Priscilla sat on the ground still contemplating her sudden advancement. In the distant dark backdrop, a short figure with a lantern was approaching. In Priscilla's field of view, she could clearly make out everything in the dark. She recognized the qualities of the aura to be of Christoph, the young squire. He must have noticed someone bolting out of the inn earlier. At the thought of running like that, Priscilla was angry and ashamed.
Christoph was heading right toward her, which Priscilla thought strange until she noticed she was glowing. The qualitative change in her aura caused her active spells to go into overdrive; Which, instead of obscuring her, began to shine brightly. This was a common problem when advancing. She reconfigured the obscuration spells and was about to redo the disguise spells, but her hair was still black so it wasn't necessary. Although she reinitiated the spells, they aren't effective when you've already been perceived.
"Your… Miss, I saw you running in a hurry, are you alright?" Christoph said as Priscilla entered the lantern light.
"I'm fine." Priscilla said coldly to cover up for her shame. She then walked past Christoph and returned to the inn. Gawain and Maia were already at the table waiting when she arrived. Priscilla nonchalantly sat down without making eye contact with Gawain. She had previously ordered quite a lot of food, so the table was packed with dishes.
"Feel free to dig in." Priscilla said, noticing no one else had started eating. She, on the other hand, began to make quick work of the food. It surprised the two children how quickly someone could eat while also maintaining good posture and technique. However, they were not able to ascertain how proper her manners were, only that she was better than them. Gawain only smiled lightly. He had traveled with Priscilla on many occasions, so this was not a surprise to him.
"You kids better hurry, she is like a bottomless pit when she is hungry."
After finishing the meal, Priscilla took out a pouch and began to count its contents. She separated all the small copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins. Then, she grabbed a handful of copper and concentrated on the coins. Magic forces were pouring into her clenched hand and the metal was having a qualitative change. After a few seconds, the coins had changed into gold. She left several pieces of coins behind and scooped the rest into her pouch. After which, she retired to her room for the night.
Priscilla was quite proud of herself just then. She found transmutation a wonderous magic when she was young. However, it required magic at the quality of a fifth circle to use it. She wanted to contain her excitement but had seen the opportunity to use it in front of Gawain and the kids; She could not hold back. She had almost an unnatural obsession with gold and jewels. While she was Empress, there was no limit to the wealth she could maintain. However, coming to sudden poverty, that little joy was gone.
Unfortunately, it was technically illegal to transmute gold coins. But the law was made by her for the empire, which was no longer relevant. Fortunately, the spell was permanent. The main reason for the law was that the regular merchants could not tell the difference between illusion magic and transmutation magic. Many lower leveled sorcerers that were excommunicated or criminals used illusions to make things look like gold coins.
Priscilla wondered about all the policies and laws she had put in place. She always believed that her ideas were making the world a better place, but perhaps she was instead just increasing the tension. Quiet filled the room as her mood dropped again. The excitement from advancing was beginning to fade. Thoughts of her life to this point, Gawain's earlier declaration, and the missing Merlin began eating at her. 'If only I were stronger; I could enter Myrrlini Byrn and look for clues on his location.' She thought.
Myrrlini Byrn—Priscilla had a sudden revelation. That day, she was told Merlin had urgent business to attend. He even supposedly left a message that he would arrive later. How did she not realize this at the time? Although she could not enter his magical mansion in the secondary dimension, she could still open a two-way communication channel. Logically, Merlin would never need to leave a message for her, since they could communicate through magic this way. She quickly calmed her thoughts and entered a meditative stance.
With her legs crossed, Priscilla began to chant a spell. The area in front of her began to warp and twist. Eventually, a ball of mist formed and the spell stopped.
"Merlin, are you there?" She called into the mist. Different parts of the mist lit up in various colors. There was no response immediately, but she was patient. After a while, the mist lit up and a sound was being generated.
"My dear, you've finally called—" he cut himself off by coughing. "I was afraid I wouldn't hear your voice before my time."
"W—what do you mean? You're not dying Grandpa, don't joke around… It's not funny!" Priscilla began panicking.
"There is not enough time—cough, cough—A new goddess revealed herself. She has been working in secret since the beginning. I was mortally wounded, however, I cast a spell to preserve myself for eternity in ice. I held back completing it to warn you." He coughed for several minutes before continuing.
"It is time you know the truth. I have kept it from you since you were little…" However, he could not finish his sentence and had already lost consciousness.
"Grandpa? Grandpa!? Please don't leave me… I—I'm not strong enough." She cursed herself for this weakness. Priscilla pretended to be strong for her people and for herself. But, when confronted with such scenes, her weak defense collapsed. She sobbed for a few hours before waking up in the morning. She had fallen asleep at some point, most likely due to over drafting her magic keeping the communication open.
Her eyes were swollen and her neck was in pain. Priscilla ignored these things and exited the room. She continued on toward the exit of the inn, planning to leave alone. The light from outside blinded her for a second so she didn't immediately notice Gawain and the kids waiting for her already. The sun was high in the sky; She had been asleep for a lot longer than she intended.
"You were right Maia; She didn't even try to check on us before leaving." Gawain said.
"What makes you so sure I didn't check?" Priscilla snapped, grumpy from the aches in her neck.
"Maia 'saw' you leaving without us. She woke up early and made sure we waited outside for you." Gawain retorted.
"Hmph, I don't need to explain—Wait, you saw it? Little girl, is this your first time getting these visions?" Seeing the change of tone and light in her eyes, Maia almost told Priscilla everything. However, she held herself back and nodded.
"When you saved us; I knew that would happen."
"A seer? I need you to divine Merlin! Tell me what happened to him!" Priscilla began shouting.
"I—I can't control it." Maia said meekly. Priscilla stepped forward and grabbed her shoulder.
"I don't care, do it!" She demanded while applying pressure. Just before Maia passed out, Gawain interfered by grabbing Priscilla's arm.
"I think you need to calm down. She only just started practicing magic!" Gawain's shout caused Priscilla to snap out of her crazed state. Her arms went slack, she turned toward the east and began walking solemnly. The trio glanced at each other for a moment then followed behind.
The group walked silently until their destination was visible ahead. They were on a hill that couldn't be traversed safely so they had to go around, however they took a moment to appreciate the view. The city ahead was Lothian. The city itself was very beautiful, but the main attraction was the giant wall that spanned for hundreds of miles east to west, separating the south and north from sea to ocean. There was a long river that went through Lothian and emptied out into the western sea.
"We'll get to the base of these rolling hills and rest. We enter Lothian tomorrow." Priscilla said.
The trip down the hills was fairly simple and they were unobstructed. In order to avoid inspection, they had gone off the road, so it was taking longer than usual to reach the city. The barbarians south of Camelot's land would boat across this sea and raid Lothian. Therefore, these parts were heavily patrolled. They forewent having a fire due to this.
When Maia caught up, Priscilla handed her a strip of bark with a formula carved into it.
"Memorize this by tomorrow." She said without making eye contact.
"Y—you're teaching me?" Maia was startled and awkwardly blurted out. Priscilla replied with a 'Hmph!' and wrapped herself in a blanket.