Lilith woke up on her bed, but didn’t remember falling asleep there. Actually, the last thing she remembered was her tail being massaged, and then her trying out purring for a while-- ah, she’d fallen asleep by her bed after purring herself to sleep, hadn’t she? And then Malena would’ve had to pick her up and put her in her bed.
She frowned. Somehow, she had become like Malena’s pet cat. Perhaps it wasn’t the worst fate.
She got up and watched the sunrise through the window, pondering how she got here.
Then, something started ringing.
“Gah!” Malena sat up and smacked an alarm clock made of some magic crystal. “Church,” she said.
“Church?” Lilith turned.
“Church.” Malena nodded, trying not to fall back asleep.
“That sounds unfortunate.” Lilith turned back to the window.
Malena frowned. “You’re coming with me.” She got up, walked over, and started pulling Lilith’s arm.
“Huh? No! I don’t wanna!” Lilith tried and failed to pull her arm back.
“If I have to suffer through it, so do you!”
“But why!?” Lilith was dragged away from the window. “Wait! My hat!”
“Oh, yeah. Here you go.” Malena walked over, picked up Lilith’s hat, and handed it to her.
“Thanks.”
“Of course.”
---
Lilith hesitantly sat down next to Melina in the Haven church and listened to the pastor read some story. Or at least she tried to, but he was kind of quiet, and her hat already muffled some of her hearing. So she just sat there, trying to look like she was doing what everyone else was doing, while she barely comprehended the occasional muffled mumbles.
“Now, let us partake in Haven’s gifts of food.”
From the doors on both sides of the large hall, a few people in robes brought out tables filled with food. Then everyone got up and lined up to take some bowls and plates, including Lilith and Malena.
As she walked by, Lilith took some roasted vegetables and soup, then sat back and practically drank both. Then, she waited for everyone else to finish their meals, and then got up and put the plates back with everyone else.
“Now, let us join our hands in prayer,” the pastor said.
Lilith shrugged and followed everyone else. However, she tried the same method of concentration as before when she tried to see Wispy during the day. The images were still fairly unclear, so she wasn’t sure if she imagined it all or not.
She looked around with her eyes closed and wobbled a bit in a dreamlike state. Instead of the church, she saw a massive throne the size of a mountain ahead of her, with an equally giant woman sitting in it. The woman and the room around was covered with so much gold, gems, and general richness that it made even Melina’s home seem poor, and the distant parts of the room curled up like Wispy’s world.
The giant held her hand out and lifted a finger, and Lilith’s perspective changed so that she was now face to face with the giant. As she looked, she somehow felt that this giant must have been the goddess Haven.
“Hello [...], little one.”
‘I…’ Lilith looked around in the air, including down, and felt a bit of vertigo before looking back up. ‘Are you Haven?’ She asked with her mind.
“I am [...].” She nodded, then frowned. “You have nothing to sacrifice. [...] be glad.” Suddenly, she was holding a book, and then she held it out to Lilith. “[...] 24: the king that traded his followers. You may choose the path, [...].”
Lilith reached out to grab the book, but she was like a bug compared to everything here. Instead, Wispy reached out a few of his tendrils and grabbed it.
‘Huh? Wispy?’
Haven grinned. “Wispy [...]? How cute.”
“Quite,” he said, flipping through the pages with his tendrils. “Is this [...] different than [...] bible?”
“No, but [...] modified stories, [...] could interfere with [...] promises we agreed upon.”
“Fair enough.”
Haven smirked. “[...] neither of you know what we agreed [...].”
‘Um,’ Lilith projected her thoughts again. ‘Should I, uh, pray to you, normally?’
Haven shrugged. “[...] do as you please. But [...] better spent with ‘Wispy’.” She grinned at the name. “Oh, [...] I’d recommend against telling [...] you saw me.”
‘Huh? Why not?’
Haven's eyes narrowed, and Lilith completely froze seeing a mountain of a person glare down at her. She felt more than heard the intentions and whispers of thoughts from the being, but they couldn't be put to words. Maybe they were reasons, maybe they were threats, but she couldn't grasp them, and she didn't want to piss off a goddess.
“[...] short on time. [...] goodbye, little one.” Haven snapped her fingers, and the vision ended.
“And with our prayers sent, let us lift our heads, and return to our daily lives.”
Lilith looked up and saw everyone getting up from their chairs. No one else seemed to be reacting like her, so she tried to calm herself down and shuffle her way out of church alongside Malena.
---
“Ugh, that always takes a while,” Malena complained.
“Whew,” Lilith breathed out, then looked around. “Uh, do you know anything about passage 24?”
“Well yeah, that’s the one that was read out today. I could tell from his mumblings, but he always tells it a bit different.”
“Oh,” Lilith said.
“Wait, I thought you said you didn’t study the religion. How’d you know it was passage 24?”
Lilith paled. “Uh.” She looked left and right. They were far enough from the church now that she was relatively certain only Malena would hear her, then she remembered Haven’s 'words'. “Uhh…”
Malena tilted her head.
Lilith shrugged.
“Weird.” Malena started walking back to the dorms.
Lilith frowned. She couldn’t tell Malena, but maybe she could show her? Maybe Malena could visit Haven like Lilith did. “Hey, have you ever…” Lilith trailed off as she made a few hand motions.
Malena waited. “Have I ever… what?”
“Isn’t there a word for, you know, when your mind goes…” She made a few more hand motions. It was frustrating, but there weren't many words describing how it felt to do magic, and she didn't know of any that described what she did.
Malena tilted her head again.
Lilith just made even more hand motions.
Malena sighed. “I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”
Lilith slumped. But then she noticed a park with a few people playing strategy games, and a few tables were still open. “Well, whatever. Church is weird. Wanna try one of those games?” She pointed, thankful for any excuse to change the subject.
“Eh, sure, I guess.” Malena followed, eventually sitting down across Lilith at one of the empty game tables.
“So, I think this piece moves forward one on all turns, but can attack diagonally,” Lilith tried to explain the rules.
“Actually, it can move forward two places on its first turn.”
“Oh yeah.”
“So you’ve played?” Malena asked.
“Once or twice,” Lilith replied, making a few hand motions and looking away when she realized it was only ever Wispy that she played with.
“You’re doing that thing again.”
“What thing?”
“Hmm. Nevermind.” Malena looked down at the board. “I never really played before though, just watched. So you might have an advantage against me.”
They played for a few minutes…
“Are you sure you’re trying?” Malena asked.
“Of-- of course I’m trying!” Lilith glared down at the board. She’d been calculating every move as far ahead as she could. She could visualize her piece moving, then Malena’s, then her’s again, but after that point it was too complicated. Eventually, she just saw something that was good enough and moved her piece.
“I think you play kind of like my uncle. But if it’s like that, then…” Malena thought for a moment, then moved her piece.
Lilith moved the pieces around in her mind, then grimaced. “Checkmate, huh?”
“What?” Malena raised an eyebrow at Lilith, then the board. “No, you clearly have space though?”
“No, the move after that.”
Malena tilted her head again as she looked at the board. “What do you mean the move after that?”
“Look, if I move here, then you should move here…” She moved the pieces around.
“Ah huh.” Malena nodded.
“Then I move here.” Lilith moved her last piece. “Then you moving here is the only move that makes sense.” She moved Malena’s piece. “Checkmate.”
“Wow. I guess it really was a checkmate then.”
“Yep.” Lilith nodded. “Have you ever thought of being a strategist?”
Malena shrugged. “It wasn’t on my list of suggested jobs.”
“I mean, I think that’s just because there hasn’t been a war here for so long.”
“Huh, maybe… but then I guess that’s good, because there’d be nothing for me to do as a strategist.”
“Maybe.” Lilith turned and looked at some of the other people playing. “Ooh, that guy looks like he’d be a strategist!” She pointed.
The guy had just finished his game and his partner was walking off, so he was sitting back and looking around, until he saw her pointing, and now he was looking directly at her.
“Wow. It’s rude to point, you know.”
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Lilith waved at the guy.
Shrugging, he got up and walked over, then stared at the board. After analyzing it a bit, he spoke, “Looking for some pointers?”
“Actually, we were just talking about strategist jobs. Malena seems really talented, but it wasn’t listed. I think it got removed because we’re at peace. But then I saw you, and you looked like a strategist, so I waved.”
“Pfft ha ha!” He laughed. “I look like a strategist, huh? That’s a new one.” He sat down at the table next to them. “It could be she’s just not as talented at strategy compared to other jobs though,” the guy said. “I’d hope we didn’t drop strategy like that.”
Lilith got up and offered her chair to the guy.
Malena looked to Lilith, then the guy, raising an eyebrow.
The guy shrugged and shifted seats. “Well, I am always down for a chess match. Don’t worry, I’ll go easy.” He quickly pulled all the pieces back, then moved a pawn.
“Uh, okay,” Malena said, still surprised, then moved her own pawn in response.
“Ah. I take it you’ve played a few games before?” He asked.
“No, I just watched some of my family play.”
“So you memorized chess moves and the responses to them from observation. That’s pretty good… but it just means I have to try anything a little non-standard.” He moved another one of his pieces.
“Uh, thanks?” She looked around, then moved one of her pieces.
“Hmm. Strategist wise, Let’s say you were the leader of some troops. Bowmen, spearmen, and healers, and you were encircled by an enemy army. How would you respond?” He moved a piece.
“Well, being ganged up on is obviously bad, so just attack the weakest group or point in the circle and make a hole, right? Oh, of course, put the spearman out front, bowman right behind, and healers safely in the back.” She moved her piece.
“Mhmm. It’s about all you can do.” He scanned the board. “What, then, if your troops lost hope from being surrounded and seeing many of the spearmen fall?”
“That’s… scary. I guess I’d have to counter it somehow. Maybe inspire them.” She cleared her throat. “‘We can do this!’, ‘they’re weakening!’, stuff like that?” She shrugged.
“And who would you say that to?”
“Hmm, the, wait, no. Aren’t they all important? The healers keep others from dying. The bowmen take out long range targets and enemy bowmen. And the spearmen take out short range targets and keep the bowmen and healers safe. I guess it would depend on who looks the saddest? Or whether the spearmen or the bowmen were working more.”
“Pretty good. But a good speech can only inspire some to get back up. Others would rather lie down and be taken prisoner.”
Their match went on for a while with the guy discussing various strategies with Malena, many of which Lilith had a hard time following, until finally… “Checkmate,” the guy said.
Malena frowned. “You weren’t even trying.”
He laughed. “If I had a hard time against a child I’d have to check if I was losing it.”
Malena frowned even harder.
“But you’re actually pretty good. Right, that does make me think… if they dropped strategy from the curriculum entirely, that’s pretty bad. Did you have any B recommendations for your jobs?”
“Yeah, spy,” Malena almost spat out the word. “But what’s wrong with dropping strategy? Aren’t we at peace?”
“Spies but no strategists huh? Unless the qualifications are higher. That’s like annoying someone into fighting you and having no skills to defend yourself.” The guy frowned. “We’re at peace now, but that could change at any moment. Some raiders or an enemy nation could test our defenses, find them weak, and go on a full attack. Or a nation could break a treaty for whatever reason and attack.”
“I don’t know about that,” Malena said. “I don’t think people are that mean.”
Lilith frowned.
“Well,” the guy replied. “It’d be nice if they weren’t.”
“Actually,” Lilith spoke up. “I don’t think I told you the full story, but when I first came to Solis from Slimefrost, our caravan was attacked by bandits. We were going to just let them take stuff, but then they wanted to take me as a slave, so we had to fight. We barely got out alive, but knowing basic self defense really helped.”
“Oh, yeah, you said something like that before…” Malena said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Nah, it’s fine, I lived.” Lilith shrugged.
“Basic self defense huh?” The guy raised an eyebrow. “But yeah, that’s one scenario where you really want to be able to defend yourself. If you hadn’t been able to do that, I imagine things would’ve turned out a lot worse.”
Lilith shuddered at the thought.
“Well, wanna go for another match?” The guy asked Malena.
---
“That guy…” Malena seethed as she laid on her bed. “I couldn’t beat him once!”
Lilith looked over from where she was sitting on her bed, heating and forming a piece of iron in her magic. “You did beat him a few times though.”
“He let me beat him. And then he gave me that fake ‘oh wow, congratulations, you’re so good’ crap! He didn’t even try to lie well!”
“I thought it was a good lie though…” Lilith went back to shaping the iron.
“I, wait, so you knew it was a lie too?”
“Mmm… n, no?” Lilith turned away.
---
The next morning, it was time for the first day of school. It was the day where every student would select the jobs they’d be working towards. They could select a primary and secondary track, as well as a few elective classes.
Hundreds of kids were wandering around in a large hall with different tables and stalls lining the walls, and Malena already had a card labeled ‘politician’ on top of her test paper. But she was looking around for the words ‘strategist’ anywhere, and couldn’t find them. She was already more nervous and jumpy than usual because her favorite cat-girl had to stay all the way across the hall from her own job tracks.
“Oh hey, chess girl.”
Malena looked up to the source of the voice.
“Looking for the strategy track?” The guy asked.
Malena nodded. “I at least wanted to check it out after yesterday.”
“Yeah, I just confirmed they didn’t have one. You should go ahead and choose another job as a backup while I set things up. Nothing’s actually confirmed until tomorrow after all.”
“While you set up? Are you planning on teaching?”
The guy grinned. “Yeah. It’s been a while, but I think I’ve still got it.”
---
Lilith scanned the room for any enemy healers, dodging people left and right. Last time she brushed by the healer booth by accident, she could’ve sworn one of them tried to grab her. They were that desperate.
Luckily, she made it to the researcher’s booth and managed to talk to the guy sitting there.
“Oh, are you sure you want to pursue research? You’re rated A class in it, but S in healing.”
“No!” Lilith shook her head rapidly.
“No, see, it says right here.” He pointed to her sheet.
“No it doesn’t.”
“It clearly says it.”
One of the healers that must’ve been trailing her overheard the conversation and jumped in.
“Hey, come on,” the old lady said, grabbing Lilith’s wrist. “Don’t you want to heal people in need? You could save lives.”
“Nooooo!” Lilith tried to pull her hand back.
“Hey now,” the researcher said. “I get the feeling she doesn’t want to be a healer for some reason.”
The healer stopped just to deadpan at him.
“If she doesn’t want to be a healer, then she doesn’t want to be one. This hall was set up so students could choose what they wanted to study, not teachers. You should let her choose what she wants.” He turned to Lilith. “Why don’t you want to choose your S class over your A class though?”
“I don’t wanna work all day!” Lilith managed to pull her hand back as the healer let go. “I don’t care if the test says I’m better at healing. I want to research!”
The healer frowned. “There are people whose lives you could save. Isn’t that better than spending all your time in some dusty research lab?”
“Dusty?” The researcher frowned.
“No! I want to have time to spend with my friends!” Lilith said. “I don’t want to have to rush from patient to patient all the time!”
The healer’s frown grew. “But you’ll still be a better healer than a researcher. Becoming a researcher would be a bit of a waste.”
“I must agree there,” the researcher sighed.
“No!” Lilith shook her head again. “The test was wrong!”
Both teachers just stared at her, and several students around them were already rubbernecking.
“Slimes do lay eggs, they’re just small, calling them egglets is nonsense. And atoms aren’t the smallest things. And there were other questions about magic and the environment over here instead of Slimefrost, but I’ve only been here for a few months!”
“A few months huh?” The researcher nodded. “An eighty seven would be quite impressive after only a few months. What was that about atoms though?”
Lilith paled, remembering something Wispy said about paradigms. Would it be a good idea to act like she knew more than these guys? Maybe not… “Er, nothing.”
“Don’t be shy. I want to hear it.”
Hesitantly, Lilith spoke, “Atoms aren’t the smallest things. If you cut something like uh, iron, you’d eventually get to the smallest piece of iron. That part’s right. But then you could still cut it again. It just wouldn’t be iron after that.”
The researcher raised an eyebrow. “You’re speaking of alchemy? And how would you cut an atom?”
Lilith furrowed her brow, thinking. “Uuu. You can’t cut an atom with anything sharp. Even the sharpest knife’s edge would be at least an atom thick, so it’d just be like smacking your hands together.” She demonstrated, trying to ‘slice’ one hand with a knife-hand. “But what if you did it really, really fast?”
“How fast exactly?” The researcher leaned in.
“Hey,” the healer spoke up. “Why are you entertaining her after she talked about alchemy? She’ll clearly be better at healing.”
“Oh give it up already.” The researcher turned. “We’ve all had our curiosities as children, and I don’t think we should give up on our dreams for what’s optimal.” He turned back to Lilith. “Now, how fast would it have to be?”
Lilith thought, balling her fists and closing her eyes as she concentrated, before opening her eyes as she remembered something. “Oh, it depends on the atom! Bigger ones would be stuck in place, and would absorb most of the blow, and would be fragile and break apart! Smaller ones would just bounce away.”
“The size of the atom matters huh? I suppose there’s some logic to that.” He smiled. “Well, you’ve got some interesting ideas. If you want to prove them though, you’ll need an abundance of evidence. However, I would recommend against pursuing things like alchemy. No one’s been able to get that to work so it’s considered a dead end. I think we could guide your creativity to the right places though.” He handed her the card indicating that she should be let into the program.
“Thanks!” Lilith smiled, before stepping away and letting the next student choose a job.
The healer sighed and walked off.
Lilith now held her finger on the ‘adventurer’ job as she looked around. It didn’t take long to find the booth, run over, and slap her test results down on the booth counter.
“S class huh? Well, here you go.” The guy gave her another card.
---
After most of the students chose their tracks, the strategy guy spoke up loud enough to catch everyone’s attention. “I hereby announce the re-opening of the strategy track! None of you have strategy listed as an available class because it’s been removed, so you could have a hidden S class. The principal and I came to an agreement: in addition to using the old test rules to determine rank, I will evaluate your performance… in a mock war! Adventurers, rejoice! This will be a chance to show off your skills! Healers! There will be many bruises for you to heal! Mages! You’ll have the chance to practice some spells! And Politicians! You’ll get the chance to really lead people!”
“All you have to do is come by the lakeside field at Central Keystone Park at three PM, and we’ll see how well you do!”
With that said, he walked out the door.
---
A good mix of boys and girls showed up. Most of them were adventurers, but there were several healers, a few politicians, and a bunch of other types.
Lilith tugged at the strap she made and added around her hat so it wouldn’t fall off. It seemed like it would work well.
“Alright,” the strategy guy said, “I will be assigning you into different groups. If I point at you and say one, head to the left side of the field. If I say two, go to the right. One, two, one, two…”
The kids ran to the different groups one by one. Meanwhile, Lilith and a few other kids switched spots to choose their groups.
“One, one, two, two,” he switched up the counting.
“What? Hey!” Malena, Lilith, and several others complained at once.
“No complaining! You never know who you’ll face on the battlefield, so I won’t let you change places to make the game go your way!”
Grimacing, they both went to their separate sides.
Eventually, everyone was split evenly into the two groups, and the guy started explaining the rules.
“First off,” he yelled, “If you get hit by a weapon you can deem it an injury and no longer use your arms or legs, or lay down and exit the battle. If anyone catches you cheating and fighting after you got hit, we’ll be reporting that to the adventure instructors. Second, whichever side retreats, is subdued, or can no longer fight, loses. However! Any spells or attacks that actually injure someone are prohibited, along with any hits to the head or groin. Anyone that does those will be disqualified.”
“I will give you a few minutes to pick your weapons and organize yourselves as needed.” He pointed towards a large pile of wooden swords, bows with blunted arrows, wooden knives, spears, and other fake weapons.
As the kids all shuffled and asked each other their classes, Lilith ran up and tried out some of the different weapons. The bow was hard to pull back and she couldn’t aim right, and the spear was good for range, but it was hard to hold up fully. In the end, she just went with the knife, since it was by far the easiest to move around with.
She moved back to the main group with her knife, and just wandered around, eventually finding herself near the front since some other students tried to hide behind her.
Meanwhile, Malena ended up near the center of her group on the opposite side, yelling out commands for how they should all organize.
“And go!” The strategy instructor yelled, not waiting for either side to fully organize.
“M-- make a defensive line!” Malena yelled. “Surround their attackers!”
“Gooooo!” The commander on Lilith’s side yelled. “First attacker means first blow, so go forth and attack! Attack those weak points on the left and right!”
Lilith’s group charged while Malena’s formed a C shape.