Hugo was getting sick of the amount of pain involved in time travel. The pain of going back in time, the agony of getting a new domain, these things were something that most people didn’t have to endure once, let alone multiple times.

Once he was mostly recovered from the pain of the soulburning, the dean said, "It's time for you to go. You can explore your new ritual domain after you are gone."

A quick check of his Acomarian screen showed that she was right. He had gained the ritual domain. He frowned when he saw the domain. Well, nothing to do about it at this point. "How did you know what domain I had? Are you a light mage?"

"No, I'm an alchemist. I told you, our tamoko automatically gives you he domain you are most suited for. The majority of riese get the ritual domain. It has something to do with The Mother, I think. Anyway, out you go," the dean said and ushered him out.

Once he was back out on the street, he looked at his Acomarian screen again. He had ranked up before he entered the school this morning. He had been able to go all the way up to rank four after the mess with the wyverns. With the eight free points, he went ahead and threw two points into charisma. He had been reluctant to do it last time around, but he saw how just a few extra points made dealing with people easier. It was the only reason he was halfway successful in his spy efforts.

Next was wisdom. He would need a high one if he wanted any hope of overcoming the Black Marshal’s commands. The last three points went into perception. He knew he would need it when he was out hunting soon. He glanced over the result. Interestingly, even though it had only been a few hours, his charisma had already lost it's brackets.

Lina of the Brambled Wood [Ritual Domain]

Strength 21

Dexterity 20

Resilience 10

Regeneration 9

Intelligence 24

Wisdom (13)

Charisma 10

Perception (13)

Rank 4

142/500 Points

Health 20/20

Mana 6/(156)

Skills: Mana Sight, Mana Dart, Inscribe, Fabricate, Solidify, Oblate

Lingua: Choice available

Frequencies: Choice available

Elements: Choice available

Pact: Choice available

Ritual domain. He was going to have to figure out a teacher for that one. Maybe there was a royal academy he could attend. Or, barring that he could just corral Alexandru and force him to teach. Maybe he could figure out a way to get back into his own body with the crazy ritualist’s help.

That line of thinking reminded him that he had several letters to write. He got directions to the local post office and bought some paper and envelopes. He sat down at the provided desk and started writing.

Alexandru,

Your ritual has been sending me back in time, just like Mia. Because of that, I have learned several different things that will be happening this year, and I have some advice for you ...

Once he had that letter completed and addressed, he moved on to the next one.

Dear Mrs. Rebane,

I regret to inform you that your son Hugo did not survive the trip up the mountain to get soulmarked. After review of the incident ...

He threw a gold into the envelope and sent it off to his mother.

Sofia,

Don’t ask me how I know, but I have learned that you have been spying on Kristofer for his father. You need to stop ...

He wrapped three gold in paper and threw that into the envelope for his former girlfriend. The letter to Marion’s parents had already been written by Marion himself, so Hugo just added it to the pile. He was starting to get bored of writing letters, but he had to get one last one out.

Mia,

Alexandru is at it again. This is my fourth time traveling back in time, and I have a lot of important things to tell you. Starting with the sabotage to the walls coming in about a week. The military of Deva ...

Once he finally had all the important details down, he addressed an envelope to Mia at the Blue Lion Academy. He thought it was interesting how neat and flowy his handwriting was in this body. It seemed like each body came with its own muscle memory, and that meant that Hugo had good handwriting for once.

He went up to the counter and paid for each of the letters to be hand delivered. It was very expensive, but Hugo found himself not caring much. The daughter of the First Prince could easily afford it. As he walked away, he vaguely felt like he was forgetting a letter, but nothing came to mind.

Next he wandered back to the hedge mage’s tower. It took him some time to find it again, the city was large and the trees growing up throughout the city made the sightlines short. Eventually he found the right place.

It was late afternoon now, with minimal foot traffic around the wizard tower. There was a human hedge mage sitting outside, her red sash the only thing distinguishing her from a vagrant. She was short and wiry and stood up as Hugo approached. She only came up to his waist, but something told him not to underestimate her.

“Are you looking for someone?” she said, confused.

“Yeah, I was hoping to talk to a hed... wizard about your operation here, I am curious about everything,” Hugo said with a smile.

“Oh. Well. Sorry, there aren’t any wizards on duty right now. They just left me here to receive a shipment. I’m just a neophyte apprentice, I couldn’t answer any of your questions, sorry,” said as she looked around. It seemed like she was expecting someone to arrive and save her from this conversation.

“That’s too bad. I was really hoping to have a conversation, maybe hire a few of them. When do you think they will be back?” Hugo said.

“Tomorrow, I think. They did a scry and it said that no one would be visiting the rest of the day,” she said and fussed with her hands, “Sorry about the inconvenience.”

Hugo nodded. It was another one of those situations where he was a blank spot on the hedge mage’s magic. It must have something to do with the fact that Lina was actually dead and shouldn’t be walking around. He sighed and said, “Maybe some other time, thanks.”

On his way back to the royal grove, he saw a store for harvesters. Since going out hunting was basically the same thing, he stopped in to look around. The royal family might provide him with top of the line equipment and food, but he guessed that they wouldn’t. They seemed like the type to encourage self reliance.

There wasn’t much there that Hugo wanted though. At first the selection seemed large, but then he realized that it was just because there were at least two sizes for everything, a riese size and a human size. No surprise that there was nothing available for nox though. This town was very unfriendly to the nox.

He had plenty of money, but didn’t see any weapons or armor he wanted. He could easily make a custom made set better than everything here. He did find something he wanted to buy though, trail rations. They were advertised as very tasty and lasted for months. He bought a gold’s worth, which didn’t go as far as he expected. As they packed up his purchase, he told himself that they better be absolutely fantastic.

Before he left the shop, he did buy one other item. It was almost a sentimental purchase. It was a length of spidersilk climbing rope. It was something he couldn’t make himself, but would probably be very useful.

Purchases in hand, he walked back to the royal grove. He grumbled to himself as he walked. He didn’t understand why they have to live outside the city walls, let alone so far above the ground. It was entirely too stressful for no clear benefit. But maybe that was the point, the royalty wasn’t dependent on the city, they created their own safety and led from a position of power. Or some sort of malarkey like that. Hugo didn’t like it.

Soon enough he came to the city walls and climbed the vine staircase to the mid canopy. With an effort of will, he walked along the suspended bridges like it didn’t bother him at all. Yasmin had said there was no need to be sneaky on the way back into the grove. It was the guard’s job to make sure Lina didn’t leave on her own, but the princess wasn’t technically forbidden from leaving. So Hugo walked back into his home tree and smiled at the guards he knew were stationed high above.

When he got back to his room, there was a young girl sitting in front of his room. She got up when she saw him approaching and said, “Lina of the Brambled Wood, I am so happy to see you. The huntmaster sent me to let you know he was waiting for you. He said to meet him in the armory as soon as you got back.”

The little girl turned to leave and Hugo said, “Wait right there, I am going to drop of this stuff and you can escort me to the armory.” He had no idea where that was so he needed a guide.

She stopped and said, “I don’t know if I need to do that, princess. You aren’t in trouble, I don’t think.”

Hugo laughed and said, “I wasn’t thinking that. I just know that I am much later than the huntmaster expected and if you escort me, he will know it wasn’t your fault that I was late.”

Her eyes went wide and she said, “Yes, that’s a good idea. I will wait right here.”

Hugo dropped off his stuff and gestured for the girl to lead the way. She walked across the garden in the middle of the complex and then took a small staircase down. He was glad that he had secured himself a guide. He never would have thought that the armory would be below all the other rooms in the tree. Left to his own devices, Hugo would have wandered through all the wrong rooms for quite a while.

As they neared the correct room, Hugo saw some logic in having the armory here. Most of the threats to the grove would come from ground level, so the defenders would be going down to meet the monsters. The edge of the protection magic was just a twenty feet below them now, Hugo could see glimpses of it shimmering in the afternoon light. The armory was a large room full of weapons and four different people maintaining their weapons.

The little girl helpfully presented him to the correct person and made herself scarce.

“Hello huntmaster. What did you want to talk to me about?” Hugo said politely. He had no idea where this man fell on the political hierarchy, and it never hurt to be polite.

“The regent asked me to help you get The Mother’s blessing. Personally, I think it is a lost cause at this point, but I am nothing if not loyal. Meet me here with your pack tomorrow morning just before the sun rises. We will be traveling far, so wear comfortable leathers.” He said dismissively and turned back to the wooden sword he was sharpening.

Hugo nodded and said, “I will be here. I would also ask that my friend Yasmin be allowed to come along as well.”

The question seemed to surprise him. He look back up at her and said, “You want to bring one of your prissy friends out on a hunt with you?”

“Yasmin isn’t prissy, she is solid and dependable. She works with the aphids,” Hugo said.

He thought about it for a moment and said, “Well, that’s different. Alright. Tell her to bring along four aphids and she can come with. One of them needs to be big.”

“Thank you, I will let her know right away,” Hugo said with a smile.

He hurried over to the aphid stable and told Yasmin the good news.

She seemed hesitant though, “I don’t know if I can do that. I am still an apprentice. It was going to be hard enough to ask for the time off. I don’t think I can convince the stablemaster to let me take four mounts as well.” She rubbed her arm and looked away.

Hugo smiled and put his hand on her shoulder. “Then don’t ask for it. The huntmaster requisitioned four aphids and asked for an attendant to take care of the mounts while we are on the hunt,” he said with a smile.

Yasmin perked up at that and ran off to talk to her boss.

The next day they assembled at the armory and met the final member of their expedition. It was an enormous woman, tall and wide even by riese standards. She was wearing wooden armor, heavily lacquered and more than an inch thick. In addition to a pair of swords strapped to her sides, the woman had three small spears strapped to her back. Hugo would bet that she also had a half dozen knives secreted on her person.

“Hello, I am Yasmin, I will be taking care of the aphids for the hunt,” she said and gestured to the line of insects behind her.

“Nice to meet you, Yasmin. I am Huntmaster Ramin. I will be the alpha for this hunt.”

The mountain of a woman grunted and said, “I am Parisa. I will be omega.”

The huntmaster looked between Hugo and the warrior woman. After a moment or two he said to Hugo, “Lina, now that we are officially on a hunt, I can give you orders. I am ordering you not to piss off Parisa like you did last time. She promised to be on her best behavior too, and as long as you two play nice, we have a good chance of returning from this hunt with our heads still on our shoulders.”

Hugo nodded, but inside he was panicking. How was he supposed to avoid angering the giant woman if he didn’t know what Lina had done to anger her the last time?