Although Sofra was distraught after the tournament, the relationship between the parents remained calm, which was a relief for Tao. The boy's parents also did not forget to collect the information Neter had asked them to gather. Of course, Tao did not hesitate to eavesdrop on their conversation a few days later.
Indres and Sofra had spoken to people in the villages further away and discovered that disappearances were more frequent there than near Ueki. It was clear that this was indeed happening all around the Elesa forest and only this village and its surroundings were being spared. Whether this was to lull the vigilance, or for some other reason, one could only guess.
Tao continued to feign ignorance and tried to behave in an age-appropriate manner. However, he noticed a shadow of growing concern on his parents' faces, especially as they watched their son. Most likely they were only concerned for Tao's safety, as could be expected. The boy couldn't put out of his mind the possibility that perhaps his parents were beginning to suspect something more in their hearts...
This made Tao feel guilty, but he didn't change his plans. The boy still hoped to find a solution on his own, without revealing the truth about himself. Even if the threat was ambiguous, Sofra and Indres were more alert now, which meant it would be harder for the enemy to influence them.
Most of the villagers continued to live in blissful ignorance of the true circumstances. The lack of monsters in the area and the relatively few deaths only reinforced the belief that Ueki was a blessed and good place to live. Indres's warnings that there was something dangerous in the forest mostly had fallen on deaf ears. Even when news came of a planned expedition south to destroy the evil in the forest, the people saw it as something far away - interesting but unimportant to the village.
They were forced to reconsider when Felis, the winner of the tournament duels, announced his intention to leave the village to join the expedition and make a name for himself. Though the future of the village seemed bright, some longed for something more. While it was not pleasant to lose a talented warrior among the village's gatekeepers, the villagers soon decided that Ueki would benefit from Felis' departure anyway. If he succeeded abroad, it would only add to the village's glory.
Some other young warriors also expressed interest in the planned expedition, but the village elders made it clear that only Felis would receive their recommendation. As far as Tao could tell, no one was forced to live in this village, it was just not easy to get a good job in a foreign country. It was no wonder that only the bravest and most talented went to seek their fortune in distant lands.
From the conversations of his parents and other adults, Tao had heard that there were many smaller countries and colder climates beyond the mountains to the north, and the Empire's dominions and the sea beyond the forest to the south. Sometimes the boy's thoughts lingered on these distant, unknown places. He would be happy even just to see a larger city, where Indres sometimes went. Tao's parents did not seem to be planning any trip in the near future, especially with Tao. They decided to continue to rely on the safety of the village walls, even if it was perhaps according to the enemy's designs.
***
Just as Sofra and Asarate had agreed, the young woman came regularly to look after Tao and his sisters. Asarate was clumsy and shy but diligent in her efforts to entertain Sofra's children. Tao thought she could do with a little more firmness, especially with Safia, who often stepped on the young nanny's head. Sometimes even literally.
"The monster is dead! I win!" Safia shouted, raising her stick/sword above her head.
Her foot was on Asarate's head, who was lying face down on the floor.
Tao sat on a chair at the other end of the room and watched the show in silence. In his wisdom, he had refused to play the monster, so the part went to Asarate. Inya was also involved in the play as the princess who was rescued from the monster by the hero.
"Safia, please don't put your foot on Asarate's head..." Tao sighed, feeling ashamed of his sister's insolence.
Safia didn't answer, but still backed away from Asarate and went to rescue the 'princess' who was drooling in the corner. When Asarate stood up, she seemed in a good mood and even smiled. Perhaps, from an adult woman's point of view, it was just a play with the children and did not offend her self-esteem.
Tao felt differently.
Although he usually obeyed his sister's wishes to play together, Safia could easily get out of control. If Tao didn't set boundaries, she wouldn't hesitate to push her brother under her boot.
Once the hero had rescued the princess and the king had rewarded her, the game came to an end.
"Let's play some more!" Safia immediately demanded, waving her stick.
"Oh... maybe we can rest for a while?" Asarate asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
Why are you asking her? Aren't you the adult here? Tao thought, looking at Asarate.
Although the boy hadn't been actively moving, he too felt the heat. The early summer rains had ended and the hot season had set in.
"Now it's my turn. I want Asarate to read a book." Tao spoke up.
Safia pouted her lips and even moaned in discontent.
"Good idea! Let's drink the juice and read the book, yea?" The nanny was happy to agree to the boy's offer.
Although Safia still looked displeased but did not argue back. Her parents had taught her fairness. And she also knew that she couldn't beat Tao with words or force.
Asarate walked over to the table where there was a jug of fruit juice, a smaller bowl of water, and a wooden mold. She poured the water into the mold and said the water-freezing spell, forming ice blocks, which were then put into the mugs with juice. Tao and Safia drank on their own while Asarate helped Inya.
Praise be to everyday magic, Tao was feeling an appreciation as he sipped the refreshing drink.
He couldn't imagine how hard it would be to endure the summer heat without this spell in a world cursed to exist without electrical coolers.
Asarate picked up a storybook and sat down on the bed with the children. Tao and Safia continued to slowly sip the chilled juice while Asarate began to read aloud.
"In the Realm of Old, one father had three sons. The two eldest sons were wise, but the youngest was foolish. When it was time for the eldest to take a wife, his father gave him three gold coins and sent him to the town to find a suitable bride. When the eldest son crossed the mountain valley, a tiny deorg in tattered clothes sat by the roadside and asked for a copper coin, but the eldest son gave none."
Your reading skills have improved, good job! Tao praised Asarate in thought.
The villagers were not idiots, it was just that they did not have many opportunities to read in their daily lives. Books were rare, stories and tales were usually told from memory. Sofra was a rare exception who loved books. As far as he could tell, Asarate also liked them. The young woman read seriously and with passion. Tao smiled to himself as he imagined Asarate standing in a classroom, dressed in a school uniform and reading aloud at the teacher's bidding.
"The eldest son went to the town, where he found the daughter of wealthy parents. After paying the bride price of three gold coins, he returned home with his wife.
When it was time for the second son to take a wife, his father gave him three silver coins and sent him to the town to find a suitable bride. When the second son crossed the mountain valley, the same deorg in tattered clothes sat by the roadside and asked for a copper coin. This son also gave him none. The second son went to the town where he found a daughter of common parents. After paying three silver coins for the bride price, he returned home with his wife."
Tao did not ask Asarate to read the book only to take a break from the Safia’s game. While the young woman devoted all her attention to reading, he was able to concentrate on his training. True, the familiar story, told in Asarate's somewhat clumsy rendition, continued to bustle in the boy's mind.
"When it was time for the youngest son, to take a wife, his father gave him only three copper coins for he was foolish one and sent him to the town to find a suitable bride. When the foolish son crossed the mountain valley, the same deorg in tattered clothes sat by the roadside and asked for a copper coin. The foolish son took pity on the deorg and gave him one of three copper coins. The deorg ate it and asked for more. Then the foolish son gave him the other two coins. Deorg ate them too and called the foolish son his friend. Left without the copper coins, the foolish son decided to return home, where he was scolded by his father and mocked by his older brothers and their wives."
The story continued with similar events the following year when the father gave the foolish son three silver coins, but the foolish son also gave them to a hungry deorg who called the foolish son a close friend. The same thing happened a third time when the father gave the foolish son three gold coins and the deorg called him a true friend.
"Angry with the foolish son who had wasted so much money, the father chased him out of the house. The foolish son went through the mountain valley but never found the deorg again, he was gone.
Walking further along the road, the foolish son came to a town where he started to work for a day's livelihood. After some time, an evil dragoon kidnapped the king's daughter and took her to a mountain valley. The whole kingdom was plunged into sorrow, and the king promised half the realm and the hand of the princess to whoever would save her, but no noble warrior dared to face this monster."
Tao noticed that his older sister became more interested when the monster that needed to be defeated appeared in the story.
"The foolish son decided to go to the mountain valley to save the princess. He found a large, dark cave, out of which came a dragoon, huge, with scales like steel armor and a hideous face. When he saw the fool, who had neither armor nor sword, the monster began to laugh so that the treetops trembled.
But his laughter roused the giant, who was sleeping under the mountain. When he arose, his shadow covered the valley. When he took a step, the earth trembled. Dragoon was frightened and fled, but the giant caught him and crushed him in his arms.
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"Thank you for your help." The foolish son thanked the giant.
"I owe you this, my true friend." The mountain tops trembled as the giant spoke in a voice as deep and powerful as the sea.
The Foolish son did not understand what the giant meant.
"I am the deorg to whom you gave the copper, silver, and gold that made me grow big and strong."
The foolish son went into the cave and freed the princess from her chains. They left the mountain valley, but the giant destroyed the cave and buried the remains of the dragoon under stones.
When the foolish son and the princess returned to the town, everyone wondered how this could be. The king kept his promise and gave his daughter to the foolish son as his wife and half the kingdom. The giant went back to sleep under the mountain and the foolish son later built a great city on this mountain. They remained friends even after the death of the foolish son because the giant continued to defend the city while the fool's children ruled it. Perhaps he is sleeping under that mountain even now."
While Tao had heard this and similar stories many times before, he did not mind listening again. Even though they may have been mostly just fiction to entertain the children and teach them moral lessons, they also opened a window to the wider world. And it also gave hope that evil could be defeated.
Well, the deorgs who live in the village get silver in their wages, but they don't grow any bigger... Tao chuckled to himself.
Even in a magical world, some stories are just fairy tales.
Asarate continued to read stories from the book for a good while, allowing Tao to concentrate undisturbed on his spirit power training. At least until he noticed next to him Inya playing with something familiar - a doll in a green dress and black hair. Tao felt a sudden panic. He had pushed the doll under his pillow, so he was surprised that his little sister managed to find it.
Wait, Eleya's not here today... right? The boy tried to calm down.
He moved closer to his sister and touched the doll to feel it. Inya froze for a moment but did not take the doll from her brother's hand away. When Tao was sure that Eleya's body was not inside, he sighed in relief.
A little over a year old and already knows how to find hidden things, huh? He mentally praised his little sister as well.
It did mean that Tao would have to be even more cautious when Inya was around.
"You don't want to hear more?" Asarate noticed that the boy's attention was on something else.
"No, I want to..." he got back to sitting next to her.
As the nanny began to read another story, the boy's thoughts were still on Inya and the doll.
I don't want to take it away from her, but... If she starts playing with the doll when Eleya is inside...Tao couldn't even imagine what the result would be. In any case, it was one more problem on his already long list of worries.
The boy's eyes occasionally turned to the doll in his little sister's hands. Though he knew that Eleya wasn't in there, Tao still had the impression that the spirit of the forest was watching him through the doll's inanimate eyes...
The sooner I learn to detect the presence of spirit beings, the better, Tao sighed a little heavily.
That was easier said than done. Actually, it began to seem that learning to feel his spirit power was the easy part. Tao already knew how to spread the power of his spirit outside his body, but he usually did it like a stream of water in a certain direction. Eleya argued that for the scanner to be effective, the spirit power had to be spread in all directions, in a compact but thin layer, like a soap bubble expanding. Tao understood the idea, but it was not easy to get his spirit power to obey to that extent.
The boy also had to learn to transform the nature of his spirit power so that it would reflect from another spirit power. Even with Eleya's guidance and direction, this process was slow and tedious. Tao often felt like he could only hope to accidentally find the right way.
"Asa, more juice please!" Safia asked, picking up her empty cup.
"Sure..." the young woman put the book aside and walked over to the table. As before, she poured water into the mold and said the water-cooling spell, but this time nothing happened. Asarate repeated the spell, but again in vain.
"It looks like my spirit power needs rest... maybe a few hours later... Or better to ask the neighbors?" Asarate muttered in confusion.
"What do you mean, need rest? Mom just says the spell and everything happens!" Safia expressed her confusion and impatience.
Tao felt sorry to see how unhappy the young nanny looked.
"There must be ice in the cellar to cool the supplies." He spoke.
"Yes, right!" Asarate snapped and headed for the kitchen where there was a hatch to the basement Safia followed her.
Tao decided to stay in the room with his younger sister. He walked over to the table and climbed up on a chair so he could see the mold with the water better.
Asarate said the ice spell five times today. Does she really have so little spirit power? It was not easy for the boy to grasp.
As Safia had mentioned, the mother of the two children could have used a lot more spells. Tao himself couldn't imagine running out of spirit power, even using this spell all day and night continuously.
The boy was interrupted from his contemplation by a knock at the front door. Out of curiosity, he went out into the hallway and saw Asarate opening the door.
"H-honourable husband, what are you doing here?" There was a surprise in her voice, even a kind of startlement.
"What? I'm going to where my wife is." The voice of the men was harsh and upset.
Without being asked, the husband of Asarate stepped his foot over the threshold.
"This is not our house, you can't..."
"And you can? What, are you better than me?" The man's voice grew angrier.
Tao sensed that Vern was drunk. This worried him, given the magic user's already bad temper. The boy saw that Safia was standing far from the outer door but decided to approach his sister anyway. Unfortunately, the movement caught Vern's eye. It didn't make things any better for Asarate.
"You look after other people's children again? And for what, eh? For some medicine? You don't even get paid properly and you leave your own home and husband uncared for? Is this how a wife should behave?" the man launched into a harsh tirade against the young woman.
Tao grabbed Safia's arm and dragged his sister into the hallway, away from Vern's eyes.
"Why is he angry?" The girl asked in a quiet voice.
She had never seen anything like this between her parents, so she felt troubled.
"I don't know... we'd better go to the room."
It seemed that Asarate also wanted to get her drunk, grumpy husband away from the children because she walked with him out of the house and closed the door behind her. In Tao's eyes, leaving three small children unattended was not an ideal solution. But he understood that it was not easy for the young woman in this situation. Fortunately, one of the three children was more than capable of looking after the other two.
Asarate's conversation with her husband seemed to drag on. Tao didn't want to listen, so he didn't bother to enhance his hearing. Although the words were indistinguishable, Vern's frustrated voice could still be heard through the open window.
Despite Tao's efforts to ignore the argument between the nanny and her husband, the boy's peace of mind was lost. Vague, unwanted memories of his past life began to creep up from the depths of his subconscious. Tao took a deep breath and tried to push them back in darkness.
"Juju!" exclaimed Inya, pointing to the table with the pitcher of juice.
Safia walked over to the table and climbed up on the chair to pour the juice into the mug.
"Too warm..." she complained as she took a sip.
"It'll be fine." Tao reached up on tiptoe to pick up the mug and give her younger sister a drink. While the boy paid attention to Inya, Safia managed to slip quietly out of the room. It was nothing special, but Tao didn't want her to go near the front door and possibly overhear the argument between Asarate and her husband. The boy, however, was also hesitant to leave his younger sister alone in the room.
Tao heard suspicious noises coming from the kitchen, but even with enhanced hearing could not distinguish what the elder sister was doing. Then there was silence for a while.
"Mummy, Daddy..." the boy heard Safia's voice, low and indistinct.
Worried, Tao rushed to the kitchen, but it was empty. His attention was drawn to the open hatch to the cellar.
"Safia?" The boy called.
"H-Help, Daddy..." the girl's voice was weak, she sounded close to tears.
Walking up to the hatch and peering inside, Tao noticed his sister standing on the basement floor, her hands clinging to the ladder.
"What happened? Did you fall?"
"No... I saw it."
"What did you see?"
Safia didn't answer, she looked down as if afraid to lift her head. The girl seemed frozen stiff and began to sniffle.
Tao didn't understand what was happening. Although there was not much daylight in the cellar, he did not see anything dangerous. Safia didn't seem hurt either, but her behavior was worrying.
"I'll go down and help." He tried to encourage his sister.
Tao immediately felt how cool the air was in the basement. At first, it was pleasantly, but a moment later it seemed too icy and damp. The boy smelled meat and fish lying in boxes of ice. Although there was light coming from above, otherwise the place hadn't changed much since the event over a year ago...
The scratching of claws against stone and the two red embers moving in the darkness...
Damn...
Tao felt himself wanting to freeze too, or at least start climbing back up.
It happened that time. He was frozen in fear, letting the monster sink its teeth into him, harm his mother, and scare Safia. Completely worthless...
It was hard to ignore the sudden memory, but Tao managed to get down to the ground to be by his sister's side. Her face was pale, and her fingers were clenched in a tight grip on the side of the ladder. Safia still kept her head down, her eyes closed.
"I'm here, do you... want to go up?" Tao spoke and touched his sister's arm.
"I can't... it’s watching..." she replied in a whisper and shook her head nervously, barely noticeable.
Tao concentrated his spirit power to improve his vision and looked around. The darkness in the nooks and corners was still thick and unwelcoming, but the boy saw no rodent vermin or anything more dangerous. His attention was drawn only to a few patches in the stone and wood where his father or someone else had mended the marks left by huge claws.
Two crimson, coal-like lights in pitch black darkness, the inhuman scream and stench of burning flesh...
Despite the cool air, Tao felt sweat breaking out again on his brow. All that was here was a memory, but it was enough.
"It's all right, there's nothing here. Let's go upstairs." He tried to reassure Safia.
The boy put his hand on his sister's back and tried to move her but to no avail.
"There is! I saw in the dark." She whispered back, still squeezing her eyes shut.
"It’s just a shadow. Please, don't be afraid."
"I can't... Call Daddy... Please..."
Sofra had gone to collect precious plants in the forest and Indres accompanied her for safety. Tao didn't think his parents would return soon. The only adult that was around was Asarate, but she had her own problem right now. Besides, the boy didn't want to leave his sister alone down here even for a short time.
I can't lift her, even if I used the spirit power, but... Tao was trying to decide what to do.
He thought of something that might help, but it was a bit risky if Safia started talking to others about it. It would also mean breaking the promise Tao had made to his father.
Who do I want to protect... my family, or myself? An unpleasant thought flashed through his mind.
Tao raised his hand, bent his fingers in a certain gesture, and spoke in a low but clear voice.
"Ilata tara orea."
The boy's hand began to emit a brilliant light that drove the darkness from the corners of the cellar. Safia finally opened her eyes and stared at her brother's hand in surprise.
But Tao had forgotten for a moment to worry about his sister. Something strange had happened. It had been months since Tao had last used the spell and this time, he sensed a change. The alien presence in his mind, the artificial spirit, was more definite. The strange construction with lines and symbols seemed clearer and more comprehensible. The connection of its components with the processes that the artificial spirit was carried out in the subconscious was tangible. If Tao had been like a blind man groping for objects with his hands to determine their shapes, now he could see them.
Not now! The boy tried to concentrate on what was going on around him, not in his mind.
"See? There's nothing here." Tao raised his hand higher to better illuminate the room.
The girl looked around, but her gaze returned to the light in her brother's hand. Although the surprise remained on her face, the fright seemed to withdraw.
"Now let's go upstairs. Yes?" Tao tried again to encourage his sister to start moving.
This time it worked. While he lit the cellar from below, Safia climbed up the ladder - slowly at first, but more surely by the end. Tao let the light go out and left the cellar himself.
Does the ability to sense in mind my own spirit power also help to better understand the spells? His thoughts returned to what he had experienced.
Lately, Tao had been too busy with other things to try to study the spells as he had done before. The boy had also burned the drawings of spell constructions on the bark of the tree. Even on the nights when Tao trained alone or with Eleya, he didn't need to use the spells. Now it made him feel a bit like a fool.
Tao wanted to explore these new possibilities as soon as possible, but he had to curb that urge. Closing the hatch, the boy saw that Safia was still standing beside him, looking at her brother thoughtfully. Tao was glad that she was no longer overwhelmed by fear, but he was aware that he had created a problem for himself.
"How do you do spell?" As could be expected, she didn't just forget what she saw.
But perhaps it was possible to agree not to mention it to Asarate and their parents.
It's a bit shady… but I'm not teaching her to lie, just... to not talk about unnecessary things... Tao tried to assuage his conscience.
"Safia, remember those times when I didn't tell mammy that Inya wasn't the one who wet the bed?"
Time for you to pay the debt...
***