The next morning I was pleased again while I meditated with Cervie. My magical powers were growing and I could select additional spells for my patron to bestow on my familiar. I thought long and hard before trying to explain what I wanted my magic to be able to do. This is hard to explain to a person that doesn’t use magic, but I had to explain what I wanted my magic to do, and my patron would provide the best possible match. It didn’t always work and sometimes was only slightly what I asked for, but once set it cannot be changed. I asked for magic to help me learn new magic and the power to call a horde of attacking insects to fight for me. That does describe the new spells that Cervie now held, sort of….
I was approached almost immediately with an additional “mission”. This time it was a person that was missing. I wasn’t provided much in the way of details other than the missing person was important in the guild and was normally sent on lengthy missions alone. In fact, Ferd told me that he had never heard of this guy working with any team.
Later in the day I asked Rialto for his thoughts and found out that he hadn’t known about the mission. He was upset again because he thought that we would have at least a couple of days together. His ranting was a little upsetting to me because it lacked focus and I felt that he might be thinking that I had asked to go out again. I began to wonder if Rialto’s experience with women was extremely limited. He certainly was acting possessive!
With some money for the purchase of provisions I decided that I would take advantage of the spoils of the last mission. I bought an alchemist’s kit to bring along on the mission. It was strange fitting such a large and heavy item into the pack, but once it was in the pack still felt flat and weighed only five pounds. I added some food and water and was ready to depart.
I met Ferd at the gate and got my next surprise. Rialto was with him with a mule loaded heavily, and two hired guards. I took a breath to argue, but realized there was no point. This was supposed to be a stealth mission, but we would just have to make do.
The first day of walking was uneventful. We were within sight of the city for most of it and I doubt anything dangerous gets that close. Rialto had the guards unload the animal and set up a large tent complete with cots just for him and me! I was furious because of how this made me look in front of the guards. I told him that I was on this mission as directed by the guild, not as the wizard’s whore. Then I left the tent to set up my sleeping bag on the ground like everyone else. I caught Ferd glancing at me a couple of times but I felt validated by the smirks that I saw from the hired guards. The next day Rialto started by having the guards pack the tent and cots on the mule, unload some of the other supplies and return to town with the mule. While he was angry with me, I guess spending the night alone had allowed him to rethink the mission. We spread the supplies between us even though I could have loaded the whole amount into my magical pack.
That day was more interesting for me. I found that I was enjoying travelling around and seeing the country. My trip to the city had been quick and secretive with my concerns over being caught and dragged back to my home to answer for murder. Now that was all behind me and I was building a new life and a new career. I was constantly surprised by the people that we would meet, many of them making their lives on the road or living in the wilds without even a small town for safety and support. I couldn’t ever see myself trying to live totally away from friends and family.
That evening I pulled out my alchemist’s kit from my pack. Ferd had seen the pack so he knew of its power. When Rialto noticed he grumped a little about the weight of his pack but then got more interested in watching or helping me. I decided to work on a simple acid flask just to see if I could craft one on the road. The acid formula was very easy for me, but the processing time was an issue. Two hours into the work I realized that I would be working all night to create the acid. I tried to change things then, shorten some of the times and change the blends to adapt, but found that after four hours of work I had succeeded in nothing but wasted time and ruined supplies. Crafting on the road could work, but I needed to figure out how to break the crafting process into shorter pieces. Rialto had lost interest and gone to sleep hours before. Now I needed to pack my kit and get a few hours of sleep myself. Fortunately my ring would help me with that requirement.
I woke to bright sunlight and a wonderful smell of breakfast cooking. The magic of my ring reduces my requirements for eating and sleeping, but it doesn’t change the pleasure of occasional sloth! I thanked both men for allowing me to sleep but asked them in the future to allow me to take my shift on the watch. I explained the magic of my ring to Ferd since Rialto already knew of it. I also told him that it took a full week to attune it to a different user so it wouldn’t work to switch it back and forth amongst us. With a sheepish grin I also took the extra weight from the packs of both men and moved it to my magical pack, then settled down to enjoy a little of the cooked food. I wasn’t sure but felt that eating too much while the ring was supplying my needs would probably lead to my getting fat, and I didn’t want to have to fight that battle along with everything else!
We got moving again and had three uneventful, enjoyable days and nights. I didn’t try the alchemy experiments again deciding to wait until I returned to Angela to discuss that. We had a light rain on the second day but continued on, just accepting that we would get wet. That night was spent in an inn to dry us and our equipment. Rialto mentioned the tent, but stopped halfway through the sentence when he realized that mistake! I thought about getting my own room as punishment for the words but realized that I missed his company at night probably as much as he missed mine. Well, maybe not as he did his best to prove to me that night….
On the fifth day of travel our destination came into sight and Rialto finally decided to explain our “mission”. We were approaching Janderhoff, the city that I had named in the letter to my mother. Our missing guild member was spying on the merchant guild within the city and had not reported back in two months. He was an experienced rogue and spy but the guild was concerned that he might have been compromised. His cover was that of a not-very-successful transporter of wine and stronger spirits named Verdan Marks and he had one “servant” that helped in loading his cart. The servant was actually an initiate of Cayden Cailean, which helped in the cover. He had been working for over two years and had reported regularly at the beginning of each month. Surprisingly, he had actually turned a profit with the cartloads of wine and spirits that he actually transported between the two towns, but the guild let him keep all of that. Rialto suggested that he pose as a cousin searching for Verdan with a new business proposition. I was to play his wife and Ferd would be his business partner. As the wife of a merchant I wouldn’t be involved in the discussions but would be largely ignored so I could watch the people surrounding anyone that we approached. Ferd would be in the middle of whatever happened just in case Rialto needed his particular skills.
I wasn’t particularly happy with the plan as I’ve never enjoyed being left out of things. But, I understood that this was Rialto’s way of trying to protect me while still leaving me a little part to play. Well, as the bard’s say, the best laid plans of wizards and other men…. The “plan” lasted part way through the first day!