“But I know where she is?” Scytale said.
Annaliese froze, and stared at the snake. “What?”
“I said, I know where she-”
“I heard what you said!” she responded exasperatedly. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?!”
“You never asked,” he told her sourly. “But it doesn’t take an hour to get to her. So, how about we take a little detour on the way?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
Scytale opened his mouth slightly and for a split second, Annaliese thought she saw a wicked grin form on his serpentine face. “There’s somebody I want to visit,” he replied mischievously. “You see, his name is Sedric.”
…
“Hellooooo!” the silvery snake shouted, having taken up a position on Annaliese’s shoulder. They were standing in front of a big grey door. “Is anybody innnn thereeeeeee?”
Annaliese looked at the golden-eyed snake on her shoulder. “I don’t think this is going to work,” she stated. “He probably can’t hear you through this thick door.”
“What’d you mean he can’t hear me? He’s definitely just ignoring m- oh wait.” Scytale turned to look at Annaliese. “You wouldn’t be familiar with the metaphysics behind mental transmission.” He flickered his tongue. “You hear this thing I do? Placing words inside your literal head? Yeah, that thing isn’t blocked by physical barriers.”
She blinked in surprise and her mouth made a small ‘O’ shape. “Wow, you're a professional irritator.”
The snake looked at her, taken aback. “That’s- well, I guess I am? Kinda? An unpaid one? Maybe I should demand a wage for keeping Lucy grounded in reality all the time.” He turned back to the door. “But let me continue. Seeeedriiiiiiiii-”
They jolted when the door slammed open, revealing a very grumpy looking young man dressed in a leather apron and thick gloves. His lank, dark brown hair was tied at the base of his neck, and around his neck hung a pair of strange goggles that had multiple different lenses to switch out. It was clear he had been wearing them, because a rectangular outline was visible around his eyes, some of his face having been covered in black grease. His complexion was dark around the eyes like he hadn’t slept well. He glared at Scytale.
“I can hear you just fine, you damned snake,” he growled. He pulled off a glove and stuck a finger in his right ear, shaking it with a grimace. “I’m going to get tinnitus,” he muttered, removing it.
Scytale looked at Annaliese. “See? Told you I could do it!” He turned back to the man, who Annaliese presumed was Sedric. “Yeah, I perfected the soul echo in my voice, just for all that extra jazz.”
Sedric glared at the snake, but sighed and leaned against the doorway, crossing his arms as he observed Annaliese. “And who are you?” he asked.
Scytale glanced nervously at Annaliese. “Um, well… she is… uh…”
“I’m the Faction Head’s new subordinate, Annaliese Verdon,” she said, smiling brightly.
Sedric gazed at her dubiously. “Right… And you decided to come visit me?” He shook his head and sighed, scratching the back of his neck, and then pulled back on his other glove. “Anyway, I doubt that thing has told you anything useful,” he said, glaring daggers at Scytale, who blinked innocently. “But I’m Lucille’s contracted crafter, Sedric Ferin,” he stated. “If introductions was all you wanted, then I’ll get back to work.” He turned around and tried to walk back into the room.
“Aha, an opening!”
Before the startled Annaliese and Sedric could respond, the winged snake jumped off her shoulder and slid through the doorway, skirting around Sedric’s legs.
“Hey, don’t-”
Ignoring Sedric’s cries, the snake slid down the railing to explore the workshop. True to his earlier words, they both could hear his gleeful snickers crystal clear like he was right beside them as he made it into the room. Sedric placed his hands on his head in frustration, letting out a loud groan as he hurriedly marched into the room to limit the worst of the snake’s mischief.
Seeing they had both ignored her, Annaliese shrugged and followed them in, looking around with interest at the large room filled with boxes and gadgets of different kinds. She walked down the stairs as Sedric tried to catch the sneaky snake who kept slithering around the place, checking out the new equipment.
“Oh, I’ve seen Lucy use one of these before! A recombiner I think she called it,” he said, looking at a strange clock-like object sitting on a table. “She said it’s only good for those over Rank-2 though.” He looked back at the scowling Sedric who was trying to sneak up behind him. “Aren’t you Rank-1?”
The snake dodged Sedric’s grasp to skid under a bench, inspecting the new table from underneath. “This has a bunch of weird thingy-ma-bobs and drawers down here. This looks so annoying to have to navigate to find stuff. What a trash design.” He wiggled out from under the table.
Then he climbed onto a rotating leather chair and desk set in the room’s corner, flapping his wings to buffet Sedric’s face creeping up behind him. “Wow, look at this expensive shiny leather! It doesn’t even look like it’s been used yet!”
The expression on Sedric’s face twitched as the room went silent for a bit, the snake suddenly turning around, and they both stared at each other. Then Scytale reared up and flapped his wings. “These are all totally useless!” he exclaimed. “Did you really just buy whatever random shady item the salesman offered you?!”
Sedric coughed awkwardly. “I-I thought deeply behind each purchase and-”
“Deeply my foot,” the snake stated flatly, channelling his inner Lucy, and ignoring the biological impossibility of that statement. “I’m so going to tell Lucy so I can see you get in trouble.”
The man paused, and became sceptical. “Do you think Lucille actually cares enough about your opinion to come down here and say anything?”
Scytale hesitated. “I will admit, you have a greater understanding of our relationship than I hoped you would.” He raised himself higher on his leather ‘throne’. “Nonetheless, ineffective threat or not, you still suck at buying stuff!”
“Everybody has their weaknesses,” Sedric said, narrowing his eyes at the snake. “Just like you and flying.”
The snake’s haughty attitude faded and he seemed to wither. “Hey, that was a low blow,” he grumbled.
Annaliese, who had been watching their interaction with bemusement, finally spoke up. “Wait, Scytale can’t fly?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow. “I just thought he rode on my shoulder because he was being lazy.” Then she tilted her head, remembering his speed dodging Sedric. “Actually, considering how fast he moved down here, he was definitely just being lazy.”
Both Annaliese and Sedric stared at the snake waiting for an answer. He hid behind his wings. “Uh, I plead the fifth,” he began, before registering their nonplussed gazes. “I mean, I will neither confirm nor deny that statement!” he announced grandly, stretching out his wings. “The crafter is simply wallowing in low-class ignorance!”
He ignored Sedric’s outrage to look at Annaliese. “I will be able to fly, eventually, but not right now. It’s physically impossible.”
She blinked, and then widened her eyes in realisation. “Are you afraid of heights?”
“ARGH! NO!” the snake cried in furious frustration. “That. Is. Not. It! Don’t start up with that too!”
“Hey, what do you mean ‘low-class ignorance’,” Sedric said, still upset by the insult. He jabbed a pointy looking tool from his belt at the silver reptile. “I’m a Legendary class crafter.”
Annaliese turned to him in shock but Scytale hissed at him before she could say anything. “So what? I’m a Legendary rarity beast, but you don’t see me bragging.”
They stared at him, Sedric with incredulousness, and Annaliese with dumbfounded amazement. “Wait, are you saying you’re bloodline royalty?” she said, suddenly alarmed.
Sedric gazed at the snake with wide eyes. “There is no way that’s possible.”
The flustered snake looked around the room for a distraction. “Oh, wow, this chair really is great!” he said, looking down at the leather seating. “I might ask Lucy to take it up to the fortieth story, just so you don’t have this comfort!”
Annaliese didn’t think anyone could fall for such blatant method of misdirection, but she was proven wrong when Sedric immediately started arguing with snake.
“No way. Beg Lucille for your own. This one’s mine.”
“You crass pleb!” Scytale exclaimed. “I don’t ‘beg’, I command!”
“I’d hate to have you be my king,” Sedric snarked. “You wouldn’t get anything done.”
“Of course I would! There would be a million statues in my honour, hewn out of fine marble all across the land, just so everybody could see my spectacular glor-”
“Can you just wait a moment?” Annaliese interrupted, holding out a hand to pause them. “I’ll ignore that comment about your bloodline, but could you at least tell me why you can’t actually fly?”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The snake looked at her for a moment, and then seemed to slump in a sigh. “Fiiine,” he replied. He shifted his wings to stretch out one of them for them to see, the artificial light of the room glinting off the metallic white-gold feathers. “If I was a bird, these things would be enough to lift me into the air. But I’m not. I was born as a snake, so that will always be my sub-race.” He opened up the other and gave them a flap to demonstrate. “Now, they seem big enough to allow me to fly, but due to reasons I can’t explain besides the fact it’s just weird bloodline shenanigans, I need to wait until I grow a second pair to actually fly.”
Sedric crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “And when would that be?”
“When I reach advanced rank with my bloodline. Which will coincidently be when I gain a human form,” he responded to the brown-haired man.
Annaliese nodded and then paused with an odd expression on her face as she realised something. “…but why would you grow multiple wings?”
“Oh, that’s because my other bloodline- No, wait, I’m not answering that,” he said, sharply turning his head to narrow his eyes at Annaliese with suspicion. “You said you’d ignore my bloodline. Why are you asking questions like that?”
She held up her hands in a surrender and backed away. “Just curiosity is all.”
“Huh,” spoke Sedric, thinking. “Does that have anything to do with your discussion about bloodline stability yesterday?”
“Yep. In fact, it is directly correlated.” The snake nodded. “I gain bloodline energy from eating natural treasures of the right element. All natural treasures have slightly different element ratios though, so I need to be careful when eating them. If I gain enough energy, then my bloodline goes up a rank, and I unlock my human form and new bloodline spells, while increasing my manipulation ability of the element.”
“That feels unfair,” Sedric said, scowling. “As a crafter, I need to work all day, and you can just eat stuff to grow stronger.”
“Hey, don’t complain, mister I only need an elixir to change my element. A beast’s base strength is determined by their bloodline rarity, regardless of rank.” Then he sheepishly looked to the side. “Although I’m probably not the best example in this situation. Regardless, we don’t have the flexibility of the humanoid races. Besides, all the realm’s races can use the System to level up, so the strength divide evens out over time.”
Annaliese listened to the conversation with interest. “Are magical beasts the only race to have another way of progression?”
Scytale looked at her. “What? No, each realm gives a different way of progression outside the System.”
Both of gave him dubious looks. “So then, where is this magical way of getting stronger?” Sedric asked, feeling like the snake was playing tricks on them.
“Mana-arts and magic of course. We can’t learn new spells and skills like you do unless we gain a human class through the System for our human forms, and our bloodline spells don’t form mana-circles.”
The two humans blinked as they took in the information. Annaliese was confused. “No, but- isn’t that a normal thing for all the realms? The System gives us spells and skills, after all.”
Scytale shook his feather-crested head. “Magic and mana existed in your realm before the Tower assimilated it. And only the Mystical Realm developed a way to increase the user’s mana using the individual’s base elemental affinities. You must’ve heard of Essential Order before?”
Sedric scratched his head. “Sure, but I thought that was some profound thing the mages and wizards likes to say. I didn’t see how that related to me.”
“It’s the name for the type of Origin Skill those who have descended from people from the Mystical Realm get. Humans aren’t native to the Beast Realm, after all. Unless they were born in the Heavenly Realm and then left, all non-beast and non-beast-blooded races of the Beast Realm have that Origin Skill, besides demons and undead. Each realm-specific Origin Skill even has a name,” Scytale told them.
“The Beast Realm’s one is called Beast-blooded. That’s because even the beastmen have this Origin Skill, although they don’t have a few key sub-skills like us, and can’t increase their bloodline strength. The Demon Realm’s is called Khaos. Those with demonic heritage gain a demonic bloodline that enables them to access a portion of Demonic Script, and gives them Demonic Power, or DMNP, instead of SPRT. All demonic lineages grant the individual the ability to devour spiritual energy from demons defeated by them.”
Seeing they were paying attention, he shuffled in his seat and raised his snout haughtily like he was teaching them some grand secret.
“The Tartarus Realm has Death Source. Actually, any undead have this ability, but only those formed in the Tartarus Realm have the natural ability to manipulate death mana, the metaphysical opposite of mana. Those created by necromancers in other realms are dependent on the necromancer’s mana and can’t self-regenerate death mana unlike those from Tartarus. Anyway, Death Source enables them to substitute all their spells and mana-arts’ mana with death mana, which make their spells and skills unique in a way different to the other realms’.”
He looked at them both. “Next is obviously Essential Order, which I just explained, but it goes a bit further. It allows anyone with heritage from the Mystical Realm to be born with one or more elemental affinities of the 6 essential elements, or even a mid-level element, but also allows the ‘mortal’ races to form contracts with demons, spirits, undead, even tame monsters, and bond with magical beasts. There’s also sometimes special ‘Constitutions’ that some people have.”
He looked at Annaliese as she paid closer attention to his words, remembering her brother. “They can be formed from an exposure to certain types of mana when young, or be the case of a distant ancestral descent from a magical beast or other nonmortal race, which gives them interesting talents, but is sometimes detrimental. The Heavenly Realm has their own variant they call ‘Physiques’, but those are pretty much the same thing, if specific to cultivators and spiritual energy.”
Before she could ask more, he moved onto the next one. “And finally, the Heavenly Realm. There is a major reason why the Empire hasn’t expanded very far into that realm, and that realm has managed to form a somewhat equal relationship with the Empire. That is because of their ‘Spiritual Roots’. Within their body, they have this almost organ-like structure that enables them to connect to the very realm they live in, which grants them, like elemental affinities, one of the ‘five phases’ of wood, fire, earth, metal, or water. Because of this, they can comprehend ‘Daos’, or receive esoteric information from the very realm itself, that gives them control over the laws of their realm.”
“But it comes with limitations,” he added. “Firstly, if they wish to keep this ability to ‘comprehend’ stuff, they must never, ever, gain a class that uses mana. Their spiritual root will disintegrate after being touched by it, they can never increase the size of their ‘dantian’ again, and anything they have ‘comprehended’ is erased from their minds for eternity.”
He continued explaining. “If they remain a cultivator and don’t get a class with mana, their abilities will be weaker outside the Heavenly Realm and have less impact due to the innate resistance of the other four realms, caused by mana. Only soul cultivators can keep gaining soul power even after their spiritual root is removed, but they don’t understand Daos and can’t connect to the Heavenly Realm anymore, nor increase their strength through ‘tribulations’ as they ascend from the lesser realms.”
Sedric whistled as Annaliese stared at him in shock. “That seems like a harsh requirement though,” she told the snake.
Scytale made a hissing laugh. “Anybody who’s actually seen a high-rank cultivator act in person would never say that. Destroying lesser realms is a daily occurrence for them. In return for harsh requirements outside, their power within their own realm is scaled extraordinarily high. But the need for a spiritual root to be a powerful force within the Heavenly Realm is what stalls the Empire’s advance. Many forces within the Empire still push for it to try conquer part of that realm.” He shook his head. “Anyway, the System doesn’t use these names, preferring to categorise Origin Skills differently. That’s because every User’s Origin Skill is still unique to them. Even beasts within the same bloodline have different spells.”
They remained silent for a moment, contemplating what Scytale said, and feeling a bit small. Sedric raised an eyebrow. “So, what about Lucille? What’s her Origin Skill type?”
Annaliese gazed at the snake, immensely curious. She blinked when he looked away sheepishly. “That’s a question for her. Not because I don’t know, but because I don’t know if she wants to tell anyone. She’s an anomaly who doesn’t fit in with any of the five realms.”
Sedric narrowed his eyes, thinking the snake was just being difficult, while Annaliese sighed and nodded. She frowned a bit. “Going back to the constitution thing,” she said. “What exactly is an ‘Accelerated Mana Dystrophy Constitution’?”
The snake blinked and closed his eyes, swaying a bit. Eventually he opened them. “I remember Lucy told me once ages ago. I think it’s one of those rare semi-detrimental conditions.”
“Semi-detrimental?” she asked, confused by the term. “How can something be semi-detrimental?”
“That’s because the symptoms of the condition are negative, but are usually signs of a more positive ability. Like the Yin-Yang Extremity Physique of the Heavenly Realm. It can essentially be considered something like the User having a dual affinity for light and dark, but the energies conflict and create internal injuries when not controlled. With the right cultivation technique, the User can minimise the conflict and become a genius talent.”
He flickered his tongue. “If it’s mana dystrophy, then it means the body needs far more mana than normal to survive, or it will combust its own lifeforce to keep the body going. The symptoms can be reduced by having a mana-rich healthy diet, and ‘cured’ by using a special implant that can attract atmospheric mana and funnel it into the body until they reach adulthood.”
Annaliese made a complicated expression, partly because she was guilty about how she wasn’t able to support her brother properly, and partly because she didn’t like the sound of the condition.
Sedric took the words right out of her mouth: “How is that only semi-detrimental?”
“Most people would react like that,” Scytale agreed, nodding. “But then a researcher in the Empire discovered that a strangely high percentage of mages and wizards had the condition when younger. The ability of the human body to take in atmospheric mana is much higher when an adult, so they didn’t suffer from it any longer.”
“Is that why you can’t become a mage apprentice until at least 15, a year before adulthood?” Annaliese asked.
Scytale nodded again. “And some have theorised that the stereotype of mages being skinny and physically unfit came around because of this condition too. Anyway, turns out, Mana Dystrophy Constitution is actually because the flow rate of mana is much higher within the individual’s body. I’m not sure on the exact implications that has and why many with the condition became spellcraft users, but the Empire invests in those with the condition because nine times out of ten, they can successfully become a mage or wizard. It’s a legal requirement to report any with the condition to the Imperial Clinic so they can get a sponsorship to go to the Academy when older.”
She narrowed her eyes. It seemed their town doctor was more than just a little unhappy with her and her brother if they even committed a crime just so they wouldn’t become successful when older. She contemplated asking Lucille to help them take legal actions, but shook her head. She thought her brother, the more vengeful one between them, might appreciate being able to take matters into his own hands, even if he was only 12 currently.
“This is all very interesting,” Sedric said in a flat voice, which suggested he didn’t actually find it interesting at all. “But I have work to do.”
“Ha. Work? You just want to play with your fancy new toys,” Scytale replied cheekily, watching Sedric’s expression twitch. “I know for a fact Lucy or anyone else haven’t commissioned an item from you, so you just want to fool around, don’t you.”
The man with brown lank hair twirled his metal tool around his fingers menacingly, glaring at the snake. His sleepless look didn’t help diminish the scary atmosphere beginning to form around him. “Do you think those wings of yours would make a good glider?”
“Nope. I found out the feathers can stiffen and turn hard, so you’d tear your back to shreds if you tried to make one out of them,” Scytale responded, uncaring towards the hostility being directed at him, and flexing his wings.
Sedric narrowed his eyes. “I’m sure I could find a good use for them somehow.”
“Not as good as me having them still attached to my back.”
The two of them stared at each other, Annaliese remaining out of the conversation the best she could, intensely focused on observing the weird pen closest to her.
The crafter went to open his mouth but Scytale interrupted him before he could say anything. “Also, my bond holds all the power over your wallet. For your information. I just had this urge to tell you, like it might be slightly important. I wouldn’t know why.”
Sedric clawed at his hair in a silent scream of frustration, incensed by the happy-go-lucky reptile in front of him. “Why do you keep bothering me?!” he squeezed out through gritted teeth.
“Because I’m bored,” the snake responded. It didn’t do much to calm Sedric’s rage, not that it was supposed to. “I keep trying to get into those three gardens, but I keep failing, and Ashale’viaf isn’t getting any dumber as time goes by. If I had a human form, then I could do more, but here I am bothering you because my bond is a shut in who hardly goes anywhere.”
“I don’t care,” Sedric responded flatly. “That’s not my problem, so why don’t you leave me be?”
“Lucille’s a shut in?” Annaliese asked, curious.
Scytale looked at her and shifted his wings in an approximation of a shrug. “More accurately, she can’t go anywhere. She’s busy here. But she used to travel a lot. I’ve seen some of her memories from when she was younger in her home world.”
Scytale jumped off the chair and started heading towards the staircase. “She came from a rich family, but there were always tons of eyes on her, so she pretended to be a terrible heir while sneaking out and using the family’s money to travel to different places. She did that ever since she was twelve.”
Annaliese followed after the snake. Sedric eyed them both with suspicion but sighed and began returning to his work. “With her bodyguards?”
“Nope. Completely alone.” The snake laughed when he saw her expression. “I’ve seen her memories as her bond, so it’s definitely true. She didn’t even do normal things like sneaking out to buy toys or something. She went to visit places like the World Tech Expo, which is her world’s equivalent of the Coalition’s crafter festival, or the Academy’s magecraft competition. She’d stay away from home as long as she could before her family eventually dragged her back.”
They left the workshop, closing the door behind them. She helped Scytale back up onto her shoulder. “Does she hate her family, enough to run away?”
“Well, her living family is technically only composed of three individuals. It would be better to describe their family as the owner of a large merchant group. Her great uncle and grandfather are twins, and her great uncle runs the business, while her grandfather relaxes in retirement at resorts. But she doesn’t hate them. They’re all pretty weird, actually.” Scytale pointed with his snout to direct her. “Lucy is in that direction.”
“Her grandfather and his brother are business geniuses. They built their organisation from scratch, and her grandfather only had one son, who had one daughter in turn, so she’s the only living heir of the business. But they basically treated it as a game of cat and mouse. She had already demonstrated her intellect and ability to run the business before the age of twelve, so they ended up not caring much and just brought her back when it went on for too long.” He gestured again, and it took her into a room with a lift entrance.
“Hang on,” Annaliese said, thinking. “If she’s the only heir, was the son not in line for the business?”
Scytale gave her a brief glance. “Lucy’s parents up and left when she was about five years old. Nobody knows where they went, although I think Lucy does. She just doesn’t care enough to go find them.”
She frowned slightly. “That first bit about not knowing where they went is a lie.”
The snake on her shoulder turned his head to look at her. “Thank you, miss living lie detector,” he stated wryly. “It’s not that people don’t know where they were last seen, but they entered a special natural phenomenon unique to Lucy’s world, and nobody knows why or whether they are even alive anymore. It’s hard to describe it properly without context.”
She grimaced slightly as she went inside the lift and pressed the ground floor button with Scytale’s advice. “Oh… sorry, I wasn’t trying to call you out on it. I’m still getting used to the new sensations I feel coming from people.”
The snake huffed. “Well, I can understand that. My snake bloodline gives me a lie-detection skill too. But most of the Citadel have a more accurate way of testing lies, so I think you’ll get a visual skill from them when you go. Rather than sensing intentions, it will show an aura of colour when the personal is consciously lying. That way it will be less complicated. Not to say sensing isn’t helpful either, but it’s better for sensing hostility more than anything.”
He jumped off her shoulder and looked at her. “So, ready to ask Lucy some questions?”
Annaliese nodded seriously. “Definitely.”
----------------------------------------
Lucille sighed as she took another sip of her magical tea as she sat at an outdoor table within under the Pavilion western wing’s shade, a decorative waterfall on her right. The brass jug was on her table, filled with her choice of an Uncommon-ranked Pale Chrysanthemum Tea that was used by cultivators to soothe spiritual energy strain. It didn’t help much, but the mana cost wouldn’t be worth it to fill the jug with anything else. It took time to bring atmospheric mana into her body and convert it to her own, before putting it into the jug, which she actually found out was an artifact and not a magical item, as it didn’t have any buttons or mana-circles within to control it.
She checked her pocket watch and was inwardly irritated to see that she had less than a minute remaining before the girl was supposed to find her. Hopefully she had a bit more time, as she had retreated to the Pavilion in an attempt to stall the supposed Prophetess, but the emotions she had felt coming from Scytale had been getting increasingly shady, meaning he had something to hide. He seemed to also be getting increasingly expectant about something, but she didn’t know what. If she could be bothered, maybe she could poke around to see what it was, but she really didn’t want to have to deal with an immature magical beast’s horridly intense emotions right now.
She poured herself another cup of tea and sipped it, enjoying the peace and quiet of the serene-
“So here you were!”
She felt an eyebrow twitch as she slowly put down the cup to stare at the offensively energetic and headache-free teenager before her, who had just turned a corner to find Lucy sitting blissfully alone at the garden table. A sneaky serpent was suspiciously peeking out from behind the girl, flickering his tongue as he saw her.
She didn’t feel the need to hide her pain-induced glare as she got ready to pour herself another cup of the magical sedative, pessimistic about how she would deal with talking to the two immature individuals. “Indeed.”