《Second Life as the Sister of a Goddess》


 Foreword: All you need to know before you read.

    The Forward, the part of the book where the author tells you some things they think are important for you to know about the book you are about to read.


    That¡¯s what it¡¯s supposed to be, but in reality, most authors just use it to waste time with all sorts of special thanks, bragging about themselves, telling part of their life story, and maybe some of them will talk about what their inspirations were in writing the book.


    I¡¯m not planning on wasting your time too much, otherwise what would be the point in adding a foreword almost a month after the series had been launched? I will mention though that this forward has been changed since it was launched, a major overhaul in fact, so even if you have seen it before, you will likely see something different now.


    -Table of Contents


    This is the contents of this one page, not the entire series, so it only tells you the order of the tags in bold you should be looking for if you want to skip down, not the page numbers or something of the sort.


    -Revisions history


    -Disclaimer


    -Inspirations


    -Content Warnings


    -Release scheduling


    -Funding


    -Revisions History


    -4/10/2019


    Posted Foreword to Scribble Hub


    -5/18/2019


    Added Table of Contents section, Revisions History section, Content Warnings section, Funding section, and edited the release schedule to reflect that I would no longer be making releases on the weekends.


    -9/3/2019


    Updated my release schedule officially to 1 chapter every 3 days.


    -3/8/2020


    Added a disclaimer about the in-progress rough-draft nature of this story.


    -Disclaimer


    I am editing this in almost a year after starting this story.


    After having made quite a bit of progress in this story, there are now several points where I started out on an idea early on in the 1st book expecting for there to be some realization of it by the 3rd, hopefully sooner. Now, however, there are several areas in regards to the magic system in particular that have changed significantly in terms of what I plan to do with them than back when I first spoke about them in the 1st book.


    I have also become aware of several other issues in my early work that could have been handled a lot better. I have been planning a major revision of the 1st book in order to fit the more updated idea of how things should be structured, but I also tend to run out of time just getting the newest chapter out. It seems to still be a solid enough story despite it''s flaws to continue writing it. However, the early issues are kinda glaring at this point.


    Two more specific issues are 1. Too many POV views of a single event. 2. Plans that were laid but later change, and I have not had the time to go back and correct the early references. One significant one is in regards to the magic system as I have already mentioned, and another is in regards to what historically lore-based goddess the sister in this case was. It is not revealed early on, and then later I figure out exactly who it is I want her to be. There is, therefore, a little bit of information early on coming from the sister that doesn''t quite fit the model for what I eventually start going for with her.


    Just know the story is going to be a little rough at this point, and I do have plans to fix it whenever I have the time. It very well might be that I continue to write this story to the end and then go over the entire story again from start to finish to revise it.


    -Inspirations


    The series that is absolute top first and foremost is a web novel with one of those typical web novel names that is a lot longer than it needs to be. The shorter and cooler sounding title all the fans call it by is ¡°Death Mage.¡± The far less snappy title that it actually goes by is ¡°The Death Mage Who Doesn¡¯t Want a Fourth Time.¡±


    It is a Japanese Isekai web novel with a serial reincarnator on his third life, and all three of his lives are horrible. He also has a huge beef with the god of reincarnation. They hate each other and want to kill each other. Therefore, there is no way he can allow himself to die again and wind up with a ¡°fourth life.¡± (His fourth time, as the title goes.)


    There are several things that I absolutely loved in Death Mage that will be making a major presence in this series. The one that you might want to be the most aware of is that I do not make any very large time skips. The protagonist of the story is going to be a baby for quite a while, and will even have to go through life or death struggles against people wanting to kill her while she is still a baby, and her small body is definitely going to be a huge hindrance and even one of the very biggest obstacles she has to overcome in order to survive.


    Another thing I really liked about Death Mage is that nobody sees themselves as evil, and yet in some cases by giving them the depth of character to explain why they are able to do the twisted things they do while being able to rationally justify it all to themselves in a perfectly believable way, a way that you could easily imagine someone you meet on the street thinking the same exact way, somehow makes the villains in that story even more contemptible. In much the same way, you will see a relatively small number of just pure villains, and every antagonist in the story will have their own motivations and be very full characters in and of themselves.


    A second inspiration that I had was Warlock of the Magus World. WMW is a very interesting take on the cultivation world genre. I am going to tell you now, I absolutely HATE cultivation world web novels. Every time I read them, they are always the same, and they quickly fall into the same exact problems that make them all just dull and boring. However, WMW skillfully avoids every one of the problems that other cultivation world webnovels have and makes a truly fascinating story.


    The bad things that exist in cultivation world stories stem almost entirely from the sects which are always a part of cultivation worlds. These are the organizations of other cultivators, and the very nature of the sects just puts the story on rails and SEVERELY limits what can be done with cultivation world stories to the point where maybe, just maybe, if you find a very very good cultivation world novel you might enjoy it, but that¡¯s only if you are lucky enough for it to have been the very first webnovel of the entire genre you ever read.


    WMW manages to come up with a method to avoid its world¡¯s equivalent of the sects, those being the magic schools, by having the instructors be incredibly hostile and having the protagonist avoid the schools for the most part. This allows the things about cultivation worlds that are actually interesting to not only shine through, but it also amplifies them far beyond what they are in most series.


    One nice thing about cultivation worlds that needs to be mentioned is that cultivation is another means by which to power up your character without gaming level mechanics. For the most part, if you are going to scale your character, you are limited to two major options. Either game-like mechanics or cultivation. Those are the two primary models. If you are not using either of those two, then the only third option is ¡°arbitrary declaration.¡± (AKA, because the author says so.) Having some form of rigid structure to measure your character¡¯s power is important, so it¡¯s pretty good to pick one of these two to go with.


    I don¡¯t really like the idea of game like mechanics. So, as much as I otherwise dislike cultivation worlds for the bad taste the sects leave in my mouth, I¡¯m probably going to go a WMW route cultivation series with this one, although it¡¯s going to be a lot more loose than even WMW was for that purpose. Where as WMW was subversive, I¡¯m pretty sure my approach along with my already admitted disdain for cultivation world webnovels might come off as something more like me giving a middle finger to cultivation world webnovels.


    This is the reason why ¡°cultivation world¡± was not in the tags. Either you like cultivation world web novels, in which case this will be so unlike what you were expecting that this will upset you. Or, you share my opinion about cultivation world webnovels in which case you will probably enjoy this series a lot, but you would be scared away and never read it in the first place upon seeing the ¡°cultivation world¡± tag. Either way, it would be a poor decision for me to have included cultivation world in the tags even though this series would fit it.


    Having just said I was avoiding game like mechanics, the third inspiration for me in this series is Dungeons and Dragons, as in the table top game. And, with the development of the magic system in particular, any D&D player will likely notice a lot of similarity. The races, likewise, will have a lot of similarities to those in D&D. However, you would do well not to rely on your D&D knowledge too much in terms of what to expect from the different creatures of this world.


    For the most part, I use my knowledge as a DM of the races and the monsters in the D&D monster manual to give me options and to see what might be available as a creature to be included in this world. However, for the actual lore and ecology of each creature that appears, I actually went back and researched the real world legends and lore about those creatures that the TSR staff based the D&D creature off of.


    Yes, I played 1st and 2nd edition, before Wizards took it over and turned it into a completely different game. I have enough tact though to realize it¡¯s all a matter of opinion as to whether them taking it over made the game better or worse. (I am definitely of the opinion though that it made the DMs a lot less creative than the old 1st and 2nd edition DMs.)


    At any rate, to get back on track, this means that real world fantasy and lore is a major part of the fourth inspiration, and definitely the one that¡¯s going to be the most in your face and visible of all the inspirations that have contributed to this series.


    -Content Warnings


    I should probably also spare some time to talk a little about some content that may be uncomfortable for some readers. This series talks about heavy material and traumatic experiences. My policy in writing this is that, with the exception of swearing, I will neither avoid nor shoe-horn in any subject that should/shouldn''t logically and realistically be a part of the world as it is imagined.


    As for why I avoid swearing, this is because I think frequent swearing ruins the writing. As for why I don''t just include swearing on occasion here or there, this is because if I even have a character swear once in a single chapter deep into the series, that one single occurrence will require me to put a "profanity" tag on this series and that will have it associated with the multiple series out there where every character swears like a sailor. That just doesn''t work for me.


    In terms of "Sexual Content," this is not erotica. No sex act is described graphically at any point in this series. Sex and sexual violence are things that happen in this world and are mentioned, but such events will never be gone into in graphic detail. In case they ever come up, it will be inferred that it happened off screen or glanced over with some form of euphemism. Again, I do not shy away from anything that should be happening, but I am not writing a porno here.


    You WILL notice though that this series DOES have the "Gore" content warning tag. That is to say, injuries or dismemberments will be described in graphic detail. You may also notice that "Medical Knowledge" is in the tags for this series. So, the "Gore" tag does not actually mean there will be Elfen Leid levels of blood and gore everywhere. What it means is that every injury, even the most minor of cuts, can and in certain cases will be described in a level of detail well beyond what most authors are even capable of. And, some of these injuries will be at a level that it may be disturbing to some readers.


    -Release Schedule


    I am a college student currently trying to get into the nursing program. I am currently on break, but have found that this actually makes me more susceptible to burn-out due to the lack of variety in my schedule, and unable to focus as hard on my writing as I was while I was in classes. As such, I release 1 chapter every 3 days.


    This release schedule is entirely dependent on my current school schedule and assumes nothing else comes up. I will attempt to alert readers ahead of time if anything changes.


    -Funding


    This series is supported on SubscribeStar, a subscription service on which one can sign up to donate to a creator on a monthly basis in order to support their work. If you enjoy this content and would like to help make it easier for me to write more in the future, it would be very nice if you could support me over there.


    In appreciation of those who support me, I have set up some rewards in the form of advanced chapter releases for my subscribers. At present, there are 3 subscription levels. At the basic $2 level, subscribers have access to 2 advanced chapters. And, there are 3 advanced chapters for those at the $2.99 level. Why $2.99 instead of a solid $3? Well, that was because of a little confusion on my part when I was first setting up the account. The default suggested amount for all new creators is $4.99. I just dropped that 4 in half, but never really thought about the trailing .99. And, now, since I have a fair number of subscribers at the $2.99 level, it just strikes me as wrong to suddenly raise the price on them, even by a penny. The $4 level is listed as being for those who just want to be generous, but I also make my buffer chapters available at that level. I consider myself under no obligation to maintain a buffer chapter and the buffer chapter count may drop to zero. It may, however, also go above one. (Not likely at the rate I''m going these days, but it could happen.) If I ever manage to increase the buffer chapter count to 3 though, I am just going to introduce a higher level and the $4 level will be a maintained level with guaranteed 4 advanced chapters.


    Also, this forward is likely to be changed at some point in the future in the case that something changes or if I think of anything else important that should be included.


    Well then. All of that out of the way, do enjoy the story.

 Prologue: A fateful car ride.

    Reincarnation. It¡¯s an idea a great many people have heard about. The idea that when you die you are reborn. Most people who believe in reincarnation and talk about remembering their past lives will tend to say that they were the assistants or maids of various famous people throughout history. It really is quite a curious thing that none of them are ever normal everyday people in their past lives.


    Others talk about being a house cat in a past life. This, at least, seems more believable. After all, there is no reason to assume with reincarnation that you would always be reincarnated as a human. In fact, the aboriginal peoples of North America who believed in reincarnation would often not talk about past lives, but future lives in which they would reincarnate as an animal.


    There are many cultural and religious origins for the idea of reincarnation. However, one of the most interesting and unexpected is the Catholic Church. This is a strange concept because Christianity teaches that when you die, your soul goes to heaven or hell depending on whether or not your soul has been saved from its sin. However, in the medieval period, a lot of folk had a problem with the concept of this. The key thing was the prospect that someone who simply did not accept Christ but was still a good person would go to hell regardless. This introduced the concept of purgatory, the highest and mildest level of hell in which people who meet this description would wander without purpose waiting for a second chance at life which would eventually be granted to them.


    There are several things about reincarnation that make the idea look kinda shaky. Perhaps the strangest thing about the idea of reincarnation and remembering your past life was that nobody other than the really dogmatic believers ever talked about remembering past lives, and their stories were always rather incredible. If you talk to the normal person on the street, they would think you are weird for even bringing up the subject of reincarnation.


    When you get right down to it, reincarnation is a subject that is completely unfalsifiable. There really is nothing to say it is not a thing, but there is also absolutely nothing to say it is and completely no way to test the claims it makes. In this way, it is about the same as any religious claim. I do believe in God myself, but that hardly means I accept all such religious claims. There are some things, such as this stuff about purgatory and reincarnation, that have always sounded a little off to me. It wasn''t really important though, I really never thought very hard about it. That is, until I found myself in my current situation.


    I had died under some rather incredible circumstances. I felt myself falling through darkness for a while after that, but now I find myself in a fairly warm and cozy fluid environment. I was fairly certain I had died anyway. That voice that called herself a goddess said I would die in exchange for my granddaughter¡¯s life. As a believer in the Abrehemic God, I was hesitant to accept such a thing, but to save my granddaughter I would gladly sacrifice my own life even to a demon calling herself a goddess.


    All of this started after the weekend morning class in my dojo. I had just sent my students home. All except for one that is. My granddaughter who I was babysitting for the weekend so that my son and his wife could go and have a much needed vacation. I had taken her in to my class. This was not her first time participating in the class. In fact, she was one of my regular students. My son also still attended the adult classes. Our family practiced a heavy martial arts tradition. I had my son in my classes ever since he was in grade school. Of course he would enroll his daughter as well.


    After class, I would take her to go get ice cream. It is every grandparents'' happiness to be able to spoil their adorable grandchildren after all. Treats like this were not something to be indulged in frequently, but I felt that we could get away with it for today. She was smiling so brightly as we got into the car to drive to a good ice cream shop I knew about in the next town over. Unfortunately, we never arrived.


    It was soon after we had gotten onto the freeway. One drunk driver was all it took to turn a happy day with my granddaughter into what would likely prove to be the worst day of her life. As a man in his 60s, I was not as strong as I was in my prime. However, having gone through a lifetime of a disciplined martial arts regime in the soft-fist styles, it meant my body had gone through several shocks of being thrown to the ground repeatedly. Such activity strengthens the collagen fibers and other connective tissues around your internal organs. It is one of the few activities known to have the ability to strengthen a person¡¯s internal organs against impact. As such, despite the brutal sudden stop, I came out of the experience relatively fine. My granddaughter however...


    I had seen it as we collided with the car in front of us. I turned my head just before the airbag deployed, and I saw her small body that was too small for the seat belt fly forward, and then her head get snapped straight back as the airbag hit her straight in the face. After that, shards of glass rained down on her body. I got the same, but it was unbearable to see her 6 year old face lacerated by the raining glass fragments. However, as visually unpleasant as the bleeding lacerations were, the injuries she likely sustained immediately before that were the thing to truly worry about.


    The crumple zone in the front of our car had done its job correctly. The front of the car had collapsed, but aside from the windshield breaking there was no damage to the cabin. This allowed me plenty of free movement after I beat back the airbag to remove my seat belt and rush to my granddaughter¡¯s aid. Going by what I had just seen, I immediately suspected a neck injury. So, rather than hold or cradle her injured body, the first thing I did was to reach over her and lower the back of the chair as I lay her down carefully. I called her name several times, getting no response. Her chest was moving, so she was still alive. She just wasn''t responding.


    I had been a nurse before I retired, so I had the proper medical training to know better than to move her excessively from this point forward if a neck injury was suspected. The next thing I did was to check her eyes. Both of her pupils were fixed and dilated. For those of you without medical training, that means the pupils had become large and were not constricting in response to light exposure. Constriction in response to light exposure is a natural reflex, and the only reason it would not happen is if the portion of the brain responsible for constricting the iris has been damaged. I knew at this point, the chances of her making it out of this alive were very slim. Even if she did survive, she would have lasting injuries that may even include full body paralysis.


    I blamed myself for this. I cursed myself for this. I had the knowledge to be aware that this could happen. She was too young to be riding in the front seat of a car, and this was exactly the reason why. I had not minded that I did not receive her car seat from her father when he dropped her off, I did not think a bad situation like this could happen to me. I was a safe driver. How foolish I was. It doesn¡¯t matter how safe a driver you are if there is some idiot on the road. How could I have been so foolish!? This was my fault. It was my fault that my granddaughter had wound up like this. How could I have let this happen?


    ¡°It should have been you. That is what you are thinking, are you not?¡±


    I heard the feminine voice in my head. I knew it was not the voice of someone in the real world. In fact, I immediately disregarded it as my imagination when I first heard that voice. It was nothing more than the guilt I was feeling manifesting itself in my mind.


    ¡°I bet you would do anything to take her place, wouldn¡¯t you?¡±


    Heh, damn right I would. At this point, with the voice having spoken twice, I had thought it was just my self-speech. My internal monologue. However, I was not entirely certain why my internal monologue would sound like a woman, and why she was addressing me like a third person. Perhaps I had conjured it up because I wanted someone to blame me for the irrevocable and grievous mistake I had made with my granddaughter¡¯s life.


    ¡°I can help you out if you like. I can transfer all of her injuries onto you, and this child will be as healthy as she was before any of this happened. There will not even be a scratch.¡±


    This time, as the voice made some absolutely outrageous claims, it became far more firm and clear. This time it actually WAS as though it was a real physical person talking to me, and the illusory image of a woman materialized in the passenger side window.


    ¡°Who¡­ who are you?¡± I asked in apprehension. The woman smiled with a satisfied smirk that I found enraging in this situation. If she said anything other than the next words that came out of her mouth, I would have probably let her have it. What she said though left me without anything to respond with.


    ¡°Me? I am a fallen goddess without worshipers. There is no-one who knows my name, and without worshipers I have very little power. However, if it¡¯s for you, I can grant this one wish if you will also do something for me.¡±


    As she finished saying this, she walked through the closed car door, her thighs passed straight through my severely injured granddaughter like she was a ghost, and then she sat in the back seat of the car before reaching forward to touch my cheek. This time, it was a physical touch as real as the my granddaughter¡¯s limp hand which I carefully and gently held in mine. ¡°So, what do you say?¡±


    There were a great many things that went through my mind at once. A fallen goddess? As I have mentioned before, as a believer of the Abrehemic God, this made her no different from a demon to me. If felt like a Faustian bargain if there ever was one. However, if it was for the sake of my innocent granddaughter who was blameless and was suffering and dying because of my mistake, then perhaps I really should pay whatever price she asked. So long as my granddaughter was unharmed and the price was paid by me alone, it would be worth whatever it was that she asks. There was something already in what she said that was bothering me, but I decided not to mention it for now.


    ¡°What do you want?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°It¡¯s really quite simple,¡± she responded. ¡°As I mentioned, I have no worshipers in this world, and this world is quite hostile to weak gods and goddesses such as myself. However, this world is sealed and very difficult to leave.¡±


    What was she getting at? Why was she telling me this, and what did it have to do with me? She was looking at me upon finishing this line as though it should somehow mean something to me, but I could not understand it at all.


    ¡°I have been watching you.¡± She said. ¡°You have learned a very interesting form of meditation. You may not be aware of it, but it is a little different from most people who practice your fighting art. The meditation that accepts the energy of heaven and then, using your body, you send that energy into the earth. It is a very ingenious meditation indeed that those who practice your art have found. However, I believe it is not the earth that you direct the energy into at all. That¡¯s the key that makes your meditation different, and powerful. Simply by performing your meditation, if you perform this meditation and continue to perform it straight through till the moment of your death, it should allow me the opportunity to leave this world that is hostile to a powerless fallen goddess such as I.¡±


    Such an incredible statement. I had contemplated the divine and the nature of the universe in the past, but I still had my feet grounded in the realm of facts, the physical, and skepticism. It seems somewhat odd for someone who practices a metaphysical meditation such as the one she had just quite accurately described to say they have a basis in skepticism, but it works out. I had felt the results of the meditation first hand, how much more free it made my mind and how much better my performance was when I was in this meditative state that I had always figured the images must be triggering something real. I didn¡¯t make any claim to know what, but it was real enough in its results for me to stop worrying about it. So, to suddenly hear that there was a goddess interested in some form of effect from this meditation¡­ and there was also another thing. She DID also mention ''the moment of my death.''


    ¡°So, my death is a part of your price, huh? You keep saying you are powerless. What guarantee do I have that you can save my granddaughter? I am certain if you are as weak as you say, it would be quite difficult to save someone from injuries like this. On the other hand, I know from experience that it takes far less effort to kill someone than it does to save someone.¡±


    At these words, she simply smiles. ¡°You are quite right,¡± she says. ¡°Actually, I truly doubt I have even the amount of power necessary to take your life in the way you said. However, as I told you before, your meditation is special. You are accepting the energy of heaven into your body after all. So, I will be touching your soul and skimming off some of that energy. I will use that to transfer your vitality into her and heal all of her injuries.¡±


    There was so much about this that was strange. If I had been in my right mind at the time, I would have about twenty objections and even more questions for this mysterious self-proclaimed fallen goddess. However, as things were, my mind was on one thing and one thing only. That was my granddaughter and my guilt at her current state.


    ¡°Fine. If you can do it, then do it.¡± That was all I said. If she could do it, that was great. And if all she wanted me to do was go into my standard combat meditation, that was an easy thing to do. I really had nothing to lose. Well, aside from my life if what she said was true. However, if I did loose my life, then presumably that would mean it had worked and she had fulfilled her promise.


    I let out a breath, and then I let one of my hands go from my granddaughter¡¯s. This meditation was a combat meditation. This meant that it was incredibly difficult to do correctly while holding still. Therefore, in order to make it effective, I began moving one of my hands through some motions resembling moving from one guarding position to another. I moved my hand to my chest and then let out a breath as I visualized all of the spiritual energy in my body being expelled out into the void around me. I envisioned myself vanishing completely as a person. In this state of emptiness, the energy of heaven was able to flow into me and replace the energy of myself that was once there before. This energy as well was also expelled.


    This is how it works. Energy likes to flow, and it is bad for it to be stagnant. The only way to take more of the energy into your body is to expel it. This is the entire principle of the heaven and earth combat meditation. To accept the energy of heaven and then immediately expel it as it fuels and invigorates your motions while giving peace and awareness to your mind. I became aware of all the other voices around me. It was not just my granddaughter and I who were suffering. I could perceive groans and frightened voices from all around me. Shocked people reacting in horror to the scene of carnage before them. I could only imagine how many people were already dead because of this incident. While this meditation boosted my awareness of all of this going on around me, it also gave me peace. I was not bothered by any of it. Even my guilt at the state my granddaughter was in began to disappear. My self would fully disappear and my body became a vehicle of pure intent.


    ¡°Excellent. Let¡¯s begin.¡± The self-proclaimed fallen goddess approved. While it was her that was going to be doing the work, the constant motions of my free hand over my granddaughter¡¯s chest made it almost seem like I was the one doing some form of arcane magic upon her broken body. In a strange sense of contrast, all that she did was to simply touch her once again incorporeal hand to my chest and reach inside of my body. ¡°Oooh!¡± She cried out as her head snaps back like she had received an electric shock. She had a very satisfied smile when her head had risen back up and she was once again looking at me. After this, she touched her other hand to my granddaughter in the same way.


    As soon as the fallen goddess¡¯ hands were touching both of us, the effect was instantaneous. My hand which had been waving about over my granddaughter¡¯s body immediately dropped down to the center console of the car. I did not feel it make contact despite the distinct slapping sound it made. I had lost all physical sensation in my hand. A second later, my body fell back against the door as I collapsed like a puppet that had had its strings cut. After this, I could feel my consciousness rapidly fading. Just before I lost consciousness though, I could hear some moaning and groaning from my granddaughter.


    ¡°Grandpa?¡± Her angelic voice rang out and I breathed a sigh of relief. It had worked. She had pulled through. That self-proclaimed goddess had really done it. In my final moments, I remembered what she had asked me to do. And, to keep up my end of the bargain, I focused hard on expelling all of myself, every single last spiritual and metaphysical thing in me, out into the void as I continued to make more room in myself for the holy power that kept flowing into me to replace what had been driven out.


    I experienced a falling sensation as my consciousness faded to black. It seemed like I was falling, and the holy energy was all around me. It felt warm as I was swept up and carried by the currents. I don¡¯t really know when that sensation stopped, but at some point the warm feeling of holy power was replaced by a warm feeling of security. At this point, I felt calm.


    This is the state I have been in for an amount of time that became impossible to track. It feels as though I am floating in some form of liquid. Sometimes, I don¡¯t know why, but I feel afraid for some reason. I also hear some muffled sounds. Large and deep sounds, and some that are higher. The deep sounds seem so much bigger and louder though, it is like they are rocking my entire body. When these sounds become more frequent, I start to feel scared for some reason. I have had some thoughts of recognition of what this is probably all about, something about my medical knowledge from being a nurse that explains it, but whenever I try to think about that I quickly loose the thought.


    Lately, it is even starting to feel fuzzy, the fact that I even died. It all feels like this is some kind of long dream. This dream¡­ actually, I kinda remember dreaming about this before when I was a kid. I was really young at the time, around 6, maybe even younger than that. Every time I would get sick I would have that dream as though it was haunting me. Now it felt like I was inside of that childhood nightmare.


    The time I have spent in this place that is without light or darkness is so long it has become impossible to track. I have stopped noticing the warmth. It all just feels the same now. It is starting to feel cramped too. For the first time, I have started to feel something, something like bones. Somebody¡¯s elbow pushing up against me. It seems like there is some kind of rubber-like film between me and that elbow on the other side pushing into my chest. It is at this point it seems like something is becoming more clear. I realize where I wound up, but for some reason I can¡¯t speak the words in my mind. It makes sense though, it seems I really did die then. This must be that reincarnation thing, it actually was real. With this in mind, I begin to feel a strong affinity for the other person sharing this space with me. I know at this point that this person will be my first friend in my new life, and a very important person to me for most of my upcoming childhood.


    Once again though, for some reason proper terms for what this person is to me simply will not come to mind. It seems I have been here for a very long time, and it seems I have forgotten several things in that time. I still remember a lot though. I remember that I died, I remember that there is something very important for me about the place I am in now. It also makes sense now why I feel afraid of those voices outside.


    Now that my hands will work, I reach down and touch the cord running into my abdominal area. I remember now why it is that I get scared. It is because of what is running through this cord whenever those voices start getting particularly active. It changes the chemistry of my environment, and the substances that come in make it so I have no choice but to feel scared.


    ¡®Hold on¡¯ I say in my mind to the other important person I know is around. It is the person who is really feeling scared, and her feeling scared is the reason I also feel scared. ¡®You can do it, just hang on.¡¯ I thought toward her. I had started to learn to associate those sounds with the fear that was going to happen after a while, but I started to notice sometimes now I would hear those sounds but I would not feel scared. Now that I knew why it was happening, I was able to break that association. In fact, because I knew what it was, I would feel happy for this other important person every time I heard those sounds without feeling scared. And then, the times when I did wind up feeling scared, I would tell myself it¡¯s not my own fear I was feeling and I would fight it, and then I would feel very sad for this important person to me.


    In the times that I felt afraid, I had no choice but to move my body. Without sight, and the dampened feeling of being in a fluid, I frequently wound up hitting everything around me. At this point, I had the smooth rubbery walls of the place I was in that I kept hitting, and then there was also the other person in here with me. They also got really active whenever we both got scared for the same reason. We wound up hitting each other a lot. I tried not to hit them, but it happened sometimes. I was beginning to get the sense that they were trying to avoid hitting me as well. After this happened for a few times, a question began to surface in my mind. ¡®Do they know?¡¯


    Once again, I had lost the words to explain what this thought meant. However, it seemed like it was a rather important question. Somehow, it made them the same as me. I was beginning to notice by this point that my ability to remember the words and the things I had forgotten before were becoming better. I knew it was because I was getting closer.. closer to the time I was ready to leave this place. I knew that the closer I came to leaving here, the more I would be able to remember of my life before this one. The reason I couldn¡¯t remember things was because this body was not able to use the information I had in my head very well, but now it was becoming easier as I was starting to develop.


    ¡®Brain, that¡¯s the word.¡¯ My brain. My fetal brain was beginning to develop more and more, and as the structures developed I was able to recall the information from my previous life better.


    After some time, it began to feel incredibly cramped in this space. My sibling, my twin brother or sister, was pressed up tightly against me and neither of us could move very much. I keep thinking for sure we must be getting close to the time when we should be born, but no matter what it just seems like we have to wait longer and things get more cramped and uncomfortable in here. My sibling¡¯s wrist has been in my face for quite a while now, and I can definitely feel their shoulder with my own arm. Our knees are constantly bumping up against each other as we reflexively kick due to the cramped conditions. Some of it is reflex anyway. The rest is just us having to try to move. It is very uncomfortable being so cramped.


    I feel very fortunate in this time that I have become used to the silence, used to nothing happening to stimulate me for what must be months and months of time passing. My sense of time since becoming like this has really changed. I assume I must have spent a lot of my time sleeping or something, because if I try to track back to remember how long I have been like this the best answer I can account for is that it feels like maybe it has been a week¡¯s worth of subjective time since I had reincarnated and become a fetus. However, I know that can simply not be the case. My sibling and I are mammals for certain, and there is no mammal that doesn¡¯t have a gestation time of at least 3 months if I remember correctly. I am certain with no sense of time and my consciousness fading in and out, it could even be years I have spent in here and I wouldn¡¯t know the difference.


    In this way, in our subjectively rapid development as my consciousness fades in and out, the time I have to deal with elbows in my face and knees clashing with my sibling seems rather short. Eventually, I feel as though something had ripped and I felt my sibling¡¯s torso with my hand for the first time. I knew exactly what had happened, and realizing this I tried to pull my hand back as much as possible. I kept my hands as close to my body as possible so that something didn¡¯t go wrong. At this same time, I began to feel the contractions of our mother¡¯s uterus trying to force us out. At first, it just squeezed us and pressed us together tighter. We kept getting squeezed, but there was no way out for us yet.


    I was beginning to get excited as I knew we were about to get out. We were about to be born. We simply had to wait for the cervix to open far enough that we could fit through it. After we kept getting pushed together like this, there was one point where I noticed I was not getting pressed against my sibling¡¯s head and torso anymore. I felt my face press into my sibling¡¯s knees.


    ¡®Oh, looks like I am going to be the younger twin then.¡¯ That was all that I was able to really think in this moment. I have to admit, there actually was something of a slight sense of disappointment, but I was able to become content with it quickly. Soon after this, I could not feel my sibling¡¯s feet anymore as another contraction began to push me through an even tighter space than the cramped area I was in before. I felt as though my eyes were going to be squeezed out of my head as I could feel my skull actually deforming in order to make it through such a narrow passage. It was probably impossible for my eyes to pop out though. They wouldn¡¯t have anywhere to go. Even if they came out the walls of this tight passage would only push them back in.


    I could feel something cold against the top of my head. For the first time, I felt something other than the static warmth inside of my mother¡¯s womb. Now I could feel the cold of the outside. With the next contraction, my entire head emerged. Everything was a sea of fuzzy white. I could hear the sound of a baby crying. After this, the rest of my body was expelled from my mother¡¯s warm insides, and the cold air assailed every part of my body.


    It was an incredibly unpleasant experience. Frankly, I hated it. Logically, I knew it was perfectly natural. On an uncontrollable visceral level though, it was a very traumatic experience for me. To make matters worse, I felt as though I was choking as I began to cough and fluids were expelled from my mouth and nose and then ran down my face. I quickly began crying, and the powerful heaves of my cries caused even more liquid to be forced out of my lungs as I took my first breaths of air in this new life.


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 Chapter 1: An Infant Can Do Nothing

    Note From the Author


    There is some emphasis placed on foreign language in this story. As such, rather than simply write some gibberish like @#$$%^, I have opted to put together a custom language.


    (Don''t give me too much credit for that, it''s heavily based on another previously created custom language, namely Tolkien''s Elvin language. I have added several of my own words and rearranged the grammar to fit in with more of a structure similar to Latin-based "Romance" languages rather than the Germanic languages. (FYI, English is a Germanic language.))


    At any rate, at this point in the story, you should not be too disturbed by the fact that characters are talking a language you cannot understand. You are not supposed to. The point here is that the reader feels the same way that the characters in the story do.


    Warning: There are some points where the use of the foreign language is rather heavy. Once again though, the reader is given all the information that the MC can piece together, so hopefully you can grasp enough of what''s going on to figure things out despite not knowing what''s being said.


    1st Arc: Infancy


    Act 1: Neural Growth


    Being reborn, gaining a second life after your first life has ended. No, it¡¯s more than just that. Being reborn with your memory of your previous life fully intact. Such a concept, it sounds quite wonderful doesn¡¯t it? It effectively becomes a way to cheat death, and there are scant few people who wouldn¡¯t like the idea of such a thing.


    I had realized such a thing as I was in the womb of my mother for my second life. It was a rather curious experience being in the womb. Rather peaceful to the point I had lost track of the time that I was in there. The fact that my developing fetal brain could not properly process most of my previous life¡¯s memories likely had something to do with this as well. It was a rather curious thing. I had memories of things I couldn¡¯t fully understand in the mental state I had in my fetal stage. In fact, all I wanted to actually do was sleep in the warmth and gentle cradling of my mother¡¯s womb, snuggled against my twin who shared this space with me. For all of my fetal development, this was the most of the good my previous life¡¯s memories did for me. I was able to understand that the bony thing I kept bumping up against was my sibling, someone who would be with me for my young life, a built in first friend, and that brought an indescribable warm feeling to my heart before I was even born.


    That¡¯s the thing though. That is the one thing my previous life¡¯s memories could never prepare me for. No, because of my previous life¡¯s memories, I knew it was going to happen. However, those memories could never prepare me for how painful the process of being born was going to be. After spending so long in this comfortable space, the warm gentle walls around me suddenly began squeezing me tight. I could feel my sibling suddenly slip away, and I knew that I had just become the younger twin. This was not that big a deal. However, next it was my turn to be forced through the birth canal. In this process, I could feel it as my skull began to squeeze and deform, the plates of my skull literally shifting around in order to allow my head to pass through. I felt as though my eyes would burst from my sockets, and likely the only thing to keep them in was the fact that there was no room for them to pop out in the first place. Pressure was being put on my head from every single direction.


    After this though, things only became worse, because what I was being forced out into was a cold environment that shocked my system compared to where I just was, and as my eyes were exposed to the light for the first time I found it extremely harsh. My ears could hear the sound of crying nearby, my twin sibling who had been born just before me was wailing their lungs out hard. And, due to my memories of my previous life, I knew that it was essential to my survival that I do the same. As I felt some hands begin to gently cradle my body, I forced my little lungs to work. I could feel the amniotic fluid being forced from my mouth as my body expelled it from my lungs, and I began to cough, sputter, and cry, giving my lungs a hard workout in order to accept air for the first time.


    I did not have to force myself to cry. After all the harsh physical experiences I was going through, it was more like there was no way to keep myself from crying. My memories from my previous life informed me of what was going on, but it was still a harsh experience and I did not like it at all. I was a lot tougher than this in my previous life. I had learned to deal with harsh experiences without making so much as a complaint or grunt or unpleasant face, but after spending my gestation time in my mother¡¯s womb it was as though the harsh lessons I had trained into my body were all forgotten.


    I could not track what was happening to my tiny newborn body. I may have known what to expect, but that didn¡¯t stop me from feeling completely disoriented. Before I knew it, I was being held and cradled to someone¡¯s chest, and I heard a feminine voice. I could not hear what was being said, and the words sounded very indistinct. However, I had heard this voice a lot while I was in the womb, and I found it comforting. This had to be the voice of my mother. Of our mother. I could feel my twin sibling held close to me as well. This also allowed me to calm down. The light assailed my eyes, it was cold, and the warm liquid no longer supported my body. However, being held tightly in my mother¡¯s arms with my sibling nearby felt so much like what I had come to expect, it gave me a sense of familiarity, and I was soon able to calm my crying and relax into my mother¡¯s arms.


    -


    I must have fallen asleep at some point after being held by my mother like that, because the next time I became aware of my surroundings I was swaddled in a blanket, and as I shifted about I could feel myself rolling around. There was nobody holding or supporting me at this point. I tried my best to open my eyes and look around to figure out where I was and what my surroundings were like. Up until now, I had been in my mother¡¯s womb. There was not really much I could do to figure out about what my new life was going to be like, so all I really could do was sleep and try to think about somethings with my developing fetal brain in order to make sense of the situation in the times where my body just wouldn¡¯t sleep anymore.


    Now, I was no longer in the womb. I could try to figure out what was going on. However, I was only met with a disappointment as I tried to open my eyes. I could not make out any details of the things I was looking at as I tried to look around. Everything just seemed like a blur. I could see splotches of lighter and darker places. My ears could not work properly either. There were voices around me, but they all seemed fairly muffled. Actually, they also seemed rather high pitched. Perhaps I was in a nursery with several other newborn infants. That¡¯s it, I must be at a hospital. But no, something seemed wrong with that idea. Those were definitely voices I was hearing. Other newborns would not be talking.


    I was getting confused, and in my confusion I was getting frustrated over the fact I couldn¡¯t figure out what was going on. Before I even knew it, I had started crying. Crying was a very important thing for an infant. It was an infant¡¯s only method of communication. An infant also could not do anything. An infant was completely dependent on the goodwill of the more developed members of its species to care for it, and crying was the only way the infant could attract their attention to let them know that something was wrong. If my guess was right, at minimum I was surrounded with children, which means that an adult had to be somewhere nearby. And, sure enough, after I had started crying it was not long before a pair of hands was picking me up and I could hear a feminine voice.


    I focused in on the voice speaking to me. It was a different voice from my mother¡¯s. I could tell the difference, I had never understood a word, but I had heard my mother¡¯s voice almost every time I was awake while I was inside of her for the entire time since I had gained consciousness and awareness inside of her. This woman talked to me, saying something that sounded like it was supposed to be soothing. I could only tell that from the tone though. I could hear that she was saying something, but I could not make it out. It sounded clearer than the words I heard while I was in my mother¡¯s womb, but it still sounded muffled and far away, as though I was hearing the words from the other end of a long tube.


    I tried to look at her, but I had already started crying. It was almost impossible for me to open my eyes while I was crying, and now that I had started I seemed to have a hard time calming myself down even though I wanted to stop.


    Her voice calls to someone nearby. I may not be able to understand what she is saying at all, but I can tell by her tone that she is not directing her words toward me. Soon after this, I feel myself being lowered. She begins holding me away from her chest like she is putting me down, and then I feel myself being received by another set of very small hands. The person who is holding me now is only just barely bigger than I am, and seems to be having a lot of trouble holding me. I hear this person¡¯s voice complain to the woman who handed me to them with a high-pitched voice that is definitely that of a very young child. The woman responds in some way, and I hear a lot of confused little voices around me. Apparently, the child who was holding me was part of a small crowd.


    I finally managed to get myself to stop crying, and I tried to focus in on what was going on, trying to make sense of it all. The woman made some kind of approving remark. Now, judging by the tone, it was more like she took the fact I had stopped crying was proof of something she was just telling the children she had handed me to. It had a fairly ¡°I told you so¡± feel to it, and whatever she was talking about the children seemed to be rather fascinated by it. I could sense them coming closer to me.


    Now that I had stopped crying, I opened my eyes and looked up at the child holding me. All I could see was a fuzzy roughly flesh-colored silhouette of a face framed by the fuzzier and much harder to follow darker color of their hair and the clothing they were wearing. After this, the woman said something else and then walked away. This was when something happened that really caught my attention in a big way for the first time.


    ¡°ooo uuud uuul ee uuu¡± It was still highly distorted. I could only just barely hear some of the harder consonants, and mostly it was the longer vowel sounds that stood out. However, what this child said just sounded a little like he was speaking English, and it sounded a lot like he said something like ¡°so what will we do?¡±


    ¡°aahi oon ooh, ee uhos hoo hake are oh aye ahey eeer? Uuus at eeely eeel?¡± (I don¡¯t know, we supposed to take care of a baby here? Was that really real?) I was dedicating all my efforts into understanding their words. I was not able to make out the words the woman before was saying at all, but if I really focused in on these children¡¯s words I could sorta understand them. Was that woman maybe speaking a different language? Then that would mean these children here were bi-lingual and now they were speaking English to each other.


    ¡°eel, uhe-her, eey eess. Aahi oon ooh aaaou eels oh eey ees oh.¡± (Well, whatever, I guess. I don¡¯t know about -indecipherable- so I guess so.)


    ¡°ohay¡± (Ok.)


    One of the kids said something I couldn¡¯t quite make out, but it sounded kinda important. It didn¡¯t seem like a word that made any real sense in a sentence. Something like, ¡°I don¡¯t know about¡­¡± something. Else? Hell? It sounded like he said Else, but no word I substitute into the sentence really seems to completely make sense, and trying to focus on interpreting their words is already overloading my poor newborn brain. It was already hard to figure out what was going on in this new situation, and now my brain really hurt from all the activity I made on it after not even being a day old yet.


    It seemed like the word I missed them saying held some sort of clue to the circumstances of my birth and where we were, but I really couldn¡¯t figure it out right now. After only that little bit of activity, I was starting to feel sleepy again. I could feel the two children carrying me awkwardly, actually it was almost closer to them dragging me as I thought I could feel part of the blanket being dragged across the floor.


    ¡°eey, aahi iin eeh oinn oo heep a-ain¡± I couldn¡¯t focus enough to make sense of what they were saying anymore, but I think they probably noticed my eyes getting a little droopy or something. They brought me to someplace and laid me down on something soft. They seem like pretty young kids, but they do not seem to be doing too bad a job of taking care of me. What kind of irresponsible adult gives a baby to kids this young to take care of though? I feel like they¡¯re really not much larger than me, maybe they might be just 2 or 3. That seems like a ridiculous age to be taking care of a baby. Well, so long as they don¡¯t do something that hurts me I guess that I am Ok. If they do though, all I will be able to do is cry really loud and hope an adult notices before they do something really bad to me. That¡¯s rather worrying, but for now they have not done anything to especially make me that worried. So, I decide to accept the situation as it is and fall back asleep.


    -


    For a while, things proceeded like this. The next time I woke up, I found my twin sibling next to me. I briefly wondered whether we were boys or girls, but it really wasn¡¯t important enough. The two of us were swaddled pretty tightly, covering us up and also making it so my hand couldn¡¯t even move all that much. I probably couldn¡¯t even find out with my own body anyway, babies don¡¯t have the muscles to pull themselves in the direction to look at themselves like that anyway. Oh well, I suppose I have my entire infancy to find out, so it¡¯s not like it particularly matters right this minute.


    I¡¯m not sure if I will be able to feel it or not whenever they change my diaper, but at the very least I should be able to figure it out by listening to the kids who were speaking English before. Eventually they are going to have to drop a gendered pronoun. Although, with how fuzzy I was hearing them now, would I even be able to discern the difference between ¡°he¡± and ¡°she?¡± Guess even that method won¡¯t work until my hearing develops a little more.


    On the subject of being swaddled though, I was a little surprised at how good it really did feel. It was genuinely relaxing to be bunched up so tightly in this cloth, and having my body heat kept close to me. It actually felt fairly similar to back when I was in my mother¡¯s womb, and being reminded of that familiar feeling that wasn¡¯t too far in the past for me at this point gave me comfort.


    If I were a normal baby, I might very well have continued to sit there in contentment, at least until I started to feel hungry or had some other needs. Instead, I just wanted some form of stimulation. It was strange, after living for so long in my mother¡¯s womb I had grown far more accustomed to a slower pace in life. However, now that I was out of the womb and nothing interesting had happened yet, with my memories of my past life I craved to know more about this new world I was in, even if it was just to know who would be the first to respond if I started making noise.


    ¡°Aaa! Awaowa!¡± I heard those sounds coming out of my mouth. I was suddenly fascinated by the sound of my own voice and how it sounded in my ears. My ears were my biggest hindrance at this point. My eyesight was not far behind that, but if I remembered post-natal development correctly the eyes take a lot longer to adjust to how a normal person¡¯s work than the ears. Stimulation helps the adjustment, and the eyes get zero stimulation in the womb while the ears at least get some limited stimulation.


    I listen carefully to the sounds around me. I can still hear some people far off. No, I want to hear those kids speaking English again. If I can hear them, maybe I can speed up the rate at which my ears develop, at least a little. ¡°Awaoaoa! Awaaa! Awaowa!¡± I start to pipe up my voice to demand more insistently.


    ¡°Heey maa, laio kue naa¡± I hear a voice and try to make out what it¡¯s saying. The best I can get is ¡°Hey ma¡¯¡± for the first part, but I can sense people coming closer. They seem a little bigger than the kids from before, but they still seem to be kids. Considering they came immediately after saying that, maybe they were saying something about me being cute?


    ¡°Aowa!¡± I continue to babble as best I can.


    ¡°Ahh! ru quennaa ryien¡± Something about a queen? No, that¡¯s not right. I realize soon enough that this isn¡¯t English at all. They¡¯re speaking that other language before. It wasn¡¯t long at all before I felt myself being picked up. These were definitely small arms, but not so small as the ones who I was given to the first time I woke up. They also seemed to be children.


    I felt somehow satisfied being held in this child¡¯s arms, but somehow despite how clumsy it was I felt like I liked the really little kids who were holding me the first time more. I did still like it though, and as I was being held in the kid¡¯s arms I could feel myself drifting back off to sleep once again.


    -


    There were several more episodes like this. I would awake several times, every time I seemed to be surrounded by children who would immediately come up to me and hold me the moment I woke up. I found it strange that it always seemed to be children tending to me, there seemed to never be any adults. Wasn¡¯t this really irresponsible of the adults around to leave babies to children?


    Soon enough though, I also realized something else was strange. Actually, by far the strangest thing about it was that it took me this long to notice. I had woken up and fallen asleep several times now. I have lost all track of my sense of time by this point, but I¡¯m almost certain at least a day has past. Probably more than that. However, not once has my mother, or at least a nurseing-age woman or something, come around to nurse me. Not just that, these kids have not even given me a bottle or anything of the sort.


    I started to panic a little bit when I realized this. I began crying really loudly with all I had as I thought about how this probably meant I was starving to death. I didn¡¯t feel unwell now, but I was sure it would only really be a matter of time.


    The children came over to me as they usually did, and somehow I felt a calm come over me immediately. However, I couldn¡¯t let that stop me. If I stopped crying now, how were they going to understand the problem? After I wavered for a moment when I felt myself being picked up, I immediately forced another cry out of my lungs, and as the children seemed to be trying to talk to each other with a panicked sound to their voice, I kept on crying.


    I don¡¯t know how long I had to cry for in order to get them to do something different. I really didn¡¯t understand, how could it be so hard for them to figure out they have to feed a baby? At any rate, I kept it up. I kept crying and crying, getting my voice louder and fiercer as they didn¡¯t seem to be doing much of anything.


    Eventually, I heard a deeper female voice approaching.


    ¡°Levin ri'' Rolwen a'' ho ona he` ume lle?¡± I could hear her saying something. My ears had improved to this point now to where they were fully developed, I had understood a few of the English speaking kids perfectly. I still couldn¡¯t quite make any sense at all of what this woman was saying though. It was another language after all. That didn¡¯t matter though. An adult woman seemed to be in front of me at last.


    I felt the adult hands around me and I calmed my crying to a few whimpers as the woman cradled me away from her body in such a way that would allow her to look at me. She let out a sigh and cradled me close to her chest. This was it! Finally! But¡­ the next expected step never came. All she did was just cradle me against her chest.


    ¡°Rashwe naa amin uma il- sinta manke tuulo'', nan'' sii'' he` nalla naa n''ner¡± The woman seemed to be talking to the children with a content tone. I could feel her grip starting to relax a little. Was she not going to feed me? I began trying to shake as best I could as I made my protest known. I tried to grab her chest to indicate what it was I wanted, but at this time the swaddling that I had found so comfortable before was working against me in a major way. As my protest was continuing to be met with no result, I began crying once again, this time I would not stop until she did something about this.


    ¡°Ah! il- quel! Rashwe mani naa?¡± She let out a heavy sigh. ¡°N''uma, he` helma naa il- quel. Levin, kwara he` tenna'' amin brien n''alaquel Eirlathion tura.¡±


    With those words that I could not understand, I was handed from the woman over to what felt from the hands to be the youngest child in the room. After that, I couldn¡¯t even see the shadowy silhouette of the woman anymore as my head was turned away from her by the awkward grip of the small child. However, I was still able to plainly hear the sounds of her footsteps rapidly retreating. Actually, she sounded like she was in quite a hurry by the sounds of her footsteps.


    ¡°Mani naa goien no''? Yassen he` rashwe mani naa?¡±


    ¡°Sinta amin uma il-, genil naa re?¡±


    ¡°Eden¡¯ta uma re anta?¡±


    ¡°Tel''Quessir uma il- anta eden¡¯ta Idn''uma!¡±


    The kids all seemed to be getting pretty lively. I could not understand the language, but I could detect a tone of concern in their voices. Were they worried about me? I just need food! I need to eat! Why can¡¯t they understand that!?


    As far as I go though, I was so stunned about the woman just walking away like that I was no longer able to even cry out in my concern. However, it somehow felt really nice to be held like this by this small child. Before long, I felt myself drifting off to sleep once again.


    -


    It seemed like the next time I woke up was far shorter than any time I had slept before. In fact, I heard murmuring around me and there were a lot of the same children who seemed to be around. There was something different here though. I opened my eyes and saw a shadowy figure crouched down over me. There was something different about what I felt with this person around. Something¡­ it felt like something was lacking, but something about it also felt familiar.


    ¡°Rashwe lye elea mani ta naa¡± The figure spoke in a deep masculine sounding voice. An adult man then. It took me a little bit to remember why he might be here, but then I remembered how concerned all the kids were.


    As he held up his hand, I started to sense something very different. Something that reminded me of something from my previous life. It felt peaceful as I was reminded of it, and I allowed my mind to calm and my worries washed away as I felt the feeling of allowing my frustrations to fall off of me and into a void. I could feel the sudden shift in my mind, it was as though my thinking suddenly became more clear. I became more aware of my body. I still hadn¡¯t nursed once since I was born, but as I focused more on my body I realized I really didn¡¯t feel weak like I should if that was going to be an issue.


    ¡°Mani!?¡± The man holding his hand to me said something and sounded rather surprised. I still couldn¡¯t see much more than his silhouette due to my newborn eyes, but I could tell from the motion of his shoulders that something was upsetting him. Wait, he got upset while he was examining me. That should mean maybe there actually IS something wrong with me then, right? I began to get scared. ¡°Il- quel sina naa. He` templa limbe duna ar'' lova ten'' n''uma casta¡±


    ¡°Mani uma-aya?¡±


    ¡°Sinta il- uma amin. Ten'' sii'' kela he` yassen tanya hin ve'' re naa¡±


    There was some noisy murmuring at the man¡¯s words that made me really wish I could understand the language they were speaking.


    ¡°Can you understand what he said was wrong?¡±


    There! Thank freaking god almighty one of the English speaking kids were holding me, and he seemed to be close enough to the other that they were talking to each other.


    ¡°I don¡¯t, I still can¡¯t understand much. I think he said something about you holding her?¡±


    Well, that¡¯s not particularly helpful after all. But wait! I DID hear something else. It wasn¡¯t the thing I was wanting to hear at the moment, but he just referred to me as ¡°her¡± didn¡¯t he? Well, that answers one question I was wondering about. If it weren¡¯t for the situation right now, I might have celebrated in my mind at finally learning what my gender was in this life. Now however I was a little bit too worried to care.


    ¡°Quenaien a'' ilye n''at ron naa. Sinta uma lle i'' lammen ron quena?¡±


    ¡°Amin il- uma, voro a'' ilye n''at ron quena ve'' tanya ilya i'' coiasira. Sinta amin il- uma tanya lammen¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ Tir-sen amin. I'' taurn quel a'' kela i'' laito yassen sen.¡±


    The man seemed to be in a discussion with the woman, the only two adults in the room having a serious conversation that I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of. Or rather, I could at least tell enough to know I had to be worried. It was so incredibly frustrating not knowing the language they were speaking.


    After a little bit of this going on, the man walked away. A short time later, the woman seemed to be leaning down close to me again. Well, given the situation here, there was only one thing that made sense to me. That was the very thing that got me panicking in the first place. With an adult woman so close by, I began trying hard to thrash about and free my hands from this tight blanket that was restricting me in order to reach for her. When I couldn¡¯t I found myself getting frustrated way too easily and I began crying loudly.


    ¡°Ucar-amin, shhh¡­ shhh..¡± She began rubbing my head as she knelt over me, but of course being caressed was not what I was after. ¡°Nwalmaien he` amin naa re''na beien sinome. Levin, Rolwen, malia ten'' he` lle caela a'' sii''. Saesa malia ten'' he` eithel. Ilya en'' lle, saesa alya-sen mali-laito.¡±


    ¡°Ahhh¡­ uhh..¡± It seemed by the response of the child holding me that she had asked him to do something. He didn¡¯t really seem to understand what this woman was saying either, although he did seem to understand better than I could. The unsure response he gave seemed to be something along the lines of a ¡°smile and nod¡± sort of response, and it seemed as though the woman was pleased with it.


    ¡°Diola Levin. Rolwen, lle kwara-aya Gaerien, he` helma naa sai¡¯ il-quel. Il-lamya re karne ai''. Sinome. I¡¯ winimo alya-sen yassen edenat.¡± The woman gave instructions to some of the other children around and they seemed to be moving about in response. From what I could tell, they seemed to be rather concerned and the subject of their concern seemed to be me. If they were that concerned, why couldn¡¯t any of them see I just needed to eat? Or rather, at my age, nurse. After giving these instructions, the woman left. If the woman¡¯s voice weren¡¯t so tender I would assume the children were concerned because she just said something outrageous like her intentionally leaving me to die. In this case though, I was just baffled.


    Then there was a more concerning thought. What about my sibling? Sister, is it? My twin at any rate. She(?) has not been really making any noise. Is she nearby? I try to look around, but still all I can make out are strange slightly skin-tone dark silhouettes, and I can¡¯t move my head very far. It cannot even be described how frustrating it is to not be able to do anything as I am now trapped in the body of an infant. All I really can do is just cry and hope that somebody will respond in a way that will meet my needs.


    New edit Author''s Note


    When I first started writing this series, I didn''t know exactly what direction I was going to take it in terms of progressing the character for the first parts of their life. I knew roughly the events I wanted to have happen, but not how things were going to be paced. As it has turned out that the pacing as related to the time progression is actually pretty slow and the MC grows up rather slowly, I thought it best to be as up front as possible about that.


    In the spirit of this, as of 4/17/2019 as I am writing this new author''s note, I have decided that this series will be divided both into thematically related arcs as well as acts that, at this time of finishing the 1st act, are meant to have a rough 3 act structure. In accordance with the 3 act structure, the 1st act will merely be introduction and build-up of concepts and you should not expect much intensity from the action. The really serious stuff will be around the end of the 2nd act and the entire body of the 3rd act.


    More to the point though, the entire 1st arc is called "infancy." This should very much be an indicator of the time scale you will be expecting to see from this series. I certainly think you will enjoy the series despite any misgivings you may have about what this says about the pacing. Quite a few readers already do, quite a bit. However, I do not want anyone to go into this with certain expectations. I want these things to be known up front so you will not have your enjoyment ruined by eagerly awaiting something that''s still a long way off.

 Chapter 2: What I have discovered

    It is really hard to keep track of time when you can never seem to stay awake for more than a few hours. However, since the whole confusing episode where I tried to get the attention of someone to feed me, I seem to have spent every moment being held by the small child the woman gave me to, and my sister, who I have definitely confirmed at this point is my identical twin sister, was given to this child¡¯s close friend. It¡¯s unusual for someone who doesn¡¯t even seem to be 2 years old to have a friend they interact with like this, but these children also seem to be reincarnators like myself, evidenced by the fact that they speak English at a level of fluency not normal for children their age, not to mention the fact that English does not seem to be the language spoken here.


    Actually, because we are always being held by them, it has become a lot easier to at least keep track of night and day. While I can¡¯t trust my own internal clock at all at this point, I can roughly keep track of how many days have gone by according to when the kid holding me is sleeping. There are some times when I will wake up where they are asleep for just a little while. These children are also rather small, so I presume they are young enough to still need naps in the middle of the day. However, there are also times when they are asleep for quite a while, I will wake up several times in a row and every time I find they are still sleeping.


    Going by how many times the children holding my sibling and I have been asleep, I figure it has been somewhere between 3 and 5 days since I was born. I have not eaten even once in that time. Under normal circumstances, I ought to be so weak from hunger I could hardly move. I would be right at death¡¯s door after only one full day of getting no nutrition as a newborn infant. However, it seemed as though I was perfectly fine. If anything, I felt like I was growing more energetic.


    There¡¯s no doubt about it. I don¡¯t know what I am, but it¡¯s quite clear I¡¯m not human. The other people around me seem to know this as well. This is why nobody even tried to feed me. They knew I didn¡¯t need it. That was one question answered. With that answer though came additional questions. If I didn¡¯t need food to live, why was it that everyone seemed so concerned when I was crying and trying to get them to give me food? Well, I can probably guess that my behavior might have been a bit strange for a child of whatever race I am. If I don¡¯t need to nurse, then of course it would be strange for me to make so much effort to get that sort of thing.


    Well, I could probably account for why they seemed so concerned, but would just that really have caused the reaction I was getting? All those children, they did seem rather worried, and they really have not let me be alone even for a second since then. It¡¯s clear there is something about me that has them very scared for me. However, the ones I have been stuck with couldn¡¯t be more than 2 years old themselves.


    That¡¯s another thing I have observed. While I can¡¯t tell exactly what anyone else is saying, the two children who are holding me and my sister seem to get yelled at every single time they even attempt to put one of us down, and we are immediately thrust back into their hands. This behavior truly does seem bizarre, but¡­ could it be some kind of clue to what species I am?


    From what I can gather, these two children seem to be the youngest children aside from my sister and I. Could it be? I am some kind of creature that is nourished by being near children? That¡¯s a scary thought in and of itself. It makes sense though. Actually, the more I think about it, the more frighteningly accurate that conjecture seems. Every time I woke up and cried before the incident a few days ago, an adult took me and put me into the hands of a child. After that, I would start to feel comfortable and drift back off to sleep. The comfort I felt, could it be because I was feeling satisfied from the nourishment I was getting from the children?


    This makes even more sense when I think that they must have actually been worried about me when I was crying before. They got so worried that they made the youngest children here, presumably the highest quality ¡°nourishment¡± available, hold me at all times. Meanwhile, the other children are made to enforce this rule to the ones holding me and my sister.


    I begin to get an extremely uneasy feeling. Now that I have had this thought, there is simply no denying it. All the evidence simply lines up. I hear a soft sigh as the child who has been with me every second of every day since I started protesting a few days ago stirs in their sleep. Now that I know that I am somehow feeding off this innocent child, I am beginning to feel an entirely different kind of uneasiness than what I had felt before. These last 3 to 5 days, I have been deathly afraid I was going to starve to death. However, now that I know that¡¯s no longer an issue, is my feeding killing this child? They don¡¯t seem to be growing weaker from what I can tell, but¡­ I¡¯m not certain what exactly I can do about it right now though. I will have to keep a close eye on them.


    Speaking of eyes, my eyesight has been improving rapidly since I was born. My vision is still a little blurry at this point, but I have started to reach the point where I can recognize things on sight. I have even spotted my twin held in the hands of the other toddling English-speaking child. In addition to this, I have also learned what our names are. I heard it from the kid holding my sister when they were speaking to the one holding me.


    ¡°Dey say theiir names are Gaerien and Aerien.¡± While they seemed to talk quite fluently, they still did not have a completely closed hard palate in their mouth, so it seemed there was still a bit of an oddity in the way they talked, lisping slightly from time to time.


    ¡°But whith one¡¯ss whithch?¡± Levin, the one holding me asked in return. Yes, in addition to our names, I also heard them calling each other by their names too.


    ¡°I don know, dey said dat the older wan who was born first is named Gaerien so the younger one is Aerien,¡± Rolwen, the other kid who¡¯s holding my sister informed him. I¡¯m not entirely sure if they are boys despite the fact that, well, we have been together for every second of every day. I am still swaddled in the same cloth I was born in after all. At any rate, their names do sound somewhat masculine, so I will assume their genders for now.


    ¡°But how do we know whi-CH one is older?¡± Levin, the one holding me, asked again.


    ¡°I dunno, maybe we just sould not call them eithher one?¡±


    ¡°Or we can keep changging wha- we call ¡®em¡± Levin made what sounded like an extremely irresponsible suggestion. What a way to confuse a child. If I didn¡¯t have my memories of my previous life, I would definitely be very confused as I tried to start learning the language of this world if I couldn¡¯t even be consistently called by the same name.


    Rolwen didn¡¯t seem very comfortable with that suggestion either. However, the irresponsible Levin just decided to go ahead with it, and so for the last few days it seemed like he(?) alternated completely randomly between calling me Aerien, which was my actual name, and Gaerien, which was supposed to be my sister¡¯s name. Perhaps I should start making it clear which one I am by just not responding whenever he calls me by my sister¡¯s name. I¡¯m not really sure how far that tactic will go at my age though. Infants aren¡¯t exactly known for their attention span to start with.


    Those are the things that I have figured out in the few days since I was reborn in this world. For an infant that is not even a week old, this could likely be seen as an extraordinary amount of awareness of the world around me. Well, really, any coherent awareness of the world around me beyond just being amazed and confused by everything is extraordinary for a newborn who is not even a week old.


    Now, however, as extraordinary as I already was, I felt it was time to start working on something else that no infant should be able to do. I was growing sick and tired of not being able to do anything in the way of communication except for cry. So, now, while everyone else was asleep, I was going to try and talk.


    ¡°Aaaaa¡­. aaaaiiiaaaiiiii¡­¡± I wanted to say the words ¡°I will try to talk,¡± but that was as close as I was able to come to merely making a sound that was similar to the first word in the sentence. Ok then, how about the alphabet?


    ¡°Aiiii¡­ bbbbb bbbbbaaaaa¡­ hahahahaha!¡± No good, I just thought about seeing myself from a parent¡¯s eyes as I was making sounds like a bleating sheep. Just imagining how cute it would be if I had walked in on one of my children or grandchildren back when they were this age making sounds like this. At any rate, it seemed like I was not going to be making sounds that were quite like what I would be able to after my mouth muscles and the motor language muscles of my brain developed better. Perhaps I would just have to feel satisfied with these close approximations. I would call these sounds so far good enough for A and B. So, let¡¯s try C now.


    ¡°Azzzzzzz zzzsssszza¡± Not even close. I don¡¯t think my mouth can form that sound yet. Ok, let¡¯s give up on it. D. ¡°aaeeeeeee. Eeee¡­ hahaha!¡± Seems like I skipped one. I was genuinely trying for a D, but no matter how I look at it that sounded like an E. This really is too cute. I wish I was my old self from my previous life looking at this child trying to talk now. I began to experience nostalgia for my children and grandchildren in my previous life. I have no regrets dying in order to keep my granddaughter alive, but¡­ I feel a pain in my heart as I begin to miss them. ¡°Aaaaaa. Aaaauuuu.¡± Well, the F I tried to attempt in order to shake of the nostalgia was a complete failure even worse than the attempt at C.


    Perhaps my infant mouth really just isn¡¯t ready for this. Or, maybe this is good exercise to improve for the future? Yes, if I learned one thing well in my previous life it¡¯s that any skill takes repeated practice, thousands and thousands of hours and millions of failures, but with every failure you learn where you went wrong and you get better, and eventually you get it right. Yes, I¡¯m trying to talk long before a child should ever even be capable of such a thing. The motor language section of my brain hasn¡¯t even developed yet.


    Under normal circumstances, what I¡¯m trying to do should be impossible. However, with my previous life knowledge, it should become possible. It¡¯s not like my brain was damaged and the motor-language section of my brain was destroyed. I have the brain of a newborn infant right now. The brain of a baby is very well known for its plasticity. If I challenge my brain to develop the motor-language section early, it will respond. All I have to do is keep practicing. ¡°Eeeee..¡± Hmm¡­ I can see a lot of As and Es in my future. The G wound up sounding like an E too.


    It was an absolute slog working my way through the entire alphabet like that, and aside from the vowels I don¡¯t think I got even a single one sounding remotely like the letter I was trying to say. By the end of it, my brain was completely burned out and I eagerly allowed sleep to overtake me. Just going through the alphabet was pure torture.


    I had always felt a degree of sympathy while working with patients in my job as a nurse when they had neurological damage. I had sympathy, but there was never any way I could relate to their experience. Now, however, I had real first hand knowledge of what it felt like to try and do something when the responsible part of your brain is simply missing. There is really no way to describe how monumental of an effort it takes just to do the simplest of tasks.


    Every time I had gone to sleep before up until now in this new life, it was either because I had cried myself to exhaustion or was lulled into a content state after being soothed by¡­ by being ¡°fed¡± by the children. The memory of my new primary concern drifted back to me in this moment. That was another reason I was going to have to learn to talk. If I could talk then maybe I could at least tell Levin and Rolwen about my suspicions and maybe ask them how they are feeling.


    Ideally I would like to not be constantly feeding off of them as I am now, but without the ability to communicate, I doubt anything I can do will convince the people around to stop forcing the two of them to constantly hold me and Gaerien at all times. Well then, that just adds a degree of urgency to my efforts to learn how to talk. I guess I had better get to it, but first, I have to sleep. This will be my first sleep from an exhaustive exercise in this new life¡­ what a truly nostalgic feeling.


    -


    Winding back the clock, on Earth and before the car wreck that had killed Aerien in her previous life. Or rather, at the time of the incident. A vehicle was driving down the road with the radio blaring. The speakers were so loud that it almost made the entire car bounce with the heavy base.


    In the front seat, two teenage boys, aged 17 and 18, were laughing and kidding around with one another. ¡°Hey, look back! Look at Karie!¡± One of them, the 17 year old passenger, said to his friend. Karie was his own 14 year old sister riding along with them in the back seat. She had both her hands clamped tightly over her ears.


    ¡°It¡¯s too loud!¡± The young girl complained, but she was unable to even hear her own voice over the loud music. However, despite her complaints, her brother and his friend only laughed at her. If she had known this trip home would be like this, she would have just waited for her parents to finish up with their boring party instead of going home with her brother.


    ¡°Haha! It¡¯s alright, you¡¯ll get used to it!¡± Her brother¡¯s friend said from the driver¡¯s seat. ¡°Wow!¡±


    ¡°Oh my God! Look out!¡± Her brother screamed in a panic. Karie looked up to see what it was that was making them scream. A car ahead of them had just collided with a mini van, and both cars had spun out and were now blocking the lane ahead of them completely. Her brother¡¯s friend slammed on the breaks, but they had been following way too close to the driver ahead of them. The sound of screeching tires against the pathment could be heard, and then, there was the heavy feeling of an impact and Karie felt her head snap forward at the same time as she saw the fragments of shattered glass from the windshield shattering rain all over her brother and his friend. The airbags had blocked most of it, but she still found the sight of all those pieces of glass raining down on her brother horrifying.


    After that, she heard screeching tires again, and then there was darkness.


    After this, the next thing she remembered was a bright light and a cold harsh air. She felt like she had just left a warm space that she had been for a while. She felt like her whole body was in pain.


    ¡®Am I in the hospital?¡¯ She thought as she tried to make sense of what had happened to her. She felt like her body was being lifted up, and then it seemed as though she was being turned upside down. She hadn¡¯t even realized that she felt like she was choking. She coughed and felt fluid being forced from her lungs, and then she heard the sound of a baby crying.


    ¡®What is that?¡¯ She thought as her body shook and shivered through the experience of expelling the water from her lungs. She wasn¡¯t sure how it had happened, but it felt as though her entire body was in pain.


    ¡°hoommm ummmm ummm unn muu nnaaa uummn.¡± She heard a very muffled sounding voice. It sounded tender, but somehow very large. She felt herself being carried and laid on something soft.


    ¡°hummm unnn um unu ummm auuu.¡± Another muffled and distorted voice was talking. Karie began to get scared at this point. Had her hearing been damaged by her brother¡¯s loud music? Soon after she had this thought though, she felt the back of her head being held. That hand seemed to be forcing her face against something soft, it was warm and soft, and kind of jelly like. All she knew though was that she hated whatever it was. She did her best to try and turn her head away, and she cried again, more and more.


    ¡®Wait, is that my voice crying? Why do I sound like a baby?¡¯


    ¡°uuu au unn ummm hamuuu unnn ahauuu nnnuu, haaa iiuuu uuu aaa iii hau ha.¡± Another voice was saying something again. It seemed like the first person who was talking before, and they seemed to be talking to someone on the other side of where Karie was now. Wait, why did this woman¡¯s voice sound like it was coming from so high up?


    ¡°Ahhh annn haa.¡± Karie felt like the entire surface she was on top of vibrated that time as she heard the voice from directly above her. No, she was starting to realize it now. The surface she was on top of was a person. This person was gigantic, or rather¡­ no way! No freaking way!


    Karie was stunned with the realization. Was she a baby now? How did this happen!? Wait, she remembered having heard some things about reincarnation, and there were starting to be some anime these days where being reincarnated was a theme of the story. Could that be¡­? Did she actually¡­ die?


    ¡°an mmuuuu haeenn. Ahhh auuu hai¡± The voice from above her¡­ her mother? If this is her mother, she was speaking to Karie again. She was still struggling as Karie tried to lift her head away from the thing her face was being squished into, but¡­ she was starting to figure out what was going on. She had just been born as a baby. This was her mother. She was trying to feed her right now. That¡¯s what was going on. Karie was still very confused and upset at the situation, but if that¡¯s what was going on then it was probably best to just cooperate with her mother. She couldn¡¯t quite see properly, so she allowed her mother¡¯s hand to guide her head, and eventually her lips were able to find the nipple she was being guided to.

 Chapter 3: Karie and Levin

    It took Karie some time to settle into her new life. Her previous life had simply ended quite suddenly, and now¡­ there was so much now coming at her all at once that she had to adapt to. Fortunately for her, however, she was just an infant and nobody expected a whole lot out of her. Whenever she was woken up or whenever she woke up on her own, the only things they wanted her to do was eat. And, occasionally she had the experience of having to have her diaper changed. It was a fairly embarrassing experience at first, but eventually she managed to accept it as all being a part of being a baby.


    So, for the most part, that was all she actually did. Just eat and sleep. In a way, it could be said that this was adapting to the situation. And, because of this, her nerves which were quite rattled at first discovering she had been reincarnated in a new life had calmed down considerably. The first step was calming down. Once her mind was calm, she was able to take stock of the situation far more calmly.


    Well, the first thing she discovered was that the language people spoke here was definitely not English. It was hard for her to understand what the people were saying at all at first, but eventually their voices stopped all sounding like muffled yammering as her hearing improved. Actually, she was very glad to discover her hearing was not damaged. However, getting her hearing back did not help her understand much at all because everyone was talking some foreign language.


    The second thing she discovered, well, using anime for reference, she actually somewhat expected it. It looked like the technology level of this world was pretty low. She was reincarnated into some medieval world. It was not all bad for her though. Lacking any kind of crib and living in a noisy house full of siblings, she was with her mother almost all the time, even at night. She slept between her mother and her father, and she was strapped to her mother¡¯s back as she went around doing housework.


    The final significant thing she discovered came a while later. It wasn¡¯t until she gained the ability to lift her head. She couldn¡¯t even do that much at first when she was just born. It¡¯s very frustrating being a baby and not being able to even move your own body much. However, at 2 months of age, she finally gained the ability to lift her head, and then during one of her diaper changes she was able to look down between her legs. It was at that time that she discovered that she wasn¡¯t actually a ¡°she¡± at all.


    ¡®I changed genders!¡¯ Karie realized as she stared down between her legs at her genitals that were the opposite of what she was expecting to see. Karie¡¯s heart was racing upon this new discovery. She¡­ or rather ¡°he¡± now, had not felt this panicked since, well, since first being born 2 months ago and regaining the memories of her.. or his past life in that same moment.


    The more Karie discovered about this new life, the more the ability to hold onto her past identity as ¡°Karie¡± in her former life began to break down. Maybe if Karie had been reborn as a girl again she would be able to continue thinking she had just become an infant again and she was still Karie inside, but now she was a boy. This really turned her entire sense of identity on its head. She really didn¡¯t suppose some form of gender reassignment surgery would be available in this medieval setting, so continuing to live as a girl definitely did not seem like an option.


    Karie had a fairly hard time from that point forward. She/he began to feel more and more unsure of their place in this world, and how they should approach it. Ironically enough though, being reborn as a boy seemed to serve as a kind of blessing of sorts. If it weren¡¯t for that, it may have taken her a lot longer to learn the language of this world. Before this, Karie had simply allowed everything the people around her were saying to fly right over her head since she couldn¡¯t understand any of it. However, now that her sense of identity as Karie was shattered, ¡°he¡± began to give up his attachments to his previous life and, in doing so, began to pay a little more attention to what the people around him were saying.


    He eventually identified one word he kept hearing over and over again, especially when his mother was breast feeding him. He assumed that was probably his name. ¡°Levin.¡± That was his new name in this new life. He was no longer the 14 year old Karie Williamson. Now, he was the 2 month year old Levin.


    ¡®Levin.¡¯ With his sense of identity as Karie Williamson destroyed as such, he began to roll his new name over and over again in his head. He had not learned many other words yet, but he wanted to latch on to that one strongly. ¡®Levin.¡¯ That was his new name. That was the first building block in rebuilding his new identity in this life. Something deep down inside him knew that clinging on to Karie Williamson was only going to harm him in his new life.


    ¡®I¡¯m a boy now.¡¯ He said to himself. ¡®I¡¯m a boy named Levin. I¡¯m not a girl, I¡¯m a boy. I¡¯m not a girl anymore.¡¯ But wait, if this was the medieval period, wasn¡¯t it better to be a boy? Girls were not treated very well in this time period, right? It was weird to suddenly be a boy, but maybe this was all for the best? Levin was not too certain about all this, but he figured he still had a lot more babyhood ahead of him to figure this all out.


    -


    Several months went by in this way. Levin did not leave his mother¡¯s back or even get placed on the ground until he was a full year old. In that time, he had begun to learn enough of the language that he could at least get the gyst of what people were saying to him. One day, just before his first birthday, his mother decided to have him try to walk. She supported him with her hands by holding his hands over his head.


    Some babies who had never been set on the ground once might have had a lot of trouble in this situation, but because he had his knowledge from his previous life, he knew exactly what she was doing and did his absolute best to accommodate her. He stayed upright and held on tightly to her hands, and then with her help he took several steps across the floor.


    ¡°Very good!¡± His mother praised him. ¡°At this rate, I won¡¯t have to carry you everywhere anymore. You can walk on your own.¡± Was she that eager to get rid of him? Well, that¡¯s fine. Levin was eager to be able to get out on his own as well. Also, Levin was sorta amazed that after only one year he was able to understand that much of the language here. He couldn¡¯t talk yet, but he could understand quite a bit. Were all babies always like this in terms of learning a language?


    His mother helped him walk several more times throughout the day, and by the end of it he was quite exhausted. He slept well that night. There was no celebration when his birthday passed. He barely even knew about it. At some point somebody just casually said that he was one year old at this point. In the meantime, Levin was walking more and more. Eventually, he started being allowed to walk around on his own even though he had to hold onto everything in order to keep himself upright.


    At some point, as this was going on, Levin had a bitter-sweet realization. Sometime soon, he was probably going to stop sleeping in his parents¡¯ bed. In such a small house, his siblings all wound up sharing the same bed. He had several siblings too. I hadn¡¯t taken time to count before, but it looked like there were over six of them older than he was. He knew there were both older brothers and also older sisters, but he had never had the focus to get a good count of them. He was sure though that it was going to be very rowdy sleeping with a group like that.


    Constant elbows in the face, squabbling before they could get to bed and fighting and bickering. He had had several experiences of his mother getting up late at night to scold them, and soon he would be sleeping with that crowd. Well, it was part of growing up in this world. It probably goes to show how much Levin had grown accustomed to this new world though that he did not feel the need to complain in his mind about how difficult it was to live what was clearly a peasant life.


    -


    That night, just outside the outskirts of the village where Levin was born, hidden beneath the concealment of the tree line, a tall man with long beautiful flowing brown hair looked out over the ramshackle houses with sharp eyes. He couldn¡¯t help but smirk as he watched the peasant villagers come in one by one to their houses and the small flame torches they used for light go out one by one signifying they were each going to sleep.


    ¡°So, what do you think elder?¡± A young scout with long blond hair tied back with straps of leather approached him.


    ¡°It¡¯s an amazing find,¡± he says, ¡°It¡¯s just as you said, the children of this village seem to have incredibly strong spirits. They will be perfect. The newcomer¡¯s child will grow up very strong if we can take these children back to them.¡± It was not common for the elder to come out on his own this far away from the settlement. There was only one occasion for it, and that was when he came out with a group to hunt for the human children necessary for a newborn baby to the settlement.


    Normally, if it is only for the adults in the village, it will be fine to lure in one or two human children every couple of years or so, a single hunter who finds a human child wandering in the woods on their own is good enough to accomplish this task. However, when it comes to a newborn baby, a rare event that happens only once every other decade or so with the low birth-rate of their race, a far larger number is needed and in order to get the children with the strongest spirits they need to get children so young their parents would usually not allow them to stray far enough from the house to be lured.


    For such a high risk operation, several hunters needed to be dispatched, and their elder had also come along as well in order to witness the event. He had overseen many operations like this in his long lifetime. A child may only be born every few decades, but in his lifespan of several hundred years he had seen several dozens of children born to his tribe.


    This time, the hunt was not for the child of one of his own tribeswomen though. Just a little under two years ago, a scouting party had gone out to investigate an area on the far side of the forest. It was technically well outside of their territory, but for an event this monumental it was worth exploring and finding out what had happened. It was said an entire section of the forest was simply wiped out, and the scouts went to investigate.


    On their way back, they had brought a woman wearing torn cloths and covered in wounds. The scouts had said they found her village ransacked, and the residents were killed. The searched the village, but found only her alive, and they had brought her back with them to their own settlement. Later, it turned out that that woman was pregnant, apparently before she had even been brought in. It seemed to be a surprise to her as well. Regardless though of whether she was an outsider or not, and regardless of how she seemed to have her own mixed feelings about the discovery of this pregnancy after the tragedy of loosing everyone she knew in the raid on her village, it was still true that a baby was coming. And, to a race with such a low birth rate, every single birth is a cause for great celebration.


    The elder looked across the young hunters who had come with him, so eager to bring back a good catch for the sake of this outsider¡¯s baby. The elder couldn¡¯t help but smile at their determination. It was good to see the outsider had already been completely accepted. Well, the fact that she bought a new baby to the village with her likely had a lot to do with how quickly she was accepted. The entire village had been bustling with excitement ever since they found out.


    In this time especially, every birth is precious. The raids by the corrupted fallen dark elves had increased lately. This was the disturbing side to the newcomer¡¯s news. The identity of her village¡¯s attackers.


    Good news wrapped inside of a lot of bad, the elder had a sour expression on his face as he recalled the difficult tidings that had come along with the newcomer they had invited in and let out a sigh.


    ¡°Well then,¡± he said in a low voice. ¡°We will just have to make the most of the tragedy of the newcomer¡¯s village two years ago. Her child will be born soon now. Let¡¯s make sure the child is bathed in the light of these strong human children when it sees the world for the first time.¡± There were nods all around as the hunters looked to the houses ahead of them.


    The leader of this operation, a veteran hunter, gave a signal with his hand. On his signal, one other hunter rushed ahead as a scout to check that the humans were asleep. Everyone watched in anticipation as their figure raised the hood on their cloak and rushed forward, eventually vanishing from even the sight of their trained eyes as they blended in with the tall grass. This was not to say they were hiding in the grass per-say. Rather, it was the magic of the cloak they were wearing.


    This was the cloak traditionally worn on these large operations, specially designed and enchanted with special magic known only to their people. This magic allowed the wearer to blend in with anything by mimicking the appearance of whatever was around them. Once it was fed magic, the texture and patterns on the surface of the normally monocolor gray cloak would change to look like whatever was behind it as though the observer was looking right through the person. It was not invisibility. Rather, a disguise that looked perfectly identical to whatever was behind them. And, so long as the one wearing it did not move too quickly, it would be almost impossible to spot them.


    That said, with the limitations of the cloak, the fact that this scout could disappear so completely even from the eyes of these trained hunters was truly saying something. Once he had gotten a certain distance away, even the ripple that could be seen on the air as the cloak adjusted to whatever was on the other side of the person wearing it could no longer be seen.


    Normally, when a scout goes out like this, all eyes would be on the scout as they eagerly waited for the report back. However, since the scout had completely vanished as a testament to their great skill as a hunter, the young and fresh eager members of the group were forced to only look at each other with light chuckles and anticipation of what was to come.


    In this time, the elder went over in his mind what was going to happen in this operation. The scouts from before had reported there were two children around one year of age who seemed to have a particularly strong spirit. Better yet, they each had several older siblings, around a half dozen each.


    The elder grinned upon reviewing this information. The scout had said these youngest children were strong of spirit, but exactly how strong? From the sounds of it, it was enough to amaze the scout. According to them, the strong waves of human spirit he was feeling from two of the houses here were all coming from only the two children in question. The elder found this fairly hard to believe. However, if it was true, perhaps these human children could be useful for more as they grew up. What¡¯s more, if it was true, just the two children could very well be enough to keep the new baby well nourished on their own.


    No, they would take the older siblings as well. At least the ones who were younger than 10 years of age. They knew form experience, the older siblings could serve as sort of care takers for the younger siblings. Even if they are not necessary for the new baby, at the very least they can help look after the younger siblings and keep them in line.


    They would have to be careful though. Sometimes a lone hunter may lure a young human old enough to be considered an adult, but in this case they couldn¡¯t risk such a thing. The older they are, the more suspicion they have. Several of them at that age know to be weary of accepting the food given to them by those of their race. It could pose quite a hassle if the older siblings prevent the younger siblings from eating anything they are offered.


    At about this time, the hunters waiting in the trees all heard the sound of a certain bird. It was the call of a bird not local to this area, but very well known to all of them. All of them stiffened up when they heard it and smiles of satisfaction spread across every one of their faces as they looked from one to the other. That was the signal, the scout had just indicated that they were clear to approach. With nods to one another, they all as one put up the hoods of their own cloaks identical to the one the scout from before was wearing and they all vanished from sight. Someone who was looking very closely might see the ripple of the cloak¡¯s pattern adjusting to the changing environment around it, but for all practical purposes the hunters had become invisible. This went for their faces as well. While no fabric was covering their faces, the magic of the cloak extended down over even the areas not covered by it.


    Once the hunters had left, the elder looked to the wagon they had brought with them. It was unusual for them to bring any kind of vehicle or a horse, but for something like this it was necessary. He nodded to the woman sitting inside and she picked up a flute. This woman was brought along specifically for this reason. It could be said that she had one of the most important jobs in this operation. Her ability to play the mystic flute that would calm and ease the minds of the human children as they brought them back to the settlement.


    The elder went back to the edge of the forest, watching in anticipation. Just like him, these hunters had been on several operations like this one, and he had worked with them every single time. He knew their skill very well. It would not take very long at all. And, sure enough, it wasn¡¯t even a minute after the hunters had set out that he felt the powerful spirit light that he had senses ever since they came to this village growing closer. He watched as the tall grass was disturbed as the hunter in question hurried back to the cover of the trees. Seeing this, the elder began running back to the wagon just in time to hear the soft and nearly imperceptible disturbance in the leaves of the forest floor keeping pace with him.


    Once several steps into the tree cover, the gray cloaked figure appeared right next to the elder as the returning hunter had stopped supplying his cloak with magic. The elder placed a hand on the hunter¡¯s shoulder as he looked under the cloak at where he was holding a small sleeping child who looked like they were barely even a year old. The child slept wrapped in a blanket often used to fasten infants to their mother¡¯s side. This sight caused the elder¡¯s heart to beat more quickly in the realization. This would mean the infant had been lifted straight from their parents¡¯ bed! That was an incredibly high-risk maneuver, but with the incredible spiritual power the elder could feel coming from this infant he could see exactly why that risk was entirely worth it.


    ¡°Alright, you did good.¡± The elder said approvingly. Several more hunters came immediately after this in the same manner, delivering sleeping children ranging from the size and age greatly, but every one of them under 10 years of age from what the elder could tell. Human children grew so much faster than the children of his own people, but he had a lot of experience in estimating a human child¡¯s age by this point and could roughly tell the ages of these children.


    Soon after this wave of returning hunters, the elder could feel another powerful sign of a human child¡¯s spirit that easily rivaled the first. It seemed the hunting party that went to the other house had returned as well.


    ¡°It¡¯s true, just these two infants can more than account for a couple dozen normal human children. They may really be something incredible as they grow.¡± The elder mused to the approving glances of his tribesmen. He looked over the returning hunters and began to do a head-count. Confirming that every one of them had successfully returned, he gave the signal to move out. One of the hunters quickly climbed to the front of the wagon and urged the horse forward, four scouts immediately ran ahead to confirm the trail, two stayed behind to watch for any sign of movement in the village should the kidnapping they just completed be noticed, and another two boarded the wagon in the back to watch the children.


    This left the elder and six more hunters to walk along side the wagon, confirming the course and watching for any nearby danger that may appear. And, once they were a short distance away from the village, a mysterious melody of a flute began to play from the wagon. It was a soft melody like a lullaby, but it had a large feeling to it with a lot of long notes held as though to invoke images of a river and rolling hills in a beautiful countryside.


    Just like clockwork, they had executed the operation like a machine. Every person who came knew their place in the machine, and every person who came executed their role perfectly. In only the space of 3 minutes, 9 children had been taken from that village between two households, and the culprits who had taken them were now making a hasty escape with the abducted children who were handled so tenderly that without a single sleeping agent or spell of any kind had not even stirred once during the entire experience.

 Chapter 4: On the way back

    Levin woke up to the unfamiliar feeling of the rocking carriage of the wagon, and the sound of an entrancing melody played on a flute. As he looked around, he was surrounded by what appeared, to the best of what he could recall peeking from being held on his mother¡¯s back all his life, to be his siblings also sleeping all around him. Right next to him though, there was another infant who looked like they might be a lot closer to his own age.


    All the others seemed to still be asleep from what he could tell. However, there were some other people around. Adults that he had never seen before. One was the woman playing the flute, she wore a rather beautiful dress. Then, as he looked around, he saw two more women wearing green colored cloths that seemed to be covered in some animal furs in some places.


    ¡®Oh, they¡¯re wearing pants.¡¯ For some reason Levin found this somewhat noteworthy. He tried to think on why he would have such an impression, it¡¯s not like he hadn¡¯t seen women wearing pants before, even though that was in his previous life. In fact, back when he was Karie, she had liked to wear jeans everywhere.


    ¡®Oh! Wait! THAT¡¯S the problem!¡¯ Levin came to the realization, even his father hadn¡¯t worn pants in this world. Instead, he just had some cloth draped over his shoulders. Come to think of it, it actually didn¡¯t look all that different from what his mom wore. At the level of poverty his parents were living at, there wasn¡¯t really such a thing as men¡¯s and women¡¯s clothing.


    ¡®They look tough!¡¯ Yes, these women looked far more fit and far better fed than anyone he had seen in his one year of life in his peasant family. It was ridiculous to think, but he was forced to wonder if one of these women had the idea to beat up any guy in the village.


    Actually, come to think of it, they looked to be at about the same standard for proper nourishment as everybody back in Levin¡¯s previous life. However, it was not just that they were getting enough to eat, they were also clearly quite physically fit as even for women they had quite a bit of visible muscle in their arms.


    ¡°Maa, er en'' taurn-val laito kuile.¡± One of them turned to the other. But wait, what language was that? Levin had only just barely managed to start learning the language his parents were speaking, but this sounded like an entirely different language again. Also, their voice sounded pretty deep. Was that actually a guy and not a woman!? Levin, despite his knowledge from his previous life, was still unable to hide his shock at the realization since his reactions were still very much those of a baby. A look of shock and horror completely warped his face, and he could feel a frustrating and uncontrollable urge to start crying all of a sudden. It was a cascade reaction of emotions stemming from his surprise at this long haired and smooth featured man that his infant brain had next to no control over at all despite his previous life memories.


    ¡°Oh, gorga ho lle ume.¡± The other one spoke up. This one actually was a woman¡¯s voice. ¡°Hmm, sut ten'' sina? Mata-aya lle ve''?¡±


    The woman seemed to have seen the distressed look on Levin¡¯s face or something, because she came over to him in a very soothing manner. Levin could not understand a word she was saying, but with the soothing tone combined with the calming music the other woman was playing, Levin found it rather easy to calm down and managed to bring himself under control before he broke out crying.


    He noticed something though, the woman didn¡¯t just come up to him. She also seemed to be holding out and offering something to him, something that looked like a piece off of a small scone or something like that. Was she trying to give him something to eat?


    Whether it was because of the activity nearby, or for the same reasons that Levin woke up, the other children all began waking up one by one at about this point. They all seemed to look a little confused as they opened their eyes. They each seemed a little started at first, waking up in a strange place like this, but every one of them one by one began to get a placid look on their face before a light smile began to float and curl the corners of their mouths upward as it turned to a peaceful expression.


    One by one, this process repeated with 7 out of the remaining 8 children. In the end, all but 2 of the 9 were sitting there with peaceful happy expressions, not saying a word. The only ones there without that same expression on their faces were Levin and the other infant.


    ¡°Whaa- goiii-n oon?¡± The other infant child babbled, causing Levin to turn toward him in absolute shock. The words were badly distorted by a lisp, but¡­ was that English he was just speaking!? Genuine English!? Not whatever language it was his parents were speaking? After hearing that, Levin turned and couldn¡¯t take his eyes off the boy.


    ¡°I'' templa naa il-ap-sen, sai-taurn val ron naa.¡± The long-haired man said something with a heavy tone that attracted the attention of the woman trying to offer Levin some food.


    ¡°Ahn. Tanya ron naa nessa sii'', Quel marth.¡± The woman turned to him and responded in an equally heavy tone.


    ¡°Ahn. Nan'' i'' lereth moota-uva?¡±


    ¡°lye nev-uva.¡± The woman said something that sounded conclusive before turning back to Levin, holding up the small piece of bread-like stuff to him again. ¡°Sinome, hin. Caela ta.¡± She seemed rather insistent about having him take it. At his age, he hadn¡¯t been on solid foods for long. Actually, if he was a normal baby, he was probably more likely to choke on a piece of bread like this. But Levin, not knowing a lot about babies and choking hazards in his previous life, didn¡¯t think much about taking this from her if she was so insistent about shoving it in his face. He could probably use something to eat anyway.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ lye elea manka tanya moota.¡± The man says. Meanwhile, as Levin begins to gnaw on the piece of bread that the woman had given him and she had turned to the other little boy to begin repeating the same thing she just had with Levin, he was looking up and looking at her from the side. This was when Levin noticed something, something that made his heart flutter as the implications landed on him.


    What he was looking at was the woman¡¯s ears, which extended to have narrow pointed ends at the backs. Could this be!? Elves!? After he noticed this, he began looking around at the man, as well as the other woman playing the flute. Now that he was looking closely, he realized that they also had the same pointed ears. He started to grow excited. They were riding in the back of a wagon or something with Elves! But, why though? And also, where were his parents?


    Well, more importantly than that, Levin got distracted before, but¡­ the other boy in the carriage, or, was it a carriage? He wasn¡¯t too familiar with the names for different types of low-tech vehicles. At any rate, the other little boy, he spoke English earlier, didn¡¯t he!? Could he be the same!? Well, there was only one way to find out.


    ¡°Haay! Was.. uh¡­ did uu sbeak English earier?¡± (Hey, was.. umm.. did you speak English earlier?) That didn¡¯t come out too clean at all. Levin hadn¡¯t spoken the language of his previous life since he had been reborn, so he was rather surprised at how badly he was talking. It was just enough though to attract the other boy¡¯s attention.


    The response was instantaneous. The boy immediately turned straight to him with a dazed and amazed look on his face. ¡°Whah! D-d uu?¡± (Wait! Did you?)


    The two boys stare straight at each other for a while as the gears in both of their heads start turning. Meanwhile, the elf woman continues to hand out pieces of bread to the 7 other children, all of whom simply accept it and eat it immediately.


    ¡°Nno, wai-. Aar uu da zzame aas ee? Uhh..¡± (No, wait. Are you the same as me? Uhh..)


    The two infant boys talking fluent English, despite both having a severe lisp, look around the wagon, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable with all the other eyes. It¡¯s not likely at all any of them can understand what they are saying, but both of them are still self-conscious enough that they feel very uneasy about saying what they want to say in this situation. Meanwhile, after the respective older siblings of both boys finish eating the bread the elf woman had handed out to them all, the one playing the flute suddenly changes the tune she¡¯s playing. As soon as she changes the tune, one by one they all start dropping off to sleep again, the only exception being the two boys.


    The two of them look at each other for a moment, but then some sense of realization started to dawn on them that was strong enough to overcome any fantasy idealization they may have had over elves. (Are we kidnapped!?) Levin asked in a frightened tone to the other boy.


    (Hey!) The other boy said something in distress as he realized Levin was starting to cry. It seemed a lot easier to cry in these new bodies as babies, and once they started to get even a little upset it was like a chain reaction that caused them to completely loose control of their emotions. And, no matter how old they were in their previous lives, the just cried. And, once Levin, started crying, the other boy started crying as well.


    ¡°I'' simpina templa ta il- uma moota no'' sen ie'' ilya.¡± The woman who had been handing out the bread said something in a disgusted sounding tone, looking at the two crying children with the face of someone viewing something repulsive for a moment before she let out a sigh. She began to approach them carefully, hovering her hands over them and trying to say something that sounded soothing as she pulled the two crying infants into her lap and stroked their backs. This, however, only caused the both of them to cry harder.


    -


    As the elder was walking along side the wagon, he heard as the flute¡¯s music turned from the tune of calming to the tune of sleep. These were special pieces of flute music that wrapped magic into the notes, developed specially for the purpose of acquiring the human children needed for when a new child is born to their own people. The special nature of the music is such that it only affects human children, but the effect is quite powerful.


    If the music turned from calming to sleep, that would mean the children have all already eaten their food. With this, it was no longer possible for them to ever leave and return to their own people. While the music of the flute helped in smoothing things out, this magic placed on the food was the ultimate magic used to bind humans to them.


    This was the point when something unusual happened. Shortly after the music had turned to the tune of sleep, he heard the sound of a baby¡¯s cry coming from inside the wagon. Much to the credit of the player, her music did not stop for a second in this unexpected situation. She truly was skilled. The elder had been observing these raids for over 100 years, and had participated in them as a member for 300 years before that. However, this was the first time he had ever seen a human child resist the effects of this music. It was just infants, so there was no real danger, but with the sheer unprecedented nature of the situation he simply could not help but come to peek in to see what was going on.


    ¡°Is everything alright?¡± He asked one of the caretakers left to mind the children.


    The caretaker gave a sour look toward his companion who was holding and attempting to sooth the crying children. ¡°The flute¡¯s magic does not seem to work on them at all.¡± He said in response.


    ¡°How were they before this?¡± The elder presses him for details. He was quite curious, the caretaker didn¡¯t just say the tune of sleep wasn¡¯t working, but that the flute¡¯s magic was simply not working on them what so ever?


    ¡°During the tune of calming, they were both anxiously looking around. Eleneril managed to keep them calm at the time, but then when the music changed they completely burst out crying.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ did they eat what they were given?¡±


    ¡°They gnawed on some bread for a little while, this is my first time dealing with human infants so I am not sure whether or not the amount they ate is normal.¡±


    ¡°But they did eat some of it then?¡±


    ¡°They did, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ you¡¯re right. If the music will not work on them, there¡¯s no telling whether or not the magic of the food is working either. Well, they are rather young. Since we took them this young, even if they are not bound by the normal method, they should not have any attachment to their birth parents at this age. I will have to ask Eirlathion his opinion, but from what I can tell I think we found some pretty incredible humans here.¡±


    Even though the situation is quite odd, both of the men have broad smiles on their faces.


    ¡°We certainly did luck out,¡± the caretaker says, ¡°that poor girl, at least her child will grow up plenty healthy with what we are bringing back.¡±


    ¡°I know, I almost feel young again just walking beside this wagon. Those two really are something else. If we didn¡¯t need the older siblings to help watch them, we would very easily have been able to get by with just those two.¡± With a chuckle, the elder walks back to his previous position.


    Author¡¯s note


    Yes, Aerien¡¯s mysterious species that feeds on human children has been revealed. If you had guessed Elves already, you get cookies. Good job staying up on your German fairy tales. (Although I sorta did strongly hint that direction by right out admitting the language they were speaking was based off Tolkien¡¯s Elves, but I phrased that in such a way that would have likely sounded like it could still be something different should someone have been denying that idea.)

 Chapter 5: The truth about myself

    After my first experience of trying to talk, or rather, just trying and failing to go over the ABCs due to my underdeveloped newborn brain, I made several more such attempts. However, I continued to only practice at night, when even these two were asleep. I didn¡¯t know very much about my, or rather, our situation. And, due to the fact that they were apparently supposed to be my food source, that made me rather nervous about how my parents or other members of my own race might react to these two saying something careless if they caught on to me being from the same previous life as them.


    At the very least, I wanted to have the ability to say the words ¡°don¡¯t tell anybody¡± before I tried to talk to them. I would likely say something sooner if they start to show obvious signs of becoming weaker because of me, but until one of those two things happened I kept my training to when the two of them were asleep. That¡¯s not to say I did nothing during the day though. While I couldn¡¯t go to the extent of anything obvious like practicing English words or the ABCs, but I could at least become more vocal. After all, I was only just now developing the motor speech center of my brain, so any conscious attempt to move my mouth to make noises other than ¡°aaa¡± would help.


    (She¡¯s making a lot of noise now, isn¡¯t she?) The boys of course noticed this. Since I have gotten my eyesight, I managed to confirm they were indeed boys. It¡¯s kinda hard not to notice when they are only around a year old and I¡¯m with them literally 24/7, or however they keep track of time in this world. Clearly, since frightening creatures like me who feed on children exist in this world, it can¡¯t possibly be earth where we are.


    (Well, at least she¡¯s not crying anymore,) Rolwen says, holding my sister. I look across at her from my place in Levin¡¯s arms, studying her face. She¡¯s also looking back at me, looking like she¡¯s slightly out of it. When I see her, I realize exactly why it is that they were so afraid about us back when I started crying before.


    As I look at my sister, her face is an ashen pale color. As a nurse in my former life, I have seen that skin tone before, normally on people who have died of asphyxiation. Did something go wrong while we were being born perhaps? To see that skin color on a baby this young, it can only mean that their lungs are not functioning properly in some way.


    But, no. That would be if we had a normal human physiology. Well, I do find that I breathe like a normal human does at least, despite the manner in which I eat being an incredibly alien thing to anything that would exist on Earth. This leaves me with two possible scenarios then. Either, one, our species is one where our skin will also begin to turn pale ashen grey when we are malnourished and the adults are doing exactly the correct thing to treat our condition. Or, two, the medical science of this world is not advanced enough to realize that the problem is her lungs.


    Well, there is probably one way to settle this for sure. I have been practicing to talk for a while now, and was crying at the top of my lungs for days at a time before that. If I¡¯m able to do something like that, there¡¯s no way I have any kind of problem with my own lungs. So, I¡¯m going to need to somehow take a look at my own face, or at least my hand or something.


    This poses to be rather difficult though. Along with not eating normally, the excretion functions of this new body are also not normal. In fact, it is not an issue that even comes up at all. So, with no reason to ever unwrap me from this tight blanket they have wrapped around me, I often go over a day without even being unwrapped once. I cannot see any part of my own body with only my face poking out.


    Well, it would sorta make some sense for a newborn of a species like this. We¡¯re at an age where we wouldn¡¯t be able to properly regulate our body temperature and wouldn¡¯t be able to lift our own heads either. As such, these tightly wrapped blankets likely help to solve both issues at once.


    (Are you feeling better Gaerien?) Levin asks, the one problem with his question being that it was directed at me while he was using my sister¡¯s name. Well, that issue aside, with the tone of his voice I can discern a few things at least. One of those things is I likely am seeming a lot healthier than I was when everyone started worrying about me.


    (She seems better, but her face is still pretty pale isn¡¯t it?) Rolwen comes in, giving me the exact information I wanted to hear. (Ah! Looks like she¡¯s happy to hear that!) Was my expression that obvious? Well, an infant also doesn¡¯t have a well developed frontal cortex or inhibitory center in their brain, so I suppose any emotion I happen to have will automatically and immediately appear on my face with no space for me to interrupt it.


    Well then, that gives me exactly the information I wanted to hear. So, obviously the pale color of my skin about matches Gaerien¡¯s skin. I look back across to my sister with some concern in my eyes. So, is that pale appearance about malnutrition after all?


    ¡°Ll'' en'' lle, endenmul¡± The woman who seems to be the caretaker for all the children here calls out. I¡¯ve learned after hearing this phrase a few times now, and watching the reaction of the children, this has something to do with food. Of course, while I may not need food, they all still seem to be very much human and have been eating normal meals this whole time.


    Suddenly, my ability to focus on my thoughts is interrupt as there is a clamor of activity with all the children rushing to the table. That is, all the children except Rolwen and Levin, along with the two of us. They remain sitting on the floor cradling Gaerien and I. While the other kids have to come get their food, it has become the pattern that for Rolwen and Levin, the food gets brought to them.


    It is at about this time that I notice there is someone new who I haven¡¯t seen before in here. Normally, it¡¯s the woman who seems to be the caretaker here who sees to all the kids, a woman who appears to be in her mid 30s with brown hair who is always busily going from one child to another to keep them in line. However, now there is someone else.


    Unlike our usual caretaker who has a relaxed posture, if not slightly hunched from always looking down at the children she¡¯s constantly tending to, this individual has a tall and erect posture. It is not quite that of a military air, but it is clearly a very refined and proud manner with which they walk slowly through the room filled with children¡¯s toys and scampering kids. However, when each child notices this new person, they all give a wide clearance as though they want to avoid getting in their way, all with a silent almost suppressed feel to their actions as the few younger children who are making noises, squirming, and acting up are quickly silenced by the older children.


    Just watching the unusual behavior from the other children as though fearing the consequences of annoying this person while they direct repeated strange gazes toward them, I very quickly realize there is something about this person that¡¯s taken very seriously by all of them, and my brain is very quickly beginning to form various theories.


    This person seems to be holding a plate full of food. And, as soon as all the other children are sitting at the table, they pay the other children no more mind and begin looking directly at the four of us. This person walks straight to us, keeping that dignified air and perfect posture the entire time, kneeling down when they reach the point where Levin and Rolwen are sitting on the floor with my sister and I in their laps.


    I get a closer look at this person¡¯s face. I wasn¡¯t certain whether they were male or female all this time due to the long and rather well-kept hair they wore down their back. What¡¯s more, their clothes seemed to be a flowing robe draped over their entire form, giving little obvious hint as to their gender. However, getting a closer look, the face does seem rather masculine. But, there¡¯s something else that seems a little off about them, but I can¡¯t quite seem to place it.


    ¡°Lle atta en'' sana caela malia quel i'' ai laito.¡± A gentle masculine voice, comes from the person in front of us. Well, I certainly have to conclude he¡¯s probably a man then. ¡°Sii'' ta naa coiasira ten'' sen mat- en'' i'' palurin.¡± He takes a look from Rolwen to Levin and then directs a gentle smile at me, placing a hand down on top of my head and rubbing gently.


    ¡°Sen helma naa il-quel sal''.  Amin estela sina alya-sen natul-eithel.¡± After saying more things in a language I can¡¯t understand with a slight drop in his face and tone of voice that makes it sound like he¡¯s saying something serious, the man picks up what looks like a small berry and crushes it between his fingers. After getting the berry juice on his finger and discarding the skin, he reaches down and forces his finger into my mouth.


    Reflex automatically takes over at this point and I naturally start trying to resist him. Meanwhile, my tongue begins attempting to force his finger out with the natural infant¡¯s extrusion reflex. However, he keeps a firm hold on my head, and seems to make a point of rubbing his berry-juice covered finger all over my tongue. The flavor of the berry spreads over my tongue and through my mouth, and eventually the man seems satisfied.


    ¡°Naa sai-quel sai-quel, tanya nae quel.¡± He says quickly in what sounds like the apologetic and encouraging tone one might use after giving a child a shot. In fact, was that? Did he just give me some kind of medicine?


    I try to blink the tears out of my eyes in order to get a better look at him now. Is he, maybe, some kind of doctor here? Judging by the dynamics of what¡¯s being going on so far, if this guy is a doctor then the chances are fairly good he¡¯s the same race that I am. This means that if I want to understand my world and what I am, I should probably try to get a good look at this guy.


    It¡¯s incredibly frustrating, having my hands pinned down by the blanket and being unable to move my head. I have no good way to wipe the misty tears from my eyes resulting from getting a finger suddenly jammed in my mouth. I keep blinking my eyes furiously, hoping to dislodge some of the tears so I can get a good look. Through my blurred vision, I do manage to just barely make something out while his head is turned to the side, apparently repeating the same process with Gaerien that he just did with me.


    ¡®That¡¯s what was weird!¡¯ It was not so obvious looking at him from straight-on in front, but as soon as I saw this guy from the side I knew immediately what the strange thing about his face was. ¡®His ears!¡¯ His ears were not quite shaped the same as a human¡¯s ears. It was slight, but the auricle of his ear came to a point in the back, and this caused it to also turn slightly forward and seem to protrude a little farther from his head rather than laying back flat against the head. At the same time, there also seemed to be a little more material on the front end of the ear. This structure, it seemed to be almost optimized to catch sounds coming both from in front and also in back.


    I continued to take in the distinctive and seeming highly efficient shape of the man¡¯s ear, almost shaped like a strange cup missing part of its side, as he finished giving Gaerien the same stuff he had just given me. ¡°San¡¯¡± He made a satisfied sounding expression as he stood up. Gaerien had not made nearly as much of a fuss as I had, and so he didn¡¯t seem to see a need to say something soothing to her. ¡°Ve'' lle eden¡¯ta amin estela lle uma. Sai-quel malia en'' i'' he` laito lle sana.¡± After saying these words with a satisfied smile, the man turned and left, briefly saying a few words to the woman taking care of the children before he goes out the door.


    After this, I am left to ponder what I had just seen. Those ears. While they did have a little bit of extra material, ultimately making them look far more functional than the image that existed back on Earth, didn¡¯t those ears have essentially the same basic pointed shape of what we called Elves? Also, aside from the ears, everything else about him perfectly fit the image of an elf.


    As I have these thoughts in mind, I am also struck by another thought. It wasn¡¯t so popularly portrayed in the time that I died in my previous life, but if you go back to the very origins of the tales about Elves, they were very far from the friendly creatures that helped Santa Clause, or even the more ancient forest warrior race that worked for the benefit of all races against a grand threat in Middle Earth while helping some Hobbits. No, they were nothing like that. In fact, they were a creature of fear for all the people of the time that their story was first told.


    Of particular note, Elves were said to abduct and, in some stories, even kill children. There were even tales where the presence of an elf would cause a child to die while being tightly held in their father¡¯s arms as he tried to protect his son. Nothing would matter if an elf set their eyes on a child.


    In most of the stories, the elf just lured in the child with music an promises of a fun life where they could play all day if they came along and ran away from their parents. However, there were none of the ancient stories in which it was ever clearly said what the elves actually did with the children after they got to the elven home.


    Well, it was not entirely the case that you never heard what happens in the elven home-land. It¡¯s just that you never heard the fate of the children. For adults, however, they often get lured by elves as well. In the case of adults, they will often invite the adults to have a meal with them. However, as soon as the adult eats something that the elf offers to them, they become unable to ever leave the elven lands or return home to their family.


    There are several stories about elves, but among the most ancient stories, there is always one thing in common. That is that elves seem to have a very very big thing with kidnapping people, and there also seems to be a particular interest in children.


    So, if that¡¯s the case and these really are the same elves from the oldest fairy tales, would this be the reason why they have such a thing for kidnapping children? To feed their own children? Well, at any rate, even more things are lining up now. With so many things similar to the old stories, I now have quite a bit to go on in figuring out what¡¯s going on, or at least developing a reasonable expectation.


    I should avoid thinking that this is all exactly like the old Earth fairy tales. Clearly it¡¯s not at all like the modern portrayal of Elves, so why should it be perfectly identical to the oldest stories as well? Still, from what I can see so far, the oldest stories have more in common with these Elves than the modern portrayal.


    At any rate, this does not change my short term plans in the slightest. Well, my only plans for that matter. I still have to get myself to a point I¡¯m able to talk, and I have to ask these two how they are feeling while also warning them not to talk to anyone about me being able to communicate with them. At least, not until I can find out a little more about the temperament of the elves and their intentions toward these children.

 Chapter 6: Master Eirlathion

    Eirlathion, often called ¡°Master Eirlathion¡± by the people of his settlement, was the foremost master of both the spiritual and mystic arts of the elves. It was truly rare to see an elf who had mastered the arcane arts in particular to the extent he had, most members of the fey races being far too fearful of the corrupting influence of the energies of the world. However, despite the risks, Eirlathion had pressed on in his path, never once allowing the arcane energies to overtake him or warp his body.


    He had spent his long years in this way, doggedly pursuing the advancement of all forms of the mystic arts. On several occasions, he had lamented that he was not born in the southern elf lands where the elven cities were, and instead he was limited to the comparatively limited understanding available in these scattered elven communities of the north. However, with his loyalties to the community, not once had he ever considered leaving and journeying southward through the human lands.


    Most of the time, Eirlathion would spend his days experimenting and learning from as many sources as he could. Several times, he had sought out the council of the faeries in order to deepen his understanding of the spiritual arts beyond what a mere elf could learn. There was no good instructor among the fay for the arcane arts though. For that, he had sought out the realm spirit of these lands. Although the great realm spirit did not use the arcane arts himself, his knowledge over them and resistance to their corrupting influence was far greater than that of the fay.


    Due to Eirlathion¡¯s deep knowledge and understanding of these subjects, it was common for the other elves of this settlement to seek him out for advice whenever something seemed unusual. Because of this, when the hunting party had gone out to retrieve human children for an upcoming birth that should be happening within the next few months at that time, when they discovered something unusual it was Eirlathion who they came to immediately.


    When he had approached the wagon, the other elves from the hunting party were tenderly lifting one sleeping human child after another off of the wagon and bringing them to the nursery so they could be later educated in the time leading up to the baby being born as to how to act with an elfin child, how to care for and feed them, and train them to expect good treatment themselves so long as they helped see to the child¡¯s needs until they were old enough to leave the nursery. These were presumably not the children Eirlathion was brought to see. When they had brought him, he was told that some of the children they found were highly unusual.


    ¡°Come on up master,¡± one of the young men aboard the wagon invited him while the elder was already boarding ahead of him. By the time Eirlathion had climbed aboard, the elder was already approaching a female hunter who had two of the smallest and youngest human children he had ever seen brought back curled in her lap. These barely looked like they were three years old by the standards of elfin growth, which meant that their actual age had to be fairly young indeed.


    ¡°These are the ones,¡± the elder of the settlement said to him with a tight face as he looked down at them. ¡°We picked them up because the spiritual power coming from them was larger than anything we had seen, but it seems as though none of our magic meant to affect humans is working on them.¡±


    Was that why they were in the lap of this hunter then? They were asleep now just like the rest of the children, but judging by the way that the woman who¡¯s lap they were on seemed to dare not move her legs, it seemed they had likely fallen asleep naturally and not from the effects of the tune of sleep as the other children who were being handled like cargo were. Fragile and precious cargo indeed, but cargo all the same as they had no expectation of the other children waking up.


    ¡°We were hoping you could give your opinion on this matter, we managed to give them some bread on the way back, but since the magic did not work we also do not know if their soul vessel might still be in tact or not.¡± The elder went on to explain more of the situation.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s see what we can find out,¡± Eirlathion said, reaching out toward one of the two human children, a boy resting on the hunter woman¡¯s left leg. He hovered his hand over the child¡¯s body. Just being near the boys he could feel the large waves of spirit energy washing off them, but he wanted to get a more detailed idea of what was going on in the souls that were pushing off all of that energy.


    Eirlathion began to allow a slight charge of mana to go through his hand, the neutral form of energy that existed between the spiritual and the arcane. Using his mana, he was able to stir the spiritual energies. After this, he charged his mana into his eyes, looking to see how the energies were reacting to what he was doing.


    After he was finished with this, Eirlathion sat back and drifted into a state of thought. The elder, the flute player who had stopped her playing after the last of the other children were unloaded, and of course the woman who had probably had to comfort these children the entire journey back from the human lands were all looking to him expectantly.


    ¡°Well,¡± he said, ¡°indeed, the quality of their souls is far more dense than a normal human soul. There is also, a strange different quality that I have not seen before. Are you certain these are even human children at all?¡±


    ¡°Well, all I can say for certain is that we did get them from human families. Those other children that were just taken off the cart were supposedly their siblings.¡± The elder informed him.


    ¡°Well, of course since it is undeniable that the energy their souls put off is spiritual in nature, it is a certainty their vessels were created by a god, just like humans. However, with the entirely different quality of their souls, it is incredibly tempting to say they were not actually humans themselves. That said, I am not certain of any god in this world who could create souls that dense. As for the chances the magic in their food had any effect on their soul vessels at all¡­ I cannot say for sure because of the unusual nature of the situation, but it is highly unlikely.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± the elder responded. ¡°Well, at any rate, thank you master Eirlathion, for your expert opinion.¡±


    ¡°Well, I can hardly call myself an expert on this. This¡­ is something I fail to truly understand myself.¡±


    With this, he got off the wagon and allowed the others to do as they will. Because they were god-born, possibly even more powerful god-born creatures than humans, it wound up being decided they would be treated as a human would and were put in the nursery to nurture the soon to be born child just like any other. With the abundance of spiritual energy that was put off by their souls, it would be certain they would help the baby to grow up very healthy and strong. Meanwhile, several of the elves from the village seemed to start spending a lot more of their time in town near the nursery.


    -


    Over the next three months, the human children were given to the care of a human woman who had grown up in their settlement, having been taken here 20 years ago when she was only just coming of age. At a human¡¯s growth rate, this meant she was near 12 years of age at the time she was brought to the village, and was around in her 30s now.


    Having been one of the older humans at the time she was brought here, and being at an age where human children would respect her, she was placed in charge of the nursery and it was made her job to train the new younger children to properly obey the elves and to care for the baby that was soon to be born.


    And then, after the three months were over, the elfin settlement was hit with yet another surprise. It was not one, but two babies born at the same time. ¡°Twins¡± was the term that the human woman had used. This was something entirely unheard of among elfin society, but the humans seemed to be somewhat familiar with the phenomenon. This was something that was quite shocking, but soon enough it was decided that they should just be happy because now there were two new children born to the community.


    However, it did not all go well. A mere 3 days later, the human woman they had left in charge of taking care of the children ran out of the nursery yelling that they needed to call Eirlathion because something was wrong with the children. She had become familiar with Eirlathion by this point because he had spent many days in the past three months entering the nursery in order to further study the human boys, and this was why rather than thinking to ask for a healer it was Eirlathion who was the first person to jump to her mind to ask for help.


    As it turned out, Eirlathion was exactly the right person to ask for after all. Indeed, the issue that seemed to be affecting the children had to do with their energies rather than anything to do with their bodies. He had been doubtful at first when the woman told him the symptoms she was seeing, saying that one of them had started crying furiously and would not be calmed down, and that when she looked at their faces both of them seemed to have pale and ashen skin.


    Eirlathion had let out a sigh as he approached the newborns. They had been left in the arms of the two boys who had been the key focus of his studies up until this point. This was likely a good decision, if the babies were ill in some way then keeping them close to the greatest source of spiritual energy available was exactly what they would need.


    Eirlathion knelt down in front of the one who was still crying furiously. She had even been struggling against the blanket that wrapped her, obviously discontent with whatever was going wrong with her. Just as he had done before with the boys on several occasions, he began charging his hand and eyes with mana and hovered his hand over the crying newborn. What he sensed when he did this truly shocked him.


    At first, everything seemed perfectly normal. He could see and feel the spiritual energy from the human boy, Levin, who was holding her curving inward as she absorbed it, and he could also feel the newborn¡¯s own mana energies, the energy released by the fay, pulsing exactly as it should. However, soon after Eirlathion began, the spiritual energy being absorbed from Levin seemed to increase to a point it was as though all of it was being sucked in at once. At the same time, her mana seemed to almost fully disappear. A second later though, the room was filled with overflowing mana that even put the abundant energies of the faeries to shame. This, however, only lasted for a mere ten seconds or so as he had drawn back his hand in shock.


    At some point, she had stopped crying. That was the one good thing in the whole ordeal he supposed. However, that reaction he had just sensed from her was truly strange.


    ¡°What is wrong with her?¡± The caretaker for the children asked eagerly. Eirlathion did not know quite how to explain it, so he merely told her that the child¡¯s mana had been rapidly rising and falling and expressed his own concern and confusion at the situation. However, he did notice something else strange immediately after this.


    Up until this point, Eirlathion had always had the boys brought to him one at a time by the caretaker as he studied them. However, now with them sitting together like this, he noticed something he had never expected from children their age. They turned and began talking to each other. This was not the language of the elves, which was imprinted onto all of the other children upon eating their food in addition to damaging their soul vessels in order to make them more dependent on elfin mana than elves were dependent of human spiritual energy. No, it was a different language.


    He turned to ask the caretaker about what language the boys were speaking, but she informed him it was not the language of the humans either. Apparently the two boys converse like this a lot, but it is in a language entirely unknown to humans or elves. Could this be some clue as to what it is that these boys are? Hearing this, he wished this human woman had told him about this sooner. At any rate, he knew about it now, and would most certainly have his eye on these children. After what he just saw with the child just now, he would likely be in here a lot more often anyway to monitor the health of the elfin newborns.


    ----


    Author¡¯s note.


    Well, I guess this might be a good place to leave it off. I had wanted to add in more stuff from Levin¡¯s perspective, and also include events from Eirlathion¡¯s perspective as to what was going on in the last chapter, but comparatively speaking that stuff is a lot less interesting that what¡¯s here so far and it would really just make the chapter drag and become less and less interesting near the end if I did that. I might try to see if I can find some other way to add in those details in upcoming chapters, but ultimately that stuff may wind up just staying unexplained.


    At any rate, for those of you who were really wanting to know what all that elfin talk in chapter 1 was all about, this is your answer. It''s something of a short summary of events rather than the exact words said, but this is pretty much what that exchange was all about.

 Chapter 7: Learning the local language

    As the boring days of being confined to an infant¡¯s body in this nursery continue, I start to become bored rather quickly of my simple training routine to learn how to talk. However, becoming bored may in fact be a good sign of the improvement I am making. Well, I¡¯m not really forming sounds all that much better, a lot of the sounds I make still don¡¯t really sound like the letters I am trying to say, but at the very least my brain doesn¡¯t hurt anywhere near as bad as it used to.


    I am not entirely certain how many days it has been. It does not feel like it has been too long. In fact, it feels like it has probably been short enough that I shouldn¡¯t be loosing track of how many days it has been. Wait! Have I lost my ability to keep track of and remember numbers and figures due to becoming a baby as well? That doesn¡¯t seem entirely implausible.


    At any rate, I think it has been somewhere around a week since I started sleeping with Gaerien and I next to each other between Rolwen and Levin. And, in this time, I have managed to start making a few of the softer consonant sounds a bit more like what they are supposed to sound like. I still can¡¯t even come close to the hard consonants such as P or K, and I can¡¯t make the ¡°ch¡± sound necessary to say ¡°H,¡± so it comes out sounding like another A as I say my alphabet still. However, I¡¯ve managed to make some of the softer consonant sounds like M, or the ones that are easier for an infants mouth to form like B.


    It¡¯s really not as easy as it sounds, and it¡¯s something you simply cannot appreciate if you¡¯ve grown up speaking the language all your life and have no memory of how hard it was for you to learn to make these sounds as a baby. For instance, the M which I have now mastered involves 2 sounds. The first sound is actually the sound of an E, and next is the actual M sound. That¡¯s not the hard part though. The hard part that takes a lot of practice to re-learn without a brain that has already mastered these skills is learning how to make a hard stop on the sound. It¡¯s easy to just make a long ¡°eeee¡± or ¡°mmmm¡± as a baby, in fact those are very natural sounds for a baby to make. In fact, you will hear babies who are learning the limits and abilities of their bodies making those sounds all the time. That¡¯s probably why M was such an easy letter for me to learn.


    However, it is a lot harder to shorten the sounds, to exercise control over them by cutting off the air and changing your mouth shape at exactly the right time. I could hum the M sound forever, but to make a short ¡°eh¡± first, and then cut off the sound the very second I make a short ¡°m¡± is something that seems incredibly natural for someone who¡¯s been doing it all their life but actually incredibly challenging for a newborn only a little over a week old.


    Actually, for a week old newborn to even be doing as well as I am now is downright incredible already. If you take my age into consideration, I¡¯m actually incredibly far ahead of every development benchmark. That lifts my spirits a little and keeps me from getting discouraged over my repeated failures to even do so much as talk, but there is no way I can be content with this. After all, I have memories of being an adult, one with quite a few life experiences one can be proud of if I do say so myself. However, now I am a useless infant who can do nothing but be held by someone while I babble and cry. There¡¯s no way I can just accept that.


    So, as I have had my eyes and ears develop enough now to begin properly perceiving my world and the restructuring of my brain to accommodate my attempts to talk ludicrously early are well underway, I am starting to feel like it¡¯s about time I start on some other long term training projects to help me be more effective in this world. First off is the obvious companion to learning to talk.


    Actually, it almost seems ridiculous I have been trying to learn to talk without doing this first. But, well, I already know English and there are also two boys here who also know English, so that gives me something most babies simply don¡¯t have. However, even with that, it just seems like a good idea that I should probably be trying to learn the language spoken here. After all, the two boys here are about the only other people who speak English, I will also need to be speaking to the rest of this world.


    I have been paying some attention to the words spoken, and I have begun to discern some patterns to the language. Actually, I seem to be picking up the language fairly quickly. Well, being fully immersed in the language helps a lot, so does the fact that I¡¯m learning it as an adult. There is a myth from people too stubborn to learn foreign languages that babies are able to learn a foreign language faster and easier. This is actually very very wrong.


    It takes a newborn around 4 years to fully master their birth language. This is around the same amount of time it takes an adult learning the language from a formal classroom setting to do the same. And this, actually, is something that should be considered ridiculously slow for someone who knows how language learning actually works.


    As it turns out, the classroom setting is just about the worst environment to learn a language. The classroom setting just gives you lists of words and teaches you the translation. It teaches you to translate the words in your mind. This is a process that¡¯s slow and ineffective in terms of how the human brain actually works when it¡¯s trying to learn a language.


    A far better way to learn the language is to simply hear the words as you are given their meaning in context, such as being shown a picture. This is the process employed by most language learning software. However, this is still not the best way. The single best and most effective way to learn a new language is actually the exact same way an infant learns it. That method is complete immersion.


    Immersion means being placed into a situation where the language is all around you, and it is the only thing you hear every day without hearing anyone speak another language. In this situation, you either learn to adapt to the language or you can¡¯t communicate. In this environment, all but the dullest of people can have their brains adapt very very quickly. Most, in fact, are able to speak and communicate within a few months, and gain complete mastery over the language within a single year.


    So, when a perfectly average adult is able to learn the language within a year using this method, it means the typical infant is actually incredibly slow when it takes them 3 to 4 years to fully master their birth language. Then again, the infant¡¯s brain is still developing, so it¡¯s no surprise learning is more difficult. Really, the only reason an infant can even learn language in 4 years is because they have no other choice.


    However, it seems that with my adult memories and the plasticity of my infant brain, I am able to direct my development and skip over a lot of the hurdles that get in the way and slow down the process for most babies. At the rate I¡¯m currently going, I ought to be able to start at least understanding the gysts of what they are saying by the time I am a month old.


    The other big project I have decided to start working on is becoming mobile. Reasonably speaking, this is something I ought not to even be capable of until I am at least 2 months old. However, you can call me stubborn, but I¡¯m simply not willing to wait that long.


    The biggest obstacle to me crawling at the very least is going to be my ability to hold my head up. Newborns do not even have the neck muscles to lift their own head. Also, they still seem to insist on keeping me wrapped in this tight blanket. It seriously limits my mobility. I¡¯m going to need to throw it off, and I¡¯m also going to need to do some neck exercises. They will probably wrap me up again if I throw it off during the day, but at the very least the mere act of learning how to throw it off will be exercise.


    So, moving forward, I will be continuing to train in the alphabet at night, I will learn the local language during the day, and I can try to move at any time night or day. With three valid methods of training, now I will be able to always do something to avoid the boredom I was beginning to feel.


    Of course, I haven¡¯t forgotten my main objective in all of this either. I¡¯ve been monitoring the boys¡¯ signs of health the entire time, but they have not been acting lethargic or anything. In fact, they genuinely seem quite energetic and don¡¯t seem to like being bound down having to take care of Gaerien and I very much. They do seem to accept that they can¡¯t just leave us alone now, and they know that the older kids and the caretaker woman watching over us won¡¯t let them, but they also seem to be quite bored and have taken to complaining lately that there really is nothing to really do.


    They even started arm wrestling the other day, placing Gaerien and I off to lay right beside them as they lay on their stomachs and have at it with each other. It turned out being Rolwen who won, but by the mere fact that nobody found this behavior strange it proved something to me. It seems the people here have very little of the modern day understanding of childhood growth and development, because what these two boys are doing is something a 6 year old would do, not a 1 to 2 year old.


    2 year olds usually do not really interact with other children near their own age when they play. In fact, they usually do not really want anything to do with other children their own age until they are about 3, and even then they don¡¯t exactly play ¡°with each other.¡± They will play ¡°together,¡± but there won¡¯t be anything in it that could be called interacting. Rather, they will just be sitting next to each other as they are each doing their own thing. It¡¯s not until they reach around 5 or 6 that they would even think to do what these two boys were just doing. And yet, nobody here seemed to find their arm wrestling and other types of interaction strange.


    Or rather, at least I don¡¯t think anyone did. For the past few days, that guy who seemed to be some kind of doctor or something had been by here more frequently. Since this place seemed to be inside of a large tree or something, I really couldn¡¯t assess the culture level of this area or the size of the community, but it is entirely possible he¡¯s in more of a shaman type role, one where he has some kind of prominent position in the village in addition to being a healer, and he¡¯s here for some other reason. However, a village leader doesn¡¯t seem like a position that would be spending a lot of time hanging around some nursery, unless¡­


    Maybe they are onto something about the boys here. He does not seem the least bit interested in any of the other children here. In fact, from the best I can tell, he seems to have ordered the caretaker woman here to keep the other children away from him. Meanwhile, he spends most of his time observing the four of us. However, I cannot really tell whether it¡¯s Gaerien and I, or the two boys he¡¯s more interested in. If we are truly in some kind of condition that worries them then it makes sense for him to keep observing us, but he also seems to attempt to interact with the boys quite frequently. Of course, this whole time he has also been continuing to administer Gaerien and I our ¡°medicine¡± or whatever it is. Those berries he crushes between his fingers before making us lick the juice. So, from the best I can tell, it really could be either way.


    The bigger concern though is how he seems to interact with the other children here. As he has been observing us, I have been observing him right back. At least, whenever I¡¯m able to direct my eyes toward him when Levin is not grabbing me and turning me in a direction that doesn¡¯t face him. Did I mention? It is REALLY frustrating being a baby. At any rate, during the times I could see and observe this guy, I have caught sight of him giving some rather irritated looking glances toward the other children, even when they weren¡¯t interacting with him and simply playing near him.


    Well, this is not enough to judge his character on just yet, but I must say it does not leave a favorable impression in my mind as to his character. I¡¯m definitely going to have to learn the elfin language. My lack of ability with it is just cutting off too much information.


    As these thoughts were rolling over in my mind, I continued to watch the elfin medicine man, or whatever he was. Yes, medicine man seemed like a perfectly good title for him from my infant perspective. Whether or not he was actually a ¡°medicine man¡± by the anthropological definition was yet to be seen, but from my infant perspective he was the man who gave me medicine, therefore I felt Ok with calling him the ¡°medicine man,¡± and felt myself somehow acclimating into my infant mind a little more.


    Having settled on this title for him, I saw the medicine man stand up and talk to the caretaker woman. He asked her about something, looking in our direction for a moment, before giving a serious look back at the woman. She seemed to be thinking very seriously for a while about his words, but then finally started talking to him. Judging by the look and the way they were interacting, it seemed like she was explaining something to him. Finally, after a while, she quickly walked off to the nearby cabinets and brought back a wooden cup from which the children had been drinking. She held it up to him, pointed to it, and said some more things before handing it over to him.


    They separated after this, and he seemed to give a nod and turned toward us with a resigned look on his face as he approached our little group of four. He knelt down, held up the cup, and¡­ ¡°kwayuln,¡± he said, pointing to it. A huge smile spread across my face as my suspicions from the earlier interaction between him and the caretaker were confirmed. Yes! It seemed almost as though divine providence had intervened. Just when I had started trying to think of how to learn the elfin language, the medicine man decided to teach it to us. Well, in all honesty, he¡¯s probably making the effort to teach it to the boys because there¡¯s no way someone could be expecting a baby to learn it. I¡¯ll take the lesson gladly though.


    ¡°kwayuln.¡± He repeats looking from Rolwen to Levin with an expectant look on his face. ¡°kwayuln.¡±


    ¡°¡°Kwayuln!¡±¡± Rolwen and Levin both say, their excited voices sounding off almost in unison as they have also realized what¡¯s going on. Both of them are looking at the medicine man here with their full attention focused on him. It seems they were every single bit as eager to learn the elfin language as I was, and now that they saw their opportunity they were ready, willing, and eager to learn.


    The teacher medicine man has a satisfied smile creep to his lips for a moment, and I¡¯m forced to chuckle at myself as I realized just how childish my thought process seems to be rapidly becoming as I am already adding teacher to my informal title for him in my mind, and legitimately thinking of him that way.


    The teacher medicine man seems troubled for a moment as he looks around the room, before directing his gaze downward and placing an open palm on the floor. ¡°Talan.¡± He says. The boys seem to look around trying to piece this one together as they repeat the word to each other.


    ¡°Talan.¡± They mutter, and then begin slapping the floor happily.


    ¡°Talan!¡±


    ¡°Talan!¡±


    They repeat the word, one right after another as they both slap the floor confident in their interpretation.


    The teacher medicine man seems very pleased with this, and quickly begins to look for the next thing to teach us. He gets a little closer and points his finger directly at me. ¡°Nette.¡± He says, and then moves his finger up to point at Levin. ¡°Yonte.¡± ¡°Nette, yonte.¡± He begins moving his finger pointing between Levin and I as he repeats what seem to be the elfin words for ¡°boy¡± and ¡°girl¡± until they properly repeat these words.


    Next, he rests his hand gently against my¡­ well, due to my small size his hand encompases my entire left side as he rests his hand on my torso area. ¡°Laito.¡± He says. ¡°Netti-laito. Laito.¡±


    In this manner, the newly dubbed teacher medicine man teaches us one elfin word after another, and as Levin and Rolwen take his lesson I silently watch from the side and absorb every word for myself as well. Seems my attempts to learn elfin might be easier than I though. Once I learn a few starting words to go on, however long the teacher medicine man is willing to stick around to teach us, I will be able to more easily piece together the rest of it by listening in on the conversations of others.


    Surprisingly enough, the answer to how long the teacher medicine man would be able to stick around was¡­ all day. He seemed to grow increasingly excited as he taught us, and began pulling things from all over the room to teach us new words. And then, when he ran out of things in the room to pull, he kept frantically looking around before finally dashing out. Around 15 minutes later, he returned with an arm full of stuff to also teach us the words for.


    The breaks helped, but after a while despite their eagerness to learn and the maturity they had from their previous life incarnations, the boys began to get fussy and began acting out and looking away from the teacher medicine man who I think might have said his name as one of the words he taught us at some point. At least, it sounded like it was probably a name. I was getting a little overwhelmed myself so I think I probably forgot it along with over half the other words I had crammed into my head in this little encounter.


    Eventually, after he began to actually start becoming slightly angry and talking to us, or the boys at least, in a more stern voice, the caretaker lady wound up coming to our rescue. She pleaded with him a little and told him something, perhaps the common sense that their brains can only absorb so much information at once. That¡¯s likely the case anyway, and once she finished explaining it to him he seemed to sigh with a slightly annoyed look and a roll of the eyes before talking to the two boys in a tender seeming tone before he stood up and finally left for the remainder of the day.


    Well, my evaluation of this guy is starting to shift a little now. The teacher medicine man has gone from ¡°maybe an ass-hole¡± to ¡°just socially awkward.¡± At any rate, it looks like I have gotten one issue solved. I can see several long days ahead of the four of us though. Well, maybe not Gaerien. For all I know, she might have just fallen asleep at some point. Now I REALLY need to work on my neck muscles so I can look around better.

 Chapter 8: First words

    Did I say I could learn the Elvin language within a month? No, no, actually I don¡¯t think I said that. What I said was I could learn to understand the gysts of what people were saying, pick up the basic words such that I could at least figure out the general concept of what was being discussed. That would mean, roughly understanding around 30% of the more basic everyday speech type words. It seemed like a pretty reasonable objective at the time. Now, however, I¡¯m beginning to think it was an arrogant goal to achieve.


    I totally succeeded at it, but it was definitely arrogant. For the past month, the crazy elf medicine man has been insisting on bringing in armloads of items every day and teaching Levin and Rolwen the words for each. Of course, since I¡¯m right there at their side, I¡¯m able to pick up the words as well. At least, I try to pick up the words, but I keep getting frustrated and falling asleep. Despite the best of my intentions, it is starting to feel more and more like my existence as a baby is taking over.


    I have been trying to fight it as best I can, but it is as though my adult mind is at war with my infant brain. I realize, I had never stopped to consider just how it was I was able to keep my adult memories in this obviously fresh infant brain. If it lacked the neural pathways for me to have a properly functioning motor speech center, then how does it have the far more complex neural pathways associated with memory that are supposed to network the entire brain?


    Well, for that matter, how can memories be passed from one body to another after death like this? It almost seems as though the first question is completely answered by this second. It would seem that memories can be contained in some form of external spiritual body. However, at this time, I am feeling more and more like my previous life memories are actually at war with my current life¡¯s body. That body, of course, belonging to an infant that wants to do nothing except to sleep and is violently protesting against all this brain work I¡¯m making it do.


    No, that¡¯s clearly crazy. Thinking like that is to imply there are actually 2 wills within the same body. After reincarnating with all my memories, it does not seem entirely impossible for something like that to happen as well. However, I do not believe there is any real sign of me being possessed by another will. Or rather, any sign that I¡¯m the other will possessing a baby. Rather, it is simply that my newly weak body simply cannot accept my strong adult will. So, that strong will itself has to be shaved away and weakened.


    It is a frightening thing to feel my former life¡¯s mental strength, which is the only strength I really have left in this new life, slipping away like this. As such, quite often whenever I feel myself becoming sleepy in the middle of one of the medicine man elf¡¯s lessons, I get scared and frustrated. And of course, what does a baby do when they are scared and frustrated? You guessed it. They cry.


    It¡¯s not like I can even help it at all. Crying has become a natural reflex for me, and I seem to be getting less and less able to resist it. This frustrates me even more, and so I respond also by crying more. It becomes a vicious cycle like this. However, whenever this happens, it also makes it so that the lessons have to stop because of how much I¡¯m crying. So, in a strange way, the crying actually manages to accomplish its purpose. That being, that I am awake for all of his lessons. Like this, he can¡¯t give the lessons when I¡¯m starting to feel sleepy, and often the excitement of all the crying wakes me up a little.


    In this manner, despite all these struggles, I manage to pick up quite a few words in the Elven language. And, despite all these difficulties, I seem to have managed to reach my goal, which I have since concluded was a completely absurd thing to have expected from a baby. Even if that baby was myself, it seems to just be something unreasonable to expect.


    I can honestly say I have cried many tears of frustration over this past month over my other training and exercise goals as well, although I really don¡¯t know whether or not that says much these days now. I definitely cry those tears of frustration a lot more easily now. However, they have all been worth it, and I have managed to accomplish another truly absurd thing for my current age. And what is that truly absurd thing that I¡¯ve worked so hard to accomplish? Saying my ABCs.


    It may not sound like much to have such a simple thing be the benchmark of success, but if I were to compare myself to a stoke patient who lost verbal motor control and lost this ability, getting back to this level from being unable to speak at all would be considered an amazing accomplishment of someone who had the determination to put forth a herculean effort. In this case, I was working from literally no motor speech center to start with, which is definitely comparable to having it destroyed in a stroke. I suppose I have the neural-plasticity of an infant brain to thank for this, given I was able to accomplish so much while training only at night while nobody can hear me.


    This whole question of neural plasticity has gotten me thinking though. Maybe the actual reason for why I feel more given to the whims of my body now is actually because I¡¯ve become more attached to it. Perhaps¡­ the spirit or whatever was storing my memories before was just like a temporary back-up copy so to speak. If that¡¯s the case, then over the course of however long I was in the womb along with this past month on top of it, my spirit body had been ¡°writing¡± my memories onto my infant brain. And then, maybe the reason I¡¯m less able to control how fussy I am is because that external spirit is integrating with this body more.


    Well, I can¡¯t know for sure, but it definitely sounds like a good working theory.


    At any rate, I¡¯ve gotten to a point where there is still a little bit of slurring, but I am definitely able to say every single letter in a way that it actually sounds like the letter. Now then, for the next step. How about my own name?


    It is the middle of the night as usual now, so now is my regular practice time for speaking. I look over to my sister and the two boys, using the neck muscles I have been training all month non stop, seeing them still sleeping soundly. Seems like the coast is clear.


    ¡°Aarereaaa¡­ AAAUREIREN¡± Well, still sounds like baby babble, but it also did sound like my name. Definitely an accomplishment. Actually, this should be good enough. I¡¯m still not at the level where I can speak to the boys about my concerns, but I also have to talk to them about it as soon as possible. As such, I have a plan I have to set into motion for the sake of appearances. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re going to all find it fairly shocking, but it¡¯s better to do it this way than have my first words be when I¡¯m ready to discuss the serious stuff with the boys. And besides, if this all goes well then it might help me to face fewer frustrations while learning Elven.


    But that¡¯s for tomorrow when that elf teacher comes back. For now, this speech training should actually be good enough. As such, this means I can dedicate more of my time to training my muscles instead. And so, I begin to go through the routine I have gotten used to every night, and sometimes even throughout the day.


    First, I have to get this tight blanket off of me. I have done this several times, and it¡¯s always a struggle. The adults have even gone to attaching a little clasp to pin the blanket in order to make it harder for me to remove, but of course with enough struggling it¡¯s always going to be possible for me to work it loose eventually. In fact, if anything, this helps me. The more I have to work my arms and legs in order to get this thing off of me, the more it improves my motor control as the neural pathways are built.


    Working my hands around inside the blanket, I begin by lashing out and struggling in every way I can until I feel the blanket start to shift. As I feel that, I determine where it seems to be giving the most, and from there I start applying more pressure there. My goal in this is to speed the time it takes me to escape. Every improvement in speed indicates an increase in my motor control, the skill I¡¯m trying most to work on right now.


    By this point, I¡¯ve managed to get a fair amount of slack in the blanket. Now for the next step. I have to work that clasp off. I already know where they pinned it, so in order to get it off all I have to do is start struggling with the blanket near its location. I manage to work the clasp a bit more forward toward me, and begin struggling more. Eventually, I feel a sudden amount of give, but I didn¡¯t feel the sensation of the clasp falling off the blanket.


    Well, it must have worked the corner loose. That will be enough. The corner of the blanket is the most important part anyway. With this, it is a simple matter to struggle out of the blanket the rest of the way.


    Of course, I do not completely throw off the blanket. The blanket is the only thing they put on me since I was born, since apparently it seems to be the Elven custom to wrap their babies in those blankets at all times. As such, they never gave me any cloths. They do seem to have put a diaper on me since they have been feeding me solid food in the form of those crushed berries every meal. Thankfully, I don¡¯t seem to need to be changed often due to the low amount of solid food. However, it is in my diet so apparently it¡¯s a concern now, which also leads me to really wonder about exactly how an elf¡¯s physiology works since we can apparently also get by without food, medicine being a clear exception.


    At any rate, once the restrictive blanket is out of the way, I begin rolling my head from side to side. Fortunately, the same muscles responsible for lifting the head also have a function in turning the head. As such, simply turning from side to side is enough. Somewhere along the line, I also practice rolling over. This has gotten rather simple, as the muscle to bone ratio of my limbs and torso is no where near as unbalanced as those of my neck Vs. my head. Due to this one limitation, my mobility is easily the area farthest behind in terms of me being advanced beyond a normal baby¡¯s growth. In fact, I should be very rapidly approaching the natural age at which it¡¯s normal for a baby to get the ability to lift their head.


    Actually, if I¡¯m getting so close to that benchmark age and I still can¡¯t do it, then could it be I actually am somehow weakened by whatever the condition with my body is? Well, it¡¯s possible, but there is another possibility that also springs to mind. Elves are supposed to have a longer life-span, and in most stories they are supposed to reach adulthood at ages ranging from 50 to 80 depending on who¡¯s telling the story. If an elf¡¯s development is so slow, then maybe gaining the ability to lift my head at the normal age for humans would be considered ridiculously advanced for an elf?


    That feels like a rather unsettling thought. I really don¡¯t want to have to spend several months with such limited mobility. Ok, that¡¯s it. Time for the final phase of my physical exercises. Getting myself laid flat on my back again, I begin to struggle with all of my will in order to lift my head. I may not be able to do the action smoothly yet, but I have gotten to the point where I can lift it for at least a few seconds, and that much is enough to give good exercise to the muscles involved. Then, I keep doing this until my muscles become so fatigued that I can no longer continue, working myself completely to exhaustion on the actual goal skill of this exercise.


    I am so close now I can feel it. A few more days like this, and I might be able to add sitting upright to the list of activities. However, the difficult point of my being an elf and likely so incredibly far ahead of the curve already is a bit concerning. It¡¯s hard to picture how others may react to this. However, it might very well fit in with the rest of my plan. But honestly, if I didn¡¯t feel I had to worry about these two boys I don¡¯t think I would ever do what I¡¯m about to do.


    Satisfied with my workout for the night, I pull the blanket over me and fall asleep.


    -


    ¡°Looksh lrike Aerien bulled her blanket ov agin.¡± (Looks like Aerien pulled her blanket off again.)


    In the morning, I was woken up by Levin picking me up and trying to tuck the edges of my blanket under my shoulders. Well, at least he got my name right this time, although I know from experience that this is not because he¡¯s actually figured it out or anything. He was calling me Gaerien almost all day yesterday, he¡¯s just gone ahead and switched it back to Aerien again. Well, if there¡¯s one completely positive thing that¡¯s coming from what I¡¯m planning to do, it will be that we can end this name confusion nonsense.


    (Why do they like them in these blankets anyway? I don¡¯t think she likes it.) Rolwen speaks up.


    (Caus she¡¯ll get cold!) Levin objects to his remark. (It¡¯s bad for babies to get too cold!) Well, he¡¯s right on that one. Guess he must have at least some experience or knowledge about babies in his previous life, although this is pretty basic tier stuff. It¡¯s clear that otherwise he absolutely does not know what he¡¯s doing, the naming confusion here being evidence enough. It would probably have been a lot better if they had just picked one and stuck with it, even if it wasn¡¯t the correct name. That way at least they¡¯d be calling us by the same consistent name. Switching names with my sister wouldn¡¯t really be a bad thing, and if I was a real infant I wouldn¡¯t really know the difference anyway.


    (You stay with them! I¡¯ll go get Ms. Sonaby.) Levin says, pushing me over closer to my sister so that we are both next to Rolwen. Sonaby seemed to be the name of the woman who was taking care of all the kids here, and it has become part of our morning routine now that every morning Levin goes and wakes her up in order to get her to re-wrap the blanket around me. This is often combined with a diaper check as well, and since Gaerien and I really only have a little bit of berry juice on our tongue for meals we are often clean going on several days at a time. As such, we are only checked this one time of the day and it seems as good a time as any.


    Normally, someone with previous life memories would probably get embarrassed at this. Well, I admit, I really was kinda embarrassed for about half a minute when I realized the obvious that, at that time, I was naked under this blanket until they started putting that diaper on me. However, due to some combination between having been a nurse and gone through assisting incontinent adults in my previous life, and whatever was happening as my previous life memories were being integrated with my baby brain, I really didn¡¯t have a strong enough sense of shame for it to continue to worry me for very long. In fact, were it not for me being aware of how much trouble it would cause for others, I could easily see myself stripping myself like any other baby would once I get enough motor control to do so.


    Soon enough, Levin comes back with the woman in question. After it¡¯s confirmed that I¡¯m clean this morning, she wraps me tightly in the blanket again and then checks on my sister who seems to actually get a little fussy about being exposed to the cold all of a sudden.


    Now then, with the morning wake-up routine out of the way, now all I have to do is wait to set my plan into action. It all happens later in the day when the medicine man elf, who¡¯s name I have learned is some crazy name that starts with an E, like Etheron or something like that, is in the middle of our Elven language lesson. For the time being, in my mind, I have begun calling him ¡°Ether.¡± I know it¡¯s disrespectful to call somebody by a butchering of their name like that, but what can I do? I can¡¯t quite remember or pronounce his real name, and I feel like it¡¯s a little better than calling him ¡°the medicine man¡± like I used to. Oh well, given my age I suppose even if I actually did call him ¡°Ether¡± out loud he would probably accept it as close enough coming from a baby.


    ¡°A'' eller auta.¡± He says, having moved up to giving the boys some simple sentences. From what I can tell from all the pointing and miming he¡¯s doing, I think he¡¯s trying to tell them to move a short distance as he¡¯s saying that. ¡°Auta. A'' eller auta.¡± He says again, pointing insistently at a spot on the floor a short distance from where Rolwen is sitting. Well then, this seems like a good enough opportunity for what I¡¯m planning to do.


    ¡°Ata!¡± I yell out as loud as my little lungs will allow without it becoming a scream. ¡°Ata ata!¡± I start writhing about inside the constricting blanket, trying to make myself look as excited as I can.


    ¡°Uma, err¡­ a n¡¯uma! A-u-ta.. eh?¡± He seemed like he was in the middle of correcting the pronunciation, but then things went quiet and I could see him looking in my direction.


    ¡°Gaerien men-ta¡¯!¡± (Gaerien talked!) Levin calls out excitedly.


    ¡°Eeh? Re sai-nessa, sai-arinya sina mart-ten¡¯.¡± The ¡°Ether¡± person seems to have a stunned expression as he goes on to start saying stuff without bothering to put it in a way someone who doesn¡¯t really know the language can understand.


    ¡°Eh? Uauuooao!¡± Suddenly, I can hear my sister¡¯s voice, the real Gaerien in this case, speaking up as if in protest that it wasn¡¯t her who said that. Or rather, that¡¯s what I imagine her saying in my mind as some part of me has started to become bitter about how our names can¡¯t be kept straight. At any rate, she seems to be speaking up more than normal. But obviously, her state seems to be about the same as mine was a month ago since she didn¡¯t go through the same pain-staking practice that I did.


    ¡°Ay!¡± Levin seems to be talking to me as he lifts me up to actually sit me upright in his lap, and then he seems to look around for a bit before slapping the floor in font of me. ¡°Talan! Ta-lan.¡± As a kid who is just learning to talk Elven himself, he seems to already be trying to get me to say more words. Well, it¡¯s pretty admirable of you to have actually used the Elven word for it.


    ¡°Daran!¡± I do the best my little mouth can to pronounce the word myself, which seems to get Levin rather excited.


    ¡°Floor. Talan. Floor.¡± Ok, now he¡¯s teaching me two languages at once. Why should I expect any less of you Levin? Well, this one¡¯s not that bad in terms of the incorrect baby raising things he¡¯s done so far. In fact, teaching a baby two languages at once is perfectly fine so long as they get sorted out later. However, in order to keep up appearances, I can¡¯t immediately act like I know what he¡¯s talking about.


    ¡°Dalan!¡± I say again.


    ¡°N¡¯sav-uma.¡± our teacher says, shaking his head. ¡°Eithel, auta no'' tanya yassen.¡± He laughs, shaking his head as he stands up. It seems as though lessons are cancelled early today. He does not go too far though. Rather, he goes a short distance away and sits down, watching us. ¡°Vora, vora!¡± He says, making motions with his hands that seem as though he¡¯s encouraging us.


    Well then, I guess that actually worked out better than I had planned. Now, if any of the elves ask, I have established a track reccord of speaking early and now on top of it the boys are ¡°teaching¡± me English as well. So, other than how early I started speaking, there should be no real suspicion if I start talking with the boys in the language that the elves can¡¯t understand. Now, the only question is whether or not I can get to it before the boys reveal something to the elves that could cause trouble. I am far ahead of the curve already, but I still can¡¯t afford to relax my efforts.


    Author''s note


    Well, I can understand the readers who want me to have Aerien grown up so we can get to the action part of the story faster. To tell the truth, I really want to get there too. There are more things that need to be set up though, and every time I get to writing another part of the set-up, I start getting lost in the details of the scene being set up. Well, it''s always better to have an abundance of details than not enough anyway, so I guess it''s probably a net positive despite how slow moving it makes the story.


    Also, I finally got a cover for the book, which means Novel Updates will finally show when the story updates. So, welcome everyone who found this story on Novel Updates, glad to have you here.


    There''s not very much to my book cover, I do not have much in the way of art skills so I just did basic text over a background. I am hoping to find someone I can ask to do better artwork, and already have a few leads on that. Well, I hope everyone enjoys the story at any rate.

 Chapter 9: What the elves think

    Author note


    Content Warning: I would like to note that there is, and always has been, an R-15 tag on this series. Up until now, it has not really been living up to that tag. This is the chapter where it starts to move more in that direction.


    For now, things are still on the tame side. It was a bit worse in the planning stage, but the blow was softened a little bit as I was writing it and I managed to find some gentler words to deliver the more disturbing points in this chapter which reference some off-scene sexual violence in the past. Sex and sexual themes are not going to play a large role in the disturbing parts of this series, but there is a small reference to it at this point in the story. Most of the stuff moving forward from here is going to relate to graphic descriptions of physical injuries characters receive, and as such I have added "Gore" to the content warnings for this series.


    Well, that''s all. Enjoy the chapter.


    Eirlathion POV


    When these children appeared before Eirlathion a bit over a month ago, he had been very much looking forward to finding out all that he could about them. What he didn¡¯t expect though were for the Elven twin girls they were brought here for to hold almost as large a number of mysteries as the human boys. Although, there was one mystery that was easier than the others to solve, and Eirlathion was not liking the answers he was getting from it.


    Shortly after he had seen their condition, he had gone to the girls¡¯ mother and told her what he knew. Her response was not strange, she definitely seemed to have a haunted expression when told about how ill her daughters seemed to be, and when she was told about their sickly pale skin she began to start looking ill herself. The strangest reaction though came when she was asked to go into the nursery and see them. She absolutely refused.


    Several of the villagers pleeded with her. With one of the girls violently expelling her mana in bursts and the other oddly lethargic, either one of them seemed like they could loose their connection to this world at any time. Most of the other elves in the village seemed to think she was distraught and not wanting to look at or become close to daughters who may only vanish from this world a short time later. However, with the time Eirlathion had spent with them, he was slowly coming to another fairly terrible suspicion.


    The time she had come here, it had been after her own village was destroyed after having been attacked by devils. Corrupted elves to be exact. The members of their own kin tainted by the arcane energies. These ones were very well known to be the very most vicious of all the devil races, known as visions of slaughter and death by their very existence. The humans also had their own name for them. Dark Elves.


    Eirlathion thought back to the sickly pale looking skin of the two girls. To others, one of them was very fussy and always lashing out, while the other was weak and always lethargic. However, for Eirlathion who had been watching them for over a month now, that was not what he had been seeing. He had seen the supposedly fussy one being quite active, a little ball of pure energy and strength, constrained only by her infant body. Meanwhile, the other, she did not look lethargic due to being sickly. He had seen her open her eyes and look about with an odd intelligence in her eyes that didn¡¯t seem to fit a child of her age. In fact, there was a part of it that almost scared him at times. The faces she made were not those of discomfort or malaze. They were faces of boredom and scorn. Faces that were completely unbefitting such a small infant.


    Eirlathion had had the most intimate contact of any elf in the village with these girls, so he truly felt he was getting to know them well. After he had given his report about his findings, it was decided to introduce them to solid food early in order to anchor their physical forms to this world. A normal elf could subsist on only the spirit energy of humans until the age of three when they are more capable of actually chewing their own food. However, for these infants he had to become creative, and smeared some juice from some berries on his finger before spreading it on their tongues. However, from the energy he saw from the both of them, and the disgusted faces from the calm one every time as though she wanted to kill him, he had been shaken and begun to doubt as to whether or not they even needed such a thing at all.


    They were definitely not normal, and that wasn¡¯t even counting the fact that they were twins born to an elf. However, if you discounted the part about them being twins and looked only at their skin color and how healthy they otherwise seemed to be despite it, and you also take the circumstances of their birth into account. ¡®Grey elves.¡¯ That seems to be the most reasonable conclusion.


    They were born almost exactly two years after the date that their mother said their village was attacked. If they were a hybrid of dark and light elves, that would at least explain their skin color far better than the idea of them being sickly.


    Eirlathion was haunted by this realization. If his suspicions of the girls¡¯ parentage came out and was known to the rest of the village, he knew exactly what was likely to happen. After having invested so much time into caring for them, he simply did not have it in his heart to allow that to come about.


    With these thoughts in mind, Eirlathion had continued to treat them as he would if they truly were ill. Until he could come up with a better solution, he would continue to hide his suspicions from the others. Fortunately, the only other people who interacted with the girls regularly were the humans who had been brought for them, and with the exception from the woman assigned as the caretaker it was almost a certain thing that the rest would not know about the matter of dark elves and grey elves. As for the caretaker, she would likely accept it on his authority that they were merely ill. However, in order to prevent her from becoming too suspicious, it was better that he make sure to be present as much as he can in order to minimize her own interaction with the girls.


    Besides that, because of how close an eye he had been keeping on them, he had noticed something rather odd about the human boys as well. From time to time, the older children would also talk to them. However, the looks he saw on the boys¡¯ faces told him they did not understand even a single word of what was being said to them. There was a suspicion at first that the effects of the enchantments on the food they were given did not work. This, their lack of ability to understand elven words, all but confirmed that suspicion. Had it worked normally, in addition to remodeling their soul to become dependent on the mana of the fey races, it would also give them an understanding of the elven language. However, for them, it was clear that no such understanding had come.


    Intrigued by this, Eirlathion had asked the caretaker what was normally done to teach a language to children. She had told him it was as simple as taking an item and telling the children the word for it. This was before he had become suspicious of the girls¡¯ parentage, at this time he was far more fascinated with the boys than he was the girls, the odd nature of their unusually dense souls and the mysterious language they spoke that was neither elven or the tongue of their parents.


    Perhaps he could gain some answers if the boys could communicate with him properly. With this in mind, he set to work teaching them the elven language as the caretaker had said, teaching them one word at a time. And then, it was because of his efforts to teach the boys their language that he got his next surprise in regards to the girls.


    In the middle of his lesson one day, one of the girls spoke up. The boys identified her as Gaerien, the name meaning ¡°child of the ocean¡± given to the older twin of the two. A fitting contrast to the name of her sister, Aerien, ¡°child of the sea.¡± He was unsure the boys were really keeping the names of the girls straight, but it was likely better than he could keep track of them so he decided to take their word for it. At any rate, while the pronounciation was a bit off as could be expected for a baby, she had attempted to speak one of the words he was teaching the boys.


    The boys immediately became excited, and began trying to teach her more words. Even more interestingly though, it didn¡¯t take long at all for them to immediately begin trying to teach her their own language as well.


    This was an unexpected but very very interesting gain. With this, he could even learn the language the boys were speaking, watching and learning from them as they taught it to Gaerien. However, this startling discovery could not simply be dismissed. There was definitely something very very unusual about these girls, and even the explanation of them being grey elves no longer explained everything he was seeing. Normally, an elf child does not begin to speak until the age of three. These girls were barely even a month old, and already one was saying her first words. It was not just babble either, she was actually repeating back words that were just said to her.


    He had been put at a bit of unease for the looks the calm one was always giving him. However, now, he also discovers the hyper one may even be the more intelligent of the two. And it wasn¡¯t just that, just her being intelligent doesn¡¯t even begin to describe how shocking it is for her to be speaking like this so early in her life.


    No, the possibility of dark elf parentage really is no longer enough of an explanation. There was something very very unusual about these girls, and he was going to do what he could to get to the bottom of it.


    -


    The next day after Eirlathion had witnessed one of the two girls talking, or at least starting to, at the incredibly young age of 1 month, he decided he was going to start some expiraments to examine her. It was easy enough to get the correct girl, despite them being twins. This is because the boys always quite consistently hold the same one, as evidenced by the fact that it¡¯s always the one the boy named Levin is holding who is exceedingly active and fussy while the one that the other boy, Rolwen holds, is the more calm and seemingly lethargic twin. Despite having the identities of the two straight though, the name is an entirely different issue as Levin is constantly changing the name that he calls each of them while Rolwen refuses to call either of them by name.


    ¡°Perhaps now that she¡¯s talking, she can decide on her own which name is hers.¡± Eirlathion muttered to himself as he approached the children today. What he was about to do did slightly risk some of the elves figuring out he was not of the opinion the girls were as sick as they all thought they were, but his curiosity at this point simply would not allow him not to do this.


    He had magically examined the girls several times in the past, but every time it was while they were in the arms of the boys. The best that a scan like that can tell him is how well they are feeding and what kind of mana output they are giving. Any more detailed information such as the structure of their souls would be largely obscured by the exchange of all the spiritual energies between them. From what he had seen, the more calm one was feeding normally. Or rather, considering it was these two boys who were the source of the spirit energy that was feeding her, it might even be said she was consuming an excessive amount for someone her age. The energy consumed from Rolwen was, by percent, about the same as would be taken from a normal human child. No, it even went beyond that. When Levin was near, she consumed it from him as well.


    The more active child meanwhile, the same one who had shown excessively fast growth until now, seemed to consume very little spirit energy, and yet she kicked off far larger levels of mana than her sister. Now, seeing that she had come to start talking this early as well, Eirlathion was already beginning to suspect what he was going to find. Perhaps any other simple mage, even one among the elves, would not see the significance in this at all and even worry as the rest of the villagers had over them up until this point. However, having been among the faeries as much as he had, he was very much aware of what could likely be the cause of this. If it was true, he simply had to find out.


    But first, to cover his bases. He told the children¡¯s caretaker that he had to perform some ¡°risky¡± tests, but he thought that the girls should be strong enough to handle them at this point. After this, he went to the boys as he usually did. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m going to do something different today. I will have to take this one with me.¡± He said, reaching down and lifting the girl from Levin¡¯s arms. She immediately seemed to grow very alarmed, and began twisting and turning around in his grasp. She pulled and worked her arm out of her blanket and began reaching for Levin.


    ¡°Now now, it¡¯s going to be alright, I will have you back to him shortly.¡± He said in a gentle voice as he continued to walk toward a different room. However, she only started to cry when she realized he was not going to bring her back immediately.


    Eirlathion simply let out a sigh and then walked into the small closet he had previously set up for his purposes. He set the wailing child down a small counter, and interestingly enough her crying seemed to quit down to small hiccups and sniffles. No, actually, more surprising than that was the fierce look she was giving him. But, even more surprising still, was the immense energies he was feeling washing off of her as she was giving him that intense glare. He hadn¡¯t even started his examination yet, but he almost didn¡¯t have to with what he was seeing. It was qute clear.


    What he was feeling was not just the mana naturally released by elves, it was also heavily laced with spirit energy that she was generating completely on her own without even the slightest contribution from any human child.


    An involuntary sigh managed to escape his mouth as he was washed in this aura. No, there was no longer a need to examine her. He knew exactly what was going on now. He reached for the child once again, almost hesitating this time, before lifting her up far more tenderly than he had the first time and began to hold her as though he was afraid of harming her in any way. ¡°Alright, now then, let me get you back to Levin, shall I? I¡¯m sorry for taking you away from him.¡±


    By the time he had gotten out of the room, he began to hear the sound of a baby crying once again. It took him a moment to realize that the baby crying this time was not the one he held in his arms, but her sister still being held by Rolwen. Apparently, her sister had somehow noticed her absence, and had become quite distressed over this herself. Well, perhaps that is only natural given what he had just found out.


    -


    The day I had said my first words in front of the ¡°Ether¡± guy, he seemed to just watch us for the rest of the day as the boys excitedly taught me one thing after another. I had thought the ¡°Ether¡± guy had dismissed the event as something unusual, but within the outer limits of reason. That is, until the next day came around.


    The day after I had expiramented by showing off my ability to talk, ¡°Ether¡± guy came around and the very first thing he did was lift me out of Levin¡¯s arms, along with some words he had not taught us yet. Clearly, he was not actually just dismissing my performance they day before in any way at all. He clearly knew there was something strange about me at the very least. Yeah, I definitely overdid it with showing off my advanced development.


    The only question is, what do I do now? Well, what he¡¯s doing is probably not something that entirely bad, probably just a few magical tests or something like that. If elves existed, then sure, why not magic as well? I would imagine information based magic is likely among the easiest to cast, at least in terms of information at the level of the equivalent of a medical test. However, if he did those tests, what exactly would he find? I wasn¡¯t sure I was entirely comfortable with this.


    I decided I would try to fluster him in some way, maybe do something to make him re-think his actions. A baby crying in distress is probably the best tactic I have to affect his decision at this point, but simply crying when he picks me up will only show I¡¯m a bit afraid of new people or something like that, or maybe it will even just be dissmissed at me being fussy from being woken up. It seems that for once all the crying I had done in the past is coming back to bite me. So, I¡¯m going to need a little bit of an extra touch.


    Working with all the skills I had developed wriggling out of the constraits of my blanket before, I managed to work an arm out in mere seconds and then began reaching a hand toward Levin, making it quite clear and impossible to misinterpret the meaning of my cries, before I started just screaming as loud as I have ever screamed as the tears ran from my face.


    ¡°Ether¡± guy seemed completely undeterred by this as he took me to a small storage closet with a light inside it. He put me down, and it was clear my performance had not worked. After he did this, he looked as thoug he was about to do whatever he intended to do. I, meanwhile, got myself ready to strike at his hand whenever it approached to hover over my body as he had done on the first day he showed up. It was completely illogical, but as I cried back there ¡°over him taking me away from Levin,¡± I somehow arrived at the conviction that I absolutely did not want him casting any magic and finding out anything about me at all.


    Honestly, even I don¡¯t know what I was afraid of him finding out. Personally, I think it might have been just spite at this point. Part of it was due to the fact that part of me, I realized, wasn¡¯t just acting earlier. I actually was legitimately upset at him for taking me away from my familiar environment and touching and holding me like that when it has always only been Levin and Ms. Sonaby, but her only on occasion. It seemed I had become a real slow to warm up kid somehow.


    The other part, however, was because I still didn¡¯t trust elves. They are the people who almost certainly kidnapped Rolwen and Levin after all, in order to essentially feed them to Gaerien and I. It¡¯s true that I¡¯m just as copable in this for being the one feeding on them in whatever form I do so, which I still didn¡¯t completely understand the mechanics on. However, I¡¯m just a baby, and it seems that this form of feeding is not something I even do by conscious choice. However, they are the ones who had a choice in the whole matter. And, in my case, I also felt disgusted that I was the one it was all done for in the first place.


    Because of this, along with nothing else but the pure frustration I had been building up over not being able to act as a baby and finally having some degree of control over my body, I wanted to use this to unleash my frustrations just to spitefully ruin whatever this guy was going to do.


    I watched for my opportunity to act, but after he stood there with a dazed look on his face for a while, he simply stepped forward and gently picked me up again.


    ¡®was that it!?¡¯ I screamed inside my own mind. It seemed like he was done. That would mean then that he had finished all of his tests and came to a conclusion. And now, he was picking me up to bring me back to the main room. This was really humiliating. Once again, I could do nothing of my own power to stop this from happening. As a baby, I could truly do nothing.


    After that shocking event, I soon heard Gaerien¡¯s crying voice. That wasn¡¯t very common. Could she have somehow noticed I was missing? Well, I was making enough of a rackit on my way out that I¡¯m certain that had to have woken her up, and so now she¡¯s gotten quite grumpy over being suddenly woken up like that. Wouldn¡¯t anyone?


    At any rate, ¡°Ether¡± guy returned me to Levin¡¯s arms, and I imagine my face must have looked pretty aweful at that time.

 Chapter 10: The knowledge of gods and mortals

    That night, after the others had gone to bed, I continued on with my usual training, I became aware that someone else was awake as well.


    ¡°Aouu! Aaaaah!¡± I heard Gaerien shouting at me, causing me to stop in my motions as I had just worked my way out of that darn blanket as usual. I turned over and looked in her direction. I wasn¡¯t sure why exactly, and hadn¡¯t thought too seriously about it before, but it seemed one of the advantages to being an elf was an insanely good level of night vision. Even here in this building, with nothing discernible as a night light, I was still able to see my sister as though she were lit up by moon light. And what I saw was her staring straight back at me with a seriously questioning look on her face.


    ¡°Aou! Uuuu! Uuuuu!¡± She had an intense look of concentration and focus on her face that seemed to suggest she wanted to get more words out than just that. She almost seemed to have a look of desperation on her face, and even looked on the verge of tears. This.. really wasn¡¯t like her at all. This was really the first time I had ever seen this kind of behavior from my sister, not that I had really had the opportunity to pay much attention to her in the first place in this past month due to my mobility and field of vision always being so restricted.


    At any rate, it really did seem like something had changed. What¡¯s more, I could see a definite look of intelligence in those eyes that seemed to be pleading with me. I didn¡¯t know for sure just yet, but maybe¡­ We already have three in one place here, is it possible we could really have a fourth?


    A smile spread across my face. I wasn¡¯t to a point yet where I could crawl or really move around very well yet, but I could still roll. As such, I used that as my method of mobility and quickly closed the distance between us. After I had flipped over on my stomach, I scooted myself over toward her several times, looking up at her along the way to see her face had turned from desperate to curious.


    Once I had closed that distance, I grabbed my sister by the blanket she was wrapped in, patting my hand on the fabric several times. A shocked expression crosses her face at this time, and then that shocked expression is once again replaced by a look of intense concentration, except this time for some reason she seems to actually look like she might know what she¡¯s trying to do somehow.


    ¡®How?¡¯ I heard a voice as though it was resonating inside my head. It was similar in some ways to the self-speech, or ¡°internal monologue¡± most people call it, except that the voice I was hearing inside my head was not my own. Instead, it was a different voice, one that seemed somehow familiar. I had heard that voice once before in my life. Or rather, not this life, it was my previous life. That¡¯s what it felt like, but¡­


    ¡°Whah?¡± I said aloud, before thinking better of it after a moment. My mind quickly caught up with the situation and I looked seriously back at my sister. I really did not want to settle on a conclusion just yet, but this didn¡¯t happen until I touched Gaerien like this, and that voice¡­ I decided to try and respond in the exact same way she had talked to me first. ¡®Was that you Gaerien?¡¯ Her eyes absolutely lit up with delight, and she even seemed to let out a burst of infant laughter as her emotions overcame her after I had made the effort to project those words from my mind.


    ¡®Yes! Good! It worked!¡¯ I heard what I now know was Gaerien¡¯s inner voice once again.


    ¡®How are you doing this?¡¯


    ¡®I wanted to ask you the same thing.¡¯ Gaerien sent her thoughts back to me in response to my question. ¡®But, I guess it¡¯s a bit rude to¡­ No! You have to keep your hand on me!¡¯ I had allowed my hand to slip off of her while we were in contact like this, but it seemed kind of strange. She was still able to send me that message even when my hand had slipped off.


    ¡®Sorry.¡¯ I sent my mental communication back to her, reaching out and grabbing more tightly to her blanket.


    ¡®It is fine. Just¡­ keep your hand on me like that and also keep focusing your mind. That¡¯s the only way we will be able to keep communicating like this.¡¯


    ¡®Ok.¡¯ I responded, starting to get used to this way of communicating at this point. ¡®But, again, I don¡¯t really understand how this is happening.¡¯


    I heard my sister let out another ¡°ge-he¡± infant giggle, and she almost seemed to look proud of herself. ¡®This is embarrassing, this body just shows all of my emotions whether I want it to or not.¡¯


    ¡®Yes, the reticular formation in your brain hasn¡¯t formed yet, it¡¯s the structure that separates your higher brain from your lower brain. You won¡¯t be able to stop that from happening until it¡¯s done forming.¡¯ I patiently informed her about the neural science behind her little embarrassing situation while patiently waiting for her explanation.


    Gaerien, meanwhile, seemed to have a wide-eyed curious look of bafflement on her face. ¡®Really, so the humans of our previous world even knew about things like that? The advanced knowledge of a magically isolated world truly is something to marvel at. Ok then, how about this? I will tell you all about how I am doing this, but do you think you can tell me how it is you are able to move and talk already!? I¡¯m pretty sure you didn¡¯t use some magic, so it has to be another one of Earth¡¯s developed knowledges, right?¡¯


    ¡®Yeah.¡¯ I responded to her, also acknowledging the other information she had already given me when reading between the lines. The way she talked and the terms she chose to use, I can discern a lot more than just her identity from all of that. I had suspected she might have been that goddess I had met just before my death, but I really didn¡¯t want to come to that conclusion so easily. Now, I discovered something more. It seemed that the gods and goddesses, or at least the ¡°fallen ones¡± such as she confessed herself to be, were not up on the sciences as they were discovered by humans. Despite living in the world, she was not aware of several of the more complicated matters about how the world worked.


    Well then, I suppose that means that we happen to be on more equal footing in this situation than one would expect a former mortal and former goddess to be. This was very very good since I still did not know enough about her to know whether I should fully trust her or not. When I thought she was just a normal baby and my twin sister, I had it in mind that I would protect her. When I was crawling over to her a minute or so ago when I thought she might be another reincarnator from Earth like Levin, Rolwen, and myself, I had resolved to guide and help her in any way I could. Now that I knew she was, in fact, a goddess who might know far more about this situation than me, I would be approaching her not like an innocent child but as I would any adult in my previous life.


    I would not view her as a demon as I would have before the crash that demanded her intervention, the fact that she had saved my granddaughter''s life was enough for me to give her at least that much in gratitude. So, I would give her the benefit of meeting as a neutral party and judge all my future actions based on what she did, and whether or not she demonstrates herself to be trustworthy, and the manner in which she handles this little information trade ought to be perfect in order to get a feel for what kind of person she might be.


    ¡®Well then,¡¯ She says, starting up on her end of the deal. ¡®well, how do I say this? It¡¯s a kind of divine magic, the same kind a deity uses to communicate with their followers. I can use it to communicate between us though when we are touching like this. But, actually, I really don¡¯t think I could possibly do this with anyone other than you.¡¯


    ¡®Ok, well, that¡¯s pretty handy.¡¯ I responded. ¡®It feels pretty good to communicate with someone in a manner other than the constant baby talk.¡¯


    ¡°Geee-¡­ hahaha!¡± Gaerien¡¯s voice erupted again as her emotions came faster than her conscious thoughts. ¡®Well, I had grown used to long periods of loneliness, but it truly does feel good to communicate.¡¯


    ¡®Is that why you are always so quiet?¡¯ I asked her. Her face contorted into a look of embarrassment and I could feel her squirming from inside the confines of this blanket.


    ¡®Yeah¡­¡¯ She responds. ¡®It¡¯s embarrassing only being able to make baby sounds, and being so helpless. So, I didn¡¯t want to make a fool of myself until my body had developed enough to move and talk normally.¡¯


    ¡®Well, there¡¯s your mistake.¡¯ I told her, I heard a giggle escape my own mouth. I was sure a sickeningly prideful look was appearing on my own face at this moment, but I decided not to let it bother me. ¡®If you do that, you will be stuck developing on the normal schedule for a baby. Actually, you may even be a little behind. All of those little noises and movements babies are always making, that¡¯s how a baby explores their own body and learns how to move and talk in the first place. Since you already know all the actual words and movements you want to learn though, if you practice them with a purpose you can start moving and talking a lot earlier than a normal baby would.¡¯


    ¡®So that¡¯s why you were always doing all those things. I thought for sure when you were always making all that noise that your memories must have still not awakened yet.¡¯ Gaerien let another piece of information drop on her own.


    ¡®You¡¯ve seen reincarnations like this before then?¡¯ I asked her.


    ¡®Yes, they used to be rather common on Earth before it was sealed away from the other worlds.¡¯


    ¡®Sealed?¡¯ I asked. ¡®I think you had probably better explain that one.¡¯


    ¡®Yes, well¡­ It¡¯s actually pretty normal for a powerful god to seal off a world from the influences of magic and the arcane energies. You see, the god-born, the creatures that are created by the gods, are often among the weaker inhabitants of any given world. However, the more powerful beings that feed on the god-born cannot exist without magic. And therefore, it is common for the gods to seal off a world in this manner.¡¯


    ¡®You see, the god-born are very important to the gods. The god-born provide the gods with spiritual energy, which is where they gain their power from. However, the other magical creatures will also feed off of the spiritual energy of the god-born, and several such as the elves we were born as will go so far of abducting and enslaving the most sentient god-born of a world, humans in the case of this world just as was the case with Earth. Other magical races such as the monsters, devils, and demons will just straight out kill the god-born mercilessly. This is not something the gods can stand. And so, it becomes fairly common that at some point the gods will begin to erect a barrier against magical energies in the world.¡¯


    I really didn¡¯t know how to respond to¡­ well¡­ really any of the stuff that was contained in that huge information bomb just now. Also, god-born? She had explained it, all things that were created by the gods. In other words, the plants and the animals. The way she said it then, that would imply that elves were not created by any god since they were something different?


    ¡®What about elves?¡¯ I asked her.


    ¡®What do you mean?¡¯


    ¡®I mean, you are saying that elves are not one of the races created by god, so then what are they? Or rather, we now as well.¡¯


    ¡®Elves are members of a group of races known collectively as the fey.¡¯ She informs me. ¡®The fey races are simply souls that gain the ability to live on their own as a god-born creature would. Of course, since they are fundamentally different from the god-born, and are dependent on the god-born for their spiritual energy just as the gods and spirits are.¡¯


    ¡®But, weren¡¯t we born like a normal human would have been?¡¯


    ¡®Yes, Elves are the fey who are the most similar to the humans they were in their first incarnation over any other among the fey races. It really is an amazing thing, and they seem to have even developed the ability to help new fey to be born as elves as well with a process identical to the way humans are conceived and born.¡¯


    ¡®Well, if that¡¯s how it works, then what really is the difference between an elf an a human at that rate? Just the fact that elves need the spirit energy of humans?¡¯


    ¡®As well as the fact that Elves breath out mana just like any other among the fey.¡¯ Gaerien answered my questions conclusively like that. ¡®Well, there is likely also the fact that, as a fey, the physical strength of an elf would be far greater than a similarly built human.¡¯ Well, if that was how it was, it was really no wonder elves would be known for being a graceful people.


    There is an absurd misconception picked up during the body-building ¡°muscle beach¡± craze of the 80s that somehow strength and grace were opposites to each other. The truth of the matter was, grace was the result of possessing so much physical strength that you can perfectly control the motion of your own body. The reason why the gigantic body builders who bulk up their biceps and their pecs to look like walls of flesh come off as lumbering and slow by comparison is not because large muscles limit your mobility. Rather, it¡¯s because those body builders of the past didn¡¯t know how to train their muscles properly, and only strengthened the largest muscles that show up the most.


    The body building community of the time shortly before I died had figured things out a lot better. You have to strengthen all the small muscles as well, and you need to pay attention to mobility. Also, strengthening the wrong muscles without balancing out by building up the opposing muscle as well can even cause damage to your joints. This was likely another reason for the whole ¡°lumbering oaf¡± portrayal of body builders in the past. Improper strengthening of the legs could cause damage to the knees, thus causing their movements to become slower and less graceful.


    No, a properly exercising individual who strengthened all muscle groups and evened out the antagonistic muscle groups would have phenomenal grace with a very strong body. If elves had naturally strong bodies, then the elve¡¯s ability to carry their bodies with grace would be far above what any human can manage, and that on a deceptively frail frame as well due to the demands the elves put on their bodies not stressing their muscles as much. The skinny elf arms then would not be because the elf was weak, and it would also not be the skinny arm that gives them the grace. Rather, it would be a shocking thing to anyone who knew better that an elf was able to move so gracefully despite having such a deceptively skinny frame.


    This was certainly a fascinating thought. However, this was getting rather far off track.


    ¡®So, from what you are saying, are the way elves are born unusual for the fey races?¡¯


    ¡®Oh yes, it certainly is not the way that most fey are born. Under normal circumstances, you either have the powerful souls who can be born a fey on their own and materialize into the world. These powerful fey were called faeries in the language back on Earth. There are also lesser fey that do not have enough power to materialize on their own. These ones often borrow the power of another soul, and the two souls combine into one body in order to produce their physical form. I suppose the best term for these types would be pseudo-fey? There are several different types of them, but they all share one thing in common. It is usually in the form of a sentient god-born in the upper body, with the lower half of a non-sentient god-born. And, they are usually given names that are different depending on what non-sentient fey makes up the lower body.¡¯


    ¡®So, like centaurs, fawns, and things like that?¡¯ I ask, trying to make sense of what I was being told.


    ¡®Yes, I think you¡¯re getting the idea.¡¯


    ¡®Well then, what about chimeras and manticores? Creatures comprised of multiple animals, none of which are human.¡¯


    ¡®Those¡­ are a special type of monster. The manner in which they are born is fairly similar to a fey in that it is a combination of several souls joining together, but they do not join in that way unless there is a something to help them out. They need a large amount of something called arcane energy in order for the animal souls to combine in that way and gain physical form without a sentient consciousness guiding them.¡¯


    ¡®Arcane energy? You will have to explain that one as well.¡¯


    ¡®Well, you know a lot about the physical things of this world but absolutely nothing about magic do you? Well, I suppose it¡¯s natural. The barrier against magic around earth had been up so long that magic had been entirely forgotten by those who lived on earth.¡¯


    ¡®Are you gloating now? You are a very impolite teacher you know.¡¯


    ¡®Sorry! Sorry. I just was a little surprised, it¡¯s something most of the gods knew before that one gained so much power in the world he could raise the barrier single handedly. You have no idea how absurd and outside the standard that sort of thing is.¡¯


    That one? Well, I could only think she would be talking about one god, one that does not go by a name who took the identity as ¡°God¡± as his name. A bit of pride rose up inside me, like one would feel pride in their ancestors long past. I hadn¡¯t been to church all that diligently, but my faith in my last life was strong enough for that to mean something. But¡­


    ¡®Stop it with this side nonsense, get to the point already. What¡¯s this bit about arcane magic?¡¯


    ¡®Not arcane magic, arcane energy. The two are different. Arcane magic is cast by using the mana breathed by the fey. They take the spirit energy of the god-born into their bodies, and then release mana. The mana then becomes the fuel for arcane magic. Arcane energy then is the residue left over from the spells. If the arcane energy is not purified, it can corrupt spirits, fey, and even god-born into horrible monsters. The chimera you spoke of are among those monsters that can be created.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, enough about this¡¯ Gaerien said after she finished her point. ¡®Can you¡­ help me to start moving and talking like you? I was Ok with waiting before, but now that I know I can do something about it I can¡¯t wait to be able to move and talk like normal again!¡¯


    With that, Gaerien cut off my line of questioning. I had so much more I wanted to know about on the subjects she seemed to be deeply informed on, and these subject seemed to cover the exact kinds of information I needed to know in this new world that, if I¡¯m understanding this correctly, does not benefit from the anti-magic barrier of the previous world. I suppose it would have to wait for later though. Besides, I had already gotten far more information than I had just a few minutes ago, and what I already had gotten from her was going to be a lot to digest.

 Chapter 11: Things progress, and things change

    Author''s note


    Having to go through a lot more edits now that Gaerien is communicating and providing exposition dumps. It''s very easy to get a little too esoteric when it comes to explaining the lore and mechanics of a magical world, so it''s really vitally necessary to give it a second look and ask if it''s written in a way that''s too confusing or needlessly wordy.


    Anyway, biggest time skip yet. Going to try and start having events speed up here now that the basic introductions are out of the way and most people have a fairly good sense over just what Aerien is doing in order to properly earn her accelerated growth.


    From the moment I had discovered I could communicate with my sister Gaerien, who was in fact the very fallen goddess who helped me to save my grandaughter, the two of us began regularly helping one another to grow and adjust to this world. On my end, I helped her by telling her what kinds of physical exercises and what kinds of words she should be practicing in order to improve her ability to talk. I did not, however, direct her to do the ABCs as I did. I wanted something she could practice during the day without running the risk of alerting Levin and Rolwen before we were ready to talk with them.


    Gaerien did not seem entirely convinced that it would be all that important to take these precautions, but she did not go against me on it. However, she did tell me something that set at least one of my major fears at ease. Apparently, spirit energy was something that humans naturally produced as a by-product of simply living, kinda like the CO2 they create from breathing. As such, absorbing it as we do would not be doing any harm to them. In that case, using this analogy, it seems that fey like us would be plants. Comparing elves to plants seemed to make this a pretty fitting analogy.


    Even with that though, while the manner in which we fed ourselves did not seem to be something to cause harm to them it did not change the fact that them being abducted from their families likely did quite a bit of harm. In the case of these two, who clearly seemed to be reincarnators like myself, the blow would be mitigated somewhat. However, that would not be the same story for the other children here who were clearly normal children and who also clearly were not with their families. Because of this, my opinion about elves had not changed in the slightest. The only thing this did was make the tension and fear for the immediate near future lessen slightly.


    As for Gaerien, she returned what I did to assist her by teaching me what she knew about magic and how the extraordinary world of gods, spirits, fey, and monsters was structured. I didn¡¯t expect her to know much about this world in particular, but at least she could give me the corner pieces to the puzzle and then I could work my way inward from there. However, as she was explaining about how these things in the magical world worked, she managed to offer one rather stunning piece of information.


    This revelation came one day when she was teaching me about the arcane energies and the mutations they cause. Apparently, it is easy for someone without training to accidentally take these arcane energies into their bodies, fey and spirits mistaking it for spirit energy and humans or other animals, or rather ¡°god-born¡± as she called them, mistaking it for mana. In fact, several animals simply take it into their bodies naturally it seems. Apparently, according to her, the specific kinds of monsters that appear and what people choose to call them vary by what kind of creatures are around and what the sentient races choose to call them. This is when the bomb shell dropped.


    ¡®Actually, just like with those Centaurs or Manticores you mentioned before, it is very likely that you might know more about these monsters than I do.¡¯


    ¡®And exactly how would I know anything about these kinds of monsters?¡¯ I had asked. ¡®There has been no magic on Earth for, how long did you say? Thousands of years at least. And for that matter, any monsters here would be completely different from those that would show up on Earth.¡¯


    ¡®Well, it¡¯s actually BECAUSE of the barrier that humans who lived on Earth might know more about the worlds outside of Earth than almost any god.¡¯ From here, she went on to explain several things about spirit energy, gods, and how the world within the barrier that surrounded earth differed greatly from the world outside of it.


    The most important thing in all of this was that spirit energy contained the thoughts, memories, and emotions of the person who radiated it. Gods could not just pick up spirit energy like the fey, it had to be willingly directed at them by the humans who followed them, via those humans attempting to communicate with that god by projecting their spirit energy. By her description, it sounded an awful lot like she was describing prayer.


    Since the anti-magic barrier had also eliminated the conditions that make it possible for souls to become fey, and with gods only able to absorb spirit energy directed at them, this meant that a lot of unclaimed spirit energy was building up in the atmosphere of the earth and it became rather dense.


    So, apparently, after spirit energy sits around and becomes stagnant for long enough, the thoughts attached to it begin to wear away and get replaced by thoughts and memories that were copied from other spirit energy. This turned Earth into an environment where it was even possible to pick up on the thoughts of people from other worlds. And, humans who were especially sensitive to spirit energy were able to read these thoughts from the other worlds and interpreted it as their own imagination. The more creative among those sensitive people would then portray the memories of strange creatures they would have picked up in stories, literature, and art work.


    Because of this, while gods could not pick up on this spirit energy from other worlds, humans could, and humans would then use art as a medium to tell all the other humans of earth about these things. So, in other words, the fantasy and folk lore of Earth was, in fact, the best guide someone from Earth could possibly have to what could be expected from this world so long as one could pick out what was inspired from messages from the other world and what was simply inserted by the artist¡¯s imagination.


    Going back to my puzzle analogy, forget the corner pieces, this information was tantamount to giving me a completed frame of all the side pieces already assembled. I may still have to grope around to discern fact from fiction on a few points, but it gives me a huge starting point. At the very least, I ought to be able to figure out the identity of most creatures I¡¯m looking at by sight, and if I can recall enough folk lore then I might have the ability to make a reasonable guess as to what kinds of abilities the creature may have.


    Taking that as my starting point, I could also make some deductions as to what creatures might exist out there. The most likely creatures to exist here in this world are the ones that are most enduring and popularized in the fantasy stories of Earth. So, this would mean trolls, goblins, ogres, orcs, harpies, mermaids, and things like that. Well, harpies may even be another type of fey come to think of it. And mermaids too for that matter. I¡¯m not 100% on harpies, but there¡¯s no chance mermaids are not members of that variety of fey that have the upper half of a human and the lower half of some animal their souls dominated.


    Now, there is one other highly popular creature of fairy tales and myths. This one, perhaps even more common and popular than all those others combined. There are even stories about creatures of this sort in every culture told by every people regardless of whether or not they had ever been in contact with one another. Every culture around the world tells the story of some form of great flying scaled beast. There are some details that are different, but every version tells of them having some other great power as well. As the European version tells it, they breathe fire. As the people of eastern Asia tell it, they have power over the very weather, and can create storms on a whim. In the west, this creature is called the Dragon.


    It was a frightening thing to think about, but there was no real getting around it. Dragons were just too well known on Earth not to have been from this world, that according to Gaerien was likely our next door neighbor. The elves were proof of that apparently. Or, more to the point, the fact that I had seemed to think elves were something common as a type of fey. Rather, Gaerien had said that elves are a truly absurd mutation among the fey, something she had never seen or heard of in the time before the Earth was sealed behind its barrier. It may in fact be the case that elves only existed on this world and no other. And, the fact that they were so well known in Earth¡¯s folk lore and fantasy community meant that this world had to be in very close proximity to Earth on whatever higher dimension plane our souls and spirit energy travels through.


    At any rate, while I had begun teaching Gaerien how to improve her body and brain, her increased level of activity did not go unnoticed by Rolwen, Levin, and Mr. Eirlathion. Oh, right, Mr. Eirlathion was the ¡°Ether¡± guy who''s name I had a lot of trouble with at first. I had finally learned how his name was supposed to be said. However, I always added ¡°Mr.¡± to it in my mind, because he was an adult after all. Although, he was an elf still. I would still add the Mr. though, not so much as a term of respect, but as a marker of distance as I was not going to be feeling too familiar with him.


    As I was saying though, those three took immediate notice of how active Gaerien had gotten. Since Rolwen, Levin, and I were starting to get pretty good with Elven by this point as well, I was able to understand their comments and how they wondered if Rolwen and Levin had somehow switched us. Yes, I was a little less active since Gaerien started up, especially during the day. As fun as it would have been to string them along with this perception that Gaerien was me, I did quickly break the illusion when the Elven language lessons started when I clearly demonstrated that I was better at talking than my, until now, completely unpracticed older sister.


    As for my personal goals, I may have been less active during the day, but I certainly did not slack off. In fact, I was starting to become a little bit of an insomniac, since I started training more regularly and often wind up practicing on moving and talking all night. In the past few months, in addition to becoming far more fluent in Elven than I would have thought possible in such a short time, I also started to practice moving a lot more. I felt as though I always had energy to do more, and Gaerien simply could not understand how I was doing it since she still seemed to sleep as much as she always had.


    The strange thing is, I have never really felt any sense of anything being wrong when I stayed awake. I have been noticing more and more that I really don¡¯t even need to sleep at all. For the most part, while I take advantage of my ability to move, I try my best not to wake anyone. I have not tried leaving the bed yet, I am afraid I might not be able to get back in and I might worry everyone. However, I have managed to be able to sit up and crawl. I haven¡¯t tried standing yet, but I feel that it shouldn¡¯t be too far off.


    So far as the physical benchmarks though, I am only slightly ahead of a human baby. Although, I assume this means I am absolutely absurd for an elven baby. I have been noticing that the boys are growing a lot faster than I am after all, despite me being the one who is supposed to be in the more rapid development period. So, this would definitely indicate that elves grow slower. I mean, my teeth hadn¡¯t even started coming in yet. I would be way past due for that if I were a human baby. That in mind, even though I¡¯m holding back quite a bit on what I show Vs. what I¡¯m capable of, I am probably already making poor Mr. Eirlathion¡¯s head spin.


    Levin and Rolwen don¡¯t seem to have that solid a concept of even human baby developmental benchmarks, so they don¡¯t seem as bothered. Because of this, it means I get to enjoy watching him walk around in an astonished daze by himself. Speaking of the boys, I haven¡¯t actually told them about me being from the same world as them yet. I have been playing to the illusion so much until now that I haven¡¯t been able to find the time or the right words. I will probably have to wake them up some time after everyone else is asleep. That¡¯s how it¡¯s going to have to be. It seems like Mr. Eirlathion has been listening in on the ¡°English lessons¡± the boys were giving me, and when he asked the boys seemed more than happy to teach him as well.


    That was one miscalculation in my plans, but there is little I can do about it now. He speaks English. Not well, but I know from my own experiences that usually as you learn a language you are able to understand a lot more than you can speak. It¡¯s enough that it¡¯s simply not worth the risk, which means that now I will have considerably less freedom in communicating with the boys than I had thought. So, talking with them at night it is.


    With that in mind, I sat and watched Rolwen, Levin, and Gaerien sleep. In times like these, despite being the youngest of the group in this life, I felt like myself in my previous life again, filled with the memories of the sleeping faces of my own children. Rolwen and Levin seemed to be approaching 2 years of age now, and while it was not as driven as it was in my case, they seem to have been rapidly exploring their bodies as well and were already pretty good at walking and moving around.


    Thankfully, they have decided on their own not to talk about their status as reincarnators. I have heard them talking over these past months, they seem very aware of the fact that they were kidnapped and have developed their own mistrust of elves. However, they do seem to keep debating with each other on occasion as to whether or not they should talk to Eirlathion since he seems ¡°nice¡± to them.


    Well, considering the direction of their conversations, even if I did tell them about me being like them, it would only mean that I could be included in their occasional debates on the subject, but at least it would mean I could get my opinion in. However, there was one more reason why I would really have to tell them about myself soon. They seem to be talking in increasingly hushed tones whenever they discuss the subject lately, and often discuss it more in terms of the pronoun game, debating whether or not to tell about ¡°that¡± rather than specifying anything about the subject they are discussing. They also used to exchange information about who they were in their previous lives, but now that has stopped as well, every time with a paranoid look toward Gaerien and I.


    It¡¯s rather obvious that they are very concerned about us hearing them now that we are demonstrating ourselves becoming better and better at talking. I really should not have allowed this to go on for so long. There is no choice. I will have to tell them. I made my resolve. I would tell them about it tonight. I would be waking them up once everyone else was asleep.


    Making my resolve, I laid my head down and closed my eyes. It really doesn¡¯t seem like I need sleep anymore, but my body is still capable of it in cases where I become bored.


    -


    That day, when Eirlathion came in, he made a rather shocking announcement.


    [I think it is probably time. I don¡¯t think you should be living here anymore. You two should be enough for the girls, the four of you will be living in my house from now on.] He said. He simply declared it like that, leaving no room for negotiation.


    [Why?] Levin demanded with a quaking voice, slightly delayed as he probably wanted to say something different but couldn¡¯t find the right words in Elven to say it.


    [What about them?] Rolwen came in to the rescue, indicating their brothers and sisters in the room. ¡°Our family!¡± He switched to English for that word, probably the exact word Levin had been struggling to find as well. That¡¯s right, I don¡¯t think Eirlathion ever actually taught us the Elven word for family.


    Eirlathion seemed a little bit confused for a moment, but then he looked around and it seemed to click for them. [Oh, you mean your family?] (nosse) He got a difficult expression on his face for a moment, and by this point the discussion had attracted the attention of the other kids in the room. [Look, I¡¯m sorry.] He said, leaning in really close to us. [I can tell you the reason later, but we really need to do this in order to take care of the girls. It¡¯s¡­ well, I don¡¯t think you can understand it right now, but this is really important.]


    After saying that, he reached down and lifted me right out of Levin¡¯s arms. What the hell was this bastard doing!? I started struggling to quickly remove my blanket so I could fight him off. As this was going on, I saw him dip his finger in a bottle of something he pulled out from a pocket in his robes, and then before I could really get my arms out to do anything I had the by now familiar unpleasant experience of having this guy¡¯s finger shoved into my mouth. Only, this time, instead of sweat tasting berry juice it was the bitter taste of some kind of herb.


    [I¡¯m sorry, I know it doesn¡¯t taste good.] He says with a remorseful face as he hands me back to Levin, who holds me possessively and turns his body to the side to protect me with his shoulder against any repeated attempts of that sort.


    [What did you do to her!?] He demands. At the same time, I hear Gaerien start to cry. And¡­ as I¡¯m looking up at Eirlathion, I manage to catch a slight smirk on his face as his eyes glance over in my sister¡¯s direction.


    [She¡¯ll be Ok, it¡¯s just a little bit of some new medicine.] He says. [That¡¯s why we need to move to my house, there are more treatments I would like to try that could help them.]


    As he is talking, I begin to feel the sensation of a dull non-painful paresthesia creeping down my arms, and my head feels like it¡¯s swimming. At the same time, I begin to get a sense of tunnel vision. I recognize these symptoms immediately as the onset of drug-induced sleep. That stuff must have been infused with alcohol or something, because it entered my bloodstream immediately and is already having this powerful of an effect.


    This is not good. I feel like I¡¯m fading fast here. I may not require sleep to get by anymore, but that gives me no actual resistance to drug-induced sleep. I am only just barely able to stay conscious long enough to see how the boys continue to argue with Eirlathion, and eventually he leaves the room, saying something about how he was going to have to have someone help. I wasn¡¯t really clear on the exact words he used due to my drowsy state, but given the situation I was able to quite easily figure out the meaning. However, by the time he returned, I had already succumbed to the effects of the drug that bastard had given me.

 Chapter 12: Of two minds.

    I still felt drowsy as I was waking up, and I started looking around to see unfamiliar surroundings as I was in a room far smaller than what I had grown used to. I immediately started to feel anxious, and I let out a breath as I began my taijutsu meditation. It was one of the things I had regained from my previous life, a way to keep my mind focused even under the most stressful of situations. And, right now, this was my first time in this life seeing any space other than the nursery I had been raised in for the past half year or so.


    The meditation, while lessening it, did not completely eliminate the stress or anxiousness. But, I had realized it was at least something that kept me from crying which seemed to be something I had been doing a lot more easily since being reborn as a baby. It does not eliminate or control my emotions, it only allows me to continue functioning and making effective decisions while in a stirred up emotional state, preventing me from acting purely on instinct. And, due to having become a baby again in this life, my instincts were now to cry whenever I was upset. It made me glad somewhat that this focusing of the mind at least allowed me to not do something as embarrassing and non-productive as acting like the baby I¡¯ve literally become.


    With my meditation focusing my mind, I was able to keep alert. However, with me not being able to let it out by crying, the anxiousness I was feeling quickly decided to take another form as I instantly became restless despite how drowsy I was. Before I even managed to fully confirm my surroundings, I was already violently struggling against the confines of the blanket I was wrapped in. I looked around and noticed that Levin was not holding me. In fact, he was not next to me at all. This managed to make my infant brain even more anxious as my body was now almost completely controlling my actions and emotions while my mind full of my past-life experiences was now only able to just barely constrain the urge to break down crying as loudly as I could.


    Without even thinking about whether or not it should be shown in front of others, I immediately sat up the moment I threw the blanket off. I found Gaerien next to me, but after that I immediately identified Rolwen and Levin across the room. This looked like it could be an opportunity to find out from Gaerien exactly what the situation was. That is probably what I would have done had my past-life consciousness been in control. However, my baby Aerien brain had completely taken over by this point. Before I could even stop myself, I found myself reaching out toward the boys.


    ¡°Levin! LEVIN!!!¡± I started crying out in a distressed voice. I was sitting on some kind of mat of some kind of organic matter, which in turn seemed to be on top of a low table. As soon as I saw Levin, my urge to go toward him was enough to overpower any rationality, and my meditation did not help. In fact, if anything it backfired on me. The main cause of this was that my taijutsu meditation almost demanded that my body remain active. Image training or preparation for action can become a weak substitute, but nothing beats actually moving your physical body, and so since what my baby mind wanted and what the meditation demanded were one in the same at this point, I leaned forward and took a tumble right off the edge of the low table.


    ¡°Wow! Aerien!¡± One of the boys exclaimed, and I was happy to realize it was probably Levin.


    In my case, as soon as my mind realized the crisis I was in, baby Aerien¡¯s impulsive desires were instantly banished and the old 60 year old taijutsu master was back in complete control. In my old life, if I was falling a distance of my body length or greater like this, I would have put my arms up over my head , ducked my head down, made my body into a ball and attempted to make my elbow get first contact with the ground before going into a tuck and roll. However, there were two things working against that here. One, my head was now more than twice as big compared to my body as it was when I was an adult in my previous life. The second was that the entire length of my body was only about a foot and a half. And, if gravity in this world was even close to what it was on Earth, this meant that instead of the 1.1 seconds I would have to pull off this maneuver at 6 feet, at 1 foot I would only have 0.4 seconds. That difference of over half a second really mattered.


    Fortunately, 1 foot was not enough to build up a lot of momentum. Unfortunately, it was still just enough to kill me if my head hit the floor. So, what I ultimately wound up doing was something very close to the instinctive action of any falling person. I used my arms to brace myself against the fall. I did not, however, throw my hands out in front of me. That was a really good way to get a broken arm. Instead, I pulled my hands toward my chest and allowed myself to land on the backs of my hands, which were then followed immediately by my forearms and finally my elbows, and I managed to land like a cat as my knees touched down at exactly the same time as my elbows.


    ¡°I old yuuu dat uss a bad idea!¡± (I told you that was a bad idea!) Rolwen¡¯s voice said as the two of them were now up and running in my direction. In the meantime, I was kinda surprised that I didn¡¯t feel much pain from having my knees and elbows come in such hard contact with the wooden floor. Well, it wasn¡¯t that far of a fall, I didn¡¯t weigh a whole lot, and I still had baby fat, but still! It was like there was zero pain at all. And, if anything, having to face a crisis situation and awakening my full past-life mind had made my meditation which emphasized physical movement deeper. And, without pain and the crisis situation averted, baby Aerien¡¯s innocent desire to be close to the person she was used to being in physical contact with her 24/7 managed to re-assert themselves in an instant and I began pushing myself to my feet.


    ¡°Levin!¡± I yelled again when he got up to me. I grabbed at his shirt, almost pulling him down on top of me as I used him as a support to pull myself to my feet.


    (Oh jeeze! Aerien!) Levin, meanwhile, plopped himself into a sitting position right in front of me, causing me to have to put my hands on his shoulders in order to stand. As soon as I was standing, not even consciously aware of the fact that this was the first time I had actually stood up on my own in this life, I threw myself at him and clung to the front of his shirt. Now that baby Aerien was happy, my previous-life mind started laughing and scoffing at my actions inside my mind. It was perfectly normal and understandable for an infant to act this way, given the circumstances, but it was like some sappy love reunion of some sort. Considering he was actually a boy and I was a girl now, that immediately made me feel somewhat embarrassed.


    Up until now, I had been realizing more and more that I seemed to have some kind of a double consciousness. I had already figured one was my new self as a baby and the other was my past life self. The two seemed to be slowly merging together over time, but in periods of high stress like this I found more often than not it was my baby self that asserted itself with my past self only able to mildly guide my actions. Well, when you get right down to it, it¡¯s not at all different from being in a dissociative state. I was not entirely unfamiliar with this experience. In my past life, I had found my mother after she had passed away from an accidental overdose of her pain medication. I knew that she was dead just from looking at her, but that didn¡¯t stop me from yelling and shaking her in order to futilely try to wake her up. My mind kept scoffing at the pointless actions my body was taking. Finally, my disconnected mind told my body which seemed to be acting on its own ¡®you have to call 911.¡¯ That finally got me taking the appropriate actions.


    In much the same way, when I was under stress in this life, it was as though I lost control of my body. In those times, anything that comes from my past life knowledge stops guiding my actions and it is the impulsive baby Aerien that does the moving. And, for a baby¡¯s mind, there were a lot of things that were stressful that would seem perfectly normal to an adult. Such as, in this case, waking up without my living ¡°security blanket¡± next to me, especially when I was in a strange place I had never seen before.


    ¡°ueres dat uguy?¡± (Where¡¯s that guy?) I asked, clinging to Levin¡¯s shirt with my little hands as I looked around anxiously.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Rolwen responded.


    (That was scary! Ok, we shouldn¡¯t have them up there, maybe we should get Gaerien down too.) Levin said. After I had gained the ability to talk, I had finally straightened them out that I was Aerien and she was Gaerien, so they have been calling us correctly since then.


    (Yeah, I told you it was a bad idea!) Rolwen says again, pulling Gaerien off the table and holding her to his chest as he flopps down on the floor himself.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± Gaerien responds, apparently awake as well. I realize about now that they are not planning to answer my question about where that bastard was, so I begin looking around more and straining my ears in order to try and locate him.


    (Well, he said that we didn¡¯t need to hold them as much while we were here, but I didn¡¯t think they would get up and fall off like that!) Levin said. I felt my breath catch in my chest as I heard it was him that was a part of the reason why I was by myself when I woke up. As I felt myself finding yet another reason to dislike him, my past-life mind just had to laugh at how illogical my baby thought process was. Indeed, it may be the case that my baby self completely took over when I was stressed, but I could feel my two minds in action almost all the time now, the baby self and the past-life self.


    Most of the time, it just gave my past-life self a good source of entertainment as it laughed and tried to straighten out my baby self. Indeed, my past-life self seemed to be quite capable of teaching my baby self, and since my baby self never had trouble understanding my past-life self¡¯s meaning, I learned very very fast and was considerably smarter than a normal baby. At some point, I had reached the conclusion that the source of this was probably the difference between my physical brain and my memories from my past life that were too advanced for it. Both were the real me, and when I was alone in my thoughts I could easily access both, but in order to make it something natural for me my past-life self had to teach my physical brain these concepts it couldn¡¯t currently process.


    In this case though, both my baby brain and past-life mind hated that Eirlathion guy, and so the admonishment from my past-life self did nothing to calm my baby self. I was still accepting the poor logic concept that it was his fault that all that just now happened, even though I knew it wasn¡¯t.


    For the most part, I had managed to make this two minds thing work out alright for me. However, right now, the far more impulsive baby Aerien had taken far too much control and, not finding any nearby sign of Eirlathion in this room and not hearing him in the immediate vicinity, decided that now was the right time to deliver a message my past-self and been meticulously preparing for quite a while, but never finding the right time to say it.


    ¡°I haf to tell yuu zomething.¡± I said, holding on to Levin¡¯s shirt. ¡°Levin! I haf to tell yuu zomething!¡± I was shaking him, trying to make sure he was paying attention to me this time. I was a little annoyed that they didn¡¯t answer my last question about where Eirlathion was.


    ¡°Whad!?¡± Levin responded, looking down at me. It seemed my activity and insistent tone had gotten Rolwen¡¯s attention as well, and he was curiously looking over in my direction. At that moment, I decided to deliver the one line that would leave no doubt to the claims I was about to make. I had picked it out as something they could instantly relate to, and it was something that only someone from our previous life could possibly know. More importantly, it was not something either of them had ever talked about when they were chatting with each other about their previous life before they started becoming more cautious about it.


    ¡°doughnald rump us bresident before we died.¡± I said. After these words, what greeted me in response was pure silence. Not a single person said a word. ¡°I¡¯m like you!¡± I said after they had enough time for it to sink in. ¡°I¡¯m like you nd Rolwen!¡± Despite being impulsive, my baby self had managed to deliver the exact message, down to the exact word, that my past-life self had decided on.


    I had noticed from their conversations that they seemed to have been a lot younger than I was, and so they talked about a lot of pop culture that I didn¡¯t know about. And, due to the generation gap, I was not at all sure if they would be able to relate to any cultural references I might be able to make. However, naming the US president was something that any English speaking person would know immediately, regardless of what generation they were from. So long as they were not an elementary school age child, they would know who the current US president was, even if they lived in another English speaking country like the UK or Australia, and even if they lived in some other non-English speaking country and just happened to have learned English themselves, chances are they would still know it.


    As for why I said that as the very first thing out of my mouth before I delivered the actual message that I was like them, well, there were two reasons for that. One was that my hard palate had not fused yet, so no matter how hard I trained my ability to speak it was impossible for me to say something like ¡°reincarnated¡± without it sounding like a total mess that they would never understand. I had to stick to simple words such as ¡°I¡¯m like you.¡± However, if I had said that first, chances are they would mistake my meaning as something along the lines of ¡°I like you,¡± since that wouldn¡¯t be too unusual for a baby to say once they knew how to speak as well as I did. They simply would not understand what I meant until I said the thing that could not possibly be disregarded or misinterpreted.


    And, going by the shocked expressions on their faces, it seemed like it had the exact intended effect.


    ¡°What!?¡± Levin said, looking down at me with eyes bulging out of his head.


    (I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t tell you before.) I said, looking down in my embarrassment and shame.


    ¡°Wow!¡± Rolwen said, looking over here as he cradled Gaerien in his lap.


    (Wow! Seriously, Aerien!? You¡­ why didn¡¯t you ever say anything!?) Levin says, lifting me up and looking me in the eyes with an excitement so great it actually started to scare my poor baby self. Fortunately, she trusted Levin, and because my past-life self kinda expected this kind of reaction, so did my baby self, and thus I was kinda prepared for it, so I was able to keep my cool and asnwer his question calmly.


    (Well, I couldn''t talk well enough before. I¡¯m only about half a year old! And also¡­ them.) I looked toward the nearest window as I finished this sentence, and upon following my gaze Rolwen and Levin seemed to immediately understand.


    ¡°Yeaah.¡± Levin said with a far-off and somewhat darkened expression. (Well, I¡¯m happy to know you¡¯re like us though. It would be scary if it was just me and Rolwen in this house.) Levin said.


    It is at about this point my past-life self realizes just what was probably going through my baby self¡¯s mind when she decided to pick this moment to spill the beans. It seemed like a rather inappropriate time, but.. really, it turns out my baby self was probably thinking about how Levin and Rolwen were feeling. Did this mean, somehow my baby self was expressing empathy? No, no, that¡¯s WAY too freaking advanced of a mental concept for a baby to have. She could have picked it up from my past self though. While we oddly separate on the level of surface consciousness, this was not the first time I came to notice that my baby self was able to access what could only be subconscious knowledge from my past self. Of course, that was the exact reason why my baby self was always able to understand what the past self was trying to explain to her immediately, and why I was able to understand these things so quickly.


    At any rate, well, it was an impulsive action but it was definitely for the right reasons. And, even if Eirlathion was near by, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s likely to understand the contents of this conversation very well.


    (Oh! Levin! I just got an idea! Can you take care of Gaerien for a little bit?) Rolwen said, gently placing my sister next to him. Gaerien got an irritated look on her face and began pulling off her own blanket as soon as she was on the floor. Meanwhile, Rolwen ran off toward a set of stairs leading downward that I hadn¡¯t noticed before. And, as soon as he got there, he crouched down, put his hand on the bars holding up the hand rail, and began trying to creep down the stairs as quietly as he could.


    Levin and I were both watching what he was doing, and it was immediately clear what he was doing. So, neither of us said another word about it and instead Levin¡¯s gaze fell to Gaerien for a moment and then he looked back at me with a concerned expression before talking to me in a hushed tone. (Hey, what about Gaerien?) He asks.


    (Yeah, me too!) She answers for me finally getting the blanket off successfully. Unlike me though, she is not yet capable of sitting up on her own, so she is just left to flail around on the floor for now. Well, at least she can more easily look around now and turn her head to take in the room.


    (Yeah, her too.) I confirm. (That¡¯s how we can both already talk. Also, both our English is better than our Elven.)


    (Yeah, that¡¯s right.) Levin comments. (Why didn¡¯t I ever notice that!?) Levin has a face that looks like he¡¯s kicking himself.


    [Hey Rolwen! Is that Aerien I hear up there?] All of us immediately freeze at the sound of those words spoken in Elven. More to the point, the person who said them. Rolwen seems to take the most reasonable response for a kid in our position to take in response to that. He does not say a word, and simply runs right back up the stairs, and then immediately comes straight to us, only stopping to reach down and grab Gaerien before huddling in with us and holding on to Gaerien protectively.


    Well, it seems our important conversation has been cut short for now. We all hear a sigh, and then with barely a sound in the seconds to follow we eventually see the head of long dark hair and pointed elven ears attached to Eirlathion cresting from the stair well. And with that, the excited conversation is switched to silence and a heavy atmosphere between the four of us as the man who betrayed our trust enters the room.


    Author''s note


    For anyone who noticed that Aerien starts switching between the 3rd and 1st person when talking about her baby self and her past self, and doesn''t even stay consistent with which of the two get talked about in the 3rd person, that''s completely on purpose.

 Chapter 13: Reasons and regrets

    Author''s note


    There was some confusion expressed on the subject of Aerien''s pseudo split personality, so I will clear it up here since it comes up again in this chapter. The two personalities are actually not truly distinct from one another, not a thing like people who really have multiple personality disorder. Rather, it is more appropriate to say that the "past life" self is just a store of the knowledge from the previous life that the "baby" self can''t quite process yet.


    The "baby" side is starting to develop distinct likes, dislikes, and opinions independent of the "past life" self, but because they are completely connected on a subconscious level the past life is getting dragged along into those factors of her personality as well. Ultimately, at some point, the past life self is going to completely assimilate into the baby self once her brain is developed enough to handle the knowledge from the past life.


    Incidentally, this state has existed since the beginning, but the past life self didn''t notice it until the baby Aerien''s personality started to develop. At the same time, the baby mind only started mistaking the past life self as a different personality.


    All of this being the case, the way I am handling the "split personalities" is that they can switch very rapidly, in the middle of a paragraph. One sentence will be from the perspective of the baby mind and the next will be the past-self knowledge in control. The best way to think about it, rather than split personalities, would be that when the "past self" is taking over it''s a little bit like the "Avitar State" from "Avitar the Last Airbender," except without all the flashy lights and no power boost attached, only a skill boost.


    Anyway, long story short, it''s deliberately confusing, because even Aerien is sorta confused about the whole thing. Well then, here''s the chapter. Enjoy.


    I began to cling even tighter to Levin¡¯s chest as that man approached us. Because his last action I remembered was to grab me straight from Levin¡¯s arms and then drug me, I kept a very distrustful eye on him as I peeked from behind Levin¡¯s shoulder as the others seemed to turn away from him in protest.


    My past life self couldn¡¯t help but mentally sigh at this. Of all of us, only Gaerien was older than he was, but I really can¡¯t help it. I¡¯m just a baby and, well, I was the one who that guy grabbed like that. It was a little bit of a traumatic experience. I know from my past-life memories this should really rank as nothing in terms of what is and isn¡¯t a trauma, but I really can¡¯t help the way I feel.


    That guy let out a sigh when he saw this, and of course it wound up being Levin, or rather, me that he walked straight toward after he finished his apparent mental preparations. I had kept my eye on him while he was at a distance, but as soon as he knelt down behind Levin¡¯s back I immediately let out a small squeak-like whimper in my throat as I ducked down and hid myself against Levin¡¯s chest.


    ¡°Aerien rashwe mani?¡± [What¡¯s wrong Aerien?] He says. I see his hand on Levin¡¯s shoulder and his head peering over. Levin, in response, let¡¯s out a defiant groan and pulls away, getting another sigh out of that guy. [I¡¯m sorry Levin, I know I upset you by taking you before, but I need to check on Aerien right now.] I felt Levin¡¯s entire body being pulled, and me along with it, as he began to struggle. After this, his hands were on me once again, trying to pull me from Levin¡¯s arms.


    [Don¡¯t! She doesn¡¯t like that!] He protested.


    ¡®Old man, help me!¡¯ I said a desperate prayer to my past self as I tried my best to use the meditation he taught me in order to give myself up completely to him so he could control my actions. I knew my little baby body was way too small to use any of the techniques I knew in my previous life properly. If he were at least unprepared, I might be able to do something. However, he was actively trying to get ahold of me right now, so every single aspect of his weight distribution was prepared and he had no weak line along any angle I could exploit with my small body.


    Since there was no way for me to effectively fight him now, I would save my tricks for when they might actually work. Instead, what I did was while he was trying to loosen Levin¡¯s grip, I willingly let go of Levin¡¯s shirt and tilted myself out of his arms and rolled right into his. This may seem like a completely paradoxical thing to do if the goal is not to let him take me from Levin, but this was like a Chinese finger trap. If I helped Levin to resist him, he would just wind up taking a strong grip on one of my arms or legs or something. However, if I made certain to let myself fall right into his arms in a way where his hands were touching nothing but my torso, I could actually keep control of the situation.


    I felt the tension leave that guy¡¯s arms having thought he succeeded. That was the very second he lost. All I really had to do was just sit up during the exact half second interval between his thought that he succeeded and the time he managed to successfully adjust his grip. And, with that, I wriggled right out and landed on the floor. After this, I rolled over to my hands and knees and pressed my feet hard to the floor, moving with everything I had to get behind Levin¡¯s back. [Go away!] I shouted in Elven as I clung to the shirt on Levin¡¯s back.


    [Ok, ok, I¡¯m sorry Aerien.] He says, shaking his head. [I didn¡¯t mean any harm, I just had to check that you were Ok after the sleeping medicine. Well, if you can move like that you are probably fine.] He tried to circle around Levin to look at me. I just dove between Rolwen and Levin, and Levin quickly took me back into his lap and glared at that guy.


    He did not try to do anything else after that. He just remained crouched on the floor for several seconds before finally standing up. [Ok, ok, it looks like you don¡¯t like me very much.] I was hiding my face against Levin¡¯s chest at this time, so I could not see what kind of expression he had on his face. However, I guess he must have been standing there in thought or something because the next time I heard his voice he hadn¡¯t moved very much. [I guess you must really like Levin, huh? Sorry, I won¡¯t try to separate you from him anymore.]


    I heard that guy¡¯s soft footsteps, audible only by the slight rustling of his robes, coming in our direction again. I knew from my training in my previous life exactly what it took to move like that. It only took about 5 minutes to learn the basic tricks, but weeks of practice to perfect it and even more discipline to make it a habit. Every time he lifted his foot, it would have to completely clear the ground in order to avoid any audible sound of scuffing, and then he would not simply allow his foot to fall to the floor after that. He would have to gently place his heel on the ground, then maintain the muscle tension in the front of his leg as he lowered his toes to the ground as well. Only after the entire foot was on the ground would he start actually allowing his weight to shift over the hip that leg was attached to. The mere fact he was able to take this entire procedure and make it such a habit he could move at a normal walking pace without it even really slowing him down spoke to just how much he had practiced this. If he had chosen different clothing and was conscious of the rustling of the fabric, it¡¯s very likely he could easily eliminate even that sound and move completely silently.


    After he had taken about three steps in our direction, I felt Levin¡¯s arm wrap protectively over my head, and then there was a very slight change in that guy¡¯s breathing that I could hear now with how close he was. His robes rustled again, and I could tell it was the sound of him straightening his posture back to a standing position. [Alright, I guess I will leave you all alone for a while. I will be downstairs. I will bring dinner up in a few hours.]


    I tried my best to track him with my ears as he retreated back toward the stairs. I had never really paid attention to it before since the nursery where we were before was always so noisy with all the other kids, but now that it was quiet enough around for me to actually try to pick up small sounds like people walking I found it absolutely unnerving that that guy had the ability to move so quietly like that. If he was one of my students from my previous life, I would have nothing but praises for him. Now, however, he was the enemy.


    Well, Ok, enemy seemed to go a little far, but I definitely didn¡¯t like him at all. Also, now that I was in on the secret with Rolwen and Levin, I could seriously feel the pressure from being unable to talk openly about it when someone could be hearing what we were saying at an inopportune time. That was the worst thing about it really. Never knowing when unwelcome ears may be listening in. The mere lack of privacy was absolutely unnerving.


    -


    Eirlathion heaved a really heavy sigh as he sat down at the table. He was at a bit of a loss, it seemed like the children had taken being moved here a lot harder than he thought they would. Hopefully Aerien would get over it after a little while, she probably just got scared when he had taken her out of Levin¡¯s arms. She seemed really attached to him. He just wouldn¡¯t bother her for a while and maybe she would calm down once she saw he wasn¡¯t going to try anything with her anymore.


    Well, at least he wouldn¡¯t have to go through the motions of feeding the girls anymore. The reasons behind that were misguided from the beginning, he was more aware of that now than ever before. In fact, Aerien in particular may not even need to eat for her entire life, and so long as Gaerien stays with the three of them she should be in much the same position when it comes to the food of this world. Neither of them will be in any danger of loosing their physical forms. They would have to actually be physically harmed by someone in order for their lives to be in any danger.


    He would have stopped feeding them a long time ago if it weren¡¯t for him needing to keep up the image that they were ill. If the rest of the village found out the real reason why their skin was that color, well, most of the people would probably not have it in them to harm children, but all it took was one person who had the fear of their father¡¯s line overtake their morality to have disastrous consequences. The best thing would be for everyone to keep thinking the girls were just sick.


    However, the illusion that they were sickly children was getting harder and harder to maintain with each passing day. Those girls¡­ they were just something incredible. Aerien was already starting to talk when she was only one month old, and then she continued her monstrous growth and development from there. He had heard that she liked to throw off her blanket at night, and would always get physically active as soon as Levin was not actively holding her. It also seemed that Gaerien was starting to pick up that same behavior, only she was becoming even more unruly. Aerien at least seemed to calm down when Levin was holding her, but Gaerien would struggle and throw off her blanket even in the middle of the day.


    Gaerien¡¯s increase in activity had posed the largest obstacle in getting the girls moved. He had told everyone that one was always fussy, while the other was lethargic. But now, they both seemed to be rather active, and not really in a way that could be considered ¡°fussy.¡± The level of energy they showed, it was the very picture of a healthy baby.


    There was no way the human woman that was the children¡¯s caretaker hadn¡¯t noticed this yet, she had already begun making comments about how they seemed to be doing so much better. This was when he knew he would have to move them. He had quickly come up with a story, saying that their mana and spirit energy consumption still was not good, but that they seemed to be recovering enough that they could probably stand a change in environment. He would move them to his own house in order to take better care of them. Of course, the real reason was not to cure them of their non-existent disease but to hide the fact that they were more than just healthy but still had that ashen skin.


    The abundant energy they demonstrated was going to work against him for this though. The brief time he had them in the open to move them to his house was probably not enough to really make anyone suspicious, but he couldn¡¯t take any risk when the girls¡¯ lives were at stake. This was why, in order to maintain the illusion, he had decided to give Aerien a sleeping drug. He really did not like the idea of drugging a child at all, but it was better than the alternative. He had brought along a strong tincture made from a leaves he had personally received from a dryad, and then sped the diffusion process with a time acceleration spell. If cast on a person, this spell would take years or even decades off of their life. But, for non-living objects such as this it was just the right thing. It was a very high level spell though, so it was still practically unheard of to use it like this.


    After giving Aerien the sleeping medicine, he heard Gaerien start crying almost immediately. This was an almost perfect response. One of them sleeping, the other crying. With this, there wouldn¡¯t be a single person in the village who found something inconsistent with what they had heard about the girls. However, when he tried to check on how Aerien was doing with his mana sight, he saw something that absolutely scared the life out of him.


    All of the waves of spirit energy and mana that were being almost constantly released by Aerien had stopped. Not just that, they reversed. She was no longer letting out her own spirit energy. Instead, she was feeding off of Levin¡¯s. Well, ultimately this really just meant she was doing the same as any other elf her age would be doing, but when the norm for her is to radiate her own energy it seemed absolutely unnatural.


    He calmed himself from this shock, telling himself that maybe it was actually a good thing for now. He had been wondering how he was going to explain Aerien¡¯s aura to everyone. He had planned to just say that what they were feeling was actually Levin and he had somehow become stronger as he aged, but now he didn¡¯t even have to do that. However, it was still very concerning. Luckily, it seemed when he had gone up there a moment ago to check on her, her aura was not only back, it seemed it had even gotten stronger than before.


    It was amazing almost to the point of being unfair. Her aura seemed to grow in strength just as she grew. It was normally so hard for an elf to cultivate an energy like that, but for her it was just natural. Eirlathion doubted he could even be her magic tutor in the future, perhaps only the faeries could teach her what she needed to know.


    It all seemed to be going well. About the one real problem in all of this was the boys. He had thought they would be too young at this age to have grown any strong bonds with their families, and he had been closer to them every day than their own brothers and sisters who largely did their own thing throughout the day. Since he was on top of the girls all day every day in order to keep people from noticing how healthy they really were, the siblings were not even filling the purpose they were intended for in keeping the boys in line. There was very little interaction between them, and yet¡­


    Eirlathion had never really had interactions with humans this young before. Was it natural for them to have such a strong family bond from a young age like this? And yet, despite that, he had seen the way human parents treated their children. They beat their children, sold them as slaves, married their daughters off to adult men when they were no bigger than an elven 40 year old, what he was told was merely 10 to 12 years of age for a human. And then, after that, they had so many children. This wasn¡¯t bad in and of itself, but what he had heard from the changelings who have lived among the humans absolutely made his skin crawl. In many places, they didn¡¯t even give their children names until they reached the age of five. All of this because they were operating under the expectation that over half their children would die by that age.


    The way humans treated their children was absolutely disgusting, and yet¡­ those boys already had such a strong attachment to their families. If they had not been taken from their parents, they would be in a far worse situation than they were now, but Eirlathion could imagine they would have been equally as upset being taken from their parents. This was why the elves always used the magic laced in their music and their food in order to calm the children¡¯s minds when they took them, so they would not be distressed when they woke up. However, these poor boys had resisted that magic. Eirlathion was now getting a first hand glimpse into how much love a human child had for their family, and for them to have that much love when their parents would treat them so poorly, it practically made him seethe with the rage in his heart.


    He let out a breath. Those boys may hate him for a while as well. That was really going to make things difficult.


    For the next several days, Eirlation kept his interactions with the children to a minimum. Whenever he brought food for the boys, he tried to talk to them a little in order to slowly gain back their trust. He didn¡¯t think they would understand his reasons, how could a child so young understand how harsh the world could be? If he simply told them it was because he was afraid someone might hurt the girls, maybe they would understand, but it was also likely they might think he was lying.


    He did not say anything about that. Instead, all he did was just try to ask some simple question such as how they were settling in, trying to watch their reactions and gauge the level of hostility in their responses. He always had trouble gauging human ages, but they seemed to be close to an elf around the age of 5 to 7 at this point. Really young, a mere toddler. However, they seemed to have an amazingly sophisticated level of emotion in their response, and they could really hold a grudge. So, he gave them more space and more time. Now that they were safe from others who may discover the girls¡¯ secret, he could afford to give them as much space as they needed.


    Author Note


    I would like to thank everyone for their support of this series up until now. It''s been just over 3 weeks now, and already it''s pushing 9K views. When I started writing this series, it was just a little something I threw together because there were some things I wanted to see in an isekai that nobody else seemed to be doing, and other things that when somebody did do it (like reincarnating an old man or gender change reincarnations) it was packaged together with something else that I just couldn''t stand, and I just wanted to see a series that had those things done right in them. And, well, you know what they say you have to do if you want something done right.


    I thought some people might also be of the same mind as me and also enjoy this series, but I honestly did not expect it to be such a large response that this series has even wound up on the first page in the daily rankings on some days. When I realized just how large a response it was getting, well, it''s always uncomfortable to talk about money but with this much attention it''s simply a waste that I haven''t monetized this series yet. Part of this, again, is because I never expected this series to be this big. It is by far not the biggest on the site, but it is still far bigger than I ever expected.


    The second is because I have some major issues with the behavior of the biggest and most convenient crowd funding platform today, that being Patreon. Given they have shown a history of arbitrarily terminating accounts that have not even violated their terms of service for politically driven reasons, it''s simply a platform I cannot trust. I do not believe I will ever be in a position to be in danger of the same happening to me since I actually find myself agreeing with most of the political views that seem to drive patreon''s mission, but politically based censorship is absolutely not one of them, and that by itself is such an incredibly large issue that I can never support that platform.


    As such, I have opened an account with what is currently Patreon''s most viable competitor, Subscribe Star. Since Scribble Hub does not support this platform, I am going to have to link it manually in an author''s note at the bottom of every page unless and until Scribble''s staff decide to start supporting it. (I might wind up making a thread on the forum on this subject in fact.) Until then, please bare with me and please support me on Subscribe Star. (link below.)


    https://www.subscribestar.com/jemini-s-stories

 Chapter 14: Planning and allies

    Since we got here, that guy had been acting really different around us. Everything in his words and actions said that he knew he had screwed up and that he knew we were mad at him. He also seemed to be walking on eggshells to a rather extreme degree around us.


    It did not go unnoticed that he was also no longer trying to give Gaerien and I our medicine. We asked him about this, and he responded that we didn¡¯t need it anymore. Confusingly enough though, after that he made the comment that we probably never did, and he had a rather strange self-depreciating smile on his face when he said that.


    Despite how much he tried to appease us and avoid doing any more harm though, any time we asked about going back to the nursery or having some of Rolwen and Levin¡¯s family come over here, his answer was always [I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m afraid I really can¡¯t let that happen,] and every time one of us asked the question or pushed the issue he stayed firm in his denials while getting an increasingly pained look on his face.


    With all of this going on, I was beginning to get a more and more clear picture that there was more to this than any of us knew. And, if I wanted answers, I was going to have to have to toss that guy an olive branch. I did not plan to make it easy for him though. I may wind up tipping my hand a little with what I had planned, but it was always impossible to get information durring a conversation without giving some information yourself. Besides, if I¡¯m reading this correctly, we shouldn¡¯t be in too much danger.


    Well then, all that¡¯s left is convincing the others. (I want to talk about something.) I said. I wish I could have given something to indicate a serious face or serious tone, but it was all impossible with this baby body. Fortunately, I was among people who could sympathise with my situation, so they were quite attentive.


    (What is it?) Rolwen said while Levin adjusted me in his lap and looked down while Gaerien simply looked up at me. She seemed to be having a somewhat harder time of this though since she was no longer wrapped in her blanket and had to get by with just her neck muscles. That was another thing that had changed since getting here. Rather than constantly making us stay restrained in those blankets, that guy had given us some proper clothes. That was more or less an announcement that he was not going to wrap us like that anymore. It was probably about the right time for me, but it still seems it was a little bit early for Gaerien.


    (I think that Ether guy is not telling us something.) I say to them.


    (Yeah, of course.) Levin responds. (Those elves are always hiding stuff from us.)


    (Wait, Ether guy?) Rolwen starts having a chuckle fit at my name for him. His laughing is infectious and Levin soon catches it as well. (I like it, that¡¯s great!)


    (Yeah, he has such a messed up name, I think Ether¡¯s a better name for him.) Levin chimes in. (Wait, didn¡¯t you always just call him ¡°that guy¡± before?)


    (Yeah, well¡­) If only they knew. I guess the fact that I had gone back to using my old name for him in my mind meant I had somehow already started to forgive him. Well, really it¡¯s probably just mental preparations for what I had planned for him. I was going to have to at least on the surface look like I was not mad at him anymore after this is done. Of course, this doesn¡¯t mean I wasn¡¯t going to make him work for it. (Well, I think what he¡¯s hiding this time is imp¡­ ahh¡­ imp-o)


    ¡°Imbortant?¡± Rolwen supplies the word I was getting stuck on.


    (Yes, and I hate you.) Levin begins to have a snicker fit rivaling Rolwen¡¯s chuckles from a moment ago at my simple little joke there, and I get a sort of sick satisfaction seeing Rolwen have to engage his past-life mind in order to realize that actually was a joke. I have begun to have something of an eye for when the others are more dominated by their current life or past life minds. It is someting that goes in and out for all of us. I have asked them about it before in the times we could get in these past few days, and it seems that while it happens for all of us and all of us are aware of it, I¡¯m the only one who has assigned separate personalities for my current and past-life minds.


    (so..) I say, moving on, (I think I can make him tell us what he¡¯s hiding.)


    (What do you mean?) Levin asks, (what do you think he¡¯s hiding?)


    (The real reason why he took us here)


    (What? Wasn¡¯t that because..) Levin trails off. I lay myself back in his arms so that I can look up at his face. These baby bodies and baby brains, or rather toddler bodies and brains in their cases, make it very hard for any of us to hide our emotions. Right now, the shock of realization is written all over Levin¡¯s face, and that realization seems to turn to anger almost immediately. (He hasn¡¯t been giving you medicine or anything to take care of you!!) He shouts, he is beginning to become restless too, like he wants to confront that guy right now about this.


    (Wow! You¡¯re right!) Rolwen is shocked as he realizes the same thing. Instead of anger though, the expression on his face is confusion.


    (That¡¯s because me and Gari are not sick.) I said, shortening Gaerien¡¯s name due to my difficulty in pronouncing it with my unfused hard palate.


    During all of this, Gaerien was just silently watching. I had discussed all of this with her before hand in far greater detail. Due to our ability to communicate mind to mind, it was far far easier for us to talk and explore things in more detail. Not only that, but when we communicated like that it seemed like both of us were 100% using our past life minds with zero interference from the baby brains to slow us down and make things difficult. She had already told me that she was going to stay out of this kind of difficult discussion. I was the better of the two of us at talking after all. She might join in if it¡¯s just something casual, but this was too serious a subject to have her tripping all over her words.


    The thoughts on her mind as this discussion passed were clear though. And that was¡­ she seemed to actually be a little exhasperated about the whole thing. That was always something that bothered me a little bit about her. She never said it to me directly, but the looks she often gave the boys when they were having difficulty with a concept were not something that ever quite sat right with me. Then again, I had seen that kind of ¡°what in the f¡¯ are you doing¡± look on babies¡¯ faces before, especially girls, so I¡¯m hoping it¡¯s nothing big.


    At any rate, Rolwen and Levin seemed rather surprised to hear me say this.


    (What!?)


    (What do you mean?)


    They both asked approximations of the same question. (Just that, we¡¯re not sick! I feel really healthy. I think we¡¯re fine.)


    (Yeah, I think so too, but¡­) Levin begins, and then it is Rolwen who finishes up his thought for him.


    (Everyone is always saying about your skin and stuff.) He says, and then looks down at Gaerien and holds his hand up to her face.


    (Don¡¯t do that!) She protests, pushing his hand away.


    (Ahh! Sorry!)


    (Well, I¡¯m going to ask him!) I boldly declare to them. (But, I needed you guys to know, I need to do the talking for this to work. Don¡¯t say anything and don¡¯t yell at him when I start talking to him.)


    (Ok, but¡­ do you really think it will be that easy?) Rolwen asks.


    (I¡¯m not going to just ask him. I¡¯m going to do an act, but that¡¯s why I need you to be quiet or else it will ruin it. If this works, he will tell us everything about this.)


    (What kind of act?) Of course, since they are children again as well, they¡¯re not going to be satisfied until they have all the details. There is no way for me to be vague and have them just be satisfied with it. So, I wind up having to keep answering their questions and ultimately I exhaust myself telling them every last meticulous detail about what I¡¯m going to do, what kind of effect doing that will have on him, how I have been watching and reading him over these past few days as well as, well, pretty much all my life when you get right down to it.


    I was actually incredibly good at manipulating people into telling me things in my previous life. There is absolutely zero question as to whether or not I am able to get what I want to know out of him. The only challenge is how much information about myself and the rest of us I¡¯m going to reveal along the way. It¡¯s absolutely impossible to avoid giving the slightest tip of the hand that at the very least I am a bit unusual.


    That¡¯s the absolute bear minimum that will be revealed. Since they have decided to drag this much information out of me though, I decide to go ahead and pose the question as to whether or not they want to volunteer anything more than that. They seemed uncomfortable with the idea, so we ultimately decided to reveal no more than the bear minimum and we would make a decision on that later depending on what we hear from him during this confrontation.


    -


    Eirlathion POV


    Today was one of the rare days lately that Eirlathion was out of his house away from the children. It was clear that they hated him, but he had gotten used to them enough to know that they didn¡¯t cause much trouble while he wasn¡¯t watching them. He had heard that children often tended to get into all kinds of trouble if you didn¡¯t keep a constant eye on them, but he had no such experience with these particular children. It was to the point that it almost made him doubt what others were telling him about how typical children behaved.


    Despite how much leeway he felt he had with them though, he still rarely left his house since bringing them in. The last few days, he had been constantly working between cooking and trying to sew some new clothes for Aerien and Gaerien. Since babies were so infrequent among the elves, there were no such things as hand-me-downs here. Each article of clothing had to be made by hand.


    Besides that, even if the parents of the next youngest elf who would be around 15 this year (equivalent to a human 6 year old,) still had the clothing from when their child was an infant, he could not ask them for it. He also could not ask someone else to sew for him. If he said anything of the sort, it would reveal that the girls were so strong and healthy that they were moving about on their own way before any elven child should rightly be capable of such a thing. Honestly, Gaerien¡¯s growth rate was almost on par with that of a human, and even she¡¯s behind Aerien.


    At the rate things were going, it would only be a matter of months before the children even might start doubting any stories he could feed them about the girls being unhealthy. When that happened, they would start demanding to go outside. He had to find something he could do before that day came. This trip out was to try and start working on one plan that he had that might solve all of their problems.


    ¡°T¨²eth,¡± He called out to the only other person in the entire village who knew the girls¡¯ secret and had proven herself determined to keep it.


    ¡°Eirlathion!¡± She turned and had a frightened look when she saw who was talking to her. She looked down with a difficult expression as he was closing the distance between them, but by the time he was next to her she was looking up at him with a weak smile. ¡°So¡­ how are the girls?¡± She asked him.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s something I wanted to talk to you about.¡±


    ¡°Did¡­ something happen?¡± She asked. Well, you could probably say that. Eirlathion had to suppress a groan when he thought about how angry the kids seemed to still be with him.


    ¡°Well, they are not settling in well after the move to my place.¡± He said, looking down and shaking his head. ¡°But, there is something I really need to talk to you about in regards to them. I think we should probably go somewhere more private. Is your house acceptable?¡±


    ¡°Umm¡­ yeah, umm¡­ that¡¯s alright.¡± She respons with some obvious hesitation. ¡°This way.¡± She says in an almost mechanical voice. As she guides him to her house with nervous and stiff steps that occasionally scuff the leaves of the forrest floor, she repeatedly casts several nervous glances back to him. It is clear to Eirlathion what¡¯s on her mind. She probably thinks that her worst fear has come true. In a way, she¡¯s right. However, he hoped that in that he could also be something of a light of salvation for her. Well, he was hoping she would be the salvation to him and, more importantly, her daughters. As for her though, he may very well be the cause of the pits of the underworld seeming to open up beneath her feet and delivering her back into the hell she had previously escaped from.


    He had seen no purpose in antagonizing her before this point, but as things were progressing he saw no other choice than to involve her. The mere fact that she had kept the girls¡¯ fatherhood a secret until now indicated that she probably did not wish harm upon them, even if she wanted nothing to do with them. In this case though, he needed an ally. And, as the mother to those girls, so far as he was concerned it was her duty to ally herself to the cause of helping her daughters whether she wanted to or not.


    After a while, they approached a large tree, one of several of its kind that could be found throughout the area. The trunk was fairly wide and sturdy, it would take around 40 people linking hand to hand in order to encirlce the entire base of the trunk. Its bark was a fairly distinct shade of lime green, and it had several large roots and great branches that jutted out from it.


    T¨²eth approached the side of the tree when they got to it, and then she reached out and knocked on the firm bark twice, each time it let out a sharp and crisp sound that resonated throughout the area. Once she had done that, she stepped back as the solid wood she had just knocked on began to warp and twist until finally it formed an open hole in the side of the tree. On the other side of this hole was what looked like a fairly cozy home, if not a little lacking in decoration.


    T¨²eth walked through the doorway that had just formed like she was condemned to death, and quickly took a seat at the table in the center of the room. Eirlathion followed behind her and stopped to place his hand on the outer wall of the house, and then he closed his eyes to concentrate briefly. In response to this, the wall immediately closed behind him. After he confirmed the door was closed, he reached for a pouch at his waist. From this pouch, he pulled a small piece of fabric, a square about 1 inch on each side.


    Eirlathion held the fabric between his thumb and fore-finger as he made a tight fist, allowing the majority of the cloth to stick up, and then he brought his fist under his chin as he allowed his lips to touch the cloth for just a second, before letting out a breath that caused the square of fabric to flutter.


    After completing this action, Eirlathion pressed the square of fabric against the outer wall with a particularly intense look on his face.¡°Let no spirit nor soul nor tongue of man to er pass word of what is said. Guard these walls, and silence all ears.¡± After saying those words, the fabric immediately seemed to disolve, sublimating into the air as though it never existed.


    When Eirlathion had completed this ritual, he let out a sigh and went to claim the chair on the other side of the table from T¨²eth, who was now looking at him with a look as though she was too afraid to even look scared anymore. Her fear had turned to nervousness, and it was clear that after seeing his actions her mind was arguing with itself over all manner of possibilities. However, there was one that Eirlathion was certain was central to all the other thoughts that might be going through her head at this time.


    ¡°That was a sound isolation spell, nobody outside will hear anything that is said in this room.¡± He says. ¡°I think you know what I want to talk about.¡±


    ¡°Yeah...¡±T¨²eth responds.


    ¡°It¡¯s about the girl¡¯s father, I know the reason for their skin being that shade of grey is not because of some illness.¡±Upon hearing this, T¨²eth¡¯s entire body seems to sink slightly, but a slight weak smile seems to float on her face as the nervousness is replaced by a look of resignation. ¡°I have been trying with everything I have to prevent anyone else from being able to figure it out.¡± he adds.


    Eirlathion watches the mother of the girls that have been in his care for several long seconds as silence falls over the room. Her face seems parylized, but her eyes seem to be dancing about quite rapidly, indicating the storm of thoughts that are running through her head at this moment.


    ¡°I know.¡± She finally says. ¡°I.. I had alwasy been afraid, because you were always with them like that. I..¡±Eirlathion waves his hand lightly through the air, a signal that he does not need her to continue with her thought.


    ¡°There is something you should know. Those girls, their parentage is not the only thing that is unusual about them.¡±


    ¡°Wh.. what do you mean?¡±She responds.


    ¡°It¡¯s Aerien. She.. she produces her own spirit energy.¡±T¨²eth¡¯s head shoots straight up as though something had bit her when she hears this, and she immediately locks eyes directly with Eirlathion. ¡°I think, with this, we could probably gain the help of the fey court. I was planning to go to them and ask for them to help. If we can get the support of the faerie royals on our side, there won¡¯t be anybody who would try to hurt those girls.¡±


    ¡°H..how!?¡±T¨²eth asks with a shaky voice. ¡°How is that even possible?¡±


    ¡°I have seen it before,¡±Eirlathion says, ¡°but never in a child this young. Never in a child period for that matter. I really don¡¯t know for sure how she could have gotten to such a level this early in her life. I did not sense spirit energy from her when I examined her for the first time, or at least I don¡¯t think I did, but lately I have been noticing that it just gets stronger and stronger as she grows older. There is something about her that I absolutely do not understand, but.. at any rate, I am fairly certain the faerie queen herself may even take an interest in this when she hears about it. The fact that they are grey elves will no longer even matter. However, I am going to need your help for this.¡±


    ¡°Me? How?¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s really quite simple. I will be needing somebody to watch the children while I am gone, and given the circumstances I really can¡¯t trust just anyone. I need somebody who knows about their secret, but will absolutely not tell anyone else about it.¡±


    T¨²eth¡¯s eyes fall upon hearing this, staring directly at the table between them. It takes a while before she can even work up the strength to meet Eirlathion¡¯s eyes again after hearing what he expects her to do.


    ¡°It¡¯s not going to be immediately, but the sooner it is the better. For now, I would at least like for you to come and meet the girls and let them become comfortable with you. I told you the most shocking thing about them just now, but there really is a whole lot more to it. Both girls are also very advanced and intelligent for their age to a point it¡¯s almost frightening. You are going to have to get used to each other before we can set things in motion.¡±


    ¡°I.. I see.¡±T¨²eth responds. ¡°Well, I guess.. yes. I will do what I can.¡±


    Eirlathion gave a satisfied nod at her ascent. And with this, the confrontation both parties had been dreading but both knew had to happen at some point came to an end on a good note. From this point on, it would all just be a matter of working out the details.


    Author''s note.


    The plot thickens. The next chapter will start in Eirlathion''s perspective. I have noticed in the statistics that there are a few people who like to skip chapters that are in Eirlathion''s perspective, but those of you who do this might want to stick around for this one. This one is not just going to be a re-hash of the same events from another person''s perspective, so you are not going to be able to get away with skipping it.


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 Chapter 15: Confrontations

    Eirlathion POV


    After briefing T¨²eth about just how developmentally advanced her daughters were for a little more, he told her he would need a couple days to prepare them to meet her. They made arrangements for her to come over in the afternoon a few days later, and he went back home.


    When he got there, he was incredibly shocked when he saw one of the girls sitting in a chair that had been pulled out. It was almost a commical sight seeing a little baby sit in a chair designed for an adult. Or rather, something about it felt very out of place actually BECAUSE she was properly sitting in it and wasn¡¯t trying to do anything like stand on it or use it to climb up to the table or anything of the sort. No, she just sat in the chair. She was sitting in it sideways, having turned her entire body to look in his direction, but she was still sitting in it.


    Eirlathion was tempted to think immediately that for something like this it had to be Aerien, but... there was no sign of Levin around anywhere. In fact, he could not see or hear any sign of any of them. The entire situation was starting to feel a little eerie as a matter of fact. Well, might as well settle which one she is with his typical method.


    When he began trying to carefully sense the flow of mana and spirit energy he distinctly felt a monsterous ammount of both rolling off of the child in front of him. This was actually somewhat shocking. The ammount had increased again. Now that he was around her in a more open and free environment, he had been beginning to notice that on occasion the waves of spirit energy Aerien produced were not quite the same as those of a human. Unlike with humans, hers seemed to gain and decrease in strength. However, they always seemed to be at their strongest when she was mad at him, and this was easily the strongest he had ever felt them.


    Eirlathion¡¯s face twitched a little as he imagined what this was going to be like. This was really not something he needed right now. He had only just walked in the door, so why would she be mad at a time like this? And for that matter, just where is Levin anyway.


    (Lie!) She suddenly shouts and points at him as he comes further into the house.


    ¡°Umm, hi Aerien. How did you get down here, did Levin leave you there?¡±


    (I tell him to!) She responds in her broken baby elven. That got his attention. Did she mean that she told Levin to put her on the chair like that and leave her there? Certainly not, she must just not fully understand what she¡¯s talking about or something.


    ¡°Heh, what¡¯s that? Did you tell Levin to leave you alone down here then?¡±


    (I did!) Eirlation didn¡¯t quite know what to do with that response. He had been about to walk up the stairs to ask Levin to come down and get her since he knew she usually seemed to get upset if anyone else tried to touch her. However, that was a pretty definite response that for some reason she wanted to be down here like this. He wasn¡¯t quite certain what to make of it, and this made him hesitate for a while.


    ¡°Well, why would you do something like that?¡±He asked, putting on an amused face and coming closer to her. He knew she was probably angry, but because she was a baby he could see her being angry as nothing really more than an innocent temper tantrum. Although, that being the case, Aerien seemed rather calm in her anger. He at least knew enough about children to realize this was very very unusual.


    (Because you lied.) She says. At this, Eirlathion suddenly realized that this already unusual situation was a lot more strange than he had first given it credit for. Was she confronting him about something? This seemed incredibly out of character for something a baby would do in far more ways than just one.


    ¡°I lied?¡± He responds. He still couldn¡¯t take this situation completely seriously, but despite that he also felt his blood beginning to run cold at this fairly direct accusation. ¡°umm... how did I lie?¡±


    (said we were sick.) Eirlathion¡¯s whole body stiffened when she said this. She said it in a small voice. Not a voice that was difficult to hear, but it had gone from her confrontational tone to something that sounded more like... what? Disappointment? Embarrasment? Lack of confidence? It probably wasn¡¯t disappointment. He would suspect that from an adult, but never from a little baby as young as her. None of that was the problem however.


    This was very bad. That was the one thing he did not want the children to realize at this point. This was way too early. His only solice was that the chlidren likely didn¡¯t know the method to open a door to this house, but at the rate Aerien¡¯s mind seemed to develop he knew that was only a matter of time and it would probably happen a lot sooner than he thought.


    He wanted to hit himself for thinking these children were well behaved and easy to deal with. Now he knew, they didn¡¯t get into the typical trouble because they were so smart. However, with them being this smart there was an entirely different kind of trouble they could get into.


    For now though, he had to buy time. Just a little more time to try to find a way to get things sorted out with them.


    (You¡¯re trying to lie again.) Eirlathion hadn¡¯t even said anything yet, but she called him out before he could even open his mouth, before he could even think of what he was going to say. How? When he looked up at her, she was staring straight at him. Somehow, this girl with her large face still full and round with babby fat and whispy translucent hair matted against the top of her head seemed like she was peering straight into his soul.


    ¡°Ehh... look, Aerien. I wasn¡¯t trying to be a bad person to you, Ok?¡±He let out a sigh. He was definitely in unknown territory with this girl here,


    (Tell me why you lie) Aerien said. Eirlathion was beginning to get a very incongruous feeling with every word she said. It did not seem like any one thing she said had any particular issue with it, and it¡¯s likely that even all together it would be entirely believable for a child to be saying these things. The intense look she was giving him was a little odd, but it was more a matter of the confident way in which she said everything and without even skipping a beat, as though she had been waiting for him to say something like what he just said. It was almost like she was actually steering the entire conversation.


    Any single individual thing about this confrontation in isolation could be seen as perfectly normal for a kid a few years older than her to be doing or saying, but this sense that she seemed to have so much control over the exchange... it just felt... wrong, in an unsettling sort of way.


    ¡°Ahh... well, I think you might be a little young to understand that right now Aerien.¡± He answered, feeling like he was sinking in quicksand somehow at this point in the conversation. That was the exact reason he had not told them anything up until now, he was fairly sure they simply wouldn¡¯t understand. How could a child understand that they were born as the result of their father doing something horrible to their mother, and that because of what their father was people were going to want to hurt them? These were things even an adult would have trouble fully understanding.


    However, when he tossed this phrase out there, it was not with the air of a confident adult sheltering a child from the world. It was him tossing it out in despiration at this point and trying to escape from this unsettling exchange.


    (I¡¯m going to keep being mad at you if you don¡¯t tell me.) A huge flag suddenly popped up in Eirlathion¡¯s mind when Aerien said this one. It was almost as though he had just been hit with something. Of everything she had said so far, this was the first one that really REALLY seemed to encompass every single aspect of the unsettling feeling he had been getting completely on its own. In this moment, the fringes of unsettling suspicion that were lingering around the edges of his mind all simply clicked together at once.


    He knew exactly what the source of the unease he had been feeling was now. The reason he had been feeling so uneasy since the moment he had begun this exchange with Aerien, it is because all of her words and actions are way too mature for a child her age. Her lisping speech and her limited elven vocabulary still make it sound very much like it is a baby talking, but there is a very definite sense of purpose and intention behind every single word that is spoken as though this entire thing was planned out in advance by somebody fairly used to having serious conversations of this sort.


    Eirlathion looked Aerien straight in the eye. When he looked at her face, all he could see was a baby staring up at him. A baby that was a bit upset with him at the moment. However, the mere fact that this baby was matching his gaze as the seconds ticked by without fidgeting or breaking that gaze in any way seemed to further testify to a consciousness way beyond her years.


    Could it be, a changeling!? Eirlathion stood up from his chair and threw it aside as though he was preparing for battle. This was the first time Aerien seemed to react in surprise, and he felt her aura intensify even further as she gripped the sides of her chair.


    This intensification of her aura reminded him. She can¡¯t be a changeling. He just might have thought that if it wasn¡¯t for powerful aura filled with the spirit energy that should not be possessed naturally by any member of a fey race, and that mana that was far above and beyond what was natural for a fey to produce. And besides, why would a changeling risk exposing itself to get simple information like this that it should already know?


    Eirlathion let out a sigh. ¡°Aerien... wait there a minute, I need to go up and see the others.¡±After saying this, without giving any further explanation, he walked up the stairs to the second floor which he had prepared as the childrens¡¯ room. When he got there, he saw Rolwen holding Gaerien, and Levin standing there. All three of them were completely silent and staring straight at him. He had grown used to them not having warm faces for him by this point, but this time they had something different about the look on their faces. They seemed a little confused, but at the same time their looks seemed to be saying he shouldn¡¯t be up here right now and he should still be back down stairs.


    ¡°Levin, where is Aerien.¡±He asked. He was relatively sure that really was Aerien down there, but after the scary thought he had just had, he needed to make sure.


    (What?) All three of them got a serious look of confusion on their faces at this question. However, that confusion on their faces ultimately served to ease his heart further. (You were just talking to her downstairs.) The boy kept looking between his friend and Eirlathion, but Eirlathion just had a relieved smile on his face as he heard this.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± He said. ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± He looked at the three of them and showed them an even bigger smile. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m going to go back down and talk her now.¡±


    ¡°Wha..? Whad uuas dat?¡± He heard Levin¡¯s voice talking in their own language as he left.


    ¡°I dunno, at uuas weird. He¡¯z crazy!¡±


    Eirlathion still had some trouble with their language. He could only guess at the meaning of what Rolwen had said in response to Levin, but he mostly knew the words Levin had used at least. They may think his actions just now were bizzare, but he had needed the peace of mind that exchange just now had given him.


    Now, this just brought him back to his previous problem. He was still not really sure how he was going to respond to Aerien, but it was becoming abundantly clear that her growth was even more frightening than he had initially thought. If it was like this, well... he didn¡¯t know the full extent of her growth, but it seemed there might actually be an existing possibility she could actually wrap her head around the circumstances of her own birth. It was pretty clear, he was going to have to tell her far sooner than he had ever anticipated. Not today though. His heart was simply not ready for it today.


    By the time he got down, Aerien had jumpped down from the chair and was now using it as a support to hold herself up. This gave him still more peace of mind. It was still ludicrously early for her to be walking, but by now that sort of thing was expected from Aerien. The more important thing was that she actually did still need the chair to support herself, something a changeling would not require.


    Eirlathion knelt down in front of Aerien, getting closer to her eye level, and smiled gently at her. ¡°Aerien, I.. I¡¯m going to need to think for a little while. I promise I will answer your questions later, Ok? Right now I¡¯m really tired.¡±


    ¡°Mmm..¡± She responds, furrowing her brows and clearly not happy about that answer. (You gotta tell me everything, Ok?) She said.


    ¡°Yes, I promise.¡± He said, shaking his head at himself. At this rate, he was certain she was going to hold him to that promise. If he didn¡¯t tell her everything she wanted to know on this subject, he was probably going to have an even worse time of it than what he had just experienced.


    (Ok!) She responds, and then lets go of the chair and begins stumbling, immediately loosing her balance and throwing herself at his folded leg. After she had successfully caught herself, Eirlathion felt her intense aura dissipate significantly. It was still strong, but now it was down to only being close to matching what the boys put out. She fixed her balance, using his leg as her support, and then she looked directly into his eyes with a smile. (Carry me up!) She demands.


    Eirlathion shakes his head with a chuckle and lifts her up in his arms exactly as she had asked. At the same time, he has a very pleasant smile of his own. This would not be the first time he had picked her up, but every time before this she would immediately get very upset. This would be the first time she actually willingly allowed him to do this. ¡°Alright. After I¡¯m done telling you everything you want, I think I might have a few questions for you too little lady.¡±He said as he began to ascend the stairs once again in order to return her to her beloved human.


    -


    Aerien POV


    Well, that kinda surprised me there at the end. He freaked out a lot more than I had expected. Things had more or less been going to plan until something I said seemed to set him off in some strange way.


    The plan was pretty simple. And, actually, I had wound up making some modifications to my approach after talking thoroughly to Levin and Rolwen about it. As I was talking to them, I was painfully reminded of just how much we are influenced by our baby brains in these new bodies as they couldn¡¯t help themselves but ask one question after another. They managed to ask slightly more informed questions than just saying ¡°why¡± over and over again, but they were still acting very much like the children they looked like.


    I realized I was going to have to modify my approach into something that wouldn¡¯t be thrown off if my baby side started to take more dominance. So, I worked toward an angle of being obsessed and upset over the very central point I was trying to get down to from the beginning. That was the fact that he was lying about something. With that, I could allow baby Aerien to get swept up in the emotions she felt about being lied to and wanting to get him to tell the truth. Meanwhile, my past-life mind could make sure that the right key words were said to prevent him from weasling out of anything and continue guiding the conversation toward him telling me what we wanted to hear.


    However, things went wrong at some point. Something spooked him, and I was still trying to figure out what. It all still seemed to work out in the end, he promised to tell me everything, but... I can¡¯t help the feeling I tipped my hand way more than I had intended to.


    I had already decided from the beginning how I was going to get back upstairs. I had seen how hard he was trying to work for forgiveness to close the gap between us. If you want to train someone to do what you want them to, you have to reward the behavior you are trying to promote. So, I was going to give him what he wanted, some kind of gesture of forgiveness. I was confident in my ability to drag something out of him, so I had always intended from the beginning to have him carry me back upstairs. What I got was not the information I wanted, it was just a promise. However, I decided to call it a successive approximation and just go with it.


    When we got upstairs, he walked straight to Levin and put me straight into his arms. [Here you go,] he said, [you take good care of her, alright Levin?] He still had a bit of a haunted smile on his face, he hadn¡¯t completely gotten over whatever it was that spooked him. [I¡¯ll be getting dinner ready for all of you, things are going to start getting busy this week. We will have a guest over in a few days.]


    A guest!? That¡¯s new. Well, we haven¡¯t really been around this house long enough to know how frequently he does or doesn¡¯t have guests over, but he seemed to give the impression he didn¡¯t have a very large social life with how often he had been over with us at the nursery before. Well, if that was the case, I suppose it might not be very soon that he makes good on his promise.


    After saying this, he left the room and went back down stairs.


    (What was that all about?) Rolwen murmers as he watches that guy leave.


    ¡®Ether guy¡¯I remind myself. ¡®Remember, you¡¯re supposed to forgive him. He¡¯s Ether guy again.¡¯Ether guy was certainly not his name either, and would definitely be seen as an insult coming from anyone but a baby just learning to talk. Still, it is definitely better than ¡°that guy.¡± And besides that, I actually AM a baby just learning to talk, so it all works out ok.


    (Aerien, what do you think?) Levin asked.


    ¡°uuh?¡±I respond, snapping out of my thought process.


    (He was acting really really weird.) Levin said.


    ¡°Ummm...¡± I cast a glance down the stairs. I really wasn¡¯t sure whether or not I should start making theories while... that, err... Ether guy was in ear shot.


    You know what? Screw it. I decided I was tired of hiding so much, it was getting quite tiresome. I had already revealed that I was pretty darn intelligent. That may even be a large part of what got him so riled up. Him overhearing me talking smart was not going to make the situation any worse.


    Or would it? As I was in the middle of thinking that, I just realized exactly what it probably was that got him so upset. The problem is, I had no way to explain how I knew it since it came entirely from my past-life knowledge.


    (I think I know, but...) I make a gesture with my hand toward the far corner, farthest away from the stairs. This is the place where we have taken to doing our secret talks when Ether guy is here. The boys brought Gaerien and I over, and then we all crouched down in the corner and got our heads close together. Since I was going to do the talking and the boys were likely to be far more absorbed in listening, Gaerien took up position with her back to the wall and her eyes to the stairs so she could warn us if Mr. silent steps Ether guy came up.


    (So, first, what did he say exactly when he came up here?) I asked to make sure. I was sure I heard him as clear as can be, but I pretended I didn¡¯t so that they could repeat it. Doing so would probably help in their understanding.


    (He asked me where YOU were.) Levin said, pointing straight at me. (Even though you were right down stairs and he was just talking to you, he asked me where you were.)


    (Like he thought I might also be upstairs?) I asked.


    (Yeah... huh!?) Levin responds, suddenly realizing the implications of that possibility.


    (I think he might have thought I was a shape shifter or changeling or something.) I tell him. Actually, changeling is probably exactly what he thought. There was plenty of Earth lore about changelings associated with Faeries. According to Gaerien, Earth lore is likely to offer more insight to what was in this world than anything she could tell me, so that should give us a pretty good road map to what these changelings were.


    (Changelings... err... well, they are closely associated with Faeries. You see, faeries kidnap children just like the elves did with you, but when a faery kidnaps a child, they replace them with a changeling and that changeling acts like the child and even uses their shape-shifting power to mimic human growth, they are very very good at acting like children, but since they are actually very old and very wise they can sometimes be caught by saying something that sounds like it should be too beyond what a child should know.)


    I had actually clipped a little bit of Earth¡¯s lore on changelings from that explanation. The changelings were actually supposed to be deformed fairies, something of a birth defect when a faery had a child. However, since Gaerien had told me that faeries definitely did not have children and were creatures that simply came into existence when a strong enough soul had a powerful will to live and became a fae, I could definitely rule out them actually being the offspring of faeries. That would be chalked up into the category of something that the Earth side had made up that is not actually how things work in this world.


    At any rate, I had not thought of the possibility, but now that the possibility of changelings existing in this world had come up I realized it would probably be incredibly easy for me to be mistaken for a changeling. It was really no wonder Ether guy had gotten so upset. If I was the parent of a chlid who was talking like I was, changeling is probably the very very first thing that would jump to the top of my thoughts as well.


    All I could do was apologize in my mind to Ether guy. If we could reach an understanding after he tells us everything, I might start seriously negotiating with the boys to let him in on our secret. If nothing else, it would make it a lot easier for us to talk to each other if we didn¡¯t have to constantly worry about being overheard.


    Author''s note


    Yeah, I know some of you might have been expecting the whole plan to blow up completely by Eirlathion showing up with their mother in tow, but I already used that one once when he knocked Aerien out with a sleeping drug and took them all to his house right before she was ready to tell the boys about her being a reincarnator like them.


    Can''t get in the habit of always doing the same thing, but also can''t have everything just go according to plan either, and it seemed like a pretty darn good opportunity to introduce the concept of changelings to the universe.


    Also, for anyone who might be interested, I have added a forward to the beginning of the series in which I talk about the inspirations for the series. You can read that if you want to get some idea about what you might expect to see going forward.


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Since Subscribe Star is not supported on this site, you will have to copy-paste the link below into your address bar. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.


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 Chapter 16: The truth I already knew

    I had thought that Ether guy might put off telling me the stuff I wanted to know until after his guest came and left. However, it was actually the next day, when he had given the boys their breakfast, that he suddenly blew those expectations away.


    [Aerien, would you like to come with me and talk about what we were talking about yesterday?] He asked with a very put-on smile. It looked like he was still a bit unprepared for what he was about to tell me, but I definitely had to give him credit for not making me wait too long.


    The boys had an uncertain look on their faces in response. Gaerien, meanwhile, seemed fairly satisfied things were moving this fast. My response was obvious. I gave him a big natural baby¡¯s smile with my whole face, and then I lifted up my arms in a ¡°carry me¡± pose as I reached for him. I have to say, the look on Levin¡¯s face when Ether guy picked me up out of his lap was actually kinda cute. It seemed like he actually felt a little betrayed that I had willingly allowed someone other than him to pick me up.


    After this, Ether guy carried me over to the top of the stairs leading down. He did not go down those stairs though. Instead, he turned to the wall opposite them and put his hand on it. I knew what came next. In the days since we came here, we had all witnessed this happen every day, sometimes even more than once in the same day. Part of the portion of the wall that jutted out from the rest of the outer wall receded until it was flush with the outside wall. What was left after the top half of a diagonal cut of this portion of wall had receded were stairs leading upward.


    None of us had ever been up those stairs before. However, since Ether guy always went up there every night it was pretty clear that was the way to his bedroom. It seemed he wanted to make this discussion a little more private than the confrontation I had set up the previous day.


    He carried me up, and once he reached the top of the stairs he placed his hand on the outer wall of the building, and then the floor behind us closed leaving this as a circular room with no exit what so ever. I began to look around the room. What I saw, was. Well, it really did not look like any bedroom I would choose to sleep in. There was a bed in the room tucked into a far corner, but that was about the only bedroom-like thing about it.


    There was no two ways of looking at it. This was the perfect image of what would be called a magician¡¯s laboratory. It looked less like he had his lab equipment in his bedroom and a lot more like some lab tech had decided to bring their bed to their lab because they were too obsessed with research and wanted to just sleep right next to their experiments.


    The majority of the room was dominated by a two long counters full of work stations and set up with multiple pieces of equipment. Some seemed to be things Aerien recognized from her previous life. Test tubes, flasks, beakers, distilling coils, and something that was probably what qualified as a burner in this world. However, there were a lot of other things that could only be some kinds of magical objects. And, just as would be expected from an elf, there were a lot of plants in this laboratory.


    The outer walls seemed to be full of cabinets and other storage devices. If this was anything like an Earth laboratory, there should also be something that served as an incubator or a place for cultured items or experiments that needed a growth or settling in period. These outer counters also seemed to have a number of living plants, as one would expect from such a set-up. Aerien may have not recognized exactly what any of these things were, but the logic of how this room was arranged seemed to follow pretty well with what one would expect from a proper lab set-up.


    Overall, he seemed to keep the area pretty neat and well kept. There seemed to be a few active experimental items and equipment on the central tables which should be the active work stations, but for the most part the majority of the items were on the outer counters and arranged in a neat fashion and over half the space in the center counters was clear so that a new experiment could be started at any time without having to clear away space and risk misplacing materials or messing up something that¡¯s still ongoing.


    Ether guy carried me around the room for a little while, looking about presumably for where we were going to set up for our conversation. He briefly eyed one of the center lab tables, but then seemed to chuckle at himself and shake his head. Ultimately, he wound up carrying me over to the bed. He placed me on his bed, while he himself got down to sit on the floor.


    [Alright,] he said with an uncomfortable expression and avoided eye contact with me. [So, I told you I would tell you everything you wanted to know, right? Well, let¡¯s see where should I begin¡­] This seemed like it was probably going to take a while, and I immediately noticed I was sitting in the middle of the bed without any back support. This might become an issue later, especially since I had grown so used to always using Levin¡¯s chest or arm as my back-rest. The worst part was actually exactly the thing that Ether guy had probably done out of consideration for me. If I was looking up at him, that would align my spine a little differently, and it would be easier to sit here like this for a long period of time. However, with my head tilted down at him, that bowed my spine and put extra stresses on my back muscles. That was going to definitely become an issue if this discussion lasted for too long.


    Well, it would probably distract and discourage him if I started acting to fix this problem immediately. Let¡¯s just sit and listen to him for now and see if I can find a way to get a little back support later.


    Ether guy looked up, having apparently arrived at where he was going to start this off. [Well then, first I think I should probably ask you something. Have Levin or Rolwen ever talked about their mother or father?]


    ¡°umma..?¡± [yeaah..?] I responded, not even having to pretend to be confused by this question.


    [Do you know what a mother and father are?] He asked. Well, of course I did, but then I realized why he was probably asking this question. I had never even once encountered my father in this world, and the day I was born was the very last day I had any contact what so ever with my mother to my knowledge. I was a bit cautious now after realizing I had been mistaken for a changeling yesterday, so I should probably stick to the expected answer for now and pretend not to know what the words mother and father refer to. I don¡¯t think I can seriously answer his question with a ¡°no,¡± so instead I simply kept quiet and stared back at him.


    Ether guy let out a sigh, and I felt really bad for him as he had a clearly troubled look on his face as he tried to figure out how to explain what a mother and father were to someone like me who had never even experienced even one single bit of contact with their parents, at least not in this life.


    [Well, your mother and father, they¡­ they are the reason why babies like you get born. You need both of them in order to make a baby because they both give a part of themselves in order to make you. Normally, after you are born, they also are supposed to take care of you, but¡­ well, things are a little harder in your case.] Poor Ether guy. I really do sorta feel bad for him for making him explain this sorta thing. It¡¯s obviously painful for him too. However, I really can¡¯t find any reasonable explanation for how I should know something that would let him off the hook here. Plus, I had some suspicion as to where this conversation might be going.


    [Anyway, your father was¡­ he was not like normal elves like me, your mother, or any of the other elves here in this village. He was something called a dark elf. People are normally afraid of dark elves, so, it would be very bad if anyone found out about your father.] He looked up at me after he said this, and then he reached out to put his hand on the bed next to my leg.


    [You see how my skin is different from the color of your skin Aerien? Well, that¡¯s because of your father being a dark elf. An elf¡¯s skin can also get that color if they are really sick, but for you it¡¯s not because you are sick, it¡¯s actually normal. But, you know how I said that people are afraid of dark elves? Well, they will be afraid of you too if they find out your father was a dark elf. And, they might do bad things to you.]


    Well, things were definitely starting to make sense now. Actually, I already had my suspicions this might be the case. This was not the first time I had heard of the concept of dark elves. They were not that prominent in older fantasies, they were mostly the product of more modern brands of gaming.


    The origin of the modern stories about dark elves actually originated from the Lord of the Rings trilogy in which the Orcs were a mutated and corrupted form of elf. However, following that series, the Orcs became their own species that had no connection to elves what so ever. This did not stop the image of a corrupted and mutated form of elf that was buried in the collective consciousness from going away though, and soon the hole left by the Orcs was filled with the name ¡°dark elf,¡± keeping the name simple and this time explicitly tying it to the elven race.


    Given the relatively recent introduction of dark elves into Earth¡¯s fantasy lore, I was not completely certain they would exist in this world. Although, it actually was something I had considered several times looking at the difference in my skin color. It just seemed like a pretty reasonable conclusion. But, due to my doubts, I never really fully committed to believing it. However, I guess now I have my confirmation. So, dark evles actually do exist in this world. And, judging by the fact that my mother was also not around and seemed to have abandoned Gaerien and I immediately after our birth, I suppose it might be reasonable to assume the union between this dark elf and our mother was not a Romeo and Juliet situation.


    Taking my silence as confusion, Eirlathion let out a sigh. [I don¡¯t know if you can understand any of that, but¡­ well, the thing is that people might hurt you if they see you and realize your father was a dark elf. If they think you are sick they might not notice, but if they realize you are healthy then they might realize your father was a dark elf, and then they might hurt you. That¡¯s why I was always telling everyone that you were sick.]


    [Do you understand all of that Aerien?] He asked.


    [Yeah.] I respond again.


    [Really,] he says with a doubtful expression. [You know what? You¡¯re pretty smart Aerien, but it¡¯s Ok if you are confused about what I just told you about.] He fixes me with a searching expression, probably wondering whether or not he should keep talking about this more. [Anyway, the important thing is, you can¡¯t go outside and if anyone sees you then you have to make them think you are sick.]


    Again, I decide to not really say anything. Instead, I just match his gaze for a little while. It is perfectly normal for a baby to not talk much after all, especially one that¡¯s just learning to talk. Babies just learning to talk are more likely to listen a lot to adults talking, and then give a lot of one word responses to things when they think they should be saying something. Most of the time though, they just return everything with a confused look as their brains try to process the words they just heard as their brains are still unfamiliar with the language and are just figuring it out.


    [Do you understand Aerien? If somebody finds out your father was a dark elf, they might hurt you, so you can¡¯t go outside.]


    [Ok.] I respond, going into my character as a baby and giving the appropriate response. Eirlathion seems to look relieved at this.


    [Ok. And also, if there is anyone else around, I need you to stay really really close to Levin all the time, Ok? You¡¯re supposed to be pretending you are sick, and sick children like to stay very close to humans. So, if you see anyone other than me, I don¡¯t want you to go away from Levin at all, Ok?]


    [Yeah!] I reply.


    [Alright, that¡¯s good.] He says, sighing in relief. [Well, I guess I might have to tell Gaerien about this sort of thing too when she¡¯s ready.] He makes an unpleasant expression at that.


    [I¡¯ll tell her!] I respond, finally having something completely in character I can say that would ease his burden a little.


    [Really? That¡¯s good then. Just make sure Gaerien also knows she shouldn¡¯t go too far away from Rolwen on her own.]


    [Yeah!] I gave him an assuring smile, to which he responded with a light smile of his own. His face darkened a second later though, and he looked like he had more to say.


    [There was something else I wanted to talk to you about too Aerien.] He said with a somewhat serious face. [You know how I talked about mothers and fathers before? Well, your mother is going to be coming here in a couple days. You remember how I told you about a guest coming over?]


    I sat up in surprise and looked at him at this. My mother was coming? That was his guest he was wanting to have over!? That¡­ really gave me a lot of mixed feelings, especially considering what I just heard. The one I decided to let show on my face was the one that should be most appropriate though. That this had absolutely nothing to do with me. The reason he was probably having her over was so that he could start trying to have her interact with us more, so it really had a lot to do with me and Gaerien and it was going to affect pretty much our entire group in a big way if suddenly mine and Gaerien¡¯s mom was around all of a sudden, especially if this went what would be considered ¡°well¡± from his standard and this became a much more regular thing.


    In my case though, my mother was my mother from my previous life, and she had long since passed away. My mother from this life had done nothing to build a bond with me, and therefore she meant absolutely nothing to me. I had some sympathy for her and her situation, and there was no good reason to deny her the chance to see her children if she was going to finally try to do so, even if that child was me. However, it would really be all the same to me if she didn¡¯t do a thing and just stayed gone. In fact, it might even be a bit of an inconvenience that she was coming into my life now all of a sudden. Those were my real emotions that I couldn¡¯t show. The only thing I could show was just the baseline indifference about it. The most appropriate thing for someone in my position to feel.


    [Anyway, I told you it would be bad if anyone found out you were not sick, but¡­ your mother is someone who already knows about who your father was, so she¡¯s not going to hurt you. You don¡¯t have to worry about her like you have to worry about other people.]


    ¡°Mmm¡­¡± I reasoned. Contrary to his assurances, I actually decided to put on a worried expression to this. Or rather, maybe it was the baby brain responding to Ether guy¡¯s tone. Or, it could even be the baby brain responding to how annoyed I felt at this whole thing all of a sudden now that I was able to get away with it. Whatever it was, I decided to tell myself it was just good acting, since that actually is a perfectly believable response given the situation as well.


    [Don¡¯t worry,] he said. [Your mother just wants to get to know you better, it will be good for you to have her around.]


    That was good advice to be sure. It should be a good thing for a child to be with their parents. My situation was just a little strange, and that¡¯s not just because of the whole past life thing. In fact, rather than my current self that never knew her mother, I was finding that it was actually my past self that was more skeptical to his words.


    [Well, do you want to go back down to Levin now?] He asks. I know for sure that the large amounts of happiness I felt at that suggestion have to have been coming from my current self. A large smile spread across my face.


    [Yeah!] I respond and begin reaching out to him. Ether guy gives a gentle chuckle at this and then immediately stands and picks me up.


    -


    (So, what did you talk about?)


    The boys had held off on asking me anything about this until after they had finished eating and Ether guy had taken their plates back down stairs. Once again, we were sitting in our little corner of the room, and this time everyone was curious, including Gaerien.


    (Well, it seems Ether guy had a good reason for this stuff. Me and Gari are not normal elves.) Gaerien made an unpleasant face at this.


    (Is it really dark elves then?) She asks. I had already filled her in on my suspicions about the whole thing before the confrontation a while back ever happened in one of our mind-to-mind discussions. Talking out loud was still rather frustrating with my unfused hard palate, so I couldn¡¯t have long discussions to explore possibilities with the boys. I could only do that sort of thing with Gaerien. As such, she was completely filled in on all of my suspicions.


    (Yeah, our dad was a dark elf. He didn¡¯t say anything, but I think it was rape how we were born.) This got similarly harsh looks from the boys. I¡¯m not sure how well they were understanding the implications of us being half dark elves, but it definitely seemed like hearing that Gaerien and I were children of rape got to them. That, at least, was a concept from our previous life that could be quite easily understood.


    (So is that why your mommy¡¯s not anywhere around too?) Levin asks.


    (Other way around,) I answered. (That¡¯s the reason I don¡¯t think it was her choice.) Yes, I hadn¡¯t been told anything directly, but it seemed entirely reasonable to suspect given the circumstances. Still, I knew better than to make too much of a definite statement and later be proven wrong. And also, I guess despite the very strong evidence pointing in that direction, I still wanted to hold out a hope that it wasn¡¯t true.


    (Anyway,) I continued, (Ether guy is trying to hide that we are half dark elves from the rest of the people here by saying we are sick. It seems like they might want to hurt us if they find out. So, if there is ever someone else around who can see us, we are supposed to cling to you two and not be too energetic.)


    (Ok, so, we should do that when Ether guy¡¯s guest comes over?) Levin asked, having followed the conversation to this point.


    ¡°bwell¡­ acsuu¡­. AHH!¡±


    (Actually?) Rolwen once again offered the word I was having trouble with.


    (Yees!) I groan in annoyance. It was a fun little gag at first, but now it really was getting annoying how I kept having this situation come up. (But what I want to say is, it¡¯s actually mommy who¡¯s Ether guy¡¯s guest, so she already knows of course.)


    (Ok.) Levin responds.


    (I still think we should act like me and Gari are sick though. It would let us pra¡­ err.. try it, and also be good for our other cover.) They all gave nods at this. (This does bring up one other thing though. I don¡¯t know bout mommy yet, but do we want to keep lying to Ether guy? It will make it easier if we let him know.)


    (Well¡­ I don¡¯t know. And¡­ what if he tells your mom!?) Rolwen protests.


    (We¡¯re not going to tell them now, I just wanted you to start thinking about it.) I told them. (I actually don¡¯t like elves much either, and I am one. Ether guy seems like a good guy though, and he can keep a secret. I don¡¯t know if I want to tell him either, but he does sound trust worthy from up there today I think.)


    After some more assurances, we decided to put that matter on hold and began discussing the issue of how to handle our mother¡¯s visit in more detail. The boys were already familiar with the whole thing with elves being fed by spirit energy, it had been explained to them quite thoroughly by Ether guy back when we were in the nursery. As such, it was just a matter of trying to make sure our acting didn¡¯t look TOO good, but still relayed that we decided not to trust this new guest that was coming because we had been scared by the warnings he had given and I had passed along.


    Who knows? If Ether guy sees that we are getting good at hiding this as well, he might let up a little and allow Levin and Rolwen¡¯s siblings over for a visit.


    Author''s note


    Not a whole lot that was new in terms of concepts this chapter, just characters getting up to date with each other. A few side background character building things though. It''s less progress than the chapters before this had been making though, so this chapter might seem a little sparse to some people. I apologize for that, but it did sorta feel like something that had to be written and couldn''t just be glanced over with an "and then this happened."


    Anyway, I hope people liked it anyway, and I definitely have a lot more planned for next chapter.


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 Chapter 17: Feigning illness

    Eirlathion POV


    Eirlathion was sitting in a corner of the ground-floor room of his house. He sat cross-legged with his hands in a relaxed position, his eyes closed peacefully. Inside his mind though, he was quite active at this moment.


    He had to stay downstairs in order to be accessible to the children in case something went wrong, but they really rarely bothered him. This meant that he had ample time to himself in a house where three of the four other people in it produced an unmatched abundance of spirit energy. In this situation, there was no self-respecting elven mage who would not attempt to cultivate and progress their access to the magic of this world.


    Elves produced mana naturally. This gave them a very large advantage in the area of magic at lower levels. It was as though they started their life at what humans call the fourth level of mage craft. However, the elves also naturally lacked the spirit energy needed to bind mana to their spell slots, and on top of that they needed to consume spirit energy just to live.


    They could get enough spirit energy to just barely sustain themselves from the plants and animals of the forest, but in order to train as a mage they either needed access to a human, preferably a child, or train their craft in the presence of the fey royalty who had taken in such an amount of spirit energy over their lives they had re-shaped their own souls in order to produce spirit energy as they would if they were a member of a different race. The latter, of course, was an option available to only the most privileged who had received the special interest of the fey court.


    Humans only needed to form their own spirit energy into a vessel and begin to bind mana that they had received from outside themselves. Any member of the fey however needed to gather a great amount of spirit energy just to create such a vessel. In Eirlathion¡¯s case though, he had such easy access to any excess spirit energy Gaerien hadn¡¯t gobbled up with her astounding appetite for the stuff that he found it fairly easy to cultivate.


    That such a small child could consume such an outrageous amount by herself was another matter entirely. He had not payed it much mind since the prospect of Aerien producing her own spirit energy was so outrageous. Meanwhile, for a child to require so much spirit energy a mage could form a rank seven spell vessel with it every day could be easily seen as a handicap. He had not paid much attention to this before since it was natural for a child to need a lot of spirit energy, but what she was consuming was several tens of times greater than what any child ought to need. Gaerien¡¯s case may in fact be every single bit as strange as Aerien¡¯s, only in her case something may actually be wrong with her. Perhaps it is a lucky thing for her to have been born with the good fortune to have a sister who could make up for it and two humans at hand with such phenomenal spirit energy of their own.


    Despite all the energy that Gaerien consumed though, there was still a fair amount left over that he could utilize as well, and because of this his progress since living with these children really was amazing. For decades leading up until now, Eirlathion hadn¡¯t been able to form a single new spell vessel. However, in the six months that he had spent every day in the nursery he had built up his spirit energy and managed to significantly expand his foundation, forming new spell vessels for the second, third, and fourth ranks. He already had a few spell vessels at those ranks, but having more expanded the amount of magic he could use in any given day.


    This however also helped to expand his foundation. A mage needed several lower rank spell vessels before they could even attempt to form one of a higher rank. The bare minimum was two of the rank below it before you could attempt to form one of a higher rank for the first time. Just the day before, Eirlathion had finally accomplished it. He had formed his very first spell vessel of the fifth rank, bringing him into what the humans referred to as the ninth level.


    It was not anything truly impressive, especially compared to the royalty of the fey. It would be at the fifteenth level that your soul was re-formed to produce spiritual energy as they did. However, among the elves, this placed him as one of the most accomplished mages in his entire life time. Given the inherent difficulty for the fey to cultivate, the only reason the royalty were able to gain such high feats was due to the infinite lifespan enjoyed by the faeries. Unlocking fhe fourth tier of magic is normally the farthest an elf ever progresses, and Eirlathion had just unlocked the fifth due to these children.


    He had yet to attempt any use of this newly unlocked level though. He had only formed the vessel. This only gives him the ability. Now comes the second part. This is what¡¯s considered to be the hard part for humans. However, this is the one area the fey actually have the advantage once they have surmounted the hurdle of forming the spell vessel in the first place. Now he had to bind mana to it in order to ready it to handle a spell.


    Binding the mana was, of course, a far more simple process. All he had to do was focus on the form he had created the night before and line the edges of it with the mana produced from his own body. It was ideal for a fey to use their own mana. This would allow them to far more easily regain expended spells, and they could avoid the backlash humans often felt from spell casting that often even caused them to loose memory of having ever studied the spell they just got done casting. This was all the result of the humans using borrowed mana that was not their own. The humans were capable of advancing faster, but this backlash was something they faced as though in compensation for their rapid advance.


    Eirlathion did not think this spell vessel would be prepared today for use, it might even take in excess of a year or two, but thanks to the children he was already a lot farther along than he would have ever thought possible. But, more importantly, the formation of a new vessel at a rank higher than he had ever achieved before would help to extend his life span by nearly a century. He could afford to wait. For now, he was only doing this as a good use of his time as he waited for T¨²eth, the mother of the girls, to come.


    Eirlathion was snapped out of his concentration as he felt a pulse run through the house. This was the mana of someone coming from outside his home. For the elves who were all born with the ability to produce mana and learned as children how to manipulate it, this was equivalent to what humans would consider ¡°knocking.¡± There was nothing like a door on their homes, and so they always alerted each other with this method if they wanted to enter someone else¡¯s house.


    Eirlathion gave a smile, he decided he wanted to try something that not many elves could do. Most would have to go to the wall they wanted to have open. However, in Eirlathion¡¯s case, his mastery over his mana flow was precise enough he could do it from here. Without even getting up, he placed his hand on the floor and focused on the wall near the entryway to his house. The wood of his home reformed at that moment, creating a doorway to admit his guest.


    ¡°Come on in,¡± Eirlathion greeted her, still sitting on the floor. While he may have a rather low vantage point, the position of this corner of the room actually had a clear view of the entire lower floor, including the entryway. As such, he and T¨²eth had a very clear view of one another, and he saw the confused expression on her face when she did not immediately see him and then heard his voice coming from so much deeper in the room than she was expecting.


    ¡°Glad you could make it.¡± He said, as he rose to his feet, the opening closing behind T¨²eth in the meantime. ¡°The girls are upstairs with the humans, I took the two amazing young boys along with them. With how powerful their spirit energy is, it was rather believable that only the two of them would be enough.¡± Eirlathion had not abandoned his caution before talking so openly about this subject. The sound isolation spell he had cast on T¨²eth¡¯s house when he had visited was temporary and did not last a long time. However, for his own house, he had enchanted it with a permanent version of the same spell. Simply by having the door closed, it was no longer possible for any sound to escape to the outside and no form of magical scrying or listening could penetrate it.


    ¡°Ah, right.¡± She said. However, a moment after this exchange, a very concerned scowl passed over Eirlathion¡¯s face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± T¨²eth asked, having noticed this expression.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s Aerien.¡± He said. ¡°There¡¯s something I didn¡¯t really tell you before, it¡¯s the most unbelievable part of this whole thing. I told you that she can produce her own spirit energy, but... it¡¯s not consistent. When I gave her the sleeping medicine to disguise how healthy and energetic she was, she completely stopped producing spirit energy and began consuming it instead. Basically, she was no different from a normal baby when she was asleep.¡±


    He could see the confusion on her face from his explanation. Why was he telling her all this now? He was certain she was wondering about it, but there was a reason, and it concerned what he just felt. ¡°As soon as I started talking to you, the spirit energy in this place started dropping like a stone. I think Aerien heard us down here. I told her a few days ago, the day right after I visited you, that if there was ever somebody other than the five of us in the house that she should start acting like she¡¯s sick. I didn¡¯t think though that she actually had a way to control her ability to produce spirit energy to that degree. She seems to have just completely ceased to do it at all.¡±


    He saw T¨²eth¡¯s brows crease with his explanation, her face now filled with skepticism and annoyance. He had predicated her coming over here on the fact that Aerien had this amazing ability in the first place and the chance it offered to save her daughters. With it seeming to suddenly disappear the moment she walked in the door, it must look as though he was toying with her. The image this created certainly was not good.


    ¡°That girl,¡± he said, shaking his head at himself. This was quite the situation she had just put him in, there really were very few correct words that could be said in this situation given how unbelievable all of this is in the first place. He would not believe it himself if he had not watched these girls grow up, having been at their side every day since the week after their birth. ¡°Aerien is incredibly smart for her age, so much so that it¡¯s downright scary. If you can come on up with me, I¡¯m sure I can have a talk with her. I can¡¯t really predict how she might behave toward you, but I hope you are able to get along.¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± T¨²eth responded. ¡°But, you had better be telling me the truth. I got my hopes up when you said they might be saved, if you just said this to get me here...¡±


    ¡°I assure you I did not!¡± He cuts her off. It seemed she took this exactly as he had feared she would. ¡°If she responded like this to what I said to her, that means she listens to me. I¡¯m pretty sure I can convince her out of this little act of hers, and then you will be able to see what I was talking about.¡±


    With a stone-faced nod of his head, Eirlathion began ascending the stairs to the second floor with the expectation of T¨²eth to follow. When he came up and saw the children, Aerien was laying limply in Levin¡¯s arms. Or rather, he was pretty sure it could only be Aerien since it was Levin¡¯s arms she was laying in. With her having somehow halted her production of spirit energy, he no longer had his own easy way to tell the girls apart. If the boys were not near them right now, they would just look like two identical babies and there would be no way at all for him to tell the difference between them.


    As for Gaerien, she seemed to be extremely restless. He was pretty sure Aerien was somehow faking being sick, but Gaerien looked like she may be really having problems. She was clinging tightly to Rolwen¡¯s shirt with both hands, and kept making little whimpering and fussing sounds like she was right at the edge of breaking into full tears. Rolwen, for his part, seemed to be doing a good job of soothing her. Normally, Gaerien didn¡¯t seem to show a particular amount of interest in Rolwen and it was more like she tolerated him. Now, however, it seemed as though he was the only thing in the world that could keep her calm.


    Eirlathion let out a sigh and began channeling his mana into his eyes to get a better look at what was going on with them. Since he was just thinking about Gaerien¡¯s case earlier, now might even be a good chance to see what was going on with her. However, what he wound up seeing made absolutely no sense at all.


    When he looked over to Gaerien, or rather, the child that Rolwen was holding, he actually saw very little in terms of spirit energy going either direction. Rolwen¡¯s spirit energy just seemed to radiate out, passing right over her without being consumed. Meanwhile, the child laying limply in Levin¡¯s arms seemed to be absorbing almost all the spirit energy in the room. Not only that, there was also something very wrong about how the energy was moving. It did not look like it was nourishing her in any way, and it was also not being converted into mana. It was like all the energy in the room was just being destroyed when it came into contact with her body.


    ¡°What!?¡± Eirlathion shouted as he took all of this in, just as T¨²eth was reaching the top of the stairs. He dashed out toward the child laying in Levin¡¯s arms. Her breath was weak and coming in gasps, and her eyes were unfocused. He could feel her pulse racing as he reached down to help Levin support her head, and she began to squirm uncomfortably in his grip. ¡°Levin, did you and Rolwen actually switch the girls!?¡± He demanded.


    ¡°What?¡±He responded, looking back at Eirlathion in confusion. Was he wrong? Well, if he was wrong, it meant that instead of this being Gaerien having troubles because Aerien had intentionally shut down her flow of spirit energy, if this was really Aerien he was cradling right now then it might mean that she somehow damaged herself while doing whatever it was that cut off her flow of spirit energy.


    ¡°Alright,¡± he said, looking up to the child that Rolwen was holding, ¡°I don¡¯t know which one of you is Aerien, but whoever it is, I want you to stop this right now!¡± He said, and then pointed one finger at the chest of the one in Levin¡¯s lap. ¡°She¡¯s seriously not doing well, and if you don¡¯t fix this problem if you can, then she might be in serious danger!¡±


    ¡°Whah-huh?¡± With that reaction, the child laying half in Levin¡¯s lap and Eirlathion¡¯s hand seemed to have a startled convulsion run through her entire body, and then just like that all of the symptoms he was seeing were just gone. What¡¯s more, the rate of her spirit energy consumption slowed down to what one might see in a normal elf child. Nothing at all like Gaerien¡¯s consumption rate, only something that one might consider normal. A moment later, this reversed and then he started feeling spirit energy coming FROM her.


    ¡°Aerien!?¡±It actually was Aerien after all then. That meant she had done something really crazy to herself just to pretend she was sick. The real question though was how exactly she had done it. Yet another mystery about these girls had just opened up in front of him, and this one seemed a lot more serious in nature than anything that had come before. If Aerien could do something like what he just saw to herself, if something had gone wrong, she very well might have wound up killing herself with it. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it was that you just did, but NEVER do that again! Do you understand me? That was dangerous! That was very very bad!¡±


    (Wh... what!? But... but you said!) Aerien began to whimper and cry from Eirlathion yelling at her.


    (You said to act like they were sick when someone came over!) Levin declared defensively as he wrapped his arms around Aerien and held her in a defensive posture as though to protect her form him.


    (Oh in the queen¡¯s name!) Eirlathion said in exasperation as he stood up. (This is Aerien and Gaerien¡¯s mother! You don¡¯t have to pretend like that in front of her!) He was not yelling, but he was using a much harsher tone with Levin now than he had intended. He was still rattled about what Aerien had just done to herself because of something he had said.


    Well, this is definitely going to slow down the plans for getting help from the fey royals. There is simply no way he can leave Aerien alone without someone well versed in magic, at least not until he can teach her to control her mana better. And, it seems he had better start on her lessons immediately at that. It was simply unheard of to start trying to teach a child to control mana when they weren¡¯t even a year old, but there were a lot of other things unheard of for a newborn that Aerien was also exhibiting. So, what¡¯s one more to add to the list?


    Author''s note


    I believe Eirlathion said it before a chapter or two back, absurdly intelligent children just find different ways to get into trouble. I will confess, the last 1/3 of this chapter, basically from the moment Eirlathion reached the top of the stairs onward, kinda came to me while I was in the middle of writing. All of it comes 100% from the lore though. My writing style is to firmly establish the lore and the characters explicitly for moments like these. When both those pieces of foundation exist, it can all click and your characters themselves can decide to give you a helping hand whenever you''re stuck.


    I''m really glad I got an assist like that too. It actually solved a few problems I was having where things were not quite going the direction I was wanting them to go. Things are looking remarkably on track now though. Also, it helps in avoiding Aerien becoming infallible. She''s gotta mess up somewhere, but I don''t want her to just be an idiot. If she messes up, it''s gotta be in a way where only an incredibly small fraction of the readers can see it coming. If the readers who see it coming exceeds 25%, I did something wrong.


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 Chapter 18: The calling of heaven

    Today would be the day mine and Gaerien¡¯s mother was supposed to visit. Over the past few days since we got here, we had gotten into a pretty regular routine. Ether guy brought us our meals, then went down stairs for a while and let us ¡°have our space.¡± Well, the ¡°have our space¡± portion had started diminishing lately since I had decided to make contact with him. Yesterday, he had tried to chat us up quite a bit and go back to how things were in the nursery. It was a little annoying and we wound up giving him the cold-shoulder somewhat. He was sorta interfering in what had become our normal routine.


    Since I had let the boys know about Gaerien and I being reincarnators as well, we had started them on a similar training regime to ours in order to get them to start mastering their new bodies. We had pretty much free reign to do this all we wanted while he was being stand-off with us, but now he seemed to take our discussion from the day before as a proper mending of the bridges. Well, it sorta was actually, but it also had some obvious unintended consequences. I do not regret the decision, but this change in the status-quo is still a bit frustrating. At this rate, we may have to fill him in on what we are just to get our freedom to train our bodies back.


    We were not really able to risk training much yesterday, but now Rolwen had said he looked down and saw Ether guy was doing one of his meditation things. We are assuming it has something to do with magic stuff or something that we don¡¯t understand very well, so we really just don¡¯t bother with it. The important thing is that he will be at it for a while which means we can train ourselves in the mean time. Even better, since our mother is coming, we should actually hear something this time before they come up the stairs.


    I have told the boys to keep their workout light today. It¡¯s Gaerien and I who are supposed to be sick, not them, so it might be noticed if the boys are all sweaty or something. They are focusing on a coordination exercise. I have them in a partner training where they are touching the tips of their fingers to each other. The same finger of the same hand.


    For now, I¡¯m keeping it easy. They just have to touch all 10 fingers together without allowing their palms to contact, then return their hands to their laps, then do it again. Eventually, they will have to upgrade this exercise to touch the fingers one at a time. After that, they will not be touching all 10 fingers, it will just be one finger called out by me or Gaerien. It may seem like a simple exercise. That usually is with these sorts of things. This is an exercise meant for someone who has some kind of impaired motor functions to be able to get back to moving like a normal person. Or, in this case, for a toddler who¡¯s motor functions are still developing to be able to develop their motor functions properly.


    This one isn¡¯t even all that advanced for a couple of 2 year olds like them. Well, unlike Gaerien and I who have been doing this stuff for months now, they¡¯re just starting. It won¡¯t be long at all before they¡¯re well ahead of their development curve as well. If any toddler were to practice exercises like these, they would definitely be walking, talking, and moving about well ahead of the age they should be doing it. The only difference between a normal baby and us really is attention span and direction. We have the attention span to keep up with these exercises far longer than a normal baby would, and thus get better results from it, and we also have the knowledge to give direction to our developmental exercises. That is all the secret there is to our absurd neurological growth. Now, if only we had a way to do the same with our physical bodies.


    In the case of Gaerien and I, our exercise is a lot simpler but also a lot more strenuous. This serves the double purpose for us of both the training which is our actual intent, but it also has the bonus of making the act we have coming up more convincing.


    Gaerien had about mastered crawling earlier in the week, finally able to practice thanks to the freedom she now had. Her neck muscles seemed to be holding her head up well already, excellent progress for only about a week. It may just be because she¡¯s physically older than I was when I did it, but she reached that point a whole lot faster than I did.


    Her speed still left something to be desired, but she was making good progress. More importantly though, she had managed to make her motion fairly smooth. It was not a jerky crawl where her entire body seemed to freeze after every large motion she took. She was able to simply lift an arm, place it in front of her, and then just have the opposite leg come forward in a reciprocal motion without dragging her legs behind her. Then, the next arm just smoothly lifted up afterward. This meant her neural pathways had full control over her arms and legs, and her cerebellum had developed and adjusted to these motions well.


    Since she was progressing so well on crawling, I decided to push things up to the next level. This was even something I was struggling with, so it would be good practice for both of us. We were going to try out walking. We both got up with the help of the nearest piece of furnature for support, and then we turned to one another and held hands. After we were standing, we would coordinate with each other to step one leg out to our sides, and then bring up the leg from behind. We were going sideways, so it was definitely not true walking, but we were able to practice this with each other¡¯s help.


    Again, this was probably pushing Gaerien a fair bit, but I was growing impatient with my own progress. Besides, when I mentioned what I wanted to try, she seemed to be completely on board with the idea, saying she was also very annoyed only being able to crawl around on the ground. She seemed to rather like the idea of learning to walk in these bodies.


    We had each been at our respective training for a few hours. Gaerien and I had fallen several times, but every time we both crawled over together to the nearest handy object, picked ourselves back up, and started again. It hurt sometimes, and we had to force down our baby reflexes to start crying, but we ignored it and pressed on.


    We trained in my best estimate of 5 minute sessions, and then we took rests in between that were about 10 minutes. These long rest sessions were important. Our muscles were not the thing that was holding us back. Just like with the boys, our issue that made it difficult to walk was entirely related to our neural pathways. These 10 minute rests gave our brains a chance to process and start to form new synapses.


    The hour or so we will be able to do this training would not be enough for a single one of those synapses to finish forming, but the repeated training sessions would help to re-enforce the growth in order to speed it along. If this works out, then in a day or two when we try this again our performance ought to improve a lot.


    Suddenly, from down stairs, we begin to hear Ether guy speaking and inviting someone inside. Rolwen and Levin, who have already naturally developed the ability to walk due to growing up and it being the proper on-schedule time for them to have that ability, are able to move much faster than we can. Therefore, it is them who immediately stand up and run over to where we are near the center of the room. Rolwen grabs Gaerien away from me in the rush, causing me to immediately loose my balance and fall hard on rear end. Since I sorta saw it coming this time, I am able to slow my descent just a bit with my tiny quad muscles, but I do still hit the ground and my butt is already tender and probably bruised from all the falls I had over this past hour.


    I bite back the pain as Levin plops down behind me and, not even concerned or seeming to notice the pained expression on my face, he begins just grabbing me and dragging me into his lap. I certainly feel a little annoyed at the rough treatment, but I¡¯m able to quickly recover as I remember the plan. I¡¯m the one who came up with it after all, it wouldn¡¯t do for me to be the one to drop the ball on it.


    Since we had started on this plan, Gaerien had started giving me some interesting bits of information about how to make it work. We had discussed quite a bit about my meditation before. According to her, it was a powerful meditation developed back when the world barrier around Earth was first being formed. Back then, when the mages and the magical creatures of the time were struggling to find a way to survive and continue their craft under these conditions, this was the very meditation they had come up with. There are a few specifics that may vary from one group¡¯s meditation to the next, but all the ones that could actually work had a few things in common.


    They could all call in energy from an outside source at a rapid pace, far beyond any meditation that ever preceded them. They all accomplished this by abandoning the previous wisdom that you had to suck in energy and store it in your body. Instead, this meditation used something akin to the principal behind a vacuum cleaner. Instead of sucking in energy, it ejected energy from your own body in order to make a vacuum space. Once this energy vacuum was created, energy from outside the body was only too happy to immediately come in and fill that space. As the spirit density of Earth began to increase, this method for meditation actually became more and more potent.


    The second common feature was some method to create your own mana. As soon as the last of the fey on Earth died off, there would be no more mana in the air. Therefore, the mages of Earth had to find a way to convert spirit energy into mana using their own meditation.


    Finally, and most importantly, all the mage¡¯s meditations of Earth had to have the ability to pierce the world barrier. This, according to her, was what was so different about my own meditation and that of the rest of the people who practiced the same style of Taijutsu that I did. Apparently, the method to pierce the world barrier was left out of our meditation that was otherwise complete. However, I had managed to re-discover the step necessary to do this on my own. All I knew was that it made my meditation feel like it was more complete somehow and more efficient, I had never actually tried to use it to cast a spell. It was a good thing I hadn¡¯t though according to her, otherwise apparently I would have been marked for death by god himself.


    My meditation though had other things that made it significant, even in this world. I hadn¡¯t just rediscovered the method to pierce the world barrier. Something very special and unique about my meditation that differed greatly from the early mage¡¯s meditations of Earth that Gaerien was familiar with was the source of the energy I pulled in. No, actually, it was more likely that after Gaerien had fallen as a goddess, the mages of earth all developed this as their source as the spirit energy of Earth became increasingly more and more dense and this caused the use of magic to become increasingly difficult. They had to search for more potent sources of their spirit energy.


    The source of energy for my meditation was that it pulled its energy directly from heaven. On Earth, this was just a slightly more dense source of spirit energy. And, because it was more dense than the already thick spirit energy of Earth, it allowed a practitioner to actually feel something different happening when they used the meditation. It was not especially significant however, just enough to make you feel a little bit lighter. However, in this world, that difference in source made a HUGE difference in outcome. This was because, unlike the case with Earth, the heaven of this world appeared to be outside the world barrier. Or rather, that¡¯s what Gaerien said.


    She had sensed that there was indeed a world barrier around this world as well. It was nowhere even close to the same level of power as the one that was around Earth, but it was still enough to limit what a person trying to cultivate their energy could do. She had been trying to work on her own since coming here now that she was not confined by Earth¡¯s barrier anymore, but she said she¡¯d been having difficulties with it because of that barrier. However, she could tell I seemed to be pulling energy from outside of it. Since I stated the mental image for the meditation was pulling energy from heaven, this lead to the conclusion that the heaven of this world must be outside the world barrier, thus making it so that the gods of this world did not need to be bound by that barrier.


    All of this stuff was meaningless to me though. Or rather, it was up until today. Up until now, all I knew of my meditation were the benefits it gave me in my previous life that was in a world devoid of magic. I had used my meditation not to ¡°cultivate¡± the energy I was taking in, as Gaerien called it. What I was doing with my meditation was simply to keep myself in a meditative state. In this state, I was able to better focus my mind and make my physical movements smoother. I was able to expand my awareness, and make myself conscious of all the tiny movements and imperfections in my own body.


    If anything, it was actually a huge problem for me that there was such an absurd thing as energy being pulled into this world from heaven every time I was in the middle of my meditation. Ever since I came up with this plan of feigning illness, Gaerien was all over me about how I was going to have to do something about my meditation and cut it off or else my performance will not be believable at all. There was no doubt that Ether guy could probably sense it when I was using my meditation and calling in all that energy, and since elves feed on spirit energy they would also notice if I seemed to be producing the stuff.


    Nobody was going to believe I was sick if my body was actually ejecting huge amounts of spirit energy as though I was a human instead of an elf. So, in order to go with this whole feigning illness thing, I was going to have to cut my meditation.


    I relaxed my body and lay limply in Levin¡¯s lap, and then I started trying to focus on how to emulate the conditions of being sick. However, this posed a problem. I was in such a habit of disciplining my mind, everything had become part of a form of meditation to me. I had trained myself for decades in my previous life to be in a constant meditative state and maintain my zanshin, my sphere of personal awareness. Zanshin was the principal of Japanese martial arts that described always being aware of everything happening around you, especially things that could be potential threats. This zanshin required you to be in such a constant meditative state, and for me it had become such a habit that every time I tried to mentally think about something it put me into such a meditative state immediately. In other words, meditation had completely become the natural state of my mind.


    No, I¡¯m not going to just be able to stop my meditation, but maybe I can consciously cut off that connection to the heavens thing. So, I focused on cutting the source of the energy rushing into my spirit. It did not take me long to feel it, and then I imagined myself pinching the source closed like stepping on a garden hose. The result was immediate. It actually DID make me start to feel sick as soon as I cut this off.


    I recall breaking my meditation before in my previous life, and it did make my body feel heavier by contrast since being in a meditative state made me feel lighter, but this was the first time I had ever actually felt sick as a result.


    ¡®It¡¯s probably because I¡¯m an elf now,¡¯ I reasoned. It made sense when I thought about it that way. Elves actually consume spirit energy to survive, and my body had grown used to one of the densest and richest food sources that could ever possibly exist the likes of which no other fey on this planet had access to. Of course suddenly cutting it off is going to make me feel bad. My body had grown dependent on that incoming spirit energy, it was like cutting off a drug addict.


    Well, it would only be for a little while I guess. So, I simply kept my mind on making sure that heaven energy stuff wasn¡¯t coming in and looking even more miserable than being cut off from it was making me feel.


    I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. One set of footsteps. I knew Ether guy walked incredibly lightly, so those footsteps must belong to my mother. She needs to work on her walking a bit I guess. I limply turned my head toward the top of the stairs and actually found I was having a hard time getting my eyes to focus. However, I did eventually make out Ether guy standing there. He shook his head and started looking us over, but I could not really make out the expression on his face. Suddenly, he gave a shout of surprise.


    Well I guess that confirms that he has some way to be aware of our spirit and mana energy, just like Gaerien said. I chuckle to myself slightly and thank Gaerien in my heart for the timely info she had given me on this subject.


    Ether guy rushes over and I can feel his hands helping to support my tiny body on Levin¡¯s lap. [Levin, did you and Rolwen actually switch the girls!?] He demands. That¡¯s a pretty amusing thing for him to wind up thinking. I honestly was not expecting that one. I was starting to get a picture of exactly what Gaerien had been talking about. Had it been that conspicuous, the fact that I was radiating that energy of heaven stuff? All this time I had thought that at most I was just showing how I was a bit ahead of the curve in my mental development. Well, more than a bit I suppose. However, I never realized I was doing something this attention getting all this time.


    It seemed like meditation really was something noteworthy in this world. Noteworthy to the point that people could detect when you were doing it. Well, when I was doing it in particular, since it seems my meditation is kinda absurd in its own way.


    I had to keep myself from laughing and cringing at the same time as these thoughts ran through my head. More to the point, I had to focus to actually keep the heaven¡¯s energy part of the meditation shut off. But then, Ether guy said something that completely shocked me out of the whole thing.


    [I don¡¯t know which one of you is Aerien, but whoever it is, I want you to stop this right now! She¡¯s seriously not doing well, and if you don¡¯t fix this problem if you can, then she might be in serious danger!] He said. His voice as he said these words was heavy and very serious. I knew doing this was making me feel sick, but I didn¡¯t really think I was doing THAT bad. However, as my eyes began to focus on the finger pointed straight at the center of my chest and the hawk-like gaze he had up toward Gaerien, I was just shocked out of my efforts to cut off that heaven energy from my meditation.


    I do not know whether it was the energy returning to my body or the shock of Ether guy¡¯s tone that made my entire body jerk and jump. The two events were so close together that it really could have been either one. At any rate, I immediately felt like I was at perfect health again as soon as the energy returned to my body and I looked up at Ether guy in confusion. [Aerien!?] He responded the very second I returned my meditation to its normal state, and in the process further cementing it into my mind just how exposed my unusual meditation was to him this entire time. I was starting to feel seriously humiliated, I was not even aware at all that I had essentially been announcing how crazy of an existence I was this entire time. All this time I had been trying to keep these things secret, but something this big about myself was completely and plainly displayed for all the world to see.


    To make matters worse, now he started to scold me. [I don¡¯t know what it was that you just did, but NEVER do that again! Do you understand me? That was dangerous! That was very very bad!]


    The actual words he said were not actually even registering anymore. I just heard ¡°don¡¯t do that,¡± and ¡°it¡¯s bad,¡± out of the entirety of what he said. I drowned out the rest. I wanted to cry after all of this. Well, I was a baby anyway. It may have been a little while since I had cried regularly, but I could still get away with it, right?


    Well, aside from that, gotta remember to maintain my cover. [(Wh... what!? But... but you said!)] It actually took a fairly large amount of effort to remember the Elven necessary to even say that much under these conditions. But, with that out, I was free to start crying. Immediately after this, Levin decides to play hero and cradles my head to his chest, putting his shoulder between me and Ether guy, and then he yells back at Ether guy to defend me. This just redirects Ether guy¡¯s anger toward Levin, and I¡¯m able to catch something about him saying how we don¡¯t have to pretend to be sick in front of our mother, along with the reminder about who¡¯s the person at the top of the stairs.


    I realize I should probably feel more curious about seeing my mother for the first time, but right now I¡¯m literally ashamed to tears. The only thing I¡¯m interested in right now is burying my head inside Levin¡¯s shirt. As I start to calm down a little and remember the way Ether guy was shouting a moment ago, it just scares me even more. He was clearly far more aware of this energy stuff than I was, and he had sensed something when I was deliberately messing up my meditation that scared him. He had also said things that indicated he was incredibly concerned about me doing something bad to myself. This all just makes me shudder, and I decide I will absolutely not repeat what I just did, at least until I can understand exactly what it was a little better.


    Author''s note


    Alright, I finally get to reveal what the real nature of Aerien''s "cheat" is. This is actually quite likely the most important reason why this story had to be set in a cultivation world. If this was a game mechanics world, this would be a horridly OP cheat beyond belief. The dynamics are very VERY different in a cultivation world though. As for why? Well, if you can''t see it yet, I guess you''re not quite up on how cultivation worlds tend to work yet. Just remember that WMW is one of my inspirations for this series, and ask what Leylin would do if he ever came across Aerien with the power she has.


    In other news, I have finally got my pre-release done. Chapter 19 is up and available on my subscribe star page for subscribers. At present there is only one subscriber level available at $2.99 / month. More levels will be added as I manage to write more advanced chapters. Chapter 19 is going to be the last chapter of the first arc, and then I will go into a lore chapter or two before starting on the next arc which, as you can see being set up, will start to focus a bit more on the cultivation aspect of this world.


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 Chapter 19: The end and beginning of the life of Túeth

    Author''s note


    Special thanks to Alexandra Hunter for joining as a subscriber on my subscribe star. I currently have only one level available for subscribers at $2.99 per month, with 1 advanced copy chapter available as rewards for subscribers. I plan to increase this to 2 advanced copies as soon as I am able to write ahead that far. (there are zero plans to ever sacrifice the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and weekend (Saturday or Sunday) release schedule in order to fill this advanced chapter, so I will be finding time some weekend to push myself to get that 2nd advanced chapter out.)


    More levels will be added later as I manage to write ahead further, please do consider subscribing if you enjoy this content.


    Content Warning


    This chapter contains flashbacks of T¨²eth''s back story. As has been hinted at before, it''s pretty ugly. The sexual content itself is glanced over and not delved into in any graphic detail, that''s not what this story is about, but this is definitely one of the chapters that lives up to the R-15 rating and the "Gore" content warning placed on this series.


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    Two and a half years ago, T¨²eth had gone through the worst day of her entire life. The dark elves, the abominations created from the twisted energies warping the bodies of elves into beasts. These creatures were well known to every one among the fey races. These immortal monsters were a source of fear, especially for those with elven blood.


    The dark elves were creatures filled with nothing but pure hatred for everything that lived, but the elves from which they were created were a race they took particular pleasure in slaughtering mercilessly. On that day, two and a half years ago, the village in which T¨²eth lived found itself in the sights of these monsters.


    The worst thing about these devils was that they were cunning. She had heard about the rampaging berserker beasts that humans transformed into when exposed to the arcane energies, but the devils spawned from the elven line kept their intelligence, although it was now twisted toward causing nothing but fear and suffering.


    These devils took their village by surprise, the scouts outside the town were overwhelmed with stealth and surprise tactics, and killed before they could bring the alarm back to the village. And they didn¡¯t just take out a few scouts either. They liked to toy with their prey. Before the village was attacked, they had gone around to kill each of the scouts. They knew this because, when it came time to rotate out, nobody came back. Not even the ones who went to relieve them.


    This was when the people in the village knew something was wrong. Everyone was given a sense of unease. All of the warriors rallied in the village square to attempt to organize a defense. However, that was exactly what the devils had been waiting for. The entire square was engulfed by five fireball spells going off at the same time. It was not just the gathered warriors who were destroyed in this surprise attack. Every nearby Lakira tree that had turned into a home or place of business was left nothing but a smoldering stump.


    The fire and confusion spread quickly, and there was nothing but confusion everywhere. As people tried to get their heads about them, arrows began flying out of the darkness, and with every bolt shot an innocent person¡¯s life was lost.


    T¨²eth had survived these first waves of attack because her mother had told her to stay inside their home while she had gone out to check on what had happened. She opened the door and took five steps out before, in front of T¨²eth¡¯s very eyes, her mother was shot through the head. She huddled and cried as the sounds of people screaming and dying surrounded her.


    After some time had passed, a white-haired elf with skin that looked a sickly dark blue, and rough as though he had just stepped out of the ocean covered in sea brine, turned his glowing red eyes toward her and smirked. He grabbed her by her hair and dragged her out to the ruins of the village square where several other women along with some of the humans taken by the village were gathered. They were all thrown in front of a woman who seemed to be their commander.


    The horrible creature who had dragged her there, who only looked like an elf in shape, uttered something to this dark-elf woman in what her people knew as the abyssal tongue, the language of those who lived in the underworld such as them.


    ¡°Hehehe, good.¡± The woman responded to him in proper surface elven, and given what she said next, T¨²eth had come to realize the reason this woman had decided to speak in elven was for one reason and one reason only, in order to further terrorize her captives by speaking what was to be their fate in a language they could understand. ¡°The humans will be brought with us, their offspring between our kind and their kind make the best slaves. As for the weak inferior elf women up here, they are useless. You may kill them after you¡¯ve had your fun with them.¡± The woman gave a poisonous smile as she declared their death sentence, and then the creatures descended upon them and had their way with anyone that they found appealing.


    T¨²eth had been violated by them that day, it was disgusting. If her fate was to die, she would have preferred that they would just kill her. At some point, she heard a shriek from next to her. She turned to see what had happened, and she looked on in horror as she saw the severed head of a young girl she used to babysit being held up by the hair as those monsters just laughed.


    As though this was the signal, the rest of them seemed to have come to the decision they had had enough, and the final round of slaughter began. Soon it would be her turn as well. Minutes ago, she had been begging for death. But, in this moment when it was finally approaching, T¨²eth only wanted to live. One of the monsters grabbed her by her hair and the dagger was raised. T¨²eth shut her eyes tightly, preparing for her death.


    In that moment, as though answering her wish, everything went white. At first, T¨²eth had thought she had died in that moment. However, the lie was quickly put to that as she was dropped and all around her she could hear those devils screaming in pain. T¨²eth began to crack her eyes open, but then quickly shut them again in pain. She realized the reason they were screaming. Something had lit up the entire area with a light so intense that it had blinded them all and left them writhing in pain.


    After this, she felt the earth under her begin to shake. The intense light continued to cut through everything and T¨²eth had now pressed her hands over her eyes in order to further block out its intensity. She did not know what was going on, but it was something very very big. The devils around her began to shout things to each other in their abyssal tongue. Confusion was everywhere. This was when, finally, the sound of a great explosion could be heard. A booming sound so large that T¨²eth felt it go through her entire body like a physical blow. After that, she was picked up by the wind. She seemed to remember herself screaming, but the massive sound was so loud that she could not even hear her own voice.


    It was not only the sound, she heard the wind kicked up by what could only be an explosion that completely dwarfed those fireballs the monsters had launched against her town earlier that night so completely that even a spark from a fire wasn¡¯t a fitting comparison. The light, the wind, the sound, all of it was simply at such a massive scale.


    She was flung through the air. She did not know how many branches she hit along the way, but she knew for sure she must have gone right through a few leaf covers as she sailed through the air. She took no notice though as all she was sure of was that she could not orient herself to anything. She flipped end over end in the air, and there was so much chaos and confusion that she could no longer keep track of anything at all.


    She did not even know how she landed. All she really remembered was waking up when it was morning, and her entire body being broken and battered. She could not move a single limb, every single part of her was broken and caused her excruciating pain just to do such a simple motion as wiggling her finger.


    She could not move. She cried out in pain, shouted for anyone at all to find her and help her. Her voice was about the only thing in her body that worked right now, and even that was weak due to an unknown number of broken ribs. It became clear that nobody seemed to be coming to find her. It was likely that nobody had survived at all. Well, at the very least it got those dark elf bastards too, whatever that was.


    She lay like that in pure agony for two days. Again, she reached a state where she was begging for death. She stopped wishing for rescue, and instead began to wish for some starving wolf to find her and just put her out of her misery. She might even do it herself at this point, but her arms would not even move enough to do that.


    She wondered why she didn¡¯t die in this time. Her injuries were incredibly severe, normally she ought to have succumbed to them in a matter of hours. Later though, she found out the reason. When that explosion had happened, the entire area was filled with a massive abundance of spirit energy, and this great energy had sustained T¨²eth for those three days that she lay there injured and unable to move. Even with spirit energy that dense, more dense than could even be found in the most populated human city center, a truly impossibly large amount of spirit energy that defied even the wildest imagination, it could still not cause her wounds to heal themselves. All it could do was sustain her life.


    And it did sustain her life, and on that third day after it had happened, she began to hear voices. She thought at the time that it had to be a hallucination. However, she eventually recognized those voices as speaking Elven, and she let out a weak cry. Her voice was so weak from her broken ribs though that it could not reach them. Fortunately, someone seemed to spot her broken body and brought the small group over to her. She turned to look up at them and this time they were close enough that her weak cries for help could reach them, and it was fortunate for her that they had brought a healer with them.


    -


    T¨²eth had relived those memories of that terrible day over and over in her mind for the past two and a half years. She had been haunted by them constantly. When she had turned up pregnant, she had told everyone it was the child of a boy she knew that she had a thing with, not wanting to give them the truth. When the twins were born, she was asked repeatedly to see them, but she could never bring herself to go to them. It did not take long at all for someone to notice their grey skin, but it was taken as a sign of illness.


    People thinking the children were ill only made them more insistent that she should go see them, but she had become terrified by this time. Terrified of what people would do when the entire truth came out. She would re-live the nightmare all over again.


    It was better that she had nothing to do with those children. One way or another, they were going to die. Those were her thoughts, and after six months had passed and nobody had said a word about dark elves or grey elves to her, she began to wonder. All this time, the master magus of the town, master Eirlathion, had stayed with them constantly. There was simply no way he hadn¡¯t noticed. But, on an almost weekly basis that man seemed to appear in front of her late in the evening trying to convince her to go see the children. And yet, he never said a thing about what she feared the most. That is, until one day, about a week after he moved the children to his own house.


    It was an absolutely ridiculous thing he had said, that one of her daughters apparently made her own spirit energy. It was unbelievable, but... when she did stop to think about it, maybe... The twins had been conceived right next to that explosion, what was now being called the heaven¡¯s fall. And, in the first days of their time in the womb, they were bathed in that massive spirit energy that was enough to keep her alive despite her severe injuries. Given those circumstances, something could have actually happened to give at least one of them the extraordinary abilities master Eirlathion was talking about.


    Two and a half years ago, T¨²eth¡¯s life had effectively ended. Time had stopped for her on that day. Now, she lived every day almost like a ghost, and constantly jumping in fear of what was going to come next. The idea of going to see her daughters at master Eirlathion¡¯s house, it scared her. It terrified her. She just knew when she looked into the face of her daughters, all she was going to be able to see was those monsters yet again. She saw them in her sleep, and she saw them every time her mind wandered for too long during the day. They had shattered her life, and had taken away everything she ever knew, and now she was also cursed with a constant reminder of what had happened to her.


    However. What would she do if she did not go to them and help master Eirlathion? She saw something in him when he said that they could be saved. T¨²eth did not care what happened to those girls. It would very much be better for her if they had died in the womb. The master seemed to have assumed that the reason she did not tell anyone about them was because she didn¡¯t want to see them die. That was not the truth at all. She did not tell anyone about them because... she did not even know the reason why she didn¡¯t.


    Several times she had hoped and wished that someone would just discover the truth and put an end to them already. However, there was no way she could ever bring herself to tell anyone about it. She had never even considered it. The thought never even crossed her mind until the master had said how he felt he could trust her because of how she had never told anybody about them. She spent the entire next day fighting with herself and asking herself why she really hadn¡¯t told anyone. She had wanted them to die several times already, but for some reason every time she reminded herself of that fact she could feel a searing pain in her heart.


    For the first time in two and a half years, she considered the idea of telling someone about the real father of those girls. And, in that moment, a crippling fear that rivaled the moment she had seen the first of the girls beheaded in front of her paralyzed her entire body. She saw that head swinging by her hair in her memories, and then for a brief second a lightly grey skinned baby''s head imposed itself over the face of the young girl. This image in her head was enough to freeze her thoughts cold.


    Well, the master was right about one thing at least. She was not going to ever be capable of telling someone the truth about those girls.


    -


    T¨²eth did not even know why she had decided to go to the master¡¯s house the morning they had agreed upon. Everything in her told her that she hated the very concept of this idea. And yet, for some reason, she just felt like she had to do it. It was as though she was trapped. He had told her to come, and she did.


    After this, he told her more unbelievable things. Not only could her daughter release spirit energy, but now he was claiming she could shut it off at will? She could not conclude anything except that she was being lied to, fed a story because he was just trying to trick her into seeing her daughters. When she came upstairs, the master showed a reaction of fear and shock and ran to one of her daughters who was laying in the lap of a human child.


    She could see her daughter¡¯s arm laying limply off the human child¡¯s knees, and her head lulled to the side with unfocused eyes. When this combined with the bluish grey skin of the grey elves, she looked exactly as she might look if she was dead. But then, when the master yelled at them for a little while, she suddenly sat bolt upright. She began to protest a little before she started crying, and then the human child backed her up saying something about how they were supposed to fake being sick when someone other than the master was around.


    As the master was yelling at the children, T¨²eth was starting to feel it. The intense and overpowering spirit energy began to flood the entire room. It was not like the area around the heaven¡¯s fall, but just between the two human children and her daughter, who the master had said was producing her own spirit energy, this house felt more full of spirit energy that a human town ever could.


    She had spent the last month of her pregnancy in the nursery filled with human children, and that included these two. She knew that they also produced a crazy amount of spirit energy just between the two of them, but now with her daughter¡¯s added it felt as though it had doubled again. He had been telling the truth after all.


    But it wasn¡¯t just that. Her daughter was also talking. She had also been warned about that one the day he had come over to her house, but it had almost gone over her head to be honest. But, now that she was seeing it, she remembered what he had said and she was shocked. Her daughter was talking at only half a year of age. She knew a human started talking a lot earlier, but elf babies usually didn¡¯t start talking until they were at least two years old.


    Well then, everything he had said was right. T¨²eth could see why the master would take such an interest in these children. She had to admit. There was something absolutely incredible about them. Surprisingly, she could not see their father¡¯s face in them. She was simply too shocked by the absurdity of her daughter to the point that it was as though her mind forgot to be traumatized by the past. Instead, she found that she was beginning to fear her children for an entirely different reason.


    ¡°What happened?¡± She asked master Eirlathion when he seemed to have calmed down. She felt kinda strange about the whole thing. No matter how you looked at it, it was as though he was their parent instead of her. Well, he pretty much was actually. For the last half year, it had been him who raised them.


    ¡°I really don¡¯t know.¡± master Eirlathion responded, shaking his head in exasperation. ¡°She seems to be Ok now, so I guess it wasn¡¯t as serious as I thought, but when I tried to view her mana and spirit pathways while she was playing sick, it looked as though she had seriously damaged her own spirit. Honestly, I really don¡¯t know what to make of that girl at all. I have never seen something like her.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... I didn¡¯t believe you at first when you said she could talk. Is it only her that¡¯s like that?¡± She asks the master as she tries to make sense of all of this. She really didn¡¯t know enough about the spirit and things of that nature in order to know what this was all about. She knew the basics that every elf knew, that while they had physical bodies like the humans, they were really a lot more like the lesser fey in that damage to their spirit could easily reflect in their bodies, and when their spirit was too damaged they would loose their life by way of their physical form simply vanishing.


    The opposite though could also be said to be true, for instance when her body was broken and crippled for those three days. The abundance of spirit energy kept her spirit strong, and that allowed her to keep her life despite the injuries that should have, by all rights, been fatal.


    Normally, there were very few ways to damage someone¡¯s spirit directly. For an elf, it could receive indirect damage when the body was injured or when they were sick, but attacks directly to the spirit were the stuff of legends. It was the sort of thing that the villains did to the hero of the story, an obstacle that they would have to overcome and seek the treatment of the best healers to repair.


    Despite her misgivings before, the thought that her daughter had caused something of that nature as a self inflicted injury was stirring up complicated emotions. It made her worry about the girl. It was ridiculous. Just a few days ago she was wishing, and now she realized, also dreading the day that they were discovered and then put to death by the other members of this village. With that being the case, it definitely seemed strange that she was concerned about her daughter¡¯s state now.


    T¨²eth walked over and knelt next to the human child who was still protectively holding her whimpering and crying daughter. The human looked up at her and then reluctantly loosened his arms so she could see her baby that he was holding. The baby quieted her sobs and looked back at T¨²eth, and she was immediately overcome with fear and uncertainty. She had abandoned this child and for the past half year she was waiting and even hoping for her death. She had no right to be with her now.


    Without saying a single word in the exchange, T¨²eth stood on the spot and immediately ran down the stairs. She sat down at master Eirlathion¡¯s table. Soon, she noticed she was shaking. This was all just too much. She couldn¡¯t do this. She was a bad mother. She could clearly see it now, the road to her children¡¯s salvation. With children that amazing, and the support of the master, they could definitely find some road to life for them.


    T¨²eth had given up on them ever living long ago. She had not even considered it. And now, with it in front of her and impossible to miss, she felt more terrified of anything than she ever had in her life. When her village was attacked, she could see that she was going to die at the hands of those devils. With the certainty of death in front of her, she could be resigned to that fate. However, this twisted mix of hope, promise of great things to come, and at the same time dread at the horrible things that could also happen, and most of all just the huge world of uncertainty that covered the gap between them. The whole thing was easily the most terrifying thing T¨²eth had ever experienced in her short 73 years of life.


    T¨²eth was glad she hadn¡¯t eaten anything today. If she had, she would likely have vomited in response to the turbulent emotions shaking her to the very core of her soul. All she could do in this moment is hold her head, tremble in fear, and cry. She was in a place now where every choice she could possibly make seemed to look like it promised the worst kind of destruction. Every choice would destroy her life. If she helped raise her daughters and they turned out to be as great as their early life now promised they could be, maybe good could happen for her, but that decision felt like it was the most terrifying choice of all of them.


    1st Arc: Infancy


    Act 1: Neural Growth


    End


    Author''s Note


    This is the end of the 1st act of the infancy arc. The next chapter will be an intermission which will take the form of a lore chapter in which the more important of the conversations between Aerien and Gaerien that I couldn''t fit in organically before but give a lot of important lore information are all gone over. The 1st conversation is time set to just after the 1st one during chapter 10, and the last 3 are time set to take place after they are brought to Eirlathion''s house. There are a few others that do not have a definite time set, but take place some time in the 5 months between those two events.


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 (Intermission) Lore Chapter 1: Gaerien’s lessons

    Intermission


    Over the days since Aerien and Gaerien first discovered they could exchange words directly mind to mind, they had several nightly conversations. Below is a collection of a few of the more note-worthy ones.


    Later the same night


    After going over a few of the basic exercises with Gaerien, talking and strengthening her neck muscles being chief among them, I was quick to get back on the topic of our discussion.


    ¡®I still have quite a bit I would like to ask about,¡¯ I told her, ¡®I think it¡¯s a pretty fair deal that if I¡¯m your exercise coach you will essentially be my magic knowledge tutor.¡¯


    ¡®A fair trade, yes. I am quite eager to try out what you have taught me and it would frankly be less embarrassing to do this at night. I suppose you have questions now though.¡¯


    ¡®Forget about things like embarrassment, the only reason I hid my progress until now was because the voice training exercises I was doing would immediately give it away I lived a previous life. I don¡¯t want these boys getting excited and telling that elf guy before I¡¯m ready. The exercises I gave you though are just fine to do during the day when people can see you, but we can only talk like this at night.¡¯


    ¡®Well, you certainly don¡¯t know how to treat a girl nicely, do you?¡¯


    ¡®We¡¯re both girls now. And besides, I¡¯m the younger sister. Spoil me older sister.¡¯


    ¡®Right. Well, I guess I can see the logic in your reasoning. Very well then. What did you want to ask about?¡¯


    ¡®Well, so much really. How about we pick it up where we left off. You were talking about fey, ¡°god-born,¡± spirits, and monsters. Also this arcane energy stuff and magic. I think I sorta got enough understanding for now about the arcane energy, basically it is the waste by-product from a spell, and it turns normal creatures into monsters. I also understand god-born, as you call them, well enough. It¡¯s basically just plants and animals. I think I can figure out fey more or less. How about you tell me some more about spirits?¡¯


    ¡®Spirits is it? Spirits are a lot like fey in that they are created from god-born clinging to life. However, a spirit does not actually need to form from a sentient god-born. Most of them form from plants, and some from unintelligent animals. Also, any sentient god-born who fuses with a plant spirit will usually not become a fey. They become special kinds of spirits of the forest. I believe in the former world, they were called Nymphs. However, the most powerful plant spirits become a different kind known as Dryads which oversee the nymphs and even have the ability to command the pseudo-fey in their forest.¡¯


    ¡®Can spirits form from things other than plants? I have heard the stories about things like fire spirits and water nymphs on Earth.¡¯


    ¡®Really!? Well, normally not. At least, not in a normal world. I suppose things like that might be possible in a world with special rules, but why would a god ever create a system like that?¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m sorry, world rules?¡¯


    ¡®Yes. World rules are created by the barrier. The barrier around Earth had the world rule that no magic could be cast, fey would not be born, and only neutral energy can pass the barrier. The last one was actually added in later in order to prevent magic further. Some mages began figuring out ways to get around the world barrier and cast magic anyway. So, the flow of all energies was blocked in order to try and prevent even mana from outside coming in as well as. There is a tendency for any one kind of energy to start suppressing the others once it gets concentrated enough, so having the spirit energy increase in density would force down the activity of mana and arcane energy.¡¯


    ¡®Ok, and what is neutral energy?¡¯


    ¡®Well, just like the fey turn spirit energy into mana, humans turn neutral energy into spirit energy. Further, gods can cleanse arcane energy and turn it back into neutral energy.¡¯


    ¡®Well, if dense energies displace and suppress other energies, doesn¡¯t that mean neutral energy would be repressed as well by the spirit energy?¡¯


    ¡®Well, unlike fey, humans don¡¯t actually need the neutral energy to live. It just makes their hearts feel a little lighter while they are turning it into spirit energy and makes their bodies feel like they are moving more freely. I heard several of the gods who maintained their power began rewarding anyone who prayed to them by forcing neutral energy toward them. It¡¯s kinda genius really. It makes it so the human can feel an actual sensation while praying, and then it also increases the level of spirit energy they are producing while in prayer.¡¯


    I had to stop at this point. I was fairly stunned at discovering such a thing was going on back on Earth. I had felt that light sensation several times in religious services before. So, this was the reason for that then?


    ¡®Well then, I think that might be enough for tonight.¡¯


    With that, I rolled back to my own spot and started to go to sleep. As I was trying to do this though, I could start to hear Gaerien¡¯s wobbly babbling baby voice as she began to put what I had just taught her into practice.


    Several days or weeks later


    ¡®I¡¯ve got something that¡¯s been bothering me.¡¯ I say to Gaerien during one of our nightly chats, as has become our habit lately. ¡®I understand the whole thing with ¡°god-born,¡± fey, spirits, and monsters. But, how about gods themselves? Where do they come into the picture?¡¯


    ¡®How do you mean?¡¯


    ¡®Well, god-born are created by gods, and then fey and spirits each come from the god born. Are gods separate from this picture completely? Are gods created somehow, or are they just simply there?¡¯


    ¡®I see, that¡¯s a good question. Well, gods are actually former spirits or sentient god-born who manage to ascend to god status by gathering enough spirit energy. The exact process is a little more complicated than that, but does that answer your question?¡¯


    ¡®Hmm¡­ I suppose so. I have to say, a part of me is surprised while part is not. You say spirits and god-born though. Does that mean that fey cannot become gods?¡¯


    ¡®Well, I have never heard of it happening, I guess that doesn¡¯t mean it is impossible. Usually, for the final steps of ascending into godhood, you need to begin to gather spirit energy from worship. Normally, god-born tend to get that worship from their own species while spirits can often gain the worship of a god-born. The fey cannot receive spirit energy from other fey, so this obstructs them from this step.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I suppose that makes sense. There are several things that are still not clear, but¡­ well, this is a touchy subject for me being from Earth. It took quite a bit of effort just to ask this question honestly, and now I have to take a bit to process this.¡¯


    ¡®Disillusioned a bit? Well, I suppose that can be expected. I will tell you this much though, I have walked the road to godhood once, and I am planning to do it again. If you have more questions, you ought to be able to get the answers first hand by watching me.¡¯


    ¡®Quite the declaration. Not even bothered by the fact that you¡¯re a member of a fey race now?¡¯


    ¡®Well¡­ I have something of a secret weapon here that I think ought to get me over that little hump. There are still a few issues I¡¯m working out, but I have found my own path to godhood here that ought to work out just fine.¡¯


    ¡®Right, whatever. I¡¯m just going to go back to my exercises for now.¡¯


    ¡®Don¡¯t leave me out of that. You gotta make sure and hold up your end of the bargain.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I¡¯ve already told you what to work on for this week, so you don¡¯t need me giving you any extra input.¡¯


    ¡®Right. I bet I might even be able to pass you up if everything goes well.¡¯


    World barriers and world rules


    ¡®I have been thinking a little. You said the other night about how you were trying to do the same things as before that allowed you to reach godhood. What is that process exactly?¡¯


    ¡®Oh, ready to hear it now? It¡¯s not going against your soul anymore to hear these things?¡¯


    ¡®It took me a little while to accept these things, but the god I worshiped is on Earth, and now I am away from home. It would be good for me to learn a little about the world outside of the safe confines of my home now wouldn¡¯t it?¡¯


    ¡®Hmm¡­ still sticking with the safe answers huh? I never understood how that one managed to cultivate so many fanatical followers, and you aren¡¯t even one of the more dedicated ones either.¡¯


    ¡®I think we have had this talk before. Leave digs at my faith out of this.¡¯


    ¡®Right. Well, to break it down as best I can, you go back and forth between using spirit energy to remodel your spirit, and remodel your body. Along the way, you gain the ability to perform magic and miracles of various types. All those hopeful to become gods will, at some point, have to become a spirit before ascending to godhood. So, if you happen to be a god-born attempting to become a god yourself, you will have to cast off your physical form.¡¯


    ¡®So, all gods are spirits then?¡¯


    ¡®Sort of. I did not become a spirit again when I fell from godhood. Once you cross the threshold between spirit and god, it causes a permanent change.¡¯


    ¡®I see. Well, you said that you were having trouble with the process. What exactly is the issue?¡¯


    ¡®It¡¯s pretty simple. The world rules of this world are different, and it¡¯s resisting my path to godhood.¡¯


    ¡®You have mentioned world rules a few times before. Can you give me more details?¡¯


    ¡®Ok, well¡­ world rules are basically rules governing the way magic and the energies behave in a world. The world rules are set by the gods, specifically the gods responsible for the world barrier. This is because the world barrier is the method used to set the rules. Anything inside of the barrier is subject to those rules.¡¯


    ¡®So, something about those rules makes it so you can¡¯t do whatever it is you are trying to do?¡¯


    ¡®Well, actually¡­ I found a way to cheat. I haven¡¯t been able to make heads or tails of the way the world rules in this world work, I have just about reached the conclusion that part of the rules here are specifically set to make it so you cannot do the things to become a god here. Nothing new really, that¡¯s how Earth was too, but there are fey here, which means there¡¯s also magic. Magic and the path to godhood are actually linked, so it¡¯s crazy that they¡¯ve managed to come up with a system in this world that could resist the process wile still allowing magic!¡¯


    ¡®I see. So, there go your aspirations of godhood then.¡¯


    ¡®Wait! What¡¯s with that self-satisfied tone!? And no, I¡¯m definitely not sunk yet. I can¡¯t understand the rules of this world, but I¡¯ve got a way to just straight up disobey them and work from my own rules anyway. It¡¯s quite the work-around, but I¡¯ve had some success with it so far.¡¯


    ¡®So, a way to cheat the system is it? Well, normally I might roll my eyes and leave you to that, but since this is probably going to keep affecting things for me I guess I might as well ask how exactly you are cheating the system and such.¡¯


    ¡®Well, believe it or not, the method is you.¡¯


    ¡®What? Me?¡¯


    ¡®Yes. You remember how I said that I don¡¯t think I could communicate with anyone except for you with this thought connection like this? Well, that¡¯s because the rules of this world are also resisting my ability to use that simple level of divine magic. This communication is the simplest divine spell of all of them, but this world resists it. However, you have an ability to disobey the world rules, and being your sister it seems I can get some benefits from this as well if I¡¯m close enough to you.¡¯


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s quite the revelation. I DO hope you plan to elaborate on how exactly this works, do you know?¡¯


    ¡®Oh yes, it was the reason I chose you in the first place back on Earth. You remember what I asked you to do in order to help save your daughter?¡¯


    ¡®Granddaughter. And yes. My combat meditation was able to help you do that somehow.¡¯


    ¡®Yes. Earth has an even stronger resistance against miracles, to the point a mere fallen goddess like I was would be incapable of anything. However, when you were in the middle of your meditation, it pierced a hole in the world barrier, which not only allowed me to gain power but also created a small little area without any active world rules. In this area, I was able to enact any miracle I wanted.¡¯


    ¡®I see. And, that was also how we wound up in this world too I take it?¡¯


    ¡®Yes. Because you were creating that hole in the world barrier right up until the moment you died, when you died it expanded that hole further and allowed your spirit to slip through. I kinda hitched a ride with you.¡¯


    ¡®So then, you said you could cause any miracle you wanted while I was in the middle of my meditation. I take it you could also have simply healed my granddaughter without transferring her injuries to me?¡¯


    ¡®Well, yes. Actually, it would have even been easier to just heal her, but¡­ well. I didn¡¯t say anything though. I saw my opportunity and wanted to take it in order to leave that world. So.. um¡­ are you angry?¡¯


    ¡®Honestly, no I¡¯m not. I actually suspected as much. It was your deal to make, and I took it. You have to be getting something out of the deal, right? I think of it like a business transaction. I was quite satisfied with the deal to tell the truth. It was either I take it, or my granddaughter dies or is permanently crippled for my mistake. Also, even if you had just healed her, I don¡¯t think I would have worshiped you or anything. You made the best deal so that you would get what you wanted, and meanwhile I got what I wanted as well. It all works out in the end.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I¡¯m glad to hear that. I was worried about how you would react when you found out.¡¯


    ¡®Well, thank you for not lying to me when I asked you directly.¡¯


    ¡®Are you kidding? If there¡¯s one thing I have learned about you, it¡¯s that you are quite good at spotting lies. You would have just gotten pissed off and started making my life miserable until you finally dragged the truth out of me if I had lied to you.¡¯


    ¡®Well, you¡¯re not wrong. I hate lies. I believe they are a cardinal sin for a reason.¡¯


    Why Aerien doesn¡¯t sleep.


    ¡®You know? You mentioned a while ago about how you aren¡¯t sleeping at all anymore. I had to think for a while, but I think I might have figured it out.¡¯


    ¡®Oh? Well, I¡¯m interested to hear this then.¡¯


    ¡®When that elf put you to sleep with that medicine, I could sense that your meditation also stopped.¡¯


    I actually wasn¡¯t surprised she would know this. I had told her myself in a previous conversation that I managed to reach a constant state of meditation in my previous life, and a few months back I straight up told her that was a goal I was working on for this life as well. By this point, I had largely succeeded.


    ¡®Well, of course I can¡¯t maintain a meditation even when I¡¯m asleep. This has to do with more than just my meditation though, doesn¡¯t it?¡¯


    ¡®Yes. And, also, it was right around the time you started really getting good at keeping up your constant meditation that you stopped sleeping as well.¡¯


    ¡®Now that you mention it, that does sound right. It didn¡¯t have that effect in my previous life though, so how is it doing that here?¡¯


    ¡®Well, you know how fey live off spirit energy, right? Well, high level fey like faeries normally also don¡¯t need to sleep. However, there is one time that faeries will fall into a sleep that is more like a hibernation. That is when they start to run really low on spirit energy.¡¯


    ¡®So, you mentioned before that I seem to be getting spirit energy with my meditation. You are saying that it¡¯s enough to override my need to sleep since I¡¯m a fey now?¡¯


    ¡®That seems to be the case.¡¯


    ¡®It¡¯s a good theory. So, I assume that this means it¡¯s kinda an opposite effect from what happens with faeries. The faeries only sleep when they are low on spirit energy. Meanwhile, elves don¡¯t need to sleep when they have very very high levels of it. Well, I guess at least that bastard putting me to sleep like that solved this little mystery. Thanks for catching that.¡¯


    The night after my confrontation with ¡°Ether guy.¡±


    After I had talked with Rolwen and Levin about how we were going to fake being sick, Gaerien suddenly called me over. She gave me a look, a look I had come to recognize as her having something to say that was complicated and would require our mind-to-mind communication in order to work. Curious about what she was going to say, I decided to send the boys off to practice on their own while I sat next to her and took her hand.


    ¡®I just wanted to tell you something to help you out if you want to really make this faked illness thing work.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I don¡¯t mean for it to be too good. The larger point of this is just to show Ether guy that we will do as he said and fake illness in front of other people, that way he might give all of us a little more freedom.¡¯


    ¡®That¡¯s the thing. No matter how good a performance you give, it will never be believable unless you cancel that meditation of yours. I mentioned before how you take in spirit energy and such while you are doing it, right? Well, it actually gives you so much beyond your own needs that there is an overflow. If he can sense that, then the illness thing is not going to be believable.¡¯


    ¡®I see. And you¡¯re only telling me about this whole excess spirit energy thing now, why?¡¯


    ¡®Well, I thought that the boys produced so much that probably not many people would notice. I¡¯ve started to see that Ether guy acting a little different around you lately though, ever since he took you off on your own to that room. You said he just had you in there a minute and took you right back out, right? I think he cast some sort of spell to scan you and see your energy flow.¡¯


    ¡®Again, I think you could have told me about this as soon as you realized that if it was that long ago.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I wasn¡¯t sure, and¡­¡¯


    ¡®You didn¡¯t want me to start holding off on my meditation because it would close that world barrier hole you needed, right?¡¯


    ¡®Umm¡­ yeah, I guess you got me there.¡¯


    ¡®-sigh-, well, I guess even if you had told me then it would be too late. I do wish you would have told me sooner, but I guess it wouldn''t have made a difference. If anything, it would raise suspicion if I had suddenly stopped after he noticed it.¡¯


    ¡®Sorry. Also, I think it¡¯s kinda funny that you can sigh inside your own mind like that.¡¯


    ¡®Whatever. Well, at least you are telling me now. It lets me plan accordingly. So, thanks for that at least.¡¯


    Later, the night of the same day.


    ¡®You know? What you told me today got me thinking. I¡¯ve always gotten the impression that you know a fair bit more about my own meditation that I do.¡¯


    ¡®Well.. I guess I might know some things you wouldn¡¯t.¡¯


    ¡®Would you like to elaborate on those things? I don¡¯t want to suddenly be caught off guard like I was with Ether guy picking up on my spirit energy from the meditation and all that.¡¯


    ¡®So, I told you about how your meditation pierces the world barrier before, right?¡¯


    ¡®Yes.¡¯


    ¡®Well, your meditation is actually one of the latest and most polished versions of something the ancient mages of Earth started working on in desperation after the Earth¡¯s world barrier was first created. When the barrier started resisting their magic, they came up with it as a way to get past the barrier¡¯s limitations.¡¯


    ¡®Makes sense. So, they came up with a way to put a hole in the world barrier just so they could keep using magic.¡¯


    ¡®Yes. It¡¯s more than just making a hole though. Remember, the barrier also stopped the fey from being born and so all the mana in the world was eliminated. So, these newer mage¡¯s meditations all also had the ability to convert spirit energy into mana on their own, just like a member of the fey would.¡¯


    ¡®Hmm¡­ I can¡¯t say I ever remember something in my meditation that had something like that.¡¯


    ¡®Well, you actually did it all the time in your past life. Remember, I was actually watching you for quite a while. The reason I was following you around was because I saw the haze of mana always surrounding you and your students. So, it¡¯s not just you, it¡¯s also a lot of the other people in your style who also practice this meditation who can do it.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I was never conscious of doing something like that. How can it have that effect without me being aware of it?¡¯


    ¡®Well, you might have confused it for something different. It involves taking in large amounts of spirit energy. You remember me saying how spirit energy contains the thoughts of the person who uses it, right? Well, you call your meditation a combat meditation, I can see where reading the thoughts of your opponent might be seen as a part of that.¡¯


    ¡®It doesn¡¯t read thoughts, it reads intentions. And, on that note, wow. If that¡¯s how it is, then I know exactly what you¡¯re talking about. The chi of fire and the feeling of fire is a portion of the meditation where you practice spotting your opponent¡¯s intention, and getting in to act before them in order to shut down and capitalize on whatever action they were about to take. Interesting something like that should be associated with fire. Perhaps the fire chi is being used to literally burn the spirit energy into mana.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, so, the meditations that the ancient mages came up with that could allow them to still use magic under the world barrier had three things in common. One, they could pierce the world barrier. Two, they could convert spirit energy to mana themselves. And, three, piercing the world barrier actually takes a whole lot of energy in and of itself, a lot more than any normal mage could control. So, all of these meditations have the ability to pull energy from another source and use it immediately to drive it into the world barrier and make the hole that they need. In the early days, it was kinda like they were casting a spell to control the energy and use it as a weapon against the barrier. If you are any example though, it looks like over the millennia it was refined so much that now you can cut a hole in the world barrier with minimal effort of any kind. Honestly, I actually don¡¯t even understand how it is that you do what you are doing.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I don¡¯t understand enough about all this magic stuff to give you a complete answer, but I can tell you that you are absolutely correct about my meditation pulling energy from an outside source. But then, I¡¯ve told you that already, and you also just mentioned that all the good meditations these days do that anyway. At any rate, I can help you out a little by telling you that the source I pull energy from for my meditation is heaven. I was actually in prayer to god all the time when I did my meditation, and in doing that I got his power and it flowed through me.¡¯


    ¡®What!? He actually gave you energy for that!? He literally gave you the energy to pierce his barrier! You¡¯ve gotta be mistaken!¡¯


    ¡®No mistake, that was my method.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I suppose it¡¯s probably a good thing you never cast a spell. If you were deliberately pulling his attention to you while using his power to help you cast some magic, he would have likely marked you for death. You¡¯ve heard about the opposition most religions had to witchcraft, right? The gods of Earth absolutely do not like mages. They have a decree that all of them should be put to death.¡¯


    ¡®I can¡¯t really speak to that one way or the other, but I know I never had any trouble form it.¡¯


    End


    This brings us to present. As discussions on these kinds of subjects are going to become more central to the plot in the next arc, future discussions between Aerien and Gaerien should be covered organically during the normal chapters.

 Chapter 20: New opportunities.

    1st Arc: Infancy


    Act 2: Spirit


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    T¨²eth sat at master Eirlathion¡¯s table, slowly calming down from her moment of panic. All of the conflicting thoughts had gone through her head, and she had cried her tears. Her brain, now filled with the endorphines from the crying she had done, forced a sense of peace onto her that conflicted with her thoughts. Still, because of this ancient coping mechenism of every creature with a nervous system, T¨²eth was brought back from the brink of insanity, and now she was just paralyzed in a haze of indecision.


    She had been in the middle of talking with the master about her daughters, when suddenly she was so overcome with fear. She had looked at the face of her daughter. A daughter who promised great prospects and possibilities for the future. A future that could very well include her and help to get her back on her feet. A future that she did not deserve, that she had desired be cut short in her heart again and again and again ever since she discovered she was pregnant.


    T¨²eth¡¯s fears were renewed every time she thought of the possibilities for that girl. Despite the conditions of her birth, this girl had so many things now that could easily turn what could be considered a very bad prospect for her life completely on its head. Being a grey elf, members of her father¡¯s race would seek her death whenever they found her, just for being born a grey elf. Dark elves sought the death of all surface elves without exception, but whenever they found a grey elf it was like the entire race considered their mere existence a personal insult and they would use every method at their disposal to ensure that grey elf¡¯s death.


    For this reason, most elven communities refused to harbor grey elves. The disaster they brought by their mere existence was not something any community would invite. If the grey elf was old enough to walk on their own, they could be simply barred from entering the village and exiled. However, in cases where they were an infant unable to fend for themselves, the solution was simply to eliminate them.


    In the case of T¨²eth, she would be met with a great deal of hostility for hiding the fact that her daughters were grey elves. She would be seen as someone who endangered the entire village. However, as their mother, it would be seen as understandable. However, the master magus of the village, upon finding out, took them in and was raising them as his own all this time where she had abandoned them.


    This was clearly for no reason other than that amazing power possessed by one of her daughters. However, that was clearly not all. If he had just wanted the power that child had for himself, he would not have kept trying to drag T¨²eth back into their lives. He would have merely kept the girls secreted away and locked up for the rest of their lives, and he would have used what methods he could to keep T¨²eth herself silent. Instead, he had been pestering her regularly to come back to them.


    The master had said it himself. The power her daughter possesssed was a power so great that even the queen was likely to take notice. That power, that could call the attention of such an ancient and powerful existence as the queen, was upstairs right now. It was T¨²eth¡¯s own daughter. If she decided to come back to her daughters now, she would be able to stand in the same place as the royalty of all the fey races of the northern forrest. From that, anything could happen.


    In a way, this could be seen as the greatest of good fortune that had found its way into T¨²eth¡¯s lap. That is exactly what was the most frightening thing about it. She really did not deserve this kind of good fortune. She had desired the death of her daughters several times, an uncountable number of times. In the past six months, thoughts of how everything would be better if they were no longer living filled T¨²eth¡¯s head almost every day. Could a mother like that really ever be a part of their child¡¯s life again?


    She was only 73 years old. What could a mother who was not even a century old yet possibly offer her children? On top of that, they had the master caring for them as though he was their own father. There was surely nothing she could ever hope to offer that wouldn¡¯t be provided far better by him. He was also the one who had been right by their sides nearly since their birth. By all rights, he was certainly in the place to call himself their parent. Meanwhile, would they even know who she was?


    As these thoughts continued to swirl through T¨²eth¡¯s head, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she suddenly felt the warm pressure of a hand on her shoulder.


    ¡°Oh, sorry.¡± the calm and masculine voice of the master magus who had invited her into his house apologized and moved over to sit opposite her. She studied the man¡¯s face. She had heard he was now over a mellenium in age. This was well over twice the ammount of the typical elf¡¯s life span, and yet he looked like a man who was only a little past his prime. In fact, it could even be said he looked younger now than he had six months ago when he had first appeared in front of her to report on the condition of her daughters. This was the power of the magus that extended the life of everyone who practiced mage craft.


    T¨²eth sat in silence for some time, looking across at the master. Not a word was exchanged between the two of them. Finally, the silence was broken by a long and audible inhale and exhale by the master as he turned his sharp eyes filled with over 1,000 years of wisdom toward her. ¡°I would like to thank you for not leaving¡± he said. ¡°I know this must be hard for you.¡± T¨²eth involuntarily clenched her hands into fists. A simple phrase like that was nowhere near enough to describe the turmoil in her heart right now. Every elf knew to treat the magi with a great deal of respect. One elf¡¯s word could not possibly go against the will of a magi. However, hearing her sea of turbulent emotions summed up in such simple words somehow filled her with rage.


    It was all she could do to avoid shouting. To make matters worse, she did not even know why those words made her so angry. He was sympathising with her. Why did those words of kindness make her angry? She wanted to ask him, what did he even know? Even living as long as he had there is no way he could possibly understand what she is feeling right now!


    ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± T¨²eth said in a weak trembling voice. She tried her best to keep her irrational anger out of her voice, but there was still a definite tension in her tone. The master did not respond immediately. He just sat and stared at her, looking at her with eyes that seemed to be pulling appart her entire being and judging her. She felt incredibly weak under that gaze, and it was only her fear of and ingrained respect for the title of magus in this moment that prevented her from lashing out at him.


    T¨²eth looked up, only to see he was still silently staring at her. She realized, he was waiting for her to continue. What did he want from her? Isn¡¯t this where you usually try to pursuaid the irrational failure of a mother that she has to be there for their children and that crap!? Those girls didn¡¯t even need her! There was absolutely nothing she could offer! What in the hell did this ancient bastard know!?


    ¡°I... I don¡¯t deserve it.¡± T¨²eth finally found her words. This was the safest thing she could say, and it was also the thing closest to the core of what was tormenting her thoughts, the thing that all of these swirling emotions kept coming back to.


    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right.¡± He said, throwing a shock through T¨²eth¡¯s entire being. Had she just heard him right!? This outrageous comment. It was enough to make her almost forget she was sitting in front of a magus, and she immediately looked up to lock eyes with him. ¡°You¡¯re right, you don¡¯t deserve any of it.¡± He said again.


    ¡°What the hell did you call me here for then?¡± she asked in a poisonous tone, a tone that would leave anyone shocked to hear a mere elf girl in her 70s use with a master magus such as him.


    ¡°Would you like to tell me what it is you are feeling right now T¨²eth?¡± He asks. ¡°I know you are quite aware of the difference in our standings. So, tell me, I want to hear what made you take that tone with me just now.¡±


    ¡°I... I¡¯m sorry.¡± She bites back her anger and looks away from him.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t ask you for an apology, and I didn¡¯t want one. What I want to hear you tell me is the emotions you are feeling in your heart right now. I want to hear all of the things that are tormenting your soul and leading you to the thoughts you are having right now, the torment that is so great that it makes you forget the difference in our status to such an extent you are willing to disrespect a magus who is nearly an entire millenium older than you are.¡±


    ¡°I...¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, yell if you want to T¨²eth. Use whatever disrespectful words toward me you want to. You¡¯re probably not capable of telling me about it without yelling at me, so go ahead and yell if you want to. This entire house is protected by a silencing spell. There is nobody who is going to hear you yelling at and disrespecting a magus with all your words.¡±


    What was that!? Did she just hear that right!? How could a magus be asking her to do such a thing? And even if he said that, it¡¯s not that simple. She had slipped up a second ago, but there is no way she could possibly ever bring herself to do what he was asking her to do.


    ¡°I... I can¡¯t be their mother!¡±Having said that, she struggled for a moment, but there were no more words that came to her mind. It felt like there should be more to say, but nothing else came out and so she just left it at that, having said those words without backing them up with the reason behind them.


    The master looked at her and lowered his gaze. T¨²eth could see something like disappointment in his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s all you have to say?¡± He asks. T¨²eth knows that was nowhere near what it was that he wanted to hear, but she couldn¡¯t give him what he wanted. It just... wouldn¡¯t be appropriate. After she had hidden it from everybody for all this time, and it also was not an easy thing to come out to someone of this high a station with her personal worries either. That was really all that she could possibly say in this situation.


    The master let out a long sigh, casting his disappointed eyes down at the table. ¡°Well then, you don¡¯t have to be their mother.¡± He said. ¡°I¡¯m not even sure if I¡¯m going to need you for a babysitter anymore, at least not for a while. It turns out I can¡¯t leave that girl alone after all. If she¡¯s pulling stunts like what she just did up there, she needs someone who can keep her in line nearby until she learns to control her power. She learns scary fast, but it still might take years before she can be left on her own with someone else.¡±


    So, that was it then? He didn¡¯t need her anymore. Maybe he would come calling on her again in a few years when he needed her to watch the girls while he was off talking to the royals, but for now her role in her daughters¡¯ lives was done.


    ¡°I have something else I would like to offer instead.¡± The master says, causing T¨²eth¡¯s eyes to drift up to his face. Suddenly, his face seemed quite gentle. His eyes that seemed so serious a moment ago were now full of compassion and earnestness. For some reason, T¨²eth felt something, she felt hope at what he was going to say next. Where was this hope coming from? For some reason, while she was wanting to do nothing but run away from this whole situation a moment ago, after being told by him that he didn¡¯t need her to be the girls¡¯ mother, suddenly she felt like she would do whatever he wanted her to do if it meant that she might be able to somehow be back here in his house where her girls are. She didn¡¯t understand it. Where was this feeling coming from?


    ¡°T¨²eth,¡± he said, ¡°would you like to become my apprentice?¡±


    ¡°Uh?¡± She made some unintelligent response like that toward the master¡¯s words. She thought she had heard him correctly, but her brain just refused to believe what she had just heard. How could she be a mage¡¯s apprentice!? Her! T¨²eth! Just some young girl who had been toyed with by a dark elf, a worthless outsider who endangered the whole village by giving birth to grey elves and keeping it secret for six months! Someone who had used such cras language with a magus a few minutes ago and still had such disrespectful thoughts about him! She was a failure already who could not watch the girls for him, she had freaked out the moment she saw their faces! She had no family, no connections, she was now just a worthless leech feeding off the kindness of this village! And he wants her for an apprentice!?


    ¡°It¡¯s not just because of the girls.¡± He says. ¡°You were next to the heaven¡¯s fall when it happened, and I do not think there is a single person alive who was closer to the source of that energy than you when it was at its very highest. You may not realize it yet, but your entire spirit was aslo reshaped by that. I do not think there is a single mage alive who wouldn¡¯t have you for an apprentice.¡±


    After saying this, he stood up again and walked around to touch her on the shoulder, exactly the same way as he had when he first came down and surprised her. ¡°We can worry about the rough edges later. For now, I would like you to go home and sort out your thoughts. You can come here tomorrow and we will start your training. We will be staying down here on the first floor the entire time. Those children are surprisingly well behaved and usually keep to themselves up there, so it¡¯s very likely you won¡¯t even see them for the entire day unless you decide on your own to go upstairs where they are.¡±


    ¡°A... ahh...¡± T¨²eth gasped breathlessly. She was still having difficulty processing this whole thing. This was far more than she ever thought possible. Really!? A magus¡¯ apprentice? That means, she was going to become a magus herself! A magus! Her? Really!?


    There had to be something wrong with this here. She just couldn¡¯t accept that kind of good fortune could just fall in her lap. This kind of thing didn¡¯t simply just happen to someone like her! How could a worthless girl like her be given this kind of opportunity!?


    ¡°It¡¯s Ok, I don¡¯t need you to answer me right now. I already said I want you to think about it. Just, go home right now. I don¡¯t think you are in any condition to think properly.¡±


    ¡°Y... yeah.¡± T¨²eth gasped. She stood up on shaky legs, and then made her way over to the entry way for the house. The master caused the door to open with a mere prolonged glance toward the wall, he didn¡¯t even touch the wall to open it, a testimate to his control over the mana running through his body, and how attuned he was to the green word. ¡°Well...¡± She said, looking back at him. ¡°Th... thank you.¡± That was all she was able to say. She was still very haunted and shaken by the outrageous offer he had made, and her mind still hadn¡¯t caught up with it yet. After she left his house, she walked in a daze until the moment she had arrived at her own home.


    Author''s note


    Yes, this chapter picks up immediately where things left off before the intermission. The transition between acts did not involve any real time-skip at all, it''s just that this chapter fits more thematically with this act than the previous one.


    Also, I''ve made a correction to chapter 19. Previously, T¨²eth had referred to Rolwen and Levin as "boy" or "human boy." I changed this to "child" and "human child," removing the reference to their gender. I have said before that language is something that I give a fair amount of importance in my writing, this relates to that.


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Since Subscribe Star is not supported on this site, you will have to copy-paste the link below into your address bar. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.


    https://www.subscribestar.com/jemini-s-stories

 Chapter 21: Second apprentice?

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    After he finished showing T¨²eth off, Eirlathion stood in his place for a long time as he processed several complex emotions that he was having to process. He had made the best of the situation as it was, but to compare where he is now to where he was hoping to be he could call this entire day a complete failure. Well, ultimately a failure is what you make of it.


    Looking at it from another perspective, he had exposed two problems he was previously unaware of and he had made progress on both of them. In fact, with how much harder T¨²eth was taking things compared to what he was expecting, it really is just as well that he has to teach Aerien to control her energies now. T¨²eth was not ready to be left alone with the girls, and Aerien could not be left alone with anyone at this point. So, delaying his trip is inevitable under these circumstances.


    Still, this was not good. The longer he waited, the more chance there was for something to go wrong. Well, he would just have to make do with what he¡¯s got. He had T¨²eth¡¯s situation dealt with for now. She was going home and wouldn¡¯t be back until tomorrow. So, now it was time to go and start working on Aerien. Hopefully, she¡¯s calmed down by now and he can start trying to at least teach her not to do whatever it was she was doing again. It would be best to go at it early while she still remembers whatever it was.


    There was one problem with this. He had learned from experience that these kids held a grudge much longer than he had heard would normally be typical of a child their age, one of the downsides of the unusual intelligence they had it would seem. This would be a great asset for them once they had matured a little, but as children their unusually long memory was a hinderance to his working with them.


    There was no time to dawdle though. He was already set back by the difficulties coming from Aerien and T¨²eth. Delaying the rate at which he addressed them would just make the matter worse.


    Resigning himself, Eirlathion went upstairs to rejoin the children. Four sets of eyes all turned to him at once when he got up there. Thankfully, it looked like Aerien had stopped crying. He let out a sigh and lowered himself to the floor.


    ¡°Levin, can you bring Aerien over here?¡± He asks. Levin¡¯s reaction to this is to turn his head and look down at Aerien with a questioning expression. He sees Aerien give a nod before he starts to make his way over. Eirlathion can¡¯t help but have a self-depreciating smile flash across his face as he begins to shake his head. It seems like her intelligence is already so far along that somehow she¡¯s  managed to get the boy trained to look to her for permission to respond to something like this.


    Well, that actually works out better for him. He was afraid she may still be upset at him. Things would be more difficult if she was. However, since she did give Levin her permission it means that she should be fine.


    Levin has to put Aerien down in order to stand to his feet, but then immediately afterward he bends down at the knees and scoops her up. Eirlathion can¡¯t help the odd feeling that there¡¯s something wrong with the way that Levin just moved, but he really can¡¯t place it. He wonders about this for a moment as the human who is the size of a mere 6 year old elven toddler struggles to carry the two season old infant. However, he loses his ability to process this thought when a smile flashes across Aerien¡¯s face. Her smile there, somehow seemed it seemed to look satisfied, or maybe the better word would be ¡°approving¡± of the current situation. With this other strange incongruity, his thoughts are disrupted enough that he has made zero headway in figuring out what was bothering him about the way Levin picked up Aerien when he reverses the process in order to put her back down.


    Levin finishes by pulling Aerien into his lap, a process which she helps out with by pressing off the floor with her feet and adjusting herself comfortably in his arms. Well then, time to just engage them and see what happens.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I yelled at you earlier Aerien.¡± He said in a gentle tone. While it was not exactly unusual to apologize to a baby for upsetting them and making them cry, the more formal tone he was taking with her as well as doing it this far after the fact were both definitely things you would think were more appropriate to a child who was at least a little older. However, he was not going to underestimate her as anything like a normal baby after the incident a few days ago where she actually went out of her way to confront him in his dinning room about hiding the truth of their heritage from them.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I just got scared when I saw you pretending to be sick like that. Do you forgive me?¡±


    Aerien gets a thoughtful expression on her face for a moment, and then responds ¡°whad porgiv-me?¡±(What does ¡°forgive me¡±(aspene-amin) mean?)


    A silent chuckle shakes Eirlathion¡¯s body and a smile creeps onto his face again. ¡°forgive me means that you are not angry at me anymore.¡±


    (Hmm... yeah, I forgive me (aspene-amin.) I mean! Errr... forgive you (aspene-ile)) Eirlathion simply couldn¡¯t contain his chuckle at this one. This child¡¯s rate of growth, at least in the mental department, was quite startling. However, she was clearly still a child and just learning how to talk, and there were several aspects of that which were adorable even if they were coming about a little fast.


    ¡°Really? Well, I¡¯m glad. I actually wanted to teach you something. You know how I turn that wall over there into stairs to my room? Do you want to learn how to turn the wall into stairs too?¡±


    (Huh!?) She responds, looking rather stunned. Levin and, in the corner of his eye, Rolwen and even her sister Gaerien, all look a little surprised as well. As for Aerien, that surprise seems to quickly be replaced by a panicked look. (Ah! Umm... Ok!) She says.


    He smiles. The green word is the first magic any elven children are usually taught. It is one of the natural spells that they control, not even requiring them to form any spell vessels in order to use it. A child is simply not ready to begin cultivating spirit energy in order to form it into a spell vessel, but they can still use the natural magic of the elves and practice their control over their mana. Well, that only applies to normal children.


    It would not surprise him at all if Aerien was able to figure out how to cultivate at her age. It would likely take a few painstaking lessons of him carefully explaining it to her over and over again, but he was pretty sure she could learn. The whole process for spellcasting with this method was a lot more involved though. Even if she was bright enough to figure it out, it would still be better and involve a lot less of a headache to teach her in the normal order. But first, he had to get down to business about something.


    ¡°Alright, but, before we begin I need to ask you a question.¡±He said with a heavy look on his face. ¡°Just what was it that you did when you were pretending to be sick?¡±


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I was filled with some complicated emotions when I had looked up at my mother a short time ago. My eyes were really full of tears at the time. I had only become a little bit upset from being yelled at, it shouldn¡¯t have been enough to make me cry, but it was one of the frustrations of this baby body. My brain had simply not developed the faculties yet to restrain myself on this, and only becoming slightly upset sent me immediately into tears. Despite my more mature mind, I was simply unable to control it.


    Because of this, I was not able to make out her exact features very well. I felt bad. This was the first time I had ever actually seen my mom in this world since I was practically blind when I was born. And, thanks to these tears, it was really little better than it would have been back then. Her form was nothing but a glistening blurry outline. And, before those tears could clear up, she stood up like a shot and ran straight down stairs.


    After that, Ether guy who still seemed to be agitated from the apparent scare I had given him by feigning illness a little too well, slapped his hand on the wall and revealed the stairs to his room and then retreated up there. Normally, he would return the stairs to the way they were before after going up. This time, however, he kept the stairs open. It seemed he was agitated and wanted to calm himself down, but if I had to guess at his reasons for keeping the stairs open I would say he was spooked enough that he was doing the responsible thing and keeping an ear out for anything that might go wrong.


    After a few minutes, he slowly descended the stairs, looking a lot more composed. He only just barely paid us a glanced to check that we, or more to the point, I, had not done anything else worth concern. After confirming that we were all fine, he continued on to go down to the first floor without saying a single word.


    Soon enough, we were able to hear voices coming from downstairs. It seemed like he was consoling mine and Gaerien¡¯s mother. She seemed rather upset from seeing us. I¡¯m not certain how a normal baby would react to this. Most likely, a normal baby wouldn¡¯t even care. She would be nothing but a stranger to a normal baby in the same situation Gaerien and I were in.


    In my case, since I had my memories from my previous life, my baby self was actually pretty hurt by this. My adult self knew her reasons and felt sympathetic. Actually, my baby self knew all that as well. We share the same information after all. It¡¯s just that she wasn¡¯t quite as mature mentally as my past life self was, and she couldn¡¯t help but take it personally.


    Fortunately however, the double shock of scaring Ether guy so bad he yelled at me and me getting upset over my mother getting scared and running away from me somehow managed to cancel each other out a little. With both emotional events happening one after another, it left my mind in something of a jumble. And then, trying to sort this out, it allowed the old man to address the problem simply by re-asserting a calming meditation. It was an improper meditation that had started this whole thing anyway, so re-asserting a proper calming meditation was really what I had to do anyway.


    Things seemed to start calming down from there. I had excellent hearing now, so I was able to perfectly make out what the two of them were saying. This was the first I heard about this talk about Ether guy being a magus. I had already figured out he did a lot of things related to magic, and from what I saw upstairs in his room I knew it was not just a casual thing. So, hearing this was really more just a point of consolodating a lot of things I already knew.


    The surprising part was the way the two of them were talking in regards to the subject. It was quite clear from what I heard that there was some kind of caste system in this world, and mages were clearly very high up on it while our mother seemed to be pretty low in the social order. Considering that, some of the more rough things Ether guy seemed to say were explainable. He seemed to be really trying his best. I could guess a little at where he meant to go with the ¡°you¡¯re right, you don¡¯t deserve it¡± comment at the beginning there, but unfortunately the conversation did not go in a direction that would allow him to follow up on what could have otherwise likely turned out to be a movie drama worthy touching scene.


    Well, real life really does rarely work out that way. At least my mother didn¡¯t seem to dwell on it too much. Although, it was really hard to tell exactly what WAS going through her mind given how closed off she was being, and how Ether guy¡¯s somewhat forceful attempts at getting her to come out of her shell were failing miserably. In the end, all his efforts just seemed to be cut off with a response that I, as the old man of my past life, had somewhat expected. But, still, that didn¡¯t stop my self as 6 month old Aerien from feeling a little hurt by it.


    In the end, it seemed he somehow managed to convince her to come back later by actually offering to make her his apprentice. However, I also heard a very interesting term during all of this. ¡°Heaven¡¯s fall.¡± Something about that term gave me a very uncomfortable feeling. It was definitely the name of some kind of event that happened, and with a name like that it was clearly a huge event. However, the most upsetting part about hearing that term was definitely that I couldn¡¯t come up with any good way to start asking about it in order to get more information.


    I was still rolling this term, ¡°Heaven¡¯s fall,¡± around in my mind when Ether guy came back up. He seemed to have a rather serious expression on his face and took a seat on the floor, and then asked Levin to bring me over to him. Levin performed excellently, bending at the knees in order to not strain his back as he was picking me up. This was not a thing a normal 2 year old toddler would do, but despite the risk doing this in front of Ether guy posed, I couldn¡¯t help but appreciate the kid for this.


    I settled myself into Levin¡¯s lap after he had brought me over to Ether guy. Considering that he only asked to have me brought over and wasn¡¯t including Gaerien, I could guess that he probably wanted to talk about the thing he just saw when I had screwed up my meditation. Before that though, he asked if I was still mad at him. He had used an Elven word I had never heard before. I could probably derive the meaning from the context. In fact, I had a pretty reasonable suspicion of what it meant already, but I quickly decided that it would be best for the cover we were still keeping up if I were to just do what a normal baby would do when hearing a new word for the first time and ask him what it meant.


    After we got through that, the next thing he said really surprised me because it completely defied my expectations as to where this conversation was going. He asked me if I wanted to learn how to do the magic that revealed the stairs to his room. In a slight panic I managed to put my thoughts together, and then I immediately gave the obvious answer. Of course, if he was offering to teach me a new skill like that which would probably be pretty essential in this world then I was going to be quite willing to learn it.


    He seemed pretty satisfied with my answer, but his face quickly went back to being serious. Here it comes then. [Alright, but, before we begin I need to ask you a question.] He said. [Just what was it that you did when you were pretending to be sick?]


    Yep, there it is. This is the question I had been dreading. I couldn¡¯t just answer with something about disrupting my meditation. There was absolutely no way I could justify a 6 month old knowing about meditation, but I was having a hard time coming up with a reason inside of my cover to avoid answering.


    Well, here it goes. ([I don¡¯t know! I.. I just wanted to do what you said and make myself look sick!]) I said, my voice going a little higher than I had meant it to as I could feel my body threatening to start crying again. ([I¡¯m sorry,]) I pouted. Well, that was actually a more believable performance than I had thought. For once the ease with which this body starts to cry seemed to be working in my favor. Well then, hopefully that worked and he won¡¯t press the issue further.


    [Well... Ok then. How about we forget about doing that for now? I¡¯ll deal with it if someone else comes into the house, you go ahead and try to be your normal self. Don¡¯t try to pretend to be sick again.]


    ¡°Mmm..¡± I croak out a sound of acknowledgement. This turned out well. It seemed like he wasn¡¯t going to press it. However, it was a little upsetting that my whole idea had backfired like that. I had hoped that he would allow us more freedom if we could fake being sick well, but it seemed that was likely not going to happen now. I was going to have to apologize to Levin and Rowen later.


    Suddenly, Ether guy had a surprised expression on his face and he was looking over his shoulder in the direction of the stairs. That surprised expression very quickly turned dark and serious. [Well, it looks like someone is at the door.] He said. [It is not your mother this time, so I need you to all stay up here and be quiet. But, remember what I said Aerien. Don¡¯t do what you did before again.]


    Author''s note


    Got this one out a little bit later in the day than usual. I had a lot of distractions with Easter yesterday, and didn''t manage to write. I had to fill my obligations to the subscribers before releasing this.


    Anyway, things are starting to calm down now. It would be a bit of a mess to keep tensions as high as they were for the last two main-series chapters. There will be a lot of expanding outward beyond the immediate vicinity of the twins in this act as well, so expect to see a lot more of the situation into the village and other things going on around them from now on.


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Since Subscribe Star is not supported on this site, you will have to copy-paste the link below into your address bar. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.


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 Chapter 22: Elder’s concerns

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Just as he was in the middle of talking with Aerien, trying to get her sorted out, someone just had to come to the door. This was truly not a good time for this at all. Well, Aerien seems to listen well enough, but Eirlathion still felt like he couldn¡¯t quite be certain what she was going to do. As for what to do with the individual at the door, he really didn¡¯t have a lot of choice.


    He went down the stairs, and quickly opened the door just as he was reaching the entryway, not wanting to give the individual in question much chance to intrude very far into his house. Well, it was not likely that anyone would intrude upon his house without an invitation anyway, that was a privilage of being a high rank magus. Well, he was technically even higher in rank now, he just hadn¡¯t fully prepared his new spell vessels yet. But still, an elf who is sensitive to spirit energy ought to be able to clearly sense the change in him.


    Sure enough, as he approached the white-haired wrinkled elven man at his door, the man immediately recoiled in surprise.


    ¡°Master!¡± His gruffled voice came out. ¡°You have managed to form a spell of the next rank!? That is¡­ that would make you a ninth level at this point, would it not!?¡±


    ¡°Elder Calenor,¡± Eirlathion greeted the leader and second oldest elf in the village after himself. That being the case, the title of ¡°elder¡± did not actually refer to the oldest, but to the one chosen as leader of the village. A role which Eirlathion, as a magus, was not expected to take up himself. A magi¡¯s time was considered to be too important for him to be bothered with the day to day runnings of a village. As such, while Eirlathion was held in high respects and his world carried a lot of weight, he held no actual position of leadership in the village. The true leader of the village was the man standing right in front of him. The actual relationship between the elder and the strongest magus of a village was a rather uncertain one. For the most part though, it was assumed that neither had the ability to command the other and both were expected to treat one another with respect. ¡°Yes, indeed. I suppose it is one of the benefits of being near those children. The humans with them truly do put out an amazing amount of spirit energy. Of course, I am not shorting any to the girls, but what manages to drift up to the next floor is more than enough to have aided me quite a bit.¡±


    ¡°I am certain this is not what you have come here to talk about though. What brings you here elder?¡± Eirlathion asked.


    ¡°Yes, I just saw the young T¨²eth coming from your house. She did not look well. Are her daughters unwell?¡±


    ¡°Hmm... well, you know they have always been doing poorly elder. I had finally convinced T¨²eth to come and see her daughters, and then while she was here one of them had a rather severe attack. I was quite frightened by it myself. I can only imagine how hard it must have been on her.¡±


    The elder made a rather unpleasant face at this information. ¡°I see, the poor girl.¡± He said. ¡°They are truely in bad shape then? I certainly wish that there was more that we could do for her.¡±


    ¡°I can understand the sentiment.¡± Eirlathion said. ¡°I am doing the best that I am able to do with her daughters. As for her, I have asked her to come again tomorrow. I would like for her to be around more frequently if possible.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... is it really bad?¡± The elder asks, his face heavy with a knowing look. It seemed he was making some assumptions already in terms of Eirlathion¡¯s meaning behind trying to get T¨²eth to come more frequently.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think their lives are in immediate danger,¡± Eirlathion decided to continue choosing words that would fit in with his misperception. ¡°However, I feel at this time that we would likely be best off if those entering this house were limited to myself and the girls¡¯ mother. Any additional people could easily create unwelcome complications.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... well, I am hoping for the best. We would not want to lose the one good to come about from the tragedy of her village.¡± the elder said. ¡°I will be sure to make it clear no-one is to disturb you at your home without my permission, and I will only grant that if there is extreme due cause. It would be good if you could dedicate your full efforts toward those girls for now.¡± He nodded solemly at this. ¡°Would you like for me to talk to T¨²eth?¡±


    ¡°You had best not,¡± Eirlathion said. ¡°I think it might make things difficult if someone who does not know the full details of the situation were to clumsily begin offering their advice. I have learned this from talking to her before. She is already in a sensitive state from the tragedy. She has a great deal of difficulty trusting people now. An insensitive attempt by someone unfamiliar with her situation could cause her to shut down and undo what progress I have made with her.¡±


    ¡°Hm. In that case, I suppose I will leave you to get back to your work. Just let me know if there is anything you need.¡±


    With those words, the elder gave Eirlathion the slightest of bows, really just a nod of the head with a slight bit of chest movement to it, and proceded to leave. Eirlathion, as he watched the respected elder walk away from his house, kept as neutral an expression on his face as he could in order not to reveal the nature of the concerns he had. Elves valued children greately beings they were born so infrequently to their people, so it was only a matter of course that the elder himself would take a great interest when he was aware that a child was sick. However, in this situation, this also creates a great problem for him. It would also be this very elder who, if he discovered the girls were grey elves, would be forced to decide upon the life or death of those girls.


    Eirlathion trusted Calenor. He had worked with the man for the centuries and had seen him growing up. He was a wise and gentle man who was concerned with the wellbeing of everyone in the village. In a way, it was literally the job of the elder to be so concerned with the daily lives of each and every person who lived here. This is why the job of elder was given to him. As it had become clear Calenor was destined for this position, Eirlathion had even been asked to help train the young man he was then in some levels of magecraft in order to extend his lifespan, thus how Calenor was still alive now at the age of nearly 800.


    Eirlathion knew that were Calenor to find out about the girls, he would keep their secret. However, if it got out to the rest of the village after that¡­ he would likely attempt to reason with them, but unless he could get everyone on board with taking the risk to the village of keeping grey elves alive here, he would have no choice but to declair them to be killed.


    Between letting Calenor know or not letting him know, Eirlathion had decided that it would probably be more beneficial to go with the latter option. That way, at the very least, if it was suddenly brought to him by another member of the village he would be left in a state of indecision for a while before making any judgement at all. In fact, it likely raised the chances he would attempt to protect the girls. He would be more likely to pass a judgement unfavorable to the girls if he felt the weight of hiding such a dangerous secret for some time. If he did not have to deal with that, he would be more likely to advocate for the girls more strongly later on when the truth was eventually brought to light.


    All of that said, there was another thing to consider. It was very likely Calenor already had his suspicions. There was something about the way he asked his questions. No, it wasn¡¯t that. It was the questions he didn¡¯t ask and the lack of suspicion or concern where it should have been. However, he had not pressed the issue and had agreed to the explanations Eirlathion offered rather easily. It was like he wanted to believe them and had come to Eirlathion wanting an excuse for him to no longer have to think about this subject. A convenient excuse and plausible deniability. ¡°The master magus who is caring for the girls had said as such, therefore there is nothing to be concerned about.¡±


    After Eirlathion had waited a reasonable amount of time watching his guest leave for the sake of posterity, he turned back in and closed the door behind him. It was good that Calenor seemed to be on his side in this. So long as he did not break the elder¡¯s plausible deniability, he would set conditions so that no-one else could easily find out.


    But still, it was not hard to do the math between the attack on T¨²eth¡¯s village and the birth of the girls, and it did not take a wise man to have your suspicions raised when noticing the girls¡¯ grey skin. The alternate explanation of the illness would normally not be enough to protect them. There have been other mothers of grey elves before in the past who have attempted to claim as such. The only reason it seemed to be accepted here was that it was not the girls¡¯ mother, but a magus in his position who was making the claim this time. Even so, there had to be several in the village who found it suspicious.


    He really would have to push his efforts with Aerien. A more delicate touch would be needed with T¨²eth, but Aerien ought to be more robust in terms of her spirit. He would be certain to work with her as often as he was able to in order to teach her to be responsible while manipulating her energies and avoid damaging herself as she had before.


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I strained my ears to listen as Ether guy handled the person who had come to the door, apparently an elder of the village. My primary concern was whether or not he could really handle it. I wanted to hear how he would handle this. If he couldn¡¯t, I might have to play sick again. He had just told me not to, but the impression I got from how he talked to me about it told me the risk to Gaerien and I if our identity as grey elves was found out would be far greater than whatever risk Ether guy had gotten the impression of from what I had done earlier.


    Ether guy wound up using the excuse that I had had a sort of ¡°attack¡± earlier. That made things really convenient. If the lie was that we were ill and apparently I had some ¡°attacks¡± due to my illness, it would be an easy matter to suddenly have another one of these attacks. Having heard Ether guy talk to my mother before, I knew he was bright enough. If I suddenly had another incident like that, his first action would likely be to immediately chase the guy out with what was happening to me as an excuse. He would be pretty mad at me when he came back up afterward, but dealing with his anger was better than a threat to my life.


    Well, from his reaction, he seemed to be under the impression what I had done also risked my life somehow. I wasn¡¯t too clear on the details behind this. I did not feel like it was as big a deal as he made out of it, but it¡¯s possible I was missing something.


    In the end, it turned out I did not actually have to do anything. I was quite impressed with Ether guy¡¯s performance too. Every single word he said in the entire exchange was actually the truth, and he had expertly manipulated the direction of the conversation to where it would actually take a derailing of the entire conversation in order for Ether guy to even try to volunteer the information that he didn¡¯t want revealed in the first place.


    Well, it didn¡¯t seem like the other guy¡¯s suspicions were all that high, so it was not exactly a challenging person to deal with. However, suspicions were a creature that seemed small until they were suddenly very big and unmanagable, and the moment that line was crossed and how close people were coming to it was the least visible to the person the suspicions were about. Even a bystander completely uninterested in the situation could see better how close the suspected person¡¯s cover was to being blown than the person themselves. As such, it was best at every moment to keep suspicions as close to zero as possible.


    When Ether guy came back up, he had a very stony expression. He must be tired having dealt with two mentally taxing situations in a row. Well, actually three if you count the fright I had apparently given him. When he saw us, he did his best to put on a smiling face, but I could still see the exhaustion under it.


    [Well then, sorry about that Aerien. Shall we begin now?]


    ¡°No!¡± I respond in English.


    ¡°Haha! ¡®No,¡¯ eh? n''uma naa i'' beth tanya naa e'' sen lammen an?¡±(Haha! ¡®No,¡¯ eh? That means no in their lanugage, right?) He had an amused look on his face as he came closer to me and Levin, who was also looking at me in confusion, and then knelt down very close to us. [What do you mean, ¡®no,¡¯ Aerien, eh?] Looks like he doesn¡¯t think I actually meant what I said at all. Going by the confused expressions of Levin, Rolwen, and Gaerien though, they all definitely know I meant what I said.


    [Ether need sleep!] I say, using the best broken elven I can muster to get my intentions across. I would have liked to just say later after he¡¯s had a rest, but this is the best I can come up with for now with the same meaning.


    [Oh!] He responds in shock. [Sorry, are you saying you are sleepy Aerien? I¡¯m sorry, I forgot you need a lot of sleep at your age.] No, he¡¯s gotten it all wrong! Well, this works too I suppose. However, I don¡¯t sleep anymore! I guess it¡¯s a good thing he hasn¡¯t been constantly attentive around us all that much, otherwise he might know about this and have been a bit more troublesome.


    [Well then, Levin, can you help put her to bed? I guess this must have been a little bit of an exhausting experience for her.] I stare at him somewhat judgementally as he stands up and starts moving toward the stairs. You¡¯re really asking a 2 year old to do it!? Well, that¡¯s actually normal for us though, it¡¯s always the four of us together when we sleep and until now he was avoiding us so he had nothing to do with tucking us in or anything of the sort. [Can you tell me when she wakes up, Levin? This is actually pretty important now, so I would like to start working with her as soon as I can.]


    ¡°Uhh...¡± Levin weakly nods with me in his arms. This seems to satisfy Ether guy enough, and he goes down the stairs.


    ¡°Whad now?¡± He asks in a hushed whisper.


    (Just say wait a few hours and say I was asleep.) I told him. The three of them all knew about my peculiar condition where sleep was concerned. So, of course he was curious. (Or, maybe you can sleep. You and Rowen were doing a neural exer... err... thing earlier, that should take a lot out of you. You should rest.)


    (Ok, yeah. I am pretty tired.) Levin responds. (Anyway, are you Ok Aerien?)


    ¡°Uhh?¡±


    (Your mommy before...)


    (I¡¯m fine!) I tell him, angry at my baby body once again for being completely incapable of hiding my emotions. That came out a lot louder and grumpier than I wanted it to sound, and I could feel my face contorting into an unpleasant expression.


    (Ehh..)


    (Don¡¯t! I¡¯ll be Ok. It¡¯s just my baby self is upset.) I assure him. This is a concept only other reincarnated individuals like them could possibly understand. In this situation, it makes my very intensely greatful to have Levin by my side. It really would be troublesome to have to explain this to anyone not in the same situation as me. I doubt they could even understand from the beginning, having two selves that were parts of a whole, affecting one another¡¯s emotions and having different maturity levels. True, my past-life self was causing my baby self to be a lot more mature than it¡¯s actual age, my baby self was probably equal to a 4 year old, but that just made it even more of a handful to deal with since that maturity age gave it a lot of personality and things it could form very strong opinions about.


    (Aerien... maybe you should sleep too. You say you don¡¯t need to, but you still can, right?) Well, not really. However, I can close my eyes and lay still and find it plenty restful. And, he might be right. That would probably be just what I need to calm my baby self down.


    I agreed, and with that settled out, the four of us climbed into bed as we always do, and even Gaerien seemed quite happy to be getting some sleep. I had been working her pretty hard physically today too after all, she was also quite tired. And, with that, we all fell asleep, or at least the closest thing to it in my own case.


    Author''s note


    It will not be immediate, but I am considering dropping the frequency of releases sometime in the near future. I have been doing my midterms which have been eating up most of my free time so I had to rush these chapters during whatever time I had. As a result, for this chapter and the chapter before it, I could sense a noticeable drop in quality in a few places. I feel I was still able to relay all the ideas that were in my head still, but I really do feel the presentation could have been better. I may have to post revised versions of both chapters sometime in the future.


    Midterms are finished now, and the advance chapter I just completed shows the extra time I have now really made all the difference as it is back up to my usual standards of quality. So, next chapter will return to my usual form. However, this experience showed me that I really can''t keep up the pace I have set for myself here and the manner in which the quality of these two chapters suffered as a result really shows the need for me to be a bit more flexible with the release schedule.


    Because of this, I plan to keep up the current pace until the end of the second act. Once act 2 is complete, I will be taking a bit of a break from this series. I will be thinking about what is a reasonable schedule at that time. I will also likely take a break during my second midterms in three weeks in order to avoid another drop in quality like this.


    As for this chapter, I know you are your own biggest critic, so I''m not entirely certain how many other people noticed the drop in quality, but I hope it was not too disruptive. I definitely still mean to revise them whenever I get the chance just as a point of pride. And also, I''m sorry to anyone who actually did notice and was bothered by the drop in quality. This will not become an ongoing thing.


    Author''s note


    Update: 17/6/19


    I have to apologize for this chapter, I wrote it immediately after my 1st midterms and it isn''t quite up to my usual standard. I am planning a soft re-write of the entire series at some point as soon as I can get a few buffer chapters written, and this chapter is slated for the biggest overhaul of the bunch.


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 Chapter 23: Can’t even come clean

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    The sleep did me some good. Well, again, I didn¡¯t really sleep. Although, the shut-eye was certainly good enough. It gave me some time to order my thoughts and calm myself down. I understood what it was Aerien¡¯s mother was going through, so I could not blame her at all. However, I was being influenced rather strongly by the thoughts of my new body. I had never seen my mother before, but because of the memories from my past life I knew what a mother was and how they were supposed to be.


    A part of me had certainly hoped I could form a connection with her. However, it looked like that was going to be pretty difficult. It was more comfortable right now to be the old man I was in my previous life, to allow my baby self to retreat into the inner reaches of my mind and hide. However, even when I tried to do that, even when the one in control was supposedly the one who was older and supposed to be more understanding of these things, I still couldn¡¯t help but feel a little depressed about the whole thing.


    I couldn¡¯t help the thought that this was more of my baby self affecting my old-man mind. It seemed we really were affecting each other, bringing one another closer and closer together. My baby self was supposedly only 6 months old. However, her maturity level really seemed far closer to that of an older toddler at the youngest. There was absolutely no doubt the exposure and connection to my past-life consciousness had caused her to mature far faster than she would have naturally.


    Meanwhile, her mind and emotion kept affecting me as well, and I felt like I was identifying more and more as this six month old girl, and I also found myself becoming less patient lately as well. Some day, as we continued to become more and more like each other, would our two consciousnesses merge into one? For certain we were going to become less and less distinct from one another at the rate we were going.


    I suppose at the rate we¡¯re going now, I would give it maybe another five to ten years before we are no longer the old man and Aerien. Instead we will be two indistinct consciousnesses, both of which fully identify as Aerien and are somewhere between the two in terms of personality. Really, already I seem to no longer consider my former name important in the least. I have long since cast it away. I feel like I remembered it at some point, but right now I know myself only as Aerien, even rignt now as my baby self has curled up into a back corner of my mind.


    As I am sitting upright, staring off into the center of the room, I hear Levin beginning to stir. He sits up and looks at me, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I guess it has been somewhere around two to three hours since they went to sleep.


    ¡°Hey Awrien, feelwing better?¡± He says in his cute little voice that also has the maturity uncharacteristic for his physical age hidden behind it, a reminder that I¡¯m far from alone in my situation.


    I nod my head in response to him without meeting his eyes. ¡°Thh..e bbaby is asweep.¡± I tell him, but from the look he¡¯s giving me out the corner of my eye I can tell he must have picked up something of my emotions from my tone or something.


    He has a difficult expression for a moment, and then pulls himself out from under the covers and crawls his way over to me and then holds me as he always has since he was given the duty of feeding me his energy after I had just been born. This is a duty he no longer needs to serve since it is pretty much open about me not only not being sick but also plenty capable of producing my own energy, but the subject of stopping has not even come up once. He still continues to hold onto me like a child with their security animal, the only exceptions being when he is asleep or when I have given him some kind of development exercise to do.


    He pulls me into his lap and rests his chin on my head, but he seems to be having some kind of difficult thoughts. Normally he would just either drag me down to the bed to cuddle, or hop to his feet and carry me across the room. However, now, he just pulled me to his chest and sat like that, letting out a long slow breath.


    (You know what Aerien? I know you¡¯re the oldest of us on Earth, but you¡¯re the youngest here. You can cry or something if you¡¯re sad you know?) I feel his words resonating through his chest as my body is held against his, and I hear his vocal cords vibrating through my skull as my head is pressed against his neck. I would really prefer he not talk when I¡¯m held up against him like that.


    (Actually, Gaerien¡¯s the oldest.) I correct him while pulling away, at least enough to get my head away from his neck.


    (Really? How old is¡­ err¡­ was she anyway?)


    Hmm¡­ how to answer that one? Come to think of it, we never actually told the boys about her being a goddess before. There¡¯s no way he could easily believe she was tens of thousands of years old.


    ¡°Mmm-mm.¡± I make an ¡®I don¡¯t know¡¯ style grunt, passing it off as I just heard she was old but didn¡¯t know how old sorta thing. Well, it is kinda true. All I knew for sure was that she pre-dated Earth¡¯s 6,000 year written history, which apparently started several hundred years after the barrier had been put in place.


    (Also, I do cry. I can¡¯t help it, my baby self cries any time she gets even a little upset.) Of course, her prefrontal cortex had not developed yet, so this body had absolutely no impulse control. That lack of impulse control was enough even to allow this physical body¡¯s desires to completely overwhelm my previous life mind even when it was in complete control.


    (That¡¯s not what I meant, err¡­ is that the same? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the same thing.) He has a troubled and unsure look on his face as he tries to figure out whether or not he messed up the point he was trying to make.


    (No, you¡¯re right. They are different, I know what you meant.) I told him. (Yeah, I know, I¡¯ve thought about that stuff before. I can¡¯t really sleep anymore, so I think about stuff like that a lot.)


    Levin strokes my back. I can tell what he¡¯s up to, he wants to be helpful. I can really see his thoughts written all over his disappointed face. He wanted to try and play big brother and offer me some kind of advice. It must be eating him up that it seemed like he couldn¡¯t really offer anything. Perhaps I should have dumbed myself down and just let him feel like he has comforted me or something. No, that would just be patronizing though. That would be disrespectful. Well, I¡¯ll find some way to make it up to him somehow.


    (Well, should I go get Ether guy?) He asks. Before I can respond, he¡¯s jumping out of the bed and carrying me across to the stairs. He¡¯s not really able to descend the stairs all that stably while also carrying me, so he leaves me at the top of the stairs and then begins going down the stairs by himself backward, keeping hands on the upper stair in order to keep his feet on the lower stair from slipping.


    [Oh, Levin. Is Aerien awake?] I hear the steady male adult voice speaking the Elven language coming from downstairs. It¡¯s strange, but somehow I¡¯ve started to feel very safe when I hear that voice. It somehow manages to comfort the disturbed emotions I was starting to feel since what happened earlier today.


    ¡°Yeah¡­ umm¡­ uma!¡± Levin responds first in English and then corrects himself to Elvin.


    [Haha! Ok, well. I guess we are ready to begin then.] He says. He definitely seems a lot better than he was before now. The rest seems to also have done him a lot of good. He picks up Levin off the stairs as he comes up, and then casts a glance back over to the bed where Rolwen and Gaerien are still asleep. He has a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before he puts Levin down next to me and then scoops us both up in his arms at once and carries us downstairs.


    He goes over to the table, and, when I think he¡¯s going to put us both down onto the same chair, instead he picks me up again as soon as Levin¡¯s feet hit the chair, and Levin has a bit of a distressed look on his face as he reaches for me as I¡¯m scooped up and away from him. I, meanwhile, find myself looking rapidly between Levin and Ether guy trying to figure out what to make of this situation.


    Ether guy doesn¡¯t take me far though. He just goes over to the next seat over, actually pulling it up within arm¡¯s reach of Levin, and then he stands me up in his lap and makes careful sure I¡¯m able to balance with my hands on the table. It¡¯s actually pretty hard. I have had some practice balancing on the level ground, but balancing on top of an adult¡¯s thighs, which are uneven and fairly squishy, is a different matter all together. Ultimately, despite his best efforts, I wind up slipping and falling into his chest before I slide down into his lap every time he lets go of me.


    Eventually, he seems to get the idea that this is simply not going to work and just uses one arm to hold me to his chest while he reaches out with the other arm to grab something further away on the table. What he pulls over, what I had earlier dismissed as something there just for decoration, was a small wooden cup filled with soil. Or, rather, perhaps it was the elves¡¯ idea of a flower pot?


    On top of the soil inside of the wooden vessel was a small nut of some kind. As soon as Ether guy moved the whole ensemble in front of me, he used one finger to shift the nut about and make it stand up-right. [You see this Aerien?] He asks, using the up-tones one uses when talking to a small child. [This is a Lakira nut. It¡¯s a very special nut. You know what we¡¯re going to do with this? We¡¯re going to make it grow, like this.]


    As Ether guy finished saying his words, suddenly a green sprout pushed its way up from the shell of the nut. It was a tiny sprout, but it quickly pushed out its leaves and continued to grow at a rate of centimeters per second. [You see? This is a magic called the green word. That¡¯s what you¡¯re going to learn how to do.] As he explained this, I could feel as though something changed about the way he was looking at the nut, and all of a sudden the rapidly growing sprout seemed to reverse the direction of its growth, and it actually unwinded its growth progress and retreated back inside the shell of the nut.


    I looked over to Levin. He looked absolutely mystified by the entire sight. Any irritation he may have felt at having me be taken from him was quickly forgotten as he was now fascinated with what was going on in front of him. Meanwhile, as soon as Ether guy finished returning that Lakira nut to its original state, he pulled the wooden pot closer to me and guided my hands to it.


    [Ok, now you try it.] He said as though it should be just a simple thing to make something like that happen. [Don¡¯t worry, the Lakira is very smart, it knows what you want it to do if you tell it with your mana.] Despite his words, I really didn¡¯t know what he meant for me to do with just those instructions as he took my hand and made me wrap it around the nut.


    [It¡¯s Ok.] He said. [Do you remember how you made yourself sick? You just told your body to act like it was sick and it did, right? Well, this is kinda the same thing. Just tell the Lakira nut to grow.]


    Really? Was it actually going to be just that simple? How is a mage so respected if it¡¯s that easy to do magic?


    Well, perhaps I shouldn¡¯t judge it until I¡¯ve tried it. I suppose he doesn¡¯t mean that I should actually do exactly as I had done before. I hadn¡¯t told him the whole truth about how I had done what I did at that time. I had lied to him and told him it was just me having a strong mental image of being sick, and then it happened. I had told him nothing about my meditation or shutting off the heaven¡¯s energy part of it. So, what he had likely meant when he said to do the same thing is he wanted me to have a strong mental image of the plant growing while I was focusing on the nut.


    [Aerien! What are you doing!?] Ether guy calls me in a harsh stern voice. [Aerien! Stop!] I look back confused. I was not actually doing anything. I was only starting to concentrate on the nut as he had told me. He lets out a strong sigh, looking very disappointed and rather worried as he looks at me for some reason. He picks me up and turns me toward him, sitting me up on the table and looking me in the eyes with a very serious face as he gently pats me on the cheek as though trying to get a response. [Come on Aerien! Don¡¯t do this! Stop! Stop doing what you¡¯re doing right now!]


    I really seriously wasn¡¯t doing anything, but his tone was starting to get to me and scare me. I was so confused and scared by his tone and frustrated over the fact that I had no idea what it was he was talking about that, of course, my face immediately started to contort and whimpers started to escape my throat as I began to lose control to this baby body once again. Only a short matter of seconds later, I was full blown crying.


    As I was crying, I felt Ether guy picking up my arm and prying the nut, which I had apparently taken from the pot without knowing, from my hand. After doing so, he made a very displeased sound. [It¡¯s not stopping.] He muttered, seemingly more to himself thant to anyone else. [Common Aerien! Snap out of it! Stop!] His voice was in a flat out panic right now, and hearing him freak out only made me more afraid and I cried harder.


    [Ether! What wong ¡®ith Awien!?] I could hear Levin¡¯s panicked voice as well.


    [Not now Levin!] Ether guy half shouted back. [What¡¯s going on?] He continues to hold me, and I can sense he¡¯s hovering a hand right over my body, slowly waving it back and forth over me. [She was unstable earlier too, maybe we shouldn¡¯t have tried this right now.] I try my best to fight and assert my will against my baby body and focus on what he¡¯s saying. In order to do that, I focus with everything I have to forcibly calm myself down.


    [Aerien!?] He says, a surprised and relieved tone to his voice now. [Ok, looks like you¡¯re alright now. That¡¯s good. That¡¯s NOT what I meant when I said for you to do the same thing as when you were acting sick!] I can tell he¡¯s still rather tense through his arms that are holding me and the tone of his voice. I cannot see him well through the eyes that are still blurry with tears, but I can guess his face also reflects the same thing.


    I can hear Levin crying nearby. He must have gotten upset worrying about me and frustrated when Ether guy yelled at him, and of course that set him off as well. What Ether guy had just said though¡­ I was starting to get some idea of what he may have been fretting about. And also, this would fit in with the very unpleasant conclusion Gaerien had brought me to yesterday. No, by the sounds of it, it seemed it had become a far bigger issue than I had ever imagined it would, and it was such a silly thing to. Really, this whole fiasco just now was all just a giant misunderstanding.


    I hadn¡¯t even thought about it. Just now, when I was trying to do what he said with the nut to make it grow, I was trying something completely new to me. Something that had nothing to do with anything in my previous experience, and something I really couldn¡¯t easily wrap my head around without some serious thought. Of course, all of those things are a complete antitheses to a meditative state. It also requires a focused mind, but it is an entirely different kind of focus from what¡¯s going on during meditation.


    Meditation is a process of calm and peaceful thought, and it works best when you are within a familiar element. The state of mind for learning and trying new things. Well, I suppose there may be some kind of special self-induced hypnotic state that could make it possible to be in a calm meditative state while trying to perform a complex task for the first time, but before you could possibly even do that your mind has to explore and process the rules for this new task first. It is simply not possible to be in a meditative state while in that new learning process. Or rather, at least not the integration portion of the learning process. The listening portion is one thing, but the integration portion where you internalize what you¡¯ve just learned and attempt to apply it for the first time ever is completely different.


    Such a simple thing, and it had freaked him out this much! Gaerien was right. He WAS absolutely able to sense the energy of heaven I was getting as part of my meditation. And, by the looks of it, he had interpreted that state as ¡°normal¡± for me. It was to a point he completely freaked out when it had changed. He freaked out so bad that he got Levin and I scared as well.


    Ether guy seemed so good with my mother earlier, but¡­ Ether guy¡­ you¡¯re REALLY not good with kids, are you? I shudder to think how bad he would be doing if we actually were normal kids.


    [Maybe we shouldn¡¯t try this now after all.] He says, coming to a conclusion on his own. I didn¡¯t see any need to stop. In fact, I did kinda want to try again now that it was all cleared up what the fuss was about. I didn¡¯t really have a good way to say that though. I could just flat up contradict him, I had the vocabulary to do that, but it seemed clear enough that he really did see me as just a baby even if I was somewhat abnormal in some ways. He would definitely just ignore me if I did that.


    And so, having made his own decision, he scoops the still crying Levin back up and carts us back up stairs to where the commotion earlier seems to have woken up Rolwen and Gaerien. He sets us down, and I am left with the sobbing Levin who is now comforting himself by holding me like a stuffed animal.


    After this little incident, I am left with only one conclusion. We are definitely going to have to bring Ether guy in on our secret if we are going to make any actual progress. The question is though, how!? It was easy to convince the boys since we had shared previous life other-world knowledge, but Ether guy was already convinced we were just unusually smart kids and did not seem to have any reason to believe there was something more going on. Maybe I could convince him if I had a stronger Elven vocabulary or if he knew English better, but as things stood I doubted I even had a chance of convincing him.


    Well, that¡¯s just great. All this time I had been making efforts to keep this thing under wraps, and now when I want to reveal it that turns out to quite possibly be an even more difficult task. Of course, it¡¯s easy enough to make someone believe a baby is just a baby. Keeping the secret only meant pushing the boundaries of believably slowly enough to let him adjust to how unusual we were. That plan had been too successful though, and now the real hard task was going to be convincing him we were far more than just babies. And, our chances, when I really started to think about it and consider things they really did not look good at all.


    Perhaps I would just have to give up on it until I had a stronger Elven vocabulary then. It¡¯s frustrating, but¡­ it looked like that¡¯s how it was going to have to be.


    Author''s note


    Some of you guys seem to have found a very strange way of making me feel better after my comment last chapter about feeling my quality had fallen. Turns out, last chapter was actually not below average in any sense when compared to earlier chapters. A couple people have been pointing out all the errors I made in the early chapters. Turns out I have been making fewer and fewer lately, and I didn''t even realize how much I had improved by in just these few chapters.


    Well, on the one hand, it means I was performing better than I had thought. On the other hand, it means that the editing job I need to do to bring things up to what I now consider my standard is going to be MUCH bigger in terms of project size than I had originally thought. I''m definitely going to do it though, correcting errors in my writing which is publicly presented for other people to read is definitely something that feels like a worthy project.


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Since Subscribe Star is not supported on this site, you will have to copy-paste the link below into your address bar. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.


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 Chapter 24: Baby steps

    Aerien¡¯s POV.


    It had been made abundantly clear to me by this point, the energy I channel during my meditation is incredibly obvious to elves and Ether guy is going to be able to sense it the very moment I attempt to drop my meditation in any manner. With this being the case, I will not be able to try out this new magic of his as long as he¡¯s awake. Fortunately though, that is exactly where I have the edge.


    I have not slept at all in several months, ever since this body gained enough control over its neural functions to be compatible with my meditation. I think being only a few months old is more than a little advanced for that, but I suppose it is another example of my past-life consciousness supporting faster brain growth. At this rate, maybe I will even get some actual frontal lobe development and become able to keep myself from crying at the slightest stimuli. That¡¯ll be a god-send.


    At any rate, waiting for nightfall was a very easy thing. Just to be certain though, I decided to wait a few extra hours. I had noticed Ether guy¡¯s schedule. He usually comes down from his lab an hour or so after the other three wake up, almost exactly at the same time as sun-rise. There is no reason to assume that elves sleep the same amount of time as humans, but if I were to make that assumption then he would still have a good three to four hours between the time he goes upstairs until the time he goes to sleep. That is, assuming that he comes down immediately after he wakes up.


    Just to be safe, I decided to wait until about the middle of the night, biding my time doing bear-crawls back and forth across the floor. I still didn¡¯t quite have the stability for walking, but I was still trying to graduate from crawling on my knees. A bear-crawl, crawling with the knees off the ground, was not exactly a step toward walking. It was strength training if anything. Still, it was not a complete waste and it made me feel like I was doing something to occupy myself.


    I could only do those bear crawls for so long before the anticipation got the better of me though. If I was going to try and do this magic thing, it might be easier if I had that nut thing. I presume that nut must be some kind of low-bar training method for young elves just learning this kind of magic. Something that will give a more noticeable response with less mana or something of the sort. I could probably try and retract that wall that leads up to Ether guy¡¯s room, but that may be more trouble than it¡¯s worth.


    I make my way down the stairs using the same method Levin had earlier this same day. After all, it was actually a method I had taught him. Of course, a toddler could not carry an infant safely down the stairs. Back when I had him bring me down to put me on the chair to confront Ether guy, we each got ourselves down the stairs using this exact method of going down backwards, using the step in front of us for support.


    In fact, this was not the first time I had done this either. I felt that going up and down the stairs was an excellent step toward being able to stand and walk under my own power, so in this past week since we had come here, I had frequently gone up and down these stairs as part of my practice to work the muscles and neurons associated with walking. I could already feel the improvements from it too. I would likely be ready to stand and walk on my own after another week or two of this. That was not my goal right at this moment though.


    Once I had gotten to the ground floor, I looked around the room. It was dark, I was plenty aware of that. However, to me, it was nowhere near as dark as the inside of a completely unlit building with small opaque windows should be. The faint moonlight that came in from the windows was as good as a nightlight would be in my previous world in terms of how well it lit the area for me. It was not enough to see everything in the room clearly, but it gave me just enough illumination to navigate easily and make out objects by their rough shapes as I could make out the silhouette.


    I looked over the table to see the area Ether guy had sat me down earlier. In that spot, I saw a roughly cylindrical object sitting on top of the table. Jackpot! Now, the question is, how to get up there?


    I make my way over to the table, this time content to go down to my hands and knees. That is the trade-off with that bear-crawl. It forces my head down. In this case, I want to be able to see my surroundings. As such, navigating my space like the baby I am is what I have to do. In this manner, I manage to reach the chair set in front of the item I¡¯m trying to reach. I pull myself to my feet. However, here I encounter another obstacle. I¡¯m just too short.


    As I reach up for the chair, I¡¯m only just able to bring my hand up over the edge of the seat. That¡¯s how small I am. Yeah, this is definitely frustrating. There has to be something I can use to get up there though. The difficult part is that with my limited mobility, it would be a serious pain to navigate around this entire room to find something I can stand on and then bring it back here.


    After weighing my options for a moment, I arrive at the perfect solution. There actually is something I could use to climb up on that is about the right size and is also close by. Another chair!


    I turn around, the next chair over where Ether guy had sat Levin before is still so close that with my developing ability to stand on my own I am just barely able to let go of this chair and grab onto the next chair before falling over. I edge my way around it, using it as a support as I walk around to the other side. As soon as I am on the far side of the chair, I begin to push it. I had meant to tip it over, but it only slides across the floor a little.


    ¡®What are you thinking?¡¯ I chastise myself. I had spent almost 40 years training explicitly to knock over humans who are trying to resist winding up on their rears. It was almost as though I had forgotten all my training. I re-position myself around the back of the chair, this time placing my foot against the leg of the chair, and then I begin to pull on it. This time, I manage to succeed. Unfortunately, what I just knocked over was the very same thing I was using to support myself. So, I also wind up on my butt myself, and with a chair falling straight toward me.


    Fortunately, the fact I was supporting myself on it meant that my hand was still touching it, so with my arm in the way I managed to avoid the thing smacking me in the face or chest or anything of the sort, and I managed to deflect it. However, falling hurt, I did have an object about 4 times my size land on top of me, and to top it all off it really made a lot of noise as it hit the ground. Of course, with my baby brain that had next to no frontal lobe development, I was unable to stop myself from doing the same thing I had always been unable to stop myself from doing. With that having happened, I scared myself enough that I really started crying.


    -


    Eirlathion POV


    This had been a really long day. After sending T¨²eth home, Eirlathion had attempted to begin Aerien¡¯s magic training. He had seen how she seemed to have a remarkable control over her spirit to the extent she could alter it to the point she even ceased her own energy output completely. That being the case, he felt that infusing her mana into the Lakira nut and coaxing it to grow would be a simple matter.


    Unfortunately, he had made the mistake of telling her that it was similar to what she had done before when she was playing sick, and it seemed she had actually wound up doing the exact same thing. As soon as he had felt the spirit energy in the air sharply drop, he was startled. He immediately began yelling at her to stop. However, for some reason, instead of her snapping out of it the spirit energy only dropped farther and she began to cry.


    Eventually, after he had peeled the Lakira nut away from her, he managed to get her to return to normal. Ultimately though, it was looking like he would have to abandon the idea of teaching her to learn magic today. Perhaps it really was too soon after all. Well, she WAS only two seasons old. Half a year of age for an elf was pretty much still a newborn. He almost forgot that at times with how frighteningly fast she seemed to develop, but an infant was still an infant after all.


    ¡°Nymph.¡± Eirlathion said with a heavy sigh when he had retired to his lab at the end of the day.


    ¡°Hmmm...?¡± A lethargic sounding moan greeted him as something the shape of the sleepy face of a small child, around the same in appearance as a 15 year old elven child (5 yo human,) formed itself as though it was a decoration in the wood next to him.


    ¡°Just in case something goes wrong, I would like for you to watch Aerien tonight.¡± He said to the small tree spirit.


    ¡°Hmmm... ? But it¡¯s niiiight!¡± A child-like voice greeted him. Despite the childish voice and tone though, Eirlathion knew this spirit was several hundred years old. This was the spirit and intelligence of Eirlathion¡¯s home, and he had planted this tree himself 600 years ago. Still, in terms of spirit age, this nymph really was just a child.


    ¡°I know, I know, it¡¯s tough for you when the sun¡¯s not out. I¡¯ll give you a night harvest seed to help you out. I just can¡¯t help the feeling Aerien might do something at night, she is part dark elf after all.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... Oooo kaaaayyy...¡± the grouchy and lethargic voice responded to him. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to do anything without that seed though, it¡¯s already been dark for a while, you woke me uuup!¡±


    Eirlathion walked across his lab, and the face of the small child vanished at the same time as he walked away, melding back into the wood of the wall. Once Eirlathion had arrived at the far corner of the lab, he opened one of the cabinets, then pulled out a bag. From this bag, he extracted a tiny almost insignificantly sized seed. By the time he stood, the upper-torso of a miniature version of a 15 year old elf child emerged from the counter top.


    The child had a feminine looking face and a great mane of hair formed from the sculpted wood, full and voluminous as it lifted away from the little girl-like face and fell down the back until it seemed to merge into the body. There was no design over the front wooden front of the child¡¯s form that resembled clothing, but there was also nothing that resembled the proper anatomical features of a mammalian creature either. The chest was simply completely smooth like sanded wood. It was as though the artist had simply forgotten to add any features or detailing of any sort to the chest of this otherwise highly detailed masterpiece of a wooden sculpture.


    The child-like wooden form held out its cupped hands for Eirlathion. When he placed the seed into those hands, it seemed to immediately be absorbed into the wood. Just like that, the childish form¡¯s face lit up from it¡¯s lethargic state and put on a huge bright smile, before all of a sudden those bright and highly detailed features seemed to reverse and hollow out. That bright face suddenly became blank, the hair was absorbed back into the body leaving the form bald, and then the sharp detailed facial features simply became two round circles for eyes over one round circle for a mouth and it became something that looked closer to some form of effigy that was supposed to be roughly humanoid shaped instead of a sculpted doll.


    After this amazingly quick degradation of the formerly finely detailed masterpiece, the ethereal form of a miniaturized child sprung from the doll with a bright happy face. ¡°Wow! That¡¯s much better!¡± The child said energetically. ¡°Wow! Those seeds are really something! I feel more awake than when it¡¯s daytime and my leaves are getting plenty of sunlight!¡±


    ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t leave those things on my counter!¡± Eirlathion yelled at the ethereal child, indicating the now somewhat creepy looking upper torso of a doll-like form that was sticking up from the counter top.


    ¡°Hehehe! Sorry! Got a bit excited there!¡± The ethereal child waves its hand at the doll and then it sinks back into the countertop, vanishing as though it was never there.


    ¡°Well, don¡¯t get too excited. Remember, you do have a job to do here.¡±


    ¡°I know! I know. Watch Aerien and make sure she doesn¡¯t get into any trouble. What kinds of things should I be looking out for though? She usually gets pretty energetic at night.¡±


    ¡°She does?¡± Eirlathion responds. ¡°And you¡¯ve never seen fit to tell me about this before?¡±


    ¡°Well, the nursery tree said that kind of thing is normal, children are awake at night all the time and it sounds like Aerien has always been more energetic at night than she is during the day too, even back when she was in the nursery.¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess she is part dark elf, so that sort of makes sense. Well, anyway, if she hurts herself or makes herself sick again, I would like you to let me know about it even if I¡¯m asleep.¡±


    ¡°You got it master! I¡¯ll keep a real good eye on her!¡± With those words, the ethereal child body raises quickly into the air, before reversing course and diving head-first into the floor, vanishing from sight the moment they came into contact with the wood.


    After this, Eirlathion lets out a sigh as he walks to one of his lab tables. ¡°Well, that¡¯s just fantastic. I hope Aerien can behave herself. I do not have enough night harvest seeds to have nymph watch her every night.¡±


    -


    After having placed nymph on duty to watch Aerien through the night, Eirlathion began to tend to the various plants in his lab. Over his time as a magus, Eirlathion had found all manner of useful plants throughout the forest, several of them quite rare, that could grant various benefits and be of use to him in several different ways. For a magus who practiced the green word such as himself, it paid a great deal to be in intimate contact with plants at all times. So long as he took care of these plants in his indoor garden, they would take care of him in turn.


    It was his nightly ritual to take each of the sun-loving plants down from the terrace, rotating them out with the moonlight-loving plants. As he took them down, he placed each one at their appropriate sub-section of the table. The tables were divided according to how often each type of plant required water, as well as where they were on their watering schedule. It was harmful to most plants to water them every day. Very close attention needed to be paid to this subject.


    Of course, for Eirlathion, it would be possible for him to simply ask them when they were in need of water, but sometimes the plants themselves didn¡¯t really know what was good for them in terms of what was and wasn¡¯t enough water. Small plants like this were not smart. When it came to going for water or any other nutrient, they were actually quite greedy and would always crave more if he were to ask them whether or not they wanted more. A responsible gardener of the green word did not merely listen to what the plants had to say.


    After placing all of the plants in their appropriate spots, Eirlathion then tended to them. First, he sprinkled a powder onto the top of the soil. This was a special powder he had made from dried leaves, ground up with a mortar and pestle earlier that same day. He added this powder to every plant that was to be watered today. Just a small pinch of it, enough to provide a little bit of the same nutrients they would need in the soil.


    This powder from the ground leaves would be good for all the plants, but for certain plants he added some additional powders. These powders were made from all manner of other things. Some were from ground stones and other minerals. Others were made of other forms of vegetable matter, and even some were from ground insect wings. Each was special for the purpose of providing the specific plant he was giving it to the exact nutrients it would need to grow at its best.


    After sprinkling the powders down, only then did he water the plants that were ready for water, allowing that water to carry the nutrients he hand just sprinkled down into the soil for the plants to utilize.


    ¡°Master.¡± The child-like voice of nymph spoke up as Eirlathion was in the middle of this ritual. Normally Eirlathion would not appreciate an interruption while he was in the middle of tending his plants, but considering the assignment he had given Nymph a few hours before he did not complain in the slightest. Rather, as soon as he heard Nymphs voice, he put the watering can down on the counter and turned straight to the glowing form of the miniature child floating in the air.


    ¡°Aerien just pulled a chair down on top of herself.¡± Nymph says. It takes Eirlathion a moment to process what he has just heard.


    ¡°What!? You said a chair? You mean she¡¯s down on the first floor!?¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh. That¡¯s nothing unusual for her actually. She goes down there all the time when you are asleep.¡±


    ¡°Hahhh... right.¡± Eirlathion grumbles. He did not know a whole lot about children himself, but it was already becoming rather clear to him that a tree spirit like Nymph knew even less. The mere fact that they had somehow thought a baby wandering around at night and going up and down stairs was somehow normal was testament to that.


    ¡°Oh, it looks like she¡¯s alright actually, she¡¯s stopped crying.¡±


    ¡°Right, well, it¡¯s probably not a good idea for her to be messing around down there.¡± He says, grabbing his mana lamp and going toward the one clear wall of his lab. As he approaches, the floor near the wall opens up to reveal stairs, which he descends down toward the second floor. About the time he reaches the landing between the two sets of stairs, he hears a clatter from downstairs as though something was just knocked over, and then the sound of a small object clanking across the ground.


    Eirlathion furrows his brows as he continues to descend down the stairs. He turns toward the middle of the room where he sees the chair Nymph had mentioned, tipped over on the floor. However, right next to that chair he sees something somewhat surprising. The knocked-over chair seemed to be laying right next to an upright chair. And, in that upright chair, he found Aerien sitting there. She turns in his direction immediately, shielding her eyes from the light of his mana lamp.


    He looks around a little more, and quickly notices she is covered in planting soil, which is also all over the table, the chair, and all over the floor. Right in front of her on the table is the wooden pot for the Lakira nut he had brought down to have Aerien practice with earlier. After seeing that, he realized immediately what had happened.


    Seriously! How had she managed to actually get from pulling a chair over onto herself to using it to climb up on another chair in the time between when Nymph had told him about it and now? The fact that she was able to do all this simply did not surprise him anymore, it was the speed with which she did it.


    Eirlathion was chastising his past self now for thinking these kids were going to be easy to handle because they were so smart. Aerien in particular was obviously going to be a serious handful to deal with. Well, let¡¯s just get her cleaned up for now.


    Author''s note


    Alright, act 2 is in full swing now. With my school requirements done, I have been working hard to try and get more chapters out. With any luck, I''m hoping there may be a second advanced chapter up on my scribble hub sometime soon. I appreciate all the love I''m getting here in the comments section, but the fact it''s not reflecting on Subscribe Star means I probably have to do more to make the rewards worth it. That''s how I see it anyway.


    EDIT: I only just now realized a few hours after posting this chapter there was a definite pun opportunity with how the title of the last chapter was "can''t even come clean," and this chapter ends with Aerien dumping dirt all over herself.


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Since Subscribe Star is not supported on this site, you will have to copy-paste the link below into your address bar. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.


    https://www.subscribestar.com/jemini-s-stories

 Chapter 25: Behind your back

    Author''s note


    Just a quick thing to mention about nymph. The elves in this world have the masculine pronoun "ro," the feminine pronoun "re" and a gender neutral pronoun "ra." "Ra" is used almost exclusively to refer to nymphs. There is going to be no place to bring up lore like this explicitly, so I thought I would put it here.


    Also, since English unfortunately does not have a simple gender neutral pronoun, I have been using the singular "they" to refer to nymph. There are some places where this becomes clunky though, particularly one line where I have to wind up using the term "they is" (because "they" is a singular term in this case)


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I wound up being discovered during my attempt to retrieve that nut Ether guy had shown me before. I likely should have expected as much, I had made quite a bit of noise after all.


    With a wave of his hand, the luminescent stones across the ceiling lit up and illuminated the room as well as a house on Earth would be lit up. From there, he cleaned me up and brought me upstairs. Next, he went back down to finish cleaning. With him distracted in this manner, I set to work immediately. He was not going to let me have that nut for magic practice at all at this rate.


    The very moment his head was out of sight, I got down and began to utilize my true fastest means of travel in my current pre-walking state. Once I confirmed my direction, I positioned myself sideways to my destination and got fully down on the ground. From there, I began to roll. I rolled with my knees tucked to my chest, and I controlled my exact direction with my arms.


    Due to the bulk created by my knees, if I were to also wrap my arms tightly to my chest it would create an egg-like shape to my profile. This would mean I would gradually turn in whatever direction the small end of the ¡°egg¡± was. In the case of my arms wrapped tightly to my body, that would be my head. However, if I expanded the circle made by my arms outward a little, thus making my legs the small end of the ¡°egg,¡± I could turn the other direction. And, every 2 or 3 rolls, I would confirm I was still going the right way.


    The principle behind this silly little stunt is incredibly similar to doing ukemi in my previous life. My head is still too large proportionate to my body, so it gets in the way of me doing a proper ukemi. However, these side rolls, or as we used to jokingly call them, a ¡°barrel roll,¡± were getting the job done well enough. In my dojo, these were considered the rolls you would do if you simply did not have the coordination to do a proper ukemi. They were considered simple and valued lowly, only a footnote in the lessons as something you should consider an option but not something anyone really ever practiced. However, right now, I was in exactly the condition where I didn¡¯t have the coordination for a proper ukemi. And, therefore, this maneuver was really coming in handy.


    I had to stop my eyes from rolling in my head by the time I reached my destination, but as I looked down I could see Ether guy was only just getting started on the process of cleaning. That¡¯s perfect. I need to do this now then while he¡¯s not expecting me. It would be easy if he hadn¡¯t turned the lights on, but you can¡¯t have everything work out in your favor. In this case, having gotten into position faster than his expectations will be very much in my favor.


    I couldn¡¯t wait for my head to stop spinning, but that did not mean I was going to skimp on the safety measures. I immediately turned my butt to the stairs and started crawling down backward, putting plenty of pressure down on each step with my arms in order to cushion and slow the descent of my feet with each step. The perfect combination of speed and stealth. Or rather, as perfect as it can be given my limitations. I was going to be pushing this little body to its limits this time.


    As I began to focus on the idea of stealth, I suddenly got the very distinct impression someone was watching me. I immediately tucked myself to the back wall and laid myself flat on the step halfway down the stairs. I looked to Ether guy, and saw that he still had his head down as he was sweeping the floor.


    That was odd. Well, I will worry about it later then. Time to continue. I have to find it before he does, or else this entire little misadventure would have been wasted. But first, I have to get out of sight. I am keeping a far more careful eye on Ether guy now, but that sense I am being watched simply will not go away even when he¡¯s giving no obvious sign he¡¯s noticed anything. In fact, he seems rather frazzled if anything. Chances are, his range of perception is more narrow now than it would usually be for him.


    The moment I reach the bottom of the stairs, I take stock of what Ether guy is doing again, and I allow my eye to carefully trace across the floor. I can¡¯t see that nut anywhere. Well, I guess I ought to find a better vantage point to look from. I bring myself low and go into something between a bear crawl and a spider crawl, the major difference between the two being how low your butt is to the ground and subsequently how bent your knees have to be and how far they flare out to either side of your body. The spider crawl happens to also be the ideal way to stealthily move low to the ground. Unfortunately, I have not quite developed the control in this body yet to do a true spider crawl, but this approximation is close enough for now. And besides, it¡¯s a bit faster and definitely quieter than the baby crawl on my hands and knees.


    There is one problem with this tactic I notice rather quickly though. All of the furniture in this house is part of the tree it¡¯s made from. This means, there is nothing to hide under because nothing is sitting on the floor. Rather, it¡¯s part of the floor itself. Even the table is raised up from the floor. Perhaps the chairs are the one and only thing in the entire house that¡¯s not part of the house itself.


    In this situation, there will be no perfect cover. However, I do have a plan. I manage to find my way around to a bit of an alcove. This is a roughly round room, and the things like shelves and such are built right into the walls and not free-standing structures. However, one portion of the room seems to be somewhat sunk back away from the rest of the room. There is no true cover in this entire room, however this little alcove is at something of a blind spot to the stairs. If I hide here, and I can get Ether guy to go up the stairs, he will not see me. I have just the thing to make him go up there too. Let¡¯s just hope it works.


    I lay myself flat on my chest, glancing up at Ether guy, and then I begin to think in my mind about how obsessed I am about finding that stupid nut. In the process of causing my mind to become active with such thoughts, it causes my meditation and that fountain of energy from outside this world to shut down. Now, whether this works or it doesn¡¯t, either way it will give me more information on how it is Ether guy is able to detect the changes in my spirit energy and all that. In a way, it might actually be more convenient to me if this fails. It will mean I will not have to be anywhere even close to as cautious about this in the future.


    Unfortunately, as soon as I feel the fountain of energy running through my spirit stop, I also see Ether guy freeze in his tracks. [Oh, what now!] He groans. From there, without even looking up, he stands and begins shaking his head as he approaches the stairs.


    [No, she¡¯s not up there master! She¡¯s down here already. Hehehe.] I feel my heart sink on the spot as a greenish-blue looking miniature figure of a child springs out from the wall, barring Ether guy¡¯s path and breaking my entire plan. [She¡¯s right over there.] The glowing ethereal humanoid points directly at my location. Great! He had some invisible partner I didn¡¯t know about! That REALLY makes things easy now doesn¡¯t it? Easy for him that is! This is totally unfair!


    [What!? Aerien!? How? How did you get down here so fast!?] He has a mystified look on his face as he rushes over in my direction. Not having anything else to do at this point, I roll to my back and then sit up, facing away from him. After this, I roll a little more, getting onto my hands and knees as I try to quickly and futilely crawl away, even though I already know I¡¯m caught.


    For some reason, as soon as I stopped my meditation, I had a very clear idea in my mind about where the thing I was looking for was. It was a last ditch effort, but maybe if I could at least get it in my sights before he reached me¡­ THERE!! Just as Ether guy is reaching me, I spot the thing a little larger than a walnut shell on the floor, about a foot or so from the nearby wall.


    ¡°Mmmmm!!! Mmmuuu¡­!!!¡± I cry out in frustration, reaching my hand out toward the nut as I am scooped up off the ground.


    [Aerien? What is it?] I continue to cry out in frustration, reaching more and more insistently toward where the nut is. Finally, Ether guy sees it, and he bends down to pick it up with his free hand as he holds me in his other arm. [Is this what this is all about?] He asks, turning the thing over a few times, just out of my reach, before absentmindedly starting to hand it to me. Just before it¡¯s within my grasp though, his hand freezes. [Wait! Were you TRYING to make me go up stairs?] He gives me an absolute death stare at these words, but I pretend not to notice and continue reaching for the nut as I become more and more restless and whiny.


    Ether guy lets out a sigh and winds up letting me have it. [I don¡¯t even know what to say about any of this anymore, you are honestly frightening girl! And you don¡¯t even care, do you?]


    Well, if he was just going to assume I was a normal baby now, I might as well run with it and enjoy the plausible deniability it gave me for most things. Now that I actually had my prize, I held it in both hands and stared at it. For some reason, now, I could feel something from it I had not felt before. Ether guy had mentioned before that the nut was intelligent or something of the sort. I didn¡¯t feel it before, but now I was able to feel something like a sleepy consciousness buried deep inside this thing. Actually¡­ there was something a little familiar about this consciousness. It felt almost like¡­


    I suddenly looked up with the realization, and then I looked over to the bluish-green glowing tiny humanoid hovering in the air, looking similar to the pixies one might see in a video game of some sort, except without the wings. The small humanoid ghostly being that had ratted me out simply smiled at me in amusement as Ether guy seemed to be struggling for words.


    I was not quite certain what this creature was, but there was something about it that seemed somewhat similar to the consciousness I felt from inside this nut.


    [Alright Aerien, come on now. It¡¯s time to stop it.] Ether guy interrupted me, snapping his fingers to get my attention. [Come on, don¡¯t look at me like that.] He says, giving me a serious look. [You know what you¡¯re doing now, right? You did it on purpose this time to make me go upstairs. It¡¯s time to stop.]


    I continue to look at him with a blank expression. I¡¯m pretty sure I know what he¡¯s talking about, but at this point it¡¯s better to play at not understanding him at the very least. In other words, ¡®I may know what I did, but I don¡¯t understand that you¡¯re complaining about it.¡¯ Yeah, I might be a little salty about the issues when he yelled at me about this earlier and got Levin and I upset.


    [Stop making yourself sick Aerien, there¡¯s no reason to be doing that right now.] He says, looking down at me with an intense look.


    [I¡¯m not.] I respond to him in all seriousness, still refusing to restart my meditation. If it¡¯s going to be causing problems like this all the time, I think this right here may be the perfect opportunity to break Ether guy of his expectations on this subject. Channeling that energy is not actually my natural state. I can keep it up fairly constantly, but that meditation is actually an altered unnatural state for me to be in. Even if I can¡¯t express it fully to him right now, it is best that he learn at least that much as soon as possible.


    [Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re not!] He says, gripping me tighter.


    [I¡¯m NOT!] I repeat even more insistently.


    Ether guy lets out a sigh and walks over to the table, then places me on top of it. He then lifts up his hand and then begins waving it around me. After this, he has something of a difficult expression. [Hmm¡­ it¡¯s different from before.] He says, now carefully considering me.


    [But Aerien, PLEASE stop doing this for now, Ok? I need to sleep right now. It looks like you¡¯ve figured out how to do something, but it¡¯s dangerous to play around with that sort of stuff, Ok?] His tone made me feel a little bad for messing with him like this. By the sounds of it, he will likely be willing to hear me out tomorrow when he has the time for it.


    [Ohh¡­ kaaayyy¡­] I ascent, and then resume my heaven-void meditation. After having finally fully shut it off for the first time in months, it actually takes some effort to restart. I have to focus my own energy in my hands, running it through my fingers, and circulating it through my body for a moment before opening the gate of heaven and gate of void in order to allow the energy stream to resume.


    It really does feel quite odd that this simple combat meditation that only served to give those in my style some celerity of mind while performing complicated maneuvers had such an incredible and dramatic effect in this world, but I had seen people¡¯s reaction to it many times now and my doubts about it were being settled.


    [Nymph (falmarin) will be watching you tonight] he said, indicating the glowing pixy-size child. [They will tell me if you do anything like that again, so please don¡¯t]


    ¡°farmarn?¡± I respond, trying to pronounce the name I just heard when he gestured toward the glowing creature who ratted on me. I direct a dirty look toward Ether guy¡¯s little spy. Now I know why I had gotten the sense I was being watched.


    [(falmarin) is the spirit of this house, they are in every wall of the house itself, so, even if you don¡¯t see (falmarin,) they (is) there.]


    Even worse. Has he always had this spy on us? I feel a sense of violation suddenly when he reveals this information to me.


    [Alright, well, let¡¯s bring you back up stairs. Now, be a good girl this time and go to sleep, Ok?]


    I felt like telling him now about how I don¡¯t sleep since, from that comment, he obviously doesn¡¯t know. However, I wound up holding my tongue on that one. It¡¯s pretty clear it would only worry him more right now if I tried to express that. Besides, with my limited vocabulary, it very well may come out as though I was just being defiant and didn¡¯t want to go to sleep.


    I wouldn¡¯t say ¡°OK¡± to it, that would be lying, but I could just say nothing and stare down at the nut in my hands. Just then, I realized something as I was staring at that nut. I could no longer feel the consciousness from it. That¡¯s when it finally dawned on me. ¡®The fire method!¡¯


    It made perfect sense. I could detect where this thing was the very second I stopped the heaven-void meditation which supplied my body with all the spirit energy it could possibly need. Under normal circumstances, an elf¡¯s body is constantly absorbing spirit energy as though they were using my style¡¯s fire method from birth and it was constantly active. According to Gaerien, spirit energy was an energy that contained thought.


    It all made sense now. This nut radiated spirit energy, that¡¯s what had allowed me to sense it. And, it was also my absorption of that spirit energy that allowed me to sense the consciousness within the nut. And, now that I had my body flooded with an over-abundance of spirit energy directly from heaven, I was no longer absorbing any from an outside source, and therefore I could no longer sense it.


    Well, it looks like the importance on convincing Ether guy to stop freaking out every time I cut off my meditation just went up. If the same holds true toward humans, this will effectively mean that my meditation will have the opposite effect in this world from the one it had on Earth. I guess the weaker spirit energy of the humans here is to blame.


    So, my combat meditation is actually detrimental toward my method of combat. I¡¯m definitely going to need to find a fix for that. It may be a long way off until I even have a body capable of combat, but I just don¡¯t think I could get by anywhere near as well without the ability to sense intent.


    I am definitely going to have to ask Gaerien if there is a method to fix this.


    Author''s note


    I have been working hard over the weekend and managed to introduce a 2nd advanced chapter to my Subscribe Star account, and also introduce a new level. As of now, there are 2 tiers you can subscribe at.


    The "Basic tier." For $1.50 per month, you can get 1 advanced chapter.


    The "2nd tier." For 2.99 per month, you can get 2 advanced chapters.


    Both will be updated before it is updated on Scribble hub, and if I get a chapter done early then I will post the chapter to Subscribe Star early. Also, as for the pricing, I actually would like to be able to make it lower. Unfortunately, PayPal decided to engage in something called a corporate boycott. This is a dirty business practice where they try to muscle out a competitor by denying them services. As a result, Subscribe Star has to use foreign payment processors which take a more significant cut off the top. As such, if I were to set my prices any lower, more of what you pay would be going to payment processors than would be going to me.


    There are cheaper services out there, but the big names like Patreon are part of this dirty deal, and so I''m boycotting them out of principle. These are matters of my own personal choice I am telling you up front, and that''s why the prices are the way they are and are not cheaper. I will understand perfectly well if you do not want to pay this price. I made a personal choice to use a more expensive payment processor, and you can make your own choice whether or not to support me. All I can do is explain my reasons.


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Since Subscribe Star is not supported on this site, you will have to copy-paste the link below into your address bar. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.


    https://www.subscribestar.com/jemini-s-stories

 Chapter 26: Into the fire of knowledge

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡®I don¡¯t see what the problem is. Just train as a mage, you won¡¯t have to worry about fighting like that.¡¯ This was Gaerien¡¯s absolutely flabbergasting answer to the issue I described with my meditation blocking my ability to sense intent.


    ¡®You know absolutely nothing about what a fight is like, do you?¡¯ I responded. ¡®Or rather, you cannot possibly be that stupid. I will grant you enough benefit of the doubt to assume you probably are just fooling yourself because you are assisted by my meditation making a hole in the rules-enforcing world barrier and all that.¡¯


    That¡¯s the thing. Gaerien had told me once that apparently my meditation held a property essential to the few mages that existed on Earth with its thick and absolute world barrier that resisted all magic. That property was the ability to pierce the world barrier and make a hole, thus granting a mage of Earth the ability to ignore the rules that negated all magic.


    In the case of this world, it apparently has some property that prevents her from ¡°cultivating,¡± which is the term she uses to describe the process of gathering energy to become a goddess once again. Apparently, the term ¡°cultivation¡± is literally to cultivate your soul and raise it like a plant, giving it the proper fertilizer and nutrients to grow strong. And so, she needs me in order to allow herself to ¡°cultivate¡± properly. It would actually be rather inconvenient for her if I were to stop doing my combat meditation at all times as I have made my habit.


    ¡®Well, I really can¡¯t offer you anything. I don¡¯t know much about your meditation or combat methods in particular. Maybe you can just stop the meditation when there¡¯s a combat situation?¡¯


    ¡®I need to be able to sense intent at all times, otherwise I won¡¯t know if there¡¯s an attack coming. I can get blind-sided rather easily without that.¡¯


    ¡®So, are you saying you¡¯re actually going to just stop? Well, I¡¯m not sure that would do you much good anyway. This is an elf village, right? They¡¯re all fey here, they don¡¯t make spirit energy for you to sense.¡¯


    That would be another interesting wrinkle in this world for me. The fey would have a natural advantage over me if I could not sense their intent. Or rather, I would loose the advantage that I had come to enjoy in my previous life when it came to the fey.


    ¡®Well, my meditation serves your purposes, but it seriously does not serve mine. I might have to somehow concoct a new combat meditation that serves my needs better after all. I mean, simply being an elf already provides me with the effects of the fire chi.¡¯


    ¡®Wow wow wow! Wait! Ok, let me think. I¡¯m sure we can come up with some way of managing this. I mean, it really doesn¡¯t make sense to just throw out a meditation that¡¯s been perfected over thousands of years like yours! You have absolutely no idea how many millions of people a cultivator would kill for in order to get ahold of a method like yours!¡¯


    ¡®Well, I¡¯m not a cultivator trying to become a god or anything, so why would I want it?¡¯


    ¡®You went down to get that seed there to practice with, right?¡¯ She said, indicating the nut I had gotten Ether guy to give me last night. ¡®You did that because you want to practice being a mage, right? Well, magic is something you need to cultivate in order to develop. Mages are basically one of the early steps toward the process of cultivating toward godhood.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I guess that makes sense. So they are related, huh? However, I think my meditation might hold me back from learning the spell Ether guy was teaching me. My meditation hampered my ability to sense the spirit energy inside this nut, and my gut is absolutely screaming at me that I am going to need the ability to sense it in order to learn this spell.¡¯


    ¡®Well, maybe if you arrange your inner world correctly then you could¡­ maybe¡­ focus the energy more so you don¡¯t have as much spilling over into your body?¡¯


    ¡®Inner world?¡¯


    ¡®What!? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve never entered your inner world before!¡¯


    ¡®I seriously have absolutely no idea at all what you are talking about.¡¯


    ¡®What!? You¡­ you seriously don¡¯t know about a cultivator¡¯s inner world!?¡¯


    ¡®How many times do I have to tell you, I¡¯m not a cultivator.¡¯


    ¡®You have such a high class meditation, and yet¡­¡¯ She trails off, leaving several seconds of complete silence across our psychic link. ¡®Ok, I guess I¡¯m going to have to explain this then. Your inner world is basically the inside of your spirit. During a cultivator¡¯s meditations, they have to use a sort of strong visualization in order to shape your spirit. In order to do this, you actually create an imaginary world inside of your spirit, and use strong images in order to re-arrange it. You can think of it kinda like arranging furniture inside yourself. Normally a particular meditation will have a way it recommends you arrange things and what you should visualize, but if you are pioneering a new path then it¡¯s possible you may have to just start making things up and arranging things in a way that you think will be beneficial to you.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway,¡¯ She goes on ¡®I take it you, despite having a pretty strong meditation, don¡¯t actually have any kind of recommendations like this. If the problem is as big as you say it is, there HAS to be something you can do to arrange your inner world to where you won¡¯t have this problem.¡¯


    ¡®I wouldn¡¯t even know where to begin with something like that.¡¯ I respond to her.


    ¡®Well, first you are going to have to figure out how to enter your inner world. In order to do that, you are going to have to learn how to stop meditating like a warrior and start meditating like a cultivator.¡¯


    ¡®So, all this time I¡¯ve been the physical fitness teacher, you¡¯re saying now it¡¯s time for you to become the magic teacher?¡¯


    ¡®Absolutely!¡¯


    Well, she certainly seems motivated. Amazing how geared up she gets when I threaten to take away her free access to a loophole in the rules of this world.


    -


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    Once again, T¨²eth was standing in front of the master¡¯s house. She had lost track of how long she had been standing in front of this tree, working up the courage to send her mana into it and alert the master to her presence. She was very conflicted about this whole idea. She still felt very unworthy of the idea of becoming a mage¡¯s apprentice. There was also... well, she tried not to think about that other issue. She would just feel even worse about herself if she even admitted to herself that was part of what was holding her back. In fact, the mere fact the thought had crossed her mind just now had crushed her courage enough that it had caused the will she had just worked up to crumble.


    ¡°Good, you came.¡± T¨²eth jumped as she heard the master¡¯s voice coming from the opening that had just formed in the tree, creating a doorway. How had he known she was even there!? Well, of course, he was a magus. Of course he should have his ways.


    ¡°mm.. Master!¡± She responds, clearly looking like a frightened cat. Well, she had just lost her chance to back down. To do so now would be an insult to the master who had invited her, but... No! She would have to tell him!


    ¡°Well, come in then.¡± He said, turning his back on her and walking in. This was not going right at all. How was it that he seemed to take away her opportunities to retreat with every word and action he took? In that way, somehow, T¨²eth found herself walking into the master¡¯s house.


    She took a seat at the table, and then looked up at the master who sat down quite heavily in his own chair. Something about the way he sat down unsettled her. It was¡­ wrong somehow. It did not contain the same grace that she had become accustomed to him presenting every time she had met him in the past. Nothing at all like how a great magus such as him ought to be.


    ¡°Umm¡­¡± She looked up, showing a concerned face.


    ¡°What? Oh, yes! Sorry, I am rather tired today.¡± He responds, having a difficult expression on his face. ¡°It¡¯s probably not something you would want to hear today. Another time perhaps.¡± He placed his hand over his forehead, his thumb and middle finger on each of his temples, and let out a breath to focus himself. She could guess from his response that it had something to do with the girls. He was likely trying to be considerate of her feelings by not mentioning them, but it was pretty clear from reading between the lines just a little.


    T¨²eth suddenly felt bad about how she had thought about him a moment ago. His short responses urging her inside without waiting for what she had to say. It wasn¡¯t from any kind of manipulation as she had thought, it was simply that he was tired. Suddenly, a faint ghost of a smile creeped onto T¨²eth¡¯s lips as she imagined this great master running around trying to keep four small children in line.


    On that subject, she could hear them moving around a bit upstairs, but they really didn¡¯t seem that noisy. The master had said yesterday that they were pretty well behaved usually. Clearly they had caused trouble for him last night though.


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    (Well then, let¡¯s begin.) Gaerien said aloud after we had set the boys to do their own exercises. We were laying next to each other, hand-in-hand with our heads propped up against a single pillow. The curvature of a baby¡¯s back is simply not structured in such a way as to easily get into some kind of meditative pose, so we didn¡¯t even try. It was fine though. I had learned plenty about meditation in my previous life.


    My combat meditation is in a class called a moving meditation. A moving meditation is considered to be the single most advanced kind of meditation there is. Meditations that use breathing, mantras, or some mental trick are far lower in terms of how good they are at clearing your mind of distracting thoughts. However, the one weakness that a moving meditation has is that it is not capable of achieving the level of truly deep visualization to do what Gaerien was describing.


    ¡®So, I am about to attempt something REALLY crazy here.¡¯Gaerien said, initiating our mental link through our hands that were holding one another. ¡®Actually, about the only reason I might be able to do this is because of the way I set up my own inner world. And, just like with our thought communication here, I think you¡¯re the only person in the world I will be able to do this with. Well, this is EXTRA exclusive to you. I might be able to communicate with other people like this as well later once I gain more power, but I will absolutely never be able to do what I¡¯m about to do with anyone else.¡¯


    ¡®Ok, Ok, enough with the build-up. Spit it out already.¡¯


    ¡®Ah, yes, well... I¡¯m going to invite you into my inner world. Normally this would be impossible. Absolutely impossible. However, there are so many unusual things in our circumstances that I wound up setting up my inner world in a very special way that will allow you to come into it.¡¯


    ¡®Right then, so how are we going to do this?¡¯


    ¡®Well, you start settling yourself into a meditative state at the same time as me. Try to visualize some kind of doorway of light or something of the sort. Once I create it for you, you should be able to go through.¡¯


    ¡®A doorway, huh? I think a friend of mine tried some kind of amateur hypnotic regression therapy on me once that involved going through a visualized doorway, it didn¡¯t work. My mind refused to even accept going through that doorway.¡¯


    ¡®Your friend sounds like someone who was just goofing around. I actually know what I¡¯m doing here.¡¯


    ¡®Yeah, she was definitely rather amateur about it. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m entirely unsuggestible or anything, she just used bad visualization techniques. Another guy used a different suggestion technique where he had me loosely hold a coin between my fingers and suggested it was getting heavy and I would find it drop from my fingers as I lost my grip on it. That one actually worked.¡¯


    ¡®This is not hypnosis. You know that, right? It¡¯s a meditation, and this is not going to work unless the both of us do a very good job visualizing here.¡¯


    ¡®Alright, yeah. I¡¯m good enough with meditation. If you don¡¯t ask me to visualize anything too crazy or unusual, I think I can probably manage it.¡¯


    ¡®Alright then, let¡¯s start.¡¯


    I started my meditation at the same time as her. I was not at all unfamiliar with stationary meditations either. In fact, my own combat meditation also had a stationary counterpart. It was also a fairly advanced and refined form of meditation. It involved both a mantra and a mudra. Mantras are the more well known components of meditation. Everyone has heard of Gregorian chants and other such things used as mantras, or might be familiar with the old stereotype in meditation of an old man sitting on top of a mountain chanting the word ¡°oum¡± over and over again. That was a mantra.


    A mantra is essentially anything at all that involves a sound made by the person meditating. This sound serves as a mnemonic key to speed up your ability to achieve a meditative state, and it also helps to focus the mind on that sound rather than allowing your mind to wander. Since this was the stationary counterpart to a combat meditation, it could not afford to have all that complex of a mantra. The mantra for my meditation was not a sound or a chant. It was just a simple breathing rhythm. In fact, it consisted of four different breathing rhythms. Well, five if you counted void. However, void was literally a lack of breath, so it¡¯s pretty hard to count.


    This meditation also had a mudra to it. Not as many people know about mudras in meditation. A mudra is another form of mnemonic tool to enhance your meditation. Where a mantra is a sound, a mudra is a physical position that you take with your body. My meditation had four mudras which consisted only of hand positions, and then again, it also had void. Void, once again, was significant for its lack of any of the traditional tools. It was only a mindset that contemplated the concept of void, and there was no specific suggested hand position for it. However, the very fact that the other four had hand positions, suddenly going without a hand position after having gone through the previous four makes it rather easy to suddenly set the idea of something missing, a ¡°void¡± of what had been there before.


    Thinking about Gaerien¡¯s request to visualize something I can go through in order to enter her world, and knowing that my combat meditation is the one I know the best, it¡¯s pretty clear what I¡¯m going to need to do. I begin going through my meditation in sequence. It is a five stage meditation, going through the four Greek elements and then finishing with void once the elements sequence has been gone through. If Gaerien wants some kind of doorway, how about I create a doorway from fire? In order to visualize it the best though, it really will serve me best to go through it in sequence.


    I begin the sequence with earth. Earth¡¯s mantra is a slow breath in, followed by a slow breath out. The mudra is to place the thumb against the pinky finger. The mindset is a calmness and stability of the unmoving earth.


    Next comes water. The water¡¯s mudra is the thumb against the ring finger. The mantra is completely tied up in the visualization. The water¡¯s mantra is a long and slow breath in like a rolling wave of the ocean, followed by a quick and sharp breath out as though that wave had just crashed against the shore. Contrary to expectations, the chi of water is actually the serious power form of the combat style, and holds most of the real ferocious attacks that the style has.


    Finally, I arrive at the fire phase of the meditation. The mantra of fire is a quick breath in, and then a quick breath out. It is essentially hyperventelating on purpose. The purpose of the fire phase of the meditation is to focus on the idea of a fire burning and granting energy to your body, and also to focus on the idea of getting used to the idea of this breathing pattern so that you can be at peace with it and transition out of it more easily. You are advised while learning this four elements meditation that fire is not a state you want to stay in for a long period of time, and you want to get used to the idea of recognizing when you are in this state so you can more easily transition out of it. Incidentally, the mudra is the thumb placed against the middle finger.


    After gathering a strong and healthy flame inside my heart with this phase of the meditation, I shift my thumb over to touch my index finger, thus creating the mudra of the wind phase as I move right along. The wind¡¯s mantra is a short breath in, followed by a long and heavy breath out. It is actually an extremely difficult breathing pattern. I would actually call it the hardest of the five. I can still remember when I first learned it that it took me quite a bit of effort to get it right without becoming light headed, choking from the breath tickling my throat, or just running out of breath during the breathing out phase too quickly.


    Since the idea this time was to cultivate a flame, I fed the fire using the oxygen of the wind. Every time I breathed out with the wind¡¯s mantra, I focused on the idea of the flame absorbing the oxygen from that wind and becoming brighter and stronger. Suddenly, I felt something change. A bright light appeared in the middle of the flame I was visualizing, and it opened up and grew several times bigger. At the same time, I felt as though I was getting pulled deeper into my own visualization and suddenly the outside world where the boys were a short distance away from Gaerien and I laying atop the bed vanished and this large vibrant flame real enough I could almost feel the heat coming off of it became the only thing I could perceive.


    I realized at this moment that this must be the doorway Gaerien said she was going to create. I had created my end of it, and she must have just created hers. Well, time to see what this inner world of hers looked like then. It was my choice to make my end of the doorway a flame, so I guess I have no choice but to simply walk through it. I look up to the old man part of my mind as baby Aerien, and then I look down to the small child I have come to start imagining as a four year old as the old man, and then as both of us together and of one mind I walk into the flame.


    Author''s note


    Yep, now Aerien''s two minds have mental manifestations. Just when it was starting to look like it was going to get better, it didn''t.


    Anyway, ridiculous comments on the story aside, I would like to thank Roy and Pho-Yen Pierce for joining on SubscribeStar. It''s starting to really look like a community over there now.


    There are bad sides about writing ahead so far though. I''m not in the same mindset as when I upload as I was when I wrote the chapter anymore, which makes it harder to make relevant comments in the author note section. Oh well, guess this might not be my thing much anymore. (Although there will be something very relevant I know I''m going to have to say about the next chapter. Look forward to it.)


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 Chapter 27: Let the learning begin

    Content warning


    Religiously sensitive content.


    Well, it was bound to happen eventually considering the lore of this series including the Christian God and the subject of cultivation. I do my best to keep it from being straight up sacrilegious, but it gets plenty close to the line this chapter.


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    ¡°Well, I suppose we should get you started. You came here as my apprentice. It simply will not do for us to put off teaching you about magecraft any longer. So, how about we begin by you telling me all that you know about magic and those who use it?¡± The master said, putting on a far more dignified face.


    ¡°About magic?¡± T¨²eth replied. ¡°Well, not a lot.¡±She looked down. She really didn¡¯t know much, nothing more than any other elf would know.


    ¡°Common, surely you must at least know the basics of the greed word. Every elf learns about that as a child.¡± The master responded.


    ¡°Of... of course!¡± T¨²eth responded in a panic.


    ¡°Well then, tell me that. Tell me about how the green word works.¡±


    ¡°What!? But...¡± Did the master really want her to go over something THAT simple? T¨²eth had been under the impression he was going to teach her something about the greater secrets of magic or something of the sort, the that was kept secret from the normal elves and known only to the powerful beings called the magi.


    ¡°It¡¯s Ok.¡± The master said. ¡°I told you. I want to know everything you know, down to the very basics of your knowledge. If you are going to be my apprentice, I need to be sure that your knowledge is sound from it¡¯s very foundations. And, besides. There actually is a common misconception about the green word and some of the other basics. I want to see if you have been led astray by the others or not and if we have to clear anything up.¡±


    ¡°Umm... well, the green word is...¡± T¨²eth hesitated with her answer now that she had heard that there might be something wrong with how everyone believes the green word is after all. He had assured her it was alright, but she couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that the master may at some point see he had made a mistake in choosing her and that he would kick her out as soon as he had come to this realization. As frightened as she was of being here, she also did not want to be rejected. She had to avoid that. So, maybe if she could figure out what the error everyone makes is and then give the correct answer, he might be impressed with her.


    ¡°Well, normal elves just use it to ask the nymph living in a lakira tree to make a home inside or open a door for them. But... if you are better with it then you can also talk with any plants, right?¡±T¨²eth did her best with how she phrased this. If she was wrong, she didn¡¯t want to sound like a fool by sounding too sure of herself.


    ¡°Mmm...¡± The master made a thoughtful sound, it seemed somewhat positive as though he was agreeing with her answer and lifted T¨²eth¡¯s heart for the split second between that thoughtful sound and the very next thing he said immediately afterward. ¡°How does it do that?¡± He asks, this time very clearly with the piercing eyes of someone looking for a right answer and ready to pounce on a wrong answer the moment you gave one.


    ¡°Ummm...¡± How!? He¡¯s asking her how? ¡°Uhh... mana. You put your mana into the plant you want to talk to.¡±


    ¡°How do you think that lets you talk to plants?¡± He asks, leaving T¨²eth without the words to answer him. His penetrating expectant gaze softens the moment T¨²eth has run out of words to answer with. ¡°Ok then, how about we try this another way. What is different between a Lakira tree and a normal plant?¡±


    ¡°Ah! The Lakira tree has the nymph or dryads living in them, normal plants don¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Why does that make them different?¡±


    Why? T¨²eth was beginning to become very uncomfortable with these questions now. She was feeling more and more pressured by each question that seemed to be specifically pointed toward driving her to think about things she had never thought about or had to think about before in her life. She had never had to think about them because the answers just seemed obvious. Clearly they were different.


    This seemed almost like the kind of question a child would ask, and if it was a child asking the question then her answer would simply be that they were just different and that was the reason things were that way. However, the one asking this was not a child. It was a magus who had lived for over ten centuries, an entire millennium. If he thinks it is important for her to answer this question, then clearly there must be some significance to the difference and he was expecting her as his student to be able to find it.


    ¡°It¡¯s Ok if your answer is wrong T¨²eth. The important thing is that you think. This is my first lesson to you as my apprentice. Never be satisfied with the simple answers to things. There is a deeper truth behind everything. A mage is someone who seeks the answers to those deeper truths and who uses the knowledge they gain from those deeper truths to manipulate the world.¡±


    ¡°I am giving you an assignment. As soon as you can complete it, I will teach you how to collect and condense the energy necessary to cast spells as a mage that go beyond the simplified form of the green word most elves use to communicate with the nymph¡¯.¡±


    ¡°I would like for you to answer three questions. The first is the question I just asked you. What exactly is it that makes a Lakira tree different from a normal plant. After you have answered that question, you can then start to think about why that means a normal elf can only use the green word to communicate with the nymph¡¯ in the Lakira trees, but a proper mage can communicate with any plant. As for your third question, this is another one you may have simply taken for granted. What is spirit energy?¡±


    ¡°If you can find the answers to those three questions, then we can begin your training in how to utilize the mystical energies.¡±


    ... So, this is what it was. T¨²eth was left rather dumbstruck by this first lesson from her master. It immediately made her feel very small and useless. She had always been told about how the world worked by her parents and her neighbors as she grew up. This was the first time someone aside from a child had demanded that she be the one to answer such basic questions, except he phrased these very basic questions in such a way that it left her completely unable to answer them. In fact, she wasn¡¯t really certain she knew the right answer.


    It was exactly as the master had said. All three of the questions he had asked were all things everyone had just taken for granted but never really asked about all that deeply. And yet, the master was telling her that in order to be a mage she had to be able to find a satisfying answer to these questions on her own, and to not just settle for the simple answers that everyone else would settle for.


    It was a test. A test in order to become a mage for real. He had said it himself. He would not give her the real training until she was able to answer these questions. If this was only the test to become an apprentice though, she felt this was a sign of things to come that this would be anything but easy. It would be a constant torture for her head, and there is no way this would be the last of such questions from the master.


    Given this dismal future, T¨²eth considered running away from this once again. She never wanted this in the first place. However, now that it was offered, what kind of foolish person would even consider turning down such an opportunity? She would have to be a real insane person to turn down the opportunity to become a magus.


    ¡°Take as much time as you need to answer,¡± the master said. ¡°I will be over here doing my meditations. You may keep your seat there at the table if you think you think you can come up with an answer within a few hours, or you may choose to leave and think about it throughout the day and return when you have your answers.¡±


    With those words, the master went over to an alcove of the first floor where several layers of woven fiber mats were put together and laid out on the floor, and then he took a seat right in the middle of it. Soon afterward, he closed his eyes and rested his palms in his lap as he quickly went off into the often talked about mage¡¯s meditation, the meditation used to gather power in order to both restore their expended spells as well as to advance their ability to use new and more powerful spells, increasing their power as a magus.


    This left T¨²eth to decide what it was she was going to do. How it was she was going to try and think about how to answer these questions. She looked up toward the second floor for a moment and then considered the stairs. She was filled with a very uncomfortable feeling. A feeling that both compelled her to go up those stairs, and at the same time warned her of how her life would be changed forever the moment she did.


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡°Ok, so, why are there two of you?¡± As soon as I arrived in Gaerien¡¯s inner world, as she called it, I found myself suspended in the air by nothing, as though gravity had simply decided to ignore me. I could not even feel a surface beneath my feet, and yet I didn¡¯t fall. There were several sights to be seen with large crystals filled with runes in some ancient language below us, an ocean of swirling lights all around us, and all manner of other amazing sights. However, I had no real time to take in all of this information. The reason for this was because I was instantly confronted by a woman as soon as I got here.


    Standing in front of me, occupying my view and drawing my attention away from all the fantastic sights all around me was a lovely woman wearing a flowing white robe, extending down past her knees and keeping the curves of her body indistinct. The design was simple, but that is not to say it was like she was just wearing a bag over her to hide her body. It was actually quite tasteful in a way with an underpronounced violet trim running down the center.


    Actually, on second thought, considering the era she must be from violet would be a very ostentatious color to be wearing. Up until fairly recently in the industrial age, violet was the single most expensive dye to produce. It could even be said that violet dye was worth more than its weight in gold.


    Well, at least she kept it restrained to only having the trim of her white robe in violet. If it was the entire robe, not only would that be creating an entirely different image, but that would be taking the vanity up several levels as well.


    ¡°Are you going to just keep gawking or are you going to answer me? I know both of you are Aerien, nobody other than Aerien could possibly come in here, but why are there two of you?¡±


    I turned to look at my young 4 year old self, the cute little elf-eared girl who I was going to grow up to be, and my old man self, a strong but gentle looking man who looked to be only in middle age despite his 60 years of age. Actually, if I were to look closer, it looked as though he had fewer grey hairs than I had in my previous life before I died.


    ¡°Umm...¡± my younger self responded with an exaggerated shrug, holding her hands up at shoulder level as she shook her head from side to side.


    ¡°Well, I did tell you all before about how I had an older self from my past life and a younger self that seemed to be the owner of my new body before. It seems like maybe that was manifested more plainly when you brought me into this whole inner world thing.¡±


    The woman who could only be Gaerien¡¯s manifestation in this inner world didn¡¯t quite seem to know what to make of this. In fact, I would have to say she seemed quite flabbergasted, and my younger self was getting a real kick out of it as I looked at Gaerien¡¯s confused expression and then instinctively drew closer to my older self just in case she suddenly got angry at my behavior.


    ¡°Well, I think I have heard of split spirits like this before, but... I can¡¯t say for certain whether it is good or bad. I suppose it depends on how well you get along.¡±


    ¡°We get along great!¡± My younger self announces cheerfully as soon as I realize that Gaerien doesn¡¯t have anything against my little girl appearance.


    ¡°We have never had any reason to disagree about anything. In fact, I really don¡¯t even think of us as different people at all.¡±


    ¡°Yeah! I get to know all kinds of stuff from my old life, but my brain couldn¡¯t handle it so I¡¯m the one who was made to be Aerien while the old man inside my mind is still also me and he... and... why am I talking like this! I don¡¯t have to! I know everything he does too, so I can talk better than this, I promise!¡±


    ¡°Right, I¡¯m really confused now.¡± Gaerien responds to the excited nonsense from my younger self. Well, despite what she said, my younger self is easily excitable, so I doubt she can really do quite as good a job of explaining something even if she does know all of the knowledge we have shared between us.


    ¡°Basically, we share the same subconscious mind. That is, everything I know, both of us know it. That¡¯s the reason why my younger form here is a 4 year old and not an infant. The knowledge she has gained from me has caused her to mature a lot faster than she would if she was a normal baby.¡±


    ¡°Wait! Wait. I get it now!¡± Gaerien interrupted me. ¡°So, the surface level of your mind is split, and by the sounds of it this happened because you did not fully integrate your mind into your new body?¡±


    ¡°¡°No, that¡¯s not it.!¡±¡± I say in unison with both my forms.


    ¡°I fully accept her¡± My past life self continues. ¡°Actually, I feel I may be slowly becoming more like her as time goes on. It¡¯s just that her physical brain is not ready for everything I know yet.¡±


    ¡°I think Gaerien should also have someone like me! We can be closer sisters that way!¡± My younger self follows up.


    ¡°What? Don¡¯t be ridiculous!¡± She responds, looking down at my younger self. ¡°Besides! I¡¯m pretty sure I couldn¡¯t even if I wanted to.¡±


    ¡°¡°Too late, isn¡¯t it?¡±¡± Both of my manifestations say in unison once again.


    ¡°Yes... but, now come to think of it, I may be starting to regret it as a lost opportunity now.¡± Gaerien responds as though she wants to kick herself. ¡°There were some rumors spreading around saying that god you worshiped before had three manifestations in his inner space, and even got to such a level that he could project two of them outside of himself. It seems you have already discovered on your own yet another one of the most sought after secrets of cultivation that could ever be achieved.¡±


    ¡°Mmm...¡± I was feeling very uncomfortable about this comparison to the god I worshiped in this manner, and it easily showed on my younger self¡¯s face and actions. As my older self, I fixed Gaerien with a harsh stare for a moment, before going into thought.


    ¡°Gaerien,¡± I say in all seriousness, focusing in on her as my older self only for the sake of added effect. ¡°If we are going to be talking about all of this god stuff, I would like to set a few basic ground rules first. It is a value that was held in our religion that we should strive to be like god. As such, this cultivation thing is fine to an extent. However, there is a line I absolutely do not want you to ever cross, and doubly so in trying to encourage me to cross it. That is, there will be absolutely no talk, ever, of trying to become greater than my lord of the former world in any way. What you were just talking about can be seen as flattering in a certain light, but the way in which you said it makes it so I have to be certain you are not going to push things in that direction.¡±


    ¡°Uhh¡­ really¡­¡± Gaerien has a stunned look on her face in response to my shpeel just now. ¡°I am jealous. That guy¡­ his worshipers really take him seriously to this extent, huh? You know we aren¡¯t even in that world anymore, right? Why do you still care so much? With that heavy barrier of his that he set up around Earth, I doubt he is even going to be able to hear you praying to him anymore!¡±


    ¡°That sort of thing doesn¡¯t matter.¡± I respond. ¡°I suppose if you don¡¯t want to see it as a normal worshiper relationship, you can view it instead as something of a samurai code. I did train in a style related to the samurai arts after all. Even in a foreign land, I will hold my loyalty. I am grateful to you for saving my granddaughter, but I will not let you harm my honor on this one. I don¡¯t expect you to understand, but this is a line for me that is not to be crossed.¡±


    ¡°Wow! Ok, Ok. Jeez! Yeah, don¡¯t mess with a fanatical worshiper. Still, for someone who¡¯s about to begin the road to cultivation, you have no idea how little sense this makes for you to have that attitude.¡±


    ¡°Well, according to what you¡¯ve already told me, that would not be the first thing about me that doesn¡¯t make sense given the circumstances.¡±


    ¡°You mean like being ready and willing to throw out a meditation that goes beyond being top-tier in nature? Yeah, there is something very screwed up about your priorities. But, I¡¯ll play along with how ridiculous you¡¯re being here. I¡¯m not exactly in a position where I can afford to piss you off. I mean, look around this place! The gate you just walked through to get in here is actually a connection directly to your spirit. This means the structure of my entire cultivation could crumble if you decided to do something crazy.¡±


    ¡°Hah! And you say I¡¯m the crazy one! I don¡¯t really understand much about this cultivation stuff, but it really doesn¡¯t sound like a stable position to be that reliant on someone else.¡± I said, my younger self having gotten upset enough by this point she was hugging onto the leg of my older self. With the tension gone now though, I took a step back to look at the portal I had come from.


    The portal, as it appeared from her end, seemed to be a shining light suspended inside a doorway floating out in the middle of open space. By the looks of it, I would guess it actually looked identical from both sides, and could probably allow us to pass through from both sides as well.


    ¡°Well then, I guess you must have invited me here to discuss the stuff you have in this space. Care to give me the guided tour?¡±


    Author''s note


    Yeah, tense moment. So, now you know Aerien''s stance on the subject.


    (Not gonna force myself, just keeping the note short this time.)


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 Chapter 28: Drawing inspiration

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    T¨²eth spent some time trying to think about the three questions the master had made her find the answers to, all the while trying to ignore the temptation to go up those stairs that were so close by. She was not certain why it was that she didn¡¯t just leave. She kept telling herself it was because she was sure she could answer these questions quickly. However, she was making very little progress. After all, the temptation to go up, to just look at those girls, it kept distracting her mind.


    She squashed those thoughts in herself. For now, she would focus on answering the questions. It was clear that the second question, why only a mage can communicate with normal plants while the average elf can only communicate with trees containing nymphs or dryads like the Lakira tree, was something that she would have to wait to find the answer on. Actually, somehow this seemed like the easiest of the three. The answer was simple. A spell had to be cast in order to communicate with normal plants. However, T¨²eth knew immediately that would not be considered a satisfactory answer.


    That a spell had to be used. That would be a satisfactory answer for anyone on the street, but T¨²eth remembered the master¡¯s words. A mage had to find the deeper answers by their own power. She had heard that mages were able to perform magic by studying their spells, and they had to study them very deeply. That was the purpose of this test. She realized that after thinking this over for a little while. The true meaning of this test is that she has to describe the principle behind the spell to communicate with normal plants.


    In actuality, the second of these three questions is probably the only one she actually has to answer. The other two, how a tree with a nymph or dryad in it is different from a normal plant, as well as what spirit energy is, those two must just be hints to point her in the correct direction. He actually expected her, someone who was less than an armature, someone who had never studied magic in her life, to come up with the principles behind a spell on her own completely without assistance.


    It was hard to believe such an insane task was thrust upon her. Well, at the very least, this was probably one of the most basic spells. He was not demanding anything too monumentous. It¡¯s just talking to plants, right? A magic similar in nature to what elves do all the time.


    T¨²eth looked around the room. The entire house was filled with plants everywhere. It was very clear the master¡¯s magecraft was very closely linked to plants. As T¨²eth considered what she was sure was the true nature of her task, she reached out to the center of the table and pulled one of the potted plants in the centerpiece toward her. She began staring at it intensely, carefully considering it. Somehow, as her mind became more focussed, her head began to become occupied with thoughts about children¡¯s finger games, except that it wasn¡¯t just a game. Something about this finger game was far more intricate and frustrating. Just the thought of it was beginning to eat at her head.


    T¨²eth sat up, startled at the thoughts that had just occupied her own head. Where had that even come from? Once again, she directed her attention back to the stairs and the floor above. The children were up there. Could it possibly be?


    If she was right about this, it might actually help to answer the master¡¯s third question. However, in order to find out for sure, she was going to have to go up there. T¨²eth stared at the stairs for several long seconds before finally standing up and walking toward the source of well over half of the mental conflict she had been dealing with since coming here.


    As soon as T¨²eth¡¯s head crested the divide between the first and second floor, she turned to look and saw the two human children sitting and facing each other. They turned to look at her, breaking off whatever it was they were doing before.


    The two children seemed to eye her suspiciously for a moment as she came in, before suddenly both of them turned their heads in the same direction. When T¨²eth followed their gaze, she saw a bed off to one side of the room. On top of that bed were the girls. They seemed to both be sleeping. She considered going over for a closer look, now could be the perfect opportunity for her to see them if they were asleep. However, right now, she had something she really had to confirm. For that, she was going to have to talk to her daughters¡¯ humans.


    She focused back in on the two of them, going over to the human children and kneeling down next to them. ¡°What were you just doing?¡± She asks them in as soothing a tone as she can manage. The two turn to look at each other, giving one another a look that seems somewhat urgent. After a quick exchange, one of them turns to her.


    ¡°Playing.¡± The child says.


    ¡°Can you show me what you were doing?¡± She asks them, hoping in her heart they will show her. If this proves out right, it really can be the breakthrough she was looking for.


    ¡°Umm...¡± the child who responded to her makes an unsure face and then holds a finger out toward their friend. The other child then does the same, and in a second they touch their index fingers together. From there, they extend the rest of their fingers and then begin carefully matching the rest of the fingers of their hand together. Once they have done this, they begin to do the same with their other respective hands.


    This... as T¨²eth watched the game that these children were playing, she had a feeling wash over her that was very similar to what she was feeling from downstairs. A frustrated feeling about having to micro-manage some very fine and detailed movements of some small hands that wouldn¡¯t fully cooperate with what you were trying to get them to do. That was precisely it!


    ¡°Thank you.¡± T¨²eth said and then got up, leaving immediately down the stairs with the excitement of the answer she had just gotten.


    [¡®at uus weard!]


    T¨²eth froze and looked back up the stairs for a moment, getting gasps from the humans who could still see her head cresting the floor as she hadn¡¯t fully descended the stairs yet. She decides to just keep walking as she recalls the memory of something the master had told her. It seemed the human children had some kind of language between them that was different from the normal language of the humans. It was something strange that the master even could not explain. However, the children had not learned enough Elven and the master had not learned enough of their language to possibly ask them about it in any real detail.


    It wasn¡¯t worth being bothered about this right now. T¨²eth had her answers. Now she just had to figure out what it meant.


    ¡°Well, it looks like you have made a discovery.¡± T¨²eth froze yet again at the bottom of the stairs, just as she had rounded the corner into the downstairs room. She could see the master there, still in his meditative posture seated on the floor, except that his eyes were now open and looking directly at her, leaving her stunned and rooted to her place.


    ¡°Ahh! Umm... yes!¡± She managed to squeak out.


    ¡°So, does what you learned help you to answer any of those questions?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± She could say that rather definitively.


    ¡°Well then, how close do you think you are to an answer?¡±


    ¡°Umm... well, I think I know something more about spirit energy now.¡± She said, considering all the humans she had been around up until now, and yet this was the first time she had ever felt anything like that so distinctly. At the same time though, she had never been around any single human or pair of humans able to produce such an extreme and overwhelming amount of the stuff.


    T¨²eth could see the master waiting on her to continue. She realized how easy it would probably be to say the wrong thing at this point though. She had to be careful not to jump to conclusions.


    ¡°Well, I never felt anything like this before, but, I could feel some of the human children¡¯s thoughts through their spirit energy. It must have been because of how strong their spirit energy was. Plants produce spirit energy too though, so, if there was a way to take in more of it...¡± No, this was it! It suddenly hit her! T¨²eth knew the answers to all three questions now.


    ¡°I¡¯m ready to answer!¡± She declared. ¡°The way we communicate with the nymphs and the way a mage communicates with plants is completely different. It¡¯s really not even the same magic at all. All we are doing is sending some mana into the tree, and that¡¯s enough to tell the nymph what we want.¡±


    ¡°Normal plants are different. I am not sure how it is a spell that a mage uses can get our thoughts to the plants, but if there is some way to use a spell to make it easier for us to read the spirit energy from the plants, maybe we can... well, first off, before that, maybe I should answer the question about spirit energy first. Spirit energy has something to do with the thoughts of whatever is producing it. So, if all spirit energy acts the same, if we can use some magic to make the spirit energy of plants stronger so we can sense it more easily, then a mage can know what it is a plant is thinking.¡±


    ¡°Yes, very good.¡± The master says, causing T¨²eth to almost collapse in the relief she feels from hearing she was right after sticking her neck out that far. ¡°Now then, would you like to move onto your second lesson immediately, or would you like to take a rest?¡±


    The master was in the process of standing up from his meditative pose. Meanwhile, what he said was ringing in T¨²eth¡¯s mind. Second lesson? Wasn¡¯t that a test? She had half expected him to say something about how now she was really his apprentice and she had passed the test or something of the sort. Second lesson? So, in other words, that meant that what she just did really was just a learning assignment? If this was how all of the lessons were going to go, T¨²eth was not sure how much of it she could take.


    ¡°I would like to move on now.¡± T¨²eth said for reasons she could not possibly comprehend. She was really exhausted just from this first lesson and really did want to recover, but something inside her had filled her with some kind of fear that said she could not allow herself to stop now. This thing was drowning out all of her hesitation and whispering to her that she had to become stronger as quickly as possible.


    Stopping to rest now would be admitting she was weak. She could not allow herself even a short moment of weakness right now. That¡¯s what this thing inside of her was saying.


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡°Yeah, I have absolutely no idea what I¡¯m looking at at all.¡± I say as I look around Gaerien¡¯s inner world. We seem to be in the middle of some kind of giant geode lined with pinkish crystals. There is a liquid that fills the lower half of the crystal laden sphere we are inside of that seems to faintly glow. It pulses regularly, and almost seems to be synchronized with the pulses of light that are coming from the gate that Gaerien says leads to my spirit.


    However, the most striking thing in this space aside from the gate to my spirit is hovering right above and half submerged in the glowing liquid. A single large perfectly clear crystal lined with glowing runes that seem to be etched inside of the massive gemstone. I don¡¯t know an awful lot about gemology, but I do know there are a fairly limited number of gems that are completely see-through clear, and all of them are considered rather high-end.


    The cheapest of the clear see-through gems is quartz. However, quartz being the fragile thing that it is will almost never be found in a perfectly clear state. It will always be blemished in some way giving it a smoky white quality. If quartz were perfectly clear, and especially if it were at this size, it would be worth the same amount as the same size of diamond. On that note, diamond was another one of the perfectly clear gemstones. The third was corundum, crystallized aluminum. If corundum had some impurities, it could turn blue or red and was known as ruby or sapphire in those states. However, pure colorless corundum would actually be the cheapest of all the possible clear crystals once you get to this size and level of purity just due to the fact it can be manufactured easily.


    There was something in me that was tempted to doubt the idea this thing could be corundum. I had noticed earlier from the violet Gaerien was wearing on that robe of hers, she seems to have some kind of thing for understated wealth symbols, the type that actually are quite outrageous to those who know what they are looking at but could be easily overlooked by those who don¡¯t. Unless it was some other kind of mineral that did not exist in the real world, I was going to lean on this thing being either diamond or quartz.


    ¡°Well then, I am sure you have plenty of questions,¡± Gaerien says, ¡°but since you have said yourself several times that you do not know even the first thing about cultivation, I should probably start at the absolute most basics and just talk about this space itself.


    Both my young and old self turn to face Gaerien as she begins to explain to us. ¡°So, this is my inner world. I have arranged it as a sea of mana. These walls around us are the manifestation of my spirit itself and it is comprised of spirit energy. The natural state of the boarder of your spirit is a blank pale white wall, and that¡¯s how it begins for everyone. However, as you begin cultivating, it will begin to naturally form impurities that take on the form of whatever your cultivation method is, thus why it began growing all these pink crystals. That represents the form of my cultivation.¡±


    ¡°Well, I should probably clarify that a bit. I say they are impurities, but it also represents a step further down my path. Those pink crystals lining the wall of my spirit also make any magic that I perform related to my path much stronger and easier to perform. However, it also makes other forms of magic more difficult. The size of your spirit from one end to the other represents the amount of potential for power you have in your spirit.¡±


    I look around. It really is an impressively large space as I observed before. So big in fact it¡¯s hard to get a real sense of scale. I can see from one end to the other, but I would certainly never want to swim the distance through that liquid down there. Although, I could probably consider walking it. Going on a rough estimate, I would say it was around 3 miles to any one wall with us at the center. This would mean this sphere was a total of 6 miles in diameter. It really was quite impressively large.


    ¡°Wow!¡± My younger self gawked. ¡°Does that mean that Gaerien is really powerful!?¡±


    ¡°Hmm... well, I don¡¯t really know how my power stacks up to the cultivators of this world, but back on Earth this wouldn¡¯t even be half as much power as you need to get close to achieving god status. Also, I was really only even able to make it this far this fast because of you, and also because of the fact that I have done this all once already. Anyway, I should probably mention that this arrangement you see here is very strongly oriented toward divine class magic. That is, magic that most mortals should not be able to do on their own and would need divine assistance to perform. I figured that it would be pretty useful when I try to go the final step of getting the worship of the god-born of this world if I could already use divine magic.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, the reason why a larger spirit is able to contain more power is because of what you see below you. That is liquefied mana. That¡¯s the form it takes when you accumulate it and store it inside of your body. Normally it would be a pale white or blue depending on the nature of your cultivation, however mine is glowing like that because of the divine nature of my cultivation. I have to alter and prepare my mana in a special way by mixing it with neutral energy. That¡¯s... actually why it is so important for me to have you creating that hole in the world barrier. The world rules of this world really don¡¯t seem to like me making this stuff at all.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± I say as my older self, ¡°I guess a mere mortal having god powers would qualify as breaking the rules after all.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, right¡± Gaerien agrees with an almost mocking sarcastic tone. ¡°I¡¯m certain the gods of this world would not like it much. Anyway, the crystal at the center is actually the most important thing here. That is the control center where my power is focused and all my spells are written. That¡¯s those glowing runes inside of the crystal. Those are the innate spells to my cultivation, and I form them during my meditation. The spells written inside of there will be my absolute most powerful spells I can use, and it also becomes easier for me to use them.¡±


    ¡°Just out of curiosity, what is that crystal made out of?¡± I ask her. It had been bothering me ever since I saw it.


    ¡°It is made of pure condensed spirit energy¡± She said. ¡°There is nothing else the central crystal of a mage¡¯s cultivation could be made from. It has to be spirit energy. Spirit energy is the energy that relays thoughts and intentions. As such, spirit energy is needed to convert the mana into a spell.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± I say while looking around this area again. ¡°Well, I think I have learned one thing by coming here. Your method of cultivation is completely useless to me, and if I were to ever want to attempt anything like it I would have to completely drop my current meditation.¡±


    ¡°What? Really!? Well, I guess it wouldn¡¯t be too unusual for a high grade meditation to be incompatible with the principles of another, but why do you say completely useless?¡±Gaerien asked in an unsettled tone.


    ¡°That!¡± My younger self gestured downward before my older self could manage a more dignified version of the same thing. I guess she got too excited and wanted to be the one to be dramatic about the whole thing, and she immediately turned to look back at my older self with a not so apologetic smile.


    I, as my older self, just look back at her and then back to Gaerien. ¡°My meditation will not allow me to store energy of any kind in any form. It relies completely on the idea that energy does not like to remain stagnant. It forces the energy out of my body to be replaced by new energy flowing in.¡±


    ¡°Ok, well then, maybe you don¡¯t use the spiritual reservoir method, you can still pick up something from the crystal I bet. Just try and capture and use some of the energy from your meditation and use it as it passes through your body instead of capturing it and storing it like everyone else would.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... yes... but how would I manage something like that?¡± I ask, considering the crystal at the center of Gaerien¡¯s spirit. Somehow, as soon as I thought to go somewhere inside of this space, I was instantly there already without having to waste the time moving from one point to another. It wasn¡¯t so much that I had traveled there, and more like the location had come to me. It was quite the interesting experience.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really know a whole lot about your meditation, so I guess you will have to figure out most of what will work on your own and form your own path.¡±


    ¡°Alright, one more question. What language are those runes in? It looks a little like sand skrit, not that I know that ancient Sumerian language very well.¡±


    ¡°Well, yes. It is. It was one of the first written languages on Earth, so that wound up being what most of the cultivators of Earth used.¡±


    ¡°By the way you say that, can the spells in the crystal be written in any language?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but it is probably better not to make it in your native tongue. But, it should still be a language you understand well. Do you know any second languages from Earth?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know a few, and I think I know one in particular that would be perfect.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡±


    ¡°But, I still don¡¯t really know where to start.¡±


    ¡°Well, how about I help you out? I was able to form that door between our spirits because we were already connected since being reborn in this world, our spirits were attached for a while as we came across the barrier. You ought to be able to create the same kind of door for me on your end, and then I should be able to help you get started.¡±


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 Chapter 29: Cultivation for everyone

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    T¨²eth could feel the tension as she watched the master. She was still mentally exhausted from the task he had just assigned her, to answer three questions that once answered would give her the basic idea of how to perform a spell. This, she assumed, would be the first basic spell she was to learn. ¡°Well then, how about we start with this? Nymph, please show yourself to our guest.¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± At the master¡¯s words, T¨²eth was somewhat surprised to see a small glowing child-like sprite appear from the wall. She had seen a nymph create a face on the wood of the Lakira tree before in order to communicate with the house¡¯s inhabitant, but something like this was certainly quite new to her. She had only heard of dryads being able to manifest a form like this, but the master had quite clearly called this a nymph. ¡°Good to meet you!¡± The child-like being greeted her. ¡°I¡¯ve already seen you before, but I guess this is the first time you¡¯ve really met me. I am the spirit of the magus master Eirlathion¡¯s house. I would normally demand to be addressed as such by outsiders, but since you have been accepted as the master¡¯s apprentice you have the right to simply address me as nymph, just as you would the spirit of your own house.¡±


    T¨²eth could only stare in open-mouthed amazement at the words of the spirit of her master¡¯s house. It was generally acceptable to simply call the spirit of a house ¡°nymph,¡± but in the case of the spirits of powerful individuals such as the elder or a powerful magus that was never acceptable. Even the spirit of the house of such an individual must be shown respect and be called by a name that acnowledges their master. For her to be given the honor of foregoing the spirit¡¯s name, it meant that she was fully accepted as a member of this powerful house, and the permission had just come from the spirit themself.


    ¡°I... no! I couldn¡¯t do that!¡± T¨²eth protested the spirit¡¯s words, looking to the master almost in desperation, begging him with her eyes to revolk the words that his house spirit just said. He did not deny them though. He did not back them up either. He did not even attempt to assure T¨²eth it was fine. He just seemed to look at her with a satisfied face.


    ¡°So, you can see the spiritual form of a nymph.¡± He said. ¡°A normal person is not able to do that.¡±


    Yes! That was right! T¨²eth had been so distracted by the meaning behind the Nymph¡¯s remarks that it had almost caused her to forget about the even stranger thing that was right in front of her face!


    ¡°Only a mage who has developed their spirit to the extent where it can start to support a spell of the third rank can see spirits in their spiritual form such as Nymph.¡± The master said, looking at her approvingly. ¡°I thought you might be able to see them. Aerien was also able to see Nymph¡¯s spiritual form last night. It was a bit surprising, but when I saw that I figured out a little bit more about what kinds of changes the Heaven¡¯s Fall seemed to have caused. The intense spirit energy that was around at that time seems to have infused itself directly into your spirit T¨²eth. You may have not formed any vessels for your spells yet, but the spirit that houses them has already been remodeled to quite the extent. Normally a mage must develop their spells, and then in turn use their spells to reinforce their spirit. You, right now, have gained the ability to skip a great deal of the process involved in developing your magic. If you wanted to, and had the ability, I am certain you would be able to at least form a rank three spell right now as your first spell, never even needing to bother with an apprentice¡¯s spell in your life.¡±


    ¡°Wh... what? What are you saying?¡± T¨²eth responded. She had heard every word the master had just said to her, but not a single syllable of the entire thing seemed real. No, it couldn¡¯t be real. This kind of thing really didn¡¯t just happen. It must be a dream of some sort. That had to be it. Not just asked to be a mage¡¯s apprentice, but to hear she was already an advanced mage without even practicing magic a day in her life? Yeah, that has to be it. This has got to be a dream.


    ¡°T¨²eth, are you certain you do not need a break?¡± The master asked. ¡°I know this is a lot to take in, you can sit down for a little while. After this, I will be teaching you how to actually form a spell vessel within your spirit, so you will need to be paying attention.¡±


    ¡°No, go on.¡± T¨²eth responded. Despite how off balance she was with this whole thing, her mind simply refused to allow her to stop. In fact, it was almost as if every time the master suggested she take a rest, this thing simply welled up inside her as though it was panicked at the idea of stopping and any objection she may have had before that was simply cast aside as though it was insignificant.


    The master looked at her skeptically, but eventually he decided to continue. ¡°Alright Nymph, thank you for your help. Please go back to watching the girls.¡±


    ¡°Ok, they just woke up from a short nap a bit ago anyway, I probably should keep an eye on them.¡± the spirit of the master¡¯s house said before charging into a nearby wall and vanishing from sight.


    ¡°Now then, let¡¯s begin the real lessons.¡± The master said as he pulled out a chair and took a seat, gesturing for T¨²eth to do the same. ¡°So, now you know that spirit energy is the energy of thought. How about mana energy then?¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s the energy of magic.¡± T¨²eth answered this question easily. The specifics about the nature of spirit energy were not very well talked about, but mana energy being the energy necessary for magic is something all children hear as they grow up. This is also why the children are taught to be cautious of humans. Humans are unable to produce their own mana, and human mages would gladly have an elf as a slave in order to aid in their ability to develop and restore their spells. There should not be a single elf who does not know about this.


    ¡°That is correct,¡± the master says. ¡°Elves produce mana as easily as breathing though. So, why is it that your average elf cannot just cast any spell they want with all of their mana?¡±


    ¡°Come on, that¡¯s not even hard!¡± T¨²eth protests the question her master just asked her. ¡°You also need...¡± T¨²eth stops speaking mid thought as she realizes the direction her master is probably going with this, and she is already despirately wishing she could stuff her impolite comment from a second ago back in her mouth. This question may be easy, but the question that¡¯s going to come right after this one is definitely going to be another one that causes her head to hurt.


    ¡°T¨²eth?¡± Her master calls her with a concerned tone.


    ¡°Oh! Sorry! You also need spirit energy to form a spell. You need both mana and spirit energy.¡± She hastily finished the answer she had previously frozen in the middle of. After this, she was bracing herself for what was going to come next.


    ¡°Hmm... alright then.¡± Her master was looking at her with concern in his eyes. Never the less, he went on to ask his next question. ¡°So, knowing what you know now about spirit energy, why do you suppose that is? If mana is the energy of magic, what does spirit energy have to do with magic?¡±


    T¨²eth was a little surprised at her master¡¯s question. It wasn¡¯t because the question was unexpected. As a matter of fact, it was almost exactly the question she was expecting. However, there was something about how he had phrased it that just made it seem a lot easier than she was anticipating. It even almost felt like he had somehow secretly told her the answer already embedded in the way he asked the question. It just made all the pieces fit together.


    ¡°Umm... maybe the spirit energy somehow controls the magic?¡± She speculates. The master nods, but seems to keep looking at her with a look of expectation, urging her to go on. In other words, she was on the right track, but that was not a complete enough answer. ¡°So, the spirit... it is the energy of thought, so you need it to tell the mana what it is supposed to be doing, and that¡¯s how you would make a spell.¡±


    Her master gave a nod after she finished speaking this time. In other words, he had accepted that answer this time. ¡°Indeed.¡± He said. ¡°This is the reason why a mage needs to build up spirit energy well in excess of what a normal elf requires to survive. The body of your spirit is comprised of spirit energy. However, in order to use magic, you must gather extra and crystallize it in the center of your spirit. Then, you use this captured and crystallized spirit energy to tell your mana what to do. This is the essence of what a spell is.¡±


    ¡°Now then,¡± her master continued, ¡°next I will teach you how to accumulate and crystallize the spirit energy. Fortunately, this house happens to have the very best conditions for gathering spiritual energy, those children produce plenty of it.¡±


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡®Is that all? He must be leaving something out.¡¯ Gaerien scoffed at our mother¡¯s lessons over our mental link. When we had woken up from our trip into Gaerien¡¯s mental world, we heard our mother¡¯s lessons beginning. As such, we decided to stop and listen before going on with anything else.


    I could sorta see the source of her disappointment, Ether guy really hadn¡¯t explained anything that was new to me either. I had already learned almost everything he had just said from Gaerien already. Although, I do have to greatly admire Ether guy¡¯s use of the Socratic method. Plato and his mentor never existed in this world, but it seems that with such a powerful instructional tool it is inevitable that it would be independently discovered in another culture separated by an entire world.


    Right now, our mother was being given a far more valuable lesson than whatever magic Ether guy was imparting to her. He was teaching her how to think. He was teaching her how to seek answers for herself, and how to reason through problems on her own. The only time he ever provided any information for her was when it was something she truly had no way of knowing before hand.


    Really. The more I listen to the guy interact with our mother, the more respect I have for him. If only there were not that one matter.


    I cast a glance over to the boys who where interacting with us now that we were ¡°awake,¡± and they had been listening in as well. (That¡¯s kinda cool, it¡¯s like we¡¯re in one of those cultivation novels!) Rolwen said a line that peaked my interest.


    (What!?) I asked with a tone far more harsh than I had expected.


    (What are you talking about?) Levin followed up.


    (It¡¯s a kind of thing on the internet, Chinese based webnovels. Uhh... do you all know what web novels are?)


    This was a new concept on me. However, now that he had explained this much my mind began to catch up a little bit. Gaerien had explained to me before about how, with spirit energy being the energy of thought, Earth having so much of the stuff stagnant allowed thoughts and memories from outside to easily reverberate through the world. As I understand it, this cultivation stuff seems to be some kind of standard way things work outside of Earth. As such, it really is little surprise there is some kind of fiction that talks about it. Perhaps the reason it¡¯s not more widespread is because of how esoteric the concept is. As such, naturally most artists would ignore it rather than delve into it once they have picked up the concept from ¡°outside.¡±


    As we had provided no response to Rolwen¡¯s question, merely looking at him with slack-jawed expressions, he quickly began to explain basically that web novels were the newest wild west of free-lance book publishing over the internet, anyone who had a harebrained idea could publish it on the internet. That¡¯s how I interpreted what he told us anyway. He seemed to gush on for quite a while about his favorite series he would read back on Earth and wondering how the lives of the characters had progressed since he was gone.


    (Ok, that¡¯s cool and all Rolwen,) I finally interrupted him, (but...)


    (So, what does Earth say about) ¡°culwaton.¡±Gaerien interrupted me, not even seeming to care at all about how badly her baby mouth had garbled the word ¡®cultivation.¡¯


    (Uhh...) Rolwen responded, slightly at a loss. (Well, I don¡¯t read much of them myself. They are kinda niche, not a lot of people can follow them with all the meditation and stuff, but it¡¯s supposed to be you can actually become a god by meditating or something like that.)


    ¡®Hmm... of course the humans have a short attention span for the important stuff.¡¯Gaerien complained to me secretly over our mental link. ¡®maybe I should start giving them my lessons as well.¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m not really sure how exactly you are going to be able to get across complex subjects like that through baby babble.¡¯I respond. ¡®Also, that would mean revealing your status as a goddess to them. Not that that¡¯s bad, but we will have to watch how we handle the reveal. Well, considering Rolwen¡¯s reaction here, maybe it actually won¡¯t be that hard a reveal after all.¡¯


    (Anyway,) Rolwen decides to start filling the airspace with words again. Gaerien and I had gone mysteriously quiet, and Levin of course didn¡¯t seem to have much to say about what Rolwen was on about. (What Ether guy was just saying to your guys¡¯ mommy sounds a lot like the stuff I hear about is supposed to happen in these cultivation worlds.)


    (Well, maybe we should learn it too.) I ¡°suggest.¡± (First though, I want to talk about something. I think we should stop keeping secrets, and I think Gaerien and I should start.)


    Author''s note


    Another somewhat early chapter. I have had the releases for the Subscribers ready to go since last night and finally decided to post them after I got home from a family cinco-de-mayo party. (It was not really a fun party, but that''s a personal matter.)


    Anyway, after releasing the subscribers'' chapters, I did not have the patience to keep to the schedule here either, so you all get a surprise early chapter. (I don''t think anyone''s going to complain.)


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 Chapter 30: Revealing of secrets

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    (So, as I understand it, our world was a culti[barely intelligible] world too before this barrier was raised) I explain. We had been spending a while trying to catch Levin and Rolwen up on where Gaerien and I are on the subject of all this stuff. It has been a little difficult too. We have a bit of a distraction from the voices downstairs, especially since they are also talking about a subject we have some interest in hearing. Admittedly, we could have likely chosen a better time to talk about this. Perhapse our baby brains are affecting our sense of prudence.


    (And, Gaerien was even a god from before then?) Rolwen asks to confirm.


    (Goddess!) Levin corrects him.


    (Well¡­ fallen goddess.) Gaerien further corrects the record with a dejected face.


    (She couldn¡¯t get wor¡­ err¡­ wor-shi-p¡­)


    (Worshipers?) Rolwen interrupted me.


    (Shut up! I) ¡°uss sawain id at aimmm¡± I was Ok, although mildly irritated, with those interruptions before when I really couldn¡¯t say the words. That time, however, I felt like I really could have said the word myself but he had cut me off anyway.


    (Wow! Are you crying!?) Levin noticed the tears in my eyes and pulled himself up to the bed in order to comfort me.


    (It¡¯s this STUPID body¡¯s fault!) I yell. Seriously, don¡¯t you guys dare hold this against me. You are in the same situation, so you ought to know better. (Just¡­ keep talking.) I urge them to act as though this isn¡¯t even happening while Levin takes a seat on the bed, pulls me into his lap, and begins gently stroking my back. Having him do this actually is quite comforting, I can feel myself calming down already.


    Rolwen, the party ultimately at fault, looks around in confusion, glancing over to Gaerien as though searching for some kind of help. With me in this state and Levin being the one who¡¯s helping me, that really puts the pressure on him to be the one to come up with a new subject after that landmine there.


    (Umm¡­ uhh¡­ so, that means God is real then?) He finally says, making himself seem somewhat unintelligent.


    (You mean THAT god?) Gaerien says. (Yeah, we already told you he¡¯s the one who made the barrier.)


    (Uhh¡­ Yeah! I mean! Just¡­)


    (Wait, I just had a thought!) Levin interrupts, ultimately rescuing Rolwen from this situation. (Ether guy said someone named Falmarin was supposed to be invisible and watching us! Is this Ok for us to be¡­)


    (It¡¯s fine, we¡¯re talking English) I conclude. (Ether guy said she was the spirit of this tree, so she shouldn¡¯t know English even as well as Ether guy does. She will just maybe tell Ether guy if we get hurt or something)


    Wait¡­ tree spirit? That would probably make Falmarin either a nymph or a dryad. And wait, I was thinking that was her name because of how Levin just said it. Well, plus my encounter with it last night. If I remember back to how Ether guy was talking about it with my mommy¡­ wait¡­ mommy? I just said that in my own mind! Whatever. I¡¯ll blame it on my younger self. Rolwen and Levin use that term all the time anyway. Back to the subject though. When Ether guy was talking to her about it, it did not sound like Falmarin was a name of a person, but rather the way they used it made it sound more like the name of a species.


    Well, whatever. That¡¯s not worth worrying about too much. We will probably be encountering this ¡°Falmarin¡± more frequently now that she and Ether guy have figured out I can see her, and Ether guy will probably be talking about her more openly now. I¡¯ll be able to figure out whether falmarin translates to Nymph or Dryad and also how the term is used culturally in the language by the elves.


    (Umm¡­ anyway, so it¡¯s fine if we speak English?) Rolwen confirms.


    (Yeah) I assure him.


    (Well then, what I meant before was that, there were gods in our world and cultivation is how they became gods?)


    (Yeah, that¡¯s what we¡¯ve been telling you!) Gaerien replies in an exasperated sounding tone.


    (So, was God, I mean, that god, like¡­ super powerful or something?) He continues to probe.


    Gaerien has an annoyed look on her face at this. She even glares at me for some reason. Is she actually irritated about our earlier conversation inside her mental world? Probably she¡¯s just being jealous of God. She¡¯s really going to have to get over that.


    (He made the world barrier by himself.) She responds. (That¡¯s¡­ just crazy crazy levels of power! It) ¡°nowaly ake sebal ods a¡±


    (Wow! Wow! Gaerien! Slow down! I can¡¯t understand you!) Rolwen cuts Gaerien off as she starts talking faster and faster, causing her baby babble to become incoherent.


    (I HATE being a baby!) She yells, hitting the bed with her hands and looking intensely about at all three of us. (I wish I could make myself grow up faster. Maybe I could if this was a human body, but I don¡¯t know how to cultivate in a way like that for this elf body!)


    (We can grow up faster with cultivation?) Levin said, his ears perking up and looking excitedly toward Gaerien, a sentiment that seemed to be shared by Rolwen as well.


    (That¡¯s too advanced for you!) Gaerien shoots them down (You would be full grown by the time you could learn how. And also, you¡¯re human! I¡¯m elf! Stop com[unintelligible])


    (Uhh.. you mean you¡¯re AN elf?) Levin corrects her.


    (SHUT UUUP!) Gaerien yells, slapping the bed again toward Levin and I.


    (Calm down!) I tell her. Was Gaerien starting to throw a temper tantrum here? Maybe this was a consequence of her not having fully accepted her baby self. I would have to talk to the boys a little more, but it¡¯s actually possible SHE may be the one who¡¯s weird for having only one mind inside that reincarnated baby body. Although, the boys had said that while they felt they had two selves they did not feel they were as distinct as they were for me.


    I look over to Rolwen. He seems to get the idea and climbs up with the rest of us on the bed and begins to pull Gaerien into his lap.


    (No! No! NOOO!) She struggles with him as he goes through the robotic motions of imitating what Levin is doing with me as he looks over with an uncertain face. (Mmmm¡­ I really hate this¡­) Gaerien sits in Rolwen¡¯s lap, actually crossing her arms and looking like the grumpiest baby I have ever seen. I really have to hold myself back from laughing, knowing that would just upset her all over again. Despite Rolwen¡¯s somewhat clumsy ministrations, it does seem to be having an effect. Of course, the fact that having someone treat her like a baby is calming her down on a surface level seems to be torture for poor Gaerien on a deeper psychological level.


    (Anyway, I also wanted to talk about telling Ether guy our secret too) I told them, letting the other shoe drop now that we seemed to be on the same page here. (Not about Gaerien, just about our previous life thing.)


    (Ummm¡­ really? I mean, I guess¡­) Rolwen said. (I don¡¯t think anything bad ever happens when reincarnators tell people about it, as long as they can make people believe them.)


    Well, it was good to have agreement, but something felt really off about what Rolwen just said. It felt like there was something in there, so I carefully in my mind. ¡®I don¡¯t think anything bad ever happens when reincarnators tell people about it.¡¯ Ever¡­ reincarnators¡­ web novels¡­ I have to shake my head when I put the pieces together. I can tell this kid is probably going to be trouble for us in the future. It is really not going to be good if he has trouble realizing this is the real world and not some fantasy. Although, hopefully growing up from an infant will help him get the picture on his own. If not, well, so long as we stick together I will have plenty of time to work on him.


    With no strong protests, it seems we have reached a decision that we would try to find some way to tell Ether guy about us being reincarnated from a previous life. That is, as soon as we could figure out a way to do it in a way he was likely to believe us. Our lack of Elven vocabulary was still going to be a massive barrier in this.


    I was afraid they may have had some objection due to him being an elf, the same people who took them away from their families, and that might have made them sore about the idea of letting on their secret to such people. Maybe I was just projecting my own feelings onto them? Or rather, maybe these kids were being logical. It would definitely make a lot of things easier if our caretaker at the very least was on the same page as us, and Ether guy had already revealed himself to be the type who would likely keep this sort of thing between us if we let him in on it. I really hope their reason was one of those two scenarios. I won¡¯t know what to think if it¡¯s because Rolwen was going along with the plot of one of his web novels.


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    ¡°You seem to be doing well,¡± Eirlathion said to his new apprentice. He was loathe to break her concentration now that she was on the right track, but he had to give her a little more in the way of instruction before he could leave her to her own devices. Her progress was important, but it was not important to the extent he was willing to wait here until she had finished a round of spirit cultivation.


    ¡°Once you have collected enough spirit energy, you can begin to form a crystal from it. It ought to be large enough to handle apprentice level spells within about a week if you come here every day to gather your spirit energy. Do not attempt to fill it on your own though. When it is complete, I will have to instruct you on how to recognize your own mana from the mana of others. It is actually quite important that your spell vessel be filled with only your own mana.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± T¨²eth, his apprentice, responded with an acknowledging grunt. Her eyes fluttered open after this and she looked up at him. ¡°So, what are we going to do now master?¡± She seemed to be looking around the room. Right now, she was seated in the middle of his downstairs cultivation mat, situated in the alcove of this floor. The only other real seating area was the table, which was not so ideal of a place to go into a cultivate meditation. It was not impossible, especially with how dense the spirit energy was in this house, but a lack of proper posture would harm the ability to fully focus and get the maximum effect possible.


    She seemed to be quite self-conscious of the fact that she was currently occupying the spot that was rightfully his to use. From what he had seen from her, if he even hinted he had intended to focus on his own cultivation, she would instantly skitter away from that spot and respectfully bow and scrape to him as she made way for him. Being held in such high regards was both a boon and a vice at times.


    ¡°I believe I should go up and check on the children.¡± He said. ¡°I heard them getting unusually rowdy earlier. You may come along if you would like, but if you would rather stay down here and work on forming your spell vessel then that is also a fine use of your time. From now on, this alcove is yours any time you are here.¡± The instant he made her this offer, he could see the unrest and the protest building in her demeanor. ¡°Don¡¯t be concerned,¡± he immediately quelled her unrest. ¡°I have my own still in my lab upstairs. You may use this one at your leisure without concern.¡±


    He fixed her with a troubled gaze for a while after saying this. He had wanted to invite her to come upstairs with him, but felt it was too early to push her into something like this. It was probably fine. She had gone up there on her own earlier anyway. That¡¯s good enough for today. She will be in this house frequently enough from here on if she has any real desire to become a magus, so there will be plenty of opportunity for her to simply go up those stairs should the desire ever strike her.


    ¡°Very well, I believe that is as far as our lesson can progress for today.¡± He said. ¡°You will have to at least develop your apprentice level spell vessel before we can progress further.¡± He gave a satisfied nod at those words and, with that, retreated toward the stairs.


    An idea suddenly struck him upon reaching the foot of the stairs. He placed his hand on the wall and muttered in a low voice, ¡°Nymph, please show yourself.¡±


    ¡°What is it master?¡± Came an equally quiet response. Eirlathion looked about for a moment, only to find Nymph had appeared only as a face in a knot of wood.


    ¡°No, I mean completely show yourself. I would like you to be next to me when I go upstairs, I want to test something and I really can¡¯t believe I hadn¡¯t thought of it before.¡± Eirlathion groaned inward a bit at Nymph¡¯s apparent misconception of a need for secrecy from his low muttering. Then again, it was probably better to assume the need for secrecy than to ruin the secret should there be a future scenario where such a thing is actually needed.


    With Nymph obediently hovering next to him now, Eirlathion ascended the stairs. He looked about upon reaching the second floor and found all of the children on the bed, the boys holding the girls as they usually did. He smiled as he approached them, he was trying to do his best to look natural. Meanwhile, he was studying their eyes. Or, to be more precise, he was watching to see the direction each child was looking.


    Gaerien, and Eirlathion knew it was Gaerien because she was being held by Rolwen, was staring at the bed. There was nothing that could be concluded from that. As for the boys though, both of them had rather surprised looks on their faces and were looking with quite a bit of interest over Eirlathion¡¯s left shoulder, directly at the spot where Nymph was hovering.


    The put-on smile Eirlathion had been putting on transformed into a genuine smile of satisfaction at this. He had only just thought of this after using this as a demonstration for T¨²eth, but what had really set it off was the fact that Aerien was able to see Nymph last night. On the subject of Aerien, her eyes flickered over to Nymph for only a fraction of a second before she looked up at Levin and Rolwen. After this, she turned back and locked eyes directly with Eirlathion. Was she upset with him? More to the point, if she could be upset with him over this, it meant that she was aware of exactly what he was doing.


    Well, he couldn¡¯t really do anything about it how she felt about him, but once again this child is quite frightening with how incredibly intelligent she is at such a young age. As he was pondering over this, he almost missed some movement from Gaerien. It seems she noticed something was going on, and she looked up to the same location the boys were looking. After that, a very happy look flashed across her face and then she looked directly at her sister.


    ¡°ii.. at vamawin?¡± ([Is that Nymph?]) Hearing these words from Gaerien was enough to make Eirlathion pause in his tracks. It had been a little while since he had worked on learning the language that the boys spoke, but he was pretty sure he knew the simple words she had just used. Furthermore, although it was definitely a mess of baby talk, he was quite certain she had just said ¡°nymph.¡± That was not a word he had really taught any of them before. In fact, the only time he had said the word to any of them was to Aerien last night. Again, Aerien¡¯s intelligence for her age was amazing to a scary extent.


    ¡°Did Aerien tell you about that?¡± Eirlathion decided to hide his shock behind a happy face he put on for the children as he used a praising voice toward Gaerien. ¡°Yes, this is Nymph. Nymph, how about you say hello to everyone?¡±


    ¡°Hello. I¡¯m really happy everyone is able to see me. I¡¯m nymph, the spirit of master Eirlathion¡¯s house. Since you all live here, you can also call me nymph. Although, it would probably be more appropriate for the humans to address me by my proper name, which is...¡±


    ¡°No, they can call you nymph as well.¡± Eirlathion cut them off. ¡°They¡¯re all too young to understand, we don¡¯t want to confuse them like that.¡± Yes, there is no way the girls would understand, and the boys would likely end up teaching the girls to call Nymph the same thing they were supposed to call him. And besides that, it might actually not be so bad giving them the privilege and treating them as family, these boys were rather extraordinary themselves after all. They might do rather well being trained as mages, his own master ought to know a thing or two about human cultivation methods. He ought to still be residing in the capital, so they would have the opportunity to speak with him once they got to the great tree and talked with the queen.


    When Eirlathion turned his attention back to the children, Aerien was fixing him with a look that seemed incredibly inappropriate for a baby. It was not the slightly upset look from a moment ago, this look seemed to have a very deep complexity of emotions to it. If it were any other infant in the world he would have dismissed the emotions on her face as his imagination, and even for the amazing child that Aerien was he still did not understand what he was seeing. It seemed to be a mixture of... what could best be described as disappointment, and some other deep seething type of anger that comes from a very dark place.


    No, certainly not. He must be reading into it a little too much. ¡°What¡¯s wrong Aerien?¡± He asks her.


    ([Nothing.]) She responds, and then sends a very adult version of an upset look toward Nymph. This look is only on her face for a second, but it reveals that there was something she really didn¡¯t like about them. That look though quickly crumbled into that previous look of disappointment.


    Eirlathion didn¡¯t understand any of this at all. Maybe he was just reading too much into it. She was likely just upset about how Nymph had pointed her out to him last night. Or, maybe... she was a very intelligent girl. It was more likely she was angry about Nymph watching her at night, and the fact that Eirlathion had closed off the stairs leading down to her for the first time since she had come here after he took her back up to the nursery floor.


    Yes, that seemed like the most reasonable explanation. She was looking at him angrily when he came in as well. Yeah, he had gotten into the habit of seeing Aerien as such an incredibly intelligent child, but even if she was so smart that she could see why he had shown Nymph to the boys, it did not make sense for her to be angry over that. Yes, the whole thing was probably just because she was upset about last night.


    Well, she will get over it eventually then. He had hoped to be able to go up to his lab and leave Nymph visibly around for the children to get familiar with, but he might have to allow Aerien to calm down a little and not push things. Well, if it¡¯s just her being upset, she ought to calm down by tomorrow.


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 Chapter 31: A call to arms

    New subscriber acknowledgements.


    Thank you to Rebecca for joining as a subscriber.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I took a calm breath in and a slow breath out as Ether guy left the room and that falmarin thing disappeared. From the moment I had laid eyes on that thing it seems to have been finding ways to annoy me. I had remembered what it had told my mother, it seemed the right to simply call it ¡°falmarin,¡± which I had now all but confirmed was the name of its race and not its actual name, was considered to be some kind of privilege. A privilege she was about to deny to the boys before Ether guy had interrupted her, and by the sounds of it this was on account of them being human.


    What¡¯s more, Ether guy¡¯s thoughts on the matter had betrayed him through his speech as well. His reason for denying it seemed to be related more to it being something that might confuse us for being so young rather than any actual consideration toward the treatment of the boys.


    Well, there was a saying in the old world among the well educated students of history. When oppression is in the air we breathe, it is as unnoticeable as water is to a fish. The both of them are likely not even aware of the fact that they were doing anything wrong. Even George Washington, the man who was such a paragon of virtue that he rejected the role of King of the United States when it was offered to him, did not understand until very late in his life why it was that his slaves would value their own freedom over what he viewed as the good treatment they received with him as their master.


    No, Ether guy and this falmarin were not bad people, they just lived in a bad world. Fortunately, the boys didn¡¯t really seem to have taken notice of the slight they were just given. Well, if they were unaware of it, it was probably best for now to keep things that way. It would only create needless tension to bring their attention to it, it was not like we could do anything to change the situation in the near future.


    This did raise the question though. How were Rolwen and Levin¡¯s brothers and sisters back at the nursery doing? What kind of treatment were they receiving? They did not seem to be treated poorly from what I saw when I was living there. In fact, it seemed the place was handled like some kind of daycare and they were rather well taken care of. But, this did not change the fact that they were kidnapped from their home. In fact, no matter how well they were treated here, their position was clearly that of slaves or, at best, pets to the elves.


    As I was in the middle of considering these things, I heard a loud sound. It sounded like the cry of some large animal a great distance off. A deep, soft, almost sorrowful sounding cry that reminded me of the sounds that a whale in the ocean may make. The sound itself reverberated through my entire body, and all the heads in the room turned toward the direction we had thought the sound may have come from. There was, however, a wall in the way and no means for us to see past it.


    (What was that?) Levin said.


    (I hear something!) Gaerien announced, pressing a hand to the side of her head.


    (Yeah, we all heard that. What is that! It sounded huge!) Rolwen spoke up.


    (No no! Like a voice!) Gaerien forcefully corrected Rolwen¡¯s interpretation. (It¡¯s like¡­ If I was still a goddess, I would say it¡¯s like someone was praying, but¡­)


    Someone praying? The low moan of the gigantic unseen creature¡¯s cry gently rocked the entire house again. Praying¡­ Gaerien had told me before that prayer was the means by which a god absorbed spirit energy. When a person prayed, they directed their thoughts and their will toward the god they worshiped, and the god was able to take in this spirit energy and it would strengthen them. She was not a god anymore though, she was an elf. An elf was a fey¡­ and the fey absorbed spirit energy freely¡­ could it be?


    (You¡¯re hearing a voice in your head!?) Rolwen asks. The prejudices against ¡°voices in your head¡± could be heard dripping from his tone, especially due to his phrasing choice, but given the situation his face quickly reveals that he has thought better of doubting her. Rather, his skepticism is replaced very quickly with curiosity. (W¡­ well, what¡¯s it saying?)


    (I don¡¯t know! There¡¯s too much stray spirit energy to make it out clearly! Something about¡­ heaven¡¯s scar, and¡­ enemy.)


    Too much spirit energy? Yeah, we were right next to Rolwen and Levin after all, but I was probably the biggest culprit in the matter. My spirit energy was not even my own! The spirit energy I was pulling in and releasing from elsewhere was probably pretty darn chaotic. The situation would probably improve a great deal if I were to cut the flow. And also, there¡¯s a good chance I might be able to hear this ¡°voice¡± Gaerien was talking about as well.


    After a few times of voluntarily shutting off my meditation, I had reached a point now where I could do it without having to put some thought in my head such as my desire to, say, hear this voice. Well, putting the distracting thought in my mind did still help a little, but as soon as I became aware I needed to shut it off it stopped very quickly.


    (There!) Gaerien cheered in time, but her voice was drowned out by another reverberating low cry of the unseen creature. This time however, I was also able to hear the ¡°voice.¡±


    ¡®The enemy, the tainted ones. This enemy is in the forest. The vile beasts twisted by the dark energies have come for the Scar of Heaven. They shall not have it! Destroy the enemy and drive them back into the dark. The Scar of Heaven is in our forest, it shall be ours. Gather in the south. Defend the Scar of Heaven.¡¯


    The enemy!? Scar of Heaven!? Neither of those things sounded good at all. And what was this voice!? It was trying to talk to us as though it had the authority to give orders to all the creatures in the forest. No¡­ all the fey in the forest. It had delivered the message in such a way that only the fey could hear or understand what was being said!


    No! I immediately began my meditation again, calling down the energy of heaven just to shut out this voice and its terrifying message. It was talking about war! A war over a piece of land. A resource war, by the sounds of it. I did not know or care about any of this stuff, but by the sounds of it, things beyond my control that don¡¯t even matter to me were about to intrude into my life and may even attempt to take my loved ones away from me. It was by no choice of my own, but I could not even do anything to escape from it!


    The situation was so unfair. In a situation like this, I was in a position where I really wished I actually was just a normal baby. That way, at the very least, I wouldn¡¯t have to live with the burden of knowing what was about to come. If I was just a baby, this would have just been a scary voice that I would be upset about for a moment but then forget about a few hours later. However, as things were¡­


    Once again, my fears and concerns became too much for my infant body to handle, and in a second I was wailing out my cries of fear. It was probably the same thing I would be doing even without my previous life knowledge, but the motivation behind the fear I was feeling now was very different from what a baby simply disturbed by those loud cries and the message behind them would be scared of.


    -


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    After the master had left up the stairs, T¨²eth was at something of a loss for what she should be doing at this point. The master had said she could remain here and pursue her cultivation. He also seemed to welcome her to follow him up to see the girls. In fact, he had made it quite clear that was an open and even encouraged opportunity she could pursue at any time. She had been terrified of the idea yesterday, and she was still a little uncertain. However, now that she was here and she had the chance to think about it, the idea was always looming in the back of her head. However, she would always find some way to brush it away.


    ¡®I don¡¯t have a right to be their mother anymore.¡¯ She criticizes herself. ¡®It is the master who took them in, they are his children now. I shouldn¡¯t have anything to do with them.¡¯ Somehow, as she said these words, something about them felt hollow. She felt as though her throat had caught even as she was thinking this. It was a painful thought, but... it was true. She had spent so long effectively wishing for the death of those girls, she no longer had the right. It was all true, so why did the thought feel so shallow and fake to her?


    The answer presented itself to T¨²eth as soon as she asked herself this question. It was because, to the master, he still viewed them as her children. That was why he was trying to create situations where she should see them and interact with them. He had also not said at any time he had adopted them. From his perspective, he was just a healer providing care for them, but she was still their mother.


    As long as that was the case, her resolve on the issue would always remain in this hollow state. The pain at the idea of still having a connection with them that she should not have, it would never go away. Maybe if she could just get him to... If she could...


    T¨²eth sat in a state of silent defeat, the thought still refusing to finish itself in her own mind. She could no longer focus on the idea of cultivating. If that was the case, maybe she should just leave for the day.


    Just as she opened the door to leave, that was when the great cry rocked the entire village and she heard the voice... that message in her head. These words in her head... they were incredibly similar to the way that she had received the thoughts from the girls¡¯ humans. They simply entered her head and she understood them.


    She could hear murmurs from the entire village. Suddenly, there was a shout from one of the trees. ¡°The great tree! It¡¯s in the sky! You¡¯ve got to see this!¡± The people walking about the village looked to one another in confusion for a little while, and then several people decided to start going into the nearest lakira tree. T¨²eth knew what their objective was in this, they would no doubt be ascending the tree from the inside. There were others though who were too impatient for this and simply lept to a branch and began climbing from the outside of the tree.


    Seeing this, T¨²eth immediately dashed back inside and the door automatically closed behind her. She ran up the stairs to the second floor, only remembering the girls when she heard them crying as she arrived up there. No doubt they had become scared when that loud creature¡¯s cry was heard, but that message also had quite a few urgent emotions attached to it. That could most certainly scare them as well.


    She looked to them for a moment, confirming that the humans seemed to be with them. The humans even had each of the girls in their laps. They looked a little frightened as well, but they would probably be able to care for the girls. Much better than she could anyway.


    Satisfied with this conclusion, T¨²eth placed her hand on the outcropping of wood that was clearly meant as a route to the 3rd floor and asked the spirit of the master¡¯s house to open it. Upon receiving the open path of the stairs in front of her, T¨²eth continued her way up and found her way into the master¡¯s laboratory. She saw him in the middle of the room, staring up at the ceiling.


    ¡°Master!¡± She called out to him, not daring to progress any further into her master¡¯s private space until he had acknowledged her.


    ¡°T¨²eth!¡± He called back, taking several steps toward her. With her master¡¯s acknowledgement, she finished ascending the stairs and waited for him at the top.


    ¡°Master! Someone said something about... the great tree floating in the sky!¡± The master¡¯s face hardened in surprise at these words, and he immediately opened another path higher in the house and ran up the stairs. Normally, T¨²eth would likely think twice about following further after her master in his own house. However, given how extraordinary this situation was, she could not help but follow him.


    They arrived in an open space surrounded by high branches and vines. Over-head, this area was fully open to the sun, but all directions except for straight up were thinly walled by a lattice work of thick ivy vines woven around large regularly spaced branches. This space, it could be best described as being inside a gigantic basket.


    Inside the basket, there was an arrangement of counters along the sides, and on top of each surface there was a fairly large number of plants. This must be the master¡¯s garden. Each plant was in a pot of some sort, which meant all of them could be easily moved.


    As soon as the master arrived on this level, two sections of the counter simply moved across the floor toward the center of the large wide open space in the middle. The master only paid this enough attention to confirm none of the plants sitting atop these platforms had toppled over, and then he approaches the vacant area they left behind. Immediately upon his approach, the vines begin to unwind and make a space for him. At the same time, she can see outside the ¡°basket¡± created by the vines and notices the branches of his home are also bending and shifting. As the vines clear, she can see a few large branches have completely bent over in order to create a terrace for him to walk out onto.


    T¨²eth follows behind and looks over the vast expanse in front of her. The master¡¯s home is easily the second tallest lakira tree in the village, second only to the nursery tree that has been feeding off the energy of the human children brought there for centuries. As such, they have a very clear view of the expanse of trees in front of them. This is the first time in over 30 years that T¨²eth had taken in this view from above the canopy that can see all the way off to the distant horizon.


    This was no time to enjoy the view though. Neither one of them were even interested in it. Both of their attentions were caught immediately by the sight of a gigantic section of earth that seemed as though it had simply been scooped up from the ground, and was now floating in the air. Upon this truly massive clump of soil was an equally huge tree. The distant objects were so truly huge that it was difficult at first to get a real sense of scale. That is, until one looked at what was on the surface of the chunk of earth clinging onto the massive tree¡¯s roots.


    Trees. More trees. Under this truly monstrous arbor, there sat an entire forrest of additional trees in its shadow. To say they looked like small bushes by comparison didn¡¯t do it justice at all. The massive ¡°great tree¡± dwarfed them to such an extent that they were like mere sprouts beneath its great branches. T¨²eth realized as she was seeing this, the entirety of the village could probably fit upon only one section of that large lump of soil and still have plenty of room to spare between the trunk of that great tree and the edge of the earthen platform. In fact, they could probably fit two entire villages lined up between the trunk and the edge and they would still fit without anyone feeling in danger of their home falling from the side in the village closer to the edge.


    T¨²eth was truly stunned by this sight. It almost distracted her from the other peculiarity about this whole situation. Another low cry of the great beast they had been hearing shook her body as she heard the message about the enemy in the forest and defending the scar of heaven repeated in her head yet again. She noticed something flying in the sky, circling the huge tree in slow lazy rings. The mere fact she could so easily make out the appearance of this creature circling this colossal tree spoke to the fact that this creature too must be very large in size. It was quite distant from her right now, making it look small, and it seemed to be made to look even smaller against the sight of the great tree, but she imagined that if she was in front of this creature in person that its head alone would be several times the size of her entire body.


    From what she could tell looking at it, it seemed to have a very long blue colored serpentine body, and near to its head it had a pair of great shining wings. The wings seemed to shine like silver as she saw the sun glinting off them as the large creature passed into sight from behind the great tree. It raised its angular head and let out another anguished sounding cry, causing the call to arms to resonate in T¨²eth¡¯s head yet again.


    ¡°The Queen!¡± her master said, staring at the sight with a look of true awe written on his face. ¡°She¡¯s moving the entire capital! It¡¯s moving toward the Scar of Heaven. She plans to transplant the great tree to the center of the scar left on the land by that catastrophe!¡±


    ¡°That! That¡¯s the royal capital!?¡± T¨²eth responds in awe herself. However, there is something else that has been eating at her mind ever since she first started hearing this call to arms in hear head. Up until this moment, the excitement and the talk about the great tree had been allowing her to distract her mind from this thought. However, it was something that simply could not be avoided. She had to talk about it.


    T¨²eth turned to her master. She needed to ask him. ¡°Master...¡± she says. ¡°The tainted ones, she¡¯s talking about... THEM isn¡¯t she?¡± She can see the master¡¯s gaze shift slightly downward and the awed expression break from his face for a moment. After this, he gives a sharp nod.


    ¡°Yes, and they will likely be coming here as well.¡± He says. ¡°After your village, this one is one of the closest to the Scar of Heaven. If that is their objective, they are definitely going to find this place along the way.¡±He looks back up, this time toward the south. It is not visible beneath the trees here except in the form of a large unnatural hole in the tree cover over the ground, but T¨²eth had heard the people who rescued her talking about the deep vertical hole that had been carved directly into the ground. The Scar of Heaven. The deep wound upon the land created by the Heaven¡¯s Fall.


    The master¡¯s brows crease as he watches the giant tree that guards the royal capital floating slowly on its grim march toward what is to become the center of this conflict.¡°This village,¡± he said,  ¡°it¡¯s going to become a battle ground.¡±


    1st Arc: Infancy


    Act 2: Spirit


    End


    Author''s note


    So, that''s act 2 at an end now. I know this was a lot shorter than act 1, but right now I am considering the idea that maybe around 10 chapters is about the right length for an act. The part where Eirlathion takes the kids from the nursery to his home would be about right for a break in the acts in order to bring it more in line with this model.


    I will not edit this to change in that direction just yet. I still want to see how act 3 turns out. Decisions in that direction can be made later once I have the whole picture in view. Really, it all depends on whether I want to aim for 3 acts or 5 acts in an arc. (because it''s not going to be 4 acts.) So, really, whether there are 3 or 5 and whether or not I put a split in the middle of what is now act 1 depends entirely on whether or not the big moment I have planned for the end of this arc comes up in act 3.


    At any rate, with the end of act 2, as promised I will now be going on a 1 week hiatus from this series. This matches up perfectly actually, my 2nd midterms will be next Tuesday. So, I''ve gotta study for that and this break is perfectly placed. I will be releasing a lore chapter on Friday the 17th or Saturday the 18th. After that, I will be re-structuring the schedule to no longer have weekends as part of the regular release schedule. Including the weekends for a 2 day in a row release gave the view count a good bump, but the extra stress involved is just not worth it. So, once the break is over the schedule will be just Monday, Wednsday, Friday.


    Also, for anyone interested, the Subscribe Star pre-releases are also fully updated and already have the lore chapter and chapter 32 up. So, anyone who wants to support me over there can see the beginning of the next act in advance if you support at the 2nd tier for $2.99. If you are not interested, then the lore chapter is still available at the basic tier for $1.50


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 (Intermission) Lore Chapter 2: Four paths of cultivation.

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 Chapter 32: Anticipation of war

    Author''s note


    Posting the chapter a little bit early. It''s Monday the 20th server time right now, just not in my time zone yet, but I think it works out. Besides, I''m pretty sure nobody is going to complain about getting to read the chapter a little early.


    Well then, this is the start of the new act. *enters dramatic voice* "When last we left our heroes, big scary queen lady made Aerien cry by telling her the bad men were coming to get her. How terrible! How could that mean lady scare our poor innocent little hero? How will she deal with the trauma? Find out... right now! Time to start the new epic story!"


    Lol, sorry, just had to do that. Anyway, expect a faster pace this act. Up until now, I just kinda had a general direction I wanted to move the story in. For this act, I actually have the entire thing more or less planned out. About the only thing not planned out in detail are a few side details and the exact locations chapter breaks should go. So, this one will be overall a lot more tightly written.


    Well then, enjoy.


    1st arc: Infancy


    Act 3: Fear


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Those loud whale sounds and the message behind it driven seemingly by pure waves of spirit energy eventually came to a stop. I had long since calmed down, but that did not stop my mind from worrying. Well, really, worrying alone would not do much. I would have to do what I could as best I could in the days to come in order to make myself capable of at least acting for myself and not being forced to lay there docile should someone come to kill everyone in this place.


    (It stopped now, it¡¯s Ok.) Levin says in a shaky voice as he continues to stroke my back. Hearing the second part, the ¡°it¡¯s Ok¡± assurance, frustrated me a bit. It was completely understandable. He may know I was reincarnated like him, and also that I was a fair bit older than him in my previous life, but this does not change the fact that he was comforting a crying baby.


    (I wasn¡¯t crying about that!) I told him. The frustration was practically dripping from my voice.


    (What is it then?) Rolwen asks, looking over toward me as he¡¯s still supporting Gaerien in his own lap.


    (It was what the thing was saying.) I reply. (The voice, it was sent with spirit energy so only elves and other fey could hear it.)


    (Huh? What do you mean ¡®they¡¯?) Levin responds.


    (Fey! Weith an F.) Rolwen corrects him. (It means like¡­ it¡¯s something that means faeries and elves and other things like that. I think satyers are also a kind of fey.)


    (Satyers?) You could practically see the question mark over Levin¡¯s head at this one.


    (It¡¯s like humans with the lower body of a goat. Like¡­ like Tumnus from Narnia.)


    (Actually,) I cut in to correct Rolwen, (he was a fawn. Sat¡­ err¡­ DON¡¯T!) I cut Rolwen off with a harsh glare before he can finish my word for me again. (The¡­ the one he said before! They are a lot more goat like than fawns.) It was hard to explain it to them like this when I wasn¡¯t able to speak clearly, but fawns had just the lower half of a goat and occasionally some little stubby horns on their foreheads. Sayters however were more or less bipedal goats with the only thing human-like about them being the musculature of their furry but still human-like upper body and the fact that they had hands like a human as well. Their head, however, was very much that of a goat and the male satyers had large curled horns down the sides of their heads. Really, the only thing missing between a satyer and the classic goat-headed demon portrayal was that a satyer did not have wings.


    (Well, anyway, what was the¡­ err¡­ voice saying?) Levin brings us back on track.


    (A war.) Gaerien informs them, cutting in before I can give the answer myself. Maybe she was feeling a little left out of the conversation and decided to take her opportunity now that there was something she could answer.


    ((War?)) both of them respond, looking to one another and then to me. I give a nod in confirmation, after which they both look back to Gaerien, imploring her with their eyes to go on.


    (Umm¡­) she reacts, looking between the two of them. (Well, it was saying someone evil had come into the forest and was after something that belonged to the elves, so they were going to fight them.) That was cutting out some details, but I actually had to agree with her approach. I did not know for sure what all that ¡°scar of heaven¡± stuff was about, although I did have my suspicions. However, it was probably a good idea to leave details like that out for now until we had some confirmation.


    She had essentially broken it down to the basics. ¡°Evil¡± invader comes in to invade someone else¡¯s soverign soil in order to steal resources. A classic resource war. Well, I don¡¯t usually like to toss the term ¡°evil¡± around too lightly, but of all the motivations for war I suppose the aggressor in a resource war could be said to deserve the title more than any other. Then again, in a call to arms like what we had just received, it was entirely possible the source could be biased and was trying to rile people up in order to get more recruits for their military.


    (Well, what can we do? We¡¯re not old enough to fight or anything, right?) Rolwen comes in with his own 2 cents.


    (That don¡¯t matter) I respond. (I think Ether guy is supposed to be strong or something, but things will get crazy here and something could happen even if we are not soldiers.) Yes, these kids were raised in the United States back on Earth. A country that had its last land-war with Mexico well over a hundred years before they were born, and that was a war of expansion into areas that were not heavily populated. No, the last land-war before that that had destroyed entire cities and resulted in the destitution of the innocent bystander women and children was the Civil War a century and a half ago.


    The horrors that were placed even on innocent bystanders in a land war were not even in the living memories of their grandparents. Perhaps their great grand parents might have participated in the second world war and saw the devastation wrought on France, or even the results of the air raids on England or Japan, but those were all events that were far from home and would not have been significant enough on a US citizen to have much of a cultural impact. No, US citizens who had never seen military service did not know the true horrors of war.


    I was really one to talk though. I myself was too young for the draft when Vietnam was going on, and had no interest to join for the Gulf war, and while I could have joined in my middle age years when 9/11 happened I was in the middle of my school for nursing and just starting my own family so I had no interest there either. However, I had more exposure to the world than these kids, and also had the benefit of several former active duty military personnel in my dojo both while I was a student and also when I became the master of my own. I did not have the personal experience, but the stories I had heard and the images they conjured told me enough to be aware that this was not something we wanted to take lightly.


    Well then, we will just have to train our ability to be self mobile a little more earnestly. Also, it seemed it was about time to start seriously looking into this whole cultivation thing. First, though, I had to get Gaerien to help me with that whole ¡°inner world¡± thing.


    -


    Back when I had entered Gaerien¡¯s inner world, I had stepped into her world the moment the door was formed. At that time, I had seen projections of my mind form, both as my former self from my previous life and also as my child self from this life. As this happened, the world inside my mind had gained a lot more sharpness and clarity. However, I had not bothered to look around, and as soon as I was done in Gaerien¡¯s world I broke the meditation and woke up in my physical body.


    This time, now that I had experienced it once, I was together with my other self, standing side by side as the child and the old man, and the both of us were looking over our inner world.


    To be honest, it did not look like a world I would want to live in. I was actually rather shocked this was what the inside of my spirit looked like. At the moment, the old man and the little girl were standing on top of a grassy hill near a small speckle of light that seemed like a rip in the very fabric of this space. If we were to look toward what might be considered the center of this space though, the scenery was instantly dominated by a huge spiraling black vortex that seemed to drag in all matter around it. It had already sucked up all the other land and left it a complete inky black void, the grassy hill we were standing on seeming to be the only foothold left in this desolate place.


    Above us, there was a light. It was not a painful light to look at, not what I would call as bright as the sun, but it was quite bright. It was probably only because the eyes we had inside of this space were not physical organic eye that we were able to look directly at it. At the heart of that light, there appeared to be a swirling, constantly moving filigree of dancing patterns. It was not some etchings on the surface of the light source, it was more like watching the surface of a pool of water that had some dye dropped into it. And, as the patterns shifted, rays of light could be seen brimming out and dancing through the upper portion of this space.


    The rays of light would touch here or there throughout the space, and every time the light passed over it the dark void seemed to ripple as though in pleasure like it was being gently tickled, and then it would rise up as though in pleasure to receive this beam of light. I had seen fish in a fish hatchery being fed before. The matter in which the darkness seemed to rise to meet the light seemed very similar to the eager fish in the hatchery leaping to get the fish food before it had even hit the water.


    There was no way of looking at this sight without coming to the conclusion it was some kind of broken world. This space was definitely out of whack something serious, and I did not even know where to begin on putting it in order. Well, the first thing I should probably do is invite Gaerien in to contribute her expertise.


    The two projections of my mind turned to look at the smaller shimmering light near the middle of the small purchase that was the only solid ground in this space. That light, it was probably our end of that spirit connection Gaerien had mentioned. I definitely got the distinct sense that it was somehow at the exact location the flame I had risen to be the doorway was before. A flame was the best thing I was able to come up with at the time, but the weakness of a flame is that it goes out once you stop feeding it fuel. As such, there was no more sign of that doorway of flame I had once conjured.


    The light from above seemed to shine even brighter on the shimmering crack in space. Just like the darkness, the spirit connection seemed to greedily drink in the light coming down from above. It looked as though it was trying to forcefully widen using the light to fuel it. Perhaps Gaerien was trying to help from her end.


    ¡°Well, I guess we had better let her in.¡± I say to my younger self.


    ¡°Alright!¡± I respond, running around to the other side of the shimmering hole in my own spirit from the old man. We may be separate personalities, and we may have separate levels of surface knowledge, but our subconscious was linked which allowed me to know immediately what it was the old man was planning to do.


    As we are standing on both sides, we begin the slow and gentle breath of earth once again. In perfect unison, we both form our hands into the mudra of earth. As we are doing so, the light and darkness in this space both seem to grow stronger in unison. The land we are standing on gets dragged to the center of the space as the two competing forces are now both feeding and also draining energy to and from this land. Overall though, there seems to be a net positive effect and the grassy hill expands rapidly into a grassy field.


    Next is water. A lake springs up between me and me, my older and younger selves, right below the shimmering portal that seems all too happy to be more directly exposed to the light from above. The water spreads quickly like a water main had been broken. Or rather, it might be more the correct image to say a burbling spring had opened up and was filling the space very quickly with water. The water never touched the feet of either of my mental protections though. Instead, the very ground beneath our feet seemed to expand, causing us to move further away from the shimmering mass in the center of the forming lake.


    Finally, it was time for fire. The shimmering portal immediately burst into a brilliant golden flame. I could feel the wind beginning to pick up before we had even moved onto the mantra and mudra of wind, with three of the elements already present it seemed the fourth had no intention of being left out. Seeing this, I quickly shifted the thumbs of all four of the hands between my two projections to the respective index fingers. I pressed all four of my hands forward toward the flame and let out the breath that served as the mantra of wind. The wind picked up, and the flame grew bigger.


    I could sense something was in the raging golden flame. Well, time to complete this. In unison, my older and younger selves broke the mudras on our hands, shifting to open palms, and allowed our breathing to slowly sink with a breath out that was even gentler and slower than the mantra of earth. It was as though the air was being slowly sucked from our lungs rather than us consciously breathing out. In this moment, the flame and the wind seemed to be sucked into the lake beneath them. At the same time, the lake became a swirling vortex as the water rapidly drained from it. The land converged, and this dragged my two mental projections together until we were standing close on either side of Gaerien¡¯s mental projection in her full low-key affluent goddess form.


    She looked quickly from side to side after she arrived. ¡°Well, I really don¡¯t think I have ever heard of someone being able to alter their inner world that quickly. You really weren¡¯t kidding when you said the guiding principle of the art attached to your meditation was adaptability, it definitely showed from that little performance of yours just there.¡± She nodded, looking to her left and right as she repeated the gesture for both my mental projections.


    ¡°Well then,¡± she says, looking around. ¡°This is certainly a rather unique space. Overhead is a sea of light, and below is a sea of darkness. I guess this also fits what you told me about your meditation involving calling energy from heaven and sending it into the void. However, the energy and the void seem to be taking up too much of the space in here right now. You might want to start by trying to shrink them and putting them in the middle or something.¡±


    Well, that makes sense. My two mental projections nod to one another and we immediately begin attempting to do as she said. We start by trying to imagine a sort of containment barrier surrounding the two light and dark forces, pressing them toward the center of this space. As we do this, the little floating island the three of us are standing on move along with Gaerien¡¯s spirit connection off to the side of the space so we can get a good vantage point on what we are doing. We seem to be succeeding in forcing the light and darkness to retreat toward the center. It is hard though. There is a lot of resistance, and I can tell there is no way this containment barrier idea is going to keep working once we get it to the place we want it.


    New tactic then. The idea behind the meditation is similar to that of a vacuum cleaner. The energy of heaven wants to flow, it does not like to be kept stagnant. As such, if you expel the energy of heaven from your spirit, more will instantly come in to fill that void. In other words, the best way to get more of the energy of heaven was to spread it. My advanced form of the meditation though created the void that the energy of heaven liked so much inside of my own spirit. If it is the void that attracts the energy, maybe we don¡¯t have to worry about the light. If we just shrink the void, the energy of heaven ought to follow suit.


    This seemed to work for a little while. We pressed the darkness to the center of the world. In the next moment, it seemed like the vortex of darkness was replaced by a vortex of sparkling light. The light that was spread all throughout this space was still being cast about from the source above, but now the exit had shrunk. This resulted in a great turbulent whirlpool that shook this entire space. My entire inner world shook with the violence of the storm, and I ultimately had to release the containment on the darkness. At least the darkness was gentle.


    The storm of light energy immediately calmed when the exit route was the entire area once again. This was definitely troublesome. So, it seems like the darkness is not the cause of the problem here, but the response to it. That means, contrary to our expectations, the issue that has to be addressed is the swirling light above.


    ¡°Alright, one more time.¡± I say as the old man. Both of my mental projections raise our hands up to the light, attempting to forcus it directly downward. Unlike previous things we attempted though, this is a lot less responsive. We are occasionally able to bend some of the light rays shining off at the furthest extremes slightly downward so they do not hit the edge of my inner world. However, there is absolutely no lasting impact to what I¡¯m doing.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ this seems rather troublesome¡± Gaerien says. "Perhaps it¡¯s time to take a different approach. How much do you know about the nodes on the body¡¯s energy pathways?"


    ¡°Hmm, nodes?¡± I respond, exploring over her word in my mind. If it is nodes, similar to lymph nodes, and they are on what she calls the body¡¯s ¡®energy pathways,¡¯ then there is definitely something in Hindu and Bhudist mysticism that fits that description. I not at all unfamiliar with this subject either. While it may have its origins in the Hindu religion, that did not necessarily make it a sacrilegious thing for me to have studied it. And, it seemed to be a large part of why the scientifically proven effective practice of acupuncture supposedly worked, so there had to be something real related to it that medical science simply hadn¡¯t discovered yet.


    ¡°We do have something I have heard of that you could be talking about¡± I said as the old man. ¡°They are called Chakras. To confirm, there are seven primary chakras, twenty one minor chakras, and then a number of other peripheral nodes in the chakra system. Does this sound like what you are talking about?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it. Good. Well then, try manifesting the seven primary chakras. I think that ought to get us somewhere.¡±


    My two mental projections gave another nod to each other, my young self looking concerned and skeptical, also a little tired. Meanwhile, my older self had a resolute look on his face, ready to get this done. We both held our hands out toward the center of this space again, and a line of six globes of light, colored from bottom to top as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo, descended from the larger swirling light above. They seemed to rock violently as though upset to be away from the greater light above, and some seemed to flicker as though trying to hold onto their light. Despite their protests though, the six lights began spacing themselves out equally below the larger greater light.


    As though sensing what had happened, the light above began to converge on the six vertically aligned spheres of light, and a single column of light and energy pierced all of them. As soon as this light pierced them, they all seemed to calm down. Those that were flickering unsteadily immediately stabilized and burned with a steady glow. Despite this, I couldn¡¯t help but have an underlying sense of unease at what I was seeing.


    ¡°One is missing!¡± My younger self says in alarm.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s there.¡± Gaerien says. ¡°You said the basis of your meditation was on drawing energy from heaven. The Sahasrara, the topmost of the seven chakras, is also called the heaven¡¯s chakra. It seems yours is having some problems.¡±


    ¡°Hah! Well, at least we know the source of the problem now. Perhaps we can start trying to fix it.¡± My old man projection says.


    ¡°Well, yes, we can start going the correct direction.¡± Gaerien says, looking from one of us to the other. ¡°This might very well be a lot more difficult than I thought at first though.¡± She then looks intently toward my old man self. ¡°The source of the problem, I think a lot of it has to do with you. Your mental image of your self from your previous life.¡±


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 Chapter 33: Organizing

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡°It is really quite simple,¡± Gaerien continues after declaring my manifestation of the old man as the source of the problem, ¡°Of the seven primary chakaras, the Sahasrara differs the most in terms of whether it is masculine or feminine energy being passed through a person¡¯s system. In case you were not aware, they are actually very different.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ that makes sense.¡± I say as my old man self.


    ¡°Wait! So, what are we supposed to do!? I don¡¯t want the old man to go away!¡± My younger self protests.


    ¡°Oh no. Well, that WOULD probably solve the problem, but getting rid of him would be a very bad thing in the long run, so we really shouldn¡¯t do that.¡± Gaerien responds to my younger self, giving me a light pat on the head. I begin to feel a little better after hearing that. The distress my younger self was feeling had even reverberated across our subconscious link and was getting my older self anxious at the idea. My older self hadn¡¯t even entertained such thoughts, but thus is the nature of our existence now. It was no wonder it would disrupt our heaven¡¯s chakara to this extent.


    Actually, now that I looked at this entire space that was in disarray, it was clear this torn up and desolate looking place was the result of some kind of major imbalance. From what I had heard about the chakara, it was incredibly similar to spinal alignment in chyropracty. If just one part was a little out of alignment, it caused problems through the entire system. Surely the imbalance created in one of the major chakara by having my masculine and feminine minds competing with each other would be the spiritual equivalent of having spina-bifida, the spine being so bad that the cord actually protrudes out from the vertebrae.


    I had thought the two of us were getting along and sharing this space rather well, but it seems even us being fairly accepting of each other was not enough to settle this issue.


    ¡°Well then, I will repeat the question. How do we solve this problem?¡± My previous life self asks the same question as my younger self had previously. However, from my perspective, there is little difference in whether she or he is the one to say it. Surely the mere fact that I think of myself as both of them at the same time has got to have a lot to do with why things are so messed up in here.


    ¡°Well, there are two good solutions to this. First, you have to decide whether you want to be male or female in the long term.¡± Gaerien says, looking toward my older self again. ¡°Whichever you decide will determine what path we take from here.¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t exactly mind the idea of being female¡± I say. ¡°I mean, I already am anyway, right?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ well, that¡¯s the easier of the two possible solutions then.¡± Gaerien says. ¡°You said before that adaptability is a large part of your cultivations¡¯ principles. You already seem pretty at peace with the idea too. All you have to do is reform your current image of your old world self into a woman. Once you do that, things ought to start settling down in here.¡±


    ¡°But wait! What if he wants to be a boy!?¡± My younger self asks. ¡°I like him being like my grandpa!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a far harder method.¡± Gaerien tells me. ¡°You would have to separate your chakaras and make an entire second chakara system. Right now, you are two minds that are not even fully separate from each other, and you are even sharing the same spirit body. If you each have your own chakara system, you will also each have your own Sahasrara, each conforming to either masculine or feminine energy independently.¡±


    ¡°Let me ask you this.¡± I asked as the old man. ¡°Which one do you think is the better solution? If you were in my position, which one would you choose?¡±


    ¡°Oh, the second option, definitely!¡± Gaerien replies. ¡°Actually, I would have gone over it anyway even if she hadn¡¯t brought it up, this is definitely the far better solution in the long run. I do not know how your cultivation works, there is a lot that¡¯s unorthodox about it, but in most cases having both masculine and feminine energy is a major bonus to your cultivation.¡±


    ¡°Well, I have no real preference, but the kid seems to prefer I remain as I am so I suppose we will go with this true dual spirit thing of yours.¡± My old man self says. ¡°Well then, shall we get started?¡±


    My younger self gives a nod and this time we leave Gaerien behind on the floating island as we begin to hover into the air. In the short time I have spent between Gaerien¡¯s and my own inner worlds, I have come to learn the rules a little bit. It seems that here almost any thought with intent behind it will transfer into action by our spirit projections. When applied to movement, this means that we can fly or even instantly teleport to any location within this space. As such, in the space of a single heartbeat, the both of us had vanished from beside Gaerien on that island and were now hovering on either side of the representations of our chakara.


    This close, the intense light from the overly enlarged heaven¡¯s chakara actually seemed to rock the space itself. I could see now what Gaerien had meant by the problems created by my masculine energies and my feminine energies being together in the same chakara. This would really explain why my energies were all over the place. It was like a dirty filter on a water faucet. Every imperfection in it would cause the water stream to spray off a small stream of water in a different direction. If I used that analogy and supposed that this energy was normally supposed to be a single beam going straight down, that would mean my heaven¡¯s chakara is a complete and total mess.


    If that happens to be the case, the fact that it¡¯s so incredibly enlarged compared to the others, could this be something like a case of cardiomegaly, the enlargement of the heart? Being larger does not always mean better, especially in cases of things having to do with the body. Why wouldn¡¯t the same apply to the spirit? In the case of cardiomegaly, the reason behind the heart growing larger is because something is causing it to pump inefficiently, either because high blood pressure is making it more difficult to pump blood through the body or because some heart disease has caused parts of the heart to die and thus more heart tissue had to be formed in order to make up for it.


    If I suppose the same principles apply here, and reason that the incredible size of my heaven¡¯s chakara is in fact a sign of weakness and not strength¡­ actually, I already know it¡¯s weak. There is no question about that. But, if its large size is yet another sign of that weakness, then this is all the more reason why this issue needs to be solved. If the heart analogy really applied here, I would be long since dead to have a heart that disproportionately large compared to what it should be using the much smaller other six as a guide. I suppose the fact I haven¡¯t felt any strong detrimental effects of this might have to do with the spirit body being somewhat more adaptable than the physical body.


    My younger self gave a bit of a worried look at the thoughts coming down through the subconscious channel between us. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we just have to solve this.¡± I told her. ¡°Ok, I want you to just focus on maintaining your chakara body. I will take the copies and form the new body for myself.¡± I sent all the knowledge I had about chakaras to her. I had studied some acupuncture, so it was well above what most people would know about them.


    After I sent the information, the manifestations of the lesser chakaras began to form over a ghostly image of an enlarged female child body. My younger self began to drag the entire manifested chakara structure, including the large source of energy and light above us, away from the center of this space. At the same time, I tried to separate my mind from it. I attempted with everything I had to no longer regard that chakara structure to be a representation of anything to do with me. Those were the chakara of my child self, not my adult self.


    I was a different person, not the child. I realized now that the reason things probably got so messed up in here had entirely to do with the fact that I was integrating myself more and more into my new child body. This is what caused our masculine and feminine energies to begin clashing. I would have to be a separate person, something of a parent figure or advisor to my child self. Having firmly established this new role for myself in my mind, I began to manifest a new set of seven chakara.


    They formed one by one, red first at the bottom, the root chakara. Above that, around where the naval would be in the body, orange for the sacral chakara. At the solar plexus was the most important chakara, the dantian as it is called in the Chinese, which basically served the same role as the heart for the chakara system. This one was represented by yellow. If any chakara has business being larger than the others it should be this one, although it is definitely preferred that they all be about the same.


    After this comes the heart chakara in green, the throat chakara in blue, the ¡°third eye¡± chakara indigo, and finally a violet heaven¡¯s chakara located a short distance above where the head was. As soon as I manifested this last chakara, a ghostly male image appeared over them facing me. I nodded in satisfaction at the accomplishment. However, there is one more thing I have to do in order to make this thing complete.


    Now that I have a manifestation of the body surrounding the chakara, I can focus on two more highly important chakara for the sake of my meditation. I look down to the soles of the feet, and just behind the ball of each foot between the muscular bulges and joints of the large toe and pinky toe, I manifested the sole chakaras. These were the chakaras that allowed your spiritual energy to escape the body and leave into the ground beneath you. As soon as I manifested these, I formed the image of the heaven¡¯s energy flowing through my body and leaving through those chakara at the soles of the feat.


    The violet heaven¡¯s chakara above my male manifestation¡¯s head began to change color, glowing the same brilliant white as the one above the manifestation of my younger self. A ray of light went straight down, piercing three of the chakara between it and the dantien, the equivalent to the chakara system¡¯s heart located at the solar plexus. From there, the energy split in two, and then went down to the soles of the feet. A dark mist began to form around those feet, and then the entire masculine manifestation started to grow until the heaven¡¯s chakara was at the top of this space and the feet were at the bottom. It now looked like a towering giant.


    As this was happening, the massive light over my younger self¡¯s head began to shrink. At the same time, the disordered energies that spread out everywhere seemed that they were trying to converge to all flow in one direction, but they seemed to be experiencing some degree of difficulty.


    I looked between the two manifestations. The masculine manifestation was still far from complete. It only had the seven main chakara and two of the minor chakara. It was really only the bare minimum in order to create the heaven¡¯s energy meditation. I knew this would be the bare minimum I would need to hit in order to really begin the process of splitting my masculine and feminine energies in order to allow my true body to start sorting itself out. The new masculine energy body was not enough to be considered complete, it was only enough to serve as a host for the problematic masculine energies that had been giving me problems.


    Meanwhile, my true body held by my child self was nowhere near recovered. Removing the masculine energies from it had not allowed it to instantly recover or anything miraculous like that. It only removed the source of the problem, but the damage was still present. It would take some time for it to recover completely.


    I felt truly exhausted after messing around with my chakaras, what could be considered the equivalent of the vital organs of the spirit body. My mental projections returned to the island, and my older self found my younger self clinging to him with sleepy looking eyes. He took a seat on the grassy hill, and then she immediately curled up in his lap.


    ¡°Well, you managed to go a LOT farther with that in one go than I thought you could.¡± Gaerien praised me, looking admiringly at the changed vision of the center of my spiritual landscape. A large ghostly image man stood tall and proud with an expressionless face looking off to the left. Behind his back, a small ghostly female form had curled into a fetal position facing away from him and looking toward the right. A large sun-like light still shone over the female form¡¯s head.


    Below them, the swirling vortex of the void seemed to be trying to coalesce around the man¡¯s feet, but it still covered everything in the lower half of this space. However, it seemed to be far less chaotic in its behavior now.


    ¡°Well, what WERE you expecting?¡± My older self asked Gaerien, my younger self quite content to sit and cuddle in his lap.


    ¡°The seven primary chakara are easy enough to form in one go, I kinda expected you to stop there though. But, you went ahead and attuned the Shahasrara and the Manipura to their proper functions, and also manifested the sole chakara on top of that.¡±


    ¡°Well, I take it Manipura is the sanskrit name for the third chakara at the solar plexus, correct?¡± I asked her, again as my older self. ¡°Anyway, the sole chakara are an incredibly important part of my meditation since I have to expel the energy from my body in order for it to function correctly. That¡¯s why I manifested them. I figured if I could get it functioning in the masculine body at least then it would solidify the masculine version of the heaven¡¯s chakara and take the burden off of my real body. As for the err¡­ Manipura, I was familiar with it somewhat from some study of qi-gong I did before I discovered my current art. So, I naturally was familiar enough with it that I just naturally gave it its proper function.¡±


    ¡°So, getting all the important things out of the way all at once? That¡¯s crazy ambitious, but I think I can respect that.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± I say, ¡°I have never been the type to be held back by fear or hesitation. I say get it all done when you can. That¡¯s also why I¡¯ve been driving so hard to be able to walk and talk at such an early age. I really see no point in sitting around when I could be doing something to make myself better.¡±


    ¡°Hah! Well, at the rate you¡¯re going, I¡¯m guessing you will be able to get the entire second chakara system set up within a week.¡± Gaerien says with a smug grin as though she¡¯s challenging me to do exactly that.


    ¡°That¡¯s not unreasonable.¡± I tell her. ¡°It all depends on how much time I want to spend in this imaginary world I suppose.¡±


    ¡°Oh, about that,¡± Gaerien says, ¡°with multiple manifestations like this, it ought to be possible for you to have the two act independent of each other. So, while one acts inside this space, the other can control the real body out there. How about you just give your real body over to the kid entirely for a while and focus in here? I¡¯m sure you can make all kinds of progress like that.¡±


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Since the incidents of earlier in the day, after the queens message and the sight of her carrying the great tree and the entire royal capital attached to it, there was a general tone of unrest in the village. Eirlathion knew that sooner or later the elder would be calling on him for his assistance in determining how they should respond to this matter. As such, he had decided to act first, asking T¨²eth to mind the children while he was gone. She seemed hesitant on the issue, but the emergency nature of the situation left her with no grounds on which to protest.


    Just about the entire village had gathered in the central clearing, the meeting area of the village, what would be called the ¡°town square¡± in a human settlement. Several of the faces seemed anxious, there was some fear as well, but in many of the faces there also seemed to be a certain burning passion. It was already well known that the tainted ones were a brutal and vicious folk, but this village had come to know it better than most having taken in a survivor of a neighboring village that had been annihilated.


    It was not only T¨²eth that gave them a connection to that village either. Several of the people here had friends or family that had lived in that village. There was nothing they could have done at the time, but now that the tainted ones had appeared again they were ready and eager to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. Several of these individuals had even carried their bows and blades on them to the clearing, plainly eager for the fight.


    There were likely to be several of these individuals who would gladly respond to the call to arms and travel to the scar of heaven as the queen had requested. However, that was not the topic up for discussion, and with the elder¡¯s persuasion they had all been convinced to stay in the village. The reason for this was, they were one of the closest surviving villages to the scar of heaven. In fact, the very closest on the western side. As such, this village could serve another highly vital function for the sake of the war that was about to begin.


    ¡°So,¡± the elder said, standing out and facing the crowd with Eirlathion at his back. ¡°for the sake of those who will be arriving here in the coming days, we will need to vacate as much space as we can. Master Eirlathion can accelerate the growth of a freshly planted Lakira tree only so much. Families will have to move in together to occupy the same house in order to vacate space for our new arrivals.¡±


    That¡¯s right. One of two things could happen with this place. It could easily turn into a refugee camp for civilians. However, the far more likely scenario is that this place would soon become a defensive encampment protecting against enemy forces that tried to approach the scar of heaven. It was for this purpose that they were making their preparations.


    ¡®GOOD, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE ALREADY ORGANIZING.¡¯


    The booming voice that echoed in everyone¡¯s minds seemed to have come from the northern sky. Everyone looked up to see where it had come from, and what they saw was a scaled serpentine body held aloft by a pair of dull white feathered wings like those of a large bird. It was around 12 feet in length, with a wingspan almost that same length across from one wing-tip to the other, and scales that were a deep crimson red. It flew in a large lazy circle around the clearing before it fluttered its wings and hovered for a moment near Eirlathion and the elder, just on the other side of them from the crowd, before gravity suddenly seemed to have decided to ignore it and allow it to simply suspend itself at its current location in the air.


    ¡®MY NAME IS EVERON. BY ORDER OF HER MAJESTY, I AM TO TAKE CONTROL OF THIS VILLAGE AND SEE TO IT THAT IT IS READY TO SERVE AS A DEFENSIVE ENCAMPMENT SHOULD THE ENEMY APPROACH FROM THIS DIRECTION. IT IS VERY GOOD THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY BEGUN TO TAKE STEPS TOWARD THIS EXACT PURPOSE.¡¯


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 Chapter 34: New arrangements decided

    Author''s note


    Well, guess I''m officially on server time now. 2 in a row I release right near the turn of the clock on server time but well before the change of date at my local time.


    Eirlathion''s POV


    A fey dragon, the most powerful of all the fey races. They were also often called faerie dragons. It seemed that they were born by a process extremely similar to that of faeries, except that instead of the souls of humans, it was the souls of dragons from which this powerful race was born.


    This most noble race among the fey normally lived almost exclusively within the capital, several holding positions of power within the royal court. As such, when a member of this powerful race had descended upon their village, there was no need to question as to whether or not his claim of serving the queen was true.


    Soon after the fey dragon Everon had introduced himself and his purpose, the elder began explaining their preparations. Everon had agreed to most of the elder¡¯s ideas, however, he seemed to object to the idea of Eirlathion speeding the growth of new lakira trees.


    ¡°THIS IS NOT A DRYAD ARBOR, WE DO NOT HAVE THE LUXURY TO WASTE THE TALENTS OF A MAGE ON WHAT CAN BE JUST AS EASILY ACCOMPLISHED BY TEN OR SO NORMAL ELVES. LEAVE THAT TASK TO THE NON-COMBATANTS. HIS TIME WILL BE FAR BETTER SPENT SEEING TO THE FORTIFICATIONS AROUND THE VILLAGE.¡±


    And so it was decided. There was no argument to be had with the decree of a being as powerful as a fey dragon, especially one claiming to act in the name of the queen. His argument also made perfect sense. If the enemy was already moving and they had no idea when an attack may come, they would have to prepare as quickly as possible and could not waste time. A dryad would have the power to move every tree and plant within their territory, but because the nymph in this village were all a farcry from having the power necessary to break through and begin the metamorphosis into dryads it meant it would fall to Eirlathion and the few he had trained to a rudimentary level of magic to fortify the village.


    Actually, it was really only Eirlathion who had the power to move the vines and trees to the extent that was going to be necessary. There had been no one in all the time Eirlathion had spent here with the talent, potential, and drive to gain any level of true mastery of magic. Every one of them had stopped as soon as they went through the little bit of difficulty in cultivating their spirit, acutally advancing it enough to where it can support a 3rd tier spell.


    T¨²eth shows some promise as an apprentice, she definitely has the mind for it, however she also has the unusual advantage of a spirit that is already advanced beyond that of a typical elf. Eventually she too will hit a wall. Eirlathion did not know where that wall would be for her, but her growing used to her easy progress at these lower levels will only harm her ability to progress once she gets to that point. In this way, humans are almost lucky to be born without a spirit that can support even a single apprentice level spell. Having to work for every inch of improvement they can get may even be part of why they tend to advance so much farther on the path of magecraft than other races.


    At any rate, his former disciples in this village were nothing special in their spellcasting abilities. Maybe if they worked together it would take them twice the amount of time to form a single wall of vines as it would for him. Alone though, they would not be much help in terms of what needed to be done and his newest apprentice T¨²eth had not even learned the most basic of spells yet.


    ¡°THAT WILL BE OUR DIVISION OF LABOR. ALL MAGES IN THE VILLAGE SHALL ACT UNDER THE MASTER MAGUS, THE ELDER SHALL HAVE TO APPOINT A NEW REPRESENTATIVE TO COORDINATE THE NON-MAGES. YOU DO STILL PRACTICE TRAINING YOUR ELDERS IN MAGECRAFT, CORRECT?¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes.¡± Elder Calenor responded.


    ¡°THAT IS GOOD. ALSO, PLEASE ORDER ALL OF YOUR NYMPH TO STOP ENSPIRITING THEIR NUTS. THE MESSAGE WILL HAVE BEEN SPREAD TO THE CARRIVANS APPROACHING HERE THAT THEY SHOULD BRING THEIR OWN LAKIRA NUTS. I SHALL BE MAKING USE OF ANY FREE ROAMING SPIRITS IN THE AREA TO ENSPIRIT SOME OF THE LOCAL CONIFERS IN ORDER TO TURN THEM INTO ENTS.¡±


    Enspiriting lower energy trees!? Forcibly creating ents!? Eirlathion had heard that fey dragons were powerful, but such an application of the green word was simply beyond anything he could have ever possibly hoped or imagined!


    ¡°THAT IS ALL. DIVISIONS OF WARRIORS AND CIVILIAN CARAVANS FROM NEARBY VILLAGES WILL BE COMING HERE. HER MAJESTY¡¯S DECREE IS ALSO AN ORDER TO EVERY FEY CREATURE OF THE FOREST TO GATHER INTO ONE LIVING SPACE. THE CIVILIANS OF THIS VILLAGE MAY STAY FOR THE TIME BEING, BUT ONCE THE CAPITAL IS NEWLY ESTABLISHED AND THE... DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH, THIS LOCATION WILL STRICTLY BECOME A FORWARD MILITARY BASE PROTECTING THE NEW LARGER CAPITAL WHICH ALL CIVILIANS WILL BE EXPECTED TO RELOCATE TO.¡±


    Eirlathion¡¯s eyes narrowed at such a blatant decree, while Elder Calanor seemed to be startled and rather unhappy. The two of them had managed to keep in their emotions for the most part though. A mostly quiet murmur was currently spreading through the entire gathered crowd.


    ¡°Wh... what are you saying!?¡± A voice erupted from somewhere in the gathered crowd of people, someone who¡¯s outrage at being ordered to leave their home had obviously overcome the fear and respect for the highest and most powerful ranked race among the fey.


    ¡°PLEASE BEGIN ACTING IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT HAS BEEN DECREED HERE. CIVILIAN FAMILIES ARE TO MOVE IN THREE TO A HOUSE IN ORDER TO MAKE ROOM FOR NEW ARRIVALS. MEANWHILE, PLEASE ALSO BE MAKING PREPARATIONS TO EVACUATE ALONG WITH THE CARAVANS WHEN THEY ARRIVE. ALL MAGES AND COMBATANTS, IN THE MEANTIME, BEGIN ACTING TO TRANSFORM THIS LOCATION INTO A MILITARY OUTPOST!¡±


    With these words, Everon let out a loud roar and beat down his wings hard enough that the entire crowd was buffeted with the wind that was kicked up. Eirlathion moved to step in front of the elder. His apprentice had grown rather feeble due to his age, having not advanced anywhere near as far as he had in his path of magecraft. With a few more wing beats, the queen¡¯s suddenly appointed commander of this village had taken off toward the outskirts of the village, likely to begin making good on the task of enspiriting trees he had mentioned.


    Eirlathion let out a sigh as soon as the fey dragon Everon was out of sight. ¡°I suppose I had best inform T¨²eth she will have to be watching the girls on a more regular basis now.¡± He said, more to himself than anyone else. ¡°I will have her live with me from now on,¡± he added to Calanor, who had now been effectively ordered to step down from his position as elder. ¡°Can I ask you to deal with your business and then meet me with Ceren and Jedon later?¡±


    ¡°Of course, master.¡± Calanor responded in a sympathetic tone.


    ¡°Take your time in talking to them. This sudden change will be very upsetting to a lot of people. No matter what the queen¡¯s envoy says, you are still the leader in all of their hearts, and they will need your strength in order to prevent any kind of civil unrest from developing after all that has been said by the dragons today.¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course master.¡± The elderly man says with a bow of his head and a worried crease to his eyebrows. It was extremely slight, but Eirlathion¡¯s words just now could be seen as rude to the monarchy. His concern was understandable, but Eirlathion did not think it would attract any problems. This Everon, while he did not seem to be very sympathetic to the distress his words caused to the people, he did seem to be a wise enough leader not to make a big deal over some small slight. He had simply ignored the outburst from the crowd earlier after all.


    ¡°We will meet next to your house, old friend.¡± Eirlathion gave Calanor a gentle pat on the shoulder. Calanor may be 300 years younger than Eirlathion, and his apprentice, but he was also a friend and the oldest living associate Eirlathion had aside from his master. He had known the man since he was born here in this village, and so to him Calanor was Eirlathion¡¯s oldest and most treasured friend.


    The old man, still the elder of this village until he finished re-arranging the leadership of the village and divided it between the military and civilian populations, silently turned to face the distressed and uncertain faces of the gathered members of the village. Meanwhile, Eirlathion turned to begin his trip back home.


    -


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    T¨²eth stared uncomfortably at the two human children. They, in turn, seemed to have very perplexed expressions on their faces for her as well. It was a look that said they really did not know what to make of her being in this room for so long. She did not know what had possessed her to come in here herself.


    The master had asked her to watch the children while he was gone to discuss the queen¡¯s message with the elder and the rest of the villagers. When she heard that, an icy feeling of dread had taken over her. She felt she had to be here, just in case something awful happened. That way, she could... the master had said for her to watch the children, if something DID happen then she could be close.


    ¡°No...¡± she muttered under her breath. What was she afraid was going to happen? It was the middle of the day right now, she knew nothing was probably going to happen right now. However, no matter how much she tried to tell herself her fears were unjustified, something inside her just refused to believe it.


    She stepped closer to the two girls sleeping on the bed. The humans stood nearby as well, almost like guards trying to ward her off. As soon as she had entered the room she was told rather forcefully by one of them to not wake them up, and they had been casting concerned glances between her and the girls ever since.


    The longer T¨²eth was subjected to the concerned looks of these human children, the more it shook her spirit. The concern on their faces almost seemed to look like an accusation. It was like they knew better than even the master or any other person in this village the true extent of T¨²eth¡¯s sin. These humans who were standing guard over the girls, trying to prevent the hateful mother who had wished death upon her own children from dirtying them with her filthy hands!


    She looked up to the sleeping identical looking infants on the bed. It was so strange how they slept hand-in-hand like that, both so serenely flat on their backs. That was not how she knew any other infant in the world to sleep. Could it have something to do with the fact that they are twins? Twins were not a phenomenon ever seen among elves before, but she had heard something about how human twins shared a particularly strong connection that went beyond a normal sibling relationship.


    ¡°T¨²eth?¡± She heard her master¡¯s voice coming from downstairs, and with just that one sound of his voice calling her name she felt the tension seem to vanish from her body. She had not even realized how worried she was about everything until the moment she had heard his voice. She immediately turned to run down the stairs.


    ¡°Master!¡± She let out a breath and even almost felt weak in the knees at seeing him return safely as she whispered in her own mind to the part of herself that was worried that it was ok now, attempting to use those words to pump strength back into her limbs.


    She saw the master¡¯s eyes flick a knowing look up the stairs and he gave her a satisfied looking smile. She could tell what was probably on his mind. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but felt this was not the time for that. Besides, what would it say about her to deny such a thing? She could feel her heart starting to tighten again, but she would gladly take this difficulty over the dread she hadn¡¯t even realized the depth of until just seconds ago when he had arrived back home.


    ¡°An envoy of the queen arrived.¡± Her master said, giving her an intense look. ¡°He will be taking over the leadership of the village, and there will be some hunters and soldiers from other villages arriving here soon... We... we are going to have to move in multiple families together in order to make room for them. It has already been decided that you will be staying here from now on.¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± She responded, breathless and stunned. Just like that, she had been told that her house was no longer hers. Well, it had been given to her by the good graces of the people in this village who had accepted her anyway, so she really had no right to complain. This did not change the way she felt about this though. It was like a large part of the security and stability in her life had just been pulled out from under her. In fact, it literally felt as though she was falling as the sense of loss overtook her.


    ¡°I will also be very busy for a while.¡± He added. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to spring this on you all of a sudden. I will be getting a few supplies from my lab and then I have to set straight back out. I will help you to figure out where you will be sleeping after I get back.¡±


    T¨²eth¡¯s mind refused to work. She stood on the spot, stunned. As the master walked past, he gently placed a hand on her shoulder. ¡°It will be alright.¡± He said in a gentle voice before turning and walking up the stairs at a gentle pace.


    T¨²eth continued to stand there. It did not take the master long to get his things in order, but it was long enough to cause him to have a concerned look on his face when he got back down and saw that she had not moved. He matched eyes with her with a troubled expression. ¡°I will be out a while this time.¡± He finally said, ¡°I am going to be having a meeting in order to plan how to remodel the defenses of the village. I will likely be quite tired when I get back... I should return before nightfall.¡±


    She felt her heart lurch when he mentioned returning before nightfall. He had put a strange emphasis on that phrase, and she knew he had included it just for her to hear. As usual, it was as though her master could see straight through her and know what was weighing on her heart. She looked up and stared intently into his eyes and saw a weak almost apologetic smile on his face as he turned away from her and left out the door that had opened for him as he approached.


    So, that was it then... everyone in the village now was out making their preparations for war. A war against... THEM... T¨²eth stood there for several more minutes. She heard screams. She ran the image of her master walking out the door just now, over and over again as the phantom screams kept playing in her head. She looked at the space on the wall where the door was before. She had a phantom image in her memory of the light that had come through the door, and the form of her master¡¯s body silhouetted against that light.


    She couldn¡¯t stop shaking. Her master walking out the door had woken something up. An unspeakable dread. She clutched her arms around her body and began to breath harder and harder, but then there was something else that came over her as she felt her entire chest give a spasm. Upon feeling this, she turned and placed her hand on the back wall and desperately fed her mana into the wood.


    ¡°Nymph! Open the back wall! Quick!¡± She said in a voice that was weak, but the urgency of her tone was impossible to miss. The wall in the place T¨²eth was touching opened up, creating a back door to the house in a place different from where it usually was. She ran quickly from the house and then bent over one of the mighty roots running into the ground.


    T¨²eth doubled over in her posture, and then promptly began to vomit up the non-existent contents of her stomach. She had just about stopped eating since being exposed to the high levels of spirit energy let off by the human children the master kept for the girls, but despite that her stomach still found a way to heave up the bile, mucus, and acids from her stomach even without solid food attached to it. In this moment, she was glad just that the majority of the villagers had gone to the central clearing and were not wandering about where they could see her as she continued to vomit up what sparse liquids her stomach could force up until she was left with nothing but dry heaves.


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 Chapter 35: No longer together

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Gaerien taught me how to split me and the old man apart so that we could each focus on different things. I was forced to wonder how it was that she knew how to do that, but she said that she had just heard about it over her years of cultivation and being a fallen goddess.


    I really didn¡¯t like this idea at first, I was actually pretty scared to not have my previous life mind there all the time to tell me about everything. However, he seemed to really like the idea. He said it would be good for me. It would allow me to start to develop myself outside of being more like him. Besides that, I should still be able to know all the same things he knows because of our subconscious link.


    I still didn¡¯t like it, but with Gaerien¡¯s help I managed to wake up from my meditation as only me, without the old man. As soon as I was awake, Levin and Rolwen came rushing over to me and Gaerien. She was waking up too, since she was also done with her meditation stuff.


    (Hey!) Levin said. (Your mommy was here earlier! She seems to keep coming up when you two are doing your meditation stuff. Sorry, we told her not to wake you up because you said it was important.)


    What!? Mommy was here!?


    (Alright, thank you.) Gaerien said, clearly not upset in the slightest at the missed opportunity. I could feel my heart sink a little at her words. The old man didn¡¯t want for us to go downstairs while she was here, he said it was because she wasn¡¯t ready and she might not like us if we went to her. We had to wait for her to come up to us. And, it sounds like we just missed her and it feels like I¡¯m the only person who even cares!


    (Also,) Levin continues, (Ether guy came back and he talked to your mommy. He said that he was going to be out of the house a lot more, but he also said your mommy would be living here now!)


    What!? Ok, now THAT is really good news. Where will she be sleeping then? I hope it¡¯s not upstairs with Ether guy. Maybe if she has a bed down here in our room she would HAVE to see us more! But then, that would make it a lot harder to do our training. That was important too. I¡¯m pretty sure the old man would not like her being in this room. No, maybe he would think it¡¯s a good thing? I don¡¯t know!


    As I am wondering about these things, I hear the sound of wood groaning, the sound I have learned to associate with the side of the tree opening up. However, something sounds different about it this time, it almost sounds like it¡¯s louder and closer. I could only worry about the difference in sound for so long though, because a little while after that I hear a person groaning, and it¡¯s mommy¡¯s voice.


    I begin eagerly tugging on Levin¡¯s sleeve as I slide myself down off the bed. Normally, I slide off by turning over on my stomach and sliding down backward, but this time I slide off of it forward, and I jump onto Levin to help support myself.


    ¡°Woah!¡± He lets out a scream. He may be bigger than me, but he¡¯s only 2 years old himself and he is not able to stay on his feet when he suddenly has a baby drop on top of him, so we both wind up tumbling to the ground.


    (Aerien! What are you doing!?)


    Gaerien laughs at us as she crawls over to the side of the bed herself. (Sorry, I probably should have warned you guys earlier.) She says. (You remember how Aerien asked before about if any of us felt like our current selves were different from our past selves, like we had two separate minds, well that was because she actually had managed to do something pretty tricky among cultivators completely on accident. She split her spirit, she actually DOES have two minds. I just taught them how to act independently from each other, so right now it¡¯s only the younger Aerien who¡¯s in control here.)


    (Wait! Are you saying Aerien¡¯s just a real baby now!?) Rolwen asks in shock, looking between me and Gaerien as I carefully get off of Levin so that he can get back up.


    (I¡¯m not just a baby!) I bark back at him. This just makes him look more confused.


    (Well, yes, she¡¯s right about that. Her mental form looks like a child a little bit older than the two of you. I think her previous life mind helped her form that image because that¡¯s where her maturity level struck him as being.) Gaerien explained to them. Somehow, that made me even more upset with her. Maybe the old man thought I was like a 4 year old, but I was DEFINITELY smarter than a 4 year old!


    (I¡¯m not that either!) I yell. (I know everything the old man does!)


    (Well, she definitely is acting different.) Levin says, having sat up and gotten himself situated with his back to the side of the bed.


    (Yeah.) Rolwen agrees.


    (You¡¯re all mean!) I yell at them with tears starting to form in my eyes. (I wanna see mommy!) I sit stationary on the floor with my feet straight out in front of me as my eyes really start to tear up. I can feel I¡¯m getting really close to crying. The old man normally gives up way too easily because he doesn¡¯t feel embarrassed about letting himself cry when he looks like a baby, he just gives it up as being normal for a baby to have a hard time not crying, but I really really don¡¯t want to cry in front of them like this! They all think I¡¯m a baby already, so I can¡¯t prove it by crying in front of them.


    ¡°Ummm¡­¡± Levin and Rolwen look at each other, after which Levin reaches a nervous hand over and starts rubbing my back. I pull away from him with my shoulder and turn my back on him.


    (Oh geese, this is weird!) Rolwen comments. Meanwhile, I can hear Levin getting up and clunking with heavy toddling footsteps across the room. His walking is rough, but that¡¯s mostly because he has the body of a 2 year old. If you take that into consideration and compare him to other 2 year olds, the fact that he¡¯s able to walk straight toward his goal at a reasonably good pace puts him in the top of what is normal for a 2 year old to be able to do already.


    I can see him out the corner of my eye. He went to the top of the stairs. Noticing what he was doing, I sniffled a little and began to curiously look after him to see what he was doing. After a quick look down the stairs, he came back over towards us with a strange expression on his face. (Hey, I think your mommy is crying.) He says.


    ¡°Huh?¡± I respond, and then pull myself up with the side of the bed as my hand-hold. He takes my hand, and the two of us start walking far more slowly than he just did on his own as I am heavily reliant on his support in order to stay upright.


    Rolwen runs ahead of us and looks on his own. He quickly makes room though once me and Levin arrive. When we get there, I can see mommy sitting down on the floor with her back up against the wall and holding her knees to her chest. Rather than crying though, it looks more like she¡¯s scared.


    I stare down for a little while. She does not seem to be aware of us. She seems to be breathing harder than she should be just sitting down. I can smell something faint in the air, some what acidic, and.. and mixed in with a gentler but somehow also more repugnant version of the smell of bodily waste. I have not been exposed to that smell before, but from the old man¡¯s memories I can tell what that is. He has smelled it plenty of times between his job and his family. It was the smell of concentrated bile absent the diluting sharper smells of bilirubin and fecal bacteria. In other words, bile that had not passed through the large intestine, but the esophagus instead.


    The smell makes me hesitate for a little bit, but I know it means my mommy is suffering. So, I let go of Levin¡¯s hand and begin going down the stairs. This time, I make sure to go backwards because I don¡¯t want to make the same mistake as with Levin before, especially because I will probably die if I fall down the stairs.


    I try to go down without mommy noticing me, even though she¡¯s right there at the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly, I feel something, and it¡¯s very similar to a feeling I¡¯ve had before while going down these stairs. A moment later, I can feel the old man again. I can sense that he¡¯s very curious about what I¡¯m doing right now.


    This is not a good time for a Eureka moment, but what we¡¯ve just figured out is definitely helpful. Now I can remember where I¡¯ve felt this feeling before. It¡¯s the feeling of being watched. I felt it on these stairs before, and that was also when I was trying to be sneaky. I didn¡¯t think much of it at the time, but now it has occurred to me that I am not supposed to be able to feel that. The sense of being watched is another reaction to spirit energy, and the problem I was having with that ¡°smart nut¡± thing before that is used to train magic was that I couldn¡¯t feel its spirit energy.


    When the old man just connected with me again, our minds synced in order for him to know what I was just doing. At the same time, I was able to know why it was that he suddenly wanted to connect with me. It seems the void power inside my spirit had just grown in power immensely while I was trying to be sneaky and not wanting mommy to notice me. It was strong enough that it ate up the majority of the stray beams of light coming from my meditation.


    It made sense. It was that falmarin thing I felt watching me. She was probably always watching me, but I could only feel it when I was trying to be sneaky. Well, now is not the time to dwell on this. Now that the old man was with me again, I felt his approval of going down to my mommy. In fact, he even felt like he should be in control just in case mommy didn¡¯t like seeing me and reacted badly.


    That thought was scary, and I felt scared without the old man anyway, so that sounded like a good idea. I looked up to Levin and Rolwen who seemed to be giving me some strange looks. Levin was stepping forward to come along with me, but I held up my hand and gently shook my head. This would be best if it was just me.


    I decided to put my new theory to the test at the same time as I was approaching my mother more closely. It felt like a very insensitive thing to do, but this was a circumstance where I felt it would be best to avoid being noticed after all, at least not too soon, and if I was going to be doing it anyway I might as well pay attention to whether or not that feeling of being watched by the falmarin, nymph or dryad or whatever falmarin means, comes back again. Sure enough, I could feel it all over. Well, there¡¯s that question answered.


    About the time I was on the last few steps, I heard a light gasp. I did not feel a second gaze on me, but that definitely sounded like I had been noticed. I turned back to look, and sure enough, my mother¡¯s eyes were looking straight at me like she was seeing a spider.


    She did not seem to be making any quick motions to move, so I went back to descending the last couple steps and then held myself up against the wall. ¡°[You Ok] ata?¡± I couldn¡¯t quite pronounce the Elven word for mother, but ¡®ata¡¯ was probably close enough from a baby¡¯s mouth that she would know what I meant.


    [ummm¡­] my mother stared at me for a while. I could see dozens of thoughts running through her mind by the disrupted and slightly panicked look on her face, but eventually the words [no, I¡¯m fine!] come out of her mouth. It¡¯s plainly obvious she¡¯s not fine, but I¡¯m not conversational enough in Elven to stress the point and even if I was I don¡¯t think I¡¯m in much of a position in any sense to have the back and forth that would need to happen with her.


    She eventually manages to pull herself to her feet. I can still see some faint traces of clear vomit on the back of her wrist which she probably used to wipe it off from her chin or something. She reaches out and grabs me under my arms, wrapping one hand each around either side of me as she picks me up like an unpleasant bag of garbage, holding me at arm¡¯s length from herself. [Y¡­you shouldn¡¯t be down here.] She says, practically holding her breath as she carries me up the stairs. [Hey, get back away from the stairs!] She yells at the boys as she approaches the top. [Go on, you shouldn¡¯t be over here!]


    She starts shooing them away with her foot as she actually gets up there, and they respond by clunking over to the center of the room. My mother then puts me down along side them, and then quickly turns and runs back down the stairs. As soon as she is down, the sound of the wood of the tree groaning fills the room, along with the sound of wood sliding across wood, as the opening down the stairway is sealed.


    Well, that certainly could have gone better, but it could also have gone much worse too. I suppose I had best just be grateful it went as well as it did. My gains with my mother were subtle in this encounter, but I think overall there was more good than harm in what I just did.


    Well, she was going to definitely be a difficult case. Maybe my best option here now is to just put it all out of my mind and start focusing on the implications of what I just learned from sneaking around and being able to feel that falmarin thing¡¯s gaze on me.


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Eirlathion looked over his apprentices. Not counting T¨²eth, there were three apprentices he had trained in this village. Of the three, they had all already abandoned their training. Jedon, the young, or rather middle aged now, man who Calanor had named as his successor was likely the most advanced in his cultivation among the three. Perhaps the sight that the years had on Calanor had scared him into working a little harder. However, he was still shy of breaking through to being able to prepare and cast 4th rank spells.


    Aside from Jedon and Calanor, the next of the three apprentices gathered was Ceren, the village¡¯s spell singer. She was not really as closely associated with him as the elder and the elder¡¯s successor. The spell singer only really needs to learn meditation techniques and what rudimentary levels of the green word need to be learned before they begin on their own path. However, the spell singer learns her true path from an older spell singer. Ceren¡¯s master had already left the village some time ago. As such, Ceren was now the senior spell singer of the village.


    And.. there was one more person here. ¡°Ceren, why did you bring Laeril along?¡± This additional person was Ceren¡¯s apprentice. A young elf girl of about 35 years of age, a mere child still in every sense of the word. She had only just begun to learn the earliest phases of cultivation. She was ahead of his newest apprentice T¨²eth, but she was still only just able to use apprentice level spells.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry master, but she insisted that she wanted to help. She is not very strong yet, but her skills are already above that of a normal elf. She would not take no for an answer.¡± Ceren responded with a slight bow of her head, her young apprentice shaking with her determination. Eirlathion could tell she wanted to make her case, but Ceren would have trained her to show the proper level of respect to a master magus, so the child merely swallowed her objection and was looking at Eirlathion¡¯s feet.


    ¡°Very well,¡± Eirlathion conceded. It would likely be easier to allow the kid to help than to fight with her. There was an excited gasp that came from the child as she looked up with a practically glowing face. ¡°You can gather some ivy starts and plant them where we tell you, that ought to be within your ability.¡±


    ¡°Ok master!¡± Lareil beamed at him, excitedly running off to the nearest ivy, covered tree where she started convincing the tree to which it was attached to give up a branch to use as a wooden digging tool she could dig the ivy. She certainly is enthusiastic, she didn¡¯t even wait to know where they were going to be working at. Well, that¡¯s what the rest of them were going to be discussing anyway.


    ¡°Well then, Calanor, I suppose we will be following your lead in terms of where we should be working.¡± He said to his oldest friend and apprentice. It was rather fortunate the mages of the village included the elder and the elder¡¯s successor, there was nobody in the entire village who knew the layout better than these two and how best to allocate their efforts.


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 Chapter 36: Battle preparations

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    It had been a little over a week since the queen¡¯s call to arms was heard throughout the forest, and thanks to the rapid organization in response to what they had heard the preparations were really shaping up quickly. With the combined efforts of Eirlathion and his apprentices, they had managed to weave ivy vines to create a wall four adult body-heights tall that was surrounding the entirety of all the lakira trees that were either occupied or could potentially become someone¡¯s home in the future. This was almost the height of the smallest lakira trees themselves.


    They had chosen the nearby coniferous trees that grew straight and tall as the anchoring points for the vine walls. They had utilized the trees closest to the lakira grove, it was a lot of ground to cover. In addition to this, with the fey dragon Everon having taken up the job, four newly created treents had organized themselves at various points around the outside of the perimeter, blending in perfectly with the surrounding trees. Four was an inadequate number to be of real use for defensive purposes, but if they were attacked then these wooden giants would be able to come to the aid in any position to defend the wall. Despite all of these preparations though, it was still clear to see that they were woefully ill prepared.


    ¡°These mere walls do nothing to stop our hunters, you can be certain that they would be equally as useless against them.¡± Ceren observed.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Calanor responded, looking straight upward with his brows furrowed. ¡°They merely need to climb the trees which the vines are anchored to. We must do something in order to prevent them from climbing.¡±


    ¡°Should we have the trees drop their limbs on the outside of the wall?¡± Eirlathion suggested with a thoughtful look.


    ¡°Master!?¡± Calanor responded in shock at the suggestion. The fact that he was the only one who had such an outburst was not because the others were not equally as shocked. Rather, it was because Calanor was the only one among them who was secure enough in their relationship to their master to actually dare to speak out. Jedon and Ceren had complicated expressions, and little Laeril didn¡¯t seem to know what to make of what the adults were talking about.


    Indeed, it would normally be unheard of for a mage of the green word to bring up the subject of harming a plant in such a manner. In fact, it was quite normal for elves in general to consider such an action taboo for the risk of offending the green word mages who the entirety of elven society depends upon. However, in this instance, there was something in Eirlathion¡¯s intuition that just told him this was the right choice.


    ¡°Well, perhaps there is another way, but it just seemed like a good solution to the issue.¡± Eirlathion defended his choice half-heartedly. He was not very familiar with how to make proper battlements or fortifications. In fact, none of them were. It would be a different story if it was those battle hungry humans who lived out on the plains, but that was simply not the way things were done here in the forest by the elves. Really, all of them were more or less just making this up as they went along.


    ¡°What are you all talking about?¡± Laeril asks, looking innocently from one adult to the other.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± Ceren replies to her little apprentice, ¡°we¡¯re trying to figure out how to keep the bad elves from climbing these trees.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ can¡¯t you do something to make it hurt to climb them or something?¡± Laeril responds with a thoughtful expression.


    ¡°That¡¯s really not a bad idea,¡± Eirlathion responds. ¡°We could have some brier vines climb the trees and cover the branches. We will just have to venture out a little way from the village, there should be a few candidates for what we can use nearby.¡±


    They had decided on their next course of action, but before they could do anything there was a commotion near the gate they had made in their wall. The gates were the few lakira trees that were the farthest out along the boarder of the grove, they had been utilized for the fact that they could be opened by any elf recognized by the nymph living within. When the small group made up of the village¡¯s mages looked over to see what was going on, they saw several elves they had never seen before coming out of the gate tree. Or rather, entering the village through the gate.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Laeril asked, looking over excitedly toward the source of the clamor.


    ¡°Probably arrivals from a nearby village,¡± Jedon said, ¡°I think the closest village is around a¡­, no, that was¡­ her village.¡± A dark apologetic look came over his face as he recalled the village which the three newest additions to their village had come from, which had been completely wiped out on the same night. ¡°No.. I guess the next closest one then is about a four day¡¯s journey from here. It probably took them a day or two to organize, and then they might have moved a little slower as well if they were in a big group. There DOES appear to be a lot of them coming in.¡±


    ¡°Well, we had probably best go and meet them,¡± Calanor said, looking up to their master for his approval, to which Eirlathion gave an immediate nod. Calanor had expected no different from the man, and after seeing it he simply continued on talking as though he had never been interrupted. ¡°I may not be the one in charge here anymore due to the circumstances, but I am still a representative of the village. It wouldn¡¯t do for Jedon and I to not be present.¡±


    ¡°The same goes for myself I suppose.¡± Eirlathion stated, and then looked over to Ceren and Laeril who seemed quite ready to come along themselves. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get going then.¡± They began to walk toward the gathering crowd of new arrivals.


    The majority of the new arrivals were dressed in the fur armor of the elven hunters. This was the majority profession among the elves, with only a few tanners, fletchers, and mages in any given village. Most villages did not have anyone involved in any form of metal craft, there were some truly excellent swordsmiths among the elves, but mostly they only lived in the capital. The few elves who possessed any form of metal weapon would be those who had ventured to the capital at some point in their life. Although, given the long lives of the elves, there were always a fair number of those who have had such a chance.


    Also, given that there were few children, elven women were expected to take some form of profession just as the men were. While women were the majority of those in tanner and fletcher jobs, there was only so much need for those roles. As such, those in the fur armor of the hunters seemed to almost be perfectly divided between the sexes.


    This is how it came that the master hunter who was chosen for their own village was a female. As the village mages approached the group, Eizeril, said master hunter, had already arrived to greet them first. It seemed the initial introductions were already out of the way, and now she was giving them an introduction and orientation to the village and what had been done to prepare for them when she spotted Eirlathion and his group approaching.


    ¡°Ah! Master!¡± She greeted him, and then turned back to the man who appeared to be the representative of the newly arrived hunters. ¡°This is the master magus of our village, master Eirlathion.¡±


    ¡°Oh! Master magus.¡± The man said with a bow. ¡°My name is Berenor. By the queen¡¯s decree, we have come to journey to aid your village in fortifying this location.¡±


    ¡°YES, THIS IS WELL SAID.¡± The booming voice of the fey dragon Everon, the current appointed leader of this village ever since it was declared it would be turned into a defensive fortress, cut in on their introductions as the great beast flew gently into the area in a manner that was half conventional flight using his wings and also surely half magic as he seemed to have far too little forward momentum to be properly holding himself aloft by the laws of physics alone. The fact that he was already using magic in his flight was the fact that when he had arrived at the spot in the air he had decided he wanted to suspend himself, he simply stopped, turned, and allowed his tail to hang down without even beating the air with his wings once.


    ¡°WELCOME WARRIORS, YOUR NUMBERS BEING ADDED TO OURS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED. SPACE HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR YOU TO FIND A RESIDENCE HERE. THE MOST OF YOU WILL BE IN THE CARE OF THE APPOINTED MASTER HUNTER YOU HAVE ALREADY MET. HOWEVER, IF THERE ARE ANY MAGES AMONG YOUR NUMBER, I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO STEP FORWARD NOW.¡±


    Well, no time for pleasantries with this dragon. Most of the new arrivals were in a mild state of awe and panic upon having Everon appear in front of them. After all, those who had not been to the capital had likely never even seen a fey dragon before, and those who had probably never interacted with them. The WERE the most powerful among the fey after all, as well as being the symbol of the queen¡¯s power as well.


    The crowd quickly seemed to settle down though as one elf began to push their way through the crowd. Upon arriving closer, they could make out she was a woman dressed in the green robes of a mage. Behind her trailed a young elf boy who looked to be barely into his 60th year, having just come of age. He wore brown leather robes, the common attire of a mage¡¯s apprentice.


    ¡°My greetings mighty servant of the queen.¡± The female mage said with a bowed head. ¡°My name is Sainel, I am the magus of our village.¡±


    ¡°SAINEL, IS IT? I AM EVERON. WELL MET. I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO WORK TOGETHER WITH THE MAGUS OF THIS VILLAGE AND ENHANCE THE FORTIFICATIONS OF THIS VILLAGE. ONCE MY ADVISOR ARRIVES YOU WILL BE SERVING UNDER HIS INSTRUCTION, BUT UNTIL THEN YOU WILL WORK TOGETHER TO BEGIN THE PROCESS ON THE FORTIFICATIONS.¡±


    What¡¯s this about his advisor? He had not said anything about this before. Eirlathion was forced to wonder if he would have ever even heard of this before said advisor arrived had this new group not arrived.


    ¡°Of course my lord.¡± The mage Sainel responded and then looked over in Eirlathion¡¯s direction for a moment before directing her eyes back to the hovering fey dragon.


    ¡°THAT WILL BE ALL.¡± He announced. ¡°I LEAVE YOUR AFFAIRS NOW IN THE HANDS OF THE APPROPRIATE REPRESENTATIVES OF THIS FORT¡± There was a cry of shock and unease from everyone as they rose their hands to cover their faces in order to protect themselves from the massive burst of wind that was the result of Everon¡¯s down-beat of his wings. And, with that one action, he was off. He flew up above the canopy and over the wall, off to parts of the forrest unknown to continue his work of locating spirits that could inhabit the trees.


    It took a little bit of time for everyone to regain their bearings after that, but when they had Sainel and her apprentice both turned and began to approach Eirlathion. Sainel¡¯s eyes became large in surprise as she got closer to Eirlathion, having likely sensed the extent of his cultivation into the 5th rank of spell formation. It was common for most elven magi to be considered masters upon reaching the 4th rank, a 5th rank such as Eirlathion was a true rarity. Normally, it was only the faeries who could reach such a high extent of power.


    She quickly composed herself as she drew closer to Eirlathion, putting on a more respectful face. ¡°Master.¡± She greeted him once she had reached a respectful distance. ¡°As I have introduced myself before in front of the master dragon, my name is Sainel, a master of the green word who has achieved the 4th rank in my spell formations. I am surprised and honored to encounter such an advanced mage among the elves as yourself. Cultivating this close to the scar of heaven surely must have its benefits.¡±


    A dark shadow passed over Eirlathion¡¯s face as he heard the minor jab mixed in with her words, especially considering that he could not deny that his advancement to the 5th rank was indeed tied to his access to an unusually dense supply of spirit energy, although not from the source she had assumed.


    ¡°Certainly that is so.¡± He agreed with a heavy voice. ¡°My name is Eirlathion. As you have already observed, my spell formations have reached the 5th rank, having brought me to a level capable of utilizing some of the same magic as the faeries. I imagine the journey here might have been hard on you. We were about to venture back outside the village in order to collect some briar vines in order to line the outer branches among the trees on our wall and make them unclimbable. What is it that you would like to do from here?¡±


    ¡°Well, I believe I am likely energetic enough to assist you with that.¡± Sainel responds. ¡°I am certain we can work out our living arrangements here at a later date. Perhaps I can share a residence with the master?¡±


    ¡°I am afraid that will not be an option.¡± Eirlathion denies her request. ¡°I have¡­ some special circumstances. Our village took in a woman from a now destroyed village that was very close to the heaven¡¯s fall when it happened. She was pregnant at the time, and the exposure to the energies seems to have had some effect on her children.¡± Both Sainel and her apprentice looked up at the plural Eirlathion had just used. ¡°Yes,¡± he said, ¡°that was one of the effects. She gave birth to twins. Both children also seem rather ill as a result. As such, my house is already quite full. I have taken in the twins along with some humans to keep them nourished and I have also taken in their mother. She is currently seeing to the children¡¯s basic needs, but cannot give them everything considering the nature of their condition.¡±


    ¡°Well, that event seems to have had several strange effects.¡± Sainel replied thoughtfully. ¡°I understand your conditions master Eirlathion.¡±


    -


    Eirlathion was troubled by the developments of the day as he arrived back at his home. It wasn¡¯t like he had not thought of the trouble new arrivals in the village would cause, but he had no real way to prepare against it so he had not paid it much thought. Now, however, he was made to face the fact that there would be new people from outside the village finding out about the girls.


    There were already suspicions about the condition of the girls from those in the village. However, nobody had ever really said anything out of respect and anyone in position to do anything about it had accepted any plausible deniability they could get in order to not have to think about it.


    Now, however, there were several new people who had not grown up knowing and respecting him. This introduced a major unknown factor. Everon had not been an issue, he went around giving orders like absolute decrees under the presumption that his word was law here. This was somewhat frustrating for the people who had not known him growing up, but it was mostly accepted. However, he did not seem to pay a lot of attention to the minor goings on of the personal affairs of individual members of the village, even those who were in important positions such as Eirlathion.


    These new arrivals though were a group of many people, all with their own opinions and motivations, and they would all be naturally curious to orient themselves to the goings on of their new living environment. Therefore, the chances they may start asking questions when they hear about the mysterious twins born to an elf was rather high. Twins among elves were absolutely unheard of to start with, and with all the other strange circumstances of their birth there was no way such a thing wouldn¡¯t become the talk of the town among these new arrivals. And, if they started asking questions, it was only a matter of time before their suspicions were peaked.


    Well, he would have to begin taking counter measures somehow. For starters, he would ask nymph to begin communicating with the other nymph of the village. Meanwhile, he would also have to tell T¨²eth to be on her guard. As for the girls, should he perhaps tell Aerien to forget about what he had said before about not doing whatever spirit meddling stuff she had done when he had brought her mother here for the first time? No, there was no telling what she might wind up doing to herself if he lifted the ban on that.


    He did not understand what it was she was doing himself, so he did not want to risk her damaging herself. What¡¯s more, her spirit energy level had been lowering lately. It was falling little by little, but there was no denying the fact that she had weakened by a great deal compared to only a week ago. He was already quite concerned about this. Perhaps the lie he always used about those girls had become a reality and Aerien was genuinely becoming ill. Or, maybe she had done more experimenting with her spirit and had indeed damaged herself in some way while he was out.


    Eirlathion did not understand enough about Aerien¡¯s case to start with to have even the first clue about what might be happening with her, and he no longer had the time to figure it out with all the work being demanded of him in order to fortify the village. Well, there is probably more he can do to protect the girls from outside threats at the moment. If he did not have the time or ability to figure out what was going on with Aerien then all he could do is hope for the best on that front while he does something about the things he actually does have the power to act on.


    Author''s Note


    Before anyone says anything about their fortifications, I just want to say that I have watched Shad''s videos on "Machicolations."


    For those of you outside of the loop, machicolations are also known as "murder holes," and they are holes in the battlements of a castle that an arrow or rock can be shot or thrown straight down through in order to hit enemies right at the base of the wall. It''s pretty much Shad''s favorite word, and he has made it more or less synonymous in the medieval community with the entire list of castle wall defense fortifications due to how much he says it in any video he talks about the subject in.


    In other words, any complaint you may have about the poor quality of their walled defense is likely to be one I have already thought of and will come up in one form or another.


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 Chapter 37: The calm

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Creating an entire new chakara system in a week. It turned out to be nothing even close to that simple. As it turns out, the speed at which you are able to assemble a new chakara is entirely dependent on how well you understand its function in the energy body. As far as that goes, the 9 I had created at first were the only ones I knew the full functionality of.


    I wound up relying on Gaerien pretty heavily for this process. Each day she would educate me completely on the functions of 3 to 5 of the minor chakara, and then I would begin the process of constructing them in my duplicate masculine spirit body. It went far slower than the original 9 from the first day, my lower level of understanding about them actually did slow down the speed at which I could create them, and I also had to deal with the frustrated emotions of my younger self constantly coming back over our subconscious connection. It made it rather difficult to concentrate.


    Fortunately, I had the help of the effectively infinite energy of heaven running quite smoothly and regularly through my masculine spirit body. Since it was newly constructed and lacking even the slightest imperfection, the energy flowed flawlessly and seemed to start taking on a will of its own the more minor chakara I constructed. It seemed as though each one of them became easier, and I wound up not even having to worry at all about the smallest nameless chakara nodes as they created themselves simply by the energy flowing through that section of the body.


    After all of this, it took around 10 days for the whole thing to finally be finished. Once I had completed it, I stepped back, or rather, teleported back to the island in this void that had become my observation platform. From there, I took in the work I had done. The masculine body now stood proud and tall as its gigantic form. It was a natural thing to appreciate the hard work you had just done. However, looking at that nearly perfect form in contrast to the child feminine form next to it caused my heart to feel somewhat empty.


    If I were to compare the form of the curled up child facing away from the Adonis like form that I had just meticulously hand-crafted free of all spiritual imperfections, it really made me feel bad. I had just spent 10 days working on the perfectly healthy one while neglecting the one that looked unhealthy at a glance. However, this whole thing was, in fact, for the express purpose of restoring this child¡¯s spirit to good health. I had to first transplant my own energies out of hers and separate them before she could begin to recover.


    It might have been my subconscious affecting it, but the ghostly female child form seemed to have tensed up as it held its knees over the course of the time I was working. The face had not taken on any kind of unpleasant expression, it was still as blank and neutral as it was when my younger self had first manifested it. It was only its arms, legs, and torso that showed the signs of tension as the fingers began to grip the knees more tightly and the arms were held more rigid as the elbows began to raise due to the tension of the supposed muscles working underneath.


    This manifestation as though the feminine form was in pain had started to appear roughly 2 days into my efforts at separating our energies. I was unsure whether this was a result of the out of whack chakara system, or if maybe it was a result of the mental stress my younger self was feeling out in the real world. She seemed to have taken a particular interest in my mother, and without my wisdom as the more lived and experienced between the two of us she had decided to pursue her whenever she could, only to experience repeated rejection every time. This had grown to frustrate her quite a bit.


    Rolwen and Levin managed to calm her down. While she may not have full access to my wisdom and maturity, she still had access to all of my knowledge. Because of this, she was still the one with the knowledge about the best exercises they could do to better themselves and speed their growth. They had often, over the course of this week and some change, cheered her up by talking about how they needed and relied on her to help them, and asked her what the next exercise was. Those boys had actually become quite clever in dealing with my younger self. I¡¯d had my doubts at first, but it seemed to have worked out.


    My younger self had also proven to be a fair bit more mature than I had expected, at least in so far as it came to dealing with the boys. It seemed like she had grown rather familiar with them, which meant she knew how to act. However, it seemed most of this was actually an act. She did not want the boys to see her as a little kid, so she was constantly trying to act like me in order to prove she was an adult like the rest of us.


    Unfortunately, she was only able to keep up this act in front of Gaerien and the boys. This was, after all, the only situation where she had seen me modeling what could pass for proper adult-in-a-child¡¯s-body behavior. As soon as she tried to approach mother, she didn¡¯t know how to act. Normally, when I interacted with adults in this body, I acted in a way that could be easily taken as something a child would do while also being just what needed to be done in order to achieve my objective. She did not have anything even close to those skills, so she ultimately only just wound up acting childish.


    I smiled as I reminisced about those experiences I had felt coming back through our link and then took a more serious look at the chakaras that represented my younger self¡¯s spirit form. Actually, if I were to compare it to when I began this process, it actually looked a lot better. The heaven¡¯s chakara, which used to be a gigantic sphere like the sun of this inner world, had shrunk down to at least an extent where it was obvious it was centered over the female form¡¯s head and the male form just happened to be close to it. Before, it was so large that you couldn¡¯t even tell that.


    It was still quite big, and still cast random bursts of energy everywhere in this inner space, but it had settled down a little and now seemed to direct most of the energy into the feminine spirit body, which then quickly passed through her system and exited through the sole chakara and straight into the more concentrated void positioned at the male form¡¯s feet.


    The chakara themselves also seemed more stable. The other 6 primary chakara had taken on a far more uniform shape and size. I could see them pulsing from time to time, an indication I had learned to mean there was some disturbance in the flow of energy that should normally be a steady stream, but this was a far-cry from the flickering and shaking they had done when I first saw them. They were indeed well on the road to recovery.


    -


    ¡°Other¡± Aerien¡¯s POV.


    I sat on my bed with a giant grin on my face as I carefully read the information I was getting from my connection with the old man. I knew he was working on the final touches of his separate spirit body Gaerien had been helping him with. Once he was finished with this, he would be back to helping me again. It was not that I couldn¡¯t do things without him, but I liked having him there.


    He thought of us as both the same person and different at the same time. Until he started to do all of this last week, I had accepted that and I shared his thoughts on this. However, since he was separate from me for so long with me needing to do things with Rolwen and Levin and try to show them I could also be like a grown up without him, I was starting to see him more and more like a different person from me. That didn¡¯t mean I became distant from him though, not at all. In fact, more and more I was starting to see him like a grandpa to me.


    It seemed like he had forgotten his name from his past life. For so long, he had thought of himself as also Aerien. So, I guess that really is his name now then. But, he was also my grandpa, and he was the most important grandpa in the world for me. I really felt a lot safer when he was around, and I had missed having his consciousness constantly so close to mine. I had decided to put up with it on the first few days even though I didn¡¯t like it. After a while, I got used to it. But now that he was almost done and could come back, I was excited and now I really knew just how much I had missed him and wanted him to always be around.


    After a little while of paying close attention to the emotions I felt from our link, I felt the tense concentration of him focusing on what he was doing stop, and then it shifted to admiration. I knew exactly what those emotions signified.


    (Gaerien!) I called out to my sister who knew a lot more about this stuff that I did. (He¡¯s done! He¡¯s done!)


    (Huh? Who¡¯s done?) Levin asked, having heard my outburst.


    (She¡¯s talking about her old life mind. He¡¯s finished with what was making it so he couldn¡¯t be part of her mind in front of us.) Gaerien told him.


    (Hey! Help me go into my inner world thing! I want to see!) I demanded, getting a slightly uncomfortable look from Gaerien.


    (Can¡¯t you do that yourself already?) She complained.


    (Noo¡­ I don¡¯t think so.)


    (Well, you¡¯re probably too excited for it anyway. Alright, fine, I¡¯ll help you.) She looks back up to Rolwen at this. He was in the middle of helping her walk when I had called out. She communicated her intentions with body language, and then the two of them started walking toward the bed slowly.


    (Mmmm¡­ come on!) I complained at their slow pace.


    (Why don¡¯t you just pick her up?) Levin asks.


    (She can wait.) Gaerien answers, sending a challenging look to Rolwen to warn him off of doing as Levin had just suggested. He gives a somewhat helpless look and just continues to help Gaerien with her slow toddling steps toward the bed.


    (Stop treating me like a kid!) I yell at them all and turn and cross my arms. (Fine! I¡¯ll do it myself!) I throw myself down on the pillow and begin to go through the meditation I learned from the old man, the same one we had used the first time when we went into Gaerien¡¯s world. However, I couldn¡¯t quite get my mind to calm down after all of that. Suddenly, I felt a more mature calm come over my mind. I knew I had taken too long. He was back now.


    I could feel my dual-mind, not really a kid and not really an adult, re-asserting itself. Despite my younger self¡¯s previous opinion that we were two separate people, as soon as the both of us were conscious in the outer world it was like the two of us blended into one and it became hard to tell where one mind ended and the other began.


    I was still quite aware of the fact that we were two minds in the same body. However, despite the fact that the manifestations of our spirits were separate now, our consciousness was still like two halves of a whole when we were together and one of us was not fully asleep or, in the case of the past week or so, buried inside my inner mind.


    My child self also quickly lost her interest in personally seeing the work I had done. As soon as we were combined, she gained all of the information in a flash as though she had seen it herself. I felt a wave of happiness crop up inside our shared mind as she appreciated the sight, but that faded quickly as she seemed to simply relax into me and the familiar sensation of being a part of each other.


    I sat up and looked at everyone staring at me, Gaerien with a bemused face and the boys both looking at a loss for what to do. Even in my combined mind I got a little frustrated with how they seemed to be making fun of me, but I could understand it. Well, only a small hand-full of good solutions to this.


    (Alright, looks like I was a little too slow.) I said with a slight pout, before looking up at them with a smile. This just made everyone confused, seeing such a sudden change in attitude. (What? Never seen a person front a different person¡­ahh¡­ gah! I REALLY hate this body! Can¡¯t even make a stupid joke to laugh off an awkward moment.)


    (Personality? Hehe..) Did Rolwen just freaking chuckle after finishing my word?


    (Oh, don¡¯t you start with me!) I growl at him in challenge. This, however, just gets the entire group laughing at the spectacle of an infant trying to put on an intimidating face.


    (Yep, she¡¯s back to normal.) Rolwen says.


    (Well, seems like Gaerien told you everything now.) I say, scooting myself over to the edge of the bed. I felt my younger self stirring in irritation at them laughing over my face like that, but I managed to hold back the frustration. I knew that face from the other side in my previous life, there really was something that was just hilariously cute about a baby¡¯s angry face. I could understand why they couldn¡¯t help laughing.


    (Yeah, it was kinda weird seeing you act like a little kid.) Levin admits. Considering how I normally behaved before this whole mind-split thing, my younger self must have not really done as well as I had the impression of at acting grown up. Or rather, perhaps being teens and adults in kids¡¯ bodies themselves, they can tell the difference.


    (I hope you can accept my younger self.) I say, deciding to put on something more of a quiet sad face since I know a serious face would only look silly on this body. (She¡¯s also part of me, even if you do find her hard to handle.)


    (Ehh¡­ it¡¯s fine!) Levin responds (It¡¯s just¡­ weird! I mean, you¡¯re¡­)


    (Yeah, I know.) I cut him off. I do get it. I¡¯ve been acting something kinda like a leader of this little group starting from when we were taken here to this house. They must have started to get used to me filling that role. The weird thing though is that I had my older self in that inner world for more total days than I had been their ¡°leader.¡± So, it actually was a little strange that they were already looking up to me. Perhaps it was the fact that I was the most confident voice that knew what was going on in this world that was completely strange. The fact I revealed myself right when their world was turned upside down for the second time¡­ or maybe third, probably helped as well.


    (Anyway, what do we do next now that you¡¯re out of there?) Rolwen asks.


    (Well, that depends. Has Gaerien taught you any culti¡­ ahh, that stuff?) I fix Rolwen with a glare that sends him into a fit of stiffled giggles.


    (Umm¡­ well¡­) Levin is the one to respond, beings Rolwen is a little indisposed at the moment.


    (I talked about it, I didn¡¯t teach them anything.) Gaerien says.


    (She said that¡­)


    (CULTIVATION!) Rolwen interrupts Levin in the middle of talking just to tease me, which is quite clearly exactly what he¡¯s doing now.


    (Hey! Rolwen!) Levin growls back at him.


    (Sorry, hehe!) Rolwen responds. If I could talk better, I would probably snip at him by calling him a chuckle head at this point, but that was yet another frustration of this body.


    (Ah, anyway, she said¡­ it would actually be better for us to learn it from you because you had some kind of really good technique that was actually from Earth!) Levin continued, now that Rolwen¡¯s interruptions were over.


    (Yeah, what¡¯s up with that!? Earth has cultivation techniques?) Rolwen said.


    (Well, they didn¡¯t work very well on Earth, but it sounds like they should work pretty good here.) I tell them. (I can¡¯t really teach you much yet though. I didn¡¯t know much about other¡­ methods.)


    (Cultivation techni¡­)


    (You be quiet!) It was actually Levin who cut off Rolwen half way through his interruption this time. Seriously, what¡¯s gotten into this boy? Seeing me acting like a genuine child must have awakened some teasing streak in him.


    (Please be serious and listen.) I admonish him, feeling good about the fact that I have grounds to seriously criticize him this time. (Anyway, I didn¡¯t know much about other ways it was done, but from what Gaerien says it sounds like my method is very unusual. It¡¯s part of a martial art, and you actually have to train in the actual moves of the martial art in order to do the¡­ thing.) I leave a large pause and actually direct an expecting half eye toward Rolwen.


    (Uhh¡­ cultivation?) Rolwen cautiously finishes the sentence, to which I just throw an open palm-up ¡°as he says/case in point¡± gesture toward him. Somehow, he actually looks really uncomfortable when he¡¯s actually asked to finish the sentence for me. The others also don¡¯t seem to know how to follow up here. I, meanwhile, am quite content to allow the awkward silence to continue for a little while. Payback.


    (Umm..) Rolwen begins to shift uncomfortably.


    (Anyway,) I decide to jump back into the discussion now that the moment has passed. (I don¡¯t think our bodies are ready for martial arts yet. I can teach you the five elements meditation, but it¡¯s pretty much useless without the martial art with it. You can¡¯t really understand it without doing the kata and learning the fighting styles that go with each element. The meditation won¡¯t work right unless you can understand the feel of the elements.)


    (Feel of the elements?) Rolwen asks.


    (You¡¯ll understand it better once you do some of the training. Anyway, it is probably better if we don¡¯t even start that till you are ready to do the martial art. For now, how about more neural training so you are ready for that sooner.)


    With that, our path for the time being was set.


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 Chapter 38: Sense of dread

    Reader requested content warning


    Cliff Hanger. You can thank Seipherwood for requesting a cliff hanger warning be placed on this chapter.


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    ¡°So, just what are they saying?¡± Erlathion asks as he is making his preparations to go out for his rounds today.


    ¡°It¡¯s horrible master! They think that the only reason you have the girls here is for an excuse to keep the humans!¡± Nymph tells him with an indignant tone.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s actually tame compared to some of the things they could be saying. Have any of them brought these rumors to Everon?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, somebody did talk to him.¡±


    ¡°And what did he say?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm¡­ that¡­ I¡¯m trying to get the others to tell me more.¡± Nymph said with a frustrated expression. The spirit of Eirlathion¡¯s house actually happened to be one of the more intelligent ones. They were far more helpful, especially in the area of communication, than your typical nymph. Most did not really know how to even form a complete sentence, and had little interest in the communications and daily goings on of the elves who lived with them beyond what they asked for while feeding them mana.


    The only reason the rest were paying any real amount of attention this time was because Nymph had asked them to. They are no dryad, but being the oldest in the grove still gives their word some weight among the others. However, it is hard to change their nature.


    ¡°Hmm..¡± Nymph puts on a thoughtful expression. ¡°Well, it seems like he said to leave it alone, but¡­ there are some confusing things. There is all kinds of things they are saying that doesn¡¯t make sense. He did say something about not crossing a mage, but from what I can tell of what the others are saying he also said something about getting someone to watch us. Or, maybe they decided to do that on their own?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Eirlathion took on a thoughtful pose. It was good if that was all there was to it, but for Nymph to be this hesitant it sounds like there may have been more to the conversation than has made it back to him. It was certainly a concern how quickly this rumor had spread. It was only 3 days since the new arrivals got here, and already it seems the whispers had reached the people who might actually act on them. This shows how far their respect for him goes among the younger elves of the village.


    ¡°Well,¡± Eirlathion says, ¡°either way, if that is all, then I suppose that¡¯s good for now. Please tell me if you hear anything that sounds more urgent.¡± With his mind heavy with what was going on, Eirlathion placed his hand on the wall and opened the stairs to the second floor and descended them.


    [rwighd inbesh inger] He heard the children¡¯s voices as he came down into their room. [eft wing inger] He looked over to them, sitting in the center of the room. The boys were playing a game of some sort where they sat facing each other and brought their hands together. He had seen them playing this game several times. This time, however, it seemed the girls were watching with quite a bit of interest, and kept saying something in the mysterious language that the boys had taught them.


    [wight bingi] One of the girls said something again, and then the boys brought only the little fingers of one hand together. [zwitch! Wight bingi] After this was said, the boys, apparently in response to one of the girls¡¯ words, look a little flustered and do the same with the other hand. Well, looks like they¡¯ve decided to add something new to this game of theirs.


    Eirlathion floats a momentary smile as he sees the children playing, but that faint smile quickly darkens as he looks at them. As if all the problems going on around them weren¡¯t enough, Aerien¡¯s spirit energy she had been releasing was still reducing. It seemed that day by day it just kept getting weaker. He quickly activated his mana sight and looked over the girls. This allowed him to pick Aerien out of the pair of them in an instant due to the different way the energies behaved around them.


    It appears as though Aerien was the one giving the boys commands for their hand and finger game. She looked like she was happy and healthy enough just to look at her, but her energy was still declining every day.


    This was beginning to become concerning. Eirlathion knew of only one way that a fey would actually release spirit energy. That was if they had made it to the very highest levels of magecraft. A bit over a week ago, Aerien had been releasing a level of energy that was comparable to the queen herself. Now, it was less than half what it was before.


    Really, the most unnatural thing about her releasing spirit energy in the first place was her young age. There was no possible way she could have studied magecraft to the level necessary for what he had felt from her at her age. Other than that, this could offer something of an explanation for where the energy was coming from, except for the fact that it was reducing now.


    The children seemed to notice Eirlathion watching them, causing them to stop their game and look over in his direction. He gave them a light smile and then opened the way to the first floor, which now remained closed at all times someone wasn¡¯t using the stairs ever since T¨²eth started living here. It seems she didn¡¯t like how the children kept coming down the stairs on their own.


    Eirlathion¡¯s mind was clouded. It seemed life had only continued to grow more and more complicated. There was the imminent and most urgent threat of some action being taken by Everon weighing most heavily on his mind, and since the beginning he was having to worry about T¨²eth¡¯s strained relationship with her daughters. As if that was not complicated enough, there was also the big unknown of Aerien¡¯s spirit energy in the first place. It was an unknown before, but now that its rise had turned into a fall it just sparked even more concern.


    If the circumstances were better, Eirlathion would be closely observing and examining that girl for everything that might explain what was happening in her spirit. As things were though, he simply could not afford the time needed to figure things out. All he could do is hope that whatever is happening to her will not cause her permanent harm.


    He looked over to T¨²eth, his apprentice. She was sitting on her matt on the floor, positioned right in front of her bed they had set up for her down here taking up half the alcove that used to be the entire cultivation mat when Eirlathion had been using it. He had offered to have her sleep upstairs with the children, but it seemed she simply was not ready for that yet.


    She appeared to have just been working on her cultivation. She had likely long since reached the point where she could form her first apprentice level spell by now, but he had not even had the time to teach her with all that had been going on. Instead, she had simply been told to go on to refine the spell vessel she had already formed and gave her some brief instructions on how to manage that.


    She was likely intelligent enough that, with the lessons he had given her so far, she could form the spell on her own. However, she might have to go outside to do that, and as things were now he could not afford to have the house without any adults in it.


    She gave him a nod and then averted her eyes. This has been a pattern that has repeated almost every morning since T¨²eth started living here. She was usually very quiet. It was more than that though. Being quiet is one thing, but the constant nervousness and the pain that he saw every time he looked in her eyes was a constant reminder that she was probably every bit as vulnerable as those children. And yet, she was the only one who he could trust to be with them while he was out.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be heading out.¡± Eirlathion says. ¡°You should probably not leave the house today, not even for a moment. There are some rumors going around now about the girls. Some of the new residents here might want to question you on them, I¡¯m pretty certain you¡¯re not ready for that.¡±


    ¡°Ah...¡± She responds with a nod, after which her face tightens with worry. Yes, it¡¯s pretty obvious that if she came under any kind of hostile questioning, there is no way she would be able to handle it in her current state. She already showed some signs of torment when she was brought to this village two years ago, but now ever since the threat of the tainted elves was revealed she has been looking worse and worse by the day.


    ¡°T¨²eth!¡± He called out to her, causing her face to snap up with a jump and look at him. ¡°It¡¯s going to be Ok. The reason we are putting in all this effort to protect the village is so that nothing else like what happened to you occurs again.¡±


    ¡°Y.. yeah.¡±She stutters and nods.


    ¡°Alright, take care of yourself. I am going to go and begin my work for today.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± She says again. Her face at least looks a little better, although there is some question as to whether that¡¯s because his words have had an impact or if she¡¯s only responding to the fact he¡¯s trying to cheer her up. To assess things honestly, it is far more likely to be the latter. There is not much more he can do or say in this situation though. That being the case, all he can do is simply accept it and walk out the door.


    He looks back as he leaves and notices T¨²eth has closed her eyes and turned her head away. He has noticed her doing this before. He does not understand this behavior, but he has never asked. It most likely has something to do with her trauma, and that does not seem to be something she seems ready to talk about.


    -


    ¡°It looks like we are just about done here.¡± Calanor said, casting an appraising glance over the vine wall that was now lined with large thorny pushes climbing the entire thing. They had meant to only place the thorny plants on the trees, but then Laeril had started climbing on the vine walls, bringing their attention to the fact that it was indeed very scalable. It was clearly something they would have to act on.


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Eirlathion gave a simple grunt in response. It was currently his turn to be on break. This was the routine they had fallen into. He and Sainel would each take turns working alone to cast their plant growth spells, and then the apprentices would all take a third shift together. In this manner, they each got a chance to recover their mana. The addition of Sainel had been a great help in this. Before she had arrived, they had large periods of dead time where everyone was recovering their mana. With her addition, the time between active shifts left each of them with about enough time to make a full recovery.


    ¡°Alright, that looks good¡± Saniel said, stepping back and nodding in appreciation at her own work. ¡°Shall we move on to the next section?¡±


    Suddenly, the honking of a water fowl was heard from overhead. It was a strange enough sound to hear that all of them looked up to see what was making that sound. Around in the forrest, such animals were almost never seen. Not the natural animals anyway. In fact, these migratory water fowl were a popular form taken on by changelings who wished to travel long distances due to this animal¡¯s incredible stamina in flight. Having visited the capital enough times, Eirlathion was immediately aware of these facts and held a stiff expression as he saw the bird flying down directly toward their location.


    The muddy brown colored bird landed not so gracefully on the forest floor, kicking up a lot of leaves. ¡°What kind of bird is that?¡± Laeril questioned, pointing and taking a step forward. Ceren quickly grabbed her shoulder and then looked forward with a stiff expression. An expression shared by all the rest of the adults there as the water fowl, quite as expected, began to deform into a grayish ooze that began to grow larger and take the form of a man.


    The man¡¯s skin was pure white for a second, with the slightest tinge of pink as blue and red blood vessels were visible under his skin. However, that skin quickly turned a pale shade of blue. This was not the natural color of a changeling¡¯s skin. However, they often found that their naturally transparent white skin that was so devoid of pigment that one could see the blood vessels beneath tended to unsettle people. As such, even in their natural form, it was typical of them to use their transformation abilities to still alter the color of their skin.


    The skin color alone though was not the most unsettling part of their appearance, although it didn¡¯t help much. It was the fact that their eyes actually had no natural color to them at all. If one were to look at their eyes, they would be able to see straight through the clear surface to the back of the retina as it glowed an orange tinted shade of pink within those sockets. This disturbing sight was also handled with transformation powers, and it was somewhat typical for a changeling to have developed the habit of keeping their eyes closed as they were transforming back to their natural form until they could alter the pigment of their skin and eyes.


    As the man turned to the group of them, he opened his large eyes, over three times the size of a normal elf¡¯s eyes. He had pigmented them completely black. The large black eyes looked them over for a moment.


    ¡°A changeling!?¡± Laeril exclaimed as she realized what she was looking at.


    ¡°Hey!¡± Ceren barked at her, giving her arm a momentary squeeze. ¡°Don¡¯t be rude.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite alright.¡± The changeling man said to them with a slight chuckle and a voice that did not sound entirely male or female. His features were most certainly masculine, but if it weren¡¯t for his physical build then it would be quite hard to tell his gender from voice alone. ¡°I am Sagel, I was sent by the royal court as a war advisor to the fey dragon who was sent here. I take it you are the mages in charge of turning this village into a fortress?¡±


    ¡°That is correct.¡± Eirlathion replies. ¡°We were just in the middle of placing thorny plants on the exterior of the walls in order to keep enemies from climbing them.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... well, that¡¯s a good line of thought I suppose.¡± the changeling, Sagel, responds. ¡°However, overall your defenses really do speak to the fact that you¡¯ve never had to deal with a siege before. They are absolutely aweful.¡±


    Eirlathion could see Ceren and Jedon nearly jump with that criticism. Even Calanor¡¯s brows furrow a little, and little Laeril simply can¡¯t help but have the emotions she¡¯s feeling show on her face. Eirlathion himself however simply gives a nod. ¡°I suspected as much, I suppose a changeling who has seen the fortifications the humans pose against the several sieges their war-like race has to endure would have some advice for us?¡±


    ¡°Of course, that¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m here for. I thought I would introduce myself to you first as I came in since I will likely be spending a great deal of my time working with you for a while.¡± Sagel said, giving them a friendly smile. ¡°Anyway, I would recommend you stop wasting your time with what you are doing right now. There are several things that will have to be changed.¡± He says, and then looks toward Eirlathion. ¡°You seem to have access to fifth tier magic, what spells have you set at that level?¡±


    ¡°I only recently gained access to the fifth tier.¡± Eirlathion tells him. ¡°I have yet to set any spells.¡±


    ¡°Good, that¡¯s very good.¡± Sagel says. ¡°I want you to set the living arbor spell once you have the mana fully established. You are off duty until you have done so. I assume there is no dryad here, you wouldn¡¯t be working at this yourselves otherwise, so having a 9th level mage with that spell is the next best thing. At any rate, how about you all take a break and show me in?¡±


    ¡°Certainly.¡± Eirlathion said, leading the way toward the gate. Once it was open and everyone was through to the other side, they could see there was some commotion near the center of the village. It seemed there were a lot of people gathered. As they approached, Eirlathion saw that it was his house everyone was gathered around, and floating above them was Everon suspended in the air by his anti-gravity magic with his serpentine form as his wings were held out like an umbrella over everyone¡¯s head as he was looking straight at the house.


    Eirlathion looked up and noticed the second story window was broken, there was a vine hanging loosely near it. It was pretty easy to figure out what had happened. A sense of absolute dread fell over Eirlathion and he started running. Before he could cross even half the distance, a sudden tremor occurred, causing everyone around to stir in panic. Right before Eirlathion¡¯s eyes, his house began to grow at an alarmingly fast rate. The sides expanded, and he could see the top growing straight up.


    After this already strange phenomenon, several particles of green light appeared outside the house directly between Everon and the house. The light coalesced into a genderless long green-haired humanoid form, about the size of an adult man and dressed in flowing light robes with various embroidery that looked like it was made of living vines and leaves.


    A dryad!? But how? And, in front of his house too... that would mean, this dryad absolutely had to be... Before he could complete that thought, the dryad opened their eyes and glared straight at Everon. ¡°YOU DID THIS! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!¡±


    At those words, absolutely filled with all the hate and anger imaginable, every tree and vine in the entire village began to move on its own. A large branch swung down on the back of the fey dragon¡¯s head, causing him to shriek with a roar of fright. As he tried to begin flying away, he was caught and tied by several vines. By this time, the crowd of gathered people were absolutely screaming in fright and running as best they could to get away from this battle between the strongest class of nature spirit and the strongest class of fey.


    Everon wreathed himself in a coat of white flames. In response to this, the entire tree that was Eirlathion¡¯s home began to glow an intense shade of green. This green aura traveled down the ivy vines that were attached from it, and protected them from the flame. The vines began to constrict the fey dragon until finally one that had coiled around his left wing pulled it right off of his serpentine body, causing Everon to let out a large cry of distress.


    ¡°A dryad!?¡± Sagel shrieked as he caught up. ¡°In the queen¡¯s name, how could he have been so colossally stupid to have offended a dryad!?¡± Sagel was shaking with shock and rage as he looked on at the scene playing out in front of him.


    Indeed, that would be foolish if he had known they were a dryad to start with. For a newly born dryad though, they were incredibly powerful. Just where had all this power come from? No, that¡¯s not important. The better question is, what had enraged nymp enough to have brought this all on? Eirlathion¡¯s earlier feeling of dread grew several times over at the thought. He began running directly into the heat of the battle as the severed wing fell to the ground with a thump.


    ¡°Nymph! I mean.. Dryad! What¡¯s going on!?¡±


    ¡°AHHH!!!¡± Dryad lets out a cry of pain, clutching their head. ¡°It... it¡¯s too much!¡± Even as Dryad screams in distress, the vines continue to tighten around the helpless fey dragon, this time tightening around his mid section so tightly that it cuts straight through his body, causing his tail to fall to the ground.


    Suddenly, the green glow around the tree fades to dark, causing Dryad to turn and look up, suddenly completely lucid. ¡°It stopped? NO!!¡± they cry, and then turn to Eirlathion with a look of desperation. ¡°Master! Quick! It¡¯s Aerien!¡±


    Eirlathion cursed in his mind. He had suspected as much, but now... as he was about to make a run toward the house, the door opened, and T¨²eth came running out clutching a limp child in her arms that could only have been the very one Dryad was distressed over. Her white dress was stained with blood all across the left side from arm-pit to thigh. The stunning sight seemed to confirm his worst fears as he looked over her limp form from which he could no longer feel even a trickle of spirit or mana energy.


    Author''s note


    Err... yeah. Welcome to another multi-perspective scenario everybody. Also, finally the action hit! Errr... yay?


    (Also, it''s never a good sign when the chapter before the one you are currently reading has the words "the calm" in it.)


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Since Subscribe Star is not supported on this site, you will have to copy-paste the link below into your address bar. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.


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 Chapter 39: Hidden conflict

    Another cliff hanger warning.


    Another perspective on the same events, so of course it more or less has the same cliff hanger. More information revealed this time though. Aerien''s POV this time around, so you get a pretty first hand experience now.


    Aerien¡¯s POV (15 minutes earlier)


    [Everyone! Get to the stairs!] Suddenly, Falmarin burst into the room shouting those words and then quickly dived into the floor. I didn¡¯t understand what was going on exactly, but it had been getting a little noisy outside. I had ignored it at first, but with the warning Falmarin just shouted, I got a real sense that something was very wrong.


    I looked around the room, this time with all my senses heightened for anything that could be a threat. My attention immediately came to the window. There was a vine hanging in front of it that wasn¡¯t there before, and it was definitely pulled taught and shifting back and forth in a regular pattern that did not match with the swaying of the wind. No, that was definitely the movements of someone climbing it.


    I looked over to the sealed stairs, which were just opening up now. Falmarin immediately flew back up the stairs as soon as the path was open. Meanwhile, the boys and Gaerien still seemed confused. Meanwhile, I saw a boot come up over the side of the window. I realized exactly what the person attached to that foot was about to do, and there was no way we would have enough time to run. Even if we could, I doubted it would do us any good.


    As I watched the person in the window flex their legs and jump, swinging back with the vine they were holding, Levin came and grabbed me around the torso under the armpits, and began to drag me toward the stairs. I chose this exact moment to suddenly shift my weight and throw a hand onto Levin¡¯s shoulder, disrupting his balance that was already rather poor since he was bracing himself so much in order to drag me.


    He toppled to the floor, dragging me with him. In that same exact moment, the glass window shattered and the feet that had come through it were quickly followed by the body of a trim elven man who skillfully followed the momentum of his swing and landed on the floor with barely a scratch on him.


    While Levin was trying to get up, I used his shoulder to push off of, bringing myself to my feet. I had to get eyes on the intruder quickly in order to size him up and figure for any advantage I could use. He was wearing some kind of vest made of fur as his armor. The same armor was also sewn to several key positions on his legs. As for weapons, he didn¡¯t come in with a lot. However, I did still catch a glint of metal at his hip that could only have been some kind of knife given how it did not protrude far and he wore it on the front of his belt.


    As for my advantages, well, I was a baby. I guess my strongest advantage, aside from previous life knowledge, would be that I would be underestimated. I still didn¡¯t have a great deal of manual dexterity, and I could hardly even bend my knees correctly due to the fact that the knee cap hadn¡¯t properly formed yet and thus my quads lacked the leverage to pull correctly. Also, I couldn¡¯t really walk 2 steps without falling. Normally, this would be pretty stacked in this guy¡¯s favor. That is, if I was a normal baby, or even a normal reincarnated person. In my case though, I had one major advantage. That being, soft fist martial arts.


    There is a dirty little secret about the soft fist martial arts. All of the foremost masters are old men in their 70s and 80s. Some even older. This may not seem like much of a statement at first. In fact, it is quite stereotypical to have the old martial arts master in movies. As such, most people would react to this statement with a big fat ¡°Of course they are all old men!¡± However, nobody really stops to consider the true implications that come from this.


    The thing is, there are several diseases common to the elderly. These diseases are less prevalent in people who stay in shape, such as a martial arts master, but there is one disease in particular that actually becomes more prevalent instead of less for those who are very physically active. Rheumatoid arthritis. Most masters of the martial arts tend to suffer from this particular disease. In the hard fist martial arts, this means you become more of an instructor only, no longer having the ability to actually perform at the martial art. However, for the gentle fist styles, these masters can adapt their style to still work even with their arthritis riddled body.


    These arthritis riddled masters, being the ones who are at the top of every school and who teach the younger students, will pass down their methods until the methods that are gentle on the joints and can function even with the most severe joint problems.


    The art I practiced back on Earth was around 800 years old. As such, it had gone through so many generations of this that the entire style taught you by the time you got your yellow belt how to perform all your moves as though you were decrepit and old. Because, as one of the mottoes of the school says, one day you will be.


    When it comes to being an arthritis ridden old man, there really wasn¡¯t a lot of difference from being a toddling infant in terms of mobility. As such, my only real detriment was my balance and my inability to walk more than 2 steps¡­ I could handle that. There was one thing that could go wrong and throw all of this off though.


    (Levin! Don¡¯t touch me!) I shout back at him.


    (What!?) He responds in confusion. Unfortunately, I absolutely do not have enough time to explain myself.


    (Just don¡¯t! I¡¯m going to fight!)


    There was no more time for words, because the intruder had already straightened up and had confirmed his surroundings. He began to walk toward us, and he looked straight at me and smiled.


    [Don¡¯t touch her!] Falmarin shouted, flying straight at the man¡¯s face. However, he didn¡¯t even seem to notice and continued walking straight through her ghostly form. That would mean this guy is non-magical then. I hadn¡¯t put my faith in that working anyway, so that¡¯s also fine. I couldn¡¯t afford to be distracted. I still couldn¡¯t sense spirit energy, and thus people¡¯s intentions, as I had in my past life. I likely wouldn¡¯t be able to sense his anyway, beings he¡¯s an elf, which is a type of fey. This meant I would have to pull off my move here with pure timing alone.


    (Ah¡­ Aerien..) Great! Levin is reaching for me. I swat his hand away and stumble a little, trying to keep my balance. In that time, the man has completely closed the distance and bends down to reach for me in order to scoop me off the ground. While he¡¯s doing so, I stumble in a way that almost resembles drunkenness and collide with his bent knee.


    I roll my body to the side, sliding down the outer portion of this guy¡¯s leg as I cling onto his lower thigh which is only just barely in reach due to his bent over state in order to support myself.


    [Haha! What¡¯s this?] The man speaks for the first time, now crouching even lower in order to be able to reach me as I am so far around to his side. This brings his waist into reach and I immediately reach and grab onto his belt, my hand landing on my target right as he stops his descent. In the next moment, he managed to get his hands on me and lifted me up. As I was lifted, all I had to do was keep my arm straight and allow my hand to close and this allowed me to ¡°lift¡± something else right off of his belt.


    As soon as it was in my hand, I immediately pulled my arm tight to my body so he wouldn¡¯t notice. I shifted my hands and figured I might as well try something since the alternative if this didn¡¯t work would be about three times harder.


    The man pulled my infant body to his chest. And, in the same exact motion, I made use of the force from his own action of pulling me in to drive the blade of the knife I had taken right off his own belt into his rib cage. Even through the fur armor he was wearing, the blade penetrated beautifully, and I successfully managed to get it between his ribs resulting in no deflections off of the rib cage.


    [Ah! What!? Ahh..] I leaned forward and covered the handle of the knife with my body. And, with the hand that was not covering the knife, I began punching him in the center of the chest while I was struggling.


    [leh e go!] I protest. Rather than react to his knife wound, he makes an effort to keep his hold on me. It seems like, for now, it all had worked beautifully. The muscles and the internal organs have no actual pain receptors, and if sliced cleanly enough you will also not immediately realize you just got a puncture wound, especially if your body is pumping full of adrenaline as it would be if you were infiltrating somebody¡¯s home with a method such as this guy just used.


    In this state, the alternate explanation of having just taken an elbow or punch can seem quite plausible as an explanation for where the pain came from. In fact, I had heard several stories about this exact thing happening in the real world. Most of these stories were from prison guards who happened to train in the dojo with me, both during my days as a student and master alike. It was a rather popular art among prison guards as they were the ones who needed non-lethal take-down methods and improved self defense the most. At any rate, they had several stories about people getting shanked and hearing from the victim that they literally did not even think they were being stabbed and thought it was just a punch.


    [What¡¯s going on!?] The voice of my mother cuts in as she arrives at the top of the stairs and sees the situation.


    [The¡­ the fey dragon *huf* Everon¡­ has¡­ has ordered these children *huf* be brought to him under¡­ under suspicion of¡­ of being grey elves.] The man says. [Oh¡­ what¡¯s..] He seems very short of breath already. Between talking and fighting to keep hold of me, he is quickly using up the oxygen in his blood. And, with his lung cavity depressurized, he is no longer able to get his lungs to fill completely. His breathing has become quick and shallow.


    [Let her go!] my mother shouts and then charges the guy. She runs right up to him, but he simply reaches out a hand to intercept her, pushing her down after having received her full momentum. Considering how fast she was running, that¡¯s actually a rather impressive feat of strength. However, he seems to have been thrown off a little by his current state, and begins stumbling immediately afterward and slumps to the floor.


    [What¡¯s hap..?] as soon as I get the opportunity of his lap to put my weight on instead of his arm, I immediately shoot my legs down to step on his thigh, pulling the knife from his ribs in the process, and then I deliver an upward cut to his neck. After this, I quickly roll away out of his grip.


    [Ah! What!?] He finally seems to have realized what¡¯s going on, slapping a hand up to his neck to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, the cut I made to his neck was not deep enough. Fortunately, the sudden realization that he had just received two fairly critical wounds caused him to panic and immediately start reaching toward me with the free hand, which of course I impale on the knife blade.


    He screams and pulls back his hand reflexively at the sudden pain. I use this unobstructed opportunity to further stab the knife into his right thigh, just above the knee. With this, his mobility should be limited enough he should no longer be much of a threat.


    Considering my work to be done, I roll away and then immediately look toward the window. The vine is shifting again. Another person is climbing it. That thing needs to be closed, and fast! That falmarin thing can make the stairs come and go by warping the wood of the house, it shouldn¡¯t be that hard to turn the broken window into a solid wall. I have never managed to use that ¡°green word¡± magic of the elves, but I had listened in on the concept of it both from mother¡¯s lesson as well as my own much simpler lesson with the ¡°smart nut¡± Ether guy had given me.


    Ok, so I¡¯m just supposed to push in mana and think of what I want to happen. Well, I¡¯ve got plenty of mana from my meditation. It is not only spirit energy that comes through the energy of heaven, it¡¯s every kind of energy. And, even if that wasn¡¯t the case, my elf body is constantly converting all the excess spirit energy into mana, so it really ought to work out fine.


    Ok, so, my intention is to have the window close. Actually, with all that¡¯s happening, maybe I should just tell falmarin to do whatever it takes to protect me. As I begin to focus what I assume to be mana through my hand and into the floor, I suddenly feel a splitting pain in my head. Actually, I come to realize this pain has been there for a while. It seems that guy slumped over on the floor there wasn¡¯t the only one who¡¯s pain signals had been blocked by adrenaline. However, at this moment the pain is beginning to intensify.


    I realize it¡¯s not just my head. The pain is splitting, and it¡¯s centered straight in the middle of my eyebrows. The pain is more intense than the blockage of the facial nerve, a phenomenon which causes a sharp pain to the area right above the eye ridge due to spamming neck muscles blocking the cranial nerve as it exists the skull. Also, if it were that, then it would be isolated to one side. This was straight in the center.


    In addition, my throat hurts as well and feels like it¡¯s tightening. My chest, right where my heart would be, is beginning to clutch in the same kind of pain. My stomach¡­ no, not stomach, my solar plexus region feels like fire is being shot through it and that fire seems to spread to all my limbs as well as my liver and spleen nearby.


    If I hadn¡¯t just spent a week and a half learning everything there was to know about this subject, I likely would not have recognized what was going on. However, after having studied it so intensely, I realized every single location that was in pain was the exact location of one of the major or minor chakras.


    The pain was becoming more and more intense. I could no longer concentrate on the idea of pouring mana and such into the tree. My mind was occupied with the concern over what exactly was happening to me, and it turned out I had exactly the method to answer that question.


    -


    Having spent so much time in my inner world in the last couple weeks, I had become quite good at slipping in and out of it, especially as my older self. This was a good thing with how intense the pain was, I was able to simply slip right in. However, what I saw upon arrival was something that I simply did not know what to make of.


    For starters, as soon as I got in, I felt myself pelted with rain. This rain, was not coming down from above. It was hitting me from my side, blown by an intense wind like no wind storm I had ever felt before. The island that always served as a foothold whenever I came to this space¡­ was gone. There were floating chunks of stone debris hovering all over the space like asteroids. No, not hovering, they were moving quite violently, constantly clashing into one another with massive impacts that reverberated throughout the space. It was a chaotic mess. And throughout the area, there were also bursts of flame constantly erupting from everywhere, even places that were just open air.


    All four elements were going crazy, it was a complete uncontrolled mess. Even in my mental projection form, I felt the need to shield myself against this violent storm that was raging inside my spirit. However, despite all the chaos, it was not too hard to see the source of the problem if I just looked up.


    As I looked to the center of my inner world, I saw my two ethereal forms filled with representations of my chakra. The maelstrom of out of control elements seemed to be centered around the two figures like twin tornadoes. As I watched, trying to get a better handle on what was going on, I came to realize the swirling energies of the elements actually seemed to be getting absorbed by the ghostly figures that represented my spirit bodies.


    There was something off about it though. Between the two figures, the manner in which the elements entered the male form and the female form were different. For the male form, the void from below and the energy of heaven from above seemed to intensify. The void climbed the male form¡¯s legs, and the heaven energy became even more intense. Also, it was no longer just the heaven¡¯s chakra that had changed color to a pure white. The entire chakra system, including the maridians, the spirit vessels that ran from one chakra to the next, were also awash in the bright and pure light of the energy channeled from heaven.


    The elements seemed only to eager to enter the male form, and the male form¡¯s chakra system seemed to let off a bright and assuring glow that seemed to say it was satisfied and happy to receive the energy that was infiltrating it from every side. The case of the child-bodied female form was a far different case.


    Unlike the male chakra body, the female form seemed to be actively suffering as a result of the energies assailing it. Also, several times, a large blast of some elemental energy would throw itself toward the female form and, instead of being absorbed as it was with the male form, it instead seemed to strike her and cause her intense pain. The worst part though, by far, was what I could see happening to the chakras within the female form¡¯s body as I was powerless to do anything to stop it.


    The heaven¡¯s chakra, which had always been unstable for my female form, was glowing more intensely than ever and firing its energy off in every random direction. This included straight down through the female body itself, and the other chakras both major and minor did not seem to be taking well to it. As the energy was being pumped into her form, the major chakra from the sixth at the third eye, down to the third at the solar plexus, all seemed to swell well beyond their normal size. Having already noted that bigger in this case actually did mean something more akin to an injury than an increase in strength among these chakra, and having seen that the male form was not showing this behavior, I was certain this was not a good sign.


    All the chakra that had become swollen up in the female form radiated intense bursts of light, not at all unlike those being fired off by the heaven¡¯s chakra. They also began to shake uncontrollably like something was trying to escape from inside them. Right before my eyes, I saw the female form¡¯s sixth chakra, the one at the location I had noticed having an issue first, was beginning to form a visible crack in it.


    Mere seconds later, this all culminated in something unfathomable. Something that left me absolutely stupefied as to what to do next. The cracks began to spread across the little girl¡¯s sixth chakra, until finally it exploded, burst into tiny fragments of light. Along with this, I heard an absolutely blood curdling scream. It was at this point I realized I had not clearly felt my younger self¡¯s mind for quite a while.


    Thanks to the rules of this inner world, I was able to freely teleport my mental projection to anywhere inside it I wanted to be. As I had heard the small child shrieking from somewhere within this space, I decided to transport myself immediately to her side. I found the manifestation of my child self clutching her head in absolute agony, and all she was able to do was writhe in pain, no longer even aware of the world around her. I immediately reached out and grabbed her, cradling her in my arms as she continued to do nothing but scream out and shriek in the pain that had riddled her body. The chakra manifestation that just had that happen to it, it was the one that represented her. As such, it was her feeling the pain. It was only at this moment that I realized that since I came in here I no longer felt the pain I had back in my physical body on the outside.


    As though mocking the very concept of my desire to do something about this situation, a loud explosion and the sound that resembled glass shattering reverberated throughout the area yet again. The exact same sound I had heard a moment ago. Corresponding with this, the little one¡¯s screaming and writhing only intensified as I cringed. I looked up to see that now the throat chakra was gone. And, almost as soon as I looked up, the failure of the two chakras began a cascade effect. The minor chakras seemed to begin popping all at once.


    Once about half of them were gone, the heart chakra exploded, and then the most important third chakra, the Manipura as Gaerien had called it which acted as the chakra body¡¯s actual equivalent of the heart. With that one gone, the final two major chakras as well as any of the remaining minor chakras simply seemed to flick out of existence as though they were candle flames being blown out by the wind of the third chakra exploding. That is, all of them except for the heaven¡¯s chakra.


    The great ball of white light was the last one remaining. It began to grow larger, until finally, it also exploded in the largest flash yet of any of them. After this, with the little one¡¯s chakra system entirely destroyed, the small remaining energy fragments, just like the swirling torrent of the elements, seemed to be absorbed by the male form. After this, all at once, the storm seemed to settle down. Meanwhile, I was left with the limp body of my mental projection of my child self in my arms.


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 Chapter 40: From Nymph to Dryad

    Nymph¡¯s POV


    The sun was out. For a normal tree spirit, like the others in this grove, this would make nymph very happy just feeling the steady energy from the tree they inhabited flowing into them. The tree spirits were always happy when their tree was in the sun. But it was hard for nymph to be happy today.


    A short time ago, nymph¡¯s master had brought home a really good gift. He had brought home humans and some elf babies. Nymph had never gotten to see babies this small before. It was always the nursery tree that got to see all the babies. The nursery tree was very lucky. That was also where they kept the humans. The nursery tree got the mana of the elf babies and the spirit energy from the humans. Nymph was the oldest, but the nursery tree was still bigger because it always got all the babies.


    Nymph really liked it when their master brought home the humans and the babies. Nymph had always heard the energy from babies and their humans was good for a tree spirit. They knew it was good, because the nursery tree had gotten so big from all the babies that were there. These babies were special though. Nymph did not know how normal babies and their humans were, but both the babies and the humans made a lot more mana and spirit energy than normal babies. Nymph¡¯s master had said it was a lot more. A whole lot more.


    Nymph really really liked these babies. Maybe if these babies could stay here then nymph could be the biggest now! They did not like the nursery tree being bigger when they were younger than nymph was. There was a problem though. Master said the reason the babies were here was because if other people saw their skin was grey colored they would kill the babies. That made nymph very angry. These were nymph¡¯s babies now! They were living here with master, so that meant they belonged to nymph just like master did!


    Some other tree spirits didn¡¯t seem to care who gave them mana, but master was special. Master was the one who planted nymph¡¯s seed. He was the oldest elf in the village. He had seen every one of the delicious spirit trees that grew here when it was a sapling. Nymph only took mana from master or someone master said was Ok.


    The babies were elves the master had said were very good and they had to protect them, so nymph was going to protect them. That was why, and they were also good mana and spirit energy. That was good too, but it was because master said to protect them.


    Two sunfalls ago, more elves came to the grove. Because there were more elves here, master said it was even more dangerous for the babies. There were more people who might want to hurt them, and these new ones might want to hurt them more. Before that, a dragon appeared. Master had been worried about that too. He said the dragon might sense the spirit energy from the humans, so nymph made sure to take all the spirit energy that came to their walls, even if they did not need it. This made it so the dragon did not care. But these other elves, the master said they might get curious, and some of the people in the grove might talk about the babies.


    Nymph kept asking all the other trees close by to say if they heard something about the elves talking about nymph¡¯s babies. If any of the elves said anything, it could be bad. It would also be very bad if any of them talked to the dragon about it. After two sun-sets, the other trees told nymph they were talking about it, they heard it from the tree next to them who heard it from the next tree from them as well. They said they were saying something about the babies. Master had said this would be bad if they talked about it, and now they were talking about it. Nymph was very worried. Nymph wanted master to stay here because they were so worried, but master said he had to go.


    A very very short time ago, a whole bunch of elves started to come around nymph¡¯s tree. They were all brought by the dragon. He told them what to do, and they threw a vine over one of the branches of nymph¡¯s tree. After that, they started climbing on the vine. Nymph realized that the elves were going to climb up to the window. This was bad. Nymph needed mana given to them with thoughts in order to close off the window.


    Tree spirits were usually not as smart as elves, but nymph was very smart because they had lived with master for a long time. Whenever master gave nymph mana, nymph got some of master¡¯s smartness. It was only a little bit each time, but it built up over a long time. Because nymph had master since nymph was planted, it made nymph the smartest tree spirit in the entire grove. Because of this, nymph was smart enough that they knew they should warn the babies first and tell them to go to the stairs.


    After nymph told the babies, nymph told master¡¯s apprentice. If master¡¯s apprentice could give nymph mana, nymph could do something to protect the babies. Nymph told master¡¯s apprentice that the elves were outside and they were trying to come up the side of the tree to get through the window. They told her to give them mana to close it, but then it was too late. The elf broke through the window before they could do anything.


    Nymph told her about this and said to go up the stairs instead. The stairs still needed to be opened in order for the babies to be able to make it down. When the master¡¯s apprentice was opening the stairs, Nymph moved their projection back up to the room the babies were in. The elf was coming toward Aerien, the babie who made the most mana and spirit energy. This made nymph very very angry.


    Nymph could not do anything. Not without someone¡¯s spirit energy coming directly to them to tell them what to do. Even if Nymph had the extra mana from Aeirein, it was useless without spirit energy that knew what they wanted it to do. But maybe, if this elf had any magic and could see nymph then maybe they could do something. Nymph tried to get in the elf¡¯s face, but the elf did not seem to notice them.


    Nymph could feel Aerien¡¯s energies doing something weird. They quickly became much weaker, but also seemed to become more stable. It felt like something was changing. Nymph did not know what was happening, but after they noticed this Aerien started doing something really stupid, but it was what a baby did so Nymph knew it was not her fault. But, what Aerien did was she walked straight to the elf after fighting with the human who was trying to take her away like Nymph had told them. The elf picked up Aerien, and then nymph felt the weird thing going on in Aerien¡¯s energies grow stronger.


    Aerien¡¯s energies started to feel really really different. It was a little like what Nymph felt when they were trying to use mana and spirit energy to grow. Nymph had never felt this coming from an elf before. The master had said that his ¡°cultivating¡± is a lot like when nymph was trying to use the energy to grow, but the master¡¯s energy felt very very different from what Nymph was feeling from Aerien right now.


    Nymph was distracted though. They tried to start thinking of something else they could do. The master¡¯s apprentice came and ran at the elf, and they pushed each other over. After this, Aerien stood up and started struggling with the elf. Nymph could see Aerien was covered in animal sap. Nymph knew this was called blood because of master, but animal sap was what all the other tree spirits called it so Nymph called it the same thing.


    Aerien had a lot of it all over one side of her, but then Nymph saw that Aerien hit the elf¡¯s hand as he tried to reach for her and saw his hand start to bleed his sap as well. Nymph also saw the elf¡¯s chest where he was holding Aerien. It was also completely covered in the elf¡¯s sap. When the elf pulled back his hand, that was when Nymph saw the knife Aerien had in her hand. Nymph was confused. When did Aerien get that knife?


    Nymph realized that Aerien was fighting against the elf, and doing a good job. She stabbed him in the knee. After that, she got away from him and dropped the knife next to her when she stopped. After this, she looked up to the window. Nymph had been paying a lot of attention to what was going on inside, but as soon as Aerien looked outside Nymph looked outside as well. Two more elves were climbing up the vine to the window. This is bad, they still needed to close the window.


    This is when Nymph felt a lot of mana. Not just the normal mana, a WHOLE lot of mana. There was also a whole lot of spirit energy attached to it.


    ¡°HELP ME!!¡± The message sent through Aerien¡¯s spirit energy was incredibly loud. It was much much louder than even the strongest spirit energy command Nymph had ever received. Nymph felt themself completely overflowing. Aerien¡¯s mana and spirit both penetrated the entire tree. ¡°HELP! IT HURTS!!¡±


    The incredible spirit energy continued to pour in. The words from Aerien were not the only thing carried with this spirit energy though. They were powerful, but they were not the thing making Nymph go crazy. It was like nothing Nymph had ever felt before. Aerien¡¯s spirit energy had a lot of intelligence behind it. Nymph was filled with knowledge beyond anything they had ever learned from master. It was knowledge that seemed to come from way outside, millions of voices and memories were rushing into Nymph with this spirit energy.


    As the mana permiated the tree, it started to cause the tree to grow. It grew very fast. Nymph cast their eyes outside. They saw the two elfs climbing the vine fell when Nymph¡¯s tree started to grow. At the same time, the spirit flowed into Nymph. The spirit energy made Nymph feel stronger and smarter than Nymph had ever felt.


    Nymph could feel a transformation starting. They could feel their spirit growing as rapidly as the tree. Nymph¡¯s spirit projection vanished, entering the tree once again in order to better form this power that was surging into them.


    Nymph found suddenly that they could see everything. Their consciousness spread out to the entire area, everywhere, it was not just inside the tree anymore. Nymph could see all the way out far beyond the spirit trees that were where the other tree spirits lived. All of the tree spirits, both the nature spirits and the other nymph all started to come toward Nymph¡¯s tree. Nymph could feel all the others combining with them.


    Nymph understood what was happening now. They had heard about this before. When a plant spirit becomes powerful enough, it gains consciousness and becomes a nymph. At this time, all the other plant spirits around combine with it and make it into a nymph. Nymph did not remember this happening to them, but it must have happened. Now, all the nymph in the entire grove, and also all the spirits were coming to combine witn Nymph. Nymph was going to become the next form of a tree spirit, a dryad.


    Nymph¡­ no, Dryad, knew what they had to do now. Dryad had to protect Aerien. Aerien¡¯s spirit message said ¡°Help me.¡± She want¡¯s Dryad to make all of the people causing her problems to go away. It was that fey dragon who brought all the elves here. It was HIS fault! A Dryad was supposed to be able to act without needing spirit energy from others anymore, but Aerien¡¯s spirit was just so strong there was no ignoring it. Also, Dryad didn¡¯t WANT to ignore it! It was his fault! He attacked master¡¯s house, and he tried to hurt the babies! But first, Dryad would deal with the one who had come inside and attacked them.


    That one, Dryad hated that one even more! That one had violated them and attacked those they were keeping safe. Now that Dryad could do something about it with their own will, they would. They pulled the intruder into the very wall he was leaning against, encasing him on every side with wood. After he was away from where everyone could see him, Dryad crushed his body until his mana could no longer be felt.


    Now, it was time to direct their attention back outside. Now that Dryad wasn¡¯t just a Nymph anymore, Dryad understood everything about what that dragon had wanted to do. The elves are afraid of grey elves. They are afraid of grey elves because the corrupted elves always try to go where they are to kill them. So, the elves always kill the grey elves first before that can happen. That¡¯s what he was trying to do to Aerien.


    Nymph knew that the elves would kill the babies, but this was only because the master had said so. Now, Dryad knew a whole lot more. Dryad knew the stuff that came from Aerien¡¯s spirit, and Dryad also had the memories of all the other nymph who had fused to give Dryad power. Now Nymph knew exactly what it was that fey dragon had said and exactly what they had planned.


    ¡°The mages are important to help protect the village, and Eirlation is the strongest. It would not be wise to cross him. He will become uncooperative if we act against him. However, we do not want to take the risk of them really being grey elves. He will probably lie if we were to question him. So, bring the children to me while he is out today. I will make my judgement once I have seen them for myself.¡±


    That was what he had said. And, the girls really were grey elves too. There is only one thing he would have done when he saw they really were grey elves. But, why was he doing this when the tainted ones were already in the forrest? There was no need for it! It was obvious, the reason he couldn¡¯t let this one alone was because of foolish tradition! He was going to kill Aerien and Gaerien over that absolute foolishness!


    It made Dryad sick with anger when they put all of the pieces together. They had never been able to feel emotions this deep or this strong before. But, now that they understood so much more, it had awakened a new level of capacity to feel hatred within them that went far beyond the petty forms of anger they had felt before.


    Dryad had finished their evolution now. It had gone incredibly fast. Aerien¡¯s power flooding into and overflowing the entire grove of all the trees in the area had attracted all the spirits so quickly that Dryad was fully evolved in mere seconds. So, it was time to go out and make that dragon pay!


    Dryad manifested themself, and all the elves looked up to see their new spirit form that was as big as all of them. Dryad understood now that what they had become is something all the elves look up to and respect on a level every single bit as high as the fey dragons. No, higher even. While the powers of a dryad and a fey dragon are roughly equal, this is only to say that the weakest dryad is equal to the weakest dragon, and the same logic works at the upper end as well. There is actually a world of difference in power between any dryad and dragon depending on their age and how much power they had accumulated.


    Dryad had only just become a dryad. Normally, it should be completely impossible for them to win against that dragon. However, right now, Dryad felt the overwhelming power coming from Aerien still coming in, and it just kept making Dryad feel stronger and stronger the longer it flowed. Dryad knew. They just knew that they could win this!


    ¡°YOU DID THIS! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!¡± Dryad shouted. They could have said more. With Dryad¡¯s newfound intelligence, they could have easily explained exatly what they had done, but Dryad¡¯s hatred would not allow for it. And besides that, Dryad knew something from what they had learned from Aerien¡¯s spirit energy now. They understood that simply shouting a battle cry would unnerve their opponent and leave them more vulnerable to attack.


    Dryad felt all the trees. The entire area had turned into Dryad¡¯s body, and because Dryad was made from the consciousness of all the nymph who inhabited the trees in this place before, Dryad had the ability to split their attention and move every limb of every tree individually to do their will. Dryad moved the tree directly behind the fey dragon, bashing him over the head. He had escaped too much damage by reacting quickly, and he was trying to fly away, but Dryad would not let him!


    Dryad moved all the ivy vines in the area. They quickly captured the fleeing dragon. The dragon began trying to burn the vines in order to escape, but those vines were not normal now that they were part of Dryad¡¯s body. The mana that flowed through them now would protect them from the flames. However, Dryad could tell those flames were extremely hot. Just the protection the mana already flowing through those vines was likely not enough. So, they knew they would have to add more.


    Dryad pulled into the power Aerien was dumping into their tree and bid it all to come out. If Aerien was still giving all of this power, then it was in Dryad¡¯s nature to use all of it. The mana was so strong that the tree and the vines both began to glow, visible for everyone to see. The vines were now absolutely protected from everything the dragon could do. More than that though, they were also far strongher now, and Dryad could coil them tighter. Dryad kept making the vines pull harder and harder until it pulled the dragon¡¯s wing right off.


    ¡°NO! IT HUUUURTS!!!¡±


    Suddenly, Aerien¡¯s thoughts of pain grew even stronger. They now dominated the previous cry for help that she had made. It was so powerful now that Dryad could feel all the pain as well. It all echoed through Dryad¡¯s body, and as Dryad was in their spirit projection they could feel all the parts of Aerien¡¯s body where it hurt. The pain was so far beyond anything Dryad had ever known. Dryad had hardly known any pain, but there were a lot of memories of pain coming from all the memories Dryad had gained from Aerien¡¯s spirit energy. In all those memories though, there were very few that had experienced something that could be comparable to this pain.


    It was a pain on the level of those who were being tortured to their death. The bitter memories of those who had died in such overwhelming pain. That was the only thing that even came close. It was only now that Dryad had realized the significance of such memories existing within the information Aerien had given. Dryad was too blinded by hate before. They could not stop to think about it now though, the pain had overtaken them to a point they could no longer function.


    Suddenly, the torturous pain all stopped. Dryad felt relieved for a second, but then they realized that all of that pain had been coming from the spirit energy sent by Aerien in the first place. If the pain stopped, that meant the energy had stopped. If that was the case then...


    Dryad looked inside the tree that is now the center of their much much larger body. They could see T¨²eth, the master¡¯s apprentice, on the first floor holding the limp body of Aerien. Dryad could no longer feel any power at all from Aerien, not even the mana energy that most elves are always spreading out. That would mean... NO!


    It was just then that Dryad noticed their master talking to them. Dryad turned in their spirit form to look at their master. ¡°Master! Quick! It¡¯s Aerien!¡± Dryad screamed, and then opened the entry way for T¨²eth. The walls of Dryad¡¯s body had grown several times thicker. Instead of just opening a door way, instead it was a long tunnel or hallway that had opened. However, that T¨²eth seemed every bit as desparate to get Aerien to the master as Dryad was, and she just ran straight as soon as the passage was opened.


    T¨²eth presented Aerien to the master. Dryad hoped it was not true. But, Aerien was still here, right? Dryad did not think Aerien got any injury to her body. It was something that happened to Aerien¡¯s spirit. That was what it felt like to Dryad anyway. Normally, when an elf dies from an injury to their spirit, their body vanishes completely. However, Aerien was still there. But also, there was no mana. This just did not make any sense at all.


    There was nothing Dryad knew that could help to figure out what was happening, but... master¡¯s methods were all about figuring out the answers to things like this, right? So, if that¡¯s the case, then probably he should be able to find out what¡¯s happening then!? They could only hope that he could. Master was the only one who could help now.


    Author''s note


    So, we have Nymph''s, or rather now, Dryad''s POV this time. Sorry to anyone getting annoyed at the repetition of the same events, next chapter will finally move on from this a little and we will see some of the aftermath.


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 Chapter 41: Túeth’s call to action

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    T¨²eth did not know what to think when Nymph came down and told her someone was coming up to break into the second floor and take the girls. Her mind had simply frozen at that moment. It was likely more accurate to say that she stopped thinking. A second later, Nymph told her the man just broke through the window and was already in the room. This finally got her moving.


    T¨²eth¡¯s body seemed to move on its own at this point. For the past couple weeks in this house, she had only gone up to that room to bring the boys their food and to bring out and wash their chamber pot. She was afraid of even this interaction though. Lately, every time she tried to go up there, one of the girls would try to approach her. She was not so good at telling them apart yet, but she had reason to suspect it was always the same one. From what she had heard about them, it was most likely Aerien.


    Aerien had started calling her ¡°mother.¡± When she had come down the stairs, looking worried about her after she was in a particularly vulnerable moment, she had called her ¡°mother.¡± That child... Eirlathion was exactly right about her. T¨²eth had not even been in her life at all until very recently, and yet she had called her mother all the same.


    T¨²eth had hoped she could push the girls away. She could just be the master¡¯s apprentice who took care of them sometimes, not their mother. The master could be their father, she could be nothing at all to them, and one day they would just remember her as something of an older sister and never know. This did not happen. Somehow, a mere little girl of not even a year old had recognized her mother immediately. Not only that, she tried to do everything she could to be close to her every single time she was in the room.


    This was the reason why... she simply could not go into that room. The master had offered her a bed on the other side of his lab if she didn¡¯t want to sleep in the room with the girls, but even that would require her to enter the second floor two additional times during the day. This is why she had her bed down here. She could stay down here and only have to go up there the absolute minimum number of times. So long as she left the humans¡¯ food near the stairs and didn¡¯t go toward them, and drew a wide angle around them as she went to collect the chamber pot, she could take advantage of the fact that Aerien still did not move that quickly as she tried to crawl in her direction.


    When Aerien had noticed this is what she was doing, she stopped trying to approach her. Instead, she started just calling out to her. She would ask her why she didn¡¯t want to be with her. Why she always ran away. Why did she hate her daughters. She would say... she knew she didn¡¯t hate them... so why does she keep running away. Invariably, it would always end with Aerien crying loudly as she was walking down the stairs. It had gotten to a point where T¨²eth absolutely dreaded going up to that room. Every time she did, she would have to face that child again.


    Why... why couldn¡¯t that child see that.. she couldn¡¯t be their mother? That child... it was exactly like the master had said. She was so intelligent that it was terrifying. How was it that such a small child always seemed to know exactly the right words to get to her in just the few moments she spent in that room? How did she know... the best ways to make this so incredibly difficult? She was shaken every time she had gone up there. Half the time, as soon as the stairs were closed, she simply broke down and cried herself as Aerien¡¯s crying that she seemed to be intentionally trying to make as loud as possible could be heard still coming from above.


    That child should stop. That child should hate me! I am the mother who wanted them dead! I have no right to be around them! How could she possibly yearn for such a disgusting mother that much!?


    As T¨²eth climbed the dreaded stairs yet again, she began to feel like she was no longer in control of her own body. She felt like an observer, watching from the back of her mind as someone else controlled her actions. She felt... completely numb even as her heart rate began to build and there was a prickling feeling in the back of her mind.


    ¡°-et e go!¡±T¨²eth heard the powerful and determined voice of an infant. Before she even laid eyes on the situation, she knew that could only be Aerien! A second later, she saw an adult man struggling to keep a small infant in his arms as she seemed to be punching him in the chest repeatedly with one arm while actually clinging to his chest with the other for leverage. A baby¡¯s punches shouldn¡¯t have an effect on an adult, but somehow, it looked like he had a look of genuine pain on his face.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on!?¡± T¨²eth demanded as soon as she entered the room. He started talking at this point, but T¨²eth could not hear the words he said. Her mind at this point was completely on that child, Aerien, who he was holding. And then, she heard THAT word. Grey elves. The very second she heard that word, the last shred of caution was gone from her as that word shook her to her very core. ¡°Let her go!¡± The words erupted from T¨²eth¡¯s body.


    Somehow, she had crossed the distance between them. She didn¡¯t even remember taking the three or so steps that had previously separated them. However, he had easily intercepted her and had a hand on her shoulder. He managed to shove her to the ground without even budging an inch despite her mad charge. The cultivation he had gained as a hunter showed as he had that kind of power to freely receive a full charge that T¨²eth had literally put her entire being into.


    No, he had not fully received it. As T¨²eth fell to the ground, he also went stumbling backward off his feet until he hit a wall and slumped to the floor. Maybe his power was not as great as she had thought? He seemed genuinely surprised as well to have been forced back. As T¨²eth tried to scramble back to her feet though, she saw Aerien get up and throw a punch straight up that seemed to miss his head, going past his left ear. To T¨²eth¡¯s surprise though, he actually screamed in shock and pain as Aerien¡¯s hand went past him.


    She managed to escape from him after that. He struggled with Aerien a little more and then she rolled away from him. Good! It looks like she has escaped somehow. As soon as Aerien was clear, T¨²eth pounced on the man viciously. ¡°Leave my daughter alone!¡± She yelled with all the venom she cold muster. She didn¡¯t even realize she was saying it, but somehow the words also felt so right and they made her feel powerful. She shook the hunter by the shoulders and hit his head against the wall as he raised his bloody left hand to join the right one on his neck.


    Wait... blood!? T¨²eth had only just now realized it for the first time. The man seemed to be covered in bloody wounds. Were those there before when she first saw him? She didn¡¯t have the time to really think to hard about all of this, because a second later she heard the sound of Aerien behind her, screaming louder than she had ever heard her scream.


    T¨²eth¡¯s panicked brain managed to jump gears as she heard this. She turned around and rushed to her side. The child was thrashing about on the ground next to a bloody knife. The girl was covered in blood herself. It was all over her hands, there was some of it on her face, but most frightening of all it seemed to completely soak the entire left side of her dress. Realization dawned on her. That man... he must have stabbed her! He came here planning to kill the girls right here and now! Aerien was still alive, but she had to get her help!


    T¨²eth scooped her up, holding the thrashing child tightly to her chest as she ran back down the stairs. She arrived at the front entry way and began channeling mana to tell Nymph to open, but... for some reason, nothing happened. Why wasn¡¯t Nymph responding? Why now!? T¨²eth could hear the entire tree groaning around her, but the door wouldn¡¯t open.


    ¡°Nymph! Open right now!!! Aerien¡¯s going to die!¡± T¨²eth began beating on the wall with her free hand. She could not see clearly with the hot tears that were filling her eyes. She continued to clutch the screaming and thrashing child tight to her chest as she thrashed and began to howl even louder. In her blind pain, Aerien had begun to kick T¨²eth in the stomach, but she didn¡¯t even care. She looked desperately for a way out. A way to get Aerien to the master. Maybe he would have a way to do something about this.


    That¡¯s right! The window! T¨²eth turned her head to look over in the direction of the window, only to have her hopes dashed. The window was still there, a circular panel of glass sections held together by bits of wood that had extended in to fill the cracks. However, on the other side of the window now was dark solid wood, exactly like that of any other wall. T¨²eth had never felt so betrayed. Had Nymph used her mana to cover up the window instead of opening the door? That should be impossible! The Nymph always conformed to the will buried in the mana.


    T¨²eth had learned about it from the master during these weeks. It wasn¡¯t just mana that was used in the green word. A small amount of an elf¡¯s excess spirit energy is also used to carry their will. It is that will that tells the nymph what you want it to do. Normally, a nymph is powerless to disobey the elf¡¯s will. However, the spirit of the master¡¯s home is exceptionally intelligent for a nymph. They had absorbed a great deal of the master¡¯s will over the years to the point that now they could even refuse the orders of anyone other than the master. Could it be possible that they even have the power to use the mana for a purpose other than the one it was supposed to be used for?


    As T¨²eth was standing there in despair, Aerien suddenly yelled the loudest she had yelled this entire time. It was a scream as though her very soul was being shattered. And then, after this final scream, the child dropped limp in T¨²eth¡¯s arms.


    ¡°A... Aerien!?¡± T¨²eth said in disbelief. She closed her eyes and held the limp body to her chest as the tears flowed from her eyes. For the first time in her life, she did the one thing she had refused to ever allow herself to do. She gave her daughter a hug. But now... it was too late.


    T¨²eth heard the wood groaning again. She opened her eyes with pure hatred in them as she looked toward the door, but what she saw was shocking enough that it made her forget about the animosity she was feeling toward Nymph in this moment. Instead of the outside, what she saw was a deep tunnel of wood. It went on for quite a while, at least twice the distance from one side of this room to the other.


    T¨²eth unsteadily got to her feet, still clutching the limp body of her infant daughter to her chest. She began to walk through in a daze as to how this could have happened. Was this all... the master¡¯s house now? It had grown! This much! And... this suddenly too. This has to have all happened since the time she came downstairs. That was not long at all. She had simply gone immediately to the other side of the room, banged on the wall a little, and then looked over to the window. In total, it must have been around a minute tops. Maybe two minutes if it began while she was upstairs. Nymph... was THIS what they were doing!? Was this why they wouldn¡¯t open up before... while Aerien was still...


    NO! Aerien HAD to still be alive. You don¡¯t just die after you are in the middle of a scream like that! There¡¯s probably still time! She just passed out is all! T¨²eth¡¯s pace quickened as the fire of hope began to burn in her again. She ran out and saw the changed space in front of her, especially the sides of the master¡¯s tree. She saw, for some reason, a large white feathery object laying on the ground, covered in blood. However, her attention was quickly brought away from that when she saw her master running straight toward her with urgency on his face.


    Her heart felt immediately relieved to see the master, especially to see that his face said he already knew everything that needed to be said. She did not say a word, she just held Aeiren out toward him. He reached out his hands, and together they lowered her to the ground as he had T¨²eth support her body on her lap. He quickly pulled her dress from her limp body, leaving her in only the diaper they had never seen reason to remove from her even after she no longer had the need for physical food.


    As they freed Aerien of her clothing, expecting to see a horrible wound on her side, they were both baffled to instead see nothing. T¨²eth did not even know what to feel about this. Did she somehow heal from her injury? No, on closer examination, there was no cut on her dress either. None of this blood was hers. T¨²eth remembered she had seen blood from the man who had come in, and what looked like a very fresh injury on his hand. Could all of this blood have come from him? T¨²eth was so relieved she was almost ready to collapse.


    She could feel a faint smile beginning to float on her lips, but she let that fade immediately when she looked into the master¡¯s face and saw that he still had a very dark and serious look to him as he looked over Aerien¡¯s body. No, she knew that look. He was examining her mana! There was still something wrong. Going by the master¡¯s face, there was something VERY wrong. ¡°I¡¯ve got to bring her to my lab.¡±He said, snatching Aerien from her and springing to his feet. ¡°T¨²eth! Bring one of the boys!¡± He was running full speed at this point, not even stopping to look back at her.


    She knew it! There was still something very very wrong. T¨²eth got to her feet quickly and ran after her master. She ran down the tunnel through the wood. After a short distance, she realized something had changed. Instead of the straight level path she was expecting, she was staring up a flight of stairs that was only a short distance from the entrance. She saw her master was already running up the stairs.


    As she began to follow him, she saw the way further up close as soon as the master had passed a certain point about half way up the stairs. At the same time, the stairs that remained had a landing open up at the top of them. T¨²eth was beginning to understand what was going on now. Nymph was reforming themself in order to bring them each to the correct rooms. She didn¡¯t understand all of it, but she understood enough that she began to run forward with confidence.


    She ran down the hall that opened up at the top of the landing. The hall opened up straight into the girls¡¯ room, right next to where their bed was. The humans had both turned to look in confusion at the way opening up in a direction they hadn¡¯t seen before, and then T¨²eth coming out from it at full speed. One of the humans was next to the stairs, the other was with Gaerien. She decided to leave the one that was with Gaerien, maybe it would keep her calm. The one that was staring down the stairs was probably Aerien¡¯s human. Well then, that was perfect. She went over and grabbed that one, getting a quick yell of protest. Meanwhile, the stairs up to the master¡¯s room were already opening up.


    She ran up the stairs, bringing Aerien¡¯s human with her as she carried it with her left arm looped under their armpits. She quickly found her master placing Aerien atop a work table to begin examining her.


    She went over after him. ¡°Aerien!?¡± Aerien¡¯s human cried out when it saw her, and as soon as she set it on the table next to where the master was examining her it immediately moved a short distance from where the master''s arm and looked on with concern. The human never tried to touch her, which would likely disrupt the master, it just watched from a respectful distance away.


    The master had a serious expression on his face as he hovered his hand over Aerien¡¯s bare chest. With her clothing removed, T¨²eth could clearly see her daughter¡¯s chest rising and falling. It was as though she was simply asleep. However, even with all this noise and chaos around, she would not open her eyes. She simply remained comatose.


    ¡°Dryad!¡± The master said in a strong commanding voice. T¨²eth jumped at the word. Dryad? Was he talking about the highest level of the nature spirits? What did a dryad have to do with any of this? But, before T¨²eth could wonder for long, a green light seemed to coalesce on the master¡¯s other side, and a light whitish-green glowing person standing just as tall as T¨²eth appeared, their long soft green hair flowing down their back. T¨²eth jumped in surprise. Standing in front of her, that was undoubtedly a dryad. T¨²eth had never seen one before, she had only heard the stories, but there was no doubt in her mind that this simply had to be a dryad.


    T¨²eth¡¯s body shook as she was fighting with herself. Despite this situation, she felt the urge to prostrate herself before this great being of the forest. However, the dryad¡¯s words snapped her out of all of that. ¡°Master, what do you need?¡± The soft glowing person said, the obvious concern in their voice as they too looked on toward Aerien¡¯s comatose form. That dryad just called him master? That would mean... no, it should have been obvious from the start! It all added up with the tree suddenly being so much bigger. But... how? She had just talked to Nymph not even 30 minutes ago, and now they were a dryad?


    ¡°Aerien had something to do with how you suddenly evolved like that, didn¡¯t she?¡± The master states. ¡°I need to hear everything I can about it.¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± T¨²eth nearly shouts. ¡°H... how!?¡± The master looks to her with a sad look in his eyes, and then back to Aerien. His arms are stiff and straight as he holds himself up directly over her body on the counter below him, looking completely defeated.


    ¡°Aerien... there has always been something so strange about her. I never realized just how strange until I got her living here under the same roof. I always kept my distance and didn¡¯t try to do anything too intrusive in order to find out more. She was angry at me for having just taken her here, and I always figured I would have the time to figure things out after things had calmed down. Then, when the queen made her announcement, I had noticed her spirit energy was beginning to weaken. I knew there was something big that had changed about her, the need to figure out what was going on with her only increased, but I could never spare the time.¡±


    The master lets out a sigh, and then one of his hands moves over to gently cover one of the tiny arms laying limply at Aerien¡¯s side. ¡°And then,¡± he says, ¡°this happens. Nymph suddenly evolves into a Dryad. Not only that, but their tree grew explosively to a level similar to the highest tier of magic. And, at the exact same time that this is happening, Aerien collapses. Given all of this, it would be more strange if the two were not connected, and I feel that our strongest hint as to what might have happened may all be in what Dryad can tell us about their transformation.¡±


    T¨²eth stood in shock at everything the master had just said. She knew Aerien was strange because of what she had been told, but to think there was something going on that could have directly lead to this happening to her? She felt a pain in her chest, as though something had wrapped itself around her heart and was constricting down on it. Once again, she was a horrible mother. She had been so afraid of her own daughter that she couldn¡¯t even see any of this. She turned to Dryad, eager to listen to their story. T¨²eth simply HAD to know if there was something that perhaps she could have done if she wasn¡¯t always hiding from her own daughter.


    Author''s note


    So, yes, the first half was a repeat of events. Things are moving forward now though.


    This series is supported through Subscribe Star. Please consider supporting the author if you enjoy this series.

 Chapter 42: Aftermath, putting the pieces together.

    Author''s note


    Hey everyone, I just finished my finals, this is why my release is a little late today. In fact, I actually STILL am in the middle of writing the next chapter for the subscribers, but since the writing is taking a little longer than I had hopped I figured I would just go ahead and drop the next chapter for the regular readers. (Don''t worry subscribers, I''m hard at work as we speak and won''t be giving myself much of a break till you have your chapter as well.)


    On the subject of subscribers, I have been neglecting to announce and thank the new subscribers. We''ve had 3 since the last time I made an announcement, so I would like to thank Akreli, Duvet, and ExorcistJoker for joining my SubscribeStar as subscribers. (Now I have enough subscribers to cover for eating out 2 times in a month. Still nowhere near allowing for future reduced work hours to increase writing hours once I get off school, but it''s a good start.)


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Eirlathion truly had no idea at all what was going on with Aerien right now. He had never known enough about her since she was born. Ever since he first discovered something was different about her, he has not been able to feel even close to understanding it even once.


    Now, something was very very wrong. He was relieved to discover the blood he had seen on her was not her own. He could only guess at what might have happened with whoever had infiltrated his home. Even if it was not her blood though, the fact still remained that this child was laying limp on the counter top of his lab right now, and did not even show the slightest sign of reacting to the rough handling she had been getting as she was passed from one person to the other and ran all over the place.


    He was relieved to find the slightest hint of some form of mana circulating deep inside of her, but to even detect it had required him to actually use some of his spirit energy to create a temporary spell effect. This pseudo-spell managed to detect internal mana instead of only mana that was radiated off. This was a sign her spirit was still alive. Well, the mere fact she had not lost her physical form was proof enough of that.


    This did leave the question though as to exactly what had happened and how. This is why he asked the one other person who had some first-hand exposure to something strange that had happened in the past hour, lining up almost perfectly with Aerien being reduced to this state. If anyone had some clues to what might have happened, it would be Dryad. And, after having explained his reasoning to his apprentice, who also happened to be the understandably distressed mother of the child laying comatose on his lab counter, it was time to finally hear what had really happened here.


    ¡°Anyway, Dryad, please tell me about how it was that you were able to suddenly evolve to your current state. It is related to Aerien, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is correct master.¡± Dryad replies before their spirit form hugs themself, looking visibly shaken. This was a normal enough gesture for any intelligent being, but it was rather unusual to see a tree spirit reacting this way. ¡°Her voice,¡± Dryad says, ¡°It was.. so loud. I could feel the energy in it just pouring into me, and¡­ there was also so much pain.¡±


    So much pain¡­ is Dryad saying..? ¡°You mean Aerien used the green word?¡± Eirlathion asked, to which Dryad nodded.


    ¡°She kept saying ¡®help me, it hurts.¡¯¡± Dryad¡¯s projection suddenly vanished. It seemed the memory of what they had received from Aerien was too much for them. Canceling the spirit projection for a tree spirit would be something similar to a physical creature having to sit down. For this to have happened to Dryad in the middle of recounting something difficult, it really spoke to how intense what they must have felt was.


    Eirlathion felt his hand brushed and looked down to see Levin had crawled past him. He was now holding Aerien¡¯s hand tenderly in his own as he looked down at her. Something bothered him about how the boy was acting, but he couldn¡¯t quite place why. It seemed like a natural enough reaction. T¨²eth was having a reaction of her own. As he looked over at her, her hand was tightly clamped over her mouth and the tears could be seen trickling from her eyes as she was looking down at her daughter.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Dryad¡¯s voice suddenly came from the wall. Eirlathion looked up to the direction the voice had come from, seeing a wooden face roughly in the form of Dryad¡¯s spirit projection looking back at him with a downcast expression. ¡°I know it¡¯s rude for me to talk with you like this.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± Eirlathion hardly even misses a beat, being used to interacting with Dryad, or rather Nymph at the time. ¡°Please, go on. I would like to hear any details you can give me around this. Why did Aerien try to use the green word?¡± The question of how she knew how to use it also surfaced in Eirlathion¡¯s mind, but he quickly pushed it out. Of course, this would not be the first time Aerien would have surprised him by demonstrating her frighteningly fast ability to learn and reason through things.


    ¡°Ok, well. I warned the children to all run away to the stairs when I saw the man climbing outside of my body. After he broke the window and came inside, Aerien..¡± A sudden frown appeared on Dryad¡¯s face and they paused. This was not normal behavior for them, but then again this was not a normal situation at all. ¡°Ah! The man grabbed Aerien.¡± Dryad seemed to suddenly recover from whatever was affecting them.


    It was somewhat weird, it certainly felt like Dryad was uncomfortable talking about the subject, but something else seemed off about it. But then, he had just thought there was something off about Levin worrying about Aerien a second ago. Maybe it was just him who had his nerves frayed. This had all been a very stressful situation for everyone.


    ¡°Anyway!¡± Dryad continued. ¡°When T¨²eth came up and saw him, she went and shoved him. He knocked her down, but he also fell against the wall, and then Aerien escaped and started using the green word to ask me for help. I used her mana to take care of that guy, and then... it didn¡¯t stop. She just kept overflowing with more and more mana and so much spirit energy. I couldn¡¯t do anything with all the energy she kept pouring into me, and with the pain... it completely overwhelmed me.¡±


    Dryad paused, and then their spirit projection returned, sitting on top of the counter next to Aerien, sitting on the other side from Levin. The projection had its hands on the edge of the counter, and was sitting perfectly still looking down at the floor.


    ¡°It was more than just Aerien.¡± They suddenly said.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Eirlathion asked. He couldn¡¯t quite make sense of what Dryad was saying, but something about the way they said it told him this was a very important key point.


    ¡°When I felt Aerien pouring her energies into me, I heard her pain and her fear, but there was also more. I also felt... something else. There was... a LOT of intelligence behind her energy. It... was way more than a little girl like her could possibly have. It was not even just one other intelligence. It was... it was memories and knowledge from what felt like thousands of different sources. I.. All of that information. I still can¡¯t sort through it all... there was just so much.¡±


    Dryad looked up at him as he took in the significance of this information. Thousands of sources of intelligence. This really did sound very important. In fact, this sounded like it held the key to so much about Aerien he didn¡¯t know.


    ¡°Hmm... thousands of sources... thousands of voices. All of them, you could only hear them when Aerien used the green word... but her voice crying for help was the most dominant, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Dryad responds and then hugs themself again at the memory of hearing Aerien¡¯s spiritual voice in pain.


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± T¨²eth asks. Levin, who Eirlathion had almost forgotten about, also seemed to be looking up in anticipation of his answer.


    ¡°Hmm... that¡¯s exactly the question we¡¯re trying to find the answer to. Dryad. Was it only intelligence and memories that you felt? Were there any actual spirit voices aside from Aerien?¡±


    ¡°No, it was just memories, there was no actual voice attached to the other spirit energy.¡±


    ¡°Alright then. I know you said you were still sorting through it all, but is there anything you can tell me about the knowledge and memories you received?¡±


    ¡°That... ah! Yes!¡± Dryad responded. They suddenly looked a lot more confident. ¡°It was disjointed and completely random¡± They say, ¡°There is no rhyme nor reason to any of it, it seems like it is just a mess of the random thoughts of all the people in a very very large crowd.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Eirlathion nods his head at this information. Judging by the sharp look on Dryad¡¯s face, it seems they may have arrived at the same conclusion he did. Not only does they know how Eirlathion thinks, but they also seem to genuinely be smarter now as well after this transformation. They have probably arrived at the exact same conclusion.


    (Author note: ¡°does they = artifact of gender neutral speech¡±)


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± T¨²eth demands, looking between him and Dryad¡¯s spirit projection. Eirlathion has a sensitive look on his face about the topic as he looks back to Dryad.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re the one who experienced it yourself.¡± He says, ¡°I think we are probably thinking the same thing, but I would rather hear your impression first.¡±


    Dryad gives a nod at this and then looks up at T¨²eth. ¡°Those were not Aerien¡¯s knowledge or memories I felt when she was using the green word. They came from somewhere else. I think... Aerien somehow summoned energy to use, and then she poured it directly into me.¡±


    ¡°Summoning?¡± Eirlathion¡¯s eyebrow raised at Dryad¡¯s use of terminology. Indeed, he was thinking along the same vein, but that was an interesting interpretation. ¡°I don¡¯t think summoning is quite right though.¡± Eirlathion says. ¡°This is probably similar to summoning, but I think... Dryad, how much do you know about human magic?¡±


    ¡°I.. wait! There is something about it in the information I just got from Aerien! Yes, what I felt is definitely most similar to summoning. If you were thinking it might be evocation master, then that¡¯s wrong.¡±


    ¡°Summoning of pure energy, huh?¡± Eirlathion responded. ¡°Well, this would explain a lot. I suppose she must have had something in her spirit that allowed her to automatically summon energy. This would explain so much of what I¡¯ve been feeling from Aerien for a long time now.¡±


    After reasoning things out this far, Eirlathion turns to look back to Aerien with a harsh look on his face. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then I think I know what may have happened to Aerien.¡± His face darkened. If what he was thinking was true, then there really was nothing he could do to help the situation himself.


    ¡°What!? What is going on!?¡±T¨²eth demands in a weak voice, looking afraid of the answer.


    Eirlathion steps forward and gently brushes the side of Aerien¡¯s head. ¡°This is my fault.¡± He says. ¡°Aerien, she must have gotten scared when that man attacked. She got scared and summoned too much energy in order to try to get Nymph to protect her..¡±


    ¡°Master, how is any of that your fault?¡± Dryad asks him in a stern tone.


    ¡°I.. I knew that Aerien had something wrong with her, that she could do things to manipulate her energies in ways beyond what any child her age should have been capable of. Everything makes sense now. She must have somehow always had the ability to do this. This would explain how she was always so smart and so advanced. She probably learned things from consuming the spirit energy she summoned since it had all that intelligence attached to it, but it couldn¡¯t teach her how to properly control her own energies.¡±


    Eirlathion let out a sigh. He withdrew his hand from the side of Aerien¡¯s head, allowing it to drop to his side. ¡°I knew it. I could see that she needed to be taught how to control those energies, but I was never able to get the time to give her the training she needed. Maybe... maybe if she was trained better... maybe if she had better discipline and knew her limits then...¡±


    ¡°Master! That¡¯s not your fault.¡± Dryad cut him off. ¡°Aerien got scared! Even if you DID teach her how to handle it, that wouldn¡¯t have made a difference! It wasn¡¯t your fault, it was...¡± Dryad suddenly cast a look out toward one of the walls. No, they were looking straight through the walls toward the location where a certain fey dragon would still likely be suspended in the vines. ¡°It was HIS fault! If he hadn¡¯t been so stuck on tradition as to make a big deal about grey elves even in the current situation, none of this would have happened! Aerien would not have gotten scared enough to do that if that man hadn¡¯t bust through the window and grabbed her!¡±


    Eirlathion didn¡¯t know how to respond to that. Dryad was right, but more importantly, regardless of that, Eirlathion couldn¡¯t help the growing sense of crisis he was feeling at Dryad¡¯s words. They had already done critical damage to Everon over this whole thing, if they went on to kill him now, that would be a very serious matter. No matter what he did, he was still an envoy of the queen.


    ¡°Wait, Dryad! We¡¯re going to need him!¡± He cut them off before they could do anything rash. ¡°I¡¯ve got an idea that might be able to heal Aerien, but we are going to need him for it!¡±


    Dryad¡¯s projection turned back and glared at him. This behavior... along with becoming a dryad, their will had grown to become as strong as a normal sentient creature, and they seemed to have picked up quite a bit of will and rage along with that. It was strange dealing with Dryad as they were now. As a nymph, they would never have shown him such a defiant face. They still called him master, but he had to keep in mind, dryads were the true rulers of the forest, and only the fey dragons had even a hope of challenging them. He should just consider himself fortunate now if Dryad would afford him the good will and listen to him for having grown up with him for 700 years.


    ¡°Fine then!¡± Dryad angrily bites. ¡°He¡¯s been annoyingly calling on me to offer his apologies anyway, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be receptive to whatever master has in mind.¡± Dryad turns to cast a brief glance at T¨²eth, giving a nod and looking back at him. ¡°What exactly do you have in mind anyway?¡±


    Dryad look back at T¨²eth after saying this, directing Eirlathion¡¯s gaze toward her to see she was looking at him with a sea of conflicting emotions on her face. Hope and interest were pretty close to the front though. Did Dryad just ask this question for T¨²eth¡¯s benefit? He had heard tree spirits gain a far greater awareness of the world when they become Dryads, but this kind of subtle perception is a bit beyond what he was expecting. It had to be from the intelligence they had said they got from the energy Aerien gave them.


    ¡°Well, really, I just need him to give us an introduction to the queen. Aerien¡¯s spirit has degraded from the energy that has passed through her. This is far beyond my abilities to fix. Her majesty, however, ought to have the ability to do something. She also ought to have plenty of reason to help us, given what Aerien would be able to do for the great tree using her power. The only problem is... the price she¡¯s almost certain to demand.¡±


    Eirlathion turned and looked to T¨²eth and fixed her with a heavy look, gazing directly into her eyes as she began to squirm under his heavy expression. Realizing that something was wrong, she stiffens up and begins to have a look of fear in her eyes as she meets his gaze for just a second before glancing away. ¡°Wh.. what?¡± She asks.


    Eirlathion lets out a heavy sigh. He was going to have to just say it. ¡°The price that she will demand... is Aerien. If we ask her to repair her spirit, she will take Aerien once she is done.¡± He places a hand on T¨²eth¡¯s shoulder and lets out a sigh. ¡°Aerien can live, but... we have lost her. One way or another, she¡¯s as good as gone to us right now. The only thing we can do now is take her to the queen so at the very least she will be alive.¡±


    A flicker of loss appears on T¨²eth¡¯s face for a moment, and then it is replaced by a hard determined expression. ¡°Well, if that¡¯s how it is, I guess that¡¯s probably for the best.¡± She says the words with a slight hint of bitterness, but they were said with so much conviction that Eirlathion could tell that she really did mean it. He was shocked at how fully willing she sounded to give Aerien up like that, he wanted to say something to her, but what would he really be doing if he said something in these circumstances? All he would be doing is trying hard to make her feel worse about the situation. This really was how it had to be, so, maybe it was better if she had a mind-set that allowed her to accept it better.


    ¡°There¡¯s really nothing that you can do master?¡±Dryad asks in a pleading tone that only just barely managed to hide the slight edge of desperation.


    ¡°I wish there was,¡± he says. ¡°I¡¯m afraid this is our only choice.¡±


    Dryad casts a hard glance over toward Aerien. No, wait... toward Levin? What was she looking at him for!? He had been perfectly quiet to the point Eirlathion had almost forgotten he was there, but for some reason Dryad was looking straight at him. A second later, Dryad¡¯s projection descended into the floor, and there was the sound of the stairs leading down to the children¡¯s room being closed off.


    1st Arc: Infancy


    End.


    Additional author''s note


    Next chapter will be an epilogue, a small extension of the story in a bit of a different format. After that will be a lore chapter, and then the start of the next arc will be coming out a week from today.


    Edit: Added author''s note


    Because I keep getting asked about Gaerien, keep in mind, this right here is from Eirlathion''s perspective.

 1st Arc Epilogue: What really happened.

    Epilogue


    Arc 1


    I look out into the distance in the desolate place my inner world had become. It was now a shattered chaotic land where the four elements clashed and crashed into each other. It was no longer just the four elements either. Bolts of thunder also flashed across the barren void, chunks of water and ice smashed into pockets of fire and floating magma, causing steam explosions. And, occasionally, tendrils of the void would reach up and cause the great clumps of stone to instantly crumble into dust.


    ¡®Aerien, are you still in there?¡¯ My sister¡¯s voice cuts through the darkness and chaos, causing me to look up. I can see no sign of her projection, but I could still hear her voice. Well, it¡¯s the first welcome thing I have felt since the incident that had effectively trapped me in here. Actually, I could leave and wake up in the real world at any time, but, given the circumstances I would never forgive myself if I did.


    ¡®Yes, I¡¯m here.¡¯ I mentally respond to her voice, projecting it out past the walls that encompass this space.


    I can sense an emotion of relief being radiated inward from every wall. I can recognize this form of mental communication. This is the first time it has ever been done while I was inside my mental world, but it was far from the first time Gaerien and I had communicated in this way.


    ¡®That¡¯s good, you really got everyone worried you know? Can you tell me what happened?¡¯


    ¡®Well, I would if I knew myself. I will get to the important part first though. My original chakra body was destroyed.¡¯


    I was met with silence. I suppose what I had just said must have been as shocking to her to hear it as it was to me to see it. The silence continued for several heavy seconds, but at about the same time I had started to wonder if she was going to be saying anything else at all, she finally spoke up again. ¡®How?¡¯ She said.


    ¡®I already told you, I don¡¯t know.¡¯


    *sigh* ¡®Of course you don¡¯t. Well, I suppose if that¡¯s what happened, then it¡¯s a very good thing we chose the route of making you a second spirit body. Whatever caused this to happen to you, you would be dead right now if your original spirit body was your only one.¡¯


    ¡®I suppose so, that¡¯s not a very pleasant thought.¡¯ I responded, looking down at the still form of the projection of my younger self, still laying limp in my arms. Indeed, if I was in the same state as her right now, we would both have been long since gone. In fact, it was everything I could do right now just to keep her from fading away.


    ¡®how about you explain to me exactly what happened?¡¯ Gaerien says. To this, I go on to explain everything I could remember about what I had seen. About how when I started trying to use magic, I realized I was in a lot of pain at the locations of my chakras. I looked into my inner world to see what was going on, and it had already turned into a swirling mess of the elemental energies. The energies seemed to be trying to go inside the representations of my older and younger spirit bodies. They seemed to have very little trouble entering my recently completed adult chakra system, but they had trouble entering the chakra system that represented my original younger spirit.


    I explained how those energies seemed to repeatedly collide with the younger form, until finally it started to break apart. First the sixth chakra located at the third-eye position exploded like shattering glass, and then in a cascade failure scenario all the rest started shattering at an increasing rate until finally the heaven¡¯s chakra shattered last.


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s about what I remember.¡¯ I tell her.


    ¡®Hmm¡­ what happened to your new spirit body?¡¯ She asks.


    ¡®What do you mean?¡¯


    ¡®The new one you created, what was happening to it while your original one was getting beat up by the elemental energies? You said it was absorbing them. Has anything about it changed?¡¯


    ¡®Well, yes. Now that you mention it, it has. It seems like all of the chakras are glowing brighter, they all turned bright white as well. I get the sense the entire system is stronger.¡¯


    ¡®I thought so. It sounds like what happened was a breakthrough in your cultivation. Your new spirit body succeeded in the breakthrough, your old one failed. It was likely because the old one was so unstable still. Your new spirit body had an almost perfectly balanced chakra system since it was newly created and hadn¡¯t had a chance to break down or gain any kind of blockages in the system.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I¡¯ve heard the term chakra blockages before in all the qi-gong stuff I looked into before, but other than that you are using a lot of terms I don¡¯t know. I think you should explain.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, yes, sorry. It is cultivator terminology. A breakthrough means you reached a new stage in your cultivation. It was probably your current spirit trying to match the stage you had reached in your previous life. The unstable nature of your previous chakra system just couldn¡¯t take it.¡¯


    ¡®Well, how did I suddenly get this ¡°breakthrough¡± as you call it then?¡¯


    ¡®Well, you said it yourself when you told me about your meditation. It works at its best when you are in training, and it ought to work even better in combat. Just before you started screaming and all that, you were fighting that guy who broke in.¡¯


    ¡®I was screaming?¡¯


    ¡®Oh yes, like you were being murdered. It actually scared me to hear you screaming like that quite a bit.¡¯


    ¡®Well, it really hurt, I guess that makes sense.¡¯


    ¡®I assume you must have been fighting on a rather high level in order to beat that guy the way you did. You can move better than I can, but not THAT much better, and yet you did something there I¡¯m sure I never could. You are an infant with the mobility of a young toddler, and yet you beat a grown adult who was probably an active hunter, and you did it with purely physical skills.¡¯


    ¡®Yeah.¡¯


    ¡®I still have no idea how you did that. Just what did you do anyway?¡¯


    ¡®Well, it¡¯s something we call the timing of heaven. It sounds both more and less impressive than it actually is. I basically give control of my body over to my subconscious, and let my movements be guided by my sensory information without my conscious mind getting in the way of a single movement. It allows my steps and timing to both become absolutely precisely what I am aware they need to be. The only thing I have to do is realize what needs to happen and my body makes it happen.¡¯


    ¡®Even with that explanation, I don¡¯t think I could even have realized what needed to happen.¡¯


    ¡®Yes, it takes training and repetition. In this case, I knew the guy was going to try to grab me, so I knew I needed to approach him right as he was reaching for me. I had to be in phisical contact with his leg, around the back side of it, in order to force him to bend his knees in order to get his knife in reach so I could grab it off him. After that, I just had to hide it as he picked me up and then push it into his chest using the force of him pulling me toward himself. All I did was brace it against my hip while he plunged the knife into himself with my body acting as a force multiplier.¡¯


    ¡®I did have one problem when Levin tried to grab me,¡¯ I continued, ¡®however, I wound up managing to actually use it to my advantage, to even my own surprise. When I threw his hands off, I pretended to stumble and weave around a little. Actually, it wasn¡¯t just pretend, but it seems like my intent was strong enough to keep me on my feet till I reached my target. I guess the chaotic way I was walking prevented him from even trying to reach for me, so it all worked out in the end.¡¯


    ¡®I see.¡¯ Gaerien responded. ¡®About all I know about any of that is that it¡¯s not something I could do, but I will assume it¡¯s some pretty high level stuff. How about this, do you have any idea how high level you would have to be to pull it off in terms of the ranks of your cultivation that you told me about before? The whole heaven, earth, man thing.¡¯


    ¡®Well, we don¡¯t really think in those kinds of terms, we would just say you have to have a lot of training in order to do it, but there are some miracles where even a very low level person could pull it off. You just need a very strong will to live and the training to make your body act on its own.¡¯


    ¡®Don¡¯t give me any of that stuff, you just nearly killed an adult as a baby. You know that¡¯s high level stuff, not just anyone could pull it off.¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t know what to tell you.¡¯


    ¡®Well, how about you try and think out what someone at each stage should be capable of.¡¯


    ¡®We don¡¯t really think in terms of stages. Well¡­ I guess if you really want to push me to think about it, nobody but the absolute most elite top-level masters had reached the ninjutsu level. I was not there. I was definitely still at the taijutsu level. I also manipulated my opponent with almost every single move I made, that¡¯s at the level of man. So, top level of the lowest tier.¡¯


    ¡®Somewhere between 11 and 15 stages through your cultivation in other words? So, you just went through the strain of suddenly boosting through at least 10 stages all at once. It¡¯s really no wonder your spirit was destroyed. So, I am guessing your younger self probably didn¡¯t make it?¡¯


    ¡®No, she¡¯s still here. She¡¯s just barely clinging to life, but it¡¯s taking everything I have to keep her from fading away.¡¯


    ¡®Oh!? Well, this may interest you then. It is sounding like they are planning to find someone to help you out. Apparently, we¡¯re going to see the faerie queen.¡¯


    ¡®What¡¯s that all about?¡¯


    ¡®Well, it seems like the crazy energy that was going off while your spirit was falling apart was picked up by Falmarin. Or, rather, she¡¯s called Nandin now, she transformed into a nandin, she looks like an adult in her spirit form now.¡¯


    ¡®Falmarin and Nandin huh? Well, I guess we know what word means what in English now. I¡¯m guessing nandin means dryad.¡¯


    ¡®Dryad huh? Well then, Dryad became a dryad because of your energy. So, because of that they all found out about your whole otherworld energy thing. They think the queen will be interested enough by that that she will help you to recover. Only¡­¡¯


    ¡®Only what?¡¯


    ¡®They say they are going to have to give you to her as the price for it. So, if you can recover on your own then it might be something you are going to want to think about doing quickly.¡¯


    ¡®Honestly, I don¡¯t even know where to start. I have tried a few times to start rebuilding my younger self¡¯s chakras, but every time I start trying to divert my energies her remaining spirit grows weaker.¡¯


    ¡®Well, if you can¡¯t handle it, then I suppose you will have to accept her help.¡¯


    ¡®We will manage this somehow¡­ how is our mother taking this?¡¯


    ¡®Not well.. She has been crying a lot. She has hardly even so much as let you go since you collapsed. I had to crawl into her lap just to talk to you like this.¡¯


    ¡­ I almost felt as though I was actually stabbed in the heart upon hearing this. I am sure my younger self would be quite happy to hear about our mother suddenly expressing this kind of affection for me. Why did it have to be now though? If what Gaerien told me was correct, I had finally managed to win my mother over right before having to be separated from her.


    ¡®Gaerien, you wouldn¡¯t happen to have a way to help me with this, would you?¡¯


    ¡®I¡­ don¡¯t know. I might be able to help point you in the right direction if I could get in there with you, but¡­¡¯


    ¡®I really don¡¯t think I could even open the door for you right now.¡¯


    ¡®I suspected as much. Even if I could get in there though, I can¡¯t manipulate your energies. I am afraid my magic wouldn¡¯t be good for much in the way of helping you either. In fact, it would probably do more harm than good since you are a member of a fey race.¡¯


    ¡®So, it¡¯s like that, is it?¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m afraid so.¡¯


    ¡®Well, the gods of Earth were essentially in open war against Earth¡¯s fey creatures. That¡¯s no surprise.¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m sorry.¡¯


    ¡®I suppose accepting the queen¡¯s help is the only way then. Well, thank you for the heads up at least. Maybe I will at the very least be able to negotiate on my own behalf a little better.¡¯


    ¡®How do you plan to negotiate exactly? We don¡¯t know how to speak their language properly!¡¯


    ¡®Hmm¡­ I¡¯m not willing to let our little family be broken up. At the very least I can use the fact that I¡¯m still perceived as a baby to my advantage.¡¯


    ¡®So, are you seriously planning to just cry until they grab us in order to console you?¡¯


    ¡®I will use whatever works, and this is one of the deceptively powerful tools that I have in my current tool box.¡¯


    ¡®You really are shameless aren¡¯t you?¡¯


    ¡®That¡¯s a part of the mind-set in my art, identify your advantages and use whatever works. Honor is worth nothing before your life.¡¯


    ¡®What do you mean before your life? You¡¯re talking about just whether or not we¡¯re together here.¡¯


    ¡®You three are part of my life right now. If you three were taken from me, I may still be alive, but I would have had my entire life taken from me.¡¯


    ¡®Again, you are completely shameless, aren¡¯t you?¡¯


    ¡®Again, I will use whatever works.¡¯

 Lore Chapter 3: Catalog of the fey.

    Catalogue of the Fey races.


    The fey are a race born from human or dragon souls who cling to life. There are a large number of fey races with varrying degrees of power. For the most part, the power of the fey is directly proportionate to the power of the human or dragon in their cultivation before their death.


    The fey are also primarily divided into 3 classes. The Faerie class, the Humanoid class, and the Fused Spirit class.


    The Faerie class


    The Faerie class is the most powerful of the 3 classes of fey, and can possess tremendously powerful magic that can put most human mages to shame. However, the faerie class of fey also has a weakness in that they have a difficult time progressing beyond the level of power they are born at, especially for the strongest fey dragon class who are unused to the process of cultivation even in their previous lives.


    -Fey Dragons.


    The fey dragons are the strongest class of faeries who are already the strongest class of fey as well. The fey dragons are also further sub-divided into greater, true, and sub varieties. This is believed to relate directly to the age of the dragon at the time of their death.


    All dragons who cling to life are capable of becoming fey dragons, and there is no case in which they have been known to become any other class of fey. However, the older a dragon is at the time of its death the less likely it is to cling to life. As such, there are very very few fey dragons of the higher tiers with the greater fey dragons often being the only ones of their size and power in an entire fey community. A greater fey dragon is known to have power to change the very weather and have magic that can scoop up entire chunks of earth and levitate it into the sky. They can be said to be among the most powerful forces in the world.


    True fey dragons are thought to be born from adult dragons and are also exceedingly rare, often being held in high regards in any fey community. The more common sub fey dragons are the most common, and are thought to be born from juvenile dragons. While true fey dragons and greater fey dragons are often wise and powerful leaders among the fey, the more common sub fey dragons are known to be bitter toward their own state and often act rashly and are prideful and short tempered.


    -Great Faeries


    Great Faeries are the most powerful of the human-based faeries, and hold the strongest potential for growth of all the faeries. This is because of the fact that most of the great faeries manage to retain a large amount of their human memories, and most of those who die with the power to become a great faerie and the drive necessary to cling to life will have it in their nature to imrove and further advance their power. While fey dragons are often born stronger that even the great faeries on average, with age a great faerie can usually quite easily rival or surpass the strength of a true fey dragon.


    -Faeries


    The average faerie is born with the ability to cast powerful magic of the 4th and often even the 5th tier, likely indicating that they were mages in life with the ability to cast spells of the same level of power. Regardless, they possess unique magic than no human is able to use.


    However, faeries possess a critical weakness. They often forget large amounts of what made them human when they are reborn as a faerie. Often, one of the few things they remember is the fact that they were humans before, but they usually do not seem to think that matters all that much. Faeries often seclude themselves away from humans, but become curious whenever a human comes into their forrest.


    -Demi faeries.


    Demi faeries are small humanoids thought to be related to the faeries due to their size and the fact that they are capable of using faerie magic. However, their faerie magic is far weaker than that of regular faeries, normally only being as strong as the 2nd tier.


    Also unlike regular faeries, demi faeries are almost exclusively found in human territories, often keeping themselves hidden using invisibility magic in people¡¯s houses. Demi faeries are known to imitate the work done by humans, often when nobody is looking. If they are in a house, they will imitate the woman of the house by cleaning the place. If they are in a trades shop, they will imitate the tradesman by crafting whatever item the tradesman makes. Demi faeries are often seen as a blessing to those whos¡¯ houses they choose to reside in, and it is suggested that anyone who is fortunate enough to have this should leave some kind of sweetened treat out for the demi faeries to enjoy as thanks for their help and to encourage them to remain in their house or place of business.


    Humanoids


    There are a handfull of fey races that are not simply born into existence as most other fey are, but instead are born from their parents as a human would be. These fey races are known as the humanoid fey. The humanoid fey have both powerful physical and magical ability, and are often able to progress very well in terms of developing their magic or other cultivations.


    -Elves


    Elves are known as the master race among the humanoid fey. They are said to be the parent race of all the other humanoid fey races, and are also often more long-lived. However, they are also more limited in their ability to progress magically. Elves are known however to have superior hunters and warriors that serve as the foot-soldiers for the fey races in times where they need to go into combat.


    The weakness of the elves is that when they are in their infancy they need an excessive amount of spirit energy in quantities that can only be gained from human children. Because of this, elves have been known to regularly lead raids on small human villages in order to kidnap human children whenever a new baby is born among one of their tribes.


    -Gnomes


    When a human male mates with an elf female, the child that is born will be a gnome. However, the gnomes also have the ability to create viable offspring with one another, and most gnomes are born in this manner rather than as the mix of human and elven parents. Gnomes look in every way to be small elves, with the same pointed ears and slender features.


    Gnomes are able to combine the magical growth potential of humans with the longer lifespan and natural magic of the elves, and even have the ability to produce their own mana and spirit energy. This allows gnomes to have the greatest magical growth potential of any race.


    -Dwarves


    Much like how Gnomes are born from a human father and elf mother, the mating of an elven male and a human female will produce a dwarf. Also, much the same as gnomes, dwarves have the ability to produce viable offspring with one another in addition to being born from this pairing of humans and elves. Dwarves look in every way to be small humans.


    Dwarves are unoficially sub-divided into sun dwarves and dark dwarves. Sun dwarves can often be easily mistaken for human children unless one looks at their face up close with a discerning eye and recognizes the signs of adulthood to them. They usually make their homes in small settlements and communities and are known to be somewhat nomadic in their lifestyle.


    Dark dwarves usually live underground. There are some rumors that the male parent of their race was actually demonized elves, but they insist that they are very different from those ones which live much deeper under the ground and call the results of such a pairing the ¡°Duergar,¡± stating that these duergar have darkened skin and are skinnier like the sun dwarves.


    It is unknown whether the dark dwarves are telling the truth or not as few people on the surface have ever seen these duergar of which the dark dwarves speak, but one thing is for certain, the dark dwarves, especially the males, are very differnt from the sun dwarves. Dark dwarves are often stockier in build, and have large bushy beards. There is no mistaking a male dark dwarf for a human child.


    Sun dwarves and dark dwarves alike both have physical strength that is quite desceptive for their size, thought to be inherited from their elven parents. A sun dwarf has a level of physical strength that is equal to the average adult human. Dark dwarves meanwhile are even stronger and heartier and even surpass the elves, some have been known to have the ability to lift and throw an ox with a single hand.


    Fused spirits


    The fused spirit class fey are the weakest class among the fey, and are thought to be the results of normal humans who have never cultivated in their lives becoming fey. However, there is still a great deal of variation within the fused spirit class fey in terms of both power and growth potential.


    The fused spirits, just as the name implies, are the fusion of a human spirit and the spirit of another formerly living creature. There are truly too many fused spirit class fey to list, but there are a few special noteworthy cases that should be called out.


    -Une


    An une is the fusion of a human, normally female, and a flower or other small plant. They are usually rooted to their spot and are not of particular note on their own. However, if an une is exposed to arcane energy they become a particularly ferocious type of demon known as an Arla Une.


    Alra Unes appear as large flower that, upon blooming, reveal a particularly attractive woman. Arla Unes like to suck the blood of humans, fey, and even animals. They grow thorny vines that can stretch for several hundred feet from their stock which will capture their prey and drag their victim toward the flower where they are devoured.


    -Satyr


    Satyrs are the fusion of a human and a goat, producing the most animalistic looking of all the fey races. Unlike most fused spirits which seem to have the visible exposed skin of the upper torso of their human form, satyrs are covered head to toe with fur and also have the head of a goat in addition to the lower half. About the only human thing about them is their hands, the ability to walk upright, and the ability to talk.


    While this appearance is striking enough, the most noteworthy thing about Satyrs is that they have far greater magic ability than any of the other fused spirits. A satyr has as much magical growth potential as the typical elf, and almost all of them have at least the ability to cast spells at the 2nd or 3rd tier with some reaching as high as the 6th. Due to their increased access to magic though, they also have a higher tendency toward demonization and upon becoming demonized they make for particularly powerful demons.


    -Merfolk


    Merfolk are a fusion of human and fish spirits and live under water away from the other fey races. Merfolk are noteworthy because even in their normal non-demonized form they are quite dangerous as they become attracted to a human¡¯s spirit energy and are known to drag humans under the water and drown them.


    -Sphinx


    A sphinx has a human head on the body of a lion. The sphinx are an exception to the rule of the fused spirits being the weakest among the fey. Sphinx are often rather powerful both physically and magically and, while they have the appearance of a human head on a lion¡¯s body they are far larger than real lions.


    The sphinx almost always have spell casting ability above the 5th tier, but due to being a fused spirit are often not held in the same high regard that a fey dragon would be given despite universally being stronger than the weakest classes among the fey dragons and often even being able to match up to true fey dragons.


    Much like true fey dragons, the sphinx are known to be wise and intelligent. However, they usually live apart from other fey races.


    -Other Fused Spirit fey.


    There are many more fey of this class. Above were the most noteworthy for their danger either in normal or demonized form, but there are still far more to the fused spirit fey and even this list is not going to be comprehensive enough to cover them all. However, some other fey of the fused spirit class include¡­


    Adlet: Human body, dog head


    Arachne: Spider below waist, human above waist


    Bastete: Human body, cat head


    Centaurs: Horse below waist, human above waist


    Echidna: Snake below waist, human above waist


    Fauns: Deer below waist, human above waist. Also has small horns on head.


    Khnm: Another goat-human fusion, this one with only the head of a goat. Unlike satyrs, khnm have no magical inclination.


    Lamia: Human head on a serpentine legged reptilian body. Thought to be a fusion of human, snake, and lizard.


    Manticore: Lion-human-scorpion fusion. Human head and scorpion tale on a lion¡¯s body.


    Minotaurs: Human torso and arms, bull head and legs.


    Onocentaur: Donkey below waist, human above waist


    Scorpios: Scorpion below waist, human above waist.


    Scylla: Octopus below waist, human above waist.


    Sekhmet: Human body with a lion head


    Siren: Female only, head and body of a woman, legs and wings of a bird.


    Author''s note


    Thanks to a suggestion by LookingForKeys, there will be 2 lore chapters posted today. The 2nd lore chapter will be the IRL lore that much of this in-world lore is based off of and explain how it is I took it from there to what you see here. It all has an actual rational behind it, and at the end of the arc is the perfect place to put something like this.


    I have not finished writing the IRL inspirations lore chapter yet, it will be up later as soon as I finish it.

 Bonus lore chapter: IRL lore origins.

    -Inter-relation of Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves.


    This is probably the head-scratcher from the latest proper lore chapter that has a lot of people wondering. However, there is an actual proper reason why I decided to go with all of this, because in fact the three races have all actually been confused as the same species as one another at some point during their origin. As such, I have made all three of them related to one another for the purpose of the lore of this world.


    The origins of the three races is a little convoluted. These three terms are all based on the German language, but Gnomes and Dwarves both have their original origins elsewhere. The reason behind my linking Gnomes and Dwarves actually is reflected in the complex history with these three races.


    Dwarves originally come from Norse mythology, and are supernatural beings of incredible power that rivals the gods. In some Norse legends, four dwarves named after the four cardinal directions are even said to hold up the sky. They are most closely associated with metal smithing and metal work, and are said to have incredible abilities in that field. The dwarves were even the ones who created the most powerful weapon of the gods, Thor¡¯s hammer Mjolnir which was crafted from the heart of a collapsed star.


    There are also some norse legends that talk about Elves. However, upon closer examination of these stories about Elves, you quickly realize they are described as appearing like and doing the exact same things as the Dwarves. From this, it becomes clear that the Elves and Dwarves described in Norse mythology are actually referring to the exact same entities and are just called different names in different tellings of the legends.


    The reason for Elves and Dwarves being mistaken as the same creatures likely stems from the Scandinavian countries being close to Germany geographically. While the German version of the dwarves are short and stocky with long beards, the Norse version of the dwarves are, in fact, tall slender and powerful, far more closely resembling the German Elves than the German Dwarves.


    Now, as for where Gnomes come into all of this, they actually come from Renaissance Magic, a revival of the occult during the renaissance era primarily out of Italy. Gnomes were said to be earth spirits that could move through solid ground as easily as a human could move through air, and were described as ¡°two spans high¡± (Span = the distance between the tip of a grown man¡¯s thumb to the tip of the pinky if the fingers are spread as far as they will go.) Similarly, when this concept of a Gnome came to Germany, it got wrapped up in the German concept of the Dwarf and the two got confused with one another.


    As such, the reason for the inter-relation of Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes in the lore of this story is put there to reflect how these three races had very close relations with one another in their origins to the point of frequently being confused for one another.


    The three races have been generally described here, but this only explains why I decided to have the three races be related in this way for the purpose of this lore. My gnomes and dwarves though, while being closer to their original lore than the Tolkien-based D&D universe has them, are harshly nerfed compared to the original lore. (Or, maybe not. This is a cultivation world after all, their original lore could just describe those at the highest levels of their cultivation.)


    So, each race will also deserve to have a deeper dive taken into each one of them.


    -Elves


    The Elves are the only one of the three races that actually have their original origin in German lore. They are very closely associated with Faeries, and said to be supernatural beings of great power. Elves in German lore would often help or hinder humans in several ways.


    One of the frequent ways they were said to harm humans was by kidnapping children who wandered into the woods. Although, there is some question as to whether or not this was actually a bit of wishful thinking on the part of the parents as the elves were also said to treat the kidnapped children well and said to have a great love and desire for human children. It¡¯s likely that thinking their missing children were kidnapped by elves would be better than the possible alternatives.


    There are several legends about faeries and elves alike that say that if you eat any food that they offer you, you will be forever unable to leave their realm. It is difficult to track the particular origin of this take on the legend though as it is common to German, English, and Irish faery lore, and is said to be a trait of both faeries and elves.


    Elves have always been portrayed as tall and slender human-height beings, with Santa¡¯s elves being an anomaly and a relatively new and non-traditional portrayal of Elves as of the early 20th century. The model of Elves most famous today comes from J.R.R Tolkein, and then from Dungeons and Dragons which heavily based its lore on the works of Tolkien.


    -Dark Elves


    Dark Elves are actually a concept that also originated from Norse mythology. While for the most part, Elves and Dwarves were more or less described as having all the exact same characteristics and had the exact same feats attributed to them, indicating it was most certainly just a regional difference between the two telling of the story, there is one difference among those who called them Elves instead of Dwarves. They were, in fact, described as dark-skinned, and often called ¡°Dark Elves.¡±


    It is likely that the Norse ¡°Dark Elves¡± That were the same as their Dwarves came from an intermingling with German lore about Elves. However, German Elves are always described as fair-skinned. This is a likely origin of why portrayals of Dark Elves often have them being more powerful than the light skinned elves.


    The name ¡°Dark Elves¡± has something of a slightly sinister connotation to it to begin with, but the fact that they became something that was considered outright evil likely came from Tolkien once again. Tolkien¡¯s Orcs were corrupted and mutated Elves that were kept underground and turned into bestial blood-thirsty murder machines. Dungeons and Dragons would later separate the concept of the Orc off into its own race unrelated to the Elves, but instead they re-applied the term ¡°Dark Elf¡± and gave these dark elves almost the exact same origin as Tolkien¡¯s Orcs.


    One of the biggest differences between Tolkien¡¯s Orcs and the D&D dark elves, aside from gaining back their gracefulness, is that D&D dark elves have powerful magic which surpasses that of the surface Elves. This is likely a stronger reflection of the Dark Elf¡¯s origin in Norse mythology. (Of course, as a mechanic for game balance, the dark elf¡¯s magic is also spoiled by sunlight.)


    -Sun Dwarves, Dark dwarves, and Duergar


    The second edition of Dungeons and Dragons had a concept of sub-races of dwarves, some being mountain dwarves, some being surface dwarves. The D&D 2nd eddition surface dwarves were described in terms that made them sound almost exactly like the D&D halflings, which was their coppyright-safe version of Tolkein¡¯s Hobbits (since Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs were names taken from earlier mythologies and thus free use, but Hobbits are a race entirely invented by Tolkien and thus his intellectual property.)


    Sun dwarves and dark dwarves are a concept that is simply easier for readers to recognize the meaning of. Duergar is a bit more of a complicated example though. These are another one of the sub-races of dwarves introduced originally in 2nd edition D&D, and unlike the surface dwarves the duergar are a sub-race that persisted. Duergar, as opposed to regular mountain/cave dwarves (the version most associated with the image of the modern fantasy Dwarf,) Duergar were a sub-race of dwarf said to live so deep under the ground that they were never seen by humans and were rarely even seen by the regular mining dwarves who never dug down that extremely deep.


    Duergar are likely the inspiration of someone on the TSR (creators of D&D) staff who took a second look at the norse origins of the Dwarves and noticed the confusion between the dark elves and the dwarves representing the same people, and likely asked why it was that the dark elves skin was dark, but dwarves were portrayed as white skinned like the German version. And, subsequently made a version of the Dwarves more similar to the dark elves.


    The different versions of the better known dwarves are justified through the original German lore as well. Just like the dark elf - dwarf confusion in the Norse mythology, German folk lore about Dwarves also has two completely different versions of the dwarf depending on who you ask. Some versions describe them as having long bushy beards, and others describe them as being child-like and easily mistaken for a human child. Thus, for the sake of the lore in this world, the version of the dwarf that¡¯s easily mistaken for a child have been turned into this world¡¯s equivalent of hobbits and called ¡°sun dwarves,¡± while the ones with bushy beards have been put up in their mines and called ¡°dark dwarves.¡±


    -Gnomes


    Gnomes are likely the race with the least alternate versions, but the most twists and turns in their history. As described earlier on why they are on the same family tree in this lore as Elves and Dwarves, this is because they were combined with the German dwarves in their legends soon after they came to Germany and stopped being high-power earth spirits.


    Later, when TSR got ahold of them and put them into their Dungeons and Dragons game, they essentially became slender versions of the Dwarves that specialized in magic, also featuring pointed ears as though they were short elves.


    This concept of short elves with powerful magic has appeared before this in the real world though in the form of Santa¡¯s elves. I have decided for the purpose of this lore, it was the Gnomes that had their name mistaken with the elves that created the concept of Santa¡¯s elves back on Earth.


    -Fey Dragons


    The fey dragons are actually a product of some relatively recent lore. They come from the Fairy Dragons from Dungeons and Dragons. D&D Fairy dragons are based on western dragons, having butterfly wings instead of standard dragon¡¯s wings. The origin of the fey dragons used here are a simple matter of me having taken this concept, not liking the portrayal of these little pixy like dragonoids with butterfly wings, and then using something I felt was more appropriate.


    So, the fey version of any creature is supposed to be more powerful than their god-born counterpart. So, the fey dragons had to be more powerful than the normal dragons somehow. IRL, there are 3 major portrayals of dragons, Eastern Dragons, Western Dragons, and then the winged serpents of South America. I felt that winged serpents not only fit the definition of a more powerful form of dragon, since the South American winged serpents were all literal gods, but they actually were the closest of the 3 legends to the original lore about dragons back before they delineated into these 3 major models.


    The original dragon lore was literally an amalgamation of everything that was dangerous to a human, basically they were mythical creatures that encompassed everything humans feared. Snakes are natural enemies of humans, so back before we evolved to walk across the ground we climbed trees to get away from things like that. But, what if the snakes could fly? Eventually, they were given the trait of fire breathing too.


    As such, I felt South America¡¯s winged serpents had to be used as my model of dragons at some point. I still did not like the idea of fairy or butterfly wings, so I gave the fey dragons shiny bird-feathered wings.


    -Fey in general


    I have had a hard time tracking down the actual origins of the term ¡°fey,¡± but I have heard it in literature enough to know it applies to ¡°fairy folk,¡± basically any creature associated with faeries. This includes all mythical creatures of the forest that are not portrayed as monsters, elves being included on the list.


    -Human hybrid fey


    IRL lore is absolutely littered with stories about human-hybrid creatures, and some of them, fauns, satyr, and arla-une in particular, are generally regarded as fey. So, in order to accommodate the concept of fauns and satyrs as fey, I wound up having to expand the definition to include all mythical human hybrids, including several that were actually from Greek and Egyptian lore. (I made the decision to exclude the anubis since they 1. shared the name of an Egyptian god, and 2. were too similar to Aldets, which are even also from Egyptian lore. It¡¯s just that one is ¡°dog¡± in general, and the other is ¡°Jackal¡± specifically.)


    -Demi faeries


    Demi faeries are an adaptation of the ¡°little people¡± from Irish folk lore. Irish folk lore had a whole number of different kinds of ¡°little people,¡± each with different names depending on where they were found. There were the little people that lived in the house, the little people that lived in the barn, the little people that lived in the fields, the little people that lived in shoe shops, the little people that lived in other ¡°insert X name¡± shops, and literally all of them had a different name that the Irish lore called them depending on where they lived.


    To get even more confusing, the names of them were also different depending on what part of Ireland you lived in. The names for these ¡°little people¡± never stayed consistent at all. Eventually though, some Irish store owner living in the United States decided he wanted to find a way to better market Irish folk lore to US citizens in order to help mend the suspicion Americans had for the Irish (At the time, the Irish were treated a lot like how Latin Americans are today.) What he did was he gathered all the oddly named different Irish ¡°little people¡± under one name, Leprechauns.


    Much like how Leprechauns are a gathering of all the different named ¡°little people¡± of Irish lore, the Demi faeries fill the same role. They do not have wings, but they have faerie magic and, like other fey, are reliant on human spirit energy. Do not expect them to act very much like Leprechauns though, they are based far more on the original ¡°little people¡± lore, leprechauns were given a lot of eccentricities to make them more charming for the sake of marketing them to Americans at the time.


    -Final words


    Well, that¡¯s all for this chapter. I will likely do another one of these for the next book if anything new comes up that I feel needs to be talked about.

 Book 2 Prologue: A broader perspective.

    2nd arc: Capital


    Prologue


    Sagel¡¯s POV


    The forest flew by below Sagel as he beat the wings of the bird form he had taken. As a changeling, this was one of the most important assignments he had ever been given.


    Changelings were a people who were more or less born slaves to the royal court, simultaneously possessing the most and the least freedom of anyone in the entirety of the fey races. They were forced on a regular basis to replace human children from infancy. Every changeling will have, in their time, experienced hundreds of human lives. In this capacity, they acted as spies on human society for the fey court.


    It was not all bad. Whenever a changeling was out on assignment, they had complete freedom to act as they desire so long as they maintain their cover as the human they are posing as. As long as all the humans believe they are one of them, they can act in any way that the human society would allow them to. Also, while they were completely under the command of the fey court, effectively slaves, they were also afforded a great deal of respect by the other fey races whenever they were back in the faerie queen¡¯s forest.


    This was all under normal circumstances though. It so happened this time, as Sagel was back in the fey lands, that the queen had seen fit to declare war on the demons of the underworld. For too long, the demon races had been sending their corrupted versions of the elves up to commit mass slaughter. Due to the fact that the demons live in the great underground caverns, deep beneath the surface, it had always been impossible to wage effective war against them.


    This all changed 2 years ago when a great pillar of light was seen at the edge of the faery forest. This light was accompanied by an explosion that rocked the surrounding area and could be heard three kingdoms over. Roughly two years after this, something absolutely unprecedented happened. Changelings out on assignment in the human territories were found by messengers, a human-based faerie had gone to find him personally telling him to return immediately and appear before the queen.


    It was at this point Sagel had learned about the queen¡¯s plan and why he had been recalled early. He was told that fey dragons, some of the weaker true dragons and most powerful sub dragons, would be sent out to the surrounding areas in order to form a line of forts surrounding the site of the heaven¡¯s fall, as this event had come to be called as it was said to seem as though heaven itself had literally fallen down onto the surface.


    The fey dragons were the most powerful and most respected among the faery races, but they had a poor grasp of elf and human societies. This was why they would also need changelings acting as their advisors. A changeling could relate better to the elves and faeries living in the area already and, more importantly, a changeling would have experienced human warfare and fortifications. The fairy races were largely inexperienced with the means by which to fight an all out war, and knew nothing of proper fortifications. This is why they needed changelings sent to all of the most important battle-line villages around the heaven¡¯s scar, the great crater created when the heaven¡¯s fall had cut into the land.


    At the same time as this battle line was formed, the queen would also use her magic to lift the great tree and the entire capital beneath its branches, and bring it to the heaven¡¯s scar. The arcane energies released by such a grand scale magic would be immense though. For this reason, the entire capital was evacuated leading up to the execution of this plan.


    So far, the plan seemed to have been very well thought out. That is, until he and the sub-dragon he had been assigned to were told to evacuate with the rest as the capital was about to be moved. ¡°VERY WELL THEN¡± His fey dragon, a powerful sub-dragon named Everon had said. ¡°IN THAT CASE, I WILL GO QUICKLY TO MY ASSIGNED VILLAGE. WE HAD BEST BEGIN THEIR PREPARATIONS IMMEDIATELY.¡± This was not an entirely incorrect way of thinking. However, when he had said ¡°immediately,¡± he had meant at top dragon-flight speed. He did not even wait for his advisor to fly along with him.


    Sagel was absolutely stunned by this idiocy. He had heard the sub-dragons were impulsive, immature, and always wanting to prove themselves. However, up until now, this Everon had struck him as unusually put together for a sub-dragon. He was, after all, a sub-dragon who had become a member of the fey right as he was on the cusps of going from a juvenile dragon to an adult. He may have been at the lowest end of the spectrum, but he was pretty much the single most powerful within that bottom category. He had always demonstrated excellent leadership, and this is why he was chosen for this assignment.


    This, however, proved just how overblown Sagel¡¯s expectations for him had been. The sub-dragon was every single bit as impulsive as the rest. He thought way too much of himself if he thought he could fly ahead and suddenly show up by himself and manage a community all by himself without assistance. Sagel simply did not know what to do about this. All that he could do was take the form of a migratory water foul, the highest endurance flyer of all the forms he had available to transform into, and fly without rest until he arrived at their assigned village and hopefully get there before Everon did something stupid.


    There was quite a bit of distance between the old site of the capital and the heaven¡¯s scar where it would be moved to. The capital had been previously placed on the northern most tip of this land, as distant from the human lands as it could possibly be. Now, it was being moved all the way to the southern boarder of the great forest that the fairy queen held dominion over. This meant Sagel was going to have to cross the entire breadth of the faery queen¡¯s forest in order to catch up with Everon.


    It had taken him three weeks with little to no rest in order to make this journey. However, now the destination had come into sight. Sagel¡¯s immediate reaction upon seeing the village was to let out a depreciating laugh at the quality of fortifications Everon had apparently hastily made them start in Sagel¡¯s absence. Or rather, the closest thing to a laugh he was capable of in his current form. It was really more of a honk.


    At any rate, these fortifications were horrible. They had just made a simple single-layer wall of vines around the village. This would be completely useless as a fortification. This was a forest full of trees, and the enemy were demonized elves. They could simply climb a nearby tree and swing right over that simple wall without a problem. It was evident nobody had even thought to remove the surrounding trees at all. Had he been here from the start, Sagel would have advised Everon to burn every tree surrounding the village to a cinder with dragon fire. The mages would not like this, but he would make them understand. It¡¯s either that or have their entire population wiped out when the dark elf demons invade.


    It would be a different story if this village had a dryad. A dryad¡¯s power could be used to make the trees simply uproot themselves and move on their own. They could become a wall on their own, far thicker and more fire resistant than this simple wall of vines, and perfectly equipped to have additional fortifications added in.


    This village likely did not have a dryad though. The last reports about this village said there were, in fact, two nymphs who could become dryads in the next couple hundred years. Apparently, Everon had demanded he be assigned this village for exactly that reason. The villages where there were confirmed dryads that had appeared were all honored with true dragons. Everon had seemed excited by the concept when he heard about this village, thinking that maybe a dryad had awoken since the last word came from this village and the report had simply not reached the capital yet. If there was a dryad though, it¡¯s quite clear their power is not being well utilized by Everon or the mages here.


    Sagel flew a quick lazy circle around the northern wall of the village and took in the situation. He could see Everon had gathered some of the villagers around him near the village center. He had half a mind to go in there and announce his arrival, but it might not be good to throw off the commander¡¯s authority in the middle of a meeting of some kind. Yes, it would be better for him to wait until whatever Everon is doing has finished.


    As Sagel was thinking this, he spotted a few elves outside of the vine wall. One of them was directing an arm toward the wall, and thorn bushes were climbing up the side of the wall the elf¡¯s hands were directed toward. This must be the mages assigned to construct this useless wall. Well, at the very least he had best rescue them from the misdirected work they were doing that would all have to be undone anyway. Besides, entering the village together with the mages ought to serve as a more tactful way to interrupt Everon¡¯s meeting.


    Sagel lightly probed the mages for a little bit of information, meanwhile keeping a light conversational tone with them. These mages were probably the most looked up to authorities in the village before Everon showed up. Keeping a good relationship with them would be absolutely essential to smooth operations with these people. It was not entirely incorrect to have them work together to work on the village¡¯s fortifications, but to then go and appear before the people as he was right now, it created the impression he was trying to get the authorities of the village out of his way. This stupid dragon did not even consider the appearances that his actions gave off.


    Sagel had to catch himself before he spoke his opinions out loud. Despite how completely out of touch they were, fey dragons were still held in high esteem by the people. Those who did not live in the capital would likely even hold sub-dragons like Everon pretty highly riding purely on the reputation created by the true dragons. Hopefully Everon had not already destroyed that good will in the time since he got here. If not, it would help things go a lot more smoothly the longer the illusion continued so long as Sagel could keep him from doing anything truly foolish.


    Sagel had been rapidly going through his options on how to keep things stable as he was lead into the village by the mages, but then all of his hopes at keeping things stable vanished in an instant. Or rather, in a single wave of green light. That green light, the manifestations of hundreds of tree spirits, coalesced on a single location. Sagel had never witnessed something like this before, but in his long life he had heard about it before. He was about to witness the birth of a dryad.


    Sure enough, those points of light all formed an adult humanoid form. The glowing green entity held smooth features, skin that was completely flawless as it glowed with life. The dryad¡¯s long green hair cascaded down it¡¯s back, and it wore a robe that seemed to move over their body as though it was a living thing. In fact, the robe actually appeared to be embroidered with real living plants, flowers, and vines.


    This was the spirit projection of a dryad. It was not the dryad¡¯s real body. A dryad¡¯s spirit dwelt within the tree. The tree acted as the dryad¡¯s real body. However, dryads and more powerful nymphs on the cusps of becoming dryads could project a mirror copy of their spirits. The weaker versions projected by a nymph could only be seen by those attuned to magic, but the more powerful dryads could be easily seen by anyone.


    Sagel noticed that everyone here was gathered around the tree the dryad was forming from. He felt a momentary spike of hope that the dryad¡¯s birth was the reason for this gathering, perhaps it was a celebration and Everon hoped to welcome the new dryad into this world. He did seem rather excited about the concept of this village already having a dryad after all. However, a part of him knew this was likely not the case. He could see out the corner of his eye there was a broken window in the side of this dryad¡¯s tree, and there were also two elves climbing the side of it. Or rather, there used to be two elves climbing. They had been thrown off right as the dryad started to form, and now the tree was starting to grow rapidly as it shook the entire ground around it.


    The dryad opened its eyes, filled with a look of rage that seemed to reflect the anger present in the tree¡¯s writing as it quickly grew at an unheard of rate. Those hate-filled eyes turned immediately to the fey dragon Sagel had been assigned to, and the first words out of the dryad¡¯s mouth crushed every fragment of hope he had at things going well in this village.


    ¡°YOU DID THIS! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!¡±The dryad¡¯s shout seemed to carry with it the wrath of nature itself, and all at once the forest came alive and began to attack the fey dragon. A tree began to move and tried to strike him from behind. He tried to fly away, but was quickly captured by ivy vines that had detached from every surrounding tree and lashed out to grab him. He tried to burn the vines, but they were immediately protected by a green energy.


    ¡°In the queen¡¯s name, how could he have been so colossally stupid to have offended a dryad!?¡± Sagel had not even realized he spoke those words out loud. This stunning development the very moment he arrived had caused him to completely forget about minding his tone in regards to his stupid sub-dragon charge. At this point though, it quite likely did not matter very much.


    Sagel was completely stunned. He knew dryads were powerful, but this was a newly born dryad. And yet, it displayed such a great amount of power. He had never heard of a dryad¡¯s tree growing explosively upon their birth, but this one seemed to be growing to heights far greater than a normal dryad¡¯s tree. If it didn¡¯t stop soon, this thing would become a miniature version of the great tree itself.


    Suddenly, the dryad¡¯s projection clutched it¡¯s head in pain and began screaming. A second later, the dryad turned to one of the mages. Eirlathion, Sagel remembered his name. The dryad said a name in distress, and a moment later a woman ran out from the base of the tree clutching an infant covered in blood.


    A murmur was heard from the crowd. Sagel could see heads turning toward the fey dragon, laying limply in the clutches of the vines that were coiled around him. Everon¡¯s head shifted, showing he was still alive as he groaned and turned to see the activity going on below him. There was really something to be said for the snake-like dragons. Even after having a wing torn off and his body ripped in half, even those severe wounds ought to be survivable. However, he would be in a severely weakened state. He was also still in the clutches of the dryad who clearly hated his guts, and for reasons Sagel was quickly beginning to understand now that he saw the way the two elves and the dryad were looking on with concerned at the blood-covered infant.


    Upon some orders from the mage Eirlathion, the two elves quickly ran into the dryad¡¯s tree. The dryad¡¯s projection vanished at the same time.


    ¡°Who was that child?¡± Sagel asked, turning toward an elderly apprentice of the mage Eirlathion. This wasn¡¯t just any apprentice though. In his earlier introductions, he had learned that this man was the elder of the village. It was, indeed, customary for most elven elders to spend some time as the local mage¡¯s apprentice. This served several benefits. Not only did it give them a closer relationship with the village magus, but it also extended the elder¡¯s life span and allowed them to wisely direct the village¡¯s affairs for a much longer time.


    Looking at the man and recalling that he was out with his master in his work on that wall caused Sagel¡¯s eyebrows to crease. It was one thing to request some work to protect the village from the Magus, assuming the magus was agreeable to it. It was an entirely different thing to send out the elder along with him. It really did look as though Everon was actually trying to remove all the powerful people in the village from the people. True, it would speed up his useless efforts at wall construction, but it would also create a lot of unrest among the villagers. However, right now, having the village elder be someone he was already introduced to helped him out a lot. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be this man.


    ¡°That was a child who was born in this village recently.¡± The elder said. ¡°She has been gravely ill since she was born. Master Eirlathion had taken her into his house in order to monitor her more closely.¡±


    ¡°There was a rumor the children were grey elves.¡± One of the other elves from the village ran up to Sagel¡¯s side, quickly volunteering him the information. ¡°They said that Eirlation was sheltering them in order to have the special human children they found in his house.¡±


    They thought that child was a grey elf? That would explain a lot. Indeed, this was a common thought whenever children were ill. An illness that weakened the spirit caused an elf¡¯s skin to turn a sickly ashen grey. This was the exact same shade of grey that those children conceived between a normal elf and a demonized dark elf would have. In fact, mothers who gave birth to grey elves often tried to claim that they were merely ill.


    Grey elves had become a feared existence for the elves. It was said that dark elves hated all the elves of the surface. However, they hated their own hybrid offspring even more and would stop at nothing to destroy every single man, woman, and child who lived in a village that harbored grey elves. It was a foolish story. The dark elves would do that anyway, grey elves or not. However, it was a story that had struck fear in people¡¯s hearts, and it had long since become tradition to exile any grey elf children old enough to walk, and kill any not old enough to walk.


    If there was a rumor about that child being a grey elf, that would really explain a lot. However, it seemed that¡¯s not all there was to the rumor. ¡°Well, I think I am starting to get the picture now,¡± Sagel said, ¡°but what¡¯s this about special humans?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± the elder cut back in with that question, ¡°when those girls were about to be born, we went out to fetch some human children to supply them with spirit energy. We found a pair of very young human children that gave off far more spirit energy than anything we had ever seen before. Those two human children have been kept right at the girls¡¯ sides since they were born.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you keep saying it like there are two girls.¡± Sagel says, looking for clarification.


    ¡°Yes,¡± the elder responds. ¡°T¨²eth, their mother, gave birth to twins. I have wondered my self whether or not their illness may stem from this fact. Perhaps, being born two from the same womb, their spirits were weakened in the process.¡±


    Having lived among the humans for several human lifetimes, Sagel was plenty familiar with the concept of twins. However, it is something that never happened among the elves. This was certainly an unprecedented event, and it would make perfect sense that this could have lead to severely weakened children as a result. In fact, this explanation made more sense than them being grey elves.


    Sagel was beginning to feel sick just thinking about this. Did that idiot dragon seriously order to killing of two sick children thinking they were grey elves!? Even worse, those children were under the protection of the head magus of the village! Sagel was actually half tempted to finish off this stupid dragon himself right now. He had thought this dragon was smarter than that though. He seemed the type who had a good thought process, but was very bad at implementing his thoughts.


    This time though, that dragon had seriously screwed up. Sagel considered his options here. If he listened to Everon¡¯s side of the story, he may find out that his intentions at least were not as bad as his bungled actions had made things look. However, with how bad things really did look, it very well may be better to just assume the worst and allow him to deal with the consequences of his actions.


    No, that would not be good. That abnormal dryad added a major factor to this. That dryad had to have their anger appeased. No matter what, for the sake of this entire village, that dryad had to be calmed. The elf from the village who had just talked to him said it was a rumor that the children were grey elves. Everon would not have found out about them if that rumor was not floating around. There is a very real chance the dryad could blame the villagers for this. If that happened, this would be a disaster. If Everon had a good explanation for this, if this really was all an absolutely terrible misunderstanding, then just maybe they might be able to get out of this with only a few lives sacrificed.


    Author''s note


    I know, same events again. I actually did not originally mean for it to wind up like this, but since I am trying to write this in a way that it can easily be adapted to book format I had to somehow work in a recap of the book 1 events. The first version was basically just Eirlathion hesitating before going out to face everyone, meanwhile going over the previous events in his head. It was lame, slow, just a blatant uninteresting recap chapter that added nothing new to the story.


    So, I needed a way to add something new for readers who were here from the beginning while also still catching new readers up on past events. The one and best method I realized I had available was, indeed, to make a prologue that went over the exact same events again, this time from Sagel''s perspective so the reader can get a far broader view of everything that was going on from more of an outsider''s perspective.

 Book 2 Ch. 1: Searching for solutions

    2nd arc: Capital


    Act 1: A village in chaos


    Dryad¡¯s POV


    Dryad was looking, fervently searching their mind for a solution. They had one solution already, but they did not like it. Handing Aerien over to the queen would be certain to work, but that would also mean loosing Aerien.


    There was just so much that Dryad never understood back when they were a nymph. Upon becoming a dryad with the assistance of Aerien¡¯s energy, they had gained a phenomenal amount of knowledge they never had before. It opened Dryad¡¯s horizons, and allowed them to understand far more than they had ever known. Now, for the first time, Dryad understood the things those children were talking about.


    Aerien, Gaerien, Levin, and Rolwen. They had always been talking in a language nobody understood. The master, Eirlathion, the magus of this village who had planted Dryad¡¯s tree, tried to learn their language. However, this language had proven to be incredibly complex. Dryad did not understand how one language could be so much more complex than others that the master had such a hard time with it, but now that they gained knowledge from Aerien they knew completely.


    When Aerien had been fighting with that elf who broke into the master¡¯s house, intruding inside the home Dryad had made for the master and the children, she had released a large amount of mana filled with her entire spirit. Mana was the energy of magic. It powered spells that could warp reality. Spirit energy was an energy that carried thought. Thoughts and memories could be transferred along with spirit energy. When Aerien had transferred so much spirit energy to Dryad that it burned out her own spirit, of course along with it came a vast amount of the information Aerien had known.


    In this, Dryad had discovered why it was that those children spoke a different never before known language. All four of those children were not from this world. Or rather, they were, but their souls were not. They had all lived a previous life in another world, one called Earth. One day, an event happened, and all of their souls were transferred to this world where they were reborn as infants.


    It was not only Aerien¡¯s knowledge that Dryad had gained though. It seems Aerien had an ability that allowed her to call on energy from outside this world. When Aerien dumped this energy into Dryad¡¯s tree, giving them enough power to become a dryad immediately, Dryad had also gained knowledge from many many other worlds. The thoughts and memories of millions, no, billions of souls from countless worlds. However, in all that knowledge, Dryad could not find the one piece of information they wanted. How could they recover Aerien¡¯s spirit after it had been damaged in such a way without having to resort to the faerie queen¡¯s help?


    All that Dryad could find indicated the faerie queen would be the one best able to handle this. Dryad had asked Aerien¡¯s sister, Gaerien. Up until now, everyone had thought Gaerien was the more normal of the two girls. However, Gaerien was merely the one who did not stand out so much. If anything, Gaerien¡¯s power would likely turn even more heads if anyone knew or understood the truth behind it. Aerien was the reincarnation of a human who knew one of the very few mage¡¯s cultivations that actually worked in the great sealed world of Earth that actively resisted all magic. Gaerien, however, was an actual fallen goddess from that world.


    Gaerien was not a known goddess from that world. In fact, the very reason she had fallen was because there was not a single person on Earth who worshiped her or even knew her name any longer. However, in this world, she had already begun to cultivate a power that would allow her to use her goddess magic even in her mortal form.


    There was an unfortunate drawback to this however. Back when the Earth was first sealed, the gods and goddesses had waged a war of complete extermination against the fey of Earth. It was a part of their efforts in order to snuff out all magic. The fey were the only source of mana in the world, and without the fey the humans would never have the power to activate magic. This is something that made sense at the time, but right now it was working against them. Maybe Gaerien really could do something to help her sister, but considering that her powers were inherently hostile toward the fey she simply did not want to risk it. When Dryad had tried to push her, she outright refused and said she would rather have the faerie queen help her than risk accidentally destroying her in her weakened state.


    This reasoning made perfect sense. There was no arguing with it. This just meant the most likely solution, getting Gaerien¡¯s help, was not the correct one. The next option was to search the vast knowledge Dryad had gained from Aerien. However, they were failing to find a solution there either, and they were running out of time. The master was progressing with his plan, the only good plan they had that would work, and as soon as they leave the village Dryad will likely never see Aerien again.


    Dryad mentally shook their head. How had they become so attached to Aerien in such a short time? They really liked the idea of having a baby in the house for once, they had always been jealous of the nursery tree, but Dryad was over 700 years old. They had only known Aerien for a few weeks. In such a short time, Dryad had become completely attached to the child. Back when Dryad was just a nymph, it was a simple infatuation with the idea of having babies for once. Now, it was something much deeper, and it definitely applied to Aerien alone. It has to be from the spirit energy.


    Despite knowing this was the cause, Dryad could not shake it. They were very angry that they were going to loose Aerien, even if it was the only thing to allow her to survive. This was all that dragon¡¯s fault too. The master needed the dragon to get an introduction to the queen¡­ Dryad¡¯s mind went somewhere dark for a moment, but logic won out. If the dragon was needed for the master¡¯s plan, it meant that he was also Aerien¡¯s only chance. They would not ruin that over jealousy.


    Dryad felt a pulse of energy from the master. It seemed he was ready to confront the dragon. Meanwhile, Dryad would be watching and judging that dragon¡¯s every word.


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Erlathion let out a sigh as he walked forward into the glaring sunlight of the outside. He narrowed his eyes as he looked around at the curious crowd, now all a far more respectful distance away from the site of the battle that just occurred between Dryad and the fey dragon Everon. Only one individual dared stand below where Everon was still suspended by Dryad¡¯s vines.


    It was a man who¡¯s most striking feature was his large completely black eyes as though polished and shaped obsidian had been placed on his face as decoration. To say they were large was quite appropriate, being roughly three times the size of a normal humanoid¡¯s eyes. While this was his most striking feature, this is not where the odd features ended. For one, his skin was completely blue, and his hair was a lustrous shade of white. His hair shimmered with the vitality of youth despite the color that would normally signify greatly advanced age.


    None of this was particularly shocking to Eirlathion however. He was rather familiar with this person¡¯s race. This was the natural form of a changeling. Or rather, it was as close to their natural form as they would willingly show most people. The shape was identical to his natural form. It was the pigmentation of his eyes and skin that had been altered. The natural state of a changeling is completely without pigmentation of any sort. The skin, without color, is a shade of cloudy pinkish white and the blood vessels that are close to the surface can be seen in full detail. A more unsettling point about their lack of pigmentation though is the state of their eyes. Without any pigmentation what so ever, their eyes are simply a completely clear dome that allows you to see straight through to the orange blood-vessel covered backs of their eyes.


    Changelings are quite aware of how unsettling the collorations, or lack there of, that they have in their natural form are to most non-changeling races. Therefore, it is common practice for them to at least color their eyes and skin while in their natural form. This changeling, who goes by the name of Sagel, happened to have chosen blue skin and completely black eyes while opting to allow his hair to remain without pigment.


    Sagel was the advisor to the dragon assigned to this village, the very dragon now hanging from Dryad¡¯s vines. He had arrived just earlier today and spoke with Eirlathion briefly just before this whole incident occurred. Sagel had struck Eirlathion as a rather amiable fellow, but now they would be meeting again under far different conditions.


    As soon as Sagel saw Eirlathion emerge, he ran straight over. Before Eirlathion could take three steps, Sagel stood right and front of him. ¡°Master Eirlathion.¡± He said and closed his large eyes, after which he quickly inclined his body to a 60 degree angle and lowered his head in a half bow. ¡°I feel I can speak in the name of her majesty when I say that I simply cannot apologize enough for the foolishness of the subordinate that was sent here in her name. What is the condition of¡­¡± A pained expression appears on his face and his head lowers a fraction of an inch farther.


    Eirlathion lets out a slow breath, not quite a sigh, as he solidifies his mind in order to answer his question. ¡°She is alive, but her condition is not good. It is a matter of her spirit that was damaged, not her body. I wanted to speak with Everon about this. If he and the queen wish to give an apology, I would like to request her assistance in healing her.¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± Sagel enthusiastically responds, raising his head up and straightening his posture. ¡°I am glad to hear that things did not go to an irreversible extent at the very least, I will advise Everon to do whatever he is able to in order to properly make amends for what his foolishness has caused.¡±


    Eirlathion nodded at Sagel¡¯s words. He was glad that this part at least had gone so smoothly. Surprisingly so in fact, he had not expected to have the answer he wanted this quickly when he exited the house. However, this Sagel at least seemed to have things together. ¡°Well then, with that out of the way¡­¡± Eirlathion trailed off and then glanced up toward the serpentine winged dragon, now lacking one of his feathered wings. There was a serious question as to what form his introduction would take with him in that state. Maybe just a signed letter from Sagel would suffice at this point? He was the official advisor after all.


    ¡°Not to request something in exchange, but I would like to ask for something.¡± Sagel said. ¡°I would like to petition the house of the magus Eirlathion in regards to the future of this village. I know I am not yet a trusted face here, and the one over me has left me in the negative in that area, but I wish to speak on behalf of the people to address the righteous anger felt by the house of the magus Eirlathion.¡±


    This seemed like an awkward way of speaking, but Eirlathion knew that when Sagel spoke about his house, what he was referring to was Dryad¡¯s proper formal name. The name by which they are called by people who have not earned the right of familiarity to simply refer to them as ¡°Dryad.¡±


    Having a name was not a common custom among the tree spirits. In fact, it was exceedingly rare and only exceptional dryads that have had a great deal of influence around the world would receive actual names. Considering what had just happened here, Dryad would likely receive a proper name at some point now. He had also heard that the spirit of the great tree had a proper name, although he had never heard it. However, for the most part, a tree spirit would consider their ¡°name¡± to be ¡°the house of¡­¡± or ¡°the spirit of the house of¡­¡± whoever was the head of the family that lived in the tree that served as their body.


    Technically, Dryad¡¯s name should be changed to ¡°Spirit of Cundo Village¡± at this point, but Sagel was likely taking their feelings into consideration by addressing Dryad by their old name.


    Eirlathion closed his eyes in thought in regards to this request. He could see why the man would be concerned over this. However, given the nature of everything that had just happened, Eirlathion was still struggling to catch up. He had never even considered the position he was in now as the one dwelling in the house that had become a dryad, especially one that had just become so angry. To him, Dryad had always simply been Nymph up until a few hours ago. However, the manner in which Sagel was approaching him now drove in the fact that now as a dryad, his house was now the ruler of this entire area. Dryad¡¯s will and whim now determined the life or death of every man, woman, and child in this entire village.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± A third voice cut into the conversation as Dryad¡¯s projection appeared next to the door. ¡°If it includes that dragon confessing his crimes in front of everyone and groveling for a while, I suppose I could hear you out. As soon as you have complied with my master¡¯s request, I will listen to what you have to say.¡±


    Eirlathion was a little surprised at Dryad¡¯s tone. He had not noticed it before, but as a dryad they acted nothing at all like they had as Nymph. While taking on this tone and attitude seemed entirely justified for this situation, Eirlathion couldn¡¯t help but question if Nymph would have even been capable of such a poisonous tone and the general attitude that Dryad was holding right now. It really did seem like he was looking at a completely different tree spirit from the one he had known for the few hundred years since they had gained the ability to communicate. Maybe this was natural for a dryad, but he still found it slightly unsettling.


    Author''s note


    Yeah, this is mostly more recap and scene setting. Since most of the scene setting was set up in the last book though, this shouldn''t slow the story down so much anymore. The exciting stuff will start from the next chapter.

 Book 2 Ch 2: A village on trial

    ??? POV


    ¡°This mistake, was mine¡­ It was a terrible mistake. I did not mean for the children to be harmed in this way. I acted too quickly and without thinking it through enough¡± The once Majestic and imposing fey dragon spoke in a weak voice. When the fey dragon Everon had first shown up in the village, his presence and his voice were overpowering, his communications through spirit energy resounded through everyone¡¯s mind like a yell. Now, with the dragon himself broken and bound by vines, which had now lowered to place him on his belly on the ground, every last shred of his former majesty had been stripped from him and he seemed like nothing but a broken beast waiting for his death.


    In front of him was the spirit projection of the newly born dryad, the undisputed true ruler of this entire area. This dryad was the same one who had reduced this once noble beast that served the queen into a common snake crawling on the ground, and this dryad looked on with scorn and disapproval at the creature on the ground before them, contemplating him as though they were considering whether or not to press his face into the ground with their foot.


    This dragon, who for the past two weeks had taken control of and ruled over this village, was now completely at the mercy of the dryad, the true ruler of the forest. The people of the village could only stare as this contest between these two creatures that were seen as so far above them that they might as well be divine existences participated in a contest of wills. This was not something that did not concern them though. The dragon¡¯s guilt in this situation was obvious for everyone to see. There was absolutely no point in this exercise of humiliation if it were just to verify this fact. The problem was, this entire village was implicated in the dragon¡¯s guilt as well. The entire point of this humiliation was for the dragon to take all the responsibility onto himself.


    In this grim ritual, there was only one person who dared stand between the dragon and the dryad. It was the man who had proposed this little show trial to begin with. It was a man who had not even been a part of this village and who was only just seen for the first time right before the event that precipitated all of this began. However, he was trying as best he could to make certain that little to none of these events reflected on the villagers in the dryad¡¯s eyes.


    This man¡¯s appearance was bizarre. He had long white hair, pale blue skin, and large black eyes. There were very few among the villagers who knew what this man was, but the whispers had gradually spread through the crowd that this was what a changeling looked like. Changelings were rarely seen this far out in the villages, at least not in their natural form. A hunter out here might be lucky to see one disguised as a human while out in human lands, but they would never know it to see them. For most of them, this would be their first time ever laying eyes on a changeling.


    This changeling man stood in front of and a little off to the side of the crippled dragon, standing in such a way that he could keep both the dragon and dryad in his sights if he were to look straight ahead. However, right now, he was turned toward the dragon who had just spoke his groveling words to take responsibility onto himself.


    ¡°Everon,¡± he said, ¡°can you tell us what you were trying to do by sending that man into master Eirlathion¡¯s house?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I ordered him to take the elf children.. and.. to bring them to me.¡± He labored to project his thoughts.


    ¡°So, what happened in there was not your intention?¡±


    ¡°N.. no. I¡­ do not know what went wrong.¡±


    The dragon¡¯s expression of ignorance seemed to enrage the dryad scornfully looking down at him. ¡°What do you THINK went wrong!? How could you think it appropriate to just send a person crashing in through the window!?¡± The vines wrapped around the dragon tightened, lifting him off the ground by the neck, causing him to let out a strangled and frightened sound.


    ¡°I would like to hear that as well,¡± The changeling man said. He seemed to get very agitated to see the dragon lifted up like this, but upon seeing that the dryad was still restraining themself and wasn¡¯t going to take further action immediately, he used that opportunity to take back some control of the situation by continuing the interrogation of the dragon as someone similarly agitated at him in agreement with the dryad¡¯s anger. ¡°Such an invasion of a person¡¯s house, especially the magus of the village, I do not see where the rational would be appropriate for this.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡­¡± The fey dragon stammered under the pressure of the situation. With all the people against him and his already damaged body being abused further in this way, it was entirely reasonable that he would be unable to form a coherent sentence. ¡°It was foolish. I thought¡­ I knew if I asked the magus, he would deny it. I needed to¡­ to see them myself.¡±


    The changeling sent an uneasy look back to the dryad, but he quickly turned back to the fey dragon with a look of resolution in his eyes. ¡°And then? What did you plan to do after you had them dragged out in front of you!? Did you even think this through!?¡± He raged at the dragon, allowing his own expressions of anger to act as a catharsis for the dryad so they didn¡¯t have to. Because, if it was the dryad yelling in a rage, several things could happen, all of them varying degrees of bad for everyone here.


    ¡°I¡­ didn¡¯t.¡± The dragon responded in a mournful and ashamed tone.


    ¡°You may have thought they were grey elves, but here it turns out they were exactly what the magus had told you! Sick! Children! ¡­ New! Born! Infants! You put them under this kind of stress! What did you THINK was going to happen!?¡±


    The changeling turned away from the dragon in disgust and walked toward the dryad, bowing his head respectfully upon getting a respectful distance in front of them. ¡°Once again, I can only express my sincere apologies for what our stupid representative did when he violated your domain. As you can see, this was not a case of malice, but of stupidity. He is a foolish and impulsive sub-dragon. We ought to have sent better to an esteemed dryad such as yourself. I have already taken steps to rectify the situation as best I can, and will intercede with the queen personally in order to make this situation right. Please, house of the master Eirlation. This dragon¡¯s foolishness deserves to be righted, but let it end with him. It was nobody else¡¯s fault but his.¡±


    ¡°hmm¡­ I thought that was probably your game.¡± The dryad responded to the changeling¡¯s effort with cold eyes. ¡°You put on a pretty good performance, I enjoyed watching you lay into him like that. However, you¡¯re not fooling anyone. It was still the rumors around the town saying that the girls were grey elves that brought this about in the first place. This foolish dragon¡¯s¡­ Impulsiveness¡­ caused things to play out in the worst possible way. But they are still the ones who set the girls within his sights.¡±


    A bolt of fear ran through the gathered villagers as the crowd realized for the first time what it was the changeling was really trying to do in all of this. This dryad, this ruler of the forest, the one who brutally tore apart a fey dragon, had them in their sights next. This changeling was trying to divert the dryad¡¯s sights away from them, but he had failed. What would this mean for them? Unrest and panicked whispers were spreading rapidly throughout the crowd. If this dryad could do that to a fey dragon, mere elves such as them did not stand a chance.


    Elves lived in harmony with the spirits and with the plants. They knew how to navigate the trees, and the tree spirits responded to their mana. However, now that this part of the forest was ruled by a dryad, every single tree in this entire area could turn against them. Every single tree was under the dryad¡¯s control. They would no longer answer the villagers¡¯ calls to open a path, they could no longer enter or leave their homes without the dryad¡¯s good graces, and if they decided to try to make a run for it then the dryad could block their path as easily as breathing. Elves, no matter how strong they tried to become, were just ants in front of a dryad.


    Some of the weaker ones among the crowd already had tears of fear falling down their face. Others eyed their neighbors with suspicion, running through their minds about everyone who had said something about the girls being grey elves in the past as they considered forcing them to kneel in front of the dryad so that the rest of the people might just be able to get back in the good graces of the forest¡¯s ruler at least long enough that they could leave this part of the woods in peace.


    A sadistic grin appeared on the dryad¡¯s face as their eyes swept across the crowd. ¡°Well then, you are right about one thing.¡± The spirit of this part of the forest said with a tone dripping in poison. ¡°Punishing that dragon really will make me feel a lot better.¡± A glimmer of hope fluttered in the peoples¡¯ hearts at this declaration. Maybe they really could get off better if this caused the dryad to calm down.


    The dryad¡¯s projection walked up to the dragon, dangling limply from his neck. The vines lowered him until the bloody tatters from where his lower half was ripped from his body scraped against the ground, causing his angular face to show an expression of pain that could not be mistaken despite the difference in the physiology of his head. The pale dryad hand, glowing a faint green, reached up and rested on the dragon¡¯s cheek as everyone looked on with baited breath.


    ¡°I have the perfect punishment for you.¡± The dryad said. ¡°I¡¯m going to give you something, as I was evolving into this form I also picked up several memories that were not my own.¡± As the dryad spoke, their hand began to have a slight white glow to it. ¡°There was a great deal of information inside of these memories. Among it was the ability to transfer pure spirit energy and the thoughts and memories contained in it to someone else.¡±


    ¡°AHHHHHHH!!!!¡± The dragon let out a sudden scream and began thrashing against the vines holding him in place. At the same time, a wave of pure terror erupted across the crowd. Some of the wiser members of the crowd realized the dragon was echoing the contents of whatever ¡°memory¡± the dryad was giving him. Knowing did not help though. In fact, as the contents of the memory started to become more and more clear, knowing only made it worse.


    ¡°Have you figured out what this memory is yet?¡± The dryad sneered. ¡°This¡­ THIS is exactly what that baby was feeling before she entered the state she¡¯s in now. How are you going to handle it dragon!¡± As the dryad¡¯s eyes swept over the crowd after this declaration, the onlookers realized what this punishment really meant. It was clear, they were counting on the dragon to be bad at controlling his spirit energy in this state. It was intentional that he echoed everything he felt to them.


    ¡°NO PLEASE!!!! IT HUUURTS!!!¡± A sadistic smile from the dryad was all this cry got him. A green energy began spreading up the vines, emanating from the dragon¡¯s body. ¡°NO NOOOOO!!! IT¡­ AHHH-¡± The scream suddenly went silent and the vines that once held the dragon dropped to the ground, the dragon himself no longer present.


    The onlookers were still reeling from the memory of the pain and the fear. If that was what the dryad had felt vicariously from that infant, it was completely understandable why they were so angry. The hope they had felt a moment ago that doing this would help calm their anger had been destroyed completely. Some of the children around were now loudly crying inconsolably, but their parents were unable to tend to them. Everyone in the crowd had all the strength in them destroyed merely by their exposure to those memories echoed as the fey dragon Everon began to feel them as though they were his own.


    They had only gotten an echo of it though. What they felt had only been the stray energies let off by Everon. It was nothing like what he had felt first hand, which in turn was only a second hand repeat the dryad had maintained of what the baby had felt. And even that¡­ just the memory of the experience was enough to damage the fey dragon¡¯s spirit badly enough that he had lost his physical form. In other words, the memory of a damaged spirit had caused real damage to his spirit, damage severe enough to kill him.


    Now, along with the understanding that taking out the anger on that dragon was not going to be enough to calm this dryad¡¯s anger, this event also triggered an entirely new degree of fear toward this powerful entity. A dryad could cause the forest to come to life with a thought, and nobody would be safe from their wrath if you got them angry. Everyone knew this much. However, now it had just been made painfully clear that getting killed by a tree or some vines would be a mercy before this particular dryad. They had a far more fearsome way of killing any member of a fey race such as an elf like each of them. A few people had lost control of their bladders while witnessing the event from before. The realization of what it meant nearly tripled the number of people sharing that situation.


    The few people still able to look at the dryad, who''s eyes were not filled with tears of fear and did not have their minds gripped with panic, saw that the dryad had a very displeased look on their face. A sharp glare was directed at the poor changeling who was collapsed at the feet of the dryad¡¯s spirit projection. Nobody envied him for being so dangerously close to this visage of pure threat incarnate. ¡°I am going to need you to come inside. We need to talk about the real reasons behind the queen moving the capital, my master needs to hear every last word of it.¡±


    The changeling¡¯s head weakly nods and he scrapes himself off the ground and places himself upright on his unsteady feet. Just when the people think they were about to have a moment to breathe, that the dryad¡¯s oppressive attention was going to be away from them for a moment, their projection cast its gaze over the crowd. ¡°Well then, nobody is going to be allowed to leave while I¡¯m dealing with him and my family. I would like for all of you to decide who is guilty and who is not while I¡¯m putting my attention toward more important matters.¡±


    Author''s note


    Errr... yeah. This is Dryad everybody.

 Book 2 Ch. 3: Lies of omission

    Sagel¡¯s POV


    Under the dryad¡¯s cold watchful gaze, Sagel had written up and signed a document under Everon¡¯s name. He would have done this either way, but in this case it was the condition for him to gain the right to fight for the survival of everyone in this village. He had to convince the dryad of this village of the innocence of the residents, or at least divert their attention entirely onto Everon.


    As soon as the magus Eirlathion received that paper, the dryad asked him to go inside, stating that they did not want him or any of the others inside to be around when they dealt out their punishment.


    It felt strange to be fighting to push all the blame for a capital offense onto his own superior, but in this case he had committed such an egregious offense that the queen would likely sentence him to death anyway. To violate the core body of a dryad was bad enough, but he had also caused harm to someone personally declared to be under that dryad¡¯s protection, harmed the appearance of the monarchy in the eyes of the local villagers, and on top of it all the particular dryad he had offended had demonstrated such extraordinary power.


    No, it grew even worse than that. Sagel was no fool. He knew there had to be something very unusual about that child. She was somehow connected to the sudden extreme growth that the dryad had shown. He did his best while berating Everon to push the message that she was a mere sickly child, but he knew that could not possibly be true. In fact, the likelihood was huge she really was a grey elf as the suspicions had stated.


    Ultimately though, whether she was or was not a grey elf was entirely irrelevant at this point. There were two things that were true for a certainty. One was that this child was the likely cause of a nymph suddenly becoming a dryad with such power that already it was easily the second most powerful in the entire kingdom after only the great tree. The second was that revealing that he still suspected that child of being a grey elf was likely to irritate that dryad, where as helping to push the idea she was just a sick child may allow him to carry favor with them.


    Actually, there were three things that were certain. Everon had something to do with nearly killing the child that had the ability to instantly grant this power to a nymph. Any single one of these offenses would have merited a death sentence for the fey dragon. This last one though, it¡¯s likely that the entire fey court would decide that one death is simply not enough.


    Sagel put in his best efforts to focus this powerful dryad¡¯s anger on Everon. However, the dryad shot down his efforts with a single dismissive phrase. There was something incredibly off about this dryad, and it was very unsettling. They walked right up to Everon and placed their hand on the side of his head. The next thing Sagel knew, Everon was screaming in fear and pain so great that Sagel could sear he could feel it himself. No, that was exactly what was going on. Everon had clearly lost complete control of his spirit energy.


    This was absolutely outrageous. This dryad had somehow triggered something that was causing the dragon to vent all his spirit energy. It was clear what was going on, the dryad had selected a method of execution that was way beyond what even the queen would have been capable of implementing. It was like a gushing wound to his spirit as he expelled all of his spirit energy at a rate that would leave him with nothing left in a matter of seconds. It was exactly like having an arm cut off of your physical body as the blood leaked from the open wound.


    The fear was accompanied by extraordinary pain. This pain was also passed along with the massive waves of spirit energy Everon was letting off. Sagel could see now why the dryad had sent Eirlathion away. They could likely absorb this energy with their body and prevent it from reaching him or the children inside. In this entire village, the ones inside the dryad¡¯s core body were likely the only ones safe from this assault on their entire being.


    Sagel felt as though everything in his chest was being pulled out through his eyeballs and fingers, as though a hook and line was pushed through the entire length of his arms and into his chest cavity for the soul purpose of dragging his innards out of him in the most painful way that a sick mind could conceive of. Even in the midst of this soul crushing pain, Sagel¡¯s mind was just barely able to work enough for him to realize exactly what this was. This must be the same pain that child experienced when her energies had gone out of control due to her fear. If this is what she felt, it truly was nothing short of a miracle she was still alive.


    Sagel only received a reprieve from the pain when Everon finally had run out of every bit of spirit energy and was no longer able to maintain a physical form. The body of a fey was made out of thought made physical to start with, and without spirit energy to keep them together any longer those mere thoughts can no longer produce a physical form. As a result, a fey who runs out of spirit energy simply vanishes as though they were never there to begin with.


    The dryad was staring off with an unpleasant expression after Everon¡¯s body was gone. What was the dryad thinking? Sagel¡¯s mind was too rattled by what he had just experienced to have much room for rational thought. His mental faculties were completely drained to the extent that when those displeased eyes of this extraordinary entity turned on him, he was unable to even care what might or might not be about to happen to him.


    ¡°I am going to need you to come inside.¡± The dryad ordered him. ¡°We need to talk about the real reasons behind the queen moving the capital, my master needs to hear every last word of it.¡±


    Real reasons!? Did Everon slip up and tell them about that already!? No, the dryad just said that their master needed to hear about it. If the magus didn¡¯t know about it, then it was likely that nobody else but the dryad knew. If that was the case though, how did they find out!? Of course! Even in Sagel¡¯s rattled state he found himself looking up at this dryad with a weak amount of renewed fear. They must have gotten the information from the stray spirit energy Everon was throwing off during his execution just now. All anyone else could process was just the fear and the pain, but for a dryad who was a spirit to begin with, it was entirely conceivable they could interpret a lot more information from it.


    Yes, if they had found out about what was really going on at the capital right now, of course they would be concerned about sending the magus and that child there. At the very least the magus ought to be warned.


    Sagel gave a weak nod and scraped himself off the ground. After this, the dryad gave some malicious words with an implied threat to them. However, Sagel was only just barely able to process those words or their implications and silently followed the dryad inside their tree. The path behind him quickly closed, and the dark hallway was illuminated only by the soft glow let off by the dryad¡¯s projection.


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Eirlathion sat quietly in his lab after having respectfully honored Dryad¡¯s wishes to have him leave. T¨²eth had left downstairs with Aerien and Levin, saying she thought it would be better for her to have both of the boys nearby in her current state. That was likely for the best. It was better to leave her in the hands of her mother at this point. There was nothing more he could do, so he just sat in his lab.


    He had already done all he could. The piece of paper he had in his hand, the signed document explaining enough about the situation to give him an introduction to the queen. Eirlathion had a slight smirk on his face as he read it over, it seemed to justify the importance of healing Aerien more in terms of her relation and importance to Dryad and explained their power rather than anything to do with Aerien¡¯s role in this. More significantly, it left out anything about Aerien being a grey elf, although there was a real question as to whether or not Sagel actually knew about that.


    Eirlathion had read this document over about four times now. He realized he was trying to distract himself by allowing himself to get lost in it. The truth was, he was very concerned about the changes in Dryad¡¯s attitude after their ascension. He knew what was likely going to happen out there. The best case scenario would be the fey dragon who commanded the attack on his house being killed. He dearly hoped it would not progress too far beyond that.


    He let out a sigh. He realized he had really been sighing a lot lately. There was quite a bit weighing on his mind. He set the paper down on his work table with a shaky hand and took a few steps back away from it, casting a glance around the room. His eyes lingered on the night-loving plants, and soon his mind was off to wondering about how the far more populous sun-loving plants fared under Dryad¡¯s explosive growth. Chances were slim that any would have managed to avoid being tossed aside as branches erupted from beneath them, but the question of whether or not they managed through the experience undamaged was a different subject all together.


    Ultimately, none of them should have had their root structure damaged. Even if the stems were broken in half, they all ought to be recoverable. This was especially true now with Dryad there for assistance.


    Eirlathion shook his head at himself for thinking about this. It was clear that he was distracting himself once again. Was there even really a point to recovering those plants? Chances were good that he would not be seeing this place again for a while. Perhaps Dryad in their new state might be able to care for them, but there were certainly more pressing matters to consider. Yes, he had to figure out the travel arrangements for their trip to the capital. It was pretty close now, only about a week¡¯s journey since it had moved. He could probably get there in a single day if he were on his own, but they would likely need to take a cart to accommodate the kids.


    As he was in the middle of these thoughts, he was distracted by the familiar groaning of wood being shifted by magic. He turned to see the wall opposite the location for the stairs, the same wall that had delivered him to his office earlier when he was rushing up here with Aerien in his arms, had opened up once again to reveal Dryad leading the changeling Sagel into the room.


    When Eirlathion saw Sagel¡¯s face, he immediately began to fear the worst. The large eyes of a changeling were about the one thing that was very different between them and a normal person, but it was enough to make their faces difficult to read. However, Sagel¡¯s face right now showed unmistakable signs that he was far beyond just disturbed. He looked haunted and shaken to his very core. It was very clear the man had just witnessed something that could change a person forever.


    As he looked back to Dryad¡¯s projection, they were picking a fruit from the wall that they had just grown, and then squeezing it into a cup. Wait, Dryad¡¯s PROJECTION was handling a physical object! Was that even possible? Eirlathion did not know a whole lot about dryads, but this was the first he had ever heard about their projections handling physical objects. Normally they would use their grown vines or branches to handle objects.


    ¡°Here, this will help settle you down.¡± Dryad said, offering the cup to Sagel. He accepted it, clearly not bothered by the fact it was a Dryad¡¯s spirit projection that was handing it to him, likely because he didn¡¯t even realize the significance of it. Well, that was the least of any of their worries at the moment. For now, there was something more important he had to get to the bottom of.


    ¡°Dryad, exactly what happened out there?¡± He asked with a voice that was every bit as shaky as it was forceful, a mixture that, considering the situation, managed to actually accentuate one another.


    ¡°I executed that fey dragon.¡± Dryad responded with an icy tone. ¡°That kind of impulsive stupidity in a position of power is the kind of thing that can only cost lives. The best use of his life is as an example to others of what such action without consideration to the consequences can get you.¡±


    ¡°Is... is that all?¡± Eirlathion responds, glancing over to Sagel who was drinking down the contents of the cup that had been offered to him like a man dying of thirst.


    ¡°I may have chosen a method of execution that was too much for the onlookers.¡± Dryad said with a sadistic glimmer in their eyes. ¡°I absorbed some of Aerien¡¯s memories when she was feeding her energies into me. I gave the most prominent memory among them, the memory of her spirit being damaged by that energy, to that dragon. It was such a powerful memory that it damaged his spirit as well and made it completely fall apart.¡±


    Eirlathion was stunned by Dryad¡¯s words. It made sense they would be able to do something of the sort, but to have actually implemented it... ¡°So, how did he get like that?¡± Eirlathion gestured toward Sagel, now shakily supporting himself on one of the work counters and taking some deep breaths.


    Dryad smirked at this. ¡°Well, when he received Aerien¡¯s memory, all the spirit energy he started expelling all at once held thoughts about exactly what he was feeling both physically and emotionally. I protected everyone in here by absorbing it all before it could get to you, but everyone out there received the full brunt of it.¡±


    Eirlathion looked over at Sagel again in shock and awe. It was really no wonder he had been so badly shaken. Actually, he was looking a lot better now. He had made an amazing recovery considering what he had just experienced, but it was more likely it might have had something to do with the juice from that fruit Dryad had just given him. What did they put in that fruit¡¯s juice anyway for it to have such a profound effect? Again, not important. The better question was Dryad¡¯s reason for bringing Sagel up here, and judging by the look on their face that seemed to be a rather serious topic for discussion at the moment.


    Once again, Eirlathion found himself sighing and then casting a glance toward Dryad. ¡°Well, I take it you likely have something important you want to discuss since you brought him up here. What is it?¡±


    ¡°Well, along with that dragon¡¯s spirit energy, I also picked up a large amount of his memories. Some of them are very important considering your immediate plans master.¡± Dryad said, and then nudged Sagel toward him.


    Sagel gave a brief, small yelp that was a little closer to a whimper and then looked quickly between Dryad and Eirlathion. ¡°R... right!¡± the changeling said. ¡°It¡¯s about the capital, or rather, the queen¡¯s reason for moving it. Heaven¡¯s scar... the purpose for moving it is not simply to gather some of the residual energies from the fall. Heaven¡¯s scar cut deep into the underground. It¡¯s a primary tunnel that can be used by the demons and devils that live down there. The great tree and the capital are being used as an attack platform. It is at the front line in a war between us and the underworld.¡±

 Book 2 Ch.4: Eleven more

    Author''s note


    Been a little while since I''ve gotten new subscribers on my SubscribeStar (Do I need to go back to reminding people about it at the bottom of the chapter? I''ve stopped doing that since it started being supported on the site and I now have a button for it, but I really did get more people showing up over there when I made the manually written links and explanation of what was up.)


    Anyway, time to thank ShadeByTheSea for joining the subscribers over on SubscribeStar. I appreciate every one of you, you are what might hopefully one day allow me the free time to give more frequent chapters while at the same time reducing the chance my free time will be eaten up in the future.


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    After making his shocking announcement about the true reason behind the moving of the capital, actually using the great tree as a war platform, the changeling Sagel clumsily reached for a chair and sat down and let out a long breath. ¡°Oh man, what kind of wine was that!? It works really fast, I¡¯m feeling good actually.¡±


    ¡°It was also a spirit restoration potion, and the alcohol was slightly altered to have an effect directly on your brain in order to calm your nerves. Alcohol has that effect already, but really the only reason it had to be alcoholic was because alcohol enters your bloodstream faster and it can act as a carrier for other chemical effects if they are molecularity bound correctly.¡± Dryad told him, the two of them having veered immediately off subject almost the moment that big news was dropped. Eirlathion assumed Dryad¡¯s knowledge and ability to do what they just did came somehow from the knowledge in the spirit energy they had just absorbed. That was not important now though.


    ¡°Let¡¯s talk about mole¡­ whatever some other time.¡± Eirlathion said. ¡°Can we please go back to the part about the capital being the front line in a war? That seems like an unusually bold move for her majesty.¡±


    ¡°It was not the queen¡¯s idea.¡± Dryad responded to him. ¡°It seems there are some newcomers in the fey court, 11 new great faeries who were born during the Heaven¡¯s Fall, in fact they were found by the fey dragons who went to search the site of the fall. They claim their previous lives were spent in a different world, and it seems they have a lot of incredible knowledge. They seem to have the queen¡¯s ear now, and when they learned about the Heaven¡¯s Scar potentially becoming a route the demons and devils could use to reach the surface a few of those new great faeries proposed this plan.¡±


    Sagle¡¯s face seemed to have an unpleasant expression on it when he heard Dryad¡¯s explanation. Eirlathion couldn¡¯t blame him. This news was¡­ ¡°So, these new great faeries were only just born during the Heaven¡¯s fall? Wouldn¡¯t that make them only just over 2 years old?¡± Eirlathion summed up his concerns. It¡¯s true that unlike Elves and Humans, great faeries are born as full adults. However, being only 2 years old they would not have a lot of knowledge of the fey community yet. It really didn¡¯t make sense that they would be trusted enough to allow such a drastic action to take place under their word.


    ¡°I only know what Everon knew,¡± Dryad responds. ¡°However, it seems like the queen was very impressed with the things those 11 new faeries were able to tell her. I don¡¯t know too many details, it seems like Everon shared the opinion you had on your first impression and only begrudgingly went along with this plan when convinced of the merits of it by one of the true dragons. He didn¡¯t know too many details about these new great faeries themselves, but there were rumors about that some of them were already a match for true dragons after only 2 years of getting used to their faerie magic.¡±


    ¡°Well, this is all new information for me as well.¡± Sagel says, slouching in his seat in and looking somehow unconcerned with what is being talked about. ¡°Everon did tell me a little bit about this plan being from some of the great faeries, but I didn¡¯t hear anything about their previous lives being in another world or anything like that.¡±


    He just seemed to be talking about this all quite easily as if it were nothing. Eirlathion doubted it was in Sagel¡¯s character to talk so openly about such things, changelings were defined by their role as the queen¡¯s spies after all. The secret was already out because of Dryad but he should at least LOOK a little conflicted about spilling information related to the inner levels of the fey court. It must have something to do with the strange alcohol Dryad had given him. Just how powerful was that stuff? And why is he not slurring his words if he¡¯s become so loose lipped from it?


    ¡°Alright, I have a question for you now Sagel.¡± Eirlathion said, looking over to the changeling. ¡°Would you have told us about the purpose of the capital being moved if Dryad hadn¡¯t goaded it out of you?¡±


    ¡°Wait, are you saying Everon didn¡¯t tell you anything about it!? That idiot sub dragon!¡± Sagel cursed the fey dragon so openly that it actually made Eirlathion feel a little uncomfortable. ¡°How are you supposed to know how to defend the village if you don¡¯t know you¡¯re supposed to expect attacks from any direction!? The whole plan was supposed to be to build a ring of forts around the Heaven¡¯s scar so we could keep them from attacking the capital by getting up from the tunnels in another part of the woods, yes, but it¡¯s also possible they might come up from the scar or maybe already be out in the area from before the capital was moved and we don¡¯t want them getting out in that case or if we find them they need to be dealt with at any rate.¡±


    ¡°I think I am starting to really hate working with sub dragons. This was all a total disaster!¡± Sagel continues on, seeming to not realize he¡¯s said enough. ¡°First the idiot takes off without me! Then he completely mishandles the preparations of the village! Seriously! I looked at the preparations from overhead when I arrived, the fortifications here are AWFUL!¡± Eirlathion tried his best to avoid taking personal offense at Sagel¡¯s words. It was him and Calanor who had come up with the village¡¯s defensive fortifications, but he knew they were clearly inexperienced in the area.


    More to the point, he was beginning to fear the drink Dryad had given him. For it to have this kind of effect with just one cup, already having him spilling his guts on every personal thought he has, it was not something Eirlathion ever wanted to have done to him. In fact, Eirlathion was starting to feel somehow guilty just listening to the man, as though hearing him was some kind of invasion of the man¡¯s privacy. Thing is, he still was not done talking, and Dryad was giving him gestures to not act as Eirlathion was about to try and make the man stop talking.


    ¡°Ridiculous!¡± Sagel continues his rant. ¡°He does not know at all how to lead! If it was just the bad fortifications though, it would be fine, but then all of THIS happens! If this makes that dryad turn against the fey court!¡±


    ¡°You mean me?¡± Dryad interrupts him.


    ¡°Ah! Oh, yes!¡± Sagel responds, seeming to have only just realized who he was talking to. ¡°Wow, just how much alcohol was in that wine anyway!? I don¡¯t feel drunk at all, but it seems to have made my tongue pretty loose.¡±


    ¡°Like I said, I made it to calm your nerves. They way it does this is by suppressing the activity of the frontal lobes of your brain, that¡¯s the part responsible for for future planning, worry, and inhibition. So, since it targets this part of the brain specifically, it allows you to become very open with your words while still keeping the rest of your mental faculties so you are not stuttering and slurring and you still have an easy time accessing all the information in your brain that you know. It also helps you to recover from a state like the one you were just in. It¡¯s hard to say which should be considered a side effect and which should be considered an intended effect, I guess it depends on how you plan to use it.¡±


    ¡°Wait, does that mean you gave this to me to interrogate me or something!?¡± Sagel responds with wide eyes. Meanwhile, Eirlathion begins to feel almost physically ill as his words drive home the rising fear he was beginning to feel.


    Dryad has an almost coy smile on their face as he turns to look at them. The dryad, who had completely changed from the Nymph he once knew, leaned down almost seductively over Sagel and stared him directly in the eyes as Eirlathion could do nothing but watch dumbfounded at the events unfolding in front of him. ¡°I need to see if I can trust you.¡± Dryad says, and then their projection circles around to lean against the counter as they start taking advantage of the fairly feminine looking body that dryads possess as they move in an alluring way while staring down at the changeling.


    Sagel looks back up at Dryad with his large eyes, and then the actual ¡°interrogation¡± assisted by this magical drug they had given him begins.


    ¡°So, what do you think about the girls?¡± Dryad asks. ¡°Do you believe the rumors around town about them being grey elves?¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± Sagel yelps and almost jumps from his chair, beginning to sit rather uncomfortably. ¡°I¡­ well, the one who was brought out was definitely sick, that makes it seem like they¡¯re just sick, but it is weird that you turned into a dryad during the attack though. It¡¯s all very weird, I don¡¯t know.¡± Sagel trails off and Dryad simply looks at him with expectation written all over their face. Eirlathion is starting to see what direction Dryad wants to bring this, and frankly he wants some answers on this subject as well. It¡¯s not so much about what Sagel might say, but rather what Dryad might reveal during this interrogation that has him more interested.


    The silence between the two continues. Eirlathion realizes Dryad is waiting for Sagel to continue, but finds it strange they are suddenly being so delicate with him as to wait for him to speak rather than goading him to go on. Given how full of fury they were just a short time ago, he had not expected Dryad to be so patient with what had already openly been described as an interrogation.


    ¡°I¡­¡± Sagel sputters, having apparently become uncomfortable enough with the silence that he felt compelled to continue. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I mean, your tree just suddenly started growing!¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of that happening during a nymphs ascension into a dryad. So, you had to use something to make that happen, right? Did that kid have something to do with it?¡± He looks up into the face of Dryad¡¯s projection. ¡°She did! Didn¡¯t she!? Well, if she did then that makes it more likely she¡¯s a grey elf I guess.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Dryad admits to him simply. ¡°And¡­? What do you think about that?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s incredible! Wait! Oh no! Wow! This is bad! If that baby has that kind of power, and Everon¡¯s actions hurt her! Wow, you better do something to get justice here, if you don¡¯t then the queen will take matters into her own hands and probably kill every single elf in this village.¡±


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ve already done plenty to assure just punishment against them. The queen should find it plenty satisfying, especially after I¡¯ve declared it as enough.¡±


    ¡°So, does that mean you will not turn against the court?¡±


    ¡°For now, let¡¯s say I¡¯m completely on board with slaughtering some dark elves, and maybe some of the other demon races of the underworld. Anyway, I think I¡¯ve made my decision about you. You are very pragmatic, a true realist, but you also care about the people of a village you have only been in for a few hours. I definitely think you are someone I can respect enough with what I am about to ask of you. But, before that, I need to tell both you and my master something.¡±


    ¡°Wow! Master Eirlathion, you must be pretty respectable for a dryad to be calling you their master! I mean, I guess they were a nymph just earlier today, but they are still calling you master though.¡±


    Dryad had a slight frown on their face in response to this remark, but they seemed to dismiss it as their projection¡¯s lower half straightened out, even if it did have to phase through the counter they had previously been sitting on to do so, and then walked out into an area where both Sagel and Eirlathion could easily see them as they stood in a more authoritative pose.


    ¡°Well then, you recall how I said that there were 11 new great faeries after the heaven¡¯s fall? Well, it could have easily been 15 instead, or maybe even more.¡± At these words, Dryad gave a very meaningful glance toward the floor. No, toward the room below this one, and then looked up in Eirlathion¡¯s direction and fixed him with a gaze that seemed to be willing him to get their meaning. Indeed, realization did dawn on him rather quickly, making for one more in the marathon of shocking developments this chaotic day. Well, by this point he had about grown numb to it, but still! This was quite a revelation.


    ¡°You mean¡­¡± Eirlathion began.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s exactly it.¡± Dryad affirmed, looking over to Sagel who would clearly not have the information necessary to make this connection. ¡°Aerien, Gaerien, and even Levin and Rolwen are all originally from the same other world as the 11 new great faeries. And, all four of them have retained their memories despite being reborn as elves and humans.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what!? A human was born with the memories of their previous life!?¡± Sagel nearly shouts. ¡°That¡¯s insane! That would make the human almost like one of the upper level fey! Except with spirit energy instead of mana!¡±


    ¡°Sagel!¡± Dryad cuts him off with a harsh glare.


    ¡°What? You¡¯re the one who gave me some drug that makes it so I pretty much can¡¯t help but say everything I¡¯m thinking about!¡±


    Eirlathion was pretty impressed the guy could talk back like that given the situation, but then it was probably another effect of the drug he just mentioned. That aside, this just had¡­ so many implications! This really would explain a lot. In fact, almost everything that was out of sorts about Aerien would be explained by this. Well, except for the chaotic nature of her energies, but then that could be from whatever cultivation she used in her previous life. After all, it was pretty much impossible to become a fey above the level of a fused spirit without having some level of cultivation in your previous life.


    What about Gaerien and the boys though? They hadn¡¯t behaved all that unnaturally. No, thinking back to the time in the nursery, the boys were always a lot more calm than the other children. Perhaps if he had known better how children normally acted he could have picked up on this a lot sooner based on that. He might have not even noticed Aerien was strange for a child if it weren¡¯t for her unnatural energies.


    Eirlathion looked up, noticing Dryad was giving him a serious look. ¡°Master,¡± they said. ¡°I want you to know, the reason I¡¯m telling you this is only because Aerien has been wanting to tell you for a while. She has been feeling held back by the fact that you did not know about this, and the only reason she hadn¡¯t told you before now is because she felt she did not know enough elven to convince you what she was saying was true.¡±


    ¡°Wait,¡± Sagel interrupted, ¡°but fey dragons and great faeries are born with the memories of their previous lives all the time! It¡¯s not that strange for a fey to be born with their memories intact.¡±


    ¡°She didn¡¯t know about that.¡± Dryad responded, their projection shaking their head and then placing their fingers on their forehead.


    ¡°How did¡­ Oh! Because she¡¯s from another world! I¡¯m still having a hard time believing that part, and wouldn¡¯t there be fey in that world too?¡± Sagel continued talking carelessly under the influence of the drug Dryad had given him.


    ¡°There weren¡¯t, actually.¡± Dryad responded.


    ¡°What!?¡± Sagel said, and the fact that he had said it so quickly was the only reason Eirlathion wasn¡¯t joining him. How is it there were no fey in the world Aerien was from!?


    ¡°Apparently, the gods of their world had some kind of campaign to exterminate all the fey in order to eliminate magic and arcane energies from the world.¡±


    ¡°What!? Wh¡­ why!? And also, wasn¡¯t your drug supposed to keep me from feeling emotionally sick from stuff like this?¡± Sagel responded. Aside from the later part though, he was once again speaking Eirlathion¡¯s thoughts exactly. He was beginning to feel inadequate over the fact that he hadn¡¯t said a word this entire time but was now having all of his thoughts voiced by Sagel instead just due to how quick on the draw he seemed to be due to the effects of that drug.


    ¡°It only stops you from being anxious and from worrying about your future well being.¡± Dryad said. ¡°I gave it to you because those effects would make it so that I could absolutely trust the words you said had no duplicitous intent behind them. As for the campaign by the gods of this previous world, as I said, the entire reason seems to have been in order to eliminate arcane energies in order to prevent devils and demons from being formed.¡±


    ¡°That crazy!!!¡± Sagel roared. ¡°Wait, how do you know about all of this anyway? Oh! Right! Dryad and spirit energy.¡±


    Dryad let out a sigh. ¡°Well then, mister Sagel. How about you just get some sleep to remove the effects of the drug. I will make my request for you as soon as you have settled down. You can probably guess what it is by now, but I would like to afford you the opportunity to be your usual self when I ask you.¡±


    ¡°You want me to help raise these kids, don¡¯t you?¡± Sagel responds, getting a smile that almost seemed to somehow be a shrug with the face in response from Dryad. ¡°It makes perfect sense, they are babies now and only a changeling would know what it¡¯s like to have the the mind of an adult while having to grow up as a child, we¡¯ve all done it again and again and again. Well, if you are not going to bear a grudge against the fey court over Everon, then I will gladly make amends by helping with the children. It sounds like Aerien is a national treasure level existence anyway, so I guess it would be an honor to give my services like that.¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess that simplifies things.¡± Dryad said. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s exactly what I was going to ask.¡± Dryad smiles and shakes their head at the way the entire scenario just played out. Meanwhile, Eirlathion is still struggling to catch up with all of this.


    ¡°Well then,¡± Eirlathion says, ¡°I suppose now that everything has been worked out, I should probably offer Sagel my bed so he can get your drug out of his system. In the mean time, I think I would like to take a walk in order to think and process all of this.¡±


    ¡°Actually master,¡± Dryad cut him off, ¡°It would be better that you not go outside right now.¡±


    Author''s note


    Since I am already in the mood of commenting on the subscribers, I would like to quote a comment that one of the subscribers made on this particular chapter.


    "an INFO bomb fell from the sky''s many were slain =P good chap yo"


    -Roy


    Yeah, thanks Roy. I got a good laugh out of that one. Just had to share your eloquence with everyone.

 Book 2 Ch. 5: Mob rule

    Author''s note


    Got a surprisingly large amount of subscribers since last week''s Friday chapter. Welcome mareus, Lord Fufundra, and P:rehistoricDuck.


    Also, sorry for being a little late. (It says something that I can call being late being off by just about an hour and 1/2. Shows how punctual my standard has become. XD.) Anyway, was a bit distracted by family stuff.


    ??? POV


    At first, after the dryad had left, everyone felt a sense of relief. However, they all knew the dryad was not truly gone. As a tree spirit, they could be anywhere, watching the people of the crowd at this very moment.


    After what these people had just experienced, nobody knew what to do. They were just in a daze. Several people had to pick themselves up off the ground, standing embarrassed about the mess they had made of themselves. They were able to recover a little bit of their shame upon realizing they were not alone in this, but it could not even come close to completely erasing the embarrassment.


    The sound of a child crying could be heard at the edges of the crowd. Several eyes were drawn to the noise the kid was making as his mother seemed to be trying to sooth him.


    ¡°It¡¯s Ok, it¡¯s over now.¡± She said, cradling the child¡¯s head into her shoulder.


    ¡°No!¡± A man nearby said in response before turning to the rest of the crowd. ¡°This isn¡¯t it! The dryad said something before they left, right!?¡± His voice quaked and broke as he brought up the subject that was surely haunting everyone¡¯s memory. ¡°We¡¯re supposed to punish the people who spread the rumors ourselves!¡±


    ¡°Wait! I thought the dryad just said to figure out who was guilty!¡± Someone else in the crowd spoke up to counter the man.


    A murmur spread throughout the crowd as the implications between this exchange began to sink in. At the same time, another thing the dryad had said creeped into several people¡¯s minds. There were may eyes cast to the outskirts of the village. With the number of trees dotting the area, it was hard to see all the way out to the edge of the lakira grove from this location in the center. However, in those places where you could see the edge, a wall of ivy vines woven together was plainly visible.


    This wall of vines had been painstakingly woven for the past two weeks by the mages of this village, and more recently they were even joined by the mages from the next village over. This was a project they had undertook in order to protect the village from the tainted devils under the order of the fey dragon who had come to the village.


    The dryad had said no one was going to be allowed to leave. It was a brutal irony that the wall that had been put in place to defend their lives by keeping the enemies out had now become a symbol of oppression to them all as it was now a wall that kept them in.


    There had been a great deal of scoffing at the flimsy wall the mages were being made to construct. It was only a thin wall of vines. There was no way that simple wall could protect them for long. It had only been just over 2 years since the scouts who went out to check out the area after the Heaven¡¯s Fall had run across a village in which several of the lakira trees had been burned to the ground. This was the work of those same devils.


    There was magic to protect plants against fire, but the mighty lakira trees were constantly bathed in the magic of their tree spirits. That very magic should render them the least vulnerable to fire, but they had still been burned down. It was clear the devils had some kind of powerful fire magic. That wall of vines would do nothing to protect the village.


    That wall would not even do much to keep the devils out of the village. Even after the wall had been put up, the hunters had routinely felt it easier to simply climb a near by tree and jump over the wall rather than use the gates that had been put up. It did very little to stop people from entering and leaving as they pleased. The wall was entirely useless for it¡¯s intended purpose.


    There was only one way this wall could ever keep people from crossing it. That was, to have the tree spirits actively lash out at anyone trying to climb their tree. A normal tree spirit would not have the power to do this on their own. A dryad, on the other hand, could do this easily.


    ¡°Alright, calm down.¡± A woman¡¯s voice cut through the din of worried voices. This woman stepped toward the center of the crowd with an air of leadership. Half the people in the crowd recognized this woman and knew her well. This was Sainel, the master magus of Rima village which had sent their best in order to help them.


    ¡°Alright,¡± Sainel began once all eyes were on her. ¡°If you will remember, the changeling, Mr. Sagel, just made an effort to intercede with the spirit of this village in order to advocate for all of us. I feel we should follow a similar example. Let us not allow ourselves to be ruled by our fears. We should keep this orderly and try to hold a trial for those who have sparked the great spirit¡¯s ire.¡±


    There was an uneasy tension in the crowd at her announcement.


    ¡°Well then,¡± she continued. ¡°As I am from outside this village, I feel I might be in the best position to impartially judge any case brought before me. Let¡¯s hear what you have to say.¡±


    ¡°Hold on! Why should we be listening to her!? It was the outsiders who started all of this anyway!¡±


    ¡°Yeah!¡± Several voices were raised in agreement with the man who had shouted out.


    ¡°Yeah, it was one of the outsiders who told that dragon about the babies! It¡¯s their fault!¡±


    ¡°Alright! If you won¡¯t listen to her, you can listen to me then!¡± An old man walked out to join the magus Sainel. The man who just stepped forward was Calanor, the elder of the village. ¡°I understand there¡¯s a lot of tension here, but we need to keep cool heads. A trial makes sense. We don¡¯t want to end up with a situation where we are randomly casting about blame.¡±


    ¡°Shut up old man! It¡¯s not your head that¡¯s on the line here!¡± A man from the crowd shouted.


    ¡°Hey, weren¡¯t you one of the people talking about the girls being grey elves?¡± Someone accused the man who just spoke up.


    ¡°No! Well, I talked about how it was possible, but I never seriously advocated for anything!¡±


    ¡°I think we all might have had thoughts like that. I think the question is whether or not someone got in on the gossip. Most of us knew better and we all held our tongues!¡±


    ¡°Yeah! See! We¡¯re all guilty then!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not what I said.¡±


    ¡°You just said you suspected it, that¡¯s like an admission of guilt!¡±


    ¡°I think if someone is guilty here, it¡¯s gotta be you!¡±


    ¡°Shut up!¡± Before anyone could intervene, the man who was being accused ran forward and punched the one he was arguing with in the face. In the next moment, the entire crowd was on him, pulling him to the ground. ¡°Stop stop stop!¡± The man desperately tried to defend himself as feet began stomping on him.


    ¡°ENOUGH!¡± The elder¡¯s voice shouted above the chaos, but it did not stop.


    ¡°Elder, no!¡± He tried to approach the mob, but was quickly blocked by one of the strong young hunters. The man put his hand on the elder¡¯s chest and sadly shook his head. Calanor knew this young man was right. All he could do was look on sadly as the mob beat a man to death.


    The man who was punched spat out blood and looked on with hatred in his eyes as the mob began to disperse, seeing that the man was no longer moving. ¡°You see!?¡± He shouts. ¡°We can¡¯t have a trial, you think that anyone is just going to sit and submit themselves to be judged like that!?¡±


    ¡°No, calm down!¡± Calanor shouted desperately. ¡°This will only lead to unneeded bloodshed! We need to be calm!¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t be calm in a situation like this old man!¡±


    ¡°AHHHH!!!¡± A child¡¯s scream erupts and catches everyone¡¯s attention.


    ¡°Teril!¡± Everyone looks as the mother reaches for her child who is being dragged backward by a vine that had managed to wrap around his waist. He is pulled toward a tree that immediately opens up. The small boy is immediately pulled inside, and then the wooden exterior of the house closes on him.


    ¡°EEEK!¡± A little girl is heard screaming from the other side of the crowd, heads turn to see a very similar situation going on with her.


    Realization dawns on them. The dryad is protecting the children. This brings a momentary sigh of relief.


    ¡°You see!? This must be what the dryad wants!¡± The man who was the instigator so far yells. ¡°They¡¯re saying the children are innocent! We don¡¯t have to worry then.¡±


    ¡°AHHH! Let go of me!¡± Another scream rings out, this time from an adult woman. When people turn to look, they see the mother who was just with her son who got dragged away. Another woman has come up behind her and is holding her by the hair.


    ¡°This woman was spreading the rumors as well!¡± She says triumphantly.


    ¡°No!¡± The mother screams, trying to resist as she is dragged by her hair by the triumphant looking woman toward the angry mob.


    ¡°Calanor!¡± The voice of Sainel raises as the elder holds his hands forward in a state of focus.


    ¡°Elder, stop!¡± The young man who stopped him before grabs the elder roughly by the shoulders and shakes him, throwing off his concentration for the spell he seemed to be about to cast. In the meantime, Sainel runs up behind and grabs him by the shoulder.


    ¡°This is getting too far out of hand, if you do something like that it will only make them angrier and then they might even go after you!¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t just let them do this! They¡¯re going to rip her to shreds!¡±


    ¡°Did she say anything about the girls?¡± Sainel asks.


    ¡°Well, she did, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Then there really is nothing you can do! Especially if that¡¯s the case. If you interfere with them, they will only see you as an obstacle with the state they¡¯re in now.¡±


    ¡°But what¡¯s after this!? They¡¯re not just going to stop with her!¡±


    The magus Sainel looks over at the woman being made to kneel in front of the crowd. She begs the mob, but all she gets in return is a slap across the face before someone else kicks her in the stomach. From here, the crowd quickly surrounds her and it¡¯s easy to assume how the rest of this will progress.


    ¡°Yes, it is unfortunate, but all we can do is find a few people to protect and get them somewhere safe at this point.¡± At these words, she looks over toward the other apprentice mages of the village. Calanor follows her gaze and realizes something that makes his face drop in horror.


    ¡°Laeril!?¡± He could see the little girl clinging in fear to Ceren¡¯s hip. Why wasn¡¯t she taken to safety by the vines already!? This was very bad! If they saw that little girl still out in the open when all the other kids had been taken to safety, someone would definitely assume the worst thing possible.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get them to a corner of the village, we can protect ourselves there.¡± Sainel gives out a command that Calanor can¡¯t help but nod his head in agreement with. A few more hunters have joined them by this point to form a guard around the elder and the magus as they move toward the spellsinger and apprentices.


    Calanor takes off his cloak as he approaches and throws it over Ceren¡¯s shoulders, allowing it to also cover the upper body of the little girl clinging to her. ¡°Hide Laeril!¡± He says to her in a high whisper. ¡°We¡¯ve got to go!¡±


    As a group, they manage to get away from the mob as the village continues to descend into chaos.


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    ¡°Actually master, it would be better that you not go outside right now.¡±


    Eirlathion looked up at Dryad, there was something he did not really like about the way they had said that, and it was not just because being contradicted by the spirit of his house was a new experience for him. It was an expected thing for dryads to have a much stronger will than a nymph. However, there seemed to be some kind of implication under those words that just gave him an uneasy feeling. Perhaps he had just become hyper sensitive to these uneasy feelings after what had happened a short while ago, but there was something about this that told him he was not wrong to have an uneasy feeling about Dryad¡¯s refusal to let him outside.


    ¡°Why?¡± He asks with a challenging tone. ¡°What¡¯s going on out there?¡±


    ¡°Well, before I left with Sagel, I told everyone out there that they should handle the rest in regards to little matters like those who spread rumors. It seems like they have taken a rather extreme interpretation of my words.¡±


    ¡°What!? Dryad, what¡¯s happening!?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, all I can do right now is protect a few of the children. The elder is getting a few other people to safety. You will be in danger if you go outside right now master, so I¡¯m afraid I cannot let you out.¡±


    ¡°Are you saying you¡¯re out of mana!?¡± Sagel¡¯s voice broke into their conversation. Meanwhile, Eirlathion rested his hand against the inner wall. He could not hear a single sound that would reveal what was going on outside right now. This wall had grown very thick during Dryad¡¯s transformation, thick enough that it could completely block out the turmoil that must be going on outside at this moment.


    A sick feeling twisted through Eirlathion¡¯s gut as he considered this situation. Dryad had not answered Sagel¡¯s question, but Eirlathion knew the answer already without having to press for one. He did not know whether or not Dryad was actually short on mana, but even if they were not they would not be willing to help stop what was going on outside right now. If it really was a question of not enough mana, Dryad could have easily asked him to supply some. He had exhausted himself earlier working on the wall, but he had plenty of supplies in the cabinets that could go a long way toward augmenting Dryad¡¯s mana supply far beyond what he could pour in himself.


    If it really was just a matter of being short on mana, Dryad would have asked for some of Eirlathion¡¯s resources in order to have the power to help. The mere fact that they were not askin, the fact that their tone seemed to not even indicate the slightest bit of tension or concern for what they just said was happening out there, it was enough to tell him all he needed to know.


    Eirlathion knew what was going on, but he did not press Dryad and he did not offer mana or magical supplies to them. He knew he would be rejected, and that rejection would force Dryad to drop the thin mask of benevolence they were wearing in front of him. Eirlathion was beginning to get more and more of a clear picture of what was beneath that mask now, and he was growing afraid to see directly what was underneath.


    ¡°Dryad.¡± Eirlathion said in a heavy and cold voice, hinting at the turbulent emotions just barely being held below the surface. ¡°I would like to go down and check on T¨²eth and the children. Can you give me some stairs?¡±


    The wall opened up in front of him, revealing small outcropping with stairs leading down. This was not the normal place where he had the stairs, but since the walls had grown so much thicker now the stairs could easily go anywhere without the need for an already existing dedicated area for the purpose.


    Eirlathion silently descended the stairs without a word. He wanted to get out of that room before Sagel in his loose-tongued state blurted something out that ripped Dryad¡¯s mask clean off and forced him to see the dreaded truth head on.


    Author''s note.


    Also, I''ve decided to start a new little fun thing. Sharing the SubscribeStar subscriber comment last chapter was something kinda fun, so I think I''m going to make it a regular thing.


    Subscriber comment of the chapter.


    "dat village got some nice kindly elders and shameless adults....20 mob death i bet maybe more. also Dryad don''t give a F%^k, "mess with my baby''s kill each other for me plz"


    -Roy


    Yeah, it was Roy again this chapter. He tends to have a bit of a thing for such comments.

 Book 2 Ch. 6: A matter of trust.

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    The life of an elf is long, and their perspective is wide. Eirlathion had lived for a millennium in this world, he had seen even more than the typical elf. As a people, they preferred their lives to be slow. It was for the humans who lived much shorter lives to have many stressful events happening one after another. The elven psyche simply wasn¡¯t built to be able to handle rapid change.


    In less than a season, within the space that the human calendars would call a ¡°month,¡± everything had changed. No, things had been accelerating ever since the Heaven¡¯s Fall happened, but it was in this past very short period of time that things had begun to move especially fast. Perhaps it was good that the 11 new great faeries had been added to the fey court, it was only those fresh human memories that would allow for the kind of quick action necessary to counter the threat of the Heaven¡¯s Scar, but the impact from such a sudden move was clear. Change that was this fast, it was tearing the villages apart.


    Perhaps they were in a particularly bad situation here. They had gotten a pretty good thing going with the girls. Eirlathion was under no illusion he was successfully managing to completely hide their status as grey elves from the people of the village. However, there seemed to be a silent agreement that developed that so long as he continued to provide the plausible deniability that allowed them to ignore the issue, they would just go ahead and pretend they didn¡¯t suspect anything. Despite the harsh tradition toward grey elves, nobody liked the idea of killing children. At the very least, the girls would be allowed to grow till they could survive on their own and then exiled from the village.


    It was the fey court¡¯s reaction to the Heaven¡¯s Scar that made this entire delicate system come crumbling down. Simply by bringing in an entire large group of outsiders, this greatly increases the chances that something will go wrong. An outsider would not understand the silent unspoken agreement everyone had arrived at. They would not have the same compassion of familiarity that had established the agreement in the first place. However, things only grew worse because of the inclusion of the fey dragon.


    If it were only the outsiders, they would have to go through the proper order of talking to the magus and the elder before anything could be done, and there would be time to convince them and slowly make them understand. However, with the fey dragon, they were able to take rapid action that upset everything the elven way of life stood for, not even giving him a chance to make his case.


    That was the situation that lead here, tensions throughout the village were incredibly high before this incident. Things were all changing so fast. The people were stressed between the threat of attack and the sudden rapid changes going on in the village. Under these conditions, a dryad awoke in response to the actions taken by the dragon, and they were mad.


    Eirlathion could only imagine what was happening outside right now. To think this was a situation where there would be no deaths would the the wishful thinking of the young who are ignorant to how dangerous these levels of stress could be. Eirlathion could not think of any situation where tensions in an elven village had ever been higher, but he had known things to go very bad with far less. Worst case, they could easily have wound up in a situation where the natives of this village had gone to all out war against the outsiders.


    It was ridiculous. The fear of being attacked seemed to be causing more damage than an attack itself would do. What would it say if this village was wiped out at the hands of the villagers themselves instead of the tainted ones they feared so much?


    Dryad had set this in motion on purpose. Eirlathion was certain of it. A tree spirit normally would not be able to understand the delicate state the villager¡¯s psyches would be in at this time, but Dryad had just been subject to a large amount of memories and information from countless sources. Eirlathion knew he could make no assumptions about Dryad based on what he previously knew about Nymph, nor about any other typical tree spirit. And, there was something about Dryad¡¯s tone and demeanor that just told him they had to be aware of just how easy it would be to set them at each other¡¯s throats.


    Hiding from the idea was not going to buy him anything. Eirlathion knew his conjecture had to be true. Even so, he could not face Dryad head on right now, and he could not cope with this sudden change. Of all the changes that were on this long list of events, having Dryad turn out to be such a monster was easily the most personal of all of them. Right now, everything he knew and loved was being destroyed at the will of the spirit of his own house, and there was not a single thing he could do to stop it.


    Eirlathion looked up across the room. There, sitting on the bed, his apprentice T¨²eth cradled the limp body of her comatose daughter. That woman had been afraid to even look at that child up until just earlier today. What a cruel irony that it is only after loosing her that she realizes how much she cares. Eirlathion had known she harbored some kind of maternal love for her daughters deep down, but fear had always won out over it. Now, even if the queen could heal that child, it was already too late for T¨²eth to love her daughter.


    It would be easy for Eirlathion to feel some kind of bitterness toward T¨²eth and those children. Aerien, the comatose child herself who was hovering between life and death, played a big role in what had happened with Dryad after all. That was not appropriate at all in this situation though. Eirlathion had just found out from Dryad that Aerien managed to retain all her memories from her previous life, but even with that the infant almost certainly did not understand what she was doing when she caused this.


    In addition to Aerien not being at fault, T¨²eth has suffered far worse than Eirlathion already, and the weight of what¡¯s happening now in this village will only serve to reopen those still fairly fresh wounds in her psyche. Eirlathion was nearly a millenium older than this young woman, it would have to be him who swallows his pain for her sake. In all likelihood, her and those girls would be all he had left.


    Anger and bitterness, he had learned over his long life, were things that would only get in the way. If his old and comfortable life was currently in the active process of being destroyed, he could not afford to cut off the best option he had at a new life out of his negative emotions, justifiable as they may be.


    He considered the scene of T¨²eth once again. She had barely even nodded when he entered the room before staring with her blank expression back at her comatose daughter. She had pulled the human boys, Rolwen and Levin, to her on both sides in order to have them both very close to Aerien. Meanwhile, Aerien¡¯s sister Gaerien had crawled up into their mother¡¯s lap and had a hand placed on her sister¡¯s shoulder. The infant¡¯s face seemed to express what he could only presume was concern for her comatose twin.


    It was a mother surrounded on all sides by infants and toddlers. Eirlathion did not know very much about children of that age, but going by what he had seen the few times he went to the nursery tree after those girls had just been born he would presume that, were those children normal, there is no way they would all be sitting so still and complying with T¨²eth so easily for Aerien¡¯s sake.


    Up until now, Eirlathion had based what was ¡°normal¡± on what he saw those two boys doing, presuming that Aerien was the only abnormal one in the group. However, from what Dryad had just told him, all four of those children had retained their memories from their previous lives. That would mean those boys, who would likely not be able to sit still if they were normal, were entirely willing to sit as near as possible to her because they understood it was the best way to keep their friend alive. Meanwhile, Gaerien who was casting her concerned eyes on her sister also understood the full reality of what was happening right now, at least so far as Aerien is concerned.


    Those children being fully aware of just how dire Aerien¡¯s situation is brought a whole new set of issues into all of this. Well, those issues could likely be put off simply by not telling them that he knows. They have grown used to the idea of the adults not being aware after all. He would have to ask Dryad if they had said anything to the children about telling him. That would probably be for the best, and he would also wait on the matter of telling T¨²eth. There were enough problems going around right now, he did not need to deal with the strain that would come from opening up to them about this issue.


    -


    Calanor¡¯s POV


    After having been urged by Master Sainel, the group of low grade mages and apprentices along with a vanguard of five hunters made their way toward a far corner of the village. At this distance, the horrible sounds of the angry mob grew softer. Occasionally a scream would come out as accusations were shouted and someone else would plead for their life. The amount of time between the accusation and the beating seemed to be growing shorter as the mob grew angrier and more vicious.


    Calanor kept his eyes out for anyone roaming around this far from the chaos. If they were still fortunate enough to be spared from what was going on, he would usher them into their little group. Eventually, they had around 20 in their number by the time they reached the corner of the wall. They had no confidence they would be allowed to climb this wall, but so long as the spirit of Eirlathion¡¯s house did not decide to take a more active role they ought to be able to at least protect themselves out here.


    It seemed Master Sainel had a more effective idea than just fighting off attackers with their backs to a corner though. She was actively looking up from one tree to another. ¡°Ok,¡± she said, ¡°you four create a wall from that tree to that tree, I¡¯ll be working over here!¡±


    The trees she had indicated were one that was in front of their little group, and a pair of trees that were both part of the two adjoining outer walls that made up this corner. The three trees were in almost a straight line. If the three trees were linked by vines, it would make a right triangle shaped space for them with the outer wall, and for the people inside it would look perfectly natural that this might have been part of the wall all along.


    Calanor could see now why Sainel had chosen this particular corner. Indeed, if they were to create walls here then it would look as though they had always been part of the outer wall. The people in the village had seen the walls go up, so there is the chance someone might notice. However, given the state of chaos people were in right now, the chances of them noticing were small and their fear of climbing the walls would be high.


    The only question is whether or not the dryad would allow them to do this. Well, the only way to find out was to just do it and see what happened.


    -


    Several hours had passed and it was getting dark. However, the shouting and the sounds of chaos had still not stopped. The shouts of ¡°rumor spreader¡± had stopped long ago, and now they were replaced by shouts of ¡°outsider¡± and ¡°get them,¡± there was also talk of shooting and more of an organized structure to the commands being shouted. The group kept safe behind this vine wall could not see what was happening, but going by the contents of the yells they could here it was easy to guess that fists and feet had at some point been replaced with arrows and swords and that the random hunting for suspected rumor spreaders had turned into a war between the residents of the two villages.


    Inside this cordoned off area, there were both mages, hunters, and even common villagers from both villages. As it had become increasingly clear what was going on out there, the two groups found it becoming more and more awkward to look at one another. Shame filled their faces, but thankfully there was no sign of suspicion. Having a battle break out in their safe place was the last thing they needed.


    The greater concern was whether or not the dryad would change their mind on whether or not they would allow them to keep themselves protected like this. Fearful eyes were constantly monitoring the vine walls for any sign of movement. Calanor still did not know why the spirit of Eirlathion¡¯s house had chosen not to protect Laeril the same way they had all the other children. This concerned him greatly. There were two possibilities, and he did not like either one of them.


    One was that she was left for the express purpose of spurring him to action. If this was the case, the dryad had placed Laeril at a terrible risk just to save him. If that was the intention, they could have just as easily taken him with a vine as they had the children.


    The second and far more horrible possibility was that Laeril had deliberately been passed over for saving because the dryad thought her deserving to face the possibility of death. Calanor did not think the little girl was getting in on all of the rumors, but that was a subject he had been deliberately avoiding for some time now. She was also outside of the village during the crucial time when those rumors could have reached the hunters from Master Sainel¡¯s village. Maybe... it was possible the little girl had talked about it with some of the other children, that was why the dryad hadn¡¯t protected her. However, since it was more or less impossible she had anything to do with the rumor reaching Everon is the reason there was no action taken against them protecting her in this way?


    No, it was also possible the only reason the dryad hadn¡¯t taken action against their little group hiding here was because of him. He was a good friend of Master Eirlathion. It was entirely possible than that the spirit of Master Eirlathion¡¯s house would not take an action that had a high chance of getting him killed.


    The worst part about this situation is that he can¡¯t even ask about it. With tensions being how they are, merely the suggestion Laeril may have been marked would have the scene from earlier today repeating in here. The people in here may not be suspecting one another, but Calanor could already feel himself starting to suspect them. He began eyeing all of them, trying to see if they were paying any undue attention toward the little girl. Just one bad word could be all it takes to have this little group at each other¡¯s throats. Suddenly, Calanor was regretting that he made the effort to save so many. He had only increased his potential enemies.


    The day grew darker as the sounds of people fighting and¡­ killing each other continued outside of their little hiding space deep into the night. Everyone back here looked rather distraught over the horror that was happening right on the other side of this wall. How could fellow elves have become so vicious to one another?


    Obviously, nobody was really able to sleep knowing that people¡­ friends and loved ones were dead, dying, and trying to kill each other right outside of this area. As this continued, it became increasingly clear that this was exactly what the dryad had wanted. If it was not, they would have come out and stopped this insanity by now.


    Calanor looked over to one of the hunters from Sainel¡¯s village. He was curled up into a fetal position, and under the light of the full moon Calanor could just barely make out a tear running down the man¡¯s cheek. Calanor did not know this man, but it was clear he was likely mourning for someone who was still out in all of this.


    There was not likely to be anyone who could sleep, but Calanor had decided to arrange himself next to Ceren with Laeril between the two of them. This was under the guise of comforting her, but the real reason was for her protection. If anyone decided to get any wild ideas during the night, they would be able to notice and react. It was dark now, so it¡¯s likely that the lack of the ability to see the child would keep their minds from going to strange and troublesome places. Hopefully, this would all be over by morning.


    Subscriber comments corner.


    "Thanks for the chapter :) Lots of thinking."


    -Lantisl


    "Shit that''s heavy"


    -meowingLexi


    "What they said!"


    -Roy


    (Yeah, that one just didn''t work without all three of them.)

 Book 2 Ch 7 (Part 1): Cold hatred.

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    fury


    Dryad continued to not let him out through the night. Since Sagel was upstairs, he had Dryad bring T¨²eth¡¯s bed down for him to use. She did not seem interested in using it herself. She spent the night in the same bed with the children.


    Eirlation had slept very poorly. He had no idea what was actually going on outside. The walls were thick enough that sound was not able to get through. However, Eirlathion did not need to hear it in order to know. Dryad¡¯s wrath over Aerien had gone much farther than he had ever dreamed possible. It was not like he didn¡¯t understand why they were angry, but he knew that anything that was taking this long was definitely going way too far.


    He felt himself growing afraid. All of this change that was happening. Tomorrow when he woke up, he was certain this would no longer be a place he could stay. Dryad and Nymph were not the same tree spirit, no matter how much Dryad still thought of him as their master. This dryad was a monster. Eirlathion began wondering in the night if it might be possible to reason with this monster, but his fear kept him from even trying. It was all just... too horrible.


    This fear quickly turned to guilt. If he could convince Dryad to stop whatever was happening, perhaps it could end before more people got swept up. This fear was for personal reasons. He had lived for more than 1,000 years. He ought to have it in him to shove some interfering emotions aside. However, he was too afraid to prove to himself just how completely everything he knew had been turned upside down. His tree spirit had become an extremely malicious dryad. If he were to talk to that dryad and find the same poisoned callousness for the lives of others that he has glimpsed as they told him to go inside, it would confirm that his entire life at this point had been effectively destroyed.


    As the fear and guilt mixed together, it made it even harder for him to confront Dryad. If he did it now, then why couldn¡¯t he do it earlier? If he did it earlier, he could potentially have saved lives. If he acted now, he would have to admit his guilt in not acting sooner and allowing those people to die. Eirlathion had always thought of himself as a strong figure, one of the most respected people in the village. His word had weight. He was given power, and he thought his years had given him wisdom and strength. This moment in time was rapidly proving to him just how wrong all of that was.


    -


    Eirlathion found himself waking up in the morning drenched in his own sweat. His legs were curled up to his chest in a fetal position. It had been a tough night. He was aware of a soft green glow near him, and he turned to see Dryad sneering down at him. This rocked Eirlatihon to the core. What had happened to Dryad over the night? They seemed to still at least be a little helpful with him yesterday, telling him all that stuff about Aerien and such. They had shown him something of a kind face still at that time. Something had changed, even more than it already had.


    ¡°Hmm... I¡¯m disappointed master.¡± Dryad said with a look of disdain. ¡°I thought you would have been stronger. I think it¡¯s time for you to go outside and see what has been happening over the night.¡±


    Eirlathion was stunned, and a knot of sickening dread that surpassed even what he felt yesterday when he saw that dragon in front of his house gripped his insides as though trying to compress his stomach and all his other abdominal organs into a small ball. What was it that changed so much about Nymph upon becoming a dryad? Was it all of this knowledge from outside the world? In front of those judgemental eyes, Eirlathion in his thousand years of age was feeling like a mere child who had done something very wrong and earned his parents¡¯ disapproval.


    He was no fool. He knew exactly what Dryad was going to bring him to see. They were going to destroy the last illusion he had that he would preserve any bit of his former life after this. Eirlathion knew that he could not put this off. A refusal or hesitation to move now would only lower him farther in Dryad¡¯s eyes. For some inexplicable reason, he actually found that meant something to him. Once again, the vision of himself as a child in front of the disapproving parent solidified in his mind.


    He stood up from the bed like a man being taken to the gallows. His rich green colored robes smelled of his sweat, and still felt very freshly damp. As soon as he was standing, the wall next to the bed opened up and he was faced with an expectant glare. He would not have the chance to fix anything about his shameful condition.


    The passage behind him closed as soon as he stepped through, but the stairway and the hall below were still lit with a soft green glow. The passage was unusually wide, enough for two adults to stand shoulder to shoulder comfortably, and Dryad¡¯s projection was standing right next to him with an expression that seemed to have softened significantly from what he saw upon waking up. So, it looks like this will be a lot more than just a march to his fate. He was going to be lectured to first.


    ¡°So, master.¡± Dryad began talking as he had expected. ¡°There is something I would like to get your opinion on. What exactly do you think about humans?¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± Eirlathion responds. Where had this question even come from!?


    ¡°I got quite a few memories from Aerien yesterday. I¡¯ve already told you this. Her previous life was spent on a world in which there were no fey, and humans were the only sentient race in the world. I have learned a great deal about the potential of humans from Aerien, both the goods and also the terrible evils that they are capable of. It has given me a great deal to think about, and I wanted to get master¡¯s opinion about humans.¡±


    This was... is Dryad seriously trying to strike up a philosophical discussion at a time like this? The dread inside of him did not subside, but somehow Eirlathion felt his heart lighten at the idea. If Dryad was having thoughts like these, perhaps the worst case he had imagined last night was not what actually happened. As for the question...


    ¡°Well, I suppose we all came from humans at some point.¡± Eirlathion begins talking as he walks down the stairs carefully. ¡°I just have a hard time seeing much good out of them. They have no respect for the lives of others, they seem to be more interested in killing each other than trying to help each other survive.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Dryad responds. There is something about that response that sends a chill down his spine as he recalls the worst case scenario that kept him up all of last night.


    ¡°Dryad, I didn¡¯t want to ask about this yesterday, but...¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± Dryad cuts him off. ¡°That¡¯s... the reason why I¡¯m so disappointed in you now. Even that answer you just gave did not even deviate in the slightest from what I had predicted you might say. I was hoping you might surprise me, but... I guess the world as it is just can¡¯t stand up to where Aerien and the others spent their last lives.¡±


    Eirlathion didn¡¯t even know how to respond to such a statement. They were comparing this world to another that he had never known. Another world that, somehow, they claim was better. This would normally be a matter he might want to get more details on, but the circumstances of the situation really didn¡¯t allow for that.


    ¡°Dryad, you¡¯re starting to really scare me.¡± Eirlathion said in a weak voice, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.


    ¡°Alright then, I will ask another question. What do you think of yourself after everything that has happened so far?¡±


    Eirlathion¡¯s finger nails dug into his palms in a pair of white-knuckled tight fists. He took a deep breath and supported himself with his back against the wall as his head tilted down, no longer looking at Dryad¡¯s projection. ¡°I.. I¡¯m far more weak than I once thought myself. I.. all of the learning I¡¯ve done, all of the years I lived, it did nothing to prepare me for a situation where the skills I had perfected over my life had really mattered. I.. I couldn¡¯t protect the girls like I thought I could, and then...¡±


    ¡°Go on...¡± Dryad coaxed him.


    ¡°Dryad! Please tell me! What did you do last night!¡±


    ¡°Nothing, except save a few children.¡± They said with a sickening smirk that said far more than that had happened. ¡°Well, you know that much is not true, I¡¯m sure. Tell me, how many of the people of this village do you suppose think the same way you do about humans? Well, last night, I showed them that they are ultimately no different from the humans they all look down on with contempt. All I told them was that I would leave the judgement on whether or not someone was guilty of creating yesterday¡¯s situation with Everon. Honestly, I had absolutely no plans to act after they had made their judgement. I would let any judgement and punishment they decided on stand, and call it enough. Do you know what the result was?¡±


    Eirlathion felt the strength go out of him. It was hard to see under the soft green light let off by Dryad¡¯s projection, but his face was completely pale, and he was now leaning very heavily on the wall. His hands were no longer in fists. He had his palms flat up against the wall just to support himself.


    ¡°They killed each other.¡±


    He heard his own words coming back to him. His complaint about how horrible humans were to one another. Considering the direction the conversation had been going, it was probably something that didn¡¯t even need to be said. But, Dryad had said it anyway, driving the message in on their point about elves being no different from humans. This cruel statement wasn¡¯t just a concept though. Every single person out there was someone Eirlathion had known personally. He didn¡¯t know every name the way Calanor did, but he had seen their faces and listened to the troubles of 300 elves ever since this village was founded.


    Eirlathion had personally planted every single lakira tree that made up this grove 700 years ago. Once word began to spread that a new grove of trees that elves could make their homes in began to circulate, people gradually began to trickle in. He had seen this community rise up from nothing but a clearing the humans had abandoned to the hoards of their own far more brutal variants on the tainted demons. The forest did not extend this far south at that time. It was all a field. It was by his efforts that it began to expand.


    Now, all of the people he had known, his efforts over these hundreds of years, in a single night it had all come to pieces. He did not interact that closely, but, he knew every face. He occasionally had to ask for some names, but he had witnessed every birth as this village grew. He had not seen every child¡¯s first steps as they grew, but he had still been here and supported this village every single step of the way since the very first tree, the one he was living in right now, was planted.


    ¡°How many.¡± Eirlathion croaked, asking for the number that had died.


    ¡°Among the adults, 77.¡± Dryad says. ¡°Calanor and his group managed to round up 18, including themselves. Not counting them, there are 27 who are still alive from the other village that came to help us, and 32 from this one.¡±


    Eirlathion¡¯s head snapped straight up. Initially when he heard the number 77, he thought Dryad was talking about those who had died. They meant 77 survivors!? No! That was just too horrible. It was already bad when he thought it was 77 dead, but if that number counted the survivors, then... that meant the actual number of dead was into several hundred.


    Several hundred elves... for such a long lived, low birth rate race as the elves, that number was absolutely devastating. It was not like the humans that could just replenish their numbers in a few decades, each woman producing dozens of children. For elves, a woman would be lucky to have three or four children during her entire lifetime, and every single birth was precious. To loose elves in the hundreds, and... at the hands of other elves too!


    ¡°At the start, they seemed to be trying to do as I said, determining the guilty and then, on their own initiative, they added a punishment to it. After a while though, the people of this village turned on the ones from outside, and then the two groups were fighting against one another in a small war within the confines of the walls you and the other mages put up.¡±


    ¡°They have not even declared peace or any sort of truce or cease-fire yet.¡± Dryad continues. ¡°They just became too tired and scared to risk exposing themselves, and their numbers got small enough that all the survivors could huddle together on two different sides of the village. Well then, if you feel like you want to redeem yourself at all for the weakness you have shown so far, how about you go out and try to act as an intermediary to end this?¡±


    Author''s note


    Hello everyone, back after the 4th of July break. As you can see from the title, this one is posted in two parts. As you might have noticed if you paid close attention, this chapter is also a little short. (It would be a very long chapter if both parts were combined though.)


    Anyway, what wound up happening is that the second half of this wound up going in directions that I, at the time I wrote it, thought might be taking the graphic imagry up to levels that were too disturbing. However, the "test group" (AKA the subscribers) tell me that it''s no where near as disturbing to them as I imagined it might be.


    Well, one way or another, while I was writing this I decided to divide it into two parts and make the second part with the disturbing imagry such that it could be safely skipped by people who didn''t want to read about too much graphic descriptions of gore as I described the aftermath. It was apparently unneeded from what I''m told, but I still released them in two parts originally and combining them now would mean eating up an advanced chapter for the subscribers. So, I''m still releasing it in 2 parts here as well.


    Subscribers'' quote of the chapter


    "Oh the carnage! This is indeed a very bad fate. I don''t know if I still like this dryad or not..."


    -Lantisl


    "The dryad is trying to prove a point to old gramps ether and toughen him up a bit, awhile at the same time testing all the new knowledge gained from earth to learn if works on elves as much as earth humans. After all the info from earth has nothing about fey other than random folk lore."


    -Roy


    Yaaaay! Opposing opinions about Dryad! Mission complete!

 Book 2 Chapter 7 (part 2): The Faceless Woman

    Author''s note


    Hey everyone, I''m over my illness and managed to fight against writer''s block and burn out in order to get you a chapter without waiting an entire week. (seriously, I was getting a little scared it would go over a week. It was hard.)


    Anyway, this is the chapter I was concerned about having too much disturbing gory content, but was roundly assured the mere show of the gory aftermath here is tame compared to the emotional punch chapter 5 had. I guess that writing this kinda stuff just hits the writer harder than it does the reader. I was kinda disturbed writing it, so I guess I figured the reader would experience the same.


    Anyway, I will count the above paragraph as my content warning. Enjoy.


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Eirlathion, the millennium old village magus, was frightened to even leave his house. At the same time, he wanted to be as far away from this house as he possibly could. These conflicting thoughts were triggered by the same thing, the evidence of the evil that happened last night as he slept too cowardly to confront the very monster who instigated it.


    That monster was someone he had begun to regard as a friend, but this incident had reminded him of the warnings all the mages told about the tree spirits. Tree spirits will only aid the elves so long as it is mutually beneficial for them. They do not actually care about the elves. Some older nymph may care about a mage such as him if they have been living with them since their birth, just as he had, but for the most part they do not care at all and will soon stop once they gain power as a dryad.


    The tree spirits were the will of the forest, and they only tolerated those who lived under their branches. Actually, the very fact that Dryad still seemed to show they cared about him and the children may just be because they have barely been a dryad for a day. He wondered how long it would be until that stopped, and from what he had seen of their first actions as a dryad he was beginning to feel they would be in great danger staying around here.


    Eirlathion shook off these distracting thoughts. He was just stalling by entertaining them, and only upsetting himself more. He was going to have to go out eventually, and this would mean witnessing the results of the carnage of the night before. If he did not step forward now, the killing would continue.


    He looked up toward the open door at the end of the hall he was standing in. Dryad had long since opened the way for him, but he didn¡¯t want to look at what he knew he was going to see. Sure enough, just from the small limited view he had from here he could see what seemed to be a woman¡¯s torso, visible from just below her bust line down to her upper thighs, laying limp on the ground. This was not a huntress, but just a common civilian woman as evidenced by the lack of any of the fur armor. Instead she was covered in the long light greenish robes that were the fashion among the elves.


    He could see a hand, it was completely mangled. There was blood on the thumb that did not seem to be from an injury to the hand itself, and there was discoloration of a bruise on the back. Worst of all though was the angle it was at compared to the rest of the body. Arms were not supposed to bend that way.


    As Eirlathion continued to hesitate, the sound of wood groaning, the tell-tale sign of a tree spirit warping the shape of their tree, sounded up right next to his feet. He turned to see what was happening, and a thin wooden pole rose up in front of him until it reached his shoulder height. As soon as it stopped growing from the floor, it fell toward him, hitting him on the shoulder before his brain caught up and secured the item in order to prevent it from falling to the floor.


    He looked to Dryad¡¯s projection. They did not say a word, but the message between the eyes and the identity of the item they had just given him was clear. This was meant as a walking stick in order to secure his shaky knees. In other words, ¡®get a grip and just go.¡¯


    He knew he had to. Since Dryad¡¯s intention was obviously not to appear and break it up with their own words, that meant the job fell to him in order to break this up. Taking a breath in order to steady himself, Eirlathion pushed himself up off the wall and gave his new staff a few taps against the floor in order to get a feel for it. Well then, no more stalling. Now he was going to have to actually see the handiwork of the spirit he once thought his friend standing right next to him.


    Eirlathion squinted his eyes against the sun as he walked out into the open. He looked one way and then the other, keeping himself alert. Dryad had said that the two sides had not stopped fighting. Either side could easily mistake him for an enemy and attack. He was pretty sure Dryad would protect him in such a case, but he didn¡¯t want to take the risk. Besides, if Dryad could go to such an extreme, it might not be a good idea to count on their protection in the first place.


    The corpse of the woman he had seen from the entrance was at his feet now, and there were quite a few more in the immediate vicinity around the tree. This must be where the whole thing started. Having seen that there was nobody alive ready to present a threat, Eirlathion took a deep breath and steadied his nerves before looking down at the face of the woman at his feet. What he saw was¡­ unrecognizable.


    The face of the woman was literally bashed in, nothing but a mass of blood and bone fragments at the front of the head. For some reason, Eirlathion found his eyes focusing in on her hair. There was something about the contrast between the bloody soup of visible bone and teeth that somebody had made of her face and the hair that was only lightly tussled just a few inches above the gory sight that he just found¡­ haunting about the sight as it burned its way into his mind.


    Eirlathion leaned heavily on his staff and slid down it next to the woman¡¯s side. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± He croaked and lightly touched his finger tips to her forehead. He had no idea whether or not Dryad would have listened if he had taken action and tried to convince them, but he hadn¡¯t even tried. He was just.. a coward, too weak to face the reality of what was happening right out side. He had denied. He had told himself that something this horrible couldn¡¯t possibly happen here. But it was happening, right next to him as he tried to ignore it. How many of these could have been saved if he had just said something?


    No, that was the first thing Dryad had said when he woke up. ¡°Hmm¡­ I¡¯m disappointed master.¡± The words echoed and haunted him in his memory and connected with his current thoughts. Was Dryad¡­ actually WANTING him to step up and challenge them!? Does that mean¡­ they would have actually stopped if he had just spoken up? Eirlathion¡¯s stomach gave a churn and he felt sick with that thought. At the same time, rage built up inside him. Rage at himself, rage at Dryad, rage at these foolish people who were weak enough to start this repulsive barbarism out of just some emotions that Dryad had stirred up in them.


    Before he came out, he had been wondering about how he was going to go about this whole making peace between them thing. How he was going to approach them. Now, he didn¡¯t care about doing things carefully. He was going to end this, and he was going to end it now! He pulled himself up on his staff Dryad had given him with the anger he was feeling turned to a look of determination on his face, and then he let the emotions within him explode into his voice.


    ¡°I am the master magus Eirlathion of Cundo village! The dryad of the village has said that the need for the fighting is over! Both sides! Please! Withdraw your weapons!¡±


    Eirlathion considered going out and trying to find the hiding spots where one side or the other was hunkered down, but then he was quickly distracted as he looked down again as he realized he would have to watch his feet in order to avoid stepping on one of the many already trampled corpses. Several of them around were actually in far worse shape than the faceless woman at his feet now. At least, in her case, her chest and abdomen were still together and her arms and legs were not repeatedly crushed to the point of rupturing due to the skin being pierced by broken bones. Several of the other bodies around here really were in that kind of shape. Because of this, it was not just the bodies themselves he had to be cautious about, he also had to avoid stepping on some of the strewn entrails from a few of these unfortunate people.


    As he glanced around, Eirlathion noticed something even more disturbing. Bloody feet. It was not all of them, but a few of the broken corpses had blood on their shoes. They were completely covered. However, there was no obvious injury to the leg that low down to justify that level of blood. It was not all that hard to figure out what had happened. These people¡­ all this blood¡­ none of the carnage he was seeing around the foot of his house was caused by a weapon of any kind. People had done this to each other with nothing but their feet and hands. Stomping on their neighbors repeatedly until¡­ until THIS sort of thing happened.


    A new horror struck Eirlathion in that moment as the full implications struck him. He looked back to the faceless woman. Her body was not in the kind of shape these others were, but somebody had really gone to great lengths to stomp her face in. Who would actually do that sort of thing? The only answer was, it had to be someone who REALLY hated her. There was somebody in the village who wanted this woman dead, and hated her enough to target her face for all of the punishment they wanted to dish out.


    Eirlathion had been blaming Dryad for all of this. Dryad was definitely at fault, none of this would have happened without them, but there was also some real evil in some of the people living here as well. Whoever did this, they took the chaos of last night as an excuse to target this poor woman. It would have to have been near the beginning. It would have been before the two sides started just fighting one another, which means she was accused of being one of the people who were spreading rumors. Did she even do what she was accused of? It could have easily been that she was completely innocent and just caught up by the mob.


    For a moment, these thoughts almost made Eirlathion loose his nerve to save the ones who were still alive. This realization severely damaged his attachment to his own people. The only thing Dryad did was cut the chain that bound up the true evil of the elven nature that always existed under the surface. They had removed the inhibitions, and the true monsters that they really were had been released for one night, and this was the result. If that was the case, did they really need to be stopped from doing what they were already doing anyway? Would it even be possible? Would they turn on him next?


    That last thought made him pause and he remembered Dryad¡¯s words from just moments ago. Elves are no better than humans. He had been upset with Dryad when they had said it, but seeing this faceless woman made it a very real concept to him. If elves really were the same war-crazed monsters under the surface, he very well could be attacked by either side as he went to approach them to start the negotiations for peace. Everything was catching up to him. Something in the memories Dryad had obtained must have given them a lot of information in regards to situations exactly like this. And, right now, they were trying to teach him in the most brutal way possible what the true nature of people was.


    Could this be the reason Dryad had decided he should be the one to go and negotiate peace? Did Dryad WANT him to experience first hand being attacked by the very people he was trying to save!? He wouldn¡¯t put it past them. If that was the case, he was going to have to be a whole lot more careful. He also did not have the luxury of giving in to his dark thoughts and allowing them to finish each other off either. Calanor and his little group were still holding themselves up somewhere, and Dryad had said they rescued some children. At the very least, they needed to be gotten to safety.


    ¡°Dryad!¡± Eirlathion shouted back toward his house. ¡°Can you tell me what direction the survivors from Cundo are in?¡±


    Subscribers'' quote of the chapter


    "Eirlathion started to grow up to be a fay that can fight even the most horrible demons."


    -Lord Fufundra


    (Also known as "Fufufu" over here in the SH comments section.)

 Book 2 Chapter 8: The aftermath

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    It was far easier than expected to get the two sides to agree to stand down. In fact, the hardest thing about it was getting them to stop crying. The events over the night seem to have been so terrifying to them that these grown men, experienced hunters of the village, broke down in tears as soon as they heard that they would be able to stop. Some were angry at the deaths of their friends and family, but these few were quickly talked down by the rest in the group.


    This scene had repeated almost identically with each side feeling the same. The ones from the other village were a little harder to convince. Not only was he not from their village, but they also felt quite wronged saying that it was the people of this village who had attacked them. Ultimately though, rather than press the attack, the ones who were the most outraged among this group simply scaled the wall upon learning that they were no longer bound by Dryad¡¯s decree that no one could leave. After that, they simply ran off by themselves into the forest and did not look back.


    There were only six among those from the other village who stuck around. During the negotiation with them, someone had mentioned about their magus Sainel having run off and disappeared some time near the beginning of the chaos. When Eirlathion had told them he knew where she was, that she fled with Calanor to a corner of the village and walled themselves off, they said they wanted to meet up with her before leaving. He could see resentment from them toward him, the magus of this village that had done this to them and the one who lived in the tree of the very Dryad who set up this situation, but they still showed an outward appearance of respect as they filed in behind him to follow to where Calanor had fled together with the magus of their own village.


    He had already been told they had camouflaged themselves in a corner of the village behind a wall designed to look exactly like the outer walls. It was a pretty good plan, and from what he could tell of their voice he thought that Dryad actually sounded impressed over it. It was an easy matter to pass the camouflage wall they made. As the group approached, led by Eirlathion, the vines simply disentangled themselves and retreated under Dryad¡¯s command. A dryad could manipulate plant life within their territory as easily as an elf could move their finger. In other words, the only reason this protection of theirs was still up in the first place was simply because Dryad had allowed it.


    Several people within the protection of the vines jumped in a panic upon seeing their protective wall drop. Four hunters ran out in front of the group and were struggling to pull their bows from their backs as they eyed the approaching 7 with suspicion and fear.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± Eirlathion advised with a calmly raised hand. ¡°It¡¯s over. Dryad just¡­ released me. They sent me out to tell everyone still alive that they didn¡¯t have to fight anymore.¡± Eirlathion had an extremely bitter expression. His tone had been more forceful at first when he dealt with the people of Cundo who had started all this. After he saw the way they simply broke down and cried, his tone softened with the group from outside the village. Now, his tone was almost weak and closer to the true meaning of everything that happened, and the words tasted like acid in his mouth.


    Behind the four, Eirlathion saw a welcome aged face raising up to a sitting position on the ground. The entire group seemed to have been asleep until just moments ago. Eirlathion gave a nod to his friend, but his attention was quickly diverted to the sight of a familiar woman approaching him. A moment later, Sainel, the magus of the other village who he had become rather familiar with over the last few days, stood before him and gave a respectful nod.


    ¡°Master Eirlathion.¡± She says, not meeting his eyes. Despite the slightly awkward mood though, her voice seems to have a fair bit more confidence to it than his own. Well, unlike him who was too much of a coward to face the reality of what was happening, she had successfully lead 17 others to safety. ¡°So, how bad is it?¡± She asked, glancing around at the 6 hunters from her village who were standing in a group behind him.


    ¡°Not counting children, but including the people in your group, there are only 77 survivors.¡± Several faces in the former ¡°safe¡± area had dark expressions upon hearing this news. Eirlathion felt the same. With such an extremely small number, it was very unlikely any of the loved ones of the people in here were among those survivors. There were no tears in this group, no anger, not even any surprised expressions. For the entire group, the only expression was just shocked and grim silence.


    ¡°Well,¡± a voice that made everyone cringe came from the nearby tree as the projection of everyone¡¯s tormentor stepped out from it, ¡°now that everything has been settled and you lot know about what has happened, it¡¯s time we all had a little talk.¡±


    Everyone, even Eirlatihon by this point, turned to look in fear at Dryad¡¯s form. Eirlathion¡¯s fear may be slightly different from the others who very well may be fearing for their lives, but even he was terrified at what Dryad may have in mind for what they were going to do next. After everything he had seen, how the horrors of last night had affected these poor people, all the horrible loss of life, the very fact that Dryad could have instigated and condoned such a thing filled him with horror.


    ¡°Well then, I want you to all think about something. What were my exact words yesterday?¡± Dryad said, looking at them with a degree of expectation that baffled everyone. ¡°I will speak back my exact words as I said them. ¡®I would like for all of you to decide who is guilty and who is not while I¡¯m putting my attention toward more important matters.¡¯ I said nothing at all about dealing out a punishment or fighting a miniature civil war inside the village. So, why exactly did you go so far beyond what I was requiring of you?¡±


    ¡°Dryad!¡± Eirlathion spoke up with a dark growl to his tone. He was furious now, seeing that smug look on their face as they were preaching a lesson using his own rhetorical methods over such a horrible thing. ¡°You know exactly why this happened, don¡¯t you!? You instigated all of this!¡±


    Dryad did not even flinch at his tone. They merely turned to look and shake their head at him with a smirk. ¡°Oh, but master, you should know after getting a good look at those bodies next to the foot of your house. What did you think when you saw them? I was not the one who decided to bash and stomp those people until their chest cavities split and their faces were bashed in. It takes a special kind of viciousness to go to the extreme extent that those bodies were left in. I did not put that viciousness there, I merely took the lid off of it. The people of this village are the ones who did the rest.¡±


    ¡°That¡­¡± Eirlathion froze, trying to find something he could say to deny Dryad¡¯s words. He couldn¡¯t find anything. It¡¯s true. Even if Dryad¡¯s words were a direct order to start killing each other, they would not have gone anywhere near as far as to do what he saw. He couldn¡¯t deny it, but¡­ there was something that just seemed wrong about what Dryad was saying. He just didn¡¯t have the words to say what it was.


    Dryad had a satisfied look on their face at Eirlathion¡¯s lack of ability to find a response, and they looked out over the rest of the gathered crowd. ¡°Now, I will tell everyone here the same thing I told my master back in his house. Elves seem to have a habit of looking down on humans as a barbaric war-loving people. A people who will simply start killing and torturing one another for no real reason. Well, what do you call what just happened here last night? You disgusting elves think far too highly of yourselves. You are not better than humans, or anyone else. You are the same. The circumstances of your lives are the only thing that¡¯s any different. With the right incentive, anyone¡¯s most brutal and vicious tendencies can come out.¡±


    With these words, Dryad walked forward toward Sainel, smiled, and began reaching out their hand toward their cheek. Sainel jerked back when she saw this coming and looked back at Dryad with caution, and several of the hunters started to move in toward her side. They all were looking at Dryad¡¯s hand with fear. Eirlathion did not know what that was all about, but he could take a guess.


    Dryad withdrew their hand and had an expression that would look tender, but given their mocking attitude and expression from just before it was very hard to take their current expression as entirely sincere. Instead, it only seemed sinister. ¡°Ah, sorry, of course you are afraid.¡± Dryad said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I meant nothing by that. I just wanted to say, there were a small number of people who behaved very differently under the pressures of last nigh. A tense situation shows a person¡¯s true nature. A few of the people in this group were the few in the entire village who showed kindness and heroism instead of brutality and cruelty. That goes for the hunters here as well.


    Dryad¡¯s gaze lingered on the hunters standing in protective positions around Sainel, and then they smiled toward the ones standing farther back in front of the civilians. It seemed Dryad had a good opinion of them, but none of them seemed entirely happy about being on the receiving end of Dryad¡¯s positive evaluation. However, everyone seemed to become slightly more relaxed over this.


    ¡°You as well,¡± Dryad said, looking over toward the hunters who had followed Eirlathion. ¡°You fought only to protect yourselves and your townsmen, and after my master told you that the battle was over you felt the sense of duty to stick around and see to the safety of your village¡¯s magus. So far as I¡¯m concerned, every hunter standing in this corner of the village is worthy of praise. I hope you understand after all you¡¯ve seen, you are not the norm for your people.¡±


    Everyone was clearly quite confused. First Dryad was condemning their entire race, then they were calling them in particular the exception and praising them. The sudden shift was enough to leave the group feeling very uncomfortable. Deciding to take Dryad at their word though, Sainel seemed to become more bold and stepped forward with some confidence.


    ¡°Is that all you have to say?¡± She said, glaring at the greater tree spirit that had been the instigator behind this horrible incident.


    ¡°Oh? Well, it looks like you are a lot more bold than my master. Do you have something YOU want to say?¡± Dryad responded with an amused smirk.


    ¡°Well, for starters, what¡¯s going to happen to the rest of the people who are still alive in this village?¡±


    ¡°Well, I think they have gone well above and beyond what I would consider enough of a punishment for the matter with Aerien. Even those who are still alive have experienced the exact kind of fear she went through.¡±


    ¡°Most of them had nothing to do with what happened to her!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong.¡± Dryad challenged, staring harshly at the woman. ¡°You see, the rumors were correct. Aerien and Gaerien actually are grey elves. If my master had not taken them in, anyone in this village would have killed them and thought they were doing the right thing by doing it. Why do you think that is?¡±


    Saenel hesitated. She seemed to want to give an answer, but instead her face clouded with something that looked closer to shame. Instead of her answering, one of the men from among the hunters flanking her stepped forward.


    ¡°It¡¯s not like we want to kill some innocent children.¡± He says, ¡°we have to! If we don¡¯t, then the tainted elves will come and kill everyone. It¡¯s the only thing we can do in order to keep everyone safe.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Sainel interrupts him. ¡°I see what the dryad¡¯s trying to say. I never really tried to think all that hard about this, but they¡¯re right.¡±


    Dryad nodded with satisfaction at Sainel¡¯s admission, and then turned toward the man who had spoken in order to explain. ¡°The dark elves, tainted elves as you call them, absolutely hate all normal elves. They will slaughter everyone in a village just because the village is there. It is not like they have some power to find grey elves. They would kill everyone in any village they happen to come across whether there are grey elves being harbored there or not. The thought that grey elves attract the dark elves is nothing but a baseless superstition.¡±


    Sainel¡¯s face looked quite bad as Dryad finished thoroughly explaining the basis behind their real anger. ¡°So, are you saying you are holding our entire race accountable due to the fact that we hold this superstition?¡±


    ¡°Everyone from both of the two villages held that superstition. It is enough for me to implicate every person who was here and who is still alive in the guilt for what happened to Aerien. The children are innocent, that is why I protected them, but every adult who has ever held to the idea of killing grey elves or who has silently condoned it without protest was worth being targeted whether they were directly involved with what happened or not.¡±


    Thus, the dryad had made their decree. There was no real arguing with it either, the logic was sound. The issues of morality and proportionality could be made, you could say their methods were a completely inappropriate method to use in addressing this issue, but at the same time it could also still be argued that Dryad had not directly killed anyone other than the fey dragon.


    ¡°Well then, once again. What is going to happen to the other people in the village? I don¡¯t suppose you expect them to go back to living within the boundaries of your territory after what has happened here?¡± Sainel asks.


    ¡°You are correct,¡± Dryad responds. ¡°It would be difficult to think they would be able to stomach that. And, honestly, since Aerien and my master are both leaving, I really would be glad to see them go as well.¡±


    ¡°Very well then. I will invite them to come to our village. It seems our numbers have decreased, it would be helpful to get us back up to our full fighting strength for the days ahead of us. I will also make sure the word is spread that there is a dryad here who is hostile toward elves. Does that sound acceptable to you?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ You¡¯re every bit the leader I thought you were magus Sainel.¡± Dryad said with a grin. ¡°Bold, decisive, and dutiful. If only you were the type to have thought through the bit about grey elves, you would probably be the perfect picture of what a leader should be.¡± They gave a taunting grin and pointed their chin toward the woman. ¡°Very well. I approve of your offer completely.¡±


    2nd Arc: Capital


    Act 1: A Village in Chaos


    End


    Author''s note


    Well, the heart-pumping open to this arc is now finished. My pace is still probably going to be a bit slow, but this slowed and less structured pace has been working for me and putting on a lot less stress. I kinda liked the idea of having such a formal schedule, but I have to do what works for me and right now I''m not able to keep up that kinda thing.


    So, new plan. Rather than any kind of long hiatus, I might just stick to this informal schedule of "whenever it gets done" for a little while until I have recovered a little more. I do have the desire to go back on a formal schedule, but that''s just going to have to wait.


    Subscribers'' quote of the chapter


    "Ooh getting som yin yang shit going on with the two Magus."


    -meowingLexi


    "banishing all the people in the village a set up for dryad to run off after dropping those leech''s."


    -Roy


    "That was a good ending for the matter! Sainel is badass, talking back to Dryad like that. I wonder when will we meet Dryad next if Aeriel and co. goes on a trip now. I am sure this village will be an impregnable fortress with Dryad and the otherwordly knowledge they have!"


    -Lord Fufundra


    Yeah, I''m weak. I couldn''t choose which comment I liked best, so I chose them all. I would be doomed as a harem protagonist.


    Also, Fufu, It''s Aerien, not Aeriel!

 Intermission: Book 2 act 1 side story.

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    T¨²eth woke up in the children¡¯s bed. She had gone to sleep cradling her daughter¡¯s comatose body. She could hear the light breathing of the human children, snuggled in close to her chest, close to where Aerien was still being cradled in her arms.


    She had felt numb all of last night. She had gone down the stairs, taking Aerien along and allowing her human to follow on foot. Those tiny human children seemed rather mobile. She had heard that humans typically had a harder time walking than an elf child at the same stage of development, a counter balance for the fact that they developed so much faster. Since they grew so fast, they were unable to control their rapidly growing bodies as well as an elf child. However, this child moved every single bit as well as the elven 6 year old it looked like in terms of height and development.


    Thanks to this, T¨²eth thankfully did not have to worry about Aerien¡¯s human, and it followed along behind her dutifully. When she got downstairs to the children¡¯s room, she gathered both of the humans to either side of her and sat on the bed, ordering them to stay by her side and close to Aerien.


    Master Eirlathion had said her spirit was badly damaged. With her in this state, all she could do for her daughter would be to make sure she had plenty of spirit energy. If Aerien ran short, she really could loose her. That was why she couldn¡¯t let go of her daughter for even a second. When she could fade and vanish at any second, T¨²eth wanted to give her daughter the one thing she had never given her. The one thing she always craved and cried over when she refused it. All this child had wanted was simply to be with her mother, but that mother was always too frightened to give it.


    T¨²eth was numb over everything that had happened. She could only stare down at her daughter. Her mind flashed back to the horrible night that resulted in her conception. On that night, the entire village was lost. Everything she had known was lost. The people of this village were kind enough to help her, giving her what she needed to recover. They were overjoyed at the fact she was pregnant, but she knew that they could only be the children of one of the tainted men who violated her.


    These girls... they were nothing but a reminder of that horrible night. They were also grey elves, destined only to die once they were discovered. For these reasons, she had never allowed herself to become attached to them. Now, as she held her daughter, she wondered if maybe Aerien might not have had such a severe reaction if she had allowed her to experience her mother¡¯s warmth.


    She always cried out every single time T¨²eth entered the room. She did not know or care about the dark thoughts her mother harbored toward her. She cried out for this unfit mother for no reason other than the fact that she was her mother.


    As T¨²eth confirmed Aerien was still in her arms, she began to rest more easily. She had remained with them through the night. A part of T¨²eth, a dark part that disgusted her, wondered wither or not it would really be a bad thing if she had vanished. She clutched her daughter close to her chest as her body shook with that thought. This dark part of her had kept cropping up even last night as she stared at her comatose daughter limply laying in her arms. She found herself eyeing the weak child¡¯s neck on several occasions, and every time a cold shiver would run down her spine that she could even have such thoughts.


    A short time in, her other daughter, Gaerien, had crawled onto her lap with a face of apparent concern for her sister. This child was not even a year old, and she was already showing emotions like that. A normal child her age would not even be able to do anything other than sleep and occasionally cry. They wouldn¡¯t even be able to supplement themselves with solid food, so they required an incredible amount of spirit energy in order to remove their need for food. However, both these girls were able to move about and do so much more than a child their age should be capable of.


    T¨²eth had thought at first it was only Aerien that was so unusual, but it was starting to look like Gaerien only went unnoticed because she was the more quiet of the two. In this time of weakness, T¨²eth actually felt immensely greatful for her other daughter. Seeing her look with so much concern for her sister and going up to hold onto her hand, that heart melting moment was all that it took to banish those dark thoughts she was having from her mind. She couldn¡¯t possibly harm this child when she saw her sister looking at her like that.


    ¡°Gaerien, I¡¯m such a horrible mother.¡± She had said to her as she pulled the child in for a hug, holding the both of them, one in each arm, until finally Gaerien became restless and started trying to get away. It was only then she noticed how Gaerien had glared at her. Those eyes her daughter looked at her with. She was only an infant, but it was as though her eyes held a condemnation in them. It was like she knew all of her own mother¡¯s sins, and was judging her guilty for all of them.


    A moment later, tears started to fill her eyes and she began wailing loudly and flopping her legs and fists about on the mattress. This shocked her. Where was this sudden behavior coming from? T¨²eth tried to reach out for her loudly wailing daughter, but every time she reached her hand forward Gaerien directed a swinging arm right at her hand and batted it away.


    Before when it was just a look, T¨²eth was prepared to dismiss it as just her imagination. But, now that she clearly showed her hostility toward her mother, there was really no doubt. Gaerien was also really smart, just like Aerien. But, unlike Aerien who always cried whenever she wouldn¡¯t show them love, Gaerien seemed to really hate her. Well, it¡¯s not like she didn¡¯t have good reason. Could it have been different if she showed them love back when Aerien was begging for her? Maybe the reason Gaerien hated her now was because she kept turning her back on them.


    Yes, Master Eirlathion always talked about how frighteningly smart Aerien was. Well, there was no doubt about it now. Gaerien was also every single bit as terrifyingly smart, and now thanks to her mother¡¯s mistakes she was clearly going to also be every single bit as difficult to deal with as a result.


    -


    Gaerien¡¯s POV


    Honestly, how is it possible for everything to fall apart suddenly like this? Who sends an assassin in to attack an infant of all things!? Gaerien was shocked by the events that had happened recently. She was still reeling to catch up with it. And also, what are her divine powers for if she can¡¯t act? If that assassin had come after her instead of Aerien, she could have simply filled him with divine energy and destroyed his spirit. There would have been no need for any of this to have happened to Aerien.


    Now, THAT WOMAN was here and wouldn¡¯t let Aerien go. Gaerien never really understood why her sister was so attached to that woman, just because she was their mother in this life. Ever since Gaerien had first seen her she had hated her. No, it was even long before that.¡®It would have been better if those girls were dead.¡¯ That prayer was constantly reaching Gaerien¡¯s ears for almost her entire life up until this moment. And, the very second this woman walked into the room for the first time, Gaerien immediately recognized her energy. She had finally found the source of that prayer.


    She seemed to be riddled with guilt over her own past thoughts. Clearly she was weak of mind and of spirit. Gaerien almost derived some pleasure over how much the woman was torturing herself over her earlier transgressions of thought. Having been tortured for moths with an unseen source that wished for her death had caused her no end of mental anguish. She was unsure of what she would have done if it weren¡¯t for Aerien being there for her to talk to, and how she kept her mind occupied with all those exercises in order to ¡°improve her neural pathways.¡± The distraction this provided gave her a much needed reprieve from that malicious prayer and kept her from going crazy.


    Gaerien thought the torture would be over now and she could just enjoy the sound of her suffering thoughts. However, after this, she had to watch the younger side of her sister pining after this woman, and the weak coward ran from Aerien every single time no matter how hard she begged and cried. The kid was different from the Aerien she knew, but the kid was still a part of her sister. Really, it was almost like having two sisters in one, even though one of them was masculine in spirit. The point is, the kid was really torn up about being abandoned by her mother.


    Gaerien was never going to forgive this woman for abandoning them and wishing death on them. She was aware that she had her troubled past, Aerien had even figured out a part of it on her own without needing to be told anything. She didn¡¯t even know the half of how tortured this woman was though. However, none of that past mattered. She had a hard time? Well, how about the children she abandoned!?


    There were mothers on Earth who abandoned their children to the church to be raised as nuns or monks. Those were women who knew they couldn¡¯t care for their children, but still wanted them to have a chance to live. There were also mothers on Earth who abandoned their infant children in the wilderness or in trash heaps. Those were women worthy of contempt. Going by the thoughts this woman had, thoughts Gaerien had to be constantly subjected to for the entirety of this life, the only reason she had not abandoned them to the trash heap was because she gave birth in this village where the other people went to eagerly care for them.


    It had been all Gaerien could do to let this woman who wanted to call herself their mother NOW of all times to hold her. The only reason she did it was so that she could be in contact with Aerien, so that she could communicate with her and figure out what was going on. She was so glad the old man seemed to be perfectly fine. That side of her sister was not in any danger. However, it seemed the state the kid was in was pretty bad. She was being kept alive only by the constant attention and supervision provided by the old man.


    She had teased the old man when he said he was going to keep them together, but in truth she really couldn¡¯t have been happier. For one thing, she needed her sister in order to use the meditation she had decided to practice. She wouldn¡¯t be able to make any progress without her. So, there was definitely some self interest here. However, Aerien was also the only real source of companionship she had felt in this world. The boys from Earth were Ok at best, but they were just too young to be interesting.


    Aerien was not all that much older than the boys in her past life, but she was someone who had made a point to live a lot of life and fill themselves with experiences. In the short mortal life of 60 years, Aerien in her previous life had gained a level of wisdom that would easily allow her to verbally joust with the gods. If she were a few millennia older, no, if she could gain that much in just 60 years then she may only need a few centuries to gain the depth of experience necessary to be indistinguishable from the gods of the various pantheons before that one selfish god showed up.


    Yes, keeping them together would be ideal. It would be especially good if they could all be together in the fae queen¡¯s castle and away from that woman. She couldn¡¯t convince the kid before. Maybe now she might be able to convince the old man it was better to just cut that woman out of their lives. Now would be the perfect opportunity for it too. Once they are taken by the fae queen, it would be a matter of special effort to include that woman as well.


    Author''s note


    Yeah, I actually meant for THIS to be the last chapter of the village in chaos arc, but then when I finished it I realized it absolutely did not advance the plot at all and was completely necessary. I still put in the work though, so now I''m including it as a side story.


    (I guess this means the intermissions are side stories for this book. I will try and make the next side story a little more meaningful.)


    Subscribers'' quote of the chapter


    "No don''t abandon your mom! I mean yeah she''s troubled and was tempted to kill you but she never acted on it."


    -meowingLexi


    "I have faith in love! They will become a normal family in the future!"


    - Lord Fufundra


    "She needs to talk to Aerien and figure this out. I mean yeah death prayers aren''t healthy for anyone but leaving your mom behind when your sister said she wants a relationship is even worse."


    - meowingLexi

 Special Intermission : Introducing a fellow author

    I have decided to start something new that I think should improve the community here on Scribble Hub a lot if this catches on and more authors start doing this as well. At the end of every book, I will be giving a plug for another series that I truly enjoyed, but I do not think is gaining the attention it deserves. All of these are likely to be on my reading list, so you can find a lot of them there.


    You may notice this is not the end of the book, this is the end of act 1 of book 2. Well, I did not post one for book 1, so we will just call this one a late update of book 1¡¯s plug.


    Anyway, my story for today is called Tree of Aeons. This is a series that I think would be rated MUCH more highly and be making regular appearances on the top trending list if the artist would just put a freaking cover art up for it. It is very well written and the story is quite compelling and incredibly original.


    This one starts off like your typical Isekai story. It is a world that has a demon lord problem, so the gods summon some recently dead Earthlings and give them special powers to fight the demon lord. Well, here¡¯s the thing. The gods want teens and young adults to become their heroes. However, our MC dies as a middle aged man who just happened to be on the same bus as the teens who got summoned. So, the gods had him but they didn¡¯t want him. They had to find something to do with him, so they reincarnated him as a tree.


    Now, as a tree, he became the spirit inhabiting the tree and quickly gained a great deal of power. Turns out, he possesses the ability to retain the hero essences from any other hero who is killed. He accumulates this power, and quickly gains levels in classic lite RPG fashion. However, he¡¯s still a tree and has no ability to be mobile on his own.


    For a stationary object, he seems to attract a lot of trouble, especially as others discover the power and protections he can give, and soon the other heroes start interacting with him as well. Then, in the more recent chapters, it even gets into some civilization building as well as a Starcraft style tower building RTS kinda feel to it as he gains the ability to make ¡°subsidary trees¡± which are smaller trees that share his senses.


    It is an incredibly interesting example of taking an unusual concept and fully committing to it. It is a very good and interesting read. (I might also have to admit to a bit of personal bias because there are some things about the MC that make it so that I can¡¯t help but think of Dryad. Take that one as you may.)


    Anyway, I enjoyed it, and I would definitely suggest checking it out. (and telling the author to get a freaking cover.)


    EDIT: It seems the author of Tree of Aeons has gotten a cover since writing this, it seems one of his readers made it for him and donated it. He''s now doing very well and is constantly on the top trending list. Glad to see this series finally getting all the attention it deserves. I would like to take some of the credit, maybe 20% of it, but it is certain that the majority of his improved performance is due to 1. The fact he has a cover now, and 2. The increased exposure allowing more people to find this fantastic series.

 Book 2 Chapter 9: A rotten new start

    2nd Arc: Capital


    Act 2: To the capital


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Eirlathion rode at the head of a covered wagon, the very same wagon that the village used for bringing back human children from their raids. It was only used once every few years, but the construction was sturdy. Unlike a wagon a human might build, the body and the trestle, essentially everything but the moving wheels were made from a single piece of smooth wood. The wheels, wooden as well, glided freely under the influence of a permanent enchantment placed on them centuries ago when the wagon was first formed from the side of a lakira tree.


    In order to keep the wagon from degrading over time, the wood that made up the wagon was still alive. It was no longer a part of a tree, and therefore it no longer needed to be rooted to the ground or absorb sunlight. However, any spirit inhabited lakira tree could connect to it and treat it as part of its body, and in the process it would be supplied with fresh nutrients and moisture in order to keep it functioning exactly as it was when it was first made.


    Normally, the wagon would be pulled by 2 strong hunters. However, there would be no one else willing to journey to the capital with them. No, more specifically, nobody COULD go with them. There was simply too much risk involved, and anybody below the fifth tier had to stay away or else risk having their spirit corrupted by the excessive arcane energies that would be surrounding that battle ground. In this sense, Eirlathion himself only just barely made the cut.


    T¨²eth had her spirit enhanced by her exposure to the Heaven¡¯s Fall. The density and resilience of her spirit was, in fact, stronger than his own. She did not know how to purge arcane energies from her spirit, but she ought to be able to resist the effects long enough for him to get the chance to teach her. As for the children, their spirits were even stronger than hers. Since Dryad had revealed the true nature of the Heaven¡¯s Fall, pure spirit energy from another world, as well as the fact that the children¡¯s souls originally came from that world, it made perfect sense that their spirits would become this strong. It was doubtful as to whether or not they would ever face the threat of being corrupted, it would take some incredibly dense arcane energies to do so.


    As for how the wagon was being pulled, this was done by the newest addition to their group. The changeling Sagel, who took the form of a large Ox. He had worked together with Dryad to rig up a yoke which would not slip off easily but he could also get out of quickly with a minor shift of his form.


    They rode on in silence. Eirlathion was still shaken from discovering what had transpired over the night. Over half the village¡¯s population gone. Not by an enemy attack, they had turned on each other in a wild murderous rage, neighbor against neighbor, simply by a few words from Dryad. It wasn¡¯t even like they were instructed to kill each other. In fact, they had come up with that part completely on their own. However, Eirlathion could tell, Dryad knew this would be the result of their words.


    Eirlathion let out a heavy sigh and clutched his head, turning away from the view of the road ahead and the swinging tail of Sagel¡¯s Ox form. There was no coachman¡¯s seat either on this wagon, he had only been looking out because it was a better view than having to look at the state the children and T¨²eth had been reduced to. Aerien was in a coma, and that had affected everyone else in their own ways.


    Her mother, T¨²eth, was completely distraught. She had not let go of that child since the moment Eirlathion had finished his examination of her, and just about all she did was look at the child and cry. About the only time she would really do anything else would be if the boys tried to move away from her. She would pull them back to her sides and often yell at them, insisting that Aerien needed them every second of every day to be right next to her until she was cured. Gaerien seemed concerned as well, but she also seemed terrified of her mother. She was keeping her distance from everyone, sitting against one of the walls about half way up the wagon, slightly closer to the front than the back where her mother was seated with her sister and two... friends. Yes, because they were fellow people from another world, it was certain they would be a lot closer than the typical elf and human children even at this incredibly young age.


    Any way you cut it, it seemed a pretty miserable sight. It seemed completely unreal. The fate of a single 6 month old infant had destroyed an entire village, resulted in hundreds of deaths, and completely devastated those who were closest to her. And here he was expected to be the strength of this group running away from the aftermath of that disastrous incident.


    ¡°She kept calling for me.¡± T¨²eth murmured. This was something she would occasionally murmur. This woman was always so full of guilt over everything to do with these children. He could not understand the source of that guilt. He had thought at first it was her avoiding them because they reminded her of her trauma. Well, that was likely part of it still, but it seemed she actually blamed herself for something. All he could get out of her so far is the newest source of her guilt.


    ¡°All the time, every time I would...¡± She looked up at him. This was the real reason he had resolved to keep his attention forward all this time. This was the third time now she¡¯s gone off into this, as though to confess all her guilt to him.


    ¡°T¨²eth, it is not your fault any of this happened to Aerien.¡± He told her in as firm a voice as he could manage without sounding harsh. He had tried to be soothing before, but that only lead to her breaking down to a more extreme degree.


    ¡°NO!¡± She shouted. ¡°She wanted me! She wanted her mother, but... I kept turning my back on her. I ran away from her and she cried! If I had been there for her more she wouldn¡¯t have been so terrified when that man broke in!¡± Great, it had progressed to this point. She kept heaping more and more fault onto herself every time she had one of these breakdowns. Before it was just that she had neglected Aerien and upset her in the days leading up to such a horrible incident, now she seemed to be trying to give herself the entirety of the responsibility for the current state of things. It was a good thing he had kept it a secret from her what happened last night, he didn¡¯t even want to think of how bad this poor young woman would get if she knew about that.


    Eirlathion wanted to find a way to tell her it wasn¡¯t her fault, but right now with the running theory being that Aerien had gotten scared and worn out her spirit with an energy summoning spell it seemed like her logic was entirely reasonable. He could lie to her in some way, but that would only make things worse. If that was the case, he would have to show her why her current behavior was destructive. He looked over to the boys who were reeling in fear but also too terrified to risk backing away from her. He saw Gaerien shaking as she sat looking at the floor with all kinds of emotions working their way across a face likely too young to properly express them. That¡¯s the route he should go.


    ¡°T¨²eth¡± he said in a soothing but still very firm tone as he began to approach. ¡°You need to look at what you are doing. You are scaring Gaerien right now.¡± He reached to put a hand on the child¡¯s back. She immediately turned and smacked his hand away viciously and tripped as she tried to crawl away from him, then breaking down into tears. This behavior shocked Eirlathion as he stared at his rebuffed hand.


    ¡°Hmph! That child hates me.¡± T¨²eth bit back, sending a challenging gaze his way. ¡°You never seemed to notice, I didn¡¯t notice until just recently. That child¡¯s every bit as smart as Aerien. No, maybe she¡¯s even smarter. She can actually see exactly how much of a monster her mother is.¡±


    ¡°T¨²eth that¡¯s... stop that kind of talk!¡± This was not working out. He was starting to lose his patience with the entire situation. Right now, he had another thing to deal with. He wouldn¡¯t have thought much about it if he had thought Gaerien was a normal baby, but knowing she has a fully formed consciousness and memories of her previous life he could not ignore a reaction that strong to being touched. What was wrong with this girl? He had not told T¨²eth about the children¡¯s previous life memories either. He didn¡¯t think she could handle it yet, and that would also mean revealing to the children that he knew their secret. The latter could easily open up even more potential problems in such a tense situation.


    ¡°Why? That child knows. That¡¯s why she won¡¯t even let her mother touch her.¡± She bit back.


    ¡°She just smacked my hand away T¨²eth. I think you¡¯re thinking too much on this.¡± No, if this child had previous life memories, it¡¯s possible she really did hate her for abandoning them. In this case though, he would use T¨²eth¡¯s lack of knowledge on the true source of their ¡°advanced¡± intelligence to his advantage.


    ¡°Maybe she just mistook you for me for some reason.¡± T¨²eth bit back. This was definitely no way to talk to your master, but he was not about to call her on that. In her current self-destructive state, she very well might reject him as her master and refuse to be his apprentice any longer if he were to point that out.


    That¡¯s enough. He¡¯d made his decision. He could not allow the entire trip to proceed like this. It was clear enough T¨²eth and Gaerien were actively instigating one another to an extent. T¨²eth was being unreasonable, and nobody would normally think to actually reason with an infant who wasn¡¯t even a year old, but with her past life memories maybe he could just pull something off with her. He reached for her again, but every time his hands brushed against her she would direct an attack at his hand.


    She had a LOT of power for an infant. Every strike felt like he was hit by a rock. Was this really just the result of her spirit being strengthened from her old world? She would likely have the strength of a third rank hunter by the time she grew up if she had this kind of power already at her age, and that¡¯s assuming she doesn¡¯t actively cultivate in that direction in the future.


    It took some wrestling, but Eirlathion finally managed to get his hands wrapped around her torso. He had to grit his teeth against the blows when he held her to his chest. ¡°I¡¯m going to step outside so the both of you can calm down.¡± He told the mother, stepping past her and jumping from the back of the moving wagon. Despite being a mage, all elves will develop a first rank body by adulthood even without cultivating. As such, landing easily after jumping from a moving wagon was no issue for him at all.


    A moment after Eirlathion landed with Gaerien still kicking and screaming in his arms, the wagon came to a stop as Sagel had clearly heard and realized what was happening. He struggled to try and restrain this girl¡¯s feet. These kicks really hurt. Her body may even be rank one already as an infant. Now that Eirlathion knew about their souls being from a different world, he would certainly need to pay more attention to them from now on. Just what were the limits of their strength?


    By the time he got her restrained, Sagel was coming around the wagon in his natural form, having slipped out of the yoke he had made for his Ox form. ¡°Eirlathion, I understand the situation is pretty tense in there, but I do not think it is a good idea to stop here. This is rather close to the battle ground around the Heaven¡¯s Scar. Even if demons haven¡¯t escaped past the scar itself, the arcane energies are certain to have demonized some of the local plants or wild life.¡±


    Eirlathion glanced up at the changeling. He was probably correct in his logic, but there was something very important he was missing in this situation. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± he said, ¡°but they are starting to spiral out of control. If we don¡¯t settle this now then it¡¯s only going to get crazier later, and it will be when we are even closer to the Heaven¡¯s Scar. We don¡¯t need them getting like this while we¡¯re surrounded by demons.¡±


    Sagel glared at the child in his arms, and then back up at him. ¡°You know, this would be a lot easier if you would tell them what we know.¡± He said.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s exactly what I was planning on doing right now. T¨²eth is being rather unreasonable, but if Gaerien can be reasoned with then we might just be able to work something out.¡± Upon hearing Eirlathion¡¯s words, the noisy crying of the child in his arms calmed down, and her struggles against him ceased for a second before resuming in a far more determined nature. Instead of wildly writhing and struggling against him, now she was determinedly pushing against his chest in order to separate away from him. ¡°That said,¡± Eirlathion continued, ¡°is this sort of behavior natural?¡±


    ¡°Hmm... for a changeling it would be, but that would just be because we are pretending. I really don¡¯t have the faintest clue about their situation, it really is unprecedented. The boys¡¯ case is even stranger though, at least it¡¯s been known to happen with faeries among the fey.¡± After Sagel¡¯s response, Gaerien¡¯s arms went limp. She was still hiccuping and sobbing, but her physical struggles had just about disappeared. Seems she had pieced together enough from their conversation to realize what was being talked about.


    ¡°Anyway,¡± Sagel continued, ¡°at the very least you should have your staff handy. I will go get it for you while Gaerien is still settling down.¡± He walked back to the wagon with those words. He seemed so much more stern now than back at the village. Well, they were also in dangerous territory now, and he was likely a veteran of millennia of dangerous situations in the human lands. So, it was understandable to an extent. But still, he seemed like a completely different Sagel from yesterday when they were in the village still.


    The thing that really made this strange is that he hardly seemed affected when he learned of the atrocity that had occurred at the village while they all slept inside of Dryad¡¯s main body. He had fought the hardest for the villager¡¯s safety the night before, but then he took the deaths of hundreds of elves over the night like nothing had happened.


    ¡°Well, they¡¯re already dead. After having seen as much death as I have over my long life, you learn to be more concerned with those who are still living. There¡¯s nothing you can do about those who are dead.¡±


    These were the words he had said when he was asked about it. He had also added that, of course, they were people he had barely known for an hour. This reminded Eirlathion once again that just because he had lived a long life did not mean he had experienced a lot of life. His life had been mostly confined to the forest, with only a brief excursion out in his younger days during which he had decided to seed a section of abandoned human lands to expand the elve¡¯s forest land. Sagel quite clearly had one over him on experience, and quite likely on years as well. A changeling¡¯s lifespan was supposedly infinite. There was no telling how long Sagel had lived.


    Eirlathion directed an uncomfortable look toward the staff that Dryad had given him this morning as Sagel carried it to him. He was amazed when he was told about how powerful that thing he had thought to be just a walking stick when it was given to him really was.


    Apparently, Dryad had worked some feathers from the fey dragon Everon¡¯s severed wing, and blood and bones from his severed tail into the wood of the staff, but that only served to diversify the magic that could be channeled through it. The wood itself was apparently something that was even more significant on its own. As it was, it had become a magic medium that would allow him to cast spells without materials for all of the natural fey magic up through the sixth tier, and even beyond that if it was strictly for nature related spells.


    It was a real treasure for any elven spell caster, but he was disgusted by it. To him that staff represented all of the horror that had taken place last night, and it was given to him by a friend who had betrayed him. About the only reason he even took the thing was at Sagel¡¯s insistence and persuasion that they could not go into such a dangerous territory without a powerful weapon such as this.


    Sagel continued to hold the staff for him and Eirlathion sighed. At least he had the excuse of his arms being full with an uncooperative child to avoid having to touch the thing right now. This was fine, Sagel could keep holding it so long as nothing showed up. It only needed to be available just in case.


    Well then, time to completely change the nature of his relationship with this fussy child... or so he thought.


    ¡°Buut ah-me a¡®own!¡± It turned out, Gaerien was the one to speak first. She was still trying to calm her crying, but she was demanding something and it was pretty easy to guess what she wanted given the circumstances. ¡°Buuut eee a¡®oown!!¡± She demanded again, starting to struggle a bit more.


    ¡°I can¡¯t do that out here Gaerien.¡± He told her.


    ¡°Dat! Buut me a¡®own!¡± She started struggling again, pointing toward the wagon.


    Eirlathion looked over to Sagel with a questioning expression, only to get a shrug in return. Was Dryad really right about them having all their previous life memories? ¡°Well, sometimes you do get in the habit of acting like an infant when you go on with it for a while. They¡¯ve been like this for 6 months now, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Eirlathion responded. It didn¡¯t seem entirely like this should be accurate, but, maybe she had just been doing a bad job of acting since she didn¡¯t know the normal maturity rate for an elven infant? Her and Aerien were definitely acting advanced, but they did also act like infants as well. Perhaps this is accurate for a human infant at the same age. Several of his previous questions about how strange they were seemed to have reasonable answers now. However, that really did not help much in terms of how to handle this current situation.


    ¡°Look Gaerien, we need to talk to you first.¡±


    ¡°I ow. I hear-edyou. I ¡®on¡¯t like your hands on be. P-ut! Me! D-own!¡±


    Well, that¡¯s just great. Eirlathion had hoped Gaerien, who had always been the more calm and quiet of the two would be a lot more reasonable. Aerien had gotten confrontational, but at least she seemed somewhat cooperative. He had hoped Gaerien would be more of the same, except more calm. Perhaps it was more that she did not like people was the reason she was always so quiet.


    Well, this was probably good enough. If her thing was just that she didn¡¯t want to be touched, she might just be calm enough not to cause problems so long as they all kept their distance. He was about to turn and bring Gaerien back to the wagon just as she requested, but he stopped when he saw Sagel tense up. Gaerien seemed to notice the change in mood too, because she also stopped struggling as hard.


    Sagel slowly tilted Eirlathion¡¯s staff toward him. ¡°Sorry Gaerien.¡± He said, taking her from Eirlathion¡¯s arms without ever removing his eyes from the distance. Eirlathion accepted the staff in exchange for having Gaerien taken off his hands, and he began chanting a spell.


    Author''s Note


    This chapter was a serious challenge to write. I kept trying to think of a "leaving the village" scene, or a "preparing the wagon" scene, and none of them were turning out well at all. Finally, I just decided to time-skip over the whole thing and just refer to said events in retrospect. It has been... a surprisingly liberating experience.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Damnit Gaerien, your an adult act like it."


    -meowingLexi


    "fear dat baby puNCH!!! and the - 50 hp mage =P"


    -Roy


    "Tueth, Gaerien, get in the get-along-shirt!"


    -ExorcistJoker


    Yep, the subscribers comments have now officially become plural.

 Book 2 Chapter 10: Dire straits

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    -Might of the forest


    -Give my hand the great strength of


    -Your most anci...


    Eirlathion felt a sudden strange sensation as he only got that far in his chant. The energies of the spell had already fully formed. This was originally supposed to be a 4 line chant, including the trigger phrase, but it had somehow formed correctly before he had even started the third line. He could only think it must be the power of the staff in his hands.


    ¡°Hand of the woodlands!¡± He chanted the final line of the chant, having abandoned the now seemingly unnecessary one. Upon the completion of the spell, Eirlathion¡¯s right hand and arm began growing a bark-like substance over it, expanding his arm to over twice its original size, and his hand by three times. This was quite useful. If all his spells had their chants shortened as well, this staff really would serve as quite the effective weapon.


    He looked over his shoulder to see Sagel running back from the wagon, having apparently just dropped Gaerien off. ¡°What are we dealing with?¡± He asks the changeling who clearly had much sharper senses.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± the changeling¡¯s large pure black eyes of his natural form scanned the forest. ¡°There are a lot of them, and moving softly. Going by that information alone, I would say wolves. I cannot tell yet whether they are demonized or not. If they are not, they will likely leave us alone if we just make some noise. Otherwise, if we¡¯re dealing with dire wolves.¡±


    ¡°We should probably assume they are.¡± Eirlathion said. ¡°We are very close now to the path the great tree took to get to Heaven¡¯s Scar, and it¡¯s been nearly three weeks since then. It would not be strange at all to see entire wolf packs converted into dire wolves.¡±


    Eirlathion looked around with his wooden hand held out in front of him and his other hand holding the staff behind him as he trained his ears to hear what Sagel was hearing. ¡°So, what should we do?¡± Eirlathion asked. ¡°If I were alone, all I would have to do is go up a tree and I could take out the entire pack from a distance. When it comes to protecting the wagon though¡­¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I would normally say it would be best to just run, but we are going into a region where there will only be more demons the deeper in we go. If they catch wind of us and start giving chase, things could turn ugly quick if we happen to meet something else while we are fleeing.¡±


    ¡°Alright, you hang back and protect the wagon. What direction are they? I¡¯ll try and head them off before they can approach.¡± Upon being pointed in the right direction, Eirlathion marches off toward them.


    After getting around 20 paces out, and with the wagon still in sight, he hears them in the distance. They''ve gotten close.


    -Children of the forest¡­


    ¡°Pass woods.¡±


    Once again, the chant was shortened. It seemed every chant was shortened by at least one whole line. Well then, one more.


    -Spirits of the woods


    -Carry my steps like the wind


    ¡°woodland stride.¡±


    Now, with his pace quickened and even the toughest of terrain posing no hindrance for him, he takes off at a run in their direction.


    ¡°Awwoooooooo!¡±


    ¡°Teh!¡± Eirlathion lets out a disgusted sound. They¡¯ve heard him. That was definitely a hunting call just now. What¡¯s more, it was deep, not as sharp as a typical wolf¡¯s howl. No doubt, that was from a much larger dire wolf who had been transformed by arcane energies. He needed to keep running. He needed to build distance from the wagon before he encountered them.


    ¡°Grrrr..¡±


    He could hear them snarling now, and just a second after that warning he was able to see them. Suddenly the forest seemed to come to life with several large black forms of wolves that each stood as high at the shoulder as a man was tall. Beasts like these, if the wagon was not made of wood they would probably eat it whole. He could just imagine such a large creature jumping on a herd animal the size of the wagon if such a creature existed.


    The beasts were fanning out, encircling him. They had identified their prey and he was it. Well then, first he has to keep them interested. ¡°Haaaa!¡± He yells at them and then takes off running to the side. He has to get moving before they close that end in their encirclement. He may be able to take one or two of them on the ground, but there is no way he could take this many. There must be close to a dozen of them!


    One of the large wolves manages to make its way directly into his path. He didn¡¯t have time to fight this thing. By the time he could do anything, the ones behind him would be upon him and that would be it. Eirlathion reached out his wood-covered hand, and activated the spell he had cast earlier. His hand of the woodlands stretched out forward, grabbing onto the huge dire wolf¡¯s scruff. He took a good firm hold of the wolf¡¯s main, much to the creature¡¯s protest. It tried to bite at his wooden arm, but the bark that covered the skin was simply too tough.


    Next, the stretched arm began to retract. There was a brief moment of a tug-of-war between the two as the wolf realized what was going on and braced it¡¯s legs. Of course, four legs makes for a far sturdier purchase on the ground than just two, and eventually Eirlathion went flying off his feet as his body hurled toward the wolf. It was a very good thing the beast was distracted with trying to brace his feet against the ground. In the moment Eirlathion reached the creature, it didn¡¯t know what to make of the situation and he simply sailed over the large wolf¡¯s head.


    Eirlathion let go with his wooden hand and slid down the wolf¡¯s back and made a break for it. Now, after that little stunt, he definitely had the pack¡¯s attention. He had gotten close enough to touch them and gave them his scent, and then he turned his back and ran from them which showed himself as prey. There¡¯s no way the will be able to resist.


    With the effects of pass woods and woodland stride still in effect, Eirlathion was able to stay well ahead of the pack as he continued to lead them away from the wagon. ¡°This should be about far enough.¡± He said after running for a short time. It was a tough call to make between what would be a safe distance and what would have him running so far the wolves might become too discouraged to keep chasing him.


    As he decided he had achieved about the right distance, he located a tree with a branch at about the right height. More importantly though, it was one tree among many in the area completely covered over with ivy to a point the vines also spread all over across the ground, the triple point leaves making a carpet over the forest floor. He extended his hand of the woodlands once again and pulled himself up onto a branch about two and a half body lengths high.


    He prepared his staff and got ready to chant the next spell, only to find it already fully formed before he even said a single word.


    ¡°Engangle¡±


    All he had to say was the trigger phase and the roots of the vines on the trees and forest floor began coming to life and ensnaring all the wolves. That was quite the surprise. Perhaps this thing is even more effective with spells that closely align to a dryad¡¯s nature. Eirlathion surveyed the wolves below. He had not expected it to go anywhere near this easily. It seemed all of them had been caught quite easily in the trap, and if he was not mistaken all his spells seemed a lot more effective than usual.


    He had not really practiced much since he ranked up to the ability to cast fifth rank spells, that ought to strengthen his magic overall a little, but he could not imagine it was all just because of that. This staff really was amazing.


    ¡°Alright, well, time to finish them off I suppose.¡± He said as he took ahold of the branch overhead with his hand of the woodlands once again, and then lowered himself down. Now then, no sense in wasting additional spell power when he still has a spell active. He reached out to the nearest dire wolf with his wooden hand and extended it out until he grasped the beast¡¯s head in his palm. It struggled, but it was fruitless. The vines held it tightly to the ground, and his hand that was enhanced by a fourth rank spell was frankly too tough to be damaged by anything this wolf could possibly do, and too strong for it to possibly overpower.


    All Eirlathion had to do was close his hand, there was a sickeningly wet crunch, and it was all over.


    He looked at the bloody mess that had become of the wolf¡¯s head. He didn¡¯t want to look at his palm. The sight of blood and brain matter caused his mind to flash back to the sights that had greeted him when he left his house this morning. He thought back to that woman who¡¯s face had been bashed in.


    No, he couldn¡¯t allow this to affect him now. This spell had a time limit on it, and right now he was unsure of how long that time limit would be. All he knew for sure is that it would be longer than before, but it was certainly not infinite. These were not his neighbors, they were forest beasts, and demonized ones at that.


    The sound of frustrated growls and rustling leaves as the dire wolves struggled against the vines filled the area, acting as a reminder that he was still surrounded by active threats. Eirlathion shook his head and reached out for another one, closed his hand, and¡­ crunch. He breathed deeply to hold down his bile and put the third one in his sights. He was still far from finished.


    ¡°Ok, you can do this Eirlathion.¡± He reached out for the next one, crunch. That¡¯s three. He stiffened his shoulders and neck muscles in order to try and suppress the tingling it sent up his spine and into the base of his skull. ¡°Come on, I¡¯ve done this before! What¡¯s different now! Nothing has changed!¡± He reached out to the fourth and closed his hand so hard the wolf¡¯s head was ripped from its body before he had time to crush it.


    He dropped the head, breathing hard now, and looked around. He wasn¡¯t even half way done yet. ¡°Arrg! Just do it!¡± He started running toward the next one, standing right over it as he closed his hand over it¡¯s head. Crunch. He reached and extended his arm toward the sixth. Crunch. Another one was right next to that one, all it took was a slight movement of his hand to get it. Crunch.


    Eirlathion was breathing hard now. ¡°No, I can¡¯t stop!¡± He had extended past his original time limit for the spell already. He was in the untested danger zone now. It could end at any time and he would not even have the slightest warning. As a fourth tier spell, his hand of the woodlands should still have quite a bit of time left on it. Entangle, however, was only a second tier. It could be over any second, and he still had at least four more to go.


    He momentarily considered going back up the tree, but that would mean he would have to use more spells and they very well might have another demon encounter later today. He needed to save his magic. No, it would be far better to just finish this as quickly as possible.


    He extended his hand toward the eighth dire wolf. He had already taken care of all the ones close to the base of the tree. Now it was only the more distant ones. He had finally grown somewhat numb to that crunch. They were all in very spread out locations now, so it took a little time for him to re-orient himself to the next one. Crunch.


    He could see two more, but he was hearing growling coming from other directions than just the two of them. This is not good. Ok, gotta move. Reaching out to number ten. Crunch. Elevin. Oh no! As soon as he laid eyes on the eleventh wolf, he saw something was different. The vines had gone slack. Before, as the spell was still active, every time the wolves tried to struggle the powerful vines would compensate and re-adjust themselves automatically to keep them restrained. Now, however, they were just lying there over the wolf, and finally its struggles were proving effective.


    Eirlathion reached out toward the eleventh wolf and finished it off just like all the others. He still heard growling from more than one source nearby. He had to locate the next one quickly. Using ivy to bind them had its disadvantages, and they were showing now. The leaf cover was just too dense, and the mounds of the ensnared wolves all blended in with the ivy covered ground beneath them. He followed the sound and found a place where the leaves were shifting. He reached forward, and the large black form finally managed to struggle free before he could reach it.


    ¡°Teh!¡± Eirlathion hissed as he withdrew his hand of the woodlands and prepared for the fight. He heard another sound of rustling leaves and saw the dark form of a second wolf circling behind him. He was staying alert for a possible third, but this might be it. He really HOPED this was it. He glanced between the one in front of him and the one circling behind.


    ¡®Come on!¡¯ Eirlathion cursed at these wolves in his mind. ¡®Any normal wolves would have run off scared once someone kills over half your pack.¡¯


    ¡°Heh, you demonized beasts sure are persistent!¡± He added aloud to them as he weighed his options. He could see no trees close to the one behind him, and he had a trick that thing was definitely not expecting. He extended his wooden hand straight out to his side, and then swung it in a wide arc around behind him. Eventually, he heard a low thud followed by a loud yipe, and then the dark silhouette behind him went flying off to his left. This was when the one in front of him chose to attack.


    Eirlathion was still withdrawing his extended wooden hand when the gigantic K-9 pounced on him. His strength was useless before such sheer overwhelming size and weight. He was immediately pinned to the ground as the large wolf attempted to bite at his throat. Eirlathion raised his staff to block the bite, but its teeth still scraped across Eirlathion¡¯s chin as the head was pushed aside.


    ¡°Gah!¡± He yelled in shock and fear at how frighteningly close that had just come. As bad as it looked here, that maneuver had provided him just the time he needed to fully withdraw his wooden hand and raise it to protect himself. The wolf immediately bit into the wooden wrist, and Eirlathion grinned as he managed to catch his breath even with this huge beast on top of him.


    ¡°That was a bad move.¡± He said, bracing his back against the ground as he extended his arm straight up, the sheer force of the extending arm pushed the monster up and off of him. The wolf was now on its side, its lower half still pinned Eirlathion¡¯s legs to the ground. He grabbed the beast by the scruff of the neck and lifted. He quickly got to his feet and began swinging the beast around, and he soon found himself letting out a yell as he bashed the gigantic wolf against a tree, and then against the ground.


    He took a few more deep breaths, and then used his hand still holding the large creature to pull himself to his feet. His shoulder still hurt from the monster¡¯s weight on top of him, and his back hurt from landing badly on a particularly large ivy vine. He looked up to the large wolf. It was still stirring and struggling to move. It was broken, but it was still alive. He still had to finish it. His hand moved down the slope of the beast¡¯s neck down to it¡¯s head, and then gave it the same end as all the ones before it.


    Eirlation breathed a deep sigh. There should still be at least the one more, but he still couldn¡¯t be sure that was it. He kept looking around and over his shoulder as he approached the direction he thought he saw the last one fly off. By the time he found it, it was also quite injured. Not to the extent of the other one he had just finished off, but it was struggling to get back to its feet as it looked toward him with hatred, baring its fangs and snarling at him.


    He never moved his eyes from the monstrous wolf. He just stared straight back at it as he approached and considered his options of attack. Suddenly, he found himself having to make decisions rather quickly as the beast seemed to find the strength to lunge at him. He quickly extended his wooden hand and bashed it to the side with a merciless back-hand. It did not fly as far as it had before, but it did not change the fact that it had received a devastating blow.


    Eirlathion extended his hand again and then brought it down, smashing into the wolf¡¯s back and electing a loud yipe. He took the monster by the scruff and lifted it up and then threw it back down. Well, if it¡¯s not dead now then all the fight has left it. With one more crunch, the job was done.


    Eirlathion withdrew his hand, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He listened carefully for any additional signs of creatures moving among the brush or any more snarls of angry dire wolves. The forest was silent, as it always is following such an incident of violence. The birds and small prey animals would all have run away and hidden themselves. There was nothing to disturb him but the sound of his own racing heart which he was trying to get under control.


    He couldn¡¯t hear anything else. Was that really it then? No, he knew he couldn¡¯t let his guard down until he was back in the wagon and on the move. Even then it was probably not a good idea to become complacent, but he also trusted Sagel¡¯s senses and intuition a lot better than his own. As soon as he heard from Sagel that there was no more enemy, only then would he be able to relax.


    Subscribers quote of the chapter


    "old grandpa ether got some epic grip power"


    -Roy


    Yeah, yeah, that was really it for the chapter. There were more comments, but they all actually referenced an announcement I had made to the subscribers. (Actually in regards to the fact that the first 7 or so paragraphs would be moved from this chapter to the previous chapter on the Scribble Hub release. That happened already BTW, you are seeing it in a more cleaned up form from what the subscribers did.


    More important Author''s Note.


    I have heard and understand a lot of the frustration with calling the gender neutral Dryad and other tree spirits with the singular "they" for the sake of gender neutral references. Well, last chapter, a new face going by Daitengu who seems to have far better wordsmithing skills than I do proposed a new idea for a proper gender neutral pronoun.


    I have avoided the use of the made up gender pronouns currently favored like "Xi" and "Zer" mainly because they just do not feel right when you say them. I think most of the reason for this is because of the fact they use letters with a scrabble letter score higher than 10. I see why they did that. An effective pronoun needs to be a single syllable long, and it''s very hard to come up with a single syllable word that''s not already taken and doesn''t intersect with something already taken, while also following the same conventions as "he" and "she," and also fitting well with the possessive and identifying conjugations like "his" and "hers."


    Well, we got into a pretty long conversation during which Daitengu proposed "Phi" or "Phe" (both pronounced "fee") We settled on "phi," with the conjugations being "pheir" and "pheirs." So, I wanted to throw this out to everyone in order to get some additional feedback before I decide whether or not to implement this. I will include a poll below, and encourage discussion if you want to give additional input.

 Book 2 Chapter 11: Finding the right path.

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    The trip back to the wagon was relatively quick. The idea of an elf his age becoming disoriented just from a little run around in the deep woods was absurd, and the effects of his movement spells stayed in effect far longer than combat based ones. He might as well have arrived at the wagon the second he started moving.


    He could hear his own ragged breath as the white ribbed linen cloth covering the wagon came into view, and he caught Sagel¡¯s attention immediately. The changeling had a deep frown on his face as he approached, much to Eirlathion¡¯s confusion.


    ¡°Hmm.. Ok, that looked worse from a distance.¡± Sagel said, breathing a sigh of relief.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Eirlathion looked behind him for a second to see if he had been looking at anything in particular, and then when he saw nothing he realized exactly what it probably was that had gotten the changeling¡¯s attention. He looked down at his still wooden hand and dismissed the spell. At this point, if something were to show up, Sagel could likely take care of it easily.


    The gore and grime from the crushed wolf skulls fell to the ground as he flicked his wrist in time with the spell¡¯s dismissal, along with some of the bark exoskeleton before it faded into particles of unspent mana and small amounts of arcane energy waste. This left his hand completely clean, at least until he used it to rub his chin where the wolf¡¯s tooth had caught him.


    Eirlathion let out a hiss as he felt his finger run over his wound, and when he looked it was covered with his own blood. ¡°Eh-heh, I guess I messed up a little.¡± He said. ¡°I must look like a bit of a mess.¡±


    ¡°Well, the injury itself does not look bad, it¡¯s just bleeding a lot. You might want to clean yourself up a little before going in the wagon or else you¡¯ll scare everyone. Hmm¡­ that could pose a problem though. I don¡¯t think we brought along any spare linen to use as a rag.¡±


    Sagel seems to think for a moment, and then he transforms into, of all things, a wolf. Not one of the dire wolves like the ones he had just fought, but a wolf none the less. ¡°I am told the wolves'' saliva has some very weak healing properties. I will clean your wound.¡± Sagel somehow talks even in his animal form. The voice has changed to be low and gruff, but it is still perfectly understandable and he can hear it without Sagel even needing to do much more than open his mouth and keep it open for a while.


    It must be some strange trick of the changelings to talk in any form they become. He decided not to be bothered thinking about it too hard, and he obediently knelt down. It was a little strange allowing a wolf to approach his neck like this after having just fought for his life against an entire pack of dire wolves, and he could feel his heart rate instinctively quicken as he was approached, but he had to remind himself this was Sagel under that fur. He was not going to be trying to bite his neck out.


    Eirlathion shivered as the wet wolf tongue passed over the skin of his neck, and then hissed in pain as it licked the cut on his chin. He noticed the curious eyes of T¨²eth peering out from around the edge of the linen canopy. ¡°What model of healing magic do you use?¡± Sagel asked after he had finished cleaning Eirlathion of his own blood.


    ¡°Well, I use enchanted berries.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... that¡¯s good.¡± Sagel begins, half way through his transformation. ¡°If I remember correctly, that magic disperses the spell across a large number of berries. It won¡¯t go to waste to use it even on such a small injury. Do you have any berries appropriate for the spell available?¡± Eirlathion, unfortunately, could only respond to that by shaking his head. ¡°I see, that¡¯s a shame. I will keep an eye out as we continue. In the meantime, I suggest you study that book your dryad wrote for you last night. I understand there was a permanent enhancement spell in there that could allow you to heal from sunlight. They specifically told me about that one when I asked about it. Said I should probably make sure you hear about it because that¡¯s only one of the benefits it offers.¡±


    ¡°What!? Really? How is that even possible!?¡± Eirlathion demanded in surprise.


    ¡°You haven¡¯t even looked in the book, have you?¡±


    ¡°Well..¡±


    ¡°Look, I understand you have your moral issues about accepting things that dryad gave you after everything that¡¯s happened, but we really are going into some very dangerous territory right now. You have a serious weapon in this staff right here, but the spells and magical knowledge in that book can probably change the world. You would be a real idiot not to make use of it.¡±


    Eirlathion sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right. I need to be focused on right now a lot more. Ha. This staff, it¡¯s even more amazing than you know. Dryad only told us half the story in regards to what this thing could do. I found that out just now as I was using it.¡±


    ¡°Oh? You found something good about it?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it shortens spell chants by an entire line.¡±


    ¡°Oh-ho! That IS interesting. And, how many lines are your spell chants?¡±


    ¡°Well, with the exception of hand of the woodlands, I use the full one line per spell rank plus the trigger phrase. I¡¯ve been using my magic in a village up until this point.¡±


    ¡°I see. Well, there''s nobody with a weak spirit around anymore, and we are going into an area that already has high arcane energies anyway. You should honestly consider shortening those chants.¡±


    ¡°Hah,¡± Eirlathion sighed. ¡°I guess my whole world really has changed now.¡±


    ¡°Haha! You¡¯re pretty soft Eirlathion, but don¡¯t worry. It seems like you¡¯ve got enough life still in you to afford you the opportunity to turn that around.¡± The changeling gave him a hearty clap on the back and went toward the front of the wagon.


    Eirlathion sighed and climbed into the back, stepping past T¨²eth and considering his original reason for getting out of the wagon in the first place. A realization struck him. Sagel had said he was soft. Well, he wasn¡¯t wrong. He had only ever left the forest for a brief amount of time when he was young, and that was only to aid the forest in claiming a piece of land abandoned by the humans. Compared to Sagel who had lived out in the human lands, Eirlathion¡¯s thousand years might as well only be a hundred. There is an entire world of difference between experiencing a safe life and experiencing a life like Sagel had in terms of the sharpness of wisdom it will give you.


    Even with that being the case though, Eirlathion was disgusted with himself for how he had been in the last 24 hours. When a real crisis hit, he was useless. Dryad had implied that if he had stood up to them and called them out, they might have been persuaded to use their powers to stop the fighting of last night.


    Perhaps that was why he couldn¡¯t bring himself to look at Dryad¡¯s book. They had instigated that whole mess, and then cruelly tried to make him share in some of the blame by playing some little game. He was still too weak to step forward, he had still hidden from the truth until it was thrust right in front of his face, but he could have possibly saved some people if he had played Dryad¡¯s unspoken game.


    Perhaps he felt some guilt over that weakness. That was why he had a hard time just using the tools he had received, regardless of the source. Shame and guilt had been holding him back. That same shame and guilt had kept him from speaking his mind to Dryad later, a role that was taken up by Sainel later when she showed such strong leadership.


    Eirlathion shook his head in disgust at himself for having been so weak. It was completely unbecoming of his 1,000 years and role as the founder and magus of a village. It was no wonder T¨²eth had descended into such a state. It was his job to rescue his apprentice from themselves when they descended into a state like this, and he had failed her as well.


    He had hoped for an easy fix by going to Gaerien before. He was counting on her previous life intelligence making things easier, but that whole thing fell right on its face. He wasn¡¯t going to get an easy solution. He was going to have to do his duty and tackle this issue head on. He could study Dryad¡¯s stupid book after he finished fulfilling his obligations as this vulnerable young woman¡¯s master.


    He set his staff down and then approached T¨²eth. She seemed to have calmed down since he last saw her. This was good. There is no better time than now, and the sooner he gets her straightened out the better. There might not be time after they descend deeper into demon territory. He had to steady himself as he felt the wagon start to move. It seemed Sagel had gotten himself yoked up and back in his Ox form, and now they were moving again. Well, whatever. Whether they were moving or not did not matter for this.


    Eirlathion let out a sigh and strengthened his nerves for what was to come. ¡°Rolwen, could you please move aside for a moment?¡± He said, kneeling down near the boy and looking him in the eye.


    ¡°What!? Master! What about...¡±


    ¡°It will be fine T¨²eth, this will only be a moment.¡± He said, cutting the woman off. ¡°Well then, Rolwen?¡± At this second prompting, Rolwen quickly separated himself from T¨²eth¡¯s side, looking a little glad to be away from her. It was pretty clear the woman had been terrorizing these children ever since she brought Aerien back in this state. It¡¯s a real shame. They would probably be quite ready, willing, and happy to make certain Aerien was safe. It was T¨²eth¡¯s insistence on holding Aerien and forcing them to be by her side that had put them in such a state.


    Now then, time to begin. ¡°T¨²eth, can you let me see Aerien for a moment?¡± She seemed reluctant, but she trusted him enough to loosen her grip on the comatose child she was holding to her chest and allow him to pick the baby up and place her in his own lap. This had to be done first. There was no way she would allow him to do this after the conversation they were about to have started.


    ¡°Levin, come on over here.¡± He said. Levin eagerly scampered over T¨²eth¡¯s legs and ran around to Eirlathion¡¯s opposite side. At this point, Eirlathion held Aerien¡¯s limp body up and realized something that shocked him. That could wait for later though. Drawing attention to it now would make his conversation with T¨²eth impossible.


    ¡°Here, how about you head over and sit next to Gaerien.¡± He said, standing up with Aerien in his arms. Rolwen was quick to follow, and the two boys received Aerien as he laid her down in their laps. Eirlathion looked over to Gaerien at this point and confirmed his suspicion again. He shook his head. It looked like this was going to warrant further attention after he was done with T¨²eth. For now though, he was sure Gaerien would be glad to have the opportunity to be close to her sister again after not being able to get close to her erratically behaving mother who was holding Aerien all this time.


    Now then, all the obstacles are out of the way. Time to go back to T¨²eth. ¡°It is probably better for Aerien to be in the boy¡¯s laps instead of yours.¡± He says. ¡°It is probably better for you as well.¡±


    ¡°Wh-what do you mean?¡± T¨²eth responds.


    ¡°I mean that you are beating yourself up way too much over what happened to Aerien. You have been obsessively holding her ever since she went into that state. You are also terrifying those boys. They care a lot about the girls and would gladly stay with Aerien every second in order to make sure she¡¯s Ok on their own, but you yelling at them every time they just try to move around a little has made them resent it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s...¡± T¨²eth looked like she wanted to object to something but then thought better of it. It was probably something to do with how he was talking about Rolwen and Levin.


    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re not going to go down that road right now T¨²eth. For now, we are focusing on you. Right now, we are about to go into an area where there is going to be a lot of demons. I don¡¯t expect you to fight or anything, but I¡¯m going to need you fully alert. I¡¯m about to tell you something that is going to shock you. I didn¡¯t want you to find out about this, but right now I think it might just be the best thing to get you out of the state you are in right now.¡±


    Eirlathion sighed again as he allowed his mind to sink back into his own problems. ¡°Last night, after the incident with Aerien, Dryad... well. I don¡¯t know exactly what they said, but they said something to the villagers that triggered a darkness inside of them to wake up, and they began fighting each other. I know Dryad did it on purpose, knowing what was going to happen. Over 75% of the people in the village died at the hands of one another.¡±


    ¡°What!? No! And, they did this because of Aerien!?¡±


    ¡°It does not matter why they did it T¨²eth, all that matters is the fact that they did it. That¡¯s not all either. Dryad tried to come up with a way to make me share in the blame for it. Tried to say that, if I had confronted them, they would have stopped it. It didn¡¯t occur to me at the time, but I¡¯m realizing now exactly how twisted Dryad¡¯s words and actions really were. I had made the mistake of thinking up until now that Dryad, or rather, Nymph was my friend. I forgot one of the most essential rules about tree spirits. Tree spirits are not the friends of the elves. We only live in a symbiotic relationship, and they are glad to accept our mana. However, when it comes right down to it, the tree spirits actually do not care about us at all. We are only a source of nourishment to them.¡±


    ¡°M... master, I..¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t T¨²eth. It¡¯s Ok. This was not my point. The point is, just like you, I have plenty of reasons to feel sory for myself. I should be in the exact same kind of state you are. Do you know why I¡¯m not? It is because I do not have the time or the luxury to feel sorry for myself and beat myself up. I am way too busy taking care of you and the children, and I also have to be thinking about how to help Sagel fend off the demons who will be attacking us more and more frequently as we get closer to the capital. I just can¡¯t afford to feel sorry for myself, and right now you can¡¯t either.¡±


    Eirlathion stared intensely into T¨²eth¡¯s eyes as he drove his points in. She seemed to be shaken by his words, but he would need more to clarify his point. ¡°You are not ready for combat, but if you are paralyzed with fear and uncertainty as we are trying to deal with the demons then it really could be the difference between life and death. If you are keeping watch out the back of the wagon, you might be able to spot something before it can attack. If you are ready to act at a moment¡¯s notice, you can move the children someplace safe in case the wagon gets attacked. You being alert and able increases our chances of survival T¨²eth, we simply cannot have you making yourself weak by telling yourself a bunch of harmful things.¡±


    ¡°O... Ok, I understand.¡±


    Eirlathion sighed. This whole confrontation had taken a lot out of him emotionally. He was glad it seemed to have all worked out though.


    ¡°Uhh... just one question though.¡± T¨²eth said.


    ¡°Yeah? What¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°Uhh... you said ¡®the boys¡¯ when you were talking about the humans?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡±


    ¡°Well, uhh... isn¡¯t one of them named Rolwen?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a human name T¨²eth, don¡¯t expect them to follow the same rules as ours. I was around when they were young enough to need their diapers changed. I can tell you for certain Rolwen is a boy.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Ok. That¡¯s¡­ kinda weird.¡±


    Subscribers quotes of the chapter.


    "Hahaha our names are stupid."


    -meowingLexi


    "I noticed only after I came up with Rolwen''s name that "wen" was a suffex in the Elven language for a female name. Instead of fixing it, I decided to keep it and spring it sometime later, just like this."


    -Jemini


    "grandpa became a manly man flicks blood and brains away like a boss."


    -Roy


    What do you mean I''m not  a subscriber!? What do you MEAN I should have put my quote as an author''s note!?

 Book 2 Chapter 12: Levin’s bad day.

    Levin¡¯s POV


    This had been a terrible day. A terrible couple of days. Levin had been having a hard time adjusting to his new status as a baby. He also found it strange being a boy now, but strangely that was the easier of the two changes to accept. He would never have thought that, but being a baby was really hard, so suddenly being a boy was really not much in comparison. Aerien kept assuring him he would get used to it ever since he revealed he was originally a girl in his last life, and, well¡­ she was right.


    It turned out, Aerien was actually a boy in her last life as well. She was much much older, so a man would be the more appropriate term, maybe even an old man, but there was something about her also changing genders like him that made him feel so much closer to her than either of the others.


    He felt comfortable with Aerien, but also, kinda intimidated. She always knew so much, but she was always using what she knew in order to help them ever since she revealed that she and her sister were also from Earth. It turned out these twin elf girls him and Rolwen were put in charge of were just the welcome faces they needed in this strange world.


    Aerien always had them playing some weird finger game she said was to improve coordination. It was frustrating how hard it actually was to do this little game, she said it was because our brains were not developed right in these small bodies and this would speed it up. Him and Rolwen were getting better at it too. Aerien said it was because their neurons were growing. Just doing the exercise and then resting afterward would make their nerves grow very fast, and during the time they rested they would find they had improved a lot.


    These exercises helped a lot. After only a week, him and Rolwen were both able to move in their baby bodies a lot more easily. Then, one day, after Aerien had taught them all their exercises, Aerien¡¯s sister Gaerien talked about something called cultivation. It was very strange, but the thing that surprised Levin even more about it was the fact that Rolwen seemed to know about it. He said he read about it in some kind of internet book he called a web novel. He said some weird stuff about it, but then Gaerien made it so it made a bit more sense.


    Basically, like our exercises to grow our nerves, cultivation was a kind of exercise that grew your spirit. This was a world with elves and magic, and apparently growing your spirit with this cultivation thing was how you got better at magic.


    This was strange, but it made sense. The really strange thing though was finding out Aerien, the one he had come to rely on so much more, apparently had some kind of split personality thing or something where her other personality was an actual baby who started appearing only after she was reborn in this life. That was weird, it almost sounded like her second life was different from ours, maybe... Levin didn¡¯t know about how this whole reincarnation thing worked, but maybe unlike them Aerien¡¯s body already had a spirit when her previous life spirit went into this body? That was the theory Levin was going with anyway.


    Well, after telling us all about this cultivation stuff, that was when Levin found out about Aerien¡¯s baby personality. Gaerien said the old man personality had to do some important work inside her spirit and the baby personality would be in control of her body until then. The baby personality was actually older than her body somehow, apparently she had matured quickly because of the old man personality. She could talk, and she was a lot like a toddler. Since the older Aerien personality had already trained her body, she was also able to move like a toddler, so the comparison fit pretty well.


    She was adorable like this, but it still made Levin feel kinda depressed he didn¡¯t get the adult Aerien around. Seeing her act like a little kid now was kinda disturbing. Well, normally you would be more disturbed seeing a baby act like an adult, but Levin had already come to rely on Aerien like a mother¡­ or¡­ father? It was really confusing, this whole reborn as the opposite gender thing. Well, Aerien said that now she was definitely a girl and Levin was definitely a boy, and they had to get used to that idea. So, that¡¯s that. Aerien is like a mother, or at leas the older personality is¡­ even though he has to carry her around everywhere like a little baby.


    It took quite a while, around 2 weeks or something like that, but the older Aerien finally came back. It was good to have her back, but¡­ it didn¡¯t last very long. A short time after that, a man broke into their room from the window. They were told by that little fairy thing that they should run downstairs, but for some reason Aerien stayed. He tried to get her, but somehow, even with her little body she threw him to the ground. At first Levin thought he had only tripped, but he tripped on top of Aerien and somehow she remained standing.


    What came next though was the thing that made him absolutely sure he had not just tripped. She started a baby walk toward the guy as he reached for her, and she dived forward. It looked like a normal baby walking, but Levin could see something in her eyes. It was not the innocent exploring look that a baby normally has. Her eyes were focused on something. She held onto his leg as the guy picked her up. He did not see her take the knife, but he did notice she did something strange.


    Next, the guy started acting weird. Aerien started punching him with only one arm, and he acted like her baby punches really hurt. However, Levin could see that something was very wrong. When Aerien¡¯s mother came and pushed the guy, or rather, got pushed by the guy and then the guy staggered back, that was when Levin finally saw it.


    As Aerien rolled off of the guy, her side was covered in blood, and so were her hands. That was when he saw the knife for the first time, the man reached for her and she stabbed the knife right through his hand. All of a sudden, a lot of things suddenly made sense. That was why she brought her hands near the guy¡¯s head when he collapsed to the ground, she had cut his neck with that knife. She had blood on her chest too, did she stab him in the body while he was holding her?


    She was only a little baby, but she was somehow fighting an adult man to the death and winning! She stabbed the guy¡¯s hand, and then his leg, and it looked like she had won. But, suddenly, something really strange happened. She started screaming. At that time, Levin had suspected the worst. Maybe¡­ some of that blood all over Aerien was actually from her!


    After her mother picked her up and ran out of the room, he was so scared and didn¡¯t know what to think. He tried to go over to the stairs, but when he was there he was told to stop by a grown up version of that faery thing to stop and that Aerien¡¯s mother would come and get him if he wanted to see Aerien. He didn¡¯t know where this strange woman came from, it was confusing, but what she said turned out to be true. A short time later, Aerien¡¯s mother came into the room looking really scared and grabbed him.


    She was very rough, and it hurt the way she had picked him up. But, she brought him and put him on top of a table next to Aerien. She was not moving anymore, and that made him really really afraid. He went over close enough to see her, but since that Ether guy was already over her and doing something that looked like this world¡¯s equivalent of what a doctor does, maybe a healing spell or something, he decided not to disturb him and just let him work.


    Aerien did not look injured in any way, but maybe Ether guy had already healed her, but she was not waking up. He started talking to Aerien¡¯s mother. He couldn¡¯t really figure out exactly what he was saying, there were several words he said like something about her ¡°fea,¡± an elven word he had never heard before, and also that she probably did something to do with ¡°val poika en'' yala,¡± whatever that means. All he knew was that they were some elven words he had never heard before.


    When Aerien¡¯s mom carried her back down stairs, and dragged him along with her, (she didn¡¯t really seem to care that it hurt the way she held his hand,) he heard from Gaerien that the fairy thing had talked to her and told her what they were talking about up there. Apparently, they thought Aerien had burned out her spirit by summoning too much power, it seems they thought she had some kind of energy summoning magic that she over used.


    Gaerien did not think this was what really happened, but she had to talk to Aerien first to be sure. Apparently, because they are twins, they have some way of talking to each other that will even work with the way Aerien is now, but she has to be touching her in order to do it.


    When Gaerien tried to talk to Aerien, she got hugged by her mother. She really didn¡¯t like it. Levin didn¡¯t blame her. That woman had been yelling at him and Rolwen to stay next to her for Aerien ever since she came down. She wouldn¡¯t let go of Aerien, and she kept crying. Levin understood she was sad about it and wanted her to be Ok. He knew Aerien had wanted her mother to accept her before, and it looked like she finally had. And also, Levin really didn¡¯t want anything bad to happen to Aerien, but right now their mother was acting really scary.


    In his past life, when he was a teenager, he, or rather she at the time, was not as strong as his¡­ her parents. However, she was not afraid of them. Now, as a baby, an adult was really scary, especially when they were angry and acting crazy like this. She was just way way stronger than him as a baby, and she kept hurting him whenever she grabbed him. He thought it was good at first when she was holding Aerien all the time, but now he was becoming more and more afraid of her and did not want to be anywhere near this crazy monster of a woman.


    Gaerien never said why, but she seemed to hate her a lot as well. It wasn¡¯t that she was afraid, she just hated her. Maybe she was mad that she kept rejecting Aerien, it had been really sad seeing the way the baby Aerien personality always cried when her mother ignored her. Or, maybe she was mad at her for how she was treating him and Rolwen right now. Gaerien was kinda weird about Rolwen. She would not let Levin touch her at all, but she was Ok with Rolwen apparently because he had always been holding her since around the time she was born. It had always been this way. That was really the reason why Levin always held Aerien, it was because Gaerien wouldn¡¯t let him hold her.


    Gaerien had a lot of very weird things about her, but she did still seem to care about all of them. Anyway, when she stopped crying, she said this whole thing about burning out her spirit was really not far from the truth. The reason was different, apparently it was something about Aerien¡¯s cultivation being strong in her previous life, it tried to catch up in this life, and the little baby personality¡¯s spirit couldn¡¯t handle it. Right now, the older Aerien is fine, but she is trying as hard as she can to keep her own baby side alive.


    Levin was very relieved to find out Aerien was going to be alive no matter what. It didn¡¯t really strike him as that big a thing to loose one of your personalities like that, it seemed like maybe that might be a good thing actually, but he did not want to say that out loud. Aerien was asleep because she really did not want to loose that side of herself. Levin knew that his thoughts were bad, but he could not really comprehend the urgency of it. This made him a bit more resentful of the woman holding him and Rolwen next to her, making it so they couldn¡¯t move and always yelling at them.


    She was becoming more and more scary. She started yelling at Ether guy about how horrible she was, and all the time Levin couldn¡¯t help but just be scared because she was yelling no matter what it was she was yelling about. He just wanted to cry half the time. This mean woman was always yelling, and she wouldn¡¯t let them run around and play at all. He understood she was afraid for Aerien, but only one of them should be enough for that right? Actually, because of that special meditation Aerien told them about, they shouldn¡¯t actually need either of them. Gaerien had said it was still working as the older Aerien was still fine, so there was actually no reason for him and Rolwen to be holding her like this.


    They had been riding in a wagon now, Gaerien said the person pulling the wagon was apparently a changeling who could turn into an Ox. Levin hadn¡¯t seen him, but he had heard his voice as he talked to Ether guy from outside the wagon.


    After a while, Ether guy and Aerien¡¯s mom got into another fight where she kept saying how bad she was. These were pretty weird fights. Yeah, you are horrible, you¡¯re really scary! Now, please stop acting crazy! During the fight this time, Ether guy tried to touch Gaerien. She smacked his hand away just like she always does when Levin tries, but then when she tried to get away from him she started crying. Well, that has happened before as well. Being a baby seems to have made it easier for all of them to start crying even though they are a lot older on the inside.


    Ether guy picked her up to take her outside, probably to calm her down. Well, that¡¯s not going to work. If he knows Gaerien, she¡¯s going to absolutely HATE that. Sure enough, after a little while she started yelling at him in Elven to put her down. At about the same time, he saw the changeling for the first time. He looked¡­ weird. His hair was white, and his skin was blue, but the strangest thing about him was those huge black alien-like eyes. Seriously, those gigantic eyes that were completely black totally reminded Levin of some pictures of aliens. ¡°The greys¡± he thought they were called. They seemed a little smaller than those aliens, but they were still a LOT bigger than a human¡¯s or an elf¡¯s eyes.


    He didn¡¯t stay long. He just picked up a staff from inside the wagon and went back out. He said some things to Ether guy while he was arguing with Gaerien. No, the term would probably be getting yelled at by Gaerien. Poor Ether guy never stood a chance. Eventually, he just gave up and Gaerien was brought back to the wagon just like she wanted. Oddly enough, it was actually the changeling again who brought her back.


    They didn¡¯t see Ether guy for a while after that, but when he came back he had a nasty looking cut on his chin. He seemed to ignore it though, and then he did something that made Levin absolutely love the guy. He told him and Rolwen they could get away from Aerien¡¯s mom! They were both very eager to do this. After that, he put Aerien in their laps. It looked like they would still need to pretend to be helping Aerien with spirit energy and stuff she didn¡¯t actually need, but that was Ok as long as they could finally be away from the scary lady over there, but something DID seem wrong with Aerien now that he had the chance to look.


    He had never really noticed before when she was being held by Aerien¡¯s mom, but something seemed really different about her now. She looked the same as always when Aerien¡¯s mom dragged him up stairs to sit next to her on that table, but now she really looked different. He couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it though. She kinda looked¡­ skinnier maybe? He looked up to Gaerien. Her and Gaerien were twins, so they should look the same. They didn¡¯t though. Yes, Aerien definitely looked skinnier, but that was not all.


    Levin was starting to figure it out now. He put his hands under Aerien¡¯s shoulders and legs like he was going to pick her up in a princess-carry. Using his arms to measure her, he was absolutely sure of it now. She was bigger. She was almost as big as him now. There was no way he would be able to hold her like he used to now, not with her this big.


    He decided to say this, to point it out to Gaerien and ask her about it. She probably knew more about this than any of them.


    ¡°Well, of course she is.¡± Was the immediate response Gaerien gave. ¡°She advanced her cultivation farther than her body could handle. So, her body has to catch up now. It¡¯s probably a good thing she¡¯s asleep right now, growing at this kind of speed would probably hurt a lot.¡±


    Wow! That¡¯s right, Gaerien DID say something once about how cultivation could make you grow faster! So, Aerien was going to get bigger now? How much bigger though? After only one day, she was already starting to get close to being as big as him and Rolwen. Was she going to keep growing? It would be really weird if suddenly she was big enough to pick HIM up. Somehow, he didn¡¯t really want her to get THAT much bigger. That would be incredibly embarrassing.


    Meanwhile, as they were talking about this, Ether guy and Aerien¡¯s mom were saying something about human names and when Ether guy changed their diapers. That was a pretty embarrassing subject Levin didn¡¯t really want to think about, so he tried to ignore it.


    Subscribers comments of the chapter


    "Aerien was mom zoned!!! But dang I was hoping that would be a potential love interest. But I guess it would be odd being in a relationship with what is basically "food"."


    -meowingLexi


    "we shall see many storys i have seen have something like that but it fades with age."


    -Roy


    Debates about Levin''s viability as a love interest and Roy''s atrocious grammar aside, I just realized maybe I should use something other than quotation marks to indicate the subscribers'' quotes. It makes it a little weird when they also use quotes in their comment.

 Book 2 Chapter 13: Attempts at communication

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    With one problem addressed, it was time to move on to another one. He moved over to Aerien, and did his best to try remembering what he had learned of the children¡¯s language. [Umm¡­ caan¡­ I¡­ look¡­ aat¡­ her?] He said, gesturing toward Aerien. The boys seemed to look at him with surprise and didn¡¯t say anything back, but they did nod and shift a little.


    He let out a breath, trying to relax himself. He had a lot more tension dealing with these children now compared to the day before. Just knowing that they have full adult intelligence in their heads completely changes how he feels about interacting with them. Actual children would have a lack of judgement and awareness of the world, but someone with adult intelligence would observe your every action and read into it.


    They had already demonstrated they had a bad opinion about him, this made a lot more sense when he realized that they would have been fully conscious of the fact that they were taken from their real parents and brought here. He thought he had interacted well with them, but that is not something they would easily forgive. And, Aerien and Gaerien being from the same world would likely identify with the boys a lot more than they would with their own race, so that has likely given the two of them a bad impression of him as well.


    Well, the best he could do now is to do his best moving forward. He was very much in the same place as T¨²eth now, albeit in an entirely different way. He slumped his shoulders as he got close. He had gotten closer under saying he wanted to examine Aerien, and with what he had noticed before he absolutely still wanted to do so, but before that he really had to start working harder to start again on a new foot with these boys.


    [Uhh... her.] Eirlathion said, indicating T¨²eth, [Umm...] what was their word for an apology? [it was... wrong... I.. uhh...]


    [Sowy.] Gaerien spoke up suddenly with a commanding edge to her voice. Eirlathion looked over to her giving him a harsh glare. [Thatthewordyouookingpor.] Eirlathion shook his head a little, it was hard to understand what she was saying even if he could understand the individual words. He hadn¡¯t gotten used to them yet, so it was very hard to understand them talking at full speed. Plus, he didn¡¯t think she was even saying the words correctly. Even if she did know how to say them correctly, she had some pretty severe baby talk when she was talking elven before, there might be some of that in her own language as well.


    Going off her tone and body language though, he sorta figured out her meaning. [Uhh... yeah. Umm... sowy? Sewy?] The boys were starting to look a little uncomfortable with this.


    [So-err-ie!] Rolwen sounded out the word one sylable at a time for him, and also directed an annoyed glance toward Gaerien. [Youzoundedlikeababysayingitagain.] He seemed to be criticizing her previous explanation, or maybe her pronunciation. He knew the words for ¡°slow¡± and ¡°fast,¡± and he hadn¡¯t heard either of those, and he had talked fast as well so that probably wasn¡¯t what he said. It was also too short to have been a criticism over ineffective explanation. So, it was probably her pronunciation. He thought he had heard their word for ¡°baby¡± in there somewhere. Whatever he just said to her, she did not look all that happy.


    Well, at least the boys seemed to be being rational. It seems he would have had a lot more luck calming everything down if he had just appealed to them in the first place the way things were going. Well, that¡¯s what he¡¯s doing now. [Uhh... yes, sorry. I.. am sorry... uhh... about... her.] He indicated T¨²eth again. [I.. faster? Uhh...]


    Levin seemed to be the one to supply the word this time. [Zooner... err... I mean, Ss! S-oon-er.] Rolwen turned and gave Levin a nod. They seemed to both have gentler and more relaxed looks on their faces now. If they were helping him with the language this much, it probably meant his message was getting through and, he hoped, it also meant they were accepting it.


    [Uhh... yeah. I.. sooner.]


    [Sh-ould ave, err... should have.] Rolwen interrupted. [You should have done it sooner.]


    [Yeah,] Eirlathion responded, he had more or less figured out his meaning. That was the full proper sentence then? [should have... done it s... s-sooner.] He talked this time in more of a thoughtful way, too distracted with trying to dedicate the words to memory to put the proper inflection behind them, but he was sure his meaning had already gotten through already anyway. Well, that aside. [I sooner start with Aerien.]


    All three of the children had really strange looks on their faces. Looks like he probably just said something wrong.


    [Sh...]


    [Should!] Rolwen and Levin both started trying to correct him at the same time, Rolwen being the one to actually get the completed word out. [Should start ¡®ith Aerien!]


    Eirlathion muttered the corrected version of the phrase under his breath, correcting it inside his head. This language of their world seemed very complicated, not only were the words different, but they seemed to arrange them in the sentence differently from Elven or even the human language of this world. He had thought he was adjusting to it correctly, but he still made mistakes. He was still far from properly grasping the language. In fact, judging at least on how Aerien had been talking a few weeks ago, the children seemed to have picked up a lot more Elven than he had of their language.


    It would likely take a lot longer for him to understand their language completely, but once he does he was certain it would be quite useful, but this was not something to go into any further now. Right now, he had a rather intriguing mystery to get to the bottom of, one which may in fact give more clues as to what is really going on with Aerien. He looked at the girl laying across both the boys¡¯ laps once again, and then back to her sister. Indeed, there was no doubt about it. She had gotten a lot bigger in the space of a single night. She looked at least 2 full years older.


    This should not be possible, but evidently it was happening. There were a few things that could be causing this. Worst case scenario, her spirit had been damaged in such a way that it was no longer processing spirit energy properly, and all of it was being routed to growing her body. He probably could not find out a lot just thinking about it though. With his voice growing still, he activated his mana sight and spirit sight. He looked over her body, and found no change at all from the state she was in last night.


    That shouldn¡¯t be possible. She is not consuming or expelling any spirit energy at all, but she grew this much? If she is growing at this rate, then she ought to be consuming a monstrous amount of spirit energy. She ought to be consuming more than the boys could possibly ever produce! Unless... Eirlathion¡¯s face began to grow dark as he realized another possibility. Could it be possible that... she¡¯s STILL summoning power just like when she overloaded herself with Dryad? Except now, she¡¯s consuming every single bit of it herself?


    Yes, this seemed like the only reasonable explanation for what could be happening. Perhaps... this might not all be a bad thing. Maybe by some instinct her spirit is trying to repair or preserve itself. Or, no, maybe the fact that her summoning never ceased is actually the reason her spirit has not completely faded yet and she¡¯s still alive? That last one had an odd ring of truth to it.


    He looked to the rest of them and wondered... he wondered about whether any of them knew about Aerien¡¯s cultivation methods. Maybe they did, but... even if they did, Eirlathion did not know the right words to ask them with, and he also doubted that they knew the correct Elven words. This was frustrating. But maybe... they seemed to be pretty good in that last conversation at interpreting his meaning, so maybe he should give it a try.


    He had to think for a little while, trying to form just a simple sentence to get across his meaning. [Do... you know about... uhh...] He still did not have the right words to finish that sentence, but he hoped if he just glanced back down at Aerien that maybe they would get his meaning.


    They all looked a little unsure at first, but then all three of them started nodding. [Yeah...] Rolwen said.


    [She¡¯s Ok!] Levin followed up, getting a little bit of a sour look from Gaerien.


    ¡°Mmm... zhe iss, bud... sse ztill eeds da gueen¡± Gaerien decided to answer in Elven, as bad as her babyish lisp made it. However, he still got her meaning.


    Well, if there was anyone Aerien might have talked to about her magic and cultivation methods, it would be these three. Chances were good that they very well might know more about her condition than he did, so he would have to take their word for it. And, with their assurances, Eirlathion felt he could breath a lot easier.


    ¡°I see, thank you.¡± He said back to Gaerien. ¡°Umm... how do you say that in your language? Uhh...¡±


    (Thank you.) Levin responded to his question with a gentle smile. Hearing that come from Levin told him all he needed to know, all three of them probably understood him when he said it in Elven. But, for the sake of learning, and also for the sake of the new respect he was trying his best to show them, he ought to repeat it in their language anyway.


    ¡°Well then,¡± (thaaan..k... tha-nk you... thank you.) He looked over to Levin for confirmation, and he gave him a nod and a nervous seeming smile. He gave an appreciative nod of his head toward them, and then awkwardly moved back away from them. Something felt very very uncomfortable and unnatural with leaving a conversation with someone who you had a lot of trouble communicating with.


    He let out a very heavy sigh. That was absolutely exhausting. A very large part of his exhaustion came from the brain work involved with trying to learn their language, but there was also a pretty significant part of it that came from the fact he was trying to re-define his relationship with those three now that he knew the truth about them. He simply did not know how to act around them now.


    For one part, those who have the memories of their past lives are normally all faeries, and of the faeries it is only the ones at the higher ranks who carry their complete memories and personalities from their previous lives as Dryad claims they have. In this sense, it would mean they were in the same kind of position as the most revered and respected races among the fey. It was very likely they had the same kind of power as well, or at least the potential for it. And yet, they were also children, and had a great deal of trouble communicating at the same time. That made it very difficult to give them the full appropriate respect. Also, he had spent all this time up until now interacting with them like normal children. This made it even more complicated.


    Eirlathion looked to his side and saw T¨²eth staring at him with a thoughtful look on her face.


    ¡°You... can speak that strange language of theirs?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Hahh... not well, I have been trying to learn it since the girls were born and I started spending more time with them. Their language is actually pretty complicated from what I can tell.¡±


    ¡°Complicated?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it seems to have multiple words with the same meaning, but special rules under which each should be used. It is almost like two languages layered on top of each other.¡± He thought for a minute and then decided this is probably a good time to come clean to her. ¡°I should probably tell you, those two are not normal humans, and I don¡¯t just mean for the whole spirit energy thing. I just found out from Dryad last night after everything that happened, apparently they are like faeries in that they can remember their previous life.¡±


    ¡°What!? Like faeries! What do you mean?¡± She had a rather startled look from hearing that information.


    ¡°Just what I said, they have all the memories of their past life, just like fey dragons and greater faeries.¡±


    T¨²eth let out a gasp and looked toward the boys in horror, turning white as a sheet in an instant. ¡°No... no way, that¡¯s a joke right?¡±


    Eirlathion just shook his head with a hard look on his face. ¡°Unless Dryad was lying to me, it¡¯s absolutely true. I have not found any evidence against it, there is only the fact that they do not understand Elven very well, and they have their own language. With how complex their language is though, I simply cannot see it being a lie. A child their age should not have an easy time comprehending such a difficult language, and they seem to have been born knowing it. If anything, this is evidence very strong in support of what Dryad has told me.¡±


    T¨²eth¡¯s face just looked worse and worse as he explained this to her. Maybe he really shouldn¡¯t tell her that her daughters are the same way just yet. No, she is smart. She should probably think of it on her own by the end of the day once the initial shock wears off. For now though, he should probably not add any more stress to her. She needed to be set straight, but now that she has had this little scare he should probably give her something to calm her down instead of riling her up more.


    ¡°It¡¯s Ok,¡± he said, ¡°I can tell they didn¡¯t really like how you¡¯ve been acting since last night, but I¡¯m sure they understand. They are both worried about Aerien too, they consider her a very good friend.¡± He watched to see how she was taking this. Her face did not get any better, she just gave him a weak smile as she realized what he was trying to do, but he could see a little bit of tension leave her body.


    ¡°Anyway, speaking of Aerien, I just examined her. It doesn¡¯t look like she is in any immediate danger, but it also seems like she still won¡¯t be waking up any time soon, at least until we get her to the queen.¡±


    T¨²eth was silent for a good while after this, simply staring at the floor. ¡°Hmm... that¡¯s good.¡± She finally said after several seconds. ¡°I guess I really made a fool of myself.¡±


    ¡°T¨²eth, you are a mother who was worried for her daughter. Nobody will fault you for that.¡± T¨²eth just had a self-depreciating smile in response to his words as she shook her head and looked over toward the children. When she did, Eirlathion caught some movement out the corner of his eye and saw Gaerien actively attempting to hide behind Rolwen with a fearful expression on her face, receiving strange looks from both boys in response. Eirlathion just had a dumb-founded expression in response to this and looked back to T¨²eth in a panic. It seemed she looked pretty hurt over her daughter¡¯s reaction.


    No, that girl has to understand Elven enough to roughly know what they were talking about. That reaction wasn¡¯t natural given the circumstances. Could she have done that on purpose just to hurt her mother at a sensitive time like this? Why would she do such a thing? It really was looking like this whole family dynamic was going to be a lot more complicated than he had originally given it credit for.


    ¡°Ah.. anyway, for now, how about you just focus on helping the children by helping to look out for demons. Like I said earlier, if you can show them you are a dependable adult then they might come to rely on you a little more. I think if you want to make up for how you were acting earlier then that¡¯s the best thing you can do.¡±


    ¡°Hahhh... right.¡± T¨²eth gave a dejected response and sat with her back against the side of the wagon and turned her head lazily out toward the back.


    Well, that¡¯s the whole complicated little family situation temporarily dealt with. It was not looking like a solution was anywhere even close to being reached though. Guess for now the best he could do is to do his part and start looking up those spells Sagel mentioned earlier.


    Subscribers comments of the chapter


    "Yay progress!!! They''re going to solve their problems. But I want to see how Aerien and Gaerien solve their mom problem."


    -meowingLexi


    "the problem will get better if somebody stops praying so much -_-|||"


    "also if gaery could speak better she could go hold hands and pass messages in and out."


    -Roy (both comments from Roy)


    Author''s note


    This is something else I announced in the comments of this chapter on SubscribeStar as well. Upon finishing this chapter, I took the features of Gaerien I had put forward so far, and then put them all together to search for an actual named goddess in history that fit everything so far. Not going to say the exact criteria, but I found a really strong match based on them.


    That''s all the hints I''m giving. From this point forward, you will need to go all theorist on the contents and read the clues in order to trace back her origins. (And I strongly doubt you have enough info to go on from what''s presented so far.) Anyway, from the next chapter forward Gaerien will be portrayed in a way that is far more informed by the goddess I have fit her to. So, from now on, Gaerien is a named Earth goddess instead of just something I''m calling a goddess with no actual name the audience will ever hear.

 Book 2 Chapter 14: Shocking information

    Gaerien¡¯s POV


    ¡®That child really does hate me, she was terrified.¡¯ Gaerien¡¯s brow furrowed as she heard that woman¡¯s prayers coming in again. It seemed like just about any stray thought she happened to have that was in some way related to her managed to reach her in the form of a prayer. These irritating prayers had become more frequent since she moved into that Ether guy¡¯s house, and now that the two had interacted directly they had become even more frequent.


    ¡®I know it! I don¡¯t know how, but somehow it¡¯s like she knows what I¡¯m thinking. Heh¡­ well, she¡¯s not exactly wrong to be afraid of me¡­ but¡­ no! I never meant any of that! It¡¯s just¡­¡¯ Her thoughts froze after that, and then they seemed to move off the subject of her. It was only going to be a matter of time though before that woman got to thinking about Gaerien or something related closely enough to her for her to pick it up again, but for the moment she had peace.


    ¡®hmm¡­¡¯ Gaerien began to think to herself, ¡®well, since I can finally reach Aerien without worrying about that woman putting her hands on me, maybe I had better see how she¡¯s doing.¡¯ It must be lonely in there stuck in her inner world, doing nothing but trying to look after the kid. Gaerien would likely be doing the same thing in her position, having two spirits in the same body can bring a great deal of power if the two are in full cooperation with one another. Although, power did not seem to be Aerien¡¯s motivation for saving that little urchin. It seemed like she genuinely cared for her. Well, all the better for their future development, but Gaerien still couldn¡¯t quite understand the level of attachment she seemed to have for her younger half.


    Well, it will deepen her attachment. And, the stronger Aerien is, the stronger Gaerien can become as well. It all worked out well in the end. Well then, for now, Gaerien reached over and allowed her hand to drape over Aerien¡¯s leg.


    ¡®Hey, it¡¯s me again. How are you doing.¡¯ There was a long silence, Aerien did not respond immediately. This actually made Gaerien worry for a moment.


    ¡®Heh, it¡¯s good to hear your voice again.¡¯ Aerien¡¯s voice finally answered. ¡®Just staring out at the rocks and the lightning all day gets old after a while.¡¯


    Wait, LIGHTNING!? ¡®Hold on, did you just say lightning?¡¯


    ¡®Yeah, it¡¯s a real mess in here since that incident. I¡¯ve got a bunch of rocks and debris floating around along side fire balls, lightning strikes, and pocket hurricanes everywhere. It¡¯s a good thing they all stay away from the central area, I don¡¯t know what would happen if one of those things hit my younger half in this state.¡¯


    ¡®No, no no. I don¡¯t think you get it. Lightning is a ridiculously uncommon element for anyone to have control over, and you have it in ADDITION to the four primary elements!?¡¯


    ¡®Huh? I didn¡¯t think it was that unusual. It¡¯s just been storming like this in here constantly is all I know, I thought it was just like a sign of how my spirit had broken down or something.¡¯


    Gaerien shook her head at the sheer absurdity of what her sister was saying. Mortals of the current Earth just had no concept for how powerful the various forces of nature were. She hadn¡¯t interacted with mortals much recently, but she could see how they had such a depreciating awareness of all things magic. She would never guess it would be to such an extent that her sister didn¡¯t even realize what she had here.


    Well, she wasn¡¯t going to get anywhere arguing with her on this subject right now. She had to admit she was very interested in what she had just heard, but she wouldn¡¯t be able to really figure out what was going on until she could take a peek inside of Aerien¡¯s inner world again. She had her theories, but she would table those for later. Besides, Aerien would likely think less of her if she did not focus on the things she considered important first.


    ¡®Well, anyway, I take it the kid is still doing Ok, relatively speaking I mean.¡¯


    ¡®Yeah, she¡¯s still here laying as limp in my lap as my real body is probably in mother¡¯s lap right now.¡¯


    ¡®Actually, you got passed off to Rolwen and Levin. We are going through dangerous territory right now, so that Ether guy told her to put you down for now so she could help watch the road.¡¯


    ¡®Well, that makes sense.¡¯


    ¡®There is something more important I should probably tell you though. I don¡¯t know how much your cultivation raised by, but it looks like it was to an extent where you outgrew your own body.¡¯


    ¡®Wait, what does that mean?¡¯ Aerien¡¯s voice had a concerned edge to it now.


    ¡®It means you have too much power now for the body of an infant to handle. You¡¯re quite lucky you are a fey, because it¡¯s not likely a human could survive this experience.¡¯


    ¡®So, what does this mean for me since I AM a fey then?¡¯


    ¡®Well, only that you¡¯re going to grow a lot older in a very short amount of time. You¡¯re basically going to grow until your body is able to contain your new power. You¡¯re already getting close to being as big as Rolwen and Levin, and you¡¯re probably not done with your fast growing either.¡¯


    ¡®Wow, that is pretty fast. Just how long has it been since I was in this state anyway?¡¯


    ¡®It hasn¡¯t even been a full day yet.¡¯


    ¡®Wow! A whole year worth of growth in a single day!? No, that¡¯s only a year by human standards, I¡¯m an elf now, right? That¡¯s absolutely crazy. Well, it¡¯s probably a good thing I¡¯m asleep right now. I¡¯m sure the growing pains for that would be insane.¡¯


    ¡®Growing pains?¡¯


    ¡®Oh, PLEASE don¡¯t tell me you have been a goddess so long you forgot what growing pains are?¡¯


    ¡®She always seemed fine with the humans though. Could it be...¡¯ Gaerien¡¯s brow furrowed as an unpleasant voice cut into her thoughts ¡®Could it be that those girls are the same as¡­¡¯


    ¡®Gaerien? What¡¯s going on? You went quiet there.¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m sorry, I got distracted by something out here.¡¯


    ¡®No! That¡¯s GOT to be it! They really might be!¡¯ It did not look like this was going to stop any time soon, and it was starting to look like the contents of these thoughts might even be worth paying attention to.


    ¡®Sorry Aerien, I¡¯ve got to go for now.¡¯


    ¡®Yeah, well, thanks for the chat anyway.¡¯


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Eirlathion looked at the book in his hands, positively stunned by what he was reading. He had to re-read the same line several times to make certain he was seeing it right. If this was accurate, it could completely revolutionize the world¡¯s understanding of magic!


    But seriously! It¡¯s not just the fact that it contains never before seen spells. This goes FAR deeper than just that. No, the thing that was of greater interest than anything else is that every single spell in this book fell under a single category. Bloodline magic.


    This book¡­ it was entirely dedicated toward artificially altering your own bloodline to contain magic. So far as bloodline magic goes, the Elves had the green word. The faeries had the faerie¡¯s light. And, when elven blood was mixed with human blood, the bloodline magic of the green word becomes twisted to the earth¡¯s whisper. Those were the bloodline magics that were known, but it was also theorized that the dragons and the demons must have their own bloodlines. The dragons tended not to talk much about their own magic though, while the fey dragons mainly used the faerie¡¯s light and rarely did anything with the magic of their past life except in desperate situations. As for the demons, it¡¯s quite understandable as to why there was little known about their bloodlines. Perhaps as the girls grew they could yield some clues as to the nature of demon bloodline magic.


    Bloodline magic was innate magic one was born with, and while it may start off weak it could be strengthened and developed over time. The green word of the elves was one such example, and this book taught how to add new spells compatible with the green word to the innate bloodline spells of the elves. Upon properly learning the spells from this book, all of his descendants would naturally gain the exact same spells as they develop in their cultivation, even if they choose to become warriors instead of mages. This was¡­ truly powerful.


    Eirlathion trembled as he looked through the book. He had been in a daze ever since realizing the potential of the words within these pages, but now he had arrived at the spell Sagel had told him about. Plant¡¯s vitality. This was a powerful magic that, once it became part of your bloodline would give you the vitality of a tree. Like all the other bloodline magics, this one strengthened with your cultivation. However, the most shocking thing about it was its ability to extend one¡¯s lifespan.


    Advancing one¡¯s cultivation already extended your lifespan, but having this as part of your bloodline would multiply the effect, and once one reached the seventh rank your lifespan would no longer be limited at all. There were also amazing boosts to one¡¯s durability and ability to survive through damage that would kill a normal person. Healing in the sunlight almost seemed like the least of the effects from this powerful magic.


    About the only drawback perhaps was the fact that it permanently consumed a spell vessel, which would need to be embedded directly into the body of one¡¯s spirit. The ingredients to establish the spell were also something that caught his attention. The wood from the body of a powerful tree spirit infused with the blood of a fairy.


    Eirlathion looked to his staff. There was absolutely no doubt. This was the real reason Dryad had given him this staff. Indeed, it was a powerful magic medium. However, this would be a far more powerful use of it. But, it wasn¡¯t something he could do now. He did not have the time to set up this ritual, and loosing that staff at this time would greatly lower his ability to protect them from Demons.


    He let out a sigh and closed the book. The spells inside of it were quite amazing, but none of them were something he could set for use right now. For the remainder of this journey, he was going to have to rely on the spells he had right now. On that notion though, there WAS something he actually could do in the short term.


    Sagel had recommended he shorten his spell chants. This would create a far less efficient spell that would generate a lot more arcane energy, but right now they were going into an area already filled with the stuff, they had a party consisting completely of people who had a far higher resistance to the stuff, and they simply could not afford the time wasted on chanting when they were faced with an enemy.


    Thanks to this staff, shortening his chants to a single line would make them effectively chantless. For the sake of this short journey, that would be of great benefit. The only issue would normally be the amount of spirit energy he would need to consume in order to re-write the chants on his spells. Had he not confirmed Aerien¡¯s condition a moment ago, he would hesitate to consume that much from the area for fear of depriving her.


    Aerien did not seem to need any external spirit energy from what he could tell. It seemed she was still generating it all on her own. Judging by how quickly she was growing now, she may even be generating more than before and is just consuming it too quickly for it to escape. If she were a normal child, he would question whether or not it¡¯s healthy for her to grow faster than her maturity could account for, but knowing they have preserved all their memories he was set relatively at ease. As soon as her issues are addressed by the queen, she ought to be quite happy no longer being limited to the small body she had before she lost consciousness.


    Long term aside, in the short term this meant that he did not have to worry about her. The spirit energy generated by the boys aside, they were coming closer and closer to the heaven¡¯s scar now. It had been two years, but there was still a very dense amount of lingering spirit energy in the air all around. With this at hand, he ought to be able to re-write his spells in record time.


    -


    ??? POV


    The Heaven¡¯s Scar. 2 years ago, a great pillar of light fell from the sky, a cataclysmic event that had been dubbed the Heaven¡¯s Fall. The Heaven¡¯s Fall hit the land with such great force and overwhelming power that it had simply carved a great vertical pit deep into the ground. Normally, the force of something hitting the surface would leave a crater. However, the Heaven¡¯s Fall hit with such overwhelming but point-focused force that the land around its edges did not rise. The center of the point of impact was simply destroyed, leaving a perfectly circular vertical shaft that went straight down into the earth.


    This was not to say the damage was isolated. As the main focus of the energy was digging into the land, the sheer wind force uprooted trees and blew away top soil for miles around, making for a large area around the scar devoid of any greenery, nothing was there except for the grey craggy bedrock upon which forested lands full of trees once stood.


    That was the state of it until two weeks ago. At this time, however, a large tree was suspended over the center of the great pit. Due to the sheer scale of the Heaven¡¯s Scar, one could be forgiven for thinking this to be a normal tree, and the greenery around its base to be something along the lines of moss. However, scale can be deceptive. What would be mistaken for moss on the soil at the base of the tree is, in fact, an entire canopy of regularly sized trees completely dwarfed by the overwhelming arbor towering over them. These trees rest on a torn out chunk of land torn straight from the ground and held together by the great tree¡¯s roots.


    The size of this tree and the patch of soil beneath it would normally take one¡¯s breath away, but that is only until you noticed that even this huge island does not completely cover up the central pit of the Heaven¡¯s Scar. The sheer size of the scar is so great, in fact, that two more trees of the exact same overwhelming size could easily be placed in a line inside of the mouth of the pit, and none of them would be at risk of touching the other.


    The roots of the great tree at the very center of the pit stretch out to the edges of the Heaven¡¯s Scar, biting deep into the bedrock and tethering the large tree and the block of soil secured at its base and preventing the whole structure from falling into the abyss below. Even now, additional roots are visibly growing from the chunk of soil and reaching out to the edges, slowly but surely covering up the scar on the land.


    Coiled within the upper branches of this great tree is an equally large serpentine body. This mighty winged serpent bears a look of intense concentration on its face as it maintains the spell which continues to hold the weight of the tree, at least until the roots become numerous enough to easily hold the massive object on their own. Suddenly, before this serpent, a lightly glowing spiritual form appears. From outward appearances, it would appear to be a woman. However, all those who live in the fey lands are well aware that tree spirits such as this have no actual gender.


    ¡°Oren, I was just contacted. It seems a new dryad has awoken in this area.¡± The spirit announces. The angular draconic head of the gigantic fey dragon turns to look at the projection of this tree spirit that could even be said to be the symbol of this entire forest.


    ¡°That is good to hear Isanil. Did the spirit tell you the village they inhabited?¡±


    ¡°They did, but that is not the important part!¡± The spirit Isanil said with a large grin on their face. ¡°They did not awaken in a natural way, it was spurred on by an outside power. The one who woke up the dryad is on her way here right now. It seems she needs some help.¡±


    ¡°Isanil, I understand you are likely excited over this, but please try to stay calm. Now then, is there more that you can tell me about this individual?¡±


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Sometimes Aerien really acts like a little sister. And it''s good to see that Gaerien actually sees her as her sister and not some tag along."


    -meowingLexi


    "In spell casting anyway, but Aery is 150% better at life ^-^, also with this feel Gaerien(calling it kuundere) gives shes going to end up a clingy twin who cant be apart from her little sis for a sec without freaking out in the end game."


    -Roy


    Should I comment on this exchange? I want to comment on this exchange, but I don''t think I can without giving spoilers.

 Book 2 chapter 15: Far reaching influence.

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    Eirlathion rubbed his chin where his wound had just healed. Sagel had finally found them some berries and they stopped to pick some. It had not been a deep or severe wound, just one enchanted berry was enough to fully heal him. The spell, however, had enchanted nearly half the berries laid out in the pile in front of him.


    He looked over to the boys as he considered what to do with the remainder. It wasn¡¯t just the healing effect that the berries gained, they also became an extremely sustaining source of food for those who needed to eat. At this time, those two were about the only ones in the group who needed to eat at all, the spirit energy they were generating was so great that it served to completely remove that need for the rest of them. Really, giving them to the boys might be a very good use of the remainder. It would save on the preserved food they had brought along for them just in case. At the same time though, it would also be good to keep some in case of future injuries.


    Well, so long as they could find more berries, he could always cast the enchantment again. As such, these are likely the more plentiful food source, and they take up less space. Perhaps looking at it the other way around was good too. If something happened and they needed to run, the food they had brought along was one of the most likely things to be left behind. From that view, it would be better to work through that food first.


    Eirlathion shook his head at himself. When viewed like this, it seemed quite clear that the latter choice was the better one. However, there was one critical flaw in this thinking, one missing element that made the former the undeniably correct choice. They simply had no way to store the berries. As things stood, if he did not keep them in his hand they would simply be rolling all over the floor of the wagon and eventually get crushed.


    He sighed at himself and held out his hand filled with the berries to the boys. ¡°Here, go ahead.¡± He told them. They looked a bit at his chin and then back to the berries. They had just seen him enchanting them obviously, so understandably they seemed a bit nervous about the idea of taking them. ¡°It¡¯s fine, they will keep you feeling full longer.¡± He said, and then tried to think of how to say that in their language. (Uhh¡­ not b-bad. Feel¡­ long hunger not.)


    Gaerien giggled at him. He was sure he hadn¡¯t said that well at all, and it seemed he had only managed to confuse the boys.


    ¡°Ahh.. I understand.¡± Rolwen responded in Elven, giving him a teasing smile as he took a berry and ate it. Soon, Levin followed his example and joined in.


    Well then, that¡¯s one issue fully resolved, now they were going to have to think of the next big issue on the list. It was about a three day journey to the Heaven¡¯s Scar on foot. The wagon would slow their pace a bit, but not by too much. It would likely be best to assume a 4 day journey. This would mean they were going to have to figure out their sleeping situation.


    With how dense the spirit energy was getting, it should be theoretically possible to keep traveling through the night. However, most of the more powerful demons, especially those of anthropomorphic forms such as the tainted elves who were far more cunning, tended to be out during the night as well. Not to mention, they would be blind at night while the threats were said to be able to see in the darkness as though it was daylight.


    Even if sleep was not an issue, there was just too much risk involved in traveling at night. At the same time though, they also couldn¡¯t be stationary at night. That would just be begging for an attack. No, they were going to have to start thinking about finding shelter.


    It would be draining, but Eirlathion¡¯s mastery over the green word was likely to a point he could make a normal tree act like a spirit inhabited Lakira tree. They could just leave the wagon outside. Really, the only trick would be finding a tree that¡¯s large enough. It wasn¡¯t common for a tree to grow as wide at the base as lakira trees do. Perhaps they would just have to be cramped in with each other for a while, but really there was a serious question as to whether they would even have enough space to lie down.


    ¡°Hey!¡± Eirlathion heard a very deep resonating voice from outside. It was the voice of Sagal¡¯s current enlarged bovine form. With such a large body and large vocal chords, every word he said in that form practically boomed.


    Upon hearing that voice, Eirlathion came to the front of the wagon. ¡°Hey, you called?¡±


    ¡°What do you make of that?¡± Sagal said, slowing his steps significantly as he gestured with his large head. Eirlathion looked where he was indicating and he could immediately tell what the concern was.


    ¡°Those trees?¡± He asked to confirm. It was clear enough those trees had to be the issue Sagal was bringing up. They were the only really weird thing around in immediate view. No matter what way he cut it, they looked strange. It was as though three trees had all fused together. It was not uncommon to see things like this, one or two trees that grew into each other due to their bases being so close, but there was something that didn¡¯t quite look natural about this.


    Sagal approached closer to the trees, and then before the wagon had fully lost momentum he just fluidly allowed his body to melt out of the wagon¡¯s yoke and became a wolf, a smaller quadruped in other words, and simply continued walking at a quickened pace without having ever lost a step from his Ox form.


    After he had approached closer to the trees, Sagal turned into his natural form and Eirlathion could see his base pale pigmentless skin for a moment before the blue color he seemed to prefer washed over his features. Eirlathion collected his staff just in case and then jumped down to follow Sagel as he seemed to be walking around the trees and looking at the ground.


    ¡°This is not natural,¡± Sagal said as Eirlathion caught up with him and stood at his side. The changeling gestured toward where he was looking. A large section of the ground had clearly been disturbed, and the pattern was pretty clear. It looked as though a tree had been completely uprooted from that spot. Not only that, the disturbed soil was very fresh, it did not look like it had even rained once since the tree had been uprooted. What¡¯s more, there were also very clear signs of something very heavy having passed over the surface between that location and the merged trees.


    ¡°I do not smell signs of any kind of anthromorph near here recently.¡± Sagel said.


    ¡°Does that include satyrs?¡± Eirlathion asked. Satyrs were said to be the supreme masters of the green word, second only to dryads. A satyr could have easily done this, and they would also not smell like your typical far less hairy anthromorph.


    ¡°Satyrs are one of the first thing I suspected, but no, I don¡¯t smell anything like a goat either.¡± Sagel denied the possibility.


    This was definitely weird, but if they had ruled out all the other possibilities then there was one last thing that struck him as what might have happened. Eirlathion got a bad feeling. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m opening it.¡± He said and placed his hand on the side of the tree as he began pushing his mana and a larger than normal amount of spirit energy into the tree. Sagel got into a guarded position, ready to pounce at a moment¡¯s notice, and his eyes seemed to glow for a moment as he must have adjusted them to become more light sensitive.


    The tree opened far more easily than Eirlathion had expected. He knew his power had increased by cultivating near the boys, but this actually felt every bit as easy as if this was an actual lakira tree. Eirlathion had a dark expression on his face at this. This only served to reinforce his suspicions.


    Sagel carefully eyed the interior as it began to light up with a soft green glow. As Sagel seemed to relax his guard, Eirlathion stepped inside. It was not especially spacious inside, but it was just big enough to accommodate them for the night. The first thing that he noticed upon entering was that there were four mats that seemed to be made of some kind of woven grass lined up side by side, and at the head of three of them were a piece of canvas that seemed to be wrapped around something in a shape that seemed to make for an excellent pillow. As for the fourth mat, there were two things on it that removed all doubt as to who had made this place.


    The fourth mat also had one of those pillows on it, but it was shaped differently. Instead of being at the head of the mat, it was lined up on the side of it, and it was also very long and extended the entire length of the mat making it rather clear it was meant for multiple people who were very small in size to sleep side by side. And, placed right in the middle of this mat was a white dress in the exact style of the one he had once made for Aerien.


    ¡°Che!¡± Eirlathion tisked. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve figured out who made this place now!¡± He said bitterly. Sagel followed him in and looked around the room.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I agree. That¡¯s pretty impressive, I realized that dryad¡¯s power was high when I saw the size their tree grew to, but to think their territory extended out this far. We are an entire day¡¯s travel away from the village.


    Eirlathion let out a sigh, prompting Sagel to give him a strange look. ¡°What!?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Look, I realize you still feel betrayed over what happened at the village, but¡­¡±


    ¡°I know! There is no sense letting emotion cause me to spurn a safe place to rest in an area as dangerous as this. It¡¯s just¡­ I¡¯m going to go get T¨²eth and the kids.¡± As he was on his way out, he felt his shoulder grabbed by Sagel, causing him to look back. It was hard to read the face of a changeling in his natural form, but Eirlathion got something of a sense he was struggling with how to say something difficult as he gazed at him with those large black eyes.


    ¡°Look,¡± he finally said, ¡°you may find this hard to believe, but your dryad was actually rather merciful compared to what could have happened. If they were a normal dryad, every single man, woman, and child would have been personally strangled by vines or beaten to death by trees. Even if they didn¡¯t, then... well, the queen has a duty to keep the dryads appeased, and in service to that she likely would not have stopped with just Cundo village, the village that had sent their support would have been targeted as well. Their methods... although cruel, the way they were done was likely the way that would keep the loss of life to a minimum.¡±


    Eirlathion breathed a sigh at Sagel¡¯s speech. ¡°I know.¡± He said darkly. ¡°I know! I know all about how cruel and selfish the spirits are! I just... I was an idiot and thought Nymph was different. I¡¯m mad at myself more than anything. As soon as they became a dryad, that...¡± He let out another sigh. ¡°What Dryad said to me, it was almost as if they were saying the entire madness that took place last night was some twisted kind of test, and that I had failed that test. They were looking for me to stand up to them and call them out, and they said something that implied that if I had then they might have stopped what was happening before the death toll got as high as it did.¡±


    Eirlathion put his hand on the wall to support himself, leaning heavily on his staff with the other. He was shaking visibly. He took a deep breath to try and get ahold of himself. ¡°Heh, it seems even I wound up being a target of Dryad¡¯s cruelty last night. I am really not certain what I feel more betrayed over.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Sagel responded. He remained silent for some time.


    ¡°Right, I think I¡¯m Ok now. I should go get the others.¡±


    ¡°Eirlathion.¡± Sagel called him back. He turned to look the changeling man in the face as he fixed him with those large completely black ovoid eyes. He took a deep breath. ¡°This world is not something that is such a simple thing. Sometimes, you need to be cruel to be kind, and in order to protect the ones you love you must do things that will make you be seen as the very incarnation of evil by others.¡±


    ¡°Is that one of the lessons that human society has taught you?¡± Eirlathion bit back.


    ¡°That is something I have seen first hand. It goes for this country every bit as much as any other. A fey¡¯s life is just slower than that of a human, and so it is much easier to forget this truth of the world. I will have you know, we are seen as a very cruel and frightening race by those humans.¡±


    Eirlathion wanted to object to what Sagel had just said, but then he recalled the looks Aerien and the boys had always been giving him. It was difficult to deny. After all, didn¡¯t they steal children from the humans? They had their reasons, and they did not treat the humans they took with cruelty, but wouldn¡¯t any elf be furious if someone stole their child?


    He did not say a word in response. He just left the small house and went back to the wagon. ¡°It¡¯s safe.¡± He said with a bitter tone as he looked across to T¨²eth. ¡°It looks like Dryad has power out this far, they prepared this place as a temporary rest house for us.¡±After delivering this news, he sat down in his spot in the wagon as he tried to sort out his thoughts on this issue.


    Sagel had not said anything he didn¡¯t know or couldn¡¯t have figured out on his own, but it had stirred up a lot of dark things inside him that he had never dealt with before. This he had lied to himself about for a long time. A foolish man may be able to completely excuse these things, but Eirlathion was no fool. For him, these were things that were just too difficult to think about. It was just the way things were done.


    They kidnapped human children because they needed them to survive, and besides, humans treated their own children with cruelty anyway. They were only saving them from their suffering at their parent¡¯s hands. But wasn¡¯t that just an excuse? They killed the grey elves because they attracted the dark elves, but Dryad had put the lie to that superstition just this morning. There were just too many things he had accepted as normal and tried to never think about before, and now they were all coming up to haunt him at once due to Dryad¡¯s actions last night.


    And besides, cruel to be kind? That was just another excuse that rang hollow to his ears. No, the scary thing about it was that, in the specific case of Dryad, he actually could see that excuse applying to the situation. In this specific case, it may really be right, but it was all other possible cases where it just did not seem to measure up. Weren¡¯t all the things they were doing until now things that excuse could have applied to as well? But in the case of all these other things his own race was implicated in, that did not seem like an excuse that really measured up to the situation.


    There must be other ways. Couldn¡¯t elves and humans just live together? No, that was impossible. Sagel had just said the reason. The fey were viewed as a frightening and cruel people by the humans. So, if the humans saw a fey, wouldn¡¯t they just want to drive them out or kill them if they tried to approach in peace? There did not seem to be any good solution to this situation. Why did things have to be so complicated. Was continuing the cruelty really the only way?


    ¡°M... Master, is something wrong?¡± T¨²eth¡¯s concerned voice snapped him out of the thoughts that were consuming him.


    Eirlathion let out a sigh and looked over at her. She had Levin and Aerien in her arms, Levin helping to secure the child laying limply against her. She had kept growing over the course of the day, it was already clear she was the same size as the boy who was trying to help hold her. It was quite clear it was an awkward position for him.


    ¡°Hmm... I have a lot on my mind lately.¡± He told her, ¡°It is not something to get into now. I have to sort my thoughts out on this a little more.¡±


    She did not seem to know how to respond to that. After a brief silence between the two she looked up to him again. ¡°I.. I am not sure how to handle Gaerien. She still won¡¯t let me even touch her.¡± Eirlathion looked over to Rolwen and Gaerien and considered this issue. Well, he knew those two better than the girl¡¯s mother did, as sad as that may seem. Maybe he could figure something out.


    ¡°You go on ahead, let me deal with the other two.¡±


    Subscribers'' quotes of the chapter


    "Yay stand your ground girl. It''s the only chance you''ll get cuz when Aerien comes back she''s bigger than you!"


    -meowingLexi


    "it will make a funny image little sis holding big sis like a doll =P"


    -Roy

 Book 2 Chapter 16: Putting the pieces together

    Author''s note


    We have a new subscriber to welcome, however this individual happens to be a trouble maker who uses a symbol instead of a name. Well, good thing it is a symbol that can be copy-pasted. This means I can properly announce and welcome ? as a subscriber.


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    After being yelled at by her Master, T¨²eth was left with a lot to think about. She had hardly even said a word after that. She had received two heavy shocks in her life. First, it was what had happened to her own village, losing everyone she had ever cared about. Having become pregnant from the experience was just an awful reminder of all that had happened. But then, just as she was starting to care for the mongrels produced from that, after having been told they could be something of a way out for her, it all falls apart again.


    The inevitability she had once accepted since the moment the girls were born, and had spent every moment since then preparing herself for, came to pass. The girls were found out, and then attacked. What happened afterward was no where near the usual expected course of action though. While they didn¡¯t die, Aerien was left in... that state. It was all just too much. Just when she had begun to accept that the girls could live and be more than just a painful reminder of what had happened, she was going to lose Aerien. The child who desperately wanted nothing more than to just be acknowledged by her mother.


    Nothing made sense anymore. It seemed as though her life was being turned upside down all over again. Just when she had what looked like it could be a path forward, everything had gone wrong.


    Now, she was alone with her thoughts as she stared out the back of the wagon. Just what was going to happen? Of course, there was one thing that her mind kept coming back to. Those girls. There was just something so incredibly strange about them both. No, what is really strange is that her master, who was supposed to be such a wise magus, had not been able to see that it actually WAS both of them. He could only see Aerien for how unusual she was. However, ever since Aerien had gotten into her current state, Gaerien had been becoming more and more hostile to her, and the way that child always glared at her was really not something a child her age should be able to pull off.


    It didn¡¯t seem like it was just her either. She had only figured this out recently, but it seemed she was rather opposed to Master Eirlathion touching her as well. She gave him the exact same reaction that she would always give her. Perhaps... it wasn¡¯t just her that she hated then? She always seemed fine with the humans though. Could it be... T¨²eth had always heard about how demons hated the race they came from most of all. Could it be that child hates them simply because they are elves? But then, why her and not Aerien?


    No, there are just too many things that are unexplained. There is also another thing. Her Master had said that the humans were somehow able to keep all their previous life memories, just like faeries. She did not understand how humans could be capable of such a thing, but her Master had been absolutely certain of it. She did not have any reason to doubt him. But, if that was the case, couldn¡¯t that be another reason for the girls being like this? Could it be that those girls are the same as the humans?


    The boys had kept all their memories just like a greater fairy, except that they had been born humans and thus had to grow up as babies. T¨²eth had not noticed it at first, but they actually were very calm for their apparent age, and they seemed to act in a far more purposeful manner than a baby should.


    No! That¡¯s GOT to be it! They really might be the same! It would just explain so much! They have the same unusual intelligence that does not fit their age. What¡¯s more, they are even able to take actions a baby their age should not be capable of. It would all be explained by them just taking more purpose in their actions.


    Maybe... yes! It makes sense! Aerien was always so rambunctious! Perhaps it was unbearable for her to be limited by an infant¡¯s body, so she used every method available to her to be able to move about and talk sooner. It¡¯s possible that this kind of accelerated growth would be achievable by anyone who kept their memories into their state. After that, she would inspire the others.


    It was strange though, how had four of the same type gathered in one spot? Well, it¡¯s easy enough to explain with the girls, they ARE twins after all, but how about the humans being brought to them? No... that was entirely explainable as well. They had an unusually strong spirit energy. That¡¯s what got the hunters to capture them in particular when the girls were about to be born. It¡¯s no coincidence, it¡¯s more like it was inevitable. The only coincidence is that the two humans happened to be in the same village when the hunters got there.


    If this was the case then, were there others? Actually, how had this even happened? She had never heard about something like this happening before, until... the humans seemed very young. She heard humans grew much faster than elves did. They looked like they were close to six years old, but since they were humans they were probably a lot younger. Maybe they could even be... They actually COULD have been young enough to have been born after the Heaven¡¯s Fall. Did that have something to do with how this had all happened?


    No, all of this was just lining up too well. T¨²eth felt like she just had to be onto something here. Master Eirlathion had told her that being so close to the Heaven¡¯s Fall when it happened had changed her, made her spirit several times stronger to the point that gaining ability with magic ought to be very easy for her. Could it have had even more extreme effects on a child who was just being conceived at the time?


    This did not completely explain that child¡¯s hostile behavior. The demon blood could still be a factor, but... it did also offer alternate explanations. Aerien was quite attached to the idea of her as a mother, maybe Gaerien got angry that she had kept spurning her sister and making her cry? There could also be any number of reasons she might have gotten upset with Master Eirlathion. Perhaps the best way to test this would be to see how she reacts to others. It could even be related to her human memories as well. Perhaps she was a human who had a very bad view of the fey races, while Aerien had a more open mind.


    -


    Dusk was falling at this point. T¨²eth had been simmering in her own thoughts for the entire trip, trying to figure out how she was supposed to act from now on and paralyzed with her lack of direction. Just what WAS she supposed to do now?


    Given her state, she was very surprised when she looked up at one point to discover the wagon had stopped. She looked over her shoulder to see that Master Eirlathion had left, and that changeling with him. This was another thing weighing quite heavily on her in her thoughts. Her master was a powerful magus who had lived for an entire millennium. Her daughters... she did not know exactly what was going on with them, but whatever it was they were certainly something incredible. That was the one thing she was certain of. In addition, the also seemed to be fortunate enough to get two mysterious and powerful humans for their pets. In fact, those humans alone were incredible enough that they may even be more significant than she was.


    And now, they were being lead to the capital by a changeling, a member of the mysterious race of fey that all directly served the queen. There was no doubt about it. She was the extra among a group comprised of greatness and power. She couldn¡¯t help but think she simply did not belong in this group. Gaerien... that child seemed to be the only one who could see it. She was the only one who seemed to really know how dark her thoughts were. The only one who could see how completely undeserving she was to be their mother. Maybe that child was just reacting accordingly.


    Something Master Eirlathion had said before reverberated in her mind at this moment. ¡®You¡¯re right, you don¡¯t deserve any of it.¡¯ He had said this in response to her trying to deny all the good fortune he was throwing her way, becoming his apprentice, becoming part of her daughter¡¯s lives, getting to come along with them to the capital... He had said that, and then went along to offer it all anyway. In other words, he agreed, and then that did not stop him from insisting upon her having it all even though she did not deserve it.


    She had tried to make sense of those words ever since. Those words, mixed with those actions... it gave her neither comfort nor condemnation. Those words had a very strange way of trapping her. She was on this path, and now she was denied of any easy way out. And, well... now she was in this wagon. Guess now there really is no way out of this anymore.


    T¨²eth looked up as the wagon rocked. Her Master had gotten back into the wagon. ¡°It¡¯s safe, It looks like Dryad has power out this far, they prepared this place as a temporary rest house for us.¡± What? What was he talking about? She wanted to kick herself for having been distracted enough to have so completely missed what was going on. At this rate, she wouldn¡¯t even be able to do the task of watching out for demons.


    She looked up over her master¡¯s head to see what looked like some trees fused together. That must be what he was talking about. He probably intends for her to gather up the children, or at least two of them. She looked down to Gaerien. How would they move her? If it weren¡¯t for Dryad helping them back in the house, they would never have even gotten her into the wagon.


    ¡°Gaerien?¡± She called, reaching her hand toward the girl. Gaerien just glared back at her, and she could see her whole body tense. She could tell she was ready to hit her if she even tried to get close to her. T¨²eth breathed a sigh and re-directed her attention toward Aerien. The Master had brought it up to her, but it appeared Aerien had started growing insanely fast since she got into this state. According to him, she was fine. In fact, this actually seemed to be helping her stay alive.


    There was one thing that she would be concerned about with Aerien¡¯s rapid growth. Well, normally this should be a concern. The fact the Master didn¡¯t seem very concerned about it only spoke to the evidence the girls might be the same as the two humans in that they remember their past lives. That would be the only reason it wouldn¡¯t be a large concern that she might wake up with a body far too old for her mental maturity.


    Well, she should probably get to carrying her then. Probably take the human she seemed to like more along with her. ¡°Here, come on.¡± She said to the boy. He seemed to cringe a bit at her reaching for him. She withdrew her hand. It seemed she had really not done much in terms of getting their good will since last night.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯m sorry.¡± She said, at a loss for how to handle this. ¡°Umm...¡± she pointed toward the tree visible out the front of the wagon. ¡°We need to go, it¡¯s safer in there, Ok?¡± She looked back down at him. He seemed to relax a little bit, and then he started re-positioning Aerien from laying in his lap to holding her under her arms. Wait, was he seriously planning to carry her himself!? She thought that for a moment, but then he was looking up at her again, and then it all made sense.


    ¡°Ok.¡± T¨²eth affirmed and then reached down to scoop them both up at once. She cradled the human in her arms while he held Aerien, and she tried to position her arms in a way that stabilized her limp body as well. When she looked back, her Master was sitting against the side of the wagon with a distant look in his eyes. She couldn¡¯t help but think that he looked like she probably felt, and that was not necessarily a good thing. ¡°M... Master, is something wrong?¡±


    He sighed and then looked at her. ¡°Hmm... I have a lot on my mind lately.¡± He said, ¡°It is not something to get into now. I have to sort my thoughts out on this a little more.¡±


    Yeah, just as she thought. There seems to have been plenty of heavy thought to go around lately. In a way, this actually made her feel somewhat more at ease. There was no way he was thinking about the same things, but she could tell it was in regards to the same subject in general. They were all affected by what had happened last night.


    She tried to think of something to say, to offer him comfort. How presumptuous. She berated herself for even thinking such a thing. She hadn¡¯t even lived for a century yet, how could she advise an ancient master who had lived double the average elven lifespan? Well, at the very least she can probably change the subject. Take this away from all the heavy thinking.


    ¡°I.. I am not sure how to handle Gaerien. She still won¡¯t let me even touch her.¡±That was another thing the two of them seemed to share. That girl didn¡¯t seem to glare at or detest him to quite the same degree, but she fought him when he tried to touch her just the same as she did for her.


    The Master looked over to the two remaining children, and she could immediately see his mood lighten as his mind shifted to more immediate matters. ¡°You go on ahead, let me deal with the other two.¡±She nodded, and then carefully sat on the front edge of the wagon before changing her hold on the children to hold them more securely with both hands as she slid down to the ground.


    She went to the trees up ahead. The base did not look anywhere close to as large as a lakira tree, but they were definitely much larger around than the average trees around here. It seemed as though they weer already formed from the three broadest in the area already. She found the entrance and went inside. She shifted her eyes to the ground as she noticed the changeling was already in there. She caught a nod from him, and then slightly inclined her upper body in as much of a bow as she could manage with the children in her arms before scurrying past him.


    ¡°I believe that one is for the children.¡± He said, pointing to a mat that was oriented differently from the other three lined up. It looked like the room was pretty sparse with just these four mats and some kind of soft green lighting that illuminated the inside for them.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± She replied meekly, hoping she was not being rude. She had already shown him a rather unrestrained side of herself last night, so she was extra conscious now of her appearance in front of this agent of the queen. She proceeded over toward the mat indicated. She noticed that it had a dress on it in the same fashion as the one that Aerien used to wear before it had to be discarded due to the blood stains.


    She let the children down, and then proceeded to start dressing Aerien. Levin actually helped stabilize her as she was working. It seemed that, at least where it came to helping Aerien, he was quite willing to work with her. She was glad that at least there was someone who was not too offended by her behavior the night before. She was a little bitter about it being the human while her daughter was the one who hated her, but at this point she was willing to accept anything to break her growing sense of isolation.


    ¡°Th... thank you... umm...¡± What was his name again? She had heard the Master say it a few times, recently too! Was there any good way to ask it at this point? ¡°Thank you for helping with Aerien.¡± She decided to just repeat her thanks to break the awkwardness. The Master had said that he was not too good with elven yet, so she did not know if he could understand exactly what she was saying, but hopefully he would understand that she was not going to be the same way she was this morning and regretted her actions.


    A moment later, the Master came in behind her. It seemed he had, indeed, found a way to carry Gaerien. Well, by technicality at least. He was actually carrying the other human, and he in turn was carrying Gaerien. T¨²eth somehow doubted that child would let her get away with the same thing, but at least it seemed she was willing to compromise with the Master.


    ¡°Well, I am going out to patrol the area while there is still light.¡± The changeling said after he saw everyone had gotten in. Once he was gone, the Master fixed her with a heavy look, although she could tell it probably was not a look actually directed at her.


    He let out a sigh that seemed to be filled with all the worries and concerns he had built up over matters she could not even fathom. ¡°Well then,¡± he said, ¡°I am afraid now is not the right time to go over your basic magic training. If you would like to talk about some other matters, I will try and work with you. We both have a heavy heart over recent events, it might be good to work out some of that. If you are unwilling though, continuing to cultivate your spells might be the best use of time.¡±


    T¨²eth thought for the moment. If she withdrew back into herself now, she would only continue to be a burden when she was already the most insignificant among anybody here. Perhaps she should take her Master up on his offer.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "So they''re pets! Good thing it''s legal to marry your pets in some states. Although Aerien was mom zoned..."


    -meowingLexi


    "when not freaking out mom is smarter than grandpa ^-^"


    -Roy


    "The benefits of a young and agile mind? At the same time though, she DID have the advantage of being told that the boys, at least, preserved a consciousness from another world. Eirlathion was starting from zero, Tueth had the corner pieces and a good number of the side pieces of the puzzle already set out for her."


    -???


    Ok, you caught me. The last comment was from me again.

 Book 2 Chapter 17: Terror in the night.

    Sagel¡¯s POV


    After a quick patrol of the area, Sagel decided the wagon had to be moved. He was not sure what kind of protection this set of merged trees had, but having a squad of dark elves throwing fire balls at it was probably not going to be good for it, and that¡¯s exactly what they were likely to do if they should find this place.


    Recruiting Eirlathion¡¯s help, he managed to hide it under a pile of vines by having them grow up over it. Of course, it was moved a fair distance away from where they were sleeping first just to be sure. Now for the real deal.


    ¡°I¡¯ve still got more than enough energy from being around those humans all day, and the spirit energy in the air is just getting thicker as we approach Heaven¡¯s Scar as well. I do not think I will be sleeping anytime soon.¡± Sagel informed the elven mage. ¡°I will be scouting ahead on our route for tomorrow, things will only become more dangerous as we approach, so you can never be too careful.¡±


    ¡°I see, well, be careful.¡± Eirlathion said. ¡°We would be in a tough situation without you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, scouting is something changelings specialize in. So long as I am not foolish enough to become an attractive prey animal such as a rabbit or a deer, I shouldn¡¯t be bothered by anything.¡±


    With those words, Sagel let out a breath and allowed his arms to fall against his side. As he lifted his arms, there was a film of fleshy webbing attaching from his arm pits to the tips of his little fingers. As he continued to lift his arms, his little fingers began to elongate and bend backwad, revealing the same film between his fingers as each digit distorted while his hands shrunk. The little finger became as long as his entire arm, and would be able to touch his own arm pit if it were not for the fact that it was now stuck between two membranes of flesh that was quickly thickening and darkening into leathery wings.


    By the end of it, his arms had changed to become a set of giant bat wings. Sagel jumped and beat down with his wings powerfully, kicking up wind and debris from the forest floor and forcing Eirlathion to cover his eyes to protect them. As soon as he was off the ground, his body, and the wings with him, began to rapidly shrink as his ¡°clothing¡± transformed into brown fur. Finally, he had finished his transformation into a large fruit bat.


    Having taken this form, he began to fly circles around the trees that served as their rest house before finding a branch that was the right size for him to hang from. He did not fully understand how it worked, but Sagel had learned that just about all flying animals have some kind of extra sixth sense that allows them to sense the location of an object relative to its position in the world. It seemed to be something like a compass, because he was rather sure he was able to use this sense to detect which direction was north. However, it went much deeper than just that. He couldn¡¯t just sense north like a compass. He could also tell about how far away he was from whatever it was that pulled compasses toward the north. And, he could also sense how far east and west he was. In other words, this sixth sense could detect his exact position on the surface of the planet.


    The only down side to this was that he needed to spend some time in the location he wanted to be able to find later. He had to stay and memorize the feeling of north to south and east to west. This normally took dozens of minutes. In this state, he was left with nothing to do but wait. He listened as Eirlathion went back into the tree, and then closed it off to seal themselves inside.


    He closed his eyes, not that his eyes would do him much good. A bat¡¯s eyes were not really all that good. They could still see, but it was somewhere along the same lines as a cow¡¯s, goat¡¯s, or cat¡¯s vision. It was somewhat blurry, but unlike those three animals a bat did not have the trade-off of being able to see in the dark. Instead relied on their hearing far more, and a bat¡¯s hearing was incredibly sharp. All he had to do was let out a few clicks, and with the reflected sound he could use his ears to tell where all objects around him were.


    Sagel actually liked taking the form of a bat quite a bit. There were a lot of things to get used to, but a bat was actually the third most agile creature in the air. It was only faeries and humming birds that held superior flight ability. Certain hunting birds such as eagles or falcons could beat a bat for speed, but that was only on a dive, and they most certainly could not turn or ascend or descend on short notice anywhere near as smoothly or gracefully as a bat could.


    Sagel stretched his wings in anticipation. He felt he had a good idea of the position of this tree now. He was quite certain he could find his way back here once his scouting was done. Now then, the Heaven¡¯s Scar should be south-east of here. Of course, with his strange compass-like sense, he was able to know immediately which direction that was as he dropped from the branch and caught the air in his wings and took off flying.


    It would take three more days to finish their journey to Heaven¡¯s Scar on land. However, if he were alone, Sagel could make the entire journey in just over half a day in flight. That being the case, he ought to be able to check the majority of their route for tomorrow in just a few hours, and then the trip back ought to be faster as he will be flying direct without stopping to look for any encamped creatures. He would only have to be on his alert for roving demons which would likely just have moved on by the time they are on the move tomorrow.


    After around 30 minutes in flight, Sagel ran up against one of the few flaws of taking this form. His wings were beginning to tire. He would have to stop and rest for a short while and replenish himself. He found the nearest appropriate branch and hung from it. He folded his wings and began to focus his spirit energy into them in order to replenish the tired muscles. As a migratory bird, he would have been able to do this in mid flight without even needing to think about it all that hard. The flight endurance of those creatures was truly top notch. Almost every form he could take had its advantages and its disadvantages. This bat form was especially adept to operating at night and flying below the canopy. It also had some good endurance, but it was nowhere near as good as that of a duck or a goose.


    He began to breath in the growing spirit energy in the air. It was nothing compared to what those humans with Eirlathion produced, but it was still starting to feel on par with living in a human city. Sagel could never imagine having this much spirit energy available in the territory of the fey.


    Having restored his strength, he dropped from this branch and resumed his flight toward the south-east, letting off his clicks and mapping the locations of every tree and branch in his mind as he was on the alert for anything anthromorph shaped. He had to rest several more times along his journey, but a couple hours later he wound up encountering the exact thing he had been looking for and hoping not to find.


    It was just one at first. He flew up to a branch and observed what they would be doing. It was not a creature on the ground. In fact, they were airborne just like him, and had similar leathery wings attached to their back instead of their sides. ¡®Fairy class, huh?¡¯ He observed. ¡®It¡¯s small, an imp then.¡¯


    Well, at least it was only imps. However, there was something he didn¡¯t like about this situation. This imp seemed to have a large object that it was carying as a weapon. Well, large compared to its small body. The sound reflected off this object was quite crisp, indicating it was solid, and it disappeared depending on the angle he tried to detect it from. This indicated it was probably a lot skinnier than it was wide. A sword, in that case. This thing had a fairy sword. Normally they try and take those away at the first signs of demonization.


    Well, it¡¯s still an imp. Imps may be stronger than standard faeries physically, but the transformation of their four gossamer wings into two bat-like leathery ones severely drops their airial agility. It¡¯s not even dropped to the level of a bat even, a bat is maneuverable due to its stream-line form and ability to quickly fold and change the orientation of their wings. An imp has those clunky arms getting in the way of any such fine aerial maneuvering, which means those bat wings are only just able to keep them airborne. In fact, imps are among the worst in terms of aerial maneuverability. Any common bird could fly circles around them.


    Perhaps it wasn¡¯t such a great threat this imp still had their fairy sword after all. After all, it was the faerie¡¯s speed and agility that made those weapons such a threat. While an imp had more power, in a contest of a fairy against an imp while both were armed with fairy swords, the fairy would win every time. That loss of maneuverability made imps one of the very few demons to become less of a threat upon their demonization.


    There was, however, one thing about imps that they still preserved from their time as a fairy, and this was the single thing that made both of them such a force to be reckoned with. By instinct, they were never alone. Where there is one, you can always assume there are at minimum nine more hiding off somewhere else. Even if they were not all that agile, Sagel did not like his or anyone else¡¯s chances going against them one Vs. the swarm. A dragon with their fire and wind magic could manage it, but most other people would be in a very bad position against such numbers.


    He wondered whether or not he should go back having gotten this information for a moment. Imps were dangerous, but there was no real guarantee they would still be in this area by the time they pass it tomorrow. He had to wait and see if there was anything else.


    He continued to observe, using his ears to hear everything that he could pick up on, using his nose to detect all strange odors. He could definitely smell more of these imps around. The smell was coming from the direction in which the imp was flying. There was also another smell along with it. Something much heavier, from a larger creature. It was similar to the imp though.


    Sagel had never smelled the scent using an odor sensitive animal before, but he was willing to bet these imps were traveling with gargoyles, the next level of fairy-class demons. A gargoyle was not much of a threat during the day, but they often traveled with a large number of imps. Those imps would guard the gargoyle when the sun came up.


    This was exactly what Sagel was afraid of. He had still not confirmed whether or not what he was smelling really was a gargoyle, but if it was then this area had to be avoided tomorrow. It is possible he was just sensitive to the idea because it was the thing he had feared, but he really couldn¡¯t get closer in order to confirm his suspicions. This scent would be all he would have to go on. A swarm of imps were something that could easily prove dangerous even for a bat if they happened to get curious after all. He might take the risk normally, but Eirlathion was right in what he said before he had left. That group would be in a very bad situation without him.


    Convinced he should prioritize his survival, Sagel took off flying back the way he had come. He allowed himself to rise up above the canopy this time, and took the form of a large goose in order to facilitate faster travel without pauses. He no longer had to check and see what was below the leaves, so the priority went to simply getting back to their base camp for the night quickly.


    -


    When he got back, Sagel heard something rustling about near by. He quickly transformed back into a bat to scan around quickly. He found something moving, but it seemed¡­ soft somehow, and really low to the ground. He couldn¡¯t quite make out what it was. He flew to a tree close to whatever it was, and upon landing on the branch he shifted his form again, this time to a cat in order to make use of that excellent dark vision this animal had.


    He looked down from his branch to see what was below him. It seemed to be an oversized flower, at least as large around as a large tree. No where near the massive girth of a lakira tree, but at least twice the diameter of a very large pine tree. It had large vines the size of an adult man¡¯s thigh snaking their way around everywhere, and protruding from the top of the flower was the upper body of a nude woman.


    Alra-une. Now why did there have to be an Alra-une here!? Aside from the higher tier levels of the fairy class demons, Alra-unes were among the most powerful of demons. About the only saving grace about them was that they usually traveled alone. If they were to travel in groups like those imps, these things would be the greatest threat one could possibly face. That was not all. It seemed to have planted itself next to the wagon. Did it detect their scent or something!? This is definitely not good, those things can operate even during the day, and the chances of it moving now seemed pretty small.


    Sagel knew there was no way he could take that thing alone. He had to get help, and they had to fight it when their condition was at its best. The imps could probably be avoided, but this thing could not. Well, it seems his scouting trip had yielded more useful information, he likely would not have been out long enough to have seen this otherwise.


    He went from cat back to bat again, and flew down to the far side of the three trees they were staying in for the night, giving a quick knock on the side of the tree for Eirlathion to let him in. He was relatively sure that since they were in the same room as those boys he would likely not be sleeping either.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Danger zone!"


    -Meowing Lexi


    "beast boy or maybe BATMAN!"


    -Roy


    Author''s note


    Yeah, interesting little set-up chapter. This was a bit fun to write. No direct confrontation, just some quick scouting and a wider view of what the world looks like. Sagel seems to be very much turning into my "view of the world" guy.


    Anyway, I have always wondered about shape-shifters and their really OP potential as spies and scouts. However, we really never see anything taken from such a changeling''s POV. The closest I have ever seen is Mistique from X-men, and she is just kinda appearing on the side every now and then. She''s EXTREMELY influential whenever she shows up, but nothing ever really explores just how OP that power really is. It''s always with the changeling as the villain and the protagonists catching the changeling in the act somehow. That''s not enough to really appreciate everything such a power is capable of.

 Book 2 Chapter 18: Cooperative effort.

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    An alra-une. This was what Sagel had said was right outside at this time, practically sitting on their wagon. Why did they have to attract an alra-une? The more important question is, how are they going to deal with it? Because they WERE going to have to deal with it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t suppose there¡¯s any chance of suddenly teaching those human kid¡¯s fame effect magic, is there?¡± Sagel said with a dry chuckle. ¡°Honestly, this is about the worst match-up this group could have possibly got. We would need either fire magic or an alra-slayer to take one of those things down. Let alone an alra-slayer though, we do not even have a single blade between us.¡±


    ¡°Heh, I suppose those monsters are about the worst possible match for a green mage like myself then,¡± Eirlathion chuckled at himself in depreciation.


    The changeling chuckled as well and shook his head with a shrug. ¡°Those things are a pretty big threat no matter where they show up, aside from maybe the capital. Even most dryads have a hard time dealing with them, but that one of yours just might be a little different. In most cases though, yeah, dryads can¡¯t really deal that well with a plant they can¡¯t command. If a dryad can¡¯t control them, there¡¯s no way a simple green mage could.¡±


    ¡°Umm¡­¡± T¨²eth raised her voice with an uneasy tone. The two turned to look at her, but she just tucked her chin down and went quiet.


    ¡°What is it T¨²eth?¡± Eirlathion asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it¡¯s nothing.¡±


    Eirlathion sighed at his apprentice¡¯s attitude. He had seen she was quite a brilliant student. It was a lot more than just her spirit that was strong, her mind seemed to be extremely keen as well. However, her confidence was practically nonexistent and her trauma was always getting in the way of her doing anything. He was certain that, even with her relative lack of experience, she could certainly come up with something that could contribute to this discussion.


    ¡°T¨²eth, we¡¯re all trying to figure this out, and if we can¡¯t get past that plant demon we will not be able to continue toward the capital or head back toward the village. We need that wagon to move the children. We would all be dead rather quickly if we encountered some demon on foot while we were each holding one of the kids and were unable to fight effectively. Also, nobody except for Dryad knows where we are right now, and by now the village is probably empty so there is nobody they could tell about our situation in order to send us help. So, by all means, if you have something to say then please say it. Any suggestion will help in this situation.¡±


    ¡°No, it probably won¡¯t help.¡± She responds.


    ¡°We will be the judge of that. How about this, I promise that if your idea is a bad one we will say so, that way you don¡¯t have to worry about us getting killed over something you suggest. Also, we will not criticize you for it either. Right now, we are lacking in ideas. Some suggestions from your young mind would certainly help us to at least have some options to consider.¡±


    ¡°Ahh...¡± T¨²eth took in his words with a gentle sigh and had a pensive look on her face that suggested she was struggling with some inner demons and finally winning. ¡°Ok, well... I just thought, you said you needed fire right? Well, don¡¯t humans have the ability to make fire without magic? I¡¯m sure Master Sagel could use the human¡¯s technique and...¡± She trailed off, getting nods from both Eirlathion and Sagel as she fell silent.


    ¡°Just Sagel will do Miss.¡± Sagel responded with a tilt of the head. ¡°Changelings do not hold titles, you see. We are agents of the queen, but aside from that we hold no special status.¡±


    ¡°Ah, but...¡± T¨²eth tried to protest, but then went silent again.


    ¡°Hmm... as for your plan, I am afraid it will not work. Yes, I can make some fire with the human techniques, but it will be useless. That fire does not burn anywhere close to hot enough, it will not be able to burn a plant monster with all the water still running through it¡¯s system.¡±


    ¡°It was a good idea though,¡± Eirlathion added, trying to keep her encouraged. ¡°Please do not hesitate if you have anything else.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t suppose there might be something useful in that book your dryad gave you?¡± Sagel suggested.


    ¡°Well, I could give it another read but I doubt it.¡± Eirlathion spoke back. ¡°Oh... hold on! Now, why didn¡¯t I think of this sooner?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Sagel asked. Rather than answering him though, Eirlathion just walked over to one of the walls.


    After a moment of concentration, the wood of the celing began warping, and a protrusion came out. That protrusion started as a narrow stick, and then grew wider as it went up. It appeared like a stick coming out of the bottom of a large stalactite, except that it was completely made of wood.


    With that there, Eirlathion raised his hand and grabbed the stick that came down. It began reforming itself further the moment he touched it, the stick grew a knot of wood at the end which became a pommel, and then the ¡°stalactite¡± of wood released it, revealing a wide and long blade, and then it immediately dropped to the ground as he was unable to hold its weight.


    ¡°Ugh!¡± He grunted.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a problem. Wood may not be as heavy as steel, but if you make it the size of a proper alra-slayer, it¡¯s going to be too heavy to lift with a normal person¡¯s strength. Those things are just no good unless you have them enchanted properly to reduce the weight and it¡¯s also gotta be made out of wind metal in the first place.¡±


    ¡°Hah! Well, I ought to be able to manage it with the hand of the woodlands. The magic can make up for the lack of strength.¡±


    ¡°And how are you going to support the weight of your arm? If you cannot lift it with the strength of your legs as they are now, holding it with your enchanted hand will do nothing to decrease the weight even if you are able to lift the thing.¡±


    Eirlathion looked down. He had not really considered that in so much detail.


    ¡°Also, are we certain this can stand up to the rigors of battle?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± Eirlathion responded, ¡°I can at least account for that by using some wood strengthening magic. About the weight though...¡±


    ¡°Wait!¡± T¨²eth spoke up. ¡°I think I might have an idea about how to handle that...¡±


    -


    ¡°Well, this has got to be one of the stranger situations I have been in throughout my life.¡± Eirlathion complained. He heard one of the boys giggling. He couldn¡¯t see which one it was.


    [moose!] ¡°hehe!¡±


    ¡°Are they laughing at me, or are they laughing at you? I can¡¯t really tell.¡± Eirlathion said to Sagel, who had changed into a large moose. He said this form had the best balance between speed, mobility, and strength, and was ideal for the purpose of the plan they were implementing. It was, indeed, a pretty large creature. The issue was, he was currently laying face-down against Sagal¡¯s hairy back-side, lashed onto his body with vines as T¨²eth was still adding more just to be certain he did not slip.


    ¡°They seemed to get quite excited when they saw me change my form, I believe this might be the first time they have seen it happen right in front of them, that might be why.¡± The changeling responded thoughtfully. ¡°Anyway, if you are concerned about looking ridiculous, this is actually not as uncommon among humans as you may think. In fact, they ride four-legged animals all the time. Of course, being lashed to your mount in this way is another matter.¡±


    ¡°Well, I do have to admit that it is a good idea. You did well T¨²eth.¡± Eirlathion said, looking down as his apprentice was working to secure the last vine against Sagal¡¯s side.


    ¡°Hmm...¡± She nods in acknowledgement. She still looks a bit insecure, but she does seem to be easing up a bit. ¡°I think that is secure master.¡± She looks up into his eyes with a light smile, but it turns dark rather quickly. ¡°good luck out there.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it should not be much of a problem.¡± He says.


    ¡°Do not waste time!¡± Sagal interrupts. ¡°Your spell will wear off if you take too long. If you are prepared, we should get moving.¡±


    ¡°Ah! Yes, of course!¡± Eirlathion responds. He looks to the floor where the large wooden sword, the blade close to the length of an entire adult man, is laying on the floor. He reaches out with his hand of the woodland wich stretches down from his place on the back of Sagal¡¯s moose form. T¨²eth had begun running off toward the wall in front of Sagal at the same time as he began this motion. She gave both of them a quick nod as she placed her hand on the wall and supplied the mana needed for Dryad, all the way back a day¡¯s travel away, to open up the side of the tree.


    With their way cleared, Sagal began his march... or rather, trot out into the early dawn landscape. Sagal had spent the entire night lecturing Eirlathion on the particulars of this kind of mounted combat and going over their combat plan. It was time to see if all that effort had paid off.


    As soon as they were clear of the tree, Sagal sped up to a full gallop as he went toward where they had left their wagon. It was not that far, and soon enough Eirlathion could see a large vine as large around as a person¡¯s thigh winding across the ground. Such a large vine, this was a known sign of the alra-une. It extended those powerful vines in every direction in order to catch prey and then drag them back to the main body to be consumed.


    Sagal slowed his pace. They were inside of its territory now. One wrong move here could mean their death before they could even get close enough to strike the killing blow. Their best bet was to be able to cut off its stock in a single swing. That was the entire purpose of the alra-slayer sword¡¯s design in the first place, the reach necessary to reach the stock without risk of stepping on the vines closer to the creature¡¯s base. With the added reach provided by Eirlathion¡¯s hand of the woodlands, this should be more than possible.


    The vines became more numerous as they continued to get closer. Eventually, he caught sight of the white canvas tarp of the wagon. It had somehow become smashed down into the wagon¡¯s body, likely a result of the alra-une¡¯s explorations of their scent all over the thing as it searched for food.


    He could not see the flower of the une itself, it was supposed to be right here though so the only conclusion he could come to is that it must be hidden from his vision by Sagal¡¯s head and antlers.


    ¡°Eirlathion.¡± Sagal said in a very uneasy tone. He lowered his head after that, revealing exactly what it was that got him so disturbed. The bud... it was open! That meant that it was awake and it could see them. The form of an alluring female was plainly visible above the wide flower, and she was looking straight back at them as a look of terror suddenly painted her face.


    ¡°Help! Please! Help me!¡± The woman screeched as she bent forward toward the edge of the petals, clawing at the edge of the large flower with one hand as the other reached toward him. Eirlathion¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. He knew this was a tactic used by these demons. The woman was a part of the demon, and she was acting as a lure in order to attract prey just as the vines acted to help catch them. However, to hear such a heart-rending cry in a female voice... even if he knew it, it did not make this any easier.


    ¡°Eirlathion, now!¡± Sagal warned.


    Yes, he had to strike fast before the vines became active. The alra-une still did not know about his arm, so he still had a chance to catch it off guard. He extended his arm upward, while at the same time swinging from the shoulder and having his still extending arm enter a whip-like swing. This was a spell he was very practiced with in combat, so the chances of him misjudging the distance were small. And as soon as it got to the correct length and stopped extending, the whip motion caught up with the hand holding the blade and descended rapidly toward the large plant monster.


    ¡°Noooo! Ahhhh!¡± The female voice shrieked and her form cringed as the vines rose up to protect her. The large sword cleaved straight through the wall of folded-over vines. It was just as Sagal had said, the extra weight that this thing had gave it even more than the typical alra-slayer. There were at least five of those thick vines, and this thing had severed all of them. Well, it got caught in the second layer of the folded vines, but that was far more damage than a normal blade would do.


    He had to retract his arm in order to dislodge the blade. However, before he could raise his hand again for another swing...


    ¡°I gotta move!¡± Sagal yelled and began running off in the same direction as the vines he had just severed.


    ¡°No! Where are you going! Help!¡±


    ¡°Tsk!¡± Eirlathion spat. How can she keep up with that act after having just lost so many of what should amount to limbs for her? He looked back, he could see the winding vines already trying to pursue them as Sagal put the wagon between them in order to block the line of sight. He extended his arm again and brought it down on the vine that was winding toward them, causing Sagal to stumble several steps to the side as he deviated his course. These sudden staggered steps almost made him miss, but he did still manage to land a good cut into the vine.


    ¡°Not while I¡¯m moving!¡± Sagal barked back. ¡°I almost fell!¡±


    Eirlathion clenched his teeth. How was he supposed to not swing with something like that coming after them? This was quite the situation. They couldn¡¯t swing while Sagal was moving, but if Sagal stopped then they would be caught for sure. Sure, this giant sword did have the advantage of cutting power, but the weight really did present a whole host of other problems.


    What¡¯s worse is that they were caught. They only had one chance at a sneak attack in order to take that thing out, and they had been spotted. They were not going to get a chance like that again.


    ¡°Where are you going!? Come back! Help! Heeeelp meeee! Please heeelp!¡±


    We¡¯re the ones who need help here lady, help to deal with you! Eirlathion cursed in his heart against this demon. Alra-unes were not considered to be in the top-tier class of most threatening among the common demons for nothing. What¡¯s worse, those vines could be regrown. That meant that even that bit of damage he did just now was going to amount to nothing.


    Suddenly, Sagal got blown to the side. He had apparently taken a hit, but fortunately the direction he was toppling over toward was the right and not the left. On this side, Eirlathion was able to extend his arm and brace it on the ground in order to steady him.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± The moose beneath him grunted and took a few more unsteady steps to regain his balance. Meanwhile, Eirlathion turned his head to the other side in order to see the offending vine that had attacked them.


    ¡°Sagal! Brace!¡± Eirlathion commanded. He responded immediately, bracing his legs firmly against the ground in order to allow Eirlathion to swing again. He extended his arm and swung it over his head, successfully hitting this vine. There were more than just that though, now that they had stopped he continued to swing and cut down one pursuing vine after another. There were still some writhing and wiggling vines in the distance, slowly closing in.


    What a situation. If they start moving, they get assailed by vines with no way to fight back. If they stay where they are, the demon will get closer and eventually close the net on them. The closer it gets, the more vines get involved, and they will eventually be overwhelmed.


    Suddenly, there was a very loud creaking, a sound Eirlathion had grown to recognize as a tree shifting its position. The leaves rustled in the direction of the alra-une. "EEEEEK!!!" The demon''s voice shouted. This one sounded a little less like the begging it used as a lure and more like genuine distress, just like when it had raised its vines to defend against his swing. The vines nearby jerked and flailed, and ceased to move in a coordinated manner. Eirlathion swung and cut a few of the nearest ones and then retracted his arm to a more stable position.


    "Ok, now''s our chance!" He shouted at Sagel. He immediately took off at a full sprint, well beyond the gallop he started off with. Their destination was the tree they had stayed the night in. The second they got back, Eirlathion wasted no time cutting the vines binding him to Sagel, after which he dropped the sword massive sword to the ground and then immediately opened the door. He saw T¨²eth on the other side waiting, holding Levin and Aerien in her arms with a look of expectation on her face.


    ¡°We failed.¡± He told her. Her expression dropped, but she only nodded at his words and took a step toward Sagal. Eirlathoin grabbed and cleared away the vines still clinging to Sagal¡¯s back, and then helped lift T¨²eth up in order to get in a good riding position. She had been prepared for this. They had discussed it all the previous night. In case of a failure, they would have to abandon this location along with the wagon. The alra-une would probably wind up following them back to the tree and plant itself right on top of their location after they ran away from it. If they did not leave right now, they would never be able to escape at all.


    In reality, they had already been prepared for this. The attempt at going against the alra-une was not something that had a high hope of success to start with, and depended too much on chancing upon the good fortune it might be asleep. However, if they won that gamble, they would get their wagon back. With the wagon, they could cultivate and rest while in travel. Riding on Sagal¡¯s back would be a lot harder on all their bodies, including Sagal himself. Having the wagon would be ideal. However, in this case, it was something that could no longer be.


    Eirlathion ran to collect Rolwen, and Gaerien, only to realize something. ¡°Hey, where¡¯s Gaerien!?¡±


    Subscriber''s comments of the chapter


    "Oh shut she''s gone!"


    -meowingLexi


    "a moose knight!"


    -Roy


    Lol, yes, a moose knight. We are now at the point where the audience can enjoy my unique kind of logical absurdity. It''s something I really quite enjoy, those scenes where, if you see everything that lead up to it, it all makes perfect sense. However, if just for a split second you take a snap-shot at any point in the process aside from the very earliest steps, it seems as bizarre and absurd as it gets. Yeah, expect more of this from me.


    Author''s note.


    So, I know some people expected Dryad to get involved here. I actually have my reasons for why it didn''t happen, and no they are not all for the reasons of forcing a conflict. I tried to give something of a satisfactory explanation, and it was something that made sense in my own mind, but I''m sure it''s not enough for some people. Anyway, please let me know what you all think on this subject especially and in particular.


    (This is one of the hazards of having advanced chapters. None of the subscribers found it strange, but comments last chapter indicated that some people here might. I would have likely written it differently if I had the comments from last chapter before I wrote this one. I actually went back and checked this chapter after reading that comment and asked myself if the explanation I gave was really enough. I felt it answered some questions, but might not be 100% satisfactory. So, I am left in a place where I am unsure whether or not that needs to be changed. There is also the difficulty that there are other things that are the way they are for a very specific reason and will be revealed in future chapters. I promise you guys, every one of the named characters so far, and I really do mean EVERY one, have things going on that the audience has yet to be made aware of... except maybe Tueth. Most of her secrets were bared to the audience rather early on.)

 Book 2 Chapter 19: Stagnant spirit.

2nd Arc: Capital


    Act 2: To The Capital


    End

 Book 2 act 2 side story: Rise of the dryads.

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 20: The edge of the scar

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 21: True Dragon.

    Levin¡¯s POV


    (Rolwen¡¯s left ring and pinky finger, right thumb.) Gaerien called out the command for their finger exercises. This was part of the routine Aerien had laid out for them before she collapsed, and without her they did not really know much about where to go from here in making themselves more capable of mobility. Well, aside from experimenting on their own. They had been doing some of that.


    This was the most advanced level of the exercise. They had not gotten much of a chance at it due to Aerien and Gaerien¡¯s crazy mom for a few days, so now they were mostly just doing this because they could and they were trying to catch back up with something familiar before they started trying something new. It was actually starting to get easy. Both him and Rolwen were very frustrated at first with how hard it was to do this really simple stuff, but now after having done it for around a month it was actually very easy.


    This exercise consisted of simply joining his fingers together with Rolwen¡¯s fingers. Gaerien would call out a command, and they matched it. The command she had just called out meant that Levin had to touch Rolwen¡¯s left ring finger and pinky finger with his own right ring and pinky fingers, and a similar left and right switch for his own left thumb to Rolwen¡¯s right. She switched who¡¯s right and left she meant, and then called out a number of different fingers.¡±


    (Levin¡¯s left middle and pinky finger, right index and pinky finger) Ok, this was a hard one. 2 finger separations were hard, the finger that was between them always wanted to bend forward. Levin concentrated hard to keep his left ring finger and right middle finger pulled back as he joined the specified fingers with Rolwen¡¯s while Rolwen was doing the same. Both of them had strained looks on their faces. Those looks eventually broke into giggles as they looked at each other¡¯s faces.


    (Ok, Ok!) Gaerien interrupted loudly to quiet them.


    (Isn¡¯t this good for today?) Rolwen asks. (Let¡¯s try something else.)


    (We might be going at any time though!) Gaerien complains. (Besides, I want to keep getting better with talking.) She has a pouting look on her face.


    Yes, they had all gotten used to hearing each other by now to a point it was almost normal. However, they still all had a very obvious lisp due to the improperly formed mouths they had in their small bodies, and the effect was even worse with Gaerien compared to the two of them.


    (Don¡¯t you think maybe it might just be because you don¡¯t have your teeth yet? I heard that¡¯s important for talking right.) Rolwen suggests. This definitely doesn¡¯t make her any happier.


    (Mmm¡­ soon I¡¯ll be the only one talking like this. I bet Aerien will be talking perfectly after she wakes up!) She crosses her arms in a little bit of a ¡°harumph¡± fashion and then turns around to her comatose ¡°younger¡± sister, now in a body that looks like that of a 5 year old and easily bigger than any of them, and actually starts sticking her fingers between Aerien¡¯s lips, sliding her fingers over her teeth with a jealous expression on her face.


    (Uhh¡­ hey!) Levin interrupts. (I don¡¯t think Aerien would like that.)


    Gaerien lets out a small growl of a sound and then flops with her head on her sister¡¯s chest. (I¡¯ll grow faster. The hole in the rules is still here, so I can do my cultivation. I¡¯ll definitely grow faster than an elf should.)


    Neither one of the boys knew what they should say to her. They had both grown up normally in this second life, but they also did not really have anyone around who spoke English so they didn¡¯t really have someone to actually talk to. Plus, they were also both clearly ahead of her development wise by a bit more than a year. According to the best theory they could come up with, they were probably all conceived at the exact same time. However, it seemed like elves had a longer period of pregnancy than humans, and that gave the two of them a lot of growth time over Gaerien.


    Suddenly, they heard a lot of noise outside, causing them all to look up. It sounded like a loud roar of wind and rustling leaves, but they thought they heard Gaerien¡¯s mom scream. They both saw Gaerien stiffen for some reason. (Whaaah¡­?) She gaped for a moment before turning to them with a slightly stunned look. (Uhh¡­ I think we are about to leave, umm¡­ someone came to get us.)


    (What!? How do you know?) Levin asked.


    (It¡¯s prayers.) She said, (or, something like it. Dragons though, it seems like dragons communicate with thoughts or something. I guess you can¡¯t hear it though, huh?)


    (What!? Does that mean we¡¯re going to ride a DRAGON!!?) Rolwen stated Levin¡¯s thoughts before he could open his mouth, and definitely louder and with more energy than he would have. In fact, it actually caused Levin to start moving back from his friend a little.


    (Ok, move away from the crazy person.) He said, pretending to move to get between Rolwen and Gaerien. He wouldn¡¯t actually touch Gaerien though, he knew that would probably get her upset. He just wanted a way to tease his friend a bit.


    (What!? Common! Did you hear what she just said!?) Rolwen asked.


    (Yeah, dragons, fantasy world, elves, monsters. Isn¡¯t that normal?)


    (Whaaahhh? Uhh¡­ well, I guess¡­)


    Seriously!? That actually got to him!? Levin was actually shocked! (Uhhh¡­ Rolwen? I was just teasing, umm¡­ shouldn¡¯t dragons actually be a big deal though?)


    (Huh? That was teasing!?) Rolwen replied. (But yeah¡­ dragons are¡­ Wait! Gaerien! What kind of dragon is it!? What¡¯s it¡¯s color!?)


    (Huh!? I don¡¯t know something like that! I only heard it! But¡­ it DID say it was a Marquis.)


    (Marquis!? Uhh¡­ Ok, well then I bet it¡¯s probably silver or copper. It can¡¯t be gold, those are the emperor dragons. It should be pretty friendly if it¡¯s silver.)


    Just as Levin was about to ask Rolwen what in the world he was talking about, the side of the tree suddenly opened and the two elves, Ether guy and Aerien and Gaerien¡¯s mom, both walked in with a dazed look on their faces as they walked toward all of them.


    [Come on, it¡¯s time to go.] Gaerien¡¯s mom said in a far-off voice as though she didn¡¯t really even see them. Before he knew it, Levin was grabbed and being laid face-down on top of Aerien¡¯s chest. This is the method they had devised to accommodate for the fact that she was both so much bigger than him now, and also comatose. He could cling on to her, but she had to be properly supported. After this, her mother scooped her up and lifted her, forcing Levin to hold very tight to her shoulders.


    Meanwhile, Ether guy was looking at Rolwen with expectation. The drill between them was very different. Rolwen had to pick up Gaerien before Ether guy could even touch either one of them. Also, it had to be Ether guy that picked them up for some reason. They had been developing their routines in order to accommodate for their difficulties.


    They were carried out of the tree and soon they got to see the dragon that had been mentioned. Levin could hear Rolwen gasp behind them. He didn¡¯t blame him.


    This thing was HUGE! It made the tall towering trees all around them look like mere saplings as its large serpentine body coiled around several of them. Levin couldn¡¯t tell, but he could swear he also saw something like folded wings at its back. Most of its body was wrapped around the trees over them, darkening the sun with the shadow it cast on the forest floor, but its huge angular head dipped down and was at the same level as them. Just that head by itself was the size of a tank!


    They were expecting something big when they heard they were going to ride a dragon, but this!? This was WAY bigger than what they had expected. Was this even a dragon anymore!? It seemed more like that world serpent from Norse mythology or something!


    Not that it mattered much in light of that overwhelming size, but its scales were not the gold, silver, or even bronze colors that Rolwen had speculated about. Instead, they were glistening a light green that seemed to glisten under the sun and give the forest life. In fact, as they looked around, there were even signs of the plant life in the area beginning to grow at a rate visible to the naked eye.


    ¡°Woaaaah!¡± Levin heard Rolwen¡¯s voice once again. He had to agree though. This was¡­ well, amazing didn¡¯t really seem like enough of a word to describe what he was seeing. Was that thing seriously real!? It was an actual living thing there right in front of them!? If this was back on Earth, he would suspect it was some kind of super giant animatronic of some kind, but this thing was definitely not there the night before and any explanation that could get a fake creature like this there over night was almost more incredible than it being a real living creature. This¡­ Levin just didn¡¯t have the words or thoughts to describe it.


    ¡°Y-yes! This is her!¡± Aerien¡¯s mom suddenly stammered, and then Levin suddenly found her hand pulling his face into her chest, and he could feel the dragon¡¯s moist and warm breath as it focused in on them. He could feel Aerien¡¯s mom trembling, and he wasn¡¯t very far from that state himself. About the only thing that allowed him to avoid wetting himself was the thought of it going all over Aerien if he did so. He stubbornly tried to avoid doing that one thing. In fact, he tried so hard to avoid it that the mental attention he spared to tighten his bladder muscles allowed him to zone out and forget about the time and place he was in.


    From that moment, he was not sure how much time passed or what kinds of words were said. He was only just barely aware that he was being carried somewhere, and then when he looked up he was in the wagon again.


    Why were they in the wagon? Weren¡¯t they going to ride the dragon? (Wow! We¡¯re flying!!!) Rolwen said loudly.


    What!? Flying!? How!? They are inside the wagon!!! As he looked around, he realized that Ether guy and Aerien¡¯s mom were both in the middle of the wagon. This was not their normal arrangement. Also, neither one of the adults had let go of a single one of their little group of ¡°kids.¡± And, for a final oddity, the wagon was not shaking at all.


    Levin blinked as he began to put the pieces together and then followed Rolwen¡¯s amazed gaze to look around. The cover over the wagon had been removed after it had apparently been crushed by that plant monster Gaerien helped fight. Now, he had a pretty clear view of everything around them. Sure enough, it looked like they were hovering several dozen feet off the ground and they were rapidly rising toward the tree canopy.


    Apparently satisfied, the large dragon took off, and they went along for the ride. The wagon seemed to maintain a constant position near the dragon¡¯s neck as though he were wearing it like a necklace, and it did not seem to take any time at all for them to suddenly be several hundred feet off the ground. And yet, Levin did not feel even so much as a hint of the violent sudden acceleration, and there was not so much as a single vibration through the wagon even as they brushed right through the multiple tree branches and leaves were scattered everywhere.


    The lack of wind or any sense of movement made it all seem like he was watching a movie instead of being carried through the air. None of it even seemed real at all. What was this? It seemed to be some kind of power that the dragon had. The more he saw, the more it just seemed like it was too much.


    (Wow, WOW! It¡¯s an eastern dragon!!!) Rolwen yelled in excitement. It seemed he at least was taking this well. As Levin looked up he noticed Rolwen was looking back at him with excitement. (These things are, like, SUPER powerful! WAY stronger than western dragons!!!) He said excitedly.


    [Well, it seems he really likes seeing a ¡°wa-sgiathatch¡±] Ether guy says, using a term they had not heard before. [You said something, umm¡­ ¡°easter-dragon?¡± is that your word for a ¡°wa-sgiathatch?¡± That¡¯s what he is.] Ether guy was pointing upward at the neck of the dragon who was carrying them.


    They were learning yet another new word in Elven, and this time it was the word for dragon. There seemed to be something wrong with Ether guy¡¯s pronunciation of the English, but it seemed close enough. Besides, all this excitement was too much to nit-pick over language lessons.


    [Look at that.] Ether guy continued talking to them in Elven and pointed toward the direction they were going. All of them, Rolwen, Gaerien, and Levin, looked in the direction he was pointing. It was another tree, but¡­ wait. They were already above the trees. The one they were looking toward though was still towering high over them. This is when Levin realized they were still climbing upward and were at a bit of an angle. He looked back and saw the trees behind them already looked like a carpet of moss.


    He looked forward again. If they are so high up the trees below them look like no more than moss, but this tree they are going toward is still higher than them, just how big is it!? He was used to seeing trees, so it did not seem that big just looking at the image of the thing. However, the shape just looking like a normal tree was very deceptive. It looked normal, but then you realized just how inanely much bigger it really was when you saw it in comparison to other things around it. There¡¯s no question, this thing¡­ Levin had thought the size of this dragon was impressive when he first saw it, but this tree was on a whole other level.


    [That is the great tree.] Ether guy told them. Yeah, great tree seemed like the right word for it. But, at the same time, it seemed completely inadequate. [That is where the queen lives, she will help Aerien to wake up.] He gave them all a warm smile. Yes, that¡¯s right. This is the reason they have been taking this multi-day trip just to get here.


    They had been on the road now for more time than it would have taken to travel around the world in an airplane back on Earth, or get half way across the country in a car. They probably haven¡¯t traveled very far in actual distance since they were in a wagon, but to people from Earth this really felt like a very long and difficult journey. Especially with all the monsters that kept attacking them. But, it was all for this goal, and it felt incredibly fulfilling to have reached it.


    Being reminded of their purpose, being reminded of their journey, being swept up in the sheer grandeur and scale of all of this, Levin suddenly felt a great sense of magic about the whole thing. A sense of that intangible uplifting euphoria and child-like mysticism. They had reached their goal, they were going to see the elf queen who lived in this giant tree, and Aerien was finally going to wake up again!


    He looked forward again. The tree did not seem to be coming much closer, but judging by the speed with which they left the ground he was sure that was an illusion that just spoke to how truly big this thing actually was. However, he was beginning to be able to make out some details on the upper branches of the tree now. He saw¡­ what looked like another dragon¡¯s body wrapped around some of the upper branches, coiling around them just as the big guy carrying them was wrapped around whole trees. But wait¡­ something¡¯s wrong. If he can see that large looking body from this distance, does that mean the dragon he¡¯s looking at is even larger than the one carrying them!?


    Levin was completely blown away by this thought. The one carrying them was definitely HUGE!!! He had thought for sure this must be the lord of all dragons or something with how massive it was, but what he was looking at now absolutely had to be so much bigger that it made this guy look like a garden snake by comparison.


    That thing¡­ does the queen keep it as a pet or something? She must be extremely powerful to have multiple dragons, including one so large it makes the others look like nothing, under her control. This whole fantasy world thing just went into a whole new level of fantastical. He could deal with elves and magic being a thing in this world. Little sprite things and glowing women and moving trees were something he could adjust to as well. But, if he was about to go into a room filled with dragons that could fit a whole car in their mouth and not even consider it a light snack then he was not certain how his heart was going to take it.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Haha Gaerien''s jealous of Aerien''s teeth. Oh I can just imagine Aerien biting Gaerien or vice versa."


    -meowingLexi


    "we found the dragon whisperer when shes not pouting like the loli she is."


    -Roy


    I think something went horribly wrong in my comments section this chapter. XD

 Book 2 Chapter 22: Dragon’s roost.

    On the subject of her eyes, there was something that struck him, more because he had not realized it before he dared to look up and evaluate the difference between this great creature and a statue made in her likeness. Her eyes... her right eye had a scar across it, and the actual eye in the socket looked almost as though it had somehow turned to stone. Once he had noticed this, his attention was captivated by this eye and he felt as though he could not escape.

 Book 2 Chapter 23: Chaotic spirit

    Author''s note


    We had another new subscriber since last time that looked suspiciously similar to NohVoha in terms of leaving a positive comment on the chapter and then immediately subscribing. Please welcome Vorquel even as I eye him suspiciously for the possibility of being a clone of some sort. (Well, real person or double account, I think I am flattered either way. Coincidences can happen too, it''s just weird for it to happen in back to back chapters like that.)


    We''ve also got another new subscriber in addition to those two that have me shaking my head at their uncanny similarities. His name is Bemaan. Bemaan is a lot more normal, so let''s give Bemaan as normal of a welcome as we can give him.


    Now for one more announcement. As of yesterday, this series is no longer a Scribble Hub exclusive. I hesitated to post to other sites for a while because I''m a perfectionist and wanted to at least start in on the editing to the earlier chapters that, as insane as some of you new readers might find this, I am not quite satisfied with. Well, I got my confidence boosted by this most recent sudden influx of new subscribers and their wonderful comments, so I decided to stop being silly about those things and have expanded to Webnovel and RoyalRoad. I haven''t gotten a lot of engagement on Webnovel, but from the comments I''m getting on RoyalRoad it really does sound like I was just being silly with those high standards I was holding myself to.


    Oren¡¯s POV


    With all of the lesser dragon nobles moving to carry out her orders, Oren slithered her way down the branches she was coiled around until her massive head could rest in the large space in the center of the crown of branches. The greater fairies leapt to the air to make room for her as she passed, and she came to settle her head immediately in front of the elven man who was carrying the child. With a mere thought, the child lifted from the man¡¯s arms, and Oren placed her on the bridge of her nose, directly between her eye ridges.


    From here, she began shifting her body until she found a position where she could be relaxed and comfortable without the child being at risk of falling from her nose once she was no longer being supported.


    ¡®I will now begin.¡¯ She announced. There was silence among Isanil¡¯s upper branches as the queen of the fey slowly closed her large eyes and began to focus her spirit, allowing her consciousness to enter into this child.


    -


    There is no place that is more dangerous than the inner world of another mage. The mere act of entering this space means you are automatically within their territory. This has a natural effect of greatly reducing the power of the intruder. Meanwhile, in cases where the other mage is conscious of the intruder¡¯s entry, their own magic is at its absolute peak and all spells cast inside of this space are more potent and more damaging to any foreign entity. That was not all. The best mages often had complex defenses set up around their spirit in order to guard their inner world. Some of these defenses could be truly devious.


    Despite the clear disadvantages and extreme risk involved in the actions Oren was taking, she was not concerned in the slightest. For one thing, if what the new great fairies told her was to be believed, magic was thought to be nothing more than a thing of fiction in their world. If it was so rare, she did not expect one of the few mages from that world to have any of these complex defenses that were so common. And besides that, even if a defense DID exist, it should not be anything she couldn¡¯t handle. And, to top it all off, this child was certainly not conscious if her spirit was in a state of near destruction as the reports stated.


    These were the things she had assumed before going in, and this is the reason she was quite surprised at what she saw when she entered this child¡¯s spirit realm.


    ¡®What is THIS!?¡¯ The great flying serpent yelled in shock as she looked over the chaos of activity around her. She was stunned into inaction as she tried to catch up with and process what she was seeing. First of all, this place was just WAY too big to be the spirit realm of a mere child. She was expecting it to be larger than was appropriate considering her origins, but this was just TOO big. Her spirit was clearly quite expansive, it stretched beyond what she could see.


    Far in the distance there seemed to be a brilliant sun-like light shining over the entirety of this space. However, aside from that single source of light, everything else seemed bathed in an oppressive blackness, and as you looked farther down it seemed like that dark blackness threatened to swallow up everything that drifted too close.


    It was not only light and dark though. Rocks and spheres of fire floated freely throughout the space, and in a few locations she could see great storms of wind, rain, ice, and lightning. The roll of thunder could be heard rolling across the chaotic space here and there as great clouds of darkness moved about overhead.


    Oren was stunned at the sight. However, the reason was not because she felt threatened by the sights in front of her. Indeed, this would likely be far more difficult than she first suspected, but¡­ there was a far more pressing issue that sprang to her mind. She had seen a sight like this before.


    ¡®This child¡¯s spirit, it is like the primordial void.¡¯ She beat her wings in order to slightly raise her altitude as an ice meteor was about to cross the location she was previously occupying. She knew that she should probably begin moving, but she was simply too startled by the sight. She had experience with this kind of space before and was confident of her ability to navigate it, but¡­ how could a CHILD have such an advanced inner world as this!?


    No, the more appropriate question here is, just what kind of mage was she in her previous life? From what the new great fairies told her, humans were the only anthromorphs on their old world, and there was no other sentient life. What¡¯s more, while the humans of that world did live a little longer than the humans she knew, it was only about 80 to 100 years. That was just reaching into adulthood for an elf, which were the only fey that even had a definite lifespan in the first place.


    Well, it is kind of impressive that the humans of that world even managed to extend their lifespan that far, it was almost double what would be expected on non-cultivating humans here. However, it was still nowhere near enough to explain a cultivation capable of managing this!


    No¡­ perhaps it is not a product of a complex cultivation. That¡¯s right. This child had an even more remarkable ability, the ability to summon pure energy. Maybe¡­ maybe a spirit with such a truly bizarre form was not a goal but an unintended consequence of her main power. Yes, if she altered her mind a little to see these broken and floating chunks of earth, fire, and the roving storms not as power, but instead as damage, it all made sense.


    ¡®Child, you have gotten your spirit into a real mess.¡¯ She said aloud into the darkness. Well then, now to figure out how to navigate this space. As much as it hurt her to admit it, there were actually some things in this area that did look genuinely dangerous even to her. Especially that darkness below. As she watched the large stones and other such items drift about in this space, occasionally some would fall into that void. Everything that did immediately crumbled to dust, or in the case of fire it was simply snuffed out. It was not that there were no chunks of material down there because it was kept in its place. Rather, there seemed to be some kind of energy down there that simply destroyed everything that came near it.


    It was rather clear that was not a place she would want to go. She was proud of her power, but it was not the foolish pride that would cause one to disregard intelligent action. It was rather clear that whatever energy existed down there was easily the single most dangerous thing in an already very dangerous space.


    She also had to identify where it is she needed to go. She would have to reach the core of this space in order to do any real good. As for where the core was, well, that sun-like light was her best clue. Now then, how to reach it? It was clear that whatever form of energy was in the lower level of this space had to be avoided, and the mass of rocks at this level were just annoying. Well then, the upper level it is. That worked out fine. As the flying creature that she was, she greatly preferred to fly higher.


    With a mighty beat of her wings, Oren ascended into the higher space above all the stones floating about. This is the point where something caught her attention. The higher up she flew, dodging stones and floating chunks of fire, magma, and ice here and there, she began to pick out the sight of several unprocessed gemstones. This sight made her stop in wonder.


    Most mages manifested their spell vessels as large gemstone-like crystals. It was not at all uncommon to see gemstones inside of a person¡¯s mental world. However, there was something very off about these gemstones. They were nothing like the kind that served as spell vessels. Those often took the shape of flawless perfectly cut gems. These, however, were in their raw form. And that was not all, her eyes also began to catch out the sight of several metals. Iron, gold, copper, silver, as well as several different kinds of junk metals that were unworthy for much more than crafting into things such as tins by humans.


    Her wing collided with a large chunk of rock. It was one of the larger stones about, so it caused her to hiss in pain. She instinctively used her own magic to suspend herself in place as she folded her wings and gave them several test flaps. ¡®This is not good.¡¯ She said in a curse of herself. She had allowed herself to get distracted by all of the shiny stones and metals. She cursed her treasure-seeking instincts of her previous mortal life. There was no longer any need for such things, she should not allow this to distract her, especially when there was a much greater treasure to be had. One that promised the solution to the very problem they were facing at this moment.


    She began flying higher and higher. She began to notice the air was growing much hotter the higher up she went, and at some point the stones which had precious gems and metals embedded into them gave way to just large and pure floating chunks of metal and rough crystals of sizes that were rapidly becoming far more reminiscent of a proper spell vessel, if not for their unprocessed state.


    ¡®How interesting.¡¯ She said to herself. When she saw this, she could not help the urge to suspend herself once again and watch all the rich ores and gems floating about, none of them incased in the rock they normally resided in. And also, this heat. The heat mixed with gems almost made her think of the volcanos which bred such precious stones. This child¡¯s spirit was very strange indeed. Normally the gems would be low and deep into the earth, but in this space the precious material was more common the higher you went.


    Well, it¡¯s not really likely that anyone but a dragon could get by with this oppressive heat though. If she was feeling a little warm here, it would be enough that a member of almost any other species would already have long since caught fire and even their bones would be turning to ash. And yet, not a single feather on her wings were singed. Thus was the power of dragons. Well, at this temperature, she posited that it may even be hot enough to render this area inhospitable to even some of the lesser noble rank dragons.


    ¡®Very interesting. Child, the anticipation for our meeting grows greater the more that I see.¡¯ She was growing quite interested. However, it was starting to become rather clear that this upper space was not going to provide her with the open clear route she was hoping for. Perhaps it would actually be easier to stick to the middle layer of this space. At least down there the chunks of floating material are softer. Perhaps she could just fly straight through them and break apart any stones foolish enough to be placed in her path.


    As she was about to implement this idea, something else of interest caught Oren¡¯s attention. There was something strange off in the distance in one area of this upper level. Her curiosity peaked, she decided to fly in that direction. It was a significant distance below where she was now, but it was still within the precious ores layer of this space. When she arived, she saw what looked like a chunk of iron, but it was bathed in a strange blue flame. It was nothing like normal fire. In fact, it was more like the chunk of iron was passing through something invisible, and wherever the iron came into contact with it these blue flames were kicked up until they again quickly vanished.


    As she looked around, she noticed there were several other ores and precious stones bathed in the same blue aura of flame. Then, as she entered into the same area herself, the same blue flame flashed over her nose and covered her wings. It was not hot and did not burn like fire, but when she saw it flowing over her own body she finally made the connection as to what she was seeing. She had seen this phenomenon before! Realizing what was about to happen, she quickly reversed course and tried to fly higher again, but then a resounding BOOM sounded acros the space. It was like a chain reaction of some sort, and the thunder was hear several times in very close proximity and arcing flashes of light danced across all the stones and metals. Every one that had a blue aura of flame on it, and several that did not, were all visited by at least one if not several blasts of lightning.


    Oren was no exception to this. She was one of the largest objects in the area, and so she quite likely got struck more than any of the others. However, she kept flying as though she didn¡¯t even notice this until she finally left the area and was away from the multiple lightning strikes. ¡®I HATE being struck by lightning!¡¯ She grumbled in a disgusted tone and then sniffed. She did not seem the slightest bit worse for her recent experience, at least not physically, but she was clearly annoyed. ¡®Those were actual full force lightning strikes though¡­ no, I think they may have actually stung a bit worse than the real thing, but that could just be because it is someone else¡¯s spirit I am inside of.¡¯


    Seriously, real lightning. That was almost unheard of in magic. There were some human mages who used their effect magic to make something that looked the same as lightning, but it held nowhere even close to the kick of an actual lightning strike. That just now, however, was as real as it got. A sub dragon would have got its scales and flesh seared by just one of those bolts. That is not something a human could ever boast.


    ¡®Alright child, I have seen enough now. I definitely want to meet you. We are going to have a talk.¡¯ This was more power than she had thought she would be using. She surrounded herself in a magical barrier, and began flying full speed toward the area beneath the sun-like light. Chunks of metal slammed into her shield and deflected off deformed from their previous state. Crystals and precious stones shattered into glittering shards as she flew past. She flew straight into a full size hurricane that seemed to stretch from the mid level and went high into the upper level, throwing winds, rains, and thunder. She dismissed this though, and continued flying straight on.


    She continued to cut a trail through the chaotic mess of flames and rocks and storms, and finally the core of the area came into sight. And what she saw was¡­ a truly gigantic antromoph form. She could see the blue semi-transparent body from a great distance. The head of the giant seemed to be buried inside of the large sun-like light, and was covered in a radiant brightness that made it impossible to look at the face. The feet stretched all the way down into that ominous blackness and seemed completely unaffected by the energy-destroying nothingness. Actually, it almost seemed as though that dark energy was more focused on the space around the giant¡¯s feet than any other part of this space. The pale blue light of those feet were about the only light that could be seen down there. All other light and matter in the vicinity seemed to simply cease to exist before even approaching that nothingness. It was as though the very concept of nothingness itself existed at this giant¡¯s feet.


    As Oren began to grow closer, the giant seemed to move. She still could not see its face, but it seemed to be looking at her. She noticed something strange about the giant as well. She could only make out the chest, but¡­ didn¡¯t it look¡­ male? This child was supposed to be a female from what she had heard.


    She had dismissed the idea of this child having any form of defenses on her spirit as she was entering, but having already run across several situations that might even have been able to harm the lesser noble dragons, she was very quickly re-evaluating her previous stance. She had dismissed the idea before by explaining it as likely the product of the damage to her spirit, but seeing this thing fully intact was quickly causing all of her previous suppositions to flip completely. If everything from before was her defenses, then this might very well be the last line of defense.


    She began preparing herself for the possibility of battle as she continued her flight like an arrow piercing the night in this dark space, and finally her wings brought her before the giant. It was even more impressive up close. She had never in this second life encountered anything aside from mountains and Isanil¡¯s main body that was larger in size than she was, but this giant was so large that she would be nothing but a bug in its palm. Well, size-wise anyway. However, when it came to magic, size was not what mattered. If this thing decided to attack her, it would find that out the hard way.


    ¡°So, you must be the queen of the fey I have been hearing about.¡± A strong young male voice reverberated across the space. Oren eyed the giant with suspicion. She was still unable to look at its face due to the brightness of the halo of light that surrounded its head. She couldn¡¯t see for certain whether its lips had moved or not. However, there was something about the quality of the voice that did not seem like it had come from the giant.


    The pale blue body of the giant shimmered, and then it became only a blue light outline that allowed her to see completely through to the other side of it. There were several points of glowing balls of light dotted throughout the ghostly giant¡¯s body. They all seemed to be connected by some form of thin light beams that held flowing energy traveling from one point of light to the next. And, somewhere right in the middle of one of the larger balls of light, third from the bottom, she could see another much smaller masculine anthromorphic form, and it seemed to be holding a small sleeping child who looked very much like the one carried by the elf in the physical world.


    Subscribers'' comment of the chapter.


    "a chaotic storm all shrugged off like when you walk out the front door only to get a small bit a spider web in the face."


    -Roy


    Not a lot of activity on this one, unless you count the nonsense where I announced I was deleting a paragraph and then added it back in a little later. The last paragraph of this chapter actually rendered me unable to write the next chapter without a burden on my mind. I wound up writing it in a way that worked with that last paragraph after all, but during the writing process the constraint it placed on me made the writing difficult. One of those funny things I guess.


    (Yeah, all the weird confusing messy stuff happens over on Subscribe Star now and gets witnessed by my subscribers. Lol. Fun.)

 Book 2 Chapter 24: Life Support

    Author''s note


    Another new subscriber to welcome, slipped in just hours before it was time for this chapter to go up. Let''s all welcome Remigius to the club!


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    My mind was in a bit of a haze. It is very easy to loose track of time in a place like this. Gaerien had said that we were getting close to the capital, but from how she was talking it sounded like it would be at least another day. Well, it felt like only a few hours had passed since that conversation when I felt, rather than saw, a very strange thing going on inside of this space.


    Something about this exhilarated me. I could feel my spirit quake as I detected a strange energy. It reminded me of when I went to the main dojo in Japan and studied under the grand master. It was THAT kind of energy. It terrified me, but I could also tell there was no hostility from it. Despite the fact I felt as though it could destroy me at any moment, something about this feeling just made my heart dance and a smile spread on my lips.


    This had to be her, right? That queen is doing something right now. It feels like her energy is piercing right into me. It is less like being enveloped and more like getting stabbed by a blade.


    She must have a crazy amount of spirit energy. That¡¯s the cause of this sort of thing, right? I had always been aware of some kind of strange sensations in my previous life. A strange tingling of energy on me. I knew I was not alone in this sensation. Everyone has known the feeling of being watched. Most people dismiss these feelings, but once I started to pay more attention I could begin to determine a lot more from these sensations. Things like whether a person had good or bad intentions. Things like how much of an overall threat a person was if we were to get in a fight. I had never really known the basis behind these sensations until Gaerien had told me.


    All of it comes from spirit energy. Spirit energy carries people¡¯s thoughts. It carries their intentions. All activities of the brain are manifested as spirit energy. On Earth, this energy was so incredibly potent that anyone could sense it with relative ease. Here in this world, as an elf, I preserved the ability to still sense this spirit energy despite the quantities being much smaller. This was the first time though I had sensed anything even resembling the high power levels of spirit energy I had sensed from those few people in the world who could utterly destroy me with their bare hands due purely to their superior skill.


    As I continued to follow this energy in my mind, I began to notice it was moving around inside of this inner world space. The source of it was out inside of that asteroid field full of ice, magma, and the occasional hurricane right now, and it was rushing straight toward me. I knew she was here to help me, but the presence of such an overwhelming energy triggered something primal in me, and the next thing I knew was the entire world going blue for a moment, before I could see out over the stom again, this time from a much higher vantage point.


    As I looked down, I noticed my younger self was no longer in my arms. My arms, though, were now a pale sky blue for some reason. As I looked about a little more, I realized I had somehow become my spirit projection. I closed my eyes and focused the energy flowing through my body into my solar plexus where I knew my younger self still was, and then I turned my head to look the direction I felt the strange intrusive energy coming from.


    Before long, a small point of light flew in and approached close to my navel. As I looked closer, I could see something that looked almost like a worm with wings, but it had an angular head and scales covered its body. Not only that, but the small little thing gave off a feeling like it was a hypodermic needle pointed straight at me. It may be small, but if I handled it wrong then it would surely pierce me in a second, and likely do so much more as well.


    Alright, I had to calm down. This appearance probably looked impressive, but I am certain a millennia old queen with that kind of power is not going to be impressed by just size. In fact, in a way this could even be seen as rude. I¡¯ve GOT to find a way to calm down and make a proper introduction. Or, should I just greet her first? ¡°So, you must be the queen of the fae I have been hearing about.¡± The way my voice came out surprised me. My new giant form did not speak, and it was not booming and deep either. Instead, it was my own voice as it was when I was a young man. Well, my age had been reversing since coming into this world, so that¡¯s no surprise. The more surprising thing though is that my voice seemed to be coming from everywhere around us, as though the space itself was talking.


    Well then, that ought to show my intentions are not hostile at the very least. Now, to get myself back to my natural state. With a little focus, I managed to dismiss the whole giant form thing and was back in my normal body, still holding my younger self in my arms.


    -


    Oren¡¯s POV


    Oren looked over everything in front of her. As she took in the pattern of the lights and the light streams that flowed from them, she began to see a pattern. She had heard before about the energy pathways anthromorphs used in training their warrior cultivation, as well as a number of points that served as reservoir for that energy. She had never really thought it mattered much to her, but this greatly resembled what she had heard of some of those.


    More significantly, the man holding the child was sitting right at the core of the energy structure, and it was very clear there was an immense amount of energy flowing through this system. She had presumed she could likely have taken on that giant before, but as she got a better look at this energy system it became clear it was in a weakened state. All of the immense energies flowing through it were all dedicated to the sole purpose of keeping that child alive.


    Well, she did not fully understand what the situation was, but there were two things that were completely clear. The first is that her goal aligned with this entity in front of her. The second was that he was aware of it. From this, she could conclude things ought to progress smoothly from here.


    ¡®Yes, it is as you say. I have come to heal that child¡¯s spirit. Before that though, may I ask who it is that I am addressing?¡¯


    ¡°My name, your majesty?¡± The male spiritual entity responded in all politeness. ¡°Well, you are inside of my spirit, so I suppose that should answer your question. I am Aerien, and so is she.¡± He says, indicating the child in his arms. ¡°We are two spirits inhabiting the same body. I am not sure what you have been told, but since the incident that caused me to fall into my current state, I have been dedicating all of my attention toward preserving the few remnants of my other half.¡± After these words, the spirit, the ¡®other Aerien,¡¯ directed some tender and sad eyes toward the limp child in his lap. ¡°I survived the incident without harm, but her spirit was battered and destroyed. She has not left my arms for even a moment since that happened.¡±


    Oren was somewhat taken aback by this situation. Two spirits in the same body? This child¡¯s soul just became stranger and stranger. However, from the few intelligible things she could get out of Isanil outside of her frequent and incessant gushing about how amazing the child¡¯s ability to summon energy and how she could make dryads smarter, she had managed to pull out one useful bit of information. This child was the same as the recently arrived greater faeries. They had lived a previous life. Now that she was seeing this spirit in person, she could fully believe it.


    That aside, she was also quickly able to see how this situation was greatly tilted in her advantage. ¡®I see, so you wish to have my help in reviving your other half?¡¯ She saw his eyebrows twitch at her words.


    ¡°How much do you know about how to construct a human spirit, your highness?¡± He asked, his politeness only just barely present as a formality at this point. ¡°Or rather, elf I mean. An elf¡¯s spirit. That is what she needs. For the best I can tell, it needs to be reconstructed from scratch.¡±


    Well, this is a shrewd individual. He had gotten the angle she was trying to take this down just by hearing her words, and he had taken back momentum in the conversation. He seemed to have a level of awareness that was far higher than those others. The only humans she had ever met like this were kings and ambassadors. Well, he was a cultivator of the previous world, an existence that was apparently so rare as to be unheard of and unknown in that world. Of course he ought to be a bit sharper.


    ¡®Do you know how to construct a spirit from scratch, as you say?¡¯ She decided to turn it back around on him.


    ¡°I do, I created the entire manifestation I am currently sitting inside from the energy of heaven that was running through my younger side¡¯s spirit at the time. I am certain I can do the same for her using the same energy that is running through my own. It may be a little more difficult, but I have previous experience doing it.¡±


    So, it sounds as though he has some real skill in spirit crafting. Impressive. ¡®If you are that capable of it, I presume the reason you have not done so already is for fear of what will happen to that child if she is left alone?¡¯


    ¡°It is as you have deduced, your majesty.¡±


    ¡®Well, if that is the case, this may be a far easier operation that I had presumed upon entering into your spirit. Very well, I will play no more insulting games with you. Once this is finished, you shall belong to me. As you had clearly realized, I was attempting to extract an oath from you as a condition of providing my assistance. However, I have judged you worthy, and I am certain someone as intelligent and capable as yourself will not do anything foolish. If you leave the child¡¯s spirit in my care, I will provide the energy necessary to sustain her while you begin the process of repairing her.¡¯


    The other Aerien before her did not say a word. He merely unfolded his legs and took a standing position as he held the child spirit in his arms. With this sign of acceptance, Oren flew into the torso of the phantasmal giant, and then into the core of it¡¯s energy structure. She was immediately bathed in the warm and powerful energy. It was turbulent, and definitely not a pure example of any one type of energy. It was mana, it was also spirit energy, she could even feel the corrupted arcane energy within the mix along with what seemed to be other energies she had never heard of or even felt before.


    She had wondered if she would have the power to maintain the child as he had been without nearly draining herself and loosing so much of her power that she fell below the royal level. However, if she was allowed to stay inside of this energy core, she could surely replenish herself even as she poured her energy into this child. It was surely not going to be at this same level of intensity once he began to redirect the majority toward forming a new spirit for the child, but it would still be just enough to allow her to maintain herself, and she could certainly request to recieve a bit more of this energy to restore herself after the entire procedure is complete.


    As she drew closer to the pair, she was quickly becoming aware of the large difference in their current manifestations as compared to the physical world. The two of them were far far larger than they were in the physical world. In this world, your size was a manifestation of your relative strength. In that sense, this energy giant that completely dwarfed her size was likely a manifestation of the nearly infinite energy this child was able to summon, while the two more autonomous spirits that resembled their physical form were still smaller than oren was. However, they were not quite as much smaller than her as the child¡¯s physical form.


    Back in the physical world, if she was not careful it was possible for her to accidentally inhale an anthromorph through her nose and barely even notice. It may be a crude point of comparison. The manifestations inside of here would be capable of hugging her nose and sticking an entire arm inside her nostril, but their body was in no danger of making it inside even if they crawled in head first. It might be a highly crude way to compare, but it was easy to understand. Oren may have lived a long time and had great knowledge, but she still preferred explanations like this that were simple and easy to understand wherever possible.


    This child had great power, and was able to call upon an even greater power that greatly exceeded even the royalty level. Indeed, Oren was certain she had not made the wrong decision.


    She brought her massive nose up to loom over the pair, and then coiled a section of her body in order to form a large indentation in the center where the girl could be placed. The older spirit looked down and quickly understood, placing the smaller child spirit where she was supposed to go. He continued to hold onto her hand though, even as he laid her body down. Continuing to feed her the energy that was sustaining her.


    Without even saying a word to one another, having only just met, the two understood their roles. Oren could see his legs tensing. He was just waiting for the moment she began feeding in her own energy in order to take over the role from him.


    ¡®Unlike you, I do not have an unlimited supply of energy to provide. Once I begin, you will have to act quickly.¡¯


    ¡°I understand.¡± He responded in a stiff all-business tone. It was not a servile tone, it was a lot closer to what one might use with an equal or in a military setting. Short, crisp, and efficient communication.


    Oren found all of these subtle shifts in his demeanor interesting. She had been watching anthromorphs for a long time in her seemingly endless life, so she got used to reading the little quirks in their behaviors and what they all meant. This person¡­ he had clearly lead a rather interesting former life. The mere fact he was able to interact in this way with someone of her stature and standing was proof enough of this, but a lot of that could also be the result of his driven desire to save this child.


    She let out a long slow breath and turned her head down, and then immediately began pouring her own energy into the child. ¡®Ok.¡¯ She said. And, in the next second, his hand let go of the child¡¯s and he immediately vanished. The surrounding energies immediately began to grow more faint. They were still powerful, but they were becoming far less intense. She focused on the spirit body of the small girl, pushing her spirit energy into her. Her nose was beginning to bleed. She could see now why, despite the power he was able to summon, her male half was unable to do anything more than simply preserve her. If she began to break down this quickly even with her support, it meant she really had been very far gone. This made the case both more and less complex than she had imagined going in. It was a task that absolutely required two consciousnesses to address.


    She was conscious of some form of bright flash of light not far from this position, but Oren could not spare the attention to see what was happening. The degradation was getting worse. The skin around the sides of the mouth had begun to crack, and blood was now leaking from her eyes as well. The more disturbing part though was that despite the excruciating pain she must be in, the child did not even make a sound or twitch a muscle. She was just a collection of spiritual fragments barely held together by the sheer will of her other half who was absolutely determined not to loose her. She was beginning to gain a whole new appreciation for this man. She was certainly very interested in pulling information from him once this immediate issue was settled.


    The child¡¯s already grey skin was beginning to look more like it had the rough cracked appearance of a dark elf at this point. The cracks around the mouth were starting to become open sores, and they were beginning to appear on her hands. Her feet, for some reason, seemed to be spared. There was a second large flash of light. The child¡¯s body twitched.


    It¡¯s working! That man is making progress! Motivated by the success of her partner in this effort, Oren began to pour even more of herself into the child. She could feel her own power draining from her. That man had certainly better have the capability of repaying the energy deficit she was putting herself into. If she were left in this state, she would no longer be able to control Isanil as she had been. This was becoming a major gamble.


    With a third flash, the degradation slowed. The timing on that was good. Oren was beginning to feel weak from her expenditures. She could sense there was some energy leaking into the child¡¯s system now. However, due to how much she had weakened from the beginning of this process until now, she still needed to concentrate. Until she saw signs of the degradation reversing, she could not afford to assume the child was safe without it. Her arms had become thin enough to see the shape of the bones. With only a little more, the damage could become irreversible. Actually, the damage should have already been irreversible, it truly was a miracle that this child was even alive.


    It took a long time. The flashes had stopped, and instead there seemed to be a less intense but now very steady stream of light from outside. Whatever ¡°he¡± was doing out there, it¡¯s effects were showing. The degradation seemed to be reversing in the same order it started. The bleeding stopped first, the lesions in the skin though took far longer to heal, and the now emaciated form would likely take even longer to recover. However, she was able to finally take a look at what this second spirit living within this body was doing.


    One of his hands was in the air, it was receiving a steady beam of light from what seemed to be the head of the energy giant. This energy was being used to work on the new spirit body he was constructing. As for his progress with this task, there were three spheres of light stacked upon one another in front of him, colored blue, indigo, and violet. From the topmost blue sphere, there were energy vessels extending and beginning to form a rough outline of a head, arms, and legs.


    There was a look of focused concentration on his face, and then he brought his hands together and turned to receive the energy from the giant with both hands. The moment he was prepared, the energy intensified and it was like he was being attacked by that energy. He received this intense beam however, and compressed it between his hands, before the beam of light finally died off. He was now holding a green sphere of light, which he added to the stack. As soon as this one was introduced, a blue anthromorph shell appeared around the forming energy network, and a pained expression appeared on the child¡¯s face.


    This process was repeated, the rate of flashing light increased at this point. This time, it was a yellow sphere. The child gasped and their breathing became intense. An orange sphere was added, the child began moaning and screaming. This caught ¡°his¡± attention. He looked back at Oren, and more specifically the child, for several long seconds. Finally, he got a determined look on his face and looked back up toward the giant¡¯s face. The intense light did not seem to bother his eyes like it did hers. He received one more blast of light from it, and formed it into the final red sphere among the seven primary energy nexuses that are possessed by anthromorphs.


    As soon as this last nexus was put in place, he was back before ¡°the other half¡± of himself in an instant. Her face, neck, hands, and arms were still covered in now scabbed-over sores, and the blood that had come from her nose and eyes still left tracks across her face. She continued to scream, and was now thrashing about in her pain on Oren¡¯s coiled body.


    He did not even seem to hesitate at her ghastly marred and emaciated form. He simply reached out his arms and cradled her, gently breathing assurances to her. He placed his hand on her chest, and Oren could feel the surrounding energy rise and intensify again. Her emaciated arms inflated and returned to normal immediately, and the lesions on her skin were closing at a visible rate. She calmed and relaxed into his arms, and he wiped the blood from her face and then gently held her head to his own chest as the intense energy in this area calmed down and came to a level that Oren presumed is what would be considered ¡°normal¡± for the inside of the core energy nexus for a manifestation of otherworldly energy that was being channeled through a living being.


    ¡°He¡± let out a sigh of relief. ¡°There is still a lot more work to do, but she should be stable now. Thank you. I really do mean it. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.¡±


    Indeed, she had made the right call. He seemed to value this other existence within himself quite a bit. Now, time to see if this was all worth it.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "next time on SLSG the green charmeleon evolves into a charizard!!!"


    -Roy


    "Yay!!! She''s stable."


    -meowingLexi


    "Well I am glad I got past that cliff, yay for money, on a side note "it truly was a maricle that this", its a "maricle"!!!!"


    -NohVoah


    Well, not exactly sure what NohVoah was talking about except for the excitement of blowing through the advanced chapters real fast, but I guess might as well be nice and include your first comment. I already said a welcome to NohVoah, but here''s a second one I guess.

 Book 2 Chapter 25: Surgical scars

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I levitated myself back from this queen dragon, filled with a sense of relief at my younger self finally being in a stable state. I had been focusing on nothing aside from just keeping her alive for so long, trapped in this bleak place filled with all the destruction caused the rough nature of my apparent awakening to what was supposedly my old former level of power.


    But now, finally, she was stable. She was not recovered, but at least she was in a state where I could look away from her for two seconds and work on her recovery without worrying about what would happen. She was still limp in my arms, still unable to wake up, but finally there was the promise that she was on her road to recovery.


    I looked back to the dragon queen with a soft look of appreciation. She certainly seemed far less intimidating now that we had worked cooperatively on such a monumental thing. No, it was more than that. Somehow, she really did not seem to have as much of a commanding presence anymore. She seemed¡­ tired. However, she still carried herself with dignity and held her head high as she uncoiled her body.


    Now then, I hadn¡¯t made an issue of it earlier, but there was something she had said. Her condition in lending her aid was that I would now belong to her. What did she mean by that exactly though? In what capacity would I be ¡°hers?¡± Well then, I guess now is the time for negotiations. For my part, having said nothing, I still had some room to negotiate myself. Although, my gratitude over her having given her help without insisting on the details beforehand was definitely going to play a part. If she were a cruel queen wanting to hold dominance over me, if she were the type to demand I become her slave, she would have pushed such demands before healing my younger half and I was still desperate.


    Well, a vassal of some form or another was probably the most likely then. If that¡¯s the case, it would be best for me to find out what I can. I hugged my younger half gently to my chest, and then looked back to the queen.


    ¡°I really don¡¯t think I can express my gratitude toward you enough.¡± I said to her. ¡°So, you said something about the condition on which you were offering your aid. I think we had better discuss that more.¡±


    ¡®Yes,¡¯ she responded. ¡®But first, I used a lot of my own energy to restore that young one. Normally, I might have to spend centuries to recover that much energy.¡¯ She looked up with these words, words that were spoken without the movement of her mouth. They simply seemed to emanate from her direction and I immediately understood them. More interestingly though, I understood her words as English. They were communicated directly to my mind in the form I could understand the best.


    She seemed to be basking herself in the energy around her, stretching her feathered wings and shifting her body in a manner that seemed somehow lazy but dignified at the same time.


    ¡®This place, the abundant energy running through the core of your spirit, I feel I can recover rather quickly if I were to stay here. I must ask though, where does this vast energy go to? I certainly could feel none of it emanating from your physical body.¡¯


    ¡°Everything that¡¯s not used vanishes into the void.¡± I answer her question honestly, pointing down toward the inky blackness below. ¡°That is the secret to my cultivation. Energy does not like to be held stagnant. I do not actually summon this energy to me at all. Rather, I direct all the effort toward expelling the energy. And, by its nature, as I empty myself of the energy, more rushes in immediately to take its place. It is like the difference between the amount of water that passes through a cup compared to the amount of water that passes through a stream. There is simply no comparison between the two.¡±


    ¡®Hmm¡­ I see. So, you summon energy by getting rid of it? Very interesting. Clever, even. With such a method, you could greatly exceed your capacity with very little difficulty. I can see a lot of potential in this method, but I suppose that potential also must be refined. It will do you no good if you cannot utilize the energy.¡¯


    She seemed amused, but also thoughtful. It was like she was evaluating me and my capabilities. Was this like some sort of interview process?


    ¡®I must say though, it has been a long time since I grew too large to relax in a stream. Being inside a stream of pure energy now is rather nice. I simply wish that there was something that could be done about the arcane energies mixed in. I suppose there is nothing that can be done about that though, and it may even be good for you considering your heritage.¡¯


    She began to hover her body about inside of the sphere that represented my third Chakra, flying behind me and looping around, eventually settling with her body fully encircling me as she regarded me with interest. ¡®I must say though, that was quite impressive. You formed the seven major spiritual power nexuses and a new spirit shell for the child from nothing, and you did it in a mere matter of minutes. I honestly doubt anyone without your ability could do the same. I am curious though, how did you come upon such a remarkable cultivation method?¡¯


    Hmm¡­ now, how should I answer this question? ¡°Well, before I can answer that, I have to know something, your majesty. How much have you been told about me?¡±


    She seemed to respond with a slightly bitter mental equivalent to a chuckle. Rather, it was more like the emotion of bitter scoffing bemusement was projected directly into my mind, leaving no room for the misinterpretation that could come from reading a facial expression. ¡®I should like to say too much, but most of that is useless information. I however, if your question is to whether or not I know your previous life was spent in another world from our own, I can tell you I have indeed heard that much.¡¯


    Of course, the fact I remember my previous life is a given that didn¡¯t have to be said. Well then, that should make explaining this all considerably easier.


    ¡°Well, magic worked very differently in my old world. The world itself greatly resisted any and all magic, and to cause even the most simple of effects would require power that would likely be considered on par with the highest class mages of this world. This method, I am told, was developed by mages of the past in my world to overcome this phenomenal magic resistance. However, even at the level you see here and have been praising, I really did not have any actual ability to cast magic or cause any magical effect.¡±


    ¡®Well, that would explain why your cultivation seems to center on the formation of the warrior and possesses no spell vessels anywhere in its structure. I would be quite interested to see what you could do if you started a proper mage¡¯s cultivation now that you are in a world where magic comes easier.¡¯


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I just hope I can control it whenever I make the attempt, I honestly do not know what could happen.¡±


    She just seemed to be staring at me for a long time after this comment. Was this little impromptu interview over? Was she simply enjoying her energy bath too much and loosing the intention for the small-talk informal questioning session, or was she simply trying to think of where to bring this discussion next?


    ¡®Hmm¡­ well then, one more question. Exactly how old were you in your previous life?¡¯


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I was sixty years old at the time of my death.¡± I told her.


    ¡®Sixty!?¡¯ She responded with thoughts filled with disbelief. ¡®I am afraid I have a great deal of difficulty believing that one. You bear yourself as someone with quite a bit more experience and awareness than someone of a mere sixty years of age ought to have.¡¯


    Mere sixty years of age? Well, her racially biased view is definitely showing here. He was actually considered an old man by most at sixty, although there are some who had insisted sixty was the new upper end of middle aged, and he was certainly healthy enough to serve as the poster child of that push for redefining the age categories.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know what to tell you. Sixty is rather old for a human. Humans don¡¯t have long to live, so we dedicate our lives toward cramming in as much life and experience as we can.¡±


    ¡®So, you insist that you truly were sixty years of age in your past life then?¡¯ She lets out a snort and her nostrils flare as she looks me directly in the face.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡®Hmm¡­ well, assuming you are telling me the truth, you are still far more capable than some of the older humans I have encountered, or at least the ones who have not extended their lives a great deal through their cultivation. I suppose this means you have a rather good future ahead of you.¡¯


    ¡°You seem very pleased about that.¡± I observed almost in an accusatory tone. Something about this whole interaction was wearing thin at the good will I had over what she had just done for me. She also seemed to have the nerve to just stare back in amusement at my accusation too.


    ¡®Very bold, aren¡¯t you? Well, I have made my decision.¡¯ She audaciously declares. ¡®Well, I know I said one more question, but before I can explain what I have decided I need to return your previous question back on you. How much do YOU know about us? The fey people, and the royalty in particular.¡¯


    I sighed. Here she goes interviewing me for who knows what and then making decisions without telling me anything. Isn¡¯t this my spirit she is inside of too? She has even outright admitted she is leeching off my energy to recover herself. If there is one thing about nobility that is consistent between humans and dragons, it is clearly their absurd levels of presumptuousness. Well, I guess there¡¯s really no harm in answering this question. She probably plans to fill the gaps in my knowledge, and information is really something I can use. I will get more information in this situation by playing nice than being confrontational.


    ¡°Well, I know that it is normal for fey to be born from sentient creatures who have died. They are the result of humans, or also dragons by the looks of it, who have died with a strong will to keep living. I also know that elves are very unusual among the fey and are something that is kinda between the fey and the humans. Other fey do not birth children, they simply materialize from the lingering spirits as full adults. Also, it seems I am highly unusual for an elf in that I am able to remember my past life as a human. Most do not remember their human lives at all.¡±


    ¡®Hmm¡­¡¯ She nodded approvingly. ¡®It seems you know quite a bit about your own race. That is good. Well, have you been told anything about the royalty of the fey?¡¯


    ¡°Well, I am afraid I have not been told a single thing about the fey royalty, the only thing I was told was to expect you to take me from my mother once you had healed me.¡±


    ¡®Hmm? How did you hear this exactly?¡¯


    ¡°My sister told me, she has the ability to communicate with me even in this state, assuming she can get in physical contact with my body.¡±


    ¡®Hm! Well, this is unexpected. This changes a few things. The most important part is still the same though. Well then, to explain the fey royalty. This may seem unrelated, but did your sister also tell you what happened after you lost consciousness with that nymph who lived in the tree you were being raised in?¡¯


    ¡°She became a dryad, right?¡± I sensed the queen was a little annoyed about something I had just said, but I didn¡¯t really know why. It was small, but her thoughts and emotions were communicated extremely clearly with her energy communication, so that made it very hard to miss even if I had no idea how to read a dragon¡¯s face.


    ¡®Yes, THEY did become a dryad.¡¯ She responded, and in her mind she strongly pushed the image and idea of tree spirits such as a dryad being without gender, making the meaning behind her use of ¡°they¡± hard to misinterpret. ¡®Anyway, that¡¯s not what I was talking about. I mean what they actually did after becoming a dryad. Were you told anything about that?¡¯


    ¡°Well, no I wasn¡¯t.¡± I responded. By the way she was talking, it sounded like she was about to say something very important and it had my attention.


    ¡®That dryad¡­ blamed the people of the village for what happened to you. Over two hundred members of the village, and over one hundred of the supporting reinforcements sent from another village, lost their lives as a result of that dryad¡¯s anger.¡¯


    ¡­.¡­¡­¡­¡­.. My mind simply froze upon hearing this. I am not certain I could even call it shock, it is more that my brain refused to process the information. It just¡­ didn¡¯t really sound real.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, what?¡± I asked. That was about all I could really say in such a situation. I doubted my ears. ¡°Ah, no way, how could Gaerien not have¡­¡± No, it was possible that Gaerien might not have known. She told me they were taken out of the house in a covered wagon. Maybe she didn¡¯t even see the bodies. It seemed plausible, but¡­


    ¡®It is true. Did your sister tell you about a changeling traveling with you? He is an agent of mine, and he is the one who told me about this. Changelings are a very loyal and reliable group, and they act as my personal agents. I assure you, he would not give a false report. You can interrogate that elf who brought you as well if you doubt this.¡¯


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t have any real reason to doubt what you are saying, but¡­ I guess I just can¡¯t process it. I mean, really!? I just was not expecting to hear that, it doesn¡¯t really sound, well¡­ real to me, even if I do believe it. I guess¡­ maybe it¡¯s because I was a baby and didn¡¯t get to interact with anyone outside of Ether¡­ errr¡­ the elf mage who raised me, my mother who was reluctant to interact with me, and Rolwen, Levin, and Gaerien. I¡­ never actually knew any of the villagers, so¡­ but¡­¡±


    ¡®Hmm¡­ yes, well, I am not going to judge you for not feeling enough over their deaths. Honestly, they are just numbers to me as well.¡¯ I felt my brow twitch and my neck stiffen over her admitting to something like that so casually. ¡®There is something important for you to know about this though, that is that your dryad¡¯s reaction was actually mild compared to what most dryads in their position would have done. They fey court has actually had to, on occasion, hunt down escaped people who have offended a dryad just to appease their anger.¡¯


    ¡®You see, dryads are usually simple minded but very emotional creatures. However, their power is great. We may have built our kingdom here in the forest, and we exploit the power of the tree spirits in order to make our lives easier, but the dryads are the true rulers of the forest. We live with the dryads, but we also live apart from them.¡¯


    ¡®Dryads, as well as the lesser tree spirits such as the nymphs, use mana in order to move their tree bodies. They also use spirit energy to enhance their spirit bodies. However, with a very large and overwhelming amount of spirit energy, it becomes possible to actually control a tree spirit. To the fey who live in fear of the wrath of the tree spirits when they go out of control, having someone capable of expending a vast amount of spirit energy in order to forcibly calm them is an ability that would naturally become highly revered. Those with the ability to do this are granted positions of nobility.¡¯


    ¡®As you said before, with the exception of elves, fey do not give birth. As such, there is nothing like the noble succession by blood tradition in human societies. Pure power is all it actually takes to be considered a member of the fey court. Of course, in order to prevent things from becoming too chaotic, we do have a junior member and senior member system, granting decision making powers only to those who have proven themselves capable.¡¯


    She looked toward me with some form of meaning in her gaze upon finishing that last sentence in her long shpeel, and I was beginning to get a chilling suspicion about what she was likely to say next.


    ¡°Wh¡­ why are you telling me all this?¡± Of course, I already know the answer to that question, but this whole ¡°let the meaning sink in¡± game was getting old fast, and the suspense was starting to eat at me. I gave her that line as a prompt to just get on with it.


    I could sense bemusement, as well as that smug sense of satisfaction and pride coming off of her as she beamed before giving me her answer. ¡®Well, you most certainly have the power necessary to join the fey court. All those questions I was asking, I wanted to know how capable you were. You definitely have the talent to make it to the senior rank and gain decision making power after you have received some proper training. I told you before that becoming a noble was just a matter of power. However, your noble rank is determined by which already existing noble decides to train you, making you their own child to mentor until you gain the skills to become a senior of the same noble rank.¡¯


    ¡°So, you really did mean what I thought you meant, huh?¡± I responded, shaking my head in amazement at this situation.


    ¡®Yes, I made my decision. When you have woken up, you will no longer be the child of the elf who gave birth to you. I will be your mentor, and I will also be your mother.¡¯


    That last part, there was something about those words that just made me feel sick inside.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Oh shut evil step mother vibes coming from the dragon queen."


    -meowingLexi


    "Mama Oren to the rescue!"


    -NohVoha


    "nah! real mom will probly be made an attendant by Aerien as her first order as a noble just to keep her and the kids nearby."


    -Roy

 Book 2 chapter 26: Growth potential

    Author''s note.


    I apologize to everyone for being a little late. (It seems people have caught on to and rely on how consistently I post down to the hour.) I actually slept through the posting time, which is why this is a few hours late.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡°So, you really did mean what I thought you meant, huh?¡±


    ¡®Yes, I made my decision.¡¯The dragon queen said. ¡®When you have woken up, you will no longer be the child of the elf who gave birth to you. I will be your mentor, and I will also be your mother.¡¯


    ¡°So, you are saying that adoption is part of a package deal with this? I am not certain how I feel about that, but I guess I was prepared to be taken from my mother over this anyway.¡±


    ¡®Hmm¡­ you look as though you would have preferred something else. A servant perhaps?¡¯ She looked at me with a piercing gaze. ¡®I see, I have some trouble with the concept, but I have heard about this. It seems elves get rather attached to their family in their younger years. However, I did not expect it in the short time you ought to have been alive. Tell me then, what has she done to forge such a powerful relationship? I am interested to hear this.¡¯


    What has she done? Absolutely nothing. She has even turned her back on me when my younger half was calling out to her in tears. I can sympathize with her reasons, but it really is painful to be treated in that way. Perhaps¡­ it is just hope? I have hope we can forge a better relationship. In the case of this queen though, it is rather clear she is not looking for that kind of parent child relationship. They may acknowledge it as adoption and a parent-child relationship, but they ¡°adopt¡± one another mostly as adults beings fey, with the exception of elves, are born fully grown. It simply would not be the same, and it would also be cutting off any chances of that hope I had held coming to fruition.


    ¡®Do you not want to tell me child?¡¯ The queen goads me when I had not answered for a while. ¡®Well, I will tell you this. It is for the best that you accept this arrangement. You recall that dryad? It was your power that caused it to awaken. If I know those spineless lesser dragons, they may wind up trying to blame you for anything that dryad does in the future. My protection and gaining status as royalty will be the best way for you to protect yourself.¡¯


    My brows narrowed at this indirect threat of hers. I felt like it was a mafia shakedown sort of situation. On the one side, I had this promise of a reward beyond imagining at the expense of something that is, by it¡¯s nature, against my principles to cast aside. On the other hand, a promise of some form of unspecific harm that ¡°could befall me¡± if I refuse. Granted, what she¡¯s threatening is simply to stand out of the way should someone else want to harm me. From the picture as I gather it, grey elves such as myself don¡¯t normally have a very long life expectancy anyway. Perhaps this really is my best option.


    I have no cravings for power. I know of the corrupting influence it can have. However, I am now in a position where I require power just to protect my own life. I am not going to ever get a better chance than this. However¡­


    ¡°Well, you are making a rather compelling argument. However, there is somethings specific you want me to do for you, isn¡¯t there? You would not have put so much effort into coming in here and expended so much energy helping me to fix my other half if you did not have something particular in mind.¡±


    ¡®Hmmm?¡¯ She seemed¡­ pleased, extremely pleased for some reason. ¡®You have a very good future ahead of you indeed.¡¯ She said. ¡®Very well. Yes. Once again, this is related to that dryad you raised. According to Sagel¡¯s report, they are incredibly strong. Not as strong as Isanil, the dryad of the tree the capital is based around, but they very well may be difficult for even a duke ranked dragon to handle if they got out of control. The entire fey court is quite nervous about them. What we need, is another royal ranked power among the court. Yours is not a true royal power, but that dryad has an attachment to you. If you combine that with your energy summoning ability, I believe you ought to be able to control that dryad.¡¯


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know anything about that.¡± I respond. ¡°I understand though. I think I can feel better about this arrangement now that everything¡¯s in the open.¡±


    ¡®Yes, I am glad you are so understanding.¡¯ She stretched her wings and seemed to sink into a state of relaxation now that our little negotiation session about my adoption had been finished. ¡®A little longer until I have recovered I think. Perhaps you can use that time to make some more progress on your younger self¡¯s spirit. I believe your physical body was female, correct? It would not be good for you to be without a female spirit for too long.¡¯


    ¡°Thank you, I think I will do that.¡± Besides, after all of this, I definitely needed some time away from my new dragon mother in order to process all of this. I set the body of my younger self to float in the center of my dantian, my third chakra, and then instantly traveled to where I had left her reconstructed spirit manifestation. It was a whole lot smaller than before it broke. In fact, it was only as big as her projection.


    I came to a strange realization, what was the connection between that projection and this manifestation? Clearly, that was her real spirit hovering inside of my manifestation. However, the things that happened to this structure I had built affect her directly. There must be some rule behind it, but I was struggling to find it. Well, I am certain Gaerien probably knows. It may even be possible that the queen in there might know the answer as well, she didn¡¯t seem to think it was the slightest bit strange that what I was doing should affect my other self in there.


    Anyway, back to the matter of size. This new body for her really was small. Comparing it to the absolute giants, you could say that she was tiny. Perhaps it had something to do with her lack of access to the energy of heaven from the meditation. Well, there was a simple way to fix that. I drew her chakra vessels down her legs and to her feet, and then I formed her sole chakras. Now she had the nine chakras that were the minimum to start the process¡­ however, nothing happened. I looked up to the light at the top of this space. Nothing was happening at all.


    Perhaps it is because she is still asleep. It started immediately when I constructed these nine chakra for my own manifestation, and it immediately began growing until it filled the entire space after I did so. The main difference really was the fact that I was awake at the time, and made those chakra myself. Meanwhile, she¡¯s asleep and I am making them for her. Well, if that¡¯s the problem, then maybe it¡¯s fine that her manifestation is this small. It ought to be the correct size again once she begins the meditation.


    Well then, I guess I will just keep making the lesser chakra until she wakes up. I have already been through this whole thing once and it took me two weeks. I wonder how long it is going to take me this time.


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    T¨²eth had a blank look on her face as she looked up at the top of the queen¡¯s nose. None of them could see the top of her head from their position, her size was just so completely overwhelming. However, all of them knew that Aerien was resting on top of that giant head at this moment.


    Eirlathion watched her with concern, wondering what was going through her mind at this moment. This was the moment they had been anticipating. This was when Aerien¡¯s life would be saved, but they all knew that as a daughter she would be lost to T¨²eth from this point forward. None of them knew what purpose her majesty would put that child to, but it was a certainty that the only reason she would agree to save Aerien is to acquire the incredible power that child possessed.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m sure she¡¯s fine.¡± Eirlathion said.


    ¡°Why hasn¡¯t she woken up?¡± She asks in a distant tone. It left some doubt as to whether she would have said the same thing regardless of what platitude Eirlathion had given her.


    ¡°Well, I do not know the answer to that.¡± He said.


    ¡°You said earlier, when everyone was in an uproar over the queen¡¯s energy weakening, that it was probably her healing Aerien!¡± T¨²eth responded.


    ¡°Yes, it can not be anything else. I can not tell you what might still be happening in there, but whatever is happening, her majesty¡¯s energy is recovering at a rather incredible rate. It should not be possible to accumulate that much energy in such a short time, unless you have Aerien¡¯s power. Perhaps she is aiding the queen in thanks for healing her? I think we can probably take it as a good sign.¡±


    Eirlathion sighed and turned back to look toward the queen¡¯s colossal head laying in front of him. He had only ever sensed Aerien¡¯s power in terms of what spilled over and leaked from her body. That was enough to make her feel like a true dragon in terms of what her energy felt like, but certainly nothing like the queen. However, right now she was restoring the queen¡¯s energy after it had been partially depleted. This would mean what he had felt from her must barely even scrape the surface of what she was capable of. Just how great IS that child¡¯s power?


    As he was pondering these things, he turned to see a white robed winged person, one of the great fairies, gently hovering toward them. They had all become so anxious and goal-oriented over getting Aerien here, and now with their mission accomplished his awareness had narrowed. He had partially blocked out the large number of others that were here. They were still in the presence of what must be the entirety of the senior fey court, all of those who ruled the forest were here together at the crown of this tree, and here they were so shamelessly standing a mere few body lengths from the nose of the queen as she was in a state of self-induced unconsciousness. It must not be all that good an image to those gathered here, it was really a wonder no-one had stepped forward to confront them until now.


    This is what he thought must be going on as the great fairy approached them, but when he saw the man approaching them gently raise his hand in a gesture as though to ease them it slightly confused him.


    ¡°My greetings,¡± the approaching great fairy said. ¡°I am Gailben, Senior Viscount rank of the fey court. I understand you were all residents of the village from which a new troublesome dryad has arisen. While the queen is healing the child, the court would like to ask you for some information on this dryad.¡± His gaze was stern, it was clear he was not going to take well to any nonsense on this issue.


    ¡°Of course, lord Gailben.¡± Eirlathion addressed him. ¡°I was the magus of the former village of cundo. My apprentice, T¨²eth, was taken into our village two years ago after her village was attacked by the demon elves. I think you will find my information to be more useful. I will answer all of your questions to the best of my ability.¡±


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    My whole body hurt. I don¡¯t know why, I just hurt. The old man was protecting me when somebody attacked, and then there was just a lot of pain as things went crazy. Everything hurt just sooo much, and then I feel like I went to sleep. Or, I must have gone to sleep, because now I was waking up.


    My body still hurt, but the pain was no where near as bad as before. I moved and groaned and I realized that I was floating in the air, so that means I have to be in my spirit world. I guess that makes sense, that was where I was when I went to sleep after all. Everything was bright white too. How was I able to sleep with so much light shining in my eyes? Well, I don¡¯t think I could know the answer to that question. I was just able to somehow. Maybe it was because of how badly I was hurt.


    It took a little while for my head to clear after I woke up. Everything felt so fuzzy. I vaguely started to get an idea of where I was, but for some reason as I sat up I saw some kind of gigantic snake with wings.


    ¡®Old man!¡¯ I cried for his help in my mind, and I was very grateful that he was right next to my side in the very next second, and then I was immediately swept up in his arms.


    ¡°Hey there, no need to be afraid.¡± He said. ¡°Just calm down, look through our shared memory. You will be able to understand everything.¡±


    What!? Right. I was so confused when I woke up that I almost forgot I could do that. The information all started to ease into my brain at once, as though I had always known it. My eyes immediately flew open at one particular piece of information. ¡°What!? She¡¯s our mother now!?¡± I said, pointing to the dragon queen who was looped around the outside of the old man¡¯s third chakra, basking in the light of the energy coming in as she looked toward us like she was enjoying the show.


    So, she¡¯s supposed to be our mother, but... if my memories from the old man are correct, she seems kinda mean and the only reason she liked us was because she was talking to the old man. I immediately looked down, I didn¡¯t want to accidentally say something that might make her mad.


    ¡°So,¡± the old man said, ¡°thank you again for helping me to revive her. This is my other half, the part of me that came to be after I was in my new body for this life. Our minds are linked and we have all of the same knowledge, but our personalities are a bit different.¡±


    ¡°Mmm.¡± I responded to the old man¡¯s words with a nod to back them up.


    ¡®I see.¡¯ The dragon queen said. ¡®Child, why do you avert your gaze from me like that?¡¯


    ¡°She is afraid that, since she is somewhat childish compared to me, that she may offend you if she were to interact with you.¡±


    ¡°What!? Don¡¯t tell her that!¡± I yelled at the old man for selling me out, but due to our connection I instantly received his reasoning and immediately felt embarrassed.


    ¡®Oh? That is not good child. You are to become a member of royalty. In order to serve in that role, you must have confidence. Well, since half of you already knows this much, I am certain you will be able to shake off this weakness in due time.¡¯


    I managed to keep myself from cringing at my new mother¡¯s scolding. I knew it would only make her more angry if she saw that.


    ¡°Oh? Now that¡¯s interesting.¡± The old man said. ¡°She has already accepted you as her mother.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± Seriously old man! Stop telling her whatever I¡¯m thinking!


    I could sense the queen¡¯s laughter at this interaction. ¡®Yes, just like that. Tell your other half how angry you are.¡¯


    ¡°Oh, she really is letting me have it over our mental link.¡± The old man says.


    ¡°You both are mean!¡±


    ¡®Hmmhmm... yes, there are a lot of mean people out there. You are going to have a long way to go if this little bit of jabbing gets to you girl.¡¯ I can get a sense of her smiling. It is really weird. Her actual mouth didn¡¯t really move to show a smile, it was more like I could feel the emotion of a smile projected by her mind. From what I got from the old man¡¯s memories, it seems like this is how dragons show their emotions. Well, this means she is smiling while she is poking at me, and it is made even worse that the old man is a traitor now. It¡¯s just unfair. But, I can¡¯t even say that. I have the old man¡¯s memories and reasoning always telling me exactly what his reasons are for what he is doing.


    There is a very good reason for all of this. I am able to understand it too. It is like the queen, my new mother, said. It is all so I can be a good princess and be able to deal with people who really hate me or who are trying to trick me. I have to be tough to deal with people like that. Of course, I could just have the old man deal with them, but he thinks I should be able to handle it myself.


    Yeah, like I said before, it¡¯s just unfair. I can¡¯t even tell them that they are wrong. That¡¯s how unfair this is.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Yes!!!! She''s back!!!"


    -meowingLexi


    "Poking Aerien sounds like a great hobby"


    -NohVoha


    "I want some illustrations of her pouting."


    -meowingLexi


    "dragon mom is going to be messing with this little girly just for fun all the time i bet ya."


    -Roy


    "I can just picture Gaerien teasing her as well from now on."


    -meowingLexi


    Poor little Aerien. I just couldn''t help but include the entire comment stream of the subscribers cheering for her continued teasing.

 Book 2 Chapter 27: Shocking announcement

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 28: Conditions

Act 3: The fey court


    End

 Book 2 Act 3 side story: Darkness rising

    Author''s note


    Sorry about the chapter being late. I actually forgot what day it was this time.


    ??? POV


    There are a very limited number of places where light does not even provide the smallest amount of illumination. On a cloudy night it may be too dark to make out any shapes at all and your typical diurnal creatures won¡¯t even be able to see their hand in front of their face, but the small amount of light from the moon and stars that seeps through the clouds is enough for the creatures of the night to see well enough they can navigate and hunt.


    However, deep under the ground, you have one such place where there is a true absolute absence of all light. Even those nocturnal creatures with excellent night vision would be unable to see in this place where zero light exists. Those who call this underground world their home often laugh at the humans they bring down here. There is an interesting phenomenon in this total darkness, it makes humans go crazy, they actually hallucinate and think that they can see. This is not real dark vision though, their minds merely create an illusion of what they think might be in front of them. It is always proven wrong though when they slam right into a rock moments later.


    In this land of total darkness, the demons blessed with dark vision were the ones who truly ruled and thrived. They held absolute control. It was not merely a matter of strength, the simple advantage of having the ability to see while your enemy couldn¡¯t also gave them a powerful advantage. There was no hope for a surface dweller who found their way down into the deep darkness.


    Some time ago, nobody was certain how long because the darkness made it impossible to keep track of the days that had passed, a large part of the underworld was introduced to the light of the surface. This day had been prophesised generations past, and it was a day of glory for those who lived in the underworld. It was the day that marked the defeat of an ancient foe that had plagued the underworld, the day that marked the descent of a new god who¡¯s arrival heralded in a new age, and most importantly it was a day that brought them the one thing all denizens of the underworld craved the most. War.


    It was time at last to fight a true war with the denizens of the surface. They knew it would not be long before the blue dragons made their move, so they had worked fast to collect the materials from the corpse of their ancient foe. From the shell on its back, they could craft weapons of the highest quality. They absolutely had to collect it before the dragons used the great fissure that connected the underworld to the world above to come and invade their territory. For some time, the denizens of the underworld prepared their weapons, crafting the materials from the terrible creature¡¯s shell and also rallying together all of the dragon and fairy class demons who lived in this part of the underworld in preparation.


    When the day finally came, the overworlders brought a weapon beyond any of their imagining. They had been prepared to deal with dragons, but these dragons brought a large tree with them. This tree reached its roots down into the underworld. They moved like snakes and ripped to shreds anyone who approached the great pit that connected the underworld to the world above. It had become clear they were going to need to find another way.


    -


    A stout but emaciated young dwarven man fell to his knees, fumbling a large and thick rectangular slab of stone about the size of his torso. In a panic, he struggled to right himself in order to get back to his task. If the overseers caught sight of him, he would surely be beaten. In his fear, he fumbled the stone again. This was bad, the overseers were everywhere today.


    There was a sound of rushing feet coming up to him. He closed his eyes and braced his hands on the very rock slab he was struggling with. This was it. He would definitely receive the whip any moment. But, instead of a strike, a hand was firmly placed on his shoulder. Another hand, definitely from someone his own height, was placed on his chest as well. ¡°Stand up, hurry!¡± A gruff voice urged him.


    He looked up slightly dumbfounded as he saw the taskmaster of their unit, a dwarven man like him who had been assigned the duty of watching over the other slaves, bending down to lift the very rock he had been struggling with. A moment later, it was firmly thrust into his chest, making it easy for him to take a firm grip on it without having to lift it up from the ground.


    ¡°Honestly, ya¡¯d think that gnome could make these things smaller! Ya have magic that can shape stone into anything ya like and ya make them this stinkin¡¯ big! I swear, that gnome must like seeing us suffer as much as the overseers do! Those gnomes are just as bad as them, I tell ya!¡± The taskmaster gripped. ¡°What ya standing around listening to me for!? Get moving before they see ya standing still and then we both get in trouble!!!¡±


    The taskmaster gave him a swat to the lower back, almost sending him stumbling again, but he managed to right himself this time. Given the circumstances, he could do nothing more than to keep walking and be grateful it was this taskmaster, 1E, who had seen him first and none of the overseers were close enough to see what was going on.


    The taskmaster continued to grumble something about gnomes while the dwarf man, 3E, silently walked away. 1E was not known for being a particularly kind taskmaster, but whenever the overseers were not looking he would often overlook minor things like what had just happened, and he was known to grumble a lot about the conditions they were forced to work under. No, it is really more like he was just rambling constantly. 3E had learned a lot over the years about how their overseers operated just from hearing 1E¡¯s constant ramblings and complaining.


    ¡°Honestly!¡± 1E continued to ramble, ¡°They are not like we are at all! They may have a human parent like we do, but they ain¡¯t raised by ¡®em! I hear they have some kind of infernal ritual that makes them absolute monsters too! Those gnomes just ain¡¯t the same creatures at all, I tell ya!¡±


    Of course they are not the same! They are gnomes, we are dwarves! Those things even look like small versions of their overseers. If he didn¡¯t know better, he could mistake that gnome for the child of an overseer!


    3E often wanted to retort something like this to the often ridiculous directions 1E¡¯s ravings went off on, but he knew very well he would only get himself in trouble doing something like that. Taskmasters, those who are numbered 1 in the unit, are the most favored among the slaves. Since he was not a 1, any act of stopping to talk or argue could only bring bad things for him. It was far better to simply keep his head down and work.


    There were several other dwarves like him passing back the way he had come, slogging down the tunnel with tired expressions on their faces and their arms down at their sides. It was not just dwarves from his unit either. 3E was grinning with a slight sense of perverse satisfaction to see members of D unit walking right along side those in E unit. D unit was usually the ones who mined the stone, and it was always the D unit dwarves who were yelling at the E unit to quickly clear the rubble they had dug out. Now, they were in the same place. Their position had been taken by that gnome who was brought in to make the digging go faster. It seemed their overseers put some particular importance on having this tunnel finished quickly.


    Well, those gnomes with their earth magic really did work quickly. It was so quick that their 2 units were barely able to keep up. And, as satisfying as it was to see D unit having to experience the same things that they do, there were other things that made this much much worse than just doing things the normal way. The biggest issue was that F unit was not able to keep up with the gnome and the two units. If F unit was falling behind, that meant that the distance they would have to carry the rubble was just that much farther.


    Seriously, this tunnel was lengthening so fast. The trip back to where F unit was working seemed to get so much farther every time. But, at long last, he saw the crouched over forms of the women of F unit and it was a welcome sight to see the mine cart directly behind them as they laid the tracks for it to go down.


    ¡°Heeeey!¡± There was a voice from behind him. He looked back to see it was none other than 1E. What was he doing running all this way? Wasn¡¯t this leaving his post!? What was going on!? ¡°Roots!¡± He yelled. 3E was not sure what this was all about, but whatever he had just said seemed to get the attention of the overseer who was watching F unit, he immediately turned his head and kicked off the wall. 3E cringed, this was it if he saw 1E now. What was going to happen to him!?


    3E could do nothing but stare dumbfounded as 1E ran right past him. The overseer was walking straight toward them, his towering form that was twice that of a dwarf and very imposing. ¡°What did you just say!?¡± He asked. 3E couldn¡¯t stand to watch. He shut his eyes tight and hid behind his slab of stone so he didn¡¯t have to see what was about to happen.


    *huf* ¡°At the back of the tunnel!¡± *huf* *huf* ¡°we¡¯ve hit roots!¡±


    ¡°Alright, keep working!¡± The overseer barked. 3E was surprised that was all that happened, causing him to look up to see what was going on. What he saw was something that seemed ridiculous. The overseer was climbing into the mine cart. He then grabbed one of the nearby dwarf women of F unit and dragged her into the cart. ¡°Get this thing moving!¡± He yelled. ¡°This has to be reported as fast as possible!¡±


    ¡°R-right!¡± She squealed in terror and then reached her hand down the side and moved a lever attached to the cart.


    ¡°Ahh¡­ get the cart moving!¡± 1F cried in a fluster. The women working on extending the tracks, or rather that is what they would have been doing if they were not too caught up in watching the spectical unfolding, immediately jumped into action and gave the mine cart a firm push before the downward incline of the upward tunnel they were digging took the overseer and the mine cart down at an increasing pace the farther it went.


    As the mine cart sped away, 3E could do nothing but stare after it with a forlorn expression on his face as he still held this heavy slab of rock in his hands.


    ¡°Ahh¡­¡± He groaned with a hesitant expression. ¡°What am I supposed to do with this?¡±


    1F turned to look at him. ¡°Ahh, just leave it there on the side of the tunnel, just any other time the mine cart is out.¡± She advised him.


    Of course. 3E sighed as he bent down to place the heavy slab on the side of the tunnel, thankful to be relieved of the heavy burden for at least the duration of his trip back. And he knew he did need to get back to it. He wasted no time at all turning back for his slog back up the tunnel, but this time he would have a companion walking with him in the form of 1E.


    ¡°Hey.¡± 3E said, and then quickly thought better of it as he turned back to look at the ground as he continued his walk back to the back of the tunnel.


    ¡°What is it?¡± 1E asks him.


    3E breathed a sigh as he felt his body ease. 1E had acknowledged him, this meant he had full permission to speak now. ¡°What¡­ what was that word you said? Ruts? Routs? What is it anyway?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± 1E responds, confirming for 3E that it is not information dwarves are meant to know. ¡°All I know is the overseer that was with the gnome came running up the tunnel yelling about hitting roots, and then the overseer over our unit ordered me to come down here and tell them about this so I ran here. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s some kind of special ore vein. That must be the reason they had us digging this way, they must have somehow known it was here. Well, if that is the case then heads up. We are probably going to be the ones hauling it back up the tunnel all day now.¡±


    3E nodded in response. That seemed like an entirely reasonable thing to think. Well, it really made no real difference to any of them. But, just maybe the amounts they have to carry each trip would get smaller and lighter now. That would certainly be a blessing.


    When 3E got back down the tunnel, he was able to see this ¡°roots¡± ore for himself. It was a rather strange looking ore. It did not shine at all. In fact, it looked quite dull. 3E was no expert on ores, but just to look at it he thought it wouldn¡¯t weigh a whole lot.


    It was strange though. The gnome did not seem to be removing any of this ¡°roots¡± stuff. In fact, he seemed to be working at avoiding all of the roots veins, leaving some dangling from the celing like some kind of strange stalactites. This was when 3E noticed a very strange property of this ore. Each vein that was freed from the rock seemed to taper to an exceedingly fine point that was almost like hair. So much like hair in fact that it actually swayed when it was brushed against by anything. It truly was strange. This was an ore that was flexible like hair. It certainly did not seem like any metal or crystal he had ever seen before.


    ¡°Hah! There we go! Loose soil. It won¡¯t be that much longer now.¡± The arrogantly confident voice of the gnome said. ¡°I can¡¯t handle that the same, I¡¯m going to need a place here to put it¡± He said, and then promptly gestured toward the side of the tunnel wall. Lights traced a rectangular pattern into the stone, and with a gesture the stone slab floated from the wall to hover right in front of the gnome. Then, with another gesture, he pointed toward 3E and the slab came floating toward him. ¡°There, just keep hauling those away.¡±


    Well, it was the gnome¡¯s orders. The overseer smirking next to him never said anything about this attitude. The way the overseers acted around the gnome was weird, it was almost as if he was being treated as above them. Well, the gnome¡¯s earth magic was pretty powerful. Maybe 3E had it wrong all along when he had assumed the gnome was also a slave like them. Perhaps gnomes really did have more power than he thought among the overseers.


    3E really did not know what to think about any of this, but then he didn¡¯t really need to think about any of it either. All he had to do was haul the stone, just as he had been doing throughout the day already. Thankfully, it did not seem like the tunnel had extended that much farther since the last time he was at the back of it, which meant that if you figure in the progress F unit would have made then maybe the trip back will actually be shorter for once.


    However, when he got back to F unit, there was no mine cart waiting for him. Somehow, it had actually not made its way back up. What WAS there however were more overseers than he had ever seen in one place, and all of them were dressed strangely in clothing made from metal. 3E had heard about this before. These metal clothes called armor had something to do with fighting someone.


    The overseers were marching in a 2 wide line as they made their way down the tunnel, and 3E could do nothing but stand to the side. The column of overseers seemed to just keep stretching on forever, and none of them even spared 3E a glance as they continued on their way.


    This continued for a long time. 3E could not continue carrying his load with all of these overseers, but thankfully none of them seemed concerned about him. With nothing else to do, he simply stood there with his back against the side of the tunnel with his stone slab infront of him covering his face and body. The slab was certainly heavy, but in this situation it made him feel safer to have it between himself and the overseers.


    ¡°AaaHHHHHH!!!!¡±


    ¡°No, Ahhhh!!!!¡±


    Suddenly, a number of overlapping screams echoed down from the end of the tunnel where all the overseers were going. Judging by the distance, it seemed to be coming from the very back of the tunnel 3E had just left moments ago.


    ¡°The roots are in the way! We need a commander!¡± A man¡¯s voice cried back.


    ¡°Move it you useless sack of meat!¡± This one was a woman¡¯s voice. 3E had rarely seen an overseer woman, all of the overseers he ever saw were men. He had heard from 1E though that this seems to be because the women among the overseers are all superior in rank to most of the men. That meant, to hear the voice of an overseer woman, it made 3E cringe and attempt to make himself vanish into the wall.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on up ahead!?¡± 3E¡¯s eyes flew open in terror when he heard another overseer woman¡¯s voice very close to him.


    ¡°I.. I don¡¯t know mam!¡± The overseer who responded to him had fear in his own voice as well, the woman made a sound that seemed to show she was irritated with him.


    ¡°Move out of the way!¡± The woman¡¯s voice growled. ¡°Move, move!¡± 3E dared to peek from the side of his stone slab and watched as the woman shoved male overseers to the side of the tunnel wall in order to make them open the path for her.


    The overseers were agitated. 3E had no idea what was going on, but it would do him no good to be noticed in a situation like this. He could not afford to move. All he could do was to keep his breathing slow and silent, hide behind his slab of stone, and hope not to be noticed.


    ¡°Hey, MOVE! Make way!¡± The commanding voice of yet another overseer woman came from the other direction this time, she was doing the same as the woman before her, pushing male overseers aside so that she could make her way down the tunnel. ¡°Does anyone here know what is going on ahead!?¡±


    There was a sound of crashing rocks from behind, and now there were screams coming from the opposite direction. ¡°The tunnel just collapsed back here!¡±


    ¡°What!? That¡¯s impossible! Gnome tunnels NEVER collapse! What is that useless gnome doing!?¡±


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t blame the gnome. It was I who collapsed the tunnel.¡± A soft female voice entered the tunnel, and then the area became bright like the human areas down in the slave houses of 3E¡¯s childhood. His breath caught as seeing this light reminded him of his human mother. From what he could see in the corner of his vision around the slab though, the overseers where having a very different reaction. They shielded their eyes and recoiled from the light as they tried to protect their vision.


    ¡°Oh, you blocked them off?¡± Another female voice appeared. ¡°That¡¯s a shame, I doubt these foolishly aggressive dark elves would have retreated even as we devoured one of them after another.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be so certain. They are not so foolish, their aggressive ¡®courage¡¯ is compelled through a threat of death to cowards. That sort of thing cannot last past the point where they realize their situation is hopeless.¡±


    ¡°Who are you sows!?¡± The overseer woman¡¯s harsh voice barks at the other two women.


    ¡°Oh, this one has quite the mouth on her. I¡¯m going to enjoy this one.¡±


    ¡°What are you!? Get her!!!¡±


    ¡°Our swords pass right through! We can¡¯t touch them!!!¡±


    ¡°Useless! Alright then!¡± A blast of flame erupted down the tunnel. 3E felt his hands and legs burning in the fire and he finally let out his first cry of pain in all that was happening. There were other screams around him, but he was in no position to pay attention.


    His hands were no longer in a shape where he could hold onto his stone slab. It dropped to the ground in the middle of the tunnel. His legs were still burning with the flames and he patted at them in order to try to put the fire out.


    ¡°Oh? That¡¯s not going to work either I¡¯m afraid.¡± The strange woman¡¯s voice spoke again without concern. 3E looked up in his state of pain. ¡°Just look at what you¡¯ve done, all you managed to do was burn up all my food. I suppose I will have to deal with you first before you can cause any more damage.


    ¡°Monster! What are you!?¡± The overseer woman yelled.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ how woefully uninformed you are. I am one of the true rulers of the surface.¡± The woman made of light said. 3E looked up. The overseer woman had tripped over and was laying on her back, and she was backing away from the light woman in fear. ¡°Oh, there there. This will all be over shortly.¡± The light woman reached out a hand. The overseer woman tried to fight her off, but her arms passed right through the light woman. The light woman¡¯s hand began glowing with a brighter light, and she used that hand to touch the overseer woman¡¯s cheek. The overseer woman then started screaming out in pain.


    ¡°Noooo!!!! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO¡± Her cry was suddenly cut off. Right before 3E¡¯s eyes, her body vanished, leaving only the clothing she had been wearing. He had been so fascinated and terrified by the sight that he did not even notice the other woman of light approaching until she was standing directly over him.


    ¡°Oh, poor dear. It looks like we have another member of their slave race here. He was caught up in that flame attack from a moment ago.¡±


    The other light woman sighed. ¡°I suppose we played around too much. Should have finished the mage woman off sooner.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s lucky though, he¡¯s still alive. It looks like he shielded himself with this slab of stone. It¡¯s only his hands and legs that are burned.¡±


    ¡°Well, in that case, once we are done with the rest of them we ought to be able to have his brethren carry him up to the surface. We might be able to get him some help once he reaches one of our bodies.¡±


    3E did not know what they were talking about, but it seemed like he was not going to die. With the relief he was feeling, he was able to simply drift into unconsciousness.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Now which Dryad was it? Was it the great tree or Aerien''s Dryad? Or both???"


    -meowingLexi


    "The dryads, they feel too mature to be Isanil, it''s probably Eirlathion''s Dryad."


    -Asekhan


    "Bloody gnomes!"


    -Roy

 Book 2 Act 3 Side stories 2 & 3: The caretakers.

    Author''s note


    Lol, how does my brain even work!? I literally had no clue what I was going to call this chapter and was stressing about it the entire time I was transferring stuff over. Then, right as the very last step, I went to write the chapter title and that title that fit the chapter perfectly just came straight out of nowhere without me even putting any effort into it. Crazy.


    T¨²eth¡¯s POV


    Aerien was awake. She was finally awake but, just as her master had predicted, the queen took her daughter the very moment she woke up. This left her feeling rather... empty. There was nothing but regret for her in all of this. It is not until she lost her daughter that she realized how much she wanted to form some kind of relationship with her.


    No, now that she thought about it, she had always wanted some connection to her daughter, even during those painful days when she was still filled with the sense of pain from the memory of how she was conceived. Back then, she stayed away because she was certain the girls would simply be discovered and killed before too long. She did not want to become attached. Then, once her master told her they could be saved and placed under protection, the part of her that wanted to get to know her girls was stimulated again. However, the part of her that was in pain was more powerful. She felt she would have to deal with that first. She could not love her daughter while she was still seeing flashbacks of that night every time she looked at her.


    It was ok, she told herself. An elf¡¯s life is long. Now that the girls will no longer die in a short time, she would have centuries to deal with herself slowly and eventually make a connection to the girls. This was a foolish way of thinking, and now she was left with nothing but regrets.


    She glanced over to her remaining daughter who was held, as she usually was, by her human while her human was held by one of the queen¡¯s great faeries. She was left feeling like nothing, once again she was the single least significant existance in the room. A worthless woman who had been defiled by a demon among all the greatness within the queen¡¯s court. She had not missed that she was given no official appointment by the queen. In other words, her entire worth was depenent on her master and what was going to come of his trial.


    Gaerien was even appointed as a knight for her strange and deadly power. Gaerien had value to the queen. She had none. Well, at least for now she seemed to have been assigned to the princess, as Aerien now was. She was not really that certain how she should think of this, but at least she would get to see Aerien again after she was done with whatever the queen wanted her for. Now, however, their potential for a relationship was completely different.


    She was lead down various corridors, lit overhead by light emitting mosses that grew from the celing. The mosses glowed rather brightly, enough so to show off the fine carpets and the various trophy items that must have been collected over the centuries and mellenia. All of this simply made T¨²eth feel uncomfortable. She felt as though she could not touch a single thing in this hall without risking major consiquences.


    They came to a hall with an ornate tapestry on one wall, and a blank wall opposite to it. The great fairy who was carrying Aerien¡¯s human went to place her hand on the blank wall, causing it to open up into a room. As T¨²eth entered, the first thing she was struck by was the fact that this whole room was larger than her master¡¯s entire house was. Well, before that incident anyway. It was not by much, but the celing was as high as two floors, and easily had over two times as much floor space as any of the rooms in her master¡¯s house.


    The second thing she noticed was that, on the wall opposite the way they had entered, there was a large window made of clear glass. This was the first time T¨²eth had ever seen such high quality glass. It was not the smoky domed glass that was used for windows in the two villages she had lived in, it was a perfectly clear and perfectly flat glass. She could not even imagine the technique that must be used to create glass of this sort. Being perfectly see-through, it was an easy matter to look out over the devistated lands the heaven¡¯s fall had caused and out to the forest and the pile of dead trees that marked the edge of the scar.


    ¡°Here we are, this has been a high class guest room up until now but from today onward this will be the princess¡¯ room.¡± The great fairy who lead them in announced. ¡°The young knight here is assigned to the princess, and I trust she will likely want her pets nearby as well. For now, until we can sort out your position, you can be a caretaker for the princess¡¯pets and stay here as well.¡±


    T¨²eth could only nod in acceptance of this. It was more than she deserved, it allowed her to stay close to the girls, and it even gave her at least some purpose. The boys, meanwhile, were making some noises of appreciation and saying something in their language. T¨²eth had never learned their language as her master had, but with the way they were looking around the room they were likely admiring the fine furnature.


    ¡°Hmm... that¡¯s odd.¡± The great fairy said. ¡°What is that language they are speaking? It is not anything I recognize.¡±


    ¡°Wait!¡± The other one said, ¡°I recognize it! It sounds an aweful lot like the language the new great fairies from the other world use!¡±


    ¡°Ahh... yes.¡± T¨²eth responded. ¡°Actually, I have heard they are from the same world.¡±


    ¡°Truly?¡± The great fairy said. ¡°Hmm... well, I guess you had best keep a close eye on them then. I have heard the ones from that world are quite a handful to deal with. The new great fairies have been causing all kinds of problems since they arrived two years ago.¡±


    ¡°Honestly, why are so many of them gathering around here?¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be because there is some kind of connection between them and the Heaven¡¯s Fall?¡±


    The two great fairies seem to be satisfied with the conclusion they have come to and nod.


    ¡°It¡¯s strange though, shouldn¡¯t they have been given the fairie¡¯s treat when they were brought to your village?¡±


    ¡°From what I have been told, they were.¡± T¨²eth responded. ¡°It sounds like their spirits were too strong to be affected by it.¡±


    ¡°Oh? That¡¯s quite strange.¡± The great fairy said as she put Rolwen and Gaerien down on a soft cushoned couch. ¡°Well, I certainly do sense they are giving off an unusual amount of spirit energy for a human. I would say it even matches the level of a sub dragon.¡±


    ¡°I guess they are the perfect pets for the young princess and her knight then. Although, given that the nature of her power is to summon energy, are such fine pets even necessary for her?¡±


    ¡°Well...¡± T¨²eth spoke up, ¡°It seems like Gaerien¡¯s power requires her to consume an unusually large amount of spirit energy. So, most of it, including the extra that overflows from Aerien, umm... I mean the princess... it all goes to her.¡±


    ¡°Oooh? Greedy little thing!¡± The great fairy said with a faint glare at Gaerien. ¡°Well, I guess given they are blood related sisters, it¡¯s fine so long as the princess is ok with the arrangement. As for the human¡¯s resistance to the fairy¡¯s treat, the ones prepared by actual fairies are far stronger than the imitations you elves prepare. Please consult the princess about this subject, it should make handling them easier.


    ¡°Oh! Speaking of that, humans require solid food regarless of how strong their spirit is, right? Well, I suppose they may be getting hungry soon. We should find something for them.¡±


    ¡°Right, you get on that. I will go back to the court to escorte the princess once her majesty¡¯s business is complete.


    -


    ??? POV


    On the northern edge of the fairy queen¡¯s forest, the former site of the forest capital was now nothing more than a great crater of loose soil and rock. It was quite the sight, at this scale it was difficult to diffeentiate between this place where a large chunk of the ground was simply scooped out and the more typical crater created by something impacting the surface and pushing all the material to the side.


    On one side of the crater, there was a path of cleared forest floor, revealing the soil beneath that had been worn down by hundreds upon hundreds of foot-falls as the former residents of the capital too weak to resist the arcane energies for an extended period of time had been forced to leave the capital on foot. Their destination was the Heaven¡¯s Scar, the new site where the capital was being moved to. It would take them months to arive, but by the time they got there the arcane energies ought to have settled down enough for them to once again take up residence. That was to be the plan as it was told to everyone at least.


    There were, however, 5 individuals left behind at this place. Their lower bodies up to their waists were encased in a strange metal, making it impossible for them to follow. Their winged upper bodies revealed 5 extremely bored looking great fairies.


    ¡°So, was anyone here into comics? How about we talk about who would win between batman man and spider man?¡± A younger man in the group suggested.


    ¡°Uuug! Not this stuff again! No one cares!¡± One who looked like a teenage girl admonished the 20 something looking skinny man.


    ¡°Actually, didn¡¯t death battle do an episode on that?¡± Another young woman cut in. ¡°Spiderman won that one I think.¡±


    ¡°Death battle is biased, you can¡¯t take them as the authority.¡± The first man retorted.


    ¡°Jeeze you guys!¡± The teen girl yelled at them.


    ¡°Hey, the¡¯re entertaining themselves. It¡¯s not like there¡¯s anything better to do stuck in these lumps of metal.¡±A middle aged man at the far end admonishes the teen girl.


    ¡°I know, seriously!¡± The young man who spoke up first suddenly inserts himself into the discussion the other two are having. ¡°You think they could give us a TV or something to pass the time, this is deffinitely cruel and unusual punishment.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, you think!?¡± The teen girl retorts. ¡°Well, at least we don¡¯t have to eat or use the bathroom as fairies now.¡±


    ¡°Well, who knows?¡± The middle aged man said. ¡°Given this situation, it might have been better if we could starve to death here.¡±


    The three in the center all gave strange looks to the man on the end.


    ¡°You¡¯re scaring the children Steve.¡± A middle aged woman at the far end said, looking rather bored about the whole thing. ¡°How about you two go on with your super hero conversation? I actually found it kind of interesting. It¡¯s a lot better than just sitting around after all. And you should learn to be less confrontational in all this young lady, we have to live with each other like this for who knows how long.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s up with that anyway!?¡± The teen girl shouted, flailing her arms angrily. ¡°Just because we talked to a stupid tree ghost about it, that monster dragon goes and calls us trouble makers, does this to us, and then goes on ahead and implements our plan anyway! It¡¯s just wrong!!!¡±


    ¡°Heh, seriously, how were WE supposed to know that was some kind of crime for them?¡± The young man in the center says.


    ¡°Guys!!¡±The young woman says, her body is twisted in order to look far over her shoulder.


    ¡°What!?¡±The young man respons. Upon seeing the way she is looking, he twists his own body in order to get a look over his shoulder, followed quickly by the others. ¡°Wait, is that!?¡± What they saw behind them was what appeared to be a green-haired woman in a white robe-like dress adorned with embroidery that seemed to be fashioned from real living leaves and vines. A soft light seemed to emit from every inch of her body, including her clothing and hair, giving her entire appearance an ehterial quality.


    ¡°Don¡¯t talk to it, we might get in even more trouble knowing that queen.¡± The teen girl gave a fatalistic interjection.


    ¡°How would she find out? She¡¯s long gone by now!¡± The young man said.


    ¡°Well, I think we might wind up having to talk.¡± The middle aged woman said. ¡°See? It¡¯s coming toward us.¡±


    ¡°Wait, how is there a dryad around here anyway!? I heard them say that there is only one dryad within a certain distance in the forest, and the big one here only left recently. There shouldn¡¯t have been enough time for another one to appear!¡±The young woman said in a panic.


    At about this time, the glowing ¡°woman,¡± who by now was quite clearly the projection of a dryad, had come rather close to the five of them. They looked over to the young woman, giving her a gentle smile. ¡°Would you like me to answer that question?¡± They asked. They all gave weak nods. Meanwhile, the woman had a rather sour look on her face as she looked down toward their lower bodies encased in metal. ¡°You look very uncomfortable, I think you should turn around.¡± The dryad said. At those words, some vines began crawling across the forest floor and wrapping around the lower bodies of all five of the great fairies. Then, with the vines wrapped around all of them, they were each slowly turned to face the dryad who had appeared before them, allowing them to face it in a far more natural way.


    ¡°Now then, you wanted to know how I have appeared here now?¡±


    ¡°Uhh... yeahhh...¡± The young man replied, getting a big smile from the dryad.


    ¡°Well, I wasn¡¯t born here, I traveled here. It¡¯s as simple as that.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I thought dryads were bound to their trees!¡± The young woman said, getting nods from the rest as they all directed confused gazes toward the dryad, who was smiling in satisfaction at their reactions.


    ¡°Well, that is normally the case, but you see... I¡¯m pretty special. Now then, how about a deal? I bet you want to get out of that mess that¡¯s on your legs right now.¡±


    ¡°What kind of deal?¡± The middle aged man asked.


    ¡°Well, you all said it was the queen who made you like that, right? I would really like to hear about her. If you can talk to me for a while, I can get you out of those.¡±


    ¡°How are you going to crack solid metal without harming us?¡± The middle aged woman challenged.


    ¡°It is rather easy,¡± The dryad responded. ¡°The roots of a plant can crack anything that¡¯s stationary given enough time.¡±


    Subscribers'' Comments of the chapter


    That awkward moment when you accidentally break the law since you were reborn as an adult in a strange land.


    -Vorquel


    bet you Aerien''s first fuck up will be coming into the room and screaming MOM!! with a driving hug only to get a smack on the head from random guard, "No that''s a Maid"


    -Roy


    With that power, that versatility, that knowledge, they just need Aerien rule breaking power and we''ll get a dryad god in no time


    -Asekhan

 Book 2 Chapter 29: Strange new life.

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 30: Dragon’s aura.

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    [Your highness, there are some matters we must attend to sooner rather than later. Now that you have seen your pets, it is best we hurry along.]


    My brow twitched as I heard her words. Is this really how these people view humans? It is most likely her disregard for the boys is as strong as it is because of her noble status, but some lesser version of this disregard for humans must exist in the elves as well if they are able to kidnap children and give them that disgusting fairie¡¯s treat I just learned about.


    It is a very good thing my younger half is attending to her own stuff in the back of my mind right now, I am certain she would not be able to handle herself well in these circumstances.


    I stood up with my eyes closed and took a deep breath. ¡°You boys hold on for a bit, Ok?¡± I tell them in a voice that had obviously gone cold. I opened my eyes and held a blank expression looking at the space between the boy¡¯s heads, not turning around to face the woman. [I don¡¯t believe I ever got your name miss. Would you mind introducing yourself?] I kept my tone somewhat proper, keeping my expression of displeasure to only the fact that I was keeping my back turned to her, making it as clear as possible that I was regarding her in a similar manner to how she regarded everyone I cared about.


    [Your highness?] She replied. She hesitated for a while. I was not sure if she was being thrown off by the fact that my back was turned or if she was debating whether or not she ought to call out what I was doing and wrestling with the fact it was probably deliberate, but it was clear she was thrown completely off her game by this simple gesture.


    (Uhh¡­ Aerien?) Levin also seemed to be made pretty uncomfortable with the air between us, but Sagel quickly moved to stroke his head.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, she¡¯s dealing with the fairy lady.¡± He said. Meanwhile, Gaerien¡¯s face split into a smile of absolute delight as she was still unable to hide her emotions due to the immature state of her physical brain. A cackle of laughter escaped her mouth before she rolled over on her back to intentionally look away from the situation, but she still couldn¡¯t help peeking over her shoulder.


    Great, that completely ruined the heavy mood I was trying to hold. It was a darn good thing I had my back turned, I had to get this smile under control before it ruined the entire effect I was going for.


    *Whew* Wait, did she just breathe a sigh of relief? [Of course your highness, that was rude of me to have not properly introduced myself before now. My name is Gwilitphen. My associate Esgal and I will be acting as your attendants as well as your tutors for the time being. We shall do our best to give you the proper education to carry out your duties at the trial, and then on how to fulfil your role as a noble from there.]


    [I see.] Yes, I had suspected it might be something like that. I performed a slow and controlled graceful turn that spoke to the power of someone with 4 decades of martial arts expertise, stepping back with one foot, and then picking up the other as I pivoted on the ball of the planted foot before I gently placed my other foot back on the floor. After this, I looked Gwilitphen in the face. [Well, I think I will need to make something very very clear if you are planning on staying with me for a while.]


    [P...p.. Princess¡­] She stammered with a pale look on her face.


    ¡°Aerien! Stop!¡± Sagel yelled, grabbing me by my shoulders and shaking me.


    ¡°What!?¡± I looked to Sagel in confusion. At that same time, Gwilitphen collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath with her hands clutching her chest.


    ¡°Do you even realize how much hostility-laced spirit energy you were directing at her!? She seriously could have died if you increased the pressure any more than that!¡± He scolded me with his hands holding firmly to my shoulders. ¡°That was enough it could have even killed a human! And you were about to go even further with it!¡±


    ¡°What!? I¡­ I didn¡¯t know!¡± Seriously!? I was just using my intent hoping to intimidate her a bit. It was a technique we learned in the higher levels of most martial arts, controlling your intent in order to give an opponent a sense of intimidation. Opponents who are much weaker than you may even be frozen to the spot. But, for it to actually be deadly in this world¡­ well, now come to think of it, Gaerien DID say that the spirits of humans from Earth were far stronger than those in this world.


    Sagel let out a sigh. ¡°I thought you knew, that was why you kept your back turned to her. Seriously, those boys and your sister can probably take it, and I¡¯m immune now that my soul is bound to yours, but you really shouldn¡¯t direct that toward any member of a fey race aside from me and your sister. I think even some true dragons might be affected by that level of hostile spirit energy.¡±


    I could feel the blood drain from my face as I realized the implications of what he was telling me. This was something most people on Earth did by instinct when they got angry. True, mine grew sharper and stronger as I trained myself, but what if the boys get angry sometime later!? Even if they aren¡¯t even half my strength, from what Sagel is telling me it should be more than enough to kill an elf.


    No, there are just too many implications behind this to take in right now. Honestly, the fey are weak to such a simple technique!?


    ¡°What were you trying to tell her anyway?¡± Sagel asked me.


    ¡°Just not to call the boys pets.¡± I said in a weak voice. My knees were starting to shake as I saw Gwilitphen still struggling to recover as she was crumpled up on the floor.


    ¡°Alright, don¡¯t worry, I will talk to her. You can sit and sort yourself out a little.¡± He said. Yes, I think I might have to do just that.


    -


    Gwilitphen¡¯s POV


    The queen had taken on a princess. This was truly astonishing news. For one thing, anyone to become the queen¡¯s child would need power enough to subdue the great tree by themselves. It had long been accepted that there was no-one other than the queen with that degree of power. And yet, she had found someone.


    The other astonishing thing about this was, the person with enough power was an elf. A little elf girl who looked to be less than 20 years of age. She apparently possessed the extraordinary ability of preserving her memories from her past life, but she had only lived 60 years in her past life according to what the queen had said. No matter what way you looked at it, even if you included her age from her past life, she could still not be regarded as an adult by any stretch of the imagination.


    There was a great deal of discussion among the great fairies when this announcement was made. It had been understood that the princess¡¯ caretakers would have to be from among their ranks. The new princess was an anthromorph after all, and far too young to be expected to navigate her new role on her own. It would be one thing if she had lived in the capital for some time, but she was brought in unconscious from some small village, and it seems her actual age in this life even was far less than her appearance would suggest.


    Indeed, she needed a caretaker. But, who would it be? Everyone was hesitating to step forward for the role. Nobody knew what could be expected from this new princess. Everyone wound up simply staring at one another, each hesitant to act. She certainly did not think it was her role to serve this position. A mere baron ranked noble such as her who could barely even handle a newly born dryad on their own certainly was not in a position to be the princess¡¯ caretaker.


    Then, the queen asked for someone to take the princess¡¯ pets and former sister to what was to be the princess¡¯ room. Now was the time to act. Simply to transport her pets, that was not the position of caretaker. This seemed like something she could do. She, and another great fairy she knew named Esgal, stepped forward for this role. It was only later when she was in the highest class guest room that she realized what this really meant. She would be interacting with the princess until she was settled in. This would mean she actually could become¡­


    It was possible! The princess, at the very least, was going to need someone to teach her the law. She would need that information in order to perform in the test her mother the queen had just set up for her. She would also need new clothing. That simple linen dress might be acceptable for a village girl, but it most certainly was not something a princess should be wearing. Gwilitphen was at least confident in her tailoring skills. In her life as a human, she had tailored many enchanted vestments in her pursuit of magecraft, and it had brought her the income she needed to further pursue her research and cultivation. She would soon be putting those skills to the test in tailoring the finest dress she possibly could for the new princess to wear!


    Yes! Yes, she could do it! If no-one had claimed the role, she certainly could fill the position. Her, and maybe Esgal as well. One person could not handle everything after all. Oh, there was also that changeling. He had testified earlier the troublesome dryad of Cundo had stated he was to become a caretaker as well. Three caretakers was about right to cover all the needs for the princess¡¯ development. This could most certainly work out!


    She had made up her mind! The princess was going to need an escort back to this room. In that time, she could endear herself to the princess. She could offer the fairy¡¯s treat for her humans, and use that to get in her good graces. After that, she could become her caretaker and be close to her for her entire development! This was a great opportunity for her! She could certainly increase her standing in the court with this!


    Ok! She tried her best when she appeared before the princess to fill the role she was already going for. She refused to be distracted by anything, keeping her mind entirely on the princess and pleasing her. She did not know how to interact with the changeling. They had no status of nobility, they were the queen¡¯s hands and feet outside of the forest and served her directly. Normally, the rest of the nobility did not even have the right to interact with them when they appeared. So, when he addressed her, she chose to do nothing but nod in acknowledgement. That would be appropriate, right? It was not interacting with him or presuming superiority over him, and it was not dismissive of the introduction he had chosen to give.


    That seemed about appropriate. He was the princess¡¯ familiar now though, so that would mean he¡¯s also an extension of the princess now. So, for now, acknowledging the princess ought to be enough to count for both of them, right? Yes, she had to keep her eye on the princess and cater to her.


    Gwilitphen had convinced herself. This still seemed to be going well up until this point, but then everything suddenly fell apart the moment she had suggested the use of the original fairie¡¯s treat for her humans. The princess did not seem to know what it was, so she began explaining it. Half way through her explanation though, something went very very wrong. There was an explosion of hostile energy coming from the princess. It was as thick as a full dragon¡¯s fear aura. It was identical both in terms of the absolute bone-freezing terror it put through a person, and also the suffocating aura it gave off.


    She absolutely rejected the idea of using the fairy¡¯s treat. She even called it a curse! Worse yet, every single time she spoke a hostile word, it felt like the hostility and power in her aura tripled in power for the brief second that she was speaking that word. It was like nothing she had ever felt before, every angry word felt like she was being stabbed in the chest with a knife and she could feel it shaving off pieces of her spirit energy.


    Gwilitphen tried her best to look as though she was not affected by this terrifying assault by the princess¡¯ energies. She tried to assure the princess she understood and that she would take her words to heart. That, as she said, the food that had been enchanted with the fairy¡¯s treat would never even enter the same room as her humans. Well, it shouldn¡¯t really matter anyway whether they have the fairy¡¯s treat or not. They are here now, and there is no way that humans could escape from this tree without the assistance of a member of a fey race.


    She was able to breath deeper and easier as she escorted the princess to her room. She was no longer subject to that oppressive aura as the princess¡¯ anger seemed to have passed. She brought the princess to her room, and she seemed very happy to see her humans again. However, she could see her chance at getting the position of the princess¡¯ caretaker quickly slipping away. She had to assert herself back into this somehow. She had to offer what she had to provide for the princess sooner rather than later. She would take the measurements for the princess¡¯ new dress and begin her education immediately! She would set out the princess¡¯ schedule in order to get everything done in good time! Yes! She could still do this!


    She went forward, managed to get the princess¡¯ attention, and mentioned that there were other things to do than just play with her pets here. Almost as soon as she had said this, that terrifying aura returned. The princess was not even looking at her and it felt this intense! It felt even thicker than it was in the hall a short time ago. This was INSANE! It was already at a dragon level before! And somehow, she¡¯s able to drive it even stronger!? It must be getting to deadly levels already! How did this little girl have command of such an absolutely overwhelming aura? It was so thick she couldn¡¯t even breath. And, to make it even more terrifying, the princess¡¯ words were not even angry this time. She just sweetly and calmly asked Gwilitphen for her name, reminding her she had forgotten to introduce herself.


    The ability to talk in such a casual voice while projecting an aura powerful enough to kill a weaker fey, just what kind of monster was this child!? Her majesty had most certainly not been mistaken when she said this child was powerful! Gwilitphen fully believed it now, this child definitely had a royal level power. How was she supposed to be a caretaker for a child who could accidentally kill her just by getting mad!? She had no control of her spirit voice earlier in the fey court, and now it has become incredibly clear she had poor control of her aura as well, and an aura that powerful that was not in control was clearly dangerous! This child was as much of a threat as a dryad herself!


    Suddenly, the princess¡¯ knight, her former sister, broke into laughter as she watched what was unfolding. How could she laugh at something like this!? Gwilitphen wanted to scream, but she realized a second later that the princess¡¯ knight had just come to her rescue. It seemed her laughter had caused the princess¡¯ anger to subside, instantly eliminating her aura. Gwilitphen breathed a breath of relief, and then dropped to the floor. The only way she was able to save any face was to make it appear she had been planning to kneel before the princess from the beginning.


    She wanted nothing more than to escape at this point. Becoming this child¡¯s caretaker would be suicide! But, she was panicked at this point. She had been thinking of ways to be declared the princess¡¯ caretaker up until now, and even though she wanted noting more than to run away, all the fear and stress had idled her brain and left it able to do only one thing. That was to begin on the speech she had been rehearsing in her mind since she was in the hall asking to be the princess¡¯ caretaker. But, it came out wrong. She didn¡¯t ask, she simply declared herself the princess¡¯ caretaker presumptuously, and even threw in Esgal¡¯s name without consulting anyone! The words just came out on their own, even though they were the exact opposite of what Gwilitphen wanted in this moment.


    Then, suddenly, the pressure increased once more. Gwilitphen felt her heart stop. So much for the life-line the little knight had just given her, it was back and stronger than ever! Except, it was far more controlled this time, and it was all pressing down directly on Gwilitphen. She could feel all the blood in her body freeze under the princess¡¯ glare.


    ¡°Let me make one thing clear,¡± The princess said. Gwilitphen was protesting with a mind in sheer panic at those words. The princess¡¯ aura was enhanced by the act of speaking, and Gwilitphen knew her next words were going to increase the pressure even more! In fact, it was ALREADY raising just in her preparing to speak! No!¡­ no no no no no no no nonononono! She was going to die for sure! She already couldn¡¯t breath! She could feel her heart had stopped! Her back-bone felt as though it was starting to collapse in on itself! There couldn¡¯t possibly be any more she could take, and if the princess spoke one more word!


    The changeling suddenly shouted something in the mysterious language the princess had used to communicate with her humans. When Gwilitphen was released from her power this time, she could not pretend to be unaffected. There was no composure to be kept. She simply collapsed to the floor and rolled over on her side, clutching her chest in pain. It had felt as though her entire body was being squeezed, and her chest had felt like it was about to break. She could still feel the pain in every bone in her body! She was aware that the changeling was yelling at the princess. She felt a sense of relief, he was not going to allow her to just be killed for reasons she couldn¡¯t even understand.


    She was stunned later to learn why it was she had come so close to loosing her life. It was because of the use of one simple little word. ¡°Pets.¡± That¡¯s all there was to it. A single word. She had fundamentally misunderstood everything about the relationship between the princess and those humans. That was her mistake.


    Also, the princess had not meant to do Gwilitphen so much harm. It seemed she had no idea of how overwhelming her power really was. When she had finally recovered enough to look, the princess looked as though she was stripped of all her dignity. She seemed genuinely remorseful over what she had almost done, and apologized profusely. A princess really shouldn¡¯t be doing such a thing, but in that moment Gwilitphen was too weak and too traumatized to raise an objection to such a thing, especially when it was practically a promise not to repeat what had just happened.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Now that I think about it, What gonna happen at the trial if Aerien unwillingly release her aura ? mass genocide of lower nobles ?"


    -Remingus


    "The force is strong with this one."


    -meowingLexi


    "demon king light aura attack rofl, oh shit anger kills people now days."


    -Roy


    "To be more specific, it''s actually intimidation via your aura. Of course, it''s also lore that this is an instinctive thing most people just so happen to do when they are angry. Or rather, angry and being confrontational."


    -Jemini


    Comment... comment... oh, oh yeah! I already made a comment over on subscribe star and put it up there.

 Book 2 Chapter 31: Adapting to a new life

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 Book 2 Chapter 32: The most difficult subjects

Subscribers'' comments of the chapte

 Book 2 Chapter 33: Primordial conditions

    Author''s note


    So, I really didn''t manage to restore much in terms of buffer chapters. Most of this was because I have been pulling full time at work and also going to school. It is starting to look like I will have to just slow down the release rate to a steady 2 chapters per week. I will be trying to work up a formal schedule at some point, but for now expect the next chapter in around 4 days from now.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡°Woooow! I thought so, but still! Wow!¡±


    ¡°Are you going to tell me what¡¯s going on already, or keep freaking out all over the place?¡± I yelled at Gaerien as my younger self while she flitted about the inside of my spirit. It was always a little strange for me to see her spirit projection looking so much older than her physical age on the outside, although it did seem that this projection was aging in reverse every time I saw her. Right now, she looked about like a 13 year old, although she was still dressed in the same fine white clothes lightly embroidered with violet like an understated display of wealth.


    ¡°Seriously Aerien! You have no idea how AMAZING this is, do you!?¡± She said, having teleported in front of my face. My younger self¡¯s face, the one who had spoke. Meanwhile, my older self simply shook his head.


    ¡°Of course we don¡¯t.¡± My older self said. ¡°That¡¯s why we need you to tell us!¡±


    ¡°Ok, ok, but still! This is just so amazing!¡± She said, making a sweeping gesture out toward the hodgepodge of floating rock and ice debris intermingled with fire and molten slabs of rock. A hurricane was visible just off to the right, pouring down great sheets of rain on the floating rocks and creating violent reactions with the fire balls that strayed too close.


    I had always thought this state my spirit was in was a sign of how damaged it had become after the incident that placed me in my comatose state. However, Gaerien quite truly and honestly seemed to think otherwise, and I felt it was about time to get some answers.


    ¡°Are you going to tell us, or not!?¡± My younger self yelled at her in a cute tone that sounded almost like she was whining. ¡°Ahhh! Don¡¯t have thoughts like that old man!¡± She yelled at me.


    ¡°Like what!?¡± Gaerien asked, giving me a strange look.


    ¡°He thinks I¡¯m acting like a little kid!¡± I pout.


    ¡°Well, you kinda are kid! You look younger than your real body outside now.¡± Gaerien teases.


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± I say as my older self. ¡°She¡¯s just letting off steam because she¡¯s still a baby on the outside, don¡¯t let it get to you.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ yeah!¡± My younger self says.


    ¡°Oh, hey now!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, hey now!¡± My older self cut Gaerien off. ¡°Just what were you trying to imply about me earlier with that look you were giving me?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ come on! It was a joke!¡± Gaerien says in her defense ¡°I¡¯m trying to get you to have some fun from your troubles, that¡¯s all!¡±


    ¡°What look?¡± My younger self asks, and then begins to search our shared knowledge. ¡°Oh my goodness! Gaerien! Nooo!¡±


    ¡°Ahh! Sorry, I guess that joke was a little too much for¡­ you know what? Never mind. I¡¯m just going to be burying myself if I finish that sentence.¡± Gaerien concludes. ¡°Ok, yes! Moving on! You wanted to know what¡¯s so impressive about this nice little set-up you got here, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s just move on. Don¡¯t want to have to hurt any sisters here.¡± I said as my older self. Kidding, of course.


    ¡°Anyway, so, you said how your meditation is heavily based on the void as a concept, right?¡± She says. ¡°Well, congratulations! It¡¯s more than just a concept here. Your spirit, right now, looks EXACTLY like the void space between worlds. Well, the upper and mid parts at least, and of course there¡¯s no giant phantom standing there¡­ unless you count the void creatures.¡±


    ¡°Ahh¡­ Ok. So, I guess that¡¯s interesting.¡± I said cautiously. Gaerien looked a little exasperated though, as if she were expecting a bigger reaction.


    ¡°You REALLY don¡¯t get it, do you!?¡± She demands. ¡°Of course you don¡¯t¡± She spits to herself. ¡°You don¡¯t have a clue about this cosmic stuff. Ok, listen. Your spirit has all of the same materials in it that are used to form worlds! It looks exactly like the primordial void from which all worlds are formed! Do you understand now!?¡±


    ¡°Haaaa.¡± I nodded as my older self. I didn¡¯t really understand, but I was starting to get the picture as to why Gaerien was freaking out so much. It¡¯s starting to sound more like this just might be too big for me to understand and digest this information in one sitting.


    ¡°So, does this mean that I can make a planet inside my spirit?¡± Of course, my less inhibited younger side is able to simply blurt out the first thought that comes to mind.


    ¡°I bet you probably could, if you want to take your cultivation in that direction. It would be a SERIOUS upper end cultivation if you did! Inner world is usually just supposed to be a metaphor, but actually creating an ENTIRE world inside of your spirit, that¡¯s just crazy! But you could probably do it!¡±


    ¡°Would it have people on it?¡± My younger self asks. My older self feels like I am getting a headache just thinking about that.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know.¡± Gaerien responds. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s likely possible, you would really have to form it perfectly to do that though. There couldn¡¯t even be the slightest error. But, if you really could, you would ascend instantly into godhood and not even need worshipers in the real world, all of your godly powers could come from within your own spirit! It would just be completely insane as a godly power! This is just an absolutely AMAZING meditation you¡¯ve got here!¡±


    ¡°Ok, ok.¡± I interrupted as my older self. ¡°You¡¯re talking theory and possibility here, right? ¡®What ifs¡¯ and ¡®could bes.¡¯ What are the chances all of this is really possible?¡±


    ¡°I really don¡¯t know, but even pursuing it ought to be a very good way forward for your cultivation. Actually, considering this IS pretty much the primordial void exactly, bringing order to the chaos of the void is probably about the only viable way forward. I mean, unless you actually LIKE the inside of your spirit looking like this.¡±


    My younger self looked to my older self, completely swayed by Gaerien¡¯s words. Of course, for matters like this, it was always my older side that did the thinking and made the difficult calls.


    ¡°Fine,¡± I said. ¡°So, what will I need to do?¡±


    ¡°Well, the first thing you will need to do is arrange the elements. Preferably, they should be arranged into a world flow map design. That is, mimicking the way the elemental energies flow around a world. Actually, you¡¯re already half way there with the way the charged energies are near the top region and then they degrade as they move lower. I¡¯m certain the reason is because of this meditation of yours, it¡¯s mimicking the natural flow of energies through the void, which is also probably why your spirit wound up looking like this.¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Gaerien suddenly stopped and directed an almost manic look at me. ¡°No, no! This HAS to have been the intention of this meditation from the start! There¡¯s no other explanation! You said your meditation focused on the four elements in addition to pulling energy through your spirit, right? This¡­ this principle is EXACTLY why your spirit wound up like this! That¡¯s such a perfect formula to create this situation, there is NO WAY it wasn¡¯t on purpose!¡±


    ¡°Ok, Gaerien, calm down.¡± My old man self said. ¡°I get that you¡¯re excited, but you are REALLY starting to rile yourself up a bit too much.¡±


    Seriously, I¡¯m really starting to think she might have been better when she was just making rude jokes at my expense. Unfortunately, it looked like she was completely lost in a state of obsession. She didn¡¯t even seem to hear me, and only continued to ramble.


    ¡°The energy flow method, that ¡®void vacuum¡¯ as you called it, that creates the flow of energy. Then, the elements meditation splits the energy into the constituent elements. It only needs the basic four, because the flow is handled by the up-stream and the down-stream of the flow. You don¡¯t even need to think about the sub-elements like lightning and ice, those just form on their own as a consequence of the flow map and the interaction with the four. The up-stream acts as positive energy, the down-stream acts as negative energy. It really is the makings of a complete flow-map.¡±


    After saying a bunch of absolutely incomprehensible words, she directs her manic gaze toward the large spirit body in the middle almost in a state of awe.


    ¡°There!¡± She says, pointing at the spirit giant. ¡°You make THAT the center. Form the flow-map around that, and then you can make the world in its hands or something like that. No¡­ wait! What if! Is it even possible!? Can you make a world in the chakras? That would be¡­¡±


    ¡°Gaerien! Wake up!¡± My older self had to actually go and grab her by the shoulders and shake her in order to snap her out of it. Seriously! I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen her like this before!


    However, her crazy eyes only wound up getting directed at me. She suddenly lunged at me, throwing her arms around my neck. ¡°Oh my goodness! You are ABSOLUTELY the best sister EVER! This is just FANTASTIC! You¡¯ve got the PERFECT meditation!¡±


    Mine is perfect? But didn¡¯t she say she had the same meditation the angels used? She¡¯s still completely out of it. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder.


    ¡°Ow! Gaerien! What!?¡± I pushed her off me and rubbed my shoulder. She actually bit me! And hard enough to draw blood too! It was healing almost instantly due to this being a spirit form, but what in the world is she even doing!?


    ¡°Sorry! Sorry, I got a little too excited! My instincts from my old life must have taken over. Hmm¡­ I wonder if I can still use my old godly powers, now come to think of it.¡±


    Wait, what!? Instincts? Godly powers? Wait¡­


    ¡°Come to think of it, you¡¯ve never actually told me what kind of goddess you were in your last life.¡±


    ¡°What!? Wow! No, that¡¯s¡­ I¡¯m sorry, please, forget all of this, alright? I didn¡¯t mean to bite you like that, I just got too excited. So, just forget it, please. It doesn¡¯t really matter.¡±


    I sighed. She¡¯s right. It really doesn¡¯t matter. If she wants to leave her past in her past, then that¡¯s her business. Since my granddaughter''s alive and unharmed, I have no regrets and no dwellings on my own past life. So, we are both ourselves in this life now. In a way, I had just broken an unspoken rule we had shared since our birth, that being that we have never really asked about each other as individuals for our past lives. Well, I suppose she had a bit of an advantage there though, she had been secretly watching me for God knows how long.


    ¡°Alright, fine.¡± I said, letting it slide. My shoulder had healed anyway, although this gave me some fear as to what teething might look like for her. ¡°Anyway, there was something else I wanted to ask you about. It¡¯s about my younger half. Her spirit was completely destroyed before, I had to rebuild it from scratch in order to revive her. However, now, she can¡¯t run her meditation through it anymore.¡±


    ¡°Huh? Oh! Ok, let me see it!¡± She said. ¡°I think I might know what¡¯s happening here too, but of course I gotta see it first.¡±


    Well, I suppose that¡¯s somewhat assuring, considering that presumably she was right about my spirit assuming she wasn¡¯t just BSing me this whole time. Well, she¡¯s never given me reason to doubt her before. At any rate, both of my selves teleported to the left palm of my giant spirit manifestation. The little one¡¯s manifestation was standing on the center of the upwarf facing palm, the blue of the child spirit almost vanishing in the same shade of blue of the giant spirit. However, somehow we were able to tell exactly where it was.


    Gaerien followed behind us a moment later, teleporting in behind the child manifestation. ¡°Ok, let me take a look.¡± She said, and then began levitating and hovering in a circle around it. ¡°Hmm¡­ yep, looks like all the chakra vessels are in the right place. You did excellent work for such a short time! I guess you must have gotten a lot of practice in with the big guy over there. Hmm...¡± She reached out a hand to it, hovering over the smaller spirit. ¡°Wow! No way! You even properly tuned the energy already! I was half expecting the energy to be masculine since it was made by your male half, but¡­ wow! It¡¯s already showing feminine energy! This is some fantastic work here!¡±


    I stared on with both my manifested personas as she kept hovering about the child spirit. Finally, she seemed satisfied and came back to meet us. ¡°Yep! I found the problem!¡± She reported in a tone I thought was a little too happy. ¡°The big one is your spirit,¡± she said, pointing to my older self, ¡°and the little one is your spirit.¡± She concluded with the obvious, pointing to my younger self.


    My two manifestations looked at each other, and then back to her.


    ¡°Ummm¡­¡± My younger self began.


    ¡°Is that all you¡¯re going to say?¡± I addressed her in a stern voice with my older self, clearly prompting her to elaborate.


    ¡°Ok! So, the problem is that you are the one who made all the advancements in your cultivation.¡± She said, pointing to my older self. ¡°You!¡± She said, pointing to my younger self, ¡°have not made any progress in your cultivation at all. It¡¯s probably a good thing you brought this up, because this is going to be another major issue you need to address. Right now, your cultivation is completely unbalanced. She¡¯s also going to need to advance to the same stage that you are at! The reason she can¡¯t get the energy flow for the meditation working right now is because she has done absolutely nothing to progress through the stages like you have. Don¡¯t worry though, I¡¯m sure she will pick it up quickly with you as her guide.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good to know, but¡­ you¡¯re refering to my other half in the third person again.¡±


    ¡°Whatever, you¡¯re too stuck up about that.¡± She replies rather dismissively. ¡°Anyway, what I¡¯m saying is that her spirit being gigantic like this big one here before was not natural. This, right here, is the natural and balanced form her spirit should have. The state it was in before was the result of your two spirits being merged for the beginning of your life. The reason her spirit crumbled during your advancement before was because it was trying to advance both of you at once, and her spirit simply was not prepared for it where yours was.¡±


    I furrowed my brows in annoyance at her continuing to talk to only my older self about my younger self right to my face. I could understand that the language was a little difficult to handle at times, but it felt like it was discounting half of myself.


    ¡°So!¡± Gaerien continued. ¡°What this means is that the more the kid is in control, the more she will be able to develop her cultivation. According to what you¡¯ve told me about it, she¡¯s going to have to go through all the same training you did in order to develop her cultivation. The ¡®feel of the elements¡¯ and the other aspects of that combat cultivation method of yours. Might be a good opportunity to train the boys too! Although, I¡¯m not really sure they are quite coordinated enough for any complex movements yet. Well, you can have a head start on them. She¡¯s probably going to advance a lot faster than them anyway with the teacher built right into her head.¡±


    I sighed deeply and decided to just let it go. She was in no state I could talk to her seriously right now. I would just have to get a calm word with her later.


    ¡°Ok, so, should I train myself first?¡± My younger self asked, kinda passively-aggressively emphasizing a point.


    ¡°Or should I align the elements first?¡± My older self asked.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t see any reason why you couldn¡¯t do both, although you should probably not take the next step after arranging the elements until the kid has progressed a little.¡± Then, Gaerien suddenly snaps. ¡°Oh! That¡¯s it! Maybe if you work on gathering the same element the kid is working on, it might speed both of your efforts along at the same time! Build some synergy between the two of you, it should really work out well!¡±


    I heard her language fluctuate toward addressing us as the same person for a moment there. I guess this is going to have to be my method moving forward. Have both of us talk to her at once. That way it will seem more natural to think of us as the same person. She probably addresses my older self as the main person because that¡¯s the side that¡¯s mostly doing the talking. I will have to fix that.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "It''s a good thing Aerien has Aerien to guide her through her cultivation. Otherwise Aerien would be totally lost in Aerien''s spirit."


    -Vorquel


    "I used the Aerien to train the Aerien"


    -NohVoha


    "Turns into some old kung fu movie with the old master "When you truly know yourself only then, may you begin to know others."


    -Roy


    Well, ridiculous comments aside, Roy''s statement is one that''s true to an extent that I have absolutely no idea why that would be something isolated to martial arts culture. Shouldn''t everyone be aware of that one? I don''t really know, I grew up in a martial arts lifestyle. It just seems alien to me that this wouldn''t be common wisdom.

 Book 2 Chapter 34: Kid in controll?

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 Book 2 Chapter 35: New bonds / Old bonds.

No content

 Quick FAQ and poll.

    So, I have been seeing some complaints over the pacing of the series. This happened early on as well, it seems to happen during the set-up portions of this story. However, I have become a little selfconscious of it due to also having a slowed pace of writing due to having to work while going to school. As such, I have decided to address some of the complaints directly in the form of an FAQ, and to also include a poll at the end so that I can get an idea of just where the sentiments lie for the readerbase as a whole.


    This is a little out of place for an FAQ since we are still in the middle of the act, but once again, the complaints were recent and the update rate is slow. So, it would take a while to get the story to the end of the act and I kinda want to address this now. (I will likely move this FAQ later.)


    Now, to get into some of the things I have seen as complaints. I will attempt to re-word the complaints into the form of a question.


    Q: So, Aerien is a princess in the capital now. It has officially jumped the shark. Is there going to be any real direction from here on? Or is it just Aerien milling about doing family and personal relationship stuff?


    A: Don¡¯t worry, I have not gone all Mary Sue with Aerien. Some other people have called it correctly, Aerien¡¯s princess status is a tether to chain her down. Also, there is a plot being set up. This whole trial thing is a bit of a detour, but there are things that need to be properly set up in order for everything to play out.


    Q: So, what is with the slow pacing of the series?


    A: I tell a very character driven story. There are things that are going to happen in this story, and I intend to write this in a way that will get the readers in a place where they can really feel what is about to happen as though they were in the story. In order to do that, I need my readers to not only know the characters, but also be aware of all the little things that lead to the events that are going to unfold.


    You might not see it right now, but every single chapter I have been sliding in things that foreshadow what¡¯s going to come. Perhapse part of the problem here is that Truth is off at boot camp. He seemed pretty good at picking up the breadcrumbs I was laying out.


    Q: What is with all the useless details you keep adding in?


    A: There are 3 kinds of details I bring into the story. First is set-up for events to come, as I have mentioned before. Second is character building. I consider character building details to be very important. They may seem irrelevant because they do not advance the story, but they are actually very important as they show, rather than tell, what the character¡¯s personality is like.


    I am actually rather surprised because I have seen quite a few people mention useless details and try to give examples, but not one of them has mentioned the half chapter I dedicated to showing Eirlathion¡¯s routine in how he cares for the plants in his room in extreme detail. That¡¯s alright, but apparently the fact that Aerien knows vomit is comprised of stomach acid and bile which took half a sentence to mention is not alright. I wonder about these people sometimes.


    The last kind of detail I bring into the story are artifacts. Basically, they are my attempts to start the story down one direction, and then having it get lost before I can follow up on it in anything like a timely manner. An example would be Aerien¡¯s comment about knowing what language she wants to use in her spell crystals. However, now we are over 50 chapters later and Aerien hasn¡¯t even started on her spell crystals yet. I genuinely expected to write about her trying to form spells in the very next chapter after that, but the story wound up going a different direction.


    I have planned out the broad strokes of the story, but sometimes the details get pulled in a different direction. It is the unfortunate hazard of writing on a schedule and posting my rough draft directly to the internet to be read. These details that are artifacts of false-start storylines are about the only genuinely useless details by my assessment, and I really would like to go through and edit to take them out if I can only find the time.


    Q: You tagged this as martial arts, so where¡¯s all the action?


    A: I am not sure if you counted, but there have been 5 fights in the space of 90 chapters. I have read a few series with the martial arts tag myself, most of them belong to the cultivation world genre. 1 fight per 20 chapters is actually about the standard in those as well. And, just like this one, the rest is world and character building.


    Actually, this reads in a manner that¡¯s fairly similar to most of the martial arts books and movies I have consumed. This even includes famous western martial arts movies like the Karate Kid. I would challenge you to go back and watch that and count the fight scenes.


    My best guess as to why some people may be left with the impression that there is very little action is that I try to portray my fight scenes in a very realistic way. This means that fights are over very quickly. In real life, any fight where there is a weapon involved will be over in less than 5 seconds. The only fights that ever go longer are fist fights. Those can last a few minutes depending on the presence or absence of rules. If there are no rules, it will probably last about 30 seconds before someone is on the ground in a choke hold, or trying desperately to protect their face while the other guy is going ground and pound on them.


    (Aerien would have them in a joint-lock submission hold. Either that, or they would be dead because she broke their neck.)


    Well, I think that is everything where it comes to the most frequent complaints I have seen. I have also noticed that it is rare for someone who has a complaint to show up in the comments section. They all seem to go to the reviews section and leave a bad review. In other words, where I can¡¯t respond and they can¡¯t get anything to change for the future. Doesn¡¯t sound like anyone who likes the series and wants to see it improve to me.


    My main reason for writing this now though is that I actually did encounter someone who complained in the comments section and we had a very nice little back-and-forth. He seemed like a nice guy, and if you actually talk to me like that I tend to take what you have to say more seriously.


    I do feel the pacing can be managed a little better and maybe include a little less of the written equivalent of ¡°en.¡± (A japanese concept most frequently talked about by Studio Gibli. It is the use of the quiet moments to help the big moments be more impactful, and to allow the audience to take a breather and internalize what came before.) I will have to think about my approach. If anything does change, it will not be immediate. I do not think I am even capable of stepping up the pacing immediately, both because it would feel too wrong to me and also because it would ruin the story to make such a sudden tone change.


    So, now it is time for the poll. Having just said what I did in the above paragraph, the results of this poll will not actually cause any immediate change. Regardless of the outcome of the poll, the remainder of the current book will not change at all. However, it might have some influence on how book 3 is written, as well as the still pending edits.

 Book 2 Chapter 36: Fairy law

    Author''s note


    I would like to apologize for being late with this, even by my already twice slowed down schedule. I forgot to mention it, but I had a test last Wednsday. It slowed down my ability to write quite significantly.


    On a different but slightly related subject, I would like to thank everyone who commented on the FAQ and poll. The negative comments have a tendency to stick out. And, while I can know it in my head that most people reading are probably reading because they like what they are seeing, especially THIS deep into the story, it really does help to get that reassurance in the form it came in like a flood in the improptu FAQ last chapter.


    The response was very strong, the overwhelming majority of you like the series just the way it is. So, I will continue to write it however makes sense in accordance with the characters.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    [Incitement of a dryad is a crime in which someone causes a dryad to take actions which harm the people of the kingdom. As dryads are unpredictable and uncontrollable except by those at rank of nobility, if someone who is not a senior noble or a recognized successor noble acting under the directions of a senior noble tries to get a dryad to take actions which result in negative outcomes for others then they can be held responsible for all of the damage which the dryad causes.]


    I was lectured by Esgal as I sat next to her at the tea table in my room. As soon as I was satisfied from getting my new pair of pants stitched up and put them on, before I really had a chance to play in the new mobility I could be afforded from no longer having to worry about my modesty, I was taken aside by Esgal in order to be taught about the legal system of this world. In particular, the very crime that Ether-guy was accused of. Of course, in terms of whether it was my younger or older self in control at the moment, we were back to sharing control.


    About the only thing this did was it kept me from shouting, which my child side would most certainly do. I remembered what the queen, my new mother, had said. Apparently, dryad had killed over 300 people. That more than beats out any serial killer and goes into the realm of war criminal. If that¡¯s the crime he¡¯s being accused of, then there is only one sentence that would result from it. However¡­


    [But¡­ I heard that dryad did those things because of me, not¡­ him.] I protested in a faintly dazed voice.


    [Well, those kinds of facts are what are supposed to come out during the trial. All you have to worry about is learning the law so you can render a proper judgement on the matter.] She informed me.


    [Hmm..] I responded as I stared at my now pants covered knees as I was lost in thought. This seemed to be yet another reason why I was a completely inappropriate judge on this case. I was a witness to this event. A material witness cannot be a judge. The justice system of this world was starting to look more and more like a total circus. The worst kind of kangaroo court. And, seriously, holding others responsible for the crimes of the dryads? Nobles having immunity? Yeah, no doubt. This justice system is completely screwed up.


    Well then, I guess if we are going to start unraveling this, I had better find out just how screwed up this justice system really is. [So, that¡¯s the crime, but how do I act like a proper judge on this subject?]


    [Well,] she said, looking over to Sagel who was talking to the boys and teaching them a proper sword stance with wooden swords off in an area of this absurdly huge room where some furniture had been cleared away. [A¡­ according to your highness¡¯ changeling¡¯s report, you were asleep through the incident. So, all you have to do is hear the facts of the case and render a judgement. If you had seen the whole thing happen, you could even render a judgement right now before this even became a trial. The enforcers will make sure the accused does not speak out of turn, so aside from rendering a verdict your main job is informing the accused when they can speak their case.]


    [What about the prosecution?]


    [Well, in this case the prosecutor is lord Gailben. He is not allowed to talk over anyone else, but aside from that there is no formal procedure on when he can and can¡¯t speak.]


    [Right...] I said, mentally rolling my eyes. Of course it would be something like that. Well, at least it seemed the case was decided on preponderance of the evidence instead of guilty until proven innocent. Still not good, but better than it could be. You would think that a system where people are elevated to noble status instead of birth-right nobility would see them treating commoners a little better than this.


    Well now, the most troublesome thing about all this was certainly the words the queen had said when she appointed me to this position. An ¡°interesting test¡± she had called it. Presumably a test to see how impartial I could be with someone I knew personally on the line for a rather serious crime. Really though, this is the same as asking me to be biased in the other direction. I did not like the sounds of that. It also raised the question, did I really care about what this noble court thought about me here? It¡¯s pretty clear they just want to use me for my power.


    No, it¡¯s something else. It¡¯s more like this is some kind of twisted initiation into this noble society. Great. The more I thought into this, the less I liked it. Well, as someone from Earth though, I actually might have an option she had never even considered that would perfectly fill the requirements they wanted of me, while at the same time making them really regret putting me in this position.


    [So, since I am the judge and the princess now, am I allowed to change the rules and make my own?] I asked her.


    [Ahh! Well...] She had a clearly frightened look on her face now. [Wh... what did you have in mind exactly?]


    [Well, it¡¯s just that Earth, the world I am from originally, had some extremely formal rules for how trials were supposed to be conducted. From what I¡¯ve heard so far, the rules in your system seem to be lacking in a way that makes me uncomfortable in several places.]


    [I.. I cannot say really.] She says. [I think you will have to talk to the queen about that.]


    A smile appeared on my face. [Ok then.] Yes, if I got a proper read on her personality from our little chat inside my spirit, she seemed like the type who might be bored and looking for a little excitement. She actually might go for this. It¡¯s definitely going to give this lord, err Gavin? Lord Gavin something to pull his shimmering fairy hair out over. [I would like to talk to her, the sooner the better.]


    -


    Levin¡¯s POV


    When Levin had asked Aerien to give them their next exercise, this was definitely not what he had imagined. She said they were ready for it though, and this was the appropriate next step. Something to do with the fact they could remain on their feet unassisted and could pick up and handle objects well. It made sense, but still¡­ sword training? They were still 2 years old, right?


    No, no, it did make sense when Aerien explained it. Really, the thing he was more surprised at was the fact Aerien was not the one teaching them. Instead, it was the alien looking man who said he was Aerien¡¯s familiar. As soon as he introduced himself as their swords master, he went to the wall and spent quite a while working to have some wooden training swords made for him and Rolwen. The result, if it was being judged as a wood carving, was fairly crude. However, as a training sword, it was actually amazingly good. It wasn¡¯t just a stick with a piece of wood nailed to it. The cross-guard was a bulbous extension of wood coming off of either side like branches of a tree, and the ¡°blade¡± was polished smooth wood. It also narrowed near the end, which apparently made it feel lighter than he was expecting.


    When he was given the sword, he was actually told this was a little bit heavier than a sword of this size was supposed to be. This was strange. He had always heard in his last life about how swords were surprisingly heavy. Instead, this really felt like the tip of the sword actively wanted to strike whatever he was trying to hit with it. It was actually strangely fun to just hold and move the point around in the air. Not really swings, just testing the weight. Levin was not expecting it to feel like this to hold a sword at all.


    ¡°Alright,¡± Sagel, their sword master, said. In the time they were getting used to the weight of the training swords, he had made a third one. ¡°Since you seem to be getting adjusted to those, now you are going to need a training partner. You will probably not get very much out of this going against each other, neither one of you have a clue what you are doing.¡±


    What did he mean? He couldn¡¯t mean Gaerien, it would be cool if it was Aerien but she kept getting pulled off by those fairies. So, was it him!? He was clearly way too big for them to stand a chance! There¡¯s no way that¡¯s fair! Or¡­. maybe not? About as soon as Levin had this thought, he saw something shocking and disgusting as Sagel¡¯s body appeared to melt into a grey ooze. Wait, he said he was a changeling, right? So, this should be normal, right?


    Normal or not, it was a freaky thing to see. The ooze kept a roughly humanoid shape the entire time, but it rapidly shrunk down. After a little bit, he was the same size as him and Rolwen, and his facial features quickly changed and he suddenly looked genuinely human. He didn¡¯t have those huge alien eyes or blue skin anymore. Instead, he looked like a perfectly normal 2 year old black-haired boy, with the possible exception of the fact that he was moving a little bit too smoothly. Even if he was the same size as them now, it still looked like this guy was going to have an unfair advantage in terms of his coordination.


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯m going to run you through some basic drills.¡± He said as he casually held his child-size training sword to his side. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Aerien has told me. The real objective here is just to improve your coordination. I do hope you weren¡¯t expecting sparing or anything of the sort, that would just be irresponsible at this point.¡± Levin glanced over to Rolwen at this point. He had been eyeing Levin since they got these swords and kept trying to taunt him to cross swords with him, and when Sagel said this, he was actually looking down, visibly disappointed.


    ¡°So,¡± Sagel continued, ¡°the swords I have given you are rather nimble blades. You ought to be able to operate them smoothly with some practice. What we are going to try to do is two cross-swings followed by a thrust. Just like so.¡± At these words, he swung his sword diagonally down from his left, starting at the height of his shoulder, down toward the right hip. Then, he immediately and smoothly lifted the sword back up in a perfectly smooth manner. The blade just shot straight up into the air in a way that looked like it would be much faster than Levin could have even hoped to manage in his past life as a 14 year old. Well, he WAS a girl in his past life, but he didn¡¯t think that gender had much to do with that kind of sword play. Anyway, after this the sword went sailing through the air again down through the other diagonal cut. Then, he pulled the handle back and thrust in the air.


    ¡°There, just like that. I would like you to practice this motion until you can do it like that. And¡­ maybe we can think about a little bit of sparing after that.¡± He said, looking over to Rolwen who gave a nervous chuckle.


    ¡°Alwright, soo, like thiis?¡± Rolwen follows up and does his own set of slashes, looking obviously different and a lot more stiff and clumsy than the beautiful slashes Sagel had performed.


    ¡°Well, we can call that alright for now. Keep that up.¡± Sagel evaluated him. ¡°Alright, Levin, let¡¯s see you try it.¡±


    Levin stepped up. He felt a little nervous about looking stupid doing this, even after seeing Rolwen¡¯s performance that was obviously sub-par compared to Sagel¡¯s. He was very afraid it would come out even worse, but it was clear that just not doing it would be seen as even weaker. So, he lifted the sword and did a few swings at the air and then thrust.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good.¡± Sagel said. ¡°You ought to focus a little better, but you weren¡¯t quite as stiff as Rolwen. Rolwen, you were better on the focus, but you really need to relax in your swings a little. Ok, just practice that swing for a little bit. I will show you how I do it again after you have each practiced about a hundred of those.¡±


    What¡¯s with that praise? Levin knew for certain his swings were extremely sloppy, way worse than what Rolwen did. Why was Sagel being so nice about this?


    Ok, well, fine. It was probably because he knew they were beginners. He wasn¡¯t going to criticize them too harshly over this. Anyway, one hundred swings like that? That was definitely going to be crazy on their arms. Is that even possible?


    While Levin¡¯s mind was reeling about this, he got distracted when he saw Aerien crossing the room toward the wall as she followed the fairy lady. The fairy lady opened the wall, and then lead her out into the hall. Where was she going all of a sudden? It was starting to feel more and more like she wasn¡¯t part of the group anymore. Something about that was starting to make Levin feel a little anxious.


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡®The princess Aerien seeks an audience with her majesty.¡¯ My caretaker fairy, Esgal, said with a bow as we were transported back to the upper branches. Her name at least was not that complicated, so after a few more attempts in my mind I actually managed to remember her name at least.


    There were considerably fewer dragons around in the upper branches now, and it looked like all of the fairies had left, meaning that Esgal was the only one of her kind up here. The few remaining dragons seemed to be milling about.


    ¡®I see, this is sooner than I expected to see you Aerien.¡¯ The queen said. ¡®Very well, please come forward.¡¯


    [Esgal, please leave now. I will have to show her something, and it will be unsafe for you.]


    [Yes your highness. Please ask to be transported back to the treasury hall when you are finished, I will be waiting to recieve you there.] A second later, she was enveloped in greenish light, and then she vanished. So, that¡¯s what it looks like to see it from the outside.


    Seeing this, the queen raised her orientation-deceivingly colossal head and looked down at my tiny form with interest.


    ¡®You seem to be concerned. Very well, what is it that you would like to talk about.¡¯


    I hesitated to speak. I was supposed to use that spirit speech to communicate up here, but I was very embarrassed about how loud my voice was when I did that. I would really rather not use that if I did not have to. But, it was rather clear why I was supposed to do it. This place was huge beyond reason, and the spoken voice simply did not carry far enough. I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up, some of the dragons who were still here were flying away. This just made me feel even worse. My spirit voice was really that loud, and it seemed to actually harm the ones who heard it. Of course they didn¡¯t want to be around if they knew I was about to speak.


    This made me feel even worse, of course. If it was that loud, I really did not want to speak in that way, especially considering the subjects I wanted to discuss.


    I took a deep breath and then shouted at the top of my lungs. ¡°MOTHER, CAN YOU HEAR ME? PLEASE, I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO USE THAT LOUD VOICE HERE.¡± As loud as I was shouting with all of my being pushed into my lungs as though I was shouting my very soul out, it was still quieter than that spirit voice I was using.


    A genuinely shocked expression crossed the queen¡¯s face. ¡®Aerien? Do that again. I can hear you, keep talking.¡¯


    Well, that was not really the response I was expecting. No, the issue was her face, not her words. What had caused that reaction? I was encouraged by this though, so I immediately continued.


    ¡°I NEED TO ASK FOR SOMETHING!¡±


    ¡®No, not like that.¡¯ She said. ¡®I told you to do it exactly like you did before. Focus on the feeling in your chest, and hold the same intentions in your mind. Now, try again.¡¯


    Huh? What is she saying? Wait! Could this be what I think it is? I was getting excited at the possibility. I built up my spirit, and held every intention in my mind of just having her hear my words, and then I shouted again.


    ¡°IS THIS BETTER? CAN YOU HEAR ME!?¡±


    ¡®Yes, indeed. I did not expect you to figure out how to properly focus your spirit speech with properly proportioned energy on the same day you learned to use it in the first place, although it seems it was on accident.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help it when I heard that. Both sides of my spirit became overjoyed and I felt a bubbly excitement rising that threatened to overtake any semblance of dignity I got from my older half. ¡®Now, can you tell me what it is you came for?¡¯


    Ok, ok. Let¡¯s try something else now. If it is really the spirit speech that is carrying my words, then I shouldn¡¯t need to actually shout at the top of my lungs like that. Let¡¯s try this again. What is the prime aspect that is making this work? My intuition gives me what I think is the most likely answer, I just have to speak while focusing on my desire to have my words heard by my adoptive mother who, despite her massive head making it so she looks a lot closer, may actually be as far as half a mile away.


    ¡°I have to ask for a few things. One thing is concerning the upcoming trial, but before that, I need to ask for some help. I have to learn to control my aura. It was an accident, but I almost killed one of the fairies who were trying to care for me. I do not want that to happen again.¡±


    ¡®Hmm¡­ I see.¡¯ She responded. I felt my heart beat faster with excitement. The subject here was very serious, but the mere fact that she heard what I was saying meant that I had succeeded in what I was trying to do in order to have my voice heard, and it did not even require shouting anymore. ¡®That does sound like it could become an issue. I do not sense anything now though, so it seems you can suppress it. Do you feel it will be a problem for the trial?¡¯


    Well, if nothing goes wrong, it should be fine. ¡°No, it will not be a problem.¡±


    ¡®We will discuss it after the trial then. Was there anything else?¡¯


    ¡°Yes, I wish to discuss the trial.¡± I told her. Well, that was the most important issue out of the way. It was a light issue, but whether or not just staring at someone might kill them is pretty important. Now it¡¯s time to get into another very important and much more involved subject.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "Aerien has already beaten dragons with just her words"


    -NohVoha


    "ace attorney mini arc incoming! Objection!! also our little loli seems to be in character as little kid. Look mom i can speak its awesome right!?. This is like my little brothers showing off when they were four, getting all happy over simple things =D"


    -Roy

 Book 2 Chapter 37: Eirlathion’s detainment.

    Due to life just piling up on me, as much as it pains me due to my mostly formal and regimented way of approaching things, I think I am going to have to completely abandon the concept of a formal schedule of any kind for this series. The chapter will simply be released when it''s done. Hopefully I can return to a formal schedule once finals are over in December.


    That being said, this chapter had a rather interesting story behind it. I actually wrote the entire thing once, then I immediately lost all my data and had to start the chapter over again from nothing. The second version (the one you are reading now) turned out completely different from the first, (and in my opinion a lot better.) I will briefly describe the previous version in a comment under  spoiler tag.


    Eirlathon¡¯s POV


    ¡°So, let¡¯s review what you have told me so far.¡± The great fairy lord before him spoke, looking over a paper he had in front of him. ¡°You approached your house when you saw a gathering of people around it. As you were approaching, you witnessed the tree spirit of your house beginning their ascension into a dryad. The very first thing they did upon becoming a dryad was to shout in anger at the sub-level fey dragon that had been sent to your village.¡±


    ¡°Once they caused some grave injuries, including the severing of a wing and ripping he dragon in two, they went to you and pleaded that you needed to tend to the child, Aerien. The child¡¯s mother then came running from your home carrying Aerien, who was covered in blood. When you examined her, it turned out that while she had no physical wounds, her spirit seemed to have taken substantial damage due to her power.¡±


    ¡°From this point, you spent the rest of your time inside until the morning, at which point you left and saw the devastation that had been caused to the village. At this time, you say that the dryad said something strange to you. Do you mind telling me more about this?¡±


    Eirlathion let out a weary sigh. This was the one aspect of the events of that night that haunted him the most. The one thing that really stuck with him. The thought that he could have done something to prevent this if only he had said the right thing to dryad. If he had not been so hesitant to confront them.


    ¡°Dryad said that they were disappointed with me for not calling them out while the riot outside was still going on. It seemed they wanted me to notice and call them out, as though it would have actually made them stop if I had. I¡­ I knew that something was off, but I just didn¡¯t want to think that the Nymph I knew could be doing something like that.¡±


    ¡°I see. I think I have heard enough.¡± The fairy lord said. He placed the paper down on the table and then stood up to cross the room. Eirlathion was not paying a lot of attention to what he was doing. He heard the groaning of some wood. There was a strange sound, one Eirlathion rarely heard and couldn¡¯t quite place it. However, it gave him a very uncomfortable feeling. ¡°Give me your wrist.¡± The fairy lord demanded. Eirlathion looked up and noticed a black worm-like dangling object that the fairy lord was holding in a cloth.


    The fairy lord hit Eirlathion with an overpowering aura, stunning him. He did not wait for Eirlathion¡¯s mind to catch up with what was going on, and grabbed the elf by the hand. Eirlathion felt a cold as though all the heat was being pulled from his wrist as the object was placed on him, and he felt his contact with his own mana being cut off in an instant. He could feel his strength failing as well as his wrist was wrenched around to expose the opposite side.


    The fairy lord seemed to hesitate for a moment at this point, but then he directly touched the object with his bare hands in order to fasten it around Eirlathion¡¯s wrist. Yes, fasten it. Eirlathion realized at this moment what this thing was. A chain made of iron. The places where the links of the chain are welded together are obvious, making it clear it is forged using human¡¯s fire-wrought techniques, turning it into something harmful to the energy of the fey.


    ¡°What!? What¡¯s going on!?¡± Eirlathion demanded, trying to pull his hand back. However, the fairy lord holds his hand firmly and finished fastening the chain to his wrist with a small metal lock. ¡°You are being detained for inciting a dryad, resulting in the deaths of 300 individuals. You will be living in the iron heart until it comes time for your trial before the queen. Don¡¯t worry, there is fairly little getting in the way of a speedy trial since all the weaker races have been made to walk in this move due to their intolerance of arcane energy, your sentence ought to be decided by tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°What!? I said nothing to encourage Dryad to do this!¡± Eirlathion yelled.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me, that will be for the queen to decide once she has heard your case.¡± The fairy lord said and then turned and walked to the wall opposite the one they came in through. He placed his hand against it and had it open to reveal a large man with a goat head sitting in a chair. The man stood immediately as he saw the wall had opened.


    The large man stood easily 2 heads taller than Eirlathion, and his shirtless torso reviealed him to be simply a mountain of muscle. His horizontally slitted eyes wandered over Eirlathion, and then looked attentively toward the fairy lord. Eirlathion recognized what this man was. A Khim, the non-magical counterpart to the Satyr. The man and goat hybrids among the fey were a curious bunch in that their development differed so greatly depending on their cultivation that it effectively turned them into separate races. The physical cultivators grew in size, while the mage cultivators grew more fur and resembled a genuine goat in far more ways than the Khim which looked nearly human except for their massive size and their goat heads.


    ¡°Gworon,¡± the fairy lord addressed the large Khim man. ¡°This man is to await trial. His crime is quite serious, and he is an elf as well. I would like him placed at the core of the iron heart.¡±


    Eirlathion¡¯s face went pale as he realized just how serious this was being taken. The fairy lord had already made up his mind, so there was nothing he could do to persuade him any further. And now he was going to be placed inside of the iron heart, a lump of unnatural fire-forged iron that had been placed right in the center of the great tree for the sake of isolating prisoners of the northern fey kingdom of the blue-jade dragon clan. All he could do at this point is hope being cooperative and reasonable would spare him some rough treatment.


    ¡°What danger do you think I am going to be?¡± Eirlathion says. ¡°I plan to prove my innocence before the queen, and I am already cut off from my magic thanks to this.¡± He says, holding out his wrist.


    ¡°Yes, but elves are far more resistant to the effects of iron than other fey races.¡± The fairy lord says. ¡°We cannot risk anything. So, you will be placed in the most secure part of the iron heart. Well then Gworon, I will leave it to you.¡± At these words, the fairy lord left the interrogation room out the same wall they came in through. As soon as the fairy lord was gone, the large Khim man, Gworon, lumbered into the room.


    ¡°This way.¡± He said, placing his massive hand, the entire size of Eirlathion¡¯s torso, on his back in order to urge him toward the iron door.


    -


    Viscount Gailben¡¯s POV


    Viscount Gailben strode down the hall after ordering the detainment of the elf he had been interviewing. Times have become very tense since the heaven¡¯s fall of two years ago. All kinds of irregularities continued to show up. It would be one thing if it was just those new unruly great fairies who showed up. They were powerful, but young. And, due to their youth, they did not understand how things were done. It would normally be the duty of the older members of the fey court to guide them and bring them in line. However, they had come in a time where the path to the demon¡¯s territory had been broken wide open and a full scale war between the surface and the underworld was on the horizon.


    The new arrivals seemed rather eager to help in this, but they went about it in the most destructive ways. Moving the great tree was a ridiculous suggestion, but they had told the great tree about the abundant spirit energy that was at the site of the heaven¡¯s fall and caused the spirit of the tree to begin actively arguing with the queen to go along with their plan to move the capital to the front lines. The queen could have likely suppressed the great tree, but for how long? It would take more energy than she could spare with the threat of the demons on the horizon.


    It was decided then that order had to be kept. It did not matter what help these powerful new arrivals could bring, if they were going to create chaos in a tense time like this then they had to be punished harshly. And so, they were all sentenced to be cast in gnome iron and left in the territory of the old capital. Their chances in that land would be slim, but at the very least they ought to be able to absorb the energy of the forest and fend off anything short of a fairy-type demon if it was gnome iron instead of fire iron. If they could survive for a season in that state, they would be let free. In Gailben¡¯s opinion, it was a light punishment compared to the chaos they had caused.


    With this precedent set, it was clear what would be required to survive in these trying times. So, when one of the queen¡¯s changelings came back reporting about this village that had been destroyed by a new and highly disruptive dryad, Viscount Gailben knew there was only one appropriate course of action. The man who was professed to have lived in the tree the dryad had inhabited was clearly suspicious, and so he sought to immediately question him and take him into custody. And, as it turned out, he had indeed had an interaction with that dryad related to the massacre that took place. His culpability in this case was as clear as day, and he had to be detained for the queen to sort out what was to be done. There was no other appropriate course of action.


    Such a massive disturbance, someone needed to be held accountable.


    He repeatedly rolled the situation and all this chaos over and over in his mind. This was surely the right thing, but why was it bothering him so much? Well, it was ultimately the queen¡¯s role to decide. He was at no fault for simply taking a suspicious individual into custody.


    As he arrived back in the lookout on one of the middle outside branches of the great tree, he was met by an Earl ranked fey dragon hovering right near the fairy circle at the edge of the terrace. This was¡­ lord Boras if he was not mistaken. He bowed his head to the fey dragon as he passed, but the dragon¡¯s eyes never left him. Normally, the fey dragons did not pay this much attention to those lower than them, so Gailben found this most disturbing.


    ¡°Is there something the matter lord Boras?¡± He asked. He had raised his head, but he knew better than to raise his eyes all the way up to meet the eyes of his superior.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I take it you are finished with the elf. So, what have you concluded about him in your interrogation?¡± The fey dragon asked. Of course, it would be that he was showing an interest in this matter.


    ¡°Yes, I have determined there is enough to show he could be considered responsible for the incident that took place in Cundo village. He has been placed in the iron heart until a trial can be set. I was going to inform her majesty after confirming the outcomes of the council after I had left.¡± Gailben reported.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ well then, I will inform you. The girl who was able to summon spirit energy, the queen successfully healed her. After that, she adopted her. That elf girl is our new princess.¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± Gailben responded, jerking his head straight up. ¡°An elf child is our princess!?¡±


    The fey dragon glared down at him in response to his outburst. ¡°Be careful Viscount Gailben. Your tone could be taken as doubting her majesty¡¯s judgement. Although, I do understand your surprise. It is not as extreme a circumstance as you may suppose though. If you will recall the changeling¡¯s report, she has retained her memories of her past life. But still, it seems she only had sixty years in her previous life.¡±


    ¡°Y-yes, of course.¡± Gailben replied as his mind was still reeling. Sixty years was incredibly young, it did not even sound like a mage at all. However, he also recalled something else from the changeling¡¯s report that he found more disturbing. That elf girl¡­ the princess¡­ was also from that world. The same world as those unruly new great fairies. Sixty years though, that was actually the oldest age he had heard for any of these new arrivals. It could be possible those few decades could make her a more reasonable person. It could also be that the queen saw this new princess as more malleable due to her young age. And, if her power was what the changeling reported it was, something the queen must have verified while healing her, then this move certainly made sense.


    ¡°There is something else you should know however.¡± Lord Boras told him. ¡°When Her Majesty was informed of the reason you had taken that elf for questioning, she appointed the new princess to be the judge over the case.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what!? But¡­¡±


    ¡°Yes, she is connected to that man.¡± The fey dragon interrupted him. ¡°That objection was raised in the court. Her majesty, however, was quite insistent. Even the new princess was quite aware she was not the most appropriate to judge this case. She did not voice it, but due to her poor control over her spirit her feelings on the matter may as well have been the strongest and most insistent objection raised. However, her majesty still allowed for no argument on the matter.


    Gailben¡¯s shoulders dropped in exasperation upon hearing this. Her Majesty had always proven herself to be a wise ruler. Why would she make such an absurd proclamation? No, there must be something behind this. Something he could not see had to be playing out in the background in all of this. She had been inside of the new princess¡¯ spirit. Perhaps she saw something that told her this would be a favorable course of action. He just hoped she had considered every possible angle on this one, it seemed there would be more invisible X-factors to this play than any mind would be possible of keeping track of, and such X-factors had a way of producing a lot of unexpected fallout.


    ¡°Anyway, now that you are caught up on events, I can tell you something.¡± Lord Boras told him ¡°Her Majesty has asked for another convening of the council, this time just those involved in the civic enforcement matters. It seems the new princess has started pushing for some concessions to, according to her, minimize the bias due to her position.¡±


    ¡°I see, well, I will report to the high branches immediately in that case. I must report that the trial will be moving forward anyway, and I certainly must meet the new princess who will be presiding over the case.¡±


    -


    ¡°And so, that is why I want to have this trial proceed in accordance with the laws of my former world. The tolerance for any bias what so ever in the legal system of my world was low to an extreme. If mother insists that I must be the one to preside over this case, then at the very least I would like the final decision of guilt or innocence to be decided upon by a jury. That is, a group of 12 members of the community which the accused is from who can understand their circumstances and make a more informed decision as to the accused¡¯s circumstances.¡±


    Gailben was positively stunned at this new princess. Almost nothing about her was as he had imagined at first. She spoke her case very well, but more than that, she was using the spirit speech despite her unheard of young age for a member of the nobility. Well, unheard of before two years ago anyway. Indeed, it seemed as though those couple of decades must have worked wonders for her maturity. At any rate, she was speaking the words with her mouth as well as her spirit, which indicated she was still unused to it, but at the very least she was modulating the energy correctly and it was not coming out as a shout as it tended to with the sub-level fey dragons. This show of competence was rather encouraging in and of itself.


    And her requests seemed rather reasonable as well. His mind was brought back to the new great fairies when they stood trial before her majesty. They had complained about wanting to be tried before a jury as well and that it was not right for just one person to make a decision like this. He had put it off as just the desperate please of the righteously judged at the time, but now that he had heard what this jury was described in more detail from a calm person, it really made sense why someone from that world would be attached to such a concept.


    ¡°There is one other thing that is rather important in a trial by my world¡¯s rules¡± The princess continued. ¡°The accused must have a representative to push forward their case on their behalf. In a criminal proceeding, it is the practice in my former world to allow the accused or someone related to them to select someone to represent them, or if they cannot then the state will appoint someone who can act as their representative. This is to be someone trained to follow the formalities of the court in the fashion that will represent their client in a manner far better than they can represent themselves, and who can approach the issue with a more level head due to not being personally implicated in the accusation. This is all for the sake of fairness in the proceedings and is very important.¡±


    ¡®Your majesty,¡¯ a large fey dragon, Duke Faranti, addressed the queen. ¡®Do you approve of the princess¡¯ propositions?¡¯


    ¡®I believe I have made myself clear on this issue already,¡¯ the queen replied. ¡®I intend for these entire proceedings to be a test of my new daughter¡¯s ability. As such, I plan to neither approve or disapprove of anything she puts forward for this trial. Whether or not to accept Aerien¡¯s proposition is a matter for you to discuss, and for her to prove her case on. I will make no ruling on this matter.¡¯


    ¡®I see¡­¡¯ Faranti replied. ¡®It sounds like an interesting proposition, but there are still several points I am unclear on. Your highness, have you in any way served in the enforcement of law in your previous life? Or is this just a matter you are peripherally familiar with?¡¯


    ¡°I am afraid I did not play any role in law enforcement in my world aside from some of my students who came to me being prison guards and officers of the law. I did have to be very familiar with the laws of my world as a business owner and as a medical practitioner, but I was not an officer of the law or of the court myself.¡± The princess informed lord Faranti, the highest council of enforcement among the fey court.


    ¡®Hmm¡­ well, if that is the case, then I have a suggestion. That young fairy, Steven, he professed to have represented people in his world in the capacity her highness just mentioned. If her highness insists that she wishes to use the rules of her own world for the proceedings, I believe we should hear the actual rules from someone who has experience with them and who also has no connection to the accused. Does this stand well with you your highness?¡¯


    ¡°Ah! Yes! Umm¡­ but, do you mean to say that you have other people here who are also from my world?¡± The princess responded.


    ¡®You were not informed then? Yes, indeed.¡¯ Lord Faranti replied.


    ¡®Wait, didn¡¯t that Steven fellow create a disruption during the last trial!?¡¯ Someone from the crowd objected. ¡®He was placed into confinement for his disruption, why should we have him writing the regulations for a case such as this!?¡¯


    ¡®Who else would you have?¡¯ Lord Faranti demanded. ¡®I am not aware of anyone who is going to be more knowledgeable on the subject. Well then, as Her Majesty has already expressed her deference in this matter, with the princess¡¯ approval I will appoint Viscount Gailben to speak with mister Steven in regards to the proceedings of court in her highness¡¯ former world.¡¯


    What!? Gailben was shocked to hear his own name come up in this. Why!? Why was he the one to do this!?


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± The princess granted her ascent.


    ¡®Ah! Yes!¡¯ Gailben spoke up, realizing his place in this. ¡®I will do as my lord commands.¡¯ At these words, he immediately summoned a fairy circle to take him to the core. Well, it did sort of make sense. He had already begun to prosecute this case by interviewing the elf. In this case, he was going to be the most likely person to prosecute the case anyway, so of course he was going to have to learn the rules of how this was supposed to be done directly from the source. With this mission in mind, he strode through the corridors as he made his way back toward the iron heart


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "OBJECTION! ? My client shall be innocent until proven guilty! And according to Article 6 sub section c line 4 any main characters are innocent regardless of outcome!"


    -meowingLexi


    "Can''t wait to see a fey dragon swoop down and kidnap 12 confused elves from their village with minimal explanation for jury duty."


    -mareus


    "Gailben doesn''t seem right in the head. I''m guessing this is either a result of corruption by arcane energy, mind control by demons or unscrupulous fey, or reactionary tendencies of the old and stupid."


    -Vorquel


    "Bail out Phoenix wright to tell us the LAW!?, nah this prosecutor is just stuck in the old ways to the point everything is wrong until its 110% in the right."


    -Roy (responding to Vorquel)


    Due to an excess of good funny comments on this chapter, and for Roy cheating by responding to others in every comment he made, an extra comment will be allowed in this highlights section.

 Book 2 Chapter 38: Iron

    Steven¡¯s POV


    Steven Hashcord was trying his best to sleep. He had never really needed sleep since coming to this new world, but ever since they put this crude iron chain on his wrist he had felt tired constantly, and suddenly the need for sleep had been reintroduced to him. He did not completely understand what it was this chain was doing to him, he simply presumed it was more of the magic of this world and did not think any farther on it.


    And so, he was trying to sleep. Trying being the operative word. It came difficult in this dank prison cell, lined with iron bars at the entrance and iron bracing crossing every part of the cell. Well, it figured they would want to brace the walls and floors with iron. There were plenty of people he had witnessed who could move wood to their will. It was not a skill he had ever picked up himself, but it seemed rather common. In fact, he got the very distinct sense that a lot of the locals were looking at him as though he were in some way slow in the head for not having picked up this skill already.


    There was another reason he could not sleep though. He was woken up by the cries of what sounded like small children. Or, at least this is what he would have assumed they were if this was back on Earth. In this world, children with small voices like that were an extreme rarity. In fact, he had not seen a single child since his arrival in this world. Instead though, little voices like that seemed to commonly come from smaller pixy-like fairies. Smaller by comparison to himself that is. These wings on his own back getting in the way constantly was another thing making it difficult to sleep. He had never realized just how much they got in the way until he actually found he had a need for sleep all of a sudden.


    But, right now, those small pixies crying out in what seemed to be some form of distress was a much bigger issue. It was very hard to make out what they were saying exactly. They were speaking the local language of this world, another thing he hadn¡¯t quite managed to learn yet. Most of the people in this world he had encountered seemed to be able to communicate telepathically, and he found he could also talk back to them telepathically as well. He never really needed to learn the language of this world, and so he hadn¡¯t put all that large an amount of effort into it.


    He knew he wasn¡¯t going to be able to understand what they were saying, but as he sat up on the side of his hard wooden bed he decided to strain his ears anyway. It seemed to be a cacophony of overlapping voices, but a large number of them seemed to be saying the same thing as it echoed down the corridor. ¡°Rehta-lye, rehta-lye!¡± Was the most common thing said. Sometimes they would scream something else as well, but Steven really could not understand what they were saying. What he did know though was that they seemed rather distressed.


    In the middle of listening to these obvious cries for help, the lumbering footsteps of the large jailer reverberated down the corridor. Soon, he saw the goat-man himself. A man who was an absolute mountain of muscle, standing what must be 7 and a half feet tall, and that¡¯s not counting his horns he has coming out of that furry head of a goat he had resting on his shoulders. Those horns could probably round off the last few inches and have him standing an even 8 feet in height.


    Steven had been stunned since his first time seeing this giant of a man. He felt certain he was looking at a demon when they sentenced him to be locked away in this place. However, the fairies who brought him here had assured him that he was a perfectly normal fey. Something called a Kim or something like that. Apparently, the demonized form of these goat men had wings, that was how to tell them apart. Well, the wingless non-demon forms looked incredibly intimidating even without that transformation.


    It might somehow make him feel better if he had goat legs as well, that would at least look like some fantasy renderings of goat-men he had seen before. But, no, he had perfectly normal human legs and he was wrapped in a freaking toga. And then, he just only had the head of a goat. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that the eyes blinked and the mouth moved when he talked, Steven would think it was just a man wearing a mask.


    Steven expected he had come to sort out whatever chaos was going on down the hall, but instead the goat man came straight to his cell instead. The large man grabbed the handle to his cell door, and then Steven¡¯s ears were assailed by the most horrible sound he had ever heard. Well, aside from the 4 times he had heard this exact same sound before when he was being brought in here, twice for each of two such iron doors he had to pass through, one of those being his own cell door.


    It seemed that this prison had a very strange excuse for a lock on the doors. The doors had no locks. Instead, these heavy iron doors had badly rusted and un-oiled hinges. They were so rusted the hinges were more or less frozen, and it seemed the only person who even had anything close to the strength needed to open these doors was this giant goat man. It was an oddly effective method to keep people in their cells. Honestly though, Steven was not certain which was the thing keeping him inside more. The weight of the door, or the horrible noise it made as it was opened. That sound seemed to send pain through his entire body, and it felt as though it was a direct attack on his very soul.


    Steven found himself crying out in pain as he held his hands over his ears, trying to use his voice to drown out that horrid horrid noise so he didn¡¯t have to hear it. Fortunately, the sound only continued for a few seconds until it was open and Steven was able to carefully remove his hands from his ears and look up at his jailer in a daze.


    The large goat man stared back at him through his horizontally slitted eyes. The yelling voices from before seemed to have all gone quiet. It seemed they couldn¡¯t take that sound either. Whatever they were yelling about, whatever they thought was so important, it was clear the pain from that brutal sonic attack was able to completely override their distress.


    Steven stood up in his stupor as he tried to recover from the impact that noise had on him. He heard a snort from the goat man as his nostrils flared, catching Steven¡¯s attention. ¡°Shee heru a'' elea lle.¡± He said. More of the local language he hadn¡¯t learned.


    Well, actually, he sorta recognized a few words that time. If Steven recalled correctly, didn¡¯t ¡°lle¡± mean ¡°you?¡± Also, he seemed to recall ¡°elea¡± meaning ¡°see¡± as well. There is, of course, every possibility he was being taunted right now. However, he doubted it. Could the goat man be saying that there is someone here to see him? Hoping his interpretation was correct, Steven took some cautious steps toward the the open door. The goat man stepped aside as he approached, suggesting further validity to Steven¡¯s understanding of what had been said.


    Steven stole a quick glance up at the large goat man. Standing in front of him always made him feel like a small child, and now somehow he felt like a guilty child as well and his eyes submissively drifted back down to somewhere around the huge goat man¡¯s navel.


    ¡°Sina men¡± The goat man said, flaring his nostrils and bringing his gigantic hand down to Steven¡¯s lower back as though he was about to pick him up and carry him like a bag of trash.


    ¡°Uhh¡­ wait!¡± Steven said. He knew the goat man probably couldn¡¯t understand him any better than he could understand him, but maybe with some pointing and gestures he could figure it out. So, Steven pointed down the hall. ¡°Th¡­ they were yelling before! It sounded like they needed help!¡±


    ¡°Rehta-lye!¡± One of the small pixie¡¯s voices echoed through the corridor once again, almost as though in response to Steven¡¯s statement. ¡°Hentraya y'' rauko natula, ric-naa ndengina lye.¡±


    The goat man let out another snort, and started shaking his head like a horse trying to shake off an annoying fly. He turned his eyes down toward Steven in a way that made him feel very much like he was being glared at. But then, the goat man slowly turned his giant lumbering body to face the opposite direction. Somehow, this gave Steven the oddest sense of relief for a moment, right up until the moment he was roughly grabbed and dragged along behind the large goat man as he went toward the source of the screaming. Still, even with that, Steven felt some sense of accomplishment in all of this.


    Before long, the goat man had dragged Steven right up to the source of the screaming. He looked up to see what was going on. What he saw was a series of much smaller cells. Really, they were a lot more like cages, and inside each cage was a small pixie. Well, inside all but one of them that is. One of them seemed to contain an entirely different creature, a small dark-skinned and twisted misshapen creature. It had dark skin that looked like some strange combination between leather and rock, and had high prominent eye-ridges, an angular face, and horns that came out the back of it¡¯s head. Instead of the insect-like wings of the pixies, it had leathery bat-like wings and it¡¯s hands were long hook-like claws. It was currently trying to use those claws to reach through the bars at the side of it¡¯s cage to try and attack the pixy in the cage adjacent to it.


    The repeated cries of ¡°Rehta-lye!¡± intensified as soon as the pixies saw the two of them approach. Steven guessed it must mean ¡°help¡± in some way, judging by how it was being used here. The large goat man let go of Steven as he saw what was going on.


    ¡°Har-eller!¡± He said down to Steven in an almost threatening tone. Steven did not even need to know the language to understand what that command probably meant. He simply remained standing on the spot and looked at the cages in a daze as the goat man opened the door to the cage with the strange creature in it. A second later, that large powerful hand plucked the vicious little creature out of the cage and clutched it firmly as the goat man carried the creature at his side like a small toy he didn¡¯t care much for.


    The goat man glared back down at Steven. He looked annoyed. The goat man¡¯s free hand came back down, and this time he actually DID lift Steven off the ground, and then carried him down the corridor in those massive powerful arms.


    -


    Gailben¡¯s POV


    What is taking Gworon so long! Gailben was tapping his foot in irritation. He had considered going in to see what was going on twice already, but both times he winced merely looking at all the iron in the iron heart. He had, at the very least, left the door open. Gailben could easily follow him in. However, the moment he was surrounded by all that fire-forged iron he would be assailed by all the warding energies sapping at his fey powers. It was not much more than an irritation at his level, but it was still something he would sooner avoid.


    As he was waiting, Gailben suddenly began to hear some frenzied shrieking. He sighed and got a grim look on his face when he heard it. It sounded like an imp. That would mean one of their fairy prisoners had succumbed to the arcane energies. They were a prisoner, a violator of the order of the kingdom, but death was not part of their sentence. And yet, now they were going to have to die. Well, this at least explains what the hold up was all about.


    As the shrieking grew closer, eventually the form of an irritated looking jailer appeared in the large doorway and the giant Khim ducked through as he held the shrieking imp in one hand, and a limp great fairy in the other.


    Gailben¡¯s eyes shifted from one hand to the other. He was not supposed to cart cooperating prisoners around like that. While the great fairy from the other world was disruptive during the trial of his friends, he had always struck Gailben as a rather straightforward young man. In fact, there were several from the justice faction who had been eyeing him to mentor. In fact, the only reason Gailben had not proposed adopting the young man already is because he was rather certain someone superior would have their eye on him and he did not want to earn ire by stepping on someone¡¯s toes.


    He glaired up at the jailer. ¡°Gworon! Why are you carrying this prisoner!?¡±


    The large Khim man let out a groan. ¡°He was slow, he demanded that I should look at the fairies first. They were screaming because of this one.¡± After saying those words, he held up the still shrieking imp.


    ¡°Well, it is also part of your job to remove demons quickly, isn¡¯t it!? In other words, he was telling you to do your job! Now, let the young man down gently, you understand!?¡± The previously limp young man looked up weakly at Gailben as he was talking. He looked awful. It was the fault of the effects of the iron no doubt. Even the immense energies these outsiders to their world possessed seemed to be no match for the natural weakness of the fey.


    The large goat man groaned again, and then tilted his body in order to lower Steven¡¯s feet to touch the floor. After he was released, the young man regained his balance, and fixed Gailben with a dazed look.


    Now, Gailben had a troubled look as he considered the imp. This was exactly the reason there was so much debate over moving the great tree before Steven¡¯s friends decided to tell the spirit of the great tree about the merits of their idea, which pretty much settled things when the spirit began siding with them and destroyed all opportunity for meaningful discussion on the topic. It would normally be Gworon¡¯s job to kill that thing, but as the giant Khim was turning to leave and carry out this job, Gailben had a stoke of inspiration. He may not be the young man¡¯s parent, but that did not mean he could not help in his mentoring.


    ¡°Wait!¡± He said, stopping Gworon in his tracks. ¡°Give that one to me as well.¡± The large Khim looked down at the imp in his hands with a confused expression for a moment, but he still obeyed the order he was given. He extended his arm, and Gailben was quick to get control of the warped fairy the moment it was released. He struggled with it for a moment, but then he slammed it against a wall and bid the great tree to envelop its arms and legs, immobilizing it in the wall.


    ¡°Now then,¡± Gailben said as he got his robes back in order and turned to Steven. ¡°How about we get you out of that chain so you can actually talk.¡± Normally, he would keep someone serving a prison sentence wearing their iron chain. However, Steven was a special case. He did not know how to communicate in Elven at all. He could only use the spirit speech of the fairies. He pointed to the young man¡¯s hand, and then gestured forward with his on arm in order to indicate what he should be doing. He seemed to get the idea, and promptly offered his chained wrist to Gailben.


    Gailben then immediately extracted his handkerchief and used it to grasp the lock on the chain. He took the wood-carved key and got it off with a pop that gave him a small amount of discomfort just hearing it. But then, it was definitely nothing compared to the screeching of the iron doors prisoners were treated to, just having this iron on your skin should render a fairy nearly a walking corpse. Only an elf could stand to be in such a place, which is why they have special cells further in for them that will give their almost half human race the same experience as the fairies.


    Gailben carefully removed the chain and then straightened up to look the young man in the eye. ¡®Now, can you hear my words?¡¯ He asked in the spirit speech.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± The young man gasped aloud and got a focused expression on his face. ¡®Umm... yes! Uhhh... what is going on?¡¯


    ¡®Something has come up in the court. If we play this right, your sentence may even be communed. We are going to need your help with something.¡¯


    ¡®M... MY help? What can I do!?¡¯


    ¡®Well, another person from your world has appeared. For some reason, she was born as an elf instead of a fairy. It seems despite that though, she is even more powerful than you. She was adopted by the queen just earlier today, and she wants to implement the justice system of your world. Lord Faranti decided it would be best to ask you in order to get the most accurate version of your world¡¯s laws as possible.


    Well then, time to set in for the long haul.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "The only justice in my system is loli"


    -NohVoha


    "Gailben seems much more reasonable when he isn''t muttering to himself like a lunatic."


    -Vorquel


    "If there is ever an occasion where we''ll see Aerien in contact with Iron, I wonder how little effect it will have xD"


    -Asekhan

 Book 2 Chapter 39: Earth law

No content

 Book 2 Act 4 side story: Hidden societies.

    ??? POV


    [The great land devourer. It was once the duty of all (nogoth) such as you to contain this great beast. You are very fortunate to be born at this time. This creature had the ability to swim through stone as easily as we walk through the tunnels, and it simply ate all that it encountered. The only ones who could possibly divert its attention away from us and turn its attention to the surface dwellers instead were the strongest of the (nogoth) who could learn to swim through stone just as this beast could.]


    Terlu, formerly Maxwell Johnson in his previous life before dying in a crazy car crash, listened to his mother¡¯s bedtime story. It was the same story he had been told every night since he had demonstrated the ability to talk, and he had learned the words a few at a time over the course of many months. It had been a little difficult to learn a new language in this world he had been born in, but when it was spoken to him every day by a mother who was always by his side and talking to him it became almost a matter of course he would pick it up.


    Terlu¡¯s mother had a stony smile as she looked down at him. She never seemed to have a gentle expression on her face. She always looked haunted by something, and even in the best of times she looked almost like she was just pretending to show care toward him, it was as though it was more fulfilling an obligation than out of genuine love. She was not callous however. In fact, she seemed to dedicate a great deal of attention toward him, but there always seemed to be something off about it. He didn¡¯t know how to describe it. It was like some of his druggie friends trying to kiss his ass so he would be more likely to lend them money. It really made him feel strange about his relationship with his mother in this world.


    [That beast is dead now though. 10,000 years ago, a new god spoke to us. He told us, dedicate your strongest children to me, I will slay your greatest foe and bring you glory and war. After this, he went silent for 10,000 years. He would grant our children who we dedicated to him power, but he did not speak to us again until shortly before you were born. He came down as a pillar of light into the great underworld, slaying the land devourer in a single stroke. In the same act, he tore open a route to the surface that even the dragon lords could get through, and there we have been fighting those who live on the surface ever since.]


    This was the part that really made Terlu uncomfortable. This was the only time she seemed to show any genuine emotion. It was when she talked about fighting. It seemed like he had been born into some kind of crazy warrior culture. He really did not know what to think about that. However, there was one thing that bothered him a lot more than that. As he sat in his mother¡¯s lap, curled up on the floor, he looked down to her ankles which were placed in chains.


    The room seemed decently furnished, and they were not fed poorly. Apparently, this had more to do with him being this ¡°nogoth¡± she kept talking about rather than anything to do with her. He was not certain what ¡°nogoth¡± meant, but going by her stories it seemed that it was had to do with some kind of ability present in some people from birth.


    The technology of this place he was born did not seem to be all that advanced, so it would be reasonable to expect a dirty dungeon with a hard bench for a bed, but he had slept every night since he was born in a small bed sized just for him. It was far too small to share with his mother though, she wound up needing to sleep on the floor, simply due to lack of any bed that would fit her. In fact, there were a number of beds in this room, all child size, and on the small end of child size even at that. There were a total of six beds. One was for him, and the rest were for what his mother called ¡°di''thang hini.¡± He had figured out that ¡°hini¡± apparently meant ¡°children.¡± He was not certain what ¡°di¡¯thang¡± meant, but going by the unpleasant and contemptuous tone in his mother¡¯s voice when she said it he was certain it was not anything good.


    Terlu had figured out this had to be some kind of fantasy world. That was about the only way to explain the pointed ears that both he and his mother had. The other children who occupied the other beds in the room had more rounded ears, like a human. There used to be a human woman in here up until a short time ago too. She was the mother of one of the other kids. She was Terlu¡¯s wet nurse. It seemed his own mother could not give milk for some reason, so this other woman had taken up that job until Terlu could eat solid food. However, as soon as he could eat solid food, that woman had been removed from the room, and they also stopped lighting the torch on the wall. For some reason though, Terlu was perfectly able to see even without it, and it seemed everyone else was able to see as well.


    This told him that, while the other children looked like human children, they were probably not. Humans can¡¯t see in the dark after all. This raised another interesting question though. That woman was definitely the mother of one of these children. That meant a human gave birth to a child who was not a human. Is it possible then that these ¡°nogoth¡± his mother keeps referring to are also a different fantasy race from his mother, who seems to be an elf? If he was not an elf, than what is he? What are these ¡°nogoth?¡±


    [Well,] his mother said, apparently shaking off her mania from when she was talking about war stuff. [I think it is time for you to go to bed now. Do not worry about your mother, the floor is all a (nandor) such as myself deserves.]


    ¡°Nandor.¡± That was another word he had heard said a lot, and this one by their jailers too. The ones who came in to give them food, lavish meals for himself, a bowl of some pasty slime for the other kids, and nothing at all for his mother, often called her this word and even spat on her. The ones who brought them food looked like they were the same race as her, so he did not think the word ¡°nandor¡± referred to a race. This was something that always bothered him. He had to ask.


    [Mother, what does (nandor) mean anyway?]


    [Hmm¡­ a nandor is someone who is weak. I did not act to kill my enemy when I could have. That is all you need to know Terlu. You are not going to be weak. You can redeem your mother¡¯s weakness if you grow and do great things. Now, don¡¯t worry about that anymore. You just go to sleep. You will need your sleep in order to grow. You are such a brilliant boy, even at your age. I know you will be strong. The strongest of the (nogoth,) I can tell. Your (fea) is already so strong.]


    Terlu¡¯s head was starting to hurt. There was another word, ¡°fea.¡± He had not figured out quite what it meant, but he kept getting told his was strong. He had tried to ask what the word meant in the past, but the answers he got never made any sense. It was apparently the essence and source of all power and strength, but it seemed somehow ethereal to him the way they described it. He really could not make sense of it at all.


    [Now then, no more talking. Get to sleep.]


    She did not give him any show of affection after these words. No kiss good night, not even a reassuring pat on the shoulder or chest. He could hear the affection in her voice, perhaps their culture considered shows of affection like that something that would make a child weak.


    [Just remember,] she said, turning back to him after she had already moved away. [When you are before the alter of Iuuttel, remember that your mother loves you and has done everything to make you strong.]


    He glanced across the room as his mother was preparing her little tarp on the floor so that she could sleep. He then looked to the five beds of the other children lined up against the opposite wall from his, clearly placed out in a spot of honor despite being made in the same way as all of theirs. He really did not understand why they were all in there with him. Maybe to be his friends in his childhood? Maybe they were supposed to be some kind of servants in the future? He could not understand the culture he had been born into. It was clearly very war like. This always made him nervous for his future. It was not pleasant growing up in what seemed to be a prison cell, but he was slowly beginning to dread the day he left it.


    -


    Without light, it was impossible to keep track of days. They managed somehow though. Time schedules seemed to get set according to natural body processes. In this cell, it seemed all the sleep schedules were coordinated according to Terlu¡¯s sleep schedule. All of the other kids were told it was bed time whenever Terlu would become sleepy. After some time of this, and the flexibility of youth, it seemed all the other kids had successfully adjusted their sleep schedule to his.


    Without the cycles of the sun or the seasons, it was impossible to keep track of how many years had gone by. However, they still kept track of age. Terlu was 23 cycles old. He had blushed furiously when he discovered the ¡°cycles¡± that were being referred to in tracking his age were actually his mother¡¯s menstrual cycles. It seemed all time in this place was measured in terms of someone¡¯s bodily functions, and menstrual cycles it seemed were the most reliable time standard to be used.


    The guards over their prison even seemed to respect Terlu¡¯s sleep schedule in determining what was night and day for them. They had adjusted to it well enough that as soon as Terlu was waking up, they were already bringing in breakfast. It seemed really strange to him that he would be treated this well in a prison. He really had to find out what the whole deal with this ¡°nogoth¡± thing was. As usual, he was served a dish that looked like it must have been prepared by a restaurant quality chef. The vegetables in the food were mostly mushroom based, and the meats were oddly fibrous and almost plant-like themselves sometimes. However, the mere fact there was meat at all spoke to the fact it was quite a high end meal.


    Each of the other five kids were served a simple bowl of some kind of pasty ghrule or something of the sort. The discrimination was very plain to see. Terlu did not know how other ¡°nogoth¡± handled this kind of treatment, but in his case, it really did not sit well with him. After everyone was served their food, nobody touched their dish. They all simply looked at their jailers until they left. The very moment they were gone though, and the door was closed, the other children walked up to Terlu, meekly holding their bowls and presenting them to him. This had happened several times by now, and everyone knew the routine.


    As Terlu received the first bowl, he took his spoon and his knife and used them to lift a piece of his own meal and place it into their bowl. The grey gravy of the juices from his meat seeped into the white grule and gave it flavor and color. [Thank you Terlu.] The small boy in front of him said as he scurried back to the corner to eat his meal. [Thank you Terlu.] The second child, a girl this time, said after receiving her portion, and also scurried off. [Thank you Terlu.] [Thank you Terlu.] They each said in turn as they gratefully received their portion of his food.


    Finally, they were down to the last one. A young read-haired girl among the other children who had made a particular impression on him that really made her stand out from the rest. As for what was so special about her. ¡°Thank you Terlu.¡± She said with a weak smile after receiving hers, and then walked off in a far more dignified fashion than the rest. Yes, she had just thanked him in English, just as she did every day. He looked after her. She was the most special of anyone he had met in this world. The way he assessed it, she might even be more important than his mother to him. As for the reason why, she was the only person he had encountered who was also from Earth.


    He spent a lot of his time chatting with her about their old home as they worked out the language of this world. She had also been the daughter of the woman who acted as his wet nurse, so this was even more of a reason he felt close to her. He had heard the term ¡°milk brother¡± in a book once before, someone not related by blood but were breastfed by the same woman. In this case, that would make her his milk sister.


    Her mother had been taken away before they could properly learn the language of this world, so they did not know what name her mother gave her. Instead they had decided that, while he used the name his mother in this world gave him, she would go by her old name from Earth. ¡°Sam.¡± He called her, short for Samantha. ¡°How about we eat together?¡±


    ¡°Umm¡­¡± She responded and looked over toward his mother nervously, and then toward the door where the people who served them food just left from.


    ¡°It¡¯s Ok.¡± He said. ¡°I know my mother doesn¡¯t like it, but they told her to stop interfering, remember?¡± He dipped his face and lowered his voice. Nobody but Sam could understand when they spoke English, but he still felt ashamed of what he was about to say. ¡°It seems like they consider me to be important for some reason. More important than¡­ her. So, I guess she doesn¡¯t have the right to chase you off or something like that.¡±


    Despite his assurances, she was still hesitating. However, before she could make a decision on this, the door creaked open once again. This time, several agitated looking elf women came in. One of them was holding a struggling live rat for some reason. This seemed rather strange. The sight was baffling enough that it diverted his attention away from the rather stern looking woman dressed in some rather revealing white robes who cleared her throat in an agitated manner, getting his attention.


    [It looks like this one will need to be taught some more respect and discipline before we can use him properly.] The robed woman said as she looked around the room in a way that made her seem rather agitated. The other children all immediately held their food bowls tightly to their chest. One of the women stepped forward toward him and Sam, and immediately directed their attention on her.


    [Show us your bowl girl!] She demands. She must have not complied with them fast enough, because a minute later the woman grabbed the bowl from her hands and kicked her, throwing her off her feet and into the side of Terlu¡¯s bed.


    ¡°Sam!¡± He called out as he rushed to her side. ¡°Are you Ok?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    He looked up with a mix of hatred and fear at the woman who apparently lead the rest. She was staring straight back at him, still with a very pissed off look on her face, but now with an eyebrow raised giving her a very pissed of but confused look. Meanwhile, the woman who stole Sam¡¯s food shows it to the woman who lead the group.


    [Hmph! So, it was true. He is sharing his food with the other children already. How old did you say he was?] The leader woman said in a high and mighty tone.


    [23 cycles your grace.] A male voice comes from out in the corridor as Terlu recognizes one of their jailers standing in the doorway.


    [So young. How long has this been going on for?]


    [For the best we can tell, ever since he started eating solid food. He ate one or two meals himself, but he was sharing it with the others by the end of the day.] The man in the doorway announced again.


    [Hmm¡­ normally, this would mean you are ready to receive Iuuttel¡¯s blessing. But, for it to have started so early, that is a little concerning.] The leader woman said. [Fortunately, we have a way to remedy this little problem thought up already. Give the girl back her food.]


    With the way this was said, neither Terlu or Sam were entirely trusting as the woman who had taken the food in the first place approached them. Sam cringed, and Terlu was already raising his arm to protect her as they both seemed to have the same thought. But, against their expectations, the bowl of food was gently held out to Sam. After a second of hesitation, she cautiously received it back.


    The woman backed away without doing anything to Sam. But, just as they were dropping their guard, another woman stepped forward and tossed that rat Terlu had noticed earlier right into Sam¡¯s lap.


    ¡°Eeek!¡± She cried and wound up dumping her bowl all over herself. The rat quickly scurried away and then hid under the bed. Meanwhile, all the women were turning and walking out of the room at once.


    [If you want to be rid of your little gift, you will have to deal with it yourself.] The leader woman in the robes said as she was leaving the room. [Let him keep his knife when you collect the meals.] She added to the guard, speaking loud enough for him to easily hear.


    Part of one very long subscriber comment.


    "Despite all that, I do find this new culture and group of characters interesting, and I look forward to seeing what you do with them. It''s nice to see truly foreign cultures in fiction, especially in these sorts of isekai/portal fantasy stories where there''s so much potential to explore new and interesting cultures from the perspective of characters similar to ourselves. Too many of those stories just tweak the writer''s culture by adding some typical fantasy tropes, rather than developing a unique and believable culture that actually fits the setting. I appreciate you putting in that effort.


    This turned into a longer comment than I initially intended. Ah well."


    -Mareus


    Yeah, that was a long comment. I actually cut out the 2 previous paragraphs that were more in response to a comment I made about not really liking how I wound up writing this chapter. (I actually did not like how I wrote this chapter, the expositional dialogue near the beginning felt a little too unnatural to me. I would have done it a little differently if I had time for a full edit, but that would have added another 2 or 3 days before I could release it.)


    More (much shorter) subscriber comments.


    "wonder if this kid is the twins half bro, nah whats the chances of that 0.001%."


    -Roy


    "Child assassins!!"


    -meowingLexi


    I''m mildly curious as to which kid Roy is talking about, because the answer would change the chances of that being the case (by a factor of about 0.001%)


    (Didn''t bring that up in the subscriber''s thread specifically because I felt like I might have accidentally divulged possible spoilers if I got into that discussion.)

 Book 2 Chapter 40: Rest and self discovery

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 41: Interpreting Earth law

"Don''t piss off the princess..."

 Book 2 chapter 42: Justice in motion

    A brief word of wisdom. If you have a routine, it is probably a bad idea to break it, for any reason. Of course, school takes priority, so I ignored that rule. This, however, resulted in the usual. It is very hard to get back into the routine once it is stopped. This is why this chapter is out about 3 days later than it would have been if I was able to pick it right up and write at my usual pace once my finals were finished.


    Well, anyway, thank you everyone for your patience and understanding. Hopefully, I will be able to re-establish my routine when it comes to writing and get a good pace going over the Christmas season.


    Steven¡¯s POV


    ¡°Waara haranga-nandor! Pi-n¡¯taurn wara! Uma ta kemen! Sikil ndengina amin yassen! Uma ta!¡±


    Steven cast an exhausted glance over toward the wall of his cell, from which a small imp hung with a chain around it¡¯s chest and neck. It kept screaming, and while he could only just barely make out the words ¡°Uma ta,¡± which he recognized meant ¡°Do it,¡± he was pretty sure he could make a good guess at the rest of what was being said, and he was quite certain it was not very pleasant.


    More importantly though, it seemed to be a call to action which supported what that fairy Gailben had told him. That even this fairy turned imp would not want to live in this state, and that it would be a kindness to put it down. He was also promised all manner of aid and everything he had wanted to if he just went through with it. However, he simply could not even contemplate the idea when the offer was in front of him. It just wasn¡¯t something he could accept.


    Gailben quickly lost patience with him when he wouldn¡¯t do it, and he was sent back to his cell along with the imp with a fresh new set of chains to keep it powerless. It was then chained to the wall, the wood was retreated back a short distance and the chain was wrapped around one of the iron bracings that lined all the walls, floors, and celing.


    He held the wooden knife in his hand and turned It over a few times contemplating it. Being made of a weak material like wood, it was nearly useless as any kind of tool. It would likely become useless with just one or two cuts on something like the nuts that are provided here as his only source of food.


    ¡°Uma Tula sinome nandor! Tanya sikil! Magha ta!¡± The imp broke into maniacle laughter. ¡°Lerta-il magha sikil, naa? Milya nandor!¡± Steven heard the unmistakable sound of the imp spitting. He could not see where the spittle landed, all he knew was that it did not hit him, and he was thankful for that. It probably wound up on the floor somewhere. He did not care a lot about that though.


    Steven¡¯s thoughts were interrupted by a horrible screech of metal against metal that, by now, had become rather familiar to him. That did not make the soul-rending pain any better though, he still felt it through his entire body and recoiled, allowing the knife in his hand to simply fall to the floor as he scrambled to clamp his hands over his ears. He was certain he heard the imp screaming as well, not that it was anything strange for him. It actually amused Steven quite a bit when the first thing he heard as he cautiously removed his hands from his ears was the imp hissing like a cat. It was oddly endearing in a way.


    He heard the lumbering of the jailer¡¯s large feet against the ground, and in rather short order the large goat man was in front of his cell. Steven realized what was about to happen next, and his hands were already clamped tightly over his ears by the time the goat man began to open the door to his own cell. That sound was just so horrible! How did that big goat stand it!? Were his ears bad or something!?


    Steven couldn¡¯t help looking back at the imp. It seemed he had fallen unconscious. The goat man noticed too, probably followed Steven¡¯s eyes. The goat¡¯s horizontal eyes flickered about the cell and finally came to rest on the knife laying on the ground, and then he began to sniff the air. It seemed he didn¡¯t like what he smelled, because he gave a disgusted sound and a shake of his head after a few quick sniffs before fixing his eyes back on Steven.


    ¡°Y'' Istar merna a'' elea lle¡± The goat said. Steven could only just barely grasp the gist of what was said, someone wanted to see him. However, he was not sure how much of that was because he was picking up pieces of the language and how much of it was because it was just the most reasonable thing to expect to be the reason the jailer was coming to his cell.


    Steven glanced quickly over to the imp, and then to the knife. He felt conflicted about this whole thing, and he was wondering if he should do anything with them.


    ¡°Anta tanya il-lle. Tul a!¡±


    The demand in his voice was hard to miss, and Steven didn¡¯t really even have to try and translate to figure out what was meant. He quickly scurried out of his cell and to the goat man¡¯s side. The large man gave a groan, and then glanced at the open door, then back to Steven. He was afraid for a moment the goat man was going to slam the door shut, subjecting him to annother sonic attack from the screeching hinges, but the giant man simply gave a snort and placed a hand on Steven¡¯s back. This was also a rather familiar situation by now, and soon Steven was scrambling to keep up as the large goat man forced him toward the entrance to this compound inside of the tree.


    He was shoved out into the wooden interrogation room. He could already feel it was easier to breath here and he felt his body growing a little stronger like someone recovering from a blood-sugar crash. There was a bit of a surprise waiting for him in this room though. First off, instead of a fairy, there were actually two people sitting in this room. One of them was an elf. The other¡­ for some reason, was an alien. Or rather, that¡¯s what this other man reminded him of. He looked very much like an alien, with the exception of the fact that he was not bald. He had a full head of white hair. Those giant black eyes though¡­


    ¡°Good morning.¡± The alien said. ¡°You are Mr. Steven, I presume.¡±


    ¡°Uhh¡­ yeah.¡± Steven said aloud and in a slight daze. Wait! Did that alien looking man just speak English!?


    ¡°My name is Sagel, I am a familiar to the princess. Also, before you ask, no I am not from your world. Becoming a familiar to someone grants one the ability to instantly grasp any form of communication your master can use. It is one of the benefits that causes fey to become someone¡¯s familiar in the first place.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I see.¡± Steven responds. The princess¡­ he means the one from Earth who is changing the legal system here, right?


    ¡°Now then, you must be wondering why you were called.¡± The alien man, Sagel, said as he stood and walked around the table. ¡°Please, have a seat.¡± He gestured toward the seat on Steven¡¯s end of the table. ¡°Eirlathion, saesa duna.¡±


    Steven thought he recognized the words at the end of the sentence as ¡°please stand.¡± His attempt at translating the words in his mind was soon verified as the elf across the table from him stood up right at the same time Steven was taking his seat.


    ¡°This is Eirlathion.¡± The alien man said while gesturing toward the elf, who gave a slight bow with his upper body upon being mentioned. ¡°I trust you have been informed about him being up for trial? I have been asked to request your services to act as his attorney for that trial.¡±


    So this is the man? Eirla¡­ something? Earl-a-thin? These foreign names were all just too hard to even say. But, there was an issue with this request though.


    ¡°Ahh¡­ well, I would like to, but¡­¡± Steven gives a glance back toward the wall that obscures the prison cells on the other side of it, and then raises his wrist, showing off the iron chain that is wrapped around it, sapping his energy even as they speak.


    ¡°Yes, we are quite aware of that.¡± The alien man says in a tone that implies it¡¯s no big deal. ¡°I already told you, didn¡¯t I? I am the familiar of the princess. This means that I act as her representative in times like this. I can have your sentence commuted immediately, and you can be released under her highness¡¯ service.


    ¡°Alright then, yes!¡± Steven says eagerly. ¡°Umm¡­ also, there¡¯s something else. There were some other people from my world who got in trouble for telling the dryad about the idea of moving the tree here. I would like to be able to appeal their case if possible.¡±


    ¡°Of course, I will let her know about that immediately. Can you tell me the details about their case and their punishment?¡±


    -


    ??? POV


    Dragon flight is about the fastest possible way to get from one location to another. Even a sub dragon could manipulate the air in a strange way that allowed them to fly at speeds fast enough to cross the entire kingdom in a single day. This power only became more amazing with the true dragons.


    While it was the fastest way to travel, it was usually a luxury that could only be experienced by the dragons themselves as they are not usually known to allow someone to ride them. However¡­ ¡®It would be annoying to have to wait for you two to keep up with me. Grab on to my mane and hold on tight.¡¯ Those words from lord Shugen were all it took to have a pair of great fairies holding on for dear life as they rapidly accelerated away from the great tree and the capital beneath its branches.


    The acceleration was tremendous, but a few seconds later when they had hit their traveling speed it was actually quite pleasant. Lord Shugen¡¯s body was wide enough for them to ride side-by-side as they stabilized themselves with the narrow plume of hair that trailed from the base of his skull and then went down his spine. The two great fairies looked back over their shoulders to see that they had already cleared the outer edge of the heaven¡¯s scar and were now over the forest. It would take one of them at least 30 minutes to cross the same distance. Although, to cross it on foot was a different story entirely, that¡¯s more on the scale of an entire day¡¯s journey just to navigate the difficult crags and fissures of the stripped bedrock.


    Now, they were over trees. This would usually be difficult to navigate, were it not for the long life and memory of all who lived in the fey woods. Even without that, there was a new landmark peeking above the trees that showed where the abandoned Cundo village stood. A single tree, clearly a lakira tree by its extraordinary girth, that peeked up above the rest of the surrounding trees by about three times the height of the rest.


    ¡®So, that¡¯s the main body of the dryad that has everyone so concerned? It is far smaller than I expected.¡¯ Lord Shugen said. Indeed, at that height, it is about equal in size to a 50,000 year dryad. That was definitely absurd considering that it had just awoken, but from the reports given it was made out to sound like it was far more powerful than any other dryad in the entire forest, save for the great tree itself.


    ¡®I believe it was not the power of this new dryad, but it¡¯s unusual intelligence that has people concerned.¡¯ One fairy offered.


    ¡®Yes, that was a concern.¡¯ Lord Shugen said as he began to pitch slightly to the side, directing their flight path away from where it would pass near that tree. ¡®However, it also guarded vines against dragon fire, even if it was just a sub-dragon. It may have power beyond what its main body¡¯s size suggests. Also, even the power of a normal dryad guided by a more cunning mind is something I shudder to even contemplate. I would be keeping my distance even without the orders to avoid Cundo for the time.¡¯


    ¡®The residents fled to Rima, correct?¡¯ One of the fairies asked.


    ¡®Indeed, it should be a short distance passed Cundo. I want to draw a wide birth around there though, it may take as long as another 10 minutes to reach our destination.¡¯ Lord Shugen said. Just 10 minutes by dragon flight though meant covering enough ground as to take an entire week on foot. From that perspective, 10 minutes was really nothing at all.


    -


    Shugen¡¯s POV


    Despite the detour, it did not take long to reach the village of Rima, and Shugen was not incorrect in his memory of the village¡¯s location. As he neared, he gave the standard formal dragon¡¯s greeting. That is, a long vocal call. ¡°Hear me! My name is Shugen! Marquis of the justice committee!¡± He said, knowing nobody would be able to understand his word. Other races were unable to understand the vocal language of the dragons, other dragons were about the only ones who could and there were no other dragons around at the moment. As such, he did not put much heart into his words. However, a formality was a formality. It would be disrespectful to chose to say some absolute nonsense just because there was no-one who could understand what he was actually saying.


    He had made his call in time to have it go out shortly before he arrived at the village, and then he did a fly-over and began circling around as he repeated his message, exactly as he had said it before. He was kinda glad there were no other dragons around to hear the bored tone with which he mechanically recited his name and position once again. Well, that¡¯s twice. That ought to have gotten the attention of everyone in the village as is the true intended purpose of that greeting. Now it is time to repeat it a third time, this time with the spirit speech added in.


    ¡®People of Rima village, here me! I am Shugen, Marquis of the justice committee! I have come with my subordinates to discuss a recent development in the neighboring Cundo village of which several of your people were involved. Please make yourselves available to discuss the matter, particularly those who were involved with the incident at Cundo village!¡¯


    After his announcement, he spread his wings and cast the wind¡¯s grasp spell, suspending himself in the air without the need to keep himself aloft with his wings. Unlike the version used by sub-dragons though, this was an advanced version of the spell. He did not simply freeze himself in place, he could still move himself and he used this ability to slowly lower himself to just above the canopy in a position that allowed him to overlook the village clearing. This created the illusion that he was actually sitting on top of the trees as though he could be supported by only the most gentle contact with the tree¡¯s leaves.


    As he stopped in his position, his two subordinates released their grasp on his mane and took on an appearance of composure and dignity as they both slowly hovered down to the ground before the gathering crowd.


    Subscriber comment of the chapter.


    "Mama Dryad ain''t gonna like that..."


    -meowingLexi


    Yes, yes that was actually the only subscriber comment on this chapter. It doesn''t seem this one generated much buzz.

 Book 2 Chapter 43: Witnesses

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 44: A not so peaceful training session.

    Levin¡¯s POV


    ¡°Alright, good roll! Keep it up!¡± Aerien said as she watched from across the room. This was great, we were finally training with Aerien again, and now we were in a real dojo-like room with matts all over the floor. She had said that Sagel had made it last night, and it looked great. She even apparently had him make a whole lot more weapons out of wood and had them hung up on the wall to be easily accessed at any time.


    The one thing is, the first thing she had us do was a bunc of rolling on the ground.


    ¡°This is a style where you are thrown to the ground a lot.¡± She had said. ¡°So, the first thing you need to know is how to hit the ground without being injured.¡± It made perfect sense, but this was not quite what he had in mind for Aerien¡¯s training. He had hoped to learn some crazy new and much more interesting sword technique than what Sagel had them doing yesterday. It was quite the let-down to see they had to learn all this safety stuff first, but it did make sense.


    ¡°Alright, now go get your swords off the wall!¡± She told them, causing their ears to perk up. Was this going to be it!? Levin excitedly went to get his sword. Aerien was already standing next to the weapons wall with a sword in her own hands, meaning she was waiting right there for them after he and Rolwen got their own swords off the wall. ¡°Now then,¡± she said, ¡°we are going to practice rolling with a sword.¡± Levin just did stood there in disappointed shock as he saw her get down into the same familiar roll they had just been doing endlessly, except she was doing it with the sword held out to the side, hovering in the air.


    ¡°You are going to have to practice with this one in case you ever actually have to use a roll in battle. You are going to have your sword on you, and that is the single thing most likely to wind up getting in your way.¡±


    ¡°More rolling!?¡± Levin protested in annoyance.


    ¡°Yeah, is there a problem?¡± She responded on the spot.


    ¡°Well¡­ that¡­¡± Levin began.


    ¡°We thought you might be teaching us some crazy ninja sword skills or something!¡± Rolwen spoke up for him.


    ¡°There are no ninja sword skills.¡± Aerien responded almost immediately.


    ¡°Yeah, but¡­ you know what I mean¡­¡± Rolwen continued.


    ¡°Sagel is teaching you that right now.¡± Aerien told them. ¡°Ninjutsu is the art of espionage. It specializes in infiltration and information gathering. There are no combat techniques involved in that. There is no martial art called ninjutsu. The ninja use the combat techniques of the locals, the ones that can produce the best cover story so that their identity will not be discovered. In feudal Japan, this was various forms of the samurai arts such as Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, and Jujutsu. In this world, it would be whatever fighting style Sagel has to teach. He knows several of the local styles that he has learned in his days. As such, he is going to be the best combat teacher if you really want to learn ninja combat techniques. I also plan to learn them myself.¡±


    Huh, so it¡¯s like that? Wait¡­ ¡°Sooo¡­¡± Levin began. ¡°Wait, are you saying you really WERE a ninja back on Earth!?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, I never told you, huh?¡± She responded rather casually.


    ¡°You said you had a dojo and everything!¡± Levin protested. ¡°Was it like, some sort of secret ninja dojo or something!? Should you really be telling us this, or is it just because we¡¯re all dead back on Earth so it doesn¡¯t matter?¡±


    ¡°Nah, it was a historical recreation of various samurai style martial arts with some education on what ninjutsu was mixed in. The people who REALLY practiced ninjutsu in the modern day are all in the CIA or whatever the intelligence agencies of other countries are. If you hear about some of the things they teach there, it actually is the exact same things real ninja learned back in Japan.¡± Aerien cast it all off dismissively. ¡°Actually, in that sense, you could say I¡¯m really not a ninja at all. Maybe I was just as much of a fan idealizing the concept as you guys back in the day and so I decided to start learning it. Now that I have and I know what it¡¯s about, I take it a little more seriously, but I know enough about it to realize I¡¯m not a ninja at all. I¡¯m just someone who knows some samurai martial arts and also knows what a ninja is.¡±


    ¡°Could we BE ninjas though!?¡± Levin asks.


    ¡°Well,¡± Aerien responded, ¡°If anyone in our group is a real ninja, that would definitely be Sagel once again. Aparently, changelings are spies for the royal family here. So, he is literally this world¡¯s equivalent of a ninja. If you REALLY want to go that route, I am certain you can learn the true ninja way from him.¡±


    It is silent after her little speech, and then she looks over to Rolwen who had been quiet for a while. ¡°Rolwen?¡± She called for his attention. ¡°What do you think about all this?¡±


    ¡°Umm¡­ I don¡¯t know, what do you want to do so far as all of this goes?¡± He responds with a question of his own.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know. I think at this point my samurai combat skills will serve me a lot better than the whole ninjutsu thing since I¡¯m a princess and all now. If anything, being a princess makes it impossible to be a proper ninja. About the only area that really overlaps is negotiation skills, and maybe having an exit plan in case of emergency. You shouldn¡¯t base your decisions on me though.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡± Rolwen responds, looking very thoughtful about what Aerien just said.


    ¡°Anyway,¡± Aerien continues. ¡°If you really want to learn some samurai arts, I will teach you once you learn to handle your swords better. A lot of it has to do with extremely precise movements, especially the hand to hand and unarmed Vs. sword stuff. You have come a very amazingly long way in terms of how well you are moving in just a few weeks, but you are still no where near ready for the kinds of things involved there. A little bit of beginner level taijutsu, which is what these rolling techniques are, is probably about the best you can handle right now. Your bodies simply are not developed enough yet.¡±


    ¡°So you WILL teach us then!?¡± Levin asks.


    ¡°Of course I¡¯m going to teach you. It seems like the meditation attached to it is pretty high level, and it sounds like a good meditation technique goes a very long way in this world. You guys have got to learn that, and you¡¯re going to have to learn taijutsu and jujutsu at the bare minimum in order to access it.¡±


    Levin looked over to Rolwen, and he was looking back with a weak smile of excitement on his face. Levin imagined his own face must look either the same or maybe even more excited. He had to admit, even if he had been a girl in his previous life, there was always just something about ninjas. All this talk about samurai and ninjas got him a little excited. Also, maybe being a boy now was affecting how he was thinking a little. He could remember thinking ninjas were neat before, but he could not imagine himself ever getting THIS excited over actually being one.


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    After setting the boys to work on their ukemi, specifically the forward and backward rolls I had shown them, I went to settle down in a corner and work on my own issues. My younger side had retreated back into our inner world, once again refusing to merge our consciousness as I had taken up the role of showing the boys what to do. There was something about her that had definitely changed, and it was looking more and more like I was going to have to see what exactly was going on.


    I sat down and began the stationary form of my meditation, and soon I was back inside the chaotic realm of my spirit. Despite how expansive this space was, I did not have to spend any time looking for the younger half of my spirit. I wanted to find her when I entered this space, and therefore I materialized right beside her.


    She was doing something rather curious when I found her. She was holding a hand straight out in front of her, and had a look of deep concentration on her face. There were repeated snapping and cracking sounds, like scored glass being snapped apart with two pairs of pliers, and a crystal-like dust was falling down from in front of her hand.


    ¡°Mmmm!¡± My younger half let out a very irritated groan when I arrived and threw her hands out to her sides, and then she turned to glare at me.


    ¡°Uhh, hey!¡± I greeted her. ¡°What were you doing?¡±


    ¡°Arrrgh!¡± She growls at me again. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯s not working!¡±


    I sighed and shook my head. It seemed she was frustrated with whatever it was, so I decided to just take a look into our shared memories and try to figure it out that way. It was¡­ memories of Eirlathion teaching our mother how to form spell crystals in order to do magic. Oh yes! Gaerien also said that you need to make the spell crystals in order to cast any form of magic.


    ¡°Are you mad?¡± My younger half asks with a pout.


    ¡°Huh? Why would I be mad?¡± I ask her.


    ¡°I was trying make it so we could do magic, and you said you hated magic.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°You told Gaerien! All the bad things happen because of magic in this world, so magic shouldn¡¯t exist!¡±


    ¡°That, uhh¡­¡± I scratch my head, trying to think a little. ¡°I guess I did say that, but I was angry at myself because of what almost happened to Gwilitphen before that, and because I had to be careful to avoid hurting mother in the same way.¡± She looks down and seems to be annoyed when she hears this. ¡°So, is there something wrong?¡±


    ¡°I want to be able to do magic.¡± She says. ¡°I just thought, you are all good with fighting and stuff, maybe I can be good at magic.¡±


    I could sense this was somehow very important to her, to a point she was incredibly frustrated her attempts at making a spell crystal were failing. It was something important to the core of her very being. ¡°You¡¯re trying to differentiate yourself from me, aren¡¯t you?¡± I asked her.


    ¡°I AM different!¡± She snaps. ¡°You got mad at Gaerien yesterday saying we were the same, I don¡¯t like that! I don¡¯t like not being in the conversation and Sagel always talking to you! I want to be me!!!¡±


    I did not even know how to respond to all of this. What was going on here anyway!? Ok, ok, well I should probably just keep a level head and deal with it one step at a time. Proximal issue, she is angry. She wants to be different, and she wants to specialize in magic in order to do it. Let¡¯s just calm her down for now, I can figure out the rest of this later.


    ¡°Ok¡­¡± I say, staring blankly at her for a little while. ¡°Ok, I can tell you are upset. How about¡­ here, let me try to help you with the whole spell crystal thing. Normally it is supposed to take a while to accumulate the energy to make one, right?¡±


    She did not respond to what I was saying, it doesn¡¯t look like she was going to cooperate very well with this. So, back to the default method for figuring things out, searching our shared memories would probably be a more reliable method to figure out what she has already tried anyway.


    ¡­. ¡°Hmmm¡­ I think I see the problem.¡± I muse aloud. It¡¯s a defect of our primary cultivation method. Whenever she tried to form a spell crystal the way that Eirlathion described, the energy only got sucked away by the void. So, she tried to just rush it and form a crystal all at once in a single session. Of course, that just produced an unstable crystal and it broke immediately.


    ¡°Ok, let me try.¡± I tell her. ¡°I have access to more energy than you do, how about I pull a large amount of energy and keep it in one place so it doesn¡¯t get sucked away, and then you can try to use it to make a crystal? Does that sound good?¡±


    Once again, she doesn¡¯t respond. However, the scowl on her face softens significantly.


    ¡°Ok, I am going to move my spirit apparition.¡± I tell her. Immediately afterward, the nearby blue giant reaches both its hands forward and cups them as though he is about to receive a eucharist for communion. In the meantime, the both of us are now encircled by those giant arms. So, all the power in this entire spirit system runs through this giant thing, so I ought to be able to divert a little bit of it now.


    I focus on the idea of some of the power constantly running from the heaven¡¯s chakra to the feet being gathered in the hands. Immediately, a white flame sparks up inside of the cupped hands, and it is very clear it is alive with spirit energy.


    ¡°Well, there we go. Focused spirit energy. I¡¯m doing my best to make sure this doesn¡¯t dissipate. You can go ahead and make your spell crystal from that.¡±


    ¡°Mmm..¡± She makes a very unsure sounding groan, but ultimately she chooses to approach the flame of focused spirit energy. She holds her hands in front of her once again, and there is an instant change in the flow of the energy in the giant¡¯s hands. It condenses down, and begins to form into a perfectly clear octahedral prism. My younger half lets out a gasp of shock and joy, but that momentary elation quickly turns back into intense focus. ¡°Don¡¯t stop, I gotta make it stronger!¡± She says, and then immediately goes back to focusing with a look on her face that resembles a child who has gotten completely into coloring or building with blocks to the point they are actively annoyed by anything that attempts to pull their attention away from what they are doing.


    She continued to pull spirit energy from the white flame, condensing it into the crystal, continually reinforcing it. Eventually, she backed away with a satisfied look on her face, looking back at me with pride. ¡°It worked!¡± She cheered.


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± I said. ¡°Now, we just need to see if it can hold up without me isolating it like this.¡± A nervous look appeared on her face at this, and then she looked back at the crystal with an entirely different expression. I allowed the flame to die out, and then the giant blue hands pulled away. As soon as the hands that were supporting it were gone, the crystal began to fall down toward the void below.


    ¡°Nooo!¡± My younger self called out in a tone that almost seemed to be a whine. She immediately teleported herself into the crystal¡¯s path and caught it with her mental energy. As I appeared next to her a moment later, she looked back at me with a sad expression. ¡°It¡¯s loosing power.¡± She moaned. ¡°I can feel it draining.¡±


    Well, that¡¯s just great. That really hurt, to see someone trying so hard and then it all wound up as a failure in the end.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± I said cautiously. ¡°I guess we need to come up with a different method.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t you use the giant to hold it again?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, that won¡¯t work. I have to put all of my focus into keeping the energy flowing without falling into the void. I would have to do nothing but stay here all the time just focusing on keeping the crystal suspended in order for it to work like that. I would never be able to come out. I still have Mister Eirlathion¡¯s court case to judge. I am afraid this is just not going to work.¡±


    ¡°Mmm¡­¡± She lets out a sad grunt, and then in a gesture of resignation she allows the spell crystal to fall from her hands and plummet into the void below. I watch on along with her as it falls into the void, and then eventually begins cracking and breaking apart before finally sublimating back into energy as it is sucked in.


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s alright.¡± I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. ¡°Remember what Gaerien said back when we first told her about our meditation methods? This might have a heavy hand-to-hand combat component to focus the meditation, but this is DEFINITELY a mage¡¯s meditation. That means there HAS to be ways to use magic somewhere in it. Almost everything else about it is completely different from the normal methods, so maybe there¡¯s a way to use magic without any kind of spell crystals at all.¡±


    ¡°Mmm¡­¡± She grunts.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± I told her. ¡°You¡¯ve just gotta experiment and see. Keep trying things until you figure it out.¡±


    ¡°What if Gaerien¡¯s wrong?¡± She said.


    ¡°Hey, you can¡¯t start thinking like that. You¡¯ve gotta keep trying.¡±


    ¡°She was wrong before though! You said her method for moving the elements was wrong, so we had to do something different!¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± I replied. ¡°We are very very different. When Gaerien told us how to move the elements, she was talking as someone who has never actually had all the elements together in one spirit before. So, she just didn¡¯t know. She ought to know what is and is not a mage¡¯s meditation though, she has been alive a LOT longer than we have. So, there should be some magic somewhere in the meditation, especially with all these energies that keep flowing through us. We just need to figure out how it¡¯s done. Okay? You just gotta keep trying different things until something works.¡±


    ¡°Mmmm¡­¡±


    ¡°Here, how about you go out and train the earth kata for a little while? Maybe the magic is in the katas. They are very different from the rest of the training and practice, and a lot more meditative too. Try doing the katas while trying to move energy and make something happen.¡±


    ¡°Mmmm¡­¡±


    ¡°Well, if you don¡¯t want to try, then I will. You said you want to be the one doing magic, right? I¡¯m going to do it first if you don¡¯t get yourself out there and try to do something.¡±


    ¡°Mmmm¡­¡± She grunts again.


    ¡°Alright, fine. I¡¯ll be outside in control of our body. You can pout in here all you like.¡±


    With those words, I left and opened my eyes back in the training room. I was not ACTUALLY planning to try any spell-casting attempts. Not yet anyway. Maybe after the trial if my younger half doesn¡¯t try anything first.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "That''s some half-assed reconciliation right there. I can only see this getting worse. Probably at the exact wrong time."


    -Vorquel


    "baka"


    -meowingLexi


    "ninja grandpa is on the job, perma-cosplaying as a loli magical girl."


    -Roy


    Dang it Lexi! Why did you have to make such a short comment? It''s throwing off the quote alignments here! :p


    In other news, I think I am starting to suffer from too many characters and too much going on in this scenario. Despite the lack of action, this whole storyline has gotten REALLY involved! Lots of balls in the air in this juggling show here.

 Book 2 Chapter 45: Making peace.

    Merry Christmas everybody! I''m not certain it is all THAT appreciated as a Christmas present that I actually delayed this by around 12 hours just so it could be released with December 25th as it''s posting day, but hey, it lets me actually legitimately say "Merry Christmas" in the opening comment.


    Anyway, starting from this chapter and continuing on for several chapters, the POV will kinda be all over the place. This is the chapter which I actually wrote straight after getting off of my hiatus (for those who don''t know, I have a constant 3 advanced chapters, sometimes more, just for subscribers,) and comparing it to the previous work the change in tone is rather obvious (and also gets a bit faster.) I will leave it to you all to judge whether it''s good or not. I''ll tell you this much though, I''ve been enjoying it. (Just a little embarrassed that my amount of free time to dedicate makes THIS large a difference.)


    ??? POV


    ¡°Did you hear what all the fairies are talking about?¡± A small winged boy looking to be around 6 years of age bounced up and down in a room¡­ ¡°They said there¡¯s a new princess!¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± A girl who looked to be only a little larger than the boy responded.


    ¡°Yeah! Do you wanna ask Mommy if we can see her?¡± The boy continues to bounce happily.


    ¡°Can we really meet a princess?¡± The girl responds. ¡°They¡¯re supposed to be important, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but we¡¯re important now too! They said great fairies and all that stuff, we¡¯re the first children great fairies ever! Maybe we might be able to see the princess!¡±


    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s go ask.¡± The girl agrees and then leads her brother as the pair run through the room, but the boy immediately begins flying with his insect-like fairy wings and outpaces his sister who is still on foot.


    ¡°Mommy! Can we ask if we can see the princess!?¡± The boy asks as he is still flying through the air. He does a mid-air reverse, kicking his feet out in the same direction he is flying, and stops himself as he plants both feet on the wall, then kicks off and flutters down to land on the ground at the same time his sister is arriving.


    ¡°Joshua, what have I told you about flying and putting your feet on the wall!¡± The mother scolds and then sighs.


    ¡°The fairies were saying there¡¯s a princess now!¡± The boy says, apparently not paying attention to what his mother was just saying. ¡°She was just born, and we wanna see her!¡±


    ¡°What!? I don¡¯t think they are going to let you see a newborn princess.¡± The mother responds. ¡°Wait, I heard fairies don¡¯t have babies the normal way, are you sure you heard that right?¡± She asks.


    ¡°No.¡± A fairy with the appearance of a teen girl over in the corner said. ¡°He¡¯s wrong about that. I heard it too, they said the princess was adopted.¡± Her eyes immediately go to the floor after she says this and lets out a heavy sigh.


    ¡°Yeah! That¡¯s what I meant!¡± The boy says.


    ¡°You can¡¯t keep messing up like that.¡± The teen girl says. ¡°You may still look like you are six, but you are really eight years old now! It is about time you started paying attention and not getting so hyper excited all the time.¡±


    ¡°Yeahh¡­¡± The boy sulks and casts his head down for a second.


    ¡°Kelly, don¡¯t be too harsh on him.¡± The mother scolds her.


    ¡°Mmm¡­ but I don¡¯t think¡­¡± She begins to protest with a subdued, almost sulking tone, but then her words are cut short when the side of the wall opens and everyone¡¯s faces become surprised when they see the man standing in the door way.


    ¡°Wow! Mister Steven!¡± The boy says, and then picks himself up with his wings and flies through the air toward the man. ¡°I heard you were in jail for something, did they let you escape?¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± The man responds to the sudden question from the child suspending himself in the air with rapidly fluttering wings.


    ¡°Joshua!¡± The mother gives an angry bark from across the room.


    ¡°Urp!¡± The boy gives a guilty yelp and then immediately drops to the floor with a noisy plop of shoes hitting wood. His mother keeps an exhasperated glare on him, but then her face softens instantly as her eyes turn to the man in the door.


    ¡°Sorry about him.¡± She says, briskly crossing the room herself at a walk. ¡°I¡¯m glad you are back. Everyone¡¯s been on edge since¡­¡± She trails off, leaving her sentence unfinished.


    Steven lets out a sigh as he gazes into her eyes. ¡°Yeah, a lot of crazy stuff has been happening in the last few weeks, and it sounds like it just keeps getting crazier. But, it sounds like things might start sorting themselves out soon. If everything goes right, we might start seeing some proper due process in the courts here. We might even be able to save the others.


    ¡°I see¡­¡± The mother responds. ¡°Well¡­ again, I am glad you are back. I¡¯m sorry, but Mr. Neilson isn¡¯t here. He flew out into the woods about a week ago and hasn¡¯t been back, so it¡¯s just been the four of us.¡±


    ¡°Is that right?¡± Steven responds. ¡°I guess I don¡¯t really blame him. This must have been a really upsetting couple of weeks.¡±


    The two adults go silent after this. Both of them avoid each other¡¯s eyes in the silent awkward memory of past events. Perhapse because he could sense how upset the adults were getting, or maybe just because he had no tact and saw a possible chance, the boy chooses to speak up at this time and break the silence.


    ¡°Hey! Mr. Steven! Guess what!? I just heard from the fairies that there¡¯s a new princess who was adopted.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Steven responds. ¡°Oh, yes. I know about the princess. She is actually the one who let me out.¡±


    ¡°Really!? Did you get to meet her!?¡± The boy asks excitedly.


    ¡°No, it was one of her representatives. But, anyway, she is the one who is making the changes that might make things start getting better for us.¡± Steven¡¯s eyes seem to be lighting up with life as he talks and he looks up at the boy¡¯s mother. ¡°Now it¡¯s my turn to surprise all of you with something about the princess. She is actually from Earth, just like us.¡±


    ¡°Really!?¡± The boy exclaims with his jaw dropped. This seems to catch his older sister¡¯s interest as well as she runs across the room to where the others are talking.


    ¡°She¡¯s from Earth!?¡± The sister says. ¡°Maybe we really can meet her then!¡±


    ¡°But wait!¡± The boy says. ¡°If she¡¯s from Earth like us, how come SHE gets to be a princess and we don¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how it all works exactly, but it sounds like the queen will adopt someone who she thinks has the right qualifications. Personally, even though I haven¡¯t met this princess yet, I think the queen made an excellent choice with this one considering the kinds of things she¡¯s doing already. I bet she must have really impressed the queen.¡± He smiled down at the children. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t get my hopes up about her being close to your age though. I¡¯m pretty sure she isn¡¯t a kid if she¡¯s doing all of this.¡±


    -


    Steven¡¯s POV


    Steven spoke with Veronica and her kids, as well as the teenaged Kelly who was in there with them, for a while. Since he had gotten out of that prison, showing his face to them was one of the first things he wanted to do. Now, however, he had to go and start really preparing his case.


    He couldn¡¯t help but sigh. This is going to be a really hard case. His client just HAD to go and tell the prossicutor everything without a lawyer present. Well, not that it¡¯s his fault really. It¡¯s this messed up justice system here. His client was let out due to a technicality, but Steven was 100% certain they were going to find something on him to renew the prosecution. He had made sure to tell them about the double jeopardy rule, but he had no faith it was going to be followed. The princess¡¯ representative had said as much, it seems the queen has some kind of idea about how she wants this to go and she is just overruling some of the Earth laws the princess is trying to push.


    Well, one thing possibly in his favor though is that one of those rules being ignored is that the princess, who will be acting as the judge, is biased in favor of his client. In fact, if she had just kept the old system, she could have easily just ruled him innocent. Although, it seems there is some pressure on her against that. Trying to get a jury to rule him innocent then seems to be her way of dodging whatever pressure is being put on her to come to a guilty verdict. Well, if the entire court is going to be against him except for one person, the judge is probably the one person he would most like to be on his side. So, it could still work out somehow.


    Steven walked across his personal quarters and over to a table in the corner. On this table, there was a cage made of iron. And, in that cage, was a familiar looking imp. It was something he requested when he was released. He could have easily left this little guy behind, but he had no doubt that if he was left in that cell then, while he would be let off the duty of killing this guy, he would still wind up dead in the end when that big goat man came by. Failing to do anything would be the same as killing this mutated fairy.


    Steven was not exactly certain why he wanted to save him aside from that. Honestly, he would be relieved to be rid of him. Somehow though, he was keenly aware it would be a bad thing to just leave him to the goat man. Did he seriously want to keep this guy alive? He still didn¡¯t feel it was right to kill him, but the argument that this guy is better off dead at this point still seemed to have some merit. Perhaps¡­ somewhere, he was just aware that if he left it for the goat man to kill this guy then it would mark a failure on him. He was the one given this job, so if he just left and allowed it to default to the goat man then it could only mean bad things for him in the future. Like this, he would likely still be pressured and pushed by Gailben, but at least he would have nothing to hold over Steven¡¯s head.


    He let out a sigh as he approached the cage. The imp was sitting in the middle with his arms wrapped around his knees, just staring off toward the wall. ¡°How are you doing there buddy?¡± He said to the imp.


    ¡°a'' amin il-uma quena Idn''uma. Rangwa amin il-uma i'' lammen lle.¡±


    Steven was pretty sure he was just rebuffed by the sulking imp. It was pretty clear he still had his mental faculties all together even in this warped form, it just made him more violent, and apparently uncontrollably homicidal toward his own former race. It was like someone with brain damage. Steven did not know him back when he was a fairy, but it¡¯s pretty clear that however he was before he was still in there.


    All that Steven could do is shake his head and continue on toward his desk. Well, time to get to work. Fortunately, he already has experience and exposure to this kind of case. Unfortunately, it seems the degree of the ¡°incitement of a dryad crime¡± this time is several orders of magnitude worse than what his fellow Earth reincarnates had faced in their trial.


    -


    Eirlathion¡¯s POV


    ¡°Thank you for keeping these for me.¡± Eirlathion said, recieving his belongings from his apprentice T¨²eth. ¡°Things have been crazy since we got here. I¡¯m sorry, it wasn¡¯t meant to turn out like this.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± T¨²eth responded and looked down in a brief awkward pause. ¡°I.. have to ask something. You mentioned the two humans were reborn, and from another world. You never mentioned though, are the girls the same?¡±


    Eirlathion gave a sigh at this question. ¡°Does that question even need to be asked? You have been too uncertain of yourself T¨²eth. I believe the answer in this situation ought to be pretty clear. That ought to have been an accusation, not a question.¡±


    ¡°I see. Why didn¡¯t you tell me?¡± She responded.


    ¡°There, that¡¯s a lot more like it. Anyway, well... it¡¯s not like I hid it on purpose. Honestly, given everything that has happened, I can¡¯t actually remember why it is that I only mentioned the boys. I am certain it made sense to me at the time.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sorry about that.¡± She responds, to which Eirlathion sighs again.


    ¡°T¨²eth, if you think I hid something from you about your own daughters, you have every right to be angry no matter what I¡¯m going through right now. This world is not gentle, and the situation in the world is rapidly turning against us. You are going to have to learn how to be tougher.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, mmm... master. It¡¯s just...¡±


    ¡°That you still don¡¯t think of them as your daughters?¡±


    ¡°What!?¡± T¨²eth jumps upon hearing that.


    ¡°You would show more interest in them and their situation if you did. Your tone earlier, asking about if they had their memories from their previous life, it was not to get to know them better, was it?¡±


    ¡°...no.¡± T¨²eth responds in a scolded manner.


    ¡°What did you really want with that knowledge?¡± He asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s just...¡± T¨²eth looks down and hesitates. After several long seconds, it is clear she is aware she is not being motherly in her actions, but she also does not seem to be able to admit the real reason to herself. Or, if she is aware, then she doesn¡¯t want to say it. If Eirlathion had more confidence in it being the latter, he would probably demand it out of her, but there is a real strong possibility of the former in this case.


    ¡°It is because you wanted to have that as an excuse to make it so you didn¡¯t have to be a mother to them, isn¡¯t that right?¡± Eirlathion supplied the reason for her.


    ¡°What!? Umm...¡± She looks around in a panic, after which Eirlathion lets out a sigh.


    ¡°T¨²eth, you may not want to be their mother, but that does not mean they don¡¯t need one.¡±


    ¡°But... Aerien is NOT my daughter anymore! And Gaerien HATES me! How can I be their mother like that?¡±


    Eirlathion sighs again. ¡°Look, even if you don¡¯t want to act as a mother to them, they are the last family you have right now. You should at least be able to adjust to being around them more. Try to make up with Gaerien if you can at the very least. She does have a previous life worth of experiences behind her, so I am sure she can be reasoned with despite her young age.¡±


    ¡°Master...¡± T¨²eth hesitates for a moment. ¡°You... why are you saying all this stuff now?¡± Suddenly, her expression turns from scolded to accusatory. ¡°You... you don¡¯t think you can win in the court, do you?¡±


    Those words shoot through Eirlathion like a bolt. After being called out in this way, he can do nothing but throw up his hands in defeat. He paces the room as he tries to find the right words to give her. ¡°Sagel thinks the queen is trying to force Aerien to give a guilty ruling. I don¡¯t know how much you have been following of what Aerien is doing, but she is using a method to get someone else to make the decision by using the laws of her home world. She also had me talk to someone who could represent me. However, when I talked to him, it sounds like it really doesn¡¯t look good.¡±


    There was a groaning of wood at that moment, and when they looked to the wall that had opened up, they saw a number of great fairies in the garb of the justice committee.


    ¡°Magus Eirlathion.¡± The lead fairy said. ¡°Upon review of the evidence and testimonies of those present in Cundo village at the time of the dryad¡¯s awakening, the justice committee has decided there is sufficient evidence to charge you with incitement of a dryad. By order of the princess¡¯ new laws, you are to be held in temporary confinement until you can be arraigned tomorrow morning.¡±


    So, it had come to this after all. ¡°Well, it looks as though I cannot teach you anything more for the time being.¡± He said to his apprentice. ¡°There is a book inside of my bag. It contains a lot of seldome known information about magic. Please learn from that.¡±


    ¡°But... master!¡± T¨²eth shouted behind him. Meanwhile, Eirlathion did not even look back at her.


    ¡°Alright, I will come along cooperatively.¡± He said as he walked into the middle of the group of great fairies.


    Subscriber''s comment of the chapter


    "these new three sound like a mom and her two kids all respawning together, and by chance even in the same family structure rofl, but still are these fairy''s still kids because they have childish minds from before @[email protected]"


    -Roy


    And, only 1 comment again. I think I am going to accredit it to the fact that, as I mentioned at the beginning, this was the first chapter after getting back from hiatus. I guess this gives Roy serious MVP points. (MVP = most valuable poster in this case.)

 Book 2 Chapter 46: The true crisis

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 47: Legitimacy

No content

 Book 2 Act 5 special lore chapter.

    So, I have been keeping a pattern of having a side-chapter or lore chapter between every act. I had not actually prepared a side or lore chapter for the break between the 5th and 6th acts of this arc, mostly because as I was writing I did not actually know where I was even going to put the break. I actually only decided after getting 3 chapters into what has now been labeled the 6th act. In other words, right before posting the last chapter.


    So, not to break tradition, I have gone ahead and thrown together a quick lore chapter to stick into this break space. It is on a subject that has been coming up quite frequently lately in story, an explanation on the duties of the committees of the fey court.


    (Note: This is from a historical perspective, and all in accordance with what their roles would have been under normal circumstances before Aerien showed up, triggering the Heaven''s Fall on her way in. Things are rather messed up now.)


    Also, since it didn''t take that long to explain all the committees, I decided to also add a short little real-world lore base on what my inspirations were for the blue-jade dragons.


    Special lore chapter: Civics of the Fey court.


    The fey court has what is likely one of the more curious forms of government in the world. As the fey (other than elves) largely do not have children in the same way humans do, succession among fey noble lines is determined entirely by adoption. In addition, the standards held by the fey are such that they often do not adopt children. Rather, adoption by a fey noble functions less like being taken into a family and more like an apprenticeship, with the adopted son or daughter usually being well into the fey equivalent of their adult years. It is normally the case that one is not even a candidate for adoption until they are over 100 years in age and have proven their worthiness to be adopted into the family.


    The fey of the great northern forest are ruled by a single queen, a great fairy dragon named Oren. It is said her eye was damaged when she was young in her previous life as a normal dragon, and the memory of that life-long injury was carried over into her rebirth as a member of the fey. She had once been a colossal greater dragon who fell when the demons drove the great land devourer to the surface. She is said to have done battle with the beast, but was no match for it as she met her end. She died with resentment against the beast, vowing revenge, and thus when she was reborn as a fey she immediately took up residence in the great north where the creature was said to reside. Soon, her power alone transformed the great north into the sprawling forest it has become today.


    The court which serves under the blue-jade fey dragon queen Oren is divided into committees, gatherings of fey who have tasked themselves with one aspect of the governing needs of the fey or another. Each committee is then headed up by one of the fey-dragon dukes and dutchesses. Each duke or dutchess are among the peak of what is considered a true dragon and are bordering on the territory of greater dragonhood.


    There are six committees in the fey court. The Arbor committee, which is responsible for managing the dryads throughout the great northern forest. The Justice committee, responsible for the prosecution and punishment of those who violate the law of the fey. The Civics committee, responsible for handling relations with and management of the elves and other fey creatures of the forest. The Defense committee, a warrior committee responsible for defending the northern forest, and the capital city in particular, against any form of attack. The War committee, a warrior committee responsible for pressing the attack primarily on the demon lands. And, finally, the Diplomacy committee, responsible for handling relations with the governments of nations ruled by other sentient races.


    The Arbor committee, headed by dragon duke Baltair, is primarily considered to be the most important among the six committees, and is the only committee with the right to freely request members be surrendered from other committees in order to serve under him. The control of the dryads is considered to be the top and most important role of the fey nobles, and the reason why the rest of the fey subject themselves to the rule of the fey court. As such, the Arbor committee is held in very high regard among the court. As this is a subject so frequently on the fey court''s mind though, the queen often winds up speaking on the Arbor committee''s behalf, relegating lord Baltair to a secretarial position of carrying out the queen''s edicts rather than properly leading the committee. (Essentially, the committee''s role is so important the queen winds up hijacking it.)


    The Justice committee, headed by dragon duke Faranti, holds the role of enforcing the law and has the power of jurisdiction over all members of the fey court should they violate the laws of the court or the nation in any way. The justice committee is comparatively small in terms of total member count compared to other committees, but Faranti and his direct subordinates are equal to the strongest members of other committees, and also have the direct ear of the queen should any attempt at enforcement be resisted.


    The Civics committee, headed by dragon dutchess Frent, is the committee concerned with the actual day-to-day management of all the political processes within the court. It is their job to organize events, and act as go-betweens for all five of the other committees. Dutchess Frent also acts as a personal advisor to the queen Oren, updating her on the goings on within the court and the latest news on the villages. They share the job of regularly checking the villages with the Arbor committee, except that the Arbor committee is only really concerned with villages that already have or may soon have a dryad, where as the civics committee must remain apprised of the events in every village in the great northern forest. There are several small duties assigned to the civics committee, and no specific large role. However, their management of the small stuff is ultimately what allows the fey court to continue running as a governing body.


    The Defense committee, headed by dragon duke Havarall, is an arm of the fey military. This arm of their military does not deploy or launch any exploratory ventures, and specializes in tactics to neutralize a threat quickly without causing collateral damage. It is their job to protect against invasion. They are often stationed at the capital, patrolling the perimeter around the great tree.


    The War committee, headed by dragon duke Ter, is the other arm of the fey military. The war committee represents the sword to the defense committee¡¯s shield. This arm is responsible for scouting and exploratory strikes against enemies to the fey, primarily against the demons. Lord Ter has been tasked by queen Oren specifically with the long-term objective of finding out where the demons have corralled the great land eater to, a task which has proven incredibly difficult as it has only been discovered twice in the millennia since he was charged with this duty, and by the time they could begin work on crafting a ritual spell grand enough to even hope at damaging it the demons would find out about this and cause the beast to wake up, forcing the fey to retreat.


    The Diplomacy committee, headed by dragon duke Kavir, is responsible for all communication with nations outside the great northern forest. Lord Kavir is said to be especially wise and talented, and has repeatedly earned enough of queen Oren¡¯s trust that she has granted him authority to speak in her name, promising to stand by any decision which he makes in the name of foreign relations. His subordinates are all highly skilled negotiators as well, and it is said there is no mortal man capable of deceiving or taking the better of any member of the diplomacy committee of the blue-jade dragon clan. The diplomacy committee will still defer to the queen in terms of final declarations of alliances or war, but matters of trade or the granting of access to the northern forest for diplomatic envoys is left entirely in the hands of Kavir and his subordinates.


    Special real-world inspirations section.


    Blue-jade dragons.


    The blue-jade dragon clan is a somewhat convoluted reference to the original lore behind Qinglong, the bluegreen dragon of the east. Most may know this figure more commonly as Seiryu, the blue dragon, in more common modern Japanese pop-culture sources.


    The reason for the name ¡°bluegreen dragon¡± is an artifact of the older form of the Chinese and other Eastern languages. Up until a few hundred years ago, none of the East-Asian languages differentiated between the colors ¡°blue¡± and ¡°green¡± in their language. They all used a single character which referenced both colors. In the more modern Japanese language, they invented the word ¡°Midori¡± to mean ¡°green,¡± and kept the word ¡°ao,¡± which used to mean both blue and green, and changed it to only mean blue now.


    Because Seiryu was called the ¡°ao¡± dragon in all the lore, pop-culture writers would frequently confuse the historical context and just take the term ¡°ao¡± to mean only blue. Few looked into the more historical context about Seiryu/Qinglong to realize he was said to have immense power over nature, and wherever he would go the land would become more fertile and become over-abundant with greenery. Had they known, they would likely have realized that ¡°green¡± is the more appropriate color to be attributed to Seiryu, rather than blue. And plant-related powers the more lore-accurate power rather than the ice more commonly given in the modern pop-culture sources such as Yu-yu Hakusho.


    The reason they are called blue-jade dragons in the story, rather than blue-green, (aside from just sounding cooler,) is also in reference to Qinglong¡¯s Chinese origin. Jade as a precious stone has been historically regarded very highly in the Chinese culture, and has held an important place in their religious lore.


    Those familiar with Dungeons and Dragons lore might also recognize a similarity between the legend of Quinlong and the powers attributed to green dragons. Both are said to cause a sprouting of greenery wherever they go, with the only major difference between Qinglong and the D&D green dragons being that the plants that grow near D&D green dragons are all deadly poisonous. D&D green dragons also have a very strong connection with the fey, as it is said their power over greenery comes from a natural link their bodies have to the fey-wilds, to the extent that the body of a recently slain green dragon actually becomes a portal to the fey-wilds.


    It is worth mention that the specific combination between the blue-jade dragon¡¯s natural ability to promote the fertility of plant-life combined with the corrupting influence of arcane magic in creating demons would make the forests near where a blue-jade fey-dragon is active more similar to the forest of a D&D green dragon than it would the dwelling grounds of Qinglong who they are more closely based on.


    NOTE: As this was never on the subscribe star, there are no subscriber comments.


    Special bonus Easter egg hunt for lore buffs. I actually have not told all of the inspirational basis for the members of the fey court. However, the little hidden extra I have worked into it ought to be a little easier to figure out for anyone interested using the info in this chapter.


    Hint:


    The names are important in figuring out this Easter egg


    Final note: (Yes, I DO realize it is slightly confusing having south-american winged serpents take most of their inspirational basises from the most famous among the Eastern dragons, and then to have a final result of them fitting the power set of a D&D western dragon.)

 Book 2 Chapter 48: Jury duty

    Well, ultimately, the reason was the conditions surrounding the trial. It was the war being fought below by the war and defense committees, the dryads suddenly sprouting up like any other plant out in the villages and pulling attention from the arbor committee, and then just today he discovers he would be arguing against his own lord Faranti who demanded he argue his absolute best case against him. His lord was truly demanding the impossible of him in this, he was supposed to argue that the magus Eirlathion was at risk of running away if he was not kept in the iron heart. It was such an impossible task, a part of him actually felt compelled to run back to Mr. Steven and ask him what the proper procedure was in a case where they generally were not at risk of fleeing, because the scant few arguments he could make would all impune the honor of the royal family, the queen in particular, in one way or another.


    In the end, the only options he had were to first suggest Mr. Eirlathion may be cunning enough to fool the great tree into allowing him to leave. He ought to know the workings of a tree spirit¡¯s mind well enough due to his long-term association with the one currently causing all these problems after all. This argument was quickly overturned though by his lord stating that even if he left, it would be impossible to avoid discovery on the open expanse of the Heaven¡¯s Scar. After this, he was forced to resort to hinting that he may receive aid from some unspecified person. Of course, his lord quickly listed off there were only 3 people Mr. Eirlathion had associations with, and one of them held no such power. The remaining other two were the dangerous ones Gailben dared not refer to.


    Gailben had not required sleep for centuries since becoming a great fairy, but after the chaos this trial was turning into he felt the desire to simply lay upon a soft mattress and close his eyes as he shut off the world for some time. On top of that, the trial was going to be tomorrow! At this point, he felt as though the entire proceeding was turning against him in the worst way possible. It was clear the guilt or innocence of Mr. Eirlathion had ceased to be the driving force behind this trial, it was becoming an insult to everything the justice committee stood for! Could this be why his lord had chosen to stand in for the defense for this part of the trial? Perhaps he could see it too and had decided the way things are being done are wrong. But, there are still several very suspicious points about the events he had heard about as they occurred in Cundo village. It simply did not sit well to not dig into them further.


    Gailben couldn¡¯t help but admire the proceedings of the princess¡¯ world. Already they had yielded fruits. In the investigation of the incident, they had discovered the depth of the threat posed by the dryads, and Gailben had learned things about the incident that only proved to increase his own certainty of Mr. Eirlathion¡¯s guilt in what had occurred. He would have very much liked to have seen this play out according to the proper procedures Mr. Steven had told him about. But, as it stands, it is becoming nothing more than a spectacle.


    He could do nothing but sigh in resignation and wait for tomorrow it seemed. So, Gailben simply flopped face-first into the pillow of a bed that had belonged to one of the elves currently making the journey on foot from the old site of the capital to the new location it was moved to. He¡¯d had to fly all the way down to the lower groves that rested under the branches of the great tree in order to find this place as the guest rooms for the non-fey visitors were simply not something a person of his rank station could make use of.


    -


    ??? POV


    Late in the evening, the capital caravan was settling in to the camp they had pitched. Moving this many people clear across the fairy queen¡¯s forest on foot while fighting and dodging demons had been a logistical nightmare for those in charge to manage. It seemed more of the day was dedicated to pitching and breaking camp, leaving only a short matter of a few hours to get any actual progress made.


    As they passed, a foot-worn trail showed the path they had taken. The leaves and pine needles were ground to dust and kicked out of the way, while the soil beneath their feet was compacted down into a smooth path. Even the best rangers could not cover tracks like these. The only option that would stop this alteration of the forest floor would be to spread the caravan out over a wider front and reduce the number of feet walking across the same patch of land, but this would make it far more difficult to defend the actual people while simultaneously also increasing the likelihood of an encounter with a demon. And so, the elves had no choice but to disturb the forest floor and leave an obvious trail for anyone to clearly see where they had passed.


    What¡¯s more, the elves of the capital did not keep any humans. The dragons were annoyed by humans since they could not understand the language of the spirit, and there was also never a need for them as the great tree provided more than enough energy to meet their needs. However, now that they were traveling far away from the great tree and they also had no humans, they needed to pick the trees clean of all fruit, forage the forest floor bare of any edible plant, and even resort to eating meat like a human as they wiped out large portions of the wild life along their journey.


    On this day, as they were preparing their evening meal the hunters had caught during the day, the members of the caravan heard the long cry of a dragon causing all the heads to turn toward the sky. There was wonder as the large form of a true dragon revealed itself above the canopy as whispers asked why this lord of the fey court would be in this area so far from the great tree. As the majestic serpentine form began to circle their camp, everyone was astonished at the realization the dragon was coming for them, and the voices full of wonder became excited and several mothers had to get their small children under control and scold them to be on their best behavior as this fey noble spoke to them. By the time the great flying serpent came below the canopy and began coiling itself around the nearby trees, all the leadership of the caravan began gathering nearby the tree the noble had coiled themself around. They did not have long to wonder at what the dragon wanted as he spoke his need the moment he settled himself.


    ¡®By order of her majesty the queen, Oren the wise, twelve magi capable of magic that is of the third rank or higher are to be brought to the capital in order to aid in addressing a growing situation that has arisen involving the dryads. The details of the role you are to play will be explained upon your arrival. If your membership does not include a sufficient number of maji of an appropriate level of power, a warrior of comparable power is acceptable in this situation as the primary need is your ability to resist the effects of the arcane energies of the capital. As time is of the essence, I shall personally provide you with transport. Rest assured, you will not be at risk of injury or death in the events that are to come.¡¯


    What is this!? The mages are going to be allowed to ride on a dragon? And a true dragon at that!? Several of the average folks in the crowd had looks of astonishment, excitement, and jealousy on their faces. However, the magi themselves, especially the more senior among them, were looking quite serious. This dragon had just used the true name of the queen. This indicated this really was a matter of great importance. They could not understand the purpose behind this summons, but there was simply no argument with such a high order.


    The maji and the warriors were of great importance to the caravan. The maji knew the plants of the forest far better than any other and were part of how they were able to find enough food. The warriors were very important in for protecting the caravan against demons. However, there was no question that an order from the queen took priority over all of that no matter how hard it made things for them. The dragon had said it was related to the dryads. It truly must be quite serious, but then how would it be that a mere 12 elven mages could contribute something the queen, or even a dragon of the caliber of the one who had come to bring them along, could not?


    -


    ??? POV


    The loss of so many maji and warriors would be harsh to the caravan¡¯s ability to make their journey. However, by the words the dragon had spoken, it did not sound as though the specific class of mage mattered so much, and he did not even specify it had to be an elf. For all they could tell by what had just been said, a gnome metal forger such as Taminarda, the master of his workshop, ought to be quite able to fit the position. If resistance to the arcane energies was all that was needed, he could do that quite easily. Besides that, there was no need for a master of metalwork to be present on this journey.


    The main need for him and his apprentices and journeymen had been to repair the swords, spears, and arla slayers used by the warriors, and a master was not needed for that. The only place his skills would make a difference would be in the refining of raw metals from ore, the imbuning of elemental energies into said metals, and the ultimate final transformation of the metals into a finished work. The caravan would not be hurting very much to loose him, they could keep an elven forest mage in exchange for him without much trouble. And besides that, it¡¯s not every day a noble of the court offers to personally transport you to the great tree. He may have been several centuries old, but that did not lessen the great appeal of getting to fly in the sky, and if anything it only made him feel more able to accept the extreme honor and privilege of being permitted aback a dragon noble.


    Fortunately, the dragon found him acceptable, and once the other 11 were gathered as well, all of them were lifted into the air by the invisible hand of the dragon¡¯s wind magic. They were told to take hold of his mane, and then he floated back up above the trees before giving a mighty flap of his wings and zooming off toward the new site of the capital in the middle of the scar left by the devastating heaven¡¯s fall. He could feel the wave of powerful spirit energy hit him like a wall. He had grown used to the energy put off by the great tree, but they were still a way out from the new site of the capital. It was beyond amazing that the lingering energies from the heaven¡¯s fall had dispersed and spread out this far, creating a feel of being in the capital from a distance where the great tree is still far enough away it is only a large feature on the horizon rather than a massive wall dominating your vision.


    Below them though, as they approached, the even more astounding sight of the devastation created by the heaven¡¯s fall was quite evident to be seen. Taminarda had only heard stories about how vast a swath of forest was simply uprooted by the force of the explosive power that had carved a chunk from the ground deeper and wider than the great tree itself. He could not believe such a thing was possible, but seeing is indeed believing. This sight was something that could not be told in words, and the most astounding thing of all was the fact that the story about the pit in the center of it was indeed true. That pit that extended deep into the ground into the vast expanses below could easily swallow even the otherwise massive great tree whole. He had never in his life imagined that anything could ever make the great tree appear small by comparison, but he was looking straight at such a thing right now as the capital was suspended in the center of the pit with enough room to spare for yet six more capitals complete with six duplicates of the great tree surrounding it, with room to spare at that.


    An elf man clinging to the dragon¡¯s hair in front of Taminarda let out an audible groan of unease at the sight.


    ¡°I know.¡± Another man said, chuckling nervously. ¡°Heaven¡¯s scar they call it, huh? I heard the stories, but¡­¡±


    ¡®It was an event that truly changed everything in this world.¡¯ The dragon noble, who had still not deigned to give them his name, commented. ¡®All of this chaos seems to have started with this. Well, we will arrive in a moment, you will hear more about it then.¡¯


    No, anybody who had been paying at least some attention to the rumors circulating about the capital in the two years following the heaven¡¯s fall should be aware of what the dragon was talking about. The heaven¡¯s fall, it seems, had originated from a powerful nearby world, the great sealed world is what those who immersed themselves in the study of magic called it. And, it had brought with it the souls of 11 deceased from that great world who then became great fairies so powerful they were said to have the ability to easily overwhelm a sub dragon, and even be considered comparable to a true dragon. And, it seems they were mere commoners from that great world who had not cultivated their energies for even a single day of their lives, such was the power of that world.


    Indeed, it was also known that this great pit reached deep into the underworld, and the great fairies from the sealed world suggested moving the entire capital to the scar in order to combat them and keep them from rising up to the surface. All of the chaos in the past two years could, in one way or another, be traced back to the heaven¡¯s fall.


    Well, this dragon clearly did not seem interested in talking with them more than necessary, so they did not dare express this and also could not ask further questions. This left Taminarda feeling somewhat guilty now they were imposing on him by having him carry them like this. Clearly, the only reason he was doing it must be because he was ordered by the queen to do so. As such, they could only wait in silence and take in the awesome sight of the great tree from above as they came in for their approach. Soon, it became quite clear they were being taken to the sacred gathering place of the fey court atop the uppermost branches of the great tree. There was a clear nervousness among them as this realization became increasingly irrefutable. The dragon¡¯s flight path left little doubt that was their destination.


    ¡°Is that¡­ her majesty!?¡± One elf asked, pointing up toward a band of bluish jade scales coiling around the great branches of the upper crown of the tree. A few whimpers could be heard from those clutching to the hairs of the dragon¡¯s mane. They were not just going to the fey court, they were going to appear before the queen herself.


    They all kept their heads down out of respect as they passed into the crown of the tree. The were all lifted by the dragon¡¯s wind magic, and while some were startled and curious enough to look around a bit, the first thing those individuals would see is everyone else who came with them staring toward the ground, and they did not want to be the only one not showing respect and so they quickly got in line with the rest.


    Once their feet touched the ground, they all lowered themselves into a kneeling position. They had realized the dragon had turned them all to face the same direction, there was little doubt they were facing the queen¡¯s head, even if none of them could see her.


    ¡®Your majesty. I present to you the jurors who have been selected for the trial. As I did not feel competent, I have decided to leave it to her highness to explain what is expected of them.¡¯


    ¡®Very well.¡¯ A feminine voice enveloped and surrounded their minds, holding them in the massive power behind it. It was clear despite the softness to it that the speaker was someone simply beyond the lot of them combined. There was the sound of movement, and they began to feel the air moving in a pattern that resembled breathing. She had come close, it had to be the queen who was near them now. ¡®You may raise your heads.¡¯ The queen¡¯s voice spoke again. Taminarda was frozen and hesitant to do as she had said at first, but realized at this point it was no longer respectful to refuse to meet her gaze. He was afraid of what he was going to see.


    As he lifted his gaze, he saw a massive wall of scales and teeth before him. Someone audibly gasped. For some reason, Taminarda couldn¡¯t help but glance in the man¡¯s direction, and noticed he was staring up to the tip of her majesty¡¯s nose. When he lifted his own eyes to that point, he saw exactly what had upset him. On the very end of her majesty¡¯s nose stood a person of anthromorph build and dressed in the robes of the noble great fairies, but there were no wing¡¯s visible on their back. This person then was neither dragon or fairy, and they were standing atop the queen¡¯s nose, putting the soles of their feet on her scales. Such a thing¡­ who is it that her majesty would allow to do such a thing!?


    ¡®I will start simply.¡¯ Her majesty said. ¡®I present to you my daughter, princess Aerien of the blue-jade dragons. She was adopted into my family yesterday following an incident with a newly awakened dryad, and the situation is still ongoing. Her power is such that it is above any other dragon here, save for myself, and her talents and worthiness for the royal family have already been proven. It is her plan that we are using to address one of many issues involving the new difficulties from the dryads. She shall explain what is expected of you.¡¯

 Book 2 Chapter 49: Game set.

    Taminarda¡¯s POV


    ¡°Well, as my mother said, you shall be in my care for the time being.¡± The princess spoke after the queen¡¯s introduction. Yes, spoke, not with the spirit speech but with spoken word. However, it was strange, it had an overlapping quality to it where the words were heard simultaneously with the ears as well as in the mind as though she actually was using the spirit speech. It was most certainly an eerie quality, and it was even more strange that her spoken voice could be heard from the distance she was from them up on top of the queen¡¯s titanic nose and at a distance that rendered her only just barely discernible as having an anthro form rather than being a dragon or standing on four legs. ¡°But first,¡± she continued, ¡°you have had a long journey and have experienced several shocking revelations. Although time is important given our situation, I will have you shown to your rooms to rest for a time. You should be in no condition to clearly understand what I will be requiring of you as you are now.¡±


    After speaking those words, she lept from the queen¡¯s nose and softly floated through the air in a gentle arc before alighting a mere few paces from the 12 magi and warriors the dragon had brought. This gave them their first good view of the princess. She was¡­ a gnome of all races!!! They had all thought for certain she must be a great fairy with her wings glamored as the most likely scenario, or maybe an elf at the very least, but she turned out to be a gnome!? Then, how is it even possible she was able to move through the air like that if she was a gnome of the earth?


    No, being a gnome was not the most shocking thing. That short cut silvery grey hair. She¡¯s a gnome of the deep earth, likely from the demon lands. There are rumors about how vicious their breed can be and the horrible dark rituals used for the sake of their upbringing and empowerment. And she¡¯s also fairly short even for a gnome, she stood a full head and a half shorter than Taminarda. That¡¯s unimportant though, how is it that the queen could have chosen a deep gnome to be her daughter!? And the queen claims she is the one who came up with the plan to address the issues with a new dryad!? What kind of horribly twisted plot might this¡­ creature have come up with!?


    ¡°Well then, I will see you to the guest hall. I can answer some questions once we are away from the oppressive energies here at Isanil¡¯s crown. They may not mean to be menacing, but there is simply no way being among all these dragons wouldn¡¯t be stressful to you.¡± The princess said to the astonished faces of those gathered around her. She was continuously using such caring language, putting the lie to everything anyone thought they knew about deep gnomes. Perhaps¡­ this princess was just different from the others of her kind? That could be a part of the reason why her majesty decided to take her as her daughter. Was she perhaps some ancient master among the deep gnomes who had spent some time on the surface among humans and other races? Perhaps the vicious ways of her race were mitigated due to her contact with those on the surface. If her power was as the queen described, this seemed an entirely likely explanation.


    With a moment of focus, the princess revealed yet another surprise as some unusually tall mushrooms began sprouting up in a ring around the group, wide enough to include the princess in the circle as well as the fairy ring was formed. Before anyone had the time to fully process this new surprise of a deep gnome who is supposed to be hyper specialized in the use of both fey and demonic earth magic instead using the green word to contact a tree spirit, the scene before them had already changed and they were in a room lined with the mushrooms of the fairy ring about its edges. As soon as they arrived, a number of great fairies gracefully stepped into the room. Naturally, having just been taken here by a deep gnome, everyone was eyeing these great fairies with suspicion and apprehension.


    ¡°Princess.¡± One fairy bowed formally to the one who brought them here, and the rest gave a respectful nod of their heads. After doing so, the great fairy who seemed to be positioning himself in the lead turned to address the group. ¡°My name is Castien, I am a baron of the civics committee, as are my associates.¡± He announced his name, rank, and affiliation, and then gestured toward the other fairies who came in with him. ¡°Her highness has asked that we see to your hospitality. If you would like to settle in on your own, we can show you each to a private room which shall become yours for the next few days, until your service is completed and the present situation has been resolved. If you would like to become more appraised of the present situation, the princess has stated she will be making herself available in the public lounge where she will be answering questions for any who wish to be present.


    ¡°I will personally be guiding the princess as well as anyone who would like to follow to the lounge. Anyone who would like to settle in by themselves may speak with one of my associates. If you do wish to rest in a room, we will come to fetch you in one hour and ask you to come to the lounge as well so her highness can properly explain the task for which we will need your assistance. Now then, if you would please.¡± Castien inclined slightly, and then turned to walk out of the room. The princess followed immediately. And then, Taminarda¡¯s curiosity about this deep gnome princess was simply too much for him to even consider the option of hiding in a private room for an hour. He was out the door before any of the more cautious elves behind him could even begin to act, he showed absolutely no hesitation as he simply followed out the door immediately behind the princess. Only afterward did any of come tailing behind.


    He had so many questions and so many things that were bothering him about this princess, there is no way he was going to pass up the opportunity to address them to her if she was offering. There is also absolutely no way he would be at ease alone in a wooden room away from the soil of the ground. They may be providing rooms in the great tree now, but he wanted nothing more than to go back to his workshop in one of the lakira groves that made up the capital city beneath the great tree¡¯s branches.


    The hall they were walking through had a fine red carpet running down the middle of it, but other than that it was not especially remarkable, unless you count the fact that it was all inside of a single Lakira tree of truly massive proportions. There were regularly spaced outcroppings of wood jutting into the hall in an imitation of a pillar that would be in the hall of a building constructed by humans. It was completely unnecessary here for any functional purpose, but for the sake of artistic design it certainly broke up the plainness of a wood tunnel. The most interesting thing about the passage though was the designs on the ceiling that seemed to be made from a thin wood covering with holes dotting it like the formation of a starry night sky, and behind this thin layer was what must have been a thin flat chamber completely filled with glowing moss, and then along the outer edges of the hall there was an extra splash of far brighter light from glow fruits which made the passage very well lit and as easy to navigate as daylight coming in through a wide window.


    It was a nice design. However, Taminarda had seen it before. As the master forger, he had seen the inside of the great tree a number of times. Right now, the thing that occupied his attention the most was the small grey-haired gnome in front of him who for some baffling reason had been adopted by the queen. He simply had to know what it was about her that the queen saw to have gone to that extent, and he had to know for himself that whatever she had in store for them was not going to mean their deaths in the end, or involve them killing anyone else, or having them pledge their souls to some dark god of the underworld.


    Soon enough, they arrived at the lounge and the princess was shown to a prominent seat that could be seen from anywhere in the room. On a table in the center of the room there were various succulent fruits and flavorful berries, items that would not have been impossible to find on the journey afoot they had been taking, but would certainly have been considered delicacies if found and would not have lasted long.


    ¡°Now then,¡± the great fairy Barron Castien said. ¡°The princess will answer any questions you may have. As it appears nobody felt the need to retire to a room by themselves, I suppose this invalidates what I was planning to say about questions involving the task you were brought to do being saved until everyone is here to listen. However, I do encourage you to relax somewhat before getting into business.¡±


    ¡°Well, it may not exactly be necessary Mr. Castien.¡± The princess said. ¡°They all look pretty eager for answers, I am certain in such a situation as theirs I would only be made more stressed if I was asked to do something but I had no idea what it was going to be. So, I will sum it up for you now. What I will be having you do is for all 12 of you to act collectively as the judge coming to the final verdict in a trial that is to take place before the fey court tomorrow. The theory behind it is that twelve people making the decision together after some deliberation will greatly reduce the ability of any form of bias an individual in the number may have to influence the decision that the group arrives at. There are a few rules you will have to follow in order to further reduce the possibility of bias, but the complicated details can wait. Just rest assured that I will not be asking you to do anything that is going to be dangerous to anyone among you. However, there are aspects about this case where an improperly ruled guilty or innocent verdict could greatly damage the fey court itself. That is the reason we are going to this extent.¡±


    What!? What is this!? Suddenly, upon hearing the explanation of their purpose here, Taminarda feels very inadequate and out of place. Judging the guilt or innocence of a person on trial? Sure, occasionally the magi of a village will take that role. The serious cases are heard by the queen herself. However, a metal crafter like himself is never involved with such a thing. He had thought he was so clever going in place of a magus so there could be one more hand to guide the people in the caravan, but he wound up taking the place of someone who would have been far better suited to a role that, according to the princess, could determine the future of the entire upper power structure among the fey.


    ¡°Now then,¡± the princess continued to speak. ¡°I will answer your questions now. I had hoped you would take up my offer to rest so you could be of clear mind while listening to my explanation given how important this is, but I suppose those in your position ought to be made of some rather stern stuff. If you wish to question me further on the subject I have just laid out for you, I will answer what I can. There are, however, some questions I cannot answer for risk of biasing your decision on this case. If I were to do so, it would endanger this entire trial, so if I say I cannot answer your question then please do not force the issue.¡±


    ¡°What is the crime the individual involved is accused of?¡± One of the elf magi asked.


    ¡°Inciting a dryad.¡± The princess responded. This caused several of the elves to look at one another with raised eyebrows.


    ¡°Would it not just be a matter of sentencing then?¡± One elf asked. ¡°If there is reason to suspect that crime, it is the same as proof, is it not?¡±


    ¡°I will ask you to cease that sort of thinking immediately.¡± The princess said with a stern tone. ¡°An act of pre-judging the trial in that way is exactly what we are trying to avoid by inviting all of you in. I ask you to consider it equally likely he may be either guilty or innocent of the crime he is accused, and to wait until you have heard the prosecutor and the man asked to represent the defendant have presented their arguments and persuasions of how they wish for you to view the events surrounding the crime he is accused of.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s really a straight forward question from my understanding of it.¡± Another elf said. ¡°He either talked to the dryad in a way that incited it, or he didn¡¯t. That there is some question on the issue seems to imply there is some form of mitigating circumstance that makes whether he did or not unclear, am I correct?¡±


    ¡°I suppose I can answer that question, although it is becoming dangerously close to something I cannot answer. Indeed, it is a complicated situation.¡± The princess answered the man¡¯s question, and then placed her hand on her chin, apparently in a state of thought. ¡°Well, I guess I can give you one of the greatest things that make this case complicated. The dryad had only just awoken and immediately caused the incident the accused is being held responsible for. Furthermore, this awakening was quite sudden and without the typical indicators as it was triggered by the tree spirit forcibly feeding off of my energies.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± The same elf responded. ¡°So, if I am presuming this correctly, the accused individual said something to a nymph he had every reason to believe would remain a nymph for hundreds of years, but it suddenly awoke into a dryad. Is that the situation?¡±


    ¡°I believe it¡¯s likely that¡¯s what the prosecution may argue, I cannot speak for the situation myself. It will be up to the prosecution and the defense to create an accurate account of the events preceding the dryad¡¯s awakening.¡± The princess answered him.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ this is a very complicated case all right. I can see why it would cause difficulty. But, how is it that this can cause so much trouble for the fey court, may I ask?¡±


    ¡°Well, the awakened dryad was the spirit of the accused¡¯s home. As such, the dryad has a strong attachment to the accused. However, the court will not abide a crime of inciting a dryad to go unpunished. In short, a decision in either direction will pose trouble for the fey court, so the best we can possibly do is to provide the fairest trial possible and hopefully the party who does not see the result they want can be appeased with our efforts to go above and beyond the normal means to assure fairness. Therefore, I wish for all twelve of you to go into this with an open mind. No, more so than that. You are to start from a presumption of innocence. It is the prosecution''s job to convince you out of that position. If they are able to do so, moving you over to seeing guilt where you saw innocence from the start, then the likelihood of genuine guilt is high. Given the situation, we must be absolutely certain of our actions if we are to render a guilty verdict.¡±


    The room went silent at this new information. It did sound like the situation must be troubling for the fey court. It made sense why they would go to such unusual extremes. However, there was one thing that particularly stuck out. The queen had said this plan was proposed entirely by the princess. The deep gnome sitting before them at this very moment. It just felt more and more irregular.


    Taminarda had had enough. He couldn¡¯t hold it back anymore, and if nobody else was going to ask then he would! ¡°My apologies your higness, this may be rude but there is something that has been bothering me and I am certain I am not the only one.¡± Her piercing gaze, showing an air of attention and a disturbing almost child-like curiosity that simply refused to fit in with his perceptions of what should be was now focused in on Taminarda, and he suddenly felt overwhelmed with nervousness and his voice caught in his throat. The princess frowned and broke her gaze from him. She¡­ somehow looked worried about something. Yet another expression that had no place on the face of a deep gnome powerful enough to take the position of princess.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, go ahead.¡± The princess prompted him, causing his mind to shift back into motion.


    ¡°Umm¡­ I apologize again, but¡­ you¡­ may I ask where you came from before coming here?¡± He asked. He simply could not mention the accursed sub-race of his own kind, especially not to such a frighteningly powerful yet paradoxical example of their number.


    ¡°Hmm? That is a strange question. However, I was born in an Elven village, the very one that the dryad had awoken from. I likely ought to mention this though, my soul is not of this world. My apparent age is also deceptive. I am told that a number of great fairies were born two and a half years ago, right around this area of the heaven¡¯s fall. Their souls were from a different world, and their spirits at the moment of their birth into this world were tremendously powerful. Well, my soul came from the same world.¡±


    What was that!? This is very very different from the answer Taminarda was expecting on every possible level. Wait, did this mean that she found some way to this world years, maybe even centuries before those great fairies? ¡°My apparent age likely threw you off quite a bit, so I should explain that as well.¡± The princess continued. ¡°I was actually born only six months ago, although I retained all my memories from my previous life. As for why I look so much older than I should, that was once again because of the power of the spirits of those from my world. Apparently, since I actually cultivated in my own world before coming here, unlike the great fairies, my power was even greater. In fact, it was simply too much for the body of an infant to take. As such, my physical growth was accelerated a great deal before finally settling on this size.¡±


    What!? She is only six months old!? Taminarda had been guessing closer to six millenniums, although he felt rather foolish about that now. Looking back at the conversation thus far, he had seen no real sign that would indicate she was over a century in age aside from the sheer power the queen reported she had, compared with the fact he could not feel a thing from her now. This indicated she was quite the master at concealing her energy, but if what she says is true then it is possible this could be a natural thing for those from her previous world, as incredible as that thought was. It seemed he was already accepting anything. But, no, that¡¯s not important. The more significant thing is¡­ only six months? And she said her growth was accelerated too. That could mean there is one more thing he might have been wrong about.


    ¡°I see. That actually clears up a lot of the things that were bothering me your highness. I am sorry for being so personal. However, I do still have one more question. Are¡­ you a gnome or an elf?¡±


    ¡°I am an elf. A grey elf, as you have probably noticed. I take it by your question that you are a gnome, going by your height compared to the others in here. That is presuming you are not a young elf who has this world¡¯s equivalent of progeria.¡± The princess responded to his question with her own, as well as her own confusing comments that he decided not to ask about, causing him to feel a little better about his rudeness.


    ¡°Yes, that is the case.¡± He said with an embarrassed bow of his head just to get his eyes facing toward the floor.


    ¡°I see, thank you. This is actually my first time meeting a gnome. Ah, I am sorry. Since you were already asking, I decided I would get a little personal with my questions as well. Now then, since the tension has eased up a little, let¡¯s get into the details for how a jury should conduct itself. This is the custom for how trials work in my world, and I have already been discovering there are quite a few differences with how things are in this world.


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "I am just liking this gnome more and more"


    -Vorquel


    "All the players are assembled it''s time to play."


    -meowingLexi


    "autobots roll out^"


    -Roy


    I didn''t notice it before, but writing up the subscribers'' comments this time, it looks like the spacing on Scribble Hub''s editor page got larger. Not entirely sure how it will look once the chapter''s posted.

 Apologies and announcements.

    I am very sorry for how delayed chapter 50 is getting. I have worked out the first thousand or so words, and I know where it''s supposed to go, but life has been getting in the way.


    I am currently trying to get out applications to the nursing program, so that''s eating into my attention span even when I''m not actively doing that and am doing other things. It''s creating quite a bit of stress.


    Anyway, in other news, I DID decide to pursue something different in regards to the story. I have been having a lot of difficulty fleshing out the history and political details of the human society around the fairy queen''s forest. However, due to the wonderful support from my subscribers, I had the money to commission someone over on fiverr to help me in that area. So, please thank xshedevilx who I am commissioning this work from, and also thank all of the subscribers both current and former who I will now list here. (Also, there are a few I have neglected to mention when they subscribed. I will note that next to their names with a "new" tag.)


    And the former subscribers, who each unsubscribed for their own reasons, mostly due to their own financial difficulties. I do not think any less of a single one of you. In fact, I appreciate that while you are facing your own tight budgets you still gave what you could because you appreciate my work. And because you gave all you could until you couldn''t afford it anymore, you are going to all get your own special acknowledgements as well. So, please also thank...


    (Can I also mention how interesting it is that meowingLexi and Roy are the 1st and 2nd subscribers, and are also 2 out of the 3 most frequent commenters? The 3rd frequent commenter frequently changes though. There was also NohVoha, Lantisl, and Asekhan who each commented frequently for a while. NohVoha and Lantisl''s reason for stopping is clear since they each had to unsubscribe, but Asekhan stuck around but faded into the background. (he primarily posted theory comments, maybe he didn''t like his theory comments winding up featured since he probably felt they were possible spoilers? If that''s the case, he could have just told me. I like everyone''s comments. I like seeing that people are enjoying my work.)


    EDIT: I previously had a comment here about some negative reviews. After the wonderful talk I have had with all of you down in the comments section, I have realized that I was just being a little too sensitive. It seems the one point in the entire series there was any kind of significant drop-off in readership is when people realized just how much this series deserved that "gore" content warning tag I put up rather than any of those things the haters comment about, which means they are just a few in number bunch of haters and the haters are gonna hate.


    Thank you everyone for your support, I will continue to produce the content you all love.

 Book 2 Chapter 50: Oath of nobility

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 51: Dryad’s position

    Author''s note


    Ok, well, I managed to finish that and get this chapter out. Time to see how this all shakes out.


    I''ve been having an interesting time with this series. More on that will be said during the ending note though.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Over the night, at the same time as I was reading through document after document of US trial law, Sagel was working with the man responsible for giving these documents to the Justice Committee in the first place. They had been working every single bit as hard to come up with a defense for Eirlathion. One of the things they had to do was come up with a witness list, and clear it with the judge, me. Aside from some of the same witnesses the prosecution had already called, he wanted two additional witnesses not on their list. Those witnesses were me, the judge herself, and the other was Dryad.


    The first was something that indicated exactly how messed up this little stage performance of a trial had gotten. I had literally just read that being able to act as a witness in the trial is explicit grounds to disqualify a person as a judge, and yet here I¡¯m being called as a witness and there are no grounds to overrule this request. Of course, I approved this. The second though seemed like it could be tricky, but the person in question just showed up. A subpoena of this witness had been asked for, and I of course felt inclined to grant it. And, said witness was standing right in front of me.


    All I could see was the trial at this point. I had to make sure it was a fair and balanced trial. I knew Eirlathion should be able to get off easy so long as the playing field is level and not stacked against him. All I had to do was create that fair space. I would not do anything to lean it in his favor, such a thing would only piss off the fey court. I would not have to grant him any favors though, the evidence was clearly on his side. All I had to do is get it, and now the final piece is standing right in front of me.


    Driad only looked back at me with a gentle expression. They looked more sad than anything. However, it did not look like the expression of someone who was about to say ¡°yes.¡±


    ¡°Aerien, I appreciate that you are trying so hard, but I do not think you understood what I just told you. There is no longer a need for a trial, this was her goal all along.¡± What is Dryad even talking about? Either they are being irrational, or my mind is just not working properly right now. The worst part is, I really have no clue which is more likely at the moment.


    Dryad sighs, and then their projection crouches down in front of me. ¡°Just try to think about it Aerien. You came here at the exact same time the queen had heard about my existence. You are, of course, someone who I owe a lot to. It could be said that you and Eirlathion are my two biggest weaknesses she could exploit in order to deal with me. The very first thing she does is adopt you. You are not untalented, you are probably even independently worthy of the adoption she offered. However, she would have still done it even if you hadn¡¯t measured up. Her entire purpose was to get you to take this oath right now.¡±


    ¡°Fey nobles take that oath when they have proven themselves worthy of recognition as a true noble of the court, it is a right of passage of sorts and it is not something a noble still in training would be asked to take. The very fact she had you do this after only three days is more than enough proof this was her sole intent the entire time. She stated that she intended you to do this after the trial. In other words, the entire reason for the trial is a fabrication to give you some kind of achievement to satisfy the recognition requirement. However, because you showed your intelligence yesterday, she didn¡¯t need it anymore.¡±


    ¡°This is not some conjecture of mine Aerien, I overheard them talking about this last night after they had discovered me.¡±


    The trial was a farce. That was the reason I had to be the judge, it was all a performance. That¡¯s¡­ a pretty wild story. It would require quite the conspiracy, and a lot of the parts would have to have truly believed in what they were doing as well. Useful idiot pawns, as it were. And all just to have me bind myself with this oath. Of course, it¡¯s also possible Dryad could be making this all up. At the moment, I have an equal amount of reason to side with Dryad as I do Oren. Dryad is the tree spirit of Eirlathion¡¯s old home. I owe a lot to Eirlathion, but my connection to Dryad is only second-hand. They did protect me from those elves who were trying to break in and get Gaerien and me, but then they go completely overboard and indirectly kill almost the entire population of the village. From what Gaerien¡¯s told me, Eirlathion is also pretty alienated against Dryad right now.


    As for Oren, she saved the life of my younger half, and she has offered me a great deal. She also adopted me and called me her daughter, and acted like more of a mother to me than my real birth mother. It is strange to think of a dragon that could be compared size wise to the Island of Manhattan as my mother, but a part of my heart really aches when I think about the idea that she would have betrayed me like this. No, when I stop to think about it, I really do have more reason to believe Dryad¡¯s words from a strictly rational stand-point. But, I don¡¯t WANT to believe them.


    ¡°Is this true?¡± I asked, looking past Dryad and up to my once trusted adoptive mother.


    ¡®Everything the dryad says is accurate.¡¯ She says. ¡®Gailben, the one who is pushing this case, acted on his own. However, I saw the opportunity and made use of it. If the dryad wishes it, I can offer this man to atone for his transgressions.¡¯


    ¡°I would much rather have YOU atone for using Aerien as a tool like this!¡± Dryad shouted.


    ¡®If a fight with me will satisfy you, I will accept that as well. I will have the dukes take my duty of suspending the great tree.¡¯


    ¡°We can suspend ourselves!¡± Dryad said. ¡°Isanil! Use the technique I taught you!¡±


    ¡°Alright, big sis!¡± Isanil¡¯s projection pops up and giggles, giving a salute. After this, the entire tree starts to rumble, and panicked voices come from all the fairies. The majority of the dragons immediately fly out from the tree.


    ¡®The ground has cracked! And the great tree is now floating on it¡¯s own power!¡¯ The voice of a male dragon reverberates through the space.


    ¡®How are they doing this!? A tree spirit should not have this power!¡¯ Another says.


    After this, two of the branches the queen is coiled around begin to pull themselves away from each other. However, with ripple of her tensing muscles, the two branches begin pulling closer together instead. There is a horrible groaning sound as this continues.


    ¡®It will not be that simple.¡¯ She says, glaring down at Dryad. ¡®Isanil, if you continue to cooperate with this intruder, your upper branches will be broken. Unless you want that, I would suggest you fight back.¡¯


    ¡°What!? Oh no, not my branches! Uhhh¡­ maybe this is not such a good game anymore big sis, how about we stop?¡±


    ¡°Game!? I¡¯m not playing! Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯s not going to get a chance to break your branches!¡± With these words, Dryad launches their¡­ or rather, her self off the ground and her projection distorts and becomes a beam of light which strikes the queen¡¯s forehead in an instant.


    ¡®I see, so this is the memory of Aerien¡¯s pain Sagel mentioned in his report.¡¯ The queen says, and then looks over toward me. ¡®It is truly no wonder this left you in the state you came to me in. You did well to endure it. Well then, dryad. Is this the last of your tricks?¡¯


    Dryad¡¯s projection reformed, floating in the air in the middle of the area. ¡°Grrr¡­! I did not have such high expectations as to think you would die like the rest from that attack, but I¡¯d thought you would at least have been stunned as you dealt with it for a while! What¡¯s with you!?¡±


    ¡®You may have come across some knowledge and power from other worlds, child, but do not think just a little bit of enlightenment makes you potent enough to take on one who has lived for half the age of this world such as I. You are not as clever as you think you are. I also know, your real goal was never to defeat me in the first place, was it?¡¯ The two silently stare each other down for a brief moment, before the queen seems to see something in Dryad¡¯s expression that satisfies her. ¡®Isanil!¡¯ She calls down to the other dryad. ¡®They are trying to run you out of power. Their real objective is to dominate you. If you do not wish to loose yourself, fight together with me and kick them out!¡¯


    ¡°What!? Big sis, is that true!?¡± The other dryad asks.


    ¡°Come on, of course not! I just want you to know more, be able to handle your power on your own without needing the fey! Think of all the cool stuff I taught you!¡±


    ¡®This spell you are using right now is eating up a very large amount of your power.¡¯ The queen argues back. ¡®They are also utilizing your body to fight against me in ways that will make me have to choose between damaging you and being injured myself. If this dryad cared about you, they would wait and give me the chance to uncoil from your limbs. I offered to have the dukes hold you up, using none of your own power. This dryad convinced you to expend such a large amount that it will take you a very long time to recover.¡¯


    ¡°You are keeping them dependent on you!¡± Dryad argues back. ¡°I have no such intentions of dominating your dryad! I want them to grow! They can¡¯t do that if they are always held back and dependent on you!!!¡±


    ¡®I notice you still haven¡¯t stopped with the branches.¡¯ Oren argues back. ¡®You really are trying to get them injured.¡¯


    ¡°Teh!¡± Dryad lets out an angry sound. ¡°Fine then! I¡¯ll take your stupid scape-goat fairy!¡±


    -


    Gailben¡¯s POV


    Gailben had heard there was something going on over the night. The arbor committee seemed particularly on edge, but this was not a surprise considering the recent revelation. There was something about it though that seemed more urgent.


    He had tried asking about what was going on. He was told an emergency situation had come up, but the queen¡¯s own orders are that he is to continue his focus on preparing for the case tomorrow.


    Early in the morning, the entire great tree trembled. He immediately thought it must be an attack by the demons from below. In this case, it was the role of the defense committee members to deal with the problem. He would have to be prepared to take responsibility for his own life should it be a particularly bad attack and the defensive line failed, but if the queen and the great tree were to both fail to ward off the threat then it is likely his life would already be forefit. He simply walked in a calm manner toward the core of the great tree.


    About the only thing on Gailben¡¯s mind at this moment was whether or not the trial would move forward as planned. The queen seemed rather insistent that things proceed. This was in relation to the dryads, something that takes priority even over demons, so the only way some demon attack would stop this trial would be if it continued for the entire day. Even if that were the case, the trial would likely begin the very moment the attack was successfully fought off. He had to prepare himself.


    The shaking only lasted for a few minutes. Hmm¡­ the demons must have just gotten lucky. However, just as Gailben was considering getting up to leave the little safe place he had chosen, a greenish apparition appeared before him. He recognized this figure, every fey noble should know this one on sight. It was the projection of the great tree, the great dryad¡¯s interface with the world. Why would the great tree¡¯s apparition appear before him though? And why did they look so uncertain of themself?


    ¡°Uhhh¡­ Mr. Gailben.¡± They said. ¡°I¡­ I gotta take you up to the top, big sis wants to see you.¡±


    Big sis? Who¡¯s that!? Gailben had never heard of the great tree referring to anyone by that name. Could she mean the queen? Surely not the princess, unless her power is far greater than her majesty had made them aware of. Whoever they were referring to though, there was no arguing with the great dryad. With a mere thought, the fairy circle formed around his feet and he was being transported. With a flash of white light, he was suddenly standing before the fey court. The first thing he saw standing right in front of him was the apparition of a dryad¡­ but it was not the great tree¡¯s apparition. How is this even possible? He was still standing atop the great tree, it should not be possible for a dryad to manifest near another dryad¡¯s body, let alone the great tree who was located in the center of the heaven¡¯s scar!


    ¡®Viscount Gailben.¡¯ The voice of Lady Frent, duchess of the Civics committee spoke up. ¡®You stand before the apparition of the dryad of Cundo village. They have expressed discontent with your pursuit of Magus Eirlathion, and has therefore asked that you be delivered to them for judgement.¡¯


    ¡°What!?¡± Gailben exclaimed aloud due to his shock and sudden fear.


    ¡°No! This is all going too fast! How about we try to talk about this!¡± An unexpected child-like female voice spoke up in Gailben¡¯s defense. A sudden life-line in a situation he could never have hoped for any support in. No matter how impossible the situation, one thing was clear. An angry dryad had made a request. That meant there was only one possible outcome. His death. If the court had decided to appease the dryad, he could not hope for any aid to come his way, and yet someone was speaking in his defense. The voice had come from behind the dryad, and when he looked to see who was speaking, what he saw was the newly adopted princess.


    Gailben¡¯s heart fell immediately. How cruel fate was being to him. The princess, in her ignorance, was fighting for him. She would, of course, be immediately told she is out of line by her majesty. Her speaking up was only a cruel prank by fate throwing him false hope.


    ¡®Aerien, it has already been decided. Gailben will be offered to the dryad for his crime of manipulating the laws which you yourself had put in place. I have been informed of this by lord Faranti. His actions in releasing magus Eirlathion only to later re-charge him were in direct violation of Earth law and could only be seen as a trick taking advantage of the present political situation in order to deny him of proper legal council. You were the first to realize this, were you not? Therefore you should be the most aware.¡¯


    That certainly stung! Yes, he had been aware of the double jeopardy rule Mr. Steven had mentioned, but knew it would be overruled in this case. It was not for any intention of denying legal representation though, it was merely because he felt it would be easier that way. He had merely seen it as starting the process over under the princess'' rules instead of the former rules of the kingdom, not as some form of underhanded trick. He merely felt it would be easier to approach that way rather than the crazy amount of work that would be involved in straightening it out otherwise. This small bit of cutting corners seems to have been coming back to bite him in the worst way possible.


    ¡°Mister Gailben is not solely responsible for that though! He is being made to bear the brunt of a crime for which the entire court is responsible!¡±


    ¡®Aerien!¡¯ Her majesty yelled at the princess. ¡®That is enough! The dryad has settled for taking only lord Gailben, do not jeopardize this arrangement!¡¯


    Yes¡­ yes, this is the way it should be. It upset Gailben greatly, but this was a perfectly reasonable way to think. This is the way things have always been done. If his own life alone was enough to appease the dryad, then he would simply have to accept his fate so as to divert the attention away from the rest of the fey court.


    ¡°This is absolutely ridiculous!¡± The princess exclaimed in anger, however Gailben did not hear her voice echo in his mind. The only reason he was able to hear her was because of how close together the two of them were standing. Well, at least she had enough sense to cease using the spirit speech for an improper outburst like that. ¡°Dryad! What do you intend to do with him?¡±


    ¡°What will I do?¡± The dryad said. ¡°Hmm¡­ I think I will use this opportunity to show you exactly what it is you just did to yourself Aerien. Burn what you are about to see into your mind. Gailben, do you swear to never interfere with or meddle in the affairs of any dryad ever again?¡±


    Gailben¡¯s heart froze in fear as soon as he heard those amazingly cruel words. The dryad demands a reverse oath!? No! No way! His heart cried out as his blood ran cold. Swearing a reverse oath is worse than simply violating the oath in the first place. The reaction from that would do far more than just kill him. He looked toward the princess, begging with his eyes. She had been his only life-line of hope since appearing up here, his only hope to escape from this supreme cruelty would be for her to continue as she has been. Please, princess!! In the name of Abzu for whom you are named, PLEASE do not stop now!


    Subscribers'' comments of the chapter


    "What did I say? There was no way for this trial to end normally."


    -Vorquel


    ""dryad hold this beer and watch dis soul magic"Oh my oath broken before it could even start >_>"


    -Roy


    "Hmmm"


    -meowingLexi


    Author''s note


    Ok, so, yeah. That was interesting. In some very different news though, I just felt like talking a little bit about next arc since this one is starting to wrap up. I have been working on the plotting for the next arc.


    I kinda like to call my scenario-setting process "the simulation." That is, I set all the rules in my mind like the world rules, character personalities, and other such details. And then, I just set them in various situations and see how they handle it in my mentally generated simulation. This is how I allow the story to be character driven while still having some kind of plot.


    Well, I just had something extremely interesting happen in the simulation for a specific scene that is going to be in the next arc. Basically, the addition of a single element meant to make the scene more interesting made the entire scenario end in exactly the opposite way from what I had originally planned out. Now, I am faced with the interesting situation of either changing the scenario to keep the original ending or re-writing the entire rest of the series I have planned in order to keep that scene. And, honestly, the new way the scene plays out is a LOT better than the original version before I added in this element that changed everything.


    I actually decided to take the second option on this one BTW. Re-plotting the entire series moving forward. It''s not actually set in stone yet after all, and the new direction actually seems more interesting than what I originally had in mind.


    Anyway, I just thought I would share a little bit about my creative process with you guys, especially since this one in particular wound up affecting things in such an interesting way. I can''t give any more details here for spoiler reasons, but I am definitely going to comment after the scene in question has finished in order to point it out again and likely tell how it was originally supposed to go. This is interesting stuff.

 Book 2 chapter 52: Unreasonable burdens.

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I was on full alert now. It no longer mattered just how tired my poor brain was, the endorphins had kicked in due to the crisis state, making my mind sharp. The situation had progressed very quickly, going from bad to worse in no time at all. It was a little disconcerting to watch as two people I knew were fighting one another, but at the very least it seemed Dryad was unable to harm the queen, and she seemed to have no intention to harm Dryad. She was the one who kept the strongest dryad in check, so it would be a given that the Dryad I knew would simply not have the power to measure up even borrowing the power of Isanil.


    Now, however, things had taken a turn toward something that absolutely sickened me. Before, it was a fight between two people with power. Now, however, the entire power of both were being turned on someone powerless. Someone who was being held up as a sacrifice to pass off the guilt of the entire court, with the queen herself being the chief offender. This Gailben had made some bad decisions, and I was becoming more than a little irritated with him over the past few days, but it was certainly not to the extent that I would in any way think death to be an appropriate punishment. This was wrong, and I would not stand idly by and just allow it to happen.


    This is why, when I heard Dryad ask for an oath from Gailben with such ominous words, and then Gailben immediately froze in absolute terror that simply screamed he was having a fate worse than death pushed upon him, I knew I would regret it for the rest of my presumably very long life if I were to allow this to happen.


    [Do not answer that yet Gailben!] I ordered using voice only. I did not want the queen overhearing and butting in on this, so I was going to take full advantage of the close proximity between the three of us. [Dryad! I want you to tell me exactly what it is you are asking him to do! What will happen if he answers in the affirmative to that oath you just asked him to make!?]


    [Hmmm¡­ I have asked him to make an oath that is contradictory to one he has made previously. When two oaths that contradict one another are made, the one who makes them are considered to be in violation of both. Both are completely eliminated, and a harsh backlash is felt in response. A once sworn oath binds the mind, a twice sworn oath binds the spirit, and a thrice sworn oath binds your very immortal soul. The backlash from a broken oath severely damages anything that it binds, and the greater the power of the one who made the oath the more severe that damage will be. For a fey, it means immediate death. For one as powerful as a great fairy, it would likely even shatter his soul. This would be something a human could recover from, but for a fey who dies immediately upon the destruction of their spirit, it means a true eternal death.]


    Dryad had the audacity to smirk after explaining all of this. This revealed exactly what kind of person they had become. I had some inkling of it before when I heard about how they had goaded hundreds of elves into killing each other back in the village I was born in, but seeing such complete and callous disregard for life right in front of me revealed so much more. It made a sick sort of sense in a way. I could already imagine a response like dryads viewing the lives of fauna, sentient or not, the same way people viewed the lives of plants. However, I felt a dryad with the intelligence I¡¯d heard ¡°she¡± had would would be somewhat more conscious of how crule and wrong this was.


    [Dryad, I believe this may be going too far. There is no need to do this simply to serve as some form of example for me. Perhaps I could understand you wanting this for yourself if he had succeeded in pulling out a guilty verdict and Eirlathion was sentenced to death, but that has not and was not going to happen. I find his methods contemptible, but I find this to be far more than he deserves.]


    ¡°So, you are saying you disapprove of my methods as well?¡± I blink in surprise as Dryad suddenly switches to English.


    ¡°I see¡­¡± I respond. ¡°So, you learned a fair amount from me during that incident.¡±


    ¡°Not just from you, I know things about several worlds beyond anything you could possibly imagine.¡±


    ¡°And yet you are still acting like spoiled child.¡±


    ¡°What can I say? It is what is expected of dryads. Why not use it to get my way?¡±


    I furrow my brows and glare at ¡°her.¡±


    ¡°If that is your trick, then why are you telling me about it?¡±


    ¡°Well, I know you well enough to realize you would have driven toward it until you were ready to use it as a persuasive weapon against me. That¡¯s what kind of person you are. Once you are engaged in an argument, you will drive at a person and expose their psychological motivations, the ones even they are not aware of, and use it against them. I simply took that tool away from you early.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­ Well, you have still admitted outright that you are acting selfishly. By the fact you appeared here to act in my defense, I take that to mean I at least matter to you in some capacity. Since you appeared, you were talking to me almost the entire time, attempting to persuade me against the queen.¡±


    ¡°The queen, huh? Not your mother?¡± She said with a self-satisfied grin.


    ¡°Please do not gloat. What I am driving at is that it is clear enough that your motivation is to move my opinion. I believe I have made it plenty clear that taking excessive action against Gailben will severely harm my opinion of your position. I do not know what your motivations are beyond this, but I do not believe you should need something as petty as vengeance against this man. His actions were in contempt of court. Despite being the judge, the circumstances before now restricted my ability to punish him directly in what would be the standard way for that crime. Your actions have opened up that option to me. I would ask you to be satisfied with that.¡±


    Dryad grins again as though she had gotten everything she wanted. That¡¯s exactly what it is, isn¡¯t it? The old ¡°big ask¡± tactic in negotiations. I have enough respect for her intelligence that I cannot see it being anything else. ¡°Of course, that will be fine.¡±


    I heave a sigh and walk past Dryad to stare Gailben in the eye. His expression is still as nervous as it gets and full of anticipation for what I am about to say, and he keeps glancing over to Dryad with fear. Well, time to switch back to using that spirit speech. I guess I will use Elven as my spoken words this time so poor Gailben doesn¡¯t hear two voices in different languages overlapping.


    [[Viscount Gailben. The dryad has agreed to hand your punishment over to me. You are to be held in contempt of court for your actions in pursuit of magus Eirlathion¡¯s case. You will be held in confinement for a period of two weeks, after which you will be in personal service to Eirlathion for a period of one full year.]]


    [[Aerien, I believe you have not yet grown used to just how long the fey lifespan is. A single year is nothing.]] Dryad interrupted, instantly copying my technique. Seriously! I did my best to suppress an eye roll.


    At any rate, seems she is not satisfied with only one year. Fine then. Elves live five hundred to a thousand years, right? That¡¯s around seven to ten times the average human life span. Let¡¯s multiply it. Gailben already looks very visibly relieved with how much he has heard. On the verge of tears as a matter of fact. I turn my eyes down for a moment to avoid being affected by any sort of mirror-neuron reaction until I can steady my mind, then look back up at him with something of a dead-eye stare. [[Very well then, ten years of service.]] I amend the punishment. [[Is that acceptable to you?]]


    [[Very much so.]] Dryad agrees with a smirk.


    [[Then this new penalty is what we shall go with.]] No sooner had my words left my mouth than Gailben suddenly let out a breath he had been holding and dropped to his knees and lowered his head into a very deep groveling bow.


    [[Thank you, your highness. I will more than gladly accept this revised punishment and carry out my service to magus Eirlathion to the best of my abilities. Upon completion of my service, I shall be certain to return and pay my debt to you. Words cannot express the depth of my gratitude, so please allow me to also serve you to both repay this debt and also to change your heart in regards to the dissatisfaction you have expressed toward my recent misguided actions.]] Seems he joins the club as well. Well, in his case he probably figures it is respectful to emulate me on this.


    When I glanced up to Dryad, it seemed her self-satisfied grin had only grown deeper. How much of this was within your calculations, you conniving disrupter. Well, if she really picked things up from me, probably none of it. It¡¯s all just throwing things out that create possibilities. It¡¯s pretty clear this is a possibility she really likes though.


    [[Ahh¡­ yes.]] I respond. When he comes on that strongly, it really makes it hard to refuse. Well, it will be in ten years, so I suppose I will have plenty of time to get used to the idea by then.


    I catch sight of a couple of great fairies wearing the same colors as Gailben leaving their row and beginning to approach. No doubt his escorts to his cell. [[Well then, if that is the case, I would like to ask you a question.]] I say, causing the two fairies to stop in their tracks and hold back out of respect. [[From your actions, you seem to honestly have believed Eirlathion was at fault for what happened in the village of my birth. You have been denied the opportunity to explain your reasoning during trial. I would like to hear it now.]]


    [[Yes, your highness.]] He said, and then picked up one knee in order to turn his fully prostrate bow in to a more formal form of genuflecting. [[I had suspicions at first when it was reported that the dryad who went on a rampage was the spirit of magus Eirlathion¡¯s house. This would normally be the first suspicion in such a circumstance. It is standard practice for any inhabitants to move out of their house should the spirit become a dryad in order to avoid the potential of incitement. However, he was still living within that home after the awakening.]]


    [[Upon interviewing the witnesses, upon your highness¡¯ orders, I became more convinced as I heard the testimony. It would seem magus Eirlathion, as well as the others involved, had made a wall of vines prior to the dryad¡¯s rampage. These vines would normally serve no significant deterrence to a threat from the demons, however when a dryad is involved such a wall becomes nearly impassible without the ability to fly, and that is going either direction. The witnesses specifically stated it was because of that wall that they were unable to escape, and that is also the reason there was such a tremendous loss of life.]]


    [[I see.]] I respond. [[Well then, I would like for you to answer me in full honesty. Regardless of what you say, it will not change your sentence or worsen your situation. Can you think of any other possible explanation that would not have Eirlathion maliciously involved?]]


    [[I¡­ do not find an alternative to be likely, your highness.]]


    [[Can you see any possible failings in your reasoning that paints him as guilty?]]


    He is just silent, he does not give a response to this question. I see. It seems useful idiot was too good of a description of his personality. Let¡¯s try and change this a little, open his mind.


    [[Well then, you will have ten years time to come up with an answer to those two questions. At least one answer, if not more. I will not accept your service at that time unless you can expand your way of thinking that much at least. You need not believe or agree with these explanations, but you must at least be able to see the possible alternatives before I can accept you.]]


    [[Yes, your highness.]] He said, lowering his head further to the point it completely hid his forehead. I caught sight in my peripheral vision as the two justice committee fairies were looking my way again. I gave them a nod, and they resumed their approach until they were flanking Gailben on either side. I held up a hand as they were reaching for him. He was being rather cooperative so far, I would allow him the dignity of walking on his own.


    He looked up curiously and realized the situation, then rose to his feet. [[Very well then, my stay in the iron heart awaits.]] He nodded to his escorts, and then the fairy circle which he had never left activated. In a flash of light, all three of them were gone. All that was left was me, Dryad, and the entirety of the fey court silently watching. Suddenly, the exhaustion from earlier all caught up with me at once.


    ¡°If you would grant me leave, mother, I am quite tired both from familiarizing myself with the finer details of Earth¡¯s law before this, as well as from dealing with the difficult situation that just occurred. I also have a lot to think about after all of this.¡±


    ¡®Of course, however, do keep in mind that I cannot directly influence the actions of the dryad of your village. With this development, I shall be entrusting you with the duty of keeping their off-shoot manifestation in check.¡¯


    That presumptuous air in her tone. She clearly was of the mind-set that there was no option for me except to cooperate with her from this point forward. Well, this shameless attitude of hers certainly adds to my considerations of how to respond to all of this. Rebel, cooperate, or take a center route and just use her to get as much as I can. Well, she has destroyed my trust, but I am not really certain I can entirely trust Dryad either.


    ¡°I understand.¡± I said, allowing my annoyance to reverberate through the area as I stepped back into the ring of mushrooms. ¡°Well, would you like to do the honors?¡± I asked Dryad.


    ¡°Certainly!¡± Dryad grinned, and I was instantly enveloped in light. When I came out on the other side, it was not in the normal teleportation room. I was in my own bedroom, occupied by Gaerien, a very surprised Gwilitphen, and the two boys still asleep on the bed. I looked to my feet, noting the wood grain was the only circle-like thing there. No, on closer examination, there was maybe a faint white ring of something that could be a fungus, but it was quickly fading. Yeah, Dryad is definitely showing off. Of course, I heave a sigh.


    [Gwilitphen, can you please¡­] Before I could even finish the sentence, Esgal was also teleported in right next to me with a far greater look of surprise on her face. Honestly, please don¡¯t just randomly snatch people out of the hallway. [Great, never mind.] I say with a sigh.


    [Y¡­ your highness?] Esgal says in a shaken tone of voice. Meanwhile, this sudden activity seems to have caused the boys to stir.


    [We have a new dryad] I explained. [And they seem to have a very mischievous streak to them. Things are going to be getting difficult for a while here. I really REALLY need a rest.]


    [I¡­ still don¡¯t understand.] Esgal says.


    [Somehow, the very same dryad everyone is concerned about has planted a fragment of their consciousness in the great tree. Isanil and a fragment of the dryad of Cundo are now sharing this tree as their body.]


    [What!? How is that even possible!? This is¡­] Esgal looks around at the walls nervously, biting back whatever words she was about to say.


    [I am quite certain you will get to actually meet said dryad soon.] I told her. [It would be my guess that the only reason they are not manifesting in this room right now is out of consideration for how exhausted I expressed that I was. Well, since the boys seem to be waking up, I believe I shall be making use of my bed again.]


    I walked over to the foot of my bed, and then went to hop up onto it. Unfortunately, I misjudged my own strength. I had expected the jump to lift me only a foot or so off the ground, allowing me to pull up my knees while I was airborne so I could get them onto the lip of the bed and pull myself the rest of the way up. What wound up happening instead was I had somehow managed to clear my entire body height, bringing me well above the bed entirely. I was very surprised at how high this jumping height was, and scrambled to catch myself coming down by cliping the side of the mattress with my elbows as my feet landed back on the floor.


    [Your highness!!] Both the fairies said at once.


    ¡°Aerien!!¡± Both the boys cried out in concern as well.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine!!! I¡¯m fine.¡± I assured them, quite certain that regardless of what I said my face probably showed quite clearly how rattled I was from the experience. [I¡¯m fine.] I added to the two fairies. ¡°It seems like this body is just stronger than I thought.¡± I told them. Why had this not happened before though? Perhaps it only happened now because I was so tired. When I was more awake, or rather fresh of mind, I was able to subconsciously achieve the desired outcome a little more easily.


    [I¡­ I am having trouble adjusting to my body, I have only been this size for around three days.] I explained, burying my face into the foot of the bed. I could sense Esgal coming up behind me and leaning down. I let out a breath and held my head up again, just in time to feel myself being picked up under my armpits as she helped me climb into the bed. [Thank you.] I said, and then began crawling toward the pillows at the head of the bed while the boys hastily made way for me.


    [I¡¯ll be fine.] I assured them. [I just need to rest.]


    ¡°Uhh¡­ Aerien, we¡¯re not very good with Elven yet.¡±


    I let out a sigh. ¡°I guess that¡¯s just how tired I am. I really do need some rest.¡± I buried my head in the pillow and threw the one next to it over my head. Meanwhile, everyone else was clearing out to give me space. It actually felt a little discomforting for them to be leaving. Between my wife in my previous life, and Gaerien and the boys in this life, I had grown rather used to sleeping with someone else in bed with me. They were being considerate though, and the boys had already slept. I wasn¡¯t going to impose on them.


    Before I drifted off, I had just enough presence of mind to tell Sagel that the trial would most likely not be happening and that he should relay this to Steven. Rather than ask what happened, he expressed concern for me. I suppose he could sense just how tired I was. I assured him, and then for what is quite likely the very first time in this second life of mine, I fell into a true sleep.


    Subscriber''s comments of the chapter


    "big sis breaks meh 2nd level bindings in her sleep. Mortal binding magic vs a god round 1!"


    -Roy


    "I believe it was mentioned in chapter, the oath causes you to bind yourself, and the strength of the bindings depend on how strong the person making the oath is. In other words, it''s counter-intuitive. The weaker you are, the easier it is to break an oath."


    -Jemini


    "yep and you got 2 on the strong side and the last on miss weaksauce =P"


    -Roy


    Yes, I used the subscriber comments section to clear up a point that was apparently missed by one of the subscribers. Is there a problem with that?

 Book 2 Chapter 53: The best laid plans…

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 54: How could you!?

No content

 Book 2 Chapter 55: Dealing with anger responsibly.

    Author''s note


    I will be going on a haitus of indefinite length after posting this chapter. The deadline for application to the nursing programs at all the schools is approaching fast, and I have to dedicate my time to getting in the last of my applications. This haitus may go as long as 2 weeks if I wind up using all the time left before the deadline (due to procrastination which is an unfortunate disease which I have been afflicted with) or only a few days if I manage to really buckle down and get the applications going. Here''s hoping for the latter.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    After setting Gaerien down at the side of the training room, I began some light warm-ups. Or rather, experimenting with my body¡¯s strength, specifically in the jumping area. It would seem I am capable of a pretty impressive high-jump, exceeding three times my body height. That¡¯s almost 10 feet. Back on Earth, that would be mind-boggling even for an adult. For a child, that¡¯s just out of this world. It also makes me wonder if I will keep anything like that proportional strength as I age. On the one hand, larger creatures usually have a worse strength to mass ratio due to the square cube law. On the other hand, elves age slowly, and there are also a lot of other strange rules in terms of how things work in this world. I don¡¯t even know if this kind of strength is natural for an elf, or if I am somehow unusual and this is caused by all that cultivation woo-hoo stuff I¡¯m apparently good at.


    Well, as impressive as that is, control is more important than strength. So, the more important thing is to be able to jump exactly as high as I want to jump without putting too much force into it. If anything, having that much strength is a bad thing. I perform a series of smaller hops around the room. I begin choosing to jump from the place where the corners of one set of matts meet, to another. It goes horribly. I overshoot my target with the first jump. It¡¯s only by around 6 inches, but that¡¯s still not good. I could have easily landed exactly where I wanted to land in my old adult body, but then that¡¯s because I actually knew my old body. As for my baby body, well, I couldn¡¯t jump very well last week before this crazy little growth spurt.


    My next jump, I overcompensated in the other direction and came up short. I was still having trouble getting it right three jumps later when Sagel and the boys came in.


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to figure out how to control this body.¡± I explained. ¡°I haven¡¯t had a proper chance to just feel my own capabilities out like this since my sudden growth.¡±


    They all respectfully stood to the side an watched after that short explanation. Actually, that was a little strange for the boys. Normally they would have been asking if there was something they should be doing for their own training. Just like back in Eirlathion¡¯s house, they would ask me for exercises and do their thing while I did mine. But, instead they were just sitting on the side and watching. That bothered me¡­ no, what I was doing bothered them, and I was aware of that. This made me a little uncomfortable. I had no plans to bring up the subject that was obviously causing them to act the way they were though.


    I reached my hand back behind my head and then leaned back into a back-bend until I was in a one-handed bridge position. Next, I kicked off with my feet and balanced into a one-handed hand-stand. That was weird. This should be something that requires far more precise control than just jumping around, but I was able to pull it off perfectly. It seems balance is something I have better control over than feats of pure strength. Well, no point staying like this then. I fold at my waist and gently place my feet on the ground in order to come out of this position and then stand to face the onlookers at the side of the room. I guess I can just ask Sagel.


    ¡°Sagel, would you happen to know what the normal strength for an elven child around my physical age equivalent would be? I guess I am around a five year old human, whatever that translates to for an elf.¡±


    He places his hand on his chin, and his gigantic black eyes squint in an odd look of focus. ¡°I am afraid I don¡¯t your highness.¡± He answers. ¡°However, I am certain we can probably ask some of the individuals asked here to be jurors. They ought to still be around.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ of course.¡± I turned to walk in a random direction before suddenly stopping in my tracks when I suddenly realized I didn¡¯t even know what I was trying to do exactly. I didn¡¯t want to just do some useless stunt like another cartwheel or something that I knew for certain I could do correctly. That would just be all too obviously me trying to hide the embarrassing expression of frustration I had just performed. So, instead, I just brought my hand to my chin as though deep in thought. ¡°So, what do you all say to a little lesson in my style from Earth?¡± I asked. ¡°You boys are probably not physically ready for it yet, but you can watch me teaching Sagel. He has enough experience with this world¡¯s martial arts that he could probably work some of it into your training that he does with you as well.¡±


    ¡°Ummm¡­¡± Rolwen was glancing back and forth between Levin and Sagel, looking unsure about what his reaction should be. Levin seemed to pick up Rolwen¡¯s silent eye communications, and got a sudden look of determination as he turned to face me.


    ¡°What about your mother? Aren¡¯t you going to do something about that?¡± Levin asked.


    There it is, it finally came up. ¡°Not right now.¡± I said in a very stern tone.


    ¡°But¡­ why not!?¡± Levin asked in a confused and somewhat distressed tone.


    ¡°If I act right now, I am definitely going to wind up doing something I regret.¡± I answer. ¡°It¡¯s something you learn with age. I am in absolutely no condition to make a rational decision right now¡­¡± I could feel myself starting to become tense. I placed my hands together and took a deep breath, trying to dispel some of the emotional tension I was feeling. It was not enough though. As soon as I even tried to think about the next words I was going to say, my knees started to feel weak.


    I sat down on the floor. My back was still turned to them. ¡°I¡­¡± I started talking, but my thoughts froze. Actually, I knew I wasn¡¯t ready to start speaking yet, but I just wanted to make a sound of some sort to let them know I planned to continue so that Levin wouldn¡¯t ask some stupid childish question. I took another breath. ¡°I talked with Dryad right before I came back.¡± I said, my voice in a childishly low ¡®upset¡¯ voice that would be almost cute if the subject matter weren¡¯t so heavy ¡°I had already heard a little bit about them before that, but¡­ now that I¡¯ve met them, and after everything I¡¯ve heard about them, they are not an opponent that you want to approach recklessly.¡±


    There, I said it all. With my thoughts out in the open, I could try and start processing these emotions that were weighing me down and try to get a handle on them. I couldn¡¯t see what any of them were doing back there since I was facing away. I noticed the mist in my eyes was too much for my lacrimal glands to clear yet again, meaning that with no place to go it began to spill out of my eye and run down my cheek.


    Thinking about the clinically precise things that were happening seemed to calm me a little, and I lifted my sleeve to dry my face. Wait, random thought. Where is my body¡¯s moisture even coming from? Not only have I not needed food in this new life, the amount of water I have drank is little if any as well.


    Another puzzle. I did not have the answer right now, but I could feel my mind which wanted to escape from the crule reality at the moment becoming quite eager over pursuing this little mystery.


    ¡°How ¡®bout zis?¡± I heard Rolwen¡¯s voice. ¡°How about¡­ we do like we used to? You or Sagel give us some exercizes, and then you and Gaerien do something, and it will be just like that?¡±


    Yeah. Just like old times, or rather the usual routine we had fallen into around a month ago now. Or rather, I don¡¯t even know how time is tracked in this world. Do they have the concept of a calandar at all?


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯d like that.¡± I commented, standing and turning toward them.


    -


    Taminarda¡¯s POV


    Taminarda was almost ready to throw this bundle of papers at the wall. All of this law nonsense was not the craftsman¡¯s job at all. Here he thought they just wanted strong people who could resist the arcane energy, but NO! It turns out they really wanted judges, the role that magi play when a dispute comes up. And this gobbledygook was several times more complicated than the considerations he has EVER heard about magi having to consider too.


    Ok, so, what did that grey-elf princess say again? She DID say they were just supposed to be using their own judgement, right? She made it sound like it wasn¡¯t quite as important for them in their roles as¡­ what did she call them? ¡°Jurors¡± to know the law as well as the judge had to. It was one of those Elf magi who had the bright idea of having them all pour over this nonsense and know it as well as she had to. Yeah, that¡¯s definitely admirable, but he¡¯s seriously had about enough!


    There was some point where the place started shaking. Taminarda only let out an irritated groan at all of that, it was just a distraction from this stupid and annoying work. Seriously, if he thought he could get away with it, he¡¯d try to strangle that elf who suggested they do this.


    Alright, how about taking a different approach? Just read off the head portions of each section, just to see what it¡¯s about. See if it actually applies to him or not, and then make a judgement from there whether or not to read deeper into it. Over half this stuff seems to be pertaining to strange little things about what is and is not a proper way to charge a person, stuff for the prosecutor to worry about. He decided he should only be worrying about what is and is not a proper argument for the prosecution and defense to make.


    Ahhh!!! This is tough even with that!!! Why do those justice committee people have to make things so complicated!? Taminarda let out a groan and tossed the packet of papers down on the table and began pacing the room. He suddenly felt the energy of the green word and then the sound of groaning wood as the wall opened. He turned to see the great fairy lord assigned to watch over them entering the room he had been assigned.


    ¡°Ahh!¡± Taminarda groaned, letting his frustration out early so he could center his mind. ¡°Is there something I can do for you Lord Castien?¡± He hastily put on as polite a tone as he could despite the obvious frustration still leaking through.


    ¡°Please.¡± the great fairy responded, gently holding up a hand to him. ¡°My rank may be above yours, but I have been assigned to serve your needs. You are her highness¡¯ guests after all, and it is my pride as a member of the civics committee to serve the needs of the nation in such a manner.¡± He gave a rather formal half-bow toward Taminarda. ¡°That said though, what I have come to say is that we will no longer be requiring your service as a juror.¡±


    ¡°Hah! I suppose someone higher up must have gotten some sense in their head I¡¯m simply not cut out for this then?¡± Taminarda responded, pacing the room more quickly as he had taken Lord Castien¡¯s words to heart already. ¡°Perhaps an entire group of magi ought to have been requested from the outset, although it would pose quite the burden for the travelers. I take it you¡¯ve found a magi to replace me then? I do hope it was someone from one of the villages.¡±


    ¡°You can rest assured there is no need for a replacement.¡± Lord Castien responded. ¡°The circumstances are somewhat complicated, but the defendant was pardoned by her majesty. As such, there will no longer be a trial. I have already informed the others.¡±


    ¡°Ah, I see. So you saved me for last.¡± Taminarda responded with a slight grumble as he complained in his mind about how Lord Castien could have likely saved him at least a little mental energy if he had been consulted first instead.


    ¡°Indeed.¡± The great fairy lord responded. ¡°That is because I had a matter I wished to discuss with you. I have heard that gnomes such as yourself are said to be somewhat skilled with elven children, is this correct?¡±


    Taminarda felt a little like scoffing at this remark. Instead of making such a rude expression toward a fey noble though, he settled for a light sigh. ¡°That is only because the younger elves mistake us for children like them. It¡¯s actually somewhat irritating.¡±


    ¡°I see¡­¡± The great fairy made a difficult expression. ¡°Well, the thing is, her majesty expressed some concern about the princess¡¯ emotional state following the incident that lead to the pardon in question. She felt that one of you twelve would be ideal. I was given the task of using my judgement to select who in particular I would extend this offer to though, I believed that perhaps you might be ideal for the role.¡±


    ¡°I see. Do I have any say in this?¡± Taminarda responded.


    ¡°Well, a willing participant would be ideal, but there are considerations beyond a gnome¡¯s ability to get along well with elven children that made me ask you. The more important consideration is, well¡­ for reasons I will only tell you if you accept, there is a strong chance that the princess may actually become upset if it is an elf who is requested as her companion.¡± The great fairy lord explained. Well, that was sure an interesting, if not somewhat ominous statement. Her highness, the new princess, had seemed like a fairly balanced person when she appeared before them. It was so much to the point he may even have accepted her if she had turned out to be a vile deep gnome instead of just an unfortunate grey elf.


    But still, this really sounded like a raw deal for a master craftsman like him to be caught up in. If he had the option, he might have one of his apprentices fill the role. That seemed unlikely under these circumstances though.


    Wait! There WAS one thing! ¡°Hmm¡­ Didn¡¯t her highness say that she was originally from the same world as all those recently born great fairies? Perhaps one of them would be better for the job?¡±


    ¡°Well, you will have to take that up with someone above me if you wish to propose such a thing.¡± The great fairy said. ¡°I am afraid though that I have been asked to select someone from the twelve of you. It would simply be unacceptable for me to fail to present someone. I am certain that if you would allow me to present you, the chance to do so may arrive far sooner for you than it would for me.¡±


    So that¡¯s how things are. And he says the princess would probably be upset with an elf? If that¡¯s the case, why didn¡¯t whoever''s in charge of all this just request Taminarda directly!? After all, he WAS the only one in this group of 12 who was something other than an elf.


    ¡°Ahhh! So, what is the reason she would be upset with an elf anyway?¡± Taminarda demanded in a tone somewhat improper for addressing a noble.


    ¡°So, are you accepting?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say that.¡± Taminarda responded.


    ¡°Well then, I am afraid it is related to the incident I mentioned. Suffice it to say, it is in regards to recent emotional wounds. That is about all I can tell without divulging national level secrets.¡± The man informed him with a regal air. Meanwhile, Taminarda placed his hand on his chin to consider this information.


    ¡°I see.¡± He mumbled. ¡°Well, I suppose I was one of the less useful members to the travelers. Can I name some conditions on this?¡±


    ¡°So long as they are reasonable.¡± The fairy noble said.


    ¡°Well then, the first is that this only lasts until the people and my apprentices get here to the new capital.¡± Taminarda said.


    ¡°Yes, that is certainly reasonable enough.¡±


    ¡°The second is that the other eleven are at least given the option to return to the caravan. They serve a rather important role in assisting them all.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± The great fairy responded with a troubled expression. ¡°I am afraid I cannot agree to that one on my own. It would involve promising the participation of a dragon after all.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s my condition. You can pass on the word to someone who CAN give an answer.¡± Taminarda replied stubbornly.


    ¡°Very well. I shall pass on the word. As there are national secrets involved, I shall only inform you of what has occurred with her highness after any who would leave have already gone.¡± The fey noble said with a somewhat deeper bow than the one he gave before as he left.


    Subscriber''s comment of the chapter (Only one again this time.)


    "epic dwarf like craftsmen Get??"


    -Roy

 Book 2 Chapter 56: New objectives

    Ok, back from hiatus. I still have one more application to make, but the time-scale between now and the deadline is a little more breathable than the others were.


    All that about applications being said, I actually DID manage to get some writing done even while doing the applications. So, I have been just deciding to pad my buffer chapters a little bit. As a result, I ought to be able to keep to a 3 day release schedule for a while, so you can depend on more regularity to updates for this series for the time being.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    ¡°So, this is what you wanted to show me?¡± Gaerien asked. After our practice with each other, I had her do her partner meditation with me again, wondering if maybe she might have some advice on how to deal with this whole fairy oath thing. She was currently together with me inside my spirit realm, and we were looking at the giant with the chain protruding from his back and the binding crown of vines patterned tattoo on the head.


    ¡°Yes, they had me take some kind of oath of nobility. I was wondering if you could tell me something about it.¡± My older spirit told her.


    ¡°Well, it looks like a pretty normal binding oath to me.¡± Gaerien responded. ¡°Second level by the looks of it. I would suggest abiding by whatever they had you swear, this thing could completely undo all your progress in your cultivation in an instant if you were to break it.¡±


    I sighed at her response. I had kinda expected that much.


    ¡°Your oath¡­¡± Gaerien continued. ¡°Was there something objectionable to it?¡±


    ¡°Only the fact that I was more or less deceived into it.¡± I told her. ¡°That fact gets me a little pissed, but aside from that there wasn¡¯t anything all that bad to it. It just relates to watching over the kingdom and managing the dryads.¡±


    ¡°Well, if that¡¯s the case then I suppose you can¡¯t exactly ignore what just happened with this abduction business.¡±


    ¡°Mmm..¡± My younger self let out a grunt from the side-lines, looking like she was making a very strong point of appearing upset. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re gonna get mommy back, right?¡± She asks. Gaerien lets out a snort the moment she hears those words.


    ¡°We will, absolutely.¡± My older self says.


    ¡°So, what is this going to mean for the queen?¡± Gaerien asks. Of course, I was aware she was referring to my opinions toward her after making me swear this oath.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m still trying to figure that out.¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s never going to really sit right for me, but for now the situation demands that I work with her.¡±


    -


    Upon waking from my meditation, the first thing I did was attempt to call dryad for a talk. However, I was immediately advised by Sagel that their spirit has been undetectable since mother and Eirlathion were stolen. It seems that option is out. Well, if dryad¡¯s not here anymore, then I just need to go to their main body.


    Determined and undeterred, I went straight to the upper branches, leaving Gaerien and the boys with Sagel. My route was clear for now. What I had to do was find a representative of the arbor committee and ask for their assistance. As for the queen, I wouldn¡¯t even have to talk with her at all. In fact, this seemed like the best route. I would fulfill my duties while also getting mother and Eirlathion back, and I would express my displeasure at the same time by giving the queen the cold shoulder. I could get away with expressing such displeasure, but shirking my duties is not something that would be so easily forgiven. I would also want to do this anyway even if it were not ordered, so to refuse would only be a show of spite that would do nothing but harm me while gaining me nothing.


    However, it turns out reality had other plans. As soon as I arrived, the queen noticed me and called out using words that were fairly difficult to ignore.


    ¡®Aerien, it seems like you came at a good time.¡¯ She said. ¡®Lord Virides has just returned from his venture to retrieve the five new great fairies, you will need to hear this. Now then, Lord Virides, pleas start over for my daughter¡¯s sake. This is in direct concern to her and her mission.¡¯


    Well, this does sound like it¡¯s probably quite important and of interest. I chose not to respond to the queen, but I did utilize my formal robe¡¯s flight function to take a position somewhat between her and the dragon I noticed was in the center of Isanil¡¯s crown.


    ¡®Yes your majesty.¡¯ The dragon responded with a nod of his head, and then directed his attention toward me. ¡®Upon my arrival to the capital¡¯s old location, I immediately went to where the new Great Fairies were left only to find their gnome-forged iron encasement destroyed by vines. It would appear they were released by someone with nature powers of a rather high level.¡¯


    ¡®I do not want to think it,¡¯ the queen said from behind me, ¡®that location is dozens of dragon leagues away, thousands if we were to speak in terms of an elven league. I find it impossible this may be the work of your dryad, but given all that has happened so far it does not seem prudent to rule out this possibility. I would like for you to be aware of this when you venture out to confront them.¡¯


    ¡°I see.¡± I commented, and then turned back to the dragon in front of me. ¡°I take it you are from the arbor committee?¡±


    ¡®That is correct your highness.¡¯ The dragon responded.


    I gave a nod to his response. ¡°This is good. I actually came up here to set out on said journey to confront the dryad of Cundo. I wish to meet with one from the arbor committee to convey me as my flight speed does not measure up to that of a dragon. If you are not too tired, and with your committee leader¡¯s permission¡­¡± I looked off in the direction of the largest group, figuring that under the current circumstances that was likely to be the Arbor committee. I seem to have grown lucky as the largest dragon there nodded his head. ¡°I would like to ask if you should like to render this service to me.¡±


    ¡®I would be honored, your highness. It may have not been a fault of my own, but I wish to clear this failure from my name, and such an immediate opportunity is something which I greatly appreciate.¡¯


    ¡®So ordered.¡¯ The voice of another dragon sounded through the space. I nodded back to what I was fairly certain must be the Arbor committee and then returned my attention to the dragon before me.


    ¡°Well then, I would like to be under way immediately. The dryad of Cundo needs to be brought under control.¡± I respond and then fly to the dragon¡¯s main. Before I can reach it though, I feel a strong force as though the wind itself has grabbed me, and I am pulled down to stand on the top of his head.


    ¡®Rest assured your highness, I will convey you safely and in a manner befitting your station.¡¯ At those words, the world began moving around me as he turned his head in the direction we were to go and flew from the court. I turned to face the direction we were going, it seemed he had used some form of magic to mitigate the effects of wind and the force which inertia had on me, much like when the queen was lifting me. I could feel the acceleration in my organs, but my body and my feet were not pulled back. So, it seemed the method likely had something to do with a collective push on every part of my body uniformly that counteracted the force of inertia.


    As he said, he was definitely carrying me in style. I was able to easily stand on top of his head and watch the terrain ahead of us. The canceling of inertia and the distance we were from the ground made it difficult to estimate our speed, but considering the rate at which Isanil¡¯s tree was already shrinking in it¡¯s profile in the distance and we seemed to already have cleared the barrens of the heaven¡¯s scar, I would have to say we really are moving quite fast. I had not heard or felt anything like a sonic boom but, considering the assistance of magic, that really did not mean much in regards to whether or not we were flying at mach speeds. Well, considering the mood I was in now, getting there fast suits me just fine.


    ¡®That is the dryad¡¯s tree.¡¯ The dragon said as a new large tree appeared on the horizon. It was nowhere even close to the size of Isanil¡¯s tree, but it still was noticeably taller than the other trees that surrounded it.


    We approached at a slight angle, circling around the tree, before finding our way into the village through the canopy. As we had slowed, I leapt from the dragon¡¯s head and flew straight toward the largest tree in the grove which I knew had to be dryad¡¯s tree.


    ¡°Dryad! This is Aerien! I have come to demand you return Eirlathion and my mother!¡± I heard my own voice crack as I called out. I had thought I had my emotions a little more focused, but as soon as I said their names the pain of loss and the anger at the one who had taken them just returned. ¡°Dryad!¡± I shouted when there was no response.


    ¡®Your highness, there is something wrong.¡¯ The dragon who brought me called out, but I was not interested at the moment. I flew straight at the large tree. Large amounts of spirit energy are supposed to be capable of forcibly controlling a dryad, and I have an unlimited supply. If dryad won¡¯t talk, I will just have to make them talk. However, when I reached out my hand, something unexpected happened. I touched nothing. My hand passed through the wood of the tree as though it was only air.


    I was stunned by this. I reached out again and sunk my entire arm into the tree, barely comprehending what was going on.


    ¡°DRYAD!!!¡± I shouted, intentionally letting out my aura with all the force I could manage.


    ¡®YOUR HIGHNESS!!!¡¯ The dragon shouted back at me and then I felt the wind of him passing by me. His entire body passed right through the large tree and then his head turned town to look at me from above. ¡®It is a light magic projection. I do not believe the dryad is here. Please, I will immediately retrieve my subordinates. The great fairies are proficient in light magic and should be able to dispel this illusion so that we can see what the situation truly is.¡¯


    My mind went blank again. I slowly allowed myself to descend to the ground.


    ¡®Your highness, let us return. We can make no further progress without dispelling this illusion.¡¯


    ¡°Go.¡± I said.


    ¡®Your highness?¡¯


    ¡°I. Said. Go.¡± My voice had a dangerous growl to it as I snapped out each word individually.


    ¡®Your highness, I cannot simply leave you here by yourself!!!¡¯


    ¡°I am going to attempt to dispell this magic myself.¡± I growled. ¡°My methods will be far from elegant, and frankly I do not know what might happen to you if you are nearby when I do this. I am telling you to get out of here!¡±


    ¡®Your highness? Are you saying you can use light magic?¡¯


    ¡°JUST GO!!!!¡± I shout and glare up at him with my unrestrained aura. A tremble ripples through his entire body and the fear is evident in his eyes. Despite his obvious fear, he maintains eye contact for all of around three seconds before turning his head toward the sky.


    ¡®I will remain nearby, I will be observing the situation from above in case anything happens.¡¯ He says, and then immediately flies to the sky.


    I let out a breath as soon as he is gone and attempt to plant my feet on the ground. However, the rather firm looking ground I tried to land on seemed to be a lot more loose than I expected it to be and my foot felt as though it was sinking into recently tilled soil. Despite this, the forest floor looked completely undisturbed. My foot was merely passing into the firm looking ground. I lifted my foot, and the place I was just standing looked completely undisturbed, but my foot had obvious signs of loos soil on it.


    Well, that gives me a pretty strong suspicion of what I¡¯m going to see once this illusion is gone. Well, time to get to work. I take a deep breath in and then slowly let it out, focusing my mind on what I¡¯m about to do. Well, I¡¯ve already done this once before actually, and it scared the ever living hell out of Eirlathion. If this has powered up along with the rest of my spirit, then it just might be the thing we need right now.


    Focusing inward on my meditation, I forced the gate of heaven closed while keeping the gate to the void open. Unlike last time where I was trying to hide my own power though, this time I put my attention on breathing in the power of every energy in the area around me. I immediately felt the energy of the plant life in the area as it passed through my body. All of the plant life spoke to me. The knowledge of a plant was quite simple, but there were two messages that were perfectly clear from every tree and shrub in the area. First, the soil is disturbed. Second, the strong spirit is gone.


    As I looked up, a static-like distortion rippled through the tree in front of me. This image of a tree flickered in and out of existence several times before finally dissolving. And, just as I suspected, in it¡¯s place was a large hollowed out crater left behind by a large object being removed. It was not just the large tree either. All the other lakira trees that made up Cundo village were gone. What had once appeared to be the grove of trees that was Cundo village was now just an empty area of disturbed soil.


    I let out one more breath before returning to my normal meditation, allowing the gate of heaven to open once again and equalize out the pull of the void gate.


    ¡°Ok, I am finished.¡± I said in a dead tone of voice. ¡°You can come back now.¡± The dragon flying high in the sky flew back to the clearing that was now devoid of even the illusion of a tree.


    ¡®Your¡­ your highness, what was that just now?¡¯ He asked in a trembling voice.


    ¡°An ability, natural as part of my meditation.¡± I gave him a courtesy explanation, but my tone was still very heavy and I kept my back turned to him and my eyes toward the ground. I really did not want to accidentally subject such a clearly loyal individual to the dangerous aura I¡¯m quite certain I am letting off right now. ¡°Dryad was a step ahead of us again!¡±


    ¡®Yes.¡¯


    ¡°When is the last time that it rained?¡± I ask.


    ¡®Rain? Are you asking about here or closer to the great tree your highness?¡¯


    ¡°Here, of course. The disturbed soil shows signs of rain erosion, but the lack of mud tells me it must have been more than a day ago.¡±


    ¡®That¡­ I am surprised you can tell something like that just looking at the dirt.¡¯ He says.


    ¡°It is far easier with recently disturbed soil, anyone who has seen tilled land before ought to be able to recognize the difference between soil that has been rained on and soil that¡¯s just freshly disturbed at a glance. I suppose a dragon would not be so exposed to this, but I think every single human even on this world ought to be able to recognize this at a glance.¡±


    ¡®I see, I feel ashamed there was such a gap in my knowledge. So, you are saying we can figure out how long it has been since the dryad moved by the soil if we know how long it has been since it rained? I can ask Lord Shugen, he passed through this area two days ago in order to interview witnesses.¡¯


    Well, at the very least his inability to immediately answer my question told me one thing. We truly had crossed a great distance in only a matter of minutes. It seemed dragon flight was incredibly fast. ¡°Let¡¯s go back. We have to tell this to the court.¡± I said, and then flew back to my spot on top of the dragon¡¯s head.


    Subscriber''s comment of the chapter


    "Your mom is in another castle princess."


    -Roy


    @Roy *Facepalm* Still doesn''t beat the comment about Aerien being a closet squirrel.

 Book 2 chapter 57: Pushed to the edge

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Dryad was just one step ahead of us all the way, and so far the one and only time that anyone managed to pull something over on them was very much to my detriment when the queen tricked me into making that stupid oath. Now, Dryad¡¯s activities have come to affect me very directly, and their advanced action is flat out infuriating.


    Virides, the dragon who took me on this whole nearly fruitless venture, seemed upset as well for his own personal reasons. Once again, I was able to keep myself calm by watching others be agitated at the same things that were affecting me. When Lord Baltair, the leader of the Arbor committee, pledged in a panic that he would dedicate an entire arm of his committee to searching for where Dryad had run off to, Virides immediately begged to be included in this task force. This matter may have not been as personal to him, but his humiliation at being preempted by Dryad twice seemed to have hurt his pride quite a bit. Or rather, it seemed more like a culture of honor sort of thing, one of those cases where honor demanded he redeem himself.


    In my case, I made it a point of slipping out before the meeting was concluded, dropping to the floor and activating the fairy circle. I didn¡¯t want to try anything fancy like trying to get Isanil to do the same advanced precise location teleports Dryad had, and I felt that it would do me good to have a walk through the hall by myself for once. In fact, I did not make it back to my room. As I walked down the lavish hall, decorated with what must be priceless treasures from over the eons and epochs of this world¡¯s history collected over the long existence of the fairy kingdom, I only had one thing running through my mind. Something that had been an increasing talking point discussed among intelligent circles these days as a criticism of people who are critical of historical figures.


    Life is hell, and life has always been hell throughout the whole of human history. It is only in the last hundred or so years that we have managed to get some semblance of a comfortable and peaceful life, and even that is only in the western developed nations. This line of rhetoric is usually followed up by further harping on just how good even the poor have it in the united states compared to the rest of the world to further drive in the point to the people being criticized by this point, but that portion is really not applicable to my situation. In my case, I have been brought back to the very time period that was described as hell in this quote.


    Yes, I died making a deal with a devil, a god foreign to my own, and now I am in hell for it.


    Everything was starting to really feel hopeless. I would leave and have nothing more to do with this place if only I had somewhere to go. But, the only home I have ever known just literally uprooted itself to places unknown, and the only person to act like a real parent to me was taken away. It was not like world travel was an unfamiliar concept to me, but this was in modern 21st century conditions in which the public order even in 3rd world countries is at least good enough to protect an American like myself from the local warlords. Honestly, the fear of retaliation by the US government is enough that a US passport acts like something of a shield. It is not absolute protection, but it is enough that a savvy enough individual can avoid the worst trouble out there. There are a number of safeties and avenues that simply make travel on Earth easier.


    Really, the only option available to me at this point is Sagel. However, he¡¯s a changeling. Changelings are, as others have described them, agents of the queen. He¡¯s attached to me as my familiar now and he has shown himself quite helpful as he helped the Lawyer Mr¡­ errr¡­ Steven. That was his first name, I do not believe I have ever gotten his last name now come to think of it. Well, at any rate, that was something that had the queen¡¯s approval. I have yet to see him take even a single action in my favor that is not also in the queen¡¯s favor. As of now, I cannot put my complete trust in him. In fact, he may very well be another shackle placed by the queen to keep me attached to her. Well, he¡¯s quite effective in that role.


    I am becoming hemmed in on every side. Everything is starting to seem hopeless. What can I even do in this situation? There¡¯s no way out. For now at least. Yes, it is the weakness of being a child again. If your parents or guardians are not kind to you, getting up to leave is simply not an option, is it? If I were older and had more connections in this world, I could leave easily. It¡¯s only for now that there¡¯s no way out. I can find a way with time, but right now¡­ there¡¯s no way out. All I have to do is wait it out. I can find my way out with time. I can find my way out by learning more about my power, getting more cards for myself, and forming connections outside the kingdom. Yes, but¡­ that¡¯s what I have to do¡­ that¡¯s the only way out, so¡­ I know that, but¡­ why is it so hard to accept?


    When I noticed my knees were getting weak, I looked around and realized I hadn¡¯t moved from my spot standing in the middle of the hall with my eyes on the ground for¡­ who knows how long. So, I went to the side of the hall, finding a place between two of the display pedestals, and slumped down to the floor with my face in my folded arms.


    -


    Taminarda¡¯s POV


    Ah, what a mess. After agreeing to the conditions and being given a briefing on the princess¡¯ situation, Taminarda simply could not think of anything except that somebody must have really screwed up somewhere. So, the base essence of this is that the princess was considered very important because of the power she had, and it was a bonus that she was also rather capable. Of course being powerful and capable was the base requirement for anyone in the nobility, but it seemed the princess¡¯ power on it¡¯s own was rather special in some way. He was told though that the specifics behind how exactly were not passed down to the Barron rank fairies and, apparently, if he tried to learn the specifics himself then his request to go back to his normal life after the princess¡¯ emotional situation was stable would be void.


    This had become a pretty messy situation for his part. For the princess¡¯ part, since she was an elf she actually had a birth mother, and said birth mother was just abducted by a dryad with truly absurd powers, including the ability to infiltrate their spirit into that of the great tree. Taminarda wasn¡¯t really certain how impressive that was, but he imagined it was something that would normally be impossible and that was enough. Complicating all this though, it came right on the heels of the princess making her oath of nobility, and apparently nobody told her what an oath meant in this world. Seems such a thing doesn¡¯t really exist back in her world by the sounds of it. Maybe it was bad assumptions, but there was certainly no way to view this as anything other than a screw-up of truly outlandish proportions.


    Well, this all explains now why they had to turn to him. Her elven mother was just abducted, so having another elf show up to be her companion could easily be viewed as a slight of some sort. This incident would surely damage the princess enough emotionally to be a concern, but unfortunately at the exact same time she had become alienated by the queen herself, and it was easy to predict her feelings on her adoptive mother may extend to the rest of the court.


    The thought process is easy to see, but it is a testament to the capability of the fey court that they would arrive at recruiting him for this job within hours of the incident happening. But still, somebody REALLY screwed up for the situation to have devolved so much and so quickly that their only hope was some gnome metalcrafter working on the ground level. Yes, he was a master of his craft, the best in the entirety of the fairy queen¡¯s forest as a matter of fact, but it still seems quite insane that they want him just to serve as the princess¡¯ confidant.


    Ha! The princess¡¯ confidant. Somehow, such a simple position has become a matter which the entire kingdom hinges on. Ridiculous. Again! Somebody REALLY REALLY screwed up!


    He was brought to a special chamber to receive the great tree¡¯s recognition. From this moment on, he would be able to ask the great tree to use the fairy circles. The green word of a mere commoner would usually not be recognized for this purpose, but now the great tree knew him. He was then told to transport himself to the delegate¡¯s treasure hall. It seems it had now been repurposed to the royal hall, and since then access to it has been very limited. In fact, Lord Castien was barred from the floor, so between them it was only Taminarda who had permission to go there, and he would be going alone.


    He let out a sigh and stood in the center of the teleportation room. ¡°Alright.¡± He said aloud. He channeled some mana through his feet, and braced himself for an experience like none he had ever encountered before. He closed his eyes as the teleportation light enveloped him and stood in place for several seconds even after the light faded. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked out the arch of the door and down the lavish hall. He could see the display pedestals showing several treasured items. As he began walking down the hall, afraid to touch anything, even nervous about treading on the rather well woven carpet below his feet and wishing it did not extend so far to either side he would likely knock against a pedestal if he tried to avoid walking on it, something caught his eye that just baffled him.


    ¡°Wait, is that!?¡± He turned to look at one of the wall displays. It was an elaborate weapons rack holding two sets of paired daggers and four alra slayers. Two of the alra slayers were of the more portable and practical sword design, and then two others were of the more cumbersome but effective pole-arm design. A slightly bulky wooden shaft made of the wood of the great tree itself, and tipped with a full size alra slayer made with extra weight reducing enchantments to prevent the mere act of swinging it from snapping the shaft.


    What¡¯s more, every item on the display rack was embedded with a mana gem somewhere near the hilt, and the single-edged blades had an indentation running the entire length of the bulkier back ends that had been filled in with spell silver to conduct additional spell power through the blade of the weapon.


    Taminarda recognized these weapons, as well as the technique of fusing the spell silver and mana gems into the design. He had come up with it himself as an apprentice, an idea to overcome the shortcoming of alra slayers not being able to handle additional magic enchantments since so much had gone into just reducing the weight, and shared the idea with his master. Those dagger sets were his very own proof of concept pieces. The alra slayers were the prototype pieces. They were ultimately declared a failure because the spell silver cracked with use. If those cracks had formed after the blade had the extra enchantments placed on it, the power running through the cracked spell silver could cause a catastrophic failure of the spell placed upon it. It was a good thing this failure was caught during the testing phase before any spell beyond the basic weight reduction enchantments could be placed.


    So, they went ahead and displayed these embarrassments of his youth for the most important delegates from outside the kingdom to view and ogle over, huh? Well, they did at least LOOK impressive, so maybe this was the best possible use for them.


    Well, if these failures are display worthy, then all this other important looking stuff may not be quite as important as he originally thought. This brought Taminarda several mixed emotions. He was definitely embarrassed over his failed work being displayed, but at the same time he felt he could breath a lot easier in this lavish hall if the displayed items were not truly the most important relics of the kingdom. Yeah¡­ that¡¯s right. Why WOULD they display the really important stuff in a place where outsiders are allowed to just walk through anyway? This stuff is going to just be the things that look impressive, not the stuff that actually IS impressive.


    He laughed at himself a bit for being so nervous before and shook his head. This carpet was also something that was just supposed to be impressive to outsiders then, right? Well, Ok, that probably actually meant it was made out of more valuable material. Outsiders could likely at LEAST properly assess fibers and things like that if not these prototype weapons.


    Well, whatever. Carpets are meant to be walked on, and it¡¯s not like his shoes are dirty. In fact, he had every last article of his clothing replaced since arriving here the day before. Their attendants apparently didn¡¯t like them wearing such dirty cloths within the great tree, so they provided them with new stuff and likely burned their old clothing or something of the sort. This fresh clothing that had never been worn outdoors would not soil anything.


    ¡°Oh! What are you doing here?¡± Taminarda¡¯s heart nearly jumped out of his chest from shock when he heard the small weak sounding female voice from behind him. He staggered as he turned himself around to see who had just called out. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry for scaring you. It¡¯s something I accidentally do a lot.¡± The voice commented as he laid eyes on the speaker. What he saw was¡­ someone wearing a formal robe identical to the princess, she looked identical too, but she completely lacked all of the dignity he saw from her when she met them yesterday. She was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall and her legs curled to her chest, and signs that she had been crying until recently. She simply must have been sitting there before, so¡­ why didn¡¯t he notice her when he came by? Wait, no! He didn¡¯t want to know, it probably had something to do with her power that was considered oh so secret.


    ¡°Y-your highness? Are you really the princess!?¡± He asks, scrutinizing the scared looking sobbing child in front of him and comparing her to the girl full of so much power and dignity from the day before. He had heard she was apparently taking this chain of events roughly, but now he understood why it was to such an extent they went to the despite lengths of calling him in to soothe her.


    ¡°Y-yes, sorry¡± She responded, pushing herself to her feet. ¡°I guess I showed you something that is not very befitting of a princess.¡± She said with a bitter look on her face, after which she almost seemed to shrug and scoff at an unseen person. Taminarda couldn¡¯t be sure whether she was directing that scoff toward herself or, perhaps, the concept of nobility itself. ¡°Anyway, did you want to see me for something?¡± She continued while straightening out the layers of her robes. ¡°If it has to do with the trial, it has been cancelled. I hope that you have heard.¡±


    It almost made Taminarda cringe to hear her talking in this strange mix between formal and casual speech. It sounded less like the formal and dignified noble from yesterday and more like someone trying to pretend at being nobility. Or rather, no¡­ he realized it¡¯s actually the other way around. It¡¯s the speech of someone who has grown used to speaking formally intentionally trying to reintroduce rougher common speech to her speech patterns. A normal person may miss it, but after having seen her noble demeanor yesterday and comparing it with today, and combining that with the briefing he got about her situation just a short while ago, it was plain to see she was suffering deeply just by this change in speech.


    Taminarda sighed. ¡°Well, your highness, it¡¯s a little hard to explain¡­¡±


    (No subscriber comments this chapter)


    So, by popular demand, I managed to find a justification to add the crotchety but kind-hearted old man Taminarda to the group.


    Also, I think my imagination ran a little wild planning out the plots of future arcs. I just planned out almost the entirety of the 5th arc. Unfortunately, I have done absolutely nothing with the 4th arc. Oh well, I ought to be able to figure out something by the time the 3rd arc is done. Maybe it will involve shrinking the plot I just came up with and making the 4th arc''s second half into what I currently had planned for the 5th arc. That... might actually make more sense.


    (Either way, I am somewhat proud of this plot. I liked the concept so much, that is why I obsessed over it so much I planned out almost every story beat in the thing.)

 Book 2 Chapter 58: Over the line

End.

 Act 6 side story: Raising of a Hedan warrior.

    ??? POV


    |Alright! Get set! Go!| On these words, an entire line of children varying in age from 16 at the oldest to a mere 2 years of age at the youngest began running across a grassy field. The younger ones were holding decent size stones in their hands, while the oldest among them had yokes slung across their backs with buckets hung from them filled with stones. Only the very youngest, the one at 2 years of age, ran without a single stone on his person anywhere. They all ran a distance that was more or less arbitrary, but seemed to be somewhere just over 50 meters from their starting position. Slowed down by all the heavy stones, the youngest children quickly fell behind, and soon it was just the oldest boys and the completely unladen 2 year old out in front.


    |Common Agron, common Neil! You¡¯re gonna let Eridinil beat you already!| The teens looked to the toddler with an urgent look on their faces and redoubled their efforts in running, but their loads slowed them down. The larger of the two stumbled, causing him to have to loose a step and fall behind in order to avoid landing right on his face. The younger of the two, noticing his older cousin had fallen behind, ran with additional urgency in order to stay ahead of the 2 year old. By the end, he managed to just barely cross the finish line ahead of the youngest in the crowd.


    |Alright! Neil won this round!| The man organizing the race, the uncle to all the runners here, announced. |We¡¯re still going, prepare for the next round!|


    The winner of the race promptly removed his yoke and placed it on the ground and searched for 2 stones of near similar size to place in each bucket. |Oh man, are we sure Eridinil is only two uncle? My buckets are only about half full, this is embarrassing! I could have my bucket almost full before Keren could win the race, and I was younger then.|


    |Haha! Well, Keren is a girl and Eridinil is a boy, I guess he¡¯s just more competitive! He knows he¡¯s gonna grow up into a powerful warrior!| The uncle responds |You just gotta get stronger and run harder if you want to keep winning.|


    |No way.| His older cousin Agron cut in. |This kid is crazy good at running for his age. Neil and I have both already awakened our second level bodies and he is still able to keep up with us even though he¡¯s only two! It¡¯s not even time for breakfast yet and already he¡¯s about beaten us. I think we need to get Verda running to be our time breaker here soon.|


    |Verda only just learned to walk, she can¡¯t run yet.| The uncle rejected the idea, shaking his head and grinning. |You gotta all just get stronger, that¡¯s all there is to it if you don¡¯t wanna be embarrassed being beaten by a toddler.|


    |But can¡¯t we have him carry a rock before we call the race though?| Agron continued to protest |We can call it a sign of how powerful he is at his age, such a powerful warrior he even carried stones in his race even though he was the youngest!|


    |Common Eridinil, you want to be a strong warrior, right!?| The younger Neil turned to his little cousin and gave the toddler a hearty thump on the back, hearty enough to make the toddler stumble forward and have to catch himself.


    |Hey!| The 2 year old complained, glaring at his older cousin.


    |No.| Their uncle quickly rejected the idea. |When the youngest runner wins the race, that is when the running ends. That has always been the tradition. How are we going to call the race if we start having Eridinil carry stones now? Yes, he¡¯s strong. It just means we will go on to the other exercises sooner in the day. That¡¯s all.|


    |Alright, sure.| Neil said with a sigh as he lifted his yoke back to his shoulders. |Common Eridinil, let¡¯s get back to the starting line and run again!|


    The 2 year old Eridinil glared back at his older cousin as he sulked back to the starting line again. He was glad for his uncle rejecting his older cousin¡¯s idea, he only ran so hard because he knew from experience that they would only let them stop running when he finally wins the race. He may not have to carry any stones like his older siblings and cousins, but having to just run this race over and over and over again gets brutal. They seemed to expect him not to be able to run very well when they first started forcing him to run with the rest, but when he tried to cry about being forced to run that was absolutely not acceptable. Soon he learned, running was the only thing that was acceptable, and the running only ceased when he finally won the race.


    It had been quite the shock being born again as a baby after being killed in that car wreck, it was like something straight out of some stupid Anime. The more frustrating thing though was that he seemed to have been born into some kind of barbarian tribe of work-out fanatics. For now, his only thing had been that he has to run with his siblings and cousins, but the older kids seemed to go on to do more work-outs after that as well.


    His body was always screaming at him by the time the repeated races were over, but he had to run anyway. He learned fast, the only way to make the pain stop is to win, and so as he wanted to get it to end quicker he started running more and more seriously. His siblings and cousins would become easier to beat as the races continued as they carried more and more rocks, but this did not change the fact that his own muscles would be screaming by the end of it if he didn¡¯t end it quickly. So, he got more serious about running and this family he was born to seemed to take notice of that pretty quickly, praising him as strong and powerful for his age and how great he would be as he grew.


    This was becoming a problem. If he kept getting so positively evaluated, they might start making him participate in some of the other family exercises as well. He was no stranger to sports and athletics, but this family really took things overboard. Some of the younger teen members of his family were already talking about teaching him to swim. He already knew how to swim from his previous life, but that wasn¡¯t the problem. He could only imagine what kind of insane workout routine this family would have for him the moment they found out he could keep himself afloat.


    |Alright! Get set!| Their uncle cried as they had gotten back to the starting line, but then Agron suddenly held up his hand. Their uncle got a serious look on his face when he saw that. All the older teens were moving in a slow and controlled manner as they lowered all of their yokes to the ground and pulled out some of the rocks from the buckets. The younger kids dropped all but one of their rocks. Meanwhile, their uncle was slowly approaching with spear in hand.


    One of the children, around five or six, ran over to Eridinil and passed him a stone just slightly bigger than his own hand, smiling brightly and pointing toward the nearby bushes. Eridinil meanwhile was smart enough to realize what was probably going on and thought this kid was crazy to actually be smiling and excited about this. Fortunately, one of his female siblings who was around ten seemed to be more sensible and grabbed both Eridinil and the five year old and pulled them back away from the bushes.


    Agron pointed to a few locations in the bushes and held up four fingers. Their uncle stepped out in front of them and also pointed to a few of the bushes and then rose his spear. The rest of the cousins and siblings then raised their stones at the same time. Their uncle threw the spear, and that was the signal. All the siblings and cousins over the age of 8 began yelling loudly and throwing their stones into the bushes at the same time. There was a flurry of activity from the bushes, and some greenish shapes seemed to be trying to run away. Their uncle and the oldest among the siblings picked up some more stones and continued to pelt the bushes for several minutes before finally, armed with still more rocks, they began to approach.


    They all eyed the bushes for a while, before finally their uncle looked to the older teens and nodded before he stepped in the direction of where he had thrown his spear. He pulled he retrieved his spear, now covered in blood, and then reached into the bush. He pulled out the crumpled form of what looked like a person, except their skin seemed to be completely green. Their face also seemed disfigured, but at this distance Eridinil couldn¡¯t really tell whether this was from the pelting of rocks it had just received or if it was from before that.


    Armed now with his spear, their uncle continued rooting around in the bushes further while Agron and Neil, fancying themselves some kind of secondary leaders among the kids or something, decided to follow their uncle into the bushes. Together, the three of them pulled out one more corpse. The group ultimately concluded that the rest must have fled, and their uncle liberally praised the group of children for defeating this enemy. One thing Eridinil was glad for is that this incident had their uncle calling this round of exercises over for the day as everyone was allowed to revel in and enjoy their glorious victory. Eridinil¡¯s child cousins in the three to seven range simply complained that they were not allowed to join in with this group stoning of these enemies.


    Agron and Neil hefted the two creatures onto their backs with a look of triumph, and then Eridinil was scooped up in one arm by his uncle before they were all taken back to the tribe¡¯s campsite a short distance away. They were met by the sight of men riding on the back of an assortment of creatures one would think should not be tamable. The leader of the barbarian cavalry was on the back of a rhinoceros, and there were others riding on lions or saber tooth tigers as well. The guy on the rhino was riding double with a companion wielding a spear while he kept firm hold on the rhino¡¯s reins.


    This was a sight that Eridinil had gotten used to. This barbarian tribe was somehow able to tame all manner of wild man-eating animals that would have not hesitated to eat them all alive back on Earth, and some rode creatures that were extinct. It was a complete mystery to him how they all managed this.


    The riders all stood down when they saw their family approaching and guided their mounts to make way. The leader on the rino though seemed to want to make some conversation. |Jeron!| He called to their uncle. |You were out training the children of our family without your mount at hand again? You know we are not near the queen¡¯s land anymore, this area is more dangerous with the demons.|


    |It¡¯s fine!| Uncle Jeron said. |Agron and Neil are quite capable, they heard the orcs trying to sneak up on us long before they could even get into position. We were all in the middle of our running too, so everyone had plenty of stones on hand.|


    |It¡¯s still very irresponsible!| The leader argues. |What would you do if something happened to our sister¡¯s amazing son there? He¡¯s got a future ahead of him, he will be powerful enough to serve the queen¡¯s army in his next life for certain.|


    |Haha! Well, if things go bad, he can just run, can¡¯t you Eridinil?| His uncle says, nuzzling Eridinil slightly with his bushy beard and laughing. |Ain¡¯t no shame in that at his age, and he¡¯s got strong legs too. He would definitely make it back in time to fetch you guys before anything bad could happen.|


    |Ah, there¡¯s just no getting through to you, is there?| The leader said with a shake of his head. |Well, which way did the orcs flee off to when you chased them off?|


    |To the south west by about 200 degrees.| He responds without hesitation, giving the usual unnaturally precise directions everyone in this tribe gave as though they all had compass in their heads.


    |Alright, bring your trophies to the matron, we¡¯ll handle the rest.| The leader said and then nodded to the rest of the gathered crowd before shouting a firm ¡°hayah!¡± at his mount as the entire crowd left, circling around their family, before running full speed at the area they had just left from.


    |The matron, is it?| Uncle Jeron grumbles. |You could just say mother, you know? Hahh! Alright! Let¡¯s get back!|


    He leads them back to the encampment which is roughly arranged into several small clusters of tents. Each tent cluster represents a different family, with one tent for all the brothers of the family, and then each of the other tents belonging to a mother and her children, with one single tent that is for one woman only, the mother or grandmother to all people living within that tent cluster. This family¡¯s tent cluster was the one at the honored position at the high-ground of the encampment, his grandmother holding the honored position of matron and leader of this entire camp, with her oldest son, their uncle Idelon, as the leader of the riders while out on a hunt. Their uncle Jeron was one of the younger brothers, and had been given the duty of training the kids of the family.


    Of course, this only added to the weight of the expectations placed on young Eridinil


    Eridinil was handed off to one of the girls of the family, his eldest sister. This family was close knit enough that about his only ability to tell the difference between a brother or sister and a cousin was whether or not they slept in the same tent as him during the night. Meanwhile, Uncle Jeron lead Agron and Neil into his grandmother¡¯s tent. While his sister brought him around to find their mother, Erdinil strained his ears to hear what Uncle Jeron was saying.


    |Honored mother.| He greeted her. |While out training with the children, Agron and Neil noticed some orcs in the bushes. We did battle and slayed two, the rest ran away and are currently being pursued by Idelon has lead the rest of the men in pursuit.|


    |Is that the case? Agron, Neil, you two have done well to protect our family. However, it is too hopeful to think this to be uninvolved with a larger orc encampment. Idelon is wise, he is certain to think the same. However, we must instruct those at camp to prepare to move in case he cannot find the camp or finds their numbers are too large to eliminate it.|


    Erdinil met his sister¡¯s eyes as he heard what his grandmother had just said. She had clearly been listening in as well, and had a concerned expression. But, it turned to a smile quickly. |Well then, I suppose we had best find mother quickly and pass word to her.| She said, smiling down at him.


    He looked up to her ear. It had a small golden clip at the upper tip of it, and a chain attached to her hair in a way that made it seem as though it was trying to stretch her ear up and backward. He had noticed this fashion trend among the women of this tribe¡¯s younger girls. The older women did not wear such accessories, but that seemed to be because the stretching was already done. This artificial stretching of the upper ears produced pointed ears by the time they had grown into women, making them almost look like elves. He couldn¡¯t help but wonder, he seemed to be in some sort of fantasy world where creatures like orcs existed. Is it possible that his family¡¯s weird custom of stretching their ears means they are the elves of this world? Or, maybe they just admire the elves and are trying to imitate them. He did hear them talking about the fairy queen a lot, so the latter seemed most likely.


    What a strange new life. Being in such a backwards place, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder how his little sister from his previous life was doing. He really hoped Karie survived that car crash, but a part of him hoped that he might find his buddy Josh in this new world. He wanted to have the chance at finding his new incarnation and giving him a good punch in the face for getting them killed in the first place.


    (no comments this chapter)


    Alright, that was Eridinil of the Hedan nomadic beast-rider warriors. Some of you may recall I made mention in an announcement a few chapters back that I was going to be making a commission for a freelancer in order to have them give me a good starting basis for fleshing out the human nations. Well, xshedevilx, the freelancer I hired off of fiverr, seriously delivered and when I was reading over the material the Hedan warriors really spoke to me. I just had to feature them in a side story in order to explore their culture a little more.


    I hope everyone enjoyed that, and I will be posting the entire write-up xshedevilx provided as the next release for anyone who is interested to read it.

 Special lore chapter: Human territories of the Blue-Jade dragon’s continent (Comissioned work.)

The Eastern Nation of Vandi -

 Lore chapter: Anthroprological overview of the Hedan culture.

    Author''s note


    So, special bonus, 2 chapters in one day. Well, I figured it was sorta cheating to count something somebody else wrote as a chapter, so here is a follow-up. Something I actually wrote. A lore chapter further expanding on the Hedan and the particulars of how I''m planning on handling this.


    Anthropological overview of the nomadic tribes of the Hedan.


    The Hedan warriors are a collection of nomadic tribes. Over the centuries, their tribes have grown and split, but they all regard themselves as the Hedan as they are brought together by a single ideal. The Hedan warriors all share one thing in common, all Hedan tribes idolize the fey as they have discovered that the human capability to become fey in their next lives, and all Hedan tribes dedicate themselves to strengthening their bodies and spirits in order to ensure they possess the ability to be as strong as they can be in their next life.


    As a result of the Hedan¡¯s obsession with strength and becoming fey in their afterlife, powerful war-chiefs from the Hedan tribes have come to make up 20% of the war committee of Fairy Queen Oren¡¯s court. As a result, the diplomacy committee has become highly aware of the Hedan tribes, and are in frequent communication with them. This communication allows all of the Hedan tribes to remain unified with one another and prevents them from degrading into tribal warfare.


    Great fairies born from the Hedan are also given a special privilege within the fey court. Although their personalities cause them to prefer being members of the war committee, they are also all regarded as members of the diplomacy committee and are frequently called on to return to their own former tribes in order to better diplomatic ties. Although the Human Hedan riders are not regarded as the Fairy Queen¡¯s subordinates, these diplomatic ties have caused them to further deepen their obsession with becoming members of the fey races and all of them regard becoming great fairies serving in the fairy queen¡¯s war committee to be their highest objective in life. To a Hedan warrior, this life is only training for the next in which they serve their true purpose.


    There are some competing theories as to the reason, but the Hedan culture highly values women, and women are almost always the ones to hold positions of power within the Hedan tribes. The tribes are lead by a woman called the Matron who holds all the power in the tribe. If one were to ask a changeling for whom it is their entire life¡¯s role to observe human societies, they would most likely say this is because the Hedan women are actually somewhat more likely to be reborn as great fairies and preserve their memories than the men. This is due to the fact that the women of the Hedan tend to remain at home and focus on magecraft as a path to power while the men train as physical combatants and are on the front lines when it comes to fighting demons and other threats, which often results in earlier deaths for the Hedan men with the most potential to gain the necessary strength to achieve this level.


    Other competing theories include that they view women as naturally fit to lead due to the fey being ruled by a queen, and that the men are too occupied with training their physical bodies to lead effectively. Whichever theory is valid though, the result is the same. Women hold most of the leadership positions in the Hedan tribes, with the only leadership positions available to the men being the command of a combat expedition. However, there is one other important position a Hedan man can occupy.


    When dealing with people from outside the tribe, a Hedan man, normally the brother or oldest son of the tribes Matron, will serve as the Matron¡¯s intermediary. The Hedan consider humans outside the tribes to be far too rude toward women, and thus men from outside the tribe are not allowed to encounter a Hedan woman. Hedan men as well are often uncomfortable seeing men outside the tribes in positions of power and the manner in which women outside the Hedan tribes are treated.


    Families among the Hedan also all revolve around the woman. Women will choose men who they think are powerful, and in order for no woman to be denied a chance with the most desirable men in the tribe they will not hold him in any way accountable for the child produced from their union. All children born in the Hedan tribes are raised by their mothers, their aunts, and their uncles. As such, all children born to a single woman remain together. When a woman¡¯s first male grandchild is sought as a partner for a woman from another family, this is when she obtains her right to separate from her mother and become the matriarch of her own family. When this occurs, she will often leave the tribe and seek other families to band together with her to form their own tribe. She will usually not leave immediately after her grandson has been selected, it is only the right of passage that gives her the right to begin seeking other families to form a tribe with. She does not actually leave the tribe until all families to make the new tribe have become arranged.


    A Hedan tribe is composed of multiple families that have joined together. This is mostly to allow their daughters to seek acceptable males. There is no specific taboo among the Hedan against procreation with a male cousin, but it is not something that most of the women would prefer. As such, in order to raise the availability of men, multiple families will travel together. The family that is chosen to lead is the family that has the largest number of men who are considered desirable by the other families. It is viewed that such a woman must have the strongest ability to discern good men as partners, as well as the greatest ability to raise strong men as sons and grandsons. These are considered signs she would also make the best leader for the tribe. This places a strong emphasis on families to promote their men as well, and powerful sons and grandsons are considered the greatest wealth a Hedan woman can have as they are her ticket to power within the Hedan tribes.


    Hedan tribes being nomadic by nature often bring tents which they arrange in clusters, each cluster being the domiciles of a different family. It is usually the case that one tent is dedicated to all males of the family who are over the age of majority. This is normally the largest tent, arranged like a barracks. A cluster of smaller tents are dedicated to each woman and her daughters, as well as her minor sons. All members of this family live together in the same tent, arranged more like a typical household seen in other cultures. Finally, there is the Matriarch¡¯s tent. This tent is the smallest, but it is also the only tent that is the living space of only one person. As such, despite being smaller than the other tents, the woman who lives in this tent actually has more living space than those who live in any of the other tents in the cluster. The Matriarch is the mother, grandmother, or great grandmother to every single member of the family in the family cluster, and the leader of this family unit.


    After reaching the age of majority, the men of the Hedan live effectively in a different world from the women. They still regard it as their job to serve the needs of the women, and it is all of their desire to be noticed and called upon by one of the women of the other families as this is seen as a recognition of their prowess, strength, and achievements in training and battle. It is usually the case that this will not happen until a man is around the age of 20 to 25, but being selected by a woman when he is at a younger age is considered to be a great honor. Producing a strong next generation is considered one of the duties of a Hedan man, but he is still within his rights to turn down a woman¡¯s invitation. To some extent, turning down a woman can raise a man¡¯s prestige even higher as it could show he is also selective, especially if the woman who called on him is young or weaker in her cultivation, or who has some kind of negative reputation. However, turning down a woman who is of impeccable reputation and close to his age, close to his power or higher in cultivation, or turning down too many women in a row can instead loose him prestige among his peers.


    When it comes to raising children, all children regardless of gender start off being trained in the ways of a warrior up until around age 14. At this age, a girl will have her coming of age recognition, at which point she will begin learning the way of a mage. These younger years though are considered important as it allows a girl to become familiar with the male ways of play and gives them some common shared experiences that will help them to get along with them later in life when she is ready to begin seeking a mate. At the same time, it also serves to strengthen her body during the period where it is growing the most, toughening her bones and muscles during this crucial formative growth phase. This gives a Hedan mage physical ability far beyond the capacity of most other mages in human societies, as she can manage herself in physical combat better than any except for a dedicated trained warrior.


    There is, of course, one other distinguishing feature about the Hedan that make their tribes unique. One which you cannot avoid mentioning while discussing the Hedan. All Hedan warriors, regardless of gender, possess a bloodline magic for wild empathy, allowing them to calm and tame wild beasts that would normally be considered untamable. This often has them called the Hedan Riders by outsiders as they are almost never seen by outsiders without their mounts. There is a belief commonly held among the Hedan that this ability of theirs comes from fey blood that the tribes have running through their veins, which supposedly came from several generations before the first of the Hedan riders lead the first tribe. Whether or not this belief is valid or not is uncertain though as even the fairy queen and her elder members of the court who would have been alive at the time had not paid much attention to human affairs to the extent that would allow them to have any knowledge on the truth or falsehood of this claim.


    Most Hedan tame normal beasts, but some of the Hedan have tamed beast chimera, a class of unintelligent demon that uses arcane energy to splice together beasts in a similar way to how the weaker fey sometimes splice together human and beast souls. There are even some particularly renowned Hedan tribes that exclusively tame nothing but beast chimera. Of the chimera tamed by the Hedan, the griffin is the most commonly seen.


    There is another peculiarity of the Hedan that is also worth note. This is the Hedan¡¯s impeccable sense of direction. Rather than being the result of any form of magic or special ability, it seems to be a result of the language and communication customs of the Hedan themselves. Among the Hedan, if you are greeted by one of their members you will often be asked the question ¡°where are you going?¡± instead of the ¡°how are you doing?¡± more common in other cultures. This question is simply regarded as a greeting among their people, but it is also a test imposed by their entire culture to keep their members constantly conscious of direction and distance from one point to another. This is exemplified in the expected response to this ¡°where are you going?¡± question. If you are addressed in this manner, the name of your destination is not an acceptable response. The response you are expected to give is to include the exact compass direction you to your destination, as well as the distance between your current location and that destination. This results in all Hedan being constantly aware of distance and direction to an extent that their minds can process these thoughts as naturally as walking.


    Extended Authors note and mention of IRL anthropological references used for the Hedan culture.


    To everyone who read up to this point in regards to the Hedan, thank you very much for showing such interest in my badly written anthropology paper on this fictional culture. (If there are any field anthropologists in the readership, I would gladly accept assistance in re-writing this work should you be interested in cleaning this up and making it look more presentable.)


    The Hedan are one of the many groups among the human territories that were fleshed out in the commission I got for the subject, and of all of them the Hedan were actually one of my favorites due to all I would be able to do with them. Dealing with a tribal people is just something that gave me so much opportunity to explore and include things I have learned about between my introductory anthropology class I was forced to take in college as well as several programs I heard on NPR about anthropology research among various African tribes and some of the startling abilities that were found among these people who had very different cultures from our own western culture.


    If you have followed along with this series so far, you may have already noticed that I have a bit of a thing toward really crafting cultures. Well, the Hedan were my first chance to actually include things I learned about from real cultures found on Earth instead of having to just make up 100% of it from thinking about how one thing would influence another. Of course, the final paragraph about the Hedan¡¯s sense of direction and how it was influenced by their language and cultural greeting of ¡°where are you going?¡± was one thing I ripped directly from a real African tribe here on Earth. It was simply one of the more interesting things I had heard.


    You see in some web noves with game-like mechanics that occasionally the main character will have something like a mini-map in a HUD display they will have on their vision, and a little cursor that shows their current location. Well, the anthropologist who studied this culture that had the ¡°where are you going?¡± greeting and the exact cardinal direction and distance being the expected response described her experiences studying this culture, and said that after dealing with them for so long and trying to compensate for the cultural expectation of always knowing these things, her brain eventually wound up generating an imaginary version of something very much like one of these game-like mini-maps in her head. She then described the experience of going back to one of the tribal people she was studying and describing her experience. The response she got was something along the lines of ¡°of course? How else would you do it?¡± Indicating that, unexposed to any part of Western culture, all of these tribal people had developed something like this mini-map inside their own heads as their way of compensating for the demands that their cultural greeting placed on them, and it gave them all an absolutely outstanding sense of direction.


    When I heard about this, it was just something so interesting I simply had to include it as a capability of the Hedan riders as they seemed like exactly the sort of people who would need that ability.


    Another significant thing I took from my anthropology class to include in the Hedan culture is the matriarchal society, including the lack of marriage customs and instead keeping the family together so the uncles can raise the children, taking up the role that the child¡¯s father would in Western societies. The exact causality and view on the matter likely differs a little with the Hedan compared to IRL tribal societies out of Malaysia, which is exactly the place I stole the concept of the matralinial family structure from, but it really is something I wanted to include the first time I put in a true matriarchy into this world as the family structures are something I rarely see considered when others try to throw a matriarchy into their fictional world.


    I actually stole the matriarchal structure of the Hedan from 2 different Earth matriarchies. The first one was this Malaysian tribe, which was actually not a matriarchy by power structure. It only had matralinial family lines, but the tribe was lead by men. I only took the way in which this tribe handled families while still including men. The second Earth matriarchy I based this on was a coal mining town in South America where the men simply had to leave town so often for such long periods of the day that men practically did not exist in the town, and so they developed a matriarchal town government out of necessity just to keep things moving in town. So, I managed the two cultures together in order to come up with something that simply felt more natural and how a matriarchal culture under these conditions would be more likely to actually develop.


    Now, for anyone who wants a peek in at my creative process, this whole experience writing up material for the Hedan is almost a perfect microcosm of exactly what I have been doing for the rest of the series as a whole.


    At the time of writing the side story, the lore of the Hedan was around 60% IRL based, 20% fantasy additions to fit this world, and 20% fitting the commissioned write-up from xshedevilx. Now, as of this anthropological write-up, I have managed to muscle the IRL basis down to 20% with around 40% being derivatives and conclusions drawn from all 3 of the other parts on how it would all logically fit together cohesively, making this very much it¡¯s own thing now despite all the inspirations pulled from other sources. In other words, they are now very much a part of this world¡¯s tapestry.


    It is interesting to note that these lore chapters are very important for me as well, maybe even more so than what the reading audience gets from it. For you, it is interesting to know this stuff. But, for me, this is my process of taking these loose threads of inspiration I get from the IRL stuff I base my writing on and pulling derivatives that can help weave it all into a cohesive piece that fits into the world the story takes place in. For me, these chapters are extremely important, and I also share them with you because I think it will be an interesting read as well.

 Book 3 Prologue: Picking up the pieces

    Author''s note


    Ok the time has come to start the next book. Unfortunately, the artwork I had commissioned did not get finished on time for me to include it before this chapter''s release. Well, enjoy the new Arc, I have been excited to wrap up this major arc of the story and have one particular scene I really am having a hard time waiting to get to. Unfortunately, it will require a lot of stage-setting still.


    The last arc was hyper-focused on the capital and the court. I somewhat intend for the scope of this arc to be a bit more broad and cover at minimum 3 key regions (including the capital) but this experience has taught me that things do not always go according to the initial plan.


    Arc 3: Earth''s dark influence


    1st Act: Gathering strength


    ??? POV


    Deep beneath the ground, black feathered wings bearing the mark of betrayal. Blood. A clawed hand reaches out for an innocent. A scream of pain and a sense of having been wronged rises from the freshly spilled blood.


    From above, black roots. The creature fears the roots, and grasps out for the innocent all the more desperately. And then, the clawed hand is struck. The blood drips from the hand directly onto the innocent soul.


    The scene suddenly shifts. As the roots penetrate deeper and deeper beneath the surface, a swarm of insects flees the approach. All of them converge on a tree with green roots that is bathed in light. The insects rise up from the ground around the tree with green roots, while some stay to gnaw at the roots of the tree. A great roar, and then the tree falls.


    -


    Sainel¡¯s POV


    ¡°Master Sainel!¡± The hunter captain cried out in shock and concern as Sainel slumped over in her seat clutching her head.


    Sainel held up a hand to the concerned hunter captain. ¡°It is alright Eziril.¡± She said, sitting herself back up. ¡°I merely had a disturbing vision. It was like a trance dream, but I was fully awake and aware. It was¡­ strange, and disturbing. Especially those wings.¡±


    ¡°Wings? What kind of wings?¡± Eziril asked.


    ¡°Black feathered wings, like those of a crow.¡± Sainel answered with a dark edge to her voice.


    ¡°So, wings but not the bird they were attached to?¡±


    ¡°No, I could not clearly see what they were attached to, but I got the sense it was an anthromorph of some form, as though it were a male harpy.¡±


    ¡°Male? You are certain about that?¡± Eziril responded with a skeptical tone. ¡°Well, that is rather strange. And you say the wings were black?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but it seemed to have far more power than a harpy should ever have as well. But, somehow the power felt¡­ familiar, and dark. After seeing those wings, I feel as though there is something waking up inside of me. It¡¯s like a memory from before my life as an elf.¡±


    ¡°Memories from before your life as an elf!?¡± Eziril responded with more shock than anything said so far. ¡°That would be a first, now wouldn¡¯t it?¡± She waved the thought off dismissively.


    ¡°Hm, It wouldn¡¯t actually. Don¡¯t you remember? Our new princess is a grey elf, and she has retained all her memories from her previous life.¡±


    ¡°Magus Sainel, I do not mean to disrespect you, but you are several hundred years old. How could you suddenly recover your previous life¡¯s memories at such an age? Comparing yourself to the princess, she was born with her previous life¡¯s memories, was she not?¡±


    ¡°I know! I know that, but¡­ this all feels very important. There was something dark and evil in those wings, and somehow it feels like I had a mission in my previous life to stop whatever it was.¡±


    ¡°Well, I am unsure about any of that, but¡­ we may want to continue readying ourselves. The dragon who will bring the jury members back to the carravan has already called to have them gather. If we are unable to ride along with them, we will have to venture across the barrens of the heaven¡¯s scar on foot.¡±


    ¡°Hah! They have us come here to serve as witnesses for a trial that is canceled before we are to make our appearance, and now they will not even give us a lift back to our village. I do understand that the nobility is becoming stretched thin by the crisis with the dryads and having to fight the demons at the same time, but this still seems like rather poor treatment.¡± Sainel scoffs.


    ¡°Well, we can just be glad someone was able to negotiate for the jururs to be returned, it is because of that we managed to at least get a ride to the edge of the heaven¡¯s scar.¡±


    ¡°And then it is a week on foot to return to the village through demon infested territory, and you shall only be armed with a few wooden spears and small dryad sword.¡± Sainel said, gesturing to the sharp-edged wooden sword at Eziril¡¯s hip. ¡°Well, at least they all have the power of the great tree. This should be enough to ward off anything short of an alra une.¡±


    ¡°I am not so concerned about alra unes. We will be quite mobile with only two people on foot. They can be easily avoided. I am not so concerned, we will be able to make it back to the village without much trouble.¡±


    ¡°Yes, back to the village.¡± Sainel muses with her hand on her chin.


    ¡°Master Sainel, are you feeling unwell?¡± Eziril asks. ¡°It is unlike you to fret this much, and especially to complain about the nobility as you have been.¡±


    ¡°I just feel¡­ like it is a bad idea to return to the village. I suppose that must be what is going on.¡±


    ¡°Whah!!¡± Eziril stared at the magus Sainel with her mouth agape. ¡°What¡­ ma-master Sainel, what do you mean!?¡±


    ¡°Exactly what I just said Eziril. It makes sense now. It is the same sense I had before, I will be needed here. I cannot leave. That is what all of that complaining was about, I was simply trying to find an excuse to stay without realizing it.¡± Magus Sainel¡¯s face was far more assured now as she looked up at her companion. ¡°You may do as you like. However, I will be remaining here. You may take a ride with the jurors in order to return to the village, or even join the caravan. Or, you can decide to remain here along with me. If my vision proves to be true though, I get the feeling that the battle with the demons will escalate, and this will be the center of a great conflict. You will be safer outside of the capital.¡±


    Eziril stared skeptically back at the magus, trying to make up her mind about all that was just said. However, her face turned resolute as she seemed to have made a decision. ¡°Well, if what you say is true, then I believe my place is right here at your side Master Sainel.¡±


    Sainel grinned. ¡°You are a very noble woman Eziril. I am the magus of the village that came to yours, and it was a member of our hunters who said the word to Everon that started this whole mess. And yet, you have decided to stand by me to be my shield?¡±


    ¡°It is as you say, there is a lot for our people to be angry at yours for, and just as much for yours to be angry at us. However, we as the representatives of the two villages must come together to be an example to our people. In the spirit of this, I will treat you exactly as I would the magus of my own village.¡±


    Sainel nodded. ¡°I see. Well, that is truly admirable. Well, let¡¯s make this a good working relationship and be an excellent set of role models for our people.¡±


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Of those that would oppress you, there are those who are callous and who do not care for the lives of those who they oppress. If you are living under such an oppressor, their eyes will turn to you any time they want something from you. When this happens, you need only give it, and soon their eyes will turn away and they will leave you alone.


    The oppressor who does not care whether you even live or die is an oppressor you can survive under quite easily. So long as you learn the rules, you can even prosper. However, the truly frightening thing, the thing you need to fear the most, is the oppressor who oppresses you out of an sense of virtue. The oppressor who feels what they are doing is for your own good. Such an oppressor will never leave you alone, and will never turn their eyes away. They will merely take and take from you until you have nothing left, and every time you try to get back to your feet they will take from you once again.


    I am not certain if the queen can be entirely categorized as the oppressor who does not care about me. It is certain that she at least wants something from me. To her, I am a tool. In that way, it may even be easy to prosper under her. At the very least, she would want her tool to be sharp. However, I can say for certain that Dryad absolutely fits the bill of the oppressor who cares too much.


    Dryad is way too volatile, and clearly has an ambitious plan far beyond their abilities to implement. A plan that will cause a lot of trouble if and when it starts going wrong. No, even if this plan of theirs goes right it will cause trouble. Both times I have seen them move has proven that beyond any shadow of a doubt. The first time resulted in hundreds of deaths in the village of my birth. The second time, it involved kidnapping my mother and the man who was the closest thing to a father I have ever had in this life. Neither one of them were exactly what I would call the best parent material, but I could tell that Eirlathion at least cared for me. As for my birth mother, well¡­ I could understand she was going through a lot. She likely never wanted for us to be born, but I do want to believe that one day she may accept Gaerien and I.


    Dryad though, Dryad took them away from me. I do not believe they would be dead, Dryad would want those two alive every single bit as much as I would. I cannot tell for certain whether or not they had their own selfish reasons for wanting Eirlathion and my mother, but at the very least I am certain part of it is because they felt painting themselves as the bad guy in my life would somehow be good for me. The proof, they also took mister Steven, and made certain Sagel would bring this imp mister Steven was protecting into my care.


    ¡°So, what exactly are we going to do with this guy?¡± I asked Gaerien and the boys.


    [Hmph! So, this little pipsqueak speaks this stupid language like that coward as well, huh?] The imp bit back in a very unpleasant tone. [This is all just pure torture. I am about ready to give up on you fools, how about just letting me out to go join the demons if you aren¡¯t going to kill me.]


    I decided to pretend not to understand any of what he just said. Instead, I turned to Gaerien. ¡°I am going to guess Dryad thinks we might have some way to reverse his demonization. At the very least, I feel it would be a violation of some form of trust to simply kill him after mister Steven, who stood up as Eirlathion¡¯s defense and got captured for his troubles, went through so much trouble to care for this guy. I feel curing him could be some way that I could pay him back for his efforts.¡±


    ¡°Umm¡­¡± Gaerien responded and then reached her little baby hand out to me. Of course, a conversation of this sort would be too much for her mouth and oral motor skills to relay correctly. So, I was limited to our contact telepathy, as Rolwen had named it. I took her hand and looked in her direction. ¡®Well, divine energy has the ability to cancel out arcane energy, but there is a problem. My divinity is attuned to destroy fey, and he¡¯s a demonized fairy.¡¯


    ¡®Well, I guess that¡¯s no good then, huh?¡¯


    ¡®Yeah, if it was an orc or an ogre, or even a werewolf, I could easily turn them back into humans or whatever else. But, for a fairy, he would be dead before I could purge the arcane energy.¡¯


    ¡®So, does this mean our option is to find a god of this world to cure him?¡¯ I asked.


    ¡®I doubt they would extend their power to heal an imp back into a fairy on the word of an elf. Most deities would see little benefit in aiding a fey.¡¯


    ¡®Hmmm¡­¡¯


    ¡®There IS one other way though.¡¯ Gaerien said. ¡®It is probably impossible here, but if we were to take him away from here he might be able to purge the arcane energies on his own. You see, there is a difference between the arcane magic used by humans and fey, and the demonic magic used by demons. Demons actually consume arcane energy instead of mana. They instinctively prefer areas dense in arcane energy, but if he were to be taken to an area where there were thin or no arcane energy and begin using magic then eventually he would revert to his natural state as he is forced to consume the arcane energy in his own body.¡¯


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s going to be much easier said than done.¡¯


    ¡®I suppose the best way would be for you to endear yourself to the queen as you mentioned in the training room.¡¯


    ¡®Yes, I believe so.¡¯ Well then, time to go ask that my blade be sharpened, and I just so happen to have the perfect subject to ask about.


    -


    Oren¡¯s POV


    ¡®Changeling Sagel, while I do appreciate you appearing before me to give report, is it entirely safe for you to be here at this time? My daughter is in a tumultuous state at the moment, I do NOT want for her cooperation to be at risk for a careless move from you.¡¯


    ¡®I must confess your majesty, it is not entirely safe. She has already begun to distrust me. However, she is preoccupied at the moment in regards to a minor puzzle the dryad left for her. Given this opportunity, I felt your majesty would like to receive an update on the princess'' state of mind given recent events.¡¯


    ¡®Very well, give your report. How has my daughter reacted to the recent events?¡¯


    ¡®She was disturbed by the dryad¡¯s actions, however she became absolutely enraged to an entirely new degree when she deduced something I had only suspected when I was told by the dryad to secure the safety of that imp. It seems the dryad¡¯s actions in kidnapping those three individuals was entirely fueled by the dryad wishing to manipulate the princess in some way. The exact purpose is not entirely clear to me, but going by her track record, I believe her highness will likely be the first to figure it out.¡¯


    ¡®Hmm¡­ this is understandable. I would like to know though, how has she reacted to the dryad¡¯s attempts to sow discord between her and me?¡¯


    ¡®She also does not seem all that positively inclined toward your majesty, however, she has verbally stated her intention to forge a positive working relationship with you on a surface level at the very least. It seems she feels such an action would be the reverse of the dryad¡¯s desire. As such, her active attempts to forge a relationship with you are an expression of her anger toward the dryad.¡¯


    ¡®This is not the greatest possible attitude while handling a dryad.¡¯ Oren laments. ¡®However, if it does not trigger a reaction from her oath, I believe we shall have to trust my daughter¡¯s judgement. I have become convinced of it after seeing the ways in which Aerien thinks. The frightening intelligence expressed by this dryad comes entirely from her. This dryad awakened under her energy, and it is her spirit energy which fed the development of this dryad¡¯s mind. It is frightening, Aerien¡¯s intelligence in the package of a far less mature mind. However, Aerien is the one who would best understand what would and would not be an appropriate way to handle this situation.¡¯


    ¡®I suppose that would be true, so long as her judgement is not impaired by her anger.¡¯ Sagel said, and then raised up his head suddenly. ¡®Ah, I apologize for being abrupt before your majesty but¡­¡¯


    ¡®My daughter is currently on her way, I know. Isanil just told me. Go.¡¯


    With a bow of his head, the changeling vanished in the teleportation glow of the fairy circle he had never left since his arrival.


    Subscriber''s comment of the chapter


    "when it got to the Sainel part i was like who the fk is dat lol"


    -Roy


    Well, hopefully the context cleared up Roy''s, as well as the rest of your confusion in regards to who Sainel was. Actually, there is really 1 reason why Sainel was the starter for this chapter. I decided on a rule for the significance of certain things I was going to include in this series that are as important as the use of the color red  in the 6th sense. However, as I was writing, I realized I had messed up and accidentally included this series'' equivalent of that color red in Sainel''s character without meaning to. Well, I had to fix that this arc, and I decided to fix it by re-directing her character in a way that would make her fit the profile of people who have that aspect which I will not name.


    Actually, altering her character in this way should add an extremely interesting wrinkle to this arc. I feel most authors would try to retroactively fix her character and remove those things I had accidentally included with her, but since my mind has been shaped by a board-game called "go," I refuse to take back a move and instead am going to work with it as it is. This was not planned, but being forced to work around it ought to make things incredibly interesting.


    Anyway, bottom line, Sainel was never meant to have all that large a role, but this little writing mistake forced me to elevate her significance several levels. That''s part of why you might not remember her as well, but she was significant enough in the last 2 books that it wasn''t all THAT hard to justify her continued presence in the plot.

 Special intermission: Introducing a fellow author 2

    Since you are all going to have to wait a little while as I''m implementing the wonderful ideas you all gave me last chapter, as well st the fact that I didn''t get around to introducing an author for the end of the 2nd book as I had intended, I feel now''s an excellent time to get that done.


    So, originally this was meant to introduce excellent authors I had discovered who were just not receiving the attention they deserved. However, with the update to the trending system on the site, it doesn''t seem like that''s needed so much anymore. The new way it''s figured promotes the little known authors on it''s own. Then, there''s also the fact that the series I introduced before is now doing phenominally well and even surpasses this series by almost double the views despite having fewer chapters.


    So, all that going on, I think I will change the focus of these sections to simply being a recommendation of series I think my readers might enjoy. Series that really tickle the same themes and observe the same attention to realistic reactions and researched psychology and world-building.


    Despite being one of the most powerful entities in this world, this series manages to stay very well grounded due to a couple reasons. 1. She wants to keep her divine status hidden and live the life of a normal girl she never got before due to her sickly nature in her last life. (A theme I absolutely love, I really can''t resist the theme of a second chance at life being given to someone who had a crappy 1st.) 2. Despite her divine status, she is actually incredibly unlucky and has a lot going on in her life still. They are things she could probably solve with the OP divine stuff, but she forbids herself to do that and struggles through managing all manner of complex social and political issues that are flat out abusive to horrific levels by nature.


    So, she has to struggle to keep her crumbling family structure together while at the same time hiding her divine status. It''s an extremely compelling read, and the nature of the social interactions involved are very well thought out, reasonable, and logical. You can also really buy the struggle every time the MC decides the situation can only be resolved by utilizing some of the god-level powers she has and agonizes over the fact that using this will degrade her ability to live the simple normal life she so desperately craves, and is constantly being snatched away from her by forces that can only be stopped by using those god powers.


    It is not exactly a happy story, but it is very compelling. The most compelling OP protagonist I''ve seen since Mob.


    The series has been on the top 9 of the trending list quite frequently since the transfer from RoyalRoad started, but I will still leave a link just in case there are some readers who find this a few months from now and it becomes less common up there due to the slowing in release schedule.

 Announcement: Now open to suggestions for title and synopsis changes.

    A fairly positive comment in an earlier chapter just got me thinking, I think the #1 thing that might be holding this series back quite a bit from doing as well as it could is actually the title and the synopsis. As it is now, it is appealing to the wrong demographic. The demographic this series is actually made for, readers who want a bit more structure and to feel more connected to the characters in their Isekai world, will read the title and synopsis for this series and think this is your typical Isekai trash.


    So, I am now trying to think of something that will let the real demographic that this series appeals to most know that they''ve found what they are looking for, while also letting those actually expecting and WANTING something more along the typical lines know that this is a little different from what they''re used to.


    Problem is, I am a little dry for ideas on exactly how it should be changed. I am open to some brainstorming and suggestions here on what might work.


    EDIT: Also, the medical knowledge I had put in for Aerien''s character is not seeing a lot of use, and I no longer have the plans to make use of it in future chapters as I had envisioned when first writing the early chapters. Therefore, I plan to remove that from the early chapters during the revisions as well as the new version of the synopsis.


    Re-EDIT: I want to face-palm now. As soon as I said I didn''t actually have any plans to utilize Aerien''s medical knowledge, it turned out I''d forgotten I had Aerien base her new spell she was making on the human endocrine system.

 Book 3 Chapter 1: Life keeps moving

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I was still convinced there ought to be some kind of magic buried in the kata of my fighting art, but I had a very strong feeling my younger side might not like that route. She seemed dead set on wanting to do something that was different and unique from what I could do, and magic that was baked into the martial art I would be using regularly simply does not cut it for that.


    I needed something different. I could ask Gaerien, but she had already proven herself to be less than reliable where managing my peculiarly structured spirit was concerned. She had plenty of theory, but did not seem to know enough about how to apply it. However, there was one other person in my life who had a deep and long enough experience with the world of magic that she very well might know an answer to my problem. She had even bragged on her own millennia of wisdom not too long ago. And, best of all, it served as a pretty good excuse for a way to start getting close to her. Given the nature of our relationship, any case in which I could ask for her to teach me something was a viable ¡°bonding¡± exercise.


    I used the fairy circle from the usual teleportation room. It seemed Isanil didn¡¯t quite pick up Dryad¡¯s technique for utilizing the micro-fungi quite yet. I appeared on the other side up in the crown of the tree that would dwarf the tallest sky-scrapers back on Earth. I looked up from the base of the hollow where all the branches bifurcated at the dragons and large human-size great-fairies flying about overhead. There did not seem to be any form of court meeting right now, so they were not formed up at attention with their committees or gathered in any kind of great number.


    However, the one dragon who I DID want to see was exactly where she always was. The dragon large enough to create the illusion of a perfectly normal size snake coiled around a perfectly normal size tree when wrapped around the massive building-size branches of this gigantic hunk of wood stared down at me with her one good left eye as her sightless scarred right eye remained fixed lifelessly as it stared straight ahead.


    ¡®Aerien, it is good to see you have come to pay me a visit. How are you fairing, my daughter?¡¯ The massive draconic queen of the fey spoke through a form of telepathy usable by all powerful members of the fey races.


    ¡°Angry.¡± I spoke aloud while also using my thoughts to make certain my words reached her. Her massive size created a strange illusion that made it easy to forget that we were likely thousands of feet apart from one another, so mere spoken word would not be able to cross the distance. However, simply by supplying a little bit of spirit energy, the energy of thought, the meaning of the words I had just spoken would still reach her. I was also capable of communicating by thought alone, but I had not fully mastered it so my words often came out sounding really ¡°loud¡± to those who could receive my thoughts. I needed to speak the words out loud as well with the intention to have them heard in order to project my thoughts at the correct volume. ¡°I am certain Sagel already told you that much though.¡± I added.


    I watched for her reaction. ¡°I already suspected him.¡± I elaborated. ¡°I found it a little strange he had vanished suddenly after I returned to my room with Gaerien and the boys. He would have no other reason to be apart from me now that mister Steven is gone.¡±


    The dragon queen¡¯s eye narrowed. ¡®Aerien, it is not good for you to be in a position where you cannot trust your familiar. I would highly suggest you take full control over him as soon as you can. A simple assertion of your will over him ought to make him completely yours. I would say it is quite important for you to do so. After all, the reason he was bound to you in the first place was so he would be unable to misuse the power of a dragon which he will acquire after spending enough time among the dragons. It will upset the other nobles if you are not able to fully dominate him soon.¡¯


    Hmm¡­ that¡¯s not quite an admission of guilt, but it is also carefully phrased in such a way that I cannot call it a refusal to admit it either. Oh well.


    ¡°I appreciate the advice mother.¡± I responded with a reverent nod of my head. ¡°That is not really why I came here though. I would like to ask your advice in regards to a different problem that I have.¡±


    ¡®Very well, I will be happy to help if I am able. Please come closer, my daughter.¡¯ The queen kept a gentle tone as she had since the moment I came in. I considered the thought for a moment before running some magic through the fancy enchanted robes I had been given. This allowed me to take flight, and I could achieve an amount of speed proportionate to the amount of mana I dumped into it. I could not quite get it to move fast enough to enable proper travel across the world, but it was plenty to have me sailing through the air to close the thousands of feet between the dragon fairy queen¡¯s head and my dust-speck like self by comparison. Soon, I was flying over the fairy queen¡¯s nose attached to her city-block size head, and took a seat on top of the scaly muzzle. ¡®Now then, tell your mother what it is that you need.¡¯


    What a fake-feeling saccharine-sweet way of talking. Well, supposedly she lived for all this time and this is her first experience with any kind of ¡°child.¡± Even so, as a fey noble, she would have never have been expected to deal with a real child anyway. According to what I¡¯ve heard, fey nobles adopt people who are already adults as their ¡°children,¡± and it is really more like an apprenticeship than a real parent-child relationship. Even if she was authentic, which I am not completely convinced of after this morning where she tricked me into that oath, she would probably come off sounding about the same.


    I suppose I might as well just roll with it then. ¡°Well, I was attempting to cultivate some spell casting ability according to how I was told it was supposed to be done, but it seems as though my current cultivation works against the formation of spells, at least by the conventional methods. Every time I attempt to form a spell crystal, the flow of energy inside my spirit causes the crystal to shatter and the energies to be washed away. I was wondering if, perhaps, you would know of a different method that might be more compatible with my cultivation.¡±


    ¡®Hmm¡­ well, that is something of a surprise¡¯ The huge eye of the dragon queen seemed to be taking me in and re-assessing me. ¡®Although, I suppose it is something that makes sense once I come to consider it. The flow within your spirit is massive, in order for you to have even formed a spell crystal in that flow at all it must have been formed exceedingly fast and loaded with immense power. Simply recalling the feeling the flow from when I aided you before, I suppose it must have been a seventh rank crystal or higher just to resist that current and maintain itself for more than a matter of seconds. However, to form a crystal of that rank so quickly it is more or less a given that it would be unstable.¡¯


    ¡°So, are you saying I may succeed if I simply focus on it for longer?¡± I asked.


    ¡®That could likely work, and considering that you have a second spirit within you I would guess that it ought to be within your capabilities. However, it would be quite difficult to dedicate that kind of time to the task¡­ I am uncertain your youthful immature spirit would be up for the task, and I do not believe we can afford to have your more mature spirit preoccupied with such a thing for so long, especially with how quickly our situation has devolved. I do believe, however, that there might be another method more suited to your particular cultivation method.¡¯


    Well, I think she might just be underestimating how stubborn a kid can be when they put their mind to something. From what the queen just told me, I¡¯m certain my younger half would eventually succeed someday if left to it. But, a more fitting method would, of course, be quite welcome.


    ¡®It is actually a method for which you have already accomplished the first important step, manifesting a model of your own energy body. As you are aware, your energy body has a number of nodes which we call the nexuses of the spirit body.¡¯ Nexuses. Well, I suppose that would actually be a better and more descriptive name for what we from Earth call the Chakras. It means either a connection or the core of some greater system, so it¡¯s a pretty literal definition of the role it serves for the energy body. ¡®For this method of spell cultivation, you would write a spell directly onto your spirit nexus points. It is a method that is both more limited, but also more powerful than traditional methods.¡¯


    ¡°I see¡­¡± I responded upon hearing about this method. ¡°I can see why this method might have gone out of style over time, I suppose this also has several limitations. Not the least of which is the number of spells available to learn by this method.¡±


    ¡®Indeed, but it is also far more powerful. If your spell is chosen carefully enough in such a way that it has room to grow and develop, the spell which you write directly onto your spirit nexus will become more powerful as your cultivation develops. And, if you would like my opinion, the limitation of variety is really not that harsh. Those with a large number of spells often only use a small number of those spells anyway.¡¯


    ¡°So, I would just have to carefully consider which spells I chose.¡±


    ¡®I can make a suggestion in that area.¡¯ The queen said. ¡®Your cultivation, from what I have seen, is very well aligned to summoning, particularly in the area of energies. I would suggest you dedicate at least four of your spells toward summoning the base elements, and perhaps have a fifth that is capable of combining elements. In fact, that would likely be an excellent application of the seven primary nexal points. Four for the base elements, two more to access the positive and negative energy analogs you possess, and then a seventh that allows them to be combined. This would allow you access to the entire spectrum of the elements you have available within your spirit realm.¡¯


    Well, that DID seem like a fairly good suggestion, and it also takes the nature of my own spirit into consideration. However, there was something about it that just didn¡¯t sit right with me. I couldn¡¯t help the feeling there just had to be a more efficient and versatile way to put such a thing together.


    ¡°Well, I would have a few questions before deciding whether or not to go that route. First, once the spell is written onto my, uhh¡­ nexal points, is there any way to later alter the spell?¡±


    ¡®There is not. That is one of the most critical failings with this method, and so which spells you select needs to undergo very careful consideration. However, this is not so large a problem in your case. You have formed your spirit body model with every single one of the nexal points manifested. These lesser nexal points can also be utilized. While the first seven you select will be the most powerful and grow the most in the long-term, those weaker points can be easily utilized as well.¡¯


    So, this would mean a total of 114 possible sites for spells to be written. This actually created a fair amount of freedom. However, I still felt there ought to be something more that could be done with those core seven. Since they were the most powerful, they were also the most important to get exactly right.


    ¡°One more question, you mentioned something about utilizing one of the spells to mix other summoned elements. This would suggest a spell can be formed from multiple nexal points if the spells written on them work synergistically, correct? Would it then be possible to simply write a single far larger complex spell spanning all seven?¡±


    The queen was silent for a large period of time as she looked me over.


    ¡®I honestly do not understand how your mind can come up with such things, but yes, that is absolutely possible. However, I really do not think any such spell could be any more effective than one which would allow you to summon every element.¡¯


    ¡°Nither do I.¡± I respond with an inward grin. ¡°That is why I am working on formulating a spell that really can summon every element, including 118 which my world discovered but yours seems to be unaware of.¡±


    ¡®118 elements Aerien!?¡¯ The queen responded, her astonishment came off her like a wave, catching the attention of everyone in the area. ¡®I do not sense any deception or mirth in your words, you are completely serious. Your world has honestly discovered 118 elements in addition to the base six and the derivative twelve?¡¯


    ¡°Well, it would be incorrect to say that.¡± I told her. ¡°It is more like¡­ these 118 elements conform to a different model and understanding of what the elements are. So, rather than my spell summoning 132 elements, it is more like the ability to control those 118 will in-turn give me even more finite control over those 18 which you are aware of. As I am talking about a different model, it means this world has already discovered over half of those 118, they simply have yet to begin thinking of them as elements, and might think of them instead as being a kind of earth or a part of the air.¡±


    ¡®I see, so that¡¯s how it is, hmm¡­ Actually, this information coming from you is quite troubling.¡¯


    ¡°How so?¡±


    ¡®It is less about the information and more that this shocking and revolutionary concept is something that you told me about. The dryad of Cundo gained it¡¯s expansive knowledge from you. If you know of such a thing, it means that dryad does as well. I fear what they may be able to do with such knowledge. Aerien, I am going to need you to teach this knowledge to members of the arbor committee and the defense committee. I will give you the time you need to begin developing this spell of yours, I am certain it will serve you well, but as soon as it is complete I will need you to come up with a way to teach them anything in your knowledge you believe the dryad could potentially know and use against us.¡¯


    Well, that certainly brought my mood down fast. She is absolutely correct though, it may just be that the most valuable thing in me thinking up this wild idea was the fact that discussing this brought us both to this realization. Dryad has a serious knowledge advantage over the fey here, and I am the one best suited to helping them to bridge that gap. Although, I am far from the only one. There are quite a number of others from Earth who could also teach them. Perhaps I will have to meet the others from Earth on somewhat more official terms than I had intended.


    -


    ??? Dark elf POV


    An acolyte of Iuuttel walked down a cave hall tucked into a back-corner of the church¡¯s prison-wing, a special section meant entirely for those receiving the coward¡¯s punishment and the valuable spawn which they produced. She sneered as she drew close to the one currently occupied cell. This one was especially valuable, it would certainly be worthy of inclusion in the Nirodgir unit once it¡¯s training is complete. That worthless wench seems to have provided them with a thing of actual real value. However, there seemed to be one problem. It was soft. Perhaps even too soft for Iuuttel¡¯s blessing to resolve.


    This was a serious detriment. She sincerely hoped the sub-priestess¡¯ training would be enough, it would be a shame to see that much power go to waste. That cursed woman¡¯s kindness was tainting this precious gem that had come out of her worthless womb. They should just kill the wench and be done with it. The only thing that kept them from doing it was the fact she was required as part of the ritual to bestow Iuuttel¡¯s blessing, but by the sounds of it, the kid was really attached to his servants. Surely they ought to be enough on their own if he was so attached. That girl he seemed to particularly favor could take the place of the mother in the ritual.


    But, no¡­ that scrawny little creature was simply not physically large enough. There¡¯s not enough blood in her body. But, they HAD to find some way to stop the mother¡¯s weakness from rubbing off on the kid.


    As the acolyte''s mind was absorbed in these thoughts, her feet had managed to take her to the kid¡¯s cell. She glared at the door with a face full of contempt for the woman inside. The men stationed to guard the cell and respond to any of the kid¡¯s needs stiffened at attention as she approached, as any man ought to respond when a woman of the clergy approaches them.


    ¡°The priestess would like to know how the boy is responding to the gifts that have been included with his meals lately, give me your report!¡± She demanded.


    The two men looked at each other stupidly for a moment before one of the dullards finally got his wits about him. ¡°Ah! Yes mam!¡± He said. ¡°The boy seems to have organized his servants into a routine for effectively dealing with the rats. When the rat and the meal are first delivered, all of them scream at the rat, presumably until it hides. Once they have all eaten their meal, they use the remaining scraps on the boy¡¯s tray to lure the rat in, and then one of them deals with it. It seems as though they have opted to capture it in a blanket and bash it against the wall rather than using the knife provided, I heard him saying something about the blood stains staying in the cell even after the rat is gone.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ ruthless, resourceful, and intelligent. Perhaps he was born the wrong gender. And he has also organized his servants in such a way? Hmm¡­ Very well, I will report that the priestess¡¯ plan is showing excellent results. Continue to give him these gifts with his meals, we will consider how to advance things from there.¡±

 Book 3 Chapter 2: Creating your own tension

    Taminarda¡¯s POV


    Well, this was all getting off to a rather bad start. Taminarda could tell this princess was definitely going to be a hand-full. He sat on the rather lavish couch watching the princess¡¯ humans chatting with a baby elf who he had been told was to be the princess¡¯ knight. He had also been warned not to ever call the princess¡¯ humans ¡°pets.¡± The conditions under which this information had come to him though had recently shaken him to the core and left him absolutely petrified at the idea of further interaction with her.


    Soon after he had been allowed into the princess¡¯ room and introduced him to her attendants, explaining his situation, she asked something about an imp in a cage that had been placed on her tea table. Apparently, it had been brought here by her familiar by the orders of the dryad of Cundo village. This seemed to upset the princess quite a bit. That was not something Taminarda ever wanted to experience again.


    She had been muttering something, and she let off a terrifying aura. It was not the first time Taminarda had felt a dragon aura, but the aura of someone at the royalty level was just in a different league entirely. He could hardly even breathe. Normally, as a gnome, a dragon¡¯s aura had less of an impact on him than it did to the elves in the area. It usually wasn¡¯t any more than an unsettling feeling, a feeling that let him know he would likely be killed by the one letting it off if he made a wrong move. However he always felt as though he could still move and flee if the one letting off the aura actually decided to make a move against him. In this case however, he knew that while under the effects of such an oppressive and overpowering aura the princess could calmly walk right up to him and stick a blade in his gut and he would not even be able to clutch his wound to keep the blood inside as he fell to the ground and bled out.


    All this was without her even focusing on him. This anger was clearly directed at someone else, the dryad. It was also only this intense for a few seconds before it tapered down significantly. But, those two or three seconds were absolutely terrifying. Terrifying enough that even after it was just a memory, that memory was enough to keep the fear rattling around inside his brain.


    The princess left the room shortly after that, and Taminarda was relieved. However, upon a quick look around, he very quickly realized he was the only person still conscious. The attendants, as well as the imp, had all simply collapsed and lost consciousness. This left him, a person who had only just arrived a minute ago, to care for the two fairy nobles.


    Once they had woken up, they told him about how this was not the first time such an event happened. The previous time she had gotten this worked up was apparently when lady Gwilitphen had called the princess¡¯ humans pets. This had offended her a great deal as well, but apparently it was absolutely nothing like the pure murderous rage she had just let off. They had asked him not to tell the princess about the fringe effects her anger just had on them. It seemed she was unused to how strong her aura was an the effects it had on others, and finding out she had likely just nearly killed her attendants was not going to help her already rocky mental state.


    Seriously, how was he supposed to handle a situation like this? Well, at the very least she seemed to have had the presence of mind to draw her aura in a little, even as it was very obvious she was only growing more and more angry. This likely meant she was somewhat conscious of the effects her aura was having on them and did not want to hurt them, but the lack of control when it could do that much damage was¡­


    Taminarda was snapped out of those thoughts as the princess re-entered the room. She seemed to have regained some of her dignified air. When she had last left the room, she had a creepy air of false sweetness about her, but now she seemed quite serious and contemplative. Perhaps she just had a talk with someone who had helped her to settle her mind a little? Taminarda tried to find any cue he could in her behavior to indicate her thoughts. He had been so shaken by what just happened earlier that he felt as though reading her had become a task his very life depended on. He was deeply regretting his agreement to be her companion now.


    When she came in, she had a brief talk with her humans and young knight-to-be in a strange language that seemed to only be spoken by the four of them as well as her familiar who likely learned it as a result of their bond. Taminarda had heard the human language before, he even went to the effort of learning enough to communicate in it somewhat, but this was nothing like that strange lilting language. It sounded a little more harsh than the human or elven language with a lot of hard consonants, he really couldn¡¯t understand how a people could communicate in a language like that. His ears were starting to hurt just hearing the princess speaking it.


    After her conversation with them, she had her changeling familiar fetch her a paper and a quill pen with some ink, and began writing out rows and rows of information in a language he did not recognize as well as a rough drawing of a diagram with seven circles. This was starting to get his attention. He might not recognize the language, but he could recognize from the way it was put together that it was something technical. His curiosity was peaked, and he also knew he had to somehow make a connection of some sort with this princess for the sake of both his mission and maybe even his safety depending on how short-tempered she could really be.


    This seemed like a pretty good opportunity. He could state his curiosity as well as have a chance to approach her. But, how was he supposed to approach? He decided to walk around to her side of the table, watching carefully for any kind of reaction for her. She glanced up at him, but quickly went back to work. He took that to be a lack of rejection and took a seat next to her. She finished writing the line she was in the middle of and let out a sigh as she pressed a hand to her forehead. ¡°Hello mister¡­ uhh¡­ it was Taminarda, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that is correct your highness.¡± He replied. She let out a sigh. It seemed like she was annoyed. Great, it looks like he DID manage to do something wrong. But, all he could do was remain where he was as stiff as a statue until she let him know exactly what it was.


    ¡°So, your reason for being here is because you were supposed to be some form of casual companion for me, was that correct?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Y-yes, that is correct your highness.¡± He said.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± She paused in the middle of whatever she was thinking. ¡°I think you are probably going to have a hard time with that if you are going to insist on all those formal ways of addressing me.¡± After saying this much, she pushed herself up off the floor and sat on the couch next to him. ¡°You can call me Aerien, or princess if you must be formal. You had probably best drop that whole ¡®your highness¡¯ thing though, that¡¯s just putting yourself beneath me. That¡¯s not going to work for making any kind of companion dynamic.¡±


    The princess threw herself back on the couch and sighed. ¡°Actually,¡± she continued, ¡°I think I would probably appreciate it if you could act the same way with me as you would behave with your peers. I was actually very much like you in my last life, I heard from Sagel that you were some kind of master craftsman. I was a master of a combat art as well as a healer of sorts in my last life, and it actually hasn¡¯t been too long since then. I am used to a little bit of formality because of that position, but I can feel the (screws) slowly tightening on me with all this formality stuff everyone pours on me since I became a princess. It would be really nice to just have someone I can relate to as though they were an equal and just disregard all this status stuff.¡±


    Taminarda was stunned by her suddenly opening up to him like this. What had gotten into her all of a sudden? Why now? This was all getting to be a little much for him to handle. She wanted him to treat a powerful royal with the ability to wipe out half the lower court with a thought like he was equal to her? That was¡­ really stretching the realm of what he could do. That was a ludicrously risky thing to actually do. If she were to suddenly change her mind, a mere word about the way he had been interacting with her would be enough to have him executed. But, if he didn¡¯t do as she said, would she become angry and do it herself? Also, what is that word she threw in there? ¡°screws¡± it sounded like it was likely a word from that language she was using before. Well, whatever it was, he was starting to feel like it was him who was having this tighten down on him.


    She got a displeased look on her face as he continued to remain silent. Not good. He had to at least say something. ¡°I, uhh¡­ I am not really certain it is the same, umm¡­ princess. I have some power that I can use in metal crafting, but I find it strange to call anything that can bring someone the degree of power you possess a mere art. It really is a different level.¡±


    ¡°Hmph!¡± She gave a scornful and dismissive expression to his words. ¡°My world had a particular quality to it. The power those who come from my world possess is just something they gain by nature of living in our world, it is not a product of any form of cultivation or anything. Their souls come to this world and they are simply born incredibly powerful.¡±


    ¡°Ah, yes, I believe you said something about that before, uhh¡­ princess. But, didn¡¯t you also say that you had engaged in some cultivation that brought you above the others from your world?¡±


    ¡°Our old world resisted the very concept of power that could be granted by cultivating your spirit. Despite the imense spirit energy in the very air enhancing anyone who was exposed to it, the very same over-abundance of energy made it so everyone was also simultaneously driven down in their power. It was effectively as though every single person in my world was stuck eternally at the first rank, and all that cultivating did for you was to give you a greater presence of mind and calmness of the spirit. This whole concept of my being so much stronger than anyone and everyone around me is an entirely new experience. To be quite honest, it terrifies me. I nearly killed Guilitphen the first time I encountered her, all I wanted to do was to express I did not like something she had said. I thought I was only talking, but it turned out my aura had a power to harm people and I was unaware¡­ oh no!¡±


    The princess suddenly sat straight up and looked around the room. ¡°Taminarda, you said earlier that Gwilitphen and Esgal were out gathering food for the boys. Is this true? Please at least tell me they are Ok.¡± It seemed she had just realized how the manner in which she¡¯d left the room earlier must have affected them, and it looks like she really was devastated by the realization. They had made him promise not to tell her about it, this had unsettled him when he heard it, but now he could clearly see why they had said it. This princess was not the dignified picture of nobility he had seen her as when he was first brought to this place, she was an average person thrust into a position and trying her best to adapt out of necessity, just like him. She was also not the raging tyrant using her great power to attack everyone who displeased her, she was someone unaware of her own power which had increased a thousand fold without giving her time to adapt.


    In it¡¯s own way, such a person may be even more frightening to be around than a tyrant. You could keep a tyrant happy with enough groveling and careful action, but it was entirely different with someone who genuinely means you no harm but causes harm anyway. Even when they show the best of intentions, even when they try their hardest to be aware, the slightest misstep or miscalculated thought put into action can cause the people weaker than them to suffer immensely even when they only wished those people well. This meant that remaining near her meant hoping and trusting that she would be putting in the effort to watch her actions very carefully. But, the situation they were in now and the people they were dealing with made caution something that was unlikely.


    As Taminarda was concerned about what this meant for himself, he quickly realized the mistake in his own actions when he saw the princess studying his expression, and her own face began to show fear and panic. ¡°Taminarda! Please! What happened to them!?¡± She demanded. Well, it looked like he was going to have to break his promise to them.


    ¡°They did survive your highness, but they did not fare well when they were exposed to your aura. They asked me not to tell you anything about their condition, they are very kind attendants, they did not want you to worry.¡±


    The princess sighed in relief at these words and a lot of the worry disappeared, but she was still quite concerned. ¡°How bad off are they?¡± She asked in a much stronger and less panicked tone of voice.


    ¡°They are still able to function, but their spirits were injured enough that they both feel they cannot afford to remain in your presence. One more similar injury could mean their deaths.¡±


    The princess sighed and rested her face in her hand. Or rather, her thumb, index, and middle fingers which were placed on half of her face. It was definitely a very adult motion, and the reason you don¡¯t often see kids doing it immediately became obvious as her head was simply too large compared to those fingers, causing her to immediately fumble and then look at her hand in annoyance. She sighed again.


    ¡°Thank you for telling me this.¡± She said. ¡°Ta-mi-nar-da, hmm¡­ do you mind if I call you Tam? As I told you, I would like for us to have a more casual interaction, so it is perfectly acceptable if you refuse.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ I¡­¡± Taminarda sighed. He was softening up now that he had seen the princess so vulnerable and genuinely remorseful at the harm she had caused unwittingly, but¡­ ¡°I am afraid I cannot allow such disrespect to this name, I inherited it from my master and it is a point of pride for any master craftsman. It would dishonor the entire lineage of the position from before myself and also to any apprentice I pass it down to.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m sorry, I was unaware.¡± The princess responded.


    ¡°However, I suppose if you wished to be more casual in our interactions as you¡¯ve said, perhaps if you wish for me to call you by your name, I ought to do the same. My name before I took on my master¡¯s name was Logim. It should be perfectly acceptable for you to call me that.¡±


    The princess nodded and had a gentle smile. ¡°Well, Logim then. Good to meet you once again.¡± She offered her hand. Taminarda was confused. ¡°Ah, I am sorry. My world had a custom when two people meet of grasping each other¡¯s hand and shaking them.¡±


    ¡°Shaking, you say?¡± Taminarda responded, slightly confused. However, he extended his own hand in a manner similar to the motion the princess just performed. He was still unsure of what he was doing but, as he had hoped, the princess took over the motion and firmly grasped his hand and lifted his slightly before just as firmly lowering it.


    ¡°Yes, just like that.¡± She said with a smile on her face. ¡°We also had a number of subtle cues one could portray about themselves in their handshake in terms of how confident you are when you extend your hand and how firmly you grasp the other¡¯s hand. Gripping hard enough to cause pain is considered a bad move, but a firm grasp that doesn¡¯t cause discomfort is considered good. So, it acts as something of a show of understanding of the other as well as cooperation.¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ it sounds kind of like dancing in that way.¡± Taminarda mused as he took in this information.


    ¡°Yes, very much so, something of a shortcut for all the things that dancing can show you about another person.¡± She sighed one more time after this as her face showed her mind was going off of this subject. ¡°Now then, I have to figure out how I am going to make this up to Esgal and Gwilitphen. I suppose it may not be the best time for me to go to them in person. Hmm¡­ would you be willing to tell them what we just talked about, and also that I would like them to take the time they need to recover properly before they return? I feel that if I ask Sagel to go then they may blame you for telling me and you would have no chance to defend yourself.¡±


    ¡°That is probably for the best.¡± Taminarda replied. ¡°Yes, I will go immediately.¡±


    That had worked out better than he had expected. As he was leaving though, he realized that he never really got to ask about what she was writing. But, now that he¡¯d had the chance to consider it, perhaps it was a good thing he didn¡¯t ask. It probably had something to do with her power anyway.

 Book 3 chapter 3: Seeking help and opinions

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    After Taminarda¡­ or rather, Logim left, I took a good hard look over what I had written down. It was a crazy map of terms. I had actually based it, in part, on the way the human endocrine system works, with a master control in the form of the hypothalamus, a secondary control in the form of the pituitary, and then additional signaling going everywhere, with several cross-interactions.


    The language of the whole thing was based on the structure of a function. I didn¡¯t know a lot about computer programing, but I knew enough about functions from my Algebra class to do a pretty good job with this kind of set-up.


    All that being the case, the language of the spell was still rather vague. It was something I recalled from Gaerien¡¯s advice on spells. A lot of the finer details are supplied by the caster¡¯s own intent and understanding of the subject. The wording of the spell itself only guided it, the important stuff though was all in the caster¡¯s mind. More specific language being used in the spell¡¯s writing would lower the burden in energy used, making it more efficient. However, making it more vague would allow for greater versatility, making it more useful at the expense of efficiency and giving it a far higher energy cost. Well, since energy supply was not a huge problem for me, I could afford to leave it rather vague in areas. However, I most likely couldn¡¯t just make it as simple as ¡°perform magic and make it do what you want¡± and get away with it. Even for me the energy burden for that would be insane.


    Well, this was supposed to be something I only had one chance to write down, and it had to be perfect the first time. That meant that I really couldn¡¯t make it too specific in the language, it had to strike the perfect balance between being specific enough to be usable and vague enough to give plenty of room to grow. For the best I could tell, I think I had done a pretty good job with it.


    Module #: Chakra, and function name.


    Functions and effects


    Module 7: Heaven¡¯s Chakra


    Banishing, Summoning, and un-summoning.


    -Designate whether effect is Summoning, Un-summoning, or Banishing


    -Supply energy to function.


    Module 6: Third-eye Chakra


    Energy


    -Designate kinetic, heat, mana, spiritual, arcane, divine, neutral, or elemental energy.


    --If elemental, specify element.


    --If kinetic, refference module 3 to designate behavior of the kinetic energy.


    Module 5: Throat Chakra


    Particles


    -Designate molecule, atom, elementary particle, or compound substance.


    -Refference caster¡¯s molecular or atomic knowledge of any summoned or banished particles


    -Reference module 2 to account for quantity of matter summoned or banished, and location summoned.


    Module 4: Heart Chakra


    Organisms or objects


    -Designate organism type, object type, name of named organism, or designation of specific object


    -Organisms and objects are incompatible with the banishment effect in module 7. If banishment is specified, initiate fail-safe and do not supply the spell with power.


    Module 3: Core Chakra


    Actions and Interactions


    -Initiate, halt, or control an action or interaction with designated target, target area, or summoned or banished variable.


    Module 2: Sacral Chakra


    Target and effect scale.


    -Designate targeted area and the boundaries of the area to be affected.


    -Regulate affect of spell


    Module 1: Root Chakra


    -Module 7: Interact with all other modules to supply energy.


    * If variable is energy, do not interface with modules 4 or 5.


    * If variable is a particle, do not interface with modules 4 or 6.


    * If variable is an object or organism, do not interface with modules 5 or 6.


    l If no action is specified, interface with modules 2 and 3 to act upon existing substances or organisms.


    -Module 6: Activate only if specified variable is an energy. Interface with modules 2, 3, and 7 to regulate action.


    -Module 5: Activate only if specified variable is a particle. Interface with modules 2, 3, and 7 to regulate action.


    -Module 4: Activate only if specified variable is an object or organism. Interface with modules 2, 3, and 7 to regulate action.


    -Module 3: Always activate. Interface with caster¡¯s general intent for any action not verbally specified. If verbally specified, act in specific manner designated.


    -Module 2: Always activate. Interface with caster¡¯s general intent for scale of action and area of effect if not specified verbally. If verbally designated, make action, boundaries, or range precisely as designated.


    Yeah, it definitely got complicated, especially the master control function. Well, I couldn¡¯t see any way to improve it at this point, but once again, I would have only one chance to get this thing right. I would have to run it by the others to see if they could find any problems. I had already told them what I was doing and asked them ahead of time to look at it when I was finished, so now all I had to do is bring it over to them.


    ¡°Ummm¡­ I really don¡¯t understand this at all.¡± Levin said immediately when I placed the paper between the three of them for their review. ¡°Why are they numbered from seven to one?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the way the chakras are actually numbered.¡± I told him. ¡°The count starts at the root chakra located in your pelvic region, and then it counts up to seven as you go up the body, with the seventh located just above the head and outside of the body. I decided to arrange them on the paper relative to their actual position from top to bottom.¡±


    Rolwen seemed to have a bit more of a serious look as he read it, like someone who was actually processing what he was reading. ¡°So¡­¡± he said, ¡°If I¡¯m understanding this wright, the four upper ones are for the spell and the lower three are to control the other four?¡±


    ¡°Sort-of.¡± I told them. ¡°The third chakra is supposed to actually be able to cause effects even if nothing is being summoned.¡±


    ¡°What kind of effects?¡± Rolwen asked.


    ¡°Well, like stopping combustion maybe? I thought it would be a good way to protect against fire magic from others. The effect of the third module is to control things outside of the spell, so it controls whatever¡¯s summoned after the summoning happens. It¡¯s basically what drives the spell after it¡¯s already cast. That¡¯s what makes it different from the master control.¡±


    ¡°Ok, so, how ¡®bout the second one?¡± He asks.


    ¡°That controls how big the spell is.¡± I tell him.


    ¡°Yeah, I know, bud why cand it be part of the other two control progwams?¡±


    ¡°That¡­¡± Huh, yeah, he¡¯s probably right. I should be able to make the spell more efficient by doing that. ¡°I guess I just didn¡¯t know what I should put there, so I just added something. You¡¯re right, I should probably find something else to put there, but I don¡¯t really know what.¡±


    ¡°Umm¡­¡± Levin spoke up. ¡°Gaerien, do you know? You¡¯re subbosta be the one who knows magic stuff!¡±


    ¡°I don know whad any of dis is even saaaying.¡± She protests. ¡°How can you read dis wowen!?¡±


    ¡°Id is writted in a language that¡¯s like computer pwogwaming a little.¡± He says. ¡°It¡¯s cwude, but id is good enough for me to read it Ok.¡±


    ¡°Alwight, then expwain it!¡± She demands.


    ¡°Well, how about Aerien explain it? She wrote it.¡±


    ¡°Ok,¡± I agreed to it. ¡°This is a bit of a basic explanation, but the seventh chakra supplies all the energy for the summoning spell. The sixth summons energy of every type, including elemental energy and kinetic and heat energy as well as the mystic energies.¡±


    ¡°canwetic? Whad¡¯s dat?¡±


    ¡°It means the energy if you throw something or hit something.¡± Rolwen answers.


    ¡°Oh. Wow! That can be powerful!¡± Gaerien responds in excitement.


    ¡°Anyway, the fifth chakra summons matter, just bringing things like gold and silver out of nowhere. Or, actually, it¡¯s summoned from my spirit realm since it seems the earth element actually generates things like that. Then the fourth summons creatures, people, or already existing objects.¡±


    ¡°Ok,¡± Gaerien responds, ¡°so do you have a gate magic to get the summoned people to you?¡±


    ¡°Uhh¡­ yeah, it¡¯s in the master control portion of the program. It¡¯s special for the people only. I think it might be the highest demand part of the spell in terms of energy, so I might have to get a lot stronger before I can summon any people or objects.¡±


    ¡°Can you go through the gate magic?¡± Gaerien asks.


    ¡°Uhh¡­ no, not really. It¡¯s just designed to get the people or things to me or send them back. Yeah, that¡¯s somewhere it can be improved.¡±


    ¡°Ok,¡± Rolwen chimes in. ¡°The gate magic sounds like it¡¯s a really high powered part of this. How ¡®bout switching the scale control with the gate magic? Make the second chakra all about gate magic and managing that part of it.¡±


    ¡°Awlesow¡± Gaerien spoke up again. ¡°Does your gate magic go to other planes?¡±


    ¡°Other planes?¡± I ask.


    ¡°Like, could it be used to escape fwrom Earth back when we were there.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say nobody, even the other gods, could do that?¡± I asked her, of course subconsciously holding my own god outside of the count when I said ¡°other gods.¡±


    ¡°Well, you hab an abawity dad awows you to pice world bawriers.¡± (Well, you have an ability that allows you to pierce world barriers.) ¡°Iv you are going to becwom more powerfull, you will need to be able to use magic to do dat more easiwy lader.¡± (If you are going to become more powerful, you will need to be able to use magic to do that more easily later) Gaerien advised. I guess that did make sense.


    ¡°Well¡­¡± I said. ¡°The current version just allows for the folding of space-time on this three dimensional plane, and can connect pieces of space-time with a wormhole when they touch. I guess I could come up with something to just punch a hole in space-time when it¡¯s not touching.¡±


    ¡°Huh? Space dime?¡± Gaerien responds and looks over to Rolwen with a questioning gaze.


    ¡°It¡¯s Einstein-ian physics.¡± He says. ¡°It¡­ uhh¡­ is from a liddle over 50 years ago.¡±


    ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± Gaerien is still looking at him with a blank stare.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that explanation helps her much.¡± I commented. ¡°Also, I think we are all going to have to work on speech next for you all.


    Well, I guess I¡¯ve got my work cut out for me to re-draw that concept map for this grand spell that does almost everything using the seven chakra. I think I might even be tweaking that master control portion for quite a while. I might very well have to wait at least a week before I take the step of actually giving this to my child side and having her write it onto her spirit. Gotta make certain there are no mistakes, it will be too late for last-minute changes once it¡¯s written.


    -


    Veronica¡¯s POV


    While her kids were busy doing whatever it was they wanted to get busy with, Veronica was sitting by a desk as she did her best to improve her skills at using this ¡°green word¡± magic that was so essential in this world. Her kids, Joshua and Malissa, had picked it up very quickly. However, she couldn¡¯t be embarrassed by having to rely on her children to get by in this world. At the very least she had learned to use it well enough to open doors. Right now, though, she was attempting to figure out how to make more complicated shapes in the walls. She had recently figured out how to make a book shelf, but her children had demonstrated a lot more was possible. Almost every day they are making crazy artistic patterns appear in the floor. If this was a home back on Earth, she would pull her hair out at seeing something like that. Here though, such a thing could be erased with the wave of a hand, so she figured it was no big deal at all to let them play like that.


    She suddenly felt a jolt of energy through the wood, a signal she had learned meant there was someone opening the door. This was one thing in this world she had never quite grown used to, it seemed absolutely no-one knocked, they all just came right in whenever they pleased.


    She stood up and smoothed out her robes and went to greet whoever it was that had come, hoping that maybe it was Mr. Hashcord. Or rather, Steven. She was simultaneously surprised and disappointed though to see it was some strange blue-skinned white-haired alien looking man with huge eyes.


    ¡°Mam.¡± The alien man said, his huge black eyes blinking closed for a moment as he tilted his head in her direction.


    ¡°Wow! An alien!¡± Joshua rudely said as he popped up from where he was crouched.


    The man chuckled. ¡°Well, I suppose I ought to have expected that reaction, other people from Earth have said the same thing about me.¡± It was at this point that it clicked for Veronica. This man was speaking English! But, he just said something that almost made it sound like he wasn¡¯t from Earth. If it wasn¡¯t for that¡­ She looked over toward Kelly, who seemed rather stunned by everything going on as well.


    The alien man cleared his throat and turned back to Veronica. ¡°Forgive me, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sagel, and I am the familiar to her highness princess Aerien.¡±


    ¡°What!? The princess!? Really!?¡± Joshua sprung up and ran toward the man.


    ¡°Joshua!¡± Veronica shouted at him. ¡°Don¡¯t bother him.¡± Oh what a nightmare. In the two years since they had been here, there was certainly one thing made exceptionally clear to her. This whole concept of nobility and such here was incredibly serious, and slights against the nobility could be harshly punished. They might be able to get off easy in this case, Steven had told her that the princess was from Earth like them so she might show them liniency, but she still had to get her children to behave. ¡°I apologize for my son.¡± She said, approaching the man and bowing. ¡°What can I do for you Mr. Sagal?¡±


    ¡°Hey! Hey! Can I ask a question?¡± Joshua speaks up again. She had never considered hitting her child before, but in this case his rudeness scared her so much that she seriously wondered if doing so might just keep him safe from a much worse result at this man¡¯s hands. She was glad to see that Kelly was running over and quickly grabbed him from behind. ¡°Hey! Hey! My wings! My wings!¡± He protested and struggled in her grip as his wings were being bent forward around his body while she was dragging him backwards.


    ¡°You should probably stop that.¡± The man said. ¡°A fairy at your level ought to be able to heal an injury to their wings within seconds, but I am unsure an inexperienced child would be able to do it so easily.¡± Kelly looked up and met the man¡¯s gaze as he said this, and then let Joshua go.


    ¡°Aww man! That hurt!¡± He complained and fluttered his wings. A shimmering light ran through the veins like a rainbow passing through them.


    ¡°Oh!?¡± The alien man¡¯s almost non-existent eyebrows raised as he looked at this. ¡°The kid has some talent.¡± Veronica glanced back at the man, she realized that he wasn¡¯t going to do anything to her son at this point and he didn¡¯t seem like the short-tempered type, so she could afford to give Joshua a proper scolding on his behavior in this case.


    ¡°Joshua, please do not bother any strange adults when they come in. We have had this talk before. You can¡¯t be rude to people around here. Bad things can happen. Now, please go play with Malissa and Kelly while I talk to this man, Ok?¡±


    ¡°Ok.¡± Her son replied and then sulked off.


    She turned back to the alien-like man. Despite the foreign feeling his huge eyes gave him, she could tell he was fairly amused by what he saw. ¡°You care for your son, I can tell. He is going to have to learn some better manners though if he is going to survive in this world. You are doing a good job though, your instincts as a mother are correct.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, and sorry for the interruption.¡± Veronica said. Under normal circumstances, she might avoid eye contact out of submissiveness, but the huge completely black eyes of this man were something that was just impossible to look away from. She hoped she wasn¡¯t being rude, but then, well¡­ it WAS his eyes she was staring at, right? Normally that¡¯s considered polite, but under these circumstances it was hard to really tell what was correct. ¡°Umm¡­ anyway, what was it that you needed?¡±


    ¡°Ahem! Yes!¡± The man said, bringing a hand to his mouth for a moment as though to cover a cough. ¡°Ms, umm¡­ Veronica, is that right?¡± He asked. ¡°Her highness has requested to meet with you, your assistance may be needed for a project she will soon be starting on her majesty¡¯s orders.¡±


    Upon hearing this, Veronica couldn¡¯t help but glance back toward her son. He had been going on about the princess ever since he had heard about her, and she saw that he was definitely looking over with interest. Fortunately though, he seemed to be properly reigned in this time as Kelly had placed a hand on his shoulder and seemed to be saying something to him in a low tone. That was good, even if this princess was from Earth, Veronica was plenty aware that meeting with a real royal was a big deal and not something you just dragged your children along to.


    ¡°Alright.¡± She said with a bow toward the man. ¡°When would she like to see me?¡±


    ¡°You may make some arrangements with your family if you need to.¡± The man said. ¡°The summons is for as soon as is convenient.¡±


    She indicated her understanding to the man and then looked to her children once more. ¡°Alright, Kelly, can you please watch Malissa and Joshua while I am out?¡± She asks.


    ¡°Uhh¡­ sure!¡± She replies, after which Veronica gives a nod to the man who came to them.


    ¡°Alright, I am ready.¡± She tells him, and then follows him out, very thankful that Joshua had not made a scene.


    Author''s Note: Invitation to reader participation.


    Obviously, I also have my own ideas about how Aerien''s final spell should look and this current version is one that was designed to look pretty good but in need of improvements. However, given the nature of the situation and the fact that I KNOW you all have your own wonderful ideas (because you''ve been sharing them all over last chapter, thank you BTW) I am going to invite all of you to give your own input in place of Rolwen, Levin, and Gaerien here.


    The chapter where Aerien presents her final version of the spell has not been written yet, so feel free to suggest away. I will be writing the chapter soon, but if there is an especially good idea presented then I can still revise it any time between now and when the chapter is finally released. The best stated version of any idea I decide to use will likely get placed into the mouth of one of the three depending on which one I feel is best suited to present it.


    (BTW: I also plan for young Aerien to give her own input as well, there is a very specific portion of this rough version of the spell she REALLY wants changed.)


    Anyway, I am actually working on the chapter in which Aerien finishes the spell right now. So, because it has wound up slightly delayed due to accepting suggestions, the release of the next chapter will be a little delayed. (Hey, this thing is going to affect the entire rest of the series, gotta have it be as perfect as a group of enthusiastic humans putting their minds together can possibly be.)

 Book 3 Chapter 4: Pieces coming together

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 Book 3 Chapter 5: Not going to plan

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 Book 3 Chapter 6: A new direction (special commenter influenced chapter)

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 Book 3 Chapter 7: Experiments, explanation, and new information.

    Author''s note


    Thank you to new subscriber Jachin Nelson for joining over on Subscribe star.


    Also, I am struggling a little at the moment to find an artist to actually draw up the artworks for this story. I have just about spent all the donation money just getting a picture of Aerien right. I finally have something workable, but now I''m sorta toying around with just posting a contest for the contract which will mean I can''t actually show anyone the picture until the contest is done.


    The major problem I''m facing is that, for some reason, these fiverr artists are really bad at following instructions. I''ve tried with almost every point on the pricing spectrum from 20$ to 100$, and no matter where on the list I go they deliver something very different from what I asked for, and even add some things I specifically told them not to do. It''s like pulling teeth trying to get them to do the simplest of things. So, I''m just thinking now of saving up some more donation money in order to hold a contest to see who can draw Aerien the best, adding a specific set of instructions that will include her holding a weapon that I have not even given the slightest mention of in the story up until now, a little custom piece that I am quite certain only maybe one or two of you who are into the medeval community and historical weapons have even heard of the thing I''m basing it off of. So, there''s no possible way anyone would be able to cheat and get a head start on this thing before I announce it.


    I''m still trying to work out the details on it, but it would be fantastic if we could get an actual fan of the series to be the one to do the art. It''s not going to be limited to just you guys, I''m going to make the actual announcement over on the Scribble Hub forums, but I really hope some of you join once I get that started.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    This is the moment of truth, time to find out if the formula Rolwen and I came up with works. The plan is, Gaerien will sprinkle in the absolute smallest spell crystals she can possibly create. Meanwhile, both representations of my own spirit will work together to imprint a simple spell into as many of those crystals as possible. All it says is ¡°If Chakra capacity < (total contained mana in spell crystals / spell types) -2, destroy 0.01% of spell crystals in chakra. Check once per femptosecond.¡±


    This is the first building block in a set of 3 spells that will be placed on every single one of these spell crystals in order to turn them into the spell equivalent of cells. This one is being applied first because it is the kill function. The function that will prevent the number of crystal cells from getting out of hand. Basically, if any time it detects that the number of spell crystals for the spell has been exceeded, it will destroy a portion of them every femptosecond until it has reduced down to the proper amount. It also holds the second effect of actually activating every femptosecond in order to perform the check. This works in conjunction with the one spell actually inscribed on the spirit of my younger half.


    ¡°Supply power to any activated spell within chakra system.¡± That¡¯s all there is to it. This spell is inscribed on the heaven¡¯s chakra. This one was chosen because it was going to be part of any spell I was going to make anyway, and it was bare-bones enough to expand upon later and go any direction I wanted it to. These two spells in conjunction would mean that the spell crystals that actually take this function will be recieving a low-grade stream of energy at a constant rate, and that constant rate will be just enough to keep it from being swept away by the energy flow through my spirit.


    The only thing that could possibly go wrong is that the spell, once first triggered, triggers repeatedly before the function even activates, wiping out all the crystals near instantaneously. However, whether or not the spell can be repeat activated in that way depends entirely on what my expectations are. All I have to do is not expect it to do that, and it won¡¯t. Besides, given a choice between loosing all the spell crystals and the spell crystals growing out of control, the former is definitely the better alternative. It is a fail-safe method. In other words, if it does fail it fails in the safest way possible.


    ¡°By the way,¡± Gaerien says, ¡°if I¡¯m supposed to be creating dust-size crystals that are too small to even see easily, how will we know if this is working?¡±


    ¡°The spell formation on the Heaven¡¯s Chakra ought to power visibly as it becomes active.¡± I told her. ¡°Alright, are we ready?¡± I asked, looking between Gaerien and my younger projection. They both appeared to be nearly the same age now. Gaerien had continued to appear younger in her projected form, but not by much. Most of the difference was made by the fact that my younger manifestation had been aging quite rapidly and now looked to be around 7 or 8 with a corresponding increase in her maturity. Talk about kids growing up fast.


    My younger self wordlessly stepped to the opposite side of her pale blue spirit manifestation from me, and held her hands up to the heaven¡¯s chakra hovering over the blue ghost¡¯s head. I mimicked her motions, getting into position. Now we were both waiting on Gaerien. She sighed and levitated up above the chakra and held out her hand. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to begin.¡± She said, and then got a look of focus on her face.


    There was no feeling of any mana or power of any sort. It was fair to assume the crystals she was producing were vanishing and being swept away quite rapidly. This is why I was going to need both my projections to bounce this signal back and forth between us in order to get any of these fast moving crystals to possibly take the spell. It certainly didn¡¯t help that the kill spell was the most complicated of the three spells. Ideally, it ought to be divided into 2 smaller spells, a check and a kill function. However, it was just too risky to split the two of them up. If any crystal took the check function which preserved the crystal and let it take power from the inscribed spell, but it did not actually take the kill function, then this would lead to the worst case scenario where these crystal cells could grow out of control.


    The three of us simply stood like that for a while, each of us focusing our energy through this heaven¡¯s chakra. There was no such thing as physical exhaustion for us, both sides of my spirit were being powered by the infinite energy flowing through this space while Gaerien was able to freely leech energy off of me. All three of us had an infinite supply of power to pump into this. However, this did not mean we would not be subject to mental fatigue and this was starting to get tiresome, especially for my child side. She moaned in frustration and annoyance as we just continued this on and on.


    ¡°Keep focused!¡± Gaerien growled at her. ¡°I would rather not be in here helping with this just to waste my time because you¡¯re getting distracted.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± My child side mumbled. ¡°Is it working at all though?¡±


    ¡°I think so.¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s extremely pale, but the inscribed spell has become just a little opaque where it was completely clear when we started this.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s really not all that pronounced an effect.¡± Gaerien said.


    ¡°Well, we don¡¯t really need a lot, we¡¯ve probably got enough with this.¡± I said as I lowered my hands together with my child side who had quite the look of relief on her face. Gaerien looked fairly skeptical about this whole thing, but she did not look too upset as she also dropped her arm.


    ¡°So, does that mean we¡¯re done?¡± She asks.


    ¡°Well, assuming nothing goes wrong.¡± I comment. "If it fails, we will have to make some adjustments and start over again from the beginning. But, yes, for this attempt at least that¡¯s all we will need from you.¡±


    ¡°You are talking like you EXPECT it to fail. You KNOW that almost guarantees it will, right?¡± Gaerien comments.


    ¡°Yeah, you mentioned before that¡¯s how it works.¡± I answered. ¡°From how you describe it though, expectation is only a stop-gap. It can still succeed despite expectations it will fail if the formula is perfect.¡± The chances are almost nill that something as complicated as I¡¯m going for will actually BE perfect on the first attempt though.


    ¡°Well, how will we be able to tell when it fails then?¡± Gaerien asks. ¡°I think you need to start considering why it¡¯s going to fail and what you need to correct for it to work next time now.¡±


    ¡°Well, unfortunately, it is the first step that is the easiest to mess up but we will not know whether it worked or not until after we add the third spell.¡± I said. ¡°And besides that, even if we DID get a pleasant surprise and this wound up working, we would have to destroy all the crystals ourselves anyway. This is not meant to be the final version. It¡¯s just a test for proof of concept. The only reason we¡¯re experimenting like this is because, unlike with the previous approach, we actually CAN afford to experiment.¡±


    ¡°Ah, whatever.¡± Gaerien groans. ¡°I guess I will at least watch what happens here out of curiosity.¡±


    ¡°Sure thing.¡± I give my sister a nod. ¡°Well, here it goes.¡± I nod again to my younger side and we both hold up our hands again to add the next layer to the spells.


    This time, the spell effect is ¡°Check if spell crystal total volume or energy contained in all spell crystals is < 80% chakra capacity. If yes, activate growth protocol. Check ten times per second.¡± We both focused on adding this spell function. In this case it wasn¡¯t such a big deal if some of the crystals didn¡¯t take it. It would just mean some spell crystals would sit around doing absolutely nothing. We focused for a while adding this function for what we guessed to be around as long as the previous spell. In the meantime, the energy supplying inscription became slightly more cloudy.


    Alright, finally it¡¯s time for the final spell formation. The growth protocol. ¡°Growth protocol: Generate one crystal that contains all the same spell formations as this one.¡±


    As we focused on adding the last one, the inscribed energy-supplying spell finally started showing an easily visible change. It began to whiten like frost was creeping in from the edges of each character in the inscription.


    ¡°Wow!¡± My child side said. ¡°That means it¡¯s working!¡± She immediately dropped her hands and danced around in celebration as she realized this. I also gave up, it looks like the duplication rate had probably outstripped anything we were doing by adding it to any still incomplete crystals.


    ¡°I still don¡¯t see anything in there.¡± Gaerien comments.


    ¡°You won¡¯t for a while.¡± I said. ¡°You did a really good job making them small, you might even have gotten down to the exact kind of scale I was wanting from the beginning, actual cell-sized crystals. If so, then it will be quite a while before we can actually see anything at all. We might have to wait for a full day or two.¡±


    ¡°So, you are saying this will grow on it¡¯s own?¡± Gaerien asks.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s the idea.¡±


    ¡°No way!¡± Gaerien slowly stood as she stared at me agape. ¡°Ok, I really hadn¡¯t been keeping up with any of the nonsense you and Rolwen were talking about before, but now I want to know all about it. Are you ACTUALLY saying that this spell you just created will cultivate FOR you!?¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s more like it cultures, but I guess you could say that.¡± I gave a bit of a lame joke as a response referencing the cellular growth pattern these crystals would have.


    ¡°Seriously, what¡¯s up with these Earth approaches to cultivation! Earth was supposed to be a world where cultivation has been sealed for millennia, but you don¡¯t only have the incredibly powerful cultivation created on Earth, but now you¡¯ve gone ahead and invented YOUR OWN dual cultivation that works perfectly in complement to it and it even cultivates spell crystals FOR YOU!? Seriously! Do you have ANY IDEA how powerful that is!? You don¡¯t, do you!? That¡¯s the only reason you can even dream of such an insane concept!¡± Gaerien was pacing around in agitation now. ¡°Ok¡­ Ok, well¡­ I guess this still works out fine. I¡¯ve still got my own method that works for me. You can go ahead and break any rules of common sense you want. Ok, so it¡¯s not going to be for a couple days that we see anything significant? In that case, I¡¯m going back. Can you give me the gate?¡±


    With her request, I had the blue giant that was my own spirit manifestation bring it¡¯s other hand down toward us. This entire time, we had all been standing on top of one of it¡¯s hands, the child side¡¯s manifestation included. The opposite hand was now lining up along side it, and a moment later a golden flame sprouted in the middle of it¡¯s palm.


    ¡°Thanks, just let me know how this works out. We¡¯ll talk about how this works later.¡± Gaerien comments and then jumps through the flaming gate back to her own spirit realm.


    -


    Terlu¡¯s POV


    Over the past week, Terlu had learned a lot from the group down here in this underground pocket. Chief among these things he had learned is that, while they all looked like kids, they were actually fully grown. It seemed they were other members of this ¡°nogoth¡± his mother had always called him. Apparently, nogoths stopped aging when they appeared to be about 10 years old by comparison to humans. This meant that these nogoth, him included, were not quite the same species as elves.


    When he had learned this, he asked ¨²rdes, his rather tyrannical mentor, about whether or not this meant his mother was really his mother. [Of course you numb brain!] She scoffed at him in response. [¡°nogoth¡± are born when an elf woman has a child with a ¡°edan¡± man. Of course, there¡¯s no proud elf woman who would willingly have a child with a ¡°edan,¡± so it¡¯s a punishment for ¡°nandor.¡± The ¡°nandor¡± men are brought down here for us to handle, while ¡°nandor¡± women are forced to be dirtied by an ¡°edan di''thang¡± until she has his ¡°nogoth¡± child.]


    Aside from how thoroughly shocking this information was, it turned his stomach even more as he managed to make sense of the words she¡¯d used he previously did not know. He could not figure out what these ¡°edan¡± were, but from the way she¡¯d used the term ¡°di''thang,¡± the same word they used to refer to Sam and the other children in his cell with him. He had his suspicions before, but now he was absolutely certain. ¡°Di¡¯thang¡± meant slave. So, an elf woman who committed the crime of being a ¡°nandor,¡± which more questioning with ¨²rdes revealed meant ¡°coward,¡± was to be forced to have sex with an ¡°edan¡± slave until she was pregnant with a ¡°nogoth,¡± which seem to be their name for the cross-breed between the two races. It seems though this punishment is for more than just the violation and humiliation of it, ¡°nogoth¡± are actually considered the absolute most prized slaves that can be owned in this underground world.


    Yes, that¡¯s right, all ¡°nogoth¡± are slaves. They are an entire race bread and raised to be slaves. Due to the powerful magic ¡°nogoth¡± possess, they are highly prized and considered incredibly valuable. This information caused a lot of things to come together for him all of a sudden. This was the reason why he was treated so well, but also kept in a cell all his life. He¡¯d thought it just had something to do with his mother at first, but now it¡¯s quite clear. It¡¯s because he was being raised to be a high-class slave to likely be owned by some noble in the future. But, it seemed the high-class part meant he was actually high-class enough to own slaves himself despite being a slave. That would be the rest of the children in there with him.


    What is all of this anyway? Were they wanting to test him to see how he¡¯d handle being given power over others? It seems it was his lack of cruelty toward his slaves that got them upset somehow so now the rest of the ¡°nogoth¡± slaves are supposed to straighten him out.


    This whole experience was not just ¨²rdes teaching him the common sense of this world though, that only came as a consequence of his incessant questioning, which was thankfully met with only derisive remarks about his intelligence before she went on to explain it to him. Seems him being a stupid slave was not acceptable and not something that fit in with the supposed ¡°high-class¡± status he was supposed to have. So, she answered all of his questions. The key part of his lessons down here though was that he had to learn this powerful magic the ¡°nogoth¡± were known for.


    This magic was entirely concerned with manipulating the earth. It seems the ¡°nogoth¡± possess two entirely separate ways to manipulate the earth due to their hybrid nature. They can use the bloodline magic of their ¡°edan¡± lineage which is less powerful but more controlled, and then there is the magic of the elven side which seems to be more powerful but also wild and destructive. It didn¡¯t completely make sense to him elves would have the wild and destructive magic, but it seems that¡¯s just the way it is.


    Learning to control the elven magic was far easier and more intuitive than the ¡°edan¡± magic. The ¡°edan¡± magic required him to sit and meditate for hours, where as the elven magic could just be used by channeling a destructive urge and breathing in the malevolent energies around him. The more he heard about this elven magic, the more he was really forced to wonder about his image on what elves were.


    After a week of training, he reached a point where he could make a rock wall in front of him crack by looking at it like he wanted to put his fist through it. It wasn¡¯t that dramatic, but ¨²rdes called him an insanely powerful monster for being able to do even that at his age and immediately started calling him way too dangerous to train any more. After that, she ran away saying she was going to talk to the priestesses and tell them he had to be handled by the Nirodgir from now on. She had been avoiding him ever since, which left him stuck down here in this little ¡°nogoth¡± area. She must have told the others about him as well, because since then they have all been keeping their distance from him.


    Subscriber''s comment of the chapter


    "Terlu''s getting more interesting suddenly (yay some info)."


    -Asekhan


    Author''s note 2


    I ran into a little bit of an incident while ordering food at Taco Bell the other day. It was rather frustrating and revealed to me just how poorly educated some people in the general public are in terms of infection control. Considering the concern over the virus right now, I felt this is something I could use as a teachable moment for all my readers here.


    So, I was on my way to work. This means I was dressed in my full scrubs and had my nursing staff badge on and everything. It was pretty plain to see I was a healthcare worker just looking at me. I drove up to the drivethrough and I asked the teller to change her gloves before she took my card. The teller agreed, but while she was off changing her gloves the manager came to the window and started yelling at me.


    She was saying things about how her teller stayed in this one little area near the window, kept her workspace clean, and changed her gloves every hour, so she does not see how I should be feeling so insecure because they are taking all these precautions and if I''m so worried I should go home and stay home. This is almost face-palm inducing, because if she changes her gloves every hour, that means she''s still handling my card with the same gloves she used to handle the payment of the guy who came before me, and who knows how many people before that. That''s still a prime vector for passing on pathogens.


    Our argument went on from there, but in the end I had to get to work and the teller had already changed her gloves while the manager wasn''t looking. Afterward, I called the local health authority to investigate this Taco Bell location for this behavior. The point I want to get across to all of you is that infection control means changing your gloves between each patient (in my case) or customer in the case of these other establishments. I know it lowers your efficiency and all that, but in the medical setting we have a lot of people to attend to as well. I feel very rushed every time I''m on shift, but I still have to observe proper infection control standards because, if I don''t, people die. Well, now the entire populous is in that same boat. It''s more so for me, but people can die now from these tellers not observing proper hand sanitation safety as well.


    What I think can be done is that shopping centers ought to hire more tellers and these fast-food places ought to have 2 people at the window switching off each customer while the other changes their gloves. That''s how you make proper infection control possible. After all, we are facing a job shortage problem right now. I''m certain these people out of work would appreciate having the jobs, and the public will understand this is all being done to keep them safe from the virus. The only people who seem not to like it are the businesses who will have to pay a little more hiring more staff, but so far as I see it that''s a sacrifice that needs to be made in order to keep the public safe from a pandemic threat.

 Book 3 Chapter 8: The earth forge workshop

No content

 Book 3 act 1 lore chapter: Fey weapons and metallurgy

    Author''s note


    Well, we just left this act off in Taminarda''s workshop. Seems like an excellent time to go over the details of some of the fey weapons that have been mentioned in the story so far, as well as one that actually hasn''t come up yet. I''ve had the details on these weapons bouncing around in my head for a while now, seemed like something some readers might want to know about though.


    Also, more content edited in as of 4/23/20. Specifically, spears of the great tree.


    Fey weapons and metallurgy.


    The fey primarily employ gnomes in their metal working as gnome steel is the best metal known to exist, particularly that which is made with the power from the leaves of the great tree. This particular type of gnome steel has the additional benefit of being an excellent conduit for receiving any kind of magic, enchantment, or elemental energy which is infused into it.


    Due to the resistance against the earth element, weapons made from wind steel can only be crafted by the traditional human methods of metal working by heating the metal and hammering it into the proper shape. It cannot be molded by the magic of a gnome as any other metal could. This makes weapons made from wind steel the most highly coveted items in the world, and in human societies they would sell for exorbitant amounts of gold.


    One of the primary ways in which gnome steel is used is in adding air type mana to it in order to make wind steel.


    Wind steel


    Wind steel is created by taking ingots of gnome steel and placing them at the top of the great tree of the fey capital where they are able to absorb the air elemental energy radiating around the great fairies and fey dragons. It takes 10 years for the steel to absorb and effectively incorporate a sufficient amount of the energy to become wind steel.


    Wind steel has the primary benefit of weighing only around a quarter the weight of the normal gnome steel while preserving all it¡¯s strength. However, this is not the primary reason why this steel is so favored by the fey.


    The second benefit of wind steel is that the air elemental energy within it resists the effects of earth elemental spells. This is a necessity when dealing with the dark-elf demons which occasionally employ deep gnome slave mages in their combat. It is suicide to face a deep gnome while wielding or wearing any piece of metal as metal is part of the earth. The magic of the deep gnomes is capable of turning any such item against it¡¯s owner. As such, wind steel is the only substance which would allow metal weapons to be taken into combat against the demons which the fey have to face.


    There are several weapons made from wind steel which the fey use, however there are three general classes of weapon which are the most prominently seen. Imp sweepers, Arla slayers, and Fairy swords. The wind steel is also occasionally used for a powerful spear known as the spear of the great tree.


    Imp sweeper


    Imp sweepers are the primary weapon wielded by members of the war committee. These weapons take the form of absurdly large swords or sword staves. The standard for an imp sweeper is to be as long as the wielder is tall, including the handle. The blade is double edged and approximately a foot in width for the sake of structural integrity, and the blade tapers down it¡¯s length.


    Due to the enormous size of the weapon, even the natural weight reduction that is a property of wind steel is too heavy, and so there is an enchantment on it for further weight reduction in order to make it usable. This eats into around a third of the weapon¡¯s capacity to hold an enchantment, but further enchantment is still possible.


    As the name implies, the primary reason for the weapon¡¯s large design is to combat swarms of imps flying through the air. The long blade with the high cutting ratio allows the creatures to be fought most effectively, but the reach is also highly useful when fighting most other kinds of enemies as well.


    Alra slayers


    Alra slayers are swords designed and engineered to combat one of the more frightening types of demons seen in the fey forests, the Alra Une. While the Alra slayer is similar to the Imp sweeper in that they are both large swords, there are several key design differences between them.


    One difference is that the Alra slayer is a single-edged blade with a lot more body to it. This is needed to cut through the thick vines of the Alra Une. This added material causes the weight of the blade to increase significantly, thus also adding the need for an increased strength in the weight reduction enchantment. Nearly all the blade¡¯s enchantment capacity is used just to reduce it¡¯s weight to a manageable level. However, additional specialization in the blade¡¯s design is required in order to allow it to maintain it¡¯s cutting capability with such a low overall mass for the amount of material.


    There are two more design differences to increase the ability to get a good strong cut to chop through the vines of an Alra Une. One is that the handle of the sword-designed Alra slayers protrudes into the blade portion, turning the lower portion of the blade into something of a hand guard in effect. This allows for swinging techniques which resemble the swinging of a splitting maul.


    Another key difference is that the tip of the Alra slayer is actually not made from wind steel. It is made from regular gnome steel. As this weapon is primarily meant to be used in the forest to fight against the surface dwelling Alra Unes, the risk of encountering deep gnomes while wielding this weapon is relatively low. However, the added weight at the end of the blade allows it to chop at the vines more effectively.


    These weapons are considered the symbols of an elven village, and they are the reason why every village tends to be founded by an elven magus. These weapons are a requirement for a village to survive on it¡¯s own, but they are a more specialized and highly engineered weapon than even those wielded by the war committee. They are generally only granted to a magus who has contributed a significant meritorious deed to the fey court.


    Fairy Swords


    Fairy swords are wielded by regular fairies in the war and defense committees, and is their standard issue weapon. They are usually about twice the size of the wielder and made completely from wind steel much like the imp sweeper. However, they are single edged blades and are honed to a razor edge.


    The angle of these blade¡¯s cutting edges are more acute than a kitchen knife, rendering them unfit for clashing against metal, bone, or stone. The primary use of these weapons is to take advantage of the fairy¡¯s high flight speed and maneuverability, allowing them to fly past their target and drag the extremely sharp edge over the target¡¯s flesh.


    The fairies have the strength necessary to wield a wind-steel made weapon of this size without the need for weight reduction enchantments, and as such most of the enchantments placed on these weapons is in order to increase the durability and prevent the dulling of this extremely sharp blade.


    It is often said that the only viable defense against a swarm of fairies wielding these vicious weapons is a good wide-area fire spell.


    Spear of the great tree


    Special powerful spears are occasionally crafted from the great tree and capped with wind steel for the business ends. However, it is the shaft of the spear where more of the attention is spent for these weapons. Before the wood for the spear shaft is provided by the great tree, they infuse a nature spirit into that part of the wood. This enables anyone capable of using the green word to have the spear change it''s shape.


    The spear is made from a large amount of hyper-compressed wood that is more dense than an equivalent amount of lead, and requires great strength to even lift. This is to provide the spear with enough physical material to extend it''s length and maintain it''s integrity. It can safely extend up to 4 times it''s initial length safely without putting it at risk of having the shaft snap, and can extend up to 8 times it''s length while putting it at some risk.


    The wood of the shaft is alive, and must be kept alive by being constantly fed spirit energy. If the weapon dies, it becomes nothing more than an unusually heavy spear and loses the ability to extend. Due to the fact that the creation of these weapons requires the great tree to give up a part of it''s wood and infuse it with a nature spirit, they are very rarely made and only given to the very most trusted and proven responsible individuals among the fey. However, those who have them are in possession of a truly powerful and versatile weapon.


    Author''s note


    So, that''s the particulars on the standard fey weapons. After learning a lot about medieval weapons, I came to the conclusion that thinking about fantasy weapons in terms of what weapon matches the race is usually not the most realistic approach. So, instead, I considered the enemies they would be facing and engineered these weapons toward fighting their enemies. This is why all the fey weapons, which one would normally think would be fine an elegant rapiers or something of the like, turned into gigantic meat cleavers that completely go against the standard image. That''s just what turned out to be the most effective weapons considering the enemies they are facing.


    On a different note, thanks to some feedback from a reader who really seemed to know what they were talking about in terms of writing and editing, I have decided that I am going to create a version of this story that cuts out all the alternate POV chapters and has Aerien''s POV as the only one featured. At the same time, I will also create a separate companion to the new series that is only the alternate POV chapters. This seems like the most reasonable and simplest solution to the exact things several people have been complaining about.


    This series you are reading right now, though, will stay the same. This is my rough draft and my mind simply will not work well in terms of getting the story written if I do such a thing to myself during this phase of the writing process. I will continue to write this one as I like. This divided version of the story will be it''s own thing separate from this one. I am presently unsure if I will be posting these divided versions to Scribble Hub or if I will just be attempting to get them published officially.

 Image: Commissioned Artwork of Aerien.

    Thank you everyone for your patience as my computer was acting up. I got my computer back a few days ago and have recently finished writing the next chapter and am going over the details for the chapter I will be posting today now.


    In the meantime, I wanted to use the opportunity of this little nonsense and this break to finally post an image somebody finally got right. The long awaited artwork for what Aerien looks like. There are some details that wound up getting added while working with the artists as I wasn''t quite getting the right vibe out of just having Aerien''s skin color as a shade of grey, so there are some additional discolorations never mentioned before in the series and will likely be talked about in a re-written version of the story.


    Those discolorations down her left side are not an injury of any kind, they are closer in nature to a port wine stain, except smoky dark instead of the splotchy red of that common human skin discoloration. (My one real serious complaint with this is that the ears don''t really match my vision of the character, but it was hard enough working to get it this far with the artists, getting the ears right as well would probably be quite the nightmare.


    (This will be moved to the intermission position soon after a few more chapters are posted, and those announcements about the previous computer trouble will be deleted.)

 Poll: Timeskip dellema.

    So, here''s the thing. I have actually been looking for and not finding an opportunity for a time-skip for quite a while now. I am now going through edits and re-writes in which I''m now planning on having the kids stay in the village for quite a bit longer and get a lot older before the events at the end. (a kid knifing an adult hunter will be a bit less impressive than an infant knifing an adult hunter, but it will help me with a lot of the problems I''m having now.)


    The thing is, I REALLY wanted them to all be at least 5 before the next major development in the story. But, it''s starting to look like things are developing in a way where that development could happen while they''re still toddlers but, if that happened, then the action scenes I was planning will make absolutely no sense. They actually have to be older in order to have the motor skills for what I had planned.


    So, I am just not finding a point where a time-skip will make sense. So, I can do one of two things here. Either stick in a time skip where it DOESN''T make sense, or I can go ahead and ramble for a while in the story and not have it really reach the major developments in quite as fast of a pace as I had wanted. It will make things run smoother, but it would essentially mean there''s a huge block of filler in the story.


    So, most of the people who have gotten this far are going to be people who are into this story and enjoying it so far. Both options here before us will lower the quality of the story. The only thing that fixes this is what I''m currently doing in the re-writes which, due to that major change I''m planning on making, will no longer be compatible with integration into the current version. This means that this rough draft version is going to have a scar on it. It''s just a matter of choosing how that scar is going to look.


    So, I''m a fan of polls. Which of these two bad options would all of you like to see?


    (Also, the chapter I am currently writing (which is 4 chapters ahead of this one) is a place where I have an opportunity to start moving this toward a rather choppy feeling time-skip if that option is selected. So, I will unfortunately have to delay the release of the next chapter until the poll results are in for this poll to actually mean anything.)

 Book 3 Chapter 9: Punishment time.

Jemini

 Book 3 Chapter 10: Defiance

    Well, that whole unexpected computer issue was a very unwelcome unexpected hiatus. It was just some noisy fan issues, but it was enough that I seriously couldn''t think enough to write. It just made work impossible. Oh well, fixed now.


    So, that was a 3 week gap this time. That was ridiculous. Anyway, finally got the chapter written and ready. Here it is.


    (Also, I finally got enough work with the artists over on Fiverr that I got an image for Aerien that works. I posted it on a separate special announcement chapter just recently, and that chapter will be moved to the intermission slot next week. Please take a look if you want to see what I think Aerien should look like.)


    Terlu¡¯s POV


    He had just been dragged into a room that looked like a torture chamber straight out of hell. He had seen artwork back on Earth of caverns filled with human bones and other remains, but here when he was seeing it in real life, each one still dressed in tattered rags of what must have once been clothing, it just represented something so much more horrific and real. His brain was almost refusing to process what he was seeing.


    Sprouting from the center of the ceiling was a giant viny blood-red plant, and the vines that came down from it spidered their way around all the walls of the cavern. These vines almost obscured the sight of the bodies encased into the wall. In fact, the vines seemed particularly thick around any place there WAS a body.


    He had entered the room behind what appeared to be a row of spectator seats, they were arranged with one prominent seat near the top and a series of lower seats below it. As for what they were overlooking, at the center of the room there was a raised dais, and as he entered there was an elf man being thrown up onto it, protesting loudly about how he was sent on a suicide mission that his matriarch was crazy to even consider, and how everyone else who was sent had died.


    [Ahh, looks like we are on time to see the guy lined up before her.] The guy who dragged him here said. [Don¡¯t worry, they ought to be done quickly. The guy deserted the mission his matriarch sent him on, he¡¯ll be feed for the blood flower in no time.]


    [No! You don¡¯t understand!] The guy continued to beg. [The spirits in the roots! Nothing harms them! One touch will kill you!]


    As the man was dragged to the edge of the dais by a pair of nogoth also wearing those red hats, the two suddenly raised their hands and the guy was levitated into the air by his wrists and ankles which appeared to be cuffed together. As soon as he was laying on it, the center of the cuffs broke, turning into bracelets around his wrists and ankles. These were then pulled to the edges of the dais and then stone raised up from the surface as though it had turned liquid and bound his hands and feet.


    Once the man was bound, the man at the top of the stands Terlu was in tapped a cane on the ground. [Your begging is useless.] The man said. [Impossible enemies? We know. Several of our own have been up there already. But, we simply cannot have people ignoring the orders from the matriarchs. You should have faced your death in your mission. Now, you will become feed for the blood flower. Hmm?]


    The man got distracted for a second and looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Terlu, and then a grin spread across his face. [Ahh! It¡¯s about time!] He said, and then turned forward in his seat again. [The kid is finally here! We can start the main event after this. Go ahead and finish quickly!]


    At the old man¡¯s words, the two who had dragged the man onto the dais went over to a couple of the skeletons on the ground. One picked up an arm-bone and snapped it in half over his knee. The other jammed his foot through a skeleton¡¯s rib cage and then picked up one of the rib fragments that had snapped off. Afterward, he ripped off some of the rags the the skeleton was dressed in which looked rather reminiscent of what the elf man on the dais was wearing. Then, he wrapped the rib bone in the cloth in order to serve as a handle. His companion shook his head when he saw this, and immediately demonstrated how the arm bone he¡¯d snapped in the center needed no such preparation by holding it on the unbroken edge.


    The two went back to the man who was strapped down, his cries of fear had degraded into a series of the words [No! Don¡¯t do this!] over and over again, the two read-hat wearing nogoth stabbed their broken bone weapons into the flesh of the man¡¯s upper arms, grinding the broken bits through his biceps and his shoulders. The man cried out in pain.


    [Hey! What are you doing! Stop wasting time!] Someone in the crowd jeered.


    [We came to see the stupid woman! The kid¡¯s finally here! Finish this worthless elf off quickly!] Another shouted, this was backed by further boos and jeers from the crowd.


    The crowd¡¯s booing almost managed to drown out the screams of agony from the man on the dais. Almost. Those piercing and haunting screams as the man¡¯s arms were torn apart by fragmented bone were like nothing Terlu had ever heard. Blood-curdling was absolutely the correct word. It made his whole body tense up like nails on a chalkboard, he could practically feel a phantom of the man¡¯s pain as this scream like no other echoed off the rock walls of the room.


    Suddenly, a hand smacked Terlu in the back. [Hey! What are you getting scared for kid!] The man who dragged him here shouted. [I heard them say you had rats wrapped in blankets and bashed to death back in your cell! This ain¡¯t no different! It¡¯s just some coward.]


    Down at the dais, the two executioners looked at each other like they weren¡¯t quite sure what to do. The guy with the arm-bone shrugged and decided to follow the will of the crowd, and his bone fragment was jammed cruelly into the man¡¯s neck. The blood spray from this was so strong that it hit the executioner in the face and painted his arm red with the blood. The man strapped down screamed and struggled more. Somehow, he got one of his arms free in all his flailing. Everything from his wrist down was a mess of blood, and his pinky and thumb were hanging off at strange angles like they had been broken completely. He brought this hand up to his rapidly bleeding neck as he continued to scream in agony, before finally he seemed to settle down. No, he was growing weak. As his eyes closed, giving him a comparatively peaceful look, it was clear that he was loosing his life.


    Terlu¡¯s eyes filled with tears as he watched the man¡¯s life slip away. He shook his head in denial.


    [Hey! What¡¯s wrong with you kid!?] The man who brought him here shouted. [Oh man, is THIS what they meant by how you were soft!? Don¡¯t tell me, the reason you wrapped those rats in blankets was because you didn¡¯t like blood!? Well, shit! Ain¡¯t THIS a mess.] The man sighed. [Well, I guess we¡¯re here to settle this today. Let¡¯s bring you to the grand overseer]


    The man grabbed Terlu¡¯s shirt collar again and dragged him over to the highest chair in the stands. It was made of stone like all the others, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about it aside from the fact it was the only chair on the level higher than the rest of them. But that in and of itself suggested the bearded old nogoth sitting there, a certain visual confirmation of the fact that these people around him were a lot older than the 10 years of age their height might suggest, was fairly respected by the rest of the nogoth here.


    [Sir, I brought the kid.] The man who brought him spoke to the old man roughly. It seemed they didn¡¯t waste time with a lot of social graces, perhaps that ¡°sir¡± was what counted for being polite in this crowd. [It seems like the rumor about him being soft was true, he looked like he was about to piss his pants over the execution down there just now.]


    [Hah! Is that right?] The old man sighed. [Alright, whatever. He¡¯s here. Just bring out the wench.] The man in the chair doesn¡¯t even look at Terlu, or even the guy who brought him for that matter. It¡¯s pretty clear that both of them don¡¯t even matter to him right now, like they are nothing more than objects.


    In response to the man¡¯s orders, the familiar face of ¨²rdes is dragged into the center of the chamber. Meanwhile, the man who was just killed before her is having his lifeless corpse raised up into the air by his shackles once again. Because he had managed to break his thumb and pinky in order to escape from one of them, he is simply dangled upside-down by his ankles as his blood oozes out onto the ground. He is taken over to the wall, where his skin is encased in a thin layer of stone, enough to preserve the physical position of his body but not so much as to obscure his features, and then his body is half-embedded into the wall. The red vines on the wall seem to respond almost immediately as they are now growing toward the newly encased corpse.


    [Now then, ¨²rdes!] The head overseer calls down. [You are on trial for cowardice! You ran away from this wimpy little kid you were supposed to toughen up. The same kid who just now shrieked at the sound of a few yells and a little blood. What do you have to say for yourself?]


    ¨²rdes glances with fear in her eyes to the red hats on the heads of the two nogoth holding her by her arms on either side. She was not wearing the metal cuffs like the elf from before, probably because she could just easily get out of them. Instead, they¡¯d resulted to good ol¡¯ old school physical restraint by a pair of big guys. Or, rather, not so big. Maybe just magically powerful in this case.


    [S. .. Sir!] She says, looking up the row of seats with the fear in her eyes obvious. [I did not run away, I merely saw the remarkable power and talent the boy possessed. I judged my skills to be inadequate to teach him, so I felt he should have a superior teacher from among the Nirodgir.]


    [Hmm... talent, huh?] The head overseer brought a hand up to play with his beard and then turned to Terlu. [Alright kid, how about you show us this power of yours. You wanna go and do something for us?]


    [Uhhh...] Terlu stood there, dumbfounded by the head overseer¡¯s remark. Next thing he knew, he felt something hard hit him right in the center of the forehead with enough force to blow him off his feet. [Oww!] He screamed and clutched his forehead. When he pulled his hand away, it was smeared with fresh blood. His forehead was bleeding.


    [Oooh! That¡¯s impressive at least.] The head overseer scoffed. [He¡¯s not crying. I guess maybe he¡¯s not quite as soft as everyone says.] This was met with light chuckles all around. [Alright, well, we¡¯ve got your attention now, huh kid? Stop looking at me with that stupid face and do something.]


    [Just do what you did to that wall in front of me!] ¨²rdes yelled up from the ground floor.


    As degrading as this whole situation was, it was clear enough what the steaks were. ¨²rdes was literally fighting for her life right now with him as the the only piece in play in her favor. If he didn¡¯t display something impressive here, she would share the same fate as that guy from before. He didn¡¯t have any reason to really like this woman, but he knew he would regret it for his entire life if he could have saved her but did nothing. So, he scraped himself up off the ground and walked over to the nearest wall and began to concentrate. A second later, there was the sound of an impact and a spiderweb of cracks instantly spread over the entire wall.


    Terlu was stunned at the results of his own power. This was multitudes of orders of power greater than the small crack he produced in the wall only two days ago. No, even the little bit he¡¯d been able to do to the wall on his own just this morning absolutely paled in comparison to this.


    [That¡¯s it?] The head overseer said with a chuckle. [All I saw there was a complete lack of control.]


    [The kid¡¯s also been training on his own.] The man who brought him added. [I heard about it when I spoke with the initiates, they were even kind enough to leave the mess he¡¯d made as evidence of how diligent he¡¯s been with his daily training.]


    [You see what I mean!?] ¨²rdes pleads. [The kid is barely even a couple dozen cycles old! He can already utilize arcane energy to this level! He used it after only two days of me teaching him! The kid has amazing talent! Someone as lowly as me, I simply do not deserve to train someone so destined for greatness!]


    [Well then,] the head overseer said threateningly. [You reported his power to the priestesses I take it. But then what? The other initiates say you never came back to follow up with his training.]


    [I knew he was doing fine on his own.] ¨²rdes challenged. [Your enforcer just said it, right? He was training on his own. Why should I waste my energy when he¡¯s doing just fine without my intervention?]


    [So, you are saying you would rather be considered lazy over cowardly?] The head overseer sneered. [Fine then. I am not convinced of your story, but as a nogoth your value is higher than our usual targets anyway. So, I will give you a chance at your life. The kid will administer your punishment. If he can show he¡¯s not as soft as we¡¯ve been told, you can keep your life. If he overdoes it though, well, that will be a fairly happy occasion but I suppose it will be rather unfortunate for you.]


    [tsk!] ¨²rdes let out an unpleasant sound and looked off to the side angrily. Meanwhile, Terlu was grabbed by the shirt collar again and dragged toward the stairs. When they were standing at the top, the guy holding him threw him off the top stair. Terlu struggled to catch himself on the wall, and then he panicked as he fell. He yelled and there was an explosion of cracking stone. Rather than tumbling down the stairs, he was sliding down a slide of loose rocks. He closed his eyes in his panick and disorientation of what was even going on.


    [Well well.] The head overseer¡¯s voice came from much farther away this time. [I guess you are right, that kind of talent really is rather impressive, the kid learns really fast.]


    Terlu was disoriented and confused as he tried to push himself back to his feet. His arms and legs were covered in small cuts and he was laying in an avalanche of small stones. He looked behind himself and saw that the stairs he was just thrown down were now replaced with a pile of loose gravel.


    He didn¡¯t have long to think. The guy who just threw him jumped into the gravel slide and easily rode the rocks down, pushing a new gravel-slide down that threatened to bury him up to his knees if he didn¡¯t immediately move to make way.


    As soon as the guy got down, he immediately snagged the fibula from the leg of a nearby skeleton and easily broke it before handing a piece of it to Terlu.


    [Well then, get to it.] The guy said.


    This bastard! Alright, they want him to show he¡¯s not soft? Well, here¡¯s how he¡¯ll show them. There¡¯s no way he¡¯s just going to take this kind of abuse lying down. He accepts the weapon from the man and then lets out a scream as he stabs the guy in the leg.


    The man¡¯s eyes go wide. It was clear he wasn¡¯t expecting this, but he immediately back-hands Terlu in the face to get him off, throwing the small boy to the ground in the process. Terlu immediately pulls himself up and focuses on the ground beneath the man¡¯s feet, which bursts into rubble. Unfortunately, the guy does not seem quite as distressed by this and simply allows himself to fall, and then he slips into the shattered floor as though it was so much water.


    A second later, the ground Terly was lying on became gravel as well and he was sucked in. Next thing he knows, he¡¯s being restrained by a one-armed bear-hug from behind. He tries to stab the guy¡¯s arm, but his weapon is caught and taken away from him. Since he is denied his weapon, Terlu chooses to bite the guy instead, turning his head and biting the guy on the shoulder with everything he can muster in his jaw.


    The guy lets out an irritated grunt and throws Terlu back to the ground, and then growls. He looks about as agitated as it gets.


    There is some chuckling and a few murmurs from the crowd. As Terlu glares in their direction he can see that a lot of fingers are pointed in his direction as the bastards in the stands seem to be enjoying the spectacle.


    Even the head overseer is chuckling at this. [Well, I¡¯ve gotta say, that was unexpected. The kid is practically fearless. Kirek, were you telling me the truth when you said he was scared by the execution?]


    The bloodied man Terlu had just been fighting lets out an irritated growl. [This boy is just a wild animal!] He says. [I bet he was just scared of the screaming!]


    After those words, the man directs a rather savage kick at Terlu¡¯s chest, sending him recoiling acros the floor and knocking the wind out of him. Terlu¡¯s lungs feel heavy as he struggles to get his breath back. He can barely lift his head, but he does so anyway in order to glare at the guy who just kicked him with all the hostility he can muster.


    [Alright then, I guess I am convinced by that.] The head overseer says. [Not of ¨²rdes¡¯ innocence to the charge, but I am at least convinced the kid is not as soft as we have heard, as well as the fact that he is not the slightest bit interested in cooperating. Well then, I will have to come up with a new punishment. Both for ¨²rdes, and now also for the kid for showing such disrespect in this chamber. ¨²rdes, your punishment is that you will be denied the opportunity to pass on your duties to one of the Nirodgir. Even if they do come, you will just serve as the Nirodgir¡¯s assistant as they train the kid. In the meantime, you¡¯re going to have to teach this wild animal some respect for authority.]


    [What!? That¡¯s it!?] Someone in the crowd scoffed.


    [I wanted to see some blood!] Someone else complained.


    [Hey, the kid bled plenty, and he got a pretty good stab in on that enforcer too.]


    [I wanted to see the woman¡¯s blood!]


    The crowd clearly did not like this verdict.


    [That is all! Dismissed!] The head overseer barked, and then the grumbling crowd began slowly filing out of the room. Most went over to the walls, which simply opened up to admit them as they approached. Others sunk straight down into the floor. One thing common to all of them though was that their chairs would sink into the ground and vanish as though they were never there as they were leaving. Even the chair the head overseer had been siting in was erased with a wave of the old man¡¯s hand as he got up to leave.


    The enforcer spat on the ground and he looked over to ¨²rdes. [He¡¯s all yours now.] He sneered before limping off with a hand held to his bloodied thigh.


    Terlu allowed his head to flop back onto the stone floor. The rusty smell of iron from long dried bloodstains mixed with the pugnant fresh smell of the newly spilled blood from the man on the dais filled his nose as he kept struggling to fill his abused lungs with air.


    Subscriber comment of the chapter


    "Well, starting to care for the little boy"


    -Asekhan

 Book 3 Chapter 11: Market shift

    Laeril¡¯s POV


    ¡°They said the dryad hates spell singers!¡± A boy said snidely.


    ¡°Who says!?¡± Laeril argued back.


    ¡°It¡¯s obvious! I heard it from the other kids from your village!¡± The boy sneers. ¡°You¡¯re the only kid who the dryad didn¡¯t protect, it¡¯s because you¡¯re a spell singer! The dryad doesn¡¯t like spell singers, and our new dryad talks to your dryad, I bet they hate spell singers too! That¡¯s why they say we can¡¯t have any more humans!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, so stay away from us! I don¡¯t want the dryad to hate me too!¡± A girl in the group turns up her nose.


    ¡°Don¡¯t follow us! Just go back to your master, you and your master should just get out of the village!¡± Another boy rips into Laeril as they all walk off, leaving her to turn away and cry. None of the kids in the village would ever play with her, not the ones from this village or even her old friends back from Cundo. Even they rejected her now.


    She was really starting to have enough of them treating her like this. She¡¯d been told by her master to stay away from the dryad because it was dangerous, but she just couldn¡¯t take it anymore. She was going to go to the dryad, she had to get it to tell them they were wrong. But¡­ what if they¡¯re really right? The dryad really DID say no more humans, it¡¯s the job of the spell singers to calm human children while they are being taken in order to help the newborn elves survive their first few years. It didn¡¯t make sense for the spirit inhabiting the nursery tree to reject bringing in more humans at all. No! There HAS to be some sort of mistake!


    As Laeril cautiously drew closer to the nursery tree, she began to hesitate. She couldn¡¯t believe that the dryad really hated spellsingers like all the other kids were saying, but a part of her still really feared they might be right. She just couldn¡¯t find a good explanation for all the strangeness of this whole thing, but she still couldn¡¯t believe it! It just couldn¡¯t be true!


    She stood a good 20 or so paces from the giant base of the nursery tree. This is what would be considered a respectful distance from which to address a dryad. She let out a little squeak in her voice, as her words failed her. She couldn¡¯t speak. How was she going to phrase her question anyway? ¡®Dryad, is it true that you hate me?¡¯ It just didn¡¯t feel right to ask a question like that, but¡­ that¡¯s also the very thing she truly wanted to know.


    ¡®Ok, just call out to them! That¡¯s all you have to do!¡¯ Laeril told herself. She opened her mouth to try speaking again, when suddenly the dryad¡¯s light manifestation appeared hovering in the air near the top branches of the tree, and they were looking up into the air.


    What is the dryad looking at? Laeril¡¯s thoughts stopped as she considered that, but soon she had an answer to her question as a voice entered directly into her head.


    ¡®People of Rima village, be honored. I present to you the princess of the fey, conveyed by Lord Baltair of the Arbor Committee. Her royal highness comes to address and negotiate with the dryad.¡¯


    As Laeril heard the words in her mind, her eyes stayed fixed on the dryad. The dryad¡¯s projection of light glared at the sky where the voice that had entered her head came from. There were some voices behind her as everyone gasped.


    ¡®Greetings people of Rima village.¡¯ Another voice entered Laeril¡¯s head, this one much clearer and younger, and definitely female. ¡®Yes, I understand your surprise. I am the princess Aerien, adopted child of The Queen, Oren, of the blue jade dragons. I know some of you may recognize me by my name. I am indeed the same infant child who left Cundo village an invalid just a month ago. My body grew due to the power within my own body accelerating my growth. It was this same power, along side my natural talents, which caused the queen to adopt me as her daughter.¡¯


    Adopted? Princess? Laeril thought this princess sounded either the same age or younger than she was. The other voice just said she was going to talk to the dryad though. Could the princess ask the dryad if they really hate spellsingers? She sounds like a kid, so maybe she will understand.


    The dryad¡¯s projection lowered itself to the ground and walked right past Laeril. They walked toward the source of the princess¡¯ voice. This could be her chance. Laeril gave the dryad some clearance as she ran to the edge of the village the princess¡¯ voice had come from as well. She froze for a moment when she saw the dragons up above the canopy. They were HUGE! They were bigger than the trees! But, she couldn¡¯t get scared. She couldn¡¯t get scared. She would not have another chance like this.


    She weaved her way through the few people in the gathering crowd and saw a kid with short grey hair. It was really strange. That hair was short like a boy¡¯s, but she knew that sometimes hunters and warriors who were women also cut their hair short. But, she was a princess. No, it didn¡¯t matter. She ran toward the small child who didn¡¯t look much over 15, less than half her own age. But, suddenly, she felt like she was falling. No, she wasn¡¯t falling, she was being lifted into the air. Her feet were touching nothing. Laeril flailed her arms in a panic and screamed as she watched the ground fly away from her. If she fell from this height, she would die for sure.


    ¡°Let her down.¡± The princess¡¯ voice rang through the air, oddly doubled as Laeril heard it with her ears and her mind at the same time. ¡°If this town hates me, let this child speak for all of them. You do not need to protect me, and we do not need to estrange ourselves from the people by making an example of someone so young.¡±


    What? What was the princess saying? Laeril could not follow any of it.


    ¡®Your highness¡­¡¯ A booming masculine voice responded from the direction of one of the smaller dragons above. He was smaller than the biggest one, but he was still amazingly big. Was it this dragon that was lifting her up without even touching her?


    ¡°You do not need to be concerned.¡± The princess said. ¡°If a child this age manages to injure me, that just means I¡¯ve had a serious lack of training. You are not to hold her or anyone in this village accountable for anything she does after she is released.¡±


    What!? Did they think she was trying to hurt the princess!? No! That¡¯s not right at all!


    Laeril was still trying to make sense of what was going on as she saw the ground getting closer once again. She panicked for a little while that she was falling, but she was ultimately placed gently on the ground, after which she immediately fell to her hands and knees.


    She looked up to see the princess calmly looking at her. Laeril was surprised once again to notice there seemed to be something wrong with the princess¡¯ face. Or rather, her skin. It all looked a pale bluish grey. She remembered them talking about a pair of twin babies at her old village who had bluish grey skin like that, they said those two babies were unhealthy and might die at any time. She didn¡¯t know what happened to them after everything that happened in the village when they had to leave, but she heard that the magus took them to the capital. She wondered how those two were doing and if they were still alive. Maybe the princess had heard about them?


    ¡°You can say whatever you want.¡± The princess said. ¡°The dragons will not interfere anymore.¡±


    Laeril was still confused. She couldn¡¯t tell what was even happening anymore. The dryad¡¯s projection was standing at the edge of the clearing now. They seemed to be just standing and watching what was going on. The princess just nodded in the dryad¡¯s direction and then returned her gaze to Laeril. How had everything gone so wrong? She just wanted to go ask the princess for help, just a kid talking to another kid. Nothing was going at all like she expected, she didn¡¯t even know what was happening, so she just started to cry.


    -


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    It was strange standing here in this village. Some of these people here were the people affected most by dryad¡¯s callous actions. The ones who were behind the actual inciting incident were likely all dead from the mob riot that was incited, that would mean all that are left are the scarred and embittered I can only imagine how they feel after getting this dryad who¡¯s an extension of ours from Cundo standing over them now. According to what Lord Baltair told me on the trip over here, it seems all these sub dryads order the residents of the villages they reside in to not take any new humans. While I do appreciate that for my own sense of righteous morality, I really cannot imagine that going over well with people who had gotten used to this as their way of life.


    There¡¯s also the whole factor of my part in what went down in Cundo. There are so many people here who were victimized by that. I thought of suggesting a different village, but I felt I ultimately needed to meet these people who were harmed by my presence. I was just a passive victim of the whole incident, but that doesn¡¯t mean people won¡¯t feel resentment for the mere fact that they were harmed due to Dryad acting in my defense. I was going to be the princess of this land for a long time, so it would be better if I meet that resentment head on right now.


    This is how it was as I honestly told them about who I am, that I was the exact same baby who was the impetus behind everything that happened in Cundo. Then, right as I was in the middle of presenting myself, a child who looked to be around a human equivalent of 12 started rushing me. Of course, my magically powered dragon guards were very quick to intercept her.


    I ordered them to put her back down and forgive her actions. I might have accepted slightly more stern actions if it was an adult, but a child is just not thinking rationally when they do something like this. They are the most likely to take extreme actions, but also the easiest to win over with kindness. More than that though, taking retributive action against a child will only deepen any resentment felt, and maybe even create it where there previously was none.


    Whatever resentment the child may have had that caused them to attempt to rush me, their fear over what had just happened seemed to completely overwhelm it. She just started crying. As she cried, another villager, a young man, came rushing out and knelt a little ways off from the crying girl.


    [Your highness.] He said. [Please forgive us, this girl is not representative of us in any way. She is a spell singer¡¯s apprentice. The village has had to shun her and her master since the dryad¡¯s order to disallow the entry of any additional humans. Any action she takes is completely her own. We are grateful that you are here to intercede with the dryad.]


    [Is that right?] I asked and then glanced over to Dryad¡¯s projection that had come to meet me. My eyes swept back to the girl who seemed to be trying her best to calm herself down. She was looking at me with eyes that seemed to be begging. Not the eyes of resentment at all. [I think I understand now.] I said. ¡°Dryad, answer me in English. Do you have something particular against spellsingers?¡±


    ¡°Of course I do.¡± Dryad responds. ¡°My goal is to end the enslavement of humans by elves, spellsingers are the ones among the elves trained to make the fairie¡¯s treat. They are the cornerstone of the elven slave catching operation. Why wouldn¡¯t I have something against them?¡± Dryad glares over to the girl sobbing on the ground. ¡°Honestly, the only reason I tolerate the ones in this village is because of how young that girl is there. She¡¯s learned too much to be spared by simply abandoning her path, but she is too young for me to find it in me to take action against her, or even her master by extension.¡±


    I see. That is certainly a difficult situation.


    ¡°Do you meant to say that you have taken action against spell singers who do not have child apprentices?¡± I asked.


    ¡°That has it¡¯s own complications.¡± Dryad said. ¡°Believe me, I want to, but I know that would probably upset some people.¡±


    ¡°Well, thank you for showing some restraint.¡± I said and closed my eyes. This was definitely a difficult situation. I did sympathize with this crying girl and her situation. She must have entered this way of life thinking she was doing a good thing and helping people. But, it was absolutely true that she was part of the exact group of people who would have to be sacrificed in order to end this institution of slavery. If it was as simple as being a pariah in the village all of a sudden, perhaps that would be enough. If that¡¯s how spell singers will be treated now, this girl will never find a willing apprentice of her own and the lineage of master-to-apprentice transmission will end with her. This might, indeed, be the kindest way to deal with this complicated issue.


    As for her, perhaps the kindest thing I can do is what I have already done by insisting Dryad use English to talk about this subject. It would be far too cruel for her to hear and understand what was just said about her.


    [I understand the situation.] I said to the kneeling man. [No offense is taken, and I have already forgiven her for her actions.] I placed a tender hand on the girl¡¯s shoulder. I wished I could say something to ease the distress that was very clear in her eyes. Her profession was one which I could not tollerate, but she was a person just like me or any other villager here trying to do her best in life.


    I didn¡¯t have anything I could reasonably do or say, so I was forced to withdraw my hand and turn toward Dryad. [The dryad and I will enter into a discussion now. Dryad, can you please take me to your main body so we can have this discussion in privacy?]


    [Of course, Aerien. We are all eternally grateful to you. It would be my honor to host you.] Dryad laid on the flourish of speech and even bowed. I was immediately aware of how everyone around, including the dragons who came with me, were downright shocked at this response. This was a show, of course. It could very well have been real, but even then all they would have to do is just be friendly. They did not need the flowery speech or the bow. THAT part was a message, a message specifically to the dragons above. They were saying ¡°I want to talk with this one, and I would like to make her my primary channel of interaction.¡± And, with this move in the present situation, this action would just about assure that I¡¯m the one called for all future negotiations.


    Well then, now time to figure out if there¡¯s anything more to this. I followed Dryad to their tree, the largest in the village. I was let in, and Dryad was already squeezing a cup of fruit juice from a branch they had just grown. ¡°I know you did not eat or drink when you were with our leader, but would you like some juice?¡± They asked.


    ¡°No thank you.¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s quite alright. I will give it to one of the children upstairs later.¡± They said, setting the cup aside. That¡¯s right, this would likely be this village¡¯s nursery tree. I wonder if there¡¯s an elf child up there, or if it¡¯s just the humans right now. ¡°Now then,¡± Dryad continued with a giant and earnestly happy smile on their face. ¡°How are your mother and the master of our leader doing? It seems they did not come with you, how are they adjusting to the capital?¡±


    Uhhh¡­ what?


    Subscriber''s comments of the chapter


    "I remember asking how you would ever reuse Ceren''s apprentice for anything... now I know =)


    It does is pretty sad for her, but if spell slinger are already half-trained in magic, can''t they just switch?"


    -Asekhan


    "Oh crap, does that mean the Dryad fragment did not actually come back to her main body? or just that they''re not as much in touch as we thought? In any case, Aerien''s plan probably won''t be of any use ^^


    I really wish those dryad had a name..."


    -Asekhan


    Author response to subscriber comments.


    I have a name in mind for the main one, I''ve just never had the opportunity to introduce it yet. (Hint, she was named by one of the Earthling reincarnated Great Fairies she rescued.)


    Jemini

 Apologies for being distracted, here’s my distraction as an apology.

    Been somewhat distracted lately. I have been getting more work and have school stuff to take care of, but it would be dishonest to accredit that as the reason I haven''t gotten a chapter out this week. I ought to still have had enough time, but the thing that really got in the way was my discovery of a very binge worthy series. As an apology for missing the chapter last week, how about I just share the thing that''s been distracting me so you all have plenty to keep you occupied and won''t have to stress about the lack of mine.


    What I have been reading is another transplant from Royal Road that just started transferring over here this year. It''s called Azarinth Healer, and I have to say it is definitely the #1 best liteRPG (game-like system) webnovel I have ever read. (That is if I count He Who Fights With Monsters as a cultivation world novel. If we were to count it as a liteRPG instead, then it would be an impossible call between the two.)


    It keeps the how she got to this world and why the game system exists completely without any explanation, clearly considering it unimportant and contributing nothing to the story''s intrigue, and it is an excellent call in my opinion. Instead, it focuses on some characterization that is easily on par with what you have come to love here in Sister of a Goddess, as well as a very good look at the way people would realistically react and build a culture around a world in which a game-like system exists. Most of all though, the threat and the testing of the MC''s character are very very real, and I am really loving how her character grows from a naive idealist into a hardened veteran who still has just a glimmer of that old idealism, although very jaded.


    I definitely recommend checking it out, if only to have something to do until I finish binging and can get to giving you another chapter in this.

 Book 3 chapter 12: Expectations meet reality.

    Jemini


    I apologize for the long gap between chapters. I have been somewhat distracted lately with a number of things, most of which actually involve this story and my future plans with it. (Reading the works of other authors far above my current skill and writing level was fun and distracting for other reasons, but it was also highly informative and taught me a lot I can apply here.) I have been talking periodically about my plans for a re-write of the entire series, and I have been debating how exactly to do it. In the past couple months, and especially in the past few weeks, I have been gaining insights onto what I want to do with the re-write at an exponential rate, and it has reached a point where I am growing rather exited for it, but unfortunately that has also meant taking away a lot of enthusiasm for the current version.


    I have made the decision to finish out the current arc. I always meant for this series to function in trillogy cycles, and this 3rd arc was always meant to wrap up a lot of things that were set up in the earlier books. As such, it will serve the next version far better if I finish up this arc and have a far better idea of what I will be working with at that time.


    There will also be several things in the writing that change from this point forward. The next few chapters will be some of the pivotal plot scenes of the arc, and after that we will have the time-skip at which time I will be using that as a device for some major changes to the way things are presented to become more in line with what I am going to want the rebooted version to look like, and thus might feel a bit different from the story thus far. Unfortunately, one of the bigger changes I am going to make will be the elimination of the young-mind Aerien. For now, we will just say she fully integrated into the adult mind. I never really meant for her to last much longer than the 1st book, and only really kept her because so many people liked her too much. I felt the pain of that mistake pretty severely as I continued to write and found myself struggling to find a place for her.


    Aerien''s advanced magic is another thing that''s getting the can, that magic will be repurposed, redesigned, and it will go to Rolwen the nerd brain. It''s far better suited to him anyway.


    The good news in all of this is that this solves all the things that had been making writing a drag for me. So, it has greatly restored my excitement for the story and you can expect much more frequent updates for a while here until I go crazy and decide to start digging in and designing my own custom version of the elven language. (I will need to do that eventually anyway, this borrowing of Tolkein''s words with my own syntax being the only major change is simply not an acceptable long-term model.)


    Thank you all for your patience and for continuing to read and enjoy the series until now, and please enjoy the chapter.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Ok, focus. They are clearly indicating they do not know about mother and Eirlathion being abducted. I cannot tell whether it¡¯s real or just an act. The first thing I have to do is determine that. So, the only question is whether to start with an aggressive stance or a friendly stance. With an aggressive stance, I¡¯m likely to get more information quickly. But, using this kind of tactic is not a good way to build long term negotiation relationships. I suppose I can always switch to an aggressive stance later if they are not very forthcoming.


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I came here to talk about, I take it you are saying you don¡¯t know from the copy of the primary dryad sent to the capital then?¡± I asked.


    Dryad¡¯s face immediately turned serious. ¡°What do you mean?¡± they ask.


    ¡°Another one of you, you copy dryads, abducted them.¡± I informed them.


    ¡°What!? Hold on.¡± They immediately got a focused look on their face and began looking off at nothing in particular. ¡°No, none of them know.¡± They said. ¡°None of the others know.¡± Dryad sighed and looked over to me with a very grim look on their face. ¡°We have actually been out of contact with our leader for more than a week now.¡± They said.


    Of course you are. I fixed Dryad with a skeptical look. ¡°Was that before or after they moved the entire village of Cundo somewhere else?¡± I asked.


    ¡°That¡­¡± Dryad hesitated. ¡°Our leader actually moved very shortly after you left there. Almost immediately after the last of the elves left, Cundo was attacked. It was all our leader could do just to keep the humans still living there safe in their own main body.¡±


    ¡°Attacked?¡± I asked ¡°By demons I assume? I admit, I don¡¯t know a lot about demons, but from what I heard the main Dryad of Cundo ought to be strong enough to fend off most demons that may have attacked. Why did they have to run away?¡±


    ¡°We were in communication until a week or so ago, I can tell you what I know.¡± Dryad said. ¡°It just happened all at once, a small force of around 10 to 13 gnomes dressed from head to toe in blood-red clothing simply popped up out of the ground and began warping the earth. Our leader had no choice but to expend all their energy to float the trees up from the ground to keep out of the way of their attacks, and they all didn¡¯t even seem the slightest bit phased by our echo of spirit-collapse attack.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s what you¡¯re calling that thing where you share the memory of my near-death experience now?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes, and it is one of our strongest weapons.¡± Dryad said.


    ¡°Well, the one who infiltrated the great tree couldn¡¯t affect the queen with that attack either.¡± I said. ¡°Would that mean these red gnomes are on the same level of strength?¡±


    Dryad shook their head. ¡°Strength really doesn¡¯t matter against this attack.¡± They said. ¡°Well, not in terms of mana or spirit energy anyway. The only way to resist it is with strength of mind. The only way to survive is if you are simply able to receive and be unbothered by the pain that echos the experience of your own spirit collapsing and the fear attached to it. I can believe a single individual like the queen having such experiences and strength of mind. But, to have around a dozen individuals in a group who all possess that kind of strength of mind, it is very unusual. Gnomes DO have more presence to their physical bodies than even elves which would allow them to keep their lives against the attack, but they ought to have lost consciousness from the pain at the very least. They didn¡¯t even do that.¡±


    ¡°So, you are saying every single one of them are the type who has gone through some kind of training where they are just used to the most intense pain?¡± I asked. ¡°Sounds a little like they¡¯ve been through this world¡¯s equivalent of the Marine¡¯s Hell Week from back on Earth.¡±


    ¡°From the shared experience I got from our leader, I would say they did seem like some form of special forces for the demons.¡± Dryad responded.


    ¡°So, you are saying this is why Cundo¡¯s Dryad fled? But what does this have to do with you being unable to contact them?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Only that they are likely still being pursued.¡± Dryad responded. ¡°I cannot tell you beyond that.¡±


    ¡°In other words, my coming here was just a waste of time for me in terms of trying to get my mother and Eirlathion back.¡± I stated with an angry edge to my voice. Dryad gave me a very sympathetic look.


    ¡°Well, what I can tell you is that our leader is no longer in the forest. They have left for human territories, the last they said was that they were pursuing an area with a lot of water in order to disrupt those gnomes.¡± Dryad said.


    Is that right? Well, that¡¯s pretty handy to know. However, as soon as I began to contemplate where to go from here, I had a very unpleasant feeling come over me. I tried my best to ignore it.


    ¡°Well, thank you very much Dryad. I guess I should¡­ argh!¡± Suddenly, my body was racked with pain.


    ¡°Aerien!¡± Dryad¡¯s projection lept up with concern.


    ¡°Damn it!¡± I cursed as I pulled myself upright in my chair. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s what I get when I try to ignore my oath.¡±


    ¡°Your oath?¡± Dryad asks, and then their eyes bulge with realization. ¡°You¡¯ve already taken the oath of nobility!?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it seems the fey court was pretty impressed with me.¡± I ruefully commented.


    ¡°So, how was it that you were violating the oath just now?¡± Dryad asked.


    ¡°I just had a thought.¡± I told them. ¡°I should probably ask you what your intentions are. Here in the forest, you and the other new dryads have appeared in almost every elven village. What do you wish to do with this wide spread?¡±


    ¡°Hmm¡­ why would you not want to ask a question like that?¡± Dryad asks.


    ¡°I can¡¯t answer that.¡± I told them. ¡°At least, not until you¡¯ve given your answer.¡±


    Dryad gave me an appraising look, like they were trying to figure out what answer would avoid whatever inconvenience I had anticipated that possessed me to attempt to leave without asking that question.


    ¡°Well, our primary reason for taking this wide a spread over every village is likely the same reason our leader got attacked.¡± Dryad said. ¡°We are trying to cover as much land above ground as possible, and then together we have all been slowly sinking our roots deep into the earth to enable us to attack the demons. The reason you and your sister were persecuted in Cudo was due to the fear of the dark elves. We are trying to eliminate that threat completely.¡±


    I heaved a very heavy sigh when I heard that answer. ¡°Well, I am certain there will be a lot of people happy to hear that answer.¡± I told them.


    ¡°But it is not the answer you wanted to hear?¡± Dryad asks.


    I felt the creeping hand of the oath¡¯s power pulling against my spirit as I considered telling them my true feelings on the matter. It¡¯s pretty clear what this is about. The most strict and uncompromising tenant of the oath is to not agitate harmful action from dryads, and to calm any such action if it¡¯s already started.


    ¡°Oh no, it¡¯s fine.¡± I told them. ¡°It¡¯s just that¡­ you¡¯re still hiding something.¡± Or rather, I hope they are. ¡°Your previous answer was fine, but I was upset that I still have to keep pushing. What exactly ARE you hiding?¡± Damn it! Why do I have to be so good at word games!? It¡¯s seriously working against me right now!


    ¡°Hmm¡­ is that right?¡± Dryad comments. ¡°Well, if it¡¯s bothering you so much, I suppose I will do you a favor and not tell you. I will tell you this though, it¡¯s something else we¡¯re doing for you.¡±


    ¡°Does it have to do with why you¡¯re not allowing the elves to take in any new humans, and you¡¯re encouraging the shunning of spell singers?¡± I asked.


    Dryad sighs. ¡°I suppose it was dumb to think I could hide anything from you, huh? That¡¯s right, I even told you that much out there.¡±


    ¡°You want to put an end to the elves kidnapping humans and keeping them as pets.¡± I commented.


    ¡°Eh, guilty as charged.¡± Dryad commented.


    Great. Well, I¡¯ve got something now. I¡¯m not really certain I can spin it in a way that will allow me to keep pursuing the main Dryad though. That¡¯s the real problem, and I knew it was a problem as soon as I heard Dryad was so far out in human lands, and in an unspecified location at that. There¡¯s no way the queen will dedicate a risky search like that unless the dryads are really doing something to threaten the kingdom in a big way.


    ¡°Well, is there anything else you can tell me?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Dryad tilted their head in a thoughtful posture. ¡°Well, I COULD tell you this. Our leader has chosen a name for herself. It was another former person from Earth who suggested it. Apparently it was the name of the second most well known named tree in Earth lore.¡±


    ¡°The second most?¡± I responded. I knew the first most well known tree for certain, there wouldn¡¯t be a single westerner who didn¡¯t know that name. The second most though¡­ the gap between the first and second must be pretty large, because I¡¯m struggling to come up with any other named tree on Earth, unless¡­


    ¡°Our leader has taken the name Sefirot as her own.¡± Dryad said proudly, looking at me for approval.


    I just stared blankly. ¡°Are you serious!?¡± I said, and shook my head. She seriously named herself after the tree of virtue from the Jewish Kabbalah.


    ¡°You don¡¯t like it?¡± Dryad asked.


    ¡°Well, at minimum it¡¯s a name that could not possibly be full of more hubris.¡± I said. ¡°Well, at least it was suggested by someone else and not something she came up with for herself. I suppose it¡¯s possible she may be safe from the greatest failings that would be associated with taking a name that means virtue itself so long as she doesn¡¯t let that name¡¯s meaning go to her head.¡±


    I sighed and shook my head. ¡°Well, it was certainly a pleasure getting to know you better. I am very sure this will not be the last time we meet.¡± That little performance when they invited me into their main body made that all but a foregone conclusion. ¡°By the way, if you ever manage to get in contact with¡­ Sefirot again, tell her not to allow the person who gave her that name to influence her too much. I don¡¯t know much about them, but anything that would possess a person to name her something like that will make it certain they are not going to be a good influence.


    ¡°I see.¡± Dryad responded, sounding rather disappointed. ¡°Well, I will make sure to pass that along if I ever get the chance. I will tell all of my sisters the same.¡±


    ¡°So, you do all consider yourselves female after all, huh?¡± I asked. Well, if that¡¯s the case then it certainly makes referring to them a lot easier. I am forced to wonder though. The dragons are all telling me that all these new intelligent dryads are influenced by me. That being the case, I wonder just how much of this is from me as well.


    -


    ¡®So, the dryads intend to fight the demons, and also end the capture of humans.¡¯ The queen said. I had just given my report about what I had found out. ¡®Well, this makes things complicated.¡¯


    ¡°What will we do in regards to the main Dryad, Sefirot?¡± I asked. In response, the queen fixed me with a long silent gaze.


    ¡®You are anxious to find them, I can understand that.¡¯ She said. ¡®However, I am afraid we cannot dedicate the manpower to the search at this time. Negotiations with the villagers are about to get very complicated. I will request that the changelings in the Iman Bora region keep an eye out, that is the best we can do.¡¯


    Yes, this is exactly what I was afraid of when the dryad of Rima told me their intentions. In a way, I¡¯d gotten closer to my goal. At the same time though, it also showed me exactly how far I was from it, and the gap was truly daunting. The fey were not going to offer me any more help than the queen just offered, I did not know enough about this world to search on my own, and the one source I had to find out more was likely to just side with the queen on this subject.


    ¡°I understand.¡± I said somewhat bitterly.


    The queen silently assessed me once again. ¡®Well, I am glad you can show such a degree of self restraint. I can tell that retrieving the individuals the dryad Sefirot has taken means a great deal to you. For the time being though, I must ask you to fulfill your duty as a princess.¡¯


    With those words, the queen¡¯s posture took on a more formal air as she lifted her head to be above me. ¡®My daughter. I am hereby appointing you as an apprentice negotiator to lord Baltair in his Arbor Committee. Your unique connection and rapport that you have with these new dryads renders you invaluable to our efforts moving forward.¡¯


    Yes, the dryad of Rima had just completely trapped me here in the fey forest. I¡¯m fairly certain this is going to be keeping me quite busy for some time to come. ¡°Yes your majesty.¡± I said with a bow. As her daughter, I had the option of calling her mother instead. However, the formal way was also considered an entirely appropriate thing for me to call her after she¡¯d just given a royal decree like that.


    It seems now I am entirely at the mercy of those changelings in the human territories for whether or not Dryad is found.


    -


    Terlu¡¯s POV


    Soon after his whole ordeal in that grotesque execution room, that ¨²rdes lady finally dragged him back up to the prison area where his mother was. Unlike before though, it was only him and his mother. Sam and the other children were nowhere to be found. [Don¡¯t worry. Since you¡¯re back, they¡¯ll bring your slaves back soon as well.] ¨²rdes taunted before closing the door.


    [Terlu?] His mother looked up from her spot chained to the wall. Having learned what he had about the conditions of his birth, Terlu did not know how to look at his mother now. She seemed worried upon seeing him. No, it was pretty clear it was his behavior that was worrying her.


    [Uhh¡­ how are you moth¡­] Terlu¡¯s words were cut off mid sentence when he saw how weak and sickly she suddenly looked. She¡¯d become thin in the few days since he¡¯d been here, she looked like a hollow shell of her former self. [Mother!? What¡¯s going on!?] He asked and ran up to her. He was so small compared to her that he didn¡¯t even have to kneel down in order to look her in the eyes even though she was looking slightly down.


    Terlu was very confused at the sight of his mother. How had she grown so thin? She never seemed to have to eat at all before, not even a bite, but it never seemed to affect her in any way. He had assumed elves like her simply didn¡¯t need to eat period. But, how is it then that someone who doesn¡¯t need to eat looks like they¡¯re starving!? [Are you Ok?] He asked, reaching up in order to put a hand on her shoulder.


    His mother simply raised her head and smiled. [I will be fine now that you are back.] She said.


    [No! Mother, how¡¯d this happen!?] He asked. She just looked up and smiled weakly.


    [I guess you were never told.] She said. [Elves like me are fed by the extra energy that comes from a person¡¯s ¡°fea.¡± I never had to eat before because you and your slaves were here.]


    She smiled gently for a moment, and then laid herself down on her little blanket on the floor. [Just give me a little while Terlu. I will be well in a few hours now that you are here. I just need to sleep.]


    Her eyes drifted closed, and Terlu looked down at his sleeping mother with a twist of turbulent emotions in his heart. His uneasy thoughts eventually settled on a new anger. So, it wasn¡¯t that his mother didn¡¯t need food, it was that her food was some kind of energy and all this time it was him that was feeding her. In other words, by keeping him away from his mother for so long, they¡¯d nearly starved her to death.


    His balled up fists shook with anger as he thought about what had happened here, but eventually he let out a breath and relaxed. There was very little anger could do to help his mother in this moment. If she was nourished just by him being there, he could provide her as much of this energy of his ¡°fea¡± as she needed.


    Terlu nestled up to his mother¡¯s side and draped her arm over his body, and then snuggled in to sleep beside her, ignoring the hard stone ground they were on top of.

 Book 3 chapter 13: Dark designs

    Jemini


    Terlu¡¯s POV


    Terlu felt more than heard the sensation of his teeth clicking together as pain flashed through the entire lower side of his head, reverberating into his skull as his lower jaw was violently slammed into his upper jaw. He was confused and disoriented, and found himself thrashing about in a tangle of arms and hard stone as he attempted to orient himself.


    [Huh?] He heard his mother¡¯s confused voice as he was thrashing. [Terlu?] Her arm shifted on him, and then suddenly she gasped and recoiled. He was able to get his bearings at around the same time to look up and see who was standing over him. It was none other than ¨²rdes, glaring down at him.


    [So, now I see why it is they were all calling you soft.] She scoffed, but Terlu was barely able to process what she was saying as he held his hand over his mouth. It felt like his teeth were bleeding and he had a sick feeling in his mouth. Did she just kick him!? [Hah! Don¡¯t make that face at me!] She barked, and then Terlu had to raise his arm in order to protect himself against another kick that was coming his way. [Your slaves are back, and it¡¯s time for breakfast. I¡¯m going to stick around here and make sure you don¡¯t pull any crap like sharing your food with them.]


    Terlu cast wild glances around the room and saw the four small children standing on the other side of the room near their beds. They all looked considerably worn down compared to how he remembered them only a few days ago, and there were some obvious signs of fresh injuries on their faces and arms. One thing was particularly striking about the whole situation though.


    [Where¡¯s Sam!?] He looked up at her and demanded.


    [Oh, that one you favored?] ¨²rdes said with a sneer. [It sounds like one of the Nirodgir liked what he saw when she was out in the mines. She won¡¯t be coming back.]


    [WHAT!? Terlu scrambled and got himself standing when he heard that, the pain in his jaw was forgotten and he glared menacingly at the small woman in front of him.


    [Hey! I don¡¯t have her, this is way over my head as well. I have no control over what the Nirodgir do. You want that girl of yours back, here¡¯s what you do. You get yourself stronger, you join the Nirodgir yourself, and you kill whoever it was who took your property from you and then lay claim to everything they own. It seems like you got the talent kid, as well as the guts. You stood up to that enforcer for no reason more than the sheer indignity he¡¯d shown you. That¡¯s the kinda gut¡¯s that¡¯s needed to survive around here. You just stick with me, I¡¯ll toughen and train you up to get that girl of yours back.] She chuckled and sneered, making it very clear Sam¡¯s well-being was really the very last thing on her mind.


    [So, what are you gonna do?] She asked, sneering at Terlu.


    Terlu¡¯s mind reeled. He felt violated and gutted in the worst possible way, and now that he knew some guy had grabbed Sam while he was not around to do anything about it, it stood to reason he was also terrified for her sake.


    But wait, this woman! She¡¯s lied before. Well, he wasn¡¯t even sure if she lied or not. When she defended herself during that trial, she didn¡¯t even bat an eyelash as she gave her story. It would have almost convinced him even if he hadn¡¯t seen how freaked out she¡¯d looked when he cracked that rock. He had to find more information.


    He looked over to his bed where there were two trays set in front of it, both prepared with one of those fancier meals he was always being served.


    [This is what I¡¯m going to do.] He said. He walked over between the two trays, turned and spit on one of them, noticing there actually was blood in his saliva as it coated the mushrooms and meat in the dish. He stared at the streak of red for a second before sitting in front of the other dish and picking up his spoon. [That was for kicking me.] He growled.


    ¨²rdes looked visibly irritated at his response, and then she sneered. She walked up to the tray he just spat in, picked it up, and then hurled it across the room where it struck one of the children in the chest, causing him to yelp as the heavy dish and the hot gravy went all over the front of his clothes. Terlu watched, frozen in place as ¨²rdes stood challengingly between him and them. The others huddled around the boy who was hit and got the dish off him, and then they started picking the meat and vegitables off of his chest and the floor and then putting them in their mouths, scrambling like animals over the food that was just thrown at them as a weapon.


    Terlu¡¯s face twisted in disgust at what he was seeing. What had they been fed in the past few days to make them all THAT desperate!? How did they pick up such a behavior? Just like his mother, they all looked a lot skinnier as well.


    He glared up at ¨²rdes, who had a twisted grin of satisfaction at the whole situation. [Good boy.] She said. [If you¡¯d gotten up to help them, I was going to claim your food for myself. I¡¯ll just get myself something at the cafeteria down in the Nogoth area instead since you are being so nice and obedient now. Looks like everything worked out after all, you like feeding these worthless lower slaves our food like some kind of gift to train them like loyal dogs, right? Well, they just got an entire plate¡¯s worth between them.]


    Terlu glared at her, causing her to shift about uncomfortably. [Uhh¡­ hey! I¡¯m doing this under orders!] She said. [I take pride as a trainer, I¡¯m one of the best! I¡¯m just doing my job, it¡¯s as much your punishment as it is mine. I¡¯m going to treat you the same as I would any other kid fresh off his blessing. I still can¡¯t believe they had us start your training before you¡¯ve even gotten your blessing though.] She groaned in frustration and then glared down at his mother. [Well, I¡¯m certain you¡¯ll be getting it before you become too dangerous anyway.] She had an evil grin that seemed to realy scare his mother for some reason.


    [I think you are enjoying it too much.] Terlu snipped at her and then took a bite of his meal, only to groan in pain and grab his jaw as his smashed and damaged teeth found it difficult to chew.


    -


    After a difficult experience just trying to eat his meat and vegetables, ¨²rdes allowed Terlu just a few minutes to talk with the other children¡­ his slaves¡­ before she dragged him right back down to the ¡°Nogoth¡± level. He didn¡¯t really get all that much useful out of them. Unlike himself and Sam, these kids were really just kids. While they were supposedly at the same level of development as him and Sam, their communication skills left a lot to be desired.


    The best he was able to get out of them was that when the priestess came to drag them off to the mines, suddenly the priestess seemed really mad when she looked at Sam. And then, after they were brought to work sorting rocks that were brought down from the mine, another very scary looking priest came by and dragged Sam off by the wrist. ¨²rdes had said it was a man, and part of this Nirodgir group, who were supposed to be Nogoth like him and ¨²rdes. But the kids were saying it was a priestess, and an elf at that.


    The two stories were clearly not lining up, but the strangest thing was easily the fact that ¨²rdes had let him talk to the kids about this in the first place. Shouldn¡¯t she have been afraid her lie would get found out? If anything, she just looked very pleased with herself as Terlu glared at her after hearing the story from the children that was completely inconsistent with her version of the events.


    [Why?] He asked her, once they were settled in on the lower Nogoth level.


    [Why what?] She asked.


    [Why did you lie to me about who took Sam, and then let me talk to the kids about it to find out?]


    [What makes you so sure I lied?] She challenged. [Let me tell you a little something about how things work here for us Nogoth. Those slaves of yours are Naugrim, the only slaves lower than them are Edan which are only good for breeding and making more Naugrim and Nogoth. Naugrim like them have weak magic and are only good for their strong bodies which is good for work.]


    [You, as a Nogoth, are a higher tier product for our masters. You are considered highly enough that they will even give you Naugrim like them as your own slaves. You are a slave who owns lower slaves, and you don¡¯t even have a master yet. But then, maybe you¡¯re too stupid to realize how significant that really is.]


    [To give you a better picture of this, even though you are a slave, no common elf would even have enough authority to own you. Right now, you are in training, so the only ones who actually own you are the trainers and the enforcers. I am your trainer, that makes me your master from now until you find your place in one of the three divisions.]


    [The lowest division of Nogoth, by their value and the potency of their magic, are the earth shapers. They are put in the mine, and they have to answer to the overseers. Some elven overseers can even be male, that¡¯s how low a position it is, so being at the command of some of them is truly an embarrassment as a Nogoth.]


    [Next is the enforcers. The enforcers answer directly to the church of Iuutel. Their job is to punish the cowardly, keep the blood flower fed and harvest it¡¯s vines, and to oversee trainers like me. The enforcers all wear hats made from fibers taken from the blood flower vines, it enhances their magic and makes them really powerful.]


    [Some of the rarest and most powerful Nogoth though, the absolute best, can join the ranks of the Nirodgir. The Nirodgir used to have the job of keeping the land devourer tamed and under control. But, now that Iuutel has personally come down and slayed the beast, now they are the direct servants of Iuutel. They may be Nogoth, but their authority is strong enough that they only answer to the high-priest. An elf doesn¡¯t even have the right to command them. If you¡¯ve got any brain cells in your head, I¡¯m sure you can figure out what that means.]


    So, she¡¯s implying that these Nirodgir would be able to order the priestesses around? There was something else she said that was bothering him though, and he had to get it cleared up before he could dwell on this issue too much longer.


    [You said that the Nirodgir answer to the high-priest. But you said no elf could command the Nirodgir too, and you said priest, doesn¡¯t that mean he¡¯s male?] That was another thing he¡¯d picked up in the way everyone here talked, their social hierarchy was definitely a matriarchy of such extreme proportions that they considered males dirt. So, what¡¯s this whole high priest deal all about?


    [Hah! Well, I suppose you wouldn¡¯t know, would you?] ¨²rdes scoffed. [Well, it can¡¯t be helped. You haven¡¯t had your blessing ceremony after all. Alright then, I¡¯ll tell you. The high-priest is a dragon. And it doesn¡¯t matter if he¡¯s male, he¡¯s still far above any elf.]


    A dragon!? Are you freaking serious!? A real dragon is running this whole show!?


    [Oh? What¡¯s with that face?] ¨²rdes says [I thought for sure you¡¯d be all ¡°what¡¯s a dragon?¡± or something like that. You should at least look indifferent about it¡­ unless¡­ you actually already knew what a dragon is? How could you know what a dragon is but not know the high-priest was one? What kind of useless stuff has your mother been filling your head with?]


    Shoot! He almost messed up there and got caught!


    [Well, whatever. That woman is worthless anyway. Just stick with me kid, and I¡¯ll correct all those little flaws in your education. That¡¯s my job after all.]


    Great! NOW she wants to play nice with him! If only she could stop insulting his mother while she was at it.


    -


    Sam¡¯s POV


    It had been two days since Sam was dragged out of her cell with the other children, and a day since one of the priestesses had grabbed her and brought her right back to the church. A lot of the priestesses had seemed very upset at the time, and for some strange reason they kept talking about her mother a lot, referring to her as ¡°the real source of that power.¡± She also heard them muttering things like ¡°a waste¡± and ¡°that worthless man.¡± She seriously could not make sense of any of it. So many things had changed so quickly, and she honestly was no longer following any of it.


    She was put into a room with a comfortable bed, and she was told to change clothes into a fine looking robe. Later, one of the priestesses came in and knelt down in front of her, getting on her eye level. For some reason, this priestess was asking her a whole lot of questions about her mother, but chief among them was [Do your remember your mother? Do you miss her? Do you want to see her again?] Sam was pretty certain they were talking about her mother in this world, not in her previous life. Honestly, she barely even remembered her mother in this world other than the fact she was around for a while to breast feed both her and Terlu after they were born.


    Well, she may not remember her mother much, but if they were offering to reunite her with her mother then she had absolutely no reason to refuse the offer. This is why she answered ¡°yes¡± to those questions. The priestess seemed extremely pleased with that answer for some reason, pleased to an extent that Sam was quite frankly unsettled by the whole thing.


    [Alright, well, that¡¯s good.] The priestess said. [We are doing what we can to find her right now. If we can find her, you should be able to meet her again. Would that make you happy?]


    There was really something creepy about the way this priestess asked that question. Sam was certain she was not getting all the information, this woman knew something and it was something very not good. But, all Sam could do was just give a weak nod in response, and the priestess seemed way too happy about her answer as she left.


    Every single thing about this situation seemed totally wrong, and she really couldn¡¯t figure out exactly what it was that was off about it. But, every single thing she knew and every single instinct she had was screaming that she was in the middle of something very big right now, and it was going to end very badly for her. She was definitely not someone they had considered as worth their attention any time before. Everything before now had looked like they expected her to be Terlu¡¯s slave or something, and after Terlu had been dragged off they took her to work in some slave mine. Why would they be treating her the same way Earth would treat a normal child all of a sudden? She was not just going to believe they suddenly got some kind of streak of decency.


    She was left to wait alone in that room for a few hours after that. In the meantime, she was brought something to eat. It wasn¡¯t the normal tasteless paste-stuff she was served either, it was one of those high-class meals they alway served Terlu, and she was given this one all to herself. There was definitely something very off here. But, she decided to just accept the food and eat it while it was there anyway. She might have considered sharing the same way Terlu always did if the others were here, but she was by herself, so that just meant it was all for her and only her.


    It was later in the day that the other shoe dropped, as Sam had been dreading and expecting the entire time. [We found out where your mother was.] A stern faced priestess said when she came in and just announced that without preamble. [She¡¯s dead. Some worthless overly-enthusiastic man killed her.]


    Sam stared back at this priestess, not even knowing how to process this information. First off, did she even really care? Well, it WAS her mother. She didn¡¯t know her long, but it DID mean something for her mother in this world to be dead. The priestess didn¡¯t go into all the details, but the way she had phrased it ¡°overly-enthusiastic man.¡± She could guess what he was probably doing at the time he killed her mother, and that was something that would probably get her wanting blood even if it wasn¡¯t her mother who was killed that way.


    [I will leave you alone for a while.] She said. [We are going to be bringing that man in for punishment. Since she was your mother, you will have an opportunity to take part. Think about what you want to do until then.]


    The door was closed, leaving Sam alone with her own thoughts. Was this the priestess¡¯ sick game from the start? Locking her in this room and raising her expectations with talk about her mother, and then letting her down later by saying she was dead? Did they know about all of this from the start? If so, what would be the point of all that?


    Sam was starting to feel like she was just in the middle of some kind of really twisted mind game. Nothing at all made sense today. What should she even be doing or thinking right now? She didn¡¯t know at all. And, again, why was it that they seemed interested in her all of a sudden? Absolutely none of it made any sense at all.


    And still, she had to deal with the bomb shell that priestess had just left in her lap. She said she¡¯d have the opportunity to help punish the man who killed her mother. Should she do it? It was incredibly obvious this was exactly what they wanted her to do. But, really, should she? If what they said was right, then this guy definitely deserved it! But¡­ absolutely everything about this seemed wrong. Completely wrong.

 Book 3 chapter 14: Evil Blessing

    Jemini


    Sam¡¯s POV


    [This is unusual, they¡¯re making the sacrifice a man this time?] Someone whispered as Sam was taken through the corridor. They didn¡¯t even ask her if she wanted to participate in this punishment of the one they said killed her mother, they just told her it was time and they found him, and now she had to come with them. She was grabbed by the wrist and dragged down the hall.


    [The ritual isn¡¯t even for the new Nogoth though, it¡¯s¡­] They rounded the corner and saw the two acolytes who were whispering, and they immediately went silent and bowed to the priestess who was dragging Sam through the halls.


    They seemed to be in some kind of grand main-hall now, brightly decorated with gold, jade, and gemstones. There were 12 pillars down the hall, 6 to each side, supporting a high vaulted ceiling that was cut so cleanly from the stone as to make it impossible to tell they were underground rather than a structure on the surface. It was almost as if this room was designed in imitation of surface building practices, but with a little thought she could also easily see the alternate explanation that the vaulted ceiling would do just as much to support the cave roof as a free-standing roof on the surface, making the stone carved into that shape focus more of it¡¯s weight on the pillars rather than sag in the middle where it could create cracks.


    They approached a gigantic stone double door, guarded by two short people dressed from head to toe in blood red robes that obscured their faces. The thick layered hooded robes concealed everything, making it impossible to even determine whether they were men or women. When the priestess approached these two, she stopped and bowed to them.


    [I come with the tribute to stand before the holy throne of his greatness, Iuutel, and his holiness the high priest. We come to seek his blessings in blood.] After those ominous words that filled Sam¡¯s stomach with a sense of unease, the two red-robed figures nodded their heads without making a sound, and turned to face the large stone doors. With a grinding sound, the massive doors started the process of swinging open. Sam stood in a nervous awe at the sight of such large seemingly immovable objects seeming to move on their own. Meanwhile, the robed figures walked behind the opening doors as though they were the ones doing it even though they weren¡¯t even touching the doors at all. Well, for all Sam knew, maybe they were.


    Several of the priestesses and acolytes back in the main hall seemed to be expressing sounds of curiosity as several of them stopped what they were doing in order to gawk at the opening doors for a peek at what was on the other side. Suddenly, they all dropped to the ground and prostrated themselves. When Sam turned back to look at what was in front of her, she gasped as she saw what it was that had captured their attention.


    On the other side of the doors, she saw a large room that was filled with the soft light of a fire. Sam was immediately filled with nostalgic feelings, and suddenly the memories of her mother in this world were far stronger than they were moments ago. Her mother was unable to see in the dark like everyone else down here, so during the short time she was in the cell with everyone else they kept a torch lit for her.


    As the room came into view, she saw the source of the fire light. There were a number of brazers on top of pillars, making what appeared to be a circle around the room and filling it with the gentle red glow. On Earth, the idea of large mysterious doors opening onto such a sight might not immediately scream good things. But for her, now, it brought a sad smile to her face as she remembered what she had just been told earlier about her mother. She would never get to see the woman who gave birth to her in this world again.


    This nostalgic revere was quickly brought to a shock of an end though when she noticed what was on the far side of the room. There, sitting a short distance outside the circle on the other side, the fire light glinted off the scales of a huge black-scaled reptilian form. The huge angular face, covered in wicked looking horns and with deadly jagged teeth protruding from it¡¯s mouth, stared back at Sam from the darkness that would have obscured it from anyone lacking dark vision.


    With those nostalgic feelings transformed into primal fear, Sam was frozen in place and wanted desperately to hide or flee. She barely even noticed when the doors had finished opening. She only noticed when the two red-cloaked figures approached her from either side, each placing a hand on either one of her shoulders. Meanwhile, the now kneeling priestess who had brought her here bowed even lower before scrambling away.


    [Step forward child, to stand before his holiness.] A rough female voice came from the robed figure to her right.


    [You are very fortunate, a mere Naugrim who is to receive the blessing. You will be the first of your kind to do so.] The other to her left spoke. This one was also female, but her voice had a very threatening edge to it. She did not seem happy at all, and Sam could tell that it was probably not going to be a good idea to piss her off.


    But, blessing though? She¡¯d not been told anything about this. Terlu¡¯s mother talked about him recieving this blessing a lot, so it was not an unfamiliar concept. This was it? But, wasn¡¯t this supposed to be about some kind of punishment for the guy who killed her mother? How did it all turn into this?


    Sam got her answer as she was pushed into the inner chamber and was walked up to the edge of the circle of pillars that contained the flaming blazers. The two red-cloaked girls¡­ or perhaps very short women left her standing at the edge as they went back to begin closing the doors. In this time, now that she realized the dragon didn¡¯t seem interested in doing a lot more than just watching, she took the opportunity to look around the room a little bit more.


    There were, in fact, 12 pillars topped with flaming blazers arranged in a large circle around the room. In the center of those pillars though there was a raised dais on which there was an extra 13th brazer topped pillar, but that wasn¡¯t all that was on that dais. Along with it was what looked like some kind of satanic altar for human sacrifices, and it just so happened to have someone chained to it at this moment. From her experience with the guards here, she was able to tell at a glance it was an elven man.


    They¡¯d said she was to participate in the punishment of the man who killed her mother. It looked like this was what they planned to do. Was this it? Did this ¡°blessing¡± they were always talking about require some kind of sacrifice?


    There were also ten more red-cloaked figures already inside. Four stood at regular distances around the dias, six were lined up three to either side of the dragon like waiting servants or body guards.


    A low thud sound spread out through the room as the large stone doors finished closing behind her. The two cloaked women who brought her in came back to her immediately and placed a hand on either one of her shoulders once again, and then pushed her along the outside of the left side of the circle of blazers. Sam watched the dais as the chained man craned his neck to try and get a look at them, straining at the manacles on his wrists while the sound of chains filled the room. She noticed at this point that the torch and the sacrificial altar were not the only things on the dias. There was a third thing right in the middle, and pressed right up against the altar only a little lower. There was a large basin, and judging from the positions of the groves in the stone of the altar, it looked like it was meant to catch all of the blood.


    Sam had been so shocked at all of the other stuff before she hadn¡¯t even realized how hot this room was, and it only got hotter as they approached the dragon who sat atop a large raised altar. The black dragon kept it¡¯s gaze fixed on Sam the entire time she was marched through the room, and now she stood right before it.


    ¡®WELCOME CHILD OF ELVEN MAN AND HUMAN WOMAN.¡¯ A voice sounded in her head, and she could somehow tell it had come from the dragon. Sam nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard it. ¡®YOU WILL BE THE FIRST OF THE DWARF SLAVES TO RECEIVE THE BLESSING OF IUUTEL, AND THE FIRST TO JOIN THE RANKS OF THE NIRODGIR BEFORE EVEN THAT FRIEND OF YOURS GETS THE CHANCE. THOSE FOOLISH PRIESTESSES FAILED TO REALIZE YOUR POWER, ATTRIBUTING ALL OF IT TO YOUR FRIEND, AND THEY CONTINUED TO THINK IT RIGHT UP UNTIL THE MOMENT THE TWO OF YOU WERE SEPARATED. YOU, WITH THE STRENGTH OF THE DWARVES AND THE MAGIC THAT CAN RIVAL EVEN THE GNOMES, SHALL BECOME A TRULY GREAT ASSET TO THE NIRODGIR.¡¯


    Dwarves? Gnomes? Were those the actual meaning of those words ¡°Naugrim¡± and ¡°Nogoth¡± she¡¯d kept hearing used to refer to her¡¯s and Terlu¡¯s races? All of this was getting to be too much for her. She¡¯d never really been taught anything about this world since she was born here, and now it felt like she was getting a crash course all at once, leaving her completely out of her depth.


    ¡®NOW, CHILD.¡¯ The dragon fixed her with an intense glare. ¡®THE BLOOD SACRIFICE HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR YOUR BLESSING. THE VERY MAN WHO KILLED YOUR MOTHER, DENYING HER FROM YOU FOREVER. PLACE HIS BLOOD UPON YOUR OWN HANDS, AND RECEIVE YOUR BAPTISM IN THE NAME OF IUUTEL.¡¯


    One of the closest of the three cloaked figures to the right stepped forward as soon as the dragon finished talking, and held something out to her. Sam quickly recognized that it was the handle of a ceremonial knife. She tried to back away, but the pissed off woman who brought her in tightened her grip on her shoulder. [Take it.] She hissed. [Do not insult his holiness.]


    Sam looked back to the knife being offered to her and lifted a shaky hand up to take the knife. However, she must have moved too slow for the pissed-off woman¡¯s patience, because by the time Sam had only lifted her hand the woman reached around and grabbed it from the back, and then forced her hand forward and pressed it closed around the blade¡¯s handle.


    [Recieve the blessing of Iuutel.] Another female voice came form the one who handed Sam the knife before she gave a nod of her head and then retreated back to her place next to the dragon. Were all of these cloaked people women? Before Sam could consider that for long, the two who brought her in were roughly shoving her around to face the dais in the center of the room.


    [Now, step forward to claim your blessing.] The gruff woman to Sam¡¯s other side growled, and then she felt the pressure on her shoulders increasing from both of them again.


    It was becoming painfully clear, they planned to stay right on top of her the entire time and force her if she happened to get cold feet. They weren¡¯t even going to give her a choice in this at all. And, in this case, it was a matter of killing a man in this strange satanic ritual. Being forced into such a thing¡­ sure, she agreed that death was probably a good punishment for a guy who had literally raped a woman to death, her own mother at that, but¡­ Sam had barely even known her mother in this world, and this man meant practically nothing to her. Even though he¡¯d done such a thing, she did not have the drive or desire to kill him over it. And to have it as a part of some strange ritual like this¡­ all of it just felt wrong. It felt disgusting. It felt violating. She felt dirty even at the idea of killing this man.


    As she was walked up to the edge of the sacrificial altar, she noticed one more thing about the man who had been chained down. He was making strange croaking sounds as he opened his mouth to look at her, and she could see his neck had already been sliced. The middle of his throat had what looked like a very recent scab over it, right over his wind-pipe. His vocal chords had been cut, rendering him completely unable to speak. There was something about this that terrified Sam more than anything else that had happened so far.


    Doubt started to run through Sam¡¯s mind. She only had it on the priestess¡¯ word that this was the man who killed her mother. For all Sam knew, maybe she wasn¡¯t even dead at all. The paricularly horrible manner she was supposedly killed in seemed like just the kind of thing they would say to get her angry and going along with this sick ritual of theirs. And yet, here she was, holding a knife in her hand as the two women forced her closer and closer to the satanic altar.


    She considered the idea of just dropping the knife. She could at this point, but she was certain that would lead to nothing for her surrounded by all of these murderous cultists. At best, it would probably get her smacked around a little, and then have the knife shoved back in her hand and then she would ultimately wind up in the same place either way only with a few extra bruises to show for it.


    The two women stopped a short distance from the altar and seemed to be concentrating for a little while. Suddenly, a set of stairs wide enough for three people rose up out of the ground, leading up to the altar. Sam was shoved up the stairs, knife in hand, and was pressed right up to the side of the altar next to the man¡¯s head.


    [Now, cut the far side of his neck so all the blood can flow into the basin below.] The gruff woman ordered.


    The chained down man looked up at her with a pleading face as he opened his mouth and let out more croaking sounds. The fear in his eyes was plain to see. Somehow, in that moment, Sam was almost certain this man did not do what they were telling her he did. Maybe he did, maybe he didn¡¯t. But, Sam only had their word to go by and right now she had very little reason to trust what she was told.


    Tears were streaming down her face as she felt her body pressed up against the altar. [Well!?] The pissed off woman growled.


    [Please! Don¡¯t make me do this!] Sam begged. This just got a disgusted *tisk* sound out of the pissed off woman.


    [See? I told you!] She snapped. [This useless ¡°Naugrim¡± (Dwarf) came from that soft new kid. I knew she wouldn¡¯t have what it takes.]


    ¡®CHILD.¡¯ The dragon¡¯s booming voice echoed through her head, causing Sam to stiffen up. ¡®THERE IS NO OPTION THAT HAS YOU LEAVING THIS ROOM WITHOUT COMPLETING THIS RITUAL. YOU WILL HAVE IUUTEL¡¯S BLESSING UPON YOUR SOUL. IT HAS BEEN DECREED. EVEN IF YOUR HAND MUST BE FORCED, YOU WILL RECEIVE THE BAPTISM OF BLOOD.¡¯


    Apparently taking the dragon¡¯s words as instructions, the pissed off woman grabbed Sam with both hands by the hand that was holding the dagger. The dagger was taken, flipped into a reverse grip, and then shoved back into Sam¡¯s hand. Then, the woman dragged Sam¡¯s body out over the chained-down man¡¯s chest. She could feel the warmth of the man¡¯s body as he began struggling harder and making increasingly urgent sounding croaking sounds.


    The gruff woman held the man¡¯s head down. Sam closed her eyes and looked away. She felt something rubbery resisting the tip of the knife. Something hot, wet, and sticky sprayed against her hand, causing her to flinch and tense her entire body. The hand holding the knife was pulled back. The spray against her hand grew stronger. The pissed-off woman let go of Sam¡¯s hand, and in that same moment she dropped the knife and it clattered against the altar. As soon as Sam¡¯s hand was released, she recoiled and slipped away from the two women and fled to the bottom of the stairs, shaking and crying as she clutched her blood-smeared arm.


    Sam was barely aware that the four who had been standing guard over the altar had begun to move. Two others appeared on either side of her to scoop her up under her armpits. By this point, she was no longer walking under her own power. Her feet dangled limply under her as she was dragged by the two holding her. She glanced up, and saw the man she¡¯d just been forced to kill dangling limply from the stone altar that had now been tilted to speed up the blood draining from his body and into the basin below. Sam soon realized that the basin was already filled with blood, likely from previous rituals of this sort. The entire pool stunk, it was thick with the smell of iron and rot.


    Sam realized their intention far too late as they approached the edge of the basin. Baptism of blood! The dragon had said that! ¡°No!¡± Sam blurted out in English as she started struggling against the two cloaked people dragging her. She was a small child, the two of them were much older, it was two against one, but somehow Sam, in her panick, overpowered both and slipped away from them, leaving the two of them scrambling over the ground. Sam did not make it far, however, when the stone beneath her feet grabbed onto her ankles and sent her face-first into the ground.


    [Damn ¡°Naugrim!¡± (Dwarf!) So uselessly strong!] One of the women spat.


    [She¡¯s physically stronger than we are. You will have to use Earth magic to move her] Another said. The implications of this started hitting Sam all at once. Could she have kept those two from forcing her earlier if she¡¯d just struggled more? She just accepted that she was going to be weaker than them and didn¡¯t even try. If she had a racial strength that simply surpassed them to the point she was stronger even as a child¡­ She should have tried harder back when she had the chance. But now¡­


    Sam truly was helpless against them now. The stone lifted her. She was now shackled hand and foot to a large slab. The stone was moved, levitated off the ground between four red-robed women, and the slab fit perfectly over the basin as it was placed on top of it with Sam facing directly down into the pool of blood. Then, the stone shackles that had been holding her hands and feet let go all at the same time, and she was in free-fall as she landed face first in the pool of stinking rotten blood. It assailed all of her senses and the fifth felt as though it was polluting her very soul.


    She pulled herself to the surface. She stood up, and pressed her hands against the large stone slab over her head. As a human, she would never have been able to shift this huge stone. Now, she was a child, she was tiny, and she did not even have stable footing in this slippery blood. But still, she somehow managed to push it up just enough to get some fresh air before she slipped and fell back into the vile fluid. There was no light in here, but thanks to her dark vision she could see clearly how the blood clumped and separated into red blobs of blood cells suspended in a thin sticky straw-colored liquid. Somehow, that thin liquid of the blood plasma just made the experience even more disgusting.


    By this point, the tears running down Sam¡¯s face were more on account of how desperately disgusted she was than anything to do with the emotional impact of having taken a life. She was desperate to get out. She pushed against the stone slab a few more times, shifting it a little bit at a time. When she had finally shifted it aside, she felt a stream of liquid flowing directly onto her head. She looked up as it hit her in the face, and she found she was looking directly up at the tilted sacrificial altar and the blood from the man she¡¯d killed was pouring directly down onto her.


    She placed one hand against the side of the slab and the other on the edge of the basin and crawled out onto level ground from the corner of the basin, made it a few feet, and then promptly vomited up the fine meal she¡¯d been served a few hours before.


    ¡®THE CEREMONY IS COMPLETE.¡¯ The dragon said. ¡®IN THE NAME OF IUUTEL, I CHRISTEN YOU THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE NIRODGIR. NOW. CEASE YOUR UNSIGHTLY DISPLAY AND STAND UP.¡¯


    As soon as the dragon finished speaking, Sam felt her own mouth shut of it¡¯s own volition even while it filled with vomit. She was forced to swallow the vile sour fluid back down, even as her body followed the dragon¡¯s command and stood. Sam realized in terror what had just happened. He had given her a command, and she was forced to follow it. If he could do this all along, he would have done it in order to force her to kill that man or to jump in the pool of blood. So, it must be that the conditions to force her like this had only just been achieved. It was the ¡°baptism.¡± It had to be. It applied some kind of evil magic. ¡°Blessing.¡± They called it! It seems like this is the true form of that blessing. It¡¯s a curse. A curse that forces people to follow this dragon¡¯s orders.


    Jemini

 Lore chapter Book 3 act 2: Five meditations of the warrior god

    Jemini


    This is a piece of the world lore I have been banging my head against the wall to try and work into the story in an organic way, and just kept failing to do. So, now, I''m including it in a lore chapter. This stuff has been in the world bible since I wrote the prologue, but very little of it has actually been getting applied in any effective way. I feel that, with a concept this powerful, this series could have benefited a lot and have come off very different had I been more capable of integrating this into the writing, but it was just never coming off right.


    Five meditations of the warrior god


    The movements of the warrior god meditation and combat style possesses five meditations. What is perhaps more significant though about these five meditations is the way that they are so completely interwoven with the combat style itself. There is a philosophy attached to each meditation, as well as a very short kata in the fighting technique attached to each of the five meditations as well. This philosophy aids in the progression of the meditation, but is also applicable to the combat style, and the first five ranks within the combat style require you to demonstrait you have internalized this philosophy into your combat technique.


    These philosophies help to guide the way the fighter fights, but they are also designed to progress so that the five work excellently together both as a meditation and also so that the five philosophies mesh very well into a single complete whole of a combat style.


    The progression of the meditations as you are supposed to work on them starts with Earth, then progresses in the order of the classical Greek elements through Water, Fire, and then finally Wind. After this, it ends with Void. The philosophies offer guidance, but they become increasingly vague as the progress with Earth offering just enough instruction to form a very clear image about what you are supposed to be focusing on, but also just vague enough that you can add a lot of your own interpretation in order to extrapolate on it. Then, by the time you get to void, it does not offer anything concrete and encourages the practitioner to create their own view of what void represents.


    The kata attached to each meditation are very short, consisting of only intercepting an enemy attack and then following up with a single counter-strike. However, in those 2 movements, each of the five kata manage to pack in an endless amount of meaning. They are kept short enough that it is conceivably possible they could actually come into combat use, although the combat style itself doesn¡¯t teach their use at all. More importantly though, each one can have it¡¯s meaning extrapolated almost endlessly in order to improve your combat form. The single most significant and important thing though about these very short kata is that due to their short nature, it¡¯s easy to repeat the same 2 moves endlessly and meditate as you are performing them, and the meaning can be used to improve the efficacy of the meditation, and meditating on the kata can aid you in pulling more of the meaning out in order to improve your combat technique.


    Earth


    Earth is the first of the five meditations. It is the foundation, and the beginning of the practitioner¡¯s path.


    The Earth¡¯s meditation demands a slow breath in and a slow breath out, becoming still and calm like the earth. The practitioner is encouraged to meditate on images of the earth, with rolling hills of greenery being the most encouraged image.


    The plilosophy of Earth is to use the power of the Earth itself against your opponent.


    There are several ways to interpret this philosophy. One might think about using the surrounding terrain to your advantage. This is a valid interpretation, but it is not the most encouraged emphisized one within the style. The most emphisized is also the most obvious, although the main reason it¡¯s obvious is in the context of the movements of the warrior god style being a gentle fist martial art, emphisizing grapling and bringing your opponent to the ground. The greatest power of the earth is not stone, and it is not the advantage you can gain from the terrain. The greatest power of the earth is gravity.


    The katta of the Earth meditation further emphisizes this connection to gravity in the form of the strike that makes up the second part of the Earth¡¯s kata. The strike is to straighten your arm directly behind you, and then allow it to drop, pulled by gravity, and then swing it like a pendulum into the enemy for a strike, primary targets being groin, gut, chin, or under-arm.


    The Earth¡¯s kata is deceptively complex in this seemingly simple movement. It requires the practitioner to throw the strike with absolutely no tension in their body, or else the tension will interfere with the free movement of their arm. It requires the practitioner to be loose in the movement of their hips, and to be able to step with perfect timing as their arm drops, moving immediately before the arm reaches it¡¯s lowest point in the swing. This, consiquently, also requires a decent sense of kinestetic awareness.


    Due to it being the kata for the foundational meditation and philosophy, it requires the practitioner to be exceptionally aware of their own body and their own movement, and it forces them to shed bad habits of their casual lives as they move closer to the mindset needed to become a practitioner of the movements of the warrior god style.


    As a practitioner is attempting to first gain mastery of the earth meditation and it¡¯s plilosophies, they are encouraged to focus on the grapling nature of the style and improve their take-downs, as well as to think about the weight of their weapon in their hands and how they can best manipulate that weapon as they are aware of it¡¯s center of gravity just as they would think about their enemy¡¯s center of gravity while un-footing them.


    Practitioners at all levels are also encouraged to meditate on the feeling of Earth as it relates to all their moves, and advanced practitioners can attach the Earth meditation to every movement they make, not just the movements of their kata. The feeling of Earth is the manner in which gravity attaches you to the ground, and the manner in which gravity influences your motion, as well as the calmness the images of rolling feilds of green clear your mind in order to give your attacks a certain clarity.


    Water


    Water is the second of the five meditations. The Water phase is considered a transformative phase of the practitioner¡¯s progression as it takes the things learned during the Earth phase, and gives them a similar yet new direction that is, as water, far more difficult to grasp. Water, by it¡¯s nature, relies on Earth to give it form and thus everything that comes from the water phase of the practitioner¡¯s training is based upon things previously learned in Earth.


    The water¡¯s meditation encourages the practitioner to conjure an image of water, as it makes most sense to the practitioner. There are several forms water can take, and it does not matter if they envision a violent sea, a peaceful lake, or a rushing river. In fact, it might be best to envision all of these things in turn as the practitioner progresses.


    The philosophy of water is to never be rigid in your thinking or actions.


    This philosophy is one that was discussed a lot by Bruce Lee as a good life philosophy, and has been discussed in many Chinese arts as allowing your body to be fluid, allowing attacks to glance off your body by moving at an angle, blocking in a way that re-directs force instead of meeting it head-on, or throwing attacks that flow around you enemy¡¯s blocks by being flexible in your actions.


    These are all valid interpretations, but the movements of the warrior god school teaches one more interpretation. To be ready to abandon anything that is not working for you before you can become killed by it. As attractive as it might be to be defiant and stubborn, that can easily get you killed by doing something that will not and is not working or, for a more specific possible example, an instance such as an enemy locking down your weapon and then following up an attack with a secondary weapon such as a dagger.


    In that second example, a practitioner of the movements of the warrior god style might be encouraged to let go of their weapon, and then intercept the hand of their attacker as they thrust with their secondary weapon in order to perform a joint lock and take them down.


    The kata of the Water meditation is nowhere near as physically complex as the one attached to the Earth¡¯s meditation, but it relies heavily on the understanding one would have gained from their time studying the Earth meditation in order to comprehend an opponent¡¯s balance and how to effectively take them off their feet.


    The strike associated with the Water meditation is a simple strike with the arm or the side of the hand to an enemy¡¯s neck or shoulder. The strike is meant to have downward momentum like a crashing wave, and strikes to the shoulder ought to have enough follow-through to knock an enemy off their feet.


    This kata demands the practitioner implement their understanding of strong-lines and weak-lines in the enemy¡¯s balance, and how to capitalize on them. It is, in effect, a culmination of everything previously learned in the Earth method and refining it into a single strike. However, it also emphisizes a lot of what the new focus of the Water method is, and that is the lack of attachment and rigidity. In this kata, the enemy is not taken down with a joint-lock. In fact, the enemy is not grabbed at all, they are taken down with a blow that unfoots them.


    During the practitioner¡¯s training during the Water phase of the movements of the warrior god, the practitioner will be encouraged to minimize or completely cease to grasp things with their hands, especially during joint locks. They will be taught, instead, to use their arms, wrists, or the sides of their hands (encouraged to be closed into fists in the early phases until they can break their habit of grabbing) in order to lock a joint for a grappling maneuver. This is in addition and in compliment to them being encouraged to become less rigid overall.


    Just as with Earth, all practitioners are encouraged to meditate on the feeling of Water in all their moves (although not both at the same time.) The feeling of water is the way in which you can move uninhibited from one action to the next, as well as the crushing power of a large volume of water as it applies to your attacks. Water is, interestingly, the most destructive, aggressive, and powerful of the five meditations.


    Fire


    Fire is the third of the five meditations, and the center point of an early practitioner¡¯s initial progress through the basic meditations of the movements of the warrior god.


    The meditation of fire encourages the practitioner to envision power, or an unstoppable force. Something that dominates, and gives them energy. The focus of this meditation is considered dangerous to give to a beginner who is ill equipped to handle it, and destructive to their early path. This is why it is not taught until after they have developed a foundation in Earth and Water.


    The philosophy of Fire is that Fire is an engine that creates power, but it also consumes it¡¯s fuel. It is powerful, but you must exercise caution while using it.


    Fire has long been a symbol of human progress. Fire is what brought mankind the power of the steam engine, and fire is what allows automobiles to run. Even before these times, fire has brought man light and warmth. Even before medical science progressed to better understand callories and energy, many cultures have envisioned all people to have a fire of life inside of themselves as well, giving their bodies the energy they need to move.


    While meditating on fire, the practitioner is required to use a breath that consists of a quick breath in and a quick breath out, encouraging the practitioner to hyperventalate as a representation of how fire brings the body power, but also exhausts it¡¯s fuel source. It is not a state you want to remain in for a prolonged period of time, and one you want to use only when it¡¯s necessary. In fact, another thing that¡¯s encouraged in the fire meditation is to consider how to leave the fire meditation and transition into something else. Thus, this is another reason why Earth and Water must be taught first. The practitioner must have anothe elemental meditation to transition to, lest they be consumed by the fire meditation.


    Consiquently, the breath of the water meditation is a long breath in and a short breath out, and this breathing pattern is excellent as a means by which to transition out of the fire meditation¡¯s breathing pattern.


    As fire is applied to the movements of the warrior god school, it is actually the caution while handling it that is emphisized far more than it¡¯s destructive power. It is viewed as a utility, not a weapon in it¡¯s own right. Weapons that use fire, such as bombs or, in more modern times, guns would be viewed as acceptable uses of fire by the school, but an open flame is not a weapon. It is a tool.


    The kata of the fire meditation is destructive in nature, but extremely focused and calculated. It emphasizes very fine attacks on the weakest parts of the human anatomy.


    The strike associated with the fire kata is a knife-hand strike to the neck, targeting either the vagus nerve at the front of the neck, knocking the enemy unconscious, or the spine which is severed by the strike.


    The fire kata demands that the practitioner develop a refined understanding of power, and also that they learn about the human body and it¡¯s weaknesses. It emphisizes inginuity, efficient use of power, and a high degree of controll in order to obtain outcomes greatly disproportionate to the effort put in.


    By the time a practitioner has begun working on the fire method, they will have been exposed to the style long enough to have begun to get a grasp of how to read their enemy¡¯s intentions, and an understanding of how to control their own intent. Thus, control over intent and reading your enemy is the focus for practitioners going through this phase of their progression.


    This use of an ability to read their enemy culminates in the ability to move second in a fight, but strike first and strike in a way that perfectly counters the enemy¡¯s movements and getting in a deadly blow in the moment of weakness as the enemy is attacking and their deffenses are down. In fact, the ability to utilize this application of reading your enemy is the test to veryfiy whether or not a practitioner has learned the fire method correctly, and it is only when they can do so that they are allowed to move on to the wind meditation.


    Wind


    Wind is the fourth of the five meditations. Wind is the phase where the movements of the warrior god fighting style really starts to take shape and gain the characteristics of lightness, as though barely touching their enemy as they cause their bones to twist and their balance to fail, that will carry the practitioner throughout their further future development.


    The meditation of wind encourages the practitioner to envision motion itself. After all, wind is the movement of air just as a wave moves through the water. They can envision the wind itself, their ability to influence the intangible, and as it applies to combat they might meditate on the concept of grasping something invisible as they move their enemies¡¯ bodies to their will.


    The philosophy of wind is to be one who influences indirectly, and who is moved naturally, causing all things to move to their will while the enemy finds you as untouchable as the wind.


    It is shocking that, while today we understand wind to be moving air, it is actually within the past 500 years that we even knew air existed. To people of the past, the space through which we moved on the planet¡¯s surface was as empty as we now understand the void of space to be. And thus, the wind was a force that moved through that space, with varrying beliefs on what might explain that force. This is ultimately why the fourth classical Greek element was Wind and not Air.


    Today, wind is understood to be just the movement of air, caused by heat thinning the air in some places and thus allowing the denser air from cooler locations to rush in to fill the gap, as well as larger currents of moving air that are created by the accumulated momentum the air has built up over time.


    These things greatly change the modern interpretation of the philosophy of wind from anything it might have been in the past. However, today it is understood to be shifting to the side of the enemy¡¯s attacks as though you are a leaf moved by the wind of their strikes, while also performing grapling in a way that your touch is as light as the wind blowing across their body, and striking in a manner that causes them to move as though the air is not even resisting your movement. (That last part being the most likely modern-day addition.)


    Considering this philosophy, it is in a way paradoxical that the kata associated with wind could not possibly be more opposite to it.


    The kata for the wind meditation is a single thrusting attack to a location on the enemy¡¯s body that will, if delivered correctly, completely destroy their stance and their balance. This is usually delivered to the shoulders or hips, or an area near one of them. However, the neck is also a valid option. The most important thing though is for the strike to be timed with the breath of the meditation, which is a short breath in and a long and very forceful breath out as though you are exhailing more air than you could have possibly ever breathed in. This breath gives the strike it¡¯s power and it is as though the enemy is being blown away by the breath as much as the thrust itself.


    This is something like the polar opposite of the Earth kata, which was focussed on having the practitioner learn a great deal about how to move and manipulate their own body, and to move without tension. This kata has a similarly deceptively complicated motion, but this time most of the complication is focused on your understanding of the other person¡¯s body and how their balance works, as well as how to direct or manipulate them into a position where their feet cannot recover from such a strike. The reason this is kept until the fourth kata is because the level of knowledge and experience needed to perform it far outstrips what a person can ever match at the beginning of their journey into the combat arts.


    Although the kata is the dynamic opposite of the best understandings of the philosophy, it remains the same that whether you are taking an enemy down with a single thrust, or taking them down with a million subtle manipulations that barely even require you to touch them, both require a phenominal understanding of how the human body works and how to manipulate the balance, perception, and reactions of the one you are fighting against.


    It almost goes without saying that while a practitioner is working through the wind phase, they are instructed to focus on making their grapling manipulations lighter in terms of contact and to work on the fluidity of their weapons handling.


    Void


    Void is the fifth and final of the five meditations. Void is more a concept that the practitioners are told to conceptualize, and it is very difficult for a lower level student within the style to know the difference between someone at the wind level and someone at the void level in terms of their training, but the concept of void brings all the previous concepts together and enhances them to a higher level.


    A void is, by definition, an absence of something that should be there. Instead, there is just nothing. As such, the meditation of the void is a meditation on nothing. It is left up to the practitioner to determine what meditating on nothing actually means. Do they meditate on the concept of nothing? Or do they empty their mind of any thoughts?


    Similarly, there is no philosophy to the void. But, considering what the void represents, perhaps having no philosophy is a rather profound philosophy in and of itself.


    The kata of the void is similarly lacking in definition. It starts with a block to an oncoming attack, just like any of the previous kata, but there is no prescribed follow-up. The one thing that is made very clear is that the follow up is absolutely not an attack, and it should not even involve touching the enemy at all.


    Some interpret this to mean they should apply some kind of visual distraction technique, such as swinging their hand at the enemy¡¯s face. Others simply say that the most accurate interpretation of the void would be to make yourself disappear, or rather, run away. Either can be good tactics as the situation demands. Ultimately though, answering the question of what void means as part of the kata is part of the process on meditating on the concept of void.


    Those practicing at the void level are encouraged to further emphisize the light-touch associated with the wind phase, but to do so with the concept of void in their minds. There is also an increase in techniques that involve encouraging your enemy to rely on the practitioner¡¯s structure to hold them up, and then removing that support. (Think letting go of the rope during a tug-of-war, only as it applies to grappling. Creating the situations for such a technique to work is not encouraged. Rather, it is just a matter of recognizing when they come up on their own, because it occurs more often than one might think.)

 Image: Cover page to inevitable reboot. (And name change announcement.)

    Hey all, so, I''ve firmly confirmed that I will be doing a hard reboot of this series as soon as arc 3 is over, with the associated changes already having been stated. In fact, I''ve already said this, but the next act will start after a time skip for which I will start with dropping some exposition and I will be treating it a lot more like how I plan to treat the reboot version as I am solidifying my image for it.


    The only real serious point to know that will be changing without even really being acnowledged in series is that, and I know some of you are going to hate this (but I really couldn''t find a way to manage this series without doing this,) the younger personality for Aerien will be treated as though she never existed. I had ideas for her at the start, but she was supposed to be more of a short lived thing that only went on for as long as she did as a fan pleaser since people liked her so much and demanded she stick around. Huge mistake on my part. For the sake of the remainder of this version, we can just assume that my original plan occurred in the space of these 3 years and now little Aerien has fully integrated and become one-and-the-same as older Aerien for something more of a combined entity and personality.


    Anyway, now it''s time to get onto more immediate points of interest. I wanted to unveil the cover art for the reboot version, especially because it also happens to have some character and weapon art that will be showing up and described in future chapters. The reason it''s not going to become the cover for the current version is because it also involves a name change. "Second Life as the Sister of a Goddess" was just way too clunky from the start, and it also set expectations too high on Gaerien''s role in the story compared to what we got. (Although I do plan to increase Gaerien''s role with the snipping out of younger Aerien, because she actually WAS stealing the spotlight from a lot of the other characters which was my principle frustration with her from the writer''s perspective, it will not be enough to justify her identity being emphasized in the title.)


    The new title for the series after the reboot will be "Key to the Void," referencing Aerien''s ability to open the way into the void. It also has other long-term plot related meanings, but revealing that meaning would be spoiler city. Anyway, here''s the cover art, I''m actually pretty proud of this thing and I love the design the artist came up with for Gaerien. It actually matches her former goddess identity almost perfectly, for which the reason why will be revealed in the exposition dump in the first few chapters of the next act.

 Book 3 Chapter 15: Strangled growth

    Jemini


    For those of you really confused about that little outburst and who didn''t read my post about delays, I am a nursing assistant working with a healthcare temp agency. The reason this chapter got delayed by almost a week is because, while I was working at a facility I signed up for a few shifts at, I witnessed some things that suggested administration level problems at the facility and had to file for elder abuse against the entire facility. I was running around having to contact and email three different state agencies, plus also talking with my own agency in order to get this all figured out, and in the meantime the people in charge over at the facility cancelled my shifts.


    Well, I''ve just proven that, as an agency nursing assistant, I am especially hard to unjustly retaliate against and have relatively little to worry about in reporting injustices I see. I had enjoyed the freedom in scheduling that comes with the unique nature of my agency job, but now I''ve just found another reason to love this particular niche in the job market.


    Anyway, that''s the full story of my life for the past week or so. Now that you''re all updated on my personal issues, let''s get back to a far more interesting story. The one you all came here to read in the first place.


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    I stood atop a dragon¡¯s head, an adjunct of Lord Baltair who had been assigned to me for my continued negotiations with the Cundo associated dryads. They had spread out far wider than anyone in the court had originally thought possible, as I had learned over these past few exhausting years of negotiating with the dryads of each village individually.


    This hands-on exposure to the duties of a princess had taught me several things, whether I wanted it or not. One of the more basic among those things were that the forest of the fey was stupidly big, and there were quite a few elven settlements interspersed throughout it. Elven villages were a lot smaller than a human village or township, and they also lived farther apart than humans did, but the total elven population of this kingdom nearly equaled that of some of the larger human kingdoms. It¡¯s just that it took a truly ludicrous amount of land to support such a bafflingly large amount of elves.


    This didn¡¯t even get into the lesser fey that lived here, there, and everywhere throughout the forest. It seemed this forest had come to be regarded as some kind of fey holy land, and my adoptive mother was the entirety of the reason behind all of this. A powerful enough fey dragon will attract other dragons of the same type, and together their power is so great that it warps the magic of an area to conform to them. It just so happens that the blue-jade dragons have power over nature, and the forest magically grown by their power is the ideal place for the fey to live.


    And here, I have responsibility as the princess of this stupidly large forest that takes up nearly 80% of a continent. I am just glad for Sarafon who has been my diligent co-worker, assistant, bodyguard, and default chauffeur the entire time. I don¡¯t know what I would do without him. Although I¡¯m pretty sure it would involve another dragon from the arbor committee being assigned to me, at this point I have developed such a working relationship that I couldn¡¯t imagine being with anyone else. At the very least, it would be headache inducing to get another dragon used to the boys. It seems like they all regard them as creepy ever since they learned my fire meditation, allowing them to actually understand the dragons¡¯ spirit speech.


    Honestly, the dragons profess that they hate humans because they don¡¯t understand when they are spoken to, and then the first time they encounter a human that actually can understand them they look at them like a little girl who just got a rat dropped in her lap.


    I let out a sigh and absentmindedly knelt down to stroke Sarafon¡¯s eye ridge and then cast a glance back over my shoulder at the two sets of hands clutching for dear life at his mane. I took two steps back and looked at the pair of elves, a spell-singer master and apprentice pair. This had been another part of the reason for all these trips out. All the Cundo associated dryads hated spell singers, so I had proposed the solution. The major issue was with their capture of humans. So, I would take them all to the capital, where the dragons have an aversion to humans as well, and the abundant spirit energy of the great tree and the fey nobles leaves the elves never wanting for human children either. Some were easier to convince than others, but this had been the bulk of my work in this set of repeated excursions out to all corners of this gigantic kingdom.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re almost there.¡± I told them in a gentle voice, not concerning myself over the fact I was using English. The wind at this speed would sweep away my words anyway, the only reason anyone would understand me at all was the fact my words were backed up with my spirit speech. ¡°I can already see the heaven¡¯s scar, the encampment where the elven civilians are staying is right at the edge of the scar.¡±


    Both women looked up at me and gave a weak nod. They had nothing like my wind-walker robe, let alone several hundred hours¡¯ experience flying on a dragon. In fact, this is likely the only time in their long elven lives they would experience anything like this. They could not be blamed for not doing well under these circumstances. In fact, they were doing well just to hold on. It was more than just a few times that I have had to jump off in order to rescue someone who¡¯s hands had slipped during all these relocation efforts.


    ¡°Sarafon, perhaps you can go a little easier?¡± I asked. A code-word we had established to mean he ought to intensify the magic stabilizing his passengers while making it sound like I was asking him to fly slower and smoother.


    ¡®I have already established a full wind barrier, and am pressing them into the area they have chosen to cling to my mane your highness. I cannot see where I might be able to do more.¡¯ He said.


    ¡°I see.¡± I said, looking up over the trees before me. It was almost scary that I had gotten to a point where I had become able to differentiate one tree from another from a bird¡¯s-eye view like this, even at dragon-speed which I had identified from rough estimates was likely approaching mach 3 for the higher level dragons, with their wind displacement spells being the only reason they didn¡¯t cause any kind of sonic boom. I quickly managed to identify the treeline for the so-called refugee camp where the elves of the capital had set up due to their being unable to approach the arcane-energy ridden capital itself. ¡°I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter, we ought to be there in under a minute now.¡±


    I kicked off his head and began flying with my wind-walker robe. I had begun practicing with it more. It was really a well designed magic item, it could increase it¡¯s flight speed in accordance with how much magical energy was dumped into it, making me a rather fast flyer myself. I still could not get anywhere near dragon speed, but I suspect most of the reason for that might be my inability to use their slipstream magic. So long as I could ride inside the slipstream Sarafon was creating, I had very little trouble keeping up.


    I hovered down closer to the main, having to turn away a bit as the stiff dragon hairs whipped at my face, and eventually came low enough that I was nestled in between the two women and able to place a hand on each of their backs.


    ¡®Thank you, you do not have to be so concerned over us, your highness.¡¯ The spell-singer master said using only the spirit speech. Coming from an elf, it sounded rather weak and quiet. In fact, it was fairly impressive she could use it at all, she must have been quite advanced in her abilities to have the energy to spare for it. I looked over her way and pushed some of my own bottomless spirit energy into her, more than replacing what she had just expended and causing her to gasp as a result.


    ¡°I am the one who pushed to bring you to the encampment of the capital, I have taken you into my care and so you are my responsibility until we arrive. Your well-being is paramount.¡± I told her, somewhat disgusted by the fact that I found myself wondering at whether these kind words were my true feelings or just putting on the face of a princess. Every single move and action was a play of public relations lately, and I needed to constantly cultivate a positive public image, especially if I wanted to accrue the social capital I needed to make demands related to the boys¡¯ fair treatment in this racist society.


    The big-hearted princess who saw all as equals. That was the image I had carefully shaped and formed over these years. It stepped me closer to my true goal of advocating for the rights of humans in this society, and the fact that I also treated elves with such kindness, including those who were having a difficult time right now like the spell singers who had lost their place in this society, just lent credence to this cause.


    Equality for all, the humans as well as the former slavers. This was the kind of policy that would bring about true equality, even if it was a little hard to stomach. I knew it was necessary though. Dryad¡¯s methods were forceful and thoughtless about the damage they would cause to the society. If they were shown that this radical change would not mean a destruction of their well-being and way of life, they would be more ready to accept it. Or at least, that was the theory.


    No, I¡¯m certain a part of me really did want to help these people. I was just having a hard time justifying it with my biases on the issue, and these arguments helped. Emotions really are a complex thing to deal with.


    My thoughts were interrupted by a large plume of fire erupting out of the scarred lands. The flames were quickly swept up in a violent swirl of wind, forming into a flame tornado in the middle of the jagged rocky land.


    ¡®It looks as though lady Gaerien is being quite diligent in her arcane clearing duties.¡¯ Sarafon observed with a slight tint of amusement. ¡®Such an elaborate display using that unrefined elemental magic, it is not something that can be achieved without a great deal of practice.¡¯


    ¡®Elemental!?¡¯ The spell singer¡¯s apprentice said with a twinge of surprise and fear.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± I said. ¡°Gaerien is my sister.¡±


    ¡®Her majesty also adopted a grey elf!?¡¯ The apprentice asked in shock.


    ¡°She did.¡± I said with a harsh edge to my voice. ¡°Me, in case you missed it.¡± Evidently, she had, not that she would be the first. It seems the awe of standing in front of the first elven princess with dragons flying overhead causes some people to miss things like a pale discoloration of the skin. ¡°And before you say something that might be interpreted as an insult to my birth mother, we were born as twins.¡± I added.


    ¡®Twins!? What are twins!?¡¯ The apprentice asked.


    ¡®It is something that happens occasionally in human births. Two children, occasionally identical in appearance, are born at once.¡¯ The spellsinger informed her apprentice. ¡®For it to happen with elves though, I think your highness¡¯ case may be the first. And to have so much power as well.¡¯ Her tone had significant awe behind it. In my case though, I had to take several deep breaths in order to get my frustrations under control. I just hope Sarafon can land before I feel tempted to throw these two off myself.


    Well, I suppose this whole experience has at least shown me where the Cundo Dryads¡¯ occasionally difficult attitudes comes from. Perhaps the biggest difference between me and them is not my maturity as I¡¯ve always assumed, but the simple fact that they deal more directly with these elves so much more frequently.


    ¡°Here we are.¡± I said the moment I felt Sarafon start to circle. I didn¡¯t want to stick around any longer than necessary at this point, so I let go and flew up once again and promptly left Sarafon¡¯s slipstream and immediately felt my ears pop as the more normally pressurized air slammed into me. Sarafon must have noticed my state of frustration, he¡¯d hardly slown down at all despite how close we were to the encampment. That meant he was taking a rather wide circle compared to normal, and I had to fly a little bit of a distance before arriving.


    I leveled myself out next to a giant redwood, with the occasional hole in the side for a window. Despite how famous these trees were for their height, they simply did not have the width that the lakira trees the elves were used to had. For them, making their homes inside these trees qualified as fairly difficult living conditions, similar to a New-York living arrangement in some ways. Each level had a room just barely large enough for a bed and a few personal belongings, and there was hardly any room to sleep at all for a family.


    Worst of all for them though, there were no tree spirits in any of these trees. They were shaped by Isanil with her roots that reached this far out by now. Her connection was not the strongest at this distance though, and it often took the efforts of me, Gaerien, the boys, or one of the dragon nobles to feed enough mana and spirit energy through the soil and stone in order to reshape a tree out here.


    It really amounted to a little loss of the convenience they were used to, it was about the same as a person from Earth living in a tent. Better even, these trees were a lot more sturdy against the elements. And, several of them were already adjusted to hardship from the long treck they had taken to get here, but they were filled with a great deal of frustration at having to sit in view of their old home without the ability to approach. Keeping them under control, that was another one of my new princess duties.


    The forest floor was already a mass of activity, it seemed they¡¯d heard Sarafon¡¯s approach. They were looking toward the direction he had gone, attempting to spot him circling back, but there were a few others also scanning the sky in random directions. No doubt they were looking for me, this would not be the first time I had leapt off before Sarafon¡¯s final approach. Of course, it wasn¡¯t long at all before they spotted me as I proceeded with my controlled descent. One mother with her child pointed straight in my direction with a cry of [the princess,] and in the next second everyone cast a flicker of a glance at her pointing finger before they all turned in my direction, a few of them who realized they were close to my landing site clearing out and making room while the rest made various gestures of reverence.


    Well, at least they stopped completely prostrating themselves. I suppose frequent visits and practically living here half the time would do that. Although, I¡¯m quite certain my standard response being [You may rise, this is not a formal appearance] had more to do with it.


    I kept some height, hovering around 3 to 4 feet off the ground so that my head would be slightly higher than the tallest among them. They seemed to get very uncomfortable with the idea of looking down while greeting me upon arrival. The crowd parted as a small contingent of better dressed elves pushed their way through.


    [Your highness.] The lead among them said.


    [Master Baidriar.] I greeted him in turn, using Elven to indicate I was not interested in keeping this formal. I had been advised that the ¡°otherworldly¡± sound created by using English along side the spirit speech tended to have an impressive effect which I ought to capitalize on during more formal appearances, but I was in no such mood right now. To add further emphasis to this, I immediately dropped to the ground as soon as that bare minimum of a greeting was over with.


    [Has everything been well?] I asked, schooling myself not to look up at them and behave as though looking straight ahead as their waist level didn¡¯t bother me in the slightest.


    [Indeed it has, your highness.] Baidriar, the head magus among the elves, responded. [Your¡­ I mean¡­ Levin and Rolwen¡¯s combined energy has left all the children incredibly healthy, and lady Gaerien¡¯s purging of the arcane in the area leaves us with few concerns even being this close to the battle ground that the space beneath our home has become.]


    [That is very good to hear. I can feel Sagel nearby though, I will have something to discuss with him.] As if on cue, a man slipped out from the crowd as his features quickly morphed, his hair growing whiter and his eyes growing larger as the black of his pupils overtook the entirety of his eyes, all the while his skin turned a soft shade of blue and his clothing became more formal.


    [Yes, your highness. You wanted to see me?] He said immediately. I was unable to respond right away, and simply stared back at him as a tried hard to keep my face hard and ¡°dignified¡± rather than show my confusion or amusement at his actions. [Ah, I apologize.] He said. [I was assisting Rolwen and Levin in a training exercise to sharpen the sensitivity of their new spirit sense they had developed through the method you¡¯d taught them. They have yet to approach the the sensitivity you have demonstrated yourself with that ability, and thought they could use some training.]


    [So, their task is to find you in the crowd you have blended into?] I asked him. [I believe you had best rethink this training method somewhat. Your aura changes every time you change your form, I believe they would likely have an easier time finding you by recalling the faces of everyone in the camp and finding the one that is new to them.]


    [Also a worthy skill-set to have.] Sagel stated in complete confidence. Well, I suppose that¡¯s certainly not something I can deny.


    [Well, there he is.] A defeated but happy sounding familiar voice spoke out from the crowd. The crowd of people made way for the two waist-height human boys walking confidently through the sea of legs. They were somewhat well dressed, and both had wooden training swords at their hips. Rolwen was taking up the front with smooth and confident strides that were completely unnatural for the 5 year old child he was physically and bore testament to the rigorous neuro-muscular training they had been going through for the past 3 or so years.


    [I guess this means we lost.] Levin said, bringing up the rear with slightly more hap-hazard steps that made Sagel glare at him. Levin jumped into form when he noticed the look he was getting, and immediately tried to shape up.


    Eyes glanced up to the sky again as Sarafon was making his final approach. He seems to have done a complete circle of the village and was now approaching from the exact same direction I had. His two passengers were already lifted off by his magic, and were now being gently floated down to join us.


    [Well then, your highness.] Baidriar gave a nod of his head. [Please allow us to concern ourselves with integrating our new arrivals. I do not wish to keep you from your business.]


    I thanked the man for his consideration and then left off with Sagel, Levin and Rolwen. I did want to talk about something, but before that I wanted to see how these two were coming along.

 Book 3 Chapter 16: Struggle of identity

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    Of course, Sagel had no plans on making some little test of Rolwen and Levin¡¯s abilities too easy on me. Standing in front of me were the three boys, all appearing to be around 5 years old, and matching me rather closely in height. All three had their wooden swords drawn. Me though, I was completely unarmed.


    Levin and Rolwen were two of the boys of course, but the third, the transformed Sagel, was going to be the biggest headache of the three. Two on one unarmed Vs. Levin and Rolwen, that was certainly something I could handle. Sagel though¡­ there was very little doubt in my mind that man was, in fact, far superior to me in terms of martial skill. He DID have millennia and countless human lifespans and experiences to learn all there is to know about human combat methods after all, he quite likely surpassed even the grand master from Earth. The few wins I¡¯ve managed to pull against him have all been due to the sneaky tactics of my own style, but he¡¯s long since figured out my tricks and closed all his gaps. There is simply no way I¡¯m going to defeat him without a weapon.


    Well then, this means I¡¯m going to have to do my best to use Rolwen and Levin as obstacles, keep them between myself and him, and at some point I will need to steal a weapon from one of them.


    I tuned out the giggles and noises of awe and excitement from the sidelines. We had our own little clearing for these training exercises, but of course it always attracted a crowd of gawkers, especially among the children from the camp who had grown quite attached to the two boys.


    Levin and Rolwen began circling, winging themselves away from Sagel and giving him a clear line to me as they attempted to box me in. Like I was going to let that happen. I also began walking off to my left, toward where Rolwen was. He was the more difficult to deal with of the two boys. He definitely had some high level martial experience of his own from back on Earth. He was clearly unfamiliar with the sword, but his footwork was on point. His most comparable skills to this world were in unarmed combat and he also seemed to know his way around a knife. I had a sneaking suspicion he might also know how to use a gun rather well. His style seemed to be a very striking-heavy variation on Judo. I¡¯m quite familiar with an entire family of styles with similar features, and most of them are taught in police or military special forces training, but the police version definitely does not train in knife fighting and heavily emphasis the striking portion.


    This placed Rolwen as the second biggest threat of the trio, meaning I wanted to keep my eyes on him. He¡¯d adapted to my methods quite well given his assumed background, so I did not want to leave him free to pull some kind of sneaky tactic while I was engaged with Levin.


    Sagel had already motioned to Levin to close quicker, and was crossing over behind Rolwen. This placed the weakest member of the trio the furthest from Sagel, it was all too obviously a weak formation. That means they¡¯re either up to something, or they just aren¡¯t taking this seriously. I wasn¡¯t about to bet on the latter.


    Levin wound up being the trigger to start as he broke into a full run, and then Sagel and Rolwen who were each more used to coordinating with others started as well, timing their pace so they would all reach me at around the same time. Of course, I would be at a disadvantage if I let them approach me on their own terms. So, I did exactly the thing they would be least likely to expect from me. I ran straight toward Sagel.


    The changeling was clearly not surprised by this in the least, and already had his sword in a thrusting position, and was opening himself to move quickly in Rolwen¡¯s direction in case I changed targets at the last minute. A thrust during a charge is the easiest thing to correct to intercept a last-minute dodge, and it would also do the least to get in Rolwen¡¯s way as he tried to pinch me in. There¡¯s only one way to deal with a thrust, and that¡¯s to move at the absolute last possible second when they can¡¯t easily correct. The only thing this really bought me was distance from Levin so I wasn¡¯t dealing with 3 people at the same time.


    Sagel¡¯s posture shifted again to cover the outside. Of course, his earlier posture was just a feint. He wanted to force me to dodge right into where Rolwen could intercept me. He thrust toward my left shoulder, forcing me to avoid to the right with zero space to avoid Rolwen¡¯s approaching swing. I avoided Sagel¡¯s attack by millimeters, and immediately grabbed both his arms and walked around him as though we were dancing, leading his sword straight in Rolwen¡¯s general direction.


    This is where Rolwen showed his stripes though. He avoided that flailing un-aimed strike far more easily than I had avoided Sagel¡¯s original strike, and with a similar minimal movement as though he just slightly changed the direction he was running so his path would no longer intersect with the strike. His attack was still coming at me, and I had no direction to go now except straight through the child-size changeling.


    I ducked under his sword arm, but he leaned his body weight in to intercept me. There was zero chance of me getting out of this without loosing my footing, so I just accepted that and allowed myself to fall straight down over Sagel¡¯s outstretched leg, directing a wild kick in Rolwen¡¯s general direction. One foot nearly missed his face, the other successfully caught Rolwen¡¯s sword arm and pushed it right up into Sagel¡¯s left armpit.


    I felt the changeling collapse his own footing in order to avoid the strike, landing his body directly on top of mine. A mere second later, I had a sword pointed directly at my neck with Levin standing proudly over us.


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s a win for you guys.¡± I said as Sagel lifted himself up off of me.


    ¡°Ahh¡­ good coordination you two.¡± Sagel praised them. ¡°Your highness, excellent tenacity, managing to maim the strike leader¡¯s arm before you went down, even managing to get the strike to go somewhere that would be uncovered with leather or resin armor.¡±


    ¡°Yes, three on one is still a nearly impossible prospect.¡± I said. ¡°Especially unarmed Vs. Armed. I¡¯m honestly surprised I even managed that.¡± I accepted Sagel¡¯s offered hand as he helped me up. ¡°Also, I somewhat doubt such a strike would have been able to penetrate an under-layer of even some un-enchanted textile armor.¡±


    ¡°It would if the weapon was enchanted.¡± Sagel said with a smirk. ¡°To be perfectly honest though, you ought to have been able to last at least a little longer. Maybe even pull off a win. You are still thinking in terms of your old human body. Your current body has a lot more physical strength. If you had thrown me into Levin before I¡¯d fully reached the ground, it would have taken the two of us out of the battle for a moment and allowed you to face down against Rolwen. My weight should not have been enough to hold you back.¡±


    I sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right, I¡¯m getting very little opportunity to push my skills forward with all of this diplomatic stuff. I am in desperate need of some time for some proper training with you guys. I get the feeling Levin and Rolwen may be able to beat me solo not very long from now at the rate things are progressing.¡±


    ¡°What!? No way!¡± Levin denies my claim. ¡°You always just toss me away and take my sword when I try to close on you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because you always swing in from too close.¡± Rolwen chastises him. ¡°You gotta strike so only the very tip of your sword lands, otherwise she¡¯s gonna close on you before the strike can land and then she¡¯ll have your hands.¡±


    ¡°Well, she can also close on you if your strike is too shallow.¡± Sagel cautions. ¡°It¡¯s actually her preferred tactic to avoid a strike and then close after you¡¯ve missed. I¡¯ve noticed she actually tends to be slightly panicked when Levin closes in closer than he should. Another valid tactic would be for him to feint and then pull his strike so his sword is between himself and her again, it would be an excellent opportunity to gain ground with a thrust that forces her to retreat out completely.¡±


    ¡°Great, strategy briefings from the guy who¡¯s read through all my tricks. This proves even more why I gotta go pick up some new ones.¡± I huffed as I dusted myself off.


    ¡°For now, you are a very worthy opponent for them your highness. In human kingdoms, it would not be uncommon for your knights to be stronger and act as your protectors.¡± Sagel said.


    ¡°But not fey kingdoms.¡± I stated flatly. ¡°And we are not in a human kingdom, are we?¡±


    ¡°Your appointment into royalty was most unusual.¡± Sagel said. ¡°Normally, you would be far more accomplished and powerful before ever being considered for a noble position. However, you were selected for your growth potential and already existing interpersonal and diplomatic skills. Combat power is something you can work on. Your body is only four years old, and your mind is only approaching seventy. For an elf, you would not even have reached adulthood if we add up both of your lives¡¯ experiences. Frankly, it is a testament that her majesty made the correct choice that you are managing this difficult transition for our people as well as you are, and it is completely understandable that your combat abilities are lagging behind. You will have your time to improve. And besides, if you were using your elemental magic, not a single one of us would have stood a chance. You ought to be able to defend yourself quite effectively if you keep the enemy at a distance and toss off a good spell.¡±


    Well, yeah. There certainly was that. It¡¯s still a little humiliating that all the combat skills I learned back on Earth, the ones I¡¯d actually taken real pride in, are the ones that are repeatedly getting completely outclassed. The areas where I¡¯m superior all have to do with the things that are different in this world from Earth.


    ¡°So,¡± Rolwen cut in before that could go anywhere else. ¡°You said before that you wanted to talk to Sagel about something, is it anything we can be involved in?¡±


    I let out a long sigh. ¡°Of course, in fact it might very well be a good idea for you to tag along. Bring your wind-steel swords along. I¡¯ll tell you about it once we are away from the camp.¡± I said, casting a meaningful glance around at the small group of kids and slightly larger group of adults.


    [Levin won!] An older boy said with an amused grin.


    [What do you think they¡¯re talking about?] A much younger boy said.


    [That¡¯s nothing you need to concern yourself over.] A man nearby said. [If they wanted us to know, they would be talking in Elven. You shouldn¡¯t pry into her highness¡¯ concerns.]


    ¡°You know? You could probably just tell us right here and nobody would know anyway.¡± Levin commented.


    ¡°No, her highness is right.¡± Sagel said. ¡°Anyone could have learned just enough of your language by now to catch onto something they shouldn¡¯t. Even if they haven¡¯t, the mere fact that the possibility exists means you should never assume otherwise. The mere fact she¡¯s telling us to bring your wind-steel swords ought to be enough to tell you it¡¯s fairly serious.¡±


    ¡°Still can¡¯t just call her Aerien, huh?¡± Rolwen teased, to which Sagel fixed him with a stony dead-eye stare before wordlessly taking his adult changeling form again.


    ¡°Go prepare your gear.¡± Sagel ordered and then walked off.


    -


    Sarafon carried the four of us over to where a far smaller dragon was circling the area, keeping a respectful distance from a specific spot on the distant ground he was intently staring at, the reason for which would be quite clear to anyone who¡¯d been even close to the area anytime in the past hour or so. In the next moment, a geyser of water erupted straight into the air from the location the dragon was staring. Fire joined the erupting water a moment later. The water doused the fire, and a large cloud of steam filled the air.


    ¡®Well, you¡¯d better announce us so she knows that she should stop for our approach.¡¯ Sagel commented. On his words, I drifted myself out ahead of Sarafon, stopping a short distance in front of the tip of his nose. I lifted a hand to my head, let out a breath and began to focus my intent. Elemental magic had been something I''d taken to quite alarmingly well by comparison to that domain magic stuff. It was rumored to respond to destructive intent, but I had discovered it is just strong intent in general that controls elemental magic. Manipulating my own intent just so happened to be a strong suit of my training.


    In response to my intent, fire and air elements gently fused together, causing pure oxygen to ignite in a flame that was such a pale blue that it was invisible to the eye against the backdrop of the sky. Aside from the occasional orange when some speck of dust drifted into the flames, a phenomenon that vanished in a mere tenth of a second, the heat from the flame was the only evidence it was even there at all.


    ¡®An invisible flame.¡¯ Sarafon said, ¡®Honestly, every time I see it I have a hard time believing this is elemental magic. With that kind of control, I would swear it was bloodline sorcery, but I have never heard of anyone but deep ruby and bronze metal dragons having a bloodline for fire.¡¯


    It is something of a struggle to keep my focus with such comments, but I school my mind to endure it. I allow a brief image of an aurora of orange flames to pass through my mind, and then strike through the pure oxygen fueled fire, causing the invisible flames to retreat away in a fan-shape. As it passes through the air, every impurity it comes into contact with burns in orange fire. The leading edge is, of course, the brightest with an orange color that is almost as intense as a normal wood flame. Meanwhile, the bits of impurities in the air that rushes in to fill the created void leave trails of whispy orange trailing behind that leading edge for something very much like the dance of lights in the aurora-borealis. The only exception, of course, being that it''s pure orange instead of all manner of fascinating colors.


    ¡®Well, she knows we¡¯re here now.¡¯ Levin comments in an almost boastful and proud tone. ¡®Aerien¡¯s the only person who can do this with fire.¡¯


    A short time later, a much smaller blast of fire, only around the size of the ignition stream for a hot-air balloon, rose up from the spot on the ground. This blast was followed by another one, and then a third all in quick succession.


    ¡®That¡¯s her acknowledgement.¡¯ Sagel commented as I was landing again on top of Sarafon¡¯s forehead. The moment my feet made contact with his scales, he started descending toward that spot on the ground.


    ¡®Couldn¡¯t we just call down to her with spirit speech?¡¯ Rolwen asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s like a game between us.¡± I said. ¡°More importantly though, it allows me to practice using the natural energies instead of what I¡¯ve summoned on my own, and consumes a lot of arcane energy as a result. You¡¯d be surprised at how inefficient these showy displays actually are. Well, unless the goal actually IS to consume as much arcane energy as possible while doing minimal damage. I suppose that from this perspective it is incredibly efficient. Anyway, I''m going to go ahead.¡±


    I nodded, and then simply kicked off the side of Sarafon''s head and dropped from the sky before Sagel had time to raise an objection. I re-activated my cloak as I neared the ground and sped over toward Gaerien¡¯s location. She was already waiting for me, standing tall and proud in her matte-black combat uniform, a crimson leather vest with protruding shoulders and gold trim came mid-way down her chest, and she wore arm-warmers that had red semi-transparent fabric trailing from them in the form of extra-wide sleeves, the material was interwoven with a fine gold-thread design depicting what looked like small fairies.


    Honestly, the entire thing looked more regal than my own wind-walker robe. Or rather, I¡¯m told that¡¯s only the reaction from the human perspective, which I seem to still be somewhat stuck in. While it¡¯s true my own robe was somewhat of a rushed job and was implanted with a simple design and simple enchantment, they are also both highly effective for their job, and the jade-green color is something only nobility directly connected to the queen¡¯s faction is allowed to wear, meaning my heavier looking and less heavily decorated robe is considered to be the far more regal outfit, and the dragons embroidered on the frock only adds to it.


    She had grown to stand almost exactly as tall as me in these mere 3 years. She was growing at a truly astounding rate for an elf. But, there was a reason for that. She¡¯d revealed the true nature of her divinity to me a while ago, shortly before she was deciding the black and blood-red theme on the clothing she was wearing now. She was a leech who, through the divine power of the goddess of healing, had taken on a human form. It seems, since the day we were born she had been feeding off my bottomless well of power, so it only stood to reason she would quickly grow to my own apparent age. It just took a little longer with her than it had with me.


    Gaerien smiled at me as I landed a short distance in front of her. ¡°You know¡­¡± She said with a teasing smile. ¡°It is really not appropriate for a princess to ditch her guards and run ahead like that.¡±


    ¡°Well, I was approaching my knight, was I not?¡± I countered before giving her a gentle hug. ¡°Besides, I felt it would be better to let you recharge a little before they landed.¡± Gaerien inhaled deeply, and I felt her body begin to relax a little. Since she ate in the elven manner now rather than the way she had with her old body, our mere physical proximity was plenty for her to feed off my energy directly.


    ¡°Hmm¡­ that is enough.¡± She said, and then gently removed my arm from her shoulder. ¡°That Sarafon is not exactly a part of our circle, and that dragon who brought me who barely even qualifies as a true dragon at all is not even associated with us. We do not want to overstep what could be dismissed as an expression of unsevered bonds among blood family in front of these eyes.¡±


    I sighed and lightly skipped back away from her. ¡°All these stuffy rules of appearance.¡± I complained. ¡°I get it, but it is bothersome. I was a professional in the medical field in my previous life, that required decorum, but it¡¯s absolutely nothing in comparison to what¡¯s required of a politician.¡±


    ¡°Try being a goddess.¡± Gaerien commented with a serious but slightly smug smile. Seriously, that face is more regal than my own as well, putting credence to her claim that the rules for deities are as rigid or more than those for royalty. Ever since she stopped needing my hands for support in walking, she has been clearly showing the fact that she is millennia older than me in almost every one of her subtle mannerisms.

 Book 3 Chapter 17: Secret plans

    Jemini


    Aerien¡¯s POV


    [Kenra.] I said as Gaerien and I were watching Sarafon on his final approach.


    [Yes, your highness?] A small pixie-size fairy suddenly appeared over my shoulder as though she had materialized out of thin air. The little sprite had a certain stillness to her that was completely unlike the majority of the smaller¡­ or rather, normal fairies. This stillness, like that of an attack dog ready to leap at it¡¯s master¡¯s command, gave the small pixie an eerie sense of danger, although most of that was due to how incongruous this behavior was with her small size and cute appearance.


    [Once Gaerien¡¯s ride is sent away, we will be starting that experiment with our friend.] I told the little sprite. I was not looking directly at the small fairy, but I could just imagine the side of her mouth twitching upward as I felt the slightest ripple of playfulness and an urge to tease escape her normally stony mask. I suppose even those at Kenra¡¯s rank cannot fully suppress their nature.


    [I beg your pardon your highness, but her majesty left the decision on when the experiment would be conducted to me and me alone.] She said, letting out stronger waves of amusement. Honestly, I likely only managed to catch onto the first ones because of my fire meditation, but now she was just being careless.


    [Your control is slipping.] I tell her. [The experiment was proposed more than a year ago, you were given the duty of deciding when it would be performed for security reasons, due to the fact only Gaerien, Sagel, and the boys could be near enough to assist if we were attacked in the middle of it. The idea, I believe, was to prevent information leaks. The boys are ready, and Sagel and Gaerien have always been ready. And, going by the mischievous air I¡¯m picking up from you, I believe your intention from the beginning was to have me randomly decide when the experiment would start anyway. Pushing it on my own whim is even less predictable than yours, is it not?]


    The fairy was silent. These seventh committee types really do take themselves too seriously. Is she trying to keep herself from smiling before she talks again? [I concur with your reasoning your highness.] She finally says. [I will guide you to the location. Fortunately, it is in fact within walking distance.]


    Oh? Well THAT¡¯S certainly a coincidence.


    [Vahnn, Sta¡¯harr!] Kenra shouted [Reveal yourselves! The operation is on!]


    At Kenra¡¯s words, two more small fairies appeared over my shoulders with a bow of their heads.


    [All eyes on each other until the operation is concluded then.] Vahnn, a young looking male fairy, says. Sta¡¯harr, a fairy who seems to find amusement in being as serious as she possibly can, gives him a glare that makes me want to shake my head.


    I take a glance over to Gaerien who nods with a gentle serious expression as we both turn to face Sarafon as we can now both feel the change in the airflow as his large head comes within 20 feet of us. Sagel grabs Levin and Rolwen in an under-arm carry as the two boys immediately secure their swords to their sides, keeping them from swinging about as Sagel leaps from the dragon¡¯s head and then begins running along the uneven stony terrain toward Gaerien and me.


    Sarafon could have just used his wind magic to set them down. Did Sagel ask him not to for the sake of some training or something? The boys really didn¡¯t seem very surprised either, so that seems to make sense.


    After having his passengers disembark, Sarafon glares at me. Or rather, at the area over my shoulders. ¡®Is that the seventh committee, your highness?¡¯ the dragon asks.


    [Yes.] I shout in elven, deliberately not using the spirit speech specifically because it would carry a lot farther otherwise. [We are beginning the void experiment. We will be leaving off on our own to the location. Please inform Gaerien¡¯s assistant that they are not to leave under any circumstances and keep them under your supervision. Of course, they should also be invited to return the favor for you as well.]


    [I shall go with him too your highness.] Vahnn volunteers and flies on up toward the other dragon hovering much higher in the sky.


    [Well then, please lead the way.] I said to Kenra.


    [At once, your highness.] Kenra flew off, with Sta¡¯harr trailing closely behind.


    ¡°Alright! Rough terrain pursuit training! Let¡¯s go!¡± Sagel shouted to the boys as he set the both of them down and took off after the fairy. I gave Levin a nod and a glance to Rolwen, and then I was off as well. Gaerien and the boys were then determinedly taking up the rear together. I noticed, after going a short way, they were actually staying in a sort of formation. They hadn¡¯t lagged behind, they were hanging back until I left in order to guard the rear, and now that I was moving they were keeping up very well.


    Of course, it would be no difficulty to navigate this rough terrain at all if I were to use my wind walker robe, but I had grown frustrated enough with the training the boys were getting while I was off on these constant diplomatic missions. As such, I stubbornly refused to take the easy way and I was hopping from one jagged rock to the next just like everyone else with the exception of the fairies we were following. When the heaven¡¯s fall happened, all the top-soil and loose stones in the area were blown away, leaving only an arrangement of uneven rock formations in it¡¯s wake. A crater that was larger around than the main wound bored into the earth at the center.


    There were not the peaks and vallies of a desert rock formation, but the ground was all very uneven rock, and there were also some rather infrequent cracks that extended deep into the ground below. It was not the hardest of terrain, but you definitely wanted to watch your step and pay attention to where you were going.


    Eventually, our chase came to a stop as Kenra stopped over a fairly non-descript location. However, now that we were this close, I could feel the chaotic energies in the area beneath our feet.


    [We have arrived, your highness.] Kenra said.


    [Should someone be sent to fetch a gnome?] Sta¡¯harr asked.


    [There is no need] I said, and then turned to Gaerien. [Would you like to get this, or should I?] I asked her.


    [I would only collapse the ceiling on top of him and cause a cave in.] Gaerien said. [As much as I bet he would thank me for it, that is not our objective. I know your control is good, but, are you confident? It might be safer to just do it without opening up the cave, it might be safer that way, and we also wouldn¡¯t have to deal with his constant venom.]


    [Not an option.] I said, getting immediate satisfied nods from the two nearby fairies. [He has been here for around a year. There has been plenty of time for a deep gnome to happen across him, they likely know about this place. We are going to have to retrieve him and move to another location before we do this.]


    Having said those words, I stepped over toward the area I felt the corrupted spirit and clustered arcane energy coming from and looked over everyone else gathered around. [Alright, please step back everyone.] I said, and then the 4 land-bound people backed away from the area while the two fairies flew a bit higher.


    I focused on the energy of Earth, and formed my intent. The image I formed was to simply rip a chunk of stone straight from the ground. I took a deep breath and then a step back as I raised my arm into the air behind me and extended my fingers. I imbued my hand with all the energy of my intent, and then made a scooping motion as I focused on the image of gravity altering to my will.


    There was a loud cracking sound, and I watched the results of my spell with a blank expression as a very large chunk of rock, almost the size of a car, was flying through the air in front of me, sailing away like a divot torn out of a golf course before it landed back on the ground with a violent crack as it hit the ground and a clatter while it skid to a halt a couple dozen feet away.


    That¡¯s the thing about exercising this kind of control over elemental magic. I have to go pretty deep into my meditation in order to manage it. Casting my gaze downward though caused me to come out of this deep meditative state and back to my more common standard pretty fast. I gazed down into the dark hole of the pocket in the stony earth I had opened up, and at the cage sitting atop a raised pedestal in the center of it. Inside that cage was a familiar imp, hissing and shielding his eyes from the sun.


    Gaerien immediately jumped down into the little cave without hesitation. She snatched up the iron cage by the conveniently placed brass handle and handed it to Sagel who placed it on the ground, distancing himself from it immediately as he was glad to be away from it.


    The little creature looked miserable, it seemed a year isolated in the dark had broken a lot of his initial viciousness, but there was still hatred in his eyes as he looked around at the people gathered around.


    [So, the princess returns.] The imp says.


    [Yes] I said. [Congratulations, today very well might be the day that you die.]


    [Heh! You didn¡¯t want to kill me even after I told you what my crime was, about how I loved the sound of those children crying and begging for help as they drowned in that mud! What made you change your mind now?] He asked dejectedly.


    [I didn¡¯t.] I told him. [I decided right when I heard that. I have an experiment I would like to try, and it is likely to be deadly to any fey who is not spiritually bonded to me like Gaerien and Sagel. You telling me about that made up my mind, I¡¯m going to use you in this experiment to see just how deadly or not so an ability of mine happens to be. If you survive, you will return to your natural fey state. The only reason we didn¡¯t do this sooner and you were sitting in that cave is that we needed time to get ready for it.]


    [Hmph! Well, hurry this up then.] The imp said, crossing his arms and brooding as he sat in his cage.


    Sarafon, apparently having noticed we were holding still now, lowered himself down to pick us up and eyed the cage with caution. Yeah, I know the feeling. The sick feeling any fey gets from unpurified fire-worked iron. It¡¯s always letting off an energy, almost like the stuff has it¡¯s own aura, and to a fey of any sort that aura feels like your in the presence of a predator. Even if it isn¡¯t weakening you, it¡¯s mere presence causes you to feel constantly on your guard.


    In a strange and probably sick way, I actually kinda like the feeling. It forces me to keep my senses sharp.


    [I will carry the cage.] I said to the rest of the gathered crew. [The iron will disrupt Sarafon¡¯s wind magic, but my robe¡¯s enchantment is internally supplied with my mana. I should be able to fly with it. This works out fine, I was going to be the one choosing the location we use anyway.] After all, if both the day and location are chosen by me, the only way this could possibly go wrong would be if I was selling myself out to the demons. I happened to know for a fact that was not the case.


    After a few acknowledgements all around, Sarafon lifted the four up and placed them on his head, while I flew and lifted the cage. The fairies of the seventh committee hung back with Sarafon, unwilling to get close to the iron cage or the imp contained within. Sta¡¯harr even grumbled something about wishing she had her sword with her.


    We took off, and headed on a course that would have us pass near the capital and the center of the scar. As we were crossing over it, I suddenly heard Sarafon¡¯s voice from behind.


    ¡®Your highness.¡¯ He said. ¡®I believe that is your gnome friend down there, he is with two elf women.¡¯


    ¡°You mean at his workshop?¡± I asked. I didn¡¯t even try looking. A dragon¡¯s eyes were simply better at picking out things from this kind of distance. I had no illusions about being able to make them out myself.


    ¡®No.¡¯ He said. ¡®They are walking through the barrens of the scar.¡¯


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯s probably out looking for metals and hired them as some kind of guard detail.¡± I said. It was a pretty convincing guess, but just like what prompted Sarafon to bring it up, there really was something that felt off about this. ¡°It is too late to stop the experiment now. We have already removed him from the cave, and I even happened to tell him about our plans. If we delay this, the chances of the demons discovering our plans raises significantly.¡±


    ¡®They have seen us as well.¡¯ Sarafon warns. ¡®Judging by their behavior, they seem to be quite aware it is you.¡¯


    Really? How!? They shouldn¡¯t have the benefit of dragon eyes. That slight feeling of something being off just turned into my gut screaming at me as this very strange piece of information was added to the puzzle.


    ¡°We will set down some distance from them and set up the experiment. They can approach if they want, and one of you can intercept them to ask if anything is wrong. Taminarda is only half fey, he ought to be able to to approach while the experiment is ongoing in case it is something important.¡± I said.


    That really seemed like the best solution to both the current and new problems I was dealing with.


    -


    ¡°Alright, so the plan is that you will signal if this guy¡¯s condition seems to change in any way.¡± I said to Levin as we were setting things up. ¡°We will start at a distance I have already confirmed has no effect, and then we will all walk forward toward you. Just raise your hand if something happens.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, got it.¡± Levin said with a slightly put-upon tone to his voice. He can probably guess pretty easily why I chose him instead of Rolwen for this job. But, despite all the precautions we¡¯ve taken already, there is still always the chance we might face danger and that danger will be targeting me directly. Rolwen was the one with the greater level of fire-meditation mastery of the pair. This didn¡¯t JUST mean that his senses were going to be sharper than Levin¡¯s. The fire method was trained by moving effectively under pressure and taking decisive action with the right timing. It was a lot more demanding that the Earth method¡¯s using the terrain and even gravity itself to your advantage or the water method¡¯s overwhelming your opponent with high strikes like a wave and disrupting their balance and momentum. It was in a whole different ballpark entirely.


    The skills learned along with the technique were almost as valuable as the extra sensory information from the technique itself. Rolwen just seemed better at decisive action than Levin.


    Of course, Rolwen also had his own skills from his previous life. But, like me, they paled in comparison to Sagel¡¯s skills trained from all the actual battlefields he had been on over his life.


    ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s get this started.¡± I said and took to the air and snagged up Gaerien under her arm-pits. At the same time, Sagel transformed his body. He became long, slender, and scaled as his body took on a serpentine appearance. He became a dragon of the blue-jade variety. Only a lesser dragon, but he¡¯d still pulled it off.


    Sagel immediately swooped down and lifted Rolwen by diving between his legs and lifting him up


    ¡°WOOOOOWHAAA!¡± Rolwen complained as he held onto the ridges of Sagel¡¯s jaw in a death-grip. It was somewhat comical looking at the two of them. Rolwen had the body of a 5 year old kid, but Sagel had the form of a rather small lesser dragon. It looked like he was way too small to be carrying Rolwen, and the difference in size obviously made the ride rougher for Rolwen than the relatively secure ride on Sarafon¡¯s head.


    I couldn¡¯t help having a light smirk pull at my lips as I leapt to the air and activated the enchantment on my robe, quickly soaring after them.


    Now then, it''s go time.

 Book 3 Chapter 18: Opportunists

    Aerien¡¯s POV


    After Sagel reverted back to his natural form, he, Rolwen, and Gaerien took up something of a triangle guard formation. Rolwen was facing toward Levin and the caged imp, Sagel was facing toward where Logrim and the elves were spotted, and Gaerien was facing the open desolated plains that ended in the edge of the scar that bordered human territory. The only portion of the Heaven¡¯s Scar that was not surrounded by dense forest.


    Sagel looked on with a wrinkled brow as all of us except for Gaerien were keeping at least one eye on where Sarafon had come down to intercept the three, waiting to see what would happen with them. Even Levin who was well out of ear-shot of the rest of our group seemed too occupied with them to do his monitoring job properly.


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ not good.¡± Sagel said as he was the quickest to respond when we Sarafon turn toward us, magically lifting all three members of the little group as he took off in our direction with a look of urgency. The plan was supposed to be that he would give us a nod if the three were going to stay back and we were clear to go, or look down at Logrim and then at us if there were a problem and he was going to come meet us during the experiment. For this, however. This was not in the plan, and it suggested something far more urgent than I could have ever imagined. ¡°I believe we are going to have to postpone this experiment.¡± Sagel commented.


    ¡°LEVIN!!!¡± Rolwen suddenly shouts with a great deal of urgency. We all glance in his direction in time to see that two new figures have shown up near him. It¡¯s too far to make out any details, but it¡¯s clear enough they have begun attacking him.


    I begin moving immediately. My flight can allow me to arrive faster than anyone here.


    ¡°NO!¡± Sagel yells. ¡°He is bait! They are trying to lure you!¡±


    Yes, he is probably right. But¡­ that doesn¡¯t mean I can just callously leave Levin to their mercy. Damn it! How in the deepest pits of hell did they know what we would be doing!?


    As I approached, two things became clear rather quickly. The first was that these two individuals were wearing strange red fabrics, covering every inch of their skin with the exception of their eyes, making them into some kind of red-colored ninjas. An echo of a memory came up in my mind at this. These were the same people who apparently attacked and forced Dryad, the one now calling her self Sefirot, to retreat and flee the entire elven forest all together!


    The second thing was that with a few gestures of their hands, the stone ground they had pinned Levin to was moving like a living thing and latching on to Levin¡¯s arms and legs. One of the pair was pinning Levin to the ground while the other was using the stone to bind him.


    These are those deep gnomes Logrim warned me about! No two ways about it!


    Fine then! If my enemy is a user of magic, I have the perfect solution! This will likely kill that slimy imp, we can get another guanine pig for this test!


    I eyed the ground suspiciously. There could easily be more of them hiding right beneath the surface. Well, if they are, they¡¯re about to be trapped down there. I lowered myself to hovering around five feet off the ground as I began to focus on the image of the gate of heaven closing. ¡°When the heaven¡¯s gate is closed, all miracles shall cease.¡± I mutter the first line of the chant I developed for this effect. A chant is not strictly necessary, but the aid it gives to focus is even more powerful for a modification to my meditation like this than it would ever be for what this world recognizes as a formal magic spell.


    After that first line was spoken, I felt the sense of temporary vertigo as the robe holding me up ceased to function as the magic feeding it was stripped away by the void gate that had remained open. I only just barely managed to land on my feet on the barren uneven bedrock. I stumbled a few steps, and Sagel landed some distance behind me, skidding to a stop as he lost the magic he was using in his dragon form to follow me. He was already transforming back to his natural form, and managed to get his feet under him pretty well as he broke into a sprint.


    Well, there would be no reinforcement from either side now. Sarafon could not approach anymore, but any reinforcements they might have hiding underground can¡¯t join in either. I glanced to the side in time to see Sarafon had dropped his three passengers and was now making a bee-line for Isanil¡¯s crown. Well, looks like the game now is to stall until the full force of the fey court can get down here.


    I felt a spike of intent from the enemy¡¯s direction. It was the ping that could only be described as incited to action when one sees the opening they are looking for. I instantly cursed myself for taking my eyes off of them, and when I looked back I saw the one who had been crouching on top of Levin was now running straight toward us. I quickly assessed this threat. While still covered in that red fabric, this one also wore shoulder guards and gauntlets that seemed to be made of some rusty colored banded mail, the matte dirty red strips of metal were set in such a way that they guarded exactly the most important and vital locations. In addition, they also wore a single firm breastplate made of the same material, and the way the fabric of their hood sat I was pretty certain that they had some kind of head protection under that veil as well.


    There was one last thing that occurred to me. They were a lot shorter than a normal gnome if I can use Logrim as any sort of bench-mark. I couldn¡¯t get a clear picture under these conditions, but they actually seemed like they might be shorter than me even!


    Whatever the case though, this guy¡¯s decked out for hand-to-hand combat. And here I am unarmed. Well, that¡¯s not entirely true, but my only weapon is not really made for formal combat. But, hey. Sagel may have proven again and again that my previous life training in traditional combat is soft compared to this world, but my style does specialize in one thing. That¡¯s the use of unconventional weapons.


    I would have to time this. It was going to be better to have this person think I¡¯m completely unarmed. Just as I was thinking this, I saw the other guy reach for his belt and draw what must be a short blade. In that motion, I also saw them loose their step slightly as their mind diverted to their weapon.


    I couldn¡¯t help a grin from forming. This person was an amateur in personal combat. But, even so, them having a weapon just made things serious. Gaps in training shrink by a wide margin once the sharp things come out.


    Well, at least it¡¯s not guns.


    I didn¡¯t need to see the shape of the weapon to know what I was doing. I could see from how it was moving it was a small blade, probably with a significant curve to allow the sheath to curve around the wielder¡¯s body. They were drawing it in a reverse grip, that would limit the manner in which they could attack.


    They had stopped approaching as soon as they were a couple arm lengths away from me, and I could see the panic in their eyes when they realized that I wasn¡¯t stopping. The knife was drawn and they were trying to hold it up across their body. But, defensive stances don¡¯t work well with a reverse grip. I simply placed one hand gently on the hand that was holding the knife in order to control their weapon, and then my other hand came forward with a palm strike at the armored amateur red-ninja¡¯s nose.


    My hand smacked into them, causing the head to snap back, and then I started curling my fingers to rake the face and attempt to gouge their eyes.


    ¡°Ahh! Jhss¡­!¡± A very young girl sounding voice came from my assailant as she began to flail with the knife and clamped a hand around my wrist as she went back, knocked onto her rear, and pulled me down with her.


    Not good!


    I twisted myself to avoid the wildly flailing knife and landed while planting my knee into her breastplate covered gut.


    Shit! Note to self, M.C.M.A.P. is not a good combat style to use against medieval armor! That will teach me to cross-train with marines.


    Her grip was also still strong on my wrist! I had to break free in this moment where she was stunned. I twisted my wrist into her thumb, the weak-point in anyone¡¯s grip, and¡­ shit! Way too strong! She¡¯s not good at fighting, but what¡¯s with this girl¡¯s strength!? She was starting to get her bearings. I had to strike back now!


    I reached into my robe, covering my movement behind my struggles, and found the molded smooth lump of stone Logrim had given me way back when I¡¯d first started these diplomatic ventures. The stone concealing the flame-forged iron spike, designed to poisonous to fey and as such it is the ultimate insult for a fey to take such an object and drive into the bark of a dryad. The ultimate statement of discontent, and guaranteed to be shocking to any member of the Cundo-associated dryads if I were to take such an action. Fortunately, I¡¯d never had need to draw since it was given to me.


    Until now.


    I felt the tension in my entire body rise as I drew the weapon, a simple iron spike with a stone head, more like a long nail than anything made for battle. Meanwhile, my attacker had managed to roll over and was holding the knife threateningly over me.


    ¡°Stop! I¡¯ll cut you!¡± She said in a shaky voice that sounded almost like she was begging. Something screamed at the back of my mind that there was something wrong, but for now the only thing in my mind was getting that dagger out of my face.


    As soon as she raised her arm, it opened up one of the prevented targets that decades of training had trained me to aim for. The arm-pit, a spot in the joints where the armor is weak. My arm lashed out and my iron spike found it¡¯s target. My attacker gasped as the piece of metal was driven up into her shoulder joint, ripping apart the ligaments inside.


    I took advantage of that momentary shock to deliver a heavy kick right up into her chin with all my strength, and then I twisted around and drove my knee into her fore-arm, pulled with my arm to put her wrist into a bent position in order to forcibly shorten the ligaments responsible for flexing the fingers while pulling against the ligaments responsible for lengthening them. It is possible to fight against this and flex with a weak fist anyway, but in my attacker¡¯s shocked state her fingers let go of my wrist on their own without me needing to do much else.


    Just for good measure, I kicked her in the face again. Just to keep her worried about me for a second longer as I got myself back to a standing position.


    I quickly took stock of how things were developing as I got to my feet. The assailant who ran at me was yelling in pain by now and clutching her side. Sagel was almost here, he would be able to deal with this one for now, I didn¡¯t have to worry about her anymore. And as for the other assailant who stayed with Levin¡­ No!


    I felt as though my blood had turned to ice water for the half second when I saw the other one pull their own knife, and then kneel down over Levin, holding the blade with a slow and smooth motion toward his neck while the assailant looked up to meet my gaze. There was still a lot of distance between myself and them, there was nothing I could do to close that distance before it was too late.


    ¡°Wait! I¡¯m from Earth!¡± I heard the red-veiled girl I¡¯d just left on the ground grunt out in a pained voice.


    A deliberate distraction. I could see it for what it was. They were trying to throw me off my game. All it managed to do was make me mad. I wondered for a moment whether I should give her another kick to the head. After what they were doing, I honestly failed to see how such a thing would make a difference.


    Well, it did explain one thing. This was why she was so small, and also bad at fighting. She couldn¡¯t have been older than 5 years old. I just fought a child. A child who was stupidly strong for some reason!


    No, her reason for saying that was obvious. I could see the curious look Sagel was casting between me and this child now. They wanted to leave us wondering what to do with her for whatever was about to happen next. He would have decapitated her in a second if she hadn¡¯t just yelled that. He probably would still if I ordered it, and I knew I should do exactly that, but¡­ between her obvious inexperience and our shared common origin, it really did make me hesitate on the obvious best course of action.


    Great. Well, at least that injury I gave her seemed to leave her in no condition to fight. One arm was left useless, and the other was clutching at the wound to her shoulder.


    ¡°Don¡¯t take the spike out, you¡¯ll bleed out.¡± I told her. There. With that, at least we will be in the same boat in terms of tied hands on this subject. This freed me up to look up to the other threat looming over Levin.


    [Hehe,] the veiled assailant chuckled with the dagger held to Levin¡¯s neck as he struggled against his stone bonds, staring at the blade in fear. [It really is incredible, just like our lord said.] The masculine voice of the second attacker said. [A spell that cancels the use of all other magic. The arcane energy around here¡¯s already almost fully disappeared, and if I try to cast my bloodline spells the mana is just swept away before it can even do anything useful. You truly are something that can become a great weapon with the right training, princess. Our lord would like to speak with you. We have arranged for a procession, but¡­ you will have to release your magic before they can arrive.]


    So, there really are more of these gnomes waiting down there? Must be pretty tough for them to be stuck in whatever earth pocket they sealed themselves into without the ability to do anything. Well, with that confirmed, all the more reason to stall him until the entire defense committee has filled the sky. Gotta keep him talking.


    [Your lord, is it?] I ask, taking a few measured steps closer. Not enough to significantly close the distance, but good enough to get me out of this new Earth child¡¯s threat range. [You will have to forgive me, I have been too occupied with our recent threat of an instability among the dryads since my adoption into royalty. Normally, I suspect the diplomacy committee would have had a stronger hand in my education, but at present I am unfamiliar with foreign powers. As such, I am unfamiliar with the lord of the deep gnomes. I feel it would be rude of me to appear before your liege without first knowing his name.]


    [A lot of words, princess.] The deep gnome hissed. [Too many, I would say.] After saying that, I felt my heart drop as I watched the man lift his dagger. I had a moment of panic as I took a few running steps and had to watch as the blade was brought down viciously on Levin¡¯s shoulder, cutting through the joint with a malice that seemed to be in retribution for the damage I had done to the partner this man had brought.


    Levin let out a blood-curdling scream as he was dealing with the pain of the debilitating injury he was just given. After doing enough damage to make Levin¡¯s arm completely useless, he ripped his blade back out and held it once again to Levin¡¯s neck and met my eyes.


    [Stop right there or I slit the boy¡¯s throat!] The man said, glaring up at me. I chanced one more step before I started scrambling to break my momentum. Even with that risk though, I had only gotten about six good running steps in, which closed less than half the distance.


    [Now then, we both know exactly what you are doing princess. I will not allow you the time you are trying to buy for yourself. You have until the count of five to release your spell. One]


    Shit! The poor training that last girl had threw me off my guard, but this guy¡¯s definitely not messing around!


    [Two.]


    [Three.]


    Well, Sagel DID say magic was my strong suit. Let¡¯s see if it¡¯s enough to take on the greatest earth elemental mages in this world.


    [Four.]


    [Alright!] I said, and then focused on the feel of my meditation returning to it¡¯s natural state.


    ¡°Aerien! Don¡¯t!¡± Sagel warned.


    ¡°With Heaven¡¯s gate open, let the miracles rain upon the Earth.¡± I chanted, solidifying the transition in my mind.

 Book 3 chapter 19: Tactical flaws

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 Book 3 chapter 20: The grip of darkness

Jemini


    Jemini

 Poll: Should I continue, or just reboot now?

    So, now that I''ve revealed I have started in on the reboot and have figured out what I''m doing with the language, should I keep going with this series or should I go ahead and start on the reboot?


    The main reason why I''ve been continuing this series is to get some idea of how the first major arc would end. I''ve got a pretty firm outline of how the major confrontation with Iuutel''s dragon priest is going to go now even though I haven''t gotten around to actually writing it, so I believe I have what I need to reboot if necessary.


    So, I guess the real question is whether there are more people who are dying to see the way this arc concludes, or if there are more people who dropped this series in the slow and dull trial arc but are dying to get back into this series and are on the edge of their seats for that reboot already.

 Announcement: Trouble with the custom language.

    So, I made an announcement in the 3 story showcase series, but it doesn''t look like as many people follow that one so I will be repeating it here.


    First off, I am still working on the series that I will be posting. I have not forgotten about it or you guys even though there are no delivered results yet.


    I was actually planning on launching Key to the Void today in fact, but fate seems to have decided to give me a nasty slap in the face over my decision to evolve a dead language as the basis for my Elven language. I had been using a translation dictionary called Glosbe until recently. It had a very nice function on it where if it did not have the exact translation, it would at least offer something close which you could check with back-translations in order to be sure it was close enough to the meaning you wanted.


    I had formed the spine of my Elven language as I started this, but there were a few key words that were missing. ("Need" and "too much" being two key terms that are being a pain in the rear right now.) However, when I went on to Glosbe today in order to find a suitable word to then modify in some way, it suddenly stopped giving "close enough" translations and wouldn''t translate anything unless it had an exact match. For a dead language like the one I''m using for this project, that''s pretty much death to my efforts.


    So, for now, my plan is to go back to writing chapters for "A New Hero God" until either Glosbe fixes it''s translation functions or someone can recommend me a new Sumerian - English dictionary that can help me serve the same purpose. If I don''t have one option or the other realized in a week, I will likely re-write the chapter I was working on to have the Elven language speaking portions hand-waved over as "words that couldn''t be understood." I feel it would harm the integrity of the writing, but I also want to get something out there.

 Announcement: The reboot has been launched. (This version is now officially discontinued.)

    So, I''ve officially launched the reboot version now. Key to the Void is now up for everyone to read.


    I''m just sorry things started falling apart as much as they did with this version. But, I know I''ll be doing better with the reboot. The changes that have been made already in the first few chapters are feeling pretty good from my perspective at least.


    So, if you haven''t given up on the series completely after how this one has been turning out so far, please do check it out. I am hoping to recapture the promise a lot of you likely saw in this series and capitalize better on it.