[center][h2]Ortusian Wilderness[/h2][/center]

[center][@PaulHaynek][/center]

Thus, through the power of commerce and trade, Vanessat the Dark Mage exchanged her single, small magic crystal for a total of ten slips of paper... With weird... Moonrune-scrawls... On them. Yes! Truly, this was the bartering of the century!

Regardless, the dark mage seemed pleased with the arrangment. Holding the bundle of paper slips in her hands, she shuffled through them as she stared down at their surface. Her hand movement and overall technique at handling the Zipangu-scrolls were very remeniscent of someone who was skilled at shuffling a deck of cards... Was Vanessa secretly good at, or addicted to, gambling!? Perhaps an intervention was needed? But that was neither here nor there.

Instead, the black-haired monster looked at her newly acquired goods. Her eyes sparkled and her mouth was spread into a big, silly but nontheless charming smile. The kind of expression a child would wear, filled with wonder and excitement, whenever they got a new, fascinating and interesting toy that they just couldn't contain themselves to play with. But, of course, Vanessa was an [i][b]adult[/b][/i] and thus knew how to excersise both restraint and control. ... Maybe... She at least had the decency not to start flinging the ofuda around at random or without warning. Instea,d once she was done looking over each and every one of the paper talismans, she opened the starnge brown pouch from before, and then gently slid all of her new goods into it, after which she tugged at the string and sealed the bag once more.

... Then promptly returned it to its rightful place inbetween her massive mammaries.

Looking up, she only caught the tail-end of what Iskah and Rei had been talking about. Her big goofy smile retrated a bit, being replaced by a more casual and [i]polite[/i] face. She was still smiling, but more so out of habit than anything else. After the question was posed and her opinion was asked, the dark mage merely shrugged.

[color=lightblue]"I don't mind, so do whatever you want, Iskah. Slowing down our pace with a day or two shouldn't keep you from meeting up with your honey-bunny."[/color]

Of course, Vanessa's true feelings on the matter were likely different. But, Iskah was the one in charge here, so she was the one to make decisions and calls in situations like this. If the Lizardman wanted to drag around an extra head who wouldn't be helping in any way when it came down to confronting and pulling her future husband from the clutches of the Lot Knights, then that was her choice to make. The raven-haired beauty just found it strange that Iskah had been in such a hurry back when they first met, but was now content to slow their roll... Was it because they'd made extra time by not stopping back in [b]Shinbid[/b] or whatever that place had been called?

[color=lightblue]"I'm gonna get some rest now though, staying up too late's bad for your skin."[/color] The dark mage commented. [color=lightblue]"Just wake me up whenever you're ready to get going. Or if something happens."[/color]

With that, Vanessa rose, stepped back a bit from the bonfire, sat down in a cross-legged state and placed her staff over her lap. She then extended one hand, pointing her fingers back towards herself and... With a bit of magic, made her fingertips start to glow a dim, azure light. And then...

[color=lightblue]"Invoke: Sleep."[/color]

... Her arm slumped down along her side, her head became limp and tilted slightly to the side, her eyes closed and, the other two monsters could hear a consistent, rhytmic breathing. It would appear the spellcaster had forcefully put herself to sleep using a rather powerful sleep-spell...