119 Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen - Mama (1/2)

She was in a city, in the slums down by the docks, where only the poorest of the poor lived.

Naturally, she had to get out of there. Cities were hives of disease, and she was in no condition to be breathing this air with her tiny, laboring lungs. She really, really needed a Con boost, because she was in great danger right now.

Out of the city, into the countryside.

She eyed the city, the distant spires of temples, a palace, and a castle overlooking the place. She wavered for a moment, considering the options. The city would have wealthy families, nobles, and if she could get herself adopted into one, it would certainly make life easier.

But she hmphed silently, and turned away.

She had been brought into this world as a Ten Archmage. 'Easy life' didn't begin to describe what she was actually capable of. The only thing was... that huge negative Karma total glaring at her in her Assay.

Negative Karma meant no Gear, as she couldn't assign Karma to bind the magic into a new item. Not having Gear was a very bad thing.

And it went without saying that she couldn't take all the Secondary Classes she was missing until that Karma was paid back. What was worse, if she applied all that Karma to her Wizard Levels, she'd have to buy those Class Levels at the cost of a Ten.

Ugh!

She headed out over the water, towards the entrance to the harbor. If this world was anything like the game, massive Wards covered those walls, making them impossible to fly over. But it looked like this was still an Age of Sail, magically aided or otherwise, and that meant she could hitch a ride past them, without fear of being inspected. All she had to do was use the flight magic to keep her balance as she rested on one of the yards, and once past the Wards, she could fly away.

And dodge the seagulls on the way...

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The two-master was called Corsa's Bliss, and while she had no idea what it referred to, it did indeed resemble the Tall Ships she'd once seen in Philadelphia. She was interested in the array of lines and ropes pulling this way and that, leveraging the efforts of the sailors as they slid out of the city she was leaving behind.

She did not, however, like the look of the sailors. They had an air of bloodthirstiness that left her deeply suspicious of their preferred cargo.

Avoiding the seabirds swooping to and fro, and staying above the spray of the waves, she headed back towards the shore, keeping a very safe distance from the Wards of the city, looking for the smaller settlements and holdings that would proliferate around a main city, likely growing up around the properties of a wealthy or noble household, given the tech level here.

She'd already tied off the spell slots to her Flight Spell, and it would auto-Cast as long as the Slots were tied to it. With a thirteen-hour duration, she would have no problems being able to move, she just had to find a meal and shelter quickly. The thought of possibly having to suckle at a goat or cow was both squicky and amusing, but she knew she'd do it if she had to.

She also had to make sure she didn't get sunburned, and sighed as she spent another IV to give herself Fire Resistance so that wouldn't happen...

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The village seemed to be mostly run to service a large vineyard nearby, reasonably affluent for such things. Hazé thought it would fit the bill, as it was agriculture without a heavy emphasis on meat animals that might breed disease. That said, animals were essential to most of the households, so some contact was unavoidable.

Food, shelter, clothing.

Her attention was drawn by a small house outside of the town, probably two or three rooms, and a small barn out in the back yard, which seemed to be filled with flowering plants... a respectable herb garden, with a decent size field for livestock.

Swooping by the barn, she saw a couple of goats and a pony there, with clean stalls and hay. There were a couple cats around to keep down the rats and mice.

She swooped up to the open windows of the house, and looked inside.

There was a woman, probably in her late thirties, at work inside what looked to be a small kitchen and herb pantry. She had rows of herbs laid out in front of her, and was slowly and meticulously removing the leaves from every stalk, setting them precisely aside into a bowl.

She wore a large-knit shawl about her shoulders, and her black hair was going grey early. Her hands were callused with work, and seemed quite calm and precise as she went about her task.

Her eyes hung half-closed, and did not move. She was blind.

Hazé sighed one more time, and slowly cast a Detect Alignment, spending another IV for the II.

Rich gold. And the blind woman looked up, as if she could sense the movement of magic nearby.

She had Potential. An untaught Powered...

She took a deep breath for her tiny lungs, and slowly wafted inside as she tied in a Message effect, for she could not speak.

-Hello.-

The woman's hands paused instantly. For a blind person, to hear a voice out of nowhere, with no hint of such a person arriving, had to be a terrifying thing. Hazé marked the knife near the side, and the hand that came down next to it.

-I do not know your name, and I apologize. I am Hazé.-