A bear as a tracking animal. I would never have even thought about it, but I guess it’s just because bears are not something easy to tame. If you think about it, they are omnivorous creatures. It would make sense they would have a strong sense of smell. I have no idea how it compares to a dog, but considering our resident changeling had chosen this form, I would have to guess it was pretty favorable. And, best of all, a bear would have both speed and stamina well in excess of any dog in the world.

In order to track something able to move as fast as Tia, it was most definitely the perfect animal. And, right now, Sagle had boosted himself even farther with spirit energy and was tearing through the tall grass at a break-neck pace.

Rimir was following close behind, propelled once again by his magical wind. I was carried in his arms. Behind us, mother, Eirlathion, Mr. Adderson, and even the boys were coming after us. I was quite surprised at the results, though. Everyone except the boys were falling behind. The two of them ran along the path that Sagle had beat down, but there was still an element of raw speed backing them.

The four of us had never had a chance to utilize the full abilities of our spirit-enhanced bodies. This past week was the closest any of us had come, but we still had to be conscious of mother and Eirlathion. In this case, they were rapidly proving themselves to be more capable than even mother, who was already quite fast. Although, I couldn’t really be sure how much she and Eirlation were being slowed down by the tall grass, and it was also possible she was intentionally holding back to keep pace with Eirlathion.

As for Mr. Adderson, he had been specifically asked to hold back. His manipulation of the wind was nowhere near as expert as Rimir’s, and they were afraid his use of wind magic would disturb the scent Sagle was trying to follow. So, he had been forbidden to use wind magic until we managed to catch up with Tia. This left him to run along behind with everyone else.

At these speeds, I had no way to know how far we had travelled from the camp. It seemed like it had only been a minute or two, but already it was completely out of sight. At the same time though, knowing Tia, crossing this much distance would be nothing for her and she had a huge head start.

So, it came as quite a surprise to me when Sagle suddenly slowed to a stop, looking at a spot on the ground. Rimir came down and landed next to him a moment later, and right under Sagle’s nose we saw a small piece of white fabric. And not just any white fabric either.

‘She has left her dress behind. She has to be close, she must have sensed us coming.’ Sagle said.

[I know she was supposed to be a competent mage, but just how skilled is she? Would she know enough to erase the elven scent on her?] Rimir asked.

[Of the two of us, she is the one who is far more skilled.] I said. That was all I really could tell them too. I’d never heard her say anything about the kind of body manipulation that would be needed to actually erase her scent.

So, that means she took off her dress and ran off naked because she could not erase the scent from her clothing, then? My intuition said that’s exactly what happened.

‘Her trail goes cold here’ Sagle said, confirming my suspicions. ‘She is fast, but she is likely still in range where she can hear us using the courtly speech.’

[Hey… Asaren.] Rimir said to me. [You are the one she is most likely to listen to. Is there something you can say?]

Is there something I can say? I’ve been thinking about exactly that the entire time. There is really only one thing I could think of since we left, but it would not be something to bring her back. But, I suppose it would be better than doing nothing. Maybe with this method, there might be a chance of seeing her again in the future sometime.

‘Tiaren.’ I called out in the spirit voice, trying to project it as far a distance as I could manage. ‘I am going to ask Mr. Adderson to wait here. The rest of us will be leaving. Please come back and get your clothing.’

[Him!?] Rimir demanded after he heard what I had to say. [Are you saying he will be able to convince her?]

[Maybe, but I doubt it.] I said.

By this time, everyone else had caught up with us, and Mr. Adderson was giving me a hard look that said he was just waiting for the chance to speak his piece. As soon as I looked in his direction, he took that as his cue.

“Alright kid, mind telling me what you’ve got in mind?”

I closed my mind and let out a long breath. “Tiaren is excellent at teaching magic. I am sure she knows more about it than anyone in this world, and she is also pretty good as an instructor.” I said. “I know you have something you wanted to accomplish before you met us. I am sure that Tia would love to help you with it.”

“Wait wait wait wait! Hold up girl! Are you telling me to make off with your sister into the wilderness here? You kicking me out of the group?” Mr. Adderson protested.

I sighed. “I do not think there is anything I can say to convince her to stay with us right now. You are welcome to try if that’s what you want to do. In fact, I think you should. At the very least you can get an entire ear-full of what her reasons for wanting to run away are. I have a good notion as to what most of them are, though, and it makes me the person least able to convince her. The only person who would even have a chance is someone like you who would be entirely able to get up and go off with her as you would be able to come back and join us. That is the reason why the rest of us have to leave. The only way she’s even going to consider coming back is if you are the only one even close to this area.”

“Right.” Mr. Adderson said with a sigh. “Right, yeah. Alright. I got ya’.” He shook his head with his face toward the ground. “Still though, I really can’t figure you out. I got you’re tryin’ to do what’s right, but… Man, why you two gotta have so much drama?”

“So, Tia and Terri are gonna leave us?” Rolwen asked.

“Heh, we’ll see about that.” Mr. Adderson said. “I’m gonna take Asa up on the offer to give it a good try to convince the kid first, but… Well, we’ll just see what happens. This might wind up being where we part ways after all.”

“You gotta try to bring her back!” Levin said.

“Hey, if Tia wants to go, she can go!” Rolwen chastised him.

“What? But… no! She can’t leave!” Levin argued. “Me and Rolwen will stay too! We can all convince her.”

“The hell you are!” Mr. Adderson rounded on him immediately. “Me being honest here, I still think spook girl here’s gotta open up more, but I know from experience she’s got a damn good read on people. She says our only chance is if I’m here alone to talk to her, that’s exactly what’s happening, and you ain’t giving no lip about it. You’re here, you’ll probably just ‘F’ things up by popping off and whining at her.”

“No I won’t!” Levin argued back.

“Yeah, sure you won’t.” Mr. Adderson said.

“Levin, come on. We should go.” Rolwen said and put a hand on his shoulder.

[You are sure that this is what’s for the best?] Eirlathion asked, looking over to me.

[Absolutely. There is no other way for it to work.] I said.

Mother had a sad but resigned look in her eyes. Sagle, who had by now turned back into his alien-looking humanoid form, was also giving me an assessing look. But, eventually, we all slowly left. All but Mr. Adderson who stayed behind in order to play his role in this.

As we were leaving, I left Mr. Adderson with a word of advice. “Whatever you do from now on, be smart and take your time on it. Whether we talk in English or Elven, there is absolutely no way Sagle didn’t catch on to the real reason I’m having you head off with her. I’m betting the first thing he’s going to do after this is run off and tell the queen about all of this. He will include it in his report about Tia running off.”

Mr. Adderson got a strange angry deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes as he matched my gaze, but then it passed quickly and turned into something more like resignation. “Heh, knew that’s what you were talking about. I thought the plan was to avoid any mention of it.” He said and shook his head helplessly. “Right, I’ll be careful about it. All bets are off if I start to see the barrier collapsing, but at the very least I’ll do my best not to get your sister killed in the process.”

Despite not knowing English, Rimir managed to pick up on the social cues between us and realized the conversation was over. Just in case, he looked down at me for my signal before he carried me off as well.

***

In the end, Tia and Mr. Adderson didn’t come back. And, just as I predicted, Sagle immediately flew off to make a report to the queen, telling Rimir not to have the people of the tribe wait for him. Apparently, he would be able to find us if he needed to.

Personally, I think he realized he had burned a lot of good will with that stunt with Rimir. Although, I’m beginning to think he pulled it specifically because he knew it would be inevitable he’d burn his good will with me at some point anyway. He had decided to get it over with quick when he saw an opportunity for the most favorable outcome he could get. In this case, by pathing the way for a replacement less likely to get under my skin.

There was a strange sense of twisted fulfillment to all of this. Mr. Adderson got a way to free the others from Earth who the queen had locked up. Tia got a new travelling companion, which I know is something she had a need for. And, although I really didn’t want to admit it, I also needed my space away from Tia right now.

Add Sagle’s strange machinations to this, and it painted a rather complete picture. In the end, everyone got what they wanted, and not a single one of us were happy about it. I suppose in a way that’s what one might call a successful compromise.

But, there is one thing I would not let myself forget any time soon. None of this would have happened the way it did were it not for that demon’s sick little plan. After these events, I was finally beginning to see just how intricate that man’s plans were.

I was beginning to see a pattern in all of this. He messed things up for us pretty good there, but there’s no way that’s the end of it. If I look closely at these events, I can almost see the shadow of some wider events he is trying to manipulate. But I cannot make out any details of it.

We are being played with like pieces on a chess board here, and I don’t like it. There is one thing that is disturbingly clear from the patterns I have put together so far though. That demon does not see us as his opponents in this game. He considers us to be his own pieces. His pawns to move in order to carry out whatever plan this is he is putting together.

It was not a good feeling at all. Being used like this against my will. With how much damage he was doing to my life and the lives of those around me, knowing I was also being used to accomplish some twisted greater goal of his was like adding insult to injury.

Worse than that though, it also seemed to hold a promise of more to come. I did not like it at all. I would have to find some way to break out of his control. But, how do I even start to fight something like that?

Well, I suppose the first step is the same as it would be with anything. I need to learn more, and I need to sharpen my weapons and prepare. For that matter, I will also need to get Levin and Rolwen ready as well. It is time to get really serious about our training from now on.

Rimir finally let the tribe people know about my true mental age, as well as the fact that Levin and Rolwen were more mentally mature than their appearance suggested. He cleverly talked around the details, but now they know enough to free us up and let us act as we will.

For the first time, the three of us have the chance to go all out with our training. Finally we will be able to test ourselves and explore our abilities as far as they will go.

For better or ill, next time that demon tries to screw with our lives, things are going to go very different.

Jemini

End of book 2.

I will not be held responsible for any damaged screens as a result of this chapter.

Next we will have another lore chapter, and book 3 will begin after a rather significant 3 year time-skip. As promised in the final lines here, the stakes and the scale are going to be considerably higher in the next arc.

(And boy was the 2nd act a slog for me to write! All the introduction and set-up for the 3rd act climax. It was freaking torture on this poor author. It was all necessary though. I'm just getting into writing the 3rd act, and all that prep work is already paying off dividends.)