ã€ŠSecond Life as the Sister of a Goddess [OLD VERSION]ã€‹


 Prologue:A fateful car ride

    Reincarnation. It¡¯s an idea a great many people have heard about. The idea that when you die you are reborn. Most people who believe in reincarnation and talk about remembering their past lives will tend to say that they were the assistants or maids of various famous people throughout history. It really is quite a curious thing that none of them are ever normal everyday people in their past lives.

    Others talk about being a house cat in a past life. This, at least, seems more believable. After all, there is no reason to assume with reincarnation that you would always be reincarnated as a human. In fact, the aboriginal peoples of North America who believed in reincarnation would often not talk about past lives, but future lives in which they would reincarnate as an animal.

    There are many cultural and religious origins for the idea of reincarnation. However, one of the most interesting and unexpected is the Catholic Church. This is a strange concept because Christianity teaches that when you die, your soul goes to heaven or hell depending on whether or not your soul has been saved from its sin. However, in the medieval period, a lot of folk had a problem with the concept of this. The key thing was the prospect that someone who simply did not accept Christ but was still a good person would go to hell regardless. This introduced the concept of purgatory, the highest and mildest level of hell in which people who meet this description would wander without purpose waiting for a second chance at life which would eventually be granted to them.

    There are several things about reincarnation that make the idea look kinda shaky. Perhaps the strangest thing about the idea of reincarnation and remembering your past life was that nobody other than the really dogmatic believers ever talked about remembering past lives, and their stories were always rather incredible. If you talk to the normal person on the street, they would think you are weird for even bringing up the subject of reincarnation.

    When you get right down to it, reincarnation is a subject that is completely unfalsifiable. There really is nothing to say it is not a thing, but there is also absolutely nothing to say it is and completely no way to test the claims it makes. In this way, it is about the same as any religious claim. I do believe in God myself, but that hardly means I accept all such religious claims. There are some things, such as this stuff about purgatory and reincarnation, that have always sounded a little off to me. It wasn''t really important though, I really never thought very hard about it. That is, until I found myself in my current situation.

    I had died under some rather incredible circumstances. I felt myself falling through darkness for a while after that, but now I find myself in a fairly warm and cozy fluid environment. I was fairly certain I had died anyway. That voice that called herself a goddess said I would die in exchange for my granddaughter¡¯s life. As a believer in the Abrehemic God, I was hesitant to accept such a thing, but to save my granddaughter I would gladly sacrifice my own life even to a demon calling herself a goddess.

    All of this started after the weekend morning class in my dojo. I had just sent my students home. All except for one that is. My granddaughter who I was babysitting for the weekend so that my son and his wife could go and have a much needed vacation. I had taken her in to my class. This was not her first time participating in the class. In fact, she was one of my regular students. My son also still attended the adult classes. Our family practiced a heavy martial arts tradition. I had my son in my classes ever since he was in grade school. Of course he would enroll his daughter as well.

    After class, I would take her to go get ice cream. It is every grandparents'' happiness to be able to spoil their adorable grandchildren after all. Treats like this were not something to be indulged in frequently, but I felt that we could get away with it for today. She was smiling so brightly as we got into the car to drive to a good ice cream shop I knew about in the next town over. Unfortunately, we never arrived.

    It was soon after we had gotten onto the freeway. One drunk driver was all it took to turn a happy day with my granddaughter into what would likely prove to be the worst day of her life. As a man in his 60s, I was not as strong as I was in my prime. However, having gone through a lifetime of a disciplined martial arts regime in the soft-fist styles, it meant my body had gone through several shocks of being thrown to the ground repeatedly. Such activity strengthens the collagen fibers and other connective tissues around your internal organs. It is one of the few activities known to have the ability to strengthen a person¡¯s internal organs against impact. As such, despite the brutal sudden stop, I came out of the experience relatively fine. My granddaughter however...

    I had seen it as we collided with the car in front of us. I turned my head just before the airbag deployed, and I saw her small body that was too small for the seat belt fly forward, and then her head get snapped straight back as the airbag hit her straight in the face. After that, shards of glass rained down on her body. I got the same, but it was unbearable to see her 6 year old face lacerated by the raining glass fragments. However, as visually unpleasant as the bleeding lacerations were, the injuries she likely sustained immediately before that were the thing to truly worry about.

    The crumple zone in the front of our car had done its job correctly. The front of the car had collapsed, but aside from the windshield breaking there was no damage to the cabin. This allowed me plenty of free movement after I beat back the airbag to remove my seat belt and rush to my granddaughter¡¯s aid. Going by what I had just seen, I immediately suspected a neck injury. So, rather than hold or cradle her injured body, the first thing I did was to reach over her and lower the back of the chair as I lay her down carefully. I called her name several times, getting no response. Her chest was moving, so she was still alive. She just wasn''t responding.

    I had been a nurse before I retired, so I had the proper medical training to know better than to move her excessively from this point forward if a neck injury was suspected. The next thing I did was to check her eyes. Both of her pupils were fixed and dilated. For those of you without medical training, that means the pupils had become large and were not constricting in response to light exposure. Constriction in response to light exposure is a natural reflex, and the only reason it would not happen is if the portion of the brain responsible for constricting the iris has been damaged. I knew at this point, the chances of her making it out of this alive were very slim. Even if she did survive, she would have lasting injuries that may even include full body paralysis.

    I blamed myself for this. I cursed myself for this. I had the knowledge to be aware that this could happen. She was too young to be riding in the front seat of a car, and this was exactly the reason why. I had not minded that I did not receive her car seat from her father when he dropped her off, I did not think a bad situation like this could happen to me. I was a safe driver. How foolish I was. It doesn¡¯t matter how safe a driver you are if there is some idiot on the road. How could I have been so foolish!? This was my fault. It was my fault that my granddaughter had wound up like this. How could I have let this happen?

    ¡°It should have been you. That is what you are thinking, are you not?¡±

    I heard the feminine voice in my head. I knew it was not the voice of someone in the real world. In fact, I immediately disregarded it as my imagination when I first heard that voice. It was nothing more than the guilt I was feeling manifesting itself in my mind.

    ¡°I bet you would do anything to take her place, wouldn¡¯t you?¡±

    Heh, damn right I would. At this point, with the voice having spoken twice, I had thought it was just my self-speech. My internal monologue. However, I was not entirely certain why my internal monologue would sound like a woman, and why she was addressing me like a third person. Perhaps I had conjured it up because I wanted someone to blame me for the irrevocable and grievous mistake I had made with my granddaughter¡¯s life.

    ¡°I can help you out if you like. I can transfer all of her injuries onto you, and this child will be as healthy as she was before any of this happened. There will not even be a scratch.¡±

    This time, as the voice made some absolutely outrageous claims, it became far more firm and clear. This time it actually WAS as though it was a real physical person talking to me, and the illusory image of a woman materialized in the passenger side window.

    ¡°Who¡­ who are you?¡± I asked in apprehension. The woman smiled with a satisfied smirk that I found enraging in this situation. If she said anything other than the next words that came out of her mouth, I would have probably let her have it. What she said though left me without anything to respond with.

    ¡°Me? I am a fallen goddess without worshipers. There is no-one who knows my name, and without worshipers I have very little power. However, if it¡¯s for you, I can grant this one wish if you will also do something for me.¡±

    As she finished saying this, she walked through the closed car door, her thighs passed straight through my severely injured granddaughter like she was a ghost, and then she sat in the back seat of the car before reaching forward to touch my cheek. This time, it was a physical touch as real as the my granddaughter¡¯s limp hand which I carefully and gently held in mine. ¡°So, what do you say?¡±

    There were a great many things that went through my mind at once. A fallen goddess? As I have mentioned before, as a believer of the Abrehemic God, this made her no different from a demon to me. If felt like a Faustian bargain if there ever was one. However, if it was for the sake of my innocent granddaughter who was blameless and was suffering and dying because of my mistake, then perhaps I really should pay whatever price she asked. So long as my granddaughter was unharmed and the price was paid by me alone, it would be worth whatever it was that she asks. There was something already in what she said that was bothering me, but I decided not to mention it for now.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°It¡¯s really quite simple,¡± she responded. ¡°As I mentioned, I have no worshipers in this world, and this world is quite hostile to weak gods and goddesses such as myself. However, this world is sealed and very difficult to leave.¡±

    What was she getting at? Why was she telling me this, and what did it have to do with me? She was looking at me upon finishing this line as though it should somehow mean something to me, but I could not understand it at all.

    ¡°I have been watching you.¡± She said. ¡°You have learned a very interesting form of meditation. You may not be aware of it, but it is a little different from most people who practice your fighting art. The meditation that accepts the energy of heaven and then, using your body, you send that energy into the earth. It is a very ingenious meditation indeed that those who practice your art have found. However, I believe it is not the earth that you direct the energy into at all. That¡¯s the key that makes your meditation different, and powerful. Simply by performing your meditation, if you perform this meditation and continue to perform it straight through till the moment of your death, it should allow me the opportunity to leave this world that is hostile to a powerless fallen goddess such as I.¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Such an incredible statement. I had contemplated the divine and the nature of the universe in the past, but I still had my feet grounded in the realm of facts, the physical, and skepticism. It seems somewhat odd for someone who practices a metaphysical meditation such as the one she had just quite accurately described to say they have a basis in skepticism, but it works out. I had felt the results of the meditation first hand, how much more free it made my mind and how much better my performance was when I was in this meditative state that I had always figured the images must be triggering something real. I didn¡¯t make any claim to know what, but it was real enough in its results for me to stop worrying about it. So, to suddenly hear that there was a goddess interested in some form of effect from this meditation¡­ and there was also another thing. She DID also mention ''the moment of my death.''

    ¡°So, my death is a part of your price, huh? You keep saying you are powerless. What guarantee do I have that you can save my granddaughter? I am certain if you are as weak as you say, it would be quite difficult to save someone from injuries like this. On the other hand, I know from experience that it takes far less effort to kill someone than it does to save someone.¡±

    At these words, she simply smiles. ¡°You are quite right,¡± she says. ¡°Actually, I truly doubt I have even the amount of power necessary to take your life in the way you said. However, as I told you before, your meditation is special. You are accepting the energy of heaven into your body after all. So, I will be touching your soul and skimming off some of that energy. I will use that to transfer your vitality into her and heal all of her injuries.¡±

    There was so much about this that was strange. If I had been in my right mind at the time, I would have about twenty objections and even more questions for this mysterious self-proclaimed fallen goddess. However, as things were, my mind was on one thing and one thing only. That was my granddaughter and my guilt at her current state.

    ¡°Fine. If you can do it, then do it.¡± That was all I said. If she could do it, that was great. And if all she wanted me to do was go into my standard combat meditation, that was an easy thing to do. I really had nothing to lose. Well, aside from my life if what she said was true. However, if I did loose my life, then presumably that would mean it had worked and she had fulfilled her promise.

    I let out a breath, and then I let one of my hands go from my granddaughter¡¯s. This meditation was a combat meditation. This meant that it was incredibly difficult to do correctly while holding still. Therefore, in order to make it effective, I began moving one of my hands through some motions resembling moving from one guarding position to another. I moved my hand to my chest and then let out a breath as I visualized all of the spiritual energy in my body being expelled out into the void around me. I envisioned myself vanishing completely as a person. In this state of emptiness, the energy of heaven was able to flow into me and replace the energy of myself that was once there before. This energy as well was also expelled.

    This is how it works. Energy likes to flow, and it is bad for it to be stagnant. The only way to take more of the energy into your body is to expel it. This is the entire principle of the heaven and earth combat meditation. To accept the energy of heaven and then immediately expel it as it fuels and invigorates your motions while giving peace and awareness to your mind. I became aware of all the other voices around me. It was not just my granddaughter and I who were suffering. I could perceive groans and frightened voices from all around me. Shocked people reacting in horror to the scene of carnage before them. I could only imagine how many people were already dead because of this incident. While this meditation boosted my awareness of all of this going on around me, it also gave me peace. I was not bothered by any of it. Even my guilt at the state my granddaughter was in began to disappear. My self would fully disappear and my body became a vehicle of pure intent.

    ¡°Excellent. Let¡¯s begin.¡± The self-proclaimed fallen goddess approved. While it was her that was going to be doing the work, the constant motions of my free hand over my granddaughter¡¯s chest made it almost seem like I was the one doing some form of arcane magic upon her broken body. In a strange sense of contrast, all that she did was to simply touch her once again incorporeal hand to my chest and reach inside of my body. ¡°Oooh!¡± She cried out as her head snaps back like she had received an electric shock. She had a very satisfied smile when her head had risen back up and she was once again looking at me. After this, she touched her other hand to my granddaughter in the same way.

    As soon as the fallen goddess¡¯ hands were touching both of us, the effect was instantaneous. My hand which had been waving about over my granddaughter¡¯s body immediately dropped down to the center console of the car. I did not feel it make contact despite the distinct slapping sound it made. I had lost all physical sensation in my hand. A second later, my body fell back against the door as I collapsed like a puppet that had had its strings cut. After this, I could feel my consciousness rapidly fading. Just before I lost consciousness though, I could hear some moaning and groaning from my granddaughter.

    ¡°Grandpa?¡± Her angelic voice rang out and I breathed a sigh of relief. It had worked. She had pulled through. That self-proclaimed goddess had really done it. In my final moments, I remembered what she had asked me to do. And, to keep up my end of the bargain, I focused hard on expelling all of myself, every single last spiritual and metaphysical thing in me, out into the void as I continued to make more room in myself for the holy power that kept flowing into me to replace what had been driven out.

    I experienced a falling sensation as my consciousness faded to black. It seemed like I was falling, and the holy energy was all around me. It felt warm as I was swept up and carried by the currents. I don¡¯t really know when that sensation stopped, but at some point the warm feeling of holy power was replaced by a warm feeling of security. At this point, I felt calm.

    This is the state I have been in for an amount of time that became impossible to track. It feels as though I am floating in some form of liquid. Sometimes, I don¡¯t know why, but I feel afraid for some reason. I also hear some muffled sounds. Large and deep sounds, and some that are higher. The deep sounds seem so much bigger and louder though, it is like they are rocking my entire body. When these sounds become more frequent, I start to feel scared for some reason. I have had some thoughts of recognition of what this is probably all about, something about my medical knowledge from being a nurse that explains it, but whenever I try to think about that I quickly loose the thought.

    Lately, it is even starting to feel fuzzy, the fact that I even died. It all feels like this is some kind of long dream. This dream¡­ actually, I kinda remember dreaming about this before when I was a kid. I was really young at the time, around 6, maybe even younger than that. Every time I would get sick I would have that dream as though it was haunting me. Now it felt like I was inside of that childhood nightmare.

    The time I have spent in this place that is without light or darkness is so long it has become impossible to track. I have stopped noticing the warmth. It all just feels the same now. It is starting to feel cramped too. For the first time, I have started to feel something, something like bones. Somebody¡¯s elbow pushing up against me. It seems like there is some kind of rubber-like film between me and that elbow on the other side pushing into my chest. It is at this point it seems like something is becoming more clear. I realize where I wound up, but for some reason I can¡¯t speak the words in my mind. It makes sense though, it seems I really did die then. This must be that reincarnation thing, it actually was real. With this in mind, I begin to feel a strong affinity for the other person sharing this space with me. I know at this point that this person will be my first friend in my new life, and a very important person to me for most of my upcoming childhood.

    Once again though, for some reason proper terms for what this person is to me simply will not come to mind. It seems I have been here for a very long time, and it seems I have forgotten several things in that time. I still remember a lot though. I remember that I died, I remember that there is something very important for me about the place I am in now. It also makes sense now why I feel afraid of those voices outside.

    Now that my hands will work, I reach down and touch the cord running into my abdominal area. I remember now why it is that I get scared. It is because of what is running through this cord whenever those voices start getting particularly active. It changes the chemistry of my environment, and the substances that come in make it so I have no choice but to feel scared.

    ¡®Hold on¡¯ I say in my mind to the other important person I know is around. It is the person who is really feeling scared, and her feeling scared is the reason I also feel scared. ¡®You can do it, just hang on.¡¯ I thought toward her. I had started to learn to associate those sounds with the fear that was going to happen after a while, but I started to notice sometimes now I would hear those sounds but I would not feel scared. Now that I knew why it was happening, I was able to break that association. In fact, because I knew what it was, I would feel happy for this other important person every time I heard those sounds without feeling scared. And then, the times when I did wind up feeling scared, I would tell myself it¡¯s not my own fear I was feeling and I would fight it, and then I would feel very sad for this important person to me.

    In the times that I felt afraid, I had no choice but to move my body. Without sight, and the dampened feeling of being in a fluid, I frequently wound up hitting everything around me. At this point, I had the smooth rubbery walls of the place I was in that I kept hitting, and then there was also the other person in here with me. They also got really active whenever we both got scared for the same reason. We wound up hitting each other a lot. I tried not to hit them, but it happened sometimes. I was beginning to get the sense that they were trying to avoid hitting me as well. After this happened for a few times, a question began to surface in my mind. ¡®Do they know?¡¯

    Once again, I had lost the words to explain what this thought meant. However, it seemed like it was a rather important question. Somehow, it made them the same as me. I was beginning to notice by this point that my ability to remember the words and the things I had forgotten before were becoming better. I knew it was because I was getting closer.. closer to the time I was ready to leave this place. I knew that the closer I came to leaving here, the more I would be able to remember of my life before this one. The reason I couldn¡¯t remember things was because this body was not able to use the information I had in my head very well, but now it was becoming easier as I was starting to develop.

    ¡®Brain, that¡¯s the word.¡¯ My brain. My fetal brain was beginning to develop more and more, and as the structures developed I was able to recall the information from my previous life better.

    After some time, it began to feel incredibly cramped in this space. My sibling, my twin brother or sister, was pressed up tightly against me and neither of us could move very much. I keep thinking for sure we must be getting close to the time when we should be born, but no matter what it just seems like we have to wait longer and things get more cramped and uncomfortable in here. My sibling¡¯s wrist has been in my face for quite a while now, and I can definitely feel their shoulder with my own arm. Our knees are constantly bumping up against each other as we reflexively kick due to the cramped conditions. Some of it is reflex anyway. The rest is just us having to try to move. It is very uncomfortable being so cramped.

    I feel very fortunate in this time that I have become used to the silence, used to nothing happening to stimulate me for what must be months and months of time passing. My sense of time since becoming like this has really changed. I assume I must have spent a lot of my time sleeping or something, because if I try to track back to remember how long I have been like this the best answer I can account for is that it feels like maybe it has been a week¡¯s worth of subjective time since I had reincarnated and become a fetus. However, I know that can simply not be the case. My sibling and I are mammals for certain, and there is no mammal that doesn¡¯t have a gestation time of at least 3 months if I remember correctly. I am certain with no sense of time and my consciousness fading in and out, it could even be years I have spent in here and I wouldn¡¯t know the difference.

    In this way, in our subjectively rapid development as my consciousness fades in and out, the time I have to deal with elbows in my face and knees clashing with my sibling seems rather short. Eventually, I feel as though something had ripped and I felt my sibling¡¯s torso with my hand for the first time. I knew exactly what had happened, and realizing this I tried to pull my hand back as much as possible. I kept my hands as close to my body as possible so that something didn¡¯t go wrong. At this same time, I began to feel the contractions of our mother¡¯s uterus trying to force us out. At first, it just squeezed us and pressed us together tighter. We kept getting squeezed, but there was no way out for us yet.

    I was beginning to get excited as I knew we were about to get out. We were about to be born. We simply had to wait for the cervix to open far enough that we could fit through it. After we kept getting pushed together like this, there was one point where I noticed I was not getting pressed against my sibling¡¯s head and torso anymore. I felt my face press into my sibling¡¯s knees.

    ¡®Oh, looks like I am going to be the younger twin then.¡¯ That was all that I was able to really think in this moment. I have to admit, there actually was something of a slight sense of disappointment, but I was able to become content with it quickly. Soon after this, I could not feel my sibling¡¯s feet anymore as another contraction began to push me through an even tighter space than the cramped area I was in before. I felt as though my eyes were going to be squeezed out of my head as I could feel my skull actually deforming in order to make it through such a narrow passage. It was probably impossible for my eyes to pop out though. They wouldn¡¯t have anywhere to go. Even if they came out the walls of this tight passage would only push them back in.

    I could feel something cold against the top of my head. For the first time, I felt something other than the static warmth inside of my mother¡¯s womb. Now I could feel the cold of the outside. With the next contraction, my entire head emerged. Everything was a sea of fuzzy white. I could hear the sound of a baby crying. After this, the rest of my body was expelled from my mother¡¯s warm insides, and the cold air assailed every part of my body.

    It was an incredibly unpleasant experience. Frankly, I hated it. Logically, I knew it was perfectly natural. On an uncontrollable visceral level though, it was a very traumatic experience for me. To make matters worse, I felt as though I was choking as I began to cough and fluids were expelled from my mouth and nose and then ran down my face. I quickly began crying, and the powerful heaves of my cries caused even more liquid to be forced out of my lungs as I took my first breaths of air in this new life.

 Chapter 1: An infant can do nothing

    1st Arc: Infancy

    Act 1: Neural Growth

    Being reborn, gaining a second life after your first life has ended. No, it¡¯s more than just that. Being reborn with your memory of your previous life fully intact. Such a concept, it sounds quite wonderful doesn¡¯t it? It effectively becomes a way to cheat death, and there are scant few people who wouldn¡¯t like the idea of such a thing.

    I had realized such a thing as I was in the womb of my mother for my second life. It was a rather curious experience being in the womb. Rather peaceful to the point I had lost track of the time that I was in there. The fact that my developing fetal brain could not properly process most of my previous life¡¯s memories likely had something to do with this as well. It was a rather curious thing. I had memories of things I couldn¡¯t fully understand in the mental state I had in my fetal stage. In fact, all I wanted to actually do was sleep in the warmth and gentle cradling of my mother¡¯s womb, snuggled against my twin who shared this space with me. For all of my fetal development, this was the most of the good my previous life¡¯s memories did for me. I was able to understand that the bony thing I kept bumping up against was my sibling, someone who would be with me for my young life, a built in first friend, and that brought an indescribable warm feeling to my heart before I was even born.

    That¡¯s the thing though. That is the one thing my previous life¡¯s memories could never prepare me for. No, because of my previous life¡¯s memories, I knew it was going to happen. However, those memories could never prepare me for how painful the process of being born was going to be. After spending so long in this comfortable space, the warm gentle walls around me suddenly began squeezing me tight. I could feel my sibling suddenly slip away, and I knew that I had just become the younger twin. This was not that big a deal. However, next it was my turn to be forced through the birth canal. In this process, I could feel it as my skull began to squeeze and deform, the plates of my skull literally shifting around in order to allow my head to pass through. I felt as though my eyes would burst from my sockets, and likely the only thing to keep them in was the fact that there was no room for them to pop out in the first place. Pressure was being put on my head from every single direction.

    After this though, things only became worse, because what I was being forced out into was a cold environment that shocked my system compared to where I just was, and as my eyes were exposed to the light for the first time I found it extremely harsh. My ears could hear the sound of crying nearby, my twin sibling who had been born just before me was wailing their lungs out hard. And, due to my memories of my previous life, I knew that it was essential to my survival that I do the same. As I felt some hands begin to gently cradle my body, I forced my little lungs to work. I could feel the amniotic fluid being forced from my mouth as my body expelled it from my lungs, and I began to cough, sputter, and cry, giving my lungs a hard workout in order to accept air for the first time.

    I did not have to force myself to cry. After all the harsh physical experiences I was going through, it was more like there was no way to keep myself from crying. My memories from my previous life informed me of what was going on, but it was still a harsh experience and I did not like it at all. I was a lot tougher than this in my previous life. I had learned to deal with harsh experiences without making so much as a complaint or grunt or unpleasant face, but after spending my gestation time in my mother¡¯s womb it was as though the harsh lessons I had trained into my body were all forgotten.

    I could not track what was happening to my tiny newborn body. I may have known what to expect, but that didn¡¯t stop me from feeling completely disoriented. Before I knew it, I was being held and cradled to someone¡¯s chest, and I heard a feminine voice. I could not hear what was being said, and the words sounded very indistinct. However, I had heard this voice a lot while I was in the womb, and I found it comforting. This had to be the voice of my mother. Of our mother. I could feel my twin sibling held close to me as well. This also allowed me to calm down. The light assailed my eyes, it was cold, and the warm liquid no longer supported my body. However, being held tightly in my mother¡¯s arms with my sibling nearby felt so much like what I had come to expect, it gave me a sense of familiarity, and I was soon able to calm my crying and relax into my mother¡¯s arms.

    -

    I must have fallen asleep at some point after being held by my mother like that, because the next time I became aware of my surroundings I was swaddled in a blanket, and as I shifted about I could feel myself rolling around. There was nobody holding or supporting me at this point. I tried my best to open my eyes and look around to figure out where I was and what my surroundings were like. Up until now, I had been in my mother¡¯s womb. There was not really much I could do to figure out about what my new life was going to be like, so all I really could do was sleep and try to think about somethings with my developing fetal brain in order to make sense of the situation in the times where my body just wouldn¡¯t sleep anymore.

    Now, I was no longer in the womb. I could try to figure out what was going on. However, I was only met with a disappointment as I tried to open my eyes. I could not make out any details of the things I was looking at as I tried to look around. Everything just seemed like a blur. I could see splotches of lighter and darker places. My ears could not work properly either. There were voices around me, but they all seemed fairly muffled. Actually, they also seemed rather high pitched. Perhaps I was in a nursery with several other newborn infants. That¡¯s it, I must be at a hospital. But no, something seemed wrong with that idea. Those were definitely voices I was hearing. Other newborns would not be talking.

    I was getting confused, and in my confusion I was getting frustrated over the fact I couldn¡¯t figure out what was going on. Before I even knew it, I had started crying. Crying was a very important thing for an infant. It was an infant¡¯s only method of communication. An infant also could not do anything. An infant was completely dependent on the goodwill of the more developed members of its species to care for it, and crying was the only way the infant could attract their attention to let them know that something was wrong. If my guess was right, at minimum I was surrounded with children, which means that an adult had to be somewhere nearby. And, sure enough, after I had started crying it was not long before a pair of hands was picking me up and I could hear a feminine voice.

    I focused in on the voice speaking to me. It was a different voice from my mother¡¯s. I could tell the difference, I had never understood a word, but I had heard my mother¡¯s voice almost every time I was awake while I was inside of her for the entire time since I had gained consciousness and awareness inside of her. This woman talked to me, saying something that sounded like it was supposed to be soothing. I could only tell that from the tone though. I could hear that she was saying something, but I could not make it out. It sounded clearer than the words I heard while I was in my mother¡¯s womb, but it still sounded muffled and far away, as though I was hearing the words from the other end of a long tube.

    I tried to look at her, but I had already started crying. It was almost impossible for me to open my eyes while I was crying, and now that I had started I seemed to have a hard time calming myself down even though I wanted to stop.

    Her voice calls to someone nearby. I may not be able to understand what she is saying at all, but I can tell by her tone that she is not directing her words toward me. Soon after this, I feel myself being lowered. She begins holding me away from her chest like she is putting me down, and then I feel myself being received by another set of very small hands. The person who is holding me now is only just barely bigger than I am, and seems to be having a lot of trouble holding me. I hear this person¡¯s voice complain to the woman who handed me to them with a high-pitched voice that is definitely that of a very young child. The woman responds in some way, and I hear a lot of confused little voices around me. Apparently, the child who was holding me was part of a small crowd.

    I finally managed to get myself to stop crying, and I tried to focus in on what was going on, trying to make sense of it all. The woman made some kind of approving remark. Now, judging by the tone, it was more like she took the fact I had stopped crying was proof of something she was just telling the children she had handed me to. It had a fairly ¡°I told you so¡± feel to it, and whatever she was talking about the children seemed to be rather fascinated by it. I could sense them coming closer to me.

    Now that I had stopped crying, I opened my eyes and looked up at the child holding me. All I could see was a fuzzy roughly flesh-colored silhouette of a face framed by the fuzzier and much harder to follow darker color of their hair and the clothing they were wearing. After this, the woman said something else and then walked away. This was when something happened that really caught my attention in a big way for the first time.

    ¡°ooo uuud uuul ee uuu¡± It was still highly distorted. I could only just barely hear some of the harder consonants, and mostly it was the longer vowel sounds that stood out. However, what this child said just sounded a little like he was speaking English, and it sounded a lot like he said something like ¡°so what will we do?¡±

    ¡°aahi oon ooh, ee uhos hoo hake are oh aye ahey eeer? Uuus at eeely eeel?¡± (I don¡¯t know, we supposed to take care of a baby here? Was that really real?) I was dedicating all my efforts into understanding their words. I was not able to make out the words the woman before was saying at all, but if I really focused in on these children¡¯s words I could sorta understand them. Was that woman maybe speaking a different language? Then that would mean these children here were bi-lingual and now they were speaking English to each other.

    ¡°eel, uhe-her, eey eess. Aahi oon ooh aaaou eels oh eey ees oh.¡± (Well, whatever, I guess. I don¡¯t know about -indecipherable- so I guess so.)

    ¡°ohay¡± (Ok.)

    One of the kids said something I couldn¡¯t quite make out, but it sounded kinda important. It didn¡¯t seem like a word that made any real sense in a sentence. Something like, ¡°I don¡¯t know about¡­¡± something. Else? Hell? It sounded like he said Else, but no word I substitute into the sentence really seems to completely make sense, and trying to focus on interpreting their words is already overloading my poor newborn brain. It was already hard to figure out what was going on in this new situation, and now my brain really hurt from all the activity I made on it after not even being a day old yet.

    It seemed like the word I missed them saying held some sort of clue to the circumstances of my birth and where we were, but I really couldn¡¯t figure it out right now. After only that little bit of activity, I was starting to feel sleepy again. I could feel the two children carrying me awkwardly, actually it was almost closer to them dragging me as I thought I could feel part of the blanket being dragged across the floor.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°eey, aahi iin eeh oinn oo heep a-ain¡± I couldn¡¯t focus enough to make sense of what they were saying anymore, but I think they probably noticed my eyes getting a little droopy or something. They brought me to someplace and laid me down on something soft. They seem like pretty young kids, but they do not seem to be doing too bad a job of taking care of me. What kind of irresponsible adult gives a baby to kids this young to take care of though? I feel like they¡¯re really not much larger than me, maybe they might be just 2 or 3. That seems like a ridiculous age to be taking care of a baby. Well, so long as they don¡¯t do something that hurts me I guess that I am Ok. If they do though, all I will be able to do is cry really loud and hope an adult notices before they do something really bad to me. That¡¯s rather worrying, but for now they have not done anything to especially make me that worried. So, I decide to accept the situation as it is and fall back asleep.

    -

    For a while, things proceeded like this. The next time I woke up, I found my twin sibling next to me. I briefly wondered whether we were boys or girls, but it really wasn¡¯t important enough. The two of us were swaddled pretty tightly, covering us up and also making it so my hand couldn¡¯t even move all that much. I probably couldn¡¯t even find out with my own body anyway, babies don¡¯t have the muscles to pull themselves in the direction to look at themselves like that anyway. Oh well, I suppose I have my entire infancy to find out, so it¡¯s not like it particularly matters right this minute.

    I¡¯m not sure if I will be able to feel it or not whenever they change my diaper, but at the very least I should be able to figure it out by listening to the kids who were speaking English before. Eventually they are going to have to drop a gendered pronoun. Although, with how fuzzy I was hearing them now, would I even be able to discern the difference between ¡°he¡± and ¡°she?¡± Guess even that method won¡¯t work until my hearing develops a little more.

    On the subject of being swaddled though, I was a little surprised at how good it really did feel. It was genuinely relaxing to be bunched up so tightly in this cloth, and having my body heat kept close to me. It actually felt fairly similar to back when I was in my mother¡¯s womb, and being reminded of that familiar feeling that wasn¡¯t too far in the past for me at this point gave me comfort.

    If I were a normal baby, I might very well have continued to sit there in contentment, at least until I started to feel hungry or had some other needs. Instead, I just wanted some form of stimulation. It was strange, after living for so long in my mother¡¯s womb I had grown far more accustomed to a slower pace in life. However, now that I was out of the womb and nothing interesting had happened yet, with my memories of my past life I craved to know more about this new world I was in, even if it was just to know who would be the first to respond if I started making noise.

    ¡°Aaa! Awaowa!¡± I heard those sounds coming out of my mouth. I was suddenly fascinated by the sound of my own voice and how it sounded in my ears. My ears were my biggest hindrance at this point. My eyesight was not far behind that, but if I remembered post-natal development correctly the eyes take a lot longer to adjust to how a normal person¡¯s work than the ears. Stimulation helps the adjustment, and the eyes get zero stimulation in the womb while the ears at least get some limited stimulation.

    I listen carefully to the sounds around me. I can still hear some people far off. No, I want to hear those kids speaking English again. If I can hear them, maybe I can speed up the rate at which my ears develop, at least a little. ¡°Awaoaoa! Awaaa! Awaowa!¡± I start to pipe up my voice to demand more insistently.

    ¡°Heey maa, laio kue naa¡± I hear a voice and try to make out what it¡¯s saying. The best I can get is ¡°Hey ma¡¯¡± for the first part, but I can sense people coming closer. They seem a little bigger than the kids from before, but they still seem to be kids. Considering they came immediately after saying that, maybe they were saying something about me being cute?

    ¡°Aowa!¡± I continue to babble as best I can.

    ¡°Ahh! ru quennaa ryien¡± Something about a queen? No, that¡¯s not right. I realize soon enough that this isn¡¯t English at all. They¡¯re speaking that other language before. It wasn¡¯t long at all before I felt myself being picked up. These were definitely small arms, but not so small as the ones who I was given to the first time I woke up. They also seemed to be children.

    I felt somehow satisfied being held in this child¡¯s arms, but somehow despite how clumsy it was I felt like I liked the really little kids who were holding me the first time more. I did still like it though, and as I was being held in the kid¡¯s arms I could feel myself drifting back off to sleep once again.

    -

    There were several more episodes like this. I would awake several times, every time I seemed to be surrounded by children who would immediately come up to me and hold me the moment I woke up. I found it strange that it always seemed to be children tending to me, there seemed to never be any adults. Wasn¡¯t this really irresponsible of the adults around to leave babies to children?

    Soon enough though, I also realized something else was strange. Actually, by far the strangest thing about it was that it took me this long to notice. I had woken up and fallen asleep several times now. I have lost all track of my sense of time by this point, but I¡¯m almost certain at least a day has past. Probably more than that. However, not once has my mother, or at least a nurseing-age woman or something, come around to nurse me. Not just that, these kids have not even given me a bottle or anything of the sort.

    I started to panic a little bit when I realized this. I began crying really loudly with all I had as I thought about how this probably meant I was starving to death. I didn¡¯t feel unwell now, but I was sure it would only really be a matter of time.

    The children came over to me as they usually did, and somehow I felt a calm come over me immediately. However, I couldn¡¯t let that stop me. If I stopped crying now, how were they going to understand the problem? After I wavered for a moment when I felt myself being picked up, I immediately forced another cry out of my lungs, and as the children seemed to be trying to talk to each other with a panicked sound to their voice, I kept on crying.

    I don¡¯t know how long I had to cry for in order to get them to do something different. I really didn¡¯t understand, how could it be so hard for them to figure out they have to feed a baby? At any rate, I kept it up. I kept crying and crying, getting my voice louder and fiercer as they didn¡¯t seem to be doing much of anything.

    Eventually, I heard a deeper female voice approaching.

    ¡°Levin ri'' Rolwen a'' ho ona he` ume lle?¡± I could hear her saying something. My ears had improved to this point now to where they were fully developed, I had understood a few of the English speaking kids perfectly. I still couldn¡¯t quite make any sense at all of what this woman was saying though. It was another language after all. That didn¡¯t matter though. An adult woman seemed to be in front of me at last.

    I felt the adult hands around me and I calmed my crying to a few whimpers as the woman cradled me away from her body in such a way that would allow her to look at me. She let out a sigh and cradled me close to her chest. This was it! Finally! But¡­ the next expected step never came. All she did was just cradle me against her chest.

    ¡°Rashwe naa amin uma il- sinta manke tuulo'', nan'' sii'' he` nalla naa n''ner¡± The woman seemed to be talking to the children with a content tone. I could feel her grip starting to relax a little. Was she not going to feed me? I began trying to shake as best I could as I made my protest known. I tried to grab her chest to indicate what it was I wanted, but at this time the swaddling that I had found so comfortable before was working against me in a major way. As my protest was continuing to be met with no result, I began crying once again, this time I would not stop until she did something about this.

    ¡°Ah! il- quel! Rashwe mani naa?¡± She let out a heavy sigh. ¡°N''uma, he` helma naa il- quel. Levin, kwara he` tenna'' amin brien n''alaquel Eirlathion tura.¡±

    With those words that I could not understand, I was handed from the woman over to what felt from the hands to be the youngest child in the room. After that, I couldn¡¯t even see the shadowy silhouette of the woman anymore as my head was turned away from her by the awkward grip of the small child. However, I was still able to plainly hear the sounds of her footsteps rapidly retreating. Actually, she sounded like she was in quite a hurry by the sounds of her footsteps.

    ¡°Mani naa goien no''? Yassen he` rashwe mani naa?¡±

    ¡°Sinta amin uma il-, genil naa re?¡±

    ¡°Eden¡¯ta uma re anta?¡±

    ¡°Tel''Quessir uma il- anta eden¡¯ta Idn''uma!¡±

    The kids all seemed to be getting pretty lively. I could not understand the language, but I could detect a tone of concern in their voices. Were they worried about me? I just need food! I need to eat! Why can¡¯t they understand that!?

    As far as I go though, I was so stunned about the woman just walking away like that I was no longer able to even cry out in my concern. However, it somehow felt really nice to be held like this by this small child. Before long, I felt myself drifting off to sleep once again.

    -

    It seemed like the next time I woke up was far shorter than any time I had slept before. In fact, I heard murmuring around me and there were a lot of the same children who seemed to be around. There was something different here though. I opened my eyes and saw a shadowy figure crouched down over me. There was something different about what I felt with this person around. Something¡­ it felt like something was lacking, but something about it also felt familiar.

    ¡°Rashwe lye elea mani ta naa¡± The figure spoke in a deep masculine sounding voice. An adult man then. It took me a little bit to remember why he might be here, but then I remembered how concerned all the kids were.

    As he held up his hand, I started to sense something very different. Something that reminded me of something from my previous life. It felt peaceful as I was reminded of it, and I allowed my mind to calm and my worries washed away as I felt the feeling of allowing my frustrations to fall off of me and into a void. I could feel the sudden shift in my mind, it was as though my thinking suddenly became more clear. I became more aware of my body. I still hadn¡¯t nursed once since I was born, but as I focused more on my body I realized I really didn¡¯t feel weak like I should if that was going to be an issue.

    ¡°Mani!?¡± The man holding his hand to me said something and sounded rather surprised. I still couldn¡¯t see much more than his silhouette due to my newborn eyes, but I could tell from the motion of his shoulders that something was upsetting him. Wait, he got upset while he was examining me. That should mean maybe there actually IS something wrong with me then, right? I began to get scared. ¡°Il- quel sina naa. He` templa limbe duna ar'' lova ten'' n''uma casta¡±

    ¡°Mani uma-aya?¡±

    ¡°Sinta il- uma amin. Ten'' sii'' kela he` yassen tanya hin ve'' re naa¡±

    There was some noisy murmuring at the man¡¯s words that made me really wish I could understand the language they were speaking.

    ¡°Can you understand what he said was wrong?¡±

    There! Thank freaking god almighty one of the English speaking kids were holding me, and he seemed to be close enough to the other that they were talking to each other.

    ¡°I don¡¯t, I still can¡¯t understand much. I think he said something about you holding her?¡±

    Well, that¡¯s not particularly helpful after all. But wait! I DID hear something else. It wasn¡¯t the thing I was wanting to hear at the moment, but he just referred to me as ¡°her¡± didn¡¯t he? Well, that answers one question I was wondering about. If it weren¡¯t for the situation right now, I might have celebrated in my mind at finally learning what my gender was in this life. Now however I was a little bit too worried to care.

    ¡°Quenaien a'' ilye n''at ron naa. Sinta uma lle i'' lammen ron quena?¡±

    ¡°Amin il- uma, voro a'' ilye n''at ron quena ve'' tanya ilya i'' coiasira. Sinta amin il- uma tanya lammen¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ Tir-sen amin. I'' taurn quel a'' kela i'' laito yassen sen.¡±

    The man seemed to be in a discussion with the woman, the only two adults in the room having a serious conversation that I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of. Or rather, I could at least tell enough to know I had to be worried. It was so incredibly frustrating not knowing the language they were speaking.

    After a little bit of this going on, the man walked away. A short time later, the woman seemed to be leaning down close to me again. Well, given the situation here, there was only one thing that made sense to me. That was the very thing that got me panicking in the first place. With an adult woman so close by, I began trying hard to thrash about and free my hands from this tight blanket that was restricting me in order to reach for her. When I couldn¡¯t I found myself getting frustrated way too easily and I began crying loudly.

    ¡°Ucar-amin, shhh¡­ shhh..¡± She began rubbing my head as she knelt over me, but of course being caressed was not what I was after. ¡°Nwalmaien he` amin naa re''na beien sinome. Levin, Rolwen, malia ten'' he` lle caela a'' sii''. Saesa malia ten'' he` eithel. Ilya en'' lle, saesa alya-sen mali-laito.¡±

    ¡°Ahhh¡­ uhh..¡± It seemed by the response of the child holding me that she had asked him to do something. He didn¡¯t really seem to understand what this woman was saying either, although he did seem to understand better than I could. The unsure response he gave seemed to be something along the lines of a ¡°smile and nod¡± sort of response, and it seemed as though the woman was pleased with it.

    ¡°Diola Levin. Rolwen, lle kwara-aya Gaerien, he` helma naa sai¡¯ il-quel. Il-lamya re karne ai''. Sinome. I¡¯ winimo alya-sen yassen edenat.¡± The woman gave instructions to some of the other children around and they seemed to be moving about in response. From what I could tell, they seemed to be rather concerned and the subject of their concern seemed to be me. If they were that concerned, why couldn¡¯t any of them see I just needed to eat? Or rather, at my age, nurse. After giving these instructions, the woman left. If the woman¡¯s voice weren¡¯t so tender I would assume the children were concerned because she just said something outrageous like her intentionally leaving me to die. In this case though, I was just baffled.

    Then there was a more concerning thought. What about my sibling? Sister, is it? My twin at any rate. She(?) has not been really making any noise. Is she nearby? I try to look around, but still all I can make out are strange slightly skin-tone dark silhouettes, and I can¡¯t move my head very far. It cannot even be described how frustrating it is to not be able to do anything as I am now trapped in the body of an infant. All I really can do is just cry and hope that somebody will respond in a way that will meet my needs.

 Chapter 2: What I have discovered

    It is really hard to keep track of time when you can never seem to stay awake for more than a few hours. However, since the whole confusing episode where I tried to get the attention of someone to feed me, I seem to have spent every moment being held by the small child the woman gave me to, and my sister, who I have definitely confirmed at this point is my identical twin sister, was given to this child¡¯s close friend. It¡¯s unusual for someone who doesn¡¯t even seem to be 2 years old to have a friend they interact with like this, but these children also seem to be reincarnators like myself, evidenced by the fact that they speak English at a level of fluency not normal for children their age, not to mention the fact that English does not seem to be the language spoken here.

    Actually, because we are always being held by them, it has become a lot easier to at least keep track of night and day. While I can¡¯t trust my own internal clock at all at this point, I can roughly keep track of how many days have gone by according to when the kid holding me is sleeping. There are some times when I will wake up where they are asleep for just a little while. These children are also rather small, so I presume they are young enough to still need naps in the middle of the day. However, there are also times when they are asleep for quite a while, I will wake up several times in a row and every time I find they are still sleeping.

    Going by how many times the children holding my sibling and I have been asleep, I figure it has been somewhere between 3 and 5 days since I was born. I have not eaten even once in that time. Under normal circumstances, I ought to be so weak from hunger I could hardly move. I would be right at death¡¯s door after only one full day of getting no nutrition as a newborn infant. However, it seemed as though I was perfectly fine. If anything, I felt like I was growing more energetic.

    There¡¯s no doubt about it. I don¡¯t know what I am, but it¡¯s quite clear I¡¯m not human. The other people around me seem to know this as well. This is why nobody even tried to feed me. They knew I didn¡¯t need it. That was one question answered. With that answer though came additional questions. If I didn¡¯t need food to live, why was it that everyone seemed so concerned when I was crying and trying to get them to give me food? Well, I can probably guess that my behavior might have been a bit strange for a child of whatever race I am. If I don¡¯t need to nurse, then of course it would be strange for me to make so much effort to get that sort of thing.

    Well, I could probably account for why they seemed so concerned, but would just that really have caused the reaction I was getting? All those children, they did seem rather worried, and they really have not let me be alone even for a second since then. It¡¯s clear there is something about me that has them very scared for me. However, the ones I have been stuck with couldn¡¯t be more than 2 years old themselves.

    That¡¯s another thing I have observed. While I can¡¯t tell exactly what anyone else is saying, the two children who are holding me and my sister seem to get yelled at every single time they even attempt to put one of us down, and we are immediately thrust back into their hands. This behavior truly does seem bizarre, but¡­ could it be some kind of clue to what species I am?

    From what I can gather, these two children seem to be the youngest children aside from my sister and I. Could it be? I am some kind of creature that is nourished by being near children? That¡¯s a scary thought in and of itself. It makes sense though. Actually, the more I think about it, the more frighteningly accurate that conjecture seems. Every time I woke up and cried before the incident a few days ago, an adult took me and put me into the hands of a child. After that, I would start to feel comfortable and drift back off to sleep. The comfort I felt, could it be because I was feeling satisfied from the nourishment I was getting from the children?

    This makes even more sense when I think that they must have actually been worried about me when I was crying before. They got so worried that they made the youngest children here, presumably the highest quality ¡°nourishment¡± available, hold me at all times. Meanwhile, the other children are made to enforce this rule to the ones holding me and my sister.

    I begin to get an extremely uneasy feeling. Now that I have had this thought, there is simply no denying it. All the evidence simply lines up. I hear a soft sigh as the child who has been with me every second of every day since I started protesting a few days ago stirs in their sleep. Now that I know that I am somehow feeding off this innocent child, I am beginning to feel an entirely different kind of uneasiness than what I had felt before. These last 3 to 5 days, I have been deathly afraid I was going to starve to death. However, now that I know that¡¯s no longer an issue, is my feeding killing this child? They don¡¯t seem to be growing weaker from what I can tell, but¡­ I¡¯m not certain what exactly I can do about it right now though. I will have to keep a close eye on them.

    Speaking of eyes, my eyesight has been improving rapidly since I was born. My vision is still a little blurry at this point, but I have started to reach the point where I can recognize things on sight. I have even spotted my twin held in the hands of the other toddling English-speaking child. In addition to this, I have also learned what our names are. I heard it from the kid holding my sister when they were speaking to the one holding me.

    ¡°Dey say theiir names are Gaerien and Aerien.¡± While they seemed to talk quite fluently, they still did not have a completely closed hard palate in their mouth, so it seemed there was still a bit of an oddity in the way they talked, lisping slightly from time to time.

    ¡°But whith one¡¯ss whithch?¡± Levin, the one holding me asked in return. Yes, in addition to our names, I also heard them calling each other by their names too.

    ¡°I don know, dey said dat the older wan who was born first is named Gaerien so the younger one is Aerien,¡± Rolwen, the other kid who¡¯s holding my sister informed him. I¡¯m not entirely sure if they are boys despite the fact that, well, we have been together for every second of every day. I am still swaddled in the same cloth I was born in after all. At any rate, their names do sound somewhat masculine, so I will assume their genders for now.

    ¡°But how do we know whi-CH one is older?¡± Levin, the one holding me, asked again.

    ¡°I dunno, maybe we just sould not call them eithher one?¡±

    ¡°Or we can keep changging wha- we call ¡®em¡± Levin made what sounded like an extremely irresponsible suggestion. What a way to confuse a child. If I didn¡¯t have my memories of my previous life, I would definitely be very confused as I tried to start learning the language of this world if I couldn¡¯t even be consistently called by the same name.

    Rolwen didn¡¯t seem very comfortable with that suggestion either. However, the irresponsible Levin just decided to go ahead with it, and so for the last few days it seemed like he(?) alternated completely randomly between calling me Aerien, which was my actual name, and Gaerien, which was supposed to be my sister¡¯s name. Perhaps I should start making it clear which one I am by just not responding whenever he calls me by my sister¡¯s name. I¡¯m not really sure how far that tactic will go at my age though. Infants aren¡¯t exactly known for their attention span to start with.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    Those are the things that I have figured out in the few days since I was reborn in this world. For an infant that is not even a week old, this could likely be seen as an extraordinary amount of awareness of the world around me. Well, really, any coherent awareness of the world around me beyond just being amazed and confused by everything is extraordinary for a newborn who is not even a week old.

    Now, however, as extraordinary as I already was, I felt it was time to start working on something else that no infant should be able to do. I was growing sick and tired of not being able to do anything in the way of communication except for cry. So, now, while everyone else was asleep, I was going to try and talk.

    ¡°Aaaaa¡­. aaaaiiiaaaiiiii¡­¡± I wanted to say the words ¡°I will try to talk,¡± but that was as close as I was able to come to merely making a sound that was similar to the first word in the sentence. Ok then, how about the alphabet?

    ¡°Aiiii¡­ bbbbb bbbbbaaaaa¡­ hahahahaha!¡± No good, I just thought about seeing myself from a parent¡¯s eyes as I was making sounds like a bleating sheep. Just imagining how cute it would be if I had walked in on one of my children or grandchildren back when they were this age making sounds like this. At any rate, it seemed like I was not going to be making sounds that were quite like what I would be able to after my mouth muscles and the motor language muscles of my brain developed better. Perhaps I would just have to feel satisfied with these close approximations. I would call these sounds so far good enough for A and B. So, let¡¯s try C now.

    ¡°Azzzzzzz zzzsssszza¡± Not even close. I don¡¯t think my mouth can form that sound yet. Ok, let¡¯s give up on it. D. ¡°aaeeeeeee. Eeee¡­ hahaha!¡± Seems like I skipped one. I was genuinely trying for a D, but no matter how I look at it that sounded like an E. This really is too cute. I wish I was my old self from my previous life looking at this child trying to talk now. I began to experience nostalgia for my children and grandchildren in my previous life. I have no regrets dying in order to keep my granddaughter alive, but¡­ I feel a pain in my heart as I begin to miss them. ¡°Aaaaaa. Aaaauuuu.¡± Well, the F I tried to attempt in order to shake of the nostalgia was a complete failure even worse than the attempt at C.

    Perhaps my infant mouth really just isn¡¯t ready for this. Or, maybe this is good exercise to improve for the future? Yes, if I learned one thing well in my previous life it¡¯s that any skill takes repeated practice, thousands and thousands of hours and millions of failures, but with every failure you learn where you went wrong and you get better, and eventually you get it right. Yes, I¡¯m trying to talk long before a child should ever even be capable of such a thing. The motor language section of my brain hasn¡¯t even developed yet.

    Under normal circumstances, what I¡¯m trying to do should be impossible. However, with my previous life knowledge, it should become possible. It¡¯s not like my brain was damaged and the motor-language section of my brain was destroyed. I have the brain of a newborn infant right now. The brain of a baby is very well known for its plasticity. If I challenge my brain to develop the motor-language section early, it will respond. All I have to do is keep practicing. ¡°Eeeee..¡± Hmm¡­ I can see a lot of As and Es in my future. The G wound up sounding like an E too.

    It was an absolute slog working my way through the entire alphabet like that, and aside from the vowels I don¡¯t think I got even a single one sounding remotely like the letter I was trying to say. By the end of it, my brain was completely burned out and I eagerly allowed sleep to overtake me. Just going through the alphabet was pure torture.

    I had always felt a degree of sympathy while working with patients in my job as a nurse when they had neurological damage. I had sympathy, but there was never any way I could relate to their experience. Now, however, I had real first hand knowledge of what it felt like to try and do something when the responsible part of your brain is simply missing. There is really no way to describe how monumental of an effort it takes just to do the simplest of tasks.

    Every time I had gone to sleep before up until now in this new life, it was either because I had cried myself to exhaustion or was lulled into a content state after being soothed by¡­ by being ¡°fed¡± by the children. The memory of my new primary concern drifted back to me in this moment. That was another reason I was going to have to learn to talk. If I could talk then maybe I could at least tell Levin and Rolwen about my suspicions and maybe ask them how they are feeling.

    Ideally I would like to not be constantly feeding off of them as I am now, but without the ability to communicate, I doubt anything I can do will convince the people around to stop forcing the two of them to constantly hold me and Gaerien at all times. Well then, that just adds a degree of urgency to my efforts to learn how to talk. I guess I had better get to it, but first, I have to sleep. This will be my first sleep from an exhaustive exercise in this new life¡­ what a truly nostalgic feeling.

    -

    Winding back the clock, on Earth and before the car wreck that had killed Aerien in her previous life. Or rather, at the time of the incident. A vehicle was driving down the road with the radio blaring. The speakers were so loud that it almost made the entire car bounce with the heavy base.

    In the front seat, two teenage boys, aged 17 and 18, were laughing and kidding around with one another. ¡°Hey, look back! Look at Karie!¡± One of them, the 17 year old passenger, said to his friend. Karie was his own 14 year old sister riding along with them in the back seat. She had both her hands clamped tightly over her ears.

    ¡°It¡¯s too loud!¡± The young girl complained, but she was unable to even hear her own voice over the loud music. However, despite her complaints, her brother and his friend only laughed at her. If she had known this trip home would be like this, she would have just waited for her parents to finish up with their boring party instead of going home with her brother.

    ¡°Haha! It¡¯s alright, you¡¯ll get used to it!¡± Her brother¡¯s friend said from the driver¡¯s seat. ¡°Wow!¡±

    ¡°Oh my God! Look out!¡± Her brother screamed in a panic. Karie looked up to see what it was that was making them scream. A car ahead of them had just collided with a mini van, and both cars had spun out and were now blocking the lane ahead of them completely. Her brother¡¯s friend slammed on the breaks, but they had been following way too close to the driver ahead of them. The sound of screeching tires against the pathment could be heard, and then, there was the heavy feeling of an impact and Karie felt her head snap forward at the same time as she saw the fragments of shattered glass from the windshield shattering rain all over her brother and his friend. The airbags had blocked most of it, but she still found the sight of all those pieces of glass raining down on her brother horrifying.

    After that, she heard screeching tires again, and then there was darkness.

    After this, the next thing she remembered was a bright light and a cold harsh air. She felt like she had just left a warm space that she had been for a while. She felt like her whole body was in pain.

    ¡®Am I in the hospital?¡¯ She thought as she tried to make sense of what had happened to her. She felt like her body was being lifted up, and then it seemed as though she was being turned upside down. She hadn¡¯t even realized that she felt like she was choking. She coughed and felt fluid being forced from her lungs, and then she heard the sound of a baby crying.

    ¡®What is that?¡¯ She thought as her body shook and shivered through the experience of expelling the water from her lungs. She wasn¡¯t sure how it had happened, but it felt as though her entire body was in pain.

    ¡°hoommm ummmm ummm unn muu nnaaa uummn.¡± She heard a very muffled sounding voice. It sounded tender, but somehow very large. She felt herself being carried and laid on something soft.

    ¡°hummm unnn um unu ummm auuu.¡± Another muffled and distorted voice was talking. Karie began to get scared at this point. Had her hearing been damaged by her brother¡¯s loud music? Soon after she had this thought though, she felt the back of her head being held. That hand seemed to be forcing her face against something soft, it was warm and soft, and kind of jelly like. All she knew though was that she hated whatever it was. She did her best to try and turn her head away, and she cried again, more and more.

    ¡®Wait, is that my voice crying? Why do I sound like a baby?¡¯

    ¡°uuu au unn ummm hamuuu unnn ahauuu nnnuu, haaa iiuuu uuu aaa iii hau ha.¡± Another voice was saying something again. It seemed like the first person who was talking before, and they seemed to be talking to someone on the other side of where Karie was now. Wait, why did this woman¡¯s voice sound like it was coming from so high up?

    ¡°Ahhh annn haa.¡± Karie felt like the entire surface she was on top of vibrated that time as she heard the voice from directly above her. No, she was starting to realize it now. The surface she was on top of was a person. This person was gigantic, or rather¡­ no way! No freaking way!

    Karie was stunned with the realization. Was she a baby now? How did this happen!? Wait, she remembered having heard some things about reincarnation, and there were starting to be some anime these days where being reincarnated was a theme of the story. Could that be¡­? Did she actually¡­ die?

    ¡°an mmuuuu haeenn. Ahhh auuu hai¡± The voice from above her¡­ her mother? If this is her mother, she was speaking to Karie again. She was still struggling as Karie tried to lift her head away from the thing her face was being squished into, but¡­ she was starting to figure out what was going on. She had just been born as a baby. This was her mother. She was trying to feed her right now. That¡¯s what was going on. Karie was still very confused and upset at the situation, but if that¡¯s what was going on then it was probably best to just cooperate with her mother. She couldn¡¯t quite see properly, so she allowed her mother¡¯s hand to guide her head, and eventually her lips were able to find the nipple she was being guided to.

 Chapter 3: Karie and Levin

    It took Karie some time to settle into her new life. Her previous life had simply ended quite suddenly, and now¡­ there was so much now coming at her all at once that she had to adapt to. Fortunately for her, however, she was just an infant and nobody expected a whole lot out of her. Whenever she was woken up or whenever she woke up on her own, the only things they wanted her to do was eat. And, occasionally she had the experience of having to have her diaper changed. It was a fairly embarrassing experience at first, but eventually she managed to accept it as all being a part of being a baby.

    So, for the most part, that was all she actually did. Just eat and sleep. In a way, it could be said that this was adapting to the situation. And, because of this, her nerves which were quite rattled at first discovering she had been reincarnated in a new life had calmed down considerably. The first step was calming down. Once her mind was calm, she was able to take stock of the situation far more calmly.

    Well, the first thing she discovered was that the language people spoke here was definitely not English. It was hard for her to understand what the people were saying at all at first, but eventually their voices stopped all sounding like muffled yammering as her hearing improved. Actually, she was very glad to discover her hearing was not damaged. However, getting her hearing back did not help her understand much at all because everyone was talking some foreign language.

    The second thing she discovered, well, using anime for reference, she actually somewhat expected it. It looked like the technology level of this world was pretty low. She was reincarnated into some medieval world. It was not all bad for her though. Lacking any kind of crib and living in a noisy house full of siblings, she was with her mother almost all the time, even at night. She slept between her mother and her father, and she was strapped to her mother¡¯s back as she went around doing housework.

    The final significant thing she discovered came a while later. It wasn¡¯t until she gained the ability to lift her head. She couldn¡¯t even do that much at first when she was just born. It¡¯s very frustrating being a baby and not being able to even move your own body much. However, at 2 months of age, she finally gained the ability to lift her head, and then during one of her diaper changes she was able to look down between her legs. It was at that time that she discovered that she wasn¡¯t actually a ¡°she¡± at all.

    ¡®I changed genders!¡¯ Karie realized as she stared down between her legs at her genitals that were the opposite of what she was expecting to see. Karie¡¯s heart was racing upon this new discovery. She¡­ or rather ¡°he¡± now, had not felt this panicked since, well, since first being born 2 months ago and regaining the memories of her.. or his past life in that same moment.

    The more Karie discovered about this new life, the more the ability to hold onto her past identity as ¡°Karie¡± in her former life began to break down. Maybe if Karie had been reborn as a girl again she would be able to continue thinking she had just become an infant again and she was still Karie inside, but now she was a boy. This really turned her entire sense of identity on its head. She really didn¡¯t suppose some form of gender reassignment surgery would be available in this medieval setting, so continuing to live as a girl definitely did not seem like an option.

    Karie had a fairly hard time from that point forward. She/he began to feel more and more unsure of their place in this world, and how they should approach it. Ironically enough though, being reborn as a boy seemed to serve as a kind of blessing of sorts. If it weren¡¯t for that, it may have taken her a lot longer to learn the language of this world. Before this, Karie had simply allowed everything the people around her were saying to fly right over her head since she couldn¡¯t understand any of it. However, now that her sense of identity as Karie was shattered, ¡°he¡± began to give up his attachments to his previous life and, in doing so, began to pay a little more attention to what the people around him were saying.

    He eventually identified one word he kept hearing over and over again, especially when his mother was breast feeding him. He assumed that was probably his name. ¡°Levin.¡± That was his new name in this new life. He was no longer the 14 year old Karie Williamson. Now, he was the 2 month year old Levin.

    ¡®Levin.¡¯ With his sense of identity as Karie Williamson destroyed as such, he began to roll his new name over and over again in his head. He had not learned many other words yet, but he wanted to latch on to that one strongly. ¡®Levin.¡¯ That was his new name. That was the first building block in rebuilding his new identity in this life. Something deep down inside him knew that clinging on to Karie Williamson was only going to harm him in his new life.

    ¡®I¡¯m a boy now.¡¯ He said to himself. ¡®I¡¯m a boy named Levin. I¡¯m not a girl, I¡¯m a boy. I¡¯m not a girl anymore.¡¯ But wait, if this was the medieval period, wasn¡¯t it better to be a boy? Girls were not treated very well in this time period, right? It was weird to suddenly be a boy, but maybe this was all for the best? Levin was not too certain about all this, but he figured he still had a lot more babyhood ahead of him to figure this all out.

    -

    Several months went by in this way. Levin did not leave his mother¡¯s back or even get placed on the ground until he was a full year old. In that time, he had begun to learn enough of the language that he could at least get the gyst of what people were saying to him. One day, just before his first birthday, his mother decided to have him try to walk. She supported him with her hands by holding his hands over his head.

    Some babies who had never been set on the ground once might have had a lot of trouble in this situation, but because he had his knowledge from his previous life, he knew exactly what she was doing and did his absolute best to accommodate her. He stayed upright and held on tightly to her hands, and then with her help he took several steps across the floor.

    ¡°Very good!¡± His mother praised him. ¡°At this rate, I won¡¯t have to carry you everywhere anymore. You can walk on your own.¡± Was she that eager to get rid of him? Well, that¡¯s fine. Levin was eager to be able to get out on his own as well. Also, Levin was sorta amazed that after only one year he was able to understand that much of the language here. He couldn¡¯t talk yet, but he could understand quite a bit. Were all babies always like this in terms of learning a language?

    His mother helped him walk several more times throughout the day, and by the end of it he was quite exhausted. He slept well that night. There was no celebration when his birthday passed. He barely even knew about it. At some point somebody just casually said that he was one year old at this point. In the meantime, Levin was walking more and more. Eventually, he started being allowed to walk around on his own even though he had to hold onto everything in order to keep himself upright.

    At some point, as this was going on, Levin had a bitter-sweet realization. Sometime soon, he was probably going to stop sleeping in his parents¡¯ bed. In such a small house, his siblings all wound up sharing the same bed. He had several siblings too. I hadn¡¯t taken time to count before, but it looked like there were over six of them older than he was. He knew there were both older brothers and also older sisters, but he had never had the focus to get a good count of them. He was sure though that it was going to be very rowdy sleeping with a group like that.

    Constant elbows in the face, squabbling before they could get to bed and fighting and bickering. He had had several experiences of his mother getting up late at night to scold them, and soon he would be sleeping with that crowd. Well, it was part of growing up in this world. It probably goes to show how much Levin had grown accustomed to this new world though that he did not feel the need to complain in his mind about how difficult it was to live what was clearly a peasant life.

    -

    That night, just outside the outskirts of the village where Levin was born, hidden beneath the concealment of the tree line, a tall man with long beautiful flowing brown hair looked out over the ramshackle houses with sharp eyes. He couldn¡¯t help but smirk as he watched the peasant villagers come in one by one to their houses and the small flame torches they used for light go out one by one signifying they were each going to sleep.

    ¡°So, what do you think elder?¡± A young scout with long blond hair tied back with straps of leather approached him.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    ¡°It¡¯s an amazing find,¡± he says, ¡°It¡¯s just as you said, the children of this village seem to have incredibly strong spirits. They will be perfect. The newcomer¡¯s child will grow up very strong if we can take these children back to them.¡± It was not common for the elder to come out on his own this far away from the settlement. There was only one occasion for it, and that was when he came out with a group to hunt for the human children necessary for a newborn baby to the settlement.

    Normally, if it is only for the adults in the village, it will be fine to lure in one or two human children every couple of years or so, a single hunter who finds a human child wandering in the woods on their own is good enough to accomplish this task. However, when it comes to a newborn baby, a rare event that happens only once every other decade or so with the low birth-rate of their race, a far larger number is needed and in order to get the children with the strongest spirits they need to get children so young their parents would usually not allow them to stray far enough from the house to be lured.

    For such a high risk operation, several hunters needed to be dispatched, and their elder had also come along as well in order to witness the event. He had overseen many operations like this in his long lifetime. A child may only be born every few decades, but in his lifespan of several hundred years he had seen several dozens of children born to his tribe.

    This time, the hunt was not for the child of one of his own tribeswomen though. Just a little under two years ago, a scouting party had gone out to investigate an area on the far side of the forest. It was technically well outside of their territory, but for an event this monumental it was worth exploring and finding out what had happened. It was said an entire section of the forest was simply wiped out, and the scouts went to investigate.

    On their way back, they had brought a woman wearing torn cloths and covered in wounds. The scouts had said they found her village ransacked, and the residents were killed. The searched the village, but found only her alive, and they had brought her back with them to their own settlement. Later, it turned out that that woman was pregnant, apparently before she had even been brought in. It seemed to be a surprise to her as well. Regardless though of whether she was an outsider or not, and regardless of how she seemed to have her own mixed feelings about the discovery of this pregnancy after the tragedy of loosing everyone she knew in the raid on her village, it was still true that a baby was coming. And, to a race with such a low birth rate, every single birth is a cause for great celebration.

    The elder looked across the young hunters who had come with him, so eager to bring back a good catch for the sake of this outsider¡¯s baby. The elder couldn¡¯t help but smile at their determination. It was good to see the outsider had already been completely accepted. Well, the fact that she bought a new baby to the village with her likely had a lot to do with how quickly she was accepted. The entire village had been bustling with excitement ever since they found out.

    In this time especially, every birth is precious. The raids by the corrupted fallen dark elves had increased lately. This was the disturbing side to the newcomer¡¯s news. The identity of her village¡¯s attackers.

    Good news wrapped inside of a lot of bad, the elder had a sour expression on his face as he recalled the difficult tidings that had come along with the newcomer they had invited in and let out a sigh.

    ¡°Well then,¡± he said in a low voice. ¡°We will just have to make the most of the tragedy of the newcomer¡¯s village two years ago. Her child will be born soon now. Let¡¯s make sure the child is bathed in the light of these strong human children when it sees the world for the first time.¡± There were nods all around as the hunters looked to the houses ahead of them.

    The leader of this operation, a veteran hunter, gave a signal with his hand. On his signal, one other hunter rushed ahead as a scout to check that the humans were asleep. Everyone watched in anticipation as their figure raised the hood on their cloak and rushed forward, eventually vanishing from even the sight of their trained eyes as they blended in with the tall grass. This was not to say they were hiding in the grass per-say. Rather, it was the magic of the cloak they were wearing.

    This was the cloak traditionally worn on these large operations, specially designed and enchanted with special magic known only to their people. This magic allowed the wearer to blend in with anything by mimicking the appearance of whatever was around them. Once it was fed magic, the texture and patterns on the surface of the normally monocolor gray cloak would change to look like whatever was behind it as though the observer was looking right through the person. It was not invisibility. Rather, a disguise that looked perfectly identical to whatever was behind them. And, so long as the one wearing it did not move too quickly, it would be almost impossible to spot them.

    That said, with the limitations of the cloak, the fact that this scout could disappear so completely even from the eyes of these trained hunters was truly saying something. Once he had gotten a certain distance away, even the ripple that could be seen on the air as the cloak adjusted to whatever was on the other side of the person wearing it could no longer be seen.

    Normally, when a scout goes out like this, all eyes would be on the scout as they eagerly waited for the report back. However, since the scout had completely vanished as a testament to their great skill as a hunter, the young and fresh eager members of the group were forced to only look at each other with light chuckles and anticipation of what was to come.

    In this time, the elder went over in his mind what was going to happen in this operation. The scouts from before had reported there were two children around one year of age who seemed to have a particularly strong spirit. Better yet, they each had several older siblings, around a half dozen each.

    The elder grinned upon reviewing this information. The scout had said these youngest children were strong of spirit, but exactly how strong? From the sounds of it, it was enough to amaze the scout. According to them, the strong waves of human spirit he was feeling from two of the houses here were all coming from only the two children in question. The elder found this fairly hard to believe. However, if it was true, perhaps these human children could be useful for more as they grew up. What¡¯s more, if it was true, just the two children could very well be enough to keep the new baby well nourished on their own.

    No, they would take the older siblings as well. At least the ones who were younger than 10 years of age. They knew form experience, the older siblings could serve as sort of care takers for the younger siblings. Even if they are not necessary for the new baby, at the very least they can help look after the younger siblings and keep them in line.

    They would have to be careful though. Sometimes a lone hunter may lure a young human old enough to be considered an adult, but in this case they couldn¡¯t risk such a thing. The older they are, the more suspicion they have. Several of them at that age know to be weary of accepting the food given to them by those of their race. It could pose quite a hassle if the older siblings prevent the younger siblings from eating anything they are offered.

    At about this time, the hunters waiting in the trees all heard the sound of a certain bird. It was the call of a bird not local to this area, but very well known to all of them. All of them stiffened up when they heard it and smiles of satisfaction spread across every one of their faces as they looked from one to the other. That was the signal, the scout had just indicated that they were clear to approach. With nods to one another, they all as one put up the hoods of their own cloaks identical to the one the scout from before was wearing and they all vanished from sight. Someone who was looking very closely might see the ripple of the cloak¡¯s pattern adjusting to the changing environment around it, but for all practical purposes the hunters had become invisible. This went for their faces as well. While no fabric was covering their faces, the magic of the cloak extended down over even the areas not covered by it.

    Once the hunters had left, the elder looked to the wagon they had brought with them. It was unusual for them to bring any kind of vehicle or a horse, but for something like this it was necessary. He nodded to the woman sitting inside and she picked up a flute. This woman was brought along specifically for this reason. It could be said that she had one of the most important jobs in this operation. Her ability to play the mystic flute that would calm and ease the minds of the human children as they brought them back to the settlement.

    The elder went back to the edge of the forest, watching in anticipation. Just like him, these hunters had been on several operations like this one, and he had worked with them every single time. He knew their skill very well. It would not take very long at all. And, sure enough, it wasn¡¯t even a minute after the hunters had set out that he felt the powerful spirit light that he had senses ever since they came to this village growing closer. He watched as the tall grass was disturbed as the hunter in question hurried back to the cover of the trees. Seeing this, the elder began running back to the wagon just in time to hear the soft and nearly imperceptible disturbance in the leaves of the forest floor keeping pace with him.

    Once several steps into the tree cover, the gray cloaked figure appeared right next to the elder as the returning hunter had stopped supplying his cloak with magic. The elder placed a hand on the hunter¡¯s shoulder as he looked under the cloak at where he was holding a small sleeping child who looked like they were barely even a year old. The child slept wrapped in a blanket often used to fasten infants to their mother¡¯s side. This sight caused the elder¡¯s heart to beat more quickly in the realization. This would mean the infant had been lifted straight from their parents¡¯ bed! That was an incredibly high-risk maneuver, but with the incredible spiritual power the elder could feel coming from this infant he could see exactly why that risk was entirely worth it.

    ¡°Alright, you did good.¡± The elder said approvingly. Several more hunters came immediately after this in the same manner, delivering sleeping children ranging from the size and age greatly, but every one of them under 10 years of age from what the elder could tell. Human children grew so much faster than the children of his own people, but he had a lot of experience in estimating a human child¡¯s age by this point and could roughly tell the ages of these children.

    Soon after this wave of returning hunters, the elder could feel another powerful sign of a human child¡¯s spirit that easily rivaled the first. It seemed the hunting party that went to the other house had returned as well.

    ¡°It¡¯s true, just these two infants can more than account for a couple dozen normal human children. They may really be something incredible as they grow.¡± The elder mused to the approving glances of his tribesmen. He looked over the returning hunters and began to do a head-count. Confirming that every one of them had successfully returned, he gave the signal to move out. One of the hunters quickly climbed to the front of the wagon and urged the horse forward, four scouts immediately ran ahead to confirm the trail, two stayed behind to watch for any sign of movement in the village should the kidnapping they just completed be noticed, and another two boarded the wagon in the back to watch the children.

    This left the elder and six more hunters to walk along side the wagon, confirming the course and watching for any nearby danger that may appear. And, once they were a short distance away from the village, a mysterious melody of a flute began to play from the wagon. It was a soft melody like a lullaby, but it had a large feeling to it with a lot of long notes held as though to invoke images of a river and rolling hills in a beautiful countryside.

    Just like clockwork, they had executed the operation like a machine. Every person who came knew their place in the machine, and every person who came executed their role perfectly. In only the space of 3 minutes, 9 children had been taken from that village between two households, and the culprits who had taken them were now making a hasty escape with the abducted children who were handled so tenderly that without a single sleeping agent or spell of any kind had not even stirred once during the entire experience.

 Chapter 4: On the way back

    Levin woke up to the unfamiliar feeling of the rocking carriage of the wagon, and the sound of an entrancing melody played on a flute. As he looked around, he was surrounded by what appeared, to the best of what he could recall peeking from being held on his mother¡¯s back all his life, to be his siblings also sleeping all around him. Right next to him though, there was another infant who looked like they might be a lot closer to his own age.

    All the others seemed to still be asleep from what he could tell. However, there were some other people around. Adults that he had never seen before. One was the woman playing the flute, she wore a rather beautiful dress. Then, as he looked around, he saw two more women wearing green colored cloths that seemed to be covered in some animal furs in some places.

    ¡®Oh, they¡¯re wearing pants.¡¯ For some reason Levin found this somewhat noteworthy. He tried to think on why he would have such an impression, it¡¯s not like he hadn¡¯t seen women wearing pants before, even though that was in his previous life. In fact, back when he was Karie, she had liked to wear jeans everywhere.

    ¡®Oh! Wait! THAT¡¯S the problem!¡¯ Levin came to the realization, even his father hadn¡¯t worn pants in this world. Instead, he just had some cloth draped over his shoulders. Come to think of it, it actually didn¡¯t look all that different from what his mom wore. At the level of poverty his parents were living at, there wasn¡¯t really such a thing as men¡¯s and women¡¯s clothing.

    ¡®They look tough!¡¯ Yes, these women looked far more fit and far better fed than anyone he had seen in his one year of life in his peasant family. It was ridiculous to think, but he was forced to wonder if one of these women had the idea to beat up any guy in the village.

    Actually, come to think of it, they looked to be at about the same standard for proper nourishment as everybody back in Levin¡¯s previous life. However, it was not just that they were getting enough to eat, they were also clearly quite physically fit as even for women they had quite a bit of visible muscle in their arms.

    ¡°Maa, er en'' taurn-val laito kuile.¡± One of them turned to the other. But wait, what language was that? Levin had only just barely managed to start learning the language his parents were speaking, but this sounded like an entirely different language again. Also, their voice sounded pretty deep. Was that actually a guy and not a woman!? Levin, despite his knowledge from his previous life, was still unable to hide his shock at the realization since his reactions were still very much those of a baby. A look of shock and horror completely warped his face, and he could feel a frustrating and uncontrollable urge to start crying all of a sudden. It was a cascade reaction of emotions stemming from his surprise at this long haired and smooth featured man that his infant brain had next to no control over at all despite his previous life memories.

    ¡°Oh, gorga ho lle ume.¡± The other one spoke up. This one actually was a woman¡¯s voice. ¡°Hmm, sut ten'' sina? Mata-aya lle ve''?¡±

    The woman seemed to have seen the distressed look on Levin¡¯s face or something, because she came over to him in a very soothing manner. Levin could not understand a word she was saying, but with the soothing tone combined with the calming music the other woman was playing, Levin found it rather easy to calm down and managed to bring himself under control before he broke out crying.

    He noticed something though, the woman didn¡¯t just come up to him. She also seemed to be holding out and offering something to him, something that looked like a piece off of a small scone or something like that. Was she trying to give him something to eat?

    Whether it was because of the activity nearby, or for the same reasons that Levin woke up, the other children all began waking up one by one at about this point. They all seemed to look a little confused as they opened their eyes. They each seemed a little started at first, waking up in a strange place like this, but every one of them one by one began to get a placid look on their face before a light smile began to float and curl the corners of their mouths upward as it turned to a peaceful expression.

    One by one, this process repeated with 7 out of the remaining 8 children. In the end, all but 2 of the 9 were sitting there with peaceful happy expressions, not saying a word. The only ones there without that same expression on their faces were Levin and the other infant.

    ¡°Whaa- goiii-n oon?¡± The other infant child babbled, causing Levin to turn toward him in absolute shock. The words were badly distorted by a lisp, but¡­ was that English he was just speaking!? Genuine English!? Not whatever language it was his parents were speaking? After hearing that, Levin turned and couldn¡¯t take his eyes off the boy.

    ¡°I'' templa naa il-ap-sen, sai-taurn val ron naa.¡± The long-haired man said something with a heavy tone that attracted the attention of the woman trying to offer Levin some food.

    ¡°Ahn. Tanya ron naa nessa sii'', Quel marth.¡± The woman turned to him and responded in an equally heavy tone.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Ahn. Nan'' i'' lereth moota-uva?¡±

    ¡°lye nev-uva.¡± The woman said something that sounded conclusive before turning back to Levin, holding up the small piece of bread-like stuff to him again. ¡°Sinome, hin. Caela ta.¡± She seemed rather insistent about having him take it. At his age, he hadn¡¯t been on solid foods for long. Actually, if he was a normal baby, he was probably more likely to choke on a piece of bread like this. But Levin, not knowing a lot about babies and choking hazards in his previous life, didn¡¯t think much about taking this from her if she was so insistent about shoving it in his face. He could probably use something to eat anyway.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ lye elea manka tanya moota.¡± The man says. Meanwhile, as Levin begins to gnaw on the piece of bread that the woman had given him and she had turned to the other little boy to begin repeating the same thing she just had with Levin, he was looking up and looking at her from the side. This was when Levin noticed something, something that made his heart flutter as the implications landed on him.

    What he was looking at was the woman¡¯s ears, which extended to have narrow pointed ends at the backs. Could this be!? Elves!? After he noticed this, he began looking around at the man, as well as the other woman playing the flute. Now that he was looking closely, he realized that they also had the same pointed ears. He started to grow excited. They were riding in the back of a wagon or something with Elves! But, why though? And also, where were his parents?

    Well, more importantly than that, Levin got distracted before, but¡­ the other boy in the carriage, or, was it a carriage? He wasn¡¯t too familiar with the names for different types of low-tech vehicles. At any rate, the other little boy, he spoke English earlier, didn¡¯t he!? Could he be the same!? Well, there was only one way to find out.

    ¡°Haay! Was.. uh¡­ did uu sbeak English earier?¡± (Hey, was.. umm.. did you speak English earlier?) That didn¡¯t come out too clean at all. Levin hadn¡¯t spoken the language of his previous life since he had been reborn, so he was rather surprised at how badly he was talking. It was just enough though to attract the other boy¡¯s attention.

    The response was instantaneous. The boy immediately turned straight to him with a dazed and amazed look on his face. ¡°Whah! D-d uu?¡± (Wait! Did you?)

    The two boys stare straight at each other for a while as the gears in both of their heads start turning. Meanwhile, the elf woman continues to hand out pieces of bread to the 7 other children, all of whom simply accept it and eat it immediately.

    ¡°Nno, wai-. Aar uu da zzame aas ee? Uhh..¡± (No, wait. Are you the same as me? Uhh..)

    The two infant boys talking fluent English, despite both having a severe lisp, look around the wagon, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable with all the other eyes. It¡¯s not likely at all any of them can understand what they are saying, but both of them are still self-conscious enough that they feel very uneasy about saying what they want to say in this situation. Meanwhile, after the respective older siblings of both boys finish eating the bread the elf woman had handed out to them all, the one playing the flute suddenly changes the tune she¡¯s playing. As soon as she changes the tune, one by one they all start dropping off to sleep again, the only exception being the two boys.

    The two of them look at each other for a moment, but then some sense of realization started to dawn on them that was strong enough to overcome any fantasy idealization they may have had over elves. (Are we kidnapped!?) Levin asked in a frightened tone to the other boy.

    (Hey!) The other boy said something in distress as he realized Levin was starting to cry. It seemed a lot easier to cry in these new bodies as babies, and once they started to get even a little upset it was like a chain reaction that caused them to completely loose control of their emotions. And, no matter how old they were in their previous lives, the just cried. And, once Levin, started crying, the other boy started crying as well.

    ¡°I'' simpina templa ta il- uma moota no'' sen ie'' ilya.¡± The woman who had been handing out the bread said something in a disgusted sounding tone, looking at the two crying children with the face of someone viewing something repulsive for a moment before she let out a sigh. She began to approach them carefully, hovering her hands over them and trying to say something that sounded soothing as she pulled the two crying infants into her lap and stroked their backs. This, however, only caused the both of them to cry harder.

    -

    As the elder was walking along side the wagon, he heard as the flute¡¯s music turned from the tune of calming to the tune of sleep. These were special pieces of flute music that wrapped magic into the notes, developed specially for the purpose of acquiring the human children needed for when a new child is born to their own people. The special nature of the music is such that it only affects human children, but the effect is quite powerful.

    If the music turned from calming to sleep, that would mean the children have all already eaten their food. With this, it was no longer possible for them to ever leave and return to their own people. While the music of the flute helped in smoothing things out, this magic placed on the food was the ultimate magic used to bind humans to them.

    This was the point when something unusual happened. Shortly after the music had turned to the tune of sleep, he heard the sound of a baby¡¯s cry coming from inside the wagon. Much to the credit of the player, her music did not stop for a second in this unexpected situation. She truly was skilled. The elder had been observing these raids for over 100 years, and had participated in them as a member for 300 years before that. However, this was the first time he had ever seen a human child resist the effects of this music. It was just infants, so there was no real danger, but with the sheer unprecedented nature of the situation he simply could not help but come to peek in to see what was going on.

    ¡°Is everything alright?¡± He asked one of the caretakers left to mind the children.

    The caretaker gave a sour look toward his companion who was holding and attempting to sooth the crying children. ¡°The flute¡¯s magic does not seem to work on them at all.¡± He said in response.

    ¡°How were they before this?¡± The elder presses him for details. He was quite curious, the caretaker didn¡¯t just say the tune of sleep wasn¡¯t working, but that the flute¡¯s magic was simply not working on them what so ever?

    ¡°During the tune of calming, they were both anxiously looking around. Eleneril managed to keep them calm at the time, but then when the music changed they completely burst out crying.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ did they eat what they were given?¡±

    ¡°They gnawed on some bread for a little while, this is my first time dealing with human infants so I am not sure whether or not the amount they ate is normal.¡±

    ¡°But they did eat some of it then?¡±

    ¡°They did, but¡­¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ you¡¯re right. If the music will not work on them, there¡¯s no telling whether or not the magic of the food is working either. Well, they are rather young. Since we took them this young, even if they are not bound by the normal method, they should not have any attachment to their birth parents at this age. I will have to ask Eirlathion his opinion, but from what I can tell I think we found some pretty incredible humans here.¡±

    Even though the situation is quite odd, both of the men have broad smiles on their faces.

    ¡°We certainly did luck out,¡± the caretaker says, ¡°that poor girl, at least her child will grow up plenty healthy with what we are bringing back.¡±

    ¡°I know, I almost feel young again just walking beside this wagon. Those two really are something else. If we didn¡¯t need the older siblings to help watch them, we would very easily have been able to get by with just those two.¡± With a chuckle, the elder walks back to his previous position.

 Chapter 5: The truth about myself

    After my first experience of trying to talk, or rather, just trying and failing to go over the ABCs due to my underdeveloped newborn brain, I made several more such attempts. However, I continued to only practice at night, when even these two were asleep. I didn¡¯t know very much about my, or rather, our situation. And, due to the fact that they were apparently supposed to be my food source, that made me rather nervous about how my parents or other members of my own race might react to these two saying something careless if they caught on to me being from the same previous life as them.

    At the very least, I wanted to have the ability to say the words ¡°don¡¯t tell anybody¡± before I tried to talk to them. I would likely say something sooner if they start to show obvious signs of becoming weaker because of me, but until one of those two things happened I kept my training to when the two of them were asleep. That¡¯s not to say I did nothing during the day though. While I couldn¡¯t go to the extent of anything obvious like practicing English words or the ABCs, but I could at least become more vocal. After all, I was only just now developing the motor speech center of my brain, so any conscious attempt to move my mouth to make noises other than ¡°aaa¡± would help.

    (She¡¯s making a lot of noise now, isn¡¯t she?) The boys of course noticed this. Since I have gotten my eyesight, I managed to confirm they were indeed boys. It¡¯s kinda hard not to notice when they are only around a year old and I¡¯m with them literally 24/7, or however they keep track of time in this world. Clearly, since frightening creatures like me who feed on children exist in this world, it can¡¯t possibly be earth where we are.

    (Well, at least she¡¯s not crying anymore,) Rolwen says, holding my sister. I look across at her from my place in Levin¡¯s arms, studying her face. She¡¯s also looking back at me, looking like she¡¯s slightly out of it. When I see her, I realize exactly why it is that they were so afraid about us back when I started crying before.

    As I look at my sister, her face is an ashen pale color. As a nurse in my former life, I have seen that skin tone before, normally on people who have died of asphyxiation. Did something go wrong while we were being born perhaps? To see that skin color on a baby this young, it can only mean that their lungs are not functioning properly in some way.

    But, no. That would be if we had a normal human physiology. Well, I do find that I breathe like a normal human does at least, despite the manner in which I eat being an incredibly alien thing to anything that would exist on Earth. This leaves me with two possible scenarios then. Either, one, our species is one where our skin will also begin to turn pale ashen grey when we are malnourished and the adults are doing exactly the correct thing to treat our condition. Or, two, the medical science of this world is not advanced enough to realize that the problem is her lungs.

    Well, there is probably one way to settle this for sure. I have been practicing to talk for a while now, and was crying at the top of my lungs for days at a time before that. If I¡¯m able to do something like that, there¡¯s no way I have any kind of problem with my own lungs. So, I¡¯m going to need to somehow take a look at my own face, or at least my hand or something.

    This poses to be rather difficult though. Along with not eating normally, the excretion functions of this new body are also not normal. In fact, it is not an issue that even comes up at all. So, with no reason to ever unwrap me from this tight blanket they have wrapped around me, I often go over a day without even being unwrapped once. I cannot see any part of my own body with only my face poking out.

    Well, it would sorta make some sense for a newborn of a species like this. We¡¯re at an age where we wouldn¡¯t be able to properly regulate our body temperature and wouldn¡¯t be able to lift our own heads either. As such, these tightly wrapped blankets likely help to solve both issues at once.

    (Are you feeling better Gaerien?) Levin asks, the one problem with his question being that it was directed at me while he was using my sister¡¯s name. Well, that issue aside, with the tone of his voice I can discern a few things at least. One of those things is I likely am seeming a lot healthier than I was when everyone started worrying about me.

    (She seems better, but her face is still pretty pale isn¡¯t it?) Rolwen comes in, giving me the exact information I wanted to hear. (Ah! Looks like she¡¯s happy to hear that!) Was my expression that obvious? Well, an infant also doesn¡¯t have a well developed frontal cortex or inhibitory center in their brain, so I suppose any emotion I happen to have will automatically and immediately appear on my face with no space for me to interrupt it.

    Well then, that gives me exactly the information I wanted to hear. So, obviously the pale color of my skin about matches Gaerien¡¯s skin. I look back across to my sister with some concern in my eyes. So, is that pale appearance about malnutrition after all?

    ¡°Ll'' en'' lle, endenmul¡± The woman who seems to be the caretaker for all the children here calls out. I¡¯ve learned after hearing this phrase a few times now, and watching the reaction of the children, this has something to do with food. Of course, while I may not need food, they all still seem to be very much human and have been eating normal meals this whole time.

    Suddenly, my ability to focus on my thoughts is interrupt as there is a clamor of activity with all the children rushing to the table. That is, all the children except Rolwen and Levin, along with the two of us. They remain sitting on the floor cradling Gaerien and I. While the other kids have to come get their food, it has become the pattern that for Rolwen and Levin, the food gets brought to them.

    It is at about this time that I notice there is someone new who I haven¡¯t seen before in here. Normally, it¡¯s the woman who seems to be the caretaker here who sees to all the kids, a woman who appears to be in her mid 30s with brown hair who is always busily going from one child to another to keep them in line. However, now there is someone else.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    Unlike our usual caretaker who has a relaxed posture, if not slightly hunched from always looking down at the children she¡¯s constantly tending to, this individual has a tall and erect posture. It is not quite that of a military air, but it is clearly a very refined and proud manner with which they walk slowly through the room filled with children¡¯s toys and scampering kids. However, when each child notices this new person, they all give a wide clearance as though they want to avoid getting in their way, all with a silent almost suppressed feel to their actions as the few younger children who are making noises, squirming, and acting up are quickly silenced by the older children.

    Just watching the unusual behavior from the other children as though fearing the consequences of annoying this person while they direct repeated strange gazes toward them, I very quickly realize there is something about this person that¡¯s taken very seriously by all of them, and my brain is very quickly beginning to form various theories.

    This person seems to be holding a plate full of food. And, as soon as all the other children are sitting at the table, they pay the other children no more mind and begin looking directly at the four of us. This person walks straight to us, keeping that dignified air and perfect posture the entire time, kneeling down when they reach the point where Levin and Rolwen are sitting on the floor with my sister and I in their laps.

    I get a closer look at this person¡¯s face. I wasn¡¯t certain whether they were male or female all this time due to the long and rather well-kept hair they wore down their back. What¡¯s more, their clothes seemed to be a flowing robe draped over their entire form, giving little obvious hint as to their gender. However, getting a closer look, the face does seem rather masculine. But, there¡¯s something else that seems a little off about them, but I can¡¯t quite seem to place it.

    ¡°Lle atta en'' sana caela malia quel i'' ai laito.¡± A gentle masculine voice, comes from the person in front of us. Well, I certainly have to conclude he¡¯s probably a man then. ¡°Sii'' ta naa coiasira ten'' sen mat- en'' i'' palurin.¡± He takes a look from Rolwen to Levin and then directs a gentle smile at me, placing a hand down on top of my head and rubbing gently.

    ¡°Sen helma naa il-quel sal''.  Amin estela sina alya-sen natul-eithel.¡± After saying more things in a language I can¡¯t understand with a slight drop in his face and tone of voice that makes it sound like he¡¯s saying something serious, the man picks up what looks like a small berry and crushes it between his fingers. After getting the berry juice on his finger and discarding the skin, he reaches down and forces his finger into my mouth.

    Reflex automatically takes over at this point and I naturally start trying to resist him. Meanwhile, my tongue begins attempting to force his finger out with the natural infant¡¯s extrusion reflex. However, he keeps a firm hold on my head, and seems to make a point of rubbing his berry-juice covered finger all over my tongue. The flavor of the berry spreads over my tongue and through my mouth, and eventually the man seems satisfied.

    ¡°Naa sai-quel sai-quel, tanya nae quel.¡± He says quickly in what sounds like the apologetic and encouraging tone one might use after giving a child a shot. In fact, was that? Did he just give me some kind of medicine?

    I try to blink the tears out of my eyes in order to get a better look at him now. Is he, maybe, some kind of doctor here? Judging by the dynamics of what¡¯s being going on so far, if this guy is a doctor then the chances are fairly good he¡¯s the same race that I am. This means that if I want to understand my world and what I am, I should probably try to get a good look at this guy.

    It¡¯s incredibly frustrating, having my hands pinned down by the blanket and being unable to move my head. I have no good way to wipe the misty tears from my eyes resulting from getting a finger suddenly jammed in my mouth. I keep blinking my eyes furiously, hoping to dislodge some of the tears so I can get a good look. Through my blurred vision, I do manage to just barely make something out while his head is turned to the side, apparently repeating the same process with Gaerien that he just did with me.

    ¡®That¡¯s what was weird!¡¯ It was not so obvious looking at him from straight-on in front, but as soon as I saw this guy from the side I knew immediately what the strange thing about his face was. ¡®His ears!¡¯ His ears were not quite shaped the same as a human¡¯s ears. It was slight, but the auricle of his ear came to a point in the back, and this caused it to also turn slightly forward and seem to protrude a little farther from his head rather than laying back flat against the head. At the same time, there also seemed to be a little more material on the front end of the ear. This structure, it seemed to be almost optimized to catch sounds coming both from in front and also in back.

    I continued to take in the distinctive and seeming highly efficient shape of the man¡¯s ear, almost shaped like a strange cup missing part of its side, as he finished giving Gaerien the same stuff he had just given me. ¡°San¡¯¡± He made a satisfied sounding expression as he stood up. Gaerien had not made nearly as much of a fuss as I had, and so he didn¡¯t seem to see a need to say something soothing to her. ¡°Ve'' lle eden¡¯ta amin estela lle uma. Sai-quel malia en'' i'' he` laito lle sana.¡± After saying these words with a satisfied smile, the man turned and left, briefly saying a few words to the woman taking care of the children before he goes out the door.

    After this, I am left to ponder what I had just seen. Those ears. While they did have a little bit of extra material, ultimately making them look far more functional than the image that existed back on Earth, didn¡¯t those ears have essentially the same basic pointed shape of what we called Elves? Also, aside from the ears, everything else about him perfectly fit the image of an elf.

    As I have these thoughts in mind, I am also struck by another thought. It wasn¡¯t so popularly portrayed in the time that I died in my previous life, but if you go back to the very origins of the tales about Elves, they were very far from the friendly creatures that helped Santa Clause, or even the more ancient forest warrior race that worked for the benefit of all races against a grand threat in Middle Earth while helping some Hobbits. No, they were nothing like that. In fact, they were a creature of fear for all the people of the time that their story was first told.

    Of particular note, Elves were said to abduct and, in some stories, even kill children. There were even tales where the presence of an elf would cause a child to die while being tightly held in their father¡¯s arms as he tried to protect his son. Nothing would matter if an elf set their eyes on a child.

    In most of the stories, the elf just lured in the child with music an promises of a fun life where they could play all day if they came along and ran away from their parents. However, there were none of the ancient stories in which it was ever clearly said what the elves actually did with the children after they got to the elven home.

    Well, it was not entirely the case that you never heard what happens in the elven home-land. It¡¯s just that you never heard the fate of the children. For adults, however, they often get lured by elves as well. In the case of adults, they will often invite the adults to have a meal with them. However, as soon as the adult eats something that the elf offers to them, they become unable to ever leave the elven lands or return home to their family.

    There are several stories about elves, but among the most ancient stories, there is always one thing in common. That is that elves seem to have a very very big thing with kidnapping people, and there also seems to be a particular interest in children.

    So, if that¡¯s the case and these really are the same elves from the oldest fairy tales, would this be the reason why they have such a thing for kidnapping children? To feed their own children? Well, at any rate, even more things are lining up now. With so many things similar to the old stories, I now have quite a bit to go on in figuring out what¡¯s going on, or at least developing a reasonable expectation.

    I should avoid thinking that this is all exactly like the old Earth fairy tales. Clearly it¡¯s not at all like the modern portrayal of Elves, so why should it be perfectly identical to the oldest stories as well? Still, from what I can see so far, the oldest stories have more in common with these Elves than the modern portrayal.

    At any rate, this does not change my short term plans in the slightest. Well, my only plans for that matter. I still have to get myself to a point I¡¯m able to talk, and I have to ask these two how they are feeling while also warning them not to talk to anyone about me being able to communicate with them. At least, not until I can find out a little more about the temperament of the elves and their intentions toward these children.

 Chapter 6: Master Eirlathion

    Eirlathion, often called ¡°Master Eirlathion¡± by the people of his settlement, was the foremost master of both the spiritual and mystic arts of the elves. It was truly rare to see an elf who had mastered the arcane arts in particular to the extent he had, most members of the fey races being far too fearful of the corrupting influence of the energies of the world. However, despite the risks, Eirlathion had pressed on in his path, never once allowing the arcane energies to overtake him or warp his body.

    He had spent his long years in this way, doggedly pursuing the advancement of all forms of the mystic arts. On several occasions, he had lamented that he was not born in the southern elf lands where the elven cities were, and instead he was limited to the comparatively limited understanding available in these scattered elven communities of the north. However, with his loyalties to the community, not once had he ever considered leaving and journeying southward through the human lands.

    Most of the time, Eirlathion would spend his days experimenting and learning from as many sources as he could. Several times, he had sought out the council of the faeries in order to deepen his understanding of the spiritual arts beyond what a mere elf could learn. There was no good instructor among the fay for the arcane arts though. For that, he had sought out the realm spirit of these lands. Although the great realm spirit did not use the arcane arts himself, his knowledge over them and resistance to their corrupting influence was far greater than that of the fay.

    Due to Eirlathion¡¯s deep knowledge and understanding of these subjects, it was common for the other elves of this settlement to seek him out for advice whenever something seemed unusual. Because of this, when the hunting party had gone out to retrieve human children for an upcoming birth that should be happening within the next few months at that time, when they discovered something unusual it was Eirlathion who they came to immediately.

    When he had approached the wagon, the other elves from the hunting party were tenderly lifting one sleeping human child after another off of the wagon and bringing them to the nursery so they could be later educated in the time leading up to the baby being born as to how to act with an elfin child, how to care for and feed them, and train them to expect good treatment themselves so long as they helped see to the child¡¯s needs until they were old enough to leave the nursery. These were presumably not the children Eirlathion was brought to see. When they had brought him, he was told that some of the children they found were highly unusual.

    ¡°Come on up master,¡± one of the young men aboard the wagon invited him while the elder was already boarding ahead of him. By the time Eirlathion had climbed aboard, the elder was already approaching a female hunter who had two of the smallest and youngest human children he had ever seen brought back curled in her lap. These barely looked like they were three years old by the standards of elfin growth, which meant that their actual age had to be fairly young indeed.

    ¡°These are the ones,¡± the elder of the settlement said to him with a tight face as he looked down at them. ¡°We picked them up because the spiritual power coming from them was larger than anything we had seen, but it seems as though none of our magic meant to affect humans is working on them.¡±

    Was that why they were in the lap of this hunter then? They were asleep now just like the rest of the children, but judging by the way that the woman who¡¯s lap they were on seemed to dare not move her legs, it seemed they had likely fallen asleep naturally and not from the effects of the tune of sleep as the other children who were being handled like cargo were. Fragile and precious cargo indeed, but cargo all the same as they had no expectation of the other children waking up.

    ¡°We were hoping you could give your opinion on this matter, we managed to give them some bread on the way back, but since the magic did not work we also do not know if their soul vessel might still be in tact or not.¡± The elder went on to explain more of the situation.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s see what we can find out,¡± Eirlathion said, reaching out toward one of the two human children, a boy resting on the hunter woman¡¯s left leg. He hovered his hand over the child¡¯s body. Just being near the boys he could feel the large waves of spirit energy washing off them, but he wanted to get a more detailed idea of what was going on in the souls that were pushing off all of that energy.

    Eirlathion began to allow a slight charge of mana to go through his hand, the neutral form of energy that existed between the spiritual and the arcane. Using his mana, he was able to stir the spiritual energies. After this, he charged his mana into his eyes, looking to see how the energies were reacting to what he was doing.

    After he was finished with this, Eirlathion sat back and drifted into a state of thought. The elder, the flute player who had stopped her playing after the last of the other children were unloaded, and of course the woman who had probably had to comfort these children the entire journey back from the human lands were all looking to him expectantly.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°Well,¡± he said, ¡°indeed, the quality of their souls is far more dense than a normal human soul. There is also, a strange different quality that I have not seen before. Are you certain these are even human children at all?¡±

    ¡°Well, all I can say for certain is that we did get them from human families. Those other children that were just taken off the cart were supposedly their siblings.¡± The elder informed him.

    ¡°Well, of course since it is undeniable that the energy their souls put off is spiritual in nature, it is a certainty their vessels were created by a god, just like humans. However, with the entirely different quality of their souls, it is incredibly tempting to say they were not actually humans themselves. That said, I am not certain of any god in this world who could create souls that dense. As for the chances the magic in their food had any effect on their soul vessels at all¡­ I cannot say for sure because of the unusual nature of the situation, but it is highly unlikely.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± the elder responded. ¡°Well, at any rate, thank you master Eirlathion, for your expert opinion.¡±

    ¡°Well, I can hardly call myself an expert on this. This¡­ is something I fail to truly understand myself.¡±

    With this, he got off the wagon and allowed the others to do as they will. Because they were god-born, possibly even more powerful god-born creatures than humans, it wound up being decided they would be treated as a human would and were put in the nursery to nurture the soon to be born child just like any other. With the abundance of spiritual energy that was put off by their souls, it would be certain they would help the baby to grow up very healthy and strong. Meanwhile, several of the elves from the village seemed to start spending a lot more of their time in town near the nursery.

    -

    Over the next three months, the human children were given to the care of a human woman who had grown up in their settlement, having been taken here 20 years ago when she was only just coming of age. At a human¡¯s growth rate, this meant she was near 12 years of age at the time she was brought to the village, and was around in her 30s now.

    Having been one of the older humans at the time she was brought here, and being at an age where human children would respect her, she was placed in charge of the nursery and it was made her job to train the new younger children to properly obey the elves and to care for the baby that was soon to be born.

    And then, after the three months were over, the elfin settlement was hit with yet another surprise. It was not one, but two babies born at the same time. ¡°Twins¡± was the term that the human woman had used. This was something entirely unheard of among elfin society, but the humans seemed to be somewhat familiar with the phenomenon. This was something that was quite shocking, but soon enough it was decided that they should just be happy because now there were two new children born to the community.

    However, it did not all go well. A mere 3 days later, the human woman they had left in charge of taking care of the children ran out of the nursery yelling that they needed to call Eirlathion because something was wrong with the children. She had become familiar with Eirlathion by this point because he had spent many days in the past three months entering the nursery in order to further study the human boys, and this was why rather than thinking to ask for a healer it was Eirlathion who was the first person to jump to her mind to ask for help.

    As it turned out, Eirlathion was exactly the right person to ask for after all. Indeed, the issue that seemed to be affecting the children had to do with their energies rather than anything to do with their bodies. He had been doubtful at first when the woman told him the symptoms she was seeing, saying that one of them had started crying furiously and would not be calmed down, and that when she looked at their faces both of them seemed to have pale and ashen skin.

    Eirlathion had let out a sigh as he approached the newborns. They had been left in the arms of the two boys who had been the key focus of his studies up until this point. This was likely a good decision, if the babies were ill in some way then keeping them close to the greatest source of spiritual energy available was exactly what they would need.

    Eirlathion knelt down in front of the one who was still crying furiously. She had even been struggling against the blanket that wrapped her, obviously discontent with whatever was going wrong with her. Just as he had done before with the boys on several occasions, he began charging his hand and eyes with mana and hovered his hand over the crying newborn. What he sensed when he did this truly shocked him.

    At first, everything seemed perfectly normal. He could see and feel the spiritual energy from the human boy, Levin, who was holding her curving inward as she absorbed it, and he could also feel the newborn¡¯s own mana energies, the energy released by the fay, pulsing exactly as it should. However, soon after Eirlathion began, the spiritual energy being absorbed from Levin seemed to increase to a point it was as though all of it was being sucked in at once. At the same time, her mana seemed to almost fully disappear. A second later though, the room was filled with overflowing mana that even put the abundant energies of the faeries to shame. This, however, only lasted for a mere ten seconds or so as he had drawn back his hand in shock.

    At some point, she had stopped crying. That was the one good thing in the whole ordeal he supposed. However, that reaction he had just sensed from her was truly strange.

    ¡°What is wrong with her?¡± The caretaker for the children asked eagerly. Eirlathion did not know quite how to explain it, so he merely told her that the child¡¯s mana had been rapidly rising and falling and expressed his own concern and confusion at the situation. However, he did notice something else strange immediately after this.

    Up until this point, Eirlathion had always had the boys brought to him one at a time by the caretaker as he studied them. However, now with them sitting together like this, he noticed something he had never expected from children their age. They turned and began talking to each other. This was not the language of the elves, which was imprinted onto all of the other children upon eating their food in addition to damaging their soul vessels in order to make them more dependent on elfin mana than elves were dependent of human spiritual energy. No, it was a different language.

    He turned to ask the caretaker about what language the boys were speaking, but she informed him it was not the language of the humans either. Apparently the two boys converse like this a lot, but it is in a language entirely unknown to humans or elves. Could this be some clue as to what it is that these boys are? Hearing this, he wished this human woman had told him about this sooner. At any rate, he knew about it now, and would most certainly have his eye on these children. After what he just saw with the child just now, he would likely be in here a lot more often anyway to monitor the health of the elfin newborns.

 Chapter 7: Learning the local language

    As the boring days of being confined to an infant¡¯s body in this nursery continue, I start to become bored rather quickly of my simple training routine to learn how to talk. However, becoming bored may in fact be a good sign of the improvement I am making. Well, I¡¯m not really forming sounds all that much better, a lot of the sounds I make still don¡¯t really sound like the letters I am trying to say, but at the very least my brain doesn¡¯t hurt anywhere near as bad as it used to.

    I am not entirely certain how many days it has been. It does not feel like it has been too long. In fact, it feels like it has probably been short enough that I shouldn¡¯t be loosing track of how many days it has been. Wait! Have I lost my ability to keep track of and remember numbers and figures due to becoming a baby as well? That doesn¡¯t seem entirely implausible.

    At any rate, I think it has been somewhere around a week since I started sleeping with Gaerien and I next to each other between Rolwen and Levin. And, in this time, I have managed to start making a few of the softer consonant sounds a bit more like what they are supposed to sound like. I still can¡¯t even come close to the hard consonants such as P or K, and I can¡¯t make the ¡°ch¡± sound necessary to say ¡°H,¡± so it comes out sounding like another A as I say my alphabet still. However, I¡¯ve managed to make some of the softer consonant sounds like M, or the ones that are easier for an infants mouth to form like B.

    It¡¯s really not as easy as it sounds, and it¡¯s something you simply cannot appreciate if you¡¯ve grown up speaking the language all your life and have no memory of how hard it was for you to learn to make these sounds as a baby. For instance, the M which I have now mastered involves 2 sounds. The first sound is actually the sound of an E, and next is the actual M sound. That¡¯s not the hard part though. The hard part that takes a lot of practice to re-learn without a brain that has already mastered these skills is learning how to make a hard stop on the sound. It¡¯s easy to just make a long ¡°eeee¡± or ¡°mmmm¡± as a baby, in fact those are very natural sounds for a baby to make. In fact, you will hear babies who are learning the limits and abilities of their bodies making those sounds all the time. That¡¯s probably why M was such an easy letter for me to learn.

    However, it is a lot harder to shorten the sounds, to exercise control over them by cutting off the air and changing your mouth shape at exactly the right time. I could hum the M sound forever, but to make a short ¡°eh¡± first, and then cut off the sound the very second I make a short ¡°m¡± is something that seems incredibly natural for someone who¡¯s been doing it all their life but actually incredibly challenging for a newborn only a little over a week old.

    Actually, for a week old newborn to even be doing as well as I am now is downright incredible already. If you take my age into consideration, I¡¯m actually incredibly far ahead of every development benchmark. That lifts my spirits a little and keeps me from getting discouraged over my repeated failures to even do so much as talk, but there is no way I can be content with this. After all, I have memories of being an adult, one with quite a few life experiences one can be proud of if I do say so myself. However, now I am a useless infant who can do nothing but be held by someone while I babble and cry. There¡¯s no way I can just accept that.

    So, as I have had my eyes and ears develop enough now to begin properly perceiving my world and the restructuring of my brain to accommodate my attempts to talk ludicrously early are well underway, I am starting to feel like it¡¯s about time I start on some other long term training projects to help me be more effective in this world. First off is the obvious companion to learning to talk.

    Actually, it almost seems ridiculous I have been trying to learn to talk without doing this first. But, well, I already know English and there are also two boys here who also know English, so that gives me something most babies simply don¡¯t have. However, even with that, it just seems like a good idea that I should probably be trying to learn the language spoken here. After all, the two boys here are about the only other people who speak English, I will also need to be speaking to the rest of this world.

    I have been paying some attention to the words spoken, and I have begun to discern some patterns to the language. Actually, I seem to be picking up the language fairly quickly. Well, being fully immersed in the language helps a lot, so does the fact that I¡¯m learning it as an adult. There is a myth from people too stubborn to learn foreign languages that babies are able to learn a foreign language faster and easier. This is actually very very wrong.

    It takes a newborn around 4 years to fully master their birth language. This is around the same amount of time it takes an adult learning the language from a formal classroom setting to do the same. And this, actually, is something that should be considered ridiculously slow for someone who knows how language learning actually works.

    As it turns out, the classroom setting is just about the worst environment to learn a language. The classroom setting just gives you lists of words and teaches you the translation. It teaches you to translate the words in your mind. This is a process that¡¯s slow and ineffective in terms of how the human brain actually works when it¡¯s trying to learn a language.

    A far better way to learn the language is to simply hear the words as you are given their meaning in context, such as being shown a picture. This is the process employed by most language learning software. However, this is still not the best way. The single best and most effective way to learn a new language is actually the exact same way an infant learns it. That method is complete immersion.

    Immersion means being placed into a situation where the language is all around you, and it is the only thing you hear every day without hearing anyone speak another language. In this situation, you either learn to adapt to the language or you can¡¯t communicate. In this environment, all but the dullest of people can have their brains adapt very very quickly. Most, in fact, are able to speak and communicate within a few months, and gain complete mastery over the language within a single year.

    So, when a perfectly average adult is able to learn the language within a year using this method, it means the typical infant is actually incredibly slow when it takes them 3 to 4 years to fully master their birth language. Then again, the infant¡¯s brain is still developing, so it¡¯s no surprise learning is more difficult. Really, the only reason an infant can even learn language in 4 years is because they have no other choice.

    However, it seems that with my adult memories and the plasticity of my infant brain, I am able to direct my development and skip over a lot of the hurdles that get in the way and slow down the process for most babies. At the rate I¡¯m currently going, I ought to be able to start at least understanding the gysts of what they are saying by the time I am a month old.

    The other big project I have decided to start working on is becoming mobile. Reasonably speaking, this is something I ought not to even be capable of until I am at least 2 months old. However, you can call me stubborn, but I¡¯m simply not willing to wait that long.

    The biggest obstacle to me crawling at the very least is going to be my ability to hold my head up. Newborns do not even have the neck muscles to lift their own head. Also, they still seem to insist on keeping me wrapped in this tight blanket. It seriously limits my mobility. I¡¯m going to need to throw it off, and I¡¯m also going to need to do some neck exercises. They will probably wrap me up again if I throw it off during the day, but at the very least the mere act of learning how to throw it off will be exercise.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    So, moving forward, I will be continuing to train in the alphabet at night, I will learn the local language during the day, and I can try to move at any time night or day. With three valid methods of training, now I will be able to always do something to avoid the boredom I was beginning to feel.

    Of course, I haven¡¯t forgotten my main objective in all of this either. I¡¯ve been monitoring the boys¡¯ signs of health the entire time, but they have not been acting lethargic or anything. In fact, they genuinely seem quite energetic and don¡¯t seem to like being bound down having to take care of Gaerien and I very much. They do seem to accept that they can¡¯t just leave us alone now, and they know that the older kids and the caretaker woman watching over us won¡¯t let them, but they also seem to be quite bored and have taken to complaining lately that there really is nothing to really do.

    They even started arm wrestling the other day, placing Gaerien and I off to lay right beside them as they lay on their stomachs and have at it with each other. It turned out being Rolwen who won, but by the mere fact that nobody found this behavior strange it proved something to me. It seems the people here have very little of the modern day understanding of childhood growth and development, because what these two boys are doing is something a 6 year old would do, not a 1 to 2 year old.

    2 year olds usually do not really interact with other children near their own age when they play. In fact, they usually do not really want anything to do with other children their own age until they are about 3, and even then they don¡¯t exactly play ¡°with each other.¡± They will play ¡°together,¡± but there won¡¯t be anything in it that could be called interacting. Rather, they will just be sitting next to each other as they are each doing their own thing. It¡¯s not until they reach around 5 or 6 that they would even think to do what these two boys were just doing. And yet, nobody here seemed to find their arm wrestling and other types of interaction strange.

    Or rather, at least I don¡¯t think anyone did. For the past few days, that guy who seemed to be some kind of doctor or something had been by here more frequently. Since this place seemed to be inside of a large tree or something, I really couldn¡¯t assess the culture level of this area or the size of the community, but it is entirely possible he¡¯s in more of a shaman type role, one where he has some kind of prominent position in the village in addition to being a healer, and he¡¯s here for some other reason. However, a village leader doesn¡¯t seem like a position that would be spending a lot of time hanging around some nursery, unless¡­

    Maybe they are onto something about the boys here. He does not seem the least bit interested in any of the other children here. In fact, from the best I can tell, he seems to have ordered the caretaker woman here to keep the other children away from him. Meanwhile, he spends most of his time observing the four of us. However, I cannot really tell whether it¡¯s Gaerien and I, or the two boys he¡¯s more interested in. If we are truly in some kind of condition that worries them then it makes sense for him to keep observing us, but he also seems to attempt to interact with the boys quite frequently. Of course, this whole time he has also been continuing to administer Gaerien and I our ¡°medicine¡± or whatever it is. Those berries he crushes between his fingers before making us lick the juice. So, from the best I can tell, it really could be either way.

    The bigger concern though is how he seems to interact with the other children here. As he has been observing us, I have been observing him right back. At least, whenever I¡¯m able to direct my eyes toward him when Levin is not grabbing me and turning me in a direction that doesn¡¯t face him. Did I mention? It is REALLY frustrating being a baby. At any rate, during the times I could see and observe this guy, I have caught sight of him giving some rather irritated looking glances toward the other children, even when they weren¡¯t interacting with him and simply playing near him.

    Well, this is not enough to judge his character on just yet, but I must say it does not leave a favorable impression in my mind as to his character. I¡¯m definitely going to have to learn the elfin language. My lack of ability with it is just cutting off too much information.

    As these thoughts were rolling over in my mind, I continued to watch the elfin medicine man, or whatever he was. Yes, medicine man seemed like a perfectly good title for him from my infant perspective. Whether or not he was actually a ¡°medicine man¡± by the anthropological definition was yet to be seen, but from my infant perspective he was the man who gave me medicine, therefore I felt Ok with calling him the ¡°medicine man,¡± and felt myself somehow acclimating into my infant mind a little more.

    Having settled on this title for him, I saw the medicine man stand up and talk to the caretaker woman. He asked her about something, looking in our direction for a moment, before giving a serious look back at the woman. She seemed to be thinking very seriously for a while about his words, but then finally started talking to him. Judging by the look and the way they were interacting, it seemed like she was explaining something to him. Finally, after a while, she quickly walked off to the nearby cabinets and brought back a wooden cup from which the children had been drinking. She held it up to him, pointed to it, and said some more things before handing it over to him.

    They separated after this, and he seemed to give a nod and turned toward us with a resigned look on his face as he approached our little group of four. He knelt down, held up the cup, and¡­ ¡°kwayuln,¡± he said, pointing to it. A huge smile spread across my face as my suspicions from the earlier interaction between him and the caretaker were confirmed. Yes! It seemed almost as though divine providence had intervened. Just when I had started trying to think of how to learn the elfin language, the medicine man decided to teach it to us. Well, in all honesty, he¡¯s probably making the effort to teach it to the boys because there¡¯s no way someone could be expecting a baby to learn it. I¡¯ll take the lesson gladly though.

    ¡°kwayuln.¡± He repeats looking from Rolwen to Levin with an expectant look on his face. ¡°kwayuln.¡±

    ¡°¡°Kwayuln!¡±¡± Rolwen and Levin both say, their excited voices sounding off almost in unison as they have also realized what¡¯s going on. Both of them are looking at the medicine man here with their full attention focused on him. It seems they were every single bit as eager to learn the elfin language as I was, and now that they saw their opportunity they were ready, willing, and eager to learn.

    The teacher medicine man has a satisfied smile creep to his lips for a moment, and I¡¯m forced to chuckle at myself as I realized just how childish my thought process seems to be rapidly becoming as I am already adding teacher to my informal title for him in my mind, and legitimately thinking of him that way.

    The teacher medicine man seems troubled for a moment as he looks around the room, before directing his gaze downward and placing an open palm on the floor. ¡°Talan.¡± He says. The boys seem to look around trying to piece this one together as they repeat the word to each other.

    ¡°Talan.¡± They mutter, and then begin slapping the floor happily.

    ¡°Talan!¡±

    ¡°Talan!¡±

    They repeat the word, one right after another as they both slap the floor confident in their interpretation.

    The teacher medicine man seems very pleased with this, and quickly begins to look for the next thing to teach us. He gets a little closer and points his finger directly at me. ¡°Nette.¡± He says, and then moves his finger up to point at Levin. ¡°Yonte.¡± ¡°Nette, yonte.¡± He begins moving his finger pointing between Levin and I as he repeats what seem to be the elfin words for ¡°boy¡± and ¡°girl¡± until they properly repeat these words.

    Next, he rests his hand gently against my¡­ well, due to my small size his hand encompases my entire left side as he rests his hand on my torso area. ¡°Laito.¡± He says. ¡°Netti-laito. Laito.¡±

    In this manner, the newly dubbed teacher medicine man teaches us one elfin word after another, and as Levin and Rolwen take his lesson I silently watch from the side and absorb every word for myself as well. Seems my attempts to learn elfin might be easier than I though. Once I learn a few starting words to go on, however long the teacher medicine man is willing to stick around to teach us, I will be able to more easily piece together the rest of it by listening in on the conversations of others.

    Surprisingly enough, the answer to how long the teacher medicine man would be able to stick around was¡­ all day. He seemed to grow increasingly excited as he taught us, and began pulling things from all over the room to teach us new words. And then, when he ran out of things in the room to pull, he kept frantically looking around before finally dashing out. Around 15 minutes later, he returned with an arm full of stuff to also teach us the words for.

    The breaks helped, but after a while despite their eagerness to learn and the maturity they had from their previous life incarnations, the boys began to get fussy and began acting out and looking away from the teacher medicine man who I think might have said his name as one of the words he taught us at some point. At least, it sounded like it was probably a name. I was getting a little overwhelmed myself so I think I probably forgot it along with over half the other words I had crammed into my head in this little encounter.

    Eventually, after he began to actually start becoming slightly angry and talking to us, or the boys at least, in a more stern voice, the caretaker lady wound up coming to our rescue. She pleaded with him a little and told him something, perhaps the common sense that their brains can only absorb so much information at once. That¡¯s likely the case anyway, and once she finished explaining it to him he seemed to sigh with a slightly annoyed look and a roll of the eyes before talking to the two boys in a tender seeming tone before he stood up and finally left for the remainder of the day.

    Well, my evaluation of this guy is starting to shift a little now. The teacher medicine man has gone from ¡°maybe an ass-hole¡± to ¡°just socially awkward.¡± At any rate, it looks like I have gotten one issue solved. I can see several long days ahead of the four of us though. Well, maybe not Gaerien. For all I know, she might have just fallen asleep at some point. Now I REALLY need to work on my neck muscles so I can look around better.

 Chapter 8: First words

    Did I say I could learn the Elvin language within a month? No, no, actually I don¡¯t think I said that. What I said was I could learn to understand the gysts of what people were saying, pick up the basic words such that I could at least figure out the general concept of what was being discussed. That would mean, roughly understanding around 30% of the more basic everyday speech type words. It seemed like a pretty reasonable objective at the time. Now, however, I¡¯m beginning to think it was an arrogant goal to achieve.

    I totally succeeded at it, but it was definitely arrogant. For the past month, the crazy elf medicine man has been insisting on bringing in armloads of items every day and teaching Levin and Rolwen the words for each. Of course, since I¡¯m right there at their side, I¡¯m able to pick up the words as well. At least, I try to pick up the words, but I keep getting frustrated and falling asleep. Despite the best of my intentions, it is starting to feel more and more like my existence as a baby is taking over.

    I have been trying to fight it as best I can, but it is as though my adult mind is at war with my infant brain. I realize, I had never stopped to consider just how it was I was able to keep my adult memories in this obviously fresh infant brain. If it lacked the neural pathways for me to have a properly functioning motor speech center, then how does it have the far more complex neural pathways associated with memory that are supposed to network the entire brain?

    Well, for that matter, how can memories be passed from one body to another after death like this? It almost seems as though the first question is completely answered by this second. It would seem that memories can be contained in some form of external spiritual body. However, at this time, I am feeling more and more like my previous life memories are actually at war with my current life¡¯s body. That body, of course, belonging to an infant that wants to do nothing except to sleep and is violently protesting against all this brain work I¡¯m making it do.

    No, that¡¯s clearly crazy. Thinking like that is to imply there are actually 2 wills within the same body. After reincarnating with all my memories, it does not seem entirely impossible for something like that to happen as well. However, I do not believe there is any real sign of me being possessed by another will. Or rather, any sign that I¡¯m the other will possessing a baby. Rather, it is simply that my newly weak body simply cannot accept my strong adult will. So, that strong will itself has to be shaved away and weakened.

    It is a frightening thing to feel my former life¡¯s mental strength, which is the only strength I really have left in this new life, slipping away like this. As such, quite often whenever I feel myself becoming sleepy in the middle of one of the medicine man elf¡¯s lessons, I get scared and frustrated. And of course, what does a baby do when they are scared and frustrated? You guessed it. They cry.

    It¡¯s not like I can even help it at all. Crying has become a natural reflex for me, and I seem to be getting less and less able to resist it. This frustrates me even more, and so I respond also by crying more. It becomes a vicious cycle like this. However, whenever this happens, it also makes it so that the lessons have to stop because of how much I¡¯m crying. So, in a strange way, the crying actually manages to accomplish its purpose. That being, that I am awake for all of his lessons. Like this, he can¡¯t give the lessons when I¡¯m starting to feel sleepy, and often the excitement of all the crying wakes me up a little.

    In this manner, despite all these struggles, I manage to pick up quite a few words in the Elven language. And, despite all these difficulties, I seem to have managed to reach my goal, which I have since concluded was a completely absurd thing to have expected from a baby. Even if that baby was myself, it seems to just be something unreasonable to expect.

    I can honestly say I have cried many tears of frustration over this past month over my other training and exercise goals as well, although I really don¡¯t know whether or not that says much these days now. I definitely cry those tears of frustration a lot more easily now. However, they have all been worth it, and I have managed to accomplish another truly absurd thing for my current age. And what is that truly absurd thing that I¡¯ve worked so hard to accomplish? Saying my ABCs.

    It may not sound like much to have such a simple thing be the benchmark of success, but if I were to compare myself to a stoke patient who lost verbal motor control and lost this ability, getting back to this level from being unable to speak at all would be considered an amazing accomplishment of someone who had the determination to put forth a herculean effort. In this case, I was working from literally no motor speech center to start with, which is definitely comparable to having it destroyed in a stroke. I suppose I have the neural-plasticity of an infant brain to thank for this, given I was able to accomplish so much while training only at night while nobody can hear me.

    This whole question of neural plasticity has gotten me thinking though. Maybe the actual reason for why I feel more given to the whims of my body now is actually because I¡¯ve become more attached to it. Perhaps¡­ the spirit or whatever was storing my memories before was just like a temporary back-up copy so to speak. If that¡¯s the case, then over the course of however long I was in the womb along with this past month on top of it, my spirit body had been ¡°writing¡± my memories onto my infant brain. And then, maybe the reason I¡¯m less able to control how fussy I am is because that external spirit is integrating with this body more.

    Well, I can¡¯t know for sure, but it definitely sounds like a good working theory.

    At any rate, I¡¯ve gotten to a point where there is still a little bit of slurring, but I am definitely able to say every single letter in a way that it actually sounds like the letter. Now then, for the next step. How about my own name?

    It is the middle of the night as usual now, so now is my regular practice time for speaking. I look over to my sister and the two boys, using the neck muscles I have been training all month non stop, seeing them still sleeping soundly. Seems like the coast is clear.

    ¡°Aarereaaa¡­ AAAUREIREN¡± Well, still sounds like baby babble, but it also did sound like my name. Definitely an accomplishment. Actually, this should be good enough. I¡¯m still not at the level where I can speak to the boys about my concerns, but I also have to talk to them about it as soon as possible. As such, I have a plan I have to set into motion for the sake of appearances. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re going to all find it fairly shocking, but it¡¯s better to do it this way than have my first words be when I¡¯m ready to discuss the serious stuff with the boys. And besides, if this all goes well then it might help me to face fewer frustrations while learning Elven.

    But that¡¯s for tomorrow when that elf teacher comes back. For now, this speech training should actually be good enough. As such, this means I can dedicate more of my time to training my muscles instead. And so, I begin to go through the routine I have gotten used to every night, and sometimes even throughout the day.

    First, I have to get this tight blanket off of me. I have done this several times, and it¡¯s always a struggle. The adults have even gone to attaching a little clasp to pin the blanket in order to make it harder for me to remove, but of course with enough struggling it¡¯s always going to be possible for me to work it loose eventually. In fact, if anything, this helps me. The more I have to work my arms and legs in order to get this thing off of me, the more it improves my motor control as the neural pathways are built.

    Working my hands around inside the blanket, I begin by lashing out and struggling in every way I can until I feel the blanket start to shift. As I feel that, I determine where it seems to be giving the most, and from there I start applying more pressure there. My goal in this is to speed the time it takes me to escape. Every improvement in speed indicates an increase in my motor control, the skill I¡¯m trying most to work on right now.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    By this point, I¡¯ve managed to get a fair amount of slack in the blanket. Now for the next step. I have to work that clasp off. I already know where they pinned it, so in order to get it off all I have to do is start struggling with the blanket near its location. I manage to work the clasp a bit more forward toward me, and begin struggling more. Eventually, I feel a sudden amount of give, but I didn¡¯t feel the sensation of the clasp falling off the blanket.

    Well, it must have worked the corner loose. That will be enough. The corner of the blanket is the most important part anyway. With this, it is a simple matter to struggle out of the blanket the rest of the way.

    Of course, I do not completely throw off the blanket. The blanket is the only thing they put on me since I was born, since apparently it seems to be the Elven custom to wrap their babies in those blankets at all times. As such, they never gave me any cloths. They do seem to have put a diaper on me since they have been feeding me solid food in the form of those crushed berries every meal. Thankfully, I don¡¯t seem to need to be changed often due to the low amount of solid food. However, it is in my diet so apparently it¡¯s a concern now, which also leads me to really wonder about exactly how an elf¡¯s physiology works since we can apparently also get by without food, medicine being a clear exception.

    At any rate, once the restrictive blanket is out of the way, I begin rolling my head from side to side. Fortunately, the same muscles responsible for lifting the head also have a function in turning the head. As such, simply turning from side to side is enough. Somewhere along the line, I also practice rolling over. This has gotten rather simple, as the muscle to bone ratio of my limbs and torso is no where near as unbalanced as those of my neck Vs. my head. Due to this one limitation, my mobility is easily the area farthest behind in terms of me being advanced beyond a normal baby¡¯s growth. In fact, I should be very rapidly approaching the natural age at which it¡¯s normal for a baby to get the ability to lift their head.

    Actually, if I¡¯m getting so close to that benchmark age and I still can¡¯t do it, then could it be I actually am somehow weakened by whatever the condition with my body is? Well, it¡¯s possible, but there is another possibility that also springs to mind. Elves are supposed to have a longer life-span, and in most stories they are supposed to reach adulthood at ages ranging from 50 to 80 depending on who¡¯s telling the story. If an elf¡¯s development is so slow, then maybe gaining the ability to lift my head at the normal age for humans would be considered ridiculously advanced for an elf?

    That feels like a rather unsettling thought. I really don¡¯t want to have to spend several months with such limited mobility. Ok, that¡¯s it. Time for the final phase of my physical exercises. Getting myself laid flat on my back again, I begin to struggle with all of my will in order to lift my head. I may not be able to do the action smoothly yet, but I have gotten to the point where I can lift it for at least a few seconds, and that much is enough to give good exercise to the muscles involved. Then, I keep doing this until my muscles become so fatigued that I can no longer continue, working myself completely to exhaustion on the actual goal skill of this exercise.

    I am so close now I can feel it. A few more days like this, and I might be able to add sitting upright to the list of activities. However, the difficult point of my being an elf and likely so incredibly far ahead of the curve already is a bit concerning. It¡¯s hard to picture how others may react to this. However, it might very well fit in with the rest of my plan. But honestly, if I didn¡¯t feel I had to worry about these two boys I don¡¯t think I would ever do what I¡¯m about to do.

    Satisfied with my workout for the night, I pull the blanket over me and fall asleep.

    -

    ¡°Looksh lrike Aerien bulled her blanket ov agin.¡± (Looks like Aerien pulled her blanket off again.)

    In the morning, I was woken up by Levin picking me up and trying to tuck the edges of my blanket under my shoulders. Well, at least he got my name right this time, although I know from experience that this is not because he¡¯s actually figured it out or anything. He was calling me Gaerien almost all day yesterday, he¡¯s just gone ahead and switched it back to Aerien again. Well, if there¡¯s one completely positive thing that¡¯s coming from what I¡¯m planning to do, it will be that we can end this name confusion nonsense.

    (Why do they like them in these blankets anyway? I don¡¯t think she likes it.) Rolwen speaks up.

    (Caus she¡¯ll get cold!) Levin objects to his remark. (It¡¯s bad for babies to get too cold!) Well, he¡¯s right on that one. Guess he must have at least some experience or knowledge about babies in his previous life, although this is pretty basic tier stuff. It¡¯s clear that otherwise he absolutely does not know what he¡¯s doing, the naming confusion here being evidence enough. It would probably have been a lot better if they had just picked one and stuck with it, even if it wasn¡¯t the correct name. That way at least they¡¯d be calling us by the same consistent name. Switching names with my sister wouldn¡¯t really be a bad thing, and if I was a real infant I wouldn¡¯t really know the difference anyway.

    (You stay with them! I¡¯ll go get Ms. Sonaby.) Levin says, pushing me over closer to my sister so that we are both next to Rolwen. Sonaby seemed to be the name of the woman who was taking care of all the kids here, and it has become part of our morning routine now that every morning Levin goes and wakes her up in order to get her to re-wrap the blanket around me. This is often combined with a diaper check as well, and since Gaerien and I really only have a little bit of berry juice on our tongue for meals we are often clean going on several days at a time. As such, we are only checked this one time of the day and it seems as good a time as any.

    Normally, someone with previous life memories would probably get embarrassed at this. Well, I admit, I really was kinda embarrassed for about half a minute when I realized the obvious that, at that time, I was naked under this blanket until they started putting that diaper on me. However, due to some combination between having been a nurse and gone through assisting incontinent adults in my previous life, and whatever was happening as my previous life memories were being integrated with my baby brain, I really didn¡¯t have a strong enough sense of shame for it to continue to worry me for very long. In fact, were it not for me being aware of how much trouble it would cause for others, I could easily see myself stripping myself like any other baby would once I get enough motor control to do so.

    Soon enough, Levin comes back with the woman in question. After it¡¯s confirmed that I¡¯m clean this morning, she wraps me tightly in the blanket again and then checks on my sister who seems to actually get a little fussy about being exposed to the cold all of a sudden.

    Now then, with the morning wake-up routine out of the way, now all I have to do is wait to set my plan into action. It all happens later in the day when the medicine man elf, who¡¯s name I have learned is some crazy name that starts with an E, like Etheron or something like that, is in the middle of our Elven language lesson. For the time being, in my mind, I have begun calling him ¡°Ether.¡± I know it¡¯s disrespectful to call somebody by a butchering of their name like that, but what can I do? I can¡¯t quite remember or pronounce his real name, and I feel like it¡¯s a little better than calling him ¡°the medicine man¡± like I used to. Oh well, given my age I suppose even if I actually did call him ¡°Ether¡± out loud he would probably accept it as close enough coming from a baby.

    ¡°A'' eller auta.¡± He says, having moved up to giving the boys some simple sentences. From what I can tell from all the pointing and miming he¡¯s doing, I think he¡¯s trying to tell them to move a short distance as he¡¯s saying that. ¡°Auta. A'' eller auta.¡± He says again, pointing insistently at a spot on the floor a short distance from where Rolwen is sitting. Well then, this seems like a good enough opportunity for what I¡¯m planning to do.

    ¡°Ata!¡± I yell out as loud as my little lungs will allow without it becoming a scream. ¡°Ata ata!¡± I start writhing about inside the constricting blanket, trying to make myself look as excited as I can.

    ¡°Uma, err¡­ a n¡¯uma! A-u-ta.. eh?¡± He seemed like he was in the middle of correcting the pronunciation, but then things went quiet and I could see him looking in my direction.

    ¡°Gaerien men-ta¡¯!¡± (Gaerien talked!) Levin calls out excitedly.

    ¡°Eeh? Re sai-nessa, sai-arinya sina mart-ten¡¯.¡± The ¡°Ether¡± person seems to have a stunned expression as he goes on to start saying stuff without bothering to put it in a way someone who doesn¡¯t really know the language can understand.

    ¡°Eh? Uauuooao!¡± Suddenly, I can hear my sister¡¯s voice, the real Gaerien in this case, speaking up as if in protest that it wasn¡¯t her who said that. Or rather, that¡¯s what I imagine her saying in my mind as some part of me has started to become bitter about how our names can¡¯t be kept straight. At any rate, she seems to be speaking up more than normal. But obviously, her state seems to be about the same as mine was a month ago since she didn¡¯t go through the same pain-staking practice that I did.

    ¡°Ay!¡± Levin seems to be talking to me as he lifts me up to actually sit me upright in his lap, and then he seems to look around for a bit before slapping the floor in font of me. ¡°Talan! Ta-lan.¡± As a kid who is just learning to talk Elven himself, he seems to already be trying to get me to say more words. Well, it¡¯s pretty admirable of you to have actually used the Elven word for it.

    ¡°Daran!¡± I do the best my little mouth can to pronounce the word myself, which seems to get Levin rather excited.

    ¡°Floor. Talan. Floor.¡± Ok, now he¡¯s teaching me two languages at once. Why should I expect any less of you Levin? Well, this one¡¯s not that bad in terms of the incorrect baby raising things he¡¯s done so far. In fact, teaching a baby two languages at once is perfectly fine so long as they get sorted out later. However, in order to keep up appearances, I can¡¯t immediately act like I know what he¡¯s talking about.

    ¡°Dalan!¡± I say again.

    ¡°N¡¯sav-uma.¡± our teacher says, shaking his head. ¡°Eithel, auta no'' tanya yassen.¡± He laughs, shaking his head as he stands up. It seems as though lessons are cancelled early today. He does not go too far though. Rather, he goes a short distance away and sits down, watching us. ¡°Vora, vora!¡± He says, making motions with his hands that seem as though he¡¯s encouraging us.

    Well then, I guess that actually worked out better than I had planned. Now, if any of the elves ask, I have established a track reccord of speaking early and now on top of it the boys are ¡°teaching¡± me English as well. So, other than how early I started speaking, there should be no real suspicion if I start talking with the boys in the language that the elves can¡¯t understand. Now, the only question is whether or not I can get to it before the boys reveal something to the elves that could cause trouble. I am far ahead of the curve already, but I still can¡¯t afford to relax my efforts.

 Chapter 9: What the elves think

    Eirlathion POV

    When these children appeared before Eirlathion a bit over a month ago, he had been very much looking forward to finding out all that he could about them. What he didn¡¯t expect though were for the Elven twin girls they were brought here for to hold almost as large a number of mysteries as the human boys. Although, there was one mystery that was easier than the others to solve, and Eirlathion was not liking the answers he was getting from it.

    Shortly after he had seen their condition, he had gone to the girls¡¯ mother and told her what he knew. Her response was not strange, she definitely seemed to have a haunted expression when told about how ill her daughters seemed to be, and when she was told about their sickly pale skin she began to start looking ill herself. The strangest reaction though came when she was asked to go into the nursery and see them. She absolutely refused.

    Several of the villagers pleeded with her. With one of the girls violently expelling her mana in bursts and the other oddly lethargic, either one of them seemed like they could loose their connection to this world at any time. Most of the other elves in the village seemed to think she was distraught and not wanting to look at or become close to daughters who may only vanish from this world a short time later. However, with the time Eirlathion had spent with them, he was slowly coming to another fairly terrible suspicion.

    The time she had come here, it had been after her own village was destroyed after having been attacked by devils. Corrupted elves to be exact. The members of their own kin tainted by the arcane energies. These ones were very well known to be the very most vicious of all the devil races, known as visions of slaughter and death by their very existence. The humans also had their own name for them. Dark Elves.

    Eirlathion thought back to the sickly pale looking skin of the two girls. To others, one of them was very fussy and always lashing out, while the other was weak and always lethargic. However, for Eirlathion who had been watching them for over a month now, that was not what he had been seeing. He had seen the supposedly fussy one being quite active, a little ball of pure energy and strength, constrained only by her infant body. Meanwhile, the other, she did not look lethargic due to being sickly. He had seen her open her eyes and look about with an odd intelligence in her eyes that didn¡¯t seem to fit a child of her age. In fact, there was a part of it that almost scared him at times. The faces she made were not those of discomfort or malaze. They were faces of boredom and scorn. Faces that were completely unbefitting such a small infant.

    Eirlathion had had the most intimate contact of any elf in the village with these girls, so he truly felt he was getting to know them well. After he had given his report about his findings, it was decided to introduce them to solid food early in order to anchor their physical forms to this world. A normal elf could subsist on only the spirit energy of humans until the age of three when they are more capable of actually chewing their own food. However, for these infants he had to become creative, and smeared some juice from some berries on his finger before spreading it on their tongues. However, from the energy he saw from the both of them, and the disgusted faces from the calm one every time as though she wanted to kill him, he had been shaken and begun to doubt as to whether or not they even needed such a thing at all.

    They were definitely not normal, and that wasn¡¯t even counting the fact that they were twins born to an elf. However, if you discounted the part about them being twins and looked only at their skin color and how healthy they otherwise seemed to be despite it, and you also take the circumstances of their birth into account. ¡®Grey elves.¡¯ That seems to be the most reasonable conclusion.

    They were born almost exactly two years after the date that their mother said their village was attacked. If they were a hybrid of dark and light elves, that would at least explain their skin color far better than the idea of them being sickly.

    Eirlathion was haunted by this realization. If his suspicions of the girls¡¯ parentage came out and was known to the rest of the village, he knew exactly what was likely to happen. After having invested so much time into caring for them, he simply did not have it in his heart to allow that to come about.

    With these thoughts in mind, Eirlathion had continued to treat them as he would if they truly were ill. Until he could come up with a better solution, he would continue to hide his suspicions from the others. Fortunately, the only other people who interacted with the girls regularly were the humans who had been brought for them, and with the exception from the woman assigned as the caretaker it was almost a certain thing that the rest would not know about the matter of dark elves and grey elves. As for the caretaker, she would likely accept it on his authority that they were merely ill. However, in order to prevent her from becoming too suspicious, it was better that he make sure to be present as much as he can in order to minimize her own interaction with the girls.

    Besides that, because of how close an eye he had been keeping on them, he had noticed something rather odd about the human boys as well. From time to time, the older children would also talk to them. However, the looks he saw on the boys¡¯ faces told him they did not understand even a single word of what was being said to them. There was a suspicion at first that the effects of the enchantments on the food they were given did not work. This, their lack of ability to understand elven words, all but confirmed that suspicion. Had it worked normally, in addition to remodeling their soul to become dependent on the mana of the fey races, it would also give them an understanding of the elven language. However, for them, it was clear that no such understanding had come.

    Intrigued by this, Eirlathion had asked the caretaker what was normally done to teach a language to children. She had told him it was as simple as taking an item and telling the children the word for it. This was before he had become suspicious of the girls¡¯ parentage, at this time he was far more fascinated with the boys than he was the girls, the odd nature of their unusually dense souls and the mysterious language they spoke that was neither elven or the tongue of their parents.

    Perhaps he could gain some answers if the boys could communicate with him properly. With this in mind, he set to work teaching them the elven language as the caretaker had said, teaching them one word at a time. And then, it was because of his efforts to teach the boys their language that he got his next surprise in regards to the girls.

    In the middle of his lesson one day, one of the girls spoke up. The boys identified her as Gaerien, the name meaning ¡°child of the ocean¡± given to the older twin of the two. A fitting contrast to the name of her sister, Aerien, ¡°child of the sea.¡± He was unsure the boys were really keeping the names of the girls straight, but it was likely better than he could keep track of them so he decided to take their word for it. At any rate, while the pronounciation was a bit off as could be expected for a baby, she had attempted to speak one of the words he was teaching the boys.

    The boys immediately became excited, and began trying to teach her more words. Even more interestingly though, it didn¡¯t take long at all for them to immediately begin trying to teach her their own language as well.

    This was an unexpected but very very interesting gain. With this, he could even learn the language the boys were speaking, watching and learning from them as they taught it to Gaerien. However, this startling discovery could not simply be dismissed. There was definitely something very very unusual about these girls, and even the explanation of them being grey elves no longer explained everything he was seeing. Normally, an elf child does not begin to speak until the age of three. These girls were barely even a month old, and already one was saying her first words. It was not just babble either, she was actually repeating back words that were just said to her.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    He had been put at a bit of unease for the looks the calm one was always giving him. However, now, he also discovers the hyper one may even be the more intelligent of the two. And it wasn¡¯t just that, just her being intelligent doesn¡¯t even begin to describe how shocking it is for her to be speaking like this so early in her life.

    No, the possibility of dark elf parentage really is no longer enough of an explanation. There was something very very unusual about these girls, and he was going to do what he could to get to the bottom of it.

    -

    The next day after Eirlathion had witnessed one of the two girls talking, or at least starting to, at the incredibly young age of 1 month, he decided he was going to start some expiraments to examine her. It was easy enough to get the correct girl, despite them being twins. This is because the boys always quite consistently hold the same one, as evidenced by the fact that it¡¯s always the one the boy named Levin is holding who is exceedingly active and fussy while the one that the other boy, Rolwen holds, is the more calm and seemingly lethargic twin. Despite having the identities of the two straight though, the name is an entirely different issue as Levin is constantly changing the name that he calls each of them while Rolwen refuses to call either of them by name.

    ¡°Perhaps now that she¡¯s talking, she can decide on her own which name is hers.¡± Eirlathion muttered to himself as he approached the children today. What he was about to do did slightly risk some of the elves figuring out he was not of the opinion the girls were as sick as they all thought they were, but his curiosity at this point simply would not allow him not to do this.

    He had magically examined the girls several times in the past, but every time it was while they were in the arms of the boys. The best that a scan like that can tell him is how well they are feeding and what kind of mana output they are giving. Any more detailed information such as the structure of their souls would be largely obscured by the exchange of all the spiritual energies between them. From what he had seen, the more calm one was feeding normally. Or rather, considering it was these two boys who were the source of the spirit energy that was feeding her, it might even be said she was consuming an excessive amount for someone her age. The energy consumed from Rolwen was, by percent, about the same as would be taken from a normal human child. No, it even went beyond that. When Levin was near, she consumed it from him as well.

    The more active child meanwhile, the same one who had shown excessively fast growth until now, seemed to consume very little spirit energy, and yet she kicked off far larger levels of mana than her sister. Now, seeing that she had come to start talking this early as well, Eirlathion was already beginning to suspect what he was going to find. Perhaps any other simple mage, even one among the elves, would not see the significance in this at all and even worry as the rest of the villagers had over them up until this point. However, having been among the faeries as much as he had, he was very much aware of what could likely be the cause of this. If it was true, he simply had to find out.

    But first, to cover his bases. He told the children¡¯s caretaker that he had to perform some ¡°risky¡± tests, but he thought that the girls should be strong enough to handle them at this point. After this, he went to the boys as he usually did. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m going to do something different today. I will have to take this one with me.¡± He said, reaching down and lifting the girl from Levin¡¯s arms. She immediately seemed to grow very alarmed, and began twisting and turning around in his grasp. She pulled and worked her arm out of her blanket and began reaching for Levin.

    ¡°Now now, it¡¯s going to be alright, I will have you back to him shortly.¡± He said in a gentle voice as he continued to walk toward a different room. However, she only started to cry when she realized he was not going to bring her back immediately.

    Eirlathion simply let out a sigh and then walked into the small closet he had previously set up for his purposes. He set the wailing child down a small counter, and interestingly enough her crying seemed to quit down to small hiccups and sniffles. No, actually, more surprising than that was the fierce look she was giving him. But, even more surprising still, was the immense energies he was feeling washing off of her as she was giving him that intense glare. He hadn¡¯t even started his examination yet, but he almost didn¡¯t have to with what he was seeing. It was qute clear.

    What he was feeling was not just the mana naturally released by elves, it was also heavily laced with spirit energy that she was generating completely on her own without even the slightest contribution from any human child.

    An involuntary sigh managed to escape his mouth as he was washed in this aura. No, there was no longer a need to examine her. He knew exactly what was going on now. He reached for the child once again, almost hesitating this time, before lifting her up far more tenderly than he had the first time and began to hold her as though he was afraid of harming her in any way. ¡°Alright, now then, let me get you back to Levin, shall I? I¡¯m sorry for taking you away from him.¡±

    By the time he had gotten out of the room, he began to hear the sound of a baby crying once again. It took him a moment to realize that the baby crying this time was not the one he held in his arms, but her sister still being held by Rolwen. Apparently, her sister had somehow noticed her absence, and had become quite distressed over this herself. Well, perhaps that is only natural given what he had just found out.

    -

    The day I had said my first words in front of the ¡°Ether¡± guy, he seemed to just watch us for the rest of the day as the boys excitedly taught me one thing after another. I had thought the ¡°Ether¡± guy had dismissed the event as something unusual, but within the outer limits of reason. That is, until the next day came around.

    The day after I had expiramented by showing off my ability to talk, ¡°Ether¡± guy came around and the very first thing he did was lift me out of Levin¡¯s arms, along with some words he had not taught us yet. Clearly, he was not actually just dismissing my performance they day before in any way at all. He clearly knew there was something strange about me at the very least. Yeah, I definitely overdid it with showing off my advanced development.

    The only question is, what do I do now? Well, what he¡¯s doing is probably not something that entirely bad, probably just a few magical tests or something like that. If elves existed, then sure, why not magic as well? I would imagine information based magic is likely among the easiest to cast, at least in terms of information at the level of the equivalent of a medical test. However, if he did those tests, what exactly would he find? I wasn¡¯t sure I was entirely comfortable with this.

    I decided I would try to fluster him in some way, maybe do something to make him re-think his actions. A baby crying in distress is probably the best tactic I have to affect his decision at this point, but simply crying when he picks me up will only show I¡¯m a bit afraid of new people or something like that, or maybe it will even just be dissmissed at me being fussy from being woken up. It seems that for once all the crying I had done in the past is coming back to bite me. So, I¡¯m going to need a little bit of an extra touch.

    Working with all the skills I had developed wriggling out of the constraits of my blanket before, I managed to work an arm out in mere seconds and then began reaching a hand toward Levin, making it quite clear and impossible to misinterpret the meaning of my cries, before I started just screaming as loud as I have ever screamed as the tears ran from my face.

    ¡°Ether¡± guy seemed completely undeterred by this as he took me to a small storage closet with a light inside it. He put me down, and it was clear my performance had not worked. After he did this, he looked as thoug he was about to do whatever he intended to do. I, meanwhile, got myself ready to strike at his hand whenever it approached to hover over my body as he had done on the first day he showed up. It was completely illogical, but as I cried back there ¡°over him taking me away from Levin,¡± I somehow arrived at the conviction that I absolutely did not want him casting any magic and finding out anything about me at all.

    Honestly, even I don¡¯t know what I was afraid of him finding out. Personally, I think it might have been just spite at this point. Part of it was due to the fact that part of me, I realized, wasn¡¯t just acting earlier. I actually was legitimately upset at him for taking me away from my familiar environment and touching and holding me like that when it has always only been Levin and Ms. Sonaby, but her only on occasion. It seemed I had become a real slow to warm up kid somehow.

    The other part, however, was because I still didn¡¯t trust elves. They are the people who almost certainly kidnapped Rolwen and Levin after all, in order to essentially feed them to Gaerien and I. It¡¯s true that I¡¯m just as copable in this for being the one feeding on them in whatever form I do so, which I still didn¡¯t completely understand the mechanics on. However, I¡¯m just a baby, and it seems that this form of feeding is not something I even do by conscious choice. However, they are the ones who had a choice in the whole matter. And, in my case, I also felt disgusted that I was the one it was all done for in the first place.

    Because of this, along with nothing else but the pure frustration I had been building up over not being able to act as a baby and finally having some degree of control over my body, I wanted to use this to unleash my frustrations just to spitefully ruin whatever this guy was going to do.

    I watched for my opportunity to act, but after he stood there with a dazed look on his face for a while, he simply stepped forward and gently picked me up again.

    ¡®was that it!?¡¯ I screamed inside my own mind. It seemed like he was done. That would mean then that he had finished all of his tests and came to a conclusion. And now, he was picking me up to bring me back to the main room. This was really humiliating. Once again, I could do nothing of my own power to stop this from happening. As a baby, I could truly do nothing.

    After that shocking event, I soon heard Gaerien¡¯s crying voice. That wasn¡¯t very common. Could she have somehow noticed I was missing? Well, I was making enough of a rackit on my way out that I¡¯m certain that had to have woken her up, and so now she¡¯s gotten quite grumpy over being suddenly woken up like that. Wouldn¡¯t anyone?

    At any rate, ¡°Ether¡± guy returned me to Levin¡¯s arms, and I imagine my face must have looked pretty aweful at that time.

 Chapter 10: The knowledge of gods and mortals

    That night, after the others had gone to bed, I continued on with my usual training, I became aware that someone else was awake as well.

    ¡°Aouu! Aaaaah!¡± I heard Gaerien shouting at me, causing me to stop in my motions as I had just worked my way out of that darn blanket as usual. I turned over and looked in her direction. I wasn¡¯t sure why exactly, and hadn¡¯t thought too seriously about it before, but it seemed one of the advantages to being an elf was an insanely good level of night vision. Even here in this building, with nothing discernible as a night light, I was still able to see my sister as though she were lit up by moon light. And what I saw was her staring straight back at me with a seriously questioning look on her face.

    ¡°Aou! Uuuu! Uuuuu!¡± She had an intense look of concentration and focus on her face that seemed to suggest she wanted to get more words out than just that. She almost seemed to have a look of desperation on her face, and even looked on the verge of tears. This.. really wasn¡¯t like her at all. This was really the first time I had ever seen this kind of behavior from my sister, not that I had really had the opportunity to pay much attention to her in the first place in this past month due to my mobility and field of vision always being so restricted.

    At any rate, it really did seem like something had changed. What¡¯s more, I could see a definite look of intelligence in those eyes that seemed to be pleading with me. I didn¡¯t know for sure just yet, but maybe¡­ We already have three in one place here, is it possible we could really have a fourth?

    A smile spread across my face. I wasn¡¯t to a point yet where I could crawl or really move around very well yet, but I could still roll. As such, I used that as my method of mobility and quickly closed the distance between us. After I had flipped over on my stomach, I scooted myself over toward her several times, looking up at her along the way to see her face had turned from desperate to curious.

    Once I had closed that distance, I grabbed my sister by the blanket she was wrapped in, patting my hand on the fabric several times. A shocked expression crosses her face at this time, and then that shocked expression is once again replaced by a look of intense concentration, except this time for some reason she seems to actually look like she might know what she¡¯s trying to do somehow.

    ¡®How?¡¯ I heard a voice as though it was resonating inside my head. It was similar in some ways to the self-speech, or ¡°internal monologue¡± most people call it, except that the voice I was hearing inside my head was not my own. Instead, it was a different voice, one that seemed somehow familiar. I had heard that voice once before in my life. Or rather, not this life, it was my previous life. That¡¯s what it felt like, but¡­

    ¡°Whah?¡± I said aloud, before thinking better of it after a moment. My mind quickly caught up with the situation and I looked seriously back at my sister. I really did not want to settle on a conclusion just yet, but this didn¡¯t happen until I touched Gaerien like this, and that voice¡­ I decided to try and respond in the exact same way she had talked to me first. ¡®Was that you Gaerien?¡¯ Her eyes absolutely lit up with delight, and she even seemed to let out a burst of infant laughter as her emotions overcame her after I had made the effort to project those words from my mind.

    ¡®Yes! Good! It worked!¡¯ I heard what I now know was Gaerien¡¯s inner voice once again.

    ¡®How are you doing this?¡¯

    ¡®I wanted to ask you the same thing.¡¯ Gaerien sent her thoughts back to me in response to my question. ¡®But, I guess it¡¯s a bit rude to¡­ No! You have to keep your hand on me!¡¯ I had allowed my hand to slip off of her while we were in contact like this, but it seemed kind of strange. She was still able to send me that message even when my hand had slipped off.

    ¡®Sorry.¡¯ I sent my mental communication back to her, reaching out and grabbing more tightly to her blanket.

    ¡®It is fine. Just¡­ keep your hand on me like that and also keep focusing your mind. That¡¯s the only way we will be able to keep communicating like this.¡¯

    ¡®Ok.¡¯ I responded, starting to get used to this way of communicating at this point. ¡®But, again, I don¡¯t really understand how this is happening.¡¯

    I heard my sister let out another ¡°ge-he¡± infant giggle, and she almost seemed to look proud of herself. ¡®This is embarrassing, this body just shows all of my emotions whether I want it to or not.¡¯

    ¡®Yes, the reticular formation in your brain hasn¡¯t formed yet, it¡¯s the structure that separates your higher brain from your lower brain. You won¡¯t be able to stop that from happening until it¡¯s done forming.¡¯ I patiently informed her about the neural science behind her little embarrassing situation while patiently waiting for her explanation.

    Gaerien, meanwhile, seemed to have a wide-eyed curious look of bafflement on her face. ¡®Really, so the humans of our previous world even knew about things like that? The advanced knowledge of a magically isolated world truly is something to marvel at. Ok then, how about this? I will tell you all about how I am doing this, but do you think you can tell me how it is you are able to move and talk already!? I¡¯m pretty sure you didn¡¯t use some magic, so it has to be another one of Earth¡¯s developed knowledges, right?¡¯

    ¡®Yeah.¡¯ I responded to her, also acknowledging the other information she had already given me when reading between the lines. The way she talked and the terms she chose to use, I can discern a lot more than just her identity from all of that. I had suspected she might have been that goddess I had met just before my death, but I really didn¡¯t want to come to that conclusion so easily. Now, I discovered something more. It seemed that the gods and goddesses, or at least the ¡°fallen ones¡± such as she confessed herself to be, were not up on the sciences as they were discovered by humans. Despite living in the world, she was not aware of several of the more complicated matters about how the world worked.

    Well then, I suppose that means that we happen to be on more equal footing in this situation than one would expect a former mortal and former goddess to be. This was very very good since I still did not know enough about her to know whether I should fully trust her or not. When I thought she was just a normal baby and my twin sister, I had it in mind that I would protect her. When I was crawling over to her a minute or so ago when I thought she might be another reincarnator from Earth like Levin, Rolwen, and myself, I had resolved to guide and help her in any way I could. Now that I knew she was, in fact, a goddess who might know far more about this situation than me, I would be approaching her not like an innocent child but as I would any adult in my previous life.

    I would not view her as a demon as I would have before the crash that demanded her intervention, the fact that she had saved my granddaughter''s life was enough for me to give her at least that much in gratitude. So, I would give her the benefit of meeting as a neutral party and judge all my future actions based on what she did, and whether or not she demonstrates herself to be trustworthy, and the manner in which she handles this little information trade ought to be perfect in order to get a feel for what kind of person she might be.

    ¡®Well then,¡¯ She says, starting up on her end of the deal. ¡®well, how do I say this? It¡¯s a kind of divine magic, the same kind a deity uses to communicate with their followers. I can use it to communicate between us though when we are touching like this. But, actually, I really don¡¯t think I could possibly do this with anyone other than you.¡¯This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡®Ok, well, that¡¯s pretty handy.¡¯ I responded. ¡®It feels pretty good to communicate with someone in a manner other than the constant baby talk.¡¯

    ¡°Geee-¡­ hahaha!¡± Gaerien¡¯s voice erupted again as her emotions came faster than her conscious thoughts. ¡®Well, I had grown used to long periods of loneliness, but it truly does feel good to communicate.¡¯

    ¡®Is that why you are always so quiet?¡¯ I asked her. Her face contorted into a look of embarrassment and I could feel her squirming from inside the confines of this blanket.

    ¡®Yeah¡­¡¯ She responds. ¡®It¡¯s embarrassing only being able to make baby sounds, and being so helpless. So, I didn¡¯t want to make a fool of myself until my body had developed enough to move and talk normally.¡¯

    ¡®Well, there¡¯s your mistake.¡¯ I told her, I heard a giggle escape my own mouth. I was sure a sickeningly prideful look was appearing on my own face at this moment, but I decided not to let it bother me. ¡®If you do that, you will be stuck developing on the normal schedule for a baby. Actually, you may even be a little behind. All of those little noises and movements babies are always making, that¡¯s how a baby explores their own body and learns how to move and talk in the first place. Since you already know all the actual words and movements you want to learn though, if you practice them with a purpose you can start moving and talking a lot earlier than a normal baby would.¡¯

    ¡®So that¡¯s why you were always doing all those things. I thought for sure when you were always making all that noise that your memories must have still not awakened yet.¡¯ Gaerien let another piece of information drop on her own.

    ¡®You¡¯ve seen reincarnations like this before then?¡¯ I asked her.

    ¡®Yes, they used to be rather common on Earth before it was sealed away from the other worlds.¡¯

    ¡®Sealed?¡¯ I asked. ¡®I think you had probably better explain that one.¡¯

    ¡®Yes, well¡­ It¡¯s actually pretty normal for a powerful god to seal off a world from the influences of magic and the arcane energies. You see, the god-born, the creatures that are created by the gods, are often among the weaker inhabitants of any given world. However, the more powerful beings that feed on the god-born cannot exist without magic. And therefore, it is common for the gods to seal off a world in this manner.¡¯

    ¡®You see, the god-born are very important to the gods. The god-born provide the gods with spiritual energy, which is where they gain their power from. However, the other magical creatures will also feed off of the spiritual energy of the god-born, and several such as the elves we were born as will go so far of abducting and enslaving the most sentient god-born of a world, humans in the case of this world just as was the case with Earth. Other magical races such as the monsters, devils, and demons will just straight out kill the god-born mercilessly. This is not something the gods can stand. And so, it becomes fairly common that at some point the gods will begin to erect a barrier against magical energies in the world.¡¯

    I really didn¡¯t know how to respond to¡­ well¡­ really any of the stuff that was contained in that huge information bomb just now. Also, god-born? She had explained it, all things that were created by the gods. In other words, the plants and the animals. The way she said it then, that would imply that elves were not created by any god since they were something different?

    ¡®What about elves?¡¯ I asked her.

    ¡®What do you mean?¡¯

    ¡®I mean, you are saying that elves are not one of the races created by god, so then what are they? Or rather, we now as well.¡¯

    ¡®Elves are members of a group of races known collectively as the fey.¡¯ She informs me. ¡®The fey races are simply souls that gain the ability to live on their own as a god-born creature would. Of course, since they are fundamentally different from the god-born, and are dependent on the god-born for their spiritual energy just as the gods and spirits are.¡¯

    ¡®But, weren¡¯t we born like a normal human would have been?¡¯

    ¡®Yes, Elves are the fey who are the most similar to the humans they were in their first incarnation over any other among the fey races. It really is an amazing thing, and they seem to have even developed the ability to help new fey to be born as elves as well with a process identical to the way humans are conceived and born.¡¯

    ¡®Well, if that¡¯s how it works, then what really is the difference between an elf an a human at that rate? Just the fact that elves need the spirit energy of humans?¡¯

    ¡®As well as the fact that Elves breath out mana just like any other among the fey.¡¯ Gaerien answered my questions conclusively like that. ¡®Well, there is likely also the fact that, as a fey, the physical strength of an elf would be far greater than a similarly built human.¡¯ Well, if that was how it was, it was really no wonder elves would be known for being a graceful people.

    There is an absurd misconception picked up during the body-building ¡°muscle beach¡± craze of the 80s that somehow strength and grace were opposites to each other. The truth of the matter was, grace was the result of possessing so much physical strength that you can perfectly control the motion of your own body. The reason why the gigantic body builders who bulk up their biceps and their pecs to look like walls of flesh come off as lumbering and slow by comparison is not because large muscles limit your mobility. Rather, it¡¯s because those body builders of the past didn¡¯t know how to train their muscles properly, and only strengthened the largest muscles that show up the most.

    The body building community of the time shortly before I died had figured things out a lot better. You have to strengthen all the small muscles as well, and you need to pay attention to mobility. Also, strengthening the wrong muscles without balancing out by building up the opposing muscle as well can even cause damage to your joints. This was likely another reason for the whole ¡°lumbering oaf¡± portrayal of body builders in the past. Improper strengthening of the legs could cause damage to the knees, thus causing their movements to become slower and less graceful.

    No, a properly exercising individual who strengthened all muscle groups and evened out the antagonistic muscle groups would have phenomenal grace with a very strong body. If elves had naturally strong bodies, then the elve¡¯s ability to carry their bodies with grace would be far above what any human can manage, and that on a deceptively frail frame as well due to the demands the elves put on their bodies not stressing their muscles as much. The skinny elf arms then would not be because the elf was weak, and it would also not be the skinny arm that gives them the grace. Rather, it would be a shocking thing to anyone who knew better that an elf was able to move so gracefully despite having such a deceptively skinny frame.

    This was certainly a fascinating thought. However, this was getting rather far off track.

    ¡®So, from what you are saying, are the way elves are born unusual for the fey races?¡¯

    ¡®Oh yes, it certainly is not the way that most fey are born. Under normal circumstances, you either have the powerful souls who can be born a fey on their own and materialize into the world. These powerful fey were called faeries in the language back on Earth. There are also lesser fey that do not have enough power to materialize on their own. These ones often borrow the power of another soul, and the two souls combine into one body in order to produce their physical form. I suppose the best term for these types would be pseudo-fey? There are several different types of them, but they all share one thing in common. It is usually in the form of a sentient god-born in the upper body, with the lower half of a non-sentient god-born. And, they are usually given names that are different depending on what non-sentient fey makes up the lower body.¡¯

    ¡®So, like centaurs, fawns, and things like that?¡¯ I ask, trying to make sense of what I was being told.

    ¡®Yes, I think you¡¯re getting the idea.¡¯

    ¡®Well then, what about chimeras and manticores? Creatures comprised of multiple animals, none of which are human.¡¯

    ¡®Those¡­ are a special type of monster. The manner in which they are born is fairly similar to a fey in that it is a combination of several souls joining together, but they do not join in that way unless there is a something to help them out. They need a large amount of something called arcane energy in order for the animal souls to combine in that way and gain physical form without a sentient consciousness guiding them.¡¯

    ¡®Arcane energy? You will have to explain that one as well.¡¯

    ¡®Well, you know a lot about the physical things of this world but absolutely nothing about magic do you? Well, I suppose it¡¯s natural. The barrier against magic around earth had been up so long that magic had been entirely forgotten by those who lived on earth.¡¯

    ¡®Are you gloating now? You are a very impolite teacher you know.¡¯

    ¡®Sorry! Sorry. I just was a little surprised, it¡¯s something most of the gods knew before that one gained so much power in the world he could raise the barrier single handedly. You have no idea how absurd and outside the standard that sort of thing is.¡¯

    That one? Well, I could only think she would be talking about one god, one that does not go by a name who took the identity as ¡°God¡± as his name. A bit of pride rose up inside me, like one would feel pride in their ancestors long past. I hadn¡¯t been to church all that diligently, but my faith in my last life was strong enough for that to mean something. But¡­

    ¡®Stop it with this side nonsense, get to the point already. What¡¯s this bit about arcane magic?¡¯

    ¡®Not arcane magic, arcane energy. The two are different. Arcane magic is cast by using the mana breathed by the fey. They take the spirit energy of the god-born into their bodies, and then release mana. The mana then becomes the fuel for arcane magic. Arcane energy then is the residue left over from the spells. If the arcane energy is not purified, it can corrupt spirits, fey, and even god-born into horrible monsters. The chimera you spoke of are among those monsters that can be created.¡¯

    ¡®Anyway, enough about this¡¯ Gaerien said after she finished her point. ¡®Can you¡­ help me to start moving and talking like you? I was Ok with waiting before, but now that I know I can do something about it I can¡¯t wait to be able to move and talk like normal again!¡¯

    With that, Gaerien cut off my line of questioning. I had so much more I wanted to know about on the subjects she seemed to be deeply informed on, and these subject seemed to cover the exact kinds of information I needed to know in this new world that, if I¡¯m understanding this correctly, does not benefit from the anti-magic barrier of the previous world. I suppose it would have to wait for later though. Besides, I had already gotten far more information than I had just a few minutes ago, and what I already had gotten from her was going to be a lot to digest.

 Chapter 11: Things progress and things change

    From the moment I had discovered I could communicate with my sister Gaerien, who was in fact the very fallen goddess who helped me to save my grandaughter, the two of us began regularly helping one another to grow and adjust to this world. On my end, I helped her by telling her what kinds of physical exercises and what kinds of words she should be practicing in order to improve her ability to talk. I did not, however, direct her to do the ABCs as I did. I wanted something she could practice during the day without running the risk of alerting Levin and Rolwen before we were ready to talk with them.

    Gaerien did not seem entirely convinced that it would be all that important to take these precautions, but she did not go against me on it. However, she did tell me something that set at least one of my major fears at ease. Apparently, spirit energy was something that humans naturally produced as a by-product of simply living, kinda like the CO2 they create from breathing. As such, absorbing it as we do would not be doing any harm to them. In that case, using this analogy, it seems that fey like us would be plants. Comparing elves to plants seemed to make this a pretty fitting analogy.

    Even with that though, while the manner in which we fed ourselves did not seem to be something to cause harm to them it did not change the fact that them being abducted from their families likely did quite a bit of harm. In the case of these two, who clearly seemed to be reincarnators like myself, the blow would be mitigated somewhat. However, that would not be the same story for the other children here who were clearly normal children and who also clearly were not with their families. Because of this, my opinion about elves had not changed in the slightest. The only thing this did was make the tension and fear for the immediate near future lessen slightly.

    As for Gaerien, she returned what I did to assist her by teaching me what she knew about magic and how the extraordinary world of gods, spirits, fey, and monsters was structured. I didn¡¯t expect her to know much about this world in particular, but at least she could give me the corner pieces to the puzzle and then I could work my way inward from there. However, as she was explaining about how these things in the magical world worked, she managed to offer one rather stunning piece of information.

    This revelation came one day when she was teaching me about the arcane energies and the mutations they cause. Apparently, it is easy for someone without training to accidentally take these arcane energies into their bodies, fey and spirits mistaking it for spirit energy and humans or other animals, or rather ¡°god-born¡± as she called them, mistaking it for mana. In fact, several animals simply take it into their bodies naturally it seems. Apparently, according to her, the specific kinds of monsters that appear and what people choose to call them vary by what kind of creatures are around and what the sentient races choose to call them. This is when the bomb shell dropped.

    ¡®Actually, just like with those Centaurs or Manticores you mentioned before, it is very likely that you might know more about these monsters than I do.¡¯

    ¡®And exactly how would I know anything about these kinds of monsters?¡¯ I had asked. ¡®There has been no magic on Earth for, how long did you say? Thousands of years at least. And for that matter, any monsters here would be completely different from those that would show up on Earth.¡¯

    ¡®Well, it¡¯s actually BECAUSE of the barrier that humans who lived on Earth might know more about the worlds outside of Earth than almost any god.¡¯ From here, she went on to explain several things about spirit energy, gods, and how the world within the barrier that surrounded earth differed greatly from the world outside of it.

    The most important thing in all of this was that spirit energy contained the thoughts, memories, and emotions of the person who radiated it. Gods could not just pick up spirit energy like the fey, it had to be willingly directed at them by the humans who followed them, via those humans attempting to communicate with that god by projecting their spirit energy. By her description, it sounded an awful lot like she was describing prayer.

    Since the anti-magic barrier had also eliminated the conditions that make it possible for souls to become fey, and with gods only able to absorb spirit energy directed at them, this meant that a lot of unclaimed spirit energy was building up in the atmosphere of the earth and it became rather dense.

    So, apparently, after spirit energy sits around and becomes stagnant for long enough, the thoughts attached to it begin to wear away and get replaced by thoughts and memories that were copied from other spirit energy. This turned Earth into an environment where it was even possible to pick up on the thoughts of people from other worlds. And, humans who were especially sensitive to spirit energy were able to read these thoughts from the other worlds and interpreted it as their own imagination. The more creative among those sensitive people would then portray the memories of strange creatures they would have picked up in stories, literature, and art work.

    Because of this, while gods could not pick up on this spirit energy from other worlds, humans could, and humans would then use art as a medium to tell all the other humans of earth about these things. So, in other words, the fantasy and folk lore of Earth was, in fact, the best guide someone from Earth could possibly have to what could be expected from this world so long as one could pick out what was inspired from messages from the other world and what was simply inserted by the artist¡¯s imagination.

    Going back to my puzzle analogy, for get the corner pieces, this information was tantamount to giving me a completed frame of all the side pieces already assembled. I may still have to grope around to discern fact from fiction on a few points, but it gives me a huge starting point. At the very least, I ought to be able to figure out the identity of most creatures I¡¯m looking at by sight, and if I can recall enough folk lore then I might have the ability to make a reasonable guess as to what kinds of abilities the creature may have.

    Taking that as my starting point, I could also make some deductions as to what creatures might exist out there. The most likely creatures to exist here in this world are the ones that are most enduring and popularized in the fantasy stories of Earth. So, this would mean trolls, goblins, ogres, orcs, harpies, mermaids, and things like that. Well, harpies may even be another type of fey come to think of it. And mermaids too for that matter. I¡¯m not 100% on harpies, but there¡¯s no chance mermaids are not members of that variety of fey that have the upper half of a human and the lower half of some animal their souls dominated.

    Now, there is one other highly popular creature of fairy tales and myths. This one, perhaps even more common and popular than all those others combined. There are even stories about creatures of this sort in every culture told by every people regardless of whether or not they had ever been in contact with one another. Every culture around the world tells the story of some form of great flying scaled beast. There are some details that are different, but every version tells of them having some other great power as well. As the European version tells it, they breathe fire. As the people of eastern Asia tell it, they have power over the very weather, and can create storms on a whim. In the west, this creature is called the Dragon.

    It was a frightening thing to think about, but there was no real getting around it. Dragons were just too well known on Earth not to have been from this world, that according to Gaerien was likely our next door neighbor. The elves were proof of that apparently. Or, more to the point, the fact that I had seemed to think elves were something common as a type of fey. Rather, Gaerien had said that elves are a truly absurd mutation among the fey, something she had never seen or heard of in the time before the Earth was sealed behind its barrier. It may in fact be the case that elves only existed on this world and no other. And, the fact that they were so well known in Earth¡¯s folk lore and fantasy community meant that this world had to be in very close proximity to Earth on whatever higher dimension plane our souls and spirit energy travels through.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    At any rate, while I had begun teaching Gaerien how to improve her body and brain, her increased level of activity did not go unnoticed by Rolwen, Levin, and Mr. Eirlathion. Oh, right, Mr. Eirlathion was the ¡°Ether¡± guy who''s name I had a lot of trouble with at first. I had finally learned how his name was supposed to be said. However, I always added ¡°Mr.¡± to it in my mind, because he was an adult after all. Although, he was an elf still. I would still add the Mr. though, not so much as a term of respect, but as a marker of distance as I was not going to be feeling too familiar with him.

    As I was saying though, those three took immediate notice of how active Gaerien had gotten. Since Rolwen, Levin, and I were starting to get pretty good with Elven by this point as well, I was able to understand their comments and how they wondered if Rolwen and Levin had somehow switched us. Yes, I was a little less active since Gaerien started up, especially during the day. As fun as it would have been to string them along with this perception that Gaerien was me, I did quickly break the illusion when the Elven language lessons started when I clearly demonstrated that I was better at talking than my, until now, completely unpracticed older sister.

    As for my personal goals, I may have been less active during the day, but I certainly did not slack off. In fact, I was starting to become a little bit of an insomniac, since I started training more regularly and often wind up practicing on moving and talking all night. In the past few months, in addition to becoming far more fluent in Elven than I would have thought possible in such a short time, I also started to practice moving a lot more. I felt as though I always had energy to do more, and Gaerien simply could not understand how I was doing it since she still seemed to sleep as much as she always had.

    The strange thing is, I have never really felt any sense of anything being wrong when I stayed awake. I have been noticing more and more that I really don¡¯t even need to sleep at all. For the most part, while I take advantage of my ability to move, I try my best not to wake anyone. I have not tried leaving the bed yet, I am afraid I might not be able to get back in and I might worry everyone. However, I have managed to be able to sit up and crawl. I haven¡¯t tried standing yet, but I feel that it shouldn¡¯t be too far off.

    So far as the physical benchmarks though, I am only slightly ahead of a human baby. Although, I assume this means I am absolutely absurd for an elven baby. I have been noticing that the boys are growing a lot faster than I am after all, despite me being the one who is supposed to be in the more rapid development period. So, this would definitely indicate that elves grow slower. I mean, my teeth hadn¡¯t even started coming in yet. I would be way past due for that if I were a human baby. That in mind, even though I¡¯m holding back quite a bit on what I show Vs. what I¡¯m capable of I am probably already making poor Mr. Eirlathion¡¯s head spin.

    Levin and Rolwen don¡¯t seem to have that solid a concept of even human baby developmental benchmarks, so they don¡¯t seem as bothered. Because of this, it means I get to enjoy watching him walk around in an astonished daze by himself. Speaking of the boys, I haven¡¯t actually told them about me being from the same world as them yet. I have been playing to the illusion so much until now that I haven¡¯t been able to find the time or the right words. I will probably have to wake them up some time after everyone else is asleep. That¡¯s how it¡¯s going to have to be. It seems like Mr. Eirlathion has been listening in on the ¡°English lessons¡± the boys were giving me, and when he asked the boys seemed more than happy to teach him as well.

    That was one miscalculation in my plans, but there is little I can do about it now. He speaks English. Not well, but I know from my own experiences that usually as you learn a language you are able to understand a lot more than you can speak. It¡¯s enough that it¡¯s simply not worth the risk, which means that now I will have considerably less freedom in communicating with the boys than I had thought. So, talking with them at night it is.

    With that in mind, I sat and watched Rolwen, Levin, and Gaerien sleep. In times like these, despite being the youngest of the group in this life, I felt like myself in my previous life again, filled with the memories of the sleeping faces of my own children. Rolwen and Levin seemed to be approaching 2 years of age now, and while it was not as driven as it was in my case, they seem to have been rapidly exploring their bodies as well and were already pretty good at walking and moving around.

    Thankfully, they have decided on their own not to talk about their status as reincarnators. I have heard them talking over these past months, they seem very aware of the fact that they were kidnapped and have developed their own mistrust of elves. However, they do seem to keep debating with each other on occasion as to whether or not they should talk to Eirlathion since he seems ¡°nice¡± to them.

    Well, considering the direction of their conversations, even if I did tell them about me being like them, it would only mean that I could be included in their occasional debates on the subject, but at least it would mean I could get my opinion in. However, there was one more reason why I would really have to tell them about myself soon. They seem to be talking in increasingly hushed tones whenever they discuss the subject lately, and often discuss it more in terms of the pronoun game, debating whether or not to tell about ¡°that¡± rather than specifying anything about the subject they are discussing. They also used to exchange information about who they were in their previous lives, but now that has stopped as well, every time with a paranoid look toward Gaerien and I.

    It¡¯s rather obvious that they are very concerned about us hearing them now that we are demonstrating ourselves becoming better and better at talking. I really should not have allowed this to go on for so long. There is no choice. I will have to tell them. I made my resolve. I would tell them about it tonight. I would be waking them up once everyone else was asleep.

    Making my resolve, I laid my head down and closed my eyes. It really doesn¡¯t seem like I need sleep anymore, but my body is still capable of it in cases where I become bored.

    -

    That day, when Eirlathion came in, he made a rather shocking announcement.

    [I think it is probably time. I don¡¯t think you should be living here anymore. You two should be enough for the girls, the four of you will be living in my house from now on.] He said. He simply declared it like that, leaving no room for negotiation.

    [Why?] Levin demanded with a quaking voice, slightly delayed as he probably wanted to say something different but couldn¡¯t find the right words in Elven to say it.

    [What about them?] Rolwen came in to the rescue, indicating their brothers and sisters in the room. ¡°Our family!¡± He switched to English for that word, probably the exact word Levin had been struggling to find as well. That¡¯s right, I don¡¯t think Eirlathion ever actually taught us the Elven word for family.

    Eirlathion seemed a little bit confused for a moment, but then he looked around and it seemed to click for them. [Oh, you mean your family?] (nosse) He got a difficult expression on his face for a moment, and by this point the discussion had attracted the attention of the other kids in the room. [Look, I¡¯m sorry.] He said, leaning in really close to us. [I can tell you the reason later, but we really need to do this in order to take care of the girls. It¡¯s¡­ well, I don¡¯t think you can understand it right now, but this is really important.]

    After saying that, he reached down and lifted me right out of Levin¡¯s arms. What the hell was this bastard doing!? I started struggling to quickly remove my blanket so I could fight him off. As this was going on, I saw him dip his finger in a bottle of something he pulled out from a pocket in his robes, and then before I could really get my arms out to do anything I had the by now familiar unpleasant experience of having this guy¡¯s finger shoved into my mouth. Only, this time, instead of sweat tasting berry juice it was the bitter taste of some kind of herb.

    [I¡¯m sorry, I know it doesn¡¯t taste good.] He says with a remorseful face as he hands me back to Levin, who holds me possessively and turns his body to the side to protect me with his shoulder against any repeated attempts of that sort.

    [What did you do to her!?] He demands. At the same time, I hear Gaerien start to cry. And¡­ as I¡¯m looking up at Eirlathion, I manage to catch a slight smirk on his face as his eyes glance over in my sister¡¯s direction.

    [She¡¯ll be Ok, it¡¯s just a little bit of some new medicine.] He says. [That¡¯s why we need to move to my house, there are more treatments I would like to try that could help them.]

    As he is talking, I begin to feel the sensation of a dull non-painful paresthesia creeping down my arms, and my head feels like it¡¯s swimming. At the same time, I begin to get a sense of tunnel vision. I recognize these symptoms immediately as the onset of drug-induced sleep. That stuff must have been infused with alcohol or something, because it entered my bloodstream immediately and is already having this powerful of an effect.

    This is not good. I feel like I¡¯m fading fast here. I may not require sleep to get by anymore, but that gives me no actual resistance to drug-induced sleep. I am only just barely able to stay conscious long enough to see how the boys continue to argue with Eirlathion, and eventually he leaves the room, saying something about how he was going to have to have someone help. I wasn¡¯t really clear on the exact words he used due to my drowsy state, but given the situation I was able to quite easily figure out the meaning. However, by the time he returned, I had already succumbed to the effects of the drug that bastard had given me.

 Chapter 12: Of two minds

    I still felt drowsy as I was waking up, and I started looking around to see unfamiliar surroundings as I was in a room far smaller than what I had grown used to. I immediately started to feel anxious, and I let out a breath as I began my taijutsu meditation. It was one of the things I had regained from my previous life, a way to keep my mind focused even under the most stressful of situations. And, right now, this was my first time in this life seeing any space other than the nursery I had been raised in for the past half year or so.

    The meditation, while lessening it, did not completely eliminate the stress or anxiousness. But, I had realized it was at least something that kept me from crying which seemed to be something I had been doing a lot more easily since being reborn as a baby. It does not eliminate or control my emotions, it only allows me to continue functioning and making effective decisions while in a stirred up emotional state, preventing me from acting purely on instinct. And, due to having become a baby again in this life, my instincts were now to cry whenever I was upset. It made me glad somewhat that this focusing of the mind at least allowed me to not do something as embarrassing and non-productive as acting like the baby I¡¯ve literally become.

    With my meditation focusing my mind, I was able to keep alert. However, with me not being able to let it out by crying, the anxiousness I was feeling quickly decided to take another form as I instantly became restless despite how drowsy I was. Before I even managed to fully confirm my surroundings, I was already violently struggling against the confines of the blanket I was wrapped in. I looked around and noticed that Levin was not holding me. In fact, he was not next to me at all. This managed to make my infant brain even more anxious as my body was now almost completely controlling my actions and emotions while my mind full of my past-life experiences was now only able to just barely constrain the urge to break down crying as loudly as I could.

    Without even thinking about whether or not it should be shown in front of others, I immediately sat up the moment I threw the blanket off. I found Gaerien next to me, but after that I immediately identified Rolwen and Levin across the room. This looked like it could be an opportunity to find out from Gaerien exactly what the situation was. That is probably what I would have done had my past-life consciousness been in control. However, my baby Aerien brain had completely taken over by this point. Before I could even stop myself, I found myself reaching out toward the boys.

    ¡°Levin! LEVIN!!!¡± I started crying out in a distressed voice. I was sitting on some kind of mat of some kind of organic matter, which in turn seemed to be on top of a low table. As soon as I saw Levin, my urge to go toward him was enough to overpower any rationality, and my meditation did not help. In fact, if anything it backfired on me. The main cause of this was that my taijutsu meditation almost demanded that my body remain active. Image training or preparation for action can become a weak substitute, but nothing beats actually moving your physical body, and so since what my baby mind wanted and what the meditation demanded were one in the same at this point, I leaned forward and took a tumble right off the edge of the low table.

    ¡°Wow! Aerien!¡± One of the boys exclaimed, and I was happy to realize it was probably Levin.

    In my case, as soon as my mind realized the crisis I was in, baby Aerien¡¯s impulsive desires were instantly banished and the old 60 year old taijutsu master was back in complete control. In my old life, if I was falling a distance of my body length or greater like this, I would have put my arms up over my head , ducked my head down, made my body into a ball and attempted to make my elbow get first contact with the ground before going into a tuck and roll. However, there were two things working against that here. One, my head was now more than twice as big compared to my body as it was when I was an adult in my previous life. The second was that the entire length of my body was only about a foot and a half. And, if gravity in this world was even close to what it was on Earth, this meant that instead of the 1.1 seconds I would have to pull off this maneuver at 6 feet, at 1 foot I would only have 0.4 seconds. That difference of over half a second really mattered.

    Fortunately, 1 foot was not enough to build up a lot of momentum. Unfortunately, it was still just enough to kill me if my head hit the floor. So, what I ultimately wound up doing was something very close to the instinctive action of any falling person. I used my arms to brace myself against the fall. I did not, however, throw my hands out in front of me. That was a really good way to get a broken arm. Instead, I pulled my hands toward my chest and allowed myself to land on the backs of my hands, which were then followed immediately by my forearms and finally my elbows, and I managed to land like a cat as my knees touched down at exactly the same time as my elbows.

    ¡°I old yuuu dat uss a bad idea!¡± (I told you that was a bad idea!) Rolwen¡¯s voice said as the two of them were now up and running in my direction. In the meantime, I was kinda surprised that I didn¡¯t feel much pain from having my knees and elbows come in such hard contact with the wooden floor. Well, it wasn¡¯t that far of a fall, I didn¡¯t weigh a whole lot, and I still had baby fat, but still! It was like there was zero pain at all. And, if anything, having to face a crisis situation and awakening my full past-life mind had made my meditation which emphasized physical movement deeper. And, without pain and the crisis situation averted, baby Aerien¡¯s innocent desire to be close to the person she was used to being in physical contact with her 24/7 managed to re-assert themselves in an instant and I began pushing myself to my feet.

    ¡°Levin!¡± I yelled again when he got up to me. I grabbed at his shirt, almost pulling him down on top of me as I used him as a support to pull myself to my feet.

    (Oh jeeze! Aerien!) Levin, meanwhile, plopped himself into a sitting position right in front of me, causing me to have to put my hands on his shoulders in order to stand. As soon as I was standing, not even consciously aware of the fact that this was the first time I had actually stood up on my own in this life, I threw myself at him and clung to the front of his shirt. Now that baby Aerien was happy, my previous-life mind started laughing and scoffing at my actions inside my mind. It was perfectly normal and understandable for an infant to act this way, given the circumstances, but it was like some sappy love reunion of some sort. Considering he was actually a boy and I was a girl now, that immediately made me feel somewhat embarrassed.

    Up until now, I had been realizing more and more that I seemed to have some kind of a double consciousness. I had already figured one was my new self as a baby and the other was my past life self. The two seemed to be slowly merging together over time, but in periods of high stress like this I found more often than not it was my baby self that asserted itself with my past self only able to mildly guide my actions. Well, when you get right down to it, it¡¯s not at all different from being in a dissociative state. I was not entirely unfamiliar with this experience. In my past life, I had found my mother after she had passed away from an accidental overdose of her pain medication. I knew that she was dead just from looking at her, but that didn¡¯t stop me from yelling and shaking her in order to futilely try to wake her up. My mind kept scoffing at the pointless actions my body was taking. Finally, my disconnected mind told my body which seemed to be acting on its own ¡®you have to call 911.¡¯ That finally got me taking the appropriate actions.

    In much the same way, when I was under stress in this life, it was as though I lost control of my body. In those times, anything that comes from my past life knowledge stops guiding my actions and it is the impulsive baby Aerien that does the moving. And, for a baby¡¯s mind, there were a lot of things that were stressful that would seem perfectly normal to an adult. Such as, in this case, waking up without my living ¡°security blanket¡± next to me, especially when I was in a strange place I had never seen before.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    ¡°ueres dat uguy?¡± (Where¡¯s that guy?) I asked, clinging to Levin¡¯s shirt with my little hands as I looked around anxiously.

    ¡°Huh?¡± Rolwen responded.

    (That was scary! Ok, we shouldn¡¯t have them up there, maybe we should get Gaerien down too.) Levin said. After I had gained the ability to talk, I had finally straightened them out that I was Aerien and she was Gaerien, so they have been calling us correctly since then.

    (Yeah, I told you it was a bad idea!) Rolwen says again, pulling Gaerien off the table and holding her to his chest as he flopps down on the floor himself.

    ¡°Ahh!¡± Gaerien responds, apparently awake as well. I realize about now that they are not planning to answer my question about where that bastard was, so I begin looking around more and straining my ears in order to try and locate him.

    (Well, he said that we didn¡¯t need to hold them as much while we were here, but I didn¡¯t think they would get up and fall off like that!) Levin said. I felt my breath catch in my chest as I heard it was him that was a part of the reason why I was by myself when I woke up. As I felt myself finding yet another reason to dislike him, my past-life mind just had to laugh at how illogical my baby thought process was. Indeed, it may be the case that my baby self completely took over when I was stressed, but I could feel my two minds in action almost all the time now, the baby self and the past-life self.

    Most of the time, it just gave my past-life self a good source of entertainment as it laughed and tried to straighten out my baby self. Indeed, my past-life self seemed to be quite capable of teaching my baby self, and since my baby self never had trouble understanding my past-life self¡¯s meaning, I learned very very fast and was considerably smarter than a normal baby. At some point, I had reached the conclusion that the source of this was probably the difference between my physical brain and my memories from my past life that were too advanced for it. Both were the real me, and when I was alone in my thoughts I could easily access both, but in order to make it something natural for me my past-life self had to teach my physical brain these concepts it couldn¡¯t currently process.

    In this case though, both my baby brain and past-life mind hated that Eirlathion guy, and so the admonishment from my past-life self did nothing to calm my baby self. I was still accepting the poor logic concept that it was his fault that all that just now happened, even though I knew it wasn¡¯t.

    For the most part, I had managed to make this two minds thing work out alright for me. However, right now, the far more impulsive baby Aerien had taken far too much control and, not finding any nearby sign of Eirlathion in this room and not hearing him in the immediate vicinity, decided that now was the right time to deliver a message my past-self and been meticulously preparing for quite a while, but never finding the right time to say it.

    ¡°I haf to tell yuu zomething.¡± I said, holding on to Levin¡¯s shirt. ¡°Levin! I haf to tell yuu zomething!¡± I was shaking him, trying to make sure he was paying attention to me this time. I was a little annoyed that they didn¡¯t answer my last question about where Eirlathion was.

    ¡°Whad!?¡± Levin responded, looking down at me. It seemed my activity and insistent tone had gotten Rolwen¡¯s attention as well, and he was curiously looking over in my direction. At that moment, I decided to deliver the one line that would leave no doubt to the claims I was about to make. I had picked it out as something they could instantly relate to, and it was something that only someone from our previous life could possibly know. More importantly, it was not something either of them had ever talked about when they were chatting with each other about their previous life before they started becoming more cautious about it.

    ¡°doughnald rump us bresident before we died.¡± I said. After these words, what greeted me in response was pure silence. Not a single person said a word. ¡°I¡¯m like you!¡± I said after they had enough time for it to sink in. ¡°I¡¯m like you nd Rolwen!¡± Despite being impulsive, my baby self had managed to deliver the exact message, down to the exact word, that my past-life self had decided on.

    I had noticed from their conversations that they seemed to have been a lot younger than I was, and so they talked about a lot of pop culture that I didn¡¯t know about. And, due to the generation gap, I was not at all sure if they would be able to relate to any cultural references I might be able to make. However, naming the US president was something that any English speaking person would know immediately, regardless of what generation they were from. So long as they were not an elementary school age child, they would know who the current US president was, even if they lived in another English speaking country like the UK or Australia, and even if they lived in some other non-English speaking country and just happened to have learned English themselves, chances are they would still know it.

    As for why I said that as the very first thing out of my mouth before I delivered the actual message that I was like them, well, there were two reasons for that. One was that my hard palate had not fused yet, so no matter how hard I trained my ability to speak it was impossible for me to say something like ¡°reincarnated¡± without it sounding like a total mess that they would never understand. I had to stick to simple words such as ¡°I¡¯m like you.¡± However, if I had said that first, chances are they would mistake my meaning as something along the lines of ¡°I like you,¡± since that wouldn¡¯t be too unusual for a baby to say once they knew how to speak as well as I did. They simply would not understand what I meant until I said the thing that could not possibly be disregarded or misinterpreted.

    And, going by the shocked expressions on their faces, it seemed like it had the exact intended effect.

    ¡°What!?¡± Levin said, looking down at me with eyes bulging out of his head.

    (I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t tell you before.) I said, looking down in my embarrassment and shame.

    ¡°Wow!¡± Rolwen said, looking over here as he cradled Gaerien in his lap.

    (Wow! Seriously, Aerien!? You¡­ why didn¡¯t you ever say anything!?) Levin says, lifting me up and looking me in the eyes with an excitement so great it actually started to scare my poor baby self. Fortunately, she trusted Levin, and because my past-life self kinda expected this kind of reaction, so did my baby self, and thus I was kinda prepared for it, so I was able to keep my cool and asnwer his question calmly.

    (Well, I couldn''t talk well enough before. I¡¯m only about half a year old! And also¡­ them.) I looked toward the nearest window as I finished this sentence, and upon following my gaze Rolwen and Levin seemed to immediately understand.

    ¡°Yeaah.¡± Levin said with a far-off and somewhat darkened expression. (Well, I¡¯m happy to know you¡¯re like us though. It would be scary if it was just me and Rolwen in this house.) Levin said.

    It is at about this point my past-life self realizes just what was probably going through my baby self¡¯s mind when she decided to pick this moment to spill the beans. It seemed like a rather inappropriate time, but.. really, it turns out my baby self was probably thinking about how Levin and Rolwen were feeling. Did this mean, somehow my baby self was expressing empathy? No, no, that¡¯s WAY too freaking advanced of a mental concept for a baby to have. She could have picked it up from my past self though. While we oddly separate on the level of surface consciousness, this was not the first time I came to notice that my baby self was able to access what could only be subconscious knowledge from my past self. Of course, that was the exact reason why my baby self was always able to understand what the past self was trying to explain to her immediately, and why I was able to understand these things so quickly.

    At any rate, well, it was an impulsive action but it was definitely for the right reasons. And, even if Eirlathion was near by, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s likely to understand the contents of this conversation very well.

    (Oh! Levin! I just got an idea! Can you take care of Gaerien for a little bit?) Rolwen said, gently placing my sister next to him. Gaerien got an irritated look on her face and began pulling off her own blanket as soon as she was on the floor. Meanwhile, Rolwen ran off toward a set of stairs leading downward that I hadn¡¯t noticed before. And, as soon as he got there, he crouched down, put his hand on the bars holding up the hand rail, and began trying to creep down the stairs as quietly as he could.

    Levin and I were both watching what he was doing, and it was immediately clear what he was doing. So, neither of us said another word about it and instead Levin¡¯s gaze fell to Gaerien for a moment and then he looked back at me with a concerned expression before talking to me in a hushed tone. (Hey, what about Gaerien?) He asks.

    (Yeah, me too!) She answers for me finally getting the blanket off successfully. Unlike me though, she is not yet capable of sitting up on her own, so she is just left to flail around on the floor for now. Well, at least she can more easily look around now and turn her head to take in the room.

    (Yeah, her too.) I confirm. (That¡¯s how we can both already talk. Also, both our English is better than our Elven.)

    (Yeah, that¡¯s right.) Levin comments. (Why didn¡¯t I ever notice that!?) Levin has a face that looks like he¡¯s kicking himself.

    [Hey Rolwen! Is that Aerien I hear up there?] All of us immediately freeze at the sound of those words spoken in Elven. More to the point, the person who said them. Rolwen seems to take the most reasonable response for a kid in our position to take in response to that. He does not say a word, and simply runs right back up the stairs, and then immediately comes straight to us, only stopping to reach down and grab Gaerien before huddling in with us and holding on to Gaerien protectively.

    Well, it seems our important conversation has been cut short for now. We all hear a sigh, and then with barely a sound in the seconds to follow we eventually see the head of long dark hair and pointed elven ears attached to Eirlathion cresting from the stair well. And with that, the excited conversation is switched to silence and a heavy atmosphere between the four of us as the man who betrayed our trust enters the room.

 Chapter 13: Reasons and regrets

    I began to cling even tighter to Levin¡¯s chest as that man approached us. Because his last action I remembered was to grab me straight from Levin¡¯s arms and then drug me, I kept a very distrustful eye on him as I peeked from behind Levin¡¯s shoulder as the others seemed to turn away from him in protest.

    My past life self couldn¡¯t help but mentally sigh at this. Of all of us, only Gaerien was older than he was, but I really can¡¯t help it. I¡¯m just a baby and, well, I was the one who that guy grabbed like that. It was a little bit of a traumatic experience. I know from my past-life memories this should really rank as nothing in terms of what is and isn¡¯t a trauma, but I really can¡¯t help the way I feel.

    That guy let out a sigh when he saw this, and of course it wound up being Levin, or rather, me that he walked straight toward after he finished his apparent mental preparations. I had kept my eye on him while he was at a distance, but as soon as he knelt down behind Levin¡¯s back I immediately let out a small squeak-like whimper in my throat as I ducked down and hid myself against Levin¡¯s chest.

    ¡°Aerien rashwe mani?¡± [What¡¯s wrong Aerien?] He says. I see his hand on Levin¡¯s shoulder and his head peering over. Levin, in response, let¡¯s out a defiant groan and pulls away, getting another sigh out of that guy. [I¡¯m sorry Levin, I know I upset you by taking you before, but I need to check on Aerien right now.] I felt Levin¡¯s entire body being pulled, and me along with it, as he began to struggle. After this, his hands were on me once again, trying to pull me from Levin¡¯s arms.

    [Don¡¯t! She doesn¡¯t like that!] He protested.

    ¡®Old man, help me!¡¯ I said a despirate prayer to my past self as I tried my best to use the meditation he taught me in order to give myself up completely to him so he could control my actions. I knew my little baby body was way too small to use any of the techniques I knew in my previous life properly. If he were at least unprepared, I might be able to do something. However, he was actively trying to get ahold of me right now, so every single aspect of his weight distribution was prepared and he had no weak line along any angle I could exploit with my small body.

    Since there was no way for me to effectively fight him now, I would save my tricks for when they might actually work. Instead, what I did was while he was trying to losen Levin¡¯s grip, I willingly let go of Levin¡¯s shirt and tilted myself out of his arms and rolled right into his. This may seem like a completely paradoxical thing to do if the goal is not to let him take me from Levin, but this was like a chinese finger trap. If I helped Levin to resist him, he would just wind up taking a strong grip on one of my arms or legs or something. However, if I made certain to let myself fall right into his arms in a way where his hands were touching nothing but my torso, I could actually keep control of the situation.

    I felt the tension leave that guy¡¯s arms having thought he succeeded. That was the very second he lost. All I really had to do was just sit up during the exact half second interval between his thought that he succeeded and the time he managed to successfully adjust his grip. And, with that, I wriggled right out and landed on the floor. After this, I rolled over to my hands and knees and pressed my feet hard to the floor, moving with everything I had to get behind Levin¡¯s back. [Go away!] I shouted in Elven as I clung to the shirt on Levin¡¯s back.

    [Ok, ok, I¡¯m sorry Aerien.] He says, shaking his head. [I didn¡¯t mean any harm, I just had to check that you were Ok after the sleeping medicine. Well, if you can move like that you are probably fine.] He tried to circle around Levin to look at me. I just dove between Rolwen and Levin, and Levin quickly took me back into his lap and glared at that guy.

    He did not try to do anything else after that. He just remained crouched on the floor for several seconds before finally standing up. [Ok, ok, it looks like you don¡¯t like me very much.] I was hiding my face against Levin¡¯s chest at this time, so I could not see what kind of expression he had on his face. However, I guess he must have been standing there in thought or something because the next time I heard his voice he hadn¡¯t moved very much. [I guess you must really like Levin, huh? Sorry, I won¡¯t try to separate you from him anymore.]

    I heard that guy¡¯s soft footsteps, audible only by the slight rustling of his robes, coming in our direction again. I knew from my training in my previous life exactly what it took to move like that. It only took about 5 minutes to learn the basic tricks, but weeks of practice to perfect it and even more dicipline to make it a habit. Every time he lifted his foot, it would have to completely clear the ground in order to avoid any audible sound of scuffing, and then he would not simply allow his foot to fall to the floor after that. He would have to gently place his heel on the ground, then maintain the muscle tension in the front of his leg as he lowered his toes to the ground as well. Only after the entire foot was on the ground would he start actually allowing his weight to shift over the hip that leg was attached to. The mere fact he was able to take this entire procedure and make it such a habit he could move at a normal walking pace without it even really slowing him down spoke to just how much he had practiced this. If he had chosen different clothing and was conscious of the rustling of the fabric, it¡¯s very likely he could easily eliminate even that sound and move completely silently.

    After he had taken about three steps in our direction, I felt Levin¡¯s arm wrap protectively over my head, and then there was a very slight change in that guy¡¯s breathing that I could hear now with how close he was. His robes rustled again, and I could tell it was the sound of him straightening his posture back to a standing position. [Alright, I guess I will leave you all alone for a while. I will be downstairs. I will bring dinner up in a few hours.]

    I tried my best to track him with my ears as he retreated back toward the stairs. I had never really paid attention to it before since the nursery where we were before was always so noisy with all the other kids, but now that it was quiet enough around for me to actually try to pick up small sounds like people walking I found it absolutely unnerving that that guy had the ability to move so quietly like that. If he was one of my students from my previous life, I would have nothing but praises for him. Now, however, he was the enemy.

    Well, Ok, enemy seemed to go a little far, but I definitely didn¡¯t like him at all. Also, now that I was in on the secret with Rolwen and Levin, I could seriously feel the pressure from being unable to talk openly about it when someone could be hearing what we were saying at an inopprotuen time. That was the worst thing about it really. Never knowing when unwelcomed ears may be listening in. The mere lack of privacy was absolutely unnerving.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    -

    Eirlathion heaved a really heavy sigh as he sat down at the table. He was at a bit of a loss, it seemed like the children had taken being moved here a lot harder than he thought they would. Hopefully Aerien would get over it after a little while, she probably just got scared when he had taken her out of Levin¡¯s arms. She seemed really attached to him. He just wouldn¡¯t bother her for a while and maybe she would calm down once she saw he wasn¡¯t going to try anything with her anymore.

    Well, at least he wouldn¡¯t have to go through the motions of feeding the girls anymore. The reasons behind that were misguided from the beginning, he was more aware of that now than ever before. In fact, Aerien in particular may not even need to eat for her entire life, and so long as Gaerien stays with the three of them she should be in much the same position when it comes to the food of this world. Neither of them will be in any danger of loosing their physical forms. They would have to actually be physically harmed by someone in order for their lives to be in any danger.

    He would have stopped feeding them a long time ago if it weren¡¯t for him needing to keep up the image that they were ill. If the rest of the village found out the real reason why their skin was that color, well, most of the people would probably not have it in them to harm children, but all it took was one person who had the fear of their father¡¯s line overtake their morality to have disasterous consiquences. The best thing would be for everyone to keep thinking the girls were just sick.

    However, the illusion that they were sickly children was getting harder and harder to maintain with each passing day. Those girls¡­ they were just something incredible. Aerien was already starting to talk when she was only one month old, and then she continued her monsterous growth and development from there. He had heard that she liked to throw off her blanket at night, and would always get physically active as soon as Levin was not actively holding her. It also seemed that Gaerien was starting to pick up that same behavior, only she was becoming even more unruly. Aerien at least seemed to calm down when Levin was holding her, but Gaerien would struggle and throw off her blanket even in the middle of the day.

    Gaerien¡¯s increase in activity had posed the largest obsticle in getting the girls moved. He had told everyone that one was always fussy, while the other was lethargic. But now, they both seemed to be rather active, and not really in a way that could be considered ¡°fussy.¡± The level of energy they showed, it was the very picture of a healthy baby.

    There was no way the human woman that was the children¡¯s caretaker hadn¡¯t noticed this yet, she had already begun making comments about how they seemed to be doing so much better. This was when he knew he would have to move them. He had quickly come up with a story, saying that their mana and spirit energy consumption still was not good, but that they seemed to be recovering enough that they could probably stand a change in environment. He would move them to his own house in order to take better care of them. Of course, the real reason was not to cure them of their non-existent disease but to hide the fact that they were more than just healthy but still had that ashen skin.

    The abundant energy they demonstrated was going to work against him for this though. The brief time he had them in the open to move them to his house was probably not enough to really make anyone suspicious, but he couldn¡¯t take any risk when the girls¡¯ lives were at stake. This was why, in order to maintain the illusion, he had decided to give Aerien a sleeping drug. He really did not like the idea of drugging a child at all, but it was better than the alternative. He had brought along a strong tincture made from a leaves he had personally received from a dryad, and then sped the diffusion process with a time acceleration spell. If cast on a person, this spell would take years or even decades off of their life. But, for non-living objects such as this it was just the right thing. It was a very high level spell though, so it was still practically unheard of to use it like this.

    After giving Aerien the sleeping medicine, he heard Gaerien start crying almost immediately. This was an almost perfect response. One of them sleeping, the other crying. With this, there wouldn¡¯t be a single person in the village who found something inconsistent with what they had heard about the girls. However, when he tried to check on how Aerien was doing with his mana sight, he saw something that absolutely scared the life out of him.

    All of the waves of spirit energy and mana that were being almost constantly released by Aerien had stopped. Not just that, they reversed. She was no longer letting out her own spirit energy. Instead, she was feeding off of Levin¡¯s. Well, ultimately this really just meant she was doing the same as any other elf her age would be doing, but when the norm for her is to radiate her own energy it seemed absolutely unnatural.

    He calmed himself from this shock, telling himself that maybe it was actually a good thing for now. He had been wondering how he was going to explain Aerien¡¯s aura to everyone. He had planned to just say that what they were feeling was actually Levin and he had somehow become stronger as he aged, but now he didn¡¯t even have to do that. However, it was still very concerning. Luckily, it seemed when he had gone up there a moment ago to check on her, her aura was not only back, it seemed it had even gotten stronger than before.

    It was amazing almost to the point of being unfair. Her aura seemed to grow in strength just as she grew. It was normally so hard for an elf to cultivate an energy like that, but for her it was just natural. Eirlathion doubted he could even be her magic tutor in the future, perhapse only the faeries could teach her what she needed to know.

    It all seemed to be going well. About the one real problem in all of this was the boys. He had thought they would be too young at this age to have grown any strong bonds with their families, and he had been closer to them every day than their own brothers and sisters who largely did their own thing throughout the day. Since he was on top of the girls all day every day in order to keep people from noticing how healthy they really were, the siblings were not even filling the purpose they were intended for in keeping the boys in line. There was very little interaction between them, and yet¡­

    Eirlathion had never really had interactions with humans this young before. Was it natural for them to have such a strong family bond from a young age like this? And yet, despite that, he had seen the way human parents treated their children. They beat their children, sold them as slaves, married their daughters off to adult men when they were no bigger than an elven 40 year old, what he was told was merely 10 to 12 years of age for a human. And then, after that, they had so many children. This wasn¡¯t bad in and of itself, but what he had heard from the changelings who have lived among the humans absolutely made his skin crawl. In many places, they didn¡¯t even give their children names until they reached the age of five. All of this because they were operating under the expectation that over half their children would die by that age.

    The way humans treated their children was absolutely disgusting, and yet¡­ those boys already had such a strong attachment to their families. If they had not been taken from their parents, they would be in a far worse situation than they were now, but Eirlathion could imagine they would have been equally as upset being taken from their parents. This was why the elves always used the magic laced in their music and their food in order to calm the children¡¯s minds when they took them, so they would not be distressed when they woke up. However, these poor boys had resisted that magic. Eirlathion was now getting a first hand glimpse into how much love a human child had for their family, and for them to have that much love when their parents would treat them so poorly, it practically made him seeth with the rage in his heart.

    He let out a breath. Those boys may hate him for a while as well. That was really going to make things difficult.

    For the next several days, Eirlation kept his interactions with the children to a minimum. Whenever he brought food for the boys, he tried to talk to them a little in order to slowly gain back their trust. He didn¡¯t think they would understand his reasons, how could a chlid so young understand how harsh the world could be? If he simply told them it was because he was afraid someone might hurt the girls, maybe they would understand, but it was also likely they might think he was lying.

    He did not say anything about that. Instead, all he did was just try to ask some simple question such as how they were settling in, trying to watch their reactions and gauge the level of hostility in their responses. He always had trouble gauging human ages, but they seemed to be close to an elf around the age of 5 to 7 at this point. Really young, a mere toddler. However, they seemed to have an amazingly sophisticated level of emotion in their response, and they could really hold a grudge. So, he gave them more space and more time. Now that they were safe from others who may discover the girls¡¯ secret, he could afford to give them as much space as they needed.

 Chapter 14: Planning and allies

    Since we got here, that guy had been acting really different around us. Everything in his words and actions said that he knew he had screwed up and that he knew we were mad at him. He also seemed to be walking on eggshells to a rather extreme degree around us.

    It did not go unnoticed that he was also no longer trying to give Gaerien and I our medicine. We asked him about this, and he responded that we didn¡¯t need it anymore. Confusingly enough though, after that he made the comment that we probably never did, and he had a rather strange self-depreciating smile on his face when he said that.

    Despite how much he tried to appease us and avoid doing any more harm though, any time we asked about going back to the nursery or having some of Rolwen and Levin¡¯s family come over here, his answer was always [I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m afraid I really can¡¯t let that happen,] and every time one of us asked the question or pushed the issue he stayed firm in his denials while getting an increasingly pained look on his face.

    With all of this going on, I was beginning to get a more and more clear picture that there was more to this than any of us knew. And, if I wanted answers, I was going to have to have to toss that guy an olive branch. I did not plan to make it easy for him though. I may wind up tipping my hand a little with what I had planned, but it was always impossible to get information durring a conversation without giving some information yourself. Besides, if I¡¯m reading this correctly, we shouldn¡¯t be in too much danger.

    Well then, all that¡¯s left is convincing the others. (I want to talk about something.) I said. I wish I could have given something to indicate a serious face or serious tone, but it was all impossible with this baby body. Fortunately, I was among people who could sympathise with my situation, so they were quite attentive.

    (What is it?) Rolwen said while Levin adjusted me in his lap and looked down while Gaerien simply looked up at me. She seemed to be having a somewhat harder time of this though since she was no longer wrapped in her blanket and had to get by with just her neck muscles. That was another thing that had changed since getting here. Rather than constantly making us stay restrained in those blankets, that guy had given us some proper clothes. That was more or less an announcement that he was not going to wrap us like that anymore. It was probably about the right time for me, but it still seems it was a little bit early for Gaerien.

    (I think that Ether guy is not telling us something.) I say to them.

    (Yeah, of course.) Levin responds. (Those elves are always hiding stuff from us.)

    (Wait, Ether guy?) Rolwen starts having a chuckle fit at my name for him. His laughing is infectious and Levin soon catches it as well. (I like it, that¡¯s great!)

    (Yeah, he has such a messed up name, I think Ether¡¯s a better name for him.) Levin chimes in. (Wait, didn¡¯t you always just call him ¡°that guy¡± before?)

    (Yeah, well¡­) If only they knew. I guess the fact that I had gone back to using my old name for him in my mind meant I had somehow already started to forgive him. Well, really it¡¯s probably just mental preparations for what I had planned for him. I was going to have to at least on the surface look like I was not mad at him anymore after this is done. Of course, this doesn¡¯t mean I wasn¡¯t going to make him work for it. (Well, I think what he¡¯s hiding this time is imp¡­ ahh¡­ imp-o)

    ¡°Imbortant?¡± Rolwen supplies the word I was getting stuck on.

    (Yes, and I hate you.) Levin begins to have a snicker fit rivaling Rolwen¡¯s chuckles from a moment ago at my simple little joke there, and I get a sort of sick satisfaction seeing Rolwen have to engage his past-life mind in order to realize that actually was a joke. I have begun to have something of an eye for when the others are more dominated by their current life or past life minds. It is someting that goes in and out for all of us. I have asked them about it before in the times we could get in these past few days, and it seems that while it happens for all of us and all of us are aware of it, I¡¯m the only one who has assigned separate personalities for my current and past-life minds.

    (so..) I say, moving on, (I think I can make him tell us what he¡¯s hiding.)

    (What do you mean?) Levin asks, (what do you think he¡¯s hiding?)

    (The real reason why he took us here)

    (What? Wasn¡¯t that because..) Levin trails off. I lay myself back in his arms so that I can look up at his face. These baby bodies and baby brains, or rather toddler bodies and brains in their cases, make it very hard for any of us to hide our emotions. Right now, the shock of realization is written all over Levin¡¯s face, and that realization seems to turn to anger almost immediately. (He hasn¡¯t been giving you medicine or anything to take care of you!!) He shouts, he is beginning to become restless too, like he wants to confront that guy right now about this.

    (Wow! You¡¯re right!) Rolwen is shocked as he realizes the same thing. Instead of anger though, the expression on his face is confusion.

    (That¡¯s because me and Gari are not sick.) I said, shortening Gaerien¡¯s name due to my difficulty in pronouncing it with my unfused hard palate.

    During all of this, Gaerien was just silently watching. I had discussed all of this with her before hand in far greater detail. Due to our ability to communicate mind to mind, it was far far easier for us to talk and explore things in more detail. Not only that, but when we communicated like that it seemed like both of us were 100% using our past life minds with zero interference from the baby brains to slow us down and make things difficult. She had already told me that she was going to stay out of this kind of difficult discussion. I was the better of the two of us at talking after all. She might join in if it¡¯s just something casual, but this was too serious a subject to have her tripping all over her words.

    The thoughts on her mind as this discussion passed were clear though. And that was¡­ she seemed to actually be a little exhasperated about the whole thing. That was always something that bothered me a little bit about her. She never said it to me directly, but the looks she often gave the boys when they were having difficulty with a concept were not something that ever quite sat right with me. Then again, I had seen that kind of ¡°what in the f¡¯ are you doing¡± look on babies¡¯ faces before, especially girls, so I¡¯m hoping it¡¯s nothing big.

    At any rate, Rolwen and Levin seemed rather surprised to hear me say this.

    (What!?)

    (What do you mean?)

    They both asked approximations of the same question. (Just that, we¡¯re not sick! I feel really healthy. I think we¡¯re fine.)

    (Yeah, I think so too, but¡­) Levin begins, and then it is Rolwen who finishes up his thought for him.

    (Everyone is always saying about your skin and stuff.) He says, and then looks down at Gaerien and holds his hand up to her face.

    (Don¡¯t do that!) She protests, pushing his hand away.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    (Ahh! Sorry!)

    (Well, I¡¯m going to ask him!) I boldly declare to them. (But, I needed you guys to know, I need to do the talking for this to work. Don¡¯t say anything and don¡¯t yell at him when I start talking to him.)

    (Ok, but¡­ do you really think it will be that easy?) Rolwen asks.

    (I¡¯m not going to just ask him. I¡¯m going to do an act, but that¡¯s why I need you to be quiet or else it will ruin it. If this works, he will tell us everything about this.)

    (What kind of act?) Of course, since they are children again as well, they¡¯re not going to be satisfied until they have all the details. There is no way for me to be vague and have them just be satisfied with it. So, I wind up having to keep answering their questions and ultimately I exhaust myself telling them every last meticulous detail about what I¡¯m going to do, what kind of effect doing that will have on him, how I have been watching and reading him over these past few days as well as, well, pretty much all my life when you get right down to it.

    I was actually incredibly good at manipulating people into telling me things in my previous life. There is absolutely zero question as to whether or not I am able to get what I want to know out of him. The only challenge is how much information about myself and the rest of us I¡¯m going to reveal along the way. It¡¯s absolutely impossible to avoid giving the slightest tip of the hand that at the very least I am a bit unusual.

    That¡¯s the absolute bear minimum that will be revealed. Since they have decided to drag this much information out of me though, I decide to go ahead and pose the question as to whether or not they want to volunteer anything more than that. They seemed uncomfortable with the idea, so we ultimately decided to reveal no more than the bear minimum and we would make a decision on that later depending on what we hear from him during this confrontation.

    -

    Eirlathion POV

    Today was one of the rare days lately that Eirlathion was out of his house away from the children. It was clear that they hated him, but he had gotten used to them enough to know that they didn¡¯t cause much trouble while he wasn¡¯t watching them. He had heard that children often tended to get into all kinds of trouble if you didn¡¯t keep a constant eye on them, but he had no such experience with these particular children. It was to the point that it almost made him doubt what others were telling him about how typical children behaved.

    Despite how much leeway he felt he had with them though, he still rarely left his house since bringing them in. The last few days, he had been constantly working between cooking and trying to sew some new clothes for Aerien and Gaerien. Since babies were so infrequent among the elves, there were no such things as hand-me-downs here. Each article of clothing had to be made by hand.

    Besides that, even if the parents of the next youngest elf who would be around 15 this year (equivalent to a human 6 year old,) still had the clothing from when their child was an infant, he could not ask them for it. He also could not ask someone else to sew for him. If he said anything of the sort, it would reveal that the girls were so strong and healthy that they were moving about on their own way before any elven child should rightly be capable of such a thing. Honestly, Gaerien¡¯s growth rate was almost on par with that of a human, and even she¡¯s behind Aerien.

    At the rate things were going, it would only be a matter of months before the children even might start doubting any stories he could feed them about the girls being unhealthy. When that happened, they would start demanding to go outside. He had to find something he could do before that day came. This trip out was to try and start working on one plan that he had that might solve all of their problems.

    ¡°T¨²eth,¡± He called out to the only other person in the entire village who knew the girls¡¯ secret and had proven herself determined to keep it.

    ¡°Eirlathion!¡± She turned and had a frightened look when she saw who was talking to her. She looked down with a difficult expression as he was closing the distance between them, but by the time he was next to her she was looking up at him with a weak smile. ¡°So¡­ how are the girls?¡± She asked him.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s something I wanted to talk to you about.¡±

    ¡°Did¡­ something happen?¡± She asked. Well, you could probably say that. Eirlathion had to suppress a groan when he thought about how angry the kids seemed to still be with him.

    ¡°Well, they are not settling in well after the move to my place.¡± He said, looking down and shaking his head. ¡°But, there is something I really need to talk to you about in regards to them. I think we should probably go somewhere more private. Is your house acceptable?¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­ yeah, umm¡­ that¡¯s alright.¡± She respons with some obvious hesitation. ¡°This way.¡± She says in an almost mechanical voice. As she guides him to her house with nervous and stiff steps that occasionally scuff the leaves of the forrest floor, she repeatedly casts several nervous glances back to him. It is clear to Eirlathion what¡¯s on her mind. She probably thinks that her worst fear has come true. In a way, she¡¯s right. However, he hoped that in that he could also be something of a light of salvation for her. Well, he was hoping she would be the salvation to him and, more importantly, her daughters. As for her though, he may very well be the cause of the pits of the underworld seeming to open up beneath her feet and delivering her back into the hell she had previously escaped from.

    He had seen no purpose in antagonizing her before this point, but as things were progressing he saw no other choice than to involve her. The mere fact that she had kept the girls¡¯ fatherhood a secret until now indicated that she probably did not wish harm upon them, even if she wanted nothing to do with them. In this case though, he needed an ally. And, as the mother to those girls, so far as he was concerned it was her duty to ally herself to the cause of helping her daughters whether she wanted to or not.

    After a while, they approached a large tree, one of several of its kind that could be found throughout the area. The trunk was fairly wide and sturdy, it would take around 40 people linking hand to hand in order to encirlce the entire base of the trunk. Its bark was a fairly distinct shade of lime green, and it had several large roots and great branches that jutted out from it.

    T¨²eth approached the side of the tree when they got to it, and then she reached out and knocked on the firm bark twice, each time it let out a sharp and crisp sound that resonated throughout the area. Once she had done that, she stepped back as the solid wood she had just knocked on began to warp and twist until finally it formed an open hole in the side of the tree. On the other side of this hole was what looked like a fairly cozy home, if not a little lacking in decoration.

    T¨²eth walked through the doorway that had just formed like she was condemned to death, and quickly took a seat at the table in the center of the room. Eirlathion followed behind her and stopped to place his hand on the outer wall of the house, and then he closed his eyes to concentrate briefly. In response to this, the wall immediately closed behind him. After he confirmed the door was closed, he reached for a pouch at his waist. From this pouch, he pulled a small piece of fabric, a square about 1 inch on each side.

    Eirlathion held the fabric between his thumb and fore-finger as he made a tight fist, allowing the majority of the cloth to stick up, and then he brought his fist under his chin as he allowed his lips to touch the cloth for just a second, before letting out a breath that caused the square of fabric to flutter.

    After completing this action, Eirlathion pressed the square of fabric against the outer wall with a particularly intense look on his face.¡°Let no spirit nor soul nor tongue of man to er pass word of what is said. Guard these walls, and silence all ears.¡± After saying those words, the fabric immediately seemed to disolve, sublimating into the air as though it never existed.

    When Eirlathion had completed this ritual, he let out a sigh and went to claim the chair on the other side of the table from T¨²eth, who was now looking at him with a look as though she was too afraid to even look scared anymore. Her fear had turned to nervousness, and it was clear that after seeing his actions her mind was arguing with itself over all manner of possibilities. However, there was one that Eirlathion was certain was central to all the other thoughts that might be going through her head at this time.

    ¡°That was a sound isolation spell, nobody outside will hear anything that is said in this room.¡± He says. ¡°I think you know what I want to talk about.¡±

    ¡°Yeah...¡±T¨²eth responds.

    ¡°It¡¯s about the girl¡¯s father, I know the reason for their skin being that shade of grey is not because of some illness.¡±Upon hearing this, T¨²eth¡¯s entire body seems to sink slightly, but a slight weak smile seems to float on her face as the nervousness is replaced by a look of resignation. ¡°I have been trying with everything I have to prevent anyone else from being able to figure it out.¡± he adds.

    Eirlathion watches the mother of the girls that have been in his care for several long seconds as silence falls over the room. Her face seems parylized, but her eyes seem to be dancing about quite rapidly, indicating the storm of thoughts that are running through her head at this moment.

    ¡°I know.¡± She finally says. ¡°I.. I had alwasy been afraid, because you were always with them like that. I..¡±Eirlathion waves his hand lightly through the air, a signal that he does not need her to continue with her thought.

    ¡°There is something you should know. Those girls, their parentage is not the only thing that is unusual about them.¡±

    ¡°Wh.. what do you mean?¡±She responds.

    ¡°It¡¯s Aerien. She.. she produces her own spirit energy.¡±T¨²eth¡¯s head shoots straight up as though something had bit her when she hears this, and she immediately locks eyes directly with Eirlathion. ¡°I think, with this, we could probably gain the help of the fey court. I was planning to go to them and ask for them to help. If we can get the support of the faerie royals on our side, there won¡¯t be anybody who would try to hurt those girls.¡±

    ¡°H..how!?¡±T¨²eth asks with a shaky voice. ¡°How is that even possible?¡±

    ¡°I have seen it before,¡±Eirlathion says, ¡°but never in a child this young. Never in a child period for that matter. I really don¡¯t know for sure how she could have gotten to such a level this early in her life. I did not sense spirit energy from her when I examined her for the first time, or at least I don¡¯t think I did, but lately I have been noticing that it just gets stronger and stronger as she grows older. There is something about her that I absolutely do not understand, but.. at any rate, I am fairly certain the faerie queen herself may even take an interest in this when she hears about it. The fact that they are grey elves will no longer even matter. However, I am going to need your help for this.¡±

    ¡°Me? How?¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s really quite simple. I will be needing somebody to watch the children while I am gone, and given the circumstances I really can¡¯t trust just anyone. I need somebody who knows about their secret, but will absolutely not tell anyone else about it.¡±

    T¨²eth¡¯s eyes fall upon hearing this, staring directly at the table between them. It takes a while before she can even work up the strength to meet Eirlathion¡¯s eyes again after hearing what he expects her to do.

    ¡°It¡¯s not going to be immediately, but the sooner it is the better. For now, I would at least like for you to come and meet the girls and let them become comfortable with you. I told you the most shocking thing about them just now, but there really is a whole lot more to it. Both girls are also very advanced and intelligent for their age to a point it¡¯s almost frightening. You are going to have to get used to each other before we can set things in motion.¡±

    ¡°I.. I see.¡±T¨²eth responds. ¡°Well, I guess.. yes. I will do what I can.¡±

    Eirlathion gave a satisfied nod at her ascent. And with this, the confrontation both parties had been dreading but both knew had to happen at some point came to an end on a good note. From this point on, it would all just be a matter of working out the details.

 Chapter 15: Confrontations

    Eirlathion POV

    After briefing T¨²eth about just how developmentally advanced her daughters were for a little more, he told her he would need a couple days to prepare them to meet her. They made arrangements for her to come over in the afternoon a few days later, and he went back home.

    When he got there, he was incredibly shocked when he saw one of the girls sitting in a chair that had been pulled out. It was almost a commical sight seeing a little baby sit in a chair designed for an adult. Or rather, something about it felt very out of place actually BECAUSE she was properly sitting in it and wasn¡¯t trying to do anything like stand on it or use it to climb up to the table or anything of the sort. No, she just sat in the chair. She was sitting in it sideways, having turned her entire body to look in his direction, but she was still sitting in it.

    Eirlathion was tempted to think immediately that for something like this it had to be Aerien, but... there was no sign of Levin around anywhere. In fact, he could not see or hear any sign of any of them. The entire situation was starting to feel a little eerie as a matter of fact. Well, might as well settle which one she is with his typical method.

    When he began trying to carefully sense the flow of mana and spirit energy he distinctly felt a monsterous ammount of both rolling off of the child in front of him. This was actually somewhat shocking. The ammount had increased again. Now that he was around her in a more open and free environment, he had been beginning to notice that on occasion the waves of spirit energy Aerien produced were not quite the same as those of a human. Unlike with humans, hers seemed to gain and decrease in strength. However, they always seemed to be at their strongest when she was mad at him, and this was easily the strongest he had ever felt them.

    Eirlathion¡¯s face twitched a little as he imagined what this was going to be like. This was really not something he needed right now. He had only just walked in the door, so why would she be mad at a time like this? And for that matter, just where is Levin anyway.

    (Lie!) She suddenly shouts and points at him as he comes further into the house.

    ¡°Umm, hi Aerien. How did you get down here, did Levin leave you there?¡±

    (I tell him to!) She responds in her broken baby elven. That got his attention. Did she mean that she told Levin to put her on the chair like that and leave her there? Certainly not, she must just not fully understand what she¡¯s talking about or something.

    ¡°Heh, what¡¯s that? Did you tell Levin to leave you alone down here then?¡±

    (I did!) Eirlation didn¡¯t quite know what to do with that response. He had been about to walk up the stairs to ask Levin to come down and get her since he knew she usually seemed to get upset if anyone else tried to touch her. However, that was a pretty definite response that for some reason she wanted to be down here like this. He wasn¡¯t quite certain what to make of it, and this made him hesitate for a while.

    ¡°Well, why would you do something like that?¡±He asked, putting on an amused face and coming closer to her. He knew she was probably angry, but because she was a baby he could see her being angry as nothing really more than an innocent temper tantrum. Although, that being the case, Aerien seemed rather calm in her anger. He at least knew enough about children to realize this was very very unusual.

    (Because you lied.) She says. At this, Eirlathion suddenly realized that this already unusual situation was a lot more strange than he had first given it credit for. Was she confronting him about something? This seemed incredibly out of character for something a baby would do in far more ways than just one.

    ¡°I lied?¡± He responds. He still couldn¡¯t take this situation completely seriously, but despite that he also felt his blood beginning to run cold at this fairly direct accusation. ¡°umm... how did I lie?¡±

    (said we were sick.) Eirlathion¡¯s whole body stiffened when she said this. She said it in a small voice. Not a voice that was difficult to hear, but it had gone from her confrontational tone to something that sounded more like... what? Disappointment? Embarrasment? Lack of confidence? It probably wasn¡¯t disappointment. He would suspect that from an adult, but never from a little baby as young as her. None of that was the problem however.

    This was very bad. That was the one thing he did not want the children to realize at this point. This was way too early. His only solice was that the chlidren likely didn¡¯t know the method to open a door to this house, but at the rate Aerien¡¯s mind seemed to develop he knew that was only a matter of time and it would probably happen a lot sooner than he thought.

    He wanted to hit himself for thinking these children were well behaved and easy to deal with. Now he knew, they didn¡¯t get into the typical trouble because they were so smart. However, with them being this smart there was an entirely different kind of trouble they could get into.

    For now though, he had to buy time. Just a little more time to try to find a way to get things sorted out with them.

    (You¡¯re trying to lie again.) Eirlathion hadn¡¯t even said anything yet, but she called him out before he could even open his mouth, before he could even think of what he was going to say. How? When he looked up at her, she was staring straight at him. Somehow, this girl with her large face still full and round with babby fat and whispy translucent hair matted against the top of her head seemed like she was peering straight into his soul.

    ¡°Ehh... look, Aerien. I wasn¡¯t trying to be a bad person to you, Ok?¡±He let out a sigh. He was definitely in unknown territory with this girl here,

    (Tell me why you lie) Aerien said. Eirlathion was beginning to get a very incongruous feeling with every word she said. It did not seem like any one thing she said had any particular issue with it, and it¡¯s likely that even all together it would be entirely believable for a child to be saying these things. The intense look she was giving him was a little odd, but it was more a matter of the confident way in which she said everything and without even skipping a beat, as though she had been waiting for him to say something like what he just said. It was almost like she was actually steering the entire conversation.

    Any single individual thing about this confrontation in isolation could be seen as perfectly normal for a kid a few years older than her to be doing or saying, but this sense that she seemed to have so much control over the exchange... it just felt... wrong, in an unsettling sort of way.

    ¡°Ahh... well, I think you might be a little young to understand that right now Aerien.¡± He answered, feeling like he was sinking in quicksand somehow at this point in the conversation. That was the exact reason he had not told them anything up until now, he was fairly sure they simply wouldn¡¯t understand. How could a child understand that they were born as the result of their father doing something horrible to their mother, and that because of what their father was people were going to want to hurt them? These were things even an adult would have trouble fully understanding.

    However, when he tossed this phrase out there, it was not with the air of a confident adult sheltering a child from the world. It was him tossing it out in despiration at this point and trying to escape from this unsettling exchange.

    (I¡¯m going to keep being mad at you if you don¡¯t tell me.) A huge flag suddenly popped up in Eirlathion¡¯s mind when Aerien said this one. It was almost as though he had just been hit with something. Of everything she had said so far, this was the first one that really REALLY seemed to encompass every single aspect of the unsettling feeling he had been getting completely on its own. In this moment, the fringes of unsettling suspicion that were lingering around the edges of his mind all simply clicked together at once.

    He knew exactly what the source of the unease he had been feeling was now. The reason he had been feeling so uneasy since the moment he had begun this exchange with Aerien, it is because all of her words and actions are way too mature for a child her age. Her lisping speech and her limited elven vocabulary still make it sound very much like it is a baby talking, but there is a very definite sense of purpose and intention behind every single word that is spoken as though this entire thing was planned out in advance by somebody fairly used to having serious conversations of this sort.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Eirlathion looked Aerien straight in the eye. When he looked at her face, all he could see was a baby staring up at him. A baby that was a bit upset with him at the moment. However, the mere fact that this baby was matching his gaze as the seconds ticked by without fidgeting or breaking that gaze in any way seemed to further testify to a consciousness way beyond her years.

    Could it be, a changeling!? Eirlathion stood up from his chair and threw it aside as though he was preparing for battle. This was the first time Aerien seemed to react in surprise, and he felt her aura intensify even further as she gripped the sides of her chair.

    This intensification of her aura reminded him. She can¡¯t be a changeling. He just might have thought that if it wasn¡¯t for powerful aura filled with the spirit energy that should not be possessed naturally by any member of a fey race, and that mana that was far above and beyond what was natural for a fey to produce. And besides, why would a changeling risk exposing itself to get simple information like this that it should already know?

    Eirlathion let out a sigh. ¡°Aerien... wait there a minute, I need to go up and see the others.¡±After saying this, without giving any further explanation, he walked up the stairs to the second floor which he had prepared as the childrens¡¯ room. When he got there, he saw Rolwen holding Gaerien, and Levin standing there. All three of them were completely silent and staring straight at him. He had grown used to them not having warm faces for him by this point, but this time they had something different about the look on their faces. They seemed a little confused, but at the same time their looks seemed to be saying he shouldn¡¯t be up here right now and he should still be back down stairs.

    ¡°Levin, where is Aerien.¡±He asked. He was relatively sure that really was Aerien down there, but after the scary thought he had just had, he needed to make sure.

    (What?) All three of them got a serious look of confusion on their faces at this question. However, that confusion on their faces ultimately served to ease his heart further. (You were just talking to her downstairs.) The boy kept looking between his friend and Eirlathion, but Eirlathion just had a relieved smile on his face as he heard this.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± He said. ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± He looked at the three of them and showed them an even bigger smile. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m going to go back down and talk her now.¡±

    ¡°Wha..? Whad uuas dat?¡± He heard Levin¡¯s voice talking in their own language as he left.

    ¡°I dunno, at uuas weird. He¡¯z crazy!¡±

    Eirlathion still had some trouble with their language. He could only guess at the meaning of what Rolwen had said in response to Levin, but he mostly knew the words Levin had used at least. They may think his actions just now were bizzare, but he had needed the peace of mind that exchange just now had given him.

    Now, this just brought him back to his previous problem. He was still not really sure how he was going to respond to Aerien, but it was becoming abundantly clear that her growth was even more frightening than he had initially thought. If it was like this, well... he didn¡¯t know the full extent of her growth, but it seemed there might actually be an existing possibility she could actually wrap her head around the circumstances of her own birth. It was pretty clear, he was going to have to tell her far sooner than he had ever anticipated. Not today though. His heart was simply not ready for it today.

    By the time he got down, Aerien had jumpped down from the chair and was now using it as a support to hold herself up. This gave him still more peace of mind. It was still ludicrously early for her to be walking, but by now that sort of thing was expected from Aerien. The more important thing was that she actually did still need the chair to support herself, something a changeling would not require.

    Eirlathion knelt down in front of Aerien, getting closer to her eye level, and smiled gently at her. ¡°Aerien, I.. I¡¯m going to need to think for a little while. I promise I will answer your questions later, Ok? Right now I¡¯m really tired.¡±

    ¡°Mmm..¡± She responds, furrowing her brows and clearly not happy about that answer. (You gotta tell me everything, Ok?) She said.

    ¡°Yes, I promise.¡± He said, shaking his head at himself. At this rate, he was certain she was going to hold him to that promise. If he didn¡¯t tell her everything she wanted to know on this subject, he was probably going to have an even worse time of it than what he had just experienced.

    (Ok!) She responds, and then lets go of the chair and begins stumbling, immediately loosing her balance and throwing herself at his folded leg. After she had successfully caught herself, Eirlathion felt her intense aura dissipate significantly. It was still strong, but now it was down to only being close to matching what the boys put out. She fixed her balance, using his leg as her support, and then she looked directly into his eyes with a smile. (Carry me up!) She demands.

    Eirlathion shakes his head with a chuckle and lifts her up in his arms exactly as she had asked. At the same time, he has a very pleasant smile of his own. This would not be the first time he had picked her up, but every time before this she would immediately get very upset. This would be the first time she actually willingly allowed him to do this. ¡°Alright. After I¡¯m done telling you everything you want, I think I might have a few questions for you too little lady.¡±He said as he began to ascend the stairs once again in order to return her to her beloved human.

    -

    Aerien POV

    Well, that kinda surprised me there at the end. He freaked out a lot more than I had expected. Things had more or less been going to plan until something I said seemed to set him off in some strange way.

    The plan was pretty simple. And, actually, I had wound up making some modifications to my approach after talking thoroughly to Levin and Rolwen about it. As I was talking to them, I was painfully reminded of just how much we are influenced by our baby brains in these new bodies as they couldn¡¯t help themselves but ask one question after another. They managed to ask slightly more informed questions than just saying ¡°why¡± over and over again, but they were still acting very much like the children they looked like.

    I realized I was going to have to modify my approach into something that wouldn¡¯t be thrown off if my baby side started to take more dominance. So, I worked toward an angle of being obsessed and upset over the very central point I was trying to get down to from the beginning. That was the fact that he was lying about something. With that, I could allow baby Aerien to get swept up in the emotions she felt about being lied to and wanting to get him to tell the truth. Meanwhile, my past-life mind could make sure that the right key words were said to prevent him from weasling out of anything and continue guiding the conversation toward him telling me what we wanted to hear.

    However, things went wrong at some point. Something spooked him, and I was still trying to figure out what. It all still seemed to work out in the end, he promised to tell me everything, but... I can¡¯t help the feeling I tipped my hand way more than I had intended to.

    I had already decided from the beginning how I was going to get back upstairs. I had seen how hard he was trying to work for forgiveness to close the gap between us. If you want to train someone to do what you want them to, you have to reward the behavior you are trying to promote. So, I was going to give him what he wanted, some kind of gesture of forgiveness. I was confident in my ability to drag something out of him, so I had always intended from the beginning to have him carry me back upstairs. What I got was not the information I wanted, it was just a promise. However, I decided to call it a successive approximation and just go with it.

    When we got upstairs, he walked straight to Levin and put me straight into his arms. [Here you go,] he said, [you take good care of her, alright Levin?] He still had a bit of a haunted smile on his face, he hadn¡¯t completely gotten over whatever it was that spooked him. [I¡¯ll be getting dinner ready for all of you, things are going to start getting busy this week. We will have a guest over in a few days.]

    A guest!? That¡¯s new. Well, we haven¡¯t really been around this house long enough to know how frequently he does or doesn¡¯t have guests over, but he seemed to give the impression he didn¡¯t have a very large social life with how often he had been over with us at the nursery before. Well, if that was the case, I suppose it might not be very soon that he makes good on his promise.

    After saying this, he left the room and went back down stairs.

    (What was that all about?) Rolwen murmers as he watches that guy leave.

    ¡®Ether guy¡¯I remind myself. ¡®Remember, you¡¯re supposed to forgive him. He¡¯s Ether guy again.¡¯Ether guy was certainly not his name either, and would definitely be seen as an insult coming from anyone but a baby just learning to talk. Still, it is definitely better than ¡°that guy.¡± And besides that, I actually AM a baby just learning to talk, so it all works out ok.

    (Aerien, what do you think?) Levin asked.

    ¡°uuh?¡±I respond, snapping out of my thought process.

    (He was acting really really weird.) Levin said.

    ¡°Ummm...¡± I cast a glance down the stairs. I really wasn¡¯t sure whether or not I should start making theories while... that, err... Ether guy was in ear shot.

    You know what? Screw it. I decided I was tired of hiding so much, it was getting quite tiresome. I had already revealed that I was pretty darn intelligent. That may even be a large part of what got him so riled up. Him overhearing me talking smart was not going to make the situation any worse.

    Or would it? As I was in the middle of thinking that, I just realized exactly what it probably was that got him so upset. The problem is, I had no way to explain how I knew it since it came entirely from my past-life knowledge.

    (I think I know, but...) I make a gesture with my hand toward the far corner, farthest away from the stairs. This is the place where we have taken to doing our secret talks when Ether guy is here. The boys brought Gaerien and I over, and then we all crouched down in the corner and got our heads close together. Since I was going to do the talking and the boys were likely to be far more absorbed in listening, Gaerien took up position with her back to the wall and her eyes to the stairs so she could warn us if Mr. silent steps Ether guy came up.

    (So, first, what did he say exactly when he came up here?) I asked to make sure. I was sure I heard him as clear as can be, but I pretended I didn¡¯t so that they could repeat it. Doing so would probably help in their understanding.

    (He asked me where YOU were.) Levin said, pointing straight at me. (Even though you were right down stairs and he was just talking to you, he asked me where you were.)

    (Like he thought I might also be upstairs?) I asked.

    (Yeah... huh!?) Levin responds, suddenly realizing the implications of that possibility.

    (I think he might have thought I was a shape shifter or changeling or something.) I tell him. Actually, changeling is probably exactly what he thought. There was plenty of Earth lore about changelings associated with Faeries. According to Gaerien, Earth lore is likely to offer more insight to what was in this world than anything she could tell me, so that should give us a pretty good road map to what these changelings were.

    (Changelings... err... well, they are closely associated with Faeries. You see, faeries kidnap children just like the elves did with you, but when a faery kidnaps a child, they replace them with a changeling and that changeling acts like the child and even uses their shape-shifting power to mimic human growth, they are very very good at acting like children, but since they are actually very old and very wise they can sometimes be caught by saying something that sounds like it should be too beyond what a child should know.)

    I had actually clipped a little bit of Earth¡¯s lore on changelings from that explanation. The changelings were actually supposed to be deformed fairies, something of a birth defect when a faery had a child. However, since Gaerien had told me that faeries definitely did not have children and were creatures that simply came into existence when a strong enough soul had a powerful will to live and became a fae, I could definitely rule out them actually being the offspring of faeries. That would be chalked up into the category of something that the Earth side had made up that is not actually how things work in this world.

    At any rate, I had not thought of the possibility, but now that the possibility of changelings existing in this world had come up I realized it would probably be incredibly easy for me to be mistaken for a changeling. It was really no wonder Ether guy had gotten so upset. If I was the parent of a chlid who was talking like I was, changeling is probably the very very first thing that would jump to the top of my thoughts as well.

    All I could do was apologize in my mind to Ether guy. If we could reach an understanding after he tells us everything, I might start seriously negotiating with the boys to let him in on our secret. If nothing else, it would make it a lot easier for us to talk to each other if we didn¡¯t have to constantly worry about being overheard.

 Chapter 16: The truth I already knew

    I had thought that Ether guy might put off telling me the stuff I wanted to know until after his guest came and left. However, it was actually the next day, when he had given the boys their breakfast, that he suddenly blew those expectations away.

    [Aerien, would you like to come with me and talk about what we were talking about yesterday?] He asked with a very put-on smile. It looked like he was still a bit unprepared for what he was about to tell me, but I definitely had to give him credit for not making me wait too long.

    The boys had an uncertain look on their faces in response. Gaerien, meanwhile, seemed fairly satisfied things were moving this fast. My response was obvious. I gave him a big natural baby¡¯s smile with my whole face, and then I lifted up my arms in a ¡°carry me¡± pose as I reached for him. I have to say, the look on Levin¡¯s face when Ether guy picked me up out of his lap was actually kinda cute. It seemed like he actually felt a little betrayed that I had willingly allowed someone other than him to pick me up.

    After this, Ether guy carried me over to the top of the stairs leading down. He did not go down those stairs though. Instead, he turned to the wall opposite them and put his hand on it. I knew what came next. In the days since we came here, we had all witnessed this happen every day, sometimes even more than once in the same day. Part of the portion of the wall that jutted out from the rest of the outer wall receded until it was flush with the outside wall. What was left after the top half of a diagonal cut of this portion of wall had receded were stairs leading upward.

    None of us had ever been up those stairs before. However, since Ether guy always went up there every night it was pretty clear that was the way to his bedroom. It seemed he wanted to make this discussion a little more private than the confrontation I had set up the previous day.

    He carried me up, and once he reached the top of the stairs he placed his hand on the outer wall of the building, and then the floor behind us closed leaving this as a circular room with no exit what so ever. I began to look around the room. What I saw, was. Well, it really did not look like any bedroom I would choose to sleep in. There was a bed in the room tucked into a far corner, but that was about the only bedroom-like thing about it.

    There was no two ways of looking at it. This was the perfect image of what would be called a magician¡¯s laboratory. It looked less like he had his lab equipment in his bedroom and a lot more like some lab tech had decided to bring their bed to their lab because they were too obsessed with research and wanted to just sleep right next to their experiments.

    The majority of the room was dominated by a two long counters full of work stations and set up with multiple pieces of equipment. Some seemed to be things Aerien recognized from her previous life. Test tubes, flasks, beakers, distilling coils, and something that was probably what qualified as a burner in this world. However, there were a lot of other things that could only be some kinds of magical objects. And, just as would be expected from an elf, there were a lot of plants in this laboratory.

    The outer walls seemed to be full of cabinets and other storage devices. If this was anything like an Earth laboratory, there should also be something that served as an incubator or a place for cultured items or experiments that needed a growth or settling in period. These outer counters also seemed to have a number of living plants, as one would expect from such a set-up. Aerien may have not recognized exactly what any of these things were, but the logic of how this room was arranged seemed to follow pretty well with what one would expect from a proper lab set-up.

    Overall, he seemed to keep the area pretty neat and well kept. There seemed to be a few active experimental items and equipment on the central tables which should be the active work stations, but for the most part the majority of the items were on the outer counters and arranged in a neat fashion and over half the space in the center counters was clear so that a new experiment could be started at any time without having to clear away space and risk misplacing materials or messing up something that¡¯s still ongoing.

    Ether guy carried me around the room for a little while, looking about presumably for where we were going to set up for our conversation. He briefly eyed one of the center lab tables, but then seemed to chuckle at himself and shake his head. Ultimately, he wound up carrying me over to the bed. He placed me on his bed, while he himself got down to sit on the floor.

    [Alright,] he said with an uncomfortable expression and avoided eye contact with me. [So, I told you I would tell you everything you wanted to know, right? Well, let¡¯s see where should I begin¡­] This seemed like it was probably going to take a while, and I immediately noticed I was sitting in the middle of the bed without any back support. This might become an issue later, especially since I had grown so used to always using Levin¡¯s chest or arm as my back-rest. The worst part was actually exactly the thing that Ether guy had probably done out of consideration for me. If I was looking up at him, that would align my spine a little differently, and it would be easier to sit here like this for a long period of time. However, with my head tilted down at him, that bowed my spine and put extra stresses on my back muscles. That was going to definitely become an issue if this discussion lasted for too long.

    Well, it would probably distract and discourage him if I started acting to fix this problem immediately. Let¡¯s just sit and listen to him for now and see if I can find a way to get a little back support later.

    Ether guy looked up, having apparently arrived at where he was going to start this off. [Well then, first I think I should probably ask you something. Have Levin or Rolwen ever talked about their mother or father?]

    ¡°umma..?¡± [yeaah..?] I responded, not even having to pretend to be confused by this question.

    [Do you know what a mother and father are?] He asked. Well, of course I did, but then I realized why he was probably asking this question. I had never even once encountered my father in this world, and the day I was born was the very last day I had any contact what so ever with my mother to my knowledge. I was a bit cautious now after realizing I had been mistaken for a changeling yesterday, so I should probably stick to the expected answer for now and pretend not to know what the words mother and father refer to. I don¡¯t think I can seriously answer his question with a ¡°no,¡± so instead I simply kept quiet and stared back at him.

    Ether guy let out a sigh, and I felt really bad for him as he had a clearly troubled look on his face as he tried to figure out how to explain what a mother and father were to someone like me who had never even experienced even one single bit of contact with their parents, at least not in this life.

    [Well, your mother and father, they¡­ they are the reason why babies like you get born. You need both of them in order to make a baby because they both give a part of themselves in order to make you. Normally, after you are born, they also are supposed to take care of you, but¡­ well, things are a little harder in your case.] Poor Ether guy. I really do sorta feel bad for him for making him explain this sorta thing. It¡¯s obviously painful for him too. However, I really can¡¯t find any reasonable explanation for how I should know something that would let him off the hook here. Plus, I had some suspicion as to where this conversation might be going.

    [Anyway, your father was¡­ he was not like normal elves like me, your mother, or any of the other elves here in this village. He was something called a dark elf. People are normally afraid of dark elves, so, it would be very bad if anyone found out about your father.] He looked up at me after he said this, and then he reached out to put his hand on the bed next to my leg.

    [You see how my skin is different from the color of your skin Aerien? Well, that¡¯s because of your father being a dark elf. An elf¡¯s skin can also get that color if they are really sick, but for you it¡¯s not because you are sick, it¡¯s actually normal. But, you know how I said that people are afraid of dark elves? Well, they will be afraid of you too if they find out your father was a dark elf. And, they might do bad things to you.]Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Well, things were definitely starting to make sense now. Actually, I already had my suspicions this might be the case. This was not the first time I had heard of the concept of dark elves. They were not that prominent in older fantasies, they were mostly the product of more modern brands of gaming.

    The origin of the modern stories about dark elves actually originated from the Lord of the Rings trilogy in which the Orcs were a mutated and corrupted form of elf. However, following that series, the Orcs became their own species that had no connection to elves what so ever. This did not stop the image of a corrupted and mutated form of elf that was buried in the collective consciousness from going away though, and soon the hole left by the Orcs was filled with the name ¡°dark elf,¡± keeping the name simple and this time explicitly tying it to the elven race.

    Given the relatively recent introduction of dark elves into Earth¡¯s fantasy lore, I was not completely certain they would exist in this world. Although, it actually was something I had considered several times looking at the difference in my skin color. It just seemed like a pretty reasonable conclusion. But, due to my doubts, I never really fully committed to believing it. However, I guess now I have my confirmation. So, dark evles actually do exist in this world. And, judging by the fact that my mother was also not around and seemed to have abandoned Gaerien and I immediately after our birth, I suppose it might be reasonable to assume the union between this dark elf and our mother was not a Romeo and Juliet situation.

    Taking my silence as confusion, Eirlathion let out a sigh. [I don¡¯t know if you can understand any of that, but¡­ well, the thing is that people might hurt you if they see you and realize your father was a dark elf. If they think you are sick they might not notice, but if they realize you are healthy then they might realize your father was a dark elf, and then they might hurt you. That¡¯s why I was always telling everyone that you were sick.]

    [Do you understand all of that Aerien?] He asked.

    [Yeah.] I respond again.

    [Really,] he says with a doubtful expression. [You know what? You¡¯re pretty smart Aerien, but it¡¯s Ok if you are confused about what I just told you about.] He fixes me with a searching expression, probably wondering whether or not he should keep talking about this more. [Anyway, the important thing is, you can¡¯t go outside and if anyone sees you then you have to make them think you are sick.]

    Again, I decide to not really say anything. Instead, I just match his gaze for a little while. It is perfectly normal for a baby to not talk much after all, especially one that¡¯s just learning to talk. Babies just learning to talk are more likely to listen a lot to adults talking, and then give a lot of one word responses to things when they think they should be saying something. Most of the time though, they just return everything with a confused look as their brains try to process the words they just heard as their brains are still unfamiliar with the language and are just figuring it out.

    [Do you understand Aerien? If somebody finds out your father was a dark elf, they might hurt you, so you can¡¯t go outside.]

    [Ok.] I respond, going into my character as a baby and giving the appropriate response. Eirlathion seems to look relieved at this.

    [Ok. And also, if there is anyone else around, I need you to stay really really close to Levin all the time, Ok? You¡¯re supposed to be pretending you are sick, and sick children like to stay very close to humans. So, if you see anyone other than me, I don¡¯t want you to go away from Levin at all, Ok?]

    [Yeah!] I reply.

    [Alright, that¡¯s good.] He says, sighing in relief. [Well, I guess I might have to tell Gaerien about this sort of thing too when she¡¯s ready.] He makes an unpleasant expression at that.

    [I¡¯ll tell her!] I respond, finally having something completely in character I can say that would ease his burden a little.

    [Really? That¡¯s good then. Just make sure Gaerien also knows she shouldn¡¯t go too far away from Rolwen on her own.]

    [Yeah!] I gave him an assuring smile, to which he responded with a light smile of his own. His face darkened a second later though, and he looked like he had more to say.

    [There was something else I wanted to talk to you about too Aerien.] He said with a somewhat serious face. [You know how I talked about mothers and fathers before? Well, your mother is going to be coming here in a couple days. You remember how I told you about a guest coming over?]

    I sat up in surprise and looked at him at this. My mother was coming? That was his guest he was wanting to have over!? That¡­ really gave me a lot of mixed feelings, especially considering what I just heard. The one I decided to let show on my face was the one that should be most appropriate though. That this had absolutely nothing to do with me. The reason he was probably having her over was so that he could start trying to have her interact with us more, so it really had a lot to do with me and Gaerien and it was going to affect pretty much our entire group in a big way if suddenly mine and Gaerien¡¯s mom was around all of a sudden, especially if this went what would be considered ¡°well¡± from his standard and this became a much more regular thing.

    In my case though, my mother was my mother from my previous life, and she had long since passed away. My mother from this life had done nothing to build a bond with me, and therefore she meant absolutely nothing to me. I had some sympathy for her and her situation, and there was no good reason to deny her the chance to see her children if she was going to finally try to do so, even if that child was me. However, it would really be all the same to me if she didn¡¯t do a thing and just stayed gone. In fact, it might even be a bit of an inconvenience that she was coming into my life now all of a sudden. Those were my real emotions that I couldn¡¯t show. The only thing I could show was just the baseline indifference about it. The most appropriate thing for someone in my position to feel.

    [Anyway, I told you it would be bad if anyone found out you were not sick, but¡­ your mother is someone who already knows about who your father was, so she¡¯s not going to hurt you. You don¡¯t have to worry about her like you have to worry about other people.]

    ¡°Mmm¡­¡± I reasoned. Contrary to his assurances, I actually decided to put on a worried expression to this. Or rather, maybe it was the baby brain responding to Ether guy¡¯s tone. Or, it could even be the baby brain responding to how annoyed I felt at this whole thing all of a sudden now that I was able to get away with it. Whatever it was, I decided to tell myself it was just good acting, since that actually is a perfectly believable response given the situation as well.

    [Don¡¯t worry,] he said. [Your mother just wants to get to know you better, it will be good for you to have her around.]

    That was good advice to be sure. It should be a good thing for a child to be with their parents. My situation was just a little strange, and that¡¯s not just because of the whole past life thing. In fact, rather than my current self that never knew her mother, I was finding that it was actually my past self that was more skeptical to his words.

    [Well, do you want to go back down to Levin now?] He asks. I know for sure that the large amounts of happiness I felt at that suggestion have to have been coming from my current self. A large smile spread across my face.

    [Yeah!] I respond and begin reaching out to him. Ether guy gives a gentle chuckle at this and then immediately stands and picks me up.

    -

    (So, what did you talk about?)

    The boys had held off on asking me anything about this until after they had finished eating and Ether guy had taken their plates back down stairs. Once again, we were sitting in our little corner of the room, and this time everyone was curious, including Gaerien.

    (Well, it seems Ether guy had a good reason for this stuff. Me and Gari are not normal elves.) Gaerien made an unpleasant face at this.

    (Is it really dark elves then?) She asks. I had already filled her in on my suspicions about the whole thing before the confrontation a while back ever happened in one of our mind-to-mind discussions. Talking out loud was still rather frustrating with my unfused hard palate, so I couldn¡¯t have long discussions to explore possibilities with the boys. I could only do that sort of thing with Gaerien. As such, she was completely filled in on all of my suspicions.

    (Yeah, our dad was a dark elf. He didn¡¯t say anything, but I think it was rape how we were born.) This got similarly harsh looks from the boys. I¡¯m not sure how well they were understanding the implications of us being half dark elves, but it definitely seemed like hearing that Gaerien and I were children of rape got to them. That, at least, was a concept from our previous life that could be quite easily understood.

    (So is that why your mommy¡¯s not anywhere around too?) Levin asks.

    (Other way around,) I answered. (That¡¯s the reason I don¡¯t think it was her choice.) Yes, I hadn¡¯t been told anything directly, but it seemed entirely reasonable to suspect given the circumstances. Still, I knew better than to make too much of a definite statement and later be proven wrong. And also, I guess despite the very strong evidence pointing in that direction, I still wanted to hold out a hope that it wasn¡¯t true.

    (Anyway,) I continued, (Ether guy is trying to hide that we are half dark elves from the rest of the people here by saying we are sick. It seems like they might want to hurt us if they find out. So, if there is ever someone else around who can see us, we are supposed to cling to you two and not be too energetic.)

    (Ok, so, we should do that when Ether guy¡¯s guest comes over?) Levin asked, having followed the conversation to this point.

    ¡°bwell¡­ acsuu¡­. AHH!¡±

    (Actually?) Rolwen once again offered the word I was having trouble with.

    (Yees!) I groan in annoyance. It was a fun little gag at first, but now it really was getting annoying how I kept having this situation come up. (But what I want to say is, it¡¯s actually mommy who¡¯s Ether guy¡¯s guest, so she already knows of course.)

    (Ok.) Levin responds.

    (I still think we should act like me and Gari are sick though. It would let us pra¡­ err.. try it, and also be good for our other cover.) They all gave nods at this. (This does bring up one other thing though. I don¡¯t know bout mommy yet, but do we want to keep lying to Ether guy? It will make it easier if we let him know.)

    (Well¡­ I don¡¯t know. And¡­ what if he tells your mom!?) Rolwen protests.

    (We¡¯re not going to tell them now, I just wanted you to start thinking about it.) I told them. (I actually don¡¯t like elves much either, and I am one. Ether guy seems like a good guy though, and he can keep a secret. I don¡¯t know if I want to tell him either, but he does sound trust worthy from up there today I think.)

    After some more assurances, we decided to put that matter on hold and began discussing the issue of how to handle our mother¡¯s visit in more detail. The boys were already familiar with the whole thing with elves being fed by spirit energy, it had been explained to them quite thoroughly by Ether guy back when we were in the nursery. As such, it was just a matter of trying to make sure our acting didn¡¯t look TOO good, but still relayed that we decided not to trust this new guest that was coming because we had been scared by the warnings he had given and I had passed along.

    Who knows? If Ether guy sees that we are getting good at hiding this as well, he might let up a little and allow Levin and Rolwen¡¯s siblings over for a visit.

 Chapter 17: Feigning illness

    Eirlathion POV

    Eirlathion was sitting in a corner of the ground-floor room of his house. He sat cross-legged with his hands in a relaxed position, his eyes closed peacefully. Inside his mind though, he was quite active at this moment.

    He had to stay downstairs in order to be accessible to the children in case something went wrong, but they really rarely bothered him. This meant that he had ample time to himself in a house where three of the four other people in it produced an unmatched abundance of spirit energy. In this situation, there was no self-respecting elven mage who would not attempt to cultivate and progress their access to the magic of this world.

    Elves produced mana naturally. This gave them a very large advantage in the area of magic at lower levels. It was as though they started their life at what humans call the fourth level of mage craft. However, the elves also naturally lacked the spirit energy needed to bind mana to their spell slots, and on top of that they needed to consume spirit energy just to live.

    They could get enough spirit energy to just barely sustain themselves from the plants and animals of the forest, but in order to train as a mage they either needed access to a human, preferably a child, or train their craft in the presence of the fey royalty who had taken in such an amount of spirit energy over their lives they had re-shaped their own souls in order to produce spirit energy as they would if they were a member of a different race. The latter, of course, was an option available to only the most privileged who had received the special interest of the fey court.

    Humans only needed to form their own spirit energy into a vessel and begin to bind mana that they had received from outside themselves. Any member of the fey however needed to gather a great amount of spirit energy just to create such a vessel. In Eirlathion¡¯s case though, he had such easy access to any excess spirit energy Gaerien hadn¡¯t gobbled up with her astounding appetite for the stuff that he found it fairly easy to cultivate.

    That such a small child could consume such an outrageous amount by herself was another matter entirely. He had not payed it much mind since the prospect of Aerien producing her own spirit energy was so outrageous. Meanwhile, for a child to require so much spirit energy a mage could form a rank seven spell vessel with it every day could be easily seen as a handicap. He had not paid much attention to this before since it was natural for a child to need a lot of spirit energy, but what she was consuming was several tens of times greater than what any child ought to need. Gaerien¡¯s case may in fact be every single bit as strange as Aerien¡¯s, only in her case something may actually be wrong with her. Perhaps it is a lucky thing for her to have been born with the good fortune to have a sister who could make up for it and two humans at hand with such phenomenal spirit energy of their own.

    Despite all the energy that Gaerien consumed though, there was still a fair amount left over that he could utilize as well, and because of this his progress since living with these children really was amazing. For decades leading up until now, Eirlathion hadn¡¯t been able to form a single new spell vessel. However, in the six months that he had spent every day in the nursery he had built up his spirit energy and managed to significantly expand his foundation, forming new spell vessels for the second, third, and fourth ranks. He already had a few spell vessels at those ranks, but having more expanded the amount of magic he could use in any given day.

    This however also helped to expand his foundation. A mage needed several lower rank spell vessels before they could even attempt to form one of a higher rank. The bare minimum was two of the rank below it before you could attempt to form one of a higher rank for the first time. Just the day before, Eirlathion had finally accomplished it. He had formed his very first spell vessel of the fifth rank, bringing him into what the humans referred to as the ninth level.

    It was not anything truly impressive, especially compared to the royalty of the fey. It would be at the fifteenth level that your soul was re-formed to produce spiritual energy as they did. However, among the elves, this placed him as one of the most accomplished mages in his entire life time. Given the inherent difficulty for the fey to cultivate, the only reason the royalty were able to gain such high feats was due to the infinite lifespan enjoyed by the faeries. Unlocking fhe fourth tier of magic is normally the farthest an elf ever progresses, and Eirlathion had just unlocked the fifth due to these children.

    He had yet to attempt any use of this newly unlocked level though. He had only formed the vessel. This only gives him the ability. Now comes the second part. This is what¡¯s considered to be the hard part for humans. However, this is the one area the fey actually have the advantage once they have surmounted the hurdle of forming the spell vessel in the first place. Now he had to bind mana to it in order to ready it to handle a spell.

    Binding the mana was, of course, a far more simple process. All he had to do was focus on the form he had created the night before and line the edges of it with the mana produced from his own body. It was ideal for a fey to use their own mana. This would allow them to far more easily regain expended spells, and they could avoid the backlash humans often felt from spell casting that often even caused them to loose memory of having ever studied the spell they just got done casting. This was all the result of the humans using borrowed mana that was not their own. The humans were capable of advancing faster, but this backlash was something they faced as though in compensation for their rapid advance.

    Eirlathion did not think this spell vessel would be prepared today for use, it might even take in excess of a year or two, but thanks to the children he was already a lot farther along than he would have ever thought possible. But, more importantly, the formation of a new vessel at a rank higher than he had ever achieved before would help to extend his life span by nearly a century. He could afford to wait. For now, he was only doing this as a good use of his time as he waited for T¨²eth, the mother of the girls, to come.

    Eirlathion was snapped out of his concentration as he felt a pulse run through the house. This was the mana of someone coming from outside his home. For the elves who were all born with the ability to produce mana and learned as children how to manipulate it, this was equivalent to what humans would consider ¡°knocking.¡± There was nothing like a door on their homes, and so they always alerted each other with this method if they wanted to enter someone else¡¯s house.

    Eirlathion gave a smile, he decided he wanted to try something that not many elves could do. Most would have to go to the wall they wanted to have open. However, in Eirlathion¡¯s case, his mastery over his mana flow was precise enough he could do it from here. Without even getting up, he placed his hand on the floor and focused on the wall near the entryway to his house. The wood of his home reformed at that moment, creating a doorway to admit his guest.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    ¡°Come on in,¡± Eirlathion greeted her, still sitting on the floor. While he may have a rather low vantage point, the position of this corner of the room actually had a clear view of the entire lower floor, including the entryway. As such, he and T¨²eth had a very clear view of one another, and he saw the confused expression on her face when she did not immediately see him and then heard his voice coming from so much deeper in the room than she was expecting.

    ¡°Glad you could make it.¡± He said, as he rose to his feet, the opening closing behind T¨²eth in the meantime. ¡°The girls are upstairs with the humans, I took the two amazing young boys along with them. With how powerful their spirit energy is, it was rather believable that only the two of them would be enough.¡± Eirlathion had not abandoned his caution before talking so openly about this subject. The sound isolation spell he had cast on T¨²eth¡¯s house when he had visited was temporary and did not last a long time. However, for his own house, he had enchanted it with a permanent version of the same spell. Simply by having the door closed, it was no longer possible for any sound to escape to the outside and no form of magical scrying or listening could penetrate it.

    ¡°Ah, right.¡± She said. However, a moment after this exchange, a very concerned scowl passed over Eirlathion¡¯s face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± T¨²eth asked, having noticed this expression.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s Aerien.¡± He said. ¡°There¡¯s something I didn¡¯t really tell you before, it¡¯s the most unbelievable part of this whole thing. I told you that she can produce her own spirit energy, but... it¡¯s not consistent. When I gave her the sleeping medicine to disguise how healthy and energetic she was, she completely stopped producing spirit energy and began consuming it instead. Basically, she was no different from a normal baby when she was asleep.¡±

    He could see the confusion on her face from his explanation. Why was he telling her all this now? He was certain she was wondering about it, but there was a reason, and it concerned what he just felt. ¡°As soon as I started talking to you, the spirit energy in this place started dropping like a stone. I think Aerien heard us down here. I told her a few days ago, the day right after I visited you, that if there was ever somebody other than the five of us in the house that she should start acting like she¡¯s sick. I didn¡¯t think though that she actually had a way to control her ability to produce spirit energy to that degree. She seems to have just completely ceased to do it at all.¡±

    He saw T¨²eth¡¯s brows crease with his explanation, her face now filled with skepticism and annoyance. He had predicated her coming over here on the fact that Aerien had this amazing ability in the first place and the chance it offered to save her daughters. With it seeming to suddenly disappear the moment she walked in the door, it must look as though he was toying with her. The image this created certainly was not good.

    ¡°That girl,¡± he said, shaking his head at himself. This was quite the situation she had just put him in, there really were very few correct words that could be said in this situation given how unbelievable all of this is in the first place. He would not believe it himself if he had not watched these girls grow up, having been at their side every day since the week after their birth. ¡°Aerien is incredibly smart for her age, so much so that it¡¯s downright scary. If you can come on up with me, I¡¯m sure I can have a talk with her. I can¡¯t really predict how she might behave toward you, but I hope you are able to get along.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± T¨²eth responded. ¡°But, you had better be telling me the truth. I got my hopes up when you said they might be saved, if you just said this to get me here...¡±

    ¡°I assure you I did not!¡± He cuts her off. It seemed she took this exactly as he had feared she would. ¡°If she responded like this to what I said to her, that means she listens to me. I¡¯m pretty sure I can convince her out of this little act of hers, and then you will be able to see what I was talking about.¡±

    With a stone-faced nod of his head, Eirlathion began ascending the stairs to the second floor with the expectation of T¨²eth to follow. When he came up and saw the children, Aerien was laying limply in Levin¡¯s arms. Or rather, he was pretty sure it could only be Aerien since it was Levin¡¯s arms she was laying in. With her having somehow halted her production of spirit energy, he no longer had his own easy way to tell the girls apart. If the boys were not near them right now, they would just look like two identical babies and there would be no way at all for him to tell the difference between them.

    As for Gaerien, she seemed to be extremely restless. He was pretty sure Aerien was somehow faking being sick, but Gaerien looked like she may be really having problems. She was clinging tightly to Rolwen¡¯s shirt with both hands, and kept making little whimpering and fussing sounds like she was right at the edge of breaking into full tears. Rolwen, for his part, seemed to be doing a good job of soothing her. Normally, Gaerien didn¡¯t seem to show a particular amount of interest in Rolwen and it was more like she tolerated him. Now, however, it seemed as though he was the only thing in the world that could keep her calm.

    Eirlathion let out a sigh and began channeling his mana into his eyes to get a better look at what was going on with them. Since he was just thinking about Gaerien¡¯s case earlier, now might even be a good chance to see what was going on with her. However, what he wound up seeing made absolutely no sense at all.

    When he looked over to Gaerien, or rather, the child that Rolwen was holding, he actually saw very little in terms of spirit energy going either direction. Rolwen¡¯s spirit energy just seemed to radiate out, passing right over her without being consumed. Meanwhile, the child laying limply in Levin¡¯s arms seemed to be absorbing almost all the spirit energy in the room. Not only that, there was also something very wrong about how the energy was moving. It did not look like it was nourishing her in any way, and it was also not being converted into mana. It was like all the energy in the room was just being destroyed when it came into contact with her body.

    ¡°What!?¡± Eirlathion shouted as he took all of this in, just as T¨²eth was reaching the top of the stairs. He dashed out toward the child laying in Levin¡¯s arms. Her breath was weak and coming in gasps, and her eyes were unfocused. He could feel her pulse racing as he reached down to help Levin support her head, and she began to squirm uncomfortably in his grip. ¡°Levin, did you and Rolwen actually switch the girls!?¡± He demanded.

    ¡°What?¡±He responded, looking back at Eirlathion in confusion. Was he wrong? Well, if he was wrong, it meant that instead of this being Gaerien having troubles because Aerien had intentionally shut down her flow of spirit energy, if this was really Aerien he was cradling right now then it might mean that she somehow damaged herself while doing whatever it was that cut off her flow of spirit energy.

    ¡°Alright,¡± he said, looking up to the child that Rolwen was holding, ¡°I don¡¯t know which one of you is Aerien, but whoever it is, I want you to stop this right now!¡± He said, and then pointed one finger at the chest of the one in Levin¡¯s lap. ¡°She¡¯s seriously not doing well, and if you don¡¯t fix this problem if you can, then she might be in serious danger!¡±

    ¡°Whah-huh?¡± With that reaction, the child laying half in Levin¡¯s lap and Eirlathion¡¯s hand seemed to have a startled convulsion run through her entire body, and then just like that all of the symptoms he was seeing were just gone. What¡¯s more, the rate of her spirit energy consumption slowed down to what one might see in a normal elf child. Nothing at all like Gaerien¡¯s consumption rate, only something that one might consider normal. A moment later, this reversed and then he started feeling spirit energy coming FROM her.

    ¡°Aerien!?¡±It actually was Aerien after all then. That meant she had done something really crazy to herself just to pretend she was sick. The real question though was how exactly she had done it. Yet another mystery about these girls had just opened up in front of him, and this one seemed a lot more serious in nature than anything that had come before. If Aerien could do something like what he just saw to herself, if something had gone wrong, she very well might have wound up killing herself with it. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it was that you just did, but NEVER do that again! Do you understand me? That was dangerous! That was very very bad!¡±

    (Wh... what!? But... but you said!) Aerien began to whimper and cry from Eirlathion yelling at her.

    (You said to act like they were sick when someone came over!) Levin declared defensively as he wrapped his arms around Aerien and held her in a defensive posture as though to protect her form him.

    (Oh in the queen¡¯s name!) Eirlathion said in exasperation as he stood up. (This is Aerien and Gaerien¡¯s mother! You don¡¯t have to pretend like that in front of her!) He was not yelling, but he was using a much harsher tone with Levin now than he had intended. He was still rattled about what Aerien had just done to herself because of something he had said.

    Well, this is definitely going to slow down the plans for getting help from the fey royals. There is simply no way he can leave Aerien alone without someone well versed in magic, at least not until he can teach her to control her mana better. And, it seems he had better start on her lessons immediately at that. It was simply unheard of to start trying to teach a child to control mana when they weren¡¯t even a year old, but there were a lot of other things unheard of for a newborn that Aerien was also exhibiting. So, what¡¯s one more to add to the list?

 Chapter 18: The calling of heaven

    Today would be the day mine and Gaerien¡¯s mother was supposed to visit. Over the past few days since we got here, we had gotten into a pretty regular routine. Ether guy brought us our meals, then went down stairs for a while and let us ¡°have our space.¡± Well, the ¡°have our space¡± portion had started diminishing lately since I had decided to make contact with him. Yesterday, he had tried to chat us up quite a bit and go back to how things were in the nursery. It was a little annoying and we wound up giving him the cold-shoulder somewhat. He was sorta interfering in what had become our normal routine.

    Since I had let the boys know about Gaerien and I being reincarnators as well, we had started them on a similar training regime to ours in order to get them to start mastering their new bodies. We had pretty much free reign to do this all we wanted while he was being stand-off with us, but now he seemed to take our discussion from the day before as a proper mending of the bridges. Well, it sorta was actually, but it also had some obvious unintended consequences. I do not regret the decision, but this change in the status-quo is still a bit frustrating. At this rate, we may have to fill him in on what we are just to get our freedom to train our bodies back.

    We were not really able to risk training much yesterday, but now Rolwen had said he looked down and saw Ether guy was doing one of his meditation things. We are assuming it has something to do with magic stuff or something that we don¡¯t understand very well, so we really just don¡¯t bother with it. The important thing is that he will be at it for a while which means we can train ourselves in the mean time. Even better, since our mother is coming, we should actually hear something this time before they come up the stairs.

    I have told the boys to keep their workout light today. It¡¯s Gaerien and I who are supposed to be sick, not them, so it might be noticed if the boys are all sweaty or something. They are focusing on a coordination exercise. I have them in a partner training where they are touching the tips of their fingers to each other. The same finger of the same hand.

    For now, I¡¯m keeping it easy. They just have to touch all 10 fingers together without allowing their palms to contact, then return their hands to their laps, then do it again. Eventually, they will have to upgrade this exercise to touch the fingers one at a time. After that, they will not be touching all 10 fingers, it will just be one finger called out by me or Gaerien. It may seem like a simple exercise. That usually is with these sorts of things. This is an exercise meant for someone who has some kind of impaired motor functions to be able to get back to moving like a normal person. Or, in this case, for a toddler who¡¯s motor functions are still developing to be able to develop their motor functions properly.

    This one isn¡¯t even all that advanced for a couple of 2 year olds like them. Well, unlike Gaerien and I who have been doing this stuff for months now, they¡¯re just starting. It won¡¯t be long at all before they¡¯re well ahead of their development curve as well. If any toddler were to practice exercises like these, they would definitely be walking, talking, and moving about well ahead of the age they should be doing it. The only difference between a normal baby and us really is attention span and direction. We have the attention span to keep up with these exercises far longer than a normal baby would, and thus get better results from it, and we also have the knowledge to give direction to our developmental exercises. That is all the secret there is to our absurd neurological growth. Now, if only we had a way to do the same with our physical bodies.

    In the case of Gaerien and I, our exercise is a lot simpler but also a lot more strenuous. This serves the double purpose for us of both the training which is our actual intent, but it also has the bonus of making the act we have coming up more convincing.

    Gaerien had about mastered crawling earlier in the week, finally able to practice thanks to the freedom she now had. Her neck muscles seemed to be holding her head up well already, excellent progress for only about a week. It may just be because she¡¯s physically older than I was when I did it, but she reached that point a whole lot faster than I did.

    Her speed still left something to be desired, but she was making good progress. More importantly though, she had managed to make her motion fairly smooth. It was not a jerky crawl where her entire body seemed to freeze after every large motion she took. She was able to simply lift an arm, place it in front of her, and then just have the opposite leg come forward in a reciprocal motion without dragging her legs behind her. Then, the next arm just smoothly lifted up afterward. This meant her neural pathways had full control over her arms and legs, and her cerebellum had developed and adjusted to these motions well.

    Since she was progressing so well on crawling, I decided to push things up to the next level. This was even something I was struggling with, so it would be good practice for both of us. We were going to try out walking. We both got up with the help of the nearest piece of furnature for support, and then we turned to one another and held hands. After we were standing, we would coordinate with each other to step one leg out to our sides, and then bring up the leg from behind. We were going sideways, so it was definitely not true walking, but we were able to practice this with each other¡¯s help.

    Again, this was probably pushing Gaerien a fair bit, but I was growing impatient with my own progress. Besides, when I mentioned what I wanted to try, she seemed to be completely on board with the idea, saying she was also very annoyed only being able to crawl around on the ground. She seemed to rather like the idea of learning to walk in these bodies.

    We had each been at our respective training for a few hours. Gaerien and I had fallen several times, but every time we both crawled over together to the nearest handy object, picked ourselves back up, and started again. It hurt sometimes, and we had to force down our baby reflexes to start crying, but we ignored it and pressed on.

    We trained in my best estimate of 5 minute sessions, and then we took rests in between that were about 10 minutes. These long rest sessions were important. Our muscles were not the thing that was holding us back. Just like with the boys, our issue that made it difficult to walk was entirely related to our neural pathways. These 10 minute rests gave our brains a chance to process and start to form new synapses.

    The hour or so we will be able to do this training would not be enough for a single one of those synapses to finish forming, but the repeated training sessions would help to re-enforce the growth in order to speed it along. If this works out, then in a day or two when we try this again our performance ought to improve a lot.

    Suddenly, from down stairs, we begin to hear Ether guy speaking and inviting someone inside. Rolwen and Levin, who have already naturally developed the ability to walk due to growing up and it being the proper on-schedule time for them to have that ability, are able to move much faster than we can. Therefore, it is them who immediately stand up and run over to where we are near the center of the room. Rolwen grabs Gaerien away from me in the rush, causing me to immediately loose my balance and fall hard on rear end. Since I sorta saw it coming this time, I am able to slow my descent just a bit with my tiny quad muscles, but I do still hit the ground and my butt is already tender and probably bruised from all the falls I had over this past hour.

    I bite back the pain as Levin plops down behind me and, not even concerned or seeming to notice the pained expression on my face, he begins just grabbing me and dragging me into his lap. I certainly feel a little annoyed at the rough treatment, but I¡¯m able to quickly recover as I remember the plan. I¡¯m the one who came up with it after all, it wouldn¡¯t do for me to be the one to drop the ball on it.

    Since we had started on this plan, Gaerien had started giving me some interesting bits of information about how to make it work. We had discussed quite a bit about my meditation before. According to her, it was a powerful meditation developed back when the world barrier around Earth was first being formed. Back then, when the mages and the magical creatures of the time were struggling to find a way to survive and continue their craft under these conditions, this was the very meditation they had come up with. There are a few specifics that may vary from one group¡¯s meditation to the next, but all the ones that could actually work had a few things in common.

    They could all call in energy from an outside source at a rapid pace, far beyond any meditation that ever preceded them. They all accomplished this by abandoning the previous wisdom that you had to suck in energy and store it in your body. Instead, this meditation used something akin to the principal behind a vacuum cleaner. Instead of sucking in energy, it ejected energy from your own body in order to make a vacuum space. Once this energy vacuum was created, energy from outside the body was only too happy to immediately come in and fill that space. As the spirit density of Earth began to increase, this method for meditation actually became more and more potent.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    The second common feature was some method to create your own mana. As soon as the last of the fey on Earth died off, there would be no more mana in the air. Therefore, the mages of Earth had to find a way to convert spirit energy into mana using their own meditation.

    Finally, and most importantly, all the mage¡¯s meditations of Earth had to have the ability to pierce the world barrier. This, according to her, was what was so different about my own meditation and that of the rest of the people who practiced the same style of Taijutsu that I did. Apparently, the method to pierce the world barrier was left out of our meditation that was otherwise complete. However, I had managed to re-discover the step necessary to do this on my own. All I knew was that it made my meditation feel like it was more complete somehow and more efficient, I had never actually tried to use it to cast a spell. It was a good thing I hadn¡¯t though according to her, otherwise apparently I would have been marked for death by god himself.

    My meditation though had other things that made it significant, even in this world. I hadn¡¯t just rediscovered the method to pierce the world barrier. Something very special and unique about my meditation that differed greatly from the early mage¡¯s meditations of Earth that Gaerien was familiar with was the source of the energy I pulled in. No, actually, it was more likely that after Gaerien had fallen as a goddess, the mages of earth all developed this as their source as the spirit energy of Earth became increasingly more and more dense and this caused the use of magic to become increasingly difficult. They had to search for more potent sources of their spirit energy.

    The source of energy for my meditation was that it pulled its energy directly from heaven. On Earth, this was just a slightly more dense source of spirit energy. And, because it was more dense than the already thick spirit energy of Earth, it allowed a practitioner to actually feel something different happening when they used the meditation. It was not especially significant however, just enough to make you feel a little bit lighter. However, in this world, that difference in source made a HUGE difference in outcome. This was because, unlike the case with Earth, the heaven of this world appeared to be outside the world barrier. Or rather, that¡¯s what Gaerien said.

    She had sensed that there was indeed a world barrier around this world as well. It was nowhere even close to the same level of power as the one that was around Earth, but it was still enough to limit what a person trying to cultivate their energy could do. She had been trying to work on her own since coming here now that she was not confined by Earth¡¯s barrier anymore, but she said she¡¯d been having difficulties with it because of that barrier. However, she could tell I seemed to be pulling energy from outside of it. Since I stated the mental image for the meditation was pulling energy from heaven, this lead to the conclusion that the heaven of this world must be outside the world barrier, thus making it so that the gods of this world did not need to be bound by that barrier.

    All of this stuff was meaningless to me though. Or rather, it was up until today. Up until now, all I knew of my meditation were the benefits it gave me in my previous life that was in a world devoid of magic. I had used my meditation not to ¡°cultivate¡± the energy I was taking in, as Gaerien called it. What I was doing with my meditation was simply to keep myself in a meditative state. In this state, I was able to better focus my mind and make my physical movements smoother. I was able to expand my awareness, and make myself conscious of all the tiny movements and imperfections in my own body.

    If anything, it was actually a huge problem for me that there was such an absurd thing as energy being pulled into this world from heaven every time I was in the middle of my meditation. Ever since I came up with this plan of feigning illness, Gaerien was all over me about how I was going to have to do something about my meditation and cut it off or else my performance will not be believable at all. There was no doubt that Ether guy could probably sense it when I was using my meditation and calling in all that energy, and since elves feed on spirit energy they would also notice if I seemed to be producing the stuff.

    Nobody was going to believe I was sick if my body was actually ejecting huge amounts of spirit energy as though I was a human instead of an elf. So, in order to go with this whole feigning illness thing, I was going to have to cut my meditation.

    I relaxed my body and lay limply in Levin¡¯s lap, and then I started trying to focus on how to emulate the conditions of being sick. However, this posed a problem. I was in such a habit of disciplining my mind, everything had become part of a form of meditation to me. I had trained myself for decades in my previous life to be in a constant meditative state and maintain my zanshin, my sphere of personal awareness. Zanshin was the principal of Japanese martial arts that described always being aware of everything happening around you, especially things that could be potential threats. This zanshin required you to be in such a constant meditative state, and for me it had become such a habit that every time I tried to mentally think about something it put me into such a meditative state immediately. In other words, meditation had completely become the natural state of my mind.

    No, I¡¯m not going to just be able to stop my meditation, but maybe I can consciously cut off that connection to the heavens thing. So, I focused on cutting the source of the energy rushing into my spirit. It did not take me long to feel it, and then I imagined myself pinching the source closed like stepping on a garden hose. The result was immediate. It actually DID make me start to feel sick as soon as I cut this off.

    I recall breaking my meditation before in my previous life, and it did make my body feel heavier by contrast since being in a meditative state made me feel lighter, but this was the first time I had ever actually felt sick as a result.

    ¡®It¡¯s probably because I¡¯m an elf now,¡¯ I reasoned. It made sense when I thought about it that way. Elves actually consume spirit energy to survive, and my body had grown used to one of the densest and richest food sources that could ever possibly exist the likes of which no other fey on this planet had access to. Of course suddenly cutting it off is going to make me feel bad. My body had grown dependent on that incoming spirit energy, it was like cutting off a drug addict.

    Well, it would only be for a little while I guess. So, I simply kept my mind on making sure that heaven energy stuff wasn¡¯t coming in and looking even more miserable than being cut off from it was making me feel.

    I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. One set of footsteps. I knew Ether guy walked incredibly lightly, so those footsteps must belong to my mother. She needs to work on her walking a bit I guess. I limply turned my head toward the top of the stairs and actually found I was having a hard time getting my eyes to focus. However, I did eventually make out Ether guy standing there. He shook his head and started looking us over, but I could not really make out the expression on his face. Suddenly, he gave a shout of surprise.

    Well I guess that confirms that he has some way to be aware of our spirit and mana energy, just like Gaerien said. I chuckle to myself slightly and thank Gaerien in my heart for the timely info she had given me on this subject.

    Ether guy rushes over and I can feel his hands helping to support my tiny body on Levin¡¯s lap. [Levin, did you and Rolwen actually switch the girls!?] He demands. That¡¯s a pretty amusing thing for him to wind up thinking. I honestly was not expecting that one. I was starting to get a picture of exactly what Gaerien had been talking about. Had it been that conspicuous, the fact that I was radiating that energy of heaven stuff? All this time I had thought that at most I was just showing how I was a bit ahead of the curve in my mental development. Well, more than a bit I suppose. However, I never realized I was doing something this attention getting all this time.

    It seemed like meditation really was something noteworthy in this world. Noteworthy to the point that people could detect when you were doing it. Well, when I was doing it in particular, since it seems my meditation is kinda absurd in its own way.

    I had to keep myself from laughing and cringing at the same time as these thoughts ran through my head. More to the point, I had to focus to actually keep the heaven¡¯s energy part of the meditation shut off. But then, Ether guy said something that completely shocked me out of the whole thing.

    [I don¡¯t know which one of you is Aerien, but whoever it is, I want you to stop this right now! She¡¯s seriously not doing well, and if you don¡¯t fix this problem if you can, then she might be in serious danger!] He said. His voice as he said these words was heavy and very serious. I knew doing this was making me feel sick, but I didn¡¯t really think I was doing THAT bad. However, as my eyes began to focus on the finger pointed straight at the center of my chest and the hawk-like gaze he had up toward Gaerien, I was just shocked out of my efforts to cut off that heaven energy from my meditation.

    I do not know whether it was the energy returning to my body or the shock of Ether guy¡¯s tone that made my entire body jerk and jump. The two events were so close together that it really could have been either one. At any rate, I immediately felt like I was at perfect health again as soon as the energy returned to my body and I looked up at Ether guy in confusion. [Aerien!?] He responded the very second I returned my meditation to its normal state, and in the process further cementing it into my mind just how exposed my unusual meditation was to him this entire time. I was starting to feel seriously humiliated, I was not even aware at all that I had essentially been announcing how crazy of an existence I was this entire time. All this time I had been trying to keep these things secret, but something this big about myself was completely and plainly displayed for all the world to see.

    To make matters worse, now he started to scold me. [I don¡¯t know what it was that you just did, but NEVER do that again! Do you understand me? That was dangerous! That was very very bad!]

    The actual words he said were not actually even registering anymore. I just heard ¡°don¡¯t do that,¡± and ¡°it¡¯s bad,¡± out of the entirety of what he said. I drowned out the rest. I wanted to cry after all of this. Well, I was a baby anyway. It may have been a little while since I had cried regularly, but I could still get away with it, right?

    Well, aside from that, gotta remember to maintain my cover. [(Wh... what!? But... but you said!)] It actually took a fairly large amount of effort to remember the Elven necessary to even say that much under these conditions. But, with that out, I was free to start crying. Immediately after this, Levin decides to play hero and cradles my head to his chest, putting his shoulder between me and Ether guy, and then he yells back at Ether guy to defend me. This just redirects Ether guy¡¯s anger toward Levin, and I¡¯m able to catch something about him saying how we don¡¯t have to pretend to be sick in front of our mother, along with the reminder about who¡¯s the person at the top of the stairs.

    I realize I should probably feel more curious about seeing my mother for the first time, but right now I¡¯m literally ashamed to tears. The only thing I¡¯m interested in right now is burying my head inside Levin¡¯s shirt. As I start to calm down a little and remember the way Ether guy was shouting a moment ago, it just scares me even more. He was clearly far more aware of this energy stuff than I was, and he had sensed something when I was deliberately messing up my meditation that scared him. He had also said things that indicated he was incredibly concerned about me doing something bad to myself. This all just makes me shudder, and I decide I will absolutely not repeat what I just did, at least until I can understand exactly what it was a little better.

 Chapter 19: The end and beginning of the life of TÃºeth

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    Two and a half years ago, T¨²eth had gone through the worst day of her entire life. The dark elves, the abominations created from the twisted energies warping the bodies of elves into beasts. These creatures were well known to every one among the fey races. These immortal monsters were a source of fear, especially for those with elven blood.

    The dark elves were creatures filled with nothing but pure hatred for everything that lived, but the elves from which they were created were a race they took particular pleasure in slaughtering mercilessly. On that day, two and a half years ago, the village in which T¨²eth lived found itself in the sights of these monsters.

    The worst thing about these devils was that they were cunning. She had heard about the rampaging berserker beasts that humans transformed into when exposed to the arcane energies, but the devils spawned from the elven line kept their intelligence, although it was now twisted toward causing nothing but fear and suffering.

    These devils took their village by surprise, the scouts outside the town were overwhelmed with stealth and surprise tactics, and killed before they could bring the alarm back to the village. And they didn¡¯t just take out a few scouts either. They liked to toy with their prey. Before the village was attacked, they had gone around to kill each of the scouts. They knew this because, when it came time to rotate out, nobody came back. Not even the ones who went to relieve them.

    This was when the people in the village knew something was wrong. Everyone was given a sense of unease. All of the warriors rallied in the village square to attempt to organize a defense. However, that was exactly what the devils had been waiting for. The entire square was engulfed by five fireball spells going off at the same time. It was not just the gathered warriors who were destroyed in this surprise attack. Every nearby Lakira tree that had turned into a home or place of business was left nothing but a smoldering stump.

    The fire and confusion spread quickly, and there was nothing but confusion everywhere. As people tried to get their heads about them, arrows began flying out of the darkness, and with every bolt shot an innocent person¡¯s life was lost.

    T¨²eth had survived these first waves of attack because her mother had told her to stay inside their home while she had gone out to check on what had happened. She opened the door and took five steps out before, in front of T¨²eth¡¯s very eyes, her mother was shot through the head. She huddled and cried as the sounds of people screaming and dying surrounded her.

    After some time had passed, a white-haired elf with skin that looked a sickly dark blue, and rough as though he had just stepped out of the ocean covered in sea brine, turned his glowing red eyes toward her and smirked. He grabbed her by her hair and dragged her out to the ruins of the village square where several other women along with some of the humans taken by the village were gathered. They were all thrown in front of a woman who seemed to be their commander.

    The horrible creature who had dragged her there, who only looked like an elf in shape, uttered something to this dark-elf woman in what her people knew as the abyssal tongue, the language of those who lived in the underworld such as them.

    ¡°Hehehe, good.¡± The woman responded to him in proper surface elven, and given what she said next, T¨²eth had come to realize the reason this woman had decided to speak in elven was for one reason and one reason only, in order to further terrorize her captives by speaking what was to be their fate in a language they could understand. ¡°The humans will be brought with us, their offspring between our kind and their kind make the best slaves. As for the weak inferior elf women up here, they are useless. You may kill them after you¡¯ve had your fun with them.¡± The woman gave a poisonous smile as she declared their death sentence, and then the creatures descended upon them and had their way with anyone that they found appealing.

    T¨²eth had been violated by them that day, it was disgusting. If her fate was to die, she would have preferred that they would just kill her. At some point, she heard a shriek from next to her. She turned to see what had happened, and she looked on in horror as she saw the severed head of a young girl she used to babysit being held up by the hair as those monsters just laughed.

    As though this was the signal, the rest of them seemed to have come to the decision they had had enough, and the final round of slaughter began. Soon it would be her turn as well. Minutes ago, she had been begging for death. But, in this moment when it was finally approaching, T¨²eth only wanted to live. One of the monsters grabbed her by her hair and the dagger was raised. T¨²eth shut her eyes tightly, preparing for her death.

    In that moment, as though answering her wish, everything went white. At first, T¨²eth had thought she had died in that moment. However, the lie was quickly put to that as she was dropped and all around her she could hear those devils screaming in pain. T¨²eth began to crack her eyes open, but then quickly shut them again in pain. She realized the reason they were screaming. Something had lit up the entire area with a light so intense that it had blinded them all and left them writhing in pain.

    After this, she felt the earth under her begin to shake. The intense light continued to cut through everything and T¨²eth had now pressed her hands over her eyes in order to further block out its intensity. She did not know what was going on, but it was something very very big. The devils around her began to shout things to each other in their abyssal tongue. Confusion was everywhere. This was when, finally, the sound of a great explosion could be heard. A booming sound so large that T¨²eth felt it go through her entire body like a physical blow. After that, she was picked up by the wind. She seemed to remember herself screaming, but the massive sound was so loud that she could not even hear her own voice.

    It was not only the sound, she heard the wind kicked up by what could only be an explosion that completely dwarfed those fireballs the monsters had launched against her town earlier that night so completely that even a spark from a fire wasn¡¯t a fitting comparison. The light, the wind, the sound, all of it was simply at such a massive scale.

    She was flung through the air. She did not know how many branches she hit along the way, but she knew for sure she must have gone right through a few leaf covers as she sailed through the air. She took no notice though as all she was sure of was that she could not orient herself to anything. She flipped end over end in the air, and there was so much chaos and confusion that she could no longer keep track of anything at all.

    She did not even know how she landed. All she really remembered was waking up when it was morning, and her entire body being broken and battered. She could not move a single limb, every single part of her was broken and caused her excruciating pain just to do such a simple motion as wiggling her finger.

    She could not move. She cried out in pain, shouted for anyone at all to find her and help her. Her voice was about the only thing in her body that worked right now, and even that was weak due to an unknown number of broken ribs. It became clear that nobody seemed to be coming to find her. It was likely that nobody had survived at all. Well, at the very least it got those dark elf bastards too, whatever that was.

    She lay like that in pure agony for two days. Again, she reached a state where she was begging for death. She stopped wishing for rescue, and instead began to wish for some starving wolf to find her and just put her out of her misery. She might even do it herself at this point, but her arms would not even move enough to do that.

    She wondered why she didn¡¯t die in this time. Her injuries were incredibly severe, normally she ought to have succumbed to them in a matter of hours. Later though, she found out the reason. When that explosion had happened, the entire area was filled with a massive abundance of spirit energy, and this great energy had sustained T¨²eth for those three days that she lay there injured and unable to move. Even with spirit energy that dense, more dense than could even be found in the most populated human city center, a truly impossibly large amount of spirit energy that defied even the wildest imagination, it could still not cause her wounds to heal themselves. All it could do was sustain her life.

    And it did sustain her life, and on that third day after it had happened, she began to hear voices. She thought at the time that it had to be a hallucination. However, she eventually recognized those voices as speaking Elven, and she let out a weak cry. Her voice was so weak from her broken ribs though that it could not reach them. Fortunately, someone seemed to spot her broken body and brought the small group over to her. She turned to look up at them and this time they were close enough that her weak cries for help could reach them, and it was fortunate for her that they had brought a healer with them.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    -

    T¨²eth had relived those memories of that terrible day over and over in her mind for the past two and a half years. She had been haunted by them constantly. When she had turned up pregnant, she had told everyone it was the child of a boy she knew that she had a thing with, not wanting to give them the truth. When the twins were born, she was asked repeatedly to see them, but she could never bring herself to go to them. It did not take long at all for someone to notice their grey skin, but it was taken as a sign of illness.

    People thinking the children were ill only made them more insistent that she should go see them, but she had become terrified by this time. Terrified of what people would do when the entire truth came out. She would re-live the nightmare all over again.

    It was better that she had nothing to do with those children. One way or another, they were going to die. Those were her thoughts, and after six months had passed and nobody had said a word about dark elves or grey elves to her, she began to wonder. All this time, the master magus of the town, master Eirlathion, had stayed with them constantly. There was simply no way he hadn¡¯t noticed. But, on an almost weekly basis that man seemed to appear in front of her late in the evening trying to convince her to go see the children. And yet, he never said a thing about what she feared the most. That is, until one day, about a week after he moved the children to his own house.

    It was an absolutely ridiculous thing he had said, that one of her daughters apparently made her own spirit energy. It was unbelievable, but... when she did stop to think about it, maybe... The twins had been conceived right next to that explosion, what was now being called the heaven¡¯s fall. And, in the first days of their time in the womb, they were bathed in that massive spirit energy that was enough to keep her alive despite her severe injuries. Given those circumstances, something could have actually happened to give at least one of them the extraordinary abilities master Eirlathion was talking about.

    Two and a half years ago, T¨²eth¡¯s life had effectively ended. Time had stopped for her on that day. Now, she lived every day almost like a ghost, and constantly jumping in fear of what was going to come next. The idea of going to see her daughters at master Eirlathion¡¯s house, it scared her. It terrified her. She just knew when she looked into the face of her daughters, all she was going to be able to see was those monsters yet again. She saw them in her sleep, and she saw them every time her mind wandered for too long during the day. They had shattered her life, and had taken away everything she ever knew, and now she was also cursed with a constant reminder of what had happened to her.

    However. What would she do if she did not go to them and help master Eirlathion? She saw something in him when he said that they could be saved. T¨²eth did not care what happened to those girls. It would very much be better for her if they had died in the womb. The master seemed to have assumed that the reason she did not tell anyone about them was because she didn¡¯t want to see them die. That was not the truth at all. She did not tell anyone about them because... she did not even know the reason why she didn¡¯t.

    Several times she had hoped and wished that someone would just discover the truth and put an end to them already. However, there was no way she could ever bring herself to tell anyone about it. She had never even considered it. The thought never even crossed her mind until the master had said how he felt he could trust her because of how she had never told anybody about them. She spent the entire next day fighting with herself and asking herself why she really hadn¡¯t told anyone. She had wanted them to die several times already, but for some reason every time she reminded herself of that fact she could feel a searing pain in her heart.

    For the first time in two and a half years, she considered the idea of telling someone about the real father of those girls. And, in that moment, a crippling fear that rivaled the moment she had seen the first of the girls beheaded in front of her paralyzed her entire body. She saw that head swinging by her hair in her memories, and then for a brief second a lightly grey skinned baby''s head imposed itself over the face of the young girl. This image in her head was enough to freeze her thoughts cold.

    Well, the master was right about one thing at least. She was not going to ever be capable of telling someone the truth about those girls.

    -

    T¨²eth did not even know why she had decided to go to the master¡¯s house the morning they had agreed upon. Everything in her told her that she hated the very concept of this idea. And yet, for some reason, she just felt like she had to do it. It was as though she was trapped. He had told her to come, and she did.

    After this, he told her more unbelievable things. Not only could her daughter release spirit energy, but now he was claiming she could shut it off at will? She could not conclude anything except that she was being lied to, fed a story because he was just trying to trick her into seeing her daughters. When she came upstairs, the master showed a reaction of fear and shock and ran to one of her daughters who was laying in the lap of a human child.

    She could see her daughter¡¯s arm laying limply off the human child¡¯s knees, and her head lulled to the side with unfocused eyes. When this combined with the bluish grey skin of the grey elves, she looked exactly as she might look if she was dead. But then, when the master yelled at them for a little while, she suddenly sat bolt upright. She began to protest a little before she started crying, and then the human child backed her up saying something about how they were supposed to fake being sick when someone other than the master was around.

    As the master was yelling at the children, T¨²eth was starting to feel it. The intense and overpowering spirit energy began to flood the entire room. It was not like the area around the heaven¡¯s fall, but just between the two human children and her daughter, who the master had said was producing her own spirit energy, this house felt more full of spirit energy that a human town ever could.

    She had spent the last month of her pregnancy in the nursery filled with human children, and that included these two. She knew that they also produced a crazy amount of spirit energy just between the two of them, but now with her daughter¡¯s added it felt as though it had doubled again. He had been telling the truth after all.

    But it wasn¡¯t just that. Her daughter was also talking. She had also been warned about that one the day he had come over to her house, but it had almost gone over her head to be honest. But, now that she was seeing it, she remembered what he had said and she was shocked. Her daughter was talking at only half a year of age. She knew a human started talking a lot earlier, but elf babies usually didn¡¯t start talking until they were at least two years old.

    Well then, everything he had said was right. T¨²eth could see why the master would take such an interest in these children. She had to admit. There was something absolutely incredible about them. Surprisingly, she could not see their father¡¯s face in them. She was simply too shocked by the absurdity of her daughter to the point that it was as though her mind forgot to be traumatized by the past. Instead, she found that she was beginning to fear her children for an entirely different reason.

    ¡°What happened?¡± She asked master Eirlathion when he seemed to have calmed down. She felt kinda strange about the whole thing. No matter how you looked at it, it was as though he was their parent instead of her. Well, he pretty much was actually. For the last half year, it had been him who raised them.

    ¡°I really don¡¯t know.¡± master Eirlathion responded, shaking his head in exasperation. ¡°She seems to be Ok now, so I guess it wasn¡¯t as serious as I thought, but when I tried to view her mana and spirit pathways while she was playing sick, it looked as though she had seriously damaged her own spirit. Honestly, I really don¡¯t know what to make of that girl at all. I have never seen something like her.¡±

    ¡°Hmm... I didn¡¯t believe you at first when you said she could talk. Is it only her that¡¯s like that?¡± She asks the master as she tries to make sense of all of this. She really didn¡¯t know enough about the spirit and things of that nature in order to know what this was all about. She knew the basics that every elf knew, that while they had physical bodies like the humans, they were really a lot more like the lesser fey in that damage to their spirit could easily reflect in their bodies, and when their spirit was too damaged they would loose their life by way of their physical form simply vanishing.

    The opposite though could also be said to be true, for instance when her body was broken and crippled for those three days. The abundance of spirit energy kept her spirit strong, and that allowed her to keep her life despite the injuries that should have, by all rights, been fatal.

    Normally, there were very few ways to damage someone¡¯s spirit directly. For an elf, it could receive indirect damage when the body was injured or when they were sick, but attacks directly to the spirit were the stuff of legends. It was the sort of thing that the villains did to the hero of the story, an obstacle that they would have to overcome and seek the treatment of the best healers to repair.

    Despite her misgivings before, the thought that her daughter had caused something of that nature as a self inflicted injury was stirring up complicated emotions. It made her worry about the girl. It was ridiculous. Just a few days ago she was wishing, and now she realized, also dreading the day that they were discovered and then put to death by the other members of this village. With that being the case, it definitely seemed strange that she was concerned about her daughter¡¯s state now.

    T¨²eth walked over and knelt next to the human child who was still protectively holding her whimpering and crying daughter. The human looked up at her and then reluctantly loosened his arms so she could see her baby that he was holding. The baby quieted her sobs and looked back at T¨²eth, and she was immediately overcome with fear and uncertainty. She had abandoned this child and for the past half year she was waiting and even hoping for her death. She had no right to be with her now.

    Without saying a single word in the exchange, T¨²eth stood on the spot and immediately ran down the stairs. She sat down at master Eirlathion¡¯s table. Soon, she noticed she was shaking. This was all just too much. She couldn¡¯t do this. She was a bad mother. She could clearly see it now, the road to her children¡¯s salvation. With children that amazing, and the support of the master, they could definitely find some road to life for them.

    T¨²eth had given up on them ever living long ago. She had not even considered it. And now, with it in front of her and impossible to miss, she felt more terrified of anything than she ever had in her life. When her village was attacked, she could see that she was going to die at the hands of those devils. With the certainty of death in front of her, she could be resigned to that fate. However, this twisted mix of hope, promise of great things to come, and at the same time dread at the horrible things that could also happen, and most of all just the huge world of uncertainty that covered the gap between them. The whole thing was easily the most terrifying thing T¨²eth had ever experienced in her short 73 years of life.

    T¨²eth was glad she hadn¡¯t eaten anything today. If she had, she would likely have vomited in response to the turbulent emotions shaking her to the very core of her soul. All she could do in this moment is hold her head, tremble in fear, and cry. She was in a place now where every choice she could possibly make seemed to look like it promised the worst kind of destruction. Every choice would destroy her life. If she helped raise her daughters and they turned out to be as great as their early life now promised they could be, maybe good could happen for her, but that decision felt like it was the most terrifying choice of all of them.

    1st Arc: Infancy

    Act 1: Neural Growth

    End

 (Intermission) Lore chapter1: Gaeriens lessons

    Intermission

    Over the days since Aerien and Gaerien first discovered they could exchange words directly mind to mind, they had several nightly conversations. Below is a collection of a few of the more note-worthy ones.

    Later the same night

    After going over a few of the basic exercises with Gaerien, talking and strengthening her neck muscles being chief among them, I was quick to get back on the topic of our discussion.

    ¡®I still have quite a bit I would like to ask about,¡¯ I told her, ¡®I think it¡¯s a pretty fair deal that if I¡¯m your exercise coach you will essentially be my magic knowledge tutor.¡¯

    ¡®A fair trade, yes. I am quite eager to try out what you have taught me and it would frankly be less embarrassing to do this at night. I suppose you have questions now though.¡¯

    ¡®Forget about things like embarrassment, the only reason I hid my progress until now was because the voice training exercises I was doing would immediately give it away I lived a previous life. I don¡¯t want these boys getting excited and telling that elf guy before I¡¯m ready. The exercises I gave you though are just fine to do during the day when people can see you, but we can only talk like this at night.¡¯

    ¡®Well, you certainly don¡¯t know how to treat a girl nicely, do you?¡¯

    ¡®We¡¯re both girls now. And besides, I¡¯m the younger sister. Spoil me older sister.¡¯

    ¡®Right. Well, I guess I can see the logic in your reasoning. Very well then. What did you want to ask about?¡¯

    ¡®Well, so much really. How about we pick it up where we left off. You were talking about fey, ¡°god-born,¡± spirits, and monsters. Also this arcane energy stuff and magic. I think I sorta got enough understanding for now about the arcane energy, basically it is the waste by-product from a spell, and it turns normal creatures into monsters. I also understand god-born, as you call them, well enough. It¡¯s basically just plants and animals. I think I can figure out fey more or less. How about you tell me some more about spirits?¡¯

    ¡®Spirits is it? Spirits are a lot like fey in that they are created from god-born clinging to life. However, a spirit does not actually need to form from a sentient god-born. Most of them form from plants, and some from unintelligent animals. Also, any sentient god-born who fuses with a plant spirit will usually not become a fey. They become special kinds of spirits of the forest. I believe in the former world, they were called Nymphs. However, the most powerful plant spirits become a different kind known as Dryads which oversee the nymphs and even have the ability to command the pseudo-fey in their forest.¡¯

    ¡®Can spirits form from things other than plants? I have heard the stories about things like fire spirits and water nymphs on Earth.¡¯

    ¡®Really!? Well, normally not. At least, not in a normal world. I suppose things like that might be possible in a world with special rules, but why would a god ever create a system like that?¡¯

    ¡®I¡¯m sorry, world rules?¡¯

    ¡®Yes. World rules are created by the barrier. The barrier around Earth had the world rule that no magic could be cast, fey would not be born, and only neutral energy can pass the barrier. The last one was actually added in later in order to prevent magic further. Some mages began figuring out ways to get around the world barrier and cast magic anyway. So, the flow of all energies was blocked in order to try and prevent even mana from outside coming in as well as. There is a tendency for any one kind of energy to start suppressing the others once it gets concentrated enough, so having the spirit energy increase in density would force down the activity of mana and arcane energy.¡¯

    ¡®Ok, and what is neutral energy?¡¯

    ¡®Well, just like the fey turn spirit energy into mana, humans turn neutral energy into spirit energy. Further, gods can cleanse arcane energy and turn it back into neutral energy.¡¯

    ¡®Well, if dense energies displace and suppress other energies, doesn¡¯t that mean neutral energy would be repressed as well by the spirit energy?¡¯

    ¡®Well, unlike fey, humans don¡¯t actually need the neutral energy to live. It just makes their hearts feel a little lighter while they are turning it into spirit energy and makes their bodies feel like they are moving more freely. I heard several of the gods who maintained their power began rewarding anyone who prayed to them by forcing neutral energy toward them. It¡¯s kinda genius really. It makes it so the human can feel an actual sensation while praying, and then it also increases the level of spirit energy they are producing while in prayer.¡¯

    I had to stop at this point. I was fairly stunned at discovering such a thing was going on back on Earth. I had felt that light sensation several times in religious services before. So, this was the reason for that then?

    ¡®Well then, I think that might be enough for tonight.¡¯

    With that, I rolled back to my own spot and started to go to sleep. As I was trying to do this though, I could start to hear Gaerien¡¯s wobbly babbling baby voice as she began to put what I had just taught her into practice.

    Several days or weeks later

    ¡®I¡¯ve got something that¡¯s been bothering me.¡¯ I say to Gaerien during one of our nightly chats, as has become our habit lately. ¡®I understand the whole thing with ¡°god-born,¡± fey, spirits, and monsters. But, how about gods themselves? Where do they come into the picture?¡¯

    ¡®How do you mean?¡¯

    ¡®Well, god-born are created by gods, and then fey and spirits each come from the god born. Are gods separate from this picture completely? Are gods created somehow, or are they just simply there?¡¯

    ¡®I see, that¡¯s a good question. Well, gods are actually former spirits or sentient god-born who manage to ascend to god status by gathering enough spirit energy. The exact process is a little more complicated than that, but does that answer your question?¡¯

    ¡®Hmm¡­ I suppose so. I have to say, a part of me is surprised while part is not. You say spirits and god-born though. Does that mean that fey cannot become gods?¡¯

    ¡®Well, I have never heard of it happening, I guess that doesn¡¯t mean it is impossible. Usually, for the final steps of ascending into godhood, you need to begin to gather spirit energy from worship. Normally, god-born tend to get that worship from their own species while spirits can often gain the worship of a god-born. The fey cannot receive spirit energy from other fey, so this obstructs them from this step.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I suppose that makes sense. There are several things that are still not clear, but¡­ well, this is a touchy subject for me being from Earth. It took quite a bit of effort just to ask this question honestly, and now I have to take a bit to process this.¡¯

    ¡®Disillusioned a bit? Well, I suppose that can be expected. I will tell you this much though, I have walked the road to godhood once, and I am planning to do it again. If you have more questions, you ought to be able to get the answers first hand by watching me.¡¯

    ¡®Quite the declaration. Not even bothered by the fact that you¡¯re a member of a fey race now?¡¯

    ¡®Well¡­ I have something of a secret weapon here that I think ought to get me over that little hump. There are still a few issues I¡¯m working out, but I have found my own path to godhood here that ought to work out just fine.¡¯

    ¡®Right, whatever. I¡¯m just going to go back to my exercises for now.¡¯

    ¡®Don¡¯t leave me out of that. You gotta make sure and hold up your end of the bargain.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I¡¯ve already told you what to work on for this week, so you don¡¯t need me giving you any extra input.¡¯

    ¡®Right. I bet I might even be able to pass you up if everything goes well.¡¯

    World barriers and world rules

    ¡®I have been thinking a little. You said the other night about how you were trying to do the same things as before that allowed you to reach godhood. What is that process exactly?¡¯

    ¡®Oh, ready to hear it now? It¡¯s not going against your soul anymore to hear these things?¡¯

    ¡®It took me a little while to accept these things, but the god I worshiped is on Earth, and now I am away from home. It would be good for me to learn a little about the world outside of the safe confines of my home now wouldn¡¯t it?¡¯

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡®Hmm¡­ still sticking with the safe answers huh? I never understood how that one managed to cultivate so many fanatical followers, and you aren¡¯t even one of the more dedicated ones either.¡¯

    ¡®I think we have had this talk before. Leave digs at my faith out of this.¡¯

    ¡®Right. Well, to break it down as best I can, you go back and forth between using spirit energy to remodel your spirit, and remodel your body. Along the way, you gain the ability to perform magic and miracles of various types. All those hopeful to become gods will, at some point, have to become a spirit before ascending to godhood. So, if you happen to be a god-born attempting to become a god yourself, you will have to cast off your physical form.¡¯

    ¡®So, all gods are spirits then?¡¯

    ¡®Sort of. I did not become a spirit again when I fell from godhood. Once you cross the threshold between spirit and god, it causes a permanent change.¡¯

    ¡®I see. Well, you said that you were having trouble with the process. What exactly is the issue?¡¯

    ¡®It¡¯s pretty simple. The world rules of this world are different, and it¡¯s resisting my path to godhood.¡¯

    ¡®You have mentioned world rules a few times before. Can you give me more details?¡¯

    ¡®Ok, well¡­ world rules are basically rules governing the way magic and the energies behave in a world. The world rules are set by the gods, specifically the gods responsible for the world barrier. This is because the world barrier is the method used to set the rules. Anything inside of the barrier is subject to those rules.¡¯

    ¡®So, something about those rules makes it so you can¡¯t do whatever it is you are trying to do?¡¯

    ¡®Well, actually¡­ I found a way to cheat. I haven¡¯t been able to make heads or tails of the way the world rules in this world work, I have just about reached the conclusion that part of the rules here are specifically set to make it so you cannot do the things to become a god here. Nothing new really, that¡¯s how Earth was too, but there are fey here, which means there¡¯s also magic. Magic and the path to godhood are actually linked, so it¡¯s crazy that they¡¯ve managed to come up with a system in this world that could resist the process wile still allowing magic!¡¯

    ¡®I see. So, there go your aspirations of godhood then.¡¯

    ¡®Wait! What¡¯s with that self-satisfied tone!? And no, I¡¯m definitely not sunk yet. I can¡¯t understand the rules of this world, but I¡¯ve got a way to just straight up disobey them and work from my own rules anyway. It¡¯s quite the work-around, but I¡¯ve had some success with it so far.¡¯

    ¡®So, a way to cheat the system is it? Well, normally I might roll my eyes and leave you to that, but since this is probably going to keep affecting things for me I guess I might as well ask how exactly you are cheating the system and such.¡¯

    ¡®Well, believe it or not, the method is you.¡¯

    ¡®What? Me?¡¯

    ¡®Yes. You remember how I said that I don¡¯t think I could communicate with anyone except for you with this thought connection like this? Well, that¡¯s because the rules of this world are also resisting my ability to use that simple level of divine magic. This communication is the simplest divine spell of all of them, but this world resists it. However, you have an ability to disobey the world rules, and being your sister it seems I can get some benefits from this as well if I¡¯m close enough to you.¡¯

    ¡®Well, that¡¯s quite the revelation. I DO hope you plan to elaborate on how exactly this works, do you know?¡¯

    ¡®Oh yes, it was the reason I chose you in the first place back on Earth. You remember what I asked you to do in order to help save your daughter?¡¯

    ¡®Granddaughter. And yes. My combat meditation was able to help you do that somehow.¡¯

    ¡®Yes. Earth has an even stronger resistance against miracles, to the point a mere fallen goddess like I was would be incapable of anything. However, when you were in the middle of your meditation, it pierced a hole in the world barrier, which not only allowed me to gain power but also created a small little area without any active world rules. In this area, I was able to enact any miracle I wanted.¡¯

    ¡®I see. And, that was also how we wound up in this world too I take it?¡¯

    ¡®Yes. Because you were creating that hole in the world barrier right up until the moment you died, when you died it expanded that hole further and allowed your spirit to slip through. I kinda hitched a ride with you.¡¯

    ¡®So then, you said you could cause any miracle you wanted while I was in the middle of my meditation. I take it you could also have simply healed my granddaughter without transferring her injuries to me?¡¯

    ¡®Well, yes. Actually, it would have even been easier to just heal her, but¡­ well. I didn¡¯t say anything though. I saw my opportunity and wanted to take it in order to leave that world. So.. um¡­ are you angry?¡¯

    ¡®Honestly, no I¡¯m not. I actually suspected as much. It was your deal to make, and I took it. You have to be getting something out of the deal, right? I think of it like a business transaction. I was quite satisfied with the deal to tell the truth. It was either I take it, or my granddaughter dies or is permanently crippled for my mistake. Also, even if you had just healed her, I don¡¯t think I would have worshiped you or anything. You made the best deal so that you would get what you wanted, and meanwhile I got what I wanted as well. It all works out in the end.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I¡¯m glad to hear that. I was worried about how you would react when you found out.¡¯

    ¡®Well, thank you for not lying to me when I asked you directly.¡¯

    ¡®Are you kidding? If there¡¯s one thing I have learned about you, it¡¯s that you are quite good at spotting lies. You would have just gotten pissed off and started making my life miserable until you finally dragged the truth out of me if I had lied to you.¡¯

    ¡®Well, you¡¯re not wrong. I hate lies. I believe they are a cardinal sin for a reason.¡¯

    Why Aerien doesn¡¯t sleep.

    ¡®You know? You mentioned a while ago about how you aren¡¯t sleeping at all anymore. I had to think for a while, but I think I might have figured it out.¡¯

    ¡®Oh? Well, I¡¯m interested to hear this then.¡¯

    ¡®When that elf put you to sleep with that medicine, I could sense that your meditation also stopped.¡¯

    I actually wasn¡¯t surprised she would know this. I had told her myself in a previous conversation that I managed to reach a constant state of meditation in my previous life, and a few months back I straight up told her that was a goal I was working on for this life as well. By this point, I had largely succeeded.

    ¡®Well, of course I can¡¯t maintain a meditation even when I¡¯m asleep. This has to do with more than just my meditation though, doesn¡¯t it?¡¯

    ¡®Yes. And, also, it was right around the time you started really getting good at keeping up your constant meditation that you stopped sleeping as well.¡¯

    ¡®Now that you mention it, that does sound right. It didn¡¯t have that effect in my previous life though, so how is it doing that here?¡¯

    ¡®Well, you know how fey live off spirit energy, right? Well, high level fey like faeries normally also don¡¯t need to sleep. However, there is one time that faeries will fall into a sleep that is more like a hibernation. That is when they start to run really low on spirit energy.¡¯

    ¡®So, you mentioned before that I seem to be getting spirit energy with my meditation. You are saying that it¡¯s enough to override my need to sleep since I¡¯m a fey now?¡¯

    ¡®That seems to be the case.¡¯

    ¡®It¡¯s a good theory. So, I assume that this means it¡¯s kinda an opposite effect from what happens with faeries. The faeries only sleep when they are low on spirit energy. Meanwhile, elves don¡¯t need to sleep when they have very very high levels of it. Well, I guess at least that bastard putting me to sleep like that solved this little mystery. Thanks for catching that.¡¯

    The night after my confrontation with ¡°Ether guy.¡±

    After I had talked with Rolwen and Levin about how we were going to fake being sick, Gaerien suddenly called me over. She gave me a look, a look I had come to recognize as her having something to say that was complicated and would require our mind-to-mind communication in order to work. Curious about what she was going to say, I decided to send the boys off to practice on their own while I sat next to her and took her hand.

    ¡®I just wanted to tell you something to help you out if you want to really make this faked illness thing work.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I don¡¯t mean for it to be too good. The larger point of this is just to show Ether guy that we will do as he said and fake illness in front of other people, that way he might give all of us a little more freedom.¡¯

    ¡®That¡¯s the thing. No matter how good a performance you give, it will never be believable unless you cancel that meditation of yours. I mentioned before how you take in spirit energy and such while you are doing it, right? Well, it actually gives you so much beyond your own needs that there is an overflow. If he can sense that, then the illness thing is not going to be believable.¡¯

    ¡®I see. And you¡¯re only telling me about this whole excess spirit energy thing now, why?¡¯

    ¡®Well, I thought that the boys produced so much that probably not many people would notice. I¡¯ve started to see that Ether guy acting a little different around you lately though, ever since he took you off on your own to that room. You said he just had you in there a minute and took you right back out, right? I think he cast some sort of spell to scan you and see your energy flow.¡¯

    ¡®Again, I think you could have told me about this as soon as you realized that if it was that long ago.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I wasn¡¯t sure, and¡­¡¯

    ¡®You didn¡¯t want me to start holding off on my meditation because it would close that world barrier hole you needed, right?¡¯

    ¡®Umm¡­ yeah, I guess you got me there.¡¯

    ¡®-sigh-, well, I guess even if you had told me then it would be too late. I do wish you would have told me sooner, but I guess it wouldn''t have made a difference. If anything, it would raise suspicion if I had suddenly stopped after he noticed it.¡¯

    ¡®Sorry. Also, I think it¡¯s kinda funny that you can sigh inside your own mind like that.¡¯

    ¡®Whatever. Well, at least you are telling me now. It lets me plan accordingly. So, thanks for that at least.¡¯

    Later, the night of the same day.

    ¡®You know? What you told me today got me thinking. I¡¯ve always gotten the impression that you know a fair bit more about my own meditation that I do.¡¯

    ¡®Well.. I guess I might know some things you wouldn¡¯t.¡¯

    ¡®Would you like to elaborate on those things? I don¡¯t want to suddenly be caught off guard like I was with Ether guy picking up on my spirit energy from the meditation and all that.¡¯

    ¡®So, I told you about how your meditation pierces the world barrier before, right?¡¯

    ¡®Yes.¡¯

    ¡®Well, your meditation is actually one of the latest and most polished versions of something the ancient mages of Earth started working on in desperation after the Earth¡¯s world barrier was first created. When the barrier started resisting their magic, they came up with it as a way to get past the barrier¡¯s limitations.¡¯

    ¡®Makes sense. So, they came up with a way to put a hole in the world barrier just so they could keep using magic.¡¯

    ¡®Yes. It¡¯s more than just making a hole though. Remember, the barrier also stopped the fey from being born and so all the mana in the world was eliminated. So, these newer mage¡¯s meditations all also had the ability to convert spirit energy into mana on their own, just like a member of the fey would.¡¯

    ¡®Hmm¡­ I can¡¯t say I ever remember something in my meditation that had something like that.¡¯

    ¡®Well, you actually did it all the time in your past life. Remember, I was actually watching you for quite a while. The reason I was following you around was because I saw the haze of mana always surrounding you and your students. So, it¡¯s not just you, it¡¯s also a lot of the other people in your style who also practice this meditation who can do it.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I was never conscious of doing something like that. How can it have that effect without me being aware of it?¡¯

    ¡®Well, you might have confused it for something different. It involves taking in large amounts of spirit energy. You remember me saying how spirit energy contains the thoughts of the person who uses it, right? Well, you call your meditation a combat meditation, I can see where reading the thoughts of your opponent might be seen as a part of that.¡¯

    ¡®It doesn¡¯t read thoughts, it reads intentions. And, on that note, wow. If that¡¯s how it is, then I know exactly what you¡¯re talking about. The chi of fire and the feeling of fire is a portion of the meditation where you practice spotting your opponent¡¯s intention, and getting in to act before them in order to shut down and capitalize on whatever action they were about to take. Interesting something like that should be associated with fire. Perhaps the fire chi is being used to literally burn the spirit energy into mana.¡¯

    ¡®Anyway, so, the meditations that the ancient mages came up with that could allow them to still use magic under the world barrier had three things in common. One, they could pierce the world barrier. Two, they could convert spirit energy to mana themselves. And, three, piercing the world barrier actually takes a whole lot of energy in and of itself, a lot more than any normal mage could control. So, all of these meditations have the ability to pull energy from another source and use it immediately to drive it into the world barrier and make the hole that they need. In the early days, it was kinda like they were casting a spell to control the energy and use it as a weapon against the barrier. If you are any example though, it looks like over the millennia it was refined so much that now you can cut a hole in the world barrier with minimal effort of any kind. Honestly, I actually don¡¯t even understand how it is that you do what you are doing.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I don¡¯t understand enough about all this magic stuff to give you a complete answer, but I can tell you that you are absolutely correct about my meditation pulling energy from an outside source. But then, I¡¯ve told you that already, and you also just mentioned that all the good meditations these days do that anyway. At any rate, I can help you out a little by telling you that the source I pull energy from for my meditation is heaven. I was actually in prayer to god all the time when I did my meditation, and in doing that I got his power and it flowed through me.¡¯

    ¡®What!? He actually gave you energy for that!? He literally gave you the energy to pierce his barrier! You¡¯ve gotta be mistaken!¡¯

    ¡®No mistake, that was my method.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I suppose it¡¯s probably a good thing you never cast a spell. If you were deliberately pulling his attention to you while using his power to help you cast some magic, he would have likely marked you for death. You¡¯ve heard about the opposition most religions had to witchcraft, right? The gods of Earth absolutely do not like mages. They have a decree that all of them should be put to death.¡¯

    ¡®I can¡¯t really speak to that one way or the other, but I know I never had any trouble form it.¡¯

    End

 Chapter 20: New opportunities

    1st Arc: Infancy

    Act 2: Spirit

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    T¨²eth sat at master Eirlathion¡¯s table, slowly calming down from her moment of panic. All of the conflicting thoughts had gone through her head, and she had cried her tears. Her brain, now filled with the endorphines from the crying she had done, forced a sense of peace onto her that conflicted with her thoughts. Still, because of this ancient coping mechenism of every creature with a nervous system, T¨²eth was brought back from the brink of insanity, and now she was just paralyzed in a haze of indecision.

    She had been in the middle of talking with the master about her daughters, when suddenly she was so overcome with fear. She had looked at the face of her daughter. A daughter who promised great prospects and possibilities for the future. A future that could very well include her and help to get her back on her feet. A future that she did not deserve, that she had desired be cut short in her heart again and again and again ever since she discovered she was pregnant.

    T¨²eth¡¯s fears were renewed every time she thought of the possibilities for that girl. Despite the conditions of her birth, this girl had so many things now that could easily turn what could be considered a very bad prospect for her life completely on its head. Being a grey elf, members of her father¡¯s race would seek her death whenever they found her, just for being born a grey elf. Dark elves sought the death of all surface elves without exception, but whenever they found a grey elf it was like the entire race considered their mere existence a personal insult and they would use every method at their disposal to ensure that grey elf¡¯s death.

    For this reason, most elven communities refused to harbor grey elves. The disaster they brought by their mere existence was not something any community would invite. If the grey elf was old enough to walk on their own, they could be simply barred from entering the village and exiled. However, in cases where they were an infant unable to fend for themselves, the solution was simply to eliminate them.

    In the case of T¨²eth, she would be met with a great deal of hostility for hiding the fact that her daughters were grey elves. She would be seen as someone who endangered the entire village. However, as their mother, it would be seen as understandable. However, the master magus of the village, upon finding out, took them in and was raising them as his own all this time where she had abandoned them.

    This was clearly for no reason other than that amazing power possessed by one of her daughters. However, that was clearly not all. If he had just wanted the power that child had for himself, he would not have kept trying to drag T¨²eth back into their lives. He would have merely kept the girls secreted away and locked up for the rest of their lives, and he would have used what methods he could to keep T¨²eth herself silent. Instead, he had been pestering her regularly to come back to them.

    The master had said it himself. The power her daughter possesssed was a power so great that even the queen was likely to take notice. That power, that could call the attention of such an ancient and powerful existence as the queen, was upstairs right now. It was T¨²eth¡¯s own daughter. If she decided to come back to her daughters now, she would be able to stand in the same place as the royalty of all the fey races of the northern forrest. From that, anything could happen.

    In a way, this could be seen as the greatest of good fortune that had found its way into T¨²eth¡¯s lap. That is exactly what was the most frightening thing about it. She really did not deserve this kind of good fortune. She had desired the death of her daughters several times, an uncountable number of times. In the past six months, thoughts of how everything would be better if they were no longer living filled T¨²eth¡¯s head almost every day. Could a mother like that really ever be a part of their child¡¯s life again?

    She was only 73 years old. What could a mother who was not even a century old yet possibly offer her children? On top of that, they had the master caring for them as though he was their own father. There was surely nothing she could ever hope to offer that wouldn¡¯t be provided far better by him. He was also the one who had been right by their sides nearly since their birth. By all rights, he was certainly in the place to call himself their parent. Meanwhile, would they even know who she was?

    As these thoughts continued to swirl through T¨²eth¡¯s head, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she suddenly felt the warm pressure of a hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°Oh, sorry.¡± the calm and masculine voice of the master magus who had invited her into his house apologized and moved over to sit opposite her. She studied the man¡¯s face. She had heard he was now over a mellenium in age. This was well over twice the ammount of the typical elf¡¯s life span, and yet he looked like a man who was only a little past his prime. In fact, it could even be said he looked younger now than he had six months ago when he had first appeared in front of her to report on the condition of her daughters. This was the power of the magus that extended the life of everyone who practiced mage craft.

    T¨²eth sat in silence for some time, looking across at the master. Not a word was exchanged between the two of them. Finally, the silence was broken by a long and audible inhale and exhale by the master as he turned his sharp eyes filled with over 1,000 years of wisdom toward her. ¡°I would like to thank you for not leaving¡± he said. ¡°I know this must be hard for you.¡± T¨²eth involuntarily clenched her hands into fists. A simple phrase like that was nowhere near enough to describe the turmoil in her heart right now. Every elf knew to treat the magi with a great deal of respect. One elf¡¯s word could not possibly go against the will of a magi. However, hearing her sea of turbulent emotions summed up in such simple words somehow filled her with rage.

    It was all she could do to avoid shouting. To make matters worse, she did not even know why those words made her so angry. He was sympathising with her. Why did those words of kindness make her angry? She wanted to ask him, what did he even know? Even living as long as he had there is no way he could possibly understand what she is feeling right now!This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°I can¡¯t,¡± T¨²eth said in a weak trembling voice. She tried her best to keep her irrational anger out of her voice, but there was still a definite tension in her tone. The master did not respond immediately. He just sat and stared at her, looking at her with eyes that seemed to be pulling appart her entire being and judging her. She felt incredibly weak under that gaze, and it was only her fear of and ingrained respect for the title of magus in this moment that prevented her from lashing out at him.

    T¨²eth looked up, only to see he was still silently staring at her. She realized, he was waiting for her to continue. What did he want from her? Isn¡¯t this where you usually try to pursuaid the irrational failure of a mother that she has to be there for their children and that crap!? Those girls didn¡¯t even need her! There was absolutely nothing she could offer! What in the hell did this ancient bastard know!?

    ¡°I... I don¡¯t deserve it.¡± T¨²eth finally found her words. This was the safest thing she could say, and it was also the thing closest to the core of what was tormenting her thoughts, the thing that all of these swirling emotions kept coming back to.

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right.¡± He said, throwing a shock through T¨²eth¡¯s entire being. Had she just heard him right!? This outrageous comment. It was enough to make her almost forget she was sitting in front of a magus, and she immediately looked up to lock eyes with him. ¡°You¡¯re right, you don¡¯t deserve any of it.¡± He said again.

    ¡°What the hell did you call me here for then?¡± she asked in a poisonous tone, a tone that would leave anyone shocked to hear a mere elf girl in her 70s use with a master magus such as him.

    ¡°Would you like to tell me what it is you are feeling right now T¨²eth?¡± He asks. ¡°I know you are quite aware of the difference in our standings. So, tell me, I want to hear what made you take that tone with me just now.¡±

    ¡°I... I¡¯m sorry.¡± She bites back her anger and looks away from him.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t ask you for an apology, and I didn¡¯t want one. What I want to hear you tell me is the emotions you are feeling in your heart right now. I want to hear all of the things that are tormenting your soul and leading you to the thoughts you are having right now, the torment that is so great that it makes you forget the difference in our status to such an extent you are willing to disrespect a magus who is nearly an entire millenium older than you are.¡±

    ¡°I...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, yell if you want to T¨²eth. Use whatever disrespectful words toward me you want to. You¡¯re probably not capable of telling me about it without yelling at me, so go ahead and yell if you want to. This entire house is protected by a silencing spell. There is nobody who is going to hear you yelling at and disrespecting a magus with all your words.¡±

    What was that!? Did she just hear that right!? How could a magus be asking her to do such a thing? And even if he said that, it¡¯s not that simple. She had slipped up a second ago, but there is no way she could possibly ever bring herself to do what he was asking her to do.

    ¡°I... I can¡¯t be their mother!¡±Having said that, she struggled for a moment, but there were no more words that came to her mind. It felt like there should be more to say, but nothing else came out and so she just left it at that, having said those words without backing them up with the reason behind them.

    The master looked at her and lowered his gaze. T¨²eth could see something like disappointment in his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s all you have to say?¡± He asks. T¨²eth knows that was nowhere near what it was that he wanted to hear, but she couldn¡¯t give him what he wanted. It just... wouldn¡¯t be appropriate. After she had hidden it from everybody for all this time, and it also was not an easy thing to come out to someone of this high a station with her personal worries either. That was really all that she could possibly say in this situation.

    The master let out a long sigh, casting his disappointed eyes down at the table. ¡°Well then, you don¡¯t have to be their mother.¡± He said. ¡°I¡¯m not even sure if I¡¯m going to need you for a babysitter anymore, at least not for a while. It turns out I can¡¯t leave that girl alone after all. If she¡¯s pulling stunts like what she just did up there, she needs someone who can keep her in line nearby until she learns to control her power. She learns scary fast, but it still might take years before she can be left on her own with someone else.¡±

    So, that was it then? He didn¡¯t need her anymore. Maybe he would come calling on her again in a few years when he needed her to watch the girls while he was off talking to the royals, but for now her role in her daughters¡¯ lives was done.

    ¡°I have something else I would like to offer instead.¡± The master says, causing T¨²eth¡¯s eyes to drift up to his face. Suddenly, his face seemed quite gentle. His eyes that seemed so serious a moment ago were now full of compassion and earnestness. For some reason, T¨²eth felt something, she felt hope at what he was going to say next. Where was this hope coming from? For some reason, while she was wanting to do nothing but run away from this whole situation a moment ago, after being told by him that he didn¡¯t need her to be the girls¡¯ mother, suddenly she felt like she would do whatever he wanted her to do if it meant that she might be able to somehow be back here in his house where her girls are. She didn¡¯t understand it. Where was this feeling coming from?

    ¡°T¨²eth,¡± he said, ¡°would you like to become my apprentice?¡±

    ¡°Uh?¡± She made some unintelligent response like that toward the master¡¯s words. She thought she had heard him correctly, but her brain just refused to believe what she had just heard. How could she be a mage¡¯s apprentice!? Her! T¨²eth! Just some young girl who had been toyed with by a dark elf, a worthless outsider who endangered the whole village by giving birth to grey elves and keeping it secret for six months! Someone who had used such cras language with a magus a few minutes ago and still had such disrespectful thoughts about him! She was a failure already who could not watch the girls for him, she had freaked out the moment she saw their faces! She had no family, no connections, she was now just a worthless leech feeding off the kindness of this village! And he wants her for an apprentice!?

    ¡°It¡¯s not just because of the girls.¡± He says. ¡°You were next to the heaven¡¯s fall when it happened, and I do not think there is a single person alive who was closer to the source of that energy than you when it was at its very highest. You may not realize it yet, but your entire spirit was aslo reshaped by that. I do not think there is a single mage alive who wouldn¡¯t have you for an apprentice.¡±

    After saying this, he stood up again and walked around to touch her on the shoulder, exactly the same way as he had when he first came down and surprised her. ¡°We can worry about the rough edges later. For now, I would like you to go home and sort out your thoughts. You can come here tomorrow and we will start your training. We will be staying down here on the first floor the entire time. Those children are surprisingly well behaved and usually keep to themselves up there, so it¡¯s very likely you won¡¯t even see them for the entire day unless you decide on your own to go upstairs where they are.¡±

    ¡°A... ahh...¡± T¨²eth gasped breathlessly. She was still having difficulty processing this whole thing. This was far more than she ever thought possible. Really!? A magus¡¯ apprentice? That means, she was going to become a magus herself! A magus! Her? Really!?

    There had to be something wrong with this here. She just couldn¡¯t accept that kind of good fortune could just fall in her lap. This kind of thing didn¡¯t simply just happen to someone like her! How could a worthless girl like her be given this kind of opportunity!?

    ¡°It¡¯s Ok, I don¡¯t need you to answer me right now. I already said I want you to think about it. Just, go home right now. I don¡¯t think you are in any condition to think properly.¡±

    ¡°Y... yeah.¡± T¨²eth gasped. She stood up on shaky legs, and then made her way over to the entry way for the house. The master caused the door to open with a mere prolonged glance toward the wall, he didn¡¯t even touch the wall to open it, a testimate to his control over the mana running through his body, and how attuned he was to the green word. ¡°Well...¡± She said, looking back at him. ¡°Th... thank you.¡± That was all she was able to say. She was still very haunted and shaken by the outrageous offer he had made, and her mind still hadn¡¯t caught up with it yet. After she left his house, she walked in a daze until the moment she had arrived at her own home.

 Chapter 21: Second Apprentice?

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    After he finished showing T¨²eth off, Eirlathion stood in his place for a long time as he processed several complex emotions that he was having to process. He had made the best of the situation as it was, but to compare where he is now to where he was hoping to be he could call this entire day a complete failure. Well, ultimately a failure is what you make of it.

    Looking at it from another perspective, he had exposed two problems he was previously unaware of and he had made progress on both of them. In fact, with how much harder T¨²eth was taking things compared to what he was expecting, it really is just as well that he has to teach Aerien to control her energies now. T¨²eth was not ready to be left alone with the girls, and Aerien could not be left alone with anyone at this point. So, delaying his trip is inevitable under these circumstances.

    Still, this was not good. The longer he waited, the more chance there was for something to go wrong. Well, he would just have to make do with what he¡¯s got. He had T¨²eth¡¯s situation dealt with for now. She was going home and wouldn¡¯t be back until tomorrow. So, now it was time to go and start working on Aerien. Hopefully, she¡¯s calmed down by now and he can start trying to at least teach her not to do whatever it was she was doing again. It would be best to go at it early while she still remembers whatever it was.

    There was one problem with this. He had learned from experience that these kids held a grudge much longer than he had heard would normally be typical of a child their age, one of the downsides of the unusual intelligence they had it would seem. This would be a great asset for them once they had matured a little, but as children their unusually long memory was a hinderance to his working with them.

    There was no time to dawdle though. He was already set back by the difficulties coming from Aerien and T¨²eth. Delaying the rate at which he addressed them would just make the matter worse.

    Resigning himself, Eirlathion went upstairs to rejoin the children. Four sets of eyes all turned to him at once when he got up there. Thankfully, it looked like Aerien had stopped crying. He let out a sigh and lowered himself to the floor.

    ¡°Levin, can you bring Aerien over here?¡± He asks. Levin¡¯s reaction to this is to turn his head and look down at Aerien with a questioning expression. He sees Aerien give a nod before he starts to make his way over. Eirlathion can¡¯t help but have a self-depreciating smile flash across his face as he begins to shake his head. It seems like her intelligence is already so far along that somehow she¡¯s  managed to get the boy trained to look to her for permission to respond to something like this.

    Well, that actually works out better for him. He was afraid she may still be upset at him. Things would be more difficult if she was. However, since she did give Levin her permission it means that she should be fine.

    Levin has to put Aerien down in order to stand to his feet, but then immediately afterward he bends down at the knees and scoops her up. Eirlathion can¡¯t help the odd feeling that there¡¯s something wrong with the way that Levin just moved, but he really can¡¯t place it. He wonders about this for a moment as the human who is the size of a mere 6 year old elven toddler struggles to carry the two season old infant. However, he loses his ability to process this thought when a smile flashes across Aerien¡¯s face. Her smile there, somehow seemed it seemed to look satisfied, or maybe the better word would be ¡°approving¡± of the current situation. With this other strange incongruity, his thoughts are disrupted enough that he has made zero headway in figuring out what was bothering him about the way Levin picked up Aerien when he reverses the process in order to put her back down.

    Levin finishes by pulling Aerien into his lap, a process which she helps out with by pressing off the floor with her feet and adjusting herself comfortably in his arms. Well then, time to just engage them and see what happens.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I yelled at you earlier Aerien.¡± He said in a gentle tone. While it was not exactly unusual to apologize to a baby for upsetting them and making them cry, the more formal tone he was taking with her as well as doing it this far after the fact were both definitely things you would think were more appropriate to a child who was at least a little older. However, he was not going to underestimate her as anything like a normal baby after the incident a few days ago where she actually went out of her way to confront him in his dinning room about hiding the truth of their heritage from them.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I just got scared when I saw you pretending to be sick like that. Do you forgive me?¡±

    Aerien gets a thoughtful expression on her face for a moment, and then responds ¡°whad porgiv-me?¡±(What does ¡°forgive me¡±(aspene-amin) mean?)

    A silent chuckle shakes Eirlathion¡¯s body and a smile creeps onto his face again. ¡°forgive me means that you are not angry at me anymore.¡±

    (Hmm... yeah, I forgive me (aspene-amin.) I mean! Errr... forgive you (aspene-ile)) Eirlathion simply couldn¡¯t contain his chuckle at this one. This child¡¯s rate of growth, at least in the mental department, was quite startling. However, she was clearly still a child and just learning how to talk, and there were several aspects of that which were adorable even if they were coming about a little fast.

    ¡°Really? Well, I¡¯m glad. I actually wanted to teach you something. You know how I turn that wall over there into stairs to my room? Do you want to learn how to turn the wall into stairs too?¡±

    (Huh!?) She responds, looking rather stunned. Levin and, in the corner of his eye, Rolwen and even her sister Gaerien, all look a little surprised as well. As for Aerien, that surprise seems to quickly be replaced by a panicked look. (Ah! Umm... Ok!) She says.

    He smiles. The green word is the first magic any elven children are usually taught. It is one of the natural spells that they control, not even requiring them to form any spell vessels in order to use it. A child is simply not ready to begin cultivating spirit energy in order to form it into a spell vessel, but they can still use the natural magic of the elves and practice their control over their mana. Well, that only applies to normal children.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    It would not surprise him at all if Aerien was able to figure out how to cultivate at her age. It would likely take a few painstaking lessons of him carefully explaining it to her over and over again, but he was pretty sure she could learn. The whole process for spellcasting with this method was a lot more involved though. Even if she was bright enough to figure it out, it would still be better and involve a lot less of a headache to teach her in the normal order. But first, he had to get down to business about something.

    ¡°Alright, but, before we begin I need to ask you a question.¡±He said with a heavy look on his face. ¡°Just what was it that you did when you were pretending to be sick?¡±

    -

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    I was filled with some complicated emotions when I had looked up at my mother a short time ago. My eyes were really full of tears at the time. I had only become a little bit upset from being yelled at, it shouldn¡¯t have been enough to make me cry, but it was one of the frustrations of this baby body. My brain had simply not developed the faculties yet to restrain myself on this, and only becoming slightly upset sent me immediately into tears. Despite my more mature mind, I was simply unable to control it.

    Because of this, I was not able to make out her exact features very well. I felt bad. This was the first time I had ever actually seen my mom in this world since I was practically blind when I was born. And, thanks to these tears, it was really little better than it would have been back then. Her form was nothing but a glistening blurry outline. And, before those tears could clear up, she stood up like a shot and ran straight down stairs.

    After that, Ether guy who still seemed to be agitated from the apparent scare I had given him by feigning illness a little too well, slapped his hand on the wall and revealed the stairs to his room and then retreated up there. Normally, he would return the stairs to the way they were before after going up. This time, however, he kept the stairs open. It seemed he was agitated and wanted to calm himself down, but if I had to guess at his reasons for keeping the stairs open I would say he was spooked enough that he was doing the responsible thing and keeping an ear out for anything that might go wrong.

    After a few minutes, he slowly descended the stairs, looking a lot more composed. He only just barely paid us a glanced to check that we, or more to the point, I, had not done anything else worth concern. After confirming that we were all fine, he continued on to go down to the first floor without saying a single word.

    Soon enough, we were able to hear voices coming from downstairs. It seemed like he was consoling mine and Gaerien¡¯s mother. She seemed rather upset from seeing us. I¡¯m not certain how a normal baby would react to this. Most likely, a normal baby wouldn¡¯t even care. She would be nothing but a stranger to a normal baby in the same situation Gaerien and I were in.

    In my case, since I had my memories from my previous life, my baby self was actually pretty hurt by this. My adult self knew her reasons and felt sympathetic. Actually, my baby self knew all that as well. We share the same information after all. It¡¯s just that she wasn¡¯t quite as mature mentally as my past life self was, and she couldn¡¯t help but take it personally.

    Fortunately however, the double shock of scaring Ether guy so bad he yelled at me and me getting upset over my mother getting scared and running away from me somehow managed to cancel each other out a little. With both emotional events happening one after another, it left my mind in something of a jumble. And then, trying to sort this out, it allowed the old man to address the problem simply by re-asserting a calming meditation. It was an improper meditation that had started this whole thing anyway, so re-asserting a proper calming meditation was really what I had to do anyway.

    Things seemed to start calming down from there. I had excellent hearing now, so I was able to perfectly make out what the two of them were saying. This was the first I heard about this talk about Ether guy being a magus. I had already figured out he did a lot of things related to magic, and from what I saw upstairs in his room I knew it was not just a casual thing. So, hearing this was really more just a point of consolodating a lot of things I already knew.

    The surprising part was the way the two of them were talking in regards to the subject. It was quite clear from what I heard that there was some kind of caste system in this world, and mages were clearly very high up on it while our mother seemed to be pretty low in the social order. Considering that, some of the more rough things Ether guy seemed to say were explainable. He seemed to be really trying his best. I could guess a little at where he meant to go with the ¡°you¡¯re right, you don¡¯t deserve it¡± comment at the beginning there, but unfortunately the conversation did not go in a direction that would allow him to follow up on what could have otherwise likely turned out to be a movie drama worthy touching scene.

    Well, real life really does rarely work out that way. At least my mother didn¡¯t seem to dwell on it too much. Although, it was really hard to tell exactly what WAS going through her mind given how closed off she was being, and how Ether guy¡¯s somewhat forceful attempts at getting her to come out of her shell were failing miserably. In the end, all his efforts just seemed to be cut off with a response that I, as the old man of my past life, had somewhat expected. But, still, that didn¡¯t stop my self as 6 month old Aerien from feeling a little hurt by it.

    In the end, it seemed he somehow managed to convince her to come back later by actually offering to make her his apprentice. However, I also heard a very interesting term during all of this. ¡°Heaven¡¯s fall.¡± Something about that term gave me a very uncomfortable feeling. It was definitely the name of some kind of event that happened, and with a name like that it was clearly a huge event. However, the most upsetting part about hearing that term was definitely that I couldn¡¯t come up with any good way to start asking about it in order to get more information.

    I was still rolling this term, ¡°Heaven¡¯s fall,¡± around in my mind when Ether guy came back up. He seemed to have a rather serious expression on his face and took a seat on the floor, and then asked Levin to bring me over to him. Levin performed excellently, bending at the knees in order to not strain his back as he was picking me up. This was not a thing a normal 2 year old toddler would do, but despite the risk doing this in front of Ether guy posed, I couldn¡¯t help but appreciate the kid for this.

    I settled myself into Levin¡¯s lap after he had brought me over to Ether guy. Considering that he only asked to have me brought over and wasn¡¯t including Gaerien, I could guess that he probably wanted to talk about the thing he just saw when I had screwed up my meditation. Before that though, he asked if I was still mad at him. He had used an Elven word I had never heard before. I could probably derive the meaning from the context. In fact, I had a pretty reasonable suspicion of what it meant already, but I quickly decided that it would be best for the cover we were still keeping up if I were to just do what a normal baby would do when hearing a new word for the first time and ask him what it meant.

    After we got through that, the next thing he said really surprised me because it completely defied my expectations as to where this conversation was going. He asked me if I wanted to learn how to do the magic that revealed the stairs to his room. In a slight panic I managed to put my thoughts together, and then I immediately gave the obvious answer. Of course, if he was offering to teach me a new skill like that which would probably be pretty essential in this world then I was going to be quite willing to learn it.

    He seemed pretty satisfied with my answer, but his face quickly went back to being serious. Here it comes then. [Alright, but, before we begin I need to ask you a question.] He said. [Just what was it that you did when you were pretending to be sick?]

    Yep, there it is. This is the question I had been dreading. I couldn¡¯t just answer with something about disrupting my meditation. There was absolutely no way I could justify a 6 month old knowing about meditation, but I was having a hard time coming up with a reason inside of my cover to avoid answering.

    Well, here it goes. ([I don¡¯t know! I.. I just wanted to do what you said and make myself look sick!]) I said, my voice going a little higher than I had meant it to as I could feel my body threatening to start crying again. ([I¡¯m sorry,]) I pouted. Well, that was actually a more believable performance than I had thought. For once the ease with which this body starts to cry seemed to be working in my favor. Well then, hopefully that worked and he won¡¯t press the issue further.

    [Well... Ok then. How about we forget about doing that for now? I¡¯ll deal with it if someone else comes into the house, you go ahead and try to be your normal self. Don¡¯t try to pretend to be sick again.]

    ¡°Mmm..¡± I croak out a sound of acknowledgement. This turned out well. It seemed like he wasn¡¯t going to press it. However, it was a little upsetting that my whole idea had backfired like that. I had hoped that he would allow us more freedom if we could fake being sick well, but it seemed that was likely not going to happen now. I was going to have to apologize to Levin and Rowen later.

    Suddenly, Ether guy had a surprised expression on his face and he was looking over his shoulder in the direction of the stairs. That surprised expression very quickly turned dark and serious. [Well, it looks like someone is at the door.] He said. [It is not your mother this time, so I need you to all stay up here and be quiet. But, remember what I said Aerien. Don¡¯t do what you did before again.]

 Chapter 22: Elderâ€™s concerns

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    Just as he was in the middle of talking with Aerien, trying to get her sorted out, someone just had to come to the door. This was truly not a good time for this at all. Well, Aerien seems to listen well enough, but Eirlathion still felt like he couldn¡¯t quite be certain what she was going to do. As for what to do with the individual at the door, he really didn¡¯t have a lot of choice.

    He went down the stairs, and quickly opened the door just as he was reaching the entryway, not wanting to give the individual in question much chance to intrude very far into his house. Well, it was not likely that anyone would intrude upon his house without an invitation anyway, that was a privilage of being a high rank magus. Well, he was technically even higher in rank now, he just hadn¡¯t fully prepared his new spell vessels yet. But still, an elf who is sensitive to spirit energy ought to be able to clearly sense the change in him.

    Sure enough, as he approached the white-haired wrinkled elven man at his door, the man immediately recoiled in surprise.

    ¡°Master!¡± His gruffled voice came out. ¡°You have managed to form a spell of the next rank!? That is¡­ that would make you a ninth level at this point, would it not!?¡±

    ¡°Elder Calenor,¡± Eirlathion greeted the leader and second oldest elf in the village after himself. That being the case, the title of ¡°elder¡± did not actually refer to the oldest, but to the one chosen as leader of the village. A role which Eirlathion, as a magus, was not expected to take up himself. A magi¡¯s time was considered to be too important for him to be bothered with the day to day runnings of a village. As such, while Eirlathion was held in high respects and his world carried a lot of weight, he held no actual position of leadership in the village. The true leader of the village was the man standing right in front of him. The actual relationship between the elder and the strongest magus of a village was a rather uncertain one. For the most part though, it was assumed that neither had the ability to command the other and both were expected to treat one another with respect. ¡°Yes, indeed. I suppose it is one of the benefits of being near those children. The humans with them truly do put out an amazing amount of spirit energy. Of course, I am not shorting any to the girls, but what manages to drift up to the next floor is more than enough to have aided me quite a bit.¡±

    ¡°I am certain this is not what you have come here to talk about though. What brings you here elder?¡± Eirlathion asked.

    ¡°Yes, I just saw the young T¨²eth coming from your house. She did not look well. Are her daughters unwell?¡±

    ¡°Hmm... well, you know they have always been doing poorly elder. I had finally convinced T¨²eth to come and see her daughters, and then while she was here one of them had a rather severe attack. I was quite frightened by it myself. I can only imagine how hard it must have been on her.¡±

    The elder made a rather unpleasant face at this information. ¡°I see, the poor girl.¡± He said. ¡°They are truely in bad shape then? I certainly wish that there was more that we could do for her.¡±

    ¡°I can understand the sentiment.¡± Eirlathion said. ¡°I am doing the best that I am able to do with her daughters. As for her, I have asked her to come again tomorrow. I would like for her to be around more frequently if possible.¡±

    ¡°Hmm... is it really bad?¡± The elder asks, his face heavy with a knowing look. It seemed he was making some assumptions already in terms of Eirlathion¡¯s meaning behind trying to get T¨²eth to come more frequently.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think their lives are in immediate danger,¡± Eirlathion decided to continue choosing words that would fit in with his misperception. ¡°However, I feel at this time that we would likely be best off if those entering this house were limited to myself and the girls¡¯ mother. Any additional people could easily create unwelcome complications.¡±

    ¡°Hmm... well, I am hoping for the best. We would not want to lose the one good to come about from the tragedy of her village.¡± the elder said. ¡°I will be sure to make it clear no-one is to disturb you at your home without my permission, and I will only grant that if there is extreme due cause. It would be good if you could dedicate your full efforts toward those girls for now.¡± He nodded solemly at this. ¡°Would you like for me to talk to T¨²eth?¡±

    ¡°You had best not,¡± Eirlathion said. ¡°I think it might make things difficult if someone who does not know the full details of the situation were to clumsily begin offering their advice. I have learned this from talking to her before. She is already in a sensitive state from the tragedy. She has a great deal of difficulty trusting people now. An insensitive attempt by someone unfamiliar with her situation could cause her to shut down and undo what progress I have made with her.¡±

    ¡°Hm. In that case, I suppose I will leave you to get back to your work. Just let me know if there is anything you need.¡±

    With those words, the elder gave Eirlathion the slightest of bows, really just a nod of the head with a slight bit of chest movement to it, and proceded to leave. Eirlathion, as he watched the respected elder walk away from his house, kept as neutral an expression on his face as he could in order not to reveal the nature of the concerns he had. Elves valued children greately beings they were born so infrequently to their people, so it was only a matter of course that the elder himself would take a great interest when he was aware that a child was sick. However, in this situation, this also creates a great problem for him. It would also be this very elder who, if he discovered the girls were grey elves, would be forced to decide upon the life or death of those girls.

    Eirlathion trusted Calenor. He had worked with the man for the centuries and had seen him growing up. He was a wise and gentle man who was concerned with the wellbeing of everyone in the village. In a way, it was literally the job of the elder to be so concerned with the daily lives of each and every person who lived here. This is why the job of elder was given to him. As it had become clear Calenor was destined for this position, Eirlathion had even been asked to help train the young man he was then in some levels of magecraft in order to extend his lifespan, thus how Calenor was still alive now at the age of nearly 800.

    Eirlathion knew that were Calenor to find out about the girls, he would keep their secret. However, if it got out to the rest of the village after that¡­ he would likely attempt to reason with them, but unless he could get everyone on board with taking the risk to the village of keeping grey elves alive here, he would have no choice but to declair them to be killed.

    Between letting Calenor know or not letting him know, Eirlathion had decided that it would probably be more beneficial to go with the latter option. That way, at the very least, if it was suddenly brought to him by another member of the village he would be left in a state of indecision for a while before making any judgement at all. In fact, it likely raised the chances he would attempt to protect the girls. He would be more likely to pass a judgement unfavorable to the girls if he felt the weight of hiding such a dangerous secret for some time. If he did not have to deal with that, he would be more likely to advocate for the girls more strongly later on when the truth was eventually brought to light.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    All of that said, there was another thing to consider. It was very likely Calenor already had his suspicions. There was something about the way he asked his questions. No, it wasn¡¯t that. It was the questions he didn¡¯t ask and the lack of suspicion or concern where it should have been. However, he had not pressed the issue and had agreed to the explanations Eirlathion offered rather easily. It was like he wanted to believe them and had come to Eirlathion wanting an excuse for him to no longer have to think about this subject. A convenient excuse and plausible deniability. ¡°The master magus who is caring for the girls had said as such, therefore there is nothing to be concerned about.¡±

    After Eirlathion had waited a reasonable amount of time watching his guest leave for the sake of posterity, he turned back in and closed the door behind him. It was good that Calenor seemed to be on his side in this. So long as he did not break the elder¡¯s plausible deniability, he would set conditions so that no-one else could easily find out.

    But still, it was not hard to do the math between the attack on T¨²eth¡¯s village and the birth of the girls, and it did not take a wise man to have your suspicions raised when noticing the girls¡¯ grey skin. The alternate explanation of the illness would normally not be enough to protect them. There have been other mothers of grey elves before in the past who have attempted to claim as such. The only reason it seemed to be accepted here was that it was not the girls¡¯ mother, but a magus in his position who was making the claim this time. Even so, there had to be several in the village who found it suspicious.

    He really would have to push his efforts with Aerien. A more delicate touch would be needed with T¨²eth, but Aerien ought to be more robust in terms of her spirit. He would be certain to work with her as often as he was able to in order to teach her to be responsible while manipulating her energies and avoid damaging herself as she had before.

    -

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    I strained my ears to listen as Ether guy handled the person who had come to the door, apparently an elder of the village. My primary concern was whether or not he could really handle it. I wanted to hear how he would handle this. If he couldn¡¯t, I might have to play sick again. He had just told me not to, but the impression I got from how he talked to me about it told me the risk to Gaerien and I if our identity as grey elves was found out would be far greater than whatever risk Ether guy had gotten the impression of from what I had done earlier.

    Ether guy wound up using the excuse that I had had a sort of ¡°attack¡± earlier. That made things really convenient. If the lie was that we were ill and apparently I had some ¡°attacks¡± due to my illness, it would be an easy matter to suddenly have another one of these attacks. Having heard Ether guy talk to my mother before, I knew he was bright enough. If I suddenly had another incident like that, his first action would likely be to immediately chase the guy out with what was happening to me as an excuse. He would be pretty mad at me when he came back up afterward, but dealing with his anger was better than a threat to my life.

    Well, from his reaction, he seemed to be under the impression what I had done also risked my life somehow. I wasn¡¯t too clear on the details behind this. I did not feel like it was as big a deal as he made out of it, but it¡¯s possible I was missing something.

    In the end, it turned out I did not actually have to do anything. I was quite impressed with Ether guy¡¯s performance too. Every single word he said in the entire exchange was actually the truth, and he had expertly manipulated the direction of the conversation to where it would actually take a derailing of the entire conversation in order for Ether guy to even try to volunteer the information that he didn¡¯t want revealed in the first place.

    Well, it didn¡¯t seem like the other guy¡¯s suspicions were all that high, so it was not exactly a challenging person to deal with. However, suspicions were a creature that seemed small until they were suddenly very big and unmanagable, and the moment that line was crossed and how close people were coming to it was the least visible to the person the suspicions were about. Even a bystander completely uninterested in the situation could see better how close the suspected person¡¯s cover was to being blown than the person themselves. As such, it was best at every moment to keep suspicions as close to zero as possible.

    When Ether guy came back up, he had a very stony expression. He must be tired having dealt with two mentally taxing situations in a row. Well, actually three if you count the fright I had apparently given him. When he saw us, he did his best to put on a smiling face, but I could still see the exhaustion under it.

    [Well then, sorry about that Aerien. Shall we begin now?]

    ¡°No!¡± I respond in English.

    ¡°Haha! ¡®No,¡¯ eh? n''uma naa i'' beth tanya naa e'' sen lammen an?¡±(Haha! ¡®No,¡¯ eh? That means no in their lanugage, right?) He had an amused look on his face as he came closer to me and Levin, who was also looking at me in confusion, and then knelt down very close to us. [What do you mean, ¡®no,¡¯ Aerien, eh?] Looks like he doesn¡¯t think I actually meant what I said at all. Going by the confused expressions of Levin, Rolwen, and Gaerien though, they all definitely know I meant what I said.

    [Ether need sleep!] I say, using the best broken elven I can muster to get my intentions across. I would have liked to just say later after he¡¯s had a rest, but this is the best I can come up with for now with the same meaning.

    [Oh!] He responds in shock. [Sorry, are you saying you are sleepy Aerien? I¡¯m sorry, I forgot you need a lot of sleep at your age.] No, he¡¯s gotten it all wrong! Well, this works too I suppose. However, I don¡¯t sleep anymore! I guess it¡¯s a good thing he hasn¡¯t been constantly attentive around us all that much, otherwise he might know about this and have been a bit more troublesome.

    [Well then, Levin, can you help put her to bed? I guess this must have been a little bit of an exhausting experience for her.] I stare at him somewhat judgementally as he stands up and starts moving toward the stairs. You¡¯re really asking a 2 year old to do it!? Well, that¡¯s actually normal for us though, it¡¯s always the four of us together when we sleep and until now he was avoiding us so he had nothing to do with tucking us in or anything of the sort. [Can you tell me when she wakes up, Levin? This is actually pretty important now, so I would like to start working with her as soon as I can.]

    ¡°Uhh...¡± Levin weakly nods with me in his arms. This seems to satisfy Ether guy enough, and he goes down the stairs.

    ¡°Whad now?¡± He asks in a hushed whisper.

    (Just wait a few hours and say I¡¯m asleep.) I told him. The three of them all knew about my peculiar condition where sleep was concerned. So, of course he was curious. (Or, maybe you can sleep. You and Rowen were doing a neural exer... err... thing earlier, that should take a lot out of you. You should rest.)

    (Ok, yeah. I am pretty tired.) Levin responds. (Anyway, are you Ok Aerien?)

    ¡°Uhh?¡±

    (Your mommy before...)

    (I¡¯m fine!) I tell him, angry at my baby body once again for being completely incapable of hiding my emotions. That came out a lot louder and grumpier than I wanted it to sound, and I could feel my face contorting into an unpleasant expression.

    (Ehh..)

    (Don¡¯t! I¡¯ll be Ok. It¡¯s just my baby self is upset.) I assure him. This is a concept only other reincarnated individuals like them could possibly understand. In this situation, it makes my very intensely greatful to have Levin by my side. It really would be troublesome to have to explain this to anyone not in the same situation as me. I doubt they could even understand from the beginning, having two selves that were parts of a whole, affecting one another¡¯s emotions and having different maturity levels. True, my past-life self was causing my baby self to be a lot more mature than it¡¯s actual age, my baby self was probably equal to a 4 year old, but that just made it even more of a handful to deal with since that maturity age gave it a lot of personality and things it could form very strong opinions about.

    (Aerien... maybe you should sleep too. You say you don¡¯t need to, but you still can, right?) Well, not really. However, I can close my eyes and lay still and find it plenty restful. And, he might be right. That would probably be just what I need to calm my baby self down.

    I agreed, and with that settled out, the four of us climbed into bed as we always do, and even Gaerien seemed quite happy to be getting some sleep. I had been working her pretty hard physically today too after all, she was also quite tired. And, with that, we all fell asleep, or at least the closest thing to it in my own case.

    <hr>

    Author''s note

    It will not be immediate, but I am considering dropping the frequency of releases sometime in the near future. I have been doing my midterms which have been eating up most of my free time so I had to rush these chapters during whatever time I had. As a result, for this chapter and the chapter before it, I could sense a noticeable drop in quality in a few places. I feel I was still able to relay all the ideas that were in my head still, but I really do feel the presentation could have been better. I may have to post revised versions of both chapters sometime in the future.

    Midterms are finished now, and the advance chapter I just completed shows the extra time I have now really made all the difference as it is back up to my usual standards of quality. So, next chapter will return to my usual form. However, this experience showed me that I really can''t keep up the pace I have set for myself here and the manner in which the quality of these two chapters suffered as a result really shows the need for me to be a bit more flexible with the release schedule.

    Because of this, I plan to keep up the current pace until the end of the second act. Once act 2 is complete, I will be taking a bit of a break from this series. I will be thinking about what is a reasonable schedule at that time. I will also likely take a break during my second midterms in three weeks in order to avoid another drop in quality like this.

    As for this chapter, I know you are your own biggest critic, so I''m not entirely certain how many other people noticed the drop in quality, but I hope it was not too disruptive. I definitely still mean to revise them whenever I get the chance just as a point of pride. And also, I''m sorry to anyone who actually did notice and was bothered by the drop in quality. This will not become an ongoing thing.

 Chapter 23: Cant even come clean

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    The sleep did me some good. Well, again, I didn¡¯t really sleep. Although, the shut-eye was certainly good enough. It gave me some time to order my thoughts and calm myself down. I understood what it was Aerien¡¯s mother was going through, so I could not blame her at all. However, I was being influenced rather strongly by the thoughts of my new body. I had never seen my mother before, but because of the memories from my past life I knew what a mother was and how they were supposed to be.

    A part of me had certainly hoped I could form a connection with her. However, it looked like that was going to be pretty difficult. It was more comfortable right now to be the old man I was in my previous life, to allow my baby self to retreat into the inner reaches of my mind and hide. However, even when I tried to do that, even when the one in control was supposedly the one who was older and supposed to be more understanding of these things, I still couldn¡¯t help but feel a little depressed about the whole thing.

    I couldn¡¯t help the thought that this was more of my baby self affecting my old-man mind. It seemed we really were affecting each other, bringing one another closer and closer together. My baby self was supposedly only 6 months old. However, her maturity level really seemed far closer to that of an older toddler at the youngest. There was absolutely no doubt the exposure and connection to my past-life consciousness had caused her to mature far faster than she would have naturally.

    Meanwhile, her mind and emotion kept affecting me as well, and I felt like I was identifying more and more as this six month old girl, and I also found myself becoming less patient lately as well. Some day, as we continued to become more and more like each other, would our two consciousnesses merge into one? For certain we were going to become less and less distinct from one another at the rate we were going.

    I suppose at the rate we¡¯re going now, I would give it maybe another five to ten years before we are no longer the old man and Aerien. Instead we will be two indistinct consciousnesses, both of which fully identify as Aerien and are somewhere between the two in terms of personality. Really, already I seem to no longer consider my former name important in the least. I have long since cast it away. I feel like I remembered it at some point, but right now I know myself only as Aerien, even rignt now as my baby self has curled up into a back corner of my mind.

    As I am sitting upright, staring off into the center of the room, I hear Levin beginning to stir. He sits up and looks at me, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I guess it has been somewhere around two to three hours since they went to sleep.

    ¡°Hey Awrien, feelwing better?¡± He says in his cute little voice that also has the maturity uncharacteristic for his physical age hidden behind it, a reminder that I¡¯m far from alone in my situation.

    I nod my head in response to him without meeting his eyes. ¡°Thh..e bbaby is asweep.¡± I tell him, but from the look he¡¯s giving me out the corner of my eye I can tell he must have picked up something of my emotions from my tone or something.

    He has a difficult expression for a moment, and then pulls himself out from under the covers and crawls his way over to me and then holds me as he always has since he was given the duty of feeding me his energy after I had just been born. This is a duty he no longer needs to serve since it is pretty much open about me not only not being sick but also plenty capable of producing my own energy, but the subject of stopping has not even come up once. He still continues to hold onto me like a child with their security animal, the only exceptions being when he is asleep or when I have given him some kind of development exercise to do.

    He pulls me into his lap and rests his chin on my head, but he seems to be having some kind of difficult thoughts. Normally he would just either drag me down to the bed to cuddle, or hop to his feet and carry me across the room. However, now, he just pulled me to his chest and sat like that, letting out a long slow breath.

    (You know what Aerien? I know you¡¯re the oldest of us on Earth, but you¡¯re the youngest here. You can cry or something if you¡¯re sad you know?) I feel his words resonating through his chest as my body is held against his, and I hear his vocal cords vibrating through my skull as my head is pressed against his neck. I would really prefer he not talk when I¡¯m held up against him like that.

    (Actually, Gaerien¡¯s the oldest.) I correct him while pulling away, at least enough to get my head away from his neck.

    (Really? How old is¡­ err¡­ was she anyway?)

    Hmm¡­ how to answer that one? Come to think of it, we never actually told the boys about her being a goddess before. There¡¯s no way he could easily believe she was tens of thousands of years old.

    ¡°Mmm-mm.¡± I make an ¡®I don¡¯t know¡¯ style grunt, passing it off as I just heard she was old but didn¡¯t know how old sorta thing. Well, it is kinda true. All I knew for sure was that she pre-dated Earth¡¯s 6,000 year written history, which apparently started several hundred years after the barrier had been put in place.

    (Also, I do cry. I can¡¯t help it, my baby self cries any time she gets even a little upset.) Of course, her prefrontal cortex had not developed yet, so this body had absolutely no impulse control. That lack of impulse control was enough even to allow this physical body¡¯s desires to completely overwhelm my previous life mind even when it was in complete control.

    (That¡¯s not what I meant, err¡­ is that the same? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the same thing.) He has a troubled and unsure look on his face as he tries to figure out whether or not he messed up the point he was trying to make.

    (No, you¡¯re right. They are different, I know what you meant.) I told him. (Yeah, I know, I¡¯ve thought about that stuff before. I can¡¯t really sleep anymore, so I think about stuff like that a lot.)

    Levin strokes my back. I can tell what he¡¯s up to, he wants to be helpful. I can really see his thoughts written all over his disappointed face. He wanted to try and play big brother and offer me some kind of advice. It must be eating him up that it seemed like he couldn¡¯t really offer anything. Perhaps I should have dumbed myself down and just let him feel like he has comforted me or something. No, that would just be patronizing though. That would be disrespectful. Well, I¡¯ll find some way to make it up to him somehow.

    (Well, should I go get Ether guy?) He asks. Before I can respond, he¡¯s jumping out of the bed and carrying me across to the stairs. He¡¯s not really able to descend the stairs all that stably while also carrying me, so he leaves me at the top of the stairs and then begins going down the stairs by himself backward, keeping hands on the upper stair in order to keep his feet on the lower stair from slipping.

    [Oh, Levin. Is Aerien awake?] I hear the steady male adult voice speaking the Elven language coming from downstairs. It¡¯s strange, but somehow I¡¯ve started to feel very safe when I hear that voice. It somehow manages to comfort the disturbed emotions I was starting to feel since what happened earlier today.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ umm¡­ uma!¡± Levin responds first in English and then corrects himself to Elvin.

    [Haha! Ok, well. I guess we are ready to begin then.] He says. He definitely seems a lot better than he was before now. The rest seems to also have done him a lot of good. He picks up Levin off the stairs as he comes up, and then casts a glance back over to the bed where Rolwen and Gaerien are still asleep. He has a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before he puts Levin down next to me and then scoops us both up in his arms at once and carries us downstairs.

    He goes over to the table, and, when I think he¡¯s going to put us both down onto the same chair, instead he picks me up again as soon as Levin¡¯s feet hit the chair, and Levin has a bit of a distressed look on his face as he reaches for me as I¡¯m scooped up and away from him. I, meanwhile, find myself looking rapidly between Levin and Ether guy trying to figure out what to make of this situation.

    Ether guy doesn¡¯t take me far though. He just goes over to the next seat over, actually pulling it up within arm¡¯s reach of Levin, and then he stands me up in his lap and makes careful sure I¡¯m able to balance with my hands on the table. It¡¯s actually pretty hard. I have had some practice balancing on the level ground, but balancing on top of an adult¡¯s thighs, which are uneven and fairly squishy, is a different matter all together. Ultimately, despite his best efforts, I wind up slipping and falling into his chest before I slide down into his lap every time he lets go of me.

    Eventually, he seems to get the idea that this is simply not going to work and just uses one arm to hold me to his chest while he reaches out with the other arm to grab something further away on the table. What he pulls over, what I had earlier dismissed as something there just for decoration, was a small wooden cup filled with soil. Or, rather, perhaps it was the elves¡¯ idea of a flower pot?

    On top of the soil inside of the wooden vessel was a small nut of some kind. As soon as Ether guy moved the whole ensemble in front of me, he used one finger to shift the nut about and make it stand up-right. [You see this Aerien?] He asks, using the up-tones one uses when talking to a small child. [This is a Lakira nut. It¡¯s a very special nut. You know what we¡¯re going to do with this? We¡¯re going to make it grow, like this.]

    As Ether guy finished saying his words, suddenly a green sprout pushed its way up from the shell of the nut. It was a tiny sprout, but it quickly pushed out its leaves and continued to grow at a rate of centimeters per second. [You see? This is a magic called the green word. That¡¯s what you¡¯re going to learn how to do.] As he explained this, I could feel as though something changed about the way he was looking at the nut, and all of a sudden the rapidly growing sprout seemed to reverse the direction of its growth, and it actually unwinded its growth progress and retreated back inside the shell of the nut.

    I looked over to Levin. He looked absolutely mystified by the entire sight. Any irritation he may have felt at having me be taken from him was quickly forgotten as he was now fascinated with what was going on in front of him. Meanwhile, as soon as Ether guy finished returning that Lakira nut to its original state, he pulled the wooden pot closer to me and guided my hands to it.

    [Ok, now you try it.] He said as though it should be just a simple thing to make something like that happen. [Don¡¯t worry, the Lakira is very smart, it knows what you want it to do if you tell it with your mana.] Despite his words, I really didn¡¯t know what he meant for me to do with just those instructions as he took my hand and made me wrap it around the nut.

    [It¡¯s Ok.] He said. [Do you remember how you made yourself sick? You just told your body to act like it was sick and it did, right? Well, this is kinda the same thing. Just tell the Lakira nut to grow.]

    Really? Was it actually going to be just that simple? How is a mage so respected if it¡¯s that easy to do magic?

    Well, perhaps I shouldn¡¯t judge it until I¡¯ve tried it. I suppose he doesn¡¯t mean that I should actually do exactly as I had done before. I hadn¡¯t told him the whole truth about how I had done what I did at that time. I had lied to him and told him it was just me having a strong mental image of being sick, and then it happened. I had told him nothing about my meditation or shutting off the heaven¡¯s energy part of it. So, what he had likely meant when he said to do the same thing is he wanted me to have a strong mental image of the plant growing while I was focusing on the nut.

    [Aerien! What are you doing!?] Ether guy calls me in a harsh stern voice. [Aerien! Stop!] I look back confused. I was not actually doing anything. I was only starting to concentrate on the nut as he had told me. He lets out a strong sigh, looking very disappointed and rather worried as he looks at me for some reason. He picks me up and turns me toward him, sitting me up on the table and looking me in the eyes with a very serious face as he gently pats me on the cheek as though trying to get a response. [Come on Aerien! Don¡¯t do this! Stop! Stop doing what you¡¯re doing right now!]

    I really seriously wasn¡¯t doing anything, but his tone was starting to get to me and scare me. I was so confused and scared by his tone and frustrated over the fact that I had no idea what it was he was talking about that, of course, my face immediately started to contort and whimpers started to escape my throat as I began to lose control to this baby body once again. Only a short matter of seconds later, I was full blown crying.

    As I was crying, I felt Ether guy picking up my arm and prying the nut, which I had apparently taken from the pot without knowing, from my hand. After doing so, he made a very displeased sound. [It¡¯s not stopping.] He muttered, seemingly more to himself thant to anyone else. [Common Aerien! Snap out of it! Stop!] His voice was in a flat out panic right now, and hearing him freak out only made me more afraid and I cried harder.

    [Ether! What wong ¡®ith Awien!?] I could hear Levin¡¯s panicked voice as well.

    [Not now Levin!] Ether guy half shouted back. [What¡¯s going on?] He continues to hold me, and I can sense he¡¯s hovering a hand right over my body, slowly waving it back and forth over me. [She was unstable earlier too, maybe we shouldn¡¯t have tried this right now.] I try my best to fight and assert my will against my baby body and focus on what he¡¯s saying. In order to do that, I focus with everything I have to forcibly calm myself down.

    [Aerien!?] He says, a surprised and relieved tone to his voice now. [Ok, looks like you¡¯re alright now. That¡¯s good. That¡¯s NOT what I meant when I said for you to do the same thing as when you were acting sick!] I can tell he¡¯s still rather tense through his arms that are holding me and the tone of his voice. I cannot see him well through the eyes that are still blurry with tears, but I can guess his face also reflects the same thing.

    I can hear Levin crying nearby. He must have gotten upset worrying about me and frustrated when Ether guy yelled at him, and of course that set him off as well. What Ether guy had just said though¡­ I was starting to get some idea of what he may have been fretting about. And also, this would fit in with the very unpleasant conclusion Gaerien had brought me to yesterday. No, by the sounds of it, it seemed it had become a far bigger issue than I had ever imagined it would, and it was such a silly thing to. Really, this whole fiasco just now was all just a giant misunderstanding.

    I hadn¡¯t even thought about it. Just now, when I was trying to do what he said with the nut to make it grow, I was trying something completely new to me. Something that had nothing to do with anything in my previous experience, and something I really couldn¡¯t easily wrap my head around without some serious thought. Of course, all of those things are a complete antitheses to a meditative state. It also requires a focused mind, but it is an entirely different kind of focus from what¡¯s going on during meditation.

    Meditation is a process of calm and peaceful thought, and it works best when you are within a familiar element. The state of mind for learning and trying new things. Well, I suppose there may be some kind of special self-induced hypnotic state that could make it possible to be in a calm meditative state while trying to perform a complex task for the first time, but before you could possibly even do that your mind has to explore and process the rules for this new task first. It is simply not possible to be in a meditative state while in that new learning process. Or rather, at least not the integration portion of the learning process. The listening portion is one thing, but the integration portion where you internalize what you¡¯ve just learned and attempt to apply it for the first time ever is completely different.

    Such a simple thing, and it had freaked him out this much! Gaerien was right. He WAS absolutely able to sense the energy of heaven I was getting as part of my meditation. And, by the looks of it, he had interpreted that state as ¡°normal¡± for me. It was to a point he completely freaked out when it had changed. He freaked out so bad that he got Levin and I scared as well.

    Ether guy seemed so good with my mother earlier, but¡­ Ether guy¡­ you¡¯re REALLY not good with kids, are you? I shudder to think how bad he would be doing if we actually were normal kids.

    [Maybe we shouldn¡¯t try this now after all.] He says, coming to a conclusion on his own. I didn¡¯t see any need to stop. In fact, I did kinda want to try again now that it was all cleared up what the fuss was about. I didn¡¯t really have a good way to say that though. I could just flat up contradict him, I had the vocabulary to do that, but it seemed clear enough that he really did see me as just a baby even if I was somewhat abnormal in some ways. He would definitely just ignore me if I did that.

    And so, having made his own decision, he scoops the still crying Levin back up and carts us back up stairs to where the commotion earlier seems to have woken up Rolwen and Gaerien. He sets us down, and I am left with the sobbing Levin who is now comforting himself by holding me like a stuffed animal.

    After this little incident, I am left with only one conclusion. We are definitely going to have to bring Ether guy in on our secret if we are going to make any actual progress. The question is though, how!? It was easy to convince the boys since we had shared previous life other-world knowledge, but Ether guy was already convinced we were just unusually smart kids and did not seem to have any reason to believe there was something more going on. Maybe I could convince him if I had a stronger Elven vocabulary or if he knew English better, but as things stood I doubted I even had a chance of convincing him.

    Well, that¡¯s just great. All this time I had been making efforts to keep this thing under wraps, and now when I want to reveal it that turns out to quite possibly be an even more difficult task. Of course, it¡¯s easy enough to make someone believe a baby is just a baby. Keeping the secret only meant pushing the boundaries of believably slowly enough to let him adjust to how unusual we were. That plan had been too successful though, and now the real hard task was going to be convincing him we were far more than just babies. And, our chances, when I really started to think about it and consider things they really did not look good at all.

    Perhaps I would just have to give up on it until I had a stronger Elven vocabulary then. It¡¯s frustrating, but¡­ it looked like that¡¯s how it was going to have to be.

 Chapter 24: Baby steps

    Aerien¡¯s POV.

    It had been made abundantly clear to me by this point, the energy I channel during my meditation is incredibly obvious to elves and Ether guy is going to be able to sense it the very moment I attempt to drop my meditation in any manner. With this being the case, I will not be able to try out this new magic of his as long as he¡¯s awake. Fortunately though, that is exactly where I have the edge.

    I have not slept at all in several months, ever since this body gained enough control over its neural functions to be compatible with my meditation. I think being only a few months old is more than a little advanced for that, but I suppose it is another example of my past-life consciousness supporting faster brain growth. At this rate, maybe I will even get some actual frontal lobe development and become able to keep myself from crying at the slightest stimuli. That¡¯ll be a god-send.

    At any rate, waiting for nightfall was a very easy thing. Just to be certain though, I decided to wait a few extra hours. I had noticed Ether guy¡¯s schedule. He usually comes down from his lab an hour or so after the other three wake up, almost exactly at the same time as sun-rise. There is no reason to assume that elves sleep the same amount of time as humans, but if I were to make that assumption then he would still have a good three to four hours between the time he goes upstairs until the time he goes to sleep. That is, assuming that he comes down immediately after he wakes up.

    Just to be safe, I decided to wait until about the middle of the night, biding my time doing bear-crawls back and forth across the floor. I still didn¡¯t quite have the stability for walking, but I was still trying to graduate from crawling on my knees. A bear-crawl, crawling with the knees off the ground, was not exactly a step toward walking. It was strength training if anything. Still, it was not a complete waste and it made me feel like I was doing something to occupy myself.

    I could only do those bear crawls for so long before the anticipation got the better of me though. If I was going to try and do this magic thing, it might be easier if I had that nut thing. I presume that nut must be some kind of low-bar training method for young elves just learning this kind of magic. Something that will give a more noticeable response with less mana or something of the sort. I could probably try and retract that wall that leads up to Ether guy¡¯s room, but that may be more trouble than it¡¯s worth.

    I make my way down the stairs using the same method Levin had earlier this same day. After all, it was actually a method I had taught him. Of course, a toddler could not carry an infant safely down the stairs. Back when I had him bring me down to put me on the chair to confront Ether guy, we each got ourselves down the stairs using this exact method of going down backwards, using the step in front of us for support.

    In fact, this was not the first time I had done this either. I felt that going up and down the stairs was an excellent step toward being able to stand and walk under my own power, so in this past week since we had come here, I had frequently gone up and down these stairs as part of my practice to work the muscles and neurons associated with walking. I could already feel the improvements from it too. I would likely be ready to stand and walk on my own after another week or two of this. That was not my goal right at this moment though.

    Once I had gotten to the ground floor, I looked around the room. It was dark, I was plenty aware of that. However, to me, it was nowhere near as dark as the inside of a completely unlit building with small opaque windows should be. The faint moonlight that came in from the windows was as good as a nightlight would be in my previous world in terms of how well it lit the area for me. It was not enough to see everything in the room clearly, but it gave me just enough illumination to navigate easily and make out objects by their rough shapes as I could make out the silhouette.

    I looked over the table to see the area Ether guy had sat me down earlier. In that spot, I saw a roughly cylindrical object sitting on top of the table. Jackpot! Now, the question is, how to get up there?

    I make my way over to the table, this time content to go down to my hands and knees. That is the trade-off with that bear-crawl. It forces my head down. In this case, I want to be able to see my surroundings. As such, navigating my space like the baby I am is what I have to do. In this manner, I manage to reach the chair set in front of the item I¡¯m trying to reach. I pull myself to my feet. However, here I encounter another obstacle. I¡¯m just too short.

    As I reach up for the chair, I¡¯m only just able to bring my hand up over the edge of the seat. That¡¯s how small I am. Yeah, this is definitely frustrating. There has to be something I can use to get up there though. The difficult part is that with my limited mobility, it would be a serious pain to navigate around this entire room to find something I can stand on and then bring it back here.

    After weighing my options for a moment, I arrive at the perfect solution. There actually is something I could use to climb up on that is about the right size and is also close by. Another chair!

    I turn around, the next chair over where Ether guy had sat Levin before is still so close that with my developing ability to stand on my own I am just barely able to let go of this chair and grab onto the next chair before falling over. I edge my way around it, using it as a support as I walk around to the other side. As soon as I am on the far side of the chair, I begin to push it. I had meant to tip it over, but it only slides across the floor a little.

    ¡®What are you thinking?¡¯ I chastise myself. I had spent almost 40 years training explicitly to knock over humans who are trying to resist winding up on their rears. It was almost as though I had forgotten all my training. I re-position myself around the back of the chair, this time placing my foot against the leg of the chair, and then I begin to pull on it. This time, I manage to succeed. Unfortunately, what I just knocked over was the very same thing I was using to support myself. So, I also wind up on my butt myself, and with a chair falling straight toward me.

    Fortunately, the fact I was supporting myself on it meant that my hand was still touching it, so with my arm in the way I managed to avoid the thing smacking me in the face or chest or anything of the sort, and I managed to deflect it. However, falling hurt, I did have an object about 4 times my size land on top of me, and to top it all off it really made a lot of noise as it hit the ground. Of course, with my baby brain that had next to no frontal lobe development, I was unable to stop myself from doing the same thing I had always been unable to stop myself from doing. With that having happened, I scared myself enough that I really started crying.

    -

    Eirlathion POV

    This had been a really long day. After sending T¨²eth home, Eirlathion had attempted to begin Aerien¡¯s magic training. He had seen how she seemed to have a remarkable control over her spirit to the extent she could alter it to the point she even ceased her own energy output completely. That being the case, he felt that infusing her mana into the Lakira nut and coaxing it to grow would be a simple matter.

    Unfortunately, he had made the mistake of telling her that it was similar to what she had done before when she was playing sick, and it seemed she had actually wound up doing the exact same thing. As soon as he had felt the spirit energy in the air sharply drop, he was startled. He immediately began yelling at her to stop. However, for some reason, instead of her snapping out of it the spirit energy only dropped farther and she began to cry.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Eventually, after he had peeled the Lakira nut away from her, he managed to get her to return to normal. Ultimately though, it was looking like he would have to abandon the idea of teaching her to learn magic today. Perhaps it really was too soon after all. Well, she WAS only two seasons old. Half a year of age for an elf was pretty much still a newborn. He almost forgot that at times with how frighteningly fast she seemed to develop, but an infant was still an infant after all.

    ¡°Nymph.¡± Eirlathion said with a heavy sigh when he had retired to his lab at the end of the day.

    ¡°Hmmm...?¡± A lethargic sounding moan greeted him as something the shape of the sleepy face of a small child, around the same in appearance as a 15 year old elven child (5 yo human,) formed itself as though it was a decoration in the wood next to him.

    ¡°Just in case something goes wrong, I would like for you to watch Aerien tonight.¡± He said to the small tree spirit.

    ¡°Hmmm... ? But it¡¯s niiiight!¡± A child-like voice greeted him. Despite the childish voice and tone though, Eirlathion knew this spirit was several hundred years old. This was the spirit and intelligence of Eirlathion¡¯s home, and he had planted this tree himself 600 years ago. Still, in terms of spirit age, this nymph really was just a child.

    ¡°I know, I know, it¡¯s tough for you when the sun¡¯s not out. I¡¯ll give you a night harvest seed to help you out. I just can¡¯t help the feeling Aerien might do something at night, she is part dark elf after all.¡±

    ¡°Hmm... Oooo kaaaayyy...¡± the grouchy and lethargic voice responded to him. ¡°I won¡¯t be able to do anything without that seed though, it¡¯s already been dark for a while, you woke me uuup!¡±

    Eirlathion walked across his lab, and the face of the small child vanished at the same time as he walked away, melding back into the wood of the wall. Once Eirlathion had arrived at the far corner of the lab, he opened one of the cabinets, then pulled out a bag. From this bag, he extracted a tiny almost insignificantly sized seed. By the time he stood, the upper-torso of a miniature version of a 15 year old elf child emerged from the counter top.

    The child had a feminine looking face and a great mane of hair formed from the sculpted wood, full and voluminous as it lifted away from the little girl-like face and fell down the back until it seemed to merge into the body. There was no design over the front wooden front of the child¡¯s form that resembled clothing, but there was also nothing that resembled the proper anatomical features of a mammalian creature either. The chest was simply completely smooth like sanded wood. It was as though the artist had simply forgotten to add any features or detailing of any sort to the chest of this otherwise highly detailed masterpiece of a wooden sculpture.

    The child-like wooden form held out its cupped hands for Eirlathion. When he placed the seed into those hands, it seemed to immediately be absorbed into the wood. Just like that, the childish form¡¯s face lit up from it¡¯s lethargic state and put on a huge bright smile, before all of a sudden those bright and highly detailed features seemed to reverse and hollow out. That bright face suddenly became blank, the hair was absorbed back into the body leaving the form bald, and then the sharp detailed facial features simply became two round circles for eyes over one round circle for a mouth and it became something that looked closer to some form of effigy that was supposed to be roughly humanoid shaped instead of a sculpted doll.

    After this amazingly quick degradation of the formerly finely detailed masterpiece, the ethereal form of a miniaturized child sprung from the doll with a bright happy face. ¡°Wow! That¡¯s much better!¡± The child said energetically. ¡°Wow! Those seeds are really something! I feel more awake than when it¡¯s daytime and my leaves are getting plenty of sunlight!¡±

    ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t leave those things on my counter!¡± Eirlathion yelled at the ethereal child, indicating the now somewhat creepy looking upper torso of a doll-like form that was sticking up from the counter top.

    ¡°Hehehe! Sorry! Got a bit excited there!¡± The ethereal child waves its hand at the doll and then it sinks back into the countertop, vanishing as though it was never there.

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t get too excited. Remember, you do have a job to do here.¡±

    ¡°I know! I know. Watch Aerien and make sure she doesn¡¯t get into any trouble. What kinds of things should I be looking out for though? She usually gets pretty energetic at night.¡±

    ¡°She does?¡± Eirlathion responds. ¡°And you¡¯ve never seen fit to tell me about this before?¡±

    ¡°Well, the nursery tree said that kind of thing is normal, children are awake at night all the time and it sounds like Aerien has always been more energetic at night than she is during the day too, even back when she was in the nursery.¡±

    ¡°Well, I guess she is part dark elf, so that sort of makes sense. Well, anyway, if she hurts herself or makes herself sick again, I would like you to let me know about it even if I¡¯m asleep.¡±

    ¡°You got it master! I¡¯ll keep a real good eye on her!¡± With those words, the ethereal child body raises quickly into the air, before reversing course and diving head-first into the floor, vanishing from sight the moment they came into contact with the wood.

    After this, Eirlathion lets out a sigh as he walks to one of his lab tables. ¡°Well, that¡¯s just fantastic. I hope Aerien can behave herself. I do not have enough night harvest seeds to have nymph watch her every night.¡±

    -

    After having placed nymph on duty to watch Aerien through the night, Eirlathion began to tend to the various plants in his lab. Over his time as a magus, Eirlathion had found all manner of useful plants throughout the forest, several of them quite rare, that could grant various benefits and be of use to him in several different ways. For a magus who practiced the green word such as himself, it paid a great deal to be in intimate contact with plants at all times. So long as he took care of these plants in his indoor garden, they would take care of him in turn.

    It was his nightly ritual to take each of the sun-loving plants down from the terrace, rotating them out with the moonlight-loving plants. As he took them down, he placed each one at their appropriate sub-section of the table. The tables were divided according to how often each type of plant required water, as well as where they were on their watering schedule. It was harmful to most plants to water them every day. Very close attention needed to be paid to this subject.

    Of course, for Eirlathion, it would be possible for him to simply ask them when they were in need of water, but sometimes the plants themselves didn¡¯t really know what was good for them in terms of what was and wasn¡¯t enough water. Small plants like this were not smart. When it came to going for water or any other nutrient, they were actually quite greedy and would always crave more if he were to ask them whether or not they wanted more. A responsible gardener of the green word did not merely listen to what the plants had to say.

    After placing all of the plants in their appropriate spots, Eirlathion then tended to them. First, he sprinkled a powder onto the top of the soil. This was a special powder he had made from dried leaves, ground up with a mortar and pestle earlier that same day. He added this powder to every plant that was to be watered today. Just a small pinch of it, enough to provide a little bit of the same nutrients they would need in the soil.

    This powder from the ground leaves would be good for all the plants, but for certain plants he added some additional powders. These powders were made from all manner of other things. Some were from ground stones and other minerals. Others were made of other forms of vegetable matter, and even some were from ground insect wings. Each was special for the purpose of providing the specific plant he was giving it to the exact nutrients it would need to grow at its best.

    After sprinkling the powders down, only then did he water the plants that were ready for water, allowing that water to carry the nutrients he hand just sprinkled down into the soil for the plants to utilize.

    ¡°Master.¡± The child-like voice of nymph spoke up as Eirlathion was in the middle of this ritual. Normally Eirlathion would not appreciate an interruption while he was in the middle of tending his plants, but considering the assignment he had given Nymph a few hours before he did not complain in the slightest. Rather, as soon as he heard Nymphs voice, he put the watering can down on the counter and turned straight to the glowing form of the miniature child floating in the air.

    ¡°Aerien just pulled a chair down on top of herself.¡± Nymph says. It takes Eirlathion a moment to process what he has just heard.

    ¡°What!? You said a chair? You mean she¡¯s down on the first floor!?¡±

    ¡°Uh-huh. That¡¯s nothing unusual for her actually. She goes down there all the time when you are asleep.¡±

    ¡°Hahhh... right.¡± Eirlathion grumbles. He did not know a whole lot about children himself, but it was already becoming rather clear to him that a tree spirit like Nymph knew even less. The mere fact that they had somehow thought a baby wandering around at night and going up and down stairs was somehow normal was testament to that.

    ¡°Oh, it looks like she¡¯s alright actually, she¡¯s stopped crying.¡±

    ¡°Right, well, it¡¯s probably not a good idea for her to be messing around down there.¡± He says, grabbing his mana lamp and going toward the one clear wall of his lab. As he approaches, the floor near the wall opens up to reveal stairs, which he descends down toward the second floor. About the time he reaches the landing between the two sets of stairs, he hears a clatter from downstairs as though something was just knocked over, and then the sound of a small object clanking across the ground.

    Eirlathion furrows his brows as he continues to descend down the stairs. He turns toward the middle of the room where he sees the chair Nymph had mentioned, tipped over on the floor. However, right next to that chair he sees something somewhat surprising. The knocked-over chair seemed to be laying right next to an upright chair. And, in that upright chair, he found Aerien sitting there. She turns in his direction immediately, shielding her eyes from the light of his mana lamp.

    He looks around a little more, and quickly notices she is covered in planting soil, which is also all over the table, the chair, and all over the floor. Right in front of her on the table is the wooden pot for the Lakira nut he had brought down to have Aerien practice with earlier. After seeing that, he realized immediately what had happened.

    Seriously! How had she managed to actually get from pulling a chair over onto herself to using it to climb up on another chair in the time between when Nymph had told him about it and now? The fact that she was able to do all this simply did not surprise him anymore, it was the speed with which she did it.

    Eirlathion was chastising his past self now for thinking these kids were going to be easy to handle because they were so smart. Aerien in particular was obviously going to be a serious handful to deal with. Well, let¡¯s just get her cleaned up for now.

 Chapter 25: Behind your back

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    I wound up being discovered during my attempt to retrieve that nut Ether guy had shown me before. I likely should have expected as much, I had made quite a bit of noise after all.

    With a wave of his hand, the luminescent stones across the ceiling lit up and illuminated the room as well as a house on Earth would be lit up. From there, he cleaned me up and brought me upstairs. Next, he went back down to finish cleaning. With him distracted in this manner, I set to work immediately. He was not going to let me have that nut for magic practice at all at this rate.

    The very moment his head was out of sight, I got down and began to utilize my true fastest means of travel in my current pre-walking state. Once I confirmed my direction, I positioned myself sideways to my destination and got fully down on the ground. From there, I began to roll. I rolled with my knees tucked to my chest, and I controlled my exact direction with my arms.

    Due to the bulk created by my knees, if I were to also wrap my arms tightly to my chest it would create an egg-like shape to my profile. This would mean I would gradually turn in whatever direction the small end of the ¡°egg¡± was. In the case of my arms wrapped tightly to my body, that would be my head. However, if I expanded the circle made by my arms outward a little, thus making my legs the small end of the ¡°egg,¡± I could turn the other direction. And, every 2 or 3 rolls, I would confirm I was still going the right way.

    The principle behind this silly little stunt is incredibly similar to doing ukemi in my previous life. My head is still too large proportionate to my body, so it gets in the way of me doing a proper ukemi. However, these side rolls, or as we used to jokingly call them, a ¡°barrel roll,¡± were getting the job done well enough. In my dojo, these were considered the rolls you would do if you simply did not have the coordination to do a proper ukemi. They were considered simple and valued lowly, only a footnote in the lessons as something you should consider an option but not something anyone really ever practiced. However, right now, I was in exactly the condition where I didn¡¯t have the coordination for a proper ukemi. And, therefore, this maneuver was really coming in handy.

    I had to stop my eyes from rolling in my head by the time I reached my destination, but as I looked down I could see Ether guy was only just getting started on the process of cleaning. That¡¯s perfect. I need to do this now then while he¡¯s not expecting me. It would be easy if he hadn¡¯t turned the lights on, but you can¡¯t have everything work out in your favor. In this case, having gotten into position faster than his expectations will be very much in my favor.

    I couldn¡¯t wait for my head to stop spinning, but that did not mean I was going to skimp on the safety measures. I immediately turned my butt to the stairs and started crawling down backward, putting plenty of pressure down on each step with my arms in order to cushion and slow the descent of my feet with each step. The perfect combination of speed and stealth. Or rather, as perfect as it can be given my limitations. I was going to be pushing this little body to its limits this time.

    As I began to focus on the idea of stealth, I suddenly got the very distinct impression someone was watching me. I immediately tucked myself to the back wall and laid myself flat on the step halfway down the stairs. I looked to Ether guy, and saw that he still had his head down as he was sweeping the floor.

    That was odd. Well, I will worry about it later then. Time to continue. I have to find it before he does, or else this entire little misadventure would have been wasted. But first, I have to get out of sight. I am keeping a far more careful eye on Ether guy now, but that sense I am being watched simply will not go away even when he¡¯s giving no obvious sign he¡¯s noticed anything. In fact, he seems rather frazzled if anything. Chances are, his range of perception is more narrow now than it would usually be for him.

    The moment I reach the bottom of the stairs, I take stock of what Ether guy is doing again, and I allow my eye to carefully trace across the floor. I can¡¯t see that nut anywhere. Well, I guess I ought to find a better vantage point to look from. I bring myself low and go into something between a bear crawl and a spider crawl, the major difference between the two being how low your butt is to the ground and subsequently how bent your knees have to be and how far they flare out to either side of your body. The spider crawl happens to also be the ideal way to stealthily move low to the ground. Unfortunately, I have not quite developed the control in this body yet to do a true spider crawl, but this approximation is close enough for now. And besides, it¡¯s a bit faster and definitely quieter than the baby crawl on my hands and knees.

    There is one problem with this tactic I notice rather quickly though. All of the furniture in this house is part of the tree it¡¯s made from. This means, there is nothing to hide under because nothing is sitting on the floor. Rather, it¡¯s part of the floor itself. Even the table is raised up from the floor. Perhaps the chairs are the one and only thing in the entire house that¡¯s not part of the house itself.

    In this situation, there will be no perfect cover. However, I do have a plan. I manage to find my way around to a bit of an alcove. This is a roughly round room, and the things like shelves and such are built right into the walls and not free-standing structures. However, one portion of the room seems to be somewhat sunk back away from the rest of the room. There is no true cover in this entire room, however this little alcove is at something of a blind spot to the stairs. If I hide here, and I can get Ether guy to go up the stairs, he will not see me. I have just the thing to make him go up there too. Let¡¯s just hope it works.

    I lay myself flat on my chest, glancing up at Ether guy, and then I begin to think in my mind about how obsessed I am about finding that stupid nut. In the process of causing my mind to become active with such thoughts, it causes my meditation and that fountain of energy from outside this world to shut down. Now, whether this works or it doesn¡¯t, either way it will give me more information on how it is Ether guy is able to detect the changes in my spirit energy and all that. In a way, it might actually be more convenient to me if this fails. It will mean I will not have to be anywhere even close to as cautious about this in the future.

    Unfortunately, as soon as I feel the fountain of energy running through my spirit stop, I also see Ether guy freeze in his tracks. [Oh, what now!] He groans. From there, without even looking up, he stands and begins shaking his head as he approaches the stairs.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    [No, she¡¯s not up there master! She¡¯s down here already. Hehehe.] I feel my heart sink on the spot as a greenish-blue looking miniature figure of a child springs out from the wall, barring Ether guy¡¯s path and breaking my entire plan. [She¡¯s right over there.] The glowing ethereal humanoid points directly at my location. Great! He had some invisible partner I didn¡¯t know about! That REALLY makes things easy now doesn¡¯t it? Easy for him that is! This is totally unfair!

    [What!? Aerien!? How? How did you get down here so fast!?] He has a mystified look on his face as he rushes over in my direction. Not having anything else to do at this point, I roll to my back and then sit up, facing away from him. After this, I roll a little more, getting onto my hands and knees as I try to quickly and futilely crawl away, even though I already know I¡¯m caught.

    For some reason, as soon as I stopped my meditation, I had a very clear idea in my mind about where the thing I was looking for was. It was a last ditch effort, but maybe if I could at least get it in my sights before he reached me¡­ THERE!! Just as Ether guy is reaching me, I spot the thing a little larger than a walnut shell on the floor, about a foot or so from the nearby wall.

    ¡°Mmmmm!!! Mmmuuu¡­!!!¡± I cry out in frustration, reaching my hand out toward the nut as I am scooped up off the ground.

    [Aerien? What is it?] I continue to cry out in frustration, reaching more and more insistently toward where the nut is. Finally, Ether guy sees it, and he bends down to pick it up with his free hand as he holds me in his other arm. [Is this what this is all about?] He asks, turning the thing over a few times, just out of my reach, before absentmindedly starting to hand it to me. Just before it¡¯s within my grasp though, his hand freezes. [Wait! Were you TRYING to make me go up stairs?] He gives me an absolute death stare at these words, but I pretend not to notice and continue reaching for the nut as I become more and more restless and whiny.

    Ether guy lets out a sigh and winds up letting me have it. [I don¡¯t even know what to say about any of this anymore, you are honestly frightening girl! And you don¡¯t even care, do you?]

    Well, if he was just going to assume I was a normal baby now, I might as well run with it and enjoy the plausible deniability it gave me for most things. Now that I actually had my prize, I held it in both hands and stared at it. For some reason, now, I could feel something from it I had not felt before. Ether guy had mentioned before that the nut was intelligent or something of the sort. I didn¡¯t feel it before, but now I was able to feel something like a sleepy consciousness buried deep inside this thing. Actually¡­ there was something a little familiar about this consciousness. It felt almost like¡­

    I suddenly looked up with the realization, and then I looked over to the bluish-green glowing tiny humanoid hovering in the air, looking similar to the pixies one might see in a video game of some sort, except without the wings. The small humanoid ghostly being that had ratted me out simply smiled at me in amusement as Ether guy seemed to be struggling for words.

    I was not quite certain what this creature was, but there was something about it that seemed somewhat similar to the consciousness I felt from inside this nut.

    [Alright Aerien, come on now. It¡¯s time to stop it.] Ether guy interrupted me, snapping his fingers to get my attention. [Come on, don¡¯t look at me like that.] He says, giving me a serious look. [You know what you¡¯re doing now, right? You did it on purpose this time to make me go upstairs. It¡¯s time to stop.]

    I continue to look at him with a blank expression. I¡¯m pretty sure I know what he¡¯s talking about, but at this point it¡¯s better to play at not understanding him at the very least. In other words, ¡®I may know what I did, but I don¡¯t understand that you¡¯re complaining about it.¡¯ Yeah, I might be a little salty about the issues when he yelled at me about this earlier and got Levin and I upset.

    [Stop making yourself sick Aerien, there¡¯s no reason to be doing that right now.] He says, looking down at me with an intense look.

    [I¡¯m not.] I respond to him in all seriousness, still refusing to restart my meditation. If it¡¯s going to be causing problems like this all the time, I think this right here may be the perfect opportunity to break Ether guy of his expectations on this subject. Channeling that energy is not actually my natural state. I can keep it up fairly constantly, but that meditation is actually an altered unnatural state for me to be in. Even if I can¡¯t express it fully to him right now, it is best that he learn at least that much as soon as possible.

    [Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re not!] He says, gripping me tighter.

    [I¡¯m NOT!] I repeat even more insistently.

    Ether guy lets out a sigh and walks over to the table, then places me on top of it. He then lifts up his hand and then begins waving it around me. After this, he has something of a difficult expression. [Hmm¡­ it¡¯s different from before.] He says, now carefully considering me.

    [But Aerien, PLEASE stop doing this for now, Ok? I need to sleep right now. It looks like you¡¯ve figured out how to do something, but it¡¯s dangerous to play around with that sort of stuff, Ok?] His tone made me feel a little bad for messing with him like this. By the sounds of it, he will likely be willing to hear me out tomorrow when he has the time for it.

    [Ohh¡­ kaaayyy¡­] I ascent, and then resume my heaven-void meditation. After having finally fully shut it off for the first time in months, it actually takes some effort to restart. I have to focus my own energy in my hands, running it through my fingers, and circulating it through my body for a moment before opening the gate of heaven and gate of void in order to allow the energy stream to resume.

    It really does feel quite odd that this simple combat meditation that only served to give those in my style some celerity of mind while performing complicated maneuvers had such an incredible and dramatic effect in this world, but I had seen people¡¯s reaction to it many times now and my doubts about it were being settled.

    [Nymph (falmarin) will be watching you tonight] he said, indicating the glowing pixy-size child. [They will tell me if you do anything like that again, so please don¡¯t]

    ¡°farmarn?¡± I respond, trying to pronounce the name I just heard when he gestured toward the glowing creature who ratted on me. I direct a dirty look toward Ether guy¡¯s little spy. Now I know why I had gotten the sense I was being watched.

    [(falmarin) is the spirit of this house, they are in every wall of the house itself, so, even if you don¡¯t see (falmarin,) they (is) there.]

    Even worse. Has he always had this spy on us? I feel a sense of violation suddenly when he reveals this information to me.

    [Alright, well, let¡¯s bring you back up stairs. Now, be a good girl this time and go to sleep, Ok?]

    I felt like telling him now about how I don¡¯t sleep since, from that comment, he obviously doesn¡¯t know. However, I wound up holding my tongue on that one. It¡¯s pretty clear it would only worry him more right now if I tried to express that. Besides, with my limited vocabulary, it very well may come out as though I was just being defiant and didn¡¯t want to go to sleep.

    I wouldn¡¯t say ¡°OK¡± to it, that would be lying, but I could just say nothing and stare down at the nut in my hands. Just then, I realized something as I was staring at that nut. I could no longer feel the consciousness from it. That¡¯s when it finally dawned on me. ¡®The fire method!¡¯

    It made perfect sense. I could detect where this thing was the very second I stopped the heaven-void meditation which supplied my body with all the spirit energy it could possibly need. Under normal circumstances, an elf¡¯s body is constantly absorbing spirit energy as though they were using my style¡¯s fire method from birth and it was constantly active. According to Gaerien, spirit energy was an energy that contained thought.

    It all made sense now. This nut radiated spirit energy, that¡¯s what had allowed me to sense it. And, it was also my absorption of that spirit energy that allowed me to sense the consciousness within the nut. And, now that I had my body flooded with an over-abundance of spirit energy directly from heaven, I was no longer absorbing any from an outside source, and therefore I could no longer sense it.

    Well, it looks like the importance on convincing Ether guy to stop freaking out every time I cut off my meditation just went up. If the same holds true toward humans, this will effectively mean that my meditation will have the opposite effect in this world from the one it had on Earth. I guess the weaker spirit energy of the humans here is to blame.

    So, my combat meditation is actually detrimental toward my method of combat. I¡¯m definitely going to need to find a fix for that. It may be a long way off until I even have a body capable of combat, but I just don¡¯t think I could get by anywhere near as well without the ability to sense intent.

    I am definitely going to have to ask Gaerien if there is a method to fix this.

 Chapter 26: Into the fire of knowledge

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    ¡®I don¡¯t see what the problem is. Just train as a mage, you won¡¯t have to worry about fighting like that.¡¯ This was Gaerien¡¯s absolutely flabbergasting answer to the issue I described with my meditation blocking my ability to sense intent.

    ¡®You know absolutely nothing about what a fight is like, do you?¡¯ I responded. ¡®Or rather, you cannot possibly be that stupid. I will grant you enough benefit of the doubt to assume you probably are just fooling yourself because you are assisted by my meditation making a hole in the rules-enforcing world barrier and all that.¡¯

    That¡¯s the thing. Gaerien had told me once that apparently my meditation held a property essential to the few mages that existed on Earth with its thick and absolute world barrier that resisted all magic. That property was the ability to pierce the world barrier and make a hole, thus granting a mage of Earth the ability to ignore the rules that negated all magic.

    In the case of this world, it apparently has some property that prevents her from ¡°cultivating,¡± which is the term she uses to describe the process of gathering energy to become a goddess once again. Apparently, the term ¡°cultivation¡± is literally to cultivate your soul and raise it like a plant, giving it the proper fertilizer and nutrients to grow strong. And so, she needs me in order to allow herself to ¡°cultivate¡± properly. It would actually be rather inconvenient for her if I were to stop doing my combat meditation at all times as I have made my habit.

    ¡®Well, I really can¡¯t offer you anything. I don¡¯t know much about your meditation or combat methods in particular. Maybe you can just stop the meditation when there¡¯s a combat situation?¡¯

    ¡®I need to be able to sense intent at all times, otherwise I won¡¯t know if there¡¯s an attack coming. I can get blind-sided rather easily without that.¡¯

    ¡®So, are you saying you¡¯re actually going to just stop? Well, I¡¯m not sure that would do you much good anyway. This is an elf village, right? They¡¯re all fey here, they don¡¯t make spirit energy for you to sense.¡¯

    That would be another interesting wrinkle in this world for me. The fey would have a natural advantage over me if I could not sense their intent. Or rather, I would loose the advantage that I had come to enjoy in my previous life when it came to the fey.

    ¡®Well, my meditation serves your purposes, but it seriously does not serve mine. I might have to somehow concoct a new combat meditation that serves my needs better after all. I mean, simply being an elf already provides me with the effects of the fire chi.¡¯

    ¡®Wow wow wow! Wait! Ok, let me think. I¡¯m sure we can come up with some way of managing this. I mean, it really doesn¡¯t make sense to just throw out a meditation that¡¯s been perfected over thousands of years like yours! You have absolutely no idea how many millions of people a cultivator would kill for in order to get ahold of a method like yours!¡¯

    ¡®Well, I¡¯m not a cultivator trying to become a god or anything, so why would I want it?¡¯

    ¡®You went down to get that seed there to practice with, right?¡¯ She said, indicating the nut I had gotten Ether guy to give me last night. ¡®You did that because you want to practice being a mage, right? Well, magic is something you need to cultivate in order to develop. Mages are basically one of the early steps toward the process of cultivating toward godhood.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I guess that makes sense. So they are related, huh? However, I think my meditation might hold me back from learning the spell Ether guy was teaching me. My meditation hampered my ability to sense the spirit energy inside this nut, and my gut is absolutely screaming at me that I am going to need the ability to sense it in order to learn this spell.¡¯

    ¡®Well, maybe if you arrange your inner world correctly then you could¡­ maybe¡­ focus the energy more so you don¡¯t have as much spilling over into your body?¡¯

    ¡®Inner world?¡¯

    ¡®What!? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve never entered your inner world before!¡¯

    ¡®I seriously have absolutely no idea at all what you are talking about.¡¯

    ¡®What!? You¡­ you seriously don¡¯t know about a cultivator¡¯s inner world!?¡¯

    ¡®How many times do I have to tell you, I¡¯m not a cultivator.¡¯

    ¡®You have such a high class meditation, and yet¡­¡¯ She trails off, leaving several seconds of complete silence across our psychic link. ¡®Ok, I guess I¡¯m going to have to explain this then. Your inner world is basically the inside of your spirit. During a cultivator¡¯s meditations, they have to use a sort of strong visualization in order to shape your spirit. In order to do this, you actually create an imaginary world inside of your spirit, and use strong images in order to re-arrange it. You can think of it kinda like arranging furniture inside yourself. Normally a particular meditation will have a way it recommends you arrange things and what you should visualize, but if you are pioneering a new path then it¡¯s possible you may have to just start making things up and arranging things in a way that you think will be beneficial to you.¡¯

    ¡®Anyway,¡¯ She goes on ¡®I take it you, despite having a pretty strong meditation, don¡¯t actually have any kind of recommendations like this. If the problem is as big as you say it is, there HAS to be something you can do to arrange your inner world to where you won¡¯t have this problem.¡¯

    ¡®I wouldn¡¯t even know where to begin with something like that.¡¯ I respond to her.

    ¡®Well, first you are going to have to figure out how to enter your inner world. In order to do that, you are going to have to learn how to stop meditating like a warrior and start meditating like a cultivator.¡¯

    ¡®So, all this time I¡¯ve been the physical fitness teacher, you¡¯re saying now it¡¯s time for you to become the magic teacher?¡¯

    ¡®Absolutely!¡¯

    Well, she certainly seems motivated. Amazing how geared up she gets when I threaten to take away her free access to a loophole in the rules of this world.

    -

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Once again, T¨²eth was standing in front of the master¡¯s house. She had lost track of how long she had been standing in front of this tree, working up the courage to send her mana into it and alert the master to her presence. She was very conflicted about this whole idea. She still felt very unworthy of the idea of becoming a mage¡¯s apprentice. There was also... well, she tried not to think about that other issue. She would just feel even worse about herself if she even admitted to herself that was part of what was holding her back. In fact, the mere fact the thought had crossed her mind just now had crushed her courage enough that it had caused the will she had just worked up to crumble.

    ¡°Good, you came.¡± T¨²eth jumped as she heard the master¡¯s voice coming from the opening that had just formed in the tree, creating a doorway. How had he known she was even there!? Well, of course, he was a magus. Of course he should have his ways.

    ¡°mm.. Master!¡± She responds, clearly looking like a frightened cat. Well, she had just lost her chance to back down. To do so now would be an insult to the master who had invited her, but... No! She would have to tell him!

    ¡°Well, come in then.¡± He said, turning his back on her and walking in. This was not going right at all. How was it that he seemed to take away her opportunities to retreat with every word and action he took? In that way, somehow, T¨²eth found herself walking into the master¡¯s house.

    She took a seat at the table, and then looked up at the master who sat down quite heavily in his own chair. Something about the way he sat down unsettled her. It was¡­ wrong somehow. It did not contain the same grace that she had become accustomed to him presenting every time she had met him in the past. Nothing at all like how a great magus such as him ought to be.

    ¡°Umm¡­¡± She looked up, showing a concerned face.

    ¡°What? Oh, yes! Sorry, I am rather tired today.¡± He responds, having a difficult expression on his face. ¡°It¡¯s probably not something you would want to hear today. Another time perhaps.¡± He placed his hand over his forehead, his thumb and middle finger on each of his temples, and let out a breath to focus himself. She could guess from his response that it had something to do with the girls. He was likely trying to be considerate of her feelings by not mentioning them, but it was pretty clear from reading between the lines just a little.

    T¨²eth suddenly felt bad about how she had thought about him a moment ago. His short responses urging her inside without waiting for what she had to say. It wasn¡¯t from any kind of manipulation as she had thought, it was simply that he was tired. Suddenly, a faint ghost of a smile creeped onto T¨²eth¡¯s lips as she imagined this great master running around trying to keep four small children in line.

    On that subject, she could hear them moving around a bit upstairs, but they really didn¡¯t seem that noisy. The master had said yesterday that they were pretty well behaved usually. Clearly they had caused trouble for him last night though.

    -

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    (Well then, let¡¯s begin.) Gaerien said aloud after we had set the boys to do their own exercises. We were laying next to each other, hand-in-hand with our heads propped up against a single pillow. The curvature of a baby¡¯s back is simply not structured in such a way as to easily get into some kind of meditative pose, so we didn¡¯t even try. It was fine though. I had learned plenty about meditation in my previous life.

    My combat meditation is in a class called a moving meditation. A moving meditation is considered to be the single most advanced kind of meditation there is. Meditations that use breathing, mantras, or some mental trick are far lower in terms of how good they are at clearing your mind of distracting thoughts. However, the one weakness that a moving meditation has is that it is not capable of achieving the level of truly deep visualization to do what Gaerien was describing.

    ¡®So, I am about to attempt something REALLY crazy here.¡¯Gaerien said, initiating our mental link through our hands that were holding one another. ¡®Actually, about the only reason I might be able to do this is because of the way I set up my own inner world. And, just like with our thought communication here, I think you¡¯re the only person in the world I will be able to do this with. Well, this is EXTRA exclusive to you. I might be able to communicate with other people like this as well later once I gain more power, but I will absolutely never be able to do what I¡¯m about to do with anyone else.¡¯

    ¡®Ok, Ok, enough with the build-up. Spit it out already.¡¯

    ¡®Ah, yes, well... I¡¯m going to invite you into my inner world. Normally this would be impossible. Absolutely impossible. However, there are so many unusual things in our circumstances that I wound up setting up my inner world in a very special way that will allow you to come into it.¡¯

    ¡®Right then, so how are we going to do this?¡¯

    ¡®Well, you start settling yourself into a meditative state at the same time as me. Try to visualize some kind of doorway of light or something of the sort. Once I create it for you, you should be able to go through.¡¯

    ¡®A doorway, huh? I think a friend of mine tried some kind of amateur hypnotic regression therapy on me once that involved going through a visualized doorway, it didn¡¯t work. My mind refused to even accept going through that doorway.¡¯

    ¡®Your friend sounds like someone who was just goofing around. I actually know what I¡¯m doing here.¡¯

    ¡®Yeah, she was definitely rather amateur about it. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m entirely unsuggestible or anything, she just used bad visualization techniques. Another guy used a different suggestion technique where he had me loosely hold a coin between my fingers and suggested it was getting heavy and I would find it drop from my fingers as I lost my grip on it. That one actually worked.¡¯

    ¡®This is not hypnosis. You know that, right? It¡¯s a meditation, and this is not going to work unless the both of us do a very good job visualizing here.¡¯

    ¡®Alright, yeah. I¡¯m good enough with meditation. If you don¡¯t ask me to visualize anything too crazy or unusual, I think I can probably manage it.¡¯

    ¡®Alright then, let¡¯s start.¡¯

    I started my meditation at the same time as her. I was not at all unfamiliar with stationary meditations either. In fact, my own combat meditation also had a stationary counterpart. It was also a fairly advanced and refined form of meditation. It involved both a mantra and a mudra. Mantras are the more well known components of meditation. Everyone has heard of Gregorian chants and other such things used as mantras, or might be familiar with the old stereotype in meditation of an old man sitting on top of a mountain chanting the word ¡°oum¡± over and over again. That was a mantra.

    A mantra is essentially anything at all that involves a sound made by the person meditating. This sound serves as a mnemonic key to speed up your ability to achieve a meditative state, and it also helps to focus the mind on that sound rather than allowing your mind to wander. Since this was the stationary counterpart to a combat meditation, it could not afford to have all that complex of a mantra. The mantra for my meditation was not a sound or a chant. It was just a simple breathing rhythm. In fact, it consisted of four different breathing rhythms. Well, five if you counted void. However, void was literally a lack of breath, so it¡¯s pretty hard to count.

    This meditation also had a mudra to it. Not as many people know about mudras in meditation. A mudra is another form of mnemonic tool to enhance your meditation. Where a mantra is a sound, a mudra is a physical position that you take with your body. My meditation had four mudras which consisted only of hand positions, and then again, it also had void. Void, once again, was significant for its lack of any of the traditional tools. It was only a mindset that contemplated the concept of void, and there was no specific suggested hand position for it. However, the very fact that the other four had hand positions, suddenly going without a hand position after having gone through the previous four makes it rather easy to suddenly set the idea of something missing, a ¡°void¡± of what had been there before.

    Thinking about Gaerien¡¯s request to visualize something I can go through in order to enter her world, and knowing that my combat meditation is the one I know the best, it¡¯s pretty clear what I¡¯m going to need to do. I begin going through my meditation in sequence. It is a five stage meditation, going through the four Greek elements and then finishing with void once the elements sequence has been gone through. If Gaerien wants some kind of doorway, how about I create a doorway from fire? In order to visualize it the best though, it really will serve me best to go through it in sequence.

    I begin the sequence with earth. Earth¡¯s mantra is a slow breath in, followed by a slow breath out. The mudra is to place the thumb against the pinky finger. The mindset is a calmness and stability of the unmoving earth.

    Next comes water. The water¡¯s mudra is the thumb against the ring finger. The mantra is completely tied up in the visualization. The water¡¯s mantra is a long and slow breath in like a rolling wave of the ocean, followed by a quick and sharp breath out as though that wave had just crashed against the shore. Contrary to expectations, the chi of water is actually the serious power form of the combat style, and holds most of the real ferocious attacks that the style has.

    Finally, I arrive at the fire phase of the meditation. The mantra of fire is a quick breath in, and then a quick breath out. It is essentially hyperventelating on purpose. The purpose of the fire phase of the meditation is to focus on the idea of a fire burning and granting energy to your body, and also to focus on the idea of getting used to the idea of this breathing pattern so that you can be at peace with it and transition out of it more easily. You are advised while learning this four elements meditation that fire is not a state you want to stay in for a long period of time, and you want to get used to the idea of recognizing when you are in this state so you can more easily transition out of it. Incidentally, the mudra is the thumb placed against the middle finger.

    After gathering a strong and healthy flame inside my heart with this phase of the meditation, I shift my thumb over to touch my index finger, thus creating the mudra of the wind phase as I move right along. The wind¡¯s mantra is a short breath in, followed by a long and heavy breath out. It is actually an extremely difficult breathing pattern. I would actually call it the hardest of the five. I can still remember when I first learned it that it took me quite a bit of effort to get it right without becoming light headed, choking from the breath tickling my throat, or just running out of breath during the breathing out phase too quickly.

    Since the idea this time was to cultivate a flame, I fed the fire using the oxygen of the wind. Every time I breathed out with the wind¡¯s mantra, I focused on the idea of the flame absorbing the oxygen from that wind and becoming brighter and stronger. Suddenly, I felt something change. A bright light appeared in the middle of the flame I was visualizing, and it opened up and grew several times bigger. At the same time, I felt as though I was getting pulled deeper into my own visualization and suddenly the outside world where the boys were a short distance away from Gaerien and I laying atop the bed vanished and this large vibrant flame real enough I could almost feel the heat coming off of it became the only thing I could perceive.

    I realized at this moment that this must be the doorway Gaerien said she was going to create. I had created my end of it, and she must have just created hers. Well, time to see what this inner world of hers looked like then. It was my choice to make my end of the doorway a flame, so I guess I have no choice but to simply walk through it. I look up to the old man part of my mind as baby Aerien, and then I look down to the small child I have come to start imagining as a four year old as the old man, and then as both of us together and of one mind I walk into the flame.

 Chapter 27: Let the learning begin

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    ¡°Well, I suppose we should get you started. You came here as my apprentice. It simply will not do for us to put off teaching you about magecraft any longer. So, how about we begin by you telling me all that you know about magic and those who use it?¡± The master said, putting on a far more dignified face.

    ¡°About magic?¡± T¨²eth replied. ¡°Well, not a lot.¡±She looked down. She really didn¡¯t know much, nothing more than any other elf would know.

    ¡°Common, surely you must at least know the basics of the greed word. Every elf learns about that as a child.¡± The master responded.

    ¡°Of... of course!¡± T¨²eth responded in a panic.

    ¡°Well then, tell me that. Tell me about how the green word works.¡±

    ¡°What!? But...¡± Did the master really want her to go over something THAT simple? T¨²eth had been under the impression he was going to teach her something about the greater secrets of magic or something of the sort, the that was kept secret from the normal elves and known only to the powerful beings called the magi.

    ¡°It¡¯s Ok.¡± The master said. ¡°I told you. I want to know everything you know, down to the very basics of your knowledge. If you are going to be my apprentice, I need to be sure that your knowledge is sound from it¡¯s very foundations. And, besides. There actually is a common misconception about the green word and some of the other basics. I want to see if you have been led astray by the others or not and if we have to clear anything up.¡±

    ¡°Umm... well, the green word is...¡± T¨²eth hesitated with her answer now that she had heard that there might be something wrong with how everyone believes the green word is after all. He had assured her it was alright, but she couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that the master may at some point see he had made a mistake in choosing her and that he would kick her out as soon as he had come to this realization. As frightened as she was of being here, she also did not want to be rejected. She had to avoid that. So, maybe if she could figure out what the error everyone makes is and then give the correct answer, he might be impressed with her.

    ¡°Well, normal elves just use it to ask the nymph living in a lakira tree to make a home inside or open a door for them. But... if you are better with it then you can also talk with any plants, right?¡±T¨²eth did her best with how she phrased this. If she was wrong, she didn¡¯t want to sound like a fool by sounding too sure of herself.

    ¡°Mmm...¡± The master made a thoughtful sound, it seemed somewhat positive as though he was agreeing with her answer and lifted T¨²eth¡¯s heart for the split second between that thoughtful sound and the very next thing he said immediately afterward. ¡°How does it do that?¡± He asks, this time very clearly with the piercing eyes of someone looking for a right answer and ready to pounce on a wrong answer the moment you gave one.

    ¡°Ummm...¡± How!? He¡¯s asking her how? ¡°Uhh... mana. You put your mana into the plant you want to talk to.¡±

    ¡°How do you think that lets you talk to plants?¡± He asks, leaving T¨²eth without the words to answer him. His penetrating expectant gaze softens the moment T¨²eth has run out of words to answer with. ¡°Ok then, how about we try this another way. What is different between a Lakira tree and a normal plant?¡±

    ¡°Ah! The Lakira tree has the nymph or dryads living in them, normal plants don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Why does that make them different?¡±

    Why? T¨²eth was beginning to become very uncomfortable with these questions now. She was feeling more and more pressured by each question that seemed to be specifically pointed toward driving her to think about things she had never thought about or had to think about before in her life. She had never had to think about them because the answers just seemed obvious. Clearly they were different.

    This seemed almost like the kind of question a child would ask, and if it was a child asking the question then her answer would simply be that they were just different and that was the reason things were that way. However, the one asking this was not a child. It was a magus who had lived for over ten centuries, an entire millennium. If he thinks it is important for her to answer this question, then clearly there must be some significance to the difference and he was expecting her as his student to be able to find it.

    ¡°It¡¯s Ok if your answer is wrong T¨²eth. The important thing is that you think. This is my first lesson to you as my apprentice. Never be satisfied with the simple answers to things. There is a deeper truth behind everything. A mage is someone who seeks the answers to those deeper truths and who uses the knowledge they gain from those deeper truths to manipulate the world.¡±

    ¡°I am giving you an assignment. As soon as you can complete it, I will teach you how to collect and condense the energy necessary to cast spells as a mage that go beyond the simplified form of the green word most elves use to communicate with the nymph¡¯.¡±

    ¡°I would like for you to answer three questions. The first is the question I just asked you. What exactly is it that makes a Lakira tree different from a normal plant. After you have answered that question, you can then start to think about why that means a normal elf can only use the green word to communicate with the nymph¡¯ in the Lakira trees, but a proper mage can communicate with any plant. As for your third question, this is another one you may have simply taken for granted. What is spirit energy?¡±

    ¡°If you can find the answers to those three questions, then we can begin your training in how to utilize the mystical energies.¡±

    ... So, this is what it was. T¨²eth was left rather dumbstruck by this first lesson from her master. It immediately made her feel very small and useless. She had always been told about how the world worked by her parents and her neighbors as she grew up. This was the first time someone aside from a child had demanded that she be the one to answer such basic questions, except he phrased these very basic questions in such a way that it left her completely unable to answer them. In fact, she wasn¡¯t really certain she knew the right answer.

    It was exactly as the master had said. All three of the questions he had asked were all things everyone had just taken for granted but never really asked about all that deeply. And yet, the master was telling her that in order to be a mage she had to be able to find a satisfying answer to these questions on her own, and to not just settle for the simple answers that everyone else would settle for.

    It was a test. A test in order to become a mage for real. He had said it himself. He would not give her the real training until she was able to answer these questions. If this was only the test to become an apprentice though, she felt this was a sign of things to come that this would be anything but easy. It would be a constant torture for her head, and there is no way this would be the last of such questions from the master.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Given this dismal future, T¨²eth considered running away from this once again. She never wanted this in the first place. However, now that it was offered, what kind of foolish person would even consider turning down such an opportunity? She would have to be a real insane person to turn down the opportunity to become a magus.

    ¡°Take as much time as you need to answer,¡± the master said. ¡°I will be over here doing my meditations. You may keep your seat there at the table if you think you think you can come up with an answer within a few hours, or you may choose to leave and think about it throughout the day and return when you have your answers.¡±

    With those words, the master went over to an alcove of the first floor where several layers of woven fiber mats were put together and laid out on the floor, and then he took a seat right in the middle of it. Soon afterward, he closed his eyes and rested his palms in his lap as he quickly went off into the often talked about mage¡¯s meditation, the meditation used to gather power in order to both restore their expended spells as well as to advance their ability to use new and more powerful spells, increasing their power as a magus.

    This left T¨²eth to decide what it was she was going to do. How it was she was going to try and think about how to answer these questions. She looked up toward the second floor for a moment and then considered the stairs. She was filled with a very uncomfortable feeling. A feeling that both compelled her to go up those stairs, and at the same time warned her of how her life would be changed forever the moment she did.

    -

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    ¡°Ok, so, why are there two of you?¡± As soon as I arrived in Gaerien¡¯s inner world, as she called it, I found myself suspended in the air by nothing, as though gravity had simply decided to ignore me. I could not even feel a surface beneath my feet, and yet I didn¡¯t fall. There were several sights to be seen with large crystals filled with runes in some ancient language below us, an ocean of swirling lights all around us, and all manner of other amazing sights. However, I had no real time to take in all of this information. The reason for this was because I was instantly confronted by a woman as soon as I got here.

    Standing in front of me, occupying my view and drawing my attention away from all the fantastic sights all around me was a lovely woman wearing a flowing white robe, extending down past her knees and keeping the curves of her body indistinct. The design was simple, but that is not to say it was like she was just wearing a bag over her to hide her body. It was actually quite tasteful in a way with an underpronounced violet trim running down the center.

    Actually, on second thought, considering the era she must be from violet would be a very ostentatious color to be wearing. Up until fairly recently in the industrial age, violet was the single most expensive dye to produce. It could even be said that violet dye was worth more than its weight in gold.

    Well, at least she kept it restrained to only having the trim of her white robe in violet. If it was the entire robe, not only would that be creating an entirely different image, but that would be taking the vanity up several levels as well.

    ¡°Are you going to just keep gawking or are you going to answer me? I know both of you are Aerien, nobody other than Aerien could possibly come in here, but why are there two of you?¡±

    I turned to look at my young 4 year old self, the cute little elf-eared girl who I was going to grow up to be, and my old man self, a strong but gentle looking man who looked to be only in middle age despite his 60 years of age. Actually, if I were to look closer, it looked as though he had fewer grey hairs than I had in my previous life before I died.

    ¡°Umm...¡± my younger self responded with an exaggerated shrug, holding her hands up at shoulder level as she shook her head from side to side.

    ¡°Well, I did tell you all before about how I had an older self from my past life and a younger self that seemed to be the owner of my new body before. It seems like maybe that was manifested more plainly when you brought me into this whole inner world thing.¡±

    The woman who could only be Gaerien¡¯s manifestation in this inner world didn¡¯t quite seem to know what to make of this. In fact, I would have to say she seemed quite flabbergasted, and my younger self was getting a real kick out of it as I looked at Gaerien¡¯s confused expression and then instinctively drew closer to my older self just in case she suddenly got angry at my behavior.

    ¡°Well, I think I have heard of split spirits like this before, but... I can¡¯t say for certain whether it is good or bad. I suppose it depends on how well you get along.¡±

    ¡°We get along great!¡± My younger self announces cheerfully as soon as I realize that Gaerien doesn¡¯t have anything against my little girl appearance.

    ¡°We have never had any reason to disagree about anything. In fact, I really don¡¯t even think of us as different people at all.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! I get to know all kinds of stuff from my old life, but my brain couldn¡¯t handle it so I¡¯m the one who was made to be Aerien while the old man inside my mind is still also me and he... and... why am I talking like this! I don¡¯t have to! I know everything he does too, so I can talk better than this, I promise!¡±

    ¡°Right, I¡¯m really confused now.¡± Gaerien responds to the excited nonsense from my younger self. Well, despite what she said, my younger self is easily excitable, so I doubt she can really do quite as good a job of explaining something even if she does know all of the knowledge we have shared between us.

    ¡°Basically, we share the same subconscious mind. That is, everything I know, both of us know it. That¡¯s the reason why my younger form here is a 4 year old and not an infant. The knowledge she has gained from me has caused her to mature a lot faster than she would if she was a normal baby.¡±

    ¡°Wait! Wait. I get it now!¡± Gaerien interrupted me. ¡°So, the surface level of your mind is split, and by the sounds of it this happened because you did not fully integrate your mind into your new body?¡±

    ¡°¡°No, that¡¯s not it.!¡±¡± I say in unison with both my forms.

    ¡°I fully accept her¡± My past life self continues. ¡°Actually, I feel I may be slowly becoming more like her as time goes on. It¡¯s just that her physical brain is not ready for everything I know yet.¡±

    ¡°I think Gaerien should also have someone like me! We can be closer sisters that way!¡± My younger self follows up.

    ¡°What? Don¡¯t be ridiculous!¡± She responds, looking down at my younger self. ¡°Besides! I¡¯m pretty sure I couldn¡¯t even if I wanted to.¡±

    ¡°¡°Too late, isn¡¯t it?¡±¡± Both of my manifestations say in unison once again.

    ¡°Yes... but, now come to think of it, I may be starting to regret it as a lost opportunity now.¡± Gaerien responds as though she wants to kick herself. ¡°There were some rumors spreading around saying that god you worshiped before had three manifestations in his inner space, and even got to such a level that he could project two of them outside of himself. It seems you have already discovered on your own yet another one of the most sought after secrets of cultivation that could ever be achieved.¡±

    ¡°Mmm...¡± I was feeling very uncomfortable about this comparison to the god I worshiped in this manner, and it easily showed on my younger self¡¯s face and actions. As my older self, I fixed Gaerien with a harsh stare for a moment, before going into thought.

    ¡°Gaerien,¡± I say in all seriousness, focusing in on her as my older self only for the sake of added effect. ¡°If we are going to be talking about all of this god stuff, I would like to set a few basic ground rules first. It is a value that was held in our religion that we should strive to be like god. As such, this cultivation thing is fine to an extent. However, there is a line I absolutely do not want you to ever cross, and doubly so in trying to encourage me to cross it. That is, there will be absolutely no talk, ever, of trying to become greater than my lord of the former world in any way. What you were just talking about can be seen as flattering in a certain light, but the way in which you said it makes it so I have to be certain you are not going to push things in that direction.¡±

    ¡°Uhh¡­ really¡­¡± Gaerien has a stunned look on her face in response to my shpeel just now. ¡°I am jealous. That guy¡­ his worshipers really take him seriously to this extent, huh? You know we aren¡¯t even in that world anymore, right? Why do you still care so much? With that heavy barrier of his that he set up around Earth, I doubt he is even going to be able to hear you praying to him anymore!¡±

    ¡°That sort of thing doesn¡¯t matter.¡± I respond. ¡°I suppose if you don¡¯t want to see it as a normal worshiper relationship, you can view it instead as something of a samurai code. I did train in a style related to the samurai arts after all. Even in a foreign land, I will hold my loyalty. I am grateful to you for saving my granddaughter, but I will not let you harm my honor on this one. I don¡¯t expect you to understand, but this is a line for me that is not to be crossed.¡±

    ¡°Wow! Ok, Ok. Jeez! Yeah, don¡¯t mess with a fanatical worshiper. Still, for someone who¡¯s about to begin the road to cultivation, you have no idea how little sense this makes for you to have that attitude.¡±

    ¡°Well, according to what you¡¯ve already told me, that would not be the first thing about me that doesn¡¯t make sense given the circumstances.¡±

    ¡°You mean like being ready and willing to throw out a meditation that goes beyond being top-tier in nature? Yeah, there is something very screwed up about your priorities. But, I¡¯ll play along with how ridiculous you¡¯re being here. I¡¯m not exactly in a position where I can afford to piss you off. I mean, look around this place! The gate you just walked through to get in here is actually a connection directly to your spirit. This means the structure of my entire cultivation could crumble if you decided to do something crazy.¡±

    ¡°Hah! And you say I¡¯m the crazy one! I don¡¯t really understand much about this cultivation stuff, but it really doesn¡¯t sound like a stable position to be that reliant on someone else.¡± I said, my younger self having gotten upset enough by this point she was hugging onto the leg of my older self. With the tension gone now though, I took a step back to look at the portal I had come from.

    The portal, as it appeared from her end, seemed to be a shining light suspended inside a doorway floating out in the middle of open space. By the looks of it, I would guess it actually looked identical from both sides, and could probably allow us to pass through from both sides as well.

    ¡°Well then, I guess you must have invited me here to discuss the stuff you have in this space. Care to give me the guided tour?¡±

 Chapter 28: Drawing inspiration

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    T¨²eth spent some time trying to think about the three questions the master had made her find the answers to, all the while trying to ignore the temptation to go up those stairs that were so close by. She was not certain why it was that she didn¡¯t just leave. She kept telling herself it was because she was sure she could answer these questions quickly. However, she was making very little progress. After all, the temptation to go up, to just look at those girls, it kept distracting her mind.

    She squashed those thoughts in herself. For now, she would focus on answering the questions. It was clear that the second question, why only a mage can communicate with normal plants while the average elf can only communicate with trees containing nymphs or dryads like the Lakira tree, was something that she would have to wait to find the answer on. Actually, somehow this seemed like the easiest of the three. The answer was simple. A spell had to be cast in order to communicate with normal plants. However, T¨²eth knew immediately that would not be considered a satisfactory answer.

    That a spell had to be used. That would be a satisfactory answer for anyone on the street, but T¨²eth remembered the master¡¯s words. A mage had to find the deeper answers by their own power. She had heard that mages were able to perform magic by studying their spells, and they had to study them very deeply. That was the purpose of this test. She realized that after thinking this over for a little while. The true meaning of this test is that she has to describe the principle behind the spell to communicate with normal plants.

    In actuality, the second of these three questions is probably the only one she actually has to answer. The other two, how a tree with a nymph or dryad in it is different from a normal plant, as well as what spirit energy is, those two must just be hints to point her in the correct direction. He actually expected her, someone who was less than an armature, someone who had never studied magic in her life, to come up with the principles behind a spell on her own completely without assistance.

    It was hard to believe such an insane task was thrust upon her. Well, at the very least, this was probably one of the most basic spells. He was not demanding anything too monumentous. It¡¯s just talking to plants, right? A magic similar in nature to what elves do all the time.

    T¨²eth looked around the room. The entire house was filled with plants everywhere. It was very clear the master¡¯s magecraft was very closely linked to plants. As T¨²eth considered what she was sure was the true nature of her task, she reached out to the center of the table and pulled one of the potted plants in the centerpiece toward her. She began staring at it intensely, carefully considering it. Somehow, as her mind became more focussed, her head began to become occupied with thoughts about children¡¯s finger games, except that it wasn¡¯t just a game. Something about this finger game was far more intricate and frustrating. Just the thought of it was beginning to eat at her head.

    T¨²eth sat up, startled at the thoughts that had just occupied her own head. Where had that even come from? Once again, she directed her attention back to the stairs and the floor above. The children were up there. Could it possibly be?

    If she was right about this, it might actually help to answer the master¡¯s third question. However, in order to find out for sure, she was going to have to go up there. T¨²eth stared at the stairs for several long seconds before finally standing up and walking toward the source of well over half of the mental conflict she had been dealing with since coming here.

    As soon as T¨²eth¡¯s head crested the divide between the first and second floor, she turned to look and saw the two human children sitting and facing each other. They turned to look at her, breaking off whatever it was they were doing before.

    The two children seemed to eye her suspiciously for a moment as she came in, before suddenly both of them turned their heads in the same direction. When T¨²eth followed their gaze, she saw a bed off to one side of the room. On top of that bed were the girls. They seemed to both be sleeping. She considered going over for a closer look, now could be the perfect opportunity for her to see them if they were asleep. However, right now, she had something she really had to confirm. For that, she was going to have to talk to her daughters¡¯ humans.

    She focused back in on the two of them, going over to the human children and kneeling down next to them. ¡°What were you just doing?¡± She asks them in as soothing a tone as she can manage. The two turn to look at each other, giving one another a look that seems somewhat urgent. After a quick exchange, one of them turns to her.

    ¡°Playing.¡± The child says.

    ¡°Can you show me what you were doing?¡± She asks them, hoping in her heart they will show her. If this proves out right, it really can be the breakthrough she was looking for.

    ¡°Umm...¡± the child who responded to her makes an unsure face and then holds a finger out toward their friend. The other child then does the same, and in a second they touch their index fingers together. From there, they extend the rest of their fingers and then begin carefully matching the rest of the fingers of their hand together. Once they have done this, they begin to do the same with their other respective hands.

    This... as T¨²eth watched the game that these children were playing, she had a feeling wash over her that was very similar to what she was feeling from downstairs. A frustrated feeling about having to micro-manage some very fine and detailed movements of some small hands that wouldn¡¯t fully cooperate with what you were trying to get them to do. That was precisely it!

    ¡°Thank you.¡± T¨²eth said and then got up, leaving immediately down the stairs with the excitement of the answer she had just gotten.

    [¡®at uus weard!]

    T¨²eth froze and looked back up the stairs for a moment, getting gasps from the humans who could still see her head cresting the floor as she hadn¡¯t fully descended the stairs yet. She decides to just keep walking as she recalls the memory of something the master had told her. It seemed the human children had some kind of language between them that was different from the normal language of the humans. It was something strange that the master even could not explain. However, the children had not learned enough Elven and the master had not learned enough of their language to possibly ask them about it in any real detail.

    It wasn¡¯t worth being bothered about this right now. T¨²eth had her answers. Now she just had to figure out what it meant.

    ¡°Well, it looks like you have made a discovery.¡± T¨²eth froze yet again at the bottom of the stairs, just as she had rounded the corner into the downstairs room. She could see the master there, still in his meditative posture seated on the floor, except that his eyes were now open and looking directly at her, leaving her stunned and rooted to her place.

    ¡°Ahh! Umm... yes!¡± She managed to squeak out.

    ¡°So, does what you learned help you to answer any of those questions?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± She could say that rather definitively.

    ¡°Well then, how close do you think you are to an answer?¡±

    ¡°Umm... well, I think I know something more about spirit energy now.¡± She said, considering all the humans she had been around up until now, and yet this was the first time she had ever felt anything like that so distinctly. At the same time though, she had never been around any single human or pair of humans able to produce such an extreme and overwhelming amount of the stuff.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    T¨²eth could see the master waiting on her to continue. She realized how easy it would probably be to say the wrong thing at this point though. She had to be careful not to jump to conclusions.

    ¡°Well, I never felt anything like this before, but, I could feel some of the human children¡¯s thoughts through their spirit energy. It must have been because of how strong their spirit energy was. Plants produce spirit energy too though, so, if there was a way to take in more of it...¡± No, this was it! It suddenly hit her! T¨²eth knew the answers to all three questions now.

    ¡°I¡¯m ready to answer!¡± She declared. ¡°The way we communicate with the nymphs and the way a mage communicates with plants is completely different. It¡¯s really not even the same magic at all. All we are doing is sending some mana into the tree, and that¡¯s enough to tell the nymph what we want.¡±

    ¡°Normal plants are different. I am not sure how it is a spell that a mage uses can get our thoughts to the plants, but if there is some way to use a spell to make it easier for us to read the spirit energy from the plants, maybe we can... well, first off, before that, maybe I should answer the question about spirit energy first. Spirit energy has something to do with the thoughts of whatever is producing it. So, if all spirit energy acts the same, if we can use some magic to make the spirit energy of plants stronger so we can sense it more easily, then a mage can know what it is a plant is thinking.¡±

    ¡°Yes, very good.¡± The master says, causing T¨²eth to almost collapse in the relief she feels from hearing she was right after sticking her neck out that far. ¡°Now then, would you like to move onto your second lesson immediately, or would you like to take a rest?¡±

    The master was in the process of standing up from his meditative pose. Meanwhile, what he said was ringing in T¨²eth¡¯s mind. Second lesson? Wasn¡¯t that a test? She had half expected him to say something about how now she was really his apprentice and she had passed the test or something of the sort. Second lesson? So, in other words, that meant that what she just did really was just a learning assignment? If this was how all of the lessons were going to go, T¨²eth was not sure how much of it she could take.

    ¡°I would like to move on now.¡± T¨²eth said for reasons she could not possibly comprehend. She was really exhausted just from this first lesson and really did want to recover, but something inside her had filled her with some kind of fear that said she could not allow herself to stop now. This thing was drowning out all of her hesitation and whispering to her that she had to become stronger as quickly as possible.

    Stopping to rest now would be admitting she was weak. She could not allow herself even a short moment of weakness right now. That¡¯s what this thing inside of her was saying.

    -

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    ¡°Yeah, I have absolutely no idea what I¡¯m looking at at all.¡± I say as I look around Gaerien¡¯s inner world. We seem to be in the middle of some kind of giant geode lined with pinkish crystals. There is a liquid that fills the lower half of the crystal laden sphere we are inside of that seems to faintly glow. It pulses regularly, and almost seems to be synchronized with the pulses of light that are coming from the gate that Gaerien says leads to my spirit.

    However, the most striking thing in this space aside from the gate to my spirit is hovering right above and half submerged in the glowing liquid. A single large perfectly clear crystal lined with glowing runes that seem to be etched inside of the massive gemstone. I don¡¯t know an awful lot about gemology, but I do know there are a fairly limited number of gems that are completely see-through clear, and all of them are considered rather high-end.

    The cheapest of the clear see-through gems is quartz. However, quartz being the fragile thing that it is will almost never be found in a perfectly clear state. It will always be blemished in some way giving it a smoky white quality. If quartz were perfectly clear, and especially if it were at this size, it would be worth the same amount as the same size of diamond. On that note, diamond was another one of the perfectly clear gemstones. The third was corundum, crystallized aluminum. If corundum had some impurities, it could turn blue or red and was known as ruby or sapphire in those states. However, pure colorless corundum would actually be the cheapest of all the possible clear crystals once you get to this size and level of purity just due to the fact it can be manufactured easily.

    There was something in me that was tempted to doubt the idea this thing could be corundum. I had noticed earlier from the violet Gaerien was wearing on that robe of hers, she seems to have some kind of thing for understated wealth symbols, the type that actually are quite outrageous to those who know what they are looking at but could be easily overlooked by those who don¡¯t. Unless it was some other kind of mineral that did not exist in the real world, I was going to lean on this thing being either diamond or quartz.

    ¡°Well then, I am sure you have plenty of questions,¡± Gaerien says, ¡°but since you have said yourself several times that you do not know even the first thing about cultivation, I should probably start at the absolute most basics and just talk about this space itself.

    Both my young and old self turn to face Gaerien as she begins to explain to us. ¡°So, this is my inner world. I have arranged it as a sea of mana. These walls around us are the manifestation of my spirit itself and it is comprised of spirit energy. The natural state of the boarder of your spirit is a blank pale white wall, and that¡¯s how it begins for everyone. However, as you begin cultivating, it will begin to naturally form impurities that take on the form of whatever your cultivation method is, thus why it began growing all these pink crystals. That represents the form of my cultivation.¡±

    ¡°Well, I should probably clarify that a bit. I say they are impurities, but it also represents a step further down my path. Those pink crystals lining the wall of my spirit also make any magic that I perform related to my path much stronger and easier to perform. However, it also makes other forms of magic more difficult. The size of your spirit from one end to the other represents the amount of potential for power you have in your spirit.¡±

    I look around. It really is an impressively large space as I observed before. So big in fact it¡¯s hard to get a real sense of scale. I can see from one end to the other, but I would certainly never want to swim the distance through that liquid down there. Although, I could probably consider walking it. Going on a rough estimate, I would say it was around 3 miles to any one wall with us at the center. This would mean this sphere was a total of 6 miles in diameter. It really was quite impressively large.

    ¡°Wow!¡± My younger self gawked. ¡°Does that mean that Gaerien is really powerful!?¡±

    ¡°Hmm... well, I don¡¯t really know how my power stacks up to the cultivators of this world, but back on Earth this wouldn¡¯t even be half as much power as you need to get close to achieving god status. Also, I was really only even able to make it this far this fast because of you, and also because of the fact that I have done this all once already. Anyway, I should probably mention that this arrangement you see here is very strongly oriented toward divine class magic. That is, magic that most mortals should not be able to do on their own and would need divine assistance to perform. I figured that it would be pretty useful when I try to go the final step of getting the worship of the god-born of this world if I could already use divine magic.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, the reason why a larger spirit is able to contain more power is because of what you see below you. That is liquefied mana. That¡¯s the form it takes when you accumulate it and store it inside of your body. Normally it would be a pale white or blue depending on the nature of your cultivation, however mine is glowing like that because of the divine nature of my cultivation. I have to alter and prepare my mana in a special way by mixing it with neutral energy. That¡¯s... actually why it is so important for me to have you creating that hole in the world barrier. The world rules of this world really don¡¯t seem to like me making this stuff at all.¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± I say as my older self, ¡°I guess a mere mortal having god powers would qualify as breaking the rules after all.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, right¡± Gaerien agrees with an almost mocking sarcastic tone. ¡°I¡¯m certain the gods of this world would not like it much. Anyway, the crystal at the center is actually the most important thing here. That is the control center where my power is focused and all my spells are written. That¡¯s those glowing runes inside of the crystal. Those are the innate spells to my cultivation, and I form them during my meditation. The spells written inside of there will be my absolute most powerful spells I can use, and it also becomes easier for me to use them.¡±

    ¡°Just out of curiosity, what is that crystal made out of?¡± I ask her. It had been bothering me ever since I saw it.

    ¡°It is made of pure condensed spirit energy¡± She said. ¡°There is nothing else the central crystal of a mage¡¯s cultivation could be made from. It has to be spirit energy. Spirit energy is the energy that relays thoughts and intentions. As such, spirit energy is needed to convert the mana into a spell.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± I say while looking around this area again. ¡°Well, I think I have learned one thing by coming here. Your method of cultivation is completely useless to me, and if I were to ever want to attempt anything like it I would have to completely drop my current meditation.¡±

    ¡°What? Really!? Well, I guess it wouldn¡¯t be too unusual for a high grade meditation to be incompatible with the principles of another, but why do you say completely useless?¡±Gaerien asked in an unsettled tone.

    ¡°That!¡± My younger self gestured downward before my older self could manage a more dignified version of the same thing. I guess she got too excited and wanted to be the one to be dramatic about the whole thing, and she immediately turned to look back at my older self with a not so apologetic smile.

    I, as my older self, just look back at her and then back to Gaerien. ¡°My meditation will not allow me to store energy of any kind in any form. It relies completely on the idea that energy does not like to remain stagnant. It forces the energy out of my body to be replaced by new energy flowing in.¡±

    ¡°Ok, well then, maybe you don¡¯t use the spiritual reservoir method, you can still pick up something from the crystal I bet. Just try and capture and use some of the energy from your meditation and use it as it passes through your body instead of capturing it and storing it like everyone else would.¡±

    ¡°Hmm... yes... but how would I manage something like that?¡± I ask, considering the crystal at the center of Gaerien¡¯s spirit. Somehow, as soon as I thought to go somewhere inside of this space, I was instantly there already without having to waste the time moving from one point to another. It wasn¡¯t so much that I had traveled there, and more like the location had come to me. It was quite the interesting experience.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really know a whole lot about your meditation, so I guess you will have to figure out most of what will work on your own and form your own path.¡±

    ¡°Alright, one more question. What language are those runes in? It looks a little like sand skrit, not that I know that ancient Sumerian language very well.¡±

    ¡°Well, yes. It is. It was one of the first written languages on Earth, so that wound up being what most of the cultivators of Earth used.¡±

    ¡°By the way you say that, can the spells in the crystal be written in any language?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but it is probably better not to make it in your native tongue. But, it should still be a language you understand well. Do you know any second languages from Earth?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I know a few, and I think I know one in particular that would be perfect.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡±

    ¡°But, I still don¡¯t really know where to start.¡±

    ¡°Well, how about I help you out? I was able to form that door between our spirits because we were already connected since being reborn in this world, our spirits were attached for a while as we came across the barrier. You ought to be able to create the same kind of door for me on your end, and then I should be able to help you get started.¡±

 Chapter 29: Cultivation for everyone

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    T¨²eth could feel the tension as she watched the master. She was still mentally exhausted from the task he had just assigned her, to answer three questions that once answered would give her the basic idea of how to perform a spell. This, she assumed, would be the first basic spell she was to learn. ¡°Well then, how about we start with this? Nymph, please show yourself to our guest.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± At the master¡¯s words, T¨²eth was somewhat surprised to see a small glowing child-like sprite appear from the wall. She had seen a nymph create a face on the wood of the Lakira tree before in order to communicate with the house¡¯s inhabitant, but something like this was certainly quite new to her. She had only heard of dryads being able to manifest a form like this, but the master had quite clearly called this a nymph. ¡°Good to meet you!¡± The child-like being greeted her. ¡°I¡¯ve already seen you before, but I guess this is the first time you¡¯ve really met me. I am the spirit of the magus master Eirlathion¡¯s house. I would normally demand to be addressed as such by outsiders, but since you have been accepted as the master¡¯s apprentice you have the right to simply address me as nymph, just as you would the spirit of your own house.¡±

    T¨²eth could only stare in open-mouthed amazement at the words of the spirit of her master¡¯s house. It was generally acceptable to simply call the spirit of a house ¡°nymph,¡± but in the case of the spirits of powerful individuals such as the elder or a powerful magus that was never acceptable. Even the spirit of the house of such an individual must be shown respect and be called by a name that acnowledges their master. For her to be given the honor of foregoing the spirit¡¯s name, it meant that she was fully accepted as a member of this powerful house, and the permission had just come from the spirit themself.

    ¡°I... no! I couldn¡¯t do that!¡± T¨²eth protested the spirit¡¯s words, looking to the master almost in desperation, begging him with her eyes to revolk the words that his house spirit just said. He did not deny them though. He did not back them up either. He did not even attempt to assure T¨²eth it was fine. He just seemed to look at her with a satisfied face.

    ¡°So, you can see the spiritual form of a nymph.¡± He said. ¡°A normal person is not able to do that.¡±

    Yes! That was right! T¨²eth had been so distracted by the meaning behind the Nymph¡¯s remarks that it had almost caused her to forget about the even stranger thing that was right in front of her face!

    ¡°Only a mage who has developed their spirit to the extent where it can start to support a spell of the third rank can see spirits in their spiritual form such as Nymph.¡± The master said, looking at her approvingly. ¡°I thought you might be able to see them. Aerien was also able to see Nymph¡¯s spiritual form last night. It was a bit surprising, but when I saw that I figured out a little bit more about what kinds of changes the Heaven¡¯s Fall seemed to have caused. The intense spirit energy that was around at that time seems to have infused itself directly into your spirit T¨²eth. You may have not formed any vessels for your spells yet, but the spirit that houses them has already been remodeled to quite the extent. Normally a mage must develop their spells, and then in turn use their spells to reinforce their spirit. You, right now, have gained the ability to skip a great deal of the process involved in developing your magic. If you wanted to, and had the ability, I am certain you would be able to at least form a rank three spell right now as your first spell, never even needing to bother with an apprentice¡¯s spell in your life.¡±

    ¡°Wh... what? What are you saying?¡± T¨²eth responded. She had heard every word the master had just said to her, but not a single syllable of the entire thing seemed real. No, it couldn¡¯t be real. This kind of thing really didn¡¯t just happen. It must be a dream of some sort. That had to be it. Not just asked to be a mage¡¯s apprentice, but to hear she was already an advanced mage without even practicing magic a day in her life? Yeah, that has to be it. This has got to be a dream.

    ¡°T¨²eth, are you certain you do not need a break?¡± The master asked. ¡°I know this is a lot to take in, you can sit down for a little while. After this, I will be teaching you how to actually form a spell vessel within your spirit, so you will need to be paying attention.¡±

    ¡°No, go on.¡± T¨²eth responded. Despite how off balance she was with this whole thing, her mind simply refused to allow her to stop. In fact, it was almost as if every time the master suggested she take a rest, this thing simply welled up inside her as though it was panicked at the idea of stopping and any objection she may have had before that was simply cast aside as though it was insignificant.

    The master looked at her skeptically, but eventually he decided to continue. ¡°Alright Nymph, thank you for your help. Please go back to watching the girls.¡±

    ¡°Ok, they just woke up from a short nap a bit ago anyway, I probably should keep an eye on them.¡± the spirit of the master¡¯s house said before charging into a nearby wall and vanishing from sight.

    ¡°Now then, let¡¯s begin the real lessons.¡± The master said as he pulled out a chair and took a seat, gesturing for T¨²eth to do the same. ¡°So, now you know that spirit energy is the energy of thought. How about mana energy then?¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s the energy of magic.¡± T¨²eth answered this question easily. The specifics about the nature of spirit energy were not very well talked about, but mana energy being the energy necessary for magic is something all children hear as they grow up. This is also why the children are taught to be cautious of humans. Humans are unable to produce their own mana, and human mages would gladly have an elf as a slave in order to aid in their ability to develop and restore their spells. There should not be a single elf who does not know about this.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°That is correct,¡± the master says. ¡°Elves produce mana as easily as breathing though. So, why is it that your average elf cannot just cast any spell they want with all of their mana?¡±

    ¡°Come on, that¡¯s not even hard!¡± T¨²eth protests the question her master just asked her. ¡°You also need...¡± T¨²eth stops speaking mid thought as she realizes the direction her master is probably going with this, and she is already despirately wishing she could stuff her impolite comment from a second ago back in her mouth. This question may be easy, but the question that¡¯s going to come right after this one is definitely going to be another one that causes her head to hurt.

    ¡°T¨²eth?¡± Her master calls her with a concerned tone.

    ¡°Oh! Sorry! You also need spirit energy to form a spell. You need both mana and spirit energy.¡± She hastily finished the answer she had previously frozen in the middle of. After this, she was bracing herself for what was going to come next.

    ¡°Hmm... alright then.¡± Her master was looking at her with concern in his eyes. Never the less, he went on to ask his next question. ¡°So, knowing what you know now about spirit energy, why do you suppose that is? If mana is the energy of magic, what does spirit energy have to do with magic?¡±

    T¨²eth was a little surprised at her master¡¯s question. It wasn¡¯t because the question was unexpected. As a matter of fact, it was almost exactly the question she was expecting. However, there was something about how he had phrased it that just made it seem a lot easier than she was anticipating. It even almost felt like he had somehow secretly told her the answer already embedded in the way he asked the question. It just made all the pieces fit together.

    ¡°Umm... maybe the spirit energy somehow controls the magic?¡± She speculates. The master nods, but seems to keep looking at her with a look of expectation, urging her to go on. In other words, she was on the right track, but that was not a complete enough answer. ¡°So, the spirit... it is the energy of thought, so you need it to tell the mana what it is supposed to be doing, and that¡¯s how you would make a spell.¡±

    Her master gave a nod after she finished speaking this time. In other words, he had accepted that answer this time. ¡°Indeed.¡± He said. ¡°This is the reason why a mage needs to build up spirit energy well in excess of what a normal elf requires to survive. The body of your spirit is comprised of spirit energy. However, in order to use magic, you must gather extra and crystallize it in the center of your spirit. Then, you use this captured and crystallized spirit energy to tell your mana what to do. This is the essence of what a spell is.¡±

    ¡°Now then,¡± her master continued, ¡°next I will teach you how to accumulate and crystallize the spirit energy. Fortunately, this house happens to have the very best conditions for gathering spiritual energy, those children produce plenty of it.¡±

    -

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    ¡®Is that all? He must be leaving something out.¡¯ Gaerien scoffed at our mother¡¯s lessons over our mental link. When we had woken up from our trip into Gaerien¡¯s mental world, we heard our mother¡¯s lessons beginning. As such, we decided to stop and listen before going on with anything else.

    I could sorta see the source of her disappointment, Ether guy really hadn¡¯t explained anything that was new to me either. I had already learned almost everything he had just said from Gaerien already. Although, I do have to greatly admire Ether guy¡¯s use of the Socratic method. Plato and his mentor never existed in this world, but it seems that with such a powerful instructional tool it is inevitable that it would be independently discovered in another culture separated by an entire world.

    Right now, our mother was being given a far more valuable lesson than whatever magic Ether guy was imparting to her. He was teaching her how to think. He was teaching her how to seek answers for herself, and how to reason through problems on her own. The only time he ever provided any information for her was when it was something she truly had no way of knowing before hand.

    Really. The more I listen to the guy interact with our mother, the more respect I have for him. If only there were not that one matter.

    I cast a glance over to the boys who where interacting with us now that we were ¡°awake,¡± and they had been listening in as well. (That¡¯s kinda cool, it¡¯s like we¡¯re in one of those cultivation novels!) Rolwen said a line that peaked my interest.

    (What!?) I asked with a tone far more harsh than I had expected.

    (What are you talking about?) Levin followed up.

    (It¡¯s a kind of thing on the internet, Chinese based webnovels. Uhh... do you all know what web novels are?)

    This was a new concept on me. However, now that he had explained this much my mind began to catch up a little bit. Gaerien had explained to me before about how, with spirit energy being the energy of thought, Earth having so much of the stuff stagnant allowed thoughts and memories from outside to easily reverberate through the world. As I understand it, this cultivation stuff seems to be some kind of standard way things work outside of Earth. As such, it really is little surprise there is some kind of fiction that talks about it. Perhaps the reason it¡¯s not more widespread is because of how esoteric the concept is. As such, naturally most artists would ignore it rather than delve into it once they have picked up the concept from ¡°outside.¡±

    As we had provided no response to Rolwen¡¯s question, merely looking at him with slack-jawed expressions, he quickly began to explain basically that web novels were the newest wild west of free-lance book publishing over the internet, anyone who had a harebrained idea could publish it on the internet. That¡¯s how I interpreted what he told us anyway. He seemed to gush on for quite a while about his favorite series he would read back on Earth and wondering how the lives of the characters had progressed since he was gone.

    (Ok, that¡¯s cool and all Rolwen,) I finally interrupted him, (but...)

    (So, what does Earth say about) ¡°culwaton.¡±Gaerien interrupted me, not even seeming to care at all about how badly her baby mouth had garbled the word ¡®cultivation.¡¯

    (Uhh...) Rolwen responded, slightly at a loss. (Well, I don¡¯t read much of them myself. They are kinda niche, not a lot of people can follow them with all the meditation and stuff, but it¡¯s supposed to be you can actually become a god by meditating or something like that.)

    ¡®Hmm... of course the humans have a short attention span for the important stuff.¡¯Gaerien complained to me secretly over our mental link. ¡®maybe I should start giving them my lessons as well.¡¯

    ¡®I¡¯m not really sure how exactly you are going to be able to get across complex subjects like that through baby babble.¡¯I respond. ¡®Also, that would mean revealing your status as a goddess to them. Not that that¡¯s bad, but we will have to watch how we handle the reveal. Well, considering Rolwen¡¯s reaction here, maybe it actually won¡¯t be that hard a reveal after all.¡¯

    (Anyway,) Rolwen decides to start filling the airspace with words again. Gaerien and I had gone mysteriously quiet, and Levin of course didn¡¯t seem to have much to say about what Rolwen was on about. (What Ether guy was just saying to your guys¡¯ mommy sounds a lot like the stuff I hear about is supposed to happen in these cultivation worlds.)

    (Well, maybe we should learn it too.) I ¡°suggest.¡± (First though, I want to talk about something. I think we should stop keeping secrets, and I think Gaerien and I should start.)

    <hr>

 Chapter 30: Revealing of secrets

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    (So, as I understand it, our world was a culti[barely intelligible] world too before this barrier was raised) I explain. We had been spending a while trying to catch Levin and Rolwen up on where Gaerien and I are on the subject of all this stuff. It has been a little difficult too. We have a bit of a distraction from the voices downstairs, especially since they are also talking about a subject we have some interest in hearing. Admittedly, we could have likely chosen a better time to talk about this. Perhapse our baby brains are affecting our sense of prudence.

    (And, Gaerien was even a god from before then?) Rolwen asks to confirm.

    (Goddess!) Levin corrects him.

    (Well¡­ fallen goddess.) Gaerien further corrects the record with a dejected face.

    (She couldn¡¯t get wor¡­ err¡­ wor-shi-p¡­)

    (Worshipers?) Rolwen interrupted me.

    (Shut up! I) ¡°uss sawain id at aimmm¡± I was Ok, although mildly irritated, with those interruptions before when I really couldn¡¯t say the words. That time, however, I felt like I really could have said the word myself but he had cut me off anyway.

    (Wow! Are you crying!?) Levin noticed the tears in my eyes and pulled himself up to the bed in order to comfort me.

    (It¡¯s this STUPID body¡¯s fault!) I yell. Seriously, don¡¯t you guys dare hold this against me. You are in the same situation, so you ought to know better. (Just¡­ keep talking.) I urge them to act as though this isn¡¯t even happening while Levin takes a seat on the bed, pulls me into his lap, and begins gently stroking my back. Having him do this actually is quite comforting, I can feel myself calming down already.

    Rolwen, the party ultimately at fault, looks around in confusion, glancing over to Gaerien as though searching for some kind of help. With me in this state and Levin being the one who¡¯s helping me, that really puts the pressure on him to be the one to come up with a new subject after that landmine there.

    (Umm¡­ uhh¡­ so, that means God is real then?) He finally says, making himself seem somewhat unintelligent.

    (You mean THAT god?) Gaerien says. (Yeah, we already told you he¡¯s the one who made the barrier.)

    (Uhh¡­ Yeah! I mean! Just¡­)

    (Wait, I just had a thought!) Levin interrupts, ultimately rescuing Rolwen from this situation. (Ether guy said someone named Falmarin was supposed to be invisible and watching us! Is this Ok for us to be¡­)

    (It¡¯s fine, we¡¯re talking English) I conclude. (Ether guy said she was the spirit of this tree, so she shouldn¡¯t know English even as well as Ether guy does. She will just maybe tell Ether guy if we get hurt or something)

    Wait¡­ tree spirit? That would probably make Falmarin either a nymph or a dryad. And wait, I was thinking that was her name because of how Levin just said it. Well, plus my encounter with it last night. If I remember back to how Ether guy was talking about it with my mommy¡­ wait¡­ mommy? I just said that in my own mind! Whatever. I¡¯ll blame it on my younger self. Rolwen and Levin use that term all the time anyway. Back to the subject though. When Ether guy was talking to her about it, it did not sound like Falmarin was a name of a person, but rather the way they used it made it sound more like the name of a species.

    Well, whatever. That¡¯s not worth worrying about too much. We will probably be encountering this ¡°Falmarin¡± more frequently now that she and Ether guy have figured out I can see her, and Ether guy will probably be talking about her more openly now. I¡¯ll be able to figure out whether falmarin translates to Nymph or Dryad and also how the term is used culturally in the language by the elves.

    (Umm¡­ anyway, so it¡¯s fine if we speak English?) Rolwen confirms.

    (Yeah) I assure him.

    (Well then, what I meant before was that, there were gods in our world and cultivation is how they became gods?)

    (Yeah, that¡¯s what we¡¯ve been telling you!) Gaerien replies in an exasperated sounding tone.

    (So, was God, I mean, that god, like¡­ super powerful or something?) He continues to probe.

    Gaerien has an annoyed look on her face at this. She even glares at me for some reason. Is she actually irritated about our earlier conversation inside her mental world? Probably she¡¯s just being jealous of God. She¡¯s really going to have to get over that.

    (He made the world barrier by himself.) She responds. (That¡¯s¡­ just crazy crazy levels of power! It) ¡°nowaly ake sebal ods a¡±

    (Wow! Wow! Gaerien! Slow down! I can¡¯t understand you!) Rolwen cuts Gaerien off as she starts talking faster and faster, causing her baby babble to become incoherent.

    (I HATE being a baby!) She yells, hitting the bed with her hands and looking intensely about at all three of us. (I wish I could make myself grow up faster. Maybe I could if this was a human body, but I don¡¯t know how to cultivate in a way like that for this elf body!)

    (We can grow up faster with cultivation?) Levin said, his ears perking up and looking excitedly toward Gaerien, a sentiment that seemed to be shared by Rolwen as well.

    (That¡¯s too advanced for you!) Gaerien shoots them down (You would be full grown by the time you could learn how. And also, you¡¯re human! I¡¯m elf! Stop com[unintelligible])

    (Uhh.. you mean you¡¯re AN elf?) Levin corrects her.

    (SHUT UUUP!) Gaerien yells, slapping the bed again toward Levin and I.

    (Calm down!) I tell her. Was Gaerien starting to throw a temper tantrum here? Maybe this was a consequence of her not having fully accepted her baby self. I would have to talk to the boys a little more, but it¡¯s actually possible SHE may be the one who¡¯s weird for having only one mind inside that reincarnated baby body. Although, the boys had said that while they felt they had two selves they did not feel they were as distinct as they were for me.

    I look over to Rolwen. He seems to get the idea and climbs up with the rest of us on the bed and begins to pull Gaerien into his lap.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    (No! No! NOOO!) She struggles with him as he goes through the robotic motions of imitating what Levin is doing with me as he looks over with an uncertain face. (Mmmm¡­ I really hate this¡­) Gaerien sits in Rolwen¡¯s lap, actually crossing her arms and looking like the grumpiest baby I have ever seen. I really have to hold myself back from laughing, knowing that would just upset her all over again. Despite Rolwen¡¯s somewhat clumsy ministrations, it does seem to be having an effect. Of course, the fact that having someone treat her like a baby is calming her down on a surface level seems to be torture for poor Gaerien on a deeper psychological level.

    (Anyway, I also wanted to talk about telling Ether guy our secret too) I told them, letting the other shoe drop now that we seemed to be on the same page here. (Not about Gaerien, just about our previous life thing.)

    (Ummm¡­ really? I mean, I guess¡­) Rolwen said. (I don¡¯t think anything bad ever happens when reincarnators tell people about it, as long as they can make people believe them.)

    Well, it was good to have agreement, but something felt really off about what Rolwen just said. It felt like there was something in there, so I carefully in my mind. ¡®I don¡¯t think anything bad ever happens when reincarnators tell people about it.¡¯ Ever¡­ reincarnators¡­ web novels¡­ I have to shake my head when I put the pieces together. I can tell this kid is probably going to be trouble for us in the future. It is really not going to be good if he has trouble realizing this is the real world and not some fantasy. Although, hopefully growing up from an infant will help him get the picture on his own. If not, well, so long as we stick together I will have plenty of time to work on him.

    With no strong protests, it seems we have reached a decision that we would try to find some way to tell Ether guy about us being reincarnated from a previous life. That is, as soon as we could figure out a way to do it in a way he was likely to believe us. Our lack of Elven vocabulary was still going to be a massive barrier in this.

    I was afraid they may have had some objection due to him being an elf, the same people who took them away from their families, and that might have made them sore about the idea of letting on their secret to such people. Maybe I was just projecting my own feelings onto them? Or rather, maybe these kids were being logical. It would definitely make a lot of things easier if our caretaker at the very least was on the same page as us, and Ether guy had already revealed himself to be the type who would likely keep this sort of thing between us if we let him in on it. I really hope their reason was one of those two scenarios. I won¡¯t know what to think if it¡¯s because Rolwen was going along with the plot of one of his web novels.

    -

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    ¡°You seem to be doing well,¡± Eirlathion said to his new apprentice. He was loathe to break her concentration now that she was on the right track, but he had to give her a little more in the way of instruction before he could leave her to her own devices. Her progress was important, but it was not important to the extent he was willing to wait here until she had finished a round of spirit cultivation.

    ¡°Once you have collected enough spirit energy, you can begin to form a crystal from it. It ought to be large enough to handle apprentice level spells within about a week if you come here every day to gather your spirit energy. Do not attempt to fill it on your own though. When it is complete, I will have to instruct you on how to recognize your own mana from the mana of others. It is actually quite important that your spell vessel be filled with only your own mana.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± T¨²eth, his apprentice, responded with an acknowledging grunt. Her eyes fluttered open after this and she looked up at him. ¡°So, what are we going to do now master?¡± She seemed to be looking around the room. Right now, she was seated in the middle of his downstairs cultivation mat, situated in the alcove of this floor. The only other real seating area was the table, which was not so ideal of a place to go into a cultivate meditation. It was not impossible, especially with how dense the spirit energy was in this house, but a lack of proper posture would harm the ability to fully focus and get the maximum effect possible.

    She seemed to be quite self-conscious of the fact that she was currently occupying the spot that was rightfully his to use. From what he had seen from her, if he even hinted he had intended to focus on his own cultivation, she would instantly skitter away from that spot and respectfully bow and scrape to him as she made way for him. Being held in such high regards was both a boon and a vice at times.

    ¡°I believe I should go up and check on the children.¡± He said. ¡°I heard them getting unusually rowdy earlier. You may come along if you would like, but if you would rather stay down here and work on forming your spell vessel then that is also a fine use of your time. From now on, this alcove is yours any time you are here.¡± The instant he made her this offer, he could see the unrest and the protest building in her demeanor. ¡°Don¡¯t be concerned,¡± he immediately quelled her unrest. ¡°I have my own still in my lab upstairs. You may use this one at your leisure without concern.¡±

    He fixed her with a troubled gaze for a while after saying this. He had wanted to invite her to come upstairs with him, but felt it was too early to push her into something like this. It was probably fine. She had gone up there on her own earlier anyway. That¡¯s good enough for today. She will be in this house frequently enough from here on if she has any real desire to become a magus, so there will be plenty of opportunity for her to simply go up those stairs should the desire ever strike her.

    ¡°Very well, I believe that is as far as our lesson can progress for today.¡± He said. ¡°You will have to at least develop your apprentice level spell vessel before we can progress further.¡± He gave a satisfied nod at those words and, with that, retreated toward the stairs.

    An idea suddenly struck him upon reaching the foot of the stairs. He placed his hand on the wall and muttered in a low voice, ¡°Nymph, please show yourself.¡±

    ¡°What is it master?¡± Came an equally quiet response. Eirlathion looked about for a moment, only to find Nymph had appeared only as a face in a knot of wood.

    ¡°No, I mean completely show yourself. I would like you to be next to me when I go upstairs, I want to test something and I really can¡¯t believe I hadn¡¯t thought of it before.¡± Eirlathion groaned inward a bit at Nymph¡¯s apparent misconception of a need for secrecy from his low muttering. Then again, it was probably better to assume the need for secrecy than to ruin the secret should there be a future scenario where such a thing is actually needed.

    With Nymph obediently hovering next to him now, Eirlathion ascended the stairs. He looked about upon reaching the second floor and found all of the children on the bed, the boys holding the girls as they usually did. He smiled as he approached them, he was trying to do his best to look natural. Meanwhile, he was studying their eyes. Or, to be more precise, he was watching to see the direction each child was looking.

    Gaerien, and Eirlathion knew it was Gaerien because she was being held by Rolwen, was staring at the bed. There was nothing that could be concluded from that. As for the boys though, both of them had rather surprised looks on their faces and were looking with quite a bit of interest over Eirlathion¡¯s left shoulder, directly at the spot where Nymph was hovering.

    The put-on smile Eirlathion had been putting on transformed into a genuine smile of satisfaction at this. He had only just thought of this after using this as a demonstration for T¨²eth, but what had really set it off was the fact that Aerien was able to see Nymph last night. On the subject of Aerien, her eyes flickered over to Nymph for only a fraction of a second before she looked up at Levin and Rolwen. After this, she turned back and locked eyes directly with Eirlathion. Was she upset with him? More to the point, if she could be upset with him over this, it meant that she was aware of exactly what he was doing.

    Well, he couldn¡¯t really do anything about it how she felt about him, but once again this child is quite frightening with how incredibly intelligent she is at such a young age. As he was pondering over this, he almost missed some movement from Gaerien. It seems she noticed something was going on, and she looked up to the same location the boys were looking. After that, a very happy look flashed across her face and then she looked directly at her sister.

    ¡°ii.. at vamawin?¡± ([Is that Nymph?]) Hearing these words from Gaerien was enough to make Eirlathion pause in his tracks. It had been a little while since he had worked on learning the language that the boys spoke, but he was pretty sure he knew the simple words she had just used. Furthermore, although it was definitely a mess of baby talk, he was quite certain she had just said ¡°nymph.¡± That was not a word he had really taught any of them before. In fact, the only time he had said the word to any of them was to Aerien last night. Again, Aerien¡¯s intelligence for her age was amazing to a scary extent.

    ¡°Did Aerien tell you about that?¡± Eirlathion decided to hide his shock behind a happy face he put on for the children as he used a praising voice toward Gaerien. ¡°Yes, this is Nymph. Nymph, how about you say hello to everyone?¡±

    ¡°Hello. I¡¯m really happy everyone is able to see me. I¡¯m nymph, the spirit of master Eirlathion¡¯s house. Since you all live here, you can also call me nymph. Although, it would probably be more appropriate for the humans to address me by my proper name, which is...¡±

    ¡°No, they can call you nymph as well.¡± Eirlathion cut them off. ¡°They¡¯re all too young to understand, we don¡¯t want to confuse them like that.¡± Yes, there is no way the girls would understand, and the boys would likely end up teaching the girls to call Nymph the same thing they were supposed to call him. And besides that, it might actually not be so bad giving them the privilege and treating them as family, these boys were rather extraordinary themselves after all. They might do rather well being trained as mages, his own master ought to know a thing or two about human cultivation methods. He ought to still be residing in the capital, so they would have the opportunity to speak with him once they got to the great tree and talked with the queen.

    When Eirlathion turned his attention back to the children, Aerien was fixing him with a look that seemed incredibly inappropriate for a baby. It was not the slightly upset look from a moment ago, this look seemed to have a very deep complexity of emotions to it. If it were any other infant in the world he would have dismissed the emotions on her face as his imagination, and even for the amazing child that Aerien was he still did not understand what he was seeing. It seemed to be a mixture of... what could best be described as disappointment, and some other deep seething type of anger that comes from a very dark place.

    No, certainly not. He must be reading into it a little too much. ¡°What¡¯s wrong Aerien?¡± He asks her.

    ([Nothing.]) She responds, and then sends a very adult version of an upset look toward Nymph. This look is only on her face for a second, but it reveals that there was something she really didn¡¯t like about them. That look though quickly crumbled into that previous look of disappointment.

    Eirlathion didn¡¯t understand any of this at all. Maybe he was just reading too much into it. She was likely just upset about how Nymph had pointed her out to him last night. Or, maybe... she was a very intelligent girl. It was more likely she was angry about Nymph watching her at night, and the fact that Eirlathion had closed off the stairs leading down to her for the first time since she had come here after he took her back up to the nursery floor.

    Yes, that seemed like the most reasonable explanation. She was looking at him angrily when he came in as well. Yeah, he had gotten into the habit of seeing Aerien as such an incredibly intelligent child, but even if she was so smart that she could see why he had shown Nymph to the boys, it did not make sense for her to be angry over that. Yes, the whole thing was probably just because she was upset about last night.

    Well, she will get over it eventually then. He had hoped to be able to go up to his lab and leave Nymph visibly around for the children to get familiar with, but he might have to allow Aerien to calm down a little and not push things. Well, if it¡¯s just her being upset, she ought to calm down by tomorrow.

 Chapter 31: A call to arms

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    I took a calm breath in and a slow breath out as Ether guy left the room and that falmarin thing disappeared. From the moment I had laid eyes on that thing it seems to have been finding ways to annoy me. I had remembered what it had told my mother, it seemed the right to simply call it ¡°falmarin,¡± which I had now all but confirmed was the name of its race and not its actual name, was considered to be some kind of privilege. A privilege she was about to deny to the boys before Ether guy had interrupted her, and by the sounds of it this was on account of them being human.

    What¡¯s more, Ether guy¡¯s thoughts on the matter had betrayed him through his speech as well. His reason for denying it seemed to be related more to it being something that might confuse us for being so young rather than any actual consideration toward the treatment of the boys.

    Well, there was a saying in the old world among the well educated students of history. When oppression is in the air we breathe, it is as unnoticeable as water is to a fish. The both of them are likely not even aware of the fact that they were doing anything wrong. Even George Washington, the man who was such a paragon of virtue that he rejected the role of King of the United States when it was offered to him, did not understand until very late in his life why it was that his slaves would value their own freedom over what he viewed as the good treatment they received with him as their master.

    No, Ether guy and this falmarin were not bad people, they just lived in a bad world. Fortunately, the boys didn¡¯t really seem to have taken notice of the slight they were just given. Well, if they were unaware of it, it was probably best for now to keep things that way. It would only create needless tension to bring their attention to it, it was not like we could do anything to change the situation in the near future.

    This did raise the question though. How were Rolwen and Levin¡¯s brothers and sisters back at the nursery doing? What kind of treatment were they receiving? They did not seem to be treated poorly from what I saw when I was living there. In fact, it seemed the place was handled like some kind of daycare and they were rather well taken care of. But, this did not change the fact that they were kidnapped from their home. In fact, no matter how well they were treated here, their position was clearly that of slaves or, at best, pets to the elves.

    As I was in the middle of considering these things, I heard a loud sound. It sounded like the cry of some large animal a great distance off. A deep, soft, almost sorrowful sounding cry that reminded me of the sounds that a whale in the ocean may make. The sound itself reverberated through my entire body, and all the heads in the room turned toward the direction we had thought the sound may have come from. There was, however, a wall in the way and no means for us to see past it.

    (What was that?) Levin said.

    (I hear something!) Gaerien announced, pressing a hand to the side of her head.

    (Yeah, we all heard that. What is that! It sounded huge!) Rolwen spoke up.

    (No no! Like a voice!) Gaerien forcefully corrected Rolwen¡¯s interpretation. (It¡¯s like¡­ If I was still a goddess, I would say it¡¯s like someone was praying, but¡­)

    Someone praying? The low moan of the gigantic unseen creature¡¯s cry gently rocked the entire house again. Praying¡­ Gaerien had told me before that prayer was the means by which a god absorbed spirit energy. When a person prayed, they directed their thoughts and their will toward the god they worshiped, and the god was able to take in this spirit energy and it would strengthen them. She was not a god anymore though, she was an elf. An elf was a fey¡­ and the fey absorbed spirit energy freely¡­ could it be?

    (You¡¯re hearing a voice in your head!?) Rolwen asks. The prejudices against ¡°voices in your head¡± could be heard dripping from his tone, especially due to his phrasing choice, but given the situation his face quickly reveals that he has thought better of doubting her. Rather, his skepticism is replaced very quickly with curiosity. (W¡­ well, what¡¯s it saying?)

    (I don¡¯t know! There¡¯s too much stray spirit energy to make it out clearly! Something about¡­ heaven¡¯s scar, and¡­ enemy.)

    Too much spirit energy? Yeah, we were right next to Rolwen and Levin after all, but I was probably the biggest culprit in the matter. My spirit energy was not even my own! The spirit energy I was pulling in and releasing from elsewhere was probably pretty darn chaotic. The situation would probably improve a great deal if I were to cut the flow. And also, there¡¯s a good chance I might be able to hear this ¡°voice¡± Gaerien was talking about as well.

    After a few times of voluntarily shutting off my meditation, I had reached a point now where I could do it without having to put some thought in my head such as my desire to, say, hear this voice. Well, putting the distracting thought in my mind did still help a little, but as soon as I became aware I needed to shut it off it stopped very quickly.

    (There!) Gaerien cheered in time, but her voice was drowned out by another reverberating low cry of the unseen creature. This time however, I was also able to hear the ¡°voice.¡±

    ¡®The enemy, the tainted ones. This enemy is in the forest. The vile beasts twisted by the dark energies have come for the Scar of Heaven. They shall not have it! Destroy the enemy and drive them back into the dark. The Scar of Heaven is in our forest, it shall be ours. Gather in the south. Defend the Scar of Heaven.¡¯

    The enemy!? Scar of Heaven!? Neither of those things sounded good at all. And what was this voice!? It was trying to talk to us as though it had the authority to give orders to all the creatures in the forest. No¡­ all the fey in the forest. It had delivered the message in such a way that only the fey could hear or understand what was being said!

    No! I immediately began my meditation again, calling down the energy of heaven just to shut out this voice and its terrifying message. It was talking about war! A war over a piece of land. A resource war, by the sounds of it. I did not know or care about any of this stuff, but by the sounds of it, things beyond my control that don¡¯t even matter to me were about to intrude into my life and may even attempt to take my loved ones away from me. It was by no choice of my own, but I could not even do anything to escape from it!

    The situation was so unfair. In a situation like this, I was in a position where I really wished I actually was just a normal baby. That way, at the very least, I wouldn¡¯t have to live with the burden of knowing what was about to come. If I was just a baby, this would have just been a scary voice that I would be upset about for a moment but then forget about a few hours later. However, as things were¡­

    Once again, my fears and concerns became too much for my infant body to handle, and in a second I was wailing out my cries of fear. It was probably the same thing I would be doing even without my previous life knowledge, but the motivation behind the fear I was feeling now was very different from what a baby simply disturbed by those loud cries and the message behind them would be scared of.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    -

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    After the master had left up the stairs, T¨²eth was at something of a loss for what she should be doing at this point. The master had said she could remain here and pursue her cultivation. He also seemed to welcome her to follow him up to see the girls. In fact, he had made it quite clear that was an open and even encouraged opportunity she could pursue at any time. She had been terrified of the idea yesterday, and she was still a little uncertain. However, now that she was here and she had the chance to think about it, the idea was always looming in the back of her head. However, she would always find some way to brush it away.

    ¡®I don¡¯t have a right to be their mother anymore.¡¯ She criticizes herself. ¡®It is the master who took them in, they are his children now. I shouldn¡¯t have anything to do with them.¡¯ Somehow, as she said these words, something about them felt hollow. She felt as though her throat had caught even as she was thinking this. It was a painful thought, but... it was true. She had spent so long effectively wishing for the death of those girls, she no longer had the right. It was all true, so why did the thought feel so shallow and fake to her?

    The answer presented itself to T¨²eth as soon as she asked herself this question. It was because, to the master, he still viewed them as her children. That was why he was trying to create situations where she should see them and interact with them. He had also not said at any time he had adopted them. From his perspective, he was just a healer providing care for them, but she was still their mother.

    As long as that was the case, her resolve on the issue would always remain in this hollow state. The pain at the idea of still having a connection with them that she should not have, it would never go away. Maybe if she could just get him to... If she could...

    T¨²eth sat in a state of silent defeat, the thought still refusing to finish itself in her own mind. She could no longer focus on the idea of cultivating. If that was the case, maybe she should just leave for the day.

    Just as she opened the door to leave, that was when the great cry rocked the entire village and she heard the voice... that message in her head. These words in her head... they were incredibly similar to the way that she had received the thoughts from the girls¡¯ humans. They simply entered her head and she understood them.

    She could hear murmurs from the entire village. Suddenly, there was a shout from one of the trees. ¡°The great tree! It¡¯s in the sky! You¡¯ve got to see this!¡± The people walking about the village looked to one another in confusion for a little while, and then several people decided to start going into the nearest lakira tree. T¨²eth knew what their objective was in this, they would no doubt be ascending the tree from the inside. There were others though who were too impatient for this and simply lept to a branch and began climbing from the outside of the tree.

    Seeing this, T¨²eth immediately dashed back inside and the door automatically closed behind her. She ran up the stairs to the second floor, only remembering the girls when she heard them crying as she arrived up there. No doubt they had become scared when that loud creature¡¯s cry was heard, but that message also had quite a few urgent emotions attached to it. That could most certainly scare them as well.

    She looked to them for a moment, confirming that the humans seemed to be with them. The humans even had each of the girls in their laps. They looked a little frightened as well, but they would probably be able to care for the girls. Much better than she could anyway.

    Satisfied with this conclusion, T¨²eth placed her hand on the outcropping of wood that was clearly meant as a route to the 3rd floor and asked the spirit of the master¡¯s house to open it. Upon receiving the open path of the stairs in front of her, T¨²eth continued her way up and found her way into the master¡¯s laboratory. She saw him in the middle of the room, staring up at the ceiling.

    ¡°Master!¡± She called out to him, not daring to progress any further into her master¡¯s private space until he had acknowledged her.

    ¡°T¨²eth!¡± He called back, taking several steps toward her. With her master¡¯s acknowledgement, she finished ascending the stairs and waited for him at the top.

    ¡°Master! Someone said something about... the great tree floating in the sky!¡± The master¡¯s face hardened in surprise at these words, and he immediately opened another path higher in the house and ran up the stairs. Normally, T¨²eth would likely think twice about following further after her master in his own house. However, given how extraordinary this situation was, she could not help but follow him.

    They arrived in an open space surrounded by high branches and vines. Over-head, this area was fully open to the sun, but all directions except for straight up were thinly walled by a lattice work of thick ivy vines woven around large regularly spaced branches. This space, it could be best described as being inside a gigantic basket.

    Inside the basket, there was an arrangement of counters along the sides, and on top of each surface there was a fairly large number of plants. This must be the master¡¯s garden. Each plant was in a pot of some sort, which meant all of them could be easily moved.

    As soon as the master arrived on this level, two sections of the counter simply moved across the floor toward the center of the large wide open space in the middle. The master only paid this enough attention to confirm none of the plants sitting atop these platforms had toppled over, and then he approaches the vacant area they left behind. Immediately upon his approach, the vines begin to unwind and make a space for him. At the same time, she can see outside the ¡°basket¡± created by the vines and notices the branches of his home are also bending and shifting. As the vines clear, she can see a few large branches have completely bent over in order to create a terrace for him to walk out onto.

    T¨²eth follows behind and looks over the vast expanse in front of her. The master¡¯s home is easily the second tallest lakira tree in the village, second only to the nursery tree that has been feeding off the energy of the human children brought there for centuries. As such, they have a very clear view of the expanse of trees in front of them. This is the first time in over 30 years that T¨²eth had taken in this view from above the canopy that can see all the way off to the distant horizon.

    This was no time to enjoy the view though. Neither one of them were even interested in it. Both of their attentions were caught immediately by the sight of a gigantic section of earth that seemed as though it had simply been scooped up from the ground, and was now floating in the air. Upon this truly massive clump of soil was an equally huge tree. The distant objects were so truly huge that it was difficult at first to get a real sense of scale. That is, until one looked at what was on the surface of the chunk of earth clinging onto the massive tree¡¯s roots.

    Trees. More trees. Under this truly monstrous arbor, there sat an entire forrest of additional trees in its shadow. To say they looked like small bushes by comparison didn¡¯t do it justice at all. The massive ¡°great tree¡± dwarfed them to such an extent that they were like mere sprouts beneath its great branches. T¨²eth realized as she was seeing this, the entirety of the village could probably fit upon only one section of that large lump of soil and still have plenty of room to spare between the trunk of that great tree and the edge of the earthen platform. In fact, they could probably fit two entire villages lined up between the trunk and the edge and they would still fit without anyone feeling in danger of their home falling from the side in the village closer to the edge.

    T¨²eth was truly stunned by this sight. It almost distracted her from the other peculiarity about this whole situation. Another low cry of the great beast they had been hearing shook her body as she heard the message about the enemy in the forest and defending the scar of heaven repeated in her head yet again. She noticed something flying in the sky, circling the huge tree in slow lazy rings. The mere fact she could so easily make out the appearance of this creature circling this colossal tree spoke to the fact that this creature too must be very large in size. It was quite distant from her right now, making it look small, and it seemed to be made to look even smaller against the sight of the great tree, but she imagined that if she was in front of this creature in person that its head alone would be several times the size of her entire body.

    From what she could tell looking at it, it seemed to have a very long blue colored serpentine body, and near to its head it had a pair of great shining wings. The wings seemed to shine like silver as she saw the sun glinting off them as the large creature passed into sight from behind the great tree. It raised its angular head and let out another anguished sounding cry, causing the call to arms to resonate in T¨²eth¡¯s head yet again.

    ¡°The Queen!¡± her master said, staring at the sight with a look of true awe written on his face. ¡°She¡¯s moving the entire capital! It¡¯s moving toward the Scar of Heaven. She plans to transplant the great tree to the center of the scar left on the land by that catastrophe!¡±

    ¡°That! That¡¯s the royal capital!?¡± T¨²eth responds in awe herself. However, there is something else that has been eating at her mind ever since she first started hearing this call to arms in hear head. Up until this moment, the excitement and the talk about the great tree had been allowing her to distract her mind from this thought. However, it was something that simply could not be avoided. She had to talk about it.

    T¨²eth turned to her master. She needed to ask him. ¡°Master...¡± she says. ¡°The tainted ones, she¡¯s talking about... THEM isn¡¯t she?¡± She can see the master¡¯s gaze shift slightly downward and the awed expression break from his face for a moment. After this, he gives a sharp nod.

    ¡°Yes, and they will likely be coming here as well.¡± He says. ¡°After your village, this one is one of the closest to the Scar of Heaven. If that is their objective, they are definitely going to find this place along the way.¡±He looks back up, this time toward the south. It is not visible beneath the trees here except in the form of a large unnatural hole in the tree cover over the ground, but T¨²eth had heard the people who rescued her talking about the deep vertical hole that had been carved directly into the ground. The Scar of Heaven. The deep wound upon the land created by the Heaven¡¯s Fall.

    The master¡¯s brows crease as he watches the giant tree that guards the royal capital floating slowly on its grim march toward what is to become the center of this conflict.¡°This village,¡± he said,  ¡°it¡¯s going to become a battle ground.¡±

    1st Arc: Infancy

    Act 2: Spirit

    End

 (Intermission) Lore Chapter 2: Four paths of cultivation.

    Intermission

    Eirlathion: Magecraft the path of Sorcery and the path of Wizardry

    Aerien: Warrior god combat meditation.

    ¡®I have been meaning to ask,¡¯ Gaerien said to me later in the day, ¡®I am going to be helping you to figure out your path, so I should probably start by asking you a few things about this fighting style of yours and what you know about your meditation.¡¯

    ¡®Ok, I guess that makes sense.¡¯

    ¡®Well, to start with, what is it called?¡¯

    ¡®It¡¯s a bit of a crazy name. It is called Bujin Taijutsu. I am not certain if you know Japanese, but to translate that name into English, Taijutsu means a style focused on body movement, of always having your body in the optimum place and position to disrupt your opponent, exploit their blind spots and weak points, and gain leverage on their joints in the case of using a Jujutsu, which means a joint manipulation technique. As for Bujin, that term literally translates to warrior god. So, the name of the style, if I were to translate it to English, would best be translated as combat movements of the warrior god.¡¯

    ¡®Hah, just as I thought.¡¯Gaerien responded. ¡®That¡¯s exactly the sort of name a high level meditation would have. You said it was a crazy name, but actually that¡¯s perfectly normal among the top tier meditations. Combat movements of the warrior god though? So, it may really not be all that cut out for magecraft. With a name like that, it would probably be a physical cultivation technique. But, the only reason it would even have a method to pierce the world barrier would be if it was meant to be used in spellcasting. This is pretty confusing.¡¯

    ¡®Well, it¡¯s possible the whole thing is a deception. The style actually has quite the history behind it. Maybe your confusion will be cleared up if you hear it.¡¯

    ¡®Ok, I¡¯m sure it will be.¡¯

    ¡®Well, as I said, it came from Japan. Japan is a rather large Island back on Earth, but it is still an Island. What¡¯s more, it was a harsh land with very poor resources available to it. As a result of this, the people of Japan became a very war like people. Warlords were a rather regular thing for them up until the United States where I lived defeated them completely in war a little over half a century ago and forced them to fully disarm due to how little the rest of the world could trust them in their war-like ways.¡¯

    ¡®Anyway,¡¯I continue ¡®before they were forced to disarm, life consisted of the warlords tearing up the country on a regular basis. There were some people in this time who, in order to survive, went to hide in the forests in order to avoid the wrath of the warlords. However, they also had to defend themselves, so they created their own fighting force that used secrecy, guerilla warfare, and indirect methods to win battles and protect themselves. Eventually, some of the warlords took note of these people and began incorporating them into their own forces.¡¯

    ¡®As I said before, the very name ¡°combat movements of the warrior god¡± could be a deception. The people I am speaking about were masters of information warfare, and it was them who developed the fighting style that I used. The fighting style emphasizes adaptability above all else, and it incorporated the fighting technique of the Samuri, the top warriors of the warlords. The number one principle of the style, being developed by peasant villagers who were hiding just to survive and perfected a powerful warrior art as a result, is to use everything you can in order to survive.¡¯

    ¡®Wow! With a history like that behind your meditation, I guess I can understand now why you were so upset about not being able to sense threats in advance. But, you say it emphasizes adaptability. In that case, this ought to work out well. If it adapts to and incorporates anything it comes across that¡¯s useful, then there HAS to be something you can do to fix the problem with sensing enemies without dumping out the meditation. There ought to be some kind of potential for a fix already baked right into it.¡¯

    ¡®Now then, something else I would like you to explain to me. Normally, these kinds of meditations of such a high level are divided into tiers, and each tier could have several sub levels to it as well. Are you aware of anything like that?¡¯

    ¡®Hmm... well, now that you mention it, there are a number of levels. There are... if I were to count all the sub levels, I guess you could say there are 45. However, most of that is repeating through a cycle over and over again. It is a cycle through the four elements, and then a fifth element of the void. Those five elements are repeated for each of three influences, as we call them. Everything about this style is described in terms of what you influence. First, at the most basic level, is the influence of heaven. Yes, we start with heaven as our first one and consider that to be the most basic. Next, is the manipulation of Earth. Finally, at the most advanced level, is the manipulation of man.¡¯

    ¡®Well... exactly the opposite of how most would arrange it. I had thought that your style seemed fairly unorthodox from what I had heard up until this point, if you reverse the order of man, earth, and heaven then there definitely has to be something very different about your methods.¡¯

    ¡®Oh, we very much pride ourselves on being unorthodox and unintuitive in our approach to just about everything. It is specifically because we use such unconventional methods that we are able to circumvent the usual defensive tactics most people take. When the forebearers of this style were incorporated into the imperial armies, they mostly acted as secret body guards and information warfare specialists, never appearing on the front lines, and yet they were among the most effective members of the military that were the difference between winning and loosing the war.¡¯

    ¡®So, you said you cycle through the same process again for each level. I take it then that you go through those five elements for each of the three influences you just mentioned. That only totals up to 15 levels though. I take it there is another greater cycle of three more that increases the count to 45?¡¯

    ¡®Yes. They are called the focuses. The first, and lowest focus is called the focus of Taijutsu. Again, this means body movement technique. The second is the focus of Ninjutsu, human manipulation technique. Finally, the top level is Bushin. The focus of the true warrior god.¡¯

    ¡®Well, after hearing this, there is no doubt at all that this is a very very high tier meditation. It¡¯s really too bad it¡¯s incomplete and you have to rediscover its true secrets and reform it on your own. Anyway, one more thing I want to confirm. You keep bringing up this movement thing, Taijutsu as you call it. I remember you saying once that movement is important in your meditation.¡¯

    ¡®Yes, there is a still meditation portion, but that is not going to help you at all. The meditation of the Bujin Taijutsu school is a form of moving meditation. Really, the still portion is only practiced to teach beginners what they should be focusing on and contemplating while they are in training.¡¯

    ¡®Hmm... by any chance, is there anything about it advancing faster for people who have been in real battles?¡¯

    ¡®Well, yes.¡¯

    ¡®I see. Well, this really is quite the meditation. I can see where the warrior god part of it comes from. The cultivation method in your meditation improves while you are moving, is better while in combat training, and is at its best while on the battlefield. You grow stronger while you fight. Once again, this is a cultivation method most cultivators would literally kill for. I simply cannot tell you how envious a method this is.¡¯

    Gaerien: Divine presence cultivation technique (modified)

    ¡®So, you prodded me all about my cultivation method, how about you tell me a thing or two about yours?¡¯

    ¡®Oh, you¡¯re curious? I thought you didn¡¯t have any interest in this godhood stuff.¡¯

    ¡®You keep telling me that my method is so incredible people would kill for it. However, you have not actually asked me to teach it to you once. That got me curious. There has got to be something in your method that¡¯s also pretty powerful if you have shown no interest in my method other than what you need to know in order to help me.¡¯

    ¡®Hehe, well, yes. Supposedly it¡¯s the best cultivation method there is, at least the best that I¡¯m aware of. It¡¯s the same method that the one you worship as your personal god used to become so powerful.¡¯

    ¡®WHAT!?¡¯

    ¡®Well, actually! I should probably correct myself on that. It¡¯s a modified version. Normally, only pure deified souls can use it. It¡¯s a high level meditation meant to be used by those who are already very very high level. So, I had to try and invent a lower level to it that can be used by mortals myself. It¡¯s not actually his method, it¡¯s my method to try and create the conditions that allow someone to just begin on his method.¡¯

    ¡®Ok, but still¡­ you¡¯re saying you actually know his method?¡¯

    ¡®Well, yeah. He spread it around pretty freely. You¡¯ve heard of angels, right? That¡¯s what deities who use this cultivation method are called when they are on the lowest stage of it, and the strongest angels are able to match the strongest regular gods who use other meditations. However, even though it¡¯s a very powerful method, it actually has a flaw to it. It¡¯s designed for an entity with a multi-part composite soul.¡¯

    ¡®Wow, this is a lot to take in. So, angels are actually lesser gods? But, wait¡­ multi-part composite soul?¡¯

    ¡®Yes.¡¯ Gaerien said, almost with an air of disgust in her mental voice. ¡®If you don¡¯t have at least a split 2 part soul, you will not be able to make it past the 9th choir, the choir of the Seraphim. A Seraph still has amazing power, I was quite content to just reach that level and call things good. However, you go and step into my inner world with a 2 part soul and demonstrate to me that, yet again, my methods were wrong from the start and I ought to have been following your example since the beginning, and it¡¯s already WAY too late for me to use the same method you used! I am SERIOUSLY cursing my selfconsciousness from early on right now. You have absolutely no idea how much I¡¯m lamenting that loss. Then again, I don¡¯t think I actually know anything about how to progress after the Seraphim choir anyway. So, I would just be blindly making it up as I went along after progressing past that point very much like you and your attempts to re-form the warrior god technique you¡¯ve got.¡¯

    ¡®I¡¯ve got one more thing to ask about. You said something about the pre-condition being that you had to be a pure deified soul. Is there something special about that that¡¯s different from other kinds of souls?¡¯

    ¡®Oh, yes there is! Pretty much, you have to be someone who reached the level just shy of the godhood transformation without cultivating for a single day in your life. In addition, you have to go through several layers of additional purification all throughout your life in order to get the natural impurities that come from the world and affect your soul.¡¯

    ¡®Wait¡­ reaching the level near godhood without cultivating?¡¯ After hearing that, my mind naturally went to the state of our mother, who apparently had her spirit enhanced like it would have been through cultivation just by being near some exceptionally dense spirit energy.

    ¡®Yes, I think you¡¯re probably figuring it out. That¡¯s another part of the reason all the spirit energy was contained inside of Earth¡¯s barrier. When it is dense enough, it will forcibly re-form a person¡¯s spirit and prepare it for a godhood transformation even if they do nothing to cultivate. Because of this, when a person on Earth died, they had the opportunity to possibly transforming into a god immediately instead of reincarnating as someone on any other world would. And then, if it was someone who had diligently gone through the proper purification methods through their life, they would be invited to his kingdom in order to cultivate on the angel¡¯s path.¡¯

    ¡®Hold on, hold on, you just said your soul has to be prepared without cultivating! You said you are using a cultivation method in order to prepare your soul for the angel¡¯s path though.¡¯

    ¡®Yes, this is what makes the method I¡¯m using so hard. You saw all the impurities that had developed already inside my spirit. I¡¯m going to have to cleanse those off rather regularly. Also, I¡¯m doing nothing in my cultivation to reinforce my spirit. Instead, I¡¯m just gathering the mana and spirit energy and trying to let it infuse into my spirit naturally. Fortunately, this body seems to be one that can last a very long time. It ought to be capable of lasting the time that¡¯s needed for such a long process. There is absolutely no way I could have ever attempted this if I was born a human.¡¯

 Chapter 32: Anticipation of war

    1st arc: Infancy

    Act 3: Fear

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    Those loud whale sounds and the message behind it driven seemingly by pure waves of spirit energy eventually came to a stop. I had long since calmed down, but that did not stop my mind from worrying. Well, really, worrying alone would not do much. I would have to do what I could as best I could in the days to come in order to make myself capable of at least acting for myself and not being forced to lay there docile should someone come to kill everyone in this place.

    (It stopped now, it¡¯s Ok.) Levin says in a shaky voice as he continues to stroke my back. Hearing the second part, the ¡°it¡¯s Ok¡± assurance, frustrated me a bit. It was completely understandable. He may know I was reincarnated like him, and also that I was a fair bit older than him in my previous life, but this does not change the fact that he was comforting a crying baby.

    (I wasn¡¯t crying about that!) I told him. The frustration was practically dripping from my voice.

    (What is it then?) Rolwen asks, looking over toward me as he¡¯s still supporting Gaerien in his own lap.

    (It was what the thing was saying.) I reply. (The voice, it was sent with spirit energy so only elves and other fey could hear it.)

    (Huh? What do you mean ¡®they¡¯?) Levin responds.

    (Fey! Weith an F.) Rolwen corrects him. (It means like¡­ it¡¯s something that means faeries and elves and other things like that. I think satyers are also a kind of fey.)

    (Satyers?) You could practically see the question mark over Levin¡¯s head at this one.

    (It¡¯s like humans with the lower body of a goat. Like¡­ like Tumnus from Narnia.)

    (Actually,) I cut in to correct Rolwen, (he was a fawn. Sat¡­ err¡­ DON¡¯T!) I cut Rolwen off with a harsh glare before he can finish my word for me again. (The¡­ the one he said before! They are a lot more goat like than fawns.) It was hard to explain it to them like this when I wasn¡¯t able to speak clearly, but fawns had just the lower half of a goat and occasionally some little stubby horns on their foreheads. Sayters however were more or less bipedal goats with the only thing human-like about them being the musculature of their furry but still human-like upper body and the fact that they had hands like a human as well. Their head, however, was very much that of a goat and the male satyers had large curled horns down the sides of their heads. Really, the only thing missing between a satyer and the classic goat-headed demon portrayal was that a satyer did not have wings.

    (Well, anyway, what was the¡­ err¡­ voice saying?) Levin brings us back on track.

    (A war.) Gaerien informs them, cutting in before I can give the answer myself. Maybe she was feeling a little left out of the conversation and decided to take her opportunity now that there was something she could answer.

    ((War?)) both of them respond, looking to one another and then to me. I give a nod in confirmation, after which they both look back to Gaerien, imploring her with their eyes to go on.

    (Umm¡­) she reacts, looking between the two of them. (Well, it was saying someone evil had come into the forest and was after something that belonged to the elves, so they were going to fight them.) That was cutting out some details, but I actually had to agree with her approach. I did not know for sure what all that ¡°scar of heaven¡± stuff was about, although I did have my suspicions. However, it was probably a good idea to leave details like that out for now until we had some confirmation.

    She had essentially broken it down to the basics. ¡°Evil¡± invader comes in to invade someone else¡¯s soverign soil in order to steal resources. A classic resource war. Well, I don¡¯t usually like to toss the term ¡°evil¡± around too lightly, but of all the motivations for war I suppose the aggressor in a resource war could be said to deserve the title more than any other. Then again, in a call to arms like what we had just received, it was entirely possible the source could be biased and was trying to rile people up in order to get more recruits for their military.

    (Well, what can we do? We¡¯re not old enough to fight or anything, right?) Rolwen comes in with his own 2 cents.

    (That don¡¯t matter) I respond. (I think Ether guy is supposed to be strong or something, but things will get crazy here and something could happen even if we are not soldiers.) Yes, these kids were raised in the United States back on Earth. A country that had its last land-war with Mexico well over a hundred years before they were born, and that was a war of expansion into areas that were not heavily populated. No, the last land-war before that that had destroyed entire cities and resulted in the destitution of the innocent bystander women and children was the Civil War a century and a half ago.

    The horrors that were placed even on innocent bystanders in a land war were not even in the living memories of their grandparents. Perhaps their great grand parents might have participated in the second world war and saw the devastation wrought on France, or even the results of the air raids on England or Japan, but those were all events that were far from home and would not have been significant enough on a US citizen to have much of a cultural impact. No, US citizens who had never seen military service did not know the true horrors of war.

    I was really one to talk though. I myself was too young for the draft when Vietnam was going on, and had no interest to join for the Gulf war, and while I could have joined in my middle age years when 9/11 happened I was in the middle of my school for nursing and just starting my own family so I had no interest there either. However, I had more exposure to the world than these kids, and also had the benefit of several former active duty military personnel in my dojo both while I was a student and also when I became the master of my own. I did not have the personal experience, but the stories I had heard and the images they conjured told me enough to be aware that this was not something we wanted to take lightly.

    Well then, we will just have to train our ability to be self mobile a little more earnestly. Also, it seemed it was about time to start seriously looking into this whole cultivation thing. First, though, I had to get Gaerien to help me with that whole ¡°inner world¡± thing.

    -

    Back when I had entered Gaerien¡¯s inner world, I had stepped into her world the moment the door was formed. At that time, I had seen projections of my mind form, both as my former self from my previous life and also as my child self from this life. As this happened, the world inside my mind had gained a lot more sharpness and clarity. However, I had not bothered to look around, and as soon as I was done in Gaerien¡¯s world I broke the meditation and woke up in my physical body.

    This time, now that I had experienced it once, I was together with my other self, standing side by side as the child and the old man, and the both of us were looking over our inner world.

    To be honest, it did not look like a world I would want to live in. I was actually rather shocked this was what the inside of my spirit looked like. At the moment, the old man and the little girl were standing on top of a grassy hill near a small speckle of light that seemed like a rip in the very fabric of this space. If we were to look toward what might be considered the center of this space though, the scenery was instantly dominated by a huge spiraling black vortex that seemed to drag in all matter around it. It had already sucked up all the other land and left it a complete inky black void, the grassy hill we were standing on seeming to be the only foothold left in this desolate place.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Above us, there was a light. It was not a painful light to look at, not what I would call as bright as the sun, but it was quite bright. It was probably only because the eyes we had inside of this space were not physical organic eye that we were able to look directly at it. At the heart of that light, there appeared to be a swirling, constantly moving filigree of dancing patterns. It was not some etchings on the surface of the light source, it was more like watching the surface of a pool of water that had some dye dropped into it. And, as the patterns shifted, rays of light could be seen brimming out and dancing through the upper portion of this space.

    The rays of light would touch here or there throughout the space, and every time the light passed over it the dark void seemed to ripple as though in pleasure like it was being gently tickled, and then it would rise up as though in pleasure to receive this beam of light. I had seen fish in a fish hatchery being fed before. The matter in which the darkness seemed to rise to meet the light seemed very similar to the eager fish in the hatchery leaping to get the fish food before it had even hit the water.

    There was no way of looking at this sight without coming to the conclusion it was some kind of broken world. This space was definitely out of whack something serious, and I did not even know where to begin on putting it in order. Well, the first thing I should probably do is invite Gaerien in to contribute her expertise.

    The two projections of my mind turned to look at the smaller shimmering light near the middle of the small purchase that was the only solid ground in this space. That light, it was probably our end of that spirit connection Gaerien had mentioned. I definitely got the distinct sense that it was somehow at the exact location the flame I had risen to be the doorway was before. A flame was the best thing I was able to come up with at the time, but the weakness of a flame is that it goes out once you stop feeding it fuel. As such, there was no more sign of that doorway of flame I had once conjured.

    The light from above seemed to shine even brighter on the shimmering crack in space. Just like the darkness, the spirit connection seemed to greedily drink in the light coming down from above. It looked as though it was trying to forcefully widen using the light to fuel it. Perhaps Gaerien was trying to help from her end.

    ¡°Well, I guess we had better let her in.¡± I say to my younger self.

    ¡°Alright!¡± I respond, running around to the other side of the shimmering hole in my own spirit from the old man. We may be separate personalities, and we may have separate levels of surface knowledge, but our subconscious was linked which allowed me to know immediately what it was the old man was planning to do.

    As we are standing on both sides, we begin the slow and gentle breath of earth once again. In perfect unison, we both form our hands into the mudra of earth. As we are doing so, the light and darkness in this space both seem to grow stronger in unison. The land we are standing on gets dragged to the center of the space as the two competing forces are now both feeding and also draining energy to and from this land. Overall though, there seems to be a net positive effect and the grassy hill expands rapidly into a grassy field.

    Next is water. A lake springs up between me and me, my older and younger selves, right below the shimmering portal that seems all too happy to be more directly exposed to the light from above. The water spreads quickly like a water main had been broken. Or rather, it might be more the correct image to say a burbling spring had opened up and was filling the space very quickly with water. The water never touched the feet of either of my mental protections though. Instead, the very ground beneath our feet seemed to expand, causing us to move further away from the shimmering mass in the center of the forming lake.

    Finally, it was time for fire. The shimmering portal immediately burst into a brilliant golden flame. I could feel the wind beginning to pick up before we had even moved onto the mantra and mudra of wind, with three of the elements already present it seemed the fourth had no intention of being left out. Seeing this, I quickly shifted the thumbs of all four of the hands between my two projections to the respective index fingers. I pressed all four of my hands forward toward the flame and let out the breath that served as the mantra of wind. The wind picked up, and the flame grew bigger.

    I could sense something was in the raging golden flame. Well, time to complete this. In unison, my older and younger selves broke the mudras on our hands, shifting to open palms, and allowed our breathing to slowly sink with a breath out that was even gentler and slower than the mantra of earth. It was as though the air was being slowly sucked from our lungs rather than us consciously breathing out. In this moment, the flame and the wind seemed to be sucked into the lake beneath them. At the same time, the lake became a swirling vortex as the water rapidly drained from it. The land converged, and this dragged my two mental projections together until we were standing close on either side of Gaerien¡¯s mental projection in her full low-key affluent goddess form.

    She looked quickly from side to side after she arrived. ¡°Well, I really don¡¯t think I have ever heard of someone being able to alter their inner world that quickly. You really weren¡¯t kidding when you said the guiding principle of the art attached to your meditation was adaptability, it definitely showed from that little performance of yours just there.¡± She nodded, looking to her left and right as she repeated the gesture for both my mental projections.

    ¡°Well then,¡± she says, looking around. ¡°This is certainly a rather unique space. Overhead is a sea of light, and below is a sea of darkness. I guess this also fits what you told me about your meditation involving calling energy from heaven and sending it into the void. However, the energy and the void seem to be taking up too much of the space in here right now. You might want to start by trying to shrink them and putting them in the middle or something.¡±

    Well, that makes sense. My two mental projections nod to one another and we immediately begin attempting to do as she said. We start by trying to imagine a sort of containment barrier surrounding the two light and dark forces, pressing them toward the center of this space. As we do this, the little floating island the three of us are standing on move along with Gaerien¡¯s spirit connection off to the side of the space so we can get a good vantage point on what we are doing. We seem to be succeeding in forcing the light and darkness to retreat toward the center. It is hard though. There is a lot of resistance, and I can tell there is no way this containment barrier idea is going to keep working once we get it to the place we want it.

    New tactic then. The idea behind the meditation is similar to that of a vacuum cleaner. The energy of heaven wants to flow, it does not like to be kept stagnant. As such, if you expel the energy of heaven from your spirit, more will instantly come in to fill that void. In other words, the best way to get more of the energy of heaven was to spread it. My advanced form of the meditation though created the void that the energy of heaven liked so much inside of my own spirit. If it is the void that attracts the energy, maybe we don¡¯t have to worry about the light. If we just shrink the void, the energy of heaven ought to follow suit.

    This seemed to work for a little while. We pressed the darkness to the center of the world. In the next moment, it seemed like the vortex of darkness was replaced by a vortex of sparkling light. The light that was spread all throughout this space was still being cast about from the source above, but now the exit had shrunk. This resulted in a great turbulent whirlpool that shook this entire space. My entire inner world shook with the violence of the storm, and I ultimately had to release the containment on the darkness. At least the darkness was gentle.

    The storm of light energy immediately calmed when the exit route was the entire area once again. This was definitely troublesome. So, it seems like the darkness is not the cause of the problem here, but the response to it. That means, contrary to our expectations, the issue that has to be addressed is the swirling light above.

    ¡°Alright, one more time.¡± I say as the old man. Both of my mental projections raise our hands up to the light, attempting to forcus it directly downward. Unlike previous things we attempted though, this is a lot less responsive. We are occasionally able to bend some of the light rays shining off at the furthest extremes slightly downward so they do not hit the edge of my inner world. However, there is absolutely no lasting impact to what I¡¯m doing.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ this seems rather troublesome¡± Gaerien says. "Perhaps it¡¯s time to take a different approach. How much do you know about the nodes on the body¡¯s energy pathways?"

    ¡°Hmm, nodes?¡± I respond, exploring over her word in my mind. If it is nodes, similar to lymph nodes, and they are on what she calls the body¡¯s ¡®energy pathways,¡¯ then there is definitely something in Hindu and Bhudist mysticism that fits that description. I not at all unfamiliar with this subject either. While it may have its origins in the Hindu religion, that did not necessarily make it a sacrilegious thing for me to have studied it. And, it seemed to be a large part of why the scientifically proven effective practice of acupuncture supposedly worked, so there had to be something real related to it that medical science simply hadn¡¯t discovered yet.

    ¡°We do have something I have heard of that you could be talking about¡± I said as the old man. ¡°They are called Chakaras. To confirm, there are seven primary chakaras, twenty one minor chakaras, and then a number of other peripheral nodes in the chakara system. Does this sound like what you are talking about?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s it. Good. Well then, try manifesting the seven primary chakaras. I think that ought to get us somewhere.¡±

    My two mental projections gave another nod to each other, my young self looking concerned and skeptical, also a little tired. Meanwhile, my older self had a resolute look on his face, ready to get this done. We both held our hands out toward the center of this space again, and a line of six globes of light, colored from bottom to top as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo, descended from the larger swirling light above. They seemed to rock violently as though upset to be away from the greater light above, and some seemed to flicker as though trying to hold onto their light. Despite their protests though, the six lights began spacing themselves out equally below the larger greater light.

    As though sensing what had happened, the light above began to converge on the six vertically aligned spheres of light, and a single column of light and energy pierced all of them. As soon as this light pierced them, they all seemed to calm down. Those that were flickering unsteadily immediately stabilized and burned with a steady glow. Despite this, I couldn¡¯t help but have an underlying sense of unease at what I was seeing.

    ¡°One is missing!¡± My younger self says in alarm.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s there.¡± Gaerien says. ¡°You said the basis of your meditation was on drawing energy from heaven. The Sahasrara, the topmost of the seven chakaras, is also called the heaven¡¯s chakara. It seems yours is having some problems.¡±

    ¡°Hah! Well, at least we know the source of the problem now. Perhaps we can start trying to fix it.¡± My old man projection says.

    ¡°Well, yes, we can start going the correct direction.¡± Gaerien says, looking from one of us to the other. ¡°This might very well be a lot more difficult than I thought at first though.¡± She then looks intently toward my old man self. ¡°The source of the problem, I think a lot of it has to do with you. Your mental image of your self from your previous life.¡±

 Chapter 33: Organizing

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    ¡°It is really quite simple,¡± Gaerien continues after declaring my manifestation of the old man as the source of the problem, ¡°Of the seven primary chakaras, the Sahasrara differs the most in terms of whether it is masculine or feminine energy being passed through a person¡¯s system. In case you were not aware, they are actually very different.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ that makes sense.¡± I say as my old man self.

    ¡°Wait! So, what are we supposed to do!? I don¡¯t want the old man to go away!¡± My younger self protests.

    ¡°Oh no. Well, that WOULD probably solve the problem, but getting rid of him would be a very bad thing in the long run, so we really shouldn¡¯t do that.¡± Gaerien responds to my younger self, giving me a light pat on the head. I begin to feel a little better after hearing that. The distress my younger self was feeling had even reverberated across our subconscious link and was getting my older self anxious at the idea. My older self hadn¡¯t even entertained such thoughts, but thus is the nature of our existence now. It was no wonder it would disrupt our heaven¡¯s chakara to this extent.

    Actually, now that I looked at this entire space that was in disarray, it was clear this torn up and desolate looking place was the result of some kind of major imbalance. From what I had heard about the chakara, it was incredibly similar to spinal alignment in chyropracty. If just one part was a little out of alignment, it caused problems through the entire system. Surely the imbalance created in one of the major chakara by having my masculine and feminine minds competing with each other would be the spiritual equivalent of having spina-bifida, the spine being so bad that the cord actually protrudes out from the vertebrae.

    I had thought the two of us were getting along and sharing this space rather well, but it seems even us being fairly accepting of each other was not enough to settle this issue.

    ¡°Well then, I will repeat the question. How do we solve this problem?¡± My previous life self asks the same question as my younger self had previously. However, from my perspective, there is little difference in whether she or he is the one to say it. Surely the mere fact that I think of myself as both of them at the same time has got to have a lot to do with why things are so messed up in here.

    ¡°Well, there are two good solutions to this. First, you have to decide whether you want to be male or female in the long term.¡± Gaerien says, looking toward my older self again. ¡°Whichever you decide will determine what path we take from here.¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t exactly mind the idea of being female¡± I say. ¡°I mean, I already am anyway, right?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ well, that¡¯s the easier of the two possible solutions then.¡± Gaerien says. ¡°You said before that adaptability is a large part of your cultivations¡¯ principles. You already seem pretty at peace with the idea too. All you have to do is reform your current image of your old world self into a woman. Once you do that, things ought to start settling down in here.¡±

    ¡°But wait! What if he wants to be a boy!?¡± My younger self asks. ¡°I like him being like my grandpa!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a far harder method.¡± Gaerien tells me. ¡°You would have to separate your chakaras and make an entire second chakara system. Right now, you are two minds that are not even fully separate from each other, and you are even sharing the same spirit body. If you each have your own chakara system, you will also each have your own Sahasrara, each conforming to either masculine or feminine energy independently.¡±

    ¡°Let me ask you this.¡± I asked as the old man. ¡°Which one do you think is the better solution? If you were in my position, which one would you choose?¡±

    ¡°Oh, the second option, definitely!¡± Gaerien replies. ¡°Actually, I would have gone over it anyway even if she hadn¡¯t brought it up, this is definitely the far better solution in the long run. I do not know how your cultivation works, there is a lot that¡¯s unorthodox about it, but in most cases having both masculine and feminine energy is a major bonus to your cultivation.¡±

    ¡°Well, I have no real preference, but the kid seems to prefer I remain as I am so I suppose we will go with this true dual spirit thing of yours.¡± My old man self says. ¡°Well then, shall we get started?¡±

    My younger self gives a nod and this time we leave Gaerien behind on the floating island as we begin to hover into the air. In the short time I have spent between Gaerien¡¯s and my own inner worlds, I have come to learn the rules a little bit. It seems that here almost any thought with intent behind it will transfer into action by our spirit projections. When applied to movement, this means that we can fly or even instantly teleport to any location within this space. As such, in the space of a single heartbeat, the both of us had vanished from beside Gaerien on that island and were now hovering on either side of the representations of our chakara.

    This close, the intense light from the overly enlarged heaven¡¯s chakara actually seemed to rock the space itself. I could see now what Gaerien had meant by the problems created by my masculine energies and my feminine energies being together in the same chakara. This would really explain why my energies were all over the place. It was like a dirty filter on a water faucet. Every imperfection in it would cause the water stream to spray off a small stream of water in a different direction. If I used that analogy and supposed that this energy was normally supposed to be a single beam going straight down, that would mean my heaven¡¯s chakara is a complete and total mess.

    If that happens to be the case, the fact that it¡¯s so incredibly enlarged compared to the others, could this be something like a case of cardiomegaly, the enlargement of the heart? Being larger does not always mean better, especially in cases of things having to do with the body. Why wouldn¡¯t the same apply to the spirit? In the case of cardiomegaly, the reason behind the heart growing larger is because something is causing it to pump inefficiently, either because high blood pressure is making it more difficult to pump blood through the body or because some heart disease has caused parts of the heart to die and thus more heart tissue had to be formed in order to make up for it.

    If I suppose the same principles apply here, and reason that the incredible size of my heaven¡¯s chakara is in fact a sign of weakness and not strength¡­ actually, I already know it¡¯s weak. There is no question about that. But, if its large size is yet another sign of that weakness, then this is all the more reason why this issue needs to be solved. If the heart analogy really applied here, I would be long since dead to have a heart that disproportionately large compared to what it should be using the much smaller other six as a guide. I suppose the fact I haven¡¯t felt any strong detrimental effects of this might have to do with the spirit body being somewhat more adaptable than the physical body.

    My younger self gave a bit of a worried look at the thoughts coming down through the subconscious channel between us. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we just have to solve this.¡± I told her. ¡°Ok, I want you to just focus on maintaining your chakara body. I will take the copies and form the new body for myself.¡± I sent all the knowledge I had about chakaras to her. I had studied some acupuncture, so it was well above what most people would know about them.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    After I sent the information, the manifestations of the lesser chakaras began to form over a ghostly image of an enlarged female child body. My younger self began to drag the entire manifested chakara structure, including the large source of energy and light above us, away from the center of this space. At the same time, I tried to separate my mind from it. I attempted with everything I had to no longer regard that chakara structure to be a representation of anything to do with me. Those were the chakara of my child self, not my adult self.

    I was a different person, not the child. I realized now that the reason things probably got so messed up in here had entirely to do with the fact that I was integrating myself more and more into my new child body. This is what caused our masculine and feminine energies to begin clashing. I would have to be a separate person, something of a parent figure or advisor to my child self. Having firmly established this new role for myself in my mind, I began to manifest a new set of seven chakara.

    They formed one by one, red first at the bottom, the root chakara. Above that, around where the naval would be in the body, orange for the sacral chakara. At the solar plexus was the most important chakara, the dantian as it is called in the Chinese, which basically served the same role as the heart for the chakara system. This one was represented by yellow. If any chakara has business being larger than the others it should be this one, although it is definitely preferred that they all be about the same.

    After this comes the heart chakara in green, the throat chakara in blue, the ¡°third eye¡± chakara indigo, and finally a violet heaven¡¯s chakara located a short distance above where the head was. As soon as I manifested this last chakara, a ghostly male image appeared over them facing me. I nodded in satisfaction at the accomplishment. However, there is one more thing I have to do in order to make this thing complete.

    Now that I have a manifestation of the body surrounding the chakara, I can focus on two more highly important chakara for the sake of my meditation. I look down to the soles of the feet, and just behind the ball of each foot between the muscular bulges and joints of the large toe and pinky toe, I manifested the sole chakaras. These were the chakaras that allowed your spiritual energy to escape the body and leave into the ground beneath you. As soon as I manifested these, I formed the image of the heaven¡¯s energy flowing through my body and leaving through those chakara at the soles of the feat.

    The violet heaven¡¯s chakara above my male manifestation¡¯s head began to change color, glowing the same brilliant white as the one above the manifestation of my younger self. A ray of light went straight down, piercing three of the chakara between it and the dantien, the equivalent to the chakara system¡¯s heart located at the solar plexus. From there, the energy split in two, and then went down to the soles of the feet. A dark mist began to form around those feet, and then the entire masculine manifestation started to grow until the heaven¡¯s chakara was at the top of this space and the feet were at the bottom. It now looked like a towering giant.

    As this was happening, the massive light over my younger self¡¯s head began to shrink. At the same time, the disordered energies that spread out everywhere seemed that they were trying to converge to all flow in one direction, but they seemed to be experiencing some degree of difficulty.

    I looked between the two manifestations. The masculine manifestation was still far from complete. It only had the seven main chakara and two of the minor chakara. It was really only the bare minimum in order to create the heaven¡¯s energy meditation. I knew this would be the bare minimum I would need to hit in order to really begin the process of splitting my masculine and feminine energies in order to allow my true body to start sorting itself out. The new masculine energy body was not enough to be considered complete, it was only enough to serve as a host for the problematic masculine energies that had been giving me problems.

    Meanwhile, my true body held by my child self was nowhere near recovered. Removing the masculine energies from it had not allowed it to instantly recover or anything miraculous like that. It only removed the source of the problem, but the damage was still present. It would take some time for it to recover completely.

    I felt truly exhausted after messing around with my chakaras, what could be considered the equivalent of the vital organs of the spirit body. My mental projections returned to the island, and my older self found my younger self clinging to him with sleepy looking eyes. He took a seat on the grassy hill, and then she immediately curled up in his lap.

    ¡°Well, you managed to go a LOT farther with that in one go than I thought you could.¡± Gaerien praised me, looking admiringly at the changed vision of the center of my spiritual landscape. A large ghostly image man stood tall and proud with an expressionless face looking off to the left. Behind his back, a small ghostly female form had curled into a fetal position facing away from him and looking toward the right. A large sun-like light still shone over the female form¡¯s head.

    Below them, the swirling vortex of the void seemed to be trying to coalesce around the man¡¯s feet, but it still covered everything in the lower half of this space. However, it seemed to be far less chaotic in its behavior now.

    ¡°Well, what WERE you expecting?¡± My older self asked Gaerien, my younger self quite content to sit and cuddle in his lap.

    ¡°The seven primary chakara are easy enough to form in one go, I kinda expected you to stop there though. But, you went ahead and attuned the Shahasrara and the Manipura to their proper functions, and also manifested the sole chakara on top of that.¡±

    ¡°Well, I take it Manipura is the sanskrit name for the third chakara at the solar plexus, correct?¡± I asked her, again as my older self. ¡°Anyway, the sole chakara are an incredibly important part of my meditation since I have to expel the energy from my body in order for it to function correctly. That¡¯s why I manifested them. I figured if I could get it functioning in the masculine body at least then it would solidify the masculine version of the heaven¡¯s chakara and take the burden off of my real body. As for the err¡­ Manipura, I was familiar with it somewhat from some study of qi-gong I did before I discovered my current art. So, I naturally was familiar enough with it that I just naturally gave it its proper function.¡±

    ¡°So, getting all the important things out of the way all at once? That¡¯s crazy ambitious, but I think I can respect that.¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± I say, ¡°I have never been the type to be held back by fear or hesitation. I say get it all done when you can. That¡¯s also why I¡¯ve been driving so hard to be able to walk and talk at such an early age. I really see no point in sitting around when I could be doing something to make myself better.¡±

    ¡°Hah! Well, at the rate you¡¯re going, I¡¯m guessing you will be able to get the entire second chakara system set up within a week.¡± Gaerien says with a smug grin as though she¡¯s challenging me to do exactly that.

    ¡°That¡¯s not unreasonable.¡± I tell her. ¡°It all depends on how much time I want to spend in this imaginary world I suppose.¡±

    ¡°Oh, about that,¡± Gaerien says, ¡°with multiple manifestations like this, it ought to be possible for you to have the two act independent of each other. So, while one acts inside this space, the other can control the real body out there. How about you just give your real body over to the kid entirely for a while and focus in here? I¡¯m sure you can make all kinds of progress like that.¡±

    -

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    Since the incidents of earlier in the day, after the queens message and the sight of her carrying the great tree and the entire royal capital attached to it, there was a general tone of unrest in the village. Eirlathion knew that sooner or later the elder would be calling on him for his assistance in determining how they should respond to this matter. As such, he had decided to act first, asking T¨²eth to mind the children while he was gone. She seemed hesitant on the issue, but the emergency nature of the situation left her with no grounds on which to protest.

    Just about the entire village had gathered in the central clearing, the meeting area of the village, what would be called the ¡°town square¡± in a human settlement. Several of the faces seemed anxious, there was some fear as well, but in many of the faces there also seemed to be a certain burning passion. It was already well known that the tainted ones were a brutal and vicious folk, but this village had come to know it better than most having taken in a survivor of a neighboring village that had been annihilated.

    It was not only T¨²eth that gave them a connection to that village either. Several of the people here had friends or family that had lived in that village. There was nothing they could have done at the time, but now that the tainted ones had appeared again they were ready and eager to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. Several of these individuals had even carried their bows and blades on them to the clearing, plainly eager for the fight.

    There were likely to be several of these individuals who would gladly respond to the call to arms and travel to the scar of heaven as the queen had requested. However, that was not the topic up for discussion, and with the elder¡¯s persuasion they had all been convinced to stay in the village. The reason for this was, they were one of the closest surviving villages to the scar of heaven. In fact, the very closest on the western side. As such, this village could serve another highly vital function for the sake of the war that was about to begin.

    ¡°So,¡± the elder said, standing out and facing the crowd with Eirlathion at his back. ¡°for the sake of those who will be arriving here in the coming days, we will need to vacate as much space as we can. Master Eirlathion can accelerate the growth of a freshly planted Lakira tree only so much. Families will have to move in together to occupy the same house in order to vacate space for our new arrivals.¡±

    That¡¯s right. One of two things could happen with this place. It could easily turn into a refugee camp for civilians. However, the far more likely scenario is that this place would soon become a defensive encampment protecting against enemy forces that tried to approach the scar of heaven. It was for this purpose that they were making their preparations.

    ¡®GOOD, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE ALREADY ORGANIZING.¡¯

    The booming voice that echoed in everyone¡¯s minds seemed to have come from the northern sky. Everyone looked up to see where it had come from, and what they saw was a scaled serpentine body held aloft by a pair of dull white feathered wings like those of a large bird. It was around 12 feet in length, with a wingspan almost that same length across from one wing-tip to the other, and scales that were a deep crimson red. It flew in a large lazy circle around the clearing before it fluttered its wings and hovered for a moment near Eirlathion and the elder, just on the other side of them from the crowd, before gravity suddenly seemed to have decided to ignore it and allow it to simply suspend itself at its current location in the air.

    ¡®MY NAME IS EVERON. BY ORDER OF HER MAJESTY, I AM TO TAKE CONTROL OF THIS VILLAGE AND SEE TO IT THAT IT IS READY TO SERVE AS A DEFENSIVE ENCAMPMENT SHOULD THE ENEMY APPROACH FROM THIS DIRECTION. IT IS VERY GOOD THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY BEGUN TO TAKE STEPS TOWARD THIS EXACT PURPOSE.¡¯

 Chapter 34: New arrangements decided

    Eirlathion''s POV

    A fey dragon, the most powerful of all the fey races. They were also often called faerie dragons. It seemed that they were born by a process extremely similar to that of faeries, except that instead of the souls of humans, it was the souls of dragons from which this powerful race was born.

    This most noble race among the fey normally lived almost exclusively within the capital, several holding positions of power within the royal court. As such, when a member of this powerful race had descended upon their village, there was no need to question as to whether or not his claim of serving the queen was true.

    Soon after the fey dragon Everon had introduced himself and his purpose, the elder began explaining their preparations. Everon had agreed to most of the elder¡¯s ideas, however, he seemed to object to the idea of Eirlathion speeding the growth of new lakira trees.

    ¡°THIS IS NOT A DRYAD ARBOR, WE DO NOT HAVE THE LUXURY TO WASTE THE TALENTS OF A MAGE ON WHAT CAN BE JUST AS EASILY ACCOMPLISHED BY TEN OR SO NORMAL ELVES. LEAVE THAT TASK TO THE NON-COMBATANTS. HIS TIME WILL BE FAR BETTER SPENT SEEING TO THE FORTIFICATIONS AROUND THE VILLAGE.¡±

    And so it was decided. There was no argument to be had with the decree of a being as powerful as a fey dragon, especially one claiming to act in the name of the queen. His argument also made perfect sense. If the enemy was already moving and they had no idea when an attack may come, they would have to prepare as quickly as possible and could not waste time. A dryad would have the power to move every tree and plant within their territory, but because the nymph in this village were all a farcry from having the power necessary to break through and begin the metamorphosis into dryads it meant it would fall to Eirlathion and the few he had trained to a rudimentary level of magic to fortify the village.

    Actually, it was really only Eirlathion who had the power to move the vines and trees to the extent that was going to be necessary. There had been no one in all the time Eirlathion had spent here with the talent, potential, and drive to gain any level of true mastery of magic. Every one of them had stopped as soon as they went through the little bit of difficulty in cultivating their spirit, acutally advancing it enough to where it can support a 3rd tier spell.

    T¨²eth shows some promise as an apprentice, she definitely has the mind for it, however she also has the unusual advantage of a spirit that is already advanced beyond that of a typical elf. Eventually she too will hit a wall. Eirlathion did not know where that wall would be for her, but her growing used to her easy progress at these lower levels will only harm her ability to progress once she gets to that point. In this way, humans are almost lucky to be born without a spirit that can support even a single apprentice level spell. Having to work for every inch of improvement they can get may even be part of why they tend to advance so much farther on the path of magecraft than other races.

    At any rate, his former disciples in this village were nothing special in their spellcasting abilities. Maybe if they worked together it would take them twice the amount of time to form a single wall of vines as it would for him. Alone though, they would not be much help in terms of what needed to be done and his newest apprentice T¨²eth had not even learned the most basic of spells yet.

    ¡°THAT WILL BE OUR DIVISION OF LABOR. ALL MAGES IN THE VILLAGE SHALL ACT UNDER THE MASTER MAGUS, THE ELDER SHALL HAVE TO APPOINT A NEW REPRESENTATIVE TO COORDINATE THE NON-MAGES. YOU DO STILL PRACTICE TRAINING YOUR ELDERS IN MAGECRAFT, CORRECT?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes.¡± Elder Calenor responded.

    ¡°THAT IS GOOD. ALSO, PLEASE ORDER ALL OF YOUR NYMPH TO STOP ENSPIRITING THEIR NUTS. THE MESSAGE WILL HAVE BEEN SPREAD TO THE CARRIVANS APPROACHING HERE THAT THEY SHOULD BRING THEIR OWN LAKIRA NUTS. I SHALL BE MAKING USE OF ANY FREE ROAMING SPIRITS IN THE AREA TO ENSPIRIT SOME OF THE LOCAL CONIFERS IN ORDER TO TURN THEM INTO ENTS.¡±

    Enspiriting lower energy trees!? Forcibly creating ents!? Eirlathion had heard that fey dragons were powerful, but such an application of the green word was simply beyond anything he could have ever possibly hoped or imagined!

    ¡°THAT IS ALL. DIVISIONS OF WARRIORS AND CIVILIAN CARAVANS FROM NEARBY VILLAGES WILL BE COMING HERE. HER MAJESTY¡¯S DECREE IS ALSO AN ORDER TO EVERY FEY CREATURE OF THE FOREST TO GATHER INTO ONE LIVING SPACE. THE CIVILIANS OF THIS VILLAGE MAY STAY FOR THE TIME BEING, BUT ONCE THE CAPITAL IS NEWLY ESTABLISHED AND THE... DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH, THIS LOCATION WILL STRICTLY BECOME A FORWARD MILITARY BASE PROTECTING THE NEW LARGER CAPITAL WHICH ALL CIVILIANS WILL BE EXPECTED TO RELOCATE TO.¡±

    Eirlathion¡¯s eyes narrowed at such a blatant decree, while Elder Calanor seemed to be startled and rather unhappy. The two of them had managed to keep in their emotions for the most part though. A mostly quiet murmur was currently spreading through the entire gathered crowd.

    ¡°Wh... what are you saying!?¡± A voice erupted from somewhere in the gathered crowd of people, someone who¡¯s outrage at being ordered to leave their home had obviously overcome the fear and respect for the highest and most powerful ranked race among the fey.

    ¡°PLEASE BEGIN ACTING IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT HAS BEEN DECREED HERE. CIVILIAN FAMILIES ARE TO MOVE IN THREE TO A HOUSE IN ORDER TO MAKE ROOM FOR NEW ARRIVALS. MEANWHILE, PLEASE ALSO BE MAKING PREPARATIONS TO EVACUATE ALONG WITH THE CARAVANS WHEN THEY ARRIVE. ALL MAGES AND COMBATANTS, IN THE MEANTIME, BEGIN ACTING TO TRANSFORM THIS LOCATION INTO A MILITARY OUTPOST!¡±

    With these words, Everon let out a loud roar and beat down his wings hard enough that the entire crowd was buffeted with the wind that was kicked up. Eirlathion moved to step in front of the elder. His apprentice had grown rather feeble due to his age, having not advanced anywhere near as far as he had in his path of magecraft. With a few more wing beats, the queen¡¯s suddenly appointed commander of this village had taken off toward the outskirts of the village, likely to begin making good on the task of enspiriting trees he had mentioned.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Eirlathion let out a sigh as soon as the fey dragon Everon was out of sight. ¡°I suppose I had best inform T¨²eth she will have to be watching the girls on a more regular basis now.¡± He said, more to himself than anyone else. ¡°I will have her live with me from now on,¡± he added to Calanor, who had now been effectively ordered to step down from his position as elder. ¡°Can I ask you to deal with your business and then meet me with Ceren and Jedon later?¡±

    ¡°Of course, master.¡± Calanor responded in a sympathetic tone.

    ¡°Take your time in talking to them. This sudden change will be very upsetting to a lot of people. No matter what the queen¡¯s envoy says, you are still the leader in all of their hearts, and they will need your strength in order to prevent any kind of civil unrest from developing after all that has been said by the dragons today.¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course master.¡± The elderly man says with a bow of his head and a worried crease to his eyebrows. It was extremely slight, but Eirlathion¡¯s words just now could be seen as rude to the monarchy. His concern was understandable, but Eirlathion did not think it would attract any problems. This Everon, while he did not seem to be very sympathetic to the distress his words caused to the people, he did seem to be a wise enough leader not to make a big deal over some small slight. He had simply ignored the outburst from the crowd earlier after all.

    ¡°We will meet next to your house, old friend.¡± Eirlathion gave Calanor a gentle pat on the shoulder. Calanor may be 300 years younger than Eirlathion, and his apprentice, but he was also a friend and the oldest living associate Eirlathion had aside from his master. He had known the man since he was born here in this village, and so to him Calanor was Eirlathion¡¯s oldest and most treasured friend.

    The old man, still the elder of this village until he finished re-arranging the leadership of the village and divided it between the military and civilian populations, silently turned to face the distressed and uncertain faces of the gathered members of the village. Meanwhile, Eirlathion turned to begin his trip back home.

    -

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    T¨²eth stared uncomfortably at the two human children. They, in turn, seemed to have very perplexed expressions on their faces for her as well. It was a look that said they really did not know what to make of her being in this room for so long. She did not know what had possessed her to come in here herself.

    The master had asked her to watch the children while he was gone to discuss the queen¡¯s message with the elder and the rest of the villagers. When she heard that, an icy feeling of dread had taken over her. She felt she had to be here, just in case something awful happened. That way, she could... the master had said for her to watch the children, if something DID happen then she could be close.

    ¡°No...¡± she muttered under her breath. What was she afraid was going to happen? It was the middle of the day right now, she knew nothing was probably going to happen right now. However, no matter how much she tried to tell herself her fears were unjustified, something inside her just refused to believe it.

    She stepped closer to the two girls sleeping on the bed. The humans stood nearby as well, almost like guards trying to ward her off. As soon as she had entered the room she was told rather forcefully by one of them to not wake them up, and they had been casting concerned glances between her and the girls ever since.

    The longer T¨²eth was subjected to the concerned looks of these human children, the more it shook her spirit. The concern on their faces almost seemed to look like an accusation. It was like they knew better than even the master or any other person in this village the true extent of T¨²eth¡¯s sin. These humans who were standing guard over the girls, trying to prevent the hateful mother who had wished death upon her own children from dirtying them with her filthy hands!

    She looked up to the sleeping identical looking infants on the bed. It was so strange how they slept hand-in-hand like that, both so serenely flat on their backs. That was not how she knew any other infant in the world to sleep. Could it have something to do with the fact that they are twins? Twins were not a phenomenon ever seen among elves before, but she had heard something about how human twins shared a particularly strong connection that went beyond a normal sibling relationship.

    ¡°T¨²eth?¡± She heard her master¡¯s voice coming from downstairs, and with just that one sound of his voice calling her name she felt the tension seem to vanish from her body. She had not even realized how worried she was about everything until the moment she had heard his voice. She immediately turned to run down the stairs.

    ¡°Master!¡± She let out a breath and even almost felt weak in the knees at seeing him return safely as she whispered in her own mind to the part of herself that was worried that it was ok now, attempting to use those words to pump strength back into her limbs.

    She saw the master¡¯s eyes flick a knowing look up the stairs and he gave her a satisfied looking smile. She could tell what was probably on his mind. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but felt this was not the time for that. Besides, what would it say about her to deny such a thing? She could feel her heart starting to tighten again, but she would gladly take this difficulty over the dread she hadn¡¯t even realized the depth of until just seconds ago when he had arrived back home.

    ¡°An envoy of the queen arrived.¡± Her master said, giving her an intense look. ¡°He will be taking over the leadership of the village, and there will be some hunters and soldiers from other villages arriving here soon... We... we are going to have to move in multiple families together in order to make room for them. It has already been decided that you will be staying here from now on.¡±

    ¡°What!?¡± She responded, breathless and stunned. Just like that, she had been told that her house was no longer hers. Well, it had been given to her by the good graces of the people in this village who had accepted her anyway, so she really had no right to complain. This did not change the way she felt about this though. It was like a large part of the security and stability in her life had just been pulled out from under her. In fact, it literally felt as though she was falling as the sense of loss overtook her.

    ¡°I will also be very busy for a while.¡± He added. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to spring this on you all of a sudden. I will be getting a few supplies from my lab and then I have to set straight back out. I will help you to figure out where you will be sleeping after I get back.¡±

    T¨²eth¡¯s mind refused to work. She stood on the spot, stunned. As the master walked past, he gently placed a hand on her shoulder. ¡°It will be alright.¡± He said in a gentle voice before turning and walking up the stairs at a gentle pace.

    T¨²eth continued to stand there. It did not take the master long to get his things in order, but it was long enough to cause him to have a concerned look on his face when he got back down and saw that she had not moved. He matched eyes with her with a troubled expression. ¡°I will be out a while this time.¡± He finally said, ¡°I am going to be having a meeting in order to plan how to remodel the defenses of the village. I will likely be quite tired when I get back... I should return before nightfall.¡±

    She felt her heart lurch when he mentioned returning before nightfall. He had put a strange emphasis on that phrase, and she knew he had included it just for her to hear. As usual, it was as though her master could see straight through her and know what was weighing on her heart. She looked up and stared intently into his eyes and saw a weak almost apologetic smile on his face as he turned away from her and left out the door that had opened for him as he approached.

    So, that was it then... everyone in the village now was out making their preparations for war. A war against... THEM... T¨²eth stood there for several more minutes. She heard screams. She ran the image of her master walking out the door just now, over and over again as the phantom screams kept playing in her head. She looked at the space on the wall where the door was before. She had a phantom image in her memory of the light that had come through the door, and the form of her master¡¯s body silhouetted against that light.

    She couldn¡¯t stop shaking. Her master walking out the door had woken something up. An unspeakable dread. She clutched her arms around her body and began to breath harder and harder, but then there was something else that came over her as she felt her entire chest give a spasm. Upon feeling this, she turned and placed her hand on the back wall and desperately fed her mana into the wood.

    ¡°Nymph! Open the back wall! Quick!¡± She said in a voice that was weak, but the urgency of her tone was impossible to miss. The wall in the place T¨²eth was touching opened up, creating a back door to the house in a place different from where it usually was. She ran quickly from the house and then bent over one of the mighty roots running into the ground.

    T¨²eth doubled over in her posture, and then promptly began to vomit up the non-existent contents of her stomach. She had just about stopped eating since being exposed to the high levels of spirit energy let off by the human children the master kept for the girls, but despite that her stomach still found a way to heave up the bile, mucus, and acids from her stomach even without solid food attached to it. In this moment, she was glad just that the majority of the villagers had gone to the central clearing and were not wandering about where they could see her as she continued to vomit up what sparse liquids her stomach could force up until she was left with nothing but dry heaves.

 Chapter 35: No longer together

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    Gaerien taught me how to split me and the old man apart so that we could each focus on different things. I was forced to wonder how it was that she knew how to do that, but she said that she had just heard about it over her years of cultivation and being a fallen goddess.

    I really didn¡¯t like this idea at first, I was actually pretty scared to not have my previous life mind there all the time to tell me about everything. However, he seemed to really like the idea. He said it would be good for me. It would allow me to start to develop myself outside of being more like him. Besides that, I should still be able to know all the same things he knows because of our subconscious link.

    I still didn¡¯t like it, but with Gaerien¡¯s help I managed to wake up from my meditation as only me, without the old man. As soon as I was awake, Levin and Rolwen came rushing over to me and Gaerien. She was waking up too, since she was also done with her meditation stuff.

    (Hey!) Levin said. (Your mommy was here earlier! She seems to keep coming up when you two are doing your meditation stuff. Sorry, we told her not to wake you up because you said it was important.)

    What!? Mommy was here!?

    (Alright, thank you.) Gaerien said, clearly not upset in the slightest at the missed opportunity. I could feel my heart sink a little at her words. The old man didn¡¯t want for us to go downstairs while she was here, he said it was because she wasn¡¯t ready and she might not like us if we went to her. We had to wait for her to come up to us. And, it sounds like we just missed her and it feels like I¡¯m the only person who even cares!

    (Also,) Levin continues, (Ether guy came back and he talked to your mommy. He said that he was going to be out of the house a lot more, but he also said your mommy would be living here now!)

    What!? Ok, now THAT is really good news. Where will she be sleeping then? I hope it¡¯s not upstairs with Ether guy. Maybe if she has a bed down here in our room she would HAVE to see us more! But then, that would make it a lot harder to do our training. That was important too. I¡¯m pretty sure the old man would not like her being in this room. No, maybe he would think it¡¯s a good thing? I don¡¯t know!

    As I am wondering about these things, I hear the sound of wood groaning, the sound I have learned to associate with the side of the tree opening up. However, something sounds different about it this time, it almost sounds like it¡¯s louder and closer. I could only worry about the difference in sound for so long though, because a little while after that I hear a person groaning, and it¡¯s mommy¡¯s voice.

    I begin eagerly tugging on Levin¡¯s sleeve as I slide myself down off the bed. Normally, I slide off by turning over on my stomach and sliding down backward, but this time I slide off of it forward, and I jump onto Levin to help support myself.

    ¡°Woah!¡± He lets out a scream. He may be bigger than me, but he¡¯s only 2 years old himself and he is not able to stay on his feet when he suddenly has a baby drop on top of him, so we both wind up tumbling to the ground.

    (Aerien! What are you doing!?)

    Gaerien laughs at us as she crawls over to the side of the bed herself. (Sorry, I probably should have warned you guys earlier.) She says. (You remember how Aerien asked before about if any of us felt like our current selves were different from our past selves, like we had two separate minds, well that was because she actually had managed to do something pretty tricky among cultivators completely on accident. She split her spirit, she actually DOES have two minds. I just taught them how to act independently from each other, so right now it¡¯s only the younger Aerien who¡¯s in control here.)

    (Wait! Are you saying Aerien¡¯s just a real baby now!?) Rolwen asks in shock, looking between me and Gaerien as I carefully get off of Levin so that he can get back up.

    (I¡¯m not just a baby!) I bark back at him. This just makes him look more confused.

    (Well, yes, she¡¯s right about that. Her mental form looks like a child a little bit older than the two of you. I think her previous life mind helped her form that image because that¡¯s where her maturity level struck him as being.) Gaerien explained to them. Somehow, that made me even more upset with her. Maybe the old man thought I was like a 4 year old, but I was DEFINITELY smarter than a 4 year old!

    (I¡¯m not that either!) I yell. (I know everything the old man does!)

    (Well, she definitely is acting different.) Levin says, having sat up and gotten himself situated with his back to the side of the bed.

    (Yeah.) Rolwen agrees.

    (You¡¯re all mean!) I yell at them with tears starting to form in my eyes. (I wanna see mommy!) I sit stationary on the floor with my feet straight out in front of me as my eyes really start to tear up. I can feel I¡¯m getting really close to crying. The old man normally gives up way too easily because he doesn¡¯t feel embarrassed about letting himself cry when he looks like a baby, he just gives it up as being normal for a baby to have a hard time not crying, but I really really don¡¯t want to cry in front of them like this! They all think I¡¯m a baby already, so I can¡¯t prove it by crying in front of them.

    ¡°Ummm¡­¡± Levin and Rolwen look at each other, after which Levin reaches a nervous hand over and starts rubbing my back. I pull away from him with my shoulder and turn my back on him.

    (Oh geese, this is weird!) Rolwen comments. Meanwhile, I can hear Levin getting up and clunking with heavy toddling footsteps across the room. His walking is rough, but that¡¯s mostly because he has the body of a 2 year old. If you take that into consideration and compare him to other 2 year olds, the fact that he¡¯s able to walk straight toward his goal at a reasonably good pace puts him in the top of what is normal for a 2 year old to be able to do already.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    I can see him out the corner of my eye. He went to the top of the stairs. Noticing what he was doing, I sniffled a little and began to curiously look after him to see what he was doing. After a quick look down the stairs, he came back over towards us with a strange expression on his face. (Hey, I think your mommy is crying.) He says.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I respond, and then pull myself up with the side of the bed as my hand-hold. He takes my hand, and the two of us start walking far more slowly than he just did on his own as I am heavily reliant on his support in order to stay upright.

    Rolwen runs ahead of us and looks on his own. He quickly makes room though once me and Levin arrive. When we get there, I can see mommy sitting down on the floor with her back up against the wall and holding her knees to her chest. Rather than crying though, it looks more like she¡¯s scared.

    I stare down for a little while. She does not seem to be aware of us. She seems to be breathing harder than she should be just sitting down. I can smell something faint in the air, some what acidic, and.. and mixed in with a gentler but somehow also more repugnant version of the smell of bodily waste. I have not been exposed to that smell before, but from the old man¡¯s memories I can tell what that is. He has smelled it plenty of times between his job and his family. It was the smell of concentrated bile absent the diluting sharper smells of bilirubin and fecal bacteria. In other words, bile that had not passed through the large intestine, but the esophagus instead.

    The smell makes me hesitate for a little bit, but I know it means my mommy is suffering. So, I let go of Levin¡¯s hand and begin going down the stairs. This time, I make sure to go backwards because I don¡¯t want to make the same mistake as with Levin before, especially because I will probably die if I fall down the stairs.

    I try to go down without mommy noticing me, even though she¡¯s right there at the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly, I feel something, and it¡¯s very similar to a feeling I¡¯ve had before while going down these stairs. A moment later, I can feel the old man again. I can sense that he¡¯s very curious about what I¡¯m doing right now.

    This is not a good time for a Eureka moment, but what we¡¯ve just figured out is definitely helpful. Now I can remember where I¡¯ve felt this feeling before. It¡¯s the feeling of being watched. I felt it on these stairs before, and that was also when I was trying to be sneaky. I didn¡¯t think much of it at the time, but now it has occurred to me that I am not supposed to be able to feel that. The sense of being watched is another reaction to spirit energy, and the problem I was having with that ¡°smart nut¡± thing before that is used to train magic was that I couldn¡¯t feel its spirit energy.

    When the old man just connected with me again, our minds synced in order for him to know what I was just doing. At the same time, I was able to know why it was that he suddenly wanted to connect with me. It seems the void power inside my spirit had just grown in power immensely while I was trying to be sneaky and not wanting mommy to notice me. It was strong enough that it ate up the majority of the stray beams of light coming from my meditation.

    It made sense. It was that falmarin thing I felt watching me. She was probably always watching me, but I could only feel it when I was trying to be sneaky. Well, now is not the time to dwell on this. Now that the old man was with me again, I felt his approval of going down to my mommy. In fact, he even felt like he should be in control just in case mommy didn¡¯t like seeing me and reacted badly.

    That thought was scary, and I felt scared without the old man anyway, so that sounded like a good idea. I looked up to Levin and Rolwen who seemed to be giving me some strange looks. Levin was stepping forward to come along with me, but I held up my hand and gently shook my head. This would be best if it was just me.

    I decided to put my new theory to the test at the same time as I was approaching my mother more closely. It felt like a very insensitive thing to do, but this was a circumstance where I felt it would be best to avoid being noticed after all, at least not too soon, and if I was going to be doing it anyway I might as well pay attention to whether or not that feeling of being watched by the falmarin, nymph or dryad or whatever falmarin means, comes back again. Sure enough, I could feel it all over. Well, there¡¯s that question answered.

    About the time I was on the last few steps, I heard a light gasp. I did not feel a second gaze on me, but that definitely sounded like I had been noticed. I turned back to look, and sure enough, my mother¡¯s eyes were looking straight at me like she was seeing a spider.

    She did not seem to be making any quick motions to move, so I went back to descending the last couple steps and then held myself up against the wall. ¡°[You Ok] ata?¡± I couldn¡¯t quite pronounce the Elven word for mother, but ¡®ata¡¯ was probably close enough from a baby¡¯s mouth that she would know what I meant.

    [ummm¡­] my mother stared at me for a while. I could see dozens of thoughts running through her mind by the disrupted and slightly panicked look on her face, but eventually the words [no, I¡¯m fine!] come out of her mouth. It¡¯s plainly obvious she¡¯s not fine, but I¡¯m not conversational enough in Elven to stress the point and even if I was I don¡¯t think I¡¯m in much of a position in any sense to have the back and forth that would need to happen with her.

    She eventually manages to pull herself to her feet. I can still see some faint traces of clear vomit on the back of her wrist which she probably used to wipe it off from her chin or something. She reaches out and grabs me under my arms, wrapping one hand each around either side of me as she picks me up like an unpleasant bag of garbage, holding me at arm¡¯s length from herself. [Y¡­you shouldn¡¯t be down here.] She says, practically holding her breath as she carries me up the stairs. [Hey, get back away from the stairs!] She yells at the boys as she approaches the top. [Go on, you shouldn¡¯t be over here!]

    She starts shooing them away with her foot as she actually gets up there, and they respond by clunking over to the center of the room. My mother then puts me down along side them, and then quickly turns and runs back down the stairs. As soon as she is down, the sound of the wood of the tree groaning fills the room, along with the sound of wood sliding across wood, as the opening down the stairway is sealed.

    Well, that certainly could have gone better, but it could also have gone much worse too. I suppose I had best just be grateful it went as well as it did. My gains with my mother were subtle in this encounter, but I think overall there was more good than harm in what I just did.

    Well, she was going to definitely be a difficult case. Maybe my best option here now is to just put it all out of my mind and start focusing on the implications of what I just learned from sneaking around and being able to feel that falmarin thing¡¯s gaze on me.

    -

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    Eirlathion looked over his apprentices. Not counting T¨²eth, there were three apprentices he had trained in this village. Of the three, they had all already abandoned their training. Jedon, the young, or rather middle aged now, man who Calanor had named as his successor was likely the most advanced in his cultivation among the three. Perhaps the sight that the years had on Calanor had scared him into working a little harder. However, he was still shy of breaking through to being able to prepare and cast 4th rank spells.

    Aside from Jedon and Calanor, the next of the three apprentices gathered was Ceren, the village¡¯s spell singer. She was not really as closely associated with him as the elder and the elder¡¯s successor. The spell singer only really needs to learn meditation techniques and what rudimentary levels of the green word need to be learned before they begin on their own path. However, the spell singer learns her true path from an older spell singer. Ceren¡¯s master had already left the village some time ago. As such, Ceren was now the senior spell singer of the village.

    And.. there was one more person here. ¡°Ceren, why did you bring Laeril along?¡± This additional person was Ceren¡¯s apprentice. A young elf girl of about 35 years of age, a mere child still in every sense of the word. She had only just begun to learn the earliest phases of cultivation. She was ahead of his newest apprentice T¨²eth, but she was still only just able to use apprentice level spells.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry master, but she insisted that she wanted to help. She is not very strong yet, but her skills are already above that of a normal elf. She would not take no for an answer.¡± Ceren responded with a slight bow of her head, her young apprentice shaking with her determination. Eirlathion could tell she wanted to make her case, but Ceren would have trained her to show the proper level of respect to a master magus, so the child merely swallowed her objection and was looking at Eirlathion¡¯s feet.

    ¡°Very well,¡± Eirlathion conceded. It would likely be easier to allow the kid to help than to fight with her. There was an excited gasp that came from the child as she looked up with a practically glowing face. ¡°You can gather some ivy starts and plant them where we tell you, that ought to be within your ability.¡±

    ¡°Ok master!¡± Lareil beamed at him, excitedly running off to the nearest ivy, covered tree where she started convincing the tree to which it was attached to give up a branch to use as a wooden digging tool she could dig the ivy. She certainly is enthusiastic, she didn¡¯t even wait to know where they were going to be working at. Well, that¡¯s what the rest of them were going to be discussing anyway.

    ¡°Well then, Calanor, I suppose we will be following your lead in terms of where we should be working.¡± He said to his oldest friend and apprentice. It was rather fortunate the mages of the village included the elder and the elder¡¯s successor, there was nobody in the entire village who knew the layout better than these two and how best to allocate their efforts.

 Chapter 36: Battle preparations

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    It had been a little over a week since the queen¡¯s call to arms was heard throughout the forest, and thanks to the rapid organization in response to what they had heard the preparations were really shaping up quickly. With the combined efforts of Eirlathion and his apprentices, they had managed to weave ivy vines to create a wall four adult body-heights tall that was surrounding the entirety of all the lakira trees that were either occupied or could potentially become someone¡¯s home in the future. This was almost the height of the smallest lakira trees themselves.

    They had chosen the nearby coniferous trees that grew straight and tall as the anchoring points for the vine walls. They had utilized the trees closest to the lakira grove, it was a lot of ground to cover. In addition to this, with the fey dragon Everon having taken up the job, four newly created treents had organized themselves at various points around the outside of the perimeter, blending in perfectly with the surrounding trees. Four was an inadequate number to be of real use for defensive purposes, but if they were attacked then these wooden giants would be able to come to the aid in any position to defend the wall. Despite all of these preparations though, it was still clear to see that they were woefully ill prepared.

    ¡°These mere walls do nothing to stop our hunters, you can be certain that they would be equally as useless against them.¡± Ceren observed.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Calanor responded, looking straight upward with his brows furrowed. ¡°They merely need to climb the trees which the vines are anchored to. We must do something in order to prevent them from climbing.¡±

    ¡°Should we have the trees drop their limbs on the outside of the wall?¡± Eirlathion suggested with a thoughtful look.

    ¡°Master!?¡± Calanor responded in shock at the suggestion. The fact that he was the only one who had such an outburst was not because the others were not equally as shocked. Rather, it was because Calanor was the only one among them who was secure enough in their relationship to their master to actually dare to speak out. Jedon and Ceren had complicated expressions, and little Laeril didn¡¯t seem to know what to make of what the adults were talking about.

    Indeed, it would normally be unheard of for a mage of the green word to bring up the subject of harming a plant in such a manner. In fact, it was quite normal for elves in general to consider such an action taboo for the risk of offending the green word mages who the entirety of elven society depends upon. However, in this instance, there was something in Eirlathion¡¯s intuition that just told him this was the right choice.

    ¡°Well, perhaps there is another way, but it just seemed like a good solution to the issue.¡± Eirlathion defended his choice half-heartedly. He was not very familiar with how to make proper battlements or fortifications. In fact, none of them were. It would be a different story if it was those battle hungry humans who lived out on the plains, but that was simply not the way things were done here in the forest by the elves. Really, all of them were more or less just making this up as they went along.

    ¡°What are you all talking about?¡± Laeril asks, looking innocently from one adult to the other.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Ceren replies to her little apprentice, ¡°we¡¯re trying to figure out how to keep the bad elves from climbing these trees.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ can¡¯t you do something to make it hurt to climb them or something?¡± Laeril responds with a thoughtful expression.

    ¡°That¡¯s really not a bad idea,¡± Eirlathion responds. ¡°We could have some brier vines climb the trees and cover the branches. We will just have to venture out a little way from the village, there should be a few candidates for what we can use nearby.¡±

    They had decided on their next course of action, but before they could do anything there was a commotion near the gate they had made in their wall. The gates were the few lakira trees that were the farthest out along the boarder of the grove, they had been utilized for the fact that they could be opened by any elf recognized by the nymph living within. When the small group made up of the village¡¯s mages looked over to see what was going on, they saw several elves they had never seen before coming out of the gate tree. Or rather, entering the village through the gate.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Laeril asked, looking over excitedly toward the source of the clamor.

    ¡°Probably arrivals from a nearby village,¡± Jedon said, ¡°I think the closest village is around a¡­, no, that was¡­ her village.¡± A dark apologetic look came over his face as he recalled the village which the three newest additions to their village had come from, which had been completely wiped out on the same night. ¡°No.. I guess the next closest one then is about a four day¡¯s journey from here. It probably took them a day or two to organize, and then they might have moved a little slower as well if they were in a big group. There DOES appear to be a lot of them coming in.¡±

    ¡°Well, we had probably best go and meet them,¡± Calanor said, looking up to their master for his approval, to which Eirlathion gave an immediate nod. Calanor had expected no different from the man, and after seeing it he simply continued on talking as though he had never been interrupted. ¡°I may not be the one in charge here anymore due to the circumstances, but I am still a representative of the village. It wouldn¡¯t do for Jedon and I to not be present.¡±

    ¡°The same goes for myself I suppose.¡± Eirlathion stated, and then looked over to Ceren and Laeril who seemed quite ready to come along themselves. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get going then.¡± They began to walk toward the gathering crowd of new arrivals.

    The majority of the new arrivals were dressed in the fur armor of the elven hunters. This was the majority profession among the elves, with only a few tanners, fletchers, and mages in any given village. Most villages did not have anyone involved in any form of metal craft, there were some truly excellent swordsmiths among the elves, but mostly they only lived in the capital. The few elves who possessed any form of metal weapon would be those who had ventured to the capital at some point in their life. Although, given the long lives of the elves, there were always a fair number of those who have had such a chance.

    Also, given that there were few children, elven women were expected to take some form of profession just as the men were. While women were the majority of those in tanner and fletcher jobs, there was only so much need for those roles. As such, those in the fur armor of the hunters seemed to almost be perfectly divided between the sexes. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    This is how it came that the master hunter who was chosen for their own village was a female. As the village mages approached the group, Eizeril, said master hunter, had already arrived to greet them first. It seemed the initial introductions were already out of the way, and now she was giving them an introduction and orientation to the village and what had been done to prepare for them when she spotted Eirlathion and his group approaching.

    ¡°Ah! Master!¡± She greeted him, and then turned back to the man who appeared to be the representative of the newly arrived hunters. ¡°This is the master magus of our village, master Eirlathion.¡±

    ¡°Oh! Master magus.¡± The man said with a bow. ¡°My name is Berenor. By the queen¡¯s decree, we have come to journey to aid your village in fortifying this location.¡±

    ¡°YES, THIS IS WELL SAID.¡± The booming voice of the fey dragon Everon, the current appointed leader of this village ever since it was declared it would be turned into a defensive fortress, cut in on their introductions as the great beast flew gently into the area in a manner that was half conventional flight using his wings and also surely half magic as he seemed to have far too little forward momentum to be properly holding himself aloft by the laws of physics alone. The fact that he was already using magic in his flight was the fact that when he had arrived at the spot in the air he had decided he wanted to suspend himself, he simply stopped, turned, and allowed his tail to hang down without even beating the air with his wings once.

    ¡°WELCOME WARRIORS, YOUR NUMBERS BEING ADDED TO OURS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED. SPACE HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR YOU TO FIND A RESIDENCE HERE. THE MOST OF YOU WILL BE IN THE CARE OF THE APPOINTED MASTER HUNTER YOU HAVE ALREADY MET. HOWEVER, IF THERE ARE ANY MAGES AMONG YOUR NUMBER, I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO STEP FORWARD NOW.¡±

    Well, no time for pleasantries with this dragon. Most of the new arrivals were in a mild state of awe and panic upon having Everon appear in front of them. After all, those who had not been to the capital had likely never even seen a fey dragon before, and those who had probably never interacted with them. The WERE the most powerful among the fey after all, as well as being the symbol of the queen¡¯s power as well.

    The crowd quickly seemed to settle down though as one elf began to push their way through the crowd. Upon arriving closer, they could make out she was a woman dressed in the green robes of a mage. Behind her trailed a young elf boy who looked to be barely into his 60th year, having just come of age. He wore brown leather robes, the common attire of a mage¡¯s apprentice.

    ¡°My greetings mighty servant of the queen.¡± The female mage said with a bowed head. ¡°My name is Sainel, I am the magus of our village.¡±

    ¡°SAINEL, IS IT? I AM EVERON. WELL MET. I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO WORK TOGETHER WITH THE MAGUS OF THIS VILLAGE AND ENHANCE THE FORTIFICATIONS OF THIS VILLAGE. ONCE MY ADVISOR ARRIVES YOU WILL BE SERVING UNDER HIS INSTRUCTION, BUT UNTIL THEN YOU WILL WORK TOGETHER TO BEGIN THE PROCESS ON THE FORTIFICATIONS.¡±

    What¡¯s this about his advisor? He had not said anything about this before. Eirlathion was forced to wonder if he would have ever even heard of this before said advisor arrived had this new group not arrived.

    ¡°Of course my lord.¡± The mage Sainel responded and then looked over in Eirlathion¡¯s direction for a moment before directing her eyes back to the hovering fey dragon.

    ¡°THAT WILL BE ALL.¡± He announced. ¡°I LEAVE YOUR AFFAIRS NOW IN THE HANDS OF THE APPROPRIATE REPRESENTATIVES OF THIS FORT¡± There was a cry of shock and unease from everyone as they rose their hands to cover their faces in order to protect themselves from the massive burst of wind that was the result of Everon¡¯s down-beat of his wings. And, with that one action, he was off. He flew up above the canopy and over the wall, off to parts of the forrest unknown to continue his work of locating spirits that could inhabit the trees.

    It took a little bit of time for everyone to regain their bearings after that, but when they had Sainel and her apprentice both turned and began to approach Eirlathion. Sainel¡¯s eyes became large in surprise as she got closer to Eirlathion, having likely sensed the extent of his cultivation into the 5th rank of spell formation. It was common for most elven magi to be considered masters upon reaching the 4th rank, a 5th rank such as Eirlathion was a true rarity. Normally, it was only the faeries who could reach such a high extent of power.

    She quickly composed herself as she drew closer to Eirlathion, putting on a more respectful face. ¡°Master.¡± She greeted him once she had reached a respectful distance. ¡°As I have introduced myself before in front of the master dragon, my name is Sainel, a master of the green word who has achieved the 4th rank in my spell formations. I am surprised and honored to encounter such an advanced mage among the elves as yourself. Cultivating this close to the scar of heaven surely must have its benefits.¡±

    A dark shadow passed over Eirlathion¡¯s face as he heard the minor jab mixed in with her words, especially considering that he could not deny that his advancement to the 5th rank was indeed tied to his access to an unusually dense supply of spirit energy, although not from the source she had assumed.

    ¡°Certainly that is so.¡± He agreed with a heavy voice. ¡°My name is Eirlathion. As you have already observed, my spell formations have reached the 5th rank, having brought me to a level capable of utilizing some of the same magic as the faeries. I imagine the journey here might have been hard on you. We were about to venture back outside the village in order to collect some briar vines in order to line the outer branches among the trees on our wall and make them unclimbable. What is it that you would like to do from here?¡±

    ¡°Well, I believe I am likely energetic enough to assist you with that.¡± Sainel responds. ¡°I am certain we can work out our living arrangements here at a later date. Perhaps I can share a residence with the master?¡±

    ¡°I am afraid that will not be an option.¡± Eirlathion denies her request. ¡°I have¡­ some special circumstances. Our village took in a woman from a now destroyed village that was very close to the heaven¡¯s fall when it happened. She was pregnant at the time, and the exposure to the energies seems to have had some effect on her children.¡± Both Sainel and her apprentice looked up at the plural Eirlathion had just used. ¡°Yes,¡± he said, ¡°that was one of the effects. She gave birth to twins. Both children also seem rather ill as a result. As such, my house is already quite full. I have taken in the twins along with some humans to keep them nourished and I have also taken in their mother. She is currently seeing to the children¡¯s basic needs, but cannot give them everything considering the nature of their condition.¡±

    ¡°Well, that event seems to have had several strange effects.¡± Sainel replied thoughtfully. ¡°I understand your conditions master Eirlathion.¡±

    -

    Eirlathion was troubled by the developments of the day as he arrived back at his home. It wasn¡¯t like he had not thought of the trouble new arrivals in the village would cause, but he had no real way to prepare against it so he had not paid it much thought. Now, however, he was made to face the fact that there would be new people from outside the village finding out about the girls.

    There were already suspicions about the condition of the girls from those in the village. However, nobody had ever really said anything out of respect and anyone in position to do anything about it had accepted any plausible deniability they could get in order to not have to think about it.

    Now, however, there were several new people who had not grown up knowing and respecting him. This introduced a major unknown factor. Everon had not been an issue, he went around giving orders like absolute decrees under the presumption that his word was law here. This was somewhat frustrating for the people who had not known him growing up, but it was mostly accepted. However, he did not seem to pay a lot of attention to the minor goings on of the personal affairs of individual members of the village, even those who were in important positions such as Eirlathion.

    These new arrivals though were a group of many people, all with their own opinions and motivations, and they would all be naturally curious to orient themselves to the goings on of their new living environment. Therefore, the chances they may start asking questions when they hear about the mysterious twins born to an elf was rather high. Twins among elves were absolutely unheard of to start with, and with all the other strange circumstances of their birth there was no way such a thing wouldn¡¯t become the talk of the town among these new arrivals. And, if they started asking questions, it was only a matter of time before their suspicions were peaked.

    Well, he would have to begin taking counter measures somehow. For starters, he would ask nymph to begin communicating with the other nymph of the village. Meanwhile, he would also have to tell T¨²eth to be on her guard. As for the girls, should he perhaps tell Aerien to forget about what he had said before about not doing whatever spirit meddling stuff she had done when he had brought her mother here for the first time? No, there was no telling what she might wind up doing to herself if he lifted the ban on that.

    He did not understand what it was she was doing himself, so he did not want to risk her damaging herself. What¡¯s more, her spirit energy level had been lowering lately. It was falling little by little, but there was no denying the fact that she had weakened by a great deal compared to only a week ago. He was already quite concerned about this. Perhaps the lie he always used about those girls had become a reality and Aerien was genuinely becoming ill. Or, maybe she had done more experimenting with her spirit and had indeed damaged herself in some way while he was out.

    Eirlathion did not understand enough about Aerien¡¯s case to start with to have even the first clue about what might be happening with her, and he no longer had the time to figure it out with all the work being demanded of him in order to fortify the village. Well, there is probably more he can do to protect the girls from outside threats at the moment. If he did not have the time or ability to figure out what was going on with Aerien then all he could do is hope for the best on that front while he does something about the things he actually does have the power to act on.

 Chapter 37: The calm

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    Creating an entire new chakara system in a week. It turned out to be nothing even close to that simple. As it turns out, the speed at which you are able to assemble a new chakara is entirely dependent on how well you understand its function in the energy body. As far as that goes, the 9 I had created at first were the only ones I knew the full functionality of.

    I wound up relying on Gaerien pretty heavily for this process. Each day she would educate me completely on the functions of 3 to 5 of the minor chakara, and then I would begin the process of constructing them in my duplicate masculine spirit body. It went far slower than the original 9 from the first day, my lower level of understanding about them actually did slow down the speed at which I could create them, and I also had to deal with the frustrated emotions of my younger self constantly coming back over our subconscious connection. It made it rather difficult to concentrate.

    Fortunately, I had the help of the effectively infinite energy of heaven running quite smoothly and regularly through my masculine spirit body. Since it was newly constructed and lacking even the slightest imperfection, the energy flowed flawlessly and seemed to start taking on a will of its own the more minor chakara I constructed. It seemed as though each one of them became easier, and I wound up not even having to worry at all about the smallest nameless chakara nodes as they created themselves simply by the energy flowing through that section of the body.

    After all of this, it took around 10 days for the whole thing to finally be finished. Once I had completed it, I stepped back, or rather, teleported back to the island in this void that had become my observation platform. From there, I took in the work I had done. The masculine body now stood proud and tall as its gigantic form. It was a natural thing to appreciate the hard work you had just done. However, looking at that nearly perfect form in contrast to the child feminine form next to it caused my heart to feel somewhat empty.

    If I were to compare the form of the curled up child facing away from the Adonis like form that I had just meticulously hand-crafted free of all spiritual imperfections, it really made me feel bad. I had just spent 10 days working on the perfectly healthy one while neglecting the one that looked unhealthy at a glance. However, this whole thing was, in fact, for the express purpose of restoring this child¡¯s spirit to good health. I had to first transplant my own energies out of hers and separate them before she could begin to recover.

    It might have been my subconscious affecting it, but the ghostly female child form seemed to have tensed up as it held its knees over the course of the time I was working. The face had not taken on any kind of unpleasant expression, it was still as blank and neutral as it was when my younger self had first manifested it. It was only its arms, legs, and torso that showed the signs of tension as the fingers began to grip the knees more tightly and the arms were held more rigid as the elbows began to raise due to the tension of the supposed muscles working underneath.

    This manifestation as though the feminine form was in pain had started to appear roughly 2 days into my efforts at separating our energies. I was unsure whether this was a result of the out of whack chakara system, or if maybe it was a result of the mental stress my younger self was feeling out in the real world. She seemed to have taken a particular interest in my mother, and without my wisdom as the more lived and experienced between the two of us she had decided to pursue her whenever she could, only to experience repeated rejection every time. This had grown to frustrate her quite a bit.

    Rolwen and Levin managed to calm her down. While she may not have full access to my wisdom and maturity, she still had access to all of my knowledge. Because of this, she was still the one with the knowledge about the best exercises they could do to better themselves and speed their growth. They had often, over the course of this week and some change, cheered her up by talking about how they needed and relied on her to help them, and asked her what the next exercise was. Those boys had actually become quite clever in dealing with my younger self. I¡¯d had my doubts at first, but it seemed to have worked out.

    My younger self had also proven to be a fair bit more mature than I had expected, at least in so far as it came to dealing with the boys. It seemed like she had grown rather familiar with them, which meant she knew how to act. However, it seemed most of this was actually an act. She did not want the boys to see her as a little kid, so she was constantly trying to act like me in order to prove she was an adult like the rest of us.

    Unfortunately, she was only able to keep up this act in front of Gaerien and the boys. This was, after all, the only situation where she had seen me modeling what could pass for proper adult-in-a-child¡¯s-body behavior. As soon as she tried to approach mother, she didn¡¯t know how to act. Normally, when I interacted with adults in this body, I acted in a way that could be easily taken as something a child would do while also being just what needed to be done in order to achieve my objective. She did not have anything even close to those skills, so she ultimately only just wound up acting childish.

    I smiled as I reminisced about those experiences I had felt coming back through our link and then took a more serious look at the chakaras that represented my younger self¡¯s spirit form. Actually, if I were to compare it to when I began this process, it actually looked a lot better. The heaven¡¯s chakara, which used to be a gigantic sphere like the sun of this inner world, had shrunk down to at least an extent where it was obvious it was centered over the female form¡¯s head and the male form just happened to be close to it. Before, it was so large that you couldn¡¯t even tell that.

    It was still quite big, and still cast random bursts of energy everywhere in this inner space, but it had settled down a little and now seemed to direct most of the energy into the feminine spirit body, which then quickly passed through her system and exited through the sole chakara and straight into the more concentrated void positioned at the male form¡¯s feet.

    The chakara themselves also seemed more stable. The other 6 primary chakara had taken on a far more uniform shape and size. I could see them pulsing from time to time, an indication I had learned to mean there was some disturbance in the flow of energy that should normally be a steady stream, but this was a far-cry from the flickering and shaking they had done when I first saw them. They were indeed well on the road to recovery.

    -

    ¡°Other¡± Aerien¡¯s POV.

    I sat on my bed with a giant grin on my face as I carefully read the information I was getting from my connection with the old man. I knew he was working on the final touches of his separate spirit body Gaerien had been helping him with. Once he was finished with this, he would be back to helping me again. It was not that I couldn¡¯t do things without him, but I liked having him there.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    He thought of us as both the same person and different at the same time. Until he started to do all of this last week, I had accepted that and I shared his thoughts on this. However, since he was separate from me for so long with me needing to do things with Rolwen and Levin and try to show them I could also be like a grown up without him, I was starting to see him more and more like a different person from me. That didn¡¯t mean I became distant from him though, not at all. In fact, more and more I was starting to see him like a grandpa to me.

    It seemed like he had forgotten his name from his past life. For so long, he had thought of himself as also Aerien. So, I guess that really is his name now then. But, he was also my grandpa, and he was the most important grandpa in the world for me. I really felt a lot safer when he was around, and I had missed having his consciousness constantly so close to mine. I had decided to put up with it on the first few days even though I didn¡¯t like it. After a while, I got used to it. But now that he was almost done and could come back, I was excited and now I really knew just how much I had missed him and wanted him to always be around.

    After a little while of paying close attention to the emotions I felt from our link, I felt the tense concentration of him focusing on what he was doing stop, and then it shifted to admiration. I knew exactly what those emotions signified.

    (Gaerien!) I called out to my sister who knew a lot more about this stuff that I did. (He¡¯s done! He¡¯s done!)

    (Huh? Who¡¯s done?) Levin asked, having heard my outburst.

    (She¡¯s talking about her old life mind. He¡¯s finished with what was making it so he couldn¡¯t be part of her mind in front of us.) Gaerien told him.

    (Hey! Help me go into my inner world thing! I want to see!) I demanded, getting a slightly uncomfortable look from Gaerien.

    (Can¡¯t you do that yourself already?) She complained.

    (Noo¡­ I don¡¯t think so.)

    (Well, you¡¯re probably too excited for it anyway. Alright, fine, I¡¯ll help you.) She looks back up to Rolwen at this. He was in the middle of helping her walk when I had called out. She communicated her intentions with body language, and then the two of them started walking toward the bed slowly.

    (Mmmm¡­ come on!) I complained at their slow pace.

    (Why don¡¯t you just pick her up?) Levin asks.

    (She can wait.) Gaerien answers, sending a challenging look to Rolwen to warn him off of doing as Levin had just suggested. He gives a somewhat helpless look and just continues to help Gaerien with her slow toddling steps toward the bed.

    (Stop treating me like a kid!) I yell at them all and turn and cross my arms. (Fine! I¡¯ll do it myself!) I throw myself down on the pillow and begin to go through the meditation I learned from the old man, the same one we had used the first time when we went into Gaerien¡¯s world. However, I couldn¡¯t quite get my mind to calm down after all of that. Suddenly, I felt a more mature calm come over my mind. I knew I had taken too long. He was back now.

    I could feel my dual-mind, not really a kid and not really an adult, re-asserting itself. Despite my younger self¡¯s previous opinion that we were two separate people, as soon as the both of us were conscious in the outer world it was like the two of us blended into one and it became hard to tell where one mind ended and the other began.

    I was still quite aware of the fact that we were two minds in the same body. However, despite the fact that the manifestations of our spirits were separate now, our consciousness was still like two halves of a whole when we were together and one of us was not fully asleep or, in the case of the past week or so, buried inside my inner mind.

    My child self also quickly lost her interest in personally seeing the work I had done. As soon as we were combined, she gained all of the information in a flash as though she had seen it herself. I felt a wave of happiness crop up inside our shared mind as she appreciated the sight, but that faded quickly as she seemed to simply relax into me and the familiar sensation of being a part of each other.

    I sat up and looked at everyone staring at me, Gaerien with a bemused face and the boys both looking at a loss for what to do. Even in my combined mind I got a little frustrated with how they seemed to be making fun of me, but I could understand it. Well, only a small hand-full of good solutions to this.

    (Alright, looks like I was a little too slow.) I said with a slight pout, before looking up at them with a smile. This just made everyone confused, seeing such a sudden change in attitude. (What? Never seen a person front a different person¡­ahh¡­ gah! I REALLY hate this body! Can¡¯t even make a stupid joke to laugh off an awkward moment.)

    (Personality? Hehe..) Did Rolwen just freaking chuckle after finishing my word?

    (Oh, don¡¯t you start with me!) I growl at him in challenge. This, however, just gets the entire group laughing at the spectacle of an infant trying to put on an intimidating face.

    (Yep, she¡¯s back to normal.) Rolwen says.

    (Well, seems like Gaerien told you everything now.) I say, scooting myself over to the edge of the bed. I felt my younger self stirring in irritation at them laughing over my face like that, but I managed to hold back the frustration. I knew that face from the other side in my previous life, there really was something that was just hilariously cute about a baby¡¯s angry face. I could understand why they couldn¡¯t help laughing.

    (Yeah, it was kinda weird seeing you act like a little kid.) Levin admits. Considering how I normally behaved before this whole mind-split thing, my younger self must have not really done as well as I had the impression of at acting grown up. Or rather, perhaps being teens and adults in kids¡¯ bodies themselves, they can tell the difference.

    (I hope you can accept my younger self.) I say, deciding to put on something more of a quiet sad face since I know a serious face would only look silly on this body. (She¡¯s also part of me, even if you do find her hard to handle.)

    (Ehh¡­ it¡¯s fine!) Levin responds (It¡¯s just¡­ weird! I mean, you¡¯re¡­)

    (Yeah, I know.) I cut him off. I do get it. I¡¯ve been acting something kinda like a leader of this little group starting from when we were taken here to this house. They must have started to get used to me filling that role. The weird thing though is that I had my older self in that inner world for more total days than I had been their ¡°leader.¡± So, it actually was a little strange that they were already looking up to me. Perhaps it was the fact that I was the most confident voice that knew what was going on in this world that was completely strange. The fact I revealed myself right when their world was turned upside down for the second time¡­ or maybe third, probably helped as well.

    (Anyway, what do we do next now that you¡¯re out of there?) Rolwen asks.

    (Well, that depends. Has Gaerien taught you any culti¡­ ahh, that stuff?) I fix Rolwen with a glare that sends him into a fit of stiffled giggles.

    (Umm¡­ well¡­) Levin is the one to respond, beings Rolwen is a little indisposed at the moment.

    (I talked about it, I didn¡¯t teach them anything.) Gaerien says.

    (She said that¡­)

    (CULTIVATION!) Rolwen interrupts Levin in the middle of talking just to tease me, which is quite clearly exactly what he¡¯s doing now.

    (Hey! Rolwen!) Levin growls back at him.

    (Sorry, hehe!) Rolwen responds. If I could talk better, I would probably snip at him by calling him a chuckle head at this point, but that was yet another frustration of this body.

    (Ah, anyway, she said¡­ it would actually be better for us to learn it from you because you had some kind of really good technique that was actually from Earth!) Levin continued, now that Rolwen¡¯s interruptions were over.

    (Yeah, what¡¯s up with that!? Earth has cultivation techniques?) Rolwen said.

    (Well, they didn¡¯t work very well on Earth, but it sounds like they should work pretty good here.) I tell them. (I can¡¯t really teach you much yet though. I didn¡¯t know much about other¡­ methods.)

    (Cultivation techni¡­)

    (You be quiet!) It was actually Levin who cut off Rolwen half way through his interruption this time. Seriously, what¡¯s gotten into this boy? Seeing me acting like a genuine child must have awakened some teasing streak in him.

    (Please be serious and listen.) I admonish him, feeling good about the fact that I have grounds to seriously criticize him this time. (Anyway, I didn¡¯t know much about other ways it was done, but from what Gaerien says it sounds like my method is very unusual. It¡¯s part of a martial art, and you actually have to train in the actual moves of the martial art in order to do the¡­ thing.) I leave a large pause and actually direct an expecting half eye toward Rolwen.

    (Uhh¡­ cultivation?) Rolwen cautiously finishes the sentence, to which I just throw an open palm-up ¡°as he says/case in point¡± gesture toward him. Somehow, he actually looks really uncomfortable when he¡¯s actually asked to finish the sentence for me. The others also don¡¯t seem to know how to follow up here. I, meanwhile, am quite content to allow the awkward silence to continue for a little while. Payback.

    (Umm..) Rolwen begins to shift uncomfortably.

    (Anyway,) I decide to jump back into the discussion now that the moment has passed. (I don¡¯t think our bodies are ready for martial arts yet. I can teach you the five elements meditation, but it¡¯s pretty much useless without the martial art with it. You can¡¯t really understand it without doing the kata and learning the fighting styles that go with each element. The meditation won¡¯t work right unless you can understand the feel of the elements.)

    (Feel of the elements?) Rolwen asks.

    (You¡¯ll understand it better once you do some of the training. Anyway, it is probably better if we don¡¯t even start that till you are ready to do the martial art. For now, how about more neural training so you are ready for that sooner.)

    With that, our path for the time being was set.

 Chapter 38: Sense of dread

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    ¡°So, just what are they saying?¡± Erlathion asks as he is making his preparations to go out for his rounds today.

    ¡°It¡¯s horrible master! They think that the only reason you have the girls here is for an excuse to keep the humans!¡± Nymph tells him with an indignant tone.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s actually tame compared to some of the things they could be saying. Have any of them brought these rumors to Everon?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, somebody did talk to him.¡±

    ¡°And what did he say?¡±

    ¡°Hmmm¡­ that¡­ I¡¯m trying to get the others to tell me more.¡± Nymph said with a frustrated expression. The spirit of Eirlathion¡¯s house actually happened to be one of the more intelligent ones. They were far more helpful, especially in the area of communication, than your typical nymph. Most did not really know how to even form a complete sentence, and had little interest in the communications and daily goings on of the elves who lived with them beyond what they asked for while feeding them mana.

    The only reason the rest were paying any real amount of attention this time was because Nymph had asked them to. They are no dryad, but being the oldest in the grove still gives their word some weight among the others. However, it is hard to change their nature.

    ¡°Hmm..¡± Nymph puts on a thoughtful expression. ¡°Well, it seems like he said to leave it alone, but¡­ there are some confusing things. There is all kinds of things they are saying that doesn¡¯t make sense. He did say something about not crossing a mage, but from what I can tell of what the others are saying he also said something about getting someone to watch us. Or, maybe they decided to do that on their own?¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Eirlathion took on a thoughtful pose. It was good if that was all there was to it, but for Nymph to be this hesitant it sounds like there may have been more to the conversation than has made it back to him. It was certainly a concern how quickly this rumor had spread. It was only 3 days since the new arrivals got here, and already it seems the whispers had reached the people who might actually act on them. This shows how far their respect for him goes among the younger elves of the village.

    ¡°Well,¡± Eirlathion says, ¡°either way, if that is all, then I suppose that¡¯s good for now. Please tell me if you hear anything that sounds more urgent.¡± With his mind heavy with what was going on, Eirlathion placed his hand on the wall and opened the stairs to the second floor and descended them.

    [rwighd inbesh inger] He heard the children¡¯s voices as he came down into their room. [eft wing inger] He looked over to them, sitting in the center of the room. The boys were playing a game of some sort where they sat facing each other and brought their hands together. He had seen them playing this game several times. This time, however, it seemed the girls were watching with quite a bit of interest, and kept saying something in the mysterious language that the boys had taught them.

    [wight bingi] One of the girls said something again, and then the boys brought only the little fingers of one hand together. [zwitch! Wight bingi] After this was said, the boys, apparently in response to one of the girls¡¯ words, look a little flustered and do the same with the other hand. Well, looks like they¡¯ve decided to add something new to this game of theirs.

    Eirlathion floats a momentary smile as he sees the children playing, but that faint smile quickly darkens as he looks at them. As if all the problems going on around them weren¡¯t enough, Aerien¡¯s spirit energy she had been releasing was still reducing. It seemed that day by day it just kept getting weaker. He quickly activated his mana sight and looked over the girls. This allowed him to pick Aerien out of the pair of them in an instant due to the different way the energies behaved around them.

    It appears as though Aerien was the one giving the boys commands for their hand and finger game. She looked like she was happy and healthy enough just to look at her, but her energy was still declining every day.

    This was beginning to become concerning. Eirlathion knew of only one way that a fey would actually release spirit energy. That was if they had made it to the very highest levels of magecraft. A bit over a week ago, Aerien had been releasing a level of energy that was comparable to the queen herself. Now, it was less than half what it was before.

    Really, the most unnatural thing about her releasing spirit energy in the first place was her young age. There was no possible way she could have studied magecraft to the level necessary for what he had felt from her at her age. Other than that, this could offer something of an explanation for where the energy was coming from, except for the fact that it was reducing now.

    The children seemed to notice Eirlathion watching them, causing them to stop their game and look over in his direction. He gave them a light smile and then opened the way to the first floor, which now remained closed at all times someone wasn¡¯t using the stairs ever since T¨²eth started living here. It seems she didn¡¯t like how the children kept coming down the stairs on their own.

    Eirlathion¡¯s mind was clouded. It seemed life had only continued to grow more and more complicated. There was the imminent and most urgent threat of some action being taken by Everon weighing most heavily on his mind, and since the beginning he was having to worry about T¨²eth¡¯s strained relationship with her daughters. As if that was not complicated enough, there was also the big unknown of Aerien¡¯s spirit energy in the first place. It was an unknown before, but now that its rise had turned into a fall it just sparked even more concern.

    If the circumstances were better, Eirlathion would be closely observing and examining that girl for everything that might explain what was happening in her spirit. As things were though, he simply could not afford the time needed to figure things out. All he could do is hope that whatever is happening to her will not cause her permanent harm.

    He looked over to T¨²eth, his apprentice. She was sitting on her matt on the floor, positioned right in front of her bed they had set up for her down here taking up half the alcove that used to be the entire cultivation mat when Eirlathion had been using it. He had offered to have her sleep upstairs with the children, but it seemed she simply was not ready for that yet.

    She appeared to have just been working on her cultivation. She had likely long since reached the point where she could form her first apprentice level spell by now, but he had not even had the time to teach her with all that had been going on. Instead, she had simply been told to go on to refine the spell vessel she had already formed and gave her some brief instructions on how to manage that.

    She was likely intelligent enough that, with the lessons he had given her so far, she could form the spell on her own. However, she might have to go outside to do that, and as things were now he could not afford to have the house without any adults in it.

    She gave him a nod and then averted her eyes. This has been a pattern that has repeated almost every morning since T¨²eth started living here. She was usually very quiet. It was more than that though. Being quiet is one thing, but the constant nervousness and the pain that he saw every time he looked in her eyes was a constant reminder that she was probably every bit as vulnerable as those children. And yet, she was the only one who he could trust to be with them while he was out.

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    ¡°I¡¯ll be heading out.¡± Eirlathion says. ¡°You should probably not leave the house today, not even for a moment. There are some rumors going around now about the girls. Some of the new residents here might want to question you on them, I¡¯m pretty certain you¡¯re not ready for that.¡±

    ¡°Ah...¡± She responds with a nod, after which her face tightens with worry. Yes, it¡¯s pretty obvious that if she came under any kind of hostile questioning, there is no way she would be able to handle it in her current state. She already showed some signs of torment when she was brought to this village two years ago, but now ever since the threat of the tainted elves was revealed she has been looking worse and worse by the day.

    ¡°T¨²eth!¡± He called out to her, causing her face to snap up with a jump and look at him. ¡°It¡¯s going to be Ok. The reason we are putting in all this effort to protect the village is so that nothing else like what happened to you occurs again.¡±

    ¡°Y.. yeah.¡±She stutters and nods.

    ¡°Alright, take care of yourself. I am going to go and begin my work for today.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± She says again. Her face at least looks a little better, although there is some question as to whether that¡¯s because his words have had an impact or if she¡¯s only responding to the fact he¡¯s trying to cheer her up. To assess things honestly, it is far more likely to be the latter. There is not much more he can do or say in this situation though. That being the case, all he can do is simply accept it and walk out the door.

    He looks back as he leaves and notices T¨²eth has closed her eyes and turned her head away. He has noticed her doing this before. He does not understand this behavior, but he has never asked. It most likely has something to do with her trauma, and that does not seem to be something she seems ready to talk about.

    -

    ¡°It looks like we are just about done here.¡± Calanor said, casting an appraising glance over the vine wall that was now lined with large thorny pushes climbing the entire thing. They had meant to only place the thorny plants on the trees, but then Laeril had started climbing on the vine walls, bringing their attention to the fact that it was indeed very scalable. It was clearly something they would have to act on.

    ¡°Hmm...¡± Eirlathion gave a simple grunt in response. It was currently his turn to be on break. This was the routine they had fallen into. He and Sainel would each take turns working alone to cast their plant growth spells, and then the apprentices would all take a third shift together. In this manner, they each got a chance to recover their mana. The addition of Sainel had been a great help in this. Before she had arrived, they had large periods of dead time where everyone was recovering their mana. With her addition, the time between active shifts left each of them with about enough time to make a full recovery.

    ¡°Alright, that looks good¡± Saniel said, stepping back and nodding in appreciation at her own work. ¡°Shall we move on to the next section?¡±

    Suddenly, the honking of a water fowl was heard from overhead. It was a strange enough sound to hear that all of them looked up to see what was making that sound. Around in the forrest, such animals were almost never seen. Not the natural animals anyway. In fact, these migratory water fowl were a popular form taken on by changelings who wished to travel long distances due to this animal¡¯s incredible stamina in flight. Having visited the capital enough times, Eirlathion was immediately aware of these facts and held a stiff expression as he saw the bird flying down directly toward their location.

    The muddy brown colored bird landed not so gracefully on the forest floor, kicking up a lot of leaves. ¡°What kind of bird is that?¡± Laeril questioned, pointing and taking a step forward. Ceren quickly grabbed her shoulder and then looked forward with a stiff expression. An expression shared by all the rest of the adults there as the water fowl, quite as expected, began to deform into a grayish ooze that began to grow larger and take the form of a man.

    The man¡¯s skin was pure white for a second, with the slightest tinge of pink as blue and red blood vessels were visible under his skin. However, that skin quickly turned a pale shade of blue. This was not the natural color of a changeling¡¯s skin. However, they often found that their naturally transparent white skin that was so devoid of pigment that one could see the blood vessels beneath tended to unsettle people. As such, even in their natural form, it was typical of them to use their transformation abilities to still alter the color of their skin.

    The skin color alone though was not the most unsettling part of their appearance, although it didn¡¯t help much. It was the fact that their eyes actually had no natural color to them at all. If one were to look at their eyes, they would be able to see straight through the clear surface to the back of the retina as it glowed an orange tinted shade of pink within those sockets. This disturbing sight was also handled with transformation powers, and it was somewhat typical for a changeling to have developed the habit of keeping their eyes closed as they were transforming back to their natural form until they could alter the pigment of their skin and eyes.

    As the man turned to the group of them, he opened his large eyes, over three times the size of a normal elf¡¯s eyes. He had pigmented them completely black. The large black eyes looked them over for a moment.

    ¡°A changeling!?¡± Laeril exclaimed as she realized what she was looking at.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Ceren barked at her, giving her arm a momentary squeeze. ¡°Don¡¯t be rude.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s quite alright.¡± The changeling man said to them with a slight chuckle and a voice that did not sound entirely male or female. His features were most certainly masculine, but if it weren¡¯t for his physical build then it would be quite hard to tell his gender from voice alone. ¡°I am Sagel, I was sent by the royal court as a war advisor to the fey dragon who was sent here. I take it you are the mages in charge of turning this village into a fortress?¡±

    ¡°That is correct.¡± Eirlathion replies. ¡°We were just in the middle of placing thorny plants on the exterior of the walls in order to keep enemies from climbing them.¡±

    ¡°Hmm... well, that¡¯s a good line of thought I suppose.¡± the changeling, Sagel, responds. ¡°However, overall your defenses really do speak to the fact that you¡¯ve never had to deal with a siege before. They are absolutely aweful.¡±

    Eirlathion could see Ceren and Jedon nearly jump with that criticism. Even Calanor¡¯s brows furrow a little, and little Laeril simply can¡¯t help but have the emotions she¡¯s feeling show on her face. Eirlathion himself however simply gives a nod. ¡°I suspected as much, I suppose a changeling who has seen the fortifications the humans pose against the several sieges their war-like race has to endure would have some advice for us?¡±

    ¡°Of course, that¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m here for. I thought I would introduce myself to you first as I came in since I will likely be spending a great deal of my time working with you for a while.¡± Sagel said, giving them a friendly smile. ¡°Anyway, I would recommend you stop wasting your time with what you are doing right now. There are several things that will have to be changed.¡± He says, and then looks toward Eirlathion. ¡°You seem to have access to fifth tier magic, what spells have you set at that level?¡±

    ¡°I only recently gained access to the fifth tier.¡± Eirlathion tells him. ¡°I have yet to set any spells.¡±

    ¡°Good, that¡¯s very good.¡± Sagel says. ¡°I want you to set the living arbor spell once you have the mana fully established. You are off duty until you have done so. I assume there is no dryad here, you wouldn¡¯t be working at this yourselves otherwise, so having a 9th level mage with that spell is the next best thing. At any rate, how about you all take a break and show me in?¡±

    ¡°Certainly.¡± Eirlathion said, leading the way toward the gate. Once it was open and everyone was through to the other side, they could see there was some commotion near the center of the village. It seemed there were a lot of people gathered. As they approached, Eirlathion saw that it was his house everyone was gathered around, and floating above them was Everon suspended in the air by his anti-gravity magic with his serpentine form as his wings were held out like an umbrella over everyone¡¯s head as he was looking straight at the house.

    Eirlathion looked up and noticed the second story window was broken, there was a vine hanging loosely near it. It was pretty easy to figure out what had happened. A sense of absolute dread fell over Eirlathion and he started running. Before he could cross even half the distance, a sudden tremor occurred, causing everyone around to stir in panic. Right before Eirlathion¡¯s eyes, his house began to grow at an alarmingly fast rate. The sides expanded, and he could see the top growing straight up.

    After this already strange phenomenon, several particles of green light appeared outside the house directly between Everon and the house. The light coalesced into a genderless long green-haired humanoid form, about the size of an adult man and dressed in flowing light robes with various embroidery that looked like it was made of living vines and leaves.

    A dryad!? But how? And, in front of his house too... that would mean, this dryad absolutely had to be... Before he could complete that thought, the dryad opened their eyes and glared straight at Everon. ¡°YOU DID THIS! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!¡±

    At those words, absolutely filled with all the hate and anger imaginable, every tree and vine in the entire village began to move on its own. A large branch swung down on the back of the fey dragon¡¯s head, causing him to shriek with a roar of fright. As he tried to begin flying away, he was caught and tied by several vines. By this time, the crowd of gathered people were absolutely screaming in fright and running as best they could to get away from this battle between the strongest class of nature spirit and the strongest class of fey.

    Everon wreathed himself in a coat of white flames. In response to this, the entire tree that was Eirlathion¡¯s home began to glow an intense shade of green. This green aura traveled down the ivy vines that were attached from it, and protected them from the flame. The vines began to constrict the fey dragon until finally one that had coiled around his left wing pulled it right off of his serpentine body, causing Everon to let out a large cry of distress.

    ¡°A dryad!?¡± Sagel shrieked as he caught up. ¡°In the queen¡¯s name, how could he have been so colossally stupid to have offended a dryad!?¡± Sagel was shaking with shock and rage as he looked on at the scene playing out in front of him.

    Indeed, that would be foolish if he had known they were a dryad to start with. For a newly born dryad though, they were incredibly powerful. Just where had all this power come from? No, that¡¯s not important. The better question is, what had enraged nymp enough to have brought this all on? Eirlathion¡¯s earlier feeling of dread grew several times over at the thought. He began running directly into the heat of the battle as the severed wing fell to the ground with a thump.

    ¡°Nymph! I mean.. Dryad! What¡¯s going on!?¡±

    ¡°AHHH!!!¡± Dryad lets out a cry of pain, clutching their head. ¡°It... it¡¯s too much!¡± Even as Dryad screams in distress, the vines continue to tighten around the helpless fey dragon, this time tightening around his mid section so tightly that it cuts straight through his body, causing his tail to fall to the ground.

    Suddenly, the green glow around the tree fades to dark, causing Dryad to turn and look up, suddenly completely lucid. ¡°It stopped? NO!!¡± they cry, and then turn to Eirlathion with a look of desperation. ¡°Master! Quick! It¡¯s Aerien!¡±

    Eirlathion cursed in his mind. He had suspected as much, but now... as he was about to make a run toward the house, the door opened, and T¨²eth came running out clutching a limp child in her arms that could only have been the very one Dryad was distressed over. Her white dress was stained with blood all across the left side from arm-pit to thigh. The stunning sight seemed to confirm his worst fears as he looked over her limp form from which he could no longer feel even a trickle of spirit or mana energy.

 Chapter 39: Hidden conflict

    Nymph¡¯s POV (15 minutes earlier)

    The sun was out. For a normal tree spirit, like the others in this grove, this would make nymph very happy just feeling the steady energy from the tree they inhabited flowing into them. The tree spirits were always happy when their tree was in the sun. But it was hard for nymph to be happy today.

    A short time ago, nymph¡¯s master had brought home a really good gift. He had brought home humans and some elf babies. Nymph had never gotten to see babies this small before. It was always the nursery tree that got to see all the babies. The nursery tree was very lucky. That was also where they kept the humans. The nursery tree got the mana of the elf babies and the spirit energy from the humans. Nymph was the oldest, but the nursery tree was still bigger because it always got all the babies.

    Nymph really liked it when their master brought home the humans and the babies. Nymph had always heard the energy from babies and their humans was good for a tree spirit. They knew it was good, because the nursery tree had gotten so big from all the babies that were there. These babies were special though. Nymph did not know how normal babies and their humans were, but both the babies and the humans made a lot more mana and spirit energy than normal babies. Nymph¡¯s master had said it was a lot more. A whole lot more.

    Nymph really really liked these babies. Maybe if these babies could stay here then nymph could be the biggest now! They did not like the nursery tree being bigger when they were younger than nymph was. There was a problem though. Master said the reason the babies were here was because if other people saw their skin was grey colored they would kill the babies. That made nymph very angry. These were nymph¡¯s babies now! They were living here with master, so that meant they belonged to nymph just like master did!

    Some other tree spirits didn¡¯t seem to care who gave them mana, but master was special. Master was the one who planted nymph¡¯s seed. He was the oldest elf in the village. He had seen every one of the delicious spirit trees that grew here when it was a sapling. Nymph only took mana from master or someone master said was Ok.

    The babies were elves the master had said were very good and they had to protect them, so nymph was going to protect them. That was why, and they were also good mana and spirit energy. That was good too, but it was because master said to protect them.

    Two sunfalls ago, more elves came to the grove. Because there were more elves here, master said it was even more dangerous for the babies. There were more people who might want to hurt them, and these new ones might want to hurt them more. Before that, a dragon appeared. Master had been worried about that too. He said the dragon might sense the spirit energy from the humans, so nymph made sure to take all the spirit energy that came to their walls, even if they did not need it. This made it so the dragon did not care. But these other elves, the master said they might get curious, and some of the people in the grove might talk about the babies.

    Nymph kept asking all the other trees close by to say if they heard something about the elves talking about nymph¡¯s babies. If any of the elves said anything, it could be bad. It would also be very bad if any of them talked to the dragon about it. After two sun-sets, the other trees told nymph they were talking about it, they heard it from the tree next to them who heard it from the next tree from them as well. They said they were saying something about the babies. Master had said this would be bad if they talked about it, and now they were talking about it. Nymph was very worried. Nymph wanted master to stay here because they were so worried, but master said he had to go.

    A very very short time ago, a whole bunch of elves started to come around nymph¡¯s tree. They were all brought by the dragon. He told them what to do, and they threw a vine over one of the branches of nymph¡¯s tree. After that, they started climbing on the vine. Nymph realized that the elves were going to climb up to the window. This was bad. Nymph needed mana given to them with thoughts in order to close off the window.

    Tree spirits were usually not as smart as elves, but nymph was very smart because they had lived with master for a long time. Whenever master gave nymph mana, nymph got some of master¡¯s smartness. It was only a little bit each time, but it built up over a long time. Because nymph had master since nymph was planted, it made nymph the smartest tree spirit in the entire grove. Because of this, nymph was smart enough that they knew they should warn the babies first and tell them to go to the stairs.

    After nymph told the babies, nymph told master¡¯s apprentice. If master¡¯s apprentice could give nymph mana, nymph could do something to protect the babies. Nymph told master¡¯s apprentice that the elves were outside and they were trying to come up the side of the tree to get through the window. They told her to give them mana to close it, but then it was too late. The elf broke through the window before they could do anything.

    -

    Aerien¡¯s POV

    [Everyone! Get to the stairs!] Suddenly, Falmarin burst into the room shouting those words and then quickly dived into the floor. I didn¡¯t understand what was going on exactly, but it had been getting a little noisy outside. I had ignored it at first, but with the warning Falmarin just shouted, I got a real sense that something was very wrong.

    I looked around the room, this time with all my senses heightened for anything that could be a threat. My attention immediately came to the window. There was a vine hanging in front of it that wasn¡¯t there before, and it was definitely pulled taught and shifting back and forth in a regular pattern that did not match with the swaying of the wind. No, that was definitely the movements of someone climbing it.

    I looked over to the sealed stairs, which were just opening up now. Falmarin immediately flew back up the stairs as soon as the path was open. Meanwhile, the boys and Gaerien still seemed confused. Meanwhile, I saw a boot come up over the side of the window. I realized exactly what the person attached to that foot was about to do, and there was no way we would have enough time to run. Even if we could, I doubted it would do us any good.

    As I watched the person in the window flex their legs and jump, swinging back with the vine they were holding, Levin came and grabbed me around the torso under the armpits, and began to drag me toward the stairs. I chose this exact moment to suddenly shift my weight and throw a hand onto Levin¡¯s shoulder, disrupting his balance that was already rather poor since he was bracing himself so much in order to drag me.

    He toppled to the floor, dragging me with him. In that same exact moment, the glass window shattered and the feet that had come through it were quickly followed by the body of a trim elven man who skillfully followed the momentum of his swing and landed on the floor with nary a scratch on him.

    While Levin was trying to get up, I used his shoulder to push off of, bringing myself to my feet. I had to get eyes on the intruder quickly in order to size him up and figure for any advantage I could use. He was wearing some kind of vest made of fur as his armor. The same armor was also sewn to several key positions on his legs. As for weapons, he didn¡¯t come in with a lot. However, I did still catch a glint of metal at his hip that could only have been some kind of knife given how it did not protrude far and he wore it on the front of his belt.

    As for my advantages, well, I was a baby. I guess my strongest advantage, aside from previous life knowledge, would be that I would be underestimated. I still didn¡¯t have a great deal of manual dexterity, and I could hardly even bend my knees correctly due to the fact that the knee cap hadn¡¯t properly formed yet and thus my quads lacked the leverage to pull correctly. Also, I couldn¡¯t really walk 2 steps without falling. Normally, this would be pretty stacked in this guy¡¯s favor. That is, if I was a normal baby, or even a normal reincarnated person. In my case though, I had one major advantage. That being, soft fist martial arts.

    There is a dirty little secret about the soft fist martial arts. All of the foremost masters are old men in their 70s and 80s. Some even older. This may not seem like much of a statement at first. In fact, it is quite stereotypical to have the old martial arts master in movies. As such, most people would react to this statement with a big fat ¡°Of course they are all old men!¡± However, nobody really stops to consider the true implications that come from this.

    The thing is, there are several diseases common to the elderly. These diseases are less prevelant in people who stay in shape, such as a martial arts master, but there is one disease in particular that actually becomes more prevalent instead of less for those who are very physically active. Rheumatoid arthritis. Most masters of the martial arts tend to suffer from this particular disease. In the hard fist martial arts, this means you become more of an instructor only, no longer having the ability to actually perform at the martial art. However, for the gentle fist styles, these masters can adapt their style to still work even with their arthritis riddled body.

    These arthritis riddled masters, being the ones who are at the top of every school and who teach the younger students, will pass down their methods until the methods that are gentle on the joints and can function even with the most severe joint problems become the standard for the style. After that, it does not take long at all for these techniques to become the style itself. The style becomes more and more gentle as the years progress, and in the modern Earth where lifespans have become longer and longer, all the serious soft fist martial arts have taken this effect to an absolute extreme.

    The art I practiced back on Earth was around 800 years old. As such, it had gone through so many generations of this that, as it was now, by the time you got your yellow belt you were taught to perform all your moves as though you were decrepit and old. Because, as one of the mottoes of the school says, one day you will be.

    When it comes to being an arthritis ridden old man, there really wasn¡¯t a lot of difference from being a toddling infant in terms of mobility. This means, even in this body, I could likely still use all my moves. My only real detriment caused by this infant body was my poor balance and my inability to walk more than 2 steps. I am pretty sure I can compensate for that. There was one thing that could go wrong and throw all of this off though.

    (Levin! Don¡¯t touch me!) I shout back at him.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    (What!?) He responds in confusion. Unfortunately, I absolutely do not have enough time to explain myself.

    (Just don¡¯t! I¡¯m going to fight!)

    There was no more time for words, because the intruder had already straightened up and had confirmed his surroundings. He began to walk toward us, and he looked straight at me and smiled.

    [Don¡¯t touch her!] Falmarin shouted, flying straight at the man¡¯s face. However, he didn¡¯t even seem to notice and continued walking straight through her ghostly form. That would mean this guy is non-magical then. I hadn¡¯t put my faith in that working anyway, so that¡¯s also fine. I couldn¡¯t afford to be distracted. I still couldn¡¯t sense spirit energy, and thus people¡¯s intentions, as I had in my past life. I likely wouldn¡¯t be able to sense his anyway, beings he¡¯s an elf, which is a type of fey. This meant I would have to pull off my move here with pure timing alone.

    (Ah¡­ Aerien..) Great! Levin is reaching for me. I swat his hand away and stumble a little, trying to keep my balance. In that time, the man has completely closed the distance and bends down to reach for me in order to scoop me off the ground. While he¡¯s doing so, I stumble in a way that almost resembles drunkenness and collide with his bent knee.

    I roll my body to the side, sliding down the outer portion of this guy¡¯s leg as I cling onto his lower thigh to support myself. Yes, he was bent over, and it put his thigh in reach. This was working out more perfectly than I had imagined.

    [Haha! What¡¯s this?] The man speaks for the first time, now crouching even lower in order to be able to reach me as I am so far around to his side. This brings his waist into reach and I immediately reach and grab onto his belt, my hand landing on my target right as he stops his descent. In the next moment, he managed to get his hands on me and lifted me up. As I was lifted, all I had to do was keep my arm straight and allow my hand to close and this allowed me to ¡°lift¡± something else right off of his belt.

    As soon as it was in my hand, I immediately pulled my arm tight to my body so he wouldn¡¯t notice. I shifted my hands and figured I might as well try something since the alternative if this didn¡¯t work would be about three times harder.

    The man pulled my infant body to his chest. And, in the same exact motion, I made use of the force from his own action of pulling me in to drive the blade of the knife I had taken right off his own belt into his rib cage. Even through the fur armor he was wearing, the blade penetrated beautifully, and I successfully managed to get it between his ribs resulting in no deflections off of the rib cage.

    [Ah! What!? Ahh..] I leaned forward and covered the handle of the knife with my body. And, with the hand that was not covering the knife, I began punching him in the center of the chest while I was struggling.

    [leh e go!] I protest. Rather than react to his knife wound, he makes an effort to keep his hold on me. It seems like, for now, it all had worked beautifully. The muscles and the internal organs have no actual pain receptors, and if sliced cleanly enough you will also not immediately realize you just got a puncture wound, especially if your body is pumping full of adrenaline as it would be if you were infiltrating somebody¡¯s home with a method such as this guy just used.

    In this state, the alternate explanation of having just taken an elbow or punch can seem quite plausible as an explanation for where the pain came from. In fact, I had heard several stories about this exact thing happening back on Earth. Most of these stories were from prison guards who happened to train in the dojo with me, both during my days as a student and master alike. It was a rather popular art among prison guards as they were the ones who needed non-lethal take-down methods and improved self defense the most. At any rate, they had several stories about people getting shanked and hearing from the victim that they literally did not even think they were being stabbed and thought it was just a punch.

    [What¡¯s going on!?] The voice of my mother cuts in as she arrives at the top of the stairs and sees the situation.

    [The¡­ the fey dragon *huf* Everon¡­ has¡­ has ordered these children *huf* be brought to him under¡­ under suspicion of¡­ of being grey elves.] The man says. [Oh¡­ what¡¯s..] He seems very short of breath already. Between talking and fighting to keep hold of me, he is quickly using up the oxygen in his blood. And, with his lung cavity depressurized, he is no longer able to get his lungs to fill completely. His breathing has become quick and shallow.

    [Let her go!] my mother shouts and then charges the guy. She runs right up to him, but he simply reaches out a hand to intercept her, pushing her down after having recieved her full momentum. Considering how fast she was running, that¡¯s actually a rather impressive feat of strength. However, he seems to have been thrown off a little by his current state, and begins stumbling immediately afterward and slumps to the floor.

    [What¡¯s hap..?] as soon as I get the opportunity to put my weight on his lap instead of his arm, I immediately shoot my legs down to step on his thigh, pulling the knife from his ribs in the process, and then I deliver an upward cut to his neck. After this, I quickly roll away out of his grip.

    [Ah! What!?] He finally seems to have realized what¡¯s going on, slapping a hand up to his neck to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, the cut I made to his neck was not deep enough. Fortunately, the sudden realization that he had just received two fairly critical wounds caused him to panic and immediately start reaching toward me with the free hand, which of course I impale on the knife blade.

    He screams and pulls back his hand reflexively at the sudden pain. I use this unobstructed opportunity to further stab the knife into his right thigh, just above the knee. With this, his mobility should be limited enough he should no longer be much of a threat.

    Considering my work to be done, I roll away and then immediately look toward the window. The vine is shifting again. Another person is climbing it. That thing needs to be closed, and fast! That falmarin thing can make the stairs come and go by warping the wood of the house, it shouldn¡¯t be that hard to turn the broken window into a solid wall. I have never managed to use that ¡°green word¡± magic of the elves, but I had listened in on the concept of it both from mother¡¯s lesson as well as my own much simpler lesson with the ¡°smart nut¡± Ether guy had given me.

    Ok, so I¡¯m just supposed to push in mana and think of what I want to happen. Well, I¡¯ve got plenty of mana from my meditation. It is not only spirit energy that comes through the energy of heaven, it¡¯s every kind of energy. And, even if that wasn¡¯t the case, my elf body is constantly converting all the excess spirit energy into mana, so it really ought to work out fine.

    Ok, so, my intention is to have the window close. Actually, with all that¡¯s happening, maybe I should just tell falmarin to do whatever it takes to protect me. As I begin to focus what I assume to be mana through my hand and into the floor, I suddenly feel a splitting pain in my head. Actually, I come to realize this pain has been there for a while. It seems that guy slumped over on the floor there wasn¡¯t the only one who¡¯s pain signals had been blocked by adrenaline. However, at this moment the pain is beginning to intensify.

    I realize it¡¯s not just my head. The pain is splitting, and it¡¯s centered straight in the middle of my eyebrows. The pain is more intense than the blockage of the facial nerve, a phenomenon which causes a sharp pain to the area right above the eye ridge due to spamming neck muscles blocking the cranial nerve as it exists the skull. Also, if it were that, then it would be isolated to one side. This was straight in the center.

    In addition, my throat hurts as well and feels like it¡¯s tightening. My chest, right where my heart would be, is beginning to clutch in the same kind of pain. My stomach¡­ no, not stomach, my solar plexus region feels like fire is being shot through it and that fire seems to spread to all my limbs as well as my liver and spleen nearby.

    If I hadn¡¯t just spent a week and a half learning everything there was to know about this subject, I likely would not have recognized what was going on. However, after having studied it so intensely, I realized every single location that was in pain was the exact location of one of the major or minor chakras.

    The pain was becoming more and more intense. I could no longer concentrate on the idea of pouring mana and such into the tree. My mind was occupied with the concern over what exactly was happening to me, and it turned out I had exactly the method to answer that question.

    -

    Having spent so much time in my inner world in the last couple weeks, I had become quite good at slipping in and out of it, especially as my older self. This was a good thing with how intense the pain was, I was able to simply slip right in. However, what I saw upon arrival was something that I simply did not know what to make of.

    For starters, as soon as I got in, I felt myself pelted with rain. This rain, was not coming down from above. It was hitting me from my side, blown by an intense wind like no wind storm I had ever felt before. The island that always served as a foothold whenever I came to this space¡­ was gone. There were floating chunks of stone debris hovering all over the space like asteroids. No, not hovering, they were moving quite violently, constantly clashing into one another with massive impacts that reverberated throughout the space. It was a chaotic mess. And throughout the area, there were also bursts of flame constantly erupting from everywhere, even places that were just open air.

    All four elements were going crazy, it was a complete uncontrolled mess. Even in my mental projection form, I felt the need to shield myself against this violent storm that was raging inside my spirit. However, despite all the chaos, it was not too hard to see the source of the problem if I just looked up.

    As I looked to the center of my inner world, I saw my two ethereal forms filled with representations of my chakra. The maelstrom of out of control elements seemed to be centered around the two figures like twin tornadoes. As I watched, trying to get a better handle on what was going on, I came to realize the swirling energies of the elements actually seemed to be getting absorbed by the ghostly figures that represented my spirit bodies.

    There was something off about it though. Between the two figures, the manner in which the elements entered the male form and the female form were different. For the male form, the void from below and the energy of heaven from above seemed to intensify. The void climbed the male form¡¯s legs, and the heaven energy became even more intense. Also, it was no longer just the heaven¡¯s chakara that had changed color to a pure white. The entire chakra system, including the maridians, the spirit vessels that ran from one chakra to the next, were also awash in the bright and pure light of the energy channeled from heaven.

    The elements seemed only to eager to enter the male form, and the male form¡¯s chakara system seemed to let off a bright and assuring glow that seemed to say it was satisfied and happy to receive the energy that was infiltrating it from every side. The case of the child-bodied female form was a far different case.

    Unlike the male chakra body, the female form seemed to be actively suffering as a result of the energies assailing it. Also, several times, a large blast of some elemental energy would throw itself toward the female form and, instead of being absorbed as it was with the male form, it instead seemed to strike her and cause her intense pain. The worst part though, by far, was what I could see happening to the chakras within the female form¡¯s body as I was powerless to do anything to stop it.

    The heaven¡¯s chakra, which had always been unstable for my female form, was glowing more intensely than ever and firing its energy off in every random direction. This included straight down through the female body itself, and the other chakras both major and minor did not seem to be taking well to it. As the energy was being pumped into her form, the major chakra from the sixth at the third eye, down to the third at the solar plexus, all seemed to swell well beyond their normal size. Having already noted that bigger in this case actually did mean something more akin to an injury than an increase in strength among these chakra, and having seen that the male form was not showing this behavior, I was certain this was not a good sign.

    All the chakra that had become swollen up in the female form radiated intense bursts of light, not at all unlike those being fired off by the heaven¡¯s chakra. They also began to shake uncontrollably like something was trying to escape from inside them. Right before my eyes, I saw the female form¡¯s sixth chakra, the one at the location I had noticed having an issue first, was beginning to form a visible crack in it.

    Mere seconds later, this all culminated in something unfathomable. Something that left me absolutely stupefied as to what to do next. The cracks began to spread across the little girl¡¯s sixth chakara, until finally it exploded, burst into tiny fragments of light. Along with this, I heard an absolutely blood curdling scream. It was at this point I realized I had not clearly felt my younger self¡¯s mind for quite a while.

    Thanks to the rules of this inner world, I was able to freely teleport my mental projection to anywhere inside it I wanted to be. As I had heard the small child shrieking from somewhere within this space, I decided to transport myself immediately to her side. I found the manifestation of my child self clutching her head in absolute agony, and all she was able to do was writhe in pain, no longer even aware of the world around her. I immediately reached out and grabbed her, cradling her in my arms as she continued to do nothing but scream out and shriek in the pain that had riddled her body. The chakra manifestation that just had that happen to it, it was the one that represented her. As such, it was her feeling the pain. It was only at this moment that I realized that since I came in here I no longer felt the pain I had back in my physical body on the outside.

    As though mocking the very concept of my desire to do something about this situation, a loud explosion and the sound that resembled glass shattering reverberated throughout the area yet again. The exact same sound I had heard a moment ago. Corresponding with this, the little one¡¯s screaming and writhing only intensified as I cringed. I looked up to see that now the throat chakra was gone. And, almost as soon as I looked up, the failure of the two chakras began a cascade effect. The minor chakras seemed to begin popping all at once.

    Once about half of them were gone, the heart chakra exploded, and then the most important third chakra, the Manipura as Gaerien had called it which acted as the chakra body¡¯s actual equivalent of the heart. With that one gone, the final two major chakras as well as any of the remaining minor chakras simply seemed to flick out of existence as though they were candle flames being blown out by the wind of the third chakra exploding. That is, all of them except for the heaven¡¯s chakra.

    The great ball of white light was the last one remaining. It began to grow larger, until finally, it also exploded in the largest flash yet of any of them. After this, with the little one¡¯s chakra system entirely destroyed, the small remaining energy fragments, just like the swirling torrent of the elements, seemed to be absorbed by the male form. After this, all at once, the storm seemed to settle down. Meanwhile, I was left with the limp body of my mental projection of my child self in my arms.

 Chapter 40: Guardians rage

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    T¨²eth did not know what to think when Nymph came down and told her someone was coming up to break into the second floor and take the girls. Her mind had simply frozen at that moment. It was likely more accurate to say that she stopped thinking. A second later, Nymph told her the man just broke through the window and was already in the room. This finally got her moving.

    T¨²eth¡¯s body seemed to move on its own at this point. For the past couple weeks in this house, she had only gone up to that room to bring the boys their food and to bring out and wash their chamber pot. She was afraid of even this interaction though. Lately, every time she tried to go up there, one of the girls would try to approach her. She was not so good at telling them apart yet, but she had reason to suspect it was always the same one. From what she had heard about them, it was most likely Aerien.

    Aerien had started calling her ¡°mother.¡± When she had come down the stairs, looking worried about her after she was in a particularly vulnerable moment, she had called her ¡°mother.¡± That child... Eirlathion was exactly right about her. T¨²eth had not even been in her life at all until very recently, and yet she had called her mother all the same.

    T¨²eth had hoped she could push the girls away. She could just be the master¡¯s apprentice who took care of them sometimes, not their mother. The master could be their father, she could be nothing at all to them, and one day they would just remember her as something of an older sister and never know. This did not happen. Somehow, a mere little girl of not even a year old had recognized her mother immediately. Not only that, she tried to do everything she could to be close to her every single time she was in the room.

    This was the reason why... she simply could not go into that room. The master had offered her a bed on the other side of his lab if she didn¡¯t want to sleep in the room with the girls, but even that would require her to enter the second floor two additional times during the day. This is why she had her bed down here. She could stay down here and only have to go up there the absolute minimum number of times. So long as she left the humans¡¯ food near the stairs and didn¡¯t go toward them, and drew a wide angle around them as she went to collect the chamber pot, she could take advantage of the fact that Aerien still did not move that quickly as she tried to crawl in her direction.

    When Aerien had noticed this is what she was doing, she stopped trying to approach her. Instead, she started just calling out to her. She would ask her why she didn¡¯t want to be with her. Why she always ran away. Why did she hate her daughters. She would say... she knew she didn¡¯t hate them... so why does she keep running away. Invariably, it would always end with Aerien crying loudly as she was walking down the stairs. It had gotten to a point where T¨²eth absolutely dreaded going up to that room. Every time she did, she would have to face that child again.

    Why... why couldn¡¯t that child see that.. she couldn¡¯t be their mother? That child... it was exactly like the master had said. She was so intelligent that it was terrifying. How was it that such a small child always seemed to know exaxtly the right words to get to her in just the few moments she spent in that room? How did she know... the best ways to make this so incredibly difficult? She was shaken every time she had gone up there. Half the time, as soon as the stairs were closed, she simply broke down and cried herself as Aerien¡¯s crying that she seemed to be intentionally trying to make as loud as possible could be heard still coming from above.

    That child should stop. That child should hate me! I am the mother who wanted them dead! I have no right to be around them! How could she possibly yearn for such a disgusting mother that much!?

    As T¨²eth climbed the dreaded stairs yet again, she began to feel like she was no longer in control of her own body. She felt like an observer, watching from the back of her mind as someone else controlled her actions. She felt... completely numb even as her heart rate began to build and there was a prickling feeling in the back of her mind.

    ¡°-et e go!¡±T¨²eth heard the powerful and determined voice of an infant. Before she even laid eyes on the situation, she knew that could only be Aerien! A second later, she saw an adult man struggling to keep a small infant in his arms as she seemed to be punching him in the chest repeatedly with one arm while actually clinging to his chest with the other for leverage. A baby¡¯s punches shouldn¡¯t have an effect on an adult, but somehow, it looked like he had a look of genuine pain on his face.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on!?¡± T¨²eth demanded as soon as she entered the room. He started talking at this point, but T¨²eth could not hear the words he said. Her mind at this point was completely on that child, Aerien, who he was holding. And then, she heard THAT word. Grey elves. The very second she heard that word, the last shred of caution was gone from her as that word shook her to her very core. ¡°Let her go!¡± The words erupted from T¨²eth¡¯s body.

    Somehow, she had crossed the distance between them. She didn¡¯t even remember taking the three or so steps that had previously separated them. However, he had easily intercepted her and had a hand on her shoulder. He managed to shove her to the ground without even budging an inch despite her mad charge. The cultivation he had gained as a hunter showed as he had that kind of power to freely receive a full charge that T¨²eth had literally put her entire being into.

    No, he had not fully received it. As T¨²eth fell to the ground, he also went stumbling backward off his feet until he hit a wall and slumped to the floor. Maybe his power was not as great as she had thought? He seemed genuinely surprised as well to have been forced back. As T¨²eth tried to scramble back to her feet though, she saw Aerien get up and throw a punch straight up that seemed to miss his head, going past his left ear. To T¨²eth¡¯s surprise though, he actually screamed in shock and pain as Aerien¡¯s hand went past him.

    She managed to escape from him after that. He struggled with Aerien a little more and then she rolled away from him. Good! It looks like she has escaped somehow. As soon as Aerien was clear, T¨²eth pounced on the man viciously. ¡°Leave my daughter alone!¡± She yelled with all the venom she cold muster. She didn¡¯t even realize she was saying it, but somehow the words also felt so right and they made her feel powerful. She shook the hunter by the shoulders and hit his head against the wall as he raised his bloody left hand to join the right one on his neck.

    Wait... blood!? T¨²eth had only just now realized it for the first time. The man seemed to be covered in bloody wounds. Were those there before when she first saw him? She didn¡¯t have the time to really think to hard about all of this, because a second later she heard the sound of Aerien behind her, screaming louder than she had ever heard her scream.

    T¨²eth¡¯s panicked brain managed to jump gears as she heard this. She turned around and rushed to her side. The child was thrashing about on the ground next to a bloody knife. The girl was covered in blood herself. It was all over her hands, there was some of it on her face, but most frightening of all it seemed to completely soak the entire left side of her dress. Realization dawned on her. That man... he must have stabbed her! He came here planning to kill the girls right here and now! Aerien was still alive, but she had to get her help!

    T¨²eth scooped her up, holding the thrashing child tightly to her chest as she ran back down the stairs. She arrived at the front entry way and began channeling mana to tell Nymph to open, but... for some reason, nothing happened. Why wasn¡¯t Nymph responding? Why now!? T¨²eth could hear the entire tree groaning around her, but the door wouldn¡¯t open.

    -

    Nymph¡¯s POV

    The elf was coming toward Aerien, the babie who made the most mana and spirit energy. This made nymph very very angry.

    Nymph could not do anything. Not without someone¡¯s spirit energy coming directly to them to tell them what to do. Even if Nymph had the extra mana from Aeirein, it was useless without spirit energy that knew what they wanted it to do. But maybe, if this elf had any magic and could see nymph then maybe they could do something. Nymph tried to get in the elf¡¯s face, but the elf did not seem to notice them.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Nymph could feel Aerien¡¯s energies doing something weird. They quickly became much weaker, but also seemed to become more stable. It felt like something was changing. Nymph did not know what was happening, but after they noticed this Aerien started doing something really stupid, but it was what a baby did so Nymph knew it was not her fault. But, what Aerien did was she walked straight to the elf after fighting with the human who was trying to take her away like Nymph had told them. The elf picked up Aerien, and then nymph felt the weird thing going on in Aerien¡¯s energies grow stronger.

    Aerien¡¯s energies started to feel really really different. It was a little like what Nymph felt when they were trying to use mana and spirit energy to grow. Nymph had never felt this coming from an elf before. The master had said that his ¡°cultivating¡± is a lot like when nymph was trying to use the energy to grow, but the master¡¯s energy felt very very different from what Nymph was feeling from Aerien right now.

    Nymph was distracted though. They tried to start thinking of something else they could do. The master¡¯s apprentice came and ran at the elf, and they pushed each other over. After this, Aerien stood up and started struggling with the elf. Nymph could see Aerien was covered in animal sap. Nymph knew this was called blood because of master, but animal sap was what all the other tree spirits called it so Nymph called it the same thing.

    Aerien had a lot of it all over one side of her, but then Nymph saw that Aerien hit the elf¡¯s hand as he tried to reach for her and saw his hand start to bleed his sap as well. Nymph also saw the elf¡¯s chest where he was holding Aerien. It was also completely covered in the elf¡¯s sap. When the elf pulled back his hand, that was when Nymph saw the knife Aerien had in her hand. Nymph was confused. When did Aerien get that knife?

    Nymph realized that Aerien was fighting against the elf, and doing a good job. She stapped him in the knee. After that, she got away from him and dropped the knife next to her when she stopped. After this, she looked up to the window. Nymph had been paying a lot of attention to what was going on inside, but as soon as Aerien looked outside Nymph looked outside as well. Two more elves were climbing up the vine to the window. This is bad, they still needed to close the window.

    This is when Nymph felt a lot of mana. Not just the normal mana, a WHOLE lot of mana. There was also a whole lot of spirit energy attached to it.

    ¡°HELP ME!!¡± The message sent through Aerien¡¯s spirit energy was incredibly loud. It was much much louder than even the strongest spirit energy command Nymph had ever received. Nymph felt themself completely overflowing. Aerien¡¯s mana and spirit both penetrated the entire tree. ¡°HELP! IT HURTS!!¡±

    The incredible spirit energy continued to pour in. The words from Aerien were not the only thing carried with this spirit energy though. They were powerful, but they were not the thing making Nymph go crazy. It was like nothing Nymph had ever felt before. Aerien¡¯s spirit energy had a lot of intelligence behind it. Nymph was filled with knowledge beyond anything they had ever learned from master. It was knowledge that seemed to come from way outside, millions of voices and memories were rushing into Nymph with this spirit energy.

    As the mana permiated the tree, it started to cause the tree to grow. It grew very fast. Nymph cast their eyes outside. They saw the two elfs climbing the vine fell when Nymph¡¯s tree started to grow. At the same time, the spirit flowed into Nymph. The spirit energy made Nymph feel stronger and smarter than Nymph had ever felt.

    Nymph could feel a transformation starting. They could feel their spirit growing as rapidly as the tree. Nymph¡¯s spirit projection vanished, entering the tree once again in order to better form this power that was surging into them.

    Nymph found suddenly that they could see everything. Their consciousness spread out to the entire area, everywhere, it was not just inside the tree anymore. Nymph could see all the way out far beyond the spirit trees that were where the other tree spirits lived. All of the tree spirits, both the nature spirits and the other nymph all started to come toward Nymph¡¯s tree. Nymph could feel all the others combining with them.

    Nymph understood what was happening now. They had heard about this before. When a plant spirit becomes powerful enough, it gains consciousness and becomes a nymph. At this time, all the other plant spirits around combine with it and make it into a nymph. Nymph did not remember this happening to them, but it must have happened. Now, all the nymph in the entire grove, and also all the spirits were coming to combine witn Nymph. Nymph was going to become the next form of a tree spirit, a dryad.

    Nymph¡­ no, Dryad, knew what they had to do now. Dryad had to protect Aerien. Aerien¡¯s spirit message said ¡°Help me.¡± She want¡¯s Dryad to make all of the people causing her problems to go away. It was that fey dragon who brought all the elves here. It was HIS fault! A Dryad was supposed to be able to act without needing spirit energy from others anymore, but Aerien¡¯s spirit was just so strong there was no ignoring it. Also, Dryad didn¡¯t WANT to ignore it! It was his fault! He attacked master¡¯s house, and he tried to hurt the babies! But first, Dryad would deal with the one who had come inside and attacked them.

    That one, Dryad hated that one even more! That one had violated them and attacked those they were keeping safe. Now that Dryad could do something about it with their own will, they would. They pulled the intruder into the very wall he was leaning against, encasing him on every side with wood. After he was away from where everyone could see him, Dryad crushed his body until his mana could no longer be felt.

    Now, it was time to direct their attention back outside. Now that Dryad wasn¡¯t just a Nymph anymore, Dryad understood everything about what that dragon had wanted to do. The elves are afraid of grey elves. They are afraid of grey elves because the corrupted elves always try to go where they are to kill them. So, the elves always kill the grey elves first before that can happen. That¡¯s what he was trying to do to Aerien.

    Nymph knew that the elves would kill the babies, but this was only because the master had said so. Now, Dryad knew a whole lot more. Dryad knew the stuff that came from Aerien¡¯s spirit, and Dryad also had the memories of all the other nymph who had fused to give Dryad power. Now Nymph knew exactly what it was that fey dragon had said and exactly what they had planned.

    ¡°The mages are important to help protect the village, and Eirlation is the strongest. It would not be wise to cross him. He will become uncooperative if we act against him. However, we do not want to take the risk of them really being grey elves. He will probably lie if we were to question him. So, bring the children to me while he is out today. I will make my judgement once I have seen them for myself.¡±

    That was what he had said. And, the girls really were grey elves too. There is only one thing he would have done when he saw they really were grey elves. But, why was he doing this when the tainted ones were already in the forrest? There was no need for it! It was obvious, the reason he couldn¡¯t let this one alone was because of foolish tradition! He was going to kill Aerien and Gaerien over that absolute foolishness!

    It made Dryad sick with anger when they put all of the pieces together. They had never been able to feel emotions this deep or this strong before. But, now that they understood so much more, it had awakened a new level of capacity to feel hatred within them that went far beyond the petty forms of anger they had felt before.

    Dryad had finished their evolution now. It had gone incredibly fast. Aerien¡¯s power flooding into and overflowing the entire grove of all the trees in the area had attracted all the spirits so quickly that Dryad was fully evolved in mere seconds. So, it was time to go out and make that dragon pay!

    Dryad manifested themself, and all the elves looked up to see their new spirit form that was as big as all of them. Dryad understood now that what they had become is something all the elves look up to and respect on a level every single bit as high as the fey dragons. No, higher even. While the powers of a dryad and a fey dragon are roughly equal, this is only to say that the weakest dryad is equal to the weakest dragon, and the same logic works at the upper end as well. There is actually a world of difference in power between any dryad and dragon depending on their age and how much power they had accumulated.

    Dryad had only just become a dryad. Normally, it should be completely impossible for them to win against that dragon. However, right now, Dryad felt the overwhelming power coming from Aerien still coming in, and it just kept making Dryad feel stronger and stronger the longer it flowed. Dryad knew. They just knew that they could win this!

    ¡°YOU DID THIS! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!¡± Dryad shouted. They could have said more. With Dryad¡¯s newfound intelligence, they could have easily explained exatly what they had done, but Dryad¡¯s hatred would not allow for it. And besides that, Dryad knew something from what they had learned from Aerien¡¯s spirit energy now. They understood that simply shouting a battle cry would unnerve their opponent and leave them more vulnerable to attack.

    Dryad felt all the trees. The entire area had turned into Dryad¡¯s body, and because Dryad was made from the consciousness of all the nymph who inhabited the trees in this place before, Dryad had the ability to split their attention and move every limb of every tree individually to do their will. Dryad moved the tree directly behind the fey dragon, bashing him over the head. He had escaped too much damage by reacting quickly, and he was trying to fly away, but Dryad would not let him!

    Dryad moved all the ivy vines in the area. They quickly captured the fleeing dragon. The dragon began trying to burn the vines in order to escape, but those vines were not normal now that they were part of Dryad¡¯s body. The mana that flowed through them now would protect them from the flames. However, Dryad could tell those flames were extremely hot. Just the protection the mana already flowing through those vines was likely not enough. So, they knew they would have to add more.

    Dryad pulled into the power Aerien was dumping into their tree and bid it all to come out. If Aerien was still giving all of this power, then it was in Dryad¡¯s nature to use all of it. The mana was so strong that the tree and the vines both began to glow, visible for everyone to see. The vines were now absolutely protected from everything the dragon could do. More than that though, they were also far strongher now, and Dryad could coil them tighter. Dryad kept making the vines pull harder and harder until it pulled the dragon¡¯s wing right off.

    ¡°NO! IT HUUUURTS!!!¡±

    Suddenly, Aerien¡¯s thoughts of pain grew even stronger. They now dominated the previous cry for help that she had made. It was so powerful now that Dryad could feel all the pain as well. It all echoed through Dryad¡¯s body, and as Dryad was in their spirit projection they could feel all the parts of Aerien¡¯s body where it hurt. The pain was so far beyond anything Dryad had ever known. Dryad had hardly known any pain, but there were a lot of memories of pain coming from all the memories Dryad had gained from Aerien¡¯s spirit energy. In all those memories though, there were very few that had experienced something that could be comparable to this pain.

    It was a pain on the level of those who were being tortured to their death. The bitter memories of those who had died in such overwhelming pain. That was the only thing that even came close. It was only now that Dryad had realized the significance of such memories existing within the information Aerien had given. Dryad was too blinded by hate before. They could not stop to think about it now though, the pain had overtaken them to a point they could no longer function.

 Chapter 41: TÃºeths realization

    T¨²eth¡¯s POV

    ¡°Nymph! Open right now!!! Aerien¡¯s going to die!¡± T¨²eth began beating on the wall with her free hand. She could not see clearly with the hot tears that were filling her eyes. She continued to clutch the screaming and thrashing child tight to her chest as she thrashed and began to howl even louder. In her blind pain, Aerien had begun to kick T¨²eth in the stomach, but she didn¡¯t even care. She looked desperately for a way out. A way to get Aerien to the master. Maybe he would have a way to do something about this.

    That¡¯s right! The window! T¨²eth turned her head to look over in the direction of the window, only to have her hopes dashed. The window was still there, a circular panel of glass sections held together by bits of wood that had extended in to fill the cracks. However, on the other side of the window now was dark solid wood, exactly like that of any other wall. T¨²eth had never felt so betrayed. Had Nymph used her mana to cover up the window instead of opening the door? That should be impossible! The Nymph always conformed to the will buried in the mana.

    T¨²eth had learned about it from the master during these weeks. It wasn¡¯t just mana that was used in the green word. A small amount of an elf¡¯s excess spirit energy is also used to carry their will. It is that will that tells the nymph what you want it to do. Normally, a nymph is powerless to disobey the elf¡¯s will. However, the spirit of the master¡¯s home is exceptionally intelligent for a nymph. They had absorbed a great deal of the master¡¯s will over the years to the point that now they could even refuse the orders of anyone other than the master. Could it be possible that they even have the power to use the mana for a purpose other than the one it was supposed to be used for?

    As T¨²eth was standing there in despair, Aerien suddenly yelled the loudest she had yelled this entire time. It was a scream as though her very soul was being shattered. And then, after this final scream, the child dropped limp in T¨²eth¡¯s arms.

    ¡°A... Aerien!?¡± T¨²eth said in disbelief. She closed her eyes and held the limp body to her chest as the tears flowed from her eyes. For the first time in her life, she did the one thing she had refused to ever allow herself to do. She gave her daughter a hug. But now... it was too late.

    T¨²eth heard the wood groaning again. She opened her eyes with pure hatred in them as she looked toward the door, but what she saw was shocking enough that it made her forget about the animosity she was feeling toward Nymph in this moment. Instead of the outside, what she saw was a deep tunnel of wood. It went on for quite a while, at least twice the distance from one side of this room to the other.

    T¨²eth unsteadily got to her feet, still clutching the limp body of her infant daughter to her chest. She began to walk through in a daze as to how this could have happened. Was this all... the master¡¯s house now? It had grown! This much! And... this suddenly too. This has to have all happened since the time she came downstairs. That was not long at all. She had simply gone immediately to the other side of the room, banged on the wall a little, and then looked over to the window. In total, it must have been around a minute tops. Maybe two minutes if it began while she was upstairs. Nymph... was THIS what they were doing!? Was this why they wouldn¡¯t open up before... while Aerien was still...

    NO! Aerien HAD to still be alive. You don¡¯t just die after you are in the middle of a scream like that! There¡¯s probably still time! She just passed out is all! T¨²eth¡¯s pace quickened as the fire of hope began to burn in her again. She ran out and saw the changed space in front of her, especially the sides of the master¡¯s tree. She saw, for some reason, a large white feathery object laying on the ground, covered in blood. However, her attention was quickly brought away from that when she saw her master running straight toward her with urgency on his face.

    Her heart felt immediately relieved to see the master, especially to see that his face said he already knew everything that needed to be said. She did not say a word, she just held Aeiren out toward him. He reached out his hands, and together they lowered her to the ground as he had T¨²eth support her body on her lap. He quickly pulled her dress from her limp body, leaving her in only the diaper they had never seen reason to remove from her even after she no longer had the need for physical food.

    As they freed Aerien of her clothing, expecting to see a horrible wound on her side, they were both baffled to instead see nothing. T¨²eth did not even know what to feel about this. Did she somehow heal from her injury? No, on closer examination, there was no cut on her dress either. None of this blood was hers. T¨²eth remembered she had seen blood from the man who had come in, and what looked like a very fresh injury on his hand. Could all of this blood have come from him? T¨²eth was so relieved she was almost ready to collapse.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    She could feel a faint smile beginning to float on her lips, but she let that fade immediately when she looked into the master¡¯s face and saw that he still had a very dark and serious look to him as he looked over Aerien¡¯s body. No, she knew that look. He was examining her mana! There was still something wrong. Going by the master¡¯s face, there was something VERY wrong. ¡°I¡¯ve got to bring her to my lab.¡±He said, snatching Aerien from her and springing to his feet. ¡°T¨²eth! Bring one of the boys!¡± He was running full speed at this point, not even stopping to look back at her.

    She knew it! There was still something very very wrong. T¨²eth got to her feet quickly and ran after her master. She ran down the tunnel through the wood. After a short distance, she realized something had changed. Instead of the straight level path she was expecting, she was staring up a flight of stairs that was only a short distance from the entrance. She saw her master was already running up the stairs.

    As she began to follow him, she saw the way further up close as soon as the master had passed a certain point about half way up the stairs. At the same time, the stairs that remained had a landing open up at the top of them. T¨²eth was beginning to understand what was going on now. Nymph was reforming themself in order to bring them each to the correct rooms. She didn¡¯t understand all of it, but she understood enough that she began to run forward with confidence.

    She ran down the hall that opened up at the top of the landing. The hall opened up straight into the girls¡¯ room, right next to where their bed was. The humans had both turned to look in confusion at the way opening up in a direction they hadn¡¯t seen before, and then T¨²eth coming out from it at full speed. One of the humans was next to the stairs, the other was with Gaerien. She decided to leave the one that was with Gaerien, maybe it would keep her calm. The one that was staring down the stairs was probably Aerien¡¯s human. Well then, that was perfect. She went over and grabbed that one, getting a quick yell of protest. Meanwhile, the stairs up to the master¡¯s room were already opening up.

    She ran up the stairs, bringing Aerien¡¯s human with her as she carried it with her left arm looped under their armpits. She quickly found her master placing Aerien atop a work table to begin examining her.

    She went over after him. ¡°Aerien!?¡± Aerien¡¯s human cried out when it saw her, and as soon as she set it on the table next to where the master was working it immediately moved a short distance from where the master was working and looked on with concern.

    The master had a serious expression on his face as he hovered his hand over Aerien¡¯s bare chest. With her clothing removed, T¨²eth could clearly see her daughter¡¯s chest rising and falling. It was as though she was simply asleep. However, even with all this noise and chaos around, she would not open her eyes. She simply remained comatose.

    ¡°Dryad!¡± The master said in a strong commanding voice. T¨²eth jumped at the word. Dryad? Was he talking about the highest level of the nature spirits? What did a dryad have to do with any of this? But, before T¨²eth could wonder for long, a green light seemed to coalesce on the master¡¯s other side, and a light whitish-green glowing person standing just as tall as T¨²eth appeared, their long soft green hair flowing down their back. T¨²eth jumped in surprise. Standing in front of her, that was undoubtedly a dryad. T¨²eth had never seen one before, she had only heard the stories, but there was no doubt in her mind that this simply had to be a dryad.

    T¨²eth¡¯s body shook as she was fighting with herself. Despite this situation, she felt the urge to prostrate herself before this great being of the forest. However, the dryad¡¯s words snapped her out of all of that. ¡°Master, what do you need?¡± The soft glowing person said, the obvious concern in their voice as they too looked on toward Aerien¡¯s comatose form. That dryad just called him master? That would mean... no, it should have been obvious from the start! It all added up with the tree suddenly being so much bigger. But... how? She had just talked to Nymph not even 30 minutes ago, and now they were a dryad?

    ¡°Aerien had something to do with how you suddenly evolved like that, didn¡¯t she?¡± The master states. ¡°I need to hear everything I can about it.¡±

    ¡°What!?¡± T¨²eth nearly shouts. ¡°H... how!?¡± The master looks to her with a sad look in his eyes, and then back to Aerien. His arms are stiff and straight as he holds himself up directly over her body on the counter below him, looking completely defeated.

    ¡°Aerien... there has always been something so strange about her. I never realized just how strange until I got her living here under the same roof. I always kept my distance and didn¡¯t try to do anything too intrusive in order to find out more. She was angry at me for having just taken her here, and I always figured I would have the time to figure things out after things had calmed down. Then, when the queen made her announcement, I had noticed her spirit energy was beginning to weaken. I knew there was something big that had changed about her, the need to figure out what was going on with her only increased, but I could never spare the time.¡±

    The master lets out a sigh, and then one of his hands moves over to gently cover one of the tiny arms laying limply at Aerien¡¯s side. ¡°And then,¡± he says, ¡°this happens. Nymph suddenly evolves into a Dryad. Not only that, but their tree grew explosively to a level similar to the highest tier of magic. And, at the exact same time that this is happening, Aerien collapses. Given all of this, it would be more strange if the two were not connected, and I feel that our strongest hint as to what might have happened may all be in what Dryad can tell us about their transformation.¡±

    T¨²eth stood in shock at everything the master had just said. She knew Aerien was strange because of what she had been told, but to think there was something going on that could have directly lead to this happening to her? She felt a pain in her chest, as though something had wrapped itself around her heart and was constricting down on it. Once again, she was a horrible mother. She had been so afraid of her own daughter that she couldn¡¯t even see any of this. She turned to Dryad, eager to listen to their story. T¨²eth simply HAD to know if there was something that perhaps she could have done if she wasn¡¯t always hiding from her own daughter.

 Chapter 42: Aftermath, putting the pieces together

    Eirlathion¡¯s POV

    Eirlathion truly had no idea at all what was going on with Aerien right now. He had never known enough about her since she was born. Ever since he first discovered something was different about her, he has not been able to feel even close to understanding it even once.

    Now, something was very very wrong. He was relieved to discover the blood he had seen on her was not her own. He could only guess at what might have happened with whoever had infiltrated his home. Even if it was not her blood though, the fact still remained that this child was laying limp on the counter top of his lab right now, and did not even show the slightest sign of reacting to the rough handling she had been getting as she was passed from one person to the other and ran all over the place.

    He was relieved to find the slightest hint of some form of mana circulating deep inside of her, but to even detect it had required him to actually use some of his spirit energy to create a temporary spell effect. This pseudo-spell managed to detect internal mana instead of only mana that was radiated off. This was a sign her spirit was still alive. Well, the mere fact she had not lost her physical form was proof enough of that.

    This did leave the question though as to exactly what had happened and how. This is why he asked the one other person who had some first-hand exposure to something strange that had happened in the past hour, lining up almost perfectly with Aerien being reduced to this state. If anyone had some clues to what might have happened, it would be Dryad. And, after having explained his reasoning to his apprentice, who also happened to be the understandably distressed mother of the child laying comatose on his lab counter, it was time to finally hear what had really happened here.

    ¡°Anyway, Dryad, please tell me about how it was that you were able to suddenly evolve to your current state. It is related to Aerien, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that is correct master.¡± Dryad replies before their spirit form hugs themself, looking visibly shaken. This was a normal enough gesture for any intelligent being, but it was rather unusual to see a tree spirit reacting this way. ¡°Her voice,¡± Dryad says, ¡°It was.. so loud. I could feel the energy in it just pouring into me, and¡­ there was also so much pain.¡±

    So much pain¡­ is Dryad saying..? ¡°You mean Aerien used the green word?¡± Eirlathion asked, to which Dryad nodded.

    ¡°She kept saying ¡®help me, it hurts.¡¯¡± Dryad¡¯s projection suddenly vanished. It seemed the memory of what they had received from Aerien was too much for them. Canceling the spirit projection for a tree spirit would be something similar to a physical creature having to sit down. For this to have happened to Dryad in the middle of recounting something difficult, it really spoke to how intense what they must have felt was.

    Eirlathion felt his hand brushed and looked down to see Levin had crawled past him. He was now holding Aerien¡¯s hand tenderly in his own as he looked down at her. Something bothered him about how the boy was acting, but he couldn¡¯t quite place why. It seemed like a natural enough reaction. T¨²eth was having a reaction of her own. As he looked over at her, her hand was tightly clamped over her mouth and the tears could be seen trickling from her eyes as she was looking down at her daughter.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Dryad¡¯s voice suddenly came from the wall. Eirlathion looked up to the direction the voice had come from, seeing a wooden face roughly in the form of Dryad¡¯s spirit projection looking back at him with a downcast expression. ¡°I know it¡¯s rude for me to talk with you like this.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± Eirlathion hardly even misses a beat, being used to interacting with Dryad, or rather Nymph at the time. ¡°Please, go on. I would like to hear any details you can give me around this. Why did Aerien try to use the green word?¡± The question of how she knew how to use it also surfaced in Eirlathion¡¯s mind, but he quickly pushed it out. Of course, this would not be the first time Aerien would have surprised him by demonstrating her frighteningly fast ability to learn and reason through things.

    ¡°Ok, well. I warned the children to all run away to the stairs when I saw the man climbing outside of my body. After he broke the window and came inside, Aerien..¡± A sudden frown appeared on Dryad¡¯s face and they paused. This was not normal behavior for them, but then again this was not a normal situation at all. ¡°Ah! The man grabbed Aerien.¡± Dryad seemed to suddenly recover from whatever was affecting them.

    It was somewhat weird, it certainly felt like Dryad was uncomfortable talking about the subject, but something else seemed off about it. But then, he had just thought there was something off about Levin worrying about Aerien a second ago. Maybe it was just him who had his nerves frayed. This had all been a very stressful situation for everyone.

    ¡°Anyway!¡± Dryad continued. ¡°When T¨²eth came up and saw him, she went and shoved him. He knocked her down, but he also fell against the wall, and then Aerien escaped and started using the green word to ask me for help. I used her mana to take care of that guy, and then... it didn¡¯t stop. She just kept overflowing with more and more mana and so much spirit energy. I couldn¡¯t do anything with all the energy she kept pouring into me, and with the pain... it completely overwhelmed me.¡±

    Dryad paused, and then their spirit projection returned, sitting on top of the counter next to Aerien, sitting on the other side from Levin. The projection had its hands on the edge of the counter, and was sitting perfectly still looking down at the floor.

    ¡°It was more than just Aerien.¡± They suddenly said.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Eirlathion asked. He couldn¡¯t quite make sense of what Dryad was saying, but something about the way they said it told him this was a very important key point.

    ¡°When I felt Aerien pouring her energies into me, I heard her pain and her fear, but there was also more. I also felt... something else. There was... a LOT of intelligence behind her energy. It... was way more than a little girl like her could possibly have. It was not even just one other intelligence. It was... it was memories and knowledge from what felt like thousands of different sources. I.. All of that information. I still can¡¯t sort through it all... there was just so much.¡±

    Dryad looked up at him as he took in the significance of this information. Thousands of sources of intelligence. This really did sound very important. In fact, this sounded like it held the key to so much about Aerien he didn¡¯t know.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°Hmm... thousands of sources... thousands of voices. All of them, you could only hear them when Aerien used the green word... but her voice crying for help was the most dominant, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Dryad responds and then hugs themself again at the memory of hearing Aerien¡¯s spiritual voice in pain.

    ¡°What does that mean?¡± T¨²eth asks. Levin, who Eirlathion had almost forgotten about, also seemed to be looking up in anticipation of his answer.

    ¡°Hmm... that¡¯s exactly the question we¡¯re trying to find the answer to. Dryad. Was it only intelligence and memories that you felt? Were there any actual spirit voices aside from Aerien?¡±

    ¡°No, it was just memories, there was no actual voice attached to the other spirit energy.¡±

    ¡°Alright then. I know you said you were still sorting through it all, but is there anything you can tell me about the knowledge and memories you received?¡±

    ¡°That... ah! Yes!¡± Dryad responded. They suddenly looked a lot more confident. ¡°It was disjointed and completely random¡± They say, ¡°There is no rhyme nor reason to any of it, it seems like it is just a mess of the random thoughts of all the people in a very very large crowd.¡±

    ¡°Hmm...¡± Eirlathion nods his head at this information. Judging by the sharp look on Dryad¡¯s face, it seems they may have arrived at the same conclusion he did. Not only does they know how Eirlathion thinks, but they also seem to genuinely be smarter now as well after this transformation. They have probably arrived at the exact same conclusion.

    (Author note: ¡°does they = artifact of gender neutral speech¡±)

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± T¨²eth demands, looking between him and Dryad¡¯s spirit projection. Eirlathion has a sensitive look on his face about the topic as he looks back to Dryad.

    ¡°Well, you¡¯re the one who experienced it yourself.¡± He says, ¡°I think we are probably thinking the same thing, but I would rather hear your impression first.¡±

    Dryad gives a nod at this and then looks up at T¨²eth. ¡°Those were not Aerien¡¯s knowledge or memories I felt when she was using the green word. They came from somewhere else. I think... Aerien somehow summoned energy to use, and then she poured it directly into me.¡±

    ¡°Summoning?¡± Eirlathion¡¯s eyebrow raised at Dryad¡¯s use of terminology. Indeed, he was thinking along the same vein, but that was an interesting interpretation. ¡°I don¡¯t think summoning is quite right though.¡± Eirlathion says. ¡°This is probably similar to summoning, but I think... Dryad, how much do you know about human magic?¡±

    ¡°I.. wait! There is something about it in the information I just got from Aerien! Yes, what I felt is definitely most similar to summoning. If you were thinking it might be evocation master, then that¡¯s wrong.¡±

    ¡°Summoning of pure energy, huh?¡± Eirlathion responded. ¡°Well, this would explain a lot. I suppose she must have had something in her spirit that allowed her to automatically summon energy. This would explain so much of what I¡¯ve been feeling from Aerien for a long time now.¡±

    After reasoning things out this far, Eirlathion turns to look back to Aerien with a harsh look on his face. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then I think I know what may have happened to Aerien.¡± His face darkened. If what he was thinking was true, then there really was nothing he could do to help the situation himself.

    ¡°What!? What is going on!?¡±T¨²eth demands in a weak voice, looking afraid of the answer.

    Eirlathion steps forward and gently brushes the side of Aerien¡¯s head. ¡°This is my fault.¡± He says. ¡°Aerien, she must have gotten scared when that man attacked. She got scared and summoned too much energy in order to try to get Nymph to protect her..¡±

    ¡°Master, how is any of that your fault?¡± Dryad asks him in a stern tone.

    ¡°I.. I knew that Aerien had something wrong with her, that she could do things to manipulate her energies in ways beyond what any child her age should have been capable of. Everything makes sense now. She must have somehow always had the ability to do this. This would explain how she was always so smart and so advanced. She probably learned things from consuming the spirit energy she summoned since it had all that intelligence attached to it, but it couldn¡¯t teach her how to properly control her own energies.¡±

    Eirlathion let out a sigh. He withdrew his hand from the side of Aerien¡¯s head, allowing it to drop to his side. ¡°I knew it. I could see that she needed to be taught how to control those energies, but I was never able to get the time to give her the training she needed. Maybe... maybe if she was trained better... maybe if she had better discipline and knew her limits then...¡±

    ¡°Master! That¡¯s not your fault.¡± Dryad cut him off. ¡°Aerien got scared! Even if you DID teach her how to handle it, that wouldn¡¯t have made a difference! It wasn¡¯t your fault, it was...¡± Dryad suddenly cast a look out toward one of the walls. No, they were looking straight through the walls toward the location where a certain fey dragon would still likely be suspended in the vines. ¡°It was HIS fault! If he hadn¡¯t been so stuck on tradition as to make a big deal about grey elves even in the current situation, none of this would have happened! Aerien would not have gotten scared enough to do that if that man hadn¡¯t bust through the window and grabbed her!¡±

    Eirlathion didn¡¯t know how to respond to that. Dryad was right, but more importantly, regardless of that, Eirlathion couldn¡¯t help the growing sense of crisis he was feeling at Dryad¡¯s words. They had already done critical damage to Everon over this whole thing, if they went on to kill him now, that would be a very serious matter. No matter what he did, he was still an envoy of the queen.

    ¡°Wait, Dryad! We¡¯re going to need him!¡± He cut them off before they could do anything rash. ¡°I¡¯ve got an idea that might be able to heal Aerien, but we are going to need him for it!¡±

    Dryad¡¯s projection turned back and glared at him. This behavior... along with becoming a dryad, their will had grown to become as strong as a normal sentient creature, and they seemed to have picked up quite a bit of will and rage along with that. It was strange dealing with Dryad as they were now. As a nymph, they would never have shown him such a defiant face. They still called him master, but he had to keep in mind, dryads were the true rulers of the forest, and only the fey dragons had even a hope of challenging them. He should just consider himself fortunate now if Dryad would afford him the good will and listen to him for having grown up with him for 700 years.

    ¡°Fine then!¡± Dryad angrily bites. ¡°He¡¯s been annoyingly calling on me to offer his apologies anyway, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be receptive to whatever master has in mind.¡± Dryad turns to cast a brief glance at T¨²eth, giving a nod and looking back at him. ¡°What exactly do you have in mind anyway?¡±

    Dryad look back at T¨²eth after saying this, directing Eirlathion¡¯s gaze toward her to see she was looking at him with a sea of conflicting emotions on her face. Hope and interest were pretty close to the front though. Did Dryad just ask this question for T¨²eth¡¯s benefit? He had heard tree spirits gain a far greater awareness of the world when they become Dryads, but this kind of subtle perception is a bit beyond what he was expecting. It had to be from the intelligence they had said they got from the energy Aerien gave them.

    ¡°Well, really, I just need him to give us an introduction to the queen. Aerien¡¯s spirit has degraded from the energy that has passed through her. This is far beyond my abilities to fix. Her majesty, however, ought to have the ability to do something. She also ought to have plenty of reason to help us, given what Aerien would be able to do for the great tree using her power. The only problem is... the price she¡¯s almost certain to demand.¡±

    Eirlathion turned and looked to T¨²eth and fixed her with a heavy look, gazing directly into her eyes as she began to squirm under his heavy expression. Realizing that something was wrong, she stiffens up and begins to have a look of fear in her eyes as she meets his gaze for just a second before glancing away. ¡°Wh.. what?¡± She asks.

    Eirlathion lets out a heavy sigh. He was going to have to just say it. ¡°The price that she will demand... is Aerien. If we ask her to repair her spirit, she will take Aerien once she is done.¡± He places a hand on T¨²eth¡¯s shoulder and lets out a sigh. ¡°Aerien can live, but... we have lost her. One way or another, she¡¯s as good as gone to us right now. The only thing we can do now is take her to the queen so at the very least she will be alive.¡±

    A flicker of loss appears on T¨²eth¡¯s face for a moment, and then it is replaced by a hard determined expression. ¡°Well, if that¡¯s how it is, I guess that¡¯s probably for the best.¡± She says the words with a slight hint of bitterness, but they were said with so much conviction that Eirlathion could tell that she really did mean it. He was shocked at how fully willing she sounded to give Aerien up like that, he wanted to say something to her, but what would he really be doing if he said something in these circumstances? All he would be doing is trying hard to make her feel worse about the situation. This really was how it had to be, so, maybe it was better if she had a mind-set that allowed her to accept it better.

    ¡°There¡¯s really nothing that you can do master?¡±Dryad asks in a pleading tone that only just barely managed to hide the slight edge of desperation.

    ¡°I wish there was,¡± he says. ¡°I¡¯m afraid this is our only choice.¡±

    Dryad casts a hard glance over toward Aerien. No, wait... toward Levin? What was she looking at him for!? He had been perfectly quiet to the point Eirlathion had almost forgotten he was there, but for some reason Dryad was looking straight at him. A second later, Dryad¡¯s projection descended into the floor, and there was the sound of the stairs leading down to the children¡¯s room being closed off.

    1st Arc: Infancy

    End.

 1st Arc epilogue: What really happened

    Epilogue

    Arc 1

    I look out into the distance in the desolate place my inner world had become. It was now a shattered chaotic land where the four elements clashed and crashed into each other. It was no longer just the four elements either. Bolts of thunder also flashed across the barren void, chunks of water and ice smashed into pockets of fire and floating magma, causing steam explosions. And, occasionally, tendrils of the void would reach up and cause the great clumps of stone to instantly crumble into dust.

    ¡®Aerien, are you still in there?¡¯ My sister¡¯s voice cuts through the darkness and chaos, causing me to look up. I can see no sign of her projection, but I could still hear her voice. Well, it¡¯s the first welcome thing I have felt since the incident that had effectively trapped me in here. Actually, I could leave and wake up in the real world at any time, but, given the circumstances I would never forgive myself if I did.

    ¡®Yes, I¡¯m here.¡¯ I mentally respond to her voice, projecting it out past the walls that encompass this space.

    I can sense an emotion of relief being radiated inward from every wall. I can recognize this form of mental communication. This is the first time it has ever been done while I was inside my mental world, but it was far from the first time Gaerien and I had communicated in this way.

    ¡®That¡¯s good, you really got everyone worried you know? Can you tell me what happened?¡¯

    ¡®Well, I would if I knew myself. I will get to the important part first though. My original chakra body was destroyed.¡¯

    I was met with silence. I suppose what I had just said must have been as shocking to her to hear it as it was to me to see it. The silence continued for several heavy seconds, but at about the same time I had started to wonder if she was going to be saying anything else at all, she finally spoke up again. ¡®How?¡¯ She said.

    ¡®I already told you, I don¡¯t know.¡¯

    *sigh* ¡®Of course you don¡¯t. Well, I suppose if that¡¯s what happened, then it¡¯s a very good thing we chose the route of making you a second spirit body. Whatever caused this to happen to you, you would be dead right now if your original spirit body was your only one.¡¯

    ¡®I suppose so, that¡¯s not a very pleasant thought.¡¯ I responded, looking down at the still form of the projection of my younger self, still laying limp in my arms. Indeed, if I was in the same state as her right now, we would both have been long since gone. In fact, it was everything I could do right now just to keep her from fading away.

    ¡®how about you explain to me exactly what happened?¡¯ Gaerien says. To this, I go on to explain everything I could remember about what I had seen. About how when I started trying to use magic, I realized I was in a lot of pain at the locations of my chakras. I looked into my inner world to see what was going on, and it had already turned into a swirling mess of the elemental energies. The energies seemed to be trying to go inside the representations of my older and younger spirit bodies. They seemed to have very little trouble entering my recently completed adult chakra system, but they had trouble entering the chakra system that represented my original younger spirit.

    I explained how those energies seemed to repeatedly collide with the younger form, until finally it started to break apart. First the sixth chakra located at the third-eye position exploded like shattering glass, and then in a cascade failure scenario all the rest started shattering at an increasing rate until finally the heaven¡¯s chakra shattered last.

    ¡®Well, that¡¯s about what I remember.¡¯ I tell her.

    ¡®Hmm¡­ what happened to your new spirit body?¡¯ She asks.

    ¡®What do you mean?¡¯

    ¡®The new one you created, what was happening to it while your original one was getting beat up by the elemental energies? You said it was absorbing them. Has anything about it changed?¡¯

    ¡®Well, yes. Now that you mention it, it has. It seems like all of the chakras are glowing brighter, they all turned bright white as well. I get the sense the entire system is stronger.¡¯

    ¡®I thought so. It sounds like what happened was a breakthrough in your cultivation. Your new spirit body succeeded in the breakthrough, your old one failed. It was likely because the old one was so unstable still. Your new spirit body had an almost perfectly balanced chakra system since it was newly created and hadn¡¯t had a chance to break down or gain any kind of blockages in the system.¡¯

    ¡®Well, I¡¯ve heard the term chakra blockages before in all the qi-gong stuff I looked into before, but other than that you are using a lot of terms I don¡¯t know. I think you should explain.¡¯

    ¡®Oh, yes, sorry. It is cultivator terminology. A breakthrough means you reached a new stage in your cultivation. It was probably your current spirit trying to match the stage you had reached in your previous life. The unstable nature of your previous chakra system just couldn¡¯t take it.¡¯

    ¡®Well, how did I suddenly get this ¡°breakthrough¡± as you call it then?¡¯This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡®Well, you said it yourself when you told me about your meditation. It works at its best when you are in training, and it ought to work even better in combat. Just before you started screaming and all that, you were fighting that guy who broke in.¡¯

    ¡®I was screaming?¡¯

    ¡®Oh yes, like you were being murdered. It actually scared me to hear you screaming like that quite a bit.¡¯

    ¡®Well, it really hurt, I guess that makes sense.¡¯

    ¡®I assume you must have been fighting on a rather high level in order to beat that guy the way you did. You can move better than I can, but not THAT much better, and yet you did something there I¡¯m sure I never could. You are an infant with the mobility of a young toddler, and yet you beat a grown adult who was probably an active hunter, and you did it with purely physical skills.¡¯

    ¡®Yeah.¡¯

    ¡®I still have no idea how you did that. Just what did you do anyway?¡¯

    ¡®Well, it¡¯s something we call the timing of heaven. It sounds both more and less impressive than it actually is. I basically give control of my body over to my subconscious, and let my movements be guided by my sensory information without my conscious mind getting in the way of a single movement. It allows my steps and timing to both become absolutely precisely what I am aware they need to be. The only thing I have to do is realize what needs to happen and my body makes it happen.¡¯

    ¡®Even with that explanation, I don¡¯t think I could even have realized what needed to happen.¡¯

    ¡®Yes, it takes training and repetition. In this case, I knew the guy was going to try to grab me, so I knew I needed to approach him right as he was reaching for me. I had to be in phisical contact with his leg, around the back side of it, in order to force him to bend his knees in order to get his knife in reach so I could grab it off him. After that, I just had to hide it as he picked me up and then push it into his chest using the force of him pulling me toward himself. All I did was brace it against my hip while he plunged the knife into himself with my body acting as a force multiplier.¡¯

    ¡®I did have one problem when Levin tried to grab me,¡¯ I continued, ¡®however, I wound up managing to actually use it to my advantage, to even my own surprise. When I threw his hands off, I pretended to stumble and weave around a little. Actually, it wasn¡¯t just pretend, but it seems like my intent was strong enough to keep me on my feet till I reached my target. I guess the chaotic way I was walking prevented him from even trying to reach for me, so it all worked out in the end.¡¯

    ¡®I see.¡¯ Gaerien responded. ¡®About all I know about any of that is that it¡¯s not something I could do, but I will assume it¡¯s some pretty high level stuff. How about this, do you have any idea how high level you would have to be to pull it off in terms of the ranks of your cultivation that you told me about before? The whole heaven, earth, man thing.¡¯

    ¡®Well, we don¡¯t really think in those kinds of terms, we would just say you have to have a lot of training in order to do it, but there are some miracles where even a very low level person could pull it off. You just need a very strong will to live and the training to make your body act on its own.¡¯

    ¡®Don¡¯t give me any of that stuff, you just nearly killed an adult as a baby. You know that¡¯s high level stuff, not just anyone could pull it off.¡¯

    ¡®I don¡¯t know what to tell you.¡¯

    ¡®Well, how about you try and think out what someone at each stage should be capable of.¡¯

    ¡®We don¡¯t really think in terms of stages. Well¡­ I guess if you really want to push me to think about it, nobody but the absolute most elite top-level masters had reached the ninjutsu level. I was not there. I was definitely still at the taijutsu level. I also manipulated my opponent with almost every single move I made, that¡¯s at the level of man. So, top level of the lowest tier.¡¯

    ¡®Somewhere between 11 and 15 stages through your cultivation in other words? So, you just went through the strain of suddenly boosting through at least 10 stages all at once. It¡¯s really no wonder your spirit was destroyed. So, I am guessing your younger self probably didn¡¯t make it?¡¯

    ¡®No, she¡¯s still here. She¡¯s just barely clinging to life, but it¡¯s taking everything I have to keep her from fading away.¡¯

    ¡®Oh!? Well, this may interest you then. It is sounding like they are planning to find someone to help you out. Apparently, we¡¯re going to see the faerie queen.¡¯

    ¡®What¡¯s that all about?¡¯

    ¡®Well, it seems like the crazy energy that was going off while your spirit was falling apart was picked up by Falmarin. Or, rather, she¡¯s called Nandin now, she transformed into a nandin, she looks like an adult in her spirit form now.¡¯

    ¡®Falmarin and Nandin huh? Well, I guess we know what word means what in English now. I¡¯m guessing nandin means dryad.¡¯

    ¡®Dryad huh? Well then, Dryad became a dryad because of your energy. So, because of that they all found out about your whole otherworld energy thing. They think the queen will be interested enough by that that she will help you to recover. Only¡­¡¯

    ¡®Only what?¡¯

    ¡®They say they are going to have to give you to her as the price for it. So, if you can recover on your own then it might be something you are going to want to think about doing quickly.¡¯

    ¡®Honestly, I don¡¯t even know where to start. I have tried a few times to start rebuilding my younger self¡¯s chakras, but every time I start trying to divert my energies her remaining spirit grows weaker.¡¯

    ¡®Well, if you can¡¯t handle it, then I suppose you will have to accept her help.¡¯

    ¡®We will manage this somehow¡­ how is our mother taking this?¡¯

    ¡®Not well.. She has been crying a lot. She has hardly even so much as let you go since you collapsed. I had to crawl into her lap just to talk to you like this.¡¯

    ¡­ I almost felt as though I was actually stabbed in the heart upon hearing this. I am sure my younger self would be quite happy to hear about our mother suddenly expressing this kind of affection for me. Why did it have to be now though? If what Gaerien told me was correct, I had finally managed to win my mother over right before having to be separated from her.

    ¡®Gaerien, you wouldn¡¯t happen to have a way to help me with this, would you?¡¯

    ¡®I¡­ don¡¯t know. I might be able to help point you in the right direction if I could get in there with you, but¡­¡¯

    ¡®I really don¡¯t think I could even open the door for you right now.¡¯

    ¡®I suspected as much. Even if I could get in there though, I can¡¯t manipulate your energies. I am afraid my magic wouldn¡¯t be good for much in the way of helping you either. In fact, it would probably do more harm than good since you are a member of a fey race.¡¯

    ¡®So, it¡¯s like that, is it?¡¯

    ¡®I¡¯m afraid so.¡¯

    ¡®Well, the gods of Earth were essentially in open war against Earth¡¯s fey creatures. That¡¯s no surprise.¡¯

    ¡®I¡¯m sorry.¡¯

    ¡®I suppose accepting the queen¡¯s help is the only way then. Well, thank you for the heads up at least. Maybe I will at the very least be able to negotiate on my own behalf a little better.¡¯

    ¡®How do you plan to negotiate exactly? We don¡¯t know how to speak their language properly!¡¯

    ¡®Hmm¡­ I¡¯m not willing to let our little family be broken up. At the very least I can use the fact that I¡¯m still perceived as a baby to my advantage.¡¯

    ¡®So, are you seriously planning to just cry until they grab us in order to console you?¡¯

    ¡®I will use whatever works, and this is one of the deceptively powerful tools that I have in my current tool box.¡¯

    ¡®You really are shameless aren¡¯t you?¡¯

    ¡®That¡¯s a part of the mind-set in my art, identify your advantages and use whatever works. Honor is worth nothing before your life.¡¯

    ¡®What do you mean before your life? You¡¯re talking about just whether or not we¡¯re together here.¡¯

    ¡®You three are part of my life right now. If you three were taken from me, I may still be alive, but I would have had my entire life taken from me.¡¯

    ¡®Again, you are completely shameless, aren¡¯t you?¡¯

    ¡®Again, I will use whatever works.¡¯

 Lore chapter 3: Catalog of the fey

    Catalogue of the Fey races.

    The fey are a race born from human or dragon souls who cling to life. There are a large number of fey races with varrying degrees of power. For the most part, the power of the fey is directly proportionate to the power of the human or dragon in their cultivation before their death.

    The fey are also primarily divided into 3 classes. The Faerie class, the Humanoid class, and the Fused Spirit class.

    The Faerie class

    The Faerie class is the most powerful of the 3 classes of fey, and can possess tremendously powerful magic that can put most human mages to shame. However, the faerie class of fey also has a weakness in that they have a difficult time progressing beyond the level of power they are born at, especially for the strongest fey dragon class who are unused to the process of cultivation even in their previous lives.

    -Fey Dragons.

    The fey dragons are the strongest class of faeries who are already the strongest class of fey as well. The fey dragons are also further sub-divided into greater, true, and sub varieties. This is believed to relate directly to the age of the dragon at the time of their death.

    All dragons who cling to life are capable of becoming fey dragons, and there is no case in which they have been known to become any other class of fey. However, the older a dragon is at the time of its death the less likely it is to cling to life. As such, there are very very few fey dragons of the higher tiers with the greater fey dragons often being the only ones of their size and power in an entire fey community. A greater fey dragon is known to have power to change the very weather and have magic that can scoop up entire chunks of earth and levitate it into the sky. They can be said to be among the most powerful forces in the world.

    True fey dragons are thought to be born from adult dragons and are also exceedingly rare, often being held in high regards in any fey community. The more common sub fey dragons are the most common, and are thought to be born from juvenile dragons. While true fey dragons and greater fey dragons are often wise and powerful leaders among the fey, the more common sub fey dragons are known to be bitter toward their own state and often act rashly and are prideful and short tempered.

    -Great Faeries

    Great Faeries are the most powerful of the human-based faeries, and hold the strongest potential for growth of all the faeries. This is because of the fact that most of the great faeries manage to retain a large amount of their human memories, and most of those who die with the power to become a great faerie and the drive necessary to cling to life will have it in their nature to imrove and further advance their power. While fey dragons are often born stronger that even the great faeries on average, with age a great faerie can usually quite easily rival or surpass the strength of a true fey dragon.

    -Faeries

    The average faerie is born with the ability to cast powerful magic of the 4th and often even the 5th tier, likely indicating that they were mages in life with the ability to cast spells of the same level of power. Regardless, they possess unique magic than no human is able to use.

    However, faeries possess a critical weakness. They often forget large amounts of what made them human when they are reborn as a faerie. Often, one of the few things they remember is the fact that they were humans before, but they usually do not seem to think that matters all that much. Faeries often seclude themselves away from humans, but become curious whenever a human comes into their forrest.

    -Demi faeries.

    Demi faeries are small humanoids thought to be related to the faeries due to their size and the fact that they are capable of using faerie magic. However, their faerie magic is far weaker than that of regular faeries, normally only being as strong as the 2nd tier.

    Also unlike regular faeries, demi faeries are almost exclusively found in human territories, often keeping themselves hidden using invisibility magic in people¡¯s houses. Demi faeries are known to imitate the work done by humans, often when nobody is looking. If they are in a house, they will imitate the woman of the house by cleaning the place. If they are in a trades shop, they will imitate the tradesman by crafting whatever item the tradesman makes. Demi faeries are often seen as a blessing to those whos¡¯ houses they choose to reside in, and it is suggested that anyone who is fortunate enough to have this should leave some kind of sweetened treat out for the demi faeries to enjoy as thanks for their help and to encourage them to remain in their house or place of business.

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    Humanoids

    There are a handfull of fey races that are not simply born into existence as most other fey are, but instead are born from their parents as a human would be. These fey races are known as the humanoid fey. The humanoid fey have both powerful physical and magical ability, and are often able to progress very well in terms of developing their magic or other cultivations.

    -Elves

    Elves are known as the master race among the humanoid fey. They are said to be the parent race of all the other humanoid fey races, and are also often more long-lived. However, they are also more limited in their ability to progress magically. Elves are known however to have superior hunters and warriors that serve as the foot-soldiers for the fey races in times where they need to go into combat.

    The weakness of the elves is that when they are in their infancy they need an excessive amount of spirit energy in quantities that can only be gained from human children. Because of this, elves have been known to regularly lead raids on small human villages in order to kidnap human children whenever a new baby is born among one of their tribes.

    -Gnomes

    When a human male mates with an elf female, the child that is born will be a gnome. However, the gnomes also have the ability to create viable offspring with one another, and most gnomes are born in this manner rather than as the mix of human and elven parents. Gnomes look in every way to be small elves, with the same pointed ears and slender features.

    Gnomes are able to combine the magical growth potential of humans with the longer lifespan and natural magic of the elves, and even have the ability to produce their own mana and spirit energy. This allows gnomes to have the greatest magical growth potential of any race.

    -Dwarves

    Much like how Gnomes are born from a human father and elf mother, the mating of an elven male and a human female will produce a dwarf. Also, much the same as gnomes, dwarves have the ability to produce viable offspring with one another in addition to being born from this pairing of humans and elves. Dwarves look in every way to be small humans.

    Dwarves are unoficially sub-divided into sun dwarves and dark dwarves. Sun dwarves can often be easily mistaken for human children unless one looks at their face up close with a discerning eye and recognizes the signs of adulthood to them. They usually make their homes in small settlements and communities and are known to be somewhat nomadic in their lifestyle.

    Dark dwarves usually live underground. There are some rumors that the male parent of their race was actually demonized elves, but they insist that they are very different from those ones which live much deeper under the ground and call the results of such a pairing the ¡°Duergar,¡± stating that these duergar have darkened skin and are skinnier like the sun dwarves.

    It is unknown whether the dark dwarves are telling the truth or not as few people on the surface have ever seen these duergar of which the dark dwarves speak, but one thing is for certain, the dark dwarves, especially the males, are very differnt from the sun dwarves. Dark dwarves are often stockier in build, and have large bushy beards. There is no mistaking a male dark dwarf for a human child.

    Sun dwarves and dark dwarves alike both have physical strength that is quite desceptive for their size, thought to be inherited from their elven parents. A sun dwarf has a level of physical strength that is equal to the average adult human. Dark dwarves meanwhile are even stronger and heartier and even surpass the elves, some have been known to have the ability to lift and throw an ox with a single hand.

    Fused spirits

    The fused spirit class fey are the weakest class among the fey, and are thought to be the results of normal humans who have never cultivated in their lives becoming fey. However, there is still a great deal of variation within the fused spirit class fey in terms of both power and growth potential.

    The fused spirits, just as the name implies, are the fusion of a human spirit and the spirit of another formerly living creature. There are truly too many fused spirit class fey to list, but there are a few special noteworthy cases that should be called out.

    -Une

    An une is the fusion of a human, normally female, and a flower or other small plant. They are usually rooted to their spot and are not of particular note on their own. However, if an une is exposed to arcane energy they become a particularly ferocious type of demon known as an Arla Une.

    Alra Unes appear as large flower that, upon blooming, reveal a particularly attractive woman. Arla Unes like to suck the blood of humans, fey, and even animals. They grow thorny vines that can stretch for several hundred feet from their stock which will capture their prey and drag their victim toward the flower where they are devoured.

    -Satyr

    Satyrs are the fusion of a human and a goat, producing the most animalistic looking of all the fey races. Unlike most fused spirits which seem to have the visible exposed skin of the upper torso of their human form, satyrs are covered head to toe with fur and also have the head of a goat in addition to the lower half. About the only human thing about them is their hands, the ability to walk upright, and the ability to talk.

    While this appearance is striking enough, the most noteworthy thing about Satyrs is that they have far greater magic ability than any of the other fused spirits. A satyr has as much magical growth potential as the typical elf, and almost all of them have at least the ability to cast spells at the 2nd or 3rd tier with some reaching as high as the 6th. Due to their increased access to magic though, they also have a higher tendency toward demonization and upon becoming demonized they make for particularly powerful demons.

    -Merfolk

    Merfolk are a fusion of human and fish spirits and live under water away from the other fey races. Merfolk are noteworthy because even in their normal non-demonized form they are quite dangerous as they become attracted to a human¡¯s spirit energy and are known to drag humans under the water and drown them.

    -Sphinx

    A sphinx has a human head on the body of a lion. The sphinx are an exception to the rule of the fused spirits being the weakest among the fey. Sphinx are often rather powerful both physically and magically and, while they have the appearance of a human head on a lion¡¯s body they are far larger than real lions.

    The sphinx almost always have spell casting ability above the 5th tier, but due to being a fused spirit are often not held in the same high regard that a fey dragon would be given despite universally being stronger than the weakest classes among the fey dragons and often even being able to match up to true fey dragons.

    Much like true fey dragons, the sphinx are known to be wise and intelligent. However, they usually live apart from other fey races.

    -Other Fused Spirit fey.

    There are many more fey of this class. Above were the most noteworthy for their danger either in normal or demonized form, but there are still far more to the fused spirit fey and even this list is not going to be comprehensive enough to cover them all. However, some other fey of the fused spirit class include¡­

    Adlet: Human body, dog head

    Arachne: Spider below waist, human above waist

    Bastete: Human body, cat head

    Centaurs: Horse below waist, human above waist

    Echidna: Snake below waist, human above waist

    Fauns: Deer below waist, human above waist. Also has small horns on head.

    Khnm: Another goat-human fusion, this one with only the head of a goat. Unlike satyrs, khnm have no magical inclination.

    Lamia: Human head on a serpentine legged reptilian body. Thought to be a fusion of human, snake, and lizard.

    Manticore: Lion-human-scorpion fusion. Human head and scorpion tale on a lion¡¯s body.

    Minotaurs: Human torso and arms, bull head and legs.

    Onocentaur: Donkey below waist, human above waist

    Scorpios: Scorpion below waist, human above waist.

    Scylla: Octopus below waist, human above waist.

    Sekhmet: Human body with a lion head

    Siren: Female only, head and body of a woman, legs and wings of a bird.

 Intermission: IRL lore origins

    -Inter-relation of Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves.

    This is probably the head-scratcher from the latest proper lore chapter that has a lot of people wondering. However, there is an actual proper reason why I decided to go with all of this, because in fact the three races have all actually been confused as the same species as one another at some point during their origin. As such, I have made all three of them related to one another for the purpose of the lore of this world.

    The origins of the three races is a little convoluted. These three terms are all based on the German language, but Gnomes and Dwarves both have their original origins elsewhere. The reason behind my linking Gnomes and Dwarves actually is reflected in the complex history with these three races.

    Dwarves originally come from Norse mythology, and are supernatural beings of incredible power that rivals the gods. In some Norse legends, four dwarves named after the four cardinal directions are even said to hold up the sky. They are most closely associated with metal smithing and metal work, and are said to have incredible abilities in that field. The dwarves were even the ones who created the most powerful weapon of the gods, Thor¡¯s hammer Mjolnir which was crafted from the heart of a collapsed star.

    There are also some norse legends that talk about Elves. However, upon closer examination of these stories about Elves, you quickly realize they are described as appearing like and doing the exact same things as the Dwarves. From this, it becomes clear that the Elves and Dwarves described in Norse mythology are actually referring to the exact same entities and are just called different names in different tellings of the legends.

    The reason for Elves and Dwarves being mistaken as the same creatures likely stems from the Scandinavian countries being close to Germany geographically. While the German version of the dwarves are short and stocky with long beards, the Norse version of the dwarves are, in fact, tall slender and powerful, far more closely resembling the German Elves than the German Dwarves.

    Now, as for where Gnomes come into all of this, they actually come from Renaissance Magic, a revival of the occult during the renaissance era primarily out of Italy. Gnomes were said to be earth spirits that could move through solid ground as easily as a human could move through air, and were described as ¡°two spans high¡± (Span = the distance between the tip of a grown man¡¯s thumb to the tip of the pinky if the fingers are spread as far as they will go.) Similarly, when this concept of a Gnome came to Germany, it got wrapped up in the German concept of the Dwarf and the two got confused with one another.

    As such, the reason for the inter-relation of Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes in the lore of this story is put there to reflect how these three races had very close relations with one another in their origins to the point of frequently being confused for one another.

    The three races have been generally described here, but this only explains why I decided to have the three races be related in this way for the purpose of this lore. My gnomes and dwarves though, while being closer to their original lore than the Tolkien-based D&D universe has them, are harshly nerfed compared to the original lore. (Or, maybe not. This is a cultivation world after all, their original lore could just describe those at the highest levels of their cultivation.)

    So, each race will also deserve to have a deeper dive taken into each one of them.

    -Elves

    The Elves are the only one of the three races that actually have their original origin in German lore. They are very closely associated with Faeries, and said to be supernatural beings of great power. Elves in German lore would often help or hinder humans in several ways.

    One of the frequent ways they were said to harm humans was by kidnapping children who wandered into the woods. Although, there is some question as to whether or not this was actually a bit of wishful thinking on the part of the parents as the elves were also said to treat the kidnapped children well and said to have a great love and desire for human children. It¡¯s likely that thinking their missing children were kidnapped by elves would be better than the possible alternatives.

    There are several legends about faeries and elves alike that say that if you eat any food that they offer you, you will be forever unable to leave their realm. It is difficult to track the particular origin of this take on the legend though as it is common to German, English, and Irish faery lore, and is said to be a trait of both faeries and elves.

    Elves have always been portrayed as tall and slender human-height beings, with Santa¡¯s elves being an anomaly and a relatively new and non-traditional portrayal of Elves as of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century. The model of Elves most famous today comes from J.R.R Tolkein, and then from Dungeons and Dragons which heavily based its lore on the works of Tolkien.

    -Dark Elves

    Dark Elves are actually a concept that also originated from Norse mythology. While for the most part, Elves and Dwarves were more or less described as having all the exact same characteristics and had the exact same feats attributed to them, indicating it was most certainly just a regional difference between the two telling of the story, there is one difference among those who called them Elves instead of Dwarves. They were, in fact, described as dark-skinned, and often called ¡°Dark Elves.¡±

    It is likely that the Norse ¡°Dark Elves¡± That were the same as their Dwarves came from an intermingling with German lore about Elves. However, German Elves are always described as fair-skinned. This is a likely origin of why portrayals of Dark Elves often have them being more powerful than the light skinned elves.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    The name ¡°Dark Elves¡± has something of a slightly sinister connotation to it to begin with, but the fact that they became something that was considered outright evil likely came from Tolkien once again. Tolkien¡¯s Orcs were corrupted and mutated Elves that were kept underground and turned into bestial blood-thirsty murder machines. Dungeons and Dragons would later separate the concept of the Orc off into its own race unrelated to the Elves, but instead they re-applied the term ¡°Dark Elf¡± and gave these dark elves almost the exact same origin as Tolkien¡¯s Orcs.

    One of the biggest differences between Tolkien¡¯s Orcs and the D&D dark elves, aside from gaining back their gracefulness, is that D&D dark elves have powerful magic which surpasses that of the surface Elves. This is likely a stronger reflection of the Dark Elf¡¯s origin in Norse mythology. (Of course, as a mechanic for game balance, the dark elf¡¯s magic is also spoiled by sunlight.)

    -Sun Dwarves, Dark dwarves, and Duergar

    The second edition of Dungeons and Dragons had a concept of sub-races of dwarves, some being mountain dwarves, some being surface dwarves. The D&D 2<sup>nd</sup> eddition surface dwarves were described in terms that made them sound almost exactly like the D&D halflings, which was their coppyright-safe version of Tolkein¡¯s Hobbits (since Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs were names taken from earlier mythologies and thus free use, but Hobbits are a race entirely invented by Tolkien and thus his intellectual property.)

    Sun dwarves and dark dwarves are a concept that is simply easier for readers to recognize the meaning of. Duergar is a bit more of a complicated example though. These are another one of the sub-races of dwarves introduced originally in 2<sup>nd</sup> edition D&D, and unlike the surface dwarves the duergar are a sub-race that persisted. Duergar, as opposed to regular mountain/cave dwarves (the version most associated with the image of the modern fantasy Dwarf,) Duergar were a sub-race of dwarf said to live so deep under the ground that they were never seen by humans and were rarely even seen by the regular mining dwarves who never dug down that extremely deep.

    Duergar are likely the inspiration of someone on the TSR (creators of D&D) staff who took a second look at the norse origins of the Dwarves and noticed the confusion between the dark elves and the dwarves representing the same people, and likely asked why it was that the dark elves skin was dark, but dwarves were portrayed as white skinned like the German version. And, subsequently made a version of the Dwarves more similar to the dark elves.

    The different versions of the better known dwarves are justified through the original German lore as well. Just like the dark elf - dwarf confusion in the Norse mythology, German folk lore about Dwarves also has two completely different versions of the dwarf depending on who you ask. Some versions describe them as having long bushy beards, and others describe them as being child-like and easily mistaken for a human child. Thus, for the sake of the lore in this world, the version of the dwarf that¡¯s easily mistaken for a child have been turned into this world¡¯s equivalent of hobbits and called ¡°sun dwarves,¡± while the ones with bushy beards have been put up in their mines and called ¡°dark dwarves.¡±

    -Gnomes

    Gnomes are likely the race with the least alternate versions, but the most twists and turns in their history. As described earlier on why they are on the same family tree in this lore as Elves and Dwarves, this is because they were combined with the German dwarves in their legends soon after they came to Germany and stopped being high-power earth spirits.

    Later, when TSR got ahold of them and put them into their Dungeons and Dragons game, they essentially became slender versions of the Dwarves that specialized in magic, also featuring pointed ears as though they were short elves.

    This concept of short elves with powerful magic has appeared before this in the real world though in the form of Santa¡¯s elves. I have decided for the purpose of this lore, it was the Gnomes that had their name mistaken with the elves that created the concept of Santa¡¯s elves back on Earth.

    -Fey Dragons

    The fey dragons are actually a product of some relatively recent lore. They come from the Fairy Dragons from Dungeons and Dragons. D&D Fairy dragons are based on western dragons, having butterfly wings instead of standard dragon¡¯s wings. The origin of the fey dragons used here are a simple matter of me having taken this concept, not liking the portrayal of these little pixy like dragonoids with butterfly wings, and then using something I felt was more appropriate.

    So, the fey version of any creature is supposed to be more powerful than their god-born counterpart. So, the fey dragons had to be more powerful than the normal dragons somehow. IRL, there are 3 major portrayals of dragons, Eastern Dragons, Western Dragons, and then the winged serpents of South America. I felt that winged serpents not only fit the definition of a more powerful form of dragon, since the South American winged serpents were all literal gods, but they actually were the closest of the 3 legends to the original lore about dragons back before they delineated into these 3 major models.

    The original dragon lore was literally an amalgamation of everything that was dangerous to a human, basically they were mythical creatures that encompassed everything humans feared. Snakes are natural enemies of humans, so back before we evolved to walk across the ground we climbed trees to get away from things like that. But, what if the snakes could fly? Eventually, they were given the trait of fire breathing too.

    As such, I felt South America¡¯s winged serpents had to be used as my model of dragons at some point. I still did not like the idea of fairy or butterfly wings, so I gave the fey dragons shiny bird-feathered wings.

    -Fey in general

    I have had a hard time tracking down the actual origins of the term ¡°fey,¡± but I have heard it in literature enough to know it applies to ¡°fairy folk,¡± basically any creature associated with faeries. This includes all mythical creatures of the forest that are not portrayed as monsters, elves being included on the list.

    -Human hybrid fey

    IRL lore is absolutely littered with stories about human-hybrid creatures, and some of them, fauns, satyr, and arla-une in particular, are generally regarded as fey. So, in order to accommodate the concept of fauns and satyrs as fey, I wound up having to expand the definition to include all mythical human hybrids, including several that were actually from Greek and Egyptian lore. (I made the decision to exclude the anubis since they 1. shared the name of an Egyptian god, and 2. were too similar to Aldets, which are even also from Egyptian lore. It¡¯s just that one is ¡°dog¡± in general, and the other is ¡°Jackal¡± specifically.)

    -Demi faeries

    Demi faeries are an adaptation of the ¡°little people¡± from Irish folk lore. Irish folk lore had a whole number of different kinds of ¡°little people,¡± each with different names depending on where they were found. There were the little people that lived in the house, the little people that lived in the barn, the little people that lived in the fields, the little people that lived in shoe shops, the little people that lived in other ¡°insert X name¡± shops, and literally all of them had a different name that the Irish lore called them depending on where they lived.

    To get even more confusing, the names of them were also different depending on what part of Ireland you lived in. The names for these ¡°little people¡± never stayed consistent at all. Eventually though, some Irish store owner living in the United States decided he wanted to find a way to better market Irish folk lore to US citizens in order to help mend the suspicion Americans had for the Irish (At the time, the Irish were treated a lot like how Latin Americans are today.) What he did was he gathered all the oddly named different Irish ¡°little people¡± under one name, Leprechauns.

    Much like how Leprechauns are a gathering of all the different named ¡°little people¡± of Irish lore, the Demi faeries fill the same role. They do not have wings, but they have faerie magic and, like other fey, are reliant on human spirit energy. Do not expect them to act very much like Leprechauns though, they are based far more on the original ¡°little people¡± lore, leprechauns were given a lot of eccentricities to make them more charming for the sake of marketing them to Americans at the time.

    -Final words

    Well, that¡¯s all for this chapter. I will likely do another one of these for the next book if anything new comes up that I feel needs to be talked about.