> "And thus the Brave Sailors beheld their future in Scaura's arms.
>
> Theirs was the Lady's promise, that one day son and daughter would inherit their mother's land.
>
> That one day her blessings would guide them home, and pity the poor fools who defied it.
>
> And thus, as one, they rejoiced."
>
> --- Azure Tale
She stared down her enemy, limbs tense, mouth dry.
They faced each other in the dark, a single dim lamp to illuminate both. In that decrepit, stale room, the shadows lived and squirmed, their bodies dancing against the walls in mocking delight. She could hear their muffled laughter, echoing all around her, yet dared not distract herself for even an instant.
Carefully, she reached into the nearest casket with a nail, fumbling in for a few moments before finally hearing that signature stone knocking, then slowly dragged it out, making sure to avoid any sudden movements.
One glimpse down, as brief as her eyes allowed. She knew by heart what symbol she would see, but it payed to make sure. Her opponent imitated her, though surely she had no further tricks up her sleeve? Else, everything would be lost already.
And so, her preparations complete, she went on the offensive. As strong as the enemy was, she knew she would miss that opening, no matter how gaping! Had she not went out of her way to search for it beforehand, so would she.
Or, was that a set up? A trap, carefully laid knowing she would have no choice but to spring it?! She couldn't be sure, the master stroke having completely severed all other alternatives.
It was do or die, and she hadn't got this far to die.
Heart thundering inside her chest, she struck without hesitation. And her opponent, to her great relief, flinched at the noise, almost toppling back! This was it! just a little more, and she now could deliver the finishing blow, with-
Agare leaned forwards, said, "not a word," then leaned back.
"Aaaaaaaaah! C-come on!" Holly said. "I checked with you and everything! And y-you! Stop laughing!"
"Me?" Marquise said. "I'm quiet!"
"I can see your shoulders shaking!"
"Oh, Holly, you're just too sharp! But try not to have a little fun when you're taking the game this hard! Your frown, your little sulk, they're so cute, I thought you were going to explode!"
"You're probably thinking of Hoogwil, hillock." Agare said, then pointed. "That word doesn't exist."
"Oops, that's not what I put?" Holly gave it a check, just to be sure, and felt herself flush at discovering she had mixed her letters again! Worst was that she had scratched half this game's pieces herself, shouldn't she recognize her own handwriting?! Just a better look at the overturned box she had been keeping hers in, however, and there it was, the right piece shoved together with all the others she didn't know where to use.
They had been playing for nearly an hour now, and the score currently sat at 2-1 in her advantage. Marquise had told her to make the pieces and the short table they were playing on out of a bunch of pebbles and a knee height boulder respectively, according to her all to test Holly's strength and finesse. She hadn't minded, the rock wasn't that heavy and it was actually pretty fun to be allowed free reign on the design!
The coat of paint was all Swordlight, though, with what little they managed to scrounge out of the woods.
"I-is it m-my turn then, Lady Marquise?" Furfu, her opponent, said. "T-then I think I can put this here, r-right?"
"Nope! Sorry dear, we're out of letters and none of yours make words. How many do you still have, Holly?" Marquise asked.
"I have four, counting this one I just played!"
"Five for our Furfu. Guess we have a winner!"
"I won?!"
"I-I lost? I-I lost a-again?" Furfu said, shrinking into herself. "L-Lady Marquise, I swear, I s-swear I kept up with my studies day and night, that I-I reviewed my teachings thoroughly, I-I don't know how this happened but I p-promise it w-will be r-rectified in s-short or-"
"Wow, wow, easy there!" Marquise approached the now gently shivering Furfu, rubbing one of her shoulders. "It's alright! You didn't do bad at all! right, Holly?"
"Y-yeah!" Holly said. "You even beat me once Furfu, completely washed me! A-and this one was really close too, really tense!"
"D-didn't you s-start learning Awinian t-three weeks ago?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Then no it isn't f-fucking fine," Furfu whispered, void glaring holes into the table. "A-again and again and again, same m-mistake I shouldn't be able to commit once, with one f-fucking year of advantage over her, but I lost? No, no, you fucking idiot Furfu, l-letting others walk all over you again, k-knowing where that always e-ends, like you h-haven't touched a fucking b-book before, like you h-haven't heard about grammar in your entire fucking life, you c-can't do that, no, you have to do better, you have to be stronger, to win harder, to-"
"A-Agare, I think she's going to flip the table again."
"... Just please put the pieces away before we've to gather them all around the room, I will-"
"I'll take care of this, you and Holly go prepare for the next lesson, alright?"
"Uhm?" Holly wondered. "O-oh, that's right-"
"We're going."Agare said, already moving out. "Come, Holly, now."
"R-right now?! O-oh, I guess I am- uhm, alright, see you soon Marquise, s-sorry about everything Furfu!"
The only answer was a creak of leather gloves so loud it almost sounded like a squeal. She closed the door behind her and hurried after Agare.
----------------------------------------
Indeed, three weeks had passed since she arrived at Marquise's manor.
Three weeks of meeting Marquise's people, and learning they very much preferred to keep away from her. She had expected as much.
Three weeks where Cassia still refused to see her. This one stung, but she understood and tried to stay patient.
And most importantly, three weeks of having her perspective on the whole world flipped upside down, again and again.
The Marquise had taken the role of her tutor whenever she had free time, but mostly it was Agare who would spend a few hours teaching her, before growing tired enough to shut her down and leaving her to self-study. None of them were Elder Seneschal, but she could say they were doing a good job.
The world was so much larger than she had imagined! Galehold, however, was actually much smaller, just a fraction of the island they lived in, not even the largest of its nations!
Ivian history was just a part of her studies though. Most of her time was occupied by lessons on the Ivian Language.
Or Awinian, as both her teachers had been explicit in telling her to call in front of the manor's people, and outside too just to be safe. It was a strange language, with a whole different alphabet and pronunciations to the good old Yinian, yet she didn't find it too hard, if anything she had been speeding through it! Which, well, was not always a good thing.
Her favorite, however?
Will training.
And being out here, outside the manor's sterile walls with Agare and Marquise, feeling the sickly sweet smell of the jungle almost cloying her lungs, hearing the grass getting crushed beneath her toes, it always reminded her of why, even though the lessons themselves could be rather arcane.
"...What's it called again?"
"Gugly! It's a kind of Phantasm." That being, according to Marquise, living creatures like animals which could use "powers" in a way kind of perhaps similar to hers, to slightly paraphrase, "I've seen a couple of them out here this week, shouldn't take long to find another."
Today marked the first time Holly had ever seen her host not dressed in one of her beautiful, wild dresses, but closer to the Faceless in the mansion. Closer, but not exactly the same, she was pretty sure she had never seen any of the others wear something like that sleeveless tunic, colored a simple brown but with a cleavage that dipped as far as her diaphragm.
"... And you said they like to drink berries, right?" Holly asked.
"Don't focus on that thought!" Marquise said, tutting with a finger. "It's the start of their mating season, so most are looking for partners on the ground."
"Mating season..."
"Sorry?"
"N-nothing! I've been finding a lot of others bugs and worms, but nothing like you showed me."
It wasn't just the manor, the entire woodlands around it dulled her Will, the key difference being that at least out here it didn't feel completely useless. Still, it was hardly the highs she had achieved during- She shook her head, not wanting to think about that right now. Suffice to say, something here kept her from doing her best.
Her arms-that-weren't-arms felt sluggish and imprecise, but unfortunately she had never managed to put that cat back into its bag. She could curl it around her in a loose, enormous snake-ball of limbs, though never come close to concealing them again. For better or for worse her phantom members were there to stay.
A couple weeks of practice had helped a lot. In this short while, she had learned there was a strong difference in sensation from the soil to the things living above it, and that the things that were tangible to her Will didn't always match the things that were tangible to her body, even if one affected the other; in that process, very much like learning to swim through mud, she had also relearned how to search for things, and how to feel for danger.
And how to understand you were being felt for. Something Will like but not quite, hazier and "softer" then hers, brushed against one of her Will Arms combing through the layers of natural litter, making both flinch.
"There!"
Her Will converged at the spot, surrounding the poor thing trying to escape in vain. Muffled or not, once her Will had attached itself, it woudn't-
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Ouch!" she cried.
"What's that?" Marquise said.
"It's stinging me!"
Another harsh lesson she shouldn't ever forget is that others could very much hurt her through her Will. She wasn't too sure on the mechanics of that, admittedly much owned to the fact she wasn't too willing to hurt herself to test.
Stinging Will or not, her net was cast.
For all their differences, the Hollows and this place weren't that dissimilar. Trees could grow to twenty times her height, and the foliage could become so dense some places were shrouded in perpetual shade. Here, at this time of day, as the shadows of the mountains crept over them, night fell before the sun could.
Some fifteen paces away from them, at the bottom of an ankle deep fissure covered in small flowers, light began to shift. It was not exactly a physical process, no, more like circumstance conspiring to highlight the hidden critter, with the aid of a slight unknowable something contrasting its greens against those of the covering stems and saplings.
It was roughly the size of Marquise's palm, its absurdly spiny body so thin it was almost as if built out of sticks or stalks. Its antennae were longer than its body, its tarsi so large they would be quite frightening on something bigger, and its huge eyes never left her, even as it quietly slinked off out of its hole.
"Yup! That's the one for sure!" Marquise clapped her hands softly. "You're getting really good at this Holly, think you can try that thing we started practicing yesterday?"
"Y-you mean fine tuning?" More specifically, Marquise had wanted her to make it so only Holly and nobody else could notice her ability activating. "I-I don't think so, no, and I don't think we have the time to try right now."
"... Guess so. Little guy is really eager to get away, right? Sure thing then, go get 'em girl!"
Marquise patted her back, and Holly nodded. Eyes fixed on her target, Will honed until its image was clear as day, she lowered herself, listened to the crunch of damp soil and moss under her hardskin with barely restrained anticipation, tensing her limps taught, ready to pou-
"Buuuuuuut, not like that!"
"Buh?!" Holly skidded on a pile of rotting leaves, and the Gugly booked it.
"Two legs, Holly, Two legs!" Marquise said.
"N-now?! I'm faster on all fo-"
"Oh? We have time to argue?"
"Aaaaaaw, fine!" Holly sighed, standing up and running, "If I lose it it's your fault!"
"It's for a good cause!" Marquise yelled, voice growing distant, "You gotta keep them healthy and exercised! Remember, healthy and exercised!"
As if she hadn't already fully healed!
Didn't matter. The chase was on.
And soon she completely forgot her frustrations.
She could feel them blowing, brushing against her skin, the hot and humid breeze under the forest's canopy, gliding strands of old webbing, leaves new and old, flower puffs, dew gathered from the morning's mist! Burrowleeches and mites lost in low hanging branches jumping her way, failed nettles scraping past her flanks without purchase, the sensation of fungi bursting into clouds of spores under her feet, all the dangers of yesteryear welcome now. Decades gone now brought back, when she could finally run like-
No, not like she used to, like she dreamed to when playing with her sisters, imagining herself spreading wings and taking flight! And fly she did: over stout rocks she would have had to run around, up cascading manes of roots and small cliffs that could shelter a man, through thorn ridden bushes and hair filled urticaries, untouched and without breaking stride, nobody to ambush her on the way home!
Agare, who was quietly dashing in the corner of her eyes and would not hesitate to stop her if she got too far from the mansion, excepted, but he got a pass as he had never tried hurting her.
And the Gugly, for all it tried to escape, to flee into the safety of root networks and long abandoned vermin burrows, was no match for her. It was fast, yes, absurdly fast for such a diminutive creature, but even on two legs all it took was getting serious and she almost overshot it in five long strides, shocking the poor bug into charging several different directions before settling into one, too late.
Now came the hard part.
She had to catch it alive, the Marquise had requested as much, but she also didn't fancy needlessly hurting something she was told not to eat, something she wasn't sure she could accomplish thanks to how clumsy her hard-skin made her feel.
She would have to try anyway.
And so, judging the distance right, she pounced, hand outstretched but nails curled back.
So close she was a blink of an eye away from snatching it, her shadow passed over its head.
In a move of blinding dexterity, the Gugly flipped itself back, dashing in the complete opposite direction!
...Where her other hand was already waiting, caging it against the soil before she raised it into the air.
"Ha! Do you think this is my first time bug hunting?! Good try, I knew you-"
Her hand reached eye-level just in time for her to see the little bastard scurry down her arm.
And so began the struggle to catch it again, this time as it ran circles around her body. Back and front, up and down her limbs, never jumping off to safety but always evading her grasp by a sliver! How could something so barbed be so slippery?!
Its journey through her body ended as she felt its tarsi right below her chin. Almost slapping it, sending it running towards the crown of her head, a sudden impulse overcame her, and so before it had the opportunity to scamper elsewhere, one of her hairs came from right below and wrapped itself around its thorax!
And... that was it?
She could feel it wriggle against her skin, and almost couldn't believe what she had done. She won! Not that it was ever in doubt that she would, but it had been so simple! All she had to do was reach around with one of her hairs and-
Holly froze.
Her grip slackened. The Gugly lost no time in freeing itself.
She felt its final efforts, crossing down to her shoulder then the small of her back in the split of a second.
Then it disappeared.
The shock of what she had just done caught up with her. Gasping, she turned around, only to find Agare stepping back, the critter firmly pinched between his fingers.
She stared at him, speechless. She almost couldn't believe the sight, as if she had lost herself inside a dream and mixed it too deeply with reality, until Agare shifted.
"You've done well." Agare said, sounding a little thoughtful, "The Marquise will be pleased. Now, come."
"W-why?"
"Because you've accomplished the objective." Agare said, "Your movements are still clumsy and maladjusted, yet they show significant improvement over the weeks. You have proved your Will can keep up during activities without outside interference, and you that you can use it without losing control."
"A-ah. That was the reason, then?"
"In part. Now come, we shouldn't be tardy."
She nodded, a little nonplussed at the intrusion, and other things. Shrugging it off, she decided to simply enjoy the rest of her lesson without thinking too deeply about it.
----------------------------------------
Indeed, three weeks had passed since she arrived at Marquise's manor.
Three she had spent learning more about her body than she ever had years down in her room.
Three weeks she had spent trying to piece together what Will even was, with no results.
And very importantly, three weeks of coming to know the limitations of this wondrous new aspect of her life.
The evening had come, and after a light dinner of meat, meat, and meat, she had retired with Agare back to her room, planning to read until the next morning since she had a lot of books to catch up on, but a couple hours later she had done everything but.
It was a difficult situation. She didn't want to neglect something that suddenly felt so fundamental to her being though she had not even been aware of its presence through most of her life, yet thinking too much about it made her uneasy in a way she couldn't easily describe, adding to a pile of wordless phenomena that was starting to annoy her just a tiny bit.
For example, the reason she couldn't fine-tune her Will anymore, either activate full power or none at all. And it was so frustrating the way she could remember doing it too! After a few hours thinking it through, she had arrived at an explanation she was half satisfied with.
"It's like learning to take a punch!" She had told Marquise and Agare that morning. "There's this state in the middle of things that it really doesn't want to be in!"
"The way you generally describe your 'Will', I thought it might be more like bending your arm too far?" Marquise said, demonstrating with her own, "Some people can bend theirs to some freaky ass angles, but even they have limits, and eventually the body will tell you to stop and go back."
"No! Look!" Holly said, doing her own, "It's the wrong kind of wrong! It's not like a 'no, no, slow down, go back,' it's like... like a flinch! Like instinct kicking off and trying to get you out of the situation! I think I can master it though."
"Wow, that's quite the range of motion you have... S-sorry, why specifically learning to take a punch?"
"I mean, there are other similar things I guess, but this is the one that came the quickest to mind."
"Got punched too often?" Marquise had said.
"You bet!" Holly had replied. "How could I have become the strongest kid in Lesser Hollow without some scuffles?"
"Oh yeah?"
Marquise was fast. So, so fast...
At least she didn't actually hit Holly at all, and even apologized for the nasty joke, but the shame taught her to think twice before mouthing off ever again.
Others had no such convenient equivalences.
The Marquise had heavily implied, or all but said really, that she might be able to do the opposite, that is, make things harder to perceive with her Will. Was that related to her poor ability to somewhat change colors? The way Marquise reacted suggested not (thought, at least it got her called cute).
She also-
"Holly!"
Holly, deep in introspection, endlessly tapping at the book before her, "The Sun Invasion", without ever having turned it to the first page, jumped window high before catching herself.
"A-A-Agare?!" Holly said, peering over the glowing rock filled lamp she had been lent to look at the only other person in the room, who had spent the last few hours silently leaning against the far wall.
"Do you really not mind that the Marquise is using you?" he said, unmoving at his corner of the room.
"Uhm?" Holly said, heart slowing down as she came to understand the question.
He rose his head, and she knew he was staring her in the eye. "Don't pretend you don't notice. Even you can't be naive enough to not know better."
"H-hey, I'm not naive! I'm not the smartest, but..." Holly said, but shook her head. She decided to go for simple honesty, "And no! I don't mind!"
"Shouldn't you?"
"Why?"
"Most in your situation would be. Few are the people who can accept serving another's ambitions, specially when made to in such an underhanded way."
"E-even so, if it wasn't for her generosity, where would I be?"
"Dead."
"W-well, s-see?!" Holly said, shivering just a little at the bluntness. "I-if she wants to put me to good use, I don't really mind! I mean, I'm getting a lot out of this too, look! This is a book, a proper history book, and I can read it in front of anyone, at any time! E-Elder Seneschal would give me such a scolding if he saw..."
"Aren't you worried about your sister?"
She froze.
"Marquise might have lied to you." Agare said. "Your sister might be rotting under your village's ashes, and you would never be the wiser."
She gulped, feeling her hairs swiping behind her head. "W-why are you asking me that?"
"Are you not among strangers Holly? Has nobody ever taught you not to trust every hand extended your way? Aren't you afraid we might only be milking you for all you're worth, and planning to discard you as soon as you can't keep up? Your misstep today could have been your last."
Holly stopped.
There were a lot of different answers she wanted to give. Angry, spiteful answers, as well as terrified ones, bitter ones, but something stopped her. This wasn't it, that was not what she was being asked for.
And so, she arrived at simple honesty again.
"Agare, if you were, what could I do about it?" she said.
"...Explain."
This time, she was the one to stare Agare down. She had to admit though, it was hard. Agare had this way to him that made her think a face wouldn't have made it a bit easier to decipher his intentions. Still, she knew she had to keep talking, so she fought through the knot forming in her throat.
"I-I don't want to think about it, b-but if Cassia was actually dead and Marquise had been lying about it, w-what could I do about it? where could I go? I don't have anyone to cry to, to h-help me, you guys are the only ones who even know I exist!"
"...So that's it? You don't have other options?"
She shivered, suddenly cold to her stomach, "N-no, that's not what I meant! I-I like the Marquise, she did so much for me... D-do you think I ever imagined I was going to live in an actual house ever again?! Specially one this big! That I was actually going to eat enough food to feel full, to meet so many people I had never thought possible, a-and, and- Aaaaah! What I'm trying to say is that I'm glad to be here! In fact, I wouldn't mind if she used me a little harder!"
Hard not to blush after saying all that.
Agare didn't answer, but she could feel his attention boring holes through her. Had he not been convinced? Did he think there was something else there? Well, that was all he would get!
After a minute or two, she felt him look away, and couldn't help but visibly relax.
"Haaaaaauuuuuuh..."
She jumped, "W-wait, what did you just-?!"
"She's alive." he said.
"What?"
"Your Cassia is alive. I have seen her with my own two-"Agare said, stopped, then murmured under his breath. "Fucking Marquise, what are you doing to me..." Then louder. "I've seen your sister, I've seen her speak of you. She's alive, and here."
"R-really?"
"What did I tell you about blindly trusting strangers?"
"D-did you or did you not?!"
"I did, I'm just making a point," Agare said, turning away towards the door, "I'm sending in Furfu. Remember to not open this door until I return, even if you hear something happening outside."
"Wait, I though the Marquise didn't let you leave me alone?"
"She gave me special permission during certain occasions."
"Such as?"
"You don't need to know." Agare looked at her one final time from the other side of the door, the hallway's dim lighting not much better than her room's, "I will be back soon."
And that was that. Agare left without another word, and she was left with her thoughts. Furfu was probably still a tad mad from that morning, so she would be taking her time to come, and until then Holly would have all the time in the world to ponder these new and horrifying ideas Agare had left her with.
Except, not even at the tip of a blade she would!
And so, even though she wasn't too keen on it, she finally flipped the first page of the blasphemy she had requested, and started reading.