The magic of the hyn was both Divine and Primal in nature, tied to and enabled by the lands of the Shires and them being born of it. We had no knowledge of whether hyn homelands elsewhere allowed the same thing to happen, as their own Immortals were known heroes of the past who had Ascended, and whether they could or would do the same in distant lands to unrelated tribes of hyn was up in the air, and something to investigate.

Thus, despite being the most magic-resistant of all the mortal races, hynfolk could learn magic here in the Shires, and even ascend to incredible heights of power with it… although the records I'd perused indicated none had ever been known to Cast VII's, the highest tier of Clerical and Druidic powers. Becoming a Master was about forging that connection to the land here AND being acknowledged by the hyn Immortals, so de facto filtering by moral standards was in place. Hyn adventurers could profit from being a Master just by being able to progress further than they could as a normal hyn, being tougher and stronger, even if the magic they wielded faded away outside the Shires.

That effectively made them a priesthood, outside the normal system of Sheriffs, Clanholder, and Clan Keeper, higher and broader and directly in contact with the hyn Immortals. There was a distinct lack of hierarchy, but bowing to wisdom and experience seemed the norm.

Two of the Masters here were over Twenty, although an older hynnyl white of hair and gentle of movement was being deferred to at least as much as both of those. The personalities here ranged the gamut from energetic and aggressive to grimly quiet and observant. All of them were a bit checked as I swept into the room, my Disk came out, and I seated myself imperiously in front of them without invitation, as if I had all the right to do so in front of them.

I could tell a couple of them were quite affronted by my presumption of superiority that way. "If your opening move was for us to find you rude, Lady Edge, it is succeeding marvelously!" a challenging hynnyl's voice instantly commented, sounding singularly unimpressed.

"My distinct apologies for offending your deep and many-layered sensibilities on proper conduct," I answered, my voice dripping sincerity, and silencing all of them as they knew I was lying. "Now, some supplicants for my valuable attention have asked for my time. I intend to be on the borders of or out of your quaint little nation by this evening, so I don't have a great deal of time. What concerns have Masters of the hynfolk to raise with me?" I inquired with blithely artful candor and such an unmoved expression some of them started to grin helplessly.

"It was brought to our attention that you had allies who would hunt down and recover hyn of the Shires who had gone missing, especially those who were taken away by sinister Zanzyran wizards," the soft voice of the white-haired older hynnyl interrupted any attempt at a comeback and war of words from her younger compatriot.

I tilted my head slightly. "Would you prefer truth or lies, elder?" I asked calmly, my voice the same as ever.

She considered me with wide brown eyes, clearly weighing what she'd heard of me. "Please, continue with the lies," she said shrewdly.

I nodded once. "The tower of the wizard concerned was too well-hidden to be found, and its defenses impregnable, its defenders fierce and unconquerable. He did not die kicking on the end of spears held by hyn, his head sawed off by Molly Redroots, and perish along with all his apprentices and servants. The sixteen surviving prisoners did not escape his tower, nor does any hint remain of the fiftyish victims he pulled his own particular brand of experimentation on, nor was there proof of any ties to powerful nobles of Zanzyr supporting his activities." They were all rather gaping at me as the lies fell smoothly off my lips, and they did not believe a one of them. "His experiments focused on the hyn, and there were no humans nor dwarves among his esteemed guests, either, nor even orcs and goblins."

The white-haired hynnyl glanced at one of the powerful males knowingly, a darkly-haired and bearded, blue-eyed older fellow, and he just grunted with a glance at Nightswift. "How many hyn survived, and where are they now… Lady Edge," he amended, making it more a request than an order.

"I cannot say. It could have been five, it could have been more or less," I answered whimsically, yet my tone didn't shift in the slightest. There were more than a few guffaws under their breath.

They winced. Considerably more were missing than that, even in western Hillshire. "And what manner of experiments, Lady Edge?" the other senior male, lean of build and keener of green eye, with an expression on the edge of smirking and the air of a born traveler about him, inquired in a clipped voice used to snapping orders. I had the impression he was more at home on the deck of a ship than on land.

"There was absolutely no evidence of a preponderance of poison testing and usage, forced mutation, organ transplants, grafting of limbs, partial transmutations, mechanical augmentation, and other such high-minded and generous fields of study undertaken only for the highest of moral purposes."

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The snickers and sneers that broke out couldn't be stopped, especially at my completely deadpan delivery.

"Do you ever bother to speak the truth?" the same challenging younger hynnyl sniffed aggressively, feeling put out… and possibly rather overwhelmed by my presence.

"No," I responded sweetly, and guffaws broke out at the obvious lie, further making her fume. "The surviving hyn are being treated for severe trauma of the mind and body, their injuries Regenerated, and their recovery quickened along. They should be returning home soon. The others who were found will also be sent on to their homes, save for the humans. Most of them came from the lands of Zanzyr, and returning to home whole after being kidnapped and their noble wizard kidnapper missing would attract attention that might well get them all killed. Informing their families quietly and allowing for them to emigrate elsewhere is a far more practical and survivable alternative for them."

They didn't care as much for those not their own, but the kindness and mercy in the gesture was not missed, either. Insulting me for bringing them good news was basically throwing crap in my face, and what spirit of cooperation was there in that?

Also, I wasn't lying, they were pretty sure of that in the negative now, too.

"For what reasons were you coming to the Shires, then?" the older of the two powerful male Masters asked directly. "It seems you've been caught up in something large…"

"The typical: dreams of conquest, intimidation, tyranny, acquisition of trembling subjects, power over others…" They couldn't help the snickers that arose as I ticked off all the expected little foibles of ambitious wizards, lying through my teeth. "Or I might have been passing through on my way to Siricil to meet someone important, and as wizards do, we stumbled into something and had the unmitigated gall to actually do something about it, shameless reprobates that we are."

"Could you not just… magic yourself to where you are going?" the younger male asked directly, still suspicious. "Or… fly there, on that massive Bat of yours?"

"Nice hat on that one," someone murmured from the side, to general agreement.

"It is a range thing. If you are familiar with the vagaries of Teleportation spells," maybe, probably not, "you should know that you can double your range if you Teleport yourself along the track of your life on the ground. I imagine some of you can travel for some distance between trees, but the same factor applies. The track of your life must be over the ground, however, or you lose the benefits.

"So, for maximum range, precision, and accuracy for Teleports, travel to the place you want to be able to Teleport to first, and you'll have few such problems in the future. But flying won't do it, nor someone else showing you the city in a scrying mirror. If you want the benefits, you must do the traveling."

They mulled that over, and decided it was a reasonable thing to happen.

"You conceal your skill well, but it is obvious to those of us who have Animal Companions that you are far more powerful than your followers are," the white-haired hynnyl again spoke up. "I expect this trip is more for their benefit than your own?" she asked insightfully.

"Oh, this is not a necessary trip for me, but it is useful. Teleportation at higher Valences is always spot-on, as it were. But if I don't want to spend higher Valences, and I want to go exactly to a specific point I've been to before, establishing a Lived-Line is useful. Plus, you never know who you might meet along the way." I tilted my head slightly as I glanced over the lot of them, earning at least some honest smiles from some of them.

"There are a surprising number of human wizards from Siricil and other locations who chose to retire to the Shires," the older hyn Master spoke up again, eyeing me shrewdly. "However, they only care for their own peace and quiet, and thus only handle problems which might affect them personally in the vale they have rather gathered to. They can be hired, but hate being bothered… but we are not unfamiliar with powerful mages here." I just looked at him, waiting. "Your Bat is still too strong. You are at least their equal in power, if not more, Lady Edge."

"I am probably the single most powerful elven spellcaster on the entire planet, Master Ondello," I stated crisply, staring at him. A hum began in the manafield, and they all flinched as it broke over them, seeming to caress the very spells they carried in Valences in their heads, soft yet rigid, bringing great pressure with the most subtle of caresses, streaming past them, yet webbed around them, touching the world with the thaumaspectrum in Colors only magic could see.

I wasn't lying, either.

"Ancestors preserve us," the younger of the two elder males managed to murmur under his breath, staring at me, and realizing that their show of power… really wasn't, to me.

"Yes, I am capable of killing you all with literally two blinks of my eye. I am also aware of your ties to the land of the Shires and the ability to counter hostile magic that comes from it, which you are doubtless relying on to give you an edge if it comes down to magical combat."

When I did not elaborate on that, the more, eh, spirited younger hynnyl blurted out defiantly, "And?"

"And?" I asked right back.

"What about you knowing how the Shires protects it own?" she stated proudly, arrogantly even.

I reached out and plucked a chord of magic in midair.

There was a wrenching of the Primal magic. Every hyn there shouted in alarm and clutched at their heads as if felt as if something anchored to their souls had just been jerked violently.

"Ties," I mused aloud, my eyes never leaving her as she struggled to keep her feet. "Strings. Connections. Threads that can be played, subtly or otherwise," I rippled my fingers through the air, strands of light faded in and out, and they all gasped as the flowers of summer and a gentle heat seemed to spill through them on the inside, "or they can be cut."

One hand rose, the other reached out, and pressed.

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