Chapter 10 — Trialing the Valgorian Swamp (Part II)
Ria quickly powered her armor’s enchantment and empowered Ranger. Body Strengthening and Sensing Sphere spells were next and just barely finished in time.
The moment the countdown reached zero and flashed green, she ran.
Half-rotted planks of wood crunched under the metal of her boots, and a sequence of pluushes announced the Lurker tentacles whipping out from under the water as they had done with each teammate that had gone before her. Ria pushed even harder, but-
The attacks weren’t going to miss. She wasn’t fast enough.
An unwelcome memory of the voidstone hurtling toward her lurked in her mind, bringing with it a deep need to overcome, to triumph over her failure.
This time she would dodge!
Slow! she willed.
The sharp, armored tips of the tentacles visibly slowed as she focused, but she still couldn’t move fast enough.
Move!
If she couldn’t move out of the way, then she would have to knock them aside! Or knock herself aside…
The flat of her hand arced to impact the first barbed tentacle, altering its direction away from herself and Ranger and pushing herself upward as she used her bow to knock aside a second and twisted and leapt off a third.
Katria didn’t just run, didn’t just dodge, the twin-tail girl used the pressure and lack-of-pressure formed in the air to move herself faster. Like Orlisi had mentioned about Katria’s magic that tore apart any enemy, couldn’t air magic also do the same or at least similar enough? Air magic was one of the first magics Ria had learned, and her control with the element was good even if it was opposite her affinities.
Ria was already gathering the flow of air to herself and shifting her body enough to kick off another tentacle and spin out of the way of a fifth that would miss Ranger.
Beside her, a nimble Ranger smacked down a tentacle from his side of the now churning water and finished pushing energy into a spell matrix. The spell bloomed into existence: Wall of Stone!
When did he learn that one?
Thin ramparts of stone erupted up from the muddy shallows to either side of the wood planks-
Thunk, thunk, crunch.
-just in time to protect them as more barbed tentacles launched out from his side of the water.
They could do this!
With better protection in place, Ria switched to forming Rockshot spells before even touching back down to the planks, aiming at where each tentacle was coming from: the densest energy sources in the nearby water.
Rockshot. Rockshot. Rockshot.
By the time she was preparing her fourth Rockshot, her kill count had increased by 2 and her score by 200, but darkness was encroaching on her vision as it had when she was poisoned by the assassin.
Ria couldn’t believe it!
Had knocking the barb aside with her hand poisoned her?!
New tentacles whipping out at her—eight this time!—from both sides forced her to set the worry aside. She hastily spread out her aura to further slow the tentacles and push them downward before they could reach.
Push! Down!
Suddenly weighed down by her magic, the tentacles fell short, ineffectually crashing into the mud and Ranger’s short stone ramparts.
It was working! She should have used her domain magic from the start!
Rockshot! Rockshot! Rock-
Ria stumbled to a knee and heard Ranger bark out in concern. Frustration flowed freely as poison defeated her again, and the darkness claimed her.
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“Iselyn, you are next.”
Ria groaned and rubbed her aching head as awareness of the world returned, and with it, a bitterness that she had failed to even pass the first encounter of the challenge.
Points: 500 (5 Kills)
Penalties: 0
Completion time: Failed
She couldn’t help the doubts that assailed her. Another failure just like at the debut!
“Aw, don’t feel bad about it, Ria. There’s still time for you to get another try,” Orlisi comforted, tucking Ria’s long hair behind an ear with elfinly delicate fingers while helping her sit up, then added with a teasing smirk, “Since your run ended so quickly.”
Ugh. Talien was smirking too. His expression of triumph irked in ways she hadn’t felt since competing with her brothers. At least it was mostly curious and amused gazes directed her way, except for one—Aldri was pushing past the others with fury on his face for some reason.
“No, don’t baby her like that, Orlisi!” Aldri snapped. “You all don’t know just how dangerous what she did was!”
“Uh, aren’t you overreacting, Aldri?” Rialle spoke up with a raised eyebrow. Ix chittered with sinister agreement.
Katria rolled her eyes at the imp’s wishing for an accident of some kind. “Yeah, what’s the big concern? We’re using the full arena protections, even the collars and bracelets.”
“Time magic! She used time magic focused inside her head!” Aldri barked out at the others and rounded back to yell at his primary target, “You did, didn’t you, Ria?”
“Time magic?” Ria blinked. Wasn’t her domain just slowing things around her? Was that really time magic? An excitement began to boil up in her. Her affinity did contain an aspect of time—the weight of ages. Could she…? “Does that mean instead of slowing things, I can rewind time?”
Aldri made a strangled sound like he wanted to pull his hair out.
“So, it was time energy?” Hulle glanced away from Iselyn’s progress through the challenge to glance at Aldri and Ria, an eyebrow raised. “Hmm, I was optimistic that she had found a solution to her slow casting…”
“This is not a solution! It’s far too dangerous!”
“Woof?” Ranger asked with concern.
“You’ve said that already, Aldri,” Rialle challenged, unimpressed. “Surely, you can explain better than that.”
“Time magic is extremely dangerous, especially if the boundary of the magic only includes part of a person or object!” Seeing that his audience still didn’t understand, the upset redhead dramatically flailed an arm and added, “What do you think happens if you move an arm when half of it is inside a bubble where time is moving faster? The difference in speed will cause the bone to snap in half at the boundary! You risked that with the mush you call a brain!”
Ria gulped. That certainly didn’t sound safe, but… “Didn’t you slow the explosions during your matches, Aldri?”
“That’s different! That was spatial magic! It only appears slower because I was expanding space and making the explosions have to travel further to cover the same distance!”
Yep. Totally makes sense. Totally. Ria rolled her eyes at the alchemist boy. What does it even mean to travel further when it’s the same distance!
But…
Time magic.
…could she go back and change what happened? Could she still save all those people that died because of her—save Ellen?
Could the answers be in the in-between space that took her to the dragon-tree? Could she send her astral self back with her knowledge of the future?
“Are you even listening?!” Aldri snapped at her.
“Can I go back? Can I change what happened? Is it possible, if I get strong enough?” Ria asked, her voice sounding almost desperate even to her own ears.
Her heart strained all over again as her question brought awkward silence and complicated gazes.
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Orlisi gave her a tight hug. “Ria, there are things even beyond the gods’ ability to change.”
Aldri’s shoulder sagged in defeat. “In a localized area, for a brief period of time. The larger the changes and the more fates to be changed, the more the magic will be resisted by the fabric of the world. Maybe a master mage with a large well of energy at his disposal could reverse a few minutes at best.”
It had been over a week. Ria’s stomach dropped. Mad at herself for lettering the whisper of hope sweep her away into dangerous thoughts, she blinked back the threatening tears.
“There is a cautionary legend of an elf who succeeded like Aldri says,” Orlisi spoke up, leaning back from the hug to look Ria in the eyes. “A powerful and feared elf who would stare at his victim and release a burst of time energy, after which the victim would turn pale and collapse to his or her knees. It was eventually discovered that the elven master was killing the person then rewinding time. When the two realities coalesced into a single timeline, the soul would still remember the violent death, which caused tremendous soul damage and gave the victim what felt like a vague memory and premonition of death.”
Again, Ria gulped. Terrifying!
Orlisi continued, “The ethics of Master Thovysei’s acts were debated as to whether he had really killed the victims if he rewound time. In the end, he was deemed too dangerous to leave alive and killed. The legend is passed down as a warning of the depravity that elves can fall to when the shackles of consequence have been removed in the mind of the perpetrator.”
Ria slowly nodded. She understood what Orlisi was trying to tell her, but…
If she could rewind a fatal blow on herself or others—even just slowing down events around her—wasn’t such magic too useful to abandon even if there were dangers? And if there was something unique about her that would let her send her astral self and memories back in time, could she live with herself if she didn’t at least investigate the possibility?
Aldri pressed his lips together in a grim line and reluctantly offered, “If you’re serious about using time magic, I’ve heard that Researcher Erithon did a fair amount of work on using time magic for accelerating perception and physical action.”
“Tallien, can Ria’s time magic be made safe in time for the regional competition?” Hulle asked.
Wide-eyed, Ria’s gaze jerked to her diminutive mentor in surprise and back to Aldri.
Aldri ran a hand through his hair and let out a long breath. “If she can make the boundary include her entire body in a way that is localized and not spatially targeted… could be possible.”
Hulle nodded and looked to Welkin.
“Let’s investigate the feasibility,” Welkin decided. “Aldri, set aside some time to help Ria with this.”
Aldri nodded his acceptance. “Even if just for reasons of safety, that’s probably for the best.”
“Thanks, Aldri.” Ria dipped forward in gratitude. She had already been wanting to get Aldri to tutor her, so this was helpful. Hopefully, Keira wouldn’t mind too much.
Hulle turned to face Ria, a faint lift to his lips. “So, Ria, as intriguing as your foray into time magic is, you had previously mentioned adding a dragon familiar. Is that still planned?”
“Dragon?!” Zell choked, turning back sharply from watching Iselyn's run. “Dabbling in time magic isn’t enough?”
Orlisi laughed, the elf girl had already returned to her feet and was helping Ria do the same. “Oh? You knew about that, Hulle?”
Hulle adjusted his glasses. “It came up during the evaluation of Ria’s bond with Ranger.”
“Wait… there’s a dragon available in the city?” Tallien asked, his smugness wiped away in an instant.
Katria had a grin as she joined in, “How big a dragon are we talking here?”
Ugh. Why was Hulle bringing this up now? Was he trying to warn her she needed to prioritize?
Ria raised her hands in denial. “Ah… I’m… still a little short on funds and there’s Shadwich’s approval…”
“You prioritized that armor over getting a dragon familiar?” Rialle asked, disbelief slackening her face.
“Woof!”
Ria facepalmed. Of course, Ranger would defend her by arguing the armor looked cool…
Endriese glanced back and made a disapproving face.
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh! What are you doing, Hulle!?
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Wrung out from the effort and with mixed feelings about her performance, Ria walked beside Orlisi and Ranger on their way to the academy’s market square, her hair done up and dressed in her best dress—the yellow and gold one. Orlisi had been conservative with her hair this time, using a complicated half braid, a gold hairpin, and only a single flower that accented her dress.
Lost in thought, Ria let out a long breath. Her second attempt at the Hunter’s Challenge had gone much better, and she came close to beating Tallien’s score. Iselyn and Orlisi still beat both of them though. At least, she managed to do better than Zell and Aldri.
Really, the more she thought over the second try, the more she decided there was a lot to be pleased about. Using up expensive arrows for practice was painful, but the arena’s magic returned them when it returned her to the starting area—meaning that: as long as the crystal didn’t damage on impact or the discharge, she would be able to recharge and reuse the arrows. And, with her new crystal magic, repairing the ones that only cracked was simple enough.
Still, it would be better if she could conjure the needed arrows.
Other positives were that she proved her strategy was feasible, and Ulren’s advice to use thinner and lighter rockshots did seem helpful. Just as he said, the increase in flight speed due to the size reduction actually increased their penetration on impact. Ensuring single-shot kills did take more accuracy, but that was something she could improve with practice.
Taking down the huge guardian had been both terrifying and fun. She had never fought anything that large before and had been stunned at what she could already do with her magic and martial arts now.
The next practice would be for the Spy event, so she would have a week to refine her strategy and craft or purchase any equipment she would need before her next attempt at the Hunter’s Challenge. She still wanted Aldri to teach her spatial magic which would undoubtedly help with the Spy event, but now Aldri was supposed to work with her on time magic instead…
“Ah-! I almost forgot.” Orlisi smacked fist to palm, and with an embarrassed expression and a flourish, a sealed letter appeared in the girl’s hand. “I meant to give this to you earlier, but with the way things turned out, it’s a bit awkward…”
Ria received the letter, turning it over to see her new name artfully inked on the crisply folded paper. Confused and curious, Ria broke open the seal.
> Junior Martial Sister Celestria,
>
> As a friend and fellow disciple of Yurren martial arts, you are cordially invited to attend an award ceremony at Vesali Castle’s audience hall this Divinesday. The event is to honor my and my grandfather’s actions the night of the Spring Moon Festival.
>
> I would be grateful if you would attend. Don’t worry about needing proper attire. I will have something prepared. It will be a surprise!
>
> Your Senior Sister in Yurren martial arts,
> Orlisi Yurren of the Nurturing Tempest
A small but fancy invitation card fell out of the unfolded letter into Ria’s hand.
“You’re getting an award?” Ria blurted, stopping to stare in disbelief at the elf. “You abandoned us!”
Rage and incredulity flared up inside, and she couldn’t help it coloring her voice.
“Woof…?” Ranger inquired, surprised by the sudden anger flooding the bond without context.
“It’s not like Gramps and I did nothing, you know,” Orlisi pouted, looking hurt by the accusation but also not meeting Ria’s eyes. “We positioned ourselves outside and snuck through one of those portals to take out their staging location. Though it was a bit more complicated than that due to needing a special barrier key to escape the estate’s teleport restriction. Thankfully, I divined the complication and negotiated a pair of guard rings from the butler ahead of time. Besides, it’s not just me and Gramps, Zena and others are also being honored.”
The butler, Albarth…
For some reason, Ria’s mind went to a scene where she saw Hulle talking with Albarth during the evening event. But that wasn’t what was important. Rather… “If the estate was warded against teleportation, how did the assassins open portals in the first place?”
Orlisi nodded in agreement with Ria’s suspicion. “The enemy had agents on the inside with portal generators designed for infiltrating estate barriers, but that’s not what was odd though. Even with portal generators in use, the Novidus’ estate barrier was able to block use of the portals to escape. The Novidus must have suspected the Revanti attack and made preparations in advance to set up a trap for them. I’m sorry about what happened. I thought… if I could get to the people after you—the ones hiding behind the scenes—that they wouldn’t be able to threaten you anymore… or at least for a while, anyway.”
The remorse Orlisi showed was to the extent that the girl’s elfin ears seemed to be drooping.
High Priestess Elora’s advice echoed in Ria’s thoughts, ‘Know that the friendship of an elf is a valuable thing that should be treasured—particularly for those loved by magic and destined to live a long life.’
“It’s fine, Orlisi. I’ll go,” Ria decided with a sigh and stored the invitation in her vault. “The Revanti attackers were doing something to mess with the flow of fate. It’s not your fault the divination was inaccurate. Just… next time I am to be in danger, tell me ahead of time, okay?”
Orlisi looked as if she would argue something but pressed her lips into a line and nodded.
They were starting to attract attention from others heading to the garden-like market that was just ahead, so Ria resumed walking and Orlisi took the hint to return to leading the way. Ranger was still confused by the exchange but took up his position alongside without prompting. Realistically, avoiding attention was impossible with a Gryphon Knight following a short distance behind them, but there was no sense in making Knight Arella’s job more difficult.
The market was a campus feature managed by House Astacio’s Hall of Commerce where current and graduated students could offer services and goods and was something Ria wanted to take her time to experience, but as her eyes scanned over the colorful storefronts, stalls, and tents, she couldn’t help her thoughts returning to what Orlisi had said.
Even if Orlisi had her best interest at heart—even in keeping knowledge of the approaching danger from her—that didn’t change the fact that Lady Asara, at the least, had foreknowledge of the threat and had used her as bait.
But, it still seemed excessive. Such a number of spies had to have been infiltrated into place over a long period of time. Why the sudden need to eradicate them now? Just because her presence provided a convenient opportunity? That didn’t seem enough. Why put so many important people at risk?
Unless immediate escalation to war was necessary to achieve some goal, why the hurry? Why risk so much? Wouldn’t it be better to feed the spies useful misdirection? Or was that something that only happened in fanciful fiction?
Could the whole thing actually have been set up in a misguided attempt to help her with her revenge?
To weaken Revant’s capabilities and push Crysellia into war with Revant?
That did seem like something Hulle might attempt. Ria’s eyes narrowed. She was fairly sure the only person she had ever revealed her desires for revenge to was Kiera’s grandfather, and he had made her promise to give up such ambitions. Had she let something slip to Desi or Iori? Or in her encounter with Cassi? Enough that someone could simply assume on her behalf?
The more she thought about her actions since arriving, how appearing to chase after Phaelys would seem to others… Once someone became aware of her true background, what else could they think? She made all the moves that an out-of-favor princess seeking powerful backers to claim her country’s throne would.
Loathing twisted her guts and sent ice through her veins at the thought of so many people needlessly dying because she naively and unknowingly encouraged her ‘allies’ to act on her behalf, but… was she more furious with herself or those who set the trap?
Surely, it was narcissistic to think such risk would be taken on her behalf. No, it was more likely that her desires happened to coincide with someone else’s ambitions.
That brought the obvious question of: could she still trust Lady Asara? Iori? Anyone from House Novidus?
Rather, asking if she could trust Lady Asara or House Novidus was the wrong question. No matter how much any of them ‘liked’ her, they would always choose what was best for their own House or for Crysellia. She had been and was still being far too naive if she continued to think of ‘trusting’ anyone acting on her behalf for her sake alone.
Ria shook her head and pushed her complicated emotions down into her soul reservoir. Now wasn’t the time. Knight Arella was stepping past her to open the door of the three-story building Orlisi had taken them to—a place where she would be meeting the other first-year princess for the first time. She could work through her feelings of betrayal later.