Mage's journey 8

I'll admit: this story's kind of gotten pretty far from my initial conception of it, but I must be doing something right...

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Apparently, the ubiquitousness of monsters was a relatively recent, as in the last one or two hundred years or so, thing. Weak monsters manifesting near the seal was one thing, getting a dense enough population that packs of Mauthe Dogs ranged out this far from the Darkling Woods (which is where he was sealed, apparently) was another thing entirely. Tanya was initially concerned about what this meant about the seal, but entities like Fomortiis were not completely bound by linear time, so the seal could be currently completely intact, but break completely in the future, and still there would be greater leaks of his essence for decades in both directions, traveling through time instead of space. 

Tanya had never considered such a thing in her fantasies of sealing Being X away like Formortiis, but given his demonstrated abilities to stop time, and send her to a timeline that was nearly a hundred years in the past, perhaps it did make sense that such a seal would need to account for the temporal dimension to ensure that he was properly trapped. She had not put too much thought into those implications. 

It was a pipe dream anyway, but she also was already resigned to the Demon King being unleashed in her lifetime, so she was not as shocked by this revelation as she probably should have been. 

Unfortunately, her lack of complete and total panic seemed to have given Verdune the impression that she was some kind of brave hero, instead of an incurable pessimist.Thus, she was given a quest! Namely, to inspect the Demon King’s seal. 

This was, of course, absurd to expect of her. After some negotiation, she got as much as she was probably going to get: She was instead to convey the quest to someone who would be capable, and if she couldn’t manage it in two years, she would instead undertake the task herself. 

Unfortunately, her letter-writing campaign, attempting to gain any sort of information from the military as to the current state of the Darkling Woods, or to get the church to send some kind of questing knight or whatever to do the job for her, failed miserably. She did manage to get a few steps deep, her letters actually reached the office of Military Intelligence, but no amount of cajoling or honesty got her more than ‘the Darklings Woods are very dangerous, stay away’. Verdune was not going to accept that without an inspection of the Demon King’s seal. 

So, she went for the fallback plan: get ready to ride there herself, and that means getting money… and bonding with her unicorn. Opalis was more or less gifted to her as a personal mount, to make the quest somewhat less suicidal to accomplish. So Tanya needed to ride her frequently at high speeds, to get used to the exertion required to ride for long distances. Also to suffer the inevitable saddle sores and develop callouses or whatever before her life’s on the line. 

Owning a unicorn was surprisingly easy. For one, Opalis was more of a pony than a full sized horse, only weighing about six hundred pounds, so she didn’t eat nearly as much as the other horses in Genivere’s cavalry unit, and there was plenty of feed available. Stable space was less available, but Tanya was able to use her newly empowered Dig staff to turn a small hill into a serviceable cave structure that was shaped to stay dry in rain and also drain the inevitable urine and water used to muck it out. 

It was, however, expensive and time consuming. Some of the labor could be passed on to the other orphans, who all loved Opalis, but not all of it. 

Purchasing the tools, saddle, feedbag, and other sundries took a significant dent out of her savings, but fortunately as a wild unicorn, Opalis tended to eat more forage than feed: she actually seemed to dislike the oats and barley used as local feed, preferring hay, beans, and fruits, elsewise just eating fresh grass and clover, the latter of which seemed to be her favorite food that wasn’t fruit, which she loved more than anything else. 

What surprised her more, though, was how… blase everyone was about it. Apparently, unicorns choosing to follow and be ridden by “pure maidens” was not terribly unusual. The tricky bit was encountering one in the first place, because once you’ve done that… They're just good ponies. Fast, strong, intelligent, loyal… Most importantly though, was that they were willful. 

“Opalis, I’m trying to work!” Tanya complained. It was just her luck that she got the unicorn that was a needy attention whore. “I can’t brush you right now.”

In the year and a half since she acquired the horned pony, Mennehl had informed her that her apprenticeship was more or less complete, although for formality’s sake he’ll refrain from formally graduating her until she was financially ready, and she had thus taken over a portion of his workload completely. 

Specifically, she now handled the processing of the orphanage’s herb gathering, buying the supplementary materials herself and crafting basic healing staves which were then sold to traveling merchants for one hundred fifty crowns each, minus some for more of the aforementioned materials and twenty-five crowns for the orphanage’s cut. It meant that she basically never went over to Mennehl’s house anymore, instead working (and sleeping) in the orphanage’s medicine hut, which was convenient: in what they described as a miracle, the young couple finally had a child, and Tanya had very little interest in going over there and helping with Layla. There were plenty of infants and toddlers at the orphanage anyway, as foundlings continually found their way to the doorstep to be added to the population every few months. 

Opalis snuffed, staring at Tanya with her soulful eyes, brimming with tears. “That doesn’t work on me.” Tanya lied, focusing on her work. 

Alchemy had very little in common with anything else she’s done, cooking came closest, and she wasn’t familiar enough with the particulars of chemical science to really comment on how similar it was: most of her time was spent mashing and straining plants, getting the useless fibers out and extracting the useful juices. Once completed, she mixed and combined with other materials, both other herbs, liquids, and some special stones crushed into powder, applying little bits of fire and electricity to the materials to further refine them, eventually combining them into a sugar crystal-like structure that was far more durable than sugar, closer to actual glass. 

All the while, Opalis continued to beg for attention, disturbing the serenity of the medicine hut. Fortunately, the single large basket of herbs that the orphans gathered per trip only took about four hours to process into a stable crystal, and she could put off the rune etching for later, as long as she finished all her staves when the merchant arrived, which given that she had just offloaded some, was not soon. 

“Fine, fine.” Tanya grumbled, which led to Opalis literally hopping for joy. She cleaned her workstation, her procedures now optimized enough that it was quick and efficient, albeit at the minor cost of losing out on some parts that could theoretically be wrought for more material. If her margins became thin enough for her to need to spend so much extra effort, she had bigger problems than a wasteful process. 

She picked up her horse grooming kit on her way out of the door, which was just a satchel with the tools and various oils she had accumulated for such a purpose. “Come on, let’s go.” She said, lightly jogging towards the hill where her stable dug into. 

Instead of using it, though, she found Opalis laying down under the tree, already loving receiving pets from a five year old girl whose name was… Pina? “Yuunicorn…” Pina said, still awed after a year. 

“Would you like to help groom her?” Tanya asked, which of course led to her getting Pina’s best puppy dog eyes. “Alright, what I need from you is to take this brush.” She handed the child the first brush in a sequence of three that was applied to the majority of the unicorn’s fur. “Use circular motions on any dirt you see, loosen it up and get the obvious stuff handled.”

“Okay!” Pina said, smiling as she used the curry comb on Opalis’ hindquarters, where a spot of mud had caked on. Meanwhile, Tanya started with the hoof care, picking at the dirt and dislodging any rocks or other debris that managed to accumulate over the last day. Did she mention that taking care of a horse and keeping them in top condition took a lot of time? It does. 

She (and three of the orphans, the other two having arrived during the grooming) was almost done, about to apply the horn polish that took three months to develop and refine, when they were interrupted by… an air raid siren? 

It didn’t take long for the source to be divined. L’Arachel raced up the hill, looking like… she was a young girl who had just seen a unicorn. It was a fairly distinct expression to Tanya, at this point. “It’s true!” She said, “You have a unicorn! So pretty…”

“Hello L’Arachel, it’s nice to see you again.” Tanya deadpanned. “This is Opalis, I’m sure she appreciates the compliments.” The unicorn nickered in agreement. “I put a lot of work into keeping this beast clean, so I also appreciate it.”

“W-where did you find one?” L’Arachel said, still gushing like a girl half her age, which should be fifteen now? Might be sixteen. “They’re impossible to husband, you know. You need to find one and tame them yourself.”

“I’m well aware, Lady L’Arachel.” Tanya said, opening the small container of polish and dabbing it with the dedicated cloth. “Now be careful, she loves having a shiny horn but she hates the actual polishing part.” It meant that Opalis’ patience with the act of polishing her horn was very short, if she messed up even a little it was twice or more as difficult to finish. “Also, don’t touch her horn. Ever.” She hates anyone touching her horn, thus the dislike of the act of polishing. 

L’Arachel, who was about to do just that, flinched. “But…”

“Do not.” Tanya emphasized. “Now, this will take ten seconds, so let me concentrate.” True to her word, fifteen seconds later she was packing her kit and Opalis was preening at her shiny coat and luminescent horn. “Now that that’s handled, I suppose you wish to sally forth and defeat monsters again? I could use the extra income, particularly as I’m charging even more for my services as mage cavalry.” Admittedly, it was a bit dishonest: she was not particularly adept at casting spells while riding. Lack of opportunities to practice, mostly. She was, however, pretty good at rapidly dismounting, and she and Opalis had dispatched small groups of monsters more than once by letting her ride free and distract them while Tanya readied a spell to attack on foot. 

“Ah, actually…” L’Arachel said, with a nervous laugh. “While yes, I would like to do that,” Tanya had never seen this girl so self-conscious before. This was serious.  “-I would actually wish to hire you as one of my personal retainers. My sixteenth birthday is coming up, and with it, my societal debut. You would be well compensated, although perhaps less than what you were about to negotiate.” L’Arachel was blushing, somehow managing to look even more uncomfortable at speaking like a proper noblewoman than Tanya felt when flattering spirits. 

“Short term mercenary contracts do have different expectations on pay, true.” Tanya said, “But I have conditions, beyond pay commiserate with my skills.” Culturally, being a noble’s retainer was, near as Tanya could tell, a rather big deal. Stories of nobles and their retinues abound in this world, enough that any story that deviated from this model was notable, as it broke from convention. The reason for this was simple to understand: fundamentally, all stories that got into books or bardic repertoires were, in some way, paid for by the nobility, so they were written to appeal to the paying audience. 

That didn’t mean such an invitation, extended to a commoner without backing, was something she could simply refuse. While Tanya liked to think she knew L’Arachel well enough that refusing wouldn’t lead to her taking some kind of revenge, this was an opportunity of a lifetime: as a common orphan, her social options were basically just ‘get moderately wealthy’ and ‘marry someone with status’, while being a retainer was the path to getting a knighthood, real status that could allow her to end her life administering an estate in a comfortable retirement. Besides, she was equally certain that L’Arachel would allow her to leave the position if she found it not to her liking. Not that Tanya saw that as likely, it wasn’t like she had anything against employment. “Name them.” L’Arachel said, still acting more mature than Tanya had ever seen her. 

“I have been given a quest by a spirit.” Tanya said, sure to phrase it in a way to appeal to the self-proclaimed hero. “She worries about the recent increase in monsters from the Darkling Woods, and wishes to have someone inspect the Demon King’s seal. My deadline is approaching, and thus if I was to become your retainer, I would be unable to accomplish this task.”

L’Arachel’s usual wide grin re-appeared. “A quest? Of course! I will take on this burden for you, for it is a hero’s duty!”  

As expected. “My second condition is that I be given enough freedom and work space to do some side-work for myself, as well as continue my research into experimental staff alchemy.” Tanya added, which was a much more negotiable point. 

“Your experiments are part of who you are!” L’Arachel said dramatically. Tanya doens’t know if she’d say that, she just wanted to find something marketable. Unfortunately, while she did have something of a nest egg from her production, she couldn’t attempt to create a larger scale production line until she had a product appealing enough to be worth buying at a price that turned a profit, instead of being too expensive for the utility, like most of the staves she made. “I wouldn’t dream of denying you your passion!”

“Then, assuming we can come together in terms of payment, I accept.” Tanya said, bowing. “My Lady.” She added, to be polite. 

L’Arachel paused, then seemed to realize something. “Ah, yes. Well, on another topic, I do have a question about this quest. Will we be needing the Sacred Stone?”

Tanya spent a moment processing that statement. “No, of course not.” She said, “If that was necessary, I’d have refused it, unicorn or no unicorn.” She had asked. Apparently, the Demon King’s seal was fairly simple to examine, to hear Verdune say it. When she eventually goes forth to actually accomplish this, she was instructed to stop by the Fairy Falls again and get some more detailed directions on how to find and examine the seal, assuming that she couldn’t find some scholar who was already a scholar on the subject to do the inspection instead. 

“Good.” L’Arachel said, “Not that I don’t trust you, Tanya, but I can’t promise that myself. I’d need to go through my Uncle for that, and he’d be much more suspicious.” 

Tanya still didn’t know what L’Arachel’s title, beyond being the heir to something, was. She did know that both of the noblelady’s parents were dead, having been heroes defending the weak from a shaman who had gathered and compelled monsters into an army, and she was her Uncle’s heir, as the man had never married. So naturally, she only wields power within the nobility at his sufferance alone. 

“Now, on the subject of payment…”

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The capital of Rausten was also called Rausten, and it was where the debut ball was being held. The trip was a bit long, and included a route through Neleras Peak, a literal volcano, but the reason for that was clear when they found half a dozen monsters on the way and dispatched them. Apparently it was the site of one of the major battles in the Demon King War, a fortress of the Demon King, and monsters popped up there every so often and needed to be culled. Nothing terribly dangerous, though: half a dozen relatively weak monsters was a busy month, apparently. 

Once at the capital, Opalis drew quite a bit of attention, which the unicorn soaked in greedily. L’Arachel wore a concealing cloak, letting the unicorn take attention away from her while they went through the streets, although from the whispers, she was occasionally recognized nonetheless, or Dozla was at least. 

“L’Arachel?” Tanya asked as they made their way to where her uncle would be meeting them, which was the palace. 

“Yes, Tanya?” L’Arachel said, failing to hide a mischievous grin. 

“I’ve noticed that you prefer not to stand on formality, so I’ve been refraining from asking, but… Eventually, I’m going to need to know what your title is, or will be.” Tanya deadpanned as she saw Imperial Guards on full alert when they passed, at parade rest for inspection. They were either extremely well disciplined, or she was denied critical, need to know information. 

“Well, I don’t have any titles yet.” L’Arachel demurred, “It’s not official until my debut, you know. I’m not my uncle’s blood child, so I need formal recognition, which I don’t have yet. Even if I am next in line, as his brother’s child.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” Tanya said, half to herself. “Why would you-” Her eyes widened as she realized that there was one title she knew of that required a formal ceremony, and could theoretically not go to the next blood relative if there was a death. Because it wasn’t just a political title…

They passed through the palace gates, and literal trumpets resounded. The herald, who Tanya now recognized as having spoken to Dozla a few minutes ago before rushing ahead of them, cleared his voice and shouted, “She returns!” He shouted, “Princess L’Arachel has returned from her adventures!” There was a rousing cheer from the various soldiery and palace staff. 

…it was a religious one: Divine Emperor. “I should have charged you more.” Tanya hissed through a fake smile. 

L’Arachel boldly strutted forward, laughing aristocratically. “Everyone! This is my new retainer, Tanya. She speaks with my voice.” Well, she’ll have to be careful how she speaks to people if L’Arachel was going to tell people that. 

Tanya gave a shallow curtsey when attention focused on her, while Opalis preened. 

They were brought deep into the palace, bathed by maids, put into new clothes, and after a dizzying hour or two doing all that, brought in front of Divine Emperor Mansel. 

L’Arachel was wearing a full dress, something that Tanya would expect a princess to wear. It was white with gold accents, the brightness and purity of the cloth was something that she knew from experience was basically impossible to achieve with the kinds of laundering techniques available to the common man, and even worse to keep that color without staying indoors to a place that is kept clean to the highest standards. 

Tanya, on the other hand, was given a military mage uniform instead, a light set of chainmail underneath a robe that only went down to her mid-thigh. While she saw a few other mages, all girls, with normal boots and otherwise bare legs, Tanya also wore a set of leather riding breeches and high heeled riding boots. They were nicer than the set she came in with, and the ensemble was finished with a hooded cloak that held spots on the inside to store magical tomes when not in use, in addition to the harness that allowed two such tomes hanging from her waist, and places on the outside to secure staves. The fit for this initial set wasn’t particularly good, but apparently L’Arachel was confident enough in Tanya’s acceptance of her offer that she had a set made in Tanya’s approximate size, sight unseen. 

One thing that L’Arachel and Dozla did not skimp out on was a condensed but comprehensive education on military bearing in this world, such as when it was acceptable to load herself up with the full four tomes and four staves (basically only when on campaign), when it was acceptable to carry around a staff in hand instead of stowed (basically always), and when she shouldn’t even wear her tome harness and cloak at all (anytime it wasn’t acceptable for the knights to be armed), although even then a single healing staff was acceptable to carry. Most of it was familiar enough from her time in the Empire, but as always when switching lives, it’s the smaller details that can trip you up. Sensibly, they focused on the points of etiquette that would stop fights from being provoked if done incorrectly, so matters related to her weapons and Opalis came first. 

Divine Emperor Mansel was a balding man that still held a golden color with his remaining hair, including a trimmed short beard. When Tanya and Dozla arrived in advance of L’Arachel, moving in a ceremonial manner that was basically a march, his face was stern, looking every bit the country’s patriarch, the very picture of Imperial Majesty. 

When L’Arachel entered, dressed to the nines and stepping gracefully instead of with her usual frenetic energy, Mansel smiled unreservedly, that majesty vanishing in favor of a paternal expression of pride. 

Tanya had a good feeling about this position.