She was waiting— waiting for the little girl and her carriage.
Idly, she glanced at her claws shining in the Binary light. Her golden paws reflected that light so beautifully.
Last time the little girl went past the trails in such a hurry! She never even had time to properly get to know the nascent lordling. Soon. Less than a week now, she knew. It was so exciting! After all—
She had never known defeat.
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Addie left the library with one last glance behind her. She watched as the darkness behind those doors slowly closed. She thought she saw a brief flash of someone smiling before they shut with a sense of finality.
Shaking off that creepy image, Addie walked alongside her group. A bit toward the front of the group, Nettal was holding Lotty up against her chest by wrapping her arms around his upper body. But, the fawn had long legs, and his back hooves almost scraped against the ground while his front hooves sort of dangled over Nettal’s shoulder.
Addie hurried up to get beside Nettal and asked, “Why are you holding him? Isn’t he too big?”
With a huff, Nettal rolled her eyes. “He said he was ‘too tired’ to walk and somehow convinced me to carry him.” In a quiet whisper, Nettal leaned in to share a secret, “Luckily, I figured out that I can use magic to heal my arms when they get tired.”
In shock, Addie’s jaw dropped. “What!” she said just a bit too loudly, “That’s amazing! I wish I could do that.”
“Hey, I wish I had your magic sometimes too. Especially the way you can talk to Squishy.” Nettal trailed off wistfully for a moment. “Sometimes, I can’t quite understand the images and feelings Lotty sends me over our bond. I’m getting better at it though!”
“My birdie is like that,” Addie said as they continued walking down the path, “She can’t speak like Squishy either.” Maybe she could ask Sen about it later? He was a magical creature that could speak in words, too.
Like that, Addie and Nettal talked about whatever came to mind for a while, sharing their different viewpoints on magic. Addie thought Nettal’s healing magic was cool, but in the end, Addie still preferred the powers she got from Squishy. He sent a feeling of content agreement at that last part, too.
Once Addie, Christena, Auntie, and Nettal got close to the town border, Mr. Owlcharge said goodbye to everyone. Even little Lily gave a small wave before burying her head back into her dad’s chest.
It didn’t take long to get home after that. They ate dinner, and both girls recounted all the different, yet similar adventures they had in the library’s constantly shifting space.
After bringing all the food out of the kitchen, Christena sat down next to Addie to join them for the meal. No one batted an eye at her joining them, even if she was Addie’s maid.
“Ever since I was a girl, the library has been just like that,” Christena began, “Shifting people around to help them find any book they could need. But, I think even I learned something new about that mysterious place today. Addie, how did you manage to get to Lily before we did?”
Scrunching her face, Addie thought for a moment, and then she replied, “I don’t get what you’re asking. We all split up to look for her, and I just found her first. You were slower than me.”
Christena tilted her head at Addie. “When we separated, you couldn’t have been gone for more than just a few seconds.”
“Huh.”
The dinner table went quiet for a moment after Addie’s response. Her thoughts wandered to the time she climbed the ladder.
“I think something like that happened to me when we first got to the library, too,” Addie explained.
“Like how?” Christena leaned forward in interest.
“Well, Squishy and I climbed the ladder, and then we went into the attic. We chatted with a super duper grumpy old man for a while. But, when we came back, the librarian with the ladder acted like we hadn’t disappeared at all!” Addie waved her hands in emphasis.
“What!?” Christena suddenly yelled, startling everyone at the table. “Sorry, did the old man do anything to you?”
“Of course not,” Addie replied.
Christena visibly relaxed and ate another bite of dinner before placing her fork back down with a slight clatter. “Well, your little story seems to confirm my theory even more. I don’t think the library shifts us around. Or at least, just shifts us around. I wonder if it’s also doing something to tamper with time?”
Auntie interjected with a thought of her own, “Curious. I’d love to find out what manner of creature the owner of that library bonded with.”
“Maybe you can ask the library to help you find a book on creatures that can control time!” Nettal suggested, “Every time I asked for help with healing magic, it gave me all sorts of useful books! I couldn’t understand much of it though. One book had only a single sentence in it! ‘The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.’ That’s all it said! I don’t even know what a ‘cell’ is. No one else seemed to understand that sentence, either. A bunch of books speculated on what that one sentence meant, but apparently, the knowledge was lost After Servus.”
“After Servus?” Addie asked.
“Yeah, it’s 408 A.S. this year. That means ‘After Servus’, according to the books in the library.” Nettal explained.
“That’s right,” Christena confirmed. “Remember when I told you about the Great Cascade, Addie? When Servus finally succumbed to greed and began to devour Aggan?”
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“I thought that happened super long ago!” Addie exclaimed.
“400 years is a long time,” Auntie trailed off and her eyes stared up at the ceiling with an emotion Addie couldn’t quite place. Addie wondered what she might be thinking. Before Addie could ask, Auntie continued, “A lot can happen in 400 years. A lot has happened.”
The table was quiet for a bit after that.
Addie took the time to get some food in her stomach. She hardly tasted the meat and root vegetables. Addie was too busy thinking about all that had happened at the library, like the way its mysterious halls seemed to be ever-changing. It would be a great place for hide and seek!
Christena spoke up again, this time changing the topic and drawing Addie’s attention again, “Tomorrow, you girls are going to go through some training. I’m tired of finding out Addie has gone off and found danger once again without proper preparation. Nettal, your mother has agreed for you to join us as well. Make sure you both get plenty of sleep!”
Those words excited Addie, but the way Christena seemed to smirk in delight also scared her a bit. That mischievous smile on Christena was never a good sign.
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Addie walked out onto a field of sand. The heat from the Binary beat down on her from overhead, and she frowned since her pale freckled skin would probably be bright red in the morning. Usually, she could keep some shade in the more forested areas at home, and even to a similar extent in the swamp. But this clearing behind Auntie’s mansion didn’t have even the tiniest bit of shade.
She pinched at the skin-fitting leather pants Christena made her wear. Addie usually refused to wear pants, and for good reason! They weren’t pretty at all. These pants were particularly awful, since they tugged on her skin, making her want to constantly shift her posture around to try and reduce the friction.
Nettal stood off to the side, looking at Addie with amusement plainly on her face.
Across from her, on the other side of the sanded field, Christena stood with her hands against her hips. The normally tidy maid was wearing a similar pair of brown leather pants. Christena never wore pants. Addie gulped as she realized Christena must be deadly serious about this sparring session if she was willing to take off her maid uniform. Similarly, Christena’s top was also fit for a workout, consisting of a cotton smock covering her torso but leaving her arms and shoulders bare and hanging on by two small straps.
Addie stared at Christena’s tightly packed and corded muscles, then gulped. She never knew Christena had such a powerful yet lean build underneath that frilly maid uniform. Each of Christena’s muscles were densely packed with undisguised power.
“Nettal will just be here to observe our lessons, today,” Christena said with a slight gesture in Nettal’s direction.
Glancing at her cousin, Addie saw Nettal contentedly sitting in the sand watching the arena. Fluffy and Lotty were competing for the limited space to rest in Nettal’s lap. It looked like Fluffy was winning, but only because she kept using her giant fluffy tail to bother Lotty’s eyes.
Focusing back on her ‘opponent’, Addie demurely glanced back at Christena and said, “Are you sure we have to ‘spar’? last time you taught me magic, we just talked about things and you showed me all kinds of ways to use illusions.” She hoped this was all just some big trick, like Christena often tried to pull.
“Ah, but today we aren’t practicing magic. We’ll do more of that tomorrow. Today, I’m going to begin the basics of teaching you how to fight. Based on my observations, you are woefully unprepared for all of the dangers that keep making their way into your life. I won’t stand for it any longer. What would you do if you got into a magical fight that ended with both you and your opponent locking each other’s magic behind hostile transcendent loops? How would you defend yourself without any magic at your disposal? You’re just a small girl. The following physical confrontation would not go well for you. I’m going to fix that.” Christena cracked her knuckles. “Don’t worry, Nettal can heal all of your bruises once we’re done.”
This all seemed extreme to Addie. She’d never fought someone without magic before! It sounded crazy.
Noticing Addie’s hesitation, Squishy chimed in with his thoughts. Addie turned her head to look at him where he sat behind Addie to watch. “I believe Christena is correct. It is only right that you learn to fight with physical superiority.”
Addie almost felt betrayed, he was always supposed to be on her side! But, instead, Addie rolled her eyes. Of course, he would say that. He loved fighting.
“I also worry for you. The wilderness is only going to keep chasing you. My intuition is that we will surely encounter more of these ‘Watchers of Servus’. You must learn to defend yourself during the moments when I am busy with another opponent.”
Addie let out a shaky breath as she turned back toward Christena. Though, Addie wasn’t yet sure if she could trust Christena like this. It made her feel exposed. Not too long ago she and Christena had been fighting for real— or so Addie thought at the time. Addie shook the thought off. She had promised herself to do her very best during her lessons, hadn’t she? Plus, Squishy agreed with this idea, too. And Nettal would be watching the entire time. Addie wasn’t in any real danger, but that thought still didn’t entirely shake off the jitters.
“Fine. If you are going to teach me how to fight, I’m going to learn how to beat you every single time!” Addie intended to sound confident, but her words trembled as they left her lips.
Christena snorted and smiled with far too many teeth. “Prepare yourself!” She launched forward—there was no other word to describe it. Sand flew through the air as Christena’s powerful legs sent her flying with each leaping step. Despite all of the sand flying around, Addie kept her eyes wide open, determined to keep watch on her opponent.
Instinctively, Addie started to pull on her magic, to punt herself into Realmspace to gain an advantage. But another thought stopped her: She had strong determination to do this—to win this. Maybe the feeling was emotional bleed over from Squishy’s longing for battle, but she didn’t think so. Addie wanted to learn, she wanted to do well, and she wanted to be strong enough that a cascade could never hurt her ever again.
Addie stood firm and dug her feet into the sand. Her spatial sense alerted her to Christena flying in with a jab aimed at her shoulder. Addie dodged to the side, just like all those times she practiced dodging plants while running through the forest. Christena’s jab rushed right past Addie’s shoulder, barely a finger width away, but still not touching her.
A moment of excitement coursed through Addie, she did it! She managed to avoid a punch from Christena! But, the excitement died completely in the next moment.
Christena quickly threw a second jab, curving in and giving Addie a decent thump on the left side of her upper chest. The force of the blow spun Addie around in a circle before she twisted and somehow fell both with her bum and face down on the sand, and some of it got into her mouth. She desperately tried to spit out the disgusting grains. Somehow, despite her whole body being jostled around, her shoulder didn’t hurt much. It felt like Christena softened the blow to be more of a shove at the end there. At most, her bum hurt a bit from the hard landing.
Even if it didn’t hurt as much as she expected, her shoulder still stung, forcing Addie to wince and rub at it for a moment. Christena leaned down over Addie and reached out a hand.
“That was a good first attempt! Especially since I haven’t given you any hand-to-hand training yet. But remember, even if this is a training session, you won’t have time to get sand out of your mouth in a real fight.”
Addie grabbed onto Christena’s outstretched hand and allowed herself to be pulled up onto her feet.
“Let’s do a few more quick sparring rounds and then I’m going to teach you some of the proper forms for basic blocks and punches.”
“Why can’t we do that first?” Addie complained as she rolled her left shoulder a bit.
“Because I need to figure out your current level of skill. I also want to find all the bad habits you’ve surely made without realizing while learning to fight so haphazardly in recent weeks.” Christena paused for a moment and smirked, then continued, “Besides, this way is way more fun, don’t you think?”