Elemental Escalation - Chapter 04 -Desperate Medicine (Patreon)

Taylor opened her eyes after a short meditation, ready for action.

She stood up silently, stretched a little, then began stealthily moving towards the guard. Cautiously moving the foliage aside so that she could take a peek, she saw that the man was either still sleeping or had fallen asleep once again.

Sighing in relief, she began her approach.

She circled around, making sure she was always out of sight, using air magic to muffle the sound of her actions until she was standing directly behind the man.

Taking a good look at the bandit, she couldn't help but sigh again. He was such a stereotypical bandit, it hurt.

Plus, the odor arising from the sleeping body spared no expense in offending any and all olfactory senses.

Holding her breath, she silently charged her hand with electricity, then reached forward and touched the sleeping man's neck.

The electricity in her hand silently discharged, and the snoring of the man quieted down as he slumped further.

Still silent, she reached under the arms of the bandit and dragged him behind the bush, and using some rope from her pouch, tied him up.

For a moment, she contemplated taking the man's clothing and infiltrating the hideout that way, but another look at the bandit's hygiene reaffirmed her belief that simply sneaking in would be enough.

So Taylor simply redoubled her effort to muffle sound around her, and also suppress the smell coming off her, not knowing if the bandits had enough brainpower to employ guard dogs (or any other weird animals she knew lived in Kryta).

Then she made a note to learn invisibility magic and began her infiltration.

The entrance of the hideout was hidden only by foliage and the natural rock formations common around mountains, so it was really easy to enter, as she did not need to figure out how to open a door or get through a gate.

Still, she didn't want to leave anything up to luck, so she moved forward slowly, hunched down, with her hand charged with electricity, ready to knock out anybody while being covered by the shadows of the unlit entrance tunnel.

Luckily, her quick journey through the tunnel wasn't interrupted by anybody. Apparently, the bandits felt one guard at the entrance was enough.

Peeking out from the darkest part of the tunnel, it somewhat relieved to see that three more bandits were guarding the entrance to the cavern.

Granted, they were playing a card game, sitting on boxes around a ramshackle table.

Two of them were sitting with their backs towards her, and the last one was concentrating so much on his cards that Taylor could have strolled in without any care.

She waited a few seconds until all three men's attention was firmly on the table, yelling at each other about cheating, then, with a quick motion, she ran forward, officially entering the bandit hideout.

Her next destination was a wall where she had spied a stack of boxes that were perfect to hide behind.

Arriving behind the boxes, she took a minute to calm her breathing and her wildly beating heart. Despite the lax security, it was still her first time infiltrating a location such as this, and it was rather nerve-wracking.

When she calmed down, she used the boxes she hid behind to climb up a little, to get a vantage point, and hopefully figure out where they hid the medicine.

First, she quickly stuck her head out for a quick look around, but what she saw once again reaffirmed in her mind that the people (or at least the bandits) of Tyria were not right in the head. She saw that despite several people walking around or pretending to be guarding, nobody was really paying attention.

They were either talking with each other, sleeping, playing games, practicing with their weapons, or she even spied one gentleman enthusiastically deep-diving into his own nasal passages.

And now that she was really paying attention, she could hear laughter, cursing, and other merrymaking from deeper in the hideout.

Releasing another relieved sigh, she got more comfortable and began taking everything in and making notes with a critical eye towards possibilities.

However, before Taylor could even contemplate coming up with a plan, she was interrupted by two bandits walking in front of the box stack, carrying open boxes filled with fruit while chatting with each other without a care in the world.

She ducked down and began listening, hoping to hear something useful.

"I hate it when Ted leaves, and Jake decides he is in charge!"

"Yeah," agreed the other, vehemently nodding. "I saw he was taking away the loot to 'organize' it."

Taylor was pretty sure that, if the man didn't have his hands full with a box and knew what quotes were, he would be using air quotes for the word ‘organize’.

The other man snorted. "He'd better organize it into equal shares, or I'm knifing him – Ted or no Ted!"

Taylor watched as they walked away, while the other man laughed out loud, and she began refocusing on the surroundings.

Now that she knew whom to find, her task became a little easier.

Continuing to look around, the first thing she spotted was a moa ranch.

The ornery ostrich-like animals were strutting around calmly, occasionally picking up something from the ground. Her first idea was to cause chaos by releasing the moas, but she knew from personal experience that while that would indeed cause chaos (thank you, Petra), they were rather easy to calm down and corral.

There was a reason they were barely domesticated.

But then…

She spotted something beautiful…

It was a tunnel entrance with a sign affixed to the wooden beam above it.

There were two sentences on the sign.

One was written precisely, and based on how faded it was, it had probably already been there when the bandits occupied the cave system.

The other was visibly freshly written, with atrocious grammar.

They said:

“NO FIRE INSIDE”

“so sayz Ted idiuts!”

Hoping that she was right and that the passageway led somewhere where the bandits stored explosives, she climbed down from her lookout spot on top of the stack of boxes and slowly and carefully sneaked into the tunnel, which was once again surprisingly easy.

Inside was dark, with only a little light seeping in from the main cavern. It was empty of bandits, but when Taylor reached the room at the end of the tunnel, she was not disappointed.

After conjuring a small ball of light, the vast cavern was revealed, full of boxes thrown around carelessly, each with different signs saying they contained explosive materials and devices.

The differences in the signs were obviously because they were stolen from all around Kryta.

She took a few minutes to look around to see what she was working with. And while she was there, she picked up some rifles and pistols that were in good condition, and a decent amount of ammunition for them.

After all, waste not, want not.

Taylor also picked up some bundles of explosives that, according to the notes on them, caused big enough explosions to cause chaos in the cave, but not big enough to bury them under tons of mountain rock.

Standing in front of the exit to the cave, she took another look around, hoping to spot something extremely valuable or amazing that the bandits had left behind. But the only thing she saw was piles and piles of explosives, ammunition, and rusted, trashed, or moldy firearms.

Shaking her head, she extinguished her light, turned around, and snuck back to her trusty lookout spot.

**

It took her only a few minutes to sneak back to the boxes, then another hour or so to slink around the cavern to find places where she could place the explosives while also looking for the ‘treasury’ of the bandits.

This was accomplished rather easily because the closer Taylor got to the loot the bandits had gathered, the more bandits were loitering around.

Apparently, their paranoia ensured they always kept an eye on the valuables.

At least she knew exactly where to go for the medicine.

So she retreated from her observation point in the shadows under a wooden structure and took a brief break behind the reliable stack of boxes that, according to what she had overheard, contained stolen clothes.

Seemingly, none of the bandits cared for it, so they just left it stacked there, out of the way.

Well, their laziness, her gain.

Conveniently for her, the boxes were near the entrance, but rather far from the bandits’ loot. So she simply set up the explosives amidst the boxes, nestled in such a way that they couldn't be seen from anywhere.

Then came the question of how to detonate it.

Thankfully, Tyria's weird technological level came to Taylor’s rescue.

One of the explosives she had picked up had an attached wireless detonator. Using that, she wired the remaining explosives together, primed the bomb with the detonator, then began making her way towards the bandits’ treasury, silently praying that she had read the numbers on the explosives correctly.

Taylor weaved through the shadows of the cavern, avoiding the arguing, laughing, talking, or sleeping bandits, right until she was outside a room that seemed to be the entrance to the treasury, shoddily built from wood at the back of the cavern, and hid behind a few dozen drying clothes on a rack and a few barrels that, based on the smell, contained either vinegar or bad alcohol.

Waiting for another few minutes, she closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths, almost entering the meditative state of mind that was oh so familiar to her.

But with a mental exertion, she stopped herself.

Opening her eyes, she took a last look around, trying to remember where everything was, then made sure her magical shields were in place, added another layer of protection over herself with air magic in case the cave decided to collapse on her, and then crouched down and activated the detonator without any fanfare.

BAMMMM!

The entire cavern shook, and even as she crouched down, she had to steady herself not to fall over.

Thankfully, the cavern held, and only a few smaller rocks and dust fell onto her and the heads of the bandits.

On the bandits’ side, the moment the explosion went off, all of them fell silent, then instantly, chaos broke out.

People began running around like headless chickens, while some of the more seasoned bandits tried to corral them to create some semblance of order.

Some even had the sense to run toward the explosion to see what had happened.

Of course, most of them were just yelling about being attacked.

Taylor smirked at her success and was about to stand up when the door of the room she was targeting flew open with a bang, and the ominous Jake ran out, already yelling at his cohorts. He was fast, but Taylor still managed to catch a glimpse of his face.

It was the same man she had seen in the inn, leering at the serving girls!

Watching as the thug she had beaten up a short while ago ran toward the explosion she had set off, Taylor’s mind went blank.

But under the blankness was a simmering sea of rage.

With a herculean effort, Taylor threw off the thoughts that threatened to overwhelm her and, suppressing the instinct to go after the bandit and interrogate him, instead made a note to have a long talk with Logan about Serentine.

Because if what she was seeing here was not some kind of coincidence – and she doubted it was – then that proved that the obnoxious woman was definitely dirty, or at least someone in her organization.

Granted, she was adult enough to admit that her feelings about the woman were mostly prejudice based on her experiences, and there could be a perfectly rational explanation why a bandit that should have been in jail was right back in their cave, swimming in their stolen loot, but Taylor doubted it.

Both her experience in the Bay and in Kryta and her own instincts told her that there was something fishy about that woman.

But for now, her priority was getting the medicine.

She would have time to go after the commander after Andrew was back on his feet.

So, ignoring the elephant in the room, she stepped out from her hiding space and, with a few quick steps, entered through the doorway that Jake had so generously left open for her, and then closed it behind her.

However, the moment she stepped through the doorway, Taylor had to stop and gawk in surprise.

Apparently, the treasury wasn't the wooden building she had seen.

The wooden construction was only the entrance, and where it ended, the walls of the cave continued.

What she could see told her that there was much more loot in the room than a small bandit gang under the leadership of the mighty Ted could have amassed. The way the boxes, chests, barrels, and other containers were organized at the back of the cave showed that someone with actual organizational skills had done it.

The stolen goods nearest the door were much more haphazardly thrown there, with boxes open and their contents spilled all over the floor. It seemed Jake was indeed organizing things, as she could spy several dimensional bags near a small chest that was half full of jewelry and gold.

On one side, she could see a mountain of books thrown aside carelessly, while next to it were all kinds of weapons, from rusty swords to high-quality staves.

Some were in piles, some on actual racks.

At a glance, she could see that the books were untouched.

“How uncivilized…” she muttered.

Taylor then used her air magic to gently spread air around the entrance to the building, which would allow her to sense if someone was coming toward her without alerting them.

Done with that, she took out a piece of paper from her pouch and began searching for the medicine box. The paper had a very nice drawing of the identifying mark of the medicine box on it, drawn by Lieutenant Francis to speed up her search.

Thankfully, the bandits hadn't put away the newest loot yet, so it only took her a short time to find the entire shipment of medicine under a pile of scruffy leather armor.

She quickly packed it away, noting that her pouch was getting alarmingly full. Then she turned around and was about to head out when she changed her mind.

Taylor stepped to the open chest, half full of glistening golden items, and took one of the expanded bags near it and filled it with a good amount of coins.

Then, after pocketing that, she took another bag and began looking through the books on the other side of the cave, while anxiously checking her early warning system every other second.

Luckily, she found several interesting books. Most of them were fantasy books written for entertainment that Taylor had seen in the bookshop but hadn't gotten to read yet, but she also found several informative books: a handful about the flora and fauna of Kryta and the lands beyond, one book about the jungle where the Asura have set up their home, and a book about Norn ballads about warriors.

She also found several magical tomes, mostly basic magic, but she still pocketed them. There were books about illusions, elements (some of the same she had), and she even found a book that described the magic used by Logan in the battle with the centaurs.

Aware that she was probably running out of time, she took a quick look at the weapons and pilfered a few seemingly good-quality swords, spears, shields, and the strongest magical staff she could sense. Then she hopped over the armor she had thrown aside to get to the medicine and sought out armor that was made seemingly from the strongest material and seemed to fit her.

Then, with an errant thought, she caused the wind to swirl around the cavern, tossing everything around, creating an even bigger mess than she had found.

That way, nobody could spot that several things were missing.

Taking one last look, Taylor nodded with satisfaction, then left the room behind.

**

Sneaking out was harder than sneaking in.

Because of the explosion, none of the bandits were relaxing, and a lot of them were loitering around the entrance.

Admittedly, most of them were gawking at the mess that the exploded clothes caused or trying to clean up the same mess (though she spotted somebody using the resulting fire to grill some meat).

Jake was also there, impotently raging at the three guards she had seen when slipping in.

While moving stealthily toward the cave entrance, she picked up a dirty brown cloak from a drying rack, threw it over her shoulders, and joined a group of already cloaked bandits that were nervously heading out of the cave on the orders of Jake to make sure nobody was attracted to the cave because of the explosion.

As the bandits were marching in a single line, it was rather easy to join them. She simply waited until they walked past her and then started silently walking after the last person.

Of course, they noticed that somebody had joined them and looked back at Taylor, but due to the cloak hiding her face, they couldn't see anything.

Taylor just nodded at them confidently; they nodded back without saying a word and continued to march forward toward the entrance of the cavern and her escape.

Two minutes later, she was out of the cavern that housed the bandit group.

And before she could even figure out how to split from the group, the lead person stopped and turned toward them and, in a low voice, began instructing them.

"All of you, spread out and hide around the entrance! If you see anyone coming, run back and warn them. Understood?"

Some replied in the affirmative, but like Taylor, several people just nervously nodded their heads. She waited until the man assigned her a location, then took off toward it.

However, the moment Taylor was sure nobody could see her, she pulled off the cloak, stuffed it into her pouch, and began running as fast as her legs and magic could carry her.

Within minutes, she reached the outpost where she found Lieutenant Francis once again hovering over his table, soldiers milling around him.

Without acknowledging the sentry, Taylor walked directly into the middle of the camp and only stopped in front of the Lieutenant.

She waited impatiently for the man to look up from the papers he was handling before addressing him.

"Lieutenant, I got the package."

Her only answer was a gaping mouth and eyebrows trying to find refuge in the man’s hairline.

Instead of explaining anything, not wanting to waste more time, she simply took out the expanded bag she had stuffed the medicine into and handed it over to the officer.

Tapping her foot on the dry ground, she waited until the Lieutenant silently checked the contents of the bag and looked back up from his examination.

"Everything is here, miss. Thank you."

"Excellent, then please give me what you've promised."

The man nodded, reached into the bag, and retrieved a box.

He carefully placed the box on the table, opened it, and after a few seconds of looking, picked out an opaque glass bottle. He handed it over to Taylor, who held it with both hands, then carefully placed it into her pouch.

"Thank you."

Then, without waiting for a reply, she turned around and, with a flex of her will, enveloped herself in air, and within two blinks of the amazed Lieutenant Francis, Taylor vanished from the Ninth Company’s base camp.

**

Ignoring everything, Taylor charged through the fields surrounding Shaemoor, then the village itself, jumping over merchants and other people, heading toward the city of Divinity's Reach.

Unfortunately, inside the mighty walls, she had to slow down because of the space constraints. Even then, her speed was enough that, mere minutes later, she was touching down in front of the Merchant's Coin.

She threw open the door and ran up the stairs without care.

Opening the door to Andrew's room, she ducked under Petra’s swing of Ms. Timber, then quickly hugged her friend, causing her to drop the weapon in surprise.

“Wha… Taylor!”

“I’m back, Petra!”

Petra gave her one last squeeze, then sniffed her.

Pointing an accusing finger at Taylor, Petra exclaimed, “Why do you smell of fire? Did you get into a fight without me?”

Taylor took an experimental sniff of herself and couldn't help but shudder.

She was dirty and sweaty, and indeed, there was a lingering smell of fire, explosion, and gunpowder around her.

“It was just a small explosion, Petra. They didn't even know I was there,” Taylor reassured her with a small smile.

“They? Who are they? Weren’t you just going to pick up the medicine from a base camp?” Petra retorted while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Taylor, realizing her mistake, winced. “Apparently, the medicine was stolen by bandits, and I stole it back.”

Petra eyed her for a moment, then nodded. “Fine, I believe you. But I expect to hear the entire story!”

“Sure,” Taylor answered with a relieved smile, then fished out the precious medicine. “But first, let's heal Andrew.”

Petra’s eyes widened, and without a word, she grabbed Taylor’s free hand and pulled her toward her father, who was still sleeping on the bed, his forehead covered by a wet towel.

**

Taylor carefully closed the door behind her, leaving behind an anxious Petra who was watching Andrew after administering the medicine.

She would have stayed, too, but after taking another sniff, Taylor decided she was too stinky, so she headed for a well-deserved shower.

However, she was waylaid by someone clearing their throat.

She looked up and beheld Logan in his usual resplendent armor, walking up the stairs, followed by an incredibly attractive woman in high-quality clothing.

She had gorgeous red hair flowing down her back and wore a deep blue outfit with a neckline that showed off a generous amount of her excellent figure.

"Welcome back, Taylor!" Logan greeted her in a low voice.

Taylor looked into his eyes, then lamented for a few seconds her lost shower, and jerked her head toward a room she knew was empty.

"You look like you want to talk about something, and I'd rather sit down for something like that."

Logan nodded and immediately started walking after her, while the unknown woman said nothing, merely watching with an amused air.

**

Ten minutes later, the two of them were sitting around the table in the empty inn room, while the woman was lounging next to the window, sipping the wine that Taylor had retrieved for refreshment.

Logan and she were simply drinking water; neither of them was a fan of alcohol.

Or at least Taylor was not a fan of alcohol in such situations.

Ignoring the lounging woman for now, Taylor looked into Logan's eyes and began speaking.

"So, now that we are alone, let's talk."

"Indeed, Taylor," replied Logan with an honest smile. "But before that, did you manage to get the medicine easily? Did the lieutenant give you any trouble?"

Taylor just snorted.

"He was very helpful, all right. Told me immediately where the bandits who stole the medicine were hiding."

Logan's eyebrows rose when he heard what she had just said.

"Again?"

"What do you mean, again?" asked Taylor incredulously. "Logan, do you mean to tell me that there is a bandit group you knew about, yet you did nothing?"

Logan scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

"Indeed. We planned several campaigns to root them out, but every time something more important comes up." He finished with a significant look at Taylor.

Taylor reeled back, thoughts racing, putting together the very obvious pieces.

But before she could formulate an answer, a soft voice interrupted them.

"You don't need to beat around the bush, Logan. Nobody is listening."

The captain took a deep breath and smiled at Taylor, who was now eyeing the unknown woman.

"Ah, I forgot to introduce her. Taylor, this is Countess Anise, the Master Exemplar of the Shining Blade. Anise, this is…"

"Taylor Vaporblade, the Hero of Shaemoor, and a rather talented mage," continued the woman, still sitting aloofly at the window, while Taylor blinked at the abrupt interruption.

"Yes," nodded Logan, then continued from where he had been interrupted. "Right, so let's dispense with cloak-and-dagger speech." Taylor nodded in acceptance and leaned forward curiously. "We believe Serentine is on the take from somebody who is behind the bandits. But until we get concrete evidence, we can't act against her."

"Let me guess, politics?"

"Indeed," replied Logan with a solemn nod, while Anise snorted in derision.

Taylor looked at them for a second, then smirked. "I don't know why you are telling me this, but I think you're in luck."

"Oh?"

"When I was in the bandit's hideout, I came across a very familiar person."

"You did?"

"Yes. Specifically, a person whom I could've sworn was arrested by Commander Serentine. Yet he was merrily walking around in the hideout without care, barely a day after the arrest."

There was a moment of silence as her guests digested what she had just shared, before the quiet was broken by Anise putting her glass down.

"My, my, it seems you are much more useful than I expected, my dear girl."

The older woman stood from her position, walked over to the table, stopping next to the sitting Logan, and looked down at him. "What do you think, my good captain?"

Logan leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms thoughtfully.

"It's a start… but a word from one woman won't be enough…"

Taylor nodded, expecting it.

She had a lot of experience with people ignoring evidence.

"Is there any way we could gather more evidence?"

Her reply was a shark-like smile on the Countess's face, making her feel like she had just walked into a spider's nest.

She swallowed nervously and sent the other woman a questioning look.

The Countess just gave her a small smile, then placed her delicate hand on Logan's shoulder and began to speak softly.

"There is a certain bandit camp near Divinity's Reach that we suspect has been in contact with Serentine, or at least with her underlings." While the older woman explained, Taylor began to wonder who she exactly was. The title Master Exemplar didn't really tell her much. "It would be easy to infiltrate them and figure out who is behind them, but we don't exactly know how connected Serentine and her backer are, so we can't exactly send our people…"

Anise fell silent, and Logan picked up where she left off.

"And we can't exactly go there personally. Our faces are too recognizable, and even if we were to disguise ourselves, our absence would be noted by many people. However…"

"However," continued Anise shamelessly, "your absence would not be."

Taylor blinked for a few seconds in surprise, then confusion, before it dawned on her what the people in front of her wanted.

"You want me to infiltrate the bandit hideout and figure out what they're after?" she asked, unintentionally lowering her voice.

Logan's answer was a grim smile and a nod, while the Countess gave her a wide smile.

"It seems my eyes weren't deceiving me. You are really quick on the uptake!"

Taylor leaned back, closed her eyes, and released a despondent sigh.

"What's the plan?" she asked, not even opening her eyes.

She wanted nothing to do with this entire situation, but she knew, deep in her heart, that no matter what she did, she was already involved.

After all, she was the one who defeated the bandits, so at least those would seek vengeance.

Furthermore, Serentine saw her face, and she knew from personal experience that once a person like that decided they didn't like you, they would do everything in their power to make your life miserable.

Logan answered her. "For now, stay here in the inn, take care of Andrew, and when the time comes, we will send a message with a disguise and a map. After that, it's up to you."

"How long will I be waiting?"

This time, Countess Anise answered her question. "Not more than a week. If we want to gather actionable evidence, then we have to act fast."

"Very well, I shall do it."

"Excellent," exclaimed Logan while standing up. "Thank you for your help, Taylor. Pull this off, and you'll be doing Kryta and her queen a great service! I wish you the best of luck!"

"Your bravery is indeed astounding, young lady," added Anise. "But I must still caution you. These are bandits, so don't expect them to behave according to any kind of moral code. They will do anything to survive."

"Thank you for the warning, but I think I can take care of a few bandits," replied Taylor with a frown.

Weren't they here to get her to do this?

Why was Anise cautioning her now that she had accepted?

Anise smiled at her, but this time Taylor couldn't discern what emotion was behind it.

"I admire your confidence, Taylor. It's quite… stimulating, so I won't say anything more on the subject." She turned to Logan. "I'll take my leave, Captain. We shall meet in your office later to further discuss the operation."

Then, without saying another word, the Countess walked to the door, silently opened it, and stepped out, closing it behind her.

However, instead of the expected sound of footsteps, Taylor heard nothing.

Turning to her friend, she asked him in a low voice. "Who is she, Logan?"

"Someone important, Taylor," came the answer. "Suffice it to say, if she is involved, then either it's very important or…"

"Or?"

"Very, very funny."

"What?"

"She is rather capricious in temperament, but extremely cunning and loyal to the crown and the queen. I would trust her with my life."

"Right," replied Taylor, deciding to put Anise aside for the time being. "Can you tell me anything else about the bandits?"

Logan spread his arms helplessly. "Afraid not, my friend. You probably know more about them after your jaunt into that smaller hideout. They know the face of all my Seraphs, so none of them could infiltrate the bandit group."

"What about illusions? To hide their features?"

"Only a sufficiently talented Mesmer is capable of maintaining a spell such as that for long enough for an infiltration mission. Enchanted items could be detected, lost, or damaged. It has been tried, but with not much success."

Taylor sighed again, feeling dead tired. "So, what now then?"

"Now you take a shower, change your clothes, and join your family," answered the captain with a warm smile. "And I will go back and collate what information we have with the Countess for your mission."

He then offered Taylor his hand. "Thank you again for accepting this task, Taylor. Kryta and I owe you a great deal."

She accepted the handshake. "Thanks, Logan, but you know as well that after what I did to them, they would never have left me alone."

"Maybe… but you still stepped up, and that's admirable."

Captain Thackeray then released her hand and, following in the Countess's footsteps, also left the room, leaving Taylor alone with her turbulent thoughts.

**

Taylor spent a few minutes organizing her thoughts, then collected the empty drinking vessels left behind by her guests, took them down to the kitchen, and, after mechanically washing her hands, she once again headed for Andrew's room.

Opening the door, she was delighted to see that Andrew was awake and quietly chatting with Petra.

The moment she stepped in fully, and Andrew saw her, he cried out:

"Taylor! Come here!"

She smiled and approached the bed, snagging an errant chair and sitting down across from Petra.

"Good to see you up, Andrew!"

The man on the bed gave her a tired but warm smile.

"Petra told me what happened…"

Taylor shot a look of betrayal at Petra, who just smirked at her.

"Weird, because even Petra doesn't really know what happened."

"Oh, really?"

Taylor made herself comfortable, and the other two people – her family – watched her with anticipation.

Petra with glee, and Andrew with worry.

She took a deep breath, reorganized her thoughts, putting aside the discussion with Logan and the Countess, and began to narrate the events of acquiring the medicine.

"So, there I was…"

**

The next day was mostly spent running around, cleaning up the inn, and calling the workers back, as the medicine was incredibly effective (once again amazing Taylor with magic’s effectiveness), and after a good night’s sleep, Andrew was up and about again.

Though Taylor paid the Priestess of Dwayna to come and check on him (her pilfered loot had made her rich enough that she didn’t really need to think about it), and she declared Andrew fit as a dolyak.

Of course, both Petra and Taylor were against him immediately reopening the inn, and after a terse argument, they compromised, and he agreed to rest for another day.

After the inn was in a presentable state – not that it had deteriorated much, but if somebody were to ask Andrew, it was dirtier than a dolyak pen – Taylor retreated to her tiny room and began to go over and sort out her loot from her incursion into the bandit hideout.

First, she emptied her pouch and sorted through all the odds and ends that had accumulated over the years.

So many empty candy wrappers…

Then came the weapons.

First, she checked over the firearms.

They were really interesting to Taylor, as to her, the world was firmly a fantasy world, yet she still came face to face with odd machines that went against that assumption over the years, not to mention everything that came out from under the hands of the Asura.

The weapons she had liberated looked like one of those front-loaded muskets she had seen in a history book back on Earth Bet, yet they still had magazines for the ammunition.

One even had an old enchantment that added flames to the bullets, from what she could figure out.

For now, she set them aside (into a smaller expanded bag), as she didn’t really know how to safely handle them, but she still made sure to take the most pristine-looking pistol, fill it with ammunition, and place it into her personal expanded pouch, just in case.

She made a vow that after this was over, she would take the time to learn how to properly shoot those things.

Sorting out the monetary loot Taylor had re-appropriated was comparatively much easier.

She sorted the money into different denominations and then added it to her money pouch, with at least a significant percentage earmarked to be added to the inn’s bank account.

Because of course, Tyria had banks.

To her surprise, it was almost the same as back on Earth Bet, the only difference being that the defenses were magical and there was a greater emphasis on security boxes.

Taylor, of course, had her own bank account, mostly to make sure she had one in case it was needed, but she never had enough money to make it necessary to actually use it.

Now that she was positively swimming in gold, she might as well deposit part of it.

But before that, she would make sure to research the bank’s policy on the origins of deposited gold.

The rest of the time was spent on the acquired books.

Reluctantly, she put the fiction books aside, as her goal was to learn some new magic that would be helpful on her future mission.

Opening the first book, she settled back on her bed in her pajamas and began reading…

**

Taylor sat on her bed, legs crossed, her hands in her lap, positioned as if she was holding an invisible ball, her eyes closed, and her entire being radiating concentration.

From below the floorboards came the reassuring sound of the reopened inn’s guests as they made merry, sang, and drank. It was only the second day after they had reopened the inn, but it seemed their guests were eager to make up for all the missed drinking.

She didn’t really mind, as the chaotic background buzz was much more preferable to the creepily silent inn.

Refocusing on the magic in her arms, she directed it towards her hands and, with one final twist to the magic’s structure, let it flow out from her fingertips, condensing it between her palms.

Slowly, the air began to move, and after a few seconds of concentration, a small white cube was rotating between her palms.

Taylor opened her eyes, took in the cube, and watched it rotate around its central axis for a few seconds, then let go of the magic that created the construct and looked on proudly as the cube instantly dissolved.

She then let her hands fall into her lap and let out a shaky breath.

Then she suddenly raised her tired arms into the air and exclaimed.

“Success!”

She did a little half-dance in her sitting position, continuing her celebration for a while, then lowered her hands back down, closed her eyes, and began to focus again.

Her thought was that if she was going to be infiltrating places, then it behooved her to learn how to make herself invisible, as she could already mask her own sounds and smell.

Fortunately, one of the books was about basic illusions, which covered an invisibility spell with a short duration.

Unfortunately, casting illusions didn’t come to her as easily as control of the elements, so she struggled for an entire day casting one of the most basic illusions that only created different shapes, until she had an idea.

She would anchor the illusion to a medium.

And what is the best and most abundant medium for that?

Air.

Which Taylor could control.

So, before casting the illusion, she first created an invisible construct made of air, then enveloped it with the illusion.

Sadly, it required a magnitude more concentration than casting a simple air spell, but in the end, she managed.

Now she only had to apply what she had learned to the invisibility spell…

**

Days later, Taylor was still sitting on her bed, but this time she was completely invisible, the gentle moonlight shining through the space where her body should have been.

Though she had managed to work out how to cast the spell with her hybridized approach, it still suffered from one fatal flaw: it only worked when she was stationary. No matter how much she practiced, the moment she started moving, the air that the illusion was anchored to also started to move and distort the invisibility.

The ability to control every facet of air to such a level that she could remain invisible while moving was currently beyond her ability. But for her mission, even this was better than nothing…

She slowly relaxed, letting the spell’s effect dissipate, then uncrossed her legs and stood up, stretching not unlike a cat.

Hearing her back crack a little, she let out a satisfied sigh, then stepped to her small desk, conjured a light ball, and began writing down her notes about the spell.

After the infiltration, she planned to delve deeper into the art of illusions; the book’s stories about Mesmers ignited her imagination, so she made sure to take copious notes.

Plus, with the money she now had, hiring a teacher wasn’t out of the question.

So many ideas, so little time…

Taylor closed the notebook, returned it to her shelf, snuffed out the light spell, and was about to head out for the kitchen to get something to drink – she had long since depleted the water jug in her room and didn’t want to use the water hidden in her expanded pouch – when she heard the flap of wings.

She whirled around just in time to see an ordinary raven arrive at her window.

They spent a minute or two eyeing each other, the bird’s head cocked to the side as its coal-black eyes drilled into Taylor’s dark greens.

Taylor and the raven stood like that for a brief moment before, seemingly losing patience, the bird tapped the glass of the window with its beak – the sound oddly echoing around the room.

When she didn’t react, confused by the situation, the bird began pecking at the window with alarming speed, so Taylor immediately scrambled to open it before it broke the glass.

The moment the window was open, letting in the cool night air, the raven’s wings flapped, and a second later, her late-night guest was perched on her bed’s headboard.

She quickly closed the window, turned toward the intruder, and began readying her magic to protect herself if it was unfriendly.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to act.

The raven looked around, opened its beak, let out a small croak, and vanished in a puff, leaving behind a cloud of mysterious material that almost instantly dissipated.

In its place, a small, exquisitely made bag tumbled onto her bed.

Eyeing the bag and suspecting its origin, Taylor made sure to lock her door, then pulled her curtains closed and spread out her air magic to ensure nobody could spy on her.

Then, illuminating the pitch darkness of her room with her usual light ball spell, she approached the bag on her bed.

Opening it, she found a thick letter, a folded map with markings all over it, and a simple non-magical bag containing an outfit that reminded her of the bandits she had seen in the cavern not so long ago.

Setting aside the clothes, Taylor picked up the letter and opened it.

It contained several pages of notes about the gang and the situation, while another page contained several passphrases she could use during the operation in different situations (with a note saying they were only valid for this operation).

The most prominent was a passphrase she could use if she were arrested with the bandits.

Uttering the innocuous phrase would cause her captors (if they were Seraph or simple guards) to separate her from the others under some pretense and call for Logan to identify her.

The notes also gave her directions (supported by the map) to the hideout near Shaemoor, along with a lot of information that Logan and Anise had managed to gather about the people belonging to the bandit gang, and even about the people who had tried to shake down the inn.

Finally, there was the instruction for the mission, telling her to attempt the infiltration within the next three days, as Serentine would be distracted by a government function during that time.

A small smile appeared on Taylor’s face.

At the bottom of the instruction was a quick message from Logan wishing her good luck.

She sighed, deciding that sleep was for the weak, took the stack of notes, and returned to her desk.

The light ball followed her like an eager puppy, bobbing and weaving in the air.

Taylor sat down, spread out the papers on the desk, and began to earnestly study them.

**

Two days later found Taylor saying a cheerful goodbye to Andrew as he was standing behind the bar serving their regulars, while grumbling about Petra sleeping in.

Though it was early and few people were about, Taylor didn't want to leave anything to chance.

So, in case Serentine left somebody behind to spy on her, she told Andrew, loud enough that if somebody was listening in, they would hear it, that she was heading to her usual spot to practice some magic.

Her secondary father figure just nodded and wished her luck with a smile.

And Taylor did just that.

She left the inn the same way she always did, then walked towards the gates she always left the city through, while doing all the usual things she did during her brief journey, while inwardly nervously worrying about being discovered.

She left the gate, waving at a few guards who recognized her and greeted her, then, taking the well-known route, she headed for the infamous hidden grotto, where she had long ago begun to experiment with her magic.

As soon as she took her first step into the small forest, she spread her magic far and wide, looking for observers or stalkers, and released a relieved sigh when she didn't detect anybody.

With increased confidence now that she knew she had succeeded in evading her observers (if they actually existed), Taylor power-walked to the clearing, did another check, took a deep breath, then, with a flex of will, empowered herself with magic, guided the air around her to envelope her body, and took off so fast that if somebody were observing her, they would have only seen a blur vanishing into the forest.