Varino pouted a rain cloud floating above her head, reflecting her mood. Tiny rain drops started to fall as the council members asked Felix and Dad more about her karmic connection with Zerine.

All she wanted was for them to help Zerine. She and Zerine couldn’t do anything with the karmic connection between them. That magic wasn’t even something many could even sense while manipulating it was practically impossible. The threads, as Kimi described it, were all based on actions and how you interact with others. Other than that, Kimi’s explanations of divinization and other things related to karmic magic just went right over her head.

Two of the council members were asking how Zerine could manipulate her using this connection, making Felix and Dad, who apparently had asked Kimi’s mom to give insights on their connection, to explain in more detail. This then lead to Mom and Dad having to explain this new treaty and partnership with the Runic spiders, which made quite the stir.

Varino…really didn’t care. She was worried about Zerine and her mana puzzle wasn’t enough of a distraction anymore.

“Sweetie, Zerine will be fine,” Mom said.

Varino started. She forgot she was sitting in her mom’s lap.

The little rain drops stopped immediately, and she burbled a soft apology.

Ava chuckled, running a hand through her hair again.

“No worries, I’ve just been forcing the water in to a ball under the chair.”

Varino gave Ava a sheepish smile and whistled.

“Buut, both of you can handle yourselves, with or without the other. So trust her like she trusts you,” Ava said.

Varino sighed, then whistled. Mom was right, as usual. Zerine could handle herself, but there was still worry in the back of mind that this would be different.

“The C-rank is a ridiculously massive exception. If it weren’t for those mana cannons, neither of you would’ve been able to handle that scout. If someone is attacking her and not an assassin, then they will be E-rank. She can handle most E-ranks except for maybe a talented or well-trained peak E-rank.”

“She could handle a D-rank if it’s one on one and magic is off the table. Oh, and it’s a good match up,” Zara said.

Varino pointed and whistled at Zara, concern etched on her small face. Neither needed a translation, her meaning was clear. “But if it’s not a good matchup?”

“They wouldn’t though. You know it’s taboo to attack someone lower rank without being attacked first,” Ava said.

“Yeah, even if she attacked a D-rank, Zerine has quite a few weapons to deal with them,” Zara said.

Right Zerine’s spatial storage had loads of different types of weapons, enchanted arrows, destabilized mana crystals probably more than mom knew about and who knew what else. Zerine could be a bit of a hoarder at times. Although she couldn’t talk much, her own far small bracelet was already bursting with items. Hopefully, after this silly thing, she could dump most of her stuff in Zerine’s and leave only her weapons inside it.

Without thinking much, Varino chimed one of the weapons she wanted to wittness first hand.

“Yeah, like the dragon breath arrows…the…wait what!?” Ava said, her gaze narrowing.

Zara cleared her throat as Varino gaze her best innocent smile.

“Right, I forgot to mention that before they left, Terri and Zerine did some…projects together. It’s not real dragon breath, but,” she shrugged. “As close as the two could get it. How did you all describe it, Varino?”

Varino whistled, gesticulating an explosion with her arm while making the sound.

Ava sighed, rubbing her eyes.

“Awesome explosion arrows do not fill me with confidence.”

Varino gave Zara a worried looked before chiming.

Ava groaned, while Zara stiffed her laughter.

“The others…are last resort. Just how many did you two make before all of this?” Ava wondered.

Varino shrugged.

“Wonderful. Zerine is a walking arsenal of weapons, isn’t she?” Ava said, looking at Zara, who only gave a broad smile in return.

Ava sighed again.

Varino patted her knee reassuringly, which made her chuckle. Varino felt better, but she was still a little worried.

“Gary and I worked on addressing her curiosity about different weapons, while also directing her to stick with flexible weapons so that she can adapt whenever she receives her crest. That’s all. So don’t worry…” Zara said hastily, Ava’s gaze narrowed further.

“Look, after the island, do you believe Zerine wouldn’t want to carry an entire arsenal with her?”

“Fair. I wore a near a full set of armor for months after my trial,” Ava admitted.

“See normal,” Zara said.

Varino whistled a question.

“She is handling things differently, dear. But once this is done, we all should have a chat with her,” Ava said, giving the worried spirit a reassuring smile.

Gave her a bright smile and opened her mouth to say something when Vinessa was suddenly there.

“Zara,” Vinessa said, a little too eagerly for Ava’s liking. “There is something Escanar and I would like your help with. Oh, and some…clean up as well.”

Zara raised an eyebrow, her cat ears twitched. They tilted back slightly as she frowned at Vinessa.

“Clean up? And what about Zerine?”

“Yes, and it also ties right into that Zerine part,” Vinessa replied.

Varino chimed and whistled, getting to her feet. The spirit had grown in power quite a lot, but had started to control her size more, so she was more fun sized, not as tiny as she would like, but the size of a small baby felt right to her.

“No,” Vinessa said.

Varino folder her arms disgruntled and chimed.

Vinessa sighed. “You and Ava have to stay here. And Zerine will be fine. But this thing with Zara is a bit time sensitive.”

Varino pointed at the council and whistled.

“Hmm, oh, them yeah, Escanar already chatted with both council heads, so we’re good to go. Sadly, the rest of you, not so much.”

Varino slumped sitting in Ava’s lap, again grumbling. Next to them, a snoozing Bronte shifted so his head was resting on Ava’s leg. It distracted the spirit, so she didn’t see Ava and Vinessa's silent conversation expressed through several facial expressions that would have made the spirit worry more.

Ava sighed.

“You may go,” Markcum said, which had the entire conversation that Cal, Felix, and the rest of the council stopped as everyone turned to look at them.

Cal looked worriedly at Ava, who only gave a thin smile. He winced, getting the message that Zerine was in trouble and was displeased with him.

Zara stood, then bowed.

“Thank you,” she said and before anyone could protest or ask questions, Vinessa and Zara vanished.

Varino pointed at where the two had vanished, looking up at Ava and chimed.

“I’m sure everything is fine,” she reassured Varino, who sighed and pulled her mana puzzle out, beginning to play once again.

***

“Soo, everything is kind of a, ah...mess,” Vinessa told Zara as they floated far above the hatchling hunting grounds.

“Oh, what the fuck Vinessa,” Zara said, looking down.

With her eyes, she pierced the sphere of darkness that was encasing the area below their feet. Bodies and blood were all over the forest while blue flames burned the grass in an area near a stream. As she watched, wisps of darkness were fading, revealing Zerine aiming a drawn bow at a mid D-rank rider.

“So, things got a little out of hand,” Vinessa said.

“Fucking understatement of the era,” Zara muttered as Zerine loosed her arrow right as a boy launched himself at her with a blast of air.

Her gaze flicked to two bodies that had lightning still arching around them. She knew Zerine’s lightning arrow’s effect, and that wasn’t it. There were traces of Vinessa’s magic near the arrows so she assumed something was up with them. Based on the crossbows near one of the bodies, these two had failed shooting Zerine, which wasn’t a surprise. Even Zara would hesitate to fight Zerine at range if she was E-rank. The girl’s ability to hit a target was something to behold, especially with her willpower added to the mix.

A pulse of mana made her look back at the fight in time to wince.

Zerine’s arrow sparked with lightning blasting towards the boy, who created a swirling mass of air around him, attempting to redirect the arrow while still charging at her. His plan didn’t quite work.

The arrow, influenced by Zerine’s willpower, sliced through the biceps of his right arm, sending small sparks arching up to his shoulder. With a shout of pain, the boy stumbled, but blasted a jet of air at Zerine even as the lightning had him seize up. The blast of air was a swirling mass that tore the ground in its path, sending Zerine flying back, nearly hitting Firespike bushes. Instead, she clipped a tree, hitting her left side and shoulder before rolling along the ground.

Zerine got to her feet, wincing from what Zara assumed were bruised ribs and probably a pained shoulder. The boy, meanwhile, stopped being affected by lightning and launched himself at Zerine once again. This time, he covered the distance in an instant, not letting Zerine to fire another arrow.

Two weapons appeared in Zerine’s hands barely in time for her to deflect the first strike, which was when Zara noticed the choice in weapons. The boy had a long slender blade similar to a rapier, but the blade was a bit thicker and the crossguard was rather plain, with only a few curved pieces of metal to protect his hand. With his wounded arm, he held a long dagger.

Zerine meanwhile…

“What the fuck! You gave her a fairy weapon!” Zara said, glancing at Vinessa, who only grinned.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

In Zerine’s left hand was one of her scythes, which she had used to deflect the boy’s first strike. In her right hand was, well, it was new and probably would cause quite the stir amongst the fairies. The sword had a plain leather wrapped hilt with a small crossguard. The blade started like any other, straight out from the hilt, but then curved, turning into an almost hook-like shape with the end lining up with the hilt, once again turning into a solid, pointed tip.

“You know they will be annoyed you taught her the blade techniques for that,” Zara commented as Zerine and the boy clashed. She was impressed. Zerine had deflected both weapons and even closed in, but boy’s mana infused body allowed him to leap back just missing her scythe gutting him.

“It fits her fighting style perfectly and integrates well with her scythe techniques perfectly. And to be honest, I was surprised at how interested she was with different fighting and blade styles for both knives and swords. It’s actually been difficult keeping up with how varied her interests are. Besides, I was tasked with training her new fighting styles and refining what she has already,” Vinessa said, shrugging her gaze not even on the fight, but off in the distance.

“And let me guess, once she saw a fairy with one of those on their belts, you had to drag her away.”

Vinessa snorted a laugh.

“You nailed it. She picked it up terrifyingly quickly…hmm. This fight may be more interesting than I thought.”

“What?”

“Just watch, Zara.”

***

Zerine drew her newest favorite weapon. Vinessa had called it a Khopesh. A sword the fairies, humans, and elves of the desert had created before the First Empress’s time. It fit her fighting style as if born to it. The hook-like blade deflected the guy’s long blade, while her scythe delt with the dagger. She was nearing her limit rapidly and would slow as time went on, while the only injury he had was one arm, which had saved her from getting stabbed already.

Every strike she deflected or parried had her feeling ripples from each impact. This guy was strong and was clearly using an enforcement technique to make himself faster and stronger. It was taking everything she had to not get impaled by his sword. A sword that was giving him greater reach than her, making that much more difficult to close the gap. Adding his superior speed on top of everything, she was struggling.

The only thing that had kept this fight from ending immediately was the fact his technique wasn’t as good as hers and throw in instincts, she could read his attacks and avoid them if barely at times. She needed something that could help keep him from using magic and surprise him. Or she needed him to make a mistake, which ever came first.

Their clashing went on for a few more quick exchanges, neither gaining anything. Zerine didn’t want to use her willpower much more as she was reaching her limit and pushing it any further might leave her open. One thing she was grateful for was the fact with her pressure he couldn’t focus enough on using magic, which she would have struggled with.

Her sword hooked his blade, shoving it aside as he over extended a lunge. He tried to shove his dagger forward, but her scythe deflected it to the side with the tip digging into his forearm. Instead of a shout of pain, he growled as the dagger fell from his limp fingers.

The tingling she associated to her mana senses flared. She twisted before pulling her scythe back, making sure that he wouldn’t be able to pick up anything with that arm. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop him from shoving his hand forward, casting one large blade of wind followed by smaller slashes.

Zerine’s reaction time was just enough to avoid losing her arm, but the lesser blades of air sliced into her, leaving gashes up her left arm and leg cutting right through her armor until it tried to cut her dragon scale armor. To her relief, the armor held up, but if he stabbed her with his sword imbued with magic…that would probably get through it in its current state. Gods, she really wanted her crest so she could start having it get stronger.

Blood dripped in rivulets down her arm and leg. She staggered back, just managing to avoid another thrust from that sword. Her heartbeat, which had been already beating quickly, went in to overdrive. That haunting melody she hadn’t heard in a while started up as the world slowed down.

Something inside her pulsed, sending a tingling sensation through her entire body. Her gaze sharpened, picking up details she hadn’t noticed before. The way the guy’s gaze shifted, his muscle tensing and shifting as he prepared to attack, this time using both magic and his blade. Beads of sweat and blood moved down his near useless arm even as mana condensed around it.

They moved at the same time.

***

Vinessa’s smile was wide and a little manic as she finally witnessed for herself Zerine tapping into her inheritance. This was what she and Indra had wanted, and more. With her senses she picked apart Zerine’s mind, body, and spirit.

Zerine’s mind was working around one point five times faster than her normal, with her reaction time lagging due to her body's condition. It was working better than it had moments earlier, but her body wouldn’t be able to handle this for very long. As for her spirit, Zerine’s presence, which normally flickered rapidly and resembled more of a skeletal figure, was flickering far less. Her figure seemed just a little more full as well. But the most important part was the energy that rippled outwards in tiny particles that emitted out of her back, highlighting something that made Vinessa’s heart quicken.

If you didn’t know what to look for, no one would pick up on the shapes that the ripples formed. It was exactly what she had been hoping to witness. All the brutal training and constant pushing was for this.

Oh Indra, our daughter…I get why you did what you did. But I wish you told me, she thought. She watched Zerine fending off magic and the sword. Her ball and chain lashing out like a scorpion’s tail to disrupt any magic the boy attempted to cast. After nearly getting his head smash the boy focused on infusing his body with mana. Soon the fight became a test of strength and skill.

She will be something incredible when she gets her crest, she thought.

Without the two noticing, she waved a hand and the illusions of the other’s bodies faded. Next to her Zara swore softly, clearly she hadn’t seen through it. But she made sure the two observers wouldn’t see everything going on. She and Escanar would never allow any of them to die if the so called beat down got out of hand. She just hadn’t expected it to have gone this out of hand. All of Zerine’s blows would have left her attackers either bleeding out or unconscious for a considerably long time, especially those that had the unpleasant experience of her ball and chain smashing their faces.

There were a few close calls, but from what Vinessa could see of those in the healing ward, they would survive. Probably traumatized, but should be fine in a week or two. It was good practice for her and Escanar whenever the next fairy and dragon joint training session, where they would fight all out.

“Vinessa, those S-rankers watching what are you going to do?” Zara wondered, jerking her head to their right.

There, far above the hunting grounds, were two S-rank mages standing in the air watching the fight like them, but unlike them, they weren’t seeing everything going on. Only what she allowed them to.

“Hmm, they’re screwed. You, Arashi and Bob will handle them. They should be here any minute now,” Vinessa replied, sounding bored, but her gaze was fixated on the fight. Even having a smile that made Zara wonder what exactly she was missing.

Sure, Zerine was barely keeping up with a mid D-rank, but the fight was going to end soon. Although Zara had to admit Zerine’s performance was impressive. The way she was moving now was incredibly agile and graceful, even with her injuries. At times it was as if she knew what attack was coming before the boy had even started countering a spell or swipe of his sword, countering and only the boy’s rank saving him from dying on the spot. There was only one issue: Zerine’s willpower was nearing its limit. Then there was the fact that she had been bleeding all this time and blood loss would be having its effect soon.

Vinessa’s earlier words suddenly filtered in.

“wait I’m going to deal with them!?”

***

Lenit was pissed. This fucking witch of a crestless was somehow either avoiding or deflecting his attacks as if she could read like a book. He couldn’t focus enough on using his air affinity to attack because of that ball chain lashing out every time, forcing him to abandon the effort to use his mana to enforce his body. The most infuriating part was that he needed to enforce his body just so he could barely avoid the thing.

The only thing keeping this fight going was the fact both knew neither would give till the other was either too weak to go on or dead.

The strange sword redirected his blade to the right while her scythe came in, aiming for his throat. Without thinking, he threw up his near useless arm in its path. The blade cut to the bone before getting stuck. A growling shout of pain escaped him, but he used this opening.

He gathered his mana around his sword, letting go of it. The sword began moving on its own as he drew another dagger. He shoved forward, moving the still impaled arm off to the side, ignoring the throbbing pain that shot through him even as blood poured out of the wound. It had the effect he wanted though opening Zerine for him to lunge forward, dagger ready as his spell activated, creating a swirl of mana around his blade, forcing Zerine’s strange sword off to the side, nearly losing her grip in the process.

Triumph rushed through him as both blades moved towards her heart. Their gazes locked. He was ready to see the defeat in her eyes.

A chill went through him. Zerine had tears of blood while her nose bled freely and her eyes. For a moment he thought the purple coloration had flickered to something more akin to opal.

Suddenly Zerine shifted, moving her torso to the right, avoiding the dagger with a new sword in the hand that had once held the scythe, swinging down at his hand. But she didn’t manage to avoid the sword despite her attempt at avoiding it. It was simply too fast for her, having most of his remain reserves of mana shoved into it. The sword pierced right into her gut. Right as the blade sunk into her, the ball and chain smashed into his own gut. He felt bones crack from the impact, knocking the air out of his lungs. Despite the impact, he kept his concentration on the spell guiding his sword, which continued piercing right through her to the extent that it protrude from her back.

Zerine staggered from the sword strike, but still chopped down onto the hand with the dagger, cutting it right off. As his hand fell to the ground, blood spraying, pain shot through the back of his knee, which collapsed from an impact. Then two more impacts slammed into his back with wet thunks.

Lenit fell to the ground face first, coughing up blood before everything went dark.

***

Zerine took shallow breaths through gritted teeth, leaning on a tree trunk, trying to not move too much. Her best efforts were seemingly useless because every micro movement of her torso to breathe sent bolts of agony through her.

“Errr, that plan could have gone better,” she grumbled to herself. God’s every movement hurt, and she was doing her best to do anything but move. She really hoped Arashi would show up soon becuase bloodlose was becoming a thing to worry about.

The last moments of the fight, she had used every ounce of her willpower to call the knives to herself. She only wished she had done it before the boy had time to execute his own desperate plan. But what was done was...

A pressure slammed into Zerine, lifting her into the air. She didn’t quite prevent herself from letting out a scream of pain as the sword shifted again.

“What is the meaning of this? Attacking recruits is strictly forbidden!” A man’s voice boomed.

There was too much pain. It was all she could do not to spasm and cause even more. Darkness encroach in the corner of her sight. She could barely see the two beings, who must have been flying with some sort of magic far above her, but were slowly descending.

Something shifted, and it felt like she was falling, but slowly. Sounds were distant, and she felt dizzy.

Oh, mom and Zara are going to be pissed. I didn’t even think about my injuries, she thought.

Before losing consciousness, a roar of a dragon echoed out. She hoped it would be Arashi and hoped she wouldn’t end up in too much trouble and not dead.

Vinessa appeared, her magic gently catching Zerine before teleporting the child to the fairy healing ward back in the emerald forest, sending an avatar of herself along too.

Arashi’s roar echoed out as the crimson scaled dragon flew over head her aura crashing over the two assholes that just put her daughter through needless pain. Bob appeared next to her, looking confused.

“We saw bodies and-”

Vinessa lifted a hand and gripped the air, then pulled it towards her. The two Watchers whose job was to stop fights like this from starting, were dragged to Vinessa.

“So, you’re going to tell Arashi and Bob who bribed you. Then you're going to tell me how you two idiots didn’t even notice the two doppelgangers that just lead to quite a lot of bloodshed,” Vinessa said coolly.

Zara appeared on the other side of Vinessa, the two still sparking bodies held aloft by tendrils of darkness.

“What about the-” Bob was saying, but trailed off as the illusion of Lenit faded.

“They’re being taken care of by healers here and so is Zerine just back at home,” Vinessa said, her gaze not leaving the two watchers who were clearly trying to find a way out of this. Their eyes darted around and they still hadn’t answered her.

Vinessa snapped her fingers, gaining their attention. She decided to reveal her fairy wings, which normally got everyone to start talking. You never messed with a fairy. When their faces drained of any color, she smirked.

“Now, Escanar and I have an entire recording of what happened. And you two are in far more trouble than the children that fought. I wonder how you all missed those two in disguise,” Vinessa said icily, gesturing towards the two sparking bodies.

Bob was just staring, stunned, at the doppelgänger bodies, which had turned grey and leathery. Vinessa had changed Zerine’s enchantment in the arrows to send pulses of electricity through the bodies to keep the regeneration of the doppelgangers at bay while incapacitating them. Having two of them here was not a good sign. They rarely ever worked together and often took the roles of assassins, spies, or just being a nuisance needing to be killed.

These creatures feed upon the mana and spirit of their victims while taking on their appearance and memories to replace them in normal life. Zerine had unwittingly used one of their weaknesses. Electricity messed with the magic they used to change their appearance, while also preventing their natural regeneration from working properly. Without Zerine’s attack, A-rank and lower wouldn’t have discovered these two. Vinessa and Escanar had been surprised by the appearance of the two, but both had suspected there was at least one in the city. And now they had their suspicions confirmed, albeit in a way both would have preferred been different.

Ava was going to give her a lecture about letting this fight happen. At least Zerine proved her suspicions about what will come when she gets her crest and found spies. Not bad, as long as the healing Zerine would have to go through didn’t throw off their training schedule.

“Zara and Bob, go ahead and follow the traces of these two. Hopefully, you find their victims so we can starve these two,” Vinessa said, still holding the two Watchers captive.

“What about the Watchers?” Bob wondered as Zara began binding the still sparking doppelgangers.

“These two were bribed and cause harm to Zerine once the fighting was over. They don’t deserve the title of Watchers. I’ll take the entire group to be interrogated. Then I go back to check on Zerine,” Vinessa said. She sent a mental message to Escanar, who agreed and sent an avatar to the interrogation room that she would take their captives to.

“Have Arashi go inform the dragons to send out those that can sense doppelgangers and send out an investigation team to check what these two former Watchers have been up to prior to this,” Vinessa said, gathering the bound doppelgangers with a wave of her hand.

“What a goddamn mess,” Zara muttered before she and Bob took off.

“Agreed,” Vinessa muttered before vanishing.