The dwarven woman had returned only minutes after leaving me in the alley, this time wearing cute brown and yellow covers over her ears. They matched very well with her red hair that extended all the way up to the ear tips. She had then introduced herself as Safrah and brought me to the guard station in the gatehouse. The few dwarves that had spotted us stared openly at me. I guess an owl was not the most common sight in the middle of town. Especially one made of metal and darkness.

At the gatehouse, the guards talked to Safrah for a moment until one of them went to fetch the captain. Apparently, he had the highest levelled [Identify] in town and would use it on me. The dwarves brought me to a room set up with a table for questioning and stepped back to the walls. I spent the time asking Safrah a few questions through the connection but she was too scared to answer through it and did not want to speak out loud. Bummer.

After a bit, the guard captain made his entrance. He was a stocky dwarf, the tallest in the room at maybe 120 centimetres, and wore chainmail over some sturdy clothing. It looked like padded leather. On his back hung a triangular shield larger than his torso and a sword was placed at his hip. The dwarf stared for quite a while until one of the guards broke him out of his stupor. Then came a discussion that progressed way too slow for my tastes.

As we finally reached the end and the captain sent one of his men to fetch a potion, I was relieved. I would get what I came for. For better or worse, I was kept in the gatehouse. I wanted to fly over to the potion shop and be on my way as fast as I could but it made sense to send a dwarf instead. There would be far less questioning than in the case I went instead.

Dor sat down in one of the chairs and I positioned myself on the other side of the table. I was looking down on him a little but I remembered to be polite. This would be the fastest way to get what I wanted. Once Vivi was healed, I could see if there was anything interesting in this town.

“Now, let’s talk”, the dwarf began.

I had identified him earlier triggering the stealthy version so I knew he had lower magic Attributes than me. That meant he probably outclassed me heavily in the physical area. He had a whole 15 race levels on me after all. His Class was probably much higher than mine, with 88 years of experience.

I nodded at him.

“What do you want to know?”, I asked.

“First of all, you said you practice thaumaturgy. How bad is your warp?”

The captain’s eyes glared at me like a snake eyeing a badger. He seemed not entirely sure how much of a threat I was but he was confident I was dangerous.

“No worries. Warp doesn’t affect me.”

He scoffed at my answer.

“That seems like gross overconfidence. Why is that?”

He actually bought that? Did he have a Skill to detect truth? It would make sense for a guard, even more for their captain.

“I am not sure.”

I kept my answer simple. No need to give too many details. Dor bought it and brought up the next topic.

“With your Class, I need to make sure. Do you have any intentions to harm this city or one of its residents?”

He knew my Class? Was his [Identify] that high? Though, Vivi had level six and could see everything above Class so the captain probably had level seven.

“I do not.”

I kept my answer simple. This time, Dor visibly deflated letting out all the tension. I looked around and even the other guards only now relaxed fully. I had barely noticed how prepared they were to attack me at any time. And even though I was only sending my side of the conversation to Dor and Safrah, they knew him this well to confer my answer. They had to be working this job for a long time.

“Good”, the captain continued, “That relieves my worst worries. Now there are two more things I want to clear up. Seeing as Ogart should be returning soon, we should clear up payment first. If you want to return to this city after saving the Guardian, or any other dwarven city for that matter, you will have to clear your debt. Understood?”

I nodded. That made sense. I could just fly away into the wilderness and never be seen again. Though I was wondering how they would tell the other cities. I might just be able to fly elsewhere before the information reaches.

“You said you have materials and can provide services. The details can be cleared up at a later date. First priority is saving the Guardian.”

I nodded. This guy was being quite nice. Was it because of that Guardian business? They seemed to be very reverent of those. Dor continued.

“Normally, a healing potion of medium power goes for five gold. That could buy you ten large vis crystals. About the size of your pendant there.”

Wait. Was gold really that low on the coin scale or did they just have trouble getting crystals? They had lots of large nodes in most of their cities so it should not be that much of a problem. At least I should have no trouble paying for my potion.

“I want ten potions, then.”, I sent.

The captain was taken aback for a moment. Then he nodded.

“I see. For now, Ogart will only get one. You can get more once you return. How do you want to pay?”

“Vis crystals.”

Dor let out a whistle.

“You aren’t stealing them from the Guardian, right?”

I glared at him. How would he even consider that? Well. I would steal crystals if I needed them. There were so many around nodes, it would not even matter.

“Vivi is my friend. I have no need to steal from her.”

“Good!”, he nodded, “There is one more thing I want to know. Do you have any dealings with the orks?”

His stare hardened a bit once again. This was another important question.

“I killed a few thaumaturges.”, I answered.

The captain’s eyes widened. Safrah let out a surprised squeak. I felled a sprout of panic well over our connection. Without looking at her, I sent reassurance. I would not harm her. At least not without reason.

“Thank you for your service!”, he lowered his head in a half bow. So, were the dwarves at war with the tribes? It did not matter much to me. This place was far enough from the border, any conflict would be easily avoided.

“Maybe we can make use of your services as payment.”, Dor considered.

I shook my head and let out a metallic hoot. All the dwarves shied back from the eerie sound.

“I don’t feel like going back to the ork tribes.”, I sent to the captain.

He gave me a curt nod. As he was about to start with another question, the door opened and a dwarf rushed in, breathing hard. He held a flask in his hand filled with a red liquid. My senses quickly noticed the invigorating energy it gave off. It was closed off with a wax seal. A tendril of darkness took it from him before he could get a word out. The dwarves stared as I opened my storage portal and put the potion inside. With a “Thanks.” sent to the two that were still connected, I jumped off the chair and made my way to the door.

The dwarf that brought me the potion had frozen so I clanged my tongue to break him out of his stupor. When he looked at me, I bid him to move with a wing and he did as asked. Good. I did not want to use the little mana I could spare to shift out of this building.

“I will come back.”, I sent to the captain and took off.

About thirty minutes later I was back at the pond. I had enough mana to shift once without going below my threshold of what I needed to return to my original form, so I dove into the water straight from the air. I shot to the ground of the little tunnel leading down and sent a tendril of shadows past the trap. A shift and a few moments later I was back in the den. Vivi had fallen asleep, a little of the food gone. At least it had not taken me too long to get a potion. I pulled it out of my storage and carefully woke up my friend.

Vivi growled at me before wincing in pain and laying back down. I connected to her with the supersensory matrix.

“I got a healing potion.”, I sent, “Open your mouth.”

She complied and I carefully broke the wax seal with a talon. The red liquid slowly dripped into her open maw and she nearly pulled back. I held her head with a shadow tendril and sent comforting feelings through the connection. A few minutes later she had drunk the whole bottle. I strained my senses to feel for the magic and found it circulating through her body with the pulse of her heart. Every moment, more magic entered the cycle and what reached a place of injury was consumed. Pulse by pulse, Vivi was being healed. I paid close attention to the fascinating procedure and noticed how less and less mana left her bloodstream. At some point, it completely stopped doing anything and Vivi opened her eyes, looking at me.

“Thank you”, she sent.

I could feel her gratefulness in the words. Finally, my body lost its tension and I sunk to the floor. This was the first time I was sitting down, actually bending my legs. It almost felt human. And it did not feel weird. Maybe my evolution let me act more like a human from time to time?

For a few minutes, we just stared at each other, until Vivi started to chuckle. I joined in with my metallic voice and soon a cat and a metal owl were having the likely most eerie laughing fit this world had ever heard. We were enjoying ourselves way too much considering just a few hours earlier, we had picked a fight with almost twenty deer. But this was life and what was life without some crazy fun every now and then?