Ves’ra joined the leaders of the caravan moments later. They all turned towards her, new respect in their eyes.

“That was some mighty fine magic you got there. With that I’ll be paying you for the full job, that raid would have been disastrous without your support and scouting.”

“I'm glad I could help.” The leader of the adventurers didn't look all that good, it looked like he had too much energy spoke up.

“Yes, yes that good and all, but there are more important things to think about! Can I go now?”

“And what would that be? We already set double watch, though I doubt we’ll be attacked a second time.”

“Are you an idiot? We have a whole bandit fortress and dozens of bandits to loot! And the others are on their way! We’ll be cut out if we don't hurry!” Ves’ra looked at the person in disgust, how could one be so happy about killing so many sapient beings? It seemed like she wasn't the only one, all of the persons around her looked at him too.

“You have been paid to protect my caravan! And not to run off at the first opportunity to steal everything a couple of criminals stole from other people!” The master hissed.

“You’ll let all these riches laying around like that? What kind of merchant are you?”

“We will take care of all that in due time, for now you are to join the others in clearing the corpses from our camp! Do what you are paid for!”

“And what about the fortress?”

“There is only one person who knows where to find it and she will lead a contingent of guards to check up on it tomorrow. If even one of you leaves I will consider your contract void and report you to the guild!”

The man paled at that and quickly excused himself.

“I fucking hate his type. Those like him can only think about money. Ves’ra you will take a group of seven mercenaries to check on their hideout tomorrow while we rest here. Take anything you deem valuable and free any potential captives. The money will be be split between everyone who partook in the fight. Can you do that?”

“Sure, I know how to lead a hunting party.”

“Very good, get some rest than. Ateratos, pick seven of your people to accompany her and get them to rest too, they’ll be exempt from watch duty for tonight.”

---

They set out with the rising suns, hoping to catch any remaining bandits off guard. The seven mercenaries all had their second hatching and were able to enhance their bodies like most of her tribe. She had Arvog fly above them, so there was no chance to be ambushed by stray bandits.

As they reached the top of a hill Ves’ra saw the fort for the first time. Tall trees stood interwoven, forming a rough circle. The canapony was unnaturally low, hiding everything within the circle from their eyes. Her magic senses had expanded since her birth - she was able to feel everything she was capable of manipulating in a sphere with a radius as tall as her by now.

Because of that passive sense she knew humans constantly gave off heat, so she cast a spell that would show them all heat within the fort. There wasn't much, she could see about twenty human sized heat sources. Some of them were frantically running around behind some horses, probably preparing to flee their hideout.

“There are eleven humans filling two carts, but there is no lookout so we can easily get the drop on them. Now, each of you give me your weapon so I can give them a little shock with each attack.

We’ll go in as quiet as possible and I’ll try and kill as many of them as possible. Any questions?”

“You can enchant weapons? Permanently?”

“As long as it still has a supply of energy. It will vanish once the energy is depleted.”

“So as long as we keep pushing mana in our weapon it’ll shock our enemies?”

“Yep. Get ready, they are packing up. Change of plans - we’ll ambush them once they leave the fort.”

They ran to the entrance of the fort and hunkered down. After a few breaths the first horse left the row of trees, obviously pulling a cart behind it. It didn't take long for the rest to emerge - two bandits sat on the first carriage while three more walked next to it.

Ves’ra gestured to the mercenaries to kill those on foot while she took care of the other two. They were easily within reach of her lightning magic, so she simply created two balls of energy and threw them at her targets, transforming them into lightning on the way.

Her attack happily discharged in their targets with a loud crack, causing the horse to jump in fright while two of the mercenaries jumped at the other bandits in their view. The remaining five passed them and surged into the fort, intending to take out the remaining bandits before they had a chance to react.

Ves’ra joined them, only to see that all bandits were already taken care of. After returning the carts back into the fort and calming down the horses Ves’ra spoke up again.

“Good job. You all know what we are here to do, and you’ll have to help me with that, I don’t know what you humans perceive as valuable. We’ll split up, two of you come with me and search for the rest of the humans in this building. Let's go!”

The remaining heat sources were in the back of the building, barely within the range of her spell, but the fort wasn't all that big for all its height so they arrived at a very sturdy door soon after. It was locked from their side, so they were quite sure there were no bandits within.

They key was still in the lock so they didn't have to destroy anything and entered an entirely different complex only moments later.

Everything was dark, she couldn't see anything with her normal eyes, but before she could offer the two humans heat sight they took out a strange contraption that started to glow immediately after.

They were in a long curved hallway with locked doors every few steps. Most of these cells weren't filled however, so she ignored those. Of the fifteen cells three were fat man looking alot like the caravan master. The rest were humans females that did not look good.

Half of them had empty eyes and looked like they didn't want to live a moment longer. The other five were extremely frightened - like deer caught in the open.

They didn't seem to want to be anywhere near the human males and took cover between her and the female mercenary. She didn't know what happened, but she didn't want to know - probably more human strangeness.

The last female wasn't human - an elf she was told and was really strange. She was taller than every human she had seen so far, she was also far thinner and had long pointed ears. The elf moved with a grace she had not seen in many humans, so she was probably the most dangerous of the captives. Dangerous enough that Ves’ra wasn't sure why she was here. While Ves’ra didn't know what to think about her she seemed to decide to be the leader of them, approaching her.

“Who might you and your companions belong to young kobold?” She asked.

“I'm Ves’ra, and am part of a merchant caravan that was attacked by the human bandits. Who are you?”

“I am Miafiel of Lokervik. More importantly you won? They didn't seem foolish enough to attack something too dangerous and even had two mages.”

“My familiar spotted their scouts a day early and we killed them when they attacked.” The elf raised an eyebrow, something she had seen many humans do to express doubt, she wanted them too, but she didn't have any fur so that was an unachievable dream.

“You’re a mage? That's quite impressive. I don't know of any kobold living in the free cities.”

“I just left my tribe. We should get going, we still have to search for the valuable stuff and get back on the street. You can help or wait in the main hall.” She turned towards the two mercenaries. “Let's go.”

Searching the fort for valuables didn't that all that long, the bandits had been kind enough to load up the most of it for them, and they only found a few more valuables. They left the fort about an hour - a really practical human method to measure time - after they entered it.

She found a few interesting things the humans deemed worthless - a metal knife, a magical object to see time and a few upgrades for things she already had.

They joined the caravan as they finished packing up after cleaning the bodies, and set out only moments later. They would arrive at the human city in a week, though they would pass the first human village the day after tomorrow. She was really looking forwards to see one of the human settlements.