Lys didn’t like to travel. Too much dust in her opinion. She had standards. She was scowling a tad much these days. But she was unhappy. It didn’t help that they had paired her with Tsain. That stuck up lizard had a tendency to get on her nerves.

They had traveled for a week already, and should arrive in Larnwick tomorrow, if all went well. She had been there a few times, nothing much to see, but being a member of the mage guild had made her travel more than she ever wanted.

Luckily, she had secured a comfortable spot on one of the wagons. There were three in total. It wasn’t theirs of course, simply merchants that had taken them with them, and at first the wagons had been fully loaded, but Larnwick was their last stop, and they had sold enough, so she now had room on one of them.

She quite liked the head [Merchant], or maybe he had been nice to try to curry favor with the mage guild. It didn’t matter. It had made the trip slightly more pleasant. Now however they were stopping. In the middle of nowhere.

“Why have we stopped?” She asked one of the guards close by. She didn’t have a view of what was happening in front.

“I’m unsure Miss. Seems like there is something blocking the path ahead.” He said, unsure.

She stepped out to get a better look. There were about thirty guards in the convoy, most of them regrouping at the front. None were human. Most were reptilians, this was were most of them lived, but there were some beast kin of different races. All of them were scowling, or looking disgusted. As she walked forward she soon saw the reason why.

Several carts were destroyed ahead, and now she could even smell that familiar smell, associated with slaughter. Blood. There had been a massacre here. A convoy had been utterly destroyed, and it looked like it was a bigger one than theirs. At least twice in size. Worrying. She walked forwards to investigate. Someone hesitated to stop her, but thought better of it.

It was recent, yesterday at the latest. There were clear claw marks, among other things indicating this had been a monster attack. She leaned closer to see what kind of monster it could be. Four claws, big.

Out here, that probably meant Stonebears. It was the season for them to come out. But a single Stonebear couldn’t have done this alone. A pack? That was beyond rare, they didn’t travel in packs. They would have to be careful.

She saw Tsain walking up to her. He was a Reptilian, almost two meters high, with dark green skin, green eyes but a lighter shade on his tail.

“Well, isn’t this reassuring.” He said, indicating the remains of the convoy with his hand.

“We will have to take point if there are monsters close by.” She said.

“Take point? There are enough guards in the caravan to handle some monsters, and if we lend them a hand there should be nothing to worry about.” He said, scoffing at the idea of more work.

“Have you seen how many they were? Not single one is alive Tsain. We should help them scout, so we don’t get ambushed by monsters.” Lys responded, scowling.

“They were probably lower level Lys, plus, they didn’t have any mages to back them up., you worry too much. And we are almost at Larnwick, this attack seems old, the monsters are probably long gone.” He said, looking bored. How could he be so, insensitive, and stupid? Damn lizard.

“I’ll be helping them out at least, if you want to laze around as usual, feel free.” She said, the stupid lizard part not said, but thought really, really strongly.

“Suit yourself.” He said in a dismissive manner before going back to one of the carts.

They continued for a while on the road, Lys was at the front with some guards, watching, sometimes scrying ahead, or around them. It irked her that Tsain seemed right, the monsters didn’t seem to be in the area at all. Night was slowly falling now, but they weren’t far from Larnwick and had decided to push on.

Soon the town walls could be seen in the distance. She thought back on what they had been told. To investigate the anomaly a [Seer] had sensed. Apparently he had felt a void in the mana around here. He had been alarmed, but he had been the only one. The others hadn’t seen anything, and had dismissed it.

Usually it meant someone was messing with forbidden magic, like demonology or simply doing a large scale ritual. But if only one [Seer] had seen something, it probably meant it was either an error or something minor. So they had sent them. To see if there really was a problem of some kind.

They were now close enough to spot patrols on the wall, but there was something else they could now see. A group was outside, waiting. As they got closer, she saw that they were humans. But that couldn’t be right. This was far away from human lands. As they got closer and closer, it soon became irrefutable. Those were humans, but their clothes looked weird.

Most of the guards were now in front, and wary. They steered clear of the group when going for the gate. Now that she thought about it, there were a lot more people on the wall than she remembered seeing last time she was here.

“Humans ! Back off while we let the caravan in.” Someone yelled from atop the wall. The group of humans walked further from the city. They were chatting excitedly, completely at ease.

The caravan quickly filed through the gate that had been opened, and Lys went straight to a local guard as soon as they were all in and the gate closed.

“What is going on here?” She asked as she showed her mage guild amulet.

“Uh, we don’t know yet. This group of humans just showed up, three of them are talking with the mayor and other city officials.” He did not look at ease, worry clear on his face.

“Thank you.” She simply said as she started walking towards the town hall. From the corner of her eye, she could see Tsain still talking with someone from the caravan. A girl. He spotted her walking away and quickly said his goodbyes to follow her.

Sadly, he caught up.

“Going without me?” He said once he was walking with her.

“You could have waited for a bit, I’m pretty sure you made me miss out on some fun tonight with that girl.” He continued, scowling. Muttering about her being too serious about everything.

She ignored him, and they made good time to the town hall. There were more guards here too than she remembered. She showed them the mage guild amulet and tried to go through, but the guards still stopped them.

“I’m sorry Miss, I can’t let you through until they are done.” Tch. Annoying.

“And pray tell, who are they having a meeting with?” She said, irritated.

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that question.” The guard answered.

“And why can’t you tell me that? I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough anyway. We are here on official mage guild business, so you better start being helpful. Now.” She said as she poked one finger in his chest.

“Miss, I would like to be more helpful, but I don’t know who they are. Seemed important though.” He didn’t know? How could he not know? She knew he didn’t have to let her through, but most people didn’t know what they were and weren’t allowed to do.

“You will have to let us in, in any case. We will sort out the rest with the mayor.” She said dismissively and started to walk forwards. The guards hesitated but that gave them enough time to go through.

They opened the doors and continued to the meeting hall without stopping. Some of the guards were following them, unsure whether to stop them physically or not. Lys ignored them and opened the doors, she saw three humans sitting around a table with the mayor, the guard captain and someone else she didn’t know. They all stopped talking and turned to them.

The mayor recognized her and waved away the guards. He turned to the guests.

“This is two officials from the mage guild. If you wouldn’t mind me having a word with them?”

A woman, with a flawless face turned to look at her, turned back to the mayor, and nodded.

“Of course.” She had a weird accent. The mayor hurried towards her, and took her through a side door to a small room.

“How did you come here so fast? We sent a message not an hour ago!” He asked them incredulously.

“I have no idea what is going on, we were sent to investigate a problem a [Seer] saw, we thought it was probably nothing though.” She answered. Could it be related? Tsain was unusually quiet.

“They arrived from the east, saying they are diplomats from Mars, wherever that is. They seem civil, for humans at least. But I am relieve you are here. This is a disaster.” He said as he paced back and forth.

“A week ago a human arrived in town, in that same armor they all have, Lys, someone shot an arrow at him, with a skill, and it didn’t even dent it. He could fly, and now, more of them are here. We have no idea if we can even fend them off if we need to.” He seemed stressed, not at all the calm facade he had shown a minute ago.

“What do they want then?” She asked, thinking fast.

“That’s the problem! They want to make sure we have ‘Good relations between our people’. And I don’t know what that means! Good relations, Hah! Humans have long given up on that.” He scoffed.

“And they are asking if they can set up a camp of some kind to the east, assuring us they won’t intrude on our territory.” He continued. This was highly unusual. Humans had bad relations to almost all the other species. It hadn’t always been that way, or so she had heard, but there had been incidents, over the years. Now, everyone was wary of them, and their growing empire. Even Tsain looked bothered, and even serious, for once.

Mars, she had never heard of that place. Now the continent wasn’t completely explored, but all the sentient species were known, and the unexplored areas were unexplored for a reason.

“We shouldn’t make them wait. I would highly appreciate it if you would invite us to the conversation though.” She told him, and he looked relieved at the idea.

“Yes, let’s do that. Alright, follow me.”

They soon walked back in, and they took a seat beside the others. She was the only non-reptile, if you didn’t count the weird humans. The beautiful lady that had spoken before looked at them before continuing talking. The other two humans had flawless faces too. It bothered her for some reason.

“As we have said, we simply wanted to introduce us, and show that we bear you no ill will. We think good relations are primordial in a long term relationship between our people. A small camp is being set up, but we could move it if you feel it is too close, sadly we cannot move it too far. Understand that we are willing to negotiate to your advantage to gather some good will. We simply ask that we are allowed into the city to trade, and free to use the unused lands to the east.” She said with that weird accent.

The mayor was clearly on the fence. It was clear from their conversation that he wanted them out of here, and never hear from them again. Lys decided to see how they would react if pushed, slightly.

“What if we told you we don’t want you anywhere near here, and simply do not want anything to do with you? Hypothetically of course.” She said with a forced smile.

The woman turned to her, and it felt like she could see right through her.

“We would have to respectfully decline.” She answered while looking straight at her. A pause. No one dared to speak after the veiled threat. Unsettled by the maintained eye contact, she continued nonetheless.

“From what you have said, you want a friendly relationship, but it is a one sided wish, friendship cannot be forced. Or do you disagree?” She pushed, and she knew she was standing on thin ice. The humans unsettled her something fierce. There was something about them, something unnatural.

“I agree, but a cordial relationship can lead to friendship in the long run. We are ready to help you with your…” She seemed to be looking for a word.

“Monster problems.” She finished.

“What about the monster parts?” The reptile she didn’t know spoke up.

“Do you keep the all the parts? If we are letting you hunt monsters on our territory, a percentage ought to be given to us.” He said. She was slightly impressed at how he turned that around, making it seem like they were doing them a favor.

“That is negotiable, of course. Like I said, we are ready to negotiate in your favor.” The woman smiled at him. Ah, must be the head merchant, she thought.

The meeting continued for a while, and it was all negotiating, the mayor was afraid to refuse them upright, and they discussed cuts for the city, how far the humans had to stay from the city, and other things she didn’t care about.

As the humans finally left, Lys could see the whole group deflate somewhat as tensions left their shoulders, but she didn’t relax. She had to see that camp.