My travels through the Pass of Klamat continued mostly undisturbed. I had transcribed the entirety of Alzur's Double Cross into my own journal, then I had leafed through the rest of madman's writings. I had not expected to find anything of note and simply did so out of thoroughness before burning the book.
Then my eyes had nearly escaped my own sockets as I spotted another extremely rare transcribed spell, Triangle Within a Triangle. Significantly less so than Alzur's Double Cross, but still nothing to scoff at.
Reading further, I couldn't help but reevaluate my opinion of the sorcerer. He had intended to create a small monster using the Double Cross only to then increase its mass significantly using the Triangle Within a Triangle. In his theory, this would result in a much more controllable monster, avoiding another Viy of Maribor.
Considering that the man was almost certainly not right in the head, I wasn't too inclined to take him at his word. But as loathe to admit it as I was, the theory was not unsound. Naturally, Fregenal took it in a truly idiotic direction.
'The smaller the creature, the more it will understand my omnipotence. Once it is remade, this fear will be ingrained, allowing for easy control. Unfortunately, my mastery of Alzur's Double Cross is not sufficient to cast it onto insects, but I doubt there is much of a difference between those critters and scorpions.'
I felt the urge to travel back in time and slap the man. I did not properly understand what changes the spells would cause, but I felt confident that Fregenal's approach could have resulted in a powerful and controllable beast if only he had used a dog, or another highly trainable animal as the base.
Train it, cast the Double Cross, and then check whether it is still obedient. Let it get used to its new body, then cast the Triangle. As the latter spell caused a large amount of mutations, you'd want to limit its effects, but it very likely could be done. Ants or similar insects, after figuring out a way to produce pheromones, could be another avenue to pursue, though the Viy of Maribor was reportedly a centipede. Not that I had a reason to pursue this, but it was an interesting thought experiment.
I sighed. More transcribing for me, I supposed.
The next few days passed with no new revelations.
The only thing of note that happened was me passing a heavily guarded caravan. I had taken care to conceal my features. While some of them were clearly suspicious, they had just ignored me.
I had already left the main road, following along the Trava River. Despite this path being less travelled, it was only a day or so away from the Razwan fort, so I had not anticipated any trouble.
That made the five shabbily dressed men currently approaching me quite an unpleasant surprise. I had spotted them lounging around earlier, and unfortunately, one of them had seen me only a few seconds later.
I debated just blasting them from a distance, but there was a chance that they were refugees or some such. Despite sorcerers possessing certain legal leeway, my career as a royal advisor would end sooner than it could begin if I started killing every suspicious-looking person.
I put my hand on my dagger as the five approached.
They stopped a few meters from me, and then one of them stepped forward.
Then he dropped to his knees, "Honoured Lady, you have to help us!"
I blinked.
"What is the issue?" I asked. Were I back on Earth, I'd expect this to be some sort of scam, but I didn't think that bandits had a need for such things here.
"A band of monsters plagues our village, we beg of you to help us!"
I looked the man over. He was fat with greasy hair and brown teeth. His clothing was cheap, but not dirty.
"And the of Baron of Razwan? He is unwilling to help you?" I asked, keeping the group well within my sights.
"No! He told us, pardon me, my lady, 'to eat shit and fuck off.'"
That wasn't that surprising. Nobles tended to not be the most noble of people, ironically. Often, they only grew concerned about their people when the taxes they were collecting started noticeably dipping.
Now, unlike an unknown magical phenomenon, this definitely wasn't my job.
However, I could at least hear them out. If nothing else, I'd learn about a location to avoid.
"What sort of monsters? And why do you think a sorceress would work better than a witcher?"
The five exchanged glances, before the fat man in the lead spoke again, "Sorceress?"
I frowned. It seemed that the deductive reasoning capabilities of the Klucz villagers were a notch above the rest.
"Oh, uh," the man continued elegantly, "We had just wanted for you to try and talk to the baron, they say he listens to women more, the motherfucker," he muttered the last part, before he paused, eyes flitting towards me, "uh, pardon my language. But if you can do witchery, then you could help us yourself?"
"Help with what?" I asked again, already slightly exasperated. I was going to ignore the bit about the baron listening to women more, whatever that was supposed to mean.
"Right, right. They are monsters of the worst kind. Set up in the forest near our village, hunting our animals. When we went to chase them out, poor Jorah ended up with an arrow in his shoulder!" He spat to the side.
I stared at the man.
"What sort of monsters use bows?"
His eyes flickered from side to side, "The very worst sort, the very worst. They use bows, true, but that does not change their nature. You must help us, Lady Sorceress."
I debated with myself for a second, before I read the man's thoughts. It wasn't something I was particularly comfortable doing, but I was willing to violate the privacy of the man's mind if it helped me avoid an ambush. As he hadn't recognised me as a sorceress, I doubted he knew enough to connect the uncomfortable sensation in his head that he was now feeling with mind reading.
My eye twitched as the man scratched his head.
He was thinking that my face looked quite nice for a freak. His thoughts were laced with an undercurrent of fear and hate. While he seemed honest in his conviction that there were monsters threatening his village, his opinion of me did not seem to be that much better, though my appearance confused him greatly. Unfortunately, I lacked the skill to discern much more.
There was obviously something he wasn't telling me, but there were tool-using monsters, even if they were rare. I'd wager a good chunk of my money on a group of bandits abusing the superstition of the locals though, since I doubted real monsters would have only caused an injury. In any case, if the villagers tried their own hand at driving their problem away and survived, then it couldn't be that dangerous. I wasn't averse to running out a band of human miscreants or killing them, should their crimes be sufficiently heavy, provided I was compensated properly.
An opportunity was an opportunity. Improving my reputation a bit more either couldn't hurt, and there was something I needed.
"I find myself in need of a horse. Perhaps we could help each other?" I told them my terms.
I did technically have enough money to buy one, but it'd put a considerable dent in my funds. I had managed to save a decent amount of money during my studies in Aretuza by doing odd jobs here and there on Thanedd and not all of it had gone towards my tuition, but that didn't mean I was keen to squander it, especially when I still did not fully understand how my position in the Cintran court was going to work.
His eyes lit up and his thoughts were filled with joy at being believed and finding an ally, which cemented my decision. At the very least, I could be certain that these people had an actual problem and weren't planning on murdering me.
"Thank you, my lady. It is a steep price, but if you can rid us of those creatures, we'll gladly pay it."
Despite his unsightly demeanour, the man didn't seem like a bad sort.
The man, whose name turned out to be Jakub, was all smiles the rest of the way, though none of the men were keen on conversing with me, even if they couldn't stop stealing glances. This suited me fine since it let me keep an eye on my newfound companions. I had refrained from further intruding on their thoughts, both out of basic respect and because of practicality. They were bound to put two and two together eventually. It didn't take a genius to realise that the weird feeling in your head that happens when the witch is looking at you might be her doing. Most people didn't react well when they realised someone was messing with their minds, something I understood all too well. Fortunately, they did not do anything suspicious.
We reached the edge of the forest near his village two or so hours later and I endeavored to keep to the back of the group, just in case. As we entered the forest, the men immediately grew nervous, removing clubs from their belts and clutching them tightly.
It was an hour later that Jakub slowed down and pointed through the underbrush at a small, dilapidated temple of some sort. A singular building, nearly overgrown by greenery, but built with good stone. Chunks were missing here and there, with what once must have been a sturdy gate lying broken to the side. I could barely make out the symbol of a spider web on one of its walls. I set down my luggage behind a tree.
"They are in there," Jakub whispered.
"Adda invaerne," I chanted in response.
As the spell took effect, I noticed more battle damage present on the temple, along with some fresh blood on the ground. Probably the result of that Jorah being shot.
Of course, that was when I noticed someone gathering Power in the temple. However, if my own spell had been a bathtub, this one was a small pond. A couple of seconds later a woman in a light yellow dress exited the temple and I swore in a loud whisper as I connected the dots, "You fucks."
The woman - the elf - immediately zeroed in on our little group. She had dark red hair, adorned by amber-coloured accessories, though I could not tell whether they were gemstones or something else. They complimented her amber-coloured eyes nonetheless.
Jakub hastened to explain, "That's one of them! Kill her before she gets us!" He screeched.
I quickly tried to distance myself from the group as I berated myself for not seeing through this sooner. I had known, intellectually, that the humans of this world were prejudiced, but Aretuza had been a rather isolated environment, and Tissaia certainly did not tolerate such ideas in her school. The fact that a man would be all but begging for help to kill elves that were, by his own admission, mostly just minding their own business never even occurred to me. Why would someone risk their life for such an idiotic reason?
I hadn't fully succeeded in gaining distance when the woman finished her spell.
"Vaeltha!" I incanted as fast as I was able.