Elise sat on the old carpet in her room. There was a conflict in her heart and mind. On one hand, she did not want to leave Wolfsteyn. Grandma and Grandpa lived here, and she wanted to continue living with them. They were so kind and friendly. She loved it when Heidi taught her magic, talked to her about healing magic or tried to find out what her "node" was. Elise had been told by the angry voice not to tell anyone that she had two nodes. She had decided to follow the advice. Lying felt bad, but the angry voice had told her that hiding that she had two nodes was very important.
Sadly, even with Heidi's help, Elise hadn't figured out what her nodes were. Meditating hadn't helped, but Elise knew that a stronger node usually took longer. The angry voice in her head had ordered her to kill something. But Elise strongly doubted that a rat, a rabbit or a bird would help. She didn't want to do it either. It felt ... wrong. They were animals, not beasts. They deserved to live and to keep on living. Her refusal was why the angry voice in her head remained silent for the moment.
What she did know was that her training with Heinz and Augustus, the blacksmith's son, had been fruitful. She still couldn't use any of Heinz's techniques. But she was able to swing the sword at least a hundred times before her arms grew tired. Besides, she had also managed to lift his war axe. It had only been for a moment, but that had been enough for her to realise that she wanted to do something that involved fighting.
But that sadly wasn't the only thing she loved. Elise also loved learning to cook or knit with Grandma. After a month, she had managed to knit her own jumper. She couldn't wear it because it was unfortunately a few sizes too large, but she loved the design and the figures on it. Cooking had been a bit more difficult, but she had managed to make her first soups and breads, most of which had been quite delicious. Homemade things seemed to be the best.
She sighed. Even with all of these amazing things her life seemed lacking. Maybe that would change in Aschen. Elise felt lonely. She desperately hoped that she would find one friend. One friend was enough. She just wanted one friend. That would be more than enough. She nodded and vowed to find her bestest best friend in Aschen.
Elise had tried her best to make friends here in Wolfsteyn. But the only friends she had, if she could call them friends, were Fritz, the captain of the local militia, and lastly Augustus, the blacksmith's son. Both of them also trained with her and Heinz sometimes. But they did not play with her and her dolls, much to her annoyance. Nevertheless, Elise respected Fritz and Augustus.
Fritz's fighting style was beautiful and involved movements she could barely follow with her eyes. It was like watching a dancer move on stage, not like watching a warrior swing a sword. Augustus was amazingly strong and fast. He was good enough as a fighter to use that to his advantage. Elise had fought him and most of their fights had been draws. A few times she had won, but so had he, not so often, but he had won.
She had tried to ask him why other kids her age were keeping their distance from her. Was it because of her horns? The fact that she had no father? Or was it something else? Elise had no idea. Augustus also seemed to not know, he simply had told her that he also had not found many friends and that some of the other kids hated him because of his father.
Elise did not understand why. His father was a smith and she never had heard anything bad about him. Maybe it was because his father was fairly tiny. He was two or three heads smaller than her mother.
Afterwards, she had tried to ask Fritz why the other kids did keep their distance. At first, he had tried to evade her questions by simply ignoring them, then he had tried to change the topic. But in the end, he had given up. He had told her that he also had been a child that had not been liked by others his age, simply because they had seen him as weird and unusual.
But people changed and that was the case for everyone. Fritz had found many friends when he had gotten older. Furthermore, most people seemed to greatly respect him, after all, he was the captain of the militia. But Heinz had told her that this was not that much of an accomplishment.
Finding friends was thus one of the reasons why she wanted to go to Aschen. But she had another reason and that was not because of her being a well-behaved girl. Well, everyone had told her to gather all her things and prepare for departure and she had done so albeit reluctantly. Yet her mother had said that they would be picked up and accompanied by knights. That had raised her spirit.
Real knights!
Elise was looking forward to seeing them. What kind of armour were they wearing? Brigandine? Probably not, Grandfather had told her that it would hardly stop the attack of a beast or monster. Plate? Probably, but it was very heavy. Chain mail? Maybe, but chainmail was hard to enchant from what Grandmother had told her. Or were they wearing something else entirely? What was the weapon they used? A sword? A morning star? A spear? A rifle? Were they blessed by the Celestials or were they descendants of heroes? Were the knights stronger or weaker than Grandfather? She did not know.
She only knew that they were strong and fought for justice. This was the only thing that mattered.
Elise prayed that she would quickly find out what her nodes did. She had great plans for the future. She wanted to be a mage, a knight or a royal guard, like granny’s and grandpa’s son. From what she had been told they were knights but more powerful and important. Her respect for Heidi and Heinz had grown after finding that out.
Elise really wanted to become strong to help others and protect her family. But could women become knights? In the stories all knights had been men and women had been princesses and mages. She could not become a princess. Elise was pretty sure that, unlike all the princesses in the stories, she was not of royal blood.
Becoming a mage was the only option she had. But could she become a mage? She didn't know what her nodes did. She was unable to use true magic, and using wild magic was tantamount to not using magic. The Towers of Magic did not accept anyone who could not use magic. Besides, she had to go to a normal school to qualify for the entrance exam, otherwise she was forced to become a maid, or perhaps a nun. Both were professions she respected very much, but she really didn't want to become a nun or a maid.
"I am going to ask a knight if there are any women who serve alongside him," she thought. Yes. That sounded like a good plan. She nodded.
"One problem solved," she thought happily, before realising that there was another problem, a much more urgent one.
There was not enough room in the chest for the rest of her dolls. It would probably burst if she put any more dolls in it. So another chest had to be found.
Elise quickly got up. She would ask Heinz if he could bring another one upstairs. The small room already looked as if a dragon had attacked a trader's caravan and stolen all the treasures, or as if a bandit camp had been invaded.
But ... there were still many things she had to take with her.
There were books. Then also the clothes that Heidi had sewn for her. Elise also still had the wooden sword Heinz had given her for her sixth birthday. He had claimed that he would give her a real sword when she turned twelve. But that was still a few years in the future and she would be leaving town soon.
"A sword is not important," Elise muttered, putting the last knight into a chest. The doll barely fit inside. She slammed the lid shut and thought angrily, "But I want one..."
"So," Elise asked Heidi as she helped her cut the potatoes, "I'm going to go to school. Right?"
Heidi just nodded and almost cut her finger with the knife.
"Sorry," Elise muttered, concentrating on cutting her own potatoes.
"I've been reading about schools," Elise continued after a few moments of silence, "I'm going to learn different subjects at school. But why should I have to do that? Why should an innkeeper like Heinz go to school? I don't think Heinz is that interested in the first Emperor, or why the Red General withdrew after the invasion of the Empire, or why the Red General came to power and killed the former King."
Elise thought of Heinz. He really did not look like someone who liked reading, or learning, or anything that involved not swinging a weapon.
"No, no," Heidi shook her head, "you have the wrong idea about school. School is for gaining knowledge and deepening your understanding of the world. That helps immensely with magic and improving your node. We have learned that a node is connected to the world. Remember what happens when you don't know anything about it?"
"I get a bad node or no node at all?" Elise asked, slightly perplexed. Her lessons about the nodes had been long ago and that had seemed rather unimportant. But, by the looks of it, she had been wrong.
"Yes. That is the case. Knowledge is important no matter what you want to become," Heidi replied, "Let me give you an example. You can have a node related to blacksmithing. That perhaps could be a node that allows you to see the temperature of the metal or how hard you need to hit the metal. How did you gain the node?"
Elise knew the answer. Quickly she answered, "By asking your parents or a blacksmith to teach you blacksmithing?"
"Indeed," said Heidi, "and I hope your answer was not a question. Now imagine you are so gifted that you somehow get a node that involves fighting. How can you improve your node if your parents don't know about fighting or can't teach you?"
"You don't" Elise mumbled, "I get it. That means I go to school to find a teacher to help me improve my nodes."
"Yes. Do you still remember the three types of nodes?" Heidi asked.
"Wasn't that similar to magic?" Elise asked.
"No. There is wild magic, true magic and divine magic. That's different from the three kinds of nodes," Heidi replied, eyeing the potatoes.
"Ahhh, I remember," said Elise, "there was 'Utility', 'Body' and 'Spirit'? Or was it 'Magic'?"
"It doesn't really matter, most people call it 'Spirit', some call it 'Magic'," Heidi replied. "Do you know what the types of nodes do?"
"I forget what 'Utility' does," Elise replied, "But 'Body' makes it easier to fight, there are about a hundred different nodes for that. And 'Spirit' allows you to use true magic and helps you create spells and use them."
"That's right, for the most part," Heidi said. "There's more to the nodes, but you'll probably learn more about your node at the academy."
"But I should already be learning about the different nodes, right?" Elise asked, "If I know what a node does, I can fight it."
"You should probably ask Heinz," Heidi said, frowning, "I've never fought anyone before."
Heidi threw the cut potatoes into the pot and poured water into it before feeding the fire crystal with mana. The water slowly but surely began to boil. Elise loved watching the bubbles rising from the water. They looked so exciting. Heidi quickly told Elise to take a step back or she would burn herself. Elise did, reluctantly and slowly, but she listened.
Heidi continued, "But it really doesn't matter what node you have if you can't find a teacher. That's why the entrance exams are so important for people with a 'Spirit' or 'Body' node. Unfortunately, the entrance exams are very difficult and many fail. That is why most give up. Most of those who do not go to school have mundane jobs. Most children learn their parents' trade after a simple apprenticeship. Their once promising node can sometimes turn into a 'Utility' node similar to their old node but it will help them with their job."
"Will it be hard for me to pass the entrance exam?" Elise asked, "And do you have an idea on when I can find out what node I have?"
"When I was your age, what you know would have been enough to pass. But time passes and the requirements become more and more difficult to meet. I have met only a few commoners who passed the entrance exams. Most of those who pass are nobles, the children of rich merchants or the children of knights who studied from an early age," Heidi replied. "And I would say that another two years of meditation should be enough for you to find out what your node does."
That was an awfully long time. But Heidi sensed that Elise's node was strong, probably as strong as the third stage of Heinz's node, a "Body" node . Still, once Elise fully understood her node, she would certainly pass the entrance exams of most academies.
Unfortunately, mages and knights did not want commoners in their ranks. There were many reasons for this. Some knights and mages had twisted minds. They thought that only those with the proper backgrounds were allowed to grow and improve their node, while commoners were just allowed to have their unimportant "Utility" node. But not every knight or mage was like that, and there were always a dozen commoners in the academies. Most of them managed to put enough effort into their studies to surpass those who thought themselves to be better.
“I see,” Elise mumbled, “I need to learn more because I otherwise would at best have mom’s job?”
“Being a maid is not something to be ashamed of,” Heidi sternly replied.
“I know, but I don’t want to be a maid. I want to be a knight or mage!” Elise exclaimed, “I want to make mum proud.”
“You are good the way you are,” Heidi replied, “Your mum is already proud enough to have such a well-behaved and nice girl.”
Elise seemed startled and then grumbled, “Why do we even leave you? Mum has work here.”
Heidi sighed, “Yes. This is true. But the Lord of Aschen specifically asked the mayor to send more servants and your mother fits the criteria. You can’t go against a noble's wish, not if you are a mayor of a small town.”
Elise had read that in many fairy tales. Nobles were certainly fearsome when they could interfere in people's lives. That was another reason to become a mage or knight, they had power.
“I see,” Elise mumbled and halted. There was an important thing she needed to find out.
“Then did you go to school?” she eagerly asked.
Heidi shook her head: "No. School was expensive when I was your age. My father was a simple man in the church and as a simple priest there wasn't much money to be earned. That's why I joined the church. There I learnt enough to improve my node and though I didn't have that much talent, I was able to live a good life."
She felt fortunate that the Church considered public education a divine duty to save souls from eternal damnation and to understand the Church's scriptures. The Church rigorously focused on educating children and enabling them to read the many scriptures, thus also helping them to improve their node. Unfortunately, most of the nobles of the empire did not have intentions as noble as the church. They offered some education to the commoners, however, only if a commoner could afford the rather high fee. Even then the education a commoner received was lacking, it barely allowed one to pass the entrance exam.
Yet the nobles wanted to create good patriots and future soldiers, which Heidi found abhorrently wrong. She was a servant of the Goddess of Health and Joy, both aspects did not necessarily agree with war and blind patriotism. Worse still, there had not been a single year in which the Empire had been at peace since its founding. It was only a matter of time before the little border skirmishes between the Empire and Avustraya, or the Crimson Republic, or any other neighbouring country, escalated.
When this happened, soldiers were needed. These soldiers would believe that they were fighting for their fatherland and that dying for their fatherland was what they were supposed to do. What would a young man do if he somehow failed the entrance exam? Perhaps follow in his father's footsteps. But that did not always happen. Sometimes these young and unfortunate souls decided to join the military. Some managed to improve their node, others did not.
Those who did not would die somewhere on the battlefield, forgotten by the world and mourned only by their parents. They would be ignored by their fellow soldiers and their commanders. Their commanders would be young nobles who wanted to find glory, only to find out that finding glory on the battlefield was a stupid idea.
Heidi took a deep breath. She stared at Elise, who had stepped closer to the boiling water and was looking at the bubbles as if they were something of great importance. Heidi hoped that the lessons in Elise's school would not be about the glories of the Fatherland, the wondrous achievements and moral virtues of the nation's founders and leaders, and the need to defend the nation against evil forces elsewhere.
Instead, Heidi fervently hoped that the school in Aschen was what those who had passed the laws had promised and not a place where Elise would be warped until even her mother no longer recognised her. Perhaps the fact that the schools in Aschen were funded by the Lord of Aschen would help.
But if all this was not true and the school turned out to be simply another trap set by the nobles, Elise could maybe still pass the entrance exam. If she did not, her node would hopefully remain stable for a long time until Elise would find another chance to improve it, perhaps by joining the mercenary association or some other organisation, maybe even the church.
