Night had long since decended on the town after an evening of celebration for the naming of the town mayor's daughter. A peaceful quiet had taken hold in the manor allowing Ferald and Anna to get some much needed rest with their newly named daughter Joan. They sat near a fire nestled together, Joan was asleep peacefully in Anna's arms. Their home was lavish and just by looking at the ornate fireplace you would know that they were well off, it was meticulously hand carved out of marble and on it's mantlepiece rested many expensive trinkets made of gold and crystal.
"Anna, this right here is what I live for. If I had the choice to be the emperor or sit here with you and Joan I would choose here every single time." The feeling was mutual with Anna and she merely replied with a heartfelt "I love you dear."
As the fire crackled and it's embers danced Ferald thought of what he had heard about Jeral earlier today. Jeral had a good relationship with the mayor and Ves was a friend to Anna. When Ferald was training with the guard, as was required of all nobility in the empire, Jeral was his junior. Ferald always remembered finding Jeral running around the camp or digging ditches as punishment for one too many witty remarks at the instructer. It actually became a habit for Ferald to talk to Jeral as he went about his menial tasks. One of the things about being nobility in a noble controlled training camp is that you would often find yourself with little to do and what little you were tasked to do only took a little amount of time. It was a rather boring experience.
"I can't believe Ves is gone honey, Jeral must be in an utterly terrible state. I can understand how he couldn't make it tonight, I'll just have to bring Joan over to him tomorrow." Ferald said while stroking Anna's brunette hair. "I'll come too, can't have you saying something stupid like you normally do." Anna pushed her husband lightly and a grin appeared on her face for all of a fraction of a second before it turned into a frown. "Ves always was a source of encouragement to me, I guess she would have to be, considering the stuff Jeral used to do. She didn't deserve to die, it's just unfair." Tears fell onto Anna's cheek from above, Ferald gave her a reassuring kiss. "I know honey, I know."
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After feeding his daughter and having recovered from his discovery, Jeral layed her back down to sleep and went straight to a clothes chest in his bedroom. As he opened the chest he let out a quick whimper that was silenced prematurely as if he had something stuck in his throat, he bit his lip and carried on with his search. "I thought buying all of these little second hand clothes was a stupid idea Ves. You were so happy everytime someone gave you some little second or third hand mitten or scarf. You dragged me around on days off to get everything perfect for our child. You needed everything to be perfect."
As Jeral carefully unpacked the clothes he folded and stacked them. The baby clothes were of various sizes and required sorting, some were simply far too large for baby right now. He got caught up in a sad trance because everything reminded him of Ves and it didn't help one bit that all of this came so quick. Lesser trauma has led better men to insanity, but Jeral was stronger because of those who needed him. He had to be strong, for his daughter, for Ves.
After gathering up a set of tiny clothes of mostly wool origin he laid them out. A woolen bleached white babygrow, a light red dyed jumper and white long socks along with a pink skirt of linen and a pair of deep pink silk mittens. "I can't thank you enough Ves, even now you help me more than I could have ever hoped for." Jeral was getting into the habit of talking to the walls in the absence of his late wife. After all of this was done Jeral hit his bed like a log, his body and mind needed rest after today. A lot more rest than they would get.
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After being put to bed the little infant tossed and turned, her mind was in turmoil and her movements reflected that. 'Why fates! Why! Why am I a fucking walking chandelier, I didn't sign up to be a christmas tree! Kaw'Keth is there anything else you didn't mention would happen, you knew all this and thought mentioning it wouldn't be a good idea?! I did not give consent to made into a damned light fixture!' Many more blasphemies were internally yelled at the ether, even Kaw'Keth didn't know that there were so many insults you could spew about a gaseous appearing entity, he was proud of his work for it to garnish so much attention. It took most of the early night for her to calm down and start to attempt to think of solutions to the problem, to little effect.
'Argh, how am I going to hide this? This body is barely a day old, there's no way I could do it physically. I simply don't have the ability to get the clothes, or do anything for that matter. I was wrong, I'm not a walking chandelier, I'm an immobile chandelier, wait isn't that just a normal chandelier? Argh! Actually in Zagon you could use illusion magic to change your form but I never saw anyone do anything so precise as to be able to hide only minor details of the body. Normally it was used to change into a monster or tree I think. Maybe in this world it might be possible but how would I even go about that? There was no illusion affinity in that status window so it might be impossible. I guess the only way to find out is to actually try learning magic then, here's hoping I don't burn the house down or open a portal to the dimention of pain.'
The infants body became still as she closed her eyes and focused on thinking various keywords for spells she knew of in Zagon. Nothing happend after a minute and she opened her eyes again.
'Hmm well I guess I'll have to try something specific, what did that stupid God say again? I think he said he patched my mind and soul to my mana, I guess he did that with these lines and gems. Thinking logically these gems on my extremities must be drawing out something from this central core, unless it is the other way around. Perhaps if I try and focus on sending my energy out from my heart and gather it up in one of my hands I might be able to get an effect.'
Again the infant closed her eyes and focused, now with a theory in mind she was ready to test it. After only a few moments a fizzling blue-white bubble materialized in her left hand and her eyes quickly opened, giddy at the discovery.
Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.1}
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The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation.
You have gained 2 intelligence points!
'hoho, look at this! Status windows everywhere! Looks like I can conjure mana just by feeling how it flows in this body, this is really overpowered. Thank you Kaw'Keth, you're the best cloud of gasses I know of, bar helium, that stuff is hilarious. Looks like my intelligence is going up too, I hope mana recovers over time naturally or else I have another problem on my hands. For now I'll assume it does and just cast this spell for a while, my min-max senses are tingling.'
The bubble in her hand popped in and out of existence for a minute or two before she began to feel very tired and fatigued.
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Mana Mastery {Apprentice lvl.3}
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The ability to manipulate raw bodily mana in a basic manifestation.
Mana has been fully depleted. Mana lethargy active.
'Mhmm... sleep sounds pretty gooo...' She passed out almost right away as the stress on her mind washed over her.
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The light of dawn entered Jeral's room, bringing him unwillingly back into the world of the living. A long yawn followed by the creaks of an old bed frame beckoned him to get dressed and leave for the town well. He felt like he was living in a dream world, people he knew were giving him odd looks as he went to get a bucket of water. Whispers could be heard and sullen gazes were everywhere, he said nothing as he returned home having accomplished what he set out to do.
As if on cue he heard muttering coming from his daughters room. "Huh, talking to yourself already. I guess you take after your old man." Jeral retrieved his daughter and brought her to where he had placed her new outfit the night before. After some meager struggles on the behalf of his daughter he managed to put the new set of clothes on her, they really added some weight to her but thankfully the fabrics were loose and would allow for growth.
'Well I guess this solves the problem for now dad, but I do not want to live my life as a baked potato. I have already resolved myself for a future life as a demon chandelier, adding
*knock* *knock* The front door, which was attached to the kitchen, was being knocked. "Come in!" Jeral yelled, trying to reach their ears from his bedroom. The door creaked a little as it was opened and two people walked in, one holding a young child in her arms. Jeral, having finished dressing his child in enough insulation to negate the entropy of the universe, came to greet his visitors.
"Ferald! Anna! it's good to see you, sorry I couldn't make it to the ceremony last night." Ferald looked like he was about to say something before his wife quickly strode to Jeral's side, cooing and awwing. "Awww! So cute!" Joan, being dragged along was curious about the other child too as it was the first other child Joan had seen in her life. Joan reached out to touch the wrapped potato but could only feel the layers of fabric on it. "It's a girl, she's a cute one too. When she woke up this morning she was just muttering to herself, no cries, isn't that right my little potato."
'Argh! Enough with the potato! I did not choose this life, the baked potato life chose me!' "Aww, she looks a little bit angry at being called a vegetable, she couldn't be cuter if the gods willed it. Oh I almost forgot! This is Joan, I'm sure she and your daughter will make great friends." Ferald perked up at the mention of his daughters name and closed the gap between him and his wife. "I picked the name myself, quite proud of my own creativity actually. It's a combination of Anna and my mothers name Josephine." Jeral snickered, "Ferald you're about as creative as a pen with no ink, I remember once in camp you tried to solve the problem of running out of nails by smashing the wood together with a rock." Ferald laughed with Jeral, "Well I guess I'm no carpenter heh heh."
"Please take a seat, do you want some water?" Jeral motioned towards the table where there were four seats, Ferald and Anna both sat down. "Do you want to hold her Ferald?" "Yes I do, I won't let you keep the hot little potato to yourself now will I." Ferald recieved the child in his arms with great care, like he was holding a cloud. Jeral quickly sat down and placed their mugs of water on the table.
Anna placed a hand on Jerals knee while deftly holding her child with the other arm. "We heard about Ves, we're very sorry for your loss. If there's anything we can do to help just ask, we'll be happy to do so." Those words hit Jeral harder than he thought they would, he knew something like that would be said on the matter but he didn't think it would hurt that much, he dropped his head a little as troubling thoughts flooded his mind. "I'm ehm.. Thank you Anna.. It's just that, I well.. I'm just coming to terms with what happend now and what with everything else, I'm just overwhelmed." A few seconds passed before Ferald responded. "Everything else? Don't tell me those damned nitwits at the guard have you pulling hard work at a time like this! I'll gut them!" radiating angrily at seeing his normally happy and socialable friend being turned to misery Ferald said all his thick head could scramble together. "No, it's not that, if anything they've been sympathetic, even gave me a couple paid days off to get everything sorted." Jeral was now starting to realise the hole he was digging himself into.
"If not work then what else? Don't tell me, it's the hemorrhoids isn't it, I got the same problem. I can recommend a good cre..." Ferald glanced at his wife to see the raging eyes of a hungry and very angry dragon, a vein could be seen pulsing on her forehead and steam was about to escape her ears, it was a face that said if you keep talking I'm going to destroy you, honey. He grinded to a full halt mid-sentence, cowering like a beaten dog.
Anna changed her facial expression back to a loving and empathetic friend and switched her gaze back to Jeral. "If you're having trouble finding someone to look after her when you're at work I can help you with that, she's so cute I couldn't refuse spending more time with her." She sent a sweet smile towards the baby in her husbands hands. Jeral had been backed into a corner, he never was good at talking or thinking and it showed here. There was no going back now, he just had to hope that he could really trust Ferald and Anna.
"There's something I have to tell you, it's about my daughter. I don't know how to say this, I don't want to say it either but I'm going to have to eventually to someone anyway. I guess it's good you two are the ones to find out, I feel like I can trust you as family. My daughter has some sort of curse, when I looked at her status there was also a blessing from a weird god I've never heard of before and worst of all she was born a demon. It's so much information I'm having trouble letting it out, I don't know what to do but I do know I love her from the depths of my heart and that I owe Ves to protect her. I need help."
Anna gave another smile and a giggle "Hehe that's all, nothing like that could stop me loving such a cute little baby!" she said confidently. Her husband on the other hand was apprehensive of all this information. "Demon.." He recieved another look of distain from his wife and quickly changed form. "We'll have to keep this from the rest of the village, I mean... they wouldn't understand. I'd do anything to help you Jeral, more now than ever. We'll help you raise this child as good as can be done Jeral, I stake my name on it." His wife smiled, "Finally something smart came out of that big loud mouth of yours, it was bound to happen someday, what with the law of averages and such." All three of them laughed and even Joan gave her best attempt. "How do you feel about having a little sister Joan, I'm sure you'll love her to bits." Anna snuggled her nose against Joans, rewarded by another little giggle from the cute baby.
'Hello uncle Ferald, hello aunt Anna.'