Unruly Summon Chapter 27: Adventure (Patreon)

"So, what's your name?" asked one of the fighters, dressed only in leather armour and armed with a pair of short swords. The dual swords were a surprise; my time with Christine had proven it was tough to pull off. "I'm Bill. Can't say I've met many court mages. Well, any court mages, really."

There hadn't been full introductions with our escorts, which I was actually a little thankful for. Divine blessing or not, I didn't fancy my chances of remembering eleven names fired off in quick succession. Instead, we'd just heard from each party's leader: Philip of the Blue Sparrows, Toby of Crizantis, and James of James's Posse. Not that the hulking barbarian had really needed to give his name after naming his party as 'James's Posse'; the other three members were all women.

The fighter trying to get to know me was part of Crizantis, the three-man party. Their leader was the mage, a lanky man by the name of Toby, and the last member was another of the fighters. A rather unbalanced party compared to the other two, which were each one mage, healer, front-liner and scout.

"Thomas Smith," I replied, cognisant of the fact I was supposed to be incognito and not wanting to give too much away. "And you'll be pleased to know that court mages are, to the best of my knowledge, no different from anyone else. Except perhaps for a minor tendency to jump out of windows and occasionally blow stuff up."

"It was one time!" exclaimed Wendy. "Once!"

I peered at her in confusion.

"Oh? You weren't talking about me?" she asked, blushing slightly.

"No. No, I wasn't, but now I want to know which 'one time' you're referring to."

She didn't respond, leaving us to continue a little further down the city street in silence, Bill giving nothing more than an amused smile at the exchange.

Once again, cognisant of the fact I was supposed to be disguised, I was trying my best not to gawk in every direction as we walked past homes, stores and workshops. A blacksmith was hammering away at an anvil. A tanner was working away at a rack. Through an open window, I saw someone working at a complex glass apparatus.

One thing that was constant was that land was not wasted. People did not have gardens; they had miniature farms. Between the path and homes were rows of green leaves as people made the most of the available space. None of it looked particularly healthy, but they were certainly trying.

We passed another workshop, the person within working diligently at a desk, peering through a magnifying glass as he tinkered with something I couldn't see. I'd have guessed jeweller, except for the jar of eyeballs on his desk. An eyeball would be a really weird decoration for a bit of jewellery. A quick subvocal cast of Maius Omnia Visus, and I could see the mana spiralling around his hands as he worked. An enchanter, maybe?

I wanted to ask questions. So many questions. Damn this whole disguise thing.

With my mana sight active, I risked a quick glance around at our escorts, noting a few enchanted items between them. Both healers had matching enchanted pendants, which was mildly interesting with them being in different parties. The staves of the pair of mages carrying them were obviously magical, but I spotted a dent or two that seemed to confirm Wendy's claim that the only reason to use a magical staff instead of something more compact was so you could bash things with it.

And then I glanced at the third mage and froze up. He caught me looking, meeting my gaze and raising an eyebrow, which was enough of a kick to get me to look away again.

It hadn't been the mana sight. He was carrying a few enchanted objects, but nothing that caught my attention. Rather, it was the soul sight. The silvery light that came from Anima Visus, which was, of course, included with Maius Omnia Visus. So far, I'd never seen anything interesting with it. Just a silvery overlay draped over each person. Handy for seeing people through walls, but it didn't show anything that life sight—Vita Visus—didn't.

Normally.

The red haze of life sight had matched his visible silhouette exactly, but soul sight showed a long, swaying tail behind him and tall, cat-like ears atop his head. No-one had mentioned this world containing beastkin, and besides, he didn't actually have ears or a tail. Or if he did, I couldn't see them. Were illusions a thing? If so, would they be good enough for me to not detect any mana with my superpowered sight spell? Or see them with any other component of Maius Omnia Visus? Why would they only show up to soul sight?

It was a question that shot straight up my list of things I needed to ask at the first opportunity, but that opportunity was unlikely to come for a while. Still, it could have been worse. His soul could have had demonic horns or wings or something.

We passed through the main gates of the city, the road continuing beyond. Both sides were lined with fields in which unhealthy yellow plants were growing, butting right up against the city walls.

My first thought was that in their desperation to grow as much as possible, they'd depleted the soil. That wasn't the case at all, though. With Maius Omnia Visus I could see the problem; tiny motes of miasma in the soil and plants. It seemed there wasn't a clean distinction between the corrupted lands and elsewhere; rather, it was a sliding scale. Even 'usable' land was tainted. In fact, now that I'd realised what I was looking at, I could see that it had been inside the city, too, and even the castle. No wonder the plants inside had been unhealthy. In my inexperience, I'd simply mistaken the low-level corruption for how mana was supposed to look.

Then the Chiral Plains that the war was being fought over were uncorrupted?

Dammit, more questions I needed to ask. I was feeling seriously undereducated for this mission.

"So, now that we're out of the city, is anyone going to tell us what this is actually all about?" asked the mountain of meat apparently known as James.

"We will head a short distance into the corrupted lands, perform an experiment, and then return," answered Christine.

"Come on, we need more than that," he sighed. "How long will this experiment take? Will we need to defend a specific location for any length of time, or will you remain mobile? Will this experiment do anything to attract monsters, or require the presence of monsters to conduct?"

"A few minutes, but we'll want to spend some time investigating the results, no and no."

"Sheesh. She doesn't talk much, does she?"

"She's a professional, but she has her moments," I laughed.

"Well, if she's a professional, she should know the importance of planning ahead. Only a suicidal fool goes into a mission blind."

"I believe I've covered all important details," declared Christine.

"Fine," huffed the barbarian, who I felt wasn't fitting the stereotype at all. He was making good, intelligent points. Being intelligent wasn't the role of a buff barbarian; most fantasy systems agreed they were supposed to have muscles where brains should be.

"So, what do you make of all this?" Bill asked me.

"I'm just here to do a job, same as you," I lied. "I'd quite like to be back in my quarters, not out here."

"Ha. Sure. Must be nice to have a swanky room to go back to, servants at your beck and call, and all the food you can eat."

"I'd like to think I don't eat more than my share," I said, poking my flat belly. "Probably less than I should, really, but I suspect that's true of all conscientious people these days."

"Oi!" yelled Benjamin.

"Huh?"

"There's no call to keep insulting us!"

"I... didn't?" I said, confused.

"You just accused us of eating too much!"

"I have no idea how much you eat. If you heard my statement and feel insulted by it, that's on your head."

"Oh, shut up," Wendy snapped at Benjamin. "You're only here as a mana battery, so be a good little boy and walk quietly."

"And I don't want a little girl like you telling..." started Benjamin before seizing up. Beads of sweat formed on his brow, his breathing shallow and erratic.

"Cut it out," demanded Christine, her voice laced with mana.

"Y... Yes..." stammered Benjamin.

That was a neat trick. Another one I was going to need to learn.

... Under proper adult supervision, obviously.

"Wow, that was impressive," said Bill as we resumed our march.

"It was, wasn't it," I agreed.

"Oh, it's not her I was talking about. Lady Christine is famous in the capital. She's the youngest female knight to ever get a royal appointment! I'd be disappointed if she couldn't do that much. No, I was talking about you."

"Huh? Me?"

"You aren't famous. Never even heard of you before. I was practically pissing myself back there, but you stood in the middle of that much intimidation and didn't even flinch. That's some serious nerve you've got."

Seriously? But I hadn't felt anything! Dammit Christine! I wanted to yell at her that she was the one ruining my cover story, but I couldn't without ruining my cover story.

"I'm not really sure what to say. Maybe I've watched over a few too many of the knights' training sessions."

Alas, that spat put something of a damper on the mood, so we marched in silence through continuous fields. Every now and again we passed someone tending them, most of whom were mages, doing their best to fertilise the soil and lessen the poisoning effects of the miasma.

Marching on with only a few breaks, the sun soon began to set.

"We'll camp here for the night," declared Christine.

"Oh, thank goodness," sighed Taylor. "I thought my feet were going to drop off."

"I know how you feel," agreed Juan.

Benjamin looked very much like he was going to echo them, but then fearfully glanced at Christine and held his mouth shut.

"And again, I'm impressed," said Bill. "All that walking, with not a single complaint."

"Hey, I'm fit enough to walk long distance!" I complained. "Doesn't stop me getting blisters, of course, but this robe isn't for show."

Bill grinned, then gave a slightly out-of-place wink before scarpering over to the others where they were discussing the watch rota.

"Uh..." I commented.

"If you're going to heal yourself, at least heal everyone else too," sighed Christine.

"Why are you sighing?!"

It wasn't as if the slayers needed healing; they all were used to walking long distance. The three court mages were thankful for a cast of Parvus Sanatio, though. Or two of them were, at least, while the third made a non-committal grunt. Wendy waved me away, though.

"Your feet are still fine?" I asked her.

"Ha. Not very observant, are you?" she laughed.

I peered at her feet, not spotting anything interesting about them.

The shadow was a little odd, though.

Suspicious, I stooped to ground level and peered. She was hovering half an inch from the road!

"You're flying!" I accused. "You haven't been walking at all!"

She smirked triumphantly.

The words 'teach me' almost escaped my lips, but I was supposed to be playing the role of a white aspected mage. I couldn't be seen using flight magic right now. Darn. "I don't suppose we have soundproof tents or anything?" I sighed.

"Nope, so you'll just need to keep it in your pants until we get back."

Once again, I bit down on my impulsive response. At such short notice, I couldn't come up with a better explanation for why I'd want to talk to her privately.

The slayers probably hadn't heard, anyway, and the fact that James flashed me a wink was completely coincidental.

I'd changed my mind on this whole disguise thing. Surely we'd be better off with people who knew me simply so that I could talk openly! This was a lot of potential education time that was being wasted. Then again, I probably needed to be wary of more than just the people in the immediate vicinity. Having used Exploratorem myself, I knew how easy it was to spy on unprotected areas, and it wasn't as if the open road was warded. In that respect, having strangers around may well be a good thing, because it reminded me to keep my mouth shut.

The slayers soon decided on a rota, which included Christine but not us five mages, and so our first day of travel came to an end.