Given that our initial arrival in Fort Seire had been with only a single wagon, even though we were expecting to have some local currency we still decided to avoid bringing our second group into the area. Quest’s Beginning and End had enough complications without bringing them any of the heroes they wanted to get their hands on.

  Ultimately, though, the plans were leaning towards bringing these people exactly what they wanted. Just not so directly. We were still performing assessments on whether the locals could provide solutions to our predicament.

  Malaliel had been doing a lot of reading, specifically of The Six and Their Heroic Curses: Volume 1. It wasn’t a short tome, and she took great care not to damage it. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have any worse of a reaction to actual angels than anyone that wasn’t one of the locals. Figuring out how to re-enchant the various tomes before they were returned to Yalith was an exercise we would figure out later.

  We certainly weren’t going to do it yet. Though, we didn’t necessarily need the physical copies. If there wasn’t anything special beyond the text and imagery, the digital copies we had created should be sufficient.

  I heard that some old versions of copying books to digital formats involved removing the pages from their bindings so they could lay flat. Fortunately, such barbarism had been surpassed relatively early in the life cycles of such things, both on Earth and on Celmoth. Though their books had never been quite the same to begin with. No hands, you see. It had been quite a struggle to reach their current technological state, and it couldn’t have been any less so for the Bunvorixians.

  Anyway, there weren’t any problems on the way back. The second group did run into some disembowelers, but that wasn’t a real risk. More money for us and some experience for the teens? Not a bad result.

  Apparently Graciana was very eager to learn different alchemical concoctions now, though. Seeing the end state of one of the corpses, I could pick out why. Ramen had apparently taken one down with two javelins then gone to throw up somewhere private. Ayat half killed one herself, though she had to be extremely cautious in melee range. Midnight provided Stoneskin, but he didn’t want to ruin people’s early combats by giving them Haste. That wouldn’t provide a good representation of real combat.

  Meter had actually participated. He got maybe an eighth of the same one Ayat was fighting with a small lightning spell, a little floating orb- the monster being the far bigger target helped significantly. I was fairly proud of him for learning something outside of his affinity in only a few days. Sure, he was a mage type, so it wasn’t the most difficult, but effort still deserved praise.

  Extra agents ended up taking down the creature when things looked dangerous. That did mean about half of the corpses were unusable due to distinctive weapon marks that didn’t fit the narrative of crossbows, lightning magic, and… I realized Inasyah didn’t openly carry a weapon. She fought with tooth and claw- finding her werewolf abilities were sufficient for her purposes. Dark magic didn’t have much offensive heft either, so maybe she was assumed to have a more support role.

  Anyway, the teens didn’t have a listed level for whatever reason. Maybe local growth was more granular, or they had to actually step through the portals which wasn’t possible due to this side rejecting them and not my old world. They’d gotten far enough to get something though. And I had long since gotten over magical things not doing what they were supposed to, so the results being weird were par for the course.

  -----

  “Here are the claws,” I said, handing them over to Xarrin. Since he had provided the job, he likely needed to review the results.

  “Excellent,” he said, taking out a tool and scratching the claws. Perhaps the mark was meant to keep them from being claimed twice. I wondered if they had repair spells in this world. Maybe there was sufficient loss of material that it didn’t work. Cheating the system would be a good way to get our cover blown, though. “These beasts are a constant thorn in our side. They prevent people from getting to the fort, and if they’re left too long,” he shrugged. “Our walls are only so high.”

  I found it somewhat concerning to think about disembowelers large enough to get over the fort’s walls. The walls were easily seven or eight meters tall. Despite being birdlike they couldn’t fly, which meant the disembowelers would have to both jump their own height and double in dimensions. Which was eight times as massive. A creature like that would certainly need magic to survive. Or different proportions, like elephants.

  “Yalith wanted to meet you when you returned,” Xarrin commented.

  “I see. I don’t know how fast she thinks I read, but she can’t have the books back yet.”

  The man shrugged. “That’s for you two to work out.”

  -----

  “I haven’t completed my notes yet,” I explained to Yalith. “I barely got a couple practical uses out in the field. That’s not enough for a comprehensive review of three tomes of lightning.”

  The librarian looked somewhat disappointed. “What about your troops? Surely they also performed some of the spells.”

  “They’re not really spellcasters,” I said.

  Yalith looked even more disappointed. “Really? I was hoping you had an entire squad of spellcasters.”

  I shook my head. “They use weapons.” I didn’t want to say what kind, because I didn’t know the words or if this place really had crossbows. People hadn’t seemed too bothered by them before, but drawing attention to things might be unwise.

  “It will be difficult to implement some of the techniques in that third volume, then,” Yalith said. “However, I would still be interested in your theoretical notes if nothing else.”

  I wasn’t sure which tome she was referring to, but I had only skimmed through certain parts. Relatedly, I would have gladly given her notes but I had to understand the local magic structure better before I could discuss it properly, which meant reading the book on basic magic as well and also… having local paper. And writing implements. Neither of which I had before. Currently, my notes were in my phone.

  “It might take a bit,” I said. “Travel doesn’t provide as much time to read and experiment with magic as I would like. Especially not when we go off road. The wagons don’t like it.”

  “Oh! Let me show you a kinetic dampening spell!” Yalith was very excited about magic. She waved her bluish gray fingers towards a shelf, grabbing a book. I prepared myself to disarm the magic if necessary, but she just flipped through herself. “No, it wasn’t this one.” She grabbed a second book from the shelf, and a third. “Not this one either. Did someone move something?”

  A few moments later, she had her full concentration on a spell. Divination, based on the flow of mana. I didn’t see a proper focus of any sort, so I wasn’t sure what sort of feedback she would get. I wasn’t going to be able to memorize her gestures and words after a single instance- not without more familiarity with the basics- and I couldn’t record it without being obvious. Pulling out my phone would be too slow, though I could maybe catch some of it with my Power Brigade stuff. I’d have to find a chance to offload it, though, because the device only carried a small amount locally. Usually it went through secure supertech networking to be stored on permanent servers.

  I probably missed a few important things before I was able to click something on, and it might lose visual fidelity because of Disguise.

  Then I realized I was being silly. “Can you repeat that? I’ve never seen that one before.”

  Yalith loved magic. Why would she be offended about me trying to learn some? Worst case, I expected her to say no.

  “Sure thing. I need to confirm anyway.” She did it slower, even. I heard something about numerology, maybe. The dimensions were something like ‘door to door’, instead of defining an area. I supposed that would save a lot of effort in some cases, but I had to imagine that using such vague metrics flippantly could result in a spell failing due to insufficient power. Yalith made a face. “Dammit. Five short.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Books?” I asked. “You did loan us six of them.”

  “Counting that,” Yalith said. “I can’t say which five, unfortunately. Someone might have moved some.”

  “Could Xarrin have borrowed some?”

  “He wouldn’t be so stupid as to do so without telling me,” Yalith glared. At me. As if she hadn’t literally been throwing books at me. “You!” her finger pointed directly at me.

  This was the time to protest… if I was guilty. But people who said things like ‘I didn’t do it’ had guilty consciences. Midnight could have stolen some books, but he would have told me.

  Yalith was trembling in rage, with her finger pointed at me. But she wasn’t doing any sort of magic, so it didn’t mean much. “You!”

  She’d already said that. I waited.

  It took her about a minute to finally sputter out more words. “Fix it!”

  “How? I don’t know any stolen book summoning spells or anything.”

  “Unfortunately, ownership isn’t a concrete magical phenomenon.” Ah, she was better now. And possibly misinformed. Ownership was quite real. “The thieves will flee if I get close. I need you to cast the spell.”

  I nodded. “Sure. But you skipped several steps. Like, what spell?” Presumably she had a whole plan in her head that hadn’t been verbalized.

  She pointed towards a shelf. I caught the book. She made it so much more stressful than it needed to be. Neither of us wanted these books disintegrated. “Page 73. No, 74?”

  It didn’t have page numbers. I guessed. “Somewhere around here?”

  “Back one. That’s Runic Rearrangement. You want Runic Resonance.” The words weren’t exactly the same, but they were similarly arranged out of alphabetic order if I understood correctly. Perhaps it was based on certain components of the spells. Or maybe it was just the order the author found interesting.

  I read the spell in question. Well, the description of the spell. The actual components weren’t really readable in the same fashion. Like mathematical formulas, they had to be parsed with specific intent. The spell was used for finding specific markings. I wondered if that would include the marks made on the primary claws of the disembowelers? The main usage was for text, though.

  I could have done this. But I didn’t want to admit it before.

  “Nobody will expect you,” Yalith explained. “You’ve got muscles and you’ve been out in the sun.”

  Did my disguise look like I was tanned? I’d based it off some guards, so potentially. That was good, but I hadn’t realized it would be a thing. My base skin was dark, and I wasn’t a hundred percent sure orcs tanned like dark skinned humans. Apparently the people here did.

  Not demons. Or at least, not really demons. Those of many colors.

  “I’ll try it,” I said. “But I need to get paid.”

  Yalith made a face. “That’s a problem. I already spent the library’s budget.” She crossed her arms, pondering. “I can only pay you in knowledge, then. Copies of five- no- ten texts. But you have to provide the bindings.”

  “What do you want me to do to the thieves?”

  “Take any damage out of their hides!” Yalith said. “I’m sure you can figure out something poetically significant.”

  I was going to have to ask Velsolis what I could actually get away with. Xarrin… might not appreciate the question in the same way. Obviously the fort didn't want to lose any combat capable individuals, but they also couldn’t tolerate thieves.

  Lazy thieves. Yalith would probably have let them make their own copies. But if they wanted to work, they would likely have money handled anyway.

  -----

  Some people didn’t like plucking disembowelers, but other people wanted their feathers. That was what Midnight had learned and explained to me about the market shenanigans he and Inasyah had been getting up to. Fort Seire didn’t have a huge variety of vendors, but it wasn’t a complete monopoly either. Currently, we were trying to maximize profit- mainly because we didn’t have any local currency to begin with.

  It did seem that most of our profits were going to come in the form of the bounties, but it was doubly unwise to not at least try to sell the meat and feathers. That seemed to be normal mercenary behavior, and we did need the money. We were going to stay at least one night in a local inn, for reconnaissance purposes if nothing else. And to not be weirdos who only showed up in town for a couple hours. Taking a job immediately the first time was reasonable enough, but breaks between jobs was more normal.

  We needed to look normal. Just not too normal, since we were from out of town. That second part was easy.

  I explained to Midnight the task we had received. In the worst case scenario, we could do it with our normal divination. However, it would be optimal if I was seen in public executing local magical methods. Yalith had warned to not cast the spell in front of suspects- she didn’t know if they would understand the magic, but it was a risk. Mostly, she expected that she would personally stand out and be noticed.

  There were some difficulties, such as the fact that not every book that we found would be stolen. It would only reveal books that had certain terminology, but there were legitimate tomes of magic and other things in the city. Yalith promised she could help us narrow down the targets once she did an inventory of the library, but that might take a while. Even with magical aid.

  We needed to get back to jobs that paid in money soon. And eventually find excuses to learn more about the heroic curse and maybe get closer to the not-demon king. Though maybe this task could get us volumes two through four of The Six and their Heroic Curses. The ones Yalith thought were important were apparently not copied by the royal court, which was why going to the one place that was highest risk for the heroic abductees was even being considered.

  We might not bring them there, but even with our various long distance travel options we weren’t keen on the idea of being separated by more than a few miles. And if we could bring them wherever we pleased, we probably wouldn't be doing most of this.

  -----

  People tended to sleep in similar beds. Different aesthetics, certainly, but the shape and role were mostly the same. Pillowcases were more durable, I noted. It wasn’t really an issue for my tusks because I didn’t sleep face first, but with horns I could see why. I was willing to bet that the durable material wasn’t always enough. There were some scratches along the headboard too, even with a relatively generous total length of the beds. Enough for me to fit relatively comfortably with my height.

  Before I went to sleep and in the morning I was practicing the Runic Resonance divination spell. The first things it found were my own books, which was surprising. Well, the books I had borrowed… but I’d probably get an official copy of all of these if possible. Though ten different books was quite tempting as well.

  Fighting monsters paid well, maybe. We could probably survive for a few weeks on what we earned. More, if we didn’t have to spend on supplies. We did, though. At least some. It would be suspicious to not buy any food in the city. We couldn’t very well have our gear looked over, but food was a given along with the inn stays.

  Buying a few things here and there at different vendors should be enough. It was unlikely anyone would think deeply about our shopping habits as long as they existed. We didn’t intend to stay around Fort Seire for all that long, but this also seemed like an optimal place to earn money. The value of the work might have been inflated by it being a border fort, for example.

  Later today, I was going to wander around the city and try to find contraband books. I did have one way to discern them once I saw them. Specifically, the fire wards. It was mostly the library that did that, and Those of the Many-Colored Skin wouldn’t necessarily know that. After all, it didn’t apply to them. A trap that specifically ignored you wasn’t worth thinking about. People also seemed to be garbage at detecting active magic, so it was fine.

  As for my excuse for finding the right tomes? Yalith already solved that problem. Because finding the wards was actually her idea, and she could do it with a detection spell. Which meant she was definitely thinking about such things and I really needed to fix our books before I gave them back to her. And it would probably be best to leave the tomes in whatever state they were in.

  WIth a bit of effort, I could pick out drained wards from our own books, so I wasn’t too worried about the thieves having removed them. Though they might already be out of town, Yalith assured me that was unlikely. She wouldn’t have taken long to notice the anomaly. It should have happened around the time we came to town… which was the other reason we had to solve this, obviously.

  If anyone ran away from the fort with stolen books, we could likely track them more easily. Because nobody would be watching what we did.

  Oh, and while Yalith said I should do something poetic, Velsolis thought I should kill the thieves. Though if I found the books with merchants, I was supposed to bring them in alive so they could be interrogated. That one was far easier anyway, though I might have to combine some lightning magic with the Sleep spell. I wasn’t trying to create a weird fusion spell… just plausible deniability about how I knocked people out.

  I wasn’t entirely opposed to killing, but it was easier to let the local authorities sort out anything so final, even if I’d gotten advice from Velsolis on the topic. Best to stick to traditional Power Brigade tactics. Extra would probably be happier if we didn’t kill anyone, too. They would already have to deal with the knights we’d captured somehow. Ransoming them back to Zuresh was pretty far down the list.

  There was something meditative about the local magic. Repeating words and gestures for practice ended up with very nicely replicable results for spells. Maybe Midnight didn’t feel it as much because his magic was always controlled, but I thought this style might be better for me on negative mana. Slower? Yes. But efficient. And auto stabilized. Though if I was putting in the effort to chant and gesture, I could probably put in that same effort to keep control of mana. Still, more options was always nice. I also just liked learning magic. It would be a shame if Yalith and I ended up as enemies.