While Raith and Tolliver sorted out their ill-timed bout of feelings, Nyhm had been more practical and administered an antidote potion to Thea before joining the reunion. Although she was already beginning to recover from the venom, Raith could see that their shield-bashing [Druid] would not be sufficiently mobile by the time the wights arrived.

  Tolliver protested as Raith abruptly shoved him aside, leaping towards the approaching monsters while activating [Exigent Offense]. His dart sped towards the foes, but a long distance swipe from fangreach tore its chest open before his dart found its target.

  A dreadful moan escaped the creature, turning Raith’s knees into water at the terror it evoked. His head knew that it must be a magical effect, but it did not diminish his desire to flee these creatures as fast as his legs would carry him. In the fraction of a second he battled this fear, his dart struck true, piercing the head of the injured spectral wight.

  It exploded instantly, silently, into a cloud of sparkling motes that flickered and disappeared as they drifted slowly to the ground. He retracted his dart and immediately cast it again, resulting in the same dramatic obliteration of the second wight. As the motes of light vanished, so too did the overwhelming fear he had been harboring of these creatures since Sabik first told him of their existence.

  Nyhm looked at his weapon and gave a nod of approval.

  “I guess that’s one of the quality ones, then.”

  Raith returned a smile.

  “Clearly! Thank you, Countess Selene.”

  And you too, Imiren.

  Although he had a feeling the stoic knight wouldn’t appreciate the gratitude.

  “Finally, we catch a break,” Thea said as she struggled into a sitting position. “And hello, Tolliver. It’s good to see you again.”

  She managed a smile, and Nyhm, came over to clap the [Mage] on the back.

  “We wouldn’t have made it without his help. Thank you.”

  Tolliver blushed and looked at the ground.

  “Yes, well, that’s what teammates do, is it not?”

  He looked back up at the other three with a wince, as if expecting a blow to land. Raith declined to throw one.

  “That’s exactly right. Any one of us would do the same.”

  Tolliver let out a sigh of relief, and Raith was sincerely happy for the [Mage]’s return, even aside from the fortunate timing. Which, now that he had a moment to consider it, was incredibly weird.

  “How in the world did you find us? In fact, how do you even remember we exist?”

  Tolliver recounted his recovery from the fight with the assassin, and that Zinny had stayed with him in its aftermath. He’d moped around until the little fae said she knew how to find his friends. He leapt at the chance.

  She brought him here, and he searched the city for hours. When he heard the explosion, he thought it was them and flew to investigate. It didn’t look like the giant-kin had made it very far into the bank’s defenses. Even better, he was pretty sure one had perished with that last trap and the rest were seriously injured. Finally, the commotion of their fight here attracted his attention, and he knew it must be his friends.

  Raith breathed a sigh of relief at the news formor’s diminished strength and that they had more time to reach their goal. That last encounter outside was too close for comfort, and they needed to rethink their strategy. He looked out the open doorway to see that the bone horrors and their serpentine officers had gathered en mass to stare at them hungrily. Raith swallowed.

  “Let’s move out of their sight. They should all disperse once they’ve forgotten about us.”

  “What about Tolliver?” Thea asked.

  “What about him?”

  “He didn’t get the Earl’s geas. They won’t forget about him.”

  She was right, and Raith let out a quiet curse. Before he could ask for suggestions, Tolliver chimed in.

  “If they remain after forgetting the three of you, I can simply let them see me transform and fly away. Those shrike serpents aren’t anywhere near fast enough to endanger me, and none of these creatures have ranged weapons.”

  “Yet,” Nyhm helpfully added, and Raith gave him a gentle shove of admonition.

  “That’s a terrific plan. Let’s do it. I’ll go first while we’re inside, since my weapon seems to disintegrate these wights.”

  The team found their way into one of the apartments down the hallway and ducked inside. There was one more wight, but it went down to Raith’s attack as easily as the others had. With this latest rush of weft, an idea began to percolate in the back of his head.

  While Tolliver went off to lead the monsters away, Raith located a mirror on one of the walls covered in countless centuries of dust. He wiped it off with his hand, creating a cloud that had everyone sneezing and rubbing their eyes.

  “What the hell did you do that for?” Thea demanded when the cloud cleared.

  Raith hoisted the large mirror off the wall. It was about Nyhm’s height with a pitted metal frame that threatened to cut his hands. The mirror was also much, much heavier than he’d been expecting. If he hadn’t been stitching strength [Skills] he would have seriously struggled.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Sabik said these wights are afraid of mirrors. If you guys carry mirrors to drive them away from you, and towards me, we can collect some easy weft as we make our way.”

  Thea opened her mouth to say something, but just as she did, Tolliver materialized from the bat no one had noticed fly in. She yelped in alarm, and so did Raith while promptly dropping the mirror to shatter on the floor.

  They all frowned at the mess of glass strewn about their feet.

  “Welp. Maybe lugging around heavy, fragile mirrors isn’t such a great idea after all.”

  “Maybe Dahbi has something,” Nyhm offered.

  Raith and Thea locked eyes and shared a huge grin.

  “Nyhm, you’re a genius,” Raith told his brother while Thea dug the chalice out.

  “Who in the five realms is Dahbi?” Tolliver asked, looking around the room with confused suspicion. “Did you acquire another party member with invisibility?”

  “No. I mean, maybe he can turn invisible, but he’s not a party member. He’s an efreeti and he...” Raith considered how to explain. “You know what, it’s easier just to show you.”

  The [Mage] watched in amazement as Thea summoned the merchant. Dahbi’s shop adjusted to space they were in, and the efreeti finished materializing with a smile.

  “It is wonderful to see you again so soon, my big friends! And you have brought Dahbi another customer. How delightful. Please tell me what is your wish?”

  The efreeti leaned forward and batted his eyes at Tolliver, who leaned away stammering. Raith stepped in to save him.

  “We need three mirrors. Non-magical, sturdy and about this big. Preferably with a strap or something to make them easy to hold.” He used his hands to indicate an object roughly three feet square.

  A flicker of a frown crossed Dahbi’s face.

  "This request does not sound very profitable. You stand before the Wonderous Dahbi, proprietor of treasures you can scarcely imagine. Would you not prefer a scrying mirror? Surely a discerning adventurer such as yourself would find great use for such an item.”

  “I promise I’ll request a truly magnificent mirror later, but right now we just need these to fight the wights."

  Dahbi nodded solemnly.

  “I trust you are a man of your word, for Dahbi is no common shopkeep to be summoned for mundanity such as this. As for your request,” he swept aside a colorful silk that had been draped over a large shelf. Beneath sat five round mirrors, only slightly smaller than what Raith had indicated. The efreeti spun one around to show that it had a shield strap on the back.

  “Shields of the Mirrored Knights. Or in this case, their squires, for the knights themselves carried items of great enchantment. Sworn protectors of an elven order of [Light Mages]. If you buy four, I will provide the fifth for only half price, my big friends.”

  “We just need three, but thank you, Dahbi. How much do they cost?”

  “Two hundred gold each.”

  If the merchant hadn’t sworn he was forbidden from completely ripping them off, Raith would have been certain that’s what was happening right now. He gave a nod to Thea, who forked over the money from her hidden hoard. When the exchange was complete, Thea dismissed the merchant and hefted her new shield.

  “This is actually weighted really nicely.”

  Nyhm gave a slight frown as he swung his around a little.

  “I really don’t like having this on my arm. Do you think it would be enough if just Thea and Tolliver used them?”

  Raith was trying to hand the [Mage] the last shield, but the noble simply stood there slackjawed.

  “Where... where did you find an efreeti!? Do you have any idea how valuable that chalice is?”

  “It was with the gnome from the Thieves Guild hideout, but we didn’t find out until recently. We can discuss the details later, but right now I need you to take this shield.”

  Tolliver reached out and secured the item to his arm. His frown was far deeper than Nyhm’s had been.

  “This is hardly a tool appropriate for a [Mage]. Surely the team would find my spells more useful in battle.”

  Thea decided to join the chorus of complaints.

  “This thing isn’t terrible, but I’d really prefer my own shield.”

  Raith let out an exasperated sigh.

  “Now that we know I can kill them easily with this,” he hefted his weapon, “it’ll be a lot safer for us to move from building to building rather than risk another encounter in the open.”

  After waiting a moment for nods of understanding, he continued.

  “I’m going to have Veil scout us a building with only a couple of wights. We can try a couple of different tactics. With the mirror shields and without. Just stash them for the moment, and we’ll see what works best, ok?”

  They reluctantly agreed, Nyhm lashing it to his pack and Tolliver’s disappearing into a pouch of holding for the time being. Nyhm nodded towards the familiar cloak billowing around the [Mage].

  "Nice cloak."

  Tolliver blushed.

  "Yes, well it seemed unwise to let that assassin's gear go to waste. I will split the value of the cloak, as well as the other spoils, with the team." The [Mage]'s face brightened. "Also, I have mastered a new spell which I believe the team will find most useful."

  "Let's hear it."

  "It is an advanced form of the whisper spell, called whisper network. With it, we can all communicate surreptitiously within a few hundred feet of one another."

  "Perfect. Let's use that while we're down here to help remain unnoticed. Veil, I need you to find us a building with no more than three wights. We need to do some testing."

  The little creature wasn’t gone long, and the Myth Seekers were off, sneaking through the streets of Tarn to their next encounter.

  Veil led the team into a relatively small residential building, considering the tenants had been giant-kin in the vicinity of ten feet tall. The front room was spacious, probably once a living room although the state of decay was such that it was impossible to know for sure. The daemon held up a tiny hand for them to stop while it darted deeper into the building. It returned moments later with three wights hot on its heels.

  “Dammit, Veil, you could have warned us!”

  Fangreach gutted one of the ghostly monsters before it even entered the room. Raith’s dart found another, destroying it as thoroughly as before. This time Thea had a chance to attack, and her shield throw passed harmlessly through the one Nyhm had injured before it [Ricocheted] off the wall and returned to her grasp. Tolliver’s concussive blast spell fared no better, blasting through the third wight with no noticeable effect.

  The two remaining monsters drifted quickly into the room, Nyhm continued to engage his injured foe in close, nimbly avoiding the swipe of an incorporeal hand while countering with a swipe of ghostly claws.

  “Thea, Tolliver, try the shields!”

  Raith danced backwards, away from the remaining monster. He didn’t want to destroy it before seeing how they reacted to the mirrors.

  With a curse, Thea switch out her shields and presented the reflective surface to the approaching wight. It immediately recoiled, letting out a terrible wail.

  “Tolliver, get between that thing and the hallway.”

  The reluctant [Mage] produced the mirror shield and did as he was asked, positioning himself so the creature could not flee. The wight whirled to face Raith’s dreamforged weapon, Nyhm’s deadly claws, then the two mirrors that blocked its way. For a moment, Raith almost felt bad for the trapped creature.

  The moment passed, and his dart exploded the wight into oblivion.

  Raith and Nyhm shared a smile.

  “It worked.”

  “It most certainly did not,” Tolliver objected. “My spell was completely ineffective, and I was forced to resort to this crude disc like some sort of barbarian.”

  “Hey now,” Thea said. “I’m not happy my shield didn’t work either, but let’s not get personal.”

  “Listen, I realize this isn’t your favorite style of fighting, but did you notice how much weft we got from those things?”

  Tolliver pursed his lips and gave a considering look.

  “Perhaps I see your point.”

  “Exactly.” Raith turned to his daemon. “Veil, find us as many wights as you can.”