Chapter Two

“Where are we going?” Anne asked.

“Not too far from here,” Elain’e said. “I have a carriage waiting just outside the thickest part of the forest. But before that, we’re going to see if you have any particular gifts with regards to your summoning. The best way to do that is to put you in a situation where you need to fight. Besides, you’re not familiar with our world’s magic, it’s high time you learn.”

“High time?” Anne repeated. “But Miss M’ango, I’ve only been here for, well, less than an hour.”

Elain’e shrugged her little shoulders and continued to stomp ahead. Anne hadn’t realized it early, but the girl was short. Not just short because of her age, but short despite it. She only came up to Anne’s waist, and Anne wasn’t a particularly tall woman.

“How old are you?” Anne asked. “Shouldn’t your parents be around here, somewhere?”

“Hmm? I’m older than I look, Miss Hero. It’s generally considered taboo to ask someone of my sort their age, though of course it’s entirely forgivable seeing as how you had no way of knowing that. As for my parents, they’re long dead.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” Anne said. She didn’t know how to respond to the age thing. Though, to be fair, she had been thirty-two for a couple of years once. A lady had to keep some secrets, though usually not when they were as young-seeming as Elain’e.

“I’m hardly poor,” Elain’e said. “And besides, I have my great-patriarch to watch over me. He’s a powerful sorcerer, and though our clan is weaker now, he is still feared and respected in equal measure.”

“That’s nice,” Anne said. A grandparent stepping in to help their grandchild? That was very sweet of them. Anne stumbled over a root, then noticed that Elain’e was keeping up the same pace and was making good time ahead of her, so she jogged after the girl while clutching onto her cloak. “So, ah, do you often venture out in the woods all on your own?”

Elain’e shrugged. “While the Hard Woods are quite dangerous, I am quite capable. And you’re a hero, no less. I’m certain that none of the moblins living here will be able to harm either of us.”

“Um, what’s a moblin?” Anne asked. She had so many questions. She wasn’t sure where to even begin. Really, what she needed were a few stress-free minutes to recuperate and maybe recentre herself.

‘A moblin is a smaller, less intelligent sort of goblin. They’re furry creatures, clever enough to build basic huts and traps, and to equip themselves with tools, but otherwise they are a primitive pest that prey on cattle. They breed like vermin. If only two of them remain alive, then a whole colony can come to life in the space of half a year.”

“That sounds awful,” Anne said. Like mice, but worse.

Elain’e nodded. “Hence the extermination requests. Easy enough for anyone with an ounce of talent to take care of. I thought it was a good learning opportunity.”

“But, um, I’ve only been here for an hour,” Anne said.

“Well, yes, but we hardly have time to wait around, do we?” Elain’e said. “Though, we do have a little ways to go. I didn’t feel like starting a ritual right next to a moblin camp. That would have been asking for trouble.”

“Why do a ritual out in these woods anyway?” Anne asked. She glanced around, and noticed for the first time that she was hunching her back under the oppressive grandeur of the woods around her.

“In all honesty, Miss Hero, this ritual was a long shot. But the location I did it from is an old site where rituals were once conducted some hundred years ago. I remember quite a few grand spectacles in these woods. That was when Not Evilia was little more than a town though.”

“You’re how old?” Anne asked.

“As I said, it’s taboo to ask.”

Anne swallowed, and continued following after the bizarre little girl.

The way Elain’e talked, the way she carried herself, it was as if she had the confidence of a very self-assured adult. It clashed hard against her appearance, and Anne wasn’t sure what to do about it. Part of her wanted to protect and shelter the child--though she didn’t know how in such a strange and unfamiliar world--and another part wanted to differ to Elain’e greater knowledge and her own self-assuredness.

Perhaps she could do a bit of both?

She glanced to the side, where the chat still hovered, floating after her as a constant reminder that things weren’t normal. She had over a hundred viewers, if she wasn’t reading it wrong. That was impressive, wasn’t it?

Anne gasped. “Jake!”

Elain’e stopped walking and dropped into a strange stance, an arm before her and a pair of cards appearing between her fingers, ready to be thrown while she scanned their surroundings. “What?” she hissed.

“No, on this,” Anne said, gesturing to the screen. “I think that’s my little Jake-I-poo!”

“Pardon me? I don’t see anything there.”

Anne looked to Elain’e, then the Twinge chat hovering before her. She poked at the chat, which did nothing, her finger moving right through it. “You can’t see this box?”

Elain’e shook her head. “What’s in it? Can you describe the phenomena?”

“It’s a chat box. Like, oh you probably don’t have Facebook here. That’s probably for the best. Ah, it’s a thing where people can talk. It says that different people said different things. They’re all talking to each other, and I can see it.”

“Interesting,” Elain’e said. “What are they talking about?”

“What I’m doing here, I think,” Anne said. “But I don’t know what a pog is.”

Elain’e’s eyes narrowed. “Likely some sort of curse,” she muttered. “You’re saying that they can see what you do?”

“I don’t know? They’re talking about things going on here though. I think this is like in some of Jake’s games.”

“That might be your unique power,” Elain’e said. “We will have to investigate it further later on.” She pointed ahead. “The moblin camp is just over that rise. We can’t afford to make too much noise, nor be distracted while playing with strange new magics.”

“Yes, but I think that one of the people in the chat is my son.”

“You have a son?” Elain’e asked.

Anne nodded. “Oh yes. He’s a very sweet boy. He just has a few little problems, but he’s very nice. Sometimes I wish he’d listen to me some more, he could accomplish so much if he just tried a little harder.”

“Uh, right,” Elain’e said. “Wel, we can explore that later. Come, see that hill there?”

Anne followed the direction of Elain’e’s pointing finger and found a hill not too far from where they stood. It was a small rise in the otherwise relatively flat terrain of the forest. There seemed to be a dip in the landscape though, all except for the one hill that rose where the rest fell.

“The camp’s on the other side of that,” Elain’e said. “We’ll hit them from above. Do you have your Fireball cards?”

Anne nodded, then paused. “Um, no? I swear I had them in hand.” She started patting herself down, but of course her skirts had no pockets.

“You must have sealed them by accident,” Elain’e said. “Probably for the best. Cards can cast themselves if left unsealed for too long. You don’t want a Fireball going off in your petticoats. Check your Status amount.”

“Oh, my Seal is down by ten.”

“That sounds right for two Fireballs,” Elain’e said. “I’ll show you how to unseal them in a moment, but first...” she girl knelt down and picked up a rock from the ground. She frowned for just a moment before the rock turned into a card.

Anne took the card when it was handed to her. It read as a rock, with a one in each upper corner.

When you unseal a spell, it travels in the direction the card was moving in. Throw that card while unsealing it.”

Anne did so.

The card immediately flipped around in mid-air as soon as it was out of her grasp, then fell to the floor.

“Right,” Elain’e said. “Timing is tricky. Ah, for moving spells like Fireball, just aiming the card in the direction you want and casting it while moving your arm should be enough.” She demonstrated the smooth motion with one hand, sliding it forwards and snapping her fingers midway through the motion. “Come on, let’s find a nice quiet spot to hit the camp from. There’s no better practice than in the field, or so my great-patriarch says.”

Anne had a worrying feeling in the pit of her stomach that things weren’t quite as easy as Elain’e was saying.

***

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