The armed strangers turned out to be an officer of the Kalidarian army and a half dozen soldiers under his command who were speaking with my grandparents and Master Nirlyn about our encounter with the traveling menagerie and the Tainted that had destroyed it. We found out during dinner that the person in charge, Grand Captain Doram, had not been there when they reported the incident to the local barracks, and had come to us to get more information. He wanted to be certain that there was no longer a threat to the people in nearby settlements like Loden, and to get a general idea for what he should send in the way of troops.

Except for curious glances toward our group as we entered the camp, we were mostly ignored by thee soldiers as we headed to our respective wagons, or to whatever tasks that might have awaited us. My sharp ears were able to pick up pieces of the conversation as we passed though. “We only encountered the two Tainted,” my grandmother clarified. “If there were others, our scouts could not find any signs of them. Both of those we encountered were taken care of and cleansed with fire before we continued our journey to the capital.”

It was a half-truth. I had, after all, used faerie fire to cleanse the Undine, and it was technically fire. It just purified her rather than killed her, so she was now free of the dark mana that had tainted her. We had decided to keep that quiet for now though, until we could test if I could use it to purify people or portions of dark zones reliably. We did not want to get anyone’s hopes up until we were sure that this could be effective for more than just Elementals or Fae spirits.

We also did not want the poor Undine with us getting the attention that this could bring upon her if people knew that she had been Tainted and cured from it. She showed no signs of reverting back to her Tainted state, and she had been through enough already. She deserved to be free to go home.

“You mentioned survivors?” I would like to speak with them, perhaps we can get to the bottom of how this happened,” the man in charge of the soldiers insisted.

I clutched Kalara tightly to my chest as I heard that, but my grandfather quickly put that idea to rest, causing me to breathe a sigh of relief. “The two survivors were being held captive in cages, it is unlikely that they saw anything of note. One is a small child, neither seems to speak common, and they have both been through quite enough already.”

“I see,” the armored man replied. “Thank you for reporting this, and for your time. I will send a patrol to scout around the area that you indicated and ensure that...”

I stopped listening at that point as I hurried to catch up with the others and our guest. It was nearly time for our evening meal, and we wanted to put our purchases away and introduce Lady Arinade to the other members of our troupe. By the time we had placed our purchases in our wagons and away in their proper places, the soldiers had left the camp, and we were summoned by the dinner bell.

‘What an unusual troupe of Voyagers you are,” Arinade mentioned as we sat down for our meal. “To have a Faerie, Elementals, a mana-touched Elf, and a Ravieri in such a small troupe.”

The other Faerie had dispelled her glamour upon seeing Master Nirlyn, figuring that the Ravieri would see right through it anyway. She likely would have been right since she had seen through mine so easily when we first met. She seemed uncertain at first, but relaxed when she noticed that the people of our troupe didn’t give her a second glance. We welcomed her as a guest but didn’t fawn over her as people in the city had over me.

We had all gotten settled and were starting to eat when an owl landed by the fire and a moment later casually shifted into Mara, who had been conspicuously absent so far. She had a frown on her face as she turned toward my grandparents, “It seems that the reports you heard in the city were true. The road east has been blocked by a massive landslide. The army has people working on clearing it, but from the looks of it, we could be staying here in the capital for more than just a few days.”

“Well, there isn’t much we can do about it, so we’ll take the opportunity to make some extra coin and load up on supplies while we’re here,” my grandfather suggested practically. He did not look happy about it though. Honestly, I could not blame him since we had planned to only stay for two days, and this would delay our journey to Derevik to report to the Guild Council.

Nobody was happy about the delay, except for the Undine and Kalara, who could not understand what had been said. Arinade was gaping at Mara’s naked form though, and I had a feeling it was not because she had any problem with nudity. Arinade was Fae after all. The Undine and Kalara had been exposed to both nudity and the occasional shapeshifting enough during their past few days with the troupe, but to Arinade the latter had made her drop her jaw, and almost her plate as well.

“Changeling,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper as she stared at Mara with wide eyes.

The sound caught Mara’s attention and she looked suddenly embarrassed as she noticed our guest for the first time. “Oops.”

“But you’re…” Arinade muttered in disbelief, her eyes still locked on Mara.

“Extinct?” My grandmother suggested to the Faerie with a raised eyebrow. “Rumors of our demise were greatly exaggerated, mostly by our own kind. When the Great War ended there were few of us left. We decided to reinvent ourselves and allow people to believe in the demise of our kind as we traveled far and wide as merely strange humans rather than Fae to watch for signs that the Demons might return. Perhaps, now is the time to allow our Fae kin to know the truth, but humans must never know what we truly are. Some can be trusted, but it cannot become common knowledge amongst them.”

“Aye, I was born human, and I only trust a fair few of them,” Daivin agreed from where he sat with an arm wrapped affectionately around Selice.

“Wait, so all of this time, you’ve been travelling and trying to come off as travelers from a distant land while you search for signs of the return of the Demons and their forgotten god?” Arinade asked in disbelief. “It’s been thousands of years, the Great War has been mostly forgotten, and we Fae destroyed everything even remotely tied to the Forgotten One…”

“Not everything,” I interjected, “something was found around fifty years ago in an ancient ruin near the town of Greendell in Evalis. The Demons are back, I have fought them myself… they, and the foul church that they have founded, killed my parents and the former wielder of Neva’kul. They already have the King of Evalis under their sway, and their influence is spreading.”

Arinade’s eyes went wide once again briefly before narrowing as she looked at me to ask, “You are certain about this?”

“She is, and she is the last person who would lie about this,” Vesha insisted as her arm snaked around my waist to hold me close to her. “The people of Thaeria village can confirm it, they sent a Pixie messenger to Tarin’dol to report it, and we have sent owls as well. They had to relocate their village because a pair of Demons and a platoon of soldiers from Evalis’s army stumbled across one of their Wood Warden teams and nearly found their village while trying to keep us from leaving Evalis to spread the word about this.”

“That’s why we’re on our way t’ Derevik, t’ report this t’ the Guild Council. Then we make fer Tarin’dol t’ rally the Fae. We’ve already sent messengers there, but they may not believe it, there’s plannin’ t’ be done, and Kaelyn needs t’ find the rest o’ the Five if we’re t’ have a chance o’ defeatin’ the Demons again,” Master Nirlyn explained.

“Very well then, I will contact the Fae Council in Tarin’dol. As an ambassador of the Fae, they should take my word seriously. Not that I don’t trust the messengers already sent, but as an Enchanter, I have a means of contacting them far more quickly. Tarin’dol will know of this situation by tomorrow night, I guarantee it, and I will bring you their response as soon as I can.”

After that, the conversation was subdued as we finished our meal. While Shava and I went through our nightly dancing lesson with Selice, Arinade got a look at Vesha in her pure fire form and then proceeded to create the enchantment that the Salamander had paid for and apply it to all her clothing, as promised. She was nearly finished when Shava and I returned to the wagon with our swords in hand.

I welcomed the brief rest as we sat to watch her finish her work and I allowed Kalara to help me feed Zaiya again. The young Elven girl was surprisingly gentle as she petted the owlet once we had finished feeding her. Shava watched as she sat on what was now Kalara’s cot. It was as we were showing the little owlet some love that Arinade finished her work for Vesha and sat on the floor cross-legged an armlength away from where I sat with Kalara in my lap.

Once seated, the Faerie turned her gaze upon me and Shava in turn. “Please, unsheathe your swords and place them on the ground before me.”

We did as we were asked, and what followed was the Enchanter closing her eyes and chanting something while touching each Vos’oraik in turn and sometimes both at the same time. I could feel her using magic, but it was tentative and exploratory, and barely noticeable compared to what I could sense while she was enchanting Vesha’s clothing. It took long enough that one of my legs started to tingle from being in one position for too long and Kalara was starting to fall asleep in my arms by the time that Arinade finally opened her eyes.

“These swords are truly a masterpiece of enchantment,” she said with a look of wonder in her eyes. “I can sense no protections that would prevent me from adding the retrieval enchantment to them, but the spirits within your blades will need to convince the will of the blades to allow it. It should not be difficult for them since their will does not wish to be separated from their wielder and will sense the nature of the enchantment. This will be a bit different from a regular retrieval enchantment though. Since the swords are bound to you, I will need a few drops of your blood to add to the enchantment mixture.”

-I am ready, Kaelyn,- Sharai assured me when I sent a query of thought her way.

With Sharai’s assurance, I went first, placing sleepy Kalara on her bed before reaching out to prick my fingertip on the sharp point of Neva’kul’s blade. While I was doing that, Arinade had removed a mortar, pestle, and a number of bottles and small clay pots from pouches within her satchel. She had me hold my dripping finger over the stone bowl until she felt she had enough and began to add other ingredients; a sweet-smelling oil, some flower petals that I wasn’t familiar with, an oak leaf, crushed and dried leaves that smelled like vervain, and several drops of a silver-colored liquid. While she mixed, she had me summon my armor, put my belt and sheath on over top, and take Neva’kul in hand.

I could feel her infusing the mixture with her magic as she thoroughly ground the ingredients together and then, chanting something in the Fae language and infusing even more magic as she did so, she dipped her finger repeatedly in the solution to draw strange sigils along the length of the blade as I held it, and then on the belt and sheath that went with it. Then she took my left hand in hers and drew a sigil over my binding glyph as well as her chanting reached a crescendo.

A tingling sensation shot through my hand where the binding glyph was, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. It was strange, I felt even more connected to Neva’kul than I was before. Sharai’s voice seemed somewhat clearer in my mind as she said in wonder, -She did it, Kaelyn, but there is something more too. I feel stronger somehow.-

Arinade suggested that we have Vesha run outside with my belt, sheath, and sword so I could try to call them back to me, and had me hold my hand like I was holding my blade. When I attempted to do so, the result was nearly instant, Neva’kul appeared in my hand and my belt and sheath were in their proper place over my armor.

Doing the same with Fal’hevar was a repeat of the first, though I thought that there was an ingredient or two to the solution that I did not remember her adding to mine. It turned out that there was a reason for this. Once she had finished her chanting and drawing the final sigil on Shava’s left hand, a golden binding glyph appeared there. She smiled at my cousin and said, “A little something extra to show my appreciation for letting me study Fal’hevar as well.”

Compared to Vesha’s enchantments and those on our swords, the enchantment on my fiddle was simple by comparison and I could feel her having to use less magic for it to take hold. By that time, Kalara was soundly asleep in her bed so when Arinade was ready to do the fluency enchantment, I had to ask, “Does she need to be awake for this?”

The Enchantress shook her head. “No, for one so young, it will likely be better if she remains asleep. This can be uncomfortable and disorienting even for adults. Your minds will absorb the knowledge as you sleep though and by morning, you will all be as fluent in Fae and Common as I am.”

Since Shava was returning to her own wagon, after giving Arinade her profuse thanks, I requested that she ask our grandmother to bring the Undine to our wagon so that Arinade would not have to search for her and could cast the enchantment on all three of us at once. By the time that my grandmother had arrived, with the Undine following behind in confusion, Arinade had already finished creating the proper mixture and was performing the enchantment on Kalara by injecting magic into the solution as she used her finger to draw sigils on the Elven child’s forehead and chanted her incantation.

Once she was finished, my grandmother and I attempted to explain that this would help us communicate by using various gestures and then I let Arinade perform the enchantment on me first so that the Undine could see that it would not harm her. When she was done, I was dizzy, drowsy, and felt a headache coming on, but I thought that I had convinced the Undine that I was fine. The headache did not last long, but I barely managed to stay awake long enough to see Arinade complete the enchantment on the Undine before I started to doze off.

I was half asleep as the others left and Vesha helped me to remove my sword belt and the various pieces of my armor. Once I was completely undressed, I was vaguely aware of Vesha holding me close to her as she picked me up and carried me to a cot, I was not sure which one, but it was empty. This was so nice and cozy, and I felt so safe and comfortable in her arms.

I think she tried to pull away once she placed me in the cot and covered me up, but I sleepily protested. “Noooo, my Vesha. Need you… snuggle…” I drifted off to the sound of her throaty giggles as she wrapped me up in her strong arms and held me close.