I yawned and sipped my tea, wishing I had more; my travel cup (carved lovingly from wood by an artisan who used to be an artist – a sculptor) was not insulated, and the tea within had long since grown cold. I flexed my fingers in my gloves.

It was an unusually chilly morning, so why was I out in it?

The quarry was covered in a light fog which obscured vision past a hundred feet. Good for us to avoid detection as we sat over it, but bad for us to actually see what was going on below us.

A mining operation, conducted by people ten feet or taller without any power tools. They simply slammed rocks together with enough force to shatter them, then picked through what remained. I knew it was still going on because I could hear it, and we'd watched it happen before the fog rolled in. I also knew about the forges, used to smelt the metal once it was found. So we knew what they were after.

What the stone blocks being made for some hundred feet away from that I had no clue, but houses would be my guess. The entire area was denuded of trees and that left me feeling exposed, even with the fog surrounding us.

Another sip of bitter cold tea and I glanced to our fearless leader.

Karl had been given specific orders. While my mandate from the powers that be at Toledo was to look for magic and magic explanations, Karl's was simple. Ask the Giants to move; if they wouldn't move, force them to. That was the job we'd been given to keep our access to the information network the lord of Ohio was creating.

In a word, it was bullshit. It sickened me. There was some hope for a peaceful resolution, but if these giants were like the kind I'd read about, I didn't have much. Giants were stupid, historically. I'd have to try very hard not to allow that past history with giants to color my current perceptions of them.

“What do you think, Lady Muse?”

“I think we try to negotiate.”

Randolf growled in disgust and almost threw the rock he was holding. He stopped at the last minute only because he wasn't sure if it would give us away; he was even more anti-giant than I was. He wasn't really fond of anything, really. Even his fellow humans.

“Right, no doubt about that, but how do we make sure we all live if negotiations go south? Not wanting to kill is one thing, but....”

“Yeah, I'm with you. I'm thinking.” How could we cover our retreat if we go down there to talk with the people that might be angry, territorial, and the weakest of which could chuck a rock better than a catapult could? If we pissed them off, we'd have seconds, at best.

“I'm actually a fan of not going down there at all. At least, not in person.” I finally decided.

“Illusions and trickery? Smoke and mirrors? I approve but didn't figure you as the type.” Phil stated. I couldn't even see him, he was blended in so well.

“I'm not, normally. But I can handle a simple projection of Karl and add his words to it easily enough.” The elements were more my forte if anything was; I was pretty versatile.

“Sure, sounds like a plan.” Karl agreed. “But am I the one going to be doing the talking, or are you?”

“Well, you are. You tell me what to say, and the projection says it. We will have to be a bit closer for this to work, though. The outskirts of their operation, at least.” My range for such a complex illusion was a bit better than that, but I needed to hear what they said, and with the fog muting sound that was problematic.

Of course, that same effect made it much easier to sneak up on a people who had ears big enough to fit my hand in... if I wanted to do such a thing in the first place. We crept down carefully, near one of the trails the giants made but not on it, and stopped behind one of the frankly huge stone walls that were being erected; I could peek around it and see the broad strokes of what was going on, which was another plus.

“Hm, I can make us all invisible too, if you want.”

Pastor Collins chimed in, his whisper hoarse. “I can further mute any sounds we make.”

“Not sure that's a good idea,” Brian whispered back. “Won't that mute sound coming to us, too? And any communication we need to make?”

Karl shook his head even as Pastor Collins nodded his. “Yeah, let's not do that. Save it though, for a quick getaway if we need it. Having these people not able to pinpoint us could mean the difference between playing catch and not. Go ahead Muse, your show.”

I looked at him,fixing his features in my mind. It probably wasn't important what the puppet looked like, but I wanted to show I meant what I said about Karl calling the shots. Some focus, and more concentration than I expected, and there it was, a clone of Karl made of light and will. I made it walk around. It walked just like him, and the boots met the ground as expected. I could even make him stumble over loose stones, silently.

The steady pressure in the back of my head wasn't unexpected, but it was unwelcome. A mental command and sound was added, at a very low volume; I whispered, and clone Karl whispered in Karl's voice right along with me.

“She sells seashells by the seashore.”

Karl gave me a 'really?' look so I shrugged at him. “Alright good to go.”

Having clone Karl say that right next to me ear was disconcerting. Karl motioned the go-ahead so I had the clone march straight into town as if he owned the place. I also cast a quick as mass invisibility in the meantime. We would all be visible to each other as blue outlines, but not visible to anyone else. It didn't take long for clone Karl to be noticed, and one giant started over. I adjusted the sound.

“Take me to your leader.” Well, that was loud and clear and caused more of the giants to notice him.

I could feel the almost physical pressure of more of those stares from my companions. So I was a nerd and I sucked at improvising; sue me. If Karl wanted something better, he should have told me first.

The clone of Karl was soon surrounded. One giant, standing at fourteen feet tall and bellowing orders, strode up. He also had more of his kind looking for other intruders. I was happy we were invisible. I did notice the language being spoken wasn't one I knew.

Then he switched to English. Or whatever passed as English, now. Some common language all peoples seemed to share, or at least all the ones I've met so far. “Who are you?”

I started repeating Karl; reading his lips and making the sounds come from my illusion.“My name is Karl, and I represent the duchy of Ohio. I came to see what happened to the people who were living here, and the previous scouts.”

The giant tasted the word as if unfamiliar with it. “Duchy of Ohio? We know nothing of this kingdom of Ohio. We needed a home, and this area looked promising, so we took it. There were none to contest us. There were humans who came after, but they attacked us, so we killed them. They were weak. Are you weak?”

“No. What of those?” I had my projection point to the rubble of obviously human made houses.

“They were empty when we came. No one was using them, so we knocked them down.”

So either the mining town that was here vanished in whatever happened or they ran when they saw the giants and the giants decided that meant the place was abandoned. The former seemed less likely since there were reports from and about the town for at least a day after the event. But if not that, then where did the population go? They should have been around to say something if they had just run off, giants or no giants.

If the soldiers behind us decided the giants had done something, there would be bloodshed. I didn't want that if the giants were innocent. If they were guilty, and this one was lying to us, well, I'd probably start things off myself. But we needed proof, and I didn't really see anything definitive here. No graves or bones or anything lying around, no freshly turned earth. Seemed the giants just wanted whatever was in the rock itself, or to shape rock; I didn't know.

Some new/old instinct, perhaps.

Come to think of it, they said they killed the scouts for attacking them; if so, where were those bodies?

Karl came to the conclusion at the same time I did and made me ask. The answer was better than I expected. The boss pointed to the other side of their settlement or camp or whatever. “We made cairns for them.”

There were three, and they were very solid. So, they didn't eat humans, or if they did they were restraining themselves. And no village worth of corpses.

“You have settled on Ohio land, and if you wish to remain, you must submit yourselves to the authority of the Duke.” I stared at Karl as I repeated it; the duke had actually prepared a for this eventuality? Even told Karl to say that line for it? He nodded. Well, things were going to go to hell quick.”

“Is this Duke you speak of strong?”

Well, that wasn't the answer I expected. It was probably leading to it, though.

“Yes, he is.”

The giant nodded. “Good, then we fight, and the stronger one keeps the land. Tell him to come. You leave now unless you want to fight.”

Yep, it led right where I thought it might.

“I will tell him, and I'll leave. I'll come again.”

The giant nodded again. “Okay. Leave now.”

At Karl's direction, I walked the projection out of the circle of gathered giants, making sure to match the sounds up. Once back to us, I cut it and just managed to hold back the grateful sigh; that sort of thing was hard to do for extended periods.

“Let's get out of here before they realize there's more of us. One guy may not seem a threat to them, but all of us here skulking around? That will piss them off.”

I had no doubt about that, and the fog was beginning to lift. Karl gave pastor Collins the high sign, and an eerie silence dropped. We snuck out. We'd gotten back up the trail successfully, going wide past four different giants who were looking for intruders and were in the clear by the time the silence spell cut out. I dropped my own spell right after, not bothering to stifle the sigh this time.

Phil looked at me. “Why are you on your tip-toes?”

I looked down, then dropped to my feet. Oops. “I was sneaking. Everyone knows that when you sneak, you do it on tip-toes.

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

I sniffed at him. “You just have no proper respect for sneaking etiquette. A shame really, considering your profession. Well, your new profession.”

Phil grinned widely, taking a drink from a skin I knew didn't contain water. And this early, too. “Old profession too, for all that I didn't get caught. Don't look so surprised, you knew I was a hood; everyone did.”

“I wasn't surprised at that, just surprised that you admitted it, and in front of the local law.”

Karl chimed in. “We never could pin anything on him, and he knew it. Even now, without a specific admission, I can't do anything and he knows it.”

Ethan, who had been so quiet the entire morning that I'd forgotten he was there, finally spoke up. “As riveting as all this is, can we talk about it later, when we're all safe and not facing death by rock burial?”

He sounded pretty irritated but had a point.

Karl thirded it. “Yep, agreed, time to leave and meet our friendly liaison.”

Or friendly liaison was the commander of the soldiers a few miles behind us. A full hundred men, all armed and armored, led by one captain Kruger Short. Captain Short was cold and aloof, or at least he had been last night when we met him. Our job had been to scout the location and report back, then offer magical support in the event of a threat while his soldiers eradicated the menace. I wasn't sure I liked the word choice.

I had my suspicions, but I'd wait and see.

The hike back, a good two miles down a fully paved cart road, was an easy one. Nothing jumped us, which actually made me more nervous. A little screwed up, I had to admit, but there it was. Captain Short was waiting for us on a field just off the quarry road. While he still had a number of men with him, he was somewhat shy of the hundred and twenty or so he had started with.

That was actually a good thing. With the number of giants down there, even men in armor with a squad of cavalry wasn't enough to actually attack with, so the chances of a peaceful resolution just went up; but I did wonder where the others had gone.

“Ah, there you are, back safe and sound. So, what news do you have for me?” He directed the question at Karl, visibly ignoring me entirely, even though we were walking right next to each other.

“Well, your scouts managed to piss off a large group of giants and got themselves killed. Somehow, all three of them. The giants claim the village of workers was abandoned when they found it. They tore it all down and moved in, and are making their own settlement. We didn't see any evidence of graves or corpses, and no evidence the giant's were lying; they buried the scouts, but not anyone else. Admittedly, we didn't look too hard; I thought you should know what's going on before we risked getting discovered.

Captain Short looked us all over, frowning. “That's appreciated, but the job is only half done, then. You need to go back and find any evidence there; if you can, find out where the workers went and where they are now. I've got patrols checking on the towns nearby, so you won't need to do that.”

Ah, so that's where they went.

“Of course, the giants will still need to answer for the lives of our scouts, but the workers and their families are our first priority.”

I couldn't stay silent at that. “What are you going to do? Attack them? Kill them all?”

Captain Short looked at me the first time, his outrage plain to see. “Of course not, don't be stupid. But murders must be answered for. Only the guilty parties will be punished.”

He meant the leader, no doubt, the one who answered our questions. As the one in charge, he was responsible – but that really wasn't a good idea. I had no real idea how the giants might take the arrest of their leader, but I doubted it was well.

Nevertheless, he had a point. Not punishing murderers would cause problems later, and it was the right thing to do besides. At least the decision wasn't mine to make. I wasn't going to support his decision either, not if I could help it. I wasn't along to help kill a bunch of giants who might have been human before, and could have been provoked into killing. Not that anyone knew that yet. With luck, they wouldn't need to find out.

Was the rule of law even the same anymore? It couldn't be, the circumstances were all wrong, and yet I didn't want to believe it was. At the same time I knew that if the giants had found and attacked us, lethal force to escape was an option I wouldn't have hesitated on. It probably made me a hypocrite, somehow.

Of course, it didn't help that I didn't trust Captain Short; it felt like he was looking down his nose at something disgusting every time he looked at me, and trying not to inhale a foul stench. I was half tempted to show him what a foul stench was.

“Alright, time we should be going, right Karl?” Brian stated, moving up to my side, and I realized I'd been staring – well, glaring really – at Captain Short.

I didn't think asking him about his plans was stupid in the least. Antagonizing him, perhaps, but not simple questions.

Karl agreed. “Yep. Time to go. Come on, Muse, let's go find some villagers.”

Together they all but manhandled me away from the Captain and his men, and soon we were headed back down the road towards the giants.

“What are you even doing, antagonizing the armed man like that?” Randolf had the nerve to ask.

I looked to Karl, and he sped up, but not before I could see the disapproval on his face. Brain's face was much more open. “I was trying to make sure he wasn't going to go through like a scythe and kill a bunch of people in cold blood.”

“They aren't people, they are giants. Large, ugly, dumb, murderous brutes.” Randolf scoffed.

Pastor Collins sided with me. “She's right. Murder is wrong, no matter how big the person is.”

I couldn't believe what I just heard. “Not that long ago, less than two weeks, in fact, giants didn't exist. Can you be so sure about that? Them being dumb and murderous? They could have been rocket scientists or physicists before.”

Randolf shook his head in disbelief. “But they aren't now. We have to deal with the now, not the past.”

“No reason we can't try to deal with both. We are trying to figure out what happened in order to reverse it after all.” Thomas answered him - before I could. I couldn't have said it better myself, actually.

Randolf said nothing, but clearly, he did not believe in the mission anymore, if he ever did. On that I wasn't sure I could blame him; this was daunting. It looked like the entire planet was affected, at least from where we sat.

“Alright, enough. Quiet, and focus. I don't want to get buried alive. Lady Muse, can you still cast your invisibility?”

I nodded. “Sure, I can do it again. A few more times.”

“Good, that'll be the plan, when we get close.”

We walked, getting off the road as we got closer. The fog was gone, so we were forced to take it easy and slow to remain as silent as possible. There were still giants everywhere, looking around.

Pastor Collins cast his silence spell, (which ironically was a somewhat loud prayer requesting silence, and therefore not silent itself) and we carefully picked through the remains of the human settlement. The closest thing to a crime was rotten food. No bodies, human or animal.

I was beginning to feel the strain of my spell when someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Phil, and he made a bunch of signs. Since I had no idea what the hell he was actually signing, he sighed soundlessly and gestured me away. We all regrouped and he led us away.

I hadn't even noticed Phil leave the first time, but when he led me away from the settlement ruins and to the edge of the forest near a gully, it was obvious he had at some point. At some point in that trek, sound returned, and we were all treated to the lovely sound of Randolf kicking rocks with metal shoes.

We all glared at him, even Karl. Why not? Ethan was fully armored too, and he was quieter.

“So, footprints.' Phil whispered, pointing them out. 'Not a whole bunch, but enough. There was a large number of people, human – or elf – sized, that went through here, and they did it all at the same time.”

Thomas studied the prints. “Yep. About a week ago, maybe a bit longer. Should be easy to track.”

Karl took a look, then stood up. “Lead on, then.”

I didn't bother. Both Phil and Thomas were better than I was, even if I did know what I was looking at, and I wasn't about to go grubbing in the dirt more. I followed along as we dodged giants. It was getting harder and harder to focus, and objects around my peripheral vision were getting fuzzy. I realized my breath was coming in gasps.

This was bad. “Wait. Got to stop....” I released the invisibility spell, and everyone stopped, ducking down and looking around for the threat. I started feeling better immediately.

I slid down a tree and took a seat. “Sorry. Just couldn't hold it any longer.”

Brain crouched beside me, a water skin in hand. “Nah, we should have asked. Still, almost two hours, for all of us. That's not bad at all.”

I took a gulp. “Sorry, it wasn't really affecting me... until it was.”

Karl blocked the light. “You should tell us if something is affecting you.”

“That's just the thing... normally it doesn't work like that. I cast the spell, the spell works, and then cancels when it runs out of energy. That's all. I'm not sure why this spell worked differently.”

“This looks as good a spot as any to take a rest. What do you say, boss man?” Ethan asked.

I looked at him gratefully while he pretended not to notice. Karl shrugged. “Sure. No giants around, everyone take five.”

I was tired, sure, but I wasn't made of glass, and I recovered quickly. Five minutes later I was ready to go – only no one seemed to believe it.

They were all still lounging around, looking almost obscenely fresh. Throwing twigs at each other, or just staring off into the distance. Ethan was braiding rope, of all things. I got up... and no one got up with me. So I could either say 'I'm ready' and look like an ass, or just stand there.

I grabbed my own canteen. Water was all well and good, but skins made it taste weird; filtering it through wood was much better. At least Pastor Collins was breathing hard too.

Brian threw a twig at me; it stuck in my hair. I pulled it out and sent it back.

Randolf got involved. “You know, it is around lunchtime. I could definitely use some lunch.”

“Sure, break out the trail rations.” Karl assented.

I swear it was a plot. I was NOT made of glass. We could even be eating while moving – after all, this was kind of a time sensitive case here.

We ate. I cracked open my book and tried not to glare. I wasn't really needed as a pair of extra eyes. Soon enough I was getting tapped on the shoulder.

“Time to go,” Brian whispered, apologetically. He offered me a hand up, which I took.

Almost a shame, really. Reading about water and how it exists to flow gently and exploit ruthlessly was interesting. Unscientific, but interesting. Also, nothing I didn't already know; the grand canyon exists after all. Or maybe that's 'existed', but the book made it sound like it was an intelligent decision. Or at least that there was more at work than simple cold facts and chemistry.

I wasn't a believer yet, but I was getting there. I'd just made people invisible earlier today, after all; something physics said was impossible. Well, conventional physics anyway.

“Thomas are we still following those tracks?”

“Sure are, Lady Muse. Something you would know if you bothered to check.”

“That's what you're along for.” Well, him and Phil both, really.

If Thomas was feeling confident enough to joke, I was pretty sure we were out of giant country.

We continued to follow the tracks. For hours. We didn't see anything in the meantime; nothing dangerous, nothing harmless. Not even squirrels or birds. It reminded me uncannily of Georgetown, though there didn't seem to be any of the same crackling tension in the air; it was more as if anything alive and mobile had better places to be.

To be fair I still heard creatures stirring, I just didn't see them. Perhaps it wasn't that odd, considering I was walking with two noisy ironworks with legs.

The problem was we still hadn't found any villagers by an hour towards nightfall. We circled to decide what to do about that.

“We can't go on, we don't know enough about what's ahead,” Thomas whispered.

I agreed with that.

“But we should just push through another hour, they might not be that far ahead, and then we're done.” If anything Randolf sounded disgusted with the whole trek. I guess if he viewed the entire expedition as a massive waste of time (as he seemed to), that was reasonable.

The other issue was how to get in touch with Captain Short, and let him know we were still on the job and where; we hadn't crossed any other towns or villages. Which might also be a little odd, but I wasn't sure; wouldn't a group of refugees head towards civilization, and not away from it?

Without a horse, trying to send someone back and expecting them to reach us by morning was stupid. So Karl, of course, turned to – Pastor Collins? What?

“Can you send a message to Captain Short? Will your goddess allow you to?”

Pastor Collins nodded, with a glance to me. Nervous? “Yes, I believe so. I can ask, of course.”

I kept setting up my tent, but when Karl walked by I couldn't keep silent. “I could send messages too, you know. Probably easier than Collins can.”

Collins glanced over from where he was building the fire up as Karl stopped. Yes, he was definitely nervous about something.

“Sure, but Captain Short doesn't like you, and you don't seem to like him much either, so having Pastor Collins do it seemed like a good idea. You can handle the direct report to the Duke's agents at Toledo.”

I gaped at him. Was he going over Captain Short's head?

He grinned at me. “Captain Stone asked for reports too, and while I'm sure he meant from Captain Short, he never said as much and I was there. I'm also sure your friend Twig would like to know what's going on.”

I shook my head. “His name is Stick.”

“Whatever. Will you do it?”

“Sure, but why?” I was already forming the bird of light and air which would relay the messages to the capitol. The bird was more flashy, but it would be easier and more effective in the long run.

Karl shrugged. “Man strikes me as a bit of a bigot, and I want our backsides covered. Going to see about hunting a little.” He ghosted into the woods before I could finish casting and collect myself.

Just when I thought I had him figured out, Karl surprised me. I probably owed him an apology of some sort. I made sure the alarm spells I cast excluded him and tuned out the sounds of the good Pastor's chanting as he started his own message spell.

I was pretty sure mine was more efficient. I was finished with the alarms before he was with his prayers, after all.

Phil came back, throwing his sleeping bag near the fire and throwing himself down on it. I hadn't even realized he'd been gone, though it made sense; there was work to do, after all. Pastor Collins didn't so much as flinch at the noise or production.

“The tracks just keep going.”

I frowned. That was odd. We were fast on foot, despite one of us being a dwarf. We were at least as fast as a group of refugees saddled with gear. They should have bed down for the night close to where we were, as this was close to maximum walking distance for a day and we hadn't passed a campsite earlier. So did they just not stop? And if so, what scared them so much they left their town and kept going? Buildings of any kind were at least cover; it didn't make any sense.

Karl came back as Pastor Collins finished up.

“No Game at all. Well?”

Pastor Collins went first. “Captain short knows and approves. He said to keep going until you find them; his scouts found no evidence of any of them in the other towns or villages around here. Not so much as a farmer had seen them, he said.”

That was odd.

“Lady Muse?”

Oh, right. “All parties that need to know will be informed by the end of the night. My bird will bring back all their replies.”

“Good enough.” I frowned. He sounded like he had an issue there, perhaps with the speed of my spell? As if trying to inform a bunch of people and hear their replies could be done all at once. Sure, anyone could do that for one person, but several?

“Impressive.” Pastor Collins noted. At least he knew the difference.

“As I was just saying before interrupted,' Phil interrupted. 'the tracks keep going, steadily.”

“How deep are they?” Brian asked.

“Not very. I'd have to say unloaded if asked, but I'd be more happy about it if someone else could verify.”

Thomas just nodded and stood up. I threw some trail bread and jerky his way; with no game that was supper. I could hear him crunch down on the stuff as he left, and winced. I'd stick with my own trail mix, less likely to lose a tooth that way.

“Think it's safe to say something is going on,” Karl admitted, taking his own share of the food I was passing out.

Ethan took his share and bit in with gusto. I wasn't worried about his teeth at all; they were probably granite. “Are we safe here?”

“Safe enough,” I answered. “I've got alarm spells and wards all around us, so if anyone or anything that isn't us tries to entire the clearing we'll know.”

Sure, it wasn't perfect, but we wouldn't wake up with giants piling rocks on us.

“Good.”

We all waited. Thomas came back, and I actually spotted him before I had Phil, though I didn't hear him. I busied myself scanning for the light of tell-tale fires nearby; there weren't any.

“Phil's right. The tracks just keep going, even and unloaded. Something is definitely wrong with them.”

“Great. I'm going to bed, enjoy your night. Don't forget to wake me up for watch.”

I wouldn't put it past Brian to try and let me sleep buddy system or not, and I didn't want to miss my bird coming back. Sure, it should last until it reports in, but something weird also happened earlier, with my magic. I didn't want to take chances.

At least there were still crickets to hear and fall asleep to; complete silence would always be eerie.