"Maybe just the killing zombies part. Since I don't know what else your job entails?"

"Griffins take a fair amount of maintenance - so do all the other possible mounts - and Ragnar's my sole responsibility. I have church duties and have to keep my vows and between missions there is training and prayer and reflection."

"What are the vows, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's not a secret. In the order of the Winter Light we take vows of obedience, chastity, piety, and service, while we're active."

"... Well. Nevermind the paladin bit for my sister, she would be - bad at most of those."

"Like I said, not for everyone."

"It depends on the things."

"Well, I'm - mostly asking because if I am going to be stuck here until I can figure out how to get home, I might as well try and figure out a way to - aim my magic to try and stop the dark things from appearing."

"Well, I recommend starting by not using it to make or summon any, since sometimes mages bring them about."

"... How would making them or summoning them help in any way?"

"You might have to ask a mage who has done it," says Kaja.

"Okay, well, I don't know how to either make them or summon them, so, good news, even if I wanted to, I couldn't manage it without a lot of work. I was thinking more like - why do they happen, and is there a way to stop it from happening?"

"When it isn't mages, they sometimes arise or intrude on their own."

"Under what conditions? Do you know?"

"When I find dark things I am generally focused on killing them and not on the details of how they got there. So, only vaguely."

"Well, ideally, you find out what conditions cause them to arise or intrude, and then work very hard to make sure that those are prevented. A - cure for the ills, instead of treating the symptoms. Mind you, treating the symptoms is really useful and I'm not - disrespecting your job, I just - er. Would like for you to not need to do it."

"Unemploying myself is not my specialty," she snorts.

He snickers a very deerish laugh. "Fair!"

"The city's skyline can be seen from here," she says, pointing ahead to a settlement that is medievally devoid of skyscrapers but quite respectably steepled and sprawling.

"Ah, pretty," observes Darren, eyeing it. Yup, that's medieval technology all right. He is officially in a D&D setting. He continues to be okay with this. "Is anyone going to be weird about me being a peryton, or will they shrug it off as mages being magic?"

"If you land looking as you do you will be taken for a paladin's companion, although you're a bit small to carry an armored warrior," she says. "If you only sprout wings as you first did this may be written off as magery, and if you simply describe yourself as a peryton, ordinary people may think you are lying or a curiosity. I can give you a Winter Light token to carry when we arrive at my Order if you fear being taken for a dark thing."

"If you are a dark thing," she adds, "the token will burn you, and if you are going to be startled by that, I would rather fight you here than in the city."

"That's fair. But I am really quite certain I'm not a dark thing. Shall we land, then, and test my status?"