Meyriv was mildly amused as he listened to Sanae practicing with the improvised whistle. She tricked me into training her.
He wondered how she would react when he showed her the full version of that practice routine: playing an actual instrument with magic alone.
While blindfolded.
At ten meters away.
Now, that had been challenging to master. Not to mention he first had to learn how to play each instrument normally before attempting it with magic.
He shook his head to banish his reminiscing.
What do we know of them?
They are based in that fortress. They have been abducting those with significant magical capacity. This is likely to…attempt some form of magical slavery?
That’s been tried before and rarely gets far. They’ll run into all sorts of interference and hostile aspects.
If it was as simple as rounding up a few gifted peasants and draining their power, every tyrant and warlord would be doing it.
Even if they have managed to mitigate some of the downsides, if their methods bear much similarity to historical schemes they will be simple to disrupt.
…Of course, if I’m completely wrong about what they’re doing it’d be foolish to try anything.
I wonder if the Lemnarch has something to do with it.
…Does Imperial territory still reach this far? It’s been a while since I last checked.
He waited until Sanae finished her practicing.
“Does the Lemnarch Empire still have a presence in these parts?”
She looked at him blankly. “The what?”
“The Lemnarch Empire.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment. “Lem…”She murmured under her breath
“Oh! You mean the empire that collapsed in my grandfather’s day?”
“Wait. How in the blazes could it collapse? The Lemnarch ruled it for centuries! You know, the immortal nigh-unto indestructible entity? That Lemnarch?”
“I think I read about something like that a while ago, but I haven’t heard anything recently.”
His mouth gaped like a fish out of water for a few seconds before he steadied himself.
He barely restrained himself from charging into town to find a historian and demand answers.
Half the reason he had seized power was to keep that thing’s suffocating shadow off his homeland…
“And it’s just…gone? No way. I need to find out what happened. ”
- - -
Rynisia expanded the roots of her garden across the ocean floor.
She needed more sources of power to keep the swamp contained. It could not grow past where she had barricaded, but it still steadily grew in strength by luring in birds to devour, as well as drawing strength from the trees within its borders.
She waited for a large ship to pass the closest stretch of coast. As she had hoped, it was a passenger ship, full of refugees from some sort of strife on the mainland.
My apologies. This is for your own good.
She constructed a ridge of sharp rocks directly in the ship’s path, barely under the water and almost invisible.
They crashed into the obstacle at full speed. The ship’s hull was critically damaged.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Shouts and screams followed as the crew tried in vain to guide the ship to shore. After a short while they gave up and began to ferry the passengers to shore in the two small dinghies.
The ship gradually began to sink.
Some of them may drown at this rate...That ship is so fragile! How did it even make it across the ocean?
She carefully added additional rocks under the ship to prop it up.
Finally, the last of the passengers was brought ashore. They quickly found the stone shelters she had prepared a short distance away.
How inexplicably fortunate! It’s as if someone made these just for you! She mused.
...If you think that’s good, just wait until you discover the unusually lush crops conveniently growing nearby.
As weeks passed, some of the shipwrecked people left for other places. As she had hoped, many decided to stay and settle.
Now, for phase two.
Years passed. The village was steadily growing.
She began to appear in the dreams of the village children. Their minds were easier for her to communicate with.
Yes, that’s right! Tell your family that if your father feeds magic to the stone trees, I will make all the crops grow stronger.
Enhancing the crops took very little energy. All she had to do was connect them to her garden. Insects and disease were themselves consumed.
- - -
One day, a young couple brought an infant to one of her trees.
The mother held out the child.
“Please, Patron! Save him. The midwife says he will die soon.”
She looked at the child. Its breathing was shallow.
She looked inside. Something was wrong with its heart.
The midwife was probably right...
I don’t know how to heal. Rynisia thought
She waited for them to give up, but they continued pleading.
What do they expect from me?!
The child was growing weaker. It probably wouldn’t last the day.
She reluctantly sent roots to gently swathe the child, taking it into the tree. She began to feed it a trickle of magic, providing sustenance.
She communicated with the mother:
I can perhaps preserve him for a time, but I am unable to heal him. Bring a healer as soon as you can.
Tears streamed down the mother’s face. Rynisia wasn’t sure if they were happy tears or not.
“I will, but it could take us years to earn enough to pay for someone to travel this far.”
Ask the others to contribute. I’m not sure how long I will be able to preserve the child.
They nodded and ran back to the town.
Rynisia sighed.
Why do people’s lives have to be so complicated and messy? This is why I prefer to interact with children.
Still...I couldn't just let the infant die. Poor thing.
Similar to me. I should have died, yet here I am.
Less than a month later, the child’s parents returned. They were accompanied by an older woman who Rynisia assumed must be a healer.
The healer looked at the tree in amazement. “I did not believe you. As stone, but alive.”
Rynisia brought the child out of the tree in front of the healer, who flinched and took a subconscious step back.
Recovering from her surprise, the woman reached out and took the child.
“Underdeveloped heart, lungs...” The healer murmured softly;
“How did a tree sustain a child?”
“It is not just a tree! It’s a manifestation of our patron spirit!” The mother insisted.
Rynisia didn’t respond. She didn’t know exactly how any of this worked.
The healer sat on a root of the tree, still holding the infant. An hour passed, then another.
She finally looked up, smiling wearily.
“I have done what I can. Whether or not it is sufficient depends on him.”
The mother took the child, tears of relief streaming down her face.
The father handed the healer a pouch of coins.
“The rest. As we agreed.”
The healer looked from the pouch and then to the tree.
She took the money and turned to leave.