17. An Unprofessional Rivalry

The first lie that comes to mind is also the simplest. “What does that mean? I didn’t see any Dark Mages while you were sleeping, just a collection of Great Vultures.”

Johannes’s eyes glow for a few seconds as he looks around. “It’s faint, and scattered around this area. In theory I could have missed it with my magic completely tapped, although that shouldn’t really matter. I think it was mixed with another type of magic, but I can only actually sense the dark magic lingering. Maybe we were being magically watched by someone? I can only speculate, but it means at least one Dark Mage did something involving this particular area, and it was likely while we were asleep.” At least dropping the illusion didn’t seem to change what he’s seeing, that would be a lot harder to explain.

Gwendolyn can take the lead with this conversation. “That’s … concerning. However, is there anything we can actually do about it?”

He shakes his head no. “If I’d caught it while it was happening I could probably have traced it to the source, but at the moment, we just know someone’s targeting us.” I use just a bit of customer service face to whip up a serviceable poker face.

Gwendolyn just shakes her head. “Then we should just keep moving on. I was expecting to lose something since we had to take a rest, either a few liquid lives, or a lot more time. Being targeted by a Dark Mage isn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it’s still a similar outcome. Keep an eye out for dark magic in the future, but for now we should continue on as we were before. Assuming there are no objections?”

Weirdly there actually are no objections. I was expecting something from Willard, but he doesn’t seem to even be the most bothered by the whole issue. I can easily see both Elizabeth and Johannes are on edge, but Willard's clearly much more interested in going along with Gwendolyn’s suggestion. I’d think anyone obsessed enough with hunting Dark Mages to threaten to stab me on sight would be chomping at the bit to go after this lead … it’s more evidence that whatever he’s hunting, it’s not Dark Mages, and he knows it. Not to mention since Bridget introduced him, she knows it too. I know I shouldn’t throw stones in the keeping secrets department, but it’s not like people would know I’m being hypocritical. Still, I should probably wait until I can ask Bridget in person. I don’t think Willard would try to attack me over the question, but I’d rather not find that out the hard way in the middle of dangerous territory.

The next few hours are on the boring side rather than the dangerous side, with everyone rested and paying attention there just aren’t any actual threats to deal with. Still, at least there’s no objections to me going back to my practice on Willard and Elizabeth. I’m definitely improving but that’s before adding in all the distractions of active combat. Maybe I should ask somebody to throw pebbles at me while I’m doing this … or maybe I should wait until I can do two of them together reliably before I start adding more hoops to jump through. Probably … it'd be fun to try though. More intrusive thoughts, that time I almost completely lost one of the doubles, I could probably just try to think about recent events if I ever want more challenge while doing this, that would add quite the twist.

Eventually Gwendolyn holds up a hand. “Alright, we should be good to stop here, I haven’t seen a Great Vulture in an hour, so we’re almost certainly out of their territory. This is as good a place as any to settle down, there might be the occasional creature around here, but it was cleared out recently enough that it should be safe. Assuming nothing went wrong with that clearing of course, so keep a close eye out during watches. Speaking of which, Jezebel.”

Me? Ok. “Yes?”

“I figured it would be a bit cruel to ask you not to practice and keep watch all night, but I will ask you to limit your practice to one person at nights, and preferably could you keep a normal watch with Elizabeth? You’d be a lot faster to wake everyone up.”

Elizabeth winces a bit at that, but recovers quickly. I’d be fine with a little bit of boredom at nights, I’m kind of used to them being much worse. “I can do that, I really don’t mind keeping a full watch if you prefer. I’m more than used to nights being incredibly boring.”

“Well it’s fine to have something to do when you have the extra time, you’ll already be doing more than your fair share of watches this way. Just be sure not to use up all your magic practicing. I don’t exactly know how much magic you have, but if you never rest you’ll eventually run out.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Although it would take an absurd amount of time with how low effort most illusions are. Still she’s right that I shouldn’t cripple myself to practice.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Great, who wants to play cards then? I need to unwind a bit after everything.”

The five of us play a card game apparently called ‘Last Laugh’. Admittedly when I say we play I mean they spend a few minutes teaching me before playing, and I’m apparently very bad at it. It’s pretty fun regardless, and I could get used to the experience of playing games like this with other people. Even the people I got along with well in my guild don’t exactly ever stop by to play card games.

Eventually everyone else decides to end the game to get some rest, Elizabeth gets first watch so that’s when I have to pay attention. It’s about as boring as last time with the added uncertainty as to Elizabeth’s mood. I don’t think she’s angry at me, but I also haven’t gotten the hang of her emotional state without hearing her speak. Well … I’m not currently on fire, so we’re probably fine. Either way not much happens during the night, once Elizabeth’s watch is over I get some practice in, but it’s easier on sleeping people since they don’t move as much. Combined with only doing one it’s not really all that much of a challenge so instead I just get some practice in trying to keep it up while not looking at them.

The rest of the night passes without incident, hopefully now that we’re out of our detour things will actually go smoothly. In the morning Gwendolyn gets everybody else up, and we continue on our way almost the exact same way as yesterday. Almost everyone said that a lot of this trip was going to be boring, and I’m starting to think they still somehow undersold it.

The morning’s travel is almost completely devoid of anything meaningful. Without anything better to do I get a lot of practice in, and since I don’t use any more dark magic Johannes seems to get more and more paranoid that he’s missing something, and that there’s now secretly a Dark Mage trailing behind us using traditional magic to track us. It would be a bit funny if I could ever tell him what’s actually happening. He is in fact being followed by a Dark Mage, about five feet back, and bored out of her mind. Not to mention that if it came down to a fight that he would win so handily on his own that the church would probably put aside their differences and commission a song to be made about how impressive his light magic is. As I’m musing about that his gaze snaps a bit to the right, but still in front of us. “I think I heard something coming.”

Gwendolyn moves up to be next to him, and draws her sword. “Get in position, just to be safe.”

I really need to ask where I’m supposed to stand to be ‘in position’ at some point, but I just stick with standing like a bystander behind everyone. Nobody complained about it last time at least. I also keep up the duplicates on Elizabeth and Willard, and move them to share the same space as the originals. After a few seconds of waiting I can hear what actually sounds like voices and footsteps. Gwendolyn relaxes a bit. “There was supposed to be a guild team clearing Corpse Bears a decent distance away. They could be coming back through here, if they wanted to cut through the Great Vulture area like we did.”

I mimic Willard’s response through his double. “Or they’re just chasing down the Corpse Bears they missed. One or the other.”

The voices get a bit more distinct as they approach. “It will be good to see home again, these matters are an unfortunate necessity, but if they did not provide such danger I would be glad to remain in the church for my entire life.” With how much focus I need to put on Willard to keep him concealed it’s really easy to notice the way his hand drifts to his sword when he hears that. I don’t have his double replicate that particular movement.

Gwendolyn shouts over at the sound. “Who’s there? We weren’t expecting to encounter anyone out here.”

There’s a pause before a response comes from the same voice as before. “We’re part of the church group sent to handle the Corpse Bear infestation. Give us a second to meet face to face, shouting between the trees is a touch undignified.” I … definitely recognize that voice … at least I think I do.

Gwendolyn seems to think about something for a second before turning towards me. “Jez, hide. If we need to run, try to keep the element of surprise.” How … direct? I wrap as many illusions as I can around myself, and take a few deep steadying breaths before giving up on keeping Willard’s illusions. If push comes to shove wind magic has to be better for running than fire. I guess I haven’t really decided what I’ll do if it does come down to combat, but no matter the choice I’d rather preserve the ability to pretend I was never here.

A group of people come out of the forests, and I recognize more than just the owner of the voice. Alex is the first to appear from behind the tree cover, but I pretty quickly spot the other members of his little group, the same group that found me all those years ago, plus one other person. That particular group tends to get their quests from a particular church official, Sir Thomas, the same Light Mage who checked if I had light magic and who was with them when they first found me.

As soon as Sir Thomas gets in view things go from complicated to horrible. He gets a look on his face like he just swallowed a bug and that bug turned out to be a heretic before pointing directly at Willard. “Dark Mage!”

Willard draws his sword fully. “Murderer!”

Huh?