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    “This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


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    “ great general."


    "I actually expected you to say king."


    "I am not cut out to sit on a throne and listen to the orders of some ancient nobles. There is by far more glory on battlefields like this."


    He pointed around us. Realizing it wasn''t the ideal situation to praise the battles he added:


    "There are always casualties, but the higher my abilities, and the greater the victory, the less people on my side will have to die. I know this mission didn''t turn out that well, but this threat is something that has to be dealt with. You also suffered from the events, but I will do what it takes to help you heal completely again."


    He stretched out his hand towards me as if in an offering of assistance for me to take. I left it hanging in the air. He had gotten uncomfortably close and I was beginning to feel really awkward about it. I felt if I took the hand he would use the opportunity to further close in on me and I shuddered at the thought of his touch. It made me feel vulnerable.


    I tried to keep up a friendly face while slowly shaking my head.


    "I really do appreciate the offer, but it won''t be necessary. For me those scars are no permanent condition. It would go against myself if I were to fall into your debt without a real need. Please do not take this refusal the wrong way."


    "I see... you are a difficult woman to impress Miss Shalyne."


    "There are few things I desire, but right now one of those is some sleep. If you would excuse me?"


    "Of course I will not keep you from your well earned recovery. Rest well."


    Finally I could retreat and be by myself for a while. Although not pressing on in an impolite manner the prince wasn''t letting up. If this kept going on I wasn''t sure if he wouldn''t take a more direct approach. Right now I feared the touch of a man. It had gotten a different meaning and I became by far too aware that I was a woman now. Situations like these made repressing it almost impossible while irritating me in the worst way.


    Before tonight I had been sure with me disfigured and many people still grieving, the prince wouldn''t have an interest to further pursue this. Tomorrow we would finally leave and then I could hopefully cut any contact. Nelantis should keep himself busy with the noble woman he had arrived with.


    "You really dislike men."


    Arienne stated the obvious shortly after I had gotten down on my blankets, almost ready to pretend sleep. She was talking in a hushed voice, as not too far away others were already sleeping and this was no question for the ears of a stranger. She could have chosen a more isolated place if she absolutely had to talk about this. I concentrated my senses on the people in the tent. If anyone wanted to listen in, their focused attention would betray them and alert me.


    I whispered back: "Why can''t he just leave me alone. Richard immediately took the hint."


    "He is too young and self absorbed to notice anything. I think he is so set on you already, that you should just stop giving him hints and reject him directly."


    "How will he take it? I don''t think he is used to refusal."


    "You will have to see. You can always mention that you are a noble and he should think twice about doing anything stupid. Tell me, are you part of the court? You would fit right in. Well your manners are a bit strange, but I heard they are all pretty unique so I still wouldn''t be too surprised."


    "I''m not."


    "Come on, tell me at least a little bit about yourself. The blood hunters are usually the only elves I have some contact to, but most of them are so dull and business like. Do you know how rarely I hear something about home? Some gossip? I don''t know why you are here, but I can help you out if you tell me a little bit. I''m not asking any secrets, just that it would be fun to be involved a bit. Does that work out somehow?"


    She stopped talking for a moment, probably to consider if this was something that could be resolved. It had become a bit difficult to follow what she had said, but that was not all that unusual with her. Her thoughtful look changed into another kind of thoughtful look, but more serious.


    Suddenly she began to speak in another language. One I didn''t understand in the least. That was a real issue. Naturally there was nothing I could repeat, nor could I properly react to the words. Arienne''s eyes began to pierce into me, now standing at the ready.


    "That never was where I was from."


    Someone close to us stirred, I must have spoken out too loud. Arienne and I both eyed each other silently. Then her gaze turned back to the usual open and friendly look as if nothing had happened. She took a quick look around but nobody was observing us. Silently she began talking again.


    "Wow, that explains so much. Of course you would keep everything to yourself so much and land here without any language skills at all. I suppose the story in my head doesn''t really make much sense."


    "But you..."


    "You aren''t the first traveler from afar that I have met. Your kind is still very rare, but nothing completely impossible. I just never considered that there could be other elves. Or are you just a shapeshifter taking that form?"


    "No, that is really me."


    There was a small defeated undertone she didn''t seem to perceive. I added:


    "Am I going overboard with secrecy?"


    "Maybe not. No matter where I traveled, strangers are always considered in a different light. It''s pretty light between humans and elves, but different races can be very hostile, even more so the further away you are from. The beastpeople aren''t looked upon well in many parts of the world I have been to, and they are very aggressive as well. I guess if the elven empire didn''t border on their territories directly, it would be a lot worse.


    I guess I am a bit strange, but I have always gotten along with all different kinds of people. Yes, you should just keep to yourself. Of course you can tell me everything, I will keep it all a secret. How far away are you from?"


    Her unprejudiced way opened me up a bit, though that only went so far. Still, it would be nice to have another source of information aside from Catherine who I didn''t really see that often anymore. There had been far too many questions coming up lately.


    "I don''t fully understand the question, but it is from REALLY far away."


    "The question? I am not that sure myself, I have only traveled through a few countries and that has already kept me busy long enough. Sometimes there are people from neighboring countries, some from countries further away which I barely know by name. And then there is beyond that. Some scholars will know more about maps, but I don''t really want to look those up. Anyway, I can''t really explain it but not all of those places are away in a matter of distance. They are not that far away, but you still can''t get there so easily. At least that''s what I have heard. I have only been around sensible places, where you can enter from any side normally.


    You said really far away? You suddenly appeared around here. That means you came through one of those strange ways? Can you show me? I really want to see at least one of them."


    "I admit it was not exactly a physical..." we had to stop talking for a short while when three of the soldiers entered. They weren''t nearly as quiet as we had been and woke up some of the sleepers. After some grumbling the soldiers tried to be more silent. I once again became aware, that this place wasn''t exactly ideal for a secret conversation. We still took up the conversation where I had left off.


    "I don''t know a lot about how I ended up here, much less about the way back. I want to do some research, but for now I can''t show you anything like this."


    "This is typical, why is it so difficult to get to strange places? If you plan to go on a trip like that, make sure to tell me."


    "I will consider it."


    "Who knows if we are even at the same place at the time. We will just have to see. At least tell me some stories from your home, now that I know about it? Oh no... I just realized, if you aren''t from anywhere around here, you can''t have understood lots of the stories I have told you so far. I have to explain a lot to you."


    "Good night."


    There really was a lot we might be able to talk about more freely now, but there were better places than this crowded tent. If I hadn''t been able to observe the auras around me I never would have held such a talk under similar conditions, no matter how quiet the whisper might be.


    I took some time to consider the events of the evening. My mood had somehow brightened after talking to Arienne and at least for now I was able to put aside the conversation with the prince.


    After some rest I grew restless and began with a quick self healing session, which was still focused on non superficial parts of my body. Then I set my further plans into action.


    The monolith''s functions had been reduced a lot and the work I wanted to attempt now had difficulties in different areas. Once I actually looked at the building plan part of the monolith I had to realize that transporting it back to Barlaine would be completely impossible and even cutting it out would prove extremely difficult.


    When I had looked at the structure in my energy form and let my senses float over and through it, I had lost my perception for proportions. The plans probably filled out an entire cubic meter. Such a large anchor was certainly not necessary for the construct, but it was a stronger and more stable foundation. If a huge structure such as the monolith was already available, it would probably also make sense to use it in its entirety.


    Next I turned my attention to the power cell I had been eyeing. The same held true here as well, but if I ignored the power cell and just focused on the little instruction of how to collect energy from the surroundings, I would be able to transport it.


    The complexity wasn''t too great and just studying it tonight might have been enough to comprehend the necessary basics. Perhaps something similar was even in one of Mr. Heart''s books. The reason why I still decided to cut it out was in the characteristics of the used intents.


    Imagining a fire or water was a simple thing with a bit of practice. But getting the feeling for the various energies on the outside and forming that as a command for specific collection, purifying and storing were very different. Doing this as part of a complete automated construct even more so.


    I determined borders to reduce it to a closed off unit and then wanted to cut it out. Then I realized the block was somewhere in the middle of the monolith and I would have to cut a path for it as well. To test the difficulty I tried myself at a piece of the black material right on the outside.


    Breaking it apart telekinetically cost me ridiculous amounts of mana and this was just a little piece. And I wasn''t even finished. I went over to heavily heating up a very tiny border of it. Still very costly, but a bit more efficient I could separate it. The extreme heat caused light to emit, so I refrained from doing it on the outer side. Finally able to control this piece as a separated part I reached the conclusion, that this wasn''t going to work.


    Then at last I came up with a working solution. I just took the parts of the construct and, using the newly broken off piece of the monolith as anchor, reconstructed it piece by piece in the same order I had taken them away. This method of moving it allowed me to keep the intents the original creator instead of making a quick and inferior copy.


    I didn''t have to use much space to anchor the construct, and even cut the stone piece a bit further into a somewhat cubic form. Easily avoiding detection I flew the less than fist large piece into my backpack.


    Sadly using the same tactic with the entire building plans wasn''t possible in the time I had left and I had to settle with this one construct.