The journey back to Meria was rather uninteresting, all things considered. One of the guys from Durren offered us a lift back on a wagon he was using to transport a load of wood, which at least meant that we were saved the walk.

  Unfortunately, that gave Neil all the more opportunity to assess us. After he made us retell our experiences from our own perspectives, adding in explanations for why we made certain choices.

  “Right,” he began. “There really isn’t too much to go over here, but I’ll give it a shot. Cassie, you did fairly well. Your method of finding the Observers, while far from unique, was very effective. You also managed to bypass their psionic defences fairly well.”

  Cassie was beaming from this review, which was understandable. It was a rather glowing report, after all. I did not receive such positive feedback when Neil turned to me.

  “Julie,” he sighed. “You were very reckless. You saw a situation with a group of targets famed for stealth and deception and walked directly into a trap, causing a situation that from what I could gather from the scene you barely got out of. Not even you can heal forever. You must be more careful.”

  I had very little to say to that, but he wasn’t done.

  “However. You technically took out the most Observers, you figured out a method to finding them faster, and from what I could tell you managed to brute force through their psychic protection rather than tricking it, which I refuse to even dig into. All in all, you both did well.”

  I couldn’t help the grin that formed on my face. I’d been hearing about my ‘recklessness’ for the last week from Sarah, and I was slightly tired of it. I understood where they were all coming from, but each time it had worked out for me. I got that it wouldn’t at some point, but I was willing to work from there when it happened.

  Cassie whooped when our review was done, which cracked the stern facade Neil had adopted. “Honestly, I’m impressed. I was expecting to need to step in, but I didn’t. Good job, you two. You aren’t done yet, though.” He pulled out a thick bestiary, the very same he’d been reading on the caravan into Meria when we met.

  “I want you two to look through that and learn as much as you can. I don’t expect you to remember everything, so I want you each to pick a sub-set of monster to look into.” He handed the heavy book to Cassie and pulled out another one from… somewhere and handed it to me. I was about to ask him where he got it when he pulled his legs up to his seat and closed his eyes, assuming a position I had only seen once before.

  Neil had taken a very similar position to the one I had seen Noren in the night I had grown suspicious of him, and I was curious about how it would go. Neil’s vitae wasn’t nearly as dense as Noren’s, but there was still noticeably more than the average person. I had theorised that this increase was at least partially responsible for the increased speed and strength he had displayed in the past, but I wasn’t sure how he was accomplishing it.

  As I watched, his vitae started taking a similar form to how Noren’s had appeared that night. However, the more I watched the more differences I saw. Rather than just condensing cleanly into a ball and expanding, Neil’s much sparser vitae was reacting more like crumpled fabric. It was far less clean, and definitely less even than Noren’s had been.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him, watching as the vitae suddenly expanded through his body again as his eyes opened.

  “Sorry?” He asked.

  “I asked what you were doing,” I reiterated.

  Neil seemed a bit confused, before seeming to realise something. “Life Enhancement,” he explained, watching the blank look on my face carefully. “What were they teaching you while you were stuck in the Arena?”

  I shrugged. “How not get hit by giant armoured women, mostly.”

  Neil brought his hand to his forehead. “Dear gods, they didn’t teach you anything. Okay.” He straightened up. “Life Enhancement. Basically, it’s what people without magical talent do to keep up with mages.”

  I nodded along. “It’s how you’re faster and stronger than I am, I assume.”

  “Yep. Basically, there’s a little subset of alchemy wholly dedicated to distilling power from magically enhanced blood. It sounds grim, but it works. You take some to an alchemist, get them to do whatever it is they do to it, then drink up. Once you do that, you can just kind of… improve, when you focus right.”

  “When you focus right? You aren’t sounding especially experienced here.”

  Neil grimaced. “Listen, I don’t really know how it works, I just know that it does. I had to take a class on it, but you get this kind of… internal world. It’s really weird to describe, and apparently very personal. It’s peaceful though.”

  “Hm. I saw another guy we were travelling with do the same thing. He was better at it though.”

  Neil looked at me strangely. “What do you mean better? Wouldn’t he have just been sitting there?”

  “Oh, right. Remember how I can heal people? Well, that kind of comes with the ability to sense their lifeforce. His was moving way more efficiently than yours. Pretty sure he was faster, too.”

  Neil seemed considering. “Huh. Well, he could have gotten a more potent monster than I did. Stronger monster equals stronger benefits, so there’s a hell of a market for powerful monster blood out there.”

  “Wait, it actually matters? What did you take then?”

  Neil chuckled. “Believe it or not, I started on a Jackalope. Moved up in the world a bit from there, let me tell you.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I flipped open my bestiary and tracked down the Jackalope, which was a monster so inoffensive that they were kept as pets in some places. It was just a little rabbit with antlers, known for headbutting things but that was about it.

  “This little guy?” I held up the book.

  Neil grimaced. “Yep. Cutest thing I ever killed.”

  “Hmm,” I hummed disapprovingly. Then again, after this afternoon I didn’t really have a leg to stand on when it came to killing cute things, no matter how evil.

  Neil glanced meaningfully at the bestiary. “Do you mind if I get back to it now? We both have things to be doing, don’t we?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, sir.”

  Neil grinned but said nothing, just closing his eyes and focusing again. After a minute or so his vitae started up again, so I turned my attention tow the bestiary, scrolling to the index. After a while I decided to stick to insectoid monsters. There were enough that it wouldn’t be boring but not enough that I had no chance of remembering most of them. It was just an added bonus that they might help me expand upon my already existing designs for my arms and legs.

  --------------------------------------

  By the time we got back to Meria it was night time. Neil dropped us off at the Guild, gave us our pay (six silvers for a days work, which was wild) and headed off.

  Before he left, Cassie asked him if he knew somewhere we could stay and he gave us directions to a fairly popular inn for adventurers that wasn’t far from the Guild. After repeating those directions to each other about five times, we set off in search of a good night’s sleep.

  I had to say that I was excited to sleep on a proper bed again. Sleeping in the Arena had come down to the table in the gazebo, since neither of us could change it and Ren never got around to it. Surprisingly though, I wasn’t all that tired. Cassie wasn’t either, but that was less surprising.

  Eventually we made our way to Neil’s recommended inn, an establishment named the Warg’s Fang. Unlike the Safest Place In Town, the Warg’s Fang was absolutely bustling. Most of the tables were full, there were people playing music, I saw at least one gambling table in a shady corner. Overall, it certainly hit the ambience expected of a rowdy adventurer tavern.

  By the time Cassie and I made our way to the bar we were getting strange looks for some reason. The bartender, a slight girl with close-cropped hair and tattoos running down both arms, squinted when we each took a stool.

  “What’ll you have,” she said slowly, as though she was trying to figure out what was strange about this situation. She kept glancing at me for some reason, which made me a little self conscious. On instinct I reverted to Lia Prime to keep up appearances.

  “How much for a room, please?” Cassie asked with a broad grin on her face. I imagined this was exactly the kind of place she had imagined we would be visiting when we set off, so she was in a great mood.

  “Silver per person. Per night.” The bartender was still looking between us warily, but at least she was talking to us. “How many rooms?”

  “One’s fine, thanks,” Cassie chirped, holding out four silvers. It was a steep price, but we were earning a decent wage already and we had only taken one quest.

  The bartender took the coins and stuffed them into a pocket in her apron. “Want a drink?”

  Cassie looked at me questioningly, so I shook my head. I kind of just wanted to get out of such a crowded area, as well as maybe figure out why we were getting such strange looks.

  “No thanks,” Cassie replied.

  The bartender had clearly given up trying to decode whatever she thought was weird about us being here, because she just shrugged and handed Cassie a key. “’Kay. Here.”

  Without further ado she shuffled off to speak to someone else at the bar, leaving the two of us to glance around for a while until we found the stairs.

  “Over there,” Cassie said as she pointed towards a door with a sign that said ‘Rooms’.

  Pretty obvious actually.

  “You’re doing great, Lia.” Cassie whispered to me as we made our way through the room. I had absolutely no idea what she meant, but I wasn’t going to turn down the compliment.

  It didn’t take us long to track down our room, which turned out to be much less luxurious than the Safest Place In Town’s rooms. Still, it had privacy, lights and two beds, so little more was needed.

  The moment we shut our door Cassie whooped and hugged me, which took me completely by surprise.

  “That was so good! I’m so proud of you!” She congratulated me.

  “...For?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t really sure what I had done, but it was starting to seem big.

  Cassie released me and looked at me strangely. “What do you mean? You went out in public all shifty. You always make sure to look normal when you remember, so I assumed you were just getting nervous again.”

  I did!?

  I looked down at my arms to see my skin shifting colours, teal and pink warring for dominance. “Oh gods…” I had forgotten that Lia Prime was all weird now, so reasserting it on impulse made me look weird. I hadn’t even noticed.

  I thought of the looks we had gotten on the way here. The wariness in the bartender’s eyes when she looked at me. No wonder she thought we were weird, I looked like a powerful mage stopping in at a random low-level adventurer pub.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?!” I wheeled on Cassie.

  Cassie looked sheepish. “I thought you were doing it on purpose. Facing your fears and all that.”

  “No!” I exclaimed. “Those fears were not ready to be faced! Dear gods, what have I done? I can’t go outside now! I’ll need to leave through a window or something-”

  “Lia, honey. Enough! Calm down. You’re fine, it’s all fine. Whether you meant to or not, it’s done now.” Cassie hushed.

  She’s right. Think calm thoughts. Tranquil rivers, meandering through the forest. Autumn leaves falling serenely to the ground. People relaxing after a day of work. In a tavern. Looking at me, walking in looking like a freak. Okay, this isn’t working.

  “Alright dumbass, I have an idea. If you want to hear it, that is,” Cassie hazarded.

  I looked up at her. At some point I had taken a seat on the floor leaning against one of the beds, which I didn’t remember doing. “What idea? I still think leaving through the window is a good plan.”

  Cassie shook her head. “Come on, Lia. We’ve been here before. Remember when I convinced you to let me give you that haircut and I messed it up? What did you end up doing?”

  I couldn’t help the smile as I remembered that day. We had been sixteen, and when I finally saw myself I had been so upset. Still, I had ended up just living with it for like a week and it went back to being reasonable again, which now that I think of it probably should have taken longer.

  “You want me to wear it like nothing’s wrong?” I asked.

  Cassie offered me a hand and pulled me up from the floor. “Exactly, all you have to do is flaunt it. Now move over, I want this bed.”

  I considered Cassie’s idea as I moved to my own bed. It did have merit, but the more I thought about it the more nervous I got. If only I could just be anonymous…

  Oh right, I can look like whatever I want.

  An idea struck me, and the more I considered it the more I liked it. It allowed me to flaunt my weirdness like Cassie said whilst also giving me a semi-anonymous identity, as well as being useful outside of just this one situation.

  Of course, it would mean a decent amount of work on my part, and probably Cassie’s too if I managed to enlist her. Still, I had a good feeling about this.

  “Hey, Cass?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could. “How do you feel about bugs?”

  She looked up from her bag with a suspicious look in her eye. “Why?”

  I grinned. “Oh, no reason. I just think it’s time I make a few changes and I was hoping I could ask you to help.”

  Patreon now! I'm about 5 chapters ahead on there right now, and I expect that number to increase as time goes on. I'm also planning to run polls about all sorts of things, whether this be decisions I can't make my mind up about or new directions this or any future stories should go in.