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  It's dht baffling for Esstrey with how much these feudal monarchies love their tralized magic learniers where nobles are given major advantages. Jake arently to resume his education in the capital Faeyra as soon as he had recovered enough. A school for kids to learn magi theory, a pce for the spawn of snobs to build es in practice. Most of the school's budget probably goes t off would be assassins if the kingdom's internal security doesn't have even half the strength ol' Civillis had at his disposal, aill died from an internal plot. Esstrey herself 't even help but think how the assassins were sloppy. Had it been her, she would have probably made some pstic explosives and riddle the pce with them, then have the biggest batch be in some colborator's backpad vihem the explosives will open a portal for troops to flow in through if you ent them. That way some magical payload be added and whoever detohe bombs will try to position themselves close enough for the "troops" to have effe the target without giving them time to respond.

  These are all passive observations as they just... walk through the front gate. The biggest criminals iire kingdom, and they just walk in as if they own the pone of the etridividuals in the party has ever done anything illegal in the open, and their retion with the duchess ensures plenty of official dots. Esstrey rubs her at the thought of sloppy security, she heard Dalka had enough mages to easily identify and suppress dimensional breaches, but Faerune just seems... sloppy.

  "Say Plynka, how do you even call things over for your ritual? Do you just have an open call?" Esstrey's question catches Jake off-guard, as mages rarely discuss magi publiot to mentioype of magic being VERY illegal.

  "Gods no! That's just asking for entering the nasty stuff that gets kept at bay by [The Veil] food reason. No, we have special artifact-like beas that are usually something like small statues of what we are trying to summon, the statues actually exist on multiple dimensions, making them very visible for beings. Imagine if you saw a statue of yourself being built in some vilge, you would go check it out too, wouldn't you?" Plynka answers heedless of the people around, Jake desperately tries to put a stop to the versation, but knows that if a icks his head out of a carriage to stop something it was worth something.

  "So... how do you make one of these beas?" Some of the guards are listening in now, albeit unwillingly, and start to form up to bar people oreet from hearing parts of the versation.

  "You 't, powerful beings make these things and scatter them across the os so they get called over by se beings finding them, I heard it's to stave off boredom. You would need a material receptive to dimensional effect, the image of the being you want summoned, and an interdimensional being to increase the dimensional presence of the item. This stuff is very dangerous." Esstrey mentally skips over the warning signs and things that could g as she digests lynka says, material, the image and dimensional blessing...

  Her plotting is interrupted by a distant shout, one very specifically directed at her. The familiar voice of one of the raiders, as she perks up to look in the dire of where she was called she sees a group of adveypes rapidly approag their location, they probably saw Esstrey stig out of the crowd. How did they get here so fast? Of the entire caravan, the only other one aware of the danger seems to be Ronald.

  "Ronald, get Jake to the academy, I'll hahe meddlers. Kreif, you are now my humble attendant that does his best to keep me out of trouble without insulting me." Ronald nods as he ushers the caravan forth, who all remain fused as to what is happening. Kreif for one does an excellent job of ag by already being visibly nervous. Esstrey for her part begins to stand fully straight, and looks around her with pt a bit before hiding her shovel and putting her beret sideways.

  Time to 'act'.

  "Vile creature! What are you doing to these poor people?" Asahi shouts in the dire of Esstrey while pointing his sword, but he goes pletely ignored.

  "Kreif! Where are the baths!? I feel dry!" Esstrey's voice sounds like a haughty noble making impossible demands, which is precisely what is happening as Kreif is still sweating from both w what the shouting is about and where the hell the baths are, he sure as shit doesn't know.

  "Answer me!" Asahi's warcry is apanied by an attack from above, he leaps toward Esstrey to ssh her behind, but she dodges smoothly at the st moment, letting him fall face-first into the ground. She doesn't follow it up with any attacks, and made the dodge seem pletely actal.

  "Guards! This peasant is b me! Where are the guards? KREIF CALL THE GUARDS FOR ME!" The mermaid's demanding attitude catches Asahi's party by surprise, and before Kreif do anything, guards are already pushing through the crowd that backed up when a madman with a sword just attacked the mermaid.

  "Oi oi oi, what's going on here!? Wot's this all 'bout?" A gruff man with a few rookie guards arrive at the se.

  "I want this man beheaded for b his betters, that is all." Esstrey turns to admire the sery afterward, very pointedly ign the whole situation. The sergeant isn't very amused, but tries to get a statement elsewhere either way.

  "T-that man attacked my dy Sir guard captain, I-I uand if her presence could be seen to be offeo some, and it is within my power to offer pensation for bureaucratic obstrus. The duchess of Malencia wouldn't want the unventional needs of her guests to trouble the capital." Kreif does an excellent job 'pying' the role he's meant to be, that of a sniveling coward, a weasel of a man. The sergeant quickly reizes him as such, and looks to the st group to get testimonies from. A group of heavily armed advehat are doing a terrible job at hiding their hate for a 'noble'.

  "Roight then. Lads, take these 'ere hotheads to the brig to cool off." The sergeant's verdict is clear, and the rookies move to apprehend the troublemakers.

  "W-wait! She's in league with cultists! She's a threat to the city!" Asahi meekly resists the rookie guards, not wanting to go against the w.

  "Yeah yeah, that's what they all say. Now keep moving!" The group is carried off, leaving Kreif slightly baffled at the dispy he had just taken part irey simply rubs the back of her head, that elf had a bow trained on her skull nearly the eime, judging from the paths of her blood vessels she could sense.

  "I need a helmet..."

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