Days passed more or less peacefully as the group traveled north through the Emerald Plains. Veldin and Aliana often bickered over small things and Misha found herself periodically needing to settle meaningless arguments, but she was enjoying the travel. It amazed her to see the green swathes of land stretching on as far as the eye could see when, for all of her life until now, her vision of the world had been limited to the forest’s walls of trees. Emerald’s presence was altogether its own experience as well, even before getting to see her up close. At a distance with her gigantic shape on the horizon, Misha had found perhaps the most striking detail to be her branching antlers in the sky.

And now, after all of this travel, something new had appeared on the horizon and finally drew close. The city of Indervel. Towering stone walls circled the city as a first line of defense, standing taller than any structure Misha had ever seen before. And still yet, some of the buildings themselves stood taller, their stone and wood visages becoming ever clearer. Misha wondered what awaited beyond those walls.

She was brought ought of her state of awe at the sound of something hitting the ground behind her.

“Veldin?!” Aliana shouted in a mixture of shock and concern. Misha turned to look behind her. Veldin had collapsed face-first to the ground, seemingly unconscious.

Misha ran to his side, Grey padding along behind her. “Veldin,” Misha said, gently pressing a hand to the back of his neck and noting an intense heat from his skin. “Veldin, can you hear me?”

“How bad is it?” Aliana asked, leaning down to get a closer look. Veldin’s breathing was heavy and labored.

“His temperature’s quite high. I doubt he’ll be going far even if we can get him awake.” Misha thought, her attention drawn to Grey. “Can you carry him? We need to get him somewhere safe to rest.”

Grey let out an indignant whine but stood next to Veldin and lowered himself to the ground.

Misha moved to carefully grabbed Veldin’s shoulder, trying to get a better look at him to confirm he even should be moved at the moment, when he stirred enough to mumble out the words, “What did you ask the wolf?”

As Veldin moved slowly pushing himself up off the ground, trembling with the movement, Misha gripped his arm to help steady him. “Careful. You collapsed; you shouldn’t move very much.”

“I’m… I’m fine, Misha,” Veldin said. His voice sounded hoarse and anything but fine even as he managed to force himself up onto his knees.

Aliana crossed her arms, sharing Misha’s own disapproval. “Honestly, do you think you’re fooling anyone? The fact that’s you’ve been walking this far is already a miracle.”

Veldin looked back up at Aliana, and Misha expected him to argue back. Instead, however, his stubbornness faltered for once. “I… If we can make it into the city, then we can… We can stop to rest. But we are almost there. Please.”

Aliana and Misha looked at each other. Misha could feel the hesitation in Aliana’s expression. But, if they could reach the city, it would probably be for the best to get Veldin a proper bed and a doctor. “Fine,” Misha said. “But let Grey carry you.”

Veldin eyed the wolf with a wary expression, a sentiment that Grey seemed to return. Veldin sighed. “If it’s necessary...”

Passing through the gate of the city proved mercifully uneventful. Strange as their group may have looked in somewhere as small as Misha’s home village, a place such as this was… colorful, to say the least. The buildings were packed close together and held the noises of businesses and chatter inside. The cobblestone roads crisscrossed over each other and were full of people and carriages. It was Misha’s understanding that Indervel stood between a number of different regions, from the Emerald Plains, the mountains to the north, and even more cities to the west that she knew nothing about, making it a major hub for all manner of people traveling from one place to another. And that was apparent in the crowds of people who were just as varied as the sizes of the buildings.

Harpies here and there, countless humans of course but of various visible heritages, some with strange colorations or patches of fur, feathers, or scales. Burly scaled humanoids with reptilian faces made their way through the crowds with ease. Misha understood them to be known as ‘drakkin.’ More than once, she also spotted someone with legs like those of a spider’s extending from their waist, though she had no clue what such a person was called. In comparison, a mousefolk and a pair of humans did not stand out at all, though Grey’s presence drew some more attention and Misha noticed a number of people steering clear of him.

More than a few times, Misha found herself so distracted by the sights and sounds of the city that she was pulled back to Aliana’s side to keep from inadvertently wandering off. Between that and the first couple of times Misha almost found herself underfoot some significantly taller individual, she eventually climbed up onto Grey’s broad shoulders in front of Veldin.

“You don’t mind, do you?” Misha asked, and Grey responded with an exhale of breath and a twitch of his ears. Misha chose to interpret that as acceptance and said, “There are other mousefolk living here, aren’t there? How do they get around when everyone here is so… tall?”

“Likely with more practice than you,” Veldin said. He’d spent most of his time on the wolf’s back struggling to keep his balance, though he at least looked to have regained something akin to energy after the break from walking.

“Do you come here often from Lady Elcevier’s home?”

“Not often, but enough to know how to avoid being trampled.”

“I couldn’t imagine ever getting used to that…”

It was a welcome reprieve from the bustling activity of the city when the group reached an inn and retired to the rooms they rented. The man in charge of the establishment had had given some resistance to allowing Grey inside, but ultimately had taken little convincing to look the other way. Misha wondered if it was because stranger requests had been made of the innkeep before, or if he simply did not want to say no to a large carnivorous animal. Once the rooms were paid for–something Misha left to Aliana given that the mousefolk of the Orchard Forest had never used any form of currency–Misha supervised Veldin to ensure that he actually crawled into a bed.

“Stay here for a while, Aliana and I will fetch a doctor for you,” Misha said. She sat on Grey’s shoulders next to the bed to be eye-level with Veldin.

“I do not need a doctor, Misha, I am fine,” Veldin insisted, not for the first time.

Misha crossed her arms, having none of this nonsense. “You may have gotten away with bed rest alone if you hadn’t passed out. You’re the one that’s been saying we need to move quickly, so you should have proper treatment to recover faster.”

Veldin sighed, hand pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation and, Misha hoped, reluctant acceptance. After a pause, he said, “A doctor will not be able to do anything.”

“What?”

“If you want to help…” He reached a hand out towards his coat which lay haphazardly at the foot of the bed, given he had not had the energy to hang it up properly. He made a short albeit listless hand movement and muttered the arcane words that caused the coat to levitate from its resting place to his hand instead. Veldin searched through the pockets, producing first a small drawstring bag which he placed on the nightstand beside the bed. Next was a small hand-sized journal and a piece of charcoal which he used to begin scribbling something on one of the pages.

Misha noted a familiar scent from the bag on the table. It was a nostalgic scent that reminded her of her home. “Is this Nera’s tea?”

Veldin’s brow furrowed. “You can smell it from inside the bag?”

Misha nodded.

“And to think you use those foul-scented herbs as a ward…” He ripped out the journal page he had been writing on and folded it in half. He handed it to Misha.

Opening up the folded paper, Misha saw that there were directions written on it as well as a number and what seemed to be the name of a location. She looked at Veldin, head tilting a bit in confusion.

“It’s an address, Misha,” Veldin explained. “Find that boulevard and that building number. Speak to a man by the name of Zel on my behalf, he’ll know what you’re looking for. And I request you leave Aliana out of this. She’s far too nosy to mind her own business.”

Misha gripped the paper. Just what was she being asked to do?

As Misha hesitated, Veldin continued, “This is how I’ve always been, Misha. It’s nothing that a doctor can remedy. They do not have access to the proper medicine. If you want to be of help, you can do this, or we can return to Lady Elcevier. Those are the options.”

What did ‘the proper medicine’ mean? “Veldin, I… Fine. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“That will be all.” Veldin pulled another pouch from a coat pocket, this one producing the clinking of metal coins inside. “Take this, it will be enough.”

Grey watched the entire exchange in silence and, coin pouch in hand, Misha climbed up onto his back once more. “Let’s go, Grey.”

Grey trotted out of the door, back into the hall with his claws clicking on the wooden floorboards. Aliana was just stepping out of another room, and she smiled at the pair as they walked by. “Misha! Our beds are so soft, come feel them!”

“I’m sorry, Aliana, I’ll have to later. Veldin asked me to run an errand.”

“An errand? What sort?”

“Fetching materials, I assume for spells or something of that sort.” Misha hated lying to one of her allies, and she really had no idea if spells actually used physical materials in any cases, but she hoped Aliana would not press it further.

Fortunately, it seemed either the lie was convincing, or Aliana also knew no better as she shrugged and said, “Alright. It’s been a while since I was here, but I should be able to find my way around. I can come along too.”

“Oh… No, that’s alright.” Misha turned her gaze anywhere but at Aliana. “We’ve only just gotten here; you should take the chance to relax.”

“Oh, alright.” Aliana sounded almost disappointed. “Well, try not to get lost. Grey, you keep an eye on her, alright?”

Grey answered with a huff, and after Misha gave a friendly nod to Aliana, the two departed.

Outside, the sky had grown dark and metal lampposts that lined the roads provided light from within. The crowds from earlier in the day had not dispersed completely but had thinned well enough that Misha did not need to fret over being stepped on. She climbed down from her companion’s back, walking alongside him instead as she followed the instructions on the paper.

“You’ll remember where the inn is if we end up lost, right?” Misha asked, only half joking. She hardly trusted herself to keep track of the differences from one building to another and hoped that an animal’s keener sense of direction would help to keep her on track.

As she walked, Misha was beginning to fully digest just how different the city was from what she had seen so far, rather than simply being bombarded by the sights. The harpy tribe’s camp and the Emerald Plains had been one thing, with vast stretches of open land and grassy hills that changed little over days of travel. But there had been nature and plant life. Here in Indervel, there were browns and greys of wood, stone, and metal. Buildings were often made of brick or cobble, and few were surrounded by grass. Gardens and planters of flowers looked to be a decorative treat to the eyes rather than a regular feature, and there was barely a tree in sight. Perhaps another part of the city featured more nature? Just how large was Indervel?

Misha sighed, running a hand over her face and whiskers, almost overwhelmed by the changes. “Is this a lot for you to take in as well?”

Grey made a half-hearted bark, then sniffed at Misha’s ear.

“There’s so much I don’t know about the world, I’m starting to realize,” Misha said. “Aliana’s clearly seen so much more than I have, and can you imagine where Veldin must have come from? Even if he doesn’t remember it, he must have lived in some amazing place I could never imagine. What do you think a school for magic is like? It must be fantastic…”

Her gaze dipped down to the paper in her hands again, then to the ground as she paused in her steps. Grey stopped alongside her as well, staring at her.

“Compared to them, I haven’t seen anything… I’m just a guard. A guard who couldn’t even save her own village.”

Grey whimpered and sat down on the ground next to Misha. A few people who had been about to walk past them abruptly turned to give the large animal a wide berth.

“I just…” Misha shook her head and met Grey’s warm gaze. “I’m sorry. I’m overthinking things, that’s all. Don’t mind me, we’ve got somewhere to be.”

Grey lowered his head and Misha realized he was offering his back.

“No, I’m fine, don’t worry. Thanks, though.”

Eventually, having only taken a few wrong turns, Misha spotted a sign hanging from the first floor of a building. Seeing the words ‘Rosalie Autumn Apothecary and Earthcraft Miscellany’ written out on the sign in elegant script, she announced, “Oh! This is it!”

She stepped up to the door, thankful for the accommodations a number of businesses here seemed to make for people of her stature. Many entrance doors were built quite literally with a second, smaller door installed in them, as did this one. Unfortunately, between Grey being too large to fit through the smaller door, and Misha being too short to reach the doorknob for the larger, she was forced say, “You’ll have to wait out here, I think.”

Grey answered with a discontented groan and sat on the cobble pathway outside the entrance.

“I won’t be long, don’t worry,” Misha said before heading inside.

The building’s interior was cramped, with the door opening into a small room. Shelves crowded most of the walls and took up much of the floor space, each of them full to bursting with what Misha would indeed describe as ‘miscellany.’ Vials, twine, sheets of rolled up parchment, and bundles of dried plants were vaguely sorted into categories. Jars of powders and liquids sat on other shelves, as well as crystals of varying shapes and sizes, candles, incense…

Misha walked across the carpeted floor, fascinated by the collections of items. A mixture of herbal scents attempted to assault her nose, though they were hardly any worse than the warding herb mixture she had long since grown adjusted to.

“Anything I can do for you?”

“Oh!” Misha turned and spotted a tall wooden counter at the other side of the room, the only one wall not covered by shelves. Sitting atop a stool behind the counter was a mousefolk woman with black and white mottled fur. As opposed to the mousefolk of Misha’s village who often wore little clothing save for uniforms or anything that helped their work, this woman wore a puffy green dress and a matching round hat that was adorned with a small red bow. An open book lay on the countertop in front of her, and she looked absolutely bored.

Seeing a fellow mousefolk for the first time in so long brought a bit of comfort to Misha. The woman continued, “Rosalie’s gone home for the night if you were looking for any custom tinctures.”

“Oh, actually...” Misha played with the paper in her hand a bit. “I was told to ask for… Zel?”

“Zel,” the woman said flatly, drumming her fingers against the countertop surface. She made a grumbling sound that seemed to be one of displeasure but climbed down from the stool and stepped out from behind the counter. “Another one for Zel…”

She walked across the room, coming to a stop between two of the shelves that lined the walls. Misha realized there was a door there between those shelves, one that she simply missed at first glance with all the visual noise in here. The other mousefolk knocked on the door and called out, “Zel! Another one for you!”

After a brief silence, the door opened. A tall, thin man with an unkempt mess of black hair atop his head stood in the doorway. Misha would have mistaken him for a human when she looked at his face, but then her attention was drawn to the man’s midsection. From the back of his waist, four limbs like the legs of a spider extended from under his buttoned shirt, which made it odd that he had bothered to tuck in the front of it. The man’s sleeves were rolled up, and Misha spotted several small, faded burns over his forearms.

“Is it important?” the man asked. He leaned with his shoulder against the doorframe, and the polite smile that crossed his lips was undermined by the impatient look in his eyes and tone in his voice. The other mousefolk looked at Misha.

Misha nodded. “Yes, please, a friend of mine is sick.”

The mousefolk looked back at the man. He shrugged, waved a hand and said, “I can spare a bit of time, then. Your friend is sick, so it’s medicine you’re looking for, then?”

“Yes, that’s right. You’re Zel, aren’t you? My friend, Veldin, he asked me to–“

“Veldin,” Zel said, clicking his tongue. “Red hair, pointed fey ears, know-it-all attitude?”

Misha nodded. “Yes, that’s him.”

“Right, right, I remember him…” Zel took a few steps back into the room he’d come from, and Misha peered inside. Where the main room of the shop had been cluttered and cramped, this room was kept almost tidy and organized, if only because there were fewer items to take up space. Two large desks with accompanying chairs sat on opposite sides of the room. Both were covered in bottles and vials along with an assortment of small metal tools Misha did not recognize. Smaller shelves hung from the walls with more powders, crushed leaves, and liquids, each covered in hand-written labels.

Zel opened a drawer in one of the desks, rummaging around through whatever was inside that Misha could not see at her height. He was muttering to himself at first, “I told him it wouldn’t last as long, but… Well, so long as he pays the caldr for it, it’s none of my business.” He then shifted his gaze back to Misha and said, “You do have something to pay for it, yes?”

Misha took the coin purse from her belt pouch and held it out. She still only had a basic understanding of how to count these ‘caldr’ coins as they were called, but if Veldin said it was enough then she would trust that.

In a natural and quick movement, a pair of Zel’s arachnid limbs stretched out with enough length to reach Misha at the doorway and grab the coin purse. Zel then transferred the purse from the spider legs to one hand and haphazardly dumped the coins out onto the desk, counting them up. He nodded, satisfied from what Misha could tell, and then said, “Latalia, be a dear and keep our guest company while I work, won’t you?”

Misha began to take a step forward, hoping to ask what Zel could possibly know about Veldin’s condition, but before she could even get a word out the door was pushed shut by one of the spider limbs.

“O-oh, wait!” Misha said fruitlessly. She sighed and looked at the other mousefolk, presumably Latalia.

“He’s like that,” Latalia said. “Especially at this time of night. It’s close to closing time, he’ll want to get to work quick with no distractions so he can go home.”

“I’m sorry to be a bother, then.”

“Don’t be. I get paid so long as I’m here, Rosalie’s good about that.”

Misha figured that Rosalie must have been the owner, given the shop was named after her. Thinking about the shop name, Misha’s gaze drifted to the items on the shelves, and she asked, “What does ‘earthcraft’ mean, by the way?”

“’Earthcraft’ as in earthcraft magic, that sort of thing. I take it you don’t practice it?”

“No,” Misha said, “but my friend’s an arcanist. Is all of your stock for spells?”

“Yes, but not the arcanist kind of magic,” Latalia corrected. “That’s fey magic. Comes from the fey, all the spells are spoken in Feyish, fey magic.”

“There’s a difference?”

“Mm-hm. Just like how miracles and blessings from the Dragons are different. I’m not really an expert if I’m being honest, but the short of it is that it’s magic drawn from the land itself. It developed a few decades ago from herbalism and has been growing a lot since then. There’s a lot of overlap between it and medicine because of that, so…” Latalia made a wide gestured with outstretched arms as if referring to the shop itself to finish that statement. “We’ve got a few books on the history of it and on basic earthcraft spells if you’re interested.”

Misha was interested. The sort of magic Veldin used seemed daunting to approach, especially with all of this talk of different languages and with what Misha knew of the fey. But the land and herbs were something she knew. “I don’t have any more money on me, I’m afraid,” she said.

“A shame,” Latalia replied. “Well, if you’d like, I could show you a quick good luck charm.”

“Oh! I’d like that, but do you mind?”

Latalia walked back to the counter and climbed back up the stool she’d been seated on earlier to retrieve her book and a few other items kept back there. “It’s not a service we offer so there’s no need for payment. But mostly I’m bored and Zel will probably be a bit longer.”

In the next few moments, Latalia had brought several items down onto the floor between herself and Misha, and both mousefolk were sitting across from each other with a stone mortar and pestle between them. Next to the tools lay what looked to be a necklace made from cotton twine and a small wood-carved disc for a pendant, along with a mousefolk hand-sized paintbrush. Misha noted that the disc was featureless and smooth.

Latalia began adding ingredients to the mortar from the items she’d collected, listing them off as she went, “Three holly berries to ward off illness, a tuft of spriggan grass for fortune, about six drops of water from a starlit river…” That last one had come from a vial of what had just looked to be normal water, and there were a few other ingredients that were unfamiliar to Misha, but she was pleased that she recognized most of what Latalia was adding to this… mixture.

Once she was done, Latalia took the mortar and pestle in her hands and began to mix the items inside. As most of the ingredients were soft, they were ground quickly into a thin paste that was colored a dull earthy green from the juices of the berries, grass, and other natural additions mixed together.

The paintbrush’s use came next as Latalia dipped it into the paste and began to paint a layer of it over the front of the wooden pendant. As she did, she recited, “Sprouts of the land, look upon us with compassion. We ask your guidance and your protection. We offer unto you our care and respect in turn.”

And then, Misha was somewhat taken aback when Latalia held out the necklace to her and said, “And it’s done!”

“O-oh? Is it?” Misha had grown accustomed to magic including some obvious spectacle like a mystical glow or objects moving of their own accord. But with a twitch of her ears and whiskers to take in her surroundings, she noticed no obvious change.

“It’s simple so it’s not as if it’s going to last you forever,” Latalia said, still holding out the necklace for Misha to take. “But it’ll absolutely come in handy.”

Misha accepted the necklace and slipped it around her neck. The paste on the pendant had already dried, leaving a wide streak of dull green across the front, though the scent of it still lingered. She would take Latalia’s word that it would help. “Thank you, Latalia,” Misha said.

Latalia, looking pleased, added, “You heard what I said to the land. Respect it in return, that’s what makes the magic work. Though you don’t look like you’re from this area, so I have a feeling you’ve been out in the wild long enough to know that already.”

It was then that the door Zel had disappeared behind finally reopened. Zel stood there once more, holding something in his hand. It was a glass vial, a small one with a thin pink liquid inside. “Here you are, all done, now take this so I can have a drink and retire for the evening.”

Misha took the vial in hand when the much taller man leaned down to hand it to her, and she saw that the cap of the vial had series of very small symbols written on it in ink. The symbols were nothing she could read, but she guessed they were of the sort of magic she was more used to seeing on her adventure. “What is this?” she questioned with a tilt of her head.

Zel was already heading out the door much to Misha’s chagrin, and so Latalia was the one to answer, “Basic security and safety measure, he says. Reinforces the vial so it can’t be broken so easily, and apparently it prevents it from being opened by someone who isn’t supposed to open it.”

“Is that sort of security needed?” Misha wondered aloud.

“Well… Zel and Rosalie want to keep a good reputation with patients and patrons, after all,” Latalia said, though there was the slighted bit of hesitation in her voice as she spoke. Just as Misha was wondering if that hesitation had been real or something she’d imagined, Latalia added, “I’m sure you need to be getting back to your friend, so I should be closing up now. But you should come by again if you’ve got the chance.”

Misha nodded, one hand gripping the vial and the other tentatively touching the necklace pendant. “I’ll try to,” she said, “Thank you for your help.” And with that, she stepped outside to leave.