That weekend, I left the college dorms to go visit everyone else. My first stop was the shop run by ‘Alia.’ I wanted to see her, and to brainstorm solutions. While I could have asked her over the communication bracelet, being face to face was nicer. It made it easier to hug each other and relax together, after all.
The front door opened with a pleasant chiming sound as I walked into her shop.
“Hey Alia,” I said as I looked at Anise.
“Hey Miria! Said Anise, as she gave a cheery wave. She was wearing her ‘Alia’ disguise right now, so she looked different than usual - but her smile was as bright as ever. The first thing I did was pull her into a hug.
“How have you been?” I asked, as I released her.
“Hmm… I have mixed feelings about everything,” said Anise. “On one hand, the worldstriders are scary. I don't like how much they're expanding on the continent. But I also have really good news. This morning, I got a reward for fixing 100 prosthetic limbs using 'lost magic.' And it ca with a useful ability. It isn't a keyword ability... but it's an option,” said Anise. "It gives the dinsional laws related to Zelyrian spellcasting. It doesn't have a way to change my biology to make compatible with Zelyrian magic, or generate essence. Even so, it's a solid plan B!" she said. "Still, since it's not a keyword ability, it's not very cost effective. If I buy it, I would be paying 20 glut penalty for only 1/3rd of what I need.” Anise sighed. “Say, with your healing magic and shapeshifting... Do you think that in the future, you could help perform a ‘surgery’ to change my biology into that of a Zelyrian? I hope it isn't needed, but as a backup option...”
I frowned in thought. “Well… maybe? I haven’t tried making that extre of a change to soone’s biology before. I’m sure it’s possible, but I can't pull it off yet. The complexity is way higher than just changing our hands a bit. How about this? On future weekends, let’s do so tests, and I’ll see what I can learn. The first thing I would need to do is actually understand Zelyrian biology, after all.”
Anise hugged again, before burying her head into my shoulder. “Thanks Miria. If it works… I’ll have a way to keep the Zelyrian spellcasting System. Essence generation seems like the easiest problem to solve, and if you can help , that would fix the other problems I have.”
I grinned. “Let’s keep aiming for a proper keyword ability… but now you have a plan B!” Then, I fell into thought. "Since you got the ability for healing prosthetics, does the ability have any restrictions? I rember Felix's shaping magic has so restrictions on it..."
“Yes. It restricts the kinds of spells I can learn. If I take this ability, I would only be able to learn repairing, healing, and force related spells. It has far less variety than I want out of my magic system.”
“Is that so? Out of curiosity, what ‘image’ of a witch do you want to pursue?”
“Hmm… In my mind, the ideal sup- erm… the ideal mage is soone who has a lot of variety in what kinds of spells they cast. They should be able to command the elents with their minds, turn invisible, teleport, and heal, all with a thought. They should have a spell for every situation.”
“Hmm… it doesn’t sound like the flawed version of Zelyrian magic quite fits that ideal, then. Well, we’re only 15. We still have a long ti to live and get a better option.” As long as the worldstriders don’t cut that short, I thought. I felt a shiver of anxiety run through my thoughts as I worried about the worldstriders.
“Hey Miria… do think the worldstriders are going to win? They've taken a huge chunk of land already, and the nations of the continent aren't fighting back very effectively.” asked Anise, breaking out of my thoughts. Unlike before, she looked thoughtful and morose.
“I… don’t know,” I said. “I hope not.” Anise needed more ti to develop. If the worldstriders beat down all of the nations on this continent, it would be a catastrophe. There was no way we could fight them off by ourselves.
Anise nodded. “I wish I could figure out how the Zelyrians won against the Worldstriders. If only they included that in their basic magic textbooks…”
“Life sure would be easier if that were the case,” I said, before I shook my head. Then, I had an idea. “Do you think you might be able to figure out a solution if we tried it on a real worldstrider?”
"What do you an? I an... I guess it would be easier to continue my research with a live target. But how would we accomplish that? You guys have university. And even if you didn't, charging headlong into the Worldstrider army seems like a bad idea."
“We have a break in a month and a half,” I said. “We have two weeks off. If we rent an airship, we can move near the battlefield in a day or two. Airships are expensive… but we aren’t poor anymore. We can move to the edges of the warzone and pick off a few isolated worldstriders. That should work fine, as long as we were careful. As long as we don't run into a huge mass of enemies we'll be safe."
Anise nodded. “In that case, we can think about it. It’s not a bad idea to do so live testing of Zelyrian magic. I don't know if it'll help break through on my research, but it's worth trying.”
As we spoke, another jingling sound interrupted us. I glanced at the front of the shop, and saw a custor. “Looks like you’ve got a custor. That's what I wanted to say, so I’ll leave you to it. Let's work out more final details with Felix tonight,” I said, before giving Anise a final hug. Then, I made my way ho.
I opened the front door to my house, and glanced inside. My mother was ho, and she was set up near the corner of the apartnt in a cozy nest of blankets, along with a variety of sewing supplies. I could see needles, scissors, and bolts of cloth strewn about the area in a haphazard ss.
“Hey mom,” I said, giving her a cheery wave. The barrier between the two of us hadn’t disappeared yet, but it was getting better. We were closer than we had ever been before, and we were starting to form a genuine bond. Even if it was slow, I was happy to see any progress at all. Anything was better than the vacant husk I had spent so many years with.
“Hey Miria,” said my mother. She gave a quick, warm smile, before I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug. After that, I released her and sat down next to her while she got back to her knitting.
“How have you been?” I asked, as I watched her work. “Is this a scarf? It looks pretty good!”
My mother nodded. “I was trying to sew a little pattern of so birds into it. I was thinking that I could give you, Anise, and Felix a scarf when winter cos around…” my mother gave her work a scan, before she sighed. “Well, the birds aren't coming along very well. They look a little lumpy,” she said, before chuckling.
I smiled as I looked at the scarf. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad, either. I could at least tell what the birds were supposed to be - which was more than I could say about my own drawings. My visual artistic skills were quite dubious. There was a reason I stuck to singing.
“Even if it's not perfect, it doesn't look bad at all. I can at least tell that they're birds,” I said as I basked in my mother's presence. Sitting next to each other and just... relaxing was nice. “Did anything happen recently that I should be aware of?” I asked absentmindedly.
“The, umm… the rent for next month increased a bit. The landlord told last week…” said my mother, hesitantly. She looked a bit… embarrassed?
I shrugged. It wasn’t that unusual for my mother to feel embarrassed - most parents took care of their children, rather than the other way around. But I didn’t mind. I was already an adult ntally, and my job at Dr. Trish’s clinic paid very well. It wasn't a big deal to as long as the people I cared about were safe.
“That guy's a bit greedy if he's raising the rent so much. Do you want to move?" I asked.
"No... I like it here," said my mother.
I shrugged. That was fine. If the landlord raised the rent again, I would move out. But I could afford a small rent increase.
"That’s fine then. How much did it increase by?”
“20%,” said my mother, grimacing.
I sighed, but shrugged again. It was a bit expensive. Maybe so families would move out next month. Still, if my mother wanted to stay, we could stay.
“Should I pay it now?”
“I’ll give it to the landlord next ti he cos around,” said my mother.
"That works for ," I said. I smiled, and gave my mother the money for the month, as well as a little extra in case she wanted new sewing supplies. Bolts of fabric and needles weren't free, after all.
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