B2 – Chapter 7: Talk to bandits before killing them

Tristan woke up next to Felicity once more in her elfanoid form. She was muttering again, twitching in her sleep, and he heard the words. “Just…say it…”

Again, without disturbing her, he rose up, did his morning routine, and as he began armoring up, she roused, helped him get his gear on, shifted forms, and the two left the Fey Realm to continue their traveling.

Despite being in the coastal lowlands, it was hot; the hottest week of the year, the sixteenth through the twentieth of Building Season. Rain would not fall over most of the world, and without his essence crucible venting powerful, cool energy into the nearby environment, Onyx and Midnight would have long-since overheated and needed to stop for a breather.

But he was able to push on, putting on his Bhant disguise of the dark haired and tan-skinned Human as he kept traveling. Felicity kept an eye on the surroundings from atop his head – fully invisible – whilst he pulled out the scraps of parchment.

Flipping through The Matriarch’s few pages of essence-weaving guides, Tristan’s mind seemingly converted the script in Elvish to the Standard Tongue, much as it had done before when he first encountered the Queen’s Vault. Damn, he thought. She only had time for two of each. Well, it’s better than what I had before.

Persuasive Charm (First)

Spell Phrase: “Katsokaa kasvojani ja ihastukaa viehätysvoimaani.” (Look upon my countenance and find yourself enamored with my charm).

Spell Gesture: Take your dominant hand, and put your index finger and middle finger out, extended and split apart from each other. Curl in your other fingers, face the palm outward, and cock your elbow out sideways so that your index finger lines up with the bottom of your eye, and the middle finger extends above the eyebrow.

Other Notes: This spell will make you more naturally agreeable and people will find themselves liking you for up to ten minutes per casting. Unlike most enchantment, they will not know they are under the effects of a spell; but if they are already hostile or view you with disfavor, this spell will not work. Best used on neutral parties, such as with merchants, shopkeepers, or rumormongers.

Break Enchantment (First)

Spell Phrase: “Ne, jotka ovat muiden lumoissa, vapautan teidät!” (Those who are under the enchantment of others, I release you!).

Spell Gesture: Place your index finger of the dominant hand against your temple, whilst folding the other three fingers to the palm, and placing the thumb along the outside edge of the middle finger. (Yes, you are, in effect, pointing at your own head).

Other Notes: This spell will help to break anyone who is without earshot out of an enchantment spell. It will only affect spells of the First Order. There are more potent versions for higher Order enchantment spells, with the same name (oddly enough), but slightly lengthier phrasing and a slightly more complex gesture. It is like Command, in that regard, just not having the prefix for the number of words one can use. Instead look at the Order level designation.

Disguise Other (First)

Spell Phrase: “Naamioi heidät niin, että he näyttävät joltakin mitä he eivät ole.” (Disguise their form so that they appear as something they are not).

Spell Gesture: Take your hand, pass it over the target’s face (a few inches away is fine – contact is not necessary), and move it in small, circular, scrubbing motion.

Other Notes: This is like Disguise Form, which I know you already know thanks to your altered appearance on a prior visit to the Fey Realm. Lasts for about an hour.

Tristan sighed, “Only one new illusion spell – she wrote down Blended Body. We never told her that you taught me that one.”

Felicity frowned, “Darn. Well, maybe you should fill her in on all the spells you’ve learned so far for the stuff she can teach you.”

Tristan nodded as he re-read the instructions for each one by one, going through the motions and saying the spell phrases each in turn, without actually casting them. A solid hour of doing so had cemented the spells in his memory. Thank the gods mother made me become so good at rote memorization, he thought as he vividly recalled her drilling him repeatedly with memory puzzles and games.

Felicity tapped his head, “Hey, there’s something weird up ahead. There’s a small rise in the road, and some really…really badly painted, crappy wooden panels that I think are supposed to be bushes? But…it’s bad.”

Tristan looked up from his practice as he put The Matriarch’s spell guide away. He let out a snort of laughter at the shoddy ambush. “That’s just pathetic,” he muttered as he pulled his bow from his back, strung it, nocked an arrow, and spun his essence crucible. He felt the cooling, soothing presence of essence surging through his body, and pushed it down his channels into the bow. “Alright!” he shouted. “I know you’re hiding. Come out, or I let my shaft fly!”

Felicity giggled, “Pff. You said ‘shaft’.”

Tristan shook his head to jostle her, “Why don’t you fly over there all invisible and tell me something about what I’m about to face?”

“Right!” she flew off, and Tristan waited patiently while she scouted and returned to her perch atop his head. “You’ve got eight. Mix of heritages, none are Elf-blooded. All of them look poorly equipped, malnourished, and probably scraping by on these ambushes.”

“How close to those badly painted shrubs?”

“Oh, they’re on the sides of the roads of those,” she said as she pointed alongside his head to the small, inconspicuous, hard-to-see green-painted blankets. “Easy to spot from above since they are different color from the rest of the grass around them. But from this angle? Really good cover.”

“Smart,” Tristan said as he aimed at one of the horribly painted panels. “Making a traveler think they hide behind, when in fact they actually are on the sides.” Tristan let fly, the arrow embedded into the structure and exploded into a razor-sharp hail of ice shards.

This elicited some shouts of panic as a few figures stood up with arrows nocked and bows drawn, “Hold, mage! One more spell, and you will see our arrows fly!”

Tristan frowned as he sat astride Onyx. I have armor, he thought, but the horses don’t. And I can’t dismount to throw up an ice wall before they let fly. “Very well. Let us talk terms. You look hungry, I can give you food.”

There was some muttered conversation, and a teenage boy ran out onto the road, holding a small knife. Not a dagger, a knife like one would carry for chores, or to cut meat with. “Okay! Where is it?”

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“Felicity?” Tristan asked as he reached his arm to the side. She opened her storage space, and he pulled out one of the slotted, wooden boxes that held ten of the clearcool elixirs. He leaned down and held it out, “These are called clearcool elixirs. One of them will fill your food and drink needs for a day. Go on, take them back to your allies.”

“We don’t trust some mage at face value!” the teenage boy said, his voice cracking slightly.

Tristan took one of the ten, pulled the top off with his teeth, and chugged it down. “See? Harmless.”

The boy cautiously approached, keeping a wary eye on Tristan, before he reached out, grabbed the box, and scrabbled back to his allies. Tristan overheard him explaining the transaction, and he saw one of the archers let his arrow loose slightly in his grip as he took one of the elixirs and chugged it down. “This is good stuff!”

Right, now that they aren’t hostile…he set the bow on the saddle horn, put his index and middle finger out, curled the other fingers in, and put the index finger on the bottom of his right eye, and middle finger just above. Whispering just loud enough to say the words, he spun his crucible and muttered the spell phrase for Persuasive Charm. “Katsokaa kasvojani ja ihastukaa viehätysvoimaani.”

Tristan sighed – not from exhaustion, but putting on a part, “It is obvious that you fell on hard times and have resorted to banditry as a last resort. Why don’t you tell me what happened? I may be able to help.”

The archers glanced at each other and then let their bows dip down, “Come on, lads and lasses. He seems like he wants to help.”

And the spell worked, Tristan thought as he smiled. “Yes, I may be able to help you. First, what fate befell you?”