No twitches or even the slightest hint that he was anything, but suspicious of me.
"Look this kind of portal isn't exactly cheap to maintain, and I've shown you my true face," I rubbed the back of my neck, "Either you go through that portal or I'll have to kill you to maintain my cover."
His eyes narrowed.
"I understand your suspicion," I smirked as I pulled the mask to the side, "You're only going to find more reasons to distrust me once you get back to earth, but you'll be back on earth. Isn't that enough for now?"
"Why trade one set of chains for another?" he scoffed at me in irritation.
"I have absolutely no intention of owning a slave," I frowned, "Only weak assholes keep slaves really. I would prefer to hire a soldier. Now if you don't go through this portal I'll be forced to do something I really would rather not to protect myself."
He stared at me for a few more seconds before stepping through the portal. I pulled my mask back over my face before letting the spell drop out of existence. I had a few more hours until daylight. I blinked a few hundred feet away from where I was standing, and jumped into a tree with ease. Sitting down on it's branch to rest for a bit, and recover some of my mana.
I'd held that portal open for too long. I'd burned through a little over half my mana holding that portal as long as I did. That short two minute conversation had burned through way more mana then I should have taken for so few slaves. Usually I'd only have to hold the concealed portal open for a minute at most. Holding it for twice that weighed heavily on me.
It wasn't even the spatial mana that did it. It was the time mana that got to me. I didn't have dominance over time like I did space. The amount it took to open a portal was a far cry from the amount it took to erase my mark on time itself. That was the reason I usually chose to only erase my presence for a minute at most.
Opening a portal before teleporting out of there so that it would be near impossible to track me no matter which direction I went. I went still as a light sleep took me into it's warmth. I'd wake up in an hour at most before I would have to move on. The village would know by now that they had been robbed. Even if they could track my spatial portals it would take them time to get to me.
It didn't matter how skilled a spatial mage was. They couldn't teleport anywhere they couldn't see or clearly picture in their minds. They might be able to open an existing portal track, but that took a certain level of skill from what I could tell. I could reopen existing portals, but the mana cost was wasteful considering you wouldn't know what you were walking into until you were in the middle of it. I stretched slowly when I woke up, and blinked myself skyward.
Allowing myself to fall as I opened a portal below. The time element gathered around to to erase my presence as I went through the portal. Dropping into the forest near Sekka. My clothes returning to normal in just a few scant seconds before I stored my mask away. Trading it for my blades as I let my spell fall away.
It wasn't difficult to kill a beast on my way back to camp. I even had time to get halfway through butchering the small creature before Sekka woke. Sekka looked at me, and my half butchered kill with a bit of amusement.
"You do know that those are some of the crappiest tasting lizards in the swamps right?" Sekka rolled his shoulders with no intent of stopping me from finishing.
"Cheap meat is better for eating while expensive meat is better for selling," I finished up with my butchering.
Laying out the cuts out on the skin so Sekka could store them in his ring. Sekka stored the meat, and the skin. We'd collected quite a few skins over the last few months. Most of which was from my massive appetite. The fact that I only needed to eat once a month didn't actually decrease the amount I ate.
Part of the reason I needed to eat so much on a monthly basis was because of how active I was right now. Constant mana regeneration along with us being constantly on the move had pushed my appetite up to a new level. I wiped out close to a thousand pounds of meat with each meal. Depending on the size of the beast I usually needed to eat anywhere from two to ten beasts to fulfil my needs. Since coming to the elven land we'd amassed nearly fifty skins.
Thankfully Regala the former dragon queen knew how to process skins quite efficiently. It was kind of sad that something that mundane had managed to survive, but much of dragon history, and the vast majority of dragon combat, and magical knowledge was lost. I'd have to figure out my own way of fighting in dragon form that was efficient as my human form. Sekka tapped my shoulder gently. It seemed as if I'd lost myself in my thoughts again.
I hadn't deemed him a threat so he was able to approach me without alerting my basic senses. My guard was way down around this guy, and I wasn't one hundred percent sure why. I didn't think it was a bad thing. In fact I was hoping that Sekka would eventually feel the same way. I watched Sekka jump up on his bird with ease.
I jumped up on the other bird. We had no need to keep up appearances out here. Me walking was supposed to be slower then riding the birds anyway. No judging eyes would allow Sekka more freedom with his favorite slave even if someone watched us they wouldn't find it too surprising. Speed was important in a dangerous place like this.