The party of four walked down the road.

In the lead was Rodrick Smith, a trained ranger who’s eyes were alert for any danger.

Next was Spaerekel Green. As usual, the wizard had his eyes glued to a book; the man never stopped reading.

Third was Danithseil Deeproot, the group’s elven chronicaller. His fingers idly strummed his stringed instrument, unleashing just enough of his power to enable the group to move faster and more easily than they could otherwise.

Taking up the rear was Samuel. The draconid warrior was relaxing in between lead shifts.

All of a sudden, Rod threw his fist up, silently signaling the party to stop. Dani had to grab the back of Spaerekel’s shirt to keep the man from running into Rod, but it was such a usual occurrence that the elf didn’t even have to think about it.

The reason for the stop became quickly obvious as a dozen poorly hidden individuals stumbled out of the brush.

“Halt! Give, -*gulp*- give us all your valuables! Or-or we’ll hurt you.” The young bandit’s voice quavered.

The party shared a look between themselves that said, ‘really?’, then started laughing. Even the serious Samuel joined in.

“Go home, we don’t want to hurt you!” Sam advised the bandits.

The would-be bandits were unsure and wary: one didn’t expect people getting robbed to laugh about it. After thirty seconds of nervous indecision, one of the older bandits took charge.

“Alright lady, I don’t know what’s so funny, but you better give us the goods. Or Else.” He threatened.

After a moment Sam replied:

“Oh, you are talking to me? I’m no lady.”

“Then what are you?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m the annoyed draconid that’s about to kick your ass if you don’t get out of our way.”

“No, I mean what’s in your pants?!” The man fumed.

Samuel’s slight smile widened into a wicked grin.

“Guys? This one is mine. That means you, Sparky.” Samuel stressed to their companions.

“Why don’t I show you?” Sam purred evilly to the bandit in their sights.

After that it only took a tiny hand signal from Samuel for the party to spring into action. Spaerekel opened by loosing a ball of lightning that chained between six of the targets. Dani hummed softly and strummed her instrument, eliciting a pleasantly harsh power-chord. A wall of sound hurled three of the bandits back into the brush. Rodrick’s hands were a blur across his bow, piercing two of the bandits with multiple arrows.

Which only left Sam and their target. The draconid effortlessly deflected the bandit’s crossbow bolt while slowly advancing on him. Then they answered the question of “what’s in Samuel’s pants?”:

Knives. Lots, and lots of knives.

“Hahahahahahah!”

Hahahahahahahahaahahahahahahah!

“Hehehehehehe!”

The trio roared with laughter. While, Gem and Dani did, anyway. Abigail was, as expected of a book, silent; save for the tendrils that she slapped onto the table.

Ok, I really like Samuel now. Such an NB power-move.

“N-B?” Gem finally asked after she stopped laughing.

Non-Binary. It refers to a person who does not identify with the gender binary, that being male and female.

“Neat.” Gem replied. “So what happened to them after that?”

“Not much. Aside from Samuel and Rodrick’s targets, none of them had any serious injuries. A quick healing spell from me was enough to restore the three that were injured to suitable health. We just left them there, as we didn’t really have the time to take them into custody; not for the pitiful bounty it would net us anyway. Several of the young ones actually ended up leaving the criminal life behind as a result, so all around it was a good result.”

“That’s good.” Gem acknowledged with relief.

After Gem had eaten the previous night, Dani took her to a private washroom with a large, magically augmented tub. Abigail had taken the opportunity to introduce herself to the elven man, and had chatted with him while Gem cleaned herself. With Abigail able to peek through the wall with her Aether-sense, she made sure that Gem didn’t break down too badly while she was alone.

After the bath, Gem went to bed wearing some spare nightclothes that Dani kept around for just such a purpose. Dani had chatted with Abigail for a little while before turning in for the night himself. Abigail herself had used her lack of need for sleep to keep watch and review some more of the texts stored within herself.

Then, once they were all awake and had eaten breakfast, Dani had decided to regale Gem and Abigail with tales from when he and the other members of his party had worked together. Ultimately they were just passing the time until Dani’s favorite tailor opened.

“I’d love to hear you play sometime.” Gem requested.

Dani’s face took on a troubled expression.

“I-I wish that I could. But it’s been many years since I’ve had the ability to play.” He morosed.

He held his left hand up for Gem to see and traced over the nearly invisible scars on the surface.

“The healers say I was lucky not to lose the hand, but the damage to my tendons is beyond any existing healing, at least anything I have access to.”

A moment of silence passed.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.” Gem apologized softly.

“Hey. I’m alright. I’ve made peace with my limits. We all have. It’s why we stopped doing jobs and decided to settle down.”

Would you be willing to tell me some specifics about your injuries? If I know what I’m looking for I might be able to find something that can help in my pages. And even if I can’t find anything yet, I’m always on the lookout for more knowledge to consume.

“Hmmmm. Alright.” Dani paused to determine how to explain. “My hand was badly mangled in an ambush. They needed me. Spaerekel is a fine wizard, but his aptitude for the healing arts was bad enough as it was, and he was busy holding off our foes. I couldn’t use my instrument to channel my power, so I sang. The problem with that is while Elven magic is channeled by singing, I am a son of one of the most powerful Elven bloodlines and the son of one of the strongest dryads in the world. To call my aura overwhelming would be to do it a disservice. And that power went wild and caused a condition the healers called overhealing. I didn’t even know such a thing was possible back then.”

Abigail’s surface flickered as dozens of pages flew across it. Eventually she found what she was looking for: a section from an advanced guide on magical maladies.

Overheal is a common side-effect of the strongest healing magics. In all but a few cases, the effects cause no issues. In those where issues arise, issues can range from mild inconvenience to fatal deformities. Even worse is that attempting to correct overhealing with more healing results in the issues becoming more severe. Some cases of overheal will resolve on their own, but the majority are permanent.

The mechanics of overhealing is due to uncontrolled healing-attuned Aether seeking to fulfil its purpose and incorrectly healing things that don’t require healing. The most common manifestation is an excess of connective tissue, but other issues such as tetromas and even entire extra limbs have been reported.

Treatment is complicated by the restrictions on using healing magic. Surgery is successful in some cases, but few healers are capable of performing such operations without the use of their magic. Some cases have seen success with using seals ([Abigail’s note: Those are basically beneficial curses.]) to restrict the efficacy of healing magic on the affected parts of the body. This treatment tends to fail after some time, with an inverse correlation between time to failure and the aura strength of the patient. Seals powerful enough to maintain a hold even on the most powerful of auras should only be used on life-threatening cases, due to the significant side-effects of such seals.

Yeah, overheal is pretty nasty. I assume you’ve already tried everything on the list?

Dani nodded.

Thought so. I do have a couple of candidates for spells that might work, but all of them are waaaay beyond anything Gem and I can do right now. I’ll keep looking, but I doubt I’ll find anything easier than I already have.

“Thank you Abigail. This means a lot to me.” Dani affirmed.

“Can I read that book sometime Abigail?” Gem asked.

Sure. It’s pretty dry though, it’s just a guide to rare conditions and how one might treat them.

“Say Gem? Would you be willing to tell me a bit about yourself?” Dani asked.

“Ummm. Maybe later?” Gem squeaked.

“That’s quite alright darling. What about you Abigail? How did you come to be what you are now? And why choose Gem?”

Sure. Why not?

First though, a question. Are you familiar with the concept of reincarnators?

“I am unsure. I am aware of the idea of reincarnation, but I’m not really clear on what the definition of a ‘reincarnator’ is in this instance.” Dani puzzled.

A reincarnator is someone who’s soul has gained the ability to weather the Flow, enabling their memories and knowledge to persist between death and rebirth.

The Flow is that which processes souls for rebirth. It is not well understood, as the odds of someone remembering their time in the flow are on the order of trillions to one. I actually do remember my time in the Flow, and can confirm most of the observations in the tomes I have access to.

In my case, I was nearing the point where my soul would have unraveled when something happened to the Flow that knocked me clear. I don’t remember what exactly happened, but it actually made the Flow angry. Something that, according to my sources, is considered impossible.

After falling through the cracks my soul was left malleable and joined with the thing I loved most in my previous life: books. And thus I was a magical book. The Comprehensive Basics of Aetherial Manipulation, 4th edition; to be precise.

Using the information contained within myself, I was able to become strong enough to survive the fires that destroyed the library I called home. Some time -years or decades if I had to guess- passed before I was found by a man named Renault Vicks. He was able to turn me into a grimoire. He wasn’t my welder for very long. His workshop came under siege by the Order of Shadow and he sacrificed himself to keep me from their clutches. He fed me all the books he had.

After that I was stuck in limbo, waiting for someone who matched the criteria of the sanctuary spell.

That someone turned out to be you, Gem.

“I don’t understand, why me?”

Well there are three conditions: my potential wielder must have the means to wield me, be in need of my abilities, and have a compatible temperament. I can’t think of a need greater than being hunted by slavers. You have a naturally strong aura, and, based on its refinement, I’d say you have more than a passing interest in the arcane. That leaves temperament. You aren’t planning on breaking the bond, now that you are safe, are you?

“Of course not! You’re weird. Really weird, but in a good way? I thought we were becoming friends.” Gem replied.

Well there you go! Compatible temperament. And I am your friend. We may not have had a lot of time to chat yet, but we’ve been running flat out to keep you from death or enslavement for the past two days. Now though? We will have plenty of time.

“Thanks Abigail.” Gem sniffed. “Between these,” Gem gestured to her horns, “and my interest in magic, no one really wanted to be my friends. I only really had my mom, and now…”

Tears began to roll down Gem’s cheeks. Dani quickly moved to pull Gem into a sideways hug and rubbed her back.

“I’m here for you Darling. It’s alright, just let it out.”

After several minutes Gem calmed down enough that Dani felt comfortable talking to her again.

“Hey, I’m going to tell you two of the most important things I learned as a bounty hunter. First: it is okay, to not be okay. And second: don’t forget the people who have your back and your front. Samuel, Rodrick, Spaerekel, and I are all here for you. Just say the word.”

Gem smiled slightly as she wiped tears and snot from her face.

“Rodrick offered to teach me how to fight.”

“You must have impressed him. He hasn’t taken a student in over two decades, and for him to offer after only a couple of hours of meeting you...”

“But I’m not that special.” Gem protested.

Bull. Shit. You are special: you are you. And I don’t think Rodrick cares about your current ability or lack thereof; I think he cares about will and potential. Things you have in spades. I may be inexperienced in such matters, but I still have top-tier aura sense, and I can tell you: you have incredible potential. My only question is this:

What are you going to do with it?

“Thanks Abigail.” Gem closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“As for what I’m going to do now, I’m going to take up Rodrick’s offer, I’m going to learn everything you and Sparky can teach me, and I’m going to be the most badass battle-mage of the era.” Gem declared with steel in her spine and fire in her eyes.

Just then, Dani’s pocketwatch began to chime.

“Oh, Valerie’s is open!” Dani chirped.

“What?” Gem wondered, for she had temporarily forgotten that they were supposed to go clothes shopping.

“I am certain that Valerie would be thrilled to make you proper armor. Her prices mean that she doesn’t get very many orders for custom armor. It’s a shame really, there’s no reason one’s armor can’t be both functional and attractive at the same time.”

Dani donned the jacket of his brown four-piece suit and swept up his hat and cane to complete his dashing look. He waited for Gem to don Sam’s oversized cloak, then offered his arm to her.

“Well m’lady, shall we go?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

And so the trio set off on the perilous journey of morning greetings and all-to-curious children.

An elf in a dashing suit, a demoness in nightclothes and an oversized cloak, and a large black book; cradled in the demoness's arm.

It was to be an interesting morning in Kilnar, that was for certain.