They didn’t have to wait long before Duke Dornan and Captain Gram walked through the door side by side. The size discrepancy between the two powerful figures was quite comical. Gram standing nearly 9 feet tall standing next to Dornan who was almost 3 feet tall. But without a doubt the smaller of the two was the more dangerous of the two.

  As soon as they entered the present company got to their feet to show their respects. “There is no need for that.” Duke Dornan said as he raised his hands gesturing to them to sit. “We owe you more than enough to where there is no need to stand on decorum.”

  “Thank you.” Bjorn said as he took his seat. “What can we do for you?”

  Gram smiled and stepped forward, holding out his right hand for each of them. His appearance was better than when they last saw him before they left the sewer camp, but he wasn’t in top shape yet. His body was covered in bandages and he was walking with a limp. And of course his left arm was still missing right at the shoulder. “It isn’t what you can do for us, it is what we can do for you.”

  “He is right. You have done more than anyone could expect from you for this town. Over the last couple days we have gotten reports detailing what all you guys did in that last battle. I fear to say, but if it wasn’t for the combined efforts of all of you we likely wouldn’t have won that last battle. There were so many things that the spiders had in store for us that we didn’t foresee coming.” Dornan said without a hint of shame in his voice for admitting that they had almost lost.

  After Gram finished shaking hands he took a seat once again. “At a critical juncture in the fight the 5 of you stepped up and started to organize our scattered forces. That task should have never fallen on you. That is why we have our chain of command. Then even further after you organized our forces you met up with another group that was about to retreat and convinced them to attack and save us.”

  “Once you all did that, Meira you saved us all by providing the mana necessary to end the spider queen. Without you Gram would have undoubtedly died to the monster.” Duke Dornan punctuated his statement by standing and giving the group of friends before them a bow. The gesture was mirrored by Gram as well.

  Meira cleared her throat. “Yes yes, we all know what we did. There is no need for you to bow to us, please sit down.”

  They did as they were asked to do. “As thanks I would normally provide you with some rather generous compensation. Land, titles, and money is what I would give to someone who did as much as you all did.”

  “But?” Alaric asked.

  “I would like to ask you a few things. If you are willing to do so.”

  “We are listening.” Tayla said.

  “First off the matter of money. This battle was quite costly for Blackrock Bay, both in terms of money and in lifes spent. I have done what I can to prepare for this situation, but there was only so much I could do. I am more than willing to give you a cash reward for the services rendered during the fight. But I would ask that you forgo that in light of what that money would be used for.”

  Dornan paused to take a breath. “A long time ago I instated a law here in town. That law states that anyone who lost their lives fighting for Blackrock Bay will have 1 year's salary paid out to any remaining family members that depend on them. Not everyone who lives here in town is able to work to provide for their family, as such their spouses, fathers, and mothers joined up with the town guard. We pay our guards better than most any other job here in Blackrock Bay. I have decided to extend that pay offer to anyone else who has lost a loved one to this fight.”

  At first when Alaric heard that they might not be getting a cash reward his shoulders started to creep upwards and his face started to turn a lovely shade of red with anger. As Duke Dornan’s explanation continued the anger started to fade, and a look of respect started to cross his face once again.

  “As I previously stated, if you want we will gladly pay you for your deeds. But if you do so it will make it harder to follow through on my promise to help provide for those who lost a loved one over the last month.”

  They briefly looked amongst themselves and Bjorn could see agreement in all of their eyes. With a sigh he spoke. “Of course we are willing to forgo any form of cash reward you offer us. You are right, the money would be better spent and would do more good in the hands of a new widower than it would in our hands. We weren’t hurting for cash before we showed up to Blackrock Bay, and that is still the case.”

  The duke smiled. “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart I thank you. You don’t realize how much that will affect those hurt from this battle.” He stood and walked over to a sitting table and started fixing himself a cup of tea. “Now for the next point of business. I would like to give each of you a title and a piece of land to govern around here. You are more than deserving of that.”

  Almost immediately Rickie spoke up. “No thank you.” Upon hearing his response Duke Dornan spun around to look at the group.

  “I am with Rickie on this one.” Alaric said.

  “Me too.” Meira said.

  “Whatever Alaric, Meira, and Rickie do I am in agreement with.”

  The only one who hesitated for a moment was Tayla. For her she grew up in the shadow of the keep in Vanta and always dreamed about living in a castle. If she accepted the offer she would likely be given a title and land to go with it. This was her chance to accept and potentially live in that castle. She knew though in her heart of hearts that she would regret accepting. She would never have made it this far, or even been given that option without her present company. So as much as she wanted to accept she knew she couldn’t.

  With a deep sigh she spoke up. “I am sorry, but I can not accept that offer either. I owe my life to my party, I do not wish to leave them. I am grateful for your offer though.”

  This response clearly surprised Dornan as he left his half made tea sitting where he had left it and walked back over to the group. “I can’t say I am not surprised. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you refuse my offer?”

  “For years I lived in my village and dreamed of such grandeur. But over the years of my life I have learned a few things about myself.” Alaric stately plainly. “The first thing I have learned is that I am not a leader. I have had stints where I am in charge of people and running different aspects of my village and each and every time I do so I hate it. The next thing I have learned over the last year is that I prefer the life of a traveler. I love to live on the road, beholden to no one. The last thing is that I have finally found the place I belong, with my family by my side.”

  Dornan looked around the circle and noticed the resolute agreement in the faces of the other 4 in attendance. Sighing he stated. “So I am assuming that us asking you to stay here and help us rebuild Blackrock Bay is out of the question as well then. Both Gram and myself would gladly take you in and help nurture your skills and make sure you grow into the people you want to be here.”

  “We will have to decline that offer as well.” Meira said. “It is exactly as Alaric said, we are travelers. We have so much more to explore in this world. We don’t want to be tied to a place. There are tons of people out there who need our help, we will go where we are needed.”

  “I can’t say I am surprised.” Gram said. “But I will still be sad to see you go.”

  “Not to be blunt but Blackrock Bay hasn’t exactly been kind to us.” Rickie said. “We will not be sad to see it go. We will be sad to leave behind those we have built friendships with over the month we have spent here.”

  “We can understand that.” Duke Dornan said. “I am sorry you got caught up in our issue. You didn’t deserve that. Had I known I would have ordered you to be excluded.”

  “That's the thing.” Bjorn said a little heat in his voice. “You are only talking about providing this service because we did you a service. What about the hundred or so other travelers who were press ganged into helping this city. It isn’t so much as it happened to us, it is that it happened at all.”

  Dornan sighed. “You are right of course, it wasn’t the right choice to make. But I do not regret the choice I made regardless of the outcome. I care more about this cities survival than doing the ‘right thing.’ I would go as far as to say that keeping the some 10,000 people who live here safe was more of the right thing to do. If we had failed they would have had to relocate otherwise they would have suffered the same fate that we did. How do you think they would have faired out there? What kind of struggles 10,000 displaced people would have caused.”

  Things got quiet after that as each person was thinking about their own thoughts.

  “Anyways getting back on topic.” Dornan said. “If you don’t want money or a title. I do have one other option if you are willing to take it.”

  “And what is that?” Tayla asked.

  “Years ago, before I became a Duke, I owned a parcel of land on the very northern border of Escar. I haven’t been back there in over a decade so the land is likely in disrepair. If you want it I will give you the deed to the piece of land. There is no need for you to worry yourselves of getting there and taking care of a piece of land. It will be yours, you may do with it as you see fit. You might even be able to sell it for some money if you wish. If you move there and start to live on it there will be no problems, or if you never visit the land that also isn’t an issue.”

  “That is acceptable.” Alaric said.

  Duke Dornan reached into a pouch at his hip and after a second brought out a piece of paper. At the bottom of the paper was Dornan’s signature. Briefly he put his hand over the line at the bottom and his hand flared in a deep blue light the same color as Bjorn’s mana bar. After half a second under the light his signature disappeared. He then turned the paper around and handed it to the group. He then retrieved a pen from his bag and also handed that over.

  “Just sign here?” Meira asked as she was the one who was handed the piece of paper.

  “Yeah. This will transfer the ownership of the deed from me to you. As many of you may sign as you wish. It will give you all equal ownership over the land.”

  Nodding they all took turns signing at the bottom of the page.

  After they finished Dornan continued speaking. “At the top of the page there is a little compass.”

  True to his word the document was filled with tons and tons of lines of text. But at the top of the page there was a rather elaborate sigil that had a small circle in the middle. There was a small line in the center of the circle that was clearly pointing towards the north.

  “This deed has been magically enchanted so that the compass will always point towards the land it represents. Once you are upon the land that is represented in this deed the circle will turn green. It is an easy way to tell borders between plots of land. This page is also almost impossible to ruin due to the elements, it can be burnt though. If it is burnt you will have to travel back here and our records office will make you another copy. Though, if I was you I wouldn’t pull the deed out of your portable pocket.”

  Dornan looked pointedly at the bag attached to Bjorn’s hip. “How did you know it was a portable pocket?” Bjorn asked.

  “It is simple, I can tell that it is a magical bag. That should be clear to anyone who is slightly versed in magical gear. And it couldn’t be a bag of holding. They are too rare and valuable for the 5 of you to get ahold of one.”

  He wasn’t about to refute Dornan. So he just kept his mouth shut and let him think that the bag of holding was actually a portable pocket. “With that taken care of, are we free to leave this city now?”

  “Of course.” Dornan brought out another sheet of paper and quickly wrote down something. “This should get you past the guards.” He then pulled out an entire wax seal kit and quickly started to heat up the wax. “You are of course welcome back to this city anytime you wish to. You are also welcome to stay at the palace anytime you are in Blackrock Bay. I shall give orders to the guards that you will never be barred from entering the palace again.” He finished talking by pouring a little bit of wax on the bottom of the page and stamping his crest into the wax. He then handed over the piece of paper.

  “Thank you for everything you have done for us and this city.” Dornan said as he stood and gave a little bow.

  “I will be sad to see you go.” Gram echoed in turn as he followed suit of Dornan’s bow.

  They all stood and gave small bows. They all gave some sort of polite farewell without being too combative with their use of language.

  Once all of that was done Gram and Dornan left them. After a few minutes another servant came in and started to lead them out of the palace. Soon they were walking through the huge double doors that were the front gate to the palace.

  “Well that could have gone better.” Meira said.

  “Could have gone a whole lot worse.” Alaric commented.

  Tayla stretched for a second. “Of course it could have, but I am finally glad to be done with this city.”

  Rickie started walking. “Same. Well shall we hit the road, it is a long way to Vanta. And the road can be a little treacherous at times.”

  “I think we should go cross country and not follow the road.” Bjorn said as they started walking towards the closest gate. “I think I need to get away from civilization for a little bit. I think it would be good for the soul if we just had some time to ourselves.”

  “I like that Idea.” Rickie said.

  The quintet quickly made their way out of the south gate out of Blackrock Bay. True to his word the paper they gave the guards at the gate worked like a charm and they got to pass with no issues. Soon they were traipsing through the open grassland south of Blackrock Bay. They were traveling slowly, not overly worried about getting there at any speed. It was the middle of the summer and the weather was quite beautiful. No need to rush.

  As they traveled their moods began to be lifted. There was something freeing about walking through nature, not a care in the world. No where they needed to be, no one needed something from them. They just got to be themselves and do what they wished. It was good for the soul.

  Bjorn quickly fell into his old habits, as he traveled whenever they came across a herb that could be used for his alchemy, or used for any alchemy he would slow the group down and he would start to collect the herb. Sometimes it was just a few minutes to retrieve the herb, other times it took up to an hour.

  Either way no one ever cared about the frequent stops. Between Bjorn’s and Alaric’s magical bags there was no rush for them to get anywhere. They had stocked up on food before they had left Blackrock Bay. So there was no worries on what they would be able to eat. With the time stopping powers of the bag of holding and the portable pocket there was again no worries about how long they could be out here. The only issue would be water, but with Bjorn’s purify water spell that too was a non issue.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  They traveled this way for over a week before they saw any signs of humanoid life. And the only sign they saw was a small road that had been built cutting through the woods that surrounded them. It was about two days of travel before they made it to the edge of the Summergate woods. Once they sank into the woods was when their progress forward slowed to a crawl, because of Bjorn’s obsession with collecting herbs.

  It was finally three weeks later when they finally emerged from the Summergate woods and onto a large road. It looked quite familiar as it was the same road they had taken from Lief’s crossing to get to Vanta.

  Over the weeks they had a number of things that happened to them. They kill all sorts of creatures that challenged them as they traveled. Before when it was just Bjorn, Alaric, and Meira they had gone out of their way to try and avoid potentially dangerous creatures. They were not the same people they had been when they left the Gnoll camp as slaves, in more ways than one. Almost everyone in their party was now a professed fighter of some kind, all save Bjorn. But he was the one who arguably grew the most.

  For most creatures and people in the world few could truly stand up to a party such as theirs in a straight up fight. But that wouldn’t be a fair fight as no matter what happened it would now be at least a 5 on 1 fight.

  As they traveled that was something that they reminisced about. The good ole days and how they no longer had to hide. As for Bjorn, he had grown nearly 12 levels since he had been trapped in the mines. At level 20 he had access to more stats than most people who he came across. That even accounted for his lack of stats from his weak detriment. Which still rankled him more times than he cared to admit while he thought about it.

  Each of them had grown over the last year, well all except for Rickie, but they had no idea who he was a year and a half ago. The last year and a half had been hard and wonderful all at the same time. They grew to trust each other without hesitation during that time. Which was vital while on the road. When someone said duck, without question you all ducked.

  During the month of travel the dark cloud that had once covered the party had finally parted and much of the jovialness and happiness was once again reattained. One thing that surprisingly helped out with that was Meira’s and Bjorn’s new found relationship. They were two very much in love in all of their actions and words. For the first 2 weeks of their traveling while they were walking Bjorn and Meira were almost always side by side holding hands. Their new found love did wonders to remind the other three about the love, joy, and wonder that there was in the world.

  Thankfully before they had left the underground Alaric had the foresight to snag them each a tent from Jenkin’s abandoned camp. Afterall it wasn’t really stealing, it isn’t like anyone was going to miss them as they had been left down there for weeks. So they all had their own personal room. Rickie and Tayla, Bjorn and Meira, and finally Alaric.

  Another thing that helped the mood greatly was Bjorn’s silence spell. They had formed an unspoken agreement. Whenever Rickie and Tayla went into their tent, if they put out a small bundle of cloth, Bjorn knew they were about to do something. As soon as he saw that he would start to cast his spell around the outside of the tent so they could have their privacy and the rest of the party didn’t have to listen to them go at it. Bjorn would do the same for him and Meira, but he didn’t really have to signal himself.

  They quickly fell into a routine as they traveled. Each morning they would get up and pack the camp. They would usually have some sort of ration that came from either Bjorn’s or Alaric’s bag. And then they would set out. Each morning before they left their camp Bjorn would set up his war party. Throughout the day they would normally fight one maybe even two different creatures, so there was no sense in them wasting the war points. Forming the party almost became a habit.

  Over the course of the month they ended up racking up another 435 war points. He put those to use purchasing a few upgrades for his war party skill. The first two things he spent the points on was increasing his sphere of influence. He once again spent points to upgrade his sphere of influence. The cost jumped from 100 to 200 and the range of the sphere increased from 50 yards to 100 yards.

  Bjorn had a theory but he wasn’t going to spend the 200 war points on proving that point. It was still early on and he needed to not be wasteful with his war points. His theory was that the cost of his sphere of influence was what the range would increase to, and each time the cost of the range was doubling, as well as the range doubling.

  He spent 200 of his war points purchasing two of the available roles. First the tank role, and then the scout role.

  Role: Tank: You are the biggest, toughest member of this war party. Your job is to take a ton of punishment and keep on fighting. You may not do the most damage but you serve a very important role in any fight you take part in. The main downside to your fighting style is how slow it generally makes you, making it easier for enemies to ignore you or slip past you. You gain 5% increased defenses, as well as a 5% chance to taunt your enemies making it harder for them to ignore you in the field of battle.

  Role: Scout: Information is one of the most important parts of any war party. Most war parties' downfall is the lack of information. It doesn’t matter how strong your war party is, if you don’t know where the enemies are, or know how many of them there are you will be in trouble. You gain a 5% increase to your stealth skill, as well as a 5% increase to your tracking skill.

  That left him with 135 war points left to spend. He then purchased a school of magic because he was interested to see what would be available from his purchase. When he went to pick up a school of magic for 100 points he found out that the only schools he had access to purchase were the ones that he and Meira had access to. Meaning he had access to, earth, water, light, dark, sonic, air, and life magic.

  Seeing how Meira was basically their main source of magic damage Bjorn went for the school that would benefit her the most and he spent 100 war points to purchase air magic. Once he did so he gained a few categories for him to upgrade. Pulling open the category Bjorn was excited to see how he could augment Meira’s casting abilities.

  There were five options under the new Air magic category.

  Decreased cooldown of spells. 50

  Decreased cost of spells. 50

  Increased range of spells. 50

  Increased effect of spells. 50

  Decreased cast time of spells. 50

  Each could potentially be very useful but god damn were they expensive. Each option also only increased or decreased whatever they affected by 3%. Even if Bjorn wanted to spend war points on purchasing one of the mage upgrade he decided he was going to hold off on them. 50 war points for a 3% change didn’t seem all that worth it yet.

  Instead of spending all of the war points he was saving up to purchase another role. He figured that a role would be more impactful than a 3% change.

  After the war party was formed they would then spend the day traveling doing whatever they ultimately wanted to do, be that chilling by a little river, fighting a monster, or just lazily walking along the mostly tranquil forest. As the day came closer to evening they would scout out some sort of camp.

  From there they would break out into different roles. Meira and Tayla would usually start setting up their tents. Bjorn and Alaric would start digging a fire pit, as well as lining it with stones. And rickie would take off into the forest to find wood for their fire. Which unsurprisingly wasn’t all that hard to do. Once the fire pit was dug and a fire started they would help the girls prepare the tents. After they would sit around and let Rickie cook their dinner, after all he was the best cook out of the group. Though, not to make him do everything they would take turns making dinner each night. Though Rickie would make dinner 3 times for every 1 time the rest of the party would cook.

  One thing that was very nice about their traveling was that between Bjorn and Meira they didn’t have to worry about water. Meira had a create water spell, which when cast would create anywhere between a cup and 5 gallons of water. The amount was something Meira could change by just a thought. If they were near a body of water though Bjorn could use his purify water spell to make any water they were near potable.

  This pairing came in handy each night. As they never had to worry about boiling water to make it safe. They could then use the water to cook with, or more often than not make tea with. Each night they would almost always have a cup of tea with dinner. In the Eld not many people had access to spices to make their dinners taste better, so most of the food was rather bland. The different flavors of tea they were able to make oftentimes made up for this blandness just a little.

  After the evening meal they would often sit in companionable silence or talk amongst themselves. Those were the times where Bjorn ranged from the party and would hunt for herbs and other alchemical components. On those evenings Bjorn brought back an old habit he had formed when Medera was still alive, and he would often go for a run. It wasn’t like the run was doing really anything for him. His stats made it so that it was nearly impossible to even start breathing heavily while running, unless it was a full out sprint. Which would have been irresponsible in the forest. Another amazing part of his magical body was that he never seemed to lose any progress he made with getting in shape.

  After his evening run and hunt for herbs he would return to camp and people would start breaking off into their own respective tents. All save for 1. Even though they were the most dangerous group in these woods they still could be killed if they were careless. And they were the most vulnerable in their sleep. To combat this weakness they of course set up a watch.

  With a 32 hour day that the Eld had, most of the people who lived in the Eld had odd sleep schedules. At least odd by Earth's standards. They would often have 22 hour days and would sleep from anywhere between 10 and 14 hours at a time. With the 5 of them they didn’t need everyone to take a shift each night. So they set it up so that 4 of the group would each take a two and a half hour watch. Letting the last person sleep throughout the night. They also set it up so that the assigned time would rotate. The person who had the full night's rest would take the first shift. Then the next night they would take the second and so on and so forth until it was their turn to sleep through the night.

  Bjorn on the other hand didn’t need a full night's rest to be fully rested. With his magical belt of sustenance he needed less sleep than the rest. So occasionally Bjorn would actually not sleep and would join Meira for their shift on watch. They didn’t let their new found love disrupt their jobs though. When on watch together they were just as vigilant on their surroundings as they were when on watch alone. It was just nice to have the company through the watch. He never faulted Meira when she didn’t return the favor and join him on his watch.

  That is how they passed a month of travel. But now that they were on the road between Lief’s crossing and Vanta they turned and started to make their way towards Vanta. It was another half day before they saw the familiar stone walls of Vanta in the distance. Slowly they made their way towards the city. As they drew nearer the city the road which had once been empty was seeing more and more traffic.

  By the time they got to the gates at Vanta the road was busy enough that there was a line forming to get into the city. After an hour of waiting it was easy to get through the gate itself. This time they all had the proper paperwork to get through with their weapons, as a year hadn’t elapsed yet.

  The only surprise was Rickie. He shrugged. “What? Chase and I stopped by here before we went on to Blackrock Bay. He wanted to see his sister. We had to get the permits to travel through the city anyways.”

  “That makes sense.” Tayla said.

  As they traveled deeper into the city Tayla grew more and more anxious, to the point where it was becoming very apparent as to her unease. After a few minutes of this she spoke up. “Look guys. I have things I would like to do here, and people I would like to check up on. You won’t mind if I slink away for a bit and go about doing that?”

  Bjorn shook his head. “Naw, go ahead and do whatever you need to. We will catch up with you later.”

  Tayla nodded and started to blend into the crowd. Alaric called out to her, getting a few dirty looks from those around him. “Where do you want us to meet up at?”

  “Don’t worry I will find you. Go wherever you want to.” She called back before she was gone.

  “What was that all about?” Rickie asked the group.

  “Don’t worry about it. She grew up here, this place has to have tons of memories for her that she likely wanted to forget. Us coming back here likely brought up all those old memories.”

  “Why is this the first I am hearing about her growing up in Vanta?”

  “She doesn’t like to talk about her time here. We have been traveling with her for over a year now and during that entire time she rarely spoke about Vanta. So out of respect for her we don’t bring it up.” Alaric put his hand on Rickie’s back, he would have gone for his shoulder but the man towered over the dwarf. “Don’t worry about it. It is nothing to worry about, she is a smart girl and a strong girl. She will come back to us. As to why she hasn’t talked about it, she will in time. We just need to give her time to open up.”

  Rickie sighed. “You’re right of course, I just don’t like not knowing. Whatever, where do we want to get a place to stay. Chase’s sister doesn’t have the biggest house here, so it won’t be able to house all 5 of us. It would be for the best that we get a place to stay while we are here in town.”

  Instead of answering the question Bjorn side tracked the line of conversation for a bit. “We are going to be here for a few days aren’t we?”

  “Yeah. I think it would be best if we organized some sort of funeral for Chase with his sister. So a few days wouldn’t be unreasonable.”

  “If that is the case I am almost to level 40 in my alchemy skill. I am 9% away, so I would like to find a place here in town where I would be able to do a little alchemy, and hopefully reach level 40. Which would unlock the ability for me to get the Alchemist profession.”

  “I didn’t realize you were that close.” Alaric said. “I’ll go with you, even though we are kind of familiar with this city we probably shouldn’t go traveling without someone else. Well except for Tayla of course, she knows these streets like the back of her hand.”

  “Sounds good.” Rickie said. “But getting back to the task at hand, where should we end up finding a place to stay?”

  “The last time we were here I heard good things about the Singing Hen. Let’s try that.” Meira said. There was a note to her voice that made Bjorn slightly suspicious, but he quickly chalked it up to his imagination.

  “That is fine. As long as it isn’t Crowing Rooster I don’t really care.” Alaric said.

  “Alright sounds good, we will head that way and procure a few rooms for us. We will see you there.” Meira said sweetly. She came in and gave Bjorn a quick peck on the cheek before her and Rickie also wandered off into the crowd.

  “Well let's get going. Any idea where to start?” Alaric asked.

  “I think there was some sort of alchemist guild last time we were here. Let’s try there first.”

  The two of them started to ask those around them about the alchemist guild, and after 15 minutes they were able to find the place. It was a short, surprisingly small building. They made their way to the front door and easily pushed it open. Bjorn was expecting the same kind of response he had gotten last time he and Meira had tried to enter the mage’s guild.

  What greeted them inside was actually more like a lab than a guildhall. Confused, Bjorn stepped inside. There was a single human woman who stood in the middle of the room hunched over a table.

  “Hello?” Bjorn called over to the lady.

  “Sush, I will be with you in a minute. Wait right there.” She pointed to the other side of the room where a line of 5 chairs sat. They took a seat and watched the woman work.

  Now that they were further in the room Bjorn could see what she was doing, She was working on some sort of potion Bjorn didn’t recognize the steps she was working on. But he did recognize a few of the ingredients around her. He watched her work for a few minutes. She picked up a herb, grinding it down briefly and not fully in a pestle and mortar and dumped it into her cauldron. She then picked up a vial of a viscus red liquid and moved as if she was going to pour it into the cauldron as well.

  Bjorn spoke up upon seeing that action. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  The woman looked annoyed and shot a glance at Bjorn where he was sitting. “Why? What do you know about alchemy?”

  Slightly annoyed at her tone and her question Bjorn replied in a calm tone. “Well you just put in an improperly prepared sage wort right?” She nodded and started to speak, Bjorn cut her off. “And unless I am mistaken that vial in your hand is the distillate between arrowhead toads blood and liquorice whip juice. Is that also the case?” She nodded again, not trying to speak this time around. “I don’t know what potion you are trying to make but those two ingredients are quite volatile when mixed together. If you mix them they are more than likely going to explode into smoke.”

  The woman looked at him for a second. Bjorn could see the gears in her mind turning, she is trying to decide if she was going to listen to the strange man or if she was going to ignore him and follow through with what she knew was the right way. She looked down at her cauldron, and then back at Bjorn before tipping the vial’s contents into the potion.

  “I tried to warn you. You might want to step back 5 or 10 feet.”

  “I am a trained alchemist, I think I know what I am-” She never finished her sentence as exactly what Bjorn expected to happen happened. A thick orange smoke burst forth from the cauldron and shot right into the face of the woman who was standing right over the cauldron.

  “Should we help her?” Alaric asked.

  “No, it is harmless, just annoying. It will dye her skin orange for a few days, and she will have a coughing fit. But she will ultimately be fine.”

  True to his word the woman came stumbling out of the cloud of smoke coughing up a lung. It took a few minutes for her to fully recover. The woman’s whole head was dyed a deep shade of orange. Once she was recovered she spoke. “How did you know that was going to happen?” She asked.

  “I saw how you prepared the herb, and I have done exactly that before. It isn’t a pleasant experience. Don’t worry the orange will fade in a few days.”

  “What orange?” She asked.

  “Don’t worry about it. Anyways, I am looking to do a little alchemy here for a few days. Would I be able to do so? I am near a level and would like a facility to try and get over that hump.”

  By this time the smoke had mostly dissipated and a fine orange powder started to coat everything that was in the radius of the smoke cloud. The woman looked back at the mess she had made. “Um. Probably, I don’t know. Come back tomorrow and talk to the master, I think he would be willing to let you do some alchemy here if you give some wisdom.”

  Bjorn laughed a good hearted laugh. “I think I can manage that. Sounds good, any particular time?”

  “No, just come back tomorrow he should be here. Now if you will excuse me I have to clean that up before he sees it. If he sees that mess he will be mad.”

  “Of course.” Bjorn stood and he and Alaric made their way back onto the streets.

  Soon they were on their way to the Singing Hen. With only a few stops for directions they found their way there quite easily. It apparently was a very popular inn here in town. So they didn’t have any issues finding directions.

  As soon as they opened the door they were greeted by an almost familiar sight by this point. Beautiful, scantily clad, buff men were up walking around the bar carrying trays of drinks around to the tables.

  Alaric just groaned. “Ughhh, not again. Why does this keep happening?”