Chapter 44 The Story Time
Evernya awakened late the next morning by a ton of water in her face. She burst to her feet on the bed, claws out, scanning for threats. Her shining eyes landed on the culprits. An elf and a human lady who appeared to be in her later 30s or early 40s, both were smiling. The human looked particularly proud of herself.
“Why did you dump water on me!” Growled Evernya.
“Sorry, you wouldn’t wake up, so we had to be more aggressive.” Elizabeth apologized with a grin, putting the sincerity of the apology into question.
Evernya shifted away her claws while investigating the aftermath of her shower. Her sheets were several shades darker, and standing water was gathering in the indents caused by her feet. “Now everything is soaked! You probably ruined the book too. How much water did you drop on me! A bucket wouldn’t hold this much!”
“Oh, I think forty liters it may have been a bit overkill, but I rarely store water in my storage ring unless it’s at least twenty-liter jugs,” Elizabeth commented as if it wasn’t a big deal to drop a ton of water on someone.
“forty liters! It will take forever to dry out my bed!” Exclaimed Evernya while whipping her soaked tail, painting the wall behind her with water.
Elizabeth flicked her right wrist upward, causing all the water to float up into the air. Next, she twitched her right hand toward the bathroom, commanding the water to move. Less than a minute later, Evernya and her bed were dry, as if nothing ever happened.
Evernya’s previous anger morphed into wonder as she watched the casual display of magic. “Wow, no wonder you were ok dropping that much water on me. Cleaning messes would be so easy with water magic. I’m guessing you are a water sorceress like Meira is with air.”
Meira chimed in. “Yeah, you should see her house. It is virtually spotless! Dorming with her was a dream as long as you avoided her water-filled wake-up calls. Air is handy for many things, but I can’t do much cleaning beyond dusting or sweeping while she can wash her entire kitchen floor and suck the water away in minutes.”
Meira paused for a moment before adding, “Theoretically, you could control water with telekinesis. it would be much more difficult than her since you have to focus on controlling every drop. She connects directly to the water to control it. Telekinesis is versatile, but it requires extreme control and concentration to do what other manipulators can do with little effort. At least you don’t need hand gestures like most manipulators.”
Over her previous excitement, Evernya dropped onto her now dry bed, leaning against her headboard as usual. “I have a long way to go. I can only move simple objects or people. That’s only one of my Psionic abilities. I am worse with the rest. Having so much magic seems awesome, but it will take forever to master them all.” Evernya commented, staring down at her hands grasping her tail.
Upon catching the sudden downturn in her kitten’s mood, Meira attempted to cheer her up. “You will get better. I won’t be able to help you much with your telepathy or teleportation. However, I can help you get your telekinesis, and warrior magic on par if not better than your peers by the time you start college. Some inexperienced humans will not outshine my kitten! Unfortunately, Telepathy and teleportation will have to wait in college.”
Evernya gave Meira a thankful smile. “I’ll take any help you can provide. I need a lot of help to get anywhere near my goals of strength. I want to become strong enough to roam freely without worry and explore the world.”
“A great goal to have, and with your potential, you will accomplish it.” Meira gushed, laying it on a little thick.
Evernya changed the subject, uncomfortable with Meira’s faith in her. “Cool. When do I register for classes?”
“For your first semester, Diom assigns your courses based on your results on the entrance exam. Just show up to the entrance exam and try your best.” Elizabeth explained.
Evernya relaxed into the headboard. “Thank you. I wouldn’t know what classes to take.”
After a few seconds of silence, Evernya moved on. “So, what’s scheduled for today?”
“While you were sleeping, I scanned your body to check your progress. You made a complete recovery and then some. Your health is almost too perfect. It is amazing how fast your body recovered. We expected at least two months, not a week. From what Meira tells me, you ate 150 to 180 kilograms of food in 2 days and slept the rest of the time. Hopefully, As long as you eat and exercise properly, you shouldn’t have any problems from now on.” Elizabeth informed, joining Meira on the couch.
“I thought I had to go into that entombment bed again,” Evernya questioned, shivering at the thought.
“Interesting name, but no, you don’t. Now that I know what to look for, I can check your body’s overall health with a few scans. Your mana hides the true state of your body very well, but there are enough signs for me to gauge your true health.” Responded Elizabeth.
Evernya let out a sigh of relief. “Good, one time was enough.”
“Well, I didn’t say we would never use the entombment bed again, but you don’t need it for a checkup.” Elizabeth teased, causing Evernya to stiffen, tail puffed.
“At least I know what to expect. The surprise of being buried alive is what made it worse,” Evernya commented, unsure of herself.
“We narrowed down the drug dosages needed, so next time you probably won’t even be aware,” Assured Elizabeth, hoping to ease her patient’s worries.
“I don’t like drugs, but it is better than being buried alive,” Evernya replied, stowing her worries away for later.
To move things along, Meira jumped in. “The first thing we want to do is seal your mana down to grade one and see how you feel.”
Meira materialized the suit and handed it to Evernya. Evernya hopped off her bed and trotted toward her bathroom, suit in hand.
After spending a few minutes wiggling into her skintight training suit, she emerged from the bathroom. “A lot easier than last time, no greedy girls harassing me for my suit.”
“I would have worries about my security if there was. No one should be on my property without me knowing.” Commented Meira from her place next to Elizabeth on the couch.
“Do you know how to activate the suit and use the mana sealing feature?” Meira inquired.
“Yeah, you showed me during my private testing.” Replied Evernya.
“Good, it’s best if you lay down on your bed just in case you pass out again,” advised Meira.
Evernya laid on her bed on her back, then poked at the computer screen on her forearm. She slid her finger down at the top of the screen to pull down the drop-down menu before selecting the option with a mini version of her suit. Immediately after activating her suit, she felt the odd squeezing and sticking sensation as the suit adhered to her skin.
“I don’t think I will ever get used to that sensation, it feels so weird.” Commented Evernya after the suit fully activated.
“Older models were even worse. They took much longer to fuse and were mildly painful. The new suits numb your skin before it fuses to avoid the pain. The numbing feature caused so many people to buy new suits that all manufacturers had to ramp up production to mitigate shortages. During the craze, the prices skyrocketed. Luckily, that was over a decade ago. All training suit developers have had plenty of time to implement the feature.” Informed Elizabeth while peeking at the tablet, displaying her patient’s readings in Meira’s hands.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“I’ll take this weird sensation over that. Why would so many people use these suits if they were painful?” Questioned Evernya while running her hands up and down the smooth black skinsuit.
Before Meira could respond, Elizabeth took point, earning a glare from the elf. “Having one of these suits is essential for mage training. The information provided by the suit, such as real-time mana tracking and the ability to link to other training devices, enhances training efficiency. Also, as we explained before, to duel, both participants must wear one of these suits. Typically, parents gift their child their first personal training suit at their awakening party.”
Elizabeth paused as she remembered something causing her to add, “Speaking of awakening party, Emily is having hers in a few weeks and has invited both of you. Since you don’t have a phone yet and Meira is notorious for ignoring hers, Emily tasked me to deliver the invitations.” Said Elizabeth before materializing two rainbow-colored envelopes, placing them on the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Hey! It’s not my fault reception is crap out here! Plus, most of the time, I turn it off, so I don’t get disturbed while enchanting.” The insulted elf defended.
“See you even admit you ignore it!” Elizabeth pointed out.
“Do you want me to mess up a fifty thousand plus crystal enchant if I get startled by someone calling me?” Questioned Meira.
“Oh, come on, I highly doubt you would mess up an enchantment, I bet you haven’t made a mistake for a century.” Replied Elizabeth, while Evernya laid back to enjoy the show.
Meira stopped to think for a second. “Your right, the last time I remember messing up an enchantment that wasn’t an experiment was around the 1870s.”
“Wow, so even before I was born! Why did you every enchantment course then?” Questioned Elizabeth.
“Why not? It was easy, high grades and points. Besides, I wanted to learn the human way of enchanting.” Meira replied, showing no guilt at playing the system.
“How can you talk about stuff that happened a century ago as if it was yesterday?” Commented Evernya, who was now lying on her stomach with her feet and tail waving behind her.
This time, Meira took the lead, much to the annoyance of her human friend. “When you live as long as we have, it happens. It’s worse when meeting people born over 500 years ago. Though it's rare to meet people that old. They spend most of their time either out in the wilds or hiding away in tier 1 cities. I doubt there are more than a thousand humans, over five hundred in Sespina. It takes more than talent to live that long. Life was much harder back then, especially during the expansion era. If you weren’t in one of the established tier 1 cities, you were struggling to survive against attacks from the wilds daily. I didn’t see my first human till I was almost fifty years old.”
“I still can’t wrap my head around how long people live here. What was it like before humans came?” Evernya inquired, drilling her curious gaze into Meira.
Evernya’s question caused a long story as Meira reminisced. “Well, from history books, they were already settling near where I grew up before I was born. However, because of our isolated location, they didn’t reach our clan until the 1720s. We knew they existed from other demihumans though. Before they reached us, life was peaceful, as most demihuman races kept to themselves. We still had issues with mana beasts, but the wilds usually left us alone. When humans finally reached our clan, the act of taking slaves was less common. The Sespina armies tried to force us out, but we were prepared, so they failed. However, after the attack, my clan and our neighboring demi-humans moved on anyway, fearing another attack.”
“Despite their brutal methods, I grew curious about humans, so the next place we settled, I searched for humans actively. I spent the next 50 or so years after our relocation searching until I finally found some. The humans I found differed from the pillaging and raping armies of Sespina. These humans were adventurers or explorers traveling in small groups of five or less. I spent several months observing them, learning their language, before I became bold enough to meet them in person. I, of course, hid the fact I was an elf, which wasn’t too hard since the only real sign is my ears. Some were suspicious because of my height, but otherwise, I was fine. After my dealings, I found out it was very lucrative to sell enchantments to humans.”
“I secretly snuck out of my clan’s territory for a year to trade enchantments for things I couldn’t get from my clan until my clan caught me. I found out later the clan knew for several months about my activities but hoped I would grow out of it. The clan eventually grew tired of waiting for me, so they ambushed me on my way back with our elite guards, who forcefully took me to the elders for my trial. My parents didn’t even defend me as the elders found me guilty of having contact with humans. Since even my parents wouldn’t defend me, I chose exile upon receiving the verdict. After my exile, I lived on the outskirts of human settlements selling my enchantments to support myself while hiding the fact I was an elf until after the wolf rebellion ended and humans outlawed demi-human slavery. By that time, I made a big name for myself, so when I came out as an elf, my business didn’t suffer.” Meira recalled to her intently listening, curious kitten.
“It must have been hard to hide your identity while watching other demihumans become enslaved.” Commented Evernya.
“It was. I tried to free as many as I could, but many times they were too far gone to live independently. Slave owners only allowed the strongest conditioned and trained slaves out of their sight. Once a slave is that far under, they can’t live without their owners. I freed many over the years. Though only when I got lucky and caught a slave undergoing conditioning or recently captured.” Meira replied.
As soon as Meira finished, Evernya had another question queued up. “So, where did you live over the years?”
Elizabeth sat back on the couch enjoying storytime as her Elven friend answered, “My clan was originally from near Fort Torrid in northeastern Sespina. After the attack, we moved west to near where Wesburn is now. If my former clan still exists, I doubt they still live in that area, though. After I left my clan, I spent most of my time on the outskirts of Northern outer ring cities, since they were safer for a demi-human. I usually moved every few years before it became obvious that I didn’t age like humans. Eventually, I couldn’t stay on the outskirts anymore because they expanded too much, so I started moving further north, ending up here in the late 1800s. Over the years, I visited every city in the northern half of Sespina, even the tier 1 cities. It became tricky when they made IDs required to enter settlements in the mid-1800s, but I had others let me in and out, as I did for you. Another reason I came out as an elf right after the civil war was they allowed demihumans to have IDs, making my life so much easier.”
“I want to travel freely too, but it will be difficult. I noticed on maps that most of the Sespina’s roads were within the middle and inner ring. The outer ring, which makes up over two-thirds of Sespina’s home, was sparse of roads. It would be boring to travel only by portal without seeing the sights.” Evernya remarked while picturing a near-perfect representation of the Sespina map in her mind.
Meira continued her history lesson to answer her kitten’s question. “In the early 1800s, they set up a magical barrier pushing the wilds back, claiming the area within the barrier permanently for humans at the cost of much lower mana density. After several decades, they expanded the barrier to what is now the outer edge of the middle ring. The foothills of the Dawn and dusk mountain ranges running along the east and western border of Sespina put a stop to the barrier expansion. The combined might of the dwarves living within the mountains and the dragons on top made further expansion impossible. Unlike other demihuman races, dwarves refused to give up any of their territories to humans, and their fortifications made forceful expansion impossible. The dwarves were difficult enough, but when you add in dragons, the obstacle becomes insurmountable. One adult dragon is enough to destroy multiple Tier 3 cities, maybe even a tier 2 city. Even a young dragon takes dozens of Awakened grade 7 plus mages to have a chance, and that’s with most of them dying in the end. When an estimated 30 dragons are living in just the Dusk mountain range and millions of dwarves, it isn’t worth it.”
“Humans don’t understand how many dwarves there are because they refuse to allow humans into their underground cities, but they allowed me to have a brief visit. Their cities were beautiful and gigantic. They had so many defenses there’s no way humans could ever defeat them. If given a chance, I would visit them again in a heartbeat. Anyway, enough getting sidetracked. I’ll tell you more later. I’m sure Elizabeth doesn’t have all day.” Informed Meira to her captive kitten audience.
“It’s no problem I was enjoying your stories even though I’ve heard them before,” Replied Elizabeth after sipping some water from a bottle, she materialized.
“Yeah, I want to hear more, especially your dwarven visit.” Evernya pleaded with big kitten eyes.
After a few seconds of hesitation, Meira continued her story. “Fine, but one condition for allowing me into their cities was I had a brand applied, forbidding me from revealing much of what I saw. I can’t tell you much of my visit besides that, it was unforgettable, easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. I can’t imagine what their major cities were like when their outer cities were so breathtaking. Fortunately for you, you may have an easier time getting in with your draconic heritage since they have a good relationship with dragons from protecting each other’s territories. Many of the dwarven royalty even have some Draconic heritage mixed in, making them much more powerful than a regular dwarf. However, I don’t know how other dragons will react. Anyway, enough of me talking, please set the mana sealing feature to grade one.” Meira ordered.
Evernya grumbled a bit but flipped herself back onto her back. “Damn, I was enjoying storytime. It sucks you can’t tell more about your visit. I will have to visit myself someday.”