Mage's journey 7

In the end, the decision was simple: while L’Arachel dragged her into the violence business and Genivere was just a young girl jealous of her husband’s affections, anything she disliked about her current circumstances would be much worse with Knossus, with a reward of bringing herself to the attention of Being X’s peers, whose strongest charm point appeared to be honesty in their pitiless disregard of you. 

Tanya never understood that logic: Given the choice between someone who promised what you wanted to hear but was secretly corrupt, and someone who promised the opposite of what you want, but was completely honest about it, who in their right minds would pick the second? The odds of getting what you want are still higher with the first guy! 

So while Tanya would like to have learned more demontongue, as well as alchemical theory, that path would have certain hardship for questionable rewards. So it is not the path for her. 

Still, this must be done delicately. “We should turn around.” Tanya said, letting her nervousness leak into her voice. 

“What?” L’Arachel said, her voice cracking slightly. So that does still happen to teenage girls… good to know. “Why should we turn back?”

“No one goes out here.” Tanya lied, sneaking nervous glances. She doesn’t see any of Knossus’ spirits… “There’s a few scary stories about this part of the woods. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

L’Arachel looked offended at the reason, but Dozla’s eyes hardened. “What kind of scary stories?” He asked, his voice rumbling menacingly. 

What’s plausible but won’t lead to L’Arachel getting killed? “Ghosts!” Tanya said, waving her free hand in a spooky manner. “They come out from the ground and… Boo!” Afterwards, she ran a finger across her throat for emphasis, then had her upper body go limp. “Urk, bleh.”

Dozla’s brow furrowed as he looked ahead. Then he burst out laughing. “Well, remember what I told you about listening to the locals, L’Arachel!”

The noble girl paused. “Don’t dismiss their warnings just because you’re stronger than them.” She recited, not the first time Tanya had heard her say them. 

“Exactly.” He said, “Now, if the little lady says that this way is dangerous, then it’s dangerous. We’ll turn around, and find monsters elsewhere.”

L’Arachel complained all the way back to the village. If Dozla went off later with Mennehl, Sister Leanne, and Genivere’s horsemen (with Dorac tagging along uninvited, of course), then Tanya wouldn’t know anything about that. 

All she knew is that she was given a sizable amount of crowns to make sure that L’Arachel didn’t leave the village. She did so by inviting the noble girl to the nearby field of wildflowers, where they made flower crowns with eight other girls from the orphanage. Despite her focus on martial pursuits, the noble girl was not immune to the allure of socialization, and thus it was an effective way to distract her from whatever Dozla wanted her to not be involved with, which couldn’t possibly be Knossus getting lynched for practicing dark magic. Nope. 

When they returned, Tanya asked Mennehl in a whisper: “Was he there?”

Mennehl’s eyes widened at the question, but nodded tightly. Tanya sighed in relief, making a small, private show of hugging the man for the welcome news. 

Glad that worked…

----------------------------

Actually using magic was… well, it was simple. Tapping into a tome’s stored spells required conversational knowledge of the language of relevance, in this case dragontongue, as it led to a sort of… quick conversation with the spell, or perhaps the spirit that provided the power for the spell.

The conversation wasn’t exactly complicated. You could roughly translate the successful casting of a fire spell to “I claim my payment! My enemy stands before me, loose!” and then the act of directing the fire is basically all on your ability to mentally direct the spell. 

As someone who not only learned magic in the Imperial Army, but also had been using staff alchemy for years at this point, that was the easiest part. 

It did require some small amount of minor magic to shield yourself from your own spells, something that was also rather handy in the event some other mage decided to try and kill you with their own magic, so learning that particular skill constituted around eighty percent of Tanya’s final lessons before becoming officially recognized as a proper Mage. 

L’Arachel left back to wherever it is she lives after about two more weeks of dragging Tanya along on monster hunting adventures, and Tanya didn’t see the girl again for years. 

Life was simple: get up, learn more domestic skills from the nuns, do work, either alchemy, tomebinding, patrolling with Genivere’s now fairly competent horsemen, or simple chores depending on the day, possibly learn some additional magical skills of some kind or be given some small amount of leisure time spent on experimentation with staff alchemy, then back to bed, with meals and the occasional free moment between them. 

When she did get a whole day to herself, she usually traveled to places to find alchemy ingredients, on foot as she didn’t own her own horse nor was willing to invite someone who did to come with her, trusting in her magic to keep her safe and her lifetime of walking while carrying things in baskets to ensure that she didn’t need a pack animal. 

“Here we are…” Tanya muttered to herself as she looked over the still-beautiful Fairy Falls. It had been years since she saw that unicorn, but she also had a much larger knowledge of herb lore now, so she wanted to see what she could find here. 

The gazebo was intact, someone had been clearly maintaining it, so Tanya started her foraging expedition by breaking for lunch. It was a bit early, but transitioning between traveling and working was a good time to fit in a meal. 

Tanya had bought some bread from the baker before leaving, cutting it with her knife, sharpened by a little twist on the magical protection technique that she used to copy the Empire’s mage blade spell, and loading her loaf with some sliced lamb, some edible greens that she had picked on the way (washing them first, of course), the small lump of cheese she brought sliced up and spread around, dosed with some spices that she didn’t know enough about to draw parallels with her first two lives, and some pickled vegetables that she also picked up in the market before going. 

Capping off her sandwich with a light bit of fire conjured without the need for a spirit pact, as they were only necessary if you wanted magic that was powerful enough to actually use in battle, the cheese was melted, the bread was toasted, and she got to enjoy her nice hot sandwich in peace and tranquility. 

She had also brought nuts to snack on, but she held off on eating them, instead checking that she had everything else she had brought still, triple checking her weapons, before getting up and going to the waterfall to admire the glittering sight. 

“Still, I wonder…” Tanya said to herself, looking over the waterfall. Was there anything behind it? 

One of her less useful experimental results over the two years since Knossus’ capture was an attempt to create a staff that could do things like dig trenches, and while yes, she did manage to create a staff that could shape rock and dirt according to the user’s will… it still wasn’t very useful. The amount of matter it could manipulate was small, the precision was shaky, and the expense innate in making one that could even do that much that it was basically a fancy toy rather than a tool.

But expensive or not, she still possessed the thing, so it was time for it to start potentially earning a profit. With steady focus, she pointed the Dig staff at the waterfall and started manipulating the combination of dirt, explosives, and metal that served as the alchemical basis of the effect. 

Slowly, the rock beneath the waterfall bulged, forcing the water to splash out further and also around the new obstruction. With some additional effort, the rock expanded and shaped itself into a useful angle, turning the random obstacle into a sloped channel that diverted the waterfall to the sides, parting the waters beneath it. 

As she had hoped, there was some kind of cave-no, not a cave, a tunnel, behind the waterfall. “Yattai!” Tanya declared, giving the previously-useless Dig staff a kiss. “I suppose you aren’t useless.” She said, glad that the water didn’t somehow stop the staff from working. The amount of force the staff had to overcome to do that must have been substantial. 

Still, that rock wasn’t very big, and there was a lot of water now doing its best to erode the structure away, so she better hurry, from experience she knows the structures made from the Dig staff aren’t as durable as unshaped rock so she only has a few hours at best. With the use of another staff, little platforms of light appeared on the water’s surface, and she hopped across the tiny forcefields without even getting her feet wet, unless you counted being misted by the waterfall’s presence. It was more efficient this way than making a bridge, which was the original intent behind this failed experiment. It just couldn’t handle enough weight to be useful to anyone who is not a 12 year old girl. Admittedly, it could barely handle Mennehl, but he was not exactly a paragon of masculinity. 

The tunnel behind the waterfall had smooth, clearly man-made walls that were decorated with dragontongue words above murals. Some of the words, half of which were proper nouns, she couldn’t understand, but it seemed to recite the story depicted in the murals, apparently about some great calamity, the picture in the mural seeming to match the church’s descriptions of Fomortiis, including a very extensive list of things that were lost forever. It was probably just a bunch of names, people fallen in battle, but it could be saying things like ‘hen’s teeth’, ‘the sound of a cat’s footsteps’, or something equally asinine that is commonly featured in fairy tales. 

Each side of the tunnel seemed to have matching images and writings, which was useful because some of the words and images were damaged, and other places had some distinctive discolorations that may be from repair work, but she didn’t see a single example of anything that was damaged on both sides of the tunnel. Someone must have been maintaining this… but was no longer doing so. 

The tunnel wasn’t very long, although that could be a matter of perspective, it was about one hundred meters, precisely fifty mural panels long, and she estimated them at about two meters thick. Not that this world had sensible measurements, the system that Mennehl had explained to her made the American system look intuitive. She did need to generate light with magic, holding a small but bright flame above her palm to keep visibility up, but she always loved history, so this was an excellent archeological find…

At the end of the tunnel was some kind of water feature, a few square meters in area with unknown depth. Carefully, Tanya unlimbered some of her gear, accessed the bundle of staves that she didn’t expect to need to access quickly, took out her physically largest staff, which was the Heal staff, walked back to the water, and poked it. 

The water traveled up the staff, gripping it and yanking the magic item out of Tanya’s hand. “Kya!” Surprised, Tanya lost control over the mote of fire, reflexively snuffing it as she overcompensated for her disrupted balance and fell backwards onto her butt. 

Scrambling backwards in the darkness, Tanya paused as gemstones embedded in the walls and fountain/pool thing started glowing, clearly illuminating the surroundings. The water swelled upward, and a woman burst out of it, floating in the air above the water. 

At first glance, Tanya’s cheeks heated as she thought the woman was naked, but after the surprise of suddenly seeing someone wearing ‘not much’ she registered that the woman was, in fact, dressed. She was just wearing a swimsuit of some material that Tanya couldn’t name; it was shiny and kind of a reddish brown, which was startlingly close to the… spirit’s?... skin tone. 

“Who disturbed me!” She shouted, the Japanese Tanya understood her words in confirming that the woman in front of her was a spirit. “How did you get in here? Who are you?” Much like Raikyu, the spirit was mostly human looking, but with an exotic hair color: green this time instead of blue. She wore it shorter than Raikyu, only going down to her shoulderblades, and had pale white flowers woven through it. 

“This one is known as Tanya, Honored Spirit.” Tanya said in Japanese, bowing deeply in apology. “I merely walked inside; the entrance is only obscured by a waterfall.” Which, now that she thought about it, didn’t make a lot of sense that Mennehl didn’t know about this… She had just figured that she was committing some blasphemy-adjacent trespassing. Fortunately, she doesn’t run into spirits often enough for this to get much under her skin.

“That shouldn’t have worked.” The spirit said bluntly, “Any who touch the waters cannot approach the Sacred Fountain.”

Ah. She bypassed the defenses by accident. She supposed being misted by the waterfall’s splash didn’t count. “I did not touch the waters, honored spirit. I used magic to reveal the way.”

The spirit weighed her words, probably having the same way of discerning lies as Raikyu had. “...you do have many magical staves.” She observed. “How did you know how to bypass it?”

“I didn’t, Honored Spirit.” Tanya replied, “I had thought there might be something behind the waterfall, but waterfalls are dangerous, so I used magic to ensure my safety.”

“Well, there is no treasure here.” The spirit said, clearly having decided that killing Tanya was not appropriate. “Begone.” 

“I have already found treasure, honored spirit.” Tanya said, feeling a little bolder. “The history depicted on your murals is fascinating, I’ve not heard the story before.”

The spirit seemed flattered at Tanya’s words. Good, they were supposed to be. “Well, you do look rather young, so I suppose your ignorance is understandable.” The spirit said, mostly to herself. “My name is Verdune, and I am the caretaker of this shrine.”

“My grasp of dragontongue is limited, but if I understood things correctly, this is a memorial for those who fell to the Demon King?” Tanya asked, calm now that she had successfully navigated the spirit into a social dynamic that was acceptable, if not ideal. There was still a minor risk of physical discipline if she overstepped, but it was unlikely to result in serious injury. 

“You can read?” Verdune said in surprise, before realizing how silly her question was. “Of course you can, that’s a magic tome you’ve got strapped to you.” She hummed. Tanya supposed that learning to read was technically optional when it came to the use of magic, now that she thought about it… literacy was only needed if you wanted to become a tomebinder… “Actually, now that I take a better look… you’re not as young as you appear, are you?”

“I am not.” Tanya confirmed, “But that is a long, unimportant story. Now, if it isn’t too presumptuous, Honored Spirit, I would like to request the return of my staff.”

Verdune blinked, probably surprised at the bluntness of her request, even if it was still said as respectfully as possible. Still, she didn’t have much of a poker face: Tanya could see her mischievous grin indicate that she just got an idea to mess with the mortal. “Alright, which one was yours again?” Verdune asked innocently. She took out what appeared to be a grand healing staff, made of pure gold with a beautiful ruby on top. “Was it the gold staff?” She asked, before pulling out what appeared to be a curative staff, made of pure silver with several sapphires of equal quality, if not size, to the ruby. “Or the silver staff?”

Tanya stared at her for a moment. Really? This classic? Admittedly, she never heard this particular fable among the stories of this world, but there was a similar one. It just didn’t use gold and silver like the axe version from her first life did. Tanya faked a giggle, which led to Verdune frowning. Oh crap, the lie detector! “Ah, your joke, it’s so funny!” She lied, doubling down. “My staff is not as grand as either of those, I’m afraid. Although it does have some gold on it.”

Verdune huffed, clearly displeased at Tanya’s reaction. “Too obvious?” She asked. 

“I’m afraid it is.” Tanya said honestly. “I would wager that those staves aren’t even real, are they?”

“Nope.” Verdune said, tossing them to the side and letting them dissolve into mist. “That other human brat saw right through that too…” She grumbled, which was interesting but also dangerous. “So why are you here?” She asked, holding her hand over the water. Her staff rose out of the pool, and she idly plucked it out of the water’s grip and tossed it back to Tanya. 

“I came here years ago, Lady Verdune.” Tanya said, “Before I had much in the way of magical education. At the time, I tried to look behind the waterfall, but was interrupted. As I had a free day, I decided to come back and satisfy my curiosity.”

Verdune’s face told Tanya exactly how incredulous she was about that. “You cannot be serious.” She said, eye twitching. 

Tanya laughed. In a way, what she said was ludicrous, wasn’t it? “I live a humble life, Lady Verdune.” Tanya explained, “Spending a day visiting the Fairy Falls to have an adventure is a day well spent.” Although… “Besides, I did have a secondary objective.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, on my last visit I met a unicorn, and I wished to see if I could find them again.” Tanya said, taking an apple out of her basket. “Plus I was going to gather herbs, see what could be found here.”

Verdue seemed to be satisfied with that explanation. “Well, little Tanya, I suppose I could tell the story preserved here. Just to make sure you don’t get it wrong.”

Tanya smiled. Archaeology wasn’t what she intended to get into today, but a history lesson untainted by Being X’s propaganda was welcome. 

----------------------------

As it turned out, Tanya didn’t learn anything she did not already suspect or get from church doctrine: there were nineteen spirits that fell in battle against the Demon King, rallied by Saint Latona and her compatriots, the wielders of the Sacred Twins, each legendary weapons that were split among the nations of this continent, each also have one of the seals on Fomortiis’ prison held in gemstones, referred to as the Sacred Stones. Surprisingly, the names of the nations matched the ones currently in power, so they likely still possessed these powerful weapons. 

Naturally, the Theocracy of Rausten held the weapons wielded by Latona herself: Ivaldi the ultimate light magic, the clenched fist of Being X himself in tome form, and Etz Chaim, a restorative staff of miraculous power. The church’s official stance was, apparently, that the staff was called Latona, but the fact that it was renamed after the Saint didn’t surprise her. 

As they went, Verdune used her vaguely defined spirit magic to fix the damaged portions of the wall, making sure to glance at the opposite side each time to check her work. She spoke of the fallen spirits like they were good friends, sad but wistful as she described each of them in glowing terms. 

Tanya wondered: if she had lived longer, would she have found comrades in the Imperial military that she would think as highly of as Verdune did of her fallen compatriots? It was hard to imagine… but it did sound appealing, even in seeing the tears flow from the spirit’s eyes as she spoke. She recalled the proposal that she was drafting before her death, that of a rapid reaction force. She wondered if anyone saw it? It was pretty much done, she had already scheduled the presentation, even. 

Eventually, though, the story was over, and Verdune had escorted Tanya outside the shrine. A path of unnaturally sturdy lily pads provided a walkway, and while Tanya was a little nervous, after getting to know the spirit for two hours Tanya figured that Verdune wasn’t going to prank her, and trusted the plants to support her weight. They did. 

“You mortals just keep inventing new magic, huh?” Verdune said after they were out, looking at the effects of her Dig staff. “I’ve never seen a staff like that before…”

“It’s not as useful as it looks.” Tanya said, taking out the Dig staff and showing it to the spirit. “Not to brag, but this is my own work, and while this situation makes it look good,” enough to consider possibly marketing it as an adventurer tool… “-in most cases it’s an expensive toy more than a usable tool.”

Verdune took the offered staff, and examined it. “It’s crude.” She said, eyes glowing. Tanya wondered what she could see? “Back during the Demon King War, staves were hard to come by, few people knew enough to try and make them. This’d fit right in with those…” She poked at it, humming. “Maybe if I…” She waved the Dig staff at the waterfall, and the structure Tanya had erected to divert the waters turned into an elaborate entranceway, then sank back into the wall enough that the water covered it again. 

Tanya’s eyes widened. Her staff! That probably burned it out… 

“There we go.” Verdune said, smiling. “Here you go, it should work better now.”

Taking the offered Dig staff back, Tanya examined it. Assessing the remaining durability of a staff wasn’t as precise of a science as Tanya would like, but… telling when something was in pristine, practically unused condition was easy enough. “How…” Tanya asked, more to herself than Verdue. 

“I’m an earth spirit, little Tanya.” Verdune said, “My kind hasn’t signed the Sacred Compact, but that doesn’t mean I can’t offer power like those other spirits can.”

Oh? Now that was interesting. “In that case…” Switching from Japanese to dragontongue, Tanya did her best. “I give thanks to the Honored Spirit for this blessing.” Although Tanya didn’t tell Mennehl of her experience speaking to Raikyu, she nevertheless pressed him for little phrases like that one in case she ever did. 

Verdue snorted in laughter. “So cute…” She giggled.

“Was my pronunciation that bad?” Tanya asked. 

“You talk like a lawyer.” Verdue said, “It’s adorable.” Turning away from Tanya, she put her fingers to her lips and gave a sharp whistle. 

Before Tanya could ask what that was about, a unicorn burst out of the woods, as if it had been waiting just out of sight to be called. Tanya had jumped towards the same rock that she had used as cover those years ago, her Fire tome already in hand. 

“Good reflexes.” Complimented Verdune. “This is Opalis.” The unicorn snorted. 

Tanya took out the wrapped bundle of oats she had brought. “Ah, thank you.” She said, laying the food on a somewhat smaller rock and letting the bundle fall apart, displaying the pile of grain. The unicorn snuffed at the food, decided it was acceptable, and started eating. “Is this the same unicorn that I met last time?” Tanya asked, “How many are around?” Gently, she reached out and started stroking the animal’s neck. She recalls still being rather intimidated by horses the first time they met, but she was pretty comfortable with them by now after all that practice. 

“Just the one herd.” Verdune said, distinctly not mentioning a size. “She recognizes you.”

Excellent. Tanya continued to stroke the unicorn, after the oats were finished she offered Opalis one of the apples. One by one, the small horse ate the fruit eagerly. After the last one was consumed, she started to sniff around Tanya’s bags. “That was the last one, Opalis.” Tanya said softly, “No more food.” Horse food, anyway. “I wanted to say thank you, for saving my life from those Mauthe dogs last time.” She whispered to the unicorn. Opalis knickered, seeming to acknowledge the debt repaid. “Good horse.” She said, patting her. 

“I’m sorry, what was that about Mauthe dogs?” Verdune asked, her previous levity vanished.