It didn’t take us long to find a mole. In fact, nearly the instant we began walking down the hill, a wave of crystal emerged behind us, slamming closed with seemingly no mole in sight. My nose was assaulted with the overwhelming scent of ether crystal, the bones of the earth, and the flecks of metal that lived in all beings. Moments later, one of the armored moles the size of an elephant rushed down the tunnel, headed right for us. I braced myself, pulling up dragonfire to try and stop the charge. Before I could, however, the mole began to slow, gradually at first, before finally stopping about ten feet from us. It stared at our group, sniffling, and then tilted its head.

  “Hello?” I said, a touch nervous. The mole’s black eyes sharply focused on me, and it spoke.

  It was strange. I had experienced the translation difference between people speaking different languages, but this seemed more like a bloodline tongue. It wasn’t the bloodline tongue of earth, but it was somewhat close, as if earthtongue was a lemon and this was an orange. To my ears, it sounded entirely like a series of squeals and squeaks, with the odd deeply guttural growl. Within my ether pool, the construct that was the true tongue spell churned, and I understood it.

  “What are you?” the great beast asked. “You are not the little green and wet creatures of the marsh, not formless spirit-things of the forest, not the diseased toxin hounds, nor any other creatures of which I or we are aware.”

  I was a touch taken aback by the sudden demands, and pondered for a second how best to answer.

  “We are travelers from very far away,” I said. “I am unsure if dragon, human, wereraven, or serpentfolk mean anything to you, but that is what we are. We were sent here by our teacher, in order to ensure we have the skills to survive. Who are you?”

  “The diseased toxin hounds and other things are quite dangerous, so it is a good test,” agreed the massive mole. “You may call me Surface-Scouring-Watcher. What are you all called?”

  “I am Emrys,” I responded, before introducing my friends. “I must say, I am surprised to hear you say that. There were perhaps two dogs in the pack who could even scratch you. Even then, I don’t think they’d be of much threat to you.”

  Over the course of the conversation, I’d gotten a good sense for this mole’s power. It was at least as powerful as Gerhard. I thought that if all four of us worked together, we might be able to crack its defenses, but if it really wanted to kill us our best bet would be flying into the air and just leaving.

  “Those are strange names,” Surface-Scouring-Watcher said. “You must be from very far. And that is half true. Most of the dogs are only a threat to our children. But the dog’s great one is a threat. Our powers are those of defense, burrowing, and creation. It is a diseased toxin dog. Should their great one’s poison touch my bare fur, even I am likely to die. If my armor can keep it out…”

  “It’s a classic case of perfect offense against perfect defense,” Salem said, joining for the first time and nodding his head. “Neither one of ya’s got a counter to the other. You can’t hit it hard enough to kill it, and it can’t always hit you hard enough to kill.”

  “That is so, Say-Of-Lem,” agreed the mole. “It is why only the strongest must go to the surface, and the young must stay deep below the earth.”

  “What if we could help you?” Jackson asked, causing me to start in surprise. I hadn’t realized he had true tongue, or maybe a divine boon that functioned similarly.

  “We are powerful, but not only in defense. We have a versatile number of skills,” Jackson continued. “We may be able to kill it, and that would weaken the dogs. They’re not sapients like you or I. They’re dangerous.”

  The mole shifted and examined Jackson.

  “I will need to bring your request back to the conclave. If they have an interest, what is your fair price - required recompense - true exchange - social obligation?”

  My ears rang a little on that last word, as the spell tried to translate the squeak in four different ways. Jackson turned and murmured a few words to Yushin, potentially filling her in, then turned back.

  “Allow us to harvest from the diseased toxin dog’s corpse. My… Yushin here is a poison mage as well. She would be able to use its poison glands to carry her to a new level of power.”

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  “So long as You-See-In agrees to not turn her poison on us, I suspect that is of no concern. We would simply have sealed it in stone and crystal to let it decay to nothing. What price?”

  A pit of dread was starting to form in my gut, and I took a deep breath. The Erudite had said we were on an elemental plane, but its magic was strange. But the mole’s attitude didn’t strike me as an elemental. Then I found it. It was faint, but definitely there. A tiny kernel of faerie magic wove itself into these moles. They weren’t full fae, no more than putting some salt in a glass of water was an ocean, but there were similarities. I suspected if we insisted on doing it for free, it would be possible, unlike with the fae who required a bargain to not fall into our debt. But I suspected it would be unpleasant.

  “We seek materials,” I said. “There is metal and crystal beneath the earth, infused with great power. Perhaps power that is more akin to this than it is to yours. Bring us as much as you would consider fair compensation for killing it.”

  As I spoke, I released a flow of ether into the air, letting it swirl through the nose of the mole creature. Raw ether would do virtually nothing, but it should hopefully give the mole a good sniff for it.

  “And armor,” Salem said. “Our magics don’t do much to protect us from the dogs. If you could use your bloodline to create armor that we could wear, that would be great help.”

  The mole tapped one of its claws on the dirt of the tunnel and seemed to consider something before speaking in a tone that I somehow knew was thoughtful.

  “You all are very small and shaped in strange ways. I do not know how well we can fashion the armor for you, and you do not have the bloodlines to expand it. But I will see if this is possible. Perhaps some of the designs for children? We will need time to craft something.”

  “We’ll only be here a week, before our mentor recalls us to his side,” I said. The mole made a sound of confusion, so I hastened to explain. “Seven days. Seven sunrises.”

  “Ah. I will tell them of this. Return in three sunrises and I will convey the answers of the conclave.”

  At that, the mole tapped his claw again, and a human-sized door opened in the crystal wall trapping us within the molehill. Each of us bowed to the mole, who gave a strange nose wiggle in return, and then we flew up the tunnel. Between the flying, fighting harvesting, and negotiations, the noonday sun was burning bright over us, and I turned to look at our group.

  “That should be a focusing and four core components for Yushin,” I said. “As well as potentially some other things, if the ether-infused metal is enough. Where to now?”

  “I think we should explore the volcano,” Jackson said. “If Yushin can hide us from the birds, we should be able to fly near the top. Then we should head back to the cottage and rest. Study, work on Yushin’s spell away from prying eyes, all that.”

  There were no objections to that, so Yushin began to weave spells around us, casting a new fifth circle spell that would render an entire sphere around her invisible. We pulled in tight to meet the formation as she cast another spell to wipe clean our scents, and we rocketed out across the plains. As we approached the mountain, the shapes of the birds in the air around it began to resolve into clarity. They looked rather like human sized turkeys, with longer than normal talons, and three sets of wings. As we approached, a pair of them immediately spun mid-air, and the wind began to ripple. Yushin spat a curse as she called out.

  “They sense the wind's movements. I cannot hide those!”

  I thrust my hand out and cast windshield, snapping the fragile weave of Yushin’s spell and parting the massive ripple around us as it moved in. Even as I did, I took a deep breath to gauge their bloodlines. Each of the massive, six-winged turkeys had power, but one on one, it was nothing to be concerned about. If we drew down the entire massive flock circling the volcano, though…

  “I can control the air enough to smooth the ripples of our flight,” I said. “We just need to down these two quickly. Yushin, you’ll need to adapt your invisibility around me and my spell, throw it up as soon as those two are down. If we draw the whole flock down, we’re done.”

  As I spoke, I drew my staff from my locker, and began to chant out one of my newer, but extremely useful spells: control air. While I worked on that, Yushin was muttering and weaving her invisibility spell, while Jackson and Salem both launched into fight. Salem released wind blades and arcane missiles at the turkeys, while Jackson thrust his hand forward and sent a spear of flame right at one of their wings. The turkeys retaliated with blasts of air that stopped the windblades cold and whipped around the fire lance until it veered wildly off course. The arcane missiles, on the other hand, struck true.

  Jackson frowned and raised his amulet in one hand and spoke a short incarnation, pushing his palm out as he did. An arcane missile formed in his hand, but it looked different from most of mine. Long ago, professor Alydia had spoken about how arcane missile had surprising flexibility for a non-affinity, first circle spell. She’d talked about how the spell could be shaped in unusual ways to cut, to pierce, to bludgeon. I’d never really focused on the skill, but apparently, Jackson had. Even as Salem turned to defense, calling up shield spells to stop the blasts of wind directed at him, Jackson formed fourteen arcane missiles. Each of them was as thin as a sewing needle, and almost as long as my forearm.

  Then Jackson thrust his hand forward, and the swarm of missiles exploded from his hand. The needles ripped through each of the bird’s wings, before skewering them in the neck. Yushin reacted immediately, forming the new invisibility magic, while I spoke the last few lines of my own incantation and seized control of the air around us. Jackson and Salem flew into the sphere of invisibility, I smoothed the air around their flights, keeping it perfectly even.

  “Let’s find out what’s at the top of that volcano, aye?”

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