Elsewhere, Refuge questioned “you’re sure there’s a hole here.” He was looking at Ransom who was once again wearing his strange glasses.

Ransom nodded “if you walk straight, that way” he held out his hand “you should be clear of the influence of the standing stones.”

“Actually” Refuge drawled “you’re going to be leading the way.”

“As I told Ant” Ransom spoke calmly “I am not being seen with this operation. I, for one, do not intend to cross the Herb witches. This operation is definitely going to offend the Herb witches and if you offend the Herb witches, you’ll also probably offend almost all the other healers. I don’t want to be involved in anything that endangers my possibility of getting healed. This business is too dangerous.”

“You will lead” Refuge said, his voice dropping. “I’ll make sure that you’re not seen, since you’re such a coward, but your job is to get us in. Past any of the magical defenses and if there’s any more defenses you’re going to find them. So get moving or I’m going to see of those fancy glasses work for me.” He fingered the hilt of his blade.

“I am a wizard” Ransom snarled “you do not want to cross me.”

“Wizard or not” Refuge snarled back “there’s four of us and only one of you. Now get moving.” His voice dropped to a barely heard whisper as he continued “charlatan.”

Ransom glanced at the other three thugs. Two of them were also fingering their weapons. The third looked decidedly nervous and had stepped back a little bit. He nodded and shifted his strange glasses so he could look over the top of them. He then started walking towards the Herb witch’s cabin. The other men followed behind him.

Once they had reached the garden Ransom spoke quietly “I see no further magic. I will head back now.” He was very firm as he spoke.

Refuge replied was just his firm “check the door first. Then we won’t need any further assistance from you.”

Ransom stomped across the garden, shoved the glasses up, stared at the door for a few seconds. Then turned and started away “it’s clear as far as I can see.” He glanced at Refuge and the other thugs “wait until I’m on the other side of the standing stones before you try anything. Other wise I’ll run right through the magic that surrounds this place.”

They watched him go then Refuge said “okay, Ham you’re on guard duty. Guy check the door and if it’s locked, get it open. Brandt oil those hinges.”

The men immediately jumped to their tasks. “The door is not locked” said the man checking the door. “How are the hinges. Is it safe to open yet?”

“Should be” said the man who was oiling the hinges.

As soon as the door was open Refuge said softly “okay, let’s move, try and make sure none of them wake up. We’ll grab anything worth taking but we have to get out of here quickly so we don’t have time to check the whole house. Also make sure none of them are killed. Scrag wants to make an example of them tomorrow at the auction.” They rushed into the cottage and soon returned carrying three people. There were burlap bags tied over the their heads and their hands and feet were tied together and then they had been wrapped with rope. Refuge followed them carrying a large bundle wrapped in a sheet. “We better hurry back. I don’t want them” he pointed at the three people who were bound tightly. “Waking up before we get back.”

“They shouldn’t” Guy said firmly “I splashed a little of this” he held up a small flask “on the sacks. It should keep them sleeping until we get back.”

“Very well” Refuge smiled “let’s get going!” Swinging his bundle over his shoulder, he started down the path that led away from the cottage. The other men each picked up one of the bound people, and slung them over their shoulders. Then they followed him don’t the path.

I was going to continue on how healing works on Requada, but I thought I would explain a bit of how magic works first. Most requadan’s are capable of working magic, although most are not trained. Magic is a psychic ability to manipulate the world around the individual working the magic. Most spell casters require focus to control their psychic abilities. In Reba’s case she uses sunflower seeds for her focus. Other spell casters may use it almost anything, but wands, staffs, and crystals and orbs are most common. Most spell casters starting out will experiment with a wide variety of common focuses. Some spell casters destroy their focus when they cast a spell as Reba does, others can use the same focus many times. Wands are particularly popular because they also allow aiming, but since most mages do not use combat magic there are an awful lot of other focuses. Magic items are created using those psychic abilities to create technologies that do what the spellcaster requires. It helps if the spellcaster is aware of the science behind the abilities of the magic item, but some of the most powerful magic items are created by those who have no idea how they work. Even some of the advanced races around Requada are incapable of figuring out how some magic items work. Quicksilver the sword in Trapped in a Curse would be such a magic item. Although the orcs could probably determine that it is extremely advanced technology, but even they wouldn’t be able to reverse engineer it.

A short distance away at the back of the Herb witch’s cottage, Meadow dropped to the ground. She was sneaking out again. She sniffed the air and then muttered “damn rain, can’t smell a thing.”

She was interrupted by hissing sound “where do you think you’re going?” There were no words in the hiss but she definitely heard the question.

Squinting into the darkness and the rain, she whispered loudly “who’s there?”

A large snake slithered out of the darkness as it raised his head to almost Meadows waist. It focused its dark slitted eyes on Meadow’s face and to Meadow the look seem to penetrate to her very soul. “Answer the question child.” It hissed again and although there were no words again, Meadow heard the statement.

“I’m not a child, Copper” she whispered belligerently “and I don’t have to tell you anything.”

Lark laughed “looks like you got caught this time.” The snake swung its head around and stared at Lark as it hissed. This time Meadow didn’t hear any words but if it was possible Lark grew even paler than normal. She gasped “no way. There is no way you could see me, I’m just a figment of Meadow’s imagination.”

Meadow whirled to face her and said quite firmly “no you’re not! You’re a psychic entity!”

Lark promptly replied “if you say so, and keep your voice down you’ll wake somebody up.”

“While it’s time we got going” Meadows said and she started to walk away.

Copper surged forward positioning himself directly in Meadows path as he hissed “no you don’t. You’re not going anywhere until you answer me, or I’ll wake Avocet.”

“I’m going to meet someone. Now get out of my way or I’ll deal with you.” Meadow glared at him as a reddish glow formed around her hands.

The snake laughingly hissed “you wish to copulate.”

The reddish glow banished and Meadow’s skin grew darker as she replied “no way!”

She was promptly interrupted by Lark “keep your voice down or wake somebody up!”

Meadow glared at her but did lowered her voice “I have absolutely no interest in fish bait that way.” She continued.

Copper raised his head even higher as he hissed “but you have chosen to meet him.” His eyes were almost level with Meadow’s when he finally continued “I shall come with you. You need a chaperone.”

“I do not” Meadows said indignantly “and even if I did, I’ve got Lark.”

The snake didn’t move but continued to hiss “Mind without flesh is not a suitable chaperone. I will come, or I will wake everybody!”

“Fine” Meadow sniff the air and started forward “but you’d better keep up and I’m not carrying you. If you slow down because of the cold I’m going to leave you behind. Got that.”

“Understood” Copper hissed “but cold doesn’t slow me down. I am not a cold-blooded. I am a Ssarin sageessa. I will not fall behind.”

“A what?” Meadow paused “I thought you were a golden Python”

Copper hissed. There was laughter in the hissed “some humans call me that. My ancestors have been called other things by humans, but my kind call ourselves sageessa and my clan is called ssarin.”

Meadow looked very sharply at Copper “so why are you telling me this. I assume you haven’t told Avocet this.”

The snake focused his eyes directly on Lark “you walk with a mind without flesh. I felt that you would feel safer if I admitted what I was. I will keep your secret, as long as you keep mine. You will not tell anybody, including Avocet, and exchange I will not tell anybody your secret.”

Meadow smiled at Lark “nobody would believe you if you told them.”

He hissed softly “they would indeed listen to me. I speak Sar Nageesa. People always listen when I speak because I speak the language of the mind and my words sink deep into their consciousness. Did you think you understood me because I was hissing in your language.”

“Not really I also speak Sar Nageesa” Meadow hissed back, and said thoughfully “so you speak telepathically.”

” Not quite” he had caught up to Meadow stopped at the edge of the garden “my sounds and my thoughts combined into words and I know you can’t speak Sar Nageesa so quit pretending too. So how do you get past the standing stones without being detected.”

She looked at Lark “I need your eyes” Lark vanished and Meadow led the way past the standing stones. As soon as they were well past the stones Lark reappeared and Meadow continued “I use Lark’s vision. She sees magic. And mom had better not of noticed you following me.” With that she set off towards the south.

Going back to notes about the world that the characters live in, I thought I would discuss some of the capabilities of the healers on Requada. I’m going to start with their ability to bring back people who have died. To do this they need the person to have a relatively intact brain. Minor deterioration of the brain they can repair, but of the brain is severely damaged or has started to rot, most of them will not be able to bring the person back. Unlike in a certain movie where they were able to recover a person from just a hand, the healers of Requada can’t do things like that. This means that they can usually bring someone back who’s been dead for no more than a day or two. There are certain substances that they can use to extend that time and likewise if the body is frozen it will also extend the amount of time that they have before the person is unrecoverable. Technically Reba could’ve restored life to Lark’s bones, but the resultant individual would’ve been a clone of Lark and had none of her memories or other abilities. It would’ve been just like a newborn. Unfortunately there are a lot of individuals on Requada who have untrained potential as healers (sometimes quite powerful). These people can accidentally reanimate the dead, something Meadow might’ve done to Lark. It is also possible that Lark was capable of something similar to what Reba can do when she becomes a swarm of hornets. To do this Reba separates her mind from her body and then re-engineers her body down to the genetic level into a swarm of hornets. Therefore it is possible that Lark separated her mind from her body to become what she is now. When somebody who is completely untrained in their magic bring someone back from the dead the result often isn’t truly living. Various types of undead, zombies, skeletons and other more fearsome things are often a result of an untrained mage.