Chapter 84
Nights in springtime were usually quite chilly, especially in the mountains, but this night was unreasonably warm. Leona was thankful for that, since it meant she didn’t need to fumble up any kind of warmth spell. That was an easy one, but every little comfort stacked more mana drain, and she preferred to maintain some for her flight.
It was almost surprising how rare true flight was amongst even talented mages, really. There were at least a dozen ways to achieve it, but each and every one required such mastery and control that few people ever managed it. Even when they did, the mana cost was so extreme that it was an impractical way to get around except in emergencies or short bursts.
Leona’s flight spell, Spatial Slide, was even more draining than most. It was ridiculously inefficient for most mages, though it was technically on the books and not even a restricted spell, though in practice only someone who had mastered quite a few restricted spatial-oriented spells could hope to master it. The only reason she could use it with impunity was due to her utterly obscene bonuses with spatial magic. Short of an actual Archmage—rare to see in this age—she was likely the only person in the world who could use it so easily.
The air rippled around her as Leona flew above the trees, letting the cool evening air whip through her hair. All the stress of the journey followed by tension with Theodore and the negotiations with Ellen… it was exhausting, but it left her high-strung and unable to sleep. Even after getting a room for herself at the quaint little inn, she needed to find some way to relax.
So she’d slipped out.
The area was quiet and undeveloped, and Leona marveled at how pristine it looked. After decades of relative peace, the population was starting to recover… but it would still be another generation before areas like this would feel the encroachment of civilization. The wilderness had taken over nearly a century ago, and reclaiming it would be a trial that her children would lead.
If I ever have any, Leona sighed to herself mentally. She was getting a little old to marry, though that wasn’t strange for mages. Finding a partner that was willing to deal with being married to a Grand Mage… that was unusual. Most would feel intimidated about her station, and her options of those who had a similar or greater station were very limited. Not to mention, most of them were not exactly the sort of man Leona would want.
She dismissed her idle thoughts from her mind as she drew closer to the mountain. Even from this distance, she could feel the faint tremors of spatial compression that the dungeon had begun. Most people presumed a dungeon simply kept digging as it grew, but that was only for very young ones. It didn’t take long for them to start folding space into itself and layer two to three times as many floors into the same space.
It was early for the dungeon to be starting this. Gaspar was right once again. It wasn’t an intense spatial fold, though… Leona could easily tell that it would be a while yet before floor compression would occur. At least, with a normal dungeon. At the rate this one was growing, it might be able to handle it in another month or two.
Gaspar’s concern was well-placed, with that rate of growth.
Leona took a slow circuit around the large hill—it was barely a mountain, really—before swooping down closer. It was a lovely night to fly, with the air cool but not uncomfortable and the full moon providing a gorgeous illumination of the forest, even without any vision-enhancing spells.
She hadn’t seen it from the ground yet, but Leona noted a nearly-finished building near the entrance, and a functional but ratty-looking set of buildings further up the hill. She’d done some research into the region, so surmised someone was living in the old ruins. Very interesting, but something to check out later.
Though it couldn’t hurt to just take a quick fly past…
Darting over to the former village, Leona was surprised to see that the main buildings were in good repair, though a bit shoddy in some areas. It looked more like they’d been put together in a hurry rather than poorly, using whatever was available. Resourceful, if not ideal.
The footpaths and the half-completed road clearing were very thorough though. That was interesting, but Leona didn’t know enough about village construction to know what it said about the builders. Was this some kind of hermitage? It certainly looked new.
She lifted up and skimmed the top of the trees, bringing up her mana with a thought. She had another hour of flight, she guessed, but she was starting to get tired. She’d turn back in a moment, she knew. No reason to linger and spy on these simple villagers.
Then she paused as she caught a glimpse of something else down below.
Hovering in midair on a disc of compressed space, she squinted and murmured another spell, casting her perception downward. Clairvoyance was not easy, even for her, but placing her point of view in a place within line of sight was considerably easier than actual scrying. So that’s all she did.
The dead buck was freshly killed, the corpse still warm without any flies over it. What concerned Leona was the wolf quietly circling it. A large wolf, with bright red fur over most of its body. An arrow pierced the side of the buck, but it was obvious the wolf had brought it down after the panicked run through the forest. If a hunter had just had their kill taken… but who hunted at this hour?
Stepping out from the shadows, the hunter showed herself a moment later, without any fear. Dressed in leathers and pelts, she almost looked completely different… but the ponytailed huntress had the distinctive red hair and facial features of Ellen. There were differences, enough that Leona at first thought it was a non-identical sister.
Then a second one stepped into view, looking much more similar in appearance to the young woman Leona had argued with earlier.
Neither showed any fear of the wolf, which made no move to protect its kill. Instead, the great beast walked right up to the huntress… who slid fingers through the fur on its head and gave a little tease to the ears. It was a motion of familiarity that hinted at a deeper bond than a simple Ability to calm wild animals.
Some Class with an animal companion then. Beast Tamer or an advanced Ranger or similar. That was Leona’s first thought.
“Surprised we managed to get an eight-point,” the huntress murmured. “Someone’s pleased with herself, aren’t you?”
The wolf wagged its tail, identifying itself as the female she was talking to. The other girl laughed aloud, just taking a walk around the corpse with a lazy motion. “It’s a nice surprise… didn’t expect one tonight, but if your hunts are going to be this successful every time, maybe we’ll have enough pelts after all.”
She tugged a knife out and squatted down to start field dressing the kill. Leona realized she must have some way of seeing in the dark, as neither of the girls had produced a light. It was a bright moonlit night, but not bright enough that anyone should be confident enough to gut a deer with a knife.
Leona watched silently a little longer as the hunter with the bow set her bow aside and looped a rope over a branch to string up the kill. The two continued to chat while the wolf paced about, sniffing.
Must be an extremely well-trained beast, she mused.
“Think Fisher can use all this?” the knife-user asked. “We’ve been giving her a lot of meat. We could really use a bigger garden.”
“Not our problem,” the huntress replied lazily. “Cobbler and Fisher can figure that out. It’s not like we don’t have the room… and once Whisper and Stage get here, we’ll need even more, so we should get started now. It’s getting crowded.”
It was a fairly normal conversation, and though the similarity between the girls and the owner was very curious, Leona didn’t think she’d learn anything more. She was just about to disengage her clairvoyance when the girls shifted topics.
“What are you thinking about the mages? Have you found a place to put them?” the knife-user asked the huntress. Leona pumped a little more mana into her spell to maintain it longer, now curious once more.
“I’m working on it,” came the answer, along with a shrug and a ruffle of the wolf’s side. “I don’t want them in our town, but putting them too far away would be pointless. They’re going to learn about us eventually. What do you think? And by you I mean Scholar. When should we reveal ourselves?”
The knife-user didn’t even look up from her task. “We are still considering it. Our thoughts are like yours… if they discover us later they may be suspicious, but if we tell them too early they may come to the wrong conclusion. Yet again, as our Scholar pointed out, the earlier they know the cause of their concern the less time they will waste looking at the wrong matters.”
Moving behind the hanging buck, the huntress steadied it so that the other one could more easily do the field dressing. “Maybe. I just don’t like putting anyone who isn’t us too close to the dungeon or town. And what if they try to… I don’t know… get rid of us?”
The wolf let out a loud snort, as if it understood and was mocking the idea. The huntress looked at her companion with an amused smirk.
“You have your answer there,” the one gutting the deer replied. “We look out for our own. A Grand Mage can be very strong, but against all of us? They won’t be a problem. Still… none of us like violence, so we should wait until Whisper and Stage are back. We have not even met them yet, and from what Merchant said, they would be the best ones to handle any problems that come up with this. We can put it off until after the Spring Festival.”
The wolf whined softly, and the huntress ruffled the red-furred lupine’s head again. “Don’t worry, we know you won’t hurt anyone except as a last resort. Scout’s just being thorough. She’s right, though.”
“We are right,” corrected the one carving up the kill. “We are just passing on what our Scholar concluded and we agreed. This is not something that Scout would think about.”
“Sorry,” the huntress muttered. “I know you don’t like thinking individually. I try not to screw up your grip on everyone else, but you do seem to enjoy coming out here.”
“It’s fine,” the one called Scout replied dismissively. “Of all of us, I am the one who most often has to make a decision without the rest of us. That is the nature of being the Scout, so we have adapted to the independence.”
While the two were talking, the wolf suddenly stilled. She tilted her head, sniffing and looking about the small clearing. Her hackles rose… then she tilted her head up and barked into the air, twice.
Scout and the huntress paused in their work to look at the wolf in confusion, then looked upward as well. As if looking at something in the… sky…
Leona dismissed her remote sense, snapping back to her presence in the air above. All three pairs of eyes below were looking at her, two human and one lupine, just silently staring at the floating mage in the air. Leona stared back for a long moment—long enough to notice something off about the wolf’s stare—before she shifted her attention to her own spell.
She said nothing as the stare continued for a long few heartbeats… then she twisted space, bolting back toward the inn.
Leona didn’t know what she’d just witnessed, but she had a feeling there was more to it than appeared.