Ar'Kendrithyst

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.

Duplicate, instant, touch, 100 Mana

Create a copy of a non-magical, non-living item.

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.

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 ringed 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.”

Erick sat down. “Thank you for the hospitality. I look forward to returning the favor one day.”

Koori, Niyazo’s wife, held out a cow horn cup full of beer. Without any [Cold Ward]s cast around the beer, Erick was worried it was going to be warm, but then he took a sip, and it wasn’t nearly as warm as he thought it would be. They must have kept the keg in another yurt, or perhaps in the open air where it was colder, until it was time to tap it. He tasted honey and herbs and a deep springtime flavor.

Erick smiled. “Good beer.”

“I made it myself.” Koori sat back down in her own chair. “And I do not need your approval.”

Niyazo looked about ready to slap Koori, but the pure vehemence in Koori’s words caused Erick to burst a quick laugh into the darkened yurt. Niyazo’s attention shifted back to Erick. Neither he, nor Koori, or Yorila understood what was so funny.

This could be a cultural disaster—

So Erick explained, “Honest dislike is such a refreshing change from what I was getting in Songli. Every commoner seems to think that everyone in a clan is above them, while everyone in a clan is quick to recognize who is above even them, and thus everyone hides everything they truly think with a thick veneer of politeness. Some people are so deeply layered in that veneer that they can’t even admit their own true emotions to themselves. I mean— I would be pretty wary of someone immensely more powerful than me telling me that I liked what they served me. Your honesty caught me off guard, Koori.”

Koori said, “Do you always like to hear the sound of your own voice this much?” She added, “And ‘Immensely more powerful than me’? That is some high opinion you got there.”

Erick smiled. “I have found that fully explaining myself helps to avoid misunderstandings, and allows me to go to war without feeling like there was something more I could have done to prevent that war.”

Koori almost said something else—

But Niyazo spoke, “We do not wish for war to be brought upon us. Is this what you bring?”

“Hopefully not.” Erick said, “But I am looking to find the dragons that conspired to attack me last week. So if you have a direction you could point me in, that would discharge your debt to me.”

The three clansmen each wore suddenly concerned looks.

Koori spoke, “Bow to me and prove you are not a dragon.”

Uh.

What?

Eh! Sure! Erick saw where this was going.

Erick readily got up and did a full 90 degree bow, saying, “Yes ma’am.” He smiled as he stood back up, and sat back down, saying, “Your antagonism is some sort of test for dragons, isn’t it.”

Koori frowned, then she dispersed her frown, and got up. “I’ll get the bowls. We will have stew and talk of less dangerous things than dragons.”

Erick nodded. “Fair enough.”

Niyazo said, “I planned on a few different ways to discharge my debt. A payment of high quality cows was the main offer. Another option was a pair of guards to protect your life for a year and a day. Amasar, the man you rescued, was to be one of these people. I suspect he will try to enter into your service even if you choose to forgo this repayment of debt.”

Koori opened the cauldron and began spooning a hearty stew of cubed meat, root vegetables, and apples and onions, into deep wooden bowls. Erick hadn’t been hungry, but he was getting there; the stew smelled divine. She handed the first bowl to Niyazo, who took a sip of the brown broth, and then nodded. More bowls went out to Yorila and then Erick and then Koori took one for herself before sitting back down.

Niyazo continued, “But you want something more. I will need to think on this, for I do not believe it is in the interest of Pale Cow to give you this information.”

“I expected as much,” Erick said.

Erick almost gave a warning that he was going to pursue the dragons anyway… But he’d walk that path if Niyazo chose to take that road. No point in getting worked up for something that might not happen. Besides that: something was happening. Niyazo was thinking deeply about his options.

“We will eat in silence,” Koori said.

And so they did. Erick stuck a hunk of meat with his provided spoon-fork, and it broke apart as his prod. He smiled. And then he had a bite. The meat tasted wonderful! The broth was fantastic, too. Paired with the beer it was a great meal, and there was plenty left in the cauldron. Niyazo had seconds; a single spoonful. Koori and Yorila had another spoonful after Niyazo. Erick followed their lead, and that seemed to make Niyazo happy.

Well. Happier. Niyazo seemed a rather dour man. Or perhaps it was just the seriousness of the moment.

Fifteen minutes after they took their first bite, they were done.

Koori gathered up the bowls and set them aside before refilling everyone’s beer.

With a full belly and a drink in hand, Erick enjoyed the slightly smokey smell of the yurt, and the ambiance of it all. He was feeling relaxed. There were no drugs or poison in the beer, or stew, or anything like that. It was just a nice, simple meal, in a nice place. The people were on edge, but that was fine; to be expected, really.

Niyazo broke the amicable silence of the room, saying, “You shouldn’t go hunting dragons, Archmage Flatt.”

“Oh, I know I shouldn’t.” Erick said, “This much is obvious. But they hunted me first, and so I will either kill them all, or I will be satisfied with their reasons for attacking me. I am not beyond forgiveness, since no one died, but both of those outcomes are both too extreme to be realistic considering what I have heard of dragons.” He continued, “What I fully expect to happen is that I will kill whichever one was coming after me, and maybe even the Mirage Dragon, too, if she should prove herself as needing killing. I will try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum.”

No one said a thing.

Into the absolute silence, alongside the wide-eyed stares of the clansmen, a tiny cry started up near the beds in the back of the room and rapidly devolved into sniffles and terrified sobs. Koori leapt out of her chair and went to her child, whereupon she held the child’s shoulders and stared into her eyes.

Koori whispered, “Dry your tears. Now.”

“But— But Ipii and Koy said—”

Koori ordered, “The words of your sensationalist friends do not matter right now. You are in the yurt of the Clan Leader and we are in important talks and your presence here is a privilege that can be taken away. I will send you to my sister if I must.”

The girl calmed, her eyes drying as she blinked them out, her sobs quieting. “Ye— yes, mother. I understand. I will listen. This one—” Sniffle. “This one apologizes.”

Erick tried not to pay attention to the whispers spoken in the dark, for he certainly could not have heard them if not for Perception, but it was hard not to hear and see what he had done with his own words, crudely aired. Ah. He was broken a bit, wasn’t he? He didn’t even consider that the shit coming out of his mouth would be harmful for other people to hear. The way he was thinking of it all, was that if he was subject to these horrors, then shouldn’t everyone else at least know of these horrors?

They should know of the true darkness of the world, right?

You can’t know the problems if they remain unnamed, and unspoken.

Erick ignored that train of thought, and spoke the words that needed to be spoken, no matter if they made a little girl cry to hear them, “What say you of dragons, Clan Leader Niyazo?”

For a moment, Niyazo remained silent. Then he asked, “What do you know of how we grass travelers do war? Of our attempts at incorporation?”

“I know what the public knows. Some dragon fight happened a hundred years ago, back when incorporation was nearing the end stages, and dragons were revealed to operate on both sides of that war. They turned one of the final battles for incorporation from a proper Polite War, into a True War, killing thousands.”

Niyazo nodded, slowly, then said, “It was 85 years ago. That attempt at incorporation was due in major part to Ar’Kendrithyst’s act of Purging Spur. The Dead City stopped making new Shades after that Purge. In the foolish minds of our ancestors, this meant that the Darkness had been defeated, that some new world order would take hold, and so we acted to consolidate power and to prepare. As it turned out, that power shift was a false shift. There were no new Shades, but the ones still living were worse than ever. Ar’Kendrithyst remained strong. Some would say the Shades were even stronger than before.

“But in that time, in our attempted act of consolidation, we uncovered a different problem among the grass travelers.

“Dragons live among us.

“We know that they are here, now, but we cannot point them out to you, Archmage Flatt, for they are too good at hiding, and none of us are willing to confront this evil amongst us. I have no way of directly helping you, but there are indirect ways, if you wish to hear them.”

“… Go on,” Erick said.

Whatever indirect way they had was likely going to be what Erick chose to do. Hopefully it would be bloodless, or at least as close to bloodless as possible.

Niyazo nodded, then said, “We are headed toward Ooloraptoor to participate in talks for incorporation into a proper city. They are merely small talks, for no one is willing to challenge those larger clans who call themselves True Travelers. As for Clan Pale Cow, we are Integrators, but though we are an increasing power, we are not ready to challenge the larger True Traveler clans.

“Clan Pale Cow plans on participating in three small Polite Battles, each of which we will fight against lesser Traveler clans in order to get those other clans to come to the table, to talk of Integration. If we win, we will demand our opposition accept envoys from Songli. If we lose any of these battles we will likely cut ties with Songli, for one year. Some of our opposition might decide on other stakes, but right now, much of what could happen has already been agreed upon.

“The only parts left to happen are the actual debates, and the resulting battles, and the choosing of warriors to participate in those battles.

“If you wish, you could be a part of those battles. It would be complicated to allow such a thing, but there is precedent. If you do participate, then the True Traveler clans might risk a Polite Battle with our clan in order to prevent a complete victory for this newest round of debates. You might even spook out a dragon or three, but Bright Gods help us all if you do. You are on your own if that happens.” With a serious tone, Niyazo said, “If you wish to pursue this option, I would seek your promise to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. I would also know that you would adhere to the precepts of a true Polite War, where to kill a warrior is to fail the battle.”

Erick did not smile, but he wanted to.

This was perfect.

He wanted a kinder way to walk the Worldly Path, and here it was.

He doubted it would actually be that easy, though. Not with dragons lurking among the grass travelers.

Erick waited an appropriate length of time before he answered in order to give Niyazo’s words the merit they deserved, and then he said, “I tentatively accept. Tell me more of your opposition and of the political landscape of the grass travelers, and what would be expected of me in battle.”

Yorila’s eyes went wide. Koori’s lips went pinched.

Niyazo, though, seemed tentatively excited. He did not show this in his voice. He began with, “The only reason you would be allowed to participate in any of our clan debates is because Pale Cow owes you a debt for finding face stealers among us. In payment of this debt, you can choose to forgo material wealth, and become a clanfriend. The title is bestowed rather easily. Among the allowances of the title, it will allow you to sup at our cauldrons and sleep in our barrack yurts, as well as allow you friendly entry into Ooloraptoor, as long as we vie for your presence. For our purposes, as a clanfriend you will be allowed to participate in our debates.

“But as soon as you have declared to participate in the debates then our opposition will seek to bar you from entry, and so, The Elders of Ooloraptoor would be the first trial for you to overcome.

“You will be challenged on this attempted use of the clanfriend status. You will be required to win a verbal spar. As an outsider, you would not be able to invoke a Polite Battle to win this debate, either. You will need to speak clearly and purposefully to the Elders of Ooloraptoor, and if they decide that you do not qualify as a clanfriend, then you will not be allowed to participate in the Polite Battles.” Niyazo asked, “Does this sound acceptable to you?”

Erick answered honestly, “Yes. But I am not about to be quiet about my true goals for entering your debates, or for becoming a clanfriend. And if the elders block me, then I will seek other avenues to finding the dragons around here.”

“I would not ask you to be quiet about your true intentions.” Niyazo added, “Though I do expect most people to disbelieve that you wish to find dragons. The vast majority will see you as the hand of Songli.”

Erick asked, “And what do you see me as, Niyazo? You were reluctant to meet with me in the beginning of this unexpected meeting, but now you seem excited. What is your true goal here?”

If Niyazo felt upset at being seen through, he did not show it. In fact, he seemed relieved. He said, “I see you as an unfightable demi-god, and if you say that you are after dragons, then I will believe you, and I will lead you to them the best way I am able, in the hopes that you will wipe out the ones that infest our people.” Niyazo said, “Aside from that, and if the dragons never show —which is a much more plausible outcome— you are an opportunity, and I will use you to make Clan Pale Cow a Head Clan in the future Compact of Ooloraptoor, whenever that might be. Years from now, perhaps.”

The man was honest in his desires; Erick would have to give him that. But he was lying in small ways. Niyazo hoped to use Erick to shave off years of debates. Which was fine. If Polite War was truly polite, then this was perfectly acceptable.

Erick said, “Tell me of the politics I will be walking into and of suspected dragons, or at least the clans in which you believe there to be dragons.”

“We don’t talk about dragons, Archmage Flatt.” Niyazo gestured to Yorila, saying, “Before you arrived, I was speaking of politics, and politics only, with Speaker Yorila. The landscape of Ooloraptoor is changing and she listens to the winds more than most. What she knows will be crucial to you becoming a clanfriend in the eyes of the Elders.” He commanded Yorila, saying, “Speak of the infestation of face stealers, and the outcomes of Archmage Flatt’s offer of assistance in finding those fiends.”

Koori got up, softly speaking of refilling drinks, as Erick readily focused on the older woman.

The older woman nodded, then began, “The Elders of Ooloraptoor have caught wind of the counter-hunts that were enacted through Clan Pale Cow, in conjunction with Alaralti of Songli, and they move to censure Pale Cow. A tithe of a hundred cattle have been demanded for our breach of common law, but we plan to fight this with a verbal debate. We expect to win, but are prepared to Polite Battle for that, too. The main Truists— Those are what we call those who call themselves True Travelers, because we don’t think they deserve to hold onto the term ‘traveler’, but to call them that openly is a slight insult. The main Truists in the Elder House are...”

As Yorila spoke, Koori refilled Erick’s horn, as well as the horns of everyone else.

The conversation flowed this way and that, while the cart gently rolled along the grass, pulled by large cows, and guided by deft hands. Tiny charms caught the light coming down from the hole in the roof.

And they talked of politics.

Erick asked questions when he felt the need, but mostly, he listened.

Part way through Erick’s introduction to the lay of Ooloraptoor, Erick said, “I feel the need to make a larger offer to counter-hunt face stealers, directly to your Elders of Ooloraptoor. How do you feel this will be received?” He added, “At that same time, I will likely ask how they feel about counter hunting some mental monsters, as well. Book slippers. Putrescent slugs. Spinal spiders. Puppet minds and masters. In conjunction with the Mind Mages, we cleared out thousands upon thousands of those monsters from Songli, and I wish to do the same to every nation I pass through.”

Yorila’s eyes went wide at the mention of the mental monsters.

Niyazo frowned a little.

But it was Koori who voiced, “I don’t know those monsters.”

Yorila explained, “They’re rare in this part of the world because we are nomadic and our interactions with rooted civilizations are kept just so, in order to preclude the contamination of these monsters. All four will likely come up in future debates since those four are a deep problem of rooted civilization; one we will have to contend with if we ever found a true city upon the grass.”

Koori asked, “Why have I not heard of them before?”

“Because there is no point in informing most people of them at this point, because the Mind Mages work to kill them as soon as they appear.” Yorila said, “When this debate happens in the public forum, no matter which angle it comes from, the Mind Mages will be brought up right alongside the mental monsters they fight, and no one wants to have that debate yet.”

Koori got a nasty look on her face at the mention of Mind Mages.

Yorila let that look pass her by; she was doing her best to ignore every single denigration Koori passed against magic. Erick did not think Yorila was a Mind Mage, but she was certainly the most magically inclined person around these parts. She seemed used to these microaggressions. She was probably used to macro aggressions, too.

Since the conversation had veered away from answering Erick’s question, Niyazo spoke up, “Make your offer to the elders of further counter-hunting, but do it after you have fought the elders for clanfriend status, and after they have granted you this privilege. If you bring it up before then, you will likely not gain clanfriend status. Face stealers are a difficult subject to deal with for the magic that allows them to exist is fundamentally evil, but sometimes, evil is necessary. I accepted your offer to counter hunt face stealers because we had a clear problem that needed clear solutions, but do not mistake what happened: I made an unpopular decision, and some people are still angry that their loved ones were revealed as impostors. Some prefer the blinders. Some will always see magic as fundamentally evil.”

Yorila said, “Yet another problem to overcome if we want Integration.”

Koori glared at Yorila, while Yorila didn’t care about Koori at all.

“One monster at a time, Yorila,” Niyazo said.

Erick asked Yorila, “What reception do you expect me to have in Ooloraptoor, as an archmage?”

Koori tsk’d, then sipped her beer.

Niyazo frowned at his wife.

Koori noticed, and sighed a great big sigh, then she got more beer for herself, and for everyone else. Apparently, Koori was capable of recognizing that there were limits to how much she was allowed to be uncivil.

Yorila said, “I would prefer to speak to you privately about the use of magics around here.”

“Do not desecrate my home with magics, Archmage,” Koori said to Erick, as she was refilling her cup.

Erick simply said, “I will not, unless I need to.”

Koori frowned again, but no one spoke against Erick’s caveat.

Yorila seemed to be holding back a great deal of mirth, though.

The conversation moved on.

Eventually, a time table came out of the talks. They were about 325 kilometers from Ooloraptoor, and it would take them about 5 days to travel the remaining distance. After all, they were not about to work their cows to skin and bone simply to get somewhere faster.

- - - -

With the sun a few hours from setting on the horizon, Erick exited Niyazo’s yurt and hopped off of the side. He walked just a bit, easily dodging cows for they were not about to dodge out of his way, and found his destination. The cooking yurt was one of the largest structures of the caravan, with a team of eight cows pulling it forward, but while the front half was a half-yurt, the back end was completely open, and filled with benches and chairs that were a part of the very vehicle itself.

Erick hopped up onto the side of the vehicle. He found his people sitting mostly together at one of the central benches, surrounded by a few young men and women who were closer to Jane’s age, than anyone else’s. Many of them were staring at Teressa, even though the gargantuan woman had taken out her veil and put it on, covering up every part of her body except for her hands.

Erick caught wind of her words.

Teressa was telling them monster killing stories, only briefly pausing when she noticed Erick coming closer, and then continuing, “And the chimera eventually found us, but by then we had rested enough to kill it.”

There were some groans.

“You cut off half the story!” said a young man. “What about the Poison Toads?”

“My boss is here.” Teressa looked up and over to Erick, giving an exaggerated gesture with her head that was still visible even with the veil on her head. “Stories will have to wait for later.”

All the young men and women who were not already looking Erick’s way, did so. More than a few went wide eyed, utterly emptying of whatever calm they had possessed while Teressa was talking. And then every single one of them scattered, each giving variations of ‘A pleasure to meet you, Archmage’ or ‘We welcome your presence’. Some just gurgled out strangled words in their race to get away.

Jane, Poi, and Teressa, watched them flee. Nirzir giggled a little, then she tried to stop herself from further giggling.

Erick sat down where a young man had sat, and said, “They seem like nice people. A bit orthodox. But it is what it is.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone get treated this well by the grass travelers before.” Nirzir said, “Your reputation precedes you.”

“It does.” Erick said, “Looks like you all were treated well, too. Did you get some of the stew? It’s really good.”

“Yeah.” Jane said, “They’re making more. Apparently dinner includes bread, but it’s the same stew.”

Bread? Erick glanced forward, toward the open kitchen. Older people were shooting the shit with each other, but every so often they glanced over toward the ovens, which were really just large metal boxes with [Heat Ward]s inside. To the other side of the kitchen, some young people scurried around the large cauldrons and larger cold storage boxes, chopping up huge bowlfuls of onions and vegetables before dumping everything they chopped into the boiling stew. Erick had barely smelled the bread over the scent of everything else, but now he smelled it, for sure.

Mostly, he smelled cows and cowshit, though, so he tried not to smell too much, too fast.

The kitchen smelled really good, though. He had eaten lunch with Niyazo and his people hours ago, so perhaps it was time to eat again! How nice.

Teressa smiled under her veil. “The stews here are better than what we got back home, though Auntie Arathani did manage to improve on a few recipes at her restaurant.”

Poi said, “They said that we’d have fish when we got to the next riverside, but that won’t be for two days.”

“Takes a while to get anywhere out here.” Jane said, “They drive the cattle everywhere. Minimal [Teleport]. Minimal magical assistance. All the drivers are Healers, though, so the cows are able to chug along for a full day of walking. Makes ‘em nice and tender, too, if they never have to stress out their muscles with over exertion.”

Erick smiled, saying, “They’ve got very delicious cows, yes.”

“Oh yes.” Teressa nodded. “They need to do more grilling, though. Less stews.”

Jane said, “Somehow, I expected more cheese.”

Nirzir piped in, “That’s other clans— Er. Wait. Hmm. Does Pale Cow do cheese? I didn’t see any.” She looked around. “Do they have a cheese yurt?”

Poi said, “There’s cheese here.”

“They have a cheese yurt.” Teressa pointed. “It’s that one, only two yurts over.”

“Oh!” Nirzir said, “My mistake.”

“Oh?” Jane glanced toward the yurt in question. “Why is there no cheese here, then? There wasn’t any when we got stew.”

“For the same reason they don’t have bread all the time.” Erick said, “They have some rather strict regulations, and cheese is only available at actual mealtimes, which means breakfast and dinner.”

“Cheese can be an every-meal food, too,” Jane said.

“Well...” Erick said, “So that brings me to the next topic: Getting along with these people, and the reason why it is necessary.” He explained, “I decided a few things with Niyazo. I am going to try and become a clanfriend to Pale Cow. I do this, so that I can participate in their upcoming polite battles in Ooloraptoor, which they colloquially call ‘debates’. The point of participating in their debates is to draw out the dragons that hide behind the non-Integrating clans. I will likely end up drawing out the dragons that wish for Integration, too. Any and all dragons are fine, because I think I have the tools to take them down without actually killing them or letting them kill anyone else, either.

“But part of me becoming a clanfriend is the appearance of integrating into Pale Cow. To that end, everyone needs to take a job of some sort, and those jobs need to be done with as little magic as possible, or, more realistically, with as little open use of magic as possible. There’s a lot of fine cultural lines to that, obviously, because these people use magic all the time; they’re either [Grow]ing at the riversides, or conjuring up armor, or weapons. I’m sure we’ll offend some people with our magics, but the idea is that we’ll get to know what is expected of us before we get to Ooloraptoor, so we don’t openly offend the clans and the elders who live there, because those elders can block my clanfriend status from allowing me into their debates, if they feel like it.

“If I’m blocked from being a clanfriend then we’ll have to pick a whole different path to the dragons.” Erick said, “But I feel good about this path, so this is the one I am walking right now.”

Erick let that sit, while the others thought.

Poi professionally accepted Erick’s decision with a simple nod, and to say, “Then that is what we’re doing.”

Jane was a bit excited as she asked, “So we’re getting to play with cows and camp out with monsters at the doors for a week? Two weeks? Is that what I’m hearing?”

Teressa smiled beneath her veil. “That’s what it sounds like.”

“Maybe 25 days.” Erick said, “It’s still several days to Ooloraptoor, and some of the opposition clans are delayed for various reasons. The debates are already happening, though, so we’ll get to see some other clans debate each other once we get there.”

Jane asked, “Are they really using ‘debate’ to mean ‘battle’? I like that.”

“Yes.” Erick said, “But it doesn’t always head that way. Sometimes the debates are actual debates; with words, and no battle.”

“Nothing is perfect, I suppose,” Jane said, with a grin.

Nirzir looked conflicted as the others spoke, but then she got rid of that emotion and asked, “What sort of jobs? Where do we sleep? Are we eating… stew all the time?” She rapidly added, “It was good stew. But… I mean. It’s good stew.”

Erick smiled a little. “We’ve been offered beds in the barracks, but we’ll be sleeping in an [Obscuring Redoubt] for tonight. Tomorrow, I might end up making a [Spectral Steed] spell and Shaping us a yurt, but that will happen later. As for jobs, Niyazo recommended a few things. There’s cowherd—”

“I’m doing that!” Jane added, “Too bad Veird doesn’t have actual horses, though.”

Erick smiled wide, continuing, “Cook. Guardian. Grower. Leatherworker or fabricator. I’m on perpetual guardian detail with Ophiel, but you four can pick whatever. Ask around and see if there is something else you want to do.” Erick said, “The basic deal is that we’re acting as clanfriends, so that we will become them. And then there will be dragons.”

- - - -

Niyazo laid in his bed, staring at the ceiling. Night had fallen hours ago, and dinner had come and gone. Koori laid against his chest, her own chest gently rising and falling in sleep. Both of them were wrapped in little more than blankets and the warmth of each other.

It had been a good day, and an even better night. Archmage Flatt— or Erick, as he wanted to be called, had been amenable to the demands of Clan Pale Cow, and his people followed his example, trying their best to become clanfriends. There had been problems, though.

The Mind Mage in their presence was a concern, no matter how well he could cook. Niyazo did not like that man. He might reveal secrets best left covered, but that was always the worry with Mind Mages, wasn’t it? Poi did seem the honorable sort, though. Niyazo would need to have a candid conversation with Yorila to find out more about the Mind Mages.

The orcol was a concern, too. Teressa had chosen to act as storyteller, and she was already swaying the young ones with stories of the greater world. Hopefully, traditions would win out over her tales of horror and magic. Too many young ones had headed off to Songli in these recent years. The lure of luxury and other people had already pulled away so many warriors from the life of the grass traveler. … Though orcols were a nomadic people, as well. Maybe Niyazo could ask her to spread stories to get the young ones to remain in the clan for a few more years, at least.

Niyazo was doing his best to get them all a stable city of their own; that was what these upcoming debates were for, after all.

And with Erick here…

Best not get his hopes up too soon. The man was after dragons, after all.

Koori’s breath hitched. She opened her eyes, and her gaze glittered in the light of the low fire. Every day, Niyazo was taken with her beauty, and every night was the same.

She whispered, “You’re still awake?”

“I have too many thoughts.” Niyazo moved on to his next concern, “Among them: Nirzir is a direct descendant of the original Void Song. She is a princess of Songli. And she can’t seem to do anything.”

“She is a child, and she doesn’t complain. What more do you want?” Koori sighed and pressed her forehead against his chest. “You could ask their Mind Mage to scoop out the thoughts that keep you awake this late.”

Niyazo tapped her back. “Do not jest. Some people will attempt this abomination of magic.”

“Aye. They will.” Koori tapped him on the stomach, saying, “And now I cannot sleep. You are a terrible husband.”

Niyazo chuckled into the darkness, whispering, “That’s not what you said an hour ago.”

Koori kissed his chest, then said, “It is too late for that sort of talk right now. We will have an early morning full of new dark magics and surprises, no doubt, and I need to be ready. Did you notice that Ibahka stayed away from Erick? She took her dinner and went back to her yurt. She is planning something to take your power for herself.”

“You always say that.” Niyazo said, “It is a shame that you two never made up.”

Treading the words of an old argument, Koori sighed, “She tried to kill you.”

“I have forgiven her—”

“And I never will.” Koori said, “It is my right to never forgive.”

Niyazo let that go, and continued on with his worries. “Erick’s daughter is a Polymage. That will be a problem.”

With a playful, sleepy tone, Koori spoke an old nursery rhyme into the night, “Problems, problems everywhere, with no answer in sight. Oh dear, oh dear, I give this prayer: how to solve this plight? With talk and talk, this we swear, all to kill the spite. And if that fails it’s war, it’s war, though always done polite.”

Niyazo said, “It won’t be polite when the dragons come out.”

“This is fine.” Koori said, “Our new ‘clanfriends’ are all dripping in Darkness, too. Let them kill each other, and rid ourselves of both of them.”

Niyazo whispered, “I would rather Erick kill all the dragons. That man will leave this land when he is done here. If the dragons win, then nothing changes, and we will need to solve the dragon problem five years from now, when Integration reaches its culmination.”

“… You have a point. Then… I suppose I should be kinder to Erick.” Koori huffed, “At least he isn’t as barbaric as I expected. He’s keeping his Dark Magic to a minimum and he’s exceptionally better than that other archmage. I am very thankful that Shendeng never darkened our doors.” She hissed, “That man needs to get run over by a cow a few times. Might make him more humble, or at least give the rest of us some satisfaction.”

“He might be there at Ooloraptoor, you know.” Niyazo added, “And you need to tame this hatred of magic you have. It is fine now, but it will be difficult if you keep this up when it comes time to have magic schools in our utopia.”

“I believe in Integration. I also believe that our utopia magic schools should have a sign out front that reads ‘do not do magic’, and all the little ones will follow our advice… Though, of course, they would not.” Koori ran her fingers through Niyazo’s chest hair, as she said, “Magic is Evil. Necessary Evil, but still Evil. You cannot change my mind on this.”

Niyazo teased, “We already had one miracle today; why not two?”

With a curious, edgy tone, Koori asked, “… What was the first miracle?”

“When you didn’t try to debate Erick on the merits of magic right then and there.”

“Bah!” Koori tapped him on the chest. “I am not stupid.”

Lovingly, Niyazo said, “My little ornery cow.”

With a gentle laugh, Koori settled back down to sleep, whispering loving words that were lost in the darkness of the yurt.

Eventually, her breathing evened out. She slept.

Niyazo followed her lead.