Neave led Alexei by the hand through the Mage Temple halls. Unlike when they had gone down to the magery testing area that had told them Neave was indeed eligible to learn magery, the outfitters were in the temple's upper areas. This made sense to Alexei. He wasn’t sure what exactly the outfitters' remit was, but if they were doing things that would allow you to expand the interior of a bag or other container dimensionally then he imagined that things could be pretty explosive if they went wrong. You wouldn’t want a massive explosion to occur in the foundations of your building, you’d want it to happen somewhere near the top so the lower levels would be relatively undamaged. Eventually, the pair made it to what in Alexei’s mind seemed like just another door. Neave knocked a few knocks, waited for a few moments, and then pushed her way through the door. What Alexei saw inside the room was enough to make his eyes widen in shock. The room, like many in the mage temple, was bigger
Alexei didn’t have to wait very long for Risa to show up at the main doors of the Mage Temple, and if the smile on her face was anything to go by she was coming with good news. “You look happy,” Alexei remarked from his seat on one of the benches.“Well, the Grand Mages have decided to okay my inclusion in your adventure as a diplomatic mission to help strengthen our relationship with the Assassins Guild,” Risa said, “They thought it would be a good move to help counter the likely upcoming instability in the region if you do manage to depose of the Grand Administrator and reveal his plot to the world.” “Yeah, there will definitely be a little bit of that,” Alexei agreed, “If people believe me, anyway. I’m not really sure how to get them to do that.” “Does it really matter if they believe you?” Risa asked. “What do you mean? If they don’t believe me they’ll just think I’m a murderer, that won’t exactly look good for my or Neave’s future prospects,” Alexei replied.“Well, if it’s th
Alexei and Neave had equal looks of wonder on their face as the dragonhorse that they had purchased pulled their caravan along the path that cut through the wood at the south of the great city of Alandria. He had heard that there were woods to the south of the city where he had spent most of his life, and he had experienced some of them when he was a child growing up and training to get his skills high enough to join the Academy. But it had been a very very long time since he had seen any, and none as beautiful as the ones that were before him. Each of the trees had a trunk thicker than the wheel of their caravan, and they stretched high up into the sky, creating a canopy of leaves that the sunlight from above was only just capable of breaking through. All around him birds sang to one another, chirping out from the branches, while other creatures explored the undergrowth. “It’s beautiful out here,” Alexei said from his seat next to Risa at the front of the caravan. “Wouldn’t you
After a few hours of travelling, some of which Alexei spent napping, Risa brought the caravan to a halt. The sudden stop jerked Alexei awake with a yelp. “What’s wrong, why we stopped?” Alexei stumbled over his words as he pulled himself from his sleep. “We’ve arrived at the first place that it’d make sense to stop,” Risa said, “A town some ways south of Alandria. I don’t know much about it, but while you were sleeping the Dragonhorse and I have been working hard and we both need rest.” Alexei smiled at Risa sheepishly, “Sorry about that, it’s been a pretty intense couple of weeks.” Risa rolled her eyes, “I’m not having a go at you dummy, I’m just saying that you were probably asleep for a little while longer than you thought.” Alexei poked his head out of the front flap of the caravan and was shocked to see that the day had already given way to night. “That’s not going to do my sleep schedule any favours,” He remarked, “Does this town have a stable or are we going to need to f
“I’m sorry, did you say that there are shades in this area?” Alexei asked, “This close to the capital?” “Well, it’s what people say,” The barkeep replied with a shrug, “People have been going missing in the night without a trace, I suppose it could be something else, but the woods don’t really have any big or dangerous creatures in them around here.” Alexei nodded, he felt a little bit reassured by the barkeep's lack of information. The likelihood of it actually being a shade and not something else was pretty low, though the fact there was something killing off people in the town still made him feel a little bit anxious. “Well, shades or not, we can’t turn back to Alandria,” Alexei said. The barkeep sighed, long and drawn out, “On your head be it. Two rooms will be two pieces, one for each room for each night you stay here.” “We’ll only be here for the one night I should think,” Alexei said before retrieving the two gold pieces from his knapsack. He placed them down on the bar
“Okay Neave, since I don’t want to wake you up when I get back later, you’re going to be sharing a room with Risa tonight, okay?” Alexei said as the three walked up the stairs to the overnight rooms of the tavern. She nodded her agreement and grabbed Risa’s hand with a grin, and not for the first time Alexei found himself glad that the girl and the mage got along so well. “You promise me you’re going to be careful, right?” Risa said, “It’d be really annoying to wake up in the morning just to find out that you’d been turned into a shade or ripped apart by a bear.” “I wouldn’t get ripped apart by a bear,” Alexei snorted, “But yeah, I promise I’ll be careful. Recon only, and if anything tries to attack me I’ll run right back here.” She stared him down for a few moments, hoping that he’d change his mind about going out to hunt the thing… whatever the thing was. Then, seeing that he clearly wasn’t going to change his mind, she tugged on Neave’s hand. “Come on then, let’s get you in be
Alexei had learned a lot from the Mages over his time living at the Mage Temple, even if he hadn’t really been around it very much. Magery was never going to be something he was incredible at, but the bare bones basics? He’d taken to those quite well. With a flick of his foci and a muttered incantation, an orb of glowing light sputtered into life at the tip of his staff, illuminating his direct surroundings. The town, which he had thought looked beautiful and quaint during the day, had taken on a spookier appearance at night. A wind whistled through the streets and the ominous creaking of shop signs in the breeze sent shivers down his spine. “Okay,” Alexei said to himself, “Let’s have a look at what we’ve got here, because something tells me it wasn’t a shade. I’d know if it were a shade…” There was something that he’d learned from the memories of the Demon Lord, and the time that he’d made his own shade by accident. When a shade was created it generated a long-lasting ozone sme
Alexei stumbled through the back doors of the tavern. As he closed the door he glanced at the outdoors one last time to see if he had been followed by the thing he had been fighting. Fortunately, the outside was empty. He shut the door and leaned on it for a moment to catch his breath. Alexei allowed his enchantments to fade. He’d never fought anything like that before, and he never wanted to fight anything like that again. Unfortunately for him, the universe rarely cared about his wishes and he knew that it was only a matter of time before he came face to face with the horror of the night once more. He considered telling Risa about what he’d seen, but the whole reason he’d told Risa and Neave to share a room in the first place was so that he didn’t wake the young beastkin girl up. It’d wait til the morning. He sighed, walked into his room, got undressed and slipped into bed. The mattress was hard and lumpy, not like what he was used to at either the Trout’s Gills nor the Mage