Having satisfied their curiosity… along with their tenacity, the group returned to the inn. During which I managed to get a needle and thread from Numen, boiling some water for sanitation was pleasingly simple enough. The innkeeper was a boisterous fellow with a somewhat portly build and a jovial smile.

He ushered me into his kitchen, passing me some boiling hot water that I dipped the thread and needle in. Their soap hurt my wound, but it was imperative that it was clean when I stitched it up. I threaded the needle in my room, candlelight making it harder than it needed to be. Sewing it up was a fairly simple endeavour, only made difficult by the fact that the needle was straight. I didn’t attempt to bend it, it wasn’t my needle after all.

I gritted my teeth, pushing the needle through the wound again. It was good that I wouldn’t need any special stitches for my wounds, a continuous stitch would probably work for it in this case. Damn if it didn’t hurt, but I’d been through far worse than this before.

Once done I left a length of thread leading out from the wound, it would help the pus or whatever liquids within leak out, much the same as a method used for boils on the foot. I had had a lot of time to consider how to treat new wounds, and no lack of imagination for the kinds of wounds I could get. The corpses from the cave in Oroc’s world provided plenty of inspiration.

That of course, didn’t mean they were methods that were correct, and often while discussing them with others I’d realize that there was something fundamentally wrong with my approach. I smiled to myself, going down to clean the needle and dry it. “Thank you.” I said to Numen, walking over to pass the needle to her. “Would you mind explaining what a Sensitive is?” I asked, lying on the bed as I extinguished the candle.

“A Sensitive can sense magic, see the aether that permeates our surroundings and the elements that are drawn to produce physical effects.” Numen said, a rustling sound coming from where she lay. “Mages like Qent can use magic, refine aether into an element and utilize it for the effects, but they can only feel the magic that they use, and not that of others.”

“I take it that Sensitives are very rare?” I asked, eyes fixed on the ceiling as it resolved itself from the gloom. I Delved again, as always, the plane was a murky soup, aether floating about as flashes of colour came, the aether dispersing and reforming of disparate energies. Multicoloured lights were visible, each a sign of a person who slept in one of the many rooms within this inn.

Unless I missed my guess, their magic was tied to their souls, each element vividly swirling, somehow never engaging their opposites. A unique form of what assumed was aether, mercurial and seemingly illuminated, suspended the elements, forming an intricate, almost sublime structure. Their souls are things of beauty. I thought to myself, as Numen replied.

“They are, because a long time before recorded history, they were hunted.” Numen said. “Sensitives can see souls, tell people apart easily by their ‘shape’, and read personalities like a book.” There was a pause. “Because of this they were feared, or exploited, whatever Sensitives we have now are their descendants, and not all their descendants were Sensitives.”

So we have a gene for magic ability, and a gene for the perception of magic. I mused. Interesting. I took it then that Qent wasn’t a Sensitive, lucky for me then, who had no soul to see. I stopped Delving, allowing the darkness to swallow the lights once more. “I see.” I replied, wondering for a moment if they saw the plane the same way I did.

“I have something to ask you.” Numen remarked. My eyes flicked to where she lay, a humanoid shadow against the wall. “Where did you come from originally?” She asked, turning over to prop herself up upon her elbows. “You speak this language fluently, but you’re definitely not a local, and I’ve never heard of someone like you before. That armour is too distinct for you to have no history.”

I was silent for a while, mulling it over. “I can’t tell you that.” I sighed. “Suffice to say that I’m a long way from home and hoping one day I’ll be able to return to it.”

We didn’t speak after that, and I went to sleep, too tired to care for her reaction.

The next day I was introduced to the one who was to take my place. He introduced himself as Baen, I recognized him, strangely enough. It was the same man who had nearly been in hysterics during the gnoll assault. From the look on his face it seemed he recognized me as well.

“Uh, good morning sir.” He said, swallowing as he tried an awkward salute. I arched an eyebrow, and he fumbled some more. I turned to Wen, who’s face carried a small hint of shock. Catching my eye, he said nothing, but turned to walk back into the inn, his voice, raised yet indistinct, sounded from the stairwell.

“I, uh, look forward to working with you.” He said, wilting a little under my gaze. Huh, what do you think, Page? I thought, considering his fairly stocky frame and sagging, hunched shoulders.

[I believe we should give him a chance either way, if he measures up it’ll be a valuable lesson in judgement and if he fails we stay in Soren.] Page replied, giving a mental shrug.

The man was dressed in the same armour he wore then, leather lamellar armour along with greaves and gauntlets from the same material. He had a quiver of arrows slung at his hip, while a sword and buckler hung on the other side. I saw Frejr and the others off, they had told me that their first objective was to find the gnoll tribes that had pooled together the warriors we’d found. They didn’t tell me what they intended to do when they did find them, though I would be surprised if it involved diplomacy after what we had seen done.

Lapi eyed Baen with some scepticism, I’d told her what he was here to do. His indecision and lack of confidence showed easily, I doubt Lapi even needed to smell the doubts that circled his skull. We made our way back to Soren from here, our path more direct than the circuitous route I’d taken to reach Torven. Lapi was our main guide, neither Baen or I having travelled this way before.

“Kael, it’s good to see you again.” Gornath called out, waving as he continued his patrol, when I reached the mess area Teb came out to greet me. He shook my hand and invited us in, where Elli prepared some beer for us.

“Welcome back, I take it the gnolls were broken?” He said, a smile on his face. “Having you again for dinner will be a pleasure indeed.”

I smiled wanly, detailing my experiences with the gnoll hordes, and the actions that they had taken in this ‘war’. He listened intently, his smile slowly fading as I spoke of the mass graves I had found. I didn’t go into detail, having the presence of mind to realize that such memories shouldn’t be inflicted onto them. Their smiles returned as I spoke of finding Kayio and Gen, and the celebration that we had been a part of.

“Baen here has decided to be my replacement, I’ll watch him for three weeks, and if he isn’t suitable I’ll stay on here instead.” I explained, Teb rubbing his chin as he considered the youth. “We’ll have to start tomorrow, as I doubt we’ll be of much use to you today besides as guards.”

Elli nodded, giving Baen an encouraging smile, which he returned with a nervous fidgety nod. I thanked Elli and Teb for the hospitality, but left to help out with the perimeter and daily duties. Baen followed me, watching as I conferred with Lanth, who told me of a possible goblin infestation somewhere to the northern forests. He’d apparently received a missive from Hrothan, asking for my aid in the situation. I turned to look at Baen, passing him the missive once I’d read it.

“Uh, are you sure you want me to be the one to do this?” He blanched, but then nodded to himself vigorously. “You’re right, I’m supposed to replace you here, um, that means I need to be able to deal with everything. I’ll get ready.”

I nodded. “We’re not going today, probably tomorrow, we need a little reconnaissance on the area before we do anything as well.” I didn’t take on the goblins on my own though. I thought to myself. If we are to do this we’ll need to be very careful.

It didn’t seem as if we had any ogres to deal with, nor spectres, though a few slime problems had cropped up again. The bestiary recommended that we do a perimeter sweep, cautioning us from becoming passive and complacent. It noted that being a reactive force was only useful if one was able to afford waiting for their opponents, and that for light mobile members, it was imperative that we identify them before they snuffed us.

Baen looked over my shoulder at the missives. “That’s a lot of people asking for us.” He observed, and I nodded, frowning. Looks like I’d need to change my plans, forgoing helping out the perimeter and the daily duties. We’d have to perform reconnaissance right now.

“Let’s prepare to leave.” I said. “The goblin group needs to be dealt with either today or early tomorrow, after that we need to head to Haen and then Hrothan.” I said, sighing.

Baen found the goblins easily enough, he was quite the skilled tracker, quickly pointing out tracks and traps before I had scarcely begun to search for them. His timid manner though, persisted, which irritated me. We found their encampment above ground, seems like they hadn’t found the nearby caves, Baen and I watched from the treetops, while Lapi waited within the shadows of trees.

It wasn’t a very large group, perhaps about ten strong, even so, it presented a conundrum. They were in open space, if we wanted to end them we would need to find a way to prevent them from running away, otherwise they’d come back, and perhaps be a lot smarter about it. I clicked my tongue, and Baen seemed deep in thought.

“Mages seem to have things a lot easier.” I said with a wry smile. “Spray it with fire, problem solved.” Baen smiled slightly, almost giving a small chuckle.

“We could wait.” Baen said, his finger gently caressing his wrist. “Something’s bound to take some interest in a group that large.” I frowned, it could work, but we’d need to be eternally vigilant to pull off something like that, considering that such creatures were unpredictable in movement.

Lapi looked up, cocking her head at our conversation, she sniffed the air, then took off. I blinked as I watched her, and a horrible realization struck. “Stay here, prepare for your distraction.” He looked at me bewildered, carefully moving to string his shortbow.

I slid down the tree, putting the tree between me and the goblin camp, and broke into a sprint. I Delved occasionally for a second at a time, following the light that I could identify to be Lapi’s soul. I stopped in my tracks as my next Delve showed me the creature’s soul.

“Oh damn.” I said, the soul that had emerged from the aether mist was massive, as large as that of a chimaera’s, I turned and began to run, as a huge rippling roar came from behind me. “Lapi you crazy b-.” I swallowed the word as thundering footsteps echoed behind me. A crack sounded as a tree splintered, and Lapi pulled up alongside me, panting as she ran towards the goblin encampment.