Carefully studying the areas we passed so that I could remember them for later teleportation or dimensional travel was the sort of thing a mage should do. That is, if the mage was a peasant without access to technology.

  I just took pictures, and attached little notes to them. Riverton was centrally located, so it would be good for traveling to other parts of the country in the future- if I had to. Westdale wasn’t that important on its own, but one of the peaks nearby would be a good viewpoint to see a wide horizon.

  Our journey to Granbold city was boring and safe. The depictions of safety and lack of conflict weren’t entirely made up, after all. Main roads were well patrolled, and monsters would be quite rare. I wasn’t sure about bandits, but they’d probably be smarter than to attack an armed and armored group even if they thought we had something valuable.

  “Are there bandits?” I asked Sir Kalman.

  “There’s always outlaws of some sort,” he said. “For various reasons.”

  Izzy nodded. “They’d prefer to prey on lone travelers, obviously. But I rarely found any trouble, and I could always outrun it.”

  She had faced a lot more trouble than me. Part of that was living longer, but the lifestyle certainly mattered. We would have probably been happier swapping some of our circumstances, but wasn’t that true of everyone? And we might have found unanticipated negative aspects.

  I still thought I would have preferred more real fighting, though it would have greatly influenced my future course, and I was pretty happy with how things were going.

  “Bandits don’t sound very nice,” Zeb commented. “Bunvorixian leaders always told us to watch out for Celmothian attacks, but I don’t know if there were actually any in my lifetime.”

  “Well,” Midnight commented. “There were probably some. Our people are at war, after all.”

  “We shouldn’t be.”

  “True,” Midnight agreed.

  Even I agreed with that. I’d found plenty of people to fight without also including conflicts that didn’t have to happen. Plus, I wasn’t going to participate in most of the Celmothian-Bunvorixian war anyway. I’d only been in one major battle on Celmoth and a couple involving Bunvorixians on Earth, which was barely anything.

  This sure was a lot of walking.

  “... You guys need to get airplanes. Or skyships at least.”

  Sir Kalman rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t long ago that you used to be part of ‘us’. Also, who is going to pay for such things?”

  “Rich people who want to be somewhere faster.”

  “They’d teleport.”

  “Rich people who want to be busy for a while. How many people actually get to teleport regularly?” I asked.

  “Aside from mages? Not terribly many. And not most mages.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because most don’t reach a high enough level.”

  “That’s not true. You can cast Teleport at level 25. Most people should reach that level… a bit older than me.”

  “It can’t be comfortably used for a number of levels beyond that,” Sir Kalman pointed out. “Not everyone likes pushing the limits of their mana capabilities.”

  “Why not? You get to do the good stuff early. If not that, though, they should at least cast Magnificent Mansion. You can retire with that, you know.”

  “The same reasoning applies,” Sir Kalman said.

  “What are people even doing with our abilities?”

  “Personally? Preparing to fight any evils that arise.”

  “See, and if they told people that there were evils that could arise, there would be more people prepared. Are there any expected evil arisings in the near future?”

  Sir Kalman shrugged. “If it counts, the war in Linduel is ongoing. But things have been relatively quiet.”

  “Except the part where planes are getting sealed off.”

  -----

  On the road, we talked freely. In cities, Zeb had it the hardest since she wasn’t supposed to talk at all. Mostly she avoided it successfully when people were close.

  Granbold city was big. Impressive walls, clearly enchanted with magic. “Why isn’t everywhere like this?” I asked.

  “Limited mana,” Sir Kalman said.

  “But there’s more mana here than elsewhere. So either the capital is hogging the magic or they could do at least half of this.”

  Sir Kalman gave no comment. I wondered what he knew about the conspiracies. Izzy didn’t seem to know anything, but she’d spent most of her time avoiding people on purpose.

  I didn’t actually know if flying ships were viable- magical enchantment and object creation had only been a brief overview in the tomes I had access to. I didn’t see any over Granbold city, though. Teleportation was probably better, but my airplane journey had been way faster than this most recent one which was why I thought of that.

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  Celmothians had both, kind of. Though their flying machines were more personal in size and speed than planet spanning. The teleportation worked fine, though, and was plentiful.

  Here in Granbold city, teleportation was only theoretical. Even if Sir Kalman knew of some, until I saw some it was still theoretical.

  The guards at the gates stopped our group. Midnight looked like a normal cat- his suit hidden. I was wearing decoy clothes as well. They were uncomfortable, which made me appreciate Francois’ work much more. And just normal Earth clothing.

  Izzy had one of her local outfits, as well as proper identification- she was used to traveling after all.

  Sir Kalman was in full armor, but he was emblazoned with the symbol of the Order of the Lion- and displayed his identification. Fortunately, that covered for the rest of us- me and a bunch of ‘pets’. I didn’t have proper identification- everyone in Mossley just knew each other, and I’d never been somewhere that needed it.

  I needed to get some form of identification, if the plan was to come back here. And that was the plan, even if it could change. Because I’d been promised knowledge, some of which was magical and some of which was personal.

  Granbold city was, unsurprisingly, very different from a grounded perspective that was also wider in scope. Scrying had shown me some of the city previously, but not in a useful way. Unless I wanted to teleport into the middle of the sky over the city, I needed some more grounded perspectives.

  People probably thought I was odd for holding up a large rectangular plate, but I was immune to public shame. The citizens of Mossley couldn’t stop me, so people I didn’t know certainly couldn’t.

  Izzy elbowed my thigh. “Turlough. Snap a photo of me.” I did. “Not like that. Think of the lighting, and get a better angle.”

  “Don’t you have your phone?” I asked as I moved to where she pointed anyway. My camera features were probably higher quality. I had gotten what was recommended- and quite expensive- early in my career. Technology grew fast, but things that were less than a year old were still good. “Like this?”

  “Get more of the street.”

  Something felt weird. But I did it anyway, sort of kneeling to get Izzy and the street and people behind her.

  “Let me see.” She took a look. “Good.”

  Personally, I thought the artistry was lacking- but I wasn’t a great judge of such things.

  “Bark bark!”

  I wondered if Zeb knew she could still speak Bunvorixian if she wanted, instead of making bad barking sounds. She was just supposed to avoid it since some people might have Translation active.

  Zeb jumped up and poked my tablet with her nose. “Oh, you want me to get a picture of you too? Sure.” And the squirrels, obviously. Then Midnight, Izzy, Sir Kalman, and finally I used Mage’s Reach to hold the tablet up to take a picture of all of us- with the front camera. It was worse, but at least I could tell we were in frame and see where I was pressing.

  I wondered if Mage’s Reach was naturally electrically conductive. It was supposed to represent a person’s hands, after all, but it didn’t feel the same. It worked fine with the touch screen though.

  “We have some rooms reserved,” Sir Kalman commented. “I suggest we secure our lodgings and take a break before heading to perform our official business.”

  That sounded good to me. Official business was usually so dull. Even when powers were involved. Probably the same when it was magic, though I didn’t usually get super official. I tried to steer away from being involved in that stuff when I could help it.

  We had two separate rooms, which just about split things guys and girls. Midnight would be using a bed he brought himself- it was small enough to fit in Storage. Zeb, Izzy, and the squirrels would be in a single room. I would have preferred a bed from Shelter, but cities were picky about people throwing up magic homes in the middle of the street.

  Sir Kalman was setting down his pack of travel gear- most of my stuff was in Storage- when Izzy knocked, then let herself in. “Gimme your tablet.”

  “You can’t send yourself the pictures without cell towers,” I reminded her. I still handed it over. Technically there was some Power Brigade secure stuff on there, but most of that required net access anyway.

  She did go to the pictures. “Who’s this?” she asked, flipping the tablet around.

  “That’s you. You told me to take the picture.” Was something wrong with her? I didn’t sense any magic, but I was ready to bop her with my staff if I had to. Or to use my own Dispel. Or both.

  She kicked my shin, but not hard enough to indicate she wanted to brawl. “This person,” she pointed.

  It was just some random elf in the background. “No idea. Why?”

  “She was watching us.”

  “Oh. That makes sense.” Spontaneous photos could have been selfies. “Probably just a local spy of some sort. Sir Kalman?”

  He took a look. “Can’t say I recognize her,” he admitted. “But I’ll keep an eye out.”

  If I ever saw her, I would suddenly gain a suspicious look. But such were the perils of subterfuge.

  Midnight took a look as well. “I guess it’s not surprising someone was sent.”

  “... Do you think they were waiting all day?” I asked. “Or on previous days? Sounds boring.”

  “Our arrival today was anticipated,” Sir Kalman said.

  There was a scratching sound on the door. “Bark. Woof.”

  I let Zeb- and the squirrel trio- into the room. “Don’t just leave us alone! What was that about a spy?”

  Zeb had good ears. Which wasn’t surprising. I showed her. “This elf. But we should probably just leave her until we figure out what’s going on.”

  Zeb sniffed the screen. “Your technology is lame. How are we supposed to find her? Come on, guys, look at this lady.” The squirrels piled onto Zeb’s head.

  I helpfully pointed. “I suppose just by looking. That might be your job, as the ‘pet’.”

  “We will dutifully find her and remember her scent!” Zeb said earnestly.

  “It’s fine if you don’t.” If I saw her, I’d try to remember her magic. Though depending on her class, it might be more subtle. Not everyone had a convenient aura lingering around them.

  -----

  The mage’s tower was, frankly, too big. It wasn’t skyscraper tall, but it towered over everything around it. I was pretty sure it was held together by magic and nails, though maybe there were some structural engineer classes in this world that I just didn’t know about. People didn’t go for mundane solutions that often, though. Not for big things.

  “I wish I could feel what was going on,” I grumbled. Even with Arcane Sight on, it was just a whole lot of magic. If I was trying to determine if there was a particular kind of ward, the answer would probably be ‘yes’. Alternative, there would be enough interference that I’d have to assume it was there. “We should have asked them for a meeting in a nice field outside the city.”

  “Don’t be too nervous,” Sir Kalman said. “It doesn’t sound like you’re meeting the council of archmages. Just Zenfer, who you’ve already met. Maybe a couple other mages. And I’ll be there as well,” he clapped me on the shoulder.

  If I was certain we were enemies, I would never go in the tower. I’d just bring all the explosives I could stuff in Storage and set them off outside. Or rain down meteors on the place.

  Then again, they probably had all sorts of neat things inside. Whether I could learn anything useful would be another matter, but I could try.