The six fairies from Earth and one former divine leech turned elf child came to a stop over a marshy swamp land, having received a signal from the lead figure of the group. The rest of them stopped behind Terri Adderson, coming close to hear what he had to say.

“What’s going on? Human settlements again?” David asked.

Terri, however, just shook his head. “No.” He said. “This time it’s the local wild life.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” David responded.

“I am guessing it is not some common animal.” Tiaren suggested as she took a position closer to Terri than the rest of them had approached. “What are we dealing with?”

“Some kind of two-headed griffin-like thing.” Terri reported. “And I’m not talking just one or two. There’s an entire flock of them directly in our path, and it’s not even just one flock. This entire swamp seems to be cram full of the things, and it looks like the population gets more dense near the center. Actually, there’s a few I’ve seen here and there already. I thought maybe we should be a little more cautious. I have no idea how strong these things might be, or how aggressive.”

“Two-headed… griffins?” Tiaren responded and looked thoughtful with her chin in her hand.

“Do you know something about that?” Cristie asked.

“I might.” The small elf girl said. [“Telescopic” vision.] She said, having selected elven as the language she used for her magic as it so closely resembled the language she was born into in her past life.

Now under the influence of the same spell Terri had in almost constant use, she looked ahead in the direction the group had been going. There, she saw what he’d called them to a stop for. Several dozen large quadrupedal birds, with two heads. Each head had lion-like features.

“Well, those are definitely not griffins.” Tiaren said. “Take a close look at their feet. Do you see something strange?”

“I don’t really know the anatomy of these mythical creatures.” Terri grumbled, but took a close look off to the creatures again anyway. “Huh… their feet are strange now that you mention it.” He said. “They look almost like human hands, except for those claws.”

“Yes.” Tia said. “Those are Zu.”

“Zoo?” Jamie said. “I’m pretty sure I have this wrong, a ‘zoo’ to me is a place where they keep animals.”

Tia glared at the man and didn’t comment on the use of similar sounding words across languages.

“Anyway, a zu is a type of lesser divine beast. The original Zu was a child of Apsu, and his children who bear a similar appearance are less powerful but still carry some of his divine qualities. Although, I do not understand how they can be in another world like this one.” Tia explained.

“You are asking about how this of all things is in this world?” David chuckled. “This world has wolves, squirrels, bats, and even humans. I’m betting the human lands even have livestock we’re familiar with from back on Earth. That should not be possible on a different world, but, it’s here.”

“No, that makes perfect sense.” Tia said. “Eirlathion told us the names of two of this world’s creator gods back when I was still a baby in this world. They’re both children of Tiamat. I bet they just copied Earth when they were making the animals in this world. They shouldn’t be able to just make Zu all that easily though. But… well, they are also children of Apsu, so… maybe. Hmm…”

“Right. Probably not worth worrying about right now then.” Jamie said. “I think what we have to be concerned about is are they dangerous, can we deal with them, and will they attack us if we try to go through there.”

“I’ll tell you this.” Terri cut in before Tia could give her answer. “There ain’t no way I’m taking us through that flock after hearing what the little lady here just said. No, we’re finding our way around here.”

“Yeah, nothing saying we gotta continue on a straight line.” David agreed.

“Actually.” Tia cut in. “Terri, if you don’t mind, I would sort of like to try something.”

***

{So that was the reason you were running from us. Your master had you on some kind of mission and you were not supposed to be found out? And it was just to learn about the city? Haha! Certainly seems like a rather frivolous venture.}

{I could say the same thing about you chasing us just because you wanted to see our magic and learn about our master.} Rolwen countered the evaluation from the mage nobleman.

Levin and Rolwen were currently following the assortment of mages through the wealthy port district of the city toward the pier where the mage’s ship was located. After Rolwen had unilaterally accepted the mage’s invitation to a dinner, the whole matter of their little chase through the city became an immediate subject of conversation.

One thing Levin noticed almost immediately though was just how careless this guy seemed to be with the information he gave away while asking questions. Asaren had taught him about an economy of information, on how sometimes you had to offer information to others in order to make them more willing to talk. It would make them feel obligated to reciprocate in kind if you shared something first. The thing is though, you had to be careful and calculated about exactly what information you shared. Keep it to things the other party needs to know and that are valued according to what you expect to get out of it for the exchange.

This guy though…

{What do you mean? If you have a master outside of the academy, I most certainly felt obligated to learn what I could about such a person.} He said, giving away yet another valuable piece of information in the process.

It was incredibly obvious what this guy was trying to do. He kept talking up everything he could evaluate about their style of magic, repeatedly pointing out how astonishing it was that they had learned what appeared (to him) to be magic of the third tier despite their young age, also stating that even the other ‘children of the gods,’ as they apparently called the other apparent Earth reincarnators, had been struggling in the first tier. That was still considered incredible for their age, but of course their apparent third tier magic blew that away completely.

It sounded like he was leveling on praises, trying to butter them up to hopefully lure more out of them, but in the process he had carelessly allowed a ridiculous amount of information to slip.

So far, they had found out that there are other people from Earth already at their academy. That was probably the single most valuable piece of information they’d had openly volunteered by this guy. In addition, the basic magic manifestations of the 5 elements meditation resembled tier 3 spells for their power and complexity.

Meanwhile, those others from Earth could only accomplish tier 1 spells at the strongest in terms of the traditional magical methods of this world which wrote spells onto crystallized spirit energy structures inside of their spirit body. In truth, him and Rolwen also had only really managed the 1st tier as well in this discipline. Their main advantage was that they were learning 3 different styles of magic. They were learning the traditional form from the Hidan matriarcs, druidry from Eirlathion, and also Asaren’s 5 elements style.

Perhaps this man simply didn’t consider the information he was giving away to be all that valuable, thinking it to be common knowledge of this world. Even the fact he treated this information so carelessly could be considered a piece of information in onto itself.

Meanwhile, Rolwen had been giving away very little, being evasive or vague in his answers.

And what’s more…

{I thought you’d promised not to go digging into our master’s secrets.} Rolwen cut off that line of questioning in it’s infancy.

{Yes, yes.} The man placated Rolwen as he rose his hands in defense. { However, perhaps an introduction might be in order. At present, our movements in this area are limited because the ignorant lord of this city saw fit to inform some rogue Hidan wanderers that we are present here. I am certain, though, that you would have more freedom moving about these plains than we might. Maybe your master could be persuaded to come and meet with us?}

{Hidan wanderers? Were those the guys we heard about at the edge of the city a little while ago?} Rolwen asked in a tone that sounded so naturally curious that Levin almost missed a step at how guile he was with this.

{Yes, your master did not tell you about the riders of the Hidan? It is them that these plains are named for. They are a group of savage nomads who worship the fey as though they were gods. They take their worship too far in places. They consider we who have gained the secrets of magic from Neruu to be their mortal enemies. As children, you may be overlooked. However, your master may find himself to be in danger as some gods forsaken reason has drawn them out this far from their normal hunting grounds.}

This one actually did make Levin stop in his tracks. That was a lot to digest. There was so much to unpack in that, the only way he could stay focused was to use a mental exercise that Asaren had taught them.

Focus on the immediately relevant point, the one that can be most easily applied back to the last subject he could think clearly on.

On that subject, the issue of why this guy was so freely volunteering information, it finally all made sense. He considered us to be on the same side as him. Fellow mages of this ‘Neruu’ he had mentioned. Was Rolwen somehow picking up on this when he’d agreed to come along with this guy?

By latching onto this one approach to this bombshell of an information drop, Levin’s mind began to reboot and see how maybe he could manage to deal with this guy a little better. And also, how they should be talking about this ‘singular’ master of theirs.

{Levin?} Rolwen called back to him.

{Huh?} He responded and looked around as Rolwen, the mage noble, and all the lower ranked mages who had been silently following along with him all seemed to be looking at him in mild concern.

{It’s fine. I’m sure the Hidan won’t be able to touch our master.} Rolwen said in a manner that seemed like he was directing it at Levin.

{You shouldn’t be underestimating the Hidan like that, boy.} The mage noble said in a tone that was suddenly deadly serious. {They may be savages, but they have a powerful bloodline that can tame most any animal, including some of the monsterous variety. About the only animal they are unable to touch are the sacred Zu who jealously guard the swamp where the academy is located. That is not all either. They have warriors powerful enough to rival any mage, but by far the most deadly thing about them is their women. Most don’t know this, but it is actually the women who run the tribes, and the women of the tribes are rather competent as both warriors and also mages. Combining spells with the deadly mounts they ride on into battle is no joke.}

{And don’t think you can easily go hiding from them either. I promise you, those beast riders have more ways to track a person than you have ways to hide yourselves.}

He looked down at both of them with a face that seemed to be made of stone as a long silence loomed between the three parties.

{For your master’s sake, I very strongly suggest you pass on my invitation at the earliest you are able. We will give you food and supplies. We will be staying in this city for a while. If you can get back here with your master in that time, the academy will gladly take you all under our protection.}

Levin looked silently back to Rolwen. He had to keep Asaren’s acting lessons in mind, using the emotional awareness he had gained over the course of her training to pick through all of the emotions he was feeling now, and re-purposing and gaining mastery over them so they can be used advantageously for the character he needed to portray.

He felt like he was drowning and completely out of his depth at how quickly everything was moving right now.

He felt overwhelmed by all the new information he had coming at him, and he was growing less and less able to process it all in real time.

He felt a certain smugness as he realized just how much the information field was unfairly tilted in his and Rolwen’s favor right now, and this put him at dangerous risk of smirking at the whole situation.

And, along with this, he felt fear that he was going to mess up and blow their cover with a single out of place word.

The sense of drowning and being overwhelmed were fine as they were. He would just add in the perspective of a person who was aligned to this ‘Neruu’ figure and is receiving this information from an assumed ally.

On that subject, the fear he felt would be re-purposed to become a fear for the safety of his master.

Meanwhile, the smugness would be turned into a sense of bravery as he tried to stand with resolve to come out ahead in this bad situation.

{How… how long will you be here?} Levin asked. {We’ll talk to master.}

After delivering this line, he had to use every ounce of mental discipline he had as he once again had the urge to smirk, this time even stronger than the first.

This time, he was the one who had gotten the jump on Rolwen with a sudden rash seeming decision that would affect both of them.

He just wished Rolwen would show the decency of being at least a little put off by it. He had no such luck. All Rolwen did was nod in agreement and also turn his eyes toward the noble mage.