he air is quiet as Jake's carriage slowly moves along. He was ordered by his mother to return to his studies after his recovery, and today is the day he finally left. Not a moment too soon, the entire paranormal division is still odd to him. Not in the sehat he feels threatened by them, he knows the deal they have with his mother is too valuable for them, but the walking politiightmare each of them are. Plynka has no sense of social self-preservation, and seems to enjoy giving people predis which are only accurate half the time. An etric even by the standards of other etrics. Sir Flester is probably on a list of sex offenders somewhere, ahings give me nightmares like him being unattended near his is odd sidering he is rather polite despite not uanding the cept of social boundaries. Kreif Brotbacker is the ohat usually acts as a representative for the neancer cil, and he is the worst of all of them bined with nobles, he's humble and usually wears rags.

  Somehow Esstrey, his mentally unstable doctor, has mao keep them all in line. She... isn't actually too bad with nobles, but appeasing them seems to be very much a suggestion for her. It's rather obvious she holds nothing but pt for them when given the ce, and cares not for the enemies she could make in the process. Kharn has the aura of a weasel around himself, and nobles are experienced with sniffing out those types of people, while Rowan is an excellent choice when dealing with nobles in a friendly enviro, making him the usual go-to. Jake thinks of all this as he sits idly in the bumping carriage, a stream passes the road, but nothing particurly iing. He will have to know these things as the future duke of Malencia, these are his most... trusted advisors. He rubs his forehead as he thinks of it, half is mentally unwell, and the other half is too predictable to use against his rivals.

  However, none of their skill sets are anything to scoff at, his doctors skills go without saying, but the entire paranormal division was kept around by his mother precisely because of the powers they brought to the table. Rowan is still a great guard captaie being a doormat to nobles, and Kharn still mao deal with more troublesome obstacles despite being suspicious as all hell. For all their strengths, Jake 't help but think it might be best to distance himself from his mother's hen for his own sake.

  "Brother Jake, tell me aory!" His younger sister Valeria pokes him at his side, and he 't help but look at her a little sadly. Right, if it wasn't him keeping an eye on them, it would be someone else they would g to.

  His thoughts are interrupted by loud spshing ing from the water, and the escort of his carriage shouting into a position. He hears the sergeant assigo this trip bark orders to get in formation, and Jake watches out of the small window of the carriage what the otion is all about.

  Oh no... out of the water es a massive mohat has already dismissed Jake's entire escort as a non-threat. Valeria tries to look out of the window as well, but Jake makes sure she doesn't see anything. She's here... his doctor.

  A tapping on the gss as the mermaid's cwed hand makes tact with the door of the carriage, she knows he's in there, she senses his blood. Jake opens the carriage door slowly, not out of caution, but more out of unwillingness.

  "Young master Jake! Fancy seeing you here! I was just taking a nice swim in the area, and I just happeo be in the area! Say old chap, you tell the men to stand down? Their stupors will end any moment now." Right, a lot of the rank and file don't know her yet, and it would be troublesome if the sergeant got good men killed for nothing. Jake gives a signal from the carriage to the men to stand down, just in time too, as he could already see some aiming crossbows.

  "Esstrey what happened? Why are you here?" Jake whispered it so no one else could hear it other than his younger sister, who was doing her best to hide behind him, and normally such a question would be a faux pas, but Jake quickly learo be direct with the ich was better, and he very much did not want her here.

  "Just a minor little i, nothing too ing." As Jake digests her words, his eyes wander across her chest. A rip in the clothing previously not very visible to him, beh the rip is a massive bloody gash that isn't leaking any blood. Before trying to interrogate her further, he grabs a health potion from a hidden et in the cart and hands it to her.

  As she chugs the health potion, a small bck dot exits her body, it wanders away from the carriage for a bit before expanding in size. The entire escort re-aims their crossbows at the expanding hole in space while still wary of the mermaid, it show, but they get a little relieved when the mermaid turns around and aims her ballista sized crossbow at the portal as well. Jake pokes his head out of the carriage window as well, worried what the otion is about now, and three familiar figures step out of the portal.

  "Woah... it actually worked..." The woman with a dress made out of bck ribbons ents.

  "You didn't test it beforehand?" The colorfully dressed man ents.

  "Well, we didn't die. o test other spells today then, I t that as a success? Excellent spellwork Plynka." A man in rags notes, slightly disappoi the ck of anyone dying.

  "What are you three idiots doing here?" Esstrey fortunately asks before Jake has to.

  "We figured you were the safest pce after the destru of our... assets." Kreif is calm as he just told Jake of the stro fa his mother has... is destroyed.

  "Not to worry, our members are all practically alive, we rebuild with some time and *cough* funding." Ronald Flester is still as shameless as ever, already knowing that the duchess's heir has plenty of assets.

  "This is good that you are here young master Jake, we believe that it is important to stick close to you during these... troublesome times." Plynka may seem like an airhead, but she is smart enough to uand that beihe duchess during a raid that discovers cult activity below her ass is a bad idea for everyone involved.

  Jake looks at Esstrey, who looks away while whistling casually, this was her pn as well wasn't it? She's practically part of the paranormal division, and the only ohat be slightly uood. The guards have already lowered their ons and are patrolling the perimeter in an obvious attempt to avoid being involved in a versation far above their paygrade.

  "What about my mother? What about the kobolds? And your... pet slime?" Jake looks to Esstrey, who actually opens her mouth for a bit, before closing it again and thinking.

  "Dunno, but I'm sure they're fine. I made sure to order the destru of evidence, and their presence here indicates they took that order seriously, your mom should survive with that. The kobolds are a resourceful bund will probably hide out in the deeper parts of the sewers for a while. As for Sofia, she's with me. " Esstrey taps her bag nontly, but doesn't open it. The guards may not want to see what their charge is doing, but that doesn't mearey will give them something to gawk at anyway.

  Jake retreats into the carriage, and begins massaging his face. Rowan and Kharn will probably be stuck helping his mom with the political fallout, and these powerful figures all o stay far away from her to make sure this doesn't end with her being decred a heretic. Her most powerful people, who are as powerful as they are political failures are stuck with him while he tries his best to go back to his studies.

  Sensing his distress, Valeria rubs his back. Great, now his little sister is soling the heir to the great dualencia. At least something is going right.

  Prickly