I looked down at the guest that had appeared by my side. She was a diminutive red-headed dwarven girl who seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t seem to summon a name. Well, obviously she would have to be familiar, as we’d rescued her not that long ago! I was sure Mia would know her name too, but I sure didn’t and hoped no one would ask me to make introductions.

“Miss Mea?” She asked in uncertain tones as she looked up at me.

Her voice had hardly sounded when the rest of the room reacted, a ripple of uncertainty and alarm far more drastic than even Mia’s shadow-show from before. The princess leapt out of her seat and snatched up her spear, Mia turned so quickly she knocked her chair over, Anise actually shrieked, and the beastfolk man – the only customer who hadn’t fled earlier – got up and strode towards us. Out of everything, that last was the most concerning so I wordlessly swept the witness behind me and gave him my full attention, hand to my sword.

“That!” He said, putting something away in one pocket while stabbing a finger at me with his other hand. Or perhaps he was pointing to the girl who was taking shelter behind me. “That strange and impossible magical signature! That’s what I’ve been looking for. Mreklyn, Mystic State Investigator. I’m been on the hunt for an Invader and I’ve got questions.” He kept advancing in spite of my obviously hostile posture, not slowing as he crossed into range. I took that as a declaration of intent and moved to take him down.

As my estoc cleared its sheath I took the smug curl on his lips and the unwavering confidence in his stride as evidence that he thought himself fairly capable and reevaluated my plan. A lethal center-mass thrust would force him to either counter or move significantly to avoid it, which could place me at a disadvantage since I didn’t know his capabilities. I chose instead to aim for a limb, which I presumed he would be able to avoid easily. It would give him a little false confidence and, more importantly, it would force him to move in an easily predictable way. If he didn’t dodge it, then that was fine too.

I punched my blade toward one shoulder and, as I hoped, he took the bait. He moved fast, certainly faster than I could, but that alone wasn’t anywhere near enough. With my accelerated perception, he may as well have been standing still, which left me all the time in the world to plan out how to intercept him.

The negligent looking dodge that demonstrated how easy he thought it was going to be took him right inside my space, and directly into my trap. I kept my arms up as I let go of my estoc, which had him looking in the wrong place as I shifted slightly to put my foot on top of his, breaking his stance. As he flailed slightly for balance, I caught his wrist out of the air and folded him like laundry into the floor.

My sword thunked tip-first into the wood a fraction of a second later and managed to stand for a moment before falling with a clatter. I glanced at it and hoped the staff wouldn’t make me pay for any damage to the hardwood. I was responsible for it, sure, and I did have the money — that wasn’t the issue. It was the principle of the thing.

“Mia?” I asked, trying to keep on task. I wondered what she’d want me to do with the man I had pinned, since I wasn’t sure if he was hostile. He was certainly a threat, but she and I had very different understandings and methods of what constituted a threat and how it should be dealt with. I’d always been of the opinion that a problem wasn’t over until the people causing it were dead, but that wasn’t how Mia operated.

Instead of an answer from her, Princess Ellena appeared on the other side of me, holding her spear but keeping it at rest. She seemed to still be somewhat wary of the dwarf girl that I’d summoned, who had backed away from the sudden violence, or perhaps myself. I was just as wary of her, given what her weapon could do and the fact that I was occupied with a problem already, but fortunately she kept a safe distance.

“Gracious, you made that look easy!” She said, edging around to get a better look at how I was holding the man. “Investigators are well known for their martial prowess, and I do not know how well I would fare against one.” The investigator in question was spitting incoherently from the strain of his pointless struggling against my weight.

“You and I absolutely must spar.” Ellena said in a tone of voice that hardly fit a princess. I looked up at her slowly, not sure what she was thinking, but when I saw the somewhat crazed grin on her face, I realized that she was just a battle junkie. Much like myself, she was one of those people who lived for the thrill of a good fight. I felt what was left of my lips twist in an involuntary smile; I was suddenly hoping to get to know this princess a whole lot better. She seemed fun.

“Mea!” I heard from three different sources at once. Anise sounded tremulous for some reason, Mia seemed slightly confused, and whoever the dwarf girl was, she sounded entirely awed. The princess picked up my estoc and admired it curiously. I thought it was unlikely she’d ever seen anything quite like it, specialized as it was for a time and place in combat history that had nothing to do with this world. I didn’t like having my weapon in the hands of another, but she seemed to not be hostile at the moment, so I left well enough alone.

“Mia didn’t see what happened, was he trying to attack?” I gave her as much of a shrug as I could without letting up the pressure on the still-struggling man.

“Moved too close, refused to stop. Treated as threat.”

“Oh,” she said, taking her time to think it over while fixing the knocked over chair. Anise slithered off her seat and came a few steps closer before calling out to me again.

“Mea, he’s from the Mystic State! You really shouldn’t antagonize him.” Anise said, already high voice practically a squeak as she stuttered slightly. Something had her pretty seriously spooked, but I’d deal with that later. No one else from my group seemed inclined to intervene, opting to keep their distance and watch, which suited me fine.

“That’s right, girl. Get off me,” the investigator growled, voice thick with strain. I didn’t move, simply waiting for Mia’s word on the subject. Anise seemed scared for some reason, and the princess wasn’t intervening on either side. That made me wonder what this Mystic State had going on that they could throw their weight around so freely in another country. “Are you really going to allow this, Shadow Magistrate and Thirty-Second Princess Ellena?” He said after it became clear I wasn’t going anywhere.

“There is not a single thing I can do, Investigator Mreklyn.”

“Is that official policy?” His voice practically dripping with menace.

“Threats now?” She tutted, leaning on her spear insouciantly. “I am disinherited, as you well know. I speak for the Shadow Magistrate’s office and myself, neither of which have the least thing to do with the treaty between our countries. More than that, these two are not citizens of this country and in fact are dignitaries of their own, in possession of the same political protections with which I have been graced. That you may take as official, you overly self-important blowhard.” I was in small danger of losing concentration laughing at that. The princess was proving herself more and more my kind of person. I hoped to find an excuse to keep in touch, as she really was a gem.

“Mia doesn’t know why,” she said, of a sudden. I flicked a look at her, waiting on a verdict of some kind, but she was lost in her own thoughts and was simply staring off into space. “But he’s been following us around since we left the lord’s house,” she finished with a little frown. I was a little alarmed, as that fact had escaped me. I dug through my memory and recalled noting a beastman a few times, simply because they were rare in town, but hadn’t connected that it was the same one. Mia was impressing me more and more!

“Sister,” she said, finally focusing on me. “Did Mia hear that he wanted to ask questions?”

“Yes,” I said, my uncooperative voice coming out as a particularly hideous croak. Mia frowned harder at that, then hummed a bit and walked closer, her weight causing slight tremors as she came.

“You won’t attack us, will you mister?” Mia asked as she squatted down next to the man, her dark skin and sheer size eclipsing all the light from the tavern’s lanterns. It was so unintentionally threatening and condescending, I was actually impressed. I also made a note to teach her to be aware of things like that, because a quick glance showed how little fond the investigator was of being treated that way.

“I ought to,” he began, and I tightened my grip. “But unlike the princess there, I do represent the policies of my country. I need to know about the Invader that disappeared in this region. You tell me about that, and that’ll be the end of it.” Mia and I shared a look at the mention of the Invader. It was an unhappy memory for the girl, even if it had started our adventures together, and I saw no reason to dig that up for all to hear. It also brought to mind what had triggered this whole scene. I’d used my Skill to channel our Patron, and something about that had caught the man’s attention. It wasn’t his attention alone, though, as I recalled that he’d had a device of some sort.

I activated my spell-sight for a moment and found something strange and magically dense in one pocket. It far more complex than I had the understanding to read, but he’d mentioned a magical signature. Perhaps it was a device that could do something akin to what my spell-sight gave me. That thought, in conjunction with talk of the Invader and its relation to us and our Patron, made me think that entertaining him for too long might risk us being dragged into things that had nothing to do with our grand adventure. It wasn’t my call, but I hoped Mia would show him the door sooner rather than later.

Mia nodded to me and I let him go, stepping back to find the princess offering my weapon back, which I took and put away with a little thrill. I could do with people that thoughtful in my life. The dwarf girl also crowded in close, looking like she had something to say, but when I made a shushing motion at her she immediately backed down. I’m sure she thought she had something important to add, but I didn’t want to be distracted just then.

The man took his time picking nonexistent lint off his clothes and smoothing down his ruffled fur as he stood again, clearly favoring the foot I’d mashed. It was such a ridiculous and cliched bit of theater that I really wanted to pick on him more, but now it was Mia’s show, so I would only move to back her up. Mia mulled things over with a furrowed brow and her eyes cast down, not even noticing the play the beastfolk man was putting on. Everyone else was waiting too, each surely for their own reasons, but I appreciated it for Mia’s sake.

“The Invader came, attacked us, and then we killed it,” she said with an air of finality. It was honestly useless as a summation, but it wasn’t wrong. The lie ball I’d left out demonstrated that much, and I didn’t miss the way the man’s eyes darted to it. The thing must be a standard model, the way everyone seemed to immediately know what it was.

“That’s hardly enough, girl. First I need to know—”

“Mia doesn’t have anything else to say about that,” and so saying she turned away. I was rather impressed that she was being so self-assured, but the man was also quite right. The Invader had been the single most powerful thing I’d seen since coming to the world. Outside of our Patron anyway, and it was our Patron who had ultimately killed whatever it had been. It was things like that which made me so disappointed in the monsters I’d met so far, but it was also exactly what kept my ego in check. There was always a bigger fish.

The Invaders were apparently a known but fairly rare thing, as I’d overheard people mention them on occasion rare occasion. They were described as virtually unstoppable flying creatures of malice and whimsy, that sometimes dropped in to just take whatever caught their eye before leaving again. From what I’d heard, they were escapees of some far-off war, hunted by groups that were summoned just for that purpose. I knew little more than that, though I suddenly suspected the Mystic State might be that far-off place where the war happened or were at least involved in it somehow.

Between how rare the creatures were supposed to be and having access to someone who could kill them easily, I didn’t much care. There would always be threats I could do nothing about until they appeared, and I would rather have just left it at that. The situation at hand was demanding that I couldn’t just leave well enough alone, but unfortunately for the Investigator there just wasn’t much I could add to Mia’s description even if I wanted to. All I really remembered was being chased for a long time as the thing shouted about how it wanted what I was made from, which at the time was pretty creepy but now I just thought it was rather funny.

I hadn’t gotten a good look at it until after it had been dealt with, but to the best of my limited detective and forensic abilities it just seemed like it might have been a person in very gaudy armor. The skin tone was an unholy pink however, and there were also various things like scales or horns that could have been natural, but could just as easily have been grafted on for aesthetic purposes. It had been difficult to tell, given the state the body was in after Patron had backhanded it across the face so hard part of the mountaintop caldera’s walls had collapsed. We’d certainly won, but everyone’s eardrums had been completely blown out after that. It was the kind of overkill that was to be expected of that ridiculous idiot.

Given all that, I was not remotely surprised that someone tasked by their nation to investigate the incident wanted more details. But if that’s all Mia wanted to say on the matter then I wasn’t going to elaborate for her. He’d have to be satisfied, because that’s all he was going to get. I interposed myself between the two and went perfectly still in a way I knew would be unsettling to a veteran fighter, since it wasn’t something a living being could do. He opted not to make an issue of it, at least immediately or physically, but he didn’t seem to have it in him to let anyone else have the last word.

“I’ve still got a job to do, girl, those demons are just too dangerous to allow even the slightest leeway. You say there was an Invader, you personally saw it, and that it’s dead. Can you confirm that much?” Mia didn’t want to say anything, her back was still turned. It was a little bit pouty and sulky for a hero, something I’d need to address with her later, but I could at least confirm it for him so he’d go away.

“Yes. Decapitated,” I said. For a moment he kept staring after Mia and I thought he was going to just ignore me, but he tugged his coat into order and sniffed.

“Even demons can’t survive that. Very well, I’ll be reporting back. I cannot guarantee that my superiors will be satisfied – I’m certainly not – but I can see I’m not in a position to press the issue, so.” With that he gave a stiff little bow to the princess and sauntered out while trying to hide his limp. I was impressed that his foot hadn’t simply turned into grease; I hadn’t exactly been gentle.

“Mea!” Anise hissed at me. “What was all that? That was really bad! Did you forget those investigators can just haul people away and press them into defending the walls? I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting demons in some far-away place! Why did you do that?” I was learning all kinds of things today that, in retrospect, I probably should’ve investigated far sooner. Like the broader political situation and the basic topography of power. It was something that shouldn’t have an impact on two adventurers out and about in the world, but we weren’t just adventurers. It was something I didn’t think about much, but no one else would be so disinterested in our status, and the princess had already let it slip.

“They can invoke that article of our treaty in some circumstances, young lady,” the princess said when I’d been silent too long. “But putting aside their need to justify and account for doing so, not only is there no such treaty with the sirol people, but furthermore there is simply no chance that they could press these two into service. They do not have the diplomatic leverage to even attempt it.”

“That’s right!” The dwarf girl said quietly but emphatically.

“Y-your highness? Why n-not?” Anise sputtered, clearly not prepared to talk to a princess. Which was tough, because a small fact I’d neglected to tell her about had apparently come due. But I wasn’t about to let some princess steal the limelight, and neither was Mia, who got to it before I could.

“Mia doesn’t know too much about diplomacy, but Mia’s daddy is our representative and leader. Even though we don’t have kings like here, that makes Mia special too.” I cast her a look, because it was a more complex expression than I tended to expect out of her.

Ever since the incident with the lord she’d been more, well, more. More heroic, more thoughtful, more articulate. Certainly less childish. It was a good change, but it was strange too. It called into question some very basic assumptions I’d been making about how these elves matured, and how alien they might actually be. I didn’t think her prior child-like nature had been feigned, but it was possible that something like sudden-onset adulthood might be possible. Or maybe the body she was in was having some really strange effects.

“No, hold on, wait...” Anise trailed off, face slowly tightening with some combination of horror and terror. “Are you saying you’re a princess Mia? And Mea too then?”

“No,” I said, in perfect sync with the tiny dwarf girl, who inserted herself into the conversation for some reason.

“Miss Mea is no mere princess,” she continued. “Miss Mea is the very progeny of a god! The great God of the Mountain.” I couldn’t help my audible groan. Was that how that colossal idiot was characterizing our relationship? It wasn’t exactly wrong, but it certainly wasn’t right! It was just true enough that I couldn’t say anything about it if I didn’t want to tell a story I had no intention of ever revealing to anyone – or anyone other than Mia anyway – or just flat lying. Which I might’ve done had the ball not still been sitting on the table, waiting to expose any such thing, and I didn’t trust my voice enough to play semantic games. Plus I was certain, terribly certain, that the dwarf girl wasn’t going to take my refusals seriously.

“What?” Anise said, clutching her hair so hard I hoped it wouldn’t pull out. “What?” She repeated, weaker than before. “I’m... I’m sorry?” She finally said, staring at me with something like horror and evidently at her wit’s end.

Poor thing. I knew what she was apologizing for, and I certainly understood why she would feel like she needed to. I didn’t care about a difference in status, and I knew Mia didn’t either, but that wasn’t going to matter. At least, not immediately enough to impact how she was feeling, and I just wasn’t really interested in dealing with that. Calming her down, disabusing her of various notions, being sincere — nah. Maybe later, if she came by as she often did late at night to talk. The elf man was still standing near us for some reason, muttering about something, but I just ignored him.

“Nise?” Mia said, bending down to talk. Anise flinched away, which seemed to hurt my golden girl a bit.

I decided, after a moment of thought, that it was a good thing. Mia needed to learn how to deal with emotionally fraught situations, and what better time or place? We were safe, the situation was settled, and I was certain Anise would forgive us both in time, so I decided to get out of their way.

I had a bunch of things I needed to visit the guild’s resource room for that I’d been putting off anyway, so I made myself scarce. I checked to be sure everyone’s attention was firmly elsewhere before ducking out into the deepening night. The warmth and chatter of the inn faded behind me, and I wondered if what I was really doing was just running away from an awkward situation. But no, that was impossible. It was definitely for Mia’s growth as a hero.