The "Best" RPG Ever-114

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---

Aria fixed Mira with a look. "Really?"

"Hey, I knew it wouldn't just randomly come up in conversation," she shrugged. The two guards roused as soon as they heard the words, and were both busy groggily sitting up and looking around with expressions of obvious confusion—but, thankfully, not attacking everyone around them on sight anymore, and no weird staring either.

"Aughh, my head." Pirr rubbed her forehead.

"Are you two back to yourselves?" Ezra asked, and both of them snapped to attention, standing and saluting.
"Captain! Uh, yes?" the avian said. "Where'd I...go, exactly?"
"You two lost your minds or somethin'," Rast said. "You first."
"Me..?"
"What is the last thing you remember?" the Captain asked.

"Uh...let's see." Kayriel drew her wings together, putting a finger on the palm of the opposite hand. "I was scouting the path ahead just to be extra safe for the escort mission, and..I guess I saw something?"
"You went quiet all of a sudden, then landed and started starin' at me," Pirr said. "What'd you see?"
"It was uh...hm, I'm not really sure how to. It was like I saw..I thought it was a person at first, but then I realized it was more like a..hole, where a person was supposed to be?"

"Yeah..." Pirr half-mumbled. "You looked like that too, feraminute. But, the hole wasn't..empty. There was somethin' on the other side."

"Your eyes looked all freaky," Mira said, and Rast nodded his agreement with this.
"You were both put under the effects of a previously unknown enchantment," Ezra said. "Jacob helped to remove it. We'll be discussing countermeasures to prevent this sort of thing soon, but you two should get some rest for now."

"So..wait, am I hearing this right?" Jacob asked. "You..that happened just because you saw something?"
Rast nodded. "Sure seems like it."
"But you all, saw it too?" he said, to Rast, Hyacinth, and the adventurers. "And it didn't have that effect."
"Maybe our resistance is just higher," Aria suggested.
"Could be, but," he shook his head. "It still doesn't make any sense. You can't 'communicate' a spell just by sight, other than a basic illusion or something. You definitely can't spread magic from one affected person to another just because they exchanged a glance. There is no medium present for the transfer of the needed.."

"Excuse me," Hyacinth said, approaching him. "You removed something similar from me before, did you not?"

He briefly looked her up and down. "...Err, yes. I'm sorry, I didn't exactly introduce myself to you at the time," he said. "Jacob."
"Hyacinth. Squad leader, mage, republic of Nir." She shook his hand firmly. "I presume you're also the 'expert on chaos magic' I've heard about."

"I wouldn't really consider that my area of expertise, but—it is related to my field of study, and has been increasingly prominent as of late..."

Ezra cleared her throat for attention. "Regardless of how it is transferred, we need a reliable way to dispel this sooner rather than later. I'll take whatever you can give me by the end of the day, at least for emergency measures."
"..Right. Of course," he nodded. "I'll, try to perfect the dispersal spell, since obviously it'll be useful in more situations."
"Don't push yourself any harder than usual," the captain said. "You should expect to continue to refine your work afterward."
"Certainly, but I'd hate to give you something ineffectual when there seems to suddenly be a need for, what were supposed to merely be theoretical spells that do nothing one's body doesn't do on its own..."

"I'd be very interesting in learning this spell for myself," Hyacinth said, crossing her arms. "I'm unsure whether I can trust another escort to my town not to succumb to the same affliction."

"Uh, if you'll excuse us," the witch cut in. "We need to go report a quest. We went looking for lizards and found giant spiders instead, and apparently there's a thing with getting rid of their eggs that still needs to happen?"

Ezra nodded. "Come back to me later today. You, at least, should learn the spell Jacob is developing."

"Will do~," Mira nodded cheerfully, leading the other three adventurers into the guardhouse.

After reporting in and receiving their pay for spider slaying, the four headed into town for a late lunch. On the way, Mira said: "Soo, is it just me, or is this giving off major 'main plot' vibes to you guys, too?"
"Oh, totally," Aria said. "Mysterious 'go-crazy' affliction spread by sight? The literal expert we conveniently met a few days ago saying it shouldn't even be possible? Like, are you kidding?"

"Kath would say...'feels like the DM is railroading us'," Nora—back in fox form—observed. "It's unfortunate that we agreed to split the party just before this."

"Well, if the gods or whatever want us to regroup immediately, they're prolly even better with tele-magic than Loren is," Mira said, and then stopped suddenly in place, causing Lupa (who'd been quiet largely due to not much understanding the conversation) to bump lightly into her back. "Whooa, hey."

"What?" Aria asked first.

"I just caught a whiff of demonic magic that's not me, not you, and obviously can't be Zack 'cause she's nowhere near here, and it's totally the wrong 'flavor' anyway." The witch looked left and right, then pointed. "...That way." She began to follow what she sensed at a brisk walk, the others keeping up behind her. "It's faint enough that I, doubt any 'normal' mage would sense it at all. But, definitely there..." She slowed down soon afterward, turning and staring into the window of a restaurant.

"Oh, hey, it's Rose!" Aria observed. "And uh..?"
"Glasses fox got taller?" Lupa observed; at least she wasn't calling Vae 'smelly' this time.
"...Among other things," Nora agreed.

"Thaaat's the source." Mira squinted her eyes, trying to comprehend: "But why would...hmmn."

"You got some idea?" the shifter asked. "Care to share?"
"Uh, better we ask than speculate, and best we do it in private rather than loudly announcing there's demon magic on her. Meantime, uh, there's no emergency here, but I still kinda wanna interrupt them anyway."
"Hungry," Lupa said. "Tasty food inside!"

Nora started softly, "Are you certain we should—"
"Good point, let's go!" Aria accidentally talked over her, taking the lead toward the door inside.

---

Once the giant lizard was out of the way, the soldiers rotated their shifts around again: A new driver for the horses, most who'd been outside the caravan going in and those who'd been inside all staying out. "If there truly is no threat nearby, you ladies could take the opportunity to rest inside for a while," Peregrine offered.

"Mmh. Not that I doubt Rayna's Sight, but I'll feel better if I'm still keeping an eye out myself," Lynn said. "We're all quite used to doing a lot of walking and a little fighting anyway."

"If that was 'little' fighting, I'd hate to see a lot," one of the soldiers commented.

"I, for one, would love to rest my legs a bit," the fox-girl said.

"You want to keep an eye on Karl?" Zack asked the winged girl. "Need to know right away if the poison starts acting up again." Katherine didn't need to be able to read his mind to know he just wanted to give her an excuse to rest.

"I..suppose so," Clera said, nodding.

"I'll stay out here too, your highness," the psion added. "Zack?"
He nodded. "We've got a job to do."

"Very well," the prince nodded. "I shall remain on patrol as well, for the time being.

Peregrine waited near the front of the caravan until everyone else was ready, then waved the driver to get the horses moving and deliberately made his way to the side the knight had taken up. He took a position behind Zack for a few minutes, before slowly approaching a walk next to him. Zack sighed silently through his nose and ignored the prince for several more minutes, despite it being increasingly obvious that he wanted to talk.

Eventually, he knew that he couldn't keep silent any longer without being rude. "Do you..need anything, your highness?"
"Not particularly. Perhaps I ought to mention, if it isn't obvious already, I don't stand on ceremony too much. The fact is that I am among the youngest of my father's children; I have no expectation of inheriting the throne, and was not raised with the training necessary to rule competently anyway. When my father is eventually succeeded, or if I should marry before then, my title will officially change to 'Duke'. Regardless, I don't insist that anyone actually calls me 'highness'."

"...I have noticed that the soldiers don't tend to address you properly."
"Indeed," Peregrine nodded. "I asked as much of them not long into our journey. Such stiffness is improper, in my opinion, amongst people whose lives depend on each other."

"You want us to stop calling you that?"
"I would not insist upon it, if it made you more comfortable to do so, but if it is not your natural manner of speech..."

"It isn't."

"Then I would go so far as to say I would appreciate it," he said, nodding.
"Fine with me."
"Thank you, Lady Zack," he said, smiling warmly. Up until this point, the conversation hadn't bothered him much, but at this point, the knight felt himself look away, his ears folding back slightly as a sense of distinct annoyance washed through him. His face felt..warm, too.

He took a moment to deliberately compose himself before glancing back the prince's way. He had a very slightly worried expression—not as though he worried for Zack, but more that he'd managed to offend 'her' somehow. "Tell you what," Zack said. "I'm not used to being called 'Lady', either. I don't know how knights are in your country, but where I'm from the knight orders are where noble families send the children who don't stand to inherit anything. We're just the soldiers who get the more expensive equipment and training, and the more difficult jobs."

"I believe I understand your meaning," Peregrine said, nodding. "Just 'Zack', then?"

"If you don't mind."
"Not at all. It is only fair," he smiled warmly again, and fell back to his earlier position. Zack's heart raced for a second or two, and his ears tried to fold back again, but he got it under control in a moment, and was fairly sure it hadn't been noticed this time.

---

While they waited for their food, Vae made an attempt to explain how the part of her craft that wasn't growing plants actually worked. Rose failed to quite grasp the basic topic despite several different attempts, but still enjoyed listening to her talk about it. Despite her usual, netural monotone, it was fairly obvious she was passionately interested in the subject. Then their food came, and both of them stopped talking to finally sate their hunger.

About halfway into the meal, the front door of the restaurant opened. This wouldn't be unusual at a normal lunchtime, but with how late they were eating, it got their attention. It was Aria..followed by Lupa, Mira and Nora in the back. "Oh, heey!" Rose waved. Then, realizing something, she turned to Vae. "Um. You think I could invite them over?"
"I have no objection to that."

"Okay. Heey!"

Aria hurried up to them, the other three following more slowly. "We heard you the first time, doofus."

"Oh, uh, sorry."
"No problem. Soo, how you doin'? And who's this cutie?" She gestured to the fox-girl with a wide grin. "You ditch Vae that fast?"

"Uh, no no no, this is uh—we um."
"I am Vae," the Vulpin stated. "My appearance has only changed."

"Pff, I knew that. I was just trollin'."
Vae's left ear twitched. "You were what?"
"...Never mind," the shifter shook her head.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Mira asked, half-shoving her way around in front of Aria.
"Oh, you didn't eat already?"
"The quest got a little complicated—nothing we couldn't handle, but it wound up taking longer than expected."
"W-well uh, I-I don't mind at all. Vae?"

"Likewise."

As they sat down, she turned to Aria and stated: "I don't believe we have actually met."

"Nope, but I heard what you're s'posed to look like from Mira," the shifter said. "Aria, shapeshifter and wielder of a gigantic demon sword."
The Vulpin nodded. "Rose mentioned this about you before. Vaedin, as previously stated."

"Lupa!" the wolf-girl interjected. "This one saw glasses fox before, but didn't meet."

"'Glasses fox'," she repeated.
"Uh, Lupa has a Thing about using pronouns and/or proper names," Rose attempted to explain. "She was a dire wolf until like, literally two days ago?"

"I have not met a personified animal before," Vae said, "much less a personified monster. Most unusual, as I understand it?"
"Yes! This one is amazing," Lupa said cheerfully.

"Soo uh. Not to pry exactly, but what did happen?" Mira asked. "I mean, if you don't mind sharing."
"Not at all," Vae replied. "My appearance since before we met was the result of an experiment gone wrong, which seems to have permanently altered my body—particularly, causing it to maintain a youthful appearance despite my actually advanced age. This further transformation appears to be a previously unencountered side effect of that, brought on by Rose embracing and petting me."
"Uhhh." Rose blushed furiously, not having expected her to be anywhere near this blunt about it. It wasn't particularly surprising in hindsight, but still caught her off-guard.

"Woohoo, you go girl!" Aria cheered, and started to say something else when Nora, visibly fed up, clapped a hand over her mouth. "HMM! Mnr wnns'np dmnn—"
"Quiet, already. Am I the only adult here?"

"'Fraid so, with Zack and Clera both gone," Mira said, giggling. At this point they were interrupted by a server showing up to take the newcomers' orders.

"So anyway," the witch said, "I have a hunch as to what happened, but it's uh, best I don't explain it in public. If I'm right, the 'growth spurt' is probably temporary, but could also be refreshed in basically the same way."
"I see...that would be a relief if correct. I admit I have missed being tall to some extent, but the layout of my home is optimized for the appearance my body has been locked to in recent years.

"If I may ask: Zack and Clera?"

"Oh, yeah, uh—Zack's the one with the curse I told you about before," Rose said. "Sh—-uuh, he's like a wolf, um—wolf-person?"
"Canis," Mira supplied.
"Yeah, a Canis knight. With super pretty, long white hair and fluffy fur, annd..."
"Clera is a half-avian Empath, also with our party," Nora said, eager to direct the line of conversation away from Zack's appearance. "They went out on an escort mission this morning, along with three other members of our party: Rayna, a Vulpin illusionist, Lynn, a human archer—both of which are also travelling performers—and Katherine, a Felis psion."

Vae nodded, taking all of this in. "My ears occasionally pick up chatter outside of my house, some of it recently about a very unusual, but highly effective party of adventurers. I suppose that is all of you."
"You got that right!" Aria said enthusiastically.

---

Once it was finally out of the woods and crested the top of a hill with a clear view of the surroundings, the caravan stopped for a brief break. Rayna sat near the center of the group and sang a few songs to entertain everyone, earning some generous applause. About the third song in, Katherine mentally nudged Lynn. Hey, can you sing too?

Nah. I have a good sense of rhythm, but I'm somewhat tone-deaf. Ray was always the one who could sing back on Earth, too. In this world, I did learn to play some stringed instruments by feel to accompany her, but don't have any on me right now.

Alright. When we get back to town, I'm buying you a lute.

The fox-girl's magic seemed to have largley recovered already, as she happily put up some visual special effects with her fourth and final song, a sort of 3-dimensional 'music video' of the events it described rendered in the area above her head for everyone to see.

Karl still wasn't feeling too great, so Zack took the opportunity to re-apply the poison suppressant spell. Clera seemed to be entirely recovered, if she hadn't been by the end of the battle with the lizards.

"Truly stunning work, miss Rayna," Peregrine said once the show was over. "Your voice is as beautiful as you are."
"Awwh, you're only saying that 'cause it's true," she said teasingly, grinning wide. "Thanks, your uh—you. Heheh. Habits form easy and break hard, you know."
"I wouldn't have taken offense," he nodded.

Is there a reason you're glaring at them? Katherine asked Zack innocently.

No. He quickly looked in a different direction, pushing his expression back to neutral. Anyway, if there was one, he didn't know it—which made his own behavior even more confusing.

---

"...Yeah, that Weaver did a great job," a high, chipper voice said. "Not a trace of venom left, just some-a the spiders' natural, weak antivenom that'll, uh, make its way out naturally before too long. Annd, I just finished fixing him up otherwise."

"Then he should be regaining consciousness soon," A sterner, darker female voice replied.

"Yep!"

The avian in the bed groaned softly, and tried to move his wings. It didn't seem like he was paralyzed anymore; nothing even felt particularly sore.

"Ah! Speaking of. 'Scuze me," the cheerful voice said. As the red-feathered avian pushed himself partway upright and slowly blinked his eyes open, a cute Felis girl—evidently a healer, going by her clothes and the general context—came into the room. "Hey there. How're you feeling?"
"Mngh, pretty good, considering." He placed an elbow on the pillow to sit up a little more, experimentally. "Must be since a pretty lass like you attended to me," he said with a half-joking grin.

"Heheh, thanks but—most of the hard work was done before you got here. Hey, if you're feeling up to it, there's someone who came asking after you. A uh, human woman I think, with bright rainbow hair?" she said, patting her own hair a bit.
"Ah, that'll be Reiaza! Half-elf in actuality, I believe," he said, getting himself fully upright. "Ought not be surprised she got here ahead of me."

"You'd like to see her, then?"
"Most certainly, milady."

The healer darted out of the room, giving him a moment to examine his surroundings. Not that there was all that much to see, but—it was a building, not a tent, which probably meant he'd made it to the town. Before long she returned with his friend in tow: A curvy woman, rather on the short side, wearing a bright-colored, flashy dress whose hem trailed down to her ankles and a sparkly, purple miniature top hat on the upper-right corner of her head. Her eyes were both a brilliant, emerald green, and—as the healer had mentioned—perhaps her most striking trait was her hair: long locks coming down to knee-length, each few inches of which horizontally was a long vertical stripe of a different color from its neighbors, forming an effect not unlike a rainbow trailing out behind her as she walked. She had a bright, friendly smile for him—just as for almost everyone else—on sight.

"Belwiii~in, you reckless cad! I thought we'd lost you for certain when you weren't the first to arrive," she said.

"Eyy, you pretty well almost did," he said, spreading his wings out. "I go to touch down for a short rest, and next thing I know I get caught in a giant spiderweb and stung. Didn't reckon they made spiders so big!"

"They make everything big out here, 'cept for me," she said, and they shared a brief laugh.

"Ahh, but I tell you what, Reiaza," he swung around to hang his legs off of the side of the bed, facing her fully. "The last thing I remember 'fore waking up here was a sharp stick on the wing, and I then, ever so briefly, saw a vision of the most immaculate, gods-blessed beauty: A purple-haired kitten, wearing a look of terrible concern for my condition on her face. Mm, but it may be she wasn't real, merely a figment made by that cruel venom."

"Is that so? I've heard tell that this town's had a crop of particularly talented adventurers lately, and a few of them were responsible for your rescue," Reiaza said, picking up a bright pink lock of her hair and twirling it between her fingers. "If your vision was true, that 'kitten' may well be among them. Are you feeling up to a walk, m'dear?" She glanced the healer's way after asking him.

"He should be okay," she said, and then to Belwin: "Walking's fine, but stop for a rest if you feel tired. Nothing too extreme for a day or so."

"Aah, my act may have to wait, then. Truly, desperately tragic," Belwin said, feigning despair.

"There's plenty of time to fly, so long as you're alive, m'dear," Reiaza said, extending a hand and helping him to his feet. "The rest of the troupe will be some time yet to arrive, if they even arrive at all. At the least you could aid me in finding some new talent to fill the gaps in the meantime."

"Yes, yes. For now, I'll settle for expressing my utmost gratitude to my most generous saviors," he said.

"I must thank you as well, miss healer," he added with a small bow toward the Felis. "Though I must confess I'm a bit low on capital at the moment to properly repay you for your work."

"Oh, not to worry, sir—we're compensated well enough for taking emergency cases elsewise," she said.

"All the same," the rainbow-haired woman leaned slightly in her direction, briefly tipping her hat. "I'll pick up his tab later, if you please. Shouldn't be difficult to pick me out in a crowd, ey?"

"I admit your look is uh, pretty unique."
"I assure you, it's very much on purpose. Hard to drum up business without curiosity!" She grinned brightly, and turned back to her star acrobat. "Shall we, then?"

"Aye, indeed; lead on!" he gestured to the door.