Day 39, 5:15 AM

  “And since I care about you, I’m going to explain some things.” I look at Edna. “You already know everything I’m about to say, and the topic might pe painful for you—”

  “I’m staying.” Her voice is determined, and I nod before explaining the political reasons behind the church’s prosecution of mages and those who can live outside its influence.

  The girls aren’t stupid, they understand what I’m saying, and the fact that they are willing to listen and think about the topics I’m discussing means the church rules through fear rather than benevolence. If they loved their rulers, they would have resisted my revelation that they are tyrants. But since they are already aware of their tyranny, my story is easier to accept.

  “What we can offer you is teaching you magic.” Edna glares at me, but doesn’t object, so we’re making progress. “But if you aren’t interested, we can also help you in other ways. Since I’m currently learning to be a mage, we can help you level up in the classes I’m going through. Our primary goal is surviving without getting caught. Our second priority is to be strong enough to crush the inquisitors when they catch up to us.”

  Which brings me to the crucial question.

  “We have eliminated thirteen inquisitors. How long will the church take to deploy thirty of them?”

  Edna meets my gaze, I’m asking her, but she shrugs.

  “Holy Bastion is the capital of the Church of Holiness, and the only castle with that many inquisitors.” Gila, of all people, answers. “Over one thousand inquisitors and their acolytes live there.”

  She looks at us, and I realize my jaw just dropped.

  “I was a maid at the priest’s home, working to save up enough… Well, you know why. Anyway, some crazy old heretic punched the priest dead, and I lost my job, and here I am.”

  My jaw would’ve dropped lower had I not recovered from the initial shock, but Edna gives me a weird look, and I know exactly what she’s thinking. I got poor, little Gila fired. I’ve been shattering her dreams left and right, and I can only hope she doesn’t learn the truth.

  “Do you know any other information like that? Have any castles tried to rebel? Are there any in extremely poor condition?”

  “Deephorn is besieged by monsters, and the church was considering whether to abandon it. Old father Tack grumbled about the church being stretched too thin when he discussed outside news with his wife, but that was many months ago.”

  “Do you know where that castle is?” Gila shrugs, and I look at Edna.

  “The church changed the names of pretty much everything. I only know the new names of the few surrounding castles.”

  “Deephorn is three weeks west-south-west of Tallrock,” Lucy says. “The monsters control the surroundings, and the castle is like a tip of a horn poking into the lands ruled by monsters, that’s how it got its name.”

  This might actually work! Gila is privy to sensitive church information because nobody ever minds the help when discussing important matters which don’t concern them. Lucy has been dreaming of traveling for years, and it makes sense she’s been collecting information about various settlements.

  I shoot Edna a smug look, and she rolls her eyes in a very familiar fashion of a woman wanting to smack me on the head.

  “We could go to Deephorn, deal with the monsters, and take our time to grow powerful. If it’s a region the church has decided to abandon, we will get some reprieve from the inquisitors’ hounding, and they might even lose our trail entirely.”

  I look at Gila. “It’s unlikely you can be a tailor in an abandoned town, which would lack trade, but if you’re a well respected mage, you might get your wish of living inside the walls in luxury.”

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  She wants to stay grumpy, but the thought of eventually getting what she wanted out of life draws a smile.

  “Once we settle down, we can seek out more potential candidates and teach them magic too. If we expand our mage order enough, and raise a dozen powerful mages, we can stand up to the church and later go on the offensive.”

  And here I go again. I wanted to be a rebel, an anarchist, but some habits are hard to get rid of. For instance, seeing a chance to conquer the world and not seizing it. I tone down my excitement.

  “But first, we need to get there. It’s best to assume we only have some fifteen-twenty days before the inquisition sends pursuit, and we should use that time to send them on a wild—” Do they have something on Everrain which can replace geese in that idiom? “…chase.”

  I finish weakly, but I think the girls understand my meaning.

  “We can go towards the corrupted lands and head there in an arc to throw them off our trail. A group of twenty to fifty men will certainly draw abominations towards them.”

  Gila and Lucy are terrified while Edna nods. The idea of restoring mages appeals to her, while driving a large group of inquisitors into the corrupted lands to struggle against abominations draws a smile.

  “Don’t worry,” I assure the girls, “the corrupted lands aren’t that terrifying as long as we stick to the outer edges. Edna can’t use magic, but I can defeat any minor abomination we run across. I can even handle more than one at a time.”

  “It’s much simpler than it sounds,” Edna speaks on her own initiative, and I shut up. While a minor gesture, her talking means she has accepted my proposal. “Abominations are fiercely territorial. Griff will kill an abomination, and we will pass through its area safely. After a day or two, another abomination will smell the corpse and claim the territory, blocking the path for our pursuers. If Griff acts as our vanguard, all we are going to see are some smelly corpses, maybe not even that. But we will have to go in slightly deeper than we did last time, Griff.”

  She wants the inquisitors to suffer, I can tell. If a large crowd moves deeper through the abomination territory, it’s only a matter of time before they make a disturbance large enough to draw everything from the region to them.

  “You think it’ll work?”

  She nods. “I’m positive.”

  Well, she’s on board; now for the girls.

  “As I have already stressed, nobody will force you into anything, whatever choice you make is entirely your own. I know your options are limited, and I apologize for that, but such as they are, they are your decisions, and they are yours to make. You can follow us like camp followers, I could train you should you choose a martial class, I don’t think that’s where either of your affinities lie, but I will help as much as possible if you make that choice; or you could learn magic.”

  I’m not very subtle about it, I want them to learn magic. Not because it will increase our combat ability, but because I will have contingencies should Edna one day forget the debt she owes me and betray me.

  Until that happens, I will trust her completely. Should she prove me wrong, Redo will help me correct my mistake in a swift and merciless manner.

  Lucy steps forward. “I want to learn magic.”

  She trembles as she says the words, and there’s little confidence in her stance and voice. A not-so-tiny egoistical part of me thinks she’s made the decision just to impress me and draw me closer. Whatever her reason, I am pleased with her choice.

  Her development and whatever relationship she might be going after are perfectly fine, as long as I keep the old adage in mind, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I will not toy with her feelings, abuse them for my benefit, or mistreat her. For both our sakes.

  Gila is indecisive, and apparently angry.

  “Can magic help me with making clothes and make my life better?”

  Edna is about to curse her, but I speak first.

  “Edna made this fine dress for herself. It’s been through a fire, and there’s barely any singes on it. Speaking of which, Edna, could you enchant our clothes to be like yours? Resistant to fire and maybe some other common forms of elemental attacks, as well as slashing and stabbing.”

  “This is just a flame retardant cloth I made. It can’t stop a fireball or a knife. What you’re describing is advanced runic work, and there’s no way to do it without inscribing the item you’re making.” She turns towards Gila. “And, yes, magic can make or shape objects, it can change their properties, but it requires years of studying and hard work to understand how to do that. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

  Unless you cheat and get a skill that does it for you.

  She’s trying to scare Gila, but the girl nods, as if that’s how things should be. She listens to Edna’s speech to the end.

  “In that case, I want to learn magic too.” She says with more resolve than Lucy has shown. “I’ve never been afraid of hard work, and if it can help me become a tailor, then I’m all for it.”

  I can’t believe my ears.

  She really just wants to be a tailor?