’t there for that one. She had been doing more important things.

Erick added, “At that same time my daughter was inside Ar’Kendrithyst, showing Champion Yetta around and rescuing people from the Shades. If I had been waiting at home and watching the action inside the Dead City alongside everyone else in Spur, then that would have likely been the most terrifying time of my entire life here on Veird.”

They walked along the grass for a while, no one speaking.

And then Jane said, “Meeting Melemizargo while the Champion and her party had been transformed into sacrifices was pretty bad. Everything that happened in Ar’Kendrithyst was a nightmare, and I was only there for a month.”

“The Champion’s assault on the Dead City was horrific.” Teressa said, “But normally, there are rules you can follow inside Ar’Kendrithyst and be mostly safe. Mostly.”

Poi said, “My most terrifying experience is a twenty-three way tie, and each for different reasons.”

He said it so deadpan that Erick couldn’t help but burble a laugh. He wasn’t the only one; Jane and Nirzir grinned.

Teressa went, “Ha!”

“Give us one of the lighter ones, Poi,” Erick asked.

“Watching the Breach Demon almost get summoned.” Poi said, “That was terrifying. But it didn’t happen. So that qualifies for ‘lighter ones’.”

Erick nodded. “Yeah. That was scary.”

Teressa said, “Looking for a dragon feels like it could be a large, terrifying moment for me, but come on! We’re adventurers! We seek out this stuff because it has to be done, and because we’re all a little loose in the head.” She added, “And watching the Extreme Light bombs go off while you were suspended in the air and mostly dead… That was terrifying for me, boss.”

Erick reached over and patted Teressa’s forearm since it was the easiest place to reach, saying, “Thank you for being there for me.”

“Heh.” Teressa chuckled. “Of course I was there for you!”

Jane moved the conversation, “Speaking of danger: this is gonna sound really odd, probably because it is a very, very stupid idea, but I need to set it up first before I have it answered. So! I have Draconic Inoculation. This makes me—”

Erick paled a little, already seeing where this was headed. “Oh my radiant gods, Jane.”

Poi gasped a little. Nirzir looked lost. Teressa pretended she didn’t hear anything.

“Let me finish! This is a concern, and I want it answered fully.” Jane said, “The Knowledge Mages gave me shit answers, and the books don’t tell me what I need to know. It’s probably a case of cannibalism, but I need to know if it is that, too.”

Erick went silent. Poi looked straight ahead, focused on the horizon, just like Teressa was.

Nirzir’s eyes were wide, as she glanced toward Jane, realizing what she was asking.

No one said anything.

“Okay then.” Jane continued, “I’m immune to Dragon Essence. Can I take a dragon’s body for myself? What sort of bonuses does that give? If any? Would that be cannibalism? Do they have Familiar Form abilities? What does Dragon Essence actually do?” She paused for a moment, then said, “That’s it. I guess there wasn’t a lot of setup, after all.”

They walked south, toward Clan Pale Cow.

No one said a word for a good ten seconds.

Erick said, “Okay. I have no idea. Anyone else got any ideas?”

That opened the dam.

Nirzir instantly said, “You do not want a dragon form. It doesn’t matter what ‘bonuses’ it gives you! Or if you’re immune to Dragon Essence and there’s no risk of transforming! You’ll be hunted down by ALL THE OTHER DRAGONS if you look like one.”

Teressa glanced backward, declaring, “Yes. That.”

“You can mix and match Familiar Form abilities.” Jane said, “Just the scales alone could be great for all my other forms. Dragons are supposed to have impenetrable scales.”

Teressa said, “When a dragon loses their dragon essence, they become a wyrm. And you can’t get a wyrm Familiar Form; people have tried. Maybe that transformation occurs at the exact moment of death, or maybe it takes a while. Maybe you could eat a dragon’s heart and then its brain while it was still alive, maybe, but if you don’t have Dragon Essence, you cannot get the body of a dragon.” She said, “I’m almost 100 percent sure on that one. Not too sure on the live-eating, though, I just came up with that just now, and I have no idea if that works.”

“That’s a wonderful mental image,” Poi said, sarcastically. “Thank you, Teressa.”

Teressa laughed. “Anytime, Poi!”

Jane grumbled, “That’s almost exactly what the Knowledge Mage told me.” She said, “But doesn’t that seem wrong to you?”

Teressa said, “No. It seems perfectly logical to me. Without the immortality and general… ‘dragon-ness’ of [Dragon Body], the dragon can’t support the massive elemental forces raging inside of their bodies, and those massive forces turn those bodies instantly into undead. At least that’s the stories we orcols tell each other. I don’t know much about necromancy… Everything I just said was probably untrue, now that I think about it.”

Erick said, “I really need to research undead and necromancy, if only to understand what that’s all about.” He asked, “Why does a wyrm animate itself? How do natural undead form? Are wyrms natural undead? Or are they created?”

“I can answer some of that,” Nirzir said, happy to be able to answer a question. “Natural undead form when enough naturally-occurring core dust remains in the body and the body is left to rest in an area that is both saturated with mana, and stagnant, like in a dungeon, or in certain parts of the Underworld. This inundation of ambient mana sometimes forces true cores to form out of the nascent core shards in the body. And then, the core manifests control over the body, becoming a natural undead. Sometimes monsters that have been slain have been known to rise again as undead because the cores have not been removed. This is rare, though, because one of the major necessities for the creation of spontaneous undead is to be left in a place of no moving mana, and most things don’t like living in those places, including undead. Therefore, you almost never find natural undead where they were ‘born’, because the only things there are other baby undead, and the natural undead want to hunt the living, and so they wander out of their birthing zones to find those living people.” Nirzir said, “There are special circumstances everywhere, but that’s the basics of natural undead.”

“But why does the core manifest control over the body?” Erick said, “Is it because of a ‘history of the item’ sort of interaction?”

Nirzir paused in thought, then said, “The term we use is ‘Life’s Dark Impression’, but I think we’re talking about the same thing. Life’s Dark Impression is what happens when the aura of the body is absorbed into a core, forming the core, and then that control spreads out again to control the undead body. This is why when you destroy the core of an undead you will actually kill them, and they won’t rise again, but if you fail to destroy or take the core out of the body, then the undead can rise again.” Nirzir said, “Your term ‘the history of the item’ is applicable to any item, though… And I suppose a corpse counts as an ‘item’, but most items can’t come to life because they were never alive to begin with. Ah. Necromancy is a difficult subject. I am sure I don’t know the full truth; only enough to know how to counter most soul magics.”

… Oh!

Erick had a large thought.

He shared that thought, “I just now realized why you can’t eat a fertilized egg and get a Familiar Form. What you’re doing when you eat the brain and the heart of a beast is that you’re absorbing the ‘Life’s Impression’; not the Blood History or whatever, of a body. Which means you probably cannot eat the heart and the brain while keeping the body alive through Healing Magics, for that Impression still belongs to the being, since they are still alive. Once they’re dead, that Impression is released by the Script.” He said to Nirzir, “In this theory, Impressions are one of the parts overseen by the Script; you understand.”

Nirzir shrugged. “I am still in training at the Palace of the Eternal Court, but what you say seems like it could be true.”

“There’s no need to speculate.” Teressa teased Jane, “You do all these weird things all the time with your Form. I know you must have tried to eat the heart and the brain while the monster was still alive. Let us know the outcome!”

Everyone looked to her as they walked.

Nirzir was judging, a bit; Erick purposefully refrained.

Jane frowned a little. Then she blurted, “I tried it on a monsterized cow! … And all of that seems correct to me, too. You certainly can eat a monster’s brain and heart while it is alive, but you gain no Familiar Form.” She said, “But I’m not about to do that with a dragon. I just want to eat it when it is dead… Maybe.”

Poi finally spoke up, “Dragons are still people.”

“And yes!” Jane exclaimed, “That is a problem, too! I’m more asking if it could be done! If I could gain a dragon’s body and what that would give me! Not if I should do it. I already know I shouldn’t do it.” Jane said, “I just… Need to know.”

Nirzir joked, “The Headmaster has [Duplicate]. Maybe he could let you eat a copy of his head and heart! No ethical dilemma at all!”

Teressa said, “There would still be a dilemma.”

Jane went silent, because she was honestly considering Nirzir’s suggestion.

Poi went silent, likely because he was focused on Erick, because Erick went down a rabbit hole.

Nirzir asked Erick something, but he barely heard her.

Erick was vastly uncomfortable with the idea that he could get his daughter a dragon form, either taken from a dead dragon that he was forced to kill, or from a living dragon that he just… cast a spell at, or something. But before he even got to that point, he would need to figure out how to [Duplicate] the living.

The spell’s original form created a physical copy of a physical item by taking the dead history of the original, copying it, and then [Mending] the copy; using the metaphysical Reality of the item to create an item in reality.

But if Erick was correct about the Script controlling the Living History of living things, [Duplicate] would need to be adjusted in order to allow it to copy that Living History. Such an adjustment might not even be possible, if the Script was truly the limiting factor, here.

[Duplicate] specifically denied the copying of living items, after all.

Erick hadn’t done much with that spell because he didn’t want people to know that he had it…

But maybe [Duplicate] was needed for [Gate], in order to produce two ‘identical’ locations, in order for the [Gate]-creature to… Illusion/[Teleport]/pick-up-and-move a person to a far away location, without the person realizing they had been moved?

Wait. Wait.

What had he just thought?

Pick up and move a person? Or…

… Or maybe there was something much more sinister going on there.

Erick had once brought up [Duplicate] with Tenebrae, as it pertained to [Gate], and Tenebrae told him how he had gone to the Headmaster for help with that. With the Headmaster using [Duplicate], they had made perfectly copied Gates, but nothing came of that interaction. Probably because Tenebrae was thinking of the problem from the wrong angle.

He didn’t think of Twisted Visions as the [Gate]s themselves.

Twisted Visions had [Duplicate] in them, but they were able to overcome the limitations of the spell and copy everything, including living monsters. Twisted Visions could copy the Living History of a living being.

Ah. Yes. That was the sinister thing, wasn’t it.

Maybe [Gate] did not exist, at all.

Maybe, all that was happening was that a person was being copied and the copy was dropped off at the other side of the [Gate], while the original was killed. Information could go a lot further than a person could, after all.

Erick had been bouncing [Telepathy] signals through Ophiel for a while now, increasing his range with that spell far, far beyond the normal maximum. Poi was obviously doing the same, in order to talk to people all the way back in Spur, though Poi did not have a [Familiar]; Poi just had a network of Mind Mages out there.

Erick had already walked through a [Gate] though, multiple times, even. Ah. Was he even himself anymore? Was this the Teleporter Problem, that Jane brought up that one time, years ago, and then again, when they got to Veird and [Teleport] was a part of the Open Script? Eventually, that problem had been solved to Erick’s satisfaction because [Teleport] didn’t actually deconstruct a person and blip them into a new location. [Teleport] just worked off of the possibility that a person had chosen differently in their lives, and then it moved the user onto that new path.

But what if [Gate] was the Teleporter Problem, all over again?

Erick recoiled from that thought—

And then he went full bore into that thought space, simultaneously exploring the idea to its full conclusion, as well as hoping that there would be no blue box indicating he had just passed step 3 of ???. of the Worldly Path.

After a silent minute, he got all the way through to the final step of the thought process, the part where he could sing to the sky, and make it happen. But he stopped there. He was not going to make that spell.

He decided:

No.

And if this decision meant the end of his Worldly Path, then so be it. He was not going to make a spell that copied people and dropped those people off on the other sides of [Gate]s. No way. Not happening.

Nirzir didn’t take the silence well.

Nirzir’s voice was a meek thing, as she said, “Sorry. That joke was in poor taste.”

Teressa smirked, and said, “Jane will eat anything, though, so your joke was fine.”

“Ha ha,” Jane monotoned.

“If you’re worried about Erick; don’t be.” Teressa said, “You probably just knocked something loose in the boss’s head. Got him thinking.”

Nirzir startled. “Oh.” Then she blushed with small joy. “Uh.”

“Yes.” Erick said, “That is exactly it. Sorry for my silence; I was thinking.”

He was still worried over [Duplicate] and [Gate], but he didn’t want to bring those thoughts up to the group. Not right now. Maybe not ever. He would speak of this with the very next person who actually knew about [Gate], though.

Maybe.

… This was yet another question to ask the Headmaster, for sure. A lot of things pointed in that dragon’s direction, recently. Erick had recently even helped Kirginatharp’s Elites when they came calling to investigate the obviously [Duplicate]d nature of the soul spear. That Imaging pointed toward the enchanting houses of Terror Peaks, so someone from Oceanside had been involved in that soul spear—

Ah. No. Maybe not.

Perhaps Kirginatharp had just slipped in some blood that was always going to Image somewhere in Terror Peaks. Perhaps he wanted Erick to come to Oceanside and get involved with the dragons, through him.

… It was obviously (or maybe just highly likely) a trap, but perhaps Oceanside would need to be the next step in this Path, if this thing with the grass travelers didn’t work out.

Teressa interrupted Erick’s thoughts, “I see cows and cowboys.”

Jane stifled a sudden laugh.

Now why had she laughed…

Oh.

Jane had gone through a cowboy phase when she was younger, didn’t she? Erick distinctly remembered that Jane did not want to be a ‘cowgirl’, either; too many bad connotations. She wanted to be out there wrangling horses with the guys. That phase only lasted a single summer, though, then she was back to fantasy and swords and D&D.

Nirzir instantly said, “They don’t like that name. Call them cowherds.”

“Oh?” Teressa said, “Sure. ‘Cowherds’. Easy enough. They’re called cowboys over in the Greensoil Republic, though. That’s all I know about cows.”

Nirzir said, “It might not be my place to say, but many, many things that outsiders do will offend these people. [Telepathy]. [Teleport]. Um. But maybe that won’t matter?”

Erick came back to the conversation, and said, “Clan Pale Cow is an orthodox grass traveler clan. If they take honest umbrage I will consider their views, and then adjust accordingly. But we will not be waylaid by obfuscation and false words. If there are dragons here, I will find them, and I will know what the fuck that green one, or the Mirage Dragon, was doing when she attacked.”

Nirzir, and everyone else, seemed to steel themselves.

Erick would play nice, but he would play on his own terms.

A few hundred cows were less than three kilometers south, and they were coming this way. They had definitely sensed Erick and his group, since the wind was flowing in their direction. Deep mooing filled the air along with the sounds of a thousand stomping hooves. The cowherds had responded almost as fast as their cows had. They rode in front of the herd, their eyes scanning forward. One spotted Ophiel in the sky above, and pointed.

Erick walked forward, taking point, and his people walked with him, tramping through the short grasses behind him.

Soon enough, Erick met the cowherds upon the open plains, with cows mooing in the background. There were three men and one woman upon four different cows, with none of the cows wearing saddles or the people upon them holding reins. The riders seemed to direct the cows with their feet, leaving their hands free to hold weapons, which they did. Each of them gripped large, glaive-like spears, each of a different color; conjured weapons, then. The people themselves were dressed in furs, with cloth underclothes, and shimmering conjured armor over that, done in a style similar to scalemail.

As Erick drew closer, the cowherds met them in formation. Erick knew the lead man but he doubted the lead man remembered him, if his face was anything to go by. He was Amasar, the bloody man who Erick had rescued, who had warned Alaralti of the face stealers posing as ambassadors from Songli. With a pinched face and still looking somewhat skinny from extensive healing, Amasar seemed rather annoyed by the presence of the five interlopers in front of him. His compatriots wore similar expressions.

Erick stepped forward, and his party halted behind him.

Amasar led his cow a step further forward than the rest of his people. He called out, “Welcome to Clan Pale Cow, Archmage Flatt. We’ve been expecting you.”

Well…

Okay then?

Oh! Erick noticed it now. His shoulders were tense; he had recognized Erick!

Ah. Too many distractions out here, perhaps? Or maybe he was still a bit tired?

Sure. Erick went with that.

Erick frowned a little. “I have not sent word ahead. I had thought that I would be coming in without any notice. What is this ‘you’ve been expecting me’ business?”

Amasar blinked in confusion. Then he said, “Because our clan owes you a large debt and you have come to collect. I, too, owe you a personal debt.”

“Oh? Good.” Erick said, “Then that works for my needs. I want to see Niyazo, then.”

“It will be as you demand.” Amasar gestured to one of his people and clicked his fingers together, then gestured to the east. The person he gestured to got off of their cow, and stepped onto the grasses. Their cow wandered back, toward the approaching herd. Amasar said, “Iroki here will lead the way around the herd.” Then he said to Erick, “I thank you for saving my life, Archmage Flatt. I would like to talk later about this personal debt I owe to you, which is separate from the debt that our clan owes you. My group and I have to guide the cows and the clan at the moment, but I would seek an audience, later, if you would give it.”

“We will talk when your clan stops for the night, Amasar.”

Wordlessly, Amasar bowed, and his people bowed with him. And then they rose. The main herd was almost there.

Iroki stepped lively toward the east.

Erick and his people followed—

Erick rapidly remembered a portion of the traveler’s guide about the Warlord Clans. Though the grass travelers did not use many magics, they openly used many Health Cost abilities. Iroki was obviously burning [Swift Movement].

Erick matched his pace, with his people rapidly moving to match Erick’s pace, each of them burning Health to keep up with their own [Swift Movement], except for one. Nirzir lagged until she stepped into the air, her [Greater Air Body] giving her the speed necessary to keep up, but it was very obvious she was not actually walking on the ground anymore.

Iroki shot Nirzir a tiny, dissatisfied glance, but he kept his opinions to himself.

Soon, they had rounded the herd. They saw the clan, following behind their cows.

Clan Pale Cow, like so many of its cousin clans, moved from place to place like towed turtles, with large carts that supported their individual yurts, while teams of four to six cows were harnessed to pull those carts across the plains. Life continued upon those carts. People cooked in the cooking yurts, children learned their history in classroom yurts, and people made baskets and other handicrafts in other yurts, while talking to each other, and doing everything that people normally did. Some people were even traveling between the carts, while the whole caravan was moving. They did this in a rather simple way, too; they just hopped off of the side of the moving vehicle, raced along the grasses to the yurt they wanted to get to, and then they hopped up to their destination. As Erick arrived, he saw at least seven people moving between carts, some of them carrying heavy loads in their arms, all of them racing to reach their goal. The whole caravan was moving at a rather sedate pace —perhaps four or five kilometers per hour— but it was still moving.

Erick instantly felt that this seemed like a simple life, compared to some of the various ways to live he had seen, but it was not an easy life. After all, they were living outside of city walls.

On the western side of the herd, some cowherds had spotted a trio of four-eyed wolves, trying to sneak up to kill some cows, and possibly some people. The cowherds were on the case, though. A woman leapt from cowback and slashed down with a glaive and… barely managed to clip a red wolf. Only clip?

Erick frowned, dividing a bit more attention away from the path ahead of him, to the Ophiel watching the fight—

A different woman cowherd had a much better first attack. She slipped through the air like a shadowed phantom and used her own glaive to slash the wolf in half. And then she retreated and berated the first woman who had failed to strike true. Ah; the younger cowherd was a beginner. There was no danger there.

Erick turned his attention back to his current surroundings. The drivers of the yurts, as well as the various people here and there, all saw Erick and his people, and most began talking. News of Erick’s arrival was spreading fast, if the whispers on the air were anything to go by. They didn’t use [Telepathy] here, but they certainly used [Perfect Hearing] when it was appropriate.

Iroki led Erick past a few outer rolling yurts, to a central yurt which held Niyazo and a few other people. There was no easy place to board, though, which was obviously not needed anyway. Iroki just leapt into the air, clearing a meter height like it was the easiest thing to jump that high, and landed on the yurt’s rolling platform.

To be fair, it was quite easy for someone with at least 20 Strength to clear that height. Erick had just never done it before.

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So he planted his feet, and jumped like the best of them—

He landed on the platform with perfect ease. He smiled a bit, not expecting it to be that easy, but it had been exactly that easy. It was kinda really nice to have a body that did what he asked of it. 25 Dexterity certainly helped, too.

Jane bounded up onto the platform rather easily, taking her place at her father’s side. Poi glanced to Teressa and Teressa wordlessly helped him up with a hand, before Teressa then stepped onto the platform like it was just a very large step; she was three meters tall, so a single meter off the ground was pretty easy for her to clear! Nirzir stepped onto the air, then onto the platform.

Many people did not like her open use of magic.

Erick almost considered talking to her about that, but Nirzir’s white face was already turning a bit pinkish with embarrassment; she saw the problem and he didn’t need to say anything.

With a bit of mana sense, Erick saw inside the yurt. Niyazo and a few others were waiting.

But first, Iroki turned to Erick, and dispersed his armor and weapon, saying, “If it pleases Archmage Flatt, the use of open magics inside the clan is not polite.”

No one else anywhere nearby was wearing conjured armor, or anything like that, so Erick took Iroki’s words to heart. He dispersed his conjured armor. Underneath, he wore the normal clothes of a well-to-do commoner, along with the Crystal Star pinned to his chest, above his heart. His people soon followed his (and Iroki’s) example, and dispersed their armor.

Many people, from carts all over, instantly locked their eyes to Teressa. She grinned and withstood the scrutiny, but she could certainly feel when eyes were upon her. All orcols could, to a certain extent.

The driver of Niyazo’s yurt even glanced Teressa’s way, but they said nothing. He just returned to his job of driving the ‘vehicle’, using a long fishing-pole-like stick to guide the yoked cows left or right. Mostly, the yoked cows seemed to just follow the herd in front of them, though.

Erick rushed things along, for Teressa’s sake, “Thanks for the cultural introduction, Iroki.”

Iroki bowed, and then gestured to the entrance of the yurt, saying, “Leader Niyazo has heard of your coming.” Iroki walked to the entrance and opened the flap, then stepped aside.

Erick went into the yurt. His people followed. Iroki remained outside, and the door flapped shut as he let it go. It was a bit darker now that they weren’t outside, but it was not too dark.

The inside was a comfortable living room about five meters in diameter, and filled with carpets and furs, while chairs in the center ringed a small, guarded firepit where a cauldron sat burbling, spilling delicious scents of meat and stew into the air. Beds and personal effects were organized to the rear of the mobile building. Light came from a large hole in the roof, and from the small fire, for there were no wardlights in sight. Everything moved a little, with charms and trinkets that hung from the opening of the roof swaying this way and that as the yurt rumbled across the grasslands. Some of those charms were simple chimes, and the sounds they rang into the half-light were almost a comfort. Others were glass trinkets that caught the light and turned it to rainbows. The yurt seemed well loved, and well lived in.

Three people sat at the chairs that ringed the firepit.

One was Clan Leader Niyazo Pale Cow, the pale violet man who led the clan. He gazed upon Erick with well-hidden disapproval. This was an act, though. He was prepared for Erick, or at least he was as prepared as he thought he needed to be.

Speaker Yorila was there, to Niyazo’s right; Erick had briefly seen her when he witnessed Niyazo talk about alerting the other clans to the face stealers in their midst. She was an older woman, who had two tendrils of thought coming off of her head; she was telepathically talking to someone. Erick was a little surprised at that. She was openly flaunting taboo. Mostly, the grass travelers didn’t abide by [Telepathy] or [Teleport], along with many other magics, but then again, someone in the clan still had to know of magery, and Yorila was that woman.

The other woman in the yurt was of Niyazo’s age; she sat on his left. A small girl of perhaps ten, sat on the bed in the back of the room, near a window, coloring with wax crayons upon simple paper. The girl had features that closely mimicked Niyazo and this unknown woman; their daughter, no doubt. At Erick’s entrance, though, the young girl turned his way, watching with eyes wide open and a little scared.

This yurt had a friendly sort of feeling to it, but now that Erick was there, and all his people had followed him into the yurt, that friendly, village feeling was evaporating with each passing half second. They had only been inside the yurt for about two seconds now.

Niyazo locked eyes with Erick, evaluating him in roughly the same manner in which Erick had evaluated the warlord, but likely with a lot less magic behind his eyes. Then he glanced up to Ophiel, then over to everyone else, his eyes taking in every one of Erick’s people. Then he looked back to Erick as he stood up, and said, “Welcome to Clan Pale Cow, Archmage Flatt. I am glad you have appeared before me, so that we may discuss the debt we owe. Your people may wait outside, or at any of the public yurts; they are easy to find. Your people will receive beer from our own barrels and stew from our own cauldrons, but you will remain here, and dine with us.” He glanced to his wife, saying, “Koori. The beer.”

Koori scrunched her lips, glared at Erick, then got up and complied. All three of them were already drinking from cow-horn cups, which they stuck into the armrests of their chairs when they weren’t drinking from them.

Erick said, “I would be glad to partake of your drink and your dinner.” He turned to his people, saying, “The public yurt is the one over that way—” He pointed. “Can’t miss it. Offer them some gold for the privilege. I’m sure you can figure out the proper respects to pay.”

Poi and Teressa readily complied. Nirzir paused, though, because she wanted to be here, with Erick, in the thick of the politics and the meeting of people. Maybe next time Erick would allow her to accompany him, but not for the first meeting.

Jane just full-on stopped. She had expected to remain with him. She needed to ensure that her father wasn’t alone in these trying times, but she couldn’t stay, either. Erick loved her for her desire to protect but he could handle this. Erick nodded, knowingly, to Jane, and felt a warmth of appreciation well inside his chest as she nodded back.

Then the four of them were gone, and the flap to the yurt shut again.

Niyazo gestured to the other chairs and sat down on his own, as he said, “Have a seat, Archmage Flatt.”