Torches flickered with purple light, burning myrrhwood tainting the air with a sinister hue. The glow picked out wood pillars and beams, hewn by rough but assured hands that left no consideration for aesthetics. The sole concession was at the head of the room.
The Sultan of Scales reclined atop a carved softwood plinth at the end of his audience chamber, his lustrous serpentine form refracting the firelight.
The wood ‘throne’ under him was intricately engraved with scenes of his many conquests in lurid, bright dyed detail, yet if anything it was unworthy of the powerful naga atop it.
His snake tail flowed up into a humanoid chest and arms, scintillating jewelry adorning his scaled limbs. A cobresque hood jangled softly when he turned his head, gold rings hanging from the edges, like a halo framing his imposing face.
Befitting of his stature as self-proclaimed ruler of all Naga, the Sultan was flanked by a score of guards ‘standing’ to attention below his throne. Somewhere outside it was afternoon, so he was attended too by courtiers and supplicants.
Kneeling before the plinth and guards was the sole humanoid figure in the throne room; a haggard and filthy man, bound at the wrists and ankles. He was young but muscular. His tattered metal armor suggested an adventurer accustomed to the Bloodsucking Forest.
The man’s face was contorted in pain and anger as he met the Sultan’s eye. He spat, but the huge Naga showed no dismay at the act of defiance.
The monarch extended a scaled hand.
A great trident of gold filled it at once, placed there by his subjects.
“If you refuse to speak you will join your allies in death,” the naga declared in the human’s tongue, with a thick, sibilant voice.
“Got nothing to say to monsters what’ll kill me anyway,” replied the human. “Guild’ll find out about your little kingdom soon enough. Bring an army. More adventurers too. We’ll have our veng-”
His words dissolved into a wet gurgle, his eyes going wide.
The trident thrust through his chest had pierced armor and bone with ease.
The human collapsed to the floor. The Sultan of Scales held out the bloodied weapon for his servants to collect and cleanse.
He turned to the smaller naga behind the slain adventurer, the ropes that had bound the human still gripped in her hand. This time he spoke in the native language of the Naga. “Did any of his party escape?”
She shook her head quickly. “We captured this one alive the day after he fled. The rest died fighting after we caught them climbing the palisade. However….” There was an uncomfortable pause as she steeled herself. “We of the Aslasha clan brought our captive to you as a sign of respect - he was not yours to execute.”
“Who am I, emissary?” the Sultan asked, his voice thick with menace.
“You are… the Sultan of Scales,” she replied uncertainly.
“Yes, I am the Sultan, the rightful monarch of all Naga. All that I do is for my people. To serve me is to serve all Naga. I tolerate the independence of clans like yours provided you pay the proper homage, but do not confuse my graciousness for weakness.”
The emissary swallowed. Her throat was painfully dry in the smoky air.
“Leave me,” the Sultan commanded with a wave of his hand.
The smaller serpent was quick to obey, deflating visibly as she slithered out of the chamber.
When she was gone another figure approached the throne. “My liege,” she spoke, bowing her head, “this human was among the gold-ranked adventurers we hired. His party should have been scouting the lakes to the West, well outside our territory, not attacking an Aslasha clan fort in the North.”
An older naga with a staff in hand slithered forward. His once-red scales had faded to a dull pink but he still carried himself with dignity.
“Yet there he was in our lands, without a doubt. We can only presume the humans, fickle and treacherous as they are, chose to investigate their clients, rather than their target. Doubtless they thought to acquire more wealth in that way. If you would dispose of that on your way out….” He gestured weakly at the corpse. His rasping voice was quiet and ponderous but the younger reptilian didn’t argue.
She took the remains of the human with her as she and the other naga of lower standing filed from the throne room. It was only once they were gone and the doors closed that the old man spoke again.
“My Sultan, from my own investigations I would venture to say that the Aslasha are unaware of the true mission of the adventurers they slew. It would appear that the humans were caught before they could reach the clan elder, much as the young emissary suggested.”
Another courtier spoke up; an androgynous silver and blue-patterned figure with a refined air. “If you’re wrong the Aslasha know what we did.”
“Hmph, what was it we did, I ask you? We serve the Sultan and the Naga people you know. Our actions are for the benefit of all,” the old snake pontificated.
“It is most regrettable that the present head of our neighbors to the north suffers so myopic a mistrust of unification, but we cannot allow one man to stand in the way of the betterment of all Naga. What we did was for the sake of the Aslasha too.”
“What we did was attempted assassination!” retorted the other. “My Sultan,” they spoke, turning and bowing to the black-scaled figure. “Was this plan truly your will, your highness?!”
Hush fell over the room, long and heavy enough that even the bold silver-blue naga began to look uneasy. The guards exchanged looks with the courtiers, but few present understood the troubled expression that had come over their ruler. Not anger but something else.
The Sultan of Scales raised his head, staring, as if looking through the thick walls of his mansion and out to the Bloodsucking Forest and the mountains beyond. His courtiers were all but forgotten.
“Leave me,” he commanded abruptly in his powerful voice. He had not even glanced back at the androgynous naga. They were quick to bow out at his tone alone.
In the wake of the dismissal only the crackling of burning wood disturbed the silence. None dared press the Sultan to explain.
“Summon my generals,” he commanded at last, those left in the room taking a collective breath.
“Vizier,” he went on, “have you concluded the investigation into the thunder two days ago?”
“I have, my Sultan,” nodded the old naga. “There can be no doubt that the Stormqueen of the Harpies was responsible.”
“What was she fighting?”
The vizier hesitated at that. “Ah, as to that, it is difficult to say… there are many possibilities we have yet to explore-“
“Your answer,” the Sultan demanded, cutting short the excuses.
The vizier winced at his tone but bowed his head obsequiously. “I apologize a hundred times that I cannot say. We found no trace of her enemy. Given her return to the mountains the following day it might be assumed that her enemy perished in her attack.”
“And what about this fresh burst of energy?”
“Ah yes, the, um, event mere moments earlier?” nodded the vizier, “Yes, of course I sensed it, but I could not begin to guess what could have created such a powerful burst of magical essence. Though it may be premature to say, I suspect that the two events are unrelated, as even the Stormqueen does not have such a deep reserve of mana.”
The Sultan of Scales gave a cold smile. “First the queen of the harpies fights an unknown foe of great power over my forest, now a vast eruption of magic echoes from the mountains, and my vizier tells me these events are unrelated.”
“Please forgive this old servant his foolishness, my Sultan, perhaps you can enlighten us as to what you have gleaned?”
“The harpy met a powerful foe in the forest and left it for dead,” the monarch began, “but in her arrogance the so-called queen of storms failed to finish her enemy and it gave chase.”
“Then should we presume that the Harpies have come under attack from a powerful yet unknown foe?” asked the elder naga.
“That is what we must ascertain. If their hold over the mountains should weaken then perhaps the time has come for the Cyclopean Bones to know a new ruler.”
~~~
Further north, the guildmaster for the town of Faron was in his office, overlooking the human settlement and the Bloodsucking Forest beyond.
Guildmaster Bomond had met with Lyanna and her party, Thunderbolt, earlier that day. They had come to report their encounter with the near-mythical mimic in the forest. Big news – for them, for him, and for the Guild.
Bomond had been preparing a letter to the town lord, Baron Faron, outlining the situation and requesting a meeting.
That was before he sensed the ripple of magical energy that washed through the room. It had been mild enough that most people wouldn’t feel a thing, but he had been a Gold-rank adventurer for decades. Even after retiring he'd kept active managing his local guild branch. Bomond had learned the art of sensing mana, and he was unusually skilled at it.
Yet in over forty years he had never felt as ominous a wave of mana as he just did. With his experience he could discern the proximity and quality of mana sources he detected, but the guildmaster could only strain his senses in bewilderment as the tremulous essence passed him by. He couldn’t judge the range at all, and it carried no trace of any spell.
He ran a hand over his smooth head as he strained his senses to glean some additional understanding of the event.
It had to be far, so absurdly far that he couldn’t even begin to feel the range, yet how then could he detect it at all?
The answer was obvious of course, but the thought made his shaved scalp slick with sweat.
The entity responsible had unleashed an impossible volume of horrifically dense, malevolent mana. Not in the casting of some magic but as a pure blast of raw energy.
Even if he couldn’t determine how far off the source was, Bomond could tell the direction easily enough. Whatever it was, it was south, somewhere in the Bloodsucking Forest or perhaps even the Cyclopean Bones beyond.
Given the distances involved it was unlikely that many others in Faron sensed the wave, but it couldn’t be ignored. It was the third strange sign from the forest in just a few days.
It had to be the mimic Lyanna had reported.
Very little was known about the creatures, but she had detected a huge reserve of mana from the monster. It was too great a stretch to imagine a second creature with so massive a mana pool had emerged within just two days of the first’s sighting.
He started a second letter.
The expedition to capture the mimic had just become much more dangerous, yet the rewards too would be all the greater. Bomond hoped that his former party leader, the Diamond-ranker Jalera, was still in the capital.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
~~~
I slept like a log that night, after the long and eventful day.
Once more my love of lying-in was thwarted, as my handmaidens arrived bright and early the next morning to get me ready for breakfast.
The Harpies were early risers by nature, while I’d always been more of a night-owl.
Agytha and Chione prepared my clothes and dressed me once again. I was getting used to the two of them seeing me naked, even if I still wasn’t used to the sight myself, but it still felt like I was being babied.
According to Ael it was standard treatment for the nobility in Harpy society, and likely the wider world too, but it felt pointlessly indulgent and dehumanizing towards the servants. I wondered if nobles in this world too important to wipe their own asses too.
It was apparently Chione’s turn to escort me to the dining hall today. I was confident I could remember the way, but Agytha never let me turn down any of the services the two were ‘supposed’ to provide. In this case it suited me to have some time alone with her.
The round-faced harpy was less irritable today than she had been. She hardly glared at me at all while I was being dressed.
She led the way through the huge corridors of the Eyrie towards the hall in silence, leaving me to look at the thick mottled brown plumage of her back and wings.
We were coming up to a balcony that looked out over the plateau towards Ael’s throne and the various structures below, so I made a show of stopping to look out. Chione was forced to stop too. She turned to face me, with an ill-disguised look of exasperation at the delay.
I wasn’t sure how to approach the topic I had in mind, but this was the best chance I was likely to get. Appropriately, I found myself up winging it.
“Chione,” I spoke, watching the girl’s tail twitch irritably. “I don’t think I made a very good first impression when I arrived a few days ago.”
I was aware I was understating things. She said nothing, but the line of her jaw softened a little. I took that as a good sign.
“After being here a few days I think I can understand why,” I went on. “Everyone looks up to Stormqueen Aellope – she’s amazing after all, beautiful and kind, but powerful and clever too. Not to mention scary!”
The words were from the heart, even if I could have easily added a few complaints about her merciless tongue. Chione leant forward slightly. I had this trick figured out at least – praising Ael was a sure way to please the handmaiden too. Hopefully it would help me get through to her.
“But the Queen can’t get too friendly with her own subjects so I’m probably the first person to talk so casually to her. There was also the unfortunate misunderstanding that led to us dueling when we first met. It’s no wonder that it was hard for some people to accept me.”
Chione wasn’t getting angry or interrupting, but it was hard to read her expression.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry if anything I did after arriving here made Ael look bad.”
“What you sayin’ this for now?” the girl asked, frowning.
“Well, Aellope is my friend. I know that she cares about you too, so I want us to get along. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be friends.”
Chione narrowed her eyes. “No reason? How ‘bout ‘cause one your lot killed my grandma! An’ sounds like you tried the same on the Queen, ‘fore you realized she were too strong for you!” she spat the words with open contempt.
I reeled back from the outburst, mind gone blank at the accusations. I was vaguely aware that my mouth was hanging open. There was nothing stopping the harpy.
“You prolly thought you’d win yourself a nice trophy, that’s all your kind sees ‘monsters’ as! But you lost so you’re tryin’ to suck up instead!”
The smart thing to do would have been to say something to defend myself, but I was too thrown by the accusations. I liked to think I was usually level-headed but this was totally beyond anything I’d ever dealt with on earth.
“You think you can just show up here an’ start calling the Stormqueen pet names after attackin’ her!” Her fists were balled up, her voice fully shouting now, tears in her eyes. “Stop mocking me you human hag!”
“Hey, I’m not-” I began, but Chione ignored me.
“Even if I ain’t good enough to serve the Queen there’s no way I’d let you hurt her!”
“I’m not going to hurt her damn it!” I snapped back with more force than I’d meant. “If I wanted to kill Ael I would have done it after the fight!”
Chione hesitated in her ranting at that. I could finally understand where all the hostility was coming from – the girl had convinced herself I was out to get her queen after all.
“Chione, the fight with Ael was a total accident; it was my own stupid bad luck and carelessness! But that turned into the best thing to happen to me since I woke up in the forest with no idea where I was. If it wasn’t for her I’d be wandering alone and naked and sleeping in a tree.”
I thought back to the grim times I’d been through. Before Ael there had been Lyanna and her friends, but they refused to believe I was even human. Before that were the man-eating Naga and monsters. And before that… Myr snatching me out of my simple, ordinary life to hurl me into his nightmare world…. It was almost too much to bear.
“Even after I’d almost killed her with my own stupidity Ael helped me,” I went on. My eyes were blurry but I couldn’t stop there. I had to make Chione understand.
“She taught me about the world and talked to me, she was there for me when no-one else was. Without her I’d still be totally lost and alone. She was my only hope! Even if I’ve only known her four days, Aellope is my best friend in the world!”
Chione stared at the tears running down my face. I reached up self-consciously to wipe my cheeks clean.
“I’m… really sorry about your grandmother. I don’t remember my grandparents, but I can tell she meant a lot to you.”
I gave a sniff, feeling embarrassed and stupid for my outburst.
Back on Earth My dad had always said that a man never let anyone see him cry. I’d been too young to remember, but I doubted he even shed a tear when mom left.
Of course men also didn’t wear dresses or have breasts. I was finding entirely new ways to disappoint him in my new life in Arcadia.
“I would never do something like that, even if there are some humans who would. If it ever came down to it, I’d fight by your side to protect Ael and your people.”
Chione’s wings were hanging low behind her, fists unclenching. The young servant girl watched me with an almost sad look. She gave a sniff of her own.
“You ain’t just sayin’ that?”
I nodded emphatically. “I promise. If you’re still worried, talk to Ael about me. She was… hoping we’d be friends.”
We were both silent for a time before Chione gave a hiccupping laugh. “Heh, guess I messed that up bad. I been pretty awful to you.”
“A little bit,” I nodded, breaking into a nervous grin. “Think we can start over? Maybe even be friends like Ael wanted?”
“Maybe,” she nodded, “If you’re not too mad?”
“Believe it or not you’re not the most infuriating person I’ve met lately, Chione. I’m cursed you see.”
She giggled at that, even though I hadn’t been joking. That got me going too, the two of us sharing a moment of relieved laughter until another passing harpy gave us a curious look. I was glad she hadn’t turned up a minute earlier.
“Oh!” Chione exclaimed, “I was meant to be takin’ you for breakfast!”
I chuckled at that. “Think you’d mind staying here for a bit? I don’t want anyone else to see that I was… you know….”
“Crying?” she asked, grinning back at me.
“Nothing wrong with crying you know, mistress,” Chione said.
I was pretty sure that was the first time she’s called me anything other than ‘you’.
“Thanks… do you think you could call me Saf though? I know you’re meant to be my handmaiden and everything, but that doesn’t mean you have to be formal.”
“That’s prolly for the best, I suck at it. Thanks… Saf.”
We were quiet for a few minutes after that. I looked out at the harpy city as the tumult in my heart gradually subsided. Since coming to Arcadia I felt like I’d started tapping into feelings and thoughts I would never have had on Earth.
At first I’d thought only my body had changed. Now I was wondering if my mind had been affected too. The outside was almost unrecognizable. How could I really know that I was the same person on the inside?
How did anyone ever know that, even going from one day to the next?
My introspection was disturbed by Chione however. She had leant in close, apparently bored of looking out at the view.
“Saf?” she asked intently. “Did you really win against Princess Arawn?”
“Oh,” I murmured, rousing from my reverie. “I wouldn’t exactly say I won. In the fifth match she knocked me senseless, but I did draw first blood. I lost four times in a row before that.”
Chione nodded slowly, as if she could somehow believe that. “An’ did you really duel the Queen too?”
“Well… duel is a strong word. I meant it when I said it was a stupid misunderstanding. I… kind of… threw a boulder at her head by mistake.” Even now the memory made me cringe.
“You did what?!” Chione looked scandalized.
“Hey, easy, Ael already gave me what for about that. I nearly died.”
I laughed weakly, thinking back to the fight.
“In retrospect, Ael wasn’t taking me seriously at all. I think she probably had a pretty bad concussion too. It must have been a horrible shock for her.”
Chione looked confused, cocking her head at the term ‘concussion’.
“Sorry, I mean she was disorientated and confused after what… you could probably call a sneak attack.”
“I swear it was an accident though!” I added quickly seeing the other girl’s glare. “After that we were both just trying to defend ourselves. Things got a bit out of hand.”
After fighting Arawn I’d asked how Aellope’s martial abilities compared to her sister. The Marshal of the Valkyries told me Ael was her match. It was then that I’d realized that Ael hadn’t been trying to kill me in our fight.
She hadn’t used martial arts at or feints at all, and she’d only used basic attack spells until the final lightning strike. If I hadn’t surprised her with another rock I doubted she would have used her sting on me either. Even she seemed surprised that she’d impaled me with it.
“What, you won because she weren’t trying?” Chione asked skeptically.
“Well she got a bit more serious after that, but I won because she let her guard down. If she’d used all her abilities she’d definitely have killed me.”
“I guess I get that. No way you’d beat the Queen in a fair fight after all!” she declared proudly.
“Ugh, whose side are you on?” I asked, grimacing as my own handmaiden declared my loss.
“The Stormqueen!” she replied immediately. “But it’s good you didn’t die.”
“Thanks, I think?” I couldn’t help but smile at her honesty.
“Of course, if you can only win one out of five against the Princess then her big sis would eat you for breakfast with her magic!”
I couldn’t argue with her there.
We were quiet for a moment longer before I spoke again. “Say, Chione?”
“Hm?”
“Ael and Arawn are sisters, right?”
“Duh.”
“So they had the same parents then?”
“Did the Princess hit you on the head yesterday?”
“Yes, repeatedly, but I’m going somewhere with this.”
“Yeah they got the same parents, obviously. That’s what sisters are.”
“Okay so that makes sense, only… I’ve never seen any male harpies. So who was their father?”
Chione rolled her eyes at that. “You ain’t seen no male harpies ‘cause harpies are women. There’s no fathers!”
“But then how do your people reproduce?!”
Chione blushed at that, hesitating to answer. “Look, er, shouldn’t you ask someone else about that stuff? Like someone who ain’t me?”
She was surprisingly innocent.
“Hmmm, I guess I could ask Ael?” I suggested, with a sly smile.
“What?! You can’t do that!” she insisted, looking scandalized at the very idea.
“The Princess then? Or maybe Priestess Thessaly?”
I admit, I was having a little fun teasing Chione after what she’d put me through.
The girl groaned and shook her head, leaning in closer. “Fine, fine, I’ll tell you. Just don’t say nothing to Agytha or I’m dead, alright?”
“It’ll be our secret.”
“Right… right then. Well. When two harpies love each other a whole lot-” she began.
I resisted rolling my eyes.
“-they, well…. Same thing you humans do really, they rub together down there and then they have an egg together.”
I probably should have realized before now that of all species the Harpies clearly didn’t have ‘men’ but somehow it had still come as a surprise. Did that mean that harpies were all into girls? It had to really.
Really, it was the least remarkable aspect of a species of varyingly gigantic winged and feathered women with deadly stingers and awesome magic.
“If any two harpies can get together and have a child then who makes the eggs?” I asked after a moment.
“They gotta decide who wants to lay the egg,” Chione replied uncomfortably. “She’s the broodmother. S’why when people are thinking hard it’s called brooding.”
I was pretty sure that last part was wrong but I kept listening.
“The other’s flightmother. She’s free for flying and hunting still, see, so she gotta get food for her partner.”
“Wow… that’s pretty different to humans,” I said after mulling it all over. “So any two harpies can mate, even if one’s royalty and the other’s low-born?”
“Prolly, yeah, but that would never happen.”
“Why not?”
“Like the royal family’s gonna brood with just anyone! There’d be an uproar!”
“I get the impression that the people in charge don’t like the lowborn harpies very much.”
Chione’s expression was all the confirmation I needed; one of shame and anger.
“Not everyone, but yeah, you’re right. Lotta nobles think we’re no good. Born for serving.”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “Are many nobles like that?”
She shook her head. “Most aren’t that bad no more, but traditional ones don’t even want smallfolk handmaidens serving the Queen.”
I was starting to understand what Ael had been talking about last night now.
“Have you and Agytha had a hard time since you became Ael’s servants?” I asked, laying my hand softly on her shoulder.
“Ah, you don’t gotta feel so sorry for me Saf,” she said, brushing me off.
“I can handle a few bigheaded handmaidens. Even a girl three times your size backs off if you give her a black eye,” she grinned dangerously. “Aggy… prolly got it tougher though. She don’t talk about it.”
“I see…. Thank you for telling me, Chione. I appreciate your trust.”
“Yeah, just don’t tell no-one what I said. Specially the bit about the black eye. She told everyone she flew into a wall.”
The chubby harpy grinned at some memory of the event, but I didn’t enquire further.
We were going to be late for breakfast if we didn’t get going.
~~~
After a 4-1 record against Arawn the previous day I had been eager for a rematch, but after she dropped me off from breakfast she was leading group drills, while I was matched up with one of her subordinates. I got the sense the princess was preparing for the impending return of the scouts from the South.
My opponent was a stern older Valkyrie named Karlya. Covered in scars, with one eye clouded where an old wound had taken its sight, she was an imposing opponent despite being only a few feet taller than me. Prior to my matches with Arawn I’d have assumed that I could overwhelm her with power and speed, but I knew better after the previous morning. She proved herself more than a match for me as we sparred.
It was more of a lesson than a duel, but it was a lot of fun. The old harpy was a talented instructor, teaching me even as we exchanged blows. She gave kindly encouragement despite her fearsome appearance.
Aside from the basics of combat, I also got an introduction to ‘anchoring’ myself using mana. That was something I was especially excited about, given how debilitating a size difference could otherwise be in Arcadia. I suspected that had she gone all out the previous day, Arawn would have simply knocked me clear off the mountain.
Karlya was attempting nothing of that sort thankfully – being close to my size her blows were more manageable. Still, she could easily hurl me thirty feet through the air with a punch. She proved that repeatedly, as I struggled to grasp the anchoring technique.
As I understood it, to anchor your body with mana meant instantaneously increasing your inertia at the moment you were struck. It was a simple concept and quite fundamental to combat in this world, but attempting it in the middle of combat with my uncontrollable mana proved beyond me.
The Valkyrie reassured me that anchoring would become like second nature as I learned to control my mana. Of course that assumed I would be able to control my mana in the first place.
But even if I made little progress with anchoring, I acquitted myself well overall. I was getting the hang of reading my opponent’s body language and not overreacting to feints. Experience was something I sorely lacked, but I had excellent focus, vision and reactions that helped make up for that.
Karlya had asked several times if I’d had some sort of teaching prior to coming to the Eyrie, but I refused to acknowledge that ‘training’ as anything other than a deathtrap. It galled me that it was apparently coming in handy in this world after all.
~~~
With the harpies taking midday naps after training, I made my way alone to the library to read until Shukra was ready for my afternoon lesson. I should probably have called for Agytha or Chione, but they would only be standing around for no good reason while I was there.
Rather than napping, the diminutive witch laureate met me at the entrance to the library.
“Afternoon Shukra,” I said, waving. “How did you know I was here?”
“Leaking,” came her answer. She cocked her head, scanning me up and down disapprovingly.
I hoped she was referring to my escaping mana and nothing else, but the parsimonious mage and part-time librarian wasn’t one for long explanations.
“Are you free to help me work on that?” I suggested.
“Maintenance from yesterday” was her terse response. She gave me an irritated look.
“Did I damage something yesterday?” I asked, frowning. We’d practiced on the ‘roof’ well away from the shelves, so I couldn’t see how.
She nodded. “Outburst damaged the barrier.”
The library was a splendid space. Housed within the top of one of the stone spires that ringed Mount Skycrown’s plateau, it was filled with a maze of curving stone shelves from floor to ceiling. One might have expected it to be windy given the glassless open windows, but like the rest of the Eyrie the air was normally quite still. Today however, I could feel a cold draft entering.
“I’m sorry about that, is the barrier some sort of weather control magic?” I asked, hazarding a guess.
“From Stormqueen Safkhet. Protects the Eyrie from weather.” She nodded again, her head bobbing like a crow.
“Is that based on magic that harpies can use naturally in flight?”
“Queen told you?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“No, but normally when you’re up this high it would be super windy, right? But when I fly with Ael or Arawn the air feels calm. So I figured harpies must be nullifying the high altitude winds somehow as they fly.”
I immediately regretted saying that as the witch cocked her head in the other direction and narrowed her eyes.
“Amnesia?” was all she said.
She might be even sharper than Ael.
“Well, even in the Bloodsucking Forest there were hills, right? And it was often windier at the top. Plus I got pretty high up when I was dueling with the Queen; it was far windier than on the ground. I was just… extrapolating from there, that maybe the higher you get the stronger the wind is.”
It was a complete bluff of course, but I could hardly tell her I heard it on TV.
Shukra gave a snort that could almost have been a laugh, her inelegant mirth contrasting her refined appearance.
“Right.”
I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Even if she wasn’t convinced, she wasn’t asking any more questions either.
“Anyway this barrier sounds really interesting. I hope I didn’t damage it too much.”
She shook her head. “Needs re-tuning.” Her annoyance seemed to be forgotten as we discussed magic.
“Does it cover the whole Eyrie? I didn’t feel any wind anywhere else last night.”
“Just damaged this area. Rest’s fine.”
“Oh, that’s good,” I nodded. “Is it alright if I read while you’re doing that?”
“No.”
Maybe she was still annoyed after all?
She went on, seeing my blank expression. “Practice mana control. Stop leaking.”
Given the disruption that my mana had already caused I couldn’t really argue with her there. I got to work with her recommended practice regimen, while she was performing her maintenance work.
As best I could tell from her meager explanation, I needed to use the same ethereal ‘muscles’ that had previously been holding my mana in. The goal was applying that same ‘physiology’ with less force; not to close off the flow entirely, but simply redirect it. To let it circulate within my body.
I had tried shutting it off entirely too, but that proved impossible. It was like trying to plug a broken dam with a fingertip. Given that I wouldn’t be able to use mana if I did that, it would only have been a short term fix anyway.
The long term solution was proving no easier. I could naturally make my mana move, the same way I could move my arm or leg, but it was sluggish and terribly heavy. I reminded myself it was normal to struggle at first. It was no different to how a baby was weak and clumsy until it learnt to control its body and developed its muscles.
Of course that would be scant comfort if war came to the mountainous Harpy Empire.