by Max Jager
Estellese placed a hand on Pex's shoulder for a moment to stop her, then she gently hugged the woman. "It's alright, I understand. Thank you. I don't have a place to stay, so I may take that offer, but we will see how things go. You're a great friend Pex."
Pex smiled softly and relaxed a little. "Thanks."
There was a brief knock on the wall beside the open door, followed by Rose gesturing for someone to come "It's alright to come in."
"Figured I'd knock first just incase-" Mendelen started
"Hey!" Estellese shouted as she quickly grabbed for the blankets again to quickly cover herself. As soon as Mendelen walked in and noticed she was only covered by blankets he quickly spun around to face away and covered his eyes, his face had turned a bright shade of red.
"You said it was okay to come in." Mendelen murmured to Rose.
Pex, Rose, and her assistant all looked thoroughly confused, while Cora quietly laughed from where she sat on the counter. "Rose." Cora started. "The humans have similar customs to elves when it comes to nudity."
"Oh! I am very sorry Miss." Rose quickly replied. "She didn't seem bothered by my assistant."
"I was, but he is so quiet I had forgotten he was there." Estellese answered, her face also lighting up in a dark shade of red. "It's fine though, I covered myself in time. Just in the future warn me."
"That aside" Mendelen started. "How are you doing? Are you alright?"
"I'm doing a lot better, they grew me a new arm and healed my injuries. They are now trying to give me wings." Estellese answered.
"Wings? That would be pretty neat." Mendelen replied and paused to think about it.
"You can turn around now, I'm covered. But yeah, I really want to be able to fly." Estellese replied.
"Uh, no I'm alright. It's already kinda awkward as it is." Mendelen declined, remaining facing the door.
Estellese laughed lightly "You're easily embarrassed, I think you're even more bothered then I am."
"Well, yeah." Mendelen started. "Anyways, I spoke to the others and everyone has a plan for the next two weeks. Do you know how you plan to prepare?" He asked.
Estellese nodded. "Once they get my wings, however many days that takes, I plan to practice flying and I want to study magic. I don't think I need to practice combat, I got that down just fine, so the best thing I can do is give myself a bigger arsenal of attacks by learning magic."
Mendelen nodded "That sounds like a pretty well thought out plan." He replied. That actually surprised him since he did not see her as the type to plan things out that well, she always seemed to just go with the flow without a plan. But he was glad she had put so much thought into it, it bettered her chances of survival. He had worried that he would need to assist her and Kaden with planning their next two weeks but they both surprised him and didn't need his help. "I was just coming to check on you, I have a meeting with Alicia and Adamus to get to. If you need help or anything, let me know. You can reach me easily with a PM or something. I'll see you later."
"Alright, thanks. Tell them I said hello." Estellese replied.
"Will do." Mendelen left and headed off to his meeting.
"Your friend is strange." Pex finally spoke up. "But he seems to care about you"
Estellese laughed softly "I know."
"Hey," Pex turned to Cora and Rose. "I want to help. I don't know nature magic, so I can't help with the surgery itself, but I got some rest while I was in recovery. I can put my energy in my emeralds and pass it on to you two as needed. It will at least take off some of the energy strain."
Cora nodded "Thanks hon, that would be greatly appreciated." she then turned to Rose "You ready to continue?"
Rose stood up and shut the door "Yeah, I got some rest there, I'm ready."
Cora turned to Estellese "You sure you still don't want to be knocked out for this? Now that you know how much it hurts."
Estellese nodded "I'm sure, I need to study."
Pex looked shocked. "You are brave, far braver than me." She said in awe. "But I'll be here for you, I can help you study. Both now and once you get out of here."
"Thank you, I'd like that." Estellese replied as she laid down on her stomach again and took a deep breath. She propped her head up on her elbows so she could read her book and prepared for the pain she knew would follow.
- Next Chapter: Divine Intervention -
Chapter 18: Divine Intervention
- Chapter 18: Divine Intervention -
There was a chill in the air, everyone was tense. The Alphas were sitting on a blanket in the grass just below the floating city and quietly ate lunch. Their two weeks of preparation were over, the time freezing spell was about to end in a couple hours. One thing that stood out was that Estellese now had butterfly wings that were gently folded against her back. Her wings were a bright and pure white with a few streaks of gold and light pink making a simple but elegant design.
"So," Mendelen started, trying to break the silence. "Estell, how are the wings working?"
"Pretty good. It took two days for them to get it right but they work now. I've gotten used to flying with them, I'm not nearly as agile in flight as the fairies yet but I can fly decently." Estellese replied. "How has everyone's training gone? I have gotten a decent grasp on fire magic, and Pex was nice enough to buy me a book on earth magic so I've learned some of that too. Once I master these two elements, I want to learn a few spells from other elements to keep myself versatile."
"Not much to report on my end. Trained with the soldiers for a while, then I picked up one spell and learned that." Mendelen answered.
"Just a spell? Not a whole element?" Estellese asked. "Which one did you get?"
"I don't see myself as much of a magic user." Mendelen answered. "But I saw one spell I knew I had to have. From the Black Aether element, it's called 'Dark Undershield.' Basically cancels out all magic and enchantments in a small area surrounding me. Downside being that it is a massive strain on my stamina and it also blocks all of my magic and enchantments and blocks any friendly spells coming my way. Figured it would help me compete with the demon's magic. There's a couple other spells I have in mind, but I doubt they'd be on the shelves. I want to talk to the fairies about creating my own spells later."
"That sounds really useful. Nice choice of spells." Estellese thought out loud. "Kaden? Zanath?"
"Not much to say on my part either." Kaden answered. "I am stronger and faster than before, and my signet skill activated. It lets me create two interconnected portals, whatever goes through one comes out the other and vice versa."
"When did you get a signet ring?" Estellese asked.
"Alicia handed them out to all of us while you were in the hospital. She was going to give you one, but you already have one." Zanath answered. "Mine also activated, it's essentially alchemy. The power to turn a non-living object into something else. Changing it's shape and composition, but not its mass. Aside from that I've just done some running and target practice."
"So my signet is the only one not activated yet?" Mendelen asked.
"I think so." Estellese replied. "But we still don't know what mine does."
Zanath shook his head. "I still think yours had something to do with you switching elements in the last fight we had. You were using elements that you never learned, but you remembered learning them and didn't remember learning fire." He said.
"I don't remember that at all." Estellese replied. "I remember using nothing other than my fireballs."
"I know you used other elements. And the engraving on your ring supports my thesis. Kaden's engraving is a portal, and he makes portals. Mine is what appears to be half a rose and half a sword, in mid-transformation. Yours is a girl walking down a road, reaching a crossroads where the road forks in many directions. And down each road you can see copies of the girl in the background as if showing that she took that road." Zanath explained.
"What does that have to do with having different elements?" Estellese asked.
"Ever he
ar of the multi-universe theory? For every choice you make, there is a universe where you made a different choice. While I do not actually believe in this theory, I think your signet plays off this theory. Using your signet makes you switch places with yourself in another universe where you made different choices. Specifically, you chose different elements. It would explain why you don't remember and why it activated when you chose an element. The faint engravings of the girl going down each path would represent you in a different universe where you chose that path."
"No way!" Estellese blurted out. Suddenly it looked like her spirit stepped out of her body, her spirit was holding a fireball in its hand while pebbles orbited around it. Then a puff of smoke came out of her signet ring and transformed into a copy of her spirit, with lightning arcing down her arms and spheres of water orbiting around her. The spirit with the fireball went into the ring the same way the lightning one left it, and the lightning copy of her spirit stepped into her body. "What elements did I learn?"
"Fire and Earth." Zanath answered.
"No… Water and Lightning… It actually worked!" Estellese replied in shock. "And I can feel it, it feels like the ring is constantly draining my energy at a slow pace. I assume if I turn it off I will go back?" She thought out loud, then paused for a moment. "I can't turn it off? Or switch to something else, it isn't working now."
"I'd assume something like that would have a cooldown period." Zanath answered. "After using my signet, I can't use it again for a few seconds."
"Oh, yeah that makes sense." Estellese replied. It was only a fifteen second wait before she was able to turn it off and return to normal. By then, the awkward silence had fallen over everyone again.
"Well, I guess I'll be the one to talk about the elephant in the room." Mendelen spoke up again. "How are we all feeling about this upcoming fight? We are all uninjured this time, and we are more powerful than ever before. It's funny, the elves and fairies are shocked by how fast we have gained power. Alicia herself said that the things we have learned, and the new strengths and magic we gained should have taken us months, yet we gained it all in two weeks. Adamus says we are still not on-par with the elven soldiers, but are on-par with the rookies. He said he feels more comfortable with us going onto the battlefield now. So, I mean, that's a plus."
Silence was the response he got.
"We almost died last time." Kaden replied. "Honestly, it was sheer dumb luck that we didn't. If the fairies didn't need us to rebuild the machine, we wouldn't have survived. Granted, our chances are better this time, but if what happened last time happens again, we aren't going to make it."
"Then let's not let that happen again." Mendelen replied. "The demons are smart, they outsmarted us, they out strategized me. They learned from the first time we fought them, and already figured out that in order to defeat us the best strategy is to separate us. And that's exactly what they did. I hadn't expected them to learn that so fast, but Adamus explained to me how they knew. The demons we killed never died, when we kill demons they just get sent back to the underworld. Some of the demons we fought in our second battle, may have been the same ones we fought in the first battle. And even if they were different ones, the ones we fought the first time no doubt documented everything they knew about us as soon as they were sent back for all the other demons to study. It's a common tactic they use according to Adamus."
"So then, this third fight against them will be even harder?" Estellese asked.
"No, it will be easier." Mendelen answered. When he got a confused look from Estellese he continued "We know their plan and can counter them the same way they are trying to counter us."
"Won't they be expecting that, and be ready to counter our counter?" Kaden interrupted. "That's what I'd do."
"Possibly." Mendelen stated. "But regardless, we have a trick up our sleeves. Everyone is saying that we are gaining power astronomically fast. Remember? We've grown so much stronger in such a short time, the demons won't be expecting it. We are almost on-par with the novice elven and fairy soldiers at this point. I mean, when you say it out loud like that it doesn't sound as good... But the point is in the last fight we were just civilians on the battlefield, and look at how well we did. Now we are as tough as soldiers and we have even more allies with us. We got this."
Alicia's voice spoke up from a short distance behind them. "You are still gravely underestimating the power of the abyssal demon." She started. "Sybil and Asre were the strongest people I've ever met, it took both of them, the fairy counsel, and an army to bring the abyssal demon down. Now Asre is dead, Sybil will not have the stamina left to keep fighting when time unfreezes, and many of the fairy counsel are either stuck in the time freeze, meaning they haven't had any time to rest, or are dead. The fairies lost a lot in that battle. Now I won't say we are worse off then we were before, we have numbers now and numbers win wars. But we are not much better off then the fairies were in the first battle. If the abyssal demon gets back out of the rift, we lose."
Mendelen shook his head. "I did not miss that fact at the meetings, I know how strong this thing is, but we need to be optimistic. We had two weeks to plan this out, we are as ready for this as we will ever be. We got this."
"Ugh you sound like Adamus, and my father." Alicia complained. "I take a more realistic approach. Yeah, I know it isn't the way you're supposed to lead an army, morale and optimism are said to be key for effectively leading. But sugarcoating everything isn't going to help anyone."
"Yeah, optimism is blind." Kaden replied. "So is pessimism for that matter, both sides walk into every problem with a blindfold covering their eyes. One of them just drew a smiley face on the blindfold and the other drew a frowny face. But it's still a blindfold."
Mendelen shook his head "That's a little over simplified Kaden, optimists are not blind they just don't get hung up on the negatives."
"Same thing." Kaden replied.
"Guys, focus." Alicia interrupted. "We need to get moving, the army is going to begin assembling in a few minutes. I came to get you guys to assemble before everyone else. You will be coming with me to set up the device on the rift."
"Wait, going with you?" Kaden asked. "You're the princess, shouldn't you be as far away from the battle as possible? We can't protect you."
"I'm not a child! I don't need protection, will everyone quit saying that. I'm sixteen, I can take care of myself!" Alicia snapped back, judging by how quickly her temper flared it was a safe bet that he was by far not the first to say that.
"That kind of emotional response says you're not ready for the battlefield. An emotional outburst like that on the battlefield will get you killed." Kaden replied bluntly. "It's not a matter of skill, but of wisdom and control of your emotions, which you gain through age."
"Kaden!" Estellese interrupted.
"Yes, Kaden. Knock it off. You're being disrespectful." Mendelen stated.
"Note, I'm disrespectful, not wrong." Kaden interjected. But when he looked around to see disapproval in everyone's faces he shrugged. He knew he didn't fit in with the group when it came to these sort of things.
Alicia took a deep breath, then calmly replied "You will not speak to royalty like that human. Remember your place." She pointed to Kaden and gave him a stern look. "And you see? I have perfect control over my emotions. Not only that but I've been in far more fights than you, you just appeared in this world but I've lived here my entire life and I've been trained for this. So I know better then you do. Period."
Everyone looked to Kaden, waiting for his response. But Kaden just shrugged and after a moment said "I've already said my piece, I have nothing more to add. Just don't make me say I told ya so."
Mendelen shook his head as the group began walking towards the edge of the city. Kaden lagged behind the group, but followed from a short distance.
"I believe Pex will be accompanying us." Alicia started. "But beyond that it will be just us. Our job is to get in, shut down the rift, then get out as quickly as possible. We are no
t staying any longer than necessary."
"This was not part of the plan we came up with though." Mendelen started. "It was supposed to be just us four, and maybe Pex if she wanted to come. You were going to lead the forces from a distance like you did before. Why did it change?"
"We found more capable generals who were still alive. They were wounded on the battlefield and brought in by some medics." Alicia replied. "While I can lead, I'm not as well versed in military tactics as these fairies who spent years studying these things. And I'd much prefer to be on the battlefield anyways."