After the highly charged dinner things seemed to calm back down. When we returned to our apartment there were a ton of clothes waiting for us. Most of them were for me, but there were some for my mother as well. I think all the clothes for me were ones Penelope had grown out of. Whereas my mother’s were simpler fair, probably just as a holdover until clothes can be made for her specifically. Then neither of us had the energy for anything but sleep after the day we had.
When I woke in the morning mother was already out of bed. I decided to take the time to examine the skills I had been forced to take a couple days ago.
*Medicine
Prerequisite: Sapience; Have a healing combat or professional class or have at least one empty or locked combat or professional class available.
Type: Healing, Species, Knowledge
Passive
Skill cost: 1 mana regen/level
You have medical knowledge that does not exist in this world however there is always more to learn, with this skill you will learn both the mundane and magical aspects of healing. You learn healing skills (system and nonsystem) 1% faster per level. Additionally it helps in diagnosing medical problems in your patients. Amount of diagnostic aid is increased with level.*
That did pretty much exactly what I was expecting it to. Also did the system just tell me that I have knowledge no one else in the world has? That seems like some pretty dang important information for it to let slip. Either way it looked like Medicine was still useful to me despite having maxed its level already. It would help me learn about magical healing and would increase the rate at which I gained all healing tagged skills.
*First Aid
Prerequisite: Attempt First Aid on someone
Type: Healing, Species
Active
Range: Touch
Skill cost: Costs 1/10th of a mana/level for every minute of active use, always rounded up to a whole number.
You have treated many patients in emergency settings with mundane skills alone, now utilize this skill to gain a small magical boost. Lets you know which ailment a patient is suffering from is most critical to life and limb. Reduces the likelihood of a mortal wound from killing a patient while you are treating them. With appropriate supplies you become better at staunching bleeding and otherwise stabilizing a patient’s condition. Knowledge and ability to stabilize increase with level, likelihood of dying of a patient being actively treated is reduced with level.*
Well that certainly was more magical than anything else I’ve had access to before. It can just stop someone from dying while I’m using the skill? How was that even possible? Like if I wasn’t correcting or stabilizing the problem how were they being prevented from dying? Well magic certainly seemed to defy all common sense.
*Meditation
Prerequisite: Sapience; Have a magic combat or professional class or have at least one empty or locked combat or professional class available.
Type: Species, Magic
Active
Skill cost: none
Range: Self
By concentrating on the flow of mana within yourself you can enhance your natural ability to regenerate mana with this skill. Allows you to regenerate additional mana slowly while remaining personally stationary. You restore 1 mana for every 30 minutes of meditation. Odd levels add to the mana restored (1 for each), even levels reduce the amount of time you need to meditate to restore mana (1 minute each). Once the skill reaches level 30 time is no longer reduced and all levels increase the mana generated by 1 instead.*
This was my only skill that didn’t have anything to do with healing. I wasn’t sure why Halcroft wanted me to have it. Maybe leveling it helped me in some way that wasn’t obvious. It was pretty useful for helping me level identify though, although my mana regeneration was pretty dang good at this point.
I made the skills disappear from my vision. Then I scooted to the edge of the bed and let myself drop down collapsing instead of landing on my feet. The door was thankfully slightly ajar so I was able to leave the bedroom. The entertaining room was empty so I went to the bathroom next. It was closed so I knocked on it. “Mama?” I asked.
I heard water sloshing and a few wet steps before the door opened. “What are you up to, you little troublemaker?” She was naked and dripping wet then she lunged for me.
I tried to run away from the wetness, but I wasn’t very fast. I giggled. “No!” I laughed out as my clothes got all wet.
“You’re coming with me.” She ‘dragged’ me into the room and quickly removed my clothes before letting me into the bath. She sighed contentedly as she lowered herself into the bath. “How is my baby girl this morning?”
I glanced up at her, not sure how to answer that question. Was everything going perfect in our lives? Obviously no. Did I feel fine this morning? Yes. “Better than yester…day.” I struggled with the last word.
Mom let her head drop back and looked at the ceiling. “Hopefully that trend continues.” She sighed. “I know you are a pretty bright child and know our situation is a big problem. However I don’t think we are in immediate danger, so don’t worry. We’ll find a way out of this even if it takes time. We just have to be patient and remain vigilant.” I didn’t catch all the words, but I got enough to puzzle out the meaning of her words.
*Learning Languages has leveled up, level 7.*
Nice! A learning languages level! Those were going to become mighty useful if I needed to learn three or more languages.
“Halcroft, Isaac, and Dylan seem bad, but are Penelope and Taela bad?” I asked, stringing along the largest sentence I had in my new life.
Mom looked thoughtfully at me. “I don’t know about Penelope and Taela, but we need to give them a chance.” She chuckled to herself. “As for the other three I feel the same way.” She looked down at me. “Be kind to Penelope, and if she is kind in return you should be friends. Understand?”
I nodded vigorously. It was more or less what I was planning too, test the waters with the women of the family and keep a wide berth from the men. I wasn’t completely certain about Dylan, but I saw way too much of his father in him during dinner.
We got all clean, then after a few minutes of me swimming and mom soaking she spoke suddenly. “Time to get ready, lady Taela invited us to breakfast with Penelope in her garden.” Mother stood allowing the water to sloosh off her and helped me out. I ran, a bit more of a quick waddle really, over to the towels and began to dry myself.
About half an hour later we were ready, mom and I were wearing fairly simple dresses, nothing too fancy. A few moments later Farva entered the entertaining room. “Your highness.” She curtised and held it.
“Stand.” Mother commanded as if it was second nature to her.
Farva did, a slight blush on her face. “I apologize for being so informal yesterday, I didn’t know you were my princesses until this morning.”
Mom raised her brow. “Your princesses? Do you still consider yourself Ysarian?”
“I do.” Farva said with more certainty than before. “I followed my lady when her marriage was arranged, I-” She closed the door and took two steps forward. “I couldn’t let her be in this place alone.” She whispered.
“Do you or Taela have command crests?” Mom asked quietly.
“I do not, as for my lady I wouldn’t dare tell her story, I fear I have already overstepped.” Farva gave a much more simple curtsy. “I should also inform you I have been assigned as your personal maid. Usually I would take the guest room, but I imagine you will want to keep Alea close.”
Mother analyzed the elf for a brief moment. “You are correct, when it is time for her to have her own bed she will take the guest room.” She paused. “I will accept your service, please show us to lady Taela.” Mother offered her hand to me and we began to walk along with Farva.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
We went through the courtyard, it was in fact a training ground and I could already see people training. They were all men, which was a bit odd to me. In Ysara men and women fought equally. Certainly there was a slant toward caring professions for women and hunting for men, but otherwise the genders were equal. The system easily eclipsed the innate difference in strength between men and women. It was strange to see that Halcroft at least, if not all of Hakan, refused to utilize half the population in their fighting force.
The fighters used mostly similar gear to the raiders of our town. It seemed a gladius and shield were the favored weapons here. However there were others with spears or bows.
We reentered the castle into a hallway that cut through to the back. When we came out I saw several small tidy fields of flowers with a gazebo in the center. A single tall weeping willow shaded half the building. It was an amazing sight to behold, especially after all the rough stone work and harsh forests of our surroundings. Taela was crouched down near one of the flower fields with Penelope by her side and they were discussing something about the flowers.
Taela spotted us and stood. “Your highness.” She said with a pleasant smile.
“Lady Taela.” Mom answered her formally before looking down at Penelope. “Lady Penelope.”
Penelope stood straight up suddenly as if she had been caught with her hand in a cookie jar. “Good morning princess!” She said a bit too loudly. When she saw me she immediately relaxed and smiled. “Alea! Do you want to see the bug?” She asked before bending back down to examine what was apparently a bug on one of the flowers.
“Sure.” I said and let go of my mother’s hand to move over to Penelope. I knelt down next to her and she pointed to a stag beetle. This bug did not belong in flowers, I guess it found its way here from the surrounding forest. “It's cool!” I said enthusiastically.
“Right? Mom thinks we should make it leave.” Penelope seemed dubious of the idea. “I think he likes it here.”
I considered exactly what to say. “Yes.” Is what I settled on, but I continued. “But he might like the forest too.”
Penelope considered the idea for a lot longer than I thought she would. “Well… if you say so.” She turned to her mother. “We should help the beetle.” She said matter-of-factly.
Taela gave a warm smile despite being interrupted from whatever discussion she was having with my mother. “Good idea.” She motioned to a guard standing nearby. They approached, and I realized this was the only woman I had seen in armor since coming to this country. “Dame Riza, would you mind escorting Penelope outside the wall on her very important quest.” Riza glanced down to see Penelope scooping up the stag beetle.
“It would be my honor.” She said with a grin and a slight bow. “Come Lady Penelope, let’s go take care of your new friend.”
Riza and Penelope walked off while my mother and Taela walked toward the gazebo. I knew that I could not leave the walls without express permission from Halcroft so I decided to follow after the women.
They sat at the table clearly ready for breakfast to be served on it. I crawled up the few stairs and tried to get into the chair next to mother. I did better than I had expected, I was far more coordinated than I was before my leveling spree. However I just didn’t have the raw strength required to lift myself up to the chair.
Without batting an eye mom just grabbed me and sat me on a different seat than the one I was trying to get on. This one had extra padding to raise me up so that I could put my hands on the table without trouble.
Taela glanced around confirming something to herself. “I’m sure you have many questions. Although I doubt you consider me particularly trustworthy.” She then stood and positioned herself so her back was to the castle and raised up the skirt of her dress to reveal the same command crest we had. “Hopefully this will help with that.” She sat back down.
Mother was clearly considering this new information. “With… how Isaac is…”
Taela gave a knowing smile. “Thankfully lord Halcroft keyed my crest only to himself. Should he die though my fate will be left in the hands of that man.” She said the last bit with contempt. “The lord is the only reason I am willing to play along with all of this. He may not be a good man, but he is honorable in his own way. That is what allows me to live in another room from Isaac, outside of when we are attempting to conceive and official functions I barely need to see the man. Thankfully I am a good actress.”
“Does he take much of an interest in the children?” Mom asked concern written plainly on her face.
“He took a keen interest in Dylan but has left Penelope almost entirely alone thankfully. I love both my children, but…” She let the sentence hang.
Mother grimaced and I think I felt more or less the same as her. “Do your children know?”
“That I despise their father or that I am a prisoner?” Taela asked casually.
“Both I suppose.” Mom answered.
“Dylan knows both though he stopped speaking to me much after he found out. Penelope knows neither and I can’t particularly bring myself to tell her. I would appreciate it if you didn’t.” Taela seemed pained by the entire situation. It was strange that she was ignoring I was here, though I imagine most 2 year olds wouldn’t be able to remotely follow this conversation. I felt a bit like I was intruding on a private conversation, but I also really did need to know more.
“Of course. May I ask how you came to be here?” Mom asked.
Taela glanced away for a moment before sighing. “My father all but sold me to the Halcrofts. Their family likes to find elvish nobility to ‘enrich’ their bloodline. Having elven blood allows their family to live very long lives by comparison to most humans. Some like Penelope even end up with the Elven Heritage skill, though it is rare for anyone with human blood to get. Usually they just get the Mixed Elven and Human Heritage skill, which makes them age much slower at the cost of the bonus experience gain full humans get from their skill.”
Well that was all sorts of creepy. Essentially the Halcrofts bought longer lifespans by arranging marriages with elven nobility. The intentionality of it was just… sickening.
It was also somewhat strange to hear a noble discuss the concept of skills and experience so casually. It just felt anathema, but I think that was just left over feelings from my old life. Afterall the system was reality here and there were plenty of people that spent their lives studying the intricacies of it.
Mom frowned. “That certainly makes a sickening sort of sense. May I ask what family you belonged to?”
“The Silverleafs.” She began. “We were plagued with constant minor raiding by humans along the border. Father made a deal that Halcroft would do his best to stop the raids. I believe my father truly thought Halcroft could help and he wanted to strengthen his trading ties with Hakan. He thought the offer was in good faith. However when Halcroft applied a command crest to me and ordered me to break off communication with anyone in Ysara I learned the awful truth. Halcroft of course could stop the raids since he was the one doing them. At least that is what I suspect, and your abduction seems to indicate exactly that.” Taela just looked annoyed at the situation.
“Mother would never allow constant raids.” My mom said confidently.
Taela grimaced. “I and the Silverleafs don’t exactly have a good impression of Queen Ysara. Her rule is prosperous for most of the country, but for whatever reason she has left the provinces bordering Hakan on their own for more than two decades. Granted most of the raids on our lands had been fairly minor, except for the most recent one of course. They also stopped after my arranged marriage. Halcroft boldly attacking a town like yours, killing hundreds, and abducting people is a significant step up in what was happening to the Silverleaf province. That was mostly raiding small villages and there were very few deaths. We thought it was bandits at the time. My being arranged to marry into the Halcroft family seemed to fix the situation diplomatically, it could be that was the Queen’s solution, I simply don’t know.”
“What could Halcroft be thinking?” Mother mused. “Outside of his carriage which was well out of view there wasn’t anything that obviously tied the attackers to him. Will he lay blame on brigands again?”
Taela sighed. “That will probably be the case, a one off event like this, he can just offer up some prisoners and pay small reparations.” She paused. “Much more worrying is the fact that I believe he is preparing for war, but not anytime soon. He has his sights set on Ysara. His personal army is… frighteningly powerful.”
Mom gives Taela a curious look. “What makes you say that?”
“He has been recruiting and training powerful adventurers for decades in secret. I believe he has a hundred fighters over level 350. Not to mention his personal army of more normal level 150 to 200 soldiers is the largest in the kingdom of Hakan, over ten thousand.” Taela says.
How can she possibly have this much information? If she was truly being kept against her will and not a coconspitor then there is no way Halcroft would give her this information. “How do you know all this?” Mom asked the very question I had.
Taela smiled knowingly. “I have been gathering information secretly ever since he imprisoned me here. Although I cannot currently share it with anyone in Ysara I am hoping the opportunity presents itself in the future. It is my own personal rebellion against him, he foolishly never constricted my class, skill, or stat choices. Both my combat classes are dedicated to the art of espionage. I have effectively crippled my ability to defend myself in order to acquire this information.”
I identified Taela. It returned [Noble], so that must be her highest level class. Unfortunately my identify skill was still pretty weak so I couldn’t see her level. I vaguely knew about the difference between combat and professional classes. Just what I’ve been able to pick up from snippets of conversations. All people started adolescence with either a combat or professional class depending on what they choose. Then fairly early into leveling you gain a class of the opposite type you choose at first. Finally much later you unlock an additional combat class if you focus on combat or professional class if you focus on professions.
To my knowledge, Identify only ever tells you the person’s highest level class. However I know that Halcroft’s court mage Daniel was able to learn about my Elven Heritage level. So maybe there were more powerful versions of Identify. That would in turn lead me to believe there are probably skills to suppress identification, so it was all just one big arms race. A class about espionage would probably have identification resistance. Otherwise what would be the point of having that type of class?
Mother nodded considering the information. “I… am uncertain I entirely believe you, but I also have no reason to doubt you. Nor would doubting you benefit me in any way at this moment. Should we somehow escape, I will be sure to inform as many people as I can about your suspicions.”
Taela's eyes moved from my mother and I tracked her line of sight. Penelope and Riza were returning from their little adventure. “The more loyal Ysarians that know the better, who knows when the information might be useful.” With that the intense conversation died away.
Penelope came running up a huge smile on her face. She shouted in another language and it caused both Taele and my mother to smile in return. Riza just had a chagrined look on her face shaking her head. “I’m glad the beetle liked his new home, but we should be speaking Ysarese until Alea learns Haka.”
Penelope looked shocked before she locked eyes with me. “I’m sorry Alea!” She was still being too loud. She rushed over to the chair next to mine and climbed into it.
Taele waved at the castle and a minute or two later 5 servers with trays exited with what was obviously breakfast. I was definitely hungry, so that sounded positively lovely.