“W-why would I go in first?” Gia takes a step back.
“Because! Because…” Liddy stammers, seeming even smaller than usual. “I’m scared.” She says, her eyes glued to the floor.
“What and you think I am not?! We’re in this mess because you just had to sneak into the noble’s bath again. And if that weren’t enough you had to badmouth San- lady Sanora while she was sitting right next to us!”
Liddy just stands there, eyes looking at her feet as Gia chews her out.
“Yes, you should really pay better attention to your surroundings.” Sanora says with crossed arm, standing right behind the two girls.
“Exactly! You should pay more-“ Gia freezes, Liddy looks up in horror.
“You two look like you’ve seen a ghost, everything alright?” Sanora raises an eyebrow.
Both maids are at a loss for words. After a few seconds Sanora finally can’t hold it anymore and breaks out into laughter.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry but I couldn’t not!”
Gia and Liddy exchange a confused look.
“You aren’t mad at us, lady Sanora?” Liddy asks carefully.
“Mad? Why would I be mad at you?” Sanora tilts her head. “I wasn’t leading you on when we first met you know? I am cool.” Sanora pouts at them but ultimately shrugs. “Let’s head in already, I’m dying for a bath.” She walks right past the girls who just exchange another look before following a bit hesitant.
Sanora sighs, sinking into the hot water while Liddy and Gia just sit there, keeping up the awkward silence hanging in the room.
“I am really sorry lady Sanora, I was speaking without thinking yesterday, I really and truly didn’t mean those things.” Liddy suddenly starts causing Sanora to raise an eyebrow at her.
“Damn, you’re actually scared aren’t you?”
“No! Not scared I’m just… yes, I am scared.” She admits with a drooped head. Sanora turns away with a guilty expression.
“I’m sorry, I should have probably just told you who I am. I didn’t mean to actually scare you.”
“No please! You needn’t apologize to me! You aren’t in the wrong here-“
“Liddy.” Sanora raises her hand.
“Y-yes lady Sanora?”
“I told you it’s alright. I’m no different from when we met here last time.” Sanora smiles at her.
“But we aren’t-“
“Please Gia, not you too.” Sanora cuts her off. “I mean it girls. I am not mad, you aren’t in trouble. And please, don’t call me lady ok?”
The girls look at each other, then at Sanora.
“Are you sure? You aren’t mad? Even after…”
“You called me a courtesan?” Sanora chuckles. “No, I am not. Promise.” Sanora gives the girls her best Bawarag grin, which seems to finally drive the point home as they slack down.
“By the gods, I thought I was done for.” Liddy sinks into the water like a rock.
Gia sits there, looking like her sanity just melted away.
“I still can’t believe this. I would have bet my live savings that you are just some new noble like all the others.”
“Nah, where I come from, I am nothing special. So there really is no reason for me to think highly of myself. If anything, I probably disappointed a lot of people at home when I left. But we all have to play the cards we are dealt, I suppose.” Sanora says with a shrug. “But I’ve had enough of all the noble stuff to be honest. How was your day?” Sanora turns to the two with a smile.
“Our day? Well, it was quite tense thanks to a certain someone playing a prank on us.” Liddy sighs.
“Aww, who would do such a mean thing to two poor girls like you?” Sanora feigns shock and Liddy just snorts.
“Truly, who would do such a thing.” She shakes her head with a smirk.
“Whoever does such a thing as a noble truly is an ass.” The room falls silent. Liddy and Sanora look at Gia with shocked expressions. But Sanora just starts to laugh again after a second.
“You’re right that really was mean of me. Sorry again. Let’s say I owe you two one.”
“That’ll do.” Gia just nods, her arms still crossed. “Well, as you heard we had a really tense day, but it just got a little better.” A smile returns to her face as well.
The three girls sit in the bath for a solid hour. Talking about whatever trivial things come to mind. A bit of news from around the Valley, some gossip from among the maids. And it is exactly what Sanora needs. The last two days had drained her. All the pretending of being a noble, meeting Vadia’s father, then the meeting with Virelia. She couldn’t wish for anything more right now. Just some normal chitchat with two normal girls.
Night has already fallen over Deepvalley when they finally get out of the bath hall.
“See you tomorrow?” Sanora asks the two as they are about to part ways in the ground floor.
“Sure!” Liddy smiles at her and Gia nods.
“See you tomorrow then, g’night.” Sanora smiles at them.
“Nighty!” the girls give her a short wave before Sanora walks up and back to her room.
Vadia is already fast asleep when Sanora sneaks to the bed. She looks at the sleeping girl with a smile on her face. She is about to lay down when the sight through the window catches her. The night sky is clear, she has a perfect view of the stars painting their giant lightscape onto the black void above.
‘The moon…’ Her thoughts wander back to her dream, the reason she left her home for. But all she managed to accomplish so far is getting stuck here. She isn’t unhappy of course. Vadia is nice and pretty to boot, and everything else in Deepvalley is nothing but luxurious. But it all strays so far from her goal of seeing the world to find the moon and herself, or even a way back home, wherever home may be.
She shakes her head, banishing the thoughts that just keep on dragging her down and lays down onto the bed. She shuffles over and cuddles up to Vadia and before long, sleep claims her.
When she wakes up the next morning, the first thing she notices is the absence of the girl in her arms. Sanora sits up, rubbing her tired eyes and yawning as she looks around the room. The only thing she finds is a small note on the bedside table.
“Hey Sanni, need to leave early, got work to do, big sorry. Go to bed without me today. If there is an emergency, my office is the third door to the left in the hall. Love you.”
Sanora drops the note with a groan. She just woke up and could already feel the boredom taking a hold of her mind. After some more lying around in bed she pulls herself up and paces around the room.
“This is how I look huh?” She muses out loud, turning her head left and right as she gets to use a proper mirror for the first time in her life.
“Now I finally get what everyone is on about, I do look kinda nice… But I’m still bored.”
‘Bored enough to talk to myself even.’ She sighs and gets up from Vadia’s funny table. There is nothing to do. She is all alone in a room with nothing interesting in it. And while Vadia has a filled bookshelf it’s all just textbooks on politics or trade or alchemy. Sanora didn’t even know that Vadia does alchemy to such an extent. She tries skimming through one of the books on alchemic compounds, but puts it back after a minute.
‘This stuff is even more complicated than magic… Magic!’ her face lights up as she finally finds her occupation for the day. She has been putting off training her magic skills for quite a while now, always being dragged into one thing or another, but now is the perfect time.
She rubs her hands eagerly, ready to cast her first spell. She holds out her hand, the magic in her starts flowing and-
She pulls her mental brakes. Conjuring a fireball inside here was likely one the stupidest things she could do, and in her over-eagerness, she forgot to think about it. Almost at least. She thinks again, wagering her options and comes to the conclusion that she could either try and mimic some of Virelia’s flesh magic or she could finally use the grimoire that was still in her satchel. She isn’t too keen on the Grimoire though since the last time she used one of these she felt sicker than any other time in her short life. But that also means that now is a better time to use it than any.
After some more thinking she reluctantly decides to use the Grimoire she still has to get it over with. She picks up her satchel, pulls out the thick book and sits on the bed.
“Alright then, here goes nothing.” She takes a deep breath before flipping open the ivory white cover. As soon as she lays her eyes onto the first letters a burning sensation spreads through her mind. Her vision starts spinning, her stomach churns in protest and her fingers grow numb.
It is over in a few nerve-grating seconds and Sanora finally gets a grip on reality again. All that remains of the book are bits of crumbling dust in her hands. While it wasn’t as bad as the first time, it was still awful. She can feel the new spell that has forcefully burned itself into her mind now and after some rest she gets up, excited to finally try her hands at magic again.
She holds out her hand and casts her new spell, the bone spear. The magic inside her body moves vastly different from the fireball. The complex weaves and forms it creates are incomparable to the ones for the fire spell, a completely different type of result, all made by changing the way the energy flows out of ‘magic space’ into the real world. The energy moves out of her hand and a small bone projectile, about the size of a dagger blade, forms out of thin air. Sanora can feel that it’s under tension, just waiting to be slung out of her hand much like the fireball. But this one isn’t near as strong. She can feel that the bone spear, although it’s more of a stake, doesn’t even take half the amount of energy to conjure that the fireball does.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Sanora doesn’t shoot it, instead she just takes it out of the air, marveling at the matter that just appeared out of thin air. It’s heavy and sharp and most curiously it doesn’t disappear right away. She can feel and see that it is slowly shrinking away, the magic that created it dispersing into the air. But at the rate it is dissolving it will take about an hour until it will be gone.
She plays around with it a bit, tossing it up in her hand a few times. She can still feel a faint control over it which gives her an idea. She tosses it up and tries to make it hover in the air. It doesn’t work fully, but she manages to make it sink a lot slower, as if it gravity just changed for the small bone object.
‘Damn I bet I could throw this pretty well. Wait, I can just launch it after casting to begin with so that’s kinda useless.’
She looks at the small knifelike bone in her hands, wondering what to do with it.
For a moment she considers asking Vadia if there are some training grounds or anything similar around, but she forgets about it since that surely isn’t an emergency. Her next best idea are the woods. But even the ones closest to the city take a solid hour to reach by foot. But then again she does have a whole day to kill, and jogging there would also keep her from getting rusty.
With her mind made up she gets dressed in her old clothes, throws on her mail, puts on her swordbelt and heads out. She walks out the door and is about the head through the gates when Goron waves her down.
“Lady Sanora, heading out alone today?”
“Hello captain. Yes, Vadia is busy, and I have some things to do out of the city.”
“I thought so. The young lady usually has a lot to catch up on when she returns from her trips. But that is off topic. I have something for you, here.” The man says and hands Sanora a small brooch made of bright, white metal. It depicts a simple castle surrounded by mountains left and right.
“This is a token for officials. It will get you through the gates without holdup.”
“This is for me?”
“Naturally, as you are basically of the same standing as lady Vadia now it is only right for you to have one.” The man nods.
“I see. Well, thank you captain, it is much appreciated.” Sanora nods at him.
“You are most welcome my lady. Safe travels.” He gives her a bow and Sanora heads on towards the gates in the lowest ring. The upper rings are as usual. The first one filled with snobs who don’t do as much as even pay a passing look at Sanora. The next one however is a little different today. Instead of the usual venomous glares she gets when walking through with Vadia she gets curious gazes, envious gazes, even dangerously lustful ones that send shivers down her spine. She picks up the pace a bit, hoping to reach the next ring as fast as possible before any of those gazes turn into problems.
“Hey there young miss!” But her hopes of getting through without a problem a squashed when a man walks up to her with a wave of his hand. “Going out all alone?” The blonde man asks her with a smile. His hair is short, he is about half a head taller than Sanora, and from what she can tell with her faint sense of flesh magic about half as muscular as her. The fancy part leather part iron-plate armor may stop prying eyes, but not her sense of magic. Although its doesn’t look exactly like iron, the color is a lot brighter, almost like the brooch she just received. But Sanora has never heard about what sorts of other metals there are besides Narcium. The sword hanging on his belt is made of steel though, that much she can tell.
“Yep.” Sanora says and just keep walking, but the man gets in front of her.
“What a coincidence, I was just about to head out myself. Let’s go together.” He says with a smile.
“Sorry, I’m just heading out to train.”
“Well, that’s no fun alone, is it? I’ll tag along, give you some company and buy you a drink after.” He says, still wearing his friendly smile. Sanora can’t help but think of Bawarag who was all smiles as well, and who bought her a lot of drinks after training too.
‘So there are nice people here after all.’ She thinks with a smile.
“Well, I do like a good drink… Alright, I’m heading to the nearest woods in the north to train there, can you run all the way?”
“Piece of cake.” The waves her off with a grin and they start walking.
“I’m Jared by the way. And before you ask yes, the Jared.” Jaredda
“Thee Jared? That’s a funny name.”
“Nono, I am the Jared. You know, as in the hero of Deepvalley, slayer of criminals and monsters like no other, the plainrunner, prowlers’ demise and curse of all trerchers.” He proudly lists some titles, but with each one the tilt of Sanora’s head just grows.
“So, you are some kind of hero?”
“One could say so yes.” He nods and Sanora’s face lights up.
“Oh! Like the ones from the ancient wars!”
“Pretty close I daresay.” He winks at her. “Just not as old.” He adds with a chuckle which Sanora joins.
“That means you must be really strong too huh?”
“Of course! I’m one of the strongest around. I could take on an army of undead with my left hand.”
“Y-you could!?”
“Of course.” Jared says with his nose raised high.
“That’s incredible! I only ever saw one undead and I almost died if I hadn’t been so lucky. You must be as strong as Bawarag.”
“A friend of yours?” Jared’s expression changes suddenly to something Sanora can’t really place. Some sort of displeased curiosity.
“Yeah, he’s my old teacher back at home.”
“Oh, your old teacher.” Jared’s friendly smile come back. “Well I’m sure I’m even stronger than him.”
“You think so? But you don’t even know him.”
“Well how about we have some sparring once we arrive and you be the judge of it?”
“Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.” Sanora nods. “I haven’t had any good sparring in a while.”
“Well then, it’s settled. What’s your name by the way?”
“I’m Sanora.” She says with a smile.
The two of them walk through town, Jared talks mostly about himself all the way to the gates, Sanora getting more and more astonished by his heroic tales of which he has plenty in store.
“-and that is how I saved a whole caravan and killed two dozen lurchers, thus earning my rank of 7 on the Aurelian scale.” He finishes as they finally leave the city and walk out into the open grasslands.
“Aurelian scale?”
“Yes, you don’t know it?” He raises an eyebrow at her.
“No, we didn’t have it back home.” Sanora shakes her head.
“So you aren’t from around the valley?”
“Yes, I’m from the northwestern seas.”
“Then it’s not a big surprise you haven’t heard of it.” Jared nods understanding. “The scale is simple. It was introduced back during the times of the wars by a princess named Aurelia, thus the Aurelian scale. It goes from 10 down to 1, with 10 being the weakest, about your average guard or soldier. Lurchers and trerchers rank in at about 8. But because it was so vastly outnumbered, I was promoted right to 7.”
“Oh! I see. I wonder where I would scale in.” Sanora holds her chin.
“You can have the adventurer guild do it for you. Although they take a fee if you aren’t registered. I can show you where to do it sometime.” He smiles at her, and Sanora nods eagerly.
“I’d love to! I think this is far enough, ready to start running?” Sanora looks at the first trees visible in the distance.
“Try to keep up.” Jared winks at her with a smirk.
“I will.” Sanora smiles back at him.
They take off in a light jog towards the woods. About half an hour in Jared has already worked up a good sweat and is starting to breathe a bit heavier. Sanora is just about getting warmed up, this bit of running is not even a fraction of what Bawarag used to put her through every day.
“If you’re getting tired, we can take a break anytime.” Jared says between panting.
“You don’t have to slow down for me, I can go even faster if you want to.” Sanora just smiles at him.
“Ah no, no need to rush things, let’s just enjoy this.” He says and they keep it up until they reach the woods about fifteen minutes later.
“You’re in pretty good shape huh?” Jared asks between panting and wipes the sweat from his forehead.
“Yeah, my old teacher was pretty harsh on me.” Sanora meanwhile hasn’t even broken a proper sweat on the way. But luckily the regions of the valley are rather cold, so she at least wont overheat.
“We took about 45 minutes. I think we can beat that on the way back.” Sanora looks back at the distant city.
“Mhm, sure.” Jared just looks at her with narrowed eyes.
“Alright then, let’s spar now. Ah, we don’t have any training weapons. Should we just use some sticks?” Sanora looks around, already searching for the perfect stick. But the still exhausted Jared pulls a face.
“Ah of course, we completely forgot to bring those didn’t we? Well, how about we just take them with us next time, can’t go around swinging sticks. We’re not savages after all.”
“Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Sanora shrugs. “I have an idea! You could watch me a bit and then give an estimate where I’d place on the scale. Would you do that for me?” Sanora asks with sparkling eyes and her hands clasped on front of her chest.
Jared is about to agree but stops himself.
“Well I don’t think I can give you a proper estimate from just watching you train…”
Sanora deflates a little.
“But If we can find some monsters to fight, I should be able to.” He says with a smile causing Sanora to perk right up again.
“Really? Then we just have to find some monsters!”
“I happen to know where we should find some lurchers around here during this time of the year.”
“What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!”
“If I show you, you owe me a dinner though.” Jared winks at Sanora, but she just nods furiously.
“Deal! Now let’s get going.” She shifts around on her feet, eager to go.
“Alright, on we go.” Jared laughs and leads Sanora deeper into the woods. They walk for a bit, Sanora enjoys the homey atmosphere. The forest isn’t as dense as the one around Rivers Rest but other than that its very similar. It does make her a little homesick but the thoughts are soon gone when Jared gestures for her to get quiet.
They are looking at a small river running through the forest and there she can spot them. Small monsters, just tall enough to reach her waist, skulk around the riverbanks. Bawarag had mentioned them some time ago and his description was spot on. They walk on two legs like humans, their pale blue skin is smooth in some places while others are covered with fishlike scales. Their faces are ugly. Big black eyes above a flat nose and a wide, ever-frowning mouth filled with sharp teeth. A fin on their head and two smaller ones where their ears should be. Long sharp claws sit on their fingers instead of nails and all of them are walking hunched over. Sanora counts about three of them from the bush in which they are hiding.
“Think you can handle those?” Jared whispers.
“I think yeah.” Sanora nods.
“Well then, good luck.” He nods at her. Sanora nods quietly, her eyes still glued to the monsters as she quietly gets out of their cover and draws her sword while staring to make her way over to the river. Jared just watches with a grin, staring at Sanora’s backside as she is crouching towards the lurchers.
‘There are bound to be at least two more in the river.’ He thinks. ‘She’ll get overwhelmed, underestimating them like everyone always does which is when the great hero will jump in to save her. Gods she’s so dense I’ll almost feel bad fucking her.’ He has to hold back a cackle as he watches Sanora with a sneer.
Sanora is only a few meters away from the group when the first lurcher finally spots her. She wastes no time and changes from a crouch to a full sprint. With a swing from her sword, she decapacitates the first lurcher before it can do as much as scream. By now the other two have noticed her, but before the cut off head from the first one hits the ground she cleaves the second one cleanly in half with a vertical cut.
“Huh?” Jared’s blinks a few times at the spectacle, his expression changing from a sneer to disbelief.
The third lurcher manages to release a gurgling screech. And at the signal the water in the river ripples and two more lurchers come out, then three, then four. The river spits out one monster after another.
“A nest?” Jared curses and draws his sword, but the monsters have already encircled Sanora. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they have noticed Jared now too and three of them have dispatched to take him on.
Three lurchers pose no threat to someone as capable as Jared, but by the time he will be past them Sanora wont only be dead but probably half eaten as well. He looks at the scene, waging his options when the water ripples yet again. From the muddy river rises one more lurcher. As tall as a human and packed full of muscles, its color a deep green and his face double as angry as the small ones’. Jared sheathes his sword.
‘Sorry but I’m not risking my life over a quick fuck’. He glances at the surrounded Sanora one last time before turning on his heel and makes a run for it.
‘Oh, that’s a big one.’ Sanora looks at the big lurcher that just rose out of the waters. Surrounding her are twelve of the small ones, a few of them stepping aside to let the big one through. It comes right at Sanora bearing its sharp teeth with something that almost looks like a sneer. An evil grin that makes Sanora shudder. She can only imagine the malice behind such an expression. Her grip around the sword tightens, she might have bitten of more than she can chew here. But even if things get dangerous, Jared is still behind her, and he will surely help her if push comes to shove.
She fortifies her stance as the big lurcher swings at her with its clawed arm. She has gauged some time ago that while it looks and is in fact really muscular, it is still a bit below Sanora, who outmatches it due to how different her muscle mass is in terms of density. Flesh magic really is weird.
Knowing this she swings her sword right into the oncoming attack rather than evading. The blow comes a bit slow, so Sanora figures this creature is relying on sheer force rather than speed, and she has more of both… probably.
Jared is still running but turns around one last time only to see the blindingly fast swing of the big lurcher, which is right in front of the petite girl. He averts his gaze, only hearing the distant thud of Sanora’s head hitting the ground as he runs.
“Sorry lass, try and don’t be too naïve in the next life.” He says quietly as he rushes back towards Deepvalley.