Micky and crew made way back towards Hamelburg the baron’s town. The going was a slog especially with several pissed off head instructors and their terrified minions. It had since rained and the wagons were regularly getting stuck in the mud. Worse the wagons were built for experts meaning that they were both heavy as well as more durable. The durable isn’t usually a problem except when things get jammed. Then it becomes the difference between a rock and a hard place. At which point it is usually human effort that loses.

In order to make up lost time the class decided to take a detour around the wetter areas and turn more towards a rocky path through a mountain forest. This would lead them into a grey area that the instructors were reluctant to go though. It wasn’t strictly forbidden, now was it strictly dangerous, and yet it could also be said to be both of those things in a major way. But the class was making excellent time compared to their past achievements. So the instructors forged ahead, until they didn’t.

Standing in the middle of the road was a large gathering of spirits. Spirits were not monsters, though that depended on who you asked. They were technically cultivating creatures that had not gone mad with mana poisening. Nobles were actually more likely to poison themselves with the delicious delicious monster meat that they consumed. So if spirits were monsters than nobles of any level were even more monsters. The group that considers spirits monsters would not argue this point. The nobles that make the rules however, do, and thus state that spirits and spirit beasts are not monsters. Again, this is a grey area since they are still quite hunted. Spirit beasts even more so since their meat isn’t poisoned with mana like monster meat is.

So when a gathering of nonhostile greater spirits and their entourage starts floating around the gathering, the entire class became tense and many an archer prepared to fire, fucking archers. The instructors however, became purposely not tense. Even going so far as to take the drawn weapons away from those that were actively wielding them. Micky was lucky that he always had his staff out but Prin had her javelins taken from her, though she kept her sword.

The instructors walked up to the matriarch of the greater spirits. They bowed their heads and she nodded in return. They rose up and entered into a conversation. The conversation quickly became heated and then they waved Micky over. Most of the class was still oblivious to the fact that he was the sponsor. And by most that meant all. This didn’t help matters but it was also not unexpected in the moment.

“The matriarch wants us to bring along one of the young greater spirits to explore the world outside their home.” Said the head instructor.

Micky just looked on oblivious at this.

“This is her land Micky, she is sovereign here. While she is still under the king’s jurisdiction, technically, that distinction becomes very vague, as this isn’t a race’s settlment. This is a spirit’s forest. It is a land of competition similar to a dungeon, where the races hunt and are hunted. However no greater spirit is ever harmed. Do you understand? She is nobility, maybe royalty, she is sovereign here.” Said the instructor. Micky’s eyes blew up like saucers. He quickly bowed to the spirit matriach. He was even more surprised when she bowed in return.

‘Are you so surprised little one? Don’t give me that look you are terribly easy to read, for a noble. Well maybe for anyone. No, they cannot hear me unless I let them you do not have to worry. Yes, I can hear you just fine, speak as you normally would.’ ‘Said’ the spirit matriarch as she projected her intent, and as a byproduct voice, into Micky’s mind. Micky could tell that the matriarch had an ancient, but not unpleasant, authoritative, but motherly, at least to him, he wasn’t sure if she was the same to the instructors though, her voice was sweet like a spring breeze through a mountain. And yet, she did not speak in a voice at all. He just had the impression that was what she would sound like, even the ability to recreate what she would have sounded like as she said what she said. And yet, he was well aware she hadn’t said anything and only sent him impressions.

“I’m fine, thank you for asking. If there something you need of me?” Said Micky.

‘Yes, dear. I will need you to take care of a child of mine for me. Do give her the utmost care, would you? I think she should see the world and find her place in it. She has the utmost talent, but she will not replace me, and I will not find the need to be replaced for some time yet. None of my children as of yet hold the capability, but that does not mean a mother wishes to hold them back. So I shall send her off with you. It is a shame that I will need to find other arrangements for my other thousands of children but we spirits have nothing but time on our hands for such trivialities. I find it most fitting that she is also of a similar age, intellectual, to you as well. So it is most fitting indeed, fortuitous even.’ Not said the matriarch into Micky’s mind with a not elegance that only a true sovereign could exhibit.

Micky found his head spinning but he nodded his head as he had gotten the gist of it.

‘Oh, that is most pleasant to hear. As a fellow noble it would be best for you to take care of her. Now come out Mayline. Oh, Maymay where are you? Maymay get out here this instant or I swear I will… Oh, there you are!’ Not said the matriarch. Micky wasn’t sure that she remembered that she had been projecting her words directly into his head.

‘Maymay’ Mayline was clearly a spirit with her incorporeal see through body. Of course, the crunching of the gravel under her weight as she walk forward showed that she was infact very corporeal. She was taller than Micky but shorter than Prin. She had a chest but it wasn’t large or small. However, her chest was overshadowed by her hips that were much more womanly. The combination was unfortunate as each would have been fine without the other but together they overshadowed each other. She had a farly square set of shoulders and her waste was not the wasp thin waste of the extreme beauty crowd. Her face was fairly plain if a bit square. And her arms and legs were of the meaty variety, she was not a small woman, but not even ‘pudgy’ either. Overall she was not ugly but could not be considered a beauty.

Maymay looked over at Micky and looked around the rest of the class. The paladin swished his golden locks and let loose a beaming smile. She was not impressed, and his smile completely froze.

She locked eyes with Micky and said “I suppose you will do, let us move one. I have heard many wondrous tales of these ‘Cities’ you races build so many of. I do not truly understand them, but I don’t suppose that is necessary, now is it?” Micky had almost been expecting her to project her ‘voice’ into his head like her ‘mother’ but he guessed that they all can’t be so mystical and grand. It seemed that the matriarch caught on to Micky’s mindset because she snickered from the side. Micky just sighed, he was used to having pushy female companions at this point. He was just looking forward to getting a companionable male companion that he could share his woes with.

The class left the place without making too much of the encounter. They simply figured that the matriarch wanted to enroll this spirit into the class. They didn’t make to much of the matriarch and figured that the reason they had stopped the class from firing off their ammo into the surrounding women was because they didn’t want to fight when it wasn’t needed. All in all, that alone would be a good lesson for the young adventurers that would serve them well into the future.