As Genn paid for their entrance, Magnus eyed the hamlet. The space it occupied appeared to be a tiny bubble of real space that had been expanded. It was interesting to see how it occupied a single point and at the same time it expanded over an area.
It was as if someone had pinched the fabric of reality before putting their lips to it and blowing air into it, ballooning it out into a space that existed kind of under Reality. The place it had been pinched was then turned into the entrance, effectively sustaining the whole pocket. It was interesting to see how well built it was, that if for some reason collapsed it would displace real space and not get crushed.
"Thinking about making your own?" Genn teased.
"Oh?"
"You looked to be deep in thought," she said.
Magnus laughed softly. "More like I was studying the construction of this place, it's actually quite impressive." He said as the two walked into the hamlet, the nature of the place hid pretty well how large it actually was.
Another interesting thing in Jade was the written language, Ribbon. It was called such because it's a logographic writing system resembling of Celtic knots. The way the lines curved, crossed over and under each other and the number of lines determined the word, or phrase, each knot represented.
And just as Celtic knots, the language made for some beautiful decoration for the area, it was used practically in everything. Though he could see that a few were more like signatures, most likely of the people that had constructed each place, or maybe memorials.
Magnus followed Genn as she explained a few things about the place, soon ending in what appeared to be a bar where his companion asked a few questions.
"What was that about?" He asked after they sat on one of the tables.
An advantage of the controlled weather inside the hamlet, was that the temperature was always pleasant and things like rain didn't exactly happen. This had led to most constructions to be quite open and windows only closed for privacy.
This meant that the bar had most people either sitting on the spots by the large open wall, mostly looking down on the people hanging out below. Or against the walls, keeping their backs safe, or as safe as a wooden wall could provide when a good portion of the population could easily punch through it. This had left them with one of the small tables in the middle, less used and less chances to bring problems with anyone pestering them for their spot.
"All is fine, I was just asking if the Edgeguard is around. They are local acquaintances." She answered.
He thought about it. "Oh, I remember now, Brianna did mention them, one of them was Mrs. Digger's apprentice once, right?"
"Yes, that would be Gar." She nodded. "Then there's Onoli, the leader, Thorpan, Tirga and Sheila."
"More friends is always good." He said.
"They are good people, they are one of the groups in charge of defending the area against monsters and other hostiles." She explained.
"I see, then someone capable of making weapons and armor would be quite a good contact." He lightly joked.
"They also travel a lot, so they should be able to tell you about interesting places in Jade." She commented. "They should be back later today or tomorrow, apparently there was some kind of monster infestation in a near cave and they were sent to deal with it."
"We can wait then, I'm sure there's plenty to see around."
They spent a bit chatting and watching people pass. While humans were a thing, in Jade many other species wandered around. Halflings, Elves, many kinds of Weres and other races he simply didn't know the local name of.
He was glad to see Genn relaxing a bit, it was obvious that the previous night's events still weighed on her. But the time away from Earth was helping her not think too much about it.
Of course, his Karma wouldn't remain unnoticed, just like he quickly noticed when a pair of obvious troublemakers started to move in their direction. It was the combination between their smug and assured looks with the quality or well-fitting armor and ostentatious weapons that really cleared their most likely goal.
It was the way they looked at people, the difference between men and women, especially women that weren't obviously highly trained warriors. The looks they got back told more than a few stories too.
"We're about to have some problematic company." Magnus said. He focused the Understanding Enchantment on her, making no one else understand him.
She didn't react besides just nodding to him, barely a gesture of leaning her head forward for a moment.
The two stood by their table and the man was the first to speak, "Hey honey, what's a pretty thing like you doing with this tiny thing, why don't you join us?"
"I-ah… I'm not looking for company, thank you." Genn nearly stuttered but quickly managed to answer calmly.
"Don't be so harsh, fair maiden," the elf said next, "we're very well known in these parts and can show we're much better companions."
Magnus raised an eyebrow. "My sister's been pretty clear, could you please stop?"
The comment seemed to bring the pair's peacocking to a pause. Aiding the Lie was the fact that they actually shared a number of features, the color of their skin and hair wasn't too far apart. The main difference was that Genn had a pair of slightly curled horns growing back on her head.
"Ah! Even better," the elf quickly recovered, "then we can ask you permission directly for-"
"Look, no offense, but we came to relax after my sister had a bad time last night," Magnus interrupted him, knowing it would frustrate the man, "she's not looking to date at the moment."
It wasn't even a full Lie, outside of Seance, she wasn't trying to date.
The human man slammed his hands onto the table. "Look dude, no offense," he said in a mocking tone, "but you don't know how things are, we're going to invite your sister to hang out and you puny thing will shut up."
He simply raised an eyebrow. "I would be a terrible brother if I allowed her to go with you after seeing you act like that."
That seemed to tick the man off even more, and before the elf could stop him, he tried to punch Magnus' face. It was fast enough that a normal person wouldn't have been able to react and most likely get knocked out. But instead he reached and grabbed it, making the force behind it a Lie to bring it to a sudden stop.
"You're just confirming my assumption." He said, making the man grind his teeth.
The man growled and looked down at the sword resting against Magnus' chair. "That's it," he pulled his hand back, "you, me, outside, I will show you."
Genn just sighed, knowing what was coming. Meanwhile the elf looked happy about the event, making Magnus think the whole thing was either part of their plan, or something they had done before.
He shrugged and got up. "Okay, let's see what you can do."
The man grinned as if he had already won. The whole situation didn't seem to have gone missing by the people around, more than one starting to carry bets, mostly against him, or moving to better positions to watch.
People had quickly formed a sort-of arena, standing on a large circle as the two of them stood near the center.
The man laughed as he looked around, most likely enjoying the attention. "I will show you what you get for insulting me, Kuren, the Deadshot." He was already praising himself as he held his bow at the ready with a single arrow on his other.
It felt like some kind of wrestling match.
"I see, well, I'm Magnus, no title yet." He unsheathed his sword. Even in compact form the segments were visible given the slight hues of each one.
"With a weapon like that they may end up calling you the rainbow sword." The man said.
His comment made Magnus blink as it gave him an idea for the sword's name.
"It wouldn't exactly be the worst, Iris is a fine weapon after all." He named the sword and felt it warm under his touch. "I would be careful about it."
He shifted his hand and the segments loosened, turning into a bladed whip. The change made the man sharpen his gaze, suddenly realizing the weapon would make up for the distance he could put as an archer.
The signal to start was silent, but two arrows were shot in the blink of an eye, impressive as Kuren had only had held one a moment before. Meanwhile Magnus didn't move from his spot, instead flicked the handle and the sword came to life.
Like a serpent hunting its prey, it shot up, cutting through both arrows before they could get closer than a meter to him. He didn't say anything, just smiled as he pulled the weapon into compact form before stabbing forward, having it extend forward and force the man to jump away as he couldn't block it as easily as he had.
The moment lasted for a moment before the fight started for a second time, the hunter quickly started to move around, raining arrows on him from any angle he could. Straight, curved, volleys and more, mixing and matching the timings to try and get past the defense Iris created.
Magnus just stood there, allowing the chain sword to dance around him, the multi-colored segments danced through the air, leaving slight trails of elemental color. It quickly became obvious they were more than just a detail as the arrows falling to the ground appeared to be charred, burned, frozen and more.
Kuren's arrows also started to come in at more dangerous angles, one had managed to hug the ground to try and hit him from below at the same time that the rest came at him from practically every other angle.
He saw the man grin, and responded with one of his own. "Double Rainbow." He said and the Lie took effect.
Iris split in two, effectively cutting through every projectile. It only lasted for a moment, but it was enough to stun Kuren in surprise as Magnus once more stabbed the sword forward, the tip of the sword missing his neck by a few centimeters. A small movement of his wrist had it turn, closing around the man's neck but not even touching his skin before it was pulled back, leaving him pale.
"I think that's my win." Magnus declared, a mock-decapitation was clear enough in his books.
Of course the man hadn't been alone, so instead of putting his sword away, Magnus' arm bent back, stopping the thin sword the elf used to try and attack him.
"…So was that necessary?" He asked out loud as he turned around, Iris stayed firmly in place. He could have just turned his head like an owl, but that would have freaked out too many people and getting declared a monster would be troublesome if he wanted to return.
The elf growled, but didn't get to reply as a swing of the sword sent him flying to his friend.
The twin glares washed off him like water off a duck's back, he only grinned as it provoked the two of them effectively enough for the pair to throw off all pretenses and attack at the same time.
A fun thing about Weres was that they were quite noticeable for him from a magical-point of view, he could feel their Curse coming from afar. So Magnus didn't defend, instead allowing a Werelion and a Werepanther to stop the attack, the rest of the Edgeguard fell onto the two men who appeared to have realized the mistake they had made.
He could almost hear the 'uh-oh' from the two guys. Meanwhile the two that had stopped throwing dagger and arrow turned to look at him.
"Are you okay?" The Werelion asked.
"Thank you, and yes." He answered as Genn approached them, most people breaking away as the show was done.
"Magnus, did you have to push them like that?" She asked and poked at his chest, making him chuckle.
"You could tell? I didn't even taunt, but they thought so highly of themselves that they just reacted." He said.
"Onoli, Thropan, nice to meet you." She greeted the pair as she did her best to ignore his words.
"Genn, it's nice to see you, you came alone?" Onoli, the Werelion, asked.
"No, I came with my brother, Magnus, these two are part of the Edgeguard, though I would imagine you already knew." She presented him.
"I could feel them rushing in." He admitted, internally grinning at her having called him brother with full honesty.
"You could?" Onoli asked, looking surprised.
That's when the rest of the Edgeguard.
"Genn, it's good to see you again." A short, female Wereleopard asked as she approached them. To her side was a much larger, male Wereleopard and a male Weretiger.
"Hi Sheila, Gar, Tirga, and yes. This is my brother Magnus, he wanted to visit Jade and I offered to guide him around."
The three of them gave him a look, once more the slight Lie supported on their similarities held. Though only Sheila caught the other part of he Lie Genn had said, not that she commented, he imagined she would keep it for later.
"So what happened?" Thorpan asked.
"Not much, honestly." Magnus answered. "We're just relaxing in the bar after some walking around when those two approached us and asked Genn to go with them because I was too little for her," he got a few grins, especially from Sheila, "she rejected them but they insisted. That's when I told them I was her brother and she wasn't interested, they kept pushing and I told them that doing that proved it was a bad idea to let her go with them."
As he retold the events, Genn just shook her head, but didn't deny any part of it.
"The human tried to punch me and I stopped it, he told me to come out to fight, as if that would change something.. The fight wasn't too long, Iris stopped all of his arrows and I called a victory after threatening to take first blood, not that my blade even nicked his skin, I did a lot more damage when I stopped the elf's attempt at a backstab and threw him at the man."
Onoli nodded. "While an effective pair, they have let their egos get bloated lately, so it was inevitable that they would bite more than they could chew. It's still impressive you could take them both at the same time." He praised.
"Thank you, I take my training as seriously as my craft." He said as they moved back to the back, relocating to one of the spots by the wall.
"From what I heard you used a chainsword?" Thropan asked. "I've not seen many using such a complex weapon, I have heard of even less capable of being skilled with it."
He nodded and carefully pulled Iris out. "I'm a crafter by profession, but that doesn't mean I don't aim to excel with all of my creations." He showed the weapon carefully.
"You made it yourself?" Tyrga asked in surprise.
"I made all of my weapons and equipment." He answered.
"It's an impressive piece of craft." Onoli said. "Must have taken a while to finish."
"Oh, not really, I've been blessed with the ability to work many times faster than a normal person."
That got him a few looks.
"Then you must have had it for a while to master it to that extent." Gar said.
"I finished it this morning, the fight was the first time I ever used it." He corrected him, grinning in delight.
Gar chuckled. "You're just like Gina, no?" She asked knowingly.
"Just a different field, I do magic, equipment, consumables and I'm a deft hand at dealing with curses." He happily answered her.
"And what are you looking for in your services?" Onoli asked.
"Connections, trust, interesting materials, knowledge of interesting places or monsters." He answered. "Money's not exactly hard to come by, but there are things that money can't really get easily."
The Werelion nodded. "That's understandable."
"So you went out to deal with some monsters?" Genn asked, slightly changing the subject.
"Oh yes," Tirga took the chance to speak, "there were a few sightings of strange figures in the night. It turned out it was a small hive of Shadow Wraiths that had taken over an old abandoned bear's nest."
"They are pretty cowardly night predators that despise most sources of light, they mostly go for easy prey. They usually take over old abandoned places and wait for people to come to them. But this close to the hamlet they had to be taken out before they became a problem." Gar added to the explanation.
They chatted a bit more until Sheila dragged Genn off under some weak excuse. No one stopped them, especially Magnus who wanted his new sister to relax and talking with another woman could help her more than he could. Even if he could have easily changed his gender.
The rest of the Edgeguard asked a few pointed questions, but he thankfully didn't have to lie for even one of them. Even the answer that they were siblings rang more and more True to him every time he said it.
When Genn and Sheila didn't come after a while, the Weres excused themselves as they still had matters to attend. Meanwhile Magnus decided to wander around a bit alone.
Or maybe not entirely alone as it only took ten minutes before two figures started to follow him. It didn't take a rocket science degree to know who it was. He guessed they had most likely gotten a fine or a warning as no one had been injured and the most that had happened was some disturbance in a public area.
Nothing said he couldn't get some extra fun out of the duo.
Sheila closed the door before turning to her and smiling. "Okay, now that the boys aren't around, tell me what happened."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Genn tried to act as if nothing had happened.
Magnus had been right about taking some time off Earth and she was feeling much more relaxed, but the sudden comment had made the memories of the events from the night before resurface immediately.
"That, right there." The Wereleopard said. "Come on, tell me, it's Seance, no?"
"I-… yes." She sighed softly. "We went out last night, it was wonderful… but on the way back he admitted he's not interested in me and that he's still pining for Gina."
Sheila sat on the bed with her and pulled Genn into a hug. "I'm sorry to hear that, my brother was similarly downtrodden after Britanny got married, he spent like a few weeks in this funk. Sadly love hurts."
The comment made her giggle. "Magnus said the same thing, it has strangely helped a lot."
"Talking about him, I didn't know you had a brother." Sheila said knowingly.
She froze. "Well… don't say anything, but we're not related." She admitted. "It's just… he's definitely better family as my brother than my mother ever will be."
"Your mother?" The Were asked, making Genn nod. "Bad experiences?"
"I've not seen her in hundreds of years, she just ignored me until I could be of use for her." She explained a very complicated situation in just a few words. "… and Magnus threatened to kill her if she tried to threaten me for her own gain."
"Sometimes I forget you're that old… So you two aren't…?"
"Oh, no, no, no. To start, he's going out with Brianna." Genn quickly cleared things up. "Also I feel much better having him as a brother." And it wasn't a lie, it was a connection she hadn't had before and felt much more solid and reliable than anything else she had experienced.
"I see, well. That's good, I've had Gar all of my life, so I can't imagine how it would be not having a brother." She said. "Is he as good at crafting as he boasted?"
"Yes, he made my clothes in just a while." She explained. "Actually, he made me a whole wardrobe." She showed off what she was wearing. "All enchanted, it feels perfect."
"I'm jealous, I've been using the same clothes for official business for months. Do you think he would agree if I commissioned him something?" She asked.
"He's nothing keeping him occupied at the moment, and he's more than happy to help friends."
Sheila nodded. "Then we should go and hunt him down." She insisted.
Genn laughed softly. "Sure, sure, how have things been here since last time we saw each other?" She asked as the two left the room.
"Not much, after the whole giant golem attack things calmed down a bit. That thing scared monsters for kilometers and they have only been returning lately." Sheila answered. "Things got a bit heated a few days ago with the Tournament of Arms."
"Oh? I think I heard Mrs. Diggers mentioning it."
"Yeah, Gnolga almost got to win it, but lost her temper tight at the end and lost the match." Sheila recounted. "It was nasty, she did not react well to that, especially because Mrs. Diggers wasn't the one to beat her."
Genn winced, she had heard the woman mentioning an old enmity with her fellow swordswoman. Their main difference was that Julia had let go of it long ago while Gnolga had soured in it.
"That must not have gone well."
Sheila shook her head with a sad expression. "Over a dozen people were injured until she was reduced, some may never heal right."
That comment made Genn remember something. "Oh! Magnus may be able to help with that, he got his hands on a pretty strong healing plant he wanted to share with the local healers."
"Interesting, I will see if we can present it to Gaja, he has more of a in with the healer order." Sheila offers.
As they were walking they heard some screams, which caused Sheila's whole demeanor to change into serious, business mode in an instant and take off running, Genn barely getting to keep up with her by shifting her body a bit. Even then the Wereleopard was much faster.
Even then she still managed to get there in time to see the two troublemakers that had tried to get her to go out with them by force.
At the moment they were looking quite pathetic, cowering on the ground and looking up the Magnus' massive form. Though it took her only a moment to realize it wasn't true. Not only she couldn't feel him there, but a closer look showed there was no shadow being cast under the figure. She could even see him standing a few meters behind the illusion.
Sheila, meanwhile, was not being a good Edgeguard as all she was doing was laughing at the situation until Onoli and the rest arrived. In her defense, Genn was also laughing a bit too, and it wasn't like the two of them were in any danger outside of needing a change of clothing.
"You know I should be taking you in for that, right?" Onoli said sternly. "But it's the truth that besides a bit of panic, you didn't hurt anybody and it's your first time around." He sighed, rubbing his head and running his fingers through his mane.
"I understand, thankfully it's not like that was anything but an Illusion. Honestly I didn't expect them to get that scared." Magnus spoke with what sounded to be total and complete honesty to her ears.
Genn couldn't help but to giggle, thankfully she had been laughing until a moment before so she could hide it. Mainly she was once more surprised by how easily the man made lies sound like the complete truth.
A smile adorned her face after the little talk Onoli had ended up giving her brother. She felt glad she had taken his invitation, only Seance changing his mind would make things perfect. But she understood that not everything could be perfect, and that was okay.
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