Cham quietly sat in the passenger seat of the wagon as it trundled along the main highway while staring at her hands. Despite her intense concentration she was unable to notice any obvious difference in them now. In fact, if she hadn’t vividly remembered having her arm torn off by that ghoul and the pain when she forcibly staunched the bleeding followed by the intense pain when the mysterious gauntlet replaced her missing limb then she might have started to wonder if it was all a bad dream. Still, Cham knew better than to deny reality.
Sighing as she lifted her sleeve she traced the small indention in her skin that was all that was left of the seam between her and the mysterious arm. Now that Rosalyn was safe and she knew that she was in good hands with Serena the topic of the arm was something that had added to her night terrors. She hadn’t put much thought in it when Cham had thought that it was from the Abbess, but the short reply of “What Gauntlet?” had really put her teeth on edge. She had done her best to not show her worry to either Rosalyn or Serena the last few weeks, but Cham had dealt with enough rogue magic crap during the war that she was incredibly worried about the item that had attached itself to her.
Flashes of the mysterious masked creature she had traded blows with flashed in her mind as she thought about it and the knot in her stomach wound a little tighter. Still, Cham decided to put the issue out of her mind for now, at least until she could speak with the Abbess, as worrying would not help the situation at all. Besides, she had to put on a smile for Janie.
Taking a minute to dig through her bag she retrieved the white cloth wimple that she had worn as part of her now long destroyed habit and pulled it over her head. It felt like a lifetime since she had worn it even if it hadn’t really been that long. Smiling awkwardly to no one in particular she looked down at her hands once more before sighing and leaning outside of the wagon and staring ahead at their path. “Hopefully, Torey isn’t being too rough on you Janie. She never did know how to slow down…” Cham mumbled as she saw the spires of the RMA rising in the distance.
A few minutes after arriving Cham presented herself to the front desk. “I am here to speak with the visiting Abbess. Is she available?” A matronly human woman with a tight grey bun looked down on her with a smile, “Ah, a habit then? Are you here to help with the class they are teaching this semester?” Shaking her head in the negative she waited patiently for directions, but was disappointed instead. “I am sorry, classes ended an hour ago and the Abbess retired to her room in the city. She will not be back until the morrow.”
Scowling at nothing in particular, Cham decided that one more day wouldn't hurt and that her report could wait. “How about my daughter? She is enrolled here…”
Janie was going to die, and it was all because of this demon woman who had decided that it would be fun to torture a poor orphan girl. The day after getting the letter from Mother Cham detailing the attack on her home Headmistress Tor had frantically started drilling every bit of magic she could into her protégé. She had learnt much and slept little and her body was about to break down. Even still, Mistress Tor had decided that today they would practice blocking various forms of energy.
Concentrating as hard as she could on the various attacks flying at her, Janie caught a fireball on her shield but wasn't fast enough to reconfigure her mana to block the incoming sphere of wind and was flung on her back. The students who were assisting her 'training' looked around uncomfortably at one another as Janie lay on the ground, bleeding from a split lip and panting heavily from the almost 5 hours of blocking their projectiles. "Mistress Tor, please... I can't go on anymore..."
"Hmm, well I suppose it was an adequate display." Tor said disinterestedly as she helped her student to her feet. The older students looked even more uncomfortable and slightly envious at the sheer talent and raw power that had just been described as adequate. Janie pretended that she didn't see them though, the stares of wonder and jealousy and she had pretended that she did not hear the other students talk about her behind her back. "Come child, we have some practical..."
“TOREY WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY DAUGHTER?” a booming voice yelled across the practice field and Janie saw something new on her teacher’s face, abject panic. A myriad of emotions ran through Janie’s head at seeing that expression. First, she was happy that her tormentor would be getting a little payback but that quickly gave way to her own panic at the thought of something that could scare the incredibly strong creature in front of her followed by happiness as she saw who the voice came from.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Mother Cham!” Janie leapt from the grasp of her teacher and bounded across the field and tackle hugged the smaller woman. Cham caught the much taller girl and brought her down and they embraced for a moment before Janie stood back up with tears in her eyes. In a small voice, almost too quiet for even Janie herself to hear she said, “You called me your daughter…”
Looking up at her with a confused face she snorted before leaping up and thumping Janie on the forehead “Of course you are! Did some of Torey’s stupid wear off on you? Speaking of…” Before Janie could even register that she had been thumped or get another word in Cham took off at a dead sprint, faster than any normal person and leapt into the air at Tor. Panicked at the sudden attack Tor let out a stammered “Com… commander! W…wait!” before she turned to run away from the small comet of halfling fury. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quick enough as Cham dope slapped her in the back of her skull.
Janie was suddenly incredibly aware of the gawking students who were watching this spectacle and groaned. She was sure that tomorrow the looks and whispers would be even worse. As if reading her mind, Tor stood up and yelled at the upperclassmen that had spent all afternoon tormenting her and just like that they were gone.
Janie’s brain did another twist when Tor deferentially bowed to Cham with a smile on her face, showcasing two things she had never really seen on her teacher’s face, deference or a smile. Minus the night she had comforted her after the news of the attack, Janie had seen nothing but cool indifference or vague displeasure on Tor’s beautiful features. Something about it really bothered Janie, like something had fundamentally changed the natural laws of her world and it left her feeling like gravity no longer worked.
They spent the next hour chatting as Janie demonstrated her mastery over the combining of various types of mana. Janie felt a huge swell of pride as Cham’s eyes widened in shock at her ability. After her demonstration they retired to the Headmistress’ office where Janie quickly passed out asleep with a half-eaten cinnamon bun in her mouth on the over-stuffed leather couch next to the bookshelf in the corner.
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It was sometime later and Tor had served her old commander some wine after her pupil had fallen asleep. She was incredibly happy to see her old friend, even if she hadn't stopped glaring at her since she had arrived. Awkwardly swishing the red wine back and forth in her glass, Tor had a sudden flashback to the two of them sitting in a burned out log cabin in the woods drinking some sort of rotgut they had found in a smashed cupboard after a particularly hairy engagement.
Chuckling softly to herself, she started uncontrollably giggling when the glare that Cham had turned up to eleven and morphed into a full blown scowl. “Peace Chamuhua. I was not torturing the girl for fun. You know me better than that, or at least I hope you do.” Hesitating for a moment, Tor stared into her glass, “I am actually very fond of her. You have raised a wonderful young woman, although she is a bit shy. I hope that my lessons give her a solid basis to build some self-confidence when…” Tor scrunched her face as she tasted something incredibly sour.
“They are going to deploy her soon. The bastards aren’t even waiting for her to finish a second semester before they throw her into the meat grinder on the western border.” Cham, her face an emotionless mask set her cup down and grabbed the edge of the small table they were sitting at. She looked on at the sleeping form of Janie, now using the cinnamon bun as a pillow snore softly on the couch.
Sudden rage contorted her features as she crushed the edges of the table in her monstrously strong hands, both of which glowed with a clear white light as she squeezed. “When?”
“Six weeks. It is why I have been pushing her so hard… She doesn’t know. I wanted her to learn without the thought of war weighing her down.” Meeting her gaze Cham gave one of her trademark grunts before picking up the wine glass and slamming back the contents. “For a nun you really can hold your liquor. I always found that to be incredibly sexy.” Tor winked at her.
Giving an incredibly unimpressed look in response, Cham shook her head before admonishing her “Stop that. I wouldn’t sleep with you during the war and I won’t start now. Besides, my daughter is literally right there.” Filling their empty glasses back up and sticking her tongue out in response, Tor said “A decade later and you are even less fun than when we were fighting a war.”
“Yeah that’ll happen when you see a bunch of children you are responsible for die.” Cham slammed back another glass of wine. Feeling like she had made a mistake, Tor placed her hand on Cham’s and very softly said, “I will teach her everything I can. She is smart, hardworking, and quite frankly has a much skewed outlook on what a student’s normal workload is here at the RMA. I have run her through a year and a half of training in an incredibly short time and she rose to the occasion and passed with flying colors. Your daughter is a mage in her own right on par with the top one percent of our mage students and a woman I am proud to call my apprentice. She will have all the skills she needs.”
Nodding her head absently, Cham just stared at Janie as she snuggled up to the cinnamon bun and slept blissfully unaware of the world.