《Soul Singularity》


 Prologue: Taking Stock

    Hello, all~ I figured with the incredibly high number of fictions on this website, one more wouldn''t really be out of place.  I''ve had this particular tale in my head for several years, but since real life intruded before, I haven''t really had the chance to put pen to paper and get to writing.  (Sorry about the extraordinarily long introduction; I tried to use the chance to get all the essentials down)


    Feedback, especially as to if I should continue or not, is greatly appreciated; I''ve written several stories in this world, but before, I only shared them to a closed group of friends.  (Especially since I haven''t written anything in quite a while, and am out of practice...)


    Anyway, here''s Soul Singularity.  Enjoy!


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    Being born, no matter how many times it''s happened to you, is not pleasant at all.  Of course, like everybody else, I don''t really recall the first few years of my life- for me, the annoying part is the lost time.  And the side effects.


    I always spend exactly four years after birth as an ordinary child; my personality reverts to that of a child and I''m free to be as happy, innocent, and downright stupid as anyone else.  Since those four years are always my most vulnerable (and are always full of wasted time), I look back upon what little I recall with distaste.  It''s a little like owning a house that had been used by your annoying relatives for a while; you''re pretty happy about it at first, but soon find all the little mistakes that other people made and spend quite a while cleaning it up before it''s properly habitable.


    So when I properly became ¡°me¡± again, I was surprised to find that the undeveloped, child-version of me had gotten me into quite an annoying situation: Curled up on a cold stone floor, body screaming from a half-dozen broken bones, and coughing up blood.


    Oh.  Well.  This is most certainly new.   Even though I hadn''t properly processed my memories of the past year or so, I mentally sighed, already knowing that this particular life was going to be a complete pain.


    My name is Elysia, and I have died seven times.  No, I''m not stuck in some living hell where I resurrect only to be killed each time, my soul just doesn''t seem to operate under the rules that everyone else has to obey.  Each time I''m offed- always by unnatural causes, not once have I died of old age- I end up in the same boring, gray room as always, with a cute, black-haired young man grinning at me.  Apparently, there was SUPPOSED to be a door through which I was supposed to pass through, but I haven''t seen anything of the sort yet.


    The young man in question wasn''t Death himself, as it were; he used to be, but apparently, he''d lost that position a few thousand years ago.  Something about gross negligence of his duties and refusing to properly take the lives of those who didn''t deserve it.  So, he was demoted (he simply calls it ¡°reassigned¡±, but I''m not buying it) to the position of the Gatekeeper (Gate for short), the one who sends souls to the afterlife they belong in based on their deeds in life.  For me, his job is a little different: he just throws me to a world that has a suitable vessel.  ...After we chat for a while, of course; I''m the only soul he''s ever met more than once and, although he won''t admit it, I''m pretty sure he''s quite lonely.


    Each time I''m reborn, I keep my memories and skills, as well as my knowledge of magic- which doesn''t become outdated despite all the reality-hopping.  Regardless of geography, the races inhabiting it, level of technology, environment, or anything else unique to each world, magic always follows the same rules.  The mana storage of an individual always grows as they get older, regardless of if they even used magic or not.  This is quite unfair, in my opinion, but since it means that I can recover from occupying a new body, I suppose I shouldn''t complain.


    Magic comes in eight different categories: water, fire, earth, air, light, lightning, dark, and creation.  Everyone could, in theory, use magic, but since each person was born with a different amount of power, some were more suited to it than others.  Most people are able to use only one type of magic, although there are (incredibly rare) exceptions.


    Me?  I''m a water mage.  In my first lifetime, I was one of the strongest that had ever existed in that world, and never really considered that I might end up being thrown into a new world every time I died.  If I''d actually been smart and used it intelligently instead of wielding it like a giant sledgehammer, I could probably have wiped out all life in the northern hemisphere.  ...Um, if I wanted.  It''s not like I''m a genocidal maniac hellbent on destroying every planet I go to.


    Instead, I died on my 41st birthday, murdered by a lightning mage with slightly less power, but significantly more skill than I possessed.  I have to admit, I totally had it coming; the moment I declared my invincibility, I was screwed.  Fate has a harsh sense of humor.


    My second life, having had the unique condition of my soul explained to me by Gate, I made the foolish mistake of thinking that dying wouldn''t really matter- it would be painful, but I thought that was all.  I could just be born again in a new body and get to experience things all over again.  So, I tried to conquer the world.


    I only managed to live to the age of 23, at which point I was killed by, of all things, slipping on a frozen pool of blood and dying from brain trauma.  Gods, I don''t think Gate is ever going to let me live that one down.


    I spent my third life as a water elemental (or spirit, if you prefer): a nixie.  That was my longest life to date, spanning 114 years, but, as usual, I didn''t die from natural causes, having been killed during what I believe was probably the apocalypse.  That world didn''t have a lot to say about it, otherwise, at least not from my perspective; I couldn''t leave the safety of the sea and I was much weaker, magic-wise, than I used to be.  I mostly just spent my time playing around and eating as much delicious seafood as possible.


    By my fourth rebirth, I was able to identify the source of my weakness: every time I died, my maximum amount of mana dropped significantly.  I was doomed to forever accumulate experience, but not have the power to use much of what I''d learned effectively.  Or... maybe not forever.  Since the blow to my natural reserves seemed to be the price for coming back to life, it was likely that if I kept dying young like the last few times, I would become the same as any other soul and head to the afterlife appropriate for my deeds in life.  (Or would it be lives...?  I''m not sure and have no intention of finding out)  ...Oh, and I was a male during that life.  Let me tell you, that was probably the most annoying experience I''ve ever had the displeasure of going through; when I died that time, I was extremely angry about the whole thing and tried lecturing the Gatekeeper, but it was hard to stay mad at him when I figured out that pranks like that were probably the only fun he ever had.


    Over the course of my fourth and fifth lifetimes, desperate to make the best of a bad situation, I learned everything I could about water magic; by the time I died for the fifth time, I was known as the most skilled water mage in the history of that world, a major contrast to my previous lives.


    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Unfortunately, when I came to life for the sixth time, I was born into a world completely devoid of magic.  Zero.  Zip.  Nada.  I was certain I still had my full amount of power, complete with my pool expanding as I got older as per normal, but attempting to use any of it ended in complete failure.  As you can probably imagine, since I just spent the past two lives gaining mastery over my abilities, I was pissed.


    Of course, since this had never happened before, I''d foolishly began thinking that I wouldn''t reincarnate into worlds with magic anymore, and was quite angry about it.  In hindsight, this was incredibly stupid.  I died at the young age of 16 from an accident involving a broken gas tank and squandered my chance to gain skills that would serve me extraordinarily well in my later lives.  I regret my decisions in that life even more than my first one.


    My 7th life, the one I just died in, annoys me to no end.  Sure enough, I was born back into a world of magic... and then promptly killed (and probably eaten, but thankfully, I was dead by then) by an incredibly desperate and hungry wolf.  I was barely three years old.


    As you can probably imagine, the two consecutive deaths at a young age dealt a brutal blow to my magical reserves, making me the weakest I''ve ever been.  I wasn''t quite sure how much magic I''d be able to use, but I knew I''d have to use my powers with the skills I ¡°recently¡± acquired once I was reborn again.  In an attempt to try to boost them and recover some, I requested that Gate allow me to be reborn as an elf this time around, given their absurdly long lifespans.  He always meddled slightly so that I''d be named Elysia, but it was the first time I''d requested a specific race.


    Which brings us to the present...


    Taking stock of the situation and checking over my recent memories, I was filled with disgust.  My wrists were restrained by manacles, leaving only about two feet of chain between them, and my legs were likewise restricted.  I was wearing plain, brown clothing that, courtesy of the beating child-me received, was badly torn and barely kept any heat.  If it weren''t for the fact that I was a mage specializing in ice, I''d be freezing to death right about now.  (I''m not exactly immune to the cold, but I have an absurdly strong resistance to it)


    Oh, and to top it all off, I was wearing a collar with a 5-foot chain leading to a wall behind me.  Fannnntastic.


    I utterly loathed collars; this wasn''t the first time people had tried to enslave me, and, oddly enough, collars seemed to be a common tool every time an attempt was made.  After my second escape from it, it didn''t take a whole lot of work to figure out why: if a prisoner was frantic enough to escape, they could cut off an arm or leg.  The end result of attempting to decapitate oneself to get off a collar was obvious: death.  As a result, they were a reliable method of loading on enchantments meant to keep one subdued without much risk of them being removed.  In my case, I would be able to freeze, say, a bracelet off, but if I tried that with a collar, I would end up breaking my neck.


    Five of my past seven lives had slavery in one form or another, and I''d been a slave three times previous to this.  Of course, I always escaped in a mere day or two, but this time didn''t look like it would be quite so easy to get out of.


    A high level of skill was all well and good when it came to disabling or killing people with magic, but when it came to healing myself, it was close to useless.  Water magic wasn''t really suited for it the way light, earth, or creation was; all it could do is replace lost blood and slightly accelerate the rate at which all the little critters in my body got to repairing things.


    Eyes and throat dry from crying for several minutes, I got to work, gritting my teeth and shoving each of my bones into the area it was supposed to belong in.  It was, obviously, painful work, and I blacked out twice- the second time due to my own ignorance.  I''d figured that the layout of bones in the body of a human was pretty much the same as that of an elf.


    This way of thinking was mistaken, and I ended up shoving one of my own bones into a spot occupied by something that, judging by the explosion of pain, was probably important.


    By the time I woke up for the second time, I''d found that my work and pain had all been for naught: another mage, one utilizing the domain of light if I wasn''t mistaken, was working on healing me.  I instantly recognized the beautiful, fragile, blonde-haired elf as my mother; of course, the collar around her neck and her appearance of extreme concern snuffed out the happiness I initially felt after meeting her for the first time as myself.  Oh, and not to mention that I was still lying on the stone floor in a puddle of my own blood.


    What made things even worse was my father lurking behind her; in every one of my previous lives, I had been quite fond of both my parents and, although I often slipped up and did things that a child of my age should never have had the knowledge to perform, I was certain they loved me as well.


    This was the first life I''d been in where I feared my own father.  Not surprising, considering he was the one that just beat me half to death over merely embarrassing him in front of a business partner.  ...Not to mention that he kept both me and my mother as slaves.


    I was still grappling with the fear left from my memories in this form when he began to speak, staring down at me coldly.


    ¡°I hope you''ve learned your lesson, Elysia.  Your mother begged that she be allowed to heal you, and I''m going to be nice enough to permit it- this time.  Regardless, since you''ve caused me quite a bit of inconvenience, this is going to be your home for a little while. Do try to behave yourself from now on."


    Without another word, he gripped my mother''s arm, pulling her away just as she finished healing me, and headed out the door.  It was probably just as well that the room lacked any windows, as the glare I aimed toward his retreating back would probably have earned me another beating.  I wouldn''t permit it this time, which may end up getting me killed; I don''t really have a high tolerance for pain, so I''d try to defend myself.  With my dwindling reserves of power, however, I wasn''t even sure I would be able to conjure up and fire a dozen ice-needles, let alone the number I''d need to break both me and my mother out of here.


    I am going to murder you if it''s the last thing I do in this life, you son of a b****.  I silently vowed.  Noticing two guards lurking outside the door, a bucket of cold water was thrown over my fury.  Fear wasn''t so easily dispelled.  Just... not quite yet.


    --------------------------------------------


    There are a lot of details I really wanted to fit in, but this has already dragged on long enough, as far as prologues go.  Upon request (and usually as part of the story as well), I''ll provide more information on anything that falls within Elysia''s knowledge.  If people like it enough to think it''s worth continuing, anyway.

 Prologue part II: Assault and Battery

    Here''s the partner to my first part.  Feedback greatly appreciated, as always!


    Prologue Part II: Assault and Battery


    Four years passed in that wretched backwater, boring me to no end.  It wasn''t really an unusually horrible life, as such; my parents didn''t seem to want to pile too much work on me, although I was taught basic, intermediate, and advanced cooking.  I didn''t have to do any of the stereotypical things such as terribly difficult manual labor or the like.  Father had... things... more appropriate for those tasks perform them.


    My mother seemed to be concerned about me seeming to be growing up as a wilting, spineless flower obeying father''s every word, but I wasn''t particularly worried.  If a personality is formed by the memories and experiences of an individual, than it would be quite difficult for any abuse I suffered in this life to scar me, no matter how much acting I did.  ...I think.  Of course, that didn''t mean I wasn''t free to hate or love individuals as normal, but it felt rather odd to barely ever change overall.


    My mother, Anastasia (dad called her ¡°Anna¡±) seemed to have been the daughter of the leader of a major clan prior to being captured by father; I wasn''t quite sure if that made me a princess or not, but guessed ¡°not¡±.  There was no possible way they would let her stay imprisoned for ten years if she was such an important figure.  ...Unless they''d been destroyed and disbanded, I suppose.  We didn''t really receive any news from outside, and were only ever permitted to travel about 50 yards from the house.  We weren''t even allowed to go up to the oversized walls around the estate.  Were it not for the sound of thousands of adorable critters outside, it would be difficult to determine we were in the middle of a forest.


    Mom didn''t dare try to teach me magic, but from observation, it was quite easy to figure out that she was a skilled light-healer.  She was by no means the best I''d seen at her age, but her abilities were still impressive for someone who''d only been learning until, at most, the age of 19.


    I debated trying to teach her some combative magics, but decided against it; they required too much practice to use effectively, and light tends to leave signs of use on nearby furniture and the like.  Not to mention that my element differed from hers, so if she got stuck on the base concepts, I wouldn''t be able to help her at all.


    I wasn''t really ever told anything about Alexander, my father, but it didn''t take a whole lot to figure out.  He isn''t any sort of royalty, I think, but he is definitely quite wealthy.  He seemed to be important enough that merchants would come to him to try to negotiate deals, and he seemed to refuse as often as he accepted.  So, he was probably in a position where he was able to lock out anyone he didn''t particularly care for- something I had heard occur quite often.  Oddly enough, since I''d properly moved into this form, it didn''t seem like he had ''visited'' mother in the middle of the night at all.  I wasn''t sure what reason he had to not  sell both her and myself by now; perhaps because of mom''s cooking and healing abilities?


    Back on topic, dad didn''t really have any outstanding features worth mentioning.  He was an amoral piece of scum, but I think that comes with treating other people as property.  He had a keen and ruthless business sense and seemed to know the best ways to make as much money as possible from a given project, including giving terrible wages but offering significant improvements based on work quality.  Finally, he was a fire mage, but I wasn''t sure how skilled he was... which happened to be most of the reason I didn''t simply escape as soon as I recovered my memories.


    ...And then there was the annoying human brat, Nero.  The son of one of my father''s now-deceased business partners, he arrived about two years ago and started living with us- father most notably did not treat him like his own child and actually treated him quite well.  Perhaps I should say father treated Nero like he should have treated me.


    We were the same age, and I was hoping I''d actually have an ally in this whole mess- not to mention that he looked like he would grow up to be quite handsome later on, so I wouldn''t have any objection to being childhood friends with him.  Unfortunately, the moment Nero first saw me, I knew he was trouble; he was playing around with an orb of fire as if it was nothing, and the look he gave me after his initial surprise faded was one that I usually don''t get until I''m twice my current age.


    I initially dismissed it as excessive paranoia since it was my first time properly meeting someone who wasn''t related to me in this world, but as the weeks went by, I kept catching him staring at me with the same look.  To make things worse, whenever he tried to start up a discussion with me, it was always by complimenting some part of my appearance.  On several occasions, I''d even spotted him sneaking toward the room mother and I shared.  ...I wasn''t sure where genetics had gone wrong with that horrible little boy, but he was undeniably a pervert.


    ...That covers all of the sentient beings in the house.  There were a total of 7 guards, but when I accidentally bumped into one of them while trying to hide from my father, I encountered only solid metal instead of flesh.  They were constructs, probably made by a skilled creation mage.  They weren''t actually people, as such, simply man-shaped lumps of steel animated by several hundred eternally-refreshing commands.


    As far as my overall education went, I was only taught basic math.  Any history or geography I learned was only due to the stories my mother told me- and, annoyingly enough, I didn''t even know how to read, a flaw I planned on fixing as soon as possible.


    On my 8th birthday, I decided to make my move; this nonsense had gone on for long enough, and my stashes of supplies, as well as my other preparations, were complete.  What was the point of getting to live in so many different worlds if I didn''t take full advantage of it?


    So, while we were alone in the kitchen, cooking a dinner of venison stew, I glanced over at Anastasia.  She was probably the youngest of my parents so far, only being a bit under 28 years old.  In a very real sense, I would be able to take care of us better than she would after we escaped.  ...Probably.  Being unable to read was a major handicap.


    ¡°Mama?¡± I asked in the song-like voice of an elven child, then hesitated and stopped.  Beneath my innocent appearance, I was actually terrified; I was confident that if I failed, both me and my mom would be punished.  It probably wouldn''t be so bad if I caused enough damage that it would be clear she wouldn''t be able to teach me that much, but...


    ...If I did that, even if we did escape, I didn''t want to be labeled a murderer or demon by my own mother.  That... would hurt.  ...I''m worrying too much.  I''ve wasted too much valuable time in his wretched place; I''m- no, we''re- overdue for a change of scenery.


    Taking a deep breath, I spoke in a rush.  ¡°I have a surprise I need to finish for momma, so I''m going to be late to bed tonight, okay?  Please don''t go to sleep without me...¡±


    Anastasia blinked, rather surprised; this was the only time I''d ever spoken on my own outside of lessons.  It didn''t take long for her expression to turn into one of worry, however.  ¡°I''m not so sure that''s a good idea; if your father spots you wandering around on your own, he might...¡± she hesitated.  ¡°...Misunderstand.¡±


    Actually, I suspect he''s going to understand perfectly, if he survives the first attack. I barely managed to suppress a malicious cackle before continuing again.  ¡°Don''t worry mom, he won''t mistake what I''m doing for something else.  Is it okay if I start working as soon as dinner is done?¡±


    Although I wasn''t looking at her, focusing on peeling a potato, I abruptly felt my mother glaring at the space between my shoulders.  She knew her precious little girl was up to something, despite the fact that I''d been a perfect little angel ever since my 4th birthday.  Note to self: Mother is smarter than I gave her credit for.


    ¡°What, exactly, is the ''surprise''?¡± she asked sharply, and I could tell she was quite concerned.  ¡°Honey, your behavior is all-but screaming that you''re up to something.  You''ve never hidden anything from me before; unless it''s something I''ll object to, why start now?¡±


    ...MUCH smarter...  Dropping my knife and potato onto the counter, I turned around and gave her my best angel impression.  ¡°Mommy, if I tell you, it won''t be a surprise anymore!¡±


    Attempt status: complete failure.  Anna crossed her arms and glared sternly at me; I winced, realizing what was coming.  ¡°Elysia, you are going to tell me exactly what you have planned right this instant unless you wish to be grounded for the next month.  You''re an honest girl, and the fact that you''re trying to hide what you''re up to means that it''s going to be something I''ll disapprove of; it is my duty as a parent to keep you out of trouble, but I can''t keep you safe if you don''t tell me what''s wrong.  Is that understood?¡±


    This just isn''t fair; my act was perfect!  I wailed inside the safety of my mind, avoiding the urge to cave in.  I guiltily avoided her gaze and stared at the floor; regardless of how old you were mentally, it was never fun to argue with a parent.  ¡°It will make mommy very, very happy, so don''t ask Elysia what the surprise is.  It won''t take Elysia more than a couple minutes to finish.¡±


    Once again, I felt her eyes bore into the top of my head; I wasn''t sure, but I suspected she''d figured out I only used the third person when I was trying to act as cute and childlike as possible.


    ¡°...Fine.¡± My mother said, and I could tell that, despite her stern tone, she was scared I was going to do something stupid.  ¡°You''re allowed to stay up for 30 minutes past your bedtime; if you don''t come back and show me your surprise by then...¡± she left the rest to my active imagination.  ¡°But that''s for later; right now, we''re behind schedule.¡±


    I hastily turned around and got back to work, not wanting her to see my expression of relief.  I still let a little sigh escape, though, which did not go unnoticed.


    ...Yeah, she knows I''m up to something.


    After dinner, I took my secret stash of supplies, along with a large frying pan, and headed to one of the coldest parts of the house: the abandoned cell I''d been thrown in four years ago.  Now, it had been re-purposed, and the contents inside... well, one of these things is not like the other.  One of the corners of the room had a large cube of snow just lying around, completely ignoring the fact that it was the middle of summer.


    I walked up to it, crouching down, and took a small leather box out of my pack of supplies.  Beneath the top layer were rows of my favorite weapon: thin, but sharp, needles made out of solid ice.  Careful not to have the tips come into contact with my skin, I slowly brushed aside the snow, extracted each one, and put them in the box.  There were a total of 64 needles in storage, just enough to deal with any threats that came along.  They were fragile, and would break after only one use, but they were perfect nonetheless.


    Once I was finished extracting them, I packed down some of the snow before thrusting my hand inside and formed a layer of ice over the surface of my left hand, shaping it into the form of an absurdly-sharp set of claws.  I wasted a valuable minute altering it''s properties it so that it''d be able to withstand whatever task I demanded of it, including slicing through some of the softer metals.


    Eventually, that was done and over with, and I promptly used the claws to slice through the collar around my neck, catching it and dropping it into my bag of supplies.  It would be unnecessary weight at first, but I was certain it would be able to be sold for a large amount of money; I wasn''t sure which idiot in this world had thought of making some collars out of gold for decoration, but their loss was my gain.


    I swung the pack onto my back and put my arms through the straps before attaching a waterskin to both sides of my waist, detesting the extra weight but acknowledging it as necessary.


    Carrying an oversized frying pan in one hand and wearing one of the deadliest weapons in my arsenal in the other, I got to work, sneaking outside and towards the room of my father.  It''s been far too long since I got to do this sort of thing... not that I''m complaining.


    -----{POV: Nero}-----


    My name is Nero, surname currently Alston, and I have died four times, currently putting me in my fifth lifetime.  In my first and second lives, I was, to put it kindly, one of the worst scumbags who has ever walked through any reality.


    Nowadays, I''m a fire mage specializing in forcefully cleansing humanoid bodies of disease... and, unfortunately, much of their immune system.  During my 4th life, I was responsible for the total annihilation of two deadly diseases, eight inconvenient ones, and one magic-fueled virus which turned it''s victims into shambling abominations.  Unfortunately, eliminating the last during my 4th lifetime cost me my life- not unexpected, considering the original spell that made them was cataclysm-class- so here I am, starting all over.  Again.


    I shall not recount the events that transpired in my first and second lives; suffice to say that I was practically a different person then and leave it at that.


    During my 3rd life, the Gatekeeper, being the one in charge of where my soul went, decided to take a rather heavy hand in correcting my behavior.  To be accurate, he made my next reincarnation be a seraph.  That was quite an... educational experience, and by the time I died fighting a horde of devils, I had been firmly and forcefully re-educated.  After that, the Gatekeeper and I got along much better, and he elected to have me be the son of a grandmaster healer in my next life.


    Having reached master rank in using combative magics during my time as a seraph, I was grateful for the opportunity to learn how to use my gift for something other than murder; within 30 years, I''d absorbed everything my father in that life had to teach me, and even had enough control to eliminate deeply-rooted diseases with a minimum of damage to the patient.


    So why, I brooded darkly, am I stuck being the adopted son of someone who reminds me entirely too much of my old self?


    I had been able to mostly convince Alexander to mostly leave Anna and Elysia alone when I''d first met him almost four years ago, traveling with my father.  To my great amusement, all it had taken was a good, healthy bit of blackmail sent via letter; to this day, he has no idea who sent it.


    Back on topic.  In an attempt to avoid one of Alexander''s lessons on magic that I''d already long-since learned, I was sneaking through the house, heading for the kitchen.  We had just eaten dinner, but it had been months since I''d tasted something sweet and I wanted to remedy this.


    Which is why I was able to spot Elysia creeping through the house in the middle of the night, lugging around what appeared to be enough supplies to last her a few weeks.


    It didn''t take much brainpower to figure out that she was trying to escape- surprising, since she''d seemed so obedient before- but I didn''t much mind.  I would be willing to admit that I have a minor crush on Elysia, but although she''s perfect for me in terms of appearance, she isn''t really my type personality-wise.  I doubted the decade until she grew up would change things any, either; I preferred someone who would actually be my equal instead of a brainless, spineless maiden, so I didn''t particularly care if she left.


    Mentally going over all her flaws, I didn''t notice the orb of water directed at my skull until it was nearly too late; I was barely able to raise one arm and deflect the majority of her attack, although it still broke apart and temporarily blinded me; forcing my eyes to remain open despite the film of water, I was able to spot Elysia crossing the distance between us with distressing speed, swiping an empty hand for my throat.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    I was impressed that she had learned how to use magic, and even more impressed by her ability to keep it a secret, but...


    Oi, oi, what did I do to deserve this?  I even made sure your dad wouldn''t bully you anymore!


    Rubbing water out of my eyes, I reflexively started to deflect her weak attack with my arm, but in the relative darkness of the corridor, I barely managed to spot the shiny presence of ice coating her hand.  Abruptly experiencing a sense of impending doom, I dodged slightly downward, managing to avoid the majority of the attack.


    Still, it still managed to hit, causing the length of my arm to explode in pain.  What was more, it didn''t seem to encounter any resistance on the way, slicing across the flesh of my arm as if it was paper.  Had I not had reflexes built from several lifetimes of fighting, I would have just lost a limb.


    SWEET MOTHER OF GOD, WHAT THE HELL!?  What is that thing!?


    My mental scream of panic was repeated as I was, once again, forced to dodge.  Elysia''s claw sliced through the spot where I''d been milliseconds before, slicing the front of my shirt to ribbons and scaring the daylights out of me.  Speaking in a panic, I elected to activate a stronger spell than any child his age had any business using, summoning blue flames in both hands.


    ¡°F-SEmenation-ES-EO-IL-IM-R8-D100-Bla6-AN!¡± I said in a rush, desperate to form some sort of barrier between myself and the homicidal snow-woman.  Once the activation finished, flames instantly spread out to form a barrier around my body.  I disliked using a spell that expended that much energy, but it was significantly less than I would lose access to if I died this early.


    Safe... I guess it really is always the quiet ones. Sighing in relief as I foolishly considered myself protected from whatever the terrifying genius attempted, as well as eliminating the annoying vapor covering my eyes, I relaxed.  Regardless of the form she flung it in, any water entering the flames would evaporate long before it hit me, and she would sustain serious burns if she tried to punch through it.  But seriously, what the hell?  Where on earth did-


    I did not expect the frying pan to promptly descend upon my skull, knocking me unconscious.  Apparently, there was a quite good reason she was lugging around such a massive object.


    For both of the combatants, the idea that the other could be another wandering soul never crossed their minds.  They each thought they were a unique existence, especially since the Gatekeeper had outright said as such.  He didn''t want his best entertainment to be spoiled.


    -----{POV: Elysia}-----


    Jumping back hastily from the azure flames attempting to consume my flesh, I stared at Nero''s unconscious body.  That... was quite unexpected.  I didn''t think there was anyone in the house capable of using a blaze-class spell, let alone one with an abbreviated incantation.  Normally, it should have taken him another 15-40 years of studying for him to reach that level.


    Stricken with an ugly thought, I frowned.  If Nero was this bad, how powerful is my father?  ...Hopefully his talents are due to an elemental deciding to teach him in secret, although the odds of that are abnormally low...


    Determining that, although it was effective against an inexperienced opponent, my improvised weapon wouldn''t be effective, I discarded it to the side and drew my favorite weapons, carefully fitting twelve needles between my fingers before continuing.  Each one was only 0.77 millimeters thick, but if I launched them at something with enough force and the right amount of reinforcement, they''d keep traveling for at least a second.


    Unfortunately, barely ten seconds after I''d finished my preparations, I had the bad luck to run across one of the constructs guarding the house.  It looked blankly at me, turned to stare at the unconscious Nero, and moved to draw it''s weapon.


    I hastily tore open one of my waterskins, directed the water from it to go straight up, and dodged backward.  When the water came back down and inevitably soaked a significant amount of the charging construct''s body, I froze all of the water on it''s head...


    ...And promptly ran away, hoping that it had the cumbersome emergency command chains of an average construct.  My specialty is living targets, thank you very much.


    Sure enough, even after it had finished freeing itself from the ice, it didn''t try to go after me despite the ice not being thick enough to completely eliminate it''s hearing.  Whatever mage had created its contingency planning had done a lazy job of creating command chains, as it appeared to completely reset and go back to patrolling once it had finished breaking off all my ice.


    Sighing with relief, I turned to try to figure out how far I''d thoughtlessly fled in the dark, and was surprised to find myself only a few feet away from the door to my father''s room, an area I had expected to reach several minutes ago.  I cautiously tried the knob to find it was unlocked, and crept inside, spotting my father sitting at his desk and reviewing his finances.


    There are a great many points in the bodies of all animals which, when struck, devastated or completely eliminated the use of a certain area of the body.  Although my sixth life was, for the most part, wasted, I did have the opportunity to learn about the reason why aiming at said points would disable someone and was able to adjust my aim accordingly.


    This time, on the other hand, I didn''t even bother with such careful and methodical tactics.  I threw four needles from behind him and directed another sixteen to leave the pouch, effectively surrounding the area around his head with them.  Before father had time to notice the floating hemisphere surrounding his head, I expended a significant portion of my power to temporarily strengthen my weapons, then accelerated them to 35 meters/second, aiming for the thinnest areas of his skull.


    I needn''t have worried so much; in an especially anticlimactic display of weakness, dad was killed instantly as twenty needles pierced his brain before shattering, not even having time to so much as scream.  I stared at his corpse for about half a minute before shutting the door to his room behind myself, carefully walking over a trash bin, and promptly lost my supper.


    I thought I''d be ready for it by now- most mages are forced to kill someone at least once during their lifetime, but I had always been skilled or powerful enough that I wasn''t so constrained.  Broken bones, certainly.  Temporarily horribly crippled, sure.  Frozen solid and requiring the assistance of others to get free safely, by all means.  This was the first time I''d had to make sure that nobody ever had the chance to come after me again, and I have to say, I was not pleased.  Sure, my father was a total scumbag, but-


    I abruptly heard a loud, commanding voice speak from what seemed to be just behind my head.   I could vaguely recognize it as belonging to Gate, but, well... it sounded much deeper than normal.  And he sounded like a jerk; I knew him better than that, but still, he was being rather harsh.


    ¡°Enough of this nonsense.  The soul of Alexander William Torthal has been delivered to me and has been judged.  Your current father is headed for Hades- that very fact should tell you that you have nothing to feel bad about.  Now quit your wretched bawling and get back to escaping; your mother is going to start looking for you in three minutes, and the path of a construct will overlap with hers in eight.¡±


    ¡°...Okay, now I have to ask.¡± I said aloud, extraordinarily creeped out. ¡°Are you always spying on me?¡±


    ¡°Don''t be ridiculous, I have countless souls to guide and don''t have time for such trivialities.  I only checked up on you since this was the first time you''ve sent anyone my way, despite the fact that I''m certain a great many people deserved it.  Although Alexander was a perfect example of when it is necessary, try not to make a habit of this.


    I jerkily nodded, quickly cleansed my mouth with a bit of spare water, and got to work on a very, very serious task: stealing all the lightweight valuables I could find.  I still felt terrible, but... I could weep later.  There was work to be done.


    ------


    Back in his own, private reality, Iuvenalis Gate Maxwell, also known as the Gatekeeper, sat back and burst out laughing.


    Insufficient time to spy on her... I''ll have to remember that lie.  It''s amazing how ignorant mortals can be.


    There were over four hundred realities, excluding his own, and Gate had to judge and guide every intelligent being that ever died in any of them.  If he''d had to obey the laws of time like everyone else, he''d never be able to handle the workload.  He was theoretically capable of performing an infinite number of tasks at once, which meant that, yes, he was spying on Elysia ¡°all the time¡±.  And Nero.  And eleven other individuals he found particularly interesting, which, thanks to a healthy bit of meddling, four of whom were currently occupying the same reality.


    He did have enough common decency to stop whenever one of them required privacy, but those he spied upon were definitely entitled to a restraining order by now.


    ------


    Rushing back to my room, I spotted mother stalking toward me, appearing quite angry- on the surface.  Beneath that, I could tell she had been quite worried about me.  She was terrible at concealing her feelings; her eyes always gave her away, something I was about to take full advantage of.


    ¡°Mom, I finished up all the stuff I needed for my surprise!  Could you please crouch down for a moment?¡±


    She appeared slightly surprised, but complied; she still tried to speak.  ¡°You''re past curfew; what were you up to that would-¡±


    I reached over and carefully cut Anastasia''s collar off as well, interrupting her mid-sentence as she tried to figure out what I was doing.  Immediately thereafter, I converted my claw back into normal water and grabbed both of mom''s hands.


    ¡°Okay, mommy!  Let''s go~ daddy won''t be bothering us again.  We still have to avoid his guards, though; I''m not good enough to deal with them yet.  Stupid oversized chunks of metal, they''re cheating.¡±


    She stared for several moments before opening her mouth and trying to speak; only a tiny squeaking noise was produced, however.


    ¡°Please calm down, mommy!  I need you to come with- oh, oopsie.  Almost forgot.¡±


    I darted a few dozen feet back, grabbed my bag of loot, and handed it to Anna.  ¡°Please carry this, it''s a bit too heavy for me.¡±


    She took it and allowed me to drag her out the nearest window, heading outside.  When we reached the wall surrounding the estate, I realized there was a rather major flaw in my plan: any claws I made could slice through thin sheets metal, such as a dagger or some kinds of armor, but I didn''t quite plan for what appeared to be at least ten feet of solid stone.  It looked thinner from a distance...


    Mentally sighing as I concocted a truly idiotic plan, I turned to my mother.  ¡°Mommy, I am very, very sorry, and hope you''re not afraid of heights.  Please don''t worry, this is perfectly safe.¡± I lied through my teeth.


    Before she could figure out what, exactly, I was talking about, I expended nearly the entirety of my remaining reserves to do the most reckless thing I''ve ever done in any life: forming a thick layer of ice over most of both my mother and I and then promptly using said ice fling us over the wall.  I nearly snapped my own neck in the process due to a miscalculation, but it was totally worth it.


    Just prior to our landing, I decelerated us before we turned into stains on the ground and turned the ice on our bodies back to normal water; I may be able to keep trudging comfortably along for days at a time with it on me, but I doubted Anastasia possessed my level of resistance.


    Feeling incredibly nervous, I looked up and smiled brightly at my mother, electing to temporarily switch to the third person.  Anastasia seemed to be in a state of shock, and I didn''t want her looking at me like I was a monster; sounding as childish as possible would be vital right about now.


    ¡°Did Elysia made momma happy?  Elysia practiced lots with her friends!¡± ...Another lie.  I should try to avoid telling any more from now on...


    Anastasia jumped, a big pile of nerves thanks to the abrupt flight, and stared at me for an uncomfortably long time.  Eventually, she smiled, tears forming in her eyes, and bent down to hug me.


    ¡°Life is going to be hard and involve lots of walking for a while, but you''re a strong girl; I''m confident you can make it.  But... yes.  You have made mommy very, very happy.¡±


    ...All in all, it was a very satisfactory day.


    {Supplementary Information: Introduction to Magic}


    While not strictly required for reading the story, I thought some people might want to have a better explanation of how magic works in SS.  So, here it is; if anyone has any questions or confusion they''d like me to clear up, I''m fine with providing more information, either in future chapters or comments.


    Magic is the method through which a sentient individual can utilize the excess energy produced by their soul in order to modify the world around themselves.  With the exception of creation mages and those lucky enough for their soul to produce more than one kind of power, every magician is limited to creating and controlling only one element.  They are unable to control powers that fall outside their own domain, unless it is via indirect manipulation- an air or earth mage can quite easily use their powers to feed a fire and make it grow stronger, for example.


    At the basic level, drawing a magic sigil (or glyph, if you prefer) is necessary for a mage to impose their will on the world around themselves.  A sigil is an immobile command which can be used to cast magic without having to figure out the specifics- for example, ¡°Shoot a small ball of fire at the closest person in front of me.¡±  It requires more power, but significantly less skill, than the use of an incantation.


    Although it is the most basic method of using magic, sigils are also utilized by those casting the most advanced magics known to sentient life.  When used for that purpose, they''re used for absurdly long lists of commands or powerful spells, where a single slip of the tongue can cause the annihilation of the caster and all those nearby instead of the enemy.  No individual in any reality has properly cast a cataclysm-class spell, spells capable of wiping out all life in a massive area, without the use of a sigil.


    The intermediate method of casting magic is by listing off specific commands verbally, known as an incantation (or, again, chant if you prefer).  While it can be abbreviated, so long as the caster accurately knows what they mean with each word, this can quite easily lead to tiny, but deadly, slips in pronunciation, such as mixing up ¡°E¡± and ¡°T¡±.


    The incantation used by Nero in this chapter, ¡°F-SEmenation-ES-EO-IL-IM-R8-D100-Bla6-AN¡±, reads as follows: ¡°Fire, aura emanating from self, exclude self, exclude objects, include life, include magic, radius 8 inches, duration 100 seconds, 6th-level blaze-class, activate now.¡±


    ...If anyone is wondering, every type of magic has 7 scales of power, with 10 levels within each category.  For fire, it goes in order of spark, ember, flame, blaze, inferno, conflagration, and cataclysm.


    Finally, the most advanced method of casting is by listing off the entire command chain of a spell within the privacy of ones own mind.  While this can be more useful, as a spell is quite literally cast at the speed of thought and any enemies have no hope of predicting what spell you''re in the process of casting, this method requires an almost-inhuman level of concentration and practice.  To show exactly how difficult this can be, try singing the entire English alphabet inside your head while not thinking of a purple elephant.

 Chapter 1: Possessed

    Chapter 1:


    -----{POV: Elysia}-----


    The evening after we had safely escaped from our old home, I sat against a tree, brooding. My plans had fallen apart completely after only a single day of walking. Anna, appearing not to notice my mood, was busy cooking dinner for both of us.


    My stock of supplies would last us approximately four days, but unless this world is unusually rich in gold, we should be able to settle down someplace quite easily once we reach civilization. Judging by past conversations, it takes just over a week to travel from the nearest town to the estate by horseback. Assuming a travel time of 48 kilometers per day by horse, the distance we have yet to travel is still another 360 or so kilometers. Thanks to me and this fragile body, we''re barely covering fourteen per day. ...We''ll starve long before we reach town.


    We didn''t really have a whole lot of options available to us. I could probably scavenge some extra food for us, but there was a massive chance that we would be poisoned in the process; I had no clue what any of the plants or animals on this world tasted or even looked like. For all I knew, there were invisible, flying, pink hedgehogs that breathed acid.


    I need to make a construct. Dammit, I hate those things.


    Constructs are incredibly useful, but usually only for mundane tasks. Since I could only form them out of ice instead of more durable materials such as earth or steel, anything I made would inevitably melt. Perhaps I should make a frostcore? ...Too much power use, I''d die in the attempt. I guess I''ll have to make do with rebuilding it every few hours.


    Getting up and walking a short distance away, I got to work.


    -----{POV: Anastasia}-----


    Staring at the retreating back of Elysia, I was... worried, to say the least. I''d been concerned about Elysia''s underdevelopment practically her entire life, but recent events had forced me to take another look at her.


    To begin with, while she had shown some interest in my expertise with magic before, she''d never once asked for me to teach her or even how it worked. She just seemed to accept that it existed and was satisfied with that. Despite this, she''d somehow obtained a teacher, and one who could pass in and out of the estate without being noticed. ...And they managed to make her skilled enough to use mental commands.


    I shook my head, quietly getting up to follow Elysia. That isn''t possible; learning the basics of magic should have taken quite a lot of work, and she just didn''t have that much free time.


    ...Of course, there was another possibility, one that terrified me. It was common knowledge that certain darkness elementals could gain the ability to occupy sentient vessels. Usually, they could only occupy those with an affinity to their own element, but... what if, much like people, some spirits possessed an affinity to more than one kind? In this case, darkness and water?


    This could explain her tendency toward ice instead of normal water; while light magic often generated heat, dark absorbed it. If a dark spell was powerful enough, it could certainly freeze any nearby water solid and interfere with combination spells.


    And then there was her talent for manipulation. Reviewing my memories has caused me to realize one thing: every time she wanted something, she''s managed to get her hands on it. Provided, many children were able to do this to their parents, but not once had Elysia failed.


    On that note, she''s acting completely different now. If I were an occupant of the body of someone else and I wanted to stick around for a while, what would I do?


    ...That didn''t take even a second to figure out, and the answer made me start shaking. Convince my vessel to act in a manner most beneficial to my survival while making her rely more and more on me. Oh, gods.


    Elysia was crouched over a large, circular sheet of ice, slowly turning it by hand whilst scratching in a massive, complicated string of runes.


    ...What on earth is that? That''s far too complex to produce anything useful...


    Stupidly puzzling over trying to decode it, I didn''t notice Elysia finishing it. I only noticed she was done when light began gathering in the center riiight about the same time that Elysia abruptly collapsed.


    While my priorities may be rather skewed at times, stopping ones child from falling and sustaining injury is a skill that all parents need to pick up, and, sprinting forward, I managed to catch Elysia before her head impacted hard ground.


    Cradling her in my arms and trying to make sure she was alright, I, once again, didn''t pay attention to my surroundings. After determining, with quite a large measure of relief, that she only suffered from a minor case of magical overload, I looked up to find an... abomination... staring at me.


    A twisted cross between a scorpion, spider, and some other creature loomed over us Each fluid step left a tiny stab-mark in the forest floor- an impractical design, I vaguely noted. At that rate, the tips of each leg would quickly become dull and worn down.


    The construct had ten legs, a pair of pincers in place of a proper mouth, and one pointed tail, making it perfectly symmetrical. Each leg was long and sharp, giving the illusion of being a walking set of blades rather than any living creature.


    Faced with an abomination worthy of belonging in one of those dreams where you wake up screaming, I hunched over Elysia and promptly, well, started screaming.


    -----{POV: Eldon}-----


    I hate the country. I thought gloomily, trudging along with my eight-year-old son, Sederick- who, of course, was taking advantage of his fathers misery, completely ignoring all the various little bugs in favor of climbing onto my shoulders. Sed''s mother, Yolonda, had insisted that we go out to visit some godforsaken estate in the middle of nowhere, but did she even bother to give us some means of transportation or even a beast of burden? Of course not, that would be too expensive. Instead, I get stuck carrying the entire load on a half-month journey.  I couldn¡¯t even shrug any of it off on Sed to try and build some of his muscles; I¡¯d either have to give him my backpack or halberd, and both were much too heavy for him.  ...But since he¡¯s on top of me anyway, I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter.


    I''d known that she was obsessed with the idea of her son being a mage for quite some time, but this was plain out ridiculous. Oh, and let''s not forget that this ¡°Alexander Torthal¡± reportedly kept slaves, an utterly barbaric practice and something that was on the verge of being outlawed here in Subhine. I''m not going to lie; I had no idea what came over me when I married Yolonda. Okay, she¡¯s beautiful and was quite good in the sack, but she''s always so angry...


    ¡°Daddy.¡± Sed said sternly, tugging lightly on one ear. ¡°No gloominess allowed! It''s a wonderful day outside~. The birds are happy, so you should be, too!¡±


    ...Coming from someone with a heavy affinity toward air and possibly enough power to become an expert magician, I don''t really want to hear it. Confining these rather rude thoughts to the inside of my skull, I put on my best fake smile. ¡°Oh, all rig- owwwwwww!¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Sed yanked one ear, tilting my entire body to the side and almost forcing us both to collapse. ¡°You''re faking it. Stop it and be happy.¡±


    ¡°How is papa supposed to be happy when you''re causing him intense pain!?¡±


    ¡°You''ll manage.¡± he said shortly, letting go and permitting me to regain my balance. There were times when I was forcefully reminded of his actual age, no matter how mature he tried to act...


    ¡°Now, I''m going to keep yanking on your ears until you learn to appreciate all nature has to offer. The birds are singing, it''s a wonderful day outside, and you''re standing there feeling sorry for yourself. Knock it off; life isn''t going to wait for you to realize how amazing it is. Stand up straight and enjoy the time you have.¡±


    ...And then I occasionally had the strangest feeling I was talking with an old friend as opposed to my own son. Where did he even learn to spout most of this stuff...?


    ¡°Again, how am I supposed to stand up straight with you riding on my shoulders? You''re kinda demanding the impossible, kiddo...¡±


    ¡°...Fair point.¡± he acknowledged, and, without warning, let go of me and intentionally jerked backward, falling off my shoulders. My heart skipped a beat as I desperately tried to catch him, but of course, he avoided my arms, executed a flip, and scored a perfect landing on the road, spreading his arms wide.  Looking closely, I could see that his once-brown hair now had a few extra white hairs in it¡­ Isn¡¯t growing those my job?  As if it wasn¡¯t enough to take up my time, he¡¯s taking even that from me¡­?


    ¡°Ta-daaaa~¡±


    When my heart finally decided to start beating again, I picked up Sed by the shoulders and met him in the eyes. ¡°Could you please stop doing that!? One of these days, your leg is going to get caught in my backpack strap, or you''ll slip, or-¡±


    Our ¡°happy¡± father-son bonding time was forcefully cut short, as so often seems to occur when I''m trying to lecture my son, by the sound of a female screaming. Unlike the usual shrieks of rage Yolonda seemed to produce whenever anything didn¡¯t go her way, this seemed to be one of pure fear.


    ...What was that?  We should be the only ones in the woods¡­


    On the off chance that it wasn¡¯t a spirit trying to lure us to our doom, I took off running toward the source of the sound; one simply doesn¡¯t ignore a cry for help, even if they do have a child of their own to look out for.


    ¡°Stay here!¡± I pointed to a nearby tree, not slowing down in the slightest; I had the feeling he was going to ignore me, but Sed¡¯s powers had proved quite reliable when it came to self-defense, even if it was just brute force right now.


    After what seemed like an eternity (but was probably only half a minute), I arrived on the edge of a large clearing¡­


    ...And spotted a creature from my dreams.  As in, the ones where I would always wake up feeling very, very vulnerable and afraid of squirrels.  The thing appeared to be made of solid ice, although at first glance, one would think that only an utterly insane sculptor would carve it.  Sporting two pincers, a thorn-like tail, 10 sharp icicles for legs, and yet another set of pincers in place of a mouth, it stood at about a hundred centimeters long and half that in width.  What concerned me was the part where it loomed over a young elven woman curled up into a ball.  ...Upon closer inspection, her hunching seemed to be a deliberate attempt to shield a child beneath herself.


    Crouching down and picking up a sizable rock, I threw it towards the¡­ scorpion?  ...not expecting to do any damage, but mostly for the intent of drawing its attention.  If it was a construct as opposed to merely an angry water spirit, this would be effective; if it was the latter, well... I would be dead anyway, so no use worrying about it.


    ¡°OI!  Over here, you oversized bundle of nightmares!¡±  ...Crud.  I let my inner thoughts show through there.  Do not show fear, do not show fear, do not show fear!


    To my surprise, instead of merely alerting it to my presence, the rock actually managed a solid impact, taking out three of the legs and shattering the right pincer.  At the moment of impact, it began to turn, showing those annoying mechanical reflexes that no living being could ever hope to match; after less than a second, I was faced with a charging construct intent on separating my head from the rest of my body.


    Attempting to slow it down, even if by only a moment- I didn¡¯t want that thorn of a tail anywhere close to my body- I swung my halberd in a wide arc, expecting to take out a few more legs and, hopefully, render it immobile.  It was weird enough that it could continue to operate after almost half of its legs had gone missing, but if I could destroy enough, it would be completely incapable of movement- or so I hoped.  A truly sadistic mage could, of course, have given it the ability to fly when all the legs were destroyed, but I hoped it wouldn¡¯t come to that.


    Unfortunately, it dodged my swing with ease, climbing on the side of the blade and sawing off the pointed end before hopping off again and skittering directly toward me. Jumping back, I quickly realized that this wasn''t the creation of some novice mage; it moved like a living being, and had the axe been alive as well, it would have just been decapitated. This would, obviously, kill it.


    Switching tactics, I swung once more from a side angle, flipping to the flat of the blade at the last moment so that it caught the ¡°scorpion¡± and knocked it away, shattering several legs, cracking the main body, and rendering the left pincer permanently shut.


    Without being fazed in the slightest, it began fixing its balance as soon as it hit the ground. Immediately after, said downright demonic little thing started scuttling around on only three legs, not appearing excessively hampered. Although I''d managed to heavily restrict its mobility, as long as that tail remained intact, it remained perfectly capable of impaling me.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Sparing a brief glance at the mother and child huddled beneath a nearby tree, I had to wonder what, exactly, they''d done to have the most exceptionally annoying construct I''ve ever encountered sent after them.


    The construct and I maintained a standoff for several seconds before, in an unusually anticlimactic turn of events, it was torn to shreds by a converging mass of wind.  Ice scattered everywhere, but at least now none of it was sharp enough to deal any actual harm, and the cold hail felt pretty good in the hot, excessively humid summer air.


    ...What¡­?  Looking around, I spotted Sed with an upraised hand, glaring at the main body of the now-most-certainly-dead construct.  It didn¡¯t even take a moment to determine he was the one responsible; several dozen more of his hairs had turned white.  When he seemed to realize I was staring at him, he shrugged and put on his best innocent smile.  ...I wasn¡¯t fooled.


    Didn¡¯t he always insist that all of his uses of magic were instinctual?  That spell was directed, carefully controlled, and most certainly not the work of a total beginner!


    Refusing to meet my gaze, Sederick started to fidget.  ¡°Well, father was taking much, much too long, so I took matters into my own hands.  I may have lied just a teensie eensie bit when I said I was operating only on instinct- but don¡¯t tell mother, please!  My teacher will go away if you do that¡­¡±


    I continued to stare, wondering what the point of this trip was if he already knew the basics of magic anyway.  Couldn¡¯t we have just stayed at home¡­?  Sed started hopping from one foot to the other, and, in a clearly desperate attempt to focus my attention elsewhere, pointed to the completely-forgotten victims of the construct.  ¡°Why are you focusing so much on me when they might be hurt?¡±


    While I was annoyed by his attempts to dodge the topic, he did raise a valid point.  ¡°...We¡¯ll talk later.¡±  Putting my horribly mutilated weapon away, I crossed over to the elves cowering at the base of a nearby tree¡­


    ...And looked into the eyes of the single most beautiful woman I have ever met.


    -----{POV: Sederick}-----


    My name is Sederick, surname currently Lycan, and I have died five times.  I started off as an ordinary clerk, not even a mage, and pretty much just sorted papers until I died.  The art of magic, while it existed in that reality, was said to be the domain of warlocks and evil sorcerers; as a result, my large amount of magical power ended up being completely useless.  It was horribly boring, and when I was killed as a result of several warring countries, I was left wishing for another chance to redo it all.  Literally; my dying words were a request to any god listening to let me have a redo.


    Lo and behold, instead of waking up in an afterlife and dealing with either extreme boredom or extreme chaos, I found myself in a blank white room  and began speaking with a black-haired teenager.  He explained to me about the unique nature of my soul and all I¡¯d been left thinking was that someone had seen fit to grant me my wish.  Over the course of the chat, I¡¯d also learned that Gate was an incredibly kind individual for letting me reincarnate into whatever vessel I felt like.


    ...Or so I thought, at the time.  I¡¯ve spent a large amount of time with Gate, and in the time since, I¡¯ve come to the conclusion that he is a lying, manipulative bastard.  He told me that I was ¡°unique¡±, but whenever I asked if there were other reincarnees, he either avoided the topic or outright lied to my face.  At first, I¡¯d assumed that he¡¯d been forced to as part of his duties- if several souls with the ability to keep their knowledge across lifetimes banded together and figured out a way to travel as a group, they¡¯d be able to terrorize multiple realities from the age of four, and nobody would take the threat seriously.


    Chatting with him after my fourth death, however, led to us referencing events that had happened to me; just before my soul was sent to my next life, I realized something very, very important.


    Since he didn¡¯t have to judge my soul, no information should have been provided to him about my lifetimes.  The only times he should have seen me were from the memories of others or between lives.  Instead, he knew about all but my most private moments, and in detail, as if he¡¯d been watching the entire time.


    After my last death, acting on a hunch, I headed over to him and questioned why, exactly, he was spying on me.  In addition, why had he lied about there being other reincarnees?  With the tax in place, there wasn¡¯t much threat of them banding together and turning into reality-terrorizing super-soldiers.  Finally, after much dodging of the topic and failed attempts at lying to me, he finally gave me a bright, sincere smile.  His answer, although short, angered me an unbelievable amount...


    What did he say?  ¡°Because your struggles amuse me.¡±


    Back to the present, I suppose.  Leaning against a tree, I regarded father and the as-yet-unnamed elf woman with amusement.  As they stared into the eyes of one another, seemingly oblivious to the world, I could practically hear the angelic choir singing; I think this was the first time I was viewing the phenomenon known as ¡°love at first sight¡±.  So, like a good and loyal son, I began to determine father¡¯s odds.


    The red mark around her neck is probably due to a collar, and given as there is only one estate in this direction, it isn¡¯t too unlikely to suspect they¡¯re just escaping from said estate.  That construct, while utterly useless against any area-of-effect spells, is pretty much the perfect hunter for dealing with unskilled civilians.  Since it was sent after them, it doesn¡¯t appear that their owner is going to be wanting them back, and given as this area is all-but abandoned, it¡¯s a bit of a stretch for someone to come to the rescue just in time to save them.  Conclusion: no pre-existing opponents for her hand, and if we¡¯re careful, everyone will believe them to be dead.


    On the emotions end, she just had her life saved, as well as that of her daughter, from a terrible abomination by a metaphorical knight in shining armor.  Her reaction to finding out that he¡¯s married may prove rather amusing, but hopefully¡­


    My internal monologue was interrupted by them actually speaking, and I halted my analysis, interested in their conversation.


    ¡°Are you alright?  What¡¯s your name?¡± dad asked anxiously, coming back to reality.  Yuuup, he¡¯s smitten.


    ¡°...I¡¯m fine.  My name¡¯s Anastasia, but everyone just calls me Anna.¡± she replied reluctantly, then appeared to come to the conclusion that now would be a good time to do something no male would ever willingly do.  ¡°Do you happen to know the way to the nearest town?  We¡¯re a bit lost¡­¡±


    Hmmm.  Asking for directions right off; poor dad, looks like his love will remain forever unrequited.  Probably for the best; even if my mother is extremely selfish and full of flaws, I¡¯d probably lose some respect for dad if he cheated on her.  I¡¯ll admit I was rather disappointed; just when dad almost escaped from Yolonda¡¯s clutches¡­


    ¡°Indeed, and since my son over there invalidated the entire reason for us to be heading along this route anyway...¡± Eldon shot a glare in my general direction, promising me vengeance for his lost time. ¡°...We can escort you there.  What of your daughter?  She¡¯s not moving, and that has me rather worried.¡±


    Anna seemed to tense up significantly when her child was mentioned, and she immediately hugged the girl closer to herself.  ¡°She¡¯ll be alright, she just has a bit of a fever and fainted when that thing showed up.¡±


    ...She¡¯s telling the truth, but not telling us the whole truth.  Narrowing my eyes, I tried to take a closer look at said daughter.  Unfortunately, my view was blocked by Anna, so I couldn¡¯t even determine how old she was.


    ¡°...You can stop covering her now.  I¡¯m a father, too, so I get that you want to shield her- but the danger is past.  Anyway, the town is two weeks away, so I¡¯ll rephrase my question: would you mind if we came with you?  I don¡¯t know the full story or why an assassin-construct was attacking you, but it¡¯s simply not safe to be travelling with a sick child.  I don¡¯t bite.¡±


    Anna looked like she¡¯d take quite a bit of convincing, which I had no interest in helping with, so I elected to ignore that for now and crouch down to look at the child she held in her arms.


    To my surprise, I discovered that it was a petite, blonde-haired, pale-skinned girl about my own age.  She looked for all the world like she¡¯d break at the slightest touch, but that was probably just in my imagination. ...If she survives until adulthood, she¡¯ll have men lining up to propose to her.  Even I¡¯m having to resist the urge to swear fealty and drive off all the <del>barbarians</del> suitors with a sword...


    On the health aspect of things, her fists were clenched, her face was red, and she was breathing heavily, but it didn¡¯t look like she was in any actual danger, as such.  Scratches littered her body, but those were probably just from travelling in the woods for a few days without proper attire.  I didn¡¯t see any sign of the supplies they¡¯d need to survive for a few weeks in the wilderness, either.  Between her and her mother, why, exactly, did someone want to go through the trouble of killing them as opposed to just bringing them back?  They¡¯re clearly not prepared for¡­


    I stared at the small number of barely-noticable silver hairs among the mass of blonde.  Oh.  Oohhhhhhhh.  Well¡­ that certainly explains how an assassin-construct that fragile was in such good condition.  I can¡¯t let her go, so time to make them realize we¡¯re no threat in the most entertaining way possible.


    ¡°Daddy, is Anna going to be my new mom?¡± I asked innocently, barely managing to contain my grin as the <del>victims</del> people in question turned crimson.  Both of them are getting embarrassed, hmmm?  Looks like dads infatuation isn¡¯t entirely one-sided...


    -----{POV: Anastasia}-----


    Although I was pleased to have been rescued from that thing, I was starting to doubt that it had intended us any harm at all.  There was a good thirty seconds or so from the time I noticed it and when help arrived, and given how quickly it had moved before, it was perfectly capable of killing us both.  Instead, it just stood there, as if waiting for orders¡­


    And yet, said construct was still the source of my current concern.  Elysia hadn''t been outside of the estate before this week, and most of the woodland animals couldn''t get inside the wall. The closest thing to claws had been a pair of garden shears, and I doubted she would associate them as a viable weapon.


    ...I was positive; her reference to ''practicing with friends'', her double-sided nature, and finally, the construct. The first two could be dismissed as an external influence from someone managing to teach her in secret or being a genius, but that abomination should have taken decades or even centuries of experience to create. It simply wasn''t something an 8-year-old child could do, and I''d been watching carefully; no physical teachers materialized to guide her through the process.


    My daughter was possessed, and I hadn''t the faintest idea what I was going to do about it...


    Authors note: There has apparently been some concern that reincarnees (henceforth referred to as ¡°wanderers¡±) are basically old men and women in the bodies of children.  While true, each of those currently in the same reality as Elysia died at an early to middle age, and once they¡¯d learned that they could just come back whenever they died, they mostly ceased in their acquisition of wisdom.  ...It doesn¡¯t help that they have a tendency to die fairly early.  This has led to some very, very strange philosophies, which I believe will become quite blatant later on.


    So, no.  The only major pervert among the ones currently assembled is Nero; while he isn¡¯t a pedo, he imagines most children he looks at as what they¡¯ll probably look like when they grow up.  He¡¯s even worked to make sure that they fulfill or exceed his expectations in the past.  He does have the time to wait, after all, and since his ¡°lifespan¡± spans centuries and may continue for eternity, he¡¯s quite patient.  ...Which, let¡¯s face it, is plain out creepy.


    Note #2: Yes, using magic slowly changes the hair (and eye, but  that¡¯s a separate set) color of the user to the color matching their element.  Air and water users get the worst deal, as they¡¯re stuck with white and silver, respectively; while this looks quite good on many people and may even be treated as exotic, it practically screams ¡°I¡¯m a mage!  Attack me first!¡± at the top of its lungs.


    Chapter proofread by Curvinho and Fangtooth.

 Chapter 2: Interrogation

    Chapter 2: Interrogation


    -----{POV: Elysia}-----


    Waking up from a magical overload is never pleasant.  Side effects may include nausea, vomiting, fever, headaches, a weakened immune system, temporary memory loss, <del>loss of property value</del>, the feeling that your entire body has been horribly burned, unconsciousness, and brain damage.  Fortunately, that time around, I only seemed to be suffering from a fever and temporary unconsciousness.  I suppose that the younger your soul is, the less strain it can undergo?


    Regardless, the last thing I wanted to see upon returning to cruel reality was an unfamiliar face less than twelve inches from my own.  It wasn¡¯t a particularly horrifying face, as such - kinda below average, if you asked me - but the point still stood.  Well, I suppose it could look good if not for the near-perfect darkness.  Kinda hard to tell.  I could determine that I was in a tent and lying down on a bedroll, but not much beyond that.


    ¡°Wa-TaDeSt-¡± I began chanting in a rush, only to have a hand clamped over my mouth.  I could, of course, resort to mental spellcasting, but that was a card I preferred not to play until I knew the entire hand of my opponent.


    ¡°Nice reflexes.¡± a child¡¯s voice whispered, causing me to blink in surprise.  Tilting my head slightly, I noticed that he was about my own age.  He was certainly not a kidnapper like I first thought. I almost impaled a child. However obnoxious he may be, I really need to tone down how trigger-happy I am.


    ¡°Now, if I remove my hand, are you going to scream?  Or can we actually talk like reasonable individuals?¡±


    ...Note to self: this kid really needs to be disciplined more often.  Oh, to be twenty again¡­ I quickly nodded, and the hand was removed.


    ¡°Right. So.¡± the young boy said briskly.  ¡°Our parents are going hunting tomorrow evening, and we have the option of staying here if we behave.  I know that you seem to be extremely attached to your mother, but can you please tell her you want to stay behind?  I wish to spend more time with you.¡±


    ...Eh? I thought, bewildered, then quickly realized that he probably just wanted to play with me.  We were both still children, after all - he was a bit too young to realize that what he just said sounded exactly like something significantly different.


    I put on a radiant smile, although I wasn¡¯t nearly as happy on the inside as I showed on the outside.  ¡°Elysia would be happy to!¡±


    A pained look briefly showed on his face, but vanished as abruptly as it appeared.  ¡°Okay.  That¡¯s all, good night!¡±


    Without another word, he hopped up and headed outside; I waited for thirty seconds, then immediately hopped up and went to find mother and figure out what, exactly, was going on.  I felt I had missed quite a bit...


    The next evening, I stood across from the boy in a clearing rather far away from camp.  The boy¡¯s father, Eldon, had told me his view of the situation earlier, but for some strange reason, Eldon had stubbornly refused to tell me name of his son.  When I had done the ancient and time-honored tactic of consulting someone else in the hopes of a better answer, mom had gone along with it.  I suspected it was for some silly reason such as getting us to do self-introductions, but whatever.


    ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± the boy said shortly.  ¡°I¡¯ll get right to the point: I know you made that assassin-construct.  I would like to know how and what your motive for doing it was.¡±


    Alarm bells started ringing inside the privacy of my mind, and I immediately put on my ¡®innocent little girl¡¯ act.  ¡°Elysia isn¡¯t quite sure what you¡¯re talking about; Elysia¡¯s friends taught her to do that.¡±


    ¡°Really.¡± the air boy said flatly.  ¡°Then explain to me how you managed to create a construct that moved as if it was alive. As if that wasn¡¯t sufficient, it had enough contingency plans to continue moving even after my father had reduced it to three legs.¡±  He sneered disdainfully at me.  ¡°That¡¯s not the sort of thing you can simply pick up on if you¡¯re taught for a few years, it takes decades of practice.¡±


    A cold feeling developed in the pit of my stomach.  Putting my hands behind my back to disguise the fact that they were involuntarily clenching, I looked at him with suspicion intentionally written all over my face.


    ¡°Elysia wants to know why the boy is insisting on asking Elysia questions when she¡¯s alone; couldn¡¯t Elysia¡¯s mommy answer these better?  Mommy said Elysia shouldn¡¯t talk to strangers.  What¡¯s the boy¡¯s name, anyway?¡±


    The sneer vanished and he stared at me with a growing disbelief, although I wasn¡¯t entirely sure why.  Regardless, the last thing I want is to be associated with a blood-mage, if that¡¯s what he is; either he spent some time on one of the other planes, is possessed, is a blood-mage or has been spending a LOT of time with spirits.  ...Or some combination of the above.  Regardless of the answer, I really, really don¡¯t want to attract his interest right now.


    ¡°I¡¯m Sederick, but you can call me Sed.  Look, I¡¯m not going to tattle on you or anything, okay?  Just tell me how you managed to make that thing!¡±  ...It might just have been my imagination, but it seemed as though ¡®tattle¡¯ was said with rather a large amount of disdain, as if the word itself hurt his pride.


    I planted one finger on my chin and looked slightly over his left shoulder.  ¡°Elysia¡¯s friends put the knowledge in her head so she could use it later; Elysia doesn¡¯t really remember making a construct, just saying the word they told her to.  Why?  Elysia wants to know if she did something wrong.¡±


    Sed¡¯s hands clenched into fists, a vein throbbing in his temple.  Why is he getting so angry¡­?


    ¡°Will you stop with the blatant lies!?¡± he shouted loud enough to make my ears ring.  ¡°Humanoid minds don¡¯t work like that!  You can¡¯t just store extra knowledge to be unlocked with a word!  Now tell me what ACTUALLY happened!¡±


    I had to resist the urge to burst out laughing. Even with obvious knowledge above the norm for his age, Sederick clearly didn¡¯t know how to thought-cast.  That plain out required for an individual to modify part of their own mind.  You could have it done with help from others, but either way, it was necessary in order to silently cast spells without thinking SQUIRREL and completely messing it up.  In comparison, planting memories was easy.  Still, he didn¡¯t seem like he¡¯d go away until he got the truth, so¡­


    ...I started to sniffle, using a minimal amount of power to help my eyes tear up.  ¡°B-but¡­ Elysia was telling the truth¡­ They said Elysia was a natural, but Sederick is getting so angry¡­ did Elysia do something wrong?¡±


    Sed¡¯s expression of anger quickly calmed down, then just as quickly turned to guilt as I burst out crying.  Every girl should learn how to cry upon command; it¡¯s amazing how quickly men completely change their minds when they¡¯re faced with a bawling child or maiden.


    -----{POV: Sederick}-----


    This¡­ cannot be happening.  I thought, dazed, as I stared at the crying child before me.  I think I find another wanderer, and it turns out to just be an absurdly intelligent little girl- and yet, she was overloaded just making a construct of that size¡­ just how unfair do you have to be, god!?  If you¡¯re going to give someone natural talent, at least give them the power to match or else she¡¯s just wasting her time!


    ¡°But¡­ look, I¡¯m really sorry.¡± I said awkwardly, reaching out to pat her head.  ¡°Your friends are spirits, right?  I¡¯ve been taught-¡±


    ¡°SEDERICK IS A BIG MEANIE!¡± Elysia screamed, smacking my hand away and running off into the woods, still producing heartbreaking sobs.


    Left behind in a sort of a shocked daze, it took me several seconds to realize I had made a very, very serious mistake.  After thinking for a bit more, I determined that I was absolutely screwed.


    I had acted like someone twice my age or more, revealed my extensive knowledge of magic, and forever tainted myself in the mind of a little girl who would probably be living with me for the next several years.  Just to top it all off, she was probably heading toward her mother.  Oh look, now Anna is going to hate me as well.  Fantastic.  Could this day possibly get any better?


    As if to mock me, I suddenly felt something heavy and wet land on the top of my head.  Looking up, I spotted a smug-looking bird flying away and out of sight.


    Reaching upward, I determined that yes, it had, in fact, done a dive-by bombing on my hair.  I would be very much surprised if my resulting scream of mingled frustration and fury wasn¡¯t heard all throughout the forest.


    -----{POV: Elysia}-----


    Well, that went quite well.  I thought happily to myself, not bothering to maintain the cascade of tears now that I was out of earshot.  Sederick will be focusing more on trying to regain my good graces than any attempts to pry knowledge out of my unwilling grip.  Perhaps I should go over and cry in mothers lap as well?  ...Hmm...


    Changing direction, I took a moment to scratch out a gylph on a tree before proceeding.   {Wa-SeTaDe-Re-Ra4-Du20-Drop6}


    Carefully pointing toward my eyes with one hand, I poured power into the sigil before sitting down for about thirty seconds to let the spell do its work.  Once that was over and done with and my eyes were no longer irritated, I headed back toward camp, having to resist the urge to skip through the woods.  That would be too cheerful, and I needed to come in totally teary-eyed and barely comprehensible.


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    The possibility that damaging my mother¡¯s relations with a boy I¡¯d only just met could be considered unfair never even crossed my mind.


    -----One week later.  {POV: Sederick}-----


    Never, in any of my lifetimes, have I been quite this frustrated.  Most of said frustration was directed toward myself for terrifying the most naive and innocent child I¡¯ve ever met, but there was still quite a bit aimed at Elysia herself.  I get that she¡¯s just a kid, but there has to be a limit to how unreasonable she can be!  I¡¯m trying to make up for my mistake!


    My good intentions, however, seemed to be flat-out ignored at every turn; every time I tried to apologize, she would run off, usually screaming some variant of ¡°SEDERICK IS A HUGE JERK!¡±  I attempted to appeal to a higher authority, my father, but was told that I should learn how to deal with girls by myself.


    Okay then, you try it!  I was talking to women while you were still walking around in diapers!  I thought angrily, but resisted the urge to say anything aloud.  ...Well, that was an unusually immature thought.  Ugh.  I can¡¯t wait until I¡¯m older again; nothing quite like having your body try to revert your mental state to that of an incompetent, immature child.  ...And partly succeeding.


    They kept leaving me back at camp with the little crybaby, too.  Fed up, I attempted to point out that leaving two children in the middle of the wilderness wasn¡¯t a very good idea.  Father just gave me a disbelieving look, followed by a knowing smile.


    ¡°Well, you seemed to do just fine against that construct I was struggling with, so you should be alright.¡± His smile seemed to say, ¡°After all, you seem not to need a teacher for the basics like I thought, hmm?¡±


    Today, though, I¡¯d decided it was time to fix things by force.  She was poisoning my relationship with both my father and Anna at an alarming rate, and I¡¯d had enough.  Anna kept trying to chase me down with a rather determined look, probably to chew me out for terrorizing her darling daughter.  ...On the bright side, Anastasia and dad seemed to be getting along just fine, although their awkward conversations were starting to hurt.  I almost pitied my mother.  Almost...


    Then I¡¯d remember the incident where she completely forgot about me and left me behind when I was only five.  When I had finally managed to get home, I was punished for running off on my own and grounded for a month.  Never mind that she had told me to stay where I was and I had complied.  Never mind that I was freezing, wet, and came down with a cold just afterward.


    Oh, and just to top it all off, I¡¯d suspected she was cheating on father... although I didn¡¯t have any actual evidence of that at the time.  So, that suspicion remained in the privacy of my own mind.  I considered bribing a pixie to spy on her, but filed that thought away for later; there were more important things to worry about.


    ...Going back to the main topic of today, Anna was off searching for medical herbs and dad was off hunting, leaving myself and Elysia back at camp.  Is it just me, or is Anna kinda avoiding Elysia lately¡­?


    At present moment, Elysia was sitting on the other side of camp with her back to me, humming happily to herself.  I couldn¡¯t see what she was doing, but judging by her past track record, she was probably braiding flower-necklaces or something.  ...I didn¡¯t get any, of course, which was rather conspicuous when both father and Anastasia got them.


    ¡°So, um¡­ I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯re going to listen to me today?¡± I tried.


    The humming got significantly louder, reflecting Elysia¡¯s feelings on that particular subject.  Okay, I thought, fed up with this childish nonsense.  Time for plan¡­ what am I on?  J?


    I walked over to her and planted my hand on her shoulder.  ¡°Oi.  Listen, I¡¯ve been trying to say that I¡¯m sor-¡±


    She stopped humming, got up, and started to run away as per usual.  Grabbing her wrist, I pulled her back and prevented yet another sob-and-run.


    ¡°Stop being so darn- unreasonable...?¡± I trailed off weakly, my eyes growing to the size of saucers.


    Floating all around my head and arm, many small, needles formed of clear ice had formed.  If I moved more than a few centimeters in any direction, I had the feeling I would lose access to those parts of my body- which meant, effectively, that I would die.


    When did she set this up?  I heard no chant, and neither of her hands are anywhere near something that could hold a glyph!


    ¡°Unhand this one immediately, Sederick Jason Lycan.¡± A voice I barely recognized as belonging to Elysia said quietly as she turned to face me with pale-blue eyes.   ¡°I know not what possesses thee to pretend to be a child, and I shan¡¯t pry.  If thou is revealed to be a body-snatcher, however, this one will erase thou from existence.  Understood?¡±


    ...Just what is going on here!?  Although I knew that the eye color-change was just a temporary side effect of using magic, that didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t completely unnerving.  Gone was the excessively adorable little girl with a bit of an attitude problem, replaced with¡­ something else.  As if to confirm that I wasn¡¯t dealing with a vastly-underpowered little girl anymore, I could feel waves of cold radiating from her body.


    ¡°Dost thou understand?¡± she asked coldly.  ...No pun intended.


    ¡°Yes!¡± I squeaked, letting go and carefully removing my arm from the threat of repeated and painful stabbing.


    ¡°Good.  Speak of this to no one.¡±


    She waved a hand, and the needles fell harmlessly to the ground as she began to walk toward her tent.  When she was about halfway there, she seemed to undergo an abrupt transformation, switching from taking long, efficient strides to skipping there and humming happily to herself.


    Glancing toward the fallen projectiles, I began to realize another downside of it being summer, besides merely uncomfortable temperatures and high humidity: all the evidence that this had ever happened was melting before my eyes.  Even the minimal amount of water it left behind would evaporate long before our parents returned.


    ...I think this is the part where I¡¯m supposed to run away screaming.  What was that supposed to be!?


    -----{POV: Elysia}-----


    As soon as I was safely back in my tent, I immediately plopped down onto my bedroll, horribly embarrassed.  What was I thinking, wasting so much power?  Even if it did look like that conversation had the desired effect, well¡­


    What possessed me to talk like that?  Did I even get that manner of speech right?  And I just made an enemy of a journeyman air magician, and one who was apparently actually taught by the local spirits.  So, depending on how much they value him, I might have a horde of angry elementals trying to kill me.  Fantastic.


    Unbeknownst to me, both Sederick and I were thinking the same thing at that moment.  Could that conversation have possibly gone any worse?


    -----Two hours later.  {POV: Anastasia}-----


    I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m resorting to old wives tales.  I thought, sighing, as I mixed several annoyingly-rare herbs together.  I can¡¯t really see how putting this in food could drive out an evil spirit, but it¡¯s better than nothing¡­


    Of course, I¡¯d checked first to make sure it wasn¡¯t poisonous; I wouldn¡¯t feed anything to my precious daughter that I didn¡¯t first try myself.  Still, although it tasted vile, the results were¡­ underwhelming.


    ¡°Pardon me, miss Anna?¡± I heard a child¡¯s voice speak up from in front of me, and I looked up, identifying the speaker as Sederick.  ...Why did I even have to look up?  Aside from Elysia and him, there are no other children around here.


    Still, I was rather surprised; I¡¯d tried to chase him down and speak with him without his father or Elysia around, but he always managed to make a perfectly valid excuse and slip away.  I¡¯d wanted to try and fix up relations between him and Elysia- she was totally overreacting over just one little argument.  It was only after about the fourth incident that I realized it was a deliberate attempt to avoid me.  So why is he coming to me now¡­?  What a strange child.


    ¡°Yes?¡± I asked kindly, putting the herbs I was working on to the side.  ¡°What is it?  You seem to have something on your mind.¡±


    That was a wild guess; strangely enough, his expressions always seemed rather¡­ fake.  Even when he was happy and smiling, it seemed unnatural.


    ¡°Yes.  I¡¯ll be blunt; I have reason to believe that your daughter is possessed by at least a C-class water elemental, subtype frost.  I am here to discuss what, exactly, you would like to do about it...¡±


    Author¡¯s note: Yes, elementals and spirits are the same thing.  Feedback appreciated, as always.


    Chapter proofread by Fangtooth, and then proofread again with a fine-tooth comb by Curvinho.