“Oh…” She pouted as she sat up in the small crater her body had left in the mud. She was covered in filth, and blood. Disgusting. She was mostly disappointed in herself, however. Maybe she had overestimated her martial prowess, ugh and even directly to the magician. This was embarrassing.



“No matter. Mission accomplished regardless. Nobody was hurt. And stop smelling my things, I thought you hated that scent anyways”



Standing, and brushing herself off, she collected her broken prized possession. It would cost a fortune in solars just to clean, not to mention reconstitute magic for. As she bent over, she wiped the single tear that threatened to form on her muddy face. The last thing she wanted was to be embarrassed further in front of such a powerful peer.



“Anyways, my apologies for disrespecting you, magus. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Hylltywyll breathed in a bit of the last dregs of the flowing mist and held it in his mouth to try to see it if tasted like anything, but there was nothing to taste. Hmph. Fine then, keep your secrets, broken maul. He spit the mist back out and it flowed over to Gwen like the rest of it.

He looked at Gwen, sticking his tongue out when she scolded him for his curiosity. She looked embarrassed. Did she just wipe a tear? Was she that sad about her mace being a bit busted up? Wow... What a wuss. Well, now was a great opportunity to have her be even more indebted to him then!

"Well, looks like you're finally a bit respectful toward me, aren't you? Well then, I'll do you a little favor just to show you how nice I can be when you're not so rude."

Without waiting for a response or permission, he reached a hand up and touched the bottom of the maul's shaft, a pale purple light barely glowing from his hand. As he touched it, the glow spread to the rest of the weapon and all of the damage began to repair itself. The shaft bent back into shape and the dents and nicks in the maul's head popped back out, good as new. It was like the thing has never been damaged in the first place, though his magic did nothing to clean the dirt off of it.

"There, all fixed up. You're welcome!"

---

Mend Object

    She picked up Enlightened Redolence, slowly inspecting it. To be sure, the cracks and bends of the battle had dissapeared. A quick swing however revealed something interesting. It was nearly four times as heavy as it normally was, knocking gwendolyn off balance in a little swirl. An attempt at activating the torch also revealed nothing would work. The magical connection was still there, a small string through the ethereal still connected them, but it was weak.



“Thank you, Hill Tee Will. You’ve saved me a few hundred in blacksmith repairs at the very least. At the most, you’ve saved me a trip to Astrid.” She said, a small appreciative smile crossing her face for once. “Though it’s odd. The power that normally resides within is incredibly drained. Did the monsters do any sort of dark magic with them whilst I was out?”

Now she was in his debt for saving her a trip to get her maul repaired. The name Astrid rang a bell, but he didn't really care that much. But what he didn't understand was how her weapons' magic was drained. That was weird. But, thinking back on the mist flowing out of them and into Gwen, and her not remembering what happened, that knowledge did help Hylltywyll piece some things together. Perhaps the weapons drained themselves of magic in the process of keeping their owner alive. Interesting.

Now he just wondered whether or not he should divulge this theory with her. It'd be pretty funny not to. She might get pissy if she found out he lied to her though. But, not telling her about this idea, and telling her the truth that no one had tampered with her weapons were two different things, weren't they?

"Nope. The monsters didn't do anything. I don't think they could use magic at all." Hylltywyll shrugged and shook his head, keeping his smile as contained as possible so she didn't think he was being mischievous as he was.

He scurried off and looked around the old buildings. All of the captured civilians had escaped their bonds and fled. They weren't Hylltywyll's problem. He wanted to find the wizard that did this and learn how to change people's bodies like he'd done. That would be a great prank if he could add it to his abilities. Unfortunately, there were no wizards in sight. Disappointing. All he found was a notebook full of weird writing. Probably the wizard's notes. They could be useful, if he could only read.

He'd just keep them for later, he thought to himself as he slipped the book into his shadow.

---

Hylltywyll's Shady Shelter

    The monsters didn’t do anything. She didn’t do anything. The civilians ran away, and the wizard never showed up. Her list of suspects was incredibly narrow. Unless some random bogskipper figured out how to drain magics, there was only one archmagus in the vicinity. There was enough playing around, it was time to get directly to the heart of what was going on here. This mischievous creature had messed with her quite enough, and it was time to level the playing field.


    
    “Alright then, Hill Tee Will. What exactly happened whilst I was asleep? (1) I would love to know how you saved me, so I might spread the tale in the guild.”



    Her eyes narrowed at the doorway to the hut he had entered. She had heard him rummaging around, but to encourage such behavior was below her. Looting and pillaging, even in the interest of the mission, was not the way a lady of her stature behaved. Manipulating those under her however, was, and she earnestly looked forward to the explanation of events.

1 Thank You for your Candor



The longer you engage someone in conversation the more likely that they will be to reveal some private or secret information. Your skill to guide and lead conversation as made you an expert information gatherer. A conversation that lasts for three posts will subconsciously force the other participants to be truthful while talking. At the end of three post you may ask the conversationalist one question that must be answered truthfully.

Ugh. Why was she following him around? He thought she was done here and was going to go away. And she just wouldn't stop with all the questioning! Did she not believe him? She wasn't sounding very thankful for his help. How annoying. Whatever, he'd just give her a little honest information. He huffed as he turned and looked up at her outside the cabin's door.

"Hmmph. You got smashed by those gorillas and then your big, fancy weapon and floating tree smashed them back." Hylltywyll stated simply and then went back to scrounging around the different cabins to find anything of interest to him. What he left out was how they did that, but who needed to know? He didn't. It was like they just did it on their own, but she could go ahead and assume he'd made them do that if she wanted, and if she didn't, he didn't care. It was clear she wasn't the kind of person to reward him for his assistance, and anything she spread about him at the Mage's Guild couldn't be worse than what they already found out shortly after letting him join.

He managed to scoop up some possibly magic-looking, shiny little knick-knacks that he tossed into his shadow with the book. He also found some more loose pieces of paper with more writing scribbled on them. Maybe some more notes that didn't fit in the book. He stashed those away too for good measure.

    She frowned. So the little goblin had used her weapons somehow and burned out all of their magic. On top of that, tried to buy her grace by fixing Enlightened Redolences physical attributes only after she had awoken. Hill Tee Will was a third rate manipulator with a fourth rate mouth, and she would be sure to put in a complaint with the guild when she returned home.



    “Well then, enjoy your looting. Hope you find something worthwhile” Like a better attitude you little shit. “Fare thee well, I’m going to head back to Sor and let him know what happened here. If you find anything noteworthy, well, I wont lecture you on proper procedures. I’m sure your well aware of chain of custody and all that. Goodbye” You little fart fairy.

"Uh-huh, chain of custody. Bye bye!" Hylltywyll gave a big wave and a mocking smile as she left.

Finally, she was leaving! Good riddance. She was starting to get really annoying. He didn't care who this "Sor" was that she was going to report to. More like tattle on him to. Nark. Well she could go ahead. There was nothing for her to get him in trouble with by telling anyone. Nothing she knew of at least. He was just glad she wasn't going to lecture him on those procedures that he totally knew.

Oh, he just couldn't help himself. He wanted to mess with her one last time. With a grin, Hyll turned to Gwen who was already walking away and formed a link to her mind once more. In her mind, she heard his voice whisper with a mockingly friendly tone. "Hope you don't run into any more beasties out there. Not with your weapon all powerless and your armor all broken. Safe travels."

---

Mind Parasite

As she walked, dragging her useless maul down the road, that high-pitched screechy voice popped in her head once more. The frustration finally boiled over, and she let out a primal yell from down the trail. Birds left their perches as she screamed, letting out all the anger and disappointment that had come from the last few hours. She found a nearby tree and grabbed it with two hands. If the little worm wanted to be inside her head, she would show him how it felt.



And with that, she began headbutting the tree. Once, Twice, Three times for good measure, until slightly concussed and profusely bleeding from the forehead. The blood dripped and mingled with the perfume laced in her veil, which she lifted slightly in order to spit on the ground in disgust. A long sniff cleared her mind, and with head held high, if slightly wobbly, she continued on her way. Oblivious to the supposed dangers of the forest surrounding her.

Hylltywyll laid on the floor of the cabin, clutching his forehead and groaning in pain. Tears streamed from his eyes. He finally waved his hand and cut off the mental connection to that crazy lady who had really just smashed her own damn face in repeatedly just to get back at him. Well joke's on her! The pain immediately went away for him as the connection broke and he could no longer feel what she was feeling.

He looked in the direction she'd left and grumbled angrily. He'd get back at her! ...Later... He was done dealing with her for now after that experience. But he knew where she'd be eventually. They were members of the same Guild. Id she really thought she'd never have to face his wrath for that, she'd have another thing coming!

Hylltywyll scurried over to the shadow beneath a desk and slipped into it, disappearing into their own little domicile of darkness. Just another joke on that crazy lady, if she'd been nicer to him maybe he would have let her take the same shortcut. He ran through the dark area, past piles of stolen trinkets, and over to another opening and crawled out, right out from beneath a shady awning in front of a bar on the docks of a fishing village in Moonglade.

Finding a boat to the island that the Mages Guild was on was easy. He'd get back way before Gwen and be waiting for her.

---

Hylltywyll's Shady Shelter