Nearly a day and a half had gone by since the attack. Scarlett and Chelsie were inside a tent sitting around a table looking through several documents. The interior was sparse and illuminated by a simple lantern that hung in the center of the tent.
Chelsie was looking through some documents intensely before she put them down and looked at Scarlett.
Chelsie: “Teacher, I have a question.”
Scarlett: “What is it?” She said without looking away from the documents in front of her.
Chelsie: “I was just thinking, it’s strange that we haven’t found any remains. There are all kinds of artifacts to denote some civilization existed here at some point, but why no remains. I think that might help us with the investigation if we find out.”
It was true. They had found tools and pottery, but no remains, not even animal bones. If a civilization did exist here, there should have been something.
Scarlett: “Hmm. A fair observation, but I'm afraid it is not a good lead to pursue.”
Chelsie: “Really, why?”
Scarlett: “Have you read all the reports that were available about the Wildlands?”
Chelsie: “Obviously not. There are thousands of years worth of recorded history about it. How is anybody supposed to read all that?”
Scarlett “Fair enough, but have you at least seen the report about the Man Eating Mist.”
Chelsie: “Can’t say that I have. What is it? It sounds creepy.”
Scarlett: “There are eyewitness reports of a strange mist that exists here in the Wildlands. It said any creature that got too close to the mist had their flesh and bone dissolve into liquid. Witnesses wrote about watching their friends melting, leaving behind only the clothes and bloody puddles.”
Chelsie's face had gone pale. She was clearly disturbed by the information she was being told.
Chelsie: “S-such a thing doesn't really exist, does it?”
Scarlett: “I don’t know. It came up in at least three separate records I’ve read, so I'm inclined to believe it,” she said completely deadpan.
Chelsie: “How can such a thing exist?”
Scarlett: “The records might be mistaken. It could just be a creature that hides in the mist and eats its prey by melting their bodies. If such a creature hides in the mist, it would be very easy for no one to see it.”
Chelsie: “That is not making me feel any better,” she said looking at her teacher skeptically.
Scarlett: “Sorry about that. Anyways, I assume that if there were any bodies we could exhume, they would have been consumed by that mist already.”
Chelsie: “We haven’t come across any mist or evidence of it. Are you sure it would consume the remains?”
Scarlett: “I'm not sure. I'm working off guesses right now; keep in mind, the eyewitness records happened not too far from where we are. So, I'm operating off the assumption that it’s probably been to this place at some point.”
Chelsie froze when she heard that. A cold sweat started to form at the back of her neck from the terror of imagining such an existence may not be too far away. If the wind was to blow that mist towards their camp, she had no idea how they would survive. There was no way they could out run such a force, even with the mobility magic at their disposal.
It was possibly the first time Chelsie finally comprehended the extent of the dangers of this place.
Scarlett: “Anyways, looking for remains is usually a good idea, just not in this situation. So rather than spend our time looking for bodies that may or may not be there, I think that…Oh. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything.” She said as she looked up from her papers towards Chelsie.
Scarlett had taken note of her disciple's current distressed state. Chelsie herself was silently quaking from fear.
Chelsie: “No, that's OK. We all knew the risk.”
Scarlett: “Your reaction indicates otherwise. This is why I told you all to stay in Graheel.”
Chelsie: “How could we let you come here by yourself?”
Scarlett: “It’s easier to protect myself than a group. Take that monster I killed earlier, it would've killed Jere if I was a second too late, but if I was by myself that would have never happened.”
Chelsie: “What if you were attacked in your sleep, then what? You can't do everything by yourself. Your skills and pyromancy can’t fix every problem.”
Scarlett: “I suppose, but most problems can be fixed with fire.”
Chelsie: “How’s that working for the ziggurat research?”
Scarlett clicked her tongue and then sighed.
Scarlett: “Your tongue is as sharp as ever. Shouldn’t have brought that up. We’ve already had this argument, and you're all here now, so what's done is done.”
Scarlett put down the documents she was holding and slumped back into her chair.
Scarlett: “Let's take a break for now and talk about something not so serious.”
Chelsie followed suit and began to relax herself.
Chelsie: “Oh, OK. Um, how about that weather?” she said, unsure what to talk about.
Scarlett: “Forget that. Who wants to talk about the weather. I want to know if you asked Jere out yet.”
Chelsie: “M-miss S-scarlet! Why would you say that?” she said with slight panic.
Scarlett: “Come on. I've seen the way you look at him, and the way you talk about him. It is so obvious.”
Chelsie: “W-was it really that obvious?”
Scarlett: “Yeah. Pretty much everyone knows you have the hots for Jere, with the exception of Jere himself.”
Chelsie: “E-everyone k-knows!?!” she said, as her face turned beet red with embarrassment.
She felt so embarrassed that she just wanted to die, as she buried her face in her palms.
Scarlett: “Aww. You're so cute when you're all embarrassed like that.”
Chelsie: “C-can you please stop teasing me.”
Scarlett: “I’ll stop teasing when you finally ask that boy out.”
Chelsie: “A-as if it’s that easy.”
Scarlett: “Sure it’s easy. Just go up to him and ask if he wants to go on a date with you.”
Chelsie: “Please stop. How can you play with a girl's heart like this?” she said, becoming frustrated with her teacher mocking her.
Scarlett: “OK, calm down. I wasn't teasing you there. I was serious. You should just go up to him and ask if he would go on a date with you.”
Chelsie: “You were serious?”
Scarlett: “Yup.”
Chelsie: “That's terrible advice!” she yelled out.
Scarlett: “Wha…”
Chelsie: “You shouldn’t just ask outright. We should take it slow. Ask him if he wants to go to a restaurant or a show, slowly easing into things, and then ask him to make it official.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Scarlett: “Hm. As far as I remember, you never had a boyfriend before, so why do you know this? Unless, you read that in a book?”
Scarlett looked at Chelsie's face intensely for any indication of the validity of her comments. Her face was still a bit red and appeared quite unhappy. In her left eye, Scarlett noticed the ever so slightest twitch.
Scarlett: “Oh my god! You totally did get it from a book! What book was it, dating for dummies! Ha ha ha,” she said while cackling like a hyena.
Chelsie: “Oh, come off it. If you're such a master of dating, tell me how many times your blunt approach worked.”
Scarlett: “Honestly, none.”
Chelsie: “Uh ah. I figured.”
Scarlett: “It's more so because I've never tried. I have yet to find anyone that interests me.”
Chelsie: “Oh, sure,” she said, incredibly sarcastically while rolling her eyes. She clearly didn’t believe in Scarlett.
Scarlett: “Girl, I really don’t care if you believe me or not. I don’t lack enough self confidence to care what others think. Something I think you should do for yourself. It would keep you from wasting your time by taking a slow approach with Jere. He is too dumb to put two and two together. He won’t realize you're trying to date him, unless you ask him directly.”
Chelsie: “You know what, I'm done. I never agreed to talk about my love life with you. I'm going to bed.” She said as she stomped out of the scarlet tent.
Once Scarlett was alone she let out a deep sigh.
“Maybe I pushed her too hard. I think both of them would be a perfect match. Chelsie would balance out Jere's stupidity, keeping him from doing something really stupid, and Jere would soften Chelsie so she wasn't so serious all the time. Oh well, I guess you can’t force these things. You have to let them happen naturally.“ Scarlett quietly thought to herself.
After contemplating her disciples' relationship, Scarlett decides to do a quick perimeter check around their camp before going to bed herself. She then left her tent and walked around the edge of their camp while checking the traps she had placed.
The recent monster attack had put everyone on edge, so Scarlett had put up extra traps to ease some of her disciples' fears. With the exception of yesterday, no creature had attacked their camp directly before. Scarlett herself was convinced that no creature would attack them as long as no one ventured into the forest and drew them back, like what Rana and her group had done.
As she was examining the trap, she noticed that someone was sitting by the bonfire in the middle of their camp.
Interested to know which of her disciples were still awake at this late hour, she approached the individual from behind and placed her hand on their shoulder, and as she did, the person turned their head towards her. For a brief moment, Scarlett thought she saw the face of a skeleton-like figure with hollowed eye sockets looking at her. She then pulled her hand back quickly in surprise, then looked again and saw Rana looking back at her.
Rana: “Teacher? Is everything ok?”
Scarlett: “Yes… Everything is ok.”
Scarlett was unsure of what she exactly saw in that brief moment, but assumed it was just a trick of the light.
Rana: “You don’t look ok. You kinda looked shocked to me.”
Scarlett: “If I'm honest, the way the bonfire shined on you from this angle made you look freaky, it kinda scared the shit out of me.”
Rana: “Oh. Sorry about that, I guess.” She said as she turned back to face the fire.
Scarlett: “You don’t need to apologize.”
Scarlett then took a seat beside Rona in front of the fire.
Scarlett: “So… watcha doing?”
Rana: "Just… Sitting here thinking."
Scarlett: “What are you thinking about?”
There was a strained pause before Rana started speaking again.
Rana: “About yesterday.”
Scarlett: “Oh…So, do you want to talk about it?”
Rana: "Not really."
Scarlett: “It might help.”
There was another strained pause.
Rana: “I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong.”
Scarlett: “Are you still beating yourself up about what happened yesterday?”
Rana clenched her fist and looked into the fire intensely before speaking.
Rana: “How can I not? I'm supposed to be a leader. Yet, I failed and put everyone in danger for nothing.”
Scarlett: “This is about your family again, isn't it.”
Scarlett and Rana had discussions like this before. Rana's family, the Wei’s, were an old family of mages. They used to boast of having five members of their family be recognized as archmages in the past.
In recent years, the Wei’s had failed to produce any exceptional mages from their bloodline. This hurt their reputation and caused some circle of nobles to question if the sun was finally setting on house Wei. That was until Rana was born.
She was smart and talented at channeling aether. Rana had the making of a powerful mage and her parents tried to capitalize on it. This made her parents push her to achieve excellence in every aspect of her life, especially in her magic.
A lot of responsibility and expectations had been placed upon Rana, and Scarlet could only imagine how suffocating it was.
Because of this, everytime Rana had failed at anything she would go through a cycle of self loathing, caused by the pressure put on her by her family. Scarlett had told her many times to stop doing that. She would try to affirm that Rana was a talented mage, and even the greatest of mages mess up once in a while.
Rana: “No, it has nothing to do…”
Scarlett: “Then why are you so desperate to find artifacts?”
Rana: “We've been here for weeks and hardly know anything about this place. I don’t want us to go back to Graheel with nothing.”
Scarlett: “We're hardly going to go back with nothing. If nothing else, just discovering that this place exists is a major achievement.”
Rana: “And you're honestly saying you would be satisfied with just that.”
Scarlett: “Yes. Because whether we find out the purpose of this place or not, I still see this as a success. Not everything in life can go perfectly, we need to appreciate the victories we do get.
Rana: “I see…" She said she turned back to the fire, looking at it intensely.
Scarlett: “Look, Rana…" Scarlett was interrupted.
Rana: “I know what you're going to say, I'm focusing too much on what my parents think. You always say that, instead of helping me.” She said dismissing her teacher.
Scarlett: “Rana, I will do everything I can to help you, but your parents' expectations are too unrealistic. It takes most people half their lives to be recognized as an archmage. I don’t understand how your parents expect you to become one at such a young age.”
Scarlett knew the main reason Rana had become her disciple was to become an archmage. Born out of a strange idea, that if one trained under an archmage they themselves would eventually become one. However, it was hardly that simple.
One could only be recognized as an archmage if they were peerless in their ability, or if they possessed knowledge of the arcane that was also peerless. Either way, very few people were ever recognized, and the few who were, took most of their lifetime to achieve that. Rana believed she could achieve it in a few years working under Scarlett.
Scarlett realized this a long time ago and was constantly trying to temper her disciples’ expectations. She knew that Rana was an excellent mage and would eventually receive recognition and go far in her career, but she needed to be more realistic about it.
Rana: “You're one of the youngest archmages in history, so why do you keep saying I can't become one.”
Scarlett: “I became recognized as an archmage six years ago at forty. I would hardly call that young. And, I'm not saying you can’t become one, I'm telling you to be patient. Maybe in ten or twenty years you’ll gain enough skills and knowledge to be recognized as one.”
Rana: “Maybe if you would tell me your secrets on how you got powerful so quickly, I could become an archmage quicker.”
Scarlett: “This again? I told you before that there is no secret, it's just hard work.”
Rana was about to say something, but stopped and just looked away from her teacher and deeply sighed.
Rana: "I'm going to bed," She said as she stood up and began to walk away from Scarlett.
Scarlett: "Rana. When we get back to Graheel, we’ll talk about this more."
Rana: "Whatever… " she said as she continued to her tent.
Once alone, Scarlett let out a deep sigh.
“Great job Scarlett. You managed to piss off two disciples today.” She quietly thought to herself.
It was times like these that made Scarlett feel like a bad teacher. She was good at teaching her disciples about history or magic, but when it came to interpersonal relationships, she was lacking.
Relationships were something she never needed to bother with in the past. Ever since she left her hometown, she only relied on herself to get to where she was in life. Never to rely on others or be relied on.
While that may have worked for her, she knew it was not something she could expect of others. People cherished their relationships. It was what motivated them, what pushed them to be something in this world. It was something that constantly needed to be worked on. This was what her disciples taught her, something that she needed to get better at understanding. Scarlett decided that she would ask for some advice from her colleagues when she got back to Graheel. She needed to be better at communicating with her disciples.
Scarlett sat alone for a few more minutes before she smothered out the fire and headed off to bed.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
-Current day at the Cait house-
Cid: “It sounds like you were close to your disciples.”
Scarlett: “I like to think I was. I've always been bad with relationships, so I don't know for sure.”
Cid: “Well, you make it sound like you were close, except for maybe that Rana person.”
Scarlett: “No, I was close to Rana too. She was just being pushed a little too hard by her parents.”
Cid: “Can you be pushed so hard you become delusional? Like, I understand the desire to become an archmage, but to believe you could become one with a couple years of training.”
Scarlett: “That's what I was trying to tell her, but she thought differently. She believed I was holding her back and lying to her.”
Cid: “If she thought that, then she truly was delusional.”
Scarlett: “She wouldn’t have been that crazy to believe in a conspiracy like that.”
Cid: “Wait, were you holding her back?”
Scarlett: “I wasn't holding her back, but I was lying to her. Every time she asked where I learned my magic from, or how I was able to know the history of an item from a glance, I would lie to her. I never told her that I was taught by a dragon or about my eyes of truth ability. I think she could tell I was hiding something from her, and that bred resentment.”
Cid: “Why, though? Why would keeping secrets make her resent you?”
Scarlett: “She probably thought I was hiding a way to increase her power, thus keeping her from becoming an archmage.”
Cid: “But, none of those secrets would’ve helped her.”
Scarlett: “Rana didn’t know that. She just knew that I was not being honest with her. It’s somewhat justified in why she was upset with me. Although, maybe I'm being too charitable.” She said with a look of melancholy.
The conversation came to a pause, leaving an uncomfortable silence between the two. Wanting to fill that silence, Cid spoke up to keep the conversation going.
Cid: “There is one thing I don’t get. I know how this story ends and it doesn’t make sense. That event was well documented and reported upon. From what I read, it paints you as an uncaring manipulator. But, the way you talk about your disciples sounds like you really cared for them. So, I don’t understand. Why did you murder your disciples?”