'Safe to look... Not too...'
Jane already instinctively knew what was in Vanessa's memories, but he couldn't effectively use them to his advantage without looking over them seriously. The first thing on his agenda was learning where exactly he was in the world. Right now, he was faceplanted in the dirt, gasping for air after running for multiple hours straight. He did not want to repeat that process without a clear goal in mind.
'North, east, south, west... Alright, I'm keeping track now. I've been heading 37 degrees east due north, and that puts me... Can't miss it... Right, I'll be able to come upon a pretty big city soon.'
It seemed like Vanessa stopped fighting back since a while ago, having had time to sort out the situation. There were no personal feelings involved, after all. They had attacked each other out of necessity.
'Around 11 less degrees, and it doesn't matter how many merds.'
Jane started looking through his memories, trying to find what method she used. Her flight magic was... more or less the same, except applied uniformly across her body. Since her engravings had disappeared, he would once again have to restrict it to his bones.
'Come to think of it, what's up with my eyes... Don't look... Oh.'
As he began barreling through the skies, he scanned the landscape for signs of civilization. His vision now allowed him to see anything in perfect detail, no matter how far away it was. Of course, that was still limited by the curvature of the earth.
'Should we teleport there? ...Estimate.'
Jane didn't feel like estimating the distance, so he just continued on flying.
---
Off in the distance, the mass of greenery was interrupted by a wall. The wall surrounded a large city, and was itself protected by a deep and wide moat. At a few points along the latter, bridges carried citizens in and out of the gates.
'It looks like there's guards, and security checks... Not magic.'
Since Vanessa's appearance was too eye-catching, and he didn't know who might recognize her, he decided to alter the appearance of his puppet slightly. Again, she would be wearing all-black, and have hair and eyes of the same color.
Jane touched down a few hundred merds from the city, and began constructing an illusory body for himself. He was a little less experienced with making female humans, but the major differences were all irrelevant this time. He only needed to make it look somewhat like a woman.
Once he was done, he overlaid it on top of himself, then concealed it. He would be sneaking in, after all.
'Let's take turns, alright... Oka—'
[Okay.]
---
'Are you really sure this is going to work?'
[Last time I checked, there isn't a big magic presence in this city. It's mostly a trade hub, after all.]
Giving Vanessa more free rein was definitely risky, but there were benefits to doing so. If she wasn't given enough room to breathe, she might give up completely, but she could also end up fighting back even harder. And besides, Jane felt a tiny bit bad for stealing her body. Only a tiny bit.
'No point stalling.'
While still concealed, Jane crossed the bridge. He exhibited as much caution as was necessary, making sure not to get too close to anyone else. After landing back on solid ground, he tried not to look any of the guards in the eye as he passed right through the gate.
[Thought so.]
Jane walked absentmindedly through the city, not entirely sure what he was there for.
'My teacher said something about you. Zealots who worship magic?'
In the middle of the street, Jane frowned deeply. His heart pumped with a rage he had never felt before.
[We are believers.]
Jane could intuitively feel that she was telling the truth. However, that did not help his understanding even the slightest bit.
'You...'
[But, I don't want to die either.]
Jane knew that. Despite the fact that he was her target, she made no attempts to end his life once they were in the same boat.
'What am I supposed to do?'
[For as long as I live, I will never be free.]
'I don't want to keep this up forever.'
[They hunted me.]
'There is no middle ground.'
[I will live.]
'I will live.'
[Magicians can be separated into two groups.]
'Those who will attack us, and those who will let us be.'
[Those who will die, and those who will live. As long as a trace of my faith remains, there does not need to be any excess.]
'Can I do it?'
[We have all the time in the world.]
'But first, I need to eat.'
A couple passerby were disturbed by the sound of a stomach growling, seemingly from nowhere.
[Shameful.]