After we returned we washed up and passed out. By the time I woke up in the morning Lore had already finished prepping for the journey. I suspected that my body needed more sleep than a normal elf’s. Which brought up the question again, what the hell kind of entity was my other half? And, since it had something to do with fire, did I even want to find out?

On our way to the coach yard, we traveled through the city for the last time. Lore held my hand as if I might get lost. And that was when I realized that I had been a bit clingy to him in real life. But, I mean, he was an alien in an alien world. I didn’t want him to get lost or kidnapped. I’d seen too many of those SciFi alien autopsy shows.

And now that he was giving me the same treatment, I wanted to roll my eyes. But holding his hand while we traveled… it was nice.

He brought me through various cool areas in the city that I’d never seen before, but we merely walked past them. Eventually, we reached the coach yard. It was the same place we came to when we hired a small carriage to take us to the party. This time, instead of going to one of the small booths off to the side we directly strolled into a large building that smelled of various animals. It was easy to see why it smelled so weird. They had massive stalls with huge birds, Giant armored lizards, and unicorn-like creatures that had unrealistically bulging muscles.

While I stared at the strange creatures with fascination, Lore walked up to a booth and did the boring hiring stuff.

Soon a carriage rolled up to me. It had fragile-looking metal armor decorated with beautiful patterns. The metal screens that covered the windows appeared as if they’d redirect blows. A team of four armored lizards easily pulled the heavy carriage up to the middle of the massive room. From the semi-covered front seat, our NPC driver seemed to effortlessly hop down.

He opened the door, bowed, and gestured for me to enter. I looked around for Lore and almost jumped when I realized that he stood close behind me.

Without being told, I tendered through the small door to find the beautiful wood-lined interior had leaf-like designs carved into them. The forest green seats had so much extra padding that when I sat, I sunk down several inches. I peered out the window, expecting to see the armor screen I noticed outside it but it didn’t show up. How the hell?

Lore sat down next to me instead of moving to the seat in front. The driver shut the door and the bard bolted it shut from the inside. The carriage moved.

Warning! You are about to embark on a long journey. If you die during this journey, you will respawn inside the carriage.

That was good information to know but it wasn’t what I was interested in. I pointed to the window. “How?”

“Magic. Well, for the most part. It’s something you’d have to ask a carriage maker to know the exact process.”

I nodded and continued to peer out the window, curious about this world. Sure I’d seen some of it on the way to the party, but it was mostly dark during our travels and apparently, the elves in this world didn’t have dark vision, nor did whatever my other half was... Probably.

“So, our last carriage wasn’t this armored. I thought traveling on the road would be safe?”

“Well, For the most part, it is, but in general, if you’re traveling for more than two to three hours, the world sends monsters to attack you. You could either take a break and kill them off, or hire an armed escort.”

“Is this an armed escort?”

He laughed. “No. We’ll have to go out and kill some monsters when they block our path, but just think of it as a break and a way to earn easy experience.”

I nodded.

“Right, there were some things I wanted to explain to you. And a carriage like this is the best place to do that since it has magical protections and anti-eavesdropping magic.”

I peered up at him. Damn, he was handsome.

“I’m going to tell you about how I became a prisoner of the Ravenborn clan.”

He looked out the window on his side of the carriage. I waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts. Just when I thought he was going to not say anything he ran a hand through his hair loosening some of the braids.

“You know that in a world with the Passivity Precept you can only be harmed by accident, or by an animal. You can also harm animals and kill them for food.”

I nodded.

“There are ways people can set up an accident. Or they can train animals to attack. Or lead wild animals into a building with people. It’s not easy, mind you. The Passivity Precept tries to prevent things like purposefully causing accidents, and if your intent is obvious then it will put a stop to it, but if it isn’t obvious then a nefarious person can get away with it.”

He sighed. “In the real world. Our technology isn’t this low, but it’s more magic-based, unlike your world which seemed to be entirely magicless before the Passivity Precept came.”

“You’re getting off-topic.”

He grinned. “My clan, the Silvercat clan, owned mines. We would mine the land while not harming it. We had even found a good vein and were in the process of digging it up. Well, around when we’d just found the new vein my father, Versetanus Silvercat, met his bonded.

“Her name was Lyrewood Blackwind and she met him on one of the trips he took to improve clan business...”