"Have we t?"
"You know her, Professor?" Kordia said pointedly, reminding Kir he was in disguise.
"We~ have not t! But I rember seeing you perform," Kir lied quickly. "Professor Nasumi, at your service."
"I think I would have rembered a strapping wolfkin like you," Morn winked. "You’re a big boy, aren’t you?"
"Professor, we don’t have ti for this," Bailey asserted, clearly eager to get the search started.
"Hold your tits, boy, I just wanted to ask if we could combine our efforts. Circus lost a couple of perforrs a few days ago. Normally we’d just assu they were having fun and got lost, or they ran off, but we’re wintering here, and I have no idea how this thing works." She wiggled her branch with the blue lamp.
"She’s trying to summon Ghostheart," one of the kids cried out.
"Sothing like that. Been walking around for an hour, since the Ringmaster figures they might have got grabbed by slavers. Of course, so locals fed him the line about a ’friendly demon who rescues slaves.’" She sighed. "It would be nice if the demon actually showed up before I freeze my tits off. I’ve never t a demon before."
"You’re supposed to do it at night," Kordia said.
"Evening counts, right? I was about to head back, but then I heard you lot arguing and just had to watch the drama."
Kir shrugged. "I see no reason why we can’t join forces."
"Here," Hornstab said, offering up the map, before addressing an orcish girl who looked to be around fifteen "Nicky, take the kids back to the lair. I’ll stick with Bailout and find Nab."
Nicky nodded but so of the kids protested.
"And now we are five," Kir said.
*
Kir had never been to a druid house before. He knew most druids received a stipend from the city to produce food - which was greatly accelerated and much cleaner than industrial farming. But he didn’t quite have a knack for delving plants, just as he didn’t have the knack for delving bodies that Kordia had.
He learned that, essentially, they were food wholesalers, but the less fortunate could help in exchange for food if not just pay the ridiculously small sums for entire bags and crates. One copper strip would get Kir a sack of potatoes or beets or radishes.
But if you looked too well-off, the druids would not sell to you; so that grocers could make their money deeper in the city by transporting and consolidating foodstuffs to where they were needed.
Kir’s procedure was simple, he kept his sense enhancents and manasense active at all tis, so it was no issue for him to sense the local conditions.
The first three druid houses they visited were a bust.
They were walking a long arc, starting at the docks and zigzagging their way to the other side of the city. On the way to the fourth druid house, Morn decided to break the serious silence.
"So~ which show was it?" she asked Kir.
"Excuse ?"
"Which show did you see in? I do a lot of plays, it’s so easy to get mixed up." She was carrying her lantern stick behind her back, with the crystal still shining behind its blue glass.
"Um... the one where you were an angel."
"Hah! That was a good one. Had to stop because of all the angels flying around. Don’t want to get the circus in trouble for "apostasy" or so nonsense."
"You’re quite the talented flier," Kir complinted, since she’d taught him how to first use his wings.
"Oh, really? Must’ve been after my trapeze set. No real flying called for except coming and going in that play... When did you watch?"
"Umm... years ago..."
"We’ve only been doing that play for half a year."
"I an... it feels like years ago. Maybe a couple of months?"
"Can’t have been the last two months. We’ve had to change our route three tis thanks to the early Heavenswar, and we’re still setting up in the new district."
Kordia cleared her throat loudly. "Let’s just concentrate on finding the siphon, yes? You two can figure out Professor Nasumi’s poor mory later."
Kir did not detect that in front of them, Bailey’s eyes had narrowed with suspicion.
The fourth house was a bust as well.
"How many of these are there?" Kordia wound up asking as the sun dipped past the city walls.
"Sixteen," Kir said, looking at the holes in the map. "Which of them is the newest?"
"Newest? I don’t know that," Stabhorn said. "The two northmost are the ones Nab liked best. There used to be four but two got burned down when the demons ca."
"Where were they?" Kir asked.
After handing Stabhorn the map, two more marks were added, about a third of the way from the northern main road, and another a block away on the other side, closer to the road.
"I think we should skip the rest of the ones past here," Kir indicated the southern portion of the city.
"Thank the gods!" Morn said. "No offense, Big Wolf, but a girl gets tired legs. Mind if I fly over and et you up the road?"
"Go ahead," Kir said.
Increasing their pace, the rest of the group crossed back to the north section of the city.
True to his report, the closest burned-down druid house remained so. There was no sign of Morn, but she could have just flown a bit further.
But at the second...
A new druid house stood, with its lamps fully lit and a large sign inviting people with "Free Food! Inquire Inside!"
A roundish, heavy-set man in chef’s garb - which on Ayther ant a tunic with a single-strip of white cloth on the front and back like a long apron, was waiting his elbow resting on the inside of an open window.
As soon as the group approached, the man turned his head, "Custors!" "Co on in!" He smiled wide, then gestured at the racks of perfect-looking fruits and vegetables further in.
"We’d like to ask so questions," Kir said.
"Co on in!" the man repeated in the exact sa tone.
"Kir..." Kordia said in a warning tone.
"I see it."
Deeper in the house was a soft blue glow, the sort that Morn’s lamp had.
"Let get the door for you!" The man waved a hand and the door opened... only Kir did not detect a single shred of magic.
"Let’s get this over with," Bailey muttered in frustration as he charged ahead, Stabhorn refusing to let him go without him as he kept pace.
"No, wait!" Kir called out.
As soon as the two youths entered, the door snapped shut. The siphon, realizing it was caught, had clearly decided it needed to take what it could get.
Suddenly all the mana around Kir and Kordia thinned, rapidly sucked in by the creature as the house sprouted tentacles from every crack and corner, and teeth along its window.
"Co on in!" the man in the window slurred as he began to transform into an enormous tongue.
The windows on the second floor beca huge eyes, and then the mimic screeched.
Kir covered his ears, quickly making a spell to reduce the amount of air near them, muffling the sound. As soon as his spell was set, he did the sa for Kordia, who was stunned by the sudden sound.
A tentacle took the chance to wrap around Kordia’s leg, and Kir sliced the offending limb off with a blast of compressed water.
While sticky, it unwrapped easily without any muscle behind it, dying on the ground.
Thank the stars... if slicing it up multiplied the number of mimics, there was no way they were going to kill it without atomizing everyone inside.
"Kordia, call for help. I’ll start cutting."
"There are people in there!"
"Don’t worry, I’ll only focus on the edges." Kir cut away another pair of reaching tentacles. Even if the thing had taken the mana out of the air, Kir could still draw on the wintry moisture all around them to make actual, physical blades. And when the mimic started attacking with hardened sections, adding stone dust from the ground to increase his water blades’ cutting power.
Kordia, rather than leave, simply raised her wand and sent a pulse of three red lights straight up into the air. It was a ssage system from the siege, but, hopefully, people would rember that it ant trouble.
Then she addressed a more pressing problem: Darkness.
The sun was low enough that without the light from the "druid house," they were left in a dark culvert.
To address this, she unleashed her store of fox fire, three floating, silver flas appearing above each of her tails, each about the size of a beachball to Kir’s sight.
Without mana in the air to absorb, the light was weak, but it was more than enough for her to see by.
Kir didn’t have problems seeing as he continued to battle the mimic, the silver light slightly muting the colors around them.
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