Popis moved a rotten wooden board that was leaning against a wall and dragged a small ruined carpet out of the way, revealing the basement entrance. She crouched near it, putting her head across the threshold.

“Guys, it’s me. I’m back with some people, so don’t be alarmed.”

There were voices filled with excitement coming from below.

“Big sis is back!”

“Hurray!”

Popis stood up and moved out of the way, making a gesture with her hands for the others to go inside.

“Please enter, I’ll be right along.”

Ben went in, followed by Eliot, Boro and Liza. Popis then moved things again to hide the entrance. It worked well. In that abandoned house full of junk, only someone actively searching around would be able to find it. After she was done, Popis descended to the basement as well.

The group made their way down the stone steps. The cellar was damp and there was water trickling down the walls because of the humidity. Small mushrooms that glowed with a dim bluish light were scattered around the ground and walls, giving the place a ghostly mood.

A group of six children were eagerly waiting at the bottom of the stairs. After seeing it was a stranger coming in, they backed away hurriedly.

“Wow, bioluminescent mushrooms, that’s cool,” said Ben’s ethereal voice as he looked around.

Nicola, who was among the six kids, rushed forward after seeing Eliot and Boro, shouting “Big bro, Boro! It’s you guys!”

Liza arrived with Popis right after. She waved at Nicola (who waved back) and looked around at the large basement illuminated by the mushrooms. She then turned to the small cloaked figure of Popis who was being swarmed by the other kids.

“Big sis, big sis, you’re back!”

“We were worried! It was getting late and you weren’t back yet!”

“Right, right! Did your job go well big sis?”

“Mah, mah, I’ll tell you all about it later,” said Popis, feeling warm by the reception. “Right now, I need to speak with our guests, because we were busy before and couldn’t talk.”

Popis removed her cloak. Now in the dim light they could finally see her. She was a thin, dark skinned thirteen-year-old girl with wavy black hair. She was wearing an old and worn-down dress that looked closer to rags than clothing.

“Thanks for helping us, but before anything else I need to ask a couple of questions to all of you,” said Ben.

[You! I’ll give you answers! Just wait and see…] thought Liza.

Angry, she turned to face Ben and was surprised. His ethereal voice was monotone, causing her to be taken aback with the serious expression he had right now.

“Out with it then,” said Liza, holding back her temperament.

“Give me a brief explanation on mages and how magic works. Are mages common? Can they cast spells continuously? How many spells, on average, a wizard knows? Are tracking spells or the like common? Please assume I know nothing about this world and how things work.”

His magically produced voice kept going nonstop, barraging one question after the other. Liza was starting to lose her patience, but after a certain point she understood what he was trying to figure out.

“Ah~, another one who knows nothing? Mifros, what did I do wrong?”

“What, is there someone like me here?”

“No, you two are fundamentally different,” said Liza after glancing at Eliot.

“Oh…”

“Now, to answer your questions, let me go by points,” said Liza holding out a finger.

“One — Mages are not common, but they aren’t rare either. There are a lot of adventurers who know some common spells, but real, powerful wizards are few and far between.”

“Two — They can cast spells continuously if they’ve mana, after that they’ll need time to recover. They can ignore this and push on, but there are consequences. The only exception is when the wizard masters a spell, then he or she can cast it using the world’s mana instead of their own.”

“Three — Can’t say for sure. The common knowledge is that all mages learn a couple of useful spells then focus on a specialization. After all, not having to spend your mana is a huge advantage.”

“Four — Tracking spells aren’t common and, from what I’ve heard, they need to meet certain conditions. We should be fine.”

Ben, who was listening with careful consideration, finally let all his tension go, flopping to the ground. The only thing that kept him going for so long was the adrenaline his body was pumping out like crazy.

[Ok, we’re good. We’re in the clear.]

“Ok, we’re good. We’re in the clear.”

Ben blacked out after losing his pent-up stress, his breathing still ragged from all the running they did before. Nicola and the other children approached him and poked his body. He didn’t wake up.

“Hey, mister, mister, are you okay?”

Liza gave Ben a long look before telling the children to just leave him alone for now. They obeyed and followed Nicola as he introduced Eliot and Boro to the crowd.

Boro was like a cat in the regard that he liked affection and attention, but not if you drowned him on it. He started to get irritated with all the gazes, gasps and petting. He escaped, flying out of reach of the small children. That reminded Liza of something.

“Right, Popis, could you not tell anyone that Boro can fly? Tell the others too please, it could be dangerous for us and them.”

“Then you shouldn’t have let him fly earlier today,” replied Popis.

“What! You saw that? But it was only for a second and there wasn’t anyone around!” exclaimed a surprised Liza.

“Well, I was around and so was he,” Popis said, pointing at Ben.

“Argh, we need to be more careful in the future… wait why were you there? Were you following us?” said Liza narrowing her eyes.

“I was. You helped Nicola who is one of us, so I wanted to get a feel for who you are. Also, I meant to give this back to you.”

Popis removed a small knife from her satchel and gave it to Liza. It was the weapon she gave Nicola for self-protection a day ago.

“I know you had the best intentions, but it doesn’t work that way. We might get threatened and beaten from time to time, but it will be mostly pain and bruises. If you pull a knife though, you’re dead for sure. They won’t let such rebellious attitude slide.”

Liza bit her lower lip, feeling conflicted. She wanted to ask them to escape with her, to go to another town or village. Any place seemed better than this. But in truth she wasn’t even sure if her, Eliot and Boro were going to make it out of Starfall. She was in no position to make empty promises. Liza sighed and took the knife back.

“You helped us out just now, but I’m afraid I’ll need to ask you for a few more favours…” said a dispirited Liza.

“Ask away, I won’t make any promises though.”

“Our stuff is back at the inn, we’ll need it back. We’ll also need three cloaks for concealing our appearances. I’ll give you the money needed, of course.”

“You are travelers and adventurers, how come you don’t have your own cloaks?” Popis asked, puzzled.

“Eliot never had one and I had to throw mine away because of… circumstances. The collapsed guy will also need one, especially with that weird stuff he is wearing.”

Liza gazed at Ben who was still lying on the floor.

[Who is this man? First, he recognized Boro and called him an eastern dragon. Then he climbed out of the window, shouting he had escaped, and followed us. Was he a prisoner of the local lord? How come he wasn’t in the dungeons? And his voice, it comes out of nowhere like an apparition, even when his mouth is shut… Who is he?]

Ben’s breathing had calmed considerably during this time, but it suddenly got rough and fast again. His body began to shake, causing him to wake up with his eyes wide. Feeling pain, he screamed. At the same time, with his mental barriers dropped, the magical ring began to translate everything that was going on in his mind with a monotone and even level version of his voice.

*Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* *cough* *cough*

“Damn, this hurts like hell. What’s going on?”

*Ohhhhhhhharghhhhhhh* *cough*

“Is like cramps, but all over my body and worse.”

*Uoooooooahhhhhhhh* *wheeze*

Everyone was alarmed at the unexpected occurrence. Liza approached the contorting Ben and put her hand against his forehead. He had a slight fever. Looking at his other symptoms and what his ethereal voice was describing, she was pretty sure of what was happening. She didn’t know why, though.

“You’re having a small mana rebound. What did you take?”

*Ouch* *wheeze*

“Mana rebound, what’s that? I just ate the same food that the other guy and the dragon came to steal.”

“They stole food?” Liza asked, mystified. Then she realized it and her expression darkened. “Oh, I see, ho-ho-ho. So that’s why…”

Ben convulsions lessened. He didn’t suffer for long and everything ended in half a minute. He could still feel slight pain and a tingling sensation all over his body. That was the most pain he felt in years. As someone from modern Earth, the agony he was used to tended to be emotional or, in his case, existential.

Liza gazed at Ben as he stopped shaking and got up from the ground. Now that they were relatively safe and she figured out he was some sort of prisoner, she wasn’t as angry as before. She wouldn’t let it slide for free though.

*cough*

“Anyway, it was just normal food, what’s that have to do with anything? What is mana rebound?” asked Ben.

“I don’t know about the food you ate, but mana rebound is what happens when your body tries to absorb more mana than it can handle.”

“Oh, that explains a lot. Does all food contain mana?” said a grimacing Ben. He shuddered at the possibility of having to go through that every time he ate something.

“Do you seriously don’t know this? Of course, all food has mana! Mana is present in all things, it is one of the elements that make this world! But the amount of mana food usually has is negligible, so It wouldn’t have caused you to have a rebound. But enough of your questions, it’s my turn now,” said Liza narrowing her eyes.

Ben gulped. Liza’s simple smile had a threatening quality to it. Popis had her arms crossed, looking on with curiosity. Boro was flying above them, huffing in a sneering fashion at Ben’s misfortune. Eliot was in another corner playing happily with the remaining children, oblivious to everything that was happening.

“First,” said Liza, “your attitude! What was that! Implicating us to the lord’s guards?”

“Hey, it was your dragon and your friend over there that broke inside my room to eat my dinner! He even killed a guard! No matter what I did, you weren’t going to get away without punishment.”

“We’ll get to them later! Like I said, I am not talking about what happened, but your attitude! Did you not, with full understanding of the situation and malicious intentions, try to drag us further into your problems?” said Liza with raging calmness¹.

Ben thought about it. He was right, no matter what happened, they would be screwed by letting him out and killing a guard. But she also had a point. In that moment he was afraid of being left alone to fend for himself, thus he intentionally made a show to the guards to suggest they were together, implicating them further.

“You’re right, in that moment I feared you would abandon me, so I tried to put us in the same boat. I apologize,” said Ben as he lowered his head slightly.

“Apologies? Ha! Apologies only exists between friends or for simple mistakes! When you do something bad or with ill intentions, you get a corresponding punishment!” said Liza as she approached Ben.

“What?! Punish *ough* ment?”

Ben did not even have time to be surprised as Liza’s fist hit him squarely on his diaphragm, leaving him breathless. He collapsed, falling to the floor on his back yet again.

Liza turned away from him and crossed her arms. “That was your punishment for being a dipshit back there. Now, tell me everything those two did and who you are.”

Ben felt a scorching pain sensation spread throughout his abdomen. Wheezing for air, he lifted his head as he looked at Liza’s back and saw the bow strapped there, waiting to be used.

[Oh yeah, I forgot about that. In movies, archers are always skinny and not strong enough to fight in the frontlines, but that’s bullshit. To fully draw a medieval bow an archer needs to use strength equivalent to lifting an 40kg iron weight, holding it still for a few seconds and then releasing it². And that’s for only one arrow! Archers are ripped! Damn you Hollywood! Damn, that hurt!]

He let his head go, resting it on the floor once again. He looked at the basement ceiling, illuminated by that eerie bluish light. Boro was floating there, sniggering at him. It all felt surreal.

[Man, what a day it has been!]

-

¹ Like the calm before the storm, one with intensity and personality.

² According to the theenglishwarbowsociety.com, bows recovered from the Mary Rose, a warship that sunk in 1545, had draw weights from 80lbs(36kg) to 180lbs(81kg), with the most common being around 140lbs(63,5kg). Can you imagine that? The most weight I can lift with my arms is my cup.