So you didn’t recognize it either? I wrote on the wall next to Asha as she wandered down the hallway.

“Nope! Some kind of demon, I was thinking. Leien was saying it wasn’t natural, and I’ve read that demons take all sorts of shapes.”

Not natural? Like it was created by something? After a moment’s thought, I added What is a demon?

Asha hesitated a moment before responding. “Not created necessarily, no. Generally, Astreia’s doctrine considers anything that doesn’t require magic in order to exist as ‘natural’. As for demons… have you truly never heard of them? Not even in stories? No, obviously you wouldn’t exactly have access to stories out here on your own. Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask about that. You’re like… the spirit of this place, right? Who created all this? And what happened to them? I swear I’ve seen architecture like this depicted somewhere before – less intact though – but I can’t remember whose journals it was in…” she let out a frustrated noise. “I have got to get back to the academy to check the library. Maybe I could organize a proper expedition out here.”

I got the feeling conversation with her would be… tumultuous, even had my grasp of her language been perfect. As things were, I was only able to keep up by transcribing everything she said onto one of the walls of the room with my crystal, and then going over it and piecing together her meaning. My responses to her were still slower than I’d have liked, but she didn’t seem to mind. It gave her time to keep exploring my little tunnel complex.

I’d sealed a wall over my crystal chamber, unsure if it would be wise to reveal that to anyone until I better understood my own nature. I didn’t know how resilient I was in this form but it was no great logical leap to assume that if I had a vulnerability, it was the crystal itself.

I’d left the rest of the complex open to my two visitors, except for the room with the wolves, and Asha had wasted no time this morning before she started to explore. Leien seemed to have concluded that I meant them no harm, especially once I reopened the tunnel they’d entered by, so once Asha had woken he’d bedded down for some rest.

At length, I managed to distill Asha’s meandering words into something I could understand, etching her questions into the wall as I put them together. This almost felt like cheating. How many times, while I was alive, had I wished for the ability to actively take notes while having a conversation, to externally organize my thoughts without coming off as rude or strange?

I decided to let her maintain her assumption that I was a spirit, at least for now. I didn’t want to be too forthcoming about myself just yet. I felt acutely that I was at a disadvantage, with how little I knew about the world and the people in it right now, and playing my cards close to my chest seemed wise. I decided to try redirecting her.

My memories of what happened are fragmented, unfortunately.

I don’t really know who built all of this originally, though I’ve been restoring it and maintaining it as much as I can.

What were you saying about demons?

“Demons, right! Well, they figure prominently in loads of stories, usually as a big threat for the heroes to overcome. Or die to, I suppose.” She reached the intersection where the entrance tunnel joined the main complex and turned left, absently running her hand along the wall. “‘Demon’ is just the term for a creature from a realm other than this one. There are as many types of demon as you can imagine, though a lot of scholars will debate whether certain accounts are reliable or not.”

What do you mean by “realm”?

“Well… you know, like… places that you can only travel to or from using magic? That have no physical connection to our world?”

I didn’t know such places existed.

She paused, looking at the wall where I’d written my words and then casting her eyes around, like she was trying to look at me but didn’t know how. “You sometimes talk like someone who’s really educated, and then you say things like this. How can you not know about other realms?”

She seemed so earnestly baffled that I had to wonder, was it an issue with my memory? Had I learned of such things, but lost that somehow? I didn’t feel like my recollection of my life was incomplete, at least up until the chaos of that final day, but I couldn’t rule it out. Had certain subjects been stripped from my mind by whatever magic had preserved my soul?

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

More importantly, could she help? If I trusted her with details about me, would her insight help me learn about myself?

I don’t know, I said honestly, the words sliding along the wall to remain next to her as she began walking again. Perhaps it was not so well understood when I was learning?

“Hm… Most cultures have some understanding of demons, if only from passing experiences they had with [Summoner] classes, or some rare summoning skills that other classes–” She trailed off, looking around the room she’d just entered. It was one of the restored bedchambers, one I was particularly pleased with. There had been the remains of a hanging on the wall, and while the picture had been in an abysmal state I had been able to discern what the image used to be, and had spent probably more time and mana than I should have on restoring it.

Her breath caught as she drifted closer to the tapestry, her fingers reaching out but stopping just short of touching it. “Is this…?”

Alvíreánn, I confirmed. The scandalized expression on her face as my words appeared directly in the tapestry itself would have made me laugh, if that was something I was still capable of. I returned the tapestry to normal before continuing, to reassure her. The University district at night. Whoever used this room must have had fond memories there.

My parents had finally agreed to let me attend next summer. I’d visited only once, to tour the lodgings which would have been mine, but that had been enough for me to fall in love with the view of those spires at night, framed against the stars. This tapestry was probably my favorite find so far, although there were still some rooms I had yet to even attempt to restore.

I wanted to ask what she’d meant by “classes”, or keep pressing on the subject of demons, but… the naked wonder in her eyes as she stared at this glimpse into the past quelled the urge for now.

“How is this possible?” She murmured, so quietly I wasn’t sure I was meant to hear it.

I wished I knew.

----------------------------------------

Alvíreánn. The word resonated in Asha’s head, though it had already faded from the tapestry in front of her. The ancient lost capital of the Alviran nation.

She had once seen a partial map someone had created based on fragmented descriptions of the city from various texts. She’d thought it was the coolest thing.

She had once read a dissertation which argued the city had never existed at all, and every mention of it was either myth or allegory. She’d thought it made some good points, but hadn’t been persuaded.

As a child, she had eagerly followed the news of an explorer who claimed to have found Alvíreánn. She’d been so disappointed when it was identified as the city Innadráich instead. She’d moped for a week, and her parents had needed to bribe her with pastries to get her to stop.

This could prove to be just as false, she reminded herself.

“Are you sure it’s real? It could just be a fanciful image.” The beautiful pergolas and towers certainly seemed larger than life

She turned around and stared at a patch of wall, silently urging words to appear.

After an interminable wait, they finally did.

I’m sure.

Another pause, like hesitation or something, and then:

You spoke of an academy. Could you tell me of it?

Asha reminded herself that the spirit was adjusting to a new language. It wasn’t being evasive, even if it maybe kinda seemed that way. It wasn’t changing the subject with all the subtlety of a wyvern in a library. Just… totally normal language barrier issues.

And even if it was! What did the spirit know about her, really? What reason did it have to trust her? It had saved her life when it didn’t need to, and here she was baselessly mistrusting it. Sure, she was out of her element. Last night’s flight for her life was still fresh in her mind, like a bruise she was trying not to touch. Even still, Leien’s paranoia must be rubbing off on her, and she didn’t like it. Extend the trust you would like to be shown, she reminded herself.

“The academy… it’s essentially a suburb of Lelandrach–do you know Lelandrach?”

Never heard of it.

Asha cast a lingering glance at the tapestry as she exited back into the hallway. “Lelandrach’s the capital of Annaira–that’s the country we’re in, or well… it’s probably the country we’re in? Borders get a little blurry this far into the mountains. The academy’s campus is basically a whole town, and I know it enjoys some kind of special jurisdictional status but I honestly never looked into it much. I’ve been working on leveling my [Scholar] class, trying to unlock as many specialist variants as I could. I’m hoping that there will be a better generalist variant on the other side, less of an ‘I haven’t chosen what to specialize in’ and more ‘I have chosen to pursue every field I can’. It’s unorthodox, but my advisor reckons it should be possible.”

You have classes specifically to teach you scholarship? Wouldn’t that be a skillset you’d develop naturally, in the course of normal academic pursuits?

Asha paused for a long moment. “...What?” The spirit also seemed to pause. “I think we’ve hit a language issue again…” She reread the message a few times until it clicked. “Oh!!! It’s just an incidental linguistic similarity! ‘Class’ here is short for ‘Classification’, if that helps? Not referring to courses at school. I assume the ancient Alviran term your System uses means something similar?”

Another long pause.

What’s a “system”?

Asha stopped dead. “Like… the thing that grants you classes and skills? Or um…” she trailed off. “What words would work? The interface by which you see all the ways you are able to interact with magic?” she said slowly, deliberately.

I don’t think I have that?

“But you’re using magic right now!! You’re writing on the walls! I watched you seal off the entrance! You must have a skill like [Stoneshaping] or something, right?”

This time, the pause stretched so long that Asha began to worry she might have offended the spirit.

I think I’m just saturating the stone with mana, then manipulating the mana in such a way that the stone comes with it?

The uncertainty struck Asha as strange. Shouldn’t a spirit know how it did what it did? Then again, maybe it was just so natural to the spirit, like balancing was to her. She didn’t need to know how her body did it for it to work.

“Every sapient being has a System. Gods, most animals have one. How…” She spun on her heel, returning the way she’d come. “We need to talk to Leien.”