After spawning a pair of death wisps an hour later with my amethyst geode I once again killed off the spares and then began blessing the array with a string of chants and prayers. After only twenty minutes of this the next spawning of wisps were more pure with slight affinities for basic elements. They were all scrapped.
After more prayers and blessings using a few samples of holy fire agate I spawned the first pure holy wisp and worked hard for the second. When I had two of all three wisps I simply drained the array into my amethyst geode and broke it down to reclaim my agates. The agates were only slightly drained to support the array, luckily.
For each of the six wisps I mixed the scrapped stardust from everything else that spawned into six bottles and granted them magic and blessings appropriately. However, I did not feed the wisps just yet. I did not intend to raise them.
Carrying the glass bottles and geode in hand, I decided to put on a show for everyone and do something to metaphorically as well as literally change the lives of those children. They were not much older than me and still had their wholes lives ahead of them. They deserved to have something that could help them control their lives.
A basic wisp could grant them basic jobs as enchanters or alchemists, holy wisps could make them into healers, and dark wisps could protect them early on.
Everybody was packing up their few reclaimed belongings and loot when I returned. Their general plan was to head to town with me and report what happened to the authorities before recovering and going to the respective homes. I simply offered each of them the holy weapons I had made and said they could help fund or help protect their journeys home.
Most people I talked to were curious about the new and tiny wisps following me around but whenever asked I would just shrug and look at the kids. They had eaten most of their stews and were currently watching and following the wisps as the danced in and out of the hilltop. It was not hard for them to understand after that.
When I finally got around to the kids, I kept the tiny fist-sized wisps clustered together behind my back and said, "Hi, guys, I'm Chuck."
Probably more because the wisps circled around me than the fact that I was also a kid, I soon had their attention. The girl who was younger than the boy and closer to my age hid behind her brother who was almost a full head taller than she was. I was, of course, head and shoulders taller than either of them because I was almost the proportions of a short adult.
Prompted by his sister's behavior, the brother says, "I'm Silt, she's Silk. Yes, those are our names. How old are you?"
Nodding my head with a sheepish smile, I decide to run him question for question and say, "As you can probably tell from my voice, I'm eight years old, but im like this because I'm of mixed blood. My body grows bigger and matures faster than a normal person's. Do you guys have relatives in the town?"
The boy briefly looked away as his sister now completely hides her face behind her shoulder, but he eventually says, "Our grandparents used to live here with us but the left to help our aunt with her business in the city. We were on our way there… to celebrate clearing their debt… but now we're here. S… Chuck, where are you going?"
"Let's not worry about that just yet," I inform the siblings and redirect their attention by putting my hands behind my back. "What would you say if I could give you wisps of your own?"
"How-..." the little girl starts to say with some excitement, only to grow sad and then look away again.
"We don't have magic, s- Chuck," Silt informs me sadly, looking at where my wisps circled around my feet partially submerged in the ground. "How can we have familiars if we don't have magic or know what to do?"
"It's really quite simple, young man," I reply cheerfully, withdrawing my hands from behind my back to reveal three bottles of sparking powder and three wisps in either hand. "For the two of you, all you need is a little help. I want you to hold these bottles full of wisp food and let me instigate your natural mana. Can we do that?"
The brother eagerly held out both hands, but I only gave him one and wordlessly held the other one over his shoulder toward his sister. The boy was watchful of my hand in an almost stiffened sort of way, as if he was scared of being hit, but he kept his cool for as long as it took his sister to accept the bottle of stardust. I honestly felt bad, now.
Because now I had to find a point where their life and mana aura were the strongest and stimulate them with of a rush of my own pure energy. Their heads were their strongest sources of mana so I lights touched their noses and sent a charge of my mana into them. Within seconds their auras flared up slightly from activity and excess energy.
"Dip three of your fingers into the dust so your mana mixes into it and let the wisps eat the food off of your finger," I explain as they both start becoming a little jittery in the legs from the effects of a crude body strengthening. "They'll eat your mana and recognize you as food, making them reliant on your mana. However, your mana is not quite strong enough to feed them yet, so you'll need to give them that wisp food until you can circulate your mana on your own."
As I talked, the kids did as they were told and the small balls of various lights settled on their fingers like butterflies. The kids were absolutely entranced by this and said nothing but I could tell they were listening. At least a little, anyway.
"Since we're going in the same direction, let's see if the Guild will let me take you guys to your aunt and grandparents," I go on calmly and patiently. "Along the way, I'll teach you a little about magic and if you guys can learn fast enough I can perform a small ritual with your wisps to enhance your magical abilities. How does that sound?"
"Can w-… Silk, what do you want to do?" Silt starts to ask of me before turning sideways to face and expose his sister. "Do you want to go with him or do you want to wait for Auntie Mara?"
It seemed like the entire camp spent a full minute in baited silence waiting to hear the little girl's answer, and they probably were all listening because they were waiting on us to leave for town.
Finally she managed to look firmly down at the wisps and mumble, "I want to learn how to make my wisps as big and strong as his wisps."
My wisps could have handled the bandits on their own and just let me meditate if they wanted to. They were all level thirty trash that would not have even met Guild mercenary standards. And, despite the stat numbers, it was not that hard to get into the Guild.
"Then let's hurry to the Guild to ask for permission and see if they know a good inn with better food than the slop I fed you guys," I reply cheerfully, walking away backward while urging them along. Grimm and Shade instinctively positioned themselves under the children and turned into hoverboards to carry them over the ground at a jogging pace.
I, naturally, was forced to either run or fly to keep up and lazily chose to fly over everybody.
Roughly a mile down the highway from where we camped there was a small group of people on horseback. Two were wearing the robes of priests, one man was in the canvas uniform of the Guild, and five people were in heavy steel plate armor around them. The man in the Guild officer uniform was also carrying a few large bags.
These were probably the people who were paying the ransoms, but now the bandits were dead and they were left wondering what the hell. If not for the children flying around on thin dark boards and the third giant child flying around after them, the ransom holders would probably think we were the bandits coming to collect. Regardless, they were late.
I made the wisps stop acting crazy when we finally reached the town officials and introduced myself before taking out a small scroll and giving it to the Guild official. The scroll was a small decree written and signed by Old man stating my name and my general purpose for the different regions I was sent to. After reading it, the Guild official began deferring to me and asking for a debriefing.
My simple explanation was that I was passing through the area and when I detected the outlaws I simply did what anybody in my position would do. Killed everyone. The fact that the prisoners were alive and in custody was more than enough for the townspeople so we just started walking to town as a group.
Along the way I questioned the official about escorting the kids myself. The official said there was no longer anybody in the town besides a small orphanage capable of looking at them so it was up to the kids what they wanted to do. They chose to go with me on the spot.
Back at the town we paid for most of the rooms in a large inn for a week before ordering food for everyone. While they ate I passed out gold blanks to help them get back home and did my best to keep everyone distracted by talking about the pilgrimage that I was on. Including the dark and ancient evil known as the underground hive.
Not many people believed me about the numbers of insects I faced despite the hundred or so bandits that died just yesterday. So, I took out my squad of breeding insects and revealed a thousand-pound obelisk of magical keratin. Comparing the size of the insects to the giant block of material, it was clear it would take at least a hundred insects to make just the one block.
From there I even spread the word about the militia and outpost that was openly recruiting. A few people in the inn seemed interested in the idea even before hearing about how much I was paying people but I doubted anyone would enlist. Not only was it quite a distance away but most people here already had lives to live.
However, a few of the prisoners who previously lived by their weapons before capture were keenly interested.
*