Alice woke up to a small bundle of clothes at her doorstep. Two pairs of simple dark blue pants, two shirts, one a simple henley in the same deep blue as the pants. The other in a classic Victorian style, sparkling white with a frill around the buttons going from the left side of her neck to the bottom right. There were also two camisoles and another set of underwear. This one, though, was quite sexy, black Brazilian briefs and a matching bra, both made of a very fine lace depicting flowers.
On top of the bundle, there was a small note.
I hope you like your new clothes. It’s been a while since I had such a nice model and I worked well into the night. If anything doesn’t fit right come by and we’ll adjust it. Bridgitte.
Alice quickly returned to her room and changed into her new outerwear, picking the simpler options as today was likely to be busy. Her dress was lovely, but also wildly impractical. She kept her armoured underwear, as it was self-cleaning. Not that she thought she’d need that too much, but she decided to leave the new set for a special occasion.
As she and Cheshire walked down the stairs into the shared space, Eira approached her. The woman’s appraising look at Alice caused her cheeks to slightly warm.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” She gave Chess, who was now pawing at the door a quick look, then opened them for her. As the kitten ran out, she turned back to Alice. “It’s better she’s not here.” Alice raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? Sure we can talk, I was just heading to the tavern but we can talk here if it’s private.”
“Not so much private as I’d like your opinion on something. I’d like to go to see the spot you fought the slime—” pausing, she took a breath, then blurted out. “—and maybe harvest some materials from the shadow panther.” Alice thought for a moment.
“I’ll have to ask the little one. Me personally – I don’t mind, I learned enough to know it’s probably rare and quality materials. But I would like it to be Chess’ decision.”
“Sure, I understand. Let’s head out then, it’s a fairly late and if the little one agrees I’d like to head out there today. It’s already been two days and these woods are very much alive.”
As the women headed out, Alice focused on her connection to Cheshire and explained what Eira wanted. She wasn’t sure what the little cub would think, but to her surprise she mentally shrugged and agreed straight away.
“Living hard, all help good.” Was the simple message she received back.
She gave Eira the go-ahead, the woman giving Alice a rare smile and promising to share some of the spoils, before she left for the forest.
—
Sophie Nightshade watched from the kitchen as Alice walked into the tavern. Despite the door and wall in the way, she knew the moment the young Champion walked into the building. This was her space and she felt everyone’s mana as they entered what was essentially her domain.
She still thought the young woman had much too much magic in her, despite her claims to not know anything about it. The day before, when she was asked to teach Alice, she looked at her with her mana sight and went nearly blind at the iridescent glow coming from her core.
She spoke to her husband about it after they went to bed, then for a brief moment with Sophie during the first round of breakfast. Thorne was decidedly unhelpful, simply reiterating his request to help the young lady. Sophie, despite her sombre mood, was more useful. She explained that Alice indeed had no knowledge of how magic worked, never having to deal it before barely days before. She wanted to argue, but Sophie gave her a reassuring smile and promised this was no trick, and that she really needed the help.
To be fair, Sophie didn’t mind so much. Despite her usually working as a cook for the village, her true passions lie in the scholarly and enchanting. Which also meant she was the best mage they had, and as such she was responsible for looking out for such dangers.
Teaching an adult, especially one with so much power, would be an interesting experience, she thought idly. She just wanted to be sure it wouldn’t blow up in their faces.
Finishing up the last of the dishes, she grabbed a plate for Alice and a bottle for her shadow panther companion, then walked out into the sitting area. As she approached them, Alice looked up giving her the most dazzling smile she’s seen since moving out of the capital. She’s got the same look every child gets when they first start learning. I wonder how long that will last. She laughed in her head, with just a hint of sadistic glee.
—
“Sophie! When can we—” Alice’s joyous outburst was shut down instantly by a male voice. Looking behind her she saw Finn, two large chopping axes slung over his right shoulder. Much like the rest of the villagers he was well put together. His face was utterly average however, with short brown hair and several days worth of stubble. He had a smile on his face that didn’t reach his eyes, his voice level.
“In the evening. Right now, you’re going to shovel that lovely breakfast in as fast as you can, then we got work to do. It’s already well into the day and there’s only ironwood nearby.”
“But... Magic...” Alice looked to Sophie, hoping for support but the woman simply gave her a wide smile and placed their breakfast on the table.
To everyone’s surprise, Chess jumped up, first on a chair then the table itself. She walked up to the bottle and after a few seconds of precarious manoeuvring, put the sucker in her muzzle. She hugged the bottle, then plopped on her back, the bottle following. Propping it up with her hind legs, she began suckling, sending pangs of happiness through their link.
“Milkie!”
Alice looked at the scene for a moment. Finn broke her out of the reverie by clearing his throat. Alice jumped a little and dug into her breakfast. Two thick slices of bread, two pieces of toast and scrambled eggs with a glass of water. As she ate, Sophie responded to her earlier plea.
“Magic, my dear, was something you lived without for most of your life from what I heard. You can survive another couple of hours. We can sit down after the evening meal and I’ll explain the basics. Leave the dishes here, don’t want to keep Finn waiting.” She said with a stern wiggle of her finger, causing Finn to grunt in approval. Sophie sighed, but didn’t slow down her pace.
Fifteen minutes later she and Finn were walking out of the village and away from the Dark Forest. The man pulled a simple, but well built, wooden cart behind him, several tools inside. Chess was in Alice’s arms “eating” her second breakfast – mana.
Finn wasn’t much of a talker, he was polite enough, but didn’t seem too interested in making small talk. Alice could appreciate that, especially since she was essentially foisted off on him to babysit. She figured she might as well start her lessons in lumberjack skills.
“So why is ironwood not good for us? Is it fireproof or something?” She asked.
“Huh? Oh. No, quite the contrary. It’s not the best starter, but if you got a fire going it burns long and clean. But it takes a lot of effort to chop an ironwood tree. We usually do one or two from the forest, since they’re old growth, but it takes most of the men to actually down it.” He looked towards Alice, his eyes assessing her. “You’re supposed to be strong, but I’ll believe it when I see it... And we’re here.”
They stopped in front of a small grove, several tall birch trees surrounded an absolute giant of a tree. It was also a birch, but unlike the lithe others this one was at least three metres thick, built more like an oak, with branches spread between the others. Alice whistled at the sight and Finn smiled.
“Quite the beauty isn’t she? That’s the mother tree. Give it a couple more decades and she might even become a treant, if legends are to be believed. For us, what matters is that when we plant a small sapling near it, it takes it less then a year to grow into what you see. Now then, let’s get to work...”
Over the next several hours Finn and Alice worked. They cut down two of the birches, Finn one Alice the other, de-branched them, then cut the trunks into metre long logs. After the first hour they found a groove and barely spoke. Alice quite enjoyed the companionable silence, focused on the simple tasks at hand.
While loading the cart they argued for a moment of how much they should put in it. Finn argued that, while the cart can easily hold the weight, they wouldn’t be able to pull it back to the village. Slightly annoyed at his insistent lack of faith she hefted two of the logs on her shoulders before moving them to the cart. This stopped any arguments and they soon filled the wagon to the brim, managing to fit both trees, securing the logs with a thick rope.
Cheshire promptly sat atop the pile, circled a few times and curled up, tail swishing languidly. That made them both laugh.
“You spent most of the day sleeping under the mother tree, now you make us cart you around.” Alice mock-sighed but got no response from the kitten.
Shaking her head she moved next to Finn who was already raising the shaft in the front. Grabbing the handlebar they started walking. They made good time and quickly enough they were back in sight of the village. Finn led them to an area on the outskirts set aside for all the wood cutting and milling.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Two other men were already there, unloading and de-barking their own hauls. Their eyes grew slightly wider, one letting out an awed “whoa”, as they saw the haul Alice and Finn brought back. Moving slightly closer to Finn, she whispered.
“That look right there? That, is one of the greatest joys of defying people’s expectations.” Finn snorted in response, smiling and shaking his head.
“You will be an absolute terror for any man that tries to court you.” Alice gave her brightest smile in response.
—
For lunch they had some hardtack, jerky and watered down ale. The biscuit was bland, not even salted, but the jerky turned out to be delectable. It had a rich smoky flavour, the texture chewy but tender. It left a slightly herbal after-taste that mixed well with the hoppy ale.
The men were very polite at first, which was at odds with their gruff appearance, but that stopped quickly enough after Alice told a particularly dirty joke causing one of the men to literally take a spit-take. This, of course, led to all the others laughing raucously, and just like that any pretence of Alice being a “proper lady” went out the window.
After their meal, they continued their work. Finn and one of the others – Brian, cut down the larger logs using a two-man cross-cut saw into chunks which Alice then chopped into quarters and tossed into a pile of firewood.
It was well into the evening by the time they were done. Before they headed back to the village, Alice spoke up.
“Can we do an ironwood tree tomorrow?” The men looked over at one another, then finally settled their gazes on Finn, clearly waiting for him to make a decision. The man thought for a moment, then sighed.
“I can see you’re really wanting to push on this, but... Fine. You proved yourself capable enough and we’d have to do it anyway, might as well do it tomorrow.” He gave Alice a stern look. “Don’t complain if it’s too tough though. Birch is fairly supple, ironwood is a whole other thing.” Alice nodded in response.
“Noted. I’ll be fine thought, I’m almost sure I’ll surprise you again.” Her sly smile gave Finn a pause, but he simply shrugged.
“We’ll see I guess. Now – dinner time. And you have lessons afterwards you were quite looking forward to, no?”
Alice nodded, this time much more vigorously and headed towards the village. She looked around, searching for Cheshire but couldn’t see her anywhere. Worried for a moment she focused on their link and felt the kittens mind – sleeping. She prodded for a second but after no response, she shrugged and decided brute-force it.
Turning to the men, she told them to cover their ears for a moment, then put two fingers to her lips and whistled.
“CHESS! DINNERTIME!” Moments after the shout a black shape coalesced from a nearby bush into the panthers form. The cub yawned, her tongue sticking out, tail swooshing as she pattered towards her adopted mother. She slinked between Alice’s feet, playing with they shadows, as they headed towards their meal.
—
After the dinner, which once again was a rather rambunctious affair, with the whole village talking about their day, Alice helped Sophie gather all the dishes. Some villagers were rather put out by a Champion doing menial work like that, but Alice waved their complaints off, once again reiterating she wanted to be treated like everyone else.
After dinner, while picking up her plate, Alice heard from Eira that she managed to harvest quite a lot of materials from Chess’ unfortunate mother, and once again promised to share the spoils with her. Alice honestly wasn’t sure about using, or worse yet wearing something made from Chess’ mother, but kept it to herself. She’d cross that bridge when they got to it.
Right now, she was almost vibrating with excitement at her first lesson in magic.
—
Sophie and Alice sat in the corner of the ladies lodging, Sophie on a large leather chair, Alice on a matching couch. Cups of hot, herbal tea in their hands, Chess sleeping on the backrest, next to Alice’s head, they took a moment to appreciate the beverages. Finally, Sophie looked up at Alice, sitting her cup down on a coaster on the low table between them.
“Right then, the basics. Mana is everywhere, it’s what keeps our world running in many ways, from keeping nature in balance to powering many of the necessities of life. It’s what gives rulers power over their people and domain, dungeons the ability to grow resources and monsters, and said monsters abilities. It’s also supposedly responsible for the many races that inhabit our lands and for keeping the demons in check, mostly anyway, but these are legends so old no one actually knows.” Alice listened intently, comparing what Sophie said to what she knew of the world.
“That’s neither here nor there, however. What’s important for us right now is this. Mana permeates everything and everyone in the world. There are four basic elements, though some schools argue that ‘spirit’, also called ‘mind’, is the fifth. Personally I disagree as that one is much too nebulous compared to the others.” As she said that, Sophie raised her hand, index finger outstretched and with a trickle of power drew a glowing circle in the air.
Starting at top, she drew a pentagram inside the circle, the colour of the light slowly changing between each arm. From an almost black deep blue, to a dark green, then an almost white yellow, followed by an azure bright blue, finishing with an indigo red.
She spoke as she drew, her voice almost reverent, starting each new stanza as she reached the point of the star corresponding to what she said.
Spirit, the essence of all things,
The energy that flows and sings,
Connecting us to worlds unseen,
A power that forever reigns supreme.
Earth, the stable and the grounded,
The soil on which we're founded,
From dust and clay our forms are made,
A source of life, a source of aid.
Air, the breath that fills our lungs,
The wind that moves all songs unsung,
The power that makes all life take flight,
A force that's always within our sight.
Water, the fluid, ever-changing,
A source of life, forever raging,
From rivers deep to oceans wide,
It nourishes, sustains, and provides.
Fire, the passion that fuels desire,
It brings warmth, and can also inspire,
A power that can destroy or create,
A double-edged sword, dance of fate.
Together these elements combine,
In a magic that is divine,
An alchemy of power and grace,
That moves and shapes this world and space.
As she finished speaking, the filled pentagram brightening the room around them, spreading a colourful aura, she looked to Alice, who seemed to be deep in thought.
Alice, in fact, was listening to Whimsy, and without thinking she herself pointed at each of the arms and spoke, moving from one to the other in the same order as Sophie.
“Eris, Persephone, Vayu, Poseidon, Pele.”
Sophie’s jaw dropped. She heard mentions of the names when she was in the Mages Academy in the capital. They were all from old books, barely understood now.
“How—”
Alice just shrugged, a sad smile on her face.
“They were friends of Whimsy. They sacrificed themselves to save everyone else. It’s how mana was born. Or at least that’s what Whimsy said, though it’s also conjecture since it all happened far, far from here.”
“But... How can she not know? Isn’t she a goddess?” Sophie was equally shocked at the revelations and elated at knowing something, she was sure, almost no person in the world did.
“Uh... Sure. But like the rulers you mentioned, she has her domain. The world is big. Even broken as it is, it’s bigger than can really fit in one person’s head. And the, uh, gods, powerful and old as they might be have their limitations too.” Alice gave her teacher an apologetic look.
“I know you’d like to talk about this, I recognise the look in your eyes but I really don’t know much more. I was born in a world much, much different and the only reason I know what I just told you is because Whimsy could explain some things to me she can’t readily do to you. Talk to Olivia, we had much the same discussion yesterday and I feel she’ll be better equipped to explain this, though obviously we didn’t touch on mana and magic much, considering my own ignorance of the subject. On which note...” She trailed off, prompting Sophie to continue her lesson.
Sophie gaped at her for a moment. Here was someone who knew things she only dreamt of knowing, knowledge of the gods and the world like she never expected, and still it was out of reach. Sighing internally, she focused back on her task.
Dismissing the visual aid, she outstretched her hand, fingers spread and slightly curled, palm upward. She closed her eyes and above each finger, except the thumb, she conjured a small elemental effect. A tiny flame, an droplet of water, a pebble and a tiny spiral of air.
As she spoke, she moved her thumb across her palm causing a slight shift in her conjuring as it touched the base of each finger. The flame changed colour, water turned into mercury, the pebble became obsidian, the air turned slightly green.
“Mind controls all the elements. Without it we couldn’t impact the other four, each responsible for their own domain, as you said. I’ll explain the exact differences and what this means later. For now, we’ll be getting you to sense mana.” With that she dismissed the spell playing in her hand, and looked straight at Alice.
“Close your eyes and clear your mind. Focus on feeling your body, move that focus around, from your tip-toes to your legs, to your core, to your hands. As you do, you’ll feel pressure somewhere in your core. For some it’s near the heart, others one of their dantians.”
Alice followed the directions, calming her breath as she focused inwardly. Minutes passed and she couldn’t feel anything special. She was starting to fidget, Sophie chiding her and telling her to focus, when Chess’ tail brushed her neck.
Her eyes opened wide as she had a moment of insight, turning and giving the kitten a kiss on the head. Sophie started to chide her again but didn’t even open her mouth fully when Alice’s eyes closed again, face slack, breath even.
As her attention returned to her body, she tried remembering the feeling of feeding Cheshire. Soon enough she could feel a sort of haze permeating her entire form. She felt gentle waves of energy in her hands and legs. She followed the current, finally arriving at her stomach. There she found almost areservoir, prodding with her awareness it felt like a touching a warm, but not yet hot, light bulb. The ethereal heat washing over her mind, sharpening it.
Opening her eyes, she looked at Sophie, a broad smile on her face as the crisp energy slowly faded from her mind. She could still feel it, however, just below the surface of her conscious mind.
“I did it! I could feel it, I still can! It’s like... Standing on a beach, I’m facing away from the ocean but I can still fell it behind me. Is that right?” Her voice was excited now. In contrast, Sophie was somewhat taken aback.
“It is. I didn’t expect you to get it so fast, but then every student I had to teach the basics to before was a child and it takes them usually around a week, sometimes longer. Though with how you fidgeted after less than half an hour, I half expected you to take just as long as they did. At the very least I didn’t expect you to... Well, that doesn’t matter now. Next step is to grab hold of it.”
Alice nodded emphatically, and following Sophie’s guidance again she closed her eyes. She focused entirely on her mana core and imagined cradling it in her hands. She felt something bump against her mind, covering the core like glass in a lamp.
She tried pulling some of the mana at her teachers prompting. Like a spool of string, she unravelled some of the mana and tried to pull it, only for it to bounce off the barrier. Annoyed, she redoubled her efforts, her face contorting in effort, but to no avail.
Finally, after numerous tries she was fed up. She centred her efforts on the barrier, and with an effort of will she pushed past it.
Power.
Like shattering glass, the barrier disappeared, her mana core flaring to life. For a moment she marvelled at the feeling of unbound strength. As the strength permeated her body, she started to focus on controlling her mana.
She failed, waves of energy brushing her imaginary hands aside. She was just about to speak, ask Sophie for help when the waves reached her mind.
With an explosion of what seemed like words and numbers, a thousand voices speaking at the same time, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out as another torrent of sensory input blinded and deafened her.
She managed to parse two lines that kept repeating.
[Safety override disabled.]
[Full integration in progress.]
Then, she lost consciousness.