The present.
Morgan was gushing as she finished. “She gave me her number! Her number! And she followed me to school! You know what this means? I might even have a chance with her!”
“Uh.” Enrique thought this was a stretch. “Sounds like she cares about you.”
“Yup yup. Okay, you can sneak out the back. There’s a couple cities with strong guilds where it’ll be safe. Maybe you could hang with them until I finish my work.” Morgan opened the door and headed down the stairs as he followed her. “We’ve still got fifteen minutes. I’ll be—ack!” She jumped.
Vi was sitting downstairs, having tea and a snack at the table. Enrique was about to make another mad dash when she locked eyes with him.
“I was worried about you.”
He suddenly found he couldn’t move, like she had frozen him in place just by looking at him. What the heck?
Morgan recovered and feigned nonchalance. “Hey, foxy! What do you think?” She put an arm around Enrique, waving at his new outfit.
Enrique wasn’t sure how he expected Vi to react. Maybe a cheerful compliment or anger that he had run off.
Vi’s eyes were full of sorrow. “He looks very nice. Thank you, Morgan.”
“Yeah! I…” Morgan’s voice trailed off. There was an awkward silence. “Let’s get going, shall we?”
Vi got up. She wrapped her tails around Morgan in an affectionate hug, as if to say, no harm done. Then she handed Enrique a sweet potato stick. “Sure. Enrique, walk with me.”
----------------------------------------
Vi and Enrique were side-by-side, following Morgan. The witch kept a short distance ahead of them, sensing tension in the air.
He tugged on his cloak and adjusted his hat, feeling self-conscious. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I understand. It’s my fault I’m not giving you what you want.” Vi’s tone was calm, but he couldn’t help but remember the look in her eyes.
They walked in silence for a moment.
“Vi, are you gay?”
Vi looked at him blankly, like he had spoken a totally foreign language to her. “I like guys.”
“Oh. But I thought, since Morgan’s gay and you’re close, maybe there was something going on.”
Vi shrugged. “I’ve been direct with her, but she’s persistent. She’s attempted to date and break up with me multiple times. Though I never considered them dates in the first place.”
“Oh. That’s awkward.”
Vi smiled. “Don’t worry about it. We’re happy where we are.”
Ugh. No wonder they get along, they’re both weirdos. He shook his head and tried to gauge her reaction, but didn’t see a change. I think she can read my mind, but I can’t read hers. It’s a real pain.
Vi informed him, a little too conveniently and helpfully, “There’s some nice benefits to being paired. Like one-way telepathy. The range is limited but increases when bonds become stronger. Want to give it a try?”
How about you try to shut up? he groused.
She fell silent.
----------------------------------------
“Okay, Vi. How are you feeling?” Morgan sat upright in her chair, a notepad and a pen in hand.
“Good in some ways. Terrible in others. I’m happy I have a partner again. But Bernadette and Sean were killed last night. They were customers at the cafe.” Vi was lying around as usual on the couch, her feet on the table.
Morgan nodded. She wrote on her pad. Happy, new friendship. Going through grief. She kept it generic for security. It was strange how the more familiar they’d gotten with each other, the easier it was for her to act more professional. “You feel sad because you knew them?”
“Yes.” She was silent for a while. “They didn’t deserve it. I wanted to serve them more, and give them food, and hear about their life’s journey.” She stopped, tears forming in her eyes. “Even if I’m only a silly waitress they see a brief moment every three months. Those moments mean everything to me. All Anima and humans matter to me.”
Morgan kept her voice neutral. “I see. What else do you feel?”
“Guilty. I feel I should have done more.”
Morgan paused. She looked at the fox woman. “Vi, even if you have your Eye, whatever happened wasn’t your fault. Just because you see the future doesn’t mean you’re responsible for it. You’re not a Hero anymore, remember?”
Vi inspected a wall, seeing through it at Enrique, who was sitting impatiently in another room. He was waiting in his orange cloak, occupied by the snacks and drinks she’d given him. He reminded her of previous partners. “Maybe I won’t have a choice but to be one again.”
“Don’t say that,” Morgan said, a little more sharply than she meant to. “Vi, I’m worried about you. You’ve been a Hero for so long, I feel like even as a civilian you’ve never stopped having that attitude. Always serving others.”
Vi looked back at her. “I won’t deny it. Serving is part of me now.”
Morgan returned her gaze. “Whatever big problem you think the kingdom will have in the future, I’m sure the rest of us can handle it. Nothing bad has happened to the kingdom in ten years. We must be doing something right. There’s lots of Heroes and adventurers now. There’s nothing wrong with being a waitress and a maid.”
“I suppose.” Vi looked at the wall again, as if in thought. She was contemplating a relatively recent vision of a figure handing someone a tablet of blurry photos, showing a particularly horrific crime scene.
Then, casually, she asked, “How could I plant a bomb in someone’s mind?”
----------------------------------------
What in the name of the king is she thinking about? Morgan shook her head. “Vi, just stop. Are you going after an insane terrorist or something? You’re not in the Army and you’re not supposed to save the world anymore. I think I know where this will lead. As your therapist, your mental health is my priority.”
“Okay!” She turned cheerful. After a couple moments, Vi’s eyes got suddenly big like a puppy’s and she clasped her hands. “But…please? Can you just take a guess?” she pleaded.
This was not the first time Morgan had encountered Vi’s changes in tempo. She raised her eyebrows and jabbed the pen at her. “Vi, based on your other stats I can safely say your charisma is a low 5. Don’t try to use such cheap tricks on a powerful witch.”
“Sometimes it’s a 10, and sometimes it backfires like a 1. It averages out,” Vi said happily. This was not, of course, how stats worked. She flashed Morgan a smile.
Ack! Four Houses, that’s a solid 8. “Ugh.” She rolled her eyes. “You should find a weapons expert.”
“I don’t want an expert. I want someone who can think out of the box.” Vi blinked at her earnestly.
“How would I know anything about something crazy like that? A bomb in someone’s head?” Morgan protested.
“You like making magic items, right? Plus you’re smarter than me in the System! You’re a 6 and I’m just a 5.”
Pretty sure your profile’s not normal. You’re immortal and the royal family needs to make sure you don’t stand out. Still, the compliments were having some effect. She puffed her chest out. “If you insist. I’ll make a random speculation and we’ll move on, okay?”
Vi nodded with a smile.
“Okay. What kind of bomb are we talking about? Is it from a timer or remotely activated?” Morgan felt queasy just asking that. Skies, I should get this over with.
“Remote.”
Morgan sketched a drawing of a string and circle on her notebook. “If it’s remote, there should be some way to tie the source’s mana, the maker, with the—item. If you were to really do this, hypothetically, you’d need to store a huge amount of energy in someone’s brain under constant pressure, and make sure it couldn’t be defused.”
She tapped the pen on her notepad in thought. “The first step in making this item would be establishing a long-term psychic link with the victim. You’d need to find someone very vulnerable.
“There’s probably a good reason Elarrians don’t do this, and they have mind magic. Even an unpaired adult Anima would resist that kind of intrusion. Assuming you somehow succeed, you still need to maintain this link, which will be extremely hard with a mobile target that’s running around.”
She made a dot and traced the string to the circle. Then she made a bigger circle around that circle. Her brows furrowed in concentration. “If I was a really clever and messed-up item maker, I’d also use the link to monitor the item through the mind. Make sure it’s not being altered or leaking its energy outside. After all, it’s an illegal creation used without its victim’s permission.
“But a big problem is the need to access the link. Whether you want to monitor the item telepathically or—activate it, that requires a ton of mana. You simply can’t keep it running all the time, even if you were the world’s most overpowered mage.”
Vi was listening intently. Morgan finished by marking a few labels. The dot was “maker”, the line “psychic link”, the outer circle, “mind”, and the circle, “item”.
She showed the paper to Vi. “Well, if you want to make one it would be terrifying. I’d say the weaknesses of the item are the psychic link and the mana activation cost. But honestly, you’d need to get solid information on specifics of your item. Happy now?”
“Great! Aaaaah! Morgan! Give me a hug!” Vi leaped from the couch and tackled Morgan in an embrace. She aggressively cuddled her.
“Ackpthgh! Vi!” Morgan tried very hard to keep her composure. Her face burned bright red. “Let’s—let’s talk about something else. Like how you’re doing with your partner.”
Vi’s face brightened. “Okay! Sure! Enrique’s really inquisitive and paranoid of everything! He’s soooo cute! I really want to feed him and hug him and cuddle him all day, but he isn’t comfortable with me because sometimes I seem to be messing with him and he doesn’t trust people because of his past—”
“—Vi—”
“—and that makes me sad and lonely because I used to be really close to Aurelius, and we’d talk and hang out a lot, but I understand Enrique’s thoughts and I need to be patient because relationships take time—”
“Vi!”
Vi stopped.
“Can’t. Breathe,” Morgan managed to say, as Vi had pulled her in a very tight hug.
Vi hastily released her. “Oh! Sorry!”
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Morgan straightened herself and assumed a serious expression. “Please don’t do that to Enrique. In fact, you shouldn’t show this side of yourself to him at all. I know you don’t want that, but it’s probably for the best. He’d hate you. That’s my professional opinion.”
Vi nodded.
“And please don’t jump on me—ack! Cut it out!” Morgan flailed as Vi gave her another well-intentioned hug. “Have some self-control! Geez!”
Enrique looked up as the two re-entered the room he was in.
“Ready to start training?” Vi asked.
----------------------------------------
Vi’s eyes glowed. A scene flashed through her mind.
Two hours in the future. 15%.
Vi unsheathed her sword and pointed it casually to his right. The blade glowed with a matching blue light and promptly fired out a barrage of blue beams. Enrique jumped to the side as the beams flew past him and hit the wall behind him.
“Now you try.” Vi stopped moving and waved her tails at him.
“Defensive and offensive magic is generally considered above the strength and range of even large human firearms. Higher-level adventurers can outmatch human artillery and bombs. Some people point to the Elarrian Empire’s victory in the Unplaced Wars as an example of this. Mana is constantly regenerated, which is preferable to running out of bullets.”
Scene end.
No. She loved making monologues, but he would be bored. He was a teenager after all, a storm of impatience. 30% chance he would be frustrated afterwards.
The next scene appeared.
Two hours in the future. 20%.
“Shoot me.”
Vi was disappointed at how quickly Enrique obliged, raising a hand and pointing the gun at her forehead. She was well aware of how annoying she could be, but he was being far too easy to manipulate with that temper.
She also privately wished he cared for her at least a little.
“Aim for center mass,” she advised him, facing him straight-on. “Use two hands. It’s a magic gun, but there is a recoil.”
His face warmed slightly, but he adjusted to a two-handed grip and leveled the weapon appropriately. Then he fired.
Gunshots cracked across the room. Vi’s body flared with a blue aura as three silver bullets sailed towards her.
They struck her chest—and promptly dropped to the ground, clattering on the floor. She was completely unharmed. His eyes widened.
Scene end.
No. It was convenient to use herself as a target, but she didn’t like where this would lead. Fighting, not bonding. He already didn’t like her, he’d said so himself. The wedge would be driven deeper between them.
Following that scene was another one.
Two hours and ten minutes in the future. 40%.
“Three years?!” he spluttered in disbelief.
“You’re fifteen. Please don’t expect too much from yourself.” Vi put out her hands in a calming way.
“This is ridiculous!” Enrique looked furious.
She had expected this, of course.
“If you truly want power, there’s still a way.” Vi approached him, transferring the peculiar long package she’d been holding from her tails to her arms.
She stopped in front of him. “I want to give you—”
Enrique backhanded her with the butt of the gun. “Shut up!”
To his surprise, Vi was flung to the side with her package and rammed against the wall. She slid down and didn’t move for a few moments.
Scene end.
No. 80% chance of anger.
I don’t want to come in direct conflict with him again. I should encourage him. I can be a source of positive emotion to him. He’s unsure of himself.
She went through several other scenes, following a branch from one path to another, sometimes delving deeper to check the spread of likely situations, and sometimes going back to another lane and starting anew.
We need common threads to bind us together.
Shared experiences. Shared motivations. Shared burdens.
There were a couple paths with those elements scattered about.
First a struggle, where they might help one another, second, what did he like that could drive him? What could he care for? Ah, it was a bit obvious when she thought about it. He did mention that. Then, third, something fun.
A shared burden. A shared motivation. A shared experience.
Two hours in the future. 15%.
She let the scene play all the way through.
Scene end.
Yes. That one. She made her decision.
If there was one thing Vi had learned, it was the uncertainty of life. Every careful consideration and precaution could be upended in a heartbeat. Still, her eyes, the color of the sky, showed a path forward. All she could do was take it and hope for the best. That was what it meant to be an Azurelane.
“What are we doing here?” Enrique asked. He was watching her glowing eyes with a mix of intrigue and nervousness. It occurred to her he wasn’t used to them yet. In fact, this was the first time he was seeing her ability.
Vi’s eyes stopped glowing. All the previous scenes had flashed through her mind in an instant. She looked at him.
“There’s a saying. Preparation is half the battle. Have you heard of it?”
He cocked his head. “Maybe. Sounds familiar.”
She walked around in front of him. “You can think there are two sides to winning a battle. The first half is preparation. The second half is execution. Now, I only want to teach you self-defense, but you can take from my training what you want.”
He nodded. They were in a large, cavernous room, completely devoid of any other people.
“Let’s start with preparation. You need to know yourself, know the enemy, and know your situation. Good information is crucial. You use that to make a plan.”
She held out a hand and glowed with a blue aura. A rectangular blue barrier appeared in front of the wall beside her.
“We’ll start with knowing your own abilities. Here’s your target. Go ahead and shoot.”
He raised his gun, both hands on the weapon, and fired.
Gunshots cracked across the room and three silver bullets pinged against the target. They dropped to the ground, the barrier unaffected. His eyes widened.
“Your aim isn't bad,” she noted. “Don’t doubt yourself. You have all the power you need inside.”
He snorted. “Yeah, right. That’s so cheesy.”
“No, I mean literally. What are you shooting at? Where’s it coming from?”
He eyed the blue barrier and Vi with her aura. “You made a magic shield. Obviously.”
“Our souls are bonded. You have spirit magic as well. You might hear it as mana, life force, or spirit energy, but the name doesn’t matter. Try breaking my defense.”
His eyes flickered to his gun. “So, what, I just imagine myself shooting lasers through the wall or something?”
She smiled at that. “Sure. Try channeling magic into your gun and make some. It should feel instinctive. You simply will energy from within you outwards. It might help if you think of a strong emotion, like anger.”
“Oh, I have plenty of that.” He concentrated, imagining energy pouring from his chest into the gun, and held a particularly hateful image of himself being kicked around in his mind. He glimpsed his own body emit an orange light. Then he fired again, and saw a glowing blue bullet streak towards the shield. Vi moved her tails in front of her body.
This time there was a cacophonous explosion of orange light, and the sides of the building exploded.
“Holy s***.” Enrique stared as smoke billowed from where Vi had been. “Vi?” he asked hesitantly. When the smoke cleared, he could see bits of ash, blown concrete, and embers on the ground.
The barrier had disappeared. Vi stood at the side and unfurled her tails, unhurt. “Good job.”
“I’m glad no one’s around,” he muttered, gazing at the bits of rubble scattered about. Parts of the gigantic room they were in had been destroyed, revealing a grass clearing outside and a thick hedge of dark trees and plants further out.
“That’s why I chose this place. It’s an abandoned Guild headquarters. There was a bad plague around a thousand years ago, and then rumors and nature grew to hide it over time.”
“Why didn’t we go to a real Guild?” He wondered if she just didn’t want him to meet adventurers and get any ideas, and run off again.
She didn’t answer. Vi glowed again and the barrier reappeared, but as a smaller circle. A thick sheet of ice formed around it. “You can use mana to shape constructs like barriers, sword arcs, and beams. These can be strengthened by being channeled through a weapon. Try again.”
“Easy.” Enrique fired another four glowing bullet-like beams. There was a series of violent booms.
The orange explosions cleared. This time the small blue shield remained, though chunks of ice had chipped off, scattered on the floor like pieces of glass.
Vi continued as Enrique looked surprised. “Let’s talk about elements. Sometimes it’s useful to have an effect to go with your magic. Each Anima and human has their own primary element. Yours is the fire element, like Morgan.”
Instinctively, Enrique envisioned a flame rising within himself and fired again. This time, the beams were covered in red-hot orange flames and hit the barrier. There was another bright explosion and Enrique saw fire burst out. The ice melted away and he saw the shield fade from view.
Another circular barrier appeared. “Good job,” she complimented him mildly. “Some people split elemental abilities into augmentation and manipulation. Augmentation allows you to channel one of the natural elements together with your aura, and manipulation simply means summoning—”
Enrique experimentally waved a hand at the target. A tongue of fire flew from the ground and streaked towards the shield. It struck home with a flash of orange-red and vanished into thin air with the shield.
“—that element and controlling it.” Vi glanced over as he flung a hand out. A fireball roared to life in front of it and struck her barrier as it began to form.
Vi spoke like she hadn’t even been interrupted. “There’s many elements. Fire, water, and earth. Lightning, ice, wind, and steel. Darkness and light. Many people stick to their primary element because that’s what comes naturally to them.”
Enrique fired another round of six fiery bullets at the target. His body glowed with an orange aura. “I’ve got this. I don’t even need you helping me! You see how good I am? I’m a natural! I can do this alone!” He couldn’t help but grin savagely as the bullets impacted.
There was another blinding explosion of energy that ripped through the walls of the building.
“You have some potential. Please be aware of one more detail.” Vi glanced at the flames dancing on a demolished side wall to her right, not looking particularly concerned.
“What’s that?”
Vi flicked a tail at the gun. “Did you read the description?”
Enrique frowned and yanked out his phone, pointing at it.
V&E 500. Custom high-caliber pistol. Configured for both bullets and magical projectiles. Fire, ice, and lightning element projectile weapon. Amplifier: 3x owner’s magic for each projectile. Mana store: draws additional power from internal mana store when magic is placed through it.
Grade: AA
He stuffed the phone back in his pocket. “It’s extra powerful because of the amplifier.”
Vi picked up a long, slender package she had carried from her home with her tails. It was wrapped in cloth and slightly larger than the samurai sword she had sheathed at her waist.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “Is there anything else you want to learn? What else could help you in a fight?”
He thought for a moment and looked at himself, in his protective cloak and hat. Know yourself, Vi had said.
“Well, sometimes I end up getting hurt. Healing myself would be really nice.”
Vi looked at him. “Ah…Healing is a very specialized form of magic. Some Anima dedicate their entire lives as healers. I first trained as one. It takes time and study. I’m sorry, but it may not be the best use of your energy at the moment.”
He shrugged. “Makes sense. Can we fight something for real? I feel like I’d learn best that way.”
“Of course,” she said sweetly. “You have the basics. We can go to the next stage. There’s one more thing that might be useful to you.”
Vi got up and walked over to him. She held the package in both hands, and then suddenly knelt down to present it to him.
He backed away, startled.
Vi looked up into his eyes. “I want to give you this. I hope it helps you and you can treat it well.”
A pull from a tail undid the package with a whoosh, and a large, sheathed broadsword lay in her arms. He hesitantly took it and drew the weapon. It was a faded bluish-white, with a straight blade engraved in enchanted blue runes and swirling designs. It had a richly decorated blue cross guard and seemed well-cared for.
He awkwardly pointed his phone at it.
Will of Flame.
This sword was reforged from a weapon once belonging to a legendary Hero. Its core has been replaced with the heart of a burning sun. It is now attuned to the fire element and awaits the day its true form can be unveiled by its wielder.
Grade: SSS
He put the phone away as Vi rose and walked a few steps back to stand in front of him again.
“I wanted to give you the gun because it’s a simple and powerful way to defend yourself. Most partners nowadays also aren’t trained in swordsmanship. Put the gun away for now and hold your sword.”
He holstered the pistol and grasped the sword with both hands.
Vi silently noted his stance. It wasn’t terrible, but it was crude. She held out a hand and a small ball of yellow light hovered above her palm. “You may have noticed many adventurers have highly customized weapons. That’s not a coincidence. As partners get to know each other, their bond deepens and they both become stronger than they could separately. You can see that with an Anima’s stats. A weapon which reflects the human partner’s self also grows with the partner. Hit the ball.”
She casually tossed it in the air. He lunged, and it danced to the side to avoid his attack.
She continued with her previous lecture. “Over time, the human partner adopts, upgrades, and modifies different weapons and armor, until they’re like someone’s soul being fully bared in physical form.”
“Like this sword?” He made a stab in the ball’s direction, but it leaned away from the blade.
“Yes. This is the Will of Flame. It’s not easy to activate. If you can do so, it would make you much more powerful. You need to bring out a large amount of your spirit and sync it with mine. That’s mainly what you need to know.”
He slashed at the ball, and it vanished without a trace.
“You’re doing great,” she said in an encouraging way. “I know the basics are boring, but they’re necessary. Less mistakes when you’re truly in danger.” Vi stepped past him and started heading out the room. “Now let’s move on to living targets. We’ll have to fly somewhere farther out. Do you want to ride a dragon or a griffin?”