Turns out my grandfather died having sex with a dryad and she still has his corpse. Perfectly preserved, too. There’s a lot of nuance there, with corruption, purification, eternal slumbers, and stuff. But that’s beside the point. I’m so proud of him.

- Lord Taranath Waterlily recounting the first steps of his personal quest.

Magic was very common in Veliki, and I’d grown up around it. After fifteen years of that, then walking around in Breach, I’d been amazed by how mundane and dirty things were. Then, when the initial wonder had worn away, all that had been left was a sense that things were wrong. It was a feeling that passed under notice until now, but now that I was harnessing my magic and calling it back from my drow sword, it became clear.

It didn’t really change anything, and wouldn’t impact what I was about to do, but it did come along with the realisation that rezan was just about the most dull form of magic to observe. It wasn’t a shimmering barrier, fire with different properties to standard fire, or a green beam that reduced buildings to dust. It didn’t shape the earth, transport people to different places or planes, or bring creatures from other such places to me.

All rezan did was let me swing my sword better. And, I suppose, it made whatever metal I was enhancing shinier.

But that was all.

The focus required to tug the magic back to me came easily after a minute, and I made note of the tents that were in the direction it came from. After that, it was simple enough to push it down into my left arm and the manacle attached before the magic melded back into my soul. The process was different, but not difficult.

When I pushed my magic into my sword, I felt out where the edge was, and so far I’d done that by feeling where the magic shaped itself into a steep corner. Once the corner was found, I made it steeper. That wasn’t what happened here. I didn’t want to make the manacles sharp, especially not against my skin. I just let the magic fill out the shape and opened my eyes when I instinctively knew it was done.

My eyes popped open and I let out a breath, then frowned.

“So did you do it, or...?” Jevi asked. She must have been watching the whole time. I couldn’t blame her, it was either that or watch the increasingly few bandits sit about doing nothing.

“I did it.” I answered, experimentally tugging with my left arm. The manacle didn’t pinch and the chain got caught on the bar it was wrapped around. They’d really overdone our restraints with that.

Well, I was getting out anyway if this worked. So they’d underperformed if anything.

That wasn’t what I was frowning about though. “It’s just…” The magic I could feel in the manacle didn’t match the magic I had put into it. I tugged the right manacle, and it pinched on my arm. “Difficult to explain.”

“So are we getting out?”

“Let’s see.” I adjusted my sitting position and smashed my wrists together behind my back, manacle to manacle. One was enhanced by rezan. The other was mundane. A loud clang sounded and my right arm hurt all over again. That was likely going to bruise.

But it was better than the alternative.

“Well? What are you clapping about?” Jevi asked.

I shook my right arm a little. If there was anything different about the manacle there, I couldn’t really tell. “Just wait.”

I did it again, this time intending to damage the manacle without hurting myself. Physically, I didn’t do anything different, but the effect was wondrous. The sound of metal on metal rang out and I didn’t feel any pain, so I did it again, then again. A few more times and the right manacle fell off. I cackled like a witch the whole time to mask the sound.

There were many witches in Veliki. There was also a law about them staying away from firstborn children, so I never met any, but I sure as the sunrise heard them cackling away most nights. My laugh would’ve fit right in.

“You’re like a Reef Seal with the neck of a goat.” Jevi commented when I finally calmed down, faintly amused herself. “Now, please answer me seriously so I know if I’m hoping for nothing. Did that do anything?”

I booped her on the nose in response.

It took a moment for a smile to spread across her face, but I could just make it out in the distant firelight. “You have to tell me how you did that.”

“I used rezan.” I said simply, buying time to think up a more complex explanation. “I’m weaker than a baby, as you know, but by forcing magic into a blade I can make that not matter. Think of it like instead of using muscles to swing a blade, I’m using my force of will.”

“That’s… Hm.” Jevi pondered.

“It’s deception, essentially.” I continued. “I’m deceiving All and making it believe I’m actually a female giant. Or some such. I didn't know it would work like this until just now.”

“Just where did you learn this?”

“From that dying man.” I answered impishly, making Jevi let out a huff of disappointment. She wouldn’t gain the privilege of any actual information until she started being honest about herself. And who knew, maybe I wouldn’t feel like sharing if she took too long to do it. “But first, let’s focus on getting out of here. Or we could wait for these bandits to set out onto the road. They’ll probably pick up another prospective slave or two by then, we’ll have numbers on our side.”

“I can’t stay in one place for too long.” Jevi said curtly. “You can’t either.”

“I shouldn’t need to explain to you the definition of sarcasm.” I retorted as I started looking for the latch that kept my cage shut. The search was cut short when I noticed one of the bandits approaching from the camp propper.

“What the fuck are you two bitches doing?” He demanded. From his voice, I realised it was the one that screwed up the ambush. Writch, I think his name was. I couldn’t see his face.

I froze, then relaxed my arms from feeling the front of the cage. He hadn’t brought over a torch, thankfully, so the fact that I broke my manacles went unnoticed for now. Not so thankfully, there was the sound of the chain hitting the bottom of the cage, which was quite distinct, but I covered it by starting to cackle again.

Writch’s foot kicked the front of my cage, making the whole thing rattle. “Shut up, bitch!”

I did not.

“You hit her on the head, you dimwit.” Jevi snapped, her voice somehow penetrating my mad laugh. “She woke up thinking funny.”

“What, so now she’s a braindead swordsbitch that can’t kill?” Writch crouched to peer at me. “Then what the fuck is she good for!?”

“This might be difficult for you to comprehend, but she’s actually far more entertaining than you are.”

“I’ll bet.” Writch’s tone made my skin crawl. I responded by redoubling my efforts and making him flinch back. “Actually, there’s a rule about crazy. I’m not touching it.”

“That’s gotta be hard.” Jevi said, something in her voice making it come off as cruel. “You think I don’t know what kind of people you are? You’re deserters. And for what? A year of service? Of guard duty? That’s a special kind of crazy knowing you’re never gonna be welcome anywhere in Kreg’uune ever again and doing it anyway.”

“Hey!” Writch kicked Jevi’s door this time. “You don’t know the kind of thing you get put through! You’re s’posed to visit a fucking theatre of war, you know!”

“For supply runs and message carrying.” Jevi responded, her voice steadfast. “You’re just visiting, not fighting. Only the real soldiers do that.”

“Well then miss know-it-all, how do you know the sand mages aren’t gonna decide to send up a storm when you’re there? How do you know the tunnel that’s s’posed to be safe is actually safe? How do you make sure you’re prepared for the first killin’?”

“Ahh.” Jevi’s voice told me she had just chanced upon a juicy piece of gossip. “That makes sense. That’s why you called us murderers for killing your bandit friends.”

“Say it and you’ll regret it.” Writch growled, gripping Jevi’s cage and tilting it a little. I guess he thought that was intimidating. It actually was, but only a little. Compared to having a Beithir hunting me, he may as well have shouted ‘Boo!’ from across a field during daylight. Jevi seemed to have an even less flattering opinion of the tactic.

“What will you do if I say it? Kill me?” Jevi let out a melodious laugh that was completely at odds with my own, which had been reduced to a constant demented giggle now that the attention was away from me. “You ran away because of the first killing! I’ll even bet your hands are still clean! All my gold, how about it?”

This felt like a great time to join the conversation with a loud, “Fool’s bet!” Again, spoken like a genuine witch.

“You’re right, fly in amber, this wretch is a baby, just like you. And to think he mocked you for it.” She sounded totally aghast.

I was not happy with her calling me a baby, but the fire it ignited was tempered by the fact that I had, in fact, not yet killed.

“And then, since he was afraid of what his friends would think of him failing his first killing, he ran away from service and country, becoming an outcast from all that is Kreg’uune. Sad. Truly, truly sad.”

Writch growled and dropped Jevi’s cage, making the girl inside jostle as the floor suddenly evened again. “First,” He shoved a finger into Jevi’ cage, “My name is Writch, not wretch. Second,” His middle finger joined the first, “just because chief Waar sees you as valuable doesn’t mean you’re safe. You nicen up, or you’ll be having a more uncomfortable ride than you might have to.”

Writch took his hand back and kicked the door to my cage. “And shut up! Or I’ll cut your tongue out!”

I doubted he would. Therefore I cackled louder instead of obeying. For a moment I thought he was going to unlock my cage to make good on his threat, which would’ve been great for me considering my newly relatively freed status. But then he stalked away from the cages with his shoulders hunched.

On his fifth step I abruptly stopped laughing. Keeping it up had been hurting my throat. But the way Writch paused, then hurried away was delicious.

So that was why witches did it.

“Do you have any requests for how we deal with that one?” Jevi asked.

“Let him live but take something important.” I answered after a little thought. He was more pitiful than dangerous. He got caught up on the very idea of killing, while I knew there was more than one way to win a fight.

Jevi barked out a less pretty laugh than before. “For a supposed housewife you have a vicious imagination. I like it.” Travel with me.

I could all but hear that last one. But instead of addressing unspoken words, I had a lock to deal with.

Feeling around, I quickly figured out where the lock in the cage was. The only problem with that was how I didn’t know where best to hit the thing to make it open. I missed the shades of orange I saw things in under the influence of Jevi’s darkvision spell, but that had fled the moment Avien sat down next to me yesterday. The feeling made me want to see if I could call up some magic into my eyes and mimic the effect, but I didn’t know how long that would take, or if I would even succeed, so I put my efforts to figuring another way out of this cage.

In a brief fit of frustration I shoved the cage door, and came to a screeching halt as inspiration struck me. Instead of trying to hit the large, thick piece of metal that protected the turnkey lock, I should just hit the points of least resistance: The hinges on the outside of the cage. It took a bit of fidgeting to find a good position, but soon I was scraping my magic manacle across the hinges on the outside of my cage.

I swiped my wrist down the outside of the cage with what looked like a pitiful effort, but was actually the weight of a thousand suns. Or some such.

The point was that it worked and the cage door dropped a fraction of a centimetre. Then, after taking a moment to make sure none of the bandits were interested in what we were doing, I pressed the door of the cage with my leg and dislodged it completely. Turns out you need at least two fixed points to keep something from moving, and this door wasn’t even connected at the lock. The bit that should’ve stopped it from moving completely failed to do anything once the hinges were gone.

I scrambled out and gave the hinges on Jevi’s cage the same treatment as the ones on mine. Then I went around the back to smash the chain that still kept her in place.

“On three.” I told her. “One-” I hit the chain where it was taught against the cage. Metal hit metal, and the side that had magical enhancements won. Who would’ve guessed?

Jevi rubbed what parts of her wrists she could reach and left her cage. She stretched, reminding me a little of the faerie dragons that appeared around Veliki before the routine faerie dragon exterminations. “Perfect. Let’s get revenge.”

Well, I had no arguments with that. I pointed at the tent I felt my magic return from. “That one first. Let’s get our stuff back.”

Jevi squinted in the darkness. “How do you know our stuff is in there?”

“I called the magic back from my sword and it returned from that direction.”

“I’m convinced.” Jevi glanced my way. “How fares your ability to stay quiet?”

“Don’t insult me and I won’t break your cover.” I shot back.

A quiet laugh sounded from her direction. “I’ll watch my tongue then. Follow me. You didn’t see the ground when it was properly lit. I did.”

Rather than continue to banter, I followed Jevi as she picked out a meandering trail towards the tent I indicated. I wondered why she picked out this path until I caught a glimpse of jagged teeth reflecting what little moonlight there was. Soon, we were at the tent, a rectangular structure that had four poles spaced far enough apart that someone like Waar could move around without issue.

The entrance was on the side of the fire, but Jevi made her own by pulling up the pitons holding down the longer side and rolling underneath the canvas. She didn’t immediately roll back out, and no shouting graced my ears, so I followed soon after, tense, but not about to wound the next person I saw.

Then I hit something and flinched. I almost struck out with my magic manacle, but when I looked up it was Jevi. There was firelight coming through from the open entrance to the tent, and I saw her arched eyebrow. I scowled and motioned for her to hurry up, which she did with no small amount of mirth.

“So?” Jevi asked once I was finished dusting myself off. “Where is it?”

No one was in the tent because there was very little room leftover inside. Both ends of the rectangle were filled with stacked crates, some of which were open and clearly empty. Others were open and partially full. I guessed that meant the two that were closed were completely full. What with, I could only guess preserved food and other supplies.

That didn’t matter. My bag was clearly visible on top of one such crate. I went over and sighed in relief when I saw it was undamaged. As for where my sword was, I still couldn’t say. But first, weapons. I opened the pocket I left my dagger in and felt around for it. I had to go deeper when it wasn’t immediately accessible, then hissed in pain as I cut myself on it.

Jevi watched me as I pulled my hand out, used my other to find a small piece of cloth to stop the bleeding, then reached back again for my dagger. Carefully this time. I found the scabbard first, then the dagger. When I had both I offered them to Jevi.

“They must have thrown my bag around.” I said by way of explanation when I saw her questioning gaze. “It’s the only reason why it would’ve left its scabbard.” It meant I would have to make sure all my ingredients and new alchemy set were fine as well. Fuck! “I’ll take that back when we find my sword. Then, when we find another sword for you to use, I’ll take back my sword as well.” I didn’t leave any room for argument.

“You…” Jevi’s voice wavered. Her eyes flicked between me and my bag.

I frowned as I slung it across my back. “What?”

“Nothing.” Jevi said, despite the fact that there was clearly something going on. “Let’s find your sword.” Her eyes twitched slightly to my left. “There it is.”

I followed where she was pointing and found my sword and sheath still grouped together. It seemed whoever picked up after the fight respected weapons enough to package them properly, there was a roll of leather around it, along with some clubs and another sword without a scabbard.

“Good eye.” I told Jevi as I held out a hand. A few moments later my dagger was back in my possession and we were retrieving our weapons and outfitting ourselves. We closed the door to the tent somewhat belatedly, but after a tense few moments waiting for someone to notice the movement, we relaxed and started moving a little faster, albeit in even less light. There were things of ours scattered all over the room. My bag still had everything I had left in it, but that was the most luck we had in regards to that.

Jevi’s bag had been emptied, and all her things were scattered about. Her wand was missing, but she found Ratmaker’s staff that had been tossed into a corner. I finished up a lot quicker than Jevi did, but didn’t start moving my magic back into an actual weapon since that’d take me out of things for an hour.

Jevi finished rummaging through the last box. “Fuck. It’s not here.”

“Your wand?” I questioned.

“No. It’s-” She glanced at me, looking as though she was considering something on the scale of declaring genocide. “You know how I’m part of an… important house.”

“Ah.” I understood. “Your signet ring.”

“Ye- Well... No.” She got that look like she was contemplating genocide again. “It’s something like that, but not really. I had a band that I was wearing under my clothes. It was magical. It stopped divination from targeting me. They must have taken it from me when they were stripping me of all but my clothes. The perverts.”

“You had something like that?” I demanded, voice low.

“I did-”

“Does it work on someone you’re travelling with?”

“I… couldn’t say. Possibly. I didn’t pay attention during that part of my lessons.”

Shit. I wanted that band, badly. Jevi’s contemplations suddenly made sense. She knew I was running from something. The problem was, I knew she was running from something too. We wanted neither of those things to catch up with us, and her pursuers were better funded and more populous.

I didn’t like arriving at the conclusion that it was best for me to let Jevi reclaim her wondrous item.

“You need to get that back.” I told her.

Jevi was likely giving me a searching look through the darkness. “... Yes, I do.”

“Because the Vitorian Envoy has how many diviners looking for you?” I continued when it was clear she was unconvinced of my sincerity. “I have one, and she knows me well, but she also dismisses the possibility of divination working on me because I’m Chosen. As much as I’d love for something like that band, it makes more sense to get it back on you, then start interrogating you to find out where I could get me one of them.”

“Yes.” Jevi agreed after a moment. “I suppose that does make the most sense.”

“So how about we serve Waar some revenge and get that band back?”

Jevi hummed as she moved to the tent flap and peeked out. She looked around for a minute before retreating back inside. “Okay, I can’t tell which tent chief Waar is in, and my band is likely going to be in there if she’s not wearing it herself. We should go from tent to tent side by side. You’ll put down anyone that finds us as best you can, and I’ll kill them all eventually.”

A shiver went up my spine at how easily she said that. I could swear the clopping of hooves was sounding in the night. Fuck. That wasn’t something I wanted right now. Under Jevi’s watchful eye, I closed my eyes and focused on how I would be non-lethally attacking the bandits that tried to sell me into gladiatorial slavery. I wouldn’t be killing tonight. Not even a dog if I could help it.

The sound of hooves receded.

I opened my eyes and looked at Jevi, her outline somehow more visible to the newfound clarity in my mind. “I’ll follow you.”

Jevi nodded, and made to open the tent flap.

“BANDITS!” A young and somewhat familiar voice shouted. “I DEMAND YOU SHOW YOURSELVES AND FACE ME IN COMBAT! FOR JUSTICE!”

“What in the nine Hells was that?” Jevi whispered.

I would’ve answered, but I was too busy facepalming.

\V/