As the evening progressed she was having a wonderful time with the warlocks and her mated souls. They were way too much fun to be around. It had been a long time since she'd gone out for a night with friends instead of rushing off to help other beings. It was nice and would have to come out again soon.  Not meaning to she'd sensed Jim's interest in her.  She had tried not to most of the evening but it was coming through with a strong vibe.

             The ability didn't come with a way to ever turn it off. She could read that he found her attractive and wanted to know more about her. What she liked and didn't, her hopes and dreams, how she spent her off time. She could tell by the look in his gentle blue eyes that he was genuinely shy around women he had an interest in.  Taking a slow sip of the drink Ralvania tried not to giggle. 

In no hurry to be mated to anyone, she didn't make a move. Letting nature take it's course was her preferred option. She was happy, having a great evening with friends. 

Time had seemed to escape all of them as if it had drifted through a wormhole in space, as if time didn't even matter to her or them. Evening had turned to night and then late night as they were all still in high spirits sitting in the back of the pub. She could really get used to this on occasion. It had been more fun than she'd originally anticipated. 

As the nocturnal hour of magic struck the Nucandu village, a strange little creature walked into the pub. He looked scared and panicked. He stood four and a half feet tall with dark green leathery skin with pale grey blue eyes filled with fear over something. 

The Little creature walked over and spoke to the bartender before turning around and heading to their table.  

How did she know? it was always something, thought the empress, chugging down more of the pint.

The spastic little gremlin just looked at them for an overly long pause before saying a word.

"Hi, there. I hate to disrupt all the fun, but which one of you is the empress of sorcery?" Asked the little fellow as politely as possible.

"That would be me. How can I help you?" She asked slamming down the rest of the pint.

"I'm Vamier. My home has been hit with a bizarre illness and we need you help." He explained with desperation in his voice. He looked as though his soul had been dismantled.

"Sit down over here next to me and tell me whatever you can." She offered.

He quickly walked around the table and sat next to her.

"Thank you. we need your help. There is a horrific curse on our land." He told her and took a sip of the cup she'd put in front of him.

"This creepy silver mushroom appeared in our forest. Anyone that has touched it becomes deathly ill, their magical essence  just seems to slowly vanish." He continued. 

Ralvania sat back and listened to the little gremlin tell her everything he could about the current dilemma.

"It's not the size of even one of the giant mushrooms south of us, but more like the size of a small cave."  He added, pausing to take a sip and breathe a few seconds.

"We tried poison, but traditional methods don't work. We need magic to kill it." He explained to her and the others.

"How far away is it?" She asked.

"On foot it took me a fortnight from Delpheria." He told her. 

"We'll help too." The others chimed in.

"We can do some research before you go. It sounds like dark magic to me." Ravenessa chimed in. 

"We should finish here and all head to our castle's double library." Stergis added.

"That sounds great thank you both." The empress told them.

                         Twenty minutes later the whole group followed Stergis and his mate back to the grand scale castle, a half hour from the pub. Ravenessa had given them a quick tour of the castle as Stergis began brewing the elven coffee for them. He assumed it may possibly be a long night of enchanted research.