I watch as the mage pales to the colour of milk. Clearly the news of the beast wave is incredibly upsetting for her.

  “Lord Nicholas has gone to help,” I tell her. “I’m sure they will be fine.” I wonder briefly at my automatic reaction to reassure her when Worddelver has just attacked and tried to capture one of my companions. But she doesn’t feel like a threat now, and, unlike pretty much every one of my enemies, she was open to making amends through compensation.

  Not compensation for Noir specifically – he’s already got a Class – but when I heard about Class stones, I couldn’t resist. I’ve got a lot of people who would be more useful to me with a Class once they’ve proven themselves. Noir is healed and I’ll make a fuss of him later – see if there’s something he wants that I can give him.

  It’s interesting that this mage is actually researching Classes, asking the same kinds of questions I have been. I wish we’d met in better circumstances. I wonder what answers her research has yielded her thus far.

  “It’s not that,” the mage replies, looking and sounding completely downcast. She heaves a heavy sigh. “Grandmother – Lady Deepdelve, that is – only permits and supports my research because I’ve agreed to a number of responsibilities. And protecting the city is high on that list. She’ll probably forbid me from returning here now,” she moans.

  Well. That’s disappointing. I’d been impressed by her caring so much for her people, even as part of a noble House, but it turns out that her actual reason is as self-serving as any other noble I’ve met.

  “I guess you’ll just have to try to be convincing,” I reply, a touch derisively. How old is this mage, anyway? She’s an adult physically, and her magic was strong, but she reminds me more of a teenager now I’m speaking with her.

  “You don’t know grandmother,” she confides. Then a gleam enters her eyes and she perks up. “Actually, maybe there is a solution. Are you in need of a mage? Particularly a mage-researcher? I’m also good at creating new spells that can be used by mages of all affinities and none, and have become better at capturing and controlling beasts in the course of my research – as a Tamer, that would be useful to you, right?”

  “I don’t need help controlling beasts,” I reply, feeling a little affronted despite myself. Though, spell creation…that does sound a little interesting. And how do spells compare with Skills, anyway? Then I remind myself of where we’re going. “Anyway, we’re not staying here. We’re going on an expedition to the Lost Continent.”

  “Oh!” Mage Worddelver exclaims. “The competition! I heard about that the last time I visited the city. Well, even better. You can take me along with you – I’m sure you’ll need a researcher who can help find out more about unfamiliar magic, or record new abilities shown by the beasts there.” There’s a gleam in her eyes that indicates she’s not only considering my benefit here.

  “And how will this help you with your grandmother?” I ask her a little dryly. “You’ve told me you have responsibilities here.”

  The mage waves her hand absently.

  “Grandmother will see an opportunity for one of her family to get close to the Heir of our Great House as far more important than what she’s currently got me doing. And if I tell her that I was helping you, she’ll forgive me for not answering her call.”

  I hum, eyeing her with a little interest. She’s immature, perhaps, but she’s far more straight-forward than any other noble I’ve come across. I like it, but I wonder whether there’s something hidden beneath it – or whether she has other motivations for living in a tower out in the forest like this.

  Could this could be the person who controlled the yelnas? Might she be involved in the strangeness surrounding this rift? A quick question to Kalanthia and Lathani indicates that they cannot sense any deception in the thoughts she’s projecting. I consider it for a moment and then decide that I might as well keep my friends close and my enemies closer. Which one Worddelver ends up being is still to be discovered, though attacking Noir isn’t a good start.

  “Alright,” I decide finally. “Consider this a trial period. Help us find and deal with the rift, and if you impress me, I’ll agree to you coming on the trip as part of my retinue. We can discuss remuneration at that point. Agreed?”

  “Very fair, my lord,” the mage agrees with another deep bow. I briefly wonder whether she’s going deeper than etiquette demands in order to show more respect, or because she doesn’t know better. Given what I’ve seen of her so far, I figure it’s even odds.

  I push that thought away, deeming it pointless at this time. I look towards the cliff, reminded of the one who can’t currently move from his position. Well, Mage Worddelver did say she was familiar with controlling beasts – and this might be a good way of discovering if she was responsible for the yelnas. If she was, it might just be for an innocent reason like protecting a route up to her tower.

  Please listen closely to what she projects, I ask the two nundas silently.

  “Mage Worddelver–”

  “Please, call me Tiria, my lord,” the mage interrupts. I forcibly stop the corners of my mouth from curling upwards in amusement.

  “Tiria, then. Do you know anything about talismans that control beasts?” I ask casually.

  She gains an expression of deep thought.

  “Talismans to control beasts…a little. I don’t use them myself – they’re generally too limited for my tastes – but I use similar techniques to stop the beasts from attacking me if they ever escape their cages. But because I’m a mage, I can use something more flexible that I can control directly.”

  Did you pick up anything unusual there?

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  No. Her thoughts matched her words, rumbles Kalanthia.

  Same here, Lathani agrees.

  Interesting. So Tiria probably isn’t the one who controlled the yelnas, increasing the likelihood again that it was for nefarious reasons. And interesting that she mentions that mages have access to more effective solutions. Does that mean this unknown person isn’t a mage? That would eliminate the suspect highest on my list. Then again, it could have been delegated to someone who isn’t a mage….

  “Are you aware of any way of destroying a talisman that contains a destruction rune without allowing the destruction rune to carry out its work?” I ask next. While I can recreate a heart, if there are any other options, I’d prefer them.

  Tiria looks thoughtful.

  “I take it that this is after the talisman is bestowed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you could encase the talisman in a protection bubble – or several of them – that’s stronger than the mana within the destruction rune,” she suggests. “Destruction runes only contain a certain amount of mana and once it’s used up, the destruction ends.”

  “Are you capable of setting up such protection bubbles?” I ask her next.

  “Of course,” she asserts, sounding almost offended. “In fact, I’ve pioneered a more powerful mobile bubble shield spell that protects against both magic and physical attacks. You saw me use it in…our battle.” She finishes far more weakly than she began, dropping her eyes to the ground, pink rising in her cheeks.

  “Alright, good,” I tell her cheerfully, not drawing attention to her obvious embarrassment. “Prove it.”

  Her head shoots up again.

  “What, now? Here?”

  “No. I have a yelna below who needs his talisman removed. I was going to just heal the effects of the destruction rune as they happened, but this seems like a far better option.” And a good way of testing her capabilities.

  “As-as you wish,” Tiria replies, sounding a little blind-sided.

  “Come along, I’ll give you a lift,” I offer.

  Markus, you can’t go alone with her, Bastet scolds. She attacked you recently! And if you need to heal our new packmate, you will be vulnerable.

  I don’t think she’s going to attack me now, I point out to the raptorcat matriarch, then relent after a moment. There's no harm in being a bit paranoid, and a lot of harm in being too trusting – as I’ve experienced personally. And she’s right that deep healing makes me too unaware of my own body to notice an attack until too late. OK, Noir, would you be alright coming with me, or would you rather keep your distance from her.

  I don’t like her, the alcaoris replies promptly. I will happily come with her and the moment she makes a move to attack you, I will bite her head off.

  I will fly down with you too, Sirocco announces. Since I know that Aingeal will also accompany me, and that the yelna is already down there and will be urged to protect me by the Bond, I figure that’s enough of a guard.

  Still, Bastet isn’t satisfied until Kalanthia also announces that she’ll come down.

  Tiria seems rather intimidated by the collection of beasts that surround me as we head towards the cliff. I give her a slightly toothy grin.

  “Excuse me for this,” I say as I step quickly towards her and grab her in an embrace. She squeaks in my ear and briefly fights against my hold before giving up when she realises that I have more stat points in Strength than she does.

  Then she shrieks as I step off the cliff, flaring out my wings and controlling our descent. I do need to contribute a little air magic to account for the weight of an extra person but Tiria is quite light, all things considered.

  When we touch the ground again and I release the mage, she stumbles away, wide-eyed. I reach up to rub the ear that’s been abused by her very loud cries.

  “Ow,” I complain mildly.

  “Ow?” Tiria replies, her shocked expression turning to anger. “I’ll give you ‘ow’!” She starts stomping towards me, then pulls up as she obviously remembers exactly who I am and checks herself. “My lord,” she continues resentfully. “You could have warned me.” She looks away grumpily.

  “I could have,” I agree. Then I wonder – why didn’t I? It would certainly have been more polite. But I didn’t want to. Then I rationalise it to myself as ongoing resentment from her attacking Noir and put it out of my mind. “Come.” I step towards where the yelna is waiting for me patiently. Kalanthia leaps lightly off where she’s been basically walking down the side of the cliff, the stone giving her perfect footholds, and Noir lands lightly next to the yelna. Sirocco continues circling overhead, and Aingeal bobs over my shoulder as always.

  I crouch fearlessly next to the yelna and dig in its feathers for the talisman.

  “Sorry we took so much time,” I apologise. “We’re going to free you now, and, with any luck, this mage will prevent you from suffering anything in the process.” I notice that Tiria is hovering uncertainly just outside the yelna’s physical reach. “Come on, he won’t hurt you,” I tell her. And that’s an order, unless she attacks me, I tell the yelna firmly, embedding the command into the Bond. Though, just to check, this isn’t the human who put the talisman on you in the first place, is she?

  No, the yelna rumbles, accepting my order with only a hint of resentment mingled with nerves. The other was bigger, broader, and had shorter fur.

  So, probably a man, I conclude. Though it could have been a bigger and broader woman with short hair too. Unfortunately, when I ask for an image of the human from the yelna, it’s too blurry to see anything much. Apparently the yelna didn’t care about the features of the person, so they didn’t make it into his memory.

  Tiria finally comes close enough to the yelna to reach the talisman – which means she’s close enough for the owlbear to very easily bite down with his hooked beak and destroy her skull, something she’s very aware of if her fearful glances up at said beak are any indication. I wonder briefly why she doesn’t create one of her shields if she’s so worried, but perhaps she doesn’t want to use any magic without my permission right now. Or perhaps she can’t keep a bubble around herself as well as around the talisman. Either way, it’s not really my concern.

  She quickly gets distracted by the talisman, though.

  “Oh, this is well made,” she says, her tones impressed. “Expensive ingredients here – the rotgrass reagent alone would have run the crafter several silvers. No wonder it’s able to hold even a Tier two yelna – they’re notoriously capable of resisting these sorts of controlling agents.” Then she looks up at me with a nervous expression on her face. “I’m not sure I can create a bubble powerful enough to contain the full destructive energies that will be released when we crush this, not even if I layer several on top of each other. The reagents are powerful and the rune will use their energy to fuel itself.”

  “Do what you can,” I tell her. “And I’ll do the same. If we fail, despite doing our best, I will not hold you accountable,” I promise her.

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