We had quickly packed away the camp, by which I mean I had Red absorb everything, and after a quick breakfast and some time spent lapping up the sunlight we were on our way to the shore again. My power had grown much greater since I first discovered it, Lubus told me it was still minimal at the moment, but I could still tell the difference. It radiated out from my stomach in warming waves all the way to my fingertips and to the end of my tail keeping me from feeling cold. I suspected I would no longer spend time in the morning bathing in the suns rays or resting on a warm rock for warmth. I still spent time basking in the sun, it still felt nice, but it was less for warmth now and more because it replenished my mana and helped me to grow how much I could hold at one time. The small amount of mana I could hold didn’t bother me much, it was growing by the day, and I still had all my weapons to fight with. My whole reason for finding this power was to find a way to protect myself and my people from what I now knew must be the goblins mages, or at least their ice magic.

According to Red, I had unusually high willpower, many of my other attributes were high as well but Red said that could be attributed to my race more than anything and wasn’t as noteworthy as my willpower. Lubus told during our practice in the dream that willpower was very helpful when shaping spells and telling mana what you wanted it to do. With this in mind and with Lubus’ help I gained a hold of the fire breath thing I had managed to do in Lilian’s spider dream. I was able to replicate it consistently in the end, it would be a nice surprise for anyone who thought me unarmed, but it wouldn’t protect my people from the seeping cold of the goblins. To that end, Lubus and I worked on ways I could use magic to protect us from someone with an ice affinity. He showed me how to project a magical shield in front of me, with my magic it became an orange-tinged see-through barrier that rippled in front of me. It took a chunk of my mana to keep up but would protect me from all sorts of magic. I also came up with a way of sharing the warmth inside me with someone else, I would have to be careful with how much mana I spent on this as the effect would be stronger the more mana I put in, but I was now happy that I had some way of fighting back.

Lilian had also learned about her magic and gained new spells, they were… weird to say the least. They all had portals in common, all the spells she cast manifested themselves in the same way. A shimmering portal would appear and her intended spell would shoot out of it as if they came from another place. I had tried to look into one when she cast a spell, it was as if a flat oval disc opened up in mid-air with nothing behind it and no supports to speak of. Through it, I could only see a swirling white mist, but I could hear so much more. Her “Drake’s breath” spell made the most noise, as the portal opened up where she wanted it a huge stream of fire would shoot out of it accompanied by a drake roaring as if it stood on the other side and breathed fire through the hole in the world. Did those portals lead to her dreams? Did that mean her dreams were real? Perhaps Lilian wasn’t dreaming at all, her mind transported to some other world while she slept. They certainly felt real enough, her dreams, I could feel pain when I was hurt in there, and Lubus had said that any injuries we suffered in there would be real. Why would he heal my hands if the injury would disappear as soon as I woke anyway? It did hurt that was true, but it seemed a bit of a waste of mana otherwise, speaking of mana when I cast spells in the dream my mana had diminished when I woke up, so that must have been real or I cast spells in my sleep. ‘Bah, all this thinking is giving me a headache, it’s best to focus on the problems in front of me, like getting to shore’ I thought as I focused on the path winding through the woods ahead of me.

“How much longer do we have to walk?” Lilian asked from behind me, she had had fun playing with her “Spider shot” spell. The little portal would open on her palm, and a thick strand of sticky spider silk would soot out of it, She could apparently control the shape of it to some extent as she discovered with some experimenting. It would be good for tripping up or binding enemies or even for using as a rope in an emergency. She had quickly grown bored, however, when she ran out of mana since she couldn’t replenish it except in her dreams. I had tried to keep her occupied by suggesting she keep an eye out for any prey she could try and take down using her new bow, but any wildlife in the area seemed to have been scared away by her spellcasting and none had crossed our path so far. I didn’t want to take time out for hunting now that we were on our way, perhaps we could take some time to replenish our supplies when we got to shore. We needed to build a boat anyway, and find a good place to set sail from.

“From the smell on the wind,” I said as my tongue flickered through the air. “We should be there by afternoon,” salt was what I was smelling coming in from the see on the breeze. Lilian took a big breath in through her nose and shook her head.

“You must have a very good sense of smell because I can’t smell anything, except for the woods,” she said before shrugging her shoulders. For what felt like the hundredth time I silently marveled at these humans, they seemed to have no natural advantages and yet they managed to survive, and even thrive.

“Why are you staring at me?” Lilian asked, and I smiled at her before turning away.

“Oh, no reason, just thinking.”

Dretaz Singed Brow was just about to have lunch when the missive had come, it was from one of the high judges in Yhester, he informed that a certain Eplubus Broken Tongue had been sighted in their city, it also listed various other crimes that the boy had apparently committed. Yhester was a rather strange city, it wasn’t run by a lord or some type of mayor, but by the court of law and its judges. They answered to the king of course, but they had somehow gotten him to agree to not send nobility to govern the city, nobles still lived there of course, but they were often of low status and lacking in any real power. Dretaz couldn’t help but notice that the sighting of Eplubus was dated a rather long time ago, meaning that the judge had waited to report to the mages guild for whatever reason. Dretaz suspected foul play, but it didn’t really matter, Eplubus Broken Tongue was a problem that would take care of itself in his opinion, probably by some sort of explosion caused by a botched spell. Even if it wasn’t foul play, perhaps Dretaz could find a way of benefitting from the situation, the long wait time before reporting was rather suspicious, and others would think so too.

Dretaz finished his meal quickly, he got some curious glances from his colleagues, but he ignored them, there was no need to involve them just yet. He stood up, and made his way up the many steps of the Yholn mages guild to his private study, activating the privacy wards after closing the door he sat down in his comfy chair with a great sigh. He was getting up there in years, old even for a wizard, but his mind was as sharp as ever and age was never a hindrance to any magic user, more like an advantage. He started casting the scrying spell with his target firmly in mind he said.

“Scrying, locate, Eplubus Broken Tongue,” images flew through his mind, but Dretaz was confused, normally this spell would find what he had specified immediately. Unless the boy had found a way of shielding himself from his vision, but he doubted that Eplubus had been nothing but a hopeful apprentice before he left. Dretaz first saw a view of Yhester before his vision sped north and stopped at a little town on the road to the northern mountain range. He was shown a cave in those mountains and then a view of the ocean before the vision faded. Although the vision had been less than satisfactory Dretaz heart pounded in his chest with excitement. No, the little pipsqueak wasn’t strong enough to block scrying, but someone else might be or someplace. There had always been legends of islands to the west but no one had ever been found, forget about the boy, whatever he had stumbled upon could be worth a fortune. They would need to put together an expedition, the king might even have to be told, but the details could be glossed over.

Targal was stumped, after arriving in the little village before the mountains and asking around a bit. He had quickly been told a story about a snake lady and the girls she had left with. The guards had been incensed, claiming the girl, Lilian, had resisted arrest by allying herself with the snake lady after killing her own father. He had visited the mother of the girl and had found out that she had protected her mother after just awakening to her powers as a mage, the father sounded like a right piece of shit, but whatever the case he had been pointed in the direction that they had fled in. He knew how volatile an awakening could be, he had been asked to help during a few in his lifetime. People often lost their lives or hurt others without proper guidance, the mages guilds would often pluck them up and give them legal support in exchange for service. That they had run would not paint the girl in a favorable light in a court of law, even if it had been an accident.

No, he understood all that, what he couldn’t wrap his head around was the seen in front of him. Trees had been cut cleanly, leaven perfect stumps where they had stood, a part of the cliff he was standing on seemed to have been made into a perfectly smooth ramp leading to the ocean. If he didn’t know any better, he would say that someone had built a ship here and set sail to the west over the ocean. But that was ridiculous, the wind was blowing in his face so you couldn’t sail during this time of the year, and for another, there was nothing out there worth going to. Despite this curiosity grew in his mind, he wanted to go on a journey when the winds were more favourable. The stone ramp in the cliff intrigued him, it reminded him almost of the perfect constructions in a dungeon.