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There are certain seals that have power that could be very inconvenient if sent to Lord Janessa. And of course, there is the question why it is being sent by kobold. They are not natural couriers. Kobolds are creatures of stealth, in the sense nobodywould ever expect them to have powerful artifacts in their possession.

But where is the thing itself? I would feel the resonance of the seal if it were anywhere close. I do not think the kobolds took it with them. They may have kept the letter, but they certainly did not keep the thing itself.

“Maybe it is in the kobold den,” I murmur. “Maybe the creatures thought to keep it for themselves.”

Melissa brightens immediately, as if I have just suggested we go to an expensive store back on her world.

“Yes! We should go to the kobold den! We could try going in stealth. Do you have any stealth spells?”

“What do you know about spells?” I regret the question as soon as I ask it. Of course she knows about spells. And enchantments. And armor. And weapons. She knows precisely enough about all these things to be dangerous with them.

“If we go to the den, and I do not think we will, I will send men to investigate…”

“Don’t you think you should investigate? You’re here, and this way you would get all the XP, I mean, you’d find out everything that is going on at once. You wouldn’t have to have it relayed to you.”

She has a good point. Not about the XP, whatever that is, but about investigating this myself.

“It’s just a kobold den,” she says. “It’s nothing to you. But I’ll probably level up two or three times while we are in there. It will be so good. I won’t even have to touch anything and I’ll get the experience.”

“The experience of seeing a dozen more of these creatures die?”

She frowns. “Does it have to be so terrible every time? Is there not a better way?”

I sigh. “Yes, of course there are better ways to kill a creature than by accidentally impaling it in a way that is very nearly not even fatal and letting it bleed out over the course of a heated discussion.”

“So. There,” she says. “You could teach me how to do that.”

Minutes ago, I was fucking her senseless over a tree, and now she is talking about doing the very thing that got her into that situation in the first place. She is absolutely resistant to learning the greater lessons I am trying to teach.

“The seal. I bet it is a very big deal,” she says. “I bet if they have it, you would be better off with it. I bet whatever Lord Janessa wants it for is bad for you. Who is Lord Janessa?”

“He lives in the icy climes.”

“Oh. Well. There you go.”

“There I go what?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to remember the lore. I think I heard about a Lord Janessa. It’s hard to remember the starting quests. All the low-level bosses, oh, my god, Lord Janessa. He’s an ice naga?”

I make a mental note to kill Equinox. “Yes, he is an ice naga.”

“An elite too. He drops a sword that you can’t beat for like, twenty levels. That thing is always on the auction house for more than any newbie could ever afford to spend. If I got that…”

She has gone from regretting her first kill and very nearly letting herself be taken out by others for the sin of it, to planning the coldblooded murder of a lord in order to take his family heirlooms. The things humans play at for fun are truly twisted.

I am concerned that the fifth seal is on the move. The seals were all distributed among the leaders of the various factions. They are a promise of peace. The notion of one being moved, let alone lost in a kobold den is unthinkable. I will have to go and retrieve it. And I will have to take her with me.

“This is easier when you have quest markers and a mini map,” she says as we walk, speaking in a form of arcane gibberish I cannot begin to decipher, and yet must attempt to do so anyway. “I wish I could get some macros, though I don’t see how that would work. One click magic in a world with no clicks?”

“You will have to explain this to me when we are no longer in the forest,” I say, in an effort to get her to stop saying things that make absolutely no sense and merely clutter the air with reminders of my nephew’s treasonous activities.

Melissa

Ornix is wound kind of tight, but I guess I understand why. I’ve been nothing but trouble since I got here. To be fair, that is very much on brand for me.

He is leading the steed I stole, a creature that must be far too small for anybody his size to ride. Unless it is magical, but evenif it is, he would look absolutely ridiculous perched atop it. I do notice the way the horse nuzzles him affectionately, though.

“You’re too big to ride him, but he stays saddled and bridled?”