Tess, Gramps, Atum, and Ava were sitting down on the grass, watching as Eyfura stared down The Rumors. They had taken a short trip outside of town to a clearing in the forest where they were less likely to draw the attention of other people. Gramps hadn’t wanted to monopolize the guild’s training yard for a whole morning, and nothing they would be doing was too secret.
Well, Tess’s abilities were still technically secret for the time being, but she wasn’t planning on doing too much active training this morning and could always stop if someone detected other people around.
“I’ll let you all make the first move.” Eyfura said lazily. Despite the casualness with which she said that, she looked anything but – for the first time Tess had seen, she was wearing armor, a set made of what Tess could only assume was dragon scales and hide. Her claws were fully extended, reaching a length just shorter than Tess’s own, and she just…looked imposing.
The Rumors seemed to think so as well; they were in a tight formation, Alice firmly planting her tower shield so as to shield her party members from Eyfura as they began casting spells. Eyfura patiently waited for the casts to complete, watching as Alice glowed with a sort of light as the spells took effect.
“Alright, seems like I’m good to start, then.” Eyfura said, tensing.
Alice was fast, already throwing her sword as Eyfura was talking. Eyfura, however, was faster, catching the speeding blade between two claws, and throwing it back, even faster than it had been before. Alice hurriedly moved her shield to intercept and the blade embedded itself within the metal, the force of the impact pushing Alice back slightly.
Eyfura herself was only a second behind, speeding forward at a rate Tess could barely even follow. Jin let out some sort of…force wave spell, a wall of purple force heading out to meet Eyfura, followed closely by arrows of light from Ker.
Eyfura just raked down with a hand, claws tearing open a hole in the magic which she ran through. As the arrows homed in on her she crouched and made a leap, propelling herself even faster as she jumped over the arrows, landing a short distance in front of Alice.
Alice, having pried her sword out from her shield, thrust outwards towards Eyfura, a strike which Eyfura casually dodged. Eyfura dashed forward, running headlong into towards the tower shield and then suddenly jumped ever so slightly, landing with both feet on the shield and kicking off, a shimmering magical bubble-shaped barrier appearing over The Rumors as she did.
The arrows, which were still tracking Eyfura, arced upwards but didn’t turn fast enough, their momentum carrying them right into Alice’s shield.
Ker and Jin didn’t let up the assault, a series of magic hitting the point where Eyfura landed. Eyfura was momentarily obscured from view by the projectiles, but that obstruction soon passed, revealing a slightly singed but relatively uninjured Eyfura, who was somehow holding one of Jin’s spells, a nasty-looking fiery lance.
She rushed forward and jumped, throwing the spell down and over the shield, hitting Alice and sending her stumbling backwards. This was swiftly followed by a strike from her claws, hitting the place where Alice’s shield had been and shattering the barrier.
From there Eyfura kicked out at the tower shield, the force of her blow actually knocking Alice off of her feet and down onto the ground. And then she lashed out, stopping her claws just before they punctured Ker and Jin’s necks. “And I think we’ll call it there.” She said, standing up straight and dusting herself off. “That was curtains for you two and I don’t think Alice wants to try her luck one on one.”
“That was…something else.” Alice wheezed, propping herself up on her elbows. “I haven’t felt that thoroughly outclassed for years.”
Eyfura shrugged. “Well, I’ve had a long time to deal with people who employ similar strategies. Honestly, it does work pretty well on most single enemies who use melee, but I’m afraid it tends to fall apart against people who have ways to close in on you. The pushback spell is good, especially if you’re confident that your enemy doesn’t have any dispel, but after that…” She trailed off, looking at each member of the party in turn. “Did anyone catch the flaw?”
Jin nodded. “It’s because we keyed the barrier to let our attacks through and then anchored it on Alice’s shield, right?”
“Exactly. A tough physical anchor like Alice is a great way to shore up a barrier, but if that anchor is moved, then the barrier becomes much weaker than it otherwise should be. And the keying is a good way to get around the problem that is having an offensive presence while inside a barrier, but you have to think about your attacks being turned against you. Most things can’t dodge homing spells like me, and the vast majority of things can’t physically interact with magic like me, but some things can.
“And, once that barrier is broken, your tank is probably off-balance, and your mages are exposed. So, this is a strategy you can only really employ if you’re confident you know all of your opponent’s abilities beforehand. It works amazingly well if they don’t have any answers to any one of the threats it poses, but you can’t rely on it. Now, are you ready for round two? I want you to try one of your other strategies on me.”
Ava stood up, nudging Tess slightly. “Why don’t you come with me?” She asked. “We can do some one-on-one training away from distractions. Effie’s going to be a bit, and there probably won’t be anything that’s really interesting or relevant to you that you haven’t already seen.”
Gramps nodded. “I’ll call you when it’s time for all four of us to spar with The Rumors, so don’t worry about that. Have a good time out there!”
Tess followed Ava for a while before Ava eventually stopped at another clearing nearby. “So, before anything, I have to ask…do you plan on continuing to train with Ilmir after this month?”
Tess paused, frowning at the sudden question. “I don’t know. Probably not, all depending on how things go. If I’m going to be training with Ellie again, then Ilmir is probably out for sure. If not, then…I don’t know. I guess it depends on how she is over the month. I might try and stop training with her earlier, might not, I just…yeah.”
“I see. Do you mind if I ask why you’re hesitating so much?”
“Well…if I do, then I stop training with Auntie, and…well, I don’t know if I’ll see her often after that. And I don’t want to essentially cut ties with her.”
Ava gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, that’s out of the question. The four of us have basically chosen to take on the role of making sure you don’t lack for training in areas that The Rumors might not be able to teach you. Effie will still stop by every so often to make sure everything’s going well.
“But, that sort of ties into why I was asking. I wanted to let you know that, if you all can’t work together with Ilmir and Effie stops helping you so she can train her, then I’m going to step in and take her place. One of the four of us will be with you all the time until you’re done training, as an Appointed you’re too important to let your early training be anything less than the best we can give.”
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She shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to let you know that you shouldn’t worry about making a decision because of stuff like this, we’ll take care of things. Make your choice based on what you feel. Your early training really shouldn’t feel miserable because of your teammates.”
“Alright, I’ll…keep that in mind.” Tess said. “So…what now?”
“Ah, right. I wanted to help you learn how best to use Return to Sender, or at least let you know what to practice. I want to demonstrate, so come at me with a punch, and I’ll show you how to reflect it, and then we’ll do that slower and slower until you get it and can start trying it yourself, alright?”
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The rest of the morning went by fairly fast. It took Tess a fair bit of time to get to the point where she could redirect attacks with any kind of speed, but by the time Gramps called the two back she could redirect a normal punch the “right” way almost every time.
She skipped out on sparring against Gramps’s party, since she didn’t really feel taking a beating. True to Atum’s word, the first couple of rounds Gramps’s party didn’t hold anything back, and The Rumors were, predictably, swiftly dispatched. Any time they tried any spell Gramps immediately countered it, and there wasn’t even time for Eyfura and Atum to get into melee range as Gramps and Ava would both cast spells that completely immobilized or otherwise incapacitated The Rumors.
“I must admit that was rather humbling.” Ker said on the ride back to town. “I haven’t felt like this since we were rank six. After that point it always felt like we could do something in a fight, but we were just…completely helpless.” He smiled bitterly. “Rank ten is just seeming further and further away.”
“Don’t get dispirited.” Gramps said. “The top of rank ten is essentially a rank all to itself, and we’re a step above that. You’ll make rank ten in no time.”
Ava smiled. “What’s he’s not telling you is the praise Eyfura was giving you earlier. She was saying that back in the ‘golden age’ of freelancing, back when we were still establishing things, you all would have probably been rank ten already. A lot of people like to romanticize that ‘era’, but, frankly, freelancers in general are more powerful now than they’ve ever been. People just remember the strongest ones, and a lot of those are Appointed.”
Eyfura blushed. “Hey, don’t tell them that, you’re embarrassing me!” She coughed, looking away. “Uh, that being said, don’t put so much stock in rank ten. Honestly, the whole rank thing is in need of an overhaul anyway, since rank ten is starting to get a little…crowded. In terms of power, there’s no telling what you can expect from people in it.”
“We’ve been telling you this for a long time, Evan.” Atum ribbed. “Hopefully today’s outing has shown you that maybe we shouldn’t have such a gap between the top of rank ten and the middle of rank nine, even if there really aren’t many people who are in those top ranks.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll get around to in the next few weeks.” Gramps said, raising his hands.
Alice blinked. “Just like that? It seems like…kind of a big deal to decide so fast.”
“It’s been in the works for a while.” Gramps replied. “It’s just moving up the timeframe. We’ll have to make some tests for parties currently at rank ten, but we’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
The rest of the hoverer ride back was mostly The Rumors chatting with Gramps’s party about how best to improve. Tess was mostly content to just sit and listen, as she felt she didn’t really have much to add.
And so, she and Gramps bid their goodbyes to the rest, returning to Gramps’s office, where Gramps opened up the door to their house and ushered Tess through.
“So, what’s this about?” She asked, stepping through the door. “Are we just waiting here until Ellie gets back or…?”
Gramps smiled. “Our business is here on Mael, actually. I have some people I need to take you and Ellie to meet.”
“What’s that about me?” Ellie asked, stepping through the garage door.
“Perfect timing.” Gramps said, clapping his hands together. “We’re all going to church.”
Ellie stared at him. “What? It’s the middle of the week and it’s not a holiday or anything, so why?”
“You’ll see.” Gramps replied, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Go change out of your uniform and then I’ll drive you both down. Tess, you might want to grab something to eat while we’re here.”
Tess nodded, and headed over to the kitchen, making herself a quick sandwich while she waited for Ellie. After that they all piled into the car and began the ten or so minute drive to the nearest church.
The drive was filled with Ellie’s usual questions about Tess’s day, and she was more than happy to sit and listen to all the things Tess told her about the training they had and the things she saw The Rumors and Gramps’s party do.
And soon enough they found themselves in front of the church. It was one of the more ostentatious buildings in town, built in that imposing way that all churches were. Lots of spires and huge windows, polished stone floors, the works. It was supposedly to help build the proper atmosphere for the church faithful while they were praying or something, Tess had never paid too much attention to religion, though, now that she was thinking about it, the knowledge she had gained about the nature of the world put this all into a new light. She had barely even thought to ask Fortune if Life and Death were…well, real gods.
Ellie seemed to be having similar thoughts, if her face was anything to go by. Gramps gently pulled the two along and into the church, where he confidently walked up to the chamber where the on-duty priest was doing work, giving a solid knock.
A man with untidy brown hair opened the door, giving the group a curious glance. “What can I do for all of you?” He asked.
“Ah, right, you must be the new priest. I’m Evan Los, and my grandchildren and I need to go to the Holy Room.”
The man shook his head, a confused look on his face. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid only clergy can enter the Holy Room. May I ask what business you have there?”
Gramps gave him a smile. “I think you’ll find that you’re somewhat mistaken. Go grab Pastor Faust, she’ll clear things up for you.”
The man sighed. “Sir, I don’t know how they usually do things out in the country, but the pastor is unable to give permission to enter the Holy Room. I don’t know what you’re expecting.”
“Brother Avery, what seems to be the matter? I was passing by and heard you talking about me, so I thought I’d check up on things.” Pastor Faust asked, walking into the room Jared was in through a door on the other end. She was a short woman with greying hair and a near constant friendly smile. She had been the one who had sheltered Tess for the couple of days between her parents’ death and Gramps taking her in, and Tess had found her to be as kind and gentle as her demeanor and appearance suggested.
Pastor Faust stopped when she caught sight of Gramps. “Ah. I was wondering when we were going to run into this issue. Come on in, Mr. Los. You kids wait in the chapel, alright?”
Gramps shook his head. “They’re coming too today.”
“I see. Well, you all come inside, then, I’ll send Brother Johnson to clear the Holy Room.” She poked her head through the door she came in through, briefly conferring with someone while Gramps guided Ellie and Tess into the room.
“I don’t think this is allowed, Pastor.” Brother Avery protested. “The higher-ups will be very displeased if they find out about this.”
Pastor Faust smiled. “They know, this is all above board. Mr. Los here is an emissary of the gods, and, as such, has priority access to the Holy Room.”
Brother Avery started, staring at Gramps in disbelief. “I’m…having a hard time believing this.” He finally said.
“That’s fine.” Pastor Faust replied. “Send a letter to one of the cardinals, they’ll confirm this. For now, just know that Mr. Los is able to bring whoever he likes into the Holy Room whenever he likes.”
“The Holy Room is clear, Pastor.” A man, presumably Brother Johnson, said, peeking his head into the room.
“Thank you, Brother Johnson. Mr. Los, you know the way, I’ll stay here and explain a bit more to Brother Avery.”
Gramps nodded, guiding Tess and Ellie out of the room and through the halls before they reached a large door, which Gramps opened. Beyond was a windowless room which contained two statues, one of Life, and one of Death.
She didn’t have much time to process it, though. The moment the three of them were inside and the doors were closed there was a flash of light and they found themselves in the god’s workplace, where three figures were waiting for them.
The first was Fortune, who gave the group a friendly wave. The other two were…Life and Death, Tess assumed. She hadn’t really paid attention to the statues, but it certainly looked like them.
“I’m the god of Life.” The one on the right said. He was a tall human, wearing a simple black shirt and pants and holding a large scythe. He was…boring, in a weird way. His tone was subdued, and despite the height his posture and bearing just sort of…made him fade into the background.
“And I’m Death!” The one next to him chirped. She was human as well, a short girl wearing a vibrant blue shirt and a matching skirt. “And we wanted to talk to you, Ellie. Let’s have a chat, shall we?”