When I finally relaxed enough to switch off my conscious mind, a problem I hadn’t had since I’d gotten the ability to do so, my mind retreated into my memory palace.
I spent the night reviewing what books I had on botany and survival. I might have a great memory, but that didn’t mean I could access everything instantly. Stuff faded to the back of my mind if it wasn’t needed, so reviewing it made recall faster.
Morning came, though I only knew it since I’d set an alarm to wake me after eight hours. Felara was still asleep. Carefully, so I didn’t wake her. I got out of bed and made my way to the exit. It wasn’t full dawn, but it was brighter outside.
I returned to Felara. I debated with myself. Should I wake her up or let her sleep. I knew my body was in good condition, but I wasn’t so certain about hers. I decided to make breakfast. I did so quietly, but it still woke her up.
“Sorry to wake you. Did you get enough sleep?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Here, let me do that. Master shouldn’t be bothered with chores.”
“Are you trying to make me feel useless, cause that’s what you’re doing. If you want to help though feel free. It’d be better to prepare some extra food so we can eat it on the way. Better if we don’t stop to make food. I’m thinking sandwiches. They’re quick to both make and eat.”
“As you wish. I’ll help you.”
We made breakfast and food to eat on the way. We didn’t stop with just one meal, but had made enough to last a couple of days, just in case something went wrong and we got stuck in the forest overnight, or worse, got lost. We were counting on Felara’s memory, but it’d been over a decade since she’d been captured. Things changed over time.
Repacking the gear we’d used, we headed for the exit. The gate had been disposed of yesterday, so we for the entrance. There was a narrow path along the side of the cliff the waterfall covered. It was still drenched by the water, but it was easy enough to pass through, so long as we didn’t mind the wet.
We’d been able to see the light through the water, but coming out into the full light of the sun after so long underground blinded Felara for a moment. I gave her some time. She’d lived in the cave with it’s dim lighting from glowing crystals for most of her captivity. The few exceptions were when she was brought Earthside to be experimented on. Even then, she was kept underground. The ruined city was the limits of her excursions onto Earth.
She cried. Not just a few tears either. Her tears overflowed with great gushing floods of tears, and sobs came from her as she clung to me, thanking me and the gods between sobs. I held her gently, stroking her head and back, comforting her. It took her a while to calm down, but I could understand where she was coming from.
I’d only been a captive for a bit over two months. The first bit was disguised as something else, but that didn’t change the facts. If I hadn’t been changed, gaining my skill that let me manage my own mind, I’d have been well worse off than her. They hadn’t dared to go too far and damage their only test subject beyond what could be healed.
I however was expendable. Worst case scenario, they could collect the homeless and use them to experiment on. It’d been proposed, but rejected at the time due to the bodily conditions of the homeless, starved, dirty, potentially disease ridden. It had remained only as a backup plan. Well, all their plans are gone unless they can somehow reactivate the portal.
I bet that they’re more likely to destroy it then get it to work. It’s still technically connected, because a small amount of power should be flowing from this side to the other. Still, if that connection just got severed, then the Earth-side portal would be nothing more than a hunk of metal. It requires mana to run, and Earth’s mana is a big fat zero.
Ah, she’s ready to go. Time to stop thinking extraneous things.
She shyly thanked me, as well as apologizing for her outburst, then started walking away. I followed her.
We walked and walked, covering as much ground as we could as quickly as we could. She set a very quick pace. Fortunately, our bodies were identical, including muscles, so there was no chance of me being left behind. We did have to stop a few times, as we needed breaks to regain our strength. Also, we had to go flower picking, in both senses. Felara spotted some very rare herbs, rare enough it was worth stopping to collect them.
Unfortunately, the process was delicate, so it took some time. As such, we hadn’t reached our destination by the time the sun set.
It was only a possibility that we’d make it anyway. The estimate of a day to reach her home was from before she was captured. Afterwards, her ability to move about was very restricted. Earth-side, she was kept in a cell. This side, she was restricted to the cave. The cave might have been larger, but it was still not enough for her to keep up the leg strength she’d had before being captured.
Yeah, had we taken that into consideration, we’d have known there’d be no way we’d make it to Felara’s home before the sun set.
We set up camp.
I call it that, but we didn’t have a tent or a tarp to use as cover. Fortunately the sky was clear, so we shouldn’t have to worry about rain. What we did have to worry about were attacks.
Hmm, I wonder if…
Using magic, I focused on creating a wall of earth. It worked. Hmm? Why was it so easy here when it was difficult back at the cave? Did the earth back there have resistance? Well, no matter. It seemed I could use magic freely here.
Putting my knowledge to use, I made a box. Would that work? Making it with rock I extracted from the ground, I tried storing it. It went in fine. Bwahahaha! I had a portable….massive box. The was no way I could currently justify calling it a portable house like I wanted to. Also, I had to escape from the sinkhole I just created. It would be annoying if I got caught in it.
Felara stared at me.
“What are you doing?”
“Making a portable house! While it might not rain tonight, I’m planning on traveling the world, so having some protection from the weather is important.”
She continued to look at me. Her eyes were coldly judging.
“Don’t knock it till you try it. Plus I’ve only just begun working on it. It’s rough right now, but it’ll be very comfortable when I’m done with it.”
She shook her head, then demanded I fork over the cooking gear. I did as directed. We had prepared food already stored away, but there was no reason to dip into it if we didn’t have to.
I offered to help, but was told that I may as well go play in the dirt. She definitely doesn’t get it. Well, if she decides to travel with me, she will. Once my house is done.
Moving away, I pulled up more dirt and rock from the ground, making another sinkhole. This one was far enough away to not affect our camp. I collected it, but in brick form so it was easier to manage. Returning to camp, I dumped the dirt in the sinkhole to fix the ground, pressing it down to flatten the ground, then plopped the box on top of it.
Right now it was four walls and a bottom. No roof. I decided to fix that first. Using the bricks, I fed them into the house and grew a ceiling. So nothing built up on top of it… No, that’s no good. I want to be able to use the thing to hide if I needed to, so I changed how I was thinking.
I’d been intending on making it like a house, angular, with a sloped roof, but now I decided to make the thing look like a big boulder.
I started with the ceiling. Feeding the bricks into the house. So nothing built up on top of it… wait, didn’t I just think this? Meh. I made the top rough, like a boulder would be. It’d actually have been better to have started with a massive boulder as the base, then just sculpt the inside, but I hadn’t seen anything that would work on the hike.
With the roof done, I started on the insides. I’d like to have disguised the outer walls, but some things took precedence. I’d started with the roof, since it was necessary. Using the bricks, I made a platform for the bed, and dropped the bedding into it. It looked shabby, but we only had limited resources. Hopefully we’d be able to change that quickly.
Moving on, I made the kitchen area. It was G-shaped. With counters around the sides. I made a window along one of the outer walls, and put the sink underneath. It was for form’s sake. The counter that came out from the wall through the middle of the room was wider, and lower. It could be used for seating, or working on other projects. I made cabinets underneath all of the counters on the kitchen side, as well as over them against the walls. Storage space would not be a problem.
A set of chairs were pushed under the counter. I also made a table, but since the counter would fill the purpose of it, I stored it right away. That space accounted for nearly all of the room in the place. There was enough for one more thing.
A toilet.
There was no way I wanted to have to go outside at night if I didn’t have to. So in the remaining space, I put up a thin wall and made a toilet. It was basic, just a hole in the ground. I opened the floor to allow the refuse to be deposited in the ground. I didn’t want to store that stuff. I compacted the dirt I’d used to make the hole, so when it was time to leave, all I had to do was release the pressure, and it’d fill right in.
Portable house V1 complete.
Felara came to get me for dinner. She’d taken the time to make a lot, since we could always store it, so it had taken a while. She was surprised when she saw the inside of what had formerly been just a box.
“Okay, I guess this wasn’t that bad an idea.”
“It’s great, isn’t it. We can eat here, rather then having to sit on the ground or something.”
“As you wish. Could master please move the pot. With it full of stuff, it’s rather heavy.”
“Yup. Will do.”
We brought everything inside, and I shut the door. I couldn’t make hinges that would hold the weight of a stone door, and I didn’t have the time to make a wooden one, nor did I want to. Instead, the door was wheeled, rolling open and shut, with a bar to lock it. The windows were the same way. To combat the darkness, I’d put up some balls of light. They should last for around an hour or so, given the amount of power I put into them.
It was our first night out in the wilds, so I didn’t trust that my house was impenetrable. In fact, I knew that it wasn’t. Nothing was perfect. I’d tried for a cloaking spell, but it needed work. So we kept watch.
I took first watch, Felara would take second. They’d be six hours each. It wasn’t enough to become fully rested, but it was enough to get by on for periods of time. Because one of us would always be awake, we didn’t share the bed. Once we visited the village, there was a chance we’d never have to do so again, unless we wanted to.
The reason? I made two beds. We only had materials to use one, since otherwise we’d just be using the stone box that the mattress would be held in. To save room, since I didn’t want the portable house to be too big… yet… I had made a staircase leading up to the second bed. It sat directly above the first. A bunk bed.
Oh so fancy, I’m sure you’re thinking with utmost sarcasm? Deal with it. It’s useful for saving space, especially since I made the spot for the mattresses large enough for full sized. None of that twin sized shit. Big beds are important. Since there wasn’t a problem with height, the space above each bunk was larger then it would usually be.
Nothing happened during the night. There were the sounds of nocturnal animals, but none came close enough to bother us. There were also no tracks near the house. I don’t know if my half-assed barrier was responsible or if we just weren’t interesting enough, but either way, it worked.
After eating breakfast, we were on our way. Like yesterday, we only stopped for things that looked valuable, or when we were forced to. Unlike yesterday, it wasn’t just flower picking and breaks that forced us to stop.
We were attacked.
We had a lot of mana in our bodies, and from what she told me, it tended to make most sensitive monsters stay away, thinking that a large predator was nearby. It did not work on those with dull senses. Like goblins.
There were six of them. They were only as tall as us, green-gray, and ugly as hell. They were not stealthy, so we had warning before getting attacked. They came at us with no apparent plan, just rushing in with clubs raised, loincloths flapping. Gross.
Felara had never been taught to use magic other than lifestyle magic before her capture, so she had no combat spells. I on the other hand… well, I hadn’t either, but this and that are different things. I had a ten second tutorial from a goddess, which was enough for me. I launched air bullets, blowing their heads off.
Damn, I had put too much power in the attack. I’d only meant to put a hole in their heads, not turn them into paste. I hadn’t wanted to deal with the mess.
The bodies obviously flopped to the ground, since there was no mind controlling them anymore. There was nothing of value on them that I could see. I was about to drop them into a hole when Felara started cutting at one of their chests. Oh!
“Magic stones in the chests?”
“Yes. The mana core, the organ that allows us to use magic, crystallizes after death, and it is useful for many things. It’s always in their chest, just under the sternum, so it is easy to locate, regardless of species.”
“I’ll help you then.”
“There’s no need. I can take care of this.”
“If I’m going to be traveling, I’ll need to know how to do this, as well as how to dismantle prey. If you know how to do it, it’d be better if you taught me, rather then try to do it all yourself. It will also allow us to move on faster, before the blood attracts other monsters.”
She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. For goblins it was absurdly simple. Find the bottom of the rib cage, slice just under it, then reach in and towards the head. The stone will be right there for the taking. Depending on the creature, it could be more difficult, especially if one wanted to recover anything besides just the stone. Some were buried deeper, making one have to be wary of damaging organs useful for medicines, or stuck to the ribs and need to be pried off. The location was basically the same, the extraction method changed by species.
Of the six goblins, I got two done while she got the other four. There was definitely a difference in experience. Well, this was my first time carving into a body, outside of dissecting a frog in biology class. We split the stones between us and put them in our pockets. We’d have an easier time if no one realized that I had an item box right after we arrived in the city.
Using water magic, we cleaned the blood off ourselves, and then took off at a run. We only ran for a short time. Once we’d put a certain difference between us and the bodies, it was safe to slow down. Also, we didn’t want to waste the energy we had.
That was the only attack. We saw another group of goblins, but they were easily avoided.
As we walked, I did what I should have to begin with. I shared the advice of the goddess. Chants and spells were not necessary for learning magic. They had the potential to make it easier, but were not required. Following my advice, she tried doing magic my way. It took her a few tries, but she did it. She practiced as we walked, becoming able to use some spells with deadly force. She had to stop though, since her mana pool was not insane like mine was.
It was nearing sunset when a road came into view. Felara’s pace increased, slowly at first, then with increasing speed, until we were running. After coming over a small hill, a city spread in front of us. I’d thought that she’d come from a village, but this was a full-on major city.
She kept running, right up to the line gathered in front of the gate.
Then we waited. Fortunately for us, the line moved quickly due to plenty of soldiers manning the gates to work as inspectors. When we reached the gate, it was our turn to be inspected. We had no visible baggage, strange clothes, and no identification…
We were obviously suspicious. We got pulled off to the side and interrogated. It wasn’t bad, just where we came from, why we were here, how were we going to pay the entry fee. Felara was in charge of answering, since she knew this world. She told the story of being taken captive, then escaping from their clutches, but failed to mention that the time period of events was intentionally overlooked, or the other things that occurred. We showed the magic stones in order to pay for our entry. It took four of them.
There was one last thing to do before we were allowed in. We had to place out hands on a tablet. It would glow red if one had a criminal record, otherwise it glowed blue. Obviously neither of us was a criminal, so there was no red glow. However there was a problem when I touched it.
It glowed, but not the blue I was told it should. It was gold. Their eyes went wide.
“A Hero.” One of them exclaimed.
“Fuck! You keep that to your godsdamned selves. My status is no one’s business but my own.”
There was no way I wanted to draw the attention that being proclaimed a hero would bring. If it became known, I could wave goodbye to the peaceful lifestyle I wanted. Okay, it wasn’t going to be peaceful, because I intended to become an adventurer. I just wanted to avoid any religious or political entanglements. I didn’t know what the nobles were like in this world, but I had no intention of getting involved with them if I could help it.
They looked shocked at my sudden coarse language, then bowed.
“As the hero wishes. Please forgive my rudeness.”
This was the guy in charge of the interrogation.
“No, I was the one who was rude, and I apologize for that. I’ve had a bad experience recently and would rather not be paraded around. Anyways, you did nothing wrong, you were doing your job. If you hadn’t pulled us into this room, and instead used the board out there, I’d have been in trouble. I didn’t know those things glowed gold for those with a Hero title.” I looked at Felara. “Did you know about this?”
She shook her head.
“Well we know now. Hopefully getting a guild card will prevent this being an issue in the future.” Turning back to the soldiers, “Can we head on in now?”
“Yes, of course.”
We left the interrogation room and entered the city.
It was big. It was also smelly, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, there was the scent of unwashed bodies, and sweat. There was also shit here and there, but you’d expect from a place that used animals for transport. Animals had no problems leaving there droppings where they wished, but it seemed the streets got cleaned up periodically.
We first headed towards the center of town. There we found what we’d made our first destination. The adventurer’s guild. There was two reasons for this. First was to get an ID. I didn’t want to have to go through what I had at the gate again. An ID was needed for a variety of reasons, also some places wouldn’t rent rooms without checking ID. The second reason was that we needed money.
Felara might have come from this city, but she’d told me nothing of her family, other than that they lived here. If something went wrong, like they weren’t here anymore, we might have to take a room at an inn, and that required money.
The guild was busy, as you’d expect from a place that doubled as a day-worker center, but nearly everybody was armed in one way or another. Swords, spears, axes, staves, all of the usual weapons were present. Some guys were packing huge guns, of the muscle variety.
We made our way through the throng and stood in line. No one bothered us, though we got some glances and sneers, especially from the people at the guild’s bar. Why do they serve alcohol in guilds? Is there a purpose to it, other than taking back the money the adventurers just made?
We finally reached the front. We’d hopped in the shortest line, the one run by a middle-aged man, not a cute young woman. It had been half the length of the others.
“Hello, we’d like to register please.”
We got looked over, his eyes locked on our ears and he nodded, passing over a couple sheets of paper.
“Fill these out. Everything in the top box is required, the bottom box is optional, but filling it out is useful if you want to use our services to find a party. I’ll tell you about the guild while you’re filling it out.”
He started on his speech. It was basically like every Adventurer’s Guild I’d read about, though there were some differences. Ranks went from G to S, with three ranks in each starting from D, minus, no symbol, and plus. One had to complete quests equivalent to their rank or one above in order to advance. To reach C and above, there were also extra exams.
There were a few types of quests. Subjugation was the most well known, but there was also gathering, escorting, and odd jobs. There were certain quests that were always available, and we only had to present proof or turn in the materials to complete those. Other quests, we had to take the listing and register for it. If we failed, there was a penalty fee. Too many failures and be demoted. Once demoted it took twice as much effort to regain lost ranks.
There were certain rules we had to abide by or we’d be penalized by the guild, and possibly by the local government as well. Follow the laws of the land. Don’t act violently, except in defence. Mostly it was basic stuff like that. Others included more specific things like not interfering with another adventurer’s fight without permission. This was to reduce the chances that fights would break out over materials. If one asked for help, they forfeit all the goods from the prey killed from that point on. Everything from before the call was still the possession of the original fighters.
This did not mean that we were required to help. One should cherish their life, so jumping into an impossible fight just because someone called for help was obviously a bad idea.
The guild had a reference room with all sorts of resources that could be browsed, for a small fee, as long as one didn’t get themselves banned for bad behavior or for destroying things. There was also the training grounds. One could practice there for free, or pay for lessons. There were also lessons offered on other subjects including but not limited to herbalism, etiquette, and weapon and armor maintenance.
It had taken us no time at all to fill in the forms as he spoke. The only required boxes were Name, Birth date, and Race. That was all. There were optional blanks for preferred weapon, fighting style, familiars, and more, but I didn’t want to fill anything out that I didn’t have to. I copied the birth date of Felara. My body was a copy of hers, so technically it was as old as hers was. Also I didn’t know how the calendar worked in this world. For race, we left it at Elf. It wasn’t a lie, it was the truth, it just left out that we were the highest form of elves.
There was a problem when we were told that we’d have to pay a silver each for registration, but that was solved by pulling out some of the herbs we’d found. Each was worth five silver, as well as counting towards our promotions. We had six of them. We were returned twenty eight silver.
Along with the silver we were given our guild cards. After checking the name to make sure we had the right ones, we pricked out fingers on the needles provided and dripped some blood on the card, tying it to us. We were warned that if we lost those, it would cost us five silver to replace.
The card was our identification. We could use it to prove who we were, since no one else but us could activate certain functions. One of those functions was the ability to display our status to others. Only what we wanted would be shown. It could also be used to store our money. There was no need to carry around bags of coins, nor worry about having coins of the wrong size. If we only had a gold coin, we could exchange it for smaller coins. There was a one percent charge on doing this, which is why the card displayed the contents by coin size. Again, only the owner could access this kind of function, so there was no purpose in stealing cards, except to inconvenience someone.
We had received and activated our cards, so we were now officially Adventurers. We also had six quests already done. Since we were a party, it counted for each of us. There was no need to officially declare ourselves a party to the guild, though there were benefits if we did. We chose not to for the time being. We could still do quests together, as long as we both showed our cards when taking and completing them.
We left the building. We had the funds to cover a few nights at an inn if we should have to, but it was time to see if Felara’s family was still in the city.
We headed Northeast. As we did so, the streets became emptier, and cleaner, the houses bigger, and…
“Felara, Does your family work for nobles?”
She squirmed a bit. “Kind of?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Kind of? What is that supposed to mean?”
“Umm, can you be patient? Please? It’s kind of embarrassing to say. We’re almost there.”
We headed straight for what looked like a castle. Nope, as I got closer, castle is the only possible word to describe it. The gate was right in front of it. We were headed for… phew, we turned. A castle like that belonged to some upper class nobles, or possibly even…
“Is this city a country’s capital, or is it run by a different high-rank noble?”
“Umm, it’s the capital of the Kingdom of Layari.”
“Well that’s weird. You’d think that the rulers of a nation would know about something as dangerous as a portal to another world, especially when it’s basically right on their doorstep.”
“There were protections on the surroundings. It wasn’t detectable, unless you already knew it was there. We could see the cave because we knew it was there, but when I was captured, all I could see was a cliff behind the waterfall. It also seemed like something was telling me to leave the place.”
“Ah, so that’s how it was. So we should be able to find it again if we want to.”
“There’s the possibility that now that it’s shut down, the protections are gone.”
“That would be bad. We’ll have to hope that’s not the case. We don’t want anyone messing with the gate or trying to dismantle it. If done too soon, or without the right tools, it’ll cause a calamity. I doubt this city would survive, it might even destroy the county.”
“We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. My family can help with that. If they still acknowledge me.”
The last sentence was barely a whisper, but I could hear it.
We turned another corner, until we were along the castle’s side. I had suspicions, so while I was surprised, it wasn’t much of one. We stopped at a gate into the castle. It was obviously a servant’s entrance. It had little of the ostentatious construction of the main gates. Felara had walked right up to the guards there.
“Please call a runner here. I have something that needs to be delivered most urgently.”
“What’s a girly got to do with the castle, especially this time of day. It can wait till morning can’t it?”
“What might be your name?”
“Me? I’m Skippy.”
“Well, Skippy. If this matter is delayed until morning, there will be some people very angry with the both of us. Are you willing to risk it?”
“Fine, just wait.”
The guardsman rang a bell, and someone came from a building further inside the castle grounds.
“Hey, Skippy, what you need?”
“Girly here says she has an urgent delivery or something. Something about people being angry if we wait till morning.”
We were given a once over. Obviously we did not impress the guy.
“What is it?” He asked in an exasperated tone.
“I have something that has likely been sought for several years. Please read this and deliver it to the appropriate person. We shall remain here.”
She handed her guild card to the guy. He took it, giving it a glance, as if to humor her, then looked up, then back down. Ooh, a real, live double take. Cool.
The man ran off, leaving a metaphorical trail of dust he went so fast. Skippy turned to look at us again.
“Now what was that that made him take off like that?”
“It’s something important, but not in a bad way. We’ll just take a seat against the wall over here. Call us when it’s time.”
“Hmm.”
We were getting glances that indicated suspicion. Not only from Skippy, but the other guards. We acted nonchalant, and just sat down. Since it was dinner time, I took out some food and we ate.
As expected it took a while for them to get back to us. I have no idea who the ‘appropriate person’ was, but the speed indicated that it was likely someone important. Just who is your family, Felara?
Finally there came a stamping of boots, and a squad of knights spilled out the gates. We were marched into the castle. We didn’t stop in the servant’s side of things, but were brought all the way to the nice side, with gorgeous carpets and fixtures. The room we were marched into was an office. It was very richly appointed, but still had an air of functionality, despite the splendor.
In that room was a pacing man, an elf. Felara’s father?
If not her father, it was someone who knew her. The moment my face was seen, he launched himself at me, wrapping me in a tight embrace. It was so strong I was barely able to breathe, let alone talk. I’d really like it if someone pulled him off of me. C’mon Felara, don’t fail me now…
She failed me.
I had to endure his embrace, tears, and snot as he babbled apologies and thanks to the gods for Felara’s return. No matter how much I struggled, I was unable to break free. I thought about using magic, but I didn’t want to hurt Felara’s father. I was too inexperienced to risk it.
Avoiding this seemed to be her plan, since she gestured that I should enter the room before her. She must have known how her father would react on seeing her after so long. Traitor. You owe me for this.
When he finally calmed down enough to loosen his grip, I was able to speak.
“You’re daughter came in behind me. I only look like her. Could you please let me go. I think you broke some of my ribs.”
I was released, falling to the floor gasping, as the man took a step back. I had been joking about the ribs, but just barely. I had felt them creaking, so if he had applied much more pressure, they would have broken.
“What? Two Felara? Wait, how, are either of you even really her?”
“One Felara, she’s the real one. I just ended up looking like her due to unusual circumstances. My name’s Telarynn.”
A voice came from the side. A knight had his hand on the hilt of his sword, looking like he wanted to kill me, though I’d done nothing wrong.
“If you aren’t her, then keep silent, and back away before we skewer you.”
This made me angry.
“I free the guy’s daughter, get changed to look like her, we come here, and now I’m getting my life threatened for talking and being unable to move after nearly being crushed to death!? I don’t know who any of you are, but you can all fuck off!”
I threw up a barrier around me and another around Felara, the strongest ones I could imagine, pumping a lot of power into it. While I heard a tinging sound from around me, as I imagined power flowing through my body to restore the parts of me that hurt. Once the pain was gone, I stood, facing the ones attacking my shield. With a wave of my hand, cords of stone spread out and bound the attackers. The wave was be chucking bricks from my item box.
Yeah, the rock restrained them, but not for long. The bonds were broken, and I was getting attacked again. That was it. If I had to do this, I would. I pointed my finger at the guards and was about to fire when a roar came from behind me.
“ENOUGH!”
It was the old man. Well, he didn’t look old, but that was because he was an elf.
“They were brought here to answer questions and I grabbed her first. If she wanted to hurt me, there was more than enough time to do so. Guardsmen, back off.”
Good, I wouldn’t have to seriously wound or kill anyone. I didn’t have time to experiment with adjusting the power to only disable. The guards moved back, but they didn’t sheath their weapons.
The elf had calmed down, but his eyes still looked tormented.
“You both look like my daughter. This one claims that she only looks like her, while you are her. Can you prove your claims?”
Felara stepped forward. The guards tensed.
“Of course I can. That card I had delivered is the proof. You saw the name. You know that none can fool a guild card, since they are backed by the gods. Only the owner can manipulate it. Return it to me and I will show you.”
The man took the card from one of his pockets and handed it to her. Putting a touch of mana into it, she did something to it. I couldn’t see what. Once she had changed it, she handed it back. The man looked at it, then burst into tears, and made a grab for her.
Felara dodged. Damn. I wanted her to experience the hell she forced on me. I glared at her.
“It’s you, it really is you. You were missing for so long, we thought you had been killed or enslaved. What happened? And why won’t you let me hug you!?”
“I won’t let you because your face is disgusting right now, and you almost killed my companion with your last hug. I’d rather not get injured or slobbered on right now. I’ll give you a hug when you calm down and clean up.”
I spotted a couch and took a seat while the two were playing tag. I surveyed the room. I’d gotten a brief glimpse at the place before I’d been assaulted. Yep, really beautiful. There was an ornate carved wooden desk, with a few comfortable and elegant looking chairs. A big window was behind those. To the sides were shelves. Most of them were full of books, though there were also plenty of knick-knacks as well. Small weapons, crystals, even a few potted plants.
After a while, father and daughter joined me.
“I apologize for that, miss. Let me introduce myself. I am Rudolph Istalina von Layari. I give you my most sincere thanks for bringing my daughter home.”
“Hold up a sec. If I recall correctly von is used to indicate nobility, right?” A nod. “And Layari is the kingdom we’re in?” Another nod. I had to stop myself from yelling. “Felara?! You told me your family served the nobility, not that you were a freaking princess! Agh! I told you I wanted to stay as far away from politics as I could, and I look like a princess! My life is so screwed up!”
Ah, I lost control and ended up raising my voice.
Felara gave me a soft smile.
“Well if I’d told you, there was no way you’d have come here, was there? I owe you for saving me and had nothing on my own. Of course I had to get my family’s help. Don’t worry, we won’t be involved in politics, we’re just here to get what we need.”
The king had to interject here.
“No, no no! You just got back, and you’re already planning on leaving!? You should have never left in the first place!”
“Shut up old man. If you’d bothered to listen to me, I wouldn’t have run away. I will not be used as a political tool. I will not marry anyone I do not love. I might only be a child in your eyes, but I am old enough to make my own choices. I was also only captured by your refusal to allow me to learn magic.”
“Well forgive me for not wanting to expose you to danger. You might be an adult as humans count these things, but you’re still a child as far as elves do.”
I had to calm this down before it became any more of a fight than it did.
“Let’s put all that aside for now. There’s more important things to talk about. About who captured her, where, and how we got away.”
They turned glares my way.
I flinched.
However, I was not to be dissuaded. I wanted to be done with this conversation, so I pressed on.
“Glare all you want. You can have your family feud later. First off, it would be best if only those you have complete and utter confidence in remain. What we have to say is something that should be held in utmost secrecy.”
The king continued glaring for a minute, then sighed.
“Fine, you’re right. This can wait for the time being. But you will not leave the castle until we resolve this, Felara. Is that understood?”
“Don’t try to force me to obey you. If I agreed to that vague promise, you’d refuse to consider it resolved until I agreed with you, and that won’t happen. I will give you three days to come up with a suitable compromise, otherwise I will leave, even if it means cutting ties with you forever.”
“Enough! Your majesty, please have everyone but those you trust get out. We are exhausted, so I’d prefer we deal with important matters quickly.”
“You majesty, don’t listen to this stranger! What if she only wants the guards gone so she doesn’t have to worry about us?”
“I don’t have to worry about you. None of you could do shit to my defenses, so I’d be free to attack.”
“It’s fine Shawn, you and Franco remain, everyone else leave.”
“But…”
“Are you disregarding my orders? Her words are correct. You could do nothing. If she wanted to, we’d all be dead. However, she didn’t take the chance when it was presented to her. She brought my daughter back, and deserves at least some of our trust.”
The king’s countenance turned dark, causing his guards to stiffen. Other than two of them, they all left the room, though I could see them lining up just outside the door, ready to rush in should it prove necessary.
“So, please speak.”
“Felara, you want to talk, since you were involved in this first or should I?”
“You have more knowledge of it. It will be best for you to speak first. I’ll interject if need be.”
“Sounds good. First of all, I want to ask if you know how this world was populated.”
“From what the church tells us, the gods made this land, and then brought us forth upon it along with all the animals, plants, and so forth.”
“No more details then that?” He shook his head. “The God of Creation for my world, where your ancestors came from, decided to abolish magic, which is why this world was settled. The gods of this world didn’t create this land from nothing. This world already existed, but was barren. The gods came from my home and made it livable, then they transported those who could no longer live on the old world here.
Where we come in is in how they moved between the worlds. They made portals, pathways between the worlds. When the migration was over the portals were destroyed. Or they were supposed to be.
As you may have surmised, at least one still exists, and the people of Earth, the homeworld, found it. They attempted to come to this world, but due to our bodies no longer being capable of supporting mana without being modified, they died without protections. Even those protections were limited, so they studied to try and uncover the reason why it was deadly and come up with countermeasures.
During this, Felara was discovered and captured. Until this time, they only had animals to experiment on. She opened up a larger range of possibilities. Fortunately, with only one subject, they were unable to go too far and kill Felara, though I’m sure that didn’t make being tortured and treated like an animal any easier on her.
They found the reason Earthlings could not survive here, and set about trying to make it possible for us to do so. They succeeded. I was the only human to survive, though they had many animal successes before starting human trials. We were lured in with the promise of easy work, with high pay, but in reality, we were seen as no more than test subjects for their terrible experiment. Out of over a hundred people, only I survived.
They didn’t know if I’d last much longer, so I was brought to the portal and sent through. On the way, I tried to cause as much chaos as I could, revealing their plans, location, and their crimes. I don’t know how that went, since most believe magic to be completely impossible.
Once on this side of the portal, I felt immense pain. My body had small amounts of mana running through it, and a mana core, so I somehow survived the environment, but I changed, greatly, as you can see. I used to be a human man, thirty-three years old. Now I’m essentially a twin of your daughter. I’d have been something different, and probably grotesque, had the Goddess of Space and Time not intervened.
She gave me two tasks, and some assistance in order to fulfill them. First, I was to shut down the portal. As I was, I would not be able to do so, so she gave me a skill so I could. It was really close. Had I taken but a moment longer, I’d have failed, and in failing died. The portal was deactivated, so unless someone is able to turn it back on, the worlds are separated.
Which brings us to my second task. This one is long term, since I need to find or create tools in order to complete it. Once it is safe to do so, the portal must be permanently destroyed. Even if I had the tools to complete this task now, I couldn’t. The portal consumes immense amounts of power, and needs to cool down before it can be destroyed, or its destruction will also destroy the land surrounding it. It is possible that the entire country could be destroyed.
So that is why while it annoys me that Felara failed to mention who her family was, it will be beneficial to this task. Until the portal can be destroyed safely, it needs to be guarded so no one can try to either reopen it or destroy it early.
Any questions?”
I was being stared at. It wasn’t something new. They’d been staring at me with incredulity for a while, other than Felara who knew most of the story anyway. I just sat back and waited for their brains to reboot.
It took a while, but when they finally did…
“You used to be a man!?”
“That’s where you want to start?! There’s so many more important things than that!”
“Of course that’s where I want to start! How did a human man become an elf girl?”
“Technically high elf girl. It was because of the experiment. Parts of your daughter, as well as from rabbits from this world and even from the human test subjects who died in the experiments were forced into me. The latent power dwelling in them activated when I entered the mana rich environment on this side of the portal. I’d have become some disgusting hybrid of other humans, rabbits and elf if the goddess hadn’t made the parts from Felara dominant.”
“High elf?”
“Oh. I didn’t mention that, did I. Felara was forced to live in an environment saturated with immense amounts of mana. From what I read, it was hard on her at first, but she somehow evolved from Elf to High Elf because of it. This is my own theory, but had she not been strong enough, it is likely that she would have died a gruesome death just like those from Earth unable to bear the impact mana had on their bodies. It wasn’t pretty.
Anyway, because she was a High Elf, I became one as well.”
“A high elf… Amazing! It’s been thousands of years since one was born, and now there are two of them, and one of them is my daughter!”
He tried hugging Felara again. She dodged, leaving him to hug the chair she’d been on instead.
“Father. If you keep doing that, I will never speak to you again.”
“I’m sorry! Please forgive me!”
Wow. I never thought I’d see such a thing outside of books or anime. Giving a light cough, I tried to get back on subject.
“Are you willing to help guard the portal? Saying that, there is the chance that it might not be needed, since it was undetectable unless you know about it. That may have changed with the portal being deactivated. Also, there’s a possibility that the location might be somewhat dangerous to remain in for long periods of time.”
The king had reseated himself and returned his face to be unreadable.
“If it is as dangerous as you say, then I have no choice but to do so. I’ll arrange someone for you to guide to the portal so a protection detail can be arranged. Until then, please stay here as my guest. I’ll also have to reward you for bringing my daughter back.”
“While I’d like to say it was nothing, I have basically nothing, so I will accept a reward. Please just don’t try and involve me in any politics. I’d rather remain unknown, though I know that’ll be hard in your territory once Felara’s return is announced.”
“Father won’t do anything to inconvenience you. I won’t let him.” She turned and looked at her father, a chilling look in her eyes. “It’d be best if you didn’t say anything about my return for the time being, and have those that know placed under orders to not share anything. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes, of course. I don’t want to lose you again. I’ll give orders to not reveal anything. Felara, we’ve kept your room ready, and I’ll have another room in our quarters prepared for Telarynn.”
“Oh, there’s no need for that. She can share my room. We’re twins now, so it’s fine.”
“Nope! No. I might be a girl now, but I’d rather not share a bed with a girl. I wouldn’t be able to rest very well. I’m sure your father agrees.”
I turned to look at the king, to find a silly look on his face.
“Hmm, well, you might have been a man, but your a girl now. You could even be called my daughter, since my blood runs in your veins.”
“Ugh, technically, I might be blood related, but I didn’t even know you until tonight. Aren’t either of you worried that I’ll try something? Just because I don’t have a man’s equipment, doesn’t mean it’s not possible to force myself on Felara.”
“If you want to that’s fine. It saves me the trouble of just masturbating. It’s not like I’m not aware of such things and interested in trying them.”
I couldn’t help but stare at her, flabbergasted. Not just about what she said, but also who was present when she said it. Her father, and two guards.
“What!?”
Yup, here it comes.
“My young daughter is growing up so quickly. Well, as long as it’s a girl. There’s no need for you to find yourself a man so soon.”
“Huh? You’re not objecting? Just because I’m physically female? Just what standards does this world have?!”
Felara used my confusion to take hold of my arm, pulling me towards the door.
“Come on. Lets go take a bath and then go to bed. Anything else can wait till tomorrow.”
I was still stunned, so I just went along with her. If I wanted to, she’d let me? She was probably about my age, so it wasn’t like she was actually a child, at least in human terms.
We exited the office, and were immediately surrounded by a dozen guards. Oh, right. These guys were waiting out here.
“There’s a gag order on our presence. You can ask the guys behind us if you don’t believe us. Actually, you should probably do so. We’ll wait.”
One of them poked his head in the door, and confirmed it. He was also ordered to have a pair of guards accompany us, while the rest passed on the word to anyone who’d be involved with us.
We started walking. The office we were in was close to the royal living quarters, so it didn’t take long. I was letting myself get pulled along. At the baths, the guards took up posts at the doors as we went inside. There were maids there, and they started stripping us. Felara didn’t resist, but this was the first time anyone had helped me disrobe since I was a child, so I felt a little uncomfortable.
Felara seemed to have no problems being nude in front of people, but I was extremely embarrassed, even if I had had to spend the last while naked all day every day. Sure, I’d heard about public baths, and thought about using one if I got the chance, but I never thought it would actually happen. Especially with me on the women’s side.
“Quit covering yourself and come on. You have nothing to hide here.”
I got dragged out of the changing room and into the baths. The maids followed us, washing our bodies, no matter how much I insisted I could do everything but the back myself. Felara laughed at me. I was scrubbed clean from head to toe, then escorted to the tub to soak. The maids withdrew to the corners so we could have some privacy.
“Isn’t this great? Too bad we’ll only be here for a short time. Baths are amazing. The only thing better is hot springs.”
“Yeah, it’s nice. I seldom got to use a bath. Usually I had to content myself with a shower. As far as hot springs go, I’ve never been to one, so I can only imagine it based on what I’ve read. Are you still planning on coming with me? You’ve basically dropped the servant act, for which I’m very grateful. You weren’t great at it, and I don’t want a servant. If you come, I want it to be as a companion.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that. If you wanted me to be your servant, I would be, but I realized it only made you uncomfortable. It felt weird for me too, since we’re the same. I’d rather be your sister.”
“Well, we are basically twins, but I am going to refuse to be called a princess with everything I have. Even being referred to as female feels weird to me, though I’ll have to get used to it.”
“That’s fine. If father gets too annoying, we’ll just run away. I’ll have you store some money I have in my room as well as stuff we can sell. We won’t have to worry about funds for a while. Hmm, maybe I should have you bring my bed too. It’s really comfortable.”
“I think it’d be better if we left the bed here and just bought new bedding. I need to pick up some anyway for the house. I made bunk beds, so we can each have our own bed.”
“Boo! We only need one bed. It’s better sleeping together!”
“You really want to sleep with me that much? Why?”
She fidgeted uncomfortably, answering in a soft voice.
“I just don’t want to be alone anymore. I was always alone there, even when there were others around. I was treated like an animal. Some of them might have given me ‘treats,’ but you were the first person to actually treat me like a person since I was captured.”
“Ah, I see. I’ll try to help you, but I am still not used to being around people, let alone girls, so I will need some time apart from time to time.”
“I understand. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I just feel really nice when we’re together, and I want that to continue. I really do see you as a sister, and I want you to see me the same way.”
“A sister? Then what was that stuff about not having problems with, umm, you know? That’s not something that family would do together.”
“It’s not? But I was given books, and a lot of them had relationships between siblings. I thought it was common practice for your world.”
“Not at all. Whoever gave you those books was a pervert. It can be interesting as entertainment, but there is no way that is something that is actually recognized as proper behavior. Anyone who was doing those things would be looked down on by pretty much everyone, other than perverts who dream of such things.”
“So does that mean, you’re not interested in me?”
I couldn’t say anything for a moment, blushing and looking away.
“Umm….It’s not that I’m not interested. It’s just that it seems like it’d be weird and narcissistic to do that. Plus, while I know you are old enough by human standards, I don’t know enough about elf culture. There’s a word used for people interested in girls with small young bodies, lolicon. It is derogatory. Oh, and speaking of age, I need to know how the calendar works here. I wrote down the same birthday as you, since I’m physically the same age as you.”
She must have realized that I was wanting to change topics, since she went with the flow.
“Oh, we’re actually the same age, 33. The calendars are the same number of days, but divided up a little differently. We start off the year with the start of Spring, not mid-winter like Earth. There’s a day celebrating the start of each season, and one or two days for Years End. Our birthday is on Spring Day, so we’ll age along with the new year beginning.”
“Much more organized then Earth’s calendar.”
“I know, right? Everything in regards to time is identical, other then how it is organized and named. There are six days in a week, called the day of light, earth, wind, water, fire, and darkness. The months are numbered, or called the whatever month of whatever season. Weeks are also numbered, and are usually linked with the day, like saying the fourth day of fire.”
“Ah, that’ll take some getting used to. Is there an easy way to remember the order of days? It’s got something to do with your creation myth, right? Earth had one as well, but I couldn’t tell it other then that the first line went something like ‘On the first day, god said let there be light and there was light.’ Incidentally, Earth’s week is seven days because it took god six days to make the world and everything on it, and he rested on the seventh. Or so the biggest religion says.”
“Yeah, it’s the same way. First the sun was created to light the heavens, then the world was created from a lump of dirt. The wind carried the seeds of life across the world, which were then watered. The world was warmed with the fires of heaven, causing life to spring forth. And on the sixth day, the gods rested.”
“Yep, basically the same as Earth’s except our wasn’t elemental based. Thinking about it, I think it went, Light, earth, water, plants, animals, humans, resting. I could be wrong. Well, that’s just for the largest religion. There’s hundreds of different religions, since there’s no proof of god actually existing. There’s talk of miracles or revelations every now and again, but it’s not as if there is a way to verify it like here.”
I could have looked the bible up in my mental library, but I didn’t want to.
“Interesting. We only have one religion, but dozens of gods. Since we can see that we have blessings, and there are oracles who can talk to the gods, there’s no doubt that our exist. Speaking of which, you said you talked to one?”
“Yeah, Goddess of Space and Time. She sensed the portal when I messed with it, saved me from killing myself by disconnecting me from it, along with the rest of what I told your dad.”
“You could just call him dad, since he is technically your blood father now.”
“I’ll refrain, thank you. Anyway, she wanted to do something to close the portal herself, but she mentioned that Earth’s god wasn’t likely to take kindly to her tampering with something connected to his world, which is why I had to do it. She had no idea why the portal was left alone when they were supposed to be destroyed. I wonder if one of the gods had a secret deal with Earth’s god.”
“It’s possible, but if so, why?”
“I can’t guess what the benefit would be. I might understand if the portal was needed to funnel magic from Earth to over here, but that wasn’t the case since the gods would have known if it were. Meh, whatever. That topic’s a bit dreary, and I’m ready for bed. Shall we get out?”
“Yeah. Snuggle time!”
I sighed. We got out and got dressed in some robes that were prepared for us. They were soft and comfortable. By far the best robe I’d ever worn. Not that we wore them very long. As soon as we reached Felara’s room, we were hustled into a massive closet and changed into nightgowns. They were made of silk. I preferred the plush softness of the robe.
As expected, we ended up in bed together. However, I’d thought we would have our own sides of the bed. Did we? Nope. She latched onto me and fell right to sleep. I guess she was really tired. This was probably the best sleep she’s had in years.
I smiled at her, and went to sleep myself.
Nice story!
Wow
I hope you keep writing
Otherwise it would be a shame