§
With the Pendorian soldiers arriving, I switched my role to reconnaissance, casting Vampire Cloak on my Blood Effigy imitation crow and heading back inside. I think Falerè might have been saying something about Rod’s orders for me to stay in the castle, but I wasn’t paying any attention to her. My real body was still on my balcony whether she believed it or not.
I immediately became aware that this warehouse hosted a very different situation than the previous warehouse. For one thing, we were clearly facing more armed intruders.
Armed men were checking on the men that I had attacked, and their compatriots were taking cover behind crates and columns, preparing to defend against the opposition coming through the door. Naturally, they didn’t see me, so they continued staring forward as I flew past and made a circuit of the interior.
Just like the previous place, wary slave girls were huddling together as far back in their cages as they could get, anxiously awaiting the attack. None of them appeared to have been recently harassed, confirming my belief that this was a professional crew only pretending to be looters. These men had clearly been told to keep their hands off the merchandise, most of whom were quite comely and largely unclothed, a standard slaver practice to prevent escapes.
Once I confirmed that all the intruders were concentrated on the front, with the exception of a pair of lookouts at a second door in the rear, where several wagons waited for loading, I returned to the front, hovering above the men in a manner that no crow ever could.
The Pendorian soldiers marched right up to the door with magic shields deployed, and the sergeant in command barked out an order to surrender.
The intruders– from their behavior, I was willing to assume now that they were either mercenaries or even the private soldiers of some nobleman– opened fire. It was magic wands preloaded with mana versus the same on the other side, a firefight not unlike gun battles on Earth, a lot different than the warfare I was used to. The soldiers quickly repositioned themselves, moving to form two lines on either side of the door, using the walls as cover and using the magic shields to reinforce them.
Was this the result of Mother’s modernization efforts in Pendor, that had completely reversed the poverty and stagnation haunting the rest of the South? The people who designed these weapons, which had rifle-style stocks but magic wands for barrels, clearly knew the war materials from a modern place like Earth. The soldiers were ejecting and replacing ‘magazines’ that I could tell contained magic stones in order to reload when their wands ran out of charge, so they could continue to lay down fire that normally only a combat mage could produce.
Tiana had participated in a war only three years earlier, as a twelve-year-old squire in Lang Doria. It had been fought in the traditional way, with spears and shields, with combat mages in the rear, supporting. Nothing like these weapons had appeared there. And although the weapons and tactics that I witnessed in the Tabad, being used by the soldiers of Berado and Amaga, had seemed to be more advanced, this was light years beyond that.
Was this the reason Pendorian troops were rolling over the Rebel opposition while their comrades, the troops in Atianus, were only able to hold the line in a defensive stalemate against the same forces?
The slave girls were wailing in fear, with shots regularly deflecting and landing near their cages, and I grew worried. I tried filling the effigy with Holy mana and getting closer to the enemy.
Letting out a [Sleep] spell, I attempted to drop the first man, only to find my vision suddenly wobbling. The Blood Effigy was in danger of coming apart, while the man only stumbled, but didn’t fall unconscious.
I had been worried about how much I could channel into the thing. And one of the other intruders clearly spotted me now, letting out a “What the hell?”, so my cloak was lost in the process.
With a panic and a flurry of wingbeats, I got out of there, recasting [Vampire Cloak] on my way to the rafters.
I used the spiritual energy in my vessel to expand it out to maximum size and internally yelped, Fan Li!
– There is no need to shout. Your Highness need only envisage Fan Li coming awake and this one is already on hand. Leave control of the effigy in these humble hands.
With gratitude, I did so, just in time to feel a hand on my shoulder… my actual shoulder, I mean. Do crows even have shoulders?
I opened my eyes to see Rod standing over me, looking concerned.
“Are you alright, Ti?”
“I’m fine. I’m busy controlling a spell right now.”
He regarded me with suspicion. “Fairy Falerè sent me a message, expressing her fear that you had snuck out. She thinks you are hiding somewhere near a battle that she is currently involved in, participating with magic.”
I let out a huff. “I’m here, as you can see. I have not left this place since she departed. My lady’s maid can confirm it, if you require a testimonial.”
Genette, still standing by the door, didn’t wait for him to ask. She stated, “My Lady has indeed remained here. She has been napping.”
I hadn’t been napping. But I admit, it probably looked like I had been.
“But you are supposed to be watching the skies?” he asked me.
Sirth also chimed in without anyone asking.
– No changes, except that a scheduled airliner is on the way into the field on the outskirts. I already confirmed everything’s in order onboard. Your world has some beautiful ships, Princess.
I smiled at Rod. “I am, in fact, watching the skies. The sea-wyverns are on patrol, an airship is on approach to Narses North Field, and nothing else besides birds and bugs is above our fair capital. I’m pretty adept at multitasking, Your Royal Highness.”
He stared down at me, contemplating my words and deciding on how much to believe.
“You seriously don’t trust me,” I grumped.
Letting out a sigh, he answered, “I trust you. But you are someone who puts too much responsibility on herself and I get worried that you spread yourself too thin. You are also too quick to think you’re the only one for the job. So I’m going back to the War Room, but I’m leaving a babysitter behind. Don’t you dare leave here without first convincing her that it’s necessary.”
“A babysitter?” I retorted, a little hurt, and then noticed who was waiting at his back.
“Keep her comfortable and back her up if your mistress threatens to misbehave,” he instructed Genette as Mireia took a seat across the side table from me. The pink-haired girl gave me an apologetic smile as Rod turned back to me.
“And Ti?” he said in conclusion, “It’s ‘Rod’, alright?”
I watched him with my jaw sagging as he departed, leaving behind those words I hadn’t heard since before I confessed my real identity still ringing in my ear.
As Genette set a cup and saucer down for her, Mireia flashed me another smile. “I’m sorry to intrude, My Lady. His Highness insisted.”
I waited for my lady’s maid to finish pouring, then return the teapot to the cart and resume her post. Then I leaned over to whisper, “Rod calls you ‘Mir’. Are you not calling him by name yet?”
She colored, then leaned closer and whispered back, “Only in private, My Lady.”
“Hm. How private have you been, today?”
The blush deepened. “If you are talking about… that… we haven’t done anything.”
I let out a ‘tsk’ and shook my head. She replied with an exasperated glare.
“Well, this is private enough, Mir. Even right now, with us whispering, Miss Wolf Girl over there can hear every word.”
“Then why are we whispering?” Mireia demanded as she sat up. I heard a faint, ‘pfft’ from Genette in response to the girl’s flustered words.
I giggled and leaned back in my chair. “Enjoy your tea and the break. I need to concentrate.”
Really, I didn’t need to do any such thing. The others could take care of things just fine for as long as I could maintain the expanded vessel. Which I could continue to do for at least another hour or two. But without expanding my own awareness to Little Sen levels, I’m just a fifteen-year-old fairy vampire. I couldn’t pay attention to what was going on elsewhere while chatting here.
As I took a sip of tea while it still had some warmth, the scholar gave her opinion on that matter.
– Theoretically, as Little Sen, Your Highness in an expanded spiritual state could do all the tasks yourself just as easily as leaving the other tasks to us.
While that was true, I didn’t particularly want to accept it. Honestly, it’s a little scary to become that superwoman. I would rather divvy up the work with my prior incarnations.
I closed my eyes and reviewed the last several minutes of Fan Li’s memories.
§
… this small one made a quick assessment of the situation and the state of the Blood Effigy as soon as she took over and immediately understood what the problem was.
Each effigy only has a certain amount of substance to work with, and the spiritual energy binding that substance together has only so much capacity. When Her Highness attempted to push more Holy mana into it, she had exceeded that capacity, and the excess mana destabilized the effigy. Coupled with that was Her Highness’s immature control. A certain amount of Will was necessary in order to keep the effigy bound together, and she, quite frankly, had less of such than Ryuu Kowa at this point.
This small one concluded from that observation that it would be necessary to make Her Highness drill and improve. It wouldn’t be the first time this scholar was in charge of tutoring a headstrong royal, having raised a precocious brat up to become a fine Emperor. It felt a bit like something to look forward to.
The solution, after a moment of pondering, became clear, but a quick assessment of the situation was in order before putting that solution into practice.
– Sirth, this small one is reviewing your recent memories and feels that it would be more expedient to repurpose the resources currently invested in one of the three effigies at your disposal.
– Aaah?! Enough o’ yer fancy talk, just spit it out! You wanna take back one o’ the birds cause I don’t need it, right?
– It does seem as if two effigies are sufficient, thanks to how much work you are getting out of your Wind spirits. Her Highness underestimates just how effective your friends are.
– Princess is just careful. You need a bird? Take it.
Under this scholar’s direction, the bit of awareness under Sirth’s direction that was bound to the nearest effigy transfered to my control and the entity streaked across the sky at a speed no crow could ever dream of achieving, cloaking as it flew.
Within seconds, it entered the building through one of the open windows and flew under the rafters to meet up with the effigy already hovering above the men. The two birds then dropped to the floor behind the men as the firefight continued, melted and blended together.
Through the incomprehensible linkages of form, thought and concept forged in the Sea of Knowledge, the ways and symbols of cultures blend across the worlds, forming uncanny parallels in places with no perceptible relationship. This scholar’s home of Huajie, at least on the Great Human Continent, bore a strangely close resemblance to the China of Robert’s Earth, but in addition, its clothing and many customs also could be found mixed into the culture of this land of Greater Doria to a bizarrely similar degree.
Thus everyone looking the direction of the two birds was likely astonished to witness a form grow up out of the pool of their merging blood and mana, rising to become what looked for all the world like a woman with Fae blood (since the woman of Huajie with the most desired features have the same phoenix eyes, smallish oval face, soft, slightly pointed chin and gently rounded cheekbones as the fairies of this world) wearing the ancient court clothing of Doria.
