Under the warm sun rays, Wosche forced himself to stay awake. It was a long way down from horseback if he did fall asleep. The muggy weather left him sweaty and fatigued. It hadn’t helped that they’d been riding since dawn and Wosche had stayed up late the night. Such was his incredible foresight and wisdom. 

He clung onto the reins with his left hand and reached with his right into his pommel bag for a few secret snacks. He pretended to stifle a yawn and snuck in a handful of nuts into his mouth. He checked to see if any of the others noticed, but they all rode ahead of him, distracted away from his stealthy eating.

It wasn’t that he needed to hide the snacks. Hiding snacks really was beneath him but the charade of it all helped to break the monotony of their long dreary morning ride. 

Viera had cancelled all Saturday classes for the day for them and taken them out for a Saturday excursion. They’d been riding for several hours and it was fast approaching noon and Viera told them that the town she wanted to show them was not far away. The town named Suttrail.  

Wosche had never heard of it before but Viera said it was a very important village on the side of the Harbourkey River. Wosche was suspicious he would have preferred a sleep-in instead of an excursion to talk magic in some faraway village but complaining was beneath him.

To make matters worse, Wosche had been given a touchy horse to ride for the trip and he and the old hag had not been getting along. She had been yanking at her bit the entire day and rebelled against his every command and he didn’t have the patience that morning to deal with all of her nonsense. 

Back in Kudraul, he had his own horse, Excalibur, who had been properly trained from birth, and the difference was notable. His horse was a noble steed, bred from several horses of good breeding in the low plains of Breisachia. His father had bought him Excalibur as a gift for Wosche’s sixteenth birthday and then he organised a trainer to join Wosche and Excalibur for a year to ensure he developed into a premium horse.

Wosche gave a tug on the reins and the old mare tugged back. He squeezed his legs around her ribcage to remind her that he was the boss. She pulled again but slowed to a gentle walk like he wanted. 

They were heading east out into the fieldlands, on a road that Wosche didn’t recognise. It was made from cobblestone but Wosche hadn’t seen more than a small collection of houses for a while now. They’d turned off of the highway only a few hours out of the East Gate when they’d begun their journey and they’d travelled along quiet roads from then on. 

In the east, it was mostly farmlands and raised roads that sat above the seas of tomatoes, wheat, barley, and other fields.

Wosche shifted uncomfortably in his seat and tried to reposition his shirt again. It was the end of the dry season and Wosche’s shirt clung to his back incessantly. He looked up to watch the dark rain clouds hover in the sky above, their threat of rain being a constant on their trip. A constant since he’d come down south.

Not that getting rained on mattered overly to him if he were to admit it. In the last three weeks, he had been perpetually wet, whether it be from rain or sweat. He lifted the back of his shirt and fanned air up the midline of his back. 

It worked to some degree, but the air hung heavily around him and meant that his shirt barely lifted before it slapped onto his upper back again. After a few failed attempts, he gave up and let the shirt fall back to suction against his back again. He closed his eyes and died a little inside. 

It was a long day considering he’d forgotten to pack an extra shirt to wear. Viera had instructed them to pack for an overnight trip and he’d focussed too much on smuggling in a bottle of alcohol that he’d not realised that he’d wrapped the bottle in a pair of shorts and a pair of loose pants instead of a spare shirt. 

He leant forward onto the pommel and watched the day pass him by. In front of him lay the open eastern fields of Weidenland in all of their glory. The eastern fields of the Hiford land had been cleared centuries ago, so he was told, to make way for the fields that now sustained the southern people. The mages of yore had sown the land with botane bijou charms and created the bountiful soil between the two eastern rivers that was able to be toiled for generations of their people.

The fields that they rode along were the beginning of the Golden Plains. The Golden Plains were a massive stretch of land that ran from the Dark Forest all the way into the heartland of Breisachia. Much of the land was gentle rolling hills and the Houses Hiford, Mitome, and Hilan each controlled some of the fields. The Plains were said to make the grains and barley for more than half the country and harboured the very heart of the Weidenfolk’s great country, with many in the Golden Plains claiming that they were the first Weidenfolk. 

Wosche found it fascinating to hear people in the capital obsess over the cultural heritage of the Weidenfolk when the first lands of Weidenlands were a speck of a nation when it was first born. Anyone who knew their history knew that the real boundaries of the first kingdom of Weidenfolk was only a small part of what the Mitome lands were now. Ellen and Teon would talk about paying homage to the Queen’s lands in New Fohoven like they weren’t Thenfeld nobles from before the unification. 

He watched them both ride ahead of him and let it go. He couldn’t care less about the politicking and more power to both of his friends if they wanted to play the roles of good courtfolk of their great kingdom. 

Wosche watched the rolling fields pass and listened to the idle chatter of his friends and Viera ahead of him. He had chosen to trail behind and observed them distantly. He flicked the reins and got nothing from his mare. Or he might have had little choice in the matter really.

The gentle hills stretched out to his side in both directions. The forest in earnest stretched behind them and to his left side up and down the landscape. To his right, it climbed up the slope of the hill that sat in the distance. Rising up from its peak was the gentle silhouette of the peaks of the Central Mountain Range. 

Far out of his reach, the Range held countless adventures and excitement he could only dream of. The mountains in the centre of their great continent were gigantic and held two nations within its ranges, one on the peaks and one far below. 

Wosche had only ever seen the Ilreana Great Pass and the Golden City of Ilreana of all of the subterranean nation of Mahenia but he had seen the maps that showed the many gateway towns that led into the subterranean nation. They were scattered through the mountains in towns great and small and every one of them were said to be formidable defensive structures. Most of the Mahenian people were said to live in the expansive caverns that had been tunnelled into the mountains aeons ago and Wosche couldn’t wait to see them personally. 

He hadn’t yet managed to find the time to travel to Mahenia properly but he had made a promise to himself that he would go again and see more than just its capital next time. His decision to move Ol’Haran felt like a step in the right direction to bigger and better things certainly.

Wosche let out a big sigh and pulled out his water canteen for another drink. It was half full but given that he could see a town on their horizon, he wasn’t too worried. He drained the rest of his water and refastened its lid. 

He had leapt at the chance to become an adventurer in the south when Viera had offered the others. Unlike the others, he’d had the option to continue studying in the Academy for his final year of study because he’d not been present on the night of the wild brawl. 

But with all of his friends leaving the Academy and his second attempt at the Exam year going far too similar to his first, he hadn’t felt like he had that much of a choice either. As soon as he got back to Kudraul at the beginning of the year, he started to get itchy feet. He’d loved reconnecting with Ellen and getting to know the others but he was ready to do something important again, something that truly felt like living. He craved his next step as he sat in the classrooms. At least, he was now onto his next step and out in the world again.

Wosche pulled at his horse again. Viera led the group with Ellen and Teon in hot pursuit on the road and they were starting to create a little too much distance between him and the rest of them. They were still discussing something about the practical uses of ice magic when delivering produce and goods internationally. More of the trade talk. 

He’d tried to stuff cotton into his ears after the first three hours of them talking about logistics and diplomacy but the buds had failed and fallen out a long time ago. He knew it wouldn’t work with the cotton he’d pulled out of the saddle but he had been desperate. To compensate, he had instead chosen to disassociate; a tried and true classic. 

Riu meandered at the back of the trio, bridging the gap for the group. She had also taken to quiet contemplation and fiddled with some new invention in her lap while she rode. 

She was a thin rake of a girl. She’d shot up in height when she was younger to the point where she was a good head taller than Wosche when Wosche was around fifteen. But on his return to the capital and her slowed growth contrasting his continued teenage growth spurt. Well into his early twenties but he wasn’t complaining. He was half a head taller than she was now and he had a nice barrel chest that he’d always wanted. 

Riu was pretty in her own right, in Wosche’s opinion. She had wispy light brown hair and a narrow face that accentuated her mousey features. He had known her for years, her parents and his had been friends in the capital since they were both young and he’d seen her join the specialist programs that he had been in when he’d done his first Exam year and he’d always been impressed by how she held herself. 

When Wosche returned to the capital, he found that she had come to the same conclusion as him about the education system of their beloved Weidenland and the error of joining the specialist program. She’d regaled him when they’d reunited of the mounting pressure from her Family and her teachers, and the subsequent burn out that had left her bed bound for the final term and the entire winter holidays. Much like him, she’d chosen to join the Academy for an extra year to complete her Exams, but this time not in any extra studies or programs.

They’d bonded over their mutual distaste for being pressured to do more at the Academy while they half-listened in the back of their classes. She agreed that they were pushed too hard and too much was asked of them constantly. 

She’d enjoyed as he regaled her in his nightmare experience of finishing the program he did and the fatigue on his soul that still weighed him down even after so many years. 

As weird as it felt to admit, he had been comparatively lucky when he learnt about Riu’s situation. His parents hadn’t pressured him to join the program and, not being Housed, he was able to skate through with little expectation of perfection. 

He’d managed to come out of it somewhat sane but there were many of his peers that couldn’t keep up with the constant demands. Riu had been an acquaintance of his for many years but ironically, they’d become friends only now when she was more reclusive and introverted and he was older and more cynical. 

Then, they’d both found their way to the south and Wosche was glad that they had. He had heard the incident from Ellen, Teon, and Riu at one time or another and it still seemed absolutely absurd to hear the wild story. Riu had snapped one night and broken another student’s wrist was the short version of the story. Riu claimed that she’d started the fight and that she’d broken his wrist but that it was an accident and that everything had happened so fast. 

Wosche had gone to visit her the afternoon the day after the incident and he could remember how despondent she had been. She was beyond reprieve as she packed her belongings into her trunk and told him she’d be sent back to River’s Edge. Wosche had promised to visit her and tried to buoy her with stories of him scaling up to her window in the night and kidnapping her to take her to Ilreana. 

They’d made tentative fantastical plans to make off in the night on two horses with nothing on their backs but their clothes. And that night was going to be their final goodbye for a long time until they could be reunited again.

That was what they thought at least. Until Viera burst into the room and offered Riu an opportunity of a lifetime.Wosche watched in awe as Viera Courfelt herself had come to visit and told Riu to continue packing her things but instead travel to Ol’Haran and prepare for the Exams with her for the following year. 

Viera had refused to not take no for an answer, not from Riu nor her mother and told Wosche if he knew what was good for him that he should come too.

The country’s greatest mind had swept into the room, declared what would happen, and left Wosche and Riu both with no choice but to agree. Viera had a certain magic about her, one beyond the runes and bijou charms used by her and every other mage. Viera was brilliant, she had the air of someone far more knowledgeable than the average noble and she had the credentials to prove it wasn’t all fluff and bravado. 

When Viera had come to his parent’s house to talk with his parents, it had gone just as well as when she’d talked to him. She talked to them of how he would learn how to negotiate the space between Houses and the adventurers. She promised he’d learn how to manage and excel in the asymmetrical warfare that had won Weidenland the Northern War and had become a leader in their country if he chose. She spoke of the money that their work could generate and a reputation that rivaled the Houses and his parents just asked him if it was something he wanted to do. 

He’d not replied immediately because his mind had already run off with the dream of it all. If he could endure the hours of mage talk and the endless jostling of his friends for Viera’s attention, he could become an adventurer. He could still remember the clearing of his father’s throat and his look of disapproval. Wosche apologised for the lapse of concentration and accepted eagerly, he could still remember the moment as clear as day. 

And now, nearly a month later, he was on the edge of the Golden Plains, slowly sweating to death while he listened to the others chat.

Enough was enough for the shirt, he decided. The wetness and the odour and the clinging pressure on his lower back. He switched the reins into his right hand and tucked his left arm through the sleeve and out of his shirt. He switched the reins to his left hand and took his right arm out of its sleeve so he could rip his shirt up and over his head. 

It was sweet relief. The slight breeze kissed his back gently and made him shiver. He placed the shirt on the horse’s neck and stretched while he sat. His horse grumbled underneath him but didn’t tug too hard in response.

He could possibly get Excalibur brought down south if they kept going out on trips like this. He would then have to organise a stable and he’d have to debate with his father to increase his allowance to accommodate his horse’s care and housing.

Wosche tried to work up the energy to sigh. He leant back on his saddle and opened his chest up but simply couldn’t muster the strength. If his father wanted to hold back his money, he had every right to. He wanted his son to be challenged and lamented to Wosche that he had spoiled him for too long already on the day he’d left.

But, Wosche’s stipend still arrived in the mail every month from his mother and she wrote him letters to inform him about how their businesses were going and her attempts to connect with him. And Wosche was certain that there was plenty of money for a good horse in the Family’s coffers for their only son. 

During the upcoming tournament, he could raise the idea with his father and see what came of it. Until then, Wosche figured he should probably be focussed on networking with Viera just in case. He dug his heels into his horse and pulled her up next to Riu. 

“The method of setting the parameters of your bijous as well as remembering the schematic you have set in each bijou is incredibly important. Especially when you are looking to maximise efficiency and utilising complex commands like a slow release over time. For sensitive foods, like unsalted raw meat, having the cooling consistent throughout the journey is incredibly important, which means that the bijou charm needs to release a large amount of energy over a long time but also release it evenly. Which means that merchants normally have a competent mage to accompany the goods, preferably the same mage that created the bijous or there will be energy loss.” Viera kept talking but met Wosche’s eyes as he rounded to the side of the group, “Which is pricey, if you have to hire a mage that is good enough to create and activate a bijou that is so complex. However, many in Mahenia can afford that price, which means competent ice mages can become very, very wealthy with the right connections.”

Wosche scrunched his face and forced a smile as he joined the conversation.

Viera let out a light lilting laugh and the others turned to look at him. 

“Wosche! Where is your shirt?” Ellen asked him, startled. 

“It fell off a while back,” Wosche responded airily, gesturing to the shirt sitting on his horse’s mane.

“And why is it so wet?” Teon asked next to Ellen.

Wosche felt her words hit his ego hard but he avoided acknowledging that she’d even said anything.

“In any case, we aren’t here to discuss how to carry meat, are we?” Viera brought them back to look at her, “The schematics used in bijous can set parameters for the energy inside. With a mage well versed in the creation of bijous, there is so much that we are able to do with Creation magic as it currently exists. But there are limits. A mage’s ability to picture the schematics inside of bijous for both the binding and the activating of magic can limit how effective their magic is. But can someone tell me two other limiting factors?”

Wosche knew the two other major limitations were a lack of training and fatigue. His parents had drilled him about the basics of Creation Magic since he was young and had only slacked off when he’d told them that he had no interest in becoming a mage. Any desire he’d had for becoming a mage had dulled as soon as he realised the expectations that came from being the child of two of the country’s best mages. 

“Environmental pressures, like if the bijou charms get rained on or maybe the bijou charm becomes cracked. And poor concentration, if the mage is distracted or fatigued.” Teon answered, eager to impress Viera as always.

“Good, Teon. Those are two major considerations. Distractions can be everywhere and, as you all know, it requires training to stay focussed on your bindings. And cracks can occur through poor handling, adverse weather, or even just spontaneously, which is why we must check a bijou’s bindings before we cast every time.”

“Viera?” Ellen asked but waited until Viera gave her the go ahead to continue, “If we have to check our bijous before we use them, how can they be used in fighting? I understand a battle mage is probably able to train to improve their concentration when they fight but checking my bijou can take me ten or more seconds at times.”

It was a great point which Wosche hadn’t considered it. 

“That is a great point, Ellen,” Viera lathered on the praise, “It is why I advised the armed Mages not to allow themselves to be caught too close to the battle so that they can conduct the magic safely.”

Ellen glowed at Viera’s words and Wosche forced himself not to scoff. Ellen was such a goodie two shoes as soon as adults were around. 

Viera met his eyes for a moment then looked across the group and continued, “But other than that, there are some tips and tricks that some have developed that enable them to check their bindings incredibly quickly. In fact, between us and the horses, part of why I want to spend more time with the Board adventurers in the south is to see if I can figure out how they are using their bijous safely in combat. In a couple months and with some more meetings, I am excited to come up with some practical solutions to present to the Academy for exactly that question.”

Viera’s words were met with a resounding ooh and ahh from the other teenagers. Wosche would be impressed when she presented her ideas.

His parents had hosted the greatest magical minds of Kudraul, including Viera, at parties at his house and none of them had found a way to ensure bindings were stable all the time and he doubted that any travelling mages would have better ways than all of the arcane academics in Weidenland.

“The canisters I use are meant to ensure the bindings’ stabilisation during travel,” Teon brought up eagerly. She leant back and fiddled with something around her waist and produced a metal container the length of her forearm and the diameter of a silver coin. It had a small glass window that showed a collection of several neatly stacked bijou charms inside.

Viera lit up at the sight of her contraption, “Oh, isn’t that brilliant! Who made it? Can I have a look?”

Teon handed it across to her carefully, “It is a design made by Artificer Holprolm. He made something like it during the war and he is making prototypes now but he is planning on selling them in the future.” 

“Artificer Holprom, what a wonderful solution, by a wonderful mage as well. But, what, pray tell, happens if there is a chain reaction?” Viera inspected it carefully from numerous angles by turning it back and forward with her hand.

“What - what do you mean chain reaction?” Teon paled at the idea. 

Viera paused for a moment and peered at the window in the canister, “Fascinating.”

“If one of the bijous were to have a spontaneous reaction, it could set all of them off. Then, if it was on your hip then it could probably blow a huge chunk of your hip right off.” Riu explained in Viera’s stead. 

“Surely not.” Teon’s mouth hung open as she grabbed the other canister from her robe. 

Viera swung her horse around and whispered quietly to Teon. Wosche couldn’t hear much until he prodded his horse to move closer in, “- found a way to resolve a chain reaction issue if he’s given you the canister.”

Teon nodded solemnly at what Viera said before turning in her saddle and placing the canisters in her saddle bags.

“There are several inventions being made right now that will revolutionise the way we see magic, children.” Viera spoke loudly as she circled her horse back to the others, “That is why we have to keep moving forward because the last thing we want to do is be left behind. Now, who would like to see my most recent contribution?” 

They all agreed heartily and Viera urged her horse onwards.

Wosche found Viera to be enchanting, even with her homely appearance. She was entering her middle age now and had the soft edges of nobility. She had little muscle mass and as much as she tried to hide it from them, she struggled to ride the entire day with them. She had a lovely style to her clothes and wore her hair in long golden curls that came down to her shoulders. He assumed they were natural. If she had them professionally curled, it would have cost a fortune to maintain. 

There was a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ about her. During galas and events with House Heads and the Queen of Weidenland herself, everyone still begged for Viera’s attention. Through the years, Wosche had watched people work very hard to gain their time with the mystical Viera. The first time Viera had come to visit his parents, they had been so excited they’d redecorated half of the house to welcome her. 

“It’s just up here, up somewhere here,” Viera pointed in the direction of the town ahead and urged her horse into a canter.

Wosche needed little encouragement and squeezed his thighs into the rib cage of his horse. His horse begrudgingly yielded into a half-hearted canter and followed after Viera. Ellen pulled up next to him, grinning while her horse easily came shoulder to shoulder with his and then pulled away to leave him in the dust. Next time, he’d be on Excalibur. 

Ellen let out a whoop as she raced forward. Her horse, Xavier, was a larger warhorse and a gift from her father several years ago. She loved her horse dearly, and forced Wosche out for days in the countryside around Kudraul just to spend time riding him. 

Ellen was a tall, solid girl with her muscles filling out year on year. With all of her training, she was developing quite an impressive figure. In the sparring ring, she had a positive apex and a hell of a sword arm that made her a nightmare to fight against. When she wasn’t hamstrung by her clawing self-doubt, that was. She rode high on Xavier and left Wosche and his rental horse, whatever its name was, in the dust. 

Riu and Teon were not far behind, pulling past Wosche eventually despite his continued prompting for his horse to increase their speed. Teon stuck her tongue out as she passed in contrast to Riu’s very minor reaction when she looked at him disinterestedly. 

Wosche rolled his eyes and tugged on the reins and let the old mare return back to a trot. She tugged back on the bit but slowed down quickly. He watched the others gain distance but chose to just enjoy the day while he could. 

He closed his eyes and let the sun dry the sweat off of his body when it showed its face from behind the clouds. He pulled gently on the pommel to maintain upright on the horse and peeked every so often to double check that he was heading the right direction. With the others so far ahead, he relished in the sudden quiet. He was sure that they could update him on the important topics when he eventually arrived. 

After a while, he could hear Viera’s voice in the distance, “The town of Suttrail can track their exports all the way across the Western Sea to the Free Cities of Thursia. It also is sent to Breisachia if they are in drought and it has been fertile farming land for generations. However, that is until recently, where they have had some issues with soil quality.” 

Wosche raised his eyebrow but didn’t open his eyes. He hadn’t heard that they had any issues from his parents and they were normally ahead of the rumour mill. He peeked again and found Viera standing off her horse twenty metres ahead with the others crowded around her.

“But magic and creativity begets solutions and I present to you mine; a new material for rune smithing that can resolve our issues: the moissanite rune.” Viera pointed to something on the ground in the fields at the bottom of the road’s elevated shoulder. 

Curiosity piqued, Wosche sat up in his saddle again and kicked his horse again to move faster. It huffed and refused to go faster without a few more urgent squeezes from him. 

Viera confidently stepped off of the edge of the road and down into the field below them. The others trailed behind her and cautiously slid down the slope to the fields. 

Wosche hopped off the horse and tied it to Xavier before he hurried over to the edge after them. 

He slid effortlessly down the slope to join Ellen to look at something at their feet. The device was a small container that Viera had pried open to show the rune and its bindings mixed with a mysterious contraption that slowly clicked at a constant tempo.

“Wosche, glad to see you joined us. Behold my new invention that slowly feeds nutrients back into the soil below our feet for the plants of future generations.” Viera spread her hands out to show him the device below her, “The mechanism is nothing special, but the rune is something truly revolutionary. The moissanite holds far more power than the runes that we currently use and has no need for the creation of bijou charms. Instead, the stored magic can be cast from the rune and, even better, the rune itself can hold ten times the power of a similar basalt rune and nearly fifteen times that of a sandstone rune.”

Wosche looked out over the luscious fields and he was impressed. In the surrounding area, the wheat was notably taller and more vibrant. In a five metre spread, the plants were some of the largest corn he’d ever seen.

“Given the issues with the northern crops right now, an innovation like this couldn’t come at a better time,” Wosche commented idly. 

“Exactly,” Viera  agreed with him, “Advancements like this are integral to our country’s survival right now. The crops in the north have suffered since the end of the Northern War. We need to accommodate for the shortfall of their yield by maximising what we can from the eastern and southern provinces until we can resolve the issues with the fallout of the war. But that isn’t different from how it was for our great grandparents who first came to this land a century and a half ago.”

Her grandparents, he corrected. But he was more surprised to hear her tout the standard rhetoric for the Weiden Houses. The kingdom formed nearly a hundred and fifty years ago and in schools, it was taught that there was nothing in the land in the east before the small kingdom of Weide expanded to bring civilization and the light of the Good Gods into the northern forests. Wosche resented how it neglected to mention the Ursa tribes, oruk communities, and human kingdoms that already crisscrossed throughout the land. 

Her rune was fascinating though. It sparkled in the steel box in which it sat, eager for light to enter its clear substance and refract back out into the open air. It looked like a diamond but with the thick inky substance swirling inside it. Wosche dropped into a squat to get a closer look.

“Wooh, Wosche. Not too close. Remember it is still in the early stages of development. We probably shouldn’t even be this close as it is,” Viera placed her hand on his shoulder and firmly gripped onto his shirt. 

He propped back onto his heels and stood back up to stand next to Viera and Ellen, “I’ve never heard of moissanite before. What is it?”

“It is carbon like a diamond but with silicone mixed into it as well. I am looking to fabricate it now but it’s not easy to do and even harder to find apparently. I originally made this device from a piece of moissanite that I bought from a merchant travelling out of the Sarik Commonwealth and it cost me an arm and a leg to get even this much.” Viera laughed as she stepped back up the slope to the road.

Wosche followed her, intrigued, “Just silicon and carbon, it doesn’t sound particularly conducive to a high carry capacity. Are you sure it isn’t other material?”

“Wosche, manners.” Ellen rebuked him quietly. She moved easily up the slope next to him, effortlessly.

“I just find it interesting,” Wosche replied offhandedly. He’d not heard anything about Viera’s research recently. His parents had been particularly tight-lipped after she had come to visit and he was often sent out of the lounge for the night.

“Wosche finding magic interesting. I didn’t think I would see the day.” Riu dryly added behind them. 

At the lip of the road, Wosche dragged his foot on the edge and sent several rocks sliding down towards her. Ahead of him, Viera was in her saddlebags, face buried inside looking for something.

Ellen slapped him on the arm and went over to Xavier and his horse, “Oh very nice, leave Xavier to care for your horse.”

Wosche joined her and brushed his hand along the side of his horse’s neck. It snorted grumpily and pinned its ear back. He brought his hand back from her face and decided to carefully slide his shirt off the horse’s mane and placed it onto the saddle instead. 

“If the runes are similar in design to the fertilising bijous used, does that mean it suffers from a lack of specification and energy loss?” Teon asked from the edge of the road. 

Viera turned back from her horse and looked at Teon with bemused shock, “This group, how do you come up with such good questions? It is just like having the House Heads with all their questions.” 

Viera produced a carrot from her bag and gave it to her horse who snatched it eagerly, “The rune seems to address even our issues with specification funnily enough and most of the energy loss is mitigated by the sheer amount of energy the rune holds. Granted, tapping directly into the rune for casting has given me more than a few headaches in recent months, both from the casting of the magic and some problems that are hard to believe.”

Before any of them could ask, Viera put up her hand, “Giant rats. We have a little giant rat problem.” Viera waited for them to respond with another of oohs before she continued, “But first we get back on the horses and head to town and then I can tell you all about the hound-sized rats they have found, perhaps?”