I stepped inside Arinade’s Enchantments and, seeing that she appeared to have no customers at the moment, dispelled my glamour so she would recognize me. She would have been able to sense my glamour, as I had hers when we first met, but this would save us some time. “Good afternoon, Arinade,” I offered in greeting.

The other still-glamoured Faerie looked up from the book she was perusing to smile and say, “Kaelyn, I did not expect to see you again so soon. Please, lock the door and tell me what brings you here this fine afternoon.” Even as I moved to lock the door as she had requested, she added, “I sent a missive to the Fae Council in Tarin’dol last night when I returned home, to apprise them of the Demon situation, but I am afraid that I do not expect a response until sometime tomorrow, at the earliest.”

I nodded as I locked the door and replied, “Aye, I did not think you would hear back from them so soon. My troupe was hoping that you might join us again tonight for a celebration to adopt Kalara and Xulyin, the Undine, into our troupe, and perhaps provide your services once again. Some of us have purchased new weapons and armor today and wish to spend more of our coin to get them enchanted. We would like to be better prepared the next time we encounter Demons or Tainted.”

“Aye,” she agreed with a nod of her own and a grim expression. “I would be happy to attend, and to offer my services. With the return of Demons, we cannot be too careful. I will be enchanting a weapon for myself as well and improving the wards upon my shop and home. I expect that I and the other Enchanters on the Avenue of Mystic Delights will be seeing more business of that nature in the coming days.”

Relief flooded through me as she agreed to make another house call and join us for the night’s festivities. Her last comment had me worried that she had discovered something more since leaving our camp the night before though. Were the Demons making their way into Kalidar already? “What do you mean?” I asked as worry tugged at my heart.

The other Faerie was quiet for a moment before admitting, “I took the liberty of sending a missive to His Majesty, Vergun Sal-Kalidar about the re-emergence of the Demon threat as well, though I was careful not to reveal my sources. Should war come and the Demons attempt to move outside of Evalis, Kalidar and the other countries that border Evalis will be the first line of defense.”

She was right, they had the right to know what was going on so they could prepare themselves, and I was a little ashamed that I had not thought to warn them myself, being so focused on reaching the Guild Council in Derevik and then Tarin’dol. Both cities would be well away from the front lines if this truly came to war. “Do you think he will believe you?” I asked.

“Aye, I have been here many years now and he knows and trusts me, though he may want an audience with me and my source to learn the details and discuss matters,” Arinade replied with not a hint of doubt. “I may have to call upon you sometime soon to meet with him, Kaelyn, but we can try to keep your troupe’s involvement quiet. If we can get him to believe us, I believe that we can convince him to send messengers to the other four countries bordering Evalis to warn them as well.”

“They deserve a warning of what is coming, call on me when you need to,” I concurred as I tried to recall which countries shared a land border with Evalis, other than Kalidar. There was Galandir to the far north, but the Spearhold Mountains divided the two countries, and there was only one safe passage through them, which was well guarded by Ravieri, who called Galandir home. The other three countries of Crow, Scorcia, and Nalean were much like Kalidar though, and shared somewhat open borders with Evalis. And while Evalis might only have one small port city, that would also give the Demons the possibility of spreading their influence to the Nymren Islands, the other major continent that lay beyond them, and any other port cities on this continent.

After that, our conversation turned to the types of enchantments that we would be wishing to purchase, which I had discussed with the others earlier. It did not take long and, once we were finished, I left the shop. I still had one more stop to make along the Avenue of Mystic Delights before joining my fellow Bards for an afternoon of busking, but I did not bother casting my glamour again as I made my way to Dewblossom’s shop, with the familiar dress and illusory wings in the window.

The Ilari woman looked up as the bell announced my arrival and the studious expression that she had while looking over her ledgers immediately brightened. “Lady Kaelyn, what can I do for you today?”

“Good afternoon, Dewblossom,” I replied, still a little self-conscious about how she addressed me. “I am looking for an illusion that would make my daughter appear as a regular Voyager child, for times when we might wish to blend in among the humans better. I am not very far into my magic lessons, and I am afraid that it is outside of my capabilities at the moment to cast a glamour on her.”

Dewblossom gave me a considering look as she thoughtfully scratched at her chin. “Hmmm… I could do a set illusion, but she’s a growing girl and it probably wouldn’t last long before having to be replaced. Maybe something more limited? I could try…” She continued mumbling to herself, lost in thought for several minutes before finally announcing with glee, “I’ve got it!”

I knew why an illusion wouldn’t last long as Kalara grew, of course. When teaching me to cast glamours on myself, Sharai had to tell me in detail why I could not make my glamours too unlike myself in size and shape. It was why my glamours were usually the same general height and build as me.

The more different that a glamour is from the person that it overlaps, the more mana it would take to continue working, especially when making it not just look realistic, but feel realistic as well. Just keeping my wings hidden took a lot of mana already, and trying to make myself look and feel shorter or plumper to others would be a constant drain on my mana reserves. There were also other factors like copying the expressions and movements of the wearer, and those all added to the mana cost as well.

Dewblossom had mentioned the last time that I was here with Kalara, Korine, and Vesha, that she could get around the mana drain of enchantments by having the item that the illusion was imbued into enchanted to gather and store mana from its surroundings, which works for set enchantments and small illusions like Kalara’s wings. Certain materials could store mana better than others, but they all had a limit. For something that would essentially work as a glamour, those mana reserves would be used up faster the more that Kalara grew, and the more she used it the more likely it was to fail due to using more mana than the item could gather.

I had not come here expecting some sort of long-term solution, just something that would do the job until we could leave the capital. That is why I was somewhat stunned when the Ilari Enchantress suggested, “What if we don’t do one big glamour-like illusion but a few minor alteration illusions? We could probably get away with one to make her ears look more human, another to change the appearance of her skin tone and eye color to better match the Voyagers, and a third to change her hair color to black.”

“How long could we expect it to work?” I asked.

Dewblossom tapped at her shin pensively. “Well, it would need a lot less mana than a full glamour since we wouldn’t have to hide anything like your wings on her, make her feel different when touched, or the usual extras like scents and stuff. It’s mostly just a change in colors while keeping her underlying features and expressions the same, which is a lot easier and less reliant on a specific image or area size. The ears are probably going to be the most mana-intensive of the three, but confined to just her ears even that would not use much mana. It would still work as she grows up too, if I embed the spells in a material that holds mana well. Gold would work well, but I don’t have any totems made from that right now. Or I could…”

She trailed off, seemingly lost in thought until I pressed, “You could do what?”

“Well… that little girl is Fae, right?” I nodded in answer since it was fairly obvious that Kalara was an Elf. At my confirmation, she continued. “I could give her a mark like that binding glyph on your hand, embed the illusions into that, and then have them draw from her own mana reserves whenever the spell is active. From what I felt from her when you brought her here yesterday, this spell would barely scratch the surface of the mana she has stored, and this way she would always have access to it.”

I looked over the Ilari woman as I considered the idea. She was far too eager to please me to even think about doing something that might make me angry with her and the Ilari were known for their honesty, especially in their business dealings. Arinade had also said that Dewblossom was probably the best illusion enchanter in the city, which was why I came to her for this in the first place.

I had only been expecting a temporary solution, but if she could manage something more permanent, something that Kalara wouldn’t need to have to wear a totem to activate, then I wasn’t going to turn it down. There would be times in the days ahead when both my new daughter and I would need to be able to blend in amongst the humans, and this was likely the best option we had until I could become a proper Spell-singer. With my decision on the matter made, I said, “That sounds perfect, Dewblossom. Thank you, I will try to bring Kalara by sometime tomorrow.”

On my way through Market Square searching for Master Nirlyn and my other fellow Bards, I came across vendors selling all manner of merchandise, including one that sold simple musical instruments. Not many were anything that I would buy for myself, the quality of them was not even close to the workmanship of my fiddle, but I did see a sturdy-looking tambourine. Again, it was not something that I would have bought for myself, but it was reasonably priced for the quality and seemed better made than the other instruments that the vendor was selling.

I thought that it might make a good instrument for Kalara to play with and learn the basics of music. She had been showing an interest in what we were doing whenever she watched Vesha, Korine, and me practice playing our instruments, and I thought that she might be interested in playing with an instrument of her own. The tambourine was the best of the bunch, only cost me fifteen copper pieces, and was the most likely to survive a two-year-old’s first attempts at music. I did not want to risk any of our good instruments until she could learn how to handle them properly.

With the gift for my daughter-to-be in hand, I continued my search for the others. I found them in a nice spot between a pair of busy vendors, one that sold mugs of ale and cider, and another that sold grilled sausages and veggies with a sweet-smelling sauce drizzled over top in wooden bowls. Selice was dancing along as the others played The Faerie’s Favor, and from the amount of coin in Master Nirlyn’s harp case, it looked like they had been doing fairly well for themselves so far.

That could have had something to do with either the busy location or that Selice was dancing as my twin today. It was something the dancer and I had talked about before the others left camp to find a spot to busk for the day. As I discovered yesterday, many people of the city of Hindra seemed to fawn over the Fae, and she thought that having two of us performing while we were in the city would help make our purses fat and healthy. It was a nice bit of mischief too, but she figured that if we were going to be stuck here for a while then we might as well make the most of it.

The others finished the song and took a brief rest as Korine grinned in my direction and said, “See, I told you she would show up if we played that song.”

“Very funny,” I retorted as rolled my eyes back at my fellow apprentice playfully and placed the tambourine with the other instruments. Then I turned to my ‘twin’ and asked, “Having fun today, dear sister?”

Mischief danced in her eyes and a smile lit up her face as Selice grinned and replied, “Indeed I am, sister dear. This city is so kind to us fair folk after all.” She was enjoying this far too much, but I could not really blame her since I too found myself smiling at our little ruse, and almost laughed aloud as the others switched up their instruments, started playing The Fae’s Fool, and Korine started to sing.

It seemed that the others were enjoying this as much as we were. The Fae’s Fool was a song about a Fae who disguises herself as a Human girl, deceives a selfish nobleman, and lures him into the forest to punish him for his cruelty to his people. In the end, she tricks him into giving up everything he has for a promised fortune in fairy gold, and he dies alone in the forest, hopelessly lost in an illusion of the Fae woman’s making. It was one of the more popular songs about how the Fae trick and punish humans.

Selice grabbed my hand as the others played and led me into a merry dance. I was nowhere near as good as she was, and had made no progress with my Tien’jin yet, but my lessons were starting to pay off and I was fairly quick and graceful. Coin showered into the harp case as we danced and by the end of the song I was smiling and laughing so hard that I thought I might collapse.

With the song over, I returned to the instruments and snatched up my new fiddle to put it through its paces. We started with a lively rendition of Mossfoot Mary and then worked our way through several other jigs that had Selice energetically dancing and sometimes grabbing a passerby by the hand to join her in a dance. We continued playing until well into the afternoon before Master Nirlyn decided to stop for the day and we headed back to the camp with heavy purses to welcome the new members of our troupe.