Gendal came back with a confused look that wouldn’t go away.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“She had a good look at the scroll for a while. It seemed like she was trying to read everything slowly, but she skipped over the unknown language.”

“You sure she didn’t just read it quickly?”

“Yes, she skipped it.”

The group pondered the meaning of it, but ultimately came up with the conclusion that it was something unknown even to her.

Karth lets out a disappointed sigh.

“Where’s the scroll now?”

“I left it with Alice, she seemed interested in some of the words, wanting to read them herself. Specifically, her passive skills.”

“Do you think she understands the curse?”

“No telling, but I think she might want a more challenging book. She seemed tired of the children’s books.”

“That’s odd, but she’s 7. Don’t kids like books like those?”

“Not if those are the only books they have.”

“What does she want?”

Gendal shows the group a drawing on a sheet of drawing paper.

Karth left Alice with a small stack of blank drawing paper and colored pencils earlier that morning.

She didn’t seem very interested in them before, but now she drew something for everyone to see.

There was a picture of something that looked like a book and the word “magical” written below it.

It was difficult to make out at first, due to her poor handwriting.

“She wants a magical book?”

Reyah asked.

Gendal clarifies,

“I think she wants a book on magic. She’s probably seen a lot of it already and wants to understand it more.”

“There are some children’s books that help explain magic, maybe that’s what she wants.”

Karth made a good point.

For a moment, Hendrick wondered if he could lend the child some of his books on actual magic, but he knew it would be a very dangerous and irresponsible thing to do. She could hurt herself.

Thankfully, everyone agreed to a reasonable idea.

“Alright, I’ll be sure to pick up some books for her later.”

Karth said, as if adding it to a mental to-do list.

“I can do that.”

“I can’t ask that of you, Gendal. It’s your day off, relax.”

“If Alice trusts me, then I would find it relaxing to read to her, she won’t be able to read all those words herself. Besides, I’ve babysat a lot of beastborn children before, it’ll be fun.”

“…Alright, but only if you’re sure.”

“I am.”

The large man said with excited confidence.

“You’ll need a key to get in. I’ll get you the spare.”

----------------------------------------

Karth left his apartment and made his way towards Adelle’s actual office.

He called ahead of time to see where he should meet her.

“Why were you using someone else’s clinic when we first met?”

“I could come up with all sorts of excuses, but let’s say that I’m more than just a life mage. I knew where you were going and why you needed to be there. I wanted to be the one you met, not just any life mage.”

“Were you the one following Gendal and me?”

“I was, but I have my reasons.”

“...Care to explain?”

“No.”

She said simply, then fixed her hair.

“You came here because you wanted some training.”

“What? No, I was going to ask if you could recharge Alice’s gem. Why do you think I need training?”

“Why did you come all the way here? You could have just called or texted me.”

“I like to communicate with everyone personally. Even though phones are useful, I don’t think I could really get used to how impersonal it is.”

“Draw your sword.”

Is all she says, before her apprentice comes flying in from another room, in her monstrous form.

Karth is barely able to react in time, pulling his sword only halfway out of its sheath, just enough to block against the flurry of claws.

He nearly slams into a nearby shelf, containing dozens of glass jars, only to get yanked away by Aleksandra’s tail.

The human is winded but manages to roll to the side before the monster drives her claws into the floor.

Karth quickly rises to his feet and prepares to strike back but stops himself.

Aleksandra snaps back around to send a fist flying towards the man.

Her path is blocked by her master, who calmly raises a single palm to catch the fast punch.

Neither Karth nor Aleksandra saw the life mage step away from her counter to intercept the attack.

“This match is over. Karth is the victor.”

“What?! I was about to hit him.”

“He would have hit you first, but then there would have been a mess.”

“I’m tough, I could handle it.”

“Not you, I was talking about the product behind you.”

The young woman turns around to see another shelf of medical items behind her.

*sigh*

“Fine.”

Aleksandra’s form shifts back into her human self, then she finds a chair to sit in.

Despite accepting her defeat, she still looks grumpy.

“Where did you come from?”

Karth asked, surprised by the older woman’s speed and strength.

“You should know that life mages don’t just heal the body or provide beneficial passives. I must thank you for being considerate and not destroying my shop. Aleksandra was also told to hold back and not destroy anything.”

“I’m afraid I don’t have the money to pay you back for anything I break.”

“That’s understandable. Though I have to admit, I didn’t see you succeeding in this little scuffle. If this fight were held somewhere else, the outcome would be different.”

“What do you mean?”

“Follow me, I’ll show you a place where you can spar freely.”

“Wait, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, could you recharge the gem on Alice’s collar?”

“We can take care of that later, there’s no urgency, is there?”

“No…”

“Come along, then.”

***

Before the group left for the secluded training ground, Karth was instructed to don his magical disguise again, which was kept at Adelle’s clinic.

Adelle and Aleksandra changed up their apparel as well.

Aleksandra wore something akin to a barbaric, full leather armor, while Adelle wore a peculiar uniform.

The older woman’s outfit is a modified habit. A religious set of clothes belonging to the church of The Eye.

The modifications appear to give her more flexibility and range of motion, instead of the habit’s common stiff appearance.

Aside from the usual markings of the church, there were also some that indicated she was exiled from the church at some point. These marks, which were often displayed as something negative, were stylized in their own way, as if Adelle was proud to have been cast out.

Karth’s thoughts were pushed aside as the group reached their destination, and the reason for a change of apparel made more sense.

Agent Haitch was doing some warmup stretches in the old, ruined, training hall.

Dust and dirt cover the damaged floorboards.

It was once a place owned by some famous nobleman, long ago. Somehow, Adelle ended up with the deed for the location and has been using it as a private area to train the secret police.

Unlike before, Haitch’s elven ears are uncovered, and her scarf hangs loosely around her neck.

“Kae… I didn’t expect to see you here so soon.”

Her blonde hair shone golden under the rays of sunlight peeking in through the large cracks in the stone ceiling.

“Agent– Haitch, right? How are you feeling?”

“Fine. Why?”

“That explosion—you were still on that carriage.”

“Ahhh– I’ve done more dangerous things than that before.”

“Not many people can blow up a carriage and walk away just fine.”

“Forget about it, you’re here to spar, right? I’ll be your partner.”

Adelle interrupts the conversation.

“You’ll be sparring with Aleksandra. Karth is partnered with me today.”

“Ooooo…”

The elf inhales sharply.

“What did you do to piss her off?”

“Huh?!”

Adelle clarifies,

“I’m not upset at all; he just beat my student in their first fight.”

“It wasn’t really much of a fight.”

An annoyed look appears on the young woman’s face.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I was holding back! Otherwise, you’d be bleeding out now.”

Karth simply nods, not wanting to stir up any more resentment with the woman.

She grunts at his calm response then runs off to the center-right of the training ground.

Before she’s out of earshot, she calls out,

“Don’t kill him too badly, yeah?!”

“K-kill…?”

Agent Haitch follows after Aleksandra and gives Karth a teasing smirk.

Adelle chuckles playfully.

“Don’t mind their jokes, I’m not going to kill you.”

“That’s– almost a relief. What did she mean by that?”

“You won’t die, but it will hurt.”

The three women all took Karth too lightly.

Sure, fighting a gargoyle was one thing, but fighting a mage shouldn't be too hard, right?

Karth drew his sword and readied himself in a defensive stance.

“Let’s see what y–”

His sentence was cut off, as the woman’s movements were so fast, she almost seemed to blur.

An open palm connects with his chest and pushes the man into the air, rather than slamming against him.

‘My eyes couldn’t keep up. How did she move that fast?’

Karth’s body is sent flying to the other side of the training hall, crashing into a reinforced stone wall.

He feels several bones audibly snap and shatter under the force.

The man crumples to the floor, unable to rise again.

In a moment of time, Adelle crosses the space and quickly heals Karth.

He takes a sharp breath of life, air rushes into his lungs again, and is then expelled with a few spatters of blood.

“WHAT WAS THAT?!”

“I should have told you I served in a war at one point, so I’m used to tougher opponents. That first attack was just me showing off my real strength, but I won’t kill you again like that.”

“I didn’t die, I was just paralyzed.”

He sounded confident and sure, yet Adelle didn’t seem so sure.

“No… your body showed no signs of life.”

“That’s weird, because I was still conscious.”

“Hmm…… Never mind then, maybe you’re just tougher than I thought.”

It seemed like there was something else Adelle was thinking about, but she didn’t feel like sharing.

“Here, I’ll give you a passive to help you out.”

“Is it like the one you gave Alice?”

“You knew?”

“Hendrick used a status scroll on her, we saw.”

“Would you mind if I saw the scroll too?”

“Not at all.”

The mage finishes helping Karth recover and helps him to his feet.

“We’ll practice for real now. I’m going to hold myself back just enough to be a challenge for you, but I don’t want you to hold back at all.”

“Got it.”

----------------------------------------

I am alone again.

I slept enough already, now I’m restless and really curious about all of this stuff.

Judging from the characters written in the books, and how they sounded when Karth read them for me, it seemed that one of the words, at the top of this scroll, was my name.

‘Who was writing about me?’

There were also other characters that weren’t even in the “common tongue”.

They looked similar to characters I might have seen in my world, but I never learned to read or write.

They meant nothing to me now, since there was no one here who could teach me how to read my first language.

This scroll seemed important somehow, but I couldn’t tell why it was important, I just didn’t want to lose it.

After about an hour of scanning over the books and the text in the scroll, I was nowhere near close enough to understanding any of it.

The front door opens without warning. I was so focused, I almost didn’t notice.

The grizzly man walks into the living room.

‘Just him?’

*sniff* *sniff*

He doesn’t seem to be doing anything criminal or nefarious.

In my former life, entering someone else’s home without permission was a serious offense.

Maybe it’s just a normal thing in this world.

‘Why did I suddenly remember that?’

I move to open Karth’s door ajar and peek through the opening.

Grizzly left all of the lights in the house off, does he like the dark too?

He sits down in the living room and places down a stack of books.

‘He’s not coming for me?’

After a moment of silence, I hear him call out softly,

“Alice. Come – please?”

He knows I can hear him.

I remain still and stare into the dark room ahead.

Neither of us can see each other, there’s furniture blocking the way.

The beastborn man starts flipping through a book and reads it aloud.

I consider leaving him to his business, like an uncle who treats the place as a second home.

However, there’s something about the way he’s reading.

It’s slow, loud enough for me to hear, and purposeful.

Is he reading for me?

The words are simple, some of them I’m beginning to recognize.

Unconsciously, my feet carry me towards the beastborn man.

I find a spot to sit on the other end of the couch.

He stops reading and watches me, waiting for me to come close as he slightly turns the book towards me.

I stare back for several long moments.

‘What is he thinking? Is this a trap?’

With the book still open, he places it on his lap.

His gaze is soft, inviting, not forceful or demanding.

‘He just wants to read with me…’

Reading with Karth felt like a chore.

I don’t mind being around him, but sometimes he can be a bit difficult.

Why is it that I don’t like Karth?

What did he do to make me dislike him?

A memory resurfaces, something from my past life…

It’s fuzzy, but I vaguely remember someone I once knew.

They were very similar to Karth. Not rude, but a bit impatient, treated me like a baby.

Maybe that’s why Karth gets on my nerves. He reminds me of them…

‘Who were they…?’

I push the thoughts aside and slide closer to Grizzly man.

I didn't realize it right away, but my thigh touched his for a brief moment.

I quickly pull away, as if his touch was scalding hot, despite his body being moderately warm.

He seemed to notice my reaction, but he didn’t draw much attention to it.

He picks up the book again and turns it towards me.

The beastborn man continues to read while moving his fingers over the words and pointing towards the imagery.

It helps. It’s a lot calmer than when Karth does it, somehow.

I follow along, despite not fully understanding what Grizzly says.

----------------------------------------

Karth opens the door to his apartment and finds Gendal’s shoes still near the entrance.

As he moves into the living room, he places Alice’s lunch on the dinner table and turns on the lights to find Gendal sleeping on the couch.

Adelle follows behind Karth shortly after.

She instructs her apprentice to wait outside and closes the door on her way.

Alice is crouched in a corner, drawing words over and over on a sheet of paper.

Her handwriting is barely legible.

She squints and shields her eyes against the sudden change in lighting.

Karth can see her holding a colored pencil with her whole hand, rather than with her fingers.

“Oh Alice…”

The girl acknowledges his presence without looking up.

The mage sits next to Alice and holds the darkened gem in her hand.

“Her stone is out of power; it’ll take a moment to recharge.”

Magic flows into it again.

Karth picks up a colored pencil and tries to show Alice the proper way to hold it.

“You’re supposed to hold it like this, it makes writing so much easier.”

She ignores his attempts.

‘How should I go about showing her?’

There are several newer books scattered around Gendal’s sleeping form.

Among them, Karth finds one that might help.

Adelle activates a function in the gem, turning Alice’s form into a beastborn again.

Karth shows the girl a drawing from the book, pointing out a visual example.

“Like this.”

She reluctantly looks up and stares at the image.

Karth imitates it with his other hand, hoping that Alice would understand.

The girl looks at her hands, now free of a catilyss’ long, razor sharp claws.

She fiddles with the pencil in her fingers, attempting to hold it in the same fashion.

“There you go. Now try writing.”

Alice goes back to writing, finding it difficult to adjust to this new method.

She watches Karth’s hand, hoping for a more practical example.

He takes a blank page and writes:

“Alice is smart. Keep trying, you will do good.”

Her eyes follow every motion of Karth’s fingers and the pencil on the paper.

She continues to go about writing as best as she can, duplicating what Karth just wrote.

The man shifts his focus to the woman sitting beside Alice.

“Thank you. Not only for charging the gem and the training, but also for the passives you gave Alice.”

“I remember you telling me about a status scroll earlier. Can I see it?”

“Yeah, it’s uh… Where did Alice put it?”

“Is it the one next to her?”

Resting beside Alice, in between several of the children’s books, is her status scroll.

Karth moves to take it, but Alice quickly snatches it up first.

She looks upset, like she is being robbed of something precious to her.

“I just want to look at it for a second, I’ll give it back.”

Despite his gentle speech, she persists to keep it out of his reach.

Adelle giggles to herself.

The snoring from Gendal stopped a bit ago. He lazily shuffles to a seated position on the couch and looks at Karth.

“That’s not how you get a child to give you something.”

Karth groans,

“Are you an expert on children now?”

The beastborn man stretches and yawns, before responding.

“As a father of two kids, I’d say I know a bit.”

“You’re a father?”

“You never asked.”

He shrugs.

Karth felt embarrassed for his accusations.

Both he and Adelle take a few steps back from the girl to let Gendal do his thing.

The bear-like man sits down in front of her.

She watches him with a slightly softer gaze than she gave Karth, but she also expects him to take the scroll away from her as well.

“Alice?”

She tenses up a bit.

Gendal sticks a hand in his pocket and retrieves a small hard candy in a wrapper.

“Would you like this?”

She sniffs at the air, curious as to what it is.

Her eyes light up with interest.

Alice reaches for the candy, but he closes his hand and gestures for the scroll.

She seems hesitant at first, but after giving it some thought, she trades the scroll for the hard candy.

“See?”

Gendal exclaims proudly, looking to Karth for some praise.

“Why do you carry candy with you?”

“I like kids– not in that way. I just have a soft spot for the youth and like to see them smile. Besides, the Montimo guild has a reputation for treating kids well, especially beastborn kids. I wouldn’t want to make the guild look bad.”

“Not all of them carry candy.”

“Well then, it’s just what I like to do. Here.”

He hands Adelle the status scroll.

She carefully reads it over.

“This text… it looks similar to what I’ve seen from Aleksandra’s world.”

“What?”

Karth moves to look at the scroll with Adelle.

“How can you tell?”

“The characters are the same, they’re just jumbled up chaotically. It must be some sort of code.”

“Why would a status scroll create a code, instead of explain the skill like normal?”

“This might be why, Cradle’s Crypt. The curse.”

“So, then it is linked.”

“Appears so.”

“Can you crack the code?”

“I might not be able to myself, I’ve only nearly learned a bit about this language, but I believe it would take a native to understand.”

“But Alice didn’t understand it, so then…?”

“Aleksandra is just outside. As much as I want to keep her away from the girl, I also don’t want her to see this scroll. I’ll write the code on a separate sheet of paper and hope she can crack it.”

“Thanks, I’ll try to bring Alice to the table to eat her lunch.”

----------------------------------------

Aleksandra scans over the note multiple times while also typing rapidly on her mobile phone.

Adelle explained that sometimes, her apprentice will communicate back and forth with other interplanetary travelers, like herself, between worlds.

It’s possible that she’s recruiting help from others like her, to crack the code.

“Her phone, it’s… very different from ours.”

“How so?”

Adelle continues to make me think. She never just gives me the answers, she wants me to learn.

I can respect her for that, but sometimes I would prefer a straight answer.

“Well… the physical device looks the same as ours on the outside, but even someone without magic training, like me, can tell there’s something very different about it.”

“Go on.”

“It’s powerfully warded and yet it doesn’t have a ‘power meter’; it can run infinitely. It has programs I’ve never seen before or even heard of, and it’s all in that foreign language. Did Alice really come from the past, or another world?”

“It is possible that she came from another world. It would explain how she knows a language similar to Aleksandra’s, however, it’s difficult to say if she came from the same world or not.”

Alice grows tired of writing and chooses to rest against the wall, watching everyone with minimal interest.

Gendal tries to entertain her, but she doesn’t seem too interested.

I remain silent, waiting for Adelle to continue her thought.

“You’ve heard this plenty of times before, but the great heroes of the past were chosen by a greater being, possibly one of the gods in our world or some deity from theirs. They were chosen. Aleksandra volunteered to come here by her own free will, through a different kind of deity, though she won’t tell. She can be loose lipped about many things, but she keeps her method of traveling between worlds very secret. So then, what brought Alice here? She clearly doesn’t want to be a monster, yet she was forced to live as one.”

“It could be similar to the great heroes. Maybe there’s a reason why she was turned into a monster, and that reason is kept hidden within her past memories.”

The life mage ponders the thought for a bit.

Aleksandra leaves the written code on the table and makes her way towards Alice.

“Hey, what’s got you looking so glum?”

I speak up for her.

“She’s very shy, try not to upset her.”

“Don’t worry, I’m good with kids. I want to show her something cute.”

I look to Adelle to see what she thinks.

She nods, allowing it.

If Adelle thinks it’s fine, then it can’t hurt.

From the girl’s mobile phone, I hear what sounds like kittens mewing.

‘Audio, or maybe a video, of kittens?’

Surely, even Alice would like something like that.

Then I hear another sound. It’s a human voice, but not in Common.

It sounds familiar somehow…

It’s…!

Alice’s eyes go wide. The young woman notices and says something in that other language.

I quickly move to intervene, but before I even take a step, Adelle appears next to her apprentice.

“Please, keep this secret. It’s important.”

Green light flashes from the life mage’s hand and Aleksandra goes unconscious, hanging limply in the older woman’s arms.

Alice is very upset now; she’s speaking in her own language.

I can’t understand any of it…