Chapter Forty-One

The journey to the mountain either didn’t take as long as I expected, or it was just more pleasant. The weather stayed warm and the breeze comfortable against my ears. Having tails was a strange thing, having the set of ears on my head was equally odd, but as the next few days passed and the mountain grew larger, I was adjusting to what it was like in this world, and what it was like being in this body.

But what was really strange?

I felt ‘right’ as I was, it was harder getting used to being a kitsune than it was getting used to being a woman. I guess that ‘machine’ whatever it was, really knew what it was doing.

And of course, each night, I was learning more about magic.

Loysa was proving an adept and vigorous teacher.

“Again!” She said and pointed to a rock I’d already hit a dozen times with a simple fireball spell.

I held out my hand while Tess watched and Dwarguy worked on his mech, the smell of oil, grease, and sweat hung around him as he ‘tuned’ his equipment.

“Fire-ball!” I shouted and a small fireball, about the size of a baseball, formed in front of my hand and shot toward the target. It didn’t go any faster than I could have thrown a regular ball, but at least I was no longer winding up to ‘pitch’.

“Magic isn’t physical, the mana within you responds in part to your expectation, as long as you limit yourself to the normal limits of the body, you will fail to progress.” Loysa said from where she sat on an old log.

She had to yank me away from staring at the three moons and the many stars in the sky. This world, it didn’t yet have the pollution of the one I was born in, so everything was so clear, so startlingly bright… even for magic lessons, it was hard to tear myself away from it.

“Is it supposed to be this easy though?” I asked.

“Ice.” She gave the order, and then as I began to send shards of ice toward the blackened surface of a boulder, she replied firmly, “Not usually, no.”

My ice shattered like glass against the stone, and I casually checked to see how much mana I had remaining. “Sometimes,” Loysa added, “there are prodigies; it's easy across an entire school of magic. But this?” She shrugged, “It’s just basic general first tier magic that anyone can use,” she looked toward Tess who pointedly looked away from her and started whistling, “if they have a deity’s guidance,” she looked toward me again, “for anyone else, good luck. But you’re also a kitsune, so this is even easier. Depending on how you focus your efforts, you could become reasonably proficient across multiple schools, or focus intently on one.”

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“And generalists are more useful?” I said, recalling a previous conversation.

“Mostly, yes. So I would suggest learning as much as possible and picking spells carefully according to the talents of whatever team you have long term, this is also why teams form for years. They build their skills to complement one another, and when that falls apart-” Loysa’s face turned dark.

She didn’t need to finish.

She could feel Dwarguy’s eyes on the back of her head.

I couldn’t say anything. How could I? What right did I have to try to make some peace between them? Dwarguy would never get those legs back, nothing she could say would change that. She put a dead man before a living comrade, her feelings for Gilrain got in the way, and now things were how they were.

If this were an anime or something, I could say a few pretty words, convince him to forgive her, convince her to forgive herself, and they’d be friends again like old times.

‘I wish this was an anime.’ I thought, and my ice blasted against the boulder hard enough that the rock finally cracked.

“We should be there tomorrow.” Tess brought up, “If we go to sleep now and get up early, we can get there while the sun is still out and the undead are a little bit weaker. You know, just in case?” She pointed out.

Loysa caught my eye.

“That’s a good idea.” I said, making the judgment call that was expected of me. “Get some sleep everybody. We’ll get going as early as possible. Dwarguy, set out the ‘deterrent’.”

“Aye, but ye know,” he looked toward the mountain, “this close to a mountain full of the undead, it might be a good idea ta set a watch. Less’n ye happen ta like gett’n yer ass eaten.”

I laughed. I threw back my head and laughed.

The other three looked at me with cocked heads, clearly not understanding the meaning.

“Never mind. That means something very different back home. I’ll take the first watch, I’m a little too green to take the middle shifts, you know?” I had a little smile on my face as I tried to keep from further laughter. “Tess, you take the last shift. Loysa, take the one after me. Dwarguy, after her, but keep the mech out while you sleep, just in case every second counts.”

“Sure thing!” Tess flopped herself down on her bedroll and was snoring in seconds. Her oddities aside, it was hard for me to not like someone who was so passionate about what she did. ‘Having someone around making potential accidental nukes would be a problem, but knowing they exist and not knowing where they are is probably worse.’ I shivered to think of what she’d ‘accidentally’ done with what was basically a gacha gun of gods alone knew what kind of destructive force.

I still hadn’t decided if I should even explain what she’d actually done. But at least asleep, I didn’t have to worry about that.

“Aye lass, that’s good thinkin.” Dwarguy gave me an approving nod and unrolled his bedroll beneath his now stationary mech. He, too, was asleep nearly instantly. That seemed to be a thing about adventurers. They could fall asleep nearly immediately. It made me feel thoroughly green that I still couldn’t do that.

“You’re getting there.” Loysa said while she lay down, as if she knew I needed to hear that. And you know what? I won’t pretend I wasn’t proud to hear her say it.

I wasn’t asleep instantly. But at least it didn’t take that long.