Wallace

"Okay, I get what you're saying, but none of it makes sense."

"You said that magic needs both a noun and a verb, right?" Cassius asked, and I nodded in reply, "Well, I don't think that's always the case. Either that or the magic I have is different from yours."

"So what, instead of using the core books, your magic works off some super special splat book?"

"Maybe I'm just better at it. You spent all your points becoming a big dumb giant, trying to multi-class fighter-wizard like a dumbass, while I made the smart play and went straight caster."

"Alright smartass, give me an example."

Cassius leaned forwards and pointed out two entries in my notebook, "Movement and Metal. Let's say I categorize my spells along these lines, then a lot of the time I'm casting spells with either Movement or Metal, while not actually spending the mana you say I should need. At least if what you've got written here is correct."

"If it's not correct, you're the only exception on the planet."

"Take Sense Metal, for example. As long as I have some yarrow, I can just cast it. I don't need any other materials. Hell, if I'm not casting it from the mill, there usually isn't even any metal nearby. Which is usually the whole reason I'm casting the spell in the first place."

"Maybe yarrow also has metal mana in it?" I frowned, "That doesn't make a lot of sense, though. I still kinda think it's a purely psychological block, but everything I've heard says you only get one mana type from one thing. You can pull that one thing in half or cut it apart, but you've got to do something to it to make it not 'one thing' to be able to get two mana types out of it."

Cassius shook his head, "I never bothered to do anything like that. Are you sure that's always the case?"

"There's some weirdness with gemstones. They're the exception. But otherwise, yeah. I've tried to get around it, but so far, no luck."

"I dunno man, I mean I get what you're saying. It doesn't make sense that my magic would be different from everyone else's, but it seems pretty different so far."

"To be fair," I added, "It's not like there's a Hogwarts I can go to. Other spellcasters aren't exactly being forthcoming with what they know."

Cassius rested his jaw on his fist, and gave the list of mana types another look, "So if I go through this list, I've only ever used Movement, Sense, Protect, and Air, Body, Metal. But if I think about what I've used as fuel for the spell, it's just yarrow, lead, and copper. Guess I could have used tin, but it's even rarer than copper and lead, so I tend to save it."

"What spells are you actually casting though, and what materials are you using?"

"Movement and Air, I use that to make the forge burn hotter, and all I need for mana is the air around me. Yeah, I'll be working with metal, but it's beside the point. It's like a forced-induction spell. I'm turbocharging the forge. Another example is Protect Body, that one makes me tired, but I don't need any mana at all. If I had to guess, I'm getting Body mana from myself. Don't know where Protect is supposed to be coming from though."

"You been getting in a lot of fights?"

"I've been called out a couple of times. It does help a lot in a fistfight, but no, that's not what I use it for most of the time. Usually, I cast it so I can work in the forge without needing tongs to manipulate what I'm working on. Move Metal is the other one, if I get the metal hot enough I can use Move Metal to reshape it. For that, I need either metal or yarrow. But never both."

"Have you got any lying around? Yarrow, I mean?"

"Sure, give me a sec," Cassius pushed himself up, and went over to a collection of little cubbyholes set against the rough stone wall.

When he returned, he handed over a bit of dried yarrow, which I tore in half.

I decided to try using Body mana the way he'd described and with the Sense mana from the yarrow, cast Sense Body. The flowers crumbled, and I suddenly felt a little more tired, but the spell worked. I could see Cassius, myself, and some of the people in the village beyond outlined in blue.

"It work?"

"Yeah, I've got wall hacks now. And it looks like you're right about being able to draw Body mana from yourself."

Cassius took a seat on the bench beside me, "Still some holes though," he pointed out.

"Yeah, going to try Movement with yarrow now- Yeah, that works," I nodded, while a few coins danced in the air in front of me, "So yarrow has Movement and Sense mana. Good to know."

"So that leaves Protect, Movement, and Metal. I don't know where I'm getting Protect mana from, but whether or not I need an actual source of Movement or Metal seems to depend on the spell."

"Oh," I realised, looking at the note again.

"What?" he frowned.

I nodded at the paper, "What do Protect, Metal, and Movement all have in common?"

There was a pause, and then he sighed and rubbed his temples, "Should have seen that sooner."

"Yeah, been eating a lot of red meat?"

"No, which probably explains why I've been so tired. I've been using the iron in my blood. It's a miracle I didn't kill myself."

"Makes me wonder what the other species might be able to draw upon for mana."

"What do you mean?''

"Fey have purple blood, so it's probably not iron-based. Elves bleed blue, for sprites it's clear, and I'm not sure about gnomes or goblins. But if I had to guess, they all have something other than haemoglobin in their blood."

"There's fantasy races and everything? Man, have I been missing out, or what?"

"I don't know how long it's going to take to convince the village to come around, maybe I just set things in motion for now, and come back later. Rushing might be the wrong strategy. Either way, I should be able to get you to civilization pretty soon."

"I'd say you need to gather some intel, but I've been here two years, and it's not like I'm full of ideas," Cassius admitted, "They're big on gift-giving, every time the chieftains have a big meet, they exchange gifts, try to out-do one another, that sort of thing. I don't know, maybe bribe the hell out of them?"

Several bright flickers caught my eye, and I lifted my gaze. Despite the intervening stone wall, I saw a crowd of blue silhouettes was popping into view, approaching the mill.

"Something up?"

"Bunch of guys coming our way, big dude at their head."

The other man grimaced, "Huh, the chief usually makes people come to him. Guess you're special."

"This a problem?"

"Oh, probably. Let's find out what kind."

Cassius and I stepped out onto the road to meet the crowd of men.

Well, road was a strong word for it. It was little more than a dirt path, quickly turning to mud with the melting snow. Except for the chieftain and what I assumed to be his bodyguard, the men were unarmed. The chief and his buddy didn't seem like they were looking for a fight either. I got the sense that they made a habit of wearing weapons, and hadn't bothered to take them off to meet us. The bodyguard held a long stone-tipped spear and a large wooden shield, while the chief had a short sword on his left hip.

I'd left my weapons in the mill, just inside the door where they'd be easy to reach if I need them in a hurry. Though with a pocket full of quarters, I had little to fear.

"Ho, good day Chieftain Wallace," the man in front all but bellowed.

At six and a half feet, or thereabouts, he was about the same size as Temerity, though he lacked her sharp edges. While the big elf looked like carved stone, the chieftain was a little more dad bod. Which is not to say he was a pushover. His arms were as thick around as the thighs of most men, but he was carrying a lot of extra weight around the belly. The only man doing so, I noticed. While his bodyguard and a couple of the other men looked well-fed, on the whole, the locals seemed on the wiry side.

"Rolf," Cassius muttered.

"Chieftain Rolf, nice to meet you," I told him, trading grips, "I hear you're the man to talk to around here."

"Just so, just so," he boomed, "I understand you've met my daughter, she told me you were chieftain of a fortress near here, is that so?"

"It is," I nodded.

I made a conscious effort to say as little as possible. I knew my strengths, and talking to people was not one of them. Better for the locals to think me the strong silent type than to realise how out of my depth I was.

"Have you met others? Is there more out there?" Rolf asked, waving vaguely at the horizon.

"Oh yeah," I nodded, "Parabuteo is three days south, or thereabouts, and has at least a hundred times as many people as you have here. And there's two more just like it."

I got the sense he wasn't sure whether to believe me, which was fair considering the context he had to work with, but he didn't challenge the remark.

"And your fortress, it's between us and these outsiders?" he asked, and I nodded, "So that's why we've seen no one else," he realised, raising his voice more to the crowd, than myself, "You've been shielding us from anyone who would trouble us."

I caught myself before I could sigh. Now I knew why we were meeting in public. I might not know his game, but I knew a performance when I saw one.

I said nothing and tilted my head to the side noncommittally.

"Of course," Rolf went on, his tone a little forced. I think he expected me to give him more to work with, "I suppose you would expect payment for keeping us safe."

Maybe he wants to swear fealty, but needs to sell it to his people?

"We've had little time to farm," I agreed slowly, "Though my people do know certain arts that would be helpful to you, I'd be happy to teach them. I wouldn't want your people to go hungry after all, if they were sharing what they had with us."

"What sort of arts?" a scrawny man piped up from the back.

"I told you how big the cities are, takes a lot of food to feed so many. There's only so much land to go around, and I can help you get the most out of it. You'd be able to share some with us, and still have more for yourselves than you do now."

The chieftain nodded with exaggerated thoughtfulness, "I'll admit, it would be a great help to my people if you could do this thing for us. But my people need to make it through today before we can hope for a better tomorrow."

Ah, here comes the ask.

"How can I help?"

Both the chieftain and his people took on a more concerned look, though it seemed an awful lot more genuine coming from the undernourished farmers in the back.

"A monster has been preying upon our flocks, taking sheep, goats, pigs, damn thing even took our only cow. Even now, I fear for my people, but if it goes on much longer, we may not be able to survive. This false winter that just passed, who knows when we might have another, or how long it may last? A week was bad enough, so short of wool for clothing," the chieftain paused, proceeding hesitantly, "If you could slay this creature for us, I believe my people would be proud to recognise you as our high chief."

Slay the dragon, get the village. I can work with that.

I frowned thoughtfully, "I think I can do that for you."

Immediately, a cheer went up, followed by a great deal of backslapping and shaking of hands. Which, of course, made me uncomfortable. Bad enough, they were touching me, but the locals were getting a little ahead of themselves. For all they knew, I might still screw this up.

Not that I was expecting to screw this up. I'd brought the rifle after all, and there was only so much I had to fear from a monster that got by stealing livestock.

Rolf put a hand on my back, guiding me as best he could back up to the longhouse, "Wallace, come, you must be tired from the road," He boomed, "You need food, drink, rest, if you're going to be ready to face our monster. Come, we will feast, and toast to your victory."

As much as I hated everything about this situation, I allowed him to lead. With a backwards glance, I saw that Cassius followed, an amused smirk on his face. At the very least, the booze wouldn't do much to me, but it should loosen the tongues of those around. With any luck, I'd get a little better idea of just what game they were playing.

I sighed, at this point really very tired of holding the drinking horn. I couldn't put the damn thing down without spilling everything inside, and they didn't let my horn remain empty for more than a moment before someone filled it once again. I thought about propping it up between my knees, but I didn't want to spill ale all over my jeans, so kept holding on to the damn thing.

The ale wasn't very strong, but by sheer volume, it was enough to inebriate the whole longhouse. And it was shortly after that when I realised I was wasting my time. While Rolf and the others seemed happy to try getting more promises out of me, the sort of information I got out of them was best described as gossip, rather than intelligence.

The only two unmarried women in the village were Aldith, the chieftain's daughter, and the blacksmith's daughter, Rohesia. The chieftain, not having a wife, and wanting sons, was pretty explicit about what he wanted to do to the young woman. It hadn't even taken that much ale before he'd begun to boast of his exploits to be. For their part, the two young women both seemed pretty keen on Cassius. Not that Rolf was willing to admit it, and he shouted down anyone repeating any rumour that Cassius was sleeping with either or both of the women.

A glance at Cassius suggested at least parts of this were correct, as he and the blacksmith's girl were leaning against each other by the far wall. They weren't getting too handsy, but they sure seemed to enjoy each other's company.

Aldith had noticed them as well, but she was sitting with the other young women near a separate hearth. From the look of things, not happy to be there either. But it was weariness and not jealousy that marred her features as she stole glances at the pair.

If she and Rohesia were the only two available women, then were Cassius and Rolf the only two men?

I set the thought aside. If she needed a hand, then it was the sort of thing I could fix once I was in charge. There was a whole city full of people just a couple of days away. I could make some introductions, get her travelling to the city—anything to throw some cold water on the drama.

I'd track down this monster, put the fucker in the ground, and then get to work fixing things up around here. And if Rolf tried to renegotiate, well, he made his offer in front of half the village. If he went back on his word, it should be enough justification to challenge the guy for leadership. Not that I particularly wanted to kill the guy. His fixation on a woman young enough to be his daughter was sick, but it didn't mean he deserved to die. With any luck, he'd back down, or I'd be able to win without killing him.

Some people began to leave as the party was winding down, but a good portion seemed content to bed down right here, Cassius included. Not really having a better option, I did the same. At least I had plenty of room.

I didn't have my pack with me, so I was short a blanket, but with so many fires going it was warm enough. I did have my linked notebook though, as Val's drawing had made me paranoid about letting it out of my sight.

I opened the notebook, half expecting to find another lewd drawing, but there was nothing new written in the book. So I found my pen and wrote Val an update.

Found the 'castle', it's a big pile of dirt with some logs stuck in the ground. Pretty sure Simon was fucking with me. There's plenty of arable land, and if I slay this monster they have they'll swear fealty. They're not going to be of much use beyond farming, but we need food, so I'd still call it a win.

There's a human here too- well, they're all humans actually. But the guy I'm talking about is modern, same time period as me, give or take a year. Knows magic too, turns out Body mana can be drawn from yourself. He figured that one out. Makes me only a little tired, but be careful if you try it. Cassius is a big dude and it hits him pretty hard. He also figured out, by accident, that you can also draw on the metals in your body. Or at least the metals in a human body. Our blood has iron in it, and he's been drawing on the mana in that iron.

Val, I know you're a lunatic, but be especially careful about that one. Iron deficiency in humans can really mess you up, and it's been making Cassius really tired. I don't know what metals are in fey blood, but if you deplete them too much it'll probably kill you. So take care of yourself.

Good night Val, thinking of you.