MONSTER FIVE - CHILD

Another book that failed to deliver on its initial premise.

She sighed a little and shifted upon her seat. Usually, the Dark Goddess would lounge to the side, perhaps with a cushion or some smaller, weaker monster next to her. Now she sat with her legs crossed at the knee and her back straight in a proper royal’s bearing.

It was, of course, all the fault of the child.

Luciana glanced away from the book held before her in the grasping claws of one of her beasts and to the far end of the library.

Finding the child wasn’t difficult, one had only to look for the stack of books set in a semi-circle atop one of the study tables. The child was hunched over a book, bent nearly in half so that her face was almost touching the page of the tome she read. Her lips were working as she read, perhaps sounding out the words? No, she read too quickly for that.

Luciana looked away and back to her own book. Another piece from Santafaria. Fiction again. She had long ago decided to be honest with herself, something which did not come naturally to her. One of the things she had to admit to was enjoying fiction over non-fictional texts. There was just more value as entertainment in a story over something informative. Not that she avoided purchasing every sample of both.

Her thoughts were wandering, she realized.

A slight gesture of her hand, a minute pulse of magic tinged with brooding, and the creature holding her book retreated. Another monster carefully set a bookmark in place and the book was closed and laid onto a nearby table.

Luciana leaned back into her seat and gazed over at the child, at Valeria. She was interesting, a little font of potential. A distraction from the mundane of her usual day-to-day.

It had been a week since the child awakened from the deep sleep Luciana had found her in. In that time the child had moved very little. She went from her rooms to the library, occasionally to the bathing room near her room, and twice a day down to the dining room. A simple routine, one that allowed the child to spend a maximum amount of time diving into old texts and tomes.

Diligent.

No, not merely diligent. Interested in the act of learning.

Of course, the child’s attention-span was about what Luciana was expecting from someone seeming so young. She jumped from topic to topic, her searches through the shelves often waylaid when she encountered an interesting text.

It was strange, to feel a presence moving through her castle that was not one of her monsters, and yet was.

It was... nice?

Luciana held back a grimace.

She might have chosen not to lie to herself, but that was no reason to start thinking such foolish thoughts.

The child was a tool. A strange opportunity born from a confluence of coincidences, and unlikely to happen again, but nonetheless, she was but a tool.

Luciana had plenty of those; this was merely one that had perhaps more potential than others.

Were she one of the lesser gods she might have forced the child to bend a certain way, or encouraged her with honeyed words and sweet promises. That was not her way. The child would be given the opportunity to grow into her potential, and that was it.

She rose, standing to her full height and stretching her back out. Perhaps she could afford herself a small cushion? Back pain was such an annoyance once one grew to be several millennia old.

Walking over to the child, Luciana folded her hands over the flat of her stomach and timed her approach to coincide with the child reaching the end of a section in the text she read. “Have you discovered anything?”

Valeria spun, wide eyes looking up to Luciana with undisguised emotions. Curiosity, suppressed fear, joy and that strange desire to impress that Luciana had seen very little of in her long life. “Hi! And, ah, yes, lots of things,” Valeria said. She reached to the pages of the book before her, paused, then let her hands retreat back under the desk.

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The child rubbed at her skirt. A simple thing, part of an equally simple outfit in whites and greys thrown together by the same monster that cared for Luciana’s own outfits.

“Such as?” Luciana asked. She doubted there was anything the child had learned that she herself did not already know, but then, that wasn’t the purpose of the question.

“Well, I’ve been mostly thinking about classes. They sound... well, they sound incredible.” Valeria had a tendency to move her hands while she spoke. It lacked decorum, made her seem young, but Luciana left her to it. It went against what she stood for to stifle the wants of others.

“Have you made a choice then?” Luciana asked.

Valeria bobbed her head from side to side. “Maybe?” She turned, dismissing the Dark God for a moment to search through her stack of books, tongue pinched between her lips the entire time.

To be dismissed so easily... Luciana had had few guests in recent memory, but most of those would never have dared turned their backs upon her. It was somewhat refreshing. The child had no ill-will, else Luciana would have felt it.

“Here!” Valeria said. She placed a book onto the desk. A Guide to the Summon Arts. “I tried to read this one, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. It talks about making animals out of magic, and... it’s really complicated sounding.”

“Summoning... an interesting art. One that is at once incredibly hard to master, and just as weak. It’s impressive when properly executed, and does have its uses, but it’s never truly been a magical art that was popular. Its downsides are many, and other magics do most of what it can do better.”

“Really?” Valeria asked. Her shoulders slumped. “It sounds so cool.”

Luciana touched the cover. “You would not be able to do this type of magic regardless,” she said. “It requires access to powers that are, and are likely to always be, beyond you. Yet...”

Was that wise?

There was a path to give the child what she wished for. It wouldn’t even be that dangerous, but it would infringe upon Luciana’s domain.

Valeria was looking up to her, eyes sparking, hope wafting off of her like the fresh scent of a flower in bloom.

“You will never be able to summon magical creatures as summoners can. That art is beyond you in many ways, and you would likely need texts and training only found in Iaria. The distance is rather great. There is another option, one uniquely available only to yourself.”

“Only me?” Valeria asked.

Luciana nodded. “I can do it too, of course. It would require that you have a good understanding of magic, a foundation, at the very least.”

“I can learn!”

Luciana nodded, then she indulged herself and patted the child upon the head. The strange joy that sparked in Valeria did not go unnoticed to her. “Then you shall learn. Perhaps some light instruction outside would do you good as well.”

“I’m okay not going outside,” Valeria said.

“I will not have you practicing some fledgeling magics in my castle,” Luciana said. “Now, go eat, you have been studying for far too long.”

Valeria jumped to her feet, almost tripped on her chair, then hesitated next to Luciana. Her arms rose a little, then lowered. “Okay!” she said before scampering off.

Luciana watched her go, then considered her own actions.

Was she really merely allowing the child to find her own path in the dark, or was she pushing things along?

“Hmm,” she hummed. “In either case, I wouldn’t go against my own word.”

If she started to do these things for the child, then that would require some small amount of aid from the outside. Which in turn...

Repercussions.

Perhaps not all bad, though.

She certainly looked forward to it.

***