I walked up to the window, pulled one of the bags out of my pocket and gently pushed it under the bars for her to examine. She slid a hand into the bag and pulled out a mid-sized gem.

"Im here to sell these gems, I have more than these to sell if you are interested."

She stared at the gem, I thought she might start drooling at any moment. When I told her i had more her bored expression had dissappeared and been replaced with an empty, buisnesslike one. Although i could see the greed in her eyes as she kept looking at the gems hungrily.

"For this bag I could give you....150 gold coins. If the others have gems of the same quality then I can buy the rest for the same price."

Thats a big rip off but its plenty for what i need. Ill just sell some of the gems and keep the rest. Maybe i can get more for the rest somewhere else.

"Deal"

I pull three other bags out of my pockets and shove them under the bars. She snatched them up and inspected each bag to make sure that the gems were not of inferior quality. When she was satisfied she put them in a drawer that was hidden underneath the counter while picking up a box that was on the floor. She opened the box and pulled out 6 platinum coins, sliding them into a small pouch. She tied the pouch closed with a small peice of string and gave it to me through the bars. Every coin in this kingdom was worth 100 of the next coin up. So Iron coins are worth 100 copper and 100 iron coins are worth one gold. Gold to platinum and platinum to mithril.

With my new wealth of 6 platinum coins I left the shop and started shopping for supplies for the trip. I bought 3 bags and filled each with preserved food, a large water skin and a small knife. Ill let them decide what else they want to bring before we leave. The sun was starting to set so I returned to the room at the inn and went to sleep.

Malady was the one to wake me up, waving a plate with some food on it in front of my face. I accepted it and asked how she was feeling.

"Much better now thanks to you two."

She smiled at me and ate some sausage off of a plate that was next to her.

"Also we need to talk about what that old demon said."

Her smile dissapeared and was replaced with a somber expression.

"I think he was right. I dont really remember anything before you found me. I just feel like he is right. Also for some time now ive felt like im getting stronger. "

She motioned towards a vase that was sitting in the corner with a pitiful looking plant in it and snapped her fingers. The vase broke into hundreds of tiny peices and release a bowlful of water everywhere. But before any of it hit the floor she snapped again and it froze. All of the pieces were frozen in place, even the water wasnt moving. It was simply frozen in time, until she snapped her fingers a third time and it reversed. The water went back where it was and the pieces of the vase reassembled themselves into their original form. In but a moment the vase was broken, frozen and repaired as i watched with my eyes wide open. I couldnt beleive my eyes, there was nothing. No mana, no incantation. Just her snapping her fingers caused something that shouldnt be possible.

"And the scary thing, is that i can feel myself getting stronger and stronger."

This doesnt make sense, you cant randomly get more powerful. You have to train and expend massive amounts of effort in order to improve your strength. She saw the worried expression on my face and tried to smile although i could see worry on her face as well. This was when Vylet returned to the room, with the plates covered in food that she had in her hands i assumed she was the one who brought breakfast and then left to get more. She came in to see us with solemn expressions and just walked to the bed that she and malady slept on and put the plates down. Based on the look on her face and how silent she was I think she knew what malady had just told me.

This just made our trip all the more important, we needed to get to the capital. There i can get some help from someone more knowledgable about the gods than me. That dream i had when i was under the influence of those messed up books also came to mind. 'Please save my daughter' Maybe malady is getting stronger because the source of her power, the evil godess is trying to come to our realm. But if she was coming here, then what would her daughter need saving from? These thoughts kept rattling around in my head, but all it did was give me a headache and make me more confused. What we need to do now is get on our way.

"Well first, we need to leave this city. I recently came into some money-"

Vylet held in a laugh when i tried to make it sound innocent.

" And I bought you two some provisions, tommorow we will get some other things then we will be on our way."

Malady nodded while Vylet simply gave me a mock salute.

"Get some sleep you two we need to get up early tommorow."

"Why so early?" wondered Vylet " Will there be some trouble?" Vylet asked as she absentmindedly rubbed her hand along the handle of one of her daggers.

I gave her and malady a sly smile. "Only the trouble im going to make"

Vylet and malady both rolled their eyes and started ignoring me. Chatting happily about things I'd rather not listen to and getting ready for bed. I decided to get some mana manipulation practice in before i fell asleep. I have been falling behind in my practice and that will be a big problem in the future. I have a bad feeling about this whole thing and lately it has only been getting worse. Something big is coming, I think im right about malady's mother coming for a visit. Its the only thing that makes sense to me and the only reason i can think of for her growing powers. But those words 'please save my daughter' were stuck in my head. Who was i supposed to save? And from what?