(AMELIA)
Warm sunlight danced across my skin as I slowly rubbed the grogginess from my eyes, the smell of pine filling my senses. Taking a look at the rising sun washing over the lake, and slowly seeping into the road that led to the city.
‘It’s hard to believe just a couple days ago, I was carrying a drunk Eve down that exact path.’ Looking over at the person in question as she began to rustle awake.
“Good morning, Eve.” Maneuvering my way out of bed and towards my collection of hung and folded clothes placed somewhat organized in the corner of the room.
“Good morning to you as well.” Eve mumbled, stretching before stumbling over toward her closet as well, although somehow after only a couple of days, it already looked like a tornado had lived in her closet.
As I watched her throw her clothes around the room trying to find a shirt, living like this just felt so... right..
“What do you think we should do for breakfast?” She asked.
“Bacon.” I answered immediately.
“I reckon I should have guessed.” A small smile played on her lips.
“We’ll try something different tomorrow, that just means you’re cooking instead.” Walking out of the room to head downstairs, Eve follows behind.
Eve started the fire for the stove while I visited the stream for some fresh water.
“Here’s yours.” Setting down a wooden plank we were using as plates filled with eggs and bacon.
“Thanks, it smells as good as always.”
I smiled at her and set about filling my own plate. It struck me a bit then about how different my life was now. Prior to leaving my home I never would have seen a stove let alone be able to make my own meals, and it had taken many a month before I managed edible things.
I silently thanked the gods that I figured it out before meeting Eve. She'd never let me hear the end of it.
“Thank you, now before you eat. What do you think we should do today?”
“Hmmmm,” She tapped her greasy finger against her chin. “Probably stay in the city again. Maybe the adventure society has some tasks or something we could work on for today. I really want to see more of what it is like out here.”
“That’s a good idea.”
She glared at me. “You didn’t have to sound so surprised.”
I chuckled.
“We can also ask about Angela and Nikolai while we’re there.”
“Right.” I said, sobering. “Now eat up. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”
We decided to leave most of our gear at home since we were staying within the city limits. After tying my boots for the third time, I waited a few minutes for Eve but she never came so I ran back upstairs. I found her staring at that strange plant-like arrow she had received from Io with a serious look on her face.
When I tried to take a step into her room an intense feeling that I was intruding stopped me in my tracks. I looked around, wild-eyed, and took a step back. The feeling instantly vanished.
“Eve?” I said warily.
She blinked and looked at me, all tension gone.
“Oh, sorry. Was I taking too long? I’m ready.”
“You alright?”
“Just trying to figure out what this thing is. All I can do is hold it and even that is hard.” She pouted.
Yep, she’s fine.
What we expected to be a quick trip actually turned into a pain. We spent an hour walking around searching before we finally asked a clerk who let us know that all domestic-oriented tasking was done in a separate building across the street, referred to as the Jobs Hall.
We also had the chance to ask around about Nikolai and Angela. Everyone gave us some story they had of their experiences with Nikolai but no one had seen him recently. Angela was unknown to most except a few, who had been around when that weird pressure occurred. They had no information on how she was doing, however.
“We should have known we wouldn’t find anything, I’m telling you if we’re meant to meet again we will.”
“I know I know, you’re right. Let’s just pick our tasks for today and go.” Eve grumbled as we stood before the postings in the Job Hall.
1. Farm Hands NEEDED
2. Volunteer Clinic for the less fortunate, perform basic first aid and assist those in need at our free clinic
3. Umpires needed for upcoming matches for community baseball teams
4. This place is a mess, help clean up our town. Bonuses for every 3 bags turned in
5. Organization is key, help process town hall documents and keep our leaders up to date to better serve you
6. Wall repair. The latest beast roaming left our wall in a pathetic state. Earth Mages preferred but will take all we can
7. It’s that time of year again, weeds have overtaken our roads, help to clear them and keep our home beautiful
8. Take pride in your skills? PROVE IT at our world-famous Gladiatorial Ring. Not for the faint of heart. You will bleed.
9. The Adventurer Daycare is in need of helpers. Help put your fellow adventurer at peace knowing their children are being properly cared for while they protect our world.
10. The Stein family is looking for capable bodies for their upcoming youngest daughter’s fifth birthday. Security detail.
11. ….
“There sure are a lot of these..” Eve mumbled to herself as we read down the dozens of requests.
“Do any stand out to you?” I asked warily, tracing her line of sight to the one I was most dreading.
“I wanna help the kids,” Eve answered immediately.
I sighed internally. I’d rather fight that evolved Dire wolf again than spend my day herding a bunch of screaming children, but hey these are adventurers’ kids. Maybe they wouldn’t be that bad.
~~~~~~~
After cleaning off the seventh plate thrown in my face that morning, I knew just how wrong I was.
All the children I had grown up around were made to always show the utmost respect and never act out of fear of strict discipline.
But all of these kids were loud, none of them listened, and even after the countless battles we had been through, nothing was more tiring than trying to chase these children around.
There’s no way this is how kids are supposed to behave, this is impossible to keep up with, or at least so I wanted to think. Eve handled the children as if she had cast a spell on them. Their minds were completely captivated as they watched with star-struck eyes while Eve used her wind magic to put on a show with the children’s toys.
“How did you get so good with children?” Rubbing the rag across another dish, careful not to miss a spot.
“When I was younger it was natural for women of that age in my village to take on the role of a babysitter.” Pausing to come stand next to me. “It’s honestly one of the things I miss the most.”
She said it with such a light tone that it pulled me into the moment. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, waiting for it to happen but it never did. Her expression didn’t darken and her eyes remained focused on the task ahead of her.
“I’m sorry, Eve. It may not mean much, but after seeing you today I can honestly say I think you’ll make a great mother one day.” Drying off the last of the dishes. “Who knows, maybe one day we’ll start our own village and traditions.”
“That’d be quite nice.” She smiled and then turned away, walking over to look at the area where the kids were playing. “But is a life like that still available for us?” She asked though it was barely more than a whisper.
“Eve, that life you’re wanting is still there. I promise you, one day we’ll reach it.” Hugging her tightly with one arm.
She returned the hug without a word and we stayed like that for a long moment before pulling away.
“We should probably get the children, it shouldn’t be too much longer before the next shift comes.” Walking out to where the kids were playing. “Alright kids, it’s story time! The afternoon shift will be here shortly!”
“I’ll watch from here.” I called out as she helped rustle a few of the kids awake.
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I wasn’t used to having to watch someone from the sidelines like this, but it was clear to me this was a situation where I had as much to learn as the children themselves.
“Are the two of you really Adventures, miss?” One of the kids asked while slightly pulling on her white shirt.
“Yes of course we are.”
“Wow, but you two are so pretty. I thought all adventurers were just grumpy men with scars.”
“Well thank you, but not all of us are like that.” She said after a small laugh. “In fact we know another adventurer named Nikolai who’s around our age, and not quite that grumpy. Have you ever seen him before?”
I watched as all the kids nodded yes in an almost creepily rehearsed fashion, but it must have just been me as Eve continued with her rambling.
Ramblings that continued on and on, until it was time for the afternoon shift to take over.
“A great way to start the day, if I do say so myself.” Eve said.
“Well, I can say it was definitely a first.”
“I’ll tell you what, since I picked the first one. Why don’t you pick the next thing we do?”
“I'd like to help at the clinic. Maybe we can pick up some useful knowledge there.” Already having my decision ready.
“Then we better get going.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Just who might you two be?” An elderly lady asked after we knocked on the wooden doors.
“We saw you were needing help at the adventure society and wanted to help out.”
“Adventurers actually taking clinic work? Well, I’ll be… It has been months since the last one visited.” She shook her head. “Poor guy ran out screaming when we had an emergency full body amputation.”
“Full body… amputation?” I asked, confused.
“Well, don’t dally around out here.” She said, ignoring the question. “There is plenty of work to be done.”
She motioned us through the door as she spoke and I nearly pulled up short at the wall of perfumed air that greeted me. It was a heavy scent of wildflowers that didn’t quite cover the metallic tang of blood and sick in the air.
“It’s great to meet the both of you, I’m the head nurse Lilith, but you can call me ‘Ma, everyone else does.”
“It’s great to meet you as well, my name is Amelia and my friend here is Eve. We look forward to working with you today.”
“Is that Lady Amelia and Lady Eve, then?”
My hair stood on end at the formal address, a fear I thought I had escaped so quickly returned and I was unable to speak. Luckily Eve replied for me.
“Just Eve and Amelia, we aren’t anyone special, ma’am- ‘Ma.”
She gave us a warm smile that only someone well into their years can manage before opening another door that led into a massive hall lined with hundreds of beds in rows, many occupied.
Eve and I were staggered at the sheer scale of the operations here. I knew the building was one of the largest in the city, but it somehow seemed even larger on the inside. At full capacity, they could easily fit over a thousand patients in this one room.
I swallowed at the thought of treating that many people at once and thanked the gods that there only seemed to be a couple dozen.
“Now, my dearies, do you have any experience with wound treatments?”
“Just the basics,” I admitted.
“Some basic stuff and I assisted a few times for more serious injuries.” Eve said.
Ma gave us an assessing look and then smiled.
“Good, good. A lot of adventurers ignore the care side of the ordeal and lean too much on healing magic. While it is miraculous to heal injuries rapidly, doing so causes imperfections in the healing process that normally takes weeks or even months. Bones that are easier to break, damaged mana channels, and massive scarring that normally wouldn’t appear.”
I looked at Eve out of the corner of my eye. Almost all of her body was covered so my eyes trailed down to her hand that had been torn apart in the middle during her final duel in the Capital. The jagged white scar was a clear reminder of our journey so far, one of pain. It feels like everything in the Capital happened a lifetime ago, yet it hasn’t even been a year.
I sighed.
“Good, good,” Ma said while rubbing her hands together. “Follow me for the first couple beds, then when you feel you are ready all three of us can start on different ends of the room and work our way in.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I straightened my back after what felt like days, it cracking like the sound of tearing paper. I wasn’t sure how others managed to do this. I had to augment my body with mana halfway through just to finish and my mana heart was nearly drained.
I looked out a nearby window to check the time and smiled sadly. A flock of twilight doves, known for their glowing blue eyes, streaked past the full moon centered in the window.
We were supposed to leave at sunset.
I couldn’t be upset. Although it was backbreaking work, literally, it felt good to help the people here. It felt right to be out and about here, around other people who needed me. Not…
My expression darkened as I remembered the stoney confined walls of my old room. I had instructors and servants, but they were just that, people doing their duty and nothing more. There was a fear underneath their facades that I recognized from a young age. Yet, even they were closer to me than my parents. To them, I was an alien flower, too brittle to handle, too strange to love.
“Well done today, dearies, please come over here for a moment.” Ma called to us.
I took a cool calming breath and pushed those feelings back down, then walked over to her and Eve, who had come from the other side of the hall.
“You seem to have quite the knack for healing, come I want to show you something.” Walking over to a beautiful carved-out oak wood table, with a glass top where a single brown book sat. “I was around your age when I first received this, I’d like the two of you to have it now.” Handing the book towards me.
“We couldn’t.” Attempting to push the book back toward her, but it didn’t budge.
“I really must insist, I had my 147th birthday just a few weeks ago and I’m afraid I don’t have much more time in this world. So before I pass, I want to make sure I entrust what I’ve learned to someone who can actually use it and has a passion for the craft. I know it’s selfish, but please take it with you.” Pushing the book closer to me.
“Well, when you say it like that, there’s not much room for argument.” Taking the book from her. “Thank you, we will definitely make great use of it.”
“I’m sure you will, or I wouldn’t have given it to you. Now while I still have you, allow me to show you some things in person so they’ll make more sense to you when you go to read the book.”
“Thank you for offering us your guidance, it’s a huge help.” Eve said.
“It’s great to be able to teach young adventures like yourselves, all adventures these days are obsessed with how much damage they can output, how large of a spell they can conjure, and see healing as a weakness.
“Doc, we need your help! It’s really bad!” A frantic voice shot out.
“What’s wrong?” She called. “You two go ahead and go home, we’ll have to pick this up next time. ”
We bowed to her and headed for the door when she called out to us.
“Amelia, wait a moment.” Ma said as Eve and I were about to reach the door.
I nodded at Eve to go ahead and walked back up to her.
“What is it?” I asked.
Ma looked hesitant for a moment then gave a nod.
“You are a wondrous and kind young lady, Amelia. I want you to remember that as time goes on, to remember that you… are not your family.”
The flush that was building up in my cheeks instantly drained away and I took a step back.
“It’s alright, dear.” She said, motioning calm. “No one else knows.”
“H-how do you?”
“No one else here was alive a hundred odd years ago, when your Matriarch paid a visit for the opening of this branch of Lord Greed’s adventure society.”
She must have read the confusion on my face because she chuckled softly.
“I see you’ve never met her. Child, you are her spitting image.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We walked in silence through the town after leaving the clinic, my expression was serious and it took a lot longer than I thought for Eve to speak up.
She came to an abrupt halt then moved to the side of the still bustling street and looked at me.
“Alright, what did she say?”
I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out so I simply shook my head and stared into the distance.
Eve’s hand on my arm startled me and I turned to look at her. The concern on her face pierced through the fog in my mind. I smiled to myself, idly wondering if there was anyone else in the world who could calm me with just a look.
“She-Ma, recognized me. Or, at least, my face. She told me that I looked… just like the Matriarch of my family.”
Eve rubbed her chin, thinking through something. “I guess that explains why she gave us that book. No matter how enthusiastic we were today, giving us that felt really out of place.”
I nodded.
“Speaking of...” Eve started. “Why did you give your real name to the adventure society? I meant to ask before but it never felt like a good time. Wasn’t the point of that to not be found by your family?”
“Not even my family can get information about individuals from the adventure society. Everything is protected by Greed and he’s gone to war before over attempts at stealing any.”
“Who is Greed?” Eve asked.
“He’s one of the sins.”
“One of the what?”
I looked at her incredulously. She shrugged.
“Sometimes I forget how much of a country bumpkin you are.”
“That’s a little rude,” Eve said with mock offense.
We both burst out laughing.
“I don’t really know myself. There's more rumor than truth surrounding them. I’ve heard them referred to as “demi-gods” before but I’ve never seen one in person to understand what that could mean. Some say they’ve been here since the beginning, others say they are gods in disguise controlling man-kind.”
After a few minutes of silence Eve simply said, “They sound a little scary.”
I chuckled at that and nodded in agreement.
“Speaking of scary,” I started. “The city still being busy this late is making me nervous, like something is happening.”
Eve looked around, studying the faces of adventurers and citizens alike.
“They look more tired than alert.” She said.
I looked at Eve as she took on a faraway expression and felt a breeze slip around me like a stone in the river. I gave it a few minutes without disturbing her before my curiosity won out.
“See anything?”
Her eyes focused on me and she blinked several times to clear them. “It’s not really seeing at that distance, it's more like…” Eve scratched her chin in thought. “Like seeing a ripple in a pond from a stone thrown out of view, with a little scent thrown in.”
“Wait, you’re sniffing the city?”
“I am not sniffing the city.” Eve protested.
“It really sounds like you just sniffed the city.”
Eve mumbled something under her breath and sighed. “Anyways, there's not much activity outside of people walking around and sitting down. No fighting or anything, at least on this side of town.”
“Could the fighting have already ended?” I asked.
“No, I…” She hesitated for a second and then looked away. “I didn’t smell any fresh blood.”
I failed to hold back my grin but didn’t say anything.
“But, I did notice that Lilith’s is still open. I don’t know about you but I am starving.” Without even waiting for a reply, Eve grabbed my hand and half-dragged me halfway across the city to a very familiar building with the smells of roasting meat and fresh bread filling the air around it.
“Hey, Lil.” Eve said after pushing open the saloon doors.
“Evenin’, girls.” Lilith’s voice came from behind the bar but still out of view. “Grab a seat, anywhere is fine.”
“What is with you and nicknames?” I asked.
“What?” Eve asked innocently. “Everyone loves nicknames.”
“So I should consider myself lucky that you’re not calling me ‘Ame’ or something then?”
Her eyes widened.
“I was thinking about ‘Lia’, but that's really cute too.”
“You aren’t calling me that,” I declared with no room for discussion.
“What about ‘mel’?”
“I know you’re hungry but I’m not food.” I said.
Eve giggled and waved that away.
“No, no. Not ‘meal’. ‘Mel’. Like, ‘A-mel-ia’.”
I looked at her and she raised her hands in surrender. She opened her mouth to speak then turned to look behind me and smiled.
“Hey, girls. What can I get you on this lovely night?” Lilith’s voice came from my right.
“Just two of whatever your special is for the day, or night. Say, you wouldn’t happen to know why the city is so busy do you?” Eve said.
"Oh, I forgot you both haven't been here very long. This is normal for the nights of the full moon here in the Borderlands. I'm no expert on any of this stuff, but if I remember right I believe it has something to do with the magic of the moon being at its highest and it sort of messes with the magic all around us. Makes beasts more aggressive and they roam a lot more." She smiled and then added. "I'll bring your food as soon as it's ready."
Eve and I looked at each other.
"Good thing we didn't take any contracts outside the city walls," I said.
She nodded and grabbed the glass of ice water I had missed Lilith place on our table.
I had said that, but at the same time, something inside of me wanted to experience it. To see more of the Borderlands which was so odd compared to the rest of the continent which I had seen.
“What do you think about taking a longer contract?” I asked.