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I had the maids dress me for a return to bed. I obviously couldn’t wear the Atian fashion with its many petticoats, which would look and feel ridiculous if I were lying on my back, and Lydia felt the Dorian fashion was too restrictive, the way it wraps the female body so tightly. She wanted me to be able to completely relax. Which meant nightwear.
The maids always get a little downcast whenever I suggest we make my nighttime wardrobe a bit less to Mother’s tastes, so I’ve yet to change it. For that reason, ‘nightwear’ meant bare back, provocative design and diaphanous material that deliberately fails to hide much. I laid myself supine on the bed, immediately noticed how nicely visible my bosom was in the daylight through the thin cloth, and switched to lying under a light cover.
“I will inform Benedetta and the staff that you are unwell,” Genette told me, ready to leave.
“That’s fine for the rest, but please tell Benedetta and my husband what I’m actually doing,” I instructed.
She hesitated. “May I leave that to Lady Mireia, My Lady? I’m not confident that I can explain it, myself.”
Mireia, who sat in a chair next to the bed while holding my hand, nodded to her, but remained seated.
“Just let them know that I’ll explain later, then,” she replied.
“That’s fine, then,” I agreed, dismissing Genette and the maids with a nod.
But to Mireia after they left, I wondered, “Shouldn’t you go do that now?”
“I’m staying here to watch you, My Lady,” she stated coolly. “I know the goddess told me you’ll be alright, but I need to be able to tell Rod that you’re fine after seeing it with my own eyes. Besides, you’re supposed to be sick right now, so someone should stay here with you for appearance’s sake, if nothing else.”
The truth about my ‘illness’ was, I was doing much better lately, thanks to the coaching I was receiving from Lydia. But we were hiding that fact because the supposed illness had become a popular excuse for Father’s former blood slaves to donate their blood to me.
One would expect that Father’s Servants would be getting too old to inspire fang growth, so I had become a bit depressed over just how few older ones there were. This fact was evidence of how many girls my father had murdered, after all. Most of the ones who survived his reign of terror had been teenagers when he died.
Add to that the fact that Servanthood slowed the effects of aging, and I was usually able to feed without an issue. The few more senior Servants left could be paired with younger ones still fetching enough to motivate me.
I didn’t need the blood anymore, thanks to Lydia’s training, but it was good practice in using my blood core, and the extra blood simply strengthened my blood magic. Our plan now was for me to not ‘recover’ until around the time that I had finished converting everyone who wanted me to convert them. I already had nearly two dozen Servants in total. I would have over a hundred before I finished, thanks to my father’s voracious appetite.
Father had a handful of male Servants as well, and the prospect of feeding on them was a little bit… well, I wasn’t ready to go there, yet. After all, I now fully understood why Uncle Owen had wisely forbidden me from feeding on men.
Not to mention I still hadn’t discussed it with my husband. I was frankly not looking forward to that conversation. I needed to figure out how I could even do so, without putting myself into a compromising position with a man who might misunderstand.
Fortunately, for the moment, the male Servants were politely letting the women go first, so I had yet to face that issue.
I drew a deep breath, squeezed Mireia’s hand, then closed my eyes and let myself relax before addressing Lydia.
My partner asked, <Ready?>
<As ready as I can be,> I said. <I don’t really understand what I am to do.>
<It’s very simple, My Lady,> Lydia assured me. <At least, the first step is. We’re going to cast a blood magic spell that a woman named Fan Li taught me.>
<Fawn… Lee?> I repeated, perplexed at the strange name. ‘Lydia’ was at least familiar sounding. I’m fairly sure I’ve heard it as an Ostish name. ‘Sirth’ is odd, but easy to pronounce. This new name was more like ‘Lhan’, with its strange consonant at the beginning. This one had a strange lilt and a highly alien feel. If anything, it reminded me of how my name, Tiana, acquires a strange intonation when properly pronounced in Xa-ne, the Ancient Fairy language where it originated.
<Fan Li,> she repeated carefully. <It matters that you use the rising tone of the first word and the falling tone of the second. Getting them wrong changes the meaning. But that’s not important right now, My Lady. What does matter is that she was able to deduce this magic and teach it to me. It’s blood magic, which means you don’t require a Servant to know it before you can cast it. You are capable of using it on your own.>
I knew that already. Just as aggravating as learning that the reason I had been frustrated in all my efforts to learn elemental magic while growing up was that my physique lacked the ability and needed to borrow from my Servants, I was annoyed to learn that the ancient Elders had developed a whole second means of using magic, the blood core, but one needed to feed for years in order to have enough to actually do anything useful, so I still couldn’t have had magic back then.
But why do I have a blood core now? Apparently I stole the condensed blood from demons, who also use blood magic. That’s what Lydia told me, anyhow.
<I’m going to cast it, My Lady,> she stated, <But as it is me casting it, I will be the one that it displays. You will have to cast it yourself in order for you to use it.>
<Alright,> I agreed.
<Ah, first let me explain. I’m about to show up in the room, so you need to warn Mireia.>
“What?” I retorted, caught by surprise.
“What?!” Mireia echoed, alarmed by my sudden exclamation.
“S… sorry,” I apologized with a sheepish smile. “It seems someone is going to show up. Please don’t be alarmed.”
“Someone is going to show up?” she echoed again, now perplexed.
<Pay attention, My Lady,> Lydia instructed.
Just like feeling the pattern when one of my Servants casts a spell where I can hear their words, I feel it when Lydia demonstrates magic to me. So I felt the pattern embedded in the incantation as she intoned, <[Blood Presence]>
My blood core responded. The pattern aligned with the words and expanded into action within it, as the necessary mana to accomplish the deed poured through my pathways and flowed into the mysterious form coalescing within.
The condensed blood, invisible to mortal eyes but present in my [Fairy Sense], flowed out of me.
I opened my eyes to see what was happening. Like the reverse of a thin trail of water poured from a teapot held high, it streamed upward, and then arced to flow horizontally, ‘pouring’ across the room rather than down to the floor.
Where it stopped, it expanded into a pool standing on edge, gained form, and spread into the image of a woman in a garment I somehow knew was called a peplos. The clothing reminded me of ancient Oste, the empire that ruled the lands north of Doria back in ancient times. Her brunette hair was in what I would almost call an updo, but it was oddly styled, having been curled first before being put in a bun above her nape, with an ornate scarf acting as a hair band tied around it to hold everything in place. A single pair of curly tresses hung down in front of her ears.
It was a lovely style, that complemented a truly lovely woman. It reminded me of ladies pictured in ancient art in the Royal Museum, frankly.
Because she had been forewarned, Mireia didn’t jump or panic, but she did gasp slightly. Then she wondered, “Is this the same magic that those ‘incarnations’ were using?”
Lydia smiled at her and shook her head. “No, My Lady. This is merely the projection of an image. Neither Lady Tiana nor I are yet capable of the magic they are using.”
Mireia looked from her, then to me, then back.
“Are you okay?” I worried.
She looked back and forth again, then hazarded, “I can feel… it’s like she’s also you?”
“In a way, I am,” Lydia nodded. “I’m also a previous incarnation of Lady Tiana. I am the one of whom the goddess has told you, the one who is teaching her how to use her spells.”
“This was a demonstration, to show me how to do it,” I added. “But… I’m not sure what the purpose is?”
She gave me a gentle smile. “Naturally, since I have yet to tell you, My Lady. The purpose is, you can project yourself as easily in the Kasarene Highlands as I am projecting myself here.”
“In the Kasarene Highlands?” I retorted. I should have been expecting it, given where we began this effort, but somehow, it still caught me off-guard. “That’s hundreds of miles away!”
“The distance is no impediment,” she answered. “It’s far less remarkable than what your Servants are doing there now, using the same blood magic to project the [Blood Effigy] spell.”
“What’s the difference between this spell and that?” I asked.
“As I told you, this spell is only an image. Lady Mireia, come over here.”
Looking a little wary, she got up and went across to where Lydia stood.
“A bit closer,” she suggested, and Mireia moved closer.
Lydia swiped her hand at Mireia, who flinched at the unexpected impending contact, then gasped as Lydia’s hand merely passed through her chest.
The woman chuckled and dropped her hands, folding them in front, then suggested, “Try to touch me.”
Mireia did, and her hand simply passed through. Despite how solid Lydia appeared, it was indeed simply an image.
“An illusion spell?” she guessed.
“In effect,” Lydia nodded, “But I believe an illusion spell would not give me the ability to see and hear you in return, as I am doing now. This is somewhat more advanced.”
“So, what’s the point of teaching me this?” I asked.
A bit self-conscious, Lydia chuckled again, then admitted, “I have no idea, My Lady, beyond knowing you can project yourself where the expedition is. I believe Lady Mireia will have to explain why the goddess told me to teach you this.”
Mireia looked confused, then smiled. “I see. Alright.”
She returned to the chair, sat, folded her hands, and smiled at Lydia. “Well done. You may drop the spell now. I’ll take it from here.”
Lydia nodded and disappeared, the invisible stream of condensed blood flowing back into me.
“You just became Rhea again, didn’t you?” I guessed.
“I did, indeed,” Mireia/Rhea agreed. “Do you think you can cast the spell?”
“I can, but I’m not sure why I’m doing it. Why should I appear, out there in the Kasarene Highlands?”
She smiled and answered, “Fairy Psychology.”
