Maven quickly came to realize why the road repair was such an unpopular request; it was boring. Even with Tess being able to near-instantly detect any potholes or irregularities with her tremorsense, the job ended up being mostly just walking along the roads and occasionally fixing an issue.
Watching the tool they had been given work was interesting the first couple of times, but the novelty quickly wore off. The tool just scanned whatever portion of road it was pointed at, conjured some concrete to fill any holes or other irregularities that it detected, then aged the new concrete to be roughly on par with the surroundings while reinforcing the rest of the road within a hundred or so meters.
As they had been warned, the process was noisy and did occasionally draw the attention of monsters, but that had only happened once or twice in the few hours they had been out. So, much to Maven’s displeasure, she had a lot of time to think. It wasn’t that she was being purposefully ignored by the other two or anything, but that she had withdrawn from them.
She felt guilty about it, but being around them was making her feel weird at the moment, and she didn’t want to ruin their moods. It perplexed her, really; it was fine when they were actively working on something, but when they started to unwind and relax more, she got…uncomfortable feelings.
It was probably indirectly Alice’s fault; she had put the idea into Maven’s head that what she was feeling might be some sort of romantic affection, but that was simply impossible. The thought was driving her up the wall, but no matter how she tried she couldn’t seem to fully put it away.
Perhaps her father was right and she should have worked harder at controlling herself instead of doing the bare minimum her tutors required, but if he was right, it was only by accident. If he had actually foreseen those lessons coming in handy in a situation like this, then he would have had to foresee her escaping from her role as heir to the throne, and Maven knew he had harbored no intentions of letting her do so.
Still, until this very moment, she had always been perfectly capable of staying calm, no matter the situation. Even becoming an Appointed hadn’t shaken her up as much as this, and –
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Life: Maven, my apologies for contacting you so suddenly, do you have a moment to talk? Maven: I suppose this job doesn’t really need my full attention, but if something happens, I’ll have to stop talking for that, sorry. Life: Of course, I would not expect you to keep talking to me in that case. Still, thank you for making this time for me. While I am not fully appraised of the situation, I could not help but notice that you seem to be struggling with something. Since you have not gone to the others with this, I thought that, as someone with a different perspective and attitude, I might as well offer my ear. I cannot force you to talk, of course, but I wanted to let you know that I am open to talk at any time. |
Maven paused for a moment. In a weird way, talking with Life about this did seem a little better than talking to the other gods, even Dungeons. He seemed like the type of person who wouldn’t be blinded by thoughts of love, and Maven knew that he would keep their talk strictly confidential unless she wished otherwise.
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Maven: If you don’t mind, I think that might be nice. How much do you know? Life: Not a lot, if I am being honest. Dungeons has mentioned a couple of times how you have been oddly distant since Tess and Ellie announced their engagement, and that she is worried but did not want to press you about it in fear of the situation becoming worse. Maven: I see. To be honest, I haven’t gone to the others because I feel this is something that is purely an issue with me, and that I simply need to take some time and fix myself. I don’t wish to worry them unduly, but I felt that perhaps a little distance would help me cool my head. Life: I understand. At times, I have felt rather stimulated myself being in such constant contact with everyone, and the only change for me was the addition of this chat function. I can only imagine that it would be even more jarring for you, as your whole living situation has changed. Maven: A little, yeah, but that’s not why, not really. It’s not helping matters, but it’s definitely not the root cause of things. I…well, this sounds silly, but I found myself wanting what Tess and Ellie have with each other, and Alice put the idea into my mind that it’s not wanting what they having, it’s wanting to be a part of what they have. That’s obviously not the case, I’m not attracted to women, and I’m sure it’s just her having love on the brain after the announcement, but I can’t get the thought out of my head, no matter how much I try. |
There was a long pause, Life clearly thinking about what to say next.
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Life: May I make a bit of a bold suggestion? Maven: Anything if it’ll help me get over this. Life: Why not speak to your great-aunt Kali about this? Maven: Remind me who that is? The name sounds familiar but I’m sure I’ve never met her before. Life: Amara likely mentioned her to you before, and her picture is up in your family’s portrait gallery. Quite some time ago, Amy made her a sub-Administrator, and then she graduated into being a full one a while after that. She is actually the reason we have worked with Mael as we have; Mael is simply a test run so Amy can help Kali with an issue facing her own planes. Still, Kali comes and visits fairly regularly, and she has become quite close with Amara. Maven: I think I remember Grandmother talking about her. Why would you suggest her? Life: My reasoning is twofold. For one, Kali is far removed from the situation, and will not have any preconceived notions based on how she sees your relationship with them. For two, Kali is remarkably perceptive when it comes to these matters. She has lived for a long time, and I cannot think of someone I would trust more to get to the heart of the matter. She has helped many a Higher Being and Administrator sort themselves out. |
Maven thought over that for a while before responding.
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Maven: I think I would like that. Are you sure she would be willing to speak with me, though? We’ve never met before. Life: She would be thrilled, I assure you. She has already expressed her excitement about meeting you, and she loves helping her family however she can. What time would work best for a meeting? Maven: The evenings, I suppose. Just when it would not interrupt work. Life: I will contact Kali now, then, and let you know when she can meet you. Thank you for taking this time to talk with me, and please remember that I am always open if you need someone to talk to you. Maven: I will, thank you, Life. |
After that distraction, the road repair continued. And, oddly enough, having a concrete situation lined up where she was going to think about the situation helped her focus. She was better able to put her thoughts away, and within a couple of hours was back to interacting with Tess and Ellie almost as normal.
Unfortunately, it only barely helped with the monotony of the job. By the time they had finished up the roads on one half of the city, it was well past three in the afternoon, and they were well overdue for lunch. So, they took out the hoverer, set the autopilot to take them back to town, and grabbed some food from their bags to eat on the way.
And, after that short break, they were right back to fixing roads. Fortunately for them, there was only one road in and out of the city, so they would be done after they finished this side, but it was still a task Maven wasn’t looking forward to.
And, as it turned out, she was right to not look forward to it. It was every bit as boring as their other work had been, right up until they were about two thirds of the way done. They were fixing a hole, just like all of the other times, but this time, Tess sent the other two a window around halfway through the process.
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Tess: Enemies, and I’m pretty sure it’s our target this time. Five goat-looking things, around one hundred yards to our right. Ellie: What’s the plan? Tess: I have some spells that’ll let us track them back to where they came from. I say we kill these five, store the bodies, mark this place to come back to later, then finish our work on the road and catch these guys on our way back. Maven: That seems fine to me. Let us know when they seem to be ready to strike. Tess: They’re closing fast. Do you want my help? Ellie: Given what we’ve read on these things, I doubt we’ll need it. Just keep an eye out for any more and make sure the road gets fixed. Tess: Got it. ETA on the monsters fifteen seconds. |
Ellie and Maven turned their attention to their right, and sure enough Maven could make out a faint rustling coming from beyond the tree line. She prepared a spell, and a few moments later the monsters burst from the trees, and Ellie and Maven attacked.
It…did not go well for “those stupid goat things”. The first one out of the tree line was immediately skewered by all four Swords of Death, killing it nearly-instantly, and the second caught the full force of Maven’s spell, sending it flying back into the tree line but not killing it outright.
By the time Maven had finished casting her second spell, two more of the creatures had fallen to the Swords of Death, and the remainder had turned to flee. She let her spell fly, killing the creature she had injured before, and Ellie killed the last of the things, leaving them in silence once again.
“Well, that wasn’t too bad.” Ellie said, moving over to the corpses and beginning to put them in her bag. “But…how are we marking this place?”
“I’m going to melt a bunch of snow off to the side once I’m done with this.” Tess said. “It’s not supposed to snow today, so that should be enough for us to recognize this.”
“And your tracking magic won’t lose its potency after a couple of hours?” Maven asked.
“Shouldn’t, not so long as we have the bodies.” Tess said.
“Perfect.” Ellie said. “Let’s knock the rest of this out and get back to it, then.”
So, they did. They weren’t really able to speed up the process of fixing the road, not when they were limited by the speed of the device, but they only had a little bit left anyway, so they found themselves back at the scene of their fight relatively soon.
“Ellie, may I see one of the corpses?” Tess asked. “I only need it to cast the spell, and then we can put it back in your bag.”
“Yeah, sure.” Ellie said, reaching into her bag and withdrawing one of the corpses. She grunted in exertion before tossing it on the ground, and Tess gave her a grateful nod before walking over to it.
Tess took about ten seconds to chant the spell, then turned her eyes up towards the forest. “I’ve got the trail.” She said. “I’m gonna start moving forward, Ellie, you stow that body, cast a silencing spell on you and Maven, then follow me from a distance, okay?”
Ellie and Maven did as instructed, and they were soon moving through the snowy trees, following a trail of footprints so faint as to be nearly-imperceptible. Despite the snow, the faintness of the trail wasn’t surprising; many monsters who lived in snowy areas had abilities that allowed them to mask their passing.
Fortunately, these monsters didn’t have any of the abilities that warded against magical detection, so Tess was able to track them without any difficulty. They weren’t led directly back to the nest, it seemed the monsters had been patrolling the area for potential sources of food, but they were able to take the path quickly, using Tess’s enhanced senses to scout the area far better than even the animals and monsters who lived there.
And, after only half an hour or so, Tess signaled for them to stop.
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Tess: I think the nest is up ahead, set into some sort of cave. I can’t tell how many are in there from out here, but we need to be extra quiet on the approach. It’s possible they have a back entrance to the place, and we don’t want to spook them out. Ellie: We could just send Silky or Isabella to check, right? Tess: We could, but these things can sense Mana. I don’t know the range on it or if they’d be able to pick out Silky and Isabella, but I don’t think we should risk it. Ellie: Fair enough. Maven: Surely their Mana sense would not outrange your tremorsense, right? It’s from a mid to high level boss monster, so I cannot imagine these random monsters would have a sense that works better. Ellie: Wait wait wait, let’s back off. If we dismantle one of the corpses and have Tess absorb the core, we can see exactly what the range on it is. Tess: Good point. |
They retreated from the lair’s entrance, moving about a kilometer away before dissecting one of the goats and removing its core. Tess absorbed it, and after a minute or so of silence she suddenly hissed, bringing a hand to her head.
“Tess, are you okay?!” Ellie asked, rushing over to her side.
“F-fine.” Tess groaned. “I put on the Mana vision and it’s really messing with my head. It’s going to take some time to get used to it, but the range is about half that of my tremorsense, so we should be good for now. Now, let’s get back to the cave.”
The way back to the cave was slightly slower, as Tess wasn’t moving as fast as she was before, but they made relatively good time anyway. Once they reached the cave again, Tess confidently strode up to it, then informed the others via window that there were another four monsters within the cave, young ones, by the look of it.
Their ambush was swift and brutal. With Ellie’s initial attack taking out one of the monsters entirely, each member of the party was free to focus on one monster, and the things didn’t stand a ghost of a chance. Once they were finished, they explored the rest of the cave to confirm they weren’t missing any monsters, took some pictures of the den before and after they destroyed it for purpose of evidence, then did one last sweep around the entrance to make sure there were no tracks that would indicate another hunting party had been sent out.
When they were satisfied that the monsters were well and truly eliminated, they packed up and made their way back to the road. By the time they reached it was beginning to grow dark, so Maven was more than happy to be able to get back in the hoverer and be on their way back to town, where they could report their work and then rest for the rest of the evening.
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I think Life being ace would be totally in character, but also hilariously ironic. Especially considering the religious nuts from a while back. “Homosexuality is an affront against Life!” Please. By your logic, Life himself is an affront against Life, seeing how he really doesn’t want to be involved in the whole…producing life thing.
Good guy Life, guiding her though the travails of being just a little gay. Tess and Ellie are going to feel bad once they find out, aren't they...
all five Swords of Death,
there’s 5 now?
Good catch, fixed.