By the time the banging in my head had stopped and we made our way to the small grove, the person who had hid out within was long gone. But while the person was gone, some tracks of their presence remained, giving Sigmir and me some clues to their status. The most obvious hint was their original position, a comfortable, well-concealed space beneath a dense shrub, making it almost impossible to detect their presence unless one was almost on top of them. Even a flying observer, like Lenore, had been unable to notice them, while the hideout was positioned in such a way that it allowed observation on the road, especially towards Neamov.

“Who do you think they were?” I asked, while Sigmir was still looking at the remaining tracks.

“Likely a bandit, keeping an eye on the road. Close enough to town to be profitable while far enough away to give them time to retreat if patrols are on their way.” she replied, squatting to take a closer look at some marks in the dirt.

“Should we leave?” I wondered out loud, the idea to get attacked by bandits while waiting for the others wasn’t quite what I had in mind for relaxation. Doubly so, if it happened while Sigmir and I were otherwise occupied.

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” she told me, standing up again. “You blocked their divination earlier, so they wouldn’t know just how strong we are. They’d only know that two people moved here and if we make camp, they’d likely learn that, too.”

“But you need to remember, bandits have little interest in the fight itself, if they had, they’d be Adventurers, competing for quests and power. No, for bandits, the lower their prey’s power, the better and even then, they have to consider the power in relation to the potential gain. Attacking adventurers of unknown power, even if there are only two of us, is far too risky a proposition for cowards.” she explained, her voice showing her disdain for bandits quite clearly.

“So, stay here, make ourselves comfortable but remain vigilant, just in case?” I suggested, getting a nod in response. The reasons that had originally made this location a good one to camp still applied, they likely had been the reasons for the bandits to make this place into their observation-spot. Even bandits needed access to water,

With the decision to stay made, we quickly decided on a division of labor. My job would be to create accomodations for us and, if possible, create a magical alarm-system, similar to the one we used when camping in the wild, only larger by an order of magnitude. With my head still not quite recovered from the magical backlash I had suffered earlier, Mind Magic was a bitch in that regard, I hopped into a nearby tree, making myself comfortable there and taking out the Grandmother’s Grimoire. There was a version of an alarm-spell in there, I had used it before, but hopefully, I’d also find something that would allow me to set a boundary around the whole area, altering us if a big enough creature entered.

While I was reading perched on my branch, Sigmir was starting to scout around, trying to gather more information on our mysterious observer. In addition, she was looking for edible plants, just to add a little something to our diet.

Finally, Lenore was doing much the same as Sigmir, taking a look around, only in her case, she was doing so from above.

Taking out the Grimoire, I let out a soft sigh, the item a reminder just how much I didn’t know. It was merely a single book out of many, hidden in the Grandmother’s library but the method of its creation was a mystery to me. When Lenore and I had taken a look at it with her sight, the result had been almost as frustrating as the results had been when looking at the divine magic used by Olivia. The Grimoire was covered with magical formations, all of them mind-bogglingly complex and sophisticated, their functions and purpose a mystery to me. If the being that had given me the Grimoire wasn’t one I considered too far above me to be interested in my downfall, I would be suspicious. But the Grandmother had, so far, been on the level with Sigmir and me, even when not considering that she had the opportunity to kill us more than once. I simply couldn’t see a reason for her to scheme against us. Keep an eye on us, possibly, due to my nature as a Traveller even plausible, but I didn’t think she’d work against us. The idea didn’t feel right.

Leafing through the book, I realised that a few more pages had been filled since I had looked at it last. Originally, I had only been able to read the first few pages but now, after almost a year of studying the book and the contents that slowly revealed themselves as I grew in power, I was able to read almost a third of the spells described. Some of them, maybe even most of them, were things I hadn’t considered before, magic to accomplish difficult or complex tasks with less effort.

One of the earliest spells I had read had been a spell to invigorate a field by conjuring a cloud of magical rain, reasonably simple but the amount of power needed was intense, to the point that the spell was supposed to be used as a ritual, the caster slowly accumulating power over hours, maybe even days. Interesting and it had proven useful as the basis for another spell, but by itself, it wasn’t something I would use.

Similarly, there was a spell that would allow the caster to designate an area and monitor the growth of specific plants within, with an addendum that specified how such a spell could be modified to target those specific plants with growth-magic. Or, if one was so inclined, how to exclude specific plants when using magic to wither the plants in the area, which was also possible.

After an hour of reading, part of which with Lenore on my shoulder, I decided that my head had recovered to the point that I could do the magical heavy lifting, especially with Lenore back to lend me some of her Astral Power.

Jumping down a tree, the short sensation of gliding through the air, was one that I greatly enjoyed. It was too bad that I hadn’t gained Air-Magic from my bond with Lenore, the idea of flying on my own was a wonderful one.

Creating a small building had become routine, still a large expenditure of power, but without any real suspense. While it was still rather warm, the magical Ice I could create was easily able to withstand the temperature for a few days,especially if I restored and reinforced it from time to time. All in all, it only took me a little over an hour to create the cottage with some simple furniture, giving me more than enough time to deal with the alarm-spell I had discovered in the Grimoire earlier.

It was, essentially, just what I needed, as if the Grandmother, or whoever she had learned the spell from, had encountered a similar problem before. Which was likely, after all, keeping your privacy was quite important, not just for spellcasters of any sort but in general. Maybe more important for spellcasters, given that some magic required preparations and a certain wind-up time, before it was usable to its full potential, making surprise attacks a special kind of unpleasant to deal with. Thus, the development of magical alarms, trip-wires, traps and the concealment of those.

I had a feeling that it was an entire field of magic in and off itself, with different spellcasters trying to come up with new ways to defend, while others were searching for ways to break or circumvent. A little like the development of computer-malware and malware-protection, not that I had more than the most rudimentary programming-skills. Hello, World, and all that.

Luckily, I didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, I only had to follow the steps, to colour inside the lines, if you will, while walking around the area I wanted to monitor, designating the outer wards with spikes of magic, while setting the conditions that would cause the effect to go off. The whole thing was rather crude, simply causing a prepared medium, in my case an Ice-Spike, to shatter if a living being larger than a specified size crossed the boundary. Still, it should be good enough, especially if Lenore kept an eye open during the night.

By the time I was done with the alarm, Sigmir and I had just enough time to relax for a bit, before it was time to take care of dinner. And then, we had an entire night for all kinds of fun. Just the idea brought a wide smile on my face, nights without Adra and Rai nearby were a precious commodity and I didn’t plan to waste this one. Or any of the other nights, before we re-united.