“So, now we’re down here… I’m not really sure what to do,” Alexei said, “This place looks like a total labyrinth, the Proto Lord could be anywhere.” “The Demon Lord didn’t give you any tips or tricks to find the thing, then,” Risa said, “You know, in all your friendly chats with him.” “They aren’t friendly chats,” Alexei retorted, “He steals me from my dreams, I berate him a bunch, and then he gets annoyed until he spits out what he wanted to say.” “You berate the Demon Lord?” Risa said, “That’s risky, even by your standards.”“He won’t do anything to me, he doesn’t understand how our powers interact, honestly I think he’s probably a little bit scared,” Alexei said.“Well, I guess that’d explain why he keeps trying to help you, then” Risa remarked, “Now, come on, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover down here, and I want to find this thing before sundown.” Alexei nodded, she was right, they needed to find the Proto Lord and take it out fast.Every second they wasted was another mome

“Neave?” Alexei hissed under his breath. He didn’t even notice her leave his side, and now she was nowhere to be seen. Alexei peaked up over the rock that he had been using for cover, and that was when he saw her. Neave had ducked from cover piece to cover piece so that she could get closer to the fight, and now she was practically in the middle of it all. “Goddamnit Neave,” Alexei muttered to himself as the clash between the Proto Lord and Risa sent spirals of arcane energy rippling across the room, obliterating anything that they came into contact with. Her ears twitched and she looked back at him with a determined look on her face, so Alexei knew that she could hear him. “Don’t do anything you’re planning,” Alexei said, “Risa can handle herself, you’re going to get yourself hurt or worse.” Her eyes narrowed, it was clear she wasn’t interested in listening to anything that he had to say. The only way he’d be able to stop her would be by making his way over to her, but with t

The healer had been at first confused and then annoyed at being dragged out of his practice to heal a woman who didn’t even appear to be injured. Then he left with a grunt toward the barkeep about not being disturbed any further. For her part, Risa fell asleep shortly after her wounds were healed. It seemed that the healing Neave had used only sped up Risa’s own healing metabolism, it didn’t do any actual healing of her own. That meant the woman had used up a lot of energy and needed to rest, and when she woke up later on she would be ravenously hungry. Alexei had summoned a small cushion of air and laid Risa on top of it. He had then levitated her up to her room and gently down onto her bed with it. She hadn’t even stirred in her slumber. After making sure she was okay and still breathing he went back down to the bar, where the Barkeep and Neave were sitting at the same table. She was drinking some kind of juice and it was quite clear that the barkeep was drinking some of his t

The bar to the tavern opened and two people dressed in white cloaks walked through the door, one a woman and the other a man. The barkeep had never seen them before, and for a moment he got ready to give the usual speech about how they should leave if they valued their lives. But then he realised he didn’t have to do that anymore, not after the man from the Royal Defence Corps had defeated the creature that was abducting people from the streets almost every night. It had been a day since then, and the town hadn’t had any more incidents of screaming in the night or strange spectres roaming the streets. It was still odd to get so many new folks coming through the town in such a short period, though. Most people breezed past the town and made the final stretch of travel up to Alandria, or they went on to one of the towns further down the trail. They didn’t tend to stop around and come to his tavern. “What can I get you?” He asked as the pair approached the bar. “Nothing to drink, I

Risa and Neave had both protested, but he knew that they’d see sense in him going on his own in the end. Time and time again Risa had told him about how frosty the relationship between the Mage Temple and the Assassin’s Guild was. She’d never given him a reason for the breakdown between the two rival organisations, but considering the Assassins also had no real contact with the Academy he imagined it was likely some matter of principle. Either way, Risa had almost died once on their trip already and he didn’t particularly want to risk it happening again, and Neave was far too much of a wild cannon to trust going into a place that taught heavily armed killers. Besides, there was a chance she would be so enamoured with the idea of danger and risk that she’d end up joining them or learning something, and he didn’t want that. The climb up the mountain face was arduous and long. There was a clear path, but it was covered in ice and snow, two things that Alexei had never had to deal wi