“Wait, we’re not going back to the shack they put us in?” Cojisto asked as we passed by our personal barracks.

  “No, I’m doing what Justisius instructed me to do,” I answered as we kept going.

  There was a pause followed by a small croak from Moose. “What did he tell you to do?” the pugilist translated.

  “There’s a reason why I didn’t have that conversation where you could hear it,” I sighed, scratching my neck. “Just follow me.”

  “Yeah, alright.”

  Our destination wasn’t too far away. It was easy to find thanks to the grid system the barracks were set up in. I had less problems making it through the crowded streets than I had before, which was expected when a moose was trailing close behind. His presence made it easier for me to check the mood of my surroundings without worrying about getting trampled. As a paladin of Cheroske, I had an enhanced empathetic sense on how the community was doing.

  Not everyone was getting along—I saw some of Akshashka’s soldiers nearly get into a fight with some Forest Elves before walking away—but it was a lot more coherent than I thought it would be. If there were going to be problems, then I expected them here where there was less oversight than in the town.

  Out here on the outskirts, with everyone in close proximity and where the efforts of keeping certain factions separated was at its weakest, enough people believed in the overall mission to stay calm. The fact that even old enemies were being civil meant good things for the war efforts. I didn’t need to be an adherent of Cheroske to see that.

  The building we approached was wildly different from every other one. It had been painted black. I wrinkled my nose as I got closer to see, and smell, the truth. It wasn’t paint, but scorched from top to bottom. The whole thing smelled like a campfire that had recently been put out.

  I didn’t need to know that this was Snake Tail’s temporary residence to know that this was Teladora’s work, but it certainly helped. She had the control to change the wood’s appearance while not actively burning everything down. The only question was why she had felt it necessary, and I decided I didn’t really care to find out.

  Stopping at the door, I turned to look at Cojisto. “Behave yourself.”

  “I’ll do my best?” he half-asked, half-promised.

  Moose stomped his foot once, and I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t worried about you.”

  Cojisto scoffed indignantly as I turned back around, but he didn’t have any legs to stand on there. I knocked on the door, which still retained its structural integrity.

  “Come in,” a man’s voice instructed. He had the exotic, slightly clipped accent of someone hailing from the Northeastern Continent. Taking a breath, I did as I was told and gestured for the others to follow me.

  Snake Tail’s housing unit was exactly the same as ours. Eight beds, a small kitchen, and not much else. Someone had also strung up a hammock across the ceiling in the back, though it was currently empty. It was also uncomfortably hot with the stove practically roaring.

  Only two people were present. Neither were Teladora, but I recognized them both.

  Konishi was a blue-skinned man with white hair that fell to his shoulder blades. He was sitting on one of the beds and taking care of a black-bladed longsword resting on his lap. Ram horns curled out from his temples, stopping just short of touching his long ears. His clothes were light due to the heat and, behind him, a thin tail swished against the blankets. He was a Tiefling, a Half-Devil.

  As uncommon as they were, the other inhabitant was something even rarer still. She had short blonde hair and the kind of face that looked like she both laughed and worried in equal measure. Her green eyes landed on us immediately with a warm expression as she adjusted her telltale white and red robes of a healer. They seemed thick despite the heat. From just her smile alone I was reminded of Danella, which was most of the reason why we came here.

  “Badger, it’s been some time,” she greeted softly, sharing Konishi’s accent though hers was softened by the amount of time she had been in our lands. She turned to the guests I had brought. “I’m—”

  “Vosvanya?” Cojisto gasped, pushing past me. I was about to complain when I saw the star-struck look on his face. “The Oracle of Tenferi and her guardian protector, Konishi of the Vibrant Blade? Moose! We are in the presence of greatness!”

  Vosvanya and Konishi looked at each other, and I sighed. “What happened to being focused, Cojisto?” I asked, crossing my arms.

  “How can I be focused when we’re in the same room as Snake’s Tail?” he countered, not bothering to look back at me.

  “Moose?” I requested.

  The healer moved in, immediately getting a reaction from both Vosvanya and Konishi. He didn’t come far, though, only stepping halfway through the door. From there, he had plenty of room to smack Cojisto in the back of the head with his antler.

  “What was that for?” the man asked, turning around as he rubbed where he had been hit. Moose snorted and rolled his eyes, and his friend’s eyes widened. He looked at me, then to the ones we were here to see, and bowed. “Sorry.”

  “No harm, no foul,” Konishi said easily as he returned to caring for his weapon.

  I cleared my throat while giving Cojisto the side-eye before turning to Vosvanya. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us. The moose is Moose. He’s our party’s healer. The man is Cojisto. He’s a moron, but we had to take him if we wanted Moose.”

  “Hey,” the pugilist protested.

  “Yes, I can see the divine energy coalescing around him,” the woman said, stroking her chin as she looked Moose over. “I was expecting it in such quantities from you, paladin, but he is a rare treat indeed.”

  “Yes, well, it’s a long story. One I’m sure they can supply you with someday,” I replied before jerking my thumb towards Cojisto. “He’s the one with the brand, though.”

  “Konishi?” Vosvanya requested.

  He nodded before turning his attention back to Cojisto, and his red eyes glowed purple as he cast a detection spell. It changed again to blue before settling on green, and he shook his head. “No Scrying sensors or other lingering magical effects, Vos.”

  “Thank you,” she replied with a smile.

  “Scrying sensors?” Cojisto asked, turning to look back at me in confusion.

  “Yes, dear, in case someone decided to watch you,” Vosvanya answered before I could. She shifted to approach, and some of the piles of blankets behind her moved as she did.

  From the waist up, Vosvanya looked like a completely normal woman. After that was around fifteen feet of thick, green snake tail with a beige underbelly that made her unmistakable as a Lamia. They were rare in our part of the world, almost as rare as Kitsunes like Sophia, but they weren’t unheard of. The all-female race were usually gifted in the magical arts, and there were currently two that held the position of dungeon owners. This was the only one I knew of that was an adventurer, though.

  This information wasn’t new to Cojisto or Moose, though that didn’t stop them from watching her long tail unravel. To his credit, the pugilist snapped out of it first. “Wait, so, because of the brand, I might be getting spied on?”

  “It is a possibility. Please, show it to me,” Vosvanya replied as she stopped in front of him. “Did you tell him what you thought of his predicament, Badger?”

  “No. The moment I decided to accept him, I called Justisius and came here,” I told her with a shake of my head. I turned to Cojisto. “That brand was placed on you directly by Ulrich himself. I’m assuming that no amount of healing has changed it?”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “You’d assume right,” he answered as he started to remove his armor. “Moose had done everything he could, but it’s the same now as it was when he resuscitated me.”

  With a nod, I continued. “There’s a very real chance that it left a connection between you and Ulrich. Something similar to what you and Moose have, but caused by malevolent force rather than the… power of friendship, or whatever.”

  “Oh, I don’t like the sound of that,” Cojisto immediately said, glancing back at his friend.

  “No one would, that’s why we’re here,” I returned.

  Once his chest was free, Vosvanya reached out to touch the brand. Cojisto didn’t back away. He did flinch in surprise as her fingers made contact with the handprint, though. “It hasn’t scarred, but seems to have settled into your skin directly,” she mused before looking up into his eyes. “Do you mind if I delve a little deeper, dear? Magically, of course.”

  “Sure, do what you have to do,” he replied, though he seemed stiff.

  With a nod, the Lamia’s tail moved through the room while her upper body stayed perfectly still. Moose and I took a step back as she made a circle around Cojisto. When she closed her eyes, her free hand glowed white and pointed towards the ground. I leaned in to get a better look over her bulk.

  Every time she moved, a line of light appeared underneath her, and I approved of her ingenuity. She was using her tail as the outside of a ritual circle while filling in the gaps with a simple, easy to perform spell. More and more sigils appeared as the complexity was cranked up. Still, it only took her around a minute and a half to finish what would have taken a lesser experienced mage several.

  “This may sting, but I’m sure you can handle it,” Vosvanya said soothingly. Cojisto stood up a little straighter as the tip of her tail touched the inside of the circle.

  I had already prepared, but I heard Moose take a step back as a blinding light overtook the two of them. It was so bright that I nearly had to put my hand over my face to block what made it through my eyelids. The spell lasted for nearly ten seconds before the oracle spoke again.

  “It is done,” Vosvanya announced, sounding slightly winded.

  It seemed like she was putting a lot of weight onto the hand that was still touching Cojisto’s chest, and when she backed up she appeared to be a little unsteady. I was sure that something was wrong when Konishi stopped sharpening his blade and stared at her, but she was already waving him off.

  “It seems as though Inspector Badger’s concerns were well-founded,” she announced as she lowered herself to sit upon her coiled tail. “There is indeed a connection between you and Moose, as he had said, but also with another that I cannot see due to the distance, and it stems from that brand on your chest.”

  Cojisto’s hand immediately went to touch it. “What’s that mean?”

  “It means that Ulrich has left a magical mark on you as well as a physical one,” I translated. “One of the things I learned he was doing was entering people’s dreams. So he could fight while he was sleeping, he said. He also manipulated Dalsarel that way. By simply branding you, he’s made it easier to do that, Scry on you, track you, or any other thing his twisted mind could come up with. You coming with us would be like hiring criers to give away our position at all times.”

  “That’s… really bad, Badger,” he said, clearly worried. “I don’t want to be an unwitting spy for the bad guys, I only just realized my truth about being a hero!”

  “And that’s why we’re here,” I repeated with a shake of my head. “You clearly know of Vosvanya, so you have to know her specialty.” My words took the stress right out of his face, and I scowled. “Don’t just relax because she’s willing to help. It might not work, and then no one’s going to let you come.”

  “I’m just glad that you’re looking out for me,” Cojisto said, reaching out as if to embrace me.

  “No hugs,” I warned, glaring at him.

  “Alright, fine.” He pulled back with a chuckle, still far too light-hearted for my taste, and regarded the Lamia with a grin. “I know that your brand of healing has you taking a lot of damage onto yourself, but I’m afraid I don’t know the specifics.”

  “It’s no problem, dear,” Vosvanya replied, putting her hands together. “I am a healer and thus have access to spells that do such, but the ones I am most proficient at allow me to take on the suffering of others. For instance, in battle, if someone were to stab Konishi here, then most of that damage will be transferred to me through a divine connection that I’ll already have set up.”

  Moose croaked, and I thought I could hear a hint of concern in his voice.

  “That seems very harmful,” Cojisto translated slowly.

  The Lamia waved her hand as if dismissing their worries. “I don't feel pain the same way you do. While it’s not common knowledge, it’s not really a secret either. My curse as an oracle keeps me cold. More so than most of my kind,” she explained, gesturing towards her long tail. “At any given time, I'm already uncomfortable from the intense cold I feel and it doesn't add much more to take on the pain of others. It's also what drew me to Teladora and her heat.”

  “Wow, that sucks,” the pugilist replied before his eyes widened when he realized what he had said.

  “Moron,” I sighed.

  “S-sorry,” he nearly yelled, holding up his hands. “I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s fine, really,” she said with a giggle, shutting him down. “I’ve always been this way, and I can’t miss what I never had. That said, I’m happy to take on the burdens of my comrades, and it’s much easier to heal myself than it is a whole adventuring party, though there have been times and circumstances where I had to do both.”

  “Still sucks,” Konishi added as he resumed taking care of his sword.

  “It’s fine, and that’s the last I’ll hear of it tonight,” Vosvanya stated firmly, and her guardian protector nodded. She seemed pleased enough with that to continue. “Now, back to what I do. This magical connection is much weaker than what you and Moose have, and still less than what I cast on my party. If we had more time, I would likely be able to teach him that spell, now that I'm thinking about it.”

  “Can’t you teach him on the boat?” Cojisto asked curiously. “It’s a long way, right? And he’s really smart. Smartest guy I know. He’d give Badger a run for his money at trivia night, I bet.”

  “She’ll have her own things to do on the boats,” I said. The Lamia gave me a questioning look and I shook my head slightly at her. She backed off. “Is there anything you can do to sever it?”

  “Yes. I can mask him, too, but the connection might become active again via proximity,” Vosvanya answered. She crossed her arms and tapped her chin with her finger. “And that’s if Ulrich even notices in the first place. If he regularly goes out and brands people with this spell he’s made, then he might not even notice when one of these links are severed.”

  I scowled. “How close would they have to be for it to become active?”

  “Hard to tell, I’m afraid,” she admitted with a frown. “Someone capable enough to do this is a tricky one. How exactly did he leave this mark on you, dear?”

  “Physically. He had to touch me to activate the spell,” Cojisto answered.

  Vosvanya’s tail tip wiggled as she lowered her head in thought.

  “Could always keep it active,” Konishi said from his bed, and his eyes glowed again with magic as he examined the room. “Turn it around on him. Fool the Scrying sensor with fake images. Trap him in a dream if he enters Cojisto’s head.”

  I didn’t even have to think about that. “Denied.”

  “But we could trap him in my head?” Cojisto offered, gesturing towards the Tiefling.

  “I’m not playing this game with Ulrich,” I told him firmly. “Even if we can turn it around on him, I’m not risking it. I would rather lose a source of information that goes both ways than let him have a single glimpse of us doing whatever we end up doing.”

  “I agree with Badger, for the record,” Vosvanya added.

  “That’s that, then,” Konishi said, though he didn’t seem all that beaten up about it.

  The Lamia nodded. “I think that Ulrich would likely need to touch Cojisto again to reactivate the connection after I sever it, but I don’t believe you would take me at my word.”

  “I believe that you believe it, but until I’m sure I’m going to continue to be paranoid,” I replied. “You don’t think there’s any possibility of it happening from a long distance, though?”

  “If he can, then he deserves to be as powerful as you've claimed he is,” she sighed. “It doesn’t seem magically feasible, and that’s coming from someone who has been adventuring with Teladora for over twenty years. Still, I’ll provide a spell or two that will offer him some long-term shielding. You’ll have to rendezvous with our team after about a week or so, or vice versa, to renew it..”

  “Are you sure that’s okay?” I asked, looking up at the woman.

  Vosvanya smiled gently down on me. “It’s no trouble at all. If he and his companion are of help to you, then it’s all worth it.”

  I frowned, but didn't have to think about it too hard. “Alright. I am normally against becoming indebted to others, but if there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask,” I said, and she nodded. “Will severing the connection also remove the brand?”

  “No, that’s a part of him now, I’m afraid,” she answered, looking back at Cojisto’s chest.

  “Physical destruction, then?”

  “Yes. Disrupting it is necessary. That will sever the connection's anchor point that acts as an aid for a Scrying sensor. Likely one even more powerful as having something that belongs to him.”

  “Can’t have that, so I guess we do this the hard way,” I said as I reached into my Dimensional Pocket.

  “Wait, huh? Do what the hard way?” the pugilist asked, suddenly nervous.

  “How badly do you want to come, Cojisto?” I asked him as I turned in his direction.

  “More than anything,” he answered honestly, subconsciously standing up straighter.

  “I’m about to put that to the test, because that brand absolutely cannot come with us in one piece.” Pulling my hand out of my jacket, I thumbed a rune on my Hilt of Holding to release a two-foot-long blade. “Ignite.” Magical flames licked at the longsword from point to guard, though I didn’t feel the heat at all as its wielder. Cojisto swallowed thickly. “Sorry, but this will hurt.”

  The pugilist closed his eyes, puffed out his chest, grit his teeth, and accepted that this was the way things went.

  To Cojisto’s credit, he didn’t scream as I branded him anew.