I was frankly a bit flabbergasted. Most of the leaders of any size city I'd met on this journey were assholes but this guy, this guy came to me. He'd heard that I was causing trouble to get his opponent to look at me and he'd right up showed up on my doorstep.

  “Well, this is a refreshing change. Atal and Cino are dead,” I informed him.

  “That's it? That's all of three seconds of information and you built a fortress over it? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to know as the loss of more of our eldest is a massive blow to our people as a whole, but this seems overdone.”

  “That's the boss,” Chien said from the side before being shushed by Isha, it was clear that they thought I was the main actor here, and I didn't want too much attention diverted to either of them.

  “It does deem a bit much doesn't it, but your enemy decided she didn't want to hear me and was spending ages to let me tell her what I came to tell her. Honestly I'm ready to go home,” I said, drawing his attention back to me.

  He laughed heartily seeming to understand.

  “Understandable, don't suppose I can convince you to tell me the method of construction for this?” he asked, still smiling.

  “Would you be willing to help me and mine get out of this city and well off into the swamp?” I inquired.

  Sure, I could have waited for Nora, but she seemed to have a stick so far up it was a wonder she could taste anything other than bark. Truly I thought she might drag things out just to do so, perhaps even trying to find excuses to keep me in the city like she'd done tonight, potentially for a long, long time. Having techniques she wanted would be enough for someone like that. Also, I liked this guy way more than her, so sharing this wouldn't be anything troublesome, for me.

  “Just like that?” he asked, surprised at my small list of requirements.

  “Just like that, she's already gotten some new things from me, so sharing this doesn't bother me in the least.”

  “Sure, we're leaving tonight, I can easily get your family out of here. Heh, I'll even send an escort with you for a bit.”

  “The second part isn't needed,” I replied.

  “Actually I was hoping you could appraise them of the situation outside the swamps. If two other ancients have died there may be opportunities for my people, ones we didn't consider before.”

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  Now was my turn to laugh at him, and I did so. Uro was working his way up the list of my favorite older elves in a hurry.

  “Something funny?”

  “When I suggested exploring other options to Nora...” I had to stop.

  “Oh, I see, didn't go well?”

  “No.”

  “Well, I'd love to hear the details, but we do need to move a bit.”

  “Certainly.”

  Isha and Chien were looked at me, and with a nod we all knew that now was the time to go. Perhaps they'd had the same worries I did, perhaps not, but both trusted my judgement enough to follow when I was ready to make tracks.

  For a moment something pinged in the back of my mind, could this man be a fraud? Could he be an impersonator sent by Nora to milk me for secrets she didn't want to argue over? He was personable, and agreed with basically all of my points, as if he'd considered them, or been told them before. Dye could change hair color, and as we left I could see that the guards were merely unconscious, not dead.

  That doubt pinged as we gathered up the few possessions we cared about and began to make our way outside, then I saw him cast. The movement of the magic was subtle, practiced, and powerful as he wove a spell I didn't quite understand around us. Words of power flowed like water from his mouth and for the barest second I saw his aura pulse out, massive, yet so very well hidden, like a background noise you don't notice until someone else points it out.

  Nobody but the highest ranked of elders had magic like that, it was too strong, too big. He wasn't an ancient, he didn't have the terrible strength of Atal, or the might of Cino, he lacked the age of Rolan, or the practice of Matriarch Neera, but he was comparable to some I'd met, powerful in his own right.

  Mist spread over the city, thick and deep like a blanket. There were cries of alarm, as surely Uro was known for this type of spell, but they were soon muffled, silenced by the billowing fog that moved outwards, outwards like a wave, dimming the lights of fires, removing vision from all. Before the maker of the mists though a window shone, bright and clear as day, allowing our group to move.

  I could see my significant other trying to peek at what he was doing, watching how the spell formed and the simple magnitude of it. Did she know how this worked? Could she do it herself? Those were great questions for later, but I suspected that if she could it would be of a much smaller magnitude than this, at least for the time being.

  “Tell me of the construction while we move Justin, I'm eager to hear of it and I'm sure you're eager to be off.” Uro walked as he spoke, leading out group forwards towards the docks. “Don't worry, the mist muffles sounds to a great extent.”

  I quickly rattled off the recipe, what he'd need, ratios, and a brief, but thorough step-by-step on what to do. Uro and his men nodded as I spoke, but didn't interrupt, attention as rapt as it could be while we moved through hostile territory. It wouldn't matter if they didn't pay attention though, with our memories they could easily replay these moments and hear it all again.

  Once I'd finished Chien chimed in with a few quick tips and tricks. I may have been the one who came up with a lot of the ideas, the workings and the ways, but when it came to practical experience he was excelling beyond my means. Once I introduced something I tried to be done with it, letting other work out how to use it, both because I didn't know and I knew they'd come up with things different than I could imagine; it also didn't hurt that I had so very many projects going. Chien however did quite a bit of work with things like concrete, personal experience that I hadn't grown myself.

  “You give away so much for so little,” he said when I finished.

  “It's not exactly a secret, the basic formula is known in the city of Atal.”

  “Oh I see,” he said with a small giggle. “So the price is really nothing to you.”

  “Nothing to me, but much to you I'd wager.”

  “Yes indeed.”

  As we moved I wondered how Nora had fought against this kind of spell, it seemed so powerful. With the ability to move your people unhindered through contested ground you could be anywhere, everywhere, and there'd be little to do about it.

  We reached the boats without a problem, and began throwing things in before I got my answer. My body locked up, freezing joints and limbs that wouldn't respond. As it did so I saw Uro and his men tense, then with a pulse of their aura's seem to move again, sluggishly, weakly, but move.

  “She's here,” one of them said as I tried, and failed, to do as they had. My own aura just wasn't strong enough, and I'd not practiced their technique.

  As he did Uro's spell began to falter, thinning, not to nothing, but greatly, figures appearing in the nearby gloom, parting their way forward.

  “I certainly am,” a familiar cold feminine voice answered.