“Think they’re going to chase us?” I asked Iona as Fenrir powered over the open ocean.

She shook her head, her armor retracting.

“Nope. We’re out of their hair, and not liable to bring anyone else down on their heads.” Iona said.

I grumbled under my breath.

“Why not just ask us nicely to leave?” I complained. “Same end result, lower damage and bodycount. Like, they didn’t need to kill all those people.”

I was usually pretty good about shrugging off deaths other people had caused. I took responsibility for my actions, and my actions alone. I didn’t take responsibility for what other people did. Their reactions and behavior was on their conscience, not mine.

With all that said, the people who’d gotten in the crossfire weighed on my mind. I knew mortals didn’t like high level healers. I knew there’d be retribution and consequences for my actions. I’d been told that I was a walking casus belli.

I just… I just didn’t expect a round dozen people to get brutally mowed down in broad daylight by the guard just for a chance at getting me.

I didn’t take responsibility for other people’s actions. But… in this one, particular case, I had to acknowledge some degree of culpability. A degree of responsibility. I couldn’t walk around mortal lands and throw up my hands and shrug at the wake of destruction left behind me.

“In short? Appearances and politics.” Iona tugged on the reins, making Fenrir turn west. “If they’re letting you off with a warning, it sends one type of message. If they’re trying to kill you, it sends a different one. That, or whoever was in charge wasn’t thinking big, complicated thoughts, and went with the easiest solution. What would your reaction be to someone twice the average level openly flouting some of your strictest laws, then giving the guard the runaround?”

When Iona phrased it like that…

“That’s so stupid.” I hated that law. What kind of stupid, fucked-up thinking did the people in this world have? Knowing my luck, it was a gross overreaction to something that had happened in the past, and… ugh.

Iona nodded.

“It is. I used to think they had the right idea, before the School. Before meeting you, and a hundred other Immortals.” She shook her head ruefully.

I switched mental tracks to an old, familiar, well-worn thought process.

“After action report. Everything went well, but let’s look at what we did and why we did it, and see if we could’ve done anything differently. Go.”

Iona wrapped an arm around me and kissed the back of my head.

“Goddesses, this is why I love you. Right. I could’ve taken the spy out, properly out, and we might’ve been able to sneak away on our own. That’s from a cold tactical standpoint, I’m not sure I can bring myself to stone cold execute a guard trying to do his job. That’s not the reason I didn’t shoot back at them though. I was more concerned with getting you sheltered, and I can’t do that and fire at the same time.”

I punched Iona’s leg.

“I’m not a delicate flower, I’m probably tougher than you are.”

“Fair - for a given definition of tough. The point remains - protection and escape, over slaughtering the guards, was my priority.”

“You mentioned not attacking guards just doing their job. I’d like to slightly challenge that way of thinking from both of us.” I said. “If we could hit the guards before they hit the civilians, would that have been worth it? Pretending the body count’s the same, isn’t it better that involved people, the people who’ve chosen violence, to suffer the fate they’re trying to inflict on others?”

Iona thought about it - really thought about it - before giving a curt nod.

“That’s a good point, but there’s got to be a tipping point where we say it’s better for one civilian to bite the dust than sixty four guards.”

I shuddered at that.

“You can work that out. I don’t - can’t - errr - I’m struggling to even try to put lives on scales like that.”

“Really? Isn’t that exactly what triage is? You put three lives on one side of the scale, twelve on the other, weigh them and find a side wanting?”

I instinctively rejected the idea, but this was an after-action report. I forced myself to examine it, to force it into my mind and turn it over.

How was it different? The only thing I could immediately think of was ‘it wasn’t medicine’, and that was valid in a few ways. In others though…

“I’m not sure, but you bring up some points that are worth considering. I’ll think about it.”

Iona gave me a little hug.

“Thanks. While we’re on the topic, I’d like to take a quick moment to pray for the poor souls who just died.”

“Go for it.” I said.

A quick moment turned into fifteen minutes of prayer, Iona closing her eyes and bending her neck slightly as she communed with her goddesses. Eventually she looked up, and we continued.

“Why be showy? Why wait for them to get in position? You’d packed up, so you had to anticipate trouble.”

“Easy. I anticipated trouble, I didn’t think trouble would find us that quickly. My bad.”

I nodded my acceptance of Iona’s answer.

“On my end, I should’ve been more aware. More alert. I’ve spent too much time at the School, my instincts are rusty. New place, unknown bed? After letting my secret out? I should’ve expected complications. If I’d taken the time to properly investigate the area after waking up, I’m sure I would’ve noticed the guard setting up. From there, I had a few different choices. I probably would’ve written you a note and left, meeting up with you outside of town. If I wasn’t there, the guard’s would’ve just given you a dirty look, but moved on. No Immortal healer, no reason to launch an attack. You being my protector doesn’t cause trouble, yeah?”

“Mmmm. Yeah, that would’ve worked. Live and learn. In other news, I’ve got directions! We’re near the southern end of the Crystal Sea. I’m confident Fenrir can cross it in a single go, then we’ll need to turn north, and follow the coast to the Ralakar border. Probably spend the night there, then cross through like we discussed.”

I looked down at the endless waves, and leaned back into Iona.

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

“A few hours.”

“Blaaaaaaaaah. I’m already bored. Mind if I go flying?”

Iona slipped an arm around my waist and gave me a quick squeeze.

“Not at all, go for it! Wanna practice flying upside down and backwards, and seeing if you can kiss at the same time?”

I could see her waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“I’ll see what I can do!”

We spent hours flying over the Crystal Sea, so named for its glorious crystal-clear waters. I was a significantly faster flier than Fenrir was, in spite of the wyvern being a supermassive flier. The tyranny of stats, combined with a strong skill and biological modifications.

That, and I wasn’t weighed down by hundreds of pounds of cargo. I’m sure I’d be significantly slower if that was the case.

Nothing bothered us as we traveled, and I once again thanked Fenrir for that. Dinosaur or bird, there wasn’t much that wanted to tangle with a wyvern. I spent my time flitting around Fenrir, flying up high into the clouds, then diving down to the sea. I put my hand in the waves, laughing as I zipped through them, making my own little waves in the surf. I made sure to always keep Fenrir in sight. If I lost him, I had no idea how we’d ever find each other again.

I flew around Fenrir in circles in all directions, like weapons-grade bonkerite.

I hung out with Auri, who wasn’t fast enough to fly on her own, and utterly lacked the endurance to do the type of long flying that Fenrir could. Fenrir would just leave her in the dust, and the endless ocean stretching down below us was one of the few things Auri truly feared. An exhausted phoenix falling into the endless depths would die, [Phoenix Rebirth] or not.

Playing anything like cards or dice with Iona was out of the question, but Auri joined us for more cerebral games. Riddles and brain-twisters, stories and jokes. Watching clouds.

“Looks like an easel.” Iona pointed to a cloud.

“Huh. I see a shield.”

“Brrrrpt!”

I rolled my eyes.

“You’ve called every single cloud fire.” I said.

“BRRrrrRRpTT!!” Auri scolded.

“Okay, fine, all but one.” I corrected.

The sun was setting when we spotted land again.

I ran up Fenrir’s neck and balanced on his head, shading my eyes.

“Land ho!” I cried out, pointing at the obvious. Fenrir snorted and bucked his head, throwing me back to Iona.

Iona took the reins and steered Fenrir north. He snorted his displeasure.

“It’s Omospondia, boy. You know that. They won’t be happy to see you.”

We flew for a bit longer, Iona turning us back towards the shore as it got dark. We landed in a meadow in the wilderness.

“Elaine, can you set up camp? Fenrir and I are going hunting.”

I didn’t need to be told twice, Fenrir had spent all day flying without eating a bite, the poor thing.

“Give me a quick breakdown on how hard of a campsite we need?” I asked.

She tilted her head, thinking.

“Light to medium on physical defenses, go hard on the wards.” She said as she started unstrapping our supplies and Fenrir’s armor.

I nodded my understanding and started casting. A thin sheet of metal to circle where our tent would go, like flimsy walls, and a firepit right outside the entrance was only safe because of magic and Auri. It wasn't big enough to include Fenrir, but if there was anything here willing to deliberately mess with a wyvern we were in trouble.

Next up was ‘hardening’ the ground, and while I’d never gone deep on the transmutation principles or classes, merging and melding the various rocks together was easy enough, as was ‘packing’ the dirt together. I finished my terraforming with a brief little ‘leveler’ spell, so we didn’t have rocks poking into our sides all evening.

Once the space was ready, Auri leapt into action, a dozen [Mage Hands] assembling our tent at maximum speed.

Wards were up next. A lack of Arcanite meant I’d need to be the one fueling all of them for the entire night, and I was limited by my regeneration. A detection ward was the first one, to see if anyone was sneaking up on us. Issue was calibration. Too small, and mosquitoes would trigger it. Too large, and creatures with a System could sneak by. Deterrent was also a question. Better to scare off a dozen creatures that might trigger the wards, than spend all night waking up and going back to sleep.

“Auri, can you make a small ring of fire all evening?”

“Brrrrrrpt!?!?!”

“Yes, I’m asking you to burn something all night long.”

“BRPT!!!”

In retrospect, I’m not sure why I asked.

Let’s see… a layer of Darkness first. It was cheaper than an invisibility illusion, and it would eat the sights and smells of our campground. I was still keeping an eye on efficiency with my wizardry, instead of just throwing power at the problem. Plus, the more efficient I was, the more wards I could add! No scent of fresh entrails to attract predators! I wasn’t making it a good barrier, and anything solid could pass through it. Cheaper that way. Inside of that I was going to put Auri’s ring of fire, a great big ‘go away’ alarm to any slithering snakes or hopping mice who happened to make their way in.

Anything crossing the ring of fire was bad news. Detection ward came after that, and I had a little bit of fun tying in all the alarms to it. Pots banging, a loud screech, bright flashing lights, rolling thunders, skunk smell and more! No way would we sleep through that sort of disturbance, and the more, the louder, the better chance we had of scaring off whatever it was. I wanted to add in a big flashing arrow, but properly localizing which part of the ward was being triggered was non-trivial. This was supposed to be a simple one-night detector. I wasn’t building a fort - or my home!

I paused at adding a barrier. On one hand, I wasn’t going to say no to another layer of automatic defense. On the other, powering a barrier through wizardry which was part of a complex multi-layered defense was asking for trouble. I could lose a large amount of mana and barely slow down whatever was coming for us.

Or wait. Derp. I was being dumb about this. [Persistent Casting] and [Mantle of the Stars] gave me a permanent shield via sorcery. [Mantle of the Stars] wasn’t impressive as barriers went, but it was still leagues better than doing the same thing with wizardry. At least when I was fueling everything. The moment a significant amount of arcanite came into play, all bets were off.

I’d put my shield up inside the sheet of metal, letting the physical barrier come into play before the magical one, then have a few holes in it for air.

I nodded to myself. Good enough for a single night. I started to plan the needed runes and sigils.

I was just wrapping up my planning when Iona and Fenrir came back. Fenrir’s head and neck looked like he was becoming a legendary pink wyvern, while Iona dragged a frog half as large as she was off Fenrir’s back. I waved her over, and Fenrir took off again, flying towards the sea. To wash off or hunt more, I was unsure.

I lifted an eyebrow at Iona’s loot.

“Beelzebufo? That’s… different. Dibs on the legs!” I cried out.

“Brrrpt!” Auri laid a claim to the part she wanted. All sixty four grams that she could eat.

Iona shrugged.

“Works for me, the ribs are the best part.”

“Brrrpt! BRPT!” Auri made a tiny little flaming hat out of white flames, and officiously pushed us to the side so she could begin her art. A culinary manifes-toad.

Without further ado, Auri started a little fire, and we spent a beautiful night under the stars. Before we went to bed, I cast and arranged our ward setup.

An hour later, I was drifting off to sleep in Iona’s arms.

Iona and I shot up as a dozen blaring sirens went off, the light through the tent glowing with a dozen different colors. Iona threw off our blankets, and I threw my hand across her chest.

[The World Around Me] was busted. It let me see exactly what the issue was.

“Just Fenrir coming over to say hi.” I told her, my heart racing. I dropped [Mantle], we were awake and there was no issue.

She sighed.

“Well, that’s one way to wake up. Who needs to jump into an icy spring when we have all these alarms?” She asked.

I chuckled, then gagged and wretched as the smell hit me.

“Oh goddesses, why, WHY!?” I screamed to the air as my non-existent breakfast tried to escape my stomach.

I fled the tent, but the smell followed me. Persisted. Stank. I whipped out my spellbook and cast a cleaning cantrip, but that only fought against what was on me, not the fumes in the air. I tried to cast a gust, but by the time I’d swapped spellbooks and cast it - a second or two - I’d been coated again.

I fled.

I had never regretted giving myself a super sense of smell until now. I ran through the meadow, the smell following me like an evil spirit, and it was only when I dunked myself into the sea that I got anything vaguely resembling relief.

I was entirely onboard with Miasma classers being banned.

I popped out of the surf, seeing Iona, Fenrir, and Auri approaching, murder in their eyes.

“Oh good!” Iona said with fake cheeriness. “You’re already here. I think we all need a good bath after that.”

She dashed over.

“Argarbarglebaaaargh!” I complained as Iona mercilessly dunked me before starting to wash herself. Fenrir carefully, delicately - for his size - dunked me under with his mouth. He was so large I didn’t protest.

Auri flew up to me, a hand above the waves.

“Brrrpt.” She chirped at me, all disappointed, without a shred of mercy.

“You as well?” I complained before two dozen burning [Mage Hands] forced me underwater again, great gouts of steam exploding around me as water met Inferno.

I wrinkled my nose as we flew north.

“I swear I cast that cleaning cantrip properly!” I complained for the sixth time.

“It’s skunk.” Iona retorted. “SKUNK! It’s impossible to get out of things! Skunk doesn’t care that magic is supposed to clean it! Never. Again.”

I muttered to myself as we kept going. Iona insisted I stay on Fenrir. Her reasoning was sound. “You stink the place up, you get to suffer with the rest of us.”

It didn’t take long to hit the border, although identifying that we’d hit the border was somewhat tricky. There were no great flashing neon signs saying “Welcome to Ralakar!”, no great wall, no guard posts or marching armies. Just a slow shift in the villages and towns we saw, until we became convinced we were in the right spot, and could turn west.

It was interesting to see the villages from the sky. Some were lively and bustling with color and life, even the poorest dragonlings showing off the most spectacularly colored saris and lungis. Other ‘villages’ were more overgrown huts, an indicator that once upon a time life had existed there, and for one reason or another, nature had won the battle.

We flew and flew and flew, and an interesting pattern emerged, one I suspected I’d never be able to see from the ground. There were dams all over the place, rivers built up into ponds, then flowing through and cascading to the next place. It almost looked like cities and roads wound around the areas that were heavily built up, while at the same time staying a distance away from them. Add in Ralakar being near the equator, and it all came together to form rich, lush rainforests and mangroves.

We made good time, and I was vaguely forgiven by Iona and Auri by the time we were thinking of landing for the night.

“I am not sleeping in that tent.” Iona said as she crossed her arms. “I don’t care where we go, or how much it costs, I am not sleeping there. I’m even tempted to see if we can buy a new tent. Skunk.” She muttered the last word under her breath with a pointed stare at the back of my head.

Vaguely forgiven.

“Oh look, a lovely town, why don’t we land there for the night?” A distraction!

Iona didn’t say anything, but Fenrir started to dive to a safe distance away from the town. Fifteen minutes later we were approaching the gates.

Iona started to speak to the guards, they responded, and blah. Samkra. I didn’t speak a word of the language. Instead I studied the guards.

They were dressed fancy. Everyone had colorful clothing, and they had colors to the max! Their weapons were interesting, wielding long glaives and shields, with straight swords on their belt. They were all made of ceramics which I thought was neat. The implied lethality was something else, none of their gear was suited to subdual or gentle handling.

The other odd thing was both dragonlings [Identified] as [Laborer], not [Warrior]. What was up with that? One I could understand having an unusual class, but two? Carrying weapons?

With Iona’s discussion to simply enter the city taking so long?

I started furiously praying to Selene and Lunaris.

No plague no plague no disaster no issues that need healers just let me get to Exterreri!!

No response. One of these days!

I started sweating in a way that had nothing to do with the heat, starting to preen and make sure I looked properly presentable. Guards didn’t treat people equally. Someone who looked like they’d be on the road for weeks and coated in filth might be denied entry, while a clean well-presenting person would be admitted. Eventually, Iona seemed to come to some agreement with the guards and walked back.

“Ralakar.” She exasperatedly said with a note of disgust. “Right. Two big important things for us to know. First. The castoroides are sacred. Don’t harm them. Don’t bother them. Don’t even touch them. If one’s blocking your way, go around. Don’t interfere with their work. If one wants to chew up your house for logs, let them.”

“If they want my firstborn, sacrifice it to them?” I sarcastically asked. Iona slid her eyes towards the guards.

“Don’t tell them you’re not sacrificing it to them around people. Auri, for you specifically, don’t burn anything.”

“BRRRRRRPT!?!?!?”

“Yes, I mean it. We’re not going to be here long. No. Burning. The odds of something going wrong and another city baying for our heads are too high. I’ll buy you a bag of rice flour if we get out of Ralakar without incident.”

Auri tilted her head back and forth a few times, clearly mulling over the deal.

“Brrrpt!!” She accepted… putting a stipulation on how big the bag needed to be.

I flicked her.

“Don’t be greedy. You shouldn’t be burning anything in the first place.”

“Second thing.” Iona said. “Caste system. They’re well aware that foreigners like us have no idea what’s going on with them and their castes, but at the same time, it’s not exactly flexible and forgiving to us. On one hand, we’re outsiders, lowest of the low, but on the other, Auri’s a [Mage] and will be treated as one, just like I’m a [Warrior] and you’re a [Healer]. Practically, this means we’re at the bottom of those respective castes, because of our foreign status. In order, it goes [Leader], [Mage], [Warrior] and [Ranger] in the same caste, [Healer], [Artisan], and ends with [Laborer]. If anyone of the higher caste shows up, we do a bunch of getting out of their way and being polite.”

“Seems easy enough, especially if we’re just getting a room for the night and carrying on. What’s the catch?” It was never this easy. Never.

“Different inns - sarais - cater to different castes. Most businesses are freeform, but there’s something about sleep that they take differently here.”

I threw my hands up.

“Well, great! Are you at least able to help me find a place, oh mighty [Warrior], or am I on my own?”

“Brrrpt! Brpt?”

Iona chewed her lip.

“Pretty sure I can help you out. Let’s go find a place?”

We entered the town, and two streets later I spotted a giant beaver lounging in the middle of the road. He didn’t seem to be doing anything - it was too dark for it to be sunning itself or anything - but everyone was carefully stepping around him anyway.

“That’s a castoroides?” I asked. “A giant beaver?”

“Yup.” Iona confirmed.

“Explains all the dams and wetlands we saw getting over here.” We carefully navigated our way around the giant beaver, and it was the work of an hour to get a sarai for everyone, and agree when and where we were meeting up tomorrow, along with a backup plan.

Poor Iona getting clam jammed again. I shamelessly teased her about it. She put a hand on my shoulder.

“Just wait until I can get you in a tavern with me.” She half-growled, half-purred, half-threatened.

Ooooh boy, did that ever do things to me.

Uncomfortable, I shamelessly smuggled Auri in with me.

We settled in for a communal meal, an [Artisan] playing beautifully on a sitar. I feasted like a [Queen]! Curry! Hummus! Naan! Chicken! Sambar! Chana Masala!

They really knew how to cook in Ralakar!! Exterreri was just across the water from here, I wonder if any dishes made their way over, and how expensive a spice habit would be.

The table was filled with other [Healers], and I could barely follow a word of what was said. Didn’t really care though, I was here to eat, get out, and go to sleep.

I smuggled a bowl up to Auri, and for the first time in ages, fell asleep by myself.

Not alone though. Auri was in the room, a glowing night light against the horrors of the dark.

It took another two weeks of a slow, careful, winding route of flying, but at last (if we were reading the map properly), Exterreri was on the horizon as we crossed another body of water.

“Land ho!” I gleefully cried out, and practically jumped for joy as Fenrir crossed over a sandy beach. An hour of flying later, and I spotted a wispy column of smoke in the distance.

“Uh oh. Do you see that?” I pointed it out to Iona. She shaded her eyes and looked in the direction I was pointing.

“No, sorry. What am I looking for?” She asked.

“Smoke. Not the good type.” I said.

Iona didn’t say a word, pulling on Fenrir’s reins in the direction I was pointing.

It wasn’t long before we were flying over the burning remains of a village, a dozen people running around trying to fight the fires.

“Here we go!” Iona cried out as she urged Fenrir into a dive.