Princess Pearl of Gohar, the heir to the throne and friend extraordinaire, was bored. The carriage trip was taking too long, said the unspoken consensus of its occupants. Aidan watched her transformation during the last week. Due to a flood from the maelstrom, an inner ocean inside the mountain valley that was the territory of Yutis, they had to take a detour but in a few days, they would be back at the mouth of the tunnel to Gohar. The same tunnel they took when Claire delivered herself as a hostage to a greedy crowd to let them escape with Lumina's Body.
It felt decades ago but it was two years and a half since the attack. The future Queen met her champion's eyes and scoffed.
"Like what you are seeing, milord?" She asked with a haughty tone.
As they approached Gohar, Pearl was sliding back into her "regal" demeanor. Aloof, proud, imperious. Just like he remembered when they first met in Elmhill.
Aidan smiled back and nodded, "Of course, your Royal Highness. Your beauty is always a refreshment for the eyes."
She scoffed and tilted her head sideways. "I am sure you must be in paradise, milord. Nested between six beauties as you are," The Princess whined with a pout.
He chuckled with two mouths. On the left side of the bench, he was sitting on, his counterpart, Dawn, chuckled in unison. He looked to his sides. Between him and Dawn sat Sora and almost on his lap was Cythrel. Pearl had Lola and Deb flanking her. Pearl glared, Cythrel squeezed his arm. Sora bit her lower lip. Deb sunk a few inches in the seat. Lola closed her eyes. The temperature and moisture inside raised sharply.
"I must say, it is a wonderful opportunity to study female behavior for a prolonged period," Dawn spoke. "I might have the body of one, but my mind is still a male's," She explained.
"Why aren't we flying?" The petite Princess ignored the half-girl's comment and asked the male in front of her.
"I don't know who might be watching and it is tiresome and dangerous to fly all the way there. With the Maelstrom rising due to the increased water flow and other factors, several dangerous monsters might lurk near the surface. Several settlements had to be evacuated and my parents aren't available to clean up the mess," He explained. "So I'm taking a long way around with my precious package."
He left implicit that he didn't want to clean the mess himself. Whom or what was the "precious package" was left to the listener's imagination but Cythrel sighed audibly. Sora snorted, telling the young elf she was mistaken.
Sora was wrong, Aidan thought. He didn't want to spoil the surprise because it might not work and he loathed to create false hope but This trip was for Cythrel as well. He needed the help of a master craftsman in Elmhill to complete his plan to restore the elf girl.
And even though he wasn't using magic to hasten the trip, he was using magic to make it comfortable. He had no idea if any of them noticed but the carriage was slightly bigger on the inside, shook a third of what it should and the temperature inside was always pleasant.
At least when the Steam wizard-Princess wasn't literally boiling.
"Pearl," Aidan dropped the honorifics and spoke with a serious tone, "I know you. I'm your champion, after all. I know your thoughts. You don't have to worry. Your station is secure. Even more, you will pass into history as the Queen that unraveled the conspiracy of otherworlder summoning."
Pearl stuttered. "Conspiracy?"
"Yes, a conspiracy. What I learned from the fight with Kazuya and Lumina's memories about the summoning process, the same one you are still geased into silence," Aidan paused to let his words sink.
Only Princesses anointed with the Regalia of a royal bloodline can summon otherworlders. The training is taxing, expensive, and awfully secretive. Only the Conclave of Archmages gives the training, the supplies for the summoning, and as an added security, a powerful geass is placed on the Princess to keep the secrecy. Should she speak of the ritual, she'd die in both body and soul before any vital information leaks.
The geass is so powerful that Aidan dared not mess with it. But he didn't have to. Because he shared Lumina's body for more than a year. During that time, he unlocked Lumina's memories and learned much of what the Princess knew and all of her magical knowledge, including the summoning ritual. What he learned left him baffled.
The ritual has two parts. The first part creates a Divine Tool. The second part sacrifices the Princess magical aptitude and binds her soul to the Divine Tool to call forth the otherworlders from a Realm called Earth. The otherworlders aren't really summoned. Their souls are placed in magically-constructed bodies but never made flesh entirely. From there, the soul of the Princess is slowly consumed as fuel to power these constructs until the time she dies and then the otherworlders soon vanish.
No Princess survived more than a decade after the summons. No otherworlder survived their summoner by more than a year or two. But while they remained, these so-called "Heroes", or [??] (Yuusha) - Brave, 'man of valor' in their home tongue, wield abilities that shatter the very fabric of reality and are nigh impossible to replicate or counter using arcane magic.
Kazuya, one of the heroes Pearl summoned, was able to teleport - one of the three great impossibilities of modern magic - from shadow to shadow and to inflict wounds that were impossible to heal and eventually would cause the wounded creature to bleed out.
Aidan detected the siphon in Pearl's soul and used his magic to heal Pearl, severing the connection that fed Kazuya. It caused the hero to go rogue and into a murder spree throughout the Yutis countryside, ending with his invasion of Yutis' Royal Castle and the kidnapping of Pearl.
He murdered Gurf, a lumberjack turned paladin and Pearl's champion with a single slice on his abdomen. He almost killed Aidan, Dawn, and Lumina if it wasn't for Cythrel's sacrifice. The little elf jumped in front of the blow, blocking it with her arms. Kazuya liked Cythrel and tried to withdraw his blow but it was too late. The girl had both arms severed at the midpoint of her forearms. Aidan used the opportunity to slay Kazuya, ending the threat of the rogue otherworlder.
The only way to save the elf's life was to cut the arms again, forcing the flesh to regenerate and the skin to cover the stumps. Not the greatest regenerative magic in the world, the Life Archmage Astromelicus was able to regrow the girl's arms.
Thus were Aidan's greatest debt and shame. He vowed to restore her arms.
But bringing up Pearl's Hero Summoning triggered a cascade of memories in the Princess' mind.
"I'm sorry," Pearl spoke softly, almost inaudible.
She squeezed Lola's hand. The two girls looked at each other's eyes, their shared grief still strong in their hearts. Lola was Gurf's niece. Back in Elmhill, she tried to swindle Dawn out of some cash after Skippy's Dragonfire mutilated his uncle. With the timely intervention of Shinji, one of the two summoned Heroes Pearl created, Gurf was healed and they pledged to serve Pearl. The alternative was punishment for Lola's trickery.
"It's fine, your Highness," The maid answered with a smile.
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Aidan knew Lola's opinion. Gurf died with honor defending the future Queen. He passed into history as a true paragon of knighthood from a hermit despised by his fellow townsmen. As Pearl's handmaiden, Lola's future was guaranteed. That was Gurf's final wish.
The carriage went on for another hour before reaching the camping spot. They heard the whining and neighing of the knight's horses before they saw the escort. Dawn tried to avoid any escort at all but she was a Princess of Yutis. She negotiated her escort down to four knights. Two rode ahead of the carriage, scouting for any dangers and two rode behind, in case of some ambush.
Not that many things could pose a potential danger to Dawn, but appearances had to be maintained.
The vehicle came to a full stop and Aidan was the first one to get out. He looked around and saw the four knights already preparing the campsite and another curious person. A priest of Hecate. In full garb. The priest met the young man's eyes and smiled.
"Milord Aidan. What a pleasure to meet you here. Worry not, my mistress sent me here to meet you."
Aidan nodded and wondered what the church of Hecate wanted with him. "I'll listen to your request as soon as I finish my duties, priest. If you would be so kind as to wait a few minutes."
The priest nodded, his business smile unfaltering. "Absolutely, milord. I'll wait as much as needed."
'Another way of saying that I can't send you away without listening to your request,' Aidan thought.
Wasting no more time, he helped the ladies off the carriage and into the packed earth of the resting site. It was usual to have these at predetermined spots on the road, to help travelers rest and to pace the caravans. It was one unwritten rule of the road that the resting spot was neutral ground. Some merchant companies employed lower leveled mages. Having the caravans stop at predetermined spots made it easier for them to scry on the travelers and check on their welfare. It also served as deterrence to bandits as they could never be sure that they weren't being watched. The mages could warn nearby guards or the caravan of the attack, for example.
Skippy stretched on the roof of the carriage and flew away to find dinner. There was enough food for everyone but the baby dragon liked to hunt.
Once all the ladies were safely on the ground, Aidan approached the priest to see what he wanted. He was received with the same inscrutable smile.
"Speak freely, priest. I demand no honorifics. What is Hecate's bidding?"
"I have a gift and a request for the Lady," He answered and fumbled in his pack for something. The priest produced two large wooden boards. "These are for you, milord. The goddess requested that you use them to, in the words of her oracle, 'create something fun that can irritate as many archmages as you can'. She also says that your identity is safe. I am under oath to never reveal that we met today."
Aidan remembered the last time he used one of these boards. They were Divine Tools of Hecate. Any spell designed on one of these would be easier to create and also free of flaws as the board would point out deadly or harmful mistakes. The drawback was that the spell would be available in all temples of Hecate. The creator could sign the spell, earning great renown or publish the spell anonymously. The clergy of Hecate was sworn to keep the name of the designer a secret under pain of death.
The goddess' request was unusual but the spell he created previously was one that was completely unusable by most mages. it was an eighth-circle, five-elements Law spell that warded death on a target, at the expense of the mage's entire magic pool. It was a marvelous piece of magic as it would keep a person alive longer than it should but it was impossible to suspend before the mage was entirely drained of magic or the target received enough healing to remove the deadly wounds.
Most mages couldn't dream of casting a five-element spell, or an eight circle spell, or would never drain their magic to save another and leave them completely vulnerable. Learning that spell would take years of dedicated study for the average mage. Months for an archmage. And yet the spell was on display on every temple of Hecate to taunt the archmages. Aidan couldn't imagine how many hairs on the head of these venerable masters of the arcane turned white with envy and rage at the sight of the spell.
It was probably beneficial for Hecate and now she wanted more. It would be Aidan's pleasure to oblige. He took the two boards and glanced inside the bag. He could see there were more boards. Another quirk of these tools was that once you used one if the Goddess was pleased with your spell, she'd grant you another board. Boards could also be won by creating masterpieces of spellcraft or for teaching magic. That was how Astromelicus gained the board Aidan used. But to get two boards for one spell, that was unheard of.
Nevertheless, he thanked the priest. And to his dismay, the man didn't move from his spot. The young god-slayer rolled his eyes after he turned his back to the priest. If he wanted 'fun' spells, he would give him fun spells. He went back inside the carriage and chanted a spell.
"Phantom Desk."
It created a floating surface made of Force magic. He set one of the boards on the floating desk and thought of what spell to create first. Before he started, he penned 'anonymous' in the space reserved for the developer's name. Then he got an idea and wrote his first spell. Since it was a first-circle spell, it didn't take long. He chuckled as his pen scratched the wooden surface.
> [Cosmic Location] - 1th circle spell.
>
> Element: Cosmos.
>
> Type: Divination.
>
> Classification: Support. Information. Instantaneous Casting.
>
> Target: Self.
>
> Grants the caster a momentary glimpse at their own relative location in the cosmos. The amount of information depends on the casters' affinity with the Cosmos element and knowledge of both mathematics and cosmology. Casting this spell twice in less than 24 hours can cause severe disorientation and nausea.
As he penned the last runes of the diagram, the ink glowed and turned golden, digging an inlay into the wood. It was a sign the spell was finished. As a test, Aidan cast the spell for the first time.
"Cosmic Location!"
He felt as if his spirit was lifted from his body at a vertiginous speed. He was floating amidst the stars and he knew that deep down there in one of these stars, his body was located. All he could understand before being forcibly tugged back to his body was that he was less than a grain of dust in the great Cosmos. All of it took less than a second.
He blinked and looked at the board. The Cosmos mage was feeling insignificant before the mighty of the universe. And then he cackled like a villain. The information he gained was only useful to dig a hole in his self-esteem.
It was perfect. He put the golden board aside and started working on the other. He decided to craft a spell he knew his counterpart desperately needed. A tetra-element spell with lots of utility.
> [Comfortable Support] - 2th circle spell.
>
> Element: Gravity.
>
> Type: Support.
>
> Classification: Support. Eulogy. Long duration.
>
> Target: Female touched.
>
> Eliminates the influence of external gravity and inertia on the casters' chest. It does not grant protection against attacks. The spell lasts for 24 hours. Applies a delicate inward gravitational force all around the chest, keeping it safely in place.
This one was also a practical joke. While the spell was very useful, especially for female mages, almost no caster would have more than two of the four elements that composed Gravity as most of the combinations of three elements didn't exist.
Even though these two spells might meet Hecate's requirements, they are not only jokes. 'But the fact that the spells exist should inspire some mages to research these elements', Aidan mused. The ink on the second board changed colors to gold as the anonymous spell was accepted. Aidan stored his writing implements and dismissed the floating desk before going outside again. To his chagrin, the Priest was there, smiling.
The man handed Aidan, two other boards, finally emptying his bag. "The Goddess is pleased with you, Milord. These are a boon from her."
"I thank you for your patience, priest. May the gods protect you on your way," He dismissed the priest and sighed in relief as the man went away to his camp on the other side of the huge resting area. It was intended to host caravans, after all.
Aidan looked at the boards, two on each hand. 'I could get more of these, then I would use them as armor or shields,' he joked. Divine tools were nigh indestructible, as he remembered the trouble they had with the slave collars in the Elmhill Dungeon. They were ambushed by slavers and nothing they did could break one of those collars. It ended in Shinji's death by strangulation as he struggled against the power of the slave tool.
Worse yet, the fact the slave collars were a divine tool meant there was a god of slavery somewhere. None of the Twelve deities of the pantheon had this domain so it must be some newly ascended god. And given Aidan's family business, it also meant they would inevitably clash. After all, the job of the God-Slayer was to serve as a deterrence for the deities. The God of Slavery would first have to defeat the God-Slayer to truly become one of the pantheon.
Yet another problem Aidan would have to deal with. Another day. He closed his eyes and focused on his female counterpart. Dawn was watching the Knights and the carriage driver set up the tents for the ladies all this time. The other women were merrily chatting about the most varied subjects. She focused and used the new spell.
"Comfortable Support!"
She felt relief as the spell freed her chest from the yoke of gravity. Princess Lumina was well-endowed and her clone had exactly the same body.
"Hey, girls," She called the attention of the other ladies. "Let me use my newest spell on you..."