*BWEEEE*

A high pitched whine signaled our return back to solid form as we ported in to Ring Four. The world faded from blinding white back into focus.

For a second, all I could see was orange as the thick magical shell that surrounded me-a precaution against unfortunate teleporting ‘accidents’, according to some books down at the Guild Library— slowly peeled away from me like a zesty, defensive rind.

I took in a huge whiff, breathing in the amazing natural freshness.

“Ooooh yeah, thats the good stuff.”

Ring Four’s portal was smack dab in the middle of it, surrounded by the appropriately named Center Park. The park absolutely teemed with life. There were dozens of different types of tree species, from mighty ash trees, their thick trunks smooth and strong, yet still flexible, bending slightly with the breeze. Prickly cedar trees wafted their signature scent, that verdant, sticky smell that let you know you were breathing in some clean ass air. Maple trees of all kinds produced bounties of deep red, orange, and maroon leaves all year round that clump in piles on the dusty brick pathways that led around the park. A constant chorus of birdsong and animal chatter produced a continuous natural orchestra for you to listen to.

It it wasn’t obvious, I was rather fond of the park. I loved coming down here at night when I had free time to just walk along the bricks, under the warmly glowing streetlights. I’d find myself a nice patch of cool, soft grass, maybe a little damp but that was fine. Then I would just stare up at the stars up until it was time to head home and sleep. It was nice, and made Ring Four easily my favorite ring of the five.

Walking off of the portal platform to find a map of the area, I took a minute to orient myself and plan where I wanted to go first. The portal was surrounded by various street food vendors, performers, just like Ring Five, but no actual storefronts were allowed inside the premise of the Park.

Instead, the rest of the Ring outside of the park was designated into four quarters. There was the Adventurer’s Quarter, Living Quarter, Forge Quarter, and Mercantile Quarter. Each one had an equal amount of space, and importance. Adventuring is where you find the Adventurer’s Guild (No way!). Equipment is home to all of the Ring’s forges, leather workshops, and other crafters. Living was where the citizens of Ring Four live, and was definitely the suburbs compared to Ring Five’s ghettos. Last was Mercantile, where you buy food, magical ingredients, and the like.

I had business in both the Forge Quarter (To meet up with my brother from another mother, Ferrous Brim) and the Adventurer Quarter (To register as an Adventurer for real and take on some Quests), and then I still needed to head to the Mercantile Quarter to resupply and hopefully meet up with my first party member, Brygid Jewel.

Her family ran a store down there, so I’d stop by and pick her up last. Again, hopefully. If she had stuff to do that was cool too, but we’d been planning on being in a Party together for a long time now, and it was time to finally see that happen.

Hmm, of course, considering she’s already an Adventurer herself, she might already be down at the Guild training or something. Yeah that’s probably a little more likely than her being at her family’s store, now that I think about it. Brygid never was one for the customer service industry.

That decided it for me. Meeting Brygid at the Guild would kill two birds with one stone, and I loved killing birds.

Hold on, that’s not………uh, let’s just pretend I never said that.

There were four exits from the portal junction, N.E, N.W, S.E, S.W. The Adventurer’s Quarter was the north eastern part of the Ring, which meant you just had to follow the north eastern exit, and it will lead you right there.

I began walking down the N.E pathway, boots softly crunching on the worn bricks. Without any notifications to check at the moment, I just let myself walk and enjoy the warm day, flowing among the crowd of people.

But that got boring real quick. I wanted to put my time to something more productive.

Hey Syscile, question. Can people tell when you cast Examine on them?

Generally speaking, any character below Tier Three cannot. Once Tier Three is reached, an individual becomes much more sensitive. However, there are special skills, abilities, and traits that could always go against this, so you should be cautious. Additionally, the inverse is true as well, where generally every character above Tier Three will know when you Examine them, unless you have certain skills, traits, or abilities.

Okay cool, good to know.

With that in mind, I started scanning everyone. It only cost me five mp, which I recovered faster than blinking, so there was no downside to it. Plus, I was really interested in comparing the difference between ranks and levels. I’d try not to scan tier three’s and above if I could help it.

Usually you could tell if someone was above the second tier just by looking. They started getting a weird aura to them. Like, a literal aura. Plus they always had fancy equipment of some kind.

Examine Successful!

Examine Successful!

…

…

Examine Successful!

-Ding!-*3

Ability Examine Lvl 1 has increased to Level 3!

Achievable unlocked! ‘Sheet Creep’: Use your Examine ability to look at 25 different character sheets. “Just gotta know everyones’ stats, don’t you?” +1 INT, Total INT: 13. +1 Examine Level

I Examined dozens of people on my way out of the Park, and learned a couple interesting things for my efforts.

One; from what I saw, the most common Blessing grade by far was B, then followed by C. I would have assumed it the other way, but I saw B grade about sixty percent of the time, with C at about 35 percent, then D grade at around 5 percent. I saw one A grade among all of those I Examined.

I knew that the grade made a big difference in effectiveness, but comparing the actual numbers told me a lot more. There was a significant difference between grades. Each grade seemed to have base stat totals at least ten percent greater than the grade below it, plus stronger, more numerous skill and abilities. For example, between the one A grader I Examined (Level 5), and one of the random C graders (Level 9), the level 9’s stats were only marginally better.

Two; It seemed that Tier One out-numbered Tier Twos by about 15 to 1. That seemed high to me, so I asked Syscile about it.

What’s up with that?

That is about normal. It may seem high, but consider the challenges of being Blessed and it will make sense. There is constant combat and hard labor, and it only gets harder as you progress. People are killed before they reach the max level of their Tier, or killed while attempting their Tier Up quest. Others find the quest to be a wall, far too challenging to complete, they think. So they give up on it, surrendering their potential futures to maintain a safe present.

Makes sense.

With those questions answered and my curiosity sated for now, I fell silent, walking along the brick path until the canopy of trees gave way to open blue sky, finally exiting out of Center Park and into the Adventurer’s Quarter.

-Ding!- Minor Skill Walking has increased to Level 4.

Adventurers came in all types, like anyone else. You had paladins who would give you the clothes off their back, and others who liked to use the job as a way of legal extortion; taking jobs that desperately had to be completed like “Deal with the bandits in our area”, then refusing to do them until paid more, or wheedling extra money out of the quest requester after the job is done. Th Guild heavily looked down on that, but they had to learn about it first.

Like the people it embodied, the Adventurer’s Quarter was bold, brash, and if you weren’t careful, it would put you in the trash. The calming choir of birdsong was replaced by the clamor of clattering swords, bows, maces, shields, spears, and other weapons of all types. Training areas were everywhere, the yelling and screaming of those practicing inside so common that it quickly became background static.

The Guild legally owned the entire Quarter, and it showed. All of the buildings here were dedicated in some shape or form to the betterment of the Guild and its members. There were dozens of storage warehouses for members’ excess loot, and there was at least one training hall per street; where high level Guild members would lead lower levels—teaching them valuable skills, abilities, and pushing their bodies to increase their stats. That’s not even mentioned the freelance experts living on every corner, waiting for adventurers to approach them about learning their private, specialized skills. The Quarter even had barracks for members who needed a place to stay, no charge.

The street leading out of the Park was a few hundred yards long, then split into a T-shaped intersection. The main path continued straight, heading north west, alllll the way down to the Adventurers Guild, in the very back of the Quarter. The left led south-west, beginning a circuit that led the long way back around the Adventurers Quarter, eventually connecting to the Forge Quarter. The right path led south east, doing the same thing until it eventually connected to the Merchant Quarter.

I started walking down main street. Even though I’d been coming down to the Guild for years, you still needed a member license to actually do anything, so that was the first thing to take care of. Then I could go find Brygid.

As I walked, I kept Examining people. It was honestly fascinating. You could tell a lot about someone’s personality by their Blessing.

My personal favorite was this absolutely humongous dude I passed on the other side of the street. This motherfucker was easily eight and a half/nine feet tall, and I shit you not; was wearing a bearskin coat and wolfskin pants. No shirt, no shoes. His helmet was a silver panther head, arms clad in thick leather bracers that were covered in spikes. The swarm of people around him parted like a school of fish fleeing a massive predator.

I Examined him eagerly and without hesitation.

-Examine Level 4 partial success!-

Name: Titan Steeltrap

Race: Human (Terralanian:Highlands)

Level: 16 (Tier Two)

HP: 2670/2670

MP: 1600/1600

Love: 500/500

STR: 79

CON: 88

BDY: 178

INT: 67

WIS: 75

MND: 151

CRG (Courage): 87

KND (Kindness): 89

HRT (Heart): 187

Blessing Name: The Nurture of Nature

Blessing Rank: B

Blessing Type: Healer (Buff/Regen) Tank (Taunt/Crowd Control)

Description: Using the boundless love that nature has for all life, allows user to heal, protect, and empower their allies.

Active Abilities:

Bring it In Lvl 5: A tight embrace filled with healing energy. Effect: Heals hugged individual for 25HP/sec. Individuals also receive a x100 bonus to natural health regeneration for thirty seconds. Affects as many individuals as user can hug both arms around at once. Cost: 50MP/sec.

Nature’s Scorn Lvl 7: Protection, and punishment! Effect: Target takes 20% less damage and gains 65% thorns. Any enemy that attacks target will take 65% of all damage that is dealt as rebound. Effect lasts for 4 1/2 minutes. Cost: 288 MP. Cooldown: 7 minutes and 43 seconds.

The rest of his sheet was blocked due to level difference, but what I could see was plenty. I mean, the dude had a heal that was just a good hug and his unique stats were courage, kindness, and heart? Are you kidding me? The guy sounded amazing!

Titan Steeltrap. You’d think he’d be some kind of destructive maniac, but no. Hugs and good vibes. Once I reached Tier Two and built up some reputation, I wanted to recruit him. I could not pass up on a guy like that.

As soon as I thought that, there was a -Ding!-.

Curious about why, I let it pull up.

New Personal Quest!: Recruitment Drive!

-Convince Titan Steeltrap to join your adventuring party! You need an adventuring party first to be able to complete this quest.

Oh, an automatic memo sheet in my brain. That’d be extremely useful.

I didn’t see anyone nearly as interesting as Titan, and all thoughts of Examining complete randos fled my mind as the massive structure that was the Adventurer’s Guild finally came into view.

Honestly, I thought the word ‘hall’ really undersold the sheer force of presence that this building had. I mean, it is what it is, but I would have gone with something like ‘The Guild Fortress’ or ‘Guild Bastion’ or something. The main building was that big, covering an area of land measuring in acres instead of sq footage, not counting the buildings connected to it.

It was even shaped like a fortress. There were wall turrets, crenelations, hot oil dumping slots. Arrow slits, mounted mana cannons, they really had everything needed to repel an entire army. Crimson banners hung everywhere, the Guild’s symbol— two muscular arms, grasping each other near the wrists, with crossing swords in the background—emblazoned on them in crystal blue.

The entire complex was crafted from an ancient, unfathomably large tree known as ‘Dasamlegur’ which apparently translated to ‘Verdancy’. The wood from this tree was dark black, like pure tar. The black wood planks absorbed sunlight, releasing it, sparkling like small gems embedded in the earth. Apparently, according to Guild history, this process was unique to ‘Dasamlegur’, allowing the tree to heal damage so perfectly that it could actually reverse its age. In effect, the Guild was indestructible to all but the mightiest forces, and could rapidly heal even the most extensive damage, restoring itself to prime condition.

Just like most things in this Quarter, the sight of the main hall made me grin. I remember being so intimated just by the building alone as a little kid. Now I looked at it like it was a beautiful work of art, which it was.

There was some yelling from a side street off to my left. Male voice. Sounded snooty.

Nah, I didn’t want to get involved. Not worth.

Then a fiery female voice pulled me out of my artistically induced distractions.

“Oh! Alright, jerk off! You wanna fuckin’ go? HUH!?”

Her voice was hot. Airy. The same way that a blast furnace was, roaring from the force of the heat. And yet, it had a hint of sweetness to it, like a pinch of cinnamon thrown into the spicy sauce.

That was Brygid’s voice.

I did a hard pivot, turning on my heel and heading directly down the side street, boots pounding on the smooth stone as I sprinted. I needed to get down there quick before I missed anything.

As I ran down the street, weaving my way through the crowd, the yelling became more distinct, the snooty man and Brygid’s conversation fully audible. The man’s voice was a like a cheese grater taken to my ears, droning, whining, and absolutely full of himself.

“Oh please. Like I want to waste my time on fighting you. Simply vacate the arena, and I will not need to embarrass you.”

Oh yeah, Snooty Man, that’d work on Brygid for sure.

“WHAT?! Embarrass me!? I don’t quite fucking think so. Besides, I was here first, I will not be ‘vacating the arena’, and so you can go fuck yourself, yeah? Have a good day.”

Hehehe, yep. That’s about what I expected. Brygid had as much of a sailor’s mouth as I did.

“You are such a crass woman, do you know that? Its quite unbecoming.”

I didn’t hear a response to that. I assumed that Brygid was flipping him a big double bird.

“Oh, how mature.”

There was a large gathering of people up ahead, gawking at one of the training areas. The same one I was headed for. I pushed through them—with apologies, though I was pretty sure no one could hear me. When I broke through the front of the crowd, I stepped into a twenty foot clearing, everyone else deciding they didn’t want to get any closer than that.

There were four figures in the clearing, all of them standing in front of an empty training yard, surrounded by leafy green trees. The three on the left were Mr. Snooty himself and his friends, Big n’ Ugly number one and two. The big guys were just common muscle. Probably some kind of generic strength enhancing blessing or something.

Snooty was about 5’9, and fairly slim. Everything about him screamed ‘rich boy’ in the worst way. A silver helm encased his head, leaving his face open and allowing long tousles of golden blonde hair to pour out and hang to his shoulder. Fine golden eyebrows framed cold blue eyes, which locked onto Brygid with disgust. He had a hooked nose, a prominent ridge in the middle like an eagle’s beak. His pale lips were pulled thin with scorn. He wore a full, matching set of glimmering white (of course) plate armor marked with the crest of his family, some kind of fish with a crescent spray of water around it. The armor gleamed in the light, obviously more polished than it was used. I didn’t recognize the symbol on it. Must not have been that noble then, likely low nobility. Ugh, those were the guys with something to prove.

I called out to the last figure, a tall young woman, crossing the space over to her. “Brygid, the cavalry has arrived!”

Brygid (and the other guys) whipped her head around to face me.

Brygid Jewel, age 18, daughter of Dender and Hazel Jewel, one an expert goldsmith, the other a longtime baker. Both were Adjusted, but they were good folks, always treating my family with nothing but kindness.

Her curly hair blew in the breeze like ribbons of fire, framing a cream colored face plastered with a plethora of freckles. Round, dark chocolate eyes stared at me from under sharply sculpted eyebrows, apple red lips puckered in slight confusion. Back when we were kids, Brygid had been a real ‘skin and bones’ girl, thin as a whip-reed in mud and even shorter than I was. No meat on her. Now was a different story though. She was tall now, and considering I thought of her as more of a little sister than anything, this felt really weird to say, but she was thick too. Like, extra thick.

And that’s all I’m ever going to say on that subject.

Though she was a couple of years younger than me, Brygid actually got her Blessing first--taking the Trial on her 15th birthday like most Terralanians—so she had quite a bit of experience with it. Last time we spoke (’bout forty days ago) she’d been level 5, and with how hard she worked, I bet she’d been able to bring that up at least another level or two.

Brygid wore a dark leather vest felted with green trimmings and large gold buttons. She had a pair of matching pants and tall, thigh high boots as well, which I suspected were all part of a magic equipment set. She finished with a pair of tight, black fingerless gloves.

Where I was punchy, Brygid was stabby. Two eight inch dagger sheathes hung on her hips, one on each side. She was also covered in smaller blades, with at least five or six throwing knives clipped into the side of each boot.

Brygid’s eyes roamed over my body, lingering on my face as I walked up to her. Then she planted her hands on wide hips and stared directly into my eyes, confusion and suspicion evident. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

My shoulders slumped a little bit. “Tch, way to take the wind out of my sails. I know I’m a little taller now, but I’m hurt you don’t recognize me, Little B.”

Her eyes widened in shock as she began to re-examine my face, comparing it to when she last saw me. It took her a couple of seconds, but then her eyes lit up in recognition. She squealed, bouncing up and down a little in excitement, then grabbed and pulled me into a crushing bear-hug. “Holy shit, Emmanuel!? What the hell happened to you? You look so cool now!”

I pulled away from the hug a bit, looking up at her with a grin. “What, you saying I wasn’t cool before?”

She shook her head, eyes glinting ruefully. “Nope. Sorry Big E. You may have been cool to me, but you weren’t cool. Now you are though. About damn time you got your lazy ass into shape and got your Blessing.”

I barked out a laugh and pushed her off of me. “Hah! Fuck off, you. So, I heard you yelling as I was coming down this way. Who’s the asshole?” I said, gesturing at Snoots.

Brygid’s smile slid off of her face, a low growl escaping her. She was about to speak when Mr. Asshole himself decided that he was tired of being left out of the conversation, and stamped over to us, Big Ugly 1+2 following close behind. Snoots stood at a frustrated attention in front of us, huffing. Now that he was closer, I could see that he was young, maybe fifteen or sixteen at the most. Great, just what we need, a little lordling.

“Enough! I refuse to stand here and take this while you two peasants talk shit about me like I’m not even here!”

Brygid and I both rolled our eyes at that, resisting the urge to tell him to fuck off. “My name is Jackson Hauff, son of Beathin Hauff and heir to the noble Hauff family legacy.” He glowered at Brygid, then me, then everything around us. “Normally, I wouldn’t even be down here, mingling in the dirt with you pigs like this, but my father had business with the Guild Master today and I was forced to travel with him. Now he continues to chit-chat and waste time, so I needed a place to train.” He gestured at the training yard in front of us, as though that was supposed to make it completely obvious.

Brygid’s hackles raised. She straightened to her full height (I think she was like 6’3. Big girl.) and mean mugged down at Jackson, hard. “And, like we’ve been over, its fucking occupied.” She seethed, teeth grinding together. “You’re not using mine. Go find a different one.”

Jackson shook his head, crossing his arms in a pout. “No. This one is the most conveniently located for me.” Then the motherfucker had the audacity to shrug, saying, “There are plenty of other training rings in the immediate area. It would be better for you to just go pick from one of those.”

I swear, I could hear the vein pop out of Brygid’s forehead. Heat began to roll off of her body, the temperature around us going up fast enough to bring a solid sheen of sweat to my face. Had I mentioned that she had a fire typed Blessing?

No? Whatever, I’m sure you’re not too surprised. She just screams ‘fire-type’.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brygid’s left hand inch towards one of the eight inch long daggers she kept at her hip, fingers grasping around the hilt tightly. Jackson and his goons saw it too, the three of them rearing back like a pack of aggressive dogs.

“Chill on that.” I said, reaching up to place my hand on Brygid’s shoulder and get her attention. My eye twitched as I did. Her skin was steaming hot, giving my palm a solid first degree burn. It did what I wanted though. Brygid turned to me, raising one angry eyebrow.

“Yeah? You got a better suggestion, E?”

“As a matter of fact I do.” I turned to Jackson Hauff, gesturing dramatically at the training yard. “Why not make a proper Duel of it? You vs. Brygid, winner takes the right to use the training ring for the rest of the day, some coppers, EXP, and a little reputation.” He glared at me, lip curling in arrogant disgust.

Brygid just scoffed. “Tch, that’s what I’ve been saying. Blondie don’t want to though. I think he’s scared of being beaten by a woman.”

Jackson bristled, but didn’t bite, so I pushed him a little farther. I tsk’d Brygid and shook my head, putting on a sarcastic arrogance. “Nonsense, dear Brygid. What a preposterous statement. Everyone knows that the famous Jack Hauff,” Honestly I didn’t even try to suppress my laugh at that. What a stupid thing to name your kid. “Would never flee from a fight. He has too much honor, integrity, and bravery. Or is that wrong, Jack?”

I almost felt bad for him. There was an exactly zero percent chance for a hot headed kid, used to being catered to by his noble family his entire life, to be able to not bite at that bait.

And Jack bit beautifully. As soon as I called him ‘Jack Hauff’ his face had turned beet red. I’d figured he’d already gotten some shit over that. Low hanging fruit, really.

By the end of my jab, he was trembling with pent up frustration and impotent teenage rage. His voice even cracked a little bit when he replied. “Fine! If you—” He said, shoving a finger in Brygid’s face, “Want to fight me so badly, and you-”, shoving a finger in mine, “Want to see her beaten so badly, then fine! So be it! A Duel it is then! What are your terms, woman?”

Brygid didn’t miss a beat. “You versus me, 1 v. 1, no items allowed. We fight till the other surrenders or falls unconscious. No fatal damage, no permanent disfigurations. You might be a little prick, but this isn’t that big of a deal. Winner gets ten silvers, 25% percent the loser’s EXP to next level, and the Reputation that our little crowd generates.”

Jackson quirked an eyebrow. “Well, at least you’re not at bloodthirsty as you look. Not that I would have backed down either way. Bump the EXP the winner gets up to 50% to make it more worth my time, and you have a deal.”

Brygid just rolled her eyes. “This is already more of a compromise than you deserve, but fine. I’ll be happy to take more of your EXP. I agree to the terms of the Duel.”

“Then I also agree to the terms of the Duel.”

A gust of wind swept through the clearing, rustling the trees around us. Brygid and Jackson both retrieved their Journals from their inventories. Brygid had a fairly standard inventory bag, though it had her name embroidered on it in gold, which was a nice touch. Her Journal was a normal size book with a thick brown leather cover.

Jackson’s Journal just appeared in his hand, the cerulean book showing up out of thin air. Must’ve had an actual, capital I, Inventory. Bastard, those were expensive.

They both flipped their respective books open, the details and specifics of the Duel magically appearing on the pages. They read over and formally accepted.

Brygid smiled, baring her teeth at Jackson. “Fantastic. So, do you need anytime to prepare, Milord?”

He gritted his teeth, staring daggers directly through Brygid. “No, I do not. Meet me in the yard when you are ready.” Then he stormed off through the wooden gate that separated the actual fighting yard from the rest of the clearing.

Before he could get too far away from us, I threw an Examine at the back of his head.

Just a rough summary for this one Syscile. HP, MP, and a quick description of what he can do.

Picky picky.

————————————————————

Name: Jackson Hauff

HP: 1340/1340

MP: 758/758

Description: Possesses Weapon Type Blessing. Weapon is Light Elemental. Can flare blinding flashes of light, as well as project long ranged light attacks. Stats are focused on defense and strength. Unique stats center around valor/glory abilities, such as a self/group buff and aggro generation.

————————————————————

Brygid turned to march after him, but I grabbed her shoulder before she could. She stopped and turned, looking at me with a grin. “Aww, what’s the matter? You about to tell me that you’re worried and I need to be careful?”

I laughed. “Pssh, yeah right. No way this kid could beat you.” I gave her a mischievous wink. “But just in case, I’ve got some info you should know about.”

When I shared the short summary of Jackson’s abilities, Brygid got a confused look on her face. “How’d you know all that? Do you know the guy?”

I shook my head, patting her shoulder. “Nope! I’ll tell you after the fight, when we can sit down for a second. You just focus on getting in there and kicking his ass, Little B!”

With a thumbs up, Brygid walked into the training yard after Jackson. Big N’ Ugly one and two walked up to the wooden fence to watch, as did I. The other crowd of people that had been watching crept closer, but kept their distance from the rest of us.

The live combat area of the training yard was about a hundred yards across, and with no other people in it right now, Brygid and Jackson were free to use the whole thing. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a big circle of flat dirt.

The two combatants headed out to the middle and faced each other.

Even though I hadn’t actually seen any weapons on Jackson’s person, that didn’t make him unarmed. Far from it. If he had a weapon type Blessing, he was always armed.

Jackson held his empty hands in a knight’s sword stance. His right hand led, arm held to his side, clenched fist pointed towards the ground. His left arm came up and across his front, barring the way to his body. Closing his eyes for a moment, Jackson took a deep breath, then his eyes snapped open, sharp with focus.

His voice rang out across the training yard. “Come forth, o’ sacred shield and blade of light! Noble Gleam!”

Two pale light orbs appeared; one in Jackson’s clenched right hand, the other wrapping around his braced left arm. They rapidly grew. Shifted. Solidified.

The one on the right took the form of a steel sword. The blade was two and a half feet long, and broad, tapering down to a deadly point at the tip. It had a thick, white and gold cross guard, with the hilt wrapped in tight black leather. The orb on Jackson’s left arm transformed into an ivory white round shield, a solid gold spike sticking out of the middle.

Jackson brought the sword up, stabbing it forth at Brygid. “Have at you! I shall allow you to have the first move.”

Huh. Honestly, the kid was definitely a brat, but he actually pulled off the ‘Knight in shining armor’ act pretty well! Brygid seemed to agree with me, crossing her arms and looking mildly impressed. She nodded at Jack, her right hand grabbing the dagger of that side of her belt, left hand taking one of the throwing knives off of her boot.

Brygid’s eyes alit with fire. Quite literally, her pupils taking on the shape of a flickering flame. Heat waves began warbling around Brygid’s shoulders and back, distorting the air behind her for several feet. There was a sharp crackle, and the distinct smell of burning wood.

There was a rushing *WHOOOSH* as a pair of burning red wings erupted from Brygid’s back. Wings of crimson fire, each one made from hundreds of individual feathers. They were huge, Brygid’s wingspan an easy twelve feet.

She crouched. Her fiery wings gave a single mighty flap, spraying out a wave of heat that scorched the earth directly around her. The force of the flap sent Brygid soaring thirty feet into the air. Steady wing beats threw sparks with every motion, keeping her gracefully hanging in the air.