Written in the Cards Part 10

"Is there a reason you have a metal pole?" Derrick asked when Sarah walked out of the farm mirror with a ten foot metal pole and a metal kite shield.

"Yep, I decided that I wanted a reach weapon," Sarah replied as she walked over to the mirror that led to the forge.

"Do you want help?" Victoria asked.

"Sure," Sarah replied as she stepped into the mirror. She wasn't particularly surprised that the zombies were clustered around the mirror, if only because they weren't particularly bright. She swung the two inch thick metal bar as hard as she could at the closest group of zombies, splattering everything it touched save the last zombie which was merely tossed into the wall from the impact.

Victoria twitched when she stepped into the mirror and saw Sarah going to town on the zombies with the metal bar, every hit shattering bone and sending the survivors flying. 'Yeah, we're never letting her get drunk,' she mused as she watched the carnage, not sure how to step in without getting in the way.

Derrick stepped out of the mirror and stared at the carnage. "Look out…" he trailed off as Sarah used the pole like a spear and impaled the almost seven foot tall zombie that was probably the boss, driving the metal several inches into the stone wall to pin it in place.

"Shoot it!" Sarah called out as she grabbed her hammer off her belt and started killing the rest of the zombies with enthusiasm, every hit causing the zombies to fly through the air if she didn't just rip their heads clean off.

Derrick activated his bullet time and shot the boss in the head. He stared as the boss merely started walking up the pole, seemingly no worse for getting shot in the head. He continued shooting the boss, figuring it would at least distract him until they could figure out a way to kill him.

Victoria grinned as she scooped a hammer off the ground and proceeded to bash the nearest zombie, wanting to make sure they didn't get to Derrick.

Sarah tossed the remains of her hammer when the handle shattered then twisted her shield around and started enthusiastically smashing the zombies with it.

Derrick sighed in relief when the fifth shot cracked the boss's skull and the sixth went clean through, causing the zombie to stop moving and drop an egg sized red gem. He turned his attention toward the rest of the zombies and sighed in frustration and relief when he realized that the girls had killed everything. "Did anyone get bit?"

Victoria used her angelic healing on herself and Sarah to deal with the hearing damage. "What did you say?"

"Were you bit?" Derrick asked.

"I'm fine," Victoria assured him as she looked around at the forge pieces scattered around the room where the zombies had dropped them.

"I'm going to need a shower but I'm fine," Sarah replied as she set the shield on the stone floor, not seeing a point in walking around with something that weighed almost as much as she did.

"The school in the ink mirror had a shower, they even work," Derrick replied, having tested one of the showers to see if they had water.

"Cool," Sarah replied.

"Billows, hammers, crucibles, tongs, crystals, weird metal containers and wires, what else do you need to get things up and running?" Derrick asked.

"I might need a chisel to finish the rune work but I won't know until I check," Sarah replied as she headed over to check the arcane forge with a spring in her steps.

Derrick shivered as he glanced at the metal pole that Sarah had stabbed into the wall, wondering how much force it took to drive a metal pole into a stone wall. "Remind me not to piss her off," he said in a whisper.

"No shit," Victoria agreed. "If Sarah can do that one with one strength boosting card, we should probably talk to Mist about leaving town before Torin shows up, he probably has a few cards that boost his physical abilities."

"Not a bad idea," Derrick agreed, making a mental note to aim for the bastard's eyes if he showed up. "Do you need help picking everything up?"

"You could help by tossing the bodies and setting the tools on the table," Sarah replied without looking away from the arcane wires she was studying.

"Not a problem," Victoria replied as she walked over and grabbed a pair of gloves off the ground that one of the zombies had dropped.

0o0o0

"Do you think the mayor has a bunch of spellbooks hidden in his manor?" Mia asked thoughtfully as she played with the strange interface that let her adjust how her goblins looked, finding the experience strange since she instinctively knew how the interface worked despite the fact that this was the first time she'd ever used it.

Elena glanced away from the wagon that Zora was painting and focused on Mia. "I'm sure his library has a decent collection of spell books and books on magic, he certainly bragged about it enough when he was in the shop but I doubt breaking in and stealing everything would be worth the trouble, especially since he's already going to be in a foul mood once he realizes that Azara vanished. We don't need to give him a reason to scour the country looking for us."

"Do you honestly think he'll let Azara vanish without sending people after her?" Mia asked, wishing someone would stop the bastard.

"No but there's a difference between some girl running off and his library vanishing, he can probably get his family's help to recover the library, which means knights and divination specialists," Elena pointed out.

"Do you think Khardune has a thieves guild?" Mist asked thoughtfully as he finished reading the cards floating over Elena's head.

"Probably, what are you thinking?" Elena asked.

"I was thinking, thieves guilds generally like using teenagers to steal, most of them wouldn't have cards yet because of the expense and because they'd end up with rogue cards. If I can find someone with a magic rouge bloodline, we might be able to get some type of card that hides people from divination."

"That would certainly make it easier to deal with the nobles," Mia mused, tired of worrying about the nobles doing whatever the hell they wanted and no one stopping them.

Mist drank his mana potion and grabbed another mana potion as he asked Elena, "Do you want an always clean quality on the shop or do you want the ability to conjure an assistant shopkeeper or do you want both with the assistant having a quirk?"

"Nothing wrong with having more summons," Mia suggested as she worked on adjusting the goblin's ugly ears, trying to get them more symmetrical and less floppy.

Elena considered the question as Mist drank another mana potion. "I'll take the last one, Always Clean enchantments are a pain in the ass when you're dealing with a bunch of magically reactive ingredients and Mia's got a point, it's not like I need to have the assistant summoned if they end up too annoying."

Mist selected the quirky assistant option and checked the mana cost to boost the card again, a touch surprised the price hadn't jumped completely out of reach. "Okay, the mana cost didn't jump as much as I was expecting so let's try this one more time."

"I'm not going to complain," Elena replied with a smile as he drank another mana potion. "You're probably going to be pissing like a horse in a few minutes."

"Probably," Mist agreed and drank yet another mana potion.

"Small price to pay," Mia replied as she found a set of ears that she actually liked. She swapped to playing with their face structure, trying to get something that didn't look fat and squished.

Mist kept drinking the raspberry potions and pouring mana into Elena's card until everything finally 'clicked' and five potential cards appeared floating over the shopkeeper card. 'Shopkeeper of the Eldritch Wares? Unnatural vendors from the demon realms? Yeah, that would probably end badly. Celestial Shopkeeper, angelic wares? Behavior contract? No thanks. Eldritch Shopkeeper, better magic. Eldritch Shopkeeper of the Arcane Boutique? Incredible boost to Magic and Magical talents which means she'd lose a bit of magic over the original but pick up a better talent.'

Mist skimmed the description for the last card then double checked to make sure it said what he thought it said. "Okay, the celestial option seems pretty useless because of the behavior contract and the demonic card is problematic at best. The Arcane Boutique option would cost you a bit of magic and Eldritch Shopkeeper of the Arcane Emporium gives you the same boost to your magical talents and places an anti-theft quality on the entire shop that scales with your magic, meaning it should be nearly impossible to steal from the shop."

"Anti-theft," Elena told him without hesitation. "You'd bankrupt a kingdom trying to buy that level of enchantment."

Mist carefully selected the last option and checked the mana cost to boost her card, not particularly surprised that the cost had jumped. "And we're good," he said as he used his awakening power, giving her four cards.

Elena started giggling as she checked her cards and realized that she was going to be a legend once she started selling her elixirs. She used her cards then used the card she'd picked up from Jack, boosting her already impressive abilities. She concentrated and conjured a white lab coat then handed it to Mist. "You should see if that helps your mana regeneration."

"Hopefully…" Mist trailed off as he put the lab coat on and immediately noticed the difference. "That helped more than I was expecting."

"I wasn't sure that would work," she admitted, happy that her summoned gear wasn't limited to her own use.

"That's why we check," Mist replied, making a mental note to ask Vivian about conjuring extra panties since they boosted mana regeneration, figuring it was probably worth the annoyance of dealing with underwear that didn't have elastic.

"Can I get a coat?" Mia asked hopefully.

"Sure," Elena replied as she conjured a lab coat for Mia and tossed it to her. "We should probably see if the regeneration stacks with the panties Vivian can conjure."

"Might as well," Mist agreed, amused that she'd had the same thought.

"Let's go," Mia said excitedly as she headed for the mirror that went to the new forge with a spring in her steps, "I saw her walk into the forge a couple of minutes ago!"

Elena smiled as she watched her friend step into the mirror that led to Sarah's new forge. "Don't worry, she'll calm down in a couple of days."

"I'd be more concerned if she wasn't bouncing off the walls," Mist replied as they walked over to the mirror, knowing that he'd be bouncing off the walls if he was in her shoes and had just gotten five mind blowing cards. He stepped through the mirror and started walking over to where Sarah was working on the arcane forge with Vivian and Mia watching her. "Any luck?"

"Hopefully," Sarah replied as she finished connecting the crystal that stored and regulated the mana the forge used. She pushed some mana to the forge and adjusted the dial, causing the forge to roar to life. "Yes!"

"This is where it explodes, isn't it?" Mist teased.

Sarah grinned as she turned and flipped Mist off. "Don't jinx it."

"Sorry," Mist replied with a grin as he held his hands up. "I'm sure it's fine."

"Can I get a pair of conjured panties?" Elena asked Sarah and Vivian. "I want to check to see if they stack with the lab coat or each other."

"Sure," Vivian replied as she conjured a pair of sheer crimson silk panties and tossed them to her friend. "Have fun."

Sarah conjured a set of white cotton panties with little red hearts on them and tossed them to Elena. "Perfect."

Elena focused and summoned her shop assistant minion, causing a tall, naked, busty and quite attractive red haired teenager with blue eyes, pale skin, broad shoulders and hair down to her butt to appear in front of her.

The assistant glanced around the workshop then focused on Elena, not seeming to care in the slightest that she was naked. "What am I selling, boss?"

'Damn,' Sarah thought as she checked the naked girl out. 'It's like she stepped out of one of my Dad's magazines.'

"You'll be selling alchemy supplies when we get to the shop but I wanted to make sure you had proper defensive gear before you got started and I'm curious if the mana regenerating panties stack with the lab coat's mana regeneration," Elena told her as she handed her the panties.

"I'll need a lab coat and something to spend mana on," the assistant replied as she stepped into the panties and pulled them into place with a smile, happy to help the boss out.

"Just fill up the mana gem," Vivian suggested as she pointed at the gem on the front of the forge.

"I can do that," the assistant replied cheerfully as she walked over to the forge, leaned down and touched the gem on the forge, giving everyone a nice look at her toned behind as she filled the gem with mana.

'Damn nice legs,' Mist mused.

Mia enjoyed the view as she absently tinkered with her goblin's appearance in her interface, trying to make an attractive goblin.

Vivian snickered as she glanced between Elena and her summon, fairly sure that selling alchemy products wasn't the only thing her friend would be using the assistant for. "Do you have any abilities?" she asked the assistant, having noticed that she didn't have any cards to summon.

"I have perfect awareness of the shop's inventory while I'm working and all of Elena's magical talents," the assistant offered as she straightened up and turned around. "Can I get the coat?"

Elena summoned a lab coat and handed it to her assistant. "Here."

The assistant pulled the coat on, making sure that it didn't cover her breasts as everyone was obviously enjoying the show. "That's significantly faster," she mused after twenty seconds of focusing on her mana and comparing the rates.

"How much do you think wearing both will speed up boosting cards?" Sarah asked Mist as she shifted a couple of steps to get a better view of the assistant.

Mist focused on his mana for a couple of seconds, trying to get a better idea of how much he had and the rate that it was regenerating. "It should help long term but I'll probably still need to guzzle mana potions if I'm trying to boost cards to a 'reasonable' level."

"I'm not sure you understand what that word means," Vivian teased.

"Details," Mist replied with a smile, well aware that his card abilities were bullshit.

"Have you tried your slime summon yet?" Elena asked Sarah, curious how well they could actually work the forge.

"Not yet, I've been focused on trying to get the forge working," Sarah replied as she focused on her summoning card and activated it, causing a 'naked' busty purple slime girl to appear that looked like someone had made a person shaped jello mold then animated it. "Hello?"

The slime waved at Sarah then bounced on her heels, causing her breasts to jiggle like jello.

"At least we'll have plenty of entertainment," Mia mused, finding herself wondering if the slime was edible and if she could stick her hand inside of her.

Molly stepped out of the exit portal. "We have a problem…" she trailed off when she noticed the unfamiliar half naked redhead and the slime girl.

Mist turned to look at Molly. "What's the problem?"

Molly pulled her attention off the attractive redhead and focused on Mist. "The mayor sent some minions, they're looking for Azara and they have a magical trinket that can locate her, probably using sympathetic magic. We're not going to be able to run and they're not going to take the 'excuse' that she's her own person and call things off, I tried."

"How much time do we have?" Mist asked as he hustled toward the exit.

"Not sure," Molly admitted. "Tiffany is trying to talk them out of doing anything drastic but Derrick is in the alchemy shop with Azara and Franklin."

"Shit!" Elena complained as she headed for the door, knowing she'd be reasonably safe if she confronted the people in the shop thanks to her Eldritch Shopkeeper card since it boosted her durability if she was in one of her shops. "Stay here," she told her assistant.

"Let's go," Vivian said as she headed for the exit, hoping the mayor hadn't sent anyone too dangerous.

Sarah grabbed her hammer and followed everyone out the exit.

Mist glanced between the four strangers that were standing in front of Tiffany, fairly sure the teenagers wearing chain shirts that were standing behind the 'knights' were probably their squires or assistants since they didn't have their cards awakened and weren't wearing heavy armor like the knights. "Is there a reason you're not going to follow the law?"

"The law is whatever Sir Gregory says it is," the oldest soldier said with a smirk as he turned to look at Mist. "We've wasted enough time, give us the girl."

"Are you okay with this?" Mist asked the squires as he checked the knights' cards, trying to make sure they didn't have anything particularly nasty. 'Decent physical boosts on one of them and reasonable boosts to combat skills on the other, a magical weapon and a tracking card, which explains why he was sent.'

"There's not much I can do about it, Sir Vincent has a nasty combination of cards and I signed a magical contract when I became his squire," the male squire admitted.

"Shut your trap!" Vincent snapped, causing the squire to shut his mouth in a way that looked rather painful and magically enforced.

The girl shook her head just a touch when the knights weren't looking, obviously scared of saying anything but unwilling to pretend that they were happy about the situation.

"Don't start or I'll break everything you own," the other knight snapped, pissed that he'd been forced to take the girl as his squire and that the magical contract prevented him from 'properly' correcting her behavior when she questioned him.

"Fuck it!" Sarah said as she tossed her hammer at the other knight as hard as she could, caving in his chest as the chainmail and padding did almost nothing to stop the supernatural force.

"Die!" Sir Vincent shouted as an ominous glow surrounded him and his sword caught flames.

The female squire brought her mace down on the back of Sir Vincent's head as hard as she could, dropping him to the ground unconscious. "I surrender!" she stated as she dropped her weapon.

"This is why you wear a helmet," the male squire told Vincent as he held his hands up. "I surrender."

"That escalated quickly," Mist muttered as he stared at the fallen knights, a bit surprised that they'd managed to stop them without anyone getting hurt.

"You're going to want to run," the girl suggested. "The mayor will get an alert when they die and he'll send his father's enforcer, you don't want to be here when he gets here."

"Does it give him a location when they die?" Elena asked as she pulled a healing potion out of her bag, not sure how the alert worked.

"Within half a mile and they have the blood trackers, you're going to need decent wards and as much distance as you can manage if you want to escape with Azara," she warned them as Sarah walked over and picked up her hammer.

"We're going to need something to tie them up with," Elena said as she poured the weak healing potion down the knight's throat that had a crushed rib cage, making sure he wouldn't die immediately. "If we drag them into the woods, the mayor might just assume that Azara ran into the woods and something killed them."

"I'm honor-bound to try to save him," the male squire admitted. "Please, leave him alive," he requested sarcastically.

"No," Mist replied, not seeing a point in leaving the assholes alive to follow them or hurt someone else.

"I tried," the squire replied with a shrug. "You'll probably have to tie me up since I'm magically bound to help Sir Vincent, but he doesn't look like he's about to die currently so I'm fine."

"I'll do it," the female squire offered cheerfully.

"Thanks," the squire replied, happy that the strangers seemed pretty reasonable about things.

'The more I learn about the world, the less I like it,' Mist mused as the group got to work securing the knights so they could drag them into the forest and buy everyone enough time to leave the area.

"Do we have an actual plan for when the mayor sends more people to find Azara?" Tiffany asked.

"Yeah, we toss everything in the wagon and leave before they figure out that we're here," Molly suggested.

"If you need a knight in training, I'm happy to help keep the group safe from monsters," the female squire offered.

"Just like that?" Molly asked.

"That's what being a knight is about or at least that's what we're supposed to be doing," the female squire argued then sighed. "Besides, the mayor would probably fuck me to death if I came back empty handed and without his knights. My family connections could keep Sir Benifold from doing anything too nasty since he had to sign a magical contract but the mayor isn't someone they can protect me from."

"I have a question, how many soldiers does the mayor actually have and how many would he send if the knights die in the forest?" Mia asked thoughtfully.

"Counting Vincent and Benifold? Twenty five knights and ten hunters but you really only have to worry about five of them and four of those work for his father rather than him, meaning they're supposed to keep him safe," she explained.

"What are you thinking?" Molly asked Mia.

"I'm thinking that everything would be a lot better if the mayor died to monsters," Mia replied. "If we can lure his strongest knights out of the town on a monster hunt, we could probably kill him without his family burning the town down as revenge."

"You'd need to make it look like monsters," the male squire warned them.

"I've got that covered," Mia replied with a grin, figuring her goblins would be perfect and it would give her a chance to loot his library.

The female squire shook her head. "His family would probably burn the town down or the forest looking for the creatures that killed him. There's also a good chance that his father's knight wouldn't leave his side at which point, every there dies or gets marked and he'll teleport away and some back with the Duke's army."

"So we're just supposed to let him keep causing trouble?" Mia complained.

"I'm just telling you what I know," she replied.

"Are any of the soldiers working for the mayor halfway decent people?" Mist asked, trying to get a better idea of what they'd be dealing with if they sent a team.

The female squire shook her head. "If they were, they wouldn't be working for him. The only reason we got stuck here is because our knights took the job after we became their squires. Nathan didn't have a lot of choice in which knight he got stuck with because his father is a hedge knight and Benifold has a rare skill my family wanted to acquire and I'm the youngest of seven children, thus reasonably expendable."

"Most of the servants are thieves or worse," Nathan warned them. "Some of the kitchen staff might be reasonable but that could just be because we're squires and people they can't take advantage of without running into trouble."

Mist glanced at Tiffany who gave him a nod, indicating that the squires were trustworthy. "Lets get everything we want to keep loaded in the mirrors, I want to be gone in half an hour."

"I can help with the horses," the female squire offered, figuring there was no point in leaving the horses behind.

"That would be appreciated," Mist told her as he grabbed the frame of the mirror to the forge and started moving it toward the wagon.

"Just make sure I can still get to the forge," Sarah told him, wanting to work on making everyone Bracers of Armor since it sounded like they weren't going to be able to avoid getting into trouble.