[center][h2]Pagras[/h2][/center]

[center][@PaulHaynek][/center]

[color=lightblue]"Teleport around?"[/color] Vanessa repeated the man's words, but did so with a jolly laugh at the end. [color=lightblue]"It's not like you can replace walking and travelling with teleportation. If you've never been somewhere and you try to teleport there, you could very well end up inside a wall or a tree, or a stone. Or even inside another living being."[/color] Vanessa explained, still amused. Besides, long-range teleportation wasn't really something that was viable for getting around if you just wanted to travel and see new things. It took too much magic and too much prep-work to be worth the effort.

Short-ranged teleportation would be an option, but even then, you'd just waste a butt-load of magic on something you could achieve easily by just walking or otherwise. Teleportation magic wasn't meant for everyday travel after all. But, the dark mage had a feeling this incubus wouldn't really care or be interested in the different applications and purposes of magic and amgic theory, so she spared him the lecture and instead sat quiet for a bit.

Once he was aboard the carriage, she could really tell the thickness of his spiritual energy. It was like sitting in a sauna with someone constantly throwing water onto the heater. Add onto that the feeling of sitting next to a high school heartthrob while being a high school girl who was all giddy and ready to squee, and you pretty much nailed the sensation that this was exuding. Luckily, while he did cause Vanessa's face to get flushed and body to feel all warm and tingly, he sadly lacked the criteria to truly draw Vanessa in. Basically, he was like a piece of marbled, well-seasoned meat - nice to smell and look at, but not the dark mage's favorite food.

[color=lightblue]"Bold... Interesting perspective."[/color] Vaenssa responded, gently grabbing hold of one her sidelocks and beginnig to twril it. [color=lightblue]"You humans are born with the ability to go everywhere and anywhere you want. You can visit lands that belong to the Demon Lord, or ones under the thumb of your Order. At worst, you'll encounter other humans who try to steal or rob you, but on the whole you can go anywhere in this world."[/color] Shhe paused and turned her head to the Incubus Knight, tilting her head and looking at him with the r sparkling blue eyes. [color=lightblue]"But we don't have that freedom, sir. If we try to go beyond certain invisible walls taht you humans put up, we can end up getting chased, imprisoned or even killed. In some place we don't even realise your kind's set up these barriers, and then we end up being hunted and killed for simply existing."[/color] She looked at the man for a bit, then turned to look ahead as the wagon slowly kept rolling forward. [color=lightblue]"So, do you still think we're bold when we hear that one of these invisible walls that's blocked an entire piece of our world off from our kind has been broken and taken down? A whole new land, with sights we've never seen and people we've never met, suddenly opens up before us and we can go there, without fear of torches, pitchforks or burning stakes."[/color] She fell quiet for a while after this.

To Vanessa, there was nothing bold about going into ortus or any former member-nations of The Order. To see something that had been denied to you, something that could've had gotten you killed or imprisoned, that wasn't being bold - it was just morbid curiosity. Why had this been denied to our kind? Why weren't we allowed here? What was so special about all this that we had to be kept out? To be bold, one would've entered the borders while the area was still under The Order's control. At least, tat was what the dark mage thought.

Then, she raised an eyebrow as the man continued.

So, they had purposefully scrambled and tinkered with his aura? How interesting. There weren't a lot of humans who knew how to successfully tinker with the magic energy of an incubus - especially since in most cases they weren't really considered to be 'humans'. Of course she knew of humans who tried to mask or muddy their own spiritual energy, to try and avoid monsters or detection magic, but she was intrigued by the prospect that this man and his Order were apparently trying to fiddle with his overwhelming aura.

Then he asked the silly question that made her laugh out loud.

[color=lightblue]"Court and flirt with [i]you[/i]? I'm terribly sorry, sir, but while you smell really nice, you don't really come close to what I'm looking for in a man."[/color] The dark mage said, honest and without an aounce of restraint. [color=lightblue]"And if I was married, I wouldn't be out and about, now would I? I'd have... Wifely duties... to fulfill."[/color] This last bit was said with a very sultry voice and a very naught face, befitting of the develish woman.

What the Incubus Knight might not have noticed though, was that as soon as he began climbing onto the wagon, Vanessa had done... [i]Something[/i]... She had whispered some words under her breath and conjured a small... translucent... bird? Butterfly? Some kind of winged creature, no larger than your standard butterfly. She had held it up to her face and said something to it, and then she'd flicked it off her hand. The little creature had taken flight, and zipped off at high speeds. But what was it? Simple. A magic recording and a bit of detection magic, woven into a constuct. It had been tasked with finding Iskah, and once it did, it'¨d deliver the message.

[color=lightblue]"Your husband's here, follow."[/color] In Vanessa's voice.

The little glowy thing would then guide Iskah back towards where the dark mage was. Noq, the question became, what to do next. The wagon had rolled into a less crowded part of the street, and while this man seemed polite enough, he was a knight, and likely had duties. The chance of him staying to continue small-talk and a friendly conversation was very low. So, what were her options to keep him in place long enough for her familiar to find and bring Iskah back?

Option A: She could try and seduce the boy. A fun idea, but given that he'd seemingly become used to fending off potential brides-to-be and his words from earlier made it clear he probably wasn't the kind of guy who would be stopped by that sort of thing. Unless she got [i]really[/i] aggressive about it, but her lizardman employer probably wouldn't like that....

Option B: She could always try and continue their conversation and casually continue talking to him, even as he got off the carriage. If she just played the part of some chit-chat-starved traveller who was simply enjoying a bit of friendly conversation, she could likely manage to stay by his side for a little longer and also keep an eye on where he was going - which would buy more time for the lizardgirl. The issue here was that if the guy was one of those rule-sticklers, he might try to shoo her away or say something like: 'Alas, I must return to my duties!' or some such other straight-laced bull-honkey, which would make it much more difficult to keep tailing him.

Option C: As soon as he got off the wagon, she could cast a bind-spell on him. Be it earth or ice, it didn't really matter, as long as she did it quick and without warning, she could lock him in place, and would likely cause a scene... Which may help Iskah return and find them quicker. The down side? The man was an incubus. She had no accurate way of telling how strong his own magic was, nor how easily he could break out of one of her spells, furthemore, there was no wayto gauge how he would react to having 'hostile' magic cast at him. He might turn violent or become resentful, which wouldn't be good.

For now, she'd choose to try Option B. If things looked like he was about to try and sneak off though, she'd have no choice but to go for the final C-option. But, for now at least, she'd try the civil approach and continue this little back-and-forth of theirs.

[color=lioghtblue]"As for why I'm here... Let's just say I've got [i]obligations[/i] towards someone who needs my help with something very, very important. But, I'm more curious about you, sir. How exactly did you manage to become an incubus? You don't have the scent of being marked, so you obviously don't belong to any monster. And you're part of a chaste order of knights, which would suggest you don't fool around either."[/color] Vanessa said, light-heartedly. [color=lightblue]"An most curious phenomenon indeed... As a scholar and student of magic, I'm very curious."[/color]

... That's right... Distract him with small-talk and conversation that doesn't allow him to just answer 'yes' or 'no'. Keep him here, keep him busy... And if he tries to slink away, [b][i]BAM![/i][/b] Ice grip! Stone bind! Iskah was getting to talk to and marry this hunk ofhunk-meat, that was their arrangment after all.