TearCRF

Hi everyone, back again. Things are finally calming down a bit so I can get back to posting chapters.

For those that missed it, Evetta, Vestele, Myrna, Desela, Vallen all have art done (they are posted in the chapters the characters appear, and in the glossary). Recently, Faraine's and Lyris' art was finished, and their art has been added to both the glossary and the chapters they first appear. Additionally, Zoelle and Orianna should be done in a couple of days so I will be posting their art soon as well. The next characters to get art will be Lenadrea and Koralesca to finish the original five girls. I have also updated the element wheel, which is on display in the title cover.

In other news, I've managed to get a few social media accounts made for both myself (TearCRF) and the series (Forbidden Forge) on Twitter and Instagram (Facebook is still a work in progress). They are still new and have little to nothing, but you have to start somewhere. Here's the discord link: https://discord.io/ForbiddenForge

Waloran: wall-or-anne

“How are you this bad?” Minerva shouts, “I knew you were pathetic princess, but you’re setting record-breaking lows for how bad someone can be at gracing their soul.”

“I get it already, I’m bad at this,” I declare, “So help me figure out how to solve the issue.”

“Princess, I really don’t think you understand. Gracing your soul is one of, if not the easiest part of learning to control spyra, ” Minerva replies, “If you’re struggling this much now, then I’m genuinely worried for you once you start manipulating spyr.”

“Ugh! Fine, then why not just teach me how to properly control my spyr,” I argue, “Since this obviously isn’t working.”

Minerva mutters something under her breath before continuing, “Princess, listen to the words coming out of my mouth. You. Suck. I don’t know how else to explain that all you need to do is fill your wings with the spyr you’ve collected so far.”

“Fill my wings…” I mutter, “Don’t you have any useful tips on how to do that?”

Minerva sighs, “Advice… Alright, let me think…” She goes quiet, placing her hand on her chin.

Hurray, these lessons are going worse than with Desela… At least with Desela she’d teach me things aside from just spyra while I was trying to use it. This asshole just insults me the entire time…

“Alright, we’ll go over the basics, again,” Minerva sighs, “What does spyr feel like for you? Think about it, don’t tell me.”

I sit on my knees, close my eyes, and begin focusing on Minerva’s instructions. What does it feel like? It is soft and fluffy, pleasant to touch, like I could lay down on it and sleep forever comfortably.

“Once you have an image of the spyr, imagine putting that spyr all over your wings.”

Place it all over my wings… As I move the spyr to my wings, I can feel them changing behind me. The radiant feeling grows as I continue to spread the spyr throughout my wings. I… I don’t have… Suddenly, I feel the spyr stop spreading across my wings. Keep it together… Don’t let it… The feeling in my wings fades, as the spyr retreats back into my soul.

I start panting as I open my eyes and see Minerva making a displeased face.

“Well, that’s your best attempt so far princess, so I’ll give you credit for improving,” Minerva congratulates, “but your wings were only about fifty-percent filled, so you’re still a ways off.”

“Hey… I don’t know… if this matters,” I say between breaths, “but it felt… like I didn’t… have enough spyr… to fill my wings.”

“Really, well this is definite progress if you could tell that much, but I can promise you that you have enough,” Minerva replies, “You just need to control your spyr and spread it more finely through your wings. This is the first part of controlling your spyr, so congrats princess. You’ve almost taken one small step toward not being a complete waste.”

“Do you have to… insult me… right after I feel like… I made some improvement?” I ask.

“Going from zero to zero point zero zero zero one, isn’t improvement you should be happy about,” Minerva answers.

“But it’s still improvement.”

“True,” Minerva mutters, pausing for a moment, “Alright, keep practicing. You know where to find me if you succeed. Keep it up princess, focus on that feeling of spyr and spread it as thin as you can. Bye loser.” She flies off.

“I can’t believe her…” I pant as I lay on the ground.

Today’s the second day of Minerva teaching me. She explained “the basics” to me and has been monitoring me for the last two hours hoping I’d successfully grace my soul. Unfortunately, something that takes most fairies about a week to figure out, is taking me longer than she wants, even though it’s only been two days.

“Vestele, do you have any advice that could help?” I ask.

“Uh… I feel like my advice would be counter-productive,” Vestele answers, “So, I’d rather not…”

“Fine, but now I’m curious.”

“Call me mother, and I’ll consider telling you.”

“I’m not that interested.”

We both start laughing. She’s the same as usual.

“The best advice I could give would be to ask someone else,” Vestele states.

“The others…” I mutter, “Alright, let’s go check on everyone else. I’m also curious to see what they’re doing for training.”

I stand up and begin flying along the lakeside until I hear a mixture of explosions and yelling. I continue my approach and see Vallen and Minerva’s wisp-page, Gadriel, flying above the lake, hurling fireballs at one another.

As I continue past them, Vestele asks, “You’re not going to ask those two?”

“I’d rather not get dragged into that mess,” I reply, “Besides, there’s always the off chance that I get hit by one of those.”

“Scared?”

“Massive fireballs and bombs exploding above the lake. Yeah, definitely scared.”

I move on, eventually seeing Zoelle who’s being instructed by a female wint. She is tall, has a big build, and a defined figure. She has long cyan hair that runs down her back. She has a soft face, big warm eyes, full cheeks, a wavy nose, large lips, and rosy white skin. She is wearing a brown fur jacket, a white shirt underneath, blue pants, and light brown fur boots. Her wings, similar to all wints, have thick white veins with membranes that look like cracked ice.

“Ah, princess,” Zoelle says upon seeing me, “What are you doing over here?”

“Hello princess. I don’t think we’ve been acquainted,” the wint states, “I’m Juliet, but please, call me Julie.”

“Hello Julie, please just call me Evetta.”

Julie smiles, “I’m sorry princess, but I don’t think we’re close enough for me to refer to you in such a way.”

Yeah, unfortunately, that’s how most people seem to be with the exception of Desela…

“So, what can we help you with princess?” Julie asks.

“Right, I came to ask for advice about how to grace my soul,” I answer, “I can get it about half way, but I feel like I don’t have enough spyr to completely fill them. Do you have any tips on how to improve my control?” 

“Can you feel the spyr?” Zoelle asks, “And what does it feel like?”

“Yeah, but I can't spread it out enough to grace my soul,” I reply, “and it’s soft and fluffy.”

Zoelle and Julie make a weird face. “What’s with that look?” The two look at each other and start laughing, then Julie answers, “No, it’s nothing. So, does your spyr act more like a solid or liquid?”

I’m curious about why they laughed at me, but then again, I probably won’t like their response. “Um, I guess it’s more like a solid.”

“Alright, then when you spread it around your wings, you could try making the clusters of spyr smaller so you have more available to you.”

I look at Zoelle expecting an answer too. “Ah, sorry princess, my spyr is more like a liquid, so I’m not sure how to help you.”

“I see…” I mutter, “Well, thanks anyways, I’m going to go see what the others have to say. Nice to meet you Julie.”

I fly away and continue along the lakeside and run into Faraine and Virgil, Minerva’s nymph page, making their way back toward the island. As I approach them Virgil calls out, “Princess, what are you doing out here?”

“I wanted to get some advice about how to grace my soul.”

“Sorry, but I need to inform Minerva about something, so I’ll have to take my leave,” Virgil states, “Faraine, we’ll conclude our practice here for the day.” He then flies off.

“Did something happen?” I ask Faraine.

“Nothing serious, he just saw something while we were training and told us to call it a day,” Faraine answers.

“Right…” I reply as we both fly back to the island. We land and begin to walk along the lakeside.

“Faraine, do you have any advice about how to grace your soul?”

“Hmm… well, it took me almost a month to grace my soul, so I might know something.”

“Thanks, honestly anything helps,” I happily state, “I just want to be done with this so that Minerva stops insulting me.”

Faraine laughs lightly, then says, “You’re probably not going to like my advice, but the best thing I think you can do is just keep trying.”

“You’re joking right?”

“Nope, through repetition, you’ll slowly get a feel for your spyr, and you’ll naturally get better at controlling it,” Faraine smiles, “That’s how it was for me.”

“So, there’s no trick, just practice huh…” I mutter, “That’s some textbook advice.”

“Indeed, but if it works, then that’s what matters.”

“I guess that’s true,” I sigh.

We continue walking next to each other in silence. I look up at Faraine and she glances down at me and smiles, then says, “Thank you princess.”

“For?”

“Getting Minerva to apologize,” Faraine answers, going silent for a moment before continuing, “Did you do it for me?”

“You, and the others,” I state, then sigh, “That little… I just didn’t want her to act like nothing happened. Although her apology still felt pretty half-assed, so I’m not completely satisfied, but it’s at least something.”

“But the fact that you got her to apologize is incredible,” Faraine declares, “And regardless of if it was just for me or for everyone, I really do appreciate it, so thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” I reply, “Like I said before, I should be apologizing for having you do that.”

Faraine smiles, “Alright princess, enough of that, you’ve apologized, Minerva’s apologized, and I’ve thanked you for it, so how about we put what happened at the feast behind us?”

“But-”

“If you keep bringing it up, it’s only going to keep bothering you,” Faraine says, a hint of sadness in her voice, “I’ll be fine, so… let’s focus on improving ourselves.”

“Fine… but-”

“Princess, it’s okay. Minerva had her reasons, and I had mine,” Faraine continues, “I didn’t meet her expectations, so now I have to improve to try and meet your expectations.”

“What expectations?” I ask, “I don’t have any for you, or anyone else for that matter.”

“Hmm… Well, if you ever do have any expectations for us,” Faraine states, “I’ll be sure to meet them.”

“Alright, I understand,” I mutter, “However if Minerva does something again, tell me and I’ll make sure she gets what she deserves.”

Faraine smiles, “Of course.”

The two of us continue walking and chatting until we see Orianna and another volte shooting electricity into the sky.

“Princess!” Orianna shouts upon seeing us. She flies toward us.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the man shouts as he chases after her. They both stop in front of us.

The man is tall, has an average build, light skin, and short curly purple hair. He has a long head, a straight nose, small lips, thin cold-purple eyes, and curved eyebrows. He is wearing a white sweater, sleek-tan pants, and brown shoes. His wings are similar to all voltes, with the forewings having curved edges, and small lights on the veins. His hindwings are long and thin, but lack the lights. All four wings change from yellow to purple as they extend away from his back.

“Princess, I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be here, it’s dangerous,” the volte states callously.

“Don’t be rude to the princess Waloran,” Orianna snaps as she hugs me.

“Ug…” I sigh as Orianna squeezes me. Ow… this kind of hurts.

“Me, rude?” Waloran barks, “Do you see what you’re doing to the princess?”

“Uh… Orianna, can you let go, you’re starting to hurt me,” I mutter.

“Ah, sorry princess,” Orianna says, letting me go.

“Princess, you should leave, it isn’t safe here while we’re practicing,” Waloran restates, “Orianna’s control over electricity-”

“Hey princess, what’re you doing here?” Orianna interrupts.

She totally just changed the topic... “Uh, I wanted to see if either of you have any advice on how to grace your soul.”

“Advice? From her?” Waloran inquires, “Sorry princess, she’s not going to be of much help. As for myself, the best advice I can offer is to try and refine your ability to sense your spyr. Once you can fully sense spyr, it should be easier to get it to do as you want. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to get back to training.”

Well he’s quite the character… I look at Orianna who clearly looks distressed about going back to training. “Um, Waloran, actually, I also had something that I needed to discuss with Orianna, so would it be fine if we ended her training here for today?”

Waloran stares daggers at me, then sighs, “If that is what the princess wants, but you really should let her get as much practice as possible, she needs it. Orianna, we’ll pick up here next time.” He flies off.

Once he’s out of ears-reach, I mutter, “Jeez, what’s his problem?”

“What did you need to talk with Orianna about?” Faraine asks.

“Nothing, but it looked like she didn’t want to continue training,” I answer as I look at Orianna, “but I do now.”

“Thanks princess,” Orianna states glumly.

“Alright, what’s wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Orianna answers, shaking her head.

“Orianna, anyone that knows you could take one look at you and tell that something’s wrong,” Faraine states.

“Nothing’s wrong, really,” Orianna cheerfully smiles.

You really want to hide it from us huh? “Alright, if nothing’s wrong then how’s practice been going?”

Orianna suddenly freezes, her feigned happiness shifting to distress. “I-it’s going, um... fine.”

“Right… then can you show us an example?” I press the issue, “It’s been a week, so you should’ve made some progress, right?”

Orianna averts her gaze, places her hand behind her head, and chuckles, “O-of course…”

Faraine leans over and whispers, “Are you sure about this?”

“Orianna, go ahead, whenever you’re ready,” I declare.

“R-right.” Orianna turns around and points her shaking hands toward the sky.

…

She’s just standing there.

“I-” Orianna mutters.

I?

“I can’t… I’m sorry,” Orianna says shakily. “I-” she begins to say, but instead of words, she can only manage tears.She turns away from us and quickly flies off..

“Orianna... hey, come back!” I shout, chasing after her, Faraine close behind me.

Orianna zooms toward the trees, weaving about as she navigates through the woods. Jeez, why is she running away? Orianna lands behind a tree and instantly falls to her knees. She turns away from Faraine and I as we land next to her.

“Orianna, what’s wrong?” I ask, “If you just said what the problem was in the first place, we wouldn’t have needed to chase you.”

“What’s wrong?” Orianna mutters, “I can’t- I can’t control my electricity! Everyone else is making progress, but I’m…”

So, that’s what it was… I heard she wasn’t good at using her electricity, but for her to be this upset about it…

Faraine gets down on her knees and hugs Orianna and whispers something to her.

“I know! But…” Orianna shouts as tears run down her face.

Faraine whispers something else, causing Orianna to shove her face into Faraine’s chest. 

Orianna cries aloud, “I’m trying, I really am, but I can’t figure it out...”

“I know how you feel,” I mutter, “I can’t even do something as simple as grace my soul.”

Orianna looks up at me, her eyes red and full of tears, her lips trembling, “Princess, I’m afraid… I want to stay with everyone, but I don’t want you to get rid of me because I can’t keep up…”

“Get rid of you?” I smile, “Orianna, I don’t plan on getting rid of anyone anytime soon. It would be pretty hypocritical of me to get rid of you when I can’t even grace my soul.”

A gust of wind rushes past us. A moment later, we turn toward where the wind came from and see Lenadrea, who calls out, “Ah, there you are, princess. What’re you all doing here?”

“Nothing,” I reply, “I was just getting some advice about how to grace my soul.”

Lenadrea tilts her head and says, “Well, we were all going to head back for dinner, but when we couldn’t find you, everyone went to look for you.”

“Sorry about that,” I respond, then turn to look at Faraine and Orianna, “Come on, let’s get something to eat.”

Orianna wipes her eyes and, alongside Faraine, stands up. Orianna walks over, hugs me, and whispers, “Thank you princess. I promise, I’ll get better.”

“You don’t have to try so hard,” I reply.

The three of us join Lenadrea and together, the four of us regroup with the others and make our way back to the Vravyth for something to eat.

While we’re all eating and talking about how our practice went earlier, a female wisp approaches our table.

She is about as tall as Vestele or Desela, with an average build, and a petite bosom. She has short red hair that stops just below her ears and has parted bangs. She has a square face, large cheekbones, a wide nose, thin lips, downturned red eyes, low eyebrows, and light skin. She is wearing a white shirt, tan pants, a deep-green robe with a white sash around her waist, and white shoes. Her large wings are like flames, extending away from her back.

Here we go again, let’s see what this one wants.

“Ah, is that Summer?” Koralesca asks.

“Summer!” “Hi Summer.” “Hello Summer.” Orianna, Faraine, Zoelle, and Lenadrea all say upon seeing the wisp.

“Hello girls, how have you all been?” Summer asks.

“Good,” the girls say in near unison.

“Who’s this?” I ask Zoelle.

“Forgive me princess, my name’s-” Summer starts to say.

“This is Summer, one of the fairies in charge of the orphanage,” Koralesca interrupts, “She’s been taking care of us while we’ve been staying there.”

I introduce myself, “Hello Summer I’m Evetta.”

“Hello princess, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Summer states.

“What’re you doing here?” Zoelle asks.

“Well, lately a couple of my girls haven’t come back to the orphanage. I heard about their sudden promotion to the princess’ guards,” Summer explains, “and since you haven’t come to see me, I came to check on you myself.”

“Sorry,” the girls apologize, looking down. So they didn’t check in with their ‘mother’ and got in trouble.

“We’ve been pretty busy lately so we haven’t had much free time,” Faraine states.

“Yeah, we’re being.. eh…  trained by Minerva’s and Desela’s pages,” Orianna adds.

“Don’t forget we have to follow the princess around,” Lyris interrupts, and is immediately elbowed by Galatia, “Ow.”

“We’re not following her,” Galatia corrects, “We’re guarding her.”

“Right,” Lyris mutters, “Guarding her.”

“We’re all on a pretty strict schedule,” I announce, “So I’m sorry for keeping them from visiting.

Summer laughs, “It seems so, but it’s quite alright. I just wanted to see how they’re doing, and make sure they aren’t causing you any problems. I know some of them can be a handful.” She glances at Orianna and Koralesca, the two of them avoid her gaze like the plague.

“They’re not causing any problems, if anything, I’m causing problems for them,” I state.

“Well that’s good to hear,” Summer sighs, “I’d love to stay, but I have to get back to the others. Girls, be good, and don’t do anything irresponsible.”

“Yes, we understand,” the girls say in almost unison.

They must have been taught pretty strictly for them to all do that at the same time.

Summer turns around, but before she starts to leave, I ask, “Summer, would it be alright if we paid the orphanage a visit?”

Summer turns around, smiles, and says, “Thank you princess, but that won’t be necessary, after all, I’m sure you have plenty of other things to do.”

“Yes, but I want to see where the girls have been staying and see what it’s like at the orphanage,” I reply.

“Eh…” Summer makes a troubled face, “Would you at least wait until tomorrow so we can prepare?”

“Sure,” I answer, “I have to talk with Desela about getting some time off anyway.”

“Time off sounds nice,” Lyris comments.

“Then in that case, how about stopping by for dinner tomorrow,” Summer offers.

“That works,” I declare.

“Alright, then in that case, I’ll see everyone tomorrow.” Summer turns and leaves.

So tomorrow I get to see the orphanage where they’ve lived… “Hey, what’s the orphanage like?”

“Um, well, it’s nothing special,” Koralesca answers.

“It’s not wonderful either though,” Faraine adds.

“The orphanage, to put it nicely, is crowded,” Zoelle announces.

“Crowded?” I ask, “Are there that many fairies without homes?”

“The collapse did a number on a lot of families,” Vallen explains, “Even if your family survived, there’s always the possibility that you ended up at different sanctuaries.”

“So, it's been hard on all of them…” I mutter, “Hey, what if we bring something to everyone at the orphanage?”

“I like that idea,” Galatia states.

“I’m sure they’d like that,” Lenadrea says.

“Yeah, but what would we bring?” Koralesca asks, “It’s not like any of us can make something that the orphanage doesn’t already have.”

Something that we can give them that the orphanage doesn’t have? 

“You don’t need to bring anything,” Zoelle announces, “I’m sure everyone would be content with you just showing up.”

“Yeah, but bringing something when you’re visiting a guest is a sign of courtesy,” I reply, “but what to bring?”

“What about Lhoris’ sweets?” Orianna asks, “I know that’s something that we never got while in the orphanage, unless we went out and bought them ourselves.”

Everyone looks at Orianna for a moment. “Are you feeling okay?” Koralesca asks.

“What do you mean?” Orianna questions.

“That was a good idea,” Koralesca states, “That’s pretty rare coming from you.”

“What!?” Orianna barks, “I’m full of great ideas!”

“I like that though. If Lhoris can make enough sweets to give out, I’m sure they’ll like that,” I intrude, “Vallen, could you ask Lhoris about it after we’ve finished our food?”

“Of course,” Vallen answers.

After deciding on what to bring to the orphanage, we finish eating dinner and, once my hour of free time is up, we head to the bath.

In today’s bath, I am joined by Desela, her female pages, and all of my female guards. After getting undressed, I join everyone in the bath, mostly submerging myself in the water to hide. To avoid getting surprised by anyone, I have my back on the edge of the tub, while I watch everyone to ensure no one does anything.

“Desela, I want some time off!” I declare, “And not just as a one-time thing. I want regular days off!”

“Really?” Desela inquires, “And why should I agree to such a request?”

“Because, I won’t last at this rate. I have lessons all day long, from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep,” I state, “Having some time off will let me recharge and I’ll be able to focus better during the following lessons.”

“Is that so?” Desela asks, “That’s a bold argument, but let me ask you something.”

“Do not ask me anything in Zoic,” I bellow, “I know I can’t speak Zoic, and I need to learn, but…” I look down and continue, “It’s difficult to keep up, and I’m starting to stress out from the lessons.”

“Orophine, Larina, how’s she progressing so far?” Desela questions.

“She’s managing in her technical lessons,” Orophine answers, “So far, she’s keeping up, but just barely.”

Desela looks at Larina. “She’s doing fine in her flying lessons, and she’s keeping herself out of trouble,” Larina states.

“Please,” I plead.

Desela goes quiet for a moment, then sighs, “Fine, but on one condition.”

“Yes!” I shout, “Thanks.”

“Hey, I’m not done,” Desela roars.

“Ah, sorry,” I mutter.

“I’ll give you two days of rest,” Desela states, “but if you start falling behind, or you cause any problems, you’ll immediately lose them. Deal?”

“Deal!” I accept, “Yes, now I can finally relax a bit.”

“Hurray, the princess gets some time off,” Lyris comments sarcastically.

Ah, I was so focused on myself, I forgot about them.

“Hey Desela, what about my guards?” I inquire, “I’d like for them to have some time to rest too.”

“Use the pairings Eude set up, and have a couple guard you on your rest days,” Desela orders, “They won’t all get time off, but you can cycle through them, until everyone gets to rest and it loops back around.”

So, if two guard me at a time, then while I get four days of rest, they’ll each get three, and have one day with me… I look over at Lyris. “Does that work for you Lyris?”

“Haaa?” Lyris sighs, “Princess, you don’t need my approval for… nevermind, yeah that’s fine, but I want guard duty first.”

“Sure,” I say.

Following our discussion, we finish bathing, I tell everyone goodnight, and I return to my room.

I climb into my bed and ask, “Vestele, are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine,” Vestele replies, “Why do you ask?” 

“You’ve been pretty quiet for most of the day,” I state, “So, I wasn’t sure if something was wrong.”

“So you were worried about me,” Vestele infers.

“Yeah, yeah,” I mutter, “Well you’re not always this quiet.”

“Don’t worry sweetheart, I’m fine. I just don’t want to interfere with you when you’re with everyone.”

“Is that so… Hey, what do you do while you’re in my soul? Doesn’t it get lonely?”

“It can be a bit boring, but I mostly just try to absorb whatever spyr I can. As for whether it gets lonely or not, that’s a definite no. I may not be able to directly talk with everyone, but compared to being alone in that forest for all those years, this is much better. I’m with my daughter after all, and I can see and hear everything you see and hear, so it’s much more enjoyable.”

“Daughter huh… that’s still weird to hear…”

“I am sorry-”

“It’s fine. It is weird, but it’s not the end of the world. Besides I’m still alive, and starting to adjust, so stop apologizing…” I wonder if this is how I sound to Faraine… I chuckle.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, just thinking.”

“...Sweetheart, are you struggling that much with your lessons?”

“To some degree, yes. Flying isn’t that bad, but Orophine’s and Minerva’s lessons are brutal. Back in my world, or my previous world, we normally got two days of rest every week, so having that back is comforting.”

Vestele laughs, “Well don’t let your siblings find out, otherwise they might get jealous. They never got days to just rest and relax, almost everyday they were doing something.”

“That sounds horrible.”

“It wasn’t that bad, I think…”

We both start laughing. As we stop, I yawn, and close my eyes.

“Goodnight Vestele.”

“I do wish you’d call me mother.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Vestele sighs, “Goodnight sweetheart.” Vestele starts to hum, and I slowly drift to sleep.

TearCRF

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. It was a little short and slow, but that's primarily because this one is setting up for/transitioning into the next chapters. Look forward to things picking up in the upcoming chapters a bit more. As always, here's my chapter questions.

Do you think Evetta will meet, fail to meet, or exceed Minerva's expectations? Are Minerva's expectations too high? How long do you think it will be before Evetta manages to grace her soul? What are your thoughts on Evetta bringing sweets to everyone at the orphanage? What do you think Evetta will do on her first day off?