“Recently, I found myself admiring the sailors. Those brave men are willing to give up their lives exploring the vastness of the seas, searching for lands unknown, unconcerned by a threat of leviathans living in the deeps. Now I am finally starting to understand them.

I spent lifetimes travelling around continents and can no longer find any novelty here. Should I spend eternity in a boredom or would I risk my life again, reaching out to the Soul Planes?”

- Traveller’s Endless Journeys

Ion returned to the camp shortly before the sunset.

Everything was still bustling with activity, albeit the atmosphere felt tense; apparently, by now everyone has learned about Mchac’s squad's findings. There were twice as many watchers as yesterday, some people were training together, few taking care of the horses.

Ion sat by the campfire where he spotted familiar faces and started to eat.

After a while more people gathered around, lured by stories told by more experienced mercenaries.

Currently, it was Nanoc's turn to recount his tale. He started by recalling a siege of some Phenyth’s fortress he participated at the age of fifteen. The story continued, about him wandering as far as to the Iriath Divine Empire, where he met Airelav. Together they fought many beasts and evil wizards, even tried a life of pirates for a while; until their ship crashed and sank on Isvaarheim's shores.

Ion was not sure whether to believe even a half of the barbarian’s story, but it sure was amusing. Aren and Hant were doing their best to support his storytelling with accompanying music.

‘Contrary to some other mercenaries they don’t seem to be concerned at all about a possibility of an upcoming fight. Is this a demeanour one gets with experience?’ Ion glanced around, seeing some who probably never before left areas near Windhelm, ‘Or maybe it is a lack of imagination in some other cases?’

Most of Ion’s knowledge about fighting came from his visions; if that counted, he could be surely considered a real veteran. Yet the wizard he followed in dreams usually stood far behind lines akin to some commander, casting spells from afar, trusting his defensive spells…

Visions showed him that one of the greatest threats was to face an enemy that was unknown. When hunting dangerous beasts with Ryan, they always did researches before going for their pray, considered the best tactics. It allowed them to take down even stronger opponents quite easily. Going forward not knowing what to expect didn’t sit well with him at all.

Ion heard from Dorian that Milas discussed with the merchant possibility of postponing further travel until they could find out what lies deeper in the forest; he wished to send a smaller group to check whether the second waystation on the road to Leisha's Crossroads still stands, yet to no avail. The merchant claimed that even if they return to Windhelm now, they would not be able to gather stronger force, so they may as well continue.

At some point Thaleus, Dorian and Ciros stood up and changed Arde, Sae and Anton as sentries.

The halfling looked quite dejected seeing a gaze Reria sent him when he returned.

“I already told her that I have no idea why I did this,” Anton mumbled to himself drinking as he sat beside Ion, not looking in Reria's direction anymore.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, don’t pretend. I’m sure that everyone knows about this by now. I wasn’t a saint my whole life, but I am not such a scum to try stealing from those I travel with. About yesterday, I have no idea what I had thought, I hadn’t even drink anything then,” he took a big gulp from a bottle. Today he definitely decided to get drunk.

”I just felt the urge to look through their belongings. Don’t look at me like that, I am doing this sometimes, but only to be sure that they are prepared for travels! Like Tori, with all her talent for shooting, she never really bothers with checking how many arrows she still has left in a quiver… or Arde, she still thinks that potions are appearing out of nowhere in her sack… someone has to take care of them! But taking wizard’s spellbook? And even some freaking priest’s holy book? What could I even do with those?”

“They will surely forgive you soon,” When Anton started sobbing Lyssa tried to console him.

“Man, get the hold of yourself! And you can’t drink anymore; actually, you shouldn’t try to drink anything at all! We must be ready for a fight at any moment. You are returning to your tent, now!” Tori dragged the halfling away from the campfire.

“…it was on the evening, like this one, when I spotted a lone horse, standing in the middle of the plains, a saddle on its top, even gear of a rider, yet no hint of an owner…” after Nanoc and Airelav left, it was Aren who started telling his stories.

Ion and Lyssa moved closer towards the group, so they could hear better.

"The animal stood still, as I approached, its haunted gaze following my every move. I heard stories about specters attacking travellers in that area...” Aren created an illusory image of an undead just before Reria’s face. The scared sorceress almost jumped into his arms, then blushed seeing bard’s smile.

“Aw!” Arde punched his head lightly “What was that for?”

Sae who sat beside trio laughed.

“Anyway, investigating the horse, I found out that it bore marks of claws, part of its saddle melted. I decided to follow tracks left by it, searching for its unfortunate rider…” he continued the tale, music and illusions assisting his storytelling.

“Don’t you envy that guy? Even Lyssa is clinging to him by now,” Hant moved closed to Ion, observing now five girls – as Tori had already returned – sitting close to the blond man, “It’s not like he is the only bard around here,” he added grudgingly.

“…the campsite was abandoned, bloody remains everywhere. Apparently, the rider wasn’t the only victim…”

Ion pondered over Hant’s question; was he jealous seeing girls’ attention towards bard? Well, if she removed her plate, Arde’s figure, with long flowing dark hair and few green highlights was sure mesmerizing. While Tori nor Lyssa weren’t exactly in Ion’s type, seeing both Reria laughing from Aren’s jokes and Sae trying to excitedly guess the culprit behind bard’s story elicited a twinge inside him.

“…they looked like monstrous ants, their mandibles almost as big as a sword…” Ion decided to put some false notes into Aren’s music and created sounds of yawns from the audience using Minor Illusion.

‘What a petty man I am…’ he thought when Aren finished the story and started to check his lute carefully. Ion caught Sae looking at himself for some time, averting her eyes when their gazes met. Most of the audience started to leave the campfire and prepare for the night’s rest.

“After this job, I should be able to live comfortably for at least a month without any problems,” Hant was seemingly in a better mood after seeing Aren’s trouble with the instrument.

“Wow…you are a big spender,” Ion considered his own payment.

“Oh, 15 gold coins isn’t that much to live for a month…”

“What? You will earn 15 gold coins for the road to Leisha’s Crossroads?” Reria and others around seemed a bit stunned hearing him.

“Yes?” Hant was dumbfounded.

“Are you hired as a guard or only a musician?” she inquired further, “I thought that you know how to create at least some illusions, right?”

“Of course,” Hant answered pridefully.

“Hahahahaha!” laugher burst around.

“Well, you have been badly ripped off,” Sae was almost crying, “With such a wage wouldn’t it be better and safer to find some work in a town? For a spellcaster, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

On average, a farmer around Windhelm could earn around 700 silver coins or 7 gold coins per month. It was barely enough to survive without a risk of starving. Commoners in towns could earn from around 15 gold monthly; regular street guards making up to 20 gold.

While their wage was supposed to be for the fourteen days long travel, Hant’s payment might be fair for some upstart warrior, but for a caster, even a beginner, was really meagre, taking into a consideration risk of the job and limited numbers of magic users willing to join such expeditions.

“How much are you earning then guys?”

“30 gold,” answered Reria.

“Same here. But I just needed means of a safe travel towards Utherlight,” Lyssa followed.

“40” Ion answered. Seeing Hant’s jaw dropping, he shrugged and added “What? I bargained.”

“It’s the same amount each one in our team gets and we are not working with those merchants for the first time. Those guys surely got snakes in their pockets…” Aren sounded little angry after finding out about Ion’s payment.

Ion was sure that if not for the fact that merchants were quite desperate organising their caravan he couldn’t be able to settle for so much. Surely not as a 2nd circle wizard at least. His salary was very generous for a first-time guard mage. To save that much he would need to spend around two months hunting with Ryan.

That amount of gold was almost half of what he had spent on his new enchanted cloak. Comparing it to the prices one had to pay for really good magical goods or high-quality weaponry it was still cheap. Ion believed that something like his Bag of Holding would be hard to buy even if one was willing to spend more than 800 gold coins to get one.

Discussions about gold and values of items continued for some time. Ion argued with Reria about what they considered reasonable prices for magical components, while rest of them talked about armours and melee weapons.

“…tell me what kind of pendant you are wearing, Sae?” Tori tried to change the topic once more, her earlier tries to lead conversation towards bows unsuccessful.

Sae was currently only wearing a linen tunic as she removed most of her leather armour during the conversation. On her neck was a loose pendant which almost reached her breast area.

“This one?” she grabbed it, “In my home, it was believed that this gem could protect the one wearing it… but if you ask me, I’m only still having it because it’s shining nicely.”

She moved the pendant with her hand and the gem reflected the campfire light in various directions, dispersing colours around. Hearing astonished gasps from the girls around Sae started to hide it under her tunic.

“May I see it?” Ion wondered if it was really some kind of a magical item.

For a moment she seemed surprised by his question.

“Sure,” Sae smiled mischievously, walked towards sitting Ion and bent in front of him, causing her pendant to hang just before his eyes.

For a moment he kept his attention on the bipyramidal gem which glowed with a faint inner light, but then reddened a bit noticing that in this position Sae wasn’t showing him only her necklace.

“Thanks… I guess” Ion said after a moment, eliciting some laughs around. Seeing Hant’s jealous expression Ion wasn’t sure whether to smile or sigh.

Sae hid her pendant and joined the discussion again. It seemed that Tori managed to change the topic of the conversation with her question; after all various types of enchanted jewellery were popular items among mercenaries. They could not only be relatively easily runed to increase wearer's durability, but also an enchant itself was able to last for a quite long time if done correctly. Ion started to consider getting one for himself too.

When it was getting really late he decided to go to sleep. Even if Milas decided to spare casters from taking shifts as sentries, spending whole days on travels was still taxing to him, prompting him to say goodnight to everyone.

****

“Hey, wake up! Wake up!” Ion tried to understand what is happening.

He was in a tent, someone’s hair were falling on his face.

“Sae? What is going on?”

Ion could hardly see girl’s silhouette in the darkness.

“Shhh…” she whispered to his ear, placing a hand on his mouth.

“I have something for you…”

Sae was lying on top of him, her hand slowly moving downwards touching him.

“I decided that I can’t endure it any longer…”

Ion could feel her every move as her body pressed against him. He supposed that it was some weird dream.

“So I came to you...”

Her hips moved slightly.

“Oh! Here it is!”

She suddenly sat on him, her hand extended, a scroll just before his face.

“I found this some time ago but was never travelling with a wizard for long enough to ever consider giving it away. Yet, after seeing Maval and Mchac creating their shelters with magic I thought it might be worth, especially if you decide to continue travelling with us after this job, even if only for a while.”

Ion just stared at her, feeling his heart still beating fast.

“I also took some inks so you could copy the spell properly. I have high expectation in having a comfortable place for sleeping, so please try to not disappoint me.”

She smiled at him and left his tent.

Ion just laid for a while, not sure what to think. Then he willed Light and sat looking at the scroll and inks.

“Well, I don’t think I will be able to fall asleep anymore after that, so I might just as well spent the rest of the night studying this scroll.”

****

Ion copied another sigil to his spellbook, listening to the rhythmic sound of raindrops hitting his tent. He decided to stop here for now; one wasn’t supposed to rush when learning new spells.

Suddenly he heard a faint noise coming from his tent’s entrance.

‘I’m having many guests tonight.’

He noticed Anton’s head looking inside.

“Arde spotted something gathering around our camp. Prepare to fight, they might attack at any moment,” The halfling left without further explanations.

Ion’s heart raced as he casted Arcane Armour and hastily put his clothes and cloak afterwards. He looked out of his tent and casted Darkvision as the camp was still covered in the darkness of the night. At first glance everything seemed calm, only few watchers were walking around. Yet he also caught glimpses of Anton, Sae and some others moving between tents silently, waking up other guards.

After a few minutes of nervous waiting, a sound of triggered Alarm spell could be heard around and everything started to happen very quickly.

**?**

Small, grey-red insectoid creatures were approaching a campsite. They hid in the forest for a time, yet sensing growing anger of those following them, they finally moved forward once more.

When they reached a clearing an alarm sounded.

Six-legged creatures moved up faster towards surprised guards when suddenly two spectral figures appeared above the camp; the hooded one wielded a scythe, the second, smaller, covered in ethereal leaves was armed with a halfspear. The guardians created by clerical spells fell down striking against them. Before the apparitions lost their power two of the insects perished and some others were wounded. The remaining creatures swarmed two pitiful humanoids standing on a watch, ruthlessly slashing and piercing their bodies with claws.

At that moment the camp bursted with activity as many guards charged out of their tents with battle-cries, sending arrows towards them.

On top of one of the wagons stood a female clad in robes mocking those the masters wore. She created small ice shards, yet the creatures nimbly dodged most of them.

Receiving an order they dispersed to wreak havoc around.

**Ion**

Ion saw Maval casting her spell yet it seemed that similarly to arrows released by archers, magical ice had troubles with penetrating insects’ carapaces.

The young wizard saw that a blast of energy created by Reria seemed to be more effective and targeted the same monster with Magic Missiles. He was surprised when the creature, pierced by his three darts, dissolved into a pool of black ichor, yet he had no time to think about it any longer.

Out of nowhere, in front of four charging mercenaries appeared another menacing insect, this one human-sized, covered in a dark chitinous plate. It wielded a trident in two of its claws, using two others to cast a spell Ion didn’t know. Suddenly a yellow cloud appeared and moved towards the running mercenaries. Three of them fell to the ground while the insectoid charged towards the last one who still stood.

Noticing more similar monsters appearing around, Ion focused on the one standing near the largest group of guards and tried to interrupt its casting with Counterspell giving them an opening.

Ion’s efforts managed to stop one of the casters, Maval interrupted another, yet the remaining four finished their spells. One of the newly created poisonous clouds flew towards Mchac’s group, yet on druid's command, a Gust of Wind dispersed it, granting charging warriors an opportunity to safely attack the creature.

On the left side of the battlefield, Hant was the only one moving out of a cloud that covered his party. He still chocked when Lyssa proceeded with healing him. Dorian charged against the foe, his greatsword engulfed by light.

Thaleus and Sae led some guards against two monsters looking like black, oversized dogs, in a place where their heads should be only a mass of teeth. Sae jumped forward, evading long, barbed tongues the creatures used as their weapons, faint light her shortswords glowed with dimmed by a black ichor as she slashed one of the beasts. The dwarf, swinging his hammer and shield with trained motions cleared the way through tiny insectoids for the group that followed them.

In the middle of the front line, Arde and Istaro, stood together against another abomination, whose body seemed to be a strange conglomerate of two smaller insects, swinging wildly his three scimitars and slashing with two remaining claws against them. While Arde's sword radiated with a divine light on each strike, Istaro’s glaive seemed to sap all the light from around. There was something mesmerising when observing the dissimilar pair fighting side by side.

Some guards were already lying on the ground, many others fleeing in random directions, chased by dogs or groups of two or three small insectoids.

“Fight cowards!” Milas charged towards a trident-wielding monster as it prepared another spell.

Magical Darkness engulfed everything around, only to be pushed away by the blinding light emanating from Lyssa's shield moment later. Creatures around screamed in pain, but most continued to fight. Behind the line, Darren and Mchac were helping wounded and trying to rally fleeing ones.

Ion casted Web to snare two dogs his companions fought against. They attacked them quickly while the beasts struggled to release themselves. They managed to take down one of the monsters in the next few seconds.

Maval casted another spell, engulfing one of the trident-wielding attackers in ice. It shattered after a moment. Nanoc’s team also managed to finish off their opponent and moved towards another one.

“Aaagh!” Maval screamed in pain, pierced by a claw of a large, muscular gargoyle that appeared behind her out of nowhere. Before anyone could react the creature disappeared.

Seeing her collapsing figure, Ion felt a creeping fear. He used his cloak to create Mirror Image; he was afraid that this invisible attacker would target him next.

“It’s above!” Hant pointed towards the sky, parrying an attack from one of the smaller insects. Something was circling above them.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning arced towards the flying silhouette from one of the wagons. It was a fat merchant that assisted their caravan, shooting from an elongated wand. A heavily armed personal bodyguard stood beside him vigilantly. It was within Ion’s expectations that a guild would provide its man with magical devices.

Suddenly the winged monster disappeared from the sky and in the next moment shattered one of Ion’s illusions. From this close, the wizard could see its muscular arms covered with green fur and two horns growing from its ugly humanoid face. The gargoyle raised an enormous cleaver it wielded in one hand and went towards Ion. One of the smaller insects destroyed another of his illusions.

Ion casted Magic Missile and could swear the monster was smiling at him when the darts hit it, leaving only small bruises.

He gulped.