§
The lushly wooded hill country known as Kasar lay far below my feet as I stood high in the air, contemplating my strange situation.
I’m all alone in an unfamiliar world, and they expect me to just drop in on a military camp in the middle of a war. Is it just me, or do my seniors not have any common sense?
<You’re growing, Lhan,> came the amused response to my thoughts. <You would have tried to not even think that, when Fan Li first woke you.>
“Anyone would think it!” I roared, my frustration driving me to say it out loud.
Her laughter filled my head, and I knew why. I’m tiny. By this world’s measurements I’m not much more than a pace tall. I have the roar of a small, angry rodent. She was kind enough not to say so in words, though.
Instead, she told me, [We need to conserve energy, so get down to the ground quickly.]
I don’t understand why the ‘manifested effigy’ with the appearance of Lhan requires extra energy to keep up in the air, or at least why it takes any more energy than the [Blood Effigy] an invisible mass of mana and Will without form.
<Even if we used the formless [Blood Effigy], we would require more energy than necessary, because I am casting [Vampire Cloak] in order to not alarm the fairies,> the voice in my head corrected, answering the thoughts I can’t keep to myself.
I really wish I could have thoughts that everyone else in my head weren’t reading.
<I totally get that,> she sympathized with a trace of humor. <You get used to it.>
She continued to explain, <But you flying in this form is even worse. In order for your body to work the way your mind expects, the simulation of your body requires the simulation of mass, which we accomplish via Earth mana. We must then counteract that with more energy for you to stay in the air. You’re handling that part yourself, through your [Water Step] skill. It requires as much energy as if you were a physical body. So, right now, you are using energy to manifest weight and then using energy on your skill to keep that weight in the air, while I’m using more energy for stealth. And that means we really need to get your feet on the ground so we can drop the skill and the stealth.>
It wasn’t me who put myself here. Actually, I just appeared here, after Senhion flew the effigy to this position by borrowing Tiana’s [Fairy Sense] awareness of time and place, senses I don’t have.
She objected to my thoughts, though. <I’m not really Senhion, right now. Fan Li and the others have things to do, so I can’t use the full capacity of the Spirit Core. In this state, I’m just the non-amnesiac version of Tiana.>
<But that’s confusing!> I protested. <Tiana is in the Castle! I’ll start thinking of you as ‘the real one’ and her as ‘the fake one’ and that’s not fair! She’s more the real Tiana than you are!>
I heard what sounded like tired giggling in my head. Okay, so what I said sounded weird. But it was true, wasn’t it?
<Eh… just call me ‘Little Sen’, then. >
<I’m not going to call you ‘Little’, Senior,> I disagreed. <What if I just call you Sen?>
She gave a sort of non-verbal assent as I inspected the area below me. A Pendorian army bivouac lay ahead, where many trees had been cleared and used as timber to create shelters. Below me were just trees, and a winding road.
I wondered, <Why didn’t you just materialize me down there in the first place?>
<I cannot see distances well through the formless effigy. I needed you in manifested form so you could use your eyes to pick out your landing spot. Please proceed. Choose a spot out of sight of their sentry and then walk up.>
I chose, and began descending, hopping down from one [Water Step] to the next with the ground below as my destination. I reached the ground on a forest trackway, nothing more than a set of wheel ruts running through the grass just like any number that one could easily see in my home world.
The spruce trees lining the road were also very nostalgic. This was actually territory not that different from the mountains near my home plantation. When I was alive, groups of slaves regularly climbed up into the mountain pass to harvest building timber, using a road not too different from this and harvesting trees not unlike these. My sister would carry my exhausted child body home on her back when we returned.
This place was on the north descent from a similar heavily wooded pass. The only difference was damage here and there from fire and magical strikes. A fearsome fight had been ongoing in this area, only weeks ago. The temporary fortification I had seen from above was not created for this expedition, but had instead been vacated only last week by the army as they finished their expansion out of the pass behind me into Kasar proper, ahead of me.
The surrounding hills had also long since been secured. If not for the fact that over the hill on the western side lay the route into the Highland wilds that the expedition would be taking shortly, this location would now be a peaceable valley far from trouble and conflict with no need for soldiers or encampments.
I shook my head free of blatantly alien thoughts. Knowledge from the other incarnations leaks into our minds and makes us pursue trains of thought that we would never have followed in life. But, in life, I would never have been dressed like this, with a sword on my hip and clothed in the ‘Tia Mona’ adventuring outfit, slightly downsized for my tiny frame.
The truth was, I still found it strange to wear such a thing, so different from my usual slave shift. My frock had always been slightly whiter, nicer and cleaner than what the other slave girls got because of the special attention I received from our master, but it was still just a plain one-piece garment in the end. I never wore clothing as substantial or well-tailored as this outfit. My skin, which normally grew goosebumps in such a cool place because of that single thin layer of cloth, hardly knew what to do with itself when so warmly protected.
Sen prompted, <I’ve dropped the stealth. Time to go.>
Rounding the bend in the road that concealed my sudden appearance, I saw the encampment for the first time from the ground level, and at the same time felt various impressions from the others watching through my eyes.
It reminded Sen, or perhaps Robert, of log-built stockades from his world’s history. Strange words like “US cavalry fort” and “Roman castrum” seeped from his knowledge.
It reminded Fan Li of barbarian towns found beyond the borders of the Da Long empire.
It reminded Kwelabi of quasi-men tribal camps like the one where he lived as a child.
To Tiana it was just a textbook forest encampment, straight out of the Orestanian army manual. It’s weird that I received that impression separate from the Robert one, but I suppose Sen couldn’t help but have two trains of thought on this.
For me, all this unwanted information was just confusion and clutter, and I forced it away with another shake of my head as I strode down the trackway toward the gatehouse.
Instead came another memory, of Tiana approaching the gate of Cara Ita as she armed her mind with the persona of a fearsome fairy knight. It would be beyond ridiculous for tiny me to try to pull that one off. Of course, my more modern outfit read ‘adventurer’ rather than ‘fairy knight’, so that wasn’t a problem.
<It’s the attitude, Child, not the altitude,> Sen immediately replied. <Whether as Tiana or Senhion, I’m quite short myself. I’m barely taller than you.>
<You’re almost six inches taller,> I countered her claim without hesitation. <You are six spans, seven inches tall. I’m six spans and barely more than one inch. And on top of that, your fairy knight outfit has three inch heels, while I’m in flats. Don’t try to fool me.>
I felt a sigh inside my head, then Sen grumbled, <So Fan Li actually bothered to Deduce something as trivial as your exact height? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. She went so far as to work out that Tiana wears a 32-D bra in American sizes, just to satisfy the Robert side of my curiosity.>
That only baffled me, which drew a chuckle. <Don’t try to understand the male psyche, Lhan. It isn’t worth it.>
Immediately, she followed with, <Ah, that reminds me. You will be using the name Falerè gave you. Rhea had Rod draw up your orders using that name, because the Dorian speakers will never be able to manage your real name, and the Ostish speakers will make a hash of it.>
I racked my memory, but before I could come up with it, she reminded me, <Hiléa. It’s a good fairy name, and for people that don’t know what you really are, we’re going to pretend you’re a fairborn, so it’s fine.>
The ‘lh’ sound that is so natural to me is apparently completely alien to most languages. Frankly, I don’t know why she and Falerè think ‘hil’ is a good replacement. They sound very different to me.
<Fairies say the ‘hil’ so fast, and push so much air past their tongues with the ‘h’, it comes out almost as a single consonant, so it sounds similar to us. Another choice would be to turn ‘Lh’ into ‘S’ and call you ‘San’. But ‘Lhan’ and ‘San’ sound completely different to your ears, right?>
<Why not at least ‘Hilan‘?> I wondered.
<That happens to be a masculine name in Fairy,> she said with amusement. <That’s why Falerè gave you her granddaughter’s name instead. It was a pretty generous thing to do, if you think about it. You shouldn’t overlook her kindness.>
I was getting closer now, and the guards at the gatehouse had their wary eyes locked on me. I actually caught a bit of their conversation though, and it wasn’t too bad.
“Hm, is that a child or something? She seems too small for an adventurer.”
See? I knew it.
“Maybe she’s part halfling?”
Sen giggled in my head, then sobered and said, <Actually, let’s go with that. For the people that don’t know your real nature, your father’s a halfling, ‘kay?>
I worried, <Is pretending something like that really okay?>
Pretending to be a fairborn, meaning a magical race half-fairy, instead of a mortal fairling, is basically pretending to be a fairy. Fairies are proud people, right?
<It will make better sense to any fairy that sees you. With your magical composition, you won’t fool any fairy into believing you’re mortal. Their [Fairy Sight] will tell them that you are some kind of magical species.>
<The fairies here will know who I really am, though,> I noted.
<The Highlands are full of mana springs, which means they are full of fairies. We are certain to run into the locals. Hopefully nobody as bad as Möemnen or Áne, but there’s no reason to assume some won’t be. Let’s get those orders out.>
This was the part I was the most worried about. I slipped my hand into the belt-wallet where I would theoretically find the military order envelope they had given me in Narses, but it wasn’t as easy as pulling it out. I mean, it isn’t actually possible for me to carry anything physical in the immaterial form that we used to fly here. I’m not an actual physical body.
But Fan Li was always working on how to make our alien techniques and skills and magic work in this world’s physics, and she had done it again, with the [Mustard Seed Technique] that her world used to store large quantities inside bracelets and bags and other storage items.
According to Fan Li, by harnessing the concept of a tiny mustard seed which can grow into a tall mustard plant, a tiny speck may contain a large space. She created a magical mustard seed from mana, and combined it into the [Blood Effigy]. In my manifested body, it becomes part of my belt-wallet. If I work it right, I can reach in through the opening of the wallet to enter the space enfolded within and withdraw physical items we previously stored there, such as coins or the envelope.
It was storage magic, something rarely seen in this world, because the concept is known by few, and this was a unique version of it. I had the misfortune to be the one who had to try it out first, and in front of witnesses, too.
To my relief, my hand came out holding the envelope. I think my nervousness puzzled the guards, but they snapped into a more serious attitude when they saw the military seal on it.
