The rain drums against the roof in a slow rhythm, tapping at the shingles with hollow thuds. A lullaby sung by the grey clouds rolling over the sky.

  I have taken refuge in my room to escape all those pesky gentlemen trying to buy me drinks. They have been all over me with their calculated attention and empty praises since Yuileen presented me to them as her good friend Lin Minae.

  I shudder. The drops out there are growing bold, and splatter against the window in sharp bursts that explode into scattered beads that roll over the glass, slowly flowing together into streams that gather on the window sill before disappearing in a cascading symphony of murmurs and sighs. Windows are made of glass in this empire, even in a simple inn.

  The warm blankets tempt me to return into their embrace and let the morning drift by, but I have work to do. I want a kinetic shield to protect me from projectiles. Nobody knows when I will find time to tinker with runes again. I only have today because tomorrow our ship lifts anchor.

  My first try is a simple adaption of my trusty seal rune using a component of my shock absorber rune to seal kinetic energy.

  It works, but not how I need it to. I throw another knife into the air and let it fall towards me. It freezes in place long before reaching me, then slowly slides down, along the boundary of an invisible sphere, until it falls straight and clatters against the wooden boards of the floor. The problem is that while the rune is active, I am frozen in place, too. I can’t move a finger.

  I frown. Could this have some potential? How does it work? I deactivate the rune, jump up, and activate it mid-air.

  My movement stops mid-jump, floating a few fingers above the ground, fixed in space. This seal movement rune may not be what I was looking for, but I can find some uses. I try to grin, but the muscles of my face remain still, like a wax sculpture. I deactivate the rune, gravity is reborn. I land in an odd position and stumble but catch myself before I fall.

  How do I improve it? Instead of freezing myself and my immediate surroundings in space, I need to project that effect onto a surface a step or a few steps away. The sphere rune should help me with that. However, I do not need it to be a sphere, just a flat plane between me and the origin of the movement, to consume less mana.

  It would need to be able to sense and calculate the vectors of incoming projectiles and deploy the shield accordingly. Scratch that. That is too complicated and would require rune components I do not have. It would probably end up consuming even more mana. The surface of a sphere it is.

  This time, it arrests the knife without impeding my movements. The downside is that it also gobbles up mana like a starving hyena. It outpaces my mana recovery. I can not keep this rune active continuously. That would be strange, anyway, because the people around me would not see the shield and crash into it. I also may not always see incoming projectiles or be able to react in time to put the shield up before they hit me. I need to convert this active shield into a reactive shield.

  I may even have all the components I need. I can see it come together in my mind. The rune needs a feeder, the detection components of the wards, modified to detect incoming movement, and the only part of the final rune that will remain active all the time. That should keep the mana consumption down. Once they detect an incoming threat, they trigger a switch that releases a burst of mana from a storage component to activate the shield. It doesn’t need to stay active long, only for a heartbeat to intercept the projectile and off again. The rune also needs a secondary feeder to recharge the storage component. This way it could even work against threats with a lot of momentum that otherwise would require way more mana than I can channel in a second to counter.

  It will also need a lot of fine-tuning. It can not trigger too soon, too late, or with every fly that passes. I need to adjust the sensor to the incoming velocity of an object and discard everything that moves too slowly to hurt me. I browse through my book. It should be possible to do with a bit of elbow grease.

  I hear a knock on my door. “Mini?” Yuileen’s high-pitched voice cleaves through the fissures. “Are you still alive?”

  Shit! I store my half-finished design. “Yeah, I am.”

  “You should come down to have breakfast.” Mumbled giggles contrast with the melody of the rain. “They ordered way too much again.”

  “I am coming!”

  The gaggle of lordlings greets us before we can step down the stairs.

  “Your Grace!”

  “Your Grace!”

  “Young mistress!” A blond man stands up to move a chair to help me sit down. “Please, have a seat at the table.”

  Let’s see if I remember. “Thank you, my Lord.” He is the only Lord of the group; the rest are just Sirs. “Most appreciated.”

  There is a large spread of food on the table. Fresh-backed buns emit steam and melt the butter smeared over them. They have a selection of jams, pates, cheeses, boiled eggs, crispy bacon, smoked fish, and sausages. To wash it all down you can choose between freshly pressed juice, tea, or ale.

  “Have you tried the black pudding,” asks some random Sir. A slim boy with a slightly crooked nose, as if someone had smashed it in, and it didn’t heal in the right way. He points to some wobbly dark mass. A thick and heavy coil of something ancient, smelling of earth and pepper, trapped in a sausage casing. I watch it warily. “You should try it, young Fairy. They say it is a local delicacy.”

  Young what? I have enough of all this your Gracyness and other nonesense. Who does he think I am? His godmother?

  Yuileen giggles. The lordlings return to their chatter. I try to tune them out. I am not the only one doing it. Kamoe does the same. She briefly looks up from the corner she sits in, then returns to the book she is reading.

  “So, what do we do today?” asks someone. “There is nothing left to see in this town.”

  “We could go shopping!” exclaims Yuileen in her bubbly and excited manner. Then she looks out of the window, and into the pouring rain. Wafts of mist drift by, swallowing the daylight. She pouts. “Well, if it stops raining.” A boy sighs in relief. Everybody turns towards him and he grows red like a tomato. Yuileen rolls her eyes. “I know! Mini, you must come to our room, for you know what.” She winks at me.

  “For what?” Asks a stubby Sir.

  “Nothing,” dismisses Yuileen. “It’s women’s business.”

  He looks at us, mouth half-open, seeming flabbergasted. “What?”

  “Not that kind of business,” snorts Kamoe, “you pervert.”

  Some of the Sirs snicker until Yuileen casts them a stern look, and they return to their meal.

  Yuileen and Kamoe sleep in adjoined rooms that share a big common space. Flames crack and flicker on an open stone hearth in a corner, giving the room a homely and inviting feel. Dry wood burns, smokeless, heavy drops fall through the chimney and fade in the heat with a violent hiss.

  “Sooo,” Yuileen looks at me with wide, pleading eyes like a puppy waiting for her treat. “What kind of runes can you inscribe on us?”

  I scratch my head. What should I share? What to keep for myself? “Well, there is one called Light-sphere,” she doesn’t seem impressed. “Some wards, also deflect-rain, and eternal-spring, which keeps you always warm, and dry-breeze, which keeps you dry?”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Wait?” She blinks. “You have a rune to keep the rain away?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me before?” She whirls around. “You heard that, Kami? We can go out.”

  “Sure,” Kamoe looks up briefly before sitting on a leather couch and returning to her book.

  Yuileen takes me by one arm, squealing. “I want all three.” She drags me over to the other couch. “Well, the last three you told me.” Her eyes glint mischievously. “We are going to make fun of the boys.”

  I frown. "All three? That is going to take a while." She could probably use them simultaneously, unlike me. With her higher rank and better mana vortex, her mana regeneration must be through the roof. I take a pot of ink out. Luckily, I remembered to refill one of my small ones. It would be unwieldy and strange to show the bottle-sized ones I got from the alchemist. “Where do you want them?”

  Yuileen rubs her chin. “On my shoulders or my back, and one on my belly, somewhere they won’t be visible with my clothes on.”

  Where has all the rebellious spirit gone? “Ok, turn over, pull your robe down, and hold still.”

  For all her jittery hyperactivity, she is remarkably good at following orders. It is almost like painting on canvas. “And turn over.” She watches me finish the last stroke with restrained excitement, almost like she is holding her breath in fear of ruining something. “And finished,” I declare.

  She immediately bolts to the other side of the room, fills a glass of water from a jug on a table, and turns it over her head. Drops whirl all around her, without touching her or her clothes, but spilling over the floor.

  “Ups!” She watches the wooden planks soak up the puddle, leaving only dark blotches of drenched wood. “This is amazing! Kami, let that book be. You need to get them too!”

  “Ok, fine,” sighs Kamoe. She puts a marker in her book and leans over.

  “And after that you too, Mini,” orders the redhead. “If you don’t have them already. We will be like paired sisters!” She comes over to watch me draw on her friend’s skin. “Why is the color different from your runes?”

  Should I tell her that mine are dark brown because I used blood to draw them? “I ran out of the other ink… This one is supposed to be better quality and last longer, though.”

  “Oh, well. I liked your ones.” She pouts, leans closer, and compares Kamoe’s skin to mine. “This one isn’t bad either, though.”

  We stand at the inn’s front door, watching the rain pour.

  “Are you going out, my Ladies,” asks the blond Lord. Alexander von Unterhausen is his name, finally, I remember it again.

  “Sure, my Lord, we are going to the market district,” declares Yuileen. “To find something to spend our coin on.”

  Alexander takes a dubious look outside. “Allow me to escort you.” He looks back towards his friends. “The young Sirs will lend you some umbrellas, won’t they?”

  “Sure.”

  “Whatever her Grace needs.”

  “We are at your service.”

  “There is no need,” interjects Yuileen. “We are prepared.”

  Kamoe, snickers. Alexander looks towards us, then at the spatial rings on our fingers. He shrugs, probably thinking that we must have umbrellas ourselves.

  Yuileen steps out, giggling, dragging both of us along.

  “Wait!” I hear him exclaiming. Panicked steps follow in our wake. “What are you doing.” He stops at the entrance, mouth wide open. He blinks repeatedly, like not believing and trying to dismiss what his eyes are seeing. We three girls stand there, water splashing all around us, but without a single drop on our clothes.

  Yuileen poses like she is standing in a fine ballroom. “Well? Are you coming or not?”

  He casts a look at his umbrella and unfolds it. “Sure.”

  Guards fall into line around us, looking miserable under the pouring water. Drops clatter onto their armor and flow down into the fissures between plates. Alexander looks miserable, too. The everchanging wind blows the rain into his face, drenching his clothes. His umbrella is nearly useless. Yuileen jumps and dances over the puddles like an overeager goatling. Kamoe strolls along casually. Both remain completely dry. They must be flaring all three ruins in unison, continuously. I am limited to channeling only the deflect-rain rune because my core can’t support more at once. It does its job fine, but the ambient humidity accumulates over time, forcing me to use the dry-breeze rune in short bursts whenever my mana recovers.

  A few people watch us pass by, sheltered from the rain under the roof eaves of the buildings. Some of them have expensive-looking weapons but singed and tattered clothes. Could they be leftovers of my pursuers, survivors of the skirmish and forest fire, finally arriving in town? I feel some of their eyes linger on me, like deciding if I resemble the description of the girl they are looking for. I can feel the gears in their heads turning, taking on our merry group of well-dressed noble ladies and company.

  I lean closer to Yuleen and whisper into her ears. “I think those guys over there are checking you out.”

  She looks up, “Who?” Her eyes dart all over the place. “Those guys?” She stops for a second before stepping around another puddle. “As if they had a chance,” she snickers. “What are they even wearing?”

  “Make way for her Grace!” orders one of our guards. Before shoving one man to the side with his glaive.

  The man stumbles over, falling into the mud. He looks at us, clenching his fist, but doesn’t say a word. The rest of them watch us pass. Then I see them turn away out of the corner of my eyes. They probably decided that I couldn’t be who they were looking for. Didn’t Yuileen say something like that a lot of the Peruvian nobility looked like me? I suppress a grin.

  We arrive at a thankfully dry hall. Local and visiting merchants peddle their wares inside. Alexander falls back to dry himself over an open fire, burning in a metal barrel next to the entrance.

  “Check out this one. It would look nice with your hair.”

  “You think so? I don’t know. But that silver pendant with the light green emerald would pair nicely with your eyes.” Yuileen and Kamoe seem entranced with the wares of a jeweler.

  Hell, if I understand what the fuss is about. I would fence those away for money and be perfectly happy. My fingers twitch at all the loose purses around me. Don’t! You can not risk exposing yourself by accident. You don’t even need it. I browse through the wares of a bookseller. I hope to find some manual to enhance my mana vortex to copper-rank. They must be commonplace here. Everybody feels higher ranked than that. I shudder. Everybody here would be considered a full-grown mage back in my home city.

  Let us see. There is a lot of romance. I must be in the wrong section.

  Extinct fauna of the central continent. What would that be good for? Next. A treatise on the history of sword fencing. From the Dark Age to the birth of the empire. This could be useful if it had explanations and illustrations of the techniques and footwork. I leaf through the pages. It does not. Just a lot of nonsense. Next. The hidden menace of the Blue men. Who are those? I open it on a random page close to the beginning.

  “It is well known that the unions of a human and an elf, or a human and a dwarf, can both produce offspring. Even though it may be of poor taste, this presents no further complications. Those children, called half-elves, half-dwarves, or half-humans, depending on which race their father was of, suffer from dried and shriveled-up loins. In this way, they are similar to the mule, the result of what happens when you water down the blood of a fine horse with that of a vulgar donkey. This union produces a beast of burden, which also can not produce further offspring. Thus, neither half-elves nor half-dwarves or half-humans represent a danger to the larger society with their dirtied bloodlines.

  What the heck is this? Did a racist write this? I check out the author. Kin Kulin, Imperial minister of bloodline purity. I blink, astonished. They have a minister of what now? It seems like some noble bullshit.

  The vile creatures called Blueman, Bluman, The Pale Men, Golman, Golmin or sometimes Goblin, are different in this regard. The offspring of the dirty union between a human and a bluman produces a hybrid, perfectly capable of continuing to reproduce himself.

  Because of this fact, some ill-disposed scholars have made the outrageous claim that, in reality, humans and blumans are the same race.

  That couldn’t be further from the truth. We call those claims out for what they are. Slanderous lies designed to undermine our society and weaken our bloodlines. Probably invented and spread by the elves in a malicious attempt to hinder us in our journey to become once again the superior race that exists.

  Humans and blumans couldn’t be more different. Where we are a people of the light, the open skies, and cultivation; they are a people of the Underdark, always trying to spill out of the abyss or wherever they manage to tunnel through to the surface. We are a people of complex civilizations, great philosophers and scholars, order and compassion. Whereas, they are a rabble of war parties that, instead of cultivating, dabble in dark magics and live in filth and darkness. They do not even want to come out to live in the light. The frequent border skirmishes are designed to rape and steal, leaving hidden menaces behind in the form of pregnant women.

  The fact that the hybrids they leave behind are capable of having offspring is not because of some nonsense claim that we are the same race. It is because of dark magics cast by their false gods in an attempt to erode the base of our society.

  Thus, we want to make a call for action. The carefully cared for noble bloodlines may not suffer from any problem. But if we want to make our society strong again, we need to purge the dirt out of the common folk, to rinse the infection before it is to late. If we want our society to advance, we need to shed the impurities out of our blood like a cultivator does whenever he increases in rank. That is the only way we…

  “What are you reading?”

  When did Kamoe appear next to me? “Nothing important, I was just browsing.”

  She looks at me, puckering her brows. “Sure.” My cheeks feel hot. I must have seemed entranced. That book feels wrong, somehow, like there is something else ongoing. I look at the frame out of the corner of my eyes. Runes cover it. How did I not see them before?

  Yuileen strolls over, saving me from further embarrassment without even realizing it. “Hey, Mini, you haven’t bought anything yet. Isn’t there something you want?”

  I ponder over it. I could use more crossbow bolts. Or maybe a bow. My small, foldable crossbow doesn’t seem strong enough to do anything against the foes I’m facing nowadays. Not without the sleeping poison.

  “I could use a bow,” I say, “I always wanted to learn archery.” Arrows have more surface than crossbow bolts, too. And are thus easier to inscribe with runes.

  “We should go to the local hunters' lodge for that,” proposes Alexander, who has come inside at some moment. “There is a lot of hunting in the local woods. They will have a way greater selection there.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for then?” asks Yuileen. “Let us go already. I’m bored.”