Arcanum 196 Early Morning Planning

"Is it morning already?!" Daisy cursed needing more sleep.

"Morgana?" I questioned jumping up since she didn't respond.

"Just sleep through it." She moaned trying to fall back asleep.

"Guy's wake up it's time to make a plan today," Jay said knocking on the door.

"It's too early!!" Daisy moaned loudly back.

"We're coming in!" Helen said opening the door.

"Nooo more sleep please." Morgana moaned.

"Morning Emilia!" Helen woke me up sitting next to me.

"Morning guys," I mumbled back wishing for more sleep or having the Elven sleep trait.

"Daisy it's time for training!" Grace whispered to her with an evil grin.

"I'm up, I'm up," Daisy grumbled sitting up but still half asleep.

"Okay, so we have roughly three hours before Mr Wayne arrives. My father told me he always takes the same road we took, so it'd be easy to intercept him." Jay informed us.

"We still doing that?" I questioned still half asleep.

"Of course! we need to find out what he has planned with my family." He answered.

"Is Jennifer here?" I questioned.

"Nah she went back to her estate before sunrise," Jay answered.

"Ahh good good." I replied.

"Ohhh remind me to visit Jay's parents before we go." I'd like to leave a gift." Morgana informed still drowsy.

"So I'd say we'd intercept Mr Wayne when he's a mile or two out from the town, My dad says he arrives with no guards and is always alone riding a cart pulled by two horses," Jay informed of the plan.

"Okay.... his own capabilities?" Grace questioned.

"As far as I know, he has zero and he hasn't been seen defending himself, but since he travels alone expect some form of self-defence," Jay answered.

"Helen and I should be able to try and put him to sleep." Morgana offered.

"That would be great." Jay smiled. "Now Daisy, I need you to be the distraction just do your thing and make him stop, do some Church of Serra speech or something," Jay ordered.

"I don't think Serra would like me using her name to kidnap travelling merchants." Daisy hesitantly declined Jay's plan.

"Okay, sorry that I didn't consider that, Emilia you're up." Making me wake up suddenly asking to repeat himself. "Okay, I guess." accepting to be bait or distraction.

"The rest of us except Daisy try and restrain him but remember we don't want to cause harm," Jay concluded laying out his plan.

"So we gonna head out now or later?" Daisy questioned still half asleep hugging her pillow.

"My mum invited us for breakfast so we should arrive before the shop officially opens," Jay answered.

"So we can't get some extra sleep?" Daisy questioned.

"Nope get ready let's go!" I'll be outside Jay smiled standing up and leaving the room.

"This sucks I need more sleep!" Daisy said slowly lowering herself back into bed.

"Nope let's go." Grace grinned pulling her back up and began to help Daisy put on her armour.

"I'm so envious of you two right now," I mumbled putting on my wizard robes.

"Let's go," Helen said to Morgana pulling her up. "Thanks for looking after everyone last night." Helen thanked her.

"No problems." Morgana yawned.

"You didn't get hurt did you?" Helen questioned.

"Nah luckily nothing substantial." Morgana smiled showing Helen her hand.

"You sure? no shame if you need some rest or healing." Helen asked slightly concerned.

"Yup sure, my spore form took most the damage," She smiled.

"So how does that work?" I questioned overhearing the conversation.

"It's like bark on a tree, my spore form gives me a small extra layer of defence but a strong hit could still hurt me." She answered.

"I also saw you bled black blood..." I said remembering last night.

"Ohhh that's my spores also, it makes wounds and cuts a lot less painful." She answered.

"So your blood is black when you're in spore form?" I questioned.

"Yes." She smiled pricking her fingertip and squeeze it showing that she bled red blood like the rest of us.

"What you can all do is so phenomenal." I smiled walking with everyone as we left the room.

"Hey, you're one of us now you can spell cast!" Daisy smiled giving me a pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah but, wow if my friends from back home could see you guys, they'd be so gobsmacked," I replied.

"Gobsmacked?" Grace questioned.

"They'd be amazed." I rephrased myself.

"I wonder what a world without magic is like. It must be so basic like relying on our bodies natural healing process, no airships, fighting dangerous beasts with non-magical weaponry." Daisy pondered.

"Remember she said her world is pretty peaceful there aren't dragons and dangerous creatures there." Helen reminded her.

"Yup, we do have dangerous animals like wolves, tigers and things but nothing crazy like Dragons or Demons and Giant Worms. I do think you all would love it over there, it's very different." I smiled.

"So how are plants grown? Are they all grown naturally?" Morgana questioned.

"Umm, so in my world, they have something called science, it's the study of the world and universe and how things work, so we mass-produce plants and food but through science also evolved plants so they'd have different traits like grapes without seeds, or even using machines to mass plant and water fields and fields of plants." I tried to describe it to her.

"So how do you heal people?" Daisy asked.

"Superficial things like cuts and wounds are generally cleaned with a chemical that kills the bad stuff to stop it getting infected then depending on the wound, either left alone to the natural healing process or stitched together to allow the healing process to begin. For more serious things like we have Medicines." I explained.

"Ohh like healing balms and ointments?" Helen asked recognising the resemblance.

"Yeah so unlike here where you use a mixture of herbs and ingredients, it's more specialised in my world. We isolate the exact part of the plant or ingredient that help in healing and merge them together so they are easy to produce and less risk of any adverse effects." I tried my best to explain without confusing them more.

"So is medicine better here or there?" Daisy questioned slightly confused.

"Well... everyday medicine I would assume is better back in my world since medicine and doctors is a service almost everyone has access to, but your healing magic is phenomenal instantly healing wounds is amazing nothing in my world can even compare to that," I answered.

"Would be an amazing experience," Jay said with a smile.

"Jay and Morgana would be okay to come, but I'm afraid we don't have Elves or Tiefaeni, your races would be only found in like fictional stories and folklore if you guys did come you'd draw too much of the wrong kind of attention," I answered.

"What?!" Daisy answered looking a little saddened.

"Yeah especially you Daisy, Devils in my world are kinda seen as the epitome of evil, you'd definitely wouldn't feel welcomed." I tried to explain.

"... I understand that." Daisy replied after a small pause.

"It's okay though, I'm sure if we can get ahold of those things Jay's parents have you guys can appear as humans right?" I questioned.

"Ohh yeah glamour charms, yes that could definitely work." Helen smiled.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, we don't even know how to cross other planes of existence," Jay replied.

"Well, Paul did say he visits home sometimes so I'm sure there's some system in place," I answered.

As we arrived at the main room the innkeeper looked at us a little shocked, "Good morning we all greeted him pretending nothing happened last night and left the inn. the town looked surprisingly nice, lots and lots of families shopping, smiles and conversing with each other.

"Hi!!" a bunch of kids came running straight to us with giant smiles.

"Hi!" Daisy knelt down greeting them. They all looked at her horns, their mouths opened wide completely speechless. "I'm Tiefaeni, my name is Daisy I'm a Paladin of Serra." She smiled. "Watch this." Daisy smiled standing up channelling her divine energy, she glowed goldenly and manifested around her the most beautiful display, around her appeared tiny swirling dancing flying tiny unicorns, falling stars and rainbows.

All the kids instinctively giggled running into her display trying to catch the stars and unicorns. Two small girls remained staring at Helen and Grace. Helen and Grace both waved for them to come over, "Hi I'm Helen and she's Grace." they said kneeling down to greet them.

"Come." Grace smiled gently pulling one of the girls closer, "Shall I braid your hair?" Grace asked her politely. The girl nodded pointing at Grace's hair, "Okay, we'll do it like mine." Grace smiled.

"Here," Helen said kneeling down whispering something to make beautiful plants grow out the ground and picked it placing it in the other little girl's hair.

The rest of us took a seat on a nearby wall, it was refreshing to see the smiled and happiness our magic could bring to children and the good we can do in this world with it.

Chapter end