“Defence of our allies in Abenstadt is paramount to our own security. Without them, the armies of Traxia would be given free reign both into our lands, and the Carradorian Basin as well. Such access would mean the loss of some overland trade, as well as force us to vastly expand our military apparatus to an unsustainable state. Furthermore, it would leave us vulnerable to Traxian attempts to encircle the Bay of Arteria, holding our trade routes hostage without Nautican or Veronan intervention. In this effect, I propose that the chamber authorizes the deployment of one additional company of volunteers to aid Abenstadt, whilst also increasing monetary incentives in order to attract Ascaran military mercenaries to join our ranks for the coming conflict.”
- Daniel Arling, Military Advisor to the Chamber of Stalwart Justice, “Speech during Council Session”
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The end of the semester was just that, the end of the semester. Astra came and went with little fanfare. The assembly, speeches and then just like that, it was over. Celebrations and separations happened in equal measure as the majority of the student body began dispersing for their well earned break. While a sizable contingent remained on Academy grounds either for political reasons; like the Traxians who did not support the war; or for more personal and practical reasons like those who simply lived far away, or had extra lessons to attend during the break. Most nobles, though, would be sent back to their respective nations to go back to their families, in the hopes that their education and funding of the Academy would continue.
This had also, in effect, made a particular situation truly bizarre. Eva’s students would be quartered at the Scholar’s Rest inn, the church having effectively paid for their lodging, but they would also be allowed to roam the Academy as they needed. However, Eva on the other hand was heading home, back to the estate. A fact that was not lost on Sophie.
“Sophieeee…” Eva grumbled as she ruffled Sophie's hair.
“I know, I know.” Sophie chuckled.
“We haven’t seen each other much this semester and it’s already over. Now, I’m going home and you’re not even coming with me.” Eva bemoaned.
“I know, and I’m sorry. I just have something to do.” Sophie hugged her mistress.
Eva pouted before patting Sophie’s head. The two giggled at the ridiculous display, laughing in a way that brought Sophie much joy. It felt familiar, warm, nostalgic even. For her part, Eva bopped her nose, making Sophie’s face scrunch up before her mistress ruffled her hair, slapping at her ponytail like a cat toy.
“Look at you, growing up and being all responsible.” Eva puffed her chest out, “Almost makes me proud. You were just a maid, a cute, good, maid when you started. Now you’re some wild warrior heroine knight who galivants around saving the world. Heheh, feel like Princess Aurelia yet? ”
“Evaa…” She blushed at the praise being heaped upon her. She clamped her hands over her face to hide her flushed cheeks, but Eva was having none of it. Her mistress peeled the hands away and playfully rubbed their noses together. For Eva this might’ve even been just that, playful. But for Sophie, a sudden heartbeat stilled her nerves, she’s so close…ah… Eva.
“I mean it though, Soph. I am proud. I’m also sorry that I’ve been so busy this semester.” Eva’s playfulness vanished in an instant, her mistress’s face growing more somber, “You’ve been through hell…er hells and back to get here. Yet, instead of being able to pamper you, I’ve been stuck teaching or being occupied with one thing or another. Sorry.”
“Eva…” Sophie cooed, giving her mistress a playful job to the stomach.
“Gah!”
“It’s okay, really. I’m… I’m just happy you still think about me. Stars, that sounds kinda stupid eh?”
“Aww, Soph.”
“I mean it! And you’re no slouch yourself! You’re not just teaching, you’re teaching saints! Eva! You’re teaching saints and leading them too! That’s like, once in a lifetime kind of thing. The church is also just, at least from what I can see, care-freely working with you. Like what? Eva! That’s incredible!”
“Heh, I guess. But Soph!” Eva’s expression turned grim, “I wasn’t there for you. I know, I said this before. But… Gods, I just can’t even imagine the shit you gone through.”
“Eva, it’s fine.”
“No! No it’s not! I want to make it up to you somehow. Not just because I left you for so long, but also because you’re like family to me!”
“I know. You are too. The bestest.”
“Soph!”
“I mean it!”
“Gah! I know I don’t act like it, but now that we’re here, I do miss you, you know?”
“Aww, Eva…”
“Hey! Don’t you ‘aww’ me.”
“You did it first.” Sophie giggled.
“Bleh. So?” Eva snarked.
“Okay, okay. I won’t. Gotta keep mistress Eva looking all dignified and proper, eh?”
“Oooh keep making fun of me and just you wait, you’ll be tickled to the hells!” Eva jokingly roared as she launched an attack.
“Gweh?!” Sophie was unready and let out a startled yelp, quickly succumbing to the assault and falling under the hail of tickles.
Sophie spluttered and whined as she squirmed at every scratch and poke, mirthful feelings reaching every inch of her being. She almost fell to the floor before Eva helped her back up, a smug look on her face.
“I’ll… I’ll get you back for that.” Sophie vowed.
“Heheh, we’ll see about that.” Eva bopped her nose again, "Gotta come visit to do that, at least be back at the Academy."
“Evaaa…” She whined.
“Jokes aside though. I mean it. I’ll make it up to you, all the time that we lost.”
“I’d love that.” Sophie smiled.
The two paused for a moment, taking the time to look at their surroundings. Students going to and fro. Faculty chatting with their charges and each other. Even the guardians seemed more relaxed, though more of them were certainly standing at attention than there usually was. Eva was the first to break the silence.
“Soo? How are things between you two?” Eva smirked, “She clearly cares a lot about you.”
“Bweh?! She- she who?”
“Aryana, silly.” Eva rapped her head in disappointment, “You know exactly what I meant.”
“I…” That’s right, she doesnt know the full story yet. But… I wonder what I should tell her? It’d be nice to see her reaction at least. Goddess, I feel myself blushing already. I still can’t believe we… ahhh. “We’re... together... now.”
Eva seemed to take the news well, merely arching an eyebrow at the statement. Then, she broke into a wide grin and drew Sophie into a small hug.
“Umm, Eva? Do you not…”
“Congrats.” Eva whispered and squeezed.
Sophie felt the outpouring of love and returned the embrace. The two merrily tittered about before finally separating, a look of glee in Eva’s eyes.
“Little Soph all grown up. She’ll be a big girl soon.”
“Eva!”
“Hahah, I mean that too. Look at you, getting some already.” Eva winked.
“Hey! You’ve got Freddie too!” Sophie hissed back.
The two began a small stare off until they both ended up with itchy eyes. Eva then had a mischievous smile pop onto her face.
“Watch out. Cutie alert.”
“Huh?” Sophie tried to turn around but was too slow.
From around a corner Aryana had finally caught up to the two. Eva noticed her first but kept quiet until Aryana had crept up just behind Sophie, the two girls having traded knowing looks from Sophie’s conversation. Without giving Sophie a chance, Aryana caught her in an embrace, holding her in place and giving a small smooch. Sophie’s ears heated up and she shuffled awkwardly on the spot, unsure of who she should be turning to.
“Aryana, hi!”
“Hello Eva!”
Her two companions cheerily exchanged greetings.
“You sleeping together?” Eva wasted no time in asking.
“Mmhmm.” Ary responded just as quickly.
“Cute!”
“Eheheh.” Ary goofily laughed, snuggling up against Sophie.
“Make sure to take care of her. She needs food twice a day, copious amounts of water, and exposure to the sun so she doesn’t get too pasty. Oh! And maybe some soil too.”
Aryana let out a loud guffaw at the statement, her hold around Sophie loosening as she laughed.
“Eva!” Sophie let out an incensed yelp, “That’s… I’m not a plant!”
“Says the Lily Knight.”
“You’re the Lily Knight.”
Both girls spoke at once, turning to stare at each other before giggling at how Sophie was even more embarrassed than before.
“Ahhh!” Sophie yelled incoherently, hiding her face in her arms.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
After another fitful round of giggling, the three slowly settled down. Their excitable sighs giving off a sense of unwillingness to simply just leave each other’s company.
“Goddess, you’ll both definitely have to come with me during summer break. Especially since Sophie decided she would rather work for the winter.” Eva grinned, “Show you around Carrador, and properly show her around the capital, without all the scurrying around..” Eva gave Sophie a small nudge.
“D’aww, Eva.”
“Honestly, it feels so bizarre to be leaving you so soon. But you’ll be back at the Academy after winter break, right? The both of you.”
“Yeah, we will. Don’t worry.”
“That's excellent! But, gah! I just don’t want to let you go!” Eva pulled them both in for a hug.
“Evaaa!”
"Heheh, Eva." Ary chirped.
“Alright, alright. I suppose the ferry is leaving soon. You sure you’re not taking this one?”
“I’m not, Eva. I need to pack for another adventure.”
“Booo, lamee.”
“Yeah! Lame.” Ary chanted along.
“Ary!” Sophie let out an indignant protest.
“She’s a good one.” Eva winked at Sophie, “Treat her well, ya hear?”
“Wha? Of course I will! What do you think I am!?”
“I think you’re still Soph. A little clumsy, sometimes clueless, and very sweet.”
“Very sweet.” Ary echoed, "Clueless."
“You both… gah! I will! Go catch your stupid ferry Eva!” Sophie tutted.
“Hey.”
“Mmm?”
“Stay safe you two.” Eva spoke more seriously, her expressions grim.
“We will.”
“Yeah!”
The duo affirmed.
“Alright, alright. I’ll let you two lovebirds be.” Eva smiled.
“Eva!” Sophie squeaked.
“Anything else before I go?”
Aryana shook her head, looking up at Sophie for confirmation. Sophie however, felt a more mischievous side take over her for but a moment.
“One thing, Eva.”
“Oh?” Eva arched an eyebrow.
“Mortiz is uhh… banging Princess Samantha. Byeeee! Have a safe trip! See you soon!” Sophie mumbled out before immediately trying to drag Aryana away.
“Mortiz is… hey! What the fuck?! Soph! Sophie! You get back here!” Eva yelled, “Explain! What does that mean?!”
“Bye! I’ll miss you!” Sophie yelled back as she hurried away.
Aryana was lost in a mess of giggles and followed along with the half elf. Leaving Eva behind, Sophie couldn’t help but grin to herself. For once, she had finally left her mistress in shock. It was an exhilarating feeling and she wondered how Eva would react once they met again. Heheh, knowing her she’d probably just brush past this but still get back at me. Serves her right for so much teasing, eheheh. But if she doesn’t forgive and forget for this jest… I’m done for. Sophie giggled to herself, it wasn’t an unpleasant worry. In fact, she wanted to see Eva’s proper reaction after they reconvened. With a heavy sigh, she turned her attention back to the more important matter at hand. She’s right though. Got to pack for whatever the stupid Inquisitor wants me to do. Let’s just hope it's not as dangerous this time around.
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Their last stop before departing ended up being the workshops where the siblings tinkered. To their surprise and also expectations. The siblings were there working on a multitude of different mechanical gizmos at the same time. Maylesa was adjusting some loose pipes that surrounded a mana lamp while Thalnor was tinkering with what looked suspiciously like an upgraded mini mana battery.
The duo’s entry prompted the siblings to both twitch their ears in surprise before turning to regard the intruders into their sanctum. I guess that explains why my ears also twitch like that when I feel uncomfortable. Sophie grinned at the two and enjoyed as their relatively cold expressions shifted into warming ones once they ascertained who the duo were.
“Aryana!”
“Sophie!”
Thalnor and Maylesa greeted them.
“Hey! How are you two?” Sophie dipped her head politely.
“Hello!” Ary chirped.
“Oh! Us? I mean progress continues moving forward, as you can see.” Thalnor gestured to the battery, “We are fine though, thanks for asking.”
“Unfortunately we don’t have anything to demonstrate our hospitality.” Maylesa quipped.
“Please, it’s more than enough just saying hello.” Sophie replied.
“Yes! Yes!” Ary echoed.
“Pffft. Sure, whatever you say.” Maylesa grinned, “But welcome, welcome. To our little workshop. As you can see, we’re still quite busy.”
“Isn’t it the end of the semester? Do you two have other plans for the break?”
The siblings shot each other a quick look before replying.
“Nah. This is our plan mostly.”
“Well, that and returning back to our parents and clan, heh.” Thalnor added.
“Oh! So spending it over in Arteria?” Sophie asked.
“Pretty much. Except we’ll be trying to refine this thing.” He tapped the battery, “After the last field test, we still have a decent way to go before we’d be willing to consider this usable.”
“Oh? What’s the matter with it?”
“Well for one thing, the replenishment rate is far too low. Unless you were willing to wait a few weeks, it would most certainly be unable to refill itself with mana in any meaningful time period. Thus the only way would be to return to us. Something which, I’m sure you agree, would be quite the hindrance to on-the-road journeys.”
“Quite clunky too.” His sister added.
“Yeah, quite hard to move around with. At least, to the degree in which components aren’t suffering stress damage from being moved around a lot.” Thalnor gazed at the battery with a frown before perking up, “Right, how rude. Speaking of which, what are the two of you doing here? You two have plans for the break”
“We’re visiting! To say hi before we go!” Ary smiled.
“Oh? Go where?”
“We have a trip to Ostia!” The redhead bounced excitedly.
The siblings paused to turn to each other, their forms barely moving as they filtered through whatever treasure trove of information was stashed within their minds. Maylesa seemed to reach the target first, lighting up with a knowing look just seconds before Thalnor seemed to also reach the same conclusion.
“Ostia! That’s the place near Zephyr, isn’t it?” Maylesa asked.
“Indeed. I believe that is the place.” Thalnor affirmed.
“Fascinating, what compelled the two of you to go there?” Maylesa turned back to the duo.
“Well, our friend invited us to spend Saint’s Day with their family. So we thought we might as well visit the city proper. And… uhh… to spend time with each other… and…” Ary faltered, looking at Sophie sheepishly. Huh? What’s wrong?
“That sounds quite pleasant. But what else was it that you were trying to say?”
“Uhh.. well…” Ary looked once more towards Sophie for guidance, and this time Sophie sniffed out an inkling of what the girl wanted to say. Ah.
“She meant to say that it’d also be a good time for the two of us to go on vacation. Since we’re dating now.” Sophie chuckled, trying desperately to hide her own embarrassment at having to so pointedly state things.
“Dating? Oh my, how fascinating! Congratulations? How very wholesome!” Thalnor smiled.
“I believe ‘cute’ would suit them better as the terminology of choice. But he is right, congratulations.” Maylesa smiled.
“How irritating.” Thalnor growled at his sister, “But yes, also how cute and adorable.”
Aryana beamed at the two while Sophie let out a relieved smile. They didn’t seem to be judging, she would dare to say they even seemed happy for the duo. Ary’s expression however, soon hardened and the redhead stuck a playful if intentional tongue out at Sophie.
“This one though, decided she had another quest to go on in the meantime.” Ary pouted.
“Ary…” Sophie cooed to no avail.
“Dating and already going on a quest? How busy!” Maylesa teased.
“Hey! Not you too.”
“I jest, but only partially so. Regardless, what does this ‘quest’ of yours entail this time? Hopefully nothing life or death like the Myndiri ruins.”
Sophie shuddered at the thought, “No. Nothing like that I hope.” Sophie pulled out the little scroll, “A letter from an Inquisitor who helped me out before. A small job lined up but he said there shouldn’t be any trouble.”
The siblings studied it with a delicate eye, scanning through the contents with remarkable speed before glancing at each other. They shared a silent conversation between themselves and before long, reached a consensus and rummaged through their workbench. From within, a small little metallic lamp emerged. Maylesa handed it to Sophie and watched as the half elf tried without success to figure it out.
“It’s a lamp.” Maylesa declared.
“A… lamp… well yeah. But how does it work?”
“Heh.” The elf smirked, her eyes twinkling with mischief, “We moved a few parts around since it’s normally powered by magefire. But we rearranged the interior so that most of the energy is trapped within the metallic centerpiece. With just a hint of your mana absorption powers on the top it'll come to life. ”
“A lamp. Good for camping and dark nights in the woods. Something that happens quite often on adventures, or so I can gather.” Thalnor finished unhelpfully.
The siblings grinned at each other as Sophie tried to do what they said. Within seconds, the lamp flared a brilliant magefire blue.
“Wow.” Ary and Sophie both watched the flames.
“That’s not all!” Maylesa proudly announced, “Most lamps and lanterns require a deactivation spell to turn off. But we melded the interior material together so it’s pretty decently stuck. That way, all you need to do is push your absorption into it to turn it off.”
“Push it… in? Huh?” Sophie asked.
“Yes! Precisely. Where you drew mana from within to activate it. Now you push the absorption field into it to seal the magefire. Like a… a…”
“Like a cork on a bottle?” Thalnor spoke.
“Yes! Like a cork! You drain mana and the cork comes out. You force mana away from you and thus back in to put the cork back in.”
Sophie tried as instructed and after a tense few seconds, the magefire winked out of existence.
“Woah.”
“Like it?”
“Yeah.”
“Think of this as our little present for you two. Since you get into so many adventures. At least, until the battery is complete.” Maylesa beamed with pride.
“It’s amazing, that's for sure. Our very own little lamp. Which err, now that I think about it, how long can I use it for?”
“Oh… that’s a very good question. At least a few hundred minutes I would assume. Because the modifications likely decrease the mana capacity somewhat. Furthermore, draining the mana would be pretty bad for retaining operational integrity after all.”
“That’s… I mean, so far so good? I mean it’s a neat concept for sure. I appreciate it, don’t get me wrong. But, couldn’t I just use a regular lamp with candles and matches?”
“Sure.” Maylesa quirked her head, “But in an emergency, this can suffice as a mana battery on some levels. Well… more like barely, but probably enough to heal a… a… stomach cramp or something. At least, if what you told us about the first prototype battery is true. Besides, isn't magefire much more pleasing than normal flame?”
“Indeed. While our ultimate goal is still the miniature battery, that remains out of our reach for now. This on the other hand, was one of our earlier experiments, refined a little to suit you of course.” Thalnor chimed in.
“Hey, she didn’t need to know about the experiment part.” Maylesa grunted.
“Oops.” Thalnor chuckled, “Well if someone wasn’t so eager to give out potentially dangerous products…”
“Brother. Do you have so little faith in our own creations?”
"Why of course not!" Thalnor let out an indignant cry, "But still! You..."
Sophie smiled as the siblings then exploded into bickering over the ethics of handing out experimental items to friends. Aryana just looked at Sophie with a baffled but understanding expression, Sophie replying in kind with a ‘what can you do?’ expression of her own. Eventually the siblings settled down enough and wished the new couple a happy break, the duo offering their own gratitude for the sibling's friendship before quickly extricating themselves with strange lamp in tow in case another argument broke out.
The duo then headed back to the dorms and packed what Sophie assumed would be needed for the journey ahead. Aryana too, packed some small things into an oversized pack and proudly hauled it alongside her. They spent a few moments teasing each other as more than once, their gazes met and lingered. It was a pleasant silence that settled between them, fuelled by an all encompassing warmth that bubbled inside both their hearts.
By the time all was said and done, with the door to their dorm room locked securely behind them. Sophie and Aryana stepped out as the sun had begun to set. Despite Sophie’s reluctance, Aryana had insisted on coming along at least to the inn. And who am I to refuse her when she pouts. Their journey to the ferry was more melancholic and quiet, the two lost in their own reflections as the dull orange traces of sunlight held the world in its embrace. They had not just survived the semester, but they had persevered. Instead of floundering, they had each found their own way of pushing forward and for that Sophie was happy. Besides, now, I have her too.