A Sinner’s Chance

My eyes fluttered open as I awoke, only to see my reflection staring back at me. At least that was what my not completely awakened mind first thought until Ashara turned away sheepishly with a red flush across her face. My mouth curled into a smile as I reached my arms around her chest and my legs wrapped around hers. "Last night was wild, I think it's best if such methods are reserved for the two of us though, I don't think the others will be quite as excitable with spider bites as I am." I could feel Ashara's body flush with a slight heat as I teased her, likely remembering the rather bizarre method she'd employed lost in her lust. "Well, as long as you're careful, I don't mind letting you take the lead, it was a novel experience to be the one tied up this time around."

Before Ashara could even respond there was a knock on the bedroom door followed by the sound of it opening. Sitting up I saw Arya and Steria making their way in, both of them looking at me in a knowing way, as if they knew exactly what had transpired last night, not that such a thing was difficult to imagine.

"It's almost time for breakfast, you two." Arya stated as she walked over. "Get up and get dressed. Vell, you told me we would be leaving by the end of the week, yet I haven't seen you work on the self-propelled carriage you said you were going to make for traversing the forest."

I practically flinched at Arya's tone. She had long since gotten used to may antics and was harsher on me than anyone else, but I knew that was simply because I was easily distracted and if she didn't remind me every so often, I would likely get lost in a different project altogether. With her warning I could only regretfully let go of Ashara and Create some clothes for me and her, mine appearing directly on my body, while Ashara's appeared nearby. Just before leaving the bed I leaned over and left a kiss on Ashara's cheek. "It would be best to make haste with coming to breakfast, I'm sure everyone else wants to see you, and if you dawdle too long you're going to have to explain why you took so long." I teased her in a whisper before standing and making my way over to Steria and Arya, giving both of them a kiss as well as I wrapped an arm around each of their waists and began to head to the dining room.

Ashara arrived shortly after the three of us did, and even though we'd come in separately, I was pretty sure that the other three that sat at the table had a decent idea of what had happened between me and her. However, no one pried, and for the most part it was more of a celebration that Ashara was even alive and that the three of us who would have missed her could see her again. Much of the time at the table was spent explaining things that had happened in the world that she had missed while being frozen.

Having already spent quality time with Ashara I let Irellia and Damian have a turn catching up with her. I did need to start work on the vehicle I'd told Arya and Steria about. The plans for it were something more akin to a car than a carriage, but it was more like a mix of both since even though I could make all the parts for a car, it would be extremely out of place in this world, so I was planning on making a hybrid that would eventually be connected to some more undead horses, but seeing as the Forest of Darkness had a severe lack of normal creatures I could really only make it self-propelled for now.

Unlike making a part straight from a blueprint or memory, I had to try several times to get each part to be as I wanted, though thankfully once I had the material it was far less mana intensive since I could use Creation on the material itself to reshape it as needed. Unlike when I'd been at school I wasn't locked away in a solitary workshop, but had the others coming to visit so frequently that I was essentially never alone.

It took just over a week before I even had a decent prototype working, but the exposed metal and other non-standard materials made the carriage look even more bizarre than I would have liked. Part of me was tempted to just enchant a glamor over it, but that would only disguise it from the common people, as not only would more powerful people be able to sense the illusion, but there was surely plenty who would be able to see through it, something I doubted would be any good for trying to remain at least a little discreet.

Another feature I was trying to get to work was something similar to teleportation. Well, it essentially was teleportation, but I was limited by not only my limited Space Affinity, but also the fact that any kind of long range teleportation was extremely dangerous since one needed to account for all kinds of factors. It was one of the reasons that even powerful space mages didn't teleport as they pleased, and why the continents were still so isolated from one another.

The only way to get to another was by flying with one's own magic, not something most mages were capable of, or taking a boat across the ocean. Even in Velen's world, the oceans had been only somewhat explored, and they didn't have to worry about all kinds of monsters. And if the whales of Velen's world were anything to go by, the monsters of the ocean were probably a disaster for ships, not to mention pirates or other dangers that may lurk above or below the water.

I spent another week on revisions for the carriage like car, or perhaps it was a car like carriage, but either way I finally managed to get it to look similar enough to an actual high-class carriage that I would arouse too much suspicion or draw that much unwanted attention, definitely not more than I would walking around outside in my sad excuse for clothing at least.

On the plus side, I had managed to create a small space enlargement enchantment finally, though when I say small, it was essentially inconsequential and not even noticeable. The interior of the carriage was perhaps a total of half an inch bigger than the outside would suggest, it wasn't a great achievement, but it was a step towards finally getting myself some expansive portable storage.

During the final days as we prepared to depart I spent a large amount of time with both Damian and Irellia. It seemed that Irellia was planning on taking the throne of Dark Lord since she would be able to defend it better than Damian would, for now at least. To make sure that Ashara wouldn't lose her mother I spent quite some time teaching them to work the Obelisk, the large black pillar that was maintaining the negative energy of the Forest of Darkness now, which should allow them to hopefully weaken an opponent by bombarding them with mana that was not of the type they normally used.

I thought that I would likely stop back here once I confronted Alcrem and took Marian with me. Despite the dangers of the forest itself, the Central city was probably the safest place I currently knew of. Unless something completely out of my expectations occurred I planned to be back in a few months, following which I would finally make my way to the continent of Melarc and the Divine City of Luxuria.