Amidst the cawing of crows and the baying of distant scavengers, Orchid raised an eyebrow at the abandoned grasslands that hadn’t yet been reclaimed by nearby farming communities. Abandoned farmsteads littered the landscape, nature and monsters moving in where mortals had once dwelt. A tavern in the last town had warned him to take the longer route south instead of east, but he wasn’t particularly fussed by their guidance.
A jovial looking bartender grimaced about Orchid insisting on taking more treacherous path, trying to warn him that a lone noble dressed so extravagantly would be picked off the highway within the first night.
“Lad, I mennit with all respect due and the like, but Cahalla Highway passes through badlands. Nearly all the good folk young n’ healthy enough to leave, left. Yer lucky if bandits are the ‘uns that spot yuh first in that garish outfit.”
“Your concern is noted, dearest elder. I tire of these dusty, rural settings and want to reach my destination as soon as possible, brigands or no.”
Scoffing at the dust and wear that were quickly accumulating on his shoes, his one regret was not being competent enough with horses to ride such a long distance. Monsignor had offered a carriage, but they would’ve had to hide the emblem of house Bastogne, which Orchid found disrespectful to his station. Instead, he figured that the fresh air of the road would benefit him after being holed up for several years.
Disregarding the inconvenience of it all, he tried to view the affair as a character-building experience, which had always felt like a roundabout way of saying “traumatic”. Enzen was still a couple of weeks away, so he was hoping that at least the journey would become more… eventful. It had been quite some time since he had gotten to flex the forbidden arts.
A trunk full of all his possessions floated behind him, a particularly handy levitation spell holding them aloft. The trunk itself was also enchanted to have a pocket dimension for storing things inside, letting him bring a vast wardrobe and moderate fortune with him.
“Imagine these folks being so lazy as to not already have this land repopulated and restored,” he mumbled aloud, uncaring about whether an audience could receive his words and more enthralled with hearing his own voice. “Lazy ingrates should feel grateful they survived. Move on already.”
Aside from the sounds of nature, the plains running parallel to Cahalla Highway were eerily still. Not even a spring breeze was present to give the sea of flora its picturesque movement. On the one hand, the old man wasn’t wrong that Orchid stuck out like a sore thumb, but on the bright side, unless an ambush had already been laid, any movement could be seen coming for hundreds of feet.
It was then it occurred to him: his own feet weren’t making that telltale crunching of leather against dirt and gravel. His wandering thoughts let him stray right into someone’s snare, knowing they counted on the monotony of the path to let their prey tune out and let their senses dull.
An annoyed sigh fell off his lips as Orchid called out, his voice somewhat muffled by a dome of deafening that had been cast over the section of road.
“Very clever… But I’ve got places to be and I’m not so chuffed to be held up by vermin.”
“Don’tcha know this road belongs to our gang, pretty boy? Maybe you should show us some respect and pay the toll.” A hissing voice revealed itself behind his back. “Yeh don’t got a horse or carriage, but that trunk o’ yours lights up in my eye like a beacon in the dark. Only a noble can afford luggage quite that fine.”
“Well yes, you’d be correct that my station is noble, but my blood is just as common as yours, thief. I was adopted by the most gracious of benefactors who prevented me from being like you.” As he finished the sentence, Orchid’s eyes narrowed as invisible tears of vitriol poured from them.
“Thief?! Outrageous! Boys, didja hear tha’? It’s like he doesn’t know the service we provide.” Feigning outrage, the bandit leader turned towards one of his compatriots.
Slowly turning to face his aggressors, Orchid saw about six bandits lightly armed. One in back held a loaded crossbow, one was dual wielding daggers, another two held worn sabers that were likely stolen off corpses of soldiers from a nearby battlefield, one caster whose hands were at the ready, and the leader who had a short sword secured to his belt.
Said leader was a gaunt man with leathery, sun kissed skin that had seen years of labor and hard times, with one of his eyes clearly being magical in nature. The eye was a silver sphere with an “iris” that was shining red, likely used for detecting enchantments.
Orchid responded nonchalantly, as if bored. “I’ll give you one opportunity to walk away. I highly recommend you seize this generous gift of another chance.”
“I survived the war, lad. I won’t even sweat over yeh.”
Casually rolling up his sleeves one by one, Orchid’s face twisted into a hideous wide smile.
“I want to taste your tears, old man.”
--
The first session of physical therapy was hell. After twenty-five minutes of muscle spasms, hot flashes, and cold sweats, she was left panting and exhausted. Worse yet, the pain didn’t slacken even after several more follow-up sessions, but she grit her teeth and pressed on.
A little more than two weeks had passed when Senna found herself sitting up in bed and grasping her crutches. Her palms immediately began to sweat as she pushed herself up to a standing position, letting some of the weight carry down to her thin legs. Her grip quivered for a moment while she steadied herself, before limping across the room towards the hamper that held her plush toys.
Hearing footsteps in the distance, she steadily rotated herself to face the bed once more, walking slowly back towards where she started. Stopping at the bed, she let herself breathe for a moment, repeating the path again, her exercise regimen to help work leg muscles between sessions.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
As she turned towards the bed again, she saw her mother waiting in the doorway, a glint of anxiety in her eyes.
“Hey there, mama!”
“Don’t overdo it, please! You haven’t even had your breakfast, why don’t you wait until after that? I worry about you getting lightheaded…”
“It’s okay, promise! I don’t wanna make you worry, but I’m losing my mind spending most of my day in bed… even if I am using my downtime to learn to read and write.”
“I think in a couple more weeks I’ll let you take some laps around the cul-de-sac or to the park up the road. I just don’t want you to feel rushed and accidentally hurt yourself.”
“Okie dokie, I’ll be good and eat first.” Her half sarcastic tone made Celica smile as she made her way to the bed, the feet of the crutches clacking on the floorboards,
Moments later Celica brought a tray, an essential tool of the last several weeks for both meals and books, to set over Senna’s lap. Placing a plate brimming with crisped potato wedges, scrambled eggs, sausages, and toast bringing up the side, the girl nearly drooled in anticipation.
As far as Senna was concerned the food was either laced with magic or drugs and she didn’t care which. It was the best eating she could ever remember considering a special occasion dinner was an egg and green onion in a cup ramen. Not waiting for the faint wisps of steam to disperse, she dug in, eyes watering as the flavor crashed through her mouth.
The scrambled eggs hadn’t changed since her arrival, but yesterday sausage had been added to the mix. Each bite was indescribably juicy with a hint of spice, the toast a perfect tan of brown glazed with a mixture of butter, egg, and garlic salt that was a medley of crisp and soft. Tenderly forking a mix of sausage, potato, and egg between the slices, the makeshift breakfast sandwich nearly brought tears to her eyes.
“Howy shit, dis is gweat!” She said through a mouthful of food, a look of joy on her face.
Laughing, Celica put a hand on Senna’s head.
“Chew first, no talking with a mouth full of food!”
Senna forced out a ‘sowwy’ through a half full mouth, gulping her food down with a swig of water. Clearing her throat, she turned to Celica.
“Once my food settles I’m going to do a few more laps around the room and then study. I wanna get comfortable with reading so I can start learning more about our world.”
Senna had learned that their planet was referred to as Messaris; “messa” being an ancient word for ‘planet’, “ris” meaning space. In addition to this, she learned that despite the fact that several languages exist on Messaris, every major nation’s official language was a derivative of the same ancient source, gifted to them by the god Ves’ra, who governed the concepts of ‘order’ and ‘law’. Regional dialects and differences existed, but most major cities used this common tongue known as “Vesran”.
According to apocryphal accounts, the mortal races all spoke in different tongues, unable to understand one another. Many of them desperately desiring to be understood, began to yell over other speakers hoping that raising their voice made them easier to comprehend, leading to a great cacophony that even the gods themselves could hear. Ves’ra, whom apparently had been enjoying a rather peaceful nap, was woken up by the calamity of screaming matches and tore the heavens asunder to see what the commotion was all about.
Finding the assorted mortal races screaming to be understood by one another, Ves’ra’s rage was replaced by pity. As a display of benevolence and wanting to continue his afternoon nap, he gifted a common language to the peoples of Messaris, ending the stalemate of wild gesturing and screaming.
Vesran itself was written through an alphabet that seemed to be a strange love child of the Greek alphabet and Nordic runes. Thankfully the symbols themselves were relatively simple to write and mesmerize but learning to read a new language was still daunting to Senna.
At least I don’t have to worry about them understanding me when I speak, that's a much bigger hurdle than learning to write again.
With reading and writing being the highest priority, Celica felt that history, geography, and magical theory could come later. Math wasn’t too much of a concern for either since that had been a subject that Senna was proficient at in her past life. Although, one of the ‘subjects’ that Senna did feel anxious about was brushing up on her social skills.
There’s no internet or MMOs for me to get lost in anymore, I have to actually talk to people…
Sighing, Senna lifted the tray with the now empty plate towards her mother, throwing the covers off herself immediately after. Untying a yellow ribbon that had been wrapped around her wrist, she used it to tie up her hair into a ponytail, only a singular blue lock escaping her hands. She clutched her crutches tightly, pulling herself out of bed.
“I want to try the stairs, mom.”
“Are you sure you’re ready..?”
“Well, if I fall, you’ll catch me, right?”
“I always will.”
--
“Make the bugs stop crawlin’ beneath mah skin!”
Whimpering, the bandit leader that had ambushed Orchid was now rocking back and forth beside a campfire, tears cascading from his eyes. Gripping his own legs so tightly that his fingernails were drawing blood, he eyed the man he had originally thought would be an easy mark to rob.
Nearby in a small freshly dug pit the bodies of several of the bandit’s comrades were burning in a pyre to dissuade predators from scavenging them. Orchid was smoking a pipe and sitting on an ottoman chair, a cruel smile still on his face.
“Wha’ are yeh?!” The bandit’s rocking stopped, his eyes filled with a primal fear.
“I’m a human, same as you.”
“Yer no fucking human! Yer a monster!”
Chuckling, Orchid responded in a relatively monotone manner.
“I know. My own mother told me the very same before abandoning me. I thought if she didn’t have to spend such late nights out with those bandits things would get better, so I used the powers my goddess gave me and took them all out.”
“You… made me kill all my friends.”
“And don’t you feel so much better for it?! You helped make this land safer! You’re a hero! Plus, now I can turn back on the ecstasy!”
“Nothin’ could make me feel anythin’ again…”
“Nonsense! Never underestimate the thrill of the high!”
Leaping from his chair, Orchid grabbed the bandit by the hair, dragging him to the ground.
“Would you like ecstasy or release? Choose now, before I choose for you.”
“Release!” The bandit sputtered, barely trying to resist.
“Deal!” And with that, Orchid seized a dagger and proceeded to slit the man’s throat.