System Change

“There we go,” Alanah said as she stopped in mid-air and pointed toward the shore.

“What is it?” Derek asked.

“We’ve technically crossed over into Vorandell,” the siren answered.

“How do you know?” Derek asked. He looked toward the shore and squinted to see better.

“If you look closely, you can see the shape of those cliffs,” Alanah said before pulling out her out-of-date map. “At least some things haven’t changed.”

“Oh,” Derek muttered, then looked from the map to the shore a couple of times. “I think I see it. There are also…”

“The outposts?” Alanah chuckled. “Yeah, that’s the other dead giveaway. There are two of them, and they are close together. Even without being able to see the people or colors in them, you would know that there is no sense for two outposts being built side by side.”

“Yeah… unless it was two separate kingdoms that made them.” Honestly, it was all quite blurry for Derek at their current distance away from the land, so he didn’t see anything other than vague shapes of possible outposts and cliffs. But what Alanah was saying made perfect sense to him. If one kingdom decided to build an outpost close to the border with another country, then the other country was sure to build one of their own just as close. Even for allied kingdoms, this would probably be true—whether it was to not look weak, just to keep an eye on the other country, or for dozens of other reasons.

“So, what’s the plan from here?” Derek asked.

“Well, we don’t want to be seen going inland by either side. I would rather we not make a formal appearance in Vorandell until we are well within their borders. It will be easier to not draw attention that way—even though it doesn’t really matter if we gather attention here. Unless, of course, if they somehow figure out who I am, but I doubt that will be possible unless I use my known powers wildly, which I will not. I am not dumb, after all,” Alanah said the last bit with a light jab at Derek.

“Psh…” Derek snorted at the joke. “They didn’t see any powers that I have,” Derek said. “They only saw that I was behind them in an instant. I don’t even think they saw when I moved back to you—they were much too busy panicking for that. Besides, I imagine there are dozens, if not hundreds, of different instantaneous movement abilities. They won’t know if I teleported or just moved really fast—of which I did neither.”

“I was just joking,” Alanah giggled. “You are far from dumb.”

“I know,” Derek said. “How do you want to do this?”

“How high into the air can you go with your skill?” Alanah asked.

“I don’t know,” Derek answered. “I’ve never tried to find out. Before, it was as far as my mana could take me, but now… I have no clue.”

“I was thinking that, since this isn’t Indria with all those pesky invisible alarms and shields and such, we could just fly really high, then come down somewhere well within the boundaries.”

“Seems like kind of a basic plan,” Derek said. “You sure that will work?”

“I’m sure they have some kind of system in place to alert them… maybe,” Alanah said. “But it isn’t as easy to do as you would think. The price Indria has to pay to do it is outrageous, and their royal family is basically built for it. That is why they only use it during high tension times, or in small areas around the border.”

“I see…”

“And besides,” Alanah continued. “It’s us. We are just taking some slight precautions. If they do somehow sense us, it won’t matter. You can just disappear from pretty much anyone, and I doubt any of the guards patrolling would be strong enough to even see me if I go all out—much less make out any description.”

“Should we wear cloaks or something?” Derek asked.

“No,” the siren replied. “At least not in this kingdom. Our armor—even as outstanding as it is—will let us blend in better than covering ourselves up.”

“I do have some basic leather armor if you want to use that,” Derek replied.

“No.” Alanah shook her head. “I would rather get a little attention and be perceived as powerful than have to deal with people thinking we are weak. It is a hassle having to deal with all the idiots trying to get my attention. At least this way, I will only have to worry about the high-level idiots hitting on me.”

“Ah…” Derek muttered with a no. “The disadvantages of being beautiful and handsome like us.” He clicked his tongue. “It truly is a hard life we live.”

“Let’s go,” Alanah said as she rolled her eyes at Derek’s antics. Then she shot higher and higher into the sky.

“Wait up!” Derek kicked off a void ripple and began his climb. Alanah was much faster than he was moving vertical—and the only real way he could compete with her was by using Powerstride or his Void Shift skills. But, at the moment, he didn’t want to use Powerstride because it was still a bit random, and he didn’t want to accidentally use it and end up in space… Would I be able to survive in space? He wondered, but shrugged as he continued. That’s just another thing for the future Derek to figure out.

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Soon enough, Derek reached the waiting Alanah.

“We’ll just head that way,” the siren pointed in a general direction that would take them what Derek imagined would be towards the center of the kingdom. “If everything is still the same and no cities have been wiped out, we should be able to find one with a teleporter pretty close by if we head that way. Once we make it to a city with a teleporter, we can just use them to get to a place close to the border with Linderis.”

“How are we going to pay once we get there?” Derek asked. “Do they take the same gold that we have back in Cydaria?”

“Probably not,” Alanah said with a shrug. “But I have plenty of items to sell to blacksmiths, alchemists, or any other shop. It shouldn’t be hard to get in anywhere. I’m sure it’s the same for you. And even if you don’t, I can’t imagine it would be hard for you to zip on back to Cydaria and get some.”

“Right…” Derek said, then the two of them took off inland.

Occasionally, Alanah would swoop down below the clouds to get a good look below them—looking for signs of a city, village, or any other kind of settlement that could point them in the right direction. The map she had wasn’t exactly that great to be going off of.

“There!” Alanah halted after she came back up from swooping down to survey the area. They hadn’t flown too far, as they weren’t going at top speed because they didn’t want to accidentally overshoot one of the cities or other settlements. “There’s a village below us, I think.”

Derek canceled Void Steps and began to fall. He didn’t have any easy way to just swoop down then back up like Alanah could do, and he certainly didn’t have an awesome pair of dragon wings like Avery had obtained during one of the trials in the raid. So, Derek’s best way was controlled jumps and falls to near void ripples. Still, with his impressive stats and experience with his skill, he made it look easy.

“It’s definitely a village,” Derek said once what Alanah was speaking about came into sight. “Maybe a town, but no bigger than that.”

“But they’ll definitely know the way to the nearest city with a teleporter,” Alanah replied. “And, while I’m sure they don’t have much to offer, we will be able to get a bit of money through trade just in case we end up needing an entrance fee to enter a city. We could try trading items to the guards to let us in, but if we can get some coin here, it will be best.”

“Sounds good to me,” Derek replied.

“Great,” Alanah said, then she pointed to a more obscured area far away from the village. “Let’s land over there and go to the village on foot.”

Fifteen minutes later, Alanah and Derek were walking side by side on a beaten path toward the village. When they approached the open gate center in the wall that was not taller than the one set around Rayna’s old village, what looked like a patrolling guard saw them, then quickly moved to the middle of the opening.

“How can I help you?” the guard asked, his hand laying on the hilt of the sword tucked away in the scabbard on his side. The man obviously wasn’t expecting guests.

“I’m sorry,” Alanah said as she flipped her hair, causing the guard to let out a gulp. “My companion and I seem to have gotten lost after a hunt. Luckily, we came upon your village. You wouldn’t happen to have a merchant or trader in the village, would you? Someone who could sell us a map or point us to the nearest city with a teleporter. We really must get back to the capital, so any help would be much appreciated.” Once she was finished, she giggled and flashed the guard a smile.

Yeah… she doesn’t even need her damn controlling skill, Derek thought. She could get anything she wanted just by being herself. Though it does look like she’s having fun doing it this way.

“O-of course!” the man stuttered. “R-right this way, ma’am.”

“Such a gentleman,” Alanah gave the man another flirtatious giggle.

It was all Derek could do to keep from rolling his eyes. Still, he must have twitched because the guard, seemingly for the first time, finally saw him. The man cast Derek a quick sneer, then turned his head back to Alanah with a bright smile on his face… as if Derek never existed. Then, the man turned toward the village and began leading them inside. This time, Derek didn’t bother trying to hide his eye-roll.

‘Stop that,’ Alanah sent to him mentally.

Derek didn’t bother responding. Instead, he fell in line beside the siren and marched behind the smitten guard.

“Here you go, ma’am,” the guard stopped at a small building and pointed. “This is Nick’s Knick-Knacks. We don’t have any true merchants or shops here in the village—‘least none like you see in the big city. But Nick buys and sells everything. If there’s a map in the village, he has it.”

“Thank you very much,” Alanah said to the man. “Mr….”

“Lance… you can call me Lance,” the guard said.

“Lance.” Alanah nodded seriously. “I’ll be sure to remember.”

“T-thank you,” the guard, Lance, mumbled. “I-I have to get back to my post.”

“Well, Lance…” Alanah fluttered her eyelashes at the man a few times. “Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to help me. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble because of me. Have a good day. I’m sure I’ll see you again when we leave.”

“I-it was n-no problem, ma’am.” The guard bowed deeply, then scurried away.

“Wow…” Derek muttered.

“What?”

“Are you sure you ever actually had mind-controlling powers?” Derek narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You sure you just don’t run around seducing everyone you meet, then say, ‘Oh goodness me. It’s all my skills’ fault. I just don’t know what to do.’”

“Hmph.” Alanah snorted and turned her head. “Let’s just go get a map and some money and get out of here.” Without waiting for Derek’s reply, she pushed the door open and waltzed right into the store like she owned the place.

“Oh… wow,” Derek muttered as he stepped inside behind the siren. Knick-Knacks was right… Derek thought. The store—if it could be called that—was wall to wall with junk. At least, as far as Derek could tell, most of the things he saw were junk. There were barrels with assortments of different junk weapons, shelves with jars full of… stuff, and just… junk everywhere.

To top it all off, a short elf in a robe about six inches too long was running around putting more things on shelve, or on top of things that were already on shelves. Derek hesitated to distract the man as he was speeding around the shop muttering.

“No, no… this goes over here… yes, perfect… Now this… here and this here… no… over there… yes… perfect now this…” The man was muttering to himself faster than he was running around.

It seemed that Alanah was also at a loss, as she hadn’t moved a step since she entered the shop. If she wasn’t moving, then Derek wouldn’t either, so he just waited beside her.

Soon, the elf noticed the duo standing there, and he tried to stop all at once. Instead, his feet got caught in his robe and he tumbled head over heels. Two jars that he was carrying shattered on the floor, and the man jumped back up to his feet. Acting like he hadn’t just dropped anything, he stumbled forward and gave a quick bow.

“Welcome to Nick’s Knick-Knacks. My name is Nick, and these are my knick-knacks.” The elf motioned all around him. “How may I help you?”

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